Enchanted is a perfect spring movie, from the bountiful Central Park scenes to the floral dress Giselle makes out of Robert’s living room curtains. I also think it’s one of the most clever movies Disney has ever released. While it honors Disney tradition with references to its early era princess films, it also embraces creativity and fresh ideas, something I wish Hollywood would get back into the habit of doing. Enchanted’s a movie I was really excited to write about, and I hope you’re all as excited to read it.

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From Andalasia To New York City

Movies like Elf, Barbie, and Legally Blonde were box office hits because people love a fish out of water story. When we take someone and put them in an environment they’re not used to, they’re forced to grow and learn things about themselves they would have never uncovered if they hadn’t left their comfort zone. I think part of why audiences love these stories so much is that we’re scared of the inevitable unfamiliar experiences in our own lives. By getting to see a character experience it and come out okay, even if they hit a few bumps in the road along the way, is reassuring.

Just like Buddy in Elf, Giselle finds herself leaving behind her magical world for the chaos and unpredictability of New York City. When she’s meant to marry Prince Edward in Andalasia, she’s pushed down a well by his stepmother, Queen Narissa, who doesn’t want to give up her throne as Queen. However, Giselle doesn’t hit the bottom of the well, but ends up in a sewer, climbing out of a manhole in the center of Times Square. Like all movies that take place in New York, the city is as much a part of the plot as anything else. Enchanted could not have taken place anywhere else.

Sure, Giselle would have encountered an overwhelming amount of people in Chicago and a few oddballs on the street in Los Angeles, but nothing could prepare a princess from a fairytale world for what she’ll encounter in Manhattan. Any New Yorker can tell you that Times Square is the most chaotic area of the city and most avoid walking through it at all costs. Having Giselle leave behind her quaint cottage in the woods to be immediately met with bright lights, loud taxis, and fast-paced lifestyles of native New Yorkers snapped her right into reality in only the first ten minutes of the film. It’s also the only place someone can show up in a big, white ball gown and no one would bat an eye.

However, like every New York movie, it isn’t just the contrast and pandemonium that make it the perfect setting, but it’s that magical aura that earned it its title of the greatest city in the world. Of course, when Giselle arrives in New York, she quite literally falls into the life of wealthy lawyer Robert Philip, and her reality becomes very different from that of the average person moving to New York. She doesn’t live in a cramped apartment, she doesn’t ride the subway, and she doesn’t have to worry about how she’s going to make a living to afford the New York lifestyle.

Giselle stays with Robert and his daughter in their Upper West Side apartment, frolics through Central Park, and concludes the movie at an actual ball, the closest thing in New York to her fairytale life back in Andalasia. Through this experience, New York kind of does feel like a fairytale. “That’s How You Know” is a standout scene in the film. It takes the beauty of Central Park and some inspiration from Mary Poppins, even hiring the same actors who played the chimney sweeps in the 1964 film, to make a fairytale musical in the center of Manhattan.

The best part is that when Giselle and Robert ultimately fall in love, she chooses not to go back to Andalasia but to stay in New York with him. New York, while once a foreign and terrifying place, became Giselle’s home. It welcomed her the way it’s welcomed so many hopeful dreamers who have moved there, longing for a better life, and Giselle made it into her own magical fairytale land, rats and all.

A Tribute To Disney Classics

Along with the Mary Poppins references, Enchanted takes a lot of inspiration from other classic Disney films. Much of the film was directly borrowed from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Giselle’s “Happy Little Working Song,” which she sings while cleaning Robert’s apartment with the animals of New York City, was a modern take on Snow White’s “Whistle While You Work.” Queen Narissa also disguises herself as an old woman, just like the Evil Queen did, to try to deceive Giselle. There are also some nods to Cinderella, like mentions of a fairy godmother, step-moms, and the shot when Giselle’s shoe falls off at the ball.

Queen Narissa’s transformation into a dragon was taken straight from Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty. Plus, there are cameos from Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, and Paige O’Hara, the voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast. I also noticed some names were borrowed from Disney characters, like Robert’s girlfriend Nancy having the last name Tremaine, a nod to Cinderella‘s Lady Tremaine, and Robert’s last name being Phillip, a reference to Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty.

The film also combines animation with live action, as the Andalasia scenes are animated and the New York scenes are live action to showcase the contrast between fantasy and reality. It acts as a way to connect the Disney fantasy with the 2000s romcom that populated the decade. All of this resulted in a film whose legacy has lasted nearly 20 years.

Happily Ever After

As a princess from a fairytale land, Giselle believes in happily ever after, and as a man whose first wife left him and his daughter, Robert does not. On top of that, Robert is a divorce lawyer who sees relationships crumble on a regular basis, making it even harder for him to commit to Nancy. However, when Giselle arrives in New York, she brings a childlike optimism that impacts everyone she encounters. One of my favorite examples is Robert’s clients, who reunite because Giselle reminds them that love exists.

Throughout the beginning of the film, they’re in a messy divorce, and Robert is shocked to hear that they’ve decided to call it off, realizing there are always going to be issues in relationships, but if you love someone, you can choose to work through them. Though Robert doesn’t initially understand, no matter how cynical he is, it’s impossible for Giselle’s contagious positivity not to get to him, too. However, Giselle learns a lot from Robert’s perspective as well.

In Andalasia, like a lot of Disney’s earlier princesses, she agrees to marry Prince Edward after knowing him for only a day. In the real world, she learns that this isn’t practical and that typically spontaneous relationships don’t last. When she and Edward finally reunite in New York, she wants to go on a date with him before agreeing to go back to Andalasia and marry him. But after getting to know Robert and his daughter, it’s clear she no longer believes she’s meant to be with Edward.

She learns that relationships take work and there will inevitably be a lot of conflict. There’s a scene early in the film where Giselle gets into a disagreement with Robert and realizes she’s angry for the first time in her life. She’s actually quite excited about it and seems to appreciate the imperfections of real life. But Giselle also never becomes tainted or loses her cheerful perspective on life; she just becomes more grounded.

Giselle and Robert balance each other out, and as Robert teaches her how to live in reality, she teaches him not to be afraid to fall in love. I also appreciate that Nancy isn’t left broken-hearted, but actually realizes that Edward possesses everything she wanted from Robert, so they go off to Andalasia together and get married. In typical Disney fashion, even though nothing goes as planned, the characters still live happily ever after.

In the spirit of spring, I revisited a movie I probably haven’t seen since the early 2000s. There’s something about the spring season that makes me want to watch uplifting movies like romcoms, chick flicks, and teen comedies. Passport to Paris fits somewhere among those, and with all the 2000s nostalgia lately (the movie was released at the end of 1999), it felt appropriate.

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Spring Break In Paris

In my newsletter, How To Make A Perfect Summer Movie, I quoted NPR’s Marc Rivers, who said, Summer movies are the cheapest way to go on vacation. I would make that same argument about spring break movies. I can only remember going on vacation during the spring a few times in my life. I never went on a big high school spring break trip (my school did Bahamas “Baha” the way the Laguna Beach cast did Cabo), and I never went on the big college spring break trip you see in films like Spring Breakers. This weekend, hundreds of thousands of people kicked off their spring break at Coachella, and while I fawned over Sabrina Carpenter’s set through my laptop screen, I’ve never actually attended the festival in person.

The truth is, as relevant as the spring break trip is in pop culture, it’s not accessible to everyone, which is why I love movies set during spring break so much. But rather than cover something raunchy and crime-focused like Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, I chose something more wholesome. Money is no object in 1999’s Passport to Paris, one of 14 films that Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen starred in from 1992 to 2004. Playing the roles of Melanie and Allyson, the twins are sent to Paris for spring break to spend time with their grandfather Edward, the American Ambassador to France.

Needless to say, they’re not spending spring break in cheap hotels, but staying at their grandfather’s mansion and getting free sightseeing tours from a French model, Brigitte, whom they befriend, and two tween French boys, Michel and Jean, who fall for them. From The Lizzie McGuire Movie to Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, the idea of running off to a foreign country, having a quick fling, and even breaking a few rules has always been exhilarating, which is why it makes for such a great movie plot. In Passport to Paris, Melanie and Allyson are only 13 years old, but they still get to live out the kind of spring break many have dreamed of, which was very exciting to watch as a kid.

They also get into their fair share of trouble. Their grandpa bans them from jumping on the bed and blasting music early on in the film, but sneaking away from his assistant, Jeremy, to ride on mopeds with Michel and Jean, becomes their way of channeling their rebellious side until they’re arrested for trespassing. But everything’s okay because they end up helping their grandpa with a proposal to the French Foreign Minister at the end, and all is forgiven. Needless to say, Passport to Paris does not have the most compelling plot and features some pretty ridiculous elements, but even watching it 27 years later, it does its job of making me long to be a 13-year-old spending spring break in Paris.

Bring Back Tween Media

The main reason I wanted to write about the Mary Kate and Ashley spring break film is that so many of us have been reminiscing about tween media, something that has been dead for a while now. Mary Kate and Ashley’s empire was quintessential tween media. From movies to a clothing line and a doll collection, they had so much to offer their young audience. But these days, kids get their idols from TikTok, and they aren’t always age-appropriate. The good thing about tween media is that it was specifically marketed to a certain demographic, and parents could feel comfortable letting their kids consume it.

With the rise of streaming and social media, it’s easy for kids to stumble upon anything. This is why young girls started buying makeup at Sephora, because they saw influencers on social media in their 20s and 30s using it, and they no longer have child-friendly outlets to express themselves. When I was younger, we bought our makeup and jewelry from Claire’s, and we understood the difference between being a kid and an adult. Everything seems to blur together these days, and it’s dangerous. Mary Kate and Ashley were role models, and they made being a tween seem cool, so there was no need to long to be 20 years older.

Passport to Paris focuses on twin sisters who are only interested in boys, talking on the phone, and going to the mall. Their parents’ whole reason for sending them to Paris is to make them more cultured, hoping they’ll become more worldly and broaden their interests. They’re initially devastated about the trip because it means they’ll miss the spring fling dance, which they longed to attend with Shane and Kyle. Overall, they’re pretty bratty, disrespectful, and mischievous, but they’re also 13-year-olds doing the kind of things 13-year-olds do and acting the way 13-year-olds act.

Movies about 13-year-olds marketed toward 13-year-olds feel foreign today, but Passport to Paris was exactly that. Tweens should be hung up on cute boys, going to the mall, and talking on the phone, because they don’t have any other responsibilities at that age. They shouldn’t be online competing with people old enough to be their mothers. Passport to Paris is not profound, because it’s not supposed to be; it’s supposed to be fun and pure. With all the nostalgia in pop culture right now, Hollywood’s best way of making a comeback amid financial struggles might just be reviving the tween movie.

Learning From Each Other, At All Ages

Though it may not be profound, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be learned here. There’s a cute ending plot for Passport to Paris, where Melanie and Allyson’s grandfather seemingly realizes he’s kind of a drag and decides to travel back to America with his granddaughters to spend more time in their world. It’s the two of them who teach him how to be more laid back and enjoy life. The twins also inspire Jeremy to stop letting their grandfather push him around, and they introduce him to Brigitte, who also helps him loosen up.

In return, the girls become more cultured and have a different outlook on life after their vacation. While their parents couldn’t get them to shake their love for boys, upon returning home, they’re no longer interested in Shane and Kyle, after having the spring break trip of a lifetime with Jean and Michel. At least the trip did succeed in broadening their horizons in love. It may be a silly tween movie, but there’s something to be said about learning from the people around you, whether they’re older or younger.

The modern-day journalist longs for the life of a 90s and 2000s romcom journalist. From 13 Going On 30’s Jenna Rink to How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days’ Andie Anderson, being a journalist at the time meant a thriving career, a high paycheck, and a beautiful apartment. However, the part I admire most is the kind of fun stories these journalists got to write back when companies had the budget for freedom and creativity. That brings us to Josie Geller, Drew Barrymore’s character in Never Been Kissed. A 25-year-old journalist who never quite grew out of her geeky high school persona returns to high school to write a piece for the Chicago Sun-Times.

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The movie isn’t perfect. There’s an inappropriate dynamic between her and her teacher Sam Coulson when he believes her to be a teenager, inappropriate behavior from her brother when he joins her in going undercover as a high school student and starts a relationship with one of the popular girls, and the fact that Josie seems to have a crush on Guy, the most popular kid in school because he reminds her of her own high school crush. But some of these online critiques overlook the elements of Never Been Kissed that shine and make it a quintessential 90s film. Its success is a testament to how universal Josie’s experience is; we all struggle to let go of who we were when we were younger, and we all do better in life when we choose to let go anyway.

Table of Contents:

• No One Believes In Josie Until Josie Believes In Josie

• From Freak To Chic (In The Name Of A Good Story)

• Josie’s Story: High School Never Changes

No One Believes In Josie Until Josie Believes In Josie

“Josie Grossie” is what her peers used to call her in high school, and while it’s been six years since she was a teenager, she still carries with her low self-esteem and the identity of being a high school geek. Despite poor treatment from classmates, Josie was a hopeful and naive teenager. No matter how many times she’s humiliated, she never becomes tainted. She never stops dreaming that one day the cool kids may choose her to become a member of their exclusive clique. As an adult, though she’s flooded by traumatic flashbacks to high school, she carries that same enthusiasm with her, which could be why she blends in so well with the real high school students.

Josie’s still naive and youthful; she still acts giddy every time she gets attention from a popular kid, and she describes her ideal kiss like something out of a fairytale. That might sound absolutely pathetic to read, but I think it’s actually what makes Drew Barrymore’s character so appealing. Josie dresses and styles herself very plain, as if she’s used to not standing out or intentionally wants to blend into the background to avoid the kind of negative attention she got in high school. Overall, she’s a pretty average woman, something we rarely see in movies today. “Instagram face” has become a common way to describe modern actors, where everyone seems to be going to the same plastic surgeon and requesting the Instagram model special.

Barrymore has natural beauty and effortlessly fits the mold of the girl next door. This matched with her ingenuous personality keeps us on her side throughout the film. We root for her to find the right subject for her story, we ache for her in every high school flashback scene, and we want her to be accepted by the popular kids even if we know she’s better off befriending the weirdos. The one thing Josie lacks is the confidence and self-belief to thrive in her work and love life. Her boss and coworkers doubt her abilities to be a reporter, trying to restrain her to the copy-editor role, and as the title tells us, she’s “never been kissed,” at least not a real kiss.

However, Josie also doesn’t let her innate averageness keep her from going after her goals. She still has drive and ambition, which the editor-in-chief may have picked up on when he assigned her the high school story. Now, Josie is being forced to face her past, and it isn’t easy as she quickly falls back into old patterns of school nerdiness, but a scene with her brother, Rob, changes her. Rob makes Josie affirm, “I am not Josie Grossie anymore,” and just like that, she drops her high school identity and steps into the person who can actually write an interesting story for the Chicago Sun-Times.

It doesn’t really happen that easily; she still faces roadblocks and doesn’t figure things out until the end of the film. However, the scene is a representation of how the way we talk to ourselves and who we believe ourselves to be have a massive impact on how we show up in life. Little by little, Josie becomes a more confident person, and we see the old Josie fade, allowing the true Josie to shine. She learns to stand up for herself and her friends, and when she finally finds her story, she doesn’t hesitate to write it or wait for anyone’s approval, because she believes in her idea. Josie even becomes brave enough to stand out on the baseball field in front of a crowd of fans waiting for her first kiss.

The Josie who was humiliated on prom night is now a ghost of her past, so she waits on the field anyway, knowing there’s a chance Sam won’t show. However, Josie no longer has a debilitating fear of rejection because she knows who she is now. What we learn from Josie is that shedding your past, no matter how painful it was and how difficult it is to release that pain, pays off. Because she’s not Josie Grossie anymore, but nobody could recognize that until she recognized it herself.

From Freak To Chic (In The Name Of A Good Story)

When Josie arrives at South Glenn South High School, she tries to fit in with what she believes is a trendy new makeover, but she finds herself as much of an outcast as she was during her first high school experience. Believing she’s older and wiser this time, she thinks things will be different, but it’s not surprising that she’s basically living the same dynamics over again.

I think if any of us went back to high school today, we’d immediately snap back into who we were when we were teenagers. Like Josie, it only seems like we’ve changed so much because we got out of that environment, but it’s incredible how quickly people fall back into the same habits when they’re triggered by their past.

I think the Ram Dass quote, “If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family,” can also apply to spending a week back in high school. While going back to school was meant to be for research purposes so Josie could write her article, it really became an experience of overcoming herself. On her first day, Josie befriends another outcast named Aldys and joins the academic club, the denominators. While Josie has work colleagues she eats lunch with, Aldys is a true friend whom Josie can relate to, despite their age difference. In Josie’s high school flashbacks, she was only ever on her own.

