If you couldn’t tell, I’m experimenting with what days to update the newsletter. Wednesday just wasn’t working out for me like before. At first I was thinking Friday but now I’m thinking Monday. We’ll see what feels the most natural and that’s what we’ll go towards into 2020.
2020! I cannot believe it’s nearly here. It feels like the teens went on forever. The first half of the teens were some of the best years of my life and the later half was full of changes that define me today. I wouldn’t give up this decade for anything, except for maybe the last three years. Those we can get a redo on.
Lit Hub posted this great article about the 100 Books That Defined the Decade. I’m proud to say that almost all of them at least rung a bell, maybe only five I had never, ever heard of. I love the different statistics they collected for those and Emily Temple’s writing is delightful. It’s a super fun read, if you’re interested.
I’m an easily distracted person on the internet (who isn’t) so I like seeing movies in the theaters, where I can’t just open up a new tab and google something while I’m watching it. There are some movies I know I have to watch in theaters or I’ll never watch at all, those ones that have long quiet sections that I can just see myself checking an actor on imdb during and then the next thing I know, a half hour has passed. I don’t want things to go this way but alas, I also know myself. So when there’s a movie I want to properly see, I make sure to take myself to the theater.
Which is how I ended up taking myself to a double showing of Frozen 2 and Knives Out this past week. Not your typical double bill, I suppose, but both I wanted to experience on the big screen so I bought the tickets the night before (to guarantee I wouldn’t wake up the next morning and go ‘Or I could just stay home?’) and woke up early and everything to go. I even treated myself to the little pretzel sticks that you order and then they bring it to you in your seat. I love it. I’m all about it.
I have strong Frozen feelings. I saw the first movie by myself a few days after it came out, when I was living in New York, feeling rather isolated, and had no idea what the movie was about other than it was a new Disney movie. It blew me away. I cried no less than 5 times, genuinely touched by the changes it made to Disney lore, basically sobbing during Let It Go. Everything. The works.
So I had to see Frozen 2 when it came out and I’m glad I did. The new songs are great and the story continues the tradition of changing things up. The characters grow while you watch and while I was maybe slightly more aware of the narrative underpinnings this time (which can take me out of it if I’m not super feeling something), I was still excited to see where the story went. Some people are saying this is better than the first movie and I don’t think it ever could have been, simply because the original Frozen was so new and different that whatever they did would had to have been incredibly drastic to reach that point again but it was good. No matter how old you are, the message that things change but that’s okay is always resonant, even if we don’t particularly want it to be.
I don’t know if you know me at all but I am obsessed with whodunnits. I gave a short presentation at a speech night this year called ‘The Detective Rules’, I’ve written murder mysteries, I was voted “Most Likely to Write Murder Mysteries” in high school. It’s been a bit of a theme in my life. Agatha Christie is my platonic ideal of a mystery writer so the advertising for Knives Out seemed to say “Molly, you were very good this year so we made a movie just for you. It’s a funny whodunnit starring Captain America. You’re welcome.” Thank you, Universe.
Watching Knives Out immediately after Frozen was a definite choice but I guess it was better than the other way around? I was sucked in immediately. I think my favorite thing about Knives Out was that whenever I started to think “I wish they would do more of this/get back to this plotline/show more of this character,” they almost immediately did. It was like I was subconsciously guiding the movie and it delighted me every time it happened. The cast was spot on, everyone playing their roles to an absolute T, and they all seemed like they were enjoying themselves. The only character I felt we could have used a little more of was the alt right troll teen because he seemed more spoken about than present but everyone else got a chance to shine.
I think about mystery plots a lot, from watching a million whodunnit tv shows from having to give talks on how to write mysteries, and I noticed, to my great pleasure, that it followed a lot of my mystery writing rules. That makes sense, as most of my rules came from just watching and reading absurd amounts of whodunnits since I was 11 or so, but it still made me smile when I realized a tenent or two was being followed. It also meant that I was able to predict almost everything that happened but it was still a joy to watch and I would recommend to anyone.
I also just really enjoyed spending a day at the theater by myself. It was relaxing. Luckily for me, my parents got me the Regal Unlimited Pass for Christmas. You literally can see any movie any number of times whenever for free. The only limitations are that you can’t see 3D or IMAX for free, which is no great loss. I’m looking forward to seeing every single movie that comes out in 2020 now. I think I’m breaking in the movie pass with a showing of Cats with friends this afternoon. It should be …. interesting. Am I going to buy all my friends cat ear headbands and bring them to the movie? …Maybe~~ Do I basically just want to try and recreate this glorious twitter thread? Most definitely.
This oral history of the Folgers Incest Commercial is maybe my favorite piece of writing I read over the holidays? I also like how you can just go “You know that Folgers coffee ad?” and when someone asks which one, you can go, “That one,” and everyone knows. The fact that several people involved in making it go “I still don’t see it” is hilarious to me.
Timothy Simons(cameraman for auditions and callbacks): This was a very long time ago and if you asked me if I would end up being interviewed about this commercial that I worked on, 10 years later, I would not have believed you, because it was altogether pretty unremarkable. It’s not something I have a lot of memories about, outside of the fact that ultimately the commercial kind of seems like the brother and sister are going to have sex. That’s why we’re talking, right?
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