Closing 2023: Resolutions Edition

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!!

This year has been very full.  I'm glad for the opportunity to reflect on 2023 and think about what my hopes are for the new year ahead.

By far the most important thing that happened this year was the arrival of my Second Child and our transition to being a family of four--First Child's transition into being an older sibling, and Husband and I into being parents of two children.  Second Child has been such a source of constant delight and joy.  

In so many ways, parenting a second baby has been made all the more positive by the experience of having parented a baby already.  I am grateful both for the two unique experiences I've had parenting both of my children so far, but also for the greater degree of confidence and peace of mind I've enjoyed by being a somewhat more seasoned parent than the first time around--babies are each special and singular in their own ways, but they are also in many ways similar and therefore, mercifully, to some extent predictable.  (I did, for example, immediately remember my first round of googling "weird noises newborns make while sleeping" as soon as I blearily engaged in middle-of-the-night googling the second time.)

While there have been some other stand-out events this year, including the much-anticipated birth of my nephew, as well as some nice vacations, holidays, and time with friends and family, our family's transition has occupied most of 2023.  I had illusions that the bulk of the adjustment would be focused largely in the first few months after Second Child was born, but I now understand that of course it takes much longer than that, in part because both of our children are still growing and changing every day.  The ways in which they experience each other and I experience them as their parent are therefore going to be different as time goes on, requiring me to stay attuned and creative in ways I haven't had to before this year.  I don't think I could have accurately anticipated how much those tasks would stretch me to the absolute maximum capacity I can offer.  This year has been absolutely joyful and beautiful especially because our children have been its focal point, and it has also been a lot of hard work.

Having felt so humbled by the ways 2023 has surprised me, it's hard for me to predict what's realistic to aspire to in the new year.  I have been trying to take this into account as I start to formulate my resolutions for 2024.

With that in mind, let's reflect on this year's resolutions:

1. Practice and maintain overall emotional health.

2. Watch 52 movies.

1. Practice and maintain overall emotional health.

I further clarified this resolution with the following three sub-goals:

--Maintaining healthy boundaries in relationships.

--Maintaining healthy boundaries with work.

--Maintaining regular practices that prioritize peace, balance, and space for things (including people and pursuits) that matter to me.

--Maintaining healthy boundaries in relationships.

I think I've made slow yet steady progress on this one, especially if I consider a more expansive version of this goal as applying a lot of the principles I talked about in last year's post. I feel the benefits of this persistent work all the time, and I'm grateful that I've stuck with it despite some considerable challenges in the past year.

--Maintaining healthy boundaries with work.

I actually did this!  I moved my work hours to accommodate the needs of my family, scaled back my caseload, and deleted a major work commitment that wasn't going to be feasible given its work/reward ratio, plus made sure there was room for a semi-regular colleague consultation meeting.  I still occasionally feel this nagging little people-pleasing tug to re-extend my hours back into the evening, but it's just so much better for my life and my family to keep my hours where they now are and I'm grateful to Second Child for being the impetus for me to do it.

Moving forward, I will start to expand my caseload once Second Child starts daycare in a few months.  I'm hoping to feel gratified by the opportunity to work with some new people while still not taking on so much that I'm overwhelming myself.

--Maintaining regular practices that prioritize peace, balance, and space for things (including people and pursuits) that matter to me.

I did this to some extent, but not as fully as I needed.  I'm hoping that at some point in the new year I can more fully devote time and mental energy to the routine things that keep me well, in addition to the things that keep me in touch with the person I am beyond parent and psychologist.  I remember that became much more possible even with First Child's small initial moves toward a baby version of independence--being able to play for longer stretches and eat more things means I don't have to be on as a parent every moment in the same way.

2. Watch 52 movies.

As you'll see with my forthcoming round-up, I did absolutely demolish this resolution this year.  Parental leave gave me a massive advantage on this front.  I'm so glad that I was able to enjoy so many movies in the first half of the year, because my movie-watching-rate has seen a steep decline in the last quarter of 2023.

And now, let's decide on what my aspirations are for 2024.

Next year's resolutions are:

1. Prioritize the things that make savoring life possible.

2. Watch at least 30 movies.

First off, given the heavy lift that 2023 has been, sticking with only two resolutions seems like the smart move.  Secondly, as you can see, I've kept both resolutions somewhat vague to rig things in favor of success.  But of course, as always, I can get a little more specific about both of them.

1. Prioritize the things that make savoring life possible.

I know there are probably plenty less janky ways to phrase that, but in general the gist is this: 

a) I have to stay committed to my recovery/self-care stuff.  It is good for me, I benefit from it, my family needs it, and I need it.  I have cut corners in this endeavor this year--for reasons that are real and big, yet still ultimately aren't a good enough rationale for short-changing what I need to be the best possible version of myself.  I feel so much better being that version of myself as a parent and as a person, and I deserve that.

When I'm healthier, of course, I'm happier.  I'm more present, and I'm more available to the beauty the world is full of.  Life is short, and I want to absorb as much of that beauty as I can.

b) I want my hobbies: watching movies, reading, taking walks, working on plants, admiring birds, baking and cooking, playing VR, taking and printing photos.  I want my friends and family: especially this year, it has been such a struggle to connect with people outside of my home in a way that feels as fulfilling as I know it can, and that just has to change.  I also want to, finally, expand my world more fully post-pandemic: make more local friends and more fully explore and enjoy the beautiful, rich City I live in.

I love all of those things so deeply and they've brought me so much joy.  The space simply hasn't been available for a lot of them in the past year, and with truly the best possible reason--I have been dedicating myself almost exclusively to my children and our family, which is what I wanted to do.  For myself and for them, I'm hoping that a more expansive version of myself is possible in 2024.

