I Watched Both Fyre Festival Documentaries So You Don't Have To

You're welcome in advance, everyone!

THAT'S RIGHT.  I shamelessly and with gusto watched not one, but TWO documentaries about the famously, catastrophically doomed Fyre Festival.  And now, I will summarize them both so you can choose which to watch depending on your preference, or to watch both fully aware of what you're getting yourself into, or watch neither because you're possibly a better person than me!

To be honest, I only remember even hearing of Fyre Festival as it was actively unravelling, so I only hopped aboard the hateration extravaganza when it was already abundantly clear what a fiasco the whole thing was.

Except I do!

It therefore wasn't until the whole thing dramatically fell apart that I saw, for example, this extremely over-hyped advertisement for the festival, which by that point had revealed itself to be a grotesque contradiction of the discomfort, woe, and absurdity that awaited the silly, silly people who paid thousands of dollars to attend this nonsense.

Now, for your schadenfreude-y enjoyment, there are not one, but TWO documentaries available, each promising to help viewers understand just what went wrong.  They varyingly succeed, yet both offer significant entertainment value.

Documentary 1: "Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened" (2019)

Important disclosure alert: this film was co-produced by Jerry Media and Matte Projects, who are responsible for producing some of the promotional materials that ultimately lured the undiscerning monied set to Fyre festival.  This may possibly account for the noticeable absence of anything that might implicate Jerry and/or Matte in the disaster that the festival inevitably became?

If you're looking for a moment-by-moment recreation of the utter catastrophe that was Fyre Festival, this is your film.  It provides enough backstory to make it excruciatingly clear that this festival was never remotely coming together; sure the promotional videos were pretty (thanks Jerry/Matte!) and there was lots of boostery buzz from overpaid "influencers" (I shudder apologetically at using this term and promise never to utter it again) on Instagram, but literally nothing else was actually happening, nor should anyone with any sense have ever thought it was happening.  I've never planned an event more major than a wedding, and it was quite obvious to me that a few months is not enough time to, for example, literally create plumbing and other basic infrastructure from scratch on an undeveloped patch of an island. 

There is very much this sense of Icarus, pumped up on hubris-flavored energy drinks, attempting to reach heights of posh "exclusivity" and crappy EDM, only to plummet to the earth below as his wings of FEMA tents held together with cheese sandwiches melt under the heat of the unforgiving Caribbean sun.  And I am admittedly and somewhat unabashedly here for it.

With that preamble, the movie then spends the majority of its time with the festival-goers as they negotiate the ever-more-obvious train wreck that was Fyre Festival.  In a gleefully spiteful way, it's certainly entertaining.  I don't often like to dwell in that emotional space, but honestly, it's just extremely difficult to muster pity for people with
a) absurd amounts of disposable income that
b) they probably didn't work too hard to earn because
c) THEY SPENT IT ON TICKETS TO FYRE FESTIVAL.

That being said, the film also focuses on the financially devastating consequences for citizens of the island who were recruited to work for the festival, many of whom were not compensated despite being left to bear the brunt of hundreds of hungry, grumpy, entitled festivalgoers.  So there is some fleeting moral center to this movie.

I gave this film a 3.  Stream it on Netflix here.

Documentary 2: "Fyre Fraud" (2019)

For those of us with a true crime bent and therefore wanting a much meatier dive into the "but seriously HOW?" of Fyre Festival, this movie is for you.  It provides a much more thorough, and therefore satisfying, exploration of the super obvious early criminal inclinations of Fyre Festival co-founder Billy McFarland and achieves the notable coup of a first-hand interview with the conman himself.

There is still a decent amount of footage of the actively flailing festival in this film, but it's not so much the centerpiece as the former documentary.  Instead, "Fyre Fraud" looks much more extensively at the spoiler-alert-this-guy-is-obviously-a-criminal-in-the-making before and the wow-some-psychopaths-really-don't-learn after.

Bonus: because it is not face-savingly co-produced by people directly implicated in the failure of the festival, it also does the job of examining how Jerry/Matte and other contributors played a role in attempting to pull off this fraud.  (I would say the movie does a good job of looking at the other major players, but because this wasn't even attempted in the first doc, the comparative nature of "good" is a bit moot.)

I gave this movie a 4.  Stream it on Hulu here.

Enjoy (or don't)!

