Lean who talks about Trish for an extended period, who the main character of Red Rocket reminded me of, and in which movie showing I saw four people leave halfway through.
Note: Josh Greenbaum directed, didn’t write. Mikey isn’t probably really middle aged, but he is old for his industry.
Listen to hear me refer to the June summary as the May summary two-thirds of the time, find out why I think In the Heights was such a success, and learn why I have the same movie in both the Skip and the Good category.
Things mentioned in this post:
Created by women: In the Heights was written by Quiara Alegría Hudes, Life Partners was directed by Susanna Fogel and written by Susanna Fogel and Joni Lefkowitz, and Away We Go was written by Vendela Vida and Dave Eggers.
In this bit of audio, I run through the movies I watched in May 2021. Listen to find out what I think of ditzy women leads, how I knew that a movie wouldn’t have a bummer of an ending, and to get recommendations for several (!!!!) grownup comedies.
Things mentioned in this post:
The bummer of recording audio is that when I discover I’ve missed an entire move after I’m done recording and editing, I don’t go back and fix that.
In that vein, know that I also watched Mystery Date in May. It would have landed in the Skip category.
Created by women: Together Together (written and directed); Monster (2018) (co-written); The Forty-Year-Old Version (written & directed); Once Upon a Mattress (directed).
?Directed by Nikole Beckwith?
?Written by Nikole Beckwith?
Patti Harrison* and Ed Helms** anchor this low-key, sweet comedy about a middle-aged man starting a family and the surrogate he hires. What starts as a strictly-by-the-books relationship evolves into a friendship that reveals the hard and sticky parts of both characters lives. Recently, I remarked on the lack of grownup comedies;*** this is one and well worth your time.
Cost: $15.90
Where watched: The Living Room Theater! I’m fully vaccinated! First movie outing since March 7, 2020!
*Who shall now be forever known by me as the Queen of the Straight-Faced Zingers.
**He’s really done some great stuff recently.
***I enjoy a lot of different comedies, but the ones where people are grounded in something like the real word and grounded in everyday humor are a rare treat.
The film was shot in 17 days.
(also the only one)
Other reviews of Together Together:
?Directed by Chloé Zhao?
?Written by Chloé Zhao?
There are few well-known actors I can think of who could play Fern so convincingly,* and I’m thankful Nomadland’s Fern was Frances McDormand. If you haven’t seen any of Zhao’s films before, you might not think that an ambling narrative about people who live in their vans would be interesting, but you would be wrong.** If you’re looking for a moving story of a woman determined to be on her own, take yourself to wherever this film is playing.***
Cost: I paid Matt $6.00, he’s paying the monthly Disney+/Hulu subscription fee
Where watched: at home
*Being a woman and an actor in the USA generally means avoiding aging. McDormand has aged along with the rest of us, which makes her very relateable.
**If you’ve seen Zhao’s other films (The Rider or Songs My Brothers Taught Me) you would know she’s a pro at mesmerizing viewers using landscape and the real people’s lives she’s woven a narrative from.
***I remain intensely curious about what Zhao’s Marvel movie will be like.
Frances McDormand nicknamed the van used in the film “Vanguard,” which she decorated with her own personal items and slept in during the shoot. Eventually she stopped doing so because “it’s much better for me to pretend to be exhausted than to actually be exhausted,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
Directed by Eliza Hittman
Written by Eliza Hittman
Eliza Hittman takes us on a journey worthy of an epic poem* so a young woman can get a procedure that should be available to her in her own small town. On the way, we see how rules to “protect”** women actually end up putting them in more danger, the things women sacrifice for other women, and a quiet, perfect performance by Sidney Flanigan. By the time you get to the scene where the phrase “never, rarely, sometimes, always” is used, you will never forget the order of the words in this very wordy title.
Cost: HBOMax monthly fee of ($12.99) (Still living off the WW84 purchase)
Where watched: at home
*It’s interesting to see how little of Flanigan’s life we learn about before the journey begins in earnest and how the sparse details we do find paint a vivid picture.
**But we know why those rules are passed and it has nothing to do with protection and everything to do with control.
Prior to this film, Sidney Flanigan worked as a janitor.
Directed by Radha Blank
Written by Radha Blank
Despite decades of “girl power” and versions of “leaning in” there are still a lot of spaces that aren’t available to women.* Radha Blank explores a couple of them** in this film that is both humorous*** and can really kick you in the solar plexus. Having Radha Blank on screen would probably be enough of a win,**** but she delivers a story that a lot of people would be better off having taken the time to watch.
