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shadowkatRainy, gloomy day, and the barometric pressure mixed with not sleeping all that well, resulted in a day spent writing, watching television, reading, and talking briefly to mother on the phone.
Oh well, at least I talk to someone once or twice a day on the phone.
1. Black Widow - watched this on Disney Plus last night. It's entertaining. It felt a bit like a mix between The Americans and Red Sonja to be honest. The best thing about it were Rachel Weitze, Scarlett Johannsen and Florence Pugh. And I have a feeling we may be seeing more of Rachel Weitz's Melina and Florence Pugh's characters in the films and television shows ahead.
The film is set up to accomplish two tasks - 1) explain Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanov's motivation for joining the Avengers, and sacrificing herself in Endgame. 2) setting up the next female "Black Widow".
It accomplishes both rather well. It's also supposed to work as a stand-a-alone origin story (and I'm not entirely convinced it succeeds in that department). The film takes place after Captain America: Civil War, so it is not really an origin tale. We don't get the story of how Natasha defected to Shield. That tale is told in either flashes, or in a quick exchange of dialogue between various characters. It's important - because it informs what's happening now. But, I think Black Widow kind of suffers from the same issues as the latest Bond flick Time to Kill (but is more enjoyable) - I'm saying that having not seen the latest Bond flick (so I could be wrong about that). The issues that appear to be the same - is the back story is built up enough - we get it in flashbacks, and the villain also is somewhat one-note, and not built up well. The film is trying to do too much - have long chase scenes, action, shooting, fighting, and lots of talking and back story. And while the action does further the plot, it's also a touch repetitive at times.
That said, I enjoyed it. It was fun. And I like a film that has female action heroes at the focus, and the main fighters. Very few men are fighting in this film - it's mostly women, which is a nice change of pace.
2. Kate - kind of similar to Black Widow. It reminds me a lot of another film I saw years ago...mixed with some recent film action flicks like Harely Quinn and Gundpowder Milkshake. This is darker than both, and slightly less busy and more character centric. Very femme noir.
It centers on female hitperson - who is portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, whose excellent in the lead role. Kate is a hitperson employed by V portrayed by Woody Harrelson (whose taken over the Donald Sutherland asshole white guy mentor roles. Actually I like him better than Sutherland in the roles, he brings a snarky sense of humor to the proceedings.) They are in Tokyo. Everything is dark, gritty and rainy, with bright pink and green neon lights of Tokyo. Kate kills a man for V, but hesitates when she sees the man's daughter, Ani. Several weeks later, she get poisoned and now she has twenty-four hours to figure out who poisoned her with plutonium, before she's dead.
The film is non-stop action, with bits in between with Kate bonding with Ani (the daughter of the man she'd killed - which somehow cascaded into her day of hell, although she was clearly headed there anyhow). Kate is an anti-hero - she's a cold-blooded killer, with little honor. And her one bright spot is caring about Ani. The trope has been shook up a bit by the redeeming light being love of a child or trying to protect a child, in this case a young girl that reminds Kate of herself at one point - as opposed to a lover or vengeance on a lover. Protecting and avenging the child and herself because Kate's sole purpose and the goal of the plot.
It's entertaining. And watching Kate blow away lots of guys, is cathartic. However...much like Atomic Blonde, we get to see Kate get brutally beaten up as well. As Ani puts it - Kate's like the freaking Terminator.
3. Baking Impossible - I'm enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. It's basically baking engineering. The bakers are paired with engineers or vice versa, each team of two (baker + engineer) is tasked with designing an edible engineering concept. Examples include a boat that can float and pass a stress test, delivering a delicious desert. A robot that can go through an obstacle course and deliver a delicious desert. It's fun.
Some of the teams don't get along very well. They didn't pick each other - they were thrown together by the show's producers and lead host, Andrew Smythe (The baking engineer from Great British Bake Off).
It's all rather polite for the most part. Although I get the feeling some of the teams would love to get out of there as fast as they can. Other's really want the 100,000 dollar prize.