{Heart}

What He Said

Hi everyone,

As you're likely aware, the Academy Awards were held a few weeks ago.  There were some nice things that happened:

--Hannah Beachler was the first Black person to be nominated--and win!--for best production design (for "Black Panther" (2018)!), and she gave a wonderfully inspiring speech!

--A movie that finally helped me understand why Spider-Man is great won best animated feature.

--Olivia Coleman's acceptance speech was absolutely adorable.

--Alfonso Cuarón won twice, including for best director, and gave a beautifully principled speech about the importance of film as a portal into lives and stories we might otherwise not see (which is relevant for my forthcoming beef with awards that occurred later in the evening).

Also Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga successfully confused like 70% of viewers about the difference between acting and IRL love.

However, there is also the issue of what won best picture.

Maybe I've gotten spoiled over the last few years by some of the really wonderful progress in evidence of who and what has been winning awards in the last few years of the Oscars, but it just seemed like some problematic BS was afoot when "Green Book" (2018) won best picture.

New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris shared his analysis of this award on an episode of my new favorite podcast and confirmed my suspicions.  Honestly, anything I have to say is going to be less cogent than what he said. 

So I suggest everyone just take a listen here.

The only thing I'll add is: he's definitely right about "Do the Right Thing" (1989).

{Heart}

Micro Post: Walk the "Catwalk" to the Delightful Movie You Didn't Know You Needed

Hey there!

I'd love to share a sweet little movie I love that you might love too!

It is:

This absolutely freaking precious documentary, released in 2018, is the most charming thing I've seen in a while.  It features:

--Ridiculous-looking cats and their ridiculous-looking grooming regimens.

--Also really beautiful and cute cats.

--Interviews with some of the deeply wholesome, good-natured people who raise, show, breed, and judge aforementioned cats.

--Canada.

Spoiler alert: This movie is distinctly lacking in genuine drama.  Instead, it revels in gently self-deprecating self-awareness, showcased through goofy music reminiscent of "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004) and little animated sequences demonstrating the relative standings of the featured cats as they make the rounds of the titular cat show circuit.  Throughout, it is clear that the people involved in these cat shows are sincerely committed to their cats yet predictably quirky in a way that is entertaining yet soothing. 

I gave the movie a 4.

So, if you're having a tough day or simply want to see a cheerful little film, try out "Catwalk: Tales from the Cat Show Circuit".  It's streamable on Netflix now!

{Heart}

2018 Movie Round-Up!!

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Oh my god you guys it's time for the

best

post

of the yearrrrrr!!

This year's awesome gif co-host: April Ludgate, played by Aubrey Plaza (and sometimes it's just straight up Aubrey Plaza), who I dearly love.

Without any additional superfluous ado!

The PsychoCinematic Year in Movies

2018 Edition

1. A Gray State (5)

2. Jim & Andy (4)

3. The Post (2.5)

4. Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards (3)

5. Freeway: Crack in the System (5)

6. The Square (5)

7. Black Panther (5.5)

8. Colossal (2)

9. Seeing Allred (5)

10. Annihilation (4)

11.  What Happened, Miss Simone? (5)

12. Icarus (5)

13. Leaning Into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy (3.5)

14. A Wrinkle In Time (2)

15. Take Your Pills (3.5)

16. A Quiet Place (4)

17. Logan Lucky (4.5)

18. Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press (5)

19. Avengers: Infinity War (4)

20. Who Took Johnny (5)

21. The House (2)

22. Before the Flood (4)

23. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (5)

24. RBG (5)

25. Solo: A Star Wars Story (3)

26. Ocean's Eight (3)

27. Deadpool 2 (4)

28. Game Night (3)

29. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (1)

30. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (5)

31. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2.5)

32. Three Identical Strangers (4)

33. Blockers (3.5)

34. Sorry to Bother You (4)

35. Dark Money (3)

36. BlackKklansman (3.5)

37. The Spy Who Dumped Me (3.5)

38. Crazy Rich Asians (3)

39. The Wife (1)

40. A Simple Favor (4)

41. Lizzie (3)

42. Fahrenheit 11/9 (4.5)

43. Venom (3)

44. Voices of Baltimore: Life Under Segregation (4)

45. A Star Is Born (4.5)

46. Tag (1.5)

47. Colette (4)

48. The Innocents (4)

49. The Hate U Give (5)

50. Bohemian Rhapsody (4)

51. City 40 (4)

52. Border (3.5)

53. The Favourite (4.5)

54. Dallas Buyers Club (5)

55. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2.5)

56. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (3.5)

57. Get Him to the Greek (2)

Yet again: 5 extra movies!

