The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a nice entry into the LGBTQ canon and that’s about it. Cameron’s story of being sent to a gay conversion camp in the mid-90s is important, but this movie’s execution falls flat. Sasha Lane gives a great performance as Jane Fonda, a fellow camper, and Chloe Grace Moretz is her usual solid self, but this movie is not a stunner.
Verdict: Skip, unless you are hungry for mid-90s LGBTQ narratives
In Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace, Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie do more with less acting as a father/daughter pair living in a city park* This movie is Tom’s coming of age story as the discovery of their home-in-the-park sets her and her father into “real life” and wakes Tom’s typical adolescent yearning for something different.** Chock full of good, quiet acting by both leads and by a handful of smaller performances (Dale Dickey was particularly good as was Isaiah Stone**), this is a quiet movie of growing up.
Cost: $3.99 via Google Play because I didn’t get around to watching it when it was on Netflix. Where watched: at home.
*Forest Park, in my own Portland, Oregon. It’s a huge park with trails for miles. This movie is based on a book that was inspired by the mid-2000s discovery of a father/daughter pair living in Forest Park. The story was well-covered by the local media and has stuck with me. **Not that this leads to acting out like most teenagers would. This entire movie is full of small moments and subtle performances. ***Both actors were also in Granick’s very excellent Winter’s Bone
In 2004, Mark Waters gave millennials their seminal teen film with Mean Girls; I was interested in how it holds up 14 years later. When I watched this in 2004, I remember feeling like the movie’s resolution was a little too tidy, and I found the ending to be the same today. However, this movie gives us a lot of good stuff including its overall message and a ton of really great performances by women.*
Verdict: Good
Cost: $2.99 via Google Play Where watched: at home as homework so I could listen to the Next Picture Show’s Girl World pairing of this movie and the Favourite.
*It was really fun to see women who are on my radar right now, but weren’t in 2004: Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Amy Poehler. Plus I hadn’t put together that Lizzy Caplan–the go-to “weird girl” character of that time period–was also in Now You See Me 2. And I love Tim Meadows reactions.
In Juliet, Naked, Jesse Peretz crafts an extremely awkward romantic comedy and takes advantage of the facility of uncomfortable comic timing of Rose Byrne, Chris O’Dowd and even Ethan Hawke. It’s a great catalog of people in a middle-age place of stagnation and transition with one especially spectacular scene that takes place in a hospital room. I think this movie didn’t quite know what to do with the ending, and that felt a little bumbled, but other than those last five minutes, this was a very fun film.
Verdict: Recommended
Cost: $1.50 from Redbox* Where watched: at home
*I have been stalking this movie at Redbox since Thanksgiving weekend when I checked five different machines. It was always checked out.
After breakfast and presents, we had a Fun Christmas Activity. This consisted of a variety of activities one could partake in. Here are some pictures of what we did.
Linda made a New Year’s scene from a purposefully limited supply of colored paper.
Matt’s scene
Matt attempts the blind Christmas tree tear.(After first cheating and folding a Christmas tree.)
His two results.
Linda’s blind Christmas tree.
Chris works away at the Christmas packet, consisting of trivia questions, a crossword, a word search, and a cryptogram. Aunt Pat cleaned the kitchen. (Cleaning up was a category, as was taking a nap.)
Mom made a New Year’s scene.
I attempted a Blind Christmas Tree tear, and was better at the Christmas tree then taking a picture of it.
Aunt Pat’s cat Roo takes a break.
Aunt Carol’s New Year’s scene.
One of our activities was reading a poem aloud. Inside one volume of the Book of Verse, I found my grandmother’s transcription of “Thanksgiving Day.” This was a great find. I so rarely come across her handwriting.
And here are the final standings of all who participated.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse wasn’t at the top of my watch list, but it was at the top of the boyfriend’s and so we went. And I’m so glad because this movie has the most stunning, innovative animation I’ve seen in a very long time.* The introduction of other Spider-Men/Women/Animals added a layer of fun and the voice acting was superb.**
Cost: $9.40 Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12 Cinemas with Matt as part of our Christmas Eve movie viewing tradition.
