The Call Is Coming From Inside The Moon Knight Costume
The Call Is Coming From Inside The Moon Knight Costume
On Pedro Pascal Slut Allegations, The Riddler revealing her album tracklist, my first Vancouver International Film Festival, and more.
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It has been a while since we’ve had any Oscar Isaac news to report. The newsroom here at Hyperfixate (me, on my laptop, abusing campus Wi-Fi) are thrilled to welcome him back into the fold.
The streets are saying, with video evidence, that Oscar Isaac called Pedro Pascal a slut at New York Comic-Con a few days ago. That’s bloody rich, isn’t it? This coming from the man that kissed the inside of Jessica Chastain’s arm at Venice Film Festival to promote Scenes From a Marriage? The audacity!
Isaac claims he is “ride or die” and Pascal is “loosey-goosey”. I think Ethan Hawke would use slightly different terms for the both of them! London Chapter Commissioner of the Department of Oscar Isaac Affairs, John Boyega, had the following to say:
And he is correct!
I also learned of Isaac’s collaboration with musician and producer Arca in 2019, pre-pandemic, and a conversation they had together for Interview Magazine that really moved me. I can’t believe I didn’t know about this sooner!
I’m still waiting for Ethan Hawke to weigh in on the conversation, perhaps Jessica Chastain will pen a Notes App letter on behalf of Jeremy Strong as well. We’ll keep an eye on this story as it unfolds.
All I Want To Do Is Get Snow By The Beach
I am so relieved Midnights Mayhem has finally ended. There are only so many times one can remind the general public that their ex-boyfriend was in David Fincher’s Zodiac (2007).
Every time Taylor Swift gets on TikTok to spin her little tombola and pull out a ball like this is Bingo at Arkham Asylum, I feel the spirit of Emo Batman overtake my body. I am constantly half-expecting a greeting card addressed to my even more emo alter ego that could put my butler in danger.
The final reveal in the Midnights tracklist is a collaboration with Lana Del Rey, a track called Snow On The Beach. Knowing Taylor, the song could be about the Hamptons in the winter. Knowing Lana, the song is probably about cocaine. This is Swift’s El Rata Alada Dot Com.
I often compare Swift to The Riddler not just because it’s funny that she’s made being cryptic a central tenet (I really like saying that) to her marketing strategy, nor is it because the boyfriend she wrote a 10-minute song about was in Zodiac (2007) but because they’re technically eco-terrorists. The Riddler will decimate Gotham with floods, and Taylor Swift rivals only Bruce Wayne in private jet usage.
I am very excited for Midnights. Although I fear all of the mayhem has been to distract us from the fact that she got hit by a car in a film made by a known predator. She got reverse-Out of the Woods-ed.
M3GAN? MOTH3R!
When Marnie from Girls shows up in a horror film, you know it’s about to go down. There’s something incredibly slay about this and it’s not just this little robot girl’s TikTok dances. I think this will be our new MA.
Hyperfixate Goes To VIFF
It’s been a while since I’ve been to a film festival. I used to go all the time pre-pandemic, and by all the time, I mean I would usually be rota-d on at work during London Film Festival, with the cheeky press screening after uni here and there.
I moved to Vancouver just in time for the 41st Annual Vancouver International Film Festival. I booked five screenings but could only make it to three because my schedule has been a bit wonky the last couple of weeks or so. Such is life! Such is time!
I had to miss Corsage because I had rehearsal for a play I’m doing next month (that’s right, she’s Acting again, lads). I did, however, catch Decision to Leave as my first film at the Festival.
Decision to Leave was certainly a departure from any expectations I had of a Park Chan-wook picture. To be fair, Director Park has a gift for throwing a wrench in anyone’s plans once you sit down for any one of his films. I had a lot of fun with Decision to Leave, arguably too much fun. I thought it was goofy, I didn’t expect to laugh so much. There’s certainly an absurdity to the tenderness of our two leads’ circumstances, but I think we should let Park Chan-wook be goofy for a change! Let the man have his teehee moments! Even if he does hit you with a devastating beach scene ending. It was, as I’ve grown accustomed to saying, slay.
Next in my VIFF lineup was Triangle of Sadness, which I went to see at 9pm on a Monday night. I had to queue for the screening, the line wrapped around the block. This venue was a 1600-seater. The usher called us a ‘square of sadness’. I went into this film completely blind, so I was delighted to find out that it was a good ol’ romp of a time. I’m usually quite skeptical of white people doing class commentary, but Triangle of Sadness was almost too hyperaware of how brazenly white and European it is.
Harris Dickinson’s character, Carl, is the George Costanza of the fashion world. He was down horrendous. When he asked the late Charlbi Dean’s character, Yaya, why she didn’t pick up the bill for the dinner—hell, when he not-so-subtly tapped on the receipt tray before he even asked, the Costanza alarms were going off. He is down so horrendously bad and so utterly selfish—the way Frank & Estelle Costanza’s son is— that I couldn’t look away.
I liked how each act was bookended. I enjoyed how boisterous and gross-out it was, from the vomiting to what seemed like a bougie Castaway remake, I was sold. I think it’s a real testament to the craft if you can keep pushing a story until it breaks or comes to a head. The commentary was on the nose, sure, but I’d liken that to the uneven sunscreen you’d get on the noses of white tourists. Very on brand. Tied the whole thing together, even.
My last film of the festival was Broker, on closing night. I love me some Kore-eda. I still think about Shoplifters from time to time, it’s one of those festival flicks that really stay with you. (I also had to usher it a bunch of times at work, and I never really minded). I think Broker feels like a culmination of a lot of the themes Kore-eda often explores in his films. Broker was heavy with found family, with ideas of choice and obligation, and the post-Sense8 post-Kingdom Bae Doona I’ve been waiting for. Also, I just found out Gang Dong-won is signed to YG? Like BLACKPINK’s YG? Wild.
I thought the ensemble was charming, and heart-wrenching, and at many points presented a challenging dynamic that forced me to interrogate my relationship with what I was watching. I left the film better for it, but I also wonder if anyone else shared this sentiment I had of Broker’s western marketability hindering its full potential. I really liked it, still.
I love festival season. I love being around the rest of you dweebs, I wish I was around you all year but then again I feel like I sort of am anyway. I’m hoping to catch Tár soon, whenever the Canadian release of that will be. So nice to be able to watch movies again!
Completely unrelated to film-viewing, but on the night I saw Broker, some friends and I hung out at the beach and there was a man with a telescope. He invited us to some free astronomy. I saw Jupiter that night, clear in the sky, and its four little moons that were only little from where I was standing. It was pretty cool.
New Play, Who Dis?
I did an audio play this summer (which has been in the works since last summer) that was written by the lovely Lou Beckett alongside the ever-wonderful Stephanie Louise. The play was featured as part of Cheltenham Heritage Open Days this past September. I hope you have a listen, we had a blast making it.
The Podcast Is Back, Jerry!
ADTLM is back (fucking finally) and we’ve got a killer episode for ya featuring one of my pal and fellow comic Patrick Healy. We talk Seinfeld, which isn’t all that different from our non-podcast conversations. It lines up with the aggressive Seinfeld fixation I’ve had for the last however long it’s been. It’s been a goddamn while. In the immortal words of Seinfeld2000: jery get ipad. jery do podcast:
That’s all for this week! Hopefully, you’ll see me next Wednesday.