Tag: 10s

The Last Summer is a breezy viewing experience

The review:

William Bindley captures the Last Summer (the one after high school and before college) in this pleasant ensemble movie that is as breezy as the wind off Lake Michigan.* Maia Mitchell and K.J. Apa** are the main twosome, playing an aspiring filmmaker and musician, but there’s also Sosie Bacon*** as a girl hoping to get into her fourth-choice college, and Halston Sage**** who has a meet-cute with a baseball player during a Cubs game.***** It’s not an earth shattering movie, but that summer after high school is, in some ways, the last gasp before real life starts and I appreciate having a 2019-era chronicle of it.

The verdict: Good

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

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*I’ve not actually been to Chicago and so I have no idea if there is wind off of Lake Michigan in the summer, but that sentence needed an ending, so there it is.
**His face is so symmetrical that I have trouble looking away from it.
***I also enjoy Sosie Bacon. I think it has to do partially with her genetic material (mother is Kyra Sedgwick who imprinted on me in Singles, father is Kevin Bacon, of well, every movie, to at least the sixth degree) and partially because she’s got a laid-back frowny vibe which I enjoy.
****So very good in Before I Fall and Paper Towns
*****There are a few other plots involving boys—most memorably two nerdy guys who accidentally pass themselves off as stock traders so they can drink in a bar—but I only have three sentences and we’re already at fifth-level asterisks.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Both K.J. Apa and Maia Mitchell are not orginally from the United States. Apa is from New Zealand and Mitchell from Australia.

Kim’s Convenience provides a variety of comedy

The review:

If you are looking for a gentle ensemble comedy with a lot of laughs, look no further than Kim’s Convenience.* The convenience store owned by the Kim Family (parents Appa & Umma,** with their grown children Jung and Janet***) provides a steady series of memorable situations and characters. The Kim family is partially estranged—father and son haven’t talked in years due to Jung’s delinquent adolescent choices—but there are still a lot of laughs to be had as the Kim family goes through life’s ordinary trials.****

The verdict: Recommended

Cost: Netflix monthly charge ($8.99)
Where watched: at home with Matt, who heard about it on Feminist Frequency

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*It also has the charm of being set in Toronto, which means when characters are issuing apoligies, you get to hear that charming Canadian closed-mouth prounciation: “soory”.
**I know this is Korean for father and mother, but IMDB doesn’t list the parents’ names.
***There’s a great supporting cast too: Jung’s friend Kimchee; Jung’s boss Shannon, who is delightfully awkward in her trying to project that she’s hard-working, while barely hiding her crush on Jung; Janet’s friend Gerald, who is a pushover; the too-familar Mr. Mehta; and the ever suffering Pastor Nina.
****Most of the humor comes from normal situations such as trying to prove who is the better photographer, and a goodly number of complexities arising from situations at church.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The interior set of the titular location is an exact replica of a real downtown Toronto corner store, Mimi Variety.

Always be my Maybe: A Sneaky Charmer

The review:

Nahnatchka Kahn’s Always Be My Maybe did not charm me from the beginning, but it slowly ramped up, and by the end I found myself satisfied with a very funny, and surprisingly moving, film. While neither Ali Wong nor Randall Park were familiar to me, their awkward chemistry and their characters’ long history provided a couple I could root for.* Add in a series of scenes featuring a major star who chews scenery while playing himself, plus some crackling dialog and a bevy of one-liners and you’ve got a solid rom-com.

The verdict: Recommended

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

Consider also watching a bevy of Netflix Rom-Coms:

Further sentences:

*Though I’m not at all convinced of their long-term prospects.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Ali Wong began performing while at UCLA as a member of the university’s LCC Theatre Company, the largest and longest-running University Asian American theater company, of which Randall Park was a co-founding member during his time at UCLA.

Perfect Bid: Place a bet on this one

The review:

C.J. Wallis’ Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much is gripping, and exists at the intersection of Quirky Fellow Avenue and Super Nice Guy Way. For anyone with more than a few hours of the game show the Price is Right under their belt,* this will be a nostalgic walk back to “Come on down! You’re the next contestant on the Price is Right,” and the showcase showdown, and all those models pointing at things.** Ultimately, Theodore Slauson is a good guy*** and his fascination with, and attempts to get on, the game show make for a surprisingly engaging documentary.****

The verdict: Good

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

Further sentences:

*Guilty! I watched this show a lot during my pre-teen and early teenage years, especially during the summer.
**Not to mention the inherent sexism intertwined with Barkers Beauties, but this documentary is not about that. (That sounds like it would be an also interesting, yet much less cheery, documentary.)
***The show also interviews Roger Dobkowitz, the longtime producer of the show, and Bob Barker. All interviews look on the bright side of things.
****I found the ending to be slipshod. Is the current situation with the show as Drew Carey has outlined, that there are now just too many prizes to memorize?

Juliet, Naked: Still a Delight on Second Viewing

3SMReviews: Juliet, Naked

The review:

This was a re-watch to catch the boyfriend up. He liked it. Original review here.

Verdict: Recommended

Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home with the aforementioned boyfriend.

3SMReviews: Juliet, Naked

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

To create the “classic” album that the character Tucker is best known for, director Jesse Peretz turned to previous collaborator Nathan Larson who worked with him on Our Idiot Brother (2011). Over the course of three years, they wrote songs and requested demos from about 35 artists such as Conor Oberst, Robyn Hitchcock and Ryan Adams. Nathan Larson’s inspiration for the music was Big Star’s “Third/Sister Lovers” album as well as friend Jeff Buckley.

