Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
[Manage newsletters]( [View in browser]( [The logo for Daily Beast's Obsessed] Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. with Kevin Fallon Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. with Kevin Fallon This Week - Emma Stone, [the talent you are](. - I have [Mean Girls]( thoughts. - The only [Golden Globes]( moments you need to know about. - Glenn Close, I love you. - The Devil Wears Trucker Hats. Itâs Time to Watch The Curse The Showtime series [The Curse]( is a delightful watch, presuming you enjoy having your soul dig its way out of your skin using nothing but its fingernails, then violently grab your shoulders and start shaking you while screaming, âWhy in Godâs name are you forcing me to watch this?!?!?!â Thatâs a high compliment (I think) to what I assume is the intention of the series, which is to make you feel such discomfort and, occasionally, disturbed that the vibes along will make you start itching like you have a rash. The finale airs this Sunday night, which means that now is the perfect time to binge the previous nine episodes and catch up, like Iâve been doing this week. Is it an enjoyable experience? I can only speak to my journey, which began with, âWhat in the world is this show,â then morphed into, âThis show is making me feel so uneasy,â and finally, âEvery fiber of my being needs to find out what is going to happen, because I feel like it is going to be so dark.â The biggest takeaway from that journey, however, is that, my God, [Emma Stone]( is incredible in this. Itâs possibly the best performance of her career, which is high praise, as she is currently picking up Best Actress trophies this award season for another towering performance: her career-best film work in [Poor Things](. Her character in The Curse, Whitney, is a fascinating contrast to Bella, her role in the fantastical universe of Poor Things. Whitney is both one of the most relatable and knowable people Iâve seen on TV in a long time, and also quite possibly one of the worst humans to appear in any show. That she is so familiar and recognizable, yet so quietly despicableâwell, thatâs all part of that discomfort I mentioned. (Thereâs a lot of âoh, youâre horribleâ thatâs tinged with a wincing âbut yeah girl, I get itâ that happens when you watch.) A [description of The Curse]( makes the series sound both more mundane and more bizarre than it actually is, which is what makes it so unique. Unfathomably, as the episodes go on, both of those extremes are amplified; itâs a wild, strange ride. Whitney and Asher (Nathan Fielder, delivering a similarly [stunning acting performance]() are a married couple who are filming at first a pilot, and then a full-season order of a new HGTV series in New Mexico. Called Fliplanthropy, it aims to show how the houses theyâre renovating incorporate revolutionaryâand totally bizarreâeco-friendly technology, and how the couple plans for the buyers of these new constructions to coexist with and bolster the local Indigenous community. The duo are as shrewd as they are, at times, hapless, as itâs revealed over time how at odds their craven ambition is with their supposed noble intentions. As far as the series goes, the impetus for that unraveling is the suspicion that a curse has been placed on Asher by a local girl during the filming of the pilot. Whether Asher buys into this is mirrored in the viewing experience, coloring every cringe-inducing or legitimately upsetting development with a darkness and foreboding inevitability: If he, and thus his relationship with Whitney, really is cursed, how bleak will things become? The struggle to get everything right in the filming of Fliplanthrophy runs in tandem with the breakdown of Whitney and Asherâs marriage. Itâs obvious from the jump how devoted Asher is to Whitney, and how Whitneyâs supposed happiness is derived from having total power over Asher. To a viewer, itâs at once a shockingly toxic dynamic, but also one thatâs, if not universally relatable, again, recognizableâand, dare I say, understandable. Itâs a fascinating relationship. They are incredibly close and intimate, each otherâs closest confidantes and entirely codependent. Yet that closeness is also weaponized. Theyâre so aware of their deep connection that theyâre able to use it in reverse: to alienate each other. There are twists and wild sequences that happen as the series goes on that it serves no one to spoil. (Though be sure to [check out our recaps here](.) But watching Whitneyâs true colors surface through Stoneâs performanceâso grounded that the calculatedness, moral compromising, and nefariousness reads concerningly normalâis a visceral experience. Each new development snowballs to the point that it feels like youâre fleeing from it as it speeds toward you down a hill, like in a cartoon. It shouldnât be surprising when good actors do good acting. Emma Stone is one of the best actors working today. Nonetheless, thereâs something about a performer as endearing as she isâa leading lady whoâs very much among Americaâs Sweetheartsâplaying a role like this that seems revelatory. So, in context of The Curse, consider it praise when I say: Iâve never enjoyed being so turned off by a character or a performance more. Advertisement
