No Nonsense #82: Suspicion, I Love Boosters and Mulan
Hey divas!
Hope you’re all having an amazing summer. We’re back with a new edition of our biweekly recommendations newsletter. Check them out below <3
Ione Gamble - Founding Editor in Chief
AMAZE AMAZE AMAZE. Sorry but i really do love a bit of feel good neoliberal cinema despite the fact its probably slop. Genuinely ugly cried for the last hour. Sandra Huller singing Harry Styles at karaoke? Perfect.
lol obviously i just watch everything six months late because I wait for them to come onto streaming platforms but if you haven’t seen Backrooms, watch it!!! I was so impressed.
Have I already recommended this? If i have but you still haven’t watched it then i implore you to. Tatiana Maslany is a generational talent.
The only way to describe this is if Maddie’s Secret wasn’t pastiche. A food influencer’s husband dies so she invites her closest friends to Nantucket for a weekend away. Catnip to me personally! Chloe Sevigny is the best woman in the world!!
Gina Tonic - Senior Editor
Picked this up at the airport bc I only had a carry on and it was like, 130 pages or something tiny. It packed a punch!! A good little murder mystery that Matsumoto is known for and has def encouraged me to buy more by him.
I haven’t stopped thinking about The Holy Mountain since I watched it last year and this other film by Jodorowsky popped up on my streaming service and I went for it. Glad I did divas, it was so so beautiful and mental and a lot more linear than The Holy Mountain but in a way I really enjoyed. Trigger warning for everything as usual.
Make sure you get tickets for this once in a lifetime line up with everyone from Deftones to Amyl and the Sniffers performing in London! It’s going to go HARD
Jenn Lehwald - Social Editor
anti capitalist media x Boots Riley x Keke Palmer… hell yeah.
Perfume Discovery Sets
I’ve gotten really into perfume discovery sets over the last few months to try out new scents and see how they last on the skin - highlights include Discotheque, Dedcool and Nostos
Misha MN - Contributing Culture Editor
I love a good 90s Shakespeare film production, and this 1999 Midsummer Night’s Dream doesn’t disappoint. Michael Hoffman directs a fabulous cast of notable names in an adaptation of the 1595 play set in ancient Athens that for some reason has been transposed to late 1800s Tuscany. I’m not complaining though, it evokes that very specific period 90s Shakespeare aesthetic focusing on warm sunny terraces, perfectly draped vines and beautifully tanned young women in loose white gowns, very much summer holiday abroad vibes. The cast is spectacular, with young Christian Bale and Dominic West (fantastic!) pursuing Calista Flockhart and Anna Friel as the confused lovers, and a surprisingly top-billed Kevin Kline as Bottom, but the true stars are the fairies. A truly radiant Michelle Pfeiffer plays Titania, and Rupert Everett is Oberon, looking the most achingly beautiful any man has ever looked, tucking flowers behind his ears and musing on love and a comedy of errors. Stanley Tucci is also here, as Puck, but I’m sorry, I hate it. Puck should be an androgynous twink, not a balding lothario (very unnerving seeing Tucci with hair, even if it is receding). Interesting note; the (amazing) costume designer here is Gabriella Pesucci, who won an Oscar for The Age of Innocence, and started her career in Italy as an assistant to the legendary Piero Tosi (who designed for all the Italian greats, Fellini, Pasolini, Visconti), and actually worked on my favourite film of all time; Pasolini’s Medea from 1969. Five stars.
For some reason I watched the live action Mulan film from 2020 recently, and it was AWFUL. I know that Disney went through a period of using its live action remakes as a way of revisiting and further contextualising its big animated hits, and I was excited to see a Mulan that was maybe more mature and linked to the historical ballad it was inspired by. Plus, Gong Li, one of the biggest stars of Chinese cinema was in it, how bad can it be? Reader, it was really bad. It was so bad that I started looking up YouTube reviews and found some great videos by Xiran Jay Zhao who goes through the film and lists error the film makes with with Chinese cultural content, from costume design to historical context to spiritual philosophy. Highly recommend this video, it amusing and informative. It became so popular that she made a follow up video talking about the 1998 animated Mulan talking about the elements of Chinese culture the film got correct, and what was westernised for its American child audience. I rewatched the animation after this, and honestly, it still is magical, both charming and fantastical. The songs slap, the voice cast, whilst not all Chinese or Chinese-American are great, with fab comedy roles for James Hong, Harvey Fierstein and Miriam Margolyes (the matchmaker!), and brilliant dramatic leads for Ming-Na Wen and BD Wong (swoon). Oh, and Eddie Murphy too I guess. All in all, I’m guessing I’m recommending both the 1998 Mulan film, and Xiran Jay Xhao’s YouTube channel. Indulge your nostalgia, but then bolster it with some great contextual video commentaries!
