‘A strangely forceful hold on me’: why Burlesque is my feelgood movie
The latest in a series of writers on their go-to comfort movies is a look back to the camp pleasures of Cher and Christina Aguilera together at last
Unlike many of my fellow cinephiles, I’m not a chronic re-watcher. One or sometimes two viewings of a film tends to be enough; enough years need to pass for me to forget salient details before I consider a third. But there are exceptions, some more noble than others. Recently, The Zone of Interest needled me into multiple cinema trips, as I unparceled its formal and thematic complexities with differently revelatory results each time. But I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen Steve Antin’s less-than-seminal 2010 musical Burlesque, a film with precisely zero complexities to unparcel, that exerts a strangely forceful hold on me just the same.
If it pops up on an in-flight entertainment menu – which it does with surprising frequency – I’m loth to scroll past it. When it was on Netflix, the algorithm pushed it so prominently on my home page that it would have been rude not to take another look now and then. (I can only assume it left the platform out of concern for my mental health.) When a storage-unit fire wiped out my entire DVD collection five years ago, my gifted copy of Antin’s film was the lone survivor, having by chance been packed into a separate, spared box. We are bound by fate, Burlesque and I. Our bond is bigger than we are.
Continue reading...-
'I'm caring for my husband with MS - intense races help me cope'
Leigh McLean says training for the fitness race Hyrox helped her cope with caring for her disabled husband.BBC News - 1d -
Please Let Me Love My Wife
Her pronouns changed. Our bond didn’t.The New York Times - 3d -
How writing 'My Old Ass' made me learn to appreciate change
Megan Park got inspired to write 'My Old Ass' when she was a new mom, sleeping in her childhood bedroom. The experience helped her make peace with the passage of time.Los Angeles Times - 5d -
'My childhood sweetheart took £42k from me'
Alice, of Shropshire, says she is a romance fraud victim of a man who was her childhood sweetheart.BBC News - 5d -
My wife’s noisy eating is driving me up the wall
In some ways it’s not really about the chewing, Philippa Perry suggests. The question My wife’s eating habits drive me crazy. What can I do? We’ve been married for 30 years and we are a good ...The Guardian - Dec. 8 -
'Magnolia' made me want to write about movies. Then Hollywood stopped making movies like 'Magnolia'
Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling San Fernando Valley epic is as exhilarating now as it was in 1999. In today's Hollywood, though, its ambition seems almost out of reach.Los Angeles Times - Dec. 6 -
I have been forced to speak up. Society needs to act to rein in ridiculous movie runtimes | Rebecca Shaw
They are trying to slowly and sneakily acclimatise us, like we are frogs boiling in water. But this frog won’t be boiled. Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or perhaps even something heavier ...The Guardian - Dec. 5 -
A moment that changed me: I felt alone in my misery – but catching a fish gave me hope
I had long resisted spending days in the cold and wet of north-east Scotland. Then I realised it offered the peace and quiet I needed most. In August 2020, a doctor said two words to me that have ...The Guardian - Dec. 3 -
My children don’t care about me. I’m 61 and want to rewrite my will. Where do I start?
“I do not see myself living with my children at the end of my life.”MarketWatch - Dec. 2
More from The Guardian
-
Mayotte cyclone: health services in ruins as rescuers race to reach survivors
The Guardian - 4h -
Assad denies planning to flee Syria before evacuation by Moscow
The Guardian - 1h -
Germany set for snap elections after vote of no confidence in Chancellor Olaf Scholz – live
The Guardian - 34m -
Starmer accused of ‘sycophantic’ tone towards Chinese as Yang Tengbo denies being a spy – UK politics live
The Guardian - 5m -
Ukraine calls for sanctions against Russia oil tankers over Black Sea spill
The Guardian - 15m