2. Watch at least 30 movies.

This is controversial for me, of course, as this new year could possibly be the first year since starting this blog that I fall short of my usual weekly movie watching goal.  I am certainly open to still watching 52 or more movies in 2024, but what's more important than perfectionistically fixating on a certain number of movies, is that I keep watching movies in a way that I enjoy.  If I watch only 30 films next year, that still means I've watched them pretty regularly, but in a way that doesn't transform that into an obligation and instead allows more room for the potential realities of my life demanding other uses of my time.

As a sub-goal, if I do stick to this lower overall movie count, I want to write about at least 50% of the movies I watch this year.  That would still lead to writing at least once a month.  

Overall, I feel good about this hopefully temporary adjustment of my movie-watching aspirations.

And with that: I send you, dear friend, my best wishes for a beautiful, happy, healthy, and bountiful 2024.

{Heart}

Take A Rowdy, Raunchy "Joy Ride"

Hey team,

In the mood for a filthy and fun comedy about friendship, family, and identity?

Well "Joy Ride" (2023) might be just the film for you!

"Joy Ride" tells the tale of two childhood best friends whose lives have taken dramatically different paths and whose bond is tested as they embark on an epic trip to China.  Audrey (played by Ashley Park) is a highly driven and high-achieving attorney gunning to be the model minority posterwoman, whereas Lolo (played by Sherry Cola) has seemingly done everything she can to divest herself from that trope as a maker of genitalia-centric art living in the guest house in Audrey's backyard.

As their voyage together unfolds, they gain two travel buddies in Audrey's college roommate (and, with Lolo, seemingly only other Asian friend) Kat, played by Stephanie Tsu, and Lolo's off-putting yet earnest cousin Deadeye, played by Sabrina Wu.  Plenty of tensions emerge between each of the members of this motley party, including the rivalry between Lolo and Kat for friendship primacy with Audrey and Deadeye's wish to fit in despite their decided oddness.  The group navigates these tensions with ample debauchery and silliness as well as a healthy helping of raw emotion, ultimately forming deep bonds.

The overall vibe of the film is very reminiscent of previous buddy comedies like "The Hangover" (2009), down to Deadeye functioning as a stand-in for Zach Galifianakis's Alan (minus the proclamations about wolf packs).  That acknowledged, "Joy Ride" has more to offer than just another round of gags driven by an abundance of substances and sex--although there are definitely plenty of those.  At its emotional climax, the movie is a surprisingly poignant and emotional contemplation of Audrey's experience as an international adoptee, and that experience has cut her off from important parts of her identity and history.

I can certainly appreciate this movie won't be for everyone.  It's raucous and bawdy and therefore not exactly high-brow entertainment, but its unabashed silliness is nevertheless refreshing.  It's a fun ride for those who are game.

I gave the movie a 4.

{Heart}

A Halloween Sampler for All Souls: 2023 Edition!

Halloooooooooooooooooo!! 

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeeen!

It's the TENTH ANNIVERSARY of our medley of spooky films to celebrate this, the spookiest of seasons!  Hurray for Psychocinematic longevity!!

I have generally continued last year's trend of not having much of an appetite for outright scary movies lately, which means I've admittedly had to get a bit creative and generous in what I categorize as a Halloween medley-eligible movie this year.  Instead, this year's selection skews more into tense/stressful/bleak atmosphere emotional territory rather than straight-up horror.  That said, I'm still actually pretty pleased with this year's collection of films, especially if you are experiencing a similarly lowered tolerance for scary cinema.

You know the deal: Each of the following films will be accompanied by the usual 1 - 5 rating scale for overall quality, as well as a scary/intense rating of 1 - 5 exclamation points, to be interpreted as follows:

! = not at all scary

!!!!! = so scary!

Or rather, because this year's movies are generally more haunting than haunted, this year's scale should be interpreted more as:

! = not at all haunting

!!!!! = so haunting!

Let's roll!

"The Wonder" (2022)
Rating: 4  Scary Rating: !!!!!

I made the perhaps bizarre and questionable decision to watch this movie late last year while I was completing a time-consuming medical test, inspired by recently watching Florence Pugh in "Don't Worry Darling" (2022) and also a strong push by Netflix's advertising at the time.  "The Wonder" pairs beautifully austere and remote Irish countryside with an ethereal and haunting score.  With those characteristics and its setting in the 1800s, the film's overall atmosphere is somewhat reminiscent of "The Witch" (2015).  While "The Wonder" refrains from overt horror and replaces the gray tones of the even more distant (and explicitly evil) 1600s with the muted blues and browns of a more natural world, the film nevertheless generates an enveloping dread and foreboding akin to the gauzy damp surrounding its characters.  The movie also skillfully exploits the horror trope of the rational expert plunging into an irrational world in which their weaknesses are laid bare and their sanity and morality are tested, similar to "Winchester" (2018) and many others before it.  It is in many ways a quiet yet deeply memorable and affecting film.

"Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" (2022)
Rating: 5  Scary Rating: !

This is definitely not a scary movie, but who doesn't love a great, twisty, packed-cast murder mystery?  I loved "Glass Onion" for all its silliness, sneakiness, and ultimate satisfaction.  For someone looking for more of a fun romp than a scarefest this Halloween, this is a great option.

"The Banshees of Inisherin" (2022)
Rating: 5  Scary Rating: !!!!

We love playright-turned-film-director Martin McDonagh in this household, and we also love the exquisite duo of Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell.  I also love some bleak and remote Irish countryside of yore, evidently, given this is the second such entry in this post.  In his unique and singular voice, McDonagh is extraordinarily capable of introducing tension, disquiet, and at times shocking and seemingly chaotic acts of violence into the lives of characters who at first glance seem to be living remorselessly banal lives.  Throughout the entire movie, you can all but hear the banshees screaming for someone.  The man also knows how to write some incredible dialogue, and the characters' Irish lilting cadence and particular turns of phrase are an added (and needed) treat in this deft and stark movie.  "The Banshees of Inisherin" may not be pleasant, but anyone who loves McDonagh won't be disappointed.

