Paying it Forward (2022)
+ some life updates.
Dear subscribers,
Yes, I know—long time no see! Fortunately, this newsletter is free so I don’t actually owe anyone an explanation. But also, this has been an incredibly busy, stressful and exciting year for me vocationally, so I’d like to brag for a minute. Aside from moving to Boston, beginning my MFA and picking up a part-time teaching job (that’s right, I’m a grad student now; you can’t tell me sh*t), I’ve also written professionally for more outlets than ever before. In the spirit of togetherness, I thought I’d fill you in on some of that before diving into my annual tradition of sharing written recs.
First off, I’ve been contributing to the Miami New Times, for which I talked to the hilarious and legendary John Waters in what ended up being my most high-profile interview to date. I’ve also written several news stories for the publication, with my favorite being this one about local documentary filmmakers uplifting their communities—as well as concert previews for acts like The Weeknd (which got me my first Wikipedia citation). Additionally, I’ve worked as a freelance contributor for Xtra since January, and have written almost 50 news stories for them, including this feature on Gemmel & Tim, a powerful true-crime documentary about Ed Buck’s victims.
In terms of film criticism, I made my Bright Wall/Dark Room debut in June with this essay on Psycho, Santa Sangre and homophobic voyeurism. Since then, I’ve written two more about one of my favorite filmmakers, Pedro Almodóvar. The first explores Law of Desire’s place in his canon, and the second spotlights Dark Habits, an underrated favorite of mine. This write-up I did on Grease and Doja Cat for the magazine’s Time Travel issue also received a lot of positive feedback, and was really fun for me to put together. Finally, I wrote this piece about Chilean animation for Film Cred in July. This one involved a lot of research, and I’m very proud of how it turned out.
Those are only some of the things I’ve written this year, and while I’ve already thanked the outlets for keeping me booked and busy, I’d like to take a moment to extend that gratitude to you. Really, I’m grateful for anyone who’s ever supported my writing, but seeing how this newsletter was born from an effort to strengthen me as a critic, it’s been great to have you along for the ride. Because I know how much re-posts, subscriptions and even just clicks can mean (especially to emerging writers), I’ve decided to continue a Christmas tradition I started a year ago, in which I use this platform to share my favorite pop-culture reads from 2022 (and a few I didn’t get to the year before). All are from writers I love, and a few even served as research and inspiration for my own work over the last 12 months.
Don’t worry—I’m making it a New Year’s resolution be more active on here in 2023. But before we kick it off with my annual “Best of” lists, here’s some reading from other talented folks to keep you busy.
Film:
Act Like You’re in a Movie: Reconsidering Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers (2022), by Matthew Eng (@Eng_Matthew) for Bright Wall/Dark Room.
All That Ambiguous Heaven: Dialectics in All That Heaven Allows (2021), by Tony Madia (@longhettilover) for Film Cred.
Bearing the Palls of Shopping Malls: Necropsying (Dead) Mall Nostalgia in Netflix’s Fear Street Trilogy (2022), by Whitney S. May (@VitniMaybe), for Ampersand.
The Fantasy of the Nancy Meyers Kitchen (2022), by Jo Hylton (@nickyhylton) for Catapult.
Jane as Jazz: The Fluid Adaptations of Jane Austen in Clueless and Fire Island (2022), by Nathaniel Kim (@nlkim95) for Film Cred.
A Letter to My Ex on the Occasion of The Danish Girl’s Fifth Anniversary (2020), by Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) for Autostraddle.
Out With the Old, or: Art in a Time of Monsters (2021), by Alexander B. Joy for Bright Wall/Dark Room.
Steven Soderbergh’s KIMI: Seattle as a Panoptic Playground (2022), by Jason Baxter (@Frasierbutt) for Bright Wall/Dark Room.
Waters, Knoxville and the Beauty of Queer Filth (2022), by Veronica Phillips (@vnickyy) for Fim Daze.
We Never Leave That Room (2022), by Travis Woods (@aHeartOfGould) for Bright Wall/Dark Room.
Music:
Artist to Auteur: the Cinema of Kate Bush (2021), by Christopher Forrester (@_chrisforrester) for Film Cred.
A History of the Tom Cruise Charting Effect (And Why it Doesn't Happen Anymore) (2022), by Claire Davidson for More Than Meets the Eye.
Just Take Me Out of My Mind (2022), by Ethan Warren (@Ethan_Warren_) for Bright Wall/Dark Room.
Lucy Dacus’ Home Video and the Representation of Specificity (2022), by Drew Gregory (@draw_gregory) for Autostraddle.
The Unsung Queerness of Green Day Lyrics (2021), by Niko Stratis (@nikostratis) for Catapult.
TV:
The Holy Firm: Eternity & Forgiveness in Midnight Mass (2022), by Danielle Purdy for Bright Wall/Dark Room.
How Hunter Shafer Saved My Life (2022), by Zoe Rose Bryant (@ZoeRoseBryant) for Awards Watch.
Locked Out of Eden: Fleabag and the Condemned Narrator (2021), by Alicia Manno for Bridge Eight Press.
‘Perfect’ Is Hard (2022), by Ethan Warren (@Ethan_Warren_) for Between Art and Life.
Busy like a bee!