Weekend Watch: Rebecca, Borat 2, On the Rocks

Well, most of us are huddled indoors and won't be trick-or-treating this year. But Hollywood has come to the rescue with plenty of new movies to keep you entertained through the winter weekends. And this weekend, US readers get a whole extra hour to binge, thanks to Daylight Savings Time! I ploughed through these three movies last week, so settle down on the couch and see what tickles your fancy.

Rebecca: If you've seen the trailer, you know what you're getting. Sweeping and lush period drama that's a little bit creepy and has a twist ending. Ever since Daphne du Maurier wrote this novel in 1938 there have been many iconic adaptations, but here's another one! And it's...fine! I'll admit, the main appeal to me was getting to watch that tall drink of water, Armie Hammer, saunter up and down my screen. But Lily James is lovely too, and Kristin Scott Thomas is incredible as Mrs. Danvers. Seriously, after watching this performance, you would much rather take care of your own household than ever consider hiring a housekeeper ever again. 

For those of you who insist on knowing at least something about the plot, this is a story of a young woman (whose name is never revealed in the novel, so she's just "the second Mrs. de Winter") who has a whirlwind romance with Maxim de Winter in Monte Carlo. They get married after a fortnight and she is whisked away on a honeymoon and then on to his fabulous estate, Manderley, which is one of the finest houses in Britain. There, she meets Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper who was extremely fond of the first Mrs. de Winter, a woman named Rebecca. Mrs. Danvers does NOT like this new interloper, and there is DRAMA. It is a weird, unsettling tale, and as the movie hurtles on, it becomes clear that there's something mysterious about how Rebecca died. The movie is gorgeous to look at, but exceedingly frothy. If you already know the story and how things will end, there might be little to keep you glued to your screen here, but if you're just seeking a nice escape into some gothic melodrama with some actors who are easy on the eyes, you're in for a treat. It's a lazy Sunday binge, no harm, no foul.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: I mean, come on. You don't need me to tell you whether or not you would like this movie. You should have a pretty good idea already based on your reaction to the first one. For the uninitiated, Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat, a journalist from Kazakhstan who goes to America and meets real-life Americans (not actors) and proceeds to gin up controversy. He is a posturing, right-wing nutjob, and as he travels the country (mostly the South) he tends to find people who go along with his craziness, thereby revealing the depths of lunacy that this country contains. In this sequel, he is accompanied by his daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova, a young Bulgarian actress breaking into Hollywood in the most spectacular fashion), and all manner of hijinks ensue. There's a debutante ball, there are some QAnon conspiracists, a wonderful woman named Jeanise Jones who is the voice of reason and the film's true hero, and of course, there's Rudy Guiliani. 

The true wizardry of this movie is that Cohen and Bakalova are the only actors. They have to stay in character as these absolutely bonkers humans, and then interact with real-life humans, who don't seem thrown by their insanity at all. Cohen has been doing this for years, but I was so awed by Bakalova's ability to stay in character while she proceeded to do and say some spectacularly insane things. The movie ends with the most important message of them all: VOTE. And that is the point of this Subsequent Moviefilm. It is a reminder that America is just as nuts as ever, and if you want it to be a little less nuts, you need to go vote for it. Lord save us all.

On the Rocks: Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, and starring Rashida Jones and Bill Murray, I was definitely looking forward to this movie. And after watching it, I have mostly forgotten all about it. It's a good movie, I swear, but it is light and breezy, and ultimately it didn't profoundly resonate with me. It's a story about Laura (Rashida Jones), who is married with two young children, and her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans), who travels a lot as he is trying to get a new business off the ground. Due to certain circumstances, Laura starts to suspect he is having an affair, and when she confides in her father (played by Bill Murray), he immediately insists that they investigate. He is a bit of a philanderer himself, and is convinced men can't be monogamous, so with him by her side, Laura is increasingly paranoid that her husband is straying. Things escalate, and you should watch to see how it all pans out.

This is meant to be a light comedy, but what I took away from it was that this is a movie about the existential angst of being a wife and mother. There are so many shots of Laura just looking exhausted. And let's be very clear, this woman has a beautiful apartment in New York, comes from an exceedingly wealthy family, and is living the kind of cushy New York lifestyle that I have only ever seen in movies. I live in New York and still didn't recognize half the places they went to or talked about, because they are so out of my price range. But all the money in the world cannot solve for the emotional labor of being a mother and having a husband who will always say "I'll trust your decision" when you ask if you should get your daughter on a preschool waiting list. This is a movie that showcases everything that women are doing in their attempts to "have it all" and what a terrifyingly awful prospect that is. So, give this movie a shot, and depending on how you're feeling that day, you'll either be pleasantly cheered or come away with a sense of dread about running a household.

The Way I See It: Make the White House Great Again

I started following former Chief Official White House photographer Pete Souza a few years ago on Instagram when he got very famous for throwing shade on President Trump. Every time Trump would tweet something ludicrous, Souza would post a photo from the Obama years with a witty caption. It's a fun game that continues to this day, but if you want to experience more than some Instagram posts, you should definitely watch the new documentary, The Way I See It (FYI, I discovered it's available for free on Peacock!). 

Beautifully and compellingly directed by Dawn Porter, the movie chronicles Pete Souza's years in the White House. While the focus is of course on his Obama years, we also get some great material from the 80s when he served on the team of photographers for the Reagan administration. The fact that Souza worked for both a Republican and a Democrat is significant, because one of his key messages is that his attacks of Trump are not based on political affiliation. Instead, his disgust stems from his years of witnessing what it means to be a President of the United States and the weight of that office, regardless of political party. He may not have agreed with Reagan's policies, but he still respected him as a President, and chronicled the many difficult decisions that man had to make and the scandals he had to weather while in office. He also speaks fondly of Reagan's relationship with his wife, and the love the two had for each other. Of course, when we get to Obama, there are plenty of photos of the First Family to further gladden your heart and remind you what it was like when the President was a man who was actually beloved.

The key to Souza's job was to get unlimited access to the President. He was the fly on the wall, documenting every trip, every speech, every meeting, and every snowball fight with Sasha and Malia. While yes, it is a government job to show the public what the President is like, Souza doesn't view these photos as being part of a PR exercise. Given his background as a photojournalist, he took this job very seriously, viewing himself as a historian. He took photos that showcased what life was truly like for the President during his time in office, and these photos will be archived and studied by future generations. One of his biggest bones of contention with the Trump administration is that they have not allowed unfettered access to photographers and only release posed photographs. It is such a loss to the historical record and further adds on to the lies that emanate from today's White House.

Souza's focus when chronicling Obama was leadership and empathy. He knows the story behind every photograph he took, and as the movie progresses, you will be inundated by images that chronicle everything from the mundane to the magnificent. Many of these photos are iconic images that you've already seen before, but others might be your first glimpse into how the administration dealt with a particular win or a devastating tragedy. There are so many examples of Obama's kindness to other humans, so many hugs, so many smiles, so many tears, so much compassion and sheer charisma. You will relive all eight years of that administration, and while they had their ups and down, the man at the center was always a President who was steadfast and respectable, a man that you could admire.

The Way I See It is a beautiful movie that tells a political story from an unlikely perspective. No one ever thinks about the photographer, and yet, here he is, one of the few people who knows more about the President than any other human being. And like many people, he was largely apolitical until the 2016 election, when Trump turned him into an outspoken Instagram and media star. It's an unlikely transformation for a man who was previously so content to be quiet and take photos, but he is a fascinating and thoughtful figure whose story is well worth hearing. A picture tells a thousand words and this movie is an epic saga. I shed multiple tears on watching it, swept away by the memories of what it was like when an honest and decent man was the President of the United States. On November 3, perhaps we can see an honest and decent man reclaim that title. So watch this movie and make sure you VOTE.

Crash Landing on You: What a Ride

Well my 2020 is complete because I have finally watched a Korean drama and now understand what all the fuss was about. Queue up Crash Landing on You on Netflix - you’re in for the ride of a lifetime. 