"Emily the Criminal" (2022)
Rating: 5  Scary Rating: !!!

I wanted to write a dedicated post for "Emily the Criminal", but since I didn't get around to it I'm glad to at least use this occasion to write a mini-post about it.  Emily, played by blog favorite Aubrey Plaza, begins the movie as something of an everyperson, claustrophically cornered by crushing student loan debt and limited job prospects.  Over the course of the film, Emily's scrappiness and wiliness give way to escalating violence to match her ever more dire circumstances.  For anyone wanting an incredibly taut and effective movie that might feel a bit too real, this one's definitely worth watching.

"Persona" (1966)
Rating: 5  Scary Rating: !!!!

This film is both beautiful and mind-bending.  As a brooding, slow-build psychological thriller, drawing its audience into the darkness and mystery within the minds of its two main characters, it feels very appropriate for anyone looking for a cerebral international option for their spooky Halloween viewing.

"Nosferatu" (1922)
Rating: 3  Scary Rating: !!

The original film version of "Nosferatu" is this year's classic horror film, which we watched to accompany our annual Jack-o'-lantern carving.  I'm very much of two minds about this film: On the one hand, it's a surprisingly watchable film for being over a century old.  Its very age makes it an artifact of interest: it features stilted black-and-white silent footage with title cards, newspapers, letters, pages of ancient texts and a meandering yet ominous organ-heavy film score as the story's only audible guide, as well as very rudimentary special effects to communicate the titular vampire's magic and power.  With the relatively simple instruments available to it, it is still an effective horror film.  For anyone with an interest in the history of cinema and the craft of filmmaking, this is certainly an engaging and instructive film.

On the other hand, the styling of the vampiric Count, as well as the storyline's clear resonance with historic antisemitic lore and misinformation, is quite explicitly antisemitic.  The independent online pop culture magazine The Quietus has an excellent piece unpacking the antisemitic imagery and propaganda underscoring the film and its source material, as well as the cinematic and pop culture history and evolution of vampires as antisemitic tropes and thoughts on how to approach this film from a Jewish perspective, which you can read here.

I hope you enjoy a wonderful, spooky, cinematic Halloween!  Happy movie viewing!

{Heart}

Run to See "Running with Speed"

Good evening friends,

In the interest of ensuring I get at least one post written this month, I'm going to write a quick little post about a very charming documentary I very much enjoyed:

"Running with Speed" (2023) documents the long history and soaring victories of video game speed runners.  Speed runners are competitive gamers who use a combination of intricate maneuvering, insider knowledge, hacks and exploitable glitches, and an inordinate amount of practice to winnow down the time it takes to complete vintage video games.

The film, perhaps very ironically, has a surprisingly long run time at 2 hours and 28 minutes, but it's structured in a way that made it easy to settle into.  By sub-dividing the documentary into chapters that both chronicle the evolution of the speed running movement as well as profiling individual speed runners, the audience gets a thorough, intimate introduction to the lives and events that shaped speed running into a surprisingly ambitious and productive fundraising juggernaut.  The additional advantage of this format  is that it makes this admittedly lengthy movie compatible with the life of a parent of two young children who might need to watch movies in installments if they are to be watched at all.

"Running with Speed" is very reminiscent of other movies I've loved before, including "The Last Blockbuster" (2020), "The Perfect Bid: The Contestant who Knew Too Much" (2017), and "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" (2007).  These films each share common elements that are basically guaranteed to win me over: they profile sweet, sincere, nerdy people with deep dedication to their highly niche interests which we get to learn all sorts of delightfully fiddly details about, and they often celebrate their subjects by detailing their triumphs and resilience in the face of a society that is moving on from the vocations or hobbies dear to their hearts.  They offer a unique distillation of nostalgia, heart, and exhilaration in a neat, dorky little package.

Documentaries like these are both genuinely inspiring and an oftentimes much-needed antidote to misanthropy.  Their subjects achieve great things (in the context of their interests, at least) in the face of adversity.  Their heroes often demonstrate virtues like collaboration, grit, honesty, kindness, and guileless enthusiasm--virtues that are all too rare in a society typified by toxic individualism, destructive competition, insufficiently challenged obfuscation, and cynicism.  (Seriously, any day of the week I would gladly spend 2 1/2 hours hearing from people who are unabashedly in love with their hobbies or jobs, even if I have absolutely no shared experience with the things they're into, than people who lack the passion and vulnerability to let themselves just be excited about something.)  Even more simply, these films are illustrative of the beautiful, quirky vastness of humankind.  There are so many things to build a life around--it's incredible!  

Movies like these truly make me fall in love with people all over again.

"Running with Speed" is available on a variety of streaming platforms.  I gave it a 5, and I highly recommend it!

{Heart}

Still "Dancing with the Birds"

Hello AGAIN!

I am taking this day off as a mental health day and am doing my best to write AS MANY OF THE THINGS as I possibly can and oh man I'm loving it.  I have missed having the time, energy, and cognitive ability to write these last few months as deep parenting-induced sleep deprivation set in, but thanks to Husband, sleep training, a Child who is responsive to sleep training, and my ability to set my own schedule, I actually have all three of those crucial ingredients at the same time!

This is not the first, nor do I suspect will it be the last, rewatching post.  But the workhorse movies that can be watched over and over deserve to be celebrated for the immense amount of emotional labor they do (this also goes to the TV shows that tolerate being heavily rewatched).

Lately our first Child has gotten back into watching "Dancing with the Birds" (2019), and I am here to declare emphatically that this movie is a precious gem and I insist that everyone watches it.

I know I'm going to risk repeating myself, but seriously: this movie is gentle, beautiful, sweet, child-friendly, AND educational.  What more can we ask for in these trying times?

Lately, I've been particularly appreciating: 

• The subtleties of the masterful music choices to accompany each bird.  The lilting guitar as the flame bowerbird begins his courtship dance and the castanets as his dance gains confidence?  The crescendo of horns while the lance-tailed manakin does his perch bounces?  The swing in the music as the superb bird of paradise prances in his semicircle around his would-be mate?  Every second is perfection!

