Shameless S9 E10

TV

Los Diablos!

Frank dives into becoming the Hobo Loco spokesman and quickly discovers that it’s not going to be easy as he thought. A lot more people show up to the audition and one man clearly has the same resume that he does. They compare life stories and have mutual respect for each other until the guy tries to ride Frank’s back to the finish line. With 6 possible babies on the way, Frank ain’t sharing anything and goes into full skullduggery mode to get through round 2 of a week-long elimination.

Speaking of those 6 babies, Ingrid continues to use the Gallagher home as shelter and she spends a lot of time with Deb. Deb is quick to point out that if she’s going to stay she’s got to pay her share of the bills (and she also reassures her that Frank is not going to be there for her or however many kids she has). Ingrid’s ex-husband shows up and tries to get to her to leave with him to get her back to sanity. It doesn’t go well, to the point where the fertility doctor chases Ingrid around the house. In the panic, Deb gets stuck under the house while doing some homeowner maintenance and when Kelly comes to her rescue, that newfound lesbian-curious light flicks back on. It’s gonna get weird. Kelly doesn’t notice anything (it was a subtle look from Deb) and Carl wasn’t around to see it because he was getting shaken down at his new job at the local crab shack. Carl’s also clueless about his (much older) boss’ advances on him, which were pretty hard to miss. It’s gonna get weird.

Much to my delight, Tami and Lip are getting closer. She makes the initial move to boot, which is very telling. Lip tags along to volunteer at a old folks home and when they come home after a day of bonding, Xan is waiting for Lip on the stoop. Her mother ditched her again. Lip is furious and Tami jumps in with both feet, taking the more motherly approach to the situation. It’s a tremendous show of character, something I never saw in her until now. God I hope this works between them. Lip could use some legit stability and maturation. That goes for Tami too, but we just met her so Lip has a more storied past to us.

Fiona has another rough go at work. This time she’s counting out the registers after the night shift and she leaves the money out to get another drink from the back. When she comes back, three shady guys are waiting for her and they leave when the cook comes out with a knife. Sketched out, she closes the place (the diner is 24 hours) and sleeps in one of the booths. When Eliza comes in for the morning shift, she finds everyone waiting outside and they find Fiona inside. It’s another mark on her record. It freaks Fiona out and she realizes how sloppy she’s getting. She throws out the remaining booze in the house, takes the time to get herself together and goes back to work only to get fired. Fiona’s business partner has had enough with Fiona’s behavior over the past few months and doesn’t believe Fiona’s pleas of getting her life back together. This sends Fiona back to the booze and she’s surly as ever. Deb is quick to point out that she needs to get a job.

Liam gets a job by creating his own. He and his bodyguard friend open a lemonade stand down the block in front of one of the neighborhood’s most recent residents (read: gentrification). She calls the cops on the police, they are shut down and when Fiona finds out it is time for Southside justice. She rallies the neighborhood for a block party in front of the lady’s house. Fiona, already hopped up from being fired takes it too far and pops the woman right in the face. Right when the police show up no less. She makes an effort to flee but doesn’t get to far. The last we see her is in the back of a squad car.

Finally, Kev’s dreams of a big family are briefly met. They track down Santiago’s sister who is scheduled to come stay with them. Kev is stroked and he dresses up Santiago just like him in an effort to Americanize Santiago. The twins aren’t having it, they are not a fan of this random kid showing up and stealing their spotlight. So for them, it’s great when the news breaks that Santiago’s dad was deported so he and his sister have to follow him out of the country. With this chapter closed will Kev and V just move on and try for another adoption?

Ying and Yang Movie Reviews: Hereditary and Paddington 2

Movies

Hereditary- I heard this was a good horror movie and avoided any detail about it so I got to watch it fresh. This is really impressive right from the start and the slide into madness is one wild ride.

The movie starts at a funeral. Annie’s mother has passed and with just a few carefully chosen sentences in the eulogy that veil her true feelings about her mother, we get the idea that the world is a better place without this woman.

This is Ari Aster’s first feature length movie and let me just say this guy knows how to write and direct. Perfectly paced and expertly framed, this story immediately establishes that something is off with this family and the sense of dread mounts from there. We learn about how Annie’s childhood scarred her for life, to the point where Annie kept her first child, Peter, away from her for years. When her daughter Charlie was born, her mother managed to maneuver her way in and became close to Charlie. Annie never liked that and as the movie progresses we find that grandma had been up to no good.