4. Maid - on Netflix. It's compelling, but painful to watch. I don't know if I'll make it through it. The series is about a young woman who flees her home one night with her baby daughter, with almost no funds, and no place to stay, after her husband in a drunken fury throws things at her, punches the wall, and she finds herself picking glass out of her child's hair. Unfortunately she has nowhere to go - her mother's mentally ill, her father has a new family and can't be bothered, and her friends are her husband's. It does a rather good job of demonstrating why women can get trapped in domestic violence situations. Desperate - she goes to social services, who can't really help her outside of giving her a reference to a maid service - that's out of laundromat. It's a poorly run service, or a service run on the bare minimum - the maids have to buy their own supplies, they get a vacuum, but that's about it, and they have short shifts. We see the dollar amount go down on the right side of the screen as the character is calculating how much money she'll obtain, and how much it will cost.
Also social services won't provide her with housing until she has two pay-checks and sends her to the mission (which she refuses to take her daughter to.).
It kind of goes down-hill from there. This is hyper-realism, and a bit on the depressing side of the fence. Everything that can go wrong does. There's some light moments, but not many. At the end of the first episode, the heroine has lost her car, is running from her ex, and sleeping on the ferry.
It stars Andie McDowell's daugther, with Andie playing the mentally ill mother. Rather well written, directed, and acted - but like I said before? Painful to watch. I wanted a lot of people in it to die of COVID.
5. Nancy Drew - eh last year's was better. I feel the writers are losing some oomph? Also what happened to the hot Detective? It's like they keep throwing guys at Nancy and none of them quite fly?
6. Diana: The Musical - I tried, and gave up after fifteen to twenty minutes of this. It was horrible. Honestly, the songs were horrible. How do these things get made? I'm amazed it got filmed, and even more amazed it made it to Broadway. Honestly, SMASH's Marilyn musical had better songs and more going for it. (Keep in mind that I will watch pretty much anything that is a musical. I made it through Tobe Hopper's CATS, and High School Musical. This was boring. I gave up. I'm sorry, Diana's life story just doesn't lend itself to a musical. I also tried Pride and Prejudice - the musical once, and no it doesn't work either. Some things just do not lend themselves to musical adaptations.)
I'd much rather see SIX. Netflix keeps filming crappy musicals for some reason - I'm not quite sure why.
***
Books? Still making my way through The Partner Track on Audio Book. Also, Kristin Higgins contemporary chick lit, that I can't remember the name of - about a gastinesnologist who returns to her native island off the coast of Maine, not far from Boston. (How it can be close to Maine and Boston, I've no clue...but I'm not from that area.) After suffering from a massive car accident, and being violently attacked several months prior.
And reading "My Wicked Husband" - a historical about a middle class/rich inventor/businessman/industralist (he's figured out that the way of the future is electricity) and his wife, who don't know each other, but are getting to know each other after two years of marriage - because she needs to launch her nutty younger sister into society. It's kind of an anti-artistocratic historical romance? Kind of witty.
***
Malaise continues. Watched church service on FB with various others. The choir sings with masks on. I feel for them. It can't be easy. Also they had jazz musicians there today. I rather like the music at church for the most part. Also the sermon involved a play - they managed to do a little performance on stage, complete with real baby, and props, and everyone wearing masks. It was the beginning of the Moses story - where Pharoah's daughter gets Moses, after he's placed in the river by his mother. The Minister focused on Pharoah's daughter and linked the story metaphorically to how we handle refugees and immigrants. Egypt was metaphorically the rigid rule structure that keeps out interlopers and anyone who might infringe on wealth and prosperity or power, The Jews are the immigrants, and Moses is the immigrant child struggling to have a life somewhere else. The Pharaoh's daughter is stuck making a decision - do I allow this immigrant child who is considered dangerous by my society to die, or take him in and feed him, and tread him as my own? And how her decision to do just that - turned the world around.
One small act of kindness changed everything.
The service ended with a rendition of one my favorite Harry Belfonte songs:
For those who don't know Belafonte is a social justice activist, Calypso singer, and actor.
Oh well, at least I talk to someone once or twice a day on the phone.
