3 & 30: Stevie, Samurai, and Traitors

Plus: more chilly stuff from Nicholas Ray and The Clientele

You’re reading the latest installment of 3 & 30. Every month, we’ll each be sharing one record, one film, and one other wild card cultural product beyond those categories we’ve been loving. (That’s the 3.) As for the 30, we both recently turned 30 and each made a list of our 30 favorite movies. We’ll be going through them all, one movie at a time. You’ll see our latest 30 for 30 pick in an upcoming post.

Record of the month

Elliott: Stevie Wonder — Music of My Mind

My poor girlfriend. We were in the car and she was listening to (enduring?) me monologue about how, despite how boring of a take it is, The Beatles are indeed the greatest band of all time. She asked, perhaps in an attempt to get me to stop yapping about the Fab Four, “well who’s the greatest artist of all time?” Without much hesitation I said, “maybe Stevie Wonder?”, a reply based on my extensive experience with Talking Book, Innervisions, and Songs in the Key of Life.

Diving in further was necessary to back up my off the cuff claim. After releasing 13 albums in his first 9 years as a signed artist (the first of which when he was 12!) Stevie finally got full creative control with Music of My Mind. Zero time is wasted embracing his newfound freedom with back to back 7+ minute nothing-short-of-masterpiece tracks in “Love Having You Around” and “Superwoman.” He wails on the MOOG synthesizer on both. And I currently can’t get enough of the marathon funkfest that is “Keep on Running.” The song that immediately shot to the top tier of my favorite Stevie tunes is “Happier than the Morning Sun.” Every note and voice inflection is a tug on my heart and a tickle on my soul. It’s my goal for Mr. Wonder to be my most listened to artist in 2025. Ask me in December if that holds.

Shawn: The Clientele — Suburban Light and Strange Geometry

I’ve come to appreciate how unsettled my favorite music will always be — obviously, the artists you swore could last a lifetime with you at age 17 will not always complete the journey. But the flipside to that phenomenon is sticking with someone just long enough for the grand payoff. The Clientele were one of those bands I’d rip from the college radio CD archives into the iTunes library, and give a cursory listen or two, while keeping at arm’s length for unformed reasons in the years since (too British, too sleepy, too reverb-y — these are all immense assets). Only this year, do I see the Clientele’s two big records (Suburban Light and Strange Geometry) squeezing their way into the personal canon. Even if their distinct filtering of ‘60s British pop — sometimes jangly, sometimes psych-y, always hazy and familiar like a recurring dream — seems suited to lonely, rainy night drives to nowhere in particular, I’ve taken to it while wishing the snow would melt away to rain. They feel a bit out of step with the median indie rock listener right now, but probably shouldn’t be, in a world where Cindy Lee’s otherworldly reimagining of the AM dial on Diamond Jubilee can top year-end lists. This is in the same strata of timeless, classic music that’s always been a part of your life, even when you’ve neglected to keep it in the foreground.

Film of the month

Elliott: The 47 Ronin (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1941)

A Samurai film that is 13,380 seconds, but only about 90 seconds of action. Kenji Mizoguchi’s nearly 4 hour epic chooses to focus on the consequences of violence rather than the violence itself. The 47 Ronin is concerned with the structure and process of the samurai as an institution, with its flaws and inhumanity front and center. Like many of Mizoguchi’s early works, The 47 Ronin demonstrates how these patriarchal institutions end up harming the women most of all.

I was reminded of one of our faves at Even Better, Frederick Wiseman, the documentary filmmaker who has made dozens of films centering on American institutions. The craft is significantly different as Mizoguchi employs lots of medium and long shots with a very still camera and sparse cutting. But the ethos of being a fly on the wall and letting the realities and limits of an organization play out, organically capturing how these institutions rob individuals of their autonomy, feels connected. The 47 Ronin is completely its own film with its own style, and is also a work of fiction, but it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to what a Wiseman movie simply titled “Samurai” would look like.

