January's Over (yay?)

In January I finally watched Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s 3 hour ‘Drive My Car’. The film is based on Haruki Murakami’s short story of the same name which I admit I haven’t read. I watched it new years day, spending it alone and for the first time in nearly a decade not hungover. I was pacing my sister’s apartment, wondering what to do with myself. It’s days like these, dragged out and empty, which is perfect for a film like this. Although when the title sequence didn’t show up until 40 minute mark I did feel like I had made a mistake. I wondered how a film could justify such a run time? I say this as someone who adores Lord of the Rings, I know long movies can work. Just most of the time they don’t.

I approached the film like an edible, you just gotta go with it. And soon after the opening credits faded I was completely captivated by the film. Saying it was meditative feels like a cliche way to say “there are a lot of long takes”. But I adore a long take. I think modern cinema needs more long takes. Death to the jump cut ‘n all that. I didn’t know anything going into the film, I didn’t even know it was based on a short story and it’s hard to talk about without taking away from a blank watch. If you love character driven stories and being treated like an adult by the filmmaker I recommend it wholeheartedly.

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The day I watched Drive My Car I actually watched 3 films: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Drive My Car and Blue Velvet. It was a slow day as I said. I tend to go weeks without watching anything then watch 3-4 films in a day. I’m trying to be healthier in this approach. There was no theme to the days line up, maybe “things I’ve been meaning to watch” although Blue Velvet was never high on the list, it just happened to be the only David Lynch film on streaming that wasn’t Eraserhead. Everything Everywhere All At Once I ended up watching a second time later in the month, the first watch feeling too overwhelmed by hype.

The month was spent catching up on my to-watch list and rewatching old favourites. I spent a good portion of an evening discussing with my sister why Jurassic Park is the perfect film. Any flaw of the park can easily be attributed to Hammond’s (the old guy with a cane) incompetence and a billionaire cutting corners and safety precautions isn’t exactly far-fetched. I plan to rewatch Drive My Car later in the year, it’s a film worth the time and effort. This month I’m planning to watch Tar at last, a film that seems to be 50/50 with audiences which is perfect.

I only read one book in January but at least it was a good one: My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley. I had read maybe two pages of it early last year and decided I didn’t want to read another book about a woman’s complicated relationship with her mother. When I told this to a friend at the pub he was adamant that I keep reading. A few months and moves later I grabbed myself a copy of the New York Review edition and finished it in a day and half. I’m out of practice writing about books but Riley is just a fantastic fucking writer. It may not sound like a compliment to say the writing comes across as “simple” but to know where to cut the fat is honed skill. To not let a work be overstuffed or struggle within itself. No, Riley’s words are like a knife. Practical, skilled and sharp.

I’m going to cheat a little and write briefly about a book I started and finished today called Love, Leda by Mark Hyatt. There is something about a posthumous publication that can elicit a kind of Victorian freak show-esque response, people looking in to see what strange things hide behind the curtain. I can’t help but think of the scam of a book ‘Go Ask Alice’, a book sold as a real dead girl’s diary to warn against drugs and teen sex only to later be revealed a lie. Since that book I have always been hesitant about posthumous publishing as a concept but I was relieved when I read Love, Leda. Although there is still an air of mystery to the books discovery (you can look it up for yourself), the book on its own without any history is still a wonderful exploration of 1960s queer culture in London and one man’s search. Search for what you might ask? He doesn’t know the answer either. I delighted in Leda’s (swaying) moral compass, how he wandered the London streets, making central London sound way cooler then than it is now. Not to sell this as a “fun” novel. I wouldn’t put it that way. But I loved the character of Leda and his desperation, his stubbornness, his dissatisfaction with beauty and culture. A wonderful book, all ‘n all.

Thank you for reading my first substack! Let’s hope for many more.

January films in order of viewing & recommendation:

Everything Everywhere All At Once (recommend)

Blue Velvet (if you like David Lynch, sure)

Drive My Car (recommend)

Inferno (if you liked Suspiria, there is zero plot)

Tompopo (recommend)

Petite Maman (recommend)

The Menu (it’s fine)

Paprika (if you’re into animation, I was perhaps too tired when I watched this one to give it a fair recommendation)

20th Century Women (recommend but also understand if you pass)

Chungking Express (recommend)

Phantom Thread (recommend)

God’s Own Country (recommend)

Everything Everywhere All At Once

V/H/S ‘99 (only if you like low budget found footage horror)

Jurassic Park (it’s the perfect movie)