Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig..
Dec. 28th, 2022 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatMy father used to say that, along with things like "Good on you", and "Wherever you are, There you are", and "That's Alright? It's alright." He's been on my mind a lot of late, and I couldn't seem to stop talking about him over the holiday. It was as if...he was everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time. If that makes any sense? While down there...mother asked if I wanted my father's left over art supplies, and the wooden suitcase style box that he carted them around in. Also, she wanted me to take his watercolors, which he worked so hard on, and was so proud of, and display them - once she was gone, or if anything happened to her. Here's one of them, and I took pictures of all five. I like them, so I'll take them, no problem. (My father and I had similar tastes in art.)
Although home really is where the folks I love are.. it is nice to be in my own space again, with my laptop, my own bed, fridge, kitchen, etc. My life is in NYC, my Momma is in Hilton Head. Such is life. Also the people I love are kind of across the globe. And in NY, of course.
Also as lovely as Hilton Head is, I did miss NYC in some respects. I can go anywhere - without a car. It's more diverse, culturally and otherwise. And you can walk more places. On the way home, I had a very long chat with the cab driver on the way home from JFK, who hailed from Bangladesh, and currently lives in Queens. (Pricey cab driver. Usually it costs between $55-65, today it was $85, the ride to LGA was only $55).
The cab briefly moved to Florida during the pandemic, only to move back again - because his family was miserable and lonely. There's no community, and it's very segregated and isolating. I told him that I've learned the more diverse and less segregated a location is - the kinder the people are. NYC is kind of unique in that respect. The cab driver agreed - he said nowhere was like it in that respect. He also told me that if I thought driving in NYC was stressful - I should try Bangladesh. Apparently, there's no stop lights or signs, and they can kind of do it by ear?
It was a lovely and uneventful visit. Mother has a persistent cough, but it wasn't a contagious one. Although she became convinced this morning, for some reason or other that it was COVID. So insisted on taking a test in her armchair. I tried to tell her it was supposed to be done on a hard service - but to no avail. She took another one after she dropped me off at the airport, and it was negative too. I think it may be a blood pressure medication issue. But she will check with her doctor again. I worry about her, but alas, there is nothing I can do.
We did enjoy each other's company, talked about my Dad, whom she misses every day - but has managed to find a way to enjoy her life without him there. She's lonely though, I think. But she has friends, and people who care about her. Also, in a way, having my father at the Preston and their separation helped her get used to his absence, at least enough, to make it bearable. She reminds me a lot of her own mother, in her resourcefulness and determination to find the joy in small things. I try to emulate them both.
**
I'm not a fan of regaling folks with the gifts that I've received or provided. Let's just say, everyone was grateful and happy. I found this season - that I felt very ambivalent about Christmas. Although I did help Momma decorate her tree, and remove the decorations. It turned out nicely, I think...
She put the other decorations up herself. But the tree - she discovered she could get maintenance to put up and take down. They do so many, and do it faster than we do. There was a brief scare though - on Thursday night, we had a deep freeze, and Mother felt the need to drip her outside faucets. (I figured okay, that's not a big deal, and let her go out and do that. Big mistake.) Mother, without telling me and for reasons that escape me, decided she had to put sheets over her hibiscus and a fern. She was trying to protect them. And due to where the hibiscus is located, she almost fell over. Actually she did, kind of fall, but didn't hurt herself. Just over-exerted herself. She came back inside, wheezing, and I got worried. I also told her not to do that again, and next time to ask me to do it. It was completely futile of course - since it was windy, and the wind blew the sheets off the plants. Both got frozen, and she lost the hibiscus, alas. (Also, most likely the fern.) Hilton Head doesn't usually get temperatures below 32 degrees F.
***
My brother got COVID, most likely from his trip up to Montreal with his family. Fever, cough, sore throat, no voice. His doctor told him to hold off on taking the anti-virals. He's feeling better today, but now, his wife seems to have come down with it. (They had four of the five vaccines, but not the biavalent. I've also had four of the five, but the biavalent, not the booster in May. Also I was all Pfizer, they were all Moderna. Mother has had five of the five - all Moderna. Niece got COVID twice, once in May, and again in October or November, so she's probably immune at the moment.)
He apparently went to a spa that is operated off of a barge in Montreal. And had one of the best prepared meals of his life - six-seven courses, with a different wine entry for each course.
