What I'm Watching: Longlegs, Civil War, Your Fat Friend, and More

Plus: Beverly Hills, 90210, That ‘90s Show, cinematic horror games, and must-read comics.

Here’s a quick rundown of everything I’ve been watching, reading, and writing about lately:

The shows:

• I was sad to hear about the passing of Shannen Doherty this week, especially since I’ve been catching random episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 for the first time recently, and it’s clear that (despite the behind-the-scenes trouble) she really put her all into it during the early seasons. I was somehow under the impression that this show was both very popular and not actually worth watching, but it’s easily as captivating as your Dawson’s Creeks and The O.C.s. It’s fun and dramatic in the way all best teen shows are – which makes sense since it was the blueprint for most of them.
• Though I’m still processing how utterly whack some of the original series’ castmates turned out to be, I must admit that I continue to love That ‘90s Show, which is now in its second season. The Netflix sequel show hews so close to the original hangout sitcom’s retro formula (loud studio audience, clumsy teen “firsts,” plenty of guest stars and dream sequences) that it shouldn’t work, but it does thanks to a charming ensemble cast and scripts that value silliness and heart. Val can have a little nostalgic TV, as a treat.
• The Netflix documentary The Man With 1000 Kids is by no means must-see TV, but if you like your true crime more weird than macabre, it’s an interesting enough retelling of an unnerving news story featuring an obsessive sperm donor on a mission.

The movies:

• I’m glad I went into the buzzed-about new horror film Longlegs blind, as it seems like the kind of experience that could be dampened by too much hype. In a relative vacuum, though, it’s a creatively creepy serial killer thriller that really knows how to pile on the dread. Director Osgood Perkins (son of Psycho star Anthony) has a knack for making movies that are just a smidge too meandering and surreal for my taste, but he nails the art of the scene better than ever here by crafting moments of tension pulled tight and stinging like a snapped rubber band. The film uses everything at its disposal, from sound design to shot composition to a sky that seems to be trapped in an endless dusk, to cast a strange, powerful spell over audiences. I think it works: if you love Silence of the Lambs, Se7en, or Perkins’ previous film The Blackcoat’s Daughter, you might dig this.
• Documentary fans shouldn’t overlook the insightful, vulnerable doc Your Fat Friend despite its awkward spot on the release calendar; the movie technically came out last year, but is only now available to most audiences and should probably be counted in 2024’s year-end lists. Make no mistake: the spotlight on renowned fat activist, author, and podcaster Aubrey Gordon is one of the must-watch docs of the year. If you haven’t already met Gorden through Maintenance Phase, her frank, fact-based commentary about bodies and health will feel genuinely life-changing. If you have, there’s still plenty more to learn from this years-long project, which chronicles everything from painful family dinners to the moment she landed her book deal. The film makes some wobbly directorial choices, but it’s insightful and emotional: anyone who has a body will be moved.
• Shadow of a Doubt has long-since been my biggest Alfred Hitchcock blindspot, and I caught the 1943 classic recently while bedridden with some persistent illness. I can’t say it’s top tier Hitch for me, as it felt more like a slow-burn family drama than a thriller, but I appreciated Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright’s performances as an abnormally close uncle and niece whose kinship is threatened by disturbing revelations about the former. The best part of the film is seeing Hitch operating in a rare mode by portraying a happy-ish family: precocious daughter Ann (Edna May Wonacott), in particular, is a scene stealer in the best way.
• I figured that waiting to watch Alex Garland’s Civil War, one of the most talked-about and polarizing movies of the year, would mean that when I did get around to it, I’d finish the movie with a strong opinion already formed. Yet I’m pretty firmly middle of the road on this dystopic photojournalism story, which I found alternately captivating and underwhelming. While others saw it as scarily timely, I felt there was an unusual sense of unreality to its etched-out, almost anti-political story. Despite the broad and specific ideas it puts forth, I found that the film had an unintentional hollowness – but I do think it starts cooking in the final third. Civil War is at its best when examining the thin line between bearing witness and doing nothing, something it does with a fantastic, hyper-cynical edge in its last in its last moments. It’d make a great double feature with Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler.
• I’m accidentally watching Tomm Moore’s Irish folklore trilogy in reverse order, having been wowed by the most recent release, Wolfwalkers, last year. The Secret of Kells was another sick day watch for me, and as expected, this story of the creation of a real illuminated manuscript featured dazzling animation that’s leaps and bounds more mesmerizing than anything else being made right now. Story-wise, though, it shares a pretty hefty amount of overlap with Wolfwalkers without evoking nearly as strong an emotional response (for me, at least). One walked so the other could run, etc.

