“[F]or Canadians anywhere in the world, Saturday night is the Gehrig speech. It’s the O.J. verdict and the M.A.S.H. finale. It’s every second of sudden-death overtime we’ve ever played against Russia.” After the Tragically Hip’s lead singer Gord Downie announced his incurable brain tumor earlier this year, the band vowed to spend their final summer touring, and Canadians everywhere will be watching the live broadcasts and streams of their very last show this Saturday. In Slate this week, Chris Koentges attempted to explain to outsiders how the band came to be such a powerful part of the Canadian mythos, why “they resonate with my friends who teach post-colonial studies as deeply as they touch the right-wing hosers I still hang out with from high school.”
Canadian and non-Canadian expats alike will find resonance in the themes in Morris From America, the indie comedy about a black American father-and-son pair who relocate to provincial Germany, reviewed by Dana Stevens in Slate. The film stars Craig Robinson, an actor best known for his supporting roles on The Office or in Hot Tub Time Machine; as Stevens writes, Robinson “hasn’t been given many big-screen chances to showcase his dramatic gifts, which come as this slight but easy-to-love movie’s richest and most rewarding surprise.” There’s also a coming-of-age story involving his teenage son and a girl who, according to Aisha Harris, embodies the stereotype of a “Becky”—you know, of “Becky with the good hair” fame.
Willa with the good taste—Slate’s TV critic Willa Paskin—reviewed I Love Dick, Amazon’s latest collaboration with Transparent creator Jill Soloway, who now occupies the prestigious position of being the network’s most important asset. The show loses some of the intensity of the novel it’s adapted from, Paskin writes, but continues Soloway’s project of “only want[ing] to write about somewhat unlikable Jewish women having really inappropriate ideas about life and sex,” as the writer-creator recently said.
Elsewhere at Slate, the Olympics hurtle toward their dramatic conclusion. Don’t miss the Jerk Watch, now featuring Ryan Lochte’s continuing saga, an appreciation of what Leslie Jones has brought to NBC’s coverage, a lament for Gabby Douglas, an ode to Rio de Janeiro’s biggest gringo, and lots more.
A few more links to send you into the weekend:
- How Baz Luhrmann’s The Get Down botches hip-hop history.
- That time Kyle McLaughlin re-created the plot of Dune in emojis.
- What Lifetime’s Intervention taught one writer about love addiction.
- Sausage Party’s “what if food had feelings?” concept conveniently ignores vegetarians.
- What’s it like to have the same name as a Pokémon character?
- Comedy Central killed The Nightly Show, late night’s sharpest voice on race.
- We’re really going to miss Gawker—and the role it served.
- Horsin’ Around is the key to understanding BoJack Horseman.
- Roald Dahl’s wonderful, terrible fascination with food.
- The tragic tale of when a Roomba met some poop.
