February 7th, 2022

So last week I was away in NYC and enjoyed some time there and didn’t post. I did however see live the musical Moulin Rouge which I had avoided earlier when it was released in 2001 with Nicole Kidman starring with Ewan McGregor. What struck about this updated musical was how a relatively simple story was addressed. Updated because the music used in the 2001 film was updated with artists like Adele, and Lorde etc. I enjoyed this more than I had expected. The performances were solid and the singing was very good. The leader of the Moulin Rouge was very charismatic, and both the leads were solid in their roles. Worth checking out if you are in NYC and looking to attend the theatre. Incidentally, the theatre and throughout NYC they were very diligent about Covid protocols, and mask wearing. As a Canadian I appreciated the focus on this everywhere that I went.

Reminiscence: I do like Rebecca Ferguson. She came to my attention through Mission Impossible, and kudos to Tom Cruise on selecting her in that growing role. I then watched her in The White Princess, and thought that she added to that role. Then I have seen her in The Kid Who Would Be King, and The Showman (also with Hugh Jackman) and I have been more underwhelmed. She was a quality selection in Dune playing Jessica, Paul’s Mother. I had higher hopes for this film once again pairing her again with Hugh Jackman. It is a hodge podge plot which borrows from other movies, notably Altered States where a water-filled pod is used with some drugs to assist with digging into the past of the user. Also add in Minority Report to some extent, where glimpses of the past are revealed over various sessions. In this instance, a mysterious woman (Ferguson) enters the dream-escape business run by Jackman and his colleague played by Thandie Newton.

Rebecca Ferguson web on Twitter: ""Costume designer for Reminiscence Jennifer Starzyk created roughly 20 different looks for Mae by using luminous fabrics to portray her seductive role as a club performer in — Rebecca Ferguson showing one main reason why she was hired

She asks to look for her keys, but there is more to it. Despite the attitude of Newton’s character, Jackman and Ferguson begin a relationship. Then she disappears. Jackman then tries to figure out, using his own machine what has happened. It gets messy. It also gets more confusing, as bits and pieces of their time together are revealed. There is some discussion about fate, love, destiny and connection. But it is more convoluted than that, and not very satisfying. I cannot recommend it, and when I texted Alison she mentioned that she couldn’t finish it. I didn’t feel that negative about it, but nor would I go out of my way to suggest that this should be sought out. Ferguson I am hopeful can do more Mission Impossible movies and Dune while less of these others. We will see.

Jungle Cruise: Like Rebecca Ferguson, I do like Emily Blunt and feel that she has more range in her catalog of work than Ferguson, so far anyway. There is part of me that thinks Blunt has signed a multi-picture deal with Disney. She was in Mary Poppins Returns earlier, and now she has joined with The Rock in another Disney theme park ride. The Disney powers that be want to have the same successful tie-in to the fairly lame ride as Johnny Depp’s successful Pirates of the Caribbean ride and multi-film franchise. For me, this story much like above was a mish mash of other movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Tomb Raider as well as The Mummy with Rachel Weisz (and not Tom Cruise). Set in early 1900s, where women are not permitted equal status, there is Blunt in London seeking to get access to a piece of antiquity which is supposed to help in her quest. She seeks to find a fabled tree blossom that is able to heal all diseases found in a remote area of the Amazon River in Brazil. She then channels Indiana Jones and Lara Croft to obtain this piece heading down to South America. In South America she unexpectedly meets The Rock who is a river swindler, always in and out of troubling situations. He proves time and again to Blunt to be unreliable, manipulative and dishonest. She is there with her upper class, annoying brother (like the brother in The Mummy) and together they inexplicably unravel the mess that becomes the backstory to The Rock. By the end, the story has become such a mess that I have lost any interest in its conclusion. Do we really need to have Blunt go from capable, independent, successful adventurer to being more dependent, looking towards a man? I am not convinced that it is needed. This movie didn’t do well in the theatres (Covid or not) and when I saw the trailer I wasn’t interested. I am relieved that I saw this on a plane, not costing me anything, than in the theatre. Emily Blunt has more challenging roles in her future, like Sicario earlier in her career. Hopefully this one can be ignored and fairly quickly forgotten. Next!

January 24th, 2022

Fanny: The Right to Rock: Crave has this documentary that was recently released. It starts with three mostly grey-haired women in a convertible 60s era car and singing as they drive. We learn that these women were part of an all-woman rock band in the 60s. They were eventually called Fanny, with a drummer, two guitarists and a keyboard player. They were good players, notably with the bass and guitar player who were the front people for the band. They were on TV and released six albums. But fame and success was elusive.

Or this:

Hey Bulldog

The headwinds for this group was that they were ahead of their time. They had lesbians playing in the group. They were full on feminists at a time when Women Power was just emerging. The times were very different in the late 60s and early 70s. Despite having well known celebrities like David Bowie endorse them (and also date one of them), it was just not enough. Tours basically paid their expenses and lifestyle. But they didn’t get rich, even if some felt that they were the female Beatles. That was an overstatement according to history, but they didn’t have any hot pop songs. It’s one of the things about the music business that you don’t hear about very often. This band saw a glimpse of success, but it was fleeting and things just petered out. Now as these women enter their sixties, they are looking to recapture the magic, and gain back some notoriety. History has been more kind to them, and they want to see about ‘getting the band back together’. Things happen. It was a warm story and showed another side of the creative process. They wrote plenty of music. It can be catchy. I enjoyed this, and I was cheering for these women, despite the challenges that they faced previously and face today. Well worth your time.

