Hot Girl Dispatch: What I'm Watching (Bones & All, Wednesday, Combs-A-Thon), and Recent Bylines

awards season? what's that?

Like some slow-moving kaiju lumbering towards the film world, awards season has finally rolled around, and I'm met with my yearly reminder of how on the fringe I am of awards politics/predictions/films in general. Since my interest in criticism began I've always of course been aware of the significance of Oscars, Globes, Guilds, etc., but that type of awards prediction and circuit has never been something I've ever truly been interested in. Not in a haughty way- I just can't find the focus to commit myself to watching a crop of films deemed 'elite' by an awards body(s) that are nowhere near representing the diversity and vivacity of the film community in its entirety.

As such, despite the fact that yellow mailers are showing up in the mail more often than not these days, my weekend watching patterns have been almost entirely awards-free, and instead catering more towards personal interest and scratching a few curious film twitter itches. And - oh yeah, I had some articles published since we last spoke!

Though I watched the series itself a few weeks ago as preparation for the review, one title on my radar recently has been Netflix's Wednesday, starring Jenna Ortega. Though the series itself struggles severely with an interesting and original narrative, and the dialogue is abhorrent even for a Netflix teen drama (I say that as a die-hard fan of the genre), Jenna Ortega's starring turn is singlehandedly worth committing to an 8-hour binge.

If you've been on TikTok (or have seen the tweets complaining about what's going on on TikTok), you may have noticed that a particular clip from the series - Wednesday dancing to The Cramps at a school dance - has gone viral. I've sent it to a few people myself - it's a pretty damn iconic clip, the type of instant legend status that reminds me of 80s and 90s Burton. Very Lydia in Bettlejuice, Day-O Banana Boat: good stuff. Anyways, though the series itself is thoroughly meh, that dance sequence is definitley worth experiencing - so I wrote a little ode to it for The Mary Sue.

I also finally got around to writing my Enchanted review, but that movie was boring and you don't really care bout that. Hmm.. what else... An Eddie Munson theory piece for The Mary Sue! This was originally pitches when Netflix did "Stranger Things Day" last month, but I got delayed and just plunked it out now. Did you know there's a theory going around that Eddie Munson is returning for season 5 because of the Netflix Stranger Things profile picture icon options? I'm not kidding. I wrote about it.

That's about it as far as for-writing-purposes viewing goes, which meant I had plenty of time this weekend to expand my personal tastes! At home/via streaming, I sat down for a weekend exploring my continuing obsession with the 80s/90s cult horror icon Jeffrey Combs, most famous as Herbert West in Re-Animator. The first stop on the Combs-A-Thon this weekend was Robert Zemeckis' 1996 horror-comedy The Frighteners, starring Michael J Fox. As I was typing that I just realized I could use italics. Whoops! I don't have an editor and can't be bothered to go back :)

Frighteners sees Fox playing a grieving scam artist who uses his ability to talk to see the dead to make money off of other mourning loved ones - it's a bizarre little film that I never would've watched if not for Combs' presence. The effects and scope of budget (this is, after all, a Zemeckis film) combined with the star power of Fox put it into a more mainstream category than I'd expect for this type of B-movie concept, but either way, I wasn't watching for Fox: I was watching for Combs.

If you haven't seen this film, I don't really know how to explain Mr. Combs' character other than a hysterical, deeply disturbed, timidly misogynystic FBI agent who has spent so much time undercover in cults that his body has been mutilated with hate symbols and his psyche broken. If that sounds insane, that's because it(and he!) is - but it's also exactly the type of character that Jeffrey Combs would say 'yes' to.

Though he enters the film around the half hour mark, he pretty much becomes that movie once he's onscreen - it's a pretty nutso performance in an already weird movie, but also understood as a seminal one in Combs' career - at least among fans and Internet forums. I also caught a few peppered episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise and Deep Space Nine, both of which star Combs as a recurring alien.

I absolutely think that Combs' Star Trek filmography warrants its own newsletter entry, so I'll just say that he played a scheming purple lemur-alien dandy clone named Weyoun in Deep Space Nine - a character that has been throughly woobified by Tumblr in a manner I find most pleasing. In Enterprise, he plays Andorran commander Shran: a militaristic blue commando-type alien named Shran - who has a remarkable pair of radio-controlled Antenna that move in accordance with his thoughts and emotions - a delightful practical effect for the early 2000s series.

I also fully intend to write one of these silly letter newsletters as a persuasive essay as to why everyone should watch Star Trek, but here I'll just say that Weyoun and Shran are two characters who couldn't be more different, and that Combs is remarkable in both roles - they're also just two of 6 characters he plays in the Star Trek franchise.

Outside of my continuing efforts to devour Jeffrey Combs’ entire filmography, I made a rare trip out to the actual movie theatre(!) with my friend Emily - hi Fing, if you’re reading! We caught a showing of Bones and All, and admittedly I’m not a Chalamet fan, nor have I read the book. I did, though, hear good word-of-mouth about the film, so I went in with a blank slate and high expectations - and left… thinking. It certainly was a squeamish viewing experience, but the more that I think on the film, the more I think I might benefit from a second viewing - though I don’t know if I’ll make time to getting to one.

I’m absolutely glad I saw the film - and if you can stomach it, I’d recommend a trip to the theatre to try and catch this one for yourself. Though I struggled with the pacing (yet again, I find a book adaption struggling to nail down how to adapt length properly) , Taylor Russell gave a really stunning performance - and I’m glad I’ve finally been introduced to her talents.

I rounded out my weekend by catching up on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK - congratulations Danny Beard! This is one of the rare occasions where I agree with a Drag Race winner: though I still want justice for Dakota. My last watch prior to this dispatch (like, just an hour before) was M*A*S*H’s 11x09 “Run for the Money”, a great Father Mulch episode that I flipped on in search of a little late-night comfort viewing.

As I get further and further into winter break, I’m hoping to knock a few more titles off my extensive winter break watchlist - thought I’m always looking for film/tv/music recommendations, if you’ve got something you’re loving lately. Though I’ve tossed around coming up with a set schedule for these newsletters, I think I’m more going to be writing as the mood strikes me - though as previously mentioned, I’ve got plenty of ideas kicking around - including one about my winter watch-list. Until then, find me on Twitter!