Month: March 2019

3SMReviews: All About Nina

3SMReviews: All About Nina

Eva Vives takes a chance in All About Nina, giving us a character who, being female, is easily slotted into that female-dominated category of “unlikable.” Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives it her all as Nina, a stand-up comedian ready to take a chance to leap to success, while also trying not to let her demons get the worst of her. While the movie eventually illuminates the source of Nina’s demons, there wasn’t enough along the way to have me rooting for her,* plus Common (playing love interest Rafe) drove me batty with his line delivery.**

Verdict: Skip, unless you want to do a compare/contrast

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider watching instead:

*This is actually a great movie to watch as a contrast to Can You Ever Forgive Me?, who also has an unlikable protagonist, but one I was rooting for from the beginning despite not knowing, or ever knowing what shaped her into that very prickly person.
**Abusive, stalker ex-guy she slept with, Joe is played by Chace Crawford, who I spent time with while watching Gossip Girl. This movie also has a treasure trove of recognizable actors I don’t see much of: Camryn Manheim, Jay Mohr, Mindy Sterling, Beau Bridges.

3SMReviews: All About Nina
This quotes comes from possibly the most delightful scene. But one scene does not a good movie make.

Awesome clock! (a.k.a. rich people get all the good stuff)

I was passing by the shop window when I saw a smaller version of this clock and gasped. It told the time. But using letters. And the words changed locations on the clock every five minutes.

I took a picture and showed Matt and he thought it was cool too, so I went to the inquire as to the cost. The very nice clerk showed me the features, namely that there are dots in each corner and those show the minutes in between the five minute marks. We watched it change from 3:35 to 3:40 and it was an amazing experience. Then he told me that the 6″ x 6″ clocks were $600 and the 1′ x 1′ clocks started at $1400. I thanked him nicely and went on my way, muttering, “rich people get all the good stuff.”

And then, the shop put up a going out of business sign. Was this my chance to own such an amazing specimen? After all, I had a tax return coming. I waited until the signs said 60–75% before I went in to inquire.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted any clocks to be available. Was I really the type of person to have a small clock that cost that much, even on sale?

Thankfully, all the awesome clocks were spoken for at the 40% off mark.

So I left with no clock and a healthier bank account and I know exactly what I will do first if I ever come into a substantial amount of money.

3SMReviews: Five Feet Apart

3SMReviews: Five Feet Apart

I’ve had a good run of Haley Lu Richardson and director Justin Baldoni’s Five Feet Apart continued that trend. While on one hand, it’s your standard teen love drama (of the illness subset), on the other hand it’s got Haley Lu Richardson who is really good at making standard things much better.* Aside from good acting, I really liked how, as the story progressed, the hospital transformed from a dreary place of healing to something a bit magical.

Verdict: Good

Cost: $8.05 (the bargain Sunday price has officially tripped back into too expensive and I’m crossing Sunday movies at this theater off my list.)
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12

Consider also watching: Miss You Already, Everything, Everything, the book version of The Fault in our Stars (I do not recommend the movie)

*Plus, she had the help of Kimberly Hebert Gregory as Nurse Barb who should probably be getting more roles because she was also quite good. Oh! And Moises Arias, so good in the Kings of Summer, was in this.

3 Great Movies That Bobble the Ending

In honor of On Chesil Beach, which was 2/3rds of a good movie, let’s look at movies that I loved, but have some cring-y endings that make me recommend them with qualifications.

The Hate U Give

3SMReviews: Great Movies that Bobble the Ending

The scene in The Hate U Give with her brother and the gun was not present in the book and has the stench of Hollywooding up a perfectly good story. I don’t love that scene. The rest of the movie? Funny, warm, caring, sad, scary. I love Star (Amandla Stenberg) and her family so much I watched this twice in the same day. In the theater.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

3SMReviews: Great Movies that Bobble the Ending
(L-r) KEVIN BACON as David Lindhagen, JOHN CARROLLL LYNCH as Bernie, RYAN GOSLING as Jacob and STEVE CARELL as Cal in Warner Bros. Pictures comedy CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Oh my gosh, I love so many things about Crazy, Stupid, Love. Ryan Gosling as a Don Juan taking the hapless Steve Carell under his tutelage. Emma Stone in all her fierceness. Julianne Moore in her hurt. Even Analeigh Tipton’s underage pursuit of Steve Carell is still funny, though it’s fast becoming squirmy. But then there’s the graduation scene which is one hundred ways of awkward and a pale shadow of the greatness that came before. Just turn the movie off after the fight.