But this time around, she has a friend who has her back and someone to be an outcast with her. Josie sees her younger self in Aldys, and we can tell that it pains her to betray Aldys to become popular for her story. However, Josie can only blame so much of her actions on her job. The damaged part of herself who never fit in in high school still longs for popularity. She wants to feel special and important, as all people do, and becoming friends with the popular clique and getting asked to prom by the most popular guy in school, Guy Perkins, makes her feel that way for the first time in her life. It makes up for all the times she was laughed at or when her high school crush, Billy, humiliated her on prom night.

However, Josie does evolve throughout the movie. She learns that maybe she is older and wiser, and she has a lot more integrity than those around her. Her kindness is stronger than her need to be accepted, so when the popular kids try to pull a cruel prank on Aldys at prom, Josie saves her and reveals her true identity as an undercover reporter. As with most ‘90s movies, the scene is as cheesy as it is pivotal. Josie sucks herself out of the nostalgia fest and comes back to herself, remembering she left the world of high school behind years ago. “All of you people, there is a big world out there, bigger than prom, bigger than high school,” Josie tells them.

She then addresses the cool girls, “Let me tell you something, Gibby, Kirsten, Kristin, you will spend your lives trying to figure out how to keep others down because it makes you feel more important.” This much is true. I always recognized that the parents of the cool kids in school seemed to be grown-up versions of them. Just look at Regina George’s mom in Mean Girls. It takes a lot of self-reflection and determination to outgrow that phase, which is why most people never do. But Josie is different. She does have the determination to change.

That’s what Never Been Kissed is really about, not letting who you were in the past or how other people treated you define the rest of your life. When I was in ninth grade, I had a teacher who told us that high school was only four years of our lives, and then we were free. Still, few people see it that way. Not being seen or being seen in a negative light can cause you to hide from the world while secretly desiring recognition. Or, like Rob, if you were popular in high school, you can forever live in the shadow of who you once were. I think it’s important to follow in Josie’s footsteps instead.

Josie’s Story: High School Never Changes

When the film begins, Josie has no idea what her story is going to be about. All she knows is the editor-in-chief wants her to go to high school to find out what kids are up to these days. But it turns out, high school students are up to the same things they’ve always been up to. This is a sentiment I will always stand by. I’ve written about it in other newsletters, like She’s All That, because I think it’s something people always need to be reminded of. Recently, I saw a social media clip of current students at my old high school, and as I predicted, they looked exactly like teenage girls looked when I was there. Everyone was dressed the same, with the same hair, speaking the same, and trying to be cool.

The reason I think people believe they don’t understand kids today is that they forgot what it’s like to be young. I haven’t forgotten, and I think if everyone could reconnect to their younger self, they wouldn’t have to wonder about what teens are up to today. As Josie writes in her story, “High school hasn’t changed.” She goes on to list all the ways teenagers are still the same, and if you don’t believe her, just compare high school students in movies throughout the decades. Grease came out in 1978 and was set in 1959, but many of the characters resemble those in Never Been Kissed, which was released in 1999. Guy Perkins is the same as Danny Zuko, and Gibby, Kirsten, and Kristin are basically just the Pink Ladies.

However, Josie doesn’t come to this conclusion for a while. When she first arrives at school, she tries to pitch a mundane idea about cafeteria food that her boss immediately rejects. Later, her boss and colleagues, who have been watching her high school experience through a hidden camera, become enamored with her connection with Sam. Josie’s boss tries to convince her to make him the subject of the story “Student Teacher Relations: How Close Is Too Close.” However, Josie doesn’t feel comfortable betraying Sam this way, and her instincts are correct because the story she does write is much more powerful.

Josie concludes that you can’t let your high school experience define your life, and once it’s over, you actually do lose your social standing and get to start fresh. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that Joise’s boss assigned her this story. Maybe there was something in Josie that was longing for this opportunity because she needed to face her past in order to move forward. Josie also finally gets her first real kiss from Sam at the end of the film. Yes, their relationship started off weird, but in the name of a good romcom, the two got their perfect ending.

In his book Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music, Rolling Stone journalist Rob Sheffield writes, “Anything halfway cool that’s ever happened is because teenage girls made it happen.” This was his argument for why teenage girls should be taken seriously despite a history of being written off. In January, multiple sources reported that The Outsiders on Broadway had recouped, meaning producers had made back their investments, and the show was finally considered profitable. It was the first show since 2022 to do so, and one of only three that have recouped in the last six years.

Broadway has struggled to find its footing again for years since the COVID shutdown, but you needn’t look further than the stage door to understand how The Outsiders made its money back. Sure, it’s an IP adaptation and has a higher chance of success in the current market than an original concept. However, that doesn’t diminish but instead goes hand in hand with how teenage girls and young women are responsible for the widespread Outsidersmania on 45th street. On March 17th, a new cast of outsiders graced the stage of the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, but before that, the original Broadway cast had become celebrities amongst the show’s adoring fans.

From crowds at stage door to TikTok fan edits, the cast stole young girls’ hearts like all the other heartthrobs that came before them. That’s because, as history has taught us, teenage girls lead with passion, devotion, and unapologetic excitement. Teenage girls are the light in a world of cynics, and they always have been. My friend and fellow pop culture enthusiast, Alexa Pipia, would know best. As a lifelong fan girl, she has the lucky girl syndrome that TikTokers long for. As a Rolling Stone employee, she found herself on set with Harry Styles, and at Nylon and Elite Daily, she ended up across from Paul Mescal recording social media content. In my opinion, she and her family may just be the reason The Outsiders earned a profit.

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“I loved The Outsiders in high school,” Alexa told me. “So having it come to life on Broadway was a huge deal for me. I didn’t expect for there to be this huge fandom around it, but bonding with my sister and cousin over it has been super special for me. Overall, the fandom feels really supportive; like you’re part of something bigger than just a musical, book, or movie. I will always say, fan girls could rule the world!”

In many ways, I believe fan girls already do rule the world, and always have. There’s a viral video from when The Beatles landed in New York in the 60s, where an enthusiastic fan sent Paul McCartney a message via a reporter’s microphone: “Adrienne from Brooklyn loves you with all her heart. Even when I’m 105 and an old grandmother, I’ll love him.” After the video went viral in 2024, Paul McCartney finally responded, inviting Adrienne to his photo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Her family responded, letting him know she had passed away in 1992, but her legacy has touched social media users, as well as young female fans who resonate with her passion.

One Direction was the closest thing my generation had to The Beatles, and like the 60s band, they weren’t initially taken seriously. However, The Beatles quickly proved themselves, and over ten years after One Direction formed, people have finally come around to accepting they were a major part of the 2010s zeitgeist. Harry Styles has gone on to have a massively successful solo career with highly acclaimed work that’s earned him three Grammys, including Album of the Year for Harry’s House. In a 2017 Rolling Stone article, while promoting his solo debut, Styles defended his female fans from the narrative of being unserious:

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For Christmas a few years ago, my sister got us matching necklaces. On one side were music notes, on the other side were lyrics. Hers says, “because I knew you,” and mine says, “I have been changed for good,” the most endearing lyrics from any Wicked song in my opinion. I couldn’t imagine anyone performing this song with more emotion than Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel did in the original recording, but Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s bond, though heavily mocked online, carried them through the bittersweet finale song.

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I ended last year’s Women’s History Month series with Wicked, so it only felt appropriate to end this year’s with its sequel, Wicked: For Good. I mentioned in that newsletter that I was initially nervous about the musical being split into two parts, and while the first part calmed my nerves, the second part seemed to confirm my fears, as well as those of others who didn’t think it lived up to the first Wicked. Still, it had its highlights, including giving us a satisfying conclusion to Glinda and Elphaba’s complex friendship.

Table of Contents

• Standing Up For What You Believe In (Even If It Makes You Wicked)

• “Because I Knew You, I Have Been Changed For Good”

• Finally Becoming “Glinda The Good”

Standing Up For What You Believe In (Even If It Makes You Wicked)

In both parts of Wicked, Elphaba faces a conflict. Does she obey the Wizard so she can work in tandem with him and not be seen as a threat to Oz, or does she stand up for what she believes in, knowing she’ll be vilified? In my opinion, it is always worth it to do what you believe is right, with good intentions, even if it earns you the label Wicked Witch of the West. Wicked: For Good expands upon Elphaba’s animal activism mission. She even gets a new solo ballad that wasn’t in the original stage play called “No Place Like Home,” which she performs as the animals are escaping Oz to avoid being held hostage by the Wizard.

By Wicked: For Good, Elphaba has shed her fears and shame of what others think of her and revolts against the Wizard unapologetically. While we learn she’s secretly been having an affair with Fiyero, she otherwise lives in solitude. While she’s always pretty much been on her own, in college, she earned the respect of Madame Morrible and the Wizard and had Glinda as her best friend. But, likely because of her past, Elphaba isn’t afraid to be alone, even if being surrounded by love had once felt so good.

Most people in life are terrified of their own company. It’s why so many jump into relationships or long for them, or stay in friend groups full of toxic people, and go with the flow even when something is fundamentally wrong. The part of our brain we inherited from prehistoric times keeps us safe by sounding alarms when we’re on our own, because back then, being a part of a pack meant survival. Though as kids we were taught to do what’s right, as adults, it’s scarier to follow those rules than it is to uphold dangerous systems because of the consequences that come with it. However, Elphaba is braver than most people.

In the first part of Wicked, Elphaba is hopeful and naive. She trusts the Wizard as everyone else does. By the second film, she is much more tainted after learning the truth about him. However, we also know Elphaba is incredible at faking an iron exterior while hiding deep emotions inside. At the end of the day, Elphaba wants to be loved and accepted like everyone else, which is why she’s willing to forgive the Wizard and work with him if he agrees to free the animals. It’s only when he lies to her about their agreement, and she finds more caged animals, that she forgoes their agreement and returns to her initial plan.

Elphaba’s forgiving side extends to her sister, Nessa, as well. Despite how Nessa betrayed her, Elphaba still loves and cares about her. Even when she’s hiding out, she returns to Munchkinland to help her sister, only for it to blow up in her face. She later tries to help Nessa again when she senses she’s in trouble, but instead discovers Dorothy’s house has fallen on her. It’s one of the saddest parts of Elphaba’s story, not just how all of Oz turned on her, but how loyal she is to the people she loves, even if they don’t extend that same loyalty to her.

“Because I Knew You, I Have Been Changed For Good”

For the 20th anniversary of Wicked in 2023, Broadway’s Elphaba and Glinda, Alyssa Fox and McKenzie Kurtz, performed with composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz on NPR’s Tiny Desk. Before “For Good,” Schwartz told the story of how he wrote it. Since the performance marks the last time Glinda and Elphaba will ever see each other, Schwartz asked his daughter if she and her best friend were in that position, what would she say. Like the Wicked characters, Schwartz’s daughter had had many ups and downs with her friend, too. It was his daughter’s words that Schwartz jotted down that became some of the most powerful lyrics of “For Good.”

It was also the show’s playwright, Winnie Holzman, who came up with the idea that the characters had changed each other for good. As Schwartz explains, the phrase has a double meaning. Elphaba and Glinda have “been changed for good” because they’ve changed each other forever, but they’ve also changed each other in a positive way. With Wicked’s exploration of what it means to be good, I can’t imagine a better conclusion for the story. As they sing, “Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better, but because I knew you, I have been changed for good.”

Wicked: For Good expands upon the complex dynamic between Elphaba and Glinda. In the Broadway show, the frenemies spend most of Act 2 apart, but the film unites them on many occasions, like when Elphaba visits Glinda before her wedding to Fiyero and when Glinda joins Elphaba for the Wizard’s number “Wonderful.” I think this strengthens their bond because in the show, we’re led to believe the falling out occurs when Glinda works with the Wizard and Madame Morrible instead of taking Elphaba’s side. In the film, it seems like Elphaba is more understanding of Glinda, and it is once again a testament to her loyalty.

Including Glinda in “Wonderful” also showcases how close their friendship is that the Wizard would need Glinda to try to convince Elphaba to be on his side. He knows that if there’s one person she’ll listen to, it’s her best friend, not him. It also adds to the betrayal when Glinda finds out Elphaba and Fiyero have been having an affair behind her back. When Glinda encourages Madame Morrible to mess with Nessa in order to draw Elphaba back to Oz, we see how deeply hurt she is. Maybe if Fiyero had been running off with any other woman in Oz, it wouldn’t have hurt as badly, but the fact that her best friend was the one he’d been cheating on her with is so deeply painful.

Most people would find that unforgivable, but despite her anger and pain, Glinda reaches a place of acceptance. She has an understanding that there are many things she’s wanted throughout her life, to be with Fiyero and to be the most powerful witch in Oz being two of them. While she’s used to getting what she wants in life, those are the two things that belong to Elphaba, and there’s nothing she can do but accept it. I also think part of what makes it so easy is that Glinda has seen how hard Elphaba had it in life. From being bullied growing up to becoming the enemy of Oz, Glinda understands that these are the only two things working out for Elphaba, so she lets it be.

During “For Good,” the friends accept that they “will never meet again in this lifetime,” and instead of harboring anger and resentment, they focus on the one truth they can’t avoid: the only reason they are who they are is because of each other. Glinda admits, “I know I’m who I am today because I knew you,” and it is a pivotal moment in the film. As I mentioned in my Wicked newsletter, female friendship is the core of Wicked, and while it can be deeply complex, it is also rooted in love.

Elphaba would never have known love or connection if she hadn’t encountered Glinda. Meanwhile, Glinda, who prided herself on being Glinda the Good, would have never learned the true meaning of goodness without Elphaba. Goodness is not always following the rules and taking the side of authority, but it is much more rooted in following your heart, even if it’s in direct contrast to what you’ve been told to believe. Because of Elphaba, Glinda truly becomes Glinda the Good.

Finally Becoming “Glinda The Good”

If you’ve seen the Broadway show or movies, you know Elphaba doesn’t actually die, but fakes her death so she can escape Oz with Fiyero without anyone trying to hunt her anymore. To make sure no one ever finds out, she has to convince Glinda that she has died. Before “For Good” begins, Elphaba tells Glinda that she is capable of doing everything Elphaba was not able to do. “Now it’s up to you, for both of us,” she tells her friend. Glinda takes these words very seriously, and after believing Elphaba is dead, she finally does right by her.

When Elphaba refers to herself as “limited,” she’s acknowledging that no matter how hard she tries to stop the Wizard, she will never have Oz’s trust. Glinda does, and Elphaba wants her to use their trust to make things right. At the start of Wicked: For Good, Glinda basks in her position as the Wizard’s spokesperson. She’s less concerned with actually being a leader and is more interested in the public praise and celebrity of the role. Still, there is goodness in Glinda’s heart, even if she chooses not to exercise this, and contrary to popular belief, I believe this to be true of most people in the world.

The world isn’t necessarily full of evil people, but fearful people who are too afraid to step into Elphaba’s shoes, so they follow Glinda’s path instead. Glinda knows what is going on behind the scenes, and she knows it’s wrong, but she has too much pride to do anything about it and too much fear that she’ll become the hunted, too. During “Thank Goodness/I Couldn’t Be Happier,” we know Glinda isn’t telling the whole truth. She sings, “Getting your dreams is strange, but it seems a little, well, complicated.”

As she convinces Oz that she couldn’t be happier with her life and relationship with Fiyero, only viewers can tell she’s bluffing. She’s worried, she’s fearful, she knows something’s off but can’t put her finger on it, and she misses her best friend. She wishes she were standing hand in hand with Elphaba, ruling Oz, not working for a man who is actively trying to destroy Elphaba.

Before “For Good,” Glinda is also given a solo number written just for the movie. “The Girl in the Bubble” is the moment Glinda’s bubble pops, and she realizes how naive she’s been, unintentionally and in many ways intentionally. It’s this moment that she knows she has to make a change; otherwise, she will never grow, and Oz will never become a better place. She demands that the Wizard leave town after learning he is Elphaba’s real father, and also threatens to put Madame Morrible in a cage to punish her for her crimes, too.

It’s obvious that because of how much Glinda is loved by Oz, she could have taken down the Wizard and Madame Morrible all along, but she didn’t, so why was she so effortlessly able to take them down in the end? It feels like a full-circle moment regarding Glinda’s quote in The Wizard of Oz when she tells Dorothy, “You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas,” and admits she didn’t tell Dorothy this because “she had to learn it for herself.” I believe the reason Glinda knew that was that it happened to her, too. She had to learn for herself what she was capable of before she could help Oz, and unfortunately, that moment didn’t come until Elphaba had already run away.

I also believe that at this point, Glinda had nothing to lose. With Fiyero and Elphaba gone, she had no one left in her life, which many might argue is what she deserved. If the number one fear is solitude, then that’s already what she was experiencing, so her fears about standing up against the Wizard and Madame Morrible were gone. Her final good deed was letting the Ozians know that the animals aren’t bad but deserve to live in Oz. This is the thing Elphaba cared most about, and since Glinda wasn’t able to bring Elphaba back to Oz, this felt like the best possible way to honor her.

