We're here because we're here because we're here because we're here
December cultural highlights
Art by my aunt- Arielle de Brichambaut (Pinel) which translates to “choose your magic wand for 2024”.
Happy New Year- I hope you are coming out of a restful break from- as a friend referred to as- the Bermuda triangle of time (Thanksgiving-New Years). The world is in rough shape but let’s hope to remain hopeful.
December was mostly spent still adapting to life transitions and over-socializing but here are the movies/books/art/podcasts (did not catch any shows) that stayed with me!
Movies
Photo from The Sweet East
The Sweet East was as exhilarating as its cast list (Jacob Elordi, Ayo Edebiri, Jeremy O. Harris) with breakout star Talia Ryder. It’s worth the trip to IFC (only movie theater where it’s playing in NYC) to take you on this modern Alice in Wonderland type story that takes place in the early 2000s that just keeps spiraling out of control in both hilarious and terrifying ways- but her youth and trust in people keeps her surprisingly safe.
Photo from Polite Society
A bit late on the Polite Society train but I was able to catch it on the flight back to NY from Florida (and it’s miraculously the exact length of the flight) and it’s the first action movie I’ve ever thoroughly enjoyed- it left me wishing it was out when I was in middle school. Ria, an aspirational stuntwoman/high school student, desperately wants to keep her older sister Lena from being set up and will use all her fight skills to get her way. Over the top, hilarious and really original this movie was just an overall really good time.
Photo from Gaza Surf Club
Gaza Surf Club, a documentary from 2016, follows a group of Palestinians trying to establish surfing there building boards by hand, working within very tight boundaries and teaching locals- though with local government changes, the film also showcases shifts in daily life and lack of opportunity. It’s heartbreaking to watch now but a very comprehensive picture of both the situation there and the cost of surfing in general.
Photo from Dream Scenario
If you are more inclined to watch a psychological thriller- and are okay with it being maybe a bit sad- I really recommend Dream Scenario that is as typically twisted as most Nicolas Cage movies. Here Cage plays a professor that suddenly starts gaining fame from appearing in everyone’s dreams- which as most viral fame goes sour over time. Though it doesn’t end with a beautiful bow, the writing and story arc felt really satisfying and I would recommend.
Still from Maestro
We caught Maestro with my grandma and it feels like two movies in one. The first half is more experimental (dream like sequences, dancing, black and white) while the second half feels like a separate film- more of a psychological drama. I didn’t know much at all about Leonard Bernstein but did enjoy learning about his connections (and relations) to the dance world and will be thinking about Carey Mulligan as with wife Felicia for a while- definitely Oscar bait.
Photo from All of Us Strangers
I JUST saw All of Us Strangers so it might be too early to have a serious opinion about it. The overall theme of it being about the conversations we imagine for ourselves with people we’ve lost (would this family member have voted for Trump? Would they accept me as gay?) is really well woven in- especially at the beginning. And many audience members were- based on the sounds around us- feeling it too. But unfortunately it lost me in the narrative arc, felt unrealistic in addition to just too sad.
Photo from May December
It’s been a minute since I’ve watched this but am still struck by Natalie Portman’s performance in May December as an actress in proximity of a Mary Kay Letourneau character, doing research as she is preparing to play her for a film. Though very much inspired by the 90s scandal it makes minor changes to the story (to likely avoid having to pay for the rights to portray her life) which I felt mixed about. But overall the movie feels very Todd Haynes-esque (he previously directed Carol) in how he conveys the horror of every day life.
Whatever you do you can skip Saltburn- though visually stunning it was a big miss.
Visual Art
Delcy Morelos at Dia Art Foundation in Chelsea
Delcy Morelos’ new show is a continuation of her pursuit to work with mud and natural elements to bring a modern eye to ancestral structures. Through her work she aims- and succeeds- and helping us find intimate moments of connection with earth.
An-My Lê at MoMA
An-My Lê’s new show “Between Two Rivers/Giữa hai giòng sông/Entre deux rivières” at MoMA showcases her most well-known work- photographs of responses to war time- alongside embroideries and an immersive installation. Her work feels incredibly timely and her experience as a refugee who has experienced war and displacement- to France, New York and Mexico- makes the work feel less like photo journalism and more like a meditation on the meaning of continuous violence.
Frances F. Denny’s Major Arcana series
Photographer Frances F. Denny’s latest book, Major Arcana, is a photo series that looks at modern self-identified witches in America- from medical practitioners in scrubs, to upstate New York hippies, to empowering Black women- her work covers the diversity of the demographic- and I am sure many women friends reading this might enjoy!
TV
If you want to laugh I really recommend the Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish SNL episode or the Mike Birbiglia special- though this last one is as funny as it is emotional/meditating on the passage of time.
If you are more of a scam fan I reallllyyy recommend Bad Doctor- it’s equally the most successful and most cruel scam story I’ve ever heard that follows the downfall of Paolo Macchiarini.
Podcasts
Who Shat On The Floor at My Wedding- is one of the most light hearted and funniest shows I’ve heard in a while- a perfect holiday podcast that follows the true investigation to find the worst wedding guest, detectives and all, 5 years after the couple in question got married (lesbians!). Maybe it’s the Australian accents or the absurdity of the premise but it works.
The Anthropocene Reviewed’s Auld Lang Syne episode recommended to me by Hannis (who scored the episode) is the most gorgeous scripting for a podcast that I have heard in years and as suggested by the title it looks into the New Year’s song we’ve come to know the words to- “we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here.”
Decoder Ring’s Fast Decline of the Slow Dance episode looks into the past cultural significance and NOSTALGIA of the slow dance and why we can’t have it anymore- such a sweet episode that reminded me of the awkwardness and importance of the moment at the time.
READING
Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger is not an easy read but it looks at Naomi Klein’s experience being consistently confused with Naomi Wolf (and even Naomi Campbell lol). As the experience worsens her want to understand the downfall of Naomi Wolf grows. In Doppelganger, Klein guides us through from her personal experience to this political moment, letting us into the so-called “mirror world”.
Jia Tolentino’s article “Will the Ozempic era change how we think about being fat and thin”- I find myself reading copious amounts of think pieces about Ozempic since seemingly out of nowhere it’s become unavailable to those who actually need it for diabetes and counterfeit Ozempic has been circulating and poisoning those cutting corners to get it. It has also in parallel entered teenage lives as lobbies wrestle to push it’s agenda forward while research is still unfolding. Needless to say I am a bit nervous about the sheer amount of people who are taking it solely as a weight loss drug and a crisis down the line.
On a more positive and unrelated note- I am now obsessed with miniature cows and was delighted to read this piece about cowfluencers and to discover @minimooos on TikTok.
Happy first week of 2024!