iiiIT’S BEEN one week since the last Reply Ali, so here I am again to tell you what I’ve been up to lately. Contrary to what it might look like, today’s newsletter was written by an adult human woman and not by a white cat named Shadowfax. Or was it? We’ll never tell.
National Treasure: Edge of History
This highly anticipated (by me) show debuted on Disney+ in mid-December. I’ve watched the first four episodes so far, and let me tell you: it’s great. To be clear, it is absolutely not great in almost any traditional measure of television quality (natural dialogue, good use of digital effects, plot that makes any sense at all) but I am having a fantastic time watching it.
It’s about a young Latina woman who loves solving puzzles. She loves solving puzzles because her first, random, entirely unsubstantiated guesses are always correct. She has to solve a mystery involving ancient relics, treasure maps, both of her dead parents, retired FBI agent Peter Sadusky (yes! Harvey Keitel from the movies!), and Elvis Presley. She has a fun and trendy group of friends (a YouTuber/hacker, a sneakerhound himbo, a brooding guitar player, a really boring guy who keeps telling her to stop solving the mystery so she doesn’t get deported, etc.), and multiple different romances appear to be blossoming. Ooh this show is such a treat. Sometimes they play snippets of the original National Treasure movie score, and it really gets my blood pumping.
P.S. The main villain (so far) is Catherine Zeta-Joes playing a “black market antiquities dealer.” Perfect!!!!!
M3GAN
M3GAN is like no other movie I’ve seen before. It’s like no other movie I’ve ever wanted to see before! But I, like everyone else on twitter, was immediately seduced by the trailer when it dropped last October. I’ve never watched a horror movie in theaters (or anywhere, really - I feel like Disturbia barely counts), and I knew M3GAN would be my first.
I was filled with some retrospectively silly jitters as we walked into the theater yesterday. What if I couldn’t handle it! What if the ironic, iconic, evil robot doll movie legitimately scared me?
But I was fine! The movie was fun and spooky! There was the correct amount of blood, for me personally. Could have had more singing and dancing. I recommend it to you if you like dolls, gasping, and/or Allison Williams.
2023 Reading List
Did you know that I want to read more books this year? Groundbreaking! Earlier this week I combed through my twitter likes, instagram bookmarks, etc etc to find all of the aesthetically pleasing book cover flatlays I’ve been hoarding but never acting on. I googled the plot summaries, narrowed down what I was actually interested in, tossed em all onto a spreadsheet, and got to work requesting some library holds. Here’s what I’m working with:
Have you read any of these? Do you have thoughts or further recommendations? Do you think A Certain Hunger’s sexy cannibalism is going to be too scary? Sound off in the comments. Stay tuned throughout the year to see if I successfully acquire and read any of these!
Recommendation for the Road
This video has a lot of things I love: Nicole Boyce, Yung Gravy, and menstrual education. It’s not the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but look: not everything can be game show bloopers. I do feel like it’s important for us to spread the word that Yung Gravy is really bad at identifying vaginal anatomy.
That’s it for me (the adult human woman, not the white cat named Shadowfax) tonight! Have a really nice week you guys.
Ali
Great Circle is FANTASTIC! I’m usually pretty ambivalent about big, sweeping historical fiction books, but this one is very good.
Here are my thoughts on A Certain Hunger: Pretty graphic! Very funny! Really enjoyed! I wouldn't call it scary, although there were parts that I found gross. Honestly, the grossest part to me was a description of a slaughterhouse of cows, not any of the descriptions of people-eating. Also pretty graphic sexually as well, FYI.