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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 1 year ago

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Here's some stuff about a comedy show I heard recently called Lou Wall versus the Internet. I meant to write a proper review of the show; obviously I ended up doing what I frequently do, which is slipping into a bunch of personal stuff that the show made me think of. What can I say, I'm not Steve Bennett. We can't all be Steve Bennett. It was a very good and well put together show and I recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it.

Spoiler alert for a show that's still touring.

So, I’ve gotten into a relatively specific comedy demographic lately: the queer Australian. Obviously we all know about Hannah Gadsby as proof of concept that the queer Australian comedian is a good idea, but I somewhat recently watched/heard all the works I could find by Laura Davis and Geraldine Hickey. Then last week found a couple of shows by Zoe Coombs Marr and wondered why I’d waited so long to get into her, it was brilliant. And of course, when it comes to queer Australian comedy, representing the men’s side we’ve got Tom Ballard. It’s a solid demographic.

I’ve just heard a show by a person I’d not heard of before named Lou Wall, and can now add another one to the list. It’s one of the most intense comedy shows I’ve ever heard; I quickly realized that this isn’t one I can listen to while half paying attention. Or even 75% paying attention. I need to throw my full attention at catching every word of it, or it’ll wash right over my head. In fact, I know I still missed some stuff. It ran a little shorter than an hour, but I see why, because it still felt like at least 90 minutes of material. They just put two seconds of material into each second of the show, and then burned out after 45 minutes of doing that.

I think the fast pace of this show worked in its favour, because making me work so hard to keep up with it let me more easily turn off the part of my brain that was saying… I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. They forced us to get on board, right from the beginning, so I found myself going with it even when it went completely off the rails.

It’s a show about being jealous of their best friend, due to getting beaten on metrics like amount of money made and number of Tik-Tok followers. Which is about the least sympathetic position I can imagine. At first, I was very much having trouble going with it, for reasons that I can best explain by remembering when I watched Maisie Adam’s show, and there was a whole bit about how she was planning a wedding and was going to do all the wedding traditions but rehearsing them made he realize how rooted in sexism they all are. And she’d point things out, like, “Hey guys, have you ever realized that the father walking his daughter down the aisle to her husband is actually, when you really think about it, kind of fucked up?” To which I thought, “Yes, Maisie, I know it is, so why are you doing it? You’re talking as though this is just an inevitable part of life and you’ve found a flaw in it, but not really. It’s an archaic tradition and you could just walk down the aisle together.” And I suppose that line of thinking is why a lot of observational comedy gets lost on me.

I felt that a bit, during some of Lou Wall’s show. They’re telling us all these revelations they’ve had about how getting jealous of someone’s Tik-Tok followers is actually shallow and a bad idea, and… yes I know that, Lou. It sounds like an incredibly silly thing to do. Why don’t you stop using Tik-Tok, then? I feel that way a lot, actually, when comedians do “relatable” material about what it’s like to spend hours scrolling on Instagram and getting jealous of their friends who get married. “Wow, that sounds like a bad idea. Stop doing it, then. No one needs to be on Instagram.”

So I had to manually force myself to shut down the judgemental side of me during Lou Wall’s show, and that got easier because the pace of the show didn’t leave me with much room to think. Also, they weren’t claiming it was a good thing. The whole show was about how fucked up it is. But the show hinged on the idea that it’s a fucked up part of life that we all have to find a way to deal with, and… no, I don’t think so. I don’t think we all have to be jealous of our friends’ Tik-Tok followers, do we? I don’t spend my time working hard to avoid being jealous of friends’ Tik-Tok followers, it just doesn’t matter.

This is what I sort of thought, in the 2% of my brain that was not being used to keep up with the show’s relentless pace, so of course I still got drawn in. And the character is compelling. If I thought the whole thing were in character, that none of it really happened, I’d have found it much easier to enjoy (a bit the way I feel when Jessie Cave and Alfie Brown do stuff about each other – if I thought they were playing really fucked up characters and no real-life children are living in that real-life mess, it would be a lot easier to take in). It felt a bit like they were doing the whole thing in character as Rebecca Bunch from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and I loved watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. That kind of shit makes for great fiction, but would be less good if that show were a documentary.

As it was, I found some of her comments funny, but I struggled to fully get on board fully because it just seemed so fundamentally divorced from the human experience as I know it. And then at some point I realized I could not think of a good reason why my own experiences of jealousy are any more valid than theirs. I have literally thought about this before – multiple times, and relatively recently. That comedians, and maybe artists in general, struggle with the fact that everything’s been done before. Every part of life, every human emotion, has been explored so thoroughly in the art before that it’s difficult to find new ground. Every time something remotely interesting or unusual happens to a comedian, they latch onto it for material. Every time they have a single original idea, they build their entire next Edinburgh show around exploring it, because there are so few of those left.

I’ve thought about this, and I’ve thought about what parts of life are left on the table, and I think jealousy is one of the few topics that’s relatively underrepresented in comedy. It’s one of the few things that has a much bigger presence in my life than its presence in the comedy shows I’ve seen. It’s got a lot of dramatic potential – some of the most dramatic, poignant, memorable things I’ve seen or experienced have come from humans’ tendency toward jealousy. And I don’t think the amount of time I’ve spent hearing comedians talk about it is proportionate to that. This is something that occurred to me a few months ago, and then, last week, I was listening to an entire show about jealousy and thinking it wasn’t relatable.

And it’s because of the nature of the jealous in that show, of course. It wasn’t just a show about Tik-Tok followers. Lou Wall talks about jealousy of her best friend’s money, her sexual experiences, her ability to charm people, her physical attractiveness. All things that I, while being a judgemental asshole, don’t think are worthy of getting jealous about.

