Movies

Sicario - Denis Villeneauve Third time watching this movie. The editing struck me this time. Denis chooses to linger on shots that few other directors would. The near-perfect pacing and Roger Deakins’ extraordinary shot compositions makes Sicario worth rewatching. 

Lady Bird - Greta Gerwig Great dialogue and an empathetic approach to each character that felt very refreshing. Gerwig tells this story with a lot of kindness. 

The Post - Steven Spielberg Great subject, but I wish the dialogue had more immediacy and naturalism (which is not what you go to a Spielberg movie for, but the material could have used some grit.)

The Last Jedi - Rian Johnson I really enjoyed Looper, but this felt like an awkward prom dance between Rian and Disney that resulted in too many characters and storylines. It was the most visually assured Star Wars movie, though, and had the best fight scene since the original trilogy, but that wasn’t enough to make it compelling.

Playtime - Jacques Tati I have never seen a movie like this before. Its visual richness is absurd. There are so many perfectly framed, lit, and choreographed 70mm shots. A big, original vision that somehow manages to make minute observations about human behaviours and systems with the attention of a Jerry Seinfeld joke. Ostensibly, it’s a critique of modernity but it also feels now like a tender celebration of the post-war modern aesthetic. When people talk about “world building”, I wish they would talk more about how to pull something off like this movie and less about CGI creatures. (I watched this on Kanopy, a streaming service that I can’t recommend enough—a free service if you have a Toronto Public Library card!)     

La Femme et le TGV Charming short film about friendship, letter-writing, cycling, the TGV, and baking. Made me want do a bike tour of Swiss villages.

Books 

Fire and Fury - Michael Wolf Oy vey. 

The Tower of Babylon - Ted Chiang A palette cleanser after reliving the first year of the Trump administration. An evocative and thought-provoking short-story.

The Gospel of Matthew in a new, idiosyncratic translation by David Bentley Hart.  If you’ve only read scripture translated by committees, I highly recommend you read this strange and wonderful translation. I also read re-read the Sermon on the Mount in William Barclay’s translation (published in 1969), which had some interesting similarities. (They both chose to use the word “bliss” rather than “blessed” in the Beatitudes, which moves the promise from a future-tense reward to a present-tense ecstasy.)

Long Reads 

The Plot Against America A great article on the effect that one unscrupulous man can have. 

The female price of male pleasure A thoughtful exploration of a deeply held double-standard in our culture. We need to talk more about pleasure and pain when we talk about our sexual ethic. 

How Arafat Eluded Israel’s Assassination Machine Gripping from the start, a window into the internal battles that have shaped the state of Israel.

Podcasts 

Every Little Thing A delightfully funny podcast full of the joy of curiosity. 

Slow Burn Slate’s series on Nixon is timely and illuminating.