As the new year begins, we think fondly of family and friends. We are safe amidst the LA fires, trying to help others, and hoping you can do the same in the coming year (that is, be safe and help others).
Here are some things we enjoyed last year that we want to share with you. Let us know what we missed!
Aaron Caplan & Leah Lee Caplan
A beleaguered literature professor finds that the world wants him in a box: since he's Black, his books should be about drug dealers in the projects. For satire, he gives the public what it wants, but the satire doesn't play out the way he hoped. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Leah says: Reminds me of another favorite about a beleaguered math professor: A Serious Man (2009), which once made this list.
It's been a long time since we Americans needed to think very hard about what civil war would actually look like. Unlike the last go-around, there are a lot more guns and a lot less moral certainty about the point of it all. The movie has some paeans to the nobility of journalism (and a character named after WWII photographer Lee Miller, who had her own biopic this year), but what sticks with you is the portrayal of a landscape where everybody has their own reality and nobody can see far beyond their immediate circumstances. Which side is shooting at you? Does it matter?
We finally saw this Korean film, most famous for its hallway fight scene, but most memorable for its layer-after-layer structure. First you have figure out who punished you. Then you have to figure out why you were punished. Then you have to figure out what your punishment actually was. And then you have to live with it.
In Poor Things, Victorian science meets Victorian morals -- yet somehow a woman who has been controlled by men for several lifetimes over finds freedom to construct a less-dominated life.
In Anatomy of a Fall, somebody fell out a window, so somebody has to be held responsible. The usual suspect? An unlikable woman.
The Night Country season of True Detective flips the usual buddy-cop script: it starts with the prototypical murdered woman, but then men start taking their turns as victims. The Alaskan town, its culture, and its tensions are as much on display as the police work.
The People's Joker is a visually giddy tour inside the mind a trans woman raised on Batman comics who yearns to join an improv troupe. Funny, freaky commentary on gender roles AND intellectual property AND superhero fandom AND commodified culture all in one.
Leah says: be sure to watch this instead of Joker: Folie a Deux (2024).
The documentary Will & Harper is about buddies whose friendship changes in some ways but stays the same in others after one makes a transition. Sounds like a good opportunity for a road trip to see how much America will change or stay the same. (Don't blink or you'll miss Iowa City's cameo.)
Aaron says: Only for those needing yet more proof that Will Ferrell is always the least funny thing in whatever he appears in.
In this miniseries, the US intelligence apparatus is still dealing with what it did to kick the Russians out of Afghanistan. As a spy thriller it is amazing, with tremendous writing and top-notch acting that extends beyond the Old Men of the title to the Smart Women who do as much or more to drive the story. (Season 1 is exceptional; Season 2 is what happens when you go cheap on the writing staff.)
Our hero, a beleaguered evolutionary biology professor, learns that everybody has been having dreams about him. It wouldn't be so bad, except he can never seem to do anything right in any of them. Nicholas Cage gets to play a nebbish, which he dabbled in with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2023).
On a stretch of highway filled with low-rent motels, the kids of more-or-less homeless families explore their niche, which is just close enough to Disney World to see the fireworks, but no closer.
Aaron says: Yes, I saw the same director's Anora (2024) but didn't see what the fuss was about. Glad I sought out this earlier film!
Two excellent miniseries based on video games that worked for us even though we haven't seen either game. They share a link: After [nuclear war / zombie apocalypse], our heroes go on road trips in search of humanity in times of societal breakdown. (See Civil War and Will and Harper, above.) Truly a concept for our times.
Asteroid City (2023)
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Hit Man (2024)
Lynch / Oz (2023)
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Past Lives (2023)
The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)
Stax: Soulsville, USA (2024)
The White Lotus (Season 1 only -- 2021)
The Ritual (2018)
Under Paris (2024) [Released with perfect timing before the Paris Olympics, this move gives you yet another reason not to swim in the Seine: it's infested with killer sharks!]
Fulfilling a childhood ambition, Aaron appeared on a game show: The 1% Club. That's him in the bottom row, just under the drag queen.
The show is streaming on Amazon, and Aaron appears in Season 1, Episode 4. Here's a clip showing how the game works, and it includes a few of a beleaguered law professor's precious seconds of fame. [Use this link if the video doesn't appear below.]
To test yourself, try this question from the show that stumped (ahem) some of the players ... not naming any names, of course.
 |
 |
 |
| Our tour of SoFi Stadium. | Leah lunching at Tartine. (It's not just an eatery, it's the mortuary where Nancy Reagan got embalmed.) |
Aaron at Los Olivos. |
 |
 |
| Coco and Lexi keep a watchful eye on Angus. | R.I.P. Coco (2010-2024). |
 |
 |
| Angus loves to corral his toys ... | ... but he begs for help when a ball lands in an inaccessible place -- as shown here. |
|
 |
| Dog TV: Angus is fascinated by his favorite YouTube dog trainer, Stonnie Dennis. | Angus in action at his only-in-LA |
 |
 |
| Ooooh, barracuda! | This new gadget explains why we have so little space in our freezer these days. We learned about it here. |
 |
| We saw Caitlin Clark win her first WNBA game when the Indiana Fever played the LA Sparks at a sold-out Crypto.com Arena. |
|
| Who's that scofflaw running the red light in a beater with the VW logo knocked off the front bumper? Here you see photographic evidence of a first moving violation, days after a first fender-bender, all in one week. Leah blames LA for her ever-eroding respect for the rule of law. Passenger obscured to protect the innocent. |
 |
 |
 |
| Selfie tour of Modern Family locations: We started at Mitchell & Cam's duplex in Century City... |
... followed by Jay & Gloria's mansion in Brentwood... |
... and ended at Claire & Phil's house in Cheviot Hills. |
 |
| We voted with vigor, as everyone should. Then we celebrated with this sticker from a middle-school artist in Michigan. |