The Whetstone LATE 5/26/23
The Whetstone
A weekly newsletter where Maddie Weiner hones her thoughts about media and culture. Movies, books, television, music, and more.
Note: I thought I published this on Tuesday! My bad, y'all!
New episode of The Smartest People in the Room out today! I wish I could promise you all that the podcast will come out every 3 weeks, just like I wish I could promise that this newsletter would come out every week, but that's just not where Rachel or I am at right now in our lives - maybe when we're done with our Saturn returns in 2026!
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
If you have not yet seen the teaser trailer for Martin Scorsese's upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon, then you need to stop what you're doing RIGHT NOW and watch it:
Rachel and I discuss the teaser on the podcast this week, but ultimately there's not much to say about it beyond the fact that I haven't been as excited about a movie since The Power of the Dog (the rightful winner of Best Picture in 2022). But one thing I've been thinking about, especially after Deadline released an interview with Scorsese that went viral last week, is why the final portion of the interview, in which Scorsese appeared to bemoan his old age and lack of time, went so viral. I think a quality of Scorsese's filmography that gets overlooked is something he actually talks about in an earlier part of the interview:
I did The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. The whole point of that movie was to start a dialogue about something which is still important to me, which is the nature — the true nature — of love, which could be god, could be Jesus. I’m not being culturally ambivalent here, it’s what’s in us. Is god in us? I really am that way; I can’t help it. I like to explore that. I wanted a dialogue on that. But I didn’t know about all that yet.
The reason he can't be squashed by the various haters he has accumulated (Marvel stans, people who think he only makes gangster movies, etc.) and the reason he is uplifted as Film Twitter's "grandpa" is because he is a person who has in many ways dedicated his life to love and to cinema. It's hard to think of another person who has done more for the endorsement and distribution of world cinema than Martin Scorsese, not to mention the huge variety of independent cinema that he executive produces these days. He loves movies, and encourages the study of film history for both filmmakers and film fans alike.
But beyond all that, this is an artist who makes movies about love, most often about what happens when a man needs love, wants love, and the pain that is inflicted on himself and others when love proves unreachable to him. His movies are actively about the importance of love in a human life and in a community and what happens when it's absent - greed, violence, tribalism, loneliness. His movies are about other stuff, too, but, I don't know - I just think that has something to do with why Scorsese has been such a force, such a topic of conversation, such a mascot of film for the past 50 years.
TERENCE DAVIES
On Mother's Day I watched The Long Day Closes with my mom (her first watch, not mine) and was reminded of the power of Terence Davies's unique cinematic style. Cinema is a language, and Davies is a master of using that language to evoke the sensation and experience of memory. He puts films together almost like a collage - music is a huge part of it, as is audio from other films and archival footage.
The Long Day Closes.
If you've never watched a Terence Davies film, I urge you to remedy that situation as soon as possible: The Long Day Closes is on the Criterion Channel; his newest film, Benediction, is on Hulu; and A Quiet Passion, about Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon), Sunset Song, and The Deep Blue Sea, starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston, are all on Amazon Prime - so you have no excuse!
Distant Voices, Still Lives
This Week I'm...
WATCHING: Starship Troopers and Dune
Two different sci-fi depictions of fascism! I've been watching quite a bit of sci-fi lately - I enjoyed Starship Troopers immensely, but Dune left me a bit cold in comparison. I really appreciated its mystical imagery, the Bene Gesserit, etc. but something about the pacing or the acting or the cinematography just couldn't keep me as interested. I'm hoping the next installment grabs me more.
READING: My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Finally finished reading Otessa Moshfegh's 2018 novel, about a young woman who attempts to use prescription medication to sleep for an entire year - I really liked it, although there were points I actually had to take a break from reading it because... well, I struggle with insomnia, and there were a few times when, reading so much about the main character's fixation on sleep, I actually started getting too in my head about it and couldn't fall asleep myself! Margot Robbie holds the film rights to My Year of Rest and Relaxation and I can't help thinking that a Sofia Coppola adaptation could be fabulous.
LISTENING: Afterpoem by Faten Kanaan
I'm obsessively listening to this new album by experimental composer Faten Kanaan - it's strange and mysterious and a little spooky and is actually proving really inspiring to me for a new project I'm currently researching.
I'm going to try to get better about doing this on a weekly basis! Thanks for reading.