Another also-ran of the encouragement postcards Sara purchased for her students. It seemed a bit much for The Times We Live In, so I got it instead of her students.
Sara reports that she has finished her paid summer obligation and is now excited to have a break. It’s not been a great summer for Summer Sara, yet.
Kanopy. Quality films for free.
This is my first time walking on this sidewalk. Prior to this building being built, I had no reason to walk on this side of the street as it was fenced off, and maybe it didn’t have a sidewalk? But now the corner of N. Interstate and N. Argyle Street has a huge affordable housing complex, which I’m quite happy to see. And the sidewalk is great for walking on.
This house has been one of my favorites. It’s just down the street, anchoring N. Watts, right before the street loops and turns into N. Minnesota for one short block. When I first moved to the neighborhood, I’d guess that the house was owned by an older couple. They did a great job keeping it tidy, and they planted a garden in the empty adjacent lot every spring.
The house has been sold and the new owners aren’t as fastidious. [Checks Portland Maps] As I suspected, it’s owned by the Gates Family Trust, and the address is out of state. So it’s a rental. They’ve also sectioned off the lot next door, which sold for $74,900 in 2015. The owners of the lot aren’t fastidious at all, nor do they plant a vegetable garden. Instead, they seem to apply pesticides to kill the weeds now and then.
The sale of this section of land had me crossing the little green house off my list of next places to potentially live. I wouldn’t want to move in and then immediately have all my light blocked by new construction.
Directed by Sergio Leone
Written by Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Barnardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini, Sergio Leone. (And this, my friends, is where the trouble starts.)
Well, I’m two for two with finding movies beginning with “Once Upon a Time” incredibly boring.* I also loathed this film on so many levels: terrible acting,** its treatment of women,*** the fact that it tips its hand too much early on and solves the mystery.**** This film is all of these synonyms: clumsy, slow, lumbering, cumbersome, graceless, maladroit, ponderous, plus misogynist to boot.*****
Cost: Free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home
*This one was so much so that I fast forwarded through the last 10 minutes. I’d already invested nearly four hours, so I had given it my due diligence.
**The younger kids were the biggest bunch of terrible actors I’ve seen gathered together in some time.
***Not one, but two rape scenes, the one with Elizabeth McGovern being brutal. Plus some gun-on-nipple action.
****In the restored scene at the cemetery I figured out what had happened. And there was still so much movie.
*****That said, I did think the salt/balloon idea was brilliant. That three minutes of movie was great.
When filming was completed, the footage ran to a total of eight to ten hours. Director Sergio Leone and editor Nino Baragli trimmed the footage to around six hours, with the plan of releasing the film as two three-hour movies. The producers refused this idea, and Leone had to further cut the film down to three hours and forty-nine minutes.
(Yet it seemed more like six hours when watching.)
Directed by Max Barbakow
Written by Andy Siara
While it’s Andy Samberg* who gets this movie started, it’s the delightful performance of Cristin Milioti** that pushes this comedy into a fully rounded film that is something more than a funny romp through a wedding. The relationship between the two leads is the joy of the film, with a little J.K. Simmons as a disgruntled wedding guest sprinkled in for bonus fun. I went in knowing nothing, pulled the boyfriend in to watch it at J.K. Simmons’ first appearance, and greatly enjoyed myself.***
Cost: Hulu subscription (with Disney+ $12.99/month)
Where watched: at home, with Matt who also enjoyed it.
*I am mostly familiar with him through his comedy pieces like Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping
**I enjoyed her in It Had to Be You, and am hoping I get to see more than her. So far she seems to have shown up on TV series.
**That said, this isn’t a cinematic masterpiece. It’s a solid film. Don’t go in with your expectations set too high.
Palm Springs broke the record for most-viewed Hulu release in its first weekend on the streaming service.
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Written by Christopher Nolan
Nolan’s love of playing with time adds a ton to this taught, tense* depiction of a memorable event. The cast is well balanced, with mostly unknowns playing the men on the beach** and more well-known actors (and members of his informal company) handling the sea and air roles.*** I love this film for portraying how random war is, for the differing time lines, and for how much feeling wells up when those boats appear.
Nolan’s best film!
Cost: $3.99 via Redbox OnDemand
Where watched: at home
*Unlike Interstellar and Inception, Nolan never lets the narrative get away from him. It’s also a much shorter film. Coincidence?