Judy: A year later, I have finally taken the time to watch this movie about Judy Garland and some of her later performances. I am not a Renee Zellwegger fan. I have mentioned it before, and she won the Oscar for Best Actress for this performance. Other nominees included:

Cynthia Erivo. Harriet.
Scarlett Johansson. Marriage Story.
Saoirse Ronan. Little Women.
Charlize Theron. Bombshell.

Is this deserved? Not in my opinion. Cynthia Erivo was robbed really. But standing on its own, the performance is the best aspect of this tiring movie. It is slow. It treads along familiar ground with the aging child star, who is an addict, had a number of failed marriages and doesn’t really take care of her kids. Then it points the finger at Hollywood itself, and how they treated talent, but especially young female talent in the late 1930s. One wonders where the parents for young Judy would have been. A film exec/producer berates young Judy on the set of Wizard of Oz. The implication is that they are all to blame for how she has turned out. Part of this may be true, but where does individual responsibility come into play? I think of Judy Garland as “older” when she passed away, but in truth she died at the age of 47. That’s young. We are shown that she could be difficult, late, unreliable and unable to curtail her drinking even for a show. Very sad for a young darling of the silver screen. I can appreciate a performance even though I don’t necessarily like the actor. I am also on the side of believing that doing a biopic in many ways is easier than creating a character out of thin air and a script. There was footage of Judy Garland. One can mimic the way she spoke. Make up and dress can be the same. So much of the heavy lifting can be done. I cannot recommend.

The Crown: I re-watched The Crown recently and marveled at a number of things upon second viewing. I think universally the acting, sets and writing are excellent. Absolutely first rate. Clare Foy initially and Olivia Colman are both excellent portrayals of Queen Elizabeth herself. Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies playing Prince Phillip were excellent too. I feel that Season 3 showed much sympathy for Prince Charles. Played incredibly by Josh O’Connor. You see the young Prince as someone who has very little say in his life. Much of his goodwill however is lost in his relationship with Lady Diana Spencer. Diana was far younger than the Prince, and as Ann explains to the Queen in the show, Diana was more immature than her years and Charles was far beyond his biological age. Charles is a spoiled, self-centred young man, who feels slighted and bemoans his station because the powers that be deemed that Camilla was not worthy of being his wife. So they arranged for her to be married off. Add some political intrigue as Margaret Thatcher enters office as PM, played brilliantly by Gillian Anderson. In her performance we see who the real talent in the X-Files really was. But I digress. Events happen like the Falklands War with Argentina. And the avalanche in which Charles was caught in Switzerland. Not everything is entirely accurate, and it doesn’t pretend to be historically accurate. It is entertainment and it is very entertaining. I think we gain insight into the Royals, whether you like them or not. But they are well crafted stories and certainly are worthy of watching, even more than once.

January 17, 2022

The Worst Person in the World: This 2021 Norwegian film is a character study for a young woman searching for her direction. Played by Renate Reinsve, she is a refreshing, likeable, engaging young woman who in the role is a brilliant student who can’t seem to finish anything. She shows tremendous promise but then finds ways to justify taking an exit ramp. From looking to initially become a doctor, her thoughts and desires change. So too in her relationships. She meets an older young man, played effectively by Anders Danielsen Lie. They begin a relationship. They move in together and they start their lives, he as a comic book writer of an edgy counter culture character. But it is starting to get traction. She is working in a book store as a salesperson, nowhere reaching her potential. The story is set into twelve chapters, showing aspects of her life over a four year period. Things happen for her that given what she is shown in her character so far are not altogether unexpected. So why the title? There are moments in her where you can see from where the title comes. Not only does she act in her own self interest, she can be quite callous. I like both of the lead characters. It turns from a more light review of a young woman’s life to something much more serious than I expected. It meets this challenge head on and with quality performances, especially by Danielsen Lie.

Everyone brings different things to their viewing experience. For me, there are traits in me and that others have seen in me that are reflected in this young woman. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed this movie more than many I have seen in the past year. There aren’t many memorable films for this year, but I enjoyed this one. The Europeans I think make relationship movies that are more real. The characters aren’t caricatures looking for a simple laugh, and a predictable end game. Rather, they are more real with possible situations and exploring real feelings and emotion. I won’t get into the ending, but it wasn’t in any way what I was expecting. So if you can find this, it is worth checking out.

The Worst Person in the World - Clip 1 [ov st fr] - Cineuropa — The primary characters in the engaging Worst Person in the World

Stay Close: I finished watching this series. After finishing it I realized that I had also watched Safe, which was another Harlan Coben story. This was a who dunnit with its own twists and turns. The characters are colourful and somewhat predictable. Coben follows a fairly predictable path but it has some surprises. Although it took longer than it should in this series to reach the end, the last couple of episodes picked up speed. The ending made sense. There are moments where the main Irish detective has things happen that are laughably fortuitous. Things happen that you just have to accept. Is this memorable TV? Not really. But it was alright, and there were some good scenes.

Dune: I re-watched this movie, and as expected without having the focus on who was who and the underlying plot, I enjoyed it more. I think that the performances are very good. There are excellent scenes with remarkable visuals with these amazing spaceships. It is an epic film with bold vision. Director French Canadian Denis Villeneuve has put together a much better representation than done earlier by David Lynch. It reflects the source material well and is a great launching point for the rest of the story. This is truly a theatre film because of the visuals are so stunning. On the small screen it is effective but not to the same extent. I look forward to the Second installment and how he will show us some of the scenes that I am expecting as the worms become more important and Paul transforms into the leader of the Fremen people. This, much like Arrival which I have seen a few times since my in-theatre viewing, and Blade Runner 2049, are films that can reveal more upon multiple viewings which make it richer and deeper. So it is one that I was glad to spend some more time with.

