Happy 2024, friends!
Wow, can’t believe it’s already time to look back. I definitely get emotional at this time of year, in a happy and sad way. Luckily it comes on the heels of my beloved cozy season, so if I’m going to be anxious, let it be in cashmere and sweat pants.
In this Letter, I’ve got a lot of resolutions, end-of-year thoughts, but also a lot of thoughts on things I watched in the past couple of weeks. But first, here’s my new planner. I’m so in love with it, lol. The tag line is something I’ve been saying to myself a lot lately that kinda encapsulates what I do and what I think others do when they consume my work which is to… Imagine more, or Imagine MORE. (So like more frequently and/or the possibilities of more in any sense of the word.) Our imaginations and capacity for abstract thought are such powerful tools that we take for granted.
I know, it’s so darn cute. But lots more to get to. Here we goooooo!
What I Wrote (in 2023)
Several drafts of the studio feature
Sold my first pilot and started writing it
Wrote a new original pilot script
I think I did and didn’t reach my 2023 goals - I sold something (yay!) but I didn’t really try hard on the novel because it quickly became not achievable when the strike was called. But I did pivot and write a pilot, much more achievable.
My writing goals for 2024 are to sell the pilot I wrote (not in my control) to get a greenlight on the studio feature (also not in my control), get a job, and to write something else. Purposefully vague and open-ended 🙂
What I Watched (in 2023)
My full 2023 watch diary is up and ready to see!
Summary
Total Films watched: 55
New Films watched: 39
New Films completed: 37
Shows watched (not counting rewatches): 23
Seasons completed (counting rewatches): 14
Takeaways
Wow, everything is about 50% less than last year. Last year I watched sooo much stuff because I had a tiny baby pinning me to the couch. This year, despite a concerted effort to watch more, I watched less! Which means I was busy doing other stuff. Like traveling. And writing. Very interesting.
Resolutions
My aim is to watch 100 films in 2024, 50 of them new.
I’ve also been thinking a lot lately about what happens after I watch something. My favorite thing to do is to talk about it with someone and hear their thoughts. To optimize opportunities for that, I want to make good and start my movie club (like a book club so I can have people to talk to after we watch stuff). And I want to go to the movies more and go with people so I can talk to them after we watch stuff.
What I Watched (Since Last Letter)
The Crown s6 - thoughts below
The Color Purple (‘85)
Gilded Age s2, eps 1-2. (Not for me. I tried!)
Percy Jackson - solid! I only read the first third of the first book — I was too old to be the target audience when this book came out, but reading it as an adult, I was struck by how scary the beginning of the book is. Like, the stakes are high. And so far the show has done an excellent job of translating that tone. The performances are really great. Virginia Kull is awesome. Got me teary. Prestige-level talent not watered down because the audience is young!
Leave the World Behind - the boat thing was incredible
Poor Things - thoughts below.
Maestro- slowly making my way through. Could be Netflix/small screen-itis. (I was bored most of the way through West Side Story ‘21 but also watched as a screener on my lap top, shame on me. ) Could also be I don’t like Bradley Cooper films, even though I like him in general? Tried but never finished A Star is Born 🤷🏽♀️
Elemental - ugh. Eye roll every time Disney tries to comment on race/ethnicity and it’s so awkward at best, deeply problematic at most. And yet they can’t give us another black princess?
Good Omens S1, Eps 4-6
Saltburn - A fun, salacious watch for the first half, though not as salacious as it thinks it is. It falls apart at the end. Which is a bummer because I think there is a really subversive movie somewhere inside this movie, it just needed some refining to reveal itself more. It’s confused, either about what it is or the director knows exactly what it is and is confused about how to tell the audience what it is.
The Crown
Okay. S6 is really good. I’m sad it’s over. I really liked the Diana stuff. I don’t mind that the Queen was backgrounded for a few episodes, because the show’s creative exercise has always been about The Crown and Diana effected people’s perception of and the future of the monarchy. Lest you forget, season 1 does not open on Elizabeth. Because she does not yet wear the crown. It opens on Jared Harris coughing blood into a bathroom sink.
Part 2 of s6 was also fine. Peter Morgan made a compelling half-season and a really boring other half. Anything to do with Kate, William, Harry, sooooo boring. S1’s societal corollaries were Churchill’s secretary being hit by a bus in smog on the way to work because the city’s pollution was killing people. S6 was Kate and William living the world’s most boring rom-com. How far we’ve fallen.