The reads:

• There are a million good reasons not to read the New York Times these days, so I won’t link the actual site’s list of the best books of the 21st century here…but I will link the TL;DR, and say that the list is a rich text that I enjoyed combing through for hours. As a lifelong fan of big, overly-ambitious canonical lists, this is the type of project I can’t resist digging into, and I’m as entranced by its failings (the lack of Native American authors is astonishing) as I am by the parts of it that are right on the money. Good books are a miracle, and I love to be reminded of that.
• Speaking of good books, Comic Book Couples Counseling just dropped their list of the best comics and graphic novels of the year so far, and it rocks. It’s surprisingly difficult to find sites that embrace both superhero comics and the diverse original and standalone works in the medium, but CBCC founders Lisa and Brad Gullickson (the latter of which I used to write alongside at Film School Rejects) have always been wonderfully balanced in their reading habits. I’m glad this site exists as a haven for curious comic fans, and I can’t wait to check out more of these picks.
• I found this piece from Andrea Robin Skinner, Alice Munro’s daughter, about the late writer’s traumatizing response to her childhood sexual assault allegations, extremely powerful.
• Since J.D. Vance might be the next vice president, it’s worth mentioning again how much his book Hillbilly Elegy sucks. This Vox explainer pretty much sums up what’s wrong with this guy, but I also dug up my own initial response to the book from 2019 (before he got into politics), below.

Odds and ends:

• The CBC podcast Gay Girl Gone tells a wild true story I couldn’t stop listening to, about an international event I somehow totally missed when it happened in 2011. It’s a deeply reported story about blogging, activism, personal and collective longing for representation, the Syrian revolution, and scams. Though it perhaps spreads itself across too many hours, it nonetheless had me hooked from beginning to end.
• I also recently finished The Dating Game Killer, a Wondery exclusive documentary podcast (which these days I think means you need access to an Amazon Music account to hear it) about a Ted Bundy-like serial killer who evaded justice for years. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart, but The Dating Game Killer is presented in an undeniably interesting way (it’s well-written narrative non-fiction, almost like an audiobook) and its focus on near-miss anecdotes make for a keen reminder to always trust your instincts.
• I don’t usually recommend video games here, but the choose-your-own-adventure survival horror stories Supermassive Games churns out are very nearly movies, so they deserve a shout. This past week, my partner and I burned through two titles in The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan is a ghost ship thriller following a group of amateur divers, while Little Hope tells a surreal occult story about a group of bus crash survivors wandering a Salem-like abandoned town. Man of Medan is co-written by indie horror mainstay Larry Fessenden (he was also behind Until Dawn, the first and most popular game in this style), while Little Hope stars Will Poulter. Supermassive’s games have their own quirks and tropes, and always leave me slightly less than totally satisfied, but I never stop having fun making characterization choices that could save or kill one of the characters hours later in the game. The butterfly effect is fun!
• I’ve been having fun getting into the weeds with full-series rankings over at Slashfilm lately, focusing less on which season is best and more on what I love about each one. Recent entries into this project include season-by-season rankings of Veronica Mars and Parks and Recreation. These lists, typically made at least a few years after the shows have ended, are also a great reminder that critical opinion is changeable: Parks and Rec’s politician cameos, for example, read way differently in 2024 than they did in 2012.
• I also wrote about Stephen King’s school shooting book Rage last week.
• How about those Emmy noms? Personally, I’m most excited for surprise Walton Goggins love, some better-late-than-never nods for Reservation Dogs and Girls5eva, and an abundance of queer actors being honored in the limited series categories.
• You know I had to get some Twilight Zone in there! Here’s a piece on “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” which I think is the perfect starter episode of the show. Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s the first one I ever watched, on the recommendation of a mutual on Twitter years ago. Thanks, whoever you are!

We’re halfway through 2024, and I’m having a harder time than usual taking stock of where we’re at. This newsletter comes to you late thanks to a 10-day-long illness and what I’m hoping will be the last stressful steps of my immigration process for the next few years. Once I’m a settled resident in Scotland, will I be back to posting weekly on the dot about new releases? I hope so, but life does seem to get in the way, so I appreciate every single person who’s been receptive to the esoteric detours this newsletter has taken during this long and wacky year. If you’re still reading and enjoying it, please let me know sometime – your encouragement goes a long way.