Hello, Tuesday
You'll find enclosed, Toy Story, Hayley Kiyoko, and Doug Jones...
Checking in…
Summertime is afoot, and it’s getting warm out here in California. I’ve spent the last few days sleeping with the fan on, taking my coffee iced, and watching the New York Knicks kick ass in the NBA finals. With many more hot days and a couple of travel plans on the horizon, I suspect that the summer fun is only just now getting started.
This week’s episode of my podcast ‘What Was That About?’ is available now! We’re talking about Toy Story to coincide with the release of Toy Story 5. I have measured expectations for this sequel, but by all pre-screening accounts, it seems critics are impressed so far.
As I approach my 26th birthday, I’ve been reminiscing on my childhood quite a bit. These bouts of nostalgia always reaffirm for me the love of the things I’m currently devoting myself to— for instance, movies were incredibly influential to me growing up. I practically lived in the Star Wars universe from the ages of seven to ten, and each time a new Pixar film hit theaters, it would absorb me so entirely that I would replay scenes in my head for days afterwards.
No matter how the newest Toy Story is received by critics and audiences, it’s really been made for those kids. I hope they find joy and imagination in it.
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Songs That Should Be In Movies
Every week, I highlight one track from my behemoth Spotify Playlist.
Hayley Kiyoko is a fascinating artist— she started on the Disney Channel, starring in original television movies like Lemonade Mouth— after which she launched a successful music career, becoming an LGBTQ+ icon and advocate. But her aspirations haven’t stopped there. This week, her directorial debut hits theaters, the film Girls Like Girls, which shares a name with her 2015 song Girls Like Girls, off her album This Side of Paradise.
Demons is among the more memorable of her tracks, flaunting a mid-2010s Twenty One Pilots punk edge to accent its more pop proclivities. It has appeared in multiple television episodes, but has yet to make it onto a film’s soundtrack album.
You can follow the full playlist here.
The Movies Watched List
I watch a lot of movies. A LOT. Here’s the highlights from the past week:
This week I watched…
Mrs. Miniver A distinguished and well-made drama which is at its best when it contrasts the comforts of family with the looming, omnipresent terror of war. Most frightening of all is a scene at about an hour and forty minutes, as the Miniver family attempts to remain distracted while German bombs are dropped overhead. Director Wyler and cinematographer Ruttenberg plunge the family into darkness as the scene continues, the sounds of the bombs growing louder and louder— I honestly feared for the characters lives against my better judgement, despite knowing it simply wasn't that kind of picture. The rest of it is cut from fairly sentimental cloth, and I confess I found much of it to be relatively dull. Although the finale contains a remarkable special-effects sequence with some thrilling airplane crashes and an emotional ending. ★★★1/2
Disclosure Day There’s really two very complicated things going on here:
1. Steven Spielberg is one of the most practiced, efficient, captivating filmmakers alive. His proficiency is visible in every angle, every movement, and every framing. On one level, this is a very calculated movie.
2. Steven Spielberg is a passionate, hungry, reckless storyteller. This is a subject he is extremely invested in, but he definitely has every intention of making this his capital-F Final Alien Picture before he passes away. The trouble is; at every turn, he is discovering that he still has so much left to say. On that second level, this is as messy a movie as you could ever conceivably get out of Steven.
Disclosure day is a timely movie, an out of date movie, a reaction, and an anticipation all rolled into one. It doesn’t work quite right. But it still feels monumental. I loved it. I truly loved it. And I can’t fully comprehend why. Maybe the Williams score got into my endocrine system. Maybe Emily Blunt is a generational talent and I’ve been overlooking her for far too long. Maybe I’m a sap. Maybe empathy will heal us. Maybe we’re not alone.
Listen. ★★★★
Casablanca As if I’m going to have anything uniquely insightful to say about Casablanca. It’s Casablanca. ★★★★★
For more of Elliot’s film reviews, follow him on Letterboxd.
Curation + Inspiration
Fascinating videos about writing, film, or anything under the sun...
This week, I want to highlight this recent video from longtime film history treasure-trove Turner Classic Movies. As a big fan of monster movies, I’ve covered Vampires extensively on this blog. Last October, I broke down the history of the famous bloodsucking archetype in my retrospective listicle: Even Undead, Sex Sells. This year, My Film History series covered Nosferatu when we worked our way through the formative films of the 1920s...
“Max Schreck pretty much invented the dance-like stiffened physicality of the cinematic vampire with this character— his stance, the silhouettes, the poses, the slow yet deliberate movement.” - Teaching Myself Film History (1921-1929)
Meanwhile Doug Jones is an immensely underrated talent in the industry, and hearing his perspective on the formative work of Max Schreck is a real treat. You can see Jones sans special-effects makeup in the new film The Strawberry, which I am proud to say I worked on as a script consultant!
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And that’s it! Thanks so much for reading Under the Paperweight, I’m glad you’re here. Please consider subscribing if you haven’t already, and I’ll see you soon. ♥