MONDAY, AUGUST 3 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE C5
Beth ’s older sister and brother
(along with their spouses) and
Sam’s old er sister, Hannah, who,
at 49, is the only unmarried adult
and the oldest person at the
reunion.
Hannah and Beth take turns
narrating the story, which tipsily
loop de loops like a mosquito
that has buzzed through a pitch-
er of frozen margaritas. Plot is
paramount in “A Good Family .”
Readers should be forewarned
that Kim isn’t concerned with
psychological depth, literary
style or atmosphere. Instead, the
fun in reading the novel derives
from allowing oneself to be tire-
lessly sucker-punched by plot
revelations, chapter after chap-
ter.
For instance, the first chapter
ends with a z inger when Hannah
BOOK WORLD FROM C1 spies her brother Sam having sex
with his sister-in-law, Eva, in an
upstairs bedroom of Le Refuge.
Scarcely before we readers can
stagger away f rom that sight, we
learn that this year’s reunion is a
send-off for Beth, who’s due to
report to Alderson federal prison
camp in West Virginia. Beth has
been sentenced to almost 10
years for insider trading, as well
as for the fraudulent marketing
of a Ritalin-type drug (in the
tempting form of gummy chews)
that turned out to dangerously
curb young patients’ appetites.
Bizarrely, Sam and Beth tell their
two li ttle girls that mommy is
simply going off to camp for, like,
a really long time.
Rare in a suspense novel, Kim
often makes events turn out
better than we anticipate. For
instance, we might expect that
Beth, upon “self-surrendering” at
Alderson, will be walking into an
“O range Is the New Black” night-
mare of hazing, degradation and
overcooked vegetables. Prison,
however, turns out to be pleas-
ant. Hannah, who goes along on
the drive to Alderson, describes
the facility as looking like “it
could be one of the Seven Sisters
all-women colleges, only with
fewer lesbians and more dental
problems.”
During the somewhat slap-
stick “admissions” process, Kore-
an American Hannah — as op-
posed to Nordic blond Beth — is
twice mistaken for the new in-
mate. (This scene is one of the
few times in this novel when the
multiracial makeup of the Min-
Lindstrom clan seems to matter.)
Once on the inside, Beth is
welcomed by her bunkmate,
Juanita, who puts down her copy
of “Murder on the Orient Ex-press” to helpfully show Beth
how to make her bed so that it
passes inspection. Although oth-
er prisoners sporting names like
“Meatloaf Mary” and “Deb the
Destroyer” threaten to be less
congenial, a “ dewy fresh” B eth
admits to Hannah at visiting
hours a few weeks into her
sentence that: “You’d be amazed
how much less stress you feel
when you don’t have to worry
about taking care of two young
children, holding down a full-
time job, and fighting off credi-
tors... .”
The mystery at the center of “A
Good Family” is the identity of
the person who dropped the
dime on Beth and her shady
pharmaceutical practices. The
Min-Lindstroms’ au pair, a
young Swedish woman Lise, filed
a whistleblower lawsuit against
Beth and her company, provid-ing prosecutors with informa-
tion about her personal and
professional life and reaping a
hefty reward. But someone more
knowledgeable had to have
planted the idea in Lise’s greedy
little head. During their first
prison visit together, Beth begs
Hannah to make good use of her
library research skills and ferret
out the identity of the master-
mind snitch.
You’ll never guess — o r maybe
you will. No matter. “A Good
Family” is a lively suspense di-
version that provides the eternal-
ly welcome assurance that no-
body has it all, at least not
forever.
[email protected]Maureen Corrigan, the book critic
for the NPR program “Fresh Air,”
teaches literature at Georgetown
University.This family looks perfect, until one of them goes to prison
JOHN WOOLEY
“A Good Family” a uthor A.H.
Kim often makes events turn
out better than we anticipate,
something rare in a suspense
novel.BY BETHONIE BUTLERSince her daring 2003 directo-
rial debut, “Thirteen,” Catherine
Hardwicke has been telling
thoughtful stories about young
women trying to figure out who
they are. Her latest project, Qui-
bi’s “Don’t Look Deeper,” takes on
that same theme with a sci-fi
twist: The protagonist isn’t
sure she’s e ven human. The show,
released July 27, follows Aisha
(Helena Howard) as she uncovers
the unsettling truth about
her past and those in her inner
circle, including her father (Don
Cheadle) and therapist (Emily
Mortimer).
