As much as I get fed up with brooding male law enforcement/detective characters, I end up getting hooked on their shows. The latest of which, is The Sinner, regularly on USA Network, but I’ve watched seasons 1-3 on Netflix. Season 1 was fantastic. It opens with a woman, Cora, played by Jessica Biel, with her family in a crowded summer beach scene, when she experiences a mental break, then attacks and kills a man, seemingly unprovoked. The lead investigator is Ambrose, played by Bill Pullman. The rest of the season tells a twisted tale that explores what lead Cora to the point of violent attack. The value of a woman and the definition of womanhood is a looming theme throughout.
I like to think of good storytelling as onion peeling. Have you ever cut into an onion and found that other baby onions were inside that one? That’s what The Sinner is like. Each episode peels back the onion, but then you find a whole other story that needs to be peeled…. And there are multiples of those. At a certain point, season 1 started to go down a True Detective vector, but then it totally distinguished itself. The casting and acting are statue-winning caliber. Biel, Pullman and the actor who plays her husband, Christopher Abbot, are phenomenal. In season 2, Ambrose assists a friend’s daughter, who is a budding local police department detective, with the investigation of a child who murdered the two people who kidnapped him from the cult-commune where he lived with his mother. That was a hard sentence to write! See all the potential baby onions? Motherhood and what constitutes nurturing a child seems to be the overall theme in this season. One baby onion is Ambrose’s personal story: Can’t have a brooding detective without a troubled past or current life. Ambrose’s personal stories, in my opinion, parallel the stories of who he is investigating. In season 1, he has a S&M relationship with a prostitute and at the same time, his relationship with his wife is crumbling as she becomes fed up with his increasing emotional distance. In season 2, the majority of the investigation takes place in the town where he grew up and experienced a traumatic early life and the death of his mother.
I wrote a long review about Old, but I accidentally deleted the note from my iPhone. Argh! So here is a more succinct version of what I can remember about why I thought Old was terrible.
1. It was too long. Old would have made a good Twilight Zone episode, which are about 24 minutes each.
2. Too many errors. It seemed like aging wasn't happened across the board. Why didn't the rapper character age? Why did bones deteriorate, but hair and nails didn't grow? Wouldn't menstrual cycles be happening at least once an hour?
3. Blue Lagoon- Really? Just something sensational and outrageous to fill time. Just like the multiple unsuccessful attempts to escape. Time-fillers.
4. Sad crab-walking lady- The funniest scene in the movie caused me to belly-laugh out loud with a theater full of socially-distanced people. This kind of made it worth going into a theater for the first time, post Covid-closure. Kind of.
Two stars. For the belly laugh.
ADDENDUM! 07/04/2022
I previously said "Old would have made a good Twilight Zone episode," but speculative fiction TV did cover rapid aging in the X-Files, season 2, episode 19, Død Kalm. Mulder and Scully go to Norway to investigate what seems to be a Bermuda-Triangle-like stretch of ocean from which sailors have returned prematurely aged. They find themselves on a rusty old ship where the inhabitants have aged and died or have mysteriously managed to maintain. This version of the mysterious rapid aging was executed so much better than the movie Old. Take that M. Night! Chris Carter did it better way back in 1995 and in only 45 minutes!
Let me start by saying
The Sopranos is my favorite television show. I love the writing, the
acting, the atmosphere, the magically authentic way a family drama
blends with the dark comedy of mafia life.
When I heard they
were making a Sopranos movie, I sent up prayers to the gods of
television and big screen that they wouldn’t ruin the show in any way. I
can say that my prayers were answered. I enjoyed The Many Saints of
Newark, but it took a little bit of work to get there.
First
of all, I had to separate the fact from fiction: I saw some of the
junket surrounding the movie. People were describing it as the making of
Tony Soprano, the man, through his childhood and teenage formative
years. The first time I watched the movie, I was disappointed because
that is not what the movie is about. After I finished the movie for the
second time, I decided that this wasn’t about the making of Tony, The
Saints was about Dickie and Harold. Tony took backseat to those
storylines.
