Listers: A Glimpse into Extreme Birdwatching (2025)

I know nothing about bird watching. But I thoroughly enjoyed Listers. It's a hilarious self-produced documentary distributed solely on Youtube. It follows two brothers on their Big Year, a birding challenge to see as many bird species as possible in a calendar year. They go to great lengths to see rare birds. And they capture some amazing high definition footage. Hilariously these nature shots are juxtaposed with blurry handheld camcorder footage of the brothers sleeping in their Kia Sedona parked at Cracker Barrel. They are very funny on camera and behind it in the edit. They interview random people they come across on their journey, as well as celebrity birdwatchers renowned for their 700+ Big Years. It covers a lot of ground about the bird watching community. And the part that really hit me is about eBird, the app that makes Big Years even possible. It's where serious and casual birders alike log (list) their bird sightings. Listing is an obsession of mine. And I simultaneously felt personally attacked and inspired to make my own documentary. The great irony is that the movie is not even on Letterboxd, so won't appear in any movie lists. Which raises its own logistical conundrum about what qualifies as a "movie". By all means this two hour documentary is a movie, but how are we to distinguish it from other long Youtube videos? This also comes at a time for me after my trip to the Everglades where I saw some of the same wildlife they did, and you know what, casual bird watching was a lot of fun!

Tristan und Isolde (Opera)

Hailed as the event of the season, the Met's towering new production of Tristan und Isolde lives up to the hype. It is daunting, no doubt, running a massive five hours. I was so impressed with the orchestra playing essentially four full hours of the most heart-wrenching music ever written (plus two intermissions). I also impressed myself staying awake! My new strategy is to chew gum. I also think periodically lifting my binoculars to my eyes really forced me to focus and not doze off. The Met has had some well-publicized financial woes, but the house was packed today, at what was actually an added performance after the original run sold out. And I'm very glad to have snagged a ticket to this Saturday matinee because I don't think I would've lasted at an after-work performance ending at midnight. The line to enter the opera house 10 minutes before curtain stretched the full length of Lincoln Center Plaza, and double-backed twice. I've never seen a crowd like that for the opera, with such rapturous applause. Timmy Chalamet, eat your heart out! How hard can it be really to create blockbuster opera all the time (I have a lot of ideas for the Met to attract audiences!)? I think the length actually works to its benefit. It makes it something more than just opera, but an endurance test to experience. People nowadays seek out experiences. It bodes well for the upcoming Ring cycle, which will reunite Yannick Nezet-Seguin with director Yuval Sharon and Soprano Lise Davidsen as Brunhilde. Seeing Davidsen live was incredible; this must be what it was like to see La Divina in her time. 

The set by Es Devlin is unconventional but inspired. It reminded me of a camera shutter or the barrel of a Skyfall-gun or an eye (with eyelid). At times it looked like a a James Turrell (the lighting by John Torres makes the characters glow). I liked that the singers are essentially elevated above the stage, aiding sight lines. There has been criticism about the cone shape making it hard to hear the singers over the orchestra. But that didn't really bother me. There's a delicacy to Davidsen's voice in the soft piano parts--but even if you're not hearing the note necessarily, you do still hear the shape of the phrase in the continuous melody. In Act I, there is a brilliant reference to Un Chien Andalou, the Bunuel/Dali movie that famously uses the Prelude to Tristan and Liebestod. Isolde holds up a dagger to Tristan's neck and the set perfectly mirrors the blade. It's so good it made me gasp. Only later did I realize the blade cuts the "eye", just like in the iconic scene from Un Chien Andalou. In Act II, the cone reveals segments that move in opposite directions separating the lovers. The production uses doubles, actors standing in for Tristan and Isolde doing a kind of performance art in slow motion in the foreground, seated at a table Marina Abramovic style. In Act I you don't quite get the meaning behind it. But in Acts II and III, they enter another spectral plane. They look down on themselves from a heavenly vantage point. The program quotes WH Auden about the yearning of their two souls to merge, a consummation impossible in the physical realm while they have bodies, and so their doubles allow them to to "leave" their bodies behind. The final coup is the ending, notoriously tragic but here ending not just with death but with a birth, confidently recontextualizing the Liebestod.

