Yesterday gave us a spectacular thunderstorm in northwest Nevada. Usually we don’t get t-storms like those until June! Basically the entire time we watched Happy Gilmore, we got hammered with rain. Some pretty sweet rumbles served as our laugh track.
My favorite part was after night fell, though. All the toads were out. I took a short walk with mi familia and we got to see a bunch of our cutest neighbors flopping around wetly.
~
I’m thinking of starting to divide Sara Reads the Feed by content area, since I’ve gotten into writing longer commentary and a couple links can turn into quite a post. This is all entertainment industry-related news. Let me know what you think?
Nicolas Cage is Spider-Man Noir
Nicolas Cage is a weird actor. I’m not the first to say it, and I won’t be the last. The weirdest thing about him is that simply having Nicolas Cage in a movie might transform it into A Nicolas Cage Movie, where he is the dominant central feature regardless of quality — or it might not be a Nicolas Cage movie *at all*. (A couple tread the line.)
So what will we get with Nicolas Cage playing Spider-Man Noir in live-action? (Variety) I truly can’t predict it. Even within the increasingly lengthy list of Spider-Man movies, you get highs and lows.
Even when you have a great Spider-Man, you might not have a great movie. And it’s not always obvious how a Spider-Man movie will age; what was panned initially might become a cult favorite. My personal Spider-Favorites don’t even necessarily include Peter Parker.
I think we can look forward to one thing with a Nicolas Cage Spiderverse movie: It won’t be boring when he’s on screen. I have never been bored by Nicolas Cage.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge Does a Tomb Raider
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is bringing a Lara Croft movie to Amazon Prime. (Engadget)
This is the kind of news I receive with an extremely neutral, apprehensive gritted-teeth smile. The Tomb Raider games are a long time favorite of mine — the originals as well as the ones from the 00s on X-Box 360.
I always love Lara Croft when she’s the feminine response to a James Bond- or Indiana Jones-like fantasy. I want her to be rich, athletic, powerful, confident, and getting up to all sorts of mayhem. I haven’t seen them in a million years, but I remember enjoying the Angelina Jolie Croft movies (even though I didn’t like seeing her hook up with men; in the games, she’s sort of asexual but oriented toward the male gaze).
Tomb Raider took another direction entirely in the 2010s games. They gave us a younger Lara in a survivalist setting that had the male gaze turned toward her ability to endure punishment. I really, really loathe those games. But they’re popular among others.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag was a great watch back in the day. How is she going to approach Tomb Raider? She did an Indiana Jones movie, so I’m hoping she’ll get the spirit of the older games, but it’s not like she’s making them for me. The franchise has already departed from my tastes. I don’t expect to get it back.
The Irish Keep Winning: Nicola Caughlan is Adorable
Nicola Caughlan is out doing the PR stuff for season 3 of Bridgerton. I mostly liked the first season, didn’t watch the second, and can’t seem to escape PR for the third. I might catch up, especially because Caughlan is extremely charismatic. She’s one of the weirdly many Irish artists working in Hollywood, and I am definitely biased in their favor!
In Refinery29, she talks about ageism in the industry. Caughlan and I are roughly the same age. I’ve been feeling it lately. Not that 36 is getting old, really; whatever decline I’ve experienced in my body is clearly inactivity-related and not actually age (yet). I’m not markedly worse at any skills than when I was in my 20s. Age is coming for me day by day, but right now, I’m still firmly in Adulthood and not yet Old.
Yet I am at an age where I am increasingly *regarded* as old. Even though I’ve been on Reddit for almost as long as it existed, the userbase is mostly younger than me now; the way the teens and 20-somethings talk about 30s, you’d think I’ve got a foot in the grave. Mid- to late-30s is also when the entertainment industry starts putting women out to pasture. There is some perception of loss-in-value for women at this point.
Caughlan has no interest in this narrative. She didn’t reach marked acting success until she was 30, and she’s just getting on her roll. It’s nice to see. I could use more of this kind of encouragement, personally. (And maybe I need to stop idly scrolling on Reddit.)
Her interview with Seth Meyers was also short but extremely adorable.
Seth Meyers Signed a New Contract
Speaking of Seth Meyers, he’s sticking around for at least another four years. (Variety)
I usually think of Seth as my favorite of the Late Night hosts these days, though I’m not sure I’d say he’s the funniest. He probably doesn’t think he’s the funniest either. He’s kind of an insider baseball dude, a comedian’s comedian, who likes to show his work on-stage. Did he bomb a joke? He’s going to talk about it, riff on it, and possibly call a writer out about it.
I love his Corrections segment especially — mostly because it’s extremely unfunny, to the point where it loops back around. I always feel like Corrections is something he makes exclusively for his writers and crew. The humor is so specific to what will make them laugh, and they do! You can hear Amber Ruffin cracking up sometimes, which makes me crack up too.
Everyone seems to have fun on Seth’s show, and I like that. I picked him up during the loneliest days of the pandemic. The apparent fraternity between his cast and crew is very charming, and it remains a highlight of my week.
I have no idea if this is true, but I feel like Seth is on the long list for successors to Lorne Michaels. I think the short list is almost entirely Tina Fey. I’d prefer Seth, personally.
Rings of Power Announced a Season 2 Date
I caught the trailer first on Book Riot, so I’ll link to their post about it here.
I have such mixed feelings about the first season of Rings of Power. I’m not a hater of the Amazon fantasy adaptations; I quite like Wheel of Time and I’m pretty chill about Rings of Power’s deviations from established canon. There was a lot of kerfuffle before it came out because the normal whiners didn’t like seeing so many nonwhite people in a Tolkien adaptation. Die mad, babies.
Watching the trailer reminded me of all my “ehh” and “ooh” points. I liked the polycule with the two hot Dwarves and their hot Elf twink (predictably). The Harfoots were charming enough. I was well entertained by their whole thing with the Stranger. The music is really good!
I really enjoyed Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, too — and you’ll hear no protests from me about making Elves like Galadriel have super dupery flippy-sword-and-bow abilities. They’re ancient, y’all! It was also awesome when Legolas surfed on a shield.
But I found the usage of Halbrand/Sauron extremely unappealing. You know I love a villain/heroine romance, but Galadriel with Halbrand did absolutely nothing for me. I didn’t feel the chemistry. It looks like we’re going to have a *lot* of Halbrand/Sauron in season 2, and his goofy new House of the Dragon wig isn’t going to endear him to me further.
Rings of Power didn’t manage to grab viewers for the entirety of the season. Viewership shrank dramatically episode-by-episode. Netflix would have already kicked it to the curb, but Amazon put too much money into Rings of Power to give up. They’ll have to pull some extremely super dupery flippy cool stuff to bring people back for season 2.
Just throw Harfoots and Dwarves at me and I’ll probably be happy. It’s coming August 29th.
