Welcome to Close All Tabs, a weekly newsletter where we collate the best bits of screen culture from around the Internet. In other words, we’re online 24/7 so you don’t have to be. Mwah!
Close All Tabs is part of Netflix Pause, a publication that’s all about hitting pause to reflect on the latest film and TV. Subscribe now to get three free newsletters in your inbox every week diving into screen culture.
I re-watched my favourite period drama The Bling Ring this week, which meant I spent the rest of the week pretending it was 2008 and taking swirl-effect Photo Booth selfies on my laptop. That is also probably why my computer camera has broken, but instead I will blame it on the number of tabs I have open. Here’s what they contain:
7 The Woman in the Window tabs
Yes, The Woman in the Window is camp, as we have established, but one thing we have yet to establish about this thriller starring Amy Adams in the most Amy Adams role possible (which is someone who is sometimes frazzled, often manic, and always whispers shakily to the camera) is just who exactly this titular woman in the titular window refers to.
Some say The Woman in the Window is Amy Adams, some say it is Julianne Moore, some say it is, well, the most iconic character from Sex and the City:
Look, the real answer to this question is that we are all The Woman in the Window, or at least a woman in a window, but perhaps none more so than The Girl on the Train, who was quite literally a woman sitting in the window of a train.
The Woman in the Window is also … surprising relatable for a movie about Amy Adams seeing a murder happen in the window across the street. First of all, not only does Amy Adams play a character who is, for lack of a better phrase, in lockdown…
…but she also spends all of her time indoors drinking and watching movies, which means she joins Katie Mitchell of The Mitchells vs. The Machines fame in the leagues of gold-star cinephile representation.
The Woman in the Window is also relatable because of its blind faith in Julianne Moore, someone I would do anything and everything for (except close my tabs).
And speaking of Julianne Moore, she really does do the absolute most with her single scene appearance, including delivering this very accurate, very pithy line that sums up the entire twisty affair.
3 Halston tabs
It has truly been a big week for peak performances; just as Amy Adams is peak Amy Adams in The Woman in the Window, Ryan Murphy is peak Ryan Murphy here in this miniseries about the life and mystique of international fashion icon Halston, played by Ewan McGregor with permanently slicked back hair.
Over at E!, McGregor explains the Halston voice. “He had this incredible accent that he invented almost,” he says. (Halston walked so Lindsay Lohan could run).
And look, maybe Halston was onto something, because we are now all silently trying and failing to imitate the accent to ourselves under our breaths:
Finally, this BTS shot, which proves a picture says a thousand words and that word is BA-lencíåägâ.
1 Love, Death & Robots tab
The only certainties in life are love, death, and robots, or whatever Benjamin Franklin said. Season 2 of this animated, Black Mirror-esque anthology series is out now, and delivers above and beyond on its premise — as this Polygon piece breaks down, ranking each episode in terms of just how much love, death, and robot it contains.
Okay, 1 more tab
Happy 20th birthday to the Guardian’s least favourite ogre. At Vice UK, Ella Kemp reflects on Shrek’s cultural legacy, branding Shrek as a political icon. “Shrek rapidly became the poster-beast of 21st century fatigue,” she writes. “The ultimate ‘mood’ for an era in which the nihilism and the carefree optimism of the previous decade no longer applied.” Radiohead could never!!!!