Wicked: For Good ends with the Grimmerie, the magic book that only Elphaba could read, opening for Glinda, suggesting she could now read it, too. This is the biggest mystery of the film: why is Glinda suddenly able to read the Grimmerie? There are various possibilities. Maybe Elphaba gave Glinda her blessing, maybe Glinda finally proved herself to be good, so the Grimmerie accepted her as its new owner, or maybe, after defeating the Wizard and Madame Morrible, Glinda finally realized what she’s capable of and stepped into her power. I believe it’s the last one.

We learn early on that no matter how badly she wants it, Glinda doesn’t have what it takes to be a witch, and Elphaba does. But maybe that was only because Glinda was never really living her truth. She’s the epitome of a people pleaser. There was no Glinda outside of what other people wanted from her. Elphaba never had anyone’s approval to begin with, so it wasn’t something she chased. Once Glinda stopped chasing that validation, she was free to truly be Glinda, which proved to be a much more powerful way to live. I think that’s one of the strongest messages Wicked leaves us with, and a perfect way to conclude the larger-than-life franchise.

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Female athletes have been at the forefront of sports in recent years, from Ilona Maher and Alysa Liu dominating the summer and winter Olympics to Caitlin Clark being named Time’s Athlete of the Year in 2024, followed by A’ja Wilson in 2025. But over two decades ago, a spotlight shone on female athletes in the 2002 classic sports comedy, Bend It Like Beckham.

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Not only did it highlight two skilled female athletes, but it also acted as a window into Indian culture and the expectations put on women, preventing them from stepping out of line. In many ways, Bend It Like Beckham was ahead of its time, which might be why it’s held up twenty-four years later.

Mother Knows Best, Allegedly

One of the most prominent themes in Bend It Like Beckham is the lack of support and validation the main characters receive from their mothers. Jess, short for the Indian name Jesminder, and Jules, short for Juliette, bond over their shared talent and passion for soccer (referred to as football in the UK-set film, but I’ll be calling it soccer to avoid confusion with America’s football), but also the eyerolls and genuine animosity they receive from their mothers over their desire to play the game. Unlike Juliette, whose father is happy to practice with her in the backyard, Jess’ father also doesn’t support her passion. However, we get more insight into his hesitancy than we do with her mother, which is unfortunate.

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I hate to see her mother more villainized than her father (more on this in my If I Had Legs I’d Kick You newsletter), because I’m sure we’d have more compassion for her perspective too if we’d been given more of it. Jess’ love for soccer reminds her father of his own former love for cricket and how he was excluded from the club for being Indian. While he ultimately supports Jess’ love for soccer at the end of the film, his initial discouragement came from the fear that Jess would face the same kind of discrimination that he did, and it would affect her for the rest of her life as it did for him. Despite how badly her father’s disapproval hurts her, he isn’t out to get her, as teenagers often think their parents are. He was actually just trying to protect her.

But Jess learns that even if her father has good intentions, she has to make the choice that is right for her. Getting hurt, physically and emotionally, is a part of the game, but it’s worth the risk because of how alive she feels when she’s playing. As for the mothers, their perspectives give us insight into contrasting cultures and how, ultimately, they share a lot of the same limitations. Jess’ mother ultimately wants her daughter to be a housewife, prioritizing cooking and finding a man from the same cultural background to marry. Added pressure comes from her sister’s upcoming wedding. Meanwhile, Jules’ mom, a white British woman, is terrified of her daughter appearing too masculine or potentially being a lesbian.

Despite their contrasting cultures, both women are exhibiting the same attitudes. They’re overlooking their daughters’ talents over the shame of how it goes against their own beliefs about who a woman should be and fears of what others will think. It’s incredibly frustrating to deal with society’s prejudices as a female athlete, but not having your own family on your side only worsens it. One of the ways shame has manifested in Jess’ life is that she feels she needs to hide her scar. We learn when Jess gets her first soccer uniform for the girls’ amateur league that she has a large burn scar on her leg that she got from cooking as a child.

She’s ashamed of it because it’s something her family taught her to hide, since it contradicts female beauty standards, but when she chooses not to let it stop her from playing, she realizes nobody on her team actually even cares. This small decision teaches her a lot about going against what her parents have programmed her to believe and following her own intuition instead. There’s a lot of sneaking around and going behind their parents’ backs in the film, but ultimately, Jess and Jules’ families come around to accepting them as they are.

Jess & Jules

One of the most celebrated aspects of the 2026 Winter Olympics was the sportsmanship between athletes. Gone are the days of clubbing competitors in the knee, and long live the selfless celebration of those who outperformed you. Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, and Isabeau Levito call themselves the Blade Angels and are like a figure skating coven. Glenn even forced Liu to stand up and cheer for herself when she won gold at the Olympics, a medal she was competing for herself. This kind of sisterhood is present in Bend It Like Beckham as well. It’s Jules who recognizes Jess’ skills when she sees her playing soccer and encourages her to try out for the team.

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Jess later experiences support from all the women on her team, as showcased in locker room bonding scenes, from the moment she joins the team. The only petty argument occurs when Jules finds Jess outside the club, about to kiss their coach Joe, whom Jules likes (arguably Jess is innocent, considering Jules lied and said she didn’t like him). But it never turns into a full-blown feud as they both move on and end up going to America together to continue playing soccer. As showcased by Jess and Jules and the Olympic athletes, when you’re chasing your dreams, it’s important to have friends who double as a support system. Especially in Jess and Jules’ case, as they don’t initially have encouragement from their parents.

I have so many friends who support and inspire me, and if I didn’t have them, it would be a lot more difficult to get by. We, like Jess and Jules, are not each other’s competition, but team players who see each other’s wins as our own wins too, because yes, there is enough success to go around if you choose to see the world through that lens. I’d argue that the reason Jess and Jules both get to go to America in the end is that they were both focused on doing their best together rather than trying to outshine each other.

Jess & Joe

To me, Jess and Joe were only a minor part of Bend It Like Beckham. There’s an article from The Guardian on why the relationship was inappropriate, but I didn’t even realize there was a weird age difference while watching, because, to be honest, I wasn’t too invested in their storyline at all. In the film, the only part of their dynamic that’s frowned upon is him being her coach, but once she goes to America, he isn’t her coach anymore, so their relationship is deemed acceptable. We learn that Joe was a soccer player himself, and his dad put a lot of pressure on him, which led to a career-ending injury. As a coach, Joe does a really good job.

He’s the one who encourages Jess not to worry about showing her scar in her uniform by showing her his own scar that he got from a leg surgery after his soccer injury. He also uses his experience with his father to guide Jess to be gentle on herself and never push herself to the point of exhaustion or injury. This was pretty profound for a film that came out in 2002, as this kind of mindset in sports wasn’t normalized until recent years. As a mentor, Joe was very important to the story, and I’m glad the girls on the team were given a positive influence to help them achieve their goals and believe in themselves.

Dreamgirls opened on Broadway on December 20th, 1981, starring Sheryl Lee Ralph, Jennifer Holliday, and Loretta Devine. Twenty-five years later, Dreamworks and Paramount released the film adaptation starring Beyoncé, Jennifer Hudson, and Anika Noni Rose as the original three Dreamettes, a group inspired by the real-life Motown-signed girl group The Supremes. I chose Dreamgirls as this week’s Women’s History Month film because it showcases what often happens to young, talented girls when they’re sucked up by the Hollywood machine, and what could happen if just one woman is brave enough to stand up to that machine.

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“You Make Her Sound Like A Product”

During the film’s performance of the title track “Dreamgirls,” Deena’s mother is impressed that her daughter was chosen to be the lead singer of The Dreams (formerly The Dreamettes), despite never believing she had that strong a voice. That’s when Curtis turns to her and says, “Deena has something better; she has a quality.” Her mother responds, “You make her sound like a product,” which Crutis seems pleased with. If only one interaction in the film could describe its premise, it would be this one. Deena, Effie, and Lorrell were young girls with immense talent and a shared dream of being stars, but when Curtis plucks them from obscurity, he only sees them as a product.

At the beginning of Dreamgirls, Deena is especially wide-eyed and desperate to be a star. It’s only Effie that ever seems to really stand up for herself, and it’s no coincidence she ends up as the girl replaced. In such a cutthroat industry, any missteps can have you gone, which is why I’ve always been impressed with the artists who have stood up for themselves despite the consequences. These days, it seems the more power an artist has, the more freedom to do things their way. And when they also use that power to stand up for the ones coming after them, we see actual change in the industry.

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However, back in the 60s and 70s, when Dreamgirls is set, the industry seemed as manipulative as ever. Curtis has complete creative control over the group, renaming them Deena Jones & The Dreams after replacing Effie with his secretary, Michelle Morris. In this business, everyone is disposable, and we see this several times in the film. While the Dreams start out as background singers for Jimmy Early, Curtis’ attention switches from Jimmy to The Dreams when it becomes obvious how much more potential they have. Like so many stars, Jimmy falls down a dark path when he’s no longer Curtis’ shining star, and eventually dies from a heroin overdose. Unsurprisingly, Curtis is unfazed.

As the film goes on, we see the girl group slowly stripped of their humanity, and the hopeful spirit they shared at the start of the film fades as they become unrecognizable. Not only are they trapped in a contract with Curtis, but Deena is trapped in an unhappy marriage, too. Curtis makes all their career decisions for them, leaving them no room to express their talents or creativity, which is what made them want to get into the business to begin with.

When Curtis wants them to transition from R&B to pop and disco, they transition. When Curtis wants to control which roles Deena plays in movies, she must follow his orders. But something shifts at the end of the film. At The Dreams’ farewell concert, Curtis tries to debut a new artist on the red carpet. To his surprise, no one is interested. The crowd is there to see The Dreams, not him. It’s obvious that he no longer holds the same weight in the industry that he once did. His creation has now outlived and outshone him.

It reminds me of Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl track “Father Figure,” a story about being taken advantage of by someone who claimed to have your best interest at heart, only to later turn the tables on them. While Curtis may have built The Dreams into a success story, it was their talent and passion that touched the world. I always believe the true power lies in the people, and while Curtis could treat them like products all he wanted, the world fell in love with their truth.

Effie White Stands Her Ground

Effie is obviously the strongest voice in the group, and we don’t need her performance of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” to know that, though it does further prove her talent and contributed to Jennifer Hudson’s Oscar win. However, Effie doesn’t fit the image Curtis has of The Dreams. Effie is heavier than the other girls in the group, and Curtis finds Deena to be much more desirable, despite having a relationship with Effie first. Effie is also headstrong and causes some conflict as she’s not so quick to give in to Curtis’ demands as the other girls are.

When Effie is thrown out of the group, she doesn’t instantly start a solo career. Unsurprisingly, labels aren’t knocking at her door begging to sign her because most of them operate from the same mindset as Curtis. Instead, she’s a single mother in Detroit, living on welfare, struggling to build a career. Understandably, she doesn’t want anything to do with Curtis, so she never tells him he is the father of her child. Given how he disposed of Effie, it’s unlikely he would have shown up for their daughter anyway.

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I acknowledge the way Curtis and the music industry prey on vulnerable young artists and suck them in, but I also acknowledge that everyone has autonomy. Deena and Lorrell could have walked away from the industry at any moment, but they chose to stay. They took the notoriety over the financial struggle Effie had to endure. Maybe they stayed to avoid ending up in a similar situation, or maybe despite all the abuse, they still felt like they were living out their dreams.

While I know the real villain here is Curtis, I still think Effie shows pride and integrity that the other members of The Dreams don’t possess. When she’s thrown out of the group, no one comes to her side, not even her own brother, C.C. Instead, he starts a relationship with her replacement and continues to be the group’s songwriter. Effie’s story shows us what happens to stars that have been chewed up and spit out, but I’m glad that she gets a hopeful ending. Eventually, Effie begins performing again, and soon she’s releasing her own music on her own terms.

Effie’s happy ending comes when her brother returns to her with a solo track, “One Night Only,” and she reunites with Deena. Together, they hire a lawyer and threaten legal action against Curtis after he uses payola to promote The Dreams’ disco version of Effie’s song. The film ends at the farewell concert, where The Dreams invite Effie onstage to perform with them one last time. It’s here where Curtis seemingly surrenders. It’s hard to forgive him for all the pain he’s caused, but it is nice to see him acknowledge his daughter for the first time as he seems ready to turn over a new leaf.

How Much Truth Is There To Dreamgirls?

Dreamgirls takes inspiration from Motown Records and The Supremes, later known as Diana Ross and The Supremes. While Deena represents Diana Ross, Effie represents Florence Ballad, who was replaced by Cindy Birdsong in The Supremes. While Jimmy was inspired by various artists, including Marvin Gaye and James Brown, Curtis was inspired by Motown founder Berry Gordy, and his relationship with Deena in the film mimicked the real-life relationship between Ross and Gordy. There are also cameos from a group obviously inspired by The Jackson 5.

However, most of the film is fictionalized based on the way that so many artists have been treated in the industry. The interesting thing about current creative industries is that people seem more fed up than ever with the control and abuse. I don’t think these structures have much longer to go, especially when so many creatives have been utilizing social media to get their work out into the world instead of needing to break through the gatekeepers of Hollywood. I hope this way of sharing art continues, and that Dreamgirls, especially Effie’s story, can inspire young musicians to stand their ground when it comes to their dreams.

When it comes to celebrating women, we often shine the spotlight on those who have achieved unthinkable accomplishments. Just last week, I wrote about Mulan, a story about a woman who disguises herself as a man to fight in a war to save her country. However, this week I wanted to go in the opposite direction and write about the Oscar-nominated film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.

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In 2023’s Barbie, Gloria ends the film by pitching a new doll idea to her boss: ordinary Barbie. “She just has a flattering top, and she wants to get through the day feeling kind of good about herself,” was how she described her. This part of the film was meant to relieve viewers from feeling like they always have to be extraordinary. Our main character in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is far from extraordinary, and instead overworked, overwhelmed, and slowly drifting into madness. And yes, I will be discussing that unusual ending.

The Pressure To Be The Perfect Mother

I want to start off by saying this. Yes, there are people in the world who love being a parent, but the ones you see on social media who seem to have it all together and portray motherhood as effortless and their natural state of being are usually lying to you. There is no perfect parent, and I promise, if you were a fly on the wall in their daily lives, you’d soon see the parts of parenting they don’t record for TikTok and Instagram. A lot of these people don’t tell you about their nannies and babysitters that help them, or that the reason being a stay-at-home mom was such an easy decision is because their husbands are heirs to major fortunes, or they themselves come from generational wealth.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The reason I don’t believe what I see on social media is that no human being can ever sustain a state of perfection; it is absolutely impossible. While the main character, Linda, may be irresponsible in many ways, she also represents what happens to a human who is dealing with so much stress and overwhelm in a world that expects perfection from her. If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You is many mothers’ realities, and if you don’t believe me, there’s a whole Reddit thread of parents relating to it. Linda’s husband, Charles, is a ship captain away on a trip, while she’s left alone with her full-time job as a therapist, her daughter, who is sick and must eat from a feeding tube, and a big leak in her ceiling that causes her and her daughter to have to relocate to a motel until it’s fixed.

Unfortunately, the contractors her husband hired aren’t doing their jobs correctly, and the situation, which was supposed to be fixed quickly, continues to linger. On top of that, Linda has to deal with condescending doctors, her therapist/coworker, who’s also quite condescending, and her own clients, one of whom has extreme anxiety and panic attacks that Linda is struggling to handle when she has so much to worry about in her own life. Linda doesn’t handle her stress in the most responsible way, choosing to leave her daughter alone in their motel room at night so she can drink and hang out with another resident named James. However, I do think the film does a really good job at making us feel sympathy for Linda.

Despite her questionable choices, I actually found her really likable. One thing that stood out to me instantly is the way her husband treats her and how her daughter reacts to her father versus how she reacts to Linda. Director Mary Bronstein, who also makes a cameo in the film as Dr. Spring, told Mashable that she intentionally kept Linda’s husband offscreen for most of the film, only introducing him through phone calls, to represent the distance in their marriage. While Linda’s daughter expresses a lot of bratty behavior toward her mother, she’s always excited to hear her father’s voice and to talk to him. Even at the end of the film, when he comes home, he’s seen as a hero for being the one to discover his daughter alone in the hotel room, as if he saved her from what her mother had put her through.

There’s obviously some truth to this, but what he doesn’t acknowledge is that he had been away all this time while Linda was the only one taking care of their daughter. It’s easy to excuse this, saying it’s not his fault that he has to work, but Linda is also working a full-time job while all this is going on. There’s one scene where her husband tells her he’s at a sports game during one of his stops, and Linda’s frustration is unconcealable. Throughout the film, she doesn’t experience a moment of enjoyment, not even when she’s drinking; her drinking is instead a coping mechanism for how much she’s mentally suffering.