The show’s premise is this: Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin), a fabulously wealthy and badass South Korean businesswoman, goes paragliding and gets caught in a freak storm. She finally lands on a tree and is eventually rescued by Captain Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin), who is...a North Korean soldier. You see, she got blown over into North Korea, which is a big no-no. And Jeong-hyeok, who is basically every romance hero you’ve ever loved rolled into one, doesn’t want her to get tortured by the State Security Department so he tries to help her sneak back over to South Korea without alerting the authorities. And...my god, guys, SO MUCH STUFF HAPPENS. 

I cannot tell you any more about this show because it is a story that you need to live through in its entirety. It seemingly starts out as a wacky romantic comedy, but things quickly take a deep emotional turn. Over the course of a single episode, you could end up watching an explosive gun fight, a slapstick comedy, and a wrenching treatise on depression. And these are LONG episodes, sometimes extending past ninety minutes, and yet you will still sit there wanting more. The genius of the editing means that every episode ends on a compelling cliffhanger, so my routine became to always watch the first ten minutes of the next episode before I finally dragged myself off to bed since I absolutely had to know that Se-ri and Jeong-hyeok would be OK after their latest shenanigans. And I wasn't just invested in their romance, but also in the incredible cast of supporting characters built around them. There are so many storylines that are interwoven and delicately balanced over the course of sixteen episodes and by the end, I felt like these people had become my family. I did not want our time together to end. 

Two of the actors on this show were also in Parasite and I kept remembering how I felt when I first watched that movie. I was blown away by the notion that a movie wouldn’t have to stick to a particular genre and could deftly wind its way through a complicated story that was funny, scary, incisive, and thrilling all in one go. Now that I’ve seen Crash Landing on You, however, I’m starting to understand how South Korean cinema might be primed from the existence of these K-dramas on television. The quality of this show is absolutely cinematic, and the attention to writing, costume design, cinematography, and sheer chutzpah is incredible. I do acknowledge that this is a widely popular drama, and I can’t draw generalizations from my sample size of one. But this was a hell of an introduction. 

I don’t know what more I can say except that if you are a fan of epic storytelling, and an absolutely swoony romantic plot, you owe it to yourself to drop everything and watch Crash Landing on You. The actors are simply terrific, the writing is wondrously intricate and magical (seriously, the dialogue on this show can be so achingly profound), every visual aspect has been crafted with care and beauty, and most importantly, the soundtrack will burrow itself into your brain and never leave. I have no idea what the lyrics are, but I have been consistently humming the different themes from this show for weeks now and I will never stop. I have never experienced a show quite like this before, and hitherto unknown avenues of entertainment have suddenly opened up to me. It’s a slippery slope, but I’m going down that rabbit hole.

The Trial of the Chicago 7: Uplifting and Sobering

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a great movie and you should watch it. But of course, there are caveats. So let’s dig into what works, what doesn’t, and how resurrecting this particular historical moment in our current political climate feels both relevant and exhausting.

First off, this is a movie written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. If you’ve ever seen anything by Aaron Sorkin, you already know what to expect. Though I must admit, the dialogue wasn’t as Sorkinian as I had been led to believe by critical hot takes on Twitter. The man is an auteur for sure, but I never felt myself taken out of the movie during a dialogue-heavy scene, which is a feeling I have definitely had when watching other Sorkin works. Instead, there was the climactic courtroom scene at the end, the kind with swelling musical overtures, where people start to stand up and cheer in support of the underdog, and THAT was peak Sorkin. He is absolutely not subtle. But given the sheer number of characters and the denseness of this plot, it all works out. By the time you get to that climactic moment, you’re ready to sink in and wallow in the sentiment for a bit.

This movie recounts the trial of eight men who were accused by the United States government of inciting riots in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. At the time of the riots, Lyndon B. Johnson was President, but at the time of trial in 1969, Richard Nixon had taken over, and the new Attorney General, John N. Mitchell, was eager to prosecute these men who had led thousands of people to Chicago to protest the Vietnam War. These men included Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), and Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), the co-founder of the Black Panthers, who was only in Chicago for a few hours for a speech and had absolutely nothing to do with the protests and riots (a fact that becomes increasingly relevant and insane as the trial wears on). If you can count, I've obviously not listed out all the men involved, but those actors don’t do too much in this film because we already have plenty to be getting on with. The lawyer representing these men was William Kunstler (Mark Rylance, sporting the worst haircut known to man), while the US attorney prosecuting the case was Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). And the judge presiding over these shenanigans was Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella), who acts in ways that are increasingly more horrifying and border on cartoonish until you read up on the actual trial and discover that Sorkin didn’t even have to make this shit up.

