Out & About – Page 190

Hostiles Does Go On

The review:

Scott Cooper’s Hostiles is full of good acting and is so very long it seemed as if a presidential administration had passed by the time I got to the last frame of the movie.* This was an interesting study of a quasi-kumbaya journey wherein an Army Captain comes to a deeper understanding of the treatment of American Indians and his part in it. I’m all for re-examining the many effects Westward Expansion/genocide had on the people who were already here, but I found this story to be mostly unbelievable.**

The verdict: Skip

Cost: Netflix subscription ($8.99/month)
Where watched: at home

Consider watching instead:

The Rider
Smoke Signals
Wind River (another white people movie, but calls out the many unsolved murders of Indian women on reservations.)

Further sentences:

*Good acting is good and all, but when the story is dragging its feet, good acting isn’t enough.
**Plus, it’s another Native American story told via the white people’s experience. Plus the body count was very high, and guess who made it to the final frame and guess who ended up dead? Plus, I didn’t believe the final arrangement of people. Not gonna work. Pretending so overlooks a lot of history.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The book Captain Blocker (Christian Bale) is reading at the beginning of the movie is Julius Caesar’s Commentarii De Bello Gallico (The Gallic War) in the original Latin. The page shown is from Book V, describing the social and economic structure of first century B.C. ancient Kent. In 55 B.C., Caesar invaded briefly the south of the England.
(Thanks, IMDB commenter who can read Latin)

Cats

A quick check in with the cats who live at the Orange Door.

Antares is quite good at hiding his nose. It’s very cute.

Sentinel is looking more and more like an old kitty every day.

Hustlers is Worth Your Dollar Bills

The review:

Lorene Scafaria has made my favorite kind of movie with Hustlers: that which seems to be about one thing, but which is, in fact, about another.* While you could get distracted (as those guys at the strip club did) by all that flesh, in Scafaria’s deft hands this is not a movie about women who remove their clothes for economic gain, it’s about women who game a system that puts them at the bottom of the billions that are made by exploiting women’s bodies. Excellent performances all around** and there’s a lot of heart in this film.

The verdict: Recommended

Cost: $6.70
Where watched: Studio One Theaters

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*I think it helps that it was a woman who wrote this story. Despite the various stages of undress, this was a film absent of the male gaze.
**Jennifer Lopez is such a commanding presence. The range of emotions on Constance Wu’s face was amazing. It’s great to see Mercedes Ruehl and I’m always happy when Julia Stiles is on screen.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Jennifer Lopez trained for pole dancing in preparation for the movie. She even had a detachable pole in her house.

Hot Summer Nights Gave Me What I Was Looking For

This is not a good likeness of Timothée Chalamet

The review:

Elijah Bynum gave me what I wanted with Hot Summer Nights* and also included a bonus side of 1991-era Cape Cod summer.** This is supposedly about a normal teenager who becomes a drug dealer, but really, it’s about showing how much money he and Hunter Strawberry (that was the local drug dealer’s name!) made selling drugs,*** falling in love with a girl, and making some not-great (though age-appropriate) choices. The part where I was supposed to be getting amped up came across as boring, and it’s one of those movies that I spent the next day thinking about all the things that didn’t really make sense,**** but it hooked me up with what I needed on a Friday night and thus was just fine.

The verdict: Good

(barely)

Cost: free via Kanopy, Multnomah County Library’s streaming service
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching/watching instead:

Further sentences:

*I had a hankering for a Timothée Chalamet performance, and Call Me By Your Name wasn’t handy
**Plus, I’m betting they didn’t have much money for the soundtrack so it features lesser known (a.k.a. not cliched) music of the time.
***There is not one scene of Mr. Chalamet actually dealing the large amount of drugs they were supposedly dealing
****The narrator is just the omniscient town observer, for instance. Was that just lazy writing? What about main character motivation? Why was Chalamet’s character wanting to continue to expand the business? The questions went on and on.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Part of the movie takes place around The Perfect Storm of 1991. William Fichtner (Shep), also appeared in The Perfect Storm (2000), a movie based on the true story of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat that was lost at sea during the storm.

I see you, typo. But I’m not going to fix you. Never trust the grammar on the IMDB quotes page.

New Phone! Google Pixel 3a

I made the switch from Virgin Mobile to Google FI. Both plans are similar: low monthly cost and you buy your own phone. Google FI has a variable rate for data and I might be able to lower my monthly charge slightly.

On the left, the new phone. On the right, the old phone.

I gave my usual three-minute search for a case. The new case (left) isn’t as good as the old one.

We shall see what the Google Pixel has in store for me.

Annihilation Will Spark a Good Post-Movie Discussion

The review:

Alex Garland’s Annihilation is yet another quality flick, especially good for post-viewing discussion.* To say again what many are saying in all realms of life: representation does matter and I loved that women were the people doing the exploring in this movie.** It’s a visually stimulating movie with great performances; while Natalie Portman is her usual excellent self, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, Tessa Thompson and Jennifer Jason Leigh were all wonderful to watch as they explored the Shimmer.

The verdict: Recommended

Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched, at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Annihilation is good for dates early in the relationship, Garland’s previous Ex Machina is good for a more established couple.
**Number of movies I can think of where an all-woman team bands together to get things done: One. Ocean’s Eight. Number of movies where an all-man team bands together to get things done: roughly 3000.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Oscar Isaac filmed this movie and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) on adjacent studio lots. He had the same trailer for both films and would often film scenes for both movies on the same day.

Last Days for this Fire Escape

The window outside the kitchen area at my work is the one that goes to the fire escape. This is the same fire escape that the robbers came in through to steal three computers, a projector and a throw rug to carry them all out with. But they’ve put a better lock on it since then.