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It’s rare for men to have je ne sais quoi, and I am obsessive about the ones who I think do. The depraved, roguish charm of Serge Gainsbourg has fascinated me for as long as I can remember, and so has Rod Serling’s ability to careen between sinister and comforting. I already regret saying this in a public forum, but when I interviewed Larry Gagosian, I detected a lot of that nameless quality in him–probably from his ability to self-efface freely with a fox-in-the-henhouse twinkle in his eye. Most recently, I’ve become completely enraptured by Gene Wilder’s peculiar energy, which ping-pongs irrationally between mellow yellow to tempestuous. The “Puttin’ On The Ritz” scene in Young Frankenstein makes my heart swell–imagine that man, with those watery, cornflower blue eyes, describing you as “What was once an inarticulate mass of lifeless tissues, [who is now] a cultured, sophisticated, man about town”...?
Aug 9, 2022
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ok to be honest he is in a lot of bad movies including like literal war propaganda but this guy’s vibe always brings me immense joy often to the point of tears. and anything in technicolor is worth watching imo. best movies of his are An American in Paris and Singin in the Rain. oh and The Young Girls of Rochefort he’s just like a cameo but it’s a great one
Nov 8, 2024
The minute that Gene Hackman walks into the brothel in the 1992 Neo-Western Unforgiven, he's so casually evil that you want to spit phlegm at him to the screen from your couch. It's a particular role too, since the movie regards the previous iterations of Westerns as false. Unforgiven is about how all the outlaws of the past were no-good liars, that this is a no-good way of life. Clint Eastwood's William Munny is an alcoholic, wrestles with his pigs in the mud because he could no longer stand the pain from his exploits. But, it is Hackman --- who died in his Sante Fe home this Thursday morning -- who most understood the bleak vision that Eastwood is projecting to us. Sheriff Little Bill, his character in Unforgiven, was a keeper of sadism, a keeper of that bleakness that Eastwood conveys. Where the sheriffs of the myth that you read would be righteous veterans respected for their sincere integrity, or big defenders of justice, Little Bill is a gang in the way policemen are in didactic urban movies. When he needs to be empathetic, he is cavalier, letting the men who abuse the lovely prostitute in the beginning of the movie leave without any repercussions. When he is needs to be fair, he is sadistic; to him, vigilantes are one thing: villains here to take the shine away from him in his small-town that he runs for the sake of his ego. Hackman is shiveringly good as Little Bill; it's my favorite role from him in a career full of dynamic screen performances that have captured the rot of American life. You get the point that there is no point to any of what Bill is doing besides his own egocentrism. He finds vigilantes bad, not because it is amoral, but rather because they get the credit and not him. Popeye Doyle, for all of his tenacity, has a twisted sense of justice and what the police can do. The nastiness he conveys in his service of a conspiracy that goes beyond anything what Doyle can defeat -- yet, he can't help but continue the imperial march for his own ego. When you look at television cops like Jimmy McNulty or Vic Mackey, you see Hackman's portrayal of Doyle, and his Captain Ahab-like drive to be lower than the criminals he is chasing.
I was nervous to write about Hackman, that's why I took so long to complete this blog. I didn't know what to write about, what performance to highlight, or how to start it. He's lived a monumental, complete life that brought a presence which changed the way audiences viewed actors. He wasn't a movie star in the way that Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, or even James Cagney was, but he was not a underrated character actor. Instead, his definition would be "a screen presence" --- a word used for an actor who is always the key component of the movie regardless of what his screen time is. He was both Popeye Doyle and the best of an ensemble cast, like he was in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenebaums. He was great as Denzel's antagonist in Crimson Tide, as a ruthless meat boss in Prime Cut. Those roles suggested a brilliance that was unpretentious but intelligent.
I would be remiss if I didn't bring up that performance as the Tenebaum family patriarch. His old man period was awesome -- he felt like a hired gun for a baseball team every free agency period, like he signed one year deals with every famous director on the planet --- and Royal Tenebaums is a prominent character in Anderson's filmography for his joy, irresponsibility, racism, unique humor, yet there is an underlying humanity that sets him apart from the other deadbeats. When Ben Stiller's Chas says "I've had a rough year, Dad." Hackman, in a line reading that is a caption for the wonders of friendship, empathy, and understanding says, "I know you have, Chassie." Cinema can really be unsettlingly pertinent, and that Hackman role is as good as a string part of a grilled cheese sandwich.
Feb 27, 2025
I've long loved learning about old Hollywood, but admittedly haven't watched many films from the time in full.
But now im amending that and these 2 are just so darn charming it's crazy!
Because they starred in movies of the 30s 40s etc their characters can really be such awful fucking guys, (and ones the audience is still supposed to root for somehow) and yet! Everytime I'll still find myself enjoying their performances!
I like how rhythm, timing and gesture are so fundamental to their style of acting. It's incredibly fun to watch them use their bodies so purposefully. Such obvious attention to detail/the musicality of movement is completely absent from our naturalism-obsessed age.
(s/o to Willem Defoe for going against this grain! Also to any actors who aren't waspy, and tho also following naturalism, still gesticulate like most people actually do irl lol)
Mar 27, 2025
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A very smart ex-boyfriend of mine once told me that when you want to start incorporating something new into your life that feels like a burden, start by doing it in the most fancy, expensive way so that it doesn’t feel like a punishment. At that time, it meant buying only Whole Foods groceries for myself so that I’d make myself stay home and cook. Now I’ll cook whatever’s on sale or laying around. I used this for exercising too, starting at boutique classes and then graduating to free Youtube workouts. I hate flossing but I applied this mentality to trying to force myself to do it, and these flosses come in obnoxious DTC packaging and in shishi flavors like Cara Cara Orange and Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Making the flossing process a financial burden and a little bit more dynamic has improved my dental hygiene significantly.
Aug 9, 2022
đź’Ś
So many restaurants in New York give you amazing postcards at the end of your meal. A good lifehack for good free art is postcards–I have several framed in my house (one I got from Dimes of ladybugs having sex and another of a Mike Kelley piece from the Whitney are my favorites). I like to share the wealth and send good ones to my friends and my mom. Perfect way to entertain a table after dinner is to pick someone to send a postcard to and actually drop it in a mailbox after the meal. Who doesn’t love getting mail?
Aug 9, 2022
I understand why, but it's so strange to me that parts of the body go in and out of style. Lol. I know boobs are decidedly *out* right now but I love showing off my underboob during the dog days of summer with these Sandy Liang tops. Peak ventilation! Excuse me, sir, but my eyes are down there.
Aug 9, 2022