Weekend Watch: Only Murders in the Building & The Guilty

What do you feel like watching this weekend? A funny ten-episode New York mystery series? Or a gritty and claustrophobic cop thriller that will be over in 90 minutes? Either way, I’ve got you covered.

Only Murders in the Building: This show stars Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez as three residents of a swanky apartment building on the Upper West Side. When a resident named Tim Kono is found shot in his apartment, our three leads band together as an unlikely trio to investigate. And they also start making a true crime podcast to broadcast their investigation to the world in real-time, which means that as the series progresses, they start accumulating a fan base, and further complications ensue.

This show is my jam for three reasons: I love mysteries, I love satire, and I love New York. And this show hits all those elements and knocks them out of the park. Created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman, the show is well-written and hilarious, mining every possible situation for comedy gold as well as satirizing all the tropes of true-crime podcasts. The mystery of “who killed Tim Kono?” is truly engaging and over the course of ten episodes, you will encounter numerous red herrings (I won’t spoil, but a famous musician makes a cameo at the end of Episode 3 and it made me LOL), and many twists and turns. And the show is filled with New York banter (the opening credits look like they were pulled straight off a New Yorker cover) and a lot of jokes about how terrible Long Island is.

This is exactly the kind of light and breezy yet still compelling show that makes for a perfect weekend binge. It was great for weekly viewing, with my friends and I trading theories about what we thought would happen next, but now you can treat yourself to all of it in one fell swoop. The actors are wonderful, and while we all know that Short and Martin have great rapport after years of working with each other, it was fun to see how well Gomez fit in as the young millennial who still got along well with these two weird older men. So settle in on the couch and get started. I promise you won't regret it.

The Guilty: First off, if you are mad at the police and the status of policing in America in general, this may not be the movie for you. But if you want to watch Jake Gyllenhaal on the phone for 90 minutes acting his heart out, this might be your jam. Directed by Antoine Fuqua and adapted from the original Danish screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto (both men who are associated with movies and TV shows about problematic cops), the movie follows one day in the life of LAPD officer, Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal). He is a cop who has been relegated to working as a 911 operator, for reasons that will slowly be revealed over the course of the movie. We see him deal with various 911 calls at the beginning, some of which are benign, others a bit more serious, and he either handles them quickly and flippantly, or gets annoyed and judgy. There’s a lot of “you put yourself in this dangerous situation by taking drugs, how dumb are you” energy, and overall, he does not seem like the kind of guy I would want to be relying on in a crisis.

However, he then gets a call from a frightened woman, and after initially thinking it’s a wrong number, he realizes this woman has dialed 911 because she has been kidnapped and needs him to save her. What follows is a tense thriller where Joe calls in every favor he can from his colleagues, engages in some questionable policing, and tries to coach this woman to safety. There’s a third act twist that is particularly amazing, though I kind of anticipated it from the jump, so I’m curious if other people did too. Let me know in the comments if you end up watching it!

This is a good movie if you want to watch a good actor put on an acting showcase. It was filmed during the pandemic, so there’s a particularly claustrophobic feel to the film as it is mostly centered on Gyllenhaal sitting in a room yelling on the phone. The character is complex and mostly impossible to root for, but the story is propulsive and compelling and has a satisfying resolution (I would argue almost too satisfying, as though it’s trying to make up for just how dark it is all the way through). Also, the voice cast is a who’s who of talent, but I was so swept up in the story that I didn’t even try to puzzle out who was doing all the talking until I got to the closing credits. So give it a try. It might be a lot to take in, but it might also surprise you. 

Bonus recommendation: The Guilty reminded me a great deal of the movie Locke, starring Tom Hardy, so if you are turned off by the idea of watching a cop movie, might I suggest you watch that instead? Hardy is great, and there's a lot of drama but with a soothing Welsh accent, so you may enjoy it a lot more!