The good:
They filled in the backstory of Uncle Junior and why he was so bitter, jealous and single.
Vera Farmiga played the hell out of Livia Soprano.
The actor who played Janice, Alexandra Intrator, was also fantastic and really captured her mannerisms.
The bad:
I
wanted more out of the voiceover narrative by Chrissie. He could have
explained Pussy’s name. He could have provided a verbal bridge between
Dickie’s behavior and Tony’s adult behavior.
Who’s the boss of Newark? I don’t know who ran the show.
Will
someone please explain the blind baseball team? Was that a wishful
thinking sequence? That was a perfect opportunity for a Chrissie
narrative to do some ‘splaining.
Although I liked how it
looked, why did the beach scene all of a sudden turn into an arthouse
short? The only thing that came to mind was that they were trying to
link it to Tony’s boardwalk dreams.
Jumping the broom is about a couple that meet, quickly fall in love and decide to get married. They're families don't meet until they all arrive for the wedding. Family secrets are revealed, dramatic, romantic and comedic antics ensue.
This was a cheesy, but very cute wedding movie with all of the typical tropes: two families that are very different and don’t get along, the bride breaks it off at the 11th hour and the groom has to talk to her through the door, the horn dog relative goes after a someone from the other family, a drunken relative gives a memorable performance. But there’s also some fun, new and sweet elements to this movie, too. Despite the fact that this is a TD Jakes production, You aren’t beaten over the head with Christianity. There’s a handful of good black actors in this movie, notably Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and clutch-my-pearls-still-looking-good-as-hell Gary Dourdan also made an appearance. I watched this on Netflix
Uncorked is the story of a guy who has been groomed all his life to take over his family’s BBQ restaurant, but instead he passionately pursues becoming a sommelier. The story arc nicely covers the father-son dynamic of this tough situation where tradition is being broken and someone’s dream must go unfulfilled. There is a sweet little relationship that blooms, too. I love movies that have a strong sense of place and you can tell the director really loves and really wanted to represent black Memphis. Courtney B. Vance and Niecy Nash play his parents and I was impressed with Mamoudou Athie who played the main character and Sasha Compere. This was directed by Prentice Penny whose name I've recently seen associated with producer and writer credits on Insecure and whose dapper person I've seen on those Insecure Wine Down bits. It seems like Uncorked is his first feature film and I'm high-fiving him from my living room. Well done, sir! I'm giving this four stars, because its a good movie all around, I want to watch it again and I am happy to recommend it to folks. Watched on Netflix (The Netflix poster showing the main character standing in the foreground and wine bottles and firewood in the background is pretty dope, y'all!)
Do you remember hearing about the dark
web and the Silk Road website in the news for bit in the early 2010s?
What a strange question, that would only make sense to someone who's
been on this earth a little while. Well, this movie is about the
creation of that website, its eventual downfall and the people
involved. It was slow to start, but took off about halfway through
with a strong heist-caper energy to it.
Silk Road is one of those
based-on-a-true-story movies along the lines of Wolf of Wall Street
and Spotlight, but it wasn't as exciting as WOWS and certainly not as
dull as Spotlight. Unfortunately, these are the types of films I
watch once and have no desire to watch them again. They aren't great
acting, writing or production venues. They just inform you in an
engaging way about the contents of one core sample of a larger
history. There have been several documentaries made on this subject
and that's where I'll go next if I need another fix of Silk Road
information.
I'm giving this three stars *** but I don't see any reason to watch it again. I do recommend it if you're interested in the subject.
I watched an online screener of this film. Thanks, Lionsgate!