Look back at that cast. What a wonder it is. Every single actor is a powerhouse in his own right, and in this movie, we get this magical ensemble that is simply on fire. Of course, this is a very male magical ensemble that absolutely does not pass the Bechdel test, and in typical Sorkin fashion, the few female characters exist to relate to these men in the most stereotypical ways possible. So let's roll our eyes and move on. I must take a moment to acknowledge Redmayne and Rylance for their wonderful American accents, and then shake my head over Cohen, whose Boston accent feels like it consisted of him just practicing the phrase “I parked my car in Harvard Yard” over and over again. Accent aside, though, I found myself quite moved by Cohen’s performance in the end and couldn't help cheering a little when he gave his testimony. After all, courtroom drama is the best drama. 

The true star of this film is Sorkin’s screenplay; he introduces this sprawling cast of characters and then hones in on their personalities so you don’t completely lose the plot. There’s the classic use of flashbacks to go back and forth from the riots in the past to the present-day courtroom scenes, so nothing ever stagnates and your attention never flags. And while each character seems to be wedged into a box, e.g. the free-thinking hippies versus the strait-laced and earnest Democrat, we manage to see them develop over two hours and surprise each other. None of these people have identical political philosophies but they are all united in their belief that the Vietnam War is unjust. While this trial is a political sham designed to falsely convict these men of working together to incite violence, it manages to actually bring them together and give them a chance to peacefully protest in the courtroom. 

I knew absolutely nothing about these men and this trial, which is an excellent way to go into this movie. Just let history unfold for you and gasp at all the shocking perversions of justice and racism and political chicanery. All of this happened in 1969, but it doesn’t feel remotely out of place in 2020 when the current US Attorney General seems similarly inclined to pursue political vendettas instead of protecting free speech and seeking actual justice for American citizens. That’s the most difficult aspect of watching this movie. It is well-directed, impeccably written, and beautifully acted, but at no point could I just lose myself in it, because so much of it felt like some historical artifact that we should have learned from and moved on from, but haven’t. So watch The Trial of the Chicago 7 and appreciate it for the sheer technical artistry that went into putting this complex and compelling story together. But be prepared for it to sting a little.

October Movie Roundup: The Forty-Year-Old Version, Mulan, The Boys in the Band

Another month, another batch of movies to while away the hours! Again, there's something for everyone here, whether you're in the mood for incisive New York comedy, live-action Disney war games, or gay men having a birthday party. Surely one of those tickles your fancy?

Mulan: I had pre-ordered tickets to see this in the theater before the pandemic hit, so let's be clear, I 100% wanted to watch this movie. But having seen it, I can now tell you that I have plans to watch the 1998 animated version over Zoom with my friend Peggy instead. This movie is...fine. As always, I did appreciate the feminism that Disney has been striving to imbue into all their live-action remakes, but Mulan (played here by the wonderful (Yifei Liu) was already a kick-ass feminist Disney "princess" anyway. The movie does away with any comedy or music, and is a straightforward story of a woman masquerading as a man so that she can go to war instead of her aging father, who will almost certainly be killed. Along the way, she learns to embrace her "chi," and the warrior spirit that she was always told to suppress because it wasn't ladylike. And she saves the day and wins the respect (and in one case, the love) of her fellow male soldiers and wider community. It's a great rah-rah story of how girls can be destined for greatness too, not just a life of tea ceremonies and marriage, but that's a story that young children are better off getting through the 1998 animated feature, rather than this much more violent film that is more focused on battle scenes. Older kids (aka the YA set) might find more to love here, and of course, if you're a young Asian girl, you can never discount the importance of seeing yourself represented onscreen in such a meaningful way. I did love the costumes and set pieces, and the action sequences were beautifully choreographed (though come on, there's no way Mulan wouldn't tie her hair back first before wading into war). I may have had a very different reaction if I was watching this in a theater on the big screen; but at home on the couch? I was underwhelmed.

