Casino, Challengers, And More: May 2024 And What I Watched

And not one or two seasons of RHONY but four and a half seasons of RHONY.

Sharon Stone in Casino. Photo: Universal Pictures.

Casino
Rewatch
I’ve seen this movie a million times, and I could watch it a million more. This rewatch was for Newcomers, the Nicole Beyer and Lauren Lapkus podcast … as if I needed a reason! Goodfellas is about family; Casino is about excess. It’s grossly over the top, in every direction: there’s too much voiceover, too much camera movement, too much backstory, too much explaining, but it all works in damning concert. This is a movie about men cast out of Eden, but trapped in the same vacuum-sealed world of gambling, Vegas, the mafia. I love the wedding scene, where we hear James Woods coo into Sharon Stone’s ear. I love how Robert De Niro’s costumes get increasingly pastel and fey. I love this movie lingers in moments a tighter edit would excise: James Woods fighting with the daughter he’s supposed to be chaperoning, Catherine Scorsese chiding her scene partner against swearing, the way Sharon Stone seems to float through every room. What a picture!

La Chimera
New release-ish
A good movie with an ending that knocked me out. A very good joke from my friend Jenny:

Real Housewives of New York Season 1
First time watch
The person who discovered (or just approved the casting of) Ramona Singer needs to be tried for war crimes. They need a Peabody. They deserve a life sentence at a European Wax Center. They’ve earned a seat at the right hand of the father (Andy Cohen). We should erect monuments in their honor. They should share a cell with Ellen DeGeneres. There are reality TV stars, and then there is Ramona Singer: she is by far the strangest person I have ever encountered in media. She is an energizer bunny of toxicity, her cup of hypocrisy runneth over. I could watch her for 100 seasons. The only other person remotely like her lived in the White House and was just found guilty of 34 felony counts.