The Fran Magazine Year in Review

Fran Magazine: Issue #135

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Mug PSA

All the mugs that need to be mailed have now been put in the mail. I hope you get them soon! I have also been alerted to the fact that not all Fran Mugazines are as dishwasher-proof as mine — which perhaps speaks to the quality of my dishwasher — so please exercise caution as you would the most precious items in your home!¹

Etiquette corner

Some friends and I were discussing holiday parties over the weekend, and the awkward “year in review” types of questions you may sometimes field (or ask) people you kind of only ever see at holiday parties. “How have you been?”² “What have you been up to?” “What’s new?” These questions, while well-intended, can feel broad or uncomfortable, or if you, like me, are prone to routine, you’re forced to reckon with the fact that the answer to “what have you been up to?” has been the same for the last, say, ten years (movies, books, running, ice cream).

The preferable alternative is a specific question — “Seen anything good lately?” is a classic. “Are you making anything fun for the holidays?” — this can work too. Or you can prompt someone with seasonal or topically appropriate prompt that is more of a gauge of personality than anything else. For instance:

I have been watching the Timothée Chalamet A Complete Unknown press tour with great curiosity, both because it’s the kind of thing that’s required for me for work and because it’s been a genuine pleasure. It’s a playbook that is functionally the “anti-Maestro.” Instead of only talking to Jimmy Fallon and David Remnick, Chalamet is talking to anyone and everyone, including Brittany Broski, the University of Minnesota marching band, and Theo Von. I really think Timothée should go on Maron, but I can’t into that here.

I scrubbed through the Von interview which is mostly tedious with flashes of brilliance — Chalamet explaining Mr. Big’s death on And Just Like That…, a show neither of them watch, for instance, as well as Chalamet asking Von if his [Von’s] ideal wife would be able to do somersaults or not — but I keep coming back to the moment where Chalamet asks, almost apropos, whether Von is “more elfish or more Santa.” You might say: well, clearly they’re talking about Christmas. Yes, true, but this comes after a question about where each of them plans to spend the holidays. “More elfish or more Santa?” — this is not a question I’ve heard before, and it’s a question I wouldn’t know how to answer, which makes it quite a good one. The moment is briefly reminiscent of one of my favorite jokes from Party Down when Kyle asks Constance how big a bird would have to be for her to be afraid of it. “Are you more elfish or more Santa?” “How big would a bird have to be for you to be afraid of it?” — try these out at your next holiday function and report back.

Notable writing

I wrote about five fewer Fran Magazines this year but did a lot more extra freelancing. C’est la (working) vie.

Of the Fran Magazine blogs that feel most worthy of boosting or reminding:

• On Saint-Saëns

• On Billy Joel’s new song

• On everything I ate in London

• On Intermezzo

• On images

• And lest we forget: I got mono

Elsewhere:

• #MaestroMoment

• A brief defense of Tenet’s worst line

• In conversation: Alice Rohrwacher, Josh Brolin, Tom Burke

• The “new” Brad & Angelina

• Liam Payne’s obituary, reckoning, memorial

• The Fran Hoepfner x Chris Feil big ol’ Mike Leigh list collab

Reviews:

• The Idea of You

• Between the Temples

Status of various fiction and nonfiction long-form projects:

Movies, etc.

I keep trying and failing to put together a top ten list — arbitrary, early. I’m still missing some crucial texts from the year, like the Radu Jude or The Brutalist or Kraven the Hunter (KIDDING — unless…?). Still, here is where things stand with thirteen days left in the year.

Honorable mentions, listed alphabetically: A Complete Unknown, Babygirl, Free Time, Furiosa, Ovid, New York, The People’s Joker, Rumours, and Trap.

The list

1. The Room Next Door, Pedro Almodóvar

2. Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross

3. Hard Truths, Mike Leigh

4. Janet Planet, Annie Baker

5. Between the Temples, Nathan Silver

6. Red Rooms, Pascal Plante

7. Matt and Mara, Kazik Radwanski

8. Challengers, Luca Guadagnino

9. Last Summer, Catherine Breillat

10. Rap World, Conner O’Malley and Danny Scharar

By the time you see my best-of list in early January for Bright Wall/Dark Room, don’t be surprised to see everything reshuffled and changed. And all of that said, none of these are the best film I saw with my own two eyes this year which is, for all intents and purposes, a 2025 release. More on that film in the big Fran Magazine Best of 2024 Extravaganza.

In summation

I love every Fran Magazine reader and hater alike.

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I can’t decide if I want to do a Sunday Dispatch at the end of this week, or if I should just pack it up and do a big post-holiday catchup once I’ve seen some more movies and read some more books starting at the end of this week. What’s on your best-of lists? Did anyone else get mono? Are you more elfish or more Santa? Sound off below.

1. Or just bug me about replacements — which are possible.

2. An ex and I once agreed that an out of nowhere “Hey! How have you been?” text is one of the scariest things you can receive outside of, like, actual bad news.