Fleabag

If you haven't watched this British Amazon award winning show already, well it's time to get to it. What's it all about? It's about Fleabag (staring the uber-talented Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is not only the star of this series, but who's the writer and creator of the show) who is a thirty-something, highly sexually-active girl who runs a guinea-pig themed café in London. Fleabag, at least in the first season, isn't the nicest of characters. In fact, Fleabag is rather a pain in the ass; a drunk who makes most things about herself. As a result she has made some very poor choices, ones which she has horrible regrets about. Fleabag is charming though, smart, and self deprecating enough we can warm to her profane irreverent observations on what's going on around her. It also helps that she is always breaking the fourth wall (talking to the viewing audience just like Ferris Bueller). It's like we are her secret confidant. It's hard not to like her. Fleabag has an uptight successful sister who is married to an American alcoholic asshole (played wonderfully by Brett Gelman). Fleabag also has a dead mother, a distant father, and a godmother who is truly a piece-of-work (played by the fabulous Olivia Colman). Each episode only runs about 24 minutes and there are only 12 episodes total (6 per season). It's all highly binge worthy material. The second season is about Fleabag's complex relationship with a priest (Andrew Scott) and redemption. It's a dramady. The characters are all filled out in 3D and it's far more moving than you think it should be. Fleabag gets a very high recommendation from me. Catch it on Amazon.

Mickey and the Bear

There have been films like it, Leave No Trace and Jellyfish come to mind. These are films where the child has become the parent; children thrust into adulthood far too soon. In this film, it's Mickey (played by the talented Camila Morrone) who has just turned 18 and who is looking after her PTSD war veteran, Oxycontin-addicted father, Hank (wonderfully played by James Badge Dale). This is a coming of age tale in rural small town America. Mickey has a boyfriend who dreams of nothing more than getting married and getting a dirt bike. Bush parties on the edge of town with beer, bonfires, and blowjobs is your typical youth filled Friday night in Mickey's town. And Hank, well he's always about to erupt. Mickey at one point explains to her doctor why she needs more Oxy for her dad - Nobody wants to see Hank off his meds. No we don't. Happily, Mickey meets a new boy at school from the UK. He is a musician and plays classical music and suddenly Mickey realizes that maybe she doesn't have to stay in her shitty life after all. Some of this sounds a bit cliché, and maybe it is, but the whole thing felt authentic enough to overlook what I consider to be minor faults. The trailer Mickey and Hank live in, the details of what's on the walls, what's on the dresser; they way people speak; the restaurants they go to; the people of the town; the cars they drive - portraits painted like this is why I go to the movies. Catch this one on streaming services or a rep cinema if possible. 

Undone

In the last years of my father's life, he was terribly sick. He was bipolar. He told me, on more than one occasion, he was going to go back in time and save Princess Diana before her accident; a noble endeavour. When I stumbled across Undone, the Amazon animated series starting Rosa Salazar as Alma, and Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) as her father, I was fascinated. The animation style is done in rotoscope -  they film it with real actors and then paint over it all. It reminded me of Richard Linklater's Waking Life  in both its look, pacing, and its existential angst. Alma is a 28 year old philosophical young lady who is bored with life's repetitions, who acts impulsively at times, makes poor choices, and tends to make the show all about her, but her self reflection on everything endears us to her. Alma, through an act of reckless driving, almost dies in a car crash. This is when everything goes astray. Undone gets trippy. Time gets messed up for Alma. She ends up having long conversations with her long dead father. Together they hatch a plot for Alma to go back in time and save him (her father) from a car crash; a noble endeavour. A first we aren't sure if this is just her injured brain or maybe it's something more. In the end, it's a portrait of somebody with schizophrenia. It's somewhat sad, it's also quite a high to be manic and going through all this exciting time-travelling, reality-bending stuff. This is what crazy looks like. To me it felt authentic and I believe it warrants your time and attention. Catch this one on Amazon.

