This week:
- I loved the sheep movie, and I don’t care who knows it.
- The video clip that saved me multiple times this week.
- One of the best scenes of The Comeback, ever.
- The most eloquent celebrity quote of the week.
- Casting news that might kill me.
The Year’s Most Surprising Movie
When I first learned about The Sheep Detectives, a film in which Hugh Jackman plays a shepherd whose flock of sheep band together to solve his murder, I couldn’t believe it existed.
Moreover, I was concerned for Jackman. Was he behind on payments for a beach house? Was one of the producers on the film blackmailing him? Or more to the point, had he simply lost his mind?
Well, I have now seen The Sheep Detectives. A running plot point in the film involves deducing which of the suspected murderers is the “fool.” Friends, it turns out that the fool is me.
This movie is a shear (get it?) delight. It is tender and thoughtful. The screenplay, a rip-roaring whodunnit tinged with endearingly twee humor, is impeccable. And the cast, both human and ovine, delicately treads between comedy, heart, farce, and unexpected emotionality.
Either I, like Jackman, have simply lost my mind, or we are two of the sanest, impossibly attractive (humor me) blokes around. Because, dare I say it, The Sheep Detectives might be my favorite film of the year so far.
There are echoes of movies like Babe and Toy Story here, which, let’s be honest, is incredibly high praise. Never forget that Babe was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, or that Toy Story is, well, Toy Story; it is perfect.
Jackman’s George is a grumpy loner to the residents of the bucolic English town of Denbrook. But to his sheep, he is a gentle-hearted hero.
He doesn’t just care for them; he lends them dignity. He takes the time to bestow a name on each of them. He hand feeds them their medicine. Every night at sunset, he gathers them by the porch of his trailer and reads them a story, typically a murder mystery that keeps the flock guessing and debating clues until the next evening’s chapter. (When George and other humans are not around, the sheep can speak to each other.)
Upon learning that George is dead, like one of the victims in their nightly stories, they are shocked—especially when they discern that foul play may be involved.
The tragedy collides with a pair of conundrums, at least when it comes to achieving justice for their beloved George.
For one, the humans are buffoons. Officer Derry, entertainingly played by Succession’s Nicholas Braun like a British Barney Fife, is a bumbling idiot, inept at surveying the crime scene and even more so at investigating culprits. However, the bigger roadblock to getting to the bottom of things is the flock’s refusal to engage in anything upsetting, to the point that they have the ability to forget when anything sad happens.
Armed with the gumshoe knowledge from George’s stories, they believe they can figure out what happened. But to do so would be too difficult; they’re not emotionally equipped to live with the pain of a loved one’s death. So the majority of the flock erase the heartbreaking event from their memories, returning to their lives of ignorantly grazing.
That leaves just Moppo (Chris O’Dowd), who is cursed—or, as we will learn, blessed—with the inability to forget; Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), whose conscience won’t let her abandon George’s memory; and Sir Richfield (Patrick Stewart), an aloof outsider who owes George for rescuing him. The unlikely trio leaves the meadow to infiltrate the human world of Denbrook and help those numskulls crack the case.
The Sheep Detectives then unfolds on parallel paths. The murder investigation is an Agatha-Christie-by-way-of-Paddington romp that knits the genre’s clichés with warm, earnest British humor and hijinks, crafting the cinematic version of a cozy wool sweater. But as that throughline satisfyingly frolics, the sheep themselves are having an existential awakening about loss. What does it mean to erase those whom they loved? More importantly, what do they sacrifice by doing so?
In that regard, the film is a movingly assured lesson in how to deal with death, one that I think many children and their parents will find incredibly helpful. I had no idea when I showed up for a screening of the Hugh Jackman sheep movie, I was signing up for all that—but I am so grateful and touched by it.
