Good – Page 14 – Out & About

Her Smell: an Uncomfortable Character Study

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:

Love and Mercy
Amy
Rock of Ages (Because Tom Cruise playing a very Axel Rose-like musician is a more fun version of this theme.)

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.

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.

The Great Race: Avoids Many Pitfalls of Aging Movies (and is funny)

The review:

I’d not seen Blake Edwards’s The Great Race since I was a child; it was interesting to see the scenes I remembered in context* and I was happy that this managed to have aged almost 55 years and yet is nearly totally free of cringe-worthy moments.** It’s also hilarious (Jack Lemmon is the main carrier of this torch) and though its nearly three-hour run time means it does eventually drag, it has an overture and intermission included in those 160 minutes.*** Overall, it’s a fun intergenerational film, especially if your generations tilt toward the advanced ages, though kids would probably like parts of it too.

The verdict: Good

Cost: free via White Elephant Gift Exchange
Where watched: at home with the mothers and aunts

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Tony Curtis’ teeth and eyes sparkling in a “dream boat” way and the best pie fight in the history of cinema were the most prominent, but some of the landscapes felt very familiar, too.
**It’s not overtly racist (though that Indian-chase scene is a bit iffy), Natalie Wood playing a suffragette means that it doesn’t come off as terribly sexist (though I’m sure some of the suffragette stuff was “funnier” in the original) and though there’s a drunken crown price who veers dangerously close to a “light in the loafers” stereotype, most of his behavior can be chalked up to alcohol consumption and not same-sex proclivities.
***Unlike, say, a certain seminal superhero movie released in April, 2019.

It Had to be You: A Rom-com About Not Wanting to Get Married

The review:

As a person in a long-term relationship who does not want to be married, I was interested in Sasha Gordon’s It Had to Be You, a romantic comedy about a woman who freaks out when her boyfriend proposes. Cristin Miloti is laugh-out-loud funny in parts of this film and there’s a lot of sadness, what with all the trying to figure out what to do with a relationship where two people want different things. I could feel the movie hitting its beats* and I still found that watching it was a good way to spend my Sunday evening time.

The verdict: Good

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

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Which isn’t great, but is much better than the movie not hitting its beats and me wondering when this endless film will be over.

Unicorn Store: Brie Larson is a steely candy confection

The review:

Unicorn Store is Brie Larson’s directorial debut, and much like Chris Evans’ directorial debut, it’s fine way to pass the time. Larson walks the line between steely and fantastical and Samuel L. Jackson looks like he is having a lot of fun. It’s also required viewing for people who are fans of whimsical costuming as it is packed full of candy-colored couture.

The verdict: Good

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

Consider also watching*:

Other Avengers with directorial debuts**:
- Before We Go (Metascore 31, Chris Evans)
- Sympathy for Deliciousness (Metascore 44, Mark Ruffalo)
- Miles Ahead (Metascore 64, Don Cheadle)
- Shelter (Metascore 43, Paul Bettany)
- Of note: the Metascore for The Unicorn store is 45.

The caveats:

*Note that I can only vouch for the film I’ve watched. Report back to me if you have something to stay about the others.
**That would make a fun bar trivia question. Which of the Avengers have directed movies? Of course, you would have to define who the Avengers are.

3SMReviews: Toy Story 3

I’d missed out on Lee Unkrich’s Toy Story 3, and Filmspotting motivation helped catch me up.* I was happy to find a really fun prison-break narrative undertaken by the gang of toys, plus some fun twists. And as I had heard, the end was full-o-tears.

Verdict: Good

Cost: Free from Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching: The Italian Job (1969)

*Although, now that I think about it, the motivation was to watch Toy Story 2 for the 9 from 99 series. But Toy Story 2 went back to the library before I could watch it. Must re-reserve.

3SMReviews: Fighting with My Family

I’m the first to admit that in Fighting with My Family, director Stephen Merchant has created an incredibly predictable film with one too many of many things (training montages, dog reaction shots, pep talks, brother looking sad). However, I’m a fan of sports movies, and especially ones with women doing the sports.* So I found this to be a fine film, wrestling its way (perhaps undeservedly) into the Good category.

