Credit : Cloé Giroux
My name is Benoît Lelièvre. I’m a 42-year-old cultural critic, journalist, and founder of Dead End Follies: an independent platform that cuts through the noise of mass culture with sharp, emotionally honest takes on books, films, music, and whatever the hell else is shaping people’s inner lives.
I live in Montreal now, but I was forged in a small, blue-collar mining town where culture had to be found, not handed to you. No silver spoons. No trust funds. Just VHS tapes, Slayer CDs, mIRC chatrooms, and a head full of questions nobody around me could answer.
I’ve got a master’s degree in Comparative Literature, but let’s be honest: most of what’s framed in the academy is already dead on arrival. I’m interested in the culture that’s alive: the messy, vital stuff people actually fight about. The songs that help you survive the week. The movies that make you rethink your entire life. The novels you finish at 3AM because you have to know how it ends. That’s where I live. That’s what I write about.
Since 2009, Dead End Follies has been a safehouse for cultural outlaws: smart readers who are sick of reading the same reheated takes on the same overexposed franchises. You won’t find endless Marvel thinkpieces here. You will find deep dives into noise rock, A24’s weirdest offerings, cult novels, forgotten thrillers, and pop culture ephemera that actually matters. Because our culture isn’t disposable, it’s the record of who we are, what we love, and how we survive.
I’m also part of the Vox & Hops review crew, where I bring the same energy: no hedging, no brand-safe cowardice, just smart, gutsy criticism from someone who’s lived through the wreckage and made something worth reading out of it.
If you’re done pretending Star Wars discourse is intellectually stimulating, if you want criticism with teeth, guts, and purpose… if you want to feel something when you read about culture, welcome home. We do things differently here.