🍼 nosferatu, anora and babygirl – thoughts on 2024's holy indie trifecta
plus three things to consume like a rabid content-hungry beast
Good evening everybody,
So true! Little froggy.
It’s a bit like how everyone in primary school wanted to be a marine biologist. How could they not? Finding Nemo, H20: Just Add Water, those underwater Windows desktop backgrounds. A growing awareness that the Great Barrier Reef was dying, a fact that truly kept me awake at night! Alas, I digress, and so early on in the piece.
Yesterday, I did an Instagram Story re: Babygirl, the new Nicole Kidman movie. She plays a CEO who partakes in a sordid affair with a mischievous intern at her tech company. I had wanted to watch it since the trailer came out – it’s A24 so I figured it would be stylistically pleasing, and I feel strangely comforted by Nicole Kidman. It could be a ‘00s hangover, like my fascination with frogs, but I won’t ask questions.
Kidman and unnamed fugitive-type figure, circa 2018, colourised.
Did I like the movie? Yes! I enjoyed the experience of watching it at the cinema. I really liked the intern, too – I only realised after the piece that he was the main character in Triangle Of Sadness, a satirical black comedy that is available for free on SBS right now. I’m surprised and excited by that! It was awarded the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2022 which sounds pretty cool and the main chick has a fringe soooo. He’s great in Babygirl, it felt very real and genuine. Perfectly cast, should I say so myself!
Anyway anyway anyway. In my review, I wrote that I had recently almost walked out of Nosferatu and Anora at the cinema. These films, along with Babygirl, are kinda like the trifecta of hyped-up, indie-informed, sexually-charged 2024 cinema – I was genuinely razzed to watch all three of them.
Many employees asked me to clarify why I didn’t like Nosfu and Anora. I wasn’t going to elaborate because the older I get, the more aware I am of how hard it is to create anything that involves more than just you and an internet connection. A book, for instance. While I had the final say on almost every part of that project, there were still so many creative decisions that were out of my control. Take the cover, for example. I always thought authors got to choose the cover of their books!
Nour bubsy. The publisher often gets the final say, given they’re the ones selling it. My publisher was great – we went through so many designs and redrafts and mental breakdowns to get the right fit. But not all authors are given the same liberty – hence why so many seemingly reprehensible covers are given the green light.
Imagine a movie then! So many fingers in the pie – grants and producers and bad edits and issues when you film and production companies to appease. You can see how even one meddling stakeholder can mess the whole thing up... Like Jason Biggs getting his grubby mittens on his poor mother’s apple pastry.
an unfortunate core memory
So yeh I will give a very quick review on Nosfie and Anora because I’m not an expert and I’ve never made a film (yet luv). It microwaves the cockles of my heart to hear that people have watched or listened to or read something you’ve recommended. I think it’s a free way to show others that you love them, or value their opinion. That’s why I sat through A Bronx Tale with my Dad one time.
Here goes.
On Anora – the first 30 minutes were so exciting. Strip clubs and Vegas and Mikey Madison being so cool, I think she’s so watchable if that makes sense. Then it quickly devolved into an hour-long physical fight between Anora and the men who had captured her. It is billed as a comedy, and so the audience I was a part of was laughing – but I was just disturbed! The pearls… clutched! I think it’s because I just hate watching women under duress (unless, of course, they are being tormented by ghosts, or terrorised by possessed dolls).
My friend and I were sitting next to each other in the cinema constantly serving side-eye, silently wondering why everyone around us chuckled while Anora tried to escape her captors. It was visceral, I feel sick in my stomach while I write about it. Triggered is the perfect word. We were waiting for the moment we could leave and get a bowl of hot chips. I guess it was a bonding experience. My response to the film is likely personal taste above all else – it won last year’s Palme d'Or.
On Nosferatu – Lily-Rose Depp starred, which excited me. But the first frame was soooo similar to the first in The Idol. A close-up of her face as she writhed, looking directly at the camera? I was in disbelief at the parallel (derogatory). I felt that the film was disjointed – Nicholas Hoult is in London, or maybe it was Germany, then he’s in Nosfie’s castle, meanwhile, Lily-Rose is movie-long depressive episode and convulsing, and then the plague comes. Oh my word, it was just endless. Endless duress! I felt that it was so long, too. I was twiddling my thumbs and my bag of Mars Pods was demolished despite little to no hunger. I guess as well, it reminded me of the many gothic or horror films Lily-Rose’s father pumped out in the late ‘90s and early 2000s (Sleepy Hollow, Secret Window, Corpse Bride). But maybe not as believably dark. I’ve watched a lot of scary movies in my time (my sister watches scary movies almost exclusively). So I have particular tastes.
I’ll close out my trifecta review with this: all three of these movies are, at their core, about female desire. Yet the only one to truly capture the essence of that desire was Babygirl. Kidman’s character wasn’t a submissive receptacle in a cartoonish idea of sexuality, unlike those in Nosferatu and Anora.
