blog.ninety-four // It’s come up enough times at this point, so I gotta ask:
We’ve continued to host regular gatherings in our studio (the next one will be on Wednesday). And while we’ve really enjoyed Show Your Work! nights, board game hangs, and even Severance watch parties, a book club feels like an opportunity to come together as a neighborhood—and regularly spark some genuine conversations.*
Leave a comment below or reply to this email if you want to join. In the meantime, scroll on for today’s slate of Neighborhood Watch reviews.
And if you’d like to write a review in the coming weeks, you can pitch us here.
— NGL
P.S. Last blog, we wrote about the importance of original work in an AI-filled world. You can read it here.
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Video: ‘Visualizing my goals’ (2025)
Creator: Dax Flame
Runtime: 53s
Review by: Nathan Graber-Lipperman
Oversharing personal life details is a tale as old as time—or, at least, as old as the Internet.
But oversharing on Instagram is a unique beast unto itself, and the beast has evolved and morphed alongside the platform it resides on. With the transformation from cut-and-dry carousels to FYP-amplified shortform videos, a simple photo of, say, a gender reveal is no longer sufficient. For those looking to send their juiced-up dopamine receptors firing all the way to the gates of Algorithmic Valhalla, the medium is the message, and distribution matters.
This context is what makes an ongoing shortform video series by comedian Theodore Madison Patrello (better known by his stage name, Dax Flame) so damn funny. Stumble upon his latest Reel, like I did, and you’ll see him appear genuinely surprised to learn that his fiancée is pregnant.
The video, consisting of the couple taking photos together in a photo booth, is filmed with a phone; the top of the screen features basic text, reading “How she told me she’s pregnant”; and his fiancée simply holds up a pregnancy test for the grand reveal. It’s all, honestly, pretty wholesome, and even if I don’t know them personally, I think I’m…happy for them?
In other words, nothing feels amiss.
Until, that is, you start scrolling backwards. In the days prior, Dax posted videos of him and his two best friends, Daniel and Jacob, celebrating his bachelor party (and getting up to some shenanigans) in Vegas. About a week ago, he shared his proposal over a night of painting. Just before that, he went bowling with his friends, and ate burritos in the car with his then-girlfriend.
Again: pretty normal stuff we’re used to seeing on our daily scroll. Except it all feels a little fast, no?
Which brings us to “Visualizing my goals,” a video Dax posted on September 6. A poised Dax sits in front of Daniel and Jacob, explaining to the camera that they’re actually paid actors. “For the next two weeks, they’re going to pretend to be my best friends,” he says. “I’ve always fantasized about having a super close group of friends…so this will be a manifestation or visualization-type technique.”
And yes, the fiancée was fake, too.
An early star on YouTube, Dax built a cult following over the years with his awkward, somewhat-deadpan sense of humor. In the twenty-tens, this led to roles in movies like Project X and 21 Jump Street. But by 2020, his opportunities in Hollywood had dried up, and he told the BBC that he was working as a waiter.
How much of the personality he shared online was a bit? Was Dax just a really, really awkward kid? The answer always appeared somewhere in the middle, a time capsule of the anti-humor memes that once spread across middle school cafeterias like wildfire.
Nevertheless, the comedian reemerged over the last five years, making the podcast rounds and collaborating with everyone from Will Smith to The Rizzler to Subway Takes. He’s not just a side character in the ever-expanding social media-verse, however—he’s been performing standup, and producing original videos in his own right.
If the ongoing “visualization” series is any indication, too, Dax has his sights set on bigger ideas than just Big Booms, bits that transform into a type of performance art. The comedian feels almost like an Internet-native Nathan Fielder, trading Fielder’s standoffishness for a more approachable strain of awkwardness. He’s aware of the sandbox he’s playing in, yet he’s choosing to leave viewers with a positive message.
Don’t mistake the wholesomeness for a dog without any bite, though. When Dax overshares online, better watch twice.
Nate’s Score: 🔥 / 5
A new section of Neighborhood Watch, dedicated to the books, music, movies, and physical media that played a meaningful role in stopping our scroll.
Film: ‘The Master’ (2012)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Runtime: 2hr 18m
What do you get when you mix one of the best directors of his generation with two of this century’s greatest actors? You get The Master, a drama film loosely inspired by the life of L. Ron Hubbard—aka the cultish creator of Scientology.
With Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie, One Battle After Another, slated to release next week, now felt as good a time as ever to rewatch his 2012 epic. Often cited among the very best of the director’s filmography, The Master follows Navy veteran Freddie Quell (played by Joaquin Phoenix) as he navigates life after World War II. Drunkenly stumbling from job to job, he finds purpose in The Cause, a pseudoscience movement led by a charismatic figure that followers refer to as “Master” (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman).
PSH’s reserved demeanor turns menacing at points, and those blowups help carry the film’s tenseness. But the perpetual feeling of anxiety is also strangely captivating, and it’s achieved through showing, not telling. Because the story of Freddie is the story of postwar malaise, a desperate willingness to believe in something—anything, really. And that desperation brings two broken men together.
Shot on 65 mm film, The Master is a delicate snapshot of a specific moment in the American experiment. It’s somewhere between beautiful and harrowing; in some respects, you could argue those two qualities are two sides of the same coin.
Nate’s Score: 4.7 / 5
Title: ‘Mr. Pointy’ (2011)
Creator: Takashi Murakami
I recently revisited the Art Institute of Chicago to celebrate Judd the Intern’s last day (you can watch the vlog here, btw). It took time to find it, but nonetheless, it’s still hanging.
I’m talking about Mr. Pointy, the mind-bending painting by Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami. In the States, Murakami might be best known for making iconic album covers for a rapper whom we’ll label, um, a little “past his prime.”
But Murakami’s colorful, cartoonish aesthetics shine across all of his work, and the acrylic-on-canvas nature of this piece adds a texture that truly pops in person. Don’t let the roughness belie Mr. Pointy’s intricate detailing, though, as religious iconography across Mayan culture, Tibetan Buddhism, and more make their way into the titular character’s orbit.
Nate’s Score: 4.8 / 5
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