• The cute disgruntled noises made by the jilted Guianan cock-of-the-rock who over and over again is not chosen.

• The confident, matter-of-fact, and inquisitive female birds, and especially the building enthusiasm of the female lance-tailed manakin as she dances in response to the male.

• The ability of the final scene of the Carola's parotia dancing to T. Rex's "Cosmic Dancer" to still destroy me.  Every damn time!  It is so good!!

What an amazing feat to make a film that is so infinitely charming, and whose details continue to enfold the more you watch it.  This is such a jewel of a movie.  It still gets an enthusiastic 5.

{Heart}

Bananas for "Barbie"

Hey Barbies!

Let's talk about the most talked-about movie in the recent history of movies: "Barbie" (2023).

First and foremost: Seeing this movie was a goddamn delight.  I went with a family member on a Wednesday night at one of my favorite local movie theaters, and despite being well into the movie's run, the theater was still pretty packed with an enthusiastic and responsive audience.  It was peak movie-going, and I drank in every drop.  It was so much fun and an immense morale boost hopefully signaling the gradual yet progressing end to my hiatus from movie theaters.  This is the fourth movie I've seen since my first child was born, and regaining this part of myself is an exhilarating gift.

So now let's dive in!  

Spoilers ahoy, so DO NOT read further until you've seen it!

DON'T DO IT.

...Okay so:

"Barbie" is a spectacle in the absolute ultimate, best sense of the term.  It's funny, it's brightly colored, it's dynamic, it's inventive, it's exquisitely playful.  It feels, I imagine, like a trip on a pleasant hallucinogen.  There are times where it loses its coherence a bit and it's not clear exactly what's happening or where we're going, but it's so interesting and fun that it doesn't really matter.  There are songs!  There is dancing!  Like sprinkles on an already overloaded sundae, there are little cameos from accessories or side characters in the Barbie universe that inject little jolts of nostalgic childhood recognition (I remember those rollerblades!).  It induces a bubbly, delirious joy.  This is a rollercoaster where it's enjoyable to just strap in and lose yourself--let the ride do its thing.

The film's incisive social commentary is arguably at its most satisfying in the form of its asides, clever song lyrics, excellent casting decisions, and funny jabs at the bullshit of sexism.  That little speech in the all-women Supreme Court about how reason and emotion actually enhance each other rather than undermine each other?  I wanted to shout it from the rooftops.  

All that to say: I was enthralled before the opening credits concluded.

I mean that opening sequence sending up "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968)??  It is at once so deliciously silly, instantly eliciting giggles, but also a deeply satisfying reappropriation of Stanley Kubrick and a flick on the ear of the invisible chorus of self-satisfied men who worship his work without taking stock of its frank misogyny*, and also so god damned meatily thought-provoking even without its cinematic allusions: Imagine the paradigm shift for little girls in the transition from baby dolls, where the child imagines herself as a caregiver, to the Barbie doll, where the child imagines herself as the woman, the object at the center of her imagination!  AMAZING.

Admittedly, I found that there are some crucial turning points where the theme of women's empowerment is more explicit that I found to be less successful than the movie as a whole.  For example, the premise that the Barbies are liberated from their Ken-y brainwashing simply by learning of the dissonance of women's roles under patriarchy didn't quite cut it.  Are we saying that naming the dissonant and impossible-to-satisfy expectations of women solves the problem of internalized sexism?  Is that the message?  That it's just... sufficient to speak aloud the completely contradictory and often asinine rules society imposes on women to then be liberated from those rules?  This criticism of patriarchy is only the most superficial of starting points, and it is nowhere near harsh enough.  It's not enough to point out that patriarchy is hollow, self-contradicting, and pathetic.  It is definitely those things, but it is also merciless and deadly.  Patriarchy must therefore not only be mocked, but smashed.  I hate to feel like a punch was being pulled at this moment, but that's how that moment landed for me.

Which is not to say you should change anything about the Ken battle-and-dance-off sequence.  Don't you dare touch that.  It's the absurd delight high point of the movie.

I am literally giggling just looking at this image.  Perfection!!

Another moment that bumped me is Rhea Perlman's line, "A mother stands still so her daughter can see how far she's come."

I can see how this would be meaningful for a lot of people with a lot of different mother/daughter relationships and I don't want to take that away from anyone, but I don't buy that statement and I don't like it.  It still pits women against each other--in this case, mothers and their daughters--when really, don't we yearn to walk alongside our mothers?  Women don't need to measure themselves against the distance they cover that their mothers could not, because that still puts women in a position of competition with and comparison against other women.  Can't we all just lovingly and supportively accompany each other as far as we each can go, together?

While some of the moments of gravitas in which characters comment on the travails of womanhood, relationships between women, and mortality as a woman in modern society have their weaknesses, the final moment when Barbie decides to become a real human woman, after that breathless and gorgeous montage of women across all stages of life and in all states of emotional exultation, that "Yes", is absolutely beautiful.

In summary, it's perhaps fitting that my reaction to "Barbie" is a bit of a contradiction: I thoroughly enjoyed it as a movie-goer.  It is the perfect movie to be seen in theaters for a fun night out.  I love that it's resonating so much with people who feel celebrated and seen by it (and that it isn't with others and that it's prompted some viewers to finally take out the trash in their lives).  It is wonderfully thoughtful, well-executed, creative, and packed with content that deserves to be reflected on and processed.  It's impressive and so pleasurable how unabashedly and boldly it accomplishes all of these things.  It's an amusement park of a movie, but it's also mobilizing brain food.  And it also has its moments where reasonable and loving allies might diverge, where there might be more to accomplish.

I gave the movie a 5.  If you haven't already, go see it!

{Heart}

* = Look.  We all know I love "The Shining" (1980) (and a good allusion to "The Shining"), but the dude was an asshole.

