Rebuffed

On a date once

in my drinking days
a second date

with someone I had known

for a number of years

towards the end

I floated the idea

of a third

and she said

"I like you,

right now you're very sweet,

but you have a temper."

never before

had I been so simply

and honestly rejected

I was incensed

went home

railed against her

to my friends

for her callousness and judgement

and held a grudge

but the truth is

I was upset

because she had seen me

summed me up

with a startling efficiency

and respectfully declined.

'Cocaine Bear' A Review

Cocaine Bear is a horror comedy, loosely based on a 1985 true story about a black bear ingesting cocaine dumped by a drug runner. The movie opens on said drug runner dumping duffle after duffle full of coke into the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. The next day various groups of people converge on the forest for various reasons only to be confronted by the titular and murderous creature.

The ensemble cast is extensive and full of talent- Alden Ehrenreich(who has been mostly MIA since Solo), Margo Martindale, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Ray Liotta(in his last on-screen appearance)- to name a few. It's a big cast, maybe too big, but they all are able to carve out a bit of time to do some interesting/eccentric/funny character work. But the script moves a bit too slow, the plot given unnecessary attention(for a movie called Cocaine Bear at least), there's too many varying character arcs that are hinted at but not actually developed. It's just messy.

There's also the issue of tone, its not funny enough and its not gruesome enough and has streaks of confusing sincerity that just muddle the waters. It's a big swing, there's a lot of ambition here and a lot of talent but narratively there's a lot of confusion. Director Elizabeth Banks gets the job done admirably as does the cast but the script needed to be tightened up considerably for it to deliver on the hype.

Fun but thin.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Stream It.

Interrogation

This stranger asked me
"are you happy?"

and the answer is yes

but it is presumptuous

to ask the question

and he doesn't deserve any part

of my hard won joy

earned as it was

with time and trial and effort

even my confirmation

of its existence

I withheld

because I have seen

vampires like him before.

LA Visit

 Been in LA the past couple days to visit Jimmy and his family. Really wonderful, relaxing trip. I'd never much cared for LA before but this time tried to plan less, not have much of an agenda, and just go with the flow a bit more which worked out.

Street Food

I was more impressed
by the beef head taco
I ate on the street

leaning on a concrete divider

in front of the Target parking lot-

hands greasy, mouth tingling

the rotisserie al pastor glistening

the spiced meats smoking

the fresh tortillas being grilled

all under the make-shift tent-

than anything I have had

in an actual LA brick-and-mortar

I'll take offal

over avocado toast

any day.

How To Win Friends And Influence People

The key to conversation
and perhaps some aspect of charm

is to identify points of interest

areas of expertise

given how my new acquaintances

seriously discussed the validity

of Avatar 2

and didn't recognize the director James Mangold

I knew movies were out

but I got the impression these guys were foodies

or perceived themselves as such

so asked them the correct questions-

best donut, best pie, best diner-

to let them talk and debate

gave them space to feel knowledgeable

while I got more suggestions than I could possibly use

this is how you make a new contact feel good.

'Magic Mike's Last Dance' A Review

Magic Mike's Last Dance is a dramedy, the third installment in the series, that pick's up Mike(Channing Tatum) after he has lost his furniture business because of COVID and is now bartending in Miami. At a charity event Mike's working he meets Max(Salma Hayek) and after some cajoling gives her a dance(the best scene of the movie, probably one of the best of the year). The two connect and Max offers to take Mike to London for an unspecified opportunity(which turns out to be staging a show that looks remarkably like Magic Mike Live).

Tatum, mostly a fault of the script, wavers in and out. The Mike we've come to know over the previous two films is only somewhat present, there is a lot of illogical plotting as well as the relationship with Max that is underdeveloped and overleveraged that result in a lot of struggle with the performance. For the most part Tatum gives us his charm and ease but much of the conflict doesn't make much, if any, sense and he gets lost in it. The same is true of Hayek, she is a star and we love watching her, however she too is bogged down in some of the pairs unnecessary machinations. The two soar in the first extended sequence, everything after fails to reach that peak. The supporting cast is basically limited to Max's daughter(Jemelia George) and butler(Ayub Khan Din) both of whom are great but given little screen time and little character which to develop. The dancers are all unnamed, are clearly professional dancers, have no lines but do have the movie's other stand out(albeit too brief) scene- the bus sequence.

Say this for Soderbergh the movie looks fantastic. It is shot beautifully, costumed perfectly, scored subtly. Soderbergh the craftsman is still at the top of his game. But after the first 15 minutes the script is in absolute free fall. Magic Mike was a thriller, Magic Mike XXL was a joyous roadtrip comedy this is some amalgam of those plus romance, it doesn't work and it fails to recognize(bafflingly) why the previous two films were successful. It mostly jettisons or confuses the themes in the previous installments that made them so refreshing and engaging. The working class perspective is sacrificed for the tribulations of the wealthy(we don't care). The depiction of supportive male friendship is left off for a romance that simply doesn't make sense, doesn't work, and works against the palpable chemistry and talent of it's leads(see the first scene). Not to mention the female empowerment and affirmation of Magic Mike XXL which worked so well because it was mostly subtext, mostly just shown to us, here is made bludgeoning ineffective explicit text. And the last third plays more like a behind-the-scenes of the stage show than an actual movie. It's not terrible just disappointing.

Despite a stand-out opening Magic Mike's Last Dance lands with a thud.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to HBO Max.

Stream It.

'80 For Brady' A Review

80 For Brady is a comedy about a group of friends, Patriots/Tom Brady superfans, who decide to go to the 2017 Super Bowl.

