Hi everyone, I hope the apocalypse is treating you all well. I have to say I’m getting a little tired of opening these recaps up with commiseration about how awful everything in the world is right now. This has been a very emotional and taxing month to be a Los Angeleno, to say the absolute least. All I can say is I hope everyone in the area is doing okay, taking care of themselves and their communities.
I also want to take a second to remember two very important people we tragically lost this month. I’ve already written about this at length, but the death of David Lynch hit me incredibly hard. It’s something that I’m still kind of reeling from, but I take comfort in knowing that basically everyone else who cares about film and art has been feeling the exact same way. We also very unexpectedly lost The Vivienne, who if you don’t know was the winner of the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. Anyone who knows me knows how important drag is to me, and any time someone from that community passes it feels like a major loss. Drag queens really are the figureheads for the queer community, and so many of us look to them for joy and light in difficult times. The Vivienne was a supremely talented and hilarious queen, and losing her felt destabilizing. It feels cruel and unfair that someone so young, so vibrant, and who meant so much to so many people could be gone so suddenly and unexpectedly. If you are not familiar with her work, I would direct you to this compilation of some of her most memorable moments from the show, but the thing that I’ve been coming back to the most is her delightful roast from All Stars 7, a perfect display of her unmatched timing and wit. Rest in peace to The Vivienne, a superstar we will never forget!
With all that being said, onto something a bit lighter.
Movies
Phantom Thread (2017)
dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
I can fully understand why this is regarded as a modern classic. It’s as close to technically perfect as a movie can possibly get while delivering one of the most truly strange and wholly original stories I’ve ever seen. The film lulls you in with its sumptuous visuals and classical, sweeping period romance set-up, so much so that it takes a second to register the thorns that start to poke through the decadent satin sheen. This feels like one of the most human love stories in recent memory, but not human in an aching, tender way. Human in the way that it hinges on those little idiosyncrasies and humiliations that we all carry around with us and would rather not be brought to light but, through the debasing power of true love, ultimately are. As I wrote in my Letterboxd review, “knowing someone’s exact right buttons to push is the highest form of intimacy.”
A Complete Unknown (2024)
dir. James Mangold
Se7en (1995)
dir. David Fincher
A very engaging and killer thrill-ride that feels like a test run or a blueprint for the themes of violence, dehumanization, and dread that Fincher would go on to master. That’s not to undermine how captivating and intense of an experience this movie can be (especially in its brutal final sequence), but this ultimately came out on the lower end of my favorite Finchers.
The Daytrippers (1996)
dir. Greg Mottola
Wishing I had this one in my back pocket a few months earlier because this would’ve been the perfect movie to put on for my family over the holidays. A really bittersweet family dramedy that’s funny in all the right ways and heartfelt in all the right ways. I don’t think I have much to say because this movie is fairly straightforward, but I highly recommend it. 90s indie perfection.
Please Baby Please (2022)
dir. Amanda Kramer
This is absolutely something that should have been right up my alley (and it’s been burning a hole in my watchlist for a while now), but unfortunately I found it pretty confounding more than anything. Sexy? Yes. Mysterious and enchanting? Yes. Impeccably performed by all involved? Yes. But I don’t know if the story or the Point of the film really holds up under much scrutiny. I’m very intrigued by the way this film goes about exploring gender and raising questions about traditional roles of masculinity and femininity, particularly in the confines of heterosexual marriage. But ultimately every scene felt just a tad overwritten that I was never entirely sure what I was supposed to get out of it, and I really never got onto the wavelength of its unique tone. I feel like this story may almost have worked better as a performance art piece. I don’t want this review to be entirely negative though because my feelings for this movie are far from entirely negative. I absolutely love the campy, lo-fi aesthetic of it. I wish every single movie were lit and styled like this! And again, the performances really sold even some of the most head-scratching dialogue. Maybe a rewatch would clarify some things for me. Still, I think this is worth a watch for no reason other than you’d be hard pressed to find another movie that even attempts to do what this movie is doing, that is so rich in its references and yet feels entirely unlike anything else.
After Hours (1985)
dir. Martin Scorsese
Just outstanding. I really don’t have anything unique or insightful to say, because this is Scorsese, and this is one of the most airtight and satisfying “one crazy night movies” I’ve ever seen. Every diversion and excursion that this character takes as he goes further down the rabbit hole of his own horniness-turned-paranoia is hilarious, punctuated by perfectly quirky and strange performances and set pieces. If I watched this again maybe I would come away with more complex thoughts about how the film goes about its themes of the ascendance of yuppie culture, the indifference of God, or castration anxiety (pictured below). But as of right now I think this is just a perfect descent into madness, guy-who-works-a-boring-office-job-and-craves-adventure-gets-in-way-over-his-head kind of movie.