Fetch Ainât Happening Not to be all âcranky millennial with a grudge,â but I canât get over that the marketing for the new [Mean Girls movie musical]( sells it as, âThis isnât your motherâs Mean Girls.â Especially now that Iâve seen it and can say definitively: This is exactly your motherâs Mean Girls. (The marketing assumes that either your mother was a pre-teen mom or you are somehow the target audience for this new movie, despite being only six years old.) Two things are true about the [new Mean Girls](: It is incredibly entertainingâa blast to watch, because Mean Girls is a blast to watch, and this is, again, exactly the same movie. But the extent to which it is exactly the same script, with exactly the same staging, with exactly the same aesthetic, and, in some cases, exactly the same actors is impossible to shake; I had fun, but couldnât get over how pointless and unimaginative the entire project was. The pipeline here is that Mean Girls was based on a book, which became a 2003 movie, which was then turned into a 2018 musical, which is now a 2023 movie based on a musical based on a movie based on a book. (After [The Color Purple](, this is the second such project in just a month. 30 Rockâs Jenna Maroney [has some competition](.) If I were to rank these iterations on the book, Iâd say the original movie is better than the new movie musical, which is better than the Broadway musicalâwhich is a low bar, considering the calling card of a good musical is âhaving good songs,â which it does not. The audience I saw the new film with seemed similarly flummoxed. They giggled at all the laugh lines that were delivered verbatim in the same cadence with the same framing as the original. They applauded for Renée Rapp after Reginaâs song âWorld Burn,â and ate up everything that Jaquel Spivey, the new Damian, was serving. They also [burst out laughing]( almost every single time a character started singing, suggesting that [disguising the fact that this is a musical]( in trailers was either incredibly shrewd or entirely foolworthy. Movies are remade all the time. Musicals are revived often. The same is true of movie musicals. The difference is that there is usually some new interpretation thatâs expected. Maybe thereâs something to be said by revisiting the material in a modern time, or something to be excavated from a different perspective or, at the very least, visual style. Thatâs what irks me about the whole âthis isnât your motherâs Mean Girlsâ thing. Thereâs no attempt to make this resonate in any new, interesting way for another generation, aside from a TikTok montage and getting rid of the racist and problematic jokes from the original script. I canât reiterate enough the extent to which the scenesâsometimes down to the costumesâare exactly the same in this movie. Yes, there are songs. But the effect is as if someone remade The Devil Wears Prada with new, young stars, and then every four minutes, there was a ditty about belts looking the same or a production number about cube-of-cheese diets before returning to reciting the original script exactly as you remember it. Is that a good time? Sure, I guess. Again, the new Mean Girls is a fun watch. But is there a point to it? The Most Important Parts of the Golden Globes This yearâs Golden Globes ceremony was one of the [least entertaining award shows]( Iâve ever had to watch. Iâm a gay man. Watching and loving award shows is 40 percent of my entire personality. That the telecast was so bad hurts. So instead of rehashing that disaster, let me point you toward the Golden Globes moments that happened outside the ceremony that made me very happy. Here is Brie Larson crying while meeting [Jennifer Lopez](, telling J. Lo that Selena is the reason she became an actor: Here is [The Holdovers]( winner Paul Giamatti with his Golden Globe at In and Out after the show: Here are my two husbands Jonathan Bailey and Andrew Scott posing together. Iâm off-camera, also in a white suit, as we had plans to recreate the [âYou Donât Own Meâ finale]( from First Wives Club later that evening: [The Bear cast reacting to]( Jeremy Allen Whiteâs Calvin Klein underwear ad when asked about it by literally every news outlet by begging, pleading for people to stop showing them photos of their coworker naked is perfect: Why was Jared Leto alone at his table behind Oprah, and what was he plotting?: Do yourself a favor and watch this video of the citizens of Osage Nation reacting to Lily Gladstoneâs win: And finally, here is the Girls reunion Iâve been waiting six years for: An Incredible Story I donât often empathize with celebrities, but I imagine award season has to be exhausting. Especially at this time of year, theyâre at ceremonies, galas, tributes, and other red carpet events every single day. But theyâre also seeing all of their fellow celebrities, who are being forced to do the same thing. My question has always been: What are these people talking about when they see each other? Thatâs why Iâm grateful for Marc Shaiman, the legendary composer and lyricist who, while posting photos from this weekâs Governors Awards, casually dropped this amazing story about his encounter with [Glenn Close]( in [an Instagram caption](: I Would Have Lost It The (incredibly fun) [Broadway musical Gutenberg!]( features a bit near the end where an audience member joins the stage to play the part of a theater producer, and usually that person is famous. The showâs social media page has been posting photos and footage of some of its guest stars, but one from this week would have had me dead on the floor, had I been in the audience: Anne Hathaway and Anna Wintour appeared together, with dialogue acknowledging that The Devil Wears Prada was based on Anna. More From The Daily Beastâs Obsessed An old yearbook photo showing that Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone was voted Most Likely to Win an Oscar has gone viral. But her classmate also won the superlative alongside herâwe found and talked to him. [Read more](. What is anyone getting out of Dave Chappelleâs transphobic jokes at this pointâincluding Dave Chappelle? [Read more](. For All Mankind can be relied on for season finales that will make you gasp and sob. Hereâs all the details behind this seasonâs big twist. [Read more](. [See This] - Self Reliance: Jake Johnson is incapable of being [anything but charming](. (Now on Hulu) - Ted: We canât believe it either, but the new Ted series made us [laugh out loud](. (Now on Peacock) - The Beekeeper: Itâs [so ridiculous]( that you have to stan. One line literally includes âto bee, or not to bee.â (Now in theaters) [Skip This] - Mean Girls: I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy. Instead, I had to watch [the new Mean Girls](. (Now in theaters) - Monsieur Spade: Clive Owen is so hot and cool, so why isnât [Clive Owen in this new show]( also so hot and cool? (Sun. on AMC) - Lift: The [new Kevin Hart movie](âs most egregious heist is of the two hours youâll never get back. (Now on Netflix) Like our take on what to watch?
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