Southside With You (2016)

Watched: 2/19/2017

Southside With You is a sweet and refreshingly short movie about the supposed first date between Barack and Michelle Obama.  Even though Michelle insists that this is not a date, it’s pretty clear Barack thinks and wants it be.  They are played by Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers.  I really felt that Parker Sawyers captured the earnestness and charm of Barack while, I struggled a little believing Tika Sumpter as Michelle, only because I really like the real Michelle so much and Sumpter is a little less fun.

It’s an interesting take on the former first couple. Knowing where they end up and who they become, it’s fun to watch their early relationship.  Barack smokes a lot, which we know he won’t stop until many years later.  Michelle doesn’t want him paying for her sandwich, girl power!  My absolute favorite part is while in a park there are drummers and Michelle starts dancing with a little girl.  There is the fun Michele we know from Fallon!  And while she dances with abandon, Barack stays on the sidelines watching her, conveying how much he admires and only has eyes for her.  I’d like to believe that look originated as early as their first date.

I really liked this movie because I really liked this couple.  It would work as a cute movie about a first date regardless that it is about the Obama’s.  I’d like to see more from Parker Sawyers, he really captured the essence of Barack beautifully.

 

PS the struggle to find a picture for this post is ongoing, the struggle is real.

Tron: Legacy (2010)

Watched: 2/18/2017

Watched with: Ken & Andrew

I’m really not sure what was happening in this movie due to the glasses of wine I had directly before we started watching this.   Ken picked this movie for family movie night, after years of wanting Andrew and I to watch this.  I feel without a doubt his devotion of this movie has to do with Olivia Wilde’s hotness and nothing else.  When I asked him questions about the plot, he didn’t have any answers.  Hmmm.. guess he wasn’t paying attention either.

Since there is really nothing constructive to say about this, I just want to write a little about watching movies after already seeing later movies.  The effects of this movie reminded me of Rogue One: a star wars story.  The use of computer graphics to recreate complete people, was done well considering it is 6 years older than Rogue One.  I also could not stop thinking of Stranger Things every time the music played in this.  It’s weird watching a movie from 2010, reminded of stuff from 2016.   So in conclusion, I am really lloking forward to Stranger Things season 2 coming Halloween.

 

 

Arrival (2016)

Watched: 2/17/2017

Watched with: Ken

Arrival is very quiet, for a movie about language and communication.  It is very slow building, at times my eye lids got heavy.  The characters are incredibly impersonal with each other, with the exception of Jeremy Renner’s Ian.  He is the nicest person in this movie.  Amy Adams plays, Louise as both a scared mouse and seemingly reckless at the same time.  It’s as confusing, as the use of time in this movie.

Louise has been hired by the government to attempt to communicate with an alien race that has landed in 12 parts of the world.  Louise is questioned at every point of this process, why are you doing that, don’t do this.  She was hired for her expertise but they seem to undermine her work.  I was annoyed on her behalf.  Ian is the only one who really cares about these processes, making him a good partner for her.  She actually makes some progress and this is the strongest part of the movie for me.  The aliens are squid like and communicate by drawing symbols with their ink (?).

At the beginning all the 12 different landing sites are communicating with each other to discover all the best information.  At one point all this breaks down and everyone is on their own.  This is a powerful commentary on how the world does indeed need the rest of the world.

There is no way of knowing what he time frame for certain aspects of the plot.  You are led to believe something that later isn’t what is happening at all.  I still don’t know what exactly happened and when.   It’s all just weird and at times annoying.

Weiner (2016)

Watched: 2/15/2017

Anthony Weiner is one of the smartest idiots, I’ve ever seen.  He seems capable and passionate about government.  He has some great ideas, but he can’t help himself.  He was forced to resign from congress because of a sexting scandal.  This documentary follows his mayoral campaign and what happens during this time.

His beautiful wife, Huma Abedin, has stood by him through out all his transgressions.  She was Hilary Clinton’s right hand woman.  Hilary has described Huma, as her second daughter.  This is a smart, successful woman.  Why would she put up with both Anthony and the filming of this movie?   She is often seen distancing herself from everything, with a pained expression on her face.  She is a mother to  a small child, she exhausted both physically and mentally.  I felt the urge to shout Run Huma, Run!

