Weekend Reads (Dec 24): Messi, Movie Trailers, Mary Bailey, Antarctica

Recommended reading material for December 24, 2022.

Dec 24, 2022

Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.

I hope all of you get to enjoy a safe and merry Christmas season with your friends, families, and loved ones. This time of year can be difficult due to holiday pressures and stresses, or even just a sense of isolation — something we’ve all come to know so very well these last few years. Whatever your situation might be, though, may you still find a few moments of grace during these days.

Now, on with the newsletter…

Some pundits are calling it the greatest World Cup final of all time, with Argentina beating the defending champion France via penalty kicks after more than two hours of gameplay.

The overarching narrative of 2022’s World Cup was inextricably linked to the legacies of two of soccer’s greatest players: Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina’s Lionel Messi. While both men have amassed countless awards and honors, the grand prize — a World Cup trophy — had remained elusive. In the end, it was Messi who emerged triumphant, effectively sealing his status as the GOAT in the minds of many.

Franklin Foer considers how Messi used his advanced (for soccer, anyway) age to his advantage, in contrast to Ronaldo. (Via The Dispatch)

Ronaldo, 37, flailed because he couldn’t adapt to his physical decline. He insisted on playing as if he were 10 years younger. By acting as if he was essential, he became superfluous. And in his final game, a flaccid defeat to Morocco, he came off the bench, contributed little, then left the field in tears — without shaking hands with his opponents or consoling his bereft teammates. It was a pathetic way to exit, befitting a vain career.
That’s the counterpoint to Messi’s victory. Without the legs to carry him, Messi economized his movements. Rather than pretending that he was a young man, he played like an older one. He ambled through games, saving himself for the moments that he could assert himself. He showed a remarkable awareness about how he might be able to parcel out his dwindling corporeal self, how he needed to make choices about when to give himself fully.

For Jody Rosen, the most exciting part of the World Cup was just watching Messi amble around the pitch. (Via Kottke)

[I]f you happen to be watching a match featuring Leo Messi, you’ll notice that something on the order of eighty-five per cent of the time, he can be found off the ball, strolling and dawdling and looking mildly uninterested. It is the kind of behavior associated with selfish players, prima donnas who expend no effort on defense and bestir themselves only when goal-scoring opportunities arise. Messi, of course, is one of the most prolific scorers of all time, with a career total of nearly eight hundred goals in club and international competition. His penchant for walking is not a symptom of indolence or entitlement; it’s a practice that reveals supreme footballing intelligence and a commitment to the efficient expenditure of energy. Also, it’s a ruse — the greatest con job in the history of the game.

Here’s a collection of Messi’s best moments from the 2022 World Cup.

While the Star Wars universe has been awash in spirituality ever since the first mention of the Force, James Whitbrook found Andor’s materialistic approach to mysticism particularly interesting.

Andor asks us to consider what spirituality in the galaxy far, far away can look like beyond the idea of the Force itself — or if not beyond it, interpreting the Force in a language it is usually not considered in, and through the lens of material connections rather than metaphysical ones. This is no clearer than in “Rix Road,” the stirring final episode of Andor’s first season. Largely focusing on the funeral rites entreated to as beloved a figure on the world as Maarva Carassi Andor in the wake of her passing, the episode is a story of community spirit and unity in the wake of authoritarian diktat, the story of not Empire versus Rebellion at least in the organizational sense, but what happens when Imperial might attempts to extinguish belief systems the same way it attempted to purge the Jedi from the galaxy’s collective consciousness.

It’s a Wonderful Life is one of the great holiday classics, but it’s not without its detractors and criticisms. Clare Coffey addresses one such criticism, namely, the film’s treatment of Mary Bailey sans George.

It is certainly pleasant but not unduly extraordinary to be a popular and beautiful woman who can marry a rich and popular man if she chooses. It is less ordinary to see, with Mary’s perfect clarity and uncanny certainty, the life and man you want, and to choose it in the teeth of discouragement with all its disadvantages apparent, to persist single-mindedly in the face of hardship. It’s a Wonderful Life is, in part, the story of someone becoming, kicking and screaming, against all intentions and desires, a big man. Mary sees the big man in George from the first, because she is a big woman.