Mastering The "Art and Craft" of Being Creepy for No Clear Reason

Hey everyone,

After writing my previous post about "The Jewel Thief" (2023), I realized I've actually watched several movies in the con artist documentary subgenre recently.  For example: "Art and Craft" (2014).

Contrary to "The Jewel Thief", which was interesting enough but ultimately limited by its somewhat formulaic structure, "Art and Craft" is in many ways a departure from the typical tropes of con artistry.  The story it tells is bizarre in ways that make it stand out as unique and memorable in a niche of films that, like any niche, can get a bit same-y.

The most dramatic and perplexing deviation from the usual patterns of this subgenre is that Mark Landis, the art forger who is the central figure of the film, doesn't con people for money.  It's clear he gets something out of fooling possibly dozens of arts institutions into displaying his falsified pieces because they believe the works are authentic, but it's not clear what that something is, exactly?  There is a skin-crawly aspect to contemplating what drives Landis that makes this movie both incredibly fascinating and unsettling.  I don't really want to be in this person's brain, yet "Art and Craft" beckons us to curiously wander around inside, seeking what makes Landis tick.

Furthermore, because Landis isn't technically breaking any laws--he only donates his forged art, never sells it--he is not being actively pursued by law enforcement.  Instead, seemingly the only or at least the primary person investigating, tracking, and trying to catch Landis is Matthew Leininger, who first detected Landis's duplicity while Leininger was working at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.  A clear parallel emerges between Landis's obsessive forgery and Leininger's obsessive quest to stop Landis, with both men's fixations driven by idiosyncratic motivations not even they may fully understand.

"Art and Craft" delves into Landis's life, including his family history and his current odd, isolated existence living in the apartment he shared with his mother until her death.  He also demonstrates several of his forging techniques with the blithe ease of a person showing off a collection of tchotchkes they take only a passing interest in.  Yet that blasé demeanor clearly belies an intensity of interest--both in creating extremely convincing forgeries and, likely, in being documented for his titular crafting of art--and is either a put-on or the byproduct, perhaps, of Landis's extensive psychiatric history.  

In fact, we not only learn about Landis's extensive history of psychiatric treatment and institutionalization in his early life, but also accompany him during several appointments with mental health providers and social workers, adding yet another layer of divergence from the usual path these films take.  Instead of the documentary casting Landis as some kind of psychopathic genius badass, as is so unfortunately common with these movies, "Art and Craft" reveals a surprising duality in Landis: he is at once extraordinarily talented at both fabricating artworks and, bafflingly, at fooling people into accepting them as real, but also is so inscrutable and seemingly fragile that it bends credulity that he has been as "successful" as he has.

But maybe the latter is also part of the con?  It's honestly impossible to know.

The final major difference between this film and others like it is the climactic confrontation: Instead of a flurry of police stings, confiscation of incriminating evidence, and court charges, "Art and Craft" reaches its climax at an exhibition of Landis's art that Leininger helped orchestrate.  Watching Landis circulate amongst the show's patrons and interact with Leininger is truly one of the most bizarre and awkward moments I've seen in a documentary in recent memory.  In the literal sense of the word, it is incredible.

So, if you're in the mood for an outside-the-box documentary about a wily con artist that will definitely keep you interested and ill-at-ease, please enjoy(?) "Art and Craft".

I gave it a 4, not because it's at all unsuccessful, but because it's the kind of movie I simultaneously respect and don't want to watch again.

{Heart}

Moderately Taken by "The Jewel Thief"

Hi friends,

I watched the documentary "The Jewel Thief" (2023) over the weekend and want to tell you a little bit (and ACTUALLY a little bit!) about it.

The movie details the criminal career of Gerald Blanchard, a prolific thief whose targets included banks, retail stores, and on at least one occasion a crown jewel from a European nation--lending this film its title.

As my life-long true crime fixation has transitioned away from the admittedly more gruesome, murder-y variety into generally less bloody corporate scandals and nonviolent con artistry, I've ended up watching several films like "The Jewel Thief".  I've found that these kinds of movies successfully scratch that morbid itch of mine with the added bonuses of: no one dies (typically... or at least *fewer* people tend to die?) and the very existence of the movies usually indicates that some kind of justice has occurred (even if it's the somewhat less satisfying version of justice in which the bad actors escaped meaningful consequences like jail time, but at least now we know they're terrible because we watched a movie documenting their terribleness...?).

I gave this movie a perhaps somewhat generous 4.  That's because, in the context of several other similar films, "The Jewel Thief" is perfectly competent, interesting, and engaging from beginning to end.  It further benefits from the unusual asset of a central figure who fastidiously documented all of his criminal undertakings on video, from the more banal petty thefts of his teenaged years to the more ambitious multiple bank heists of his adulthood.  We therefore remarkably get to see Blanchard's criminal life unfold through first-hand video footage over the course of the movie.

It gets a 4 yet not a 5 because, if you've seen movies like this before, there's ultimately nothing earth shattering about "The Jewel Thief".  Spoiler alerts (but again, not really if you've seen anything like this before): the guy was always into crime, the scale of his crimes escalated over time, there's cat-and-mouse stuff with law enforcement officials, there's the family member who's willing to plead ignorance about the criminal nature of their loved one's behavior despite their ignorance at best bending credulity, there are people questionably willing to praise the anti-hero's aptitude for crime as a twisted form of "genius", and even after that "genius" inevitably gets caught, he just can't help himself but continue with some version of criminality.  If you're into this stuff at all, you get the drill.  It's predictable yet interesting, low stakes enough to not be all that stressful or upsetting but high stakes enough to hold your interest.  

"The Jewel Thief" is a great true crime doc for a Friday night, should that strike your fancy.  You can watch it on Hulu!

{Heart}

A Brief Reprieve from Movies for Other Parts of Life

Hey team,

I'm going be quick today in the interest of ensuring I write something this month.