***
Over the holidays, mother and I went to the musical A Christmas Story at the Hilton Head Self Family Arts Center - which puts on repertory and touring productions of various musicals and plays throughout the year. In the past, we've seen Hello, Dolly, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, Singing in the Rain, White Christmas, Newsies, and a few others. Some are better than others. Mother and I went in with low expectations for this one. (Last year they put on Elf, which we skipped, since neither of us have been able to make it through the film version - let alone a musical adaptation. At least we enjoyed the film version of A Christmas Story.)
It was a lot better than I thought it would be. Nothing like the fiasco that the televised version was. The cast was good. A bit loud - they needed to fix the sound system - kids have high pitched voices, and when they scream and sing loudly in mics - it well...let's just say, I wished I had brought ear plugs and leave it at that? That's the down-side of the musical - it was VERY kid centric. But, they had a good cast of kids. Some of the girls were playing the boy's roles, which I found interesting. Ralphie - was being played by a professional boy actor, who'd been with the touring company - so he was quite. As was the father, who surprised me, and the teacher. In short, I was pleasantly surprised by it, I didn't expect to like it at all, and as it turns out, so was mother.
This is the first live theater performance that I've seen since 2019. In a theater of about 500, myself and about nine other folks were the only ones wearing masks. Mother wasn't. At one point, I took it off - thinking, I'm living with mother, and she's not wearing one. This is kind of futile. But, I couldn't do it. I had to wear it. I mean I'm sitting there, surrounded by people, with people one stage singing, and just about ten rows from the stage - it seemed stupid not to wear a mask. (I was in the minority - but I'm often in the minority. Most people, let's face it, aren't logical. There are, alas, more Captain Kirk's, and less Mr. Spock's on this planet.)
I had the same experience on the airplane and at the airport. I was wearing a mask, along with about ten other people, but 90% weren't. No one I was sitting near was wearing one. But hey, the flight attendants were.
****
I think the Universe took pity on me, and decided to give me an uneventful holiday? I didn't get sick. Allergies weren't an issue. No flight delays (outside of a very brief one on the way down. The flight crew was late coming out of Boston, so we were delayed about an hour, if that). By the LaGuardia is amazing. It has all these windows that look out on the Bay, and on the City, and it's airy. Just hard to navigate. The restrooms are kind of hidden. And it takes forever to get from security to the gates. So, if you are going there? Give yourself time to get through security and to the gate. Also, unless you do the TSA pre-check, there is no such thing as expedited security at LGA. It's very different than JFK. The restrooms, while beautiful, and stylish, do not have enough booths. They seven booths - so long lines. JFK makes more sense - it has 20 booths, but isn't pretty.
That said? I was impressed by what they did with LGA, it is amazing. Also only took me twenty minutes to get there - with traffic. And twenty minutes to get through security - with an insane line - which kept moving as if we were traveling through a maze. In short, beautiful airport, but difficult to navigate. Apparently we can't have both?
When I got into JFK - it was wall to wall people. My god, I've not seen that many people in an airport in a long time. People were camped out in the aisles, packed in the restaurants, lounging in the atrium, sleeping in the baggage claim area, and along the way to the taxis and ground transportation. Also, they had row upon row of unclaimed bags in the lost or baggage claim booth - which I passed on my way to the taxis. I'd never seen that before. Usually there's no bags at that booth. But when I got in - there was well over 100 bags stacked side by side in rows, all colors and shapes and sizes, with baggage tickets on them.
I was lucky - I took Jetblue, non-stop, to JFK. No transfers. And Southwest doesn't really fly from NYC to Savannah. Mother reached out to youngest Aunt, and found out that Cousin P doesn't work in that division of Southwest Airlines. Or that department. (He's in the accounting fraud department, not IT or Customer relations.) Apparently Southwest was using a 1990s IT network...and never got around to updating it. Now they are in deep shit. Everyone is pissed off at them. They've left passengers and their baggage stranded across the country and the world. (What they did was send people's bags on, without them, all the way through - to the connecting flights.) So the flight gets cancelled, but the passenger's bags got sent to well New York, while the passenger is stuck in Denver. This explains why only two people volunteered to check their bags on the plane I took to NY today. On the way to Savannah/Hilton Head - twenty people volunteered. No one was taking any chances. What blew my mind, is per Twitter, there were people who packed their medications in checked luggage.
