Content Consumed: the Internet’s calendar, new movies, and being a hater
Happy Wednesday! Make sure you take care of yourself today. Eat well, drink well, and be merry.
In today’s edition of Content Consumed…
🎄 Welcome to the Internet’s calendar
🎥 New movie trailer round-up
🖕🏼 Why being a hater feels so damn good
✏️ Original Sins: my book review
How the Internet broke the calendar
Is it early January, or the New Year Rebrand? Is it July, or [X] Girl Summer? Is it mid-December, or Home For The Holidays when we meet everyone’s extended family via goofy 10-second clips, like Great-Aunt Candace spilling her wine on little cousin Tony?
The Internet is shaping how we view seasons. Take Happy Fall / Sad Fall, for example.
Happy Fall consists of pumpkin patch IG pics, neighborhood walks through the autumn foliage on TikTok, and cozy bars with NFL games in the background and mulled wine in the foreground.
Then the sun starts setting at 4 p.m. and we meet Sad Fall: moody Spotify playlists, seasonal depression under pouring rain, and reduced social outings with cryptic IG Story posts instead.
We’re dead in the middle of [X] Girl Summer, this year most popularized as Feral Girl Summer. It’s .5x fisheye IG pic vibes, messy behavior at gnarly nightclubs, hopping over to Europe for two weeks with a decimated bank account, ratty days on the river without a shower in sight.
Welcome to the Internet calendar.
New movie trailer round-up
The Greatest Beer Run Ever
The premise: In 1967, John “Chickie” Donohue leaves New York to track down his army buddies in Vietnam and share a few beers with them, but instead is confronted with the horrors of the war.
Immediate thoughts: I mean, it’s Zac Efron delivering beers to his buddies. I’m still traumatized by Purple Hearts so I hope this movie does the work to properly show the true terror of the Vietnam War.
Excitement level: 3/5
The Menu
The premise: A young couple visits an exclusive destination restaurant on a remote island where the acclaimed chef has prepared a lavish tasting menu, along with some shocking surprises.
Immediate thoughts: This Anya Taylor-Joy/Nicholas Hoult matchup is very important to me. Two excellent actors, with Taylor-Joy comfortable in the thriller/horror genre and Hoult new to it, in an exotic locale with Ralph Fiennes as a scary chef? Yes, please.
Excitement level: 4/5
Do Revenge
The premise: Popular Drea wants revenge on her boyfriend for publishing her sex tape, and exchange student Eleanor is haunted by a rumor. The two teenagers team up to take action against their tormentors.
Immediate thoughts: Maya Hawke and Camila Mendes shouldn’t be cast as teens anymore. Anyways, the good: interesting casting, I wouldn’t have pictured these two together. The bad: terrible dialogue. Overall, eh.
Excitement level: 2/5
Why being a hater feels so good
I’m a hater. I watch things I hate, listen to things I hate, follow people I hate, read things I hate. Why does it feel so good to be a hater, though?
Biologically, hating makes us feel good. Like love and enjoyment, a strong emotion like hate sets our neurotransmitters on fire and makes us feel something. And we humans love to feel something!
Psychologically, we like comparing ourselves to others. Humans are naturally voyeuristic and I’m certainly what some may consider to be a ~competitive~ person, so there’s that.
Socially, hating is a bonding experience. If anyone ever saw the DMs between my friend Rachel and I on Twitter… we thrive, we bond, and oh do we hate. We hate movies, TV shows, music, celebrities… the list goes on. And it’s great conversation fodder for a long-distance friendship!
Book Review — Original Sins: A Memoir
Matt Rowland Hill is an addict. Heroin, Christianity, masturbation, literature, bulimia, women — all on his list of past and current addictions.
Loving and hating Jesus. Loving and hating drugs. These are the two primary paradoxes that rule Matt’s life.
Original Sins is an entrancingly written and smoothly chronicled story of addiction, religion, and the intertwining of both. I’ve never read addiction written quite this raw yet poetic. One particular chapter, describing a weeklong bender, climaxed in quick snippets of thought — vivid, horrifying, graphic, and authentic. That chapter alone was worth the read.
Read the rest of my book review here.
And that’s it for today! Thanks for reading, y’all!
Cheers,
Casey