A Chastain & Isaac Extravaganza: The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Card Counter, Scenes from a Marriage

This post is for anyone who is a fan of Jessica Chastain and/or Oscar Isaac. Which should be all of humanity really, since they are the two finest actors we have on the planet. Over the past few weeks, I have gotten to watch them star in a bunch of things, and while none of these projects are for the faint of heart, they are an excellent acting showcase of everything these two talented people have to offer.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye: Jessica Chastain stars in this biopic of Tammy Faye Bakker, a woman, who along with her husband Jim (played by the marvelous Andrew Garfield) became a famous televangelist in the 1970s. I was not familiar with the Bakkers and went into this movie completely cold, except I did have friends with very strong anti-Bakker sentiment who were perplexed as to why I even wanted to see this film. Well, that central Chastain performance is all the reason I needed.

Written by Abe Sylvia, based on the documentary of the same name, this is a standard birth-to-death biopic and the beats are fairly familiar. But directed by Michael Showalter, who I ordinarily associate with raucous comedies, like Wet Hot American Summer, this movie has a strangely upbeat and comic tone, even as it deals with serious themes. Chastain and Garfield do an excellent job of capturing the religious fervor of this couple as well as their sly marketing prowess and growing greed for the good life. Spoiler alert, but they were eventually caught up in an enormous scandal of misusing charitable funds to build their empire, but the movie does a fantastic job of following these characters down that slippery slope. Most of the blame is placed squarely on Jim, with Tammy blithely following along and assuming her husband was handling the finances just fine. The entire movie is very sympathetic to her, and I’m not sure if that’s something we should take issue with, but I was simply entertained by viewing this as a piece of fiction.

The hair and makeup department deserve all the kudos, doing wonders to Chastain’s face as Tammy gets older and more obsessed with her image and public persona. The lady’s face is positively shellacked in makeup and she almost doesn’t need to act - her eyeshadow can speak a thousand words. But of course, Chastain does still act and what a powerhouse performance. She has to do that weird Betty Boop voice that can sometimes be cringey and sometimes pathetic. She has to sing her heart out, praising the Lord and leaning into her inner theater kid to portray this woman who so desperately wanted the chance to captivate an audience. Her eyes brim with gorgeous tears at all the right moments, and no matter how you feel about the real-life Tammy Faye, there’s no denying that this onscreen version is a fascinating character. So give this movie a try. It is surprisingly funny and frenetic, and also has a lot to say about the rise of evangelical Christianity in America and how it all got tangled up in politics and hypocrisy. Are you not intrigued?

The Card Counter: OK, so right off the bat, I have to be clear that I am NOT recommending this movie. The people I saw it with yelled at me right when we left the theatre and I had to remind them that we all went to see this because it starred Oscar Isaac, and there was no coercion on my part. However, because this movie was written and directed by Paul Schrader, I secretly knew there was a good chance this film would be an absolute dud. A few years ago, my friend Peggy and I saw another Schrader movie, First Reformed, and to this day, Peggy yells at me about why I made her watch that film. So the streak continues. 

That being said, the movie had such a compelling cast, with Oscar Isaac playing opposite Tiffany Haddish, who is wonderful in a dramatic role that is very different from anything I've seen her in before. Isaac plays William Tell (I know), a minor grifter who goes from casino to casino across the United States, racking up modest wins by counting cards, always leaving the premises right before he makes too much money and has to be escorted out by the casino bosses. Haddish plays La Linda (yes, I know), a woman who wants to serve as his backer and enter him into tournaments where she can then take a cut of his winnings in exchange for fronting him the entry fees. But William has a shadowy past and was previously in prison, and the whole movie unfolds to be about something completely different that I won't spoil here. Suffice to say, "The Card Counter" is false advertising in terms of what this movie is about.

The only thing I loved about this movie was the costume design by Lisa Madonna. Haddish always looked amazing, and Isaac's suits were tailored to perfection. But boy I didn't care for anything else. Schrader's writing made me groan - the dialogue between characters was so incredibly stilted, and the movie was so ploddingly paced and dull. The soundtrack was awful, repetitively bring up this dirge-like song that always took me out of the movie every time it came on. And each scene felt like it existed solely because Schrader found some set or location he really liked so he decided to film there, but nothing ever seemed to come together into a cohesive whole and remained unsettling and weird. The impression I get from most critics is that they absolutely love Schrader, think he's an "auteur" and visionary, etc. Sadly, I'm not one of those people. So check this movie out only if you want to argue with me about my poor taste in cinema, but otherwise, despite it featuring a soulful and tormented Isaac performance, spare yourself.