But then I remembered that a few months ago, my roommate moved in and moved in a subletter who’s also from our team, and being around her so much fucking killed me. It killed me when she first moved to our city two years ago, because she’d been famous in our sport for years, in the same category as me, at times at the same competitions as me and always placing higher than I did, better than me all through the time I was on the varsity circuit and then two years after I quit competing she won a world medal. And she competed for this rival team that I hate, and then during COVID, when my team had started training again but I hadn’t gone back to it because I was much more cautious about COVID than most people were, she moved up to my city. And joined my team, and was hailed as a hero, and got to know my athletes while I wasn’t there, and then when I tried to go back then next year she’s just there, in my old position as co-running the practice with my best friend, has relationships with my athletes who are excited to see me because it’s been a long time but after the initial excitement it gets awkward because we don’t know each other anymore, while she’s just right in there teaching them stuff because she knows where they’re at with everything in the moment. And she’s much better at the sport than I am anyway, I’ve been coaching since I was barely more than a teenager myself but while I was stilting my own competitive career because I tried to do it while coaching, she was focusing entirely on competition and making the national team over and over again and winning world medals and shit, so what on Earth could I have to teach my athletes compared to her? Pre-COVID I was so proud when athletes on my team qualified for Team Canada and went off on international trips the way I never did at their age, but now, why would they want my help preparing for international competition when I’ve never done it but someone else in the room has?

Someone else who does happen to be better than me in every other way as well. When she moved into my house I got self-conscious about how she filled up the bathroom with all the stuff that women are supposed to use (makeup and skin things and hair things and stuff), that my mother tried to teach me to do and that everyone wanted me to do and I’m just not that type of person, but she is, and she can connect with the female athletes about it, in addition to being much better than me at the one thing that’s suppose to make up for that. Like, it’s supposed to be fine that I’m not a proper girl like that my mother wanted, because at least I could do sports and stuff instead, but now there’s someone who’s doing all of it better. And I don’t want to be feminine by any means, but I quickly get self-conscious about how I look when I’m around people who do it well.

And I so wanted her to be an asshole, I’d seen her lots at tournaments before she moved up here but I’d only spoken to her very briefly, so I don’t know what she was like as a person. At first I entirely avoided her at practice, because if I stayed on the other side of the room I could avoid the “What’s the point of me?” thoughts. But eventually I did get to know her a bit, and of course she’s incredibly kind and respectful, when she moved in she also filled our living room with cool feminist books, she’s been helpful and responsible and likeable. Of course.

I thought about all of this, and then I thought – where the fuck do I get off judging Lou Wall for being upset about her friend’s Tik-Tok followers? Absolutely nothing I base my life around is objectively more valuable than Tik-Tok. Winning at a sport does not make someone better than anyone else any more than having social media followers does. But I spent part of the show thinking it’s silly because it’s about something that would only happen to really shallow people and is not otherwise relatable.

And that’s definitely gendered. Lou Wall talks about how they know there’s a misogyny underlying their jealousy, they don’t get jealous of men, it’s “the girls and gays and theys” that get jealous like this of each other. And it pits women together and that’s bad. And maybe that’s true, I think she’s describing parts of life that are, stereotypically and demographically, more likely to be cared about by, and therefore spark jealousy in, girls and gays and theys. And it’s possible that its associations with femininity are why I instinctively dismissed it, even though my stuff is not any more significant.

Because jealousy is definitely not just a female thing! I’ve just described my one situation, but most of the jealousy I’ve seen in my life has been among men and teenage boys. Just because most athletes in the sport are male, and jealousy happens constantly among teammates as well as rivals from opposing teams, it drives the entire experience. Over and over and over as a coach, I’ve watched the same story play out: athlete who’s been on the team less time starts getting better than a more established athlete, newer athlete becomes desperate to beat the older athlete and the older athlete gets territorial and upset about someone catching them, a dramatic mess ensues. At the very best, they develop a rivalry that makes them good training partners, pushing themselves to beat each other and in the process they both get better. In most cases, that happens only up to a point, until the dial gets turned up high enough so they become bad training partners for each other because there’s too high a risk that they’ll injure each other. Not to mention all the drama that happens out of the room. Not to mention the effects on their mental game, the way they get in each other’s heads and mess it up and then both perform less well in competitions because they’re more focused on outdoing their teammate than beating their actual opponents. And that’s if they’re lucky enough to be in different categories – if they come up against each other in a tournament, then the drama of which one won and which one lost will fuel weeks or months of vicious fighting in the training room and we have to separate them.

And everything fuels it, really. One qualifies for a team and the other doesn’t. One beats someone from another team and the other doesn’t. One places higher on the same day. And God forbid anything off the mat happens – one time two guys on the team were already in that situation and then one slept with the other’s girlfriend, and we had to implement a rule that they weren’t allowed to train together without a coach within a few feet, ready to stop the action if either of them tried to hurt the other.

A huge part of my job as a coach is just that: trying to keep harmony in the room so it’s the best training environment, and that job mostly consists of managing jealousy. Over and over, with different combinations of people in different years. With almost every athlete, at some point. I was thinking a while ago of what major things cause deep emotional issues and drama in real life, but haven’t already been done to death in comedy, just because it feels like all the ground’s been covered. And I thought, I’m pretty sure most of life works the way this sport works. Sure most people don’t do the same thing I do, but everyone does something, and everyone spends their time tracking who’s better than they are at their thing, and getting upset when other people pull ahead. I think jealousy is a huge part of the human experience that hasn’t been mined quite as relentlessly as other experiences in most comedy shows. So there, if a comedian wanted to find something new, someone should do a show about jealousy.

