Supernova: Love is love, which I think has been well established. Love comes in all forms, and partnership, companionship and a life partner is a goal that many strive to have. Life, sadly, can interrupt those plans in the most cruel of ways. In the days with superhero movies, and horror movies and science fiction movies, it is refreshing to see a movie about humans and relationships. Something that less some truths that are taken for granted. Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth, both excellent actors bring forth a story very well that has been addressed in others before. It doesn’t mean that it takes anything away from it, nor the performances. Together they play a couple who is taking a road trip in an RV to the northern part of England. There are a couple of stops along the way. You see their relationship from the banter between them in the RV. What slowly emerges is that both of these successful, creative, artistic men are connected. One of them, we learn, is suffering from dementia. It isn’t apparent at first how far along that he is. The story goes on to observe how these two men are dealing with it. Two people are impacted by an event that neither one can control. While you may think at first that the impact is mostly on the one who is sick, it isn’t true. Both of them have plans, or think that they have plans, which haven’t been well communicated to the other. It’s touching and emotional. It reminds me of Still Alice, where Julianne Moore plays an accomplished professor who slowly loses her mind, and also the movie Euphoria with Eva Green and Alicia Vikander as sisters who are coping with the one sister’s illness. This was very good and I would recommend it if you can find it. I saw on Crave. No one gets through this life unscathed, and in many ways it is all just a lottery. Sometimes that lottery misses you directly, but can impact you with the ones that you love. The message in the end is to enjoy the time that you have with the people in your life that matter, because you never know when that may end. A good message to have when we continue through a pandemic and one can bog down in thoughts of not being able to do some things or go some places.

The Little Things: I wish that I had more positive to say about this one. The cast with Denzel Washington, Remi Malik and Jared Leto is impressive. All have Oscars to their name. Yet it didn’t work me. Washington plays an aging police officer in a small town. Malik is a detective in a larger one, who I think was miscast. I think it’s really my fault for thinking that since I found him hard to understand at times, and I kept expecting to break out into singing Bohemian Rhapsody. Leto plays seemingly another one his creepy guy roles, where he looks like he hasn’t washed his hair in months, he is a smart ass, and pops up in places when you least expect him. Some women have gone missing, and the police are trying to figure it out. The movie title comes from something that Washington says to Malik about the reason why people get caught, and them messing up the details. For those of you, like me, who think that the role of the police and law enforcement is to find the truth of a situation and prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, then this movie may not work for you as well. There were aspects of it, and why they are suspecting the Leto character that just didn’t add up to me. In the end, I wasn’t all that entertained and found it somewhat disturbing, which likely was one of the messages that they wanted to deliver.

As a follow up to the HBO documentary Framing Britney, Britney herself appeared in a California court to address her conservatorship. She delivered a 25 minute speech that was rambling, profane at times (which I think is a great mistake in a courtroom) and expressed her determination to avoid jumping through any more hoops that show her mental health. She wants her life back. Plain and simple. She wants her father and family out of her life. She wants to have freedom and autonomy over her body and relationships. There was a time when her erratic behaviour cried out for some intervention. I am not clear whether this was the proper vehicle to get there. But at 40yo, and being expected to run another stay in Vegas with her successful show as well as juggling teenage kids, I think it is safe to say that she can take care of herself. She may remain eccentric, but find me other successful artists who aren’t? Elton John? Please!! Interestingly she hasn’t even made the formal application to end the conservatorship. You would think that Legal advisors would point that out. You would think she could get her own lawyer (another thing that she would like). So we will see how this plays out. The world is denied her talent, because she refuses to perform without this being removed from her life. I think that this makes a lot of sense, and it is good for her to stand up for herself and her rights in an otherwise “free” country. Let those who profit from her find other ways to make money on their own. The story evolves.