Taylor Swift: Miss Americana

The first film of 2020 going on the blog is, Taylor Swift: Miss Americana. Yes, I'm as surprised as you are. There lots of musical biopics (Walk the Line, Coal Miner's Daughter), rock documentaries (Woodstock, A Band Called Death), rock mockumentaries (This Is Spinal Tap, FUBAR), fictional musical stories (Hard Core Logo, Vox Lux) and even movie music musicals (Moulin Rouge!) - So do we really need to see one more bloody musical documentary on Taylor Swift?? Yes we do! Let me start by saying I've never been a huge Taylor Swift fan. I've enjoyed some of her later musical offerings. I have seen her perform some moving and beautiful songs that I didn't know she was capable of. She surprised me. What was the most eye-opening thing about the documentary was everyone's bias, including my own. Not in my wildest dreams did I think Swift wrote her own songs. She does. Why did I think she didn't? Because she is blonde, thin, and pretty? Can someone be blonde, thin, pretty, and talented? Apparently so - I should know better. Swift started out with talent, drive, and the greatest of desires, to be loved by strangers. She wanted nothing more than to be a star. Then came along Kanye West. Remember when he got up and stole the mic from Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV award show? That single act had a profound effect on Ms Swift, more than anyone knows. As much as it was wrong, and it was wrong, it may have been the best thing to have happened to her. It threw her into a dark place, a place of deep introspection. It may have been awful for her, but we, her adoring public, are getting deeper, better music as a result. We got this documentary and I'm applauding, Taylor. I'm standing and applauding, so take a bow. Listen to this one on Netflix.

Dark Waters

Those hairy Teflon pans you might be using, you might want to throw those out. Then again, they will end up in a landfill and that will eventually end up in our water supply. Maybe. What is this movie all about? It's the true story of Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) who, as our story begins, is a cooperate lawyer working for, who else, a large chemical company. Rob's grandma, well she is friends with this farmer fellow. This farmer fellow, well his cows got real sick and died on him; 190 dead cows. The farmer knew it was the water but he couldn't seem to get any help with the issue. "Go see my grandson, maybe he can help you," suggested Rob's grandma. And so that's how Rob began to investigate the company DuPont. DuPont makes, among other things, Teflon. Teflon was designed to waterproof tanks. Then somebody got the good sense to coat our frying pans with the stuff. C8 - Rob Bilott in the movie is told what that is, and thus so is the movie audience -Perfluorooctanoic acid. Basically 8 carbon molecules strung together and the shit is unbreakable. Don't eat it or you might get cancer and die. 99% of people on the planet have this stuff floating around in their bloodstream. Thanks DuPont. But my eggs don't stick, right? Catch this one on streaming services.

My top 10 films of 2019

So with the Oscars on tonight, I thought I would give you my top ten movies of 2019. I haven't seen everything (obviously) but I have watched a lot. Here we go:
1) Dragged Across Concrete
2) Uncut Gems
3) Parasite
4) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
5) The Grizzlies
6) Crawl
7) Midsommar
8) Ford V Ferrari
9) The Peanut Butter Falcon
10) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Honorable mentions go to: Touch Me Not, Just Mercy, Dark Waters, The Report, Between Two Ferns, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Pattleton, Doctor Sleep, Us, Dolemite is My Name, The Art of Self-Defense, Skin, and The Dead Don't Die

Worst films of 2019:
1917 - technically brilliant and the first 30 minutes are riveting, after that, it's all downhill with no character development. Not why I go to the movies.

The Irishman - the biggest disappointment of the year. An hour too long and the backwards aging looks strange to say the least. If you want to see aging backwards, go watch Terminator: Dark Fate.

Murder Mystery - Adam Sandler is in one of the best films of the year (Uncut Gems), he is also in one of the worst. Go watch Knives Out if you want a murder mystery.

Her Smell - I turned it off after the 30 minutes. Go watch Vox Lux instead

Rainy Day in New York - Woody Allen is completely out of touch with how young people speak and think. I gave up after 30 minutes.

High Life - Robert Pattinson stars in this arty space turd. Terrible.

Guilty Pleasures I'm admitting to:
Rambo: Last Blood - There is no reason for this movie to exist however I found it far more entertaining than The Irishman.

Terminator: Dark Fate - I've enjoyed almost all of the Terminator films and this in no exception. I had fun and I admit it.

