Mr. and Mrs. Smith (reboot)
Donald Glover’s adaptation of Mr. & Mrs. Smith grew on me. I was initially turned off by the awkward chemistry between Jane (played by Maya Erskine) and John (played by Glover). Truthfully, my hesitation to love it was just me holding on to Angelina and Brad’s spicy, seductive chemistry in the original. I had to remind myself that this was an adaptation, not only from film to tv, but one that casted a black man and Asian woman as the leading characters. And with time, I grew to love them at the same pace that they grew to love each other.
The opening scenes where Jane and John do their interviews separately - a verge from Angelina and Brad’s shared interview, was an intentional choice that co-creators Glover and Francesca Sloane made to introduce them as strangers to one another. Sloane and Glover knew audiences would struggle to see and understand two lovers of a different race and used that scene along with others to ground and remind us of the plot of this story - complete strangers who are tasked to use marriage as the scheme behind their espionage adventures. Through this forced task we see two people, who are not so obviously compatible, fall in love.
And to me, that speaks to where we are moving as a society. We are no longer holding hostage the idea of same-race love as the thing that keeps humanity and society together. We are reminded that love is something ebbs and flows, and it develops as we get to see ourselves in one another.
Black Buck, by Mateo Askaripour
A story for the underdogs.
Its a fast-paced journey following a young black man, Buck, who starts out working in a coffee shop. Buck ends up convincing a powerful CEO of a lucrative tech company to switch up his typical coffee order. The CEO is so impressed that he ends up offering Buck a job. Throughout many trials and errors on the job and in his personal life, Buck learns the benefits and inherent losses of hustling and selling as a means to move ahead.
There is a gentle nudge in this story that reminds us that one of the keys to thriving in this competitive world is getting other people to buy into you. That can be selling a skill that you have; that can be buying a product that you are making; or that can be selling someone on your personality. It humbles me and takes me back to various points in my life where I became stagnant, and through pressure, I had to learn how to sell my competency or negotiate a compromise.
This book is largely based on Mateo’s own experience before he became a full-time writer. His next book, Great Hemisphere, is coming out this summer.
AI-Powered News Anchors?!
Channel One’s anchors are going to be AI-powered.
This frightens me. News announced by robots feels dangerous. It threatens the validity of information being shared and goes against journalistic integrity. In this societal shift, we’ll rely less on the heavy lifting of writing and crafting the article. Journalists are going to shift from writers to AI-editors. The new workforce will become less about managing tasks, but about managing technology that acts as the task master. This should reduce the difficulty to balance multiple tasks at the demand of which our economy wants, and if done well, we should feel that relief. Though, our challenge will be the learning curve around managing technology. Since AI has the capacity to spread massive loads of information quickly, the risks for mismanaging become costly and threatening.
Lose Control, by Teddy Swims
The song I’ve had on repeat lately:
Lose Control by Teddy Swims. The soul that emanates from his gut reminds me a lot of Sam Smith mixed with Cee Lo. His vibe in this song is a perfect combination of soul, country and funk. The run on “control” makes every part of my body tingle – it’s truly soul food. Swims is from Georgia and he definitely brings the down south funk and soul in all his music. His song Tough Love came out in 2022, and that song started to attract a lot of fans. Then, he dropped the single Lose Control in June 2023 and that was the song that really had a lot of people tuning in. His album I’ve Tried Everything but Therapy (Part 1) dropped in September 2023. Swims is on tour now – a lot of his shows are overseas in London, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands. No dates for NYC yet unfortunately but if you’re in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Austin, or Florida - he’s coming your way.
Anatomy of a Fall
So, I didn’t start following this film until the Oscars. It’s a psychological thriller that originally premiered at last summer’s Cannes Film Festival. The French film follows the story of a woman, played by Sandra Huller, who is on trial for her husband Samuel’s death. To prove her innocence, she has to rely on her own anecdotes and justify incriminating evidence that surfaced from recorded tapes, and the testimony of their son, Daniel.
Sandra is surviving this tumultuous relationship with her husband and there is a natural tension that we see envelop throughout the story. Unfortunately, their son is constantly put in between that tension unbeknownst to them, until Sandra goes through this trial. Anatomy of a Fall is more than just the build up of the physical fall of her late husband, but the internal workings of the fall of their marriage, and their family, and their sanity.
The director, Justine Triet, is a French film director and screenwriter, and she is known for Age of Panic (about the French presidential election).
To Justine: I am a fan and will be following more of your work moving forward.
Did Sandra do it, we must know your opinion 👀