Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
[Manage newsletters]( [View in browser]( [Image] with Kevin Fallon Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
This week: - Canât make up the timing of Disneyâs new gay-positive movie. - Elle Fanning making me begrudgingly love another true-crime series. - When will the Oscars hot takes end? - Another celebrity home tour for the history books. - The one perfect thing to happen this week. What a Time for a Super-Gay Disney Kidsâ Film⦠I donât want to shock anyone, but I was really into musical theater as a kid. Iâll give you a moment to process this earth-shattering information. Being a 12-year-old boy who would stage one-man productions of Grease in his bedroom, belt âAdelaideâs Lamentâ from Guys and Dolls in the shower, and was off-book for years should he be asked in a pinch to step in and perform the role of Anna Leonowens in a production of The King and I, was a joyous thing. How could it not be? Have you seen a musical? People make funny jokes, do a little dance, fall in love, and constantly burst into song in the middle of it all. What a glorious escape! Escape is exactly what it was, too, because being a 12-year-old boy obsessed with musicals was also a very isolating thingâsomething repressed and kept secret. To not would mean snickering. And whispering. And the worst thing of all: not being ânormalâ like the other guys. Listen, Iâm not breaking any news here about what it was like to grow up not even closeted, but questioning or unsure of your sexuality in [year redacted]. This isnât the unique, heartbreaking saga of one young man named Kevin. Millions of kids went through this, and many of us worked through it and have since thrived. We all remember that whole [âIt Gets Better,â]( I donât know how to describe it⦠campaign? Movement? Delusion? That latter description has been on my mind lately. All these feelings and memories were dug up this week because I had a chance to watch the new Disney+ film Better Nate Than Ever, which just may be the most gay-positive and encouraging youth programming that Disney has ever released. And it is coming out at the most bizarre time. Considering everything thatâs been in the news about [Disney, Floridaâs âDonât Say Gayâ bill](, and the disturbing escalation of [unapologetically anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric]( diseminated by GOP politicians, it could be argued that itâs the best time for a movie like this to come out. Itâs certainly the strangest. The film, in the most beautiful sign of progress and the greatest compliment I can give, is something I desperately wish I had when I was growing up. Itâs a love letter to kidsâto theater kids, and most specifically theater kids who were made to feel shy or ashamed about who they were and how they acted, and who probably, almost 100 percent of the time, grew up to be gay. Tim Federle, who wrote and directed Better Nate Than Ever based on his Nate book series, is one of those people, even making a pitstop as a Broadway performer on his way to making TV and movies. (Heâs also behind the popularâand similarly queer-acceptingâ[High School Musical: The Musical: The Series](.) Nate (Rueby Wood) is a 13-year-old suburban kid who lives and breathes musicals; itâs barely minutes into the film that the 2004 Tony Awards battle between Avenue Q and Wicked is referenced, while he describes his momâs relationship to his aunt as having âantagonistic Glinda vs. Elphaba in Act One energy.â He is devastated when he doesnât land the lead role in his schoolâs production of Lincoln: The Unauthorized Rock Musical. To cheer him up, his best friend, Aria Brooksâ Libby, plans a runaway bus trip for the two of them to New York City, where an open call audition is happening for a new Lilo & Stitch production. Hijinks ensue, as they do when 13-year-olds with no chaperones run loose through New York. In this case, many of them are daydream sequences involving large-scale musical production numbers. They run into Nateâs aunt, a struggling actress played by [Lisa Kudrow]( who has been ostracized by her family because of her pursuit of a career on stage. In spite of the odds, Nateâs auditions actually go well, and for one clear reason: He finally feels free to be himself and embrace all the parts of him that make him special. It turns out, those things he used to quiet are exactly what make him great. He auditions with a monologue that Dixie Carter delivers in an episode of Designing Women. I have never felt more represented on screen. There are hints that Nate is likely going to realize he is gay one day, which is obvious to everyone, though that label is never articulated. Not everyone at age 13 is capable of processing or understanding that about themselves; I certainly was not. But it is a film about how cool that could be for him. It is a film about following your dreams, finding your tribe, and learning that there are people out there who will be ecstatic to love you for who you are, as you are. It is a film about the gorgeous, unbreakable bond between a gay boy and his single aunt. That Better Nate Than Ever is targeted at a youth demographic should make this a watershed moment for Disney. After all, itâs not that long