Congrats to Charles 3: Tokyo Drift!

And happy Derby Day! Congrats to Mage!

Per Vogue: Last night, on Monday, May 1, the 2023 Met Gala took place. This year’s Costume Institute exhibition, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” celebrates the full work and life of Karl Lagerfeld, so the dress code was, fittingly, “in honor of Karl.” As Lagerfeld designed for many houses—including his eponymous brand, Patou, Balmain, Chloé, Fendi, and Chanel—attendees had no shortage of inspiration.

Per me: man, that was a lot of black and white dedicated to a fan who was fairly terrible. Google if you want. He designed pretty dresses and had a beautiful cat (that will be important later).

Let’s get to the clothes.

I’m grouping all of the black and white. There’s just SO much of it.

If you’re still with me, here’s the best of the rest.

The meh.

The bad.

THE ABSOLUTE WORST. He didn’t have a designer, only Pat McGrath, the make up artist.

My favorites!

Zodiac, 2007

Note: this is Zodiac, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey, Jr., and Mark Ruffalo — not the half-dozen or more films about the Zodiac serial killer. Zodiac is a great movie. It combines two of my favorite things: journalism and true crime. Here’s an IMDB synopsis:

Robert Graysmith is a cartoonist who works for the San Francisco Chronicle. His quirky ways irritate Paul Avery, a reporter whose drinking gets in the way of doing his job. The two become friends thanks to a shared interest: the Zodiac killer. Graysmith steadily becomes obsessed with the case, as Avery’s life spirals into drunken oblivion. Graysmith’s amateur sleuthing puts him onto the path of David Toschi, a police inspector who has thus far failed to catch his man; Sherwood Morrill, a handwriting expert; Linda del Buono, a convict who knew one of the Zodiac’s victims; and others. Graysmith’s job, his wife and his children all become unimportant next to the one thing that really matters: catching the Zodiac.

IMDB

This film is based on Robert Graysmith’s 1986 book of the same name. The still-unidentified Zodiac was confirmed to have killed five people, injured two, with possibly 20–28 total victims. We may never know who be was. The mystery and the action in the newsroom make it a great movie.

I’ll be back tomorrow with something I haven’t decided on yet. Have a good Sunday.

I can’t say much about X-Men: Days if Future Past other than I like Evan Peters. He’s handsome. Here’s an IMDB synopsis:

In a dystopian 2023, years after Logan’s adventure in The Wolverine (2013), Bolivar Trask’s powerful mutant-hunting robots, the Sentinels, have brought both mutant-supporters and the meta-human race on the brink of extinction. To avert total annihilation, an aged Professor X, his long-standing friend/nemesis, Magneto, and the remaining survivors of the original team in X-Men (2000) join forces with their 1973 versions from X-Men: First Class (2011), as the body-regenerating Wolverine travels back in time, entrusted with fulfilling a life-or-death mission. Now, the shape-shifting Mystique is caught in the middle of a desperate situation. Can one man alone change the entire course of history?

IMDB

You’ve Got Mail, 1998

This is another favorite. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are two of my favorite actors, especially in romantic comedies. A lot of people dismiss this film because it’s so of the millennium. It came out a week before 1999 and it’s FULL of AOL at the time when we all had it and it was the new way to communicate. It was a Nora Ephron film and my Lord, she was the best.

Here’s the film’s Warner Bros. synopsis:

Strangers Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly live and work near each other on New York’s Upper West Side. Though involved in seemingly satisfying relationships, Joe and Kathleen meet anonymously in an Internet chat room and find themselves confiding their innermost secrets–everything except their identities. But back in the real world, the opening of Joe’s new Fox Books superstore a few blocks away from Kathleen’s little family-owned bookstore threatens their burgeoning romance.

Warner Brothers

What I love about this film is that it’s a remake of a remake. The Shop Around the Corner is a 1940 film starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, which was based on the play, Parfumerie (1937) by Miklós László. They’re anonymous pen pals who hate each other in real life, working in a nice shop that sold nice gifts and all sorts of things. It’s wonderful that You’ve Got Mail uses “The Shop Around the Corner” as the name of Kathleen’s bookstore. The remake of that film is In the Good Old Summertime in 1949, this time it was a musical with Judy Garland and Van Johnson. Same plot, but it’s a music store. There were also to radio plays! So in total, that’s six versions of this story. It’s a classic.

The Wizard of Oz, 1939

Easily one of my top five or ten movies.

A good IMDB synopsis:

After a tornado hurls through Kansas, Dorothy Gale and her dog, Toto, are swept away from their home to the colorful and vibrant Land of Oz. In order to find their way back home, they must embark on a journey to the Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz resides. On the way, they are accompanied by a Scarecrow who wants a brain, a Tin Man who wants a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who wants courage. They are hopeful that the Wizard will be able to fulfill their wishes, but not far behind them is the Wicked Witch of the West, who is out for revenge on Dorothy after she accidentally killed her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East.

IMDB

I love everything about this film. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it makes me happy, it’s hopeful. I know every word of this film — songs and dialogue. It’s beautiful. It’s art.

A View to a Kill, 1985

This was the only V movie that I could pick because it’s the letter V. I mean, come on. The only good thing I can say about this is that the theme song by Duran Duran is fantastic. This is the one with Grace Jones and Christopher Walken. Also, microchips. I picked the novelization cover of the film because the posters have Grace Jones’ butt all over them.

Here’s the second most basic synopsis from IMDB:

When Bond is sent to investigate a security leak at the high-tech Zorin Industries, he discovers a hotbed of murder and deception. The company’s mysterious owner, Max Zorin has devised a plan to corner the world microchip market, even if he has to kill millions to do it. But before Bond can stop Zorin, he must confront the madman’s beautiful and deadly companion May Day. With help from the gorgeous Stacey, Bond will launch an all-out assault on Zorin’s deadly scheme, climaxing in a spine-tingling duel on the upper spans of the Golden Gate Bridge.

IMDB

Watch it or don’t. I don’t have strong feelings about this one at all.