I thought this, and I was still thought Lou Wall’s topic was insufficiently relatable because it’s about some shit that doesn’t matter. And that will be some kind of gendered conditioning, thinking it’s legitimate for people’s lives to turn on jealousy about a sport but not about their stuff. Once I made myself stop being judgemental about that, the show got more enjoyable to hear.

Anyway, the vast majority of this post has not been about Lou Wall’s actual show, it’s just been explaining some thoughts that listening to the show dragged up. See, this is why I couldn’t be an actual comedy reviewer. Or even a person on any of the proper social media sites, trying to use this blog for clout or followers. If I did that, I’d have to implement some quality control here, and actually stay on topic. But I don’t want to do that. I want to write whatever thoughts come into my mind and justify it by saying no one’s paid me for it and no one has to read it so I’ll do personal tangents that are only of interest to me if I want to. And then, when anyone does bother to put effort into curating their online presence and making something of sufficient quality for lots of people to follow it, I think they’re shallow and pointless for caring about that.

Anyway. Anyway. It was a really good show. Rather exhausting to listen to, with the pace they set. But funny, once I let myself relax about being judgemental and just laugh at the jokes. There were some really funny stories. I got a little lost near the end, it got more involved and increasingly confusing. I think I liked the funny stories better than the more involved stuff. But to be fair, I missed some visual stuff and I think it works less well without that. There were entertaining songs. It was really creepy but it was meant to be really creepy, they’re not just an idiot who doesn’t understand creepiness. It’s an unlikeable character telling funny stories.

It ends slightly predictably, I thought (spoiler alert, I guess, spoiler alert always for everything on this blog). With a conversation with the object of jealousy and it turns out she also felt jealousy. And I thought of when I sat down with my temporary roommate a few months ago and admitted to her that I was self-conscious of having my far inferior medals on my wall now that she lived there and had a fucking world medal, and she told me there were only a couple of people in her category when she won that world medal, she feels like an imposter with everyone calling her a champion for it, and when I’m in the training room she feels envious of how the athletes have known me longer than her and I can connect with some of them so easily. I remember having that conversation and thinking, if this were a TV episode and it ended with this conversation, I’d call it overly predictable, that anyone could have guessed that oh, it turns out she feels the same way. But I guess when I just had it happen in real life, I can’t exactly call it too cliché for an ending to a comedy show.

It’s a good show that has funny stories and funny songs and is best enjoyed by paying very close attention to what they’re doing but not thinking your way into being judgemental about it. It's a ridiculous pace and a ridiculous amount of material and a level of chaos in the writing/performing that fits the chaos of the topic, and I always like a show where even the format is on theme. Social media is bad for us, but to be fair, so is everything else.

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popculty · 4 years ago

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52 Films by Women: 2020 Edition

Another annual challenge complete!

Last year, I focused on diversifying my list. This year I kept that intention but focused on watching more non-American films and films from the 20th century. Specifically, I sought out Agnès Varda’s entire filmography, after her death in 2019. (I was not disappointed - What a filmmaking legend we lost.)

I also kept a film log for the first time and have included some of my thoughts on several films from that log. I made a point of including reviews both positive and negative, because I think it’s important to acknowledge the variability and breadth of the canon, so as not to put every film directed by a woman on a pedestal. (Although movies directed by women must clear a much higher bar to be greenlit, meaning generally higher quality...But that’s an essay for another day :)

* = directed by a woman of color

bold = fave

1. The Rhythm Section (2020) dir. Reed Morano - Not as good as it could have been, given Morano’s proven skill behind the camera, but also not nearly as bad as the critics made it out to be. And unbelievably refreshing to see a female revenge story not driven by sexual assault or the loss of a husband/child.

2. Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962) dir. Agnès Varda - If you ever wanted to take a real-time tour of Paris circa 1960, this is the film for you.

3. Little Women (2019) dir. Greta Gerwig - Still my favorite Little Women adaptation. I will re-watch it every year and cry.

4. Varda by Agnès (2019) dir. Agnès Varda & Didier Rouget

5. Booksmart (2019) dir. Olivia Wilde - An instant classic high school comedy romp that subverts all the gross tropes of its 1980s predecessors.

6. Girls of the Sun (2018) dir. Eva Husson

7. Blue My Mind (2017) dir. Lisa Brühlmann

8. Portrait of a Lady On Fire (2019) dir. Céline Sciamma - Believe the hype. This film is a master thesis on the female gaze, and also just really effing gorgeous.

9. Belle Epine (2010) dir. Rebecca Zlotowski

10. Vamps (2012) dir. Amy Heckerling - With Krysten Ritter and Alicia Silverstone as modern-day vampires, I was so ready for this movie. But it feels like a bad stage play or a sit-com that’s missing a laugh-track. Bummer.

11. *Birds of Prey (2020) dir. Cathy Yan - Where has this movie been all our lives?? Skip the next onslaught of Snyder-verse grim-darkery and give me two more of these STAT!

12. She’s Missing (2019) dir. Alexandra McGuinness

13. The Mustang (2019) dir. Laure de Clermont-Tonnere - Trigger warning for the “protagonist” repeatedly punching a horse in the chest. I noped right out of there.

14. Monster (2003) dir. Patty Jenkins – I first watched this movie when I was probably too young and haven’t revisited it since. The rape scene traumatized me as a kid, but as an adult I appreciate how that trauma is not the center of the movie, or even of Aileen’s life. Everyone still talks about how Charlize “went ugly” for this role, but the biggest transformation here isn’t aesthetic, it’s physical – the way Theron replicates Wuernos’ mannerisms, way of speaking, and physicality. That’s why she won the Oscar. I also love that Jenkins calls the film “Monster” (which everyone labels Aileen), but then actually uses it to tell the story of how she fell in love with a woman when she was at her lowest, and that saved her. That’s kind of beautiful, and I’m glad I re-watched it so that I could see the story in that light, instead of the general memory I had of it being a good, feel-bad movie. It’s so much more than that.

