Cold Sore

Gross
I know
worse yet
to have the leering blemish
pulsing from your own
trusted lip
a betrayal
of your flesh,
your home
destined simply
to endure.

'Fighting With My Family' A Review

Fighting With My Family is a biopic/sports dramedy about aspiring English professional wrestler Saraya "Paige" Knight(Florence Pugh). The movie opens in Norwich, England with Paige and Zak(Jack Lowden) as kids being brought into the family business of wrestling by their parents Patrick(Nick Frost) and Julia(Lena Headey). Flash forward and the Knights are happy but struggling to make a living operating a regional wrestling company. Both Zak and Paige get a shot at joining WWE's farm team when a scout comes to town but only Paige is tapped to go to Florida to train. Paige struggles to carve out an identity and distinguish herself in clash and battles the resentment from her brother as well as pressures from her parents.

Pugh as the lead does well and doesn't shy away from some of the more awkward or painful moments of her transformation. She is supported tremendously by the talents of the other actors playing her family. Lowden gives his character some much needed solidity and both Frost and Headey compliment and lend credence to their onscreen children. The supporting cast are all good, the story doesn't call for a ton of depth nor is that required, a throughline of relatively even sincerity is stuck to and as such there are no real performance highlights there are no missteps either.

Visually the film is relatively workman-like save for the wrestling matches and training which are all excellently choreographed and feel real and there is a substantial amount of them. For a movie about wrestling its well that there is actual wrestling in it. The narrative is balanced well not only with Paige's journey but with Zak's back in Norwich with almost equal consideration given to both. As such the movie slightly side steps some of the more well worn tropes this particular genre can fall into.

A fun, heartwarming story, straightforward but not terribly unique in its execution.

Rent It.

Oscar Rights And Wrong

Best Picture
Who won: Green Book.
Who should have won: Black Panther. In a time culturally where there has been such a push for inclusion and diversity there came a magnificent merger of this ideal and entertainment in this film which with record breaking box office as well as universal critical acclaim defined the cinematic year and should have received the top prize.

Best Director
Who won: Alfonso Cuarón for Roma. Justly earned especially for this meditative, personal film.
Runner up: As Cuarón has already won a Directing Oscar for Gravity it could have been nice to give Spike Lee the win for BlacKkKlansman another one of the years best.

Best Actress
Who won: Olivia Coleman for her layered performance as the frumpy, funny and pathetic queen in The Favourite. Justly earned.
Runner up: Yalitza Aparicio put in an incredibly empathetic and compassionate performance in Roma and was equally deserving of the win. The most egregious oversight is that Regina Hall didn't get nominated for Support The Girls.

Best Actor
Who won: Rami Malik for Bohemian Rhapsody. His Freddy Mercury is decent and the movie is entertaining but this popcorn movie displays little in terms of originality as to the biopic form or in its acting.
Who should have won: The list of nominees is particularly pedestrian this year but Christian Bale's performance was certainly more impressive as Dick Cheney in Vice. But one of the best lead performances of the year wasn't even nominated- John David Washington for BlacKkKlansman.

Best Supporting Actress
Who won: Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk. Despite the films limitations King soars in her limited role. Justly earned.
Runner up: As an alternative Amy Adams once again proves her talent and is overlooked. She is now 0 for 6. Hopefully Adams will get the win she so rightly deserves in the years to come.

Best Supporting Actor
Who won: Mahershala Ali for Green Book. Unquestionably an outstanding actor, one of the greatest of his generation, look no further than the currently airing True Detective season 3, but he just won the same award two years ago.
Who should have won: Sam Elliot for A Star Is Born. A cinematic legend, never honored, gave the most compelling of the films entire cast. This would have been a great opportunity to justly honor a career actor.

Best Original Screenplay
Who won: Green Book. One of the Farrely brothers shouldn't win an Oscar. Full stop.
Who should have won: First Reformed was a singular, engaging, if frustrating film from legendary screenwriter Paul Schrader. It was time for him to win the gold.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Who won: BlacKkKlansman. After changing the cinematic landscape and countless films that will live on in the cinematic lexicon Spike Lee finally gets the gold. Justly earned.

Best Documentary
Who won: Free Solo a visually striking film with a flat, borderline unlikable subject at its center. Substantially undeserving of the accolade.
Who should have won: Minding The Gap a unique, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful investigation of domestic violence and that mostly unexplored but oft repeated phrase "toxic masculinity".

Best Animated Feature
Who won: Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse. Diverse in cast, conception, and animation style this late year release gets the recognition it deserves. Justly earned.

