Fleabag reminded me a bit of GIRLS, in that it calls itself a comedy, but it isn’t exactly funny. Fleabag is the story of a woman on the downswing. She has her own business, but that business has seen better days. She loves her father, but he has moved on to a new woman after the death of her mother. She has a troubled relationship with her sister, there are hints that things used to be better. She has a boyfriend that she keeps kicking out and taking back. And she is still a bit broken up about her best…
Author: Jon Herrera
Writer, Photographer, Blogger.
Genius
In 1929 we find Max Perkins sitting behind his desk at Scribners and Sons. He casually crosses out lines and makes notes in the margins of a manuscript with a red pencil. Someone comes in and tells him he needs to read a recent submission. The book is a mountain of pages a foot tall. Max asks if it’s any good. It’s different, the slush pile reader says. We have a montage scene of Max reading the massive manuscript on the train ride home, at the dinning room table, in the living room, and on the train returning to the…
The Whole Truth
The story of a lawyer who is murdered in his bedroom. Like most murder victims in mysteries, he was not a nice guy and the list of suspects includes everyone who ever met him. The redneck Louisiana lawyer is played by Jim Belushi, a face I haven’t seen in awhile. He’s older and fatter, but looks much as he always has. His wife is played by a virtually unrecognizable Renée Zellweger. I didn’t know it was her until I looked at the movie’s IMDB page. The big name star is Keanu Reeves. In fact, the biggest mystery for me was:Why…
The Nice Guys
Set in 1977 and filled with all the classic style and music of the era, we find two P.I. types who end up working on the same case. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling play the mostly hapless and often lucky guns for hire. The Nice Guys reminded me a bit of the failed FOX TV Show The Good Guys, except that show was about a couple of losers who were cops. We open up with a kid reading a porno mag, featuring Misty Mountains. Moments later, Misty crashes through the wall and dies in the kid’s backyard. She was naked…
Me Before You
Spoilers. We open up with a man in his prime heading off to work. He starts to pick up his motorcycle helmet, then his girlfriend warns him that it’s raining out. So he walks instead-and is hit by a motorcycle. Holy Irony, Batman! Me Before You tells the story of a poor young woman who hits the jackpot by becoming the companion to a rich man who is paralyzed from the neck down. He does have a small bit of movement in one hand that lets him control his super wheelchair. He is a bit bummed out that life has dealt…
The Lady in the Van
Playwright Alan Bennett has met with some success in his career and decides to buy a new house in Camden Town. Before he is fully unpacked, he sees an old woman in a beat up van looking for a parking space. The people in the street know her, but would prefer that she not park in front of their house. Alan is a nice guy and Mary, the old woman in the van, senses his weakness and instantly takes advantage of him. The story is told my two Alans, one the Writer and one the Man. They often argue with…
The Big Fat Surprise
Carbohydrates are bad, refined and processed carbohydrates are evil incarnate. Nina Teicholz covers the history of food recommendations in American history. Along the way she talks about fad diets, popular trends, myths, misconceptions, and outright lies designed to line the pockets of the people who benefit from a fat and lazy American population. Nina Teicholz goes out of her way to give the benefit of the doubt to these people who actively grew rich while we all grew fat. I would send them off to The Hague for crimes against humanity. Like Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes, Nina tells the…
Into The Forest
In the not too distant future, something happens. Our heroes are a family, Dad and two teenage daughters, out in the woods working on their dream house in the Pacific Northwest. One daughter is obsessed with dancing and the other has a big test coming up. Dad is a clever fellow who is working on the house on his own. One day they are all immersed in their private media and the power goes off. They meet a few minor challenges and find their way down the mountain into town. Things are grim. No gas, little food, and yet the older daughter still…
A Hologram for the King
I like Tom Hanks. He’s a fun guy, but A Hologram for the King ranks up there with Larry Crowne, not Forrest Gump. Our hero, such as he is, is Alan, a former member of management at Schwinn Bicycles. Like many other great American brands, it is now just a subsidiary of some MultiNational Evil Corp. In A Hologram for The King, Alan was the axman who killed Schwinn and now has a new job as a salesman for an IT company that wants to land a lucrative Saudi account. So right off, Alan, is not a very nice man. The…
Equals
In the future, everyone has been turned into Vulcans. This seems like a perfect role for Kristen Stewart, but she isn’t playing an emotionless drone, she’s playing someone who has a disease that makes her experience emotions. She meets Nicholas Hoult, who is a ‘normal’ person who contracts the disease and falls madly in love with Kristen. This is a mixture of two standard story types, 1) the star-crossed lovers and 2) someone different hiding from all the normals. Equals is basically an art film episode of the Twilight Zone. There are hints of other great love stories, it has a…