15. Water Lilies (2007) dir. Céline Sciamma – Sciamma’s screenwriting and directorial debut, the first in her trilogy on youth, is as painfully beautiful as its sequels (Tomboy and Girlhood). It’s also one of the rare films that explores the overlap of queerness and girl friendships.

16. The Trouble with Angels (1966) dir. Ida Lupino – Movies about shenanigan-based female friendships are such rare delights. Rosalind Russel is divine as Mother Superior, and Hayley Mills as “scathingly brilliant” as the pranks she plays on her. Ida Lupino’s skill as an editor only enhances her directing, providing some truly iconic visual gags to complement dialogue snappy enough for Gilmore Girls.

17. Vagabond (1985) dir. Agnès Varda – Shot with a haunting realism, this film has no qualms about its heroine’s inevitable, unceremonious death, which it opens with, matter-of-factly, before retracing her final (literal) steps to the road-side ditch she ends up in. (I’m partly convinced said heroine was the inspiration for Sarah Manning in Orphan Black.)

18. One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (1977) dir. Agnès Varda – Probably my favorite classic Varda, this film feels incredibly personal. It’s essentially a love story about two best friends with very different lives. For an indie made in the ‘70s, the diversity, scope, and themes of the film are impressive. Even if the second half a drags a bit, the first half is absolute perfection, engaging the viewer immediately, and clipping along, sprinkling in some great original songs that were way progressive for their time (about abortion, female bodily autonomy, etc) and could still be considered “bangers” today.

19. Emma (2020) dir. Autumn de Wilde

20. Black Panthers (1969) dir. Agnès Varda

21. Into the Forest (2016) dir. Patricia Rozema - When the world was ending (i.e. the pandemic hit) this was the first movie I turned to - a quiet, meditative story of two sisters (Elliot Page and Evan Rachel Wood) surviving off the land after a sudden global blackout. Four years later, it’s still one of my favorite book-to-screen adaptations. I fondly remember speaking with director Patricia Rozema at the 2016 Chicago Critics Film Festival after a screening, her love for the source material and desire to “get it right” so apparent. I assured her then, and reaffirm now, that she really did.

22. City of Trees (2019) dir. Alexandra Swarens

23. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) dir. Eliza Hittmann - To call this a harrowing and deeply personal journey of a sixteen-year-old who must cross state lines to get an abortion would be accurate, but incomplete. It is a story so much bigger than that, about the myriad ways women’s bodies and boundaries are constantly violated.

24. Paradise Hills (2019) dir. Alice Waddington

25. *Eve’s Bayou (1996) dir. Kasi Lemmons – I’ve been meaning to watch Kasi Lemmons’ directorial debut for many years now, and I’m so glad I finally have, because it fully deserves its icon status, beyond being one of the first major films directed by a black woman. Baby Jurnee Smollett's talent was immediately recognizable, and she has reminded us of it in Birds of Prey and Lovecraft Country this year. If merit was genuinely a factor for Oscar contenders, she would have taken home gold at eleven years old. Beasts of the Southern Wild has been one of my all-time favorites, but now I realize that most of my appreciation for that movie actually goes to Lemmons for blazing the trail with her story of a young black girl from the bayou first. It’s also a surprisingly dark story about memory and abuse and familial relationships that cross lines - really gutsy and surprising themes, especially for the ‘90s.

26. Blow the Man Down (2019) dir. Bridget Savage Cole & Danielle Krudy - Come and get your sea shanty fix!

27. Touchy Feely (2013) dir. Lynn Shelton - R.I.P. :(

28. Hannah Gadsby: Douglas (2020) dir. Madeleine Parry - If you thought Gadsby couldn’t follow up 2018′s sensational Nanette with a comedy special just as sharp and hilarious, you would have been sorely mistaken.

29. Girlhood (2013) dir. Céline Sciamma

30. Breathe (2014) dir. Mélanie Laurent

31. *A Dry White Season (1989) dir. Euzhan Palcy

32. Laggies (2014) dir. Lynn Shelton

33. *The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood – Everything I’ve ever wanted in an action movie: Immortal gays, Charlize Theron wielding a labrys (battle axe), kinetic fight choreography I haven’t seen since the last Bond movie…Watched it twice, then devoured the comics it was adapted from, and I gotta say: in the hands of black women, it eclipses the source material. Cannot wait for the just-announced sequel.

34. Morvern Callar (2002) dir. Lynn Ramsay

35. Shirley (2020) dir. Josephine Decker

36. *Radioactive (2019) dir. Marjane Satrapi – The story is obviously well worth telling and the narrative structure – weaving in the future consequences of Curie’s discoveries – is clever, but a bit awkwardly executed and overly manipulative. There are glimpses of real brilliance throughout, but it feels as if the director’s vision was not fully realized, to my great disappointment. Nonetheless, I appreciated seeing Marie Curie's story being told by a female director and embodied by the always wonderful Rosamund Pike.

37. *The Half of It (2020) dir. Alice Wu - I feel like a real scrooge for saying this, but this movie did nothing for me. Nothing about it felt fresh, authentic or relatable. A real disappointment from the filmmaker behind the wlw classic Saving Face.

38. Mouthpiece (2018) dir. Patricia Rozema - I am absolutely floored. One of those films that makes you fall in love with the art form all over again. Patricia Rozema continues to prove herself one of the most creatively ambitious and insightful directors of our time, with this melancholic meditation on maternal grief and a woman’s duality.