Dune movie review & film summary (2021) | Roger Ebert

January 10th, 2022

Get Back: I finished Peter Jackson’s three episode multi-hour documentary of the Beatles working for the month of January 1969 in preparation for a new album, and potentially a movie or TV special. The structure is footage from each day as they strike off the days in the calendar towards a performance. There is music to be created. For me, the fascinating part is seeing how musical geniuses work. McCartney early on is the driving force and wants to get to work. He is working on most of the memorable tunes of what becomes the Let It Be album. John is working on I’ve Got A Feeling. I was amazed to see Paul at the piano and bringing forward Let It Be and The Long and Winding Road. John seemed fixated on Yoko earlier and lounged in whenever he pleased. George in the first episode quit quite suddenly, as he was feeling left out. He is a third wheel often with John and Paul crafting the songs they are working. But at the same time, he is considerable talent in his own right. In the third episode, we see Ringo working on very rudimentary Octopus’ Garden, and George adds tremendously with his suggestions on the structure. It seems the Beatles generally are music first and then the lyrics come after. As a viewer, we know these songs well, and seeing the alternate language and suggestions are fun to see. Songs are efforts over time and change from day to day. George can speak of struggling with a particular song for months. After three episodes some general observations: I think that the boys in the band do enjoy themselves, they have fun. John not only is able to break the ice with some good quips and jokes, he also later on focuses on valuing George and his songs and contribution. There was, at times, and underlying tension between Paul and George as George resents being told what to do. Paul is a perfectionist for his songs and he has much of it formed in his head. But he works hard and wants to be productive. The lack of focus with these guys is interesting. They don’t have a set agenda each day and often times are just jamming with various tunes (theirs or others). The introduction about the midpoint of keyboard player Billy Preston adds an energy to the rest of them, and some creative juices flow as a result. I am in awe of people who can just play. Sit down with an instrument and just play. The end of episode three has the famous outdoor concert on the rooftop of Apple Studios. I hadn’t realized that they only played about 5 or 6 tunes. A few like Get Back multiple times. So while the crowds gather for the lunchtime performance, there are bobbys who are gathering to shut it down due to complaints about the noise. Little did they realize they were interrupting the last performance in front of an audience that the Beatles will ever do. Perhaps had they known that, it wouldn’t have been so disruptive requiring a phone call to the police. The London police are polite, but they have no sense of the moment or history. This is must viewing for Beatles fans, and for casual fans of music and creative process.

Harry Potter Reunion Show: For those who are Harry Potter fans, you, you may be surprised to learn that the first instalment of this series was released twenty years ago! Feel old yet!? Young Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were unknowns and were given lottery tickets for this series. It was a tremendous success. Along the way, the acted along side some of the Who’s Who of British theatre and film. Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter, Kenneth Branaugh, Emma Thompson and Ralph Fiennes among others. They learned, developed and grew before our eyes. This reunion brings them face to face with these actors, the directors and the sets. There are some fun stories. You learn that Emma Watson had some consideration about whether she wanted to carry on with it. The young actors obtain fame and wealth as the multi-billion dollar franchise. We learn that Tom Fenton (Draco Malfoy) and Emma Watson (Hermione) have a connection. And there are other little tidbits. This is on Crave. Funnily enough Emma Watson played Belle in Beauty and the Beast, but otherwise none of these primary young actors are doing what lesser lights like Robert Pattinson or Alfred Enoch have had done in other projects. Radcliffe has played some quirkier small roles but isn’t a box office draw it seems.

Stay Close: This is a new series from the UK on Netflix. I am halfway through the ten episodes for Stay Close. It is a murder mystery with characters living in a seaside town on the British coast. It seems to be a relatively quiet, uninhabited place. There is a strip bar (Vipers) which is the focal point. A woman is trying to restart her life, getting away from the stripper life after a creepy guy was stalking her. All the while men seem to be disappearing annually. The local detective is a colourful Irishman who was formerly married to his present police detective partner, and seems to have various other people he is involved with. Among them are the older female barkeep at Vipers. The story is from the book Harlan Coben, who is well known writer, unknown by me but familiar in the genre. The plots twists and turns back onto itself. There are of course inconsistencies and stupidity as characters do things that don’t make any sense. But if you ignore it, then it can be entertaining. If this is the type of story you like, then the British can do this pretty well.

January 3, 2022 (Happy New Year)

Happy New Year to one and all. As we here in Toronto head back into more restrictions from Covid and the ever-rapid spread of Omicron, it feels as though the optimism for early 2022 is dissipating from what we had in the Fall of 2021. The silver lining in a cloud of ugliness is that there seems to be less extreme symptoms and fewer hospitalizations. At least for those who have been vaccinated. The requirement for booster shots I can foresee coming in the very near future. But we can all hold our collective breaths and hope for the best.