The four leads are all national treasures, no doubt about it, and all really show up and commit both to the sports angle and to the comedy but Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda struggle a bit, not through any fault of theirs, but because their storylines are a bit more clunky and as a result the performances more forced. Sally Field and Rita Moreno fair better, perhaps because they function more as supporting roles to Tomlin and Fonda, they are able to play more, ground more of the comedy in authentic emotion creating what feel like more dimensional characters. Not that Tomlin and Fonda are fake but they are saddled with more, unnecessary, exposition and conflict and have to work overtime to make it work. The supporting cast is stacked and a lot of fun- Billy Porter, Ron Funches, Alex Moffat, Rob Corddry, Jimmy O. Yang, Sara Gilbert, Guy Fieri- the list goes on. 

Visually, like most comedies, there isn't much of an angle, very basic, nuts and bolts. The costuming on the other hand is off the charts, all the wigs and outfits are a real delight. The soundtrack is effective if not particularly inspired. All in all the production elements work. It's a fun ride and a treat to see a film helmed by four older legendary actors. But the script gets in its own way, there are some great scenes and sequences(A high Moreno stumbling into a porker game, Tomlin and Field dancing, Field at a spicy wing eating context, Fonda having an impromptu book signing for her erotic fan fiction) but a lot of the time is wasted by faux-problems manufactured for plot and emotional hurdles that don't feel realistic. What we want to see is these women have fun, be funny, and spend time together punctuated by other fun characters interacting with them and we kinda get that but we also get a fair amount of unnecessary narrative noise.

A solid piece of entertainment that has a broad appeal if not quite the homerun the leads deserve.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Rent It.

Ambition

Money and position
belies the harsh transition

the perks and pleasures

cost time and pressures

the question then becomes

to what will we succumb

what life do we strive for

what sacrifice left upon it's shore

do we decide what makes life good

or are we led by society's hood

everything has a price

best to know and be precise.

'Shotgun Wedding' A Review

Shotgun Wedding is a romcom about a tropical island destination wedding that gets held up by pirates.

Jennifer Lopez(the bride) is great, JLo is a star plan and simple, charisma for days. Here she gets to go a bit big, leans into the comedy in a way she doesn't usually get to in her romcoms, and its really fun. The performance is sometimes silly and that's not something JLo usually allows herself to be. Josh Duhamel(the groom) doesn't fair as well, the first third of the movie he really struggles to find his footing with his own performance and with his chemistry with JLo. It's a bit of bizarre casting but he came onto the project late(replacing Armie Hammer) and does find his footing as the movie gains momentum. But JLo deserves an A-list co-star and it is clear the movie suffers, and JLo is forced do more of the heavy lifting as a result, what would the movie be if it was Seth Rogan or Timothy Olyphant or just another actor with a bit more wattage. The supporting cast is stacked-  Jennifer Coolidge, Cheech Marin, D'Arcy Carden, Callie Hernandez- but almost universally don't have enough to do, the one who does, bafflingly is Lenny Kravitz the only not-really professional actor in the bunch. They're all fun but it just seems like a wasted opportunity to not give them more.

Visually vivid with nice location shooting and minimal green screen work but with the standard nondescript romcom camera movement/editing. It's a fun premise(romcom come action flick), takes too long to get moving, but once it does it's an entertaining ride. There's also some thematic incongruities, both the leads are in their 50's but some of  the "relationship issues" that are shoehorned in smack more of 30-somethings, not a huge deal but odd and maybe ultimately unnecessary given the main conflict is the pirates(who are all really weird and funny especially the leader).

Diverting fun but clearly could have been something better.

Currently streaming on Amazon.

Stream It.

'Pamela, a Love Story' A Review

Pamela, a Love Story is a documentary about model/actor Pamela Anderson. Living in her hometown in Canada Anderson reflects on her career, relationships and personal life. Told through archival footage, home footage, narrated journal entries, and talking head interviews(mostly with Anderson herself) she, more or less, tells her story.

Hers is a fascinating, at times brutal, story and she's a compelling figure. Talented, beautiful, commodified to a agree by herself but then even more so by others, fame on an ugly titanic scale. But Anderson doesn't seem to have gained much perspective, doesn't seemed to have changed, doesn't offer much in the way of insights simply relays events. It does not appear as if much growth or healing has occurred. When she relays traumatic events its almost as if we are watching her be re-traumatized, have PTSD episodes on camera. Her personality seems virtually the same as it was when she rocketed to stardom as a 20 year old in the 90's, perhaps this is a result of extended disassociation, a persona that she created and inhabited in order to survive. Which is all understandable, given her past there is no judgement about her experience or how she has coped with it but what we see here is really Anderson still struggling and even if she is a willing participant in the project it feels exploitive. It is not her "reclaiming" her story because it seems as if she hasn't really unpacked and understood it herself.

She clearly has a complicated relationship with the media, sex, motherhood, and romance as well as a history of involvement with abusive men and addicts. What all that says about her or them or how she actually views these things is not delved into. Things are relayed in a factual manner, breezed over, or ignored completely(her relationship with Kid Rock is summed up by a still photograph of them with a comment from Anderson that basically amounts to "that happened"). Which is all fine, she doesn't owe the public anything, but why even do this? One of her sons says at one point about putting herself into the media spotlight "why are you doing this, this is exactly the kind of attention we don't want" to which she doesn't have an answer, I think we are left to assume she can't help herself and has never really interrogated that motivation.

I wish all the best for Anderson- peace, happiness, companionship- and have a lot of respect and admiration for her, she's a survivor, but what Pamela, a Love Story shows us is a sad, lost, middle-aged woman pinning for a prince charming that never was frantically and continually compartmentalizing the past in order to rationalize it. Is that accurate? Is that true? I don't know but its certainly not a full picture.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.