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Movie marathon
Dec. 14th, 2020 10:13 pmI'm trying to stay off the computer and phone for back pain reasons, so I'm watching a ton of movies. I want to jot them down so I don't forget.
Netflix:
Not Normal, Wanda Sykes comedy special. I overall enjoyed this a lot. She talks about politics, being married (she's married to a French woman), being a parent, race, and getting older.
Easy A: A fun teen comedy. The main character pretends to be a slut and she observes how her classmates react. Has some very funny moments.
Hulu:
Hearts Beat Loud. I loved this quiet, intimate story about a father whose daughter is about to move away to go to college. He decides to close his record store also. He and his daughter write a few songs together and he has a moment where he thinks they can be a band. The daughter is a queer woman of color. Starring Nick Offerman, Kiersy Clemmons, Toni Collette. The music is good and the story is sweet.
Rocketman. Very creative, colorful, and fun to watch. I liked how Elton John's hit songs were interspersed with important moments in his life. Starring Taron Edgerton and Jamie Bell. Content notes: lots of drugs, a suicide attempt, abuse.
Parasite: Very well done, thought-provoking, disturbing. The first act is way funnier than I expected. It's about a poor family struggling to survive; the (adult) son takes a job as a tutor for a rich family, and he arranges things to get his sister a job in the house too, using false credentials. The scam expands so that their parents are also employed by this rich family. It starts out relatively harmless--they are doing the jobs they were hired for, just using false names and pretending they aren't related to each other. But there's a twist that leads into act 2. This is when things get creepy and the scam starts to go sour. Very beautifully filmed.
Someone Great. Sadly, this was just kind of boring. It's about three friends having a night out. The main character (Gina Rodriguez) has just broken up with her long-term boyfriend because she's going to move across the country. During their night out, she processes this loss and prepares to move on. The two best friends each have minor side-plots; one of them is a Black lesbian and is in a cute relationship. There wasn't anything really objectionable but this movie was pretty forgettable overall.
Library DVDs:
The Favourite. I only half-watched this to be honest. It was very beautiful to look at, but I was not into it. There is so much lying and manipulation going on, that it's nearly impossible to tell what people's real motives are. The people seemed pretty horrible and the Queen seemed mostly to be suffering.
Jumanji: the next level
This is very much in keeping with the previous movie and is similarly delightful. This is a large franchise and I've only seen the 2017 and 2019 ones, but I hope they make a bunch more. It's just such a funny and creative concept: people get magically sucked into a video game and have to survive and figure out how to win the game. They are in avatar bodies that may have little resemblance to their own bodies. The whole cast is back for this one: Jack Black, The Rock, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, Nick Jonas, plus Awkwafina joins.
The D Train
I don't know what to think about this one. Jack Black plays Dan, a guy planning his high school reunion. He's happily married, has kids and a decent job, but feels like somewhat of a loser, and is lonely for friends. He gets the idea to recruit the most popular classmate to come to the reunion, thinking, well, then everyone will come, and I'll be a hero. He arranges a fake business trip to California to meet up with the popular guy, Oliver, played by James Marsden. They party together for a few nights and eventually have sex. Oliver agrees to come to the reunion. Dan is very confused about his feelings and situation. Eventually his lies blow up in his face, but it all seems to work out ok in the end.
Unfortunately the humor in this relies on embarrassment and awkwardness, which means it's not that fun to watch. I think it does say something interesting, though: Dan has a huge crush on Oliver, but it's a forbidden crush because it's queer, so he can't admit it, and that leads him to act in strange ways, lying to everyone and to himself. I'm not sure straight audiences would pick up on how accurate this is; I'm not sure the movie itself knows how accurate this is. I've personally been there, doing weird things and not truly understanding why.
To have a bisexual or queer awakening is confusing and disruptive and potentially a great source for humor. The movie doesn't address this as directly as it could.
To Dan, sex means love and connection, while to Oliver, sex means a casual good time, and this leads to some of the major conflict in the story. That's also interesting and could have been more directly addressed.