Don’t Look Up: Recently released on Netflix, a viewer may wonder how so many mega-stars are part of this project. With the likes of Oscar winners Leo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett and many others the impressive cast takes on the story directed by Adam McKay, who was involved in The Big Short. The story is really a tongue in cheek ridiculous commentary of life in 2021, about the end of the world. Scientists have observed a 9 km wide comet that is going to make a direct hit on Earth. This would be an extinction level event. The scientists are DiCaprio and Lawrence who then go through traditional channels (NASA, government) to try and get the message out. They are met with skepticism, questioning and a desire to put a positive spin on the story. The same occurs when the media is approached. The obvious metaphor for all of this is Global Warming. What is a scientific fact is then considered in the public eye to be conjecture and a conspiracy theory. In the US the camps looking to do something then get impacted by political and business interference. The story goes on. It’s a sad commentary on where we are today. Politicians waffle, the public considers everything to be one side versus another politically and a personal imposition on their individual rights. The rest of the world can’t seem to get itself organized as well. It is so tragic in a “fact” that is eventually capable of being seen from the ground, thus the campaign to “not look up” to see the actual comet as it hurtles towards Earth. Is it interesting? Yes. Like The Big Short, it signifies a failing in the social media, along with leaders who are incapable of leading, and a distrust in government, science and fellow humans which leaves us paralyzes to act; even when a collective action can actually save the planet. Worth a viewing when one understands the ultimate aim.

King Richard: Will Smith stars in this film about tennis’ Williams sisters rise into fame. The focus is on the father who was committed to his daughters becoming these stars in tennis when saw a professional tennis player earn $40,000 for a weekend of work. He made $52,000 at the time. He told his wife that it was time to make two new babies to play tennis. This is an over simplification of course. He was a determined (to say the least),committed father to these girls as he taught them dedication, attitude, and a goal-based approach to life to achieve what he predicted as their destinies, in much the same way that Earl Woods felt about his prodigy Tiger. Both men were right. Richard Williams was raised in Louisiana and took his life experiences in shaping his girls. He was raising the girls in Compton outside LA. Note that for this movie, Venus is more the focus as she was 14yo at the time. Serena was 12yo. Both girls look older. There are times when I wished that the Richard character would say less and listen more. It was especially true when having the coaches around the girls. But it was also in dealing with an endorsement deal for Venus. He turns out to be right, and had very good instincts but the message as delivered is harsh. Veins of truth run in the teachings. What is hinted at by the Mom, was that Richard had a previous wife and previous children in his life. But they are not a focus at all. Some take exception to that, since he basically abandoned them. As a movie, I feel as though much of it is sugar-coated. Venus and Serena are actually producers on the project. So there has to be a ring of truth, but maybe memories as a youngster fade as your success and fame grow. Certainly the ends justified the means in this case. It is worth a watch. I don’t see any awards, but that isn’t what all movies are striving for anyway.

The Book of Boba Fett (episode 1): I was skeptical from the beginning about this new series from Disney. As I think more on it, I don’t think that anything that Disney has added to the Star Wars universe has been very good, save Rogue One. The rest spin the Star Wars characters in ways that don’t work for me. This opening episode in a new series, following the success of The Mandalorian follows the original trilogy bounty hunter Boba Fett. We are introduced to Boba Fett who is tracking down Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back. He ultimately takes away a frozen Han to return him to Jabba the Hutt. He dies (let me underscore that!), he DIES, in one of the most lame ways in Return of the Jedi, off the Jabba’s Sail Barge. In a fight that Luke initiates, a Han Solo who can barely see from poor eye sight, turns and knocks the engine pack on Boba’s back and launches him into the barge, ultimately falling into the Sarlacc. The Sarlacc belches. That was the history. I wondered whether Disney would do a retrospective, and the back story to Boba Fett. This episode shows that they are looking to continue on the Fett story after the death of Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine. My eyes glaze over with the explanation that they use for continuing on with his story. It doesn’t improve either. I can still not imagine using the same actor that we were introduced to in 2002 (twenty years ago) in Episode II: Attack of the Clones. He (Temuera Morrison) may be well preserved in a Sylvester Stallone kind of way, but let’s be real. Perhaps this may get better, it really can’t be much worse, but so far Disney’s body of work doesn’t leave for much optimism. Sure The Mandalorian was okay, but there wasn’t much added. On some level, it is a universe, so perhaps we can expand on the characters to be explored further and the worlds to be worthy of further discussion.

