Demigods and fake hitmen and the hellscape loop, oh my!

I have to admit, it’s strange being on the outside again.

For the past few years (anywhere from four to six, depending on the festival), I got caught up in the festival loop: Sundance in the winter, Tribeca in the spring, and NYFF in the fall. (I almost went to SXSW once, but it got canceled just before COVID was declared a pandemic.) Watch and review as many movies as possible, sometimes well before any discourse settles in. Hype up the ones you loved, sometimes for over a year. See some achieve Oscar glory and others stumble in the attempt.

I didn’t cover Sundance this year, though I certainly earmarked a lot of films that I’ll hopefully get to see one day. But it took place in an incredibly tumultuous (and often cruel) media landscape over the past couple of months, so it was kinda hard getting excited about any of those movies from the outskirts when reporters got laid off mid-festival. Or even the jokes about the real Agent Argylle when fewer places are even posting reviews of what looks like a very dumb movie.

The exception to (and also the epitome of) my Sundance FOMO: Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, one of my favorites from NYFF, which also screened at Sundance. It’s so absurd and funny and wonderful; if possible, see this with a crowd because there’s a scene so good it got the kind of applause mid-movie that superhero feats do.

I’m still figuring things out after my own layoff a few months ago; it’s not great, Bob! And I don’t really have the answers as hundreds of journalists join my ranks. Some aspects of it are still a dumpster fire. Others are going a lot better than I thought. I’ve been attempting to learn French since my stay in Montréal, and I’ve already read 20 books (including several novellas) this year, so at least I’m keeping myself somewhat occupied? C’est la vie and all that. (Apparently, my pronunciation isn’t too bad?)

Given recent discussions around this platform (and some not as recent), I’m considering my options about keeping Knit(ting) Flicks here. Part of any delay in that decision is I don’t have the mental capacity to figure out migration right now—and since I’m not charging anything for it and don’t update frequently, I may have some time. But I’ll keep you posted on what I do on that front.

The Knit: Constellate Hat

Pattern: Ravelry / Direct

Yarn: Bar à Tricot Cognac in Midnight Kiss

It’s not the first time I’ve knitted Hunter Hammersen’s loop-heavy hat, but it’s been a while since I’ve done so. On top of getting used to doing every purl stitch through the back loop—and I mean every single purl—I had to reteach myself how to do the constellate round where the loops come out to play; once I did, it’s not so bad. Many of Hammersen’s designs depend on gauging (where you knit a square swatch and block it to determine what size needles or how much to cast on to achieve the size you need). I’ve so far managed to avoid using it (even with this; I chose the most-used option among Ravelry projects and hoped for the best). I know that’s not a great way to do it and won’t help me at all, and I should learn, especially if I want to knit myself sweaters one day. (Figuring out gauge is mainly why I haven’t tackled one yet!)

Knitted with yarn I picked up in Montréal, the hat really made me appreciate the intricacies of an incredibly dark skein of yarn with much more nuanced variations. The bundle comes with a similar pattern for fingerless gloves, which I’m also planning to make for the hat’s recipient.

The Flick: The Hunt for Red October

Streaming: Max

I’m nowhere near the target audience for the movies you might file under “Dudes Rock” or “The Dad Movie Canon,” but for a recent virtual movie night due to crappy NYC weather, I found myself wanting to sit down and watch The Hunt For Red October for the first time. (I described it as the former to my viewing partner, but it might be more of the latter.) I’ve never seen a Jack Ryan show or movie, don’t have a special affinity for spy or Cold War movies and haven’t seen Sean Connery much outside of The Last Crusade. I can only pin my reasoning on recently finding my dad’s old DVD that he never actually watched (preferring to watch it on TV with commercials instead) the last time I was in Jersey.

And it’s a pretty fun movie! One of those viewing experiences where you can get lost in the constant Leo-pointing meme of it all as you recognize another dude (so many dudes) or make fun of Connery for not even bothering with an Eastern European accent. Or even pointing out that Alec Baldwin’s Jack Ryan is, if you think about it, kind of a Mary Sue. But (some of) the dudes did rock inside of a submarine, and it’s kinda fun seeing Vasily Borodin (Sam Neill) imagining a new life in Montana several years before we’d see Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant digging for dinosaurs in a little film called Jurassic Park (a perfect movie I rewatched about a week later with the same viewing partner).

What I’m Reading

• MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards¹: I find that a lot of books about topics I’ve covered professionally can be kind of a drag because, well, I already know most of what’s being written. But that’s not the case for this deep-dive into the rise and various stumbles in recent months of Marvel Studios. It came out in October, so it doesn’t cover more recent controversies like box office mishaps compared to earlier successes, creative misfires, or Jonathan Majors’ conviction and subsequent firing. But it’s still an engrossing read.

• The Marquis Who Mustn’t by Courtney Milan: One of the most serendipitously satisfying experiences I’ve encountered in a long time is binge-watching a full season of The Great Pottery Throw Down² and then starting this historical romance novel, only to find that the hero is a potter who is not only extremely competent at what he does but also rants about how terrible porcelain clay is when he’s drunk.

• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: I’ve got four words to entice you on this one: Lesbian. Necromancers. In. Space.

Shameless Plugs

• My 2023 Knitting Roundup post is live on Instagram! My most productive year yet, and I can’t even attribute all of that to being laid off!

• And speaking of, I’m still looking for work. So please reach out if you know of any leads! So many exclamation points!