The 14-episode series, created
by Jeffrey Lieber and Charlie Mc-
Donnell, is set “15 minutes into the
future,” a timeline that places so-
phisticated artificial intelligence
alongside Aisha and her high
school classmates. (You can prob-
ably guess where this is going.)
Futuristic setting notwithstand-
ing, there are clear parallels to
Hardwicke’s most celebrated
films, including “Thirteen” and
her cult-favorite 2008 adaptation
of “Twilight,” the bestseller by Ste-
phenie Meyer.
Less familiar is the format of
“Don’t Look Deeper” — Q uibi epi-
sodes clock in at under 10 minutes
— but Hardwicke welcomed the
challenge. In an interview with
The Washington Post, the director
talked about why she signed on to
direct the show, the legacy of her
films and how it was to work with
the “strong and vulnerable” How-
ard, who stunned Sundance audi-
ences two years ago in the experi-
mental drama “Madeline’s Made-
line.”
(This interview has been edited
for clarity and length.)
Q: So many of your projects are
related to adolescence and
identity. “Don’t Look Deeper”
draws heavily on those themes.
Do you see parallels between
your previous films, and is that
what attracted you to this
project?
A: Yes, it was, definitely. I love the
idea of — starting with “Thirteen”
— where you’re trying to figure
out who you are as a person. You
know, like Evan Rachel Wood[’s
character] was trying to figure
out: “Am I going to be the popular
girl, the bad girl, the good girl, the
poetry-writing good girl... or am
I going wild? What direction
should my life take?” That’s
obviously something that we’re
all trying to figure out, probably
at any age, but especially when
you’re young.
Aisha is just trying to discover
that for herself. You can see she’s
kind of self-reflective, doing self-
portraits at the beginning [of the
series] and trying to think about:
“Who am I as a person? Why does
something feel weird and
wrong?” I thought it was such a
great coming-of-age self-
exploration. The answers she
finds are very mind-blowing, very
next-level — much more
challenging than the answers
most of us find when we’re on a
path of self-discovery.
Q: Why Quibi? Were the shorter
episodes appealing?
A: Actually, the script was
written for short episodes. It was
written in chapters. I thought
that was quite interesting when I
first read the script. I was like,
“Wow, that’s fascinating,” because
the short format does tie in — it
Can Catherine Hardwicke get you to use Quibi?
Shooting her new sci-fi series, ‘Don’t Look Deeper,’ was uniquely challenging, as each episode for the short-form streaming service is less than 10 minutes
weaves in directly with what’s
going on with [Aisha’s] memory.
We tell the story in a nonlinear
way as her memories are being
erased and restored. The
technology that we’re exploring,
showing it on a new
technological platform with the
vertical and horizontal, it all
seemed to kind of work together
in an interesting way. So this leap
of faith — that [Quibi founder
Jeffrey] Katzenberg said let’s try
this format — I t hought that was
an interesting challenge to dive
into it and see what happens.Q: Are there any unique
challenges in shooting for that
format?
A: Oh, yes. First of all, there were
the time limits. I’ve worked on
episodic television — w e know we
have like a half-hour of length —
but 10 minutes, you even have to
think in a more layered way or
more compressed and efficient
way of storytelling, which
includes not just the writing, but
also: What can you pack into the
frame? What layers can you give
in the frame if there’s foreground,
middle ground and background,
all helping to contribute to the
story?
And then, to make that even
one step more complicated and
challenging, it had to be seen in
vertical and horizontal format.
So, I had to have it in my mind
that I was going to go back. I shot
it in a landscape format, which,
when you watch it in landscape
format, you can get the whole
sense of the environment, like
how the environment is
impacting your character. Butwhen you have your choice to
switch to vertical format at any
moment on your phone, then you
get a more intimate look. Usually,
it’s kind of a closer shot, more of a
close-up on the character. So you
feel more what they’re feeling,
almost like you’re FaceTiming the
character. So that was just
fascinating to think about
designing it and shooting it, so
that it would work both ways.Q: Was there anything that you
had the actors do either paired up
or individually to sort of get into
their roles and get excited about
filming?
A: [Howard] came out early
[before filming] and we kind of
hung out and did wardrobe tests
and tried different clothes on.
What feels right? She’s very
opinionated. She really has to feel
good about something. We did
chemistry reads with the actors,
just like I did in “Twilight” and
“Thirteen,” too. I’ve always sort of
been able to ca st a l eading
woman first and then cast the
men around her, which is kind of
cool.