This past month has not involved a lot of movie-watching, but that's okay.  Instead, we've been traveling to see people and places that matter a lot to us, and taking time to recover from travel in between.

Probably unsurprisingly, getting out of the house for any extended amount of time with two children is a pretty heavy lift.  It helps that making that effort has been worth it--it's meant we can see people we love, enjoy places we love, eat food we love, and do things we love.  We've enjoyed beautiful light on beaches with gentle waves and easy days with extended family.

We also finally, finally got to return to one of the cities we previously lived in and still deeply love for the first time since before our First Child was born.  We started with a big family celebration for a loved one's birthday.  We then took the kids to a legendary museum where they got to see all sorts of animals (including dinosaur bones!!) and shiny rocks, then to the luscious, grand park at the city's center, and then out to yet another beach, all while enjoying the company of some beloved friends.

It's such a relief to finally bring these people and places back into our lives, and to finally begin to introduce our kids to the world more fully.  Yes, it's effortful to pack up our car and make the shlep, but I'm just so grateful that we finally can do that.  We've been waiting for so long.

It's also so thrilling that First Child is at an age where he really can engage with and understand these experiences more deeply than he could when he was littler.  It makes my heart feel so happy that he's talking about our trips and the people we shared them with days or weeks later, because he's capable of forming memories and thoughts of his own about those things more than he could before.  

I'm so excited for the experiences ahead of us as we return to these places and relationships over and over again from now onward.  After being so heartbroken that we couldn't do these things and see these people as a family because of the pandemic, perhaps we're at long last stepping into an era where they're actually, recurrently, possible.

I'm glad to share little snippets of these experiences, and I'm so grateful that I can look forward to sharing more in the not-distant future.

{Heart}

PS: It has not remotely escaped my attention that, within a few days of publishing my post about "Stutz" (2022), news broke of allegations of emotional abuse by Jonah Hill against one of his previous romantic partners.  I'm hoping to write a coherent part two to my original post that processes that news shortly.

Struck by "Stutz"

Hi everyone,

I want to talk about "Stutz" (2022).

The conceit of this documentary film is that it is a vehicle through which director Jonah Hill can more broadly disseminate strategies he has learned from his therapist, psychiatrist Phil Stutz.  Shot in black-and-white, the film has a stripped-bare presentation that masks the rich complexity it contains.  

The film opens with Stutz and Hill appearing to sit down for a therapy session, at times gazing directly into the camera.  As Hill and Stutz simultaneously break the fourth wall and speak to each other, the audience is actively drawn into the surprisingly open yet intimate relationship between the two men.  It is as if we are simultaneously patient and therapist, Hill and Stutz, studying, listening to, and engaging with each other.

Of course, as a psychologist, I am prone to apply particular suspicion and scrutiny to a film like this.  It is very rare for therapy to be accurately and constructively portrayed in media--to the contrary, its portrayals often offer lurid and over-dramatized versions of therapy in which therapists are often varyingly cold, inept, superior, or outright irresponsible, which pisses me off because it likely decreases the likelihood that some people who would benefit from therapy will ever get it.  

In addition, the very premise of this film--bringing cameras into the sacred, private space of a therapist's office--majorly raises both red flags and my hackles.  It runs totally counter to the ways therapists are supposed to work with their clients, where one of our most serious responsibilities is to protect our clients' right to a private space where they can talk about their most vulnerable, personal, and raw thoughts, emotions, and experiences.  It makes me extremely leery of the kind of clinician who would therefore agree to this kind of intrusion into his patient's therapeutic process.

I will also note that I have a bit of a pet peeve about practitioners lightly repackaging already-established evidence-based therapies and presenting them as innovation, which Stutz arguably does with some of his proposed strategies.  That said, it can absolutely be valuable for clinicians to be able to make the strategies they teach their clients their own, to live with and in them to ensure they are robust and useful, and it's Hill that is touting Stutz's strategies as ground-breaking way more than Stutz himself.  I actually suspect that this is less about Stutz's ego than it is about Hill not having an effective therapist before.

Despite myself, I nevertheless put my misgivings aside as this movie continued to unfold, revealing ever deeper and deeper levels of therapeutic connection between Stutz and Hill.  Without going into spoilers territory, through a series of little twists "Stutz" does a beautiful job of side-stepping the potentially very boring and self-aggrandizing movie about a celebrity and his therapist that it very possibly could have become.

Broadly speaking, this is accomplished because both Hill and Stutz mutually agree to get ever more self-revealing as the film progresses.  As a result, the lines between therapist and client are blurred and perforated in ways that, surprisingly, seem--at least for this particular dyad--constructive rather than contraindicated.  When Stutz shares details of his life, Hill greets them with the gentle and respectful curiosity that has clearly been modeled to him by his therapist.  More than the admittedly interesting and likely helpful strategies Stutz describes in the film, it appears clear that the deep mutual understanding the two men share is what is largely responsible for the benefits Hill has enjoyed in his work with Stutz.

I was struck especially by moments when Stutz and Hill said "I love you" to each other, in a way that felt representative of a platonic ideal of friendship between two people who truly care about each other and hold each other in high regard.  While in many circumstances given the power dynamics inherent in a therapist-client relationship it would make me incredibly concerned to hear that a therapist had said that to a client and it is not something that I would ever say as a therapist, these moments nevertheless gave me pause because of their radical vulnerability, authenticity, and warmth.  It's not a choice I would make as a clinician, but to my surprise, I can't say it's the wrong choice for this particular therapist and client.

