Day: March 27, 2020

Day 11. GameStorm as Heard Through a Wall

May 2022. This is a post from the beginning of the pandemic. It’s been sitting in my draft folder for more than two years now. I am publishing it without revising, so please excuse its first-draft form.

Every March, Boyfriend Matt attends Gamestorm, which is a three-day gaming convention. He goes to play board games, but there are other types of gamers there too.

He’s got a group of friends who attend and they usually make a new friend or two. I don’t see much of him for a few days, he has fun, and that’s all just fine.

GameStorm was cancelled this year, of course. But the guys had all taken time off of work to attend, so they are carrying on regardless. They met up online around 9, and connected their voices via their phones. I’ve been working away at my desk in my bedroom and I can overhear their gaming chatter.

And that’s the reason why I’m glad we’re having this pandemic now. There are so many ways to stay connected. It makes the isolation easier.

Matt’s back gaming, and I’m done working today. I’ve got a hot date with a Redbox DVD. This isn’t much different than non-quarantine Friday nights. Usually Matt is gaming at a friend’s house, and I’m at home with a movie.

All movies watched on Netflix September 2019–Present

Recommended

  • Miss Americana
  • Homecoming A Film by Beyonce

Good

  • The Two Popes
  • To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You

Skip

  • A Christmas Prince
  • All the Bright Places
  • The Lobster

Queen & Slim Should be on Your To-watch List

Queen & Slim

The review:

Melina Matsoukas’s debut feature* Queen & Slim gives us a zeitgeist film that has (unfortunately) flown under most people’s radar. Daniel Kaluuya (Slim) and Jodie Turner-Smith** (Queen) begin as a couple on an awkward date, though their fates change when they are pulled over.*** What follows is a lot of different films: road trip, political story, heist, escape, love story and by the final scene the movie will have taken you on a rough and fulfilling journey.****

The verdict: Recommended

Cost: $1.80 via Redbox
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*If this is any indication of what’s to come, we have a very exciting filmmaker to watch.
**In this very American story, it was interesting to hear the two leads’ British accents during the making-of bonus features.
***Even people who don’t follow the news will recognize that a plot point involving Black people and a traffic stop doesn’t bode well.
****I went in mostly blind to this film. I heard “really good!” and “women director” and didn’t look further. It’s the kind of film where people might dismiss as too sad, but there’s so much life among the sadness, I would suggest you don’t pass it by.

Questions:

  • What are your feelings about Queen and Slim being viewed as heros?
  • What was your favorite encounter the couple had on their journey?

Favorite IMDB Trivia Item:

According to the writer, the divergent world views of the two protagonists were based on the differences between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.

Other reviews:

Queen & Slim

Call to Action Via Sign

I enjoy a good homemade sign and the Kenton neighborhood is not immune to the occasional entry.

Here’s one outside an apartment complex.

I wonder if a country-wide medical emergency will be the thing that finally divorces access to healthcare from job status.

My guess is that it won’t due to the fact that political donations are what run our political system. But it should.