03/25/22
This week: Whether or not you watch this weekend’s Academy Awards, you should absolutely watch these films (plus, a standout TV show primed for next year’s awards).
TRENDS THIS WEEK:
Youtube Elden Ring (dunkview)
Letterboxd TURNING RED
TikTok TipTok
Spotify Anita - Envolver
Netflix IS IT CAKE
Twitter #THELOSTCITY
Shopify It’s been a week
Life & Culture
It’s Oscar weekend, you guys!
Okay, yeah. I know what you’re probably thinking: Who cares about awards shows anymore? It’s just a bunch of rich people in fancy outfits—and I don’t even have cable television. To which I say: Fair. But, I still can’t pass up a chance to get together with my entertainment-loving friends and talk about the movies we loved this past year. If you’re the same, you’ll see Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall, and Amy Schumer are co-hosting. After much chatter, WEST SIDE STORY star Rachel Zegler will be both attending and presenting. Beyoncé and Billie Eilish will perform. And if you skip the whole thing, we’ll be right here (on Instagram, anyway) the next morning with the recap of all the moments that felt worthy of the internet—and absolutely nothing else.
In only tangentially related news, you might remember that back at the 2020 Oscars, PARASITE director Bong Joon-ho said, “Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” And it seems like since then, people have actually taken heed. International hits like LUPIN and SQUID GAME have surprised streamers like Netflix in some cases, and the services have had a hard time keeping up with subtitling and dubbing of their popular content. For SQUID GAME, the company didn't have Italian subtitles available, and had to quickly turn them around as consumers wanted to watch. Netflix saw the same issue with LUPIN and Portuguese-speaking viewers. Translators like Holly Diener who worked on CALL MY AGENT encourage filmmakers to start thinking about this process early.
This week, Robinhood announced a brand-new debit card that will invest for you. The card gives users the option to round up their purchases to the next dollar, and then automatically invest that change. The stock trading app will incentivize investors to partake by giving users a bonus of between 10 and 100 percent (capped at $10) each week.
I can’t leave you without this scene of a mother duck teaching her many ducklings that it’s only ok to jump off a cliff if your mom does it first. I also loved this video of a guy who is blissfully still living in the summer of 2014.
—Darlene Kenney, Digital Strategist
Question of the week:
So, we’re curious. Have you watched a foreign-language film or TV show with subtitles in the past three months?
My favorite Oscar moment, without a doubt, is the epic win that PARASITE (trailer here) took home in 2020. As a matter of fact, here is a screenshot of pics in my camera roll from when PARASITE won Best Picture. Yes…real tears of joy were shed. And yes, I know I was being extremely dramatic, but let me tell you why. As a born-and-raised Chinese woman learning her way through Hollywood, seeing huge Asian representation on the Oscar stage for the first time was overwhelming, especially since the film in question was in a “foreign language,” viewed with subtitles by most English speakers. I know real changes don’t happen overnight just because a film was awarded a prize, and we still have a long way to go as an industry—but PARASITE’s unexpected win at the Oscars not only proved that foreign films are no longer just for select groups of cinephiles, but also signaled that a film with a full Asian cast and in a foreign language can be appreciated for its brilliance on a large scale, and become a unifying blockbuster event despite the “one-inch barrier” that is subtitles. Anyway, PARASITE didn’t need an Oscar win to prove how iconic it is, but what a moment in history. To all of this, my immigrant self says YES.
—Mimi Li, Development Assistant
Films
This weekend, Will Smith is up for Best Actor in KING RICHARD (trailer here). The film follows Richard Williams, father of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, as he helps jump-start their (now legendary) tennis careers. It’s full of heart and feels particularly human, showing the complexities of parenthood—and particularly Black fatherhood—as Richard grapples with decisions that will inevitably shape his family’s futures. I’m rooting for him to win this category in a big way. His performance is completely captivating—and his character is endearing, maddening, complicated, and thrilling to watch.
