Good Monday Stack December 15th
Good evening and greetings from East London.
A Monday Good Sunday stack this time around as I had an essay due at noon and submitted at 11:59 AM. Old habits die hard I suppose.
This was not the first assignment to have suffered from being due in proximity my birthday, but it’ll likely be the last. If so, cheers to all the professors I’ve let down.
Jokes aside, writing this now feels like getting back on a bike for the first time after falling. That essay was fine, but far from my best writing. I’m sure it had at least half a dozen grammar and formatting issues I didn’t catch in my rush to avoid a late penalty, and I know deep down it was really two essays I stitched together at the 11th hour. Could have been better, but now it’s time to Sunday stack. Let’s ride.
I had my first solo birthday in a few years this past Friday. The last time I’d done one was for 24. That 12/12, I woke up, got myself a Sausage Egg and Cheese on Everything from the Brooklyn Standard, got a tattoo at the first place that took me, then walked around the Whitney. This time around, no tattoo, still a nice breakfast, then seven hours at the movie theater.
Moving to a new place, spending much of the last few months situating myself to being back in school in a new city, it was important to me to spend a day on my own terms. While I was rewarded with renewed faith in my relationship with myself, it was a lonely day. It wasn’t my weekly call with my best friend from college that I talked to someone I knew. Tell you something else, the birthday text messages were a little sweeter this year. I miss my friends back in New York, and am grateful for the new ones here in London.
The most gratifying moment of the day outside of the “American Girl” needle drop in One Battle After Another (yes, even on third viewing), came on my bike ride home. Made it all the way from Central London back home with no navigation. It’s taken me a while to settle on a route I liked and another while more to memorize it, but it feels good to keep stitching London together bit by bit.
All in all, good birthday, a fitting capstone to a year that ended across the ocean from where it began. A year mostly on my own terms, with a possibly concerning amount of movies consumed.
What I’m Watching (and where)
Spy Games @ Home
How on earth was Robert Redford this cool in his mid-60s? The only thing that could have made this better if I had stumbled upon it playing on TNT one night in high school and watched it with my dad. My second Tony Scott movie after Top Gun, his hyper-active camerawork gives energy to the dialogue scenes. Way over the top in the best way possible.
One Battle After Another @ The BFI IMAX
I’ll be writing about this more in an end of year movie round up, so will say only that this was my favorite viewing yet. Incredible in IMAX. Also got to watch the five minute The Odyssey teaser—fans of Jon Bernthal saying “let me tell you something” get excited.
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair @ Picturehouse Central
My first ever Tarantino! I’m not usually a fan of gorefests but this was an exception. The hand-to-hand action is as good as it gets, Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu both give fun, watchable performances in addition to being, I’ll say it, quite good looking! I enjoyed this more as a combined product than I think I would have taking them in individually. The Ringer’s Sean Fennessey put it well in his review here.
Inside Man @ Home
I meant to just watch the first twenty or so minutes of this before bed and just couldn’t put it down. Kept me up past two in the morning. I really should have known better, a Spike Lee New York heist movie starring Denzel Washington is about as hypnotizing a prospect to me as exists.
What I’m Reading
Train Dream by Dennis Johnson
A novella turned Netflix film generating some awards buzz about an anonymous logger in the Pacific Northwest whose life sees a changing America pass by as he gets by. I watched the film last week and came away disappointed. While beautiful to look at, the story never quite clicked though I desperately wanted it to. Reading the text was a different story. Rougher around the edges, sincere and appreciative of some beautiful country, it had real a real grit to it.