Chloé Zhao's Hamnet is a top contender for the Oscars. But while many found themselves weeping for large chunks of the film, I left dry-eyed. So did my guest on today’s podcast, Angelo Muredda. (And we’re easy criers. So we tried to figure out why this film didn’t work for us.) Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel — which imagines a part of Shakespeare’s life we know little about, including the courtship with his wife, the death of their son Hamnet, and the possible autobiographical links to...
15 days ago • 1 min read
I recently learned about the term “Second Screen.” It describes a kind of TV made to be watched while you’re also on your phone.(Think: easy-to-follow dialogue, minimal visual complexity, no real consequences for tuning out.) And I’ve noticed I’m getting trained by it. I’ll start a show like Matlock or Industry with the intention of paying attention. By the final episodes, I’m just listening to it on my phone while I make dinner. My phone is in my pocket. And honestly, it seems like nobody...
26 days ago • 1 min read
I have a theory that when you see a film that changes you — that makes you feel seen in a whole new way or reorganizes how you think — you remember where you were when it happened. You remember the cinema you saw it in (or the couch you were sitting on). You remember who you were with. When a film feels like a discovery, you remember the exact conditions that made it possible for you to even see that movie. Maybe most crucially, you remember where you were in life at that moment that made you...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
On Tuesday, I’m offering The Short Take — a free, one-time-only live workshop I’ve run once before — but I’m not sure I’ll ever run it again. We’ll be watching a 22-minute fiction-documentary hybrid short from 2017— the year Britain marked the 50th anniversary of decriminalizing homosexuality. The BFI commissioned this film, along with several others, to look back on that history. The film is thought-provoking and layered — and invites you to really look at how queer history is told, and who...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Every year, I seek out queer and trans stories at festivals — and I love when they spark new questions or make me rethink something I thought I understood. This year at TIFF, the films got me thinking about questions that I’m sure will shape the discussion about queer and trans stories at Living Out Loud next week: How much does who tells a story (the director, the writer, the actors) affect whether we read it as being told from a queer or trans perspective? (Again, cf. an LGBTQ+-themed...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Film, TV, and theatre have taught me more about the HIV/AIDS pandemic — and its ripple effects on queer lives today — than I ever learned in school. Of course, I saw mainstream hits like Milk (2008) and Dallas Buyers Club (2013). But it was independent and international films outside the mainstream that really did the heavy lifting. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how I ended up learning all about it, but these are a few of the films and shows from the 2010s that really stuck with me: Pride...
3 months ago • 2 min read
I recently discovered a tiny pasta shop a few blocks from my apartment (aptly named Tiny Market), where every weekend, they offer a different fresh pasta for takeout. They sell out fast. And if you snooze, they may never bring that particular recipe back. So time and again, I've found myself trying out pastas that I never would have ordered at a restaurant. I'm still thinking about a pasta I took a chance on a month ago, and loved enough to go back for twice in three days. Now, they sell...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Welcome to your July edition of The Globetrotting Watchlist. This month, I'm recommending a couple recent festival gems that are now on VOD. Whether you’re a longtime Globetrotting Watchlist subscriber or Film Adventurer/Cinephile Member, or just finding your way here, thank you. Your support helps to keep Seventh Row nonprofit, ad-free, and fiercely independent. What's Inside the Globetrotting Newsletter This month, I'm recommending: A Palestinian film about the limbo of...
4 months ago • 2 min read
I was about 30 seconds into my first watch of August's Reel Ruminators pick when I thought… I am SO here for this. It starts with a teenage boy standing on a desk, singing a folk song and egging his classmates to join in. And it’s electric. You want to know: Who is this consummate performer? And what kind of coming-of-age film opens with a moment like that — as if plucked from a musical? The subtitles are the song lyrics... It’s a striking opening — all in one gripping long take — that tells...
5 months ago • 2 min read
