Greetings and salutations, my lovelies! I have returned! I am filling in for the beautiful and talented The Ploughman, while he is traveling.

Let’s get to it!

What’s a Clytie list without some socialism? On the 23rd, Sandy English of the World Socialist Website revisited  Blue Collar:

“Schrader’s film is certainly worth viewing. It is one of the few ever made in a working auto plant, and one of the shamefully few about work in the United States. It depicts the workers’ circumstances accurately and vividly, including the stressful, troubling and humorous elements. It is often visually and aurally arresting: the viewer sees and feels the heat and incessant noise of the plant. The score, ‘Hardworkin’ Man’ by Jack Nitzsche and Captain Beefheart, gives a feel of the deadly weight of the machinery, and, by implication, of the whole weight of social pressures on an autoworker’s life.”

On the 26th, Michelle Ruiz offered theories behind the return of the greatest pop culture moment in history: Bennifer over at Vogue:

“Lopez and Affleck’s reunion 19 years later had already infused the pandemic summer of 2021 with an air of delicious nostalgia, like a Juicy jumpsuit for the soul. But the fresh Bennifer frenzy escalated over the weekend when, soon after the couple made their Instagram debut, they dared to re-create that salacious, butt-centric yacht shot of yore while sailing through Saint-Tropez for Lopez’s 52nd birthday. The questions swirling around Bennifer 2.0 have never felt more urgent: What exactly is going on between the noted Gigli stars? Is this real, a hologram, a PR stunt, or all of the above? Proceed for theories.”

Alan Siegel explained how old dudes are the secret ingredient of I Think You Should Leave on the 28th for The Ringer:

“A lesser series might’ve made the octogenarian the butt of the joke, or ignored him altogether. But veteran character actors are I Think You Should Leave’s secret weapon. The show turns the spotlight on those whom Hollywood rarely allows to be under it. And finally served up a chance to wreak comedic havoc, they’ve grabbed hold of it and eaten it up like Dylan’s burger. Think Ruben Rabasa’s heavily memed focus group alpha dog, Biff Wiff’s cartoonishly ultraviolent version of Santa Claus, Richard Wharton’s sexually explicit Claire’s ear-piercing testimonial weirdo, and Wilson’s burger-obsessed mentor. These old guys are responsible for many of I Think You Should Leave’s biggest, most startling laughs. After all, no one suspects the grandpa in the fleece vest.”

Jesse David Fox shared bits of a podcast with Sam Richardson, for Vulture, on the 29th:

“We would always get frustrated and annoyed with the depiction of Detroit in most things. People would use it as a punch line for ‘What’s like the most horrific place you can go to?’ — the idea that it’s the most dilapidated, dangerous place. I still get visibly mad when people do that, because it ignores the people there. Detroiters are the most resilient and charismatic and wonderful people you can meet in the world, so we really wanted to shine a positive light.”

Finally, also on the 29th, Olivia Rutigliano talked about Sneakers on Crime Reads:

“I’ve never encountered a film that begins by minding its own business as much as Sneakers. I’ll explain. In the film, our five protagonists are all masterminds of various stealthy pursuits: hacking or burglary or surveillance or government-style-intelligence-gathering. They are all also outsiders—to those respective, specialized industries, as well as to mainstream, upstanding society. Neither transgressors nor enforcers, their main occupational hazard is an existence on the fringes of everything, with virtually no one else to keep them company.”

Enjoy, and don’t forget to share your own Bennifer theories below!