Sara spruced up this postcard that I think was designed so someone could color it. But neither the sender nor the receiver enjoys coloring. Good job with the gold ink, SKS!
Sara asks about our snowstorm (thoroughly covered on this platform!) and tells me about Northern California winters which have a lot of rain and a sunny day to lighten the gray days. No snow for them, though.
The stamp on the card is one of the ones from the snowy day series. Very on brand!
?Directed by Michael Fimoganari?
?Written by Katie Lovejoy?
I mean, it’s exactly as good as the previous two films and Lana Condor and Noah Centineo are made for each other, at least in this film. All the things you’ve enjoyed before are back, and they manage to have a few will-they-or-won’t-they moments, even after two other movies with such moments. This was a solid ending to the trilogy.*
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99)
Where watched: at home
*I’m assuming its a trilogy. There are only three books.
The author of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy Jenny Han made a small cameo as Principal Cho in a flashback of the day Peter first saw Lara Jean.
?Directed by Chloé Zhao?
?Written by Chloé Zhao?
There are few well-known actors I can think of who could play Fern so convincingly,* and I’m thankful Nomadland’s Fern was Frances McDormand. If you haven’t seen any of Zhao’s films before, you might not think that an ambling narrative about people who live in their vans would be interesting, but you would be wrong.** If you’re looking for a moving story of a woman determined to be on her own, take yourself to wherever this film is playing.***
Cost: I paid Matt $6.00, he’s paying the monthly Disney+/Hulu subscription fee
Where watched: at home
*Being a woman and an actor in the USA generally means avoiding aging. McDormand has aged along with the rest of us, which makes her very relateable.
**If you’ve seen Zhao’s other films (The Rider or Songs My Brothers Taught Me) you would know she’s a pro at mesmerizing viewers using landscape and the real people’s lives she’s woven a narrative from.
***I remain intensely curious about what Zhao’s Marvel movie will be like.
Frances McDormand nicknamed the van used in the film “Vanguard,” which she decorated with her own personal items and slept in during the shoot. Eventually she stopped doing so because “it’s much better for me to pretend to be exhausted than to actually be exhausted,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
?Directed by William Wyler?
?Written by Howard Koch?
From the first dramatic scene to the last, this movie is plenty of fun.* Bette Davis is both flip and overwhelmed as a woman who had to kill her neighbor when he tried to assault her.** But once a letter floats to the surface, we see the difficult choices her lawyer must make.***
Cost: $2.99 via Google Play
Where watched: at home
*Death comes in both of those scenes, so we’re not talking barrel of laughs fun, but there’s something about how overwrought everything is that is so incredibly enjoyable.
**So she says.
***All leading to a very dramatic ending.
Note: This was filmed in the 1940s and is set on a rubber plantation. In terms of racist portrayals it’s not great. I’ve seen much, much worse though.
The first scene that William Wyler shot was the famous opening shot in which we see Leslie shoot Geoffrey Hammond. The opening shot, which lasted two minutes on screen, took an entire day to film, and that was before even a single word of dialogue was spoken. The studio expected him to shoot at a rate of 3-4 script pages a day, but the opening shot reflected a mere paragraph on page one.
…if Matt’s name was Kevin.
While we only had one major snowstorm this winter, it really knew how to stick around.
This guy is a cheery one, with a fun face and chest hair details.
I assumed we would get the usual light dusting, but the snow turned into a proper snowstorm. There was shoveling to be done!
We went on an early morning walk and here’s what we saw:
This friend knows how to protect the windshield wipers against the dreaded ice.
We found whole blocks with no footprints! Very exciting. We also mailed some letters and did a bit of shopping at Fred Meyer. I came home soaked in sweat. Walking through snow is a workout!
I enjoyed these carrot tops in the window of a Kenton restaurant.
A certain global pandemic has left me mostly unsurprised by things. So I can’t say that I was aghast when it started to snow in mid-February for the first time all winter. But it was a fun break from the routine.
Plus, since a lot of us are working from home, we already know how to work from home. Easy-peasy.
This little friend stopped by for a snack.
