📚 Books & Movies
✍️ Humility In Drag (The Birdcage Interview) // bradley-andrews.com
Robin found a way to make those traits a gift for others. He dealt attention generously; but he also knew when it was his time to step in and rearrange it. Not everyone is like him, with the capacity to absorb—or perhaps endure—the gaze of others. Attention is a powerful thing and people like Robin have an innate understanding of the deleterious effect that it can have on people who aren’t desirous of it. It can hurt. It can harm. It can make you self-conscious and afraid, killing that wonderful spirit of play and creation.
📚 I have my next five books lined up for reading. All non-fiction, yet so so excited. 😍
Finished reading: Educated by Tara Westover 📚
Good book. It won’t make my favorites list, but I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it. While Westover attempts to make education and the life of the mind the primary theme of the book, the neglect and abuse which she receives from her Mormon extremist family tends to steal the spotlight.
My own upbringing is not as dramatic as Westover’s, but there is no denying that my life has rhymed with hers on many, many levels. There were a handful of occasions where the dialogue could have been a verbatim copy-and-paste from conversations I have had in real time and her own commentary sometimes gave me language for feelings I know, but have never named.
Notably, Westover never attempts a takedown of religion or God, and instead deals delicately with the injuries that religion can cause in the hands of unstable or isolated people. While I understand the fierce debate about confessional memoirs and their ethics/veracity, I think that Westover is commendably gentle in the telling of her story. My heart breaks for her, and her family. I am grateful for the many people she has inspired and the encouragement they no doubt found in these pages.
📚 I normally order all my books through Books Are Magic or Bookshop.org , but I made an exception and went through Amazon this week for, uh, obvious reasons…
🎥 A new friend and fellow NYU student is creating an app for film fanatics! I imported all my old Letterboxd data and the features this platform provides has been so much fun. If you’re interested in being one of the first users, feel free to sign up! He would love any and all feedback you can give.
🎥 Just a PSA that 3 of the best “bad” movies in cinema history are currently free to watch on Tubi:
Fifth Element— one of the best sci-fi films to ever hit theaters. Comedy, action, and a deceptively convincing plot, this movie was formative for me. Bruce Willis being unparalleled as a leading man. One of Chris Tucker’s greatest roles, if not his greatest.
Lost Boys— a dark yet stylish coming of age tale about vampires living in Santa Monica. If not for the sincerity of the cast, this movie would’ve flopped. There are some of the best one liners of all time in this film that could only be pulled off in the 80’s.
Point Break— Casted and directed by Katherine Bigalow, this film made Keanu Reeves a star, made way before it was in vogue to make movies about it; I have come to consider this film (along with RoadHouse) to be one of the greatest commentaries on masculinity, fraternity, and heteronormativity in picture history. Although campy at times, it is a perfect distillation of at least one woman’s perspective on male identity.
Watch while you can! Just bear in mind that the value of these films is not widely considered to be self-evident. It takes eyes to see why they are cult classics!
Started Reading: Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac 📚
This may be the best near opening to a book I have read in a long time:
“After reading about the secret misfortunes of Pere Goriot, you will eat your dinner with relish, blaming the author for your insensibility, charging him with exaggeration, accusing him of poetic license, but let me tell you, this drama is not fiction or romance. All is true. So true that everyone can recognize its elements in his own circle, perhaps in his own heart.”
Watched: The Invite 🎥
A four person film, perfectly casted. Olivia Wilde, who acted and directed, tapped into her inner Woody Allen for this film. It is utterly hilarious, observant, and cynical. While an objectively well-done movie, it is not one I wished I watched at this moment in my life.
Started Reading: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard 📚
Excited to begin this. It has been on my list since at least 2020, after seeing it on Cas Holman’s list of favorites. Since then, it has been highly recommended by others with great taste. Timing feels right.
📚 Finished reading: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
“You can blast my other passions; but revenge remains—revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die; but first you, my tyrant and my tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.
Incredible and easy read. I recommend. I am astonished at exactly how different it is from all the countless derivative material I have consumed my whole life about Frankenstein. If I can find a way to tastefully link it to modern incel psychology, I might make a gander at an essay.
📚 Currently reading Frankenstein, but ordered these books some weeks back and happy to have them in hand. 😍
🎥 Watched: The Devil Wears Prada 2
A greatly entertaining watch. I adore the first film and think they did it justice. Love how so many males in the film are portrayed as patient and competent: Stanley Tucci, of course, but also Kenneth Branagh and Pat Brammall. Streep, as usual, is a force. ❤️
🎥 Watched: Obsession
Obsession is a new horror film about a young man named Bear who uses his one wish from an enchanted novelty shop to make his best friend, Nikki, “love him more than anyone on the f*cking planet.” The wish goes sideways and Bear’s dream girl is turned into a walking nightmare.