With the exception, oddly, of November, I was again able to keep up a pretty consistent movie-watching habit throughout the year.  I also struck a decent balance between watching movies through streamable services and seeming movies in theaters.  All happiness-inducing and wellness-maintaining things!

Let's start with this year's least favorite movies:

For being a movie ostensibly meant to uplift its female protagonist but instead 

portraying her as ineffective, dependent, and impulsive, 

and also being so slow at one point I fell asleep:

The Post (2017)

For being an interesting concept that got weirdly and unpleasantly dark 

without really seeming to understand just how dark it was...?:

Colossal (2016)

For perplexingly rewriting a beloved children's book,

being so poorly edited it is bizarre,

and for making me so nauseated I ultimately had to leave the theater:

A Wrinkle In Time (2018)

For being, as aforementioned, so aggressively "okay":

The House (2017)

For being an affront to all that is good in filmmaking, or

for stoking my neverending hatred:

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

For an unbelievable, melodramatic, and poorly-delivered plot:

The Wife (2017)

For being unsurprisingly dumb and lifeless, but still, and

for seriously asserting that Jon Hamm and Hannibal Buress could be same-aged peers:

Tag (2018)

For having the best things about this movie be its allusions to "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (2008)

and for trying to convince me that Jonah Hill's character isn't kind of terrible:

Get Him to the Greek (2010)

Fortunately/unfortunately, this is a denser field of contenders than last year.  To be fair, I knew that several of the mediocre comedies I watched this year would be mediocre, and in fact watched them for that cohort of film's perhaps dubious yet still very real virtue: sometimes I just want to add to my list of movies for the year without having to be super emotionally or intellectually invested in a film.  If I'm tired from a busy week and want to vegetate in front of my television while attaining a teeny feeling of accomplishment (one more movie yayyyyy), these movies fit the bill.  So it feels unfair to tap them for Worst Movie of the Year.

Although I gave it a begrudging 2.5, which would normally exclude it for consideration for Worst Movie, I clearly have a lot of beef with "The Post."  Katharine Graham had a pretty incredible life, yet the movie blatantly missed many opportunities for highlighting the things she overcame and accomplished.  However, there were enough redeeming elements to the film that I don't think I can call it the worst thing I saw last year.

Really, there's no other obvious choice for the Worst Movie of the Year:

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

That God. Damn. Movie.

Truly the worst, and most enraging, movie I saw in 2018.

Moving along to: this year's best movies!

A Gray State (2017)

Freeway: Crack in the System (2015)

The Square (2017)

Black Panther (2018)

Seeing Allred (2018)

What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)

Icarus (2017)

Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press (2017)

Who Took Johnny (2014)

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2016)

RBG (2018)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

The Hate U Give (2018)

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

A large majority of this list is comprised of documentaries.  Like last year, many of those documentaries are true-crime related, and unlike last year, they are less murder-y and more focused on other types of crime: "Freeway: A Crack in the System" focuses on the global drug trade and lethal national drug policy, "Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press" looks at terrifying attacks on the fifth estate, and "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail" examines the prosecution of a small Queens-based bank accused of fraudulent lending practices.  No spoilers, but "Who Took Johnny" also fits in this category of true-crime but not murder-y true-crime.  In another streak of celebrating lady badassery, "Seeing Allred", "What Happened, Miss Simone?", and "RBG" all celebrate and humanize bold, principled, brave, and controversial women.



As a little counterpoint to all this documentary darkness, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" was a wonderful follow-up to the grand parade of Antidotes to Toxic Masculinity That We All Knew We Needed but Nevertheless Made Me Cry a Whole Bunch that "Kedi" (2017) led last year.

Stepping away from this year's documentary contenders, "The Hate U Give" adapts author Angie Thomas's excellent debut novel exploring a Black girl's experience of police brutality, code switching, and finding her courage, voice, and identity.  Even though I had read the book, the movie still hits with impressive emotional strength and is a welcome entry in movies intended in large part for a teenaged and young adult audience.

"The Square" was a bizarre, entertaining, zig-zagging and, I worry, overlooked film that I really enjoyed.  I found myself thinking about it a lot afterward, and not only because it's got the funniest and oddest (and to be fair maybe only?) power struggle over a condom I've ever seen.

