Tyrannosaurus Recs: June 2024
Zathura, ABC Parenting, Heavyweight, and other stuff I loved this month
Hey there! Happy Pride! And happy first day of summer! Hopefully sometime in the past couple weeks, you’ve been able to eat an ice cream cone, or sit on a picnic blanket, or splash around in a pool, or see an outdoor concert, or maybe do all four of those at once. If you haven’t, consider this a gentle nudge: Summer is here. Don’t put off all the fun stuff till July or August—do some of it IMMEDIATELY. Carpe diem. Carpe SUMMER.
And when you kick back after a fulfilling day in the stronger-than-ever sun, and you’re trying to figure out something to put into your brain that’s not just tiny morsels of endless, forgettable whatever, here are some things I loved recently that you might enjoy too.
This family film is one of those under-the-radar gems that it’s possible you’ve never even heard of. It came out in 2005, the last movie Jon Favreau directed before he kick-started the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man, and it’s essentially a companion film to Jumaniji, based on another Chris Van Allsburg picture book.
It didn’t do great at the box office, possibly because of its cryptic title—a nonsense word that is less inviting and whimsical than the word Jumanji—combined with the fact that “Jumanji in space” is perhaps not the most instantly appealing concept.
But I’m here to tell you this movie is fantastic.
Though technically not a summer movie, as it was released in November, it checks all the boxes of what a great summer movie should be: fast-paced, action-packed, funny, with twists and turns and surprises, along with some fantastical elements too, but—and this is the most important part—all of it grounded in the emotional connection between the characters, so the stakes are always there.
We watched it with the kids a couple of years ago and then again this month, and it killed both times. Even more this time, as our kids are currently the exact age of the main character brothers in the movie (and I mean exact: the older brother is 10, and the younger is 6 ¾, which, we realized, had become our younger son’s age just days before watching this. If you have kids, this may be a tricky thing to replicate for your viewing, so don’t stress. I think it will be satisfying regardless).
The plot is fun—two brothers find a board game that sends them on a space adventure—but it’s the off-the-charts sibling chemistry between these actors (Jonah Bobo and a young Josh Hutcherson!) that makes the movie a total delight. Their relationship anchors the movie and feels disarmingly real—even through all their bickering, there’s always love between them—and Tim Robbins also delivers a great performance as their dad. As does Dax Shepard as an astronaut! And so does a young Kristen Stewart as their older sister, bringing dimension to a role that’s underwritten and trapped in an early 2000’s idea of what a teenage girl is like. (She’s moody! She has crushes!)
The movie’s co-written by David Koepp, who wrote Jurassic Park, and, though the plot of this one is completely dissimilar, I actually feel like it captures a lot of the same vibes in a younger-skewing, scary-for-kids way. (Or maybe I’m just always trying to justify calling this segment Tyrannosaurus Recs.)
I don’t think it’s included on any streaming platforms right now (we watched my old DVD; see, I loved this movie so much in 2005 I had to own it!!!) but it is available to rent from most platforms. So put it on the family movie night watch list! OR ELSE.
Arthur Meyer is a friend of ours who is a comedic genius, responsible for legendary bits like this one. He wrote for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon for many years, where more goofy brilliance ensued.
His new YouTube series about parenting is smart and silly and—if you’ve ever read or watched parenting advice of any kind—CATHARTIC. As you might expect, most of the advice Arthur and his hilarious co-host Stephanie Drake provides is terrible.
Excellent episodes to start with include:
How to Stop Your Kids’ Screen Addiction, Is It Okay to Hug and Kiss Your Child? , and What To Do If Your Child Hates You .
Whether you’re a parent or not, you’ll have a great time.
Couples Therapy on Showtime
When I interviewed Naomi Ekperigin earlier this month, I mentioned the delightful and hilarious podcast, Couples Therapy, that she does with her husband, writer/comedian Andy Beckerman. If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do so!
But would you believe there’s another current piece of art I love also entitled Couples Therapy?
It’s a Showtime docuseries that follows the therapy sessions of four different NYC couples every season, and it’s truly incredible. Season 4 dropped a few weeks ago, and Katie and I burned through the episodes so quickly. Couldn’t stop, wouldn’t stop. I mean, you get to be a fly-on-the-wall during other couples’ therapy sessions! With all the boring stuff artfully edited out, leaving only the compelling, weird, devastating, deeply human, and fascinating stuff! Watching people struggle to understand each other and themselves is a profound, empathy-building experience. And if you’re a writer or artist of any kind, curious about what makes human beings act the way they do, this show is gold.
The show’s therapist, Orna Guralnik, is unbelievably good at her job, just a superhuman listener. And, look, not only is it funny and engaging entertainment (which does get intense at times; trauma is inevitably unpacked), but it’s inspired many conversations for me and Katie about the roles we play within our relationship, about patterns we’ve internalized that may or may not be helpful. So, if you’re thinking maybe you need some therapy (as a couple or as an individual) but for whatever reason haven’t taken the next step to finding that therapist, maybe start here! (But then take that next step. It is just a TV show.)
Once Katie and I run out of episodes, we always feel a little emptier inside. It’s one of our all-time favorite shows to watch together. I know it isn’t for everyone, but if anything I’ve said so far sounds appealing to you, you’ll probably love it.
Have you ever stumbled upon a show or movie or band that is so good and so on your frequency, and then you learn it’s actually existed for eight years, and you’re like HOW THE HELL DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS???
I feel like that happens more nowadays, adrift as we all are in this vast and overwhelming sea of content. So let me tell you about this recent example in my life, in case you, too, have not yet been made aware of the phenomenal Heavyweight podcast, made by Jonathan Goldstein.
Goldstein used to be a contributor to This American Life, and this podcast (produced by Gimlet Media until they were bought by Spotify) hits a lot of the same notes—heartfelt, funny, human, surprising stories that can get deep when you least expect it. The premise is that Goldstein helps people revisit a moment or time in their life when something went awry in some way, or when a question arose that has still never been answered years later, undergoing an investigation to get them some closure. It shares some DNA with two TV shows I love from Nathan Fielder—Nathan for You and The Rehearsal—but it’s generally sweeter with less of a joke’s-on-you energy.
Katie and I first listened on a road trip with the kids a few weeks ago after her agent recommended it, and all of us, ages 6 to 42, were completely tickled. (I don’t think all the episodes are kid-appropriate, so we tried to choose mindfully based on the descriptions.) There have been eight seasons (again how did this show never enter my orbit till now??), and the five eps I’ve heard so far have all been complete winners. Much like Couples Therapy, this podcast gets my writer’s brain spinning in all the right ways.
Episodes I loved that could be a great place to start:
-Rob, where Jonathan helps a guy (who happens to be actor Rob Corddry) figure out a family mystery: Rob remembers breaking his arm as a kid, while his parents and siblings insist it never happened.
-Bobby, where the sound engineer of the show revisits his participation in what may be the worst McDonald’s commercial of all the time.
On a downer note, we learned that, in spite of the show being a huge hit, Spotify canceled the show in the fall, so Heavyweight is now looking for a new home. Hopefully it’ll find one, but in the meantime, throw any of these episodes on when you need to feel good about humanity. It should do the trick.
Thanks as always for joining me here, friends! If you’re enjoying these posts, please share and spread the word, and I will repay you in more Jumanji-related recommendations.
And then pull yourself away from this screen and belly-flop onto a Slip n’ Slide somewhere! You have time, it’s the longest day of the year!