(That's a big no-no. Never do that, folks. Airlines aren't that reliable. Always put clothing, and only clothing in checked luggage or luggage that could end up being checked.)
***
Mother saw six movies over the holiday.
1. The Last Duel (Hulu) - starring Jodi Comer, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Adam Driver. Directed by Ridley Scott. We were pleasantly surprised by it. It's actually a very good movie. Adapted from a true story - it is told in three perspectives. First, the husband's perspective, Matt Damon. Then the husband's friend who allegedly raped his wife, Adam Driver. And Finally, the wife, Jodi Comer. It's really her film. Affleck and Damon hired a female scriptwriter to help them write the screenplay - because they realized they couldn't write the female perspective or do it justice. I'd been curious about it for a while. Because of how they chose to tell it, and film it, also Chidi loved it.
I'd give it an A. It haunts me. Both mother and I found it compelling and haunting. And felt that Jodi Comer (from Killing Eve) was amazing in it. It's well performed by everyone, but she stands out. The rape scene is hard to watch - but done rather well, and not romanticized at all.
The adaptation is from The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat by Eric Jaeger - it chronicles the last recorded duel in Medieval France. "The gripping true story of the duel to end all duels in medieval France as a resolute knight defends his wife’s honor against the man she accuses of a heinous crime."
It is gripping and suspenseful. Mother and I had no idea how it was going to end, even though the ending, once we thought about it, was inevitable.
That's how well the story is built. Also, we understood why this was the last recorded duel in Medieval France. The story underlines the power imbalance between the genders in the Middle Ages, which was detrimental to both.
While I do highly recommend it, if rape is one of your triggers? You may want to avoid? However, while the rape is there - it's not overly focused on. I was able to miss most of it - I went to the bathroom during it. So, missed about 80% of it.
[Available on Hulu]
2. Bullet Train - this was enjoyable and funny. A kind of action/comedy. It stars, Brad Pitt (making fun of action heroes again), Sandra Bullock (she's not really seen through most of the movie), Joey King, and a whole lot of other folks. Directed by David Leitch.
It's fast action. About a group of seemingly unrelated folks brought together on a Japanese Bullet Train to Russia. Except - they are all somehow connected to a Russian Assassin, known as the White Death (portrayed by Michael Shannon). It's better to go in blind, so won't tell you anything else. Half the fun is figuring it out. Mother and I were having a blast figuring out the movie, with it's fast talking banter, and twists and turns.
[Available on Netflix]
3. Glass Onion: Knives Out Mystery directed by Rian Johnson, who is having fun parodying, satirizing and playing homage to Agatha Christie's
parlor room mysteries. Standing in for Hercule Poirot, is Daniel Craig's bumbling Benoit, who has a thick Southern Twang.
Me: Apparently Benoit is gay - Hugh Grant was playing the lover.
Mother: Oh, yes, that makes sense. (Pause). So was Hercule Poirot or it was heavily implied at any rate.
Me: I did not know that.
Mother: He actually does fit Hercule Poirot in a lot of ways..
It's fun. This round we have Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Batusta, Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, and Leslie Odom Jr, along for the high-jinks.
Everyone is invited to an island to figure out who killed the tech billionaire, in a kind of parlor mystery game. Except, well, things don't quite go as planned.
It kept me guessing. And television critic Alan Sepinwell described it on Twitter as an example of employing Chekhov's Gun. "Chekhov's gun (Chekhov's rifle; Russian: Чеховское ружьё) is a narrative principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed. Alternatively explained, suppose a writer features a gun in a story; if the writer features it, there must be a reason for it, such as it being fired sometime later in the plot. All elements must eventually come into play at some point in the story. " [I had to look it up, so don't expect anyone to know what it means.]
I'd agree. It does utilize just about every element for the most part. And here, the details matter. Again, better to go in blind like I did. More fun that way. Mother and I had a blast watching it, and we both would recommend it.
[Available on Netflix.]
4. Wild Mountain Thyme by John Patrick Shanely, who apparently did Moonstruck. (It's not Moonstruck). It stars, Christopher Walken, Emily Blunt, Jamie Dorman, and Jon Hamm.
