Kerry Washington showing up the boys

You know what they say, no rest for the wicked, which means Netflix just keeps grinding. With East of Eden now streaming, it’s time to launch Animals, Ben Affleck’s latest as an actor-director. The premiere was last night in Los Angeles, ahead of the film’s October 9 premiere on Netflix and in like, five theaters.

The premiere brought out Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (who produced the film with Affleck, but does not appear in it), the latter of whom is enjoying a victory lap after The Odyssey was a massive hit this summer. Of course, he’ll be hitting the trophy trail any day now, supporting The Odyssey and his performance, for which he is a contender for Best Actor. The win for Matt Damon, though, would be a nomination, because I cannot shake the feeling that the Best Actor race is going to come down to John Malkovich and Andrew Scott.

Kerry Washington was also there, in a sleek white dress, carrying these men on her back and making it look easy. The phrase “effortlessly beautiful” was invented for her. Like I know she’s wearing makeup and had her hair did and there was a stylist involved and all, but just look at her. Does she look effortFUL? No, she looks effortLESS.

I wonder if Law Roach would agree with me—the work of the stylist is not only to make the client look good, but to make looking good look natural. I think that’s a big reason for Zendaya’s success on the red carpet, she makes everything she wears look like she was born wearing it. Of course, effort went into creating the look, but Zendaya’s looks never seem belabored. That’s how Kerry looks here. Of course, an effort was made, but it’s not belabored.

I do have questions for Ben Affleck’s stylist, chiefly, why is this suit so tight?

Ben Affleck is a tall, broad man, but there’s no reason for his suit to be THAT tight. Much better is Steven Yeun, in a suit that fits:

Ah, refreshing. Also, I was thinking about this the other day when I came across an ad for one of the many Walking Dead spinoffs, Steven Yeun really left that show at the exact right moment, when the show was still wildly popular, just before people started to tire of the misery carousel. Like he left at the exact moment to achieve escape velocity. Him, and Tyler James Williams. They got out just in time, or else they’d still be stuck cycling through endless spinoffs. I guess it helps to be cast as a character who dies in the (comic) book.