This Week in Pop Culture: June 14, 2024
One of the best books of the year, Netflix's Hitman, Normani's new album, and more in this week's pop culture round-up.
Happy Friday, friends. I hope you’re looking forward to the weekend and have something planned (or nothing planned) that you’re excited about.
Happy Pride! Maren Morris came out as bisexual this week, posting that she’s “happy to be the B in LGBTQ+” and honestly I love it:
I spent some time this week reading through Deadline’s coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival. They offered quick reviews of all the movies that premiered, and since I love a list and I love having stuff to look forward to, I’ve been devouring it (they’re adding reviews as the festival goes on).
I’m particularly looking forward to Sacramento, starring Maya Erskine, Kristen Stewart, and Michael Cera, which looks like it might have been made in a lab for me: “Sacramento‘s examination of strained friendships, the fear of inadequacy in impending fatherhood, and the importance of mental health conversations are handled with a good balance of care and humor. It may not be perfect, but its charm lies in its imperfections, much like the characters it portrays.”
In genuinely bonkers news this week, it appears that walking garbage can and general disaster of a human male Matty Healy got engaged to 26-year-old model (?) Gabbriette after dating for what appears to be six months. Good luck to this girlie, because woof!1
I also really liked this silly retrospective of the fashion at the Can’t Hardly Wait premiere from June 12, 1998. Sorry, but this movie was my entire personality when I was in eighth grade, and I remember breathlessly following the promotional cycle for it in all the teen magazines and seeing it in the theater opening weekend (and about two more times in theaters before buying it on VHS). I had the most insane crush on Jennifer Love Hewitt (but alas never had the body type to pull off jeans[?] under a mini-dress):
Also, this shot of Jennie Garth at the premiere with then-boyfriend Peter Facinelli2 is iconic:
Here’s the rest of the pop culture that took up space in my brain this week:
What I Read:
Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter: Hazel Davis is stalled out: her career sucks, she hates where she lives, and she can’t help but compare herself to her younger sister Evelyn, who is a bona-fide influencer with millions of followers. Ten years younger, Evie came of age on the internet and now that she’s eighteen, she’s set to fully take over her multi-million dollar career from her momager. But then Evie disappears in the middle of a livestream, and Hazel’s worst instincts about the darker side of fame appear to come true. As Hazel tries to find her sister, she must confront the darkest parts of their family’s relationship - and the darkest parts of the internet to uncover the truth.
This buzzy thriller, from one of the hosts of the Bad on Paper podcast, was pretty good! I loved the exploration of what might happen to a child influencer who came of age on the internet and thought that Muenter did a particularly good job of skewering the terminally-online (the snippets of commenters snarking on influencers on Reddit posts is pitch-perfect). What worked less well for me was the way the “mystery” of Evie’s disappearance dragged on, and the book’s “shocking” reveal in the final pages that I saw coming a mile away. Still a really fun read and perfect for the pool or beach.
The Winner by Teddy Wayne: When Connor O’Toole accepts a job as a tennis instructor in exchange for free rent in a gated community near Cape Cod during the height of the pandemic, he’s hoping to save some money and study for the bar exam. But finding clients proves to be harder than he thought, and he soon accepts the offer of an acerbic divorcee to pay him double his rate before realizing she’s paying him for more than just tennis lessons. As he falls into an affair with her, he also finds himself falling for a more age-appropriate artsy girl he meets on the beach. When he makes a big mistake, he realizes he might be in over his head.
This is the second book by a man that I’ve read this month, and I think I’m done for a while! I liked a lot of this novel, which has been compared to Emma Cline’s The Guest,3 but what started very strong for me started to fall apart about halfway through, and then takes a very weird turn in the last third. I loved the setting and thought placing the story in the early days of the pandemic was a smart way to increase the tension and the claustrophobia for the residents of Cutter’s Neck. But the female characters in this book are so thinly drawn that I didn’t buy their motivations at all and found myself bored by what was occurring on the page. Your mileage may vary - critics seem to really like this one!
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino: At the same instant that Voyager 1 is launched into space, a baby is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno knows she’s different from the moment she comes into the world: she’s from a different planet and communicates with her extraterrestrial relatives via fax machine. As she ages on Earth, she makes a life for herself and studies humans and their many eccentricities, sending notes about them back to her home planet. When a friend urges her to share her messages with the world in the form of a book, Adina wonders if she’s as alone as she’s always assumed.
I knew almost nothing about this book going into it except that it had received a lot of critical acclaim. To say that this novel wrecked me is an understatement, I openly wept for the last quarter of it when I wasn’t laughing out loud. Don’t let the sci-fi gimmick fool you: this is straight-up literary fiction and is one of the best books I’ve read all year (and probably ever). Tender, heartbreaking, funny, and an utterly gorgeous exploration of what makes us human, I can’t recommend this one enough. I loved, loved, loved it.
What I Watched:
Am I OK? (Max): Lucy and Jane have been best friends for years and know everything about each other. When Jane announces that she’s moving to London, Lucy one-ups her by announcing a long-held secret: she thinks she’s gay. As Jane tries to help Lucy navigate the new stage of her life, their friendship is tested.
