Best Weekend

Best Weekend: ‘Veep’ Is Back! Plus ‘Clouds of Sils Maria,’ Cassandra Wilson


What we'll be listening to, watching, and reading to sate our pop culture needs.



This article was made possible because of the generous support of DAME members.  We urgently need your help to keep publishing. Will you contribute just $5 a month to support our journalism?

We’ve saved Sunday night for Selina Meyer (and the Game of Thrones clans), but Juliette Binoche’s poignant new role, Mariel Hemingway’s memoir, and Cassandra Wilson’s Billie Holiday tribute will fill out the rest of our weekend nicely. 

‘Veep’ Season 4 Premiere

Veep is a show that just gets better with each new season, and now that Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Selina Meyer holds the most powerful political position in the world, the cringe factor is even higher. Oh how we’ve missed the hapless Pres and her woefully, delightfully incompetent staff! And with Patton Oswalt joining the cast as the new VP’s chief of staff, we’re looking forward to the fresh bumbling blood.

‘Clouds of Sils Maria’ starring Juliette Binoche/Kristen Stewart

The newest film from writer-director Olivier Assayas, follows the story of Juliette Binoche’s actress Maria Enders, as she faces her vanishing youth and the two young women, her assistant (Kristen Stewart) and the up-and-coming ingénue  (Chloe Grace Moretz), who represent it. Binoche gives a beautiful performance as always, and, as her follow up to playing Julianne Moore’s daughter in Still Alice, Stewart is swiftly leaving the Twilight of her acting years behind. 

‘Out Came the Sun: Overcoming the Legacy of Mental Illness, Addiction, and Suicide in My Family’ by Mariel Hemingway

We got a glimpse of Mariel Hemingway’s complicated history, when her retelling of the affections she received as a then-18-year-old from Woody Allen recently made its way into the media. But now, with the release of her memoir, we are given full access to the briar patch of dysfunction and mental illness the Hemingway family (including, perhaps most famously, Ernest) has faced, and how, at least one member, made it through. 

‘Coming Forth By Day’—Cassandra Wilson

On what would’ve been Billie Holiday’s 100th birthday, singer Cassandra Wilson released an album that re-envisions some of Lady Day’s most beloved songs. On Coming Forth By Day, the jazz vocalist is backed by the rhythm section of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds, and the tracks, like “Don’t Explain” and “The Way You Look Tonight,” range from big and bold, to sultry and bluesy. A fitting birthday present for Billie indeed.

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 5 Premiere

Our favorite fantasy slaughterhouse of a show is back with its fifth season, and while the wellbeing of the Lannisters is something we’ll always be concerned with, this season our eyes are on lone wolf Arya Stark and the tenacious Daenerys Targaryen, and, of course, her dragons. 

Before you go, we hope you’ll consider supporting DAME’s journalism.

Today, just tiny number of corporations and billionaire owners are in control the news we watch and read. That influence shapes our culture and our understanding of the world. But at DAME, we serve as a counterbalance by doing things differently. We’re reader funded, which means our only agenda is to serve our readers. No both sides, no false equivalencies, no billionaire interests. Just our mission to publish the information and reporting that help you navigate the most complex issues we face.

But to keep publishing, stay independent and paywall free for all, we urgently need more support. During our Spring Membership drive, we hope you’ll join the community helping to build a more equitable media landscape with a monthly membership of just $5.00 per month or one-time gift in any amount.

Support Dame Today

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MEDIA
Become a member!