While we do love us some books, believe it not, we do have a life outside of reading. So to highlight our other pop culture interests, on the last Monday of each month, we each will highlight three other “happenings” from the last month. Big events on favorite TV shows, new movies we’ve watched, old movies we’ve “discovered,” etc. Pretty much whatever we found of particular interest outside of the book world during the last month. Share your own favorite things in the comments!
Serena’s Picks
TV Show: “The Tourist”
I had to admit, I have had a similar reaction/timeline to Jamie Dornan as I’ve had for Robert Pattinson. Both made the mistake (as far as I’m concerned, and perhaps as far as their careers are concerned) with involving themselves with “Twilight” and “Twilight” fanfic movies, and thus neatly slotted into the “not serious actors” category in my head. More fool me, however, as I’ve now watched several things with both actors and enjoy both of their acting quite a lot! I watched this show on a bit of a whim and not only did I enjoy it, but I’ve also mentally slotted it in as a show to re-watch with my mom when she visits as I think its action-packed, wacky story is just the sort of thing she’d enjoy! And I like it well enough to want to watch it again!
AppleTV Movie: “Wolfs”
I am the audience member who proves movie producers right: yes, I will watch your movie based only on the fact that you cast George Clooney and Brad Pitt together again in a thriller/comedy movie! The story follows two “clean up” guys who end up having to worth together and many shenanigans ensue. It’s a fairly simple concept and it’s not subtle about the fact that it’s almost purely relying on Clooney and Pitt to sell the entire thing. But that’s why they are A list stars! They can, in fact, single-handedly carry a fairly simple movie on their backs! It was funny, action-packed, and made the wise decision to not fall into the numerous “low hanging fruit” traps that were presented throughout. Instead, it didn’t try to be more than it was and was all the better for it!
TV Show: “The Great British Baking Show”
Yep, it’s that time of year again! I feature this show every fall and I probably will for the foreseeable future, or until they cancel the show (how DARE you even suggest it!). As usual, my husband and I picked our top two choices for who will win. Luckily for me, one of his picks crashed and burned on the third episode, so the odds are currently in my favor. That said, this entire batch seems incredibly strong, and there are a few dark horse candidates that were definitely off our radar in the first episode when we were picking. The start up of this show also happens to coincide with my youngest’s birthday every year, which often serves as a stark reminder that yes, baking actually is that hard when we try to make his birthday cake. (See: our failed attempts at both caramel and raspberry coulis, both of which my husband is attempting re-make as I type this.)
Kate’s Picks
Film: “Woman of the Hour”
One of the more disturbing serial killer stories from the 20th Century, to me, is that of Rodney Alcala, aka ‘The Dating Game Killer’, who was murdering women and girls for decades and also happened to appear on the gameshow “The Dating Game” in a creepy twist of fate. So when I saw that Anna Kendrick was not only starring in but also directing a film about Alcala and his infamous appearance, I was very interested to check it out. Kendrick plays the woman who chose Alacala as her winning bachelor after appearing on the show, and as we see her story unfold we also see snippets from a few of the murders he committed and how he manipulated women, but also evaded authorities for reasons that are absolutely rage inducing. I will say that the film isn’t SUPER accurate, as it takes a lot of liberties with various aspects of the narrative to make it more thriller like. But that didn’t really matter to me as I was watching because the changes that WERE made didn’t feel disrespectful towards his victims, and they were more to really hit home the fact that this monster was able to get away with seven confirmed murders (but true numbers could be as high as 130!) because of misogyny and a culture that is more interested in writing women off as hysterical or mistaken. It’s a solid directorial debut from Kendrick for sure!
Film: “Smile 2”
What better way for our Terror Tuesday crew to make a successful Alamo Drafthouse return (after our local franchised one closed for the summer before being absorbed by the parent company, it was a whole thing) than to pick the sequel to the movie that really messed us up? Yep, we went and saw “Smile 2”, and it was JUST AS FUCKED as the first one! It basically asks ‘what if the Smile Demon wanted to go on the Eras Tour?’ Skye Riley is a pop superstar who is starting a huge world tour, her first one after a horrific accident turned her life upside down. But when she goes to her dealer to get a fix, he commits a brutal suicide in front of her, and shortly after he smiles at her in a demonic sort of way. Now Skye is seeing that horrible smile everywhere, and feels like her life is falling apart as this demon gets more and more into her head. I WILL say that the end didn’t quite work for me, but overall I found this sequel to be fun, creepy, and a great Halloween movie!
Concept Album: “Warriors”
One of my favorite movies is the late 70s cult masterpiece “The Warriors”, an action movie about a gang from Coney Island having to make their way back home from the Bronx after they are falsely accused of assassinating a well respected gang leader named Cyrus. It’s campy and brutal and sometimes goofy and SO fun, and when I heard that Lin Manuel Miranda made a concept album musical based on this movie I WAS SO STOKED. And yeah, it’s a really fun reimagining of the film, with gender bent characters, a complex and catchy soundtrack, throwbacks to the film, and a whole new take on the story. I really enjoy Miranda’s musical style and it really fits with the story, and having the main characters be women instead of men is a pretty great change. It also highly improves the romance between Swan and Mercy, which I was VERY happy about, and on top of that there are cameos from a couple of the actors from the movie (James Remar and David Patrick Kelly specifically, two standouts) as corrupt cops. I really loved it.
The Library Ladies 