JJ

You gave me rides in your Ford Pinto
and I made you tye-dye shirts
we'd hike and smoke
drink and wrestle
talk life, love, and ambition
there was that period
you were training for the Olympics
and teaching yourself piano
while I was a shiftless college student.

We'd spend hours
at the ping-pong table
and walking through the forest
conversation and silence
equally comfortable
but time passed
I moved and became consumed
in the pursuit of liquor
and you with existential dread.

At one point, you reached out
clearly struggling
looking for a life line
and I
in the throes of self-destruction
and self-interest
blew you off
effectively closing the door
on our decade old friendship.

Time passed
and we both emerged
from our respective darkness
me, sober
and you, in med school
I hope you are well my friend
our bond of fellowship
was balm and inspiration both
it's influence will never fade.

I'm sorry
I was not there for you
I tell myself
at the time
I was incapable
which perhaps is true
but that does not mean
I forget
the debt I owe to you.

'Three Identical Strangers' A Review

Three Identical Strangers is a documentary that begins as a feel good story of lost brothers found and gradually descends into deeper, darker, and more complicated territory. The film uses a combination of present first person interviews and archival footage to unspool the story mainly from the brother's perspective.

Bobby, Eddy, and David three identical triplets were separated at birth, each adopted by different families who had no knowledge of their child's siblings. When Bobby got to college he was greeted familiarly and mistaken for Eddy who had attended the previous year. The two eventually connected and the story became national news drawing the attention of David and at 19 the three were reunited. Discussing the story further would spoil it's bizarre and heartbreaking twists suffice it to say after the excitement and joy of finding each other began to wane the brothers began to ask why they had no knowledge of each other in the first place. Their journey to the truth reveals a shocking degree of deception, moral corruption, and tragedy. It is a celebration of compassion and fellowship and a bleak investigation of ethics.

An incredibly powerful story about what it is to be human. More description would only erode it's impact.

Don't Miss It.

'Ant-Man and the Wasp' A Review

Ant-Man and the Wasp is a superhero movie, the sequel to the 2015 Ant-Man and the latest in the ongoing saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The story opens on a very cute scene with Scott Lang(Paul Rudd) and his daughter playing then after some pointless MCU plot positioning the only upside is the introduction of FBI agent Jimmy Woo(Randall Park) the narrative gradually gets moving. Scott reconnects with Hope van Dyne(Evangeline Lilly) and Hank Pym(Michael Douglas) and the three work together to search the quantum realm for Hank's long lost wife Janet(Michelle Pfeiffer). But! They are confronted by the crazed and tortured Ava Starr aka Ghost(Hannah John-Kamen).

Rudd brings his everyman charm to his superhero role and strikes a compelling balance, he is the most relatable hero of the MCU and, seemingly, the only one that actually has a job. He is relatable, fun, and funny in a way no other superhero is. Lilly, finally given a suit, soars as the Wasp. She is strong and emotional and deadly. At this point the only female superhero in the MCU that stands on her own with confidence and assurance and is the leader rather than the sidekick. Rudd is funnier but Lilly is the more proficient and effective hero. Pfeiffer only has brief screen time but is wonderful and gives the movie some much needed gravitas. John-Kamen is a stand out, easily the most complicated and compelling "villain" in the MCU since Loki. Her deadliness is tempered by her anguish and she walks this line perfectly. Scott Lang's crew now all partners in a security business have less screen time than in the first installment, unfortunately, but Michael Pena is back and deliciously upbeat and frenetic as Luis with an extended truth-serum rant that is one of the best scenes in the movie. Park isn't given much to do but he is, as always, a delight on screen.

With it's narrower narrative landscape and focus on teamwork, friendship, and family this offshoot of the MCU is the one with the most heart and as a result is the most effecting. There are scenes of the hero actually in his office working with a subplot about the business needing a crucial account to survive. This is important because it is showing real world issues and problems that the heros are involved in above and beyond(or beneath and below) alien invasions and billion doller technology. We may not relate to Tony Stark's issues with his monolithic company but we can relate to Scott Lang splitting custody of his daughter and his struggles as a small business owner.

The only thing that really holds the movie back, ironically, is its involvement and placement within the MCU cannon. There are some irritating machinations at the beginning to justify Ant-Man's non-involvement in Infinity Wars and an irritating cliff-hanger of a post credit sequence to tie it back in. This is unnecessary and undercuts the playfulness and sincerity of the movie bookended by this discordant scenes.

