This week:
- It’s patriotic to be this thirsty.
- Check out this sexy new movie.
- The week’s most heartwarming story.
- The rise of the fun bad movie.
- My spiritual sisters.
A Small (Steamy) Gem of a Movie
As much progress as there has been made in queer cinema, it’s still thrilling—and somewhat surprising—to see a movie about a gay man’s experience that acknowledges that sex exists.
In Sebastian, sex, in fact, is the point.
The film, written and directed by Mikko Makela, steamed up the snow banks in Park City when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. (It’s now officially in theaters.) It stars spellbinding newcomer Ruaridh Mollica as Max, an aspiring young gay writer living in London who makes extra money as an escort.
He markets himself on an escort site as Sebastian, an alter ego that makes him more comfortable on his sex dates with typically older, out-of-shape, and sometimes aggressive men. Because everything is copy, Max uses his exploits as Sebastian as material for a novel he’s writing—though he passes it all off as fiction.
What surfaces are fascinating questions about both sex and storytelling in a modern era. Max’s novel strips the idea of shame and trauma from sex work, reflecting shifting attitudes in the age of OnlyFans. But as Max starts to manufacture juicier, more scandalous encounters in order to make “Sebastian’s story” more compelling in his novel, the idea of fact, fiction, and autobiography are all blurred—along with Max’s notion of his own mental health.
Then, with the film’s onslaught of frank sex scenes, it’s impossible to watch without wondering how its depiction of gay sex, specifically, might change the industry and drive conversations.
It’s a movie that I love to recommend because there’s so much to talk about. (Plus, a lot of it is really hot!) I interviewed Makela and Mollica back when the film premiered at Sundance. Read our conversation here.
Cleanup: Tears Spilled in Aisle 5
In general, I feel like the world could use a huge, relieving, heartwarming “aww.” Sometimes the internet is actually good, and it delivered a massively uplifting emotional swoon this week.
Remember early in the pandemic when we were all obsessed with the ’90s game show Supermarket Sweep, after it became available to stream on Netflix? For me—and apparently many others—that obsession never waned.
Actor and pop culture enthusiast Tom Zohar posted on X a photo of Sweep contestants Tim and Mark, captioning it, “I love watching old episodes of Supermarket Sweep because these two just said they’re ‘business partners’ who ‘design sets for plays’ and I’m like, oh I’m sure.”
Well, Tim tracked Tom down, updating him that he and Mark, in fact, were more than business partners: They’ve been together 41 years, 25 of them as husbands after same-sex marriage became legal in 2008.
The sheer niceness of this feel-good internet story only intensified when Slate’s Dan Kois interviewed Tim and Mark, learning their life story—and their love story—which involves a twist that M. Night Shyamalan would be jealous of. Read it here. (And when you’re done, read a similarly sweet Where Are They Now? interview I did with former Sweep contestants Brandon and Kevin here.)
The Rise of the Bad Movie Good Movie
I recently had the time of my life watching Twisters, which was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.
Soon after, I had the time of my life watching Deadpool & Wolverine, which, again, was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.
It’s an interesting phenomenon. It used to be easy to just dismiss the summer blockbuster abominations that were so bad you couldn’t be bothered with them.
Now, and with these two movies especially, there’s a tension: They were undeniably fun to watch, even while being unable to escape the glaring truth that they were terrible in every way, from the plot to the writing to, in most cases, the performances. (Glen Powell and Channing Tatum, respectively: You are absolved in this.)
On the one hand, when there are movies like these that everyone, myself included, is going to flock to see regardless of quality, at least they’re enjoyable. On the other hand, what if a summer blockbuster was actually good? I’ll keep you posted after I see M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap this weekend.
My Personal Olympics Vibe
As I continue to make watching the Olympics my entire personality for the next week, I am inspired by this clip from one of my favorite accounts on X: kathie lee and hoda no context, which posts videos from the greatest television of our lifetime—Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb’s fourth hour of Today—you guessed it, without context.
In the clip, Kathie Lee and Hoda march into Rockefeller Plaza to talk about the 2012 Olympics with giant glasses of wine thrust in the air, as if they were Olympic torches. It’s perfect—exactly on brand for them… and for me.
What to watch this week:
Trap: A win for Josh Hartnett is a win for all of us. (Now in theaters)
Cuckoo: You gotta love a film that lives up to its name. (Now in theaters)
Kneecap: The answer to the question, “What if we made an Irish version of 8 Mile?” (Now in theaters)
What to skip this week:
The Instigators: A movie this star-studded shouldn’t be such a dud. (Now in theaters)
