Eclipse Season
I hope everyone enjoyed my April Fools’ Day post last week. Just to be clear, as far as I know, Greta Gerwig is not planning to adapt the story of Adam and Eve. (Though, if she did, I’d probably go see it.)
I planned to write a second post last week but maybe you heard about that huge storm that hit New England? I lost power for two and a half days. Then I got a flat tire. Then it was a solar eclipse. Wild times! For this newsletter, I was hoping to watch and review Agnieszka Holland’s Total Eclipse, which stars a young Leo DiCaprio as Rimbaud.
How did I miss this movie when it came out in 1995? I was 16 years old! Unfortunately, I can’t watch it now because it is not available for streaming, and my library didn’t have any copies. I even checked to see if I could buy a copy but prices were steep and I wasn’t sure a twenty-year-old DVD would work with my DVD player and TV. It’s a reminder that when you see a film that you really love and know you will want to watch again and again, you should buy a copy, because many movies just disappear.
I’m adding a new section at the bottom of this newsletter called Link Love, which are some links to film-related articles that you might enjoy. Happy reading & watching.
Goofy Weeknight Comedy
Quiz Lady (2023)
Directed by Jessica Yu
Written by Jen D’Angelo
1 hour 39 minutes; streaming on Hulu
Sandra Oh is the reason to watch this movie this buddy comedy about two very different sisters who need to raise money to pay off their mother’s gambling debts. Sandra Oh plays the older, wilder sister while Awkwafina is the sensible one, whose personal life consists of petting her dog and playing a Jeopardy-like quiz show. This is a goofy, if predictable movie, great for a weeknight when you just need to unwind and pet your dog (or cat). IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
Chillingly Relevant Documentary
The U.S. and the Holocaust (2022)
Directed by Sarah Botstein, Ken Burns, and Lynn Novick
Mini-series, 3 episodes, about 7 hours total; Streaming on PBS
This three-part documentary series explores the United States’ response to the Jewish refugee crisis in the years leading up to and during World War II. The United States did not act very quickly to either join the Allies or take in European Jews, a reluctance that seems horrifying in retrospect. A host of historians explain the political complexities of the time: a mix of isolationist sentiment in the wake of WWI, xenophobia, conspiracy theories, and deeply entrenched anti-Semitism. Although President Roosevelt was personally in favor of expanding immigration quotas, Congress wasn’t, and neither were most Americans—a startling fact evidenced by polling documents from the era. In popular culture, this refusal to act is often portrayed as a kind of American innocence, but news coverage from the time makes it clear that Americans were well aware of Nazi violence and killings. The most chilling parts are the speeches from Charles Lindbergh, whose “America First” anti-immigrant politics sound very much like today’s MAGA boosters. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
Stand-Up Special
Tig Notaro: Hello Again (2024)
Directed by Stephanie Allyne
1 hour; Streaming on Amazon
I love Tig. I think I first heard her on This American Life, where she is a frequent contributor. (This little story is one of my all-time favorites.) She has a very unique delivery, not quite deadpan but very dry and deliberate. In a recent interview with Marc Maron she remarked that in her younger days, she maintained a cool kid persona, but after a near-death illness and a streak of terrible luck in her forties (which she first talked about in a monologue that went viral) a new vulnerability came into her act. She’s still dry and unruffled, but there’s something very gentle about her comedy. It’s not the least bit mean. This special was a little stronger in the first half, and the last joke felt more like performance art than comedy, but I appreciated the theater of it. IMDB * REVIEW * CLIP
Sleeper Hit
Anyone But You (2024)
Directed by Will Gluck
Written by Ilana Wolpert and Will Gluck
1 hour 43 minutes; VOD $5.99
I resisted this movie for a long time. I watched the trailer and thought it looked like pretty people in pretty places and not much else. And you know, what? That is its main appeal. But it’s goofier than you’d expect, with a great supporting cast. (Shout out to Dermot Mulroney and Rachel Griffiths!) Written by Ilana Wolpert and Will Gluck, this is one more piece of evidence to support my ongoing theory that romantic comedies are generally more well-rounded when women and men collaborate on the screenplay. Maybe it also helps when your script is loosely based on Shakespeare, as this one borrows from Much Ado About Nothing, with occasional quotations from the play hidden in the scenery. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
📺 TV Corner 📺
The Girls on the Bus, Season 1 (2024)
Created by Amy Chozick and Julie Plec
Streaming on Max
This show is getting pretty mixed reviews but I’m enjoying it, maybe because I read the book that is based upon–Amy Chozick’s Chasing Hillary. I kind of wish they’d made a show based on that memoir, which is about Chozick’s experiences reporting on both of Clinton’s presidential campaigns. For whatever reason, they chose to set the show in a fictionalized 2024 with characters who are sorta based on real people and events but without any direct parallels. It’s kind of like The West Wing and Madame Secretary in terms of its world-building but doesn’t have the gloss of a network show. It’s not totally gelling, to be honest, but I like the characters—a band of reporters who are thrown together by the vagaries of campaign reporting—and planning to stick with the series to the end. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
❤️ Link Love ❤️
A remembrance of Diane Thomas, who wrote Romancing the Stone and died too young.
A woman who wakes up early to enjoy TV uninterrupted by family (maybe I should do this??)
A profile of Julia Louis-Dreyfus with beautiful photos
Love all of this, and love Tig so much. And haha I would also probably watch that Greta Gerwig biblical epic, even if the idea was wildly and hilariously worrying :)