Sex Education, Columbus, and getting Pratted
The beauty of self-love and modernism, plus the normal guy celeb-to-action star pipeline
Hello!
On this week’s episode of Criticism Is Dead, we discuss Sex Education and Columbus, a series and a film about coming of age, in a sense.
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04:51 Sex Education, on Netflix, is not only delightfully raunchy and silly, but it also may be the healthiest depiction of sexual identity and exploration on TV.
Now in its third season, this teen comedy drama is finally riding a wave of popularity, and deservedly so. It’s warm, wise, earnest, and so good in how it portrays sexuality and the human connection and healthy communication that go into sex. But that’s not to say it’s cheesy or mawkish — there’s plenty of sardonic humor, too.
Besides the tone, one of the best things about Sex Education may be its look: both modern and nostalgic, simultaneously ‘80s/‘90s and contemporary, in everything from its set to the costume design. This is how you use visuals to create a world of your own: one that’s borderline fantasy, with anachronistic elements, but still edging on reality.
24:18 Columbus, available VOD or on Topic on Amazon Video, is a quiet portrait of how two lives can intersect and prompt change in each other — helped along here by modernist architecture.
Columbus is a film made to be seen, with its lush greens and its stark modernist architecture. Here’s Dana Stevens of Slate on the film’s interiors and exteriors:
Each shot is meticulously composed without appearing mannered; the characters, often seen from a distance, make up an integral part of the landscape they occupy rather than being framed picturesquely against it. We tend to associate modernist style with chilly formalism, but Columbus’ warm, luscious color palette—all deep oranges and bright, vegetal greens—reminds us of the utopian ambitions of the movement’s practitioners. The light-flooded rooms and bright, uncluttered interiors they created were intended as postwar designs for living, ways of rethinking everyday existence to make it more beautiful and functional. There’s a yearning expressed in those structures, a desire to rethink the world and one’s place in it, that’s shared by this movie’s unsettled and questing characters
For a character-driven story like this, the characters have to be compelling, and to be honest, Haley Lu Richardson excels at that much more here compared to John Cho, who unfortunately isn’t given much to work with. It’s a joy to watch the life, warmth, and vulnerability and Richardson imbues in her character Casey, and especially to witness the tender moments between Casey and her mother.
41:44 Plus, culture notes about “which normal guy celeb will get ‘Pratted’ next?”
P.S. And a shout out to the workers of IATSE, who are calling for a strike authorization vote.
Bonus links
Mads!
Lee!
Jeremy Strong!
Licorice Pizza looking enticing!
That’s it for now! See you next week.
— Jenny
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Some credits:
Music: REEKAH
Artwork and design: Sara Macias and Andrew Liu