The Month of May-triarch
Mother Always Knows, Hope for Hollywood, and A Hot Take Gone (quickly) Cold
Your Inside Voice is a curated cultural newsletter brought to you by Pragmatic, the IP/literary scouting advisory that helps film & tv producers find, acquire, and develop material for the screen.
THE MAIN COURSE
Matriarch: A Memoir by Tina Knowles | One World (Random House)
Given her proximity to Beyoncé, it’s tempting to think of this month’s book pick by Tina Knowles as a celebrity memoir. That would be a mistake. Matriarch is a sweeping portrait of post-WWII American culture as told through a distinct—and unique—POV. It’s a deeply personal story told on a large stage, unflinching and unsparing, recounting moments both private and public that speak to Knowles’ distinctly American journey.
Born into a large family in Galveston, Texas, Knowles’ story is deeply American, spanning her roots in a Black, French-speaking Creole family originating in Weeks Island, Louisiana, through segregation, the civil rights movement, and, finally, her life as a mother and creative force behind one of the world’s biggest stars.
The scope of her experiences is fascinating in its own right, but it’s the rich, propulsive way she tells it that makes the book a true page-turner.
In a twitchy world careening from one viral moment to another, Matriarch is at once contemplative and a page-turning triumph.
YOUR SOMMELIER’S PAIRING
The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up by David Rensin | Ballantine
Apple TV’s The Studio is both a rollicking good time, but also the most anxiety-provoking show on television at the moment for those of us who have worked for more than five minutes in or around Hollywood. There are only two episodes left, but once the season finale’s credits roll and you’re still jonesing for more Hollywood hijinks, might we recommend a dip into The Mailroom by David Rensin.
Published in 2003, the book has long been required reading for anyone who wants to work in Hollywood. Much has changed since its release, of course. In fact, it feels like everything has changed. The fates and furies of Silicon Valley are now as (or more) important to the process of developing and making movies and TV shows as the instincts of studio bosses. Streaming platforms have replaced DVDs, TikTok and YouTube scratch many of the itches that old school TV did, robots might well replace us all, and the world is, lol, on fire.
But there’s still lots to be learned from this very old school book about what’s now a completely different world. For now, at least, relationships still matter, a good story well told still moves audiences, and taste is an invaluable something that the algorithm doesn’t always get right.
DESSERT
Amy Sherald: American Sublime | Through August 10 | Whitney Museum of American Art
If you’ve ever woken up at 3am in a cold sweat about something embarrassingly smug and shortsighted that you said at a party in 2008, just know that The Wall Street Journal has survived even after publishing this scorching hot take the day before Sinners—a movie based on nothing other than Ryan Coogler’s script—was released and went on to break all sorts of records.
Everything You Need to Know About Emily Henry by Joumana Khatib | The New York Times
It’s a tight race, but Contemporary Romance might just be on the cusp of beating out Romantasy as the genre of the moment. And no one does the genre more successfully at the moment than Emily Henry.
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