**It is at this point that someone usually brings up Harry Styles. Yes, he is in this film. Yes, teenage girls also like him. All of those things are okay. Move on.
***“Is Michael Cain in this film?” I asked Boyfriend Matt as it started. We both did the squinting off into the distance thing while we pondered. My question was answered quickly when Cain’s voice came over the radio, talking to Tom Hardy. And the pretty-eyed Cillian Murphy made an appearance too.
In the sequence where the Spitfire ditches into the English Channel, an IMAX camera was strapped into the cockpit to film Collins (Jack Lowden) trying to get out. However, during filming, the plane with the camera still inside sank quicker than predicted. It took so long to retrieve the plane, that the IMAX camera housing filled with water, potentially ruining the expensive camera and the film inside. Christopher Nolan used an old movie technique of keeping the film wet, and shipped it back to Los Angeles, getting it processed before it dried out. The take from that scene is in the movie.
Directed by Thomas Kail
Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Recreating live theater experiences on film* is a tricky feat, and I’m pleased that this effort was a successful one.** I’m also thankful I can see a simulation of what everyone was talking about five years ago.*** I found this to be a deeply nerdy musical**** which didn’t take away from how enjoyable it was; my standouts were Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica, Jonathan Groff as King George,***** and Daveed Diggs, who was good as Lafayette, and amazing as Thomas Jefferson.
Cost: $13.00? (Matt signed us up for some combo Hulu/Disney+ deal which we will evaluate if we will continue.)
Where watched: at home with Boyfriend Matt
*Or “film” given that digital has taken over.
**Other “live” experiences I’ve taken in this year that were great: Homecoming, a Flim by Beyonce, Stop Making Sense. (Those are both concerts, though, not theater.)
***My plan was to see Hamilton on it’s second run through Portland as it was impossible to get tickets in my price range during the inaugural run. It looks like theater is paused for the foreseeable future, so I’m glad this option was available.
****Musicals are already the nerdiest of performance mediums. (And I say this as a big fan of musicals) Layering on a studious biography about early American politics increased the nerd factor exponentially.
*****I had no idea about this character and enjoyed him so much. “Sweetheart, it’s a domestic violence song!” I exclaimed during his first number.
Filmed over the course of three days in June 2016. It started by filming a live Sunday matinee performance with cameras in the audience, after which the cast and crew spent the rest of the day and evening filming close-ups, dolly shots, and crane shots. Filming continued all day Monday (normally the cast’s day off) with more close-ups and Steadicam footage. More filming took place on Tuesday morning, before shooting another live performance on Tuesday evening, with cameras again in the audience but in different positions. Lin-Manuel Miranda said, “It was basically a three-day film shoot with the best-rehearsed cast in the history of the movies, ’cause we’d all been doing the show for a year at this point.”
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood
Written by Greg Rucka
I like an action film with some conundrums* and The Old Guard served up a good story along with its fight scenes. The camaraderie of the four main characters was great,** as was KiKi Layne as she worked through her complex feelings about joining the group.*** The action scenes are well done, and I think the depiction of the motivation of pharmaceutical companies was spot on.****
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99)
Where watched: at home
*That are something other than: How will this particular fight end? (I’m looking at you, Extraction.)
**Especially good were Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli
***”She’s just a baby,” Theron says, when she first sees a glimpse of her, and there is a quiet innocence on her face. It was also on display in the very good in If Beale Street Could Talk. Though she got a BFA in 2014, so she’s probably in her late twenties.
****I published a Facebook rant about their price-gouging practices right before I turned on this movie. Also, I’m enjoying Henry Melling (the former Dudley Dursley) turning up now and then in things. He was great as the head of the pharmaceutical company and also quite excellent in the Coen Brother’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
The airplane fighting scene between Andy (Charlize Theron) and Nile (KiKi Layne) was the first sequence shot. Theron was nervous because it was the first week of shooting, the character was new and things were still being adjusted, and Layne because she had never done anything like that. Theron explained to Variety that it was done on purpose because the whole scene would set the tone for the whole relationship between both characters.
Sara reports that she and Shawn visited this store on the weekend and she snapped up the card to send to me. She also reports that she’s writing it during a meeting, but that it looks like good notetaking. Very sneaky!
As free postcards go, this is top-notch!