Anthony’s campaign takes a turn when a second sexting scandal breaks out during a time he is actually doing well in the polls.  He is advised to stop running but he refuses based on the fact that his personal life has nothing to do with his political life.  At this point no one trusts him, including his staff.  He also gets into a heated argument while the cameras are rolling with a voter.  Why can’t he just stop this upsetting behavior?  Like a previously said , he does seem to have good ideas.  It would have been amazing to see what he could have accomplished if not for his inability to stop sexting strangers from facebook.

I have since read that Huma and Anthony have separated, possibly over another sex scandal that happened last year.  Now if only Huma could run for office, I think she’d win in a landslide.

The blogging experience

It’s been an interesting experience blogging.  It’s an exercise in discipline and arranging thoughts.  Since I’ve finally picked a lane and decided not to promote this blog as originally planned, I don’t see the point  of typing  when I can easily just use pen and paper to keep track of my thoughts.  So if you stumbled in here and read this blog, thank you.    Now if you will excuse me I have a movie to watch.

Tangled (2010)

Re watched: 2/11/2017

Watched with: Ken, Andrew & Belle

Family movie night, and it was Belle’s pick.  Belle picking consists of putting five movies on the floor and waiting for her to hand one to you.  If Frozen is out, she will pick it 100% of the time.  With this one we pushed for Tangled because of the tv series coming out and because Ken had never seen it.

I love this movie, it is a firm three on my list of favorite Disney movies, behind Lady & the tramp and Beauty and the Beast.  The first time I watched Tangled I watched with Andrew and my mother and all three of us loved it.  That is basically hard to find.  My mother really identifies with Mother Gothel although I can assure you I have never been mistreated or locked in a tower.  Mother Gothel is awful, straight up ruthless so I have no idea why mother is so pro Gothel.

I love the message of following your dreams and discovering the world, no matter how scary that is.  Aren’t we all scared of the unknown?  Rapunzel is played by Mandy Moore, and her voice brings Rapunzel to life beautifully.   Her love interest is Flynn Rider, played by Zachary Levi.  What’s that saying?  He’s easy to love, but hard to hold.  That’s not entirely accurate but it pops into my head when I think of Flynn.  But not when I think of Eugene (wink)  My son is  fan of Maximus the horse, who tracks like a dog.  And I heart Pascal.  Pascal is one of the best animal sidekicks Disney has given us.  He’s cute and helpful.  And Rapunzel needs him, he is all she’s got in that tower.

The road to look at the lanterns takes her to a pub full of criminals.  And she befriends them!  She goes into town and she dances in the street!  Rapunzel is fearless, and I wish I could be more like her.  She follows her heart and just gives the best of herself.  Her heart is open and instead of changing, she changes everyone around her for the better.

An American in Paris (1951)

Re watched: 2/11/2017

It has been a very long time since I’ve watched this movie.  In fact I could only remember the musical numbers.  When I was little I danced, tap and jazz.  I watched a lot of the old musicals during this time.  I wanted to be Ruby Keeler, I wanted to marry Gene Kelly. I was inspired to watch a Gene Kelly movie (that wasn’t Singin’ in the rain) because someone recently told me she “couldn’t stand Gene Kelly” .  Those are just fighting words.

This movie centers around three struggling artists in Paris.  There is a painter (Gene Kelly), a singer and a pianist.  Two of them fall for the same girl.  There is another woman who wants to be a sugar mama.  That is basically the plot.  There is not a lot of plot, nor is there a lot of chemistry between Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron.  But all of this is kind of secondary to the dancing.  There is so much dancing.  There is a very long ballet segment, after researching it, it goes on for 17 minutes, ttok a month to film and cost half a million dollars!

Gene Kelly is an amazing dancer.  You want to look at his feet but you end up looking at his face because his smile is so warm.  Swoon!  My favorite part is when he sings I got rhythm with some local children.  He is so charming.  I also really enjoyed the opening when they show his apartment and how he utilizes space, the bed is on a pulley and he raises it up when he gets up so he can move about the room.  To me this is just the movie magic of the era.  It’s simple and possibly a throw away scene but it’s perfect.