December 27th, 2021

The Matrix Resurrections: When I was seeing a couple of the trailers for this sequel, 20 years after the original cutting edge first installment, I thought to myself that “I hope that it doesn’t suck”. The puzzling aspect was that in the original trilogy, which progressively got worse from one sequel to the next, ended with our Christ-like Neo figure is dramatically killed and enveloped by the computer city existence. Trinity had died earlier in the crash with Neo in the craft to get him to meet with the supreme being in charge of it all. I give away nothing in this sequel to state that up front. The mystery was for me, “how are they going to deal with bringing these two central characters back to life?” For me, the answer wasn’t very compelling. I won’t explain further for fear of spoiling the plot but it is confusing. I think it makes a lot of sense to have a refresher course in the previous three episodes. There are tidbits as they talked about this system of control for humans to act as a power supply for the machines, in short humans are enslaved to becomes batteries, with their minds occupied with the alternate reality for their minds. In many ways, it is all just a computer with programs and associated firewalls. I attended in the theatre on Wednesday. The theatre was about 55-60% full. The beginning is a replaying of the first Matrix movie, with a call being traced and a woman who looks a lot like Trinity being surrounded by heavily protected and armed SWAT-like police, as opposed to the ordinary police in the original. It is those inconsistencies which troubled me. So the suggestion is that one can watch a replay of the first episode and learn more as we are introduced to Morpheus, another confusing character since Lawrence Fishbourne is nowhere to be seen, but this computer-image look alike fills in for him. A very John Wick looking Neo with a beard and longer hair is questioning his reality as he works in a software company. Further details I will save. But it takes a while for things to get going, and for Neo to finally meet Trinity once again. We learn about their connection, in a way that for me is different than what was explained in the first trilogy. In the original, Neo was The One, the singular presence who would be the saviour for all humankind. He is the second coming of a man who could manipulate the matrix, and was the recruiter for people like Morpheus before he was killed. Morpheus had been searching for The One, as predicted by the Oracle, and we later learn is a glitch in the programming that creates such a creature periodically. If much of this sounds like jumbled spaghetti logic, that’s because it really is! This movie has sections in it where they speak a gobbleygook, techno babble that goes right over my head. I don’t design and make computers. I understand the basics to make it run, much like my car, but I can’t deconstruct one and rebuild it. There were audience members who walked out of this showing. I didn’t. I did find it long, and confusing. There were moments were I checked my watch and wondered “is this going to be resolved in the next minutes left?” It does. But sadly, it shows abilities in characters that we have never seen before, much like Star Wars decided to do. That becomes part of this Neo-Trinity connection. Neil Patrick Harris (aka Doogie Howser) explains much of this as the story unfolds. I do think that there was a new tangent created by the now female director and writer Lana Wachowski, who was part of the Wachowski Brothers team before her sex change. The Matrix is no longer a male dominated world, waiting for a male Messiah. For me it was often much ado about nothing. I will say that you need to know the first three movies pretty well to understand anything that is going on. When the French character shows up, you need to recognize him and understand how he has changed from episode 2. Further, the realities and separation of the two realities, the “real world” versus the created Matrix world (and which programming is being run in what partition) become muddied. So, this was confusing and disappointing. It often made little sense. There is too much shooting of people using automatic high powered guns. Maybe that is a first person shooter game impact on it, but it is difficult to watch. One wonders why the agents, and those that become agents are such terrible shots with such powerful weapons? But nevermind. There is a part of me that thinks the pile of money for Carrie Ann Moss and Keanu Reeves had to be pretty tall to make them do this one. I am not sure whether the film makers will ever recoup this money for actors and production. See this one at your own risk. I likely need to see it again to catch some of the subtleties. I will note that Alison liked it a lot better than I did.

Bad Santa: This 2003 movie was seen as a joke this Christmas Eve. It is not really a Christmas movie. Rather Billy Bob Thornton (Santa) is a jaded safe cracker who has teamed up with a black little person (Tony Cox), who plays an elf, for malls and then steals from them during the holiday shopping season. Thornton is constantly drinking and profane, much to the chagrin of the elf side kick, who really runs the show, and in truth is the best part in the movie. By chance, Santa meets up with a local structurally-challenged kid (aka chubby kid) who gets picked on while he lives with his Grandma (Cloris Leachman) while his Dad is in jail for embezzlement. Santa meets a woman who seems to have a Santa/Daddy sexual fetish who adds to the plot. In short, the two have some funny scenes interacting with children at the mall in a totally inappropriate manner, and then fighting with the store’s security manager who is figured out what they are planning, and wants a cut on the action. It was light entertainment. I laughed a couple of times. It was successful enough to merit a sequel, but that I haven’t watched and wouldn’t need to see these guys again travelling down a similar path. Fun to spend some time during the holidays but I wouldn’t seek it out.

P.S> Note that this was John Ritter’s last movie. Also Bernie Mack who plays the Security Manager didn’t live too many years past this release either.

December 20, 2021

Power of the Dog: I started the week thinking that I would be seeing a quality Western starring Benedict Cumberbatch. He has done a number of projects that I really like, including his on stage performance of Hamlet a few years back. In this movie, newly released on Netflix, he is a wealthy rancher in Montana in 1925 that lives with his brother, played by Jesse Plemons. Plemons’ real life wife Kirsten Dunst plays a local town hotelier and provider of meals to patrons. Cumberbatch plays a complex man on a number of levels; he is educated, chooses to be a rancher, acts gruffly and irrationally at times, and seems to keep a distance to those around him. His brother is quieter and seems to be the financial brains of the two-man operation. We see Cumberbatch be cruel to Dunst’s teenage son who is helping as a server in the restaurant where she feeds the men. In another scene, Cumberbatch is cruel to a horse, never a way to make friends with an audience. Plemons meets and likes the hotelier Dunst and they end up married. Then things happen. Jane Campion directed this movie. In 1993 she had Oscar nominations for The Piano with Holly Hunter. This for me was slow. Too slow. The son was a character that just screamed to be picked on. In many ways, this is a movie uses 2020 sensibilities and attitudes and looks to impart them on the 1920s. Many concepts that we take for granted, like autism and the spectrum are more clearly understood and would be foreign to someone in the 1920s. So it just doesn’t translate well. New Zealand where Campion is from, also doesn’t play Montana very well. Yes there are mountains, but they are too high and too close together. I didn’t believe it. When it ended, I could only summarize it with the gif attached and leave it at that. I cannot recommend.

