About Us

Delayed Responses is Leah Carlson-Downie’s film blog. Leah enjoys watching films with other people, but she secretly dreads the moment after the film ends—the moment when her viewing companion will inevitably turn to her and ask, “So, what did you think of the movie?” She can never come up with a thoughtful, conversation-stimulating response on the spot. Much like Kathleen Kelly when faced with an insult, Leah’s mind goes blank; she can only think of the perfect thing to say about the film days or weeks later, after some reflection. Delayed Responses is her space to share her writings, musings, and trains of thought about the films she watches without any pressure whatsoever to be timely.

Leah is a librarian by day and a pop-culture junkie by… all the time, to be honest. She is a longtime cinephile who continuously endeavors to learn more about the history of the form. She has always been a writer but has only recently felt comfortable calling herself one. Leah usually digs movie musicals, period pieces, and parody films. You can find her on Twitter @themingtacular, where she mostly retweets other people’s great writing. She also co-hosts an obsessive podcast about 21st-century vampire films called Fang Club. Leah currently lives in the Seattle area with her husband and their two cats.

A SELECTION OF PIECES FROM LEAH’S PORTFOLIO

• “No Mother Is an Island: Dismantling Myths of Self-Sufficient Motherhood in About a Boy,” Screen Speck (May 18, 2022)
• “Dead & Beautiful‘s Genre Bait-and-Switch Is Right On Trend,” Certified Forgotten (February 14, 2022)
• “Men of the Cloth and Creatures of the Night: Bad Priests and Good Vampires in Midnight Mass and Thirst,” Film Daze (October 27, 2021)
• “Stranger Than Fiction,” wig-wag, vol. 14 (June 2021)
• “Gwyneth Paltrow Really Is That Good in Shakespeare in Love,” Screen Queens (December 11, 2020)
• “Godzilla Is A Metaphor,” Bright Wall/Dark Room, Issue 86: Dealer’s Choice (August 2020)