Notting Hill

3SMReviews: Great Movies that Bobble the Ending
Photo by Clive Coote/Polygram/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock (5884062d)

It’s been 20 years of Julia Roberts films and nothing has yet topped Notting Hill as my favorite of her performances. Was there anyone better to play internationally famous movie star Anna Scott? Was Hugh Grant not perfect as the every man who fell in love with her? Was the roommate not endlessly amusing? Was that scene of walking up the street through the seasons not a great piece of non-montage time passing? Was there ever a better use of the phrase oopsy daisy?

And then there’s this weird car chase scene that has me asking, “Why? Why, Richard Curtis did you do that? It’s not really funny, and drags down your otherwise perfect film. Do like I do for the “Broadway Ballet” scene in Singing in the Rain and fast forward.

I know there are more out there. Leave your bobbles in the comments.

3SMReviews: The Kindergarten Teacher

3SMReviews: The Kindergarten Teacher

Settle in for some pleasantly uncomfortable observations of a woman going off the rails. Director Sara Colangelo slowly turns up the heat in the Kindergarten Teacher and things grow increasingly uncomfortable as the excellent Maggie Gyllenhaal’s interest in her talented five-year-old student grows. There’s no explosion of violence, or anger, or much of anything; what makes this uncomfortable is how things that are only a little off kilter build to become something that is verboten.*

Verdict: Good

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home

*I feel like I need to add a disclaimer. At no time is the child abused, or in danger. He’s a victim of liking too much, which gets out of control.

Requiem: collage photo frame

Soon after I came home today, there was a terrible crashing sound and I knew that something broke. After I reassured Antares that he was safe (as usual, Sentinel was only mildly affected) I went to the pantry to see what had broken. I found nothing. I couldn’t think of any other place in the house where something would crash and break. Puzzled, I returned to my usual evening duties.

It was only at the end of the night, when I was changing into my pajamas that I found the source of the noise and breakage. It was my collage photo frame, which had somehow fallen from its nail.

I was a little sad about this development. This is the frame where I print out my best eight photos (or, more accurately, my top four portrait-oriented photos and my top four landscape-oriented photos) from the proceeding year and then I can look at them throughout the next.

I’m not sure if it will be replaced. Time to take good photos seems to be in short supply right now. I still bring my camera with me to most places, but I rarely use it.

I’ll find my way back to photography, someday. In the meantime, I’ve enjoyed using this frame.

3SMReviews: Captain Marvel

3SMReviews: Captain Marvel

Brie Larson has played a lot of characters who put their heads down and get through things; her turn in Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel continues that line. The plot of this film is like one of those “scrambler”-type carnival rides* but in a coherent way. You also get origin stories of many things, a woman casting off the mantle that was put on her so she can find her own power and a cat named Goose.**

Verdict: Good

Cost: $11.00
Where watched: McMenamins Baghdad Theater with Matt. (There were multiple points where we clapped. I love the Baghdad.)

*This is where we are—*woosh*— no this is where we are—*woosh*—no really we’re over here—*woosh*—but maybe we’re here?
**And the classic Marvel intro has been restyled as a tribute to Stan Lee. I was not emotionally prepared, and was momentarily overcome. You’ve been warned.

Consider also watching some other great Brie Larson performances: Room, Short Term 12, The Spectacular Now (that’s a tiny role, but I like that movie for its depiction of a teenage alcoholic.)

3SMReviews: Hello I Must Be Going

3SMReviews: Hello I Must Be Going

I’ve long been of the opinion that Melanie Lynskey is tragically wasted* and in Todd Louiso’s Hello I Must Be Going, she gets a chance to shine. Lynskey plays Amy, who can’t quite get it together after her divorce—until she meets the 19-year-old son of her father’s work colleague.** A May December romance follows, and while I would be annoyed if the genders were reversed, I loved how the two found their way to new lives.

Verdict: Good

Cost: Free via the Multnomah County Library’s streaming service Kanopy
Where watched: at home

*”Who?” I hear you asking. She’s kind of the New Zealand version of Judy Greer, but with more gravitas. She was the co-lead with Kate Winslet in Heavenly Creatures, but she mostly shows up in bit parts here and there (Away We Go, Sweet Home Alabama, Ever After) and IMDB tells me she does a lot of TV.
**Christopher Abbot, who played Marnie’s boyfriend Charlie in Girls. I really like him, though he has a flat acting style that some people might characterize as “not good.”

Consider also watching: Home Again, City Island, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Don Jon