Fran Magazine: Sunday Dispatch, Apr. 13-19
New guy dropped
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Bandit
We got a cat! This is Bandit, who is a little over five. We didn’t get a cat because of the mice — but if Bandit wants to help with the mice so be it. He is not named for Bluey’s hot dad, but Burt Reynolds in Smokey & the Bandit.
Right now, Bandit’s interests are any and all food, being carried around like a baby, and looking out the window.
I have always loved cats and never had one — I am the only member of my family who isn’t allergic to them.1 I have a distinct childhood memory of one of the neighborhood’s outdoor cats coming to hang in our backyard for an afternoon and I cried and cried when he went back home. Since moving out east, I settled for being a routine catsitter for friends — a great way to learn how to hang out with cats and give them injections and deal with their whole thing. But it felt like time to have a new guy in the house, and here he is.
Tombstone, George P. Cosmatos (1993)
Watched on Peacock. I’d never seen this before — seemingly a 90s staple of a number of friends but totally unfamiliar to me. I basically only know who Wyatt Earp is as a crossword puzzle clue. I admire the scale and level of detail of the production, and its gentle commitment to male earnestness and all-out silly behavior. Mostly we watched to see beautiful Val Kilmer, so charming here.
Widows, Steve McQueen (2018)
Rewatched on Hulu. Phil said, “This movie kind of Tenet-esque,” which I don’t totally disagree with. Widows left me kind of cool on my first watch — looked good, sure — but never figured out what tone exactly it was trying to strike. For something I only kind of like, I’ve seen it far more times than many other movies, this being maybe my fourth or fifth watch, which speaks to a kind of quality inherent to it that I can’t quite pin down. There’s just so much going on and every 12th line of dialogue is completely absurd.
Warfare, Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza (2025)
Watched at AMC Lincoln Square. I think this is great and it almost made me faint — both can be true! I had reached a point in my tolerance for gore and blood where I thought little could faze me2… WRONG!!! I hadn’t seen something with practical gore played straight (as opposed to practical gore played silly, e.g. The Substance) in a minute and somewhere at the two-thirds point my vision started to go fuzzy and I was like, I gotta put my head down between my knees. Arguably if there’s any good place to faint, it’s seated at the movie theater.
This is a strange movie — completely in conflict with itself over 1) why it exists, 2) what it’s trying to say, and 3) how it executes any of those. I’m content if that just sounds bad to you, but to me that is more entrancing and compelling than most things out in theaters right now. Garland’s craft has never been more assured here. I like Civil War more than many, but my big issues with that film are not thematic so much as they are formal. I can’t in good faith recommend Warfare to anyone who thinks like it looks like a bad time, but the frisson of the film is just fascinating to me. Mendoza clearly wants to articulate the bravery of his friends; Garland is kind of like, “Brave… at doing what, precisely?” I went a little longer on Letterboxd.
Ultimately: unto each generation a movie where all the new hot boys have to act alongside each other, and all these new hot boys do a great job. Harris said he’s sick of seeing Joseph Quinn play a little wimp, but I think we have an alpha overload and that’s why betas like Joe Alwyn and Joseph Quinn (#TheTwoJoes) are essential in the landscape.
Sinners, Ryan Coogler (2025)
Watched at AMC Times Square. Saw this a few weeks ago for a print piece coming out this week. I’m glad people are having a good time with it — truly — but I found it a weird, lumpy mess, suffering from multiple Marvelisms and couldn’t get on board with its tonal whiplash. That said, I have fondness for Coogler and what he’s going for. As I said above, I’d rather see something strange and uneven than something pandering or outright dull. I hope this makes enough money for him to do something at this scale again.
Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald (2001)
Overwhelmed by mentions of Terezín, the camp that held many members of my family before they went elsewhere. When I visited back in 2011, the tour guide took us to a nice local pub in town. “This is a really good restaurant,” he told us, “but people come to town for one reason,” which felt like something that might happen to Austerlitz from Austerlitz.
Blue Prince
I dropped Skyrim after approximately five seconds once I gave Blue Prince a whirl. Even though those who are much further along in the game and/or have finished it have assured me nothing outright scary happens, the whole atmosphere primes you (me) for a jump scare. You’re telling me nothing’s going to jump out at me in this game? I guess I believe you… Anyway, I’m enjoying having a roguelike that doesn’t give me carpal tunnel (Hades).
Dudamel x Coachella 2.0
For those keeping score from earlier in the week, Dudamel mixed it up a little last night.
Laufey RETURNED, Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso RETURNED.
Maren Morris OUT, Becky G OUT, Zedd OUT, LL Cool J OUT.
Natasha Bedingfield IN, Dave Grohl IN, Cynthia Erivo IN.
All the classical pieces were the same.
Basically all these new features worked for me except Dave Grohl, who I can’t stand as a celebrity or as a musician/singer, and they let him do two whole songs. Bedingfield was really going for it, though the orchestra didn’t have much to do. Erivo was great — she sang a new song called Brick by Brick and then covered Purple Rain. Obviously I wish she sang Defying Gravity but she’s done enough wailing for the first half of the year.
That these guys are both classically trained explains, possibly, why they work so well with the orchestra. I watched their Tiny Desk from the end of last year and laughed and laughed. Two awesome guys.
Charli XCX x Coachella
Tuned in for the final twenty minutes of her set and mostly worth it for this.
What are you watching? Reading? Playing? Listening to? Do you think Tiny Desk concert is a “timeless form” or washed? When will they (“they”) let me see Friendship or do I have to wait til opening weekend like a civilian? Is Bandit perfect or flawless? Sound off below.
My family are all diehard dog people — great animals that I am becoming increasingly allergic to.
The big thing I still avoid is zombie stuff which will always be both so scary and so yucky to me. The 28 Years Later trailer is so unnerving!!!
I think the quality you’re searching to pin down in Widows is that it is Woke Heat. I like Widows too. It’s just Woke Heat.
Also, Charli really needs to get it together.
No Tom Cruise Summer? No Stitch Summer? No Superman Summer? No Jurassic Summer? Not even big shouts to her motherland with 28 Summers Later… totally misunderstanding what summer is about, just like Brat.