TODAY’S FILM

American Mary, dir. Jen and Slyvia Soska (2012)

Every once in a while, a horror will come along with so much freshness and panache that you feel it’s your mission to spread the word about it. I definitely felt like when I finished “American Mary” – there’s just so much about this film that is off the beaten track and enjoyable that I feel it should get more love. The title character is a med student who desperately needs to make ends meet and finds herself getting more and more involved with her town’s demimonde characters. Since she excels in surgery, she starts doing illegal operations and getting herself a clientele with the body modification community… until her past comes knocking on her door. Everything about this film is about subverting female tropes in horror and the result is incredible! You can buy or rent it on YouTube.

TODAY’S RECORD

Love CPR by September (2011)

Compared to yesterday’s recommendation, September’s music rings very traditional: the singer (née Petra Marklund) is part of the storied school of Eurodance divas, singing about heartbreak and freedom atop familiar-sounding 4/4 beats. If you’re into that like I am, this album is a dream come true. Despite scoring club hits with “Can’t Get Over” and a killer remix of her own track “Cry for You”, she kept trying to break into the UK and US pop markets to no avail. Her answer was to come back with the danciest, most European-sounding material she ever recorded. Do you want highlights? Pick one: “Party in My Head”, ” Resuscitate Me”, “Ricochet”, “My Emergency”, “White Flag”, “Nobody Knows”… the list goes on. Besides, some tracks in her native Swedish near the album rank among some of her all-time best (“Bäksmalla” and “Kärlekens Tunga”), foreshadowing her decision to invest in Swedish-language songs and abandon her moniker in favour of her given name. This only highlights Love CPR’s nature as a career pinnacle – and few are as much fun as this one. Embrace its clubby glory on Spotify.

TODAY’S FILM

The Descent, dir. Neil Marshall (2005)

I’m still on my horror streak, I guess. The Descent is frightening in the best possible way, delivering pretty much everything we look for in the genre: dread, scares, simplicity, tension. In it, a woman, one year after losing her husband and child in terrible circumstances, decides to go caving with her friends in an effort to start putting her life together again. There are clear tensions within the group, which only get worse once they find themselves trapped inside the cave and bump into deadly creatures keen on eating them alive. The claustrophobia is overwhelming and the film skillfully works its way towards a gory finale that leaves a lasting impression. You can buy or rent it on YouTube.

TODAY’S RECORD

Pop 2 by Charli XCX (2017)

Today, Charli XCX released How I’m Feeling Now, an album entirely created in quarantine, and I thought it’d be great to shed a light on my favourite record of her career so far, 2017’s Pop 2. Charli is probably my favourite avant pop artist in activity today and, despite being almost three years old, her futuristic post-genre idea of what popular music can be still feels ahead of the curve. Kicking things off with a Carly Rae Jepsen duet meant to break some segments of the music blogosphere (“Backseat”), it zigzags between styles, embracing pop diva balladry (“Lucky”), rap posse braggadocio (“I Got It”), glitchy hi-NRG (“Femmebot”) and trancey hip-hop (“Delicious”). It’s Friday and, since the whole thing is super worth your time, you might as well check it out on YouTube!

TODAY’S FILM

Wolf Creek, dir. Greg McLean (2005)

I know we could all use some vacation trip to compensate for the months we’re being forced to see nothing but our walls, but I don’t believe we would want anything remotely similar to this hellish ordeal the protagonists of this Aussie film go through. In it, three backpackers find themselves at the mercy of a ruthless serial killer in the Australian outback. While its structure might be formulaic, the set-up is top-notch and greatly elevates the material. Friendly warning: this film is RELENTLESSLY BRUTAL. As I watched it in the cinema, I was scared shitless, not knowing if I could continue to see it. It has a certain amount of gore, but it’s the tension that gets you. Watch it if you dare. You can buy or rent it on YouTube.

TODAY’S RECORD

Shasta Cults by Shasta Cults (2019)

This one’s for the synth lovers out there: Shasta Cults is the work of Canadian musician Richard Smith, who worked for decades fixing and restoring Buchla synths for the IDM wunderkind Aphex Twin and electronic pioneer Suzanne Ciani. With his knowledge of the inner workings of these machines, he set out to explore its potential in hazy, beatless tracks that are absolutely stunning. Considering that he’s restricted to one instrument, it’s remarkable how much he conveys here in this music. For instance, “Incline” washes over you like a cleansing spell but “DA3” goes to darker places, with an ominous buzzing noise suggesting unrest even though gentle notes find their way into the mix. Dive into this record on Spotify.

