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It\u2019s Oscar season!

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I was so thrilled to see \u2018Past Lives\u2019, the astounding slow-moving-yet-somehow-fast-paced debut film from Celine Song nominated for Best Picture. Best Picture! On her very first film. Oh, and no biggie, Best Screenplay, too. This following a slew of other noms like 5 Golden Globes, 3 Critics Choice Awards, 3 BAFTAs, and a recent Director\u2019s Guild of America win for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for a First-Time Feature Film.

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Leslie and I loved \u2018Past Lives\u2019 so much we went back to theaters to see it again. The film had such unique energy as it told the story of Nora and Hae Sung, two childhood friends in South Korea, who lose touch when Nora\u2019s family emigrates, and then seem to be forever-chasing the goodbye they never had.

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The film opens with a late-night bar scene of Hae Sung visiting Nora and her husband in New York before scrolling back to tell the unpredictable, jumping-around-the-decades story of how they got there. Every shot was such a sumptuous visual feast \u2014 from silhouetted lineups for the Staten Island Ferry to broken-transmission Skype calls to a final waiting-for-an-Uber scene that deserves its own prize. And the writing! Crisp. Punctuating. So much said ... with so little. \u2018Past Lives\u2019 is a truly magical film that I can\u2019t recommend enough. 96% on Rotten Tomatoes also means there\u2019s a great chance your movie-going pal will love it, too.

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I was thrilled \u2018Past Lives\u2019 director, writer, and filmmaker wunderkind Celine Song joined me on 3 Books from her New York apartment to talk about the Korean concept of in-yun, why we\u2019re drawn to stories, what unique role millennials play as the last pre-Internet-immersive generation, how a cannibalistic orgy makes for great literature, a surprising cure for loneliness, why sensory deprivation increases chemistry, the other job of a director, Celine\u2019s 3 most formative books, and much, much more...

Let\u2019s flip the page into Chapter 133 now...