Aster puts the camera wherever he can to effectively keep the audience on their toes. This man does not simply set up a camera in front of two talking people and lets things play out. Scrumptious cinematography also helps make forboding and disturbing scenes pop off the screen. One of my favorite design choices matches Annie’s job. In her art studio in the home. she makes miniature models of buildings and scenes, essentially professional dioramas. Her job doubles as a therapeutic outlet which plays a role in the story. There’s one shot that starts on the bedroom of the miniature of their home that Annie has made and it transitions directly into a scene in the actual house (something director Wes Anderson loves to do). After that, you can see it in the set design. Everything is super clean, everything at 90 degree angles with the furniture placed far apart. It’s hard to tell if Annie made the model based on her home or if it was the other way around.

It’s the subtle details that show a tremendous amount of care and thought went into this project and that makes it stand out more. Plus, Toni Collette puts in a hell of a performance as Annie (and I saw that without downplaying the rest of the fantastic cast).

Paddington 2- This might be the most adorable movie I’ve ever seen. When it was released in 2017 it got amazing reviews and I agree with the glowing praise. This is the perfect movie for children and adults. It so well made, every single minute has purpose and heart.

Paddington Bear is happily living with the Brown family in London. His Aunt Lucy’s birthday is coming up and he finds the perfect present for her, a pop up book about London. The problem is it’s a expensive so he works to save up the money but then the book is stolen which makes a whole world of trouble for Paddington.

Paddington is one of the sweetest, warmest, and sincere characters put on film. He’s a phenomenal role model as he’s kind, thoughtful, and he always looks at the bright side no matter what. He makes a positive difference to everyone around him and it’s a joy to watch him work.

I didn’t think this movie would be anywhere near as funny as it is and the action sequences are fantastic! During the last one, I thought I was watching a James Bond movie! The direction can be best described as kinetic, it’s so lively and fun. The movie is bright and colorful, the supporting cast is terrific, and the special effects are top notch. I totally bought that Paddington is a living, breathing, walking, talking bear.

I can’t say enough positive things about this creative and touching movie. Absolutely watch it no matter your age or the age of anyone around you.

Shameless S09 E09

TV

BOOOOOOOOOOOONE!

Fiona continues down her rocky road. She’ still mad as hell and isn’t taking any amount of shade from anyone, lest it be real or not. She’s gone from yelling to physically attacking people so that’s a serious slide. Deb is the only one to get into her face right away, demanding the money Fiona owes for rent and utilities. Fiona throws the “I’ve kept you alive for 18 years” card and Deb isn’t having it. Deb rules the roost, forcing Fiona to shower at V’s and locks her out of the house at the end of the episode.

Lip meets Boone, Tami’s..fiance? Sort of? Boone has it in his future but Tami hasn’t committed and Lip is just finding out about this guy. Tami’s sister Corey is quick to swoop in on Lip and they do hook up, which makes Lip and Tami have the talk about where (and what) their relationship is. They’ve never committed to being monogamous but this event bothers them both, Lip especially. Tami is real aloof about it until Lip confronts her, asking why leading on Boone while he’s been away doesn’t bother her. It’s a legit question because when it comes to relationships, she seems not to care about anyone’s feelings. It’s all impulse, scorched Earth, hook ups. She’s keeping her past close to her chest and this might be the first layer we see her peel back.

Frank and Ingrid find out that all of her eggs have been successfully fertalized. All 6 of them. Their doctor tells them they can safely (and legally) keep 3 and Ingrid becomes hellbent on keeping them all, health and ethics be damned. Frank is in a pickle no matter what, 6 or 3, that’s a ton of babies on no income. He’s already failed 6 kids. When the kids find out with Ingrid right there, classic stuff. Fiona cracks up right away and they go around the room saying how borked they are. For the first time Ingrid looks worried but tosses the feeling aside. So Frank needs to figure out his next hustle pretty quick so he hits the streets. When he goes to The Alibi and finds out about the Loco Hobo Man competition, Frank may have found his designer product. The stuff is basically paint thinner but he thinks it’s great. Fifty grand to push this garbage is right down his alley. I laughed out loud at the first scene when the marketing company is making the pitch for this stuff and one of the slides is Frank climbing out of a dumpster.