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99)
Where watched: at home
*There are the obvious ones, like pro baseball and pro football, and the less obvious ones like film criticism and, hey, the music industry, where talented women have to trade on something other than just their talent to achieve fame (and even then the gatekeeping is fierce.) I’m thinking of 20 Feet From Stardom, where there already was an Aretha, so there was no need to promote other talented Black female singers. I’m thinking of all the women singers who had the voice, but their looks were deemed to be not good enough by the men who control the recording companies. How many Taylor Swifts do we not hear from because they aren’t as attractive as she is?
**Hip hop music, where she reinvents herself as RadhaMUSPRime, and theater, where her play is finally being produced by a major (read: white) theater.
***Some of her rhymes are giggle inducing.
****She does not fall into gatekeepers’ standards of beauty.
Cinematographer Eric Branco explained that he actually showed up to the interview with a bag full of street photography books (Bruce Davidson, Matt Weber, Saul Leiter, Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson) for the director. From the beginning, Radha wanted the footage to be shot on black and white 35mm film.
Directed by Patty Jenkins
Written by Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns, and Dave Callaham
The great moments in Wonder Woman 1984 are the bits that come along with being female in the world that are highlighted in passing* as the story unfolds.** Overall, there are two stories here, one with a pyramid scheme guy and one with a antiquities specialist and I enjoyed the latter more than the former.*** But that is not to say that I didn’t enjoy this movie, it was a fun outing.****
Cost: HBOMax monthly fee ($14.99)
Where watched: at home
*From the joy of young Diana trying to beat the course to the catcalls and unrelenting attention of the grown Diana (and Barbara Minerva) it’s a low and high thing.
**Also joyful? Chris Pine’s clothes modeling scene which mimicked Diana’s exasperation with WWI-era clothes in the previous movie.
***Also, I didn’t recognize Pedro Pascal and spent the film wondering if that was Nathan Fillion with a prosthetic nose, which was a little distracting.
****It’s also the longest Matt and I have gone without watching a new superhero film in more than a decade. Our last one together was Spider-Man: Far From Home in July of 2019! (Though Matt did see Birds of Prey earlier this year)
As first reported by Variety, actress Gal Gadot was paid $10 million for this film (which she also produces)—33 times more than what she made on the first film, Wonder Woman (2017) ($300,000).
(To which both Matt and I said, “$300,000? She was the star of that film!”)
Directed by Clea DuVall
Written by Clea DuVall & Mary Holland
Astute readers* will remember how I’m always going on about the lack of good roles for women and I’m here to say that Happiest Season, a story about two women who love each other, who are heading to one of their family homes for Christmas, provides an entire movie with juicy roles for women.** This film captures a couple at a time in their relationship where it’s a little hard to root for them, but that just makes it all the more fun to watch.*** Aside from being big fans of most of the people in this movie, I thought Aubrey Plaza turned out her best performance in years.
Cost: Monthly Hulu charge of $6.00 (because bundled with Disney+)
Where watched: at home
*Or those just passing by.
**This inverts the usual formula. Rather than a bunch of men and one woman, we’ve got a bunch of women and one man playing a side character.
***Plus, it can give you some compassion practice. What if you hadn’t found the courage to come out to your parents yet? What if you had to juggle that with the usual going-home teenager-esque feelings? What if sibling relationships made everything more complicated? I get that Harper isn’t making good choices, but I feel for her. (Plus, Mackenzie Davis was in Tully, and I will love her forever for that.)
In Harper’s old room there’s a poster of Josh Hartnett. The film’s director, Clea DuVall, co-starred with Hartnett in The Faculty (1998).
Directed by Elaine Constantine
Written by Elaine Constantine
Northern Soul is a fine niche* coming-of-age movie from the usual male point of view. I loved the setting and all of the grimy details, especially the intersection of drug use and the dance scene.** While it follows the usual coming of age/drug use trajectories, the enthusiasm for Northern Soul music makes this a fun watch.
Cost: free via Hoopla, one of Multnomah County Library’s streaming services.
Where watched: at home
*The niche in question is Northern Soul music which Wikipedia tells me is “a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England and the English Midlands in the late 1960’s from the British mod scene, based on a particular style of black American soul music…with a heavy beat and fast tempo.” You can read more here, including the information about how the lesser or unknown tracks were the most popular Northern Soul music. A plot point hinges around this.
**At times, it seemed that the big pops of color were the uppers the characters were taking.
Was originally only meant to be playing in five screens across the UK but due to high demand it got a blanket release of over 160 screens