Scenes from a Marriage: At last we get to the real meat of this post. A five-part limited series where Chastain and Isaac get to face off each other as Mira and Jonathan, a couple that have been happily married for years...until they aren't. In five tense episodes, we follow the saga of their crumbling marriage, subsequent divorce, and then life post-divorce that seems even messier than the crumbling marriage. Hagai Levi and Amy Herzog adapted this show based on the original 1973 Ingmar Bergman series that aired in Sweden and is thought to have contributed to rising divorce rates across Europe. Each episode essentially consists of the two actors talking to each other, fighting, and/or having sex and fighting again. Filmed during the pandemic, there is a very intimate, stripped-down feeling to this show, and it actually features scenes at the top of most episodes showing the masked crew preparing the set and readying the actors before they launch into the world's most dramatic and exhilarating acting exercise. 

Watching this show is like watching a play. I was constantly reminded of the fact that both Isaac and Chastain went to Juillard and are dramatic theatre kids at heart. Here, they get to face off each other and chew the most spectacular dialogue and indulge in heightened and draining emotions. Each episode is an emotional trainwreck, with each person finding new ways to be cruel or get hurt. It's a psychological minefield, showcasing just how confused and illogical human beings in love can be. I'm glad it was released in weekly installments so I could watch one episode a week and then recover for the next six days before the next bruising episode was out. 

It's important to note that this is also a story about a very rich and privileged couple. Mira is a corporate executive who makes a ton of money, and Jonathan is a philosophy professor who has the flexibility to take care of their daughter and still excel at his job. There's a lot of tension around gender roles, with Mira feeling like she'd a bad mother, and around the fact that Jonathan used to be Orthodox Jewish and still has some hang-ups that are a remnant of his upbringing. There's a lot of backstory that these characters mine over the course of five episodes, and it's a rich and compelling portrait of humanity. But boy it isn't a pretty portrait. This is an absolutely excellent show and Chastain and Isaac are guaranteed some awards love for their passionate performances in it. But if you're in need of happiness and light and don't want to be wallowing in drama? Do yourself a favor and don't watch this show. 

Squid Game: Join the Global Binge

Like everyone else on the planet, I bingewatched Squid Game last week. And when I say "everyone else on the planet," this is no exaggeration. In the middle of this binge, I was having my weekly game night with friends and one of them mentioned that she had started watching it. The next game night, she and another friend were halfway through, while I had finished. And then during my weekly therapy session, my therapist went, "have you seen Squid Game" and he started telling me his theory and I had to casually go "oh ok" without excitedly declaring "OMG yes, that is correct, how did you guess that" and spoiling the whole show for him. So yeah, maybe writing this blog post is a bit pointless if every reader has seen it already. But in case you're one of the few people who have yet to be persuaded, here you go.

First off, this is a Korean show, and I am a purist who prefers subtitles over dubbing, so that is how I recommend watching. Yes, you may not understand the words, but the tone is just as important a part of the acting and you need to hear how the original words were spoken, even if you need the subtitles to then translate them. This was particularly important for me because one of the characters is a Pakistani immigrant living in Korea, Abdul Ali. Played by Indian actor, Anupam Tripathi, this was the first time I had seen a South Asian person speaking in Korean, but at the same time, I could tell he was speaking it with a desi accent. It was kind of mindblowing and is definitely the aspect of the show that resonated the most with me. But in the grand scheme of things, this is not why the whole world is bingeing the show, so let's get to the actual plot.

The show is mainly focused on Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a chauffeur with a gambling addiction who is in massive amounts of debt and of no use to his poor mother who is just trying to keep them all afloat. When he is approached by a stranger and given the opportunity to participate in a game for a big cash prize, he takes the bait. He and 455 other players are all transported to an undisclosed location where they are corralled together by mysterious masked men being led by a mysterious masked Front Man. The players are told the rules: they will play six games, and any players who win all six games get to share the prize money. Everyone else is eliminated when they lose a game. Seems straightforward enough. Except when they start to play the first game and discover that getting "eliminated" means that you quite literally are killed.

