Time Pass & Good Recommendations
Also Some Things To Look Forward to...
Things To Look Forward To:
Documentary: LOLLA: The Story of Lollapalooza (Paramount +): One of my Brilliant Friends, Stacy Goldate edited this 3 part documentary on Lollapalooza, it came out in late May and is getting good reviews. I am not really a music festival person IRL but I do love a good music festival documentary (Fyre X2; Summer of Soul) and especially anything edited by Stacy!
Documentary: BRATS (Hulu June 13): This is for all GenXers - a documentary about the Brat Pack made by one of the members of the Brat Pack, now an experienced director, Andrew McCarthy. New York Magazine gave them this moniker in 1985 with this cover story, and fun story, I read all the stories about these actors but I was less of a Brat Pack /John Hughes movie teenager and more of a John Cusack movie teenager (shocking I know).
TV: The Bear Season 3 (Hulu/FX June 27): Not much to say here except that it’s happening and it’s a great show and getting better over the first two seasons.
TV: Bridgerton Part 2 (Netflix June 13): Still not into Colin but at least he woke the $#^$ up in the first 4 episodes. I liked Part 1’s storylines of other people we love like Will and his family, and Violet, and the real relationship, Penelope and Eloise. The soundtrack of orchestral pop covers was iconic, again, especially the carriage scene with a version that while at first “unhinged”, in the end was perfect. Netflix splitting it up into two 4-part drops was stupid and clearly a money grab.
Book: Do the Work: A Guide to Understanding Power and Change by Megan Pillow and Roxane Gay (June 18th): I’m always a Roxane Gay fan and this new guide written with Megan Pillow is very clear, brief and a good primer on power and how to hold, chase, use it (for good), disrupt and/or challenge it!
Recommendations: Good and Time Pass
I spent a lot of time in May and June on medical leave (all healthy now) and watched more than usual and the range of quality, performances and enjoyment was quite…wide. For this newsletter, I will focus on the good and time pass recommendations, but truly the most memorable are the WTF things I watched, which will be the next newsletter! For the non-desi readers, Time Pass is, as comedian Kanan Gill says, both an activity and a review.
Good: While We Watched (PBS Documentary): I’ll have a lot more to share on the Indian Election results released last week, but suffice it to say even with PM Narendra Modi re-elected, and his right wing Hindu nationalist party having a bad showing, there is still much to be concerned about in India. This documentary focuses specifically on the dwindling free press. It focuses on the iconic NDTV news anchor Ravish Kumar who refused to parrot nationalist Hindutva propaganda before the 2019 elections, that all the other growing TV “news” stations were doing, in their very frenetic, yelling/screaming, multiple squares on the screen way. This documentary is bittersweet and chilling; the threats he received, the fear of the staff of losing their jobs and worse, and how money and ratings, and fearmongering truly took over the Indian media. Watching Indian news is a nightmare, even on mute it stresses me out. I can see so much of this happening in the other Democracies including the US and around Europe. And sadly after this documentary came out, Kumar resigned in protest when the station was sold to a Modi Billionare supporter Gautam Adani. Even with the election results last week, this is a timely documentary to watch for all of us in the United States.
Good: We are Lady Parts Season 2 (Peacock TV Series): I told you last month this was #1 preview for May, and I watched it all on the day it dropped. The new music was EXCELLENT, the stories and friendships and conflicts (the pressure to sell out for success, the record business, generational conflict, para social relationships, and of cousre love!) were realistic, and while the show ended in a way that could be the end, it could also keep on going. Please please watch this show.
Time Pass: Freaknik (Hulu Documentary): This documentary does a great job of the history of how Freaknik started, with HBCU students from DC wanting to have a Spring Break destination that wasn’t Florida, to what it evolved to, and then the documentary does a mixed job of presenting the economic and racial tensions in addition to the misogyny and media and law enforcement reactions to it in the mid ‘90s.
Good: HitMan (Netflix Movie): This was a fun movie with Glen Powell who I haven’t wanted to like since he played John Glenn in Hidden Figures, but then always do. This movie got great reviews and I enjoyed it a lot and I think it might make you “get” the Glen Powell thing. It’s a mix of legal crime procedural, sexy action thriller and like need transformation, so there is a tone confusion. There’s great chemistry and Retta is in it!!
Time Pass: Maamla Legal Hai (Netflix TV Series): I watched this entire Indian series over two days. It’s a legal dramedy, and I look forward to Season 2 for another time pass even though it also made me do a lot of eye rolls! And one of the lead characters is Sujata so that’s always good for me!
Good: Black Twitter: A People’s History (Hulu Documentary): I recommended this last month, and I very much enjoyed it, but it was bittersweet - I laughed a lot and went back and read a lot of old twitter things while watching it, and it made me miss when Twitter was good and gave me actual news, and different perspectives. Anyway, my brilliant friends at Culture House are part of the Executive Producers that brought this to screens.
Time Pass: Thank You Goodnight - The BonJovi Story (Hulu Documentary): Another one for GenXers, the story of the band, the evolution his hair, and to be honest, I hadn’t really paid much attention to their music after It’s My Life, so got some new tunes to listen to.
Good: Laatpataa Ladies (Netflix Movie): This was a lovely movie produced by one of my fav Bollywood actors, now producer, Aamir Khan, so there’s always a message! It takes place in the early 2000s, and in rural India, where two brides accidentally leave with the wrong grooms after a train ride. Once you get past this rickety premise, although not totally unrealistic, it’s lovely, funny, and takes on societal issues and customs, good and bad.
Time Pass: Murder Mubarak (Netflix Movie): This was a funny, cutting, and edgy (sex wise) murder mystery with some great and iconic Indian actors, and some nepo- babies! The best part was the humor and stories that revealed the deep class divides in India, and in Delhi the most.