Don’t you just love this time of year when nighttime starts at 4 pm? Welcome to seasonal depression season diva! I guess all this extra darkness has me in the movie mood because I watched 6 movies this week. Did someone say cinephile? Perhaps. Did someone say spiller of the beans? Yes, see below:
“For Good” from Wicked: This has been stuck in my head for a week. The 20th anniversary of Wicked was on October 30th, something I totally forgot to mention in last week’s newsletter. I watched the video of Reneé Rapp and Lizzy McAlpine covering For Good one time (1!) and I have yet to get the song out of my head. I would include the video here, but I fear if I listen to it again it will make my problem worse. Google it.
Priscilla: When I heard that Sofia Coppola would be directing a biopic about Priscilla Presley, it became my most anticipated movie of the year. Last month, I read “Elvis and Me,” the book that the film is based on. My main takeaways from the book were that Elvis was a freak and that I needed to see this movie ASAP. So one could say I walked into the AMC on Tuesday with very high expectations, and I am happy to report that it lived up to them. I left the theater stunned with how great Coppola is at subtly capturing the feelings of girlhood, and how beautiful her movies are in a way that often goes underappreciated by male critics. I think she is similar to Greta Gerwig in that way. I keep trying to imagine what Sophia Coppla’s Barbie would have been like, as well as how Gerwig would have told Priscilla’s story.
The Met Gala 2024 theme: The theme for the next Met Gala will be “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” I love when Andrew Bolton picks a theme that confuses the general public. I’m getting Camp flashbacks! The press release from the Met said the theme will "explore notions of rebirth and renewal, using nature as a metaphor for the impermanence of fashion."
The exhibit will feature historically important garments from the museum’s permanent collection which are too fragile to ever be worn again. These will be the “sleeping beauties” that the title refers to, and will be accompanied by more contemporary garments that echo them in some way. The exhibition will be broken into 3 zones (land, sea, sky), and will aim to “heighten our engagement with these masterpieces of fashion by evoking how they feel, move, sound, smell and interact when being worn,” according to Met CEO Max Hollein. I am personally very intrigued by the concept of pumping in custom scents. I wonder if the gift shop will sell candles…
The dress code and co-chairs for the gala have yet to be announced, but TikTok will be the sponsor this year. Will it be an influencer bonanza? Hope not!
Liza’s bean necklace: If you spend any time around me, you might notice the Elsa Peretti Bean necklace that I wear all the time. I rarely take it off. I obviously was aware of Liza Minnelli’s friendship with the late designer, as well as her enduring devotion to wearing Peretti’s designs. After all, it is hard to find a picture of Liza not wearing a bone cuff on each wrist.
I had never seen her in any of the bean pieces though, until this week. I was watching a documentary about the golden age of MGM musicals, and suddenly Liza appeared wearing a larger version of my bean necklace. Twins!
The CFDA award’s chicken potpies: As I read Vanessa Freidman’s writeup of the CFDA awards in the New York Times, one tiny detail stuck out to me like a giant red flag. She wrote, “there was a lot of air-kissing and oohing about outfits going on over the chicken potpies.” Now I need everyone to pump the brakes for a second. Chicken potpies? First, I have always been under the impression that it is two words (as in “pot pie”) so I guess we truly never stop learning. More importantly, why are we serving that? There are very few foods that I am adamantly against, but one of them is a chicken potpie. So the thought of everyone at this extremely glamorous event eating chicken potpies is very disturbing to me. So disturbing in fact, that I went looking for photographic evidence of the potpies, and as you can see below, I found what I went searching for.
Aubrey Plaza living with Patti LuPone: somebody get the cameras, this is the roommate reality show we deserve.
The Holdovers: this film is excellent. Watching it feels like curling up in a leather chair with a book and a hot drink while the snow falls outside the day after Christmas. It’s a true dramedy focused on just a few characters’ experiences during a boarding school’s Christmas break in 1970. Its simplicity is refreshing in the current cinema landscape. No superpowers, no celebrities, no bombs, no IP. Just phenomenal storytelling, beautiful shots, and some of the best performances of the year.
Nicki Minaj on the cover of December’s Vogue: While I am really tired of the “celebrity standing in front of beige background” formula that American Vogue loves, this is a gorgeous shot of Nicki Minaj.
Tiffany Pollard calling Omarosa a “cock-sucking, cum-guzzling Republican cunt”: The Quotable Queen of reality television has done it again.
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Well, with that said, Bye, diva!