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Quiet weekend. Went to massage therapist for work on back, hips, and sinuses, also digestive issues.
And watched a few things, also wrote a bit, and took pictures of flowers. When the news is nasty, I take pictures of flowers. I'd share them with y'all, but can't figure out how to post pics from Facebook or my phone on Dreamwidth.

1. Yellowstone

Written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, and stars Kevin Costner, Kelly Reilly, Luke Grimes, Cole Hauser, Wes Bentley, and various others. It's about a rancher in Montana who is fighting people from invading or taking his land away from him - either for frakking, lumber, land development grabs, water rights, a national park, or providing habitat for the Native American Indians who once resided there. And is a good depiction of why tribalism and capitalism don't work or rather bring out the absolute worst in people. (Your Mileage May Vary, but that's what I took from it.)

I found it to be more compelling and better written than AMC's The Son, which had starred Pierce Bronsan and I couldn't make it past the first fifteen minutes of. This one I've watched three hours worth and it's holding my attention.

Kevin Costner is quite good in it, as is Luke Grimes and Kelly Reilly. And there's clearly a lot of money in it for a Paramount Channel television series. More than ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox series.

The set-up? Dutton, who owns a huge ranch in Montana, is struggling to reunite with his estranged son and run his range. But the local land-developer and big city transplant wants to build a huge housing development next door, which would use a good portion of his water. And the local Native American Indian tribe wants to take his cattle and a portion of his land back. Not helped by the fact that his estranged son, a veteran and decorated solider, has married a Native American Woman and had a son by her. This son is a horse trainer but is making next to nothing on it.

All hell breaks loose when the son's brother-in-law and the local Indian tribe decide to steal a bunch of his father's cattle. And the father fights to steal them back. In the midst of the fighting, one of the Dutton boys is killed, and the son's brother-in-law is killed. The story takes off from there...

It's worth checking out if you like modern Westerns. It's not a soap opera. More a family crime drama on a ranch. Airs on Paramount Network on Thursday Nights. Next episode is in two weeks. (They go on a brief hiatus around the 4th of July...for some reason or other.)

2. Tomb Raider - the new one, starring Dominic West, Alicia Vikanda, Walter Goggins, with Kristen Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi, and Daniel Wu. It's a lot better than the first one, although that's not saying all that much. Good cast, decent acting, dumb story and script.


Richard Croft: I underestimated your...capacity for -

Lara: stupidity?

Richard: I was going to say bravery.

Me: Actually a little of both. Very brave people also for some reason seem to be REALLY stupid. Oh, my father told me to destroy his journals because this is dangerous and if it got in the wrong hands everyone could die. I know, instead of destroying them, I'll go find him and figure out what this dangerous thing is that will destroy the world.

And while I'm at it, I'll go buy myself, I won't access any of his money to help, and I won't worry about being robbed and just loosely hold my backpack and ask for information.

And...take the most rickety boat I can find with a drunken captain out into dangerous waters.

Seriously??? Indiana Jones was at least intelligent. No wonder this did not do well. I spent most of the time thinking, how dumb are you?

Other that it was a lot of fun.

Film Review - Molly's Game

Just finished watching Molly's Game directed and written by Aaron Sorkin, starring Jessica Chastain, Idris Alba, Kevin Costner, and Michael Cera. It's a lot like Sorkin's last film, Jobs, and Chastain's last one Miss Sloan, but a heck of lot better. In part because it's more balanced, the character is more likable, and it moves better. Sort of what would have happened if Sorkin wrote and directed Miss Sloan, instead of the person who did and flailed miserably. (My attention kept wandering during Miss Sloan, doesn't wander during this one. But then few people can write dialogue like Sorkin.)

The film is adapted from the non-fictional memoir "Molly's Game" by Molly Bloom who ran for about two years, a high stakes illegal poker game in NYC and before that for a period of time a high stakes game in LA. Among the people who gambled at her table, were the Russian Mob, head of a Ponzie Scheme, Tobey MaGuire, Ben Affleck, and others. Tobey MaGuire is portrayed by Michael Cera in the film, as Player X. A sexist douche-bag, who staked various players, so he'd get a stake in the game, when Bloom catches him at it, he forces her out of her own game, and insists she take a pay cut, he also takes exception with the fact that she didn't flirt with him and grant him favors. (In reality, he apparently asked her to bark like a seal.) After watching this and reading up on it, I feel validated in disliking this actor -- which I have roughly since The Ice Storm. I always thought he was a creep, which is why I had issues with the original Spider Man trilogy. Much prefer the actors who've played the role since then. He's a douche-bag. He's on my -- "I will not watch this actor" list.

The movie is mostly a character study, but like Jobs and Miss Sloan it is also a scathing indictment of the American Economic System and Capitalism, which worships money, greed, and has no soul or moral compass. Not to mention the Russian and Italian Mobs.

Also like Sorkin's last film, Jobs, it focuses heavily on the father-daughter dynamic, and seems to center on that as it's moral center. We have two father/daughter relationships in this one, "Stella/Idris Alba" and Molly/Kevin Costner. And some of the best bits are in fact the father/daughter ones, those are the items that resonate the most and bring you into the film. (Making me wonder about Sorkin -- because this is the second time he heavily focused on this theme.)

Through Molly's sessions with her attorney preparing for the government's indictment of her for running a poker game, we see through flashbacks what she did, how she got into the game, how she put it on, and what it entailed. Sorkin uses some of the same tricks he did with Jobes and Social Network, detailing how a poker game is run. It's sort of fun to watch.

I highly recommend the film for the dialogue, performances, and how it pulls you inside the head of a woman who runs an illegal poker game. To such an extent that I was able to empathize with the character and care about her.