157. The Week in Watching!

My brave thoughts on Xanadu.

May 02, 2025

Here are some first-time watches for your inevitable “allergies are so bad I’m calling out of work” day!

Death Proof (2007, dir. Quentin Tarantino)

More exposition, or clunkier exposition, than I have encountered in any other Tarantino. It’s possible that Quentin, tasked with his first and only girlie flick, was uncomfortable writing towards the land of women. But we know Q has the hubris to not much care. It’s likelier that this being his first effort in writing about the movies (given that our final girls are working on a film as: actress, stunt coordinator, stunt performer, and makeup artist) he got lost in the weeds of his own backyard. This is not to say that the movie is not worth watching: it is. The genius of casting Kurt Russell is that he is so goddamned good-looking that yes, you’d get in a car with him. The character is written in a double-helix of subversion: a stuntman? Dangerous. His John Wayne impression the girls are too young to clock? Mitigating. His impossibly handsome face, windswept Harlequin paperback hair? Come on. And the effortless masculine of him makes you wonder, in an increasingly 4chan world, why he would ever need to prey on women in his skull-shellacked car. It is a fascinating character and played to rivet. Equally riveting is our pipe-wielding, cheeky, pipsqueakingly adorable Zoë Bell. What any actress would give for a role like this, and to play herself! Strapped with belts to the hood of a Dodge Challenger or riding like a bedenimed Godiva straddling a car door, she is so fucking charming in this movie. I want to watch the rest of her onscreen work - now.

Xanadu (1980, dir. Robert Greenwald)

Yes, I hadn’t seen Xanadu until my big age of 33. You’d assume, rightfully, that I had been freebasing this shit since I was like, 8. And maybe that’s why I….didn’t….like…it. Our lead sucked - not in acting, he was fine, but his entire cocksure personality. The true mediocrity of white men. Why is this film not about Kira and her sisters, the MUSES OF GREEK LORE? Why is this movie about this white man?! No?!!? No wonder it flopped. Our proxy is a WHITE MAN. I would have rather this movie been about Gene Kelly’s character, and him playing cupid for two young lovers with the help of the muses. Make Gene Kelly Zeus in this, for fuck’s sake. I am so mad that I am genuinely considering taking the used DVD I bought for 75 cents and putting it out in the free box in my apartment lobby. Aaaah!

The Thaw (2023, dirs. Sarah Wisner, Sean Temple)

“In 19th century Vermont, a young woman's parents drink sleeping tea in order to survive the harsh winter, but an early thaw leads to horrifying results.” You can watch this Eggersesque short film below. I watched this at a short film festival maybe a month ago and am still raving about it.

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985, dir. William Friedkin)

Lynch/Oz (2022, dir. Alexandre O. Philippe)

Watched this documentary on a night full of thunder and rain. The thoughtfulness of each segment’s commentator (Amy Nicholson, Rodney Ascher, John Waters, Karyn Kusama - whose perspective I enjoyed the most, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and David Lowery) goes beyond Wild At Heart’s topical allusions to Wizard of Oz to glean references to Dorothy and her yellow brick road in just about every released Lynch project. Some will make you say “oh, duh” (GARLAND Briggs) and some will make you want to curl up and sob over how much you miss this brilliant man and his enigmatic stories. Inland Empire is Oz in a dingy hallway. The documentary did not make me feel that Lynch is derivative. It gave me a skeleton key to his mind and intention in his work and a humbling amount of felt kinship, knowing that our childhoods were shaped by the same pair of ruby slippers. I love him, I miss him, and I hope he is having a beautiful day.

Sinners (2025, dir. Ryan Coogler)

Nothing to say from my white mouth except “go see it twice,” “stay through the credits,” and “you gotta watch this”:

bodycourage

A post shared by @bodycourage

To read:

A guest essay from Steven Delpome!

This entire essay is one big spoiler of the movie My Old Ass.

Tara Giancaspro

Apr 30

This entire essay is one big spoiler of the movie My Old Ass.

I put out a call for submissions and accepted Steven’s pitch of an essay about My Old Ass before I knew he was going to include within references to my favorite movie, John Patrick Shanley’s Joe Versus the Volcano. Take it away, Steven!

Read full story

Bestie Mike did a great interview ahead of a cool new complication of Prince covers and songs Prince wrote for other artists. “Oooh, This I Need: Adam Mattera Talks 'Dearly Beloved: A Prince Songbook' - I added this CD to my shopping cart after learning about the really interesting interpretations some of these artists had for Prince’s greatest hits - and obscure gems.