I mean, come on. How can you not be hooked by that premise and immediately decide to invest your time in the next nine episodes? The first half of this show is exquisitely scripted, giving you just enough backstory about Gi-hun and then the key players he starts to ally himself with in the game, but then throwing you into the insane mechanics of this deadly tournament. It has impeccable and inventive costume and production design, creating this eerie and dystopian world that all these players are trapped in that is colored so cheerfully to resemble a child's playground but ultimately is the site of such dark and terrible trauma. The episodes are propulsive and end with these nailbiting cliffhangers that meant I had absolutely no choice but to insist on watching the next one. And the actors are absolutely fantastic, each one portraying their character with a slightly different level of world weariness, cynicism, or painful hope that keeps diminishing as they play each game and start to realize just how low their fellow playmates will go to win all this cash. 

The second half, however, felt like the gimmick had worn itself out. There were some massive twists towards the end, but they were somewhat predictable, so you either already saw them coming, or if you didn't, they still weren't fully fleshed out and were mildly unsatisfying. The finale left me feeling like I had more questions than answers, which honestly, might be fine, since we'll likely all just be bingeing Squid Game 2 next year. I don't know how Netflix does it, but every once in while, they manage to get this collective momentum going around some random show and for a brief shining moment, the globe feels united in our single-minded obsession with this one piece of pop culture. So watch Squid Game to revel in the collective glow of humanity, even as the show ironically is based on a concept that demonstrates humans are absolutely vicious. You'll quickly find out if you're an optimist or a pessimist based on how you react to this show, but overall, if you just want to be entertained and thrilled, this is an excellent way to spend your weekend. 

No Time to Die: Daniel Craig's Final Farewell

Watching No Time to Die on an IMAX screen in the movie theater with my best friend and my boyfriend was a surreal experience. Yes, we were all wearing masks and had to show proof of vaccination when we got to the theater. But finally getting to see this movie that has been delayed from release so many times because of the pandemic felt like maybe, just maybe, we were finally seeing the light at the end of this goddamn Covid tunnel. Oh and also? It was an incredible movie. So yeah, run to the theater (if it's safe for you and your community, natch), and watch Daniel Craig take his final bow.

Oh you want more details about the movie? Fine, let's get into it. It's a Bond movie, but it's Craig's fifth and final outing as Bond, James Bond, so it's both a classic Bond film but also a classic Craig film. That means it's stylish and sweaty, brimming with panache and pugilism. My absolutely favorite element in any Craig Bond film is how he will step out on screen immaculately dressed in a tailored Tom Ford ensemble, and within five minutes, something will have exploded or someone will have punched him in the face, and now he's covered in dust and blood. He is such a brutish Bond, gorgeous to behold yet absolutely thuggish in a fight. And this movie celebrates that aesthetic for nearly three hours straight, with an absolute plethora of action sequences in jaw-droppingly stunning locations that are consistently inventive and entertaining. 

Yes, there are car chases in tricked-out vehicles, and the occasional use of a fancy gadget to kill someone when things are getting down to the wire. But the majority of the time, Craig's Bond relies solely on guns and his fists to take down the enemy. More importantly, this film sees him team up to fight people a lot more, and more precisely, he teams up with a lot of women, which elevates this film to a whole other level. Traditionally, women have only been sex objects or love interests in Bond films, but lately, they've started to have a lot more agency. And in this movie, we have the ultimate joy of seeing Lashana Lynch, a brilliant Black actress, actually take on the title of 007. Not to spoil too much, but the idea is that Bond retired from active duty, and when Nomi (Lynch) was recruited by MI6 into the 00 program, she was assigned 007 as her number. So there are a lot of jokes about the competing 007s but it's also a welcome nod to all the hoopla around the role of James Bond that has always been played by white men when really, anyone could do it. And when you watch Lynch show off her 007 skills in this iteration, it really does make you wonder why we can't just call it right now that she's going to be taking over from Craig. Credit is probably due to Phoebe Waller-Bridge who was hired as a screenwriter to punch up this script - it certainly worked for me. 

