Based on a true story, Eden follows the Wittmer family as they try to make a new beginning on the tiny Galápagos Island of Floreana in the late 1920s. Lured by the writings of fellow German Friedrich Ritter, who fled there to write his manifesto on the rise of the bourgeois/bureaucracy and decline of humanity, the Wittmers instead find a cold, uncaring Dr Ritter and an equally inhospitable island, with little clean water sources and packs of roving wild dogs descended from abandoned animals by previous explorers. While they are still trying to settle in to build a homestead, the island greets a third arrival, the Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn, whom I immediately labeled a fraud. She is accompanied by two lovesick workers and a single servant, whom she’s hired to build her a mansion on the island. Of course, Eloise and her entourage are unprepared for the harshness of the environment, and soon take to living off of and stealing from the Wittmers. For awhile, the Ritters stay out of the feud, but when Eloise’s antics encroach on his carved-out little area, Friedrich’s libertarianism-esque views are tested and he begins a descent into madness. To be honest I thought the movie was going nowhere for a good while. It has intriguing moments but at one point, I had the real thought, “Man, director Ron Howard has lost his touch.” But it has a fantastic ending that changed my mind about the whole film. Still not great, but certainly a worthy watch. I don’t know how much of it is true, but if even half of it is, Floreana is cursed. Great cast of Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby (Ritters), Daniel Brühl and Sydney Sweeney (Witmers), and Ana de Armas (the Baroness). ★★★½
She Rides Shotgun is a thriller starring Taron Egerton as Nate, a man on the run with his 10-year-old daughter Polly. Newly released from prison, he picks her up after school though she is obviously hesitant to get in his car. She asks where her mom is, and we hear a quick snippet of news on the radio about a double homicide before Nate flips it off. Nate drives them to a motel, cuts and dyes Polly’s hair, and crashes on the bed. Later, Polly flips on the TV to see the report of her murdered mother and stepfather, with the police naming Nate as the prime suspect. Polly flees to the motel office to call the police, but Nate gets to her first and is able to explain the situation. Nate, a former member of a white supremacist group, tried to cut ties with them and did something that brought retribution. It was them that killed his ex-wife, and they are now hunting him too. Nate is just trying to keep his little girl safe, so they go on the road. After a run-in with someone chasing them, I gave up on the movie. While it sounds exciting, I figured I knew how this was all going to play out, because stories like this have been done a million times (and better too). All I did was feel sorry for little Polly, who is probably looking forward to a lifetime of therapy sessions. ★
Americana is a very entertaining neowestern with plenty of action and even a few good laughs. It opens in a tiny South Dakota town, on a young boy, Cal, as he buys a Native American headband and then practices bow and arrow in the yard. His big sister, Mandy, comes storming out of the house saying she’s just clobbered her abusive boyfriend over the head, so get in the car ‘cause they gotta go. Cal refuses, saying he is the reincarnation of Sitting Bull and he needs to stay with his fellow Lakota people in the area. Mandy drives off, while Cal confronts the awakening boyfriend and shoots him dead with an arrow. We then go back in time, to see how we got here, and meet the rest of the cast. There’s Lefty (his birth name, because he’s actually right-handed), the town’s waitress Penny (who has a severe stutter, but who dreams of singing in Nashville), Roy (an Antiques dealer hot to get the rare and valuable Native American ghost shirt that ended up in the trunk of Mandy’s car), and Ghost Eye (leader of a local militant Native American gang). It’s a zany group each with their own motives, all swirling around that shirt, that is worth over a million. There’s action, crazy-but-plausible twists, and like I said, some great humor (Ghost Eye to Cal about his claim to be Sitting Bull: “This isn’t exactly the golden age of cultural appropriation right now.” Cal looks around and says: “I remember more horses in my day.” Ghost Eye: “Motherf**er…”). And in the end, as any good movie should, it has some heart too. Like the above Eden, strong cast though maybe not as well known, including Paul Walter Hauser as Lefty, Simon Rex (continuing his career resurgence) as Roy, Zahn McClarnon as Ghost Eye, and, stealing the show, Halsey as Mandy and Sydney Sweeney as Penny, both of whom carry every scene. ★★★½
I don’t go for comedies often, but Splitsville had an interesting premise. It opens on a couple driving down the road. Carey and Ashley have been married for just over a year and seem happy, but after they witness a car accident where someone dies, Ashley has an epiphany and tells Carey she wants a divorce. She’s obviously been thinking about it for some time, because she pulls out a letter she had written and starts reading it to him (“Maybe its because I’ve only been with 7 guys,” “Wait, I thought I was # 4?” “You were….”). Unable to handle the situation, Carey flees on foot and arrives to his best friend’s house some time later. Carey and Paul have been friends since childhood, and Carey crashes there for awhile to get his bearings. He is surprised to hear that Paul and his wife Julie have opened their marriage up to others. Julie confides to Carey that she is sure Paul is seeing someone when he goes into the city for “work,” but she has yet to find another partner. In his current emotional state, Carey *ahem* fills that void. Of course, his buddy Paul doesn’t like that at all, no matter what he’d previously said about their open marriage, leading to a huge fight between the two friends. Since he can’t stay there anymore, Carey moves back into his old house, much to Ashley’s chagrin. She’ll hate it even more soon enough, because Carey starts befriending all of Ashley’s ex-lovers and one-night-stands, allowing the other guys to continue to stay in the house too. It isn’t long before the house is full, and Paul joins the group too after his marriage with Julie goes on the rocks. That shaky ground is obviously an opening for Carey to pursue Julie again… This film is a wild ride and I was laughing a whole lot in the beginning, though it seemed to lose steam before the end. The jokes stopped landing at some point, and the movie starts to drag. But it was good for awhile though. ★★★
The Long Walk is how Stephen King does The Hunger Games. Based on one of his books, it takes place in a dystopian 1970s era after some kind of war has devastated the USA’s economy. To spur citizens to work hard and “give them motivation,” the military hosts an annual long walk, with one young man from each state chosen from volunteers (though everyone volunteers), where the participants must keep a pace of 3 miles an hour and never stop, never deviate from the road, or they are shot and killed. The final survivor is given a wish and a huge cash prize, with the idea being that hard work is rewarded. The film’s main character is Ray Garraty, a young man ready to do his walk, with an ulterior motive that isn’t learned until much later. As the days-long walk begins, Ray makes really good friends with Pete and a couple other young men, in a “Stand By Me” sort of bond. People start dying before too long, from either being unable to keep up, illness, trying to make a run for it, or simply losing their mind over the constant mental pressure. Seeing some of these people, normal otherwise, break down over the course of a couple days of walking hundreds of miles without a rest, is what provides most of the thrills. Ray and Pete form a strong bond to help see each other through the ordeal, and confide in each about their past and what has led them here. Fantastic film that is emotional and tense and never lets up. ★★★★½
- TV series recently watched: Task (season 1), Lost (season 1)
- Book currently reading: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray
Jons Movie Takes 