My Policeman

Yesterday afternoon I decided to cross another movie off my very long list by seeing My Policeman.  I was quite moved by this heartbreaking story about the consequences of being forced to live a lie.  In the present, Patrick Hazlewood (Rupert Everett) suffers a debilitating stroke and goes to convalesce with his estranged friends Marion and Tom Burgess (Gina McKee and Linus Roache, respectively).  They seem to have a lukewarm marriage and Tom bitterly resents Patrick's presence, refusing to see or speak to him.  The timeline then shifts to 1957 when Tom (Harry Styles), a policeman from a working class background, begins seeing a sophisticated schoolteacher named Marion (Emma Corrin) and starts trying to improve himself to impress her.  When Tom meets a museum curator named Patrick (David Dawson), the three of them are soon spending all of their time together because Patrick and Marion have a lot in common. However, it turns out that it is Tom who Patrick loves and they begin a secret affair.  Tom is conflicted about their relationship because he is a policeman and homosexuality is illegal in Britain so he decides to marry Marion for protection while continuing to see Patrick.  Marion eventually learns the truth and takes drastic steps to keep Patrick out of their lives.  Back in the present, Marion, Tom, and Patrick must finally reconcile their past actions in order to live more authentically.  The story is so tragic (and compelling) because all three characters are faced with an impossible situation due to the repressive era in which they live and there were several moments that brought tears to my eyes.  I loved the cast, including Styles who has been much maligned for his acting.  I thought he was fine in Don't Worry Darling but I think he is much better in this role because he is incredibly charismatic and has so much chemistry with both Dawson and Corrin.  They also give really solid performances and there is a particular scene where Corrin is absolutely devastating without even saying a word.  McKee, Roache, and Everett do a great job as the older versions of these characters but I wish that they had more to do because I wanted to know more about them.  I loved the aesthetic of this movie because everything, including the setting along the coast, the production design, and the costumes, looks gorgeous (I love period movies).  This is another story about a forbidden same-sex relationship like we have seen many times before but it is an important one and is definitely worth watching, especially when it streams on Prime Video starting Nov. 4.

Black Adam

Last night I saw Black Adam with a large and rowdy crowd and, even though there are some flaws, I really enjoyed it!  When archaeologist Adriana Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) goes looking for the Crown of Sabbac once owned by the tyrannical King Ahk-Ton, Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson) is awakened from the tomb he was imprisoned in for 5,000 years.  He discovers that his home of Khandaq is being oppressed by an organized crime syndicate known as Intergang and brutally slaughters many members.  Adriana believes that he is the Champion, endowed with the powers of Egyptian gods by an ancient wizard, who ended the reign of Ahk-Ton and hopes he can liberate Khandaq once again.  However, his violent actions alarm Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) and she contacts the Justice Society of America, including Carter Hall/ Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Kent Nelson/ Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Al Rothstein/ Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), and Maxine Hunkel/ Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), to capture him.  When Ishmael Gregor (Marwan Kenzari), the leader of Intergang and the last descendant of Ahk-Ton, gains control of the Crown of Sabbac and its powers of Hell after kidnapping Adriana's son Amon (Bodhi Sabongui), the JSA forms an uneasy alliance with Teth-Adam to defeat him.  While there is a lot of exposition which sometimes becomes very convoluted, I really liked the exploration of what it means to be a hero with an interesting twist about the role of fate.  The introduction of the JSA characters, particularly Doctor Fate, is a lot of fun and I hope we see more of them in the future.  Johnson's performance is a bit more subdued than we usually see from him but I think it works for the character as he reconciles who he was with who he needs to be and I loved his deadpan humor, especially in his interactions with Hodge's Hawkman (I enjoyed their conflict more than the conflict with the main villain).  Brosnan is another standout for me because he steals every scene he is in and I enjoyed his relationship with Hawkman.  Finally, the non-stop action sequences had my late night crowd cheering out loud and, even though there is more spectacle than substance, this kept me actively invested in the outcome.  I get some of the criticism of this movie but I had a lot of fun with it and I recommend it to fans of the DCEU.

Note:  You have no doubt heard by now that there is a very exciting cameo in a mid-credits scene!  This elicited cheers from my audience (and from me)!

Triangle of Sadness

Another film that has received a lot of buzz from the fall film festivals (it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes) is Triangle of Sadness and I finally had a chance to see it at the Broadway last night.  I laughed out loud during the entirety of this dark comedy and I was not alone!  A fashion model named Carl (Harris Dickinson) and his influencer girlfriend Yaya (Charlbi Dean) are given a free luxury cruise in the Mediterranean Sea aboard a $50 million superyacht.  The head steward Paula (Vicki Berlin) insists that the crew indulge the whims of the wealthy passengers, even when one of them insists that every member of staff go down the slide into the water which delays dinner, while the intoxicated captain, Tom (Woody Harrelson), hides in his cabin and the mostly Filipino cleaning crew slave away behind the scenes.  After an attack by pirates, a small group of passengers including Carl and Yaya, a Russian oligarch named Dimitry (Zlatko Buric), a debilitated stroke survivor named Therese (Iris Berben) who can only speak one sentence in German, and a lonely tech millionaire named Jarmo (Henrik Dorsin) land on what they believe to be a deserted island with a member of the cleaning crew named Abigail (Dolly de Leon) and a mechanic named Winston (Oliver Ford Davies).  The power dynamic of the group shifts with comedic results when Abigail is the only one who has any survival skills.  This is an absolutely hilarious social satire taking aim at the vacuous and shallow idle rich.  My favorite scene is when the passengers are invited to an incredibly pretentious dinner with the captain during a violent storm causing many of them to become seasick which, despite the fact that it involves just about every type of bodily fluid, is a lot of fun and serves to dismantle class divisions in an absurdly amusing way.  I really appreciated the message that people should not be judged solely on their wealth or looks but rather their knowledge, abilities, and experience and that it pays to treat the people who serve you with kindness and respect.  The cast is fantastic but de Leon gives a standout performance in the third act and I am still thinking about her character's actions in the final scene.  I recommend seeing this wildly entertaining film with the biggest crowd possible!

Happy Birthday Tashena

Last night we celebrated Tashena's birthday early (it is actually at the end of the week) by going to dinner (Chuck-A-Rama), having cake (the traditional ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins), opening presents, and playing Shanghai Rummy!

I can't believe that she will be 22!

Pumpkin Carving 2022

Yesterday my family got together for our annual pumpkin carving party and we had so much fun.  We have been doing this with Sean and Tashena since they were really little and every year I wonder if it will be the last time because they will have outgrown it but Sean called me specifically to remind me to buy pumpkins!

I really love this tradition and I think our pumpkins turned out really cool this year!