Day: November 10, 2019

Let it Snow Is Pleasant, Unchallenging

The review:

Luke Snellin directs a gentle Christmas movie adaptation of a YA Novel* with some utterly delightful moments.** A cornucopia of young people*** plus Joan Cusack (in a coat and hat festooned with tinfoil) wander through the snow-covered landscape of generic middle America. The multiple stories are well balanced, everyone finds what they are looking for, and it made for a solid Sunday Afternoon Movie.

The verdict: Good

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

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*The book is also named Let it Snow and it consists of three short stories written by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. Many things have changed from the book to the movie.
**My favorites: Shameik Moore charming Isabela Merced’s grandfather with his love of the Rolling Stones, Kiernan Shipka and Mitchell Hope’s duet of “The Whole of the Moon”
***Isabela Merced (the teenager in Instant Family), Shameik Moore (Miles Morales aka Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, also the main character in Dope) Odeya Rush (the rich, vapid kinda-friend in Lady Bird and the best friend in Dumplin‘); Liv Hewson (Before I Fall); Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper in Mad Men); Jacob Balaton (the “guy in the chair” in Spider-Man: Far from Home, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and one of the many actors who portrayed A in Every Day); Miles Robbins (the guy who was the drug connoisseur in Blockers)

Questions:

  • What’s your favorite movie set in winter/in the snow?
  • Which of the actors in this movie do you think you will still be watching in fifteen years?

Favorite IMDB trivia:

Port Authority of Allegheny County’s Light Rail Vehicle 4201 is the trolley used in the Beechview Scene.
(The IMDB trivia page is a bit light right now)

Other reviews:

Magnolia Holds Up Reasonably Well 20 Years On

The review:

Twenty years out, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia is full of incredible performances, especially by the men* and the film includes the usual Anderson mesmerizing aura. That said, some things didn’t work for me, namely the “random happenstance” that begins and ends the movie, but which I felt had no real connection to the movie itself.** It’s still worth the watch, especially for a particular reason I won’t spoil here.***

The verdict: Good

Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home (And I stayed up much too late on a Sunday night. It’s a three-hour movie.)

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*I found most of the women’s roles, especially Julianne Moore and Melora Walters, to have parts that left them with nothing much to do than be shrill.
**Also, John C. Reilly’s policeman character would have played differently today, and (as Boyfriend Matt pointed out) the movie is singularly focused on the experience of white people, so much so that the few people of color who appear are mostly irritants to the white actors’ stories.
***And which I didn’t remember as being so very bloody.

Questions:

  • What’s your favorite P.T. Anderson film?
  • Who do you think got the best role in this film? (I think John C. Reiley.)

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Claudia was the first character created, and the other characters were branched off from her.

Other reviews: