Culture Catch-up is a monthly missive in which I empty out whatever pop-culture-related ephemera is rattling around in my brain and share what I’ve been watching, listening to, reading, and eating in the last few weeks.
Watching
ContraPoints is Natalie Wynn’s YouTube channel where she posts video essays on a range of topics such as gender, race, politics, philosophy, and culture. Each video features an exhaustively researched critical dissection that’s truly impressive to behold. Polarizing figures such as JK Rowling and Jordan Peterson, and topics like incels and cancel culture have come under her scrutiny. Apart from her razor-sharp analysis, her meticulously designed sets are equally awe-inspiring.
In her latest video, Wynn tackles the Twilight saga and explores the different themes found in the material, analyzing it under the lens of queer and radical feminist theory, with a sprinkling of religious iconography for good measure. Clocking in at almost three hours long, it’s Wynn’s longest video to date and the one she’s spent the most time (18 months!) working on. Aside from being a masterclass in critical deconstruction, Wynn’s humorous asides and top-tier jokes never miss a beat.
After Hours (1985)
Directed by Martin Scorsese, After Hours follows Paul Hackett (played by the inimitable Griffin Dunne), a data entry worker who meets a woman named Marcy (played by a fresh-faced Rosanna Arquette) at a diner one night. Intrigued, he calls her up shortly after they meet and gets an invitation to come over, thus starting his night of misadventures and run-ins with several women whose only objective, it seems, is to make his life harder. Among them are Kiki (Linda Fiorentino), a sculptor who takes herself very seriously; Julie (Teri Garr), a flighty waitress who hates her job; and Gail (Catherine O’Hara, an inspired casting choice), probably the zaniest of the bunch, who ends up leading a vigilante mob that mistakenly identifies Paul as the mastermind behind a series of robberies.
I’m partial to films that take place in one night. This one was fun to watch, and I thought it was interesting how so many of the characters could easily translate to modern day NYC. At times, it felt like I was watching an episode of High Maintenance. During their initial meeting at the diner, Marcy piques Paul’s interest after telling him about her sculptor friend who makes bagel and cream cheese paperweights, which I thought was a funny bit of accidental foreshadowing of the prevalence of food-inspired ceramics that are popular these days.
Mikey and Nicky (1976)
Written and directed by Elaine May, Mikey and Nicky is a film about male friendship that follows two friends and small-time mobsters, played by real-life buds and frequent collaborators Peter Falk (as Mikey) and John Cassavetes (as Nicky). The film starts off with Nicky in a hotel room, paranoid and convinced there’s a hit against him. He calls his most trusted friend, Mikey, to help him leave the city. As the night unfolds, the cracks in their relationship start to emerge, and old wounds come to light. At every turn, Mikey’s plans are thwarted by Nicky’s indecision and last-minute compulsions as a veritable dead-man-walking.
Though the film was panned when it came out—there were many issues with filming and with Elaine May’s relationship with Paramount—a re-release of May’s cut in the last decade has spurred renewed interest in the film, and it’s now considered a forgotten gem of the ‘70s. I came across it while watching Charles Melton’s Criterion Closet picks, and I’m really glad I gave it a watch.
Trixie and Katya Like to Watch
I love it when my interests intersect so perfectly, like in this video of Trixie Mattel and Katya, two of my favorite drag queens, watching and reacting to the most recent season of Love Is Blind.
After watching the Jeramey-Laura debacle:
Trixie: Anyone who trashes reality TV… I don’t care. This is amazing.
Katya: This is Citizen Kane. This is The Godfather.
Listening to
Ostensibly a podcast about nothing because, as the Glaswegian comedians that host it put it, “themes are for cowards.” Of course, when you put together three people as funny as Frankie Boyle, Susie McCabe, and Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, that ‘nothing’ turns into something quite special pretty quickly. In Here Comes the Guillotine, a name befitting the times, the three Scottish pals shoot the shit and let their conversation take them to some truly absurd albeit hilarious places, like Jesus being a magician, fresh air making you sick, and the Empire actually being the good guys in Star Wars.
As a big fan of Boyle’s comedy, and especially since New World Order’s not coming back, I’m thrilled to be getting a direct line into his wonderfully twisted mind on a weekly basis.
Reading
on the unspeakable and unrelenting cruelty of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank. A tough but incredibly necessary read. on authenticity panic and ‘vibe shifters.’ on the prevalence of essays on girlhood and how that’s not such a bad thing.Eating
This week, I dug into a saved photo folder titled ‘food inspo’ on Instagram to give me lunch ideas and this photo of a chopped (broccoli) cheese from the NYC diner Gertie jumped out. I’ve been wanting to experiment with using broccoli in a sandwich for a while now. Luckily I had all the necessary ingredients in the fridge and it was so good. I want to tinker with it a little more next week before posting a recipe, which leads me to an announcement of sorts.
I’m shelving my Patreon for now and making ‘Project: Veggie Sandwich’ a new series for the newsletter. Once a month, starting next week, I’ll be sharing my thoughts, recipes, and learnings on how to make a satisfying vegetarian sandwich. Hope you’ll follow along.
That’s it for this month’s CC. As always, thanks for reading. 💘
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“This is Citizen Kane” I die 😂😍
❤️ Contrapoints