The proper way for her husband to handle this is to express gratitude and compassion for his wife, but he doesn’t seem to understand or care. While, to some people’s standards, Linda may come across like a horrible mother who hates her daughter, I really didn’t interpret the story that way. I think filmmakers did an excellent job telling the story from Linda’s perspective so that the audience can really resonate with her and not any of the other characters who have opinions about her. While a lot of the films I’ve written about for Women’s History Month have inspired women, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is one for the average woman or mother who feels seen by it.

Linda’s Daughter & Her Mysterious Illness

Linda’s daughter’s face slowly comes into view at the very end of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. The first time we ever see her. In fact, she isn’t even given a name in the movie. From the beginning, I realized the reason is that we as viewers are supposed to be focused on Linda and what she’s going through. Mary Bronstein confirmed this in the same Mashable interview. The director said if she showed the child, the audience would immediately start sympathizing with her, but she wanted to make sure the audience stayed in Linda’s world. She also wanted the lack of her appearance to represent how Linda didn’t really see her daughter, but only viewed her as a burden.

While her illness is never disclosed, we know she eats through a feeding tube, and her beeping monitor keeps Linda up all night in the motel room. While doctors believe her daughter needs to start eating more and needs to meet her goal weight before they can consider removing the feeding tube, Linda disagrees. She believes the tube is a safety net, and if her daughter didn’t have it to fall back on, she’d be more motivated to eat more. I viewed this as a pretty common dynamic where doctors and mothers both think they know best for the child, and unfortunately, mothers tend to get dismissed, even though they do know their child better. Both perspectives are valid, but obviously, Linda does not have the medical experience to make that decision, even if there may be truth to her perspective.

As I mentioned, Linda’s daughter is quite bratty and stubborn, which is why it’s understandable that Linda starts going insane. Nothing is ever good enough, even when Linda caves and buys her daughter a hamster, her daughter decides the hamster is evil, and she doesn’t want it anymore. In an ending that feels like a cross between reality and an illusion, Linda pulls her daughter’s feeding tube out, hoping that not having to care for her daughter anymore will bring back a sense of normalcy in her life. It feels like the hole in her daughter’s stomach and the hole in the ceiling are parallel to each other.

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They represent the things that are causing Linda so much stress and possibly even represent a hole in Linda’s own life that she can’t seem to fill. At the end, while Linda lies by the ocean, her daughter leans over her, making sure her mother is okay. Not only is this the only time we’ve seen her daughter, but there’s a dynamic switch where it seems like this time Linda’s daughter is caring for her. “I’ll be better, I promise,” Linda tells her, and her daughter smiles before the screen cuts to black.

What Is Up With The Eerie Ending?

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a comedy/drama with some horror and mystical elements to it, so it’s not so clear if the ending is real or just a figment of Linda’s imagination. Throughout the film, Linda deals with some violent flashbacks. We hear screams often and see images of what appears to be her in a hospital bed, trying to hold her daughter down so the doctors can put the feeding tube in. All of this is leading up to Linda essentially losing her mind over her situation and things that may have happened in her own childhood with her mother that the audience hasn’t been told. However, knowing that being a mother is no easy feat, we can imagine her own mother struggled with her as a child, too.

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Throughout the ending, aside from removing her daughter’s feeding tube and her husband’s return, Linda also sees that the contractors have finally made progress on the ceiling since her husband directed them to. This contributes to her descent into insanity because no one would listen to her when she stressed how they needed to start making progress on the ceiling, the same way the doctors wouldn’t listen to her when she expressed her belief that her daughter was relying on her tube as a safety net, and her therapist seems to brush off everything she says. Being ignored that way only to see someone start getting work done once your barely present husband instructs them to could drive anyone into madness.

Linda also faces her client, Caroline, who ran away and left her baby with Linda, causing Linda to call the police when no one else would help her. Linda chases Caroline down to the beach, but she disappears before Linda can catch her. I think Caroline’s role in the film is to be a mirror for Linda, as Caroline is also struggling with being a parent. The ambiguous ending is left open to interpretation, but is certainly not meant to be taken literally.

Whether or not it’s Linda losing her mind, a dream sequence, or a hallucination is all in how you see it. Honestly, I think it may be a little bit of everything. I’m sad that If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You didn’t get as much award show recognition as it deserved, but I was happy to see Rose Byrne win a Golden Globe and receive an Academy Award nomination for her role. I think it’s a role a lot of women need to see.

Let’s get down to business….it is the first Monday of Women’s History Month, and I’m continuing my tradition I started in 2023, back when I first began my newsletter. I told Dan Suarez he could have a shoutout because Mulan is one of his favorite movies, but I’ll add Allie Joseph to this, too, as I recently learned it’s also one of hers. Mulan was released in 1998, toward the end of Disney’s 90s renaissance, and would be the last Disney princess film for over a decade until The Princess and the Frog premiered in 2009.

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A film that’s always relevant has especially resonated recently, as two of its songs have taken over my TikTok FYP in the last few years. “Honor To Us All” and “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” are both regularly used in edits featuring various women, from pop stars to female athletes, and I must admit, I NEVER scroll past a single one. I felt called to cover Mulan because of how popular those songs have become and because, like a lot of Disney stories, Mulan feels quite timeless.

Mulan Is Never Enough

What Disney movies do best is speak to the most vulnerable parts of their audience. Mulan is fueled by the character’s inability to feel good enough for the people around her, and no matter who you are or where you come from, feeling not good enough at some point in life is a pretty universal feeling. It’s what Mulan sings about in “Reflection,” the film’s power ballad, which Christina Aguilera iconically covered for the soundtrack with a few lyric changes. “Look at me, I will never pass for a perfect bride or a perfect daughter,” Mulan sings as she looks at her reflection in the water. The film’s opening song, “Honor To Us All,” is equally productive in showing us how inadequate Mulan feels.

The song includes the lyrics: “destiny guard our girls and our future as it fast unfurls. Please look kindly on these cultured pearls, each a perfect porcelain doll.” While the elder characters in Mulan want what’s best for the young girls, believing that to be a worthy husband, they’re putting immense pressure on them to be the perfect wife, something Mulan is not capable of. Like many of us in the real world, she can not fit the mold as she is expected to. The matchmaker in the film even tells Mulan she’s “too skinny, not good for bearing sons,” upon seeing her for the first time, emphasizing the value their society places on men over women and the endless scrutiny women face over their weight.

Mulan is forced to hide away in her own body because even her family doesn’t understand or accept her. Given that we don’t live in a particularly accepting society, which encourages people to fully express their authenticity, Mulan’s story speaks to the heart. It is one of the most painful things you can experience in life, having to bury your truth, but it’s one of the most liberating when you finally break free. We see that with Mulan. There are a lot of people, like in Mulan’s world, who will try to fit you in a box, but there are also a lot of people who will be happy to celebrate the real you, much like the emperor at the end of the film. It is important you honor those people, and that you act as a role model for the ones who need someone to help them be themselves, too.

@sidelinesistershq8 of the 12 Team USA gold medals were earned by women. They deserved it all, and worked hard for it. Their achievements should never be laughed at or diminished. WOMEN MATTER. #womeninsports #olympics2026 #womenssports #sports #fyp

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When Mulan takes her father’s place in the war against the Huns and must go under cover as a man, she soon finds that she’s not much better accepted there either. She gets teased a lot by her fellow soldiers, and when Chi-Fu finds out she is a woman, he publicly humiliates her and encourages Li Shang to execute her. However, the war also gives Mulan the chance to finally prove herself and step away from the role she had to play for her family. While her father is initially angry with her for going off to war, in the end, he finally expresses pride in his daughter, the only thing she wanted from her family since the start of the film. The film ends on a much happier note, as “True To Your Heart” plays, symbolizing Mulan’s courage to stay true to herself and how everything worked out in her favor because of it.

I’ll Make A Man Out Of You

When the sword swipes through Mulan’s long black hair, chopping it off, we know the main story has begun. It’s Mulan’s brief version of the makeover scene, which I wrote about in my She’s All That newsletter, except this time it’s more of a reversed makeover. Still, we need the physical representation of Mulan’s evolution. Her hair represented her femininity, and all that was holding her back. Cutting it off represented freedom. “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” is an intentionally ironic song. As Captain Li Shang sings about teaching his soldiers to “Man up,” it’s ultimately Mulan, a woman, who becomes the strongest soldier.

Beauty and the Beast Newsletter

“You must be swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon,” are the lyrics that the TikTok edits are centered around. While these lyrics do speak to the soldier and male experience, they speak to the female one too, especially in the context of Mulan. Many of the TikTok videos spotlight female athletes who, despite their talent and accomplishments, are rarely recognized in the way male athletes are. At the recently concluded 2026 Olympics, the United States came in second place with 12 gold medals, the highest amount the country has ever won. 6 of the 12 were won by women, while 4 were won by men. The other two came from team events. This marks the third consecutive Winter Olympics where the women have won more medals than the men, and it’s good to see them finally getting recognition, even if through social media edits.

When the Huns attack, it’s Mulan who’s able to save Li Shang. While the men assist in helping them back up the cliff, this is only when Mulan throws up the anchor. It’s also Mulan who comes up with the plan to save the emperor when the Huns storm the palace and threaten to hold him hostage. As “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” plays again, Mulan now has her fellow soldiers disguise themselves as women to break into the palace, using the skills she learned in the army. When she defeats the huns, she earns herself an offer to join the Emperor’s council, but turns it down so that she can return home to her family. As a compromise, the Emperor gives Mulan his crest and Huns leader Shan Yu’s sword, so that everyone will know of her bravery in saving China.

Disney’s Love Story Takes A Backseat

2012’s Brave was the first Disney Princess film to not feature a prince, and they haven’t looked back since. I think at the time it was a brave decision, and it was important to step out of line, reinvent themselves, and showcase a character who had ambitions beyond marriage. However, there’s been a lot of discourse in later years on why Disney hasn’t been able to bring back the romance storyline while keeping their female characters empowered. I think Mulan is a film that does that quite well. The desire for love is not gendered; it’s universal.

Even the male soldiers in Mulan express that in “A Girl Worth Fighting For.” Love stories will never not be beloved by all audiences, though Mulan and Li Shang’s doesn’t really come to fruition until the end, mainly because Li Shang thought Mulan was a man for most of the film. What I admire about their dynamic is that Li Shang doesn’t choose her for the qualities that are considered important amongst the matchmakers at the beginning of the film, but because she’s adventurous, courageous, and loyal. Ultimately, he loves her and sees her for who she truly is, bringing Mulan’s story full circle.

In the second verse of “I Hate It Here,” Taylor Swift sings, “nostalgia is a mind’s trick, if I’d been there, I’d hate it,” a truth about the past most of us don’t want to admit. I think the most recent influx of nostalgia started in 2023 when the Eras Tour kicked off, a concert that celebrated the past, and the Barbie movie took us all back to childhood. However, it’s reached new heights this year, with the 2000s always seeming to be the era everyone wants to go back to. Maybe it just seems that way because Gen Z and younger millennials rule my social media feeds. Still, with Hilary Duff’s new album and arena tour and the upcoming Hannah Montana 20th anniversary special, the nostalgia doesn’t seem to be cooling down.

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In Hollywood, the sequels, remakes, and live-action Disney films persist. Even original films seem to borrow aesthetics from the 90s and 2000s through fashion and music choices. People long for the days of razor cellphones, DVDs, colorful iPods, and romcoms, all of it playing out like a supercut of a better time. The problem is, as Taylor Swift suggested, things were never as great as they appear in retrospect. When we look back at the 2000s, we remember things like the Y2K and Mcbling fashion eras, when Toys R Us was still in Times Square, Britney Spears dominating pop culture, and overall, how colorful the world seemed.

We only sometimes talk about how eating disorders were at an all-time high due to how many stick-thin celebrities had the spotlight on them, the fact that America was in the middle of the Iraq war, the 2008 financial crisis, or natural disasters like 2004’s Indian Ocean tsunami and 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. While people are prone to focusing all their attention and energy on the bad things occurring right now, bad things have always been happening; we just have a human tendency to romanticise the past. We’ll probably do it in the future, looking back on the current decade, seeing it for all the fun pop culture moments like Eras Tour, Barbie, and the breakout careers of stars like Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter, and Olivia Rodrigo, forgetting that we spent a few years of the decade in a pandemic.

Another issue with nostalgia is that it makes the present really dull. We are living through an extreme lack of creativity and originality, and there are a lot of things we can point the finger at, but I think our obsession with the past is contributing. It’s preventing us from making the present exciting and innovative or creating anything that will become a staple of our current culture. Nothing is going to stand out from the 2020s time period if it’s all just regurgitated past moments. The reality is, we can’t experience joy in the present moment if we’re reminiscing about how much better things used to be.

Even if the world feels bad right now, I think it’s our responsibility to create joy. There’s a quote I always come back to when people express guilt over feeling joy amongst chaos. I even quoted it in my Golden Globes Interview Newsletter. Author Dan Savage said, “In the darkest days of the Aids crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for.” You can’t spend your life doomsday prepping, living in fear, or wallowing in all the bad, because no good comes from that. The good comes when we create it. Things get better when we refuse to fall into despair, which is why I am sharing some of the things that have improved my life, ultimately making the present more enjoyable.

Table of Contents:

• Spend Less Time On Social Media

• Do Not Use AI At Any Cost

• Read More

• Bring Back Physical Experiences & Third Spaces

• Keep A Gratitude Journal

• Surround Yourself With Inspiring People

• Spend Your Money Wisely

• Go To Secret Gardens In Your Mind

Spend Less Time On Social Media

“Put your phone down and go touch grass” is advice I often see, ironically, on social media. But there is still truth to it. Nothing will pull you out of your own misery like getting offline and into the present moment. Much of the reason the world feels so heavy these days is because of the speed at which we are presented with bad news. But it’s not only that; there is so much negativity going on on social media apps, constant fighting, endless hot takes, and brain-rotting content. If you log out, go for a walk, or spend time with friends and family, you might just find the world isn’t so bad afterall.

What I'm Most Excited For In 2026

For the most part, what’s going on on social media isn’t reality, and you are missing out on some wonderful things in the world when all you do is doomscroll. I’ve found that people are much nicer and more optimistic in the real world than they are online. I also realized that when you spend too much time on your phone, it drains your energy and creates brain fog. Putting your phone down will help you gain clarity, and from there, you can make much better decisions that will contribute to a better world.

Do Not Use AI At Any Cost

The rise of AI has made the world feel like a dystopian novel, the kind we read in school, with plotlines meant to teach us not to let our world end up that way. The other day, Gucci launched a new AI campaign, and it was disturbing to see a luxury fashion brand that’s been respected for over a century cheapen itself. One of the biggest arguments for AI has been that it’s cheaper than hiring humans, and I find it disgusting that a company that sells products for thousands of dollars has the audacity to choose affordability over creativity. America’s current angel, Olympic figure skater and gold medalist Alysa Liu, recently said in an interview that she loves struggling because it makes her feel alive.

My Thoughts On AI

She was met with a lot of praise from people who feel this relates a lot to why many of us are anti-AI. It’s made people lazy and unmotivated. It’s not that I think people need to go through life struggling, but when we face certain hardships, it can be thrilling to finally overcome them. When an artist starts a project, they’ll likely fail many times before they get it right, but when they eventually nail it, it’s euphoric. Don’t let AI suck that euphoria out of you.

Read More

Amid every company trying to push AI on us, it has never been more important to exercise your brain. Not only has reading more kept me off social media, but it’s also inspired me, made me a better writer, and forced me to think more. Before Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights premiered, I read the classic novel by Emily Bronté. I admit it was hard to get through, and I ultimately resorted to the audiobook version, but I’m glad I followed through. No one writes or talks in the style of classic novels anymore, but I still think it’s important to expand your mind with classic literature.

No one can make you dumber if you’re actively doing things to make yourself intelligent. However, I never knock newer, light-hearted stories either. This year so far, I’ve read The Shadow Sister by Lily Meade, Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake, and am currently reading My Roommate Is A Vampire by Jenna Levine. These stories have all inspired me, and I know finishing them is a much better use of my time than doomscrolling on TikTok and Instagram.

Bring Back Physical Experiences & Third Spaces

For Christmas this year, I got a portable DVD player, specifically the one from Trexonic. Watching movies on it has felt so much better than watching them on streaming. Sure, this certainly fuels nostalgia, but that’s not the only reason I love it so much. Back when we had physical DVDs, we actually got to own our favorite movies. With streaming and digital rentals, we only have them for as long as these platforms allow us to. They can take things down, send them to other streaming services whenever they want, and on top of that, streaming prices are becoming out of control.

You can buy a DVD at a thrift store for $1 and get to own it forever rather than dealing with $20 a month subscriptions. There’s also a forgotten aspect of DVDs that you just don’t get on streaming: special features. When I rewatched The Princess Diaries recently, I visited the special features section after the movie and got to see joyful moments from the making of the film, like director Garry Marshall’s pumpkin decorating contest and Thanksgiving Day parade. I distinctly remember many of the other fun special features on DVDs from my childhood, like Shrek 2’s American Idol parody, Far Far Away Idol, and A Cinderella Story’s Find Your Prince or Princess game.