Reaction gif tagged with what the fuck?, Jack Black — In three words the summary of this film for me

The Unforgivable: Sandra Bullock produces and stars in her latest movie on Netflix. In short, I cannot recommend it. It was a downer and depressing. Bullock’s character is released after twenty years in prison for what we learn was killing a local police officer. There are snippets of the past that are shown through flashback. To start, Bullock is being released from prison and is a woman unto herself. She has to make her own way and no one is there to help her. One wonders how anyone can get away from the rut of prison and the system with the working conditions and living conditions that they need to endure. The setting is dreary Seattle in its grey best with rain and overcast and sketchy neighbourhoods. The story follows Bullock as an older sister who is seen trying to protect a young girl that we learn was her sister. Mom had died and it was up to the older Bullock to take care of the little girl. Fast forward to the release from prison and we see that Bullock is trying to track down her now older sibling. Things happen. She meets up with a lawyer, played by Vincent D’Onofrio and he is married to Viola Davis. This is a good cast. But they aren’t given really compelling material from which to work. Bullock has so very few lines, and she appears so very hard which is to be expected. That is the role. But the plot gets very predictable, up to a point and then sets out to deliberately be surprising. As the credits roll, for me it was a letdown. The storylines with competing interests, the prisoner, the sister, the relatives of the police, the lawyer who lives in the old house just don’t add up. This was too bad as I was hoping for more and the trailer made it seem more compelling than it turned out to be.

14 Peaks: After two rather disappointing and depressing stories it was good to have a feel good story to watch. My eldest son had recommended 14 Peaks, and I knew very little about the premise. It was a story of a young Nepalese man who was looking to climb the 14 tallest mountains in the world in 7 months. He called it Mission Possible. Each of these mountains is over 8000m tall, which to a laymen like me is 8km all up! Here is a man and his small team that were going to do this 14 times, against some of the most dangerous mountains in the world. Alex Honnald showed the world about free climbing in Yosemite National Park, and the Dawn Wall. Nimsdai and his team showed the world that people are capable of remarkable things. He made the seemingly impossible, possible.

New Netflix Film on Nirmal Purja Climbing World's Highest 14 Peaks in 189 Days - Gripped Magazine — Nimsdai on a peak

Has the summit of Mount Everest become an overcrowded tourist trap? - New York Daily News — Crowds at Mt Everest up and down

On his trip back down from Mt Everest, he showed the dangerous crowds of people looking to climb the world’s tallest peak. His picture of the Disney World-like lines at Everest were shown throughout the world. But for me, his actions in leaving no man behind, which reflect his elite military training were quite remarkable. His attitude is infectious as evidenced by him and his team arriving at K2 where other teams were resigning themselves not to reach the summit that year. He rethinks the climb, and he leads 20+ people to the summit in a few short days. In his words where those around him said that the mountain wasn’t going to be climbed, and that he was “fucked”, he responded that “fucked is only 45% fucked”. Brilliant. He wouldn’t listen to naysayers and was committed to complete his ambitious project. I cannot imagine three of the tallest peaks in a matter of days. After a while you see less mountain climbing and hear more about the surrounding story. This was remarkable, and exhilarating. Nimsdai made his point that had a European or North American done what he had, that it would be world news and the top story in news media everywhere. He and his team of Nepalese, didn’t get that attention. Perhaps this documentary can help provide the recognition and respect that this man and his team deserves. Who knows what can be the next task for this group. Well worth watching, if only for the breathtaking pictures from the top of the earth and those mountains!

December 13, 2021

The Virtuoso: this is a typical hitman movie that stars Anthony Hopkins in the periphery. It stars Anson Mount in the title role with an otherwise forgettable supporting cast. I hadn’t seen Abbie Cornish since she played along side Russell Crowe in the 2006 A Good Year. This isn’t worth your time. I can readily say that. The story is fairly formulaic with the principal assassin being asked to take on a hit from a reclusive boss (Hopkins), but without being given much more than sketchy information. The assassin needs to figure it out and report back when the job is done. In this instance he needs to head to a small town. There he is given a time and place from which he must figure it out. Let the drama begin. I won’t delve further into the plot, because I would expect that a seasoned movie watcher will anticipate more than a few of the moves that take place. What may come as a surprise to some, won’t be for others. The acting was pedestrian for the most part. Hopkins gives one speech to the principal that tries to make this better than it is. Avoid it if you can.

The Way Back: Ben Affleck stars in what purports to be a basketball movie. In some ways it can mirror quite a bit from the much better 1986 Gene Hackman movie called Hoosiers. In that earlier story the disgraced coach is invited to a small Indiana town called Hickory that found itself coachless in a basketball crazed environment. He has a small team, and he works them hard. They come together. They learn and succeed. Hackman has a really good side story with the father of one of the players, who battles alcoholism, and another with a player that had the most skills. in this 2020 movie, Affleck plays a role that hits pretty close to his real life it would seem on the surface. I say that because the early part of the movie shows Affleck’s character working on a construction project with rebar, but dealing with an obvious alcohol problem. He drinks on the job, in the car and in his life. He is separated from his wife, and yet out of the blue he is called by his old high school looking for him to coach. Hackman’s disgrace was physically assaulting an active player in a game. Affleck’s character checked out as a superstar player for reasons that are explained later. Do I believe them? Not sure. For me, being offered a full scholarship at a top university would be the ticket away from parents (eg: if you live in LA, go to Villanova in Philadelphia or to Kentucky or Kansas). But I digress. Further details are revealed about his situation which are meant (I think) to tug at the heart strings, but they aren’t as effective. It feels like manipulation. This isn’t an uplifting story, quite the contrary. You would think that the title would suggest that there is redemption and to some extent it is there, but not in the way that you might anticipate. Again, this falls flat for me. I am not a big Affleck fan. This doesn’t change that fact at all. His is a character that struggles and can’t seem to turn a corner. Was there a feel good story for one of the young players? Yes, somewhat. In the end is it worth seeking out to see all the details for yourself? I can’t recommend it. There are other movies with coaches and sports involved that are more compelling and better all around.

