Weekend Watch: September 1, 2023
Folks living their best/longest lives (fr!) + killer sloth takes on sorority life + a fight club for Heathers + the dopest dinner party, ever...
Hey there, TueNighters! We’re sliding into the first weekend of September with a fantastic lineup of movie releases, new series drops, and binge-worthy shows for your streaming pleasure. They're all right here on this week's TueDo List — let's jump in and see what's on the menu.
Here are this week’s picks:
The Conversations Project (Hulu): Inspired by the Dark Tower salons during the Harlem Renaissance, the conversation series is a reimagined take on the dinner gathering — unscripted, candid, and never dull. Sit in on funny, fearless, and far-ranging dinner parties with great Black guests, from athletes and entertainers to astronauts, Michelin-starred chefs, and philosophers.
Every 30-minute episode is designed to pull back the curtain as the hosts and guests share their opinions and experiences on various topics — from the fleeting to the indelible — over incredible food and wine.
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones (Netflix): Most people hope they’ll live a long, healthy, and happy life, but few are able to travel the world in an attempt to reverse-engineer the formula for longevity. That’s exactly what best-selling author Dan Buettner did: Beginning in the early aughts, Buettner collaborated with National Geographic, scouring the globe in pursuit of places where people live much longer than average — and thus, the concept of “Blue Zones” came to be. The new doc series travels around the world to investigate the diet and lifestyles of those living the longest lives.
What are the Blue Zones: To date, Buettner’s travels and research have unveiled Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Ikaria, Greece; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California, as Blue Zones with the highest rates of living centenarians.
Slotherhouse (Theaters): Step aside Sharknado, there's a new contender in town — Alpha is in the Slotherhouse (yep, a play on "slaughterhouse," but with sloths). 😄 In this totally bonkers horror comedy, Emily Young, a senior, wants to be elected as her sorority's president. She adopts a cute sloth (Alpha), thinking it can become the new mascot and help her win, until a string of fatalities implicate the sloth as the main suspect in the murders.
And it’s giving 80s slasher movie vibes: The creative team blessedly relies on practical effects vs. CGI, and while the three-toed sloth doesn’t look realistic, it’s great fun to see a furry animal engaged in some crazy shit — William Earl, Variety.
BOTTOMS (Theaters): In this refreshingly unique comedy, two girls, PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri from The Bear), start a fight club as a way to lose their virginities to cheerleaders. And their bizarre plan works! The fight club gains traction, and soon the most popular girls in school are beating each other up in the name of self-defense. But PJ and Josie find themselves in over their heads and in need of a way out before their plan is exposed.
Why we can't resist: Described by New York magazine as a “horny, bloody, lesbian, incel comedy” it’s like a fight club for Heathers — and we’re all-in!
The Good Mother (Theaters): The crime thriller follows journalist Marissa Bennings (Hilary Swank) who, after the murder of her estranged son (Hopper Penn), forms an unlikely alliance with his pregnant girlfriend Paige (Olivia Cooke) to track down the killers. Together they confront a world of corruption and drugs in the seedy underbelly of a small city in upstate New York. As they get closer to the truth, they unearth an even darker secret.
And you can tune in to the 2023 U.S. Open Tennis Championships on ESPN and ESPN+ until September 10th!
Two words: Reservation Dogs.
I saw Bottoms this week and it’s so so funny and smart. Like a modern day Mean Girls.