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This is great. Now I have some new movies to watch. Anyone who recognizes that "School of Rock" is a very great movie must know what she's talking about. That one's in my top 5 all-time (#1, of course, is "Airplane!").

I really appreciate your critiques/analyses of these books and movies. I haven't seen/read most of them, other than "School of Rock" and "Dead Poets Society" (which I saw long ago and barely remember, other than the standing-on-desks scene).

I think part of what you're recognizing is how books and movies as "messaging" can work the way a political demagogue or propagandist does: by appealing to our worst instincts as opposed to our better nature.

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Great comment, especially your last line. Sometimes we find works of art strongly appealing for reasons that don’t bear close scrutiny. (And I love Airplane too!)

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Feb 1, 2023Liked by Mari, the Happy Wanderer

I have a hard time with what I think of as "The Psychopath Shows," which includes "The Sopranos," "Breaking Bad," and "Killing Eve." I don't find sociopathic killers entertaining and seeing their occasional humanity can be an interesting window into a very tortured soul, but for me each of those shows took too much pleasure in violence. As a contrast, I recommend the two-season show "Mindhunter," which portrays the origins of the FBI group that profiled real-life psychopathic killers and does not romanticize them or falsely humanize them in any way. That show also dramatizes the personal cost to the profilers of doing the work they did.

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Oh, and thanks to you both for the Mindhunter recommendation! For similar reasons I really like the show Unforgotten, which is on Amazon. The detectives and victims’ families are the ones who are smart and interesting, not the murderers. And Nicola Walker is excellent, and really shows the toll that engaging with evil people takes on a good person.

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I LOVE “Unforgotten”--which we watched on PBS. That is a very human show and Andrea Walker is amazing. Also check out “Unbelievable”--about the victims and detectives, not the serial rapist. Based on a true story that the show hews very closely to.

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Yes love Unforgotten! And love Nicola Walker!

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I agree completely. I think it’s an example of a pernicious ideology in our culture that we seem to think that evil is brilliant and fascinating, while goodness is just normie and blah. In reality it’s the opposite: Psychopaths and narcissists have a very limited rule-book for how they treat other people, and it’s boring. Whereas good, kind generous people who treat other human beings as human? The possibilities are limitless.

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Feb 2, 2023Liked by Mari, the Happy Wanderer

Love this--evil is boring and goodness fascinating. Well said.

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Feb 2, 2023Liked by Mari, the Happy Wanderer

Excellent show choice! ‘Mindhunter’

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Feb 1, 2023Liked by Mari, the Happy Wanderer

Dead Poets Society teaches you very little about growing up and the pursuit of artistic passion in the face of a disapproving society, but it DOES teach you a lot about what the high school teacher who made your class watch it thinks about himself

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Excellent point. I didn’t even get into the narcissism of those very special teachers who think they’re changing the world, when really we just want to have a fun conversation about Shakespeare (or what have you).

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Feb 1, 2023Liked by Mari, the Happy Wanderer

I love these takes. I liked Dead Poets Society and Crawdads just fine, but now that I've read your analyses, I'm on board. In fact, I paused mid-read to order The River.

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I’m so happy to hear this! And then pass it along to your husband and Ethan--I predict they will like it too!

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I will definitely watch School of Rock now (never saw Dead Poets)!

But I trust your taste because Crawdads really yanked my chain for many reasons.😂

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Yes! Thank you!

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Feb 1, 2023Liked by Mari, the Happy Wanderer

Thanks for this column and for putting a cheerful positive spin on what I always thought of as a character flaw of sorts: I often can’t enjoy the things others have fun with. I agree with myself that glorifying suicide is bad, but then I used to feel like I was a downer for having critical views of such a popular movie. Now that I’m older it doesn’t bother me so much.

That beaver!!

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I agree that sometimes it is a curse to dislike entertainment that everyone else unproblematically enjoys, but so long as we can offer a substitute, I think it’s fine!

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Feb 1, 2023Liked by Mari, the Happy Wanderer

Great stuff. I agree with you about Where the Crawdads Sing - I did not like the book at all so didn't bother seeing the film. And while I can't say I exactly loved Triangle of Sadness, I really enjoyed it - I found it very thought-provoking and entertaining.

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This is a good and nuanced comment. I don’t think anyone really enjoys Triangle of Sadness the way we would enjoy School of Rock, but it is such an interesting and important film! (And I am grateful to know someone else--whom I very much respect!--who also didn’t like Crawdads!)

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Feb 1, 2023Liked by Mari, the Happy Wanderer

You are 2 for 2 (haven't seen Glass Onion yet, but I suspect you will be 3/3 when I get around to that).

Crawdads especially was insufferable. I thought the so-called "Mary Sue" trope was finally being written-out of pop-literature after peaking in the early 00's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series (book 2 might be the "final boss" of this trope) but then comes along Crawdads, and holy jebus, it gets to new heights. I almost tossed the book down when she casually reads an Organic Chemistry textbook for sport. Ridiculous.

Anyway, minor correction:

"Before High Fidelity came out in 2000, Jack Black had only played bit parts in a few films and had never sung onscreen before."

You missed the brilliant-but-possibly "had to be there" short lived HBO sketch comedy "Mr Show w/ Bob and David". Jack Black's earliest work can be found there, with singing parts including briefly in "The Joke, The Musical" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNc7v0-x7wc) and several others not available on YouTube :)

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😂 Ok, I just watched it, and now I think that if there is any justice in the world, they will remake Rocky Horror Picture Show and cast Jack Black as Frank N. Furter! (Also, was that Katherine Hahn as the angel?)

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Whoa! I used to love Mr. Show (and Arrested Development and Better Call Saul are two of my all-time favorite shows) and I can’t believe that I missed this! Thank you so much for the link!

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Feb 1, 2023Liked by Mari, the Happy Wanderer

Wow that might be Katherine Hahn! Not credited in IMDB, but a lot of these people were just friends of Odenkirk and randomly just showing up at the comedy clubs they were doing Mr Show.

If you haven't read it yet, highly recommend Bob Odenkirk's recent memoir "Comedy, Comedy, Drama" which must be listened to rather than read. Fascinating book for any fan of the work he has done (and incredible stories from his time on SNL and many other projects that never made it)

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Thank you so much for this recommendation, which I will also pass along to my son, who first persuaded me to watch Better Call Saul. 😊

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Feb 1, 2023Liked by Mari, the Happy Wanderer

Stress to your son to go with Audio version though! Bob brings so much more when he reads it!

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