With Ingrid hiding out at the Gallagher house from the doctor, she meets Carl’s girlfriend at just the right time, when she could use some motherly advice. Kelly doesn’t know what to do with her life. She’s been told what to do and when to do it by her father (who she calls The General) for her entire life. When she met Carl, her rebellion was under way but she took it to a new level with Carl. She’d spend as much time as she could with him, ditching her responsibilities, stealing stuff, whatever kind of mischief they could get up to. For the first time in a long time she was having fun. Then her dad finds out about it all puts his foot down, tries to pay off Carl to leave her, and that makes it worse. Ingrid asks Carl and Kelly to make a vision board, a graphic representation of their lives and dreams. Carl makes one quickly and Kelly is part of it. Kelly comes with basically nothing and admits that she doesn’t have a future in mind for herself. She’s aimless because she hasn’t thought for herself. 17 is very young to have a midlife crisis. Ingrid tells her it’s time she takes the power back and Kelly drags Carl along to confront her father. It goes well.

Liam shows up! When Deb hands out the monthly fee to everyone to pay up, Liam is on the list too. A 9 year old needs to come up with $70 and he doesn’t know how to. Luckily he’s pretty good at speaking Spanish and Santiago helps him out. They come up with a funny making scheme but he falls short of the full amount and Deb won’t let him back in the house. He camps out on the porch where he runs into Fiona, fresh from stumbling home after throwing Ford’s tools that she stole through the windows in his house. With another bad day in the books, she sits down next to him and asks him to never hurt women when he’s older. In a cute and touching dialog, the young Liam agrees. Deb, who doesn’t have a whole heart of ice, lets them in for the night.

The NHL: Half Season Report

NY Rangers

We are at the All Star Break so that means the 2018-2019 season is half way over (technically, 7 games ago as 48 have been played…some teams are at 52). Let’s look at the standings and get to the New York Rangers. This is the Top 16*

*Carolina is tied with Buffalo, at 54 points, they are just outside of the Wildcard for the East. Not shown is Dallas and Colorado who are tied at 52 points, they are currently the wild cards for the west. Vancouver also has 52 but has more games played than

Now here is just the east division.

So let’s state the obvious, the Rangers are bad. There’s no more holding out hope. They are much better than they’re record shows. the potential is there but they struggle to play as a team. See those top teams? They play as a team (Tampa Bay’s record is obscene). If the Rangers consistently played as a team. they’d be around 56 points right now.

I don’t know what it is. New coach, rookie players who have a long way to go, vets who have bad habits from years of ineffective coaching and managment? Everything that has plagued this team since 2014-15, bad passing, face-offs, special teams, penalty killing, sloppy defense, stupid penalties and plays that turn into turnovers, are all still there. We don’t have consistent goal scorers, the droughts come in huge waves and the brain dead penalties just make everything more difficult. It makes everyone on the ice have to work harder and ruins any kind of positive momentum.

This is a rebuilding year. One of many, everyone knows that. It would have been a miracle to have made a championship team in one trade session and off-season. What we have is a team that is still missing pieces and most likely some drastic trades are coming by the deadline in February. Hayes and Zuccarello are on the top of the list and if some huge deal is dangled in front of management, Kreider with out a doubt in that group. All three of them are fan favorites and would be a huge morale loss (and we do need vets to lead the team). Plus, I think it would be crazy to do another full fire sale. There’s no point in trading already great players with the hope of hitting it big in the draft. That is a huge gamble.

When the team plays together, they are a ton of fun to watch. I’m saying this on the runners high of 3 wins in a row but any kind of win streak is rare. Zucc has had a really off season and it hasn’t been until the last 2 weeks where the professional has shown up. He’s way more active, way more aggressive and that leads to plays coming together.

Even if the Rangers have a better second half of a season, I don’t think they’re a playoff team. Getting into a wildcard spot would mean going up against Tampa Bay or Washington and that would be a slaughter. It’s not worth it.

Looking around, Vegas and Pittsburg had terrible starts and turned around their season, something we hoped the Rangers would do. The Islanders have hit their stride with their new coach (it’s insane Washington didn’t want to pay him what he wanted and deserves), they are a major threat. And look at Buffalo! They have been terrible forever and this season is a total turn around. They came out on fire, cooled off, get good results but the East division is so monsterous in talent that they are on the edge of the playoffs. Considering how many goals they score it’s surprising they aren’t in right now.

Still a lot to go but the front runners are very clear (look at Calgary and Toronto! It’s been a long time since Canadian teams have done so well). Who ends up in the wildcard slots should be interesting. The closer the trade line comes up the bigger moves we’ll see league wide.

Shameless S09 E08

TV

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Alibi

I hope Shameless never takes a break like this again, it’s annoying to get taken out of the flow of the season. We’re all back together at least so let’s get to it.