Ultimately, this film is actually a rare and precious peek into some of the best therapy has to offer.  "Stutz" does a beautiful job showing how, at its best, therapy is a beautifully bidirectional process; to be a good therapist requires showing up for one's clients not just as an expert, but as a human being, which means being vulnerable and open to being changed by our clients as we hope to help our clients change.  Instead of aspiring to be the aloof and inscrutable tabula rasa of previous generations of therapists, Stutz provides a model of radical authenticity in therapeutic practice.  His example demonstrates that a therapist can share his personal story of pain, loss, illness, shortcoming, struggle, growth, and evolution to light a path for his clients, he can learn from his clients as they learn from him, and the genuine care he feels toward his clients can be openly expressed in a way that has the potential to heal his clients as well as himself.  Because ultimately, all people are social beings, and our relationships with each other leave lasting impacts.

To my pleasant surprise, "Stutz" is a sensitive, thought-provoking, and deft film, leaving me excited to see what else Hill might be capable of.  I gave it a 5.

{Heart}

An A-Plus for "Plus One"

Hey there,

I am so pleased to share that I recently watched an excellent rom com!  Let me tell you all about it.

The movie is "Plus One" (2019), starring Maya Erskine and Jack Quaid as Alice and Ben.

In the interest of actually being brief (for once), here are the major relevant factors in my enjoyment of this movie:

The characters feel like actual real people.  This is definitely true of Erskine and Quaid's performances, but also thoroughly permeates each of the supporting characters.  This uniformly high quality of performance, where every character feels genuinely lived-in, allows the audience to relax into a competently acted and therefore authentic-feeling film.

"Plus One" cashes in on this authenticity by giving Alice and Ben--but particularly Alice--free rein to be delightfully weird without veering anywhere near manic pixie dream girl territory, maximizing the enjoyment and realness of the funny moments between two long-time good friends.  I laughed out loud multiple times while also definitely wanting to be Alice's friend.  She seems like fun.  It is even more enriching to this film that Erskine imbues Alice with not only the idiosyncratic humor that is made possible by confidence and comfort in one's own skin, but also moments of deep vulnerability.  Alice isn't so hardened that she doesn't want to be loved, and isn't so weak or silly that we don't take her seriously.  Erskine's performance comprises so much of why "Plus One" works so well.

Also because these characters ring true, the movie sidesteps more predictable and therefore tedious romantic breakthroughs and obstacles, much to my relief.  Alice and Ben's transition from friends to lovers is well-timed and, mercifully, not overly drawn-out, capturing exactly how swiftly relationships can progress from one state to another.  When it's time for the necessary (and, spoilers: thankfully temporary) rift between our heroes, "Plus One" sources the climactic conflict between Ben and Alice from what feel like real people's lived experiences.  Real people do get too in their heads, too perfectionistic, too preoccupied with paternalistically protecting other people's feelings and thereby fragilizing them to the point that they talk themselves out of what their hearts clearly need.  

As Ben, Quaid has a tough job generating this kind of self-limiting angst in a way that is both convincing yet still keeps the audience hoping he'll end up happy.  And thankfully for this movie, he is very successful!

He is aided in this exploit by at least two extremely well-executed scenes: one in which he shares in the raw loneliness and uncertainty of entering one's thirties with no clear prospects for long-term partnership with Jon Bass's Cartelli, and the other in which Ben is lovingly but directly called out on his bullshit by Beck Bennett's Matt.  These scenes, as well as scenes between Ben and Alice throughout the movie, provide a discourse on the nature of romantic love that is predictable of a romcom without being stale or trite.  Through these scenes, this extremely well-executed movie manages over and over again to produce moments that feel like they're being lived by real people pondering some of mid-life's biggest questions.

In addition to all these positives, the central conceit of the movie--that woefully single Ben and Alice team up as each other's plus ones in order to get through a relentless wedding season--adds a fun structure to the film.  Each new set of nuptials, introduced by tonally wide-ranging reception toasts, successfully conveys the wide range of feelings that can come up at weddings: joy, ambivalence, despair, loneliness, and some judginess for extra spice.

All this to say: When romcoms are good, they're really good.  "Plus One" proves this point, with gusto!  I gave it a 5.

(Also lol at being brief.  LOL I SAY.)

{Heart}

I Wish for More "Wish Dragon"

Salut!

My movies-for-kids medley has continued, and yesterday I finished a movie I'd love to tell you all about.

Let's talk about "Wish Dragon" (2021)!

The premise of "Wish Dragon" is that, after losing touch with his childhood best friend Li Na (voiced by Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Din (voiced by Jimmy Wong) hopes to reconnect with her using a magical teapot gifted to him by a god (played by the Daily Show's Ronny Chieng) containing a wish-granting dragon (played by John Cho).

Interestingly, the film bears many structural similarities to Disney's "Aladdin" (1992) that any millennial will instantly recognize: a young, good-hearted, plucky, poor yet resourceful hero gets access to a magical, wisecracking wish-granting entity straining and eye-rolling against the bonds of servitude.  The hero aims to use his three wishes to win the heart of a beautiful and strong-willed young woman of higher status, be it a princess (as with Jasmine in "Aladdin") or the famous daughter of a titan of industry (as in "Wish Dragon" with Li Na).  There are even the same constraints on what wishes can be granted: no making people fall in love with you, for example.  Villains closely pursue our hero, hoping to claim the power of magical wishes for their own greedy and megalomaniacal aims.  The hero uses at least one of his wishes to assume the identity of a wealthy, flashy would-be suitor, and with all of these promising plot elements, adventure ensues.

While "Wish Dragon" seems to owe a healthy helping of inspiration to "Aladdin", it successfully repurposes this basic structure into something delightfully new.  Dimension is added by the fact that Din and Li Na have a history going back to childhood.  This allows the movie to mercifully sidestep a protracted mistaken identity arc, which cannot be said of "Aladdin".  While Princess Jasmine only briefly departs her cloistered and privileged palace life and the movie concludes with Jasmine and Aladdin, presumably, with a luxurious future ahead of them, Li Na fondly recalls her childhood in the poorer shikumen houses where Din, his mother (played by Constance Wu), and their neighbors still reside and longs for the sense of community she felt as a girl and lacks as a feted but lonely young woman.

