Film

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) - dir. Stanley Kramer

Incredible blocking and camerawork further improve a litany of compelling dialogue. I love the structure, consistently introducing new characters and new perspectives on a simple situation that is depicted with attention to each passing second.

Witness (1985) - dir. Peter Weir

Harrison Ford is a hell of a leading man. We already knew that, of course, but man. He’s good. This neo-noir finds Ford playing a detective undercover in an Amish community after a young boy witnesses a police officer’s murder. What follows is Ford at his best as an authority figure and romantic lead, with a killer climax.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) - dir. Laura Poitras

There’s been a decent amount of media about the ramifications of the Sackler family dynasty on American and particularly Appalachia, but Poitras’s documentary focuses on the life of Nan Goldin and protests she led with follow addicts (a group known at PAIN: Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) to remove the Sacker name from the art world and famous international museums. It serves as an archive of Goldin’s rebellious art and her rebellious life. Last year’s best documentary.

Rocky Movies

I watched all the Rocky movies in the course of a few weeks in preparation for Creed III, which sadly started leaving theaters before I got fully caught up. Going through all of these was a really fun ride, from revisiting the first one that I had already seen a couple years prior to the litany of sequels, all of which I was able to find at least some enjoyment in. For those interested in a ranking, here goes.

1. Rocky

2. Creed

3. Rocky II

4. Creed II

5. Rocky IV

6. Rocky III

7. Rocky Balboa

8. Rocky V

Music

I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff that I’ve liked but not loved, and I’ve been slow to catch up on new albums. Honorable mentions for this month should go to JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown’s Scaring the Hoes and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Willy and the Poor Boys. I do have one great album for this month’s column.

Ruston Kelly - The Weakness (2023)

I didn’t expect Kelly to come back after Shape & Destroy with an album somehow more dour and impressive, but damn if he didn’t pull it off. Don’t get it twisted, The Weakness is ultimately about perseverance, but a lot of Kelly’s songwriting finds him stuck in depressive ruts, fixated on both the situations happening around him and extremely niche distractions that feel similar to what being stuck in a depressive void does to you when you just want to think about anything else. Album of the year thus far.

TV

Succession Seasons 1-3 (2018-2021)

I’ll certainly have more to say about this and the final season of Barry in next month’s column, but I largely avoided Succession until its upcoming final season. Since part of my soul lives on Twitter I knew I’d never be able to watch the show with fresh eyes if I didn’t watch season 4 live, so I flew through the first three in preparation and found something fantastic. But as I said, I’ll keep word on this short before the finale. Until then…