I hate seeing Fiona down in the dumps. I want to see her happy and making progress and when she spirals it’s a horror show. Finding out about Ford and his marriage put all sorts of weight on her and she’s alone again. No one deals with a breakup well but her career got turned inside out the same time. In this episode, we find out that the deal she made to save herself from her apartment building foreclosure (and the massive loans she had to finance it) was a lie (something Ford warned her about when he found out who she’d be working with). The apartment building is getting leveled and the condos going up are going to be $400k+ per unit. The guy is going to make a fortune and she’s left with nothing. And Ford was right. So she’s angry and turns to alcohol. She’s thrown off all her responsibilities and it’s up to Deb to turn water into wine to pay all the outstanding bills on the house. It’s a small fortune as she stopped paying utilities 2 months ago. Fiona is lashing out at everyone and is an absolute monster at Paty’s. Her staff notices she’s acting weird but hasn’t put everything together yet (she looks terrible so that’s hard to get around). Fiona needs this business as it’s her only income now She’s letting restocking slide and chasing customers away. While her staff is holding the fort so far, belligerent Fiona is a problem.

With Deb taking over as the matriarch (Liam is nowhere to be seen btw) both Lip and Carl in the throws of their new relationships. Carl and Kelly are running around thick as (literal) thieves goofing off, scamming people and more or less have a grand old time. When Deb calls for the troops to rally to pay the bills, Carl is quick to answer. Lip and Ingrid are in the ‘sex is great but what are we doing’ phase. She hates staying at the house and her roommates are a pain so she wants them to get their own place. That’s a big step for Lip and he doesn’t take kindly to her throwing her weight around in a relationship this is little more than friends with benefits. While she does have valid points, Gallagher’s don’t take well to others telling them how to live.

And you better believe Frank is still head over heals for Ingrid. She loves him so much that she tells him she’s always wanted a kid, when she brings him to the office where her frozen eggs are. Her husband said no to kids (for obvious mental health reasons) but Frank is more than happy to make that happen. Except he’s sterile. And the most shameless moment of the episode goes to Frank. He tricks Carl into giving him a sperm sample and those swimmers are more than healthy enough to be used in the fertalization process.

Kevin and V are close to adopting a child (a son per Kevin’s request) and they give up on getting an infant because the weight is so long. With all the paperwork and wellness checks past, they meet 12 year old Santiago and Kev is stoked. They soon find out he isn’t an orphan, he came to the US with his father and sister for asylum and were separated. He doesn’t know where they are and this throws their entire family plan off track.

And, Action!

Movies

I have a three hit combo for you today.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado- Sicario hit theatres in 2015 and took everyone by surprise, a terrific film that wasn’t on the radar for many people. Three years later and we get a follow up that builds on the best parts of the original.

The best parts are Benicio Del Toro as Alejandro and Josh Brolin as Matt. Soldado picks up not long after the first film with Alejandro and Matt still working on the same side. Alejandro is still haunted and enraged at the murder of his family and Matt’s job in stopping the drug war at the southern border is still far from over. With a new plan to whip rival cartels into a war, both Alejandro and Matt see value in making it happen: further revenge and duty. When the plan doesn’t work Alejandro and Matt are split in what they should do. They choose sides and come to their own realizations with what they’ve become and where they should go from here.

Another impressive movie from this team and I think it stands as a great example of what sequels should strive for. It’s not pinned down to more of the same but what does this do to our characters? Great writing, Del Toro and Brolin are as good as ever and they make both sides of the coin compelling. Taught action, great pacing, and a satisfying ending. Highly recommended but you must watch the first movie if you haven’t already.

Mandy- It’s 1983 in the Pacific Northwest and Nic Cage goes berzerk to get revenge on the cult that murders his girlfriend. If that sentence gets your interest, that’s probably all you need to read. This is a love it or hate it flick and I’m not exactly sure where I fall with it. It’s got its redeeming qualities but I know I’ll never watch it again.

This is a slow burn, 70s cinema style. It takes almost an hour for the pivot point of the story to happen and then it’s pretty much all carnage from there to the end. There’s not much to it, just revenge. Red (Nic Cage) and Mandy’s (Andrea Riseborough) relationship is established as a great one and Brother Swan and his followers are established as complete nutters. Mandy is killed in front of Red and Nic Cage gets to show off his commitment to freak out on camera (he goes all out in his underwear on the toilet if you are curious). And cue the gore.

