Month: May 2020

The Lovebirds is Packed with Laughs

The Lovebirds

The Lovebirds

  • Directed by: Michael Showalter
  • Written by: Aaron Abram, Brendan Gall

The review:

The Lovebirds pairs Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani in a hilarious movie that pushes all the comedic buttons. I think the key to this film is that Rae and Nanjiani play a couple that isn’t in sync any longer, but hasn’t moved to full-on hatred.* There are a lot of amusing fish-out-of-water setups, and the two really shine when they are improving how to be tough guys, rather than the advertising exec and documentary filmmaker that they are.**

The verdict: Recommended

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

Consider also watching:

Further sentences

*This is important. Tuning in for 90 minutes of angry people snapping at each other, no thanks. But 90 minutes of two people who disagree about a variety of things yet still respect each other leaves room for a lot of laughter.
**I laughed so very hard at this film from the first disagreement (We would win the Amazing Race) to the last one. I laughed all alone in my house the first night, and then all over again the next night when the boyfriend and I watched it together.

Questions:

  • Which of the outfits Rae and Nanjiani wore do you think provided the most humor per scene?
  • What’s another out-of-sync-couple captured on film that you enjoy?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

(also the only IMDB trivia item)
Paramount had originally planned to released the film theatrically on April 3, 2020, but decided to release it on Netflix due to the Coronavirus pandemic and widespread theater closings.

Other reviews of The Lovebirds:

The Lovebirds

All movies watched on Netflix November 2019–Present

Recommended

  • Miss Americana
  • Homecoming A Film by Beyonce
  • 20 Feet From Stardom
  • The Half of It

Good

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

Skip

  • A Christmas Prince
  • The Lobster
  • All the Bright Places
  • Kicking and Screaming

Unwrapping 18 Presents

18 Presents

The review:

Francesco Amato’s 18 Presents could have dived right in to movie cliches* but ventures off in a different direction to create a movie that had me intermittently verklempt. The charm comes from the independent** natures of the mother (Vittoria Puccini) and daughter (Benedetta Porcaroli.) While a little too sad to be a Sunday Afternoon Film,*** this is a pleasant way to spend a few hours.

The verdict: Good

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

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*After all, the setup (Pregnant woman learns she has terminal cancer; plans 18 birthday presents for her unborn daughter) had me thinking I knew how this would go down.
**And feisty.
***A low-stress film that doesn’t demand much brainpower and leaves you with a good feeling. One last breath of weekend fresh air before you launch into prep for the week ahead.

Questions:

  • When’s the last time you watched a movie from Italy? It’s been a long while for me.
  • If you were going to cast Benedetta Porcaroli (the daughter) in a US-based film, what role would be good for her?

Other reviews of 18 Presents:

Inception Goes a Few Levels Too Deep

Inception

The review:

Christopher Nolan’s Inception is a movie with a highly original concept that makes the choice to go just a few levels too deep.* It remains as visually stunning as it was in 2010,** and I enjoy the commitment everyone has to their sometimes bananas dialog.*** It did wear on me that Ellen Paige’s character existed only to ask questions so the audience could be informed, but this was balanced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s focused work in zero gravity.****

The verdict: Good

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

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*I enjoy puzzling through things while watching movies, but the layers after the snowbound assault are too much. Though props for finding a way to include a James Bond-esque action sequence that reminds me why I don’t watch James Bond movies. How in the world am I supposed to tell who is who when they are all wearing the same outfit?
**It was more of a marvel then—I mean, we’ve all seen Thanos snap his fingers and have half of the universe’s population blow away—but it still looks good ten years on.
***Example: You’re waiting for a train. A train that’ll take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you. But you can’t know for sure. Yet it doesn’t matter. Now, tell me why?
****If there is one thing I’ve learned from my Nolan oeuvre-view, it’s that I need more JGL in my movie-going life. That voiceover work he did for Knives Out didn’t cut it.

Questions:

  • What do you think the ending means?
  • Who is your favorite extractor?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, writer, producer, and director Christopher Nolan explained that he based roles of the Inception team on filmmaking roles. Cobb is the director, Arthur is the producer, Ariadne is the production designer, Eames is the actor, Saito is the studio, and Fischer is the audience. “In trying to write a team-based creative process, I wrote the one I know,” said Nolan.

Other reviews of Inception:

Inception

Just Mercy: a Social Justice Courtroom Procedural

Just Mercy

The review:

Just Mercy is a solid courtroom procedural, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, that draws attention to the faulty mechanisms of justice, specifically concerning prisoners on death row.* Michael B. Jordan brings his best intense focus** to assist Jamie Foxx’s Walter McMillan in his quest to clear his conviction for murdering a woman he had zero contact with. While this movie is slightly too long, it does a lot, not only with plot, but also by giving example after example of how the scales of justice are more equal for some than others.***

The verdict: Good

Cost: Cost: $1.425 due to Redbox promos, but actually free because I used a gift card.
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie dealing with the courts, which was a welcome change.
**He is so good at intense focus!
***And this, not really equal at all.

Questions:

  • What do you think of the statistic given at the end of the film? For every nine people put to death in the US, one has been freed.
  • What aspect of discrimination was the most difficult for you to view in this film?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

In one scene, Bryan and Eva sit on the banks of the Alabama River and watch a recreation of a nineteenth-century riverboat sail by. Bryan says to Eva, “Nobody wants to remember that this is where thousands of enslaved people were shipped in and paraded up the street to be sold. Ten miles from here, black people were pulled from their homes and lynched and nobody talks about it. ”

This is a nod to the fact that years after this movie takes place, Stevenson’s organization the Equal Justice Initiative expanded its mission. Although it continues to provide legal defense and advocacy for prisoners on death row, children in adult prisons, people who have been wrongfully convicted, and others in need of defense, they also started to memorialize the history of slavery and lynching in America.

In April 2018, EJI opened two new facilities. One was the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, a museum located in a former warehouse where black people were enslaved in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. The other was National Memorial for Peace and Justice, dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people and people terrorized and murdered by lynching. EJI also works with communities to install historical markers that acknowledge lynchings in those cities’ pasts.

Other reviews of Just Mercy:

Just Mercy

More Plexiglass at Fred Meyer

Recently, Fred Meyer revamped their check stands in a way I find ridiculous. The checkers can no longer bag at their stations. Instead they must put everything on the conveyor belt to the end. This would be fine if 100% of the time there was a bagger, but in reality 95% of the time I’m in the store, there is no bagger.

In that case, the checker must walk around to the end and bag all the items. (I just bag my own, but not everyone does that.) Then they must walk back to their area. It’s a stupid, inefficient waste of time and clearly no one asked the people working what would make sense for them.

They also made it so the back half of the check stand is open, where once it was not. This also turns out to be dumb because: global pandemic. And so now we have these plexiglass structures.