Now playing: “Good Fine Alright” by Carly Rae Jepsen

Hello from a New York that doesn’t look like those pastel and sherbet skyline photos from Friday night anymore. Now, we’re onto the gray portion of the nor’easter.

Most of this last week, save for the Phoebe Bridgers show I am gonna spend more time drafting on before publishing felt like purgatory. I’ve had some sort of bug that I referenced at the start of last week’s edition, which I thought was done by the time I posted that. That Sunday night, though, a low-grade fever returned. What’s happened is probably pretty simple, as I’ve just refused to lay low for long enough to get fully healthy, and keep jumping the gun. Last night, I learned from my mistakes and stayed in, skipping my already-made-plans.

So, since this week is sort of a mess, I thought it would be good for me to sort of piece together the five-day window that I’ve been thinking about by looking through screenshots, photos, and (naturally) my Letterboxd history.

Before I even published last week’s edition, right as this bug began, the light above my dining room table — which is in an odd UFO-looking lamp that requires a fluffy, toothy brush to clean properly — finally gave up the ghost. So, on Sunday, I scaled the space above the table, removed the odd bulb (above, right), and ventured down to Canal to buy replacements (above, left).

Then, I took this photo and opened it in the Photos app so I could write “Dining room table overhead lamp/light replacement” in the comments field to make it impossibly easy for me to find it next time. Yes, I also made a Notes app document with the photo and the details. Pretty much the second I screwed said bulb into the fixture, though, things went back to blech.

Yes, I should have waited and not rushed myself, but I thought I was better, and even when you’re sick, you shouldn’t be eating in the dark.

I almost watched the movie Hundreds of Beavers with my parents when they were visiting. We started it together, and they were warming up to it, but right around the 25-minute mark was when I realized we’d all be better off with me in my bedroom and sleeping.

The next day, under the covers, I restarted this comically absurd tale. While it looks like mindless zany adventures of a guy trying to survive a winter, it becomes a wild logic puzzle where a series of systems devised by director Mike Cheslik and star Ryland Tews, who co-wrote this madcap adventure, inform how its apple brandy-brewing protagonist may make his dreams come true.

It’s part Buster Keaton, part Mickey Mouse, and part video games. No, I won’t take any follow-up questions (of course I will, you know how to reach me).

Hundreds of Beavers is … free, and it’s here. Well, I can’t really embed it, but just click here:

My friend Beth talked me into watching Infinity Buffet, a bizarre acid trip sorta-horror movie comprised of low-fi local TV commercials that very loosely tell a story of shit going wrong at the local level. It’s not made to be slept through, but I honestly think it worked better for me this time than previous attempts.

I can’t exactly recommend this movie to anyone who doesn’t have a love for the experimental, but if you want to poke at VHS-grade footage of mini-mall ads that have running through-lines involving possibly-sinister weirdness? You have highly-specific interests, and Infinity Buffet delivers.

Infinity Buffet is streaming on Shudder.

After that, I finally threw on the Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape Blu-ray, which I got because it’s a posthumous project that filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun helped deliver. It sort of feels like its star Kati Kelli is mocking the hell out of OOTD vloggers, and let’s be honest that sentence might be the best filter to decide if it’s right for you.

It’s a particular sort of dank, and it will become a present to a friend of mine, because it’s not really meant for my permanent collection.

Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape is only on physical media, but her videos are still on YouTube.

Then, I watched Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers which is a really odd sci-fi body horror flick, hidden in a family drama. Probably the least representative of Ferrara’s work, but a perfectly 1990s bit of action. It gets a bit over-the-top and weird, but co-star Meg Tilly makes this one memorable.

Body Snatchers is streaming on the Criterion Channel until the end of September.

Lastly, to end the night, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, which continues to be the saddest movie that sneaks in more joy than I expect it to. Sally Hawkins forever.

The Shape of Water is streaming on HBO Max.

While I was doing some work on Tuesday, Wednesday was strictly for me lying on the couch and trying to sleep it off. And to do that, I put on a trio of movies — in order: David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s Bound, and Rick Linklater’s Before Sunset — that have at least one thing in common: a yearning.

I didn’t expect that the yearning would increase, going from Cronenberg’s meditation on grief to Corky and Violet’s desire to be free from these schmucks to Celine and Jesse’s heart-demolishing reunion. These movies are all great, but Sunset is the one I love the most.

Before Sunset is free on Tubi right now, Bound is free on Kanopy if you get that, The Shrouds is on Criterion Channel and also free on Kanopy too.

If you want to be completely surprised about this movie, skip to the next section.

Wednesday, according to my texts, is when I heard the rumors that Nathan Fielder, the current king of awkward comedy, is possibly going to be taking things very literally in the upcoming documentary film You Can See Everything, where he goes to live with Theranos founder and generational scammer Elizabeth Holmes before she goes to prison.

The MPA’s own site Film Ratings posted the news that You Can See Everything got an R rating from the the board, for “language and graphic nudity.” And, what do R-rated nudity movies have? Film Ratings notes they “when not sexual in nature, nudity may include more than brief depictions of bare breasts or even just one brief depiction of full-frontal nudity (male or female).”

This is where some folks realized a peculiar question: “is Nathan Fielder going to let us see everything?” That would be one way for him to help convince Holmes that she can trust him.

Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall and Christian Petzold’s Miroirs No. 3 are a pair of foreign language bangers that I’m truly happy to own. Both offer mysteries to unpack, meaning both provided a fair amount to look for in my second viewings. Not sure if I love one of those more than the other.

Miroirs No. 3 is on Mubi, Anatomy of a Fall is on Kanopy.

B&H’s matzo ball soup is basically what vitamins eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Thank you for reading this far.

Next time, we’re talking about the Phoebe Bridgers concert that rocked my world.