39. Summerland (2020) dir. Jessica Swale - The rare period wlw love story that is not a) all-white or b) tragedy porn. Just lovely.

40. *The Last Thing He Wanted (2020) dir. Dee Rees – As rumored, a mess. Even by the end, I still couldn’t tell you who any of the characters are. Dee, we know you’re so much better than this! (see: Mudbound, Pariah)

41. *Cuties (2020) dir. Maïmouna Doucouré – I watched this film to 1) support a black woman director who has been getting death threats for her work and 2) see what all the fuss is about. While I do think there were possibly some directorial choices that could have saved quite a bit of the pearl-clutching, overall, I didn’t find it overly-exploitative or gross, as many (who obviously haven’t actually watched the film) have labeled it. It certainly does give me pause, though, and makes me wonder whether children can ever be put in front of a camera without it exploiting or causing harm to them in some way. It also makes one consider the blurry line between being a critique versus being an example. File this one under complicated, for sure.

42. A Call to Spy (2019) Lydia Dean Pilcher – An incredible true story of female spies during WWII that perfectly satisfied my itch for British period drama/spy thriller and taught me so much herstory I didn’t know.

43. Kajillionaire (2020) dir. Miranda July - I was lucky enough to attend the (virtual) premiere of this film, followed by an insightful cast/director Q&A, which only made me appreciate it more. July's offbeat dark comedy about a family of con artists is queerer and more heartfelt than it has any right to be, and a needed reprieve in a year of almost entirely white wlw stories. The family's shenanigans are the hook, but it's the budding relationship between Old Dolio (an almost unrecognizable Evan Rachel Wood) and aspiring grifter Melanie (the luminous Gina Rodriguez) that is the heart of the story.

44. Misbehaviour (2020) dir. Philippa Lowthorpe – Again, teaching me herstory I didn’t know, about how the Women’s Liberation Movement stormed the 1970 Miss World Pageant. Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s characters have a conversation in a bathroom at the end of the film that perfectly eviscerates well-meaning yet ignorant white feminism, without ever pitting women against each other - a feat I didn’t think was possible. I also didn’t think it was possible to critique the male gaze without showing it (*ahem Cuties, Bombshell, etc*), but this again, invents a way to do it. Bless women directors.

45. *All In: The Fight for Democracy (2020) dir. Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortes – 2020’s 13th. Thank god for Stacey Abrams, that is all.

46. *The 40-Year-Old Version (2020) dir. Radha Blank – This scene right here? I felt that in my soul. This whole film is so good and funny and heartfelt and relatable to any artist trying to walk that tightrope of “making it” while not selling their soul to make it. My only initial semi-note was that it’s a little long, but after hearing Radha Blank talk about how she fought for the two-hour run-time as a way of reclaiming space for older black women, I take it back. She’s right: Let black women take up space. Let her movie be as long as she wants it to be. GOOD FOR HER.

47. Happiest Season (2020) dir. Clea Duvall - Hoooo boy. What was marketed as the first lesbian Christmas rom-com is actually a horror movie for anyone who’s ever had to come out. Throw in casual racism and a toxic relationship treated as otp, and it’s YIKES on so many levels. Aubrey Plaza, Dan Levy, and an autistic-coded Jane are the only (underused) highlights.

48. *Monkey Beach (2020) dir. Loretta Todd

49. *Little Chief (2020) dir. Erica Tremblay – A short film part of the 2020 Red Nation Film Festival, it’s a perfect eleven minutes that I wish had gone on longer, if only to bask in Lily Gladstone in a leading role.

50. First Cow (2019) dir. Kelly Reichardt – I know Kelly Reichardt’s style, so I’ll admit-- even as I was preparing for an excellent film, I was also reaching for my phone, planning on only half paying attention during all the inevitable 30-second shots of grass blowing in the wind. (And yes, there are plenty of those.) But twenty minutes in, my phone was set aside and forgotten, as I am getting sucked into this beautiful story about two frontiersman trying to live their best domestic life.There is only one word to describe this film and that is: PURE. I’ve never seen such a tender platonic relationship between men on screen before, and it’s not lost on me that it took a woman to show us that tenderness. Reichardt gives us two men brought together by fate, and kept together by a shared dream and the simple pleasure of not being alone in such a hard world; two men who spend their days cooking, trapping, baking, and dreaming of a better life; two men who don’t say much, but feel everything for each other. The world would be a much better place if men showed us this kind of vulnerability and friendship toward each other. Oh, and it’s also a brutal take-down of capitalism and the myth of the American Dream!

51. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) dir. Patty Jenkins - My most-anticipated film for the past two years was...well, a mixed bag, to say the least. Too many thoughts on it for a blog post, so stay tuned for the upcoming podcast ep where we go all in ;)

52. *Selah and the Spades (2019) dir. Tayarisha Poe

I hope this gives you some ideas to kick off your new year with a resolution to support more female directors!

What were your favorite women-directed movies of last year? Let me know in the tags, comments, or asks!

#finally finished this #52 films by women #2020 #writing #movies #movie reviews #orig

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vulnerablea · 5 years ago

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There are a lot of brilliant parts of this critical review of Hannah Gadsby’s work by Yasmin Nair. In the following excerpt, Nair rightfully calls attention to one of the problematic ways in which Gadsby critiques Picasso:

It’s Picasso’s relationship to his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter that most incites Gadsby’s rage and fury. Gadsby’s anger is marked by the sort of moralizing that seems more fit for an arch-conservative—she spits out the fact that he was married, horrors, with a Bible-thumper’s scorn for infidelity. Her contention that he had “sex with an underage girl” makes it seem like Picasso had raped a child. In a strictly legal sense, though, even putting aside all the issues we might have with the law’s definition of “underage,” this is not actually true. In France, what we might call the age of consent was 13 in 1947, when the two met, and it is now 15 (although, as with all things French, the matter is...complicated). In Australia, where Netflix filmed Nanette, the age is either 16 or 17, depending on where you are. In the United States, the legal age for sex ranges from 16 to 18.

