Hello friends and enemies,
We have a lot to cover since I didn’t publish a weekly diary last week, so let’s just get right to it.
Television!
Slow Horses (new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV+)
I’m typically very stoned when I watch Slow Horses, so I don’t have much to say. Jack Lowden was hardly in this week’s episode, which was a disappointment Kristin Scott Thomas had a great line reading this week, though.
Industry (new episodes Sundays on HBO)
Every season of Industry has been better than the previous, and the last three episodes have each raised the bar in different ways. What Industry excels at are the business storylines, and this season, they’ve really gone for the jugular by having the Pierpoint bank become insolvent. The show has always struggled with the personal arcs, though this season they have rectified that somewhat by giving each of the major characters “an episode.” I still wish they were able to see any story at all about Harper Stern all the way through to completion, but maybe they’re saving that for season four.
Movies!
The Age of Adaline (2014, Lee Toland Krieger)
Watched because I had so much fun with It Ends with Us earlier in the week. I really enjoyed it, mainly because Adaline is from Sonoma County, as am I, and because the performances by the elder cast members Harrison Ford and Ellen Burstyn were particularly affective. Blake Lively was fine. I don’t think Adaline needed to run at all, though, let alone for 70 years.
Funny Games (2007, Michael Haneke)
I’d never seen Michael Haneke’s English language remake of his own 1997 film Funny Games, mainly because I love that film a lot and was like, I don’t need a secondary inferior version. But after The Brutalist’s rave reviews in Venice and after seeing The Dreamers for the first time, I needed to see what Brady Corbet and Michael Pitt1 would do in the demon twink roles. Their shorts are not as short as in the original, which is a grievous mortal sin for which Haneke will be sent to hell, but their performances were quite extraordinary, as was Naomi Watts’. Watts is a hit or miss performer for me, but she is at her best when she is being traumatized. She is so chic in that mode, always.
Pearl Harbor (2001, Michael Bay)
I have a really strong attachment to this film, which was the first DVD in the Empey household (along with Legally Blonde; the former was gifted to me and the latter gifted to my sister for Christmas that year—my parents proudly celebrating the gender binary). When I first saw this movie at age 12, I was completely blown away by it. When it only received a couple of technical Academy Award nominations, I was incensed; I didn’t understand why it was any different than Titanic, my favorite film. I can now see why Titanic is good and Pearl Harbor is bad—all of the cinematic elements are worse and it is racist to a degree that I find jaw-droppingly shocking. But Josh Hartnett is so beautiful.
Joe (1970, John G. Avildsen)
I’ve been interested in seeing this picture ever since I read about it in Quentin Tarantino’s entertaining and seemingly unedited book of “criticism” Cinema Speculation. The film is about a working class union guy named Joe (Peter Boyle) and a wealthy businessman named Bill (Dennis Patrick) bonding over their hatred of hippies. This is what the Republican Party has fought for ever since the Nixon era. Their bond is forged specifically when Bill confesses to killing his hippie daughter’s boyfriend (Susan Sarandon plays the daughter). And they decide to kill more hippies together, as a team. Normal stuff. Very fun, and very frightening.
Another Country (1984, Marek Kanievska)
I thought this was going to be low-rent Merchant Ivory but it wasn’t even good enough to deserve that descriptor. It was a snooze. It seemed like everyone at this boys’ school was down, and I was very interested in learning more about that. They didn’t get into it.
In the Mood for Love (2000, Wong Kar-Wai)
My first time seeing this film on 35mm was the first time I’ve ever had a pure cinematic experience with it. I’ve always been taken by the use of slow motion and montage in the film, and the ending has always been quite brilliant to me, but every other time I’ve watched it, I’ve felt myself at a bit of a remove from the rest of the picture. But no longer. I was completely and totally enthralled for the duration this time. It really had me by the balls.
Anatomy of a Murder (1959, Otto Preminger)
I find that the older I get, the less I like courtroom dramas. I saw this film once before in college, and loved it then. But this watch I was like. Yup. That’s a courtroom drama. Who gaf. I turned it on this time because I felt like I needed some James Stewart, and it did scratch that itch, but I was a bit bored.
Magic (1978, Richard Attenborough)
I somewhat lost interest in this as it went along, but for the first half, I was completely lit up over Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret sharing the screen together, and fucking on the screen together. That is kind of all I want from a movie. But then they had to ruin it with a sentient and malevolent ventriloquist dummy. Just let the actors fuck!
DemiFest
At this point in last week’s timeline, I saw The Substance (which I went long on here), and since I went a bit nutty after seeing it, I decided to indulge and celebrate my mental illness by watching four more films featuring Demi Moore in four days:
Ghost (1990, Jerry Zucker)
St. Elmo’s Fire (1985, Joel Schumacher)
Indecent Proposal (1993, Adrian Lyne)
Deconstructing Harry (1997, W**dy All*n)
I plan to do another Demi-centric post soon, so I’m not going to talk about these four pictures here, but just know: I find Demi Moore to be a deeply captivating performer and I think it is so crazy that she was disrespected so much in the 90s. A combination of commercial success, beauty, and being married to Bruce Willis, I think, made the haters and losers act up.
Megalopolis (2024, Francis Ford Coppola)
I have seen Megalopolis and felt all possible emotions, positive and negative, while watching and also after. More on this soon…
Larceny (1948, George Sherman)
I really wanted to watch a film noir last night, so I put this on. Thought it sucked. Only watched 40 minutes because that was when I remembered I possess free will. I decided to just go to bed instead.
Pictures of Hot Guys I Enjoyed!
Since I ended my last weekly diary with photos of Cillian Murphy and his pecs, I think I’ll end each of these posts with whatever hot guy held me in thrall that week. While I would never dream on encroaching on Clare’s clearly marked territory, this photo of Austin Butler on the set of the new Darren Aronofsky film covered in blood really did something to me. Enjoy.
What is the deal with Michael Pitt, btw? I know people hate working with him but I can’t remember why. Did he do something bad or is he just annoying to work with? Let me know in the comments.
basically all the words in this were foreign to me (haven't seen any of these movies) but then i got to the pic of austin and my brain lit up like a light
i always mix up michael pitt and emile hirsch. i think they were both arrested (separately) at some point. i always loved pitt on nbc hannibal