 

Tinkerbell (2008)

Watched: 2/10/2017

Watched with: Belle

Girls night in!  Just me and my little lady.  Belle picked this one, although her interest was only reserved for certain aspects of this movie, not the whole thing.  She seemed to really like Cheese the mouse and when there was a lot of pixie dust sparkling.

This is the origin story of Tinkerbell.  Every time a baby laughs for the first time a fairy is born and then that little fairy goes to pixie hollow.  At pixie hollow the fairy gets their wings and discovers what their talent will be.  There are animal fairies, flower fairies, water fairies and more.  Tinkerbell is of course destined to be a tinker fairy.  Tinker fairies build things and fix things.  Most of this story has to do with all the fairies working together to prepare for the transition from winter to spring.  Changing seasons is a done by the fairies, who knew!

Tinkerbell doesn’t want to be  tinker fairy, she thinks it’s boring and useless.  She sets out with the help of her friends to become a different type of fairy but it just doesn’t work.  She has to believe in what she is supposed to do.

This is just a cute little movie about accepting who you are, and doing the best you can.  I love the movies in the Tinkerbell series.  I watched them with my son for years and he does in enjoy them too.  There are boy fairies in pixie hollow too!  Now we can all watch these together.

The Lady in the Van (2015)

Watched: 2/10/2017

I would watch anything with Dame Maggie Smith in it, she is a delight.  Whether being an unsung hero in Harry Potter or zapping people with her wit in Downton, she is superb.  In this movie she plays Mary Shepard, a homeless woman who lives in a van and somehow manages to get an author named Alan Bennett to allow her to park her van in his driveway.  The arrangement was meant to be for three-months, but in fact went on for 15 years.  This is also a true story, that Alan Bennett published.

Miss Shepard is a menace to the street she lives on.  She yells at children, pretty much everyone at some point mentions how much she smells.  It’s hard o see our beloved Maggie Smith in this manner.  When she is forced to move off the street, she moves in the driveway.  She is a pain in the ass but Alan Bennett somehow allows her to stay.  While dealing with Miss Shepard, he is also dealing with his mothers declining heath and the two women mirror each other.  He also interacts with himself, talking to himself, it is literally shown in most scenes there are two Alan Bennett’s present interacting with each other.

Miss Shepard has had some terrible things happen to her in the past which shapes why she is the lady the in the van.  These things come to light as Alan investigates his friend.  There are some cameos by some familiar faces.  James Corden has a 20 second scene and I waited for him to come back but he didn’t unfortunately.  Maggie Smith is just so lovely even when she’s being a pistol.  I am going to try to find the book now to better understand this amazing relationship.

Lion (2016)

Watched: 2/9/2017

Watched with: Janine

The fact this movie is based on a true story blows my mind.  It is such a remarkable story it seems that someone could have imagined it.  It is incredibly inspiring and at times, down right magical.

This movie tells the story of Saroo, a five-year old boy who gets lost and mistakenly travels 1600 kilometers away from his phone.  He is later adopted by an Australian couple and when  he gets older he yearns to understand what happened and where he came from.  Oh and to find his mum.

Young Saroo is played by Sunny Pawar.  This kid is just adorable and a very good actor.  He seems wise beyond his years.  Young Saroo manages to live on his own for months in Calcutta where no one speaks his native language.  When Saroo is older he is played by Dev Patel.  I think he conveys the emotions of a man consumed with finding information beautifully.  You also get the idea that Saroo was happy and grew up with an amazing set of adoptive parents.  While at a party he sees some indian food that triggers his memories of his birth place.  It’s so realistic to me, that something so inconsequential can trigger that in someone.  He then becomes obsessed with finding the village he came from.  It takes him years.  The ending is very emotional, the true impact coming right before the credits.

I loved this film.  It seems like a fantasy but the fact that it is real makes it more special.  It’s about opening your heart to possibilities.  How remarkable that during these crazy times a small little indian boy can teach us about strength and perseverance.