The Friday Five No. 2 | The Eternal Beauty of 'In The Mood For Love'

Plus a few other things on my radar

Jul 04, 2025

Hello, readers, and welcome to a new series I’m trying out, The Friday Five. Five things on my radar… every Friday.

1. The Eternal Beauty of ‘In The Mood For Love’

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that’s perfect in its own way. Not "perfect perfect"—because there’s no such thing—but perfect in a way that means the director couldn’t have made a single creative decision differently that would have improved the final product.

These movies can be any genre: drama, action, comedy, anything. My list of “perfect-in-their-own-way” movies includes Lost in Translation, Zodiac, No Country For Old Men, Lust/Caution, There Will Be Blood, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Major League (to name a few).

(Of course, great movies can still exist without being “perfect in their own way.” Saving Private Ryan, for instance, might be the best war movie ever made, but it’s not “perfect in its own way” because the whole “saving Private Ryan” plot feels a bit overwrought. Apocalypse Now, however, is perfect in its own way, even if you could argue it’s not overall as Saving Private Ryan.)

The quintessential “perfect-in-its-own-way” movie is Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood For Love. Nikita and I saw it in the theater last week at IFC Center in New York, and I was reminded how achingly beautiful it is. The first time I watched it, back in my twenties, I ached for the love story—the suppressed longing between Chow (Tony Leung, one of the most naturally gifted cinematic presences of the century) and Su (Maggie Cheung), and the intimate distance that keeps them apart.

This time around, though, it was the sheer beauty of the entire project that really got to me: the set design, the cinematography, the characters’ wardrobes, the lines and shadows on the actors’ faces, the long shots of wafting cigarette smoke. Each frame is a piece of art. It’s a masterpiece.

In the Mood For Love, and the short film In the Mood For Love 2001, are showing at IFC Center through July 10. Put on a nice outfit and go check it out if you can.

2. A New Book by Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer is one of the reasons I wanted to be a writer. I read his first novel, The Colour of Memory, about coming of age in London, during my first year of university. I can’t remember if it was assigned in an English class or if I just came across it, but it was the first book I ever read with a voice I’d describe as youthful and modern. Until I read Dyer’s novel, I didn’t know one could write like that.

For some reason, I didn’t read another Dyer book until Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It, his travel memoir, which I read while aboard the MV Hanjin Geneva sailing from Korea to Seattle. This book, too, was a revelation. Before reading it, I didn’t realize travel writing could be so good, so personal, so interesting.

I’ve since read most of his fiction and non-fiction, and while I love some of his works more than others, Dyer is on a whole other level as a writer. It’s always a pleasure to be alongside him on the page. His latest memoir, Homework, is about growing up in working-class England, the son of a sheet-metal worker and “a dinner lady” who worked in a school canteen. Personally, I think memoir is where Dyer is at his best, and I can’t wait to pick this up.

3. Elizabeth Bruenig’s “Witness,” and art by Peter Mendelsund

If you haven’t read it yet, Elizabeth Bruenig’s feature in the recent issue of The Atlantic (“Witness”), about her years witnessing executions in America’s prisons, is one of the best pieces of journalism I’ve read in years. This is the type of journalism we need more of: empathetic, intelligent, curious, heartbreaking.

Before reading the piece, I was already drawn in by the artwork, which, it turned out, is original work by The Atlantic’s own creative director, Peter Mendelsund. His book of paintings, Exhibitionists: 1 Journal, 1 Depression, 100 Paintings, is now sitting on my coffee table.

4. Stuyvesant Heights, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn

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We found out the other day that our landlord is selling our building and we’re going to have to move out of third-floor brownstone apartment in a few months. This was tough news for us because we love our place, and our neighborhood even more.

The reality of having to move has made me appreciate the beautiful neighborhood we’re in even more, with its brownstones and tree-lined avenues, and the many great spots that have opened up since I moved here almost four years ago. Here are some of me and Nikita’s favorite haunts in Stuyvesant Heights:

Rita & Maria, our local coffeeshop
Botani Cafe, another coffeeshop
Passionfruit, yet ANOTHER coffeeshop
Barb’s, a tiny cocktail bar on Marcus Garvey
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Frog’s wine bar
Saraghina Restaurant (but for the buttermilk pancakes more than the pizza)
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Peaches, the Bed-Stuy institution
Lunatico, one of New York’s best music bars
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Selune, a new wine bar we haven’t been to yet but looks hopping
Daphne’s, gorgeous Italian spot where we ate on our wedding night
Suono, a listening bar we also haven’t been to yet but I’m glad exists anyway