02/26/21
This week: Curious iPhone photo shoots, 2021’s best show so far, and a fresh take on depression.TRENDS THIS WEEK
☞ YouTube: Chloe x Halle - Ungodly Hour
☞ Letterboxd: I CARE A LOT.
☞ TikTok: #BlackAndProud
☞ Spotify: drivers license - Olivia Rodrigo
☞ Netflix: I CARE A LOT.
☞ Twitter: #StateofPlay
Life & Culture
If you haven't spent the latter half of this week absolutely cracking up at Juergen Teller’s recent W Magazine photography, allow me to brighten your day. First off, let me preface this by saying that Teller is a very talented and very successful photographer. The internet isn't just making fun of an amateur here. He’s shot pretty much every celeb, from Kim Kardashion to, most recently, Riz Ahmed. What’s so unique about Teller's recent photos, though, is the fact that they’re actually not unique at all. They are reminiscent of a jokingly-intense photoshoot that I would force my roommate into in front of our Hollywood neighborhood’s attempt at greenery. Riz Ahmed recently told the internet that his shoot with Teller was the fastest in his life. And...it looks that way. But in the best way? Because what’s not to love about some aggressively normal trees, and some aggressively awkward poses? Please check out my favorite memes of his work here and here. And, go ahead and check out the photos that inspired the memes here.
If you’re like me and compile ALL your favorite music on a miles-long list on Spotify’s “Liked songs” tab, it’s finally going to be easier to filter those favorites based on what you’re in the mood for right now. As of Thursday, Spotify is rolling out a new feature that lets you break down your list by mood and genre. Because yes, I love “The Spins” by Mac Miller 95% of the time, but there are those few moments when I’m feeling gloomy and reflective and need something slightly less upbeat.
Mara Wilson, who you likely remember fondly as the child star of MATILDA, wrote a beautiful op-ed in The New York Times this week. In a post-FRAMING BRITNEY world, she gives insight to what she calls The Narrative: “the idea that anyone who grew up in the public eye will meet some tragic end.” The piece grapples with this expectation of failure that society thrusts upon young women in the entertainment industry, and the schadenfreude the media seems to relish in when this failure ultimately comes to a head. Drawing parallels to society’s recent reckoning with our collective treatment of Britney Spears, along with Judy Garland, Drew Barrymore, and others, Wilson forces us to examine the expectations we place on child actors. Read her full piece here.
For some reason my FYP on TikTok keeps showing me sports videos lately, which isn’t exactly typical. Sports isn’t always my thing, but these videos have been so good I haven’t minded. I wanna share with you my two faves—this video from the 2018 Olympics, of a truly wild skiing comeback (LOL, one thing I didn't imagine ever writing in this email), and this calming video of a skimboarder doing things I had no idea people could do on skimboards.
—Darlene Kenney, Marketing Assistant
Filmmaker
Big congratulations to Jeremy O. Harris on this week’s news that he’ll be co-writing THE VANISHING HALF series adaptation for HBO. Harris, who avid PS Weekly readers will recognize as a PS fave, is best known for his play SLAVE PLAY, which he wrote while still in college. The play, which received 12 Tony noms (!!), tackles themes of race, sex, and trauma. Harris also is somehow involved in what feels like everything—even this beautifully weird Animorphs-inspired clothing campaign. Plus, he has an amazing ongoing IG series “coronavirus mixtapes”, which make my day every time I see them. Can’t wait to see what he does with THE VANISHING HALF!
—Darlene Kenney, Marketing Assistant
Film
Another week, another new release that will make you sob (but in a good way!). This week it’s Florian Zeller’s incredible debut film THE FATHER, which everyone on our team can’t stop talking about. The film follows Anthony Hopkins as a man suffering from dementia, and Zeller has designed the film so that the audience sees what Hopkins sees. One minute his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) tells him she’s moving to Paris with her new boyfriend; the next, Anne's husband shows up declaring that Anthony is actually living in his and Anne's apartment. It’s incredibly disorienting and distressing. That said, the film is full of comedy, too. Hopkins (in an incredible, award-worthy performance) flits from laughing to crying, from tap dancing to screaming with rage, so rapidly you can barely keep up. If you only have time to watch one awards-contender film this week (or month), make it this one. I promise you won’t regret it.
—Julia Hammer, Creative Executive
TV
IT’S A SIN (all episodes on HBO Max) is by far my favorite show of the year so far. Yes I know it’s only two months into 2021, but in my defense, I watch a lot of TV. Russell T Davies’ (QUEER AS FOLK, A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL) latest show is a five-part miniseries about the AIDS crisis in 1980s London. It puts the audience directly into the perspective of five beautifully imperfect friends and asks us to imagine: What if you had to watch as your chosen family dies of a mysterious disease—a disease dismissed by media and science, a disease that you are publicly shamed for, a disease associated with who and how you love? At its core, the show tells a “coming-of-age” story, an unabashedly joyful celebration of these characters, the lives they did live, and the lives many of them would have kept living under different circumstances. Plus, it benefits from indelible casting and writing, with an absolute wallop of a final episode. WATCH WATCH WATCH.
—Neil Krishnan, Creative Executive
Theater
If you’ve ever spent time thinking about what it’s like to be a content moderator, you should check out Anna Moench’s play SIN EATERS. The play centers on Mary Lee, who has recently started working as a content moderator for a new social media platform. She spends all day looking at graphically violent, sexual, and disturbing images, and before long it begins to take a toll on her psyche and her already-testy relationship with her husband. The digital production of the play was produced by Theatre Exile in Philadelphia, and is available to watch through this weekend.
—Julia Hammer, Creative Executive
Book
It should come as no surprise that the only book I have pre-ordered so far in 2021 is Hermione Lee’s new biography TOM STOPPARD: A LIFE. While Stoppard has always been one of my favorite playwrights, I didn’t know how fascinating his upbringing was! As a child, he fled from Czechoslovaki to Singapore, to India, and finally to England. He never went to college and wrote his first huge hit play, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, at age 29. He didn’t know his ancestors were Jewish until he reached middle-age, which led him down the rabbit hole that became his recent play LEOPOLDSTADT. And on top of that, he also ghost wrote all of INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE?! No wonder the book is 872 pages! (I wish I were joking but I really think it’s worth it anyway.)
—Julia Hammer, Creative Executive
Short Film
Yaya’s KEEP IT QUIET follows a charming veterinarian named Corey who keeps her depression a secret from everyone around her. As Corey starts to lose her grip, her cat becomes an unlikely foil to her suicide attempts. What drew me to KEEP IT QUIET more than anything was its quietly powerful examination of depression, which transcends the tired tropes we’ve come to expect in suicide narratives. The film expertly pulls us into the tunnel vision of Corey’s suicidal thoughts with its foreboding camerawork and immersive soundscapes, as she's continually disrespected by her family and bogged down by the weight of her job. It all makes for a uniquely experiential depiction of depression that I haven’t seen on film before; one that illustrates how often it hides in plain sight, right beneath the facades and pleasantries of everyday life. Between its sneakily dark humor and a magnetic central performance from Rusty Schwimmer, KEEP IT QUIET is both a promising debut for Yaya and a compelling shift in the way we depict mental illness in film. It won Best Live Action Short at the 35th Warsaw Film Festival, and had its US premiere at Palm Springs ShortFest last year.
—Neal Mulani, Executive Assistant