Putting aside the historical inaccuracy of Gadsby’s comment about sex with “underage” women (and acknowledging that not all intergenerational sex is unproblematic): it’s really fucking weird to see a queer person be so invested in arbitrary distinctions between legal and illegal sexual behaviors. Gadsby herself points out, early in Nanette, that homosexuality was against the law until 1997 in Tasmania, that she grew up knowing that 70 percent of Tasmanians believed that homosexuality was wrong, and that she had internalized that logic. Certainly, the combination of internalized homophobia and shame is a deadly problem that afflicts millions of queer people, and we cannot expect everyone, especially the young and vulnerable, to magically turn into Queer Superheroes who dismantle such violent impositions of sexuality with a copy of Gender Trouble and a sassy flick of the wrist. But the idea that laws about sexuality are only created to keep an entire population in fear is literally the foundation of her entire show: she traces her own abuse, her sense of a lack of self-worth back to that legal construction of illegality.

Gays and lesbians have, historically, been hounded, “treated,” demonized, brutalized, and even killed precisely because “laws” everywhere, including those defining sexual consent, have sought to demarcate their bodies and actions as illegal. Given this history, the sight of a lesbian—an urbane, cosmopolitan, adult lesbian who is surely not unaware of critical approaches to sex and the law, or with the long history of queer resistance to such laws, so vociferously (and incorrectly, even in the legal sense) denouncing sex between a man and a woman is incongruous and disheartening. Gadsby makes much of the self-hatred she felt as a result of knowing that the vast majority of Tasmanians hated people like her—but she fails to understand (or willfully refuses to see) how laws don’t emerge from reality but create and shape it. One would think that someone so concerned with laws determining legality and illegality on the axes of gender and sexuality, and how wrong they are would at least question the idea of an “underage girl.”

There’s a lot going on here that follows more clearly in the context of the whole article, but I really appreciate this particular deconstruction because it speaks to the frenzied moral panic that white and western/ized people have about the arbitrarily-marked ‘age of consent.’ Rather than actually attending to the nuances of consent and development (keeping in mind that norms around ‘maturity’ and ‘development’ are also based in ableist and otherwise oppressive structural frameworks), even other groups like queer people, who have been so subject to the moralizing logics of cisheteropatriarchy, are all too ready to balk at intergenerational relationships. (To be clear, as Nair is being, of course these kinds of relationships can be abusive, as can any relationships, but to treat that as a given based on a legal marker is problematic.) There are legitimate critiques of Picasso, but this (along with most of the rest of Gadsby’s critique, including her erasure of women Cubist artists) is really not.

(As a corollary, it’s also just very frustrating to see 16-19 year olds or whatever treated as if they are ‘babies,’ a common tendency I see in current queer discourse. I also see this extended to all people under 25! Really maddening and deeply problematic for any conception of youth rights.)

#yasmin nair #hannah gadsby #nanette #intergenerational relationships #age differences #liberalism #assimilation

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sustainhealthmagazine · 5 years ago

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Southbank Centre announces it's new series exploring mental health in literature

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Southbank Centre today announces its most jam-packed literature season to date with more than 35 events taking place from September - December 2019 across its three auditoriums (Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room) as well as in its National Poetry Library, Hayward Gallery and foyer spaces.

The season sees an expanded programme of non-fiction talks and discussions with leading writers and thinkers on topics from atheism to parenting to talking to strangers. As part of the non-fiction programme, Southbank Centre is delighted to launch a new series of events Reading the Mind exploring mental health and wellbeing through literature. The series begins in September with award-winning writers and qualified nurses Nathan Filer and Christie Watson, in conversation together for the first time, and continues into 2020 with events in the Spring and Summer seasons.

Alongside Anthony Anaxagorou, Raymond Antrobus, Nihal Arthanayake, Liz Berry, Adam Buxton, Leo Boix, Anne Carson, Russell T Davies, Richard Dawkins, Inua Ellams, Salma El-Wardany, Nathan Filer, Hannah Gadsby, Salena Godden, Will Harris, Lenny Henry, Lisa Jewell, Etgar Keret, Mariam Khan, Zaffar Kunial, Theresa Lola, Sabrina Mahfouz, Hollie McNish, Nico Muhly, Paul Muldoon, Randall Munroe, Daljit Nagra, Courttia Newland, Joo Yeon Park, Bobby Parker, Sara Pascoe, Philippa Perry, Antoni Porowski, Yara Rodrigues Fowler, Luzia Sauma, Joelle Taylor, Christie Watson and more

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Alongside this, the bumper season features leading authors discussing new works of fiction, TV personalities and comedians reflecting on their careers with the launch of new books, live readings, panel discussions and new creative writing and poetry courses. In addition, Southbank Centre continues its commitment to present the best in spoken word and poetry with events and exhibitions curated by its National Poetry Library, the largest collection of modern poetry in the world, and the continuation of Out-Spoken’s year-long residency.