It was recently announced that Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters and Frankenstein would join the Criterion Collection, meaning a physical DVD release. I hope this can get new generations excited about physical media. It’s not about the nostalgia factor, but about the fact that we have lost something very special by turning to streaming for everything. We can bring things back from the past that we should have never gotten rid of, while also reinventing them for the present. Simultaneously, we’ve also lost third spaces in our society.

When I was 14, I spent nearly every Friday night with my closest friend at the mall. If we weren’t at the mall, we were probably at the movies. These third spaces are dying out because everything has gone digital. Rather than going to a store to buy something, we order it online, and instead of going to the movies, we watch things at home on streaming. In recent years, people have talked a lot about the lack of Tween spaces, and I think these things go hand in hand. Limited Too, Libby Loo, and Claire’s were the places to be, but now tweens and teens have nowhere to go but TikTok, and it’s extremely harmful.

Clueless Newsletter

I’ve actually spent more time at the mall in 2026 so far than I have in a long time, and I can confirm that ordering online never feels as good as getting to actually see things in person. Not only is it easier to try it on at the store instead of at home and potentially having to mail it back, but strolling through a store in person and getting to see the options, instead of scrolling through photos on a website, is also superior. The only downside is that, because so many people order online, stores don’t always have as much. However, they would have to start stocking their physical stores a lot more if more people were visiting them. Remember, we always have the power to make change; they follow us, not the other way around.

Keep A Gratitude Journal

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I’m writing this week’s newsletter as news of another snowstorm has hit, not long after all the snow from the last storm finally melted. I was in the mood to escape on vacation, and as I quoted in my How To Make A Perfect Summer Movie newsletter, summer movies are the cheapest and easiest way to go on vacation. People We Meet On Vacation is based on the book of the same name by Emily Henry, an author many people love, but I admit I have never read any of her work. The film, which follows two friends who reunite for a vacation every summer, was released on Netflix in early January and received mixed reviews.

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Fans who loved the book were especially critical of the adaptation for many changes they didn’t feel made much sense. There’s a brief but pretty harsh New York Times review of People We Meet On Vacation if you want to read about someone trashing the film. But as a general rule, I don’t like to do this. I know a lot of hard work from so many passionate creatives goes into the making of any movie, and I have the understanding that if I didn’t like something, maybe I just wasn’t the target audience. Regardless, here’s what I took away from it.

Alex & Poppy: Friends To Lovers

The driving force behind People We Meet On Vacation is its friends-to-lovers trope. This is what fans of the story fell for, whether reading the book or watching the film for the first time. It’s a timeless trope that seems to never go out of style, but why? There are several reasons, but I think it all comes down to the bond between two friends that everyone seems to long for in a romantic connection. I rewatched Valentine’s Day last weekend and was reminded of a scene that always stood out to me. Ashton Kutcher’s character had just been dumped by his fiancée, and he asks George Lopez’s character how he and his wife got it right. “It’s easy,” he responds. “I married my best friend.”

My generation watched the friends-to-lovers trope unfold countless times throughout the 2000s, from Disney Channel’s Lizzie McGuire and David Gordon to Mia Thermopolis and Michael Moscovitz in The Princess Diaries, and my personal favorite Jenna Rink and Matty Flamhaff in 13 Going on 30. The thing about a good love story is that there needs to be tension. The tension in the friends-to-lovers trope is high, especially when one friend’s feelings seem a lot more evident than the other’s (Matty liked Jenna first at the beginning of 13 Going on 30).

A Cinderella Story Newsletter

The sense that one person may not like the other back, and that admitting their feelings could destroy the dynamic they’ve spent years building, is as exciting as the possibility that the other person does like them back and they can take their connection to another level. In today’s dating scene, I hear countless stories about how awful things have become because of dating apps and social media. It’s hard to really get a feel for who someone is through a phone screen, so when you meet them in person, they’re often not what they seem. There’s an abundance of dating horror stories on TikTok, not to mention the epidemic of ghosting occurring in the dating world.

Most people fear opening up to someone new, and it’s even scarier in today’s climate, where a lot of people have turned out to be awful. Part of the appeal of friends to lovers is that you already know the other person very well. You don’t have to worry about opening up to a romantic partner because you’ve spent your whole friendship opening up to each other. It also eliminates the fear of rejection because you already know the other person loves and accepts you for who you are. In some ways, it can feel like friends-to-lovers is a cop out, a way to avoid facing your fears and getting hurt. In other ways, I think it is the healthiest way anyone can get into a relationship. Why not take time to actually get to know someone before diving into a romantic relationship?

When you really know someone, flaws and all, you’re less likely to experience limerence and pedestalize the other person. However, as I said earlier, I believe the close bond between two friends is what makes it the most intriguing. Everyone looking for a romantic partner is seeking that close bond, and there’s a lot of pressure that comes with trying to find it with someone. When two friends have that effortless bond and the chemistry to make things romantic, it can feel like it was written in the stars.

People want to live vicariously through them to experience it too. I think that’s what people love so much about People We Meet On Vacation. Did I feel the chemistry between Tom Blyth’s Alex and Emily Bader’s Poppy the way I did with the 2000s couples I listed earlier? No. But if you did, then I can see why this story is so beloved.

When Stuffy Met Silly

I credit the New York Times’ People We Meet On Vacation review for this hilarious and clever headline. There’s really no better way to put it. As the NYT review states, Alex is a stuffy rule follower, and Poppy is a free spirit who eats like an 8-year-old, leading us to our next trope: opposites attract, another one that enchants audiences. The explanation is actually pretty simple. We’re all chasing growth, and we all long for balance, two things the world seems to struggle with a lot. To pull yourself out of your comfort zone or learn new things about yourself, you need to surround yourself with people who aren’t like you. To find balance, you need to lean further in the opposite direction.

For Poppy, she needs someone a little more uptight to ground her, while Alex needs someone adventurous to pull him out of his small-town mentality. You will never truly experience life if you don’t allow yourself to experience new things and new people. When Alex and Poppy meet in college and carpool home to their shared small town, he obviously finds her unbearable. But as their friendship evolves, he grows to find her quirks pretty charming. By the end of the film, when they unsurprisingly end up together, it’s obvious that, as Elphaba and Glinda say in Wicked, they “have been changed for good.”

There’s also a lot of tension when two contradicting personalities are forced to interact with each other. That works well in the buildup to them finally falling in love; that’s why 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s All That, and When Harry Met Sally have captivated audiences for decades. As silly as Poppy comes across, she does have some reservations of her own. She doesn’t really seem to know what she wants, which is why it takes so long for her and Alex to come together. I think this is the most interesting part about the story and Poppy’s character.

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

She comes across as very happy-go-lucky, but there’s more depth to her than that, and I like that we got to see that. She has to face those inner conflicts and realize that maybe her free-spirited nature that loves going on vacation so much is actually a coping mechanism, a form of escapism, so she doesn’t have to deal with her problems. That’s why she needed her opposite, Alex, in her life. So he could hold up a mirror to her and make her really see herself. Isn’t that what all relationships are anyway?

Why Won’t They?

The will they won’t they dynamic is a frustrating chorus of “why won’t they just get together already?” Part of the tension between Poppy and Alex is that in the years it takes them to finally get together, they date other people. Their other relationships are pretty shallow, especially Poppy, who doesn’t know what she wants and can’t seem to let herself fully experience love with her partners. They’re obviously not right for each other, and even though Alex and his girlfriend, Sarah, initially get engaged, it’s not shocking that things don’t work out.

What I'm Excited For In 2026

The fear of what would happen if they did, as Taylor Swift says, “ruin the friendship” is what drives them toward other people. It’s amazing what fear leads us to do in this life. Rather than pursuing the thing you really desire, you’d rather take a detour to avoid those tough feelings. However, I do think there are lessons to be learned from everything in life, even the things that don’t work out. Maybe they both needed those failed relationships so they could be the best selves in their relationship with each other.

People We Meet On Vacation drags the will-they-won’t-they trope pretty far, as even after it seems they’re finally getting together, things fall apart again. It’s here that Poppy has to face her truth and track Alex down in his small town and finally surrender. It’s a predictable ending and not what I would have chosen for myself. Who wouldn’t rather be someone who travels and gets to write about it for a living? However, what kind of romcom would it be if they didn’t end up together? This is the satisfying conclusion that’s kept romcoms desirable all these years.

If you’ve seen People We Meet On Vacation, let me know what you thought about it, and if you were an OG book lover, let me know how you think the adaptation compares.

It’s been over 200 years since Mary Shelley published Frankenstein, and there have been over 1,000 adaptations and interpretations of the story and its titular character since. While it may always be relevant, and while Guillermo del Toro put his own spin on the story, I don’t have much to add to the conversation around a movie that’s been adapted so many times, especially when I already wrote about Lisa Frankenstein in 2024.

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What I do have to say is that the visuals of the 2025 adaptation contributed significantly to the storytelling and freshened it for another generation. Instead of analyzing a very obvious plot, I decided to focus on the visuals, since that was the part of the film that truly blew me away.

Costumes & Colors

It’s no surprise the film’s costume designer, Kate Hawley, took home the Critics’ Choice Award for costume design and is nominated again at the Academy Awards. Hawley nailed it with every character, but it was Mia Goth’s attire as Lady Elizabeth Harlander that I found especially breathtaking. If there’s one way to describe the colors in Frankenstein, it’s vibrant. There were more accents of red and green in del Toro’s film than in a Christmas display. These colors played into Frankenstein’s plot because of how they symbolize emotions. I wrote about colors in my Mulholland Drive newsletter, but here is a film that dives into the color red, which represents passion, suffering, and guilt.

Sinners Newsletter

There is a lot of blood in the film, but one of the most chilling uses is in the beginning when young Victor Frankenstein’s mother passes away. In del Toro’s film, Victor’s mother dies during childbirth instead of from scarlet fever. As he tries to call for help, she touches her son with a bloody hand. As Victor turns his back to the camera, we see the bloody handprint contrasting with his all-white outfit. This stuck with me the whole film, especially after hearing del Toro talk about intentionally assigning a color to each character. The director assigned red to Victor’s mother and later to him, as if he had inherited it from her.

The white, which once represented an innocent, pure child, was stained with red the way his mother’s death would stain him for the rest of his life. It was a visual representation of her transferring the color to him. There’s also a lot of red in the interiors of the castle, which makes it look extra regal, but also intensifies it, and makes it look a bit sinister. It’s especially prevalent in Victor’s bedroom, where he cloaks himself in a red silk blanket, like he’s engulfed in his own inescapable trauma. The red gloves he wears throughout the film represent the blood on his hands. While he sees himself as a genius for his creation, we, as viewers, know what he is doing is wrong.

Subconsciously, he might know it too, but it’s all in the gloves. Elizabeth also has accents of red that connect her to Victor’s mother, but she also wears a lot of vibrant green. The color is used to show that she directly contradicts Victor. Green is also a color associated with nature, which Victor is going against. Elizabeth’s most compelling costume is the big green ball gown she wears. It’s a much more inviting and soothing color than the intense shades of red that are used for Victor. By the way Elizabeth interacts with the monster, we know she is far more compassionate than Victor could ever be. Green is also connected to the batteries used to power the monster.

When the batteries are on, they’re red, but once they’re turned off, they’re green. This suggests the monster is being tortured and under Victor’s control when the batteries are on, but he is at peace when they are off. When Elizabeth dies, after Victor accidentally shoots her, intending to hit the monster instead, it’s while she is wearing her wedding gown. The white gown becomes submerged in red blood, reminiscent of the bloody handprint on young Victor’s white clothes. She has now been tainted by Victor’s relentlessness, too, and her innocent aura is gone.

Sets & Lighting

Guillermo del Toro used some intense sets for his film rather than relying on green screens for the backdrops. The director was adamant about wanting everything to look real, especially the ship from the beginning of the film. He mentioned that if someone on the ship was moving, he wanted the ship to move naturally with them. I admire how much detail he puts into his work. While technology has given filmmakers a lot of freedom, there will always be something impressive about physical sets. I love looking back at Old Hollywood and silent-era filmmaking to see how creative the crew had to get to bring their vision to fruition. Guillermo del Toro also admitted that most of the set was handmade, which feels rare in today’s society.

To me, the craftsmanship, dedication, and love that go into handmaking anything will always be more impressive than anything done on the computer. I could tell how much passion went into the making of the sets just by watching the film, and I appreciate that, while not all filmmakers understand the difference it makes, del Toro does. There’s been a lot of debate recently about lighting in modern films, but I think Frankenstein is a perfect example of how some movies still nail it when it comes to illuminating each scene. There’s a lot of paleness in the movie, but that’s because much of it is set in the cold snow. However, the vibrant scenes were met with unbelievable lighting.

I especially love the golden light shining through the windows over the large dining table when Victor first meets Elizabeth. I also love when the same gold lighting shines in on the monster when he first comes to life. There’s something about this kind of lighting that has always appealed to me, and I think it’s because it enlivens the world on screen, which feels especially appropriate for when the monster first awakens. There’s also a lot of green backlighting, which creates an eerie atmosphere and suggests that something mystical is happening. This is clearly not a realistic film, and the lighting should make it obvious that we’re in a fantasy world. I also love the sunset over the snow at the end.

What I'm Excited For In 2026

I’ve spoken about sunsets a lot before, especially in my Greta Gerwig essay for Ava Williams’ From My Search Bar snail mail. Sunsets represent endings, but they can also simultaneously represent beginnings. With the beautiful sunset that Frankenstein concludes with, the monster is ending his time of torture at the hands of Victor, but he’s also free for a new beginning. This is a different ending than the one Shelley gave the monster in her story, but it’s the hopeful ending that the world really needs.

Guillermo del Toro Hates AI & Christopher Waltz Says “CGI Is For Losers”

As more companies and creatives cave to AI, del Toro has maintained his anti-AI stance. As he said so beautifully in a Q&A, “the value of art is not how much it costs and how little effort it requires, it’s how much you risk to be in its presence.” He used the example of wanting to see a piece of artwork and having to travel to that location to see it, like how many people go to Paris to see certain paintings. It may not be easy or convenient, but it’s worth it. He also admitted to NPR that he’d “rather die” than submit to using AI in his movies.

Bones and All Newsletter

However, the director did use some CGI in the film, as it would have been impossible to create certain elements without it, such as Victor Frankenstein losing his leg. Still, I respect del Toro for using CGI only when necessary and choosing to stick with practical effects for the rest of the film. No matter what anyone says, I will always think practical effects look better, and CGI, if not used correctly, can look very cheesy and ruin the whole movie. However, Christopher Waltz, who plays Hendrick Harlander in the film, expressed a different opinion at the Venice Film Festival press conference, saying, “CGI is for losers.”

Oscar Isaac, who plays Victor Frankenstein, explained that as an actor, it is so much more helpful to be able to act on a real set with real props around instead of having to look at a green screen and pretend to see something that isn’t really there. “There is a difference between eye candy, which is pretty, and eye protein, which is telling the story,” he said. I’m on their side, and I hope del Toro can inspire more filmmakers to have integrity and stand up for art the way he does. It clearly made a difference in Frankenstein.

It’s Valentine’s Day at the end of the week, and this year’s movie choice is one I’m surprised I haven’t gotten around to covering sooner: She’s All That. I chose it above all because of that classic staircase scene set to Sixpence None the Richer’s “Kiss Me.” I’m not going to spend much time debating the morality of a film about a relationship that started off as a bet, questioning if Rachael Leigh Cook is too pretty to play a weird girl, or wondering why Usher was the school DJ, because it feels redundant. She’s All That is a quintessential ‘90s film. One that could not fit in any decade earlier or later (sorry, Netflix!), and one that, despite its flaws, has held up all these years later.

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She’s A Freak, He’s Kind Of A Jerk, But Maybe They Need Each Other…

When I say this film is quintessential 90s, I’m referring to The Real World b-plot and the close-up of Chandler’s belly button ring when Taylor’s crying in her convertible. I don’t think the bet plot would translate well today, not even in the 2021 gender swapped attempt, but in other ways, it’s actually quite timeless. Here’s what I really took away from rewatching She’s All That. From high school to the day we die, people put themselves in boxes; they label each other in ways that keep them from ever getting to know one another, and it all leads to an unfulfilling existence. It’s the perfect way to hold yourself back from growth and ever meeting the truest version of yourself. When Laney finds out the reason Zack asked her out was because of a bet, he tells her, “I made that bet before I knew you, Laney. Before I really knew me.”

It is the last part that redeems him. Treating someone badly because you didn’t know them isn’t a valid excuse, but treating someone badly because you didn’t know who you were is actually a lot more forgivable. Partly because it places the responsibility on you, not the other person, and partly because I understand how not knowing yourself can negatively affect your decisions. I believe that if everyone were more in touch with who they are, including full self-acceptance, we’d live in a more loving world. The problem with the cool kids in school, Zack included, is that they’re too busy trying to be in touch with what’s cool to be in touch with themselves. When Taylor breaks up with Zack, it shakes up social status. Who is he without the coolest girl in school by his side? He has to answer that question himself.

