First was a recommendation from a woman I dated a couple of times, called Cafe de Flore. Vanessa Paradis is in it, Johnny Depp’s Ex. It is a Canadian film which spans two times and places. First Montreal in present day, and then Paris back in the late 60s. Paradis is a woman in the late 60s who has a boy who has Down Syndrome. Her man leaves her because of it. She makes it her mission in life to see that this boy gets a normal upbringing. She is very dedicated. Pop back to present day Montreal, and there is a 40yo DJ who has two daughters and a girlfriend. He split with the Mother of the girls. There is his story and their story together of this guy and the Mom of the daughters and how they met. In the end the stories impact one another and I won’t say how. But in some ways it was disturbing. This movie stayed with me the next day but not really in a positive way. There was negative there and a feeling that there was betrayal. Rotten tomatoes had thoughts on this movie. This woman I dated raved about it. I was not so enthusiastic, but I can understand why she liked it.
Next I went to see Dallas Buyers Club Tuesday night for Cheap Tuesday. Matthew McConaughey has done a Robert De Niro effort in losing weight and getting into character here. Playing a womanizing, drug snorting, blue collar electrician red neck very well. He finds out on a routine check that he has HIV. Immediately he thinks about Rock Hudson and articles about him being gay. Matthew’s character is homophobic and finds the news unbelievable. The doctors give him 30 days to live. Give him time to “get his affairs in order”. He is a wily guy and looks to obtain the new drug AZT to fight the illness. Ultimately he lands in Mexico and gets to know and understand more about the disease. He looks to take vitamins and build up his immunities but also being entreprenuerial and bring this concoction back to the US (so far the FDA had not allowed these items). They are not all drugs, in fact many are not. Still the FDA sits by while people panic who are dying justifiably. The story unfolds and we see the battle here, as this guy tries to beat the system but also (ultimately) to learn to help people. There is a Best Actor award nomination here. Could even be a Best Supporting role for Jared Leto who also lost a ton of weight! There are moments for both of them that they are scary in colour and in body shape. This is worthwhile seeing. Good performances and an interesting story. The red neck aspect of it plays out really interestingly too.
Mondays With Robbie 