I have some questions. I think we all do.
Last night I dreamt about a man who was physically abusing a woman on the street. I asked him to stop, but he ignored me. I intervened and started beating him until I managed to chase him away. I’m not a violent man — or someone with a savior-complex. But, understandably, as a Londoner, the murder of Sarah Everard lingers on my mind ever since the news broke.
There are so many unknown details, so many questions that haven’t been answered. I’m not alone when I say this: I want to know what happened to this bright, intelligent, and caring…
Bob Odenkirk isn’t just a savvy, dirty lawyer anymore — but he isn’t quite the action hero either.
A functioning brain, a pair of hands, and Final Draft software — these are the tools you need to write a basic screenplay. Derek Kolstad, the man responsible for Nobody’s script, definitely has them without a doubt. I, and maybe you too, also have those, but we haven’t got the right connections in Hollywood to sell a screenplay.
What I’m trying to say is that the plot of Nobody is as dumb as it gets in mainstream cinema.
But Kolstad also wrote John Wick — which grants him a pass, I guess — and made a career out of putting…
Sometimes we don’t see things as they are — we see them as we are.
Sneaky — that’s what the latest episode of This is Us was. But many of the show’s episodes are like that. They pretend their sole purpose isn’t to make us bawl our goddamn eyes out — as if they weren’t designed to tap into our individual, sacred, beautiful yet hurtful family history.
And the writers succeed more often than not — after four and a half seasons, even if not as intensely and tragically as before, This is Us still works.
Brotherly Love focuses on a conversation between Randall and Kevin that was long overdue: addressing their vastly different point…
How to recognize and move past addictions without losing the core of our personality.
Five years ago, a then-colleague of mine told me that he wouldn’t be able to recognize himself if he were to quit smoking and drinking. At the time, I thought his statement was a devastatingly sad comment to have come from a thirty-four-year-old.
Fast forward a few years, and I found myself quitting smoking and dialing back on my own drinking. At some point, it dawned on me: his sentiment had become mine. It was a shocking realization for me. …
TRIBUTE
Rapper, poet, preacher, human.
We could say that the death of DMX last Friday wasn’t all that surprising. Given what he’s been through in life — abuse, addiction, crime, imprisonment, and violence — it’s a miracle that X lasted this long. He came close to leaving Earth five years ago when he was found unconscious in a car park and had to be resuscitated.
But that was a different, deeply troubled DMX with a head full of screaming demons he fought for decades.
The X, who’s been released from prison after a year in 2019, was a changed man: Transformed, calm, more attached to…
FILM I DRAMA
A small group of weirdos teams up to destroy a vicious gang.
Most revenge movies have one thing in common: the justification of anger. Whether it’s Liam Neeson eradicating the whole Albanian Mafia in Paris or John Wick feeding bullets to Russian gangsters in order to avenge his puppy’s murder, their anger is valid, righteous. And so is ours. Revenge comes from grief and rage, and it demands violence and justice — it’s a basic human instinct.
So what if there’s no one to take out that anger and frustration on? What if the loss happens by coincidence, and there’s no one to point a finger at? …
SELF I MEMOIR
A winter night from my library of nostalgia
It’s December. I’m staring at the clock in your room, and I wish I could slow down time somehow. You’re in my arms, and I’m trying to memorize the sweet smell of your skin that fills me up with excitement and lust every time. I want to save that in my brain, so I can recall how it made me feel.
We talk about nothing and everything — childhoods, memories, funny stories — but never about feelings. You protest when I make the slightest attempt to get some real emotions out of you. You always say that emotions lead to…
TV I FAMILY
FX’s British comedy series portrays parenthood at its worst and most vulnerable moments.
I could’ve been a father twice in my life. Looking back, thank God it didn’t happen. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike children. I just know that I’m not ready for having any — and still wonder if I ever will be.
I’m a poor sleeper, extremely impatient, and I often become a raging volcano when triggered by small things I shouldn’t care about. Not the best qualities to be found in a dad. A child would only make things worse. …
TRUE CRIME
Living on the streets is a crime in Hungary.
It’s hard to estimate the number of homeless people in Hungary. Several organizations tried over the years, but only one could determine that approximately 12 000 people lived on the streets in 2016. Most of them are in the capital, Budapest, which has more homeless people than almost any other Eastern European capital.
The Hungarian government isn’t concerned about them since homelessness is bad for politics. They ignored the situation for decades without acknowledging the fact that it’s become a real social issue. Then, in 2018, they passed a law that banned homelessness. Now, the Hungarian Constitution says that “Habitual…
Anthony Hopkins is astonishing as the aging, mentally ill dad.
Both of my grandfathers had passed away years ago. I considered them — and myself — lucky that they’ve only suffered from physical health issues, not mental ones. It was sad to see their health deteriorate, but I knew it was still the better option — if you can view something as better in one’s slow death.
What I mean is they didn’t have dementia or Alzheimer’s. If you Google those sicknesses, you’ll see that Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia — although the latter isn’t a specific disease as opposed to Alzheimer’s. Regardless, they both mean you…
