The Hip Pocket #305 - Sarah Watson

When I went to see the 50th anniversary IMAX re-release of Jaws this summer, I went with a large group of old friends.

I’ve been in LA for 35 years now. That’s mind-boggling to me. When I was a kid, I moved constantly, and it felt like I was constantly having to start over with friends and community. I was 20 when I moved here, and for the first time, I stayed somewhere. Yes, I’ve moved all over the city during those three and a half decades, but because I’m just in different parts of the same city, I’ve been able to build friendships that have lasted for ten… twenty… even thirty years or more. It changed the way I think about friendship because I’ve been able to see people through major life changes, through highs and lows, and I know both who they were and who they’ve become. I couldn’t do that when I had to hit a reset button every two to four years. It has rewired me for the better in the process.

I don’t always get to see everyone as much as I’d want. I am very bad about losing myself in my work, and I always feel like there’s work to be done. As I get older, though, I’m starting to feel like every opportunity to see old friends is valuable and should be treated as special. Toshi’s godfather, Craig, took the reigns of planning the event, and when we showed up at the Chinese, I was delighted to see so many familiar faces. Craig is a lynchpin in a lot of friendships because he loves putting groups of people together, and every single person who attended was someone I was happy to see. Most of them, I hadn’t seen in years, but thanks to The Hip Pocket, there was one person I had actually just recently reconnected with, and this week, I’m excited to share that conversation with you.

SARAH WATSON is a writer/producer who is best known as the creator of The Bold Type, the author of a terrific YA novel called Most Likely, and for her work on the long-running Parenthood. We met through mutual friends and bonded over general movie nerdery, and watching her climb through the ranks of writing rooms has been a huge pleasure over the years. Plus she’s a great dog owner, and, honestly, what higher praise is there?

She’s currently hard at work on seasons two and three of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but decided to take some time to talk to us about three movies that are hugely important to her. First up is The Dish, a delightful Australian comedy about a team at a remote radio dish who play an important role in the Apollo moon landing mission. Then there’s the Brit Marling/Mike Cahill film Another Earth, which, like most Brit Marling projects, is an absolute vibe. And then there’s the coming-of-age drama A Walk on the Moon, with Viggo Mortensen and Diane Lane.

Aundria picked this week’s response film, the terrific Denis Villenueve SF/drama Arrival, and it dropped right into the line-up in a delightful way.

Finally, this week’s Hip Pocket Hall of Fame entry is one of my favorite films of the ‘90s, the Robert Zemeckis adaptation of the Carl Sagan novel Contact.

I hope you enjoy this hangout with Sarah as much as I did, and I encourage you to dig into her IMDb page and check out her work. She’s the best.

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The Hip Pocket is hosted by Drew McWeeny and Aundria Parker.
Craig Ceravolo is the show’s bandleader and producer.
It is a Formerly Dangerous Production.