Starting off today with a couple really good indie dramas. Mad Bills to Pay follows 19-year-old Rico who is a man by age, but still a boy by deed. He spends his days selling homemade cocktails on the beach outside New York City and his evenings getting hight and drinking with his friends. Not a whole lot of ambition there, despite the good example of his extremely hard-working single mother, an immigrant. Rico’s going to have to do some growing up quick though, when he knocks up his 14-year-old girlfriend Destiny. Destiny expects him to take care of her and their child, moving in to the small apartment Rico shares with his mom and younger sister (who is older than Destiny). Like a lot of expectant mothers no matter their age, Destiny knows the import of what is coming and starts ragging on Rico to start taking this seriously, but it is going to more than nudging for him to realize how much his life is about to change. A raw, completely riveting movie about a guy who’s just not ready to grow up. Rico keeps taking one step forward, two steps back, no matter how much he “wants to be a man” and be everything that his own jailbird father never was. ★★★★½
Due West is not a deep movie (not nearly as deep as it wants you to think it is), and isn’t as thought-provoking as the above film, but it has emotional heft that is hard to ignore. An unnamed woman (her name is never given, purposefully I’m sure, to imply that this could be anyone you know) lives in a small west Texas town. She is texting mysteriously with someone telling her to meet tomorrow at a city a couple hours away, and to bring $700 or don’t come at all. For a long time, we don’t know what for, but if you read any description of the movie, you know it is for an abortion. The secrecy surrounding the woman trying to come up with the money and get to the meeting is because abortions are very illegal in Texas now, and she, along with anyone aiding her, would face prosecution. The woman hasn’t made this decision lightly though. It’s not because she wasn’t careful, it’s not because she’s too young or too old or any practical reason. The woman was raped, and if you think that’s isn’t awful enough, just see the trials and tribulations she has to go through to try to move on from that terrible event in her life. A movie that makes you see both all of the good and all of the evil in mankind, in equal measures. ★★★★½
Deep Water tries to be a disaster movie that covers the most bases but doesn’t succeed at any of them. In the beginning, as passengers are boarding a plane from LA to Shanghai, it has some Final Destination levels of ridiculousness, ominously showing all of the little things going on that could go wrong, giving you a sense of (quite silly) foreboding. Most of it is brought on by the stereotypically loud and obnoxious overweight American. When the catastrophe finally comes, the plane is forced to crash into the Pacific Ocean, with no land in sight. The pilots (played by Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart) do all that they can, but the plane comes apart upon impact and the majority of passengers are killed or missing. The survivors band together to realize they are out of the frying pan, into the water, as the ocean is packed to the gills with the most ferocious sharks ever shown on screen. The movie devolves into a silly shark flick, and not even a good one at that. The scene when the plane goes down is as tense as it gets, but it is all downhill (or down the drain, if you like) after that. ★★
Normal is from writer Derek Kolstad, of John Wick fame, so you know what to expect going in. It stars Bob Odenkirk as Ulysses, who is serving as interim sheriff in the tiny town of Normal Minnesota, after its previous mayor recently died of a heart attack. Seems like a quiet town, but it has some idiosyncrasies. The sheriff’s office is loaded with high power guns and C4, there’s a new $18 million town hall going up, a little old lady has a long-range police scanner in her fabric shop, and other things that just don’t add up for such a small middle-of-nowhere town. The townspeople all seem to be a little too nice to their temporary sheriff. The opening scene of the movie, showing Yakuza in Japan sending some hoodlums to Normal, gives the viewer a clue as to what may be going on here, but it comes to a head when some out-of-towners attempt to rob the bank. Ulysses, unaware of what the town is hiding, steps in to diffuse the situation, but ends up on the shooting end of a town full of people unwilling to let anyone in on their secrets. Great action film with a lot more laughs than the typical John Wick movie. Doesn’t break new ground, but it doesn’t have to. ★★★½
Ian McKellen is one of the greatest living English actors, and he shines in The Christophers, playing a renowned artist named Julian Sklar. Most of Julian’s fame comes from two series of paintings he did 25 years ago called the “The Christophers,” where his muse is painted in portrait. A third series was hinted at by Julian, but he never finished or showed them. Now very old and still living off his former fame (he makes money by selling Cameo videos to fans), his adult children Barnaby and Sallie see a way to make some money once dear old dad dies. The two hire Lori Butler, a once-promising painter who hasn’t exhibited in a decade, to be Julian’s assistant and to finish Julian’s third series of Christophers behind his back, knowing that the paintings would each selling for millions upon his death and “discovery” in the attic. The brash and abrasive Julian doesn’t immediately warm up to Lori, but when she is forced to come clean about her motives, the two form a bond. Lori helps Julian move past some of the grief he’s been carrying over the real Christopher, a man Julian loved once (back before being gay or bisexual was “the cool thing” according to Julian) and Julian too can help Lori re-find her love of painting and overcome fear of rejection. You’ll laugh and be moved in equal measures, and McKellen shows that age has not slowed down his wit or expressiveness. ★★★★
- TV series recently watched: Agents of SHIELD (season 1)
- Book currently reading: Tides of Blood by Richard A Knaak
Jons Movie Takes 