*Now that animation is growing ever closer to looking like film and the Uncanny Valley issue grows ever smaller, it was great to see this film play with crisp, realistic images and then also use a bunch of other things (that probably have names that I don’t know) to ground us fully in an animated world. **Shameik Moore (so good in 2015’s Dope) was great as Miles Morales and Jake Johnson (as Peter B. Parker) was perhaps my favorite Peter Parker ever. *** I’ll leave you to discover the other voices. ***Though I have a bit of a Jake Johnson thing. Win it All, Drinking Buddies, Safety Not Guaranteed
It’s been a long drought of theater and then I get to see two shows in two days. My Aunt Carol was too busy to take advantage of her Broadway Rose ticket, so I got to come along to A 1940s Radio Christmas Carol.
This was a fine Christmas production which told the story of a 1940’s radio broadcast where the players combine song and story (and radio commercials!) and run into some problems with their radio version of Charles Dicken’s classic Christmas story.
Also, I always enjoy watching the radio sound man, and this play delivered on that front.
The Northwest Classical Theatre Company has taken its last bow in Portland and I miss it. So when I received an email that one of the players from the NWCTC was starting a new company and would preforming David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, I made a note to buy tickets.
And we did! And here we are back at the Shoebox Theater, which is now the home of Theatre Vertigo. They’ve taken down the costumes which used to hang from the ceiling and done a few things different with the lighting and the painting, but otherwise it’s still the same cozy place.
I had forgotten that when you walk into the theater there are usually some newbies who gasp and exclaim at how tiny the theater is. That was fun to experience again.
Self portrait.
Speed-the-Plow was a great play! It was made better by the fact that when it started, it was trending in a direction of me not liking it. Two guys talking about the amazing deal they were going to make on a movie is not my favorite thing. But things kept shifting and I felt like I had the rug pulled out from under me several times.
Jason Maniccia and Danny Bruno were great as Gould and Fox and Briana Ratterman was also very good as Karen.* Don Alder directed.
Matt and I had a lot to chew on as we drove home from the theater, which is always the mark of a good play. Hopefully we will see another production by Asylum Theater soon.
Fun audience moment: the music playing before the play started included “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” by U2 from their Rattle and Hum album. I was signing along quietly and noticed that the woman sitting on the other side of Matt was also singing along quietly.
*Fun fact: Madonna played Karen when the play debuted in 1988. Also fun fact: the revival of this play was supposed to star Jeremy Piven, but he begged off claiming Mercury poisoning due to eating too much sushi.
Director Rob Marshall provides a worthy sequel in Mary Poppins Returns, gathering both actors worthy of the weight that is continuing a beloved story and also by sprinkling in cameos that do not feel forced. The songs were good, if not spectacular, though the full-cast dance sequences were spectacular and carried the music.* Overall this was a good way to spend an afternoon.**
Verdict: Recommended
Cost: $9.00 Where watched: Living Room Theaters with my friend MM and an audience that included children (who got somewhat squirrely near the end.)
*I think Rob Marshall excels in capturing this aspect of the movie musical. With a stage production, the audience gets to choose where to set their eyes on the 20+ performers onstage. Marshall is very good at still letting us do this while not feeling like the camera is static. I still can visualize some of the ensemble scenes in Chicago. Contrast that with Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! with so many quick cuts that it’s hard to focus on anything. **I didn’t love it like I love the original, but the original is the original and from my childhood. Recreating that sense of wonder in my 40s is a pretty impossible task.
Yorgos Lanthimos gives us the Christmas gift of three amazing actors in The Favourite and I enjoyed every moment of the characters’ slow-motion train wrecks. Aside from great acting and an intense story, there are amazing costumes* and a scene so good that it caused people in my screening to break into applause. Despite its drawing room appearance, this movie changes things up (like a traditional formal dance at a ball that morphs into all sorts of current dance moves) and is contemporary in every way.
Verdict: Recommended
Cost: $9.00 Where watched: Hollywood Theatre with friend Kelly.
*The women look good in their gowns, but Nicholas Hoult really dazzles in his fancy dress and powdered face and wig.
