Three sentence movie reviews: Now You See Me 2

The magicians are back* and up to their usual tricks, but the FBI is on their tail, as is Walter Mabry.**  There are complicating factors, and tricks and double crosses and it all holds together well if you don’t think too deeply about it. With this many good actors, the result is going to be a solid film, which this was.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home with Matt after moving three tons of flagstone.

*Though we’ve swapped out Isla Fisher for Lizzy Caplan
**There is an internal squeal of glee when Daniel Radcliffe appears first as a character; I enjoy him as an adult actor.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/now_you_see_me_two_ver15.html

Backyard: 3 tons of flagstone, placed

Here’s what three tons of flagstone looks like when it’s all stacked together.  I had a lot of anxiety around this part of the project. How much stone would it be? Would we successfully be able to keep all the cars from parking in front of the house during the delivery window? Would it completely exhaust me to do the moving of the stone?

And here’s what three tons of flagstone looks like when you place it in the backyard. And here I learned that irregular stone is just as annoying as regular stone. I thought this would be great because we didn’t have to spend so much time getting things straight and lined up properly. But instead, the slabs of stone don’t fit together nicely so there are a lot of gaps. I do like how it looks, though. and I think the color goes nicely with the house.

Thank goodness our friend Burt came and helped. It was a very big job.

Next one the list: we will fill in all those small holes with smaller rock and then fill in the spaces between with sand.

But immediately next we will go to the Kennedy School to soak in the soaking pool and then have dessert.  And then we will not do much for the rest of the day.

Comfy Inn: The motel is a changing

Stuff is going on with the former Comfy Inn. I first profiled it on the Orange Door website in this post. The motel is even featured in the first three pictures, so you don’t have to scroll far.

In the years since that post, it’s had a stint as some sort of transitional-type housing for women with children. But now, it’s in the process of being disassembled.

I assumed this was going to become another tall mixed-use building, but it seems that that is not the case. My favorite website Next Portland tells me that:

Early Assistance has been requested by DECA Architecture for a project at 8355 N Interstate Ave:

Conversion of motel to apartments. Minor changes include: New walls, doors, lighting, paint, signage, and new finishes.

This is interesting. We shall see what they will charge for apartments in a converted motel. And how will the kitchen situation work?

Three sentence movie reviews: The Rider

“It was so pretty and so sad!” said my movie-going companion. And it was, and also beautifully filmed and acted.This is another one of those “engrossing, and not much happens” films I recommend seeing in a theater, so as not be distracted by laundry and other sundry items.

Cost: $9.00
Where watched: Living Room Theater with S. North.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2018/rider.html

Three sentence movie reviews: Born to be Blue

Hey look, it’s a white guy with talent who squanders it due to drug addiction and we’re meant to be impressed by all he does to recover from the situation in which he has situated himself.  Maybe, if we are lucky, we get to learn more about the interesting women who helped him along in his journey, sacrificing her career and etc.* Ethan Hawke’s acting was good, as was Carmen Ejogo as Jane/Elaine,** but I’m over this particular kind of film.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

*No, we don’t? Not even in a sentence or two of wrap-up at the end? Harrumph!
**Her character doesn’t even have a last name!

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/born_to_be_blue.html

Excerpt from Picture us in the Light

I think about how Sandra was mean sometimes, and funny, the things we used to laugh at together, and then I let myself think about all the horrible things you think about that will never go away. I think about her parents and how they have to wake up each day and do crap like–get honked at in traffic, or get guilted for not flossing better at the dentist, and how pointless and enraging it must all feel.

I’ve grown up knowing how when you leave the world–however it happens, however it went with my sister–you take a part of it with you, like when water dries up in a creek for the summer and it’s silent and lonely and parched. This is something I know now I didn’t then, though: that almost all of us have wanted to leave it before. Maybe you always do when your days feel like one endless night closing in on you and you lose the light, grope around in darkness before it starts to feel easier to just let it swallow you altogether.

But I also know you can try to rope off that idea that somehow you’d be better off gone and set your compass to some shore beyond it. I know it can be done.

____

Art doesn’t change the ending. It doesn’t let you lose yourself that way–the opposite, really; it calls you from the darkness, into the glaring, unforgiving light. But at least–this is why it will always feel like a calling to me–it lets you not be so alone.

–Kelly Loy Gilbert

Three sentence movie reviews: Other People

This poster is heaped with praise, but I found that Jesse Plemons’s character was not very accessible emotionally and that lack of connection sank the film.  It gets marks for illustrating how parents’ homophobia can affect their gay children. But otherwise, I could have skipped it.

Cost: Netflix monthly charge
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/other_people.html

Three sentence movie reviews: 13 Reasons Why Season 2

Hannah Baker’s tapes have been disseminated beyond the original 13 people, and we rejoin our tattooed teenagers as the Baker’s lawsuit against the school is going to trial. However, Polaroids start showing up indicating that Hannah wasn’t the only one and Dylan Minnette, as Clay Jensen takes the lead in getting to the bottom of things. Good acting by all made for a discussable season that spent a lot of time focusing on the aftermath of rape, among other things.*

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home

*I think the series went too far with one character’s plot arc on that front, but we shall see if they redeem themselves in Season 3. And I did appreciate the emphasis that recovery is a long process, not something that is done with after the television season is over.

Some extra sentences: I loved this season from a story-telling standpoint. In the first season Hannah was in full control of the story. In this season other people told their story of Hannah which introduced shades of grey to everything we learned about Hannah in the first season. It made her a more sympathetic character, and more complex, too.

poster from: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/13_reasons_why/s02/