— you’re so right about vampire movies, they’re the most prolific movie monster for a reason, although maybe we should switch to werewolves for a while, I always want more werewolf movies
— I got a little head start on Merwyn May and just want to forewarn everybody that although Titus Groan may be shorter than Middlemarch, this book is, while pleasurable, rather dense and maybe not a quick read for most. If you’re trying to keep up give yourself some extra time to sit with it!
— I finished 3 books this week (Covid isolation 👎) — the Corner That Held Them (perfect pregame for TG tbh), A Fan’s Notes (classic! The bit where he pretends to be a lawyer on the phone is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read), and Rosemary’s Baby (picked up on a whim, fun to revisit but kind of a no-brainer in that Levin clearly wrote with an eye toward adaptation and the book reads like its own novelization).
I would be happy to switch to werewolves or even just straight-up ghosts (NON-demon edition... it kind of sounds like this is what the new Soderberg movie is about?) for a while if people are going to keep faffing about with vampires. I was floored by the extent to which basic rules were flaunted in Abigail (insane phrase) - mostly because I'm floored when any movie tries to create rules for itself then immediately breaks them. Miserable audience experience!
🚨🚨🚨MERVYN MAY IS DENSE🚨🚨🚨 (duly noted - I keep meaning to bug you about Alan Hollinghurst but I think the last thing you need right now is yet another really dense book) V sorry to hear about the Covid though I'm glad you're well enough to read in that isolation and glad that The Corner that Held Them hits (Immaculate found dead). Adding Fan's Notes to ever-growing to-read list.
Abigail really looked painful, I know people liked Ready or Not but it’s Reddit nonsense... I’m so excited for the Soderbergh, it sounds like it’ll be my favorite of his 3-star movies yet. o god yeah bug me about Hollinghurst again in like 6 weeks. just tested negative 😎
The thing about Werewolves is that, even adjusting for quantity, they have the densest ratio of good to bad movies. The number of Werewolf movies that hover in the 4-5 star category is just insane. You’ve got The Wolfman, you’ve got Werewolves On Wheels, You’ve got An American Werewolf In London, you’ve got all of The Howling movies, silver bullet, dog soldiers, ginger snaps… this is only scratching the surface. We need more Werewolf films if only because history has shown again and again that more of them rock than don’t.
Fran where do you land on the Reznor/Ross TMNT score? Underrated IMO. Want to make time for Challengers this week but Music Box has both The People's Joker and Master & Commander this week, so I will have to settle for the score. Saw Alien in theatres yesterday, re-affirming that it's one of my favorites.
Dan Stevens is so beautiful to me that I mostly had blinders on for his performance, but the script takes his character into some baffling directions as the movie goes on. (All the kid stuff is very What? Huh?) Not really sure that anyone could have made some of those choices work. But overall yes I absolutely agree with you on the state of vampire movies rn. Enjoying reading the vampire recs in the comments
any Fran Mag readers see The Invitation (2022) (NOT the Karyn Kusama movie, the vampire movie?) It was fun and silly and I loved it and nobody saw it because they forgot to market it and then it got its lunch eaten by Smile
omg no! I do remember getting previews for this then forgot it came out. great premise! no celebs! (Nathalie Emmanuel is NOT happening.... sorry). I should watch!
haha the girl constantly falling asleep while trying to watch After Yang is such a great image! Thoughts on Kogonada, Fran? I really love Columbus, still can’t make up my mind about After Yang.
Also, New Mexico looks beautiful and I’m so impressed that your photos actually manage to capture some of the beauty of the landscape—I feel like I can only take pale imitations of the real, expansive thing.
I like Kogonada okay - I liked Columbus a lot (Haley Lu can do no wrong) but thought After Yang was really kinda too dozy for my taste. generally speaking excited for what's next from him. and thank you re: photos! they don't compare but they will at least aid the memories.
I've only spent a little time in Santa Fe but it's so beautiful out there!! Even though the sky is the same sky everywhere it's like they got a special sky or something.
I've been totally knocked out by a cold so I've mostly been reading the David Stenn Clara Bow biography (depressing) and some Jane Gardam short stories (not always depressing). I watched the first episode of Three Body Problem last night and thought it was better than I expected but some of the dialogue was so bad…. Some real cringe out of my body moments.
I'm really curious about Three Body Problem (both book and show) which have been beloved and loathed by friends and family in equal measure... I sometimes feel like I want to dedicate more of my time to genre reading in general but there are only so many hours in the day...
haha well I do recommend the Cordwainer Smith I mentioned a while ago… I think that's a good time.
