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It's Your Weekly Recs, Starring Penn Jillette!

The World's Funniest Libertarian, a Doomed Blonde, Anthony Bourdain, and More ...

Sep 29

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October starts out so nicely! (*The Exorcist/Warner Bros*).

Dear Wags,

How can it nearly be October? It makes us think of Ellen Burstyn, strolling the leafy lanes of Georgetown, passing trick-or-treaters and nuns, unaware that something awful awaits her at home. Yes pumpkin, we’re referencing the Exorcist. Say what you will about that 49-year-old horror show, there are some lovely October scenes in it before things get wiggy. We suggest you skip the scary stuff and go for a stroll in the sunshine. The moral for Ellen and the rest of us is to soak up a pretty fall day when it’s on offer, because honestly, you never know what’s coming. And now, some bits and bobs to make your week more diverting.

Yours Ever,

Wag likes to ask geniuses to share 3 gifts from the Muses. This week, Sir Penn Jillette, whip-smart raconteur, podcaster, inventor, jazz man, and sleight-of-hand partner to Teller, proffers a few of his creative inspirations. His new novel, Random, is a corker about a Vegas guy in a tight spot who has a stroke of luck—and turns it into a life philosophy. It hits the world on Oct. 3— place a bet on it.

Of course, family, friends, life, food, water, breathing, health, all that stuff [inspire me]. But the question is about a gift from the muses, so I’m going to ignore the stuff that really matters and go to the art that really matters…

Bob Dylan — The Minnesota Bard. It’s likely there hasn’t been a day in the past 57 years that I haven’t listened to Bob Dylan. That’s likely to be true. I’m trying to remember days when I was in the hospital and unconscious for most of the day. If I put headphones on, even for a moment, it was Dylan. When times are tough, if I’m confused, and I don’t know what to do, I “talk to Bob,” (And yes, that’s every day). I give his music a listen and let my mind work it out with him. He always inspires me. He has something for every dilemma, every mood, and every desire. Sometimes, I’m lost in the rain in Juarez at Easter time, and sometimes, you gotta follow me close because I’m going to Ballinalee. Fucking Bob.
Moby Dick. You know what I said above about Bob. Well, let’s say it again about Moby Dick, okay? Fucking Herman.
The Three Stooges. You know what I said about Bob and Moby . . . um, that doesn’t apply to the Stooges. Kind of none of it. They are knuckleheads, but they make me happy to be alive. Our TV show Bullshit was done out of the same offices where the Stooges did their shorts. I’m prouder of that than I should be. Larry is one of my favorite actors ever. He is always working, but never distracting. Acting at its best. In Larry’s last interview, after his stroke, with that college guy, he knew what mattered in life — food, friends, and sex. Moe is also great, of course; Curl(e)y was everything and more. Do you think I’m going to leave out Shemp? No way, also a genius. Do you think I’m going to leave out the others? Yup, sorry. Fucking Larry.

Blondes don’t always have fun: Ana de Armas plumbs Monroe’s demons (*Blonde/Netflix*).

Picture

Blonde (Netflix). “I can’t face doing another scene with Marilyn Monroe,” says Ana de Armas, playing the most famous doomed blonde of all time. Sometimes, we know just what she means. It’s hard to cut through 60 years of legend-building, but Andrew Dominik gives us an impressionistic, harrowing take on a much-examined life, based on Joyce Carol Oates’s novel. It’s a lushly drawn nightmare.

Proper Piss-Up

Reasonable Doubt (Hulu). You know the setup: Jax (Emayatzy Corinealdi) has it all: high-powered law career, perfect family, wisecracking friends. ~~But then~~… Actually, she pretty much does have it all, even if her show kicks off with her being held at gunpoint. OK, so there are complications, like a marital separation and that handsome ex-con (Michael Ealy) who keeps popping by. And then there’s the murdering. Suds courtesy of Wag Raamla Mohammed.

Docu Series

Hostages (HBO). A moment in history can trigger surprising ripples, and those caused by the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran are still being felt. Documeisters Joshua Bennett, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, Abbas Motlagh, and Sam Pollard deliver a comprehensive, 4-part take on a crisis that shadows international relations.

Brits

Shetland (Britbox). Och, Jimmy Perez: he lives on a remote island in the North Sea, where people keep dying in nasty ways. Season 7 of the series based on the crime novels by Wag Suprema Ann Cleeves arrived stateside earlier this month, so what are you waiting for? A vulnerable young man has vanished and it’s up to Jimmy to find him before it’s too late. After that corker, revisit Cleeves’ rumpled detective Vera, played by Smashing Brenda Blethyn. There are 11 seasons of mayhem, pet. — Kenny Lockhart

Fiction

For a place that by definition sucks, we sure love visiting Dystopia. In the wrong hands, it can be a dreary trip, but Celeste Ng will never be accused of having those. Our Missing Hearts is an elegantly rendered story of Bird Gardner, a 12-year-old in a country where draconian laws protect “American culture,” subversive books are pulped, and the children of dissidents are forcibly relocated. When she receives a letter from her fugitive mother, she sets off to find her. Along the way, she might just save the rest of us, to boot. Even in Dystopia, hope is the thing with feathers.

Nonfiction

When will we realize that fame is poison? Anthony Bourdain was ferociously talented, and celebrity did him no favors. In Down and Out in Paradise, Wag Charles Leerhsen reveals a life of astounding public success and crushing private sadness. As a chef and traveler of great sensitivity, Bourdain helped millions better understand their world. But when it came to himself, he showed no mercy. It’s a searing read. — Carmen Berzatto

It began with a simple question: Can I Tell You a Secret? The victims of Matthew Hardy, who stalked more than 60 women online, are still trying to recover from what happened next. In a six-part Guardian podcast, Sirin Kale lays out Hardy’s crimes, and explores why such behavior happens in the first place. It’s look at digital life that may convince you to put down your phone.—Jill Johnson

There’s no resting on this journey/and your love must be sincere/when I was young and not so lonely once/I knew that love, and felt no fear. Peter Matthew Bauer, singer, songwriter, and former bassist and organist for the Walkmen, is in a wistful mood. Knife Fighter is a dreamy tune for graying hipsters, recorded in L.A. during the pandemic for his new album Flowers. Float along with it.

Your pencils, your dress socks, your charger, your bike lock, anything that’s not in your junk drawer. Maya Hawke wants to be anything you’ve lost that you might be looking for. Backup Plan is a song about being hopelessly in love, maybe with the wrong person. It’s has all the tenderness of a first romance. —Wilma D. Loomis

Before the 1934 Production Code put an end to it, Hollywood cranked out films with sexually sophisticated themes. Ernst Lubitsch’s Design for Living (1933) was one of the last pre-code comedies to squeak past censors. Based on a 1932 Noël Coward play, it really isn’t that racy, but it is fun. Gilda, a commercial artist (Miriam Hopkins), falls for two handsome Americans abroad. Unable to pick between playwright Frederic March and painter Gary Cooper, she proposes the threesome shack up in Paris, but not have sex. Three’s company at first, but then things get messy. When a third suitor enters the mix, the Ben Hecht script ushers the trio to an unorthodox happy ending. Famed for pushing the envelope, Lubitsch was held up by Hays Office over the innuendo in his movie. It got through, but the Legion of Decency (as jolly as it sounds) campaigned vociferously against it. Then as now, the flap helped publicity. (Sept. 30, TCM). —Janet Wood

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