Not gonna lie to y’all: October was rough, and long. Somehow the last time I wrote in is both yesterday and also exactly 1,532 years ago. Luckily some of that is just because of the sheer amount of things that filled my life during the spookiest month of the year. Sure, there was the usual pumpkin goodies and candies and camaraderie, but there was also dozens of good episodes, movies, and people. (You’d think that last one would be covered in camaraderie, but hey! Whatever!)
Because the world was so hectic for October I didn’t get much of reading done (at least, not in the way that would show up here). But the good news is that I am mid-way through something like 4 books.
As if the world isn’t bleak enough (with mid-terms loooooooming on the horizon), beloved Filmstruck will be leaving us at the end of November. With any luck, when I next write you I’ll have plenty of older films to populate this list from a binge where and when I can.
So in lieu of getting back down to business:
In A Star is Born, Equality is Dead
I didn’t exactly know where to put A Star is Born on this list; on the one hand, I didn’t love it. On the other hand, I recognize that it was a strong enough movie that I had multiple fascinating discussions about it with people I love and trust throughout October. Luckily Manohla Dargis published this perfect piece at The New York Times, which dives into how exactly A Star is Born (arguably throughout the years) has failed the woman star of its narrative.
Shout Your Abortion
I don’t want to review this—how does on review a life story even work? Just go buy this book. Read it and be filled. Soak it in and put it back out in the world.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
This show is utterly imperfect, and who the hell cares. Like Riverdale (which it shares a showrunner with), it’s a show that’s tangled and shoddy at times, and consistently fun to look at and take in.
Alias
I watched this show when one of my best friends loaned me her enormous box-set (as in, a literal golden box based on one of the relics from the show). In so many ways this show was an artifact of a bygone time: Dialogue laden with heavy exposition, a quaint conception of the government as indelible force for good, Bradley Cooper being shunted to the side.
But (not the first to say this), Alias is a crucial link between the TV era it was borne into and the one it would bow out to; a confirmation and heightening of the spy genre; a debut of the mystery box that would define at least the next 10 years of television.
God bless J-Gar and her inquisitive pout.
Frankenstein
Did I initially read this for a now-different upcoming project? Yes! Was I blown away in spite of it? Also yes.
It seems so odd that there was a world so hidden beyond “throw the switch!” and “I think you actually mean Frankenstein’s monster;” Frankenstein the novel is told so much differently than any of the adaptations I’ve ever heard of, and so at odds with its place in pop culture.
While reading (/listening, thanks to creative commons), I was grateful to have this New Yorker piece in the back of my mind.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Over the summer me and my partner made a sort of plan to watch Tennessee Williams movies every time it was unbearably hot; Seattle’s summer, with all its smoke, made it a bit more interminable than we expected, so we didn’t get all the way down the list. So how refreshing it was to get to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in October, and find a surprising hit of the warmth of summer without the sweltering depression that can come with it (and Williams’ work).
This movie is a classic, with so much written about it that there’s not much I can add in a quick graf. But let me just say: My they are an attractive couple, and boy does Williams have a way of making the heat winds stir up a bunch of trouble fairly naturally.
Two of my favorite shows: Superstore and The Good Place
Superstore is back baby! And so is The Good Place! God bless! Thank god for great-ass comedies that are providing a safe space.
I’m a little on the fence about The Good Place‘s future, but I have nothing but faith in their ability to make me laugh and take me to new places.
And Superstore — perhaps Gomez best sums up my feelings about Deena, and everyone else:
Youtube jam of the month:
Honorable mentions:
Designing Women (1957)
The Maltese Falcon
Collette
Zosha Millman 