Chess (Broadway)

I bought these tickets because Lea Michele was going to be out this week. My co-worker advised that so long as Nicholas Christopher is there, it's worth seeing. And with just our luck, forty minutes before curtain mom got an email saying he would be out for both Wednesday performances. We didn't see that email, and when Anatoly first comes on stage, from the balcony I squinted real hard and concluded that was not Christopher on stage. Too late for a refund at that point. The understudies did valiantly but Christopher has this incredible baritone that we missed out on. Waiting for a cast recording to hear him sing Anthem. It looks like all the television appearances they've done did not include arguably the best, most famous song. 

The re-write of the book for this production was actually pretty decent. The jokes don't land, and in fact are really cringey trying to make contemporary jokes about our current politics. The Arbbiter's fourth-wall breaking was weird. But I liked the recontextualization of the show amidst SALT II negotiations and Able Archer exercises. I thought that was actually quite clever, giving the Cold War context more heft and meaning. And it was actually believable. The Cold War is a game of chess, and chess is a game within the game. And so the CIA and KGB are really pulling the strings behind the scenes to drive macro outcomes more important than this championship, even though there are personal stakes for our heroes with life and love on the line. 

The show is almost completely lacking in set. But the lighting is pretty good. It also suffers a bit with The Queen's Gambit problem, which is that chess is not that interesting. Here, they don't even attempt to show us the chess board. They sing about chess, speaking their moves aloud with no board to follow. The costumes are kind of bland, like something out of American Utopia or they're dressed like schoolkids from Matilda. And for much of the show, they sit on stage for no particular reason. The band on stage is fun! 

The Wild Party (2026) (Encores!)

Almost immediately you see why this show isn't often revived. We're introduced to one of the main characters, Burr, in blackface doing a minstrel performance. I couldn't really tell from way up in the balcony but in this production both Queenie and Burr are played by black actors passing as white, in comparison to the original production when they were played by the very white Toni Collette and Mandy Patinkin. Oh and there's a black character named Black. So it kind of lost me. If you can get past all that, the show unfolds over the course of one debauched night of partying with Prohibition bathtub gin devolving into an orgy of sorts. The show actually might work as a Safdie brothers Jewish anxiety movie (the show actually features a Jewish producer seeking to change his name to hide his heritage). There's just so much happening on stage for 2 hours, no intermission--lots of blocking and background choreo. The whole first half of the show is one song after another introducing each character; I quickly lost track. I assumed the show actually had no plot because there was nothing happening for so long as partygoers just kept arriving. Almost the whole show is sung through, or sort of spoken-sung over background jazz music. The band was great, featuring just three violins, but a banjo and an extensive brass and percussion section. I liked the set, all laid out in front of us without walls but clearly featuring three distinct rooms (bedroom, bathroom, and the main living room/kitchen). 

Burnout Paradise (Off-Broadway)

I had no idea what I was walking into. And I'm still not really sure quite how to describe it. It is a kind of improv that takes place all on treadmills. It relies on audience participation from the whole theater, not just the front seats. There's lots of people running up and down the aisles, going on stage and such. It's like Taskmasters but in real life. So there's four "players" who rotate on four stations in four 12-minutes rounds. At one station they are cooking a three-course meal while on a treadmill. At another station they are writing an arts grant application while on a treadmill. At another station they do random performances (song, Hamlet, origami, stripping, etc) while on a treadmill. And at the last station they have to complete a series of tasks with the audience. The random tasks is probably the best part. Meanwhile they have a collective mileage goal. Oh and the host is selling merch and serving blue Gatorade. It's all pure fun chaos, those crazy Aussies. You do have to be in a mood to want to participate. But I was happy to laugh along. 

The Expanse (2015-2022)

I watched The Expanse because Philip and Nancy and David rave about it. They know that I like sci-fi and space politics and that's precisely what The Expanse is. And when it's good, it's really quite good. For example seasons 2, 3 and 5. The first season is abundantly confusing. And the final season leaves us on such a cliffhanger it's kind of disappointing in the end. There are three more books they didn't get to adapt. When the show moved to Amazon in Season 4, you could see the production value go way up, the special effects far outshine the basic cable they started on. The most famous actor on the show is probably David Straitharn but in the main cast it's probably Shohreh Aghdashloo. She's good as the intensely ruthless and steadfast UN diplomat but there are lines she reads that sound like she doesn't speak English, as though she is losing her breath in exasperation. Unfortunately Steven Strait as the definitive hero protagonist James Holden never really did it for me. I much preferred Wes Chatham as Amos, the hothead who you come to love for his protective spirit. Something I really appreciate is the Belter language and accent. I don't imagine the accent comes from the book. Created for the show, it manages to be relatively consistent across the cast who voice Belters, even though it's impossible to describe yet distinctive in its own way. Anyways, we should have more sci-fi politics on TV!

