Shuffling under the mortal coil this week (aka hosting the Gabfest), it’s our OG players Steve, Dana, and Julia. Like a morose Danish prince contemplating a human skull, they gaze upon the Oscar nominated Hamnet, based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell inspired by William Shakespeare’s life. Directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, Hamnet has brought some critics to tears and left others cold. Our hosts share where they landed.

Next, they boot up the Netflix content machine to view The Rip, a new cop caper reuniting Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Do the boys from Boston (illogically playing Miami cops) make good again? Finally, they welcome New Yorker writer Clare Malone to discuss her recent profile of the deeply polarizing, newly-appointed head of CBS News Bari Weiss.

In a special add-on, Isaac Butler leaves a voice memo to share his vituperative take on Hamnet—as outlined in a recent Slate piece. The Hamnet discourse continues in a bonus episode exclusively for Slate Plus subscribers wherein the gang unpacks the film’s ending. Is the play indeed the thing?

Endorsements

Dana: The book Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell especially the audiobook version read by Jessie Buckley.

Julia: The hilarious video of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck with Jimmy Fallon naming all the towns in Massachusetts on The Tonight Show, the sober, intelligent New York Times opinion round table between Lydia Polgreen, David French, and Michelle Goldberg about ICE raids in Minneapolis and the killing of Alex Pretti, and the still deeply timely film I’m Still Here.

Steve: The film Sentimental Value and the double album Sing the Children Over & Sand In My Shoe by the singer/songwriter Kath Bloom as well as the Kath Bloom cover “Come Here” by the band The Concretes.

Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com.

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.

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Is Hamnet this Year’s Oscar Villain? Edition