Christmas, Again (2014) *** I was certain before I hit play that I had watched this movie sometime in the past couple of years, but it isn't on any of my past holiday movie lists. A sad and lonely Christmas tree salesman is back another year at the same NYC tree lot, but this time with some emotional pain in tow. What I really like about this movie is how it presented the story arc of his heartbreak, the use of silence, expressions, and gestures to get emotion across. That's the result of good a acting-directing combo. By the way, this film is a rare positive result of the same writer and director. I have to also give props for the good use of Arabian Dance from The Nutcracker.It sets the perfect tone for this story.
Production: It was a low-budget indie as opposed to a low-budget cheesy movie.
Suspension of belief: Low
Tropes/sub-genres: Character living through sadness from a pre-movie incident
A Christmas To Remember (2015) * “Featuring” Robin Givens who makes a short appearance towards the end of the movie, A Christmas To Remember was only worth watching because it is so-bad-it's-funny-to-watch-with-a-friend as I did with my best friend. Actually, I think we may have fast forwarded through this one. It was difficult to watch even while laughing. My main complaint was that the technical skills to make a film were lacking by these filmmakers. None of the characters were mic'd nor did there seem to be any reliable audio capture equipment around because the sound was terrible. The camera was shaky and the lighting and filtering changed with almost every single cut. I know a trained camera operator was no where nearby, because composing and framing a shot was not on anyone's mind. Creatively, the story was all over the place. It looked like it was going to be a Hatfields vs McCoys situation with two rival families that would be brought together by the love of the family heads, but then all of the stories of each of the children were brought to light. And each family had at least five members. There was no way to successfully hash out and resolve at least 10 different stories. Bad production, incomplete stories, terrible personal styling. For a good laugh, read my best friend's review here: Dante Rants
Production: Limbo contest winners low
Suspension of belief: Mountain high
Tropes: Rival families... anything else is unclear
Diversity: Reverse! This was a Black cast with one white supporting character
Paranormal: No, but it would have helped the plot
Clownish character: I plead the 5th
Production Co: Atlanta Dream Team Productions
How'd you watch it: Amazon
London Mitchell's Christmas (2019) * This most certainly was not a holiday romance movie, but it was so bad I kept watching anyway. Everything in this movie was too long. It needed a serious editor, because this easily could have been cut from 1:40 to 30 minutes. I watched this movie twice: Once by myself, fast forwarding through each excessive conversation. Then another time with my bestie over the phone, as we synced scenes and I guided him through the highlights. Considering the plot, it's hard to believe that such a self-absorbed and despicable person could get everyone he treated so poorly to forgive, forget and love him just because he has cancer. Read my bestie's review here: Dante Rants
Production value: Mid-low. They skimped on writing and editing
Suspension of belief: High!
Tropes: A very modified Scrooge trope
Diversity: This film has an all-black cast
Paranormal: None
Clownish character: London Mitchell was a joke, but I don't think you could really call him a clown.
I definitely watched holiday movies with a different mindset during this past holiday season. It was 2020. No explanation needed. So, let's jump right in.
Patterns I noticed this year
I ended up watching a lot of the same tropes: Ambitious career persons, return to home town and lovable father figure characters. Multiples times these tropes crossed paths in the same movie. Also, I'm going to try and fit everything into three posts:
The Good and the Okay
The Bad and the Unfinished
The Not-Romantic
The Good and the Okay
Feast of the Seven Fishes (2019) **** Feast of Seven Fishes is a holiday comedy with feel-good moments along the same lines of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and The Family Stone. The basic plot follows a few days in the life of a young man, Tony, and a young woman, Beth, who stumble upon a little romance and spend a couple of life-changing days together. I fell in love, just like Beth does, with the very hilarious, loving, and Italian Olviera family. The casting was perfect and featured some Sopranos alum, which gave the family scenes an authentic, rather than stereotypical feel. I am smitten with Skyler Gisondo who I saw previously in Booksmart!
