No Nonsense #83: Audition, Arrival and Spring Chicken Gnocchi
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
Activity: Making basque cheesecake
Hatti actually put this idea in my head but we didn’t end up making one together so I did with Gina and our friend Bridget. Honestly never been more impressed with myself - tastes delicious looks professional and most important so easy to make!!!! Someone have a dinner party and I’ll bring one x
I GOT SOMETHING I WANNA TALK ABOUT
Gina Tonic - Senior Editor
Film: Audition
Super late to watching this cult movie and hoo boy is it a cult film for a reason!!! Starts slow then goes absolutely nutso
Misha MN - Contributing Culture Editor
Film - Jason and the Argonauts
Wrote a fab piece about The Odyssey for Culture Slut the other week, looking at the way swords-and-sandals epics have impacted Hollywood and our collective vision of antiquity, and in doing so I came back to this absolute classic from 1963. I love Jason and the Argonauts, with its incredibly imposing Bernard Hermann score and groundbreaking Ray Harryhsusen special effects. Claymation seamonsters, murderous skeletons and batwinged harpies lurk round every corner and the complicated choreography of their fight scenes is truly commendable, especially compared to today’s action sequences that have so many quick cuts that you can’t even orientate the camera, let alone the action. Top marks for the handsome Todd Armstrong’s Jason, and Nancy Kovack’s Medea, who I only found out on this rewatch has been dubbed by another actress because producers didn’t like her original voice. Imagine that happening to a leading lady now. Five Greek legendary stars.
Film - Arrival
In a rare fit of modernity, I went to see Disclosure Day in the cinema, but it was shite. I lovvvve realist science fiction about alien encounters, but this was NOT IT, with a screen play that felt thirty years out of date and which brought nothing new to the table. A week later I still had a bad taste in my mouth so I had to revisit the best ever alien-encounter-on-earth film; 2016’s Arrival. Directed by Denis Villeneuve before he got sucked into Dune and starring icon Amy Adams, Arrival follows a team of scientists and linguists as they try to make contact with aliens who have landed on Earth for mysterious reasons. It’s sensitive, poignant, complex, it’s all you could want from sci-fi realism. The building blocks of language and communication are so beautifully manipulated that it becomes a viewing experience that no one could ever forget. Amy Adams should have been Oscar nominated for this, but that’s another story. Five stars.
Short - Fashion Disciples: Black
I don’t know what triggered this in my mind, but i had a flashback to a satirical video about the on-set conflict between a photographer and a brand representative, and after some intense googling I dug up this great video written and directed by Isaac Lock from 2018. It’s funny, it’s real, it’s more relevant than ever. The older you get, the more true things like this become, and in some ways, that’s beautiful. Enjoy.
Hatti Rex - Contributing Editor
Exhibition: Lara Croft: 30 Years On
Aware this exhibition is in Derby so I doubt any of you are actually going to go but there’s three rooms full of Tomb Raider merch currently on display in a massive Georgian house museum with playable games at the end. There’s even an olden days larder downstairs if anyone fancies trapping some old men in there for the memories. Happy 30th Lara!!!
Exhibition: Japanese Women Photographers
Here’s a good one in London at The Photographer’s Gallery, with works from the 50s until the present day. Hiromix and Yurie Nagashima are two of the coolest photographers ever IMO. There’s also a camera obscura in the building which is fun too but not part of the exhibition, kept spinning it around really fast and feeling seasick.
Series: Ann Droid
Watching Diane Morgan as a robot in that fuckass bob wig just cracks me up, literally started watching it again after rinsing it the first time.
Rob Corsini - Contributing Editor
Group: KiiiKiii
KiiiKiii are my new K Pop girl band du jour. Everything about their last album (except the name lol) Delulu Pack was so good - particularly the single 404 (New Era) but the new EP WhyKiiiKiii is even better I think. Also the just release video for Pop Off Pop Off is very nostalgia pilled for being on the internet in 2007
Video Essay: The recession has finally hit the influencer economy
Really enjoyed this essay about the influencer economy and how pervasive it’s become. It’s kind of obvious when you think about it, but there complete boom in influencers had to have made it more difficult for them to make money - and it did! This kind of sums up that and also how a lot of the content we see is fake. Classic.
Lewis Vorn- Visual Editor
Film: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
it’s visually where i want to live for the rest of my life. the colours in peppa’s apartment are gorgeous. let me sleep on the balcony for two days because i’ve been knocked out by sleeping pill infused gaspacho. the tiny coffee pot earrings and the insane motorcycle gun chase will live in my brain for ever.
i dont cook but have had this for three nights in a row and it hits everytime 🙏💖
Lauren O’Neill - Managing Editor
Restaurant: Kismet
if you are in London and you are in the market for a new restaurant to eat at, it would be criminal if I didn't recommend Kismet in London Bridge, which has immediately hit the top of my list for new openings this year. The Turkish-Cypriot food barely puts a foot wrong (the charred but moist kebabi are phenomenal, and the atom dip - made with thickened yoghurt and clarified chilli butter? Omg), the mise en place - with net curtains, a VHS video playing on entry, and the type of emphemera that you'd see in a family home adorning the walls - is top drawer, and the whole meal was honestly a bit of a sensation. Go! I defy you not to love it!
Advice: Not Moving House During the Third 35 Degree London Heatwave of The Year - just don't do it
Camille Mariet: LA Editor
Ice Cream: Mashti Malone’s
Ever since my lactose intolerance hit its full stride, I’ve really struggled with the loss of ice cream. It’s arguably my favorite dessert and so many of the vegan ones I’ve tried have such weird textures and flavor undertones, I usually just stay all the way away. But on Polyester’s last trip to LA, Ione and I stopped by Mashti Malone’s and discovered that they have dairy-free ice cream now??! My favorite ofc is their pistachio saffron and rosewater. Their Turkish coffee flavor also goes crazy. If you’re local or visiting LA anytime soon, do urself a favor and get a scoop from them, dairy or not!!
Activity: Adult ballet
Look I know how annoying this rec is, alright? Whatever, yes, I’m adult ballet girl, deal with it!! But seriously, getting a little movement in while an 80-year-old icon in homemade double-decker readers plays Chopin on a baby grand is kind of chic. And I will say, it has greatly improved my posture. Try it out sometime!! Shout out to Marat Daukayev School of Ballet in LA <3
Drink: Piňa Coladas
Truly, what more is there to say? This is less of a recommendation and more of a reminder that you need a gorgeous piña colada right this second!!! Even better if you manage to get next to a pool for one.
—
See you next time! xoxo
The Polyester Team