Shawn: On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray, 1951)

Say what you will about the never-ending spigot of classic noir on the Criterion Channel (maybe at the expense of <insert any underseen auteur’s work here>, you be the judge), but I can always count on a big one from a major director that I haven’t seen slotting in the “leaving this month” carousel on high priority. Nicholas Ray’s On Dangerous Ground is the case of one very good movie, and a second, incredible movie, all contained within the same film. The front half, focused on Robert Ryan’s hardboiled detective leading a lonely, enraged life is pretty stock material for the era with claustrophobic, handsomely staged sequences. But the back half is the heart of the movie, when his character gets reassigned to a snowy murder case upstate, investigating the suspect’s blind sister, co-star (and co-director by circumstance, the story goes, when Ray fell ill) Ida Lupino. These broken, desolate souls — who feel a gaping absence in their lives even if they aren’t truly alone — bring Ray’s skill as a tortured romanticist and dramatist to the fore. It’s lovely how incidental these people being understood for the first time feels to the primary case, but it still takes over the thrust of the movie, right up to its gorgeous release of a final shot. This is not the last you’ll see of Nicholas Ray on Even Better.

Wild Card: The Traitors Season 3

Spoilers for The Traitors Season 3 ahead

Elliott: I haven’t been invested in a weekly reality show since our boy Chris Daughtry and American Idol. But when my sister introduced me to The Traitors by watching the Season 3 premiere, I was instantly hooked. You’re a Traitors veteran at this point. What do you love about the show? And what are your thoughts on Season 3 thus far?

Shawn: Oh boy, what a program! So much to love in this Mafia/Werewolf/murder mystery spin on the reality competition show, but I think the secret to The Traitors is the omniscience it grants you. Unlike Severance, the other show my house is barreling through, you basically know everything at all times (not counting behind-the-scenes production), and the faithfuls on the show very much do not. Watching people be so consistently wrong about weeding out Traitors (Tom Sandoval) is its own rush, as is seeing the Traitors get away with it. This season, though, is something new to the show, where every traitor basically hates each other and the dysfunction is contagious. They’re just so bad at being traitors. You also see this beautiful mix of hardcore reality show gamer bros, obsessed with gamesmanship and picking off traitors the right way, while the far less strategic showbiz reality stars who often haven’t a clue as to which way the winds are blowing end up coasting to the finale anyway. What’s hooked you on the Traitors, unlike just about every other non-AI reality show?

Elliott: In the interval of my beloved Minnesota Vikings crashing out in the playoffs in typical Vikings fashion (I was at that game btw…woof), and The Mariners just under 2 months away from, in all likelihood, crushing my spirits too, I’ve needed something to root for. Enter The Traitors. I’ve latched on to some of these oddball characters like I’ve known them for years. You’re spot on that granting the audience an all-knowing power as the events play out is key to its grip, and witnessing these contestants act as if their life depends on winning this silly contest brings me supreme joy.

We’re coming out of a year where the evil trifecta of the Celtics, the Dodgers, and the Chiefs (those fuckers could do it again in 3 days) won respective championships, so I’m putting all my hope in some feel good underdogs to win The Traitors — specifically Gabby on the faithful side or Queen-of-the-Shocked-Face Carolyn on the traitors side. Boston Rob (huge Boston sports fan energy) is a force to be reckoned with, and I need him to get eliminated like I need oxygen. His wild aggression has come close to sealing his death and I could see it happening tonight. Somebody I’ve got my eyes on making a deep run is Britney Spears’ ex Sam Asghari — dude is barely on camera and nobody is paying much attention to him yet.

Who are you rooting to win? And any predictions of who actually will win?

Shawn: You might be on the money with Sam Asghari — they’re either saving his camera time, or he’s just too boring to cut into the show. Of the traitors, Carolyn feels like the only one who could reach the end, but based on past seasons, I don’t know if any of the original traitors will get that far (I could see Gabby or Chrishell being strong and unsuspecting recruits, and wouldn’t mind seeing either go the distance). While they’re two of the smarter players, Dylan Efron and the cop guy play the exact kind of hero ball that gets you booted off the show (and boy was it fun to see Wes lose a bad personality vote, even though no one really seemed to buy he was a traitor). I feel like Britney’s something of a dark horse who could win on either side of the game, and I really hope Tom keeps quizzically gazing his way to the finale. Tonight can’t come soon enough.