Autumn 2019 Season highlights include:

Talks and in conversation events with leading writers and thinkers including psychotherapist Philippa Perry, science writer Richard Dawkins, cartoonist Randall Munroe, writer Will Self and journalist Malcolm Gladwell

Appearances from TV personalities including documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux, Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski and The Great British Bake Off’s Nadiya Hussain who launch new books

Comedians Richard Ayoade, in conversation with Adam Buxton, Sara Pascoe and Lenny Henry discussing new books whilst Hannah Gadsby brings her live show Douglas to Royal Festival Hall

London exclusive appearances from award-winning fiction writers Malorie Blackman, Etgar Keret and Celeste Ng

The continuation of Out-Spoken’s year-long residency at Southbank Centre with monthly masterclasses and live poetry and music nights featuring Anthony Anaxagorou, Hollie McNish, Liz Berry, Zaffar Kunial, Salena Godden and more

London Review of Books celebrating its 40th anniversary with an exclusive, collaborative literary-music event featuring Anne Carson, Nico Muhly, Paul Muldoon and guests

The return of National Poetry Library Lates and new free exhibitions in Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library

Schools National Poetry Day Live featuring workshops and live poetry readings from Theresa Lola, Raymond Antrobus, SLAMbassadors and more

The return of the Booker Prize Shortlist Readings

The return of Polari, London’s leading LGBTQ+ literary salon featuring screenwriter and TV producer Russell T Davies and writer Lisa Jewell

Readings, performance and discussion from contributors to new anthologies Smashing It: Working Class Artists on Life, Art and Making It Happen, Un Nuevo Sol: British Latinx Writers and It’s Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race

New six week autumn courses in poetry and creative writing

Southbank Centre’s thirteenth London Literature Festival featuring 11 days of talks, readings, poetry and performance, opening with Poetry International (programme to be announced)

Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at Southbank Centre said: "It's a thrill to present an Autumn Season brimming with big personalities, the world's most exciting literary talents and the very best of the poetry and spoken word scene in London and beyond. From striking up conversations with strangers to unlocking the mysteries of the human mind, our expanded array of talks with leading thinkers and cultural commentators promises to provoke and challenge. Appearances from beloved storytellers alongside frank reflections on life from celebrated comedians will delight and disarm in equal measure, in a season that will make us think, make us laugh and bring us together.”

Tickets go on sale to Southbank Centre Members on Tuesday 25 June and to the General Public on Wednesday 26 June with the exception of Will Self on a Life in Writing, London Literature Festival and Poetry International which will go on sale at a later date. Hannah Gadsby: Douglas and Malorie Blackman: Crossfire are already on sale. For more information please visit the Southbank Centre website HERE.

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Further Programme Detail

TALKS AND IN CONVERSATION EVENTS - NON-FICTION

Southbank Centre expands its non-fiction programme this season with writers, thinkers and experts exploring key issues and topics in today’s society in London exclusive events. Science writer Richard Dawkins puts forward his argument for atheism as he discusses his new book Outgrowing God (QEH, 22 Sep); American cartoonist and creator of webcomic xkcd Randall Munroe presents his latest book, How To, offering audiences an entertaining insight into the science and technology behind the everyday (RFH, 7 Oct); journalist Malcolm Gladwell explores how and why we so often misread other people, discussing his new book Talking to Strangers (RFH, 25 Nov); acclaimed writer Will Self opens up about his drug addiction in the 1980s as he launches his new memoir Will (QEH, 9 Nov); psychotherapist and author Philippa Perry explores parenting in conversation with broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake as she discusses her bestselling The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (QEH, 19 Sep); and launching a new strand Reading the Mind, Southbank Centre presents a special event chaired by journalist Christina Patterson with Costa Prize winning authors and qualified nurses Nathan Filer and Christie Watson in conversation together for the first time as they explore mental health through literature (PUR, 9 Sep).

TV personalities discuss their work and present new books. Documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux reflects on a weird, wonderful journey through two decades of groundbreaking television as he presents his new memoir (RFH, 25 Sep); and in London exclusive events, Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski invites audiences to ask him questions on healthy living and eating as he celebrates the publication of his first cookbook, Antoni in the Kitchen (QEH, 25 Sep) and fellow chef and bestselling author Nadiya Hussain reflects on her life and roles as mother, Muslim, working woman and celebrity as she presents her brand new memoir Finding My Voice, in conversation with broadcaster and cultural commentator Emma Freud (RFH, 1 Dec).

The season also features appearances from some of today’s most entertaining comedians in London exclusive events. Acclaimed writer and director, and star of The IT Crowd, Richard Ayoade reflects on his award-winning films and comedy as he discusses his new book Ayoade on Top in conversation with fellow comedian, actor and director Adam Buxton (RFH, 5 Sep); cherished comedian and national treasure Lenny Henry takes the stage to share his long-awaited autobiography, Who Am I, Again?, reflecting on his early years and sudden rise to fame (RFH, 30 Sep); award-winning comedian Sara Pascoe explores what really matters to humans as she discusses her new book, Sex Power Money (QEH, 8 Sep); and following the success of Nanette, Tasmanian comedian Hannah Gadsby presents her new stand-up show Douglas for three performances in Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall (RFH, 25 Oct & two performances on 27 Oct).

IN CONVERSATION EVENTS - FICTION

Award-winning writers present new works of fiction in exclusive London events. Beloved Young Adult writer Malorie Blackman presents her long-awaited new novel in her Noughts and Crosses series, Crossfire (QEH, 8 Sep); renowned short-story writer Etgar Keret presents his new collection, Fly Already, in conversation with Associate Professor in English Literature at the University of Southampton, Devorah Baum (PUR, 3 Sep); and bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng makes her first London appearance following the publication of her acclaimed novels to discuss her work, in conversation with Southbank Centre Chief Executive Elaine Bedell (QEH, 6 Oct).

