Tag: Good

Magnolia Holds Up Reasonably Well 20 Years On

The review:

Twenty years out, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia is full of incredible performances, especially by the men* and the film includes the usual Anderson mesmerizing aura. That said, some things didn’t work for me, namely the “random happenstance” that begins and ends the movie, but which I felt had no real connection to the movie itself.** It’s still worth the watch, especially for a particular reason I won’t spoil here.***

The verdict: Good

Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home (And I stayed up much too late on a Sunday night. It’s a three-hour movie.)

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*I found most of the women’s roles, especially Julianne Moore and Melora Walters, to have parts that left them with nothing much to do than be shrill.
**Also, John C. Reilly’s policeman character would have played differently today, and (as Boyfriend Matt pointed out) the movie is singularly focused on the experience of white people, so much so that the few people of color who appear are mostly irritants to the white actors’ stories.
***And which I didn’t remember as being so very bloody.

Questions:

  • What’s your favorite P.T. Anderson film?
  • Who do you think got the best role in this film? (I think John C. Reiley.)

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Claudia was the first character created, and the other characters were branched off from her.

Other reviews:

The King is Overly Long, but not Interminable

The review:

David Michôd crafts an overly long* tale of Henry V** with some good performances.*** As someone who has only vague knowledge of English history, I wasn’t troubled by potential historical inaccuracies.**** Overall, this movie wasn’t a stunner, but a sedately paced royal-succession-and-battle-type movie that left me feeling like I hadn’t wasted my movie-watching time.

The verdict: Good

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

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*At 2 hours and 20 minutes I fell asleep for about 15 minutes and am pretty sure I didn’t miss much.
**Or Hal, if you are one of his drinking buddies.
***Joel Egerton’s Falstaff was a restrained drunkard (It took me about 30 minutes to wonder aloud, “Is that Joel Egerton?” though I was dealing with a beard and that weird haircut.), Timothée Chalamet’s Hal/Henry hit both the wild and the serious; and Thomasin McKenzie’s small role as Phillippa was a nice treat. (I’d like to see more of her. She was so great in Leave No Trace)
****Was Henry V really such a peacenik or was that something inserted for the purpose of plot?

Questions:

  • What’s your favorite English Royal movie?
  • Does the extreme bowl haircut make it harder to identify the actors? Do you think it’s due for a comeback?
  • Do you know about the history of Henry V? If so, how accurate was this?
  • How did you feel the accent work in this movie was?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The scar seen on Henry’s cheek is historically accurate, as the real Henry V was struck by an arrow at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, when he was just sixteen years old. This is the same battle where Henry fights Percy Hotspur in the movie. The arrow was removed from Henry’s face, but left a permanent scar.

Also, in this article, it seems that the real Henry V didn’t have Mr. Chalamet’s chiseled good looks.

Chutney Popcorn Overcomes; Is a Good Movie

Sorry it’s not a better image. Surprisingly, 90s indie films about lesbians don’t have a ton of media presence on the internet.

The review:

Nisha Ganatra directs a film chock full of terrible acting,* and yet still manages to create a very enjoyable movie-watching experience. The plot has an interesting conundrum (offering to be a surrogate for your married, infertile sister) and the movie itself is a delightful time capsule of late-90s New York City lesbian culture. This is a great example of how serious flaws sometimes aren’t enough to bring down the movie.**

The verdict: Good

(with some caveats)

Cost: free via Hoopla, the library’s steaming service that isn’t Kanopy
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Apparently, there’s a good reason that the main character’s acting isn’t great. See the trivia section. Jill Hennessy is in this and isn’t bad, but she isn’t great, either.
**Ganatra also directed one of my favorite films of this year: Late Night

Questions:

  • What’s a movie that isn’t great (for whatever reason) but you still love it.
  • Iconic lesbian films. Go!
  • Have you seen Late Night yet? Why or why not?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Director and co-writer Nisha Ganatra stepped into the lead role of Reena after the actress originally cast in the role quit the production shortly before filming began.

