The Week In Recommendations 3.6.24
New and old romantic movies, "Who Trolled Amber?", the cutest tiny bag and the sweetest pointelle tank. Plus, a Portugal rec!
This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Our latest podcast was about “Love Is Blind” 6, episodes 10-11 + gossip. (Finale pod coming tomorrow!) Rich Text is a completely reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors!
Claire has been reading… 📖
Amelia Tait’s New Statesman essay on “the ‘Disney adult’ industrial complex,” which I am admittedly the target audience for: I’m a snob who refuses to take her children to any Disney theme parks (at least until they’re old enough to beg), and while I believe everyone has the right to consume whatever they want (hi, I watch reality TV all day), I think there’s real value in adults pushing ourselves to read and watch more challenging art than what we consumed as kids. Tait doesn’t approach this from a judgmental angle, however; she admits to being a Disney adult herself, to some degree. Instead, she digs into how Disney has built such a powerful fandom among adults — and what it means that it has been so successful.
Emma has been reading… 📖
Adam Gopnik’s New Yorker essay reflecting on the year 2020, and the various narratives that we have tried to attach to it now that we’ve had a bit of space from the peak of the pandemic. It’s beautifully written, sharply analytical, and brought me close to tears thinking about all the Big Meanings and Big Changes we hoped would collectively emerge from pandemic lockdown, and how bleak the current landscape feels. But, as Gopnik writes, “a disaster that happens so similarly to so many seems a hard case for too much moralizing, since at its heart is the one thing that always escapes moralizing, and that is our own mortality.”
Claire has been watching… 📺
“Upgraded,” the recently released Prime rom-com starring Camila Mendes as an aspiring gallery girl and Archie Renaux as a dashing advertising executive and heir. The duo meet in adjoining first class seats on a red-eye flight from New York to London, where Ana (Mendes) has been given the unexpected opportunity to travel as the third assistant to the New York director of a major auction house (played by a rivetingly weird Marisa Tomei). Minor lies turn into major deceptions as her chance encounter with William (Renaux) turns into a romantic entanglement and a friendship with his eccentric actress mother (Lena Olin). So far, so good: Mendes is charming and gets some great quips off early in the film, and she and Renaux look great making out. But while I heard great things about this flick, for me it didn’t surpass the level of a mid-range streaming rom-com: watchable, pleasant, uninspiring. Renaux was lacking that special sauce, I was more aware than ever of how many movies these days are lit and shot like cell phone commercials, and the plot and character development ultimately suffered from comparison. Because it’s basically “The Devil Wears Prada,” art world edition, but its sympathies lie with the girlbosses, the uber-wealthy, and, oddly enough, identity thieves. I found myself wishing that, like the Anne Hathaway classic, it had been willing to let its heroine learn a real lesson about what matters.
Emma has been watching… 📺
There are a handful of movies that return to again and again and again, and the 1995 adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility” is one them. Directed by Ang Lee with a screenplay by Emma Thompson, starring Thompson as Elinor, Kate Winslet as Marianne, Hugh Grant as Edward and Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon???? I mean… COME ON! IT’S PERFECT! When I saw that it was on Netflix, I immediately downloaded it to my phone so that I could watch it on my short flights between Paris and Lisbon, and it really is as comforting to me as grilled cheese and tomato soup. I could truly watch that scene where Thompson bursts into happy tears (not a spoiler, but if you know you know) on a loop until I die.