What I'm Excited For In 2026

It turns out he’s someone looking for a friend to really see him, and unsure of where he wants to take his life, despite pressure from his dad to follow in his footsteps and attend Dartmouth in the fall. But as easy as it’d be to pick apart Zack and his friends for being too consumed with their social status, I can’t let Laney off the hook. Laney knows herself to an extent, but she needs Zack as much as he needs her. One of their earliest moments together is at the art installation. It’s here that we see a side of Zack that he clearly doesn’t show anyone in his life. As an art student, Laney has a much deeper connection with herself. I always noticed the cool kids are rarely in the art classes because they can’t access their artistic side out of fear of how they’d be perceived.

We see this artistic and vulnerable side of Laney come out in her art installation, but we also see it come out in Zack. He gets on stage and uses his hackey sack to express his frustration with the lack of control he feels over his life and the pressure from his dad. In fact, we see Zack come out of his shell before Laney does. She may not be consumed with needing to be cool, but she’s closed off in her own way. Sometimes being deemed uncool becomes as much of a prison as needing to keep up with the status quo. Part of the reason Laney is so closed off is because of past hurt, mainly the death of her mother at a young age. This keeps Laney in her shell and in a position of invisibility. I think not allowing the world to see you is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

This doesn’t mean you need to aspire to be an international Taylor Swift-level superstar. It means standing confident in who you are and letting the world around you see you wherever you go. It means being vulnerable enough to show those around you who you really are, even if there is pushback. One of the quotes that stood out most to me is when Zack pushes Laney out of her comfort zone by getting her to attend a party with him. Along with an iconic dance sequence to Rick James’ “Give It To Me Baby,” Laney’s bullied by her peers, who are less than thrilled to see her. They don’t think she belongs, and their relentless behavior sends her running outside, wishing she’d never gone to the party to begin with. That’s when Zack tells her, “Sometimes when you open up to people, you let the bad in with the good.”

Zack has a lot of wise lines in She’s All That, and as we learn from the colleges he got into, he’s not a dumb jock. He’s a talented soccer player but also incredibly intelligent, and I think it makes the movie a lot more interesting. I think it’s why he’s able to understand Laney pretty early in the film. That’s another part of him I find so redeemable. It’s very soon into the bet he makes that he actually starts to like Laney, even if only as a friend in the beginning. The first time they spend time together, the night of the art installation, is when we can tell he actually enjoys being around her.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

This movie would have been harder to digest had it taken some time for him to like her. Technically, even if he only asked her out because of the bet, he was never actually leading her on, because every moment that they were together, he was enjoying himself. It actually seemed as though he was using the bet as an excuse to hang out with her, so he didn’t have to admit to his friends that he really liked her. All in all, I think She’s All That is a commentary on the age-old saying that we are all more similar than we think. There’s a message of unity in the film that I don’t think we’ll ever stop needing to come back to.

Surprise, Surprise Another Makeover Scene

The makeover scene has been a staple of film for what feels like forever, but it was especially emphasized in the 90s and 2000s. The makeover scene has faced a lot of backlash, but what a lot of people won’t admit is that it’s as iconic as it is criticized. Clueless, The Princess Diaries, and even Cinderella have used this pivotal scene in which an ugly duckling transforms into a beautiful swan. I understand the criticism. The idea that someone needs to undergo a physical transformation in order to be deemed beautiful or acceptable by societal standards is insulting and toxic. It’s not the kind of message young people watching these films should take away with them. It’s especially ridiculous how many films deem glasses unattractive, when most of the population wears them, and these days they’re actually quite trendy.

Nothing that tells anyone they aren’t good enough as they are can ever be productive. However, the makeover scenes are iconic for a reason, and I don’t think anyone should feel guilty for enjoying them. The reason they’re so beloved and have been used in so many films is because of what they evoke in the audience. They cater to consumers, fashion lovers, and makeup gurus. Imagine being the average high school student in 1999, watching She’s All That, not having the budget for a makeover but getting to watch a formerly weird girl put on an awesome red dress, get a trendy new hairstyle, and suddenly become cool. We’ve been trained to love this stuff since first reading Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Ugly Duckling” as children.

For anyone who has ever felt invisible or insignificant, these makeover scenes let us live vicariously through the characters as they step into the spotlight and typically have the last laugh on those who once deemed them unimportant. I also think part of the need for the makeover scene is to give us a visual representation of a character’s evolution. Film is all about showing, not telling. While we can watch a story unfold in which a character grows on the inside, it’s much easier for audiences to understand this when they’ve also seen a physical transformation. That’s why, despite the valid critiques, makeover scenes, like the one in She’s All That, are so powerful.

Teenagers Never Really Change

This is the hill I’m willing to die on; teenagers today are the same as they’ve always been. No matter what new forms of technology are introduced, that seem to draw the line between this generation and those that came before it, if you walked into a high school today, the mean kids would still be mean, the weird kids would still be weird, and you’d still feel unsure of where you fit in. In that sense, She’s All That is timeless. I was over a decade too young to be in high school when this movie came out, but that doesn’t change the fact that when I did get there, my peers shared a lot of the same qualities as the characters in the film. The cool kids were still shallow and uninteresting, and most of all, they didn’t know themselves.

When I see teenagers out in public today, they’re the same way. They all dress the same, are afraid to make decisions that might set them apart, and cling to conformity to get by. There may be ‘90s nostalgia plastered all over, but the core of She’s All That never goes out of style. There are Taylors and Deans down every hallway, laughing at the weaker man, and enforcing their superiority. There are also, sadly, people willing to play tricks on others for their own gains. For your own well-being, I hope no one ever asks you out as part of a bet, but if they do, I hope they turn out to be a good person like Zack and look like a 1999 Freddie Prinze Jr.

The 2026 Winter Olympics officially kick off on Friday, and this year I am tuning in for one particular sport: figure skating. I’ve been catching up on the routines of everyone competing, but–and it seems like I’m not alone in this–Alysa Liu is my favorite. She quit competing at 16 but returned in 2024 and won a gold medal at the 2025 World Championships. But it’s more than her talent that’s won us all over. To put it simply, Alysa is not your typical figure skater. It’s a sport tied to femininity from the build of the skaters to their dazzling costumes, but Alysa has put her own twist on figure skating.

Immediately, she reminded me of the character Zoey Bloch from Ice Princess. With her purple pigtails and punk ensembles, Zoey stood out from the crowd. She also had contagious energy, just like Alysa. However, with her striped hair and frenulum piercing, Alysa isn’t “not like other girls” -ing it to first place. She actually has a wonderful friendship with her equally talented friends who are also competing for the American team. In honor of Olympic season, this week I’m covering Ice Princess.

The Girl Next Door & Big Dreams

As Ice Princess begins, we see Casey Carlyle skating on a frozen lake outside her home while Aly & AJ’s self-love anthem “No One” plays. It feels like the perfect fit for the time period and for Casey’s story. To become a figure skater, she really did have to “open all the blinds and all the curtains.” In this story, Casey really is the ultimate girl next door. She’s not rich, she’s not cool, but she’s intelligent beyond most of her peers. If we’re being honest, she’s a bit of a know-it-all, and the other characters in the film know that. Still, it’s admirable, and I’m glad she never dims her intelligence for anyone. However, while she loves physics and wants the Harvard Scholarship as much as her mother wants it for her, she has other dreams, too.

The Princess Diaries Newsletter

Casey starts taking her childhood ice skating hobby more seriously when she realizes she can use physics to improve her skating and submit her findings to Harvard as her summer project. However, her love for ice skating only grows from here, outshining her Harvard dreams, which her mother doesn’t approve of. This was a pretty common storyline in the 2000s; we got it in Ice Princess, A Cinderella Story, and High School Musical. And every time it ended with the character choosing their own happiness over their parents’ expectations. I think the reason it was used so much is that kids need to learn how to trust themselves and listen to their hearts.

We learn the best things about life through the movies we grow up watching. However, what I do love a little extra about Ice Princess is that Casey is dealing with an unfavorable financial situation. She’s the daughter of a single mother who is doing her best to support them both. Her desire for Casey to go to Harvard is less about her own ego and how it’ll make their family look and more about how badly she wants Casey to do better than she did for herself. In this way, I deeply feel for Casey’s mother, but I also admire her for being able to support her daughter’s dreams in the end.

What I'm Excited For In 2026

I also love that Ice Princess emphasizes the high cost of being a figure skater. Tina, who ultimately helps train Casey, mentions that one of the skater’s parents had to take out a second mortgage to support her dreams. I think this is a concept that’s often skipped over in films like this. No one ever wants to discuss the taboo topic of finances and how some people have an advantage because of their financial state. We hear a lot about people’s incredible accomplishments in all different career paths, but I’m always especially impressed by the people who made it big despite coming from nothing.

It’s a lot easier to pursue your dreams when you have a lot to fall back on, but the people who had nothing are the ones I look to for inspiration most. Casey had to do whatever she could to make money to skate, like working at the snack stand at the ice rink, something her competitors didn’t have to do. However, despite the obstacles that you have to face when you don’t come from wealth, I still believe it’s worth fighting the circumstances to make your dreams come true. It worked for Casey. With her drive, help from Tina, and some extra unexpected assistance from Gen, Casey succeeded.

Body Image & Perfection

Tina, who was suspended from competing when she was younger, is extremely tough on her daughter, Gen. She makes her work hard and restricts her eating so she can stay in shape for competitions. Unsurprisingly, this leaves Gen absolutely miserable and makes her resent the sport altogether. What she really wants is to be a normal teenager; go to house parties, hang out with her friends, and spend time with her boyfriend, all of which her mother views as distractions. Casey’s desire to skate actually lets Gen off the hook, because it gives Tina someone else to coach, someone who’s actually passionate about the sport.

High School Musical Newsletter

There’s a specific scene that really solidifies how much pressure the skaters are under to maintain perfection. Nikki orders a BLT with no bacon, but extra lettuce. Tiffany orders a bunless beef patty squished until it’s dry, and Gen orders a salad with only iceberg lettuce, half a cup of garbanzo beans, a lemon wedge, and a quarter cup of cheese. It’s the last part that sends her friends over the edge. Nikki immediately begins mocking her, suggesting the reason she can’t land one of her tricks is that she’s eating too much cheese. Gen’s excuse is that it’s Saturday, a common belief. You can eat what you want only on certain days at certain times during certain seasons, etc.

It’s unhealthy, and it’s dangerous, and it’s understandable why Gen ultimately quits. Like Casey, she chooses the path she knows is right for her, even if it goes against her mother’s wishes. But we also know that all these strict rules come straight from her mother. During the finale competition, we get to see Gen indulging guilt-free and judgment-free in a bag of popcorn. She looks happier than she has the whole film. She holds the bag out to her mother to calm her nerves over Casey’s routine, but she grabs Gen’s hand to hold instead. It helps us better understand the pressure Gen was under and how her mother is as hard on herself as she is on her daughter. Even if Gen couldn’t help her mom, I’m glad this storyline was included in a film targeted at young girls.

Michelle Trachtenberg

Later this month, it’ll be one year since Michelle Trachtenberg passed away. I was driving home in the snow when I heard the news, and it hit as hard as it always does when someone you watched growing up tragically dies. Aside from Ice Princess, Trachtenberg starred in Gossip Girl, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Inspector Gadget, Harriet the Spy, and 17 Again. Her career never really took off the way some other young stars’ did, and it seems she likely dealt with a lot of the same struggles all young stars deal with coming up in the industry. Still, she didn’t need to dominate young Hollywood for the work she did to mean something to the world. When she passed away, it was clear through all the posts reminiscing on what she’d acted in that it did mean something to many people. I hope she knew that while she was still here.

To follow up on last month’s newsletter, Best of 2025, I’m starting the new year off with a list of things I’m most excited for in 2026. I’ve spent many years of my life rushing through the year, waiting for the warm weather to come so that life would be fun again. However, this year I’m especially focused on enjoying each season to the fullest, which is what inspired me to make this list.

Best of 2025 Newsletter

There’s a YouTuber I watch who once shared a quote from her father that went something like, “When you’re constantly looking forward to something, life goes by so fast.” That’s what it felt like, always looking forward to summer or the holiday season. However, I think when you give yourself things to look forward to, even in the months that you deem boring, you learn to live in the moment, embrace presence, and find joy all around you at all times. Without further ado, here’s what I’m most excited for this year.

The Muppet Show

If you’ve seen any of the pictures from my Disney World vacations, it’s no secret that I love The Muppets. I was crushed by the decision to close Muppets Courtyard in Hollywood Studios to make way for the new Monsters, Inc. land, but in 2026, there is, shockingly, something very exciting coming for Muppet fans. On February 4th, The Muppet Show is returning with a special executive-produced by Seth Rogen, who will also star in it, alongside special guests Maya Rudolph and Sabrina Carpenter.

Since Carpenter’s breakout year in 2024, fans have been suggesting she make an appearance somewhere with Miss Piggy due to their similar glamorous aesthetics. Those prayers have been answered, and I can not wait to tune in for this. Since Disney owns The Muppets, many have criticized the company for not doing much with them. This feels like a great start, and I hope it’s not the end.

Reality TV Show Season

I don’t watch too much reality tv. I understand the criticism, and I do not think it has benefited our society that much. I think now more than ever, we all need to be indulging in media that actually builds our critical thinking skills. However, I can’t deny that some shows really draw me in and help me through the winter months. I’ve been tuned in to The Traitors season four since its January 8th premiere. I definitely think it’s one of the most interesting reality competition shows, and it’s a lot less mindless than the others.

Love Island USA Season 6 Newsletter

I’m also ecstatic for Summer House season 10, given the recent news that stars Amanda Batula and Kyle Cooke are separating. I hope we see how that all unfolded this season. Southern Hospitality will also be back for a fourth season in March, and while it’s a less popular Bravo series, I will certainly be tuning in. What I’ve learned is that it’s okay to indulge in nonsense sometimes for the entertainment aspect, as long as you’re balancing it with some things that are actually good for you.

Award Season

Award season is kind of like a reality tv show in itself, which is why I try not to take it too seriously. It kicked into gear on January 4th, when the Critics’ Choice Awards aired, but the most highly anticipated event, the Academy Awards, won’t be here until March 15th. I’m especially excited this year because I loved so many of the nominated films. Sinners was an instant classic to me, and I couldn’t be happier that it got 16 nominations and became the most nominated film of all time. If anything was going to beat Titanic, I’m glad it was this. I also can’t wait to see KPop Demon Hunters continue its winning streak.

It feels pretty guaranteed that the film will take home Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song for “Golden,” and in my opinion, these are both well-deserved. I’ll also be tuning in for the Grammys, and while it feels unlikely Taylor Swift will attend as she’s not nominated this year, I’m still excited to see other artists like Sabrina Carpenter’s performance. However, I do hope this will be Lady Gaga’s year. I thought Mayhem was an excellent and unforgettable pop comeback, and I would love to see her finally take home Album of the Year.

Taylor Swift Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction

It was just announced last week that Taylor Swift has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Not only is she the youngest woman, at 36 years old, to be inducted, but she was also inducted in her first year of eligibility, which I find truly impressive. As a day one Swiftie, I remember the interview where she said her dream was to look out into a crowd of people and see them singing her songs back to her.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Newsletter

All Taylor Swift ever wanted was for the world to know the words that she had written. I can’t imagine how the young Swift who just picked up a guitar would react to the honor of being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say this is all she’s ever wanted. The ceremony is on June 11th, and I can’t wait to hear her speech.

Movies

There is so much anticipation for the films coming in 2026. I already have my tickets for Wuthering Heights, and I know how excited film fans are for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. I’m personally excited for The Drama with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, as well as The Devil Wears Prada 2. I don’t expect it to live up to the original; sequels rarely do, but I am excited to see Miranda Priestly and Andy Sachs back in action. I hope we get a logical explanation as to how she ended up back in the fashion world. I also can’t wait to see Halle Bailey’s new film You, Me, & Tuscany. I love romcoms from the 2000s, and this has the aura of one of those movies. I’m so glad we’re bringing that 2000s charm back to the screen.

The Winter Olympics

I’m not usually one to tune in to the Olympics at all. The most I knew about the Summer 2024 Olympics was what I saw on social media and watched on Dancing with the Stars when Stephen Nedoroscik and Ilona Maher competed (I have since become a huge Ilona fan). However, this year I feel compelled to tune in for the Winter Olympics. I love ice skating and have been watching some figure skating routines from those competing, and they’ve truly blown me away.

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It wasn’t until 2021 that I finally watched Twin Peaks. I was drawn into David Lynch’s eerie fantasy from episode one, and I couldn’t look away from my screen as I dove deeper into the mystery of Laura Palmer’s murder, awaiting the reveal of who her killer was. While some brand Twin Peaks as their favorite show or the greatest show ever made, I fall into the group of viewers who found the murderer’s reveal a major letdown.

