Smile 2, Unfunny Jokes, and Mermaids

Everything a growing thirty-something needs

Dec 03, 2024

I’ve been thinking about what direction to take this newsletter in. I enjoy doing it the way I currently do it, and I’ve loved getting all the feedback from my readers, but I can’t help feeling that I could be doing more with this space.

I think a lot of these feelings stem from my own impostor syndrome. I don’t think I’m good enough to be in spaces that I myself cultivated. I feel like I’m a decent enough writer, but I also can’t seem to get a job as a writer, so there must be something missing, right? That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a bad writer, but it does mean that if I want to be successful, I need to forge a space for that success to flourish. I think I’ve started that here, but a lack of focus in terms of the topics I touch on could be hindering me.

Or maybe I’m just having a day and I’m in my feelings about being unemployed.

In any case, going forward, I think I’m going to shift what I write about a teensy bit. That impostor syndrome I talked about doesn’t want me to do the kind of writing I want to do because I didn’t study journalism in college… or indeed attend college. However, the books are out there and I have readin’ eyes. I like doing interviews and telling stories, so maybe I’ll lean into that.

That’s a little further down the way, though. Thank you for indulging my rambling. If you have thoughts on the newsletter, don’t hesitate to drop me a comment. I’d love to hear them.

Let’s get to the fun stuff.

REVIEW: Smile 2 (2024)

When they force you to have your camera on during the zoom meeting

CW: Self-harm

If you had told me before its release that my favorite horror movie of the year would be Smile 2, I wouldn’t have believed you. The first smile was fun, but it wasn’t exactly something I’d write home about. It was a horror film capitalizing on the creepypasta idea of, “What if there was a guy and he smiled all creepy-like?” and it did a decent good job delivering on that premise. It had good scares, creepy smiles, and I wasn’t bored at any point during the run time.

Smile 2 is different.

The idea behind Smile is there's an entity that can latch itself onto you by forcing you to witness the previous host committing suicide. It then drives you to madness over the next few days by way of horrifying hallucinations until it’s fully able to take you over. Then it forces you to tak your own life in front of someone else. Thus, the cycle begins anew. You now know what the Smile series is about. You just graduated from Smile University.

Smile 2 takes this same premise and ramps it up to 11…Possibly 12.

Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a world-famous pop singer about to embark on her comeback tour when she becomes the unwitting host of the Smile entity. Not gonna tell you how, you’re just gonna have to watch. Skye was in a car accident some time ago, and even though she appears to be getting past the trauma of it on the surface, the entity that has now attached itself to her isn’t going to let her find any kind of peace, because it has one job and it does it well.

This is a spoiler-free review, but suffice it to say that Smile 2 is a surprisingly nuanced examination of trauma and how it affects us in the present day lives. For a studio horror film it takes a lot of risks that you wouldn’t expect it to that expands on the premise of the film that came before while also elevating it to a level that all but leaves the first movie in the dust. You can feel everything that Skye Riley is feeling thanks to an award-worthy performance by Naomi Scott, and when her world is altered by the malevolent spirit, you experience the same disorientation that she does. She makes you feel for a character that by all accounts should feel unrelatable. She’s a megastar. She’s an icon. She’s all these things, but Scott plays her as a deeply flawed human being that you can relate to on your darker days. What results from all of this is a horror film that not only jump scares you, but also grabs you by the heart and shakes you with unrelenting vigor that will leave you exhausted in the best way…Also, the creature design is bananas and the original music slaps.

Smile 2 is the continuation of what is becoming a strong horror franchise. If this film is any indication, future installments will be taking studio horror in bold new directions. I, for one, cannot wait.

Smile 2 is available wherever you stream stuff, and should be hitting Paramount+ sometime in December. Keep an eye out, and put on a happy face!

Bad Allies and Their Little “Jokes”

I want to quickly say a little bit about online attempts at humor on post-election social media. Trump won another term, and I think we can all agree that it’s going to be a disastrous 4 years, or however long he lives into the term. The man eats nothing but McDonalds. If you’re reading this, there's a decent enough chance that you’re not looking forward to it and are morally opposed to everything this man stands for. He’s a misogynistic rapist, a white supremacist, anti-science, and whatever other descriptors you can think of to describe a loathsome man. He also hangs out with Elon Musk. Can you fucking imagine? Ew. I’d rather drink bleach.