Immediately when the movie ended, as I unbuckled from my roller coaster of giggling and, yes, crying, I was desperate to find out who wrote this treasure. I was stunned to learn that it is Craig Mazin, who created and wrote Chernobyl and The Last of Us. What?!?!? It’s echoes of the discovery that Mad Max mastermind George Miller co-wrote the screenplay for Babe and the sequel, Babe: Pig in the City.
That’s an important reminder that people contain multitudes! And, as I know now after thoroughly enjoying this movie, so do sheep.
No Video Has Ever Given Me Such Joy
As I spend hours each night doomscrolling about that godforsaken cruise ship, counting down to the news alert that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have contracted the virus and I’m about to spend the next two years having Zoom hangouts, there is one video that has saved me. It has lifted me from my spiral—nay, it has resurrected me from it.
Somehow, amidst the paranoia-inducing reports about contact tracing and gallows humor about what should really be done with that vessel, I’ve made my algorithm such that this video of two nuns gassing each other up on a podcast over their cooking skills shows up on my newsfeed about seven times a day:
Opens in new windowIt’s from Dominican Sisters Open Mic podcast, in which sisters from a convent in Michigan ebulliently chat about everyday aspects of their lives, from their love of Ultimate Frisbee, to their education, to giving up speeding for Lent, and, yes, cooking. You can read more about their podcast and mission here.
I don’t know how former scrolling me had the foresight to click posts that would lead to this video routinely brightening my day, but I’m so lucky for it.
This Scene Stole My Heart
The final season of The Comeback is miraculously good. If you haven’t been watching it, you’re missing out on one of the best comedy actresses of our time, Lisa Kudrow, delivering the finest performance of her career in one of the smartest TV shows ever written. If you love yourself, head to HBO Max and catch up.
There was an epically satisfying cameo on the new episode, which found Kudrow’s Val, an actress whose big TV comeback is being torpedoed by the backlash to her new sitcom being written by AI. As she’s being harassed and protested, she flees into the studio lot, where she is recognized and chased down by Juna (Malin Akerman) the then-breakout actress she mentored 20 years ago who is now a major movie star.
Opens in new windowKudrow and Akerman do the phenomenal work of turning a fleeting scene into a tour de force, imbuing it with all of their characters’ history, love, and compassion for each other. It is wonderfully sweet, without being saccharine. God, I love this show.
She Is Society’s Finest Wordsmith
The Met Gala was this week. As someone writing this while wearing his college t-shirt and ill-fitting Levi’s so old they have those annoying holes in the thighs, I’m in no position to critique celebrities’ looks. (Especially because if I articulated the look that I thought ranked among the ugliest, let’s just say there would be a hive of fans after me.)
But I will celebrate my favorite moment of the entire sequin-and-feather circus (for charity!). That would be when Nicole Kidman revealed the inspiration behind choosing her sparkly red gown for the “Fashion Is Art” theme: “Fashion is art and I wanted something red, because I wanted to embrace the way in which red has been used in art through the years.”
Her mind.
The Spandex Shorts of It All Might Kill Me
The “yes!” I yessed when I read this casting news.
Opens in new windowMore From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed
I interviewed President Fitz himself, Scandal’s Tony Goldwyn, about all those steamy sex scenes. Watch here.
I interviewed the kookiest, craziest people in the world, the team behind the Céline Dion-inspired Titanique. Watch here.
I interviewed the always hilarious Jill Kargman about her riotous new movie that savages New York City’s rich momfluencers. Read here.
What to Watch This Week:
The Sheep Detectives: Ewe will love it. See what I did there? (Now in theaters)
Lord of the Flies: You’ll be transported back to reading this in high school, and instantly re-traumatized. (Now on Netflix)
Influenced: A savage joke parade skewering influencers. (Now in theaters)
What to Skip This Week:
Remarkably Bright Creatures: Quite possibly the corniest movie ever. (Now on Netflix)
The Bear Surprise Episode: So exhausting and indulgent. What happened to this show? (Now on Hulu)
