Ben Mankiewicz's Super 8

Or, An Introduction to the Writer

On Ben Mankiewicz’s excellent podcast Talking Pictures, he asks every guest some variation of the following questions. This occurs at the tail end of the show, in a lightning round style, but I think it works as a fantastic introduction to who someone is and what they love about the movies.

Without any further ado, here’s my Super 8:

1. What’s Your Most Memorable Movie Watching Experience?

In 2013, I was an RA in the University of Texas at Dallas dorm. That meant I had access to the work room — a room with an industrial-scale copier, an ominously large “guillotine” flyer cutter, and a lockbox with keys for the dozens of times a week someone locked themselves out of their room.

While printing up some flyers for an event, I noticed a dusty Epson projector sitting in the corner. It being my first year, I asked a returning RA if she knew anything about it. She said it sat there all of last year. I messaged my upstairs neighbor and fellow RA, [name redacted to protect the guilty]. We decided to take the projector into our care until someone asked where it went.

Until I got fired (unrelated), we shared joint custody of this projector and watched movies on a 10’ beige screen. I had a lot of firsts there, but the most memorable is watching Pulp Fiction.

For only $5.97 at Walmart, your dorm room could be so cool.

At the end of the movie, I sat slack-jawed, staring at the screen while the credits rolled. I had never seen anything like it — a movie that began with the ending? A movie with sub-movies nestled inside like a Matryoshka doll? I can’t recall another movie that so fundamentally shifted my idea of what a movie could be.

This was the beginning of a Tarantino phase that was as stereotypical as it was insufferable. “Did you know saying a word repeatedly robs it of its power?” and other Quentinisms seeped into my conversations. It took me a long time to realize that being a master filmmaker does not make one a competent philosopher.

2. What is a Movie You Loved in High School?

My abortive high school effort to become a cinephile, repeatedly quashed by my family’s intense religiosity, did have one upside. If I couldn’t watch new movies with their “scantily-clad” women and foul-mouthed dialogue, I could go back to the less hedonistic, Golden Age of Hollywood: the 1960s. </s>

I heard about The Hayes Code for the first time from a girl who was only allowed to wear ankle-length dresses.

I knew Hitchcock’s name, maybe from my mom, maybe from my grandma, and I ended up purchasing The Birds with an iTunes gift card. I remember waiting hours for the movie to download over the unsecured WiFi I “borrowed” from my neighbor.

Then I waited an equally interminable amount of time for the movie to sync to my iPod Touch so I could watch it on a 3.5” display as God and Hitch intended.

I had in my mind that this was a serious film, a “real” movie — not a kid movie. I knew who the director was! And I watched it repeatedly. It also helped that it was one of a handful of movies I owned on iTunes at the time.

3. What is a Movie You’d Show a Date?

I love 13 Going on 30 in a way that doesn’t make sense. On the surface, it’s very much not for me. I’m not a 13-year-old girl, and I never have been. I wasn’t nostalgic for the 80s, since I didn’t live through them. But I'm confident that I’m incompatible with any person who can resist the charm of this romcom.

Peak kino.

I think what speaks to me in this movie is Jenna’s deep need to be somewhere else as someone else — to become a person in charge of her own life. I grew up stifled, counting the days until I got to be my own person. Now that I am thirty, flirty, and thriving, I’m still defining that person while holding onto the things from growing up in which I find value and joy.

4. What Movie Makes You Cry Without Fail?

Casablanca is my favorite film; I love Bogart’s arc, the commentary on US foreign policy before our involvement in WWII, and who can resist Ingrid Bergman? But the moment that brings a tear to my eye on every viewing is the cry of “Vive la France!” after they sing La Marseillaise.

The context I learned between my first viewing and subsequent viewings only adds to the weight: a huge number of the cast were refugees who had fled the Nazi annexations. In fact, Peter Lorre’s likeness was used in Nazi propaganda.

There’s power in defying fascists, especially when the future is as uncertain as it was in 1942.

5. What Filmmaker from the Past Would You Like to Visit on Set?

There’s no master of physical comedy quite like Buster Keaton. I would love to be a fly on the wall in the early Arbuckle days or on the set of The Cameraman, where Keaton realized he needed to get away from the studio and get back to the East Coast to make his movie.

This shot is recreated in the upcoming Paddington in Peru.

I’ve watched a number of Keaton’s shorts in the last year or so, and I’m impressed with how laugh-out-loud funny they remain at 100 years old.

6. You’re a Thief. There’s a vast warehouse of every prop from every movie. What do you steal?

This is the question I’ve struggled the most with; I’ve thought about it a lot since I first heard Ben ask it on the show. I think I’ve finally settled on an object and the best part is, I know where they keep it IRL! No fictional warehouse needed.

If this piano goes missing, you haven’t seen this photo.

There’s a standing Casablanca exhibit at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in LA. As I entered the exhibit, I was overwhelmed. I didn’t expect to get emotional, but when I saw Sam’s piano, it hit me. This was the piano.

I don’t know where I’d put it, but I’d figure it out.

7. What Is Your Mother’s Favorite Movie?

My mom was never a huge fan of movies and has pivoted fully to being a Hallmark movie watcher / scornful of the immoral Hollywood establishment. She likes predictable movies that can happen in the background. But one movie cut through the noise, and she quoted it all the time when I was growing up (despite it being a movie with too much foul language to ever be screened in our house).

During my first Noirvember celebration, I saw The Long Kiss Goodnight on a few lists as a great modern movie inspired by Noir tropes. It’s in my Christmas movie rotation because Shane Black loves a Christmas crime film.

This movie is F-U-N: Geena Davis manages to swing between personas so well, Samuel L. Jackson spits some top-notch motherf*ckers.

8. What Is Your Father’s Favorite Movie?

I asked my dad about his favorite movie, and he said Ford v Ferrari. When I asked if he has a longstanding favorite, he said, “Not really.” Great talk.

I’ve added Ford v Ferrari to my watchlist.

What I’m Planning for This Newsletter in 2025

In early 2025, I’ll be getting caught up on any Best Picture Nominees that I missed in theaters. I’ll be sure to add updates as I round that out once nominees are announced.

The big project for 2025 is going to be weekly updates as I work my way through Peter Bogdanovich’s Movie of the Week. As an avid listener of You Must Remember This, I came to Bogdanovich’s work through the work of his ex-wife Polly Platt — an avenue that prior to Karina Longworth’s series was probably unheard of given Platt’s undeserved obscurity.

I watched Targets last year and was thoroughly impressed with the way Bogdanovich (and Platt!) captured the exact essence of the modern mass shooter with only the UT Tower Shooter from which to work.

The book consists of a weekly movie and a 2–3 page essay reflecting on the film and its impact. I’m excited to mirror that in diary form here. I’ll see you the first week of January with reflections on An American in Paris.