The Forty-Year-Old Version: I love a punny title, so I was in the tank for this movie from the outset. But damn, what a revelation it turned out to be. Directed by and starring Radha Blank as a fictionalized version of herself, this is the story of a Black playwright in New York City who is having a mid-life crisis and trying to get her life together ahead of her fortieth birthday. With her playwriting ambitions constantly thwarted, she suddenly hits upon a long-dormant ambition to become a rapper, and that's when the film comes alive. This is an exceedingly funny movie, brimming with jokes about the very white New York theatre scene (while workshopping a play about gentrification, Radha is forced to add a white character to the play because that's what would speak to the majority of the audience), the expectations heaped upon an older Black woman, and how to define success as you get older. Radha works as a high school teacher to make ends meets, and it's refreshing to see how supportive her students are of her efforts to make it, rather than being snot-nosed teenagers who are too cool for school. Interestingly, her best friend Archie (Peter Kim) is a gay Korean man who is also her agent, which is a nice nod to the diversity in the NYC public school system and how minorities often have to stick together to overcome the odds. The standout moment in this film for me, however, is when we see an all-female rap battle, where, for the very first time, I got to see a female rapper in a hijab. This movie is fresh and original, telling a story you've never seen before. Shot in black-and-white, it's a bit disconcerting to get into, but give it a few minutes and you'll be swept away by the sheer force of Radha's personality. Give The Forty-Year-Old Version a chance - her rap about Poverty Porn alone is worth it. 

The Boys in the Band: This play came out in 1968, had a Broadway revival in 2018, and now you can watch the Netflix movie adaptation starring the cast from that 2018 production. It's a veritable who's who of openly gay Hollywood actors, including Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Michael Benjamin Washington, Tuc Watkins, Robin de Jesus, Charlie Carver, and Brian Hutchinson. It can still be difficult for gay men to come out in Hollywood, as they get stereotypical roles and rarely get to play the leading man in a cis hetero romcom, but in this movie, we get to see this incredible cast play off each other and reveal the many multitudes contained within the world of homosexuality. Is it somewhat dated and of its time? Sure. But is it still a fascinating insight into what it was like to be gay in 1968 in New York City and what it sometimes is like to be gay in 2020 today? You bet. The story consists of a birthday party that goes horribly wrong when the host's old college roommate, who is straight, shows up and stirs up some shit. None of the people are perfect, but that's kind of the point - they are allowed to be messy and have all of their foibles, and their gayness isn't immediately some sort of value judgement of the content of their character. This movie does often feel very much like a play - the dialogue and confined apartment setting instantly transports you to a stage - but all told, this is a solid movie that is well worth your time. 

Watch & Vote: Surge & Knock Down the House

It’s October and people in many US states have already started voting, either in person or via mail-in ballots. I received my mail-in ballot last week but will be heading to my in-person early voting center on October 24th because I need the thrill of voting via a machine to feel like I gave this my all. If you are an American voter, make a plan and ensure you vote this year. And if you need a reminder of how important elections can be, I give you two wonderful documentaries that highlight all of the work that goes into political campaigning, all of the unnecessary horror of voter suppression, and what it looks like when truly deserving political candidates fight for the chance to represent their fellow citizens in a democracy.

Directed by Rachel Lears, Knock Down the House tells the story of four female Democrats in different parts of the country who ran for election in 2018. These women were not career politicians, but were all inspired to run following the 2016 election, where the shock of not seeing the first woman President get elected quickly gave way to sweeping anger and resolve to go into office themselves. The most famous candidate in the documentary is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She serves as the star of this film and gets more screentime than any other candidate, which is a bit unfortunate as I thought the other ladies were rather brilliant too. But in Ocasio-Cortez's case, what's intriguing is that she isn't a Democrat looking to flip her district - instead she is a progressive looking to upset the establishment Democrat, a complacent white man who can't even be bothered to show up to a debate and thinks that the voters in his district will just vote for him out of name recognition and sheer misinformed laziness. But with her grassroots campaign, Ocasio-Cortez convinces the people of New York's 14th Congressional District to vote with their best interests at heart, and thank goodness, they did. In the two years since she was elected to office, we've seen how great it can be when someone who actually gives a damn about the world and her constituents comes to Washington.