Monthly Newsletter: Best of 2025

I never finished the series because, once the murder was solved in such a lackluster way, my desire to keep watching faded. It turns out Lynch never wanted to reveal Laura’s killer, and I wish the network had followed his wishes. After that, I wondered if his work just wasn’t for me. Still, I really wanted to watch Mulholland Drive, and I decided this week would be the perfect time to watch and cover it since it’s been about a year since Lynch passed away. This film is a whirlwind of confusion and mystery, but my favorite films to analyze always are.

Diane Selwyn’s Dream World

All of David Lynch’s work plays out like a dreamstate, except not the kind of dream you would want to live in. More like a fever dream, teetering on a night terror. It never takes long to understand that everything in a Lynch film isn’t what it seems, but I do admit I didn’t figure out Diane Selwyn’s charade until the very end, and after some post-watch research. Throughout the film, we know Diane as Betty Elms, a wide-eyed, wholesome dreamer arriving in Los Angeles to pursue her dream of acting. Naomi Watts nailed the character. She’s exactly what you would expect from a young hopeful making her way from Canada to the city of angels. Except, instead of facing hardship in the city, everything is laid out for her the way a dreamer would hope it would be.

She’s staying in a beautiful apartment owned by her actress aunt, and she already has auditions lined up when she gets there. She’s even told she’d be perfect for the role in Hollywood director Adam Kersher’s movie. As soon as she walks onto that set, he seems mesmerized by her, incapable of looking away. Betty also has the luxury of not having to live all alone in LA, because she befriends a woman she finds in her aunt’s house who is struggling with amnesia and refers to herself as Rita, based on a Rita Hayworth poster she sees on the wall. The way Betty takes her under her wing further pushes the narrative that she’s a kind-hearted character who sees the best in everyone and in the world. Betty is so cute and likable, it’s hard to imagine that anything she’s telling us isn’t the absolute truth.

However, as the film comes to a close, the narrative shifts, and we find out Betty never existed but was a figment of Diane’s imagination. The real Diane is a struggling actress who hasn’t booked anything and lives in a state of depression. Rita is actually an actress named Camilla Rhodes, with whom Diane seemingly had an affair, but is also deeply jealous, especially after Camilla marries Adam. Diane hires a hitman to take down Camilla, either to eliminate her competition or simply out of anger. Like a lot of the movie and Lynch’s work in general, it’s mostly open to interpretation. Since Diane spends the whole movie in a dream state, presenting the audience with a made-up version of herself, it’s hard to trust anything she shows us once we meet her as her true self.

Part of me wonders if she ever even had a romantic relationship with Camilla or if she’d made that up to because the idea of someone as beloved as Camilla desiring her made her feel special. Diane created the Betty character as an escape from her own misery and also as an alter ego of who she wishes she were. Betty is like a character in a Disney film, so full of hope and so effortlessly able to get everything she wants because she never stops believing in herself or gives up hope. Her experience is exactly what anyone chasing a dream would want: smooth sailing. That’s obviously not how things played out for Diane, but immersing herself and audiences into this made-up illusion is a lot easier than facing her reality.

What I like about Mulholland Drive is that as soon as we meet the real Diane, I felt my fondness for her fade away. When she was no longer this sweet, optimistic girl, but instead a deeply sinister presence with a mission to murder her own friend, she became deeply unlikable. Diane knows this herself, which is why she created the desirable Betty alter-ego. The best storytellers can do that to their audiences. After Diane’s fatal death, we see a montage of her and Rita, and I can’t help but compare this to the end of Titanic. At the end of the film, whether in death or a dream state (James Cameron never confirmed), Rose goes back to the Titanic to be with Jack. I believe the Mulholland Drive ending suggests that, in death, Diane rejects her identity once again and returns to being Betty so she can live happily with Camilla.

Hollywood

Between the lines of this surreal, subversive film lies David Lynch’s clear perspective on the Hollywood machine. We don’t know what Diane was like when she first got to LA. Maybe we can assume she wasn’t so different from Betty, full of hope. However, unlike Betty, the industry got to Diane and tarnished her. That’s what Hollywood has done to countless hopefuls. Diane didn’t find success, and in her dream state, she creates storylines to justify why she never made it in Hollywood. According to her delusions, she couldn’t be cast in Adam Kersher’s film because he was being targeted by a mob that insisted he cast Camilla. Through this scenario, Diane didn’t have to feel bad about not getting the part.

It wasn’t because she wasn’t good enough or wasn’t a right fit for the role, or because someone else was simply better; it was completely out of her and the director’s control. The scene where we see Adam mesmerized by Betty is a false narrative created by Diane. In her mind, she was perfect for the role, and Adam knew it. Had it been up to him, she would have gotten the role. There’s also an earlier audition that Betty gets that seems to represent the disturbing things that have gone on behind closed doors before the 2017 Me Too movement. Betty nailed her audition, but it was quite disturbing to watch her act out intimate scenes with a casting director.

However, the clear metaphor in the film is not only what actresses have to go through in Hollywood, whether they make it or not, or how the industry mentally impacts them, but also how the audience plays a role, too. Like I said, once Betty wasn’t the promising, young actress anymore, I emotionally distanced myself from her, and isn’t that what we always do to these stars? That was the plot of 2024’s The Substance, as well as a topic highlighted in many of Taylor Swift’s songs, especially the Red (Taylor’s Version) track “Nothing New.” Sure, there are industry legends like Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep, but there are also countless stars who have been tossed aside once we lost interest in them. It takes a lot of tireless work to keep the general public on your side.

Mulholland Drive also focuses on the obvious comparisons between Diane and Camilla. Even if they were lovers or friends, Diane came to resent Camilla because they were competing for roles. The world does a really good job at convincing us there isn’t room for everyone, and that anyone who wants the same thing as you is a threat to your dreams. I choose to reject this idea. I have friends with the same or similar dreams as me, and I find it empowering to be around them. However, I think this may reflect the changing industry and evolving society that certainly didn’t exist when Lynch made Mulholland Drive.

Blue

David Lynch was known for using color as a narrative tool and a device to build his illusory worlds. He especially favored the color blue. To me, this is the perfect dreamstate color. Blue is a cool tone, and because it lacks warmth, it can make audiences feel uneasy, which is exactly how I always feel when watching his work. Something like red can evoke intense feelings of passion or anger, but blue is a little more ambiguous. It allows his stories to exist in different realms and keep audiences wondering. There were countless uses of color in Mulholland Drive, but a few really stood out. It’s impossible not to go into the Club Silencio scene where Rebekah Del Rio performs a Spanish rendition of Roy Orbison’s “Crying,” and the show’s host tells the audience the band they hear is actually a tape recording.

“It is an illusion,” he reveals, our first explicit clue that the existence of Betty and her storyline was all made up. What’s interesting is that the theater, the chairs, the curtains, and Betty’s shirt are all a deep red. However, as the host performs a disappearing act, the room goes blue, and we see Rita and Betty in the audience as if a vibrant blue overlay has been placed upon them. To me, this represents the cracking of the illusion. As I mentioned, there’s a warmth to red that blue doesn’t possess, and there’s a warmth to Betty that Diane doesn’t possess. There’s also a woman in this scene who reappears at the end of the film, wearing a tall blue wig and whispering “silencio.” To me, this woman is like a guide, watching out for the viewers and letting them in on the truth.

Almost like a warning telling us not to trust what we see. When she appears at the end, it’s almost like an “I told you so” or “do you understand now?’ While she’s certainly unsettling, there’s also something comforting about her. Of course, this section of my newsletter wouldn’t be complete without discussing the blue box that appears throughout, along with its matching blue key. I don’t think this box is too far off from the story of Pandora’s box because once it’s opened, the truth comes out. The evils of Diane’s real life are exposed, and the illusion is shattered. The key is first discovered in Rita’s bag, but no one seems to know to whom it belongs until the Club Silencio scene, when Betty discovers the box.

Back at the apartment, it’s Rita, in her blonde wig that Betty gave to her, who opens the box, ending the illusion. The film was a journey for Rita to remember who she really is, but actually, it was Diane who needed to remember the truth. In my opinion, that’s why Betty disappears before this scene, and a blonde Camila is the one to open the box. It also seems to seal Camilla’s fate because once she opens that box, we enter the reality where a hitman kills Camilla. We don’t see much of the color blue in Diane’s reality until the end of the film, where she seemingly fades back into her dreamworld. I deeply admire David Lynch for how brilliantly he wove blue into Mulholland Drive to convey his message.

David Lynch

I have really only seen a few things by David Lynch, and I am far from a fanatic, like other film fans. However, when he died on January 16th, 2025, I felt deep sadness, because whether I’m his target audience or not, I still admire his creations and see him as a pivotal visionary. What impresses me most about him is that he was able to make a name for himself in Hollywood, creating work that was so far from what studios wanted to see.

No one could imagine that his twisted, metaphorical, and psychedelic work would be so well received. It’s quite shocking, actually, that he was able to sell any of his ideas, but he did, and his work has expanded the minds of so many artists since. I can’t imagine all the experimental films that might never have been made if David Lynch didn’t break down those walls first. His influence has certainly outlived him, and I hope it continues to do so.

In 2026, Disney Channel is all but extinct, and it’s been heading down this path for about a decade. However, in the 2000s, it reached its peak, attracting millions of viewers. From the Lizzie McGuire and That’s So Raven days to Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, and the Jonas Brothers running Disney and young Hollywood, Disney Channel was on top of the world. However, the network reached new heights on January 20th, 2006, when High School Musical premiered. It was a true lightning in a bottle moment with a virtually unknown cast that would take the world by storm. To this day, the film’s 2007 sequel, High School Musical 2, remains the network’s highest-rated premiere, bringing in over 17 million viewers. High School Musical had children and pre-teens hooked, but from my memory, I wasn’t a fanatic in the way others were.

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I can only credit my mixed opinions of the film to the fact that it was a movie with “school” in its title and almost entirely set in a high school. There was nothing I hated more as a kid than school, so there was something incredibly unsettling about it to me. Still, there were aspects about it that I enjoyed, including the film’s line of dolls, which I had many of, including Sharpay Evans and her High School Musical 2 pink mustang (my friend had the East High playset that we spent many Friday nights playing with). As someone who began watching Disney Channel in the very early 2000s, High School Musical always felt like the newer era of the network, so the fact that it’s been 20 years feels surreal. I truly believe we’ll never see a phenomenon like it ever again. It may not be as acclaimed or “serious” as other films I’ve covered, like last week’s Sinners, but High School Musical is a movie that means a lot to the people who grew up in the 2000s, which is why I’m honored to write about it this week.

Breaking Free From The Status Quo

In December, director and choreographer Kenny Ortega was a guest on the Magical Rewind podcast, explaining his personal connection to High School Musical. There’s a line in the film when Troy’s dad, Coach Bolton, tells him, “You’re a playmaker, not a singer.” Troy responds, “Did you ever think maybe I could be both?” That’s what led Kenny Ortega to take on the project. Like Troy, he was pressured in school to choose between musical theater and sports, but what High School Musical taught its audience is that they don’t have to pigeonhole themselves. I think that’s the part that has really stuck with audiences all these years.

@magicalrewindpodLet’s just say the legend Kenny Ortega was destined to be at the helm of #highschoolmusical Listen to both his interviews from this week on our Magical Rewind feed wherever you get your podcasts. #hsm #kennyortega @bart_johnson

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In “Stick to the Status Quo,” Troy’s teammate Zeke reveals he likes to bake, studious Martha admits she likes dancing better than homework, a skater confesses he’s a passionate celloist, and everyone in the cafeteria has a manic breakdown about it, which ends in Gabriella accidentally throwing her lunch on Sharpay. The song is a plea from East High students to stick to their social circles and hobbies, meaning Gabriella feels pressured to step away from theater auditions to focus on her studies, and Troy feels pressured to choose basketball. It’s very much the epitome of the high school experience. The athletes stick to sports, the AP students keep their noses in their textbooks, and no one dares to dip their toes in unfamiliar waters because it’d make everyone uncomfortable and throw off the social hierarchies.

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But when Troy and Gabriella manipulate the scholastic decathlon and basketball games (occurring simultaneously) so they can make it to the theater callbacks before it’s too late, they, quite literally, sing a different tune. “Breaking Free” is one of the franchise’s most memorable songs. “You know the world can see us in a way that’s different than who we are,” Drew Seeley sings through Zac Efron’s body. However, by the chorus, the ballad becomes a bravery anthem about breaking free from the projections and expectations placed upon them throughout the film. I think most people can relate to the heaviness of carrying others’ opinions and the liberation that comes when you stop caring; it really does feel like you’re breaking free.

During the 2020 lockdown, Disney Channel hosted a virtual sing-along featuring a High School Musical cast reunion, including actors from the Disney+ spinoff series and other Disney films, all performing the film’s finale song, “We’re All In This Together.” During a very scary and uncertain time, this message gave people at home a sense of hope that they weren’t alone and that everything would be okay. This is the sentiment High School Musical concludes with. Despite the initial anxiety and panic over students breaking out of their molds and going down new paths, they all come together to support each other in their dreams. I think schools (and societies) would be much more inviting places if people were more welcoming and supportive of one another. Whether this translated off-screen or not, it was a powerful message to send to its young audience.

When Did The Mean Girl Become An Icon?

High School Musical was built around the main characters, Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez. As what often worked for Disney Channel, Gabriella was the girl next door thrust into a world she was unfamiliar with–the world of musical theater. She was meant to be the one young girls resonated with and looked up to, and at the time, she was. But, as with Mean Girls and society’s obsession with Regina George, somewhere along the line, pop culture began idolizing the mean girl. Sharpay Evans, clad in her pink ensembles with her theater diva personality, was like Paris Hilton meets Patti LuPone. Something shifted in society in recent years, where people became much more comfortable embracing their femininity, and with it came a new appreciation for the characters and people who had been chastised for their ultra-girly personas.

These days, people seem to see Sharpay as misunderstood. While revisiting the film, it was obvious that Sharpay and her twin brother, Ryan, were cutthroat and, in many instances, vicious. After the audition scene, Sharpay berates and condescendingly reminds the drama club’s composer, Kelsi, that she’s been in seventeen school productions while Kelsi is only now composing her first show. She later responds to Zeke’s attempts to ask her out with “I’d rather stick pins in my eyes” before telling him to “evaporate.” Sharpay and her brother were not nice people, though they do redeem themselves in the end when they accept that Troy and Gabriella have gotten the leads in the musical, and Sharpay actually wishes Gabriella good luck. We also get to see a much more likable side of her in 2011’s Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure.

Regardless, I do love hearing fresh perspectives on Sharpay 20 years after the film. She may have been mean, but she was dedicated to her craft and passionate about giving it her all. That is exactly what we need from performers. I can imagine how soul-crushing it would be to spend your life working toward something, only for someone who knows nothing about it to show up and take it away. As Sharpay says, “We need to save our show from people who don’t know the difference between a Tony Award and Tony Hawk.” The film wants us to believe that performing comes so effortlessly to Troy and Gabriella that they don’t even have to try. But I actually admire how hard Sharpay and Ryan try. Despite what the movie and Kelsi want us to think, I will never agree that Troy and Gabriella did justice to her compositions.

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Every song she ever wrote came to life through Sharpay and her star power. It’s kind of like how every song always sounded better when the Glee cast sang it. Sharpay and Ryan’s quirky, upbeat rendition of “What I’ve Been Looking For” ran miles around the slow-tempo piano version that Troy and Gabriella auditioned with. The same goes for High School Musical 2’s “You Are The Music In Me.” There’s a reason Sharpay ultimately succeeds on Broadway in her 2011 spinoff film, because she really does have what it takes. This doesn’t excuse her bullying behavior, but I do believe fans aren’t completely wrong about her being misunderstood.

Kenny Ortega

In 2019, director and choreographer Kenny Ortega received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, surrounded by family and stars of his Disney Channel films. Ortega got his start in theater before transitioning into directing and choreography, most notably as the mastermind behind the choreography in Dirty Dancing and as the director of Hocus Pocus. Ortega also choreographed tours for iconic artists such as Michael Jackson, Gloria Estefan, and Cher.

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After High School Musical, Ortega directed the original three films in the Descendants franchise, which would also become a massive success for Disney Channel. A lot of fans joke that Ortega worked his actors to the bone on those sets, but to me, that’s just a testament to his passion and enthusiasm for his work, not so different than Sharpay and Ryan. The stars and storylines in High School Musical may have taken the world by storm, but it is the magic of Kenny Ortega that truly made the franchise so beloved.