I've always kind of assumed Three Body Problem is like a lot of classic scifi in being sort of exciting to think about but also kind of terrible in lots of ways (this is true of like… Foundation), but the bad dialogue was definitely bad TV dialogue more than bad novel dialogue lol. Very "how do we establish these people are scientists? have them recite science facts at random."
Re: vampire movies, I just saw “Humanist vampire seeking consenting suicidal human” that came out last year and it was a small (90 minutes!) sweet and silly affair that is exactly what it says on the title. But I agree in that I think this is the rare vampire movie of the last ten years I’ve enjoyed.
I quite like the Jarmusch, Only Lovers Left Alive - a movie that kind of BARELY works but gets by on vibes (the Jarmusch promise) and decent enough performances from its two leads
Oh yes forgot that one and i do love it. I would say humanist vampire succeeds on similar strengths, it is jarmusch-y (& maybe what we do in the shadows-y)
Fran, you deserve another vacation! You’ve been burning the candle at both ends for…a very long time. I don’t envy you traveling along with the teaching and the schooling and the publishing of it all but Fran you’ve got this! I’m so sorry to hear about your hip injury also. It’s tough to incorporate daily movement to try and get our bodies to adjust and reset while in pain (says I, a person with increasingly bad TMJ issues) but yoga is great! You’re gonna get back out there Fran. P.S. My sister and I saw Ready or Not in theaters at night. Fun movie. Adam Brody great.
TMJ <3 I go in and out of that being an issue depending on stress though it's mostly been okay in a post-nightguard, post-it's no longer 2023 type of world. The yoga helps with all of it, insanely enough. And yes, I think a big issue with Abigail was NO ADAM BRODY
— Congrats on the vacation, Fran.
— you’re so right about vampire movies, they’re the most prolific movie monster for a reason, although maybe we should switch to werewolves for a while, I always want more werewolf movies
— I got a little head start on Merwyn May and just want to forewarn everybody that although Titus Groan may be shorter than Middlemarch, this book is, while pleasurable, rather dense and maybe not a quick read for most. If you’re trying to keep up give yourself some extra time to sit with it!
— I finished 3 books this week (Covid isolation 👎) — the Corner That Held Them (perfect pregame for TG tbh), A Fan’s Notes (classic! The bit where he pretends to be a lawyer on the phone is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read), and Rosemary’s Baby (picked up on a whim, fun to revisit but kind of a no-brainer in that Levin clearly wrote with an eye toward adaptation and the book reads like its own novelization).
I would be happy to switch to werewolves or even just straight-up ghosts (NON-demon edition... it kind of sounds like this is what the new Soderberg movie is about?) for a while if people are going to keep faffing about with vampires. I was floored by the extent to which basic rules were flaunted in Abigail (insane phrase) - mostly because I'm floored when any movie tries to create rules for itself then immediately breaks them. Miserable audience experience!
🚨🚨🚨MERVYN MAY IS DENSE🚨🚨🚨 (duly noted - I keep meaning to bug you about Alan Hollinghurst but I think the last thing you need right now is yet another really dense book) V sorry to hear about the Covid though I'm glad you're well enough to read in that isolation and glad that The Corner that Held Them hits (Immaculate found dead). Adding Fan's Notes to ever-growing to-read list.
Abigail really looked painful, I know people liked Ready or Not but it’s Reddit nonsense... I’m so excited for the Soderbergh, it sounds like it’ll be my favorite of his 3-star movies yet. o god yeah bug me about Hollinghurst again in like 6 weeks. just tested negative 😎
it's crazy how much Reddit nonsense can go in and out of my ears if you just show me Adam Brody (see also: American Fiction)... the OC effect....
The thing about Werewolves is that, even adjusting for quantity, they have the densest ratio of good to bad movies. The number of Werewolf movies that hover in the 4-5 star category is just insane. You’ve got The Wolfman, you’ve got Werewolves On Wheels, You’ve got An American Werewolf In London, you’ve got all of The Howling movies, silver bullet, dog soldiers, ginger snaps… this is only scratching the surface. We need more Werewolf films if only because history has shown again and again that more of them rock than don’t.
Fran where do you land on the Reznor/Ross TMNT score? Underrated IMO. Want to make time for Challengers this week but Music Box has both The People's Joker and Master & Commander this week, so I will have to settle for the score. Saw Alien in theatres yesterday, re-affirming that it's one of my favorites.
