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Reviews
May December (2023)
A fascinating character study focused on two beautiful, toxic women and the person they abuse.
I love when the director trusts the audience to absorb the visuals and not over direct our attention. It's so interesting when we see the actor (Natalie Portman's character Elizabeth) coming to meet her next subject during the family BBQ of a control-obsessed woman (Julianne Moore's Gracie) who sexually abused a 13 year old child and then made a life with him. We are dropped into a day in their lives but somehow on this beautiful day, with dogs playing and teenagers laughing, some weirdness lingers in the air, a feeling aided by the eerie music. This is a movie if you like to pick up on subtleties and delight in finding the visual clues in each shot to help inform what is really going on.
Slowly we see the actor, Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), start to emulate her subject and develop her character live time. When we watch and listen to Elizabeth alone we learn she is driven, passionate, a bit selfish, and emotionally detached from her other personal relationships. The sickest thing we see is that as she observes and learns about Elizabeth's trajectory toward sexual predator, she doesn't lament for what this ended up doing to 13 year old Joe, she's excited for how the sallaciosness will contribute to her film. She doesn't see how seducing 35 year old Joe into 2 min of extramarital bliss so she can fulfill her career goals is the 2nd time an adult woman abuses a relationship with him. And by my observation he AND Gracie suffer from that psychological phenomenon that happens when people stop developing emotionally at the age they experienced a trauma. Adult Joe still looks like a kid when he crosses his legs and goes though old love letters, and when his own teenage son gets him high on the rooftop.
In fact I think the whole point of the movie is seeing Charles Melton's character, the soft spoken and nurturing Joe, come to terms with what happened to him. As he watches his kids graduate high school he feels for them what he never got to feel for him self, a sense of spreading ones wings and taking flight toward their own destinies. A wish symbolized in his hobby of raising monarch butterflies.
We know "May December" to be a term for a relationship with a wide age spread, true for our characters Gracie and Joe, and in this case it's also the length of time Elizabeth spends with her character Gracie - from meeting the real Gracie during high school graduation time, to portraying her six months later while filming in December. And as Elizabeth recites her showpiece monologue in character - the baby born from her May December relationship with Gracie - I just kept thinkin' about Joe.
I recommend this movie the next time you want characters you can peel like onions.
A Good Person (2023)
I almost couldn't, but glad I could
I stayed for Florence. This movie was a chapter of one woman's hugely transitional moment in life when we watch her struggle with delayed grief, an oxy addiction, and an all encompassing, soul robbing, constricting grapple with grief. Florence Pugh's character, Alison, receives grace from an unlikely person, Morgan Freeman's character, Daniel. We watch Alison struggle as fleeting moments of possibilities come and go under the weight of her utter lack of purpose or worth. Despite a few comedic moments, several owned by Alison's mother played by the always funny Molly Shannon, we are really punished by having to watch Alison's struggle. And yet, we have sympathy because she's an addict and desperate. Speaking from experience I felt Pugh's portrayal of a woman wrigglying in the grips of guilt and addiction absolutely superb. Her frantic need to appear normal, but itching underneath - desperate to be nurtured, but determined to attack innocent bystanders, in the opioid haze she's resentful and impatient. All propelled by her self hate.
Zach Braff did something similar with Garden State, where the protagonist wrestles with how to live after making a nano-second mistake - one so common we can all relate, but one that changes the course of their whole lives. GS is worth checking out too.
Maybe this movie did too good a job because I almost bounced in the 3rd act thinking it was a little too emotionally manipulative. I've bailed in the 3rd act before. The hour to hour and half investment doesn't scare me if I've really had enough. Just ask the last 34 minutes of Tommy Lee Jones The Homesman, but that wasn't because the movie did too good a job.
BUT that damn Florence Pugh, she just kept me interested. PLUS I live in NJ and one of the scenes had my building in the background. So I kept watching. Glad I did. The conclusion kept it real and thus was satisfying.
I recommend the next time you're looking to feel some feels.
Somebody I Used to Know (2023)
Delightfully Surprised!
This is a sweet little movie. I think it just started playing on Prime and Alison Brie pulled me in. All the acting is good here. The dialogue is more realistic than the usual rom-com, and I didn't need to suspend disbelief as much as I usually do in this genre. It really shouldn't even go in the rom com bucket but marketing didn't know how else to sell it. Forget the labels. Yes, there's a my-best-friend's-wedding vibe, but, in a moment of self awareness, this is even addressed in a joke. The characters are likable, even the slightly shady Sean. Ally and Cassidy have authentic exchanges as two women supposedly at odds, but finding a lot of commonality. I love a coming-to-mutual respect scene topped off with a celebratory streaking! I was so pleasantly surprised by this one, it makes me wonder, why the other low ratings? Sure, some of these plot points are familiar. Yes, trying to break up a wedding last minute is cringy, but we're living in a Fast n Furious franchise world here. I don't care if we can go watch cars fly... I'm watching brain cells fly right outta my head with those ones. Franco and Brie's movie is for fun and ultimately has a great message. A sweet little movie a try next time you could use a feel good moment.