This week:
Get Ready to Cry
Award seasons are strange. There are movies that are nominated for everything, then swiftly forgotten once the last trophy is handed out. In three months, will any of us remember that Maestro exists? (A fun game to play at the end of each award season is to try to name the actors who actually won the awards the previous year without Googling.)
Then there are the movies that spent the season championed by a contingent of cinema fans and awards enthusiasts who cheered for them, begged for voters to pay attention to them, and just plain wouldn’t shut up about them. Oscar nomination morning is a deflating experience when, despite the films’ worthiness and the passion of their fans, they’re passed over for the typical Academy-friendly fare that was rubber-stamped at every precursor award show.
The thing is: These are the movies that last. Because they’re so good—so special—that the word of mouth never ends. People discover them when they hit streaming. They’re revisited, sometimes often, whereas the litany of snoozy biopics that did get awards attention essentially disappear. (On Mar. 11, Nyad swims off into the abyss, never to be heard from again.)
There are a few titles that I predict this will be true for from the 2023 award season. I’ve already noticed in my social circles that people are starting to check out—and then rave about—Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. The movie that the most people in my life have watched and wanted to talk with me about is Theater Camp. And then there is the film that I, personally, feel is the best movie of 2023, a gem that I think a lot of people are going to be talking (and crying about) in the coming months: All of Us Strangers.
The poignant, haunting romance, written and directed by Andrew Haigh, is available to stream on Hulu as of this weekend. I can’t recommend enough that you go to the store, pick up a jumbo-sized box of tissues, and then return home to watch the movie.
Andrew Scott plays Adam, a lonely writer living in a near-empty skyrise in London who is working on a screenplay about his childhood. After a fire drill one night, he meets Harry (Paul Mescal), who seems to be the only other person living in the building. Despite Adam’s early resistance, they spark a connection, which develops into a passionate romance that cracks Adam open emotionally, seemingly for the first time in a long time.
He travels to the house he grew up in to reconnect with his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), but there’s a strange twist: His parents died in a car crash 30 years before. How is it possible that they can see each other? None of them are sure, but they seize the opportunity to get to know each other again, this time with Adam as a grown, successful, gay man.
The relationship with Harry dovetails with the interactions with his parents’ ghosts, allowing Adam to heal old wounds and come into himself in ways that his past pain had stalled. The process is as gorgeous as it is heartbreaking, creating a viscerally cathartic viewing experience; just as Adam’s feelings are finally unleashed, so are yours. At least that’s what the Kleenexes that are suddenly soaked suggest.
Haigh is no stranger to this kind of film, one that was small, cut championed at its release, but which would eventually capture more and more attention—and be truly cherished—as years pass. His 2011 romance Weekend is a foundational film for LGBTQ+ millennials, especially, while his once polarizing HBO series Looking is, 10 years after its premiere, experiencing a cultural reexamination. All of Us Strangers doesn’t need to be reconsidered—it’s already beloved—but expect its impact to only continue to grow as more people get to watch it. (Which, again, you can do right now on Hulu!)
The Real Housewives of Miami Is *the* Show
We’re a broken record when it comes to screaming about how The Real Housewives of Miami is the most slept-on city in the Bravo franchise. But we consider it a civil service—a public duty—to inform society what they are missing if they do not start watching and appreciating this show. Don’t you want nice things in your life?
The season finale aired Wednesday night, showing off how the series balances intense personal storylines and explosive cast feuding with equal parts hilarity and empathy—and does that better than any other Housewives series. That the women can fight with the violent volume of feral cats being dropped in hot water and then rally to cheer on a cast member who is debuting a new song at a party is exactly how these shows should work!
But the moment from the finale that I really want to point to is when Guerdy Abraira, who is about to start chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer, decides to shave her head, asking her husband, Russell, to do it. It goes without saying that I was sobbing during this scene. But what struck me about it—especially as we learn at the end of the episode that Abraira is now cancer-free—is how remarkable Abraira’s willingness to show her cancer journey on the show was, and how production handled it.
She was candid, allowing cameras into every part of the journey, but it never felt exploitative—or, in the dark world of reality TV thirst for fame, like she was capitalizing on her illness for attention. We saw how sick it made her, but we also saw how vivacious she remained in the face of it: going on cast trips, attending parties when she could, and still looking glamorous.
In the grand scheme of Real Housewives, the whole arc was something you don’t normally associate with these shows: extremely classy.
This Is Perfect Casting
It was announced this week that Vanessa Williams will play Miranda Priestly in the musical version of The Devil Wears Prada debuting in London later this year. Rarely is there a casting that is this undeniably perfect.
Of course, real ones know that Williams was preparing this for years. On Ugly Betty, she played Wilhelmina Slater, a ruthless but secretly compassionate editor of a fashion magazine with a wardrobe that would be at home on the glossy’s cover and a scorching, judgmental wit that she’d shoot like poison darts. Williams should have an Emmy for her work on the show. Maybe a Tony for Prada will be the long overdue consolation prize.
Now to the most important matter: Who is going to fly me to London to see this?
This Is a Perfect Trailer
When the opening notes to The Corrs’ “Breathless” first dropped about midway through the trailer for the new Lindsay Lohan rom-com Irish Wish, just know that I ascended to a higher plane of existence. (The vibes up here are great.) Perfect song. Perfect trailer. Perfect hype for what will be a mediocre movie that I am going to love.
Watch the trailer here.
More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed
Actor David Krumholtz went viral spilling his wildest Hollywood stories. Turns out he had a few more—and told them to us. Read more.
What in the world was going on with all the Pepsi product placement in Madame Web? Read more.
Raff Law (Jude Law’s son!) broke down Masters of the Air’s most devastating episode yet. Read more.
What to watch this week:
About Dry Grasses: Spend three hours with a real prick. It’s a good time, we swear! (Now in theaters)
Ordinary Angels: They finally made a good faith-based movie. (Now in theaters)
The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy: But it’s the first-best voice cast in a new animated series. (Now on Prime Video)
What to skip this week:
Drive-Away Dolls: Ethan Coen should stick to making movies with his brother. (Now in theaters)
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Why can’t they make a good live-action adaptation of this?! (Now on Netflix)
Constellation: The multiverse meets outer space, and we just have a headache. (Now on Apple TV+)
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