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.
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 Paul Greengrass?
?Written by Paul Greengrass and Luke Davies?
Tom Hanks does his Tom Hanks thing* as he plays a Civil War veteran eking out an existence as someone who travels from town to town to read the news. Helena Zengle meets his acting standard as the white girl raised by Indians who is supposed to be returned to her family.** This movie rolls along hitting all the tense and respite places and is a good way to spend a few hours.
Cost: $1.30 via Redbox (with discount)
Where watched: at mom’s house
*It’s a good thing he has going.
**Most of her performance is nonverbal, which is impressive.
This is the fifth time Tom Hanks has played a character with the rank of captain. News of the World (Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd), Greyhound (Capt. George Krause), Sully (Capt. Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger), Captain Phillips (Capt. Richard Phillips), Saving Private Ryan (Capt. John Miller).
?Directed by Edward Norton?
?Written by Stuart Blumberg?
I watched this in the theater on its release and remembered it being a little slow.* Still, I find it to be eminently likable just from the young-religious-men shaking up the structures aspect** plus I find Jenna Elfman delightful. There were bits of not-great acting*** scattered about, but it’s a pretty even-kneeled Ben Stiller,**** Edward Norton playing the opposite of his Fight Club character and makes for a great Sunday Afternoon Movie.*****
Cost: Monthly HBOMax subscription ($12.99)
Where watched: at home
*Still true!
**Advantage casting your movie with a rabbi and priest: it’s a pretty clean movie, language-wise.
***By all three leads.
****He can sometimes get to manic in portraying neurosis. He did have a bit of physical comedy that had me wishing we got more physical comedy out of him. But divorced from the whole Meet the Parents thing.
*****Sunday Afternoon Movie—one that provides you with one last gasp of trouble-free weekend before the windup to the work week begins. Plus, Milos Forman has a bit part and a good speech. Also, it’s set in New York City and was released a year before 9/11.
Ken Leung has a small part in this film, appearing as a salesman at the store where Norton and Stiller go to buy a Karaoke System. He does a high-energy version of “Jessie’s Girl” sung in broken English. It all rang very Long Duck Dong, and doesn’t really work.
The first movie starring Edward Norton to not be rated R.
?Directed by Orson Welles?
?Written by Sherwood King, Orson Welles?
Orson Welles does an Irish accent and takes the noir film to a bunch of sunny locals for an interesting night at the cinema.* Everyone really dug into their characters, none more so than Glenn Anders, who played his part with a sweaty dedication. There were also twists a plenty, and some dramatic visuals as befits the dude who made Citizen Kane.**
Cost: Free via TV Time app on Roku TV (But get ready to see the same commercials repeated.)
Where watched: at home
*So much sun and fun! (But that underbelly of darkness followed them, don’t worry) I loved that we seemed to be getting location shots, rather than sound stage shots.
**”This movie is awesome!” I cackled aloud near the end.
Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn told Orson Welles he would never again hire one man to produce, direct and act because he could never fire him.
Also this:
In the aquarium scene, the tanks were shot separately, enlarged, and matted in to make the sea creatures appear more monstrous and loom closer to the actors.
?Directed by Kornél Mundruczó?
?Written by Kata Wéber?
“Young mother’s home birth ends in tragedy” is a phrase that will probably have most of the potential audience saying, “Nope!” but for those of you who like sad dramas that depend more on acting than dialog, this film is for you!* The film does a great job establishing a loving relationship between the two leads so we can then watch things crumble. Vanessa Kirby is new to me** and her Best Actress Oscar Nomination is well deserved.***
Cost: Netflix monthly fee $8.99
Where watched: at home
*That’s me! If it’s you, don’t miss this!
*I apparently saw her in Hobbs & Shaw?
***Though I honestly felt the filmmakers were trying to position Ellyn Burstyn for a best supporting nomination.****
****She was good in this, but there was a weird age gap. She’s 88 (Which: !) and Vanessa Kirby is 31, which means if they are playing their ages, Burstyn would have been 57 when she gave birth to Kirby. I think an actor in her 60s would have been a better fit age-wise.
The title doesn’t appear until 30 minutes into the movie.
(This was a thing I noticed.)
?Directed by Will Gluck?
?Written by Keith Merryman, David A. Newman, and Will Gluck?