I found it to be a bit slow in places. It's okay. A romance between two next door neighbors, who are both odd ducks in their own ways. And as mother put it - they love each other, but can't quite get together for some reason - until the end.
I'd give it a B. It's watchable. Much better than the sappy fair on Hallmark. (Mother and I are not fans of the films on Hallmark, although she kept ending up there via her television, and I kept talking her into jumping to anything else. Also we never stayed there - because Hallmark repeats annoying romantic tropes. Such as - oh I'm engaged to this guy, but falling in love with (his friend, brother, some guy I just met, an old flame...). Hard pass.] Wild Mountain Thyme is a far better alternative.
I just wish they'd cast someone with a touch more charisma than Jaime Dorman.
[Available on Hulu]
5. Code Name Banshee - stars Antonio Banderas in a small role. It's okay.
Lots of action. Kind of boring. I went to sleep during it. Mother was impressed that I was able to fall asleep during a noisy action movie. I woke up, realized I'd not missed much and was able to figure out what was happening easily enough.
Clunky dialogue. Poor plotting. And I didn't care about anyone.
[Available on Hulu - we couldn't get Netflix, so were stuck with Hulu, and my god, there's a lot of bad action films that I've never heard of, on streaming at the moment. Antonio Banderas, Bruce Willis, and Nic Cage appear to have done most of them.]
6. Charade - Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matheu, George Kennedy, and James Coburn round out the cast of the best Hitchockian film not directed by Hitchcock. It was also recently added to the Library of Congress - one of the 25 selections added to that film library.
It's an interesting film. Charming and twisty. Also, suspenseful. I'd forgotten most of it - even though I'd seen it at least twice previously.
It's available on TCM Movie Classics.
***
Yawn.
Going to bed. I got up early - and had a busy day. Tomorrow will be busy too - my goal is to get rid of things, while waiting for a package. Friday - I plan to go into the city and buy a new, short, coat from Macy's.
Leaving you with a picture of the beach. It was too cold to go to the beach until roughly Tuesday afternoon. So mother and I went, she only went as far as the boardwalk. She can't walk very far. But there's a little gazebo there that she can sit and wait at - which overlooks the ocean. It's a new addition. I walked out to the water - since it was low tide and the beach was flat as a pancake, flatter actually, and the water exceptionally calm.
Although home really is where the folks I love are.. it is nice to be in my own space again, with my laptop, my own bed, fridge, kitchen, etc. My life is in NYC, my Momma is in Hilton Head. Such is life. Also the people I love are kind of across the globe. And in NY, of course.
Also as lovely as Hilton Head is, I did miss NYC in some respects. I can go anywhere - without a car. It's more diverse, culturally and otherwise. And you can walk more places. On the way home, I had a very long chat with the cab driver on the way home from JFK, who hailed from Bangladesh, and currently lives in Queens. (Pricey cab driver. Usually it costs between $55-65, today it was $85, the ride to LGA was only $55).
The cab briefly moved to Florida during the pandemic, only to move back again - because his family was miserable and lonely. There's no community, and it's very segregated and isolating. I told him that I've learned the more diverse and less segregated a location is - the kinder the people are. NYC is kind of unique in that respect. The cab driver agreed - he said nowhere was like it in that respect. He also told me that if I thought driving in NYC was stressful - I should try Bangladesh. Apparently, there's no stop lights or signs, and they can kind of do it by ear?
It was a lovely and uneventful visit. Mother has a persistent cough, but it wasn't a contagious one. Although she became convinced this morning, for some reason or other that it was COVID. So insisted on taking a test in her armchair. I tried to tell her it was supposed to be done on a hard service - but to no avail. She took another one after she dropped me off at the airport, and it was negative too. I think it may be a blood pressure medication issue. But she will check with her doctor again. I worry about her, but alas, there is nothing I can do.
We did enjoy each other's company, talked about my Dad, whom she misses every day - but has managed to find a way to enjoy her life without him there. She's lonely though, I think. But she has friends, and people who care about her. Also, in a way, having my father at the Preston and their separation helped her get used to his absence, at least enough, to make it bearable. She reminds me a lot of her own mother, in her resourcefulness and determination to find the joy in small things. I try to emulate them both.
