No Polls, Just Vibes
The weekly word on politics, (usually) free of polls.
The Supreme Court rejected Trump’s bid to shield White House documents from the House January 6 committee.
Senate Democrats failed to overcome the filibuster on voting rights legislation. They also came up two votes short to change filibuster rules for the bill. (Spoiler: the two votes were Manchin and Sinema).
I got really confused about all this 5G hullabaloo. Luckily, Reuters has a great explainer.
And yes, Russia will probably invade Ukraine. Here’s how the US may respond.
Finally, here’s a podcast rec from Sam that’ll maybe put these past couple years in perspective:
An Aside on Asides, and Macbeth
The most chilling moment I’ve ever seen in on television was at the end of the second season premiere of House of Cards. I had just witnessed Frank Underwood commit an absolutely heinous crime in an effort to hold onto his newfound power. Minutes later, he turned and looked directly at me, the viewer, for the first time in the episode. “Did you think I’d forgotten you? Perhaps you’d hoped I had,” he said. “Welcome back.”
The Netflix political drama, which is now almost 10 years old, was famous for breaking the fourth wall. It wasn’t the first time it had been done on television, but it was the first time that the viewer was treated as more than an observer. The way Frank speaks to the camera made the audience a co-conspirator in his plot, and in doing so created some level of responsibility for his actions. When Frank welcomed me back for the second season, it almost felt like he was blaming me for his crime, as if to say “isn’t this what wanted?”
Of course, asides — lines delivered by actors either to the audience or that the audience can hear but the other characters cannot — are nothing new. Theatre has been doing them for thousands of years. The most famous uses of the device come from Shakespeare, who perfected both dramatic and comedic asides in his plays.
It’s odd, then, that The Tragedy of Macbeth, a new film adaptation by Joel Coen for A24 and Apple TV+, utilizes asides so ineffectively.
To be sure, this new Macbeth is otherwise phenomenal. Coen has stripped the script down to a tight 105 minutes and all of the performances are top-notch, especially Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as the titular couple.
And in a bold creative choice, Coen has made the film visually abstract, setting it in a black-and-white, barren landscape that almost completely rejects realism and feels more like an Ivo van Hove-directed play than a contemporary film.
That theatrical quality was purposeful. “From the very beginning, (Coen) mentioned that he didn't want to deny that the text was created as a play (and) theatrical construct,” production designer Stefan Dechant said. After all, Shakespeare rarely works in a realistic context, since the text isn’t realistic. Verse is elevated language, and by going abstract, the film is elevated visually, too. The setting also gives the film an immersive quality, as if the viewer is an invisible observer right in the action of the story, overhearing conversations we are not meant to hear.
And yet, despite that immersion, at no point while watching Macbeth did I feel any stake in the protagonist, and I realized why during Macbeth’s first important aside. “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself / And falls on th' other,” he says to himself while deciding whether to kill the king or not.
Here, Coen has chosen to treat Macbeth’s aside as nothing more than the character talking to himself, like an inner monologue that he is speaking aloud. It’s a valid interpretation; plenty of directors have made a similar choice. And yet it maintains the audience as nothing more than a neutral observer for the remainder of the film.
If Macbeth had instead turned to us and let us in on his decision, he would have — like Frank Underwood, a character based partially on Macbeth, does — made us accomplices in his plot. There would be no neutrality. We would feel his downfall with him, because we stood by the whole time and did nothing. More than that, we wanted to see him kill the king.
Such a choice would also help connect this centuries-old play to our current political moment — a time in which the most ambitious politicians can look directly at us and tell us their plans to undermine democracy, and in doing so, make us all accomplices when we fail to stop them. After all, the original Macbeth was directed both at audiences living under a new king, and the new king himself: a power-hungry, paranoid ruler who said openly that he was willing to undermine social order in order to maintain power.
It may seem silly to split hairs over such a small creative choice, especially considering how effective the film is otherwise. And yet, it’s important for us to fully comprehend Macbeth’s choices, and his downfall, in order to understand the play.
When Macbeth says “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more: it is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing,” we need to feel the same futility and regret that he does. In The Tragedy of Macbeth, I’m not convinced we really do.
The Weekly Soundtrack
Now that most of us have experienced our first snowstorm of the year, here’s a winter playlist perfect for days when you want to stay inside next to a fire or under a pile of blankets (or both).
I Hardly Know Her!
The Cocktail Column
NFL Playoffs continue this weekend, and Kansas City is apparently playing. Seems like a good occasion for a super simple Kansas City Ice Water. (Sorry to the other seven teams who did not get their own cocktails. Maybe next time.)
Kansas City Ice Water
0.75oz vodka
0.75oz gin
0.75 triple sec
Sprite
Orange slice, for garnish.
Combine liquor in a glass filled with ice. Top with sprite, stir, garnish with orange slice, and enjoy.
great playlist this week! Interesting stuff about asides. Definitely live theater is the best medium for plays and I haven't seen TOM yet but my favorite adaptations of shakespeare plays are when they look into the camera and you feel implicated or otherwise party to what's going on. Plus to steal from that one tumblr post that I saw get reposted on instagram many years ago, on stage you believe a character is alone more than onscreen. It's also interesting that JCoen hasn't been afraid to break the fourth wall in his comedies! Source: I watched the big lebowski with my brother last night and some of the most successful scenes were when sam elliott was speaking directly to the viewer. Also re: Russia/Ukraine: Yes I agree that an invasion will probably occur, but unlike AP I don't think that necessarily means Russia is likely to try to invade the baltics, because Ukraine is special in a lot of ways (large ethnic russian population, mostly everyone in ukraine speaks russian, historic borders were all over the place, ukraine being kind of the breadbasket of the USSR and that giving them a special connection to russia the motherstate, krimea, the ongoing war in the east, etc etc.) I think Russia has absolutely no desire to run afoul of NATO, at least right now, and while most of nato is unlikely to do too much to oppose an invasion of ukraine, they wouldn't stand for the baltics. Putin's long stated goal has been expansionist but he's also not interested in getting into a war that would be weakening to russia. I think w/ internal propaganda he wants to paint russia as the hero for 'reclaiming' ukraine for the russians, and garner himself (even more) support while sending a message to the west that eastern europe is his game and nobody else's. That's why he doesn't need to invade belarus b/c that's already under his thumb. Sorry for writing a novel in your comment section, great post today thumbs up