MONDAY MARVELS #12: Birthday edition 🎂
Scrapper, Theatre Camp, The Effect, Yellowface and more...
It’s been a whole year of Monday Marvels!! Woot woot 🥳
Thanks for being part of this lil community. I love putting this together every month and I hope you enjoy receiving it too 💚
What better time to share the marvs with a book / film / TV / podcast loving friend? 😉
📺 TOUR DE FRANCE: UNCHAINED
I’m surprising myself by recommending this as I’m not much of a sports fan but this show has had me GRIPPED. It’s a documentary series that follows the teams and riders at the 2022 Tour de France. Each episode captures a different leg of the race and tells the stories of the people competing to win it. It has definitely made me see professional cycling in a new light and shows how much of a team sport it is. It’s coming back for a second series that will cover the 2023 tour.
Tour de France: Unchained is available to watch on Netflix.
🎞️ SCRAPPER
Scrapper is a beautiful debut film from 29-year-old filmmaker Charlotte Regan. It tells the story of Georgie (Lola Campbell), a resourceful 12-year-old who is living on her own in a council estate after her mum’s death, until her 30-year-old Dad, Jason (Harris Dickinson) re-enters the picture after living abroad in Ibiza. It is a funny and joyful portrayal of a father and daughter getting to know each other. Regan says ‘a lot of working-class cinema I grew up watching was so joyless’ and she wanted to make a film that was more representative of her experience growing up.
Scrapper is in cinemas now.
🎞️ THEATRE CAMP
THIS FILM IS PURE JOY. Anyone who has ever been on a kids summer camp / was involved in music and drama growing up will love it. It’s a comedy mockumentary, about a kids theatre camp in upstate New York, trying to survive in the face of financial difficulties whilst their owner is in a strobe-light induced coma. It’s directed by Molly Gordon (Claire from The Bear) and Nick Lieberman and stars Ben Platt and Noah Galvin (Dear Evan Hansen) as well as Ayo Edebiri (The Bear). It is based on the creators’ short film of the same name that came out in 2020.
Theatre Camp is in cinemas now.
🎭 THE EFFECT
For all you Londoners, you need to go and watch The Effect at the National Theatre. I saw it a few weeks ago and it was GREAT. It’s a play by playwright and screenwriter Lucy Prebble (I Hate Suzie, Succession) that was originally performed in 2012 and has now been revamped by director Jamie Lloyd, starring Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You) and Taylor Russell (Bones and All). Paapa and Taylor play Tristan and Connie, two participants in a clinical trial for a new antidepressant, who start to question if their increasingly intense feelings for one another are real, or just a side effect of the drug.
The Effect is on at the National Theatre until October.
📚 YELLOWFACE
Yellowface is the latest novel from Chinese-American writer Rebecca F. Kuang. Main character June Hayward (pen name Juniper Song) is a young white writer struggling to ‘make it’, who is intensely jealous of her friend Athena Liu, a critically-acclaimed author who has just signed a deal with Netflix. When Athena fatally chokes on a pancake, June steals her unpublished manuscript. As the cover says ‘what happens next is everyone else’s fault.’ It is a wickedly funny exploration of cultural appropriation, social media call-out culture and the cut-throat world of publishing and is the best thing I’ve read in a LONG TIME.
Yellowface is available to buy in all good bookshops.
🎧 RULE OF THREE
In this podcast, comedy writers Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris talk to people who make comedy about something funny that they love — it could be a book, a film, a TV show or anything else. I’ve loved the episodes with Lucy Prebble on When Harry Met Sally (they talk about it enthusiastically for over an hour and it’s GREAT) and Aisling Bea on Father Ted, but there are LOADS of good ones for you to dive into, with comedians such as Eddie Izzard, Robert Webb and Nish Kumar.
Rule of Three is available to listen to wherever you get your podcasts.
Marvels from the community
I always struggle to find new podcasts, but this month the marvellers have DELIVERED with some great recommendations…
🧡 Kal recommends Lost in Panama, a podcast that explores the story of two Dutch friends who disappeared in Panama in 2014.
🧡 Emily recommends How Do You Cope, a podcast presented by comedy duo Elis James and John Robins that discusses mental health with celebrity guests.
🧡 Becky recommends Sentimental Garbage, a podcast about the culture we love that we sometimes feel ashamed to admit.
🧡 Claire recommends Who shat on the floor at my wedding? a hilarious ‘true crime’ podcast, made by brides Helen Mclaughlin and Karen Whitehouse and their ‘detective’ friend Lauren Kilby.
🧡 Holly recommends Dua Lipa: At Your Service, Dua Lipa’s podcast that interviews other artists about a range of topics. Guests have included Amelia Dimoldenberg, Greta Gerwig and Billie Eilish.
What did you think of this month’s marvels? Let me know…
Thank you Hulia!!!