Claire has been listening to… 🎧
Chappell Roan’s debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” which I discovered in the main way I discover music now: by accident, while dicking around doing something else on social media. I stumbled across a clip of her single “Hot To Go” in a tweet about some minor beef with boygenius (she allegedly called their merch “ugly”), and immediately found the full song, which remains stuck in my head even now. It’s a frenetic, campy pop banger packed with cheerleader chants, stacked vocals, and raunchy innuendo (“order up, I’m hot to go!”). I ended up checking out the whole album, as a few stan tweets were very emphatic that it has “no skips!!!”, and while there are a few skips for me personally, the LP is stacked with fun, irreverent, goofy, extremely earwormy songs that made me long to go out dancing for the first time in years. Roan is queer, and her songs and videos delve into the aesthetics and experiences of queer women and femmes in an infectiously exuberant way. She’s also unafraid to make wildly corny jokes and double entendres in her lyrics (“you say you like magic, I’ve got a wand and a rabbit!”), and I found myself actually laughing at them more than once — not a common experience when listening to pop music. Some personal faves from the album: “My Kink Is Karma,” my new favorite revenge track; “Red Wine Supernova,” an anthem for gay girl bar flirtation; and “Casual,” a devastatingly deadpan reflection on a situationship gone awry.
Emma has been listening to… 🎧
“Who Trolled Amber?,” a Tortoise Media investigative podcast looking at the mass trolling and disinformation campaign that was seeded against actor Amber Heard ahead of her U.S. trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp. The podcast is hosted by journalist Alexi Mostrous, who previously hosted “Sweet Bobby,” one of my all-time favorite pod mini-series. Mostrous attempts to trace the origins of the #JusticeForJohnny campaign, and raises some real (and disturbing) questions about how an army of bot accounts can have real impact on public opinion — be it about a celebrity trial or a presidential campaign.
Claire has been buying… 🛍️
A sweet pointelle tank top from Dôen’s recent Hand Me Dôen resale event (also available new on their site). I wear lots of tank tops and loose pants in the summer, and I am always happy to find another top that marries practicality and a girly aesthetic. I got the Lois tank in black, to withstand grubby hands and coffee spills, and the button-front is ideal for nursing. But the scalloped pointelle details and little front tie make me feel like myself instead of a milk machine.
Emma has been buying… 🛍️
I bought the cutest tiny bag at the A.P.C. Surplus store in Paris. I’m obsessed with the rounded shape and cream color — and then I learned it’s called the mini Emma sac! C'est parfait! The exact one I bought doesn’t seem to be available online, but I found it in tan full price, and in black and yellow on deep sale, on FarFetch! It doesn’t fit a phone which is slightly impractical, but I’ve just been putting my phone in my pocket, and my wallet, keys, and lip gloss all fit easily. Plus, it’s just so damn cute, it’s worth a tiny bit of impracticality.
Claire has been making… 🧶
Some easy recipes from Hungryroot, especially the easiest chicken fajitas and guacamole. We had another classic chaotic week here (my infant has been reverse cycling, aka eating all night and pushing me to a mental breaking point) so we were glad to have some semi-prepared meals to throw together. A little marinated, fajita-seasoned ground chicken, some onions and bell peppers, tortillas and a dollop of guacamole were exactly what I needed — and I will definitely be reaching for quick chicken or turkey tacos for future last-minute meals. (Tacos? For dinner? Groundbreaking!)
Emma has been making… 🧶
… The trip to Portugal! (Is this a stretch of this category? Perhaps! But this this our newsletter so we make the rules!) I hopped on a regional flight from Paris to Lisbon this week to spend the weekend in Comporta, a seaside area just a quick 90-minute drive south of Lisbon. My dear friend Katelyn is spending the month in Lisbon, so I went to spend some time with her at Quinta da Comporta, a truly dreamy eco-resort in the town of Carvahal. We did yoga and pilates in a glass hut looking out at the rice fields, ate at their divine onsite restaurant (my faves were all the fresh seafood, and oddly, the onion soup), got massages, and drank wine on our deck watching the sunset over the property’s solar-heated pool. It’s definitely the off-season for Comporta — it’s a true hotspot for European vacationers in the summer — but I happen enjoy a beach town when it’s not super crowded and scene-y, and there were still definitely enough things open to make it worthwhile.
**Related — would people be interested in a roundup of my fave spots (eat, shop, drink, see etc.) from these three weeks of European travels? It’s not the sort of thing we usually do on here, but I thought it could be fun if there was interest!
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Yes to round up of fave spots!
Yes to fave European spots!