Here is what I am watching (so far) during the quarantine for COVID-19.
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Palm Springs
This new release, which is also a Hulu original film, is one of the best new movies I've seen this year (sadly, a year with slimmer pickings than most, given, uh, *gestures around broadly*). The film did not nearly have to be as good as it is. Basically: imagine Groundhog Day, but with Andy Samberg and he also has a partner to relive his day over and over with. Samberg stars as Nyles, the boyfriend of a bridesmaid at a wedding in the titular Palm Springs, CA. When the movie begins, Nyles is already years-deep into reliving the same damn day over and over, and he has come to terms with his fate (every night when he falls asleep, he wakes up in the same bed on the same day. And yes, he's tried to kill himself and that doesn't work). He's decided that the best way to deal with his unique circumstances is the accept that he can't change it, and drink a lot.
Palm Springs is funny, sweet, heartfelt, has a great soundtrack, and even stars the excellent JK Simmons in a darkly funny side role. The film manages to take a gimmick that has been used before in movies and TV and create a fresh take on it. Definitely recommended.
Grade: A-
***
Bringing Out the Dead
This often overlooked Martin Scorsese film starring Nic Cage, Patricia Arquette, Ving Rhames, and John Goodman is a dark and surprisingly gripping little piece of 90's nostalgia. Cage is in one of his "good' roles here, reminding us all that the dude CAN act. He plays Frank Pierce, a paramedic in New York City who works the graveyard shift and is losing his grip on reality. He barely sleeps and hasn't saved anyone's life in months. He is haunted by a young woman whom he couldn't save and sees her face transposed on other people's faces everywhere he goes.
He befriends a woman, Mary Burke (Arquette), whose father is hospitalized for cardiac arrest. Mary is a stable presence in Frank's otherwise chaotic world, filled with eccentric ambulance partners, a super strong street drug called "Red Death", and hallucinations brought on by too little sleep and too much guilt.
Written by Paul Schrader, who also wrote one of my favorite recent films, First Reformed, Bringing Out the Dead has been accurately compared to Taxi Driver (with Schrader also wrote, and Scorsese also directed) only with more supernatural elements. It depicts NYC as gritty, dirty, and filled with eccentric and colorful characters. Highly recommended.
Grade: A-
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Warrior
I only watched this super cheesy (though good-hearted) film after seeing an opinion piece in Pajiba.com claiming "The Last Ten Minutes of Warrior is the Best Film Ever Made". I love when individuals have their pet favorite movies, especially when those movies aren't the ones that typically make the "best of" lists. So when I saw that Warrior was streaming on Hulu, I decided to give it a shot.
It's a very cliche-ridden film about two estranged brothers--Tommy Conlon and Brendan Conlon (Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton, respectively)--who are both down on their luck, recovering from an abusive childhood, and end up signing up for the same mixed martial arts competition with a grand prize of $5 million. Surprise, surprise--the final match pits the two men against each other. Also, Nick Nolte plays their dad, a recovering alcoholic who beat them and their mom and, years later, is hoping desperately for forgiveness and redemption. In other words, Warrior is a movie that will make you roll your eyes, but also tug at your heartstrings.
And sure enough, the ending IS very good. Warrior is a fine film if you like stories of redemption and families that are brought back together after being torn asunder. If you're a cynic like me, you'll probably groan at some of the corny lines and "boxer movie" tropes, like the long-suffering wife who doesn't want hubby to get beaten up for a living. But I'll admit that Warrior *almost* brought a tear to my eye.
Grade: B-
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Vera Drake
Now, for a movie that brought actual tears to my eyes. Vera Drake is the movie that put Imelda Staunton on the map years before she played the fascist in pink, Dolores Umbridge, in Harry Potter. Directed by the masterful Mike Leigh, the film is about a working class British woman in the early 1950s who spends he days cleaning richer women's houses and her spare time giving young women illegal abortions.
Vera Drake is a devastating, but very important film about reproductive rights in the era before abortion was legalized in the UK. After a rare botched abortion, which nearly kills a teenager, Vera is arrested and brought in for questioning. The police are astonished to learn that Vera takes no payment for her services. She truly believes she is "helping young girls" as she puts it. (and reader, if you know me, you know that I am firmly, adamantly, and proudly pro-choice. Women like Vera did, in fact, help a lot of people who needed it...even if sometimes their services lead to illness or death).
Though the film ends with the tiniest sliver of hope, Vera's actions affect her entire family who are shocked when they learn that the sweet, quiet matriarch has been performing at-home abortions for decades. Although the pro-choice viewer will sympathize with Vera, the film shows that no good deed goes unpunished.
I highly recommend this movie, both because it is an excellent and beautifully acted film, but also because it serves as a reminder of what we stand to lose if we don't stand up for reproductive rights.
Grade: A-
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