#patrick dewitt

Michelle Pfeiffer is a screen legend whose return always feels like an occasion--even if we're all stuck at home. In 2020, Azazel Jacobs' French Exit debuted at the New York Film Festival with Pfeiffer starring as a wealthy New York eccentric who loses her fortune and absconds to France, all while perhaps haunted by her dead husband in the form of her cat. Pfeiffer earned strong reviews for her performance, but the film itself proved grating to a number of critics and couldn't sustain its presence as its release shifted.

This episode, we talk about Pfeiffer's previous three nominations and the chaos of the covid year's Golden Globe comedy nominations. We also talk about Valerie Mahaffey's terrific supporting performance, the career of Imogen Poots, and Jacobs' current contender His Three Daughters.

Topics also include our first thoughts on the current Survivor season, the 2020 NYFF lineup, and BAFTA's changing rules.

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The Librarianist: A Novel

By Patrick DeWitt

Is a Life Lived through Art Really Lived at All?

The questions posed in Patrick deWitt’s The Librarianist feel personal and existential

DeWitt has made a career out of bombastic protagonists—a pair of hitmen travelling across the Old West in The Sisters Brothers, a disgraced New York socialite and her son in French Exit. Bob, on the other hand, stands out precisely for his lack of noteworthiness. But his reclusiveness borders on the surreal. “He had no friends, per se,” deWitt writes on the book’s second page. “His phone did not ring, and he had no family, and if there was a knock on the door it was a solicitor; but this absence didn’t bother him, and he felt no craving for company.” Instead of its grand voyage or great romance, the central tension in The Librarianist arises from the ease with which Bob can retreat into made-up worlds as opposed to his lingering desire to connect with other people.

Read more at thewalrus.ca.

The Sisters Brothers - Jacques Audiard (2018)

French Exit (2020)

Directed by Azazel Jacobs