The Case Against Adnan Syed

This past week I watched The Case Against Adnan Syed, a four-part HBO documentary about the case explored in season 1 of Serial. The documentary takes off where Serial left. In fact, the response to Serial is a big part of the story, as since the podcast aired listeners contributed information and perspective and the case was appealed in part based on that work.

The Case Against Adnan Syed is ok. It adds a bit to Serial, and it's great seeing the people and the old photos and seeing them interviewed now, about 20 years later. But it's kind of choppy and disjointed. I'm not sure if someone who didn't listen to Serial would get as much out of it. They might be confused.

Frustratingly, The Case Against Adnan Syed doesn't leave viewers with a firmer sense of his guilt or innocence. At least not for me.

You Don't Nomi

Last night I got to see a screening of You Don't Nomi, a documentary by Jeffrey McHale about the 1995 movie Showgirls. I never saw it, mainly because it got terrible reviews and also just looked godawful. You Don't Nomi looks at it as a disaster, dissecting with precision the copious tone deaf and absurd elements. But it also analyzes Showgirls as a spectacular cult phenomenon, and a stunning piece of absurdity. It manages to explain it, mock it, and pay tribute to it all at once.

The documentary uses footage from the director's earlier and later films to great effect, juxtaposing images and thematic tropes that recur over his oevre. It covers all the reviews that exuberantly panned it. It shows it's life in camp culture from San Francisco drag scenes to off Broadway spoofs. It explores the career of the lead actress whose performance is generally recognized as bizarre.  It really does an amazing job of exploring the film. Even though I never saw it, I feel like I understand its life. The scenes from the movie were utterly fantastic. You Don't Nomi is a very funny and very fun movie.

Beyonce Homecoming

I watched the documentary Homecoming about Beyonce's Coachella concert last year. It was phenomenal. The theme of the concert is an homage to historically Black colleges and universities and the concert is modeled on homecoming ceremonies, with dancers and singers and a huge marching style band on bleachers on the stage. The documentary is mainly concert footage but it is interspliced with scenes from rehearsal, quotes from important Black figures in American history, and Beyonce narrating her experience putting the concert together. She has so much vision. The concert was so powerful. I love her stomping assertive singing and dancing style. Her total command. There are a hundred people on the stage an it must have been an intense concert to be at live. Still, the documentary conveyed the enormity of her talent and the intensity of her performance.

Bel Canto again

I read Bel Canto by Ann Patchett again. I had loved this book when I read it years ago, and remember it as such a pleasure. But I didn't remember anything that specific about it and when I couldn't think of what I wanted to read I decided to go back. I'm so glad I did. It's really so beautiful. Her writing is lovely and her characters are drawn with such kindness. It's about a hostage crisis, a fancy birthday party held hostage by guerrillas for months, but it is not a political thriller in any way. It's a love story.

Run

Earlier this year I read Run, a novel by Ann Patchett that takes place during one 24 hour period in the aftermath of a car accident. The story centers around a family of three brothers, two of who were adopted as babies and are black, and the older son, and their dad. They lost their mom in their childhood, and her absence, or presence, is felt throughout. The car accident brings a young girl into their lives, and she seems to fill a hole that all of them felt. Ann Patchett writes with such love and compassion and beauty that this was a wonderful read. Still, it seemed to fall short of the other two of her novel which I have read, Bel Canto and Commonwealth.

Less

Earlier this year I read Less, a novel by Andrew Sean Greer about a gay man approaching his 50th birthday around the time that his recent ex is getting married. He is a midlist writer who had one very well-received book at least a decade before. He decides to travel around the world, taking advantage of a bunch of random literary opportunities like teaching gigs and lectures and residencies. This is a hilarious novel. Laugh at loud funny. It is also insightful and deeply touching. The ending is sentimental and totally worked on me, tears streaming down my face though the last pages.

Us

The other night I saw Us, a horror movie by Jordon Peele. It has a kind of cool story -- about a lower world of "tethers", our shadow selves, that come to destroy us. It's scary but not unbearably so. It follows a lot of traditional genre tropes, but has a fresh, eloquent take on them. It is visually arresting in parts, very well filmed. The lead family's doubles were scary and the idea of a horrific mirror image of yourself is powerful. When the double family first establishes themselves, the son of the "real" family says, in awe, "it's us" -- perhaps my favorite moment. Some of the odd and stark images echoed The Shining, but it was in no way derivative. I'm going to be thinking about the idea of tethers for a long time.