Sorry, Baby

I really liked quite a few movies at the Sundance Film Festival this year but if I had to pick just one as my favorite it would be Sorry, Baby.  I was happy for the chance to see it again at the Broadway with my nephew last night and I loved it even more upon a second viewing.  Agnes (Eva Victor) lives in an isolated farmhouse with her best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) while the two of them attend graduate school at a small New England university.  She and Lydie belong to a cohort, including Natasha (Kelly McCormack), Devin (Cody Reiss), and Logan (Jordan Mendoza), led by literature professor Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi) and, much to the disappointment of Natasha, she is the obvious favorite.  She enjoys the praise she receives from Decker so, even though it is ill-advised, she meets with him at his house to discuss her thesis after he is forced to stay home with his sick child and he sexually assaults her.  She tries to move on from what she calls the Bad Thing by beginning a casual relationship with her neighbor Gavin (Lucas Hedges) but she can't commit and periodically suffers from panic attacks.  It is only when Lydie, who now lives in New York and is married and pregnant, comes to visit four years later that Agnes, who still lives in the same farmhouse, is teaching at the same university, still has the same rivalry with Natasha, and even has the same office that Decker used, realizes that she is stuck and must finally process what has happened to her.  This is a meditative, but often very funny, character study about surviving a traumatic experience and I found the non-linear timeline to be incredibly compelling (even more so the second time around) because the audience sees the effect before the cause.  This is a stunning debut for Victor (who wrote, directed, and starred) and I was particularly impressed by a powerful scene which features a long tracking shot following Agnes walking to Decker's house, then a static shot of the house showing the passage of time, followed by another tracking shot of Agnes leaving the house and walking back to her car.  Both the direction and the performance are absolutely brilliant because you can see that something devastating has happened by just the change in body language alone.  I was also very moved by an intense monologue in which Agnes apologizes to Lydie's baby for being born into a world where bad things happen because it is such a turning point for Agnes (I haven't stopped thinking about it since Sundance).  Finally, I really loved that Lydie simply shows Agnes that she is stuck instead of rescuing her because it is so empowering.  I am sure that this will be among my favorite movies of 2025 and I highly recommend it.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

My nephew and I finally had a chance to see The Fantastic Four: First Steps last night and I really enjoyed it.  On Earth 828, Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), his brother-in-law Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and his best friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) travel to space in 1960 and experience a cosmic anomaly that gives them superhuman abilities.  They become Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing, respectively, and use their powers to protect Earth.  Four years later, Reed and Sue announce that they are expecting a much longed for child when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), a herald for a world-eating cosmic being known as Galactus (Ralph Ineson), appears to announce that Earth has been targeted for destruction.  The Fantastic Four return to space to negotiate with Galactus and learn that he is willing to spare Earth if they give him the child Reed and Sue are expecting because he believes that the child will have immense abilities.  Reed and Sue consider it to be a price too high to pay but face backlash for choosing their child over the fate of Earth.  Will the Fantastic Four find another way to stop Galactus?  I liked that narrative foregoes the origin story and jumps right into the action and, as someone who does not know much about the Fantastic Four as characters (I haven't seen any of the previous movies), I found it very easy to understand each of their arcs and motivations without it.  I also liked that the story is a simple one about the importance of family and that it is very self-contained.  I absolutely loved the 1960s retro-futuristic aesthetic in the production design, especially with the technology and the spaceship, the costumes, and the score by Michael Giacchino.  The action sequences are great and I particularly liked all of the cool visuals in the space battle and the climactic battle.  Finally, the performances are both fun (a scene involving a car seat in the Fantasticar made me laugh out loud) and poignant with opportunities for every character to have a moment of reckoning.  My favorite was that of Kirby as a fierce mother willing to do whatever is necessary in order to protect her child and I loved her chemistry with Pascal.  I was also strangely moved by Moss-Bachrach's motion capture performance (he has some wonderful scenes with Natasha Lyonne who plays a teacher in his old neighborhood).  Admittedly, the bar is a bit low with recent MCU projects but, between this and Thunderbolts*, my interest has been reignited and I am actually looking forward to Avengers: Doomsday (there is a mid-credits scene teasing the appearance of Victor von Doom/ Doctor Doom).

Custer State Park

Marilyn and I had never been to Custer State Park so we decided to spend our last afternoon in South Dakota there.  There is a lot to do within the 71,000-acre preserve, such as hiking, camping, hunting, boating, swimming, and birdwatching (there is even a playhouse with performances during the summer) but we decided to take two of the many scenic drives.  We started with the Wildlife Loop but it was a bust because we did not see any of the 1,400 buffalo who roam freely throughout the park (we didn't see any wildlife at all).  However, our next scenic drive on the Needles Highway was absolutely spectacular with needle-like rock formations made of granite that rise up through the pine and spruce trees.

This tunnel is called the Needle's Eye (it was nerve-wracking to drive through because it is very narrow).

The entrance fee is $25 per car and we spent about five hours in the park but could have stayed all day.  It is a beautiful place and I definitely recommend visiting (go here for more information).

Crazy Horse

My family would usually visit the Crazy Horse Memorial every time we went to Mount Rushmore (they are very close to each other) and it was always interesting to see the progress from year to year.  Marilyn and I decided to visit again on this trip and we both noticed that a lot of work has been completed on Crazy Horse's arm and pointing finger since the last time we were there.  It is quite impressive.

In addition to the monument, there is a Visitor's Center which includes the Indian Museum of North America (there are some beautiful artifacts and I especially loved a beaded dress) and the Native American Cultural Center (there are often live performances).  Marilyn and I decided to see the film describing the Oglala Lakota war leader Crazy Horse, the commission by Chief Standing Bear to the Polish sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski to create a memorial to him, and the laborious process of blasting and carving the rock.  It was so interesting to learn about the contributions of his wife Ruth and about how involved his children and grandchildren continue to be today.  Admission varies from $10-$35 depending on how many people are in your car and there is a separate $5 fee to take an optional bus ride to the base of the mountain.  I highly recommend visiting the Crazy Horse Memorial (go here for more information).

This is a model of what the monument will eventually look like.

Wall Drug

As we were driving through South Dakota on one of our trips back to Canada, we kept seeing hundreds of billboards for Wall Drug.  There seemed to be more and more of them the closer we got to the town of Wall.  My dad was so intrigued by these signs he decided that we just had to stop there.  It began in 1931 as a simple drug store operated by Ted and Dorothy Hustead.  They struggled to keep it going during the Great Depression so Dorothy had the idea to advertise free ice water to anyone who visited (you can still get free ice water!) and it eventually grew to become a sprawling collection of cowboy-themed stores, several restaurants, an art gallery with over 300 paintings, a backyard area with attractions for kids (including an animatronic T-rex and a giant statue of a jackalope), as well as the original drug store.  There is even a chapel inside!  It is a major tourist attraction and it draws over two million visitors every year but, honestly, I found it a bit underwhelming as an adult (I loved it as a kid and I remember buying a big sack of polished rocks!).  Marilyn and I still enjoyed it for the nostalgia (my dad loved it and had a bumper sticker that said "Where the heck is Wall Drug?" on his car for years).  Go here for more information.

I remember getting my picture taken on this jackalope (a portmanteau of jack rabbit and antelope) when I was a kid but I can't find it now.  Fun fact:  I thought jackalopes were real for an embarrassingly long time!