Instant Family: Byrne and Wahlberg Lead a Great Ensemble

3SMReviews: Instant Family movie review

The review:

Sean Anders’ Instant Family is a very good Sunday Afternoon Movie* and also manages to feature a lot of kids with problems without falling into the obnoxious child trope.** Movies about kids in foster care are few and far between*** and it was nice to see this human-scale comedy created by someone who has experience with the foster care system.**** Overall, this was a funny, breezy film with excellent performances by all***** and for people who have children, it’s probably that much funnier.

The verdict:

Recommended (although see all those notes below)

Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: At home with Matt, who also enjoyed it

Consider also watching:

  • White Oleander
  • The Blind Side (which is amusingly referenced repeatedly in this movie. I have a lot of problems with the white savior aspect, but there are things to like)
  • Annie (I can only vouch for the 1982 edition)
  • Shazam!
  • Oh! Channing Tatum plays a foster kid in Step Up! How could I have forgotten?

Further sentences:

*Sunday Afternoon Movie: A pleasant movie where things are fine by the end, which is best watched before transitioning into the preparation for the workweek ahead.
**Bratty kids=movie killer for me. They aren’t funny, they are spoiled and annoying.
***I found this list called Foster Focus’ Top Twenty-Five Foster Care Movies and the definition of “foster care” seems to include orphanages, which is not what I’m talking about.
****Director Sean Anders has adopted three children from the foster care system. That said, I am a white female who has no experience with the foster care system and I can’t speak to how “true” this tale will feel to people who have had experience. The movie also includes discussions of race and white saviorism, albeit briefly and I’m not sure how those aspects of the movie would be experienced by other people.
*****I started listing the actors who really stood out and realized I was making a list of everyone in the movie.

3SMReviews: Instant Family movie review

Disobedience: The Performances Are Not to be Missed

3SMReviews: Disobedience

The review:

Sebastián Lelio’s Disobedience has an overly long sex scene,* but other than that, it’s a movie worth watching both for nuanced performances** and for a short visit to the Orthodox Jewish world of London. Rachel Weisz is fast becoming one of my favorite actors to watch and her performance as the woman who left her community but has returned for her father’s funeral is fantastic—sorrowful and resigned. This falls into the slow drama category, but becomes quite tense in places.

The verdict: Recommended

Cost: free view Kanopy, Multnomah County Library’s streaming service
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences

*In some alternate universe, there exists this scene filmed by a woman. I bet it doesn’t feel as gratuitous.
**Everyone is not saying very much which means more stuff needs to come through nonverbal means.

3SMReviews: Disobedience

Aquaman: a Mishmash of Mush

Aquaman movie review 3SMReviews

The review:

Sometimes the experience of watching a movie is an exercise in picking apart why the film isn’t working and so it was for James Wan’s Aquaman. I came up with a host of reasons: big gaps in the origin story; villains who had already turned evil, leaving me without reasons to “feel” for them;* flimsy story with not-great writing** that leads to too many action scenes; a very fit guy is only part of the reason to watch a movie, the character he creates has to also be compelling; lack of day-to-day stuff about his life.*** Overall, this was a great example of all style, no substance and I just didn’t care.

The verdict: Skip

Cost: $1.50 via Redbox
Where watched: at home

Consider watching instead:

Further sentences:

*Green Goblin from Spider-Man and Doc Ock also from Spider-Man come to mind as good examples of villains I felt for, even while rooting for their defeat. Even Ultron managed to by sympathetic.
**For most of the movie Aquaman is all, “I’m totally not going to be your king!” and then at the end it’s suddenly, “This is gonna be fun!” Why the change Aquaman?
***The movie has placed him firmly as a laid-back surfer, and Aquaman himself says he’s dumb at one point. But he speaks, Russian, Italian, Maori and English? When did he learn all of that? Also, how does he eat? Or drink at the bar? Is he paid for his work? Who pays him?

Aquaman movie review 3SMReviews

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Arthur and Orm are elder and younger brothers, but Patrick Wilson is five years older than Jason Momoa, while Nicole Kidman, who plays their mother, is seven years older than Wilson.

If I had a dollar for every movie with a woman playing a “mom” with this age span, it would add up quickly.

Blockers: Still funny the second time around.

Blockers 3SMReviews.com

I did a re-watch of Blockers so Matt could see an appreciate it’s comic stylings. He did. Original review here.

Cost: $1.50 from Redbox (it went away from Redbox, and was in $14.99 streaming rental purgatory for a while, but then it reappeared.)
Where watched: at home, with the aforementioned Matt.

Her Smell: an Uncomfortable Character Study

Her Smell movie review 3SMReviews.com

The Review:

Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell is uncomfortable, sprawling,* and at times puzzling, but it was an immensely enjoyable movie with a Cracker Jack performance by Elisabeth Moss.** This movie in four parts uses a framing device to set each section and sound design to amp up the swirling amounts of crazy as Moss’s Becky Something spirals out of control. It makes for good discussion about what we owe the people who create music we love when the combination of fame, money, drugs and their own psyche send them on a downward spiral.

The verdict: Good

Cost: $4.00
Where watched: Academy Theater with S. North

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*I would have been fine if they had nipped and tucked away twenty or so minutes
**Everyone was very good. Props to an unrecognizable Dan Stevens (Matthew in Downton Abbey). Cara Delevigne who captures the innocence of young punk rock, but I also really liked Agyness Deyn and Gayle Rankin as the poor band mates dealing with the increasing craziness.

Her Smell movie review 3SMReviews.com

Favorite IMDB Trivia Item:

During a Q&A at the 2018 New York Film Festival, Alex Ross Perry cited Axl Rose as the main inspiration for the character of Becky. Perry also cited the screenplay structure for Steve Jobs (2015), with its lengthy scenes that span over time, as an influence.