Dear Gossips,
It has been a week since Always Be My Maybe started streaming on Netflix. Which means it’s been a week of Keanu Reeves domination. All week online we’ve been talking about Keanu Reeves, writing as many articles about him that we possibly can, ranking his best movies, meme-ing the sh-t out of his scenes, and CNN posted an article about “what Keanu Reeves should do next” which, no disrespect, misses the point about Keanu Reeves.
The reason Keanu is universally adored is because there is and never has been a “should”. He has never been someone who does the expected thing. He does the thing he wants to do and what he often wants to do doesn’t adhere to the Hollywood formula. The reason why Keanu is surprising and delighting people in Always Be My Maybe is because that would never have shown up on a “should” list
Keanu’s most recent surprise in Always Be My Maybe, however, isn’t as random as his appearance in a movie 99% of you have probably never seen, or even heard of. Always Be My Maybe is good. It was written by two experienced actor comedians, Ali Wong and Randall Park. It was directed by Nahnatchka Khan. It had a solid budget behind it. What makes Keanu Keanu though is that, sometimes, Keanu doesn’t make his choices based on…quality.
Last summer, after seeing To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, during our three week thirst for Noah Centineo, Kathleen and I found another Noah Centineo movie on Netflix from 2019. It’s called SPF-18. It is … terrible. But it’s also kind of amazing – because Rosanna Arquette is in it, and also Molly Ringwald and Pamela Anderson, and Goldie Hawn is the narrator. AND KEANU REEVES SHOWS UP. The connection here is, probably, the director, Alex Israel. For more on Alex Israel, The Hollywood Reporter profiled him a few years ago. Once you read that piece, it’ll start to make more sense.
Keanu quietly moves around in the art scene – but the amazing thing about Keanu is that it doesn’t stink of pretension on him. Like he publishes poetry and poetry books (and poetry is HARD, there’s such a fine line between quality and cringe) but doesn’t walk around with douche on his face like James Franco. How does he do this?
I suppose if there was an answer to this question he wouldn’t be so special.
Here’s Keanu last night at the Saint Laurent show in Malibu. He arrived hand in hand with Alexandra Grant, the visual artist. They’ve known each other a decade now and have collaborated on several projects, including their own publishing house. Here’s how they describe their work:
We love the same things about our books as we do about our friends: generosity, open-heartedness, intelligence, mystery, style. They bring sustenance and shift realities. They may occasionally break your heart.
Sound like someone you know?
Have a great weekend!
Yours in gossip,
Lainey