Verdict: Good

Cost: $7.00
Where watched: McMenamins St. Johns with S.North

Consider also watching:

Whip It
Bend it Like Beckham
The Heart of the Game
The Cutting Edge
Love and Basketball
The Company

*Training montages are the best! When it’s women doing the training, so much the better. Plus, as much as I am of a fan of movies where not much happens and/or there’s a lot of talking, I also adore films where bodies move through space. The movement through space in this film is amazing to watch. Plus: Florence Pugh!

3SMReviews: Five Feet Apart

I’ve had a good run of Haley Lu Richardson and director Justin Baldoni’s Five Feet Apart continued that trend. While on one hand, it’s your standard teen love drama (of the illness subset), on the other hand it’s got Haley Lu Richardson who is really good at making standard things much better.* Aside from good acting, I really liked how, as the story progressed, the hospital transformed from a dreary place of healing to something a bit magical.

Verdict: Good

Cost: $8.05 (the bargain Sunday price has officially tripped back into too expensive and I’m crossing Sunday movies at this theater off my list.)
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12

Consider also watching: Miss You Already, Everything, Everything, the book version of The Fault in our Stars (I do not recommend the movie)

*Plus, she had the help of Kimberly Hebert Gregory as Nurse Barb who should probably be getting more roles because she was also quite good. Oh! And Moises Arias, so good in the Kings of Summer, was in this.

3SMReviews: The Kindergarten Teacher

Settle in for some pleasantly uncomfortable observations of a woman going off the rails. Director Sara Colangelo slowly turns up the heat in the Kindergarten Teacher and things grow increasingly uncomfortable as the excellent Maggie Gyllenhaal’s interest in her talented five-year-old student grows. There’s no explosion of violence, or anger, or much of anything; what makes this uncomfortable is how things that are only a little off kilter build to become something that is verboten.*

Verdict: Good

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home

*I feel like I need to add a disclaimer. At no time is the child abused, or in danger. He’s a victim of liking too much, which gets out of control.

3SMReviews: Captain Marvel

Brie Larson has played a lot of characters who put their heads down and get through things; her turn in Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel continues that line. The plot of this film is like one of those “scrambler”-type carnival rides* but in a coherent way. You also get origin stories of many things, a woman casting off the mantle that was put on her so she can find her own power and a cat named Goose.**

Verdict: Good

Cost: $11.00
Where watched: McMenamins Baghdad Theater with Matt. (There were multiple points where we clapped. I love the Baghdad.)

*This is where we are—*woosh*— no this is where we are—*woosh*—no really we’re over here—*woosh*—but maybe we’re here?
**And the classic Marvel intro has been restyled as a tribute to Stan Lee. I was not emotionally prepared, and was momentarily overcome. You’ve been warned.

Consider also watching some other great Brie Larson performances: Room, Short Term 12, The Spectacular Now (that’s a tiny role, but I like that movie for its depiction of a teenage alcoholic.)

3SMReviews: Hello I Must Be Going

I’ve long been of the opinion that Melanie Lynskey is tragically wasted* and in Todd Louiso’s Hello I Must Be Going, she gets a chance to shine. Lynskey plays Amy, who can’t quite get it together after her divorce—until she meets the 19-year-old son of her father’s work colleague.** A May December romance follows, and while I would be annoyed if the genders were reversed, I loved how the two found their way to new lives.

Verdict: Good

Cost: Free via the Multnomah County Library’s streaming service Kanopy
Where watched: at home

*”Who?” I hear you asking. She’s kind of the New Zealand version of Judy Greer, but with more gravitas. She was the co-lead with Kate Winslet in Heavenly Creatures, but she mostly shows up in bit parts here and there (Away We Go, Sweet Home Alabama, Ever After) and IMDB tells me she does a lot of TV.
**Christopher Abbot, who played Marnie’s boyfriend Charlie in Girls. I really like him, though he has a flat acting style that some people might characterize as “not good.”

Consider also watching: Home Again, City Island, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Don Jon

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30