Hi readers! I broke my leg in late March because I'm a klutz! Here's what I watched as I healed:
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Summer of Soul
This documentary, directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, is a joyous celebration of Black music. The film, which just won the Oscar for Best Documentary in March, contains never-before-seen footage of the 1969 Harlem Music Festival--aka "Black Woodstock". Thompson gives us long takes of performances by Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Mahalia Jackson, The Fifth Dimension, and many more, in between interviews with festival goers and musical artists about what the festival meant to them and the importance of Black art.
The film also gives historical context to the festival, and Black music in general, which is helpful for someone like me who is more of a history buff than a music buff.
I can't recommend this excellent documentary enough!
Grade: A
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The Rental
I was pleasantly surprised by this Dave Franco-directed thriller. Two couples--Charlie (Dan Stevens), his wife Michelle (Alison Brie), Charlie's brother Josh (Jeremy Allen White), and his girlfriend Mina (Sheila Vand)--rent a large house overlooking the ocean for a weekend getaway. Mina is suspicious of the host, Taylor (Toby Huss), right off the bat because she believes he is racist (she's middle-eastern). But despite the awkwardness of Taylor handing off the key, the couples get right to partying--in fact, all of them except Michelle take ecstasy the first night.
The next morning, a hungover Mina discovers a tiny camera in the showerhead in one of the bathrooms. This leads to a confrontation with Taylor, culminating in hot-tempered Josh beating Taylor unconscious. As the group scrambles to decide what to do, they descend further into violence and chaos.
The Rental is not exactly award-worthy, but it is fun, especially if you like thrillers that depend of group dynamics which involve people keeping secrets from one another. Definitely good for a night's entertainment.
Grade: B
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Master
Master, directed by Mariama Diallo, follows three Black women at an elite, extremely white, university in the Northeast. Zoe Renee plays Jasmine Moore, a freshmen struggling to fit in with her preppie classmates. Regina Hall play Gail Bishop, a professor and "master" of one of the dorms (I was a little unclear about the role of "master" in this movie. I wasn't sure if Gail was a glorified RA or Dean of Students or what). And Amber Gray plays Liv Beckman, a beloved literature professor going up for tenure.
Master was marketed as a horror movie, but the film is light on supernatural horror. However, it is not light on real-life horror, and contains many instances of microaggressions, macroaggressions, and all manner of cruel and stupid racial snobbery.
I found Master to be a mixed bag. It is beautifully shot and the acting is excellent (Regina Hall is never not great). However, there were so many ideas--too many, in fact, to fill a 90 minute film. The movie wanted to be a ghost story, a witch story, a story about racism in academia, a story about mental health...and it didn't really address any of these stories fully. I felt that the movie would actually have made a very compelling limited series--it needed the time to explore each of the three main characters fully, as well as time to develop the lore around Margret Millet, the witch who supposedly haunts the dorm Jasmine is in, as well as the first Black student at the university who was driven to suicide. 90 minutes is simply not enough to give each of these threads the attention they deserve.
Master is streaming on Prime, and I do recommend it if you like slightly creepy (but not TOO scary) movies, especially those that address racism. But be warned that there are depictions of suicide.
Grade: B-
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The Sound of Music
So, I technically have seen The Sound of Music before, but not for over two decades. I watched this classic film about a governess (Julie Andrews) who brings music and joy back into the house of a widower (Christopher Plummer) in late-1930s Austria when I was suffering a bout of depression. And though the movie is DEFINITELY TOO LONG (don't @ me!), it is truly is great. Not just because of the music, but because it's a strongly anti-fascist film.
Kids today don't know that it used to be really cool to hate Nazis. They didn't have bullshit "decorum" back when the movie was filmed, only two decades after the end of WWII. Ok, I'm being a little facetious, but it is so gratifying to see a film in which the Nazis are 100% called out as the scummy lowlifes they were/are. That scene where Plummer rips a Nazi flag in two? *Chef's kiss*
The music in The Sound of Music is good, although not all the songs are winners ("The Lonely Goatherd" is a real low point in the movie). But classics such as "My Favorite Things", "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", and the sentimental "Edelweiss" will get stuck in your head and you won't be mad about it. This movie genuinely made my heart sing with joy when I needed it the most.
Grade: A-
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The Wedding Singer
Another rewatch for me. I LOVED this Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore romcom when it came out in 1998. I decided to rewatch it and see if it held up. Well...it really doesn't. Not only is there a "Boy George" type character (a character perceived as male who wears makeup and women's clothes) who is used for humor like, once every 10 minutes, the overall humor of the movie feels incredibly dated.
However, both Barrymore and Sandler pull their weight as two sweet people who need to leave the assholes they're with and be together. The soundtrack is pure 80s pop perfection (I own both volume one and two of the soundtrack on CD). I'd say about 20% of the jokes still land, although most of them (including the non-homophobic and non-transphobic ones) are groan-worthy as hell.
If you're in the mood for nostalgia, by all means rewatch this once very popular film. But otherwise feel free to let it live in your memories.
Grade: C+
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The Cider House Rules
Another rewatch for me, The Cider House Rules remains one of the warmest, snuggliest films about abortion, father-daughter incest, child death, and addiction to ever exist. Based on the (stone cold excellent) novel by John Irving, the film stars Michael Caine as Wilbur Larch, a doctor who runs Saint Cloud's--an orphanage (and secret abortion clinic!) in Maine. Tobey Maguire plays Homer Wells, a young man left at the orphanage as an infant who was adopted but returned twice as a baby and informally adopted as Dr. Larch's son and apprentice. Homer is trained in obstetrics by Dr. Larch, and is happy to deliver babies, but refuses to perform abortions, much to the chagrin of Larch who knows that some women absolutely need to end their pregnancies (the film takes place in the 30s and 40s).
After a young, unmarried couple--Wally (Paul Rudd) and Candy (Charlize Theron)--come to Saint Cloud's for an abortion, Homer decides to leave with them and explore the world outside of the orphanage. He takes a job as an apple-picker on Wally's family's orchard. There, he meets Arthur Rose (Delroy Lindo) and his daughter, Rose (Erykah Badu). The racial politics of The Cider House Rules are a liiiiiitle dicey (white boy learns about life from working class Black folks...but also saves their asses in a moment of desperation!), especially since the turning point of the movie is when Homer performs an abortion on Rose who was impregnated by...her own father. Still, the fact that this PG-13 movie so squarely looks at incest and abortion in the eye, yet remains humane with grace given to all the characters, is truly remarkable. Not to get cheesy, but it's a pretty spiritual film in many ways.
The saccharine musical score will get stuck in your head, but I doubt you'll be able to resist the charms of this unique film. In fact, I'm going to reread the book (which is even better than the movie).
Grade: A-
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What We Do in the Shadows (TV show)
While convalescing at my parents' house, I rewatched FX's What We Do in the Shadows with my mom (she loves Colin Robinson). This infinitely rewatchable show is so good and so hilarious, I recommend it to anyone and everyone.
Do I even need to outline the plot? Come on, if you don't already watch this show or know about it...what are you, some kind of fucking guy? Get with the program and watch this excellent show.
Grade: A+
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And some stuff I rewatched, which I've already reviewed on this blog.
Midsommar-A+
The Ring-A+
It Follows-A
La La Land-A-
Titanic-A-
The Babadook-A-