This movie didn't quite work, but I liked it anyways, because it raised these really interesting issues. I particularly liked that good-looking, charming Oliver found Dan attractive, and liked him.
Netflix:
Not Normal, Wanda Sykes comedy special. I overall enjoyed this a lot. She talks about politics, being married (she's married to a French woman), being a parent, race, and getting older.
Easy A: A fun teen comedy. The main character pretends to be a slut and she observes how her classmates react. Has some very funny moments.
Hulu:
Hearts Beat Loud. I loved this quiet, intimate story about a father whose daughter is about to move away to go to college. He decides to close his record store also. He and his daughter write a few songs together and he has a moment where he thinks they can be a band. The daughter is a queer woman of color. Starring Nick Offerman, Kiersy Clemmons, Toni Collette. The music is good and the story is sweet.
Rocketman. Very creative, colorful, and fun to watch. I liked how Elton John's hit songs were interspersed with important moments in his life. Starring Taron Edgerton and Jamie Bell. Content notes: lots of drugs, a suicide attempt, abuse.
Parasite: Very well done, thought-provoking, disturbing. The first act is way funnier than I expected. It's about a poor family struggling to survive; the (adult) son takes a job as a tutor for a rich family, and he arranges things to get his sister a job in the house too, using false credentials. The scam expands so that their parents are also employed by this rich family. It starts out relatively harmless--they are doing the jobs they were hired for, just using false names and pretending they aren't related to each other. But there's a twist that leads into act 2. This is when things get creepy and the scam starts to go sour. Very beautifully filmed.
Someone Great. Sadly, this was just kind of boring. It's about three friends having a night out. The main character (Gina Rodriguez) has just broken up with her long-term boyfriend because she's going to move across the country. During their night out, she processes this loss and prepares to move on. The two best friends each have minor side-plots; one of them is a Black lesbian and is in a cute relationship. There wasn't anything really objectionable but this movie was pretty forgettable overall.
Library DVDs:
The Favourite. I only half-watched this to be honest. It was very beautiful to look at, but I was not into it. There is so much lying and manipulation going on, that it's nearly impossible to tell what people's real motives are. The people seemed pretty horrible and the Queen seemed mostly to be suffering.
Jumanji: the next level
This is very much in keeping with the previous movie and is similarly delightful. This is a large franchise and I've only seen the 2017 and 2019 ones, but I hope they make a bunch more. It's just such a funny and creative concept: people get magically sucked into a video game and have to survive and figure out how to win the game. They are in avatar bodies that may have little resemblance to their own bodies. The whole cast is back for this one: Jack Black, The Rock, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, Nick Jonas, plus Awkwafina joins.
The D Train
I don't know what to think about this one. Jack Black plays Dan, a guy planning his high school reunion. He's happily married, has kids and a decent job, but feels like somewhat of a loser, and is lonely for friends. He gets the idea to recruit the most popular classmate to come to the reunion, thinking, well, then everyone will come, and I'll be a hero. He arranges a fake business trip to California to meet up with the popular guy, Oliver, played by James Marsden. They party together for a few nights and eventually have sex. Oliver agrees to come to the reunion. Dan is very confused about his feelings and situation. Eventually his lies blow up in his face, but it all seems to work out ok in the end.
Unfortunately the humor in this relies on embarrassment and awkwardness, which means it's not that fun to watch. I think it does say something interesting, though: Dan has a huge crush on Oliver, but it's a forbidden crush because it's queer, so he can't admit it, and that leads him to act in strange ways, lying to everyone and to himself. I'm not sure straight audiences would pick up on how accurate this is; I'm not sure the movie itself knows how accurate this is. I've personally been there, doing weird things and not truly understanding why.
To have a bisexual or queer awakening is confusing and disruptive and potentially a great source for humor. The movie doesn't address this as directly as it could.
To Dan, sex means love and connection, while to Oliver, sex means a casual good time, and this leads to some of the major conflict in the story. That's also interesting and could have been more directly addressed.
This movie didn't quite work, but I liked it anyways, because it raised these really interesting issues. I particularly liked that good-looking, charming Oliver found Dan attractive, and liked him.
