Welcome! It was the week when a former president left his union. It was the week when Disney finally decided to let Cinderella return. And it was the week when the Golden Globes were as Globes-y as ever. Let's get to it. |
Opening Argument: Ripped From The Headlines |
I followed the recent stories about Reddit and GameStop with the casual attention of someone who doesn't particularly follow or want to follow the specifics of the stock market. As it was explained in several outlets I trust, however, the story that emerged was, in broad strokes, this: Certain hedge funds (Big Guys, let's call them) in effect bet money that the stock price of GameStop would go down. A bunch of Reddit users (Little Guys, the story goes) got together and bought the stock specifically in order to make the hedge funds lose that bet and lose their money. To understand it better, please consult actual experts. This story became fodder for film multiple times before most people had time to understand it. There was talk of a movie deal, and another movie deal, and maybe another movie deal, and rumors about book deals. All this within about ten days of the whole thing kicking off, and according to a story in The New York Times, now the film rights are driving battles between people who were involved, changing the shape of the story. Will the movie include the part where people are angry about ... the movie? It makes me extremely uncomfortable when things are picked up for film that are still going on. It means someone is going to start trying to conceptualize what kind of movie it's going to be before we know what kind of event it actually was. No less than Adam McKay, who made The Big Short, was quoted saying "it's hard not to love" the Reddit traders. It's so early to make that assessment, though. What this accomplished, who these guys were, what the balance was between winning and losing ... isn't all that still going to be investigated and ironed out? It's not that I'm surprised that people want to make this movie; you can see this movie in your head. It has shades of The Social Network, but also Ocean's Eleven and Rounders and Trading Places and on and on. But if there wind up being multiple movies, there will be a race to get started, and that will mean a race to fix in place an attitude -- a point of view -- about what happened. How does the continuing story figure into that? Developing an attitude toward an event that isn't over yet seems like a really good way to be wrong. It'll get you thinking about how this is probably not the only recent news event that's going to be adapted as quickly as humanly possible, perhaps at the expense of a full examination. There's precedent for not waiting for the story to end; All The President's Men (the book) came out before Nixon resigned. That story was certainly ongoing, so maybe it's a concern that will turn out to be no concern at all. But boy, things move fast. |
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| | I’ve been listening to the podcast Norco ‘80, which tells the story of a California bank robbery. It’s true crime but also not true crime, in that it’s as invested in what caused this event and how it affected things like policing as it is in the crime itself. It’s well worth a listen. It’s a good week for a reminder that when you hear about how wild it is that something wasn’t nominated for a particular award, that can be a great opportunity to check it out if you haven’t already. This week, you might apply that to the remarkable series I May Destroy You, still available streaming from HBO, which missed out on Golden Globe nominations a lot of us expected it to receive. Michaela Coel’s work as an actor, a writer and a director is really extraordinary. (Be aware: it’s a story that’s very centrally about sexual assault.) If you haven’t yet seen the Netflix series Blown Away, which is a glass-blowing reality show, you might give it a try. I find it a little more stressful than the baking shows, because when something beautiful made of glass shatters, that’s ... very upsetting. But it’s generally methodical and there isn’t too much interpersonal drama (there’s a little, but not too much), and they do make some beautiful work. Two seasons are streaming now. Another bit of news: The pandemic has kept us home for close to a year, and maybe your viewing habits are stuck in a rut; I know ours sometimes are. So we're teaming up with the Movie Therapy podcast. If you need some recommendations, send us a question via voice memo at pchh@npr.org. Note that we're talking about asking for recommendations rather than offering them, but we always welcome your recommendations via our regular social channels. |
CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images |
On Monday’s show, I talked to Chris Klimek — who’s both a theater critic and a former personal assistant to the great Ricky Jay, a giant of magic — about the Hulu adaptation of Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself, which is and is not a magic show. On Tuesday’s show, Glen sat down with critic Jourdain Searles to talk about some great Cicely Tyson performances, in the wake of Tyson’s death at 96. On Wednesday’s show, I was joined by friends of PCHH Kat Chow, Mallory Yu, and Tobin Low to talk through a lot of mixed feelings about Netflix’s Bling Empire. On Thursday’s show, Aisha and I shared some impressions from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, including some of the best things we saw in the last week that you’ll be able to see over the next year (potentially year-plus!). And on Friday’s show, Aisha talked to Walter Chaw, Audie Cornish and Sidney Madden about the film Malcolm & Marie, which Aisha also wrote about. I wrote about the new Netflix series Firefly Lane, which adapts, not very successfully, a very successful novel about two best friends, played here by Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke. And Stephen was on New Music Friday over at NPR Music |
What's Making Us Happy This Week (and other show notes) |
Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: |
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