I really liked the film, although it is deeply unsettling and not for anyone who is easily disturbed. I think the film actually has a lot to say about the gender politics of youth and the loneliness epidemic. The lead actress' performance is one for the history books, seriously. The entire movie is summed up by this line from Sylvia Plath:
“I must get my soul back from you; I am killing my flesh without it.” ― Sylvia Plath
💬 Viriginia Woolf in her classic essay on How Should One Read A Book?:
If the moralists ask us how we can justify our love of reading, we can make use of some such excuse as this. But if we are honest, we know that no such excuse is needed. It is true that we get nothing whatsoever except pleasure from reading; it is true that the wisest of us is unable to say what that pleasure may be. But that pleasure—mysterious, unknown, useless as it is—is enough. That pleasure is so curious, so complex, so immensely fertilizing to the mind of anyone who enjoys it, and so wide in its effects, that it would not be in the least surprising to discover, on the day of judgment when secrets are revealed and the obscure is made plain, that the reason why we have grown from pigs to men and women, and come out from our caves, and dropped our bows and arrows, and sat round the fire and talked and drunk and made merry and given to the poor and helped the sick and made pavements and houses and erected some sort of shelter and society on the waste of the world, is nothing but this: we have loved reading.
📚 Finished reading: On Repentance and Repair by Danya Ruttenberg
The core subject of this book—broken relationships and how to mend them—is a critical topic for human flourishing and an increasingly lost practice. Pitched to me as an antidote to evangelicalism’s overemphasis on the injured party’s need to “forgive” and underemphasis on the injuring party’s pathway to repair; unfortunately, the book did not quite live up to my expectations. Ruttenberg’s heart is no doubt in the right place and her left-leaning views are roughly congruent with my own. However, her tendency to morally front-load her suggestions takes away from the credibility of her ideas, none of which would be novel to someone who has spent an even moderate amount of time living in communities where friction, apology, and inconvenience occurs with relative frequency. While I applaud this book for championing a worthy cause and good principles, I don’t see myself recommending it anytime soon, as it ultimately did not leave me as equipped as I had hoped.
🎥 Just watched Project Hail Mary.
Absolutely phenomenal. 👏 Visually, narratively, musically. It is going to hook a certain kind of youth onto the sci-fi genre for life. Plus, I am a sucker for a movie that is so unapologetically life-affirming. Do yourself a favor and see it ASAP if you can!
🎥 Just watched and enjoyed the new documentary, Marc By Sofia.
In the doc, Sofia Coppola follows and interviews her friend and legendary fashion designer, Marc Jacobs. As far as documentaries go, it’s a tame piece. There is no investigative element, no drama, no tea. As a result, critics have largely accused it of being anodyne. There is some truth in the accusations.
However, I found the documentary very worthwhile. Sofia’s friendship with Marc may not have created the space necessary for the cagey creative to divulge his innermost secrets, but it certainly allowed the man to be himself in his most natural environment: the atelier. Moreover, Sofia’s clout in this world allows her to stand in these spaces without insecurity, which made for a refreshingly ego-loss documentary. It was apparent that the often handheld camera was never steered by a gaze that was intimidated or in awe of the world of luxury fashion. Most importantly, Sofia never steals spotlight from her friend, who himself is winsomely charming when allowed to simply talk. As someone who is inspired by the creative process of fashion designers and intrigued by the interplay between beauty and commerce in the luxury world, it was everything I hoped for (even if it wasn’t life changing). The small tidbits of Marc and Sofia talking film, Broadway, fashion, music, and Liza Minelli brought a smile to my face everytime. New York really does have a way of bringing the right people together.
🎥 I also watched the horror film Undertone today, and while I normally skip making bad reviews, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to use this video clip for a while. Pretty much sums it up. 🤣
🎥 Just watched Hamnet in the movie theatres. Deserves a full blog post, but want to get my thoughts off before Oscars. Here are my first thoughts:
Ezra Pound once wrote that “beauty is a brief gasp between two cliches.” Hamnet is a story that braves the perilous path of a very cliched time period, but finds the gasps with a frequency that can only be attributed to great artistry. The triumph of the picture is that it successfully earns the audience’s submersion into the dirty, odorous, and oppressive Elizabethan era. Most notably, and absolutely central to the main theme, is how the people from this time period live in constant proximity to death. Things are always dying—and dying near to us. Modern society is so sanitized and anything that might conjure a memento mori is banished without question. Hamnet, however, let’s the Grim Reaper play the lead and cast his very large shadow over every scene. By doing so, director Chloe Zhao earns the moments that, in my estimation, can only be described as hope-filled magic. The story is ultimately a revolving door—a continual turning over of heartbreak, hope, and heartbreak in rapid succession. If you have ever been touched by grief or healed by goodness, you’ll be familiar with the pattern.
Lastly, all the actors are brilliant (even Joe Alwyn). Paul Mescal has never performed better and the children actors conducted themselves like veterans. Jessie Buckley was on another level though. Her performance was both elegant and transcendent, and deserves to be given its flowers because, for the last 8-10 years, it’s become very popular to make films that somewhat disparage mothers. Thus, it lightened my soul to see such a believable depiction of a wild and free-spirited mother who is somehow bold, independent, intelligent, emotional, and whimsical while still being fiercely loyal, humble, and grounded. Well done.
I may feel differently about this tomorrow, but it is certainly how I feel about it today.
🎥 The Oscars are this weekend, so wanted to repost my predictions. I feel so-so about them, but no changing up now!
I will say that I was never crazy about Marty Supreme and even it’s best qualities have lessened in my mind since I first watched. I have yet to see Hamnet. OBAA is still my fav.