June 10th: I'm back!!

...did you miss me?

Hello! Apologies for missing a post last week. I was at my delayed college graduation, which was very fun and silly but not a conducive environment for writing newsletters. But I’m back in New York now, where it feels more and more like summer every day. This may be controversial, but I love humid New York summers: there’s a solidarity in the oppressive heat and pervasive sweatiness that we’re all facing together, and, selfishly, it nudges people onto my usually nocturnal schedule. The season has also brought some exciting life changes for me, most importantly a new job! I’ll be selling books at Three Lives and Company in the West Village all summer, so if you are ever in the area, please drop by and say hello. It’s a beautiful store, and though I’m still getting my sea legs under me, I’ve been really enjoying my first few weeks. Here’s the outside of the store - hard to miss!

On to the films! I’ve got an eclectic bunch of items for you this week - no unifying theme, but these all crossed my mind at some point in the last few days. Hopefully there’s something for everyone in here!

The Movies:

Fire Island (Hulu) is making an early claim for the most fun movie of the summer. A loose retelling of Pride and Prejudice, it follows a misfit bunch of men trying to find love on their yearly summer vacation to the Pines, a historic haven for gay men off the coast of Long Island. As our Elizabeth meets his Darcy, and our Jane his Bingley, the film manages to provide insight into a still-underrepresented culture while still serving plenty of heart and clever one-liners. Bowen Yang, of SNL fame, is excellent as always, and writer and star Joel Kim Booster plays his role perfectly. The love the actors have for one another just radiates off the screen, making Fire Island feel cozy and real in a way most other movies try and fail to replicate.

Watch if you’re in the mood for: Love, Love, Love, Las Culturistas (great podcast y’all), and glorious Marisa Tomei impressions.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Netflix), or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Franchise, is a giddy, thrilling romp of a spy film, a statement of intent from an action franchise on the rise. At a time when Bond films were trending more and more towards the morose, Ghost Protocol filled the void with a high-wire instant classic, filled with quippy humor, tons of fun gadgets, and truly, truly breathtaking stunts. Since its release, there have been two more Mission Impossible movies, both excellent in their own right (and I’m sure I’ll talk about them later), but neither have the sense of pure fun this one possesses. In his first live-action film, Pixar icon Brad Bird brings a kinetic energy to the proceedings, keeping the movie rocketing along at a breakneck pace. Sure, it’s a franchise, and lord knows we don’t need more of those. But the Mission Impossible series are the best spy movies right now by a wide margin, and Ghost Protocol marked their ascendency, a gripping piece of action filmmaking that stands alone among the crowded field of franchise blockbusters.

Watch if you’re in the mood for: Popcorn, popcorn, popcorn.

Arrival (Prime Video) proves that there’s plenty of story left in even the most common of frameworks, marrying a brilliant Amy Adams performance with gorgeous cinematography and a mind-bending narrative structure to bring new life to the “first contact with aliens” trope. Based on a short story by Ted Chiang, one of the great sci-fi writers of our generation, it’s a remarkably quiet, peaceful tale of cultural differences and finding common ground. The aliens are wonderfully conceived, and the score from late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson is unforgettably haunting. It’s a movie I come back to over and over again, and each time find something new to love about it. It’s slow, meticulous filmmaking of the highest order, asking meaningful questions about the importance of communication and the ways in which language shapes our reality.

Watch if you’re in the mood for: Thoughtful, mind-expanding, wondrous.

The Binge:

Few shows have infiltrated the meme-making portion of the internet as swiftly or as effectively as I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (Netflix). A former SNL writer, creator and star Tim Robinson made this show to highlight some of his sketches that didn’t make the cut, and in the process created an excellent case study for how institutional knowledge and tradition can get in the way of creativity, because the sketches in this show are almost uniformly brilliant. It’s clear why they weren’t on SNL - they are usually pretty out there conceptually - but Robinson’s commitment to breaking the social contract over and over and over again makes for one of the funniest shows on television. And with fifteen-minute-long episodes, it’s a low-commitment endeavor, with plenty of fun cameos to keep you interested. I don’t think I’ve laughed harder at anything I’ve seen in the last several years.

Watch if you’re in the mood for: Absurd humor, surreal premises, TURBO TIME

The Tune:

One of the great joys of being the age that I am is that I’m constantly discovering music that came out long before I was born. The longevity of older music is a topic of much concern in the music industry (here's a great article about Running Up That Hill and its meteoric rise after its appearance on the new season of Stranger Things) but I don’t view the increasing influence of older music as strictly a negative thing, especially when the songs are as delightful as the newly-released alternate take of Something On Your Mind, a lovely folk ballad from cult folk hero Karen Dalton, whose first recorded album celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. It’s the perfect soundtrack for an afternoon drive (the context my friend introduced it to me in, for context), a light, breezy reinterpretation of her most popular song that’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

See you next week! Let me know what you’ve been watching!

Love,

Nick