Can I interest you in a Douglas fir parfait?
âBring the energy. But be smart about it.â
Thatâs the message Dodgers slugger Max Muncy has for fans attending tonightâs winner-take-all playoff game between the Boys in Blue and those preening San Diego Padres.
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Itâs good advice, and I can tell you from personal experience, it works. Itâs the same thing I used to tell my son, then 5, before his youth soccer games, when he was wont to race up and down the field whether or not the ball was within 100 feet of his feet. That you have to say this to a bunch of grown-ups attending a baseball game is another matter entirely. But weâll leave that discussion for another time.
Iâm Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelopeâs Friday newsletter, bringing the energy.
âWe Live in Timeâ: Dying from cancer, the curated version
In the run-up to the release of the twisty weepie âWe Live in Time,â A24 released a promotional picture of its main characters, played by Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, enjoying a carousel ride together, their giddy pleasure overshadowed by the presence of a golden, bug-eyed and, from the look of things, demonically possessed merry-go-round horse in the foreground of the photo.
The image became an instant meme with people superimposing the stallion into shots from âThe Shining,â âAlien 3â and any other movie where this horseâs malevolent visage actually made sense. (Unlike, say, a romantic tear-jerker.) Itâs as if Ari Aster had a leftover prop from âHereditaryâ that was gathering dust inside an A24 storage shed and someone decided to insert it into âWe Live in Timeâ just to see if anyone would notice.
And if they had? Who knows, maybe itâd spawn a new slow-burn A24 horror film centered on a haunted carousel that acts as a metaphor as to how we spend most of our lives going around in circles, lost until Death comes riding in on a googly-eyed horse to snatch us away.
That would be a more interesting movie than âWe Live in Time,â which seems less a film than an impeccably curated Instagram account thatâs been jumbled out of sequence. Hereâs Pugh, playing celebrated chef Almut BrĂźhl, gathering ingredients for a Douglas fir parfait, an iffy creation that signals her daring brilliance. Hereâs Almut again, now quite pregnant, sitting on a toilet, having her contractions meticulously timed by her dutiful partner, Tobias (Garfield). Now Almut is in the kitchen, doubling over in pain. (After eating a Douglas fir parfait, perhaps?)
The movie, which I reviewed for The Times, opened today in four theaters around town before expanding wide next weekend. I shed no tears. But donât you dare call me unfeeling. I got a little misty-eyed just the other day listening to this song. (And, yes, I do realize itâs hard to make the good things last.)
Pharrell Williams sees his âsoulâs intentionâ in Legos
The Pharrell Williams documentary âPiece by Pieceâ arrives in theaters today, telling the story of the prolific musicianâs life and career through the use of Legos. Itâs fun, though not particularly illuminating. Iâm not quite convinced that Williams is the musical genius that the movie makes him out to be, but heâs had a hand in more songs than I realized.
My pal Katie Walsh, reviewing for The Times, called the movie âsurprisingly moving.â Eh. Maybe sheâd cry watching âWe Live in Timeâ too. Iâll have to ask her. My old friend Mikael Wood spoke with Williams, who says the movie is less a celebration of all things Lego than a âcelebration of the transmutation of hubris to humility.â
âWhen you hear your voice and you see a Lego character, it objectifies a situation â makes it so itâs not so personal, so you can see beyond your personal flaws and see your soulâs intention in a way you might not be able to if you were looking at an actual video,â Williams told Mikael.
Maybe thatâs what we all need, our own personal Lego figurine. Imagine all those Legos, bringing the energy and being smart about it.
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From the Oscars to the Emmys.
Get the Envelope newsletter for exclusive awards season coverage, behind-the-scenes stories from the Envelope podcast and columnist Glenn Whippâs must-read analysis.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.