The admirable part of Mandy is the effort it took the filmmakers to make this movie look the way it does. It’s a total throw back to the 70s. Hallucanation like scenes bathed in red light and the surreal, a grimey film grain we never see anymore, long takes with no hyper fast editing. Visually I found it fascinating to watch but story wise it leaves a lot to desire. I think this one is for the film nerds and gore hounds.

The Predator- I want to like this. It’s so goofy and dumb in all the wrong ways. This movie is considered the 4th in the franchise, the Alien vs Predator movies are ignored. The first is an absolute classic, I like 2 a lot (I appreciate taking it to the ‘concrete jungle’) and I think Predators (2010) has a lot going for it but clearly behind the other two. We have a new worst movie (I’m not including the AvP movies in this equation).

Writer/Director Shane Black is a real hit or miss creator for me. His name is attached to some great stuff but he makes ponderous story choices. I think he might put action before all else and when he comes up with a scene, its whatever goes to get to it.

What I did like. There is a sense of fun to the movie. The misfit gang of characters can be endearing and it throws back to the ragtag action movies of the 80s that so many of us grew up on. Here are some guys (and a girl) who are thrown into this crazy blender, watch them work together to try to survive and save the world. Special effects are very good, the Predator looks fantastic. It’s such a cool and iconic alien design it still holds up and all of the changes they made to update it all work. The action is great too. There’s a good amount of it, and the Predator goes for the R rating by cleaving anyone in his way. When a Predator is on a mission, get the hell out of the way or you will be wearing your own butt as a hat. I also like that Olvia Munn’s character was her own woman. She’s got her own goals and she becomes part of the team, a romance angle isn’t shoehorned in there. So that cliche is avoided.

What isn’t avoided: deus ex machina. The mother of all story cliches is not just used but is embraced. Very little happens without a truckload of luck and happenstance. There’s so much I can’t begin to scratch the surface so I won’t try. And then we have all of the “Wait, what? Really?’ plot devices that come up. The main character, Quinn, his son Rory (12 years old maybe) is the focal point of the movie. He’s autistic and at the start they clearly and repeatedly want you to know that he’s incredibly smart. It goes way beyond intelligence though, the level of absurdity means this kid has superpowers. He somehow figures out the Predator language in like 2 hours by messing around with the Predator’s equipment. He figures out how the OS of this alien tech, with all of these completely foreign symbols, works. It controls all sorts of stuff but he doesn’t know a blaster is in the helmet until it blows up a house. At one point he activates the force field on the Predator ship by using a control panel as he slides past it at like 20 miles an hour. How did he know that panel was there, what buttons were on it, that you could even do that from there? He clearly jumps down there to get to that panel and just dragging your entire hand across it makes the force field turn on? Autism is so next level that space aliens want to collect him? At the end the kid is a government employee all of a sudden! There are tons of unexplained things that the movie just wants you to go along with.

This is such a weird movie and it went through major reshoots so I can’t even imagine what the first cut was like. Predator deserves better.


The Darkest Winter Update 15

The Darkest Winter

Good news everybody! Weeks ago I submitted a promo the ID10T podcast for The Darkest Winter. I’ve been behind on listening to the podcast and caught up today. The January 9th, 2019 podcast with Andrea Savage has my ad in it!

This is the biggest advertising reach I’ve received for The Darkest Winter by a country mile! This is so exciting, I nearly fell over when I heard it.

Chris Hardwick read almost the entire email I sent to him word for word but he left out my last name and website! I hope that doesn’t cut out my discovery but this is mega!

You can find the ID10T podcast with Chris Hardwick on every service that hosts podcasts! Here it is on Spotify!


Annihilation (2018)

Movies

Something crash lands into a lighthouse located in the United States. A strange phenomenon begins to emanate from the landing site, a sort of bubble or force field. The US government quickly moves in and quarantines the area. Luckily, the site is easy to keep secret as it’s in a rather remote and unpopulated area. The bubble, deemed The Shimmer, proves to be impossible to research because anything sent in never comes out, even data transmissions. It’s a total mystery as to what’s in or going on in there. The Shimmer is expanding and when a military team disappears inside, the government becomes very worried that time is running out. Then, a year after the last human expedition went into The Shimmer, one of the men appears at his home, greeting his wife, Lena, who thought he was dead. His mission was a total secret, he never told her where he was going and she never got an answer from his superiors. He immediately becomes ill and during the trip to the hospital, the ambulance is pulled over by armed guards and Lena wakes up isolated in some kind of facility. It is here where she finds out about the threat and she volunteers to go into The Shimmer with four other female scientists in a final effort to solve the mystery.