Knitwear of the Week

Knit: A light gray honeycomb sweater infuriatingly hiding underneath overalls and other protective gear you’d see a modern-day blacksmith wearing. There is also a handkerchief and cane involved.

Worn By: Hephaestus (Timothy Omundson), the Greek god of “artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes”—and looking fine as hell, imo—in Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1.

Costume Designer: Tish Monaghan

As a teen, I had this habit of getting invested in fantasy book series about to be adapted into movies. I was a “read the books first” kind of viewer, and a smug one at that, but I would do all that work and never watch the movies because, well, I was a distracted teen, and the movies were terrible; back then, studios did not seem to give fantasy adaptations any semblance of respect. Since then, several of those series have gotten (or plan to get) a redemptive TV adaptation³ . One of them is Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which started as a (at the time) five-book series by Rick Riordan that was turned into two movies (The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters). The most I know about them is that they aged up the main kids from the pre-teens they start out as in the books, one of many decisions that resulted in many fans (and Riordan himself) denouncing them. It’s now a Disney+ TV show that concluded its first season earlier this week.

I first encountered PJO in college. I was a bit out of the book’s target demo, but I recalled liking them a lot. I was (and remain) a Greek mythology kid, so I loved how they played with the myths amid this larger story Riordan told. But I didn’t have the childhood nostalgic pull toward them that many others did because I came into it when I was older. It wasn’t exactly a book series I would think about, at least until Disney+ announced it was turning PJO into a TV show—and that my friend Daphne⁴ would be writing on it.

Between that announcement and now, I reread all of PJO (really fun if you haven’t tried it, but definitely geared toward younger audiences) and dove into basically every PJO-centric book Riordan’s put out since. The Heroes of Olympus (a five-book series with several Greek and Roman demigods meeting and having to work together to stop powerful forces)? Check. The Trials of Apollo (the Greek god Apollo is now mortal as a punishment from Zeus and has to complete a series of tasks to restore his Oracle’s powers and regain his immortality)? Check. Those spinoffs featuring Egyptian and Norse gods (The Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, respectively)? Check. Those supplemental mythology books? Check. And Riordan’s more recent novels starring Nico di Angelo (The Sun and the Star, cowritten with Mark Oshiro) and a continuation of PJO that reunites its main trio of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover (one of three planned books, The Chalice of the Gods, is out so far)? Check and check⁵ . And this wasn’t for work either, since I was planning to recuse myself from coverage.

I saw the first half in December and the second half this week. And it was a lot of fun! The kids are so wonderful in it, and kudos to the casting director for getting the array of adult actors to play the gods they did who totally lean into it (and for casting so many Black Sails alumni in it). I’m very much rooting for it to get a season 2.

It’s not the most showboating performance (Adam Copeland’s Ares), the most scene-stealing (Jason Mantzoukas’ Mr. D or Jay Duplass’ Hades; I need Hades’ coat STAT), the swooniest (Toby Stephens’ Poseiden), or the most poignant in retrospect (the late, great Lance Reddick’s Zeus). But in episode 5, “A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers”, Timothy Omundson’s Hephaestus sure has the spiffiest costume: We’ve got honeycomb cables that kinda look like a bunch of screw heads positioned around each other like the honeycombs are cogs in one of Hephaestus’ machines.

And that’s following an instance earlier in the episode where Annabeth (Leah Jeffries) spots the Fates knitting outside the Gateway Arch and sees one of them cut the yarn—indicating that a lifeline has just been cut (and that someone will die soon).

A few other notable sweaters: Present-day Percy (Walker Scobell) wears a striped pullover at the school he gets kicked out of, and Smelly Gabe (Timm Sharp) has on a cardigan while lounging in his apartment in episode 1. Tiny Percy (Azriel Dalman) has on an adorable yellow number during a series of heartbreaking flashbacks late in the season.

Want to nominate your own Knitwear of the Week?

I’m now offering you a chance to nominate your favorite piece of cinematic knitwear. I’ve got more information about what I’m looking for here. So, if you’ve got one, send an email over to [email protected] with your pick!

1  Disclaimer: I’m friends with Joanna and Dave, who really know their Marvel shit. Buy their book!

2  The Great Pottery Throw Down is basically “What if GBBO but with pottery”—made by the same production company, so the carbon copy vibe is strong—but without all of the tonal upheaval that came after Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins, and Mary Berry’s exit from the show. Also, one of the judges cries every time he’s moved by a piece of pottery (which happens frequently enough that everyone jokes about it but not in a mean way), but it’s incredibly endearing. The first five seasons are streaming on Max.

3  Some off the top of my head apart from PJO: His Dark Materials, which lasted three seasons at HBO; Eragon, in development at Disney+; Harry Potter and Twilight, both in early development, even though more people like those movies. If you want to get technical on this trend, you can also throw in Netflix’s upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender series (out later this month), but in reality, that is a live-action remake of an animated TV show that previously sparked a live-action movie that’s so bad I still haven’t forgiven the medium of cinema for its existence.

4  This somehow became the newsletter issue where I happened to consume my friends’ stuff—and add lots of footnotes; it’s been a while since I’ve had a footnotes-and-exclamation-point-heavy newsletter, neither of which I will apologize for! My friends are so cool and talented! Watch PJO, and then listen to Daphne say really insightful things about the show!

5  Between PJO, Katee Robert’s Dark Olympus books, Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus Webtoon comic, and Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles and Circe, it’s overwhelming keeping track of how each writer is revamping those myths in very cool ways; the heroes in some iterations are villains in others. But the Greek mythology kid in me is so spoiled rotten right now, so merely an observation and not a complaint.