MONDAY MARVELS #19: American Fiction, Mr & Mrs Smith, The Trading Game and Child
In need of some recommendations? I got u ✨
Ey up chickens 🐣
Hope you’ve had a beautiful bank holiday weekend. Here are this month’s marvels, I hope you enjoy them 💗
As always, I’m keen to hear what you’ve been enjoying lately. Let me know ⬇️
🍿 AMERICAN FICTION
American Fiction is a satire film, based on the 2001 novel Erasure that was nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars. It follows frustrated novelist, Monk, who has his work rejected by publishers for not being ‘Black enough’ despite Monk being a Black author. He then writes a stereotypical ‘Black book’ as a joke under a pseudonym, that’s published to high sales and rave reviews. It’s very funny and has some great performances from Jeffrey Wright (Asteroid City, James Bond), Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish), Issa Rae (Insecure) and others.
American Fiction is available to watch on Amazon Prime.
🎬 MR & MRS SMITH
I was very pleasantly surprised by this re-make of the Angelina Jolie / Brad Pitt classic. It was much cleverer and funnier than I expected and although clearly takes inspiration from the 2005 film, is quite different in terms of its storyline. Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) and Maya Erskine play two secret agents, who apply to work for the same organisation and are then matched up and made to work together, under cover as a married couple using the names John and Jane Smith. It also stars a superstar supporting cast including Paul Dano, Sharon Horgan, Sarah Paulson and Michaela Coel among others.
Mr & Mrs Smith is available to stream on Netflix.
📚 THE TRADING GAME
If anyone’s a fan of the YouTube channel GarysEconomics then I’d recommend getting your hands on a copy of The Trading Game. It’s the memoir of economist and former trader Gary Stevenson and tells his story of going from a working class background in Ilford to becoming the best performing trader at Citibank, to leaving it all behind to teach people about real world economics. And he’s still only in his 30s?? He made millions of pounds working in The City by betting that inequality was going to destroy the economy. Sadly he was right and he’s now convinced that solving inequality is the only way to repair global economics.
The Trading Game is available to buy in all good bookshops.
🎧 CHILD
I really loved the series 28ish Days Later, that I recommended in the very first edition of Monday Marvels way back when — a 28-part series that chronicles the science behind each day of a typical menstrual cycle. So I was excited to hear that presenter-producer duo India Rakusen and Ellie Sans had made another series called Child. This series is similar to 28ish Days Later, but charts the development of a baby, from conception to its first birthday and everything in between. Hats off to any pregnant people because what your body is doing is NUTS.
Child is available to listen to on BBC Sounds.
🔥 Fan zone 🔥
Marvels from the community
💚 Flora recommends Perfect Days, a film that came out last year that follows the quiet and introspective life of Hirayama, a toilet cleaner in Tokyo, who takes the time to notice and appreciate the smaller, simpler things in life.
💚 Kal recommends the 6-part series on the Titanic on The Rest is History podcast. It looks at the context behind the building of the ship, the events that happened in the lead up to its sinking and the stories of the people on board.
💚 Carole recommends Life Changing, a podcast series hosted by Dr Sian Williams, who talks to people who have lived through extraordinary events that have set their lives on a different course.
💚 Ben recommends Lovesick, a sitcom that first aired in 2014 starring Johnny Flynn, Antonia Thomas, Daniel Ings and others about a group of university friends sharing a house in Edinburgh. Season 1 is available on Amazon Prime and Seasons 2 and 3 are on Netflix.
🎙️ Soft spots
I started this and then it quickly fizzled out BUT Soft Spots is back - each month a marveller will tell us what film, book, TV series or podcast they have a soft spot for and why they love it the way they do.
Here’s Becky to tell us about her lifelong love of documentary presenter Stacey Dooley…
That’s it 😚 have a great month.