A painting of me

Aftersun

   19 January 2025, late morning

I’ve seen Aftersun twice now. The first time alone during my big break, the second time last night with Shima. The film is slow, sweet, and sad. The audience watches a father and daughter on a resort trip in Turkey. The film is also presented, in some ways, as the daughter rewatching video clips recorded during the holiday. And perhaps the whole film is her trying to piece together the time they spent together. The film feels authentic and real, almost documentary. Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio play their parts perfectly. I watched an interview where they didn’t give Corio the entire script, just her parts, so she would be have the same understanding of the holiday as the character. I’m being pretty coy writing about the movie because I think it’s one best enjoyed with no expectations. I love the end of the movie. In some ways the whole movie is a slow build up for the last few moments of the film. You should watch this.

Aftersun official trailer.

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Reservation Dogs

   12 January 2025, evening time

I’ve watched Reservation Dogs twice now. The first time was with Shima. We zoomed through the first two seasons, and watched the third and final season as it was actually airing. We watched it all again with Mythilli over the past few weeks. The show is incredible. I would happily watch it all again right now.

Reservation Dogs follows the antics of a group of friends living in a reservation in Oklahoma. Their friend has died the year prior. There is lots of sadness and tragedy that permeates this show that is so funny. I love to see television that’s so well executed. You can see the creators had a real vision for what they wanted to do, and then they actually managed to do it. I think in different hands, a show about children in a reservation could have just been a lot of misery porn. This show is hopeful, at its core. People persevere despite the obstacles placed before them.

The first two seasons are mostly focused on the kids, and the show feels like it could have ended with the second season. But then they come back and did a third season that somehow manages to be even stronger. The last three episodes of the series are some of my favourite television. I can’t recommend this show enough.

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  • Sports Celebrate Physical Variation—Until It Challenges Social Norms. 

    Our bodies are festivals of variation. And in sports, we celebrate those differences—until we don’t. In certain sports, people are much more skeptical and far less accepting of variations among women athletes. With all our uniqueness, it seems strange to me that we laud some anatomical variations and are so hostile towards others. What matters is not whether a particular variation is common or rare, but how we perceive it in terms of the societal categories we have made. And because of our perceptions, some athletes end up adored. Others are shamed for some of the very characteristics that could help make them great.

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  • In Northern Gaza, Staying and Evacuation Both Carry Deadly Risks. 

    It feels like you could write this story every day for the last year. The NY Times looks at all the death Ramy Nasr has had to deal with due to the war in Gaza.

    Were it not for his children, Mr. Nasr said, he would not want to go on. “I wish I had died alongside my siblings,” he said. “Those that die are better off.”

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  • Digital Divinity. 

    The web design for this little anthology of modern religion essays is great.

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  • The Move 

    A short movie by Eric Kissack (of The Good Place fame) which also stars Dustin Milligan from Schitts Creek.

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  • Gaza Healthcare Letters, October 2 

    Children are universally considered innocents in armed conflict. However, every single signatory to this letter saw children in Gaza who suffered violence that must have been deliberately directed at them. Specifically, every one of us who worked in an emergency, intensive care, or surgical setting treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head or chest on a regular or even a daily basis. It is impossible that such widespread shooting of young children throughout Gaza, sustained over the course of an entire year is accidental or unknown to the highest Israeli civilian and military authorities.

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  • Israel’s Descent by Adam Shatz. 

    Israel’s supporters might argue that this is not the Shoah, but the belief that the best way of honouring the memory of those who died in Auschwitz is to condone the mass killing of Palestinians so that Israeli Jews can feel safe again is one of the great moral perversions of our time.

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