Production Co: Allegheny Image Factory, Witty Michaels Entertainment
How'd you watch it: Hoopla
Holiday Heist (2019) **** A family-owned jewelry store is being cased by a guy who needs to make some quick money to pay back the local crime boss. He gets hired on by the patriarch and ends up genuinely caring for the family and falling for one of its members. Cute colorful Christmas romance with just the right amount of cheese, just right production, even the music was enjoyable. If this movie was given a bigger marketing budget and maybe featured one big name actor, this might have been successful in theaters.
Tropes/sub-genres: Enemies to lovers; You're boyfriend ain't right for you
Diversity: Pretty much everyone was a person of color.
Production Co: Mar Vista
How'd you watch it: Hoopla
Christmas a la Mode (2019) **** This was a nice refreshing story about a dairy farm/creamery on the verge of going under until the two sisters/owners have a fire lit under them with the threat (or hope) of a sale. An agent representing a dairy conglomerate that is putting an offer on the farm turns out to be handsome, charming and rooting for the farmer sister to succeed in keeping the farm. The lead actor’s American accent started to fail and I’m proud to say I guessed he was Australian.
Production: There were definitely on location at a working farm. I'm sad to say there was no smell-o-vision during the creamery scenes, dammit.
Tropes/sub-genres: Family rivalry; Enemies to lovers; Save the business
Diversity: Nope.
Production Co: H9 Films, Moody Independent
How'd you watch it: Hoopla
Last Christmas (2019) *** Last Christmas Stars Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as a flawed and wreckless young woman named Kate who keeps on messing up and messing with the lives of her close friends and family. She bumps into odd, but nice guy, Tom, played by Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) and keeps on bumping into him, until it becomes a thing. There's romance, a little speculative fiction, sage advice, self-discovery and a Christmas paegent rounding out this holiday movie. Yes! Wham!'s song, Last Christmas, is featured throughout the movie, and the whole soundtrack was chock-full of George Michael inspiration. Last Christmas was entertaining.
Production: This came out of a major studio, and you can tell no expense was spared although the home scenes looked comfy and authentic.
Suspension of belief: Medium – unlikely premise
Tropes/Sub-Genres: Odd Couple; Supernatural Romantic Comedy; Flawed character reaches rock bottom; Self-actualization/realization
Diversity: Yes!
Production Co: Universal Pictures
How'd you watch it: Checked out the DVD from the library
Picture a Perfect Christmas (2019) *** Stars Hallmark regular, Merritt Patterson (Christmas at the Palace, A Royal Winter), as an ambitious photographer who returns to her home town for some needed time with her grandmother. She meets nana's neighbor, played by Jon Cor, and his nephew and you guessed it... sparks start to fly. Will the photographer be able to have a career and insta-family in the end? I was able to finish this pleasant film, but it didn't stand out in any way.
Production: It was Hallmark production that didn't require lavish sets or costumes, so it looked good.
Suspension of belief: Low, probably because it was so predictable
Tropes/Sub-Genres: Ambitious career person vs love; Return to home town; Father figure character standing in for a kid's real parent(s); Woman falls for loving father figure and child aka insta-family
Diversity: One supporting character of color
Production Co: Front Street Pictures, Hallmark Channel
How'd you watch it: Checked out the DVD from the library
Rent an Elf (2018) *** A Christmas-loving entrepreneur who runs a holiday event planning business is hired by a single dad to help create a special Christmas for his son who is going through a post-divorce rough patch. Want to see the whole movie? Watch the one minute and 48 seconds trailer: Same as a couple of the other three star *** films on this list, there was really nothing that hooked my heartstrings in this movie, but it wasn't bad. The cast did feature Sean Patrick Thomas from Save the Last Dance. Playing his mother was Debbi Morgan, a major soap star who is also well-known for Eve's Bayou.
Production: Visually this movie looked like a well-budgeted-basic Hallmark or Mar Vista, so it looked good.
