Category: Drama

Mercurial!

Bohemian Rhapsody – 2018

 I must admit I knew nothing of Queen, not my music era. I did visit Mercury’s Restaurant while roaming about Zanzibar. I can hum along with We Are the Champions and stomp along with We Will Rock You but I couldn’t have told you before this movie who they were by. Ergo, I watched Bohemian Rhapsody as a complete outlier. I was probably camping with my two young sons during 1985’s Live Aid Concert, missing Queen’s twenty-one minute performance, voted the greatest live performance in the history of rock, an embarrassing omission of my pop culture heritage. Mea culpa. Now, with these mildly humiliating disclosures out in public, let me enthusiastically add my vote and say I loved this movie! Everything about it entertained and held my interest: the music revolution, the band evolution, the intertwined relationships, and the rise, fall & redemption of Freddie the superstar, the musician, man, son & friend. The 135 minute film duration was engaging, intriguing and provided full throttle fascination from start through the credit roll. While I doubt the Academy Awards will align with the Golden Globes, there are better 2018 films for an Oscar nod (A Star Is Born is NOT one of them), Bohemian Rhapsody well earns the price of admission and Rami Malek’s sensational & mesmerizing performance as Freddie Mercury without question deserves nomination for Best Actor. 👍

This Peanut Butter Soothes the Soul

The Peanut Butter Falcon – 2019

Peanut Butter Falcon, what an absolutely gem of a feel-good film that kept the entire theater crowd, all six of us, in our seats through the last credit just to make sure we didn’t miss anything. No sex, no random acts of violence, no special effects, gizmos or gadgets, just a sweet, rewarding story line where the good bad guys win and the bad good guys lose. I totally predicted Zach, the runaway Downs Syndrome Southern boy wanna be wrestler, coming of age Karate Kid moment and still LOVED IT! Peanut Butter Falcon’s cast especially Shia LaBeouf as Tyler, Dakota Johnson as Eleanor, Zach Gottsagen as Zach and Bruce Dern as Carl we’re perfectly matched to their roles and to each other in this Everglades rafting odyssey. 97% Rotten Tomatoes audience rating. Seriously, I can’t begin to imagine who are the 3% that didn’t like this heartwarming film fable. Every so often I need a life timeout for a dose of happily-ever-after. Got my fix today! 👍

Don’t Hustle to See Hustlers

Hustlers – 2019

The film’s centerpiece was the relationship between Destiny (Constance Wu) & Ramona (JLo) but to me it never went any deeper than lap dance training sessions. The strip club world, a subculture completely foreign to me, should have kept my interest, but didn’t. After what felt like forever, I glanced at the time and it was less than an hour into the movie. How can pole dancing be such a bore? The shift from conventional strip dancing to a quartet of club ladies starting their own lucrative but illegal spinoff business, offered no drama or thrills. Seriously, I’m mystified why this movie doesn’t work because it has all the ingredients to be at least interesting, including being based on a true story for inspiration. JLo is an amazing physical specimen but, as one of the two main characters, simply isn’t gifted enough as an actor to carry the show beyond looking stunning in a mink stole (and a whole lot less). The ensemble of the four “strippers as close as sisters” never won me over. I always fall in love with a film’s illicit underdogs and root them on to tear down the prideful and powerful—but not in this case, they never won my affection or my cheers. Unfortunately, this movie, that could have, should have hit the big screen as a fun, tantalizing romp through an exotic underworld of beguiling women, fiercely meeting Wall Street decadence with wile and wit, never made it off the stage. 👎