I mostly really liked this quiet, understated movie about a late-bloomer coming into her sexuality and reckoning with changes in her longest and closest friendship. Several things work very well here, including the good writing from Lauren Pomerantz (and based on her own experience) and soft-touch direction from Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne, as well as excellent chemistry between Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno. Watching them onscreen together, it’s easy to imagine that they really have been friends since they were children, and that really helps sell the movie. Johnson’s sweet authenticity really works here, and it’s impossible not to be won over by her character. Do I think this is one of the best of the year? No - not everything works here, including a weird bit at a hammock sanctuary that seems to go on forever - but I’m never mad about a gentle coming-out story like this one, and I enjoyed my time watching it. Recommended!
Hit Man (Netflix): Gary Johnson is a philosophy professor who moonlights as a fake hitman for the local police department. When he meets a woman trying to flee her abusive husband, he offers her some advice and ends up falling for her, complicating his life immensely.
Ready for another mixed review? I enjoyed this movie on the whole (even if I found the last 15 minutes to be deeply weird), and thought that Glen Powell was both incredible and incredibly funny in it. I loved, especially, how much the movie allowed him to showcase his comedic talents. The montage of him acting as a variety of different hit men is very funny, and it’s so clear he’s having a great time. His chemistry with costar Adria Arjona is absolutely electric, and their ability to sell that helps the movie maintain a cohesiveness until, you know, it doesn’t. But there were things here that I didn’t like, too, including the fact that Arjona’s character is so thinly drawn that it’s almost laughable.4 I also struggled with the fact that the movie is the worst kind of copaganda, allowing its characters to behave very badly (not to mention abuse power) in a way that feels extremely icky given that so much of the movie is supposedly grappling with one’s “self.” So your true “self” is…a freelance cop who is basically entrapping folks at their worst moments? Yikes! Anyway, the stuff that’s fun here is very fun and the stuff that isn’t is extremely unsettling! Hope that helps!
Queenie (Hulu): After a very messy breakup with her long-term boyfriend and a miscarriage that she keeps to herself, Queenie spirals into a pattern of self-destructive behavior before she realizes she needs to make some real changes before she can rebuild her life and be happy.
It took a couple of episodes for this to really hook me, if I’m being honest. Part of the problem is that there is less than zero chemistry between Queenie (played by a very good Dionne Brown) and her ex-boyfriend Tom (John Pointing), and yet we’re meant to spend a lot of time watching her wallow and spiral because of the loss of that relationship. But once she starts getting really messy, I was all in, even when the writing didn’t fully gel (the voiceover narration is often extremely clunky). I also think that adapting the book5 into a series works in its favor, allowing the story to expand its world and its characters and add nuance and lightness that the book lacked. Not a perfect show, but absolutely compelling, and tells a story about a Black woman trying to claim love, career, and self-worth. Recommended!
What I Listened To:
Normani, Dopamine: I’m still working my way through Normani’s long-anticipated solo debut, but so far I’m into it! A tight 13 songs that are fully R&B inspired ooze sex and seduction. It’s vibe-y and cohesive and showcases her talent - and her trademark perfectionism. It’s not what I was expecting, exactly - there are no real bops here, like her 2019 single “Motivation” - but it’s clear this is the album she wanted to make, and I respect that immensely. I’ve listened all the way through a few times, and so far I love “Candy Paint” and “Tantrums” featuring James Blake. It’s a great album for summer and I’m looking forward to diving into it more.
What I’m Looking Forward To:
Never Let Go (Theaters, September 27): A mother and her sons have been tormented by an evil spirit for years. To keep them safe, they must never let go of the ropes that tether them to their house. When one of the boys questions if the evil is real, he severs their connection and unleashes the evil. This looks scary and unhinged, and I also can’t believe that Percy Daggs III (from my beloved Veronica Mars) has a child who is also an actor (and is named Percy Daggs IV, natch).
The Good Half (Theaters, July 23): When a man returns home to Ohio for his mother’s funeral, he reconnects with his family while also trying to confront his problems and deal with his grief. This one has an interesting cast and looks like the kind of quiet drama I like, so I’m cautiously optimistic, Jonas Brother notwithstanding.6
That’s it for this week! I’ll be back next week with preliminary thoughts on the new season of House of the Dragon, more book reviews, and I’ll probably fangirl about Gracie Abrams’s new album, too. Have a great weekend and thanks, as always, for reading!
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I would bet a lot of money that the wedding will never happen!
I looked up when they got married when posting this picture and the amount of clickbait articles from this week about the two of them continuing to talk about their relationship over a decade after it ended is honestly wild. Say less, guys!
It wishes!
People keep referring to this movie as a rom-com and I’m here to tell you that when the female character is basically a hot piece of cardboard with no internal life, it’s not a rom-com, babes! This is maybe action-adventure or neo-noir, but it ain’t a romance! I will die on this hill!
A book that was hailed as “the Black Bridget Jones,” a thing that drove me bonkers because it a) was absolutely not and b) let this book be its own thing!
I know almost nothing about the Jonas Brothers except that Joe Jonas is my enemy. I did have to google “Is Nick Jonas the only good Jonas Brother” and the internet is pretty divided on that front.
Ooooh very excited for Beautyland. And Sacramento sounds up my alley, too!!
Why oh why did I watch the trailer for Never Let Go? That was a MISTAKE.
And cannot wait for my copy of Beautyland to come in (I’m 72 on the library queue.