ago that it was rumored [the company shuffled Love, Victor]( to Hulu from Disney+ over concerns that its themes werenât going to fly with all Disney-loving families. So how then to square this with everything else going on? The disappointing revelation that Disney had backed the Florida representatives who voted for [the âDonât Say Gayâ bill](â[read more about its viciousness here](âand initially chose not to condemn it surfaced a slew of upsetting news and facts about the company. Pixar employees claimed that [displays of queer affection]( were cut by corporate executives. Reminders abounded that there still hasnât been a lead LGBTQ+ character in a studio theatrical release. Its [awkward embrace of Pride]( was brought up again. This week, as the controversial bill was [officially signed into law](, the company released a statement contradicting its initial remarks, which said that the company shouldnât weigh in on politics and, laughably, speak with its content instead. [The new statement said]( the law âshould never have passedâ and that its goal as a company is âfor this law to be repealed.â Thatâs⦠nice? The sentiment, though about several weeks and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations too late, is appreciated. But you canât save a child who is going to be subjected to irreparable harm because of this legislation with some sentiment. At the moment, it is about as valuable as me sending out a tweet saying I vow that the conflict in Ukraine must end. Federle was asked about all of this. Itâs a near-impossible position to be in: a creator behind something that represents such progress on a platform where that progress is legitimately meaningful, but for a company whose actions hinder that progress and meaning. âIn my several years with the company now, I was heartened to see we won the GLAAD award, we had the first-ever same gender kiss. And what I wanted to bring to this was a slightly younger POV of a middle-schooler discovering. For me, who didnât grow up with a movie like this, I know this movie would have made me feel seen and a lot less alone,â [he told Variety](. âUltimately, good representation does not cancel out bad legislation. And what Iâm hopeful for is that these first steps Disneyâs taking now are only the first steps towards making the world a truly safer and more inclusive space.â I certainly donât have answers to any of this, other than to be so gleefully heartened and moved that Better Nate Than Ever exists, and still so horrified and angry over Disneyâs involvement in this legislation passing. Weâre all never going to stop consuming Disney projects or watching Disney+. Cynical as that may be, at least thereâs Better Nate Than Ever to make us feel hopeful again. My Former Nemesis Is Killing It I blame Law & Order for this. For so long, we have been titillated by their cheeky, ripped-from-the-headlines crime stories that we were perhaps too distracted to notice what was happening around us. Those one-off episodes loosely inspired by real scandal birthed its own [genre of TV content](âone that has been, of late, absolutely inescapable. If you slip up and blink too hard, when you open your eyes youâll find 14 new limited series across broadcast, cable, and, especially, streaming services casting A-list actors and enlisting prestige screenwriters and directors to dramatize [outrageous](, [news-making sagas](. The more disturbing the murder, upsetting the trial, or unbelievable the scam, the better. Itâs to the point where I wouldnât be surprised to hear that Huluâs begun putting hits out on people or Netflix producers have concocted their own massive fraud scheme just to keep the content mill churning. So when The Girl From Plainville hit Hulu this week, I was exhausted by the genre. I was ready to dismiss it with the same exasperation as [last monthâs WeCrashed](. Plus, the details of the case itâs sourced from are so upsetting: the so-called âtexting-suicideâ trial, in which 17-year-old Michelle Carter was tried for involuntary manslaughter following her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, taking his own life after receiving text messages from Carter that seemed to pressure him to commit the act. I begrudgingly checked out the first three episodes on Hulu, as due diligence for⦠I donât know, at least pretending that as a critic Iâm attempting to watch everything? In any case, I was none too pleased to discover that it is good. Or, rather, that Elle Fanning as Carter is good. Very good. So good, in fact, I have now signed myself up to watch the whole thing. Fanning, who I must admit was a celebrity nemesis of mine for yearsâan arbitrary sworn enemy in my mind only because I found her an annoying presence in a handful of projectsâhas been on a roll, between this and her award-worthy work in The Great. Sheâs making some really unexpected acting choices in The Girl From Plainville, and all of them work. Especially in these first episodes, you have a hard time gauging her. Is she performing over-the-top emotion over Conradâs death because she wants the attention? (Crucial detail: Most people in their lives didnât even know they were dating.) Is she legitimately heartbroken? Does she feel guilty? Is she overcompensating because