Five Great Reads: Poor Things dissected, the heart rate secret, and writing after rehab

Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

Top of the weekend to you all. If you’re reading this it means Australia has successfully navigated (without changing anything) the bitter 26 January debate for another year. If you need a reminder of that time the nation was united, this week’s fifth great read is for you.

1. What our heart rate reveals about our health

I wear a heart rate monitor when I run because when everything is aching, being able to gamify exercise gives you some impetus to try to better (or equal) your high score.

Then Joel Snape’s article introduced me to “finite heartbeat theory”, which suggests exercise may shorten your life because it pushes your heart towards its maximum number of beats faster. The good news? Highly unlikely. Heart rate variability, and what it means about our health, is what scientists are interested in.

Resting heart rate below 60bpm? This may mean you’re super-fit – but it could also mean issues with your heart’s electrical systems or an underactive thyroid.

How long will it take to read: Four minutes.

2. Abel Ferrera: reformed wild man of cinema

Film-maker Abel Ferrara was so out of control in 1996 that he took a nap mid-interview – then asked the reporter to score coke for him when he woke up. How does Ryan Gilbey know this? He was the reporter.

Ferrara and Gilbey get a do-over, 11 years on the other side of the director’s sobriety. The film director sounds off on a succession of “problematic” men, from Shia LeBeouf (star of his latest, Padre Pio) and Gérard Depardieu to the unavoidable Donald Trump.

Ferrara on that interview: “Who is that guy and why’d he do that? That guy was sick. I had this perception that I needed to do cocaine and heroin to do the interview. It was like a three-card monte game, bro.”

How long will it take to read: Four minutes.

Further viewing: If you’re feeling brave, Harvey Keitel delivers scene after scene that cannot be unseen in Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant.

3. ‘Alcohol was killing me – until I made that crucial call’

Crime author Cate Quinn had it all: eight published novels, two kids … and a 25-year drinking habit. “My addiction was killing me,” Quinn writes. “The worst thing was that I didn’t care.”

A month in rehab helped her dredge up the childhood catalyst for her addiction. When she recovered, she set out on the most “terrifying” project of her career: writing a novel while sober.

***

“My novels drew deeply on my own emotions – it was how I got material, but it was also what I used alcohol to numb. Alcohol became my creative anaesthetic.” – Cate Quinn

How long will it take to read: Four minutes.

4. The sexual politics of Poor Things

When my teenage cousin walked out of the cinema after watching Poor Things, he turned to my uncle: “Dad, I don’t think I’m ready for those sorts of movies.”

And fair enough. Director Yorgos Lanthimos throws a lot at the screen and Emma Stone “furiously jumps” into her performance. But is it a feminist masterpiece or a male sex fantasy? Fourteen cultural commentators have some thoughts.

In case you were wondering: My male gaze mainly noticed our portrayal as the self-centred, lumbering brutes we wish we weren’t.

How long will it take to read: 11 minutes.

Further viewing: The film, of course.

5. Australia’s favourite sporting moment

Where were you when Cathy Freeman won 400m gold at the Sydney Olympics? If you were alive then – and a lot of you were, given her run was just voted Guardian readers’ greatest Australian sporting moment – you’ll remember.

The academic and author Tony Birch shares his recollection of the lead-up and the night, which came at a time when when race relations dominated political discourse. Because some things never change …

Not just an Australian moment: The official Olympic museum in Lausanne has myriad mentions of Freeman’s feat.

How long will it take to read: Two minutes.

Further reading: See how the top 10 ranked. Then read the esteemed cricket writer Gideon Haigh’s Guardian debut on Pat Cummins outpacing the anti-woke brigade.

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