What Whitney Wants to Say #13

I’d like to start off by saying, Happy New Year! I hope your holiday season has been filled with rest and good food. I’m sorry we’re already back to the daily frustrations of ‘normal’ though. Every year, it feels like the best parts of the holidays get shorter and shorter while the running around and shopping take up more time. We have to find away to give Americans a winter break and if anyone is made to work during that break, the deserve time and a half AT LEAST. Many people in France have the whole of August off. I don’t think they’re inherently more deserving of that than we are, right?

• In addition to movie and show reviews, there will also be an increase in essays on this newsletter. I realized at the end of the year that I simply have too much to say and not enough movies to serve as a vessel for which to share my thoughts and findings. I've been working on several for the past few weeks and I’m super excited to share them here. Plus, I really enjoy providing you all with a variety of things to read so I hope you like them when I finally stop the edits and start publishing.

• As for resolutions, I have vowed to finish my book and get back on stage. I am telling you this now for accountability reasons as it is my personal desire to hide under a rock and do none of that. Feel free to pester me about both in the comments as I know accomplishing both are ultimately worthwhile.

• This year is an election year… God help us.

• This year is also the year Dune Part 2 drops. Full disclosure I DNF’d the book (I had no patience for Paul’s cruel internal ramblings about his own mother) so I have no idea what I’m in for but I have a feeling I’m going to have a lot to say about the movie. The last 2 years have been excellent for film and I’m excited to spend all of my free time at AMC like I did last fall.

• I saw the The Color Purple (2023) and for the first time in a while, I didn’t have much to say about it. The singing was phenomenal and the performances were stunning as I would expect from a cast like that. What stood out to me more than the movie were the responses from the audience I saw it with and the responses I’ve seen online. I had no idea so many people didn’t like musicals! Like actually despised them. The people in my showing were so pissed. From choruses of sighs and groans whenever someone started to sing to a woman saying “skip add” whenever a song intro started to play. I was so confused. What happened to the tradition of the great American musical? Have we lost our way?

• This is your yearly reminder that it’s never too late to start reading or watching One Piece. Get in now so you can experience what is likely to be an epic ending in the next few years.