Best Live Action Short
Who won: Skin. A particularly heavy handed and clumsy psuedo allegory on race. The nominees, almost categorically, were dismal using trauma as plot device with little to no discernible intention or purpose.
Who should have won: Marguerite. As the only nominee with actual real life emotions this simple story of an aging woman finally coming out is poignant if a bit on the nose.

Best Animated Short
Who won: Bao. Cute but serious Pixar continues to dominate the animated shorts category.
Who should have won: Weekends. With a different animation style and darker subject matter this short goes beyond

Best Editing
Who won: Bohemian Rhapsody. The editing in this movie is sufficient but there is no style, no real artifice about it.
Who should have won: BlacKkKlansman. As always with a Spike Lee film, it has flair and uses the cinematic language to propel the plot along with his production design and performances. The crosscutting section near the end of the film is one of the best scenes of the year.

Lost In The Woods

When you're lost
and overcome
there are things
you can do
immediate concerns
that can be addressed
shelter
which you can build
food and water
which you can find
escape
which you achieve
one step at a time.

Action
is the watchword
Progress
the ideal
Forward
the direction
Balance
in routine.

'Isn't It Romantic' A Review

Isn't It Romantic rom-com satire about a NYC architect Natalie(Rebel Wilson) unlucky in and pessimistic about romance she grinds it out at her job frequently undermined by co-workers. After being mugged and hitting her head she awakens in an alternate rom-com version of her life. A client of her firm, handsome glob trotting business man Blake(Liam Hemsworth), falls in love with her but during the process she realizes her sense of self not her relationship with a man is what could be the missing link.

Wilson brings her considerable charisma to bear in what is, in essence, a by-the-numbers rom-com despite its meta attempt at subverting the genre. The script consistently veers more toward convention and as such Wilson's brashness, wildness, and fluid physical comedy aren't necessarily properly utilized. She's still a compelling lead but her singular skills aren't really incorporated. Hemsworth is decent enough as the faux-Richard Gere but isn't given much to do outside of play the same 2D beats over and over again, not to mention it is almost impossible not to compare him to his more dynamic brother. Adam DeVine as Natalie's best friend Josh once again proves he is one of his generations under utilized talents, grounding scenes in his affable periodically sophomoric charm. The movie doesn't squander Wilson's and DeVine's proven and infectious chemistry but it doesn't lean into it either. The cast is mostly wonderful, with some inspired choices, but the story they inhabit doesn't live up to their potential.

Isn't It Romantic is a short and sweet funny little twist on the rom-com but suffers under the burden of convention much like last years I Feel Pretty it doesn't do anything particularly new with the genre but what is new is the lead. Hopefully as time goes by Hollywood will continue the gradual change it has instituted in the past couple years and we will get more and more rom-coms(and all genres for that matter) lead by different types of women.

Rent It.

Pull Out Method

Hard to believe
but I have peers
who regularly practice
contraception
via urban legend
and as much as ignorance
is an excuser when a teen
for burgeoning or even
fully realized adults
faith in the effectiveness
of pulling out
is neigh on insanity
perhaps you read this
and bristle
as you are one of these unfortunates
and feel slighted and shamed
Rightly so!
Yes!
I am antagonizing you!
Not with the intent to belittle
but in desperate pleading hope
that you reconsider
in our age of fact itself
being questioned
we have a responsibility
to act responsibly.

'Happy Death Day 2U' A Review

Happy Death Day 2U is scifi/slasher/comedy, a sequel to the 2017 sleeper hit. The movie opens on Ryan(Phi Vu) the roommate of Carter(Israel Broussard) the boyfriend of Tree(Jessica Rothe) as Ryan wakes up in his car, bursts in on his roommate and Tree, flees to his lab where he is working on a quantum reactor, later he is killed and relives the day over. Tree has just escaped the same problem and they pinpoint the reactor as the culprit. During a confrontation with the Dean the reactors goes off and shunts Tree into an alternate dimension where she is, once again, stuck reliving May 18th the same day as the original but this time everything she knows about her life is different.

Rothe once again brings her ease and charm to bear to shoulder the majority of the weight of the movie however this, unlike the predecessor, has a bit more of an ensemble feel focusing more on the machinations and minutia of time travel and the alternate worlds theory and less on the arc of Rothe's character Tree. This to the movie's somewhat detriment, Rothe is still the funny and resilient heart at the center of the story but isn't given full center stage and as such some of the infectious and intimate fun of the original is lost. The rest of the cast are