So here's the thing: I'm fighting the urge to apologize for how obvious my choice of favorite movie is this year.  But my job isn't to do a flashy, shocking reveal; it's just to reflect with as clear eyes as possible on the year of films and choose the movie that most moved and stuck with me.  With that standard, the choice is quite simple.

I've written a few times this year about movies I'm glad were made.  There can be so much unnecessary, empty, and thoughtless mediocrity in media (and in the world) that I am deeply grateful for people who have the integrity and courage to make something weird or new.  Several people have claimed that my choice of favorite movie isn't doing anything special; it's just another superhero movie.

But I call bullshit on that claim.  It would be easy to dismiss this film as "just another superhero movie" if one chose not to take into account how much representation matters, especially in a genre of movies densely dominated by white male protagonists.  It would be easy to call it "just another superhero movie" if one chose to ignore the film's examination of systemic racism or its creation of an intentionally empowering and fantastic heritage for Black children.  And stepping back from the fact that this is an admirable, thrilling, and well-executed film, it's exciting to reflect on its record-breaking debut and impressive box office earnings signal, happily, that we can anticipate many more movies like this one.

My favorite movie of 2018 is:

Looking forward to sharing a 2019 filled with excellent movies with you, dear friends.

{Heart}

Closing 2018: Resolutions Edition

Salut!

Welcome to 2019, dear readers and friends!

It's time to review last year's resolutions and set intentions for the new year!  Looking back over the proud and storied history of this blog, I'm pleasantly impressed with all of the (not-always-successful) attempts I've made at self-improvement.  It's healthy to take opportunities to gently and sincerely reflect on how we can be better.

In honor of 2018's surprise new pet, this year's theme will be: birds.

Let's begin with an assessment of how I did on last year's goals.

My 2018 resolutions were:

1. Regularly smash the patriarchy.

As operationalized by:

--Participate in at least once weekly advocacy with my elected officials.

Diminishing success.  I was able to keep this up, with some fluctuation, for a while.  This is definitely something I've gotten I've gotten out of the practice of doing.  This is in part informed by my increasingly wait-and-see, pay attention but maybe-the-adults-are-actually-doing-things stance, not to mention recalibrating what my daily life is like now that Husband and I have moved to New Home.  But clearly there are plenty of things to advocate with elected officials for and, as we've established, technology makes it very easy to do so, so I'm not giving up on this commitment just yet.

--Ongoing self-education through self-directed reading, participation in at least one course to learn about dismantling systemic discrimination, and joining an ongoing anti-racist action group. 

Some success!  Since moving to New Home, I've been attending an every-other-week anti-racism seminar and have been so grateful for the opportunity to finally get involved in regular anti-racist work.  I've arranged my schedule to also get involved in another anti-racist organization, and just need to take the steps to plan and commit to that now that it seems like my schedule has stabilized.  As a self-accountability measure, I'll do that planning today, since what better day to do that than Martin Luther King Jr. Day?

--Lead a second round of the multicultural seminar at work.

No success. For reasons I discussed in August, unfortunately I wasn't able to make this happen.  All the more reason to redouble my efforts in other realms of anti-racism.

--Practice my right to peacefully assemble and demonstrate at least 3 times this year.

Success!  And I'm hoping to continue this especially now that I'm in a New Home whose wellbeing I am even more emotionally invested in.

--Regularly consume news media again.

Success!  This has become a sustained and important change thanks largely to this excellent podcast, whose length pretty nicely mirrors the duration of my new commute.

Resolution 2: Learn all the stuff and things.

Some success!  There's always going to be room for improvement here, but I'm glad to have kept up reading regularly and also going to several excellent museums.

Resolution 3: Write more: keep journaling and 15 posts!

Success!  I've recommenced at least weekly journal writing since moving and just barely squeaked by hitting my 15 posts for the year goal.

Resolution 4: Actively prepare and take steps to build the life I want.

Major success!  I am so grateful to be in New Home, where already my life is closer to what I've wanted it to be for years.

Resolution 5: Cultivate compassion.

Some success!  I've recommenced integrating loving-kindness meditation into my morning routine, and I'm finding it really helpful.  There are certainly other ways I can practice more patience, kindness, and compassion, which I'm interested to pursue.

Resolution 6: Watch at least 52 movies.

