King back
Stephen King is back, and so is this newsletter
Greetings. This is the first newsletter I’ve written in almost a month. In that time, we’ve moved from an apartment to a house and had to go home for a family emergency, so writing these fell by the wayside. Going forward, I will be resuming writing newsletters weekly, with Monday morning releases.
As a result of the delays, this newsletter is mainly comprised of some stuff that I’ve written elsewhere, in case you haven’t seen it yet. With that, let’s get into the Stephen King-iest newsletter I’ve ever written.
Nova always looked scary but she was just a big chicken.
Welcome back to Jacob’s Letter, a free pop culture newsletter full of puns and badly-PhotoShopped dog photos.
This edition features a review of “It: Chapter Two,” a look at Stephen King’s legacy of adaptations and a super-sized Trailer Park with all of the best that Fall Movie Season has to offer. Also, King’s latest book “The Institute” is out today, for those who care.
Stop clownin’ around
“It: Chapter Two” came out this Friday, and given that the repetitive movie is the second and final part of a film adaptation of a long-thought-unfilmable, 1,000-plus page novel Stephen King wrote at the height of his cocaine addiction, I was mostly OK with it. If you do go see it, see it for Bill Hader, who puts in a great performance (and is my pick to play King in the eventual biopic we’ll get about the author).
Read my full review for WFAA here, in which I answer questions about the film like “Is it scary?” and “Why is Pennywise a clown?”
My rating: 2.5 deadlights out of 5
After a Hot Box Office Summer, Weird Movie Fall is here
Fall Movie Season, where the would-be blockbusters and not-quite-awards-caliber films get placed, is now here. This year’s slate includes a ton of original programming, attempted Oscar bait, straight-up weird ripoffs, a few foreign films, the requisite Disney franchise and a few smaller films that look like they could become cultural icons. Check out more over at jakeharrisblog.com.
You come at the King, you best not miss
Speaking of Stephen King, “It: Chapter Two” is just the latest in a slew of King adaptations that are about to hit the big (and small) screens in the wake of the box office success of “It: Chapter One.”
Given Stephen King’s proclivity for pop culture, it should come as no surprise that Hollywood has adapted his works into films and other visual mediums so many times. Books like “The Shining,” “The Dead Zone,” “Carrie” and “Cujo” are masterclasses in visual descriptions and scene-building that play like little movies in the reader’s mind. Short stories like “The Body” (later adapted into “Stand By Me”) and “The Mist” feature characters that jump off the page.
At this point, it’s easier to find a King property that someone hasn’t adapted yet. But what is it about King’s work that producers and audiences find so irresistible?
I explain all of it over at Book & Film Globe.
Letter of Recommendation
Movie: One of my biggest movie-going regrets of the year is not seeing “Booksmart” in a theater. I picked it up on sale at Target the other day and enjoyed every minute of it. I haven’t laughed that heartily at a movie in a long time. Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein are the perfect pair, and this movie might be the most empathetic portrait of high school ever put to film. Check it out if you have the chance.
Music: I discovered a lot of great new music this past month, but the album that’s been getting the heaviest rotation is Jason Hawk Harris’ “Love and the Dark,” a country/rock/bluegrass/Americana/folk blend that reminds me of early Jason Isbell.
TV: I have a review in Book & Film Globe out now where I expand upon this a bit more, but “Righteous Gemstones” on HBO is simultaneously a skewering of evangelical megachurch culture and a sympathetic portrait of a family trying to do the best it can. Danny McBride and Walton Goggins knock it out of the park again. And as of Monday, HBO ordered another season of the show.
Book: I love the 33 ⅓ book series. Every book in the series is a short (less than 200 pages) look at an important album and its cultural impact. The last one I read was journalist Dan Kois’ look at Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Facing Future.” I love that album, and knew a little bit about the political background behind it (“Hawai’i ‘78 is a protest anthem, after all) but this book illuminated a lot more of the behind-the-scenes aspects of its creation.
Friday News Dump
A list of online stuff I really liked this week:
Cory Gearrin is a Rhea County alum (represent) who just got traded to the Yankees. This profile in The Athletic was conducted the moment he found out he got put on the waivers by Seattle, and it’s as great of an example of sportswriting you’ll ever see. (via Alex Coffey in The Athletic)
This oral history of the “Tony Hawk Pro Skater” video game franchise transported me back to the days of my youth when my brother and I were trying to master the McTwist on “Tony Hawk’s Underground.” (via Anthony John Agnello in The Ringer)
Another piece from The Ringer, because it’s just that good: Shea Serrano writing about John C. McGinley’s Dr. Cox on “Scrubs” is sublime. (via Shea Serrano in The Ringer)
That’s all, folks. If you liked what you saw here, click that subscribe button (promise I won’t send any annoying emails) and tell all your friends!
This newsletter is written by me and edited by my favorite person, Taylor Tompkins. Views expressed here are my own and don’t reflect the opinions of my employer, yadda yadda yadda.
If there’s anything you want to see covered in a future newsletter, let me know!
You can find me in other corners of the internet as well, if you so choose. There’s my personal website (which focuses on pop culture, faith and my journalism clips), a Twitter account and a Letterboxd account. Subscribe away.
See you next week,
Jake