Cedar Rapids is a Gentle, Funny Movie

The review:

It’s a gentle comedy, Cedar Rapids is, and Miguel Arteta does his best to make an amusing and sweet movie.* Ed Helms perfectly embodies the somewhat emotionally stunted, completely tight-laced, Midwestern,** small-town insurance agent suddenly tapped to travel to Cedar Rapids for the big insurance conference. John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and Isiah Whitlock Jr.*** make great mentors, and the rest of the cast is stuffed with a laundry list of, “Hey, it was that guy**** who was in that thing.”

The verdict: Good

Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*It’s a Sunday Afternoon Movie—one that provides you with one last gasp of trouble-free weekend before the windup to the work week begins.
**In bearing, he very much reminded me of a co-worker.
***Who charmed me by describing himself as being married to his insurance business, but also that he takes part in community theater and enjoys the HBO program, The Wire.
****There are nearly no women in this movie.

Questions:

  • What’s your favorite gentle comedy that has more than one woman in it?
  • Which character had the best lines?
  • Of the “guys who were in that thing,” which is your favorite character actor?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Isiah Whitlock Jr.’s character Ronald Wilkes references the character Omar from the TV show The Wire. He played the character State Sen. R. Clayton ‘Clay’ Davis on the TV series. According to Whitlock, the Wire references were in the script before he was cast, and they decided to keep them in place as an in-joke for fans of both Whitlock and his former show.

Now and Then Would Have Been Better Off Sticking with Then

The review:

In 1995, Lesli Linka Glatter directed Now and Then, a coming of age movie with a lot of young actresses who then were girls but now are grown up and still fun to watch.* The plot is a little thin, and would have been better without the grown-up story, but it was a fine palate cleanser on a Friday night. Plus, it’s a good 1995 time capsule.**

The verdict: Good

(Again, we’re not talking fine wine. We’re talking house red. Or possibly Two Buck Chuck.)

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

Consider also watching/watching instead:

Further sentences:

*Gaby Hoffman is always a treat.
**And possibly a good 1970 time capsule, though that was before my time.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The movie (a.k.a. The Gaslight Addition) was actually written about a town in Indiana named Winchester, and its gaslight addition. The author of the story I. Marlene King grew up there, as did the director Robert Wise, in vastly different years. Winchester declined to have their name associated with the movie, so the name became Shelby, but later Winchester began to preserve areas mentioned in the movie.

Hot Summer Nights Gave Me What I Was Looking For

This is not a good likeness of Timothée Chalamet

The review:

Elijah Bynum gave me what I wanted with Hot Summer Nights* and also included a bonus side of 1991-era Cape Cod summer.** This is supposedly about a normal teenager who becomes a drug dealer, but really, it’s about showing how much money he and Hunter Strawberry (that was the local drug dealer’s name!) made selling drugs,*** falling in love with a girl, and making some not-great (though age-appropriate) choices. The part where I was supposed to be getting amped up came across as boring, and it’s one of those movies that I spent the next day thinking about all the things that didn’t really make sense,**** but it hooked me up with what I needed on a Friday night and thus was just fine.

The verdict: Good

(barely)

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

Consider also watching/watching instead:

Further sentences:

*I had a hankering for a Timothée Chalamet performance, and Call Me By Your Name wasn’t handy
**Plus, I’m betting they didn’t have much money for the soundtrack so it features lesser known (a.k.a. not cliched) music of the time.
***There is not one scene of Mr. Chalamet actually dealing the large amount of drugs they were supposedly dealing
****The narrator is just the omniscient town observer, for instance. Was that just lazy writing? What about main character motivation? Why was Chalamet’s character wanting to continue to expand the business? The questions went on and on.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Part of the movie takes place around The Perfect Storm of 1991. William Fichtner (Shep), also appeared in The Perfect Storm (2000), a movie based on the true story of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat that was lost at sea during the storm.

I see you, typo. But I’m not going to fix you. Never trust the grammar on the IMDB quotes page.

Falling Inn Love: Wait. Am I Watching a Hallmark Movie?

The review:

Falling Inn Love (directed by Roger Kumble) was a movie that had me asking early on, “Just how different is this from a Hallmark movie?”* and by the time it ended I had devised a strategy to mostly avoid pressing play on these types of films.** This was a perfectly adequate film, one that I couldn’t find many faults with aside from it hit every single romantic comedy beat without giving me anything extra. Christina Milian (Gabriela, the “winner” of the Inn) has got some chops and I’d love to see her in other things, and I was quite taken with Claire Chitham (the plant store owner) who apparently is a New Zealand television actress.***

The verdict: Good

(Though it’s more of an: it’s not a bad film.)