TODAY’S FILM

Jam, dir. Chris Morris (2000)

After quite some time, I might be cheating again with this one: Jam is a six-episode sketch show aired on telly. Dear “Golden Age of Primetime Television” folks who like to say series are “long cut-up films”, you’re barking the wrong tree: with its amorphous nature, Jam could not pass as a unity. In fact, the episodes themselves barely hold together. Morris’s brand of humour is usually heady, caustic and freewheeling, but Jam finds him at his most uncompromising, embracing the non-sequitur as the ultimate source of comedy. Jokes are dark, scary and even disgusting and kind of explain why he’s not everyone’s cuppa, but if you are down for some batshit crazy entertainment, you’d be daft not to try it. Check it out on YouTube.

TODAY’S RECORD

The Social Network, by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (2010)

Like yesterday’s recommendation, this score probably just sent every other film composer back to the drawing board when it came out. To be fair, Reznor had already released a lot of anxiety-filled ambient tunes through his band, Nine Inch Nails, but the way he approached the theme here is a breakthrough. Opening tracks “Hand Covers Bruise” and “In Motion” are the takeaways here: the first is an electroacoustic song which explores a six-note melody to harrowing effect, the second is a full-on techno track that sounds like a synthesiser having a panic attack. The rest of the soundtrack carries “the gentle hum of anxiety” (that’s actually a track title) which comes with the feeling that something horrible is about to happen. This being a score for a David Fincher film, however, you must have some dark humour thrown in the mix: to that end, Reznor and Ross pull off a hilarious take of the 19th-century staple “In the Hall of the Mountain King”, in which the strings are warped as if heard through a million corrupted MP3s. Great stuff, really – listen to it on YouTube.

TODAY’S FILM AND RECORD

Under the Skin – film dir. Jonathan Glazer / record by Mica Levi (2013)

What. The. Fuckkity. Fuck. These kind words neatly sum this monster of a film once the credits start to roll. This is one of those sci-fis in which the material and the filmmakers are in perfect sync and there isn’t just a beat out of place. Scarlett Johansson (in one of her most memorable performances) plays a mysterious alien-like woman who preys on men in Scotland. The action follows her on nasty and tense scenarios, which are heightened by Mica Levi’s score. Jonathan Glazer is a genius who simply should deliver more features than he does and, out of the three he directed to date, this one is where his sense of dread hits the hardest. You can buy or rent it on YouTube. While you’re at it, you might want to check its score as well. Mica Levi’s music mirrors and amplifies the uncertainty and the darkness of the film in devilish ways. Her use of modified viola is beautiful in its sorrow (check standout tracks “Lipstick to Void” and “Love”, for instance). Elsewhere, the percussion seems to pulse and shiver like mutant flesh. For music that’s this bleak, there’s a surprising scope and energy to the material – which luckily turned Levi into an in-demand composer. Listen to it on Spotify.

TODAY’S FILM

Faces Places, dir. Agnès Varda and JR (2017)

Some of the films I recommended here are not available online so owning them becomes a must, but otherwise I’m happy to stream stuff. For fans of physical media, the American distributor Criterion Collection has been issuing absolute objects of desire for decades and, while I’m usually unfazed, they managed to hit a soft spot today, when they announced a box set with ALL of Agnès Varda’s films. I can’t really begin to explain the influence of Varda’s craft in my life and how much she moves me. As hard as it is for me to recommend just one of her works here, I think I’ll stick to this celebratory road trip which I had the pleasure to watch in Cannes with her in the audience. It’s a thoughtful documentary on the power of images and it might make you simultaneously happy and sad. Catch it on Netflix.

TODAY’S RECORD

Boys for Pele by Tori Amos (1996)

Like Varda, American singer-songwriter Tori Amos is a prolific and idiosyncratic artist with staunchly feminist approach to her work. Albeit totally worth it, her discography can be daunting to tackle by sheer size. Even if you don’t go for the whole thing, you’d be hard-pressed to find an album more committed to the idea of self-destruction and reinvention than Boys for Pele – for me, to this day, her magnum opus. Structured around four acts and thematically linked to ritual sacrifices (yup), this set marked the first time she self-produced an album. Like Kate Bush before her, she used the newfound freedom to conjure up her most deranged material yet. “Beauty Queen / Horses” and “Blood Roses” boldly open the proceedings, but the album offers much more: the fuck-you cry of “Professional Widow”, the nostalgia of “In the Springtime of His Voodoo”, the longing of “Caught a Lite Sneeze” and the PSTD account “Putting the Damage On”. Listen to it on YouTube.

TODAY’S FILM

God’s Own Country, dir. Francis Lee (2017)

As yesterday’s recommendation, this is a British film centred on a gay relationship, but the similarities end there. Francis Lee is a brave story of two men meeting in harsh circumstances, emphasising the social aspect of that encounter. In it, an English lad gets by working at his father’s farm and having sex with random men on sly. When a Romanian worker is brought in to help out, he has to come to terms with himself and the way he relates to other people. It shares a lot of traits with Brokeback Mountain but the skilful way Lee tackles this theme definitely warrants a watch. You can buy it or rent it on YouTube.