**
I'm not a fan of regaling folks with the gifts that I've received or provided. Let's just say, everyone was grateful and happy. I found this season - that I felt very ambivalent about Christmas. Although I did help Momma decorate her tree, and remove the decorations. It turned out nicely, I think...
She put the other decorations up herself. But the tree - she discovered she could get maintenance to put up and take down. They do so many, and do it faster than we do. There was a brief scare though - on Thursday night, we had a deep freeze, and Mother felt the need to drip her outside faucets. (I figured okay, that's not a big deal, and let her go out and do that. Big mistake.) Mother, without telling me and for reasons that escape me, decided she had to put sheets over her hibiscus and a fern. She was trying to protect them. And due to where the hibiscus is located, she almost fell over. Actually she did, kind of fall, but didn't hurt herself. Just over-exerted herself. She came back inside, wheezing, and I got worried. I also told her not to do that again, and next time to ask me to do it. It was completely futile of course - since it was windy, and the wind blew the sheets off the plants. Both got frozen, and she lost the hibiscus, alas. (Also, most likely the fern.) Hilton Head doesn't usually get temperatures below 32 degrees F.
***
My brother got COVID, most likely from his trip up to Montreal with his family. Fever, cough, sore throat, no voice. His doctor told him to hold off on taking the anti-virals. He's feeling better today, but now, his wife seems to have come down with it. (They had four of the five vaccines, but not the biavalent. I've also had four of the five, but the biavalent, not the booster in May. Also I was all Pfizer, they were all Moderna. Mother has had five of the five - all Moderna. Niece got COVID twice, once in May, and again in October or November, so she's probably immune at the moment.)
He apparently went to a spa that is operated off of a barge in Montreal. And had one of the best prepared meals of his life - six-seven courses, with a different wine entry for each course.
***
Over the holidays, mother and I went to the musical A Christmas Story at the Hilton Head Self Family Arts Center - which puts on repertory and touring productions of various musicals and plays throughout the year. In the past, we've seen Hello, Dolly, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, Singing in the Rain, White Christmas, Newsies, and a few others. Some are better than others. Mother and I went in with low expectations for this one. (Last year they put on Elf, which we skipped, since neither of us have been able to make it through the film version - let alone a musical adaptation. At least we enjoyed the film version of A Christmas Story.)
It was a lot better than I thought it would be. Nothing like the fiasco that the televised version was. The cast was good. A bit loud - they needed to fix the sound system - kids have high pitched voices, and when they scream and sing loudly in mics - it well...let's just say, I wished I had brought ear plugs and leave it at that? That's the down-side of the musical - it was VERY kid centric. But, they had a good cast of kids. Some of the girls were playing the boy's roles, which I found interesting. Ralphie - was being played by a professional boy actor, who'd been with the touring company - so he was quite. As was the father, who surprised me, and the teacher. In short, I was pleasantly surprised by it, I didn't expect to like it at all, and as it turns out, so was mother.
This is the first live theater performance that I've seen since 2019. In a theater of about 500, myself and about nine other folks were the only ones wearing masks. Mother wasn't. At one point, I took it off - thinking, I'm living with mother, and she's not wearing one. This is kind of futile. But, I couldn't do it. I had to wear it. I mean I'm sitting there, surrounded by people, with people one stage singing, and just about ten rows from the stage - it seemed stupid not to wear a mask. (I was in the minority - but I'm often in the minority. Most people, let's face it, aren't logical. There are, alas, more Captain Kirk's, and less Mr. Spock's on this planet.)
I had the same experience on the airplane and at the airport. I was wearing a mask, along with about ten other people, but 90% weren't. No one I was sitting near was wearing one. But hey, the flight attendants were.
****
I think the Universe took pity on me, and decided to give me an uneventful holiday? I didn't get sick. Allergies weren't an issue. No flight delays (outside of a very brief one on the way down. The flight crew was late coming out of Boston, so we were delayed about an hour, if that). By the LaGuardia is amazing. It has all these windows that look out on the Bay, and on the City, and it's airy. Just hard to navigate. The restrooms are kind of hidden. And it takes forever to get from security to the gates. So, if you are going there? Give yourself time to get through security and to the gate. Also, unless you do the TSA pre-check, there is no such thing as expedited security at LGA. It's very different than JFK. The restrooms, while beautiful, and stylish, do not have enough booths. They seven booths - so long lines. JFK makes more sense - it has 20 booths, but isn't pretty.