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

Consider also watching/watching instead:

Further sentences:

*I’ve not actually watched a Hallmark movie, but, from what I’ve read about them, this seemed to be checking all the boxes. (Although there were no sweaters, because: New Zealand.)
**Strategy revealed: On Thursday, sketch out my movie watching plan for the weekend. There were about 20 movies I could have watched on Kanopy that would have been better worth my time. I think going through the list of choices a day or two before watching will quell that nervous scroll-and-choose thing that has been going on for the last few months.
***Interestingly, most of the movie’s actors do not have an IMDB profile.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The high street of Beechwood Downs was filmed on location in a town called Thames, 1.5 hours from Auckland.
(It was a cute little town, maybe watch it for travel possibilities?)

Little Women: the Gen X Version

The review:

Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women is my generation’s Little Women and it’s full of great performances and too much moralizing.* While everyone is batting a thousand, Claire Danes goes the extra mile, not only ugly crying, but also killing it in her deathbed scene.** I’ve never liked the bones of the story***, but this is still fun to watch.

The verdict: Good

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99)
Where watched: at home, in preparation for the Greta Gerwig version

Consider also watching:

  • In Her Shoes
  • The Virgin Suicides
  • Frozen
  • Sense & Sensibility

Further sentences:

*I mean, geez, I know how progressive Louisa May Alcott and her family were, but it seems like every time Marmee opens her mouth it’s to provide a mini-lecture about their advanced beliefs. My eyes were rolling.
**Pun intended. Simple words said beautifully, and the waterworks start.
***Amy. Brat with few redeeming qualities. Jo. Belongs with Laurie. Or at least a single writer. Anyone but that old guy.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

While filming, Claire Danes was carrying a candle up the stairs and her hair caught on fire.

Update: an oral history of this film’s production, provided by the New York Times. Worth reading!

The New Romantic is a Different Take on an Old Story

The review:

Carly Stone’s The New Romantic isn’t a love story and it isn’t a screed. Instead, a college newspaper columnist (Jessica Barden) skips out on dating for a different kind of experience.* Hayley Law is great** in the best friend role and Brett Dier is an amusing fellow journalist.

The verdict: Good

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99)
Where watched: at home, having failed to make it all the way to the theater for the movie I was planning on watching. (There was traffic)

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*One that is filmed so it’s not as titillating as it might have been.
**Will we get to see her in a starring role?

Veronica Mars Season 4 Cannot Be Accused of Fan Service

The Review:

For reasons I won’t go into, Rob Thomas cannot be accused of fan service in Veronica Mars Season Four. The eight-episode season is chock full of what made the series so beloved* while ably transporting the formerly-teen characters into full-on adults with complicated lives.** Patton Oswalt and J.K. Simmons (as a pizza delivery man, and ex-con toady to Big Dick Casablancas, respectively) are excellent additions.***

The verdict: Recommended

Cost: $11.99/month via Hulu
Where watched: at home with Matt

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Wise-cracking, dark humor, solid dad/daughter relationship, a romance that is complicated, mysteries to solve, bad choices to make, good choices to make, and the wealthy/shady beachfront town of Neptune, California.
**The multitudes of trauma the characters have experienced is being dealt with in ways both healthy and unhealthy. It’s also gently lampooned in two amusing scenes: one with a bunch of true-crime enthusiasts, another with a high school student recapping previous seasons’ plot lines by asking Veronica, “did you know that…?”
***Two questions annoyed me from the first episode. 1) Why does Neptune have a police department when that was an entire subplot of season two? 2)What in the name of all that is holy has become of Logan’s vast fortune? Both of these questions could have been answered with single sentence asides (Ever since incorporation passed in 2015 the police department has taken over in the incompetent realm. And. After the lawsuit with Trina, there wasn’t much left.) Shoddy story crafting there.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

In Season 4, the professional NBA player, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, is a writer (S4, E6). He’s also the highest-scoring NBA player by total career regular season points scored (38,387).
(Stay focused on the show, IMDB trivia writer. He’s also a producer.)