The Movie Julia Roberts Wants Everyone to See

This week:

• Julia Roberts calls out a must-see movie.
• The Golden Globes moment that stuck with me.
• White Lotus news that had me screaming.
• Just the absolute worst person.
• A photo that has scarred me for life.

What Julia Roberts Said! See This Movie!

It’s certainly not the easiest task these days to find a person of authority to trust, whose judgment could be considered unimpeachable and whose call to action one should have no qualms heeding.

And that is why I always listen to Julia Roberts.

The first time was for her general Julia Robertsness, as the ballroom of stars rightfully leapt to their feet for a standing ovation when she took the stage to present one of the night’s last awards. I have been in the presence of Julia Roberts before, and can confirm that to be the physical reaction one’s body just impulsively has when entering orbit, like a knee-jerk of adulation.

The second time was when, from the microphone, she went off-script to praise the work of Eva Victor, the writer, director, and star of the movie Sorry, Baby, and implored everyone in the room and viewing on TV to watch it.

Roberts and Victor were both nominees for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, Roberts for After the Hunt, and the Oscar-winner joked about how they both lost: “Me and Eva Victor, who is my hero. Yeah. Sorry, Baby. If you have not seen it, see it."

Well, I have seen it. And can cosign my dear colleague Julia Roberts’ critical advice: Sorry, Baby is sensational. And, should you want to follow our recommendation, it’s streaming now on HBO Max—and just skyrocketed in status as an Oscar contender.

It is the rare film to deserve designation as “special.” As the multihyphenate behind its script, direction, and lead performance, Victor is a fresh voice in three different ways. She creates a cinematic and conversational language that feels as cozily familiar—and therefore relatable—as it does brand new, imperative, and invigorating.

Right away, Sorry, Baby drops you into the middle of girl talk between best friends Agnes (Victor) and Lydie (Naomi Ackie), who are giggling and gossiping about what the hell guys are talking bout when they say “you like that” during sex. You instantly recognize these women, understand their friendship, and are addicted to their wry sense of humor.

It soon becomes clear that they are catching up after being apart for a while, and dancing around what the film repeatedly refers to as “the bad thing that happened” to Agnes and how she’s been doing in the aftermath.

Sorry, Baby then goes back in time, and we see the bad thing happen. We also see the years-long process Agnes goes through understanding it, dealing with it, and even articulating it out loud as everyone around her seems to be going on with life—which she catches herself by surprise by doing too.

Victor is a fascinating screen presence, commanding as she portrays Agnes’ paralysis and shock, yet still a gawky, goofy, and sharp-as-a-tack twentysomething with an irresistible wit that often disarms the people she interacts with. The heroism of Sorry, Baby, which I imagine struck Roberts so powerfully, is its display of the biting humor we carry through life, especially when we’re exhausted by it or feel betrayed by it.

I would imagine that for a person like Victor, who just arrived on the scene with a small movie that earned critical acclaim and recognition, being at her first Golden Globe Awards was already surreal. But then to get that shout-out from Julia Roberts? I would simply buy a new TV to hang in every room of my house and office that plays the clip on loop at a volume that no one could ever ignore.

The Golden Globes Moment I’m Still Thinking About

I’ve become an awards-show Goldilocks.

I criticized the Golden Globes when they were an allegedly corrupt, allegedly bigoted ceremony that had no real meaning beyond being “Hollywood’s booziest night.” Now that the organization has taken accountability, the show has deserving winners, and attendees take it with a grim seriousness, I kinda miss the drunken mess.

I loved Nikki Glaser’s monologue and some of the presenter bits. But there was no surprise or edge to it. Not only was it not very fun, but the pendulum didn’t even swing the other way, with an attempt to matter or, god help me, “say something” about our powder-keg times.

So it’s actually a moment from the red carpet before the telecast, where Jean Smart, quite eloquently, addressed that tension, that’s stuck with me.

“I’m not as optimistic about things these days, or the world these days,” she says. “I just hope people realize how important what’s going on is right now. Really, that this is a moment of reckoning, I think in this country. I just hope people do the right thing, and think almost everybody knows in their hearts what is the right thing.”

And she caveated that she doesn’t expect people to treat any opinion she has with any greater esteem because she gets to express it on TV or at the podium of an awards show. “People go, ‘Oh god, who cares what you think. You’re an actress. Who cares?’ And I don’t think my opinion matters any more than anyone else’s.” The key, she continues, is that when anyone has the opportunity to speak up, “they should do it.”

Very, Very Exciting The White Lotus News

The rotating cast of my crushes and fictional husbands is large enough to populate the world’s biggest carnival carousel—which is fitting, because it’s truly clownish at this point, and at this age, how preoccupied I become with them.

Chris Messina has long been a major player in that cast. He’s one of my favorite actors, the stealth MVP of a ludicrously wide range of projects.

I mean, truly, you have, just on the TV side: Six Feet Under, The Newsroom, The Sinner, Damages, Based on a True Story, and the two pillars of peak crushable, The Mindy Project and Sharp Objects. (Psychotic to be crush-worthy in two shows that are that wildly different.) And gosh, the list of movies: Argo, Julie & Julia, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Juror #2, Air…it just goes on.

Anyway, I squealed like a little girl when I saw that he’s in talks to join the new season of The White Lotus. Huge news…for me.

The Worst Continues to Get Worse

In the new episode of The Traitors, Michael Rapaport did nothing to assuage reality TV fans’ unanimous decision that he is the most unpleasant person to ever poison a once-fun TV show. In fact, he was even more vile.

Which is I have no qualms sharing the photo of him eating on the show as if he’s starring in a scene in one of those movies where a man who was raised in the jungle by gorillas is discovered and brought back to civilization, where he has to eat food like a human for the first time.

How Do I Unsee It?

Every time I close my eyes, I see this photo of Andrew Garfield and Jude Law in costume as Siegfried and Roy on the set of the new movie. Someone help. It’s so upsetting.

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Whitney Rose gave me the dish on the season’s biggest scandals. Read more.

The Pitt’s breakout star, Shabana Azeez, told Obsessed all about the hit show’s second season. Read more.

Fashion legend Isaac Mizrahi shocked me with the revelation of who he thinks has the best butt in Hollywood. Read more.

What to Watch This Week:

The Rip: May the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon BFF Tour never end. (Now on Netflix)

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Turns out all Game of Thrones needed was to ditch the dragons. (Sun. on HBO)

Ponies: There’s finally a spy thriller TV show that’s actually fun. (Now on Peacock)

What to Skip This Week:

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Pains me to say it, but the season’s been a snooze so far! (Now on Bravo)