The other women featured in this documentary are Amy Vilela from Nevada, Cori Bush from Missouri, and Paula Jean Swearengin from West Virginia. They are all incredible women who are running to protect their people from greedy self-serving Republican interests. None of them won their primaries in 2018, but Swearengin and Bush both won in 2020 and I will be eagerly following their races this November to see if they flip their districts/states blue (Swearengin, in particular, is a fascinating woman who bucks the stereotype that West Wirginia coal miners can only be Republicans, and she is running for Senate, which would be such a coup for the country). All three women have incredible stories of why they chose to run in the first place and serve as a great reminder that politicians do not all have to be corrupt, amoral snakes. Sometimes, they can be women who want to protect their communities and serve their country proudly. Also, Netflix put this movie out for free on YouTube, so really, you have absolutely no excuse not to watch it.

Directed by Hannah Rosenzweig and Wendy Sachs, Surge tells a nearly identical story of three women running for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. Like the women of Knock Down the House, they were all "activated" following the 2016 election and are determined to make a difference. This movie does a better job of giving each woman equal time to tell her story and following her campaign, and it also showcases some of the challenges they face on elections days with poor infrastructure that seems designed to discourage voting. There's also an incisive look at how the Democrats' Primary Machine works and how candidates depend so much on the support of the Party for monetary and logistical support that could give them a boost and much-needed name recognition during their races. 

The film follow Lauren Underwood in Illinois, Jana Lynne Sanchez in Texas, and Liz Watson in Indiana. Again, these three women have different levels of political savvy, and different reasons for why they are running, but they are all united in their passion and commitment to the people of their districts. All three women win their Democratic primaries, but then we get to see how difficult it is to actually flip a district in the General Election when they are up against moneyed Republican interests. Millionaires and lobbyists (and racists and misogynists) aren't going to let these women win without a fight. Devastatingly, in Indiana, Liz Watson's grassroots campaign generates high voter turnout, but the Election Office in one county runs out of ballots as they never expected so many voters. Which causes a delay and results in her losing a lot of people who might have voted for her in the first place. While Underwood and Watson get Party support and have people like Obama, Biden, and Sanders show up to their rallies to get out the vote, Jana Lynne Sanchez's district in Texas is deemed too impossible, so the Party doesn't help her out. She ultimately loses the election, but because of her efforts, Democrats discovered it was actually winnable, and they will be investing in the candidate who runs there in 2020. 

Politics is a complicated and dirty business, but what these two documentaries (that were directed and edited and shot and produced by women, FYI) reveal is that there are still idealistic and determined people that we can get behind. More specifically, idealistic, determined women, who face an uphill battle because women simply aren't treated fairly in the political arena. It was thrilling to see how excited they were to see other women running for office and formed a supportive clique to cheer each other on regardless of whether they won or lost their own elections. That's the kind of energy we need in today's toxic political climate. In addition, these women aren't taking corporate PAC money and they have a slog ahead of them, but they are fighting for the right to represent us fairly and decently, and they deserve our attention. 

So before you vote this year, and in every election following, pay some attention to the people on your ballot. See if there's a new candidate who is more deserving of your vote than the establishment candidate you've been voting for all your life but who has never actually pushed any policies that you want. In Surge, someone talks about how party affiliation has become like a religion - you'll vote for the person from your Party even if they're ripping you off. Let's stop doing that and only vote in the people who actually want a better life for us and our families, instead of pocketing millions from corporate interests. Read up on what these candidates stand for and don't just vote for someone because they have a (D) or an (R) after their name, but because they actually represent the values that matter to you. Get out there and vote, America. We're all counting on you. 

Emily in Paris: Fizzy Fun

Let's get this out of the way. I absolutely loved Emily in Paris. But watching it during a pandemic means I also absolutely loathed it. Because all I wanted to do the whole time I was watching it, was hop on a plane to Paris and make my way to the closest patisserie for a pain au chocolat. I did find a Parisian bakery two blocks away from my apartment and have spent the last week buying up every eclair and croissant they can provide, but it's just not the same, you know? 