POETRY AND SPOKEN WORD

Out-Spoken, one of London’s premier poetry and live music nights, continues its year-long residency at Southbank Centre. Hosted by poet and founder of SLAMbassadors national youth slam, Joelle Taylor and featuring the beats of DJ Sam 'Junior' Bromfield, the first of three live events sees poet and founder of Out-Spoken Anthony Anaxagorou take the stage alongside writer and visual artist Bobby Parker and legendary spoken-word artist Salena Godden and features music from Nigerian Afro Fusion musician Villy and singer-songwriter Azekel (PUR, 26 Sep). The second edition kicks off Poetry International with a stellar line up of poets to be announced (PUR, 17 Oct) and the third features Forward Prize winning poet Liz Berry, acclaimed Faber poet Zaffar Kunial and Ted Hughes Award winner Hollie McNish (PUR, 28 Nov). Three corresponding masterclasses open to anyone with an interest in poetry, are hosted by leading poets including internationally touring poet, playwright and performer Inua Ellams (SUN, 21 Sep; FOY, 12 Oct; FOY, 23 Nov).

Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library presents a number of events and exhibitions across the season. National Poetry Library Lates, Southbank Centre’s series of poetry salons in the Hayward Gallery Cafe returns, showcasing performances and readings from today’s leading poets and emerging talent (HGC, 20 Nov). The National Poetry library also presents regular free exhibitions: Guernica Remakings displays new audio-visual responses to Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece and includes commissions from poets So Mayer and Richard Price embedded within the work (NPL, until 22 Sept); and the library marks the 30th anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s death with Library of the Unword, a new exhibition from South Korean artist Joo Yeon Park who has created new works in response to Beckett’s poems (NPL, 5 Dec - 29 Mar 2020). Further events at the library include A Homage to Raaz, an evening of readings and tribute to poet and founder of Survivors’ Poetry, Razz (NPL, 4 Sep); A Bargain with the Light which sees poet Jacqueline Saphra reflect on photos of and by photographer and war journalist Lee Miller (NPL, 2 Oct); and Beyond Imitation, a discussion examining poetry’s relationship with art featuring special guest speakers and poets Tammy Yoseloff, Claire Collison, Abegail Morley and Kathryn Maris who read from their work (NPL, 4 Dec).

To celebrate National Poetry Day on 3 October, Southbank Centre and The Poetry Society jointly present a range of poetry workshops and free performances, open to school pupils aged 7-11. Featured poets include Raymond Antrobus, Jade Cuttle, Dzifa Benson, Daljit Nagra, Young People’s Laureate for London Theresa Lola and winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award (CBR, 3 Oct).

LIVE READINGS, PERFORMANCE AND DISCUSSIONS

The Booker Prize Readings are a major highlight of the literary calendar, and once again return to Southbank Centre, showcasing the authors shortlisted for the 2019 prize reading from their work, on the evening before the winner is announced (RFH, 13 Oct). London’s leading LGBTQ+ literary salon, Polari, returns for three events this Autumn Season hosted by Polari founder and writer Paul Burston. The first takes place during London Literature Festival with line-up to be announced. The second marks its twelfth birthday and features BAFTA-winning screenwriter and TV producer Russell T Davies in conversation about his work including Queer as Folk and Years and Years (L5FR, 25 Nov) whilst the third is headlined by writer Lisa Jewell who reads from and discusses her new book The Family Upstairs (L5FR, 9 Dec). As part of its 40th anniversary celebrations, the London Review of Books brings the acclaimed New York literary-music series Against the Grain to the UK for the first time in an exclusive event. The evening of readings, conversation, contemporary music and one-night-only collaboration features Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, Canadian poet and translator Anne Carson, American composer Nico Muhly and guests (QEH, 30 Oct).

The season additionally features discussions with contributors to new anthologies. Editor and activist Mariam Khan is in conversation with Salma El-Wardany, fellow contributor to a new collection It’s Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race exploring contemporary Muslim female experiences, alongside additional panellists to be announced (PUR, 7 Nov); artists and contributors to a new collection Smashing It: Working Class Artists on Life, Art and Making It Happen including poet and editor of the collection Sabrina Mahfouz and Southbank Centre Creative Director Madani Younis, who chairs the session, showcase and perform their work, offering tips and personal insights on how to make it into the arts (PUR, 23 Sep); and Brazilian British novelists Yara Rodrigues Fowler and Luzia Sauma as well as award-winning Argentine British poet Leo Boix, contributors to the first ever anthology of British Latinx writers, Un Nuevo Sol: British Latinx Writers, read from their work in an evening hosted by writer and publisher Nii Ayikwei Parkes, the founder of flipped eye publishing (L5FR, 19 Nov).

COURSES

Continuing its education offer, alongside the monthly Out-Spoken poetry masterclasses, Southbank Centre presents a six-week poetry writing course How to Be a Person, led by poet Will Harris (25 Sep - 4 Dec) and acclaimed writer Courttia Newland leads a six-week creative writing course City Lights exploring the theme of urban metropolis (30 Oct - 11 Dec). LONDON LITERATURE FESTIVAL AND POETRY INTERNATIONAL

Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival returns for its thirteenth year this October (17th - 27th), bringing together today's leading writers, thinkers and cultural observers for 11 days of talks, readings, poetry and performance. This year's edition once again opens with Poetry International (17th - 20th), Southbank Centre's longest running festival, founded by former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes in 1967, with four days of poetry and performance from today's leading poets and spoken word artists from across the world. Previous London Literature Festival participants include Salman Rushdie, Akala, Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Claudia Rankine, Carol Ann Duffy, Louis Theroux, Roger Daltrey, Chibundu Onuzo, Lauren Child, Juno Dawson, Nikesh Shukla, Joy Harjo, Terrance Hayes, Tom Hanks, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sally Field. The programme for London Literature Festival and Poetry International 2019 will be announced in July.

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