Jen V’s May Recs
Winter has arrived in Wellington with a vengeance so now it is dark and wet and all round miserable! But let’s look back at the good things from this month…
I did yet more cross-stitches, which meant I watched some new shows including season 12 of The Great British Bake Off (always wholesome), season 1 of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (loved it – love the Elijah Wood/DanRad trajectory of being a weird little guy), and I started Moon Knight (so far so good). I also finally finished WandaVision in preparation of going to see the new Doctor Strange film – transpires it was completely unnecessary, but as a piece of storytelling, WandaVision is worth it anyway!
Film wise, obviously Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It was…a time. I really appreciate what Marvel are doing in terms of pulling all the threads together so now we can have a multiverse and basically a whole range of wild shenanigans can now happen, but as a story, I thought it was a bit meh. Loved Xochitl Gomez, aka Dawn from The Babysitters Club, in it though!
I saw The Lost City with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. It’s basically just Romancing the Stone but modern, and it is such a good time. Channing is the himbo we deserve. And DanRad is the bad guy! See previous comment re: being a weird lil guy.
I finally watched In the Heights which was fun but ultimately forgettable? I literally cannot remember anything that happened.
What else? Oh! I went to a retrospective at The Roxy of Gattaca. It’s one of my favourite films but I hadn’t seen it in so long, I was worried it wouldn’t hold up. But it’s still good! Highly recommend it if you are into some speculative scifi. Jude Law, Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, what more could you want. Also, written and directed by a Kiwi so, you know, represent.
I’ve had a bad run with a few books that didn’t really do it for me, so that’s slowed my reading right down. But I did just start Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly and it’s beautiful. I love it already and I’m only 100 pages in! Another Kiwi book, told from the point of view of two siblings. I think it’s going to be a fave.
Oh, I did also read Alice Oseman’s Nick and Charlie novella because I can’t get enough of those Heartstopper feels. ALL THE FEELS.
Podcast wise, I’d really recommend the episode of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent featuring Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem. You can listen to it here. I loved it, but I also just love Self-Esteem. Rebecca also guests on Caroline O’Donoghue’s Sentimental Garbage podcast - listen here.
I’m also busy preparing to start another podcast with a work mate all about feminism and Doctor Who. I’ll hopefully have a link to share with you next month!
Stay warm/cool depending on your geographical location, and see you in June!