When Sinners was released in May 2025, I first heard about it on social media, from the rave reviews I saw all over my feed. I knew it starred Michael B. Jordan, and I knew it was a horror film. I knew nothing else. I went into the theater completely blind to any other elements and left the theater mesmerized. I named Sinners my favorite movie of the year in my Best of 2025 newsletter because in a world of remakes, IP films, and sequels, this was the most original idea I’d seen in a while. Ryan Coogler’s film is replete with symbolism. There will inevitably be things left out of this newsletter because I’d have to write a book to catch every single detail. Instead, I focused on what stood out the most to me.

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The Music Of Sinners

Blue’s music is obviously at the core of Sinners. It is the first thing we see when the film starts, before the flashback to the day before. Sammie walks into his father’s church, clutching his blues guitar, instantly signaling how big a role it will play in the film. To Sammie’s father, blues music is the devil, likely because the themes of blues music clash with the religious morals held by the church. It’s also often associated with juke joints, like in Sinners, a place known for drinking, dancing, and gambling, not necessarily the most orthodox pastimes. Furthermore, Sammie’s character was based on the real-life blues musician Robert Johnson, who was said to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his musical talents. However, Sammie’s unbelievable guitar skills are what get the characters in the film through the night.

He electrifies the juke joint, transforming the old sawmill into the finest club. One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Sammie performs “I Lied To You.” Sinners isn’t a musical, but the music and choreography in this scene live up to some of the greatest movie musicals of all time. What we see in this scene is how Sammie’s music brings everyone together. Sinners is set in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta during the Jim Crow era. These characters need an escape from their reality, and that’s what Sammie’s music provides. The scene also focuses on Sammie, representing how lost he is in the music. I believe this is how true artists feel when they’re performing. They can be connecting with a crowd of people, and simultaneously, it’s just them and their instrument together in another realm.

Unfortunately, Sammie’s father isn’t entirely wrong about the dangers of blues music, as it’s what attracts Remmick and his cult of vampires to the juke joint. There are so many interpretations for this, but it’s obvious that Remmick wants what Sammie has. It feels like the vampires are a metaphor for sucking the talents out of Sammie. If there’s anything demonic about blues music or creative talents in general, it’s that people will be jealous of you and will do anything to have a taste of what you have to offer the world. That’s the real sin. But Sammie doesn’t give in so easily, and at the end of the film, when they defeat Remmick’s cult, it’s Sammie’s blues guitar that takes them out, as he smashes it into Remmick’s head.

This raises questions about who and what is really evil here. Is the instrument tainted since it’s been used as a murder weapon, or is it the holiest thing of all since it was able to take out a cult of killers trying to suck the life out of the people at the juke joint? Plus, if blues music attracted the vampires in the first place, then is it evil? I think that can be summed up in a powerful quote from Annie: “There are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true it can pierce the veil between life and death, conjuring spirits from the past and the future.” If Sammie’s music is so powerful that it can unite those around him, even the dead, and bring them out of the hardships of life (and death) for just one night, then how could it really be bad?

But Sammie isn’t the only vessel for music in Sinners. Remmick has his own passion for music channeled through Irish folk. Coogler told IndieWire that he and his kids are “obsessed” with Irish folk music and that there is a big crossover between Irish and Black culture. In the same way Sammie’s music moves his community, Remmick’s touches his cult of vampires and lures others in. The scene when Remmick performs “Rocky Road to Dublin” left me haunted hours after the movie ended. I kept feeling like if I looked out the window, I would see him and the other vampires dancing across the street. In the scene, Remmick is across from the juke joint with his cult, standing in the center of a circle they’ve formed as they dance around him.

While Remmick is the main villain of the film, what he’s doing isn’t much different than Sammie. He’s using his talents to unite the group, and it’s working. He’s also trying to get more people to convert to vampires so that he can build his community. It might sound evil, but from his perspective, everyone needs community, and he’s promising eternal life in exchange for it. Imagine how powerful they’d all be if they could have Sammie on their side, too. That’s really why he wants his talents so badly. The thing with Sinners is, it’s hard to decipher who the sinners and the good guys are, which is why the promo film posters have the logo “we are all sinners” on them. Based on your own moral perspectives, all the characters can be perceived as up to no good.

Music really takes us through the film from beginning to end, as it’s also featured in two post-credit scenes. One set in the 90s, when the now eternal Stack and Mary walk into a bar where an older Sammie just finished performing. We learn that Sammie never gave in to his dad’s fears, and he became a legendary blues musician. It’s at the end of this scene that Stack and Mary offer to turn Sammie into a vampire too, so he can play music forever, but Sammie declines the offer. Sammie would rather leave Earth knowing he lived a life he’s proud of than stick around forever. To me, this is further evidence that there’s nothing demonic about Sammie or his music. He turned down the supernatural based on his own morals and dignity.

The second post-credits scene is set in the past, when Sammie is still young. He’s sitting in the church playing a blues rendition of “This Little Light of Mine.” When he’s done, he looks up, and the scene ends. There’s no context or clues as to what he sees. It’s all open to interpretation. Some think he may have seen something sinister, proving he is involved with the devil. However, it’s just as likely he saw something very holy, telling him to pursue his dreams and assuring him that he isn’t doing anything wrong by feeling passionate about blues music. I like that Ryan Coogler let that be the final scene of the film and let the audience decide what it means.

Vampires, Irishmen, & The KKK

The first 40 minutes of Sinners are fairly calm. It’s around the 41-minute mark that the energy shifts. We see Remmick for the first time, arriving at a couple’s home, begging for shelter, claiming he’s been attacked by a group of Native Americans. When the Native Americans arrive moments later to warn the woman living there that Remmick is actually the dangerous one, she ignores their warnings and denies that Remmick is in her home. After they leave, she finds her husband Bert on the floor and Remmick’s mouth and neck covered in his blood. They later both turn her into a vampire, too. This is how the cult that approaches the juke joint originates. One interpretation is that Remmick and his vampires are trying to leech off the black culture at the juke joint or simply kill them all because they’re black.

When he gets to the couple’s house, there’s a close-up of a KKK mask inside, giving us transparency of the kind of characters we’re dealing with. However, there’s more to Remmick and his vampires than meets the eye. Coogler specifically wanted to focus on Irish culture and admitted to IndieWire how much he appreciates it, meaning he’s not trying to vilify the Irish at all. When Remmick, Bert, and his wife, Joan, begin playing “Pick Poor Robin Clean,” we even see Stack seemingly enjoying the song before Smoke cuts him off. This foreshadows how they’ll ultimately get Stack on their side, but not Smoke. Remmick comes to the juke joint asking to be let inside because, like the main characters, Remmick and his friends are looking for community too.

In fact, the two groups have more in common than they think, and that’s what Coogler is getting at. Since Remmick is a vampire, he’s hundreds of years old and experienced his own forms of oppression when the Irish were colonized by the British. However, Remmick represents what we often see in our world: cycles of abuse. This goes way deeper than society and is prevalent in people’s personal lives as well. When someone experiences abuse, they often project it onto others, sometimes in relationships and other times on the next generation. Sinners showcases how much we all suffer when we continue to perpetuate these cycles instead of using the past as an example of why we should all do better.

However, there’s also a part of Remmick who believes he is helping the characters by inviting them into his vampiric cult. Afterall, it’s he who tells them the truth about Hogwood, the man who sold them the old sawmill to build their juke joint. He’s the leader of the KKK and has a plan to kill them all. Remmick even reveals Bert is Hogwood’s nephew, so in a way, by turning Bert into a vampire, who can’t enter the juke joint without invitation, he saved their lives. The heads-up also prepares Smoke when Hogwood and the rest of the clan show up the next morning to try to massacre them. Joan also claims the vampires are starting their own clan built on love, and Remmick admits they plan to kill Hogwood next.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s hard to decipher between who the sinners are and who the good guys are. But that’s the point. Remmick is a villain, but he also sees himself as the hero. He does his share of good deeds, like warning them about Hogwood, and he has his deeply sinister moments, too. I think it’s movies like these that speak to our culture most because, despite what we want to believe, this is what real life is like. It’s nuanced and complex, and there is no clear line between good and evil. After all, Stack and Mary are sinners by committing adultery, and through religious eyes, they’re all sinners for being at the juke joint to begin with. Sinners gives us permission to see the world for what it really is and to make choices based on our own moral values about who we want to be in our lifetimes.

As award season begins, I wanted to look into some of the short films that have been shortlisted for the 2026 Academy Awards. While the Oscar nominations aren’t out yet, the shortlist was shared in mid-December. Last year, I covered I’m Not A Robot, a short film focusing on humanity and the rise of AI in our society. It went on to win the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. This year, I want to watch as many shorts as I can, and for this newsletter, I viewed a bunch of animated shorts that are available to watch online.

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The ones I was able to find for free were Playing God, Retirement Plan, The Shyness of Trees, Snow Bear, and, of course, Papillon (the French word for Butterfly). I loved all of them, but was especially touched by Papillon, which is why I chose to cover it this week. If you’re interested in watching any of the shortlisted short films, here is the Letterboxd account that has links to where to watch them: Meb2x.

Alfred Nakache

Alfred Nakache is the main inspiration behind Florence Miailhe’s film. Nakache was a French Olympic swimmer and a pioneer of the butterfly stroke. He was also an Auschwitz survivor who, despite being barred from competing in 1943 due to his Jewish heritage, returned to swimming after World War II ended. Nakache swam in the first postwar Summer Olympics in 1948, but passed away due to a heart attack during a training session in 1983 (Yadvashem.org). Miailhe had met Alfred Nakache when she was 10 years old and remembers her father being a big fan, always speaking of him with great respect.

Miailhe also took swimming lessons with Nakache’s younger brother, William. The Papillon director wasn’t aware of Nakache’s story until she was older and did her own research, but she was so moved by it that she wanted to honor him through her short film (Animation Magazine). Florence Miailhe also told the Jewish Film Institute, “This film also invites us to reflect on issues that are very relevant in our troubled world: antisemitism, racism, and fear of others. It is important to say this so that we never forget the tragedies of World War II.”

Connection To Water

We are all technically born in water, as the womb is surrounded by amniotic fluid, which is why I think our connection to water is so natural. Miailhe says water “carries memory through fluidity.” She also believes it “evokes emotion, transformation, and transition.” I’ve always enjoyed swimming in pools better than the ocean, but I’ve also always admired those who seem to be one with the sea. I love watching people surf, I love snorkeling, I would love to one day be brave enough to try scuba diving, I love kayaking, I love going to the aquarium, and I grew up watching mermaids in shows/movies like H2O: Just Add Water and Aquamarine.

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As an avid Sims player, some of my favorite expansion packs throughout the years have been The Sims 2: Bon Voyage, The Sims 3: Island Paradise, and The Sims 4: Island Living. I think any scenery set on the water is more beautiful, and I am eternally fascinated by the fact that we still have no idea what’s truly going on under the sea (about 80% of the ocean is unexplored). Maybe there really are mermaids, talking clown fish, and sponges living in pineapples. Miailhe’s film takes us through one man’s final swim. As he moves through the ocean, he’s taken back to various memories from his life involving water, from his childhood, when he was afraid of the water, and his mother reassured him that he was safe, to his days in the Holocaust.

There are a lot of spiritual people who view water as a portal, and I feel Miahe’s film explores this through memory. There are certain places where memories come flooding back to you the strongest, like in your dreams or states of relaxation. Water is one of the most relaxing places you can be, and I believe this is why the main character is having such intense flashbacks. During the concentration camp scene, he is forced to fetch potatoes at the bottom of a pool. I find it powerful how even when the thing he loved most was being used against him in the holocaust, he never let the nazis taint his love for swimming. After the war, the main character, just like Alfred Nakache, returns to competing, building new memories, and strengthening his passion.

One of my favorite scenes in Papillon is when the main character swims up to a tropical island. The scenery is breathtaking, like the kind of place people escape the real world for on vacation. The type of painting someone would have hanging in their house in the winter, when they need to be reminded of warmth. It’s here that the main character spots a group of kids learning the butterfly stroke from their instructor. “Like a Butterfly. Forward and back,” he says. I can understand why Miailhe named the film Papillon. Of course, because of Nakache’s contributions to the stroke, but because the movie itself is like the butterfly stroke, going forward and back through the main character’s memories.

I know on the outside it’s sad to hear that Alfred Nakache died from a heart attack while swimming because it sounds like something avoidable. It also seems quite awful to be killed by the thing you love. However, I also think there may be no better way to go than dying doing the thing you love. To be born in the water and die the same way is quite profound, and there really was no more natural way for Nakache or the main character to finish their time on earth.

Oil Painted Animation

What initially drew me to Florence Miailhe’s film was that it was created with oil paintings. As I’ve mentioned in past newsletters, animation is more important today than ever because of how much AI is dominating creative industries. Social media is flooded with what people have begun to call “AI slop.” However, not everyone understands the difference between human-made animation and the AI-generated videos dominating the internet. For people with an eye for art, we can tell immediately how lifeless AI videos are. Florence Miailhe’s work in Papillon is deeply moving in a way only human-made art can be.

I will always respect CGI and the talented artists who have worked with it on films like Avatar, Planet of the Apes, and the never-ending Disney live-action adaptations. However, there is something especially impressive about the original hand-drawn animation. I wrote about this in my Miyazaki newsletter. The effort that goes into creating something like hand-drawn animation is so inspiring, especially in a world where it isn’t necessary anymore.

It goes to show how passionate an artist must be to do something so complicated when there’s a much simpler and cheaper way to get it done. As moving as a story Papillon is, I don’t think I would have been half as touched by it if it weren’t for Florence Miailhe’s oil paintings. It truly helped me further appreciate these art forms that are dying out. The fact that this film has made the Oscars’ shortlist gives me hope that this type of art could make a comeback and find new appreciation amongst the mess of AI garbage.

Welcome to my second annual Best Of newsletter (read 2024’s here!) I know most people have already published theirs, but I like to save mine for New Year’s Eve. After all, 2025 isn’t actually over until 12 am! Last year, I wrote, “This has been a great year and a challenging year, but it’s also just a year, and 2025 will be the same.” I would like to extend this sentiment to this year as well.

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If 2025 was a bad year, you can move on and forget about it. If it was a good one, you can always look back on your favorite memories, but don’t let yourself get stuck there. The same goes for 2026 and so on. I also wrote in last year’s letter to remember to celebrate the small moments instead of needing to accomplish something huge. That also goes for 2026. In honor of this year coming to an end, here is my list for 2025.

Best Movie: Sinners

In 2022, I went to see Bones and All with no prior knowledge of what the film was about. It ended up leaving me speechless, and it is still one of the best movies I’ve ever seen three years later. I went into Sinners the same way. I had seen endless praise for the film online, and I knew it was a horror movie, but I didn’t know anything else. Once again, I left the theater blown away. I couldn’t stop watching video analyses or talking about how much I enjoyed it. Sinners is exactly the film we needed in 2025. In an industry currently overtaken by reboots and IP films, Sinners is completely original. It also shines a spotlight on the often-overlooked horror genre.

Its popularity forced the industry to acknowledge it, and it’s currently up for six Golden Globe nominations. As AI threatens to take over every creative sector, Ryan Coogler’s film proves that no one captures originality and passion quite like human beings. “AI couldn’t write [insert movie]” has become a popular phrase this year, but I am truly certain AI could not write Sinners. An honorable mention to Wicked: For Good and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, which was also an incredible display of originality, but Sinners is still at the top of my list all these months later.

Best Concert: Shawn Mendes On The Road Again

For the second year in a row, Shawn Mendes wins for best concert of the year. Why? Because concerts have gotten so unbearably expensive and impossible to get tickets for, so Shawn Mendes has become my go-to. Maybe it’s because he’s Canadian, so he’s disassociated from our American market, but in recent years, Shawn Mendes has forgone the use of Ticketmaster, opting for other platforms to sell his tickets. Because of the strict contracts between Ticketmaster and big arenas, Shawn Mendes couldn’t play at the usual New York spots like Barclays Center or Madison Square Garden. In my opinion, it shows a lot of integrity that he is willing to sacrifice playing popular spots to honor his fans.

I got tickets to his concert effortlessly and went on my birthday with one of my friends who absolutely loves him. It was an amazing experience to get to see him with someone who appreciates him and his music as much as I do. I loved seeing him back on his first real tour since 2022, and getting to hear him sing his greatest hits. Being there, knowing that I didn’t have to fight tooth and nail for tickets, made the experience that much more enjoyable.

Best Music: Taylor, Sabrina, Gaga, & More

Last year, I did a best album and best song category, but 2025 was really a great year for music. It was hard for me just to pick one album or one song, so instead I’m discussing all my favorite music of the year. In March, Lady Gaga made her pop star return, and it was one of the greatest comebacks in a long time. She dominated Coachella and proved that after all these years, she’s still one of the best of our generation. “Abracadabra” was exactly what we’d been missing from Gaga all these years, but one of my favorites off Mayhem was “How Bad Do U Want Me?” It got a lot of comparisons to Taylor Swift’s music, which Gaga took as a compliment, but it was also very unexpected of her, given her usual style of pop music. It showed another side of Gaga that I absolutely adore.

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