The Academy has announced their first shortlists for the 2023 Oscars, including “Documentary Feature Film,” “International Feature Film,” “Music (Original Song),” and “Visual Effects.”

I’m surprised that RRR didn’t make it onto the “International Feature Film” list given its widespread success, but I fully expect it to win “Music (Original Song)” for “Naatu Naatu.” No other movie can compete with this joyful spectacle.

Everything Everywhere All at Once made it on several lists, including “Sound,” but I’m really disappointed that it wasn’t shortlisted for “Visual Effects.” Its visuals were inventive and startling in a way not often seen in Hollywood these days, and were more interesting than any superhero CGI-fest.

A recent lawsuit means that movie studios can now be sued for false advertising if they release a deceptive movie trailer. The lawsuit was filed by fans of actress Ana de Armas who rented the 2019 film Yesterday after seeing her in the trailer. However, de Armas’ scenes had been cut from the final film.

Universal sought to throw out the lawsuit, arguing that movie trailers are entitled to broad protection under the First Amendment. The studio’s lawyers argued that a trailer is an “artistic, expressive work” that tells a three-minute story conveying the theme of the movie, and should thus be considered “non-commercial” speech.
But [U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson] rejected that argument, finding that a trailer is commercial speech and is subject to the California False Adverting Law and the state’s Unfair Competition Law.

“At its core,” wrote Wilson, “a trailer is an advertisement designed to sell a movie by providing consumers with a preview of the movie.”

Born to Fly, a Chinese action film produced in cooperation with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, was intended to be a response to Top Gun: Maverick. But just days before the film’s release, it was canceled.

Chinese authorities never comment directly on censorship decisions, but the word within the Beijing film industry is that Born to Fly’s producers were made to realize that their movie’s stunts and visual effects were far inferior to Top Gun: Maverick’s and that the Chinese version risked ridicule in comparison — all of which would have been most unwelcome, even politically dangerous, given that the two films are, in part, propagandistic displays of the United States’ and China’s military strengths.

After watching the trailer below, those authorities’ concerns make sense. Born to Fly doesn’t look terrible, but its visuals possess a “generic CGI” sheen that pales in comparison to Top Gun: Maverick.

There’s always a lot of talk concerning how Christianity “ripped off” paganism to make Christmas. But reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses makes it clear just how radically different Christianity, and Christmas, really was.

The Greek and Roman myths that the poet was collecting and weaving together exemplified the religious thought of some of the most sophisticated cultures the world had ever known. And this is what they came up with: gods and goddesses who acted like the very worst of humanity. I wonder what Ovid would have made of a god who not only created humans in his own image, but also refused to take that image from them, no matter how badly they behaved. Who was born to a Jewish peasant girl in a barn (or something like a barn), spent most of his life working as a carpenter, taught people to love their enemies and pray for their persecutors, and died a bloody, shameful death on a Roman cross — deliberately and willingly giving his life for the sins of humans.

Jay Wilkinson traveled to Antarctica earlier this year, and the experience turned out to be “the well-timed next chapter in my own spiritual awakening.”

[I]t was almost out of necessity that we scheduled a trip to the Antarctic. As I contemplated the journey, I imagined returning to Nebraska with our fists raised in victory. We’ve been to all seven continents! We played with penguins! We did the polar plunge!
Instead, we returned humbled and enlightened. No destination has ever made me feel more grateful, nor more insignificant. When family and friends ask me about the experience I’ve been a bit incoherent stringing together words like “unbelievable,” “majestic” and “transformative.”

Sometimes, there can be something incredibly delightful, even cathartic, about a really well-written scathing review — and here are some of the best from 2022, beginning with Dwight Garner’s review of Jared Kushner’s biography.

Breaking History is an earnest and soulless — Kushner looks like a mannequin, and he writes like one — and peculiarly selective appraisal of Donald J. Trump’s term in office. Kushner almost entirely ignores the chaos, the alienation of allies, the breaking of laws and norms, the flirtations with dictators, the comprehensive loss of America’s moral leadership … This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes … Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo.

From the Blog

This week, I posted all of my pop culture outlooks for 2023:

Coming soon: My year-end mix, in which I write about all of my favorite songs from 2022.

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Weekend Reads (Dec 24): Messi, Movie Trailers, Mary Bailey, Antarctica

Recommended reading material for December 24, 2022.

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