Apart from Lynch, Lea Seydoux is back as Bond's love interest, but rest assured, she isn't some simpering heroine. Lady gets to wield a gun and defend herself alongside our hero, though she then also gets to make out with him, so win-win. But a true highlight is one action sequence featuring Ana de Armas. No spoilers, but she shows up looking like the kind of lady we're very used to seeing in Bond movies, but then proves to be an excellent badass. She isn't in the movie for very long, but boy I would like to rewatch her segment a few times just to admire the stunt choreography and the gorgeous dress she is wearing as she executes it. It's over-the-top and magnificent, which is basically the hallmark of every good Bond movie. 

Rami Malek is a perfectly fine villain, and his plot to destroy the world is as convoluted as expected. The film does devote a LOT of time to explaining this complex bioweapon, but thankfully there are so many action sequences interspersed between the exposition that it doesn't get too boring. And ultimately, the nature of this weapon serves a rather crucial plot point. Along the way, we also get to revisit all the Bond regulars, with Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, and Naomie Harris getting their chance to interact with Bond as Q, M, and Moneypenny, respectively, and do their usual shtick. Bond movies are expressly comforting because you know exactly what you're going to get from these supporting characters, but the joy is in seeing how we might get a little more evolution and depth to their interactions with our hero. I don't know if any of these actors will return in the future, or if a new Bond will require a completely new supporting cast, but they've been a delight. 

Directed and co-written by Cary Joji Fukunaga, No Time to Die is also an aesthetic marvel. I love his films and am always particularly captivated by how they are shot, so together with cinematographer Linus Sandgren, the man has created yet another gorgeous movie that is brimming with light and color. The score by Hans Zimmer does its job, but nothing particularly stood out besides the iconic Bond score that hit the sweet spot in my brain and automatically told me to sit back and enjoy the ride. This is the 25th Bond movie, and shouldn't we be getting tired of this formula by now? Well no. Turns out that formula has stood the test of time for a reason. And I sincerely hope the next Bond can take on this mantle and keep the franchise going. Because as Craig has showcased during his time as Bond, you can take a a classic, iconic character and imbue him with enough complexity to both respect the traditions and create something completely contemporary and fresh. He is certainly my favorite Bond, but the joy of these films is that the next person may end up becoming your favorite instead. Thank you for your service Daniel Craig, but I genuinely can't wait to see where we go from here.

Poldark & Superstore: Get Away to Cornwall...or Cloud9

There are a lot of shows I haven't watched during their original runs that I've subsequently avoided because they aired too many episodes and I felt intimidated by the prospect of catching up. Then, the pandemic happened, which meant I had a lot of time to catch up on things. This past year, in between all my regular movie and TV watching, I got caught up on two VERY different but VERY entertaining shows. One's a sweeping British period drama, the other's a modern American workplace sitcom. So as we head back indoors for the fall and debate if we should get our boosters, why not delve into these shows and re-acquaint yourself with your couch and your TV? 

Poldark: This show aired on the BBC (and Masterpiece Theatre on PBS in the US) from 2015 to 2019 for five seasons. Based on a series of historical novels by Winston Graham, this is the story of Captain Ross Poldark (played by the gorgeous, and occasionally shirtless, Aidan Turner) who comes back home to Cornwall in 1783 after fighting in the American Revolutionary War, and must rebuild his tattered fortunes and broken heart upon discovering that the woman he loved married his cousin while he was away and presumed dead. This is the kind of period drama I eat up with a spoon, but somehow it completely passed me by until this year when I gorged on the first season in a few days and then doled the rest of the seasons sparingly out to myself in an effort to make them last longer. 

Even if you don’t watch the whole show, I must exhort you to try out that first season because it defied every expectation I’ve ever had about period dramas. I was expecting a slow pace and a very slow-burning romance as Ross tries to move on from his first love, Elizabeth (Heida Reed). Instead, what I got was an insanely twisty plot, and by the end of the third episode, I had furiously texted my friends in disbelief. The show basically hit the equivalent of ten season finales in the course of those first few episodes, delivering epic and sweeping storylines that would have taken any other show at least a few seasons to deliver. For someone who was feeling bored and stultified in isolation, it was such a joy to take this wild ride with Ross and his family.