1. Black Widow - watched this on Disney Plus last night. It's entertaining. It felt a bit like a mix between The Americans and Red Sonja to be honest. The best thing about it were Rachel Weitze, Scarlett Johannsen and Florence Pugh. And I have a feeling we may be seeing more of Rachel Weitz's Melina and Florence Pugh's characters in the films and television shows ahead.
The film is set up to accomplish two tasks - 1) explain Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanov's motivation for joining the Avengers, and sacrificing herself in Endgame. 2) setting up the next female "Black Widow".
It accomplishes both rather well. It's also supposed to work as a stand-a-alone origin story (and I'm not entirely convinced it succeeds in that department). The film takes place after Captain America: Civil War, so it is not really an origin tale. We don't get the story of how Natasha defected to Shield. That tale is told in either flashes, or in a quick exchange of dialogue between various characters. It's important - because it informs what's happening now. But, I think Black Widow kind of suffers from the same issues as the latest Bond flick Time to Kill (but is more enjoyable) - I'm saying that having not seen the latest Bond flick (so I could be wrong about that). The issues that appear to be the same - is the back story is built up enough - we get it in flashbacks, and the villain also is somewhat one-note, and not built up well. The film is trying to do too much - have long chase scenes, action, shooting, fighting, and lots of talking and back story. And while the action does further the plot, it's also a touch repetitive at times.
That said, I enjoyed it. It was fun. And I like a film that has female action heroes at the focus, and the main fighters. Very few men are fighting in this film - it's mostly women, which is a nice change of pace.
2. Kate - kind of similar to Black Widow. It reminds me a lot of another film I saw years ago...mixed with some recent film action flicks like Harely Quinn and Gundpowder Milkshake. This is darker than both, and slightly less busy and more character centric. Very femme noir.
It centers on female hitperson - who is portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, whose excellent in the lead role. Kate is a hitperson employed by V portrayed by Woody Harrelson (whose taken over the Donald Sutherland asshole white guy mentor roles. Actually I like him better than Sutherland in the roles, he brings a snarky sense of humor to the proceedings.) They are in Tokyo. Everything is dark, gritty and rainy, with bright pink and green neon lights of Tokyo. Kate kills a man for V, but hesitates when she sees the man's daughter, Ani. Several weeks later, she get poisoned and now she has twenty-four hours to figure out who poisoned her with plutonium, before she's dead.
The film is non-stop action, with bits in between with Kate bonding with Ani (the daughter of the man she'd killed - which somehow cascaded into her day of hell, although she was clearly headed there anyhow). Kate is an anti-hero - she's a cold-blooded killer, with little honor. And her one bright spot is caring about Ani. The trope has been shook up a bit by the redeeming light being love of a child or trying to protect a child, in this case a young girl that reminds Kate of herself at one point - as opposed to a lover or vengeance on a lover. Protecting and avenging the child and herself because Kate's sole purpose and the goal of the plot.
It's entertaining. And watching Kate blow away lots of guys, is cathartic. However...much like Atomic Blonde, we get to see Kate get brutally beaten up as well. As Ani puts it - Kate's like the freaking Terminator.
3. Baking Impossible - I'm enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. It's basically baking engineering. The bakers are paired with engineers or vice versa, each team of two (baker + engineer) is tasked with designing an edible engineering concept. Examples include a boat that can float and pass a stress test, delivering a delicious desert. A robot that can go through an obstacle course and deliver a delicious desert. It's fun.
Some of the teams don't get along very well. They didn't pick each other - they were thrown together by the show's producers and lead host, Andrew Smythe (The baking engineer from Great British Bake Off).
It's all rather polite for the most part. Although I get the feeling some of the teams would love to get out of there as fast as they can. Other's really want the 100,000 dollar prize.
