Once a month, I share the best of what I’ve been reading, watching, and exploring. Enjoy!
Films
Project Hail Mary (2026). This one lives up to the hype. Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian, is back with another lone-scientist-in-space story. A man wakes up alone in a spacecraft with no memory of how he got there, and the film takes it from there in ways I won’t spoil. Go see it on the biggest screen you can find.
Is This Thing On? (2025). A divorcing man in his mid-forties decides to become a stand-up comedian. Bradley Cooper directs, Will Arnett and Laura Dern star, and the whole thing is shot with a handheld intimacy that makes it feel like you’ve wandered into someone’s actual life. Cooper also cast himself in the movie and named his own character “Balls.”
Sorry, Baby (2025). Something bad happens to Agnes, and this film sits with her as she tries to catch up. It’s funny and devastating in the same breath, sometimes within the same scene. Eva Victor wrote, directed, and stars in it, and it’s one of the better debuts I’ve seen in years.
Yi Yi (2000). For the arthouse-inclined only—this is a slow, three-hour Taiwanese family drama, and it’s one of the great films ever made. It follows three generations of one family across a summer in Taipei. Nothing happens and everything happens. It’s the kind of movie you finish and then sit quietly for a while.
Shows
Shrinking Season 3 [Apple TV+]. Still one of the warmest, most well-crafted comedies on television. I got to watch the season finale live at the Dolby Theatre, followed by a Q&A with the cast. Michael J. Fox—who was a guest star this season—made a surprise appearance and brought the house down. One of those nights that reminds you why experiencing something with a crowd beats watching alone on your couch.
Music
I Don’t by Munan. This song keeps finding its way back onto my rotation. Munan wrote it deep in a late-70s/early-80s disco phase, and it shows in the best way. Instant lift-me-up.
Best recent purchase
Cuckoo rice cooker. Rice in water, a pinch of salt, a little butter—25 minutes later, perfect texture every time. It just makes the whole thing effortless. Expensive, but worth it.
Related
Bold