TODAY’S RECORD

Ti Amo by Phoenix (2017)

Fuck me, it took long enough for the UK to warm up. After several false starts, now summer truly feels on the way. With that in mind, I feel like shedding a light at this deliciously breezy album by Phoenix. Like most of my recommendations, this one is quite personal: it’s an album built around the idea of an Italian summer which was released in the summer I was living in Italy. The title track is up there along with Phoenix catchiest tunes and the hooks on most of these songs are just to die for. Try not to hum to the electronic birdsong of “Lovelife” or not sing along the irresistible choruses of “Tutti Frutti”, “Fior di Latte” or “Telefono”. At just over half an hour, it’s over too soon and you may want to experience it again – just like a warm season.

TODAY’S FILM

Weekend, dir. Andrew Haigh (2011)

Few films put the finger on the dread and uncertainty that comes with meeting someone new – without fatalism – like Weekend. The second feature from British director Andrew Haigh is a gorgeously-shot account of a gay bar hookup that evolves into an exposé on identity, intimacy and sexuality over the course of two days. It’s astonishing that, for brisk 97 minutes, Weekend manages to cover as much ground as it does and it’s a tour de force for its two leads, who improvised a lot of the dialogue seen here. It’s a bittersweet offering, for sure, but one that leaves a lasting impression.

TODAY’S RECORD

Extreme G Soundtrack (1997)

The weekend tends to make me listen to more upbeat stuff to placate a bit of the sadness of not being able to go clubbing these days. The soundtrack to the Nintendo 64 game “Extreme-G” – which I bought along with the console back in the day – was probably my first contact with the music I would call “techno” many years later. The BPMs are quite high, fitting for a racing game, bringing the material very close to trance, so this recommendation really goes for the ones who like their party music to be fast and demented. Play it loud on YouTube and have a blast.

TODAY’S FILM

Knife + Heart, dir. Yann Gonzales (2018)

A regular collaborator of Bertrand Mandico (director of yesterday’s recommendation), Yann Gonzales also directs a lot of highly stylised dramas which bend genre and gender. His most recent feature, Knife + Heart, is a deliberately kitsch thriller which doubles as a gay tribute to the Golden Era of Porn of 1970s. In it, a porn director played by Vanessa Paradis is trying to create her most ambitious film yet in the hopes of rekindling her relationship with her ex-girlfriend, who also happens to be her editor. However, her plans are derailed when her stars start being brutally murdered by a vicious serial killer. The result is a deeply felt homage, with some dark humour thrown in for good measure, with an irresistible photography and soundtrack. Watch it on Amazon Prime.

TODAY’S RECORD

Junior by Röyksopp (2009)

This was the album that showed the world that Röyksopp were stylists at heart. After The Understanding (yesterday’s recommendation) ventured into subdued techno territory (the Norwegian duo’s second left-turn in as many albums), Junior was a burst of Technicolor. Backed up by an array of vocalists that doubles as a who’s-who of Scandinavian pop (Anneli Drecker, Karin Dreijer, Robyn), Röyksopp released some of their most infectious songs here. “Happy Up Here” brings their chill-out charm to the dancefloor, “This Must Be It” is pure cathartic bliss and their team-up with Robyn, “The Girl and the Robot”, is a highlight of both artists’s careers. Make the most out of your Saturday and listen to it on Spotify.

TODAY’S FILM

The Wild Boys, dir. Bertrand Mandico (2017)

Much of the aesthetic which coalesced in yesterday’s recommendation is being repurposed by contemporary French filmmakers interested in queer narratives. One of the most radical, Bertrand Mandico, after several years producing shorts, made a splash with this debut feature by casting women to play all the members of its title ensemble. After committing a bizarre and brutal crime inspired by an evil deity, five lads are sent off to an island that serves as a sort of youth rehabilitation centre. Once they arrive there, they see themselves in the midst of a series of outlandishly sexual occurrences. This is demanding cinema in which nothing is what it seems. Enter its strange world via Amazon Prime.

TODAY’S RECORD

The Understanding by Röyksopp (2005)

Röyksopp’s second album probably pissed off anyone who bought their debut just because it sounded like a hip-hop-influenced version of Air. The Understanding was a sonic volte-face, trading the warm, scratch-infused sounds of “Melody A.M.” for cold, pristine techno. The results were astonishing: opener “Triumphant” announces from the get-go that this is a work of a different duo and instrumentals like “Sombre Detune” and “Alpha Male” brim with tension. The major takeaways are the vocal tracks: “Only This Moment”, “49 Percent”, “Follow My Ruin” and “Beautiful Day Without You” are infectious club-ready cuts, and their juggernaut single “What Else Is There?” – an instant classic with vocals by Karin Dreijer – is definitely worth a listen. Give it a go on YouTube.