Fran Magazine: Sunday Dispatch, Mar. 2-8

Oscars breakdown, The Thin Man, my two cents on Mayhem, plus Elden Ring complaints

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The Oscars

I meant to write all week and I never made the time. I got derailed by a migraine (boo!) and the Meghan Sussex née Markle Netflix show (yay!).¹ Last Sunday, I watched the Oscars the way I most prefer to watch them: on my parents’ couch. The ceremony and its winners have since been litigated ad nauseam and by people smarter and/or funnier than me. In my personal Fran Magazine opinion, it’s the best ceremony since the 2019 Oscars in which Olivia Colman won for The Favourite and Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper performed together live. Of course, that was also the year that Green Book won so — that’s kind of how it goes with the Oscars. The ones that took place last Sunday were far better than 2019’s, generally, with Ariana Grande wearing a shoe and Sean Baker winning a bunch of awards.

I considered myself a Sean Baker skeptic for a number of years leading up to the release of Red Rocket. I like Tangerine and I like Florida Project; I can’t really go beyond that with either film but I’m glad they exist. Red Rocket, a movie that A24 had no idea what to do with, is a far superior film to those former two films and Anora. It is a mean-spirited and deeply funny film, one that feels more in line with his “ethos” than anything else. Because no one saw it — a movie about a washed up porn star trying to date a teenager — no one got mad at Baker for it. A number of people spent the entire awards season mad at Baker for Anora. I think there are plenty of well-reasoned critiques of the film, as well as plenty of positive albeit skeptical reads. When I first saw Anora in the fall, I was in a terrible mood and found the film overlong and far too self-serious in its last act. I don’t disagree with these sentiments now, but I rewatched later in the season with Phil and found myself feeling much more warm towards it. I find it genuinely funny, though not necessarily an outright comedy, which is rare in awards movies and movies in general, many of which suffer from a Marvelified sense of humor.²

The post-online chatter about Baker specifically — his Twitter follows, his Twitter likes, his “vibe” — has got to be one of the most pathetic discourses in a long time, based on ostensibly nothing that anyone can grasp onto and something that only exists in the police state of the mind. I would argue that anyone who has seen a fair amount of Baker’s films can grasp why he would follow unsavory and/or “problematic” accounts: he is obviously curious about people who are strange or “abnormal.” He has not made a movie about a grad student (that I’m aware of) and that’s good. We need less of those, even if they are my favorite type of film. Early into the season, a friend who likes Baker’s work and whose taste I trust texted something to the effect of, “it’s crazy we let him get away with being this horny for his subjects.” I think it is crazy, if only because he is — having won Best Picture — “getting away with it,” much to the chagrin of those who may think otherwise.

Part of why I like Red Rocket so much is because it feels evil in a way that I imagine is maybe a little true to Baker’s own evilness. I don’t think Baker is alone in evil — I think it is pretty fundamentally evil to be an artist (to say nothing of being a successful artist).³ Art is good, sure. Artists… the jury is out. I include myself in all that. Do you think Brady Corbet shot The Brutalist in Hungary because the union protections are better there? I have made my peace with this in my own life, trying to counterbalance that in my soul which is eaten up with competition and envy and self-absorption and vanity and anger and imagination, all of which detracts from the work that is being a person in the world.

I don’t really care one way or another for any of the acting awards. I loved when the directors of No Other Land called what is happening Palestine ethnic cleansing: it is ethnic cleansing. I love Conan O’Brien. The Lithgow bit was — giant hook comes to get snatch me off-stage — reheating the Bob Newhart bit nachos but who cares.

Best Dressed

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The Thin Man, W.S. Van Dyke (1934)

Watched at the Paris. I saw one movie this week and this was it. The Thin Man exists to me only in the context of doing crosswords (ASTA, NICK, NORA — we have all these letters) and this excellent essay by Bryan Miller that I had the privilege of editing last year for Bright Wall/Dark Room. What a ride, what a romp. I like when a movie has a PLOT — call me old-fashioned. Myrna Loy is great at doing what I call “girlfriend face,” which is when you watch your significant other do something with your eyebrows up trying to be nonjudgmental but also looking like the meanest person who has ever lived.

one of the most undeniable dresses of all time

Mayhem, Lady Gaga

If I like more than half the songs on an album, it’s a good album to me. I like more than half the songs on Mayhem by Lady Gaga. I especially like the one people say “sounds like Taylor Swift” (it doesn’t).

Elden Ring

Ben and I spent two hours trying to beat Maliketh to no avail and Phil yelling at TV that I had to learn the move set. I need to finish this game for the sake of my home and my sanity. I also really want to play Skyrim or another game for babies afterwards so I can feel like gaming is fun and not another job I have.

AstroBot

I beat this.

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This week you will receive two non-Sunday Dispatches from me — one longer piece about film scores and one shorter thing about skincare. What have you been watching? I want to see the new Paul W.S. Anderson but need to make the time!!! Are you reading anything good? I am in the middle of three books right now, including Austerlitz which I am reading for Phil Magazine and loving. What is the best track off Mayhem? Imo it’s Vanish Into You.

1. I’ve not been able to shake

Kyle

saying it’s giving “yellow wallpaper.” It might be one of the most yellow wallpaper things of all time.

2. There’s been some chatter about this new Thunderbolts (not a movie that exists) trailer citing the ways in which all its actors and production team once worked on A24 movies. All I’ll say is that I’m always haunted by a general meeting I once took back when I was taking general meetings in which a development executive six years younger than me said, “I have really omnivorous taste. I like all kinds of movies, from Marvel to A24.” I was like, got it.

3. Stream Martin Eden.