Vicky Krieps, Stranger Things and John Waters

The Independent’s entertainment newsletter [View in browser]( [The Independent]( June 11, 2022 [The Independent]( Written by Louis Chilton   The IndyArts Newsletter   Hello, this is Louis Chilton again, filling in for Jessie Thompson for the week. It’s been a rather quiet week, culture news-wise, hasn’t it? I suppose everyone’s just on a comedown from the Jubilee weekend. Either that or the world’s just agreed to take it easy for a few days and give everyone a chance to catch up on Stranger Things. Speaking of Stranger Things – have you seen how long some of the episodes are? Call me a runtime fascist but I just don’t think a two-and-a-half hour TV episode should be a thing that exists. We’ve strayed too far from God’s light. Amanda Whiting disagrees, though, [pleading the case for the supersized episode in her weekly Hit Pause column](. Jurassic World Dominion is out this week, and has been getting quite the hammering from critics. The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey might even be on the more charitable end of the spectrum, [awarding the film two stars](. “Chris Pratt, scraped of every last bit of charisma he’s expressed in Guardians of the Galaxy or Parks and Recreation, is an empty vessel of American masculinity,” she wrote. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad Jurassic world (Universal Pictures)   Elsewhere, Adam White [spoke to Busy Philipps]( (Freaks and Geeks; Vice Principals) about unrealistic body expectations, gun control, and being “grossed out by Hollywood”. Kevin EG Perry had a fascinating interview with [two of the people involved in the 1970s Hollywood cult The Source Family](. Ex-Etonian filmmakers Tom Stourton and Tom Palmer told Ellie Harrison why they’ve made an “evil Richard Curtis” movie, in the form of new toff-com [All My Friends Hate Me](. Rachel Brodsky [interviewed Devon Sawa](, star of Casper, Final Destination, and, more recently, Hacks. Kevin also [interviewed the inimitable filmmaker John Waters](. Good stuff!   [The Saturday Interview – Vicky Krieps]( [Oscars image]( Vicky Krieps: ‘They meant well, they wanted to save me. But they said, “Vicky, you have to change your approach.”’ (Shutterstock) For this week’s [Saturday Interview](, Adam White spoke to Vicky Krieps, the star of Phantom Thread and M Night Shyamalan's Old. They spoke about feeling as if she'd "survived a shipwreck" in the aftermath of Phantom Thread, struggling to understand Daniel Day-Lewis's "self-inflicted agony" and her new film Bergman Island. [Oscars image]( Vicky Krieps in 'Bergman Island' (Mubi) Read an extract from our Saturday Interview below… It’s partly why – apart from a turn in last year’s M Night Shyamalan thriller Old – Hollywood has never really worked its magic on her. In the wake of Phantom Thread, Krieps spent months in Los Angeles, attending fancy parties and meeting with different American agents. Many began mapping out the kind of career she could have. Krieps balked at it. “Earlier, you were asking about pain,” she tells me. “That was painful. I don’t know why. The whole small-talk thing. It’s like eating cardboard.” Does she ever think about the person she would have been if she let Hollywood shape her? “Yes, when I go on Instagram,” she says. She only joined it to stop fake accounts from claiming to be her, and uses it quite conventionally – she promotes her work, posts pictures of her childrens’ drawings, an occasional candid photograph. “I am not joking, but within one minute on Instagram, I become sad. And why I become sad is because I see colleagues of mine, or people who do the same work [as me], making themselves…” She ponders the right word to use. “It’s like they’re putting themselves out there in a way that is so embarrassing. Like selling yourself. Every second picture I see is not just a picture, but someone trying to say, ‘Look at me. I’m okay, am I not? Please accept me.’” She continues: “It shows me who I would have been if I let people guide me. You become someone who, without noticing, fulfils other people’s ideas and visions. You become a little puppet always trying to get approval, and [told] the right way to be. But we’re all approved the minute we get here. We’re perfect the way we are. There’s nothing you have to add or take away.” [Read the full interview here]( What to binge this week Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) and John Kelly (David Caruso) in 'NYPD Blue' (ABC) NYPD Blue Is there anything less fashionable than recommending a cop show in the year of our Lord 2022? Well, I’m going to do it anyway. All 12 seasons of 1990s/2000s cop drama NYPD Blue have just been added to Disney Plus. For all its faults, Blue was groundbreaking TV, an unprecedentedly candid police procedural focusing around the gruff, prejudiced detective Andy Sipowicz (played wonderfully by Dennis Franz). Look past the whirring conveyor belt of forgettable supporting characters (and a few memorable ones, such as Jimmy Smits or James McDaniel) and you’ll find a compellingly written, intelligent procedural with enough subsequently famous guest stars to fill a phone book. The move to Disney Plus doesn’t just make it more convenient than ever to watch the series – it’s also been given a pretty slick HD facelift. ‘NYPD Blue' is available to stream now on Prime Video Out and about [Sunshine on Leith – Pitlochry Festival Theatre/ Capital Theatres]( This jukebox musical, inspired by the greatest hits of folk-rock duo The Proclaimers, got the [thumbs up from Fergus Morgan earlier this week](, who described it as “heartfelt”, “nicely homespun” and “ultimately hard to resist”. [Buy tickets here]( [Dreamers – Omnibus Theatre]( Papergang Theatre stage this politically charged production at the Omnibus Theatre in Clapham, exploring the legacy of the 2019 Hong Kong riots. In a generally warm review published in tomorrow's Week on Stage roundup, Fergus awards it three stars. [Buy tickets here]( [All My Friends Hate Me – In cinemas]( This darkly comic class satire is not for the faint of heart. All My Friends Hate Me focuses on a wealthy young man (Tom Stourton) who reunites with his posh college friends, before things take a turn for the worse. "Here’s a film that leaves you with the same sickly, hollow feeling you might get spending time with the ghosts of your own past," writes Clarisse in her review.   INDYBEST / [BEST BUYS](   Prime Day Amazon devices deals 2022: Dates and offers to expect on Ring doorbells, Fire sticks and more Prime Day Amazon devices deals 2022: Dates and offers to expect on Ring doorbells, Fire sticks and more [Click here for the full list]( [The new Independent app]( [The new Independent app](   Essential reading [Jada Pinkett Smith addresses Will Smith’s Chris Rock Oscars slap for first time]( [Jada Pinkett Smith addresses Will Smith’s Chris Rock Oscars slap for first time]( [The 10 best sex scenes in film]( [The 10 best sex scenes in film]( [The 17 worst sex scenes in movie history]( [The 17 worst sex scenes in movie history](         If you can spare a minute we’d love your [feedback]( on our newsletters. 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