Our readers and listeners may or may not have noticed, but there hasn’t been an episode of New Moon Movie Night for a few months. After a couple of years and multiple platforms, NEVE and I are putting a pause on New Moon Movie Night. We love this podcast and article as a space to bring our media critique together with our spiritual and political minds. We have enjoyed experimenting across social media and landing with writing for the South Seattle Emerald. In late 2022, we planned and got excited about our romance season.
Welcome to our moon-synced movie review show, hosted by Saira Barbaric and NEVE. This duo of South Seattle creatives make multidisciplinary work together and individually. For this show, they’re ecstatic to join their love of astrology, ritual, and pop culture.
Stream this month’s podcast at the New Moon Movie Review official podcast website.
I might have said this before, but I will never turn down a musical. When I heard that RRR was a traditional Tollywood/Bollywood epic action film with elaborate, intricate musical numbers, I hit play without hesitation. The movie was beyond my expectations. The action, the costumes, and (most critical to this season) the romance were layered and extraordinary. Many movies attempt — and some succeed — at capturing how intimacy and connection can look between two adult men. None that I’ve seen hits the mark with as much reverence, playfulness, and historical fiction as RRR.
Welcome to our moon-synced movie review show, hosted by Saira Barbaric and NEVE. This duo of South Seattle creatives make multidisciplinary work together and individually. For this show, they’re ecstatic to join their love of astrology, ritual, and pop culture.
Stream this month’s podcast at the New Moon Movie Review official podcast website.
Whenever I watch But I’m a Cheerleader, I viscerally experience being a teenager again — all of the yearning and shame; the sparkle ache of finding out what you like and wondering if you’re likable; the desire to fit in any box you can. But I’m a Cheerleader is a 1999 romantic satire directed by Jamie Babbit and starring Natasha Lyonne. Long before she was serving up iconic performances in shows like Orange is the New Black and Russian Doll, she was baby-facing it in a gay cult classic. In the film, Natasha plays high school student Megan who really loves cheerleading and really doesn’t love making out with her boyfriend. Due to this, the fact that she’s a vegetarian and enjoys Georgia O’Keefe paintings, she is subject to an intervention from her family and friends, who tell her she’s a lesbian and cart her off to gay conversion camp. Now, it would be very easy for this to not be a funny storyline. The Miseducation of Cameron Post,another movie I like, tells a similar story, while leaning more on drama and pathos. They/Them, a movie so terrible I almost regret mentioning it, is also set at a gay conversion camp and is supposedly a satire. It is not funny. But I’m a Cheerleader is very funny, and this is because it commits to the height of its camp, allowing things to be so absurd that they are grotesque, balanced with a disarming sincerity where a character’s feelings are concerned.
Welcome to our moon-synced movie review show, hosted by Saira Barbaric and NEVE. This duo of South Seattle creatives make multidisciplinary work together and individually. For this show, they’re ecstatic to join their love of astrology, ritual, and pop culture.
Welcome to our moon-synced movie review show, hosted by Saira Barbaric and NEVE. This duo of South Seattle creatives make multidisciplinary work together and individually. For this show, they’re ecstatic to join their love of astrology, ritual, and pop culture.
Stream this month’s podcast at the New Moon Movie Review official podcast website.
Welcome to our moon-synced movie review show, hosted by Saira Barbaric and NEVE. This duo of South Seattle creatives make multidisciplinary work together and individually. For this show, they’re ecstatic to join their love of astrology, ritual, and pop culture.
Stream this month’s podcast at the New Moon Movie Review official podcast website.
Just in time for Halloween, we have a scary pick for you, and this one is definitely for mature audiences only. I watched Fresh (2022) for the first time alone while drawing. I remember being most drawn in by the music and dance montages, which lend Mimi Cave’s film a smart and out-of-time flair. Anytime there is dancing in a horror, it’s going to get my attention.