—Darlene Kenney, Digital Strategist
After winning Best Screenplay at Cannes, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s DRIVE MY CAR (trailer here) has been racking up awards in the past few weeks—named Best International Feature at the Gotham Awards and Best Film by the New York Film Critics Circle—and I can assure you that the movie is deserving of all of that and then some. Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, the film follows stage director Yūsuke (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima), who accepts a residency at a theater in Hiroshima and is chauffeured around the area by the reticent Misaki (Tōko Miura). During these drives, he reflects on his marriage, trying to better understand his relationship with his wife, the clever screenwriter Oto (Reika Kirishima). Hamaguchi’s storytelling is thoughtful and affecting, and the (admittedly daunting) three-hour runtime coasts by as smoothly as Misaki’s driving.
—Nolan Russell, Executive Assistant
This is a “better late than never” rec because if you haven’t already seen the brilliant TURNING RED (trailer here), you should add it to your list ASAP. Directed by Domee Shi, this heartwarming, hilarious, and witty Pixar film follows Mei Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), a confident and dorky 13-year-old torn between wanting to be a perfect and dutiful daughter to her mother (voiced by Sandra Oh), and embracing the chaos of growing up. Which is extra-chaotic for Mei because one day she unexpectedly wakes up in the body of a giant red panda. She soon learns that if she gets too excited or emotional, she’ll uncontrollably turn into this panda.
At once whimsical, hysterical, adorable, and tear-jerking, there is so much to love about this film. As with all great Pixar movies, the animation is beautifully done, blessing us with stunning set pieces inspired by Chinese culture and mythology, and very importantly, hunger-inducing animated Chinese food. And under a fun premise, Domee takes a magical approach in discussing puberty and growing into a body that may scare you, all the while giving us characters who are flawed but deeply lovable. I especially love that I get to see a Pixar story that addresses the stifling pressure for perfectionism experienced by so many children of immigrants—and passed on through generations. And this is what makes the mother-daughter relationship in the film so special. It doesn’t set out to simply criticize the “Tiger Mom” trope, but rather takes a humanizing look at how intergenerational trauma leads to the way Mei’s mom expresses her love for her daughter. And yes, perhaps I did sob through the last bit as a result, thinking about my own family.
—Mimi Li, Development Assistant
TV
PACHINKO (trailer here) was one of the most anticipated original series of this year and boy, was it worth the wait. Based on the bestselling historical fiction epic from Min Jin Lee, this global masterpiece just dropped its first three episodes on Apple TV+. First off, I cannot even put into words how visually breathtaking Pachinko is—whisking us from Korea to Japan to America. But at the same time, it’s just so intimate, telling a family story spanning generations, with the lifetime of protagonist Sunja as our touchstone. The series is in Korean, Japanese, and English. It makes me think of Bong Joon-ho's Oscars speech (a theme in this week’s newsletter, clearly!) urging audiences to open up our minds to an expansive world of film and TV outside of the English language. The pilot, with the gripping performance of young breakout star Yu-na Jeon, moves from Japanese-occupied Korea in 1915 to New York City in 1989 (with so many years and cities in between). And the premiere falling ahead of Oscar weekend feels only fitting since Youn Yuh-jung is one of the other stars of this series, hot off last year’s Oscar win for her beautiful work in MINARI.
Once again, I don't have the words to truly describe how much I want y'all to watch this series but I'll leave you with this: In a time of brilliant TV, Pachinko has stood out as one of my immediate favorites. That's it.
—Erin Harris, Development Assistant
Music
Huge news for the bey-hive this year, Beyoncé has not only been nominated for her first Oscar EVER, but she’s also been invited to perform. She’s nominated in the best original song category for BE ALIVE, a ballad she wrote for KING RICHARD. The song feels like classic Beyoncé, as it's backed by a heavy drum, her own beautifully layered harmonies, and her powerful voice on top. The lyrics touch on the importance of Black resilience, pride and family, all messages that carry within the film itself, making her song a poignant and beautiful addition. If you haven’t heard the track yet, prepare to be blessed when she graces the Academy Awards stage this weekend. I’m also hoping she has something extra special up her sleeve as it’s been rumored she’s been rehearsing in a sound proof tent (I wasn’t even aware that was possible but leave it to Beyoncé to up the ante on what’s impossible).
—Eden Bekele, Digital Associate