Naturally, the subsequent seasons couldn’t quite keep up the pace and the plots became tangled in a lot of politics and history. But the love triangle between Ross, Demelza (the stunning and excellent Eleanor Tomlinson), and Elizabeth, was always full of surprises and unique tangents. And as much as I was compelled to watch this show for its storylines, I stayed for the aesthetics. Set in Cornwall, you will be treated to wild and heartbreaking scenery, with crashing waves on the beaches, and clouds scudding past dramatic cliffs. The costume design is also excellent, demarcating the wardrobe of the haves and have nots, with the production design similarly indicating to us how the rich live while the poor of this region scrape by. 

Poldark is a riveting and superbly crafted show. Every hour feels like a brand new adventure, and given its penchant for cliffhangers, you won’t be able to stop yourself from bingeing periodically, even as you try and savor the show in more manageable chunks. Every time I heard the beautiful sweeping score play over the opening credits I would feel a frisson of excitement, and I was so sad when I heard the theme tune play for the last time over the finale's closing credits. So treat yourself to a nice little bout of escapism and indulge in some British romance and high adventure. 

Superstore: Eventually becoming a staple of NBC’s Thursday night comedy block, this show aired from 2015 to 2021 for six seasons. Again, this show is something I would have eaten up with a spoon but it fell off my radar because of all the other "prestige" TV I was watching at the time. However, after rave reviews from friends (thanks Laura!) and podcasts, I decided to add it to my binge watching rotation and oh dear God. I giggled so much and often.

The show is set in St. Louis and follows the employees of a big-box store called Cloud9. I could start listing out all the characters in this show, but if we did that, this would turn into an encyclopedia of every single employee, their insane quirks, and why I love them so. There really isn't a dud in the bunch. Over the course of 113 episodes, there are a number of supporting characters who gain increasing prominence, and they are all such a wacky and incredible group of lovable weirdos. The joy of watching a long-running show is seeing how these characters grow and evolve. Or sometimes, just stay exactly the same, while everyone else barely tolerates them (yeah, I'm talking about you, Justine). 

Created by Justin Spitzer, who worked as a writer on The Office for seven years, you can see that show's DNA all over Superstore. There's a very Jim-and-Pam romance that has a slow and satisfying burn over the seasons and made my heart very glad. There is Glenn Sturgis (Mark McKinney doing a high-pitched voice that I'm amazed he maintained for six seasons), the relentlessly positive store manager, who can be problematic because of his religiosity but is also insanely kind and a pushover about absolutely everything. There's the Dwight-esque Dina (the incredible Lauren Ash), the assistant manager who is obsessed with store security, suffers no fools, and is all about abiding by the Cloud9 guidelines. But she too has a gooey center that you get to see emerge slowly over the years. 

The setting also means this is a show with a very diverse cast that can address a number of interesting issues with a deft comic touch. There's a series-long plotline about Mateo (the wonderful Nico Santos) and his immigration troubles, which are contrasted to the Syrian refugee, Sayid (Amir M. Korangy), who had the most brilliant line when the store switched to using paper straws to be more eco-friendly: "These things have no structural identity. Why did I even leave Syria?" This is also emphatically a show about the working class. These employees are mostly minimum-wage workers, who don't get great benefits (their attempts at unionizing drive many storylines over multiple seasons), and their struggles and joys all reflect that reality. There are discussions about family leave, salary negotiations, and healthcare that all reflect the very terrible reality of this job. The final season was a particular revelation because it was filmed during the pandemic, and the writers did a remarkable job of capturing the insanity of how we all praised "essential workers" in these stores but then didn't give them any PPE and generally treated them like garbage. The show handles these storylines with incredible comic finesse that mines tragedy for its hilarity, and throughout all six seasons, I was never bored of the pitch-perfect writing.

Superstore is a real treat. If you need more laugh-out-loud moments in your life, whip-smart dialogue and non-stop jokes, and characters who are weird, warm, and wonderful and make you both giggle and beam with delight when things go well for them, this show is everything you want and more. It also boasts an incredibly nostalgic soundtrack, comprised mostly of the songs from the 90s and 2000s that now serve as Muzak in these kinds of stores. And there are so many throwaway bits and one-liners, whether it's the in-store announcements, silly signage, or the interstitial cuts that are like silent films where you get to watch customers do something outrageous in one of the store aisles before we move on to the main plot. You simply can't tear your eyes away from the screen for a second because you will definitely miss something good. So plant your eyeballs on Superstore. It's a gift that keeps on giving.