Woman Writer – Page 11

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

3SMReviews: Sleeping with Other People

Goddamn, do I love Leslye Headland’s Sleeping with Other People, which is kind of When Harry Met Sally in present day with much more discussion of sex. Alison Brie elevates everything she is in and Jason Sudeikis succeeds with his “Hey, I can really do this acting thing, not just comedy!” It’s a witty and sex-positive and blatant film about coupling and love.*

Verdict: Recommended

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

Consider also watching: When Harry Met Sally, Some Kind of Wonderful, Clueless, 13 Going on 30, Friends with Kids, Love and Basketball, What’s Your Number?, What If (I could apparently go on, as this happens to be one of my favorite sub-genres of romantic comedy.)

*I’m still giving the Dirty DJ scene the side-eye though.

3SMReviews: American Honey

In Andrea Arnold’s American Honey we get a meander across America via a white van full of underprivileged, tattooed youth selling magazine subscriptions.* Star’s (Sasha Lane**) good heart shines through, cutting through the layers of poverty, scraping, and fighting to get a handhold up to the place where you can start pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. This long, uncomfortable*** film is worth watching and will stick with me for a very long time.

Verdict: Recommended

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

*All of these kids need a lot of interventions, probably starting with access to any amount of unconditional love.
**Who recently caught my eye in the Miseducation of Cameron Post and was also the love interest in Hearts Beat Loud
***Two hours and forty minutes of me feeling every ounce of my middle-class privilege. Plus the conflicting feelings of Shia LaBeouf’s skeevieness vs. me kind of rooting for him.

A thing my middle-class self and this lot have in common: love of music. This was my favorite scene of the movie. Stuff that advances the plot is happening while the song is playing, and the van sing-along that develops parallels many of my adolescent times with friends in a car.

3SMReviews: The Matrix

My 1999 self watched the Wachowski’s The Matrix in the theater and what my 2019 self recalls about that movie is the feeling of a massive shrug. Having just re-watched the film as my 2019 self, I can say I’m not quite sure what my 1999 self was thinking* because WOW there is a lot to like about this film. It is still setting the standard for Sci-Fi visuals, Keanu Reeves’ performance isn’t nearly as wooden as I was remembering, and it has a strong female character (Carrie-Anne Moss) who is a great fighter.**

Verdict: Recommended

Cost: free from the Multnomah County library
Where watched: at home, in preparation for Filmspotting’s 9 from 99 discussion.

Consider also watching: Looper, Moon

*And really, this goes for all aspects of my 1999 self, not just pertaining to this movie. I thought it was weird I remembered not one thing about the film, so much so that I wondered if maybe I hadn’t actually watched it. But no, there it was listed in the 1999 journal. I watched it on June 23. I wrote nothing about the movie in the entry from that day.
**Though alas, she exists only for the male lead. That “I love you” scene was probably the weakest one of the movie. Also, props for a somewhat diverse cast to support that male lead.

3SMReviews: Isn’t It Romantic

Director Todd Strauss-Schulson calls out many of the romantic comedy tropes in Isn’t it Romantic, a film that is fun for lovers of romantic comedies and stands on its own as a peppy comedy. I’m quite glad someone gave Rebel Wilson a starring vehicle, because I’ve been waiting for her to be featured in something since 2012’s Pitch Perfect. For people aware of the romantic comedy arc, this is a predictable film, but that can be easily pushed aside to enjoy amusing performances as well as Wilson’s reactions to the romantic comedy her life has become.

Verdict: Good

Cost: $7.05 (the “bargain” night at Regal has become not so much of a bargain.) (Though free because the boyfriend had gift cards.)
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12 with the boyfriend.

Consider also watching: Ibiza, Nappily Ever After

3SMReviews: The Edge of Seventeen

Kelly Fremon Craig’s excellent The Edge of Seventeen has popped up on Netflix and this review is here to convince you to watch the film. Nadine (played by the incredibly talented Hailee Steinfeld) has a life that isn’t hard at all,* and yet it’s very hard.** This film does three things very well: it captures female adolescent angst like few films do; it contains hilarious and (to me at least) familiar depictions of awkward flirting, and oh, my goodness, it is funny.

Verdict: Recommended

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home. And it was good enough to draw the boyfriend in.

*She lives in a nice house, has a middle-class level of resources, and a best friend.
**She’s the kind of girl who powers through a world that doesn’t operate the way she does, her father died and left her to navigate the world alone, and her best friend just started dating her older brother, whom she cannot stand.

3SMReviews: Smallfoot

It’s been slim pickins in the Channing Tatum movie world of late* and so you would think I would have done something besides groan when I first watched the Smallfoot trailer.** I did groan, but no matter, completist that I am, I knew I had to watch it sooner or later, and so I have and I can say that it’s a pretty good kids film. My favorite part was James Corden’s revamp of Queen’s “Under Pressure,” but you can find that on YouTube (and at the bottom of this post) and skip watching the movie.

Verdict: Good (this is one of those “good” ratings where I don’t love the movie, but recognize that it’s fine for its category.)

Cost: $1.75 via Redbox
Where watched: at home waiting for the wintery weather to start.

*Though there’s the delightful gift of that Pink video.
**I have very little tolerance for full-on kids movies and that’s what this movie is.

3SMReviews: The Wife

Bjorn Runge’s The Wife is a perfect vehicle for Glenn Close’s seventh Oscar nomination and, aside from her performance, a so-so movie. While Close’s performance is nuanced, Jonathan Pryce was all over the place and mostly a distracting presence.* This exists also as a movie where audiences can say after the credits roll, “Thank goodness it’s not like that today!” which is a statement I wish were true.

Verdict: skip, unless you are in it for the Glenn Close performance

Cost: Free from Multnomah County Library (my first Lucky Day Movie!**)
Where watched: at home

*His accent came and went which was perhaps an attempt to show his informal home-life self and his formal Nobel-winning writer self. This attempt was not successful. It also seemed like he couldn’t quite nail his character’s view of Glenn Close as the wife.
**New movies that don’t go into the hold system, but hang out at the branches waiting for you to snap them up! They’ve had this system for books for years now, I’m excited to see it for movies too.

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	31