We had a really cool stunt
coordinator — Heidi
Moneymaker, that’s her name,
amazingly enough — and we
went out to the gym that she’s a
part of. And we did training for
any kind of stunt work. Helena
has to do some interesting body
movements and has to go into
different states, physical states.
So we worked on that. That was
actually a lot of fun, trying to
figure out how she would move in
certain scenes.
And then the actors — I have apicture, it’s kind of fun — when I
did the first chemistry read for
“Twilight” and “Thirteen,” we just
did all the rehearsals over at my
house to keep it more convenient.
We did rehearsals and auditions
here. And so in the same bed
where Rob [P attinson] and
Kristen [Stewart] met and did
their kissing scene, where Evan
Rachel and Nikki Reed did their
kissing scene, that’s where two of
our characters did their first
scene together.Q: You worked as a production
designer for years before you
started directing. Did your
architecture background
influence anything in “Don’t
Look Deeper”?
A: We didn’t have a super giant
budget like “Westworld” had to
go to Barcelona and film in all
those beautiful locations. But L.A.
has some great architecture. So
we did some — it was mid-
century modern, so it still had a
feeling of modern architecture.
You had these elegant, modern
shapes, but they weren’t, like,
super brand-new, glossy, perfect.
It looks like a lived-in world,
which I t hought was kind of fun.Q: One of the “This Is Us”
episodes you directed was the
episode where Tess comes out to
her parents, Randall and Beth,
which seems fitting given some of
the LGBT themes in some of your
other work, including “Don’t
Look Deeper.” How do you
approach those stories?
A: It’s back to identity: How can
you find your authentic, true self
and express it and feel goodabout it, and let yourself be
authentic and real? I think that’s
one of the revolutions going on
right now in the world, where
people are... celebrating and
embracing and loving people that
are in a struggle to find
themselves, find their identity, or
have found it and are speaking
their truth. So, I think people get
excited as an actor, when you can
help represent things and show
people a path — a way to feel good
about yoursel f and understand
yourself in a deeper way.Q: Is there anything you’ve seen
in the past few years, particularly
in the young adult space, that has
stood out to you?
A: I think there’s been a lot of
people making efforts to show us
new kinds of characters:
“Euphoria,” that was interesting.
“13 Reasons Why,” “Eighth
Grade.”
I love that we’ve just been
diving deeper into characters. I
remember when we tried to make
“Thirteen,” people were just like,
“What? Nobody’s going to go see a
movie with a 13-year-old girl.
What’s the audience? What’s the
market?” But now, I think people
are opening up a lot more to
seeing women’s stories.Q: “13 Reasons Why” faced a
backlash for the way it portrayed
sensitive topics such as suicide.
Has that been a concern for you
in your work?
A: It’s such a fascinating issue.
With “Thirteen,” I had one voice
versus probably about 5,000 that
said: “I wish you hadn’t put the
cutting scene in there, becausethat might have encouraged
other people to cut.” But really,
the vast majority of feedback I’ve
gotten over the years, which is
over 15 years now, [has been
positive]. Margot Robbie said:
“Yeah, my friends and I saw that
in Australia when we were
young.” Skrillex said to me: “I saw
your movie 26 times. I could
relate to it.” It was something that
people could grasp onto. “There’s
somebody like me going through
the tough stuff, I’m not alone.”
A movie that helps people
connect and realize that they’re
not the only person feeling this
way can really be a lifeline and be
very positive for people. It’s
tricky, and obviously we don’t
want to glamorize or encourage it
or anything.Q: You’ve talked about some of
the challenges you have faced as a
female director, particularly in
film. Do you find TV more
welcoming to women?
A: Well, I d efinitely think it’s
exciting, because it seems like all
the networks, studios, streamers
— everybody’s making a big push,
and the tide has really turned to
hire a lot more women directors
and persons of color. The tide has
turned much faster, it seems, in
television.
People know that they want
different perspectives and they
appreciate the different
perspectives. So it’s a v ery
exciting time. And, of course,
there are so many great women’s
stories being told on TV with
leading characters that are
women.
[email protected]PATRICK WYMORE/QUIBI
From left, “Don’t Look Deeper” director Catherine Hardwic ke, Don Cheadle and Helena Howard. The sci- fi series, created by Jeffrey Lieber and Charlie McDonnell, follows
Aisha (Howard) throughout its 14 episodes as she uncovers the unsettling truth about her past and those in her inner circle, including her father (C headle).The Movie Directory has gone dark.We will raise the curtain again
as soon as events warrant.