This film worked for me because I was in the mood, I like both Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake,* and I was amused by the recurring joke.** However, this is one of those romantic comedies written for women by men and I can’t help but wonder how much better it would have been if a member of the audience it is aimed at was part of the team that created it.*** Ultimately, it’s good at what it does,**** but I want more.
Cost: Netflix monthly fee $8.99/month
Where watched: at home
*Plus ancillary performances by Richard Jenkins, Jenna Elfman, and Patricia Clarkson, also always delightful.
**It has to do with Capitan Sully’s historic landing.
***Or, gosh, all of the people who created it?
****And memorializes the flash mob thing, which is fun.
Although Jason Segal and Rashida Jones are technically uncredited in the film, their real names can be seen on the cover of the DVD next to the TV when Dylan and Jamie are watching it.
?Directed by Otto Preminger?
?Written by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Elizabeth Renhardt?
Dana Andrews* is our hard-boiled detective investigating the murder of Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney,**) a charismatic and beloved career woman shot in her apartment. Like all good noirs, somthin’ ain’t right and we can place our bets as we learn more about Laura through flashbacks narrated by Clifton Webb,*** Vincent Price,**** and others. This movie has great dialog and a great twist I didn’t see coming that made this a very satisfying story.
Cost: $3.99 via Google Play (I could have gotten it from the library, if I had planned ahead.)
Where watched: at home
*I found him to be flat in this, though I’ve liked him in State Fair and his performance in The Best Years of Our Lives (that movie is slow, though and I don’t recommend it.)
**Incredibly likable!
***The single-and-fussy (and you can use your 1940s translator to understand what that really means) columnist who adores Laura.
****He was once young!
Despite the Oscar snub of the score, David Raksin’s music proved to be so popular that the studio soon found itself inundated with letters asking if there was a recording available of the main theme. Soon, sheet music and recordings of the instrumental music were released and proved to be a huge hit with the public.
?Directed by Soleil Moon Frye?
A slight documentary, and your interest will vary depending on your exposure to the kid actors who populated your 80s and 90s television and movie screens* and how interested you are in learning about that transition from being a kid actor to an adult. Because Soleil Moon Frye has hours of VHS video and cassette tapes, plus her copious journals, we get at-home glimpses of a bunch of child stars that you may or may not have had crushes on.** There are a lot of scenes that depict drug use,*** and Frye’s eye is constantly turning toward another yet another boy**** while letting us in on some negative experiences.*****
(If you were a teenager in the 80s and 90s.)
Cost: Disney+ Hulu bundle monthly charge ($12.99)
Where watched: at home
*I watched Soleil Moon Frye in Punky Brewster on prime time network television, so that’s exactly me.
**And then you get to see some of them as they look now. Back in 1990, my heart tripped over Balthazar Getty in Young Guns II. Now, he looks like a youthful middle-aged man.
***So much so that it felt cliched.
****If I had captured my teenage years with a video camera, the result would have been the same.
*****There’s a sexual assault recorded in her journals that wasn’t in the forefront of her memory. Her first sexual experience she seems happy with, though the age difference had me squirming.
Was this navel gazing or interesting insight into a unique experience?
What would your video camera have captured in your teenage years?
Soleil Moon Frye spent four years going through footage she had shot, diaries, and voicemails from when she was a teenager in the 1990s.
?Directed by Peter Hedges?
?Written by Peter Hedges?
This is a great movie to add to your Christmas-But-Not-Feeling-It list* as Julia Roberts is a fabulous steely mom character and Lucas Hedges does well while withering under his family’s appraising eye.** It’s not a film that’s reinventing film as we know it, but it’s a solid story of one family drama. Courtney B. Vance is excellent as the stepfather trying to make the best decisions.
Cost: Disney+ Hulu bundle monthly charge ($12.99)
Where watched: at home
*You know, it’s Christmas time, but things aren’t exactly warm and cheery.
**They are sizing him up for good reason as this is the second 2018 movie to deal with the parent-child relationship when the child’s drug use has become drug abuse.
When Peter Hedges was developing the film he had no intention of casting his son Lucas Hedges in the titular role, and had already created a shortlist of other actors he was considering. It was Julia Roberts who, after seeing the younger Hedges in Manchester by the Sea (2016), insisted he be cast.