Funnily enough, Kidman is the most traditionally submissive woman in all these movies – and yet the complexity of her pleasure (and lack thereof) is the most accurately portrayed. Sometimes uncomfortably so, which I liked.
Now darlings, may I share three things (a movie, a TV show and a podcast) I absolutely adored of late? To try and counteract any and all bad juju I may have invited due to unfavourable reviews. I am becoming more and more superstitious as I age, likely a direct result of the spooky and spine-tingling content I lovingly consume.
The Apprentice
This is the best movie I have seen at the cinema in recent memory. It’s a Donald Trump biopic, starring Sebastian Stan, a truly fine character actor. I fell in love with him in A Different Man, a surreal, kinda heartbreaking A24 film from last year. So much pathos. So much uniqueness. Anyhow, The Apprentice chronicles Trump’s early years in business – from young wannabe to corrupt property developer to the sordid epitome of the archetypical American dream (the film ends in the late 80s, with him undergoing a cosmetic procedure which was obviously exciting to me lol). I learnt so much from the film – most interestingly, how Trump was mentored by a ruthless lawyer called Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong of Succession fame).
Cohn teaches Trump three rules to live by: always attack, deny everything, and always claim victory. And to live by the belief that you’re either a winner, or a loser, no in-between.
Maria Bakalova, who plays Ivana Trump, is magnificent. There is one truly disturbing scene in this movie – a sexual assault – which was so visceral I almost cried, so tread with caution. It didn’t feel unnecessary or glamourised, though – it felt appropriately horrible, and memorable, for the right reasons. I highly recommend watching this, even if just for the acting alone. Perfect cinema in my eyes – so entertaining I didn’t want it to end. I wanted more, more, more.
Otherworld podcast
I’ve shared my obsession with this podcast more than once, and I will do it again, here!
Dazed says that this isn’t “your average paranormal podcast” – and so true sis. Otherworld is a podcast and concept by Jack Wagner, “the LA-based internet personality” (Dazed’s words). He’s a male ‘it girl’ in my eyes – he’s cool but not in a cunty way, he just has taste and it translates into a non-tacky podcast about paranormal experiences. The thing I’ve noticed as a regular consumer of scary stuff is that it so often it devolves into cheap, crude and exaggerated retellings. Not Otherworld!
Each week he has a new guest – they don’t often banter back and forth, he just gives a short explainer at the top of the episode before letting the guest tell their story in full. It’s well-crafted – the intro music alone gets me into the zone. This podcast has style, substance and a lack of self-seriousness that makes you take it seriously.
Diving into a podcast is a tricky manoeuvre so allow me to recommend three episodes to whet your whistle:
Episode 8 ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ – a story of a man who lost his brother in a car accident aged 13 and the experiences that followed. A poignant and rewarding listen.
Episode 72 ‘Room 349’ – just a classic ghost-type story, a good entry point. And a great example of a good storyteller of a guest.
Episode 38 ‘Eilish Poe’ – This story will stay with me forever. It’s a five-part series about a woman who is almost murdered by her ex. It’s so in-depth, with the real police tapes in there and all. What I love most is that she is given the floor to tell her story, and she is a masterful storyteller at that. So often, true crimes are told through the lense of the perpetrator. She describes how that feels, as someone who lived it. I liked that she specifically came to Otherworld to tell her story – I think it’s a great indicator of the respect the podcast has for its guests.
My Mum and I listened to all of the Eilish Poe episodes one day over the Christmas holidays, and she loved it. We just sat on the couch and locked in and time slipped away. Academy Awards for podcasts WHEN?
Optics
Bubsys, I have a lil cameo on the new comedy show by Vic Zerbst and Jenna Owen, Optics! 🤓 It came out on ABC iView last night. It’s about two women working at a PR firm that deals with celebrity scandals and corporate misadventures. Think footy stars acting up, major airlines operating nefariously and monster CEOs accused of workplace bullying. The latter as above, played by Grey’s Anatomy royalty Kate Walsh (who was so funny and friendly asf by the way).
This is Australian excellence. It’s funny and smart but not smart in a way that makes it unfunny, if you know what I mean. It’s just very entertaining. The dialogue is real – you can tell this has been created by women in their late twenties. Current but timeless. It’s a joy to see Zerbst and Owen’s ten years of hard yakka in the comedy space pay off in a genuinely brilliant series – it’s no mean feat to get something off the ground in Australia, let alone something world-class.
Monumental, I say!
Ok lovelies – phew. Reviews COMPLETE. That felt quite good to do, actually. If you go ahead and take heed of my suggestions, please do let me know. I so love a closed loop.
As always, have a brilliant evening. I’ll see you next time!
Froomes x
Froomie this rocks. I am going to watch/list all recommended ASAP!!!! I trust my CEOs taste