The terrific Alex Garland directed and adapted the book of the same name into this wild ride which I consider one of the genre’s best. Despite the large premise of the story, Annihilation has its eyes focused on relationships.

This movie is cool in many ways. It’s an alien invasion movie but it’s not. It’s an action movie and it’s not. It’s just as beautiful as it is horrific. Anchored by Natalie Portman, the cast is very strong. Movies led by an all female cast are pretty rare still, especially one where they are in a high stakes military mission so this changes the perspective quite a bit.

I felt like the pacing was pretty much perfect as just enough info is given at the start and by going with the women into the unknown, picking up on the trail from the doomed team before them, makes all of their discoveries and battles taught and intriguing. Why is Lena doing this, why are any of them going in there when they know the odds are so stacked against them? That’s part of the journey. The other is what’s at the lighthouse? Both are tough questions to answer in new and interesting ways and the answers shown are the biggest reasons why I liked this so much.

Aside from the story, Annihilation is a visual feast. Inside The Shimmer, our world is changing. It’s subtle at first, little things are different and then the mutations get bigger and more extreme. There’s a really cool visual design throughout that’s hard to describe. It’s like nature being deconstructed and reconstructed, familiar and foreign at the same time. Many times it looks like a painting come to life.

This movie is a real head trip so I’m hesitant to give many details up. It’s important to see each element presented in the order the movie shows you. And a lot of is a surprise so that’s half of the fun. It all stacks up to create a thought-provoking sci-fi movie with a great ending. We don’t get many of those.

The Darkest Winter Update 14

The Darkest Winter

On Tuesday I went to the North Haledon library to talk to the book club about my novel, The Darkest Winter.

This is the first time I’ve done an appearance for my work and as far as firsts go, I couldn’t ask for a better experience. Susan, the director of the library is a fantastic host and her patrons clearly love all of her hard work. There were eight women in attendance, a great turnout considering the bad weather.

So what was it like? The first thing that jumped out to me was all of the copies of The Darkest Winter on the tables in the section of the library we used. I got a rush of adrenalin when I saw them. Tangible proof that my book is out in the public and people are reading it. I got an incredible feeling of accomplishment from that.

Better yet, everyone liked my book! If that doesn’t get your ego to perk up, nothing will! I started off by giving the background of how I came up with the story, sitting cold, in the dark, in my bedroom on the third night of Hurricane Sandy. I segued to making Tim’s route across the country and my desire to show various people and communities throughout his whole journey. They loved the scenarios, action sequences, and most importantly my characters. I got a lot of compliments for how I wrote Tim’s apartment complex coming together.

That turned into discussions about humanity, how we see, regard, and treat each other. We talked quite a bit about our nation’s infrastructure, which is a major part of the book. I think the most questions came from that (along the lines of, would help take that long to happen) and that allowed me to discuss the finer details of my research that didn’t make it into the text.

The most fascinating and pleasing part of the afternoon was that just about everyone related a part–or multiple parts–of my story to their own lives. The characters I created reminded them of people from their lives and they shared stories of their own. It was so cool and it was something I didn’t expect to happen.

The event quickly turned from me doing a speaking engagement to having a discussion. I don’t think I made that happen, it organically turned into that. Now on reflection, I can think of something I want to improve.

I need to stop myself from rambling. I know this story inside and out, I’m eager to talk about it with interested people, so I can go on and on. I need to prepare more concise answers (many old questions from my writers’ group came up) I need to open it up to discussion sooner and more frequently. I did realize what I was doing at least and stopped myself a few times. Becoming aware of others (changing) body language is a good way to gauge their interest. Also, there’s a certain feeling in the air when an audience is ready to move along. I need to be more cognizant of these things in the future.

Another great experience with The Darkest Winter and I now know I have quite a few people looking forward to a sequel or two.

Lady Bird

Movies

Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson is ready to leave Sacramento, California behind. She’s in her senior year of high school and she wants nothing more than to leave the west coast. New York City is her goal, so applying to schools is the start of her escape plan. Lady Bird is very sure of herself but as the year goes on, she experiences a world of changes. The Lady Bird at the start of the movie is a different woman from the one at the end.

