Weekly Roundup! January 28th, 2024

Welcome to Weekly Roundup!, where we dive into the captivating world of films, books, and articles that caught our attention over the past week. 

Watches of the week

• The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) by Jacques Demy - 4.5/5
• The Mummy (1999) - by Stephen Summers - 3.5/5
• Easy Virtue (2008) - by Stephan Elliot - 4/5
• The Illusionist (2006) by Neil Burger - 4/5

The Young Girls of Rochefort

We started this week in a familiar way, with Jacques Demy’s next film, The Young girls of Rochefort. Also starring Catherine Deneuve, this time alongside her real-life sister Françoise Dorléac as they play twins Delphine and Solange. Delphine, a ballet instructor, and Solange, a pianist and composer, pine for a big-city life in Paris, feeling their talents wasted in the small port town of Rochefort. 

A musical—like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg that we watched last week—this time with the choreographed dancing and singing that most associate with a musical. Michel Legrand’s music paired with Demy’s lyrics created some addictively catchy performances. I hummed “A Pair of Twins”, performed by Catherine and Françoise, the rest of the day and still catch it playing in the background of my mind almost a week later (despite knowing zero French). 

Sadly, this was Françoise Dorléac’s final film, as she tragically died at the way-too-young age of 25 in a car accident just a few months after the movie released. 

The Mummy

I’ll make the assumption that almost everyone who will read this article has seen this version of The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. Therefore, I’ll keep my comments short and say that while I recognize it’s no award-winning film, it’s very entertaining and easy to watch (or rewatch in our case), with good humor and action. Although for me, it’s solely the humor and the charisma of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz that make it a movie to continue coming back to. 

Easy Virtue

This one really surprised me at first. I always trust V’s movie suggestions, but this was the first with Jessica Biel as the leading lady. Not knowing much of Jessica Biel’s performances on screen—I think I saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre only once when I was younger— I didn’t have the highest expectations. I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

Jessica Biel plays Larita, a 1930s American race-car driver who meets the young and pure Englishman John Whittaker (Ben Barnes) after her contested win (females are not allowed to race) at the Monaco Grand Prix. Apparently immediately smitten, she marries John and they go back to his family’s mansion in the English countryside. Her welcome from her new mother-in-law (Kristin Scott Thomas) and sisters-in-law is icy to say the least, but she finds an ally in John’s father Jim (Colin Firth). 

The tension between Larita—the picture of new-world ideals and glamour—and Mrs. Whittaker—the glue trying to hold an entire failing estate together with proper English conventions— is perfectly summed up in this quote:

Mrs. Whittaker: Is it true you've had as many lovers as they say?

Larita Whittaker: Of course it's not true, Mrs. Whitaker. Hardly any of them actually loved me.

Just your everyday dinner table banter. Overall, Easy Virtue was a humorous, entertaining, and beautiful (costumes) easy weekday watch. 

The Illusionist

Of course, as we live in a world run by algorithms, another movie with Jessica Biel was immediately in our suggested watch list the second we reached the closing credits in Easy Virtue. This time she plays Duchess Sophie von Teschen alongside Edward Norton as Eisenheim the Illusionist, Rufus Sewell as Crown Prince Leopold, and Paul Giamatti as Inspector Uhl in this mystery drama set in turn-of-century Vienna.

While The Illusionist will live in the shadow of the other magician-themed thriller of 2006, Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, it was a worthwhile watch with a gifted performance from Edward Norton and full of twists and turns all revealed at the very end.

+1 for the algos.

Reads of the week

• The Ozempic Effect by Matt Klein

A busy week at work and household projects left little time for reading for pleasure; each night falling asleep a few short minutes after starting. The one noteworthy read I finished was another by Matt Klein, whose Substack ZINE I stumbled upon just last week.

His post on pandemic learning loss was the first to catch my attention last week, but another that caught my eye was The Ozempic Effect: Social Side Effects of Medical Breakthroughs. 

Unless you live under a rock in Bikini Bottom, you’ve probably heard of the drug “Ozempic”. If you haven’t heard of it, you’ve at least been exposed to it through the many images of celebrities and influencers with new gaunt faces—a side effect of the rapid weight loss from the drug—coined the “Ozempic-face”. 

“Ozempic-face” and the other physical side effects of a drug originally intended to treat Type-2 diabetes, are not effects in question here. This analysis goes beyond surface-deep:

“The Ozempic Effect underscores that the implications of medical progress extend far beyond an individual’s body, influencing industries, aesthetics and culture in ways we never may have foreseen.”

Will the rise of Ozempic and other similar drugs result in yet another shift in beauty standards—this time away from the “body-positivity” movement of the past years? How will this further exacerbate class imbalance between those who can afford a miracle diet pill and those who can’t? Are we at the beginning of the “Longevity-movement” for Big-Pharma and medicine? 

Only time will tell for sure, but being a futurist means Matt Klein must offer his thoughts now.

Reader Recommendations

Now, I want to hear from you! What movies, books, or articles captured your attention this week? Share your top picks in the comments below; your insights might just lead someone to their next favorite film or book. 

Stay tuned until next week!