she knows sheâs in trouble, or is the gravity of everything too overwhelming for her teenage self to process? Itâs all as fascinating as her Cara Delevigne eyebrows. But thereâs one scene that sold me. Itâs at the end of the first episode. When I realized what was going on, I shrieked. At first, it looks like Michelle is tearfully rehearsing a speech in the mirror that she plans to give about how much Conrad meant to her, making sure the emotions strike at just the right time to move her audience. But then you realize sheâs not rehearsing a speech. Sheâs reciting a speech, the one [Lea Micheleâs character Rachel Berry gives]( on Glee in the episode paying tribute to Cory Monteith, Micheleâs former boyfriend who had died. (Michele, at the time, was perhaps unfairly criticized for appearing to seek attention over his death.) When I say this scene sent me, I mean thereâs a Kevin Fallon-shaped hole in the wall behind my couch that I catapulted myself through in disbelief. The One and Only Good Oscars Take It is not possible to process, in any unimpeachably correct and definitive way, the Oscars slap. I know this because [I have been writing about it](, editing stories about it, and reading incessantly about it for every waking hour in the time since, which is to say all of the hours. (Iâm quite tired.) We have been living in a hot-take apocalypse these last few days. A true dystopia of discourse. My own very special hell. Every time Iâm floored that someone really felt like a deranged thought they had about this should be publicly articulated, another tweet flies across my timeline like a flaming meteor of nonsense. By the time the unholy trifecta of Betty White, Judd Apatow, and 9/11 were invoked, I was already on my little rowboat paddling down the Hudson and away from society forever. Folks, [O.J. Simpson weighed in on this](. More, when his video reaction came across my timeline, I CLICKED ON IT. I watched the whole thing. God save me. God save us all. The only conclusion to draw is that there are almost no worthwhile takes to be had on this, a hopeless reality that, as we all know, only fuels the world of punditry and makes the talking heads grow even stronger. Which is why I was stunned to stumble across it, the one correct opinion. I [cede the floor]( to perfect person Daniel Radcliffe: âIâm just so already dramatically bored of hearing peopleâs opinions about it that I just donât want to be another opinion adding to it.â A Celebrity Confession to Truly Embrace There is no greater niche internet obsession than the Architectural Digest videos of celebrities giving tours of their houses. It is accidental camp. Unintentional art. The most thrillingly bland entertainment youâll find on YouTube. The format is simple. An utterly random celebrity, often with no peg to a new project or a reason to be given this spotlight, leads the camera through their sun-drenched Hollywood Hills home, pointing out nonsense trivia about armoires and custom sconces that they had carefully memorized from their designers. They dutifully play the part of someone who has had a longtime passion for Egyptian lucite candelabras sourced from a vintage shop in Rotterdam, masking the reality that theyâve just seen these tsotchkes for the very first time that morning, after a frantic call to a designer that Architectural Digest was coming!!! What blows my mind, as a human who spent his adult life living in one room in various New York City apartments, is that these celebrities have almost never fully finished or decorated their gorgeous homes until the hours before this tour. Meanwhile, I fantasize about what I would do and how I would decorate if my living situation involved the word âroomsâ with an âsâ on it. Yet I also never related more to the circumstance of starting to move into a place, getting tired of setting it up, and never fully finishing. That is why [this moment]( from [Ashley Tisdaleâs recent home tour]( is something I will cherish forever. Our candid, relatable queen: âThe bookshelves, I have to be honest, actually did not have books in it until a couple of days ago. I had my husband go to a bookstore and I was like, âYou need to get 400 books.ââ He Is Perfect. If you would like to think about something, anything, other than That Moment at the Oscars, I highly recommend that you, as I have, spend 45 minutes a day staring at [this photo of Andrew Garfield]( smoldering into the camera while effortlessly balancing a cheeseburger and a drink in one hand at a party. Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel: A surprising, canât-miss stand-up special from an underrated talent. (Fri. on HBO) A Black Lady Sketch Show: The best sketch comedy show on TVâyes, weâre including that one that airs âlive from New York.â (Mon. on HBO) Slow Horses: A Gary Oldman British spy drama, if thatâs your thing, and itâs a lot of peopleâs thing. (Fri. on Apple TV+) Better Nate Than Ever: So adorable and so gay. (Fri. on Disney+) Morbius: âItâs not as bad as we thought!â is considered high praise for this one. (Fri. in theaters) The Bubble: A pandemic-set comedy about Hollywood actors, as my waking nightmare portended. (Fri. on Netflix) Advertisement
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