Coming of age movies are one of my favorites and Lady Bird is one of the best I’ve seen in a while. Saoirse Ronan is a tremendous actor and she brings the conflicted Lady Bird to life. A concoction of dreams, fears, low-self esteem, regret, loyalty, angst, and anger are constantly mixing together in her mind. She’s a sweet girl who’s sure she knows what she wants (in leaving home at least) and inadvertently steps on a lot of toes in the process. Her greatest flaw is probably when she acts without thinking of anyone but herself. She says things to others as a joke and when it blows back onto her, she has to scramble to apologize. She also lies a lot in order to fit in with others, who she thinks she wants to be like the most. That brings her trouble too.

Lady Bird is a great character as she is believably flawed. She’s not a bad person, she just often sticks her foot into her mouth. As a teenager, she thinks she knows everything, what’s right for her at every turn but in reality, she has a lot of growing up to do. Her father is a teddy bear of a human being where her mother is the authority. Laurie Metcalf is another tremendous actor and her chemistry with Saoirse is largely why the movie works so well Lady Bird’s best friend Julie is also a very important part of the story, like the footbridge between adult and childhood. Lady Bird constantly butts heads with her mother, mostly being catty to each other but thee are a few instances where things get real and they have it out. Her mother is a hard ass for sure, she can be overbearing to the point of suffocation, but Lady Bird does need someone to call her out on her nonsense when it flares up.

While a lot happens in the movie (romantic relationships, social climbing, applying to colleges) the story revolves around how Lady Bird sees herself and wants to become much more. Growing up in a lower income home skews her perspective. She lives next door to a much more affluent part of town, goes to school with kids from that area, and she wants nothing more than to live that life that she’s convinced is better in every way. Much of her motivation to leave home comes from this, she’s ashamed of where she’s from and how her family lives.

Lady Bird lies to try and get a leg up and fit in, dumps her best friend to hang out with the cool kids, dates the popular boy and finds out that’s not what she expected at all. She is at the pivotal time where she’s finding out who she is and what she stands for. Her future is totally up in the air and for the first time, she’s becoming aware that all the decisions she makes now have big repercussions. She also comes to realize that her home and her family–what she’s “ashamed” of–is way more valuable than she realized.

It’s Lady Bird’s relationships with others that I found the most compelling and enduring. How she acts and handles each group: her parents, her adopted brother and his girlfriend, her boyfriends, her new best friend Jenna, and her true ride or die friend, Julie. It’s these relationships that I thought of the most once the credits rolled. The end is pretty abrupt when it happens but I think it’s the perfect choice on reflection.

We get to follow Lady Bird through the most important year of her young life so far. We know her goal right from the start and the question is always will she be able to do it? She goes through a lot in that year, we blast through it in about 90 minutes and more than just her life changes in that time. It’s not a total metamorphosis of course, as a year can contain only so much. For example, she makes a stupid decision when she’s arguing with her mother in the car in the first scene and at the end, she makes another painful mistake. But she’s learning. When the movie cuts from Lady Bird that final time, her journey for that part of her life is over. Everything after that is brand new territory.

2018 Finale

Life, NY Rangers, The Darkest Winter

We made it another year everybody! It’s been a weird one.

I achieved my big goal, to become a published author. The Darkest Winter became available to the public in September and the response has been all positive. It was a mountain of work but the satisfaction in getting it done, and done well, makes it worth it. I learned a lot, have a lot more to learn, I’ll do some things differently, and I’ll take that all with me into 2019. I’m more or less ready to move on from TDW, new stories need my attention. I have a speaking engagement on January 8th, so around that time I’ll probably write my final pure TDW update.

I have some ideas but nothing tangable has come from it yet. Two sequels to TDW and a original idea. The new idea is most intreging to me, it’s got the most potential I think (translation: the idea interests me the most right now) so I’ll probably work on that exclusively to see if I can turn it into an actual story that works (it’s ambitious).

Aside from that, I’m ready for 2019. I think this year has been weird for all of us and we all just want things to get better from here. Also, I’d like the New York Rangers to stop shooting themselves in the foot all the time so they can show everyone they are competitive.

Take care yourself and each other. Talk to you again soon.

Three Piece Movie Combo

Movies, Netflix Original

It’s a mix of genres for this post. I’ll start off with the biggest title.

Bird Box

This one is getting a lot of attention online. As a Netflix exclusive that stars Sandra Bullock, that’s not too surprising. Thriller/horror movies get a lot of buzz these days so hopes were high for this book translation. Bullock plays Malorie, a woman on her own who is expecting her first child in a few months. One day an epidemic breaks out, some kind of creature that compels people to commit suicide when they see it. These beings quickly devastates the world population and as the movie jumps from past to present, the invasion continues for 5 years with no reprieve.