I read about this film when it came out in 2020, and finally got a chance to sit down and watch it, and I’m so glad I did. Based on a real event that happened in 1901, this Mexican drama follows the President’s son-in-law (played by extremely gorgeous Alfonso Herrera) living a closeted life in government, but also disappearing to spend weekends with a grand secret society of gay men where they can dress up in drag, put on plays, drink, gamble, have orgies, dance, and be openly themselves in front of each other. Eventually, one of the parties gets raided and the queer attendees are arrested, publicly humiliated and exiled. In reality, this scandal became a flash point for gay rights in Mexico, bringing up homosexuality in the mainstream conversation in a major way for the first time. In the 70s, Frente Homosexual de Acción Revolutionaria (Homosexual Revolutionary Action Front) cited the attendees of the Dance of the 41 as an important part of using cross dressing and drag as a political weapon. The film is beautiful and sensitive, with an amazing use of lighting, location and costume. The cinematography is beautiful and honestly, all of the men are gorgeous. If hot hairy Latinos with moustaches in 19th century gowns are your thing, then this is a treat for you. It’s honestly great, both tragic and inspirational at the same time, and I imagine will become part of my yearly rotation of films to watch around Pride season, reminding us both how far we’ve come, and how much history there is beyond the obvious. Five stars. 41 stars.
Hatti Rex - Contributing Editor
Sabrina has gone witch house??? After I rinsed her 2024 album Streetwise to death??? With her new album Anarchy dropping in September??? What a blessed time to be alive.
I listened to the audiobook of former Skins actress Hannah Murray’s time in a cult where she fully believed in magic before quitting acting forever and I was beyond locked in. The human mind is so precarious and scary sometimes. The way actually words things is so vivid so I’m interested to see what she writes next.
Cutely morose animation series on TikTok that captures the reality, calamity and hilarity of being a girlypop today. Plus, there’s behind the scenes bits where you see them make the sound effects IRL, love seeing it all come together.
Shannon Oxley - Junior Socials Editor
This has genuinely been on repeat ever since it came out. It feels like we're reliving a 2016 summer in the best possible way, and I'm absolutely here for it. There's something so nostalgic about the production, but it still feels fresh rather than like it's trying to recreate the past.
I was in France last week, so of course I had to make the most of a French pharmacy trip, and this was one of my favourite finds. I've been using the Caudalie Grape Water Spray nonstop in this heat, it's so refreshing and instantly cools your skin down. The best part is it's only £8 from Space NK, so it's an easy repurchase now I'm back home. I can't recommend it enough!
Rob Corsini - Contributing Editor
Series: Cape Fear
Really enjoying the new adaptation of Cape Fear on Apple TV - I am actually pretty so so on the original film but I just think that everyone seems like they’re having a lot of fun making this one (Javier Bardem particularly) and Amy Adams is always a hoot so there we go, I’m invested.
Film: Backrooms
I also watched Backrooms six months late and I thought it was amazing. I think the plot is basically irreverent and the weakest part but the vibes are great. In the 2026 Obsession v Backrooms war Backrooms clear winner for me (I hated Obsession though)
Lauren O’Neill - Managing Editor
Old episodes of Take Me Out on YouTube
guys idk if you know this but every old episode of Take Me Out - the most iconic British dating show of the 2010s - is on YouTube. It is honestly such good fun and the women on it are all stars and the fashion is so aggressively 2010s (I haven't seen so many shoe boots in years) - it is the perfect antidote to Instagram perfection crap and I am now basically making my way through the entire thing. Incredible hangover watching.
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See you next time!
XOXO
The Polyester Team
