Skip to main content

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you have all had a good week and, whether you are a royalist or not, have used the coronation as an excuse to celebrate something (I?m a silver-lining kind of girl, and this silver lining comes in the form of a bank holiday). Before we properly begin, I?d like to take the time for a small announcement. This issue marks six months of The Rhubarb Society, which is not only bloody fantastic but it also feels like a bit of a landmark as I?ve been with some of you every Sunday for 26 weeks straight (you know who you are). As this newsletter evolves and the community grows, I want to change things up a bit. After this week?s newsletter, The Rhubarb Society will switch to a fortnightly format. Paid subscribers will receive two issues a month, and free subscribers will receive one. My thinking for this is twofold. The first is that this won?t feel like constant spam in your inbox (not that I think any of you consider this spam, but you understand the sentiment). I find a lot of you tend to take time to catch up on a few issues in one go, and I appreciate that my newsletters are rather long, so I hope this makes catching up on these feel like more of an event than a chore. The second is that I feel I can do this newsletter more justice with more time to write them. My weeks are often hectic, and admittedly, sometimes, these newsletters become an afterthought. I want to ensure these newsletters continue to provide information and inspiration, and I fear this may start to slip should they begin to feel rushed. Of course, this isn?t permanent, and as this is a community, should the feedback be overwhelmingly in favour of another format, this will change. As we embrace a new direction, I would love to hear what this looks like for you all, so please feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments. For those who may be comment shy, I will also insert a poll below to get us started.

 

I want The Rhubarb Society to have…

more podcasts

22%

more guides

36%

more personal essays

20%

more weeks in the life

17%

more photo diaries

4%

298 VOTES · POLL CLOSED

 

FILM CLUB

spanning worlds, galaxies, and alternate dimensions

Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3

This week I went to a very hectic pre-screening for Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3. Admittedly, I?ve fallen out of love with Marvel in recent years, and I find myself feeling indifferent to most of their new releases; however, Guardians of The Galaxy is one of the few that I will make time for. I went in having not watched a trailer, nor had I read anything on Letterboxd beforehand (I think some people might call that growth) so that I could avoid the thoughts and feelings of a thousand Marvel fanboys from polluting my opinion. I was surprised to see that Volume 3 was a love letter to Rocket (the raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper). The film explores his origin story with an unusual amount of tenderness. I say this because Rocket has primarily been the witty, comedic relief in the Guardians franchise, so I wasn?t expecting to find myself teary-eyed during multiple scenes of the film (if you are an animal lover or a pet owner, this is a tough watch). James Gunn managed to deliver with his usual eclectic style of killer soundtrack needle drops, funny dialogue and punchy action sequences. A lot of the story felt like it was used as a means to set up the next generation of Guardians, which normally would irritate me, but I had such fun watching it that I didn?t really care. It could have been shorter, and the storyline could have been tighter, but in comparison to the recent shit Marvel has put out, I?ll choose to overlook it. Selfishly, I was hoping for far more Will Poulter because, for some reason, since Midsommar, I now find real-life Sid from Toy Story attractive. With James Gunn moving to DC, GOTG Vol.3 is an apt send-off for one of the better trilogies in the MCU. If you find yourself with a few hours to spare and feel the need to have a cathartic laugh and a cry, go and see this.

 

Archive 81

After recently finishing Sens8 and still hopelessly searching for something to fill The OA shaped void in our lives, Henry and I came across Archive 81 as we were scrolling mindlessly on Netflix. It was described simply as a TV show about an archivist who is pulled into the mystery of a missing director and a cult. The preview looked pretty cheesy, but at this point, we weren?t willing to do the 30-minute back and forth of deciding what to watch on four separate platforms, so we just committed to it. It wasn?t until the end of episode one when we both started to really get into it, and we ended up binging the whole series in 36 hours. Archive 81 blends horror, suspense and sci-fi beautifully and is a deeply unnerving watch, despite not relying on jumpscares and cheap gags to provoke a reaction. I love how the past and present stories are intertwined and how the mysteries are pieced together slowly across the episodes. It?s certainly a slow burner (which I find preferable), and it explores topics that aren?t typical of your average tv show (the occult, secret societies and dimensional travel, to name a few). Whilst it?s not as good as The OA or Sens8 for various reasons, it?s certainly never formulaic or predictable, which I will always applaud. The choice of lead actors is? interesting, and admittedly, they don?t always have the chops to carry certain scenes off. They both make questionable choices throughout, and you can see where the writing becomes a little more slapdash in the middle of the series through character choices and haphazard storylines. I wish they?d spent more time developing the themes that they introduce in the earlier episodes (to avoid spoilers, I won?t say what exactly, but if you watch it, you?ll know what I?m talking about). However, if you are looking for something entirely binge-able and outside the box to distract you from all this coronation nonsense, give Archive 81 a go.

 

The Six Month Round-Up

To celebrate this landmark, I also thought it would be wholly sensible to do a bit of a round-up of previous issues. I?m often asked to write about things that I?ve previously covered, so here are your links to some of my most requested articles. With everything from self-care, the best of London, and curating your wardrobe, I?ve trawled through old issues so you don?t have to.

 

WATCH, READ, LISTEN

  • Victoria?s Secret: Angels and DemonsAs someone who used to be an avid watcher of the yearly shows, I put this documentary on, thinking I was going to get a behind-the-scenes of the process and of what the models did to prep for the shows. I clearly didn?t read the description properly because it ended up being quite a grim expose of Jeffrey Epstein?s involvement in the whole thing. It?s only three episodes long, so it?s a fairly quick watch.

  • After last week?s fairly personal newsletter, where I spoke briefly about my family?s experience with Alzheimer?s, The Times came out with an article about a new drug that slows down the progression of Alzheimer?s by a third.

  • The Dune 2 TrailerI am going to be entirely insufferable when this press tour begins. Not only will we have Timmy and Zendaya interviews (and photocalls) again, but this time, we will also get Florence Pugh and Austin Butler in the mix.

  • For the first time in over a decade, over 11,000 Hollywood writers have gone on strike. If you don?t remember the strikes from the late 2000s, here?s an interesting summary of the TV shows and films that were impacted by it (and if you ever watched any of these series, you?ll know how obvious it was when precisely in the season the writers weren?t around).

  • Will Poulter for GQ – Because he didn?t get enough screen time in GoTG3, please enjoy this video of him answering the internet’s questions.

 

And that?s all from the twenty-sixth issue of The Rhubarb Society! If there?s anything you?re keen for me to discuss, or if you have a podcast topic you?d like me to talk about, please feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments below, via email or in my DMs. If there?s anyone you think would be an excellent fit for The Rhubarb Society, please do extend the invitation below.

Love,

Tamsin and Rhubarb

xoxo