I had high hopes going into this and it was more or less a let down at every turn. It was surprisingly boring which was really weird considering the premise. First and foremost, every character comes off as a character, not a real person. Everyone clearly has their typecast role and no one deviates from it. Bullock does a fine job with her acting, but it’s not enough to save the movie. When you first meet her character, she’s obnoxious and vapid, so I never connected with her. Despite being the heroine and doing truly heroic things at times, I didn’t care what happened to her.

The film is very conservative in its horror too as it never dares to show anything that intense or gruesome. A lot happens off camera. The creatures are seemingly ethereal, they can’t interact with solid objects (can’t open doors, break things) so the basic survival method is, cover the windows and stay inside. That’s not too interesting. The interest would be survival in such conditions and the stress it puts on the people who are together. Again, that all falls rather flat as while there is in-fighting, it never seems like a threat. Running out of resources never felt like a problem. While scenarios are made to throw chaos and surprises at you, all of it is predictable so again, there’s no weight to it. The creatures are shown as little more than a shadow so that’s disappointing as well.

The ending felt all wrong too as you watched someone being chased basically the entire time get a “don’t worry, it’s cool here” break. The whole thing just isn’t interesting. A few days ago I read a theory that the movie is a metaphor for racism (if you stick your head in the sand, racism doesn’t exist because you can’t see it) which is way more interesting and thought provoking. Considering how paper thin the entire movie is, I don’t think that idea crossed anyone’s mind in the making of this.

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle

Hollywood tends to run with a hive mind. A theme or genre becomes the thing to do and similar projects get worked on at different studios. In this case, it’s the Jungle Book. Disney got their reboot/re-imagining out first to great fan fair. This version, directed by Andy Serkis, took longer and ended up not getting a theatrical release. Enter the Netflix pick-up crew.

I liked Jon Favreau’s take. It was a gorgeous movie at times and it played it more or less safe in the Disney mold. Mowgli is a bit more grounded, certainly less bombastic. I might even like it a bit more as I thought Jungle Book dragged on for too long. I definitely felt more of a connection with this version of the Mowgli character. You rarely leave his side and his story arc, being orphaned and raised by wolves, accepted on the fringes but still very much alone, to be very compelling. A kid trying to fit in a world he doesn’t exactly fit into and being shoved into another world he wants no part in. I really liked watching his guardians Bagheera and Baloo do their best for him, to the point where they both fight over his well being. When Mowgli gets cast out of the pack, I felt heartbroken over it. Then, when he interacts with people for the first time, it’s horrible but he’s soon shown compassion and there’s an interesting angle there about being accepted. Because he looks like everyone else for the first time in his life there’s is a level of basic need and comfort there.

In time he sees the ugly side of humanity and that forces Mowgli to make up his own mind about what family means to him and what his purpose in life is. Shere Kahn is kept as a better menace in this one too (JB veers off to the monkey king for a while with a massive action sequence, one of the scenes I think Mowgli does better) and I really liked Mowgli’s relationship with Bhoot, which I think is something JB is lacking.

Jungle Book does look better though, it’s much more majestic. The animals in Mowgli look off and it took me a while to figure out why. In the animated and Favreau versions of this story, the animals are romanticized versions of wild animals. They all look healthy and happy. In this version, the animal’s fur is matted with grime, and they are malnourished. They look like they live in a jungle and for the time at least, food isn’t plentiful. You see it most on Baloo, who in the animated version looks like he’s had his fair share of honey (he might have a sharecropping deal with Winnie the Pooh). Serkis Baloo looks like he could use another 150 pounds or so.

A strong ending put the finishing touches on a movie I enjoyed way more than I thought I would.

The Package

It’s important to go into a dumb comedy knowing it’s a dumb comedy. It sets expectations. The title and synopsis of the move make it pretty obvious as to what’s going to happen and the movie delivers (the package) on that. Four teenage friends go on a camping trip and an accident forces the crew to help their friend save his most precious body part.

Produced by the guys who made the show Workaholics and the movie Game Over, Man! you can guess the levels of cursing, situations, and absurdity this movie goes to. It actually goes much father in visuals than Bird Box does which is funny in itself.

I got what I wanted out of this. There are laughs sprinkled throughout with one standout scene that I thought was hilarious. The cast is great and every character gets a backstory and the time to be more than just window dressing. Yes it’s dumb, yes it’s gross, but that’s the goal and I think it’s a well made movie. The escalation of terrible events is done just right and with a 90 minute run-time, it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Watch this instead of Bird Box, you’ll probably get more out of it.