Succession (Season 3): Sunday night was the last episode in Season three for the well reviewed and excellent Succession. The story of an older father figure, a media mogul worth his billions, with his senior staff and his children, who have their own challenges. Season 1 he had a health crisis. Season 2 there was the challenge by his second son Kendall. This season was a continuation of the Kendall challenges but also dealing with internal Board and adult child strife. The final episode was the wedding of the children’s mom, who had been divorced long ago to the father. Everyone descends to Tuscany in Italy for the wedding, all the while trying to put together a merger with a betting, online company on the rise from their newspaper and TV media empire. It is intriguing. Fun to watch. The writing is excellent throughout and despite the excessive use of profanity, it is clever and cutting. I laugh at least a couple of times an episode with what one of the characters say, usually Roman played by Kieran Culkin. Others chip in as well as the rats collectively turn on one another in a bid to try and get a step up on another of the rats. It’s all good fun as you can see how a group of adult children that could potentially be a formidable force if they chose to utilize their strengths and build a collective front seem incapable of working together and supporting one another. Logan Roy, the father, played expertly by Brian Cox shows time and again his resilience while navigating through the larger issues that seem never-ending for him. This was one of the best series of the past season. It is worth watching and binging.

December 6th, 2021

Tick Tick Boom: I have admitted as recently as last week in talking about Get Back with the Beatles that I am fascinated with the creative process. This is a movie brought forward by Lin-Manuel Miranda (of Hamilton fame) which tells the story of Jonathan Larson. Larson is played by Andrew Garfield. This movie is another reason to dislike Garfield, and I say that in jest of course. Amazingly Garfield admitted on Late Night television that he didn’t sing. Garfield shows that not only can he act, but he can sing and play the piano so it seems. Jonathan Larson is a young aspiring NY playwright and musical creator who was still looking for his big break. He struggled to make ends meet, living with various friends and other creative people. In his life he had always felt that he was in a race against time. As he was about to turn 30yo, he spoke about how he felt like a failure. He wrote a song about it, in fact. Writing music for musicals is different than songs in a band. The songs are telling the story, and moving the plot along. But it also needs to have an emotional punch, and be something that (in a perfect world) your audience wants to hum on the way home or listen by buying the soundtrack. Many musicals are like this. The story has Garfield telling his own one man story through song, which was a Broadway play in its own right (Tick Tick Boom) but told the story of his earlier musical that never really got off the ground. In the performances you can see a who’s who of Broadway (like Bernadette Peters, Judith Light, Lin-Manuel himself and many others). They are very good. All the while he is dealing in the story with his relationship. He and his girlfriend who cared deeply for each other were at odds because she wanted to move on. Start a new a career. But his life was living in NYC and Broadway. So there is an emotional underpinning to the story which is effective. If you know the history of Broadway, the Tonys and musicals then know that he went on to write Rent. So this I can encourage people to watch. Watch because you can see the absolute talent of Andrew Garfield. Watch because you can see a quality cast doing what Jonathan Larson was born to do, through and through. Watch because you can set aside some time and feel good about a story well told. I enjoyed this.

Belfast: This movie won the People’ Choice Award this year at TIFF. Usually that means that the Academy will come calling. Often this can mean a Best Picture award. But we will see. For me having been to Belfast back in 2019 and sitting through a guided tour through the locations where many stories of The Troubles are told, it brought back thoughts of how it would be to live during troubled times. Kenneth Branaugh directs and wrote the story. It is more or less autobiographical, as he was 9 years old in 1969 when the story is set. There are quality performances by Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Caitriona Balfe, Ciaran Hinds and a young boy, Jude Hill who is excellent. It is a story of a poor Protestant family living in Belfast where there is a move afoot to rid the neighborhood of the Catholics. This isn’t ancient history. The young boy at one point is playing with Hot Wheels kept in the plastic box with trays to keep the various cars. He is innocent. He likes a girl in his class. All the while Dad works near London and spends a lot of time away from home. He has grandparents that he is close to. The young and innocent ask direct questions. They want to understand. Events are happening around them that seem so foreign. Adults are angry and confused. I have never lived through strife. I have never lived in a war zone, and make no mistake that living in a barricaded block with a burned out car and cement slabs and armed soldiers nearby is a war zone. As an outsider, I didn’t and don’t understand. They speak the same language. They share in struggles, and have common history. And yet there is that religious chasm between the peoples, and ongoing discrimination that ensures that the issues continue. As a writer, you write what you know. That very line was delivered to a young Jonathan Larson by his agent. Branaugh has brought forward a poignant story that shows a place in time which even today, while there has been peace in recent years, still has some underlying tension. I wish that I had spent more time in Belfast. It doesn’t have the vibrancy and energy of Dublin, which is just a short drive away. This story personalizes it, in the eyes of a young boy with his parents trying to make difficult decisions on how to best serve the interests of the young boys. The Irish may be born for leaving, but is it best to have your population split and forced to make these decisions so very young. I am thankful that I have never had to endure any of these situations. I haven’t had to fear my life walking down the street. I have been safe with people who generally respect one another and allows for everyday tasks to take place. We’ll see about Academy Awards for this movie, but I won’t be surprised if there are more than a few levied here. I think Hinds as the Grandpa was excellent, and the work from the little boy. Another film worth checking out.