4. Maid - on Netflix. It's compelling, but painful to watch. I don't know if I'll make it through it. The series is about a young woman who flees her home one night with her baby daughter, with almost no funds, and no place to stay, after her husband in a drunken fury throws things at her, punches the wall, and she finds herself picking glass out of her child's hair. Unfortunately she has nowhere to go - her mother's mentally ill, her father has a new family and can't be bothered, and her friends are her husband's. It does a rather good job of demonstrating why women can get trapped in domestic violence situations. Desperate - she goes to social services, who can't really help her outside of giving her a reference to a maid service - that's out of laundromat. It's a poorly run service, or a service run on the bare minimum - the maids have to buy their own supplies, they get a vacuum, but that's about it, and they have short shifts. We see the dollar amount go down on the right side of the screen as the character is calculating how much money she'll obtain, and how much it will cost.
Also social services won't provide her with housing until she has two pay-checks and sends her to the mission (which she refuses to take her daughter to.).
It kind of goes down-hill from there. This is hyper-realism, and a bit on the depressing side of the fence. Everything that can go wrong does. There's some light moments, but not many. At the end of the first episode, the heroine has lost her car, is running from her ex, and sleeping on the ferry.
It stars Andie McDowell's daugther, with Andie playing the mentally ill mother. Rather well written, directed, and acted - but like I said before? Painful to watch. I wanted a lot of people in it to die of COVID.
5. Nancy Drew - eh last year's was better. I feel the writers are losing some oomph? Also what happened to the hot Detective? It's like they keep throwing guys at Nancy and none of them quite fly?
6. Diana: The Musical - I tried, and gave up after fifteen to twenty minutes of this. It was horrible. Honestly, the songs were horrible. How do these things get made? I'm amazed it got filmed, and even more amazed it made it to Broadway. Honestly, SMASH's Marilyn musical had better songs and more going for it. (Keep in mind that I will watch pretty much anything that is a musical. I made it through Tobe Hopper's CATS, and High School Musical. This was boring. I gave up. I'm sorry, Diana's life story just doesn't lend itself to a musical. I also tried Pride and Prejudice - the musical once, and no it doesn't work either. Some things just do not lend themselves to musical adaptations.)
I'd much rather see SIX. Netflix keeps filming crappy musicals for some reason - I'm not quite sure why.
***
Books? Still making my way through The Partner Track on Audio Book. Also, Kristin Higgins contemporary chick lit, that I can't remember the name of - about a gastinesnologist who returns to her native island off the coast of Maine, not far from Boston. (How it can be close to Maine and Boston, I've no clue...but I'm not from that area.) After suffering from a massive car accident, and being violently attacked several months prior.
And reading "My Wicked Husband" - a historical about a middle class/rich inventor/businessman/industralist (he's figured out that the way of the future is electricity) and his wife, who don't know each other, but are getting to know each other after two years of marriage - because she needs to launch her nutty younger sister into society. It's kind of an anti-artistocratic historical romance? Kind of witty.
***
Malaise continues. Watched church service on FB with various others. The choir sings with masks on. I feel for them. It can't be easy. Also they had jazz musicians there today. I rather like the music at church for the most part. Also the sermon involved a play - they managed to do a little performance on stage, complete with real baby, and props, and everyone wearing masks. It was the beginning of the Moses story - where Pharoah's daughter gets Moses, after he's placed in the river by his mother. The Minister focused on Pharoah's daughter and linked the story metaphorically to how we handle refugees and immigrants. Egypt was metaphorically the rigid rule structure that keeps out interlopers and anyone who might infringe on wealth and prosperity or power, The Jews are the immigrants, and Moses is the immigrant child struggling to have a life somewhere else. The Pharaoh's daughter is stuck making a decision - do I allow this immigrant child who is considered dangerous by my society to die, or take him in and feed him, and tread him as my own? And how her decision to do just that - turned the world around.
One small act of kindness changed everything.
The service ended with a rendition of one my favorite Harry Belfonte songs:
For those who don't know Belafonte is a social justice activist, Calypso singer, and actor.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-12 01:33 am (UTC)I liked Black Widow. Wish it had been made years earlier, and that a few other things were better-written, but overall an enjoyable movie with good performances.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-13 12:35 am (UTC)Agree on Black Widow...I kind of wish they'd done it before Infinity War, or something. OTOH, I did like the scene with her sister at her grave.