i blame it all on reese witherspoon
here's a story about the reese witherspoon masterpiece, sweet home alabama
Hi guys,
In 2002, I went to the movies with my friends to watch Sweet Home Alabama. A classic rom-com starring Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas and Patrick Dempsey. There is probably nothing that makes this extremely unique but, boy, did I fall in love with this film.
After watching, I spent hours on IMDb message boards, googling facts, just trying to stay in the glow that this gave me. Also trying to search for other fans who felt the same because pre-social media, message boards were not as personal.
A week or so after I had watched it my sister went to see it and I remember anxiously waiting for her to come home so we can discuss it. The conversation went something like this:
*door slams*
Me: How, how was the movie?
Nina: Oh? It was okay.
That was the end of the conversation. I remember this only because that was the moment I realised that the people around me weren’t necessarily my people. They seriously were not as invested (or obsessing over) the things that I liked, especially when it comes to early 00’s romcoms. I mean, I carried on obsessing, I recorded it from M-Net when it came on and watched it many many times.
But it also has made me more determined to find spaces where fans can obsess what they love, and also create them. For me, it was Tumblr. I met some of my closest friends there, while we were just obsessing over a fictional ship in a teen TV show. When I went through very real problems in my personal lives, including the death of someone close to me, they were the ones who supported me even though they lived in Australia, in India, in Slovenia. And now, almost a decade later, we still talk constantly.
One of the greatest gifts the internet has given us is the ability to find our people even though they might not be in our immediate vicinity. Twitter has given me the chance to find likeminded people in my own country and to find spaces that are more intersectional. There are just some fan moments where you want to be around other Black South Africans. It also gave me space to just be myself, when oftentimes I felt I needed to tone it down because others didn’t understand me.
When I started the podcast, I honestly just wanted to speak to other obsessive fans and what I have discovered is that fans have ingrained themselves in every part of our lives. Like my neighbour who is obsessed with cars, my uncle who is obsessed with football, the obsessive fan can be a filmmaker, a musician, a doctor, a call centre agent. In the end, we probably all are obsessive fans of something.
On Monday, we held the first-ever Crushing On Roundtable about The Crown season 4. It took place on Zoom, and was just Fanie Buys, Zayaan Schroeder Mollagee and Pia Jane, three former podcast guests, and me, chatting about the latest season of this show that we are all obsessed with. It was extremely fun, and we had a lot of laughs. Because it was a webinar, we could open it up to other fans of the show to watch, talk about in the chat, and ask questions, so that it felt like one big fanfest. And I realised that these are the kind of spaces that I love to create. Places where fans like me, can just be that, fans.
other things that are on my mind this week:
Series: I loved the first season of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. It basically tells the story of a woman who after an MRI gets a ‘superpower’ where she hears the thoughts of others as musical numbers. It is a very beautiful and sweet show, with great songs too. It’s currently available on DStv Now and you can read my review for Channel24 here.
Series: I’m still not done talking about how GOOD The Crown Season 4 was. I underestimated how much resentment I still had for Prince Charles and this just brought all of that back. Other than the Diana of it all, this season was so well-written. I tend to love the capsule episodes that focus on singular points like the breaking in at Buckingham Palace and the unemployment crisis, Margaret’s decline and the hidden cousins, the apartheid episode. If you haven’t yet, you can watch it on Netflix, our roundtable will be published on our YouTube channel soon.
Podcast: Still Watching: If you like to obsess over prestige dramas, this is the podcast for you. Joanna Robinson and Richard Lawson from Vanity Fair dive deep into the shows everyone is talking about. They do blocks of episodes focusing on one episode at a time (usually HBO shows) and provide analysis of the episodes, predictions and well as interviews with the creators and stars of the shows. They are currently doing The Undoing (which I love) but have previously covered Mrs America, Westworld and The Outsider. Listen on Spotify.
Movie: It was the 25th anniversary of Martin Scorcese’s Casino, this week so I decided to see what it was all about. I absolutely loved the costumes and the music in this film. Sharon Stone was a vision, and Robert De Niro’s suits were excellent. I will say, it made me understand The Irishman a bit better because this was a precursor to that. I also loved that this felt very Scorcese, the fast editing, the music video like effects, and Joe Pesci. What a wonderful actor Joe Pesci is. Seriously. You can watch Casino on Netflix and listen to the episode of the podcast, It’s the Pictures That Got Small about it here.
Read: Yesterday, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex penned an editorial for The New York Times where she wrote about her recent miscarriage and how it is important to show empathy for those around you. It is such a beautiful piece of writing, that moved me to tears when I read it, and it’s something all of us need to remind ourselves. You can read it here.
what’s ign crushing on:
We were joined by Howard James Fyvie, filmmaker and the creator of Cartoon Network Africa’s new original production, Cartoon Network to the Rescue. We chatted about his journey in becoming a filmmaker, what it’s like being a creative, what series he believes everyone should watch, and his childhood crush on Princess Jasmine. Listen to the episode here.
This week on the podcast we were joined by Yaaseen Barnes. Yaaseen is a one-liner comedian, MC and writer. We spoke about his journey to becoming a comedian, creating inclusive spaces, the one person who got him starstruck and whether he was on Team Hope or Team Billie. Listen to the episode here.