Additionally, "Wish Dragon" benefits from extremely fun and well-animated fight sequences that follow Din's first accidental wish to know how to fight.  He uses his newfound incredible skill in martial arts to both dramatic and comedic affect for everything from defending himself against his adversaries to quickly setting up his single-room apartment to make it appear to his mother that he's been home studying all night.  Intriguingly, the foremost villain, Pockets (voiced by Aaron Yoo) fights exclusively with his hands sheathed in his pockets until the battle at the movie's climax.  This lends a menacing fascination to his character as we watch him navigate the world and battle competently with Din using only his feet.

The character arc of the titular dragon, Long, further enhances the film.  We learn that Long's state as a wish dragon is actually the result of a curse from the gods, who are punishing him for his heartless greed and selfishness in his human life by requiring him to serve ten masters with three wishes apiece before he can enter paradise.  Because Din is Long's tenth master, Long is initially--and perhaps understandably--extremely impatient for Din to use up his wishes so his sentence can finally be served.  However, as Din and Long form a friendship, Long finally learns the value of caring for others before oneself and in fact uses his own misspent human life in an attempt to dissuade Din from misusing his final wish for wealth.

After being trapped in his teapot for a thousand years, Long also has moments of learning about and enjoying modern life that are sweetly silly, but also serve to further open him up to rethinking his views of the world and therefore further round out his character.

Long's discovery of a deeper meaning of life is mirrored by Li Na's father (played by Will Yun Lee), who has striven so arduously for success that he misses his daughter's birthday celebration and entirely misses the fact that Li Na wants not wealth and status, but simply to be with her dad.  Thankfully for both of them, Long is able to intervene at a crucial moment to give Li Na's dad the second chance Long never had in his human life.

The greater theme of "Wish Dragon", that what matters most in life is our connections to other people, is thusly beautifully emphasized in moving moments, but also alluded to in more subtle ways.  I knew right away I was going to like this movie because a sequence early on features moments of everyday life mirroring the advertisements for luxury goods that form their backdrop.  It's a clever and effective signal of the core message of the movie.

All this to say: I absolutely adored this movie.  It is charming, beautifully animated, funny, fully child-friendly,  and has heaps of heart.  I gave it a 5.

{Heart}

"Minions: The Rise of Gru" and My Unabashed Urge to Watch These Movies

Hello friends,

You can tell I've transitioned out of parental leave and back to work by my dramatic reduction in post-writing, but also because the pace at which I've been watching movies has unsurprisingly slowed to a crawl.  I'm still somewhat remarkably on track to watch about a movie a week in May, but that's a dramatic reduction compared to the voraciousness of my movie consumption during my time away from work.

During this transitional period, I've taken a hard left turn into exclusively silly, low-stakes movies, most of which were made for kids.  We're aiming for maximum gentleness, minimum stress at the moment.  And with the most recent movie I've watched, I am pleased with my success!

Let's talk about "Minions: The Rise of Gru" (2022).

Very long-time readers of this blog may remember that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the movie that launched a thousand minions: "Despicable Me" (2010).  I knew I had written a post about that movie, but definitely did not remember that that was one of the first posts I ever wrote??

To my memory, despite enjoying the first installment in the Gru/minions universe, I haven't watched any of the other installments in this series (although we've apparently now established that my memory for what I have and haven't watched can't be totally trusted).  I think that's in part because I'm a bit put off by the existence of adults who are very into minions.  Like... I get that they're cute and funny, but surely not enough to build a whole lifestyle around?  But mostly, I just haven't really had the urge to prioritize watching them.

UNTIL NOW.

Basically: "Rise of Gru" is totally charming.  It's a pretty packed movie for its short 88 minute run-time, with plenty of amusing little twists and turns.  Instead of feeling overwrought or tedious, each little side quest, setback, and advancement in the film's over-arching aim--for the film's villainous hero to secure a magical amulet and prove his worth to the other ultra-villains he admires--is pleasantly entertaining and diverting.  

The pleasure of this film exists in part because, while it admittedly leans heavily on slapstick humor, its silliness is honestly laugh-out-loud funny on several occasions if you're willing to be receptive to it.  The animators behind this film franchise have really nailed the aesthetics and physics of their characters so that the action, which could easily feel too aggressive in less skilled hands, remains solidly on the goofy side of slapstick.  This is actually really important for keeping this movie firmly planted in a kid-friendly realm: no one is ever in real danger in this universe, so it's okay to laugh if they get bonked on the head or squished by a safe.  They'll bounce right back and be on their merry way in no time.

Setting the movie in the 1970s was also an excellent choice that pairs nicely with the animation style of these movies.  The loud colors, distinctively 70s proportions in dress and design, as well as the delicious and gently-teasing-the-era soundtrack all come together to notably enhance this film.  

The movie boasts competent, enjoyable performances by Steve Carell (who continues to play Gru), as well as other major performers like Alan Arkin, Michelle Yeoh, Taraji P. Henson, and Julie Andrews.  That the cast is rounded out not only by comedic talents like Will Arnett, Jimmy O. Yang, Russell Brand, and Steve Coogan but also legit action actors like Lucy Lawless, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, and Danny Trejo further emphasizes the surprisingly well-stocked and deep bench of talent bolstering this movie.

What really brings home this film for me, though, is its commitment to the central theme in "Despicable Me": the importance of warm, guiding paternal relationships.  Whereas Gru is the father figure in question in the first movie, we get to see him as a child seeking mentorship in the ways of wickedness in "Rise of Gru".  With Alan Arkin's Wild Knuckles at first begrudgingly, then affectionately, heeding the call to act as Gru's teacher-slash-father figure, we can see how he served as the model for Gru to ultimately act as a father to his adopted children in the first movie.  This theme lends no small amount of genuine substance and heart to these movies, which I often find either lacking or too saccharine to believe in many other children's movies.

I found this movie to be perfectly enjoyable, especially for this particular season of movie-watching.  I gave it a 4.

{Heart}