Movie and TV notes - Dec 2019
Dec. 31st, 2019 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sasha_featherMy dad and I watched a bunch of things during my low-key vacation visit.
Knives Out - 2019 (in theaters)
We both really enjoyed this "Who Dunnit" mystery. It felt a bit old-fashioned, like an Agatha Christie tale. The film takes place mostly in a huge, gorgeous house. Solidly entertaining, very competently made, and features a large ensemble cast. It's not gory. Content note: vomiting.
The Witcher - Netflix - 2019
A fun romp in the style of Hercules and Xena, but with a larger budget. It's a bit confusing, as there are 3 timelines that follow our three main characters: Yennifer, a sorceress; Geralt, the Witcher (monster hunter); and Cirilla, a young princess whose homeland is invaded. Some things did not make sense to me, but I rolled along with the show and it was a good time. Content notes: violence, monsters, way too many topless scenes for Yennifer, too much heterosexuality, one animal death, abusive situations, magical disability cure, fertility issues.
Living with Yourself - Netflix - 2019
Wow I hated this so much?!? It made me angry.
Paul Rudd stars as Miles, a feckless suburban husband who is depressed. He goes to a strip-mall spa to try and feel better, only to wake up in a shallow grave. He discovers that a somewhat improved version of himself is now living his life, and doing it better.
The first 2 episode cover this premise from the perspective of Original Miles and New Miles, and these two episodes alone are kind of funny and charming. By episode 4 I was thoroughly irritated with both versions of Miles, who lie to their wife Kate about the situation (she's played by Aisling Bea-- an actress 15 years younger than Rudd). The episodes are short though, so we decided to finish out the show. It only got more incoherent, and asked the audience to care about Miles and Kate's mundane marriage problems. Kate wants a baby, and Miles refuses to go to the fertility clinic, for example. Strange plot lines seemed to promise a twist that never came. At one point, Original Miles gets kidnapped by FDA agents and locked into a lactation room, only to be let go the next day-- but not after he drinks the breast milk in the mini-fridge. A plot line about Miles' job as an ad man goes nowhere. New Miles is rejected by Kate and contemplates both murder and suicide. The end of the show is infuriating: Kate announces she's pregnant, and does not know which Miles is the father, and the three of them hug. I guess babies solve everything!
This was so, so bad.
Knives Out - 2019 (in theaters)
We both really enjoyed this "Who Dunnit" mystery. It felt a bit old-fashioned, like an Agatha Christie tale. The film takes place mostly in a huge, gorgeous house. Solidly entertaining, very competently made, and features a large ensemble cast. It's not gory. Content note: vomiting.
The Witcher - Netflix - 2019
A fun romp in the style of Hercules and Xena, but with a larger budget. It's a bit confusing, as there are 3 timelines that follow our three main characters: Yennifer, a sorceress; Geralt, the Witcher (monster hunter); and Cirilla, a young princess whose homeland is invaded. Some things did not make sense to me, but I rolled along with the show and it was a good time. Content notes: violence, monsters, way too many topless scenes for Yennifer, too much heterosexuality, one animal death, abusive situations, magical disability cure, fertility issues.
Living with Yourself - Netflix - 2019
Wow I hated this so much?!? It made me angry.
Paul Rudd stars as Miles, a feckless suburban husband who is depressed. He goes to a strip-mall spa to try and feel better, only to wake up in a shallow grave. He discovers that a somewhat improved version of himself is now living his life, and doing it better.
The first 2 episode cover this premise from the perspective of Original Miles and New Miles, and these two episodes alone are kind of funny and charming. By episode 4 I was thoroughly irritated with both versions of Miles, who lie to their wife Kate about the situation (she's played by Aisling Bea-- an actress 15 years younger than Rudd). The episodes are short though, so we decided to finish out the show. It only got more incoherent, and asked the audience to care about Miles and Kate's mundane marriage problems. Kate wants a baby, and Miles refuses to go to the fertility clinic, for example. Strange plot lines seemed to promise a twist that never came. At one point, Original Miles gets kidnapped by FDA agents and locked into a lactation room, only to be let go the next day-- but not after he drinks the breast milk in the mini-fridge. A plot line about Miles' job as an ad man goes nowhere. New Miles is rejected by Kate and contemplates both murder and suicide. The end of the show is infuriating: Kate announces she's pregnant, and does not know which Miles is the father, and the three of them hug. I guess babies solve everything!
This was so, so bad.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 04:12 am (UTC)Do we ever find out what was up with the shallow grave and the replacement self? That premise feels like a cross between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Prestige, neither of which is exactly shoo-in material for an OT3 HEA.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 04:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 05:15 am (UTC)That is not a spa treatment I would pay $50K for.
It did remind me of the Prestige, which was frustrating for a similar reason: why would this type of clone be a rival, rather than a friend?
I bought it in The Prestige because of the kind of person Angier was (Borden gave you the counterpoint of a pair of doubles who, while it can be argued that their decision to share a single life caused an unnecessary amount of collateral damage, did care for one another). It does not sound as though it makes sense in this show, unless people are supposed to have an instinctive horror of duplication, in which case I guess I hope you don't know any twins.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 07:29 am (UTC)Thanks for the warning about Living w/yourself.