My Favorite Things This Week #24
The Friday High 5: On Multi-Dimensional Spiders, Basketball, and Masked Men
Every Friday I share 5 things that brought me joy this week. Also, high fives are inherently cool, and I think we can all agree Friday is the bestest day. Hence the Friday High Five. šš»
This weekās unrequited high five comes from Air Bud, which I have never seen because it looks stupid.
The hardest thing about this weekly newsletter is finding a new high five to use as the header image and jumping off point. You wouldnāt think that would be the case. Apparently people donāt usually high five in movies. Who knew?
Iāve taken to googling āhigh five in moviesā and looking for anything remotely familiar or interesting. I may need to rethink the central conceit of this Friday thing.
Anyway, have a great weekend! High five!
5 Things I Enjoyed This Week:
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The Book of Basketball
Oceanās 11
The Mask of Zorro
Predator
Youāll perhaps notice a strong movie theme this week. My daughter was in Florida as part of a High School band trip to Orlando. She did not, for some inexplicable reason, want her dad to chaperone. I think sheās afraid of making her friends jealous. Not every dad beatboxes Vanilla Iceās āHaving a Roniā. (Thatās an absolutely true story.)
Anyway. My son loves watching movies, so pretty much any time his sister is gone, he suggests movie night. Fine, twist my arm.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The long overdue (thanks Covid) sequel to the incredible Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is just as colorful and vivacious as the original. Itās not quite as good, and itās incompleteāspoiler warning, but it literally ends with āto be continued', which is just bad storytelling. The film also leans heavily into displays that border on psychedelic and detract from the story. But thatās just, like, my opinion, man.
Frankly, I was just relieved to see a good movie. We used to go to the movies at least once a month, pre-Covid. Weāve been maybe 4 times in the past year. Itās been a quantity issueāthere wasnāt much I considered worth seeing in the theaterābut also a quality one. Iām still a bit crushed at how awful Thor: Love and Thunder was, and how meh Doctor Strange 2 was.
Iām weird in that I donāt like doing traditional film reviews, which is sort of the default expectation for someone writing about pop culture. Iām a ponderer, or a slow thinker, if you wanna be crude. Iām the anti-hot take. My mode is generally to rewatch something a ton and see what surfaces. But hereās an abridged review: funny, heartwarming, mind-bending, incomplete. B+
If you want a more traditional, spoiler-free review, check out this one from talented cinephile Simon Dillon.
The Book of Basketball
I mentioned a couple weeks back that I picked up this Bill Simmons book at the library. Itās basically a 600-page ranking of NBA players, which sounds freaking boring. However, thatās not the case at all.
Simmons is probably the funniest sportswriter weāve ever had. He blends sports and pop culture in a way that is amusing and eminently readable. Heās also rather verbose. One of the initial concepts I had for All the Fanfare was āif Bill Simmons wrote Wait But Whyā but I thought that might be trimming my desired demographic too close to the quick. The Venn Diagram of people who read Simmonsā Page 2 on ESPN and also frequent Wait But Why is probably hella small.
I picked up Simmonsā book primarily for research purposes, to see what lessons I could glean for my own exhaustive analysis of Point Break, the product of which will be a book of its own (though not 600 pages!). Imagine my surprise to discover the book is absolutely riveting. I canāt wait to read it every night, and donāt wanna put it down (who needs sleep?). Even as a fan of Simmons, Iām honestly shocked.
Oceanās 11
I donāt know if this is the best heist movie, but itās certainly the most entertaining one (with apologies to Fast Five). It gets so much mileage out of just letting us be voyeurs as George Clooney and Brad Pitt hang out in a casino. Iām not really convinced either of them are really acting in this movie. And like, Iām a straight dude and all, but why is Pitt eating food so watchable? Eating is kinda gross when you think about the mechanics. But Pitt makes it look so damn cool, which means heās either one of the greatest actors of his generation or one of the raddest.
The Mask of Zorro
We were discussing watching the newish X-Men films, starting with First Class, which my son had yet to see. But then he said a funny thing: āI donāt really want to watch a superhero movie.ā Iāve previously written about how I am over the genre, but when a teenage boy who reads comics and owns action figures and plays videogamesāe.g. THE demographic for this stuffāsays heās out, youāve definitely overstayed your welcome.
Which is how we ended up watching this 90s gem. It actually reminds me a lot of the first Pirates of the Caribbeanāa fun and funny swashbuckling adventure with flintlock pistols and heaving bosoms. Also, Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones in their prime are ridiculously beautiful. Itās one of those things you know, but sort of forget until you rewatch something like this.
Predator
Iām in the midst of a thorough rewatch of Predator for my next big column. Thorough means pausing ever 2-3 minutes to jot down interesting thoughts or observations, based on whatās occurring on screen. The main theory Iām grappling with right now: is Predator a good bad movie? Itās iconic, and all that, but when you peal away the nostalgia and look past the bursting biceps, some of it is, dare I say, stupid.
We need go no further than the main character. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Dutch, an American special ops soldier. Let me reframe that: we have an Austrianāwith a notable accent!āplaying an American named Dutch. Heās a Major, but somehow can decide which missions his team does and does not take. Iāve never been in the military but Iām pretty sure the chain of command is not optional. Dutch leads a rescue team and clarifies several times that they are not killers. Meanwhile, Jesse āThe Bodyā Ventura carries around a Gatling gun.
Stupid or not, I love this movie.
What are you into at the moment? Leave a comment and let me know!
If you enjoyed this, please like it and share it with someone. Itās the best way to show your appreciation and it would mean a lot to me. :)
Predator is good for it's time. Like Bill and Ted's. Best appreciated more when you're younger and less cynical.
Currently watching Atlanta. Never saw it but thought I'll give it a go after completing Dave. Its brilliant. Season 2 and the Teddy Perkins episode...wow!
Yay for the return of the Fri Hi 5!! I read Simon's Spidey review and now after reading your solid B+ assessment, I might have to do a solo trip to the cinema and do a double feature of Spidey and Are You There God It's Me Margaret. I didn't watch the first one but I gather that one is more self-contained, so should be OK.
So speaking of movies both you and Simon liked, I guess I will have to finally watch Zorro which even I am surprised I never watched, being the Antonio Banderas fanclub member that I am; plus I also had a super girl crush on CZJ, still sort of do. Really admire both their staying power in the industry.
Basketball - I'm really into it these days since my Nuggets are in the Finals for the first time evah!! And they beat out my original hometown team Lakers to get there, so this playoff series has been super fan-tastic. Btw did you know my fave of all time Kareem has a Substack? I somehow discovered it on there and it's so good! I am guessing that he is for sure in the Top 5 in your book, let us know when you get there!