double features
please DM me about the 2006 DreamWorks classic Over the Hedge
My friend Carrie came over on Sunday to watch a double feature in my living room. We began with Over the Hedge, a 2006 animated film about the dangers of suburbia and consumerism, the importance of chosen family, and the joys of nacho cheese chips, and ended with Kung Fu Panda, a 2008 animated film about a panda whose adoptive father is a goose who runs a noodle shop and wears a knitted hat that is shaped like a bowl of noodles because of course it is. We had a perfect afternoon because these are both perfect movies. I highly recommend.
I started thinking more about the concept of a double feature; I rarely indulge in one, but it’s never not a good idea. I have a fond memory from an anniversary trip I took to Washington, DC with my now husband in 2018. One night, we sat in our hotel room and watched The Truman Show for the very first time, completely in awe of Jim Carrey’s performance. I was like, “He’s amazing in this, but have you seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?” He had not, so we watched that immediately. An unplanned double feature!
There’s something so fun about drawing parallels (or pointing out differences) between two movies that you’ve just watched back to back. Here are a few double feature pitches that I’m recommending to you for a little date night, friend date, solo date, etc. Not sure why I immediately jumped to conclusions and assumed you’d watch a double feature on a date. Cinema is inherently romantic, I don’t know. Okay, enjoy!
The Truman Show, followed by Snowpiercer: The perfect Ed Harris double feature. I will not elaborate.
Send Help, followed by Game Night: I haven’t seen Send Help yet, but people keep telling me that that movie helped them realize Rachel McAdams is a comedic legend, to which I’ve been replying, “Well yes, have you seen Game Night?” Most people have not. It’s great.
Casablanca, followed by When Harry Met Sally: This might seem like an odd pairing, because while these are both romance films, their vibes are super different. Here’s what they have in common: the dialogue is perfect. In both films, zero time is wasted, and the back-and-forths between all characters are flawless. No notes. I think many filmmakers and writers have tried and failed to replicate the magic of Casablanca, and the same goes for When Harry Met Sally. Both are blueprints of the romance genre but in different ways.
The Lego Movie, followed by Project Hail Mary: Going into Project Hail Mary with the knowledge that its directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, had directed The Lego Movie 12 years prior, was so odd but helped me appreciate the film more. The two projects look unbelievably different but have a similar wholesome emotional core.
Once, followed by Before Sunrise: Ah! We love a meet cute. If we are friends and you know my address, please feel free to come over anytime and watch these on DVD in my home. I will genuinely always be down. You could also replace either of these films with Brief Encounter, which is not as perfect to me but is still a great blueprint-y film when it comes to the literal “brief encounter” subgenre of romance.
Over the Hedge, followed by The 40 Year Old Virgin: STEVE! CARELL! DOUBLE! FEATURE! These are perfectly normal choices, leave me alone!
What I’ve been watching and listening to in the past week:
Finished the third season of Love on the Spectrum, one of the most positive shows currently on television, and cried so many times. I rarely cry at TV for some reason so this was… interesting! Perhaps even humbling! I do need to watch the fourth season which dropped very recently, but I might need a break. From crying.
I’m halfway through the latest season of Temptation Island, and it’s not as fun as I thought it would be! Excerpt from my morning pages this morning: “I loathe the men on this show, and I hate watching the women cry over them.” Like, if you’re cool with emotionally torturing yourself, I guess you can give the show a try? But I keep cussing at my TV instead of decompressing and I don’t think that’s the healthiest thing I could be doing with my life right now.
I rewatched the movie In the Loop twice in a day because I had a tough week, I guess? I used to see so many Peter Capaldi memes from this movie on Tumblr when I was in high school, so watching it was really nostalgic for me, and also the cast goes CRAZY. What do you mean THE James Gandolfini is in this movie and he doesn’t have a New Jersey Italian accent? Yes, I’m on the fourth season of The Sopranos right now and I genuinely assumed that James Gandolfini’s voice just sounded Like That. It does not. Wow. Acting is so crazy.
I’m loving Olivia Rodrigo’s new single “drop dead” - I remember when Sour originally dropped in 2021, I felt that this was the kind of music that Taylor Swift used to make (that she is now no longer capable of making), and I feel that way about “drop dead” too. Olivia’s songwriting is so earnest as always and I’m living for it!
You know what’s crazy? Despite the fact that I’ve been writing on Substack for four years, I’ve never downloaded the app on my phone. I live in an eternal cycle of downloading and deleting apps because I hate being tied to my phone and want to throw it in the ocean, etc etc etc, but I must admit that Substack has now become my new Twitter (an app I haven’t used in a year and a half). My feed is weirdly delightful. I’m… reading? Learning things? Hopefully I don’t jinx anything by saying this, but I’ve truly been enjoying myself. Here are some posts I loved reading this week. Let me know if you like them and if there are any Substack posts/blogs you recommend that I check out. Talk soon!
I love your Casablanca/When Harry Met Sally double feature idea. We had a few double feature pitches in the comments of my last newsletter (my fave being NETWORK and NINE TO FIVE for Aries season). I also keep a Letterboxd list for double features here: https://boxd.it/tUkHy
immaculate taste... need to rewatch over the hedge immediately