Shownotes

Media Diet is off next week because it’s my birthday and I’m going to Mallorca 🏝 Speaking of birthday: Did you know you can gift paid subscriptions to your friends?

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🎬 Emily The Criminal (2022) is a strong indie thriller about capitalism and generally a movie about paying way too much rent. For people who like thrifty but slightly dangerous Cons, Scams, Neo-Noirs, No-Fuss Scripts and Hustlercore. I’m learning about myself that I love movies that go through the details and technicalities of whatever scam is being executed (that includes heists and action sports). Aubrey “Deadpan” Plaza delivers an unusually resolved character. (B)
Tags: We Support Women’s Rights And Women’s Wrongs, Almost A24

🎬 Now is a good time to watch Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo1 (1980), one of his oldest works on the lonesome American man. Richard Gere plays a fabulous, homophobic, racist and expensive callboy, but he gets a pass because he’s just so hot and charming. Just watching it sets back LGBTQ+ rights by about a thousand years… and yet the virility of the 80s is too attractive, the clothes too sexy, the cheesy parts too cheesy to resist. (B+)
Tags: The Narcissists Playbook, Los Angeles Is A Character, Full Frontal Erotic

📺 I’m really into The Patient (2022). A psychoanalyst (Steve Carrell) gets kidnapped by a serial killer who wants his help (played by charming Domnhall Gleeson). What could have been a winding, dialogue-heavy stage play is kept on light feet thanks to the 20-minute episode format. (B, so far)
Tags: For People Who Have TV-Related Commitment Issues

👎🏼 After watching the latest episode of Industry2 I looked at other finance-related media - of which I’ve watched most since joining the banking world (in practice, if not in spirit) - and discovered Boiler Room, an earlier take on Jordan Belford’s story as “Wolf of Wall Street” and perhaps one of the worst cases of “this movie has no relevant women characters in it” of the last 20 years. Ben Affleck, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel (with actual acting skills) notwithstanding. D
Tags: Low Budget Leonardo DiCaprio

📰 This article about the “New Quantified Self” by Haley Nahmann is so on point. I was about to post something about my new workout routine (in which the workout consists mainly of finding the right apps that will guide me to my lofty goals3 of becoming hot and ripped), but instead I’ll leave this quote:

“When I’m unusually active—15,000 or 20,000 steps on a Saturday, say—checking my Health app in the evening feels like collecting my winnings. Whether or not I’ve actually practiced healthy habits that day, I’ve won. It’s a cheap thrill that comes at a subtle cost, which is that I’ve come to believe my phone can tell me whether I’ve moved enough better than my body can.” (A)

🎧 Rapper and artist Bones is going through an exciting sampling phase. I’m vibing with his Timbaland flip. Listen on YouTube or on the Media Diet Spotify playlist.
Tags: Not Me Trying To Bop To Cool 3D Looking Hypebeast Things

💽 What do I and Kanye West have in common? Our albums are never finished. Anyway, here’s my unripe, immature, underdeveloped vacation playlist “A Hazy Summer Island Afternoon Drive” on Spotify4.
Tags: Grandma’s Going On Vacation