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 longtime cinephile with a professional background in information science and art history. She continuously endeavors to learn more about the history of the cinematic 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 Bluesky @themingtacular.bsky.social, where she mostly reposts other people’s great writing and promotes her podcasts. She co-hosts an obsessive podcast about 21st-century vampire films called Fang Club and an obsessive podcast about the TV show Hannibal called Friends for Dinner; she also invites guests to obsessively discuss the filmography of Oscar Isaac on Oscar’s Podcaast. She currently lives in the Seattle area with her husband, their two kids, and their two cats.

A SELECTION OF PIECES FROM LEAH’S PORTFOLIO

• “Roy Kent Is Not the Perfect Man, and That’s Okay,” Screen Speck (March 23, 2023)
• “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)