The "Be Kind. Rewind." Edition

Sep 15, 2024

Dear readers,

Last week I shared that one side effect of being out of commission, physically, is having increased time to watch and read things. In honor of the Emmys tonight, here are some of the things I’ve consumed with my eyes and ears. Caveat: for much of this I was actually out of my mind/on another planet due to a combo of sciatic outrageousness and some attempts at pain relief.

All four seasons of True Detective. (HBO) Started with 4, the most recent one with Jodi Foster. She is excellent. The show was a little trope-y. But watched it all and was satisfied Then I went season 1, 2, 3. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConnaghey, Season 1, were truly excellent/iconic (will likely use that word alot) and insane. So were elements of the plot and dialogue but having just watched seasoon 4, I saw where some of the trope-iness came from. Season 2: Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, and Vince Vaughan. Also excellent (and similarly overwrought but I ate it up). Then 3: Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff. I really dug their Lethal Weapon redux buddy-cop movie vibes. It is very hard for me to follow plots, in general. So it was super hard in Season 1 with a then and now flashback approach. And in season 3 it was unbelievably difficult (for me, remember sciatica and pain killers) because there was a then, a now, and a some-time-in-between-then-and-now. If I had to pick I’d say I liked 1,2,4,3 in that order.

Speaking of Vince Vaughan, I took in two episodes of him in Bad Monkey (AppleTV+). Um, you know when you say “I can watch ________ in *anything*!”? Well that’s what I said about Vince Vaughan and…it turned out not to be true but it wasn’t his fault.

Speaking of AppleTV+, I have watched all the available episodes of the new season of Slow Horses. Gary Oldman I could also watch in literally anything, but mostly because he plays characters so immersively that I never realize it’s him til the end. I really love this series.

Back to groups of 4: I saw Jonathan Glazer’s Zone of Interest when it came out, in a theater, and, as reported here, adored it and couldn’t get over the quiet horror and brilliance of the restrained directing, sound design, and nature of the film aesthetic. Wanting to see what led up to that Academy Award bonanza, I watch the other films he has made. It’s only a total of 4 in the course of a very long career in theater, commercials and music videos. I watch the next most recent one, which is not so recent: 2013. Under The Skin, with a near silent and intense Scarlett Johansson. It was eerily similar in vibe to Zone of Interest, only in the sense of the power of the female character. I loved it. Then I watched his first film, Sexy Beast, from 2001. A truly compelling take on a genre I (thought I) never needed to see again: the “one last heist and then I’m out” plot. It was really good. Ben Kingsley and a cast of just a few others. Slowly riveting. Then number 2 film, another solo female starrer, this one from 2004 with Nicole Kidman! Birth. Very “taboo” and creepy! Also had a good bit in common, predecessor-wise, with Under The Skin. Other worlds, containment, confinement, discontent, the nature of love and power. In order of preference, this is a super tough one: 4, 3, 2, 1? Maybe 1 just as much as 2 just as much as 3 but different? P.S. Fun Fact: Jonathan Glazer directed the iconic Jamiroquoi video in 1996!!!!

Speaking of Nicole Kidman (who I could and do watch in everything she’s in)…Well, I loved (most) of the new rich-white-people-behaving-badly-in-increasingly- implausible-ways series, The Perfect Couple (Netflix). But she will never be better than she is in the AMC Movie Theaters promo. It’s truly the thing I come to the movie theater early to see.

New season of Only Murders In the Building? Sure, couple eps. Fine. Amusing. Ish. Give me more Meryl Streep(Hulu)

Chimp Crazy — watched all 4 eps. Fraught. Sadder than Tiger King (saying a lot). Less compelling plot (also saying alot) Worth it 100% to watch first ep (HBO)

Industry, Season whatever? Went back to Season 1, watched a bunch earlier this summer. Turned on Ep 1 new season. No, thanks. (HBO)

Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose docu. Got a sense of it. (HBO) Worth an ep 1 watch if you care at all.

Speaking of docus: Beyond Utopia — a gripping story of a family defecting from North Korea. Hard to believe all of this is actually happening in that country and how important personalizing the escape story is. (Hulu)

Sampled Bodkin, about Americans in Ireland making a podcast about a crime…wanted to love it — and many people really do, btw (Netflix)

Sampled Decameron, cuz who doesn’t want to see a remake of one of the greatest films of all time based on one of the greatest stories of all time, especially with Zosia Mamet? (Netflix) Like I’ve said before, hard to get satire right, especially with lines of comedy/drama being “blurred” by the content itself and the Emmy categories being super confusing. Worth ep 1 for some laugh/cringe/laugh moments

And, just for yucks, Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia, with a young and amazing (she is still amazing) Kirsten Dunst. It was super-melancholic, that is for sure. And fit in with the stream of media (books to come next week!) about women who sure are not happy in (or out of, come to think of it) their marriages. Plus the end of the world, so she was right! (Max)

I watched more, believe me, but it’s time for you to either get ready to watch(or follow live blogging of) the Emmys OR just finish perusing this week’s edition of the LZSP, themost important stories from politics, business, health, the arts, and pop culture by, for, and about women in the news has made it to my short list.

Or, go buy my book from a bookstore or get it delivered from Amazon right away. It’s doing great! even for people who think they have no connection to Brown University, old letters of random people, or thinking about colleges today, or thinking about humans, or anything else. If you buy it, send me the confirmation and I’ll send you a thank-you gift that you can’t buy