Hivemind Times Issue #22

Welcome To The Hivemind Times!

Hey there everyone, it’s your old pal Graydon here writing to you, the fan at home. First and foremost, we all here at Hivemind are thinking of all of you and those affected by the fires in Los Angeles right now. All we can ever strive to be in scary times is a place of some kind of escape or solace and so hopefully this humble newsletter does that. 

It’s been a crazy start to our year as we have all seemingly gotten the flu at different times, and right as we got back to work Cronk tried to burn the office down by juggling fire? Anyway, we are back on track and focused on getting you all the content you so ferociously desire. There’s an exciting collab coming to Cheap Seats, new HDIA, and main channel legends returning.

As always, one love and peace be on y’all.

- Riley & Graydon

WEEKLY PLAYLIST

As the title suggests…

MOVIE REVIEW

Queer

Luca Guadagnino’s Queer is a glacial powerhouse, a film whose use of time lilts and lulls the viewer into a near hypnotic - even psychedelic - trance. The film follows Lee, portrayed with the frenetic command of Daniel Craig, during his time in Mexico City during the 1950s. Based on the William S. Borroughs novella of the same name, Queer is a work that Guadagnino has been gestating and living with for his whole life, whose influences whip between Francis Bacon inspired tableaus of intimacy, Hopper-esque wides of a Mexico City rendered with painterly adoration, and surrealist montages whose plodding pace manages to dazzle and entrance.

In a very informative conversation with Denis Villeneuve, Guadagnino explains the origin of a particularly striking, almost body horror-esque, visual that occurs during a hallucinogenic sequence during the third act of the film, deriving from him watching a family member undergo a hemorrhage in front of him as a child — a perverse image of someone’s insides crawling outside of them and bursting, the guts and gore of the one you love being forced into view.  

In many ways, this image is a synonym for Queer, an aching attempt at externalizing intimacy and human connection, making real what is nothing more than a fireworks show between nervous systems. Much is made of talking without ever opening your mouth, knowing without being told, understanding with a single glance. Being queer is a rapturous, personal, sometimes tumultuous experience - an experience whose emotional core Luca treats as a gyroscopic center, furiously spinning a world of un-reality and images plucked from dreams you wake from, bleary and full of tears.

My favorite shot in the film comes during a conversation between Eugene (Drew Starkey) and Lee, playing cleverly with the layering of a single other take onto a conversation as a wisp of thought smearing into reality- I can’t spoil what it is, but it speaks deeply to fantasy; what it means to be swept away by and in someone else. Starkey’s performance is pointedly absent of words - but his eyes, his stance, the way he holds and stares and thinks without moving a muscle - burrows deep into Lee and the audience, as we descend deeper into this arresting vision.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross went fucking freak mode on this score again, and I cannot believe Guadagnino, Reznor, Ross, and Mukdeeprom have struck gold TWICE this year! First with Challengers, and now Queer. More Luca, please!!!! I also saw Babygirl and that was quite good, too.

- Rose Ramdin

ALBUM RECS

Tony’s most recent album recommendation.

CRONK’S UPDATE

My appetite for Call of Duty has diminished to zero. Lately, I’ve been using this newfound free time to rewatch The Sopranos.

As I stay up till 6 am every night watching TV, I can’t help but wonder, if Hivemind were The Sopranos, who would be who?

• Riley is Agent Harris, he’s too smart for organized crime.

• Graydon would be Ralph Cifaretto, but if he was like a good guy.

• Grant has to be Artie Bucco, good at cooking and probably the only normal person in the entire show.

• Tony is Furio, extremely Italian.

• And me? I’d want to be Christopher Moltisanti (minus all the violence against women and drug use). Honestly, I just want his Range Rover and that bad ass Lexus.

- Cronk

RILEY’S TWITTER DRAFTS

MERCH