Welcome to our moon-synced movie review show, hosted by Saira Barbaric and NEVE. This duo of South Seattle creatives makes multidisciplinary work together and individually. For this show, they’re ecstatic to join their love of astrology, ritual, and pop culture. Stream this month’s podcast at the New Moon Movie Review official podcast website.
Let me set the scene for you. It’s late night. I’m sweating. Neve is anxiously anticipating my movie pick and I have nothing! In the depths of my Hulu queue lurks this fiery image of Virginie Efira in a white cloth veil. I see that this film is directed by Paul Verhoeven, and I know — this is it.
Welcome to our moon-synced movie review show, hosted by Saira Barbaric and NEVE. This duo of South Seattle creatives make multidisciplinary work together and individually. For this show, they’re ecstatic to join their love of astrology, ritual, and pop culture.
Stream this month’s podcast at the New Moon Movie Review official podcast website.
The short and sweet Obvious Child, directed by Gillian Robespierre and starring Jenny Slate, was released in 2014. Still, it gets its name from the 1990’s Paul Simon and Olodum (Black Brazilian drumming and performance collective/political movement, whose name means “God of Gods”) song “The Obvious Child.” “The Obvious Child” was Paul Simon’s reflection on mortality and aging, in which the singer is not only grown but has a child who’s grown. Simon asks, “Why deny the obvious child?” Given that the film Obvious Child is about an unplanned pregnancy in the life of a 20-something comedian, you might think the obvious child is the one that might have been. Still, I like to think that the obvious child is the one in the heart of Slate’s hilarious Donna. Paul Simon and Olodum’s song features in the film as well. Its freckled, speckled, peppered, stacked, happily gnashing drums accompany the scene in which Donna and her one-night stand Max (Jake Lacy) hook up for the first time and inadvertently get pregnant. It’s a very charming scene, with a lot of dancing, jumping, and playing around. Very little obvious sexy time, which I found endearing and wholesome. They were genuinely enjoying themselves, and the movie wanted us to know this. The downside to this scene and song choice is that Max owns both khakis and bongos. You do the math.
Welcome to our moon-synced movie review show, hosted by Saira Barbaric and NEVE. This duo of South Seattle creatives make multidisciplinary work together and individually. For this show, they’re ecstatic to join their love of astrology, ritual, and pop culture.
Stream this month’s podcast at the New Moon Movie Review official podcast website.
I knew I wanted to see Don’t Look Up (written and created by Adam McKay and David Sirota, directed by Adam McKay) because it features a Timothée Chalamet appearance. I am an unabashed Timmy fan; I make no apologies. As soon as I began watching it, too, I remembered my crushes of yesteryear: Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. They are both playing to their strengths in every way in this film. Leo is a mentally disabled and socially awkward yet unreasonably good-looking (it is spoken about this way) brainiac astronomer with a heart of gold but a bent moral compass, and perhaps a skewed view of reality. JLaw, the people’s girl, is very much the outspoken radical, the sweater punk who prefers tea to booze but resorts to smoking a bowl in times of extreme stress or delight. She is also a brainiac astronomer, and a Ph.D. student of Leo’s at Michigan State. Timothée Chalamet’s character doesn’t matter all that much, and yet he matters most of all. An article in which I will extoll Timmy’s virtues is forthcoming, but I promise I won’t waste your time here.
Welcome to our moon-synced movie review show, hosted by Saira Barbaric and NEVE. This duo of South Seattle creatives make multidisciplinary work together and individually. For this show, they’re ecstatic to join their love of astrology, ritual, and pop culture.
Stream this month’s podcast at the New Moon Movie Review official podcast website.
If we haven’t met, I’m Saira B. I’m a performance artist, filmmaker, and a huge nerd for movies, magic, and social history. I’m one-half of the podcast New Moon Movie Night with Neve, who you may know from this recent story in the South Seattle Emerald. In each episode, we discuss astrology and pop culture in sync with the new moon — traditionally a time of clearing, reflection, and intention setting.