Fun, funny, and surprisingly uplifting.

Rent It.

Top 10 Movies Of 2018 So Far

Top 10:
Black Panther
Game Night
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami
Lean On Pete
Leaning Into The Wind
Thoroughbreds
Tully
Upgrade
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
You Were Never Really Here

Worst Of The Year Contenders:
Beast
Hereditary
Mute
Sicario 2

Backyard BBQ

Sitting in the strip of shade
cast by the wooden fence
surronded by friends
with sweating faces
munching on chips, dips,
and char kissed meats
refreshed, periodically,
by cool canned liquids
and languid conversation
I am content.

The future is still unknown
uncertain, perhaps precarious
yet the bonds of fellowship
forged by summer, grill, and holiday
hold strong and true
ambition and duty await
but tomorrow not today
not now in the setting sun
and the waning heat
and the gleeful smiles
not in this moment
which is good and simple.

'Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado' A Review

Why do we go to the movies? Simple entertainment is the most obvious answer, we go for distraction. But beyond that cinema has the potential to provide so much more. It can provide solace in times of grief, inspiration in times of apathy, adventure even relief from tedium, and hope in times of despair. It can transcend and elucidate. It can reflect back at us the society in which we live in order to call attention to various aspects and injustices within it, that we complacent or ignorant, may not see. And even within the typical summer blockbuster fair film still has this potential. Saccharine indie drama is not the only place for insight. This year, for example, the relatively straightforward comedy Game Night transcended its genre classifications to get at something truly joyous and celebratory. Especially now there is no reason for tired, reductive, rote storytelling.

Enter Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado a lazy, unclear, irresponsible, unnecessary sequel to the significantly more nuanced but flawed original. In our current political climate with the rampant US/Mexico border fear mongering the opening of the movie and the idea on which its plot is founded is either egregiously obtuse or deliberately inciting. Either way it is creatively negligent. Seemingly having no awareness of the implications of this piece of popular media the creators immediately piss away their credibility, essentially, in the cold open.

Emily Blunt as a forcibly ineffective observer to the realistic US and Mexican governments corruption and collusion with the cartels is one of the main reasons the first film works at all. The sequel is more predicated on the action-movie illogic of 90's flicks like Air Force One. In the original Josh Brolin's Matt Graver is a mysterious and darkly pragmatic, very pointedly devoid of morality. In this he inexplicably grows some kind of conscious. The same goes for Benecio Del Toro, who gives a soulful but squandered performance, although he almost makes the switch believable it is totally incongruous with the plot and the original picture. Without Blunt as the third party any kind of actual thematic resonance is lost in the action-movie-trope morass.

More Surrogates than Sicario.

Don't See It.

'Damsel' A Review

Damsel is a western about Samuel(Robert Pattinson) journeying with parson Henry(David Zellner, also written and directed by along with his brother) in toe to meet a proposed to his love Penelope(Mia Wasikowska). The film opens on an excellent scene in the middle of the desert with an old preacher(Robert Forster) bemoaning the west. We then cut to Samuel as he lands on an unnamed beach, wonders into a town, and gets the parson who he's contracted to perform his upcoming nuptials and the two venture out into the wilderness in search of Penelope.

Pattison gives a deliciously fopish electric performance. His devotion to odd indies has been paying off in his performances if not in the movies themselves(see Good Time). His got a wonderful smarmy determined petulance to him that is very complicated but intriguing. Wasikowska is given less to do but is magnetic and embodies this inverted western heroine with necessary gravity. Zellner and his brother Nathan who has an extended cameo are terrible. Flat, confusing, out-classed, and out-of-place. Zellner is so jarringly wrong that it takes Pattison's considerable efforts to make the first third of the film tolerable.

The aesthetics are classic western but the beauty of the butte and the desert are timeless. The main issue is the Zellner's performance and their script. They've attempted to subvert the classic damsel-in-distress troupe but ultimately, after a big reveal, the movie becomes patronizing woke-bro posturing. I give them credit for the attempt but after the turn the film falls apart in a meandering pointless mess. Similar to their previous film Kumiko The Treasure Hunter the story is begun with such promise but quickly devolves into a boring apathetic run on sentence. This not to mention an extended ill advised scene featuring Zellner's Parson being racist towards a Native American for seeming comic effect.

Smug, unexciting, with two excellent but squandered leads.

Don't See It.