Thoughts on 5 Films

1. Wild Rose - Overall, this is a cute movie. Someone I know gushed about how amazing it is, so I think my expectations were a little too high going into it (I hate when that happens). It reminded me of those movies from the early 90s of young musicians moving to a "big city" to "make it". The Thing Called Love comes to mind - It's not very well known, but it's a movie about a young girl who moves to Nashville to be a country singer; it's from 1993 starring the love of my life, Sandra Bullock, plus Samantha Mathis, Durmott Mulroney AND River Phoenix - his last finished film. I bet you didn't know Sandra Bullock and River Phoenix were in a film together! On a side note: I was 12 when River died and I cried hysterically because I didn't really understand death, and then I was hit again the following year with Kurt Cobain. It was rough being a tween in the early 90s idolizing celebrities. My brain is on an epic side-track now. What was I even talking about?? Oh yeah, this movie is pretty mediocre in its narrative, but the acting is really strong, the Scottish accents made me melt, and that song at the end sent shivers down my spine. It is EVERYTHING. The whole movie is worth it, just for that moment. Hands down, best original song from a film; I'm so glad it was nominated for OH WAIT...nothing. The Academy really fucked that one up.

2. Ben is Back - Lucas Hedges is just such a terrific young actor. He is definitely on my list of actors to watch (and he's so young too! I can't believe he's only 23 and his career is already this strong). I'm not a big fan of this story. Privileged white boy drug addict that we are supposed to feel bad for (nope, sorry, I have sympathy for the addiction, but if you have a supportive family, and money, and an education, and opportunity, then I can't feel bad for you. It's just never going to happen). The story definitely reminds me of guys I went to high school with, so it's no surprise that it takes place in Upstate NY, which just might be the Mecca for privileged white boy drug addicts. I was surprised at just how dark this story got, but mostly because it's all just a little ridiculous. I do think it's an interesting story of a mother's love and support of her child no matter how fucked up he is. She still believes him and trusts him, even after he continues to prove her wrong time after time. Overall though, I think this is a pretty forgettable film.

3. Hotel Mumbai - Obviously, this is a tough movie to watch. It's based on the true story of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, with it centered at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. It tells the tale of the hotel workers who sacrificed their safety in order to stay and protect the tourists that were staying at the hotel. The cast is really strong - Dev Patel and Armie Hammer are the featured actors (and they do a fine job), but I am fascinated by Nazanin Boniadi. First, she is simply stunning. Second, I've loved her since General Hospital and I'm so happy that she's continuing to succeed. Her television projects have been really strong (she was in a season or two of Homeland and she was in my favorite show of last year - Counterpart and she held her own among an incredible group of actors), she's now in some high-profile films with this and a brief appearance in Bombshell. I just can't wait to see her career progress. Her character was the more interesting and complicated role as she is Indian, but staying at the hotel as a tourist with her American husband and baby. She has some very memorable scenes. I can't say that I connected with the rest of the film, it all played out in a very typical way, but they were able to keep it suspenseful. Of course, the end destroyed me (real footage of tragic events always hooks me).

4. Hustlers - My co-worker (and close friend) insisted that I had to watch this movie ASAP because there is a scene in the beginning of the movie that she knew I would absolutely love. I had no idea what she was referring to, but I was intrigued. I was sort of dreading watching it - I don't care how much buzz JLo got, I didn't believe for a second that it was an award-worthy performance (as some insisted she was snubbed). Don't get me wrong, I LOVE JLo, but I think she is an amazing dancer/performer not an actress. Although, I don't think she's a terrible actress, I just think she's better at other things. And I still say that even after this performance. She's...decent? I guess. Also, I have a hard time listening to JLo because she reminds me of 9/11 - her song "Play" was on the radio while I was driving and they stopped it in the middle to announce that a plane just hit the World Trade Center - it's an unavoidable connection that will forever be in my brain. Anyway, back to THE SCENE that my co-worker was referring to  - it will go down as one of my favorite scenes ever - because she does her insanely amazing pole dancing performance to one of my favorite songs of all-time (Fiona Apple's "Criminal". Fiona is my favorite artist/lyricist always and forever). I honestly almost died of joy. It's just absolutely perfect. As for the rest of the movie, it's fucking terrible. Constance Wu is not a good actress. She's incredibly dull (and I thought she was really dull in Crazy Rich Asians, too). The rest of the cast is hard to stomach (everyone from Cardi B to Lili Reinhart in a horribly miscast role). The plot doesn't even make sense - she makes as much as a Brain Surgeon in one year, but then the next year she is so poor she has to work at Old Navy? Why not just sell all the insane stuff you bought when you were rich? Nope, instead they start drugging unsuspecting male clients and maxing out their credit cards (that's the actual plot, which I guess, as a feminist, I'm supposed to find empowering??? What the fuck is happening, you guys, how do we keep losing our way so easily?). They completely skim through the fact that most women working in this industry are also heavy drug and/or alcohol abusers, and glamorize an industry that they are also trying to destroy. It's also hard to believe that an average looking guy wouldn't be suspicious if four extremely hot women started hitting on him. But it's based on a true story, so I guess men are fucking stupid.

5. Joker - I was super skeptical of yet another rendition of this character. And so soon after we just had Leto's version (that I didn't hate. I didn't love it, but I'm not sure why he received so much hate for it). Plus, someone already perfected the role (and why mess with perfection??). Joaquin is undeniably fantastic. Before watching it, I had a friend of a friend inform me that they didn't like his performance because it felt like he was trying "too hard to be weird". I can see that as a solid criticism - however, if you've ever watched literally any of his other performances you will likely come to the realization that the dude is always weird. It's just him, and it works for this role (and most of the roles that he chooses). I'm glad that he won the Oscar (and all the other awards) because (1.) my favorite performance wasn't nominated anyway and (2.) he should already have, like, 5 Oscars (for Walk the Line, Her, I'm Still Here, The Master and Inherent Vice - and I'm sure if I dug further into his filmography I could think of more. Like, remember Inventing the Abbotts? I adored that little 90s movie). Aside from a strong central performance, I'm not really sure that the rest is as great as it's getting praised for? I liked it, but it didn't feel like anything extraordinary or new in any way. A hero is only as strong as their villain - and Joker has always been an incredible villain, and I guess digging into his history is interesting, but it's also exactly what I was expecting. When it was over, I thought "oh..that was good!", but that was about 2 weeks ago and I've literally thought about it a total of ZERO times since. And now that I'm forced to think about it in order to write this, I realize that it's more like "oh, that was good. I guess.". Such an odd phenomenon.