This week:
- This weekend’s other big movie release.
- What is the deal with Stranger Things?
- One more Wicked press video.
- I’m sorry: Who is bringing back what movie franchise?
- Who wants to fly to the U.K. with me?
To Weep, or Not to Weep
Crying on Thanksgiving is, naturally, nothing new for most of us. But what about crying on purpose?
That, so to speak, is the question.
There are big movies out now over the holiday weekend that I’m sure families will want to see together. Don’t be a hater, and just buy tickets for Wicked: For Good already; resistance is futile. It’s a delight to report that Zootopia 2 is as good as the first movie. And, should you not want to wait for its Netflix berth next month, the new Knives Out sequel is now having a theatrical run.
Or, hear me out: Gather the entire clan—grandma, Aunt Susan, your stoned younger cousin—and go cry at Hamnet together.
Hamnet is from Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao, who was behind the COVID-era awards favorite Nomadland. It’s historical fiction, about the romance and intense relationship between William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes. You watch them fall in love, start a family, and then—this is the crux of all the crying—their grief when their son, Hamnet, dies.
My least favorite thing is when I’m trying to sell a movie to my friends and family, and I have to explain to them why I’m not crazy when the initial logline sounds so weird. Basically, as the film lays out, the names “Hamnet” and “Hamlet” were interchangeable during Shakespeare’s time. So Hamlet, the play, is the manifestation of his grief over his son.
So now you know why I started this whole silly thing with a “to be or not to be” joke about “that is the question.” And now you know why the experience of watching this movie is so devastating.
Am I trying to instigate some sort of collective trauma that your family will talk about for years? “Remember that time the idiot from the Daily Beast made us all go see the movie about the dead kid together?” Maybe. But there’s another motivation.
Every year, there’s a mad rush to January at the movie theaters. Big blockbusters hoping to take advantage of the holiday crowds are released, but so are a ton of smaller movies that will be showing up at the Golden Globes, the Oscars, and all those Best of the Year lists that come out in the next few weeks.
And every year, everyone I know tells me, “I’ve never heard of any of these movies.”
So here I am telling you now! Hamnet has received, as one can imagine, an immense and, to be honest, overwhelming response from audiences who have seen it at fall festivals. To be in the theater, crying together… it makes a mark. As such, the film, Zhao as director, and stars Jessie Buckley (as Agnes) and Paul Mescal (as Shakespeare) are heavily considered Oscar favorites.
I predict some backlash to what could be interpreted as the emotional manipulation of the grief. I also predict that the aggressive enthusiasm from so many who have seen it already will still make it one of the biggest awards stories of the season.
So why not take a little risk and go cry with your family at Hamnet this holiday weekend. Maybe it will be the group therapy you all need after whatever fiasco happens at Thanksgiving dinner. Because we all know there’s going to be one.
Those Pesky Kids Are Back
The Season 4 finale of Stranger Things premiered on Netflix on July 1, 2022.
I was an entirely different human then, nearly three-and-a-half years ago. The world was an altogether different place. We were all so innocent.
In the time since Stranger Things last aired, star Millie Bobby Brown got engaged, got married, and adopted a baby girl. And now she is back playing a high school student on TV. My boss quipped, “So is this just now Gen Z Happy Days?”
The release strategy for the new season of Stranger Things, which finally launched on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, baffles me. It’s coming out in three parts—the first batch now, the second on Christmas Day, and the finale on New Year’s Eve. It raises a major question for me, which is: Does Netflix not think we have lives?
Is your family going to have Stranger Things streaming in the background while you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Are you brave enough to tell your uncle and brother that you will be changing the channel from football because it’s time to find out what’s going on in the Upside Down?
When you think of Christmas, do you think about the birth of Jesus, Santa’s visit, and a bald teen psychic with telekinetic abilities? Or maybe your New Year’s Eve plan is to start the finale of Stranger Things so that the credits roll at precisely the stroke of midnight.
Suffice it to say, I have not seen any of the new episodes—and, certainly, do not recall a single thing that happened in the previous episodes that premiered when Joe Biden was still the frontrunner to be reelected president. The real world has become the Upside Down in the time since the last episode of Stranger Things; so maybe, then, the show, mystifyingly, is now a comforting holiday watch?
If you’ve seen the new season, report back.
Bon Apétit
I bet you didn’t know my husband was such an enthusiastic chef.
Thank you to the 47 people who all sent me links to the video Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande making pizza for The New York Times Cooking.
It is quite possibly my favorite interview from the never-ending Wicked: For Good press tour, perhaps because they barely talk about Wicked. (We’ve heard enough!) Instead, it is a video that spotlights two of my greatest passions in life: Jonathan Bailey being cute, and pizza.
The real highlight is the clip captioned “Just 39 seconds of Jonathan Bailey eating pizza toppings instead of making a pizza.” Who knew watching someone eat cold shredded cheese with their hand could be so attractive?
But the whole video is worth watching. It has the energy of two golden retrievers who’ve been let out of the car to run around a lake for the first time—which is to say, it’s delightful.
Surely, He Has Better Things to Do…
President Trump reportedly intervened this week to get a fourth movie in the Rush Hour franchise made, with Brett Ratner, who was accused of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement, returning to direct.
I wish any of this were surprising. Mostly, I’m annoyed that, if he’s going to do this, this is the movie he decides to flex his power to get made. (For context, Ratner is apparently behind a docuseries about Melania Trump that’s in the works—which is a choice!)
I honestly can’t fault the guy; if I were the most powerful man in the world, it would be hard to resist taking advantage to bring back all my favorite things. So get ready for the Kevin Fallon 2032 administration, in which Happy Endings is back on TV, there will be three new sequels to Spy, and tariffs will be enacted unless Mamma Mia 3 is made.
This Is Going to Be Amazing
Who is going to start a GoFundMe for me to get to the U.K. to see Drag Race legend Jinkx Monsoon play Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow?
More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed
The Daily Beast staff’s guide to what to watch over Thanksgiving weekend. Read more.
An interview with The Secret Agent star—and Oscar front-runner—Wagner Moura. Read more.
The wild cameo on this week’s episode of HBO’s I Love LA. Read more.
What to watch this week:
Zootopia 2: The biggest surprise of the year is how good this is. (Now in theaters)
A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas: Yes, this animated special exists, and yes, you should watch it. (Now on Prime Video)
The Secret Agent: The best political thriller of the year. (Now in theaters)
What to skip this week:
TV Christmas Movies: The hill I will die on is that we’re so much than the Lifetime, Hallmark, Netflix, etc. Christmas movies! (Regrettably, now on every channel, all the time)
