Joy Ride

Last night I went to an advance screening of Joy Ride at the Broadway (there have been a lot of early screenings for this around town but I always like to support the Salt Lake Film Society whenever I can) and I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes and then I had tears in my eyes for real!  Audrey Sullivan (Ashley Park) was adopted from China as a baby and her Caucasian parents encouraged her to befriend Lolo Chen (Sherry Cola), the only other Chinese-American child in the neighborhood.  She is now a high-powered lawyer in an exclusive firm and, when she is sent to China to close an important deal, she brings the ne'er-do-well Lolo with her to translate and Lolo invites her eccentric cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) along for the ride.  In China they meet up with Audrey's college friend Kat (Stephanie Hsu), who is now a famous actress, and eventually decide to find Audrey's birth mother to impress her prospective client. When they run afoul of a drug smuggler and are removed from a train without their passports, they are forced to take a wild cross-country trip and hi-jinks ensue (my favorite is when they try to board a private jet by impersonating K-pop stars).  This is hilariously outrageous (some might find it too raunchy but I laughed out loud through the whole thing) but it also has a lot of heart with really affecting themes of friendship, empowerment, and identity.  There is an incredibly moving scene near the end about knowing where you come from that took me by surprise because it is so tender.  Each of the four characters (who are very different and defy many Asian stereotypes) have compelling arcs and the actresses playing them are fantastic with great comedic timing and genuine chemistry with each other.  It won't be for everyone (it is definitely a hard-R) but it is a really fun movie to see with a big crowd and I recommend it to fans of these kinds of comedies.

Fourth of July at the Property

I joined my sister Kristine and my brother-in-law Trent at the property for the long Fourth of July weekend and it was an amazing trip!  I love staying at the property and it was so nice to have several days to relax this time!

When we got to the property we drove around to all of our favorite places nearby (my favorite is this formation that looks like the face of a Native American chief).  Then we came back and grilled brats and sat by the fire.

The next morning we took a day trip to Moon Lake on the back end of the Uinta Mountains.  It was a bit overcast but it was beautiful (I made a reservation to stay in one of the cabins in August).

Ebony was living her best life fetching the world's biggest stick from the lake (we brought it with us when we left and she played with it later that night).

On our way to Rock Creek we saw the Upper Stillwater Dam (the water is at historic levels!).

We had a picnic at a site in the Rock Creek campground at it was so beautiful (it started raining as soon as we finished).

When we came back to the property we barbecued burgers and I made a flag cake (I make it every year even when I am camping!).  After dinner we built another epic fire and sat outside until really late.  It was such a perfect evening because it was cool and overcast but only rained for a few minutes after we went to bed!  It was the best trip!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

I am mixed on the franchise (I loved Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade but I didn't care for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and I absolutely hated Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) but I was incredibly excited to see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny last night.  While it is not quite as good as my favorites, it is loads better than its predecessor and I had a lot of fun watching Harrison Ford don the fedora in his final outing as the iconic character.  At the end of World War II, Indiana Jones (Ford) and fellow archaeologist Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) are attempting to retrieve antiquities stolen by the Nazis.  They eventually claim a part of Archimedes's Dial, which is thought to be able to predict fissures in time, and Indy decides to keep it hidden.  In 1969, Shaw's daughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) locates Indy, who has become a grouchy old man being forced into retirement from his position at Hunter College, and contrives to steal the Dial from him.  He follows her to Morocco where she tries to sell the Dial on the black market but it is stolen by Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), a former Nazi who wants to use it to go back in time to win the war for Germany.  Indy, Helena, and her sidekick Teddy Kumar (Ethann Isidore) decide that the only way to stop Voller is to find the other half of the Dial before he does and an adventure around the world ensues.  I really liked the story, particularly Indy's relationship with time and his preference for history as the world changes around him.  The action sequences are exhilarating, including a thrilling fight on a moving train, a chase on horseback during a ticker-tape parade in honor of the Apollo 11 moon landing, another chase through the streets of Tangier in a motorized rickshaw, and an epic aerial battle for the ages, but I found some of the visuals to be a bit dark and murky at times.  All of the callbacks to the previous movies are a lot of fun (the crowd cheered out loud the first time we heard Indy's iconic theme and again the first time a map showing Indy's route appeared on the screen) and I found the reconciliation between Indy and someone from his past to be very affecting.  Ford at 80 years old is still every bit the action star and delivers a great performance but Waller-Bridge steals the show and her morally ambiguous character is a great foil to Indy.  This is not the best in the franchise but it is certainly not the worst and I recommend it as a fitting farewell to the character.

Note:  Harrison Ford has now reprised the roles of Han Solo, Rick Deckard, and Indiana Jones.  Who should be next?  I'm thinking Jack Ryan...

No Hard Feelings

I'm not usually a big fan of raunchy comedies but the trailer for No Hard Feelings made me laugh and I like Jennifer Lawrence so I decided to give it a go last night.  It is a definitely R-rated but it is not as crude as I was expecting and I really enjoyed it.  Maddie Barker (Lawrence) is a bartender in Montauk, New York who supplements her income by working as an Uber driver.  After her car is repossessed she fears that she will lose her childhood home without that extra money.  When she searches on Craigslist for a cheap used car she finds an intriguing proposition.  Helicopter parents Laird and Alison Becker (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) want someone to "date" their awkward and introverted son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) to bring him out of his shell before he leaves for Princeton in the fall and they are providing a car as payment.  She takes them up on their offer but her attempts to seduce Percy go hilariously awry so she resorts to spending time with him to form a connection.  Complications ensue!  This is quite funny with lots of laugh out loud moments but I especially liked the heartfelt interactions between the two characters.  Maddie helps Percy become more social but he also helps her realize that she is just as stunted as he is and that she needs to break free from her dead-end jobs and relationships.  Lawrence has fantastic comedic timing and she really commits to all of the outrageous physical comedy.  She has great chemistry with Feldman and he is sweetly adorable (I loved his "Maneater" scene).  This was a fun time at the movies and I think that studios should make more of these mid-budget comedies (audiences agree with me because the theater was absolutely packed on a Wednesday night during the second week of the run).  Give this one a chance!

You Hurt My Feelings

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was You Hurt My Feelings, another favorite from Sundance this year.  This is a simple, funny, and honest exploration of the ways in which we deceive the ones we love in order to spare their feelings.  Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Don (Tobias Menzies) are a loving and devoted couple living in NYC.  He is a therapist and she is an author who has just finished her latest novel but, because she is feeling insecure about it, he gives her encouraging feedback.  However, she and her sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins) overhear Don tell Sarah's husband Mark (Arian Moayed) that he doesn't like her work and she is understandably devastated.  She is not appeased when he explains that he was just trying to be supportive but then she realizes how often she has been guilty of telling little white lies to those around her, particularly her son Eliot (Owen Teague).  She also realizes that she doesn't appreciate the unvarnished truth her mother (Jeannie Berlin) tells her.  The dialogue is sharp and very witty and I laughed out loud several times, especially in the scenes involving Don's bickering patients (real-life couple David Cross and Amber Tamblyn) who are juxtaposed with Don and Beth.  The cast is wonderful (I really enjoyed the interactions between Louis-Dreyfus and Watkins because they actually seemed like sisters) and the situations are very relatable because we have all told a little white lie to avoid hurting the ones we love.  This reminded me of the kind of character-driven slice-of-life comedies about quirky New Yorkers that Woody Allen used to make.  It is charming little gem and I highly recommend it.