Suspension of belief: Low, probably because it was so predictable
Tropes/Sub-Genres: Woman falls for loving father figure and child aka insta-family; Wreckless ex schemes to get ex back
Diversity: About half of the main characters are of color
Production Co: The Asylum
How'd you watch it: Amazon, but it was also on Ion Channel's Sunday marathons.
The Rooftop Christmas Tree (2016) *** Michelle Morgan (Heartland) plays a lawyer who returns to her hometown in hopes of scaling back her life from the big city, but instead, the first case she takes on is her neighbor vs the town. Tim Reid (WKRP In Cincinnati), the lawyer's hermit neighbor, is being cited for his mysterious practice of putting a Christmas tree on his roof. Will the lawyer be able to win her neighbor's case? Will the mystery of the rooftop tree be solved? For some reason, Michelle Morgan does a lot of over the shoulder talking (You know when you start talking about someone with your back to the door, then that person walks in and hears you talking about them?) as Lou on Heartland and surprisingly also in this movie, too. The biggest issue I had withThe Rooftop Christmas Tree is how quickly everything happened. I don't think this movie depicted a full week of life in this town, but the romantic leads were about ready to move in and get a Christmas tree together by the end. The story had surprising and heartfelt subplots and that was pleasing.
Production: It had an authentic small town feel to it.
Suspension of belief: High. Everything happened way too fast. Even the court and legal procedures went into warp speed. And, the main character's parents looked to be about her same age.
Tropes/sub-genres: Return to hometown; Enemies to lovers; Mysterious neighbor aka Boo Radley
Diversity: A bit. One central character and one subsequent character.
Production Co: Johnson Production Group
How'd you watch it: Amazon
A Majestic Christmas (2018) *** Another ambitious woman, an architect, is assigned a project to revamp her hometown's nostalgia-filled theater. The theater's new owner and her new client, comes off like your average gentrifying developer, but it turns out he has a heart. Sparks are flying! A Majestic Christmas features a colorful cast with interesting characters. Even with all those positives, the sparks didn't fly for me. There was something missing that I can't put my finger on. Maybe I'll like it better next year. Starring Jerrika Hinton (Grey's Anatomy, A Christmas Kiss). Christian Vincent, the actor who plays the developer, plays it really cheesy.
Production: Hallmark makes it rain on a set.
Suspension of belief: Medium
Tropes/sub-genres: Return to home town; Ambitious character struggling with career or following their heart; Gentrification
Diversity: Totally
Production Co: Hallmark
How'd you watch it: Amazon
Christmas Unwrapped (2020) *** A journalist is assigned to do an exposé of a philanthropist who makes Christmas miracles happen for a lot of people each year. Instead of finding dirt, she finds he's genuine. A cute, fresh story with a colorful cast and a definite Santa angle that was a bit of a turn off.
Suspension of belief: High
Tropes/sub-genres: Ambitious career person vs love; Investigator falls for subject of investigation
Diversity: The main characters are people of color and there are colorful people generously sprinkled throughout.
Production Co: Lifetime, Neshama Entertainment
How'd you watch it: Hoopla
Sweet Mountain Christmas (2019) *** A country-music star who has lost her way finds herself snowed in by a freak storm which stretches out for days what was meant to be a quick trip to visit her family. During her stay, she revisits the past, finds inspiration in her hometown, and maybe even love.
Production: Lifetime funds good productions, so overall it looked good, but I thought the sets and locations were a little too nice for a small one-road-in-and-out town.
Tropes/sub-genres: Return to hometown; Self-actualization/realization; Ambitious character struggling with career or following their heart; Gentrification;High school sweethearts/old flames reunite
Diversity: A drop or two.