Success!!  I will be excited to share the year's movies in a forthcoming post!

Reflecting on these resolutions, I'm glad for the progress I made and I'm reminded of how useful it is to have a midyear resolutions check, since my progress on several of 2018's resolutions flagged in the middle of the year but resumed after I had the chance to re-examine them.  I'm also eager to shake up some of my resolutions to ensure I'm pushing myself to accomplish things that are important to me.

So, let's dive in!

Resolutions for 2019

1. Participate in concerted anti-racist resistance.

Because operationalization of similar resolutions has been helpful in the past, meeting this resolution will include:

--Ongoing involvement in anti-racist organizations and participation in at least one related training.

--Advocating with elected officials especially related to issues related to systemic racism.

--Taking opportunities to have conversations with other white people about racism.

--Practicing my right to peacefully assemble and demonstrate at least 3 times.

--Supporting businesses and projects created by people of color.

I am particularly hoping I'm able to participate in at least one anti-racism training, because I want to learn how to do this work well.  Of course (and thankfully), a lot of people have spent years and years of their lives thinking about how to dismantle racism, so I want to be disciplined in learning about these traditions.

I also want to push myself to learn to be more skillful in having conversations about racism with other white people.  I've been fortunate to have some great learning experiences both with people I love and in the context of anti-racism seminars, but like many before me I've realized that it as a bear of a task to go from a) an intellectual understanding of the strategies and approaches that are most likely to be successful in supporting people's listening and growth to b) actually effectively deploying that understanding when you didn't realize you were going to be talking about racism in the middle of dinner and you don't have time to review your notes and get your face and feelings in order.

2. Grow roots in New Home.

This resolution is in some ways linked to and an extension of my first.  It would also benefit from some operationalization.  Meeting this resolution will mean:

--Trying new restaurants, going to events, and exploring New Home.

--Regularly spending time with family and new and old friends.

--Nesting.

Being in many ways a creature of eating habit, I have a tendency to find restaurants I love and then happily rotate through them regularly forever without much deviation.  The thing is, New Home has some of the most delicious food of any of the places I've lived or visited, so to do that would mean tragically missing out on some incredible meals.

One of the things I love so much about New Home is its many arts institutions and vibrant festivals, especially in the spring and summer.  And still, there is even more to discover!  I want to keep enjoying the things I know I love and also take advantage of new things to be done.

Husband and I also moved to New Home because there are many people here who we love.  We should spend time with them!

Finally, we're really fortunate to now live in a gorgeous home that I want to feel very settled in.  We're most of the way there, but there are finishing touches I want to follow through on that could be continually overlooked if I'm not diligent about it.  For example: one of my goals for today is to continue decorating our currently mostly bare walls.

3. Learn about my heritage.

This is something I've had a growing interest in in the last few years, and I want to get more serious about it.  This will include returning to some language learning as well as learning about the history of the regions my ancestors came from and their traditions.

4. Find and enforce balance.

Let's be real: for me personally, this might be the most unrealistic of my resolutions.  That being said, I now have more factors in my favor than ever before: I'm almost exclusively self-employed and living in a much more affordable city, so if I'm intentional I might be able to pull this off.

The tricky thing is: What does balance actually mean?  Especially when life is always changing?

Some more easily measurable things are continuing to meditate regularly, recommencing regular exercise (at the great-looking gym a few minutes away!), spending quality time with Husband and my pets, and reading some books I think will be helpful to building a life ever more in keeping with my values.  

Less concretely, it might also mean doing my best to balance working enough that my needs and goals are met against trying to only say "yes" to things I actually want to do.  

...The great thing about psychology is that there is a lot I want to do, so that latter bit might not be a stringent enough metric to determine whether I should take something on.  It might be something more like: "only say 'yes' to things I actually want to do that will not significantly impair my ability to do other quality-of-life-enhancing things."

I also recognize I'm at a unique and likely time-limited stage of my life in which I actually get to contemplate this goal as something potentially realizable.  So maybe this resolution should also be about enjoying whatever approximation of "balance" I attain while it lasts, knowing that like all things it won't forever.  And that's okay.

And finally, as always:

5. Watch at least 52 movies.

Already well on my way, happily!

And a subgoal: write at least 15 posts!

Here's to an excellent and potential-filled new year!  In closing, please enjoy this absolutely precious bird!

{Heart}