The Literate Kitty

Deep into this week-leading-up-to-the-Oscars, you can’t turn around (not here in L.A., at least) without someone , somewhere, making predictions. Talking potential upsets. Lamenting (or applauding) all the change, as two of the (seemingly) Most-Likely-to-Take-Home-the-Big-Prize nominees— for the first time, ever —come from… streamers . That last, to me, is really the most interesting takeaway from the—well, let’s go with “once again, unusual”—2021 movie season, for which we have the Weirdness of the Global Pandemic to thank (or blame, YMMV). With theaters shuttered for sizable chunks of 2020-2021—and feeling, to many of us, like dicey propositions even after the ‘plexes resumed operations—there was little choice but to see some of, if not all, the new flicks, by streaming them from the comforts of our own sofas. Which… is precisely what I did. Every single Best Pic Nom (as well as plenty of other, un-nominated films) watched from either my sofa or my boyfriend’s, on much-smaller-th...

Imagine your life is just about as hard and bad (and awful and scary) as life can get. You have no home, no belongings. No friends. Nothing. Yet somehow, despite your complete and utter lack of anything , “the system” can’t seem to manage helping you get back on your feet, or to allow you to feel as though you actually belong, to… anything .  But then, on one otherwise ordinary (in other words, basically terrible) day, you find yourself in surroundings such as you’ve never seen, or even dreamt (for to dream, you first have to be able to comprehend)… the literal Lap of Luxury, where no desire—no matter how grandiose—will go unfulfilled (let alone any need , because down this particular rabbit hole, Alice, there is no such concept as “need”).  What would you do… especially if it became possible for you—sans any pesky repercussions—to step into such a fantasy life and live it, for your very own? Eliza Jane Brazier poses that compelling question in her latest thrille...