That said? I was impressed by what they did with LGA, it is amazing. Also only took me twenty minutes to get there - with traffic. And twenty minutes to get through security - with an insane line - which kept moving as if we were traveling through a maze. In short, beautiful airport, but difficult to navigate. Apparently we can't have both?
When I got into JFK - it was wall to wall people. My god, I've not seen that many people in an airport in a long time. People were camped out in the aisles, packed in the restaurants, lounging in the atrium, sleeping in the baggage claim area, and along the way to the taxis and ground transportation. Also, they had row upon row of unclaimed bags in the lost or baggage claim booth - which I passed on my way to the taxis. I'd never seen that before. Usually there's no bags at that booth. But when I got in - there was well over 100 bags stacked side by side in rows, all colors and shapes and sizes, with baggage tickets on them.
I was lucky - I took Jetblue, non-stop, to JFK. No transfers. And Southwest doesn't really fly from NYC to Savannah. Mother reached out to youngest Aunt, and found out that Cousin P doesn't work in that division of Southwest Airlines. Or that department. (He's in the accounting fraud department, not IT or Customer relations.) Apparently Southwest was using a 1990s IT network...and never got around to updating it. Now they are in deep shit. Everyone is pissed off at them. They've left passengers and their baggage stranded across the country and the world. (What they did was send people's bags on, without them, all the way through - to the connecting flights.) So the flight gets cancelled, but the passenger's bags got sent to well New York, while the passenger is stuck in Denver. This explains why only two people volunteered to check their bags on the plane I took to NY today. On the way to Savannah/Hilton Head - twenty people volunteered. No one was taking any chances. What blew my mind, is per Twitter, there were people who packed their medications in checked luggage.
(That's a big no-no. Never do that, folks. Airlines aren't that reliable. Always put clothing, and only clothing in checked luggage or luggage that could end up being checked.)
***
Mother saw six movies over the holiday.
1. The Last Duel (Hulu) - starring Jodi Comer, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Adam Driver. Directed by Ridley Scott. We were pleasantly surprised by it. It's actually a very good movie. Adapted from a true story - it is told in three perspectives. First, the husband's perspective, Matt Damon. Then the husband's friend who allegedly raped his wife, Adam Driver. And Finally, the wife, Jodi Comer. It's really her film. Affleck and Damon hired a female scriptwriter to help them write the screenplay - because they realized they couldn't write the female perspective or do it justice. I'd been curious about it for a while. Because of how they chose to tell it, and film it, also Chidi loved it.
I'd give it an A. It haunts me. Both mother and I found it compelling and haunting. And felt that Jodi Comer (from Killing Eve) was amazing in it. It's well performed by everyone, but she stands out. The rape scene is hard to watch - but done rather well, and not romanticized at all.
The adaptation is from The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat by Eric Jaeger - it chronicles the last recorded duel in Medieval France. "The gripping true story of the duel to end all duels in medieval France as a resolute knight defends his wife’s honor against the man she accuses of a heinous crime."
It is gripping and suspenseful. Mother and I had no idea how it was going to end, even though the ending, once we thought about it, was inevitable.
That's how well the story is built. Also, we understood why this was the last recorded duel in Medieval France. The story underlines the power imbalance between the genders in the Middle Ages, which was detrimental to both.
While I do highly recommend it, if rape is one of your triggers? You may want to avoid? However, while the rape is there - it's not overly focused on. I was able to miss most of it - I went to the bathroom during it. So, missed about 80% of it.
[Available on Hulu]
2. Bullet Train - this was enjoyable and funny. A kind of action/comedy. It stars, Brad Pitt (making fun of action heroes again), Sandra Bullock (she's not really seen through most of the movie), Joey King, and a whole lot of other folks. Directed by David Leitch.
It's fast action. About a group of seemingly unrelated folks brought together on a Japanese Bullet Train to Russia. Except - they are all somehow connected to a Russian Assassin, known as the White Death (portrayed by Michael Shannon). It's better to go in blind, so won't tell you anything else. Half the fun is figuring it out. Mother and I were having a blast figuring out the movie, with it's fast talking banter, and twists and turns.