The Room Next Door (2024)
dir. Pedro Almodóvar
I was a little worried in the first half of the movie, because the first half is essentially all exposition, delivered in what you could call classically Almodóvarian, slightly stilted and melodramatic ways. But by the time the second half arrived, when the central conceit of the movie gets moving, I really settled into its groove. A word I’ve seen used a lot for this movie is “restrained” and I would agree. The second half essentially becomes a chamber drama—or rather, a chamber melodrama—which I love. Still, I was struggling a little bit to grasp the “why” of it all, what it all meant, for a while. Clearly this movie has death on its mind, from the more heavy-handed topic of euthanasia to the epistemological questions that surround death and how we conceive of it in our culture. But it wasn’t until a scene in the second half, between Julianne Moore and John Turturro (love!), where it felt like I had a better grasp of what Almodóvar was doing, or at least attempting to do. Turturro’s character lays out his view of the world, a pretty doomerist perspective on all the *gestures wildly around* going on in the world right now, a perspective that I honestly find myself wallowing in frequently. Like, why should we have children? Why should we have hope for the world, for future generations, when it seems like we could all evaporate at any minute, and when there are so few people in power working for our best interests? Yet, when this scene arrives in this movie, you can’t help but feel like it’s the more cynical and misguided take. That his character may be missing out on the essential thing that Moore’s and Tilda Swinton’s characters have found together, which is autonomy and the will to make life a little more bearable and meaningful for the people that you care about and for the people who care about you. (Of course, it’s easier to be autonomous when you’re a well-educated, world-class, wealthy writer who can afford a fabulously modern AirBnB in Upstate New York, but still). The line that I’ve seen lots of people pull from the movie is “There are lots of ways to live inside a tragedy,” which I think fits as the central theme of the film. When tragedy hits, whether it be global or personal, there are infinite ways to react. This film seems to posit that the ideal way to retain dignity and hope in a tragedy is to face it with people you love.
Lost Highway (1997)
dir. David Lynch
Much like how Se7en feels like more of a test run or proof-of-concept for Fincher, Lost Highway feels a bit like that but for Mulholland Drive. This feels like a pretty uncharitable read considering Lost Highway is so rich with it’s own singular iconography, and is undoubtedly Lynch’s most contemporary (as in, contemporary to the era it was made) film which is a very fascinating mode to see him working in. I think Mulholland Drive is just too deeply imprinted on my consciousness for me not to view this film in the context of that one. That being said, for the superficial similarities between the two’s bifurcated identity narratives and Los-Angeles-as-a-snarling-nightmare-factory ethoses, Lost Highway is a beast all of its own. It feels more manic than anything else I’ve ever seen him do, and the way it wrestles with masculinity is very fascinating. And I already mentioned the iconography, but this might be Lynch’s most visually striking—and stunning—film, which is really saying something. The frantic shots of the headlight-illuminated highway at night, the two personas of Patricia Arquette, the Mystery Man. Dissociative nightmares have never looked this good!
A Different Man (2024)
dir. Aaron Schimberg
A script that is equal parts absurdly humorous and blisteringly blunt in its insights. Filmmaking that manages these tonal shifts with aplomb and crafts a world where the truth of these blunt insights is found most evidently in the absurd, the morbid, and the morbidly funny. I was really blown away by this movie and was on the edge of my seat for each and every one of its twists and turns. I’m very compelled by stories about acting, not for what they reveal about the craft of acting (which I don’t really care about tbh) but for what they reveal about the actors (that is, the fictional actors in the story), specifically what truths they’re trying to confront or trying to hide from. And this film has that in spades. There’s a lot I love about this film, and a lot that I’ll be mulling over for months to come. But overall I think Sebastian Stan’s character, Edward/Guy, is one of the most interesting and fascinating protagonists in a film in recent memory, and I can’t recommend enough that you all watch this film and follow him down the rabbit hole.
TV
The Sex Lives of College Girls — season 3
This may be the most frustrating show that I’ll ever love this much. I love this show because I love the characters and the actors. Every performance is so delightful to me, and the friendships between the characters feel very real and lived-in. This show is also making me miss college so bad. But it’s frustrating because, well, the writing is so inconsistent and at points laughable. Storylines are introduced and then resolved after, max, two episodes. No point in ever getting attached to any love interest because it’s more than likely they’ll either be off the show within a week or be featured so sparingly that you frequently forget they’re there (how the hell are you gonna get Ruby Cruz only to feature her for 30 seconds each episode?). It’s truly crazy to me. Also, I feel like significant story and character developments usually end up being pretty inconsequential… ugh idk. This show is so messy and yet I’m one of the first people watching new episodes the second they drop. What can I say! I love my girls.
RuPaul’s Drag Race — season 17
I’m sure I’ll have much more to say as the season continues to unfold, but for now I’ll just say… we’re so fucking back? Drag Race fans, myself included, have long yearned for the drama and scrappiness that defined the early seasons of the show, while also tacitly understanding that the show will probably never return to that mode ever again because of how massive and culture-dominating it has become. But so far I feel like the two major defining elements of the season have been how juicy the drama and character conflicts are, and how busted the drag is. And thank god for that! I will say, Joella was a major contributor to both of those things, and now that she’s gone I worry that there may be a slight dip in quality. But nevertheless, this season has really started out strong. I think all the production choices so far have been really astute and you can already see some groundwork that they’re laying for (hopefully) satisfying payoffs later in the season.
Severance — season 1
Rewatching the first season really solidified that this may be one of my favorite seasons of television ever. It’s so consistently intriguing and confident in its vision right out of the gate. And the slow build to its finale is perfectly crafted. Even knowing what happens at the end of the season, I was still just as much on the edge of my seat this time around. But, no one is here to read my thoughts on a season of television that aired three (excruciating) years ago. So, with that said…
Severance — season 2
We’ve only seen three episodes so far, so I definitely have no desire to make a value judgement on this season yet, especially because one thing that was such a hallmark of the first season was its meticulousness in setting up the pins early on so that they could later be knocked down in spectacularly climactic and thrilling fashion. What I will say about this season so far is that there are many, many things that I’m extremely excited about, and like one or two things that I really just don’t care about at all, and this most recent third episode felt like a good microcosm of that. (This is where I will give a spoiler warning!) My favorite part of Severance are the philosophical questions that its central conceit presents, and the many strange variations and permutations of that conceit that the characters face. Namely, what does a person’s psychology look like when they’re unburdened by any past memories or history? Is there any way to be truly unburdened by those things, or do they eventually seep through? Is that version of you freer? Or more constricted? I can only hope that these questions will be the guiding force for the rest of the season, rather than too much emphasis on “reveals” or adding new wrinkles into the show’s puzzle. Because the one thing that has felt like a bit of a misstep or miscalculation so far was the whole goat department reveal in the third episode. I’ll eat my words if this pans out in an interesting and satisfying way, but for now this felt like the show ceding a little bit to the rabid fan theorizing and “mystery box” aspect of the show, which is much less interesting to me than the questions surrounding the characters’ identities and motives. The thing that had me most at the edge of my seat, though, was Mark’s decision to reintegrate and the impeccably crafted final sequence where we see this procedure take place. This is the kind of status-quo-upending swing that I’ve been waiting for, and I think everything’s about to get a whole lot more convoluted in the most delicious way possible.
Music
I finally caught up with Magdalena Bay’s album from last year Imaginal Disk, and some of my favorite songs have been She Looked Like Me!, Watching T.V., That’s My Floor, Angel on a Satellite, and The Ballad of Matt & Mica. But I think the crown jewel of this album is Death & Romance, easily one of the best songs released last year. I really need to check out more of their music, I’m kicking myself for not tapping in sooner!
I’ve also been loving FKA twigs’ highly anticipated new album Eusexua. It feels like every day or so I have a new favorite song from this album. I’ve been obsessed with Drums of Death ever since it first debuted in that brilliant music video months ago. Upon my first listen of the album, Girl Feels Good was the immediate stand out, with its message about deradicalizing young men set to grimy, watery drums and guitars straight out of Ray of Light. Then I became obsessed with Room Of Fools, specifically the immaculate beat and twigs’ very Björk-esque vocal delivery. And then just in the past day or two I’ve had 24hr Dog on repeat. I don’t have much analysis for that one, I just think it’s so delicate and vulnerable, and, along with closing track Wanderlust, a very necessary and stunning come-down from the more high-octane moments earlier on in the album. I definitely see this being one of my favorite albums of the year.
Finally, I would like to wish a very special happy birthday to my dad. He likes to give me shit any time I don’t give him a shoutout in these recaps, so here you go! Happy late birthday! My gift to you is that I won’t be publicly revealing how old you are. Thank you all for reading.