LOVE! and agree - underrated! wish I had time for Alien re-release that movie is genius
it was divine! like going to a Satanic mass. and I celebrated with a few rounds of an Aliens arcade shooter in the lobby afterwards.
Dan Stevens is so beautiful to me that I mostly had blinders on for his performance, but the script takes his character into some baffling directions as the movie goes on. (All the kid stuff is very What? Huh?) Not really sure that anyone could have made some of those choices work. But overall yes I absolutely agree with you on the state of vampire movies rn. Enjoying reading the vampire recs in the comments
he’s gorgeous!
any Fran Mag readers see The Invitation (2022) (NOT the Karyn Kusama movie, the vampire movie?) It was fun and silly and I loved it and nobody saw it because they forgot to market it and then it got its lunch eaten by Smile
omg no! I do remember getting previews for this then forgot it came out. great premise! no celebs! (Nathalie Emmanuel is NOT happening.... sorry). I should watch!
missed you at the bk half! maybe next year…
how did it go 🫣🫣
it went well!! it was a really beautiful day and i got my goal time, although i currently feel like i got hit by a truck…
haha the girl constantly falling asleep while trying to watch After Yang is such a great image! Thoughts on Kogonada, Fran? I really love Columbus, still can’t make up my mind about After Yang.
Also, New Mexico looks beautiful and I’m so impressed that your photos actually manage to capture some of the beauty of the landscape—I feel like I can only take pale imitations of the real, expansive thing.
I like Kogonada okay - I liked Columbus a lot (Haley Lu can do no wrong) but thought After Yang was really kinda too dozy for my taste. generally speaking excited for what's next from him. and thank you re: photos! they don't compare but they will at least aid the memories.
Feel like you will be the only one that appreciates this: Club Chalamet followed me on Letterboxd. She may have unfollowed after my Challengers review
omg
I've only spent a little time in Santa Fe but it's so beautiful out there!! Even though the sky is the same sky everywhere it's like they got a special sky or something.
I've been totally knocked out by a cold so I've mostly been reading the David Stenn Clara Bow biography (depressing) and some Jane Gardam short stories (not always depressing). I watched the first episode of Three Body Problem last night and thought it was better than I expected but some of the dialogue was so bad…. Some real cringe out of my body moments.
I'm really curious about Three Body Problem (both book and show) which have been beloved and loathed by friends and family in equal measure... I sometimes feel like I want to dedicate more of my time to genre reading in general but there are only so many hours in the day...
haha well I do recommend the Cordwainer Smith I mentioned a while ago… I think that's a good time.
I've always kind of assumed Three Body Problem is like a lot of classic scifi in being sort of exciting to think about but also kind of terrible in lots of ways (this is true of like… Foundation), but the bad dialogue was definitely bad TV dialogue more than bad novel dialogue lol. Very "how do we establish these people are scientists? have them recite science facts at random."
Re: vampire movies, I just saw “Humanist vampire seeking consenting suicidal human” that came out last year and it was a small (90 minutes!) sweet and silly affair that is exactly what it says on the title. But I agree in that I think this is the rare vampire movie of the last ten years I’ve enjoyed.
omg!! love that
I quite like the Jarmusch, Only Lovers Left Alive - a movie that kind of BARELY works but gets by on vibes (the Jarmusch promise) and decent enough performances from its two leads
Oh yes forgot that one and i do love it. I would say humanist vampire succeeds on similar strengths, it is jarmusch-y (& maybe what we do in the shadows-y)
oh ya I have only seen that MOVIE but not the show & recall liking
Fran, you deserve another vacation! You’ve been burning the candle at both ends for…a very long time. I don’t envy you traveling along with the teaching and the schooling and the publishing of it all but Fran you’ve got this! I’m so sorry to hear about your hip injury also. It’s tough to incorporate daily movement to try and get our bodies to adjust and reset while in pain (says I, a person with increasingly bad TMJ issues) but yoga is great! You’re gonna get back out there Fran. P.S. My sister and I saw Ready or Not in theaters at night. Fun movie. Adam Brody great.
TMJ <3 I go in and out of that being an issue depending on stress though it's mostly been okay in a post-nightguard, post-it's no longer 2023 type of world. The yoga helps with all of it, insanely enough. And yes, I think a big issue with Abigail was NO ADAM BRODY