[Available on Netflix]
3. Glass Onion: Knives Out Mystery directed by Rian Johnson, who is having fun parodying, satirizing and playing homage to Agatha Christie's
parlor room mysteries. Standing in for Hercule Poirot, is Daniel Craig's bumbling Benoit, who has a thick Southern Twang.
Me: Apparently Benoit is gay - Hugh Grant was playing the lover.
Mother: Oh, yes, that makes sense. (Pause). So was Hercule Poirot or it was heavily implied at any rate.
Me: I did not know that.
Mother: He actually does fit Hercule Poirot in a lot of ways..
It's fun. This round we have Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Batusta, Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, and Leslie Odom Jr, along for the high-jinks.
Everyone is invited to an island to figure out who killed the tech billionaire, in a kind of parlor mystery game. Except, well, things don't quite go as planned.
It kept me guessing. And television critic Alan Sepinwell described it on Twitter as an example of employing Chekhov's Gun. "Chekhov's gun (Chekhov's rifle; Russian: Чеховское ружьё) is a narrative principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed. Alternatively explained, suppose a writer features a gun in a story; if the writer features it, there must be a reason for it, such as it being fired sometime later in the plot. All elements must eventually come into play at some point in the story. " [I had to look it up, so don't expect anyone to know what it means.]
I'd agree. It does utilize just about every element for the most part. And here, the details matter. Again, better to go in blind like I did. More fun that way. Mother and I had a blast watching it, and we both would recommend it.
[Available on Netflix.]
4. Wild Mountain Thyme by John Patrick Shanely, who apparently did Moonstruck. (It's not Moonstruck). It stars, Christopher Walken, Emily Blunt, Jamie Dorman, and Jon Hamm.
I found it to be a bit slow in places. It's okay. A romance between two next door neighbors, who are both odd ducks in their own ways. And as mother put it - they love each other, but can't quite get together for some reason - until the end.
I'd give it a B. It's watchable. Much better than the sappy fair on Hallmark. (Mother and I are not fans of the films on Hallmark, although she kept ending up there via her television, and I kept talking her into jumping to anything else. Also we never stayed there - because Hallmark repeats annoying romantic tropes. Such as - oh I'm engaged to this guy, but falling in love with (his friend, brother, some guy I just met, an old flame...). Hard pass.] Wild Mountain Thyme is a far better alternative.
I just wish they'd cast someone with a touch more charisma than Jaime Dorman.
[Available on Hulu]
5. Code Name Banshee - stars Antonio Banderas in a small role. It's okay.
Lots of action. Kind of boring. I went to sleep during it. Mother was impressed that I was able to fall asleep during a noisy action movie. I woke up, realized I'd not missed much and was able to figure out what was happening easily enough.
Clunky dialogue. Poor plotting. And I didn't care about anyone.
[Available on Hulu - we couldn't get Netflix, so were stuck with Hulu, and my god, there's a lot of bad action films that I've never heard of, on streaming at the moment. Antonio Banderas, Bruce Willis, and Nic Cage appear to have done most of them.]
6. Charade - Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matheu, George Kennedy, and James Coburn round out the cast of the best Hitchockian film not directed by Hitchcock. It was also recently added to the Library of Congress - one of the 25 selections added to that film library.
It's an interesting film. Charming and twisty. Also, suspenseful. I'd forgotten most of it - even though I'd seen it at least twice previously.
It's available on TCM Movie Classics.
***
Yawn.
Going to bed. I got up early - and had a busy day. Tomorrow will be busy too - my goal is to get rid of things, while waiting for a package. Friday - I plan to go into the city and buy a new, short, coat from Macy's.
Leaving you with a picture of the beach. It was too cold to go to the beach until roughly Tuesday afternoon. So mother and I went, she only went as far as the boardwalk. She can't walk very far. But there's a little gazebo there that she can sit and wait at - which overlooks the ocean. It's a new addition. I walked out to the water - since it was low tide and the beach was flat as a pancake, flatter actually, and the water exceptionally calm.
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Date: 2022-12-29 03:39 pm (UTC)The movie doesn't really kick in for me until the second segment (from Jacques' POV), and--along with his view of Jean as a pompous, arrogant bungler--we see that Jacques has this self image as a dashing ladies' man, catnip to the women of court, but, y'know, with a true and noble heart.