But everything else with Elizabeth and Margaret was quite touching. It was the least successful season in terms of casting and delivering compelling societal corollary/commentary, but it certainly could have been worse.
When I finished, I do what I do after I finish every season of the Crown. I start season 1. The crown-season 1 was sooooo fucking good. You could throw it on the big screen and it would have won Oscars. The final few episodes lacked a lot of the cinematic verve and detail over the course of the season. Probably a directorial thing but also, maybe Peter Morgan was just bored by the end? The way S1, ep 2 ends on Eileen Atkins curtseying like a ghost is an image that haunts me and I think about so often. It’s why I love the show.
It reminded me of my gripe with Downton Abbey. Season 1 of DA is fucking vicious. In the best way. And it becomes more and more a carbon copy of itself. I mean in the Crown s1, remember Tommy Lascelles? He was fucking scary. Like a fucking Steven knight gangster. A villain at Elizabeth’s side The stakes and characters in s1 felt more varied than just does mummy like me.
One thing I can’t stop thinking about is that I noticed in s6 Elizabeth is having the whole “the old Elizabeth is dead” talk with herself. In s6 she says Elizabeth Windsor was dead and in S1 it’s Elizabeth Mountbatten is dead. This really bumped me. This show is usually so meticulous. So I was surprised to find this inconsistency with it’s own earlier episodes. Like, did Peter Morgan forget she took her husband’s name even though it was a big deal?
I mean, watching s6 was worth it for this moment:
Overall, I found it very touching and sometimes boring. Wanted it to contain more commentary on the world. What’s sad is that maybe the show ran out of things to say because the monarchy itself no longer matters. I was hoping Peter Morgan would give me a different point of view on this.
Poor Things
Hilarious. Enjoyed it. Had a great time. Didn’t love it or rather was not profoundly moved by it. Did not/could no/would not rise to it’s own feminist ambitions. Too obsessed w its poor thing (aka its clit, aka it’s lead pleasuring herself.). Kind of a dude movie? Emma stone is embodiment of cool girl? My husband giggled the entire time even when I felt my mind wandering. (I’m so glad he enjoyed it. He often hates things I make him watch. He was bored by Oppenheimer because it wasn’t subversive enough for him). Did it have anything I haven’t seen before? Not sure. Did it say anything new? Don’t think so. But I liked what I saw and what it was saying. The final stretch after her return to London coooooooks and gave ME pleasure, unlike the middle where it started to drag. Could have been the repetitiveness of some scene or maybe I just got bored seeing a woman discovering sexual pleasure. Because maybe there’s other kinds and other human needs that women have? Like the friends she fiiiiinally makes halfway through the movie. It takes this woman too long to need friends tho I’m glad the movie finally gave them to her. It also is just really still male-gazey. Which is not a knock (Lanthimos has girl cred for life after giving us The Favourite) but rather a hypothesis for my boredom in the middle section and for not being blown away by the movie. But I liked it. I see why the Barbie comparisons. Some of the things I thought Barbie missed this def had, like comeuppance and apologies for when people treat other ppl poorly (KEN please take a note from Mr. Mcandles.). But Poor Things wasn’t Barbie’s solution entirely. And there are def things in Barbie that poor things lacked. In general my soul’s DNA is made up of more elements found in Poor Things (james and the giant peach creepy victorian inspo, monsterhood) and I didn’t play w Barbies growing up but luckily we live in a world where I don’t have to pick faves and we can have both. And in the Same year!
What I Wore (in 2024)
Here are my fave outfits that I wore (and rewore) in 2024!
Inspired by Tan France’s year end outfits
What are your 2024 resolutions? Are you doing them? I don’t really believe in them other than as an exercise and as as good an excuse as any to get organized. Also, do you want to be in my movie club?
Also do you know anyone who might want to read my newsletter? Share this with them. I’d love to keep reaching folks who wanna hear what I have to say.
I’m very excited to see where this year goes and what it brings. Be it friends, money, finished scripts, produced scripts, adorable hugs from my baby-child, a ski trip, a Europe trip, another year where Partner does my taxes because he knows I hate it, a move... Maybe even an adventure or two.
Until next Letter,
K.