Today is Saturday, December 2, 2023. I missed yesterday’s blog since I came home late after viewing a new film at the Angelika Film Center. The movie was Eileen and it was a very good character study of a mousy, repressed woman by the name of Eileen Dunlop who lives in a snowy New England town working in a prison for young offenders as a secretary. This young, lonely woman who fantasizes about being raped by one of the prison guards is played flawlessly by Thomasin McKenzie who hails from New Zealand and the other strong character in the film is Anne Hathaway who plays the prison’s new psychiatrist in bleached blonde hair and tight dresses. The two soon form an unlikely bond, as Eileen seems to be smitten by the older, highly intelligent, and intriguing Marilyn Monroe lookalike (the setting of the film is in the early 60s). Soon, Eileen is pulled into Rebecca’s (Hathaway’s) world and finds herself dressing up in her dead mother’s cocktail dresses to sip Martinis with her new friend in local bars. But the film takes a dark turn in midstream when a shocking incident occurs and Eileen is asked to participate in a potential crime with the blonde professional. What results afterward forms the fulcrum of the action -such as it is – that propels the movie to its surprising end.

As for why I wanted to see this film, I was tempted by the announcement of a giveaway of the original 2015 book by Ottessa Moshfegh to patrons watching the movie. After seeing the film, I am now intrigued with reading the novel to see how much better it is than the film adaptation. In order to receive a free copy of the book, I entered the theater as early as 6 p.m. and waited inside before heading downstairs to Theater 3 around 6:30. When I entered the auditorium, a young woman standing to the right was handing out copies of Moshfegh’s book and I happily took one and then walked to my seat in Aisle C. What ensued right before the film started a little after 7 was quite serendipitous.

The row began to fill up with patrons; a young man sitting next to me was the only person I could see wearing a mask in the theater. Before long, two young men stood in front of the aisle asking where certain seats were. I looked up at the first young man, a blonde thirtyish man, and I shrieked out, “Oliver.” I knew this young man from my gay men’s book discussion group that meets the first Tuesday of the month. What a crazy coincidence? wouldn’t you say. That he also decided to see this film at the same time and that he bought tickets in the same row as I. He had one other friend with him and they both sat down next to me. We discussed the upcoming meeting for next week and I confessed to him that I wasn’t attending the meeting since I didn’t read last month’s book, Ghost Town. Coincidentally, he said the same about his not reading the book either and wasn’t going as well. That’s when I mentioned to him that I picked up next month’s book, Other Names for Love, by Taymour Soomro at the Housing Works bookstore on Crosby Street before the film. That was another coincidence, I felt. I would never have expected to see this book on the store’s shelves, but there it was. I had gone to the Jefferson Market Library to return this month’s book and to ask if they had this book there already, and they admitted they did not. That’s when I took the subway one stop to Broadway-Lafayette Street. I could have walked the mile or so, but it was raining at that time. I also expected to get lost since I was walking alone and didn’t have Elliot by my side who knew the neighborhood better than I.

Oh, I didn’t write about the one piece of good news in this strife-torn country since I wasn’t here and that was the expulsion of that no-good joker George Santos from Congress. Santos’s term in office came to an ignominious end yesterday morning when he was voted out by a two-thirds majority of lawmakers who deplored his remaining in office any longer than Friday. I hail the decision to finally get rid of him and I was surprised by the Daily News‘ editorial that called for a “nay” decision instead of a “yay.” I immediately typed a letter to the editor of the paper denouncing their editorial, so let’s see if they print it. How do we keep a congressperson in office if we now know that he spent tens of thousands of donor dollars on Botox treatments, Hermes scarfs, and an OnlyFans subscription? So I couldn’t understand the News’ position here. The backlash against Santos could now imperil the GOP’s slim majority and it’s about time.

An even better piece of news concerned the fate of the Orange Jesus who was slammed with two negative legal decisions concerning his ridiculous claim that he was protected by “presidential immunity” from any charges in connection with the 2020 election because he was still president at the time of the allegedly illegal offenses. That argument was shot down yesterday, both in a civil case and then by Judge Tanya Chutkan in special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution in D.C.

After the decision, one of America’s leading constitutional scholars, Laurence H. Tribe, made this prediction about Chump’s fate: he’s going to jail, baby! Actually, he said, “The prediction I made two hours ago [about Chump’s losing the decision] proved right more quickly than I expected: Trump is now headed directly to conviction in DC for corruptly plotting to upend the Constitution’s system for transferring the executive power to the winner of the quadrennial presidential election.” So let’s hope that this Constitutional hard hitter’s prediction of a conviction in Chump’s case does eventually come to fruition. It will just take a lot of time, I’m afraid.

Well, enjoy Sunday. Weatherwise, it’s supposed to be a washout. So let’s see.

Stay safe and be well.