Production Co: Lifetime, Lighthouse Pictures, Brightlight Pictures
How'd you watch it: Hoopla
Christmas In Mississippi (2017) *** An ambitious photographer (Another one?) returns to her hometown for the holidays in good ol' Mississippi. She ends up reluctantly rekindling the cut-too-soon relationship with her high school sweetheart, who is the project manager for the town's holiday light show and the caregiver of his nephew. Everything ties up neatly in the end, which I have criticized in some movies, but in Christmas in Mississippi it works because the love story starts long before the movie starts, which makes the expedited falling in love make sense. Also the plotline doesn't stray too far from the core story and they both share the same passions: Love of their home town and respective familes. Added bonus is that holiday romances don't often get a chance to feature a real place and tackle real issues, such as the Gulfport's post-Katrina recovery.
Production: Sets and styling were Gulfport authentic
Suspension of belief: Medium
Tropes/sub-genres: Father figure character standing in for a kid's real parent(s); Return to home town; Ambitious career person vs love; High school sweethearts reunite
Diversity: Color in the supporting cast
Paranormal: Is that Kris Kringle?
Clownish character: No
Production Co: Lifetime; Active Entertainment
How'd you watch it: Amazon
Christmas at the Plaza (2019) *** Christmas at the Plaza started off pretty exciting for me: A historian is hired to curate a historical installation about Christmas throughout the years at The Plaza Hotel. She is is teamed up with the very cute and personable professional Christmas decorator. Unfortunately, the writing forewent usage of any interesting plots/subplots. They missed the most the obvious, which was to have the historian show why studying history is important since one of her issues was that her profession is so under appreciated. Instead, they took the easy trope-route to the end.
Production: Location was set at The Plaza, so beautifully authentic.
Suspension of belief: Medium
Tropes/sub-genres: Modified enemies-to-lovers; You're boyfriend ain't right for you
Diversity: Just a sprinkling in the supporting cast
Production Co: Hallmark
How'd you watch it: DVD checked out from the library
A Christmas In Royal Fashion (2018) *** Rewatching this I noticed something: the audience is supposed to hate the evil boss, but if one of your employees impersonates you, wears your clothes and risks an important account, you’d fire them too.
Christmas Sitters (2020) *** An ambitious career woman (Ha!) is asked to babysit her old friends's kids while she is stuck in Europe. The career woman is doing an awkward job until the friend's brother-in-law makes a surprise appearance. He is the fun to her serious, but they both prove that they are skilled and flawed in their babysitting tasks.
Tropes/sub-genres: Opposites attract; Ambitious career woman; Rolling stone man; Family stuck somewhere due to unforeseen circumstances (Home-Alone-alike)
Diversity: Main characters are colorful
How'd you watch it: Ion Channel's holiday movie marathon
Christmas Together (2020) *** To get away and to figure out her life, an artist take a trip to a town called Tinsel, where she rents a house from a widowed father and his daughter. Vivica Fox shows up as the Christmasy-Cupid of a neighbor. Simple, but cute.
Tropes/sub-genres: You're boyfriend ain't right for you; Woman falls for loving father (figure) and child aka insta-family
Diversity: Main characters are colorful
How'd you watch it: Ion Channel's holiday movie marathon
Beaus of Holly (2020) *** I was expecting something different here, but I guess two men interested in one woman is enough for a 90-minute film. A control-freak plans the perfect romantic holiday getaway for her and her boyfriend, including a proposal. Instead of saying “yes,”he breaks up with her and leaves. She decides to stay and try to enjoy her plans, which didn't include falling for the concierge or having to figure out what she wants when the ex shows back up.
Tropes/sub-genres: You're boyfriend ain't right for you; Love triangle; Opposites attract; Control freak learns to relax
Diversity: Some of the main characters and supporting characters are colorful
How'd you watch it: Ion Channel's holiday movie marathon
Operation Christmas Drop (2020) *** A senator's aide is sent to a military base in the South Pacific to assess it for possible closure. Her escort turns out to be a philanthropic officer who cares about the indigenous people and his fellow soldiers. Cute story that exhibits the Christmas spirit on a tropical island, but no real chemistry builds between the main characters.
