The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen McHath, and this is the Slate Culture Gap Fest piece of resistance edition.

It's Wednesday, February 12, 2014.

On today's show, the Lego movie, it's a hit with audiences and critics, and we'll discuss.

Then we'll talk about the Sochi Olympics and the parlorist state of Putin's Russia with the journalist Masha Gessen.

And then finally, how much history can you get wrong in the space of one photo and one tweet?

We're joined by Slate's Rebecca Onion to talk about social media and historical photos. Joining

me today is Slate's deputy editor, Julia Turner.

Hello, Julia.

Hi, Steve.

And, of course, Slate's film critic, Dana Stevens. Hey, Dana. Hello, Stephen. Hello, Dana. Oh, my lord. Well, let's, let me start with you. This is a movie, after all, and you are a movie critic. The Lego movie, oh, the improbabilities. the Lego movie is a computer animated, branded entertainment about interlocking plastic bricks.

It sounds awful until you remind... Oh, the Improbabilities, the Lego movie is a computer-animated, branded entertainment about interlocking plastic bricks.

It sounds awful until you remind yourself, the creators of the toys are Danish, and the creators of the movie previously brought us cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

This marriage has resulted in maybe the biggest February movie of all time, time, time.

Dana, I sneak previewed your review.

You loved it, this mini figment of the imagination.

I loved it too, but tell me, or I liked it very much.

Wait, Steve, can we just say, so the, of all the movies we've seen in six years,

it's the Legos movie that has so befuddled you, you had to see what Dana said before the show.

I love it.

Interlocking brick clouds of consternation now are gathering above my head. You broke my rhythm. Dana, what did you think of this movie? Yeah, I agree. I think the Lego movie was certainly the most fun I've had at the movies in 2014. I mean, given we're only in week six of the year, you know, I'm not sure exactly how much that's saying, but it was a huge surprise for me. I've already said this on the spoiler special that I taped with David Hagland about the movie, which I encourage people to listen to because this movie does contain some big spoilers that we will be avoiding in this segment. But the thing I was saying is that this movie turned my mood around on a horrible, horrible night. It was a cold, freezy, slushy night. It was the day after Philip Seymour Hoffman had died. I'd been up all night the night before writing about him and just being, you know, extremely sad. And I just couldn't believe I had to see this goddamn movie about plastic bricks. And I'll be damned if the movie didn't completely turn my mood around and have me laughing for the entire time. I think it's wonderful.

All right. Before we go any further, let's listen to a clip. Dana, you want to set this one up?

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