Those men and every other person being summoned to serve at his side are trash. They’re the little tray under the George Foreman grill that catches all the drippings. They’re lollipops dropped on the floor of god’s barber shop. They’re the wet piece of food that touches your bare skin when you’re doing the dishes. They’re each a conglomeration of the worst aspects of humanity… So why are liberal people ignoring all that and instead making transphobic, homophobic, and fatphobic jokes instead?

I get that you’re upset, but it’s more true than ever that those dreadful meat puppets aren’t going to see your cheeky little posts. They’re not seeking out your opinion. They don’t care what you think. You know who will see those posts? Your trans, queer, and fat friends. They see you attacking aspects of their existence in these people and they know it's because you see those things as something worthy of attacking. You know who else does that? Republicans. People on the right side of the political spectrum. Douchebags.

Just in the past week, people have been making memes calling Elon Musk “Elonia”, implying that he’s taking the place of the first lady. These memes are typically accompanied by either a photoshopped picture or an AI-generated image of Elon in a dress; his face and body feminized. Let’s examine what’s being communicated in images like that:

First, we’re implying that Elon Musk is taking on a subservient feminine role in his relationship with Trump. There are plenty of memes and jokes that talk about what a cringy loser Elon Musk is when he’s in the presence of Donald Trump, but all of that falls by the wayside in service of this weird misogynistic joke. It’s basically saying, “All things aside, Elon Musk is all these things, which is like being a woman, amirite?” Not really sure why we’re jumping past all the horrible shit Elon Musk represents to take a shot at him and women in the same breath, but it’s gross, man.

Next, we’re implying that Elon Musk has some kind of sexual contact with Donald Trump, again ignoring all the horrible realities of both men and instead constructing this bizarre fanfiction where they’re gay. Because gay is icky, and they should be ridiculed for that, right? He’s lesser for that, right?

The transphobia aspect is particularly sinister when it comes to these memes, especially when it comes to Musk. He famously disowned his trans daughter, often referring to her as being “dead”, misgendering her, deadnaming her, and calling her a victim of the “woke mind virus”. He’s one of the most anti-trans figures in the modern zeitgeist outside of JK Rowling, and despite all this, they’ve made the idea of him being trans into a punchline in service of conveying their vitriol. It seems lost on people that using jokes like this puts you on the same side as Musk himself. That’s right. You’re as bad as Elon Musk. I hope that sickens you.

Couple all of this with the consistent body shaming towards Donald Trump and the constant parade of memes that depict him romantically entangled with Vladimir Putin (another notorious homophobe), and you’ve got a problem. One that makes you a huge hypocrite.

Homophobia, transphobia, and fatphobia are only punchlines if you’re a hack comedian from the 90s desperately clinging to relevance, and even then they aren’t funny. You cannot keep insisting you have the moral high ground when you create and share things like this. It’s truly bizarre to insist that you’re fighting for people and then make their very existence the butt of a joke. There are things about you that you cannot change. If someone brought it up and said, “Haha Donald Trump sucks. Imagine if he was [NAME OF THAT THING YOU’RE INSECURE ABOUT AND/OR HAVE BEEN PERSECUTED FOR]. That would be worse.” You’d probably hate that.

So maybe don’t do that to other people.

YOUR WEEKLY MISSION

Leave a choice to chance. Next time you go out, bring a coin or a die with you, and if you’re torn between restaurant options, which movie to see, or picnic locations, hand the decision over to chaos. Flip that coin. Roll that die. Whatever will be will be.

Bonus points if you use your chaos trinket to make all of your decisions for a day. Let me know how it goes.

SNAPSHOT OF THE WEEK

“Let’s get some chips and salsa for the table.” -Mermaids

Taken at a local Austin spot called Swim Club this summer. The dining room used to be a pool, and half of it still is. Between the two sections is this glass, creating a people aquarium. For some reason, these two were allergic to being underwater at the same time for this picture. The synergy wasn’t there, but they’re still my absolute favorite mermaids. I got this one shot, though! I’ll be trying again next summer!

Taken on Minolta SRT 101 on Kodak Gold 200.