Color Out of Space - Nic Cage drinking lama milk and acting off his nut in this completely zany John Carpenter's The Thing ripoff. Completely bananas but gosh darn it, I enjoyed myself.

Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer

Well this is about a dark as it gets. Warning!, before reading on, this might be one of the most disturbing documentaries I've ever watched. It's also one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen. What is it all about? It's about Canadian murderer Luka Magnotta. Remember this asshole? He killed Jun Lin, a Chinese student. Magnotta then dismembered Lin's body and mailed pieces of him all over Canada. This is gruesome stuff. This three part Netflix documentary is about the online hunting Luka Magnotta. His disturbing quest for fame led him to post his torture and killing of kittens online. Posting videos of killing kittens, well that pissed a lot of people off. It pissed off Deanna Thompson and John Green to the extreme, where they made it their life's work to go and catch this guy.Hence the title, "Don't F**k with Cats." These two are the main focus of the documentary.Deanna Thompson is one smart lady and John Green is one smart guy. They devoted almost all of their spare time to dissecting Magnotta's videos, frame by sick and twisted frame, in order to catch him. What makes this documentary so fascinating is how they go about their research and their passion for doing it. It's disheartening to know people like Magnotta exist, but it's highly comforting to know that there are people like Deanna and John out there too. If you are into true crime, it doesn't get more interesting than this. Catch it on Netflix.

Just Mercy

If you don't know Michael B. Jordan, you should. He is that young man who plays young Adonis Creed in Creed. I first saw him in Parenthood and thought he was marvelous. Well here he is again, playing real life lawyer, Bryan Stevenson. Bryan Stevenson graduated from Harvard and decided to do something important with his law degree, namely go help some folks sitting on death row.
We have seen variations on this movie before, The Hurricane, Rectify (one of my favourite TV shows of all time), Dead Man Walking, The Green Mile, etc. So why do we need another wrongly accused/jail house story? Because they keep putting innocent people to death, that's why! Jamie Foxx plays Walter McMillian, the man falsely convicted of killing a young white girl. Foxx and Jordan play their parts well, but it's the supporting role of jailhouse snitch, played by actor Tim Blake Nelson, that made this movie truly special. He is great in this role and you can't take your eyes off of him when he's on the screen. At the end of the film, there is a message that for every nine people put to death, one person has been exonerated. That's a staggering statistic. This movie is about racism, injustice, and the spirit to keep fighting a system which at its core is morally bankrupt and in deep need of change. The US needs this film more than ever. Catch it in theatres now or on streaming services shortly.

Cheer

When someone says "cheerleader" most people still think of those girls on the sidelines of football games with pompoms, short skirts, kicking their legs high in the air. Fair enough, that's how this whole business started. However cheerleading has grown into it's own competitive sport. If you combined the best of gymnastics tumbling, Cirque du Soleil stunting, Broadway dance, and dressed all the girls like they were in a JonBenét Ramsey beauty pageant and dressed all the boys like they were figure skaters, you have contemporary cheerleading. My daughter has been doing competitive cheerleading for seven years now. I know this world well; she has been a flyer, a tumbler, a back spot, and a front spot. I'm well aware of the stinky sneaker smell of the gym, the relentless practices, the conditioning, the tumbling, the fake eyelashes, the hairspray, the concussions, the broken toes, the broken fingers, and the sprained ankles. We have done our time at C.H.E.O. She does what is known as club or all star cheer and this year her team is going to Worlds. It's one of the highest ranking competitive cheerleading competitions in, well, the world. The equivalent level for college cheerleading is the NCA & NDA Collegiate National Championship, which happens every year in Daytona Beach, Florida. This is cheerleading at the college level. The best cheerleading college in the US is Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas. It is the focus of Netflix's documentary, Cheer. The documentary focuses on Navarro's team leading up to the big competition in Daytona. It's six part series, each about an hour and the lens stays tightly focused on about eight kids and their coach, Monica Aldama. The woman is a machine. This series brought me to tears a few times as some on the kids' stories are heartbreaking. This series is about cheerleading, but what makes it great is the focus it puts on Monica and these group of kids. Catch it on Netflix.