Get Back: I finished the first of the three episodes in this series by Peter Jackson. At the end, very casually George decides that it was time for him to leave the band. He casually walks off. The other three after lunch return to the studio and try and put in some work, but they didn’t manage much. Again in the creative process, you can hear Paul “putting in some piano work” while the others talk through an inane idea about where to hold the future concert. Remarkably, everyone seems quite alright with talking about the daily events, without pausing and listening to the piano and singing of “Let It Be” and later “The Long and Winding Road”. Paul doesn’t have all the words yet, but the structure is there. It is interesting too to see Paul and Ringo work away while the others roam in much later and try to catch up. However much we have read that it was Lennon and McCartney, you see that for these songs anyway, the documentary seems to show that it was more McCartney. You also see the real affection that these guys had for one another. Yes they had rows, and George was frustrated by being the third wheel with two musical geniuses, but they had one another. They were pretty tight for many many years. This is a really cool glimpse into some of that life, in pictures that aren’t grainy but rather vivid and you can see just how young that they are. It is fun to watch.

November 29, 2021

Get Back: Peter Jackson a couple of years back did some work to take World War One film coverage and colour it, add sound and make it more relatable to today’s audiences and the result was the excellent They Shall Not Grow Old. He has turned his sites from New Zealand now into unseen raw coverage of a proposed documentary film for the Beatles in their writing new songs for what became the Let It Be album and the famous outdoor office roof performance from January 30th, 1969. I have not finished the series, three episodes and the first one is over two hours long. It chronicles the days leading up to the performance in early January 1969. I am forewarning viewers that this is a sizeable investment in time, watching the four members of the Beatles interact during rehearsals and early days. A couple of early observations: Paul seems to be the driving force to try and get the material completed, and come up with new ideas. His off-the-top guitar playing with rambling lyrics in a matter of minutes to ultimately begin the song Get Back is quite simply miraculous. I marvel at the creative process, and this is an excellent example of someone creating on the spot. I think generally Paul and John would work together on their own and bounce ideas off each other in their earlier days. Having a camera there to record everything is a little forced, but over time the guys tend to just be themselves. Some of the dialogue can be hard to hear and understand with the accents. Still it is compelling. I cannot see this early what Yoko Ono does on any level. She occupies a chair near John, but says nothing, sometimes reads or looks like she does some craft. She may have been emotional support for John, but creatively in this setting she does absolutely nothing. George is frustrated by this process, and you can see what eventually builds up to his departure from the band during this time. He is creative himself and talks about songs that he has developed but they all seem to be, in his words, much quieter songs. He seems angrier with Paul and he gripes about any show, and seems uneasy in his role as third wheel with Paul and John. He will “just play whatever [Paul] wants [him] to play”. Then Ringo is adding nothing creatively but has the daunting tasks of keeping up, and adding rhythm and beat for the songs being developed. John early on is fixated on working through the song “Don’t Let Me Down” and there is time spent trying to finalize that. For Beatles fans, this is a must see. For more casual fans, you can watch a creative process taking place in two weeks for writing an album that has iconic songs like Two of Us, Across the Universe, I’ve Got a Feeling, Long and Winding Road and of course Let It Be. Utterly remarkable.

Peter Jackson talks about John and Paul relationship – “how utterly painful this was for Paul”

Succession and The Crown: Discussion about how females are treated: I was re-watching the end of Season 3 of The Crown with the episode about the disintegration of Princess Margaret’s marriage to Anthony Armstrong-Jones but also the latest episode in Succession and the treatment of the women in these series. Margaret as the younger sister of Monarch Queen Elizabeth had plenty in her life impacted by the perceptions of how it will impact the Family and the Crown. She was unable to marry her true love Peter Townsend, who was divorced (because his wife cheated on him) because of the whole abdication of the Crown by Edward VIII. She has a tumultuous marriage with Mr Armstrong-Jones who openly is having an affair before the whole world, but no one seems to care about that, including her sister although she did encourage a reconciliation. But then Armstrong-Jones amazingly attacks Margaret for an affair with a younger man who has finally brought some happiness to her world. It seems her Family and her position will just not allow her to be happy. She wanted a meaningful role, in the same way that Phillip did and it just doesn’t come. The Queen is a strong character and develops into a force politically which many acknowledge in this third season, like Edward VIII himself when he was about to die. But Margaret is left to the sidelines to deal with her unfortunate station. In the latest episode in Season 3 of Succession, at Kendall’s birthday party, we see how Shiv is being turned aside in the family as Roman becomes more of the relied upon sibling to execute Dad’s wishes. Roman begins showing his true colours as he gains in confidence while Shiv becomes increasingly frustrated with her seemingly back seat role. Her husband, Tom, who has been fixated on his pre-determined path is given really good news, but he remains unable of moving forward. That marriage is an interesting one, and Shiv has seen her position relegated to secondary status. This season is fairly slow moving but it it brilliantly written with tremendous dialogue. Part of me thinks that the underlying premise is to explore how it seems first generations of wealthy families generate the money, and then the later generations fritter it all away. The story is not unlike the Vanderbilt story with Anderson Cooper just recently reviewed. But it is these female characters that in their time, Margaret was a completely different generation, while Shiv is more or less today, reveals that not much has changed for them and how they are viewed. Both women are extremely capable. Yet when the chips are down, it seems others are relied upon more directly. To be fair about Shiv, I don’t think that she did herself any favours by the events at the Shareholders Meeting. But ultimately we will see how it plays out. There are plenty of good things to be watching these days.