I’ve just returned from my annual woodsy writing retreat, where I welcomed six-legged visitors, siren-free sleep and no TV/movies until 7 p.m.
Here’s my new best friend — she may need a better moisturizer, but her knowledge of Abstract Expressionism is beyond compare:
Oddly enough, I end up watching way more stuff when I attach rules to its consumption. Nine movies I inhaled:
** wham! **
This 90-minute Netflix doc go-goes down easy, thanks to compelling narration by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, who speaks so sweetly about his childhood BFF that we should each be so lucky to have a Ridgeley in our lives.
If you’re my age-ish, you’ve seen the music videos and pastel sweatshirts and Tiger Beat pinups a thousand times. But what the film does best is show George Michael’s incredible transformation from shy pop singer into international superstar. Who today can make fans scream with one flick of the Ray Bans or twitch of the back pocket — and back it up with raw talent?
** sanctuary **
Margaret Qualley is my drug of choice, and in Sanctuary (in theaters/streaming), she and Christopher Abbott engage in a sexy cat-and-mouse game of sick twists. It’s a dash Secretary, a pinch Promising Young Woman, and you won’t unclench ‘til the end.
** biosphere **
Sincere sci-fi is hard to come by, which is strange, because the apocalypse will likely be rife with emotional bros. Mark Duplass and Sterling K. Brown are the last two people alive in a script written by Mel Eslyn. Don’t feel shame if you have to Google what the ending meant, because so did I.
** turn every page **
What a smart and charming film Lizzie Gottlieb made about her father, legendary book editor Robert Gottlieb, and author/journalist Robert Caro. Gottlieb edited dozens of important writers — Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Ray Bradbury, Nora Ephron — but is perhaps best known for his 50+-year collaboration with Caro, author of The Power Broker and multi-volume biography The Years of Lyndon Johnson. Gottlieb died last month at age 92, and 87-year-old Caro is still working on the final volume about Johnson.
** m3gan **
M3gan is the Studio 54 of cinema, a sparkly space coaster sweeter than Skittles and bloodier than Carrie. Technology may do us in, but we’ll have a fun hang til the grid goes down.
** john early: now more than ever **
I love people who try things, and this is a shorter list than you might think. John Early wants us to laugh, but he also doesn’t want to make a predictable HBO comedy special, so if he feels like breaking into a full-on Donna Summer cover or pointing out his parents every time he talks about sex, we’re better for it.
** triangle of sadness **
If you’ve only seen the trailer, maybe you think this is a movie about a crappy boat. It’s not really about the boat! The film is longer than Moby Dick and the ending is a letdown, but, hey, it’s free on Hulu and it won lots of awards, so what do I know? (Steer clear if bodily fluids upset you.)
** frances ha **
I love movies where there’s clearly some hot love going on behind the scenes, and I also love when an established filmmaker dials it back, snips the budget and focuses on character.
In this 2013 comedy, Greta Gerwig plays an out-of-work modern dancer. Rewatching it reminded me of the time I was at the New York unemployment office and peeked over to see what the young woman next to me did for a living. Under Occupation, she had scrawled, “Puppeteer.”
** indiana jones and the dial of destiny **
I saw this the night before I left town, because giant-size Harrison Ford is part of a well-balanced existence. It’s a fun movie, though every time 81-year-old Harrison performed a high-energy scene, I whispered, “Careful, honey!”
** more more **
Thanks to the grand folks at HiLoBrow for publishing this essay I wrote about The Smiths, which isn’t really about The Smiths. If you like it, please share the link and/or drop me a line at whitmath@gmail.com.
My dear friend and collaborator Dean Haspiel has a new Kickstarter for his “erotic noir” comic, Billy Dogma and Jane Legit. If he gets to 10K he’s gonna buy me a sandwich, so throw him some bread if you can.
Thank you for reading this and supporting my work.
happy birthday, david hasselhoff*
wh1tn3y
*One of my first celebrity interviews. I was a teenager when we talked, and he was headlining the state fair. He called me “Whit” and gave me a signed copy of his CD, which now resides in a storage unit alongside my signed Regis Philbin CD and signed portrait of the cast of Battlestar Galactica.