The Sundae is a blog publishing pop culture criticism. It was created in 2017 by Dean Buckley and Ciara Moloney to fight the rising tide of hot takes with more considered, cold takes. We do not publish traditional reviews of new releases, topical thinkpieces on recent controversies, or anything else that discourages our writers from taking the time to sit with their ideas and let them breathe.

The Sundae is focused on long-form writing about film, TV and occasionally music. We have a particular emphasis on areas often neglected in contemporary pop culture criticism – film and TV history, economic reform of the entertainment industry, representations of religion and class – as well as the major preoccupations of our editors: empathy, leftism and scrutiny of criticism itself. However, our tastes are broad, and we strongly encourage submissions from writers with interests outside our wheelhouse.

In 2021, we launched The Sundae Presents, a podcast in which Ciara and Dean watch a favourite film of each of ours that the other hasn’t seen.

The Sundae is an independent publication that endeavours to promote rigorous, insightful and original pop culture criticism. We hope our readers enjoy our work.