Anywaaaay, back to the show. Lily Collins stars as the titular Emily, a woman who works for a marketing firm in Chicago but is dispatched to Paris when they acquire a smaller French marketing firm. She is ostensibly sent over to provide "an American point of view." No points for guessing how her Parisian colleagues feel about that. In fact, the entire show could probably be used by US HR departments as a sexual harassment in the workplace seminar, given the amount of snark this lady has to put up with when she arrives. It is all terrifically over-the-top and stereotypical. Are the French rude? Yes. Would they at least know to behave themselves around the American who has been sent over from their corporate overlords? Damn straight, they're not idiots. For her part, Emily is also the stereotypical American, unable to speak a word of French, forever Instagramming (which is actually part of her job, so is slightly more forgivable), always upbeat, and somehow completely incapable of comprehending the notion of a Ground Floor. Americans, is this really such a difficult concept for you to grasp? 

Putting all the stereotypes aside, this show is a fizzy delight that goes down as smoothly as a glass of Moet & Chandon. The costume department deserves especial kudos because I wanted to buy every single outfit I saw on screen, and lord knows, I am not a fashionista (I definitely did not want the shoes though. Were they pretty? Yes. Did the notion of wearing high heels on cobblestones make my ankles hurt? You bet.) And of course, there's a gorgeous Parisian chef named Gabriel (played by an actor named Lucas Bravo - yes, his last name is literally Bravo) who is oh-so-easy on the eyes. I didn't know what I wanted to eat up more: him or his delicious omelets. 

Emily in Paris is escapist, mindless, splendidly silly fare. Also, its creator is Darren Star, who created Sex and the City, and he won't let you forget that for long. Each episode often starts out feeling like something you would watch on the CW, and then all of a sudden a character says or does something so raunchy that you are rapidly reminded this is on Netflix. Collins is a wonderful actress who plays the young ingenue to perfection but is never too wearyingly Pollyanna-ish to get on your nerves. Of course, she IS a former model, and given the way she dresses and carries herself, it's a bit hard to buy the whole "clueless hick from Chicago" routine, but that's TV for you. Escape into this world, experience a great deal of FOMO that you aren't in France, and join me in fantasizing about all the places you'll go the minute you are allowed to travel again. 

Kajillionaire: A Grifter Finds Meaning

I was lucky enough to win tickets to a virtual premiere of Kajillionaire, a movie written and directed by Miranda July, starring Evan Rachel Wood, Gina Rodriguez, Debra Winger, and Richard Jenkins. Let all those names sink in - this movie has to be good right? Well it is, and oddly, it features a timely message about how to live your life to the fullest that feels especially relevant when we're all currently holed up in our homes. And spoiler alert, the answer is not that you need to be a kajillionaire.

Wood stars as Old Dolio (no that is not a typo - she was named that for bizarre reasons in keeping with the bizarreness of her upbringing), a young woman who has been raised by two small-time grifters, Robert and Theresa (Jenkins and Winger). They are an odd family whose sole purpose in life is to come up with screwball scams to scrounge up some cash to pay their bills. They are emphatically small-time: they don’t want to engage in any spectacular Oceans Eleven-style heist that will net them millions. They want $1500 to tide them over till next month’s rent is due.

Old Dolio seems satisfied with this daily grind until the family runs into Melanie (Rodriguez) in the middle of a con. Her parents seem taken with this lady, who is charismatic and gorgeous and seems capable of enacting a whole new set of cons simply by using her winning personality, something that Old Dolio distinctly lacks. But as the movie progresses, the two young women bond, and as Melanie shows Old Dolio that she deserves more from life than what scraps her parents have shown her, the movie gets less funny and far more warm, emotional, and ultimately life-affirming.

Kajillionaire is a deeply weird and profound movie that I wish I had been able to see in a theater (and hear - the soundtrack by Emile Mosseri is gorgeous). You could stop this movie at any point and the resulting frame would be something that should be displayed at a museum. The colors, the textures, the sheer over-the-top splendor of it all, even when these people are living such grubby lives, shows how beauty can be found even in the most unseemly places, and ultimately, Old Dolio emerges from her chrysalis as the most beautiful character of them all. Find this movie and give it a whirl: it’s an unusual experience that you won’t regret.