98th Academy Awards (2026)

I'm hosting again this year! It's been an excellent year at the movies, not just good quality but movies we need. We've been spoiled with movies that speak to our here and now with urgency. There are many movies that would be worthy winners, to represent the (challenging) year. How lucky we are that in the inaugural year of the Best Casting Award, there are five superbly well cast nominees. Sinners was perhaps the best theatrical experience of the year and it was handsomely rewarded with nominations in every category for which it was eligible, a record even if you discount the new Casting award. I also want to call out the extraordinary showing for foreign language films in both topline and below-the-line categories; nice to see single nominees in the crafts that I've never even heard of making you really think they're deserved nominations not just riding coattails of a popular movie. And in the top categories, there's really only one lock (Jessie Buckley giving the performance of the year), so it's anybody's game. 

My Top Movies

1. Sinners
2. Marty Supreme
3. One Battle After Another
4. Resurrection
5. The Baltimorons
6. It Was Just an Accident
7. Sentimental Value
8. Splitsville
9. Happyend
10. Hamnet
11. Black Bag
12. Train Dreams
13. The Secret Agent
14. F1
15. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl 

 Best Picture

1. One Battle After Another
2. Sinners
3. Marty Supreme
4. Hamnet
5. Sentimental Value
6. The Secret Agent
7. Frankenstein
8. F1
9. Train Dreams
10. Bugonia

Best Director
Will Win: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Should Win: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Honorable Mention: Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident

Best Actress
Will Win/Should Win: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet

Best Actor 
Will Win: Michael B Jordan, Sinners
Should Win: Timothee Chalamet, Marty Supreme

Best Supporting Actress
Will Win: Amy Madigan, Weapons
Should Win: Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Honorable Mention: Tania Maria, The Secret Agent 

Best Supporting Actor
Will Win/Should Win: Stellan Skarsgard, Sentimental Value

Best Adapted Screenplay
Will Win/Should Win: One Battle After Another 

Best Original Screenplay
Will Win/Should Win: Sinners 

Best Casting
Will Win/Should Win: Sinners

Best Cinematography
Will Win: One Battle After Another
Should Win: Train Dreams 

Best Costume Design
Will Win/Should Win: Frankenstein 

Best Film Editing
Will Win/Should Win: F1

Best Makeup and Hair
Will Win/Should Win: Frankenstein 

Best Production Design
Will Win: Frankenstein
Should Win: Hamnet 
Honorable Mention: Resurrection

Best Score
Will Win/Should Win: Sinners
Honorable Mentions: Resurrection, Marty Supreme, Happyend

Best Song
Will Win: Golden, Kpop Demon Hunters
Should Win: I Lied to You, Sinners 
Honorable Mention: Bad As I Used to Be, F1

Best Sound
Will Win/Should Win: F1 

Best Visual Effects
Will Win/Should Win: Avatar: Fire and Ash

Best Animated Feature
Will Win: Kpop Demon Hunters
I've neglected to watch the biggest pop culture phenomenon of the year because I don't have Netflix and I feel weird watching a kids movie at home by myself. 

Best Documentary Feature
Will Win/Should Win: The Perfect Neighbor 

Best International Film
Will Win: The Secret Agent 
Should Win: Sentimental Value
Honorable Mention: Resurrection

Best Animated Short
Will Win/Should Win: Butterfly 

Best Documentary Short
Will Win/Should Win: All the Empty Rooms
Geeta Gandbhir has a chance to double up in the documentary categories but I'm rooting for Steve Hartman.

Best Live Action Short
Will Win: A Friend of Dorothy
Should Win: Two People Exchanging Saliva 
I was so taken by Two People Exchanging Saliva, I chose it for the next movie club which I'm hosting on Monday.

Update: 16/24 but we had a great party. Rob, Sophia and Billy had a three-way tie, all with the exact same predictions as Polymarket. Future reference, ten people is the perfect number of people for a party at the Hague.