Bites, Camera, Fashion: Bites, Camera, Fashion is a column from Davey McNelly, who is disabled, likes films and makes poor choices while trying to simplify his life.
As we prepare for the first real snow of the year, and people are rushing to buy all the milk and eggs they can get their hands on before we get to a level 10 snow emergency, let’s take a moment to reflect. If you’re like me, you could probably live off of what’s in your pantry for a couple months. Also, it hardly ever snows as much as those scary Facebook posts you see every two to three weeks. So let’s relax.
Bites
Chill, Davey. This is what I told myself Friday night in Kindred Market, ostensibly to buy bread for a dinner party before the film. Athens Bread Company was closed as they so often are: abruptly and without social media posts. I thought about buying a $12 jar of peanut butter, fancy dairy, bagels and lox, or some gluten-free pasta. But I love gluteness pasta! And I have plenty of food, so I went to the dinner party empty-handed.
While I am not a big fan of Kindred’s smoothies or seitan and brown rice salads, they make hands-down the best soups at a reasonable price point in Athens. They are flavorful, you can get an actual bowl and eat them at the store, and you can pick from a variety of kombuchas to sample. And if you need to get a rice bowl, make sure to get extra dressings. They will come in handy. One thing I do like to buy is a fancy chocolate or two, but I decided to trust that someone at the dinner party would have a dessert.
I was so full from dinner that I didn’t sneak in a single bite of food to the Athena Cinema, a first for me. Luckily, my friend brought a bar of dairy-free, Kindred-bought, olive oil dark chocolate to savor during what turned out to be quite a long film.
Camera
What if the first person you ever imagined kissing was a centuries-old stalker? What if he haunted your dreams and then found you, now in your twenties, and said he would kill everyone in your town unless you slept with him? Often men are a bit too aggressive. If this sounds a little too real to you, trigger warning! I don’t doubt the cultural relevance of an adult fairytale about scary men, which is what “Nosferatu” is. There are simple parables at play in this film: don’t sign documents that you can’t read; money is the root of all evil; and, of course, believe women.
To be honest, the acting is quite good. I am a Willem Defoe fan, and he doesn’t disappoint as the psychiatrist who tells everyone to listen to Ellen Hutter, played by Lily-Rose Depp (yes, that Depp), as she keeps warning those around her that a vampire is out to get them all and getting possessed.
I am so glad that there is little CGI in the film. Bill Skaarsgard plays an excellent vampire, with just some prosthetic make-up and a gravelly voice. He isn’t a comic book character with a bunch of superpowers. No, he has to ride on a rickety old boat from Transylvania just like everyone else. It makes him more terrifying that he is human-ish, yet people still submit to him.
I wish more of the women in the film had actual choices other than to submit to men. All in all, just like in previous Robert Eggers movies, there is too much male gaze, but for those who like a vampire and a slow-build jump scare with actual acting, “Nosferatu” may be right for you.
Fashion
I have a friend who used to work at a puffer coat company. He was always covered in bits of down. I try not to think about where all these ducks are coming from and what happens to them for their feathers to become coats.
But I’m a hypocrite. Do I wear a down coat from October to March? Yes, I am cold. My friend’s wife, Kathleen, picked me up a calendar and gave me a haircut for the new year. It’s buzzed with a rat tail and a streak along the side. That I can cover with a hat as needed. And I begin to wear the t-shirts that I can’t normally wear during the summer because they are workplace inappropriate.
Do what I do. Make the best out of winter. Enjoy soup, have a gift-swap of the annoying holiday gifts you got, enjoy the books and films you don’t have time for in the summer. And don’t worry too much about your resolutions. As long as you’ve read your Aesop’s Fables, you’re doing better than most.