His pursuit of Marguerite up the stairs of the castle, with the heroine giggling flirtatiously, could be a scene from Tom Jones-- and it was really unpleasant to consider that I've been enjoying these types of scenes in costume picaresques all my life without considering what might REALLY be going on...
What I found illuminating about Marguerite's POV was how it snaps you out of the fantasy of the noble knight and the charming roue and brings you down to earth. The woman of the house has to take care of the house, the grounds, the livestock--with danger surrounding her on all sides. The power structure of the society enables those fantasies at the cost of her humanity.
Damon and Affleck did an excellent job skewering the mentality of male privilege. And even though it's a story of medieval France, you could even see them poking at their own male privilege too....
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Date: 2022-12-29 05:38 pm (UTC)I was also impressed with how the writers skewered male privilege, but...it wasn't Damon and Affleck, it was Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon. Nicole wrote most of the script, and handled the writing of the female perspective. They begged her to help them do it - because they didn't trust their ability to make it work. They required a female perspective - to help skewer it. And she does a brilliant job. I give them a lot of credit for understanding that and seeing the need for a female perspective. It's very hard for people to see their own privilege, I think? I give Damon and Affleck credit for acknowledging that. Nicole - they stated in interviews at the time - changed and tweaked things, and made the film so much better. It was as much her film as theirs.
It's telling that Marguerite never re-marries. She ran the property, he just fought in Wars. Once he was dead, she was better off - and never felt the need to get another husband.
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Date: 2022-12-29 05:59 pm (UTC)You make a very good point that Jacques never thought of his assault on Marguerite as "rape"; he thought of his sin as adultery--the violation of Jean's rights as her husband. Marguerite's rights never come into play at all.
And yes, Marguerite does get the happy ending--the land, the title and her child. No husband required But what she had to endure to get it...
ETA: BTW, if you haven't seen it, I would recommend Holofcener's Enough Said, with James Gandolfini and Julia Louis Dreyfus. Excellent low-key rom-com screenplay and direction.
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Date: 2022-12-29 08:03 pm (UTC)I'm trying to remember where I saw the interview with Affleck and Damon and Holfcener - I think EW.
They said they'd gotten so far, but got stuck on the female perspective. And realized they needed someone else.
Okay found the interview, it was EW:
https://ew.com/movies/matt-damon-ben-affleck-nicole-holofcener-the-last-duel/
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did you decide to bring Nicole on board?
AFFLECK: Nicole was the best writer we knew, so we wanted her to help us make it good. Part of the story involves revealing a previously unseen world of women, and we thought a woman would do that better than we would and would offer insight and understanding that we didn't have. So we put together our most desperate pitch, which I think we delivered in a pretty ham-fisted way but nonetheless we managed to convince her.
HOLOFCENER: It took a minute. At first, I thought it was a joke. I got the email, "Do you want to write this swordfight movie with us?" I thought that they were kidding, or that I couldn't do it. It was so far away from the stuff I write. But I wanted to work with them immediately, and they convinced me they could do it by showing me their crappy writing [laughs].
AFFLECK: It's got to be better than this!
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Date: 2022-12-29 11:17 pm (UTC)After seeing her act with superior dialogue, I was hoping McCarthy would sit down with husband Ben Falcone--the "creative" mind behind a half dozen terrible McCarthy movies--give him a kiss and a supportive back rub, followed by a "Honey, we have to talk..."
Hasn't happened yet.
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Date: 2022-12-30 04:39 am (UTC)It was good. Don't remember it clearly though. It was a long time ago.
Didn't know Can You Ever Forgive Me was written by Nicole H. Interesting. Wonder if that's how Affleck and Damon came across her?
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Date: 2022-12-29 08:13 pm (UTC)When we jump into Marguerite's pov, we realize how barbaric and brutish the male characters are, and how little they care for anyone outside themselves. There's little to no value in either. Her husband sees himself as romantic and she cares for him, when in reality he's brutish, and she fears him. The only character who comes out of the story with any level of likability or value is Marguerite. Which is an interesting decision on the parts of the writers, actors, and director.
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Date: 2022-12-29 03:56 pm (UTC)Lovely watercolor by your father. I like the limited color palette.
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Date: 2022-12-29 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-29 11:13 pm (UTC)I'll keep an eye out for Charade.
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Date: 2022-12-30 04:39 am (UTC)