January 29, 2025

Media Diet: January 2025

A quick look at the movies, television shows, music, and books that have captured my attention over the past month.

Shrinking, Season 2
Harrison Ford is a treasure and nowhere is that more evident than in this show. And this season, he steals the spotlight even more. The show is an excellent showcase of everyone’s talents actually, not just Ford’s (Jessica Williams is especially good), with its witty writing, ridiculous but relatable plotting, and the heart it puts into every storyline. It’s a show that’s about more than therapy, and even more than family: it’s about the bonds we make with others, the care we extend to others while figuring out how to better care for ourselves. This season was even better than the first, and I can’t wait for the next one.

The Wild Robot
Everyone told me I would cry while watching this movie, and believe me: I sobbed. This movie was made to tug at your heartstrings, especially if you’re a parent; it helps that the animation was beautiful too.

Black Doves
Not everything needs to be art. Sometimes you want to indulge in a pulpy spy thriller set over Christmas in London with great acting that succeeds in hiding its thin storylines and outlandish set pieces. Not everything makes sense in this show, and the writing is a bit cartoony, but it’s a whole lot of fun—and sometimes you just want to be entertained.

All Fours
It’s a book about coming to terms with who you are and what you want at mid-life, but it’s not a novel that has much to say more than what’s in the character’s mind. There’s no over-arching message or moral or teaching, and for a book ostensibly about sex, none of it is really sexy or sensual. The first part of the book is intriguing—about re-creating space to create your own sense of place—but the book meanders after that. An interesting read, but not necessarily an entertaining one.

Emilia Perez
A film about choices, and chances, and the ability to re-write your legacy and to start again and do things differently. The themes are resonant and important, and they linger: I was thinking about this movie long after it was done. The music, however, was lacklustre, and the staging of the set pieces felt more haphazard than tightly composed. It was a movie with a message that got lost in some of the mess.

Canada’s Drag Race, Season 5
A mostly forgettable season. You could guess the top two finalists from the first episode, and most of the queens didn’t stand out to make them memorable. Still an enjoyable way to spend an hour every week, and production did a pretty good job in trying to keep things interesting so I never got bored, but overall this won’t be one we remember in the future.

A Man On the Inside
Michael Schur really gets me, you know? I never thought a show about a spy inside a seniors’ living facility would bring me this much joy, but that’s why Schur knows me better than I know myself. Yes, it can get a bit saccharine at times—what Schur show doesn’t?—but the laughs keeping coming and the characters are endearing. It’s a beautiful look at aging and community.

A Real Pain
There’s a moment in this movie when Jesse Eisenberg’s character talks about moving on with his everyday life because he realizes that his pain is no more exceptional than anyone else’s; it is a revelatory moment because it reminds us that our pain doesn’t have to be exceptional, but it needs to be felt. And that’s what this movie does: it forces you to feel, to allow yourself to feel, and to let you know that how you express the feeling of that pain will be different than others, but it is valid all the same. The performances are outstanding, and the writing is superb; this movie deserves all the accolades it will get. Most of all, though, it made me think of my grandmother, and I am grateful that it did.

Plus One
This movie had no right to be this good. I laughed, I laughed more, and I kept laughing within all the tenderness. Maya Erskine is an absolute delight and I will now watch everything she is in. Sure, the movie doesn’t deviate from existing tropes, but it’s such a fun watch that you don’t really care that you’ve seen it dozens of times before.

A few albums I’ve really been enjoying recently:

  • Colouring, Love To You, Mate: There is a joyfulness in the melancholy of this album, as if Jack Kenworthy wanted to celebrate something once lovely but now gone. The lyrics are often haunting, the music soothing and transcendant. A gorgeous album that I’ve been listening to on repeat.
  • Bad Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos: I can’t fully describe why I like it so much, but this might be my favorite Bad Bunny album yet. There aren’t any big club bangers (at least, not obviously) but the songs are joyful, full of vibrant rhythms and infectious beats. (I can’t speak much about its politics, but I know that’s an important part of the album as well.) What a gift this album is to all of us.
  • Madi Diaz, Weird Faith: I’m not sure why it took me so long to discover Madi Diaz but I am so glad that I have now. Her melodies are yearnful and her lyrics are soulful while also idiosyncratic. Her voice is full of emotion, drawing you in to the music and not letting go until you have felt what she feels. This is moving, compelling music, that I’ve kept on heavy rotation.

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