#89 Succinct edition
Issue #89 Succinct edition
22nd November 2023
Hey gang.
I'm still ill.
So welcome to another succinct edition of the newsletter.
Take care out there. Make good choices.
Rule of three
[Director] Hirokazu Kore-eda
Kore-eda is one of my favourite directors and my admiration for him has only grown since studying his work for Improv Cinema Club. Shoplifters might be his most well-known film but I'd also recommend After the Storm, Our Little Sister and Still Walking. If you like slow, nuanced depictions of family dynamics and wonderful lingering shots of people cooking together, you'll love them all.
[TV] Extraordinary
Completely missed this when it came out so I'm including Extraordinary here in case it passed you by too. Jen is the only non-powered person in a world where everyone else becomes superhuman at the age of 18. It's exceptionally dark, exceptionally crude and exceptionally written. PLUS, you don't get to see many British people with superpowers - now suddenly everyone in London has them.
[Books] Sequels
Over the last few months I've recommended:
Kings of the Wyld (middle-age men get the band back together but they're monster-killing mercenaries not rock stars)
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (non-binary tea monk meets sassy robot in the woods)
Legends & Lattes (orc starts a coffee shop and invents cinnamon rolls with a rat)
I loved all three for their humour, radical hope and genre-bendiness. Well, now there's sequels to all of 'em.
Bloody Rose (you've seen the old rockers, now let's follow a band at the height of their fame)
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (the further adventures of the tea monk and sassy robot pal)
Books & Bonedust (prequel where the orc works in a bookshop)
Spotlight
Liz Allen is coming to the UK in March and I'm working with her to offer an exclusive three hour workshop on 14th March 2024 7-10pm (Venue TBC) called From the Backline.
Please allow me three bullet points to convince you you need to buy a ticket.
Liz is one of the top three improv teachers I've ever studied under in the 20+ years I've been taking classes.
She won the Del Close Coach of the Year Award so many times, it was renamed the Liz Allen Excellence in Teaching Award.
She coached Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Mike Birbiglia, Chris Gethard, Kate Micucci and Tami Sagher to become The Commune - the fictional improv team at the centre of Don't Think Twice. They actually played for a year as a team in LA before making the film.
Click here to book your tickets. I can't see any way this class doesn't sell out pretty much immediately, so act fast, true believer.
Radio contact
Clive is our handyman. He comes around and fixes all the DIY disasters I've created. Here is Radio meeting him for the first time and then again this week.