<\/p>\n
I was too young to enjoy the \u201cgolden age of travel.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n But if Trump\u2019s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy really wants to return to the days when air travel was a ring-a-ding-ding good time<\/a>, don\u2019t the airlines have to do their part too? Maybe the cramped cabins, inedible meals and endless delays are making us all a little cranky. And maybe the incivility<\/a> and disrespect<\/a> that Duffy\u2019s boss displays on a daily basis has a way of coarsening the way people behave in public. <\/p>\n If a return to a \u201cgolden age of travel\u201d<\/a> means bringing back cocktail and piano bars<\/a> on airplanes, however, I\u2019ll dust off my fedora and be first in line to pack up and fly away<\/a>. <\/p>\n I\u2019m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter, wondering how you survived<\/a> this past weekend. Maybe you stayed local and went to see \u201cHamnet\u201d? Let\u2019s talk. <\/p>\n Paul Mescal in \u201cHamnet.\u201d<\/p>\n (Focus Features)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Steven Spielberg introduced \u201cHamnet\u201d at the movie\u2019s Academy Museum premiere a couple of weeks ago, saying that director Chlo\u00e9 Zhao and Maggie O\u2019Farrell\u2019s 2020 novel about William Shakespeare\u2019s family life were \u201cmade for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Motioning to the huge screen at the academy\u2019s 952-seat David Geffen Theater, Spielberg called it \u201cthe kinds of screens that we are fighting the tides to keep filled with, not just blockbuster, epic, escapist movie rides, but sensitive and intimate portraits of marriage and family and the life-altering epiphanies that spring from heartache and heartbreak like the film you\u2019re about to see.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThere needs to be room for films like Chlo\u00e9\u2019s on screens like these,\u201d Spielberg, one of \u201cHamnet\u2019s\u201d producers, concluded. <\/p>\n Zhao then came onstage, brought out her cast and led the meditation ritual<\/a> she has been doing since the movie\u2019s Telluride premiere.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason why I like to start a film this way is because making \u2018Hamnet\u2019 taught me the simplest but most important thing in life, which is being present with each other right here, right now,\u201d Zhao said before leading the breathing exercise. <\/p>\n The moment of Zen came in handy. About a half-hour after the movie started, the theater\u2019s sound system glitched, muting the dialogue and turning a scene between Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley<\/a>, playing Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, into a pantomime.<\/p>\n Eventually, the house lights came up and the film was delayed for about 15 minutes while the audio issues were addressed. \u201cHamnet\u201d sound designer Johnnie Burn, an Oscar winner for \u201cThe Zone of Interest,\u201d and film editor Affonso Gon\u00e7alves left their seats to lend a hand. Whatever they did worked, and the movie resumed.<\/p>\n As \u201cHamnet\u201d is a mood piece, a movie that envelops you in its world and its characters\u2019 heightened emotions, I worried that the interruption would irrevocably break its spell. But during the homestretch, I looked to my right and noticed the two women next to me crying. They weren\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n \u201cHamnet\u201d is such a good movie that even technical difficulties can\u2019t defeat it. <\/p>\n Afterward, at a party attended by around 200 film academy members, the talk centered on how quickly people shifted gears and became immersed in the story after the delay. Zhao\u2019s tale of love and loss and the cathartic power of art has been a festival hit, winning several audience awards the past few weeks. And it was clear from this screening that Oscar voters are ready to line up behind it as well and crown it one of the season\u2019s powerhouse contenders. <\/p>\n Not that there aren\u2019t a few dry-eyed contrarians out there. In her wildly entertaining pan, Times film critic Amy Nicholson decried the dampness of it all<\/a>. My favorite line concerns Will and Agnes\u2019 courtship: \u201cTheir flirtation \u2014 especially Mescal\u2019s dumb, happy, horny grin \u2014 makes Shakespeare feel freshly relatable. Perhaps his Ye Olde Tinder profile read: \u2018Aspiring playwright seeks older woman, pagan preferred.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\u2018Hamnet\u2019 has its critics, but audiences are behind it<\/h2>\n