What can I say? Not exactly a great year.
But inspired by a friend's post I'm going to try to be positive and give you my best stuff of the year. So let's go!
Favorite movie: One Battle After Another
This film really shows Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the greatest directors of his generation at the height of his powers. And backed with a great cast (right down to all the ex-military guys playing it as straight as Lee Marvin) it was just a lot of fun to watch.
It’s at times incredibly serious, but also at times laugh out loud funny.
It’s also clearly a substantive political film about the times we are living through. But also since PTA is a non-didactic filmmaker makes it so much better than a lot of similar attempts. Team Trump are obviously not a bunch of groypers…but…uhhh…aren’t some of them not not that too?
Likewise the “French 75s” are neither particularly heroic, nor effective, nor people you should look up to. And the film hints that maybe their actions sort of backfired and accidentally caused the whole outcome they were trying to stop to begin with. Other highlights include my boy Leonardo as a stoner “girl dad” and Benicio del Toro as a beer buzzed karate sensei. Also one of the best performances of Sean Penn’s career (which is saying a lot!).
Favorite Book: The Secret History.
This cult classic was a great read, but hard to sum up, so I'll just quote the back of my paperback: “Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.” Very much worth your time, especially in winter.
Favorite New Podcast: On the one hand the “centrists*”on Central Air can be kind of annoying at times. On the other hand they make good points, which always makes for a good pod. Points including insights like: price controls are actually bad. And Mamdani is great for #content but the discourse about him is pretty overrated, sorry he's not the future of politics. What makes part of this pod interesting is these are contentious issues these days! For example the mayor elect's advisors seem actually believe that the key to a prosperous New York is strict price controls on [squints at notes] beer at baseball games.
*a term generally used in political writing as a pejorative insult, not descriptively. So like "tory" or "queer" maybe it's something people should try to take back and own?
Favorite movie: One Battle After Another
This film really shows Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the greatest directors of his generation at the height of his powers. And backed with a great cast (right down to all the ex-military guys playing it as straight as Lee Marvin) it was just a lot of fun to watch.
It’s at times incredibly serious, but also at times laugh out loud funny.
It’s also clearly a substantive political film about the times we are living through. But also since PTA is a non-didactic filmmaker makes it so much better than a lot of similar attempts. Team Trump are obviously not a bunch of groypers…but…uhhh…aren’t some of them not not that too?
Likewise the “French 75s” are neither particularly heroic, nor effective, nor people you should look up to. And the film hints that maybe their actions sort of backfired and accidentally caused the whole outcome they were trying to stop to begin with. Other highlights include my boy Leonardo as a stoner “girl dad” and Benicio del Toro as a beer buzzed karate sensei. Also one of the best performances of Sean Penn’s career (which is saying a lot!).
Favorite Book: The Secret History.
This cult classic was a great read, but hard to sum up, so I'll just quote the back of my paperback: “Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.” Very much worth your time, especially in winter.
Favorite New Podcast: On the one hand the “centrists*”on Central Air can be kind of annoying at times. On the other hand they make good points, which always makes for a good pod. Points including insights like: price controls are actually bad. And Mamdani is great for #content but the discourse about him is pretty overrated, sorry he's not the future of politics. What makes part of this pod interesting is these are contentious issues these days! For example the mayor elect's advisors seem actually believe that the key to a prosperous New York is strict price controls on [squints at notes] beer at baseball games.
*a term generally used in political writing as a pejorative insult, not descriptively. So like "tory" or "queer" maybe it's something people should try to take back and own?
