May 20th: Family Ties

A lovely period piece, a sci-fi stunner, and a classic murder mystery. Plus, my favorite show currently in production.

The oldest stories are about families. The push and pull of family dynamics is something that everyone can relate to, and the infinite variety of potential stories brings writers back to the well again and again. I’ve been spending a lot of time with my own family recently, and so I thought it would be fitting to talk about a few movies that use family drama to explore a few different ideas about what those relationships can look like, and what it means to be attached to someone. Every unhappy family is unhappy in their own way, said Tolstoy, but I think that these movie show how different happy families can be from each other too.

The Movies:

20th Century Women (SHOWTIME) is a sweet, unapologetically sentimental portrait of found family, manhood and the ways we care for each other. It’s got a brilliant script, filled with excellent one-liners and character interactions (some of my favorites: “You don’t have many funny lines, do you?” “I make my own shampoo.” “Charlie, you’re quiet. Menstruation?”). And most importantly, Annette Bening is simply radiant as the matriarch of her little clan, imbuing every aspect of her character with so much heart you feel like you’ve known her your whole life (or at least you’ll want to). It’s a worthwhile entry into the coming-of-age canon, centering the story not on the kid who’s growing up, but on how his growth affects the people around him, in the process making a much more interesting movie.

Watch if you’re in the mood for: Just the right amount of schmaltz, perpetual chuckles, good, honest characters.

Sci-fi stories are at their best, I think, when they don’t linger on their premise. After Yang (SHOWTIME) is one of those stories, using a tale about a family losing their live-in robot to examine how we grieve. The futurism of the setting is presented gently, through unusually quiet autonomous cars and lifelike video calls and clean, minimalist decor. There is no threat of impending doom or heavy-handed climate parables. Just a lovely story about a family coming to terms with losing one of their own (with some commentary on Big Tech thrown in - it is still a sci-fi story, after all). It’s a cozy, open, wondrous piece of science-fiction, a reminder that emotional stories can and will come from the most unlikely of places.

Watch if you’re in the mood for: Meditative vibes, a e s t h e t i c s, crying without really knowing why.

Of course, some families aren’t all roses and sunshine. Sometimes they squabble about the groceries, or tone of voice, or, if you’re the Thrombeys, about who killed Grandpa. Knives Out (Amazon Prime, with ads) is a delightfully old-school murder-mystery, with an all-star cast stuck in a mansion as they struggle to clear their names and lay claim to the family fortune. Everyone is having a ball, which gives an infectious energy to the vigorously paced script. Daniel Craig is particularly amusing as the extraordinarily over-the-top Southern detective Benoit Blanc, but the whole cast are great. It keeps you on your toes until the last second while providing plenty of laughs, a perfect watch for when you want to get lost in a forest of narrative twists and turns.

Watch if you’re in the mood for: Glorious dysfunction, clever writing, Agatha Christie.

The Binge:

If there is one show I think everyone should watch, it’s Sex Education (Netflix), a heartfelt, sex-positive, cringe-forward look at a group of teenagers growing into their bodies and selves. It’s immediately clear how much the writers respect the characters they’ve created - there are no stereotypes left undiscussed, no characters left unexplored by the end of its three seasons currently available. It’s emotionally engaging, vulnerable, laugh-out-loud funny, and tearjerking, usually in the same episode. There are a lot of shows that try and walk that comedy/drama tightrope, but few do it as effectively as this one.

The Tune:

There’s something ineffable about siblings singing together. Harmony, at its core, is about generating resonant frequencies, and when you sing with the same people your whole life, you develop a deeper understanding, a more perfect type of tuning. That’s the only reason I can think of for why The Staves, a British indie-folk group comprised of three sisters, sound so different than everyone else. Their harmonies breathe with them, always changing a little bit more than you’d expect. “Outlaw” uses more electronic manipulation than the rest of their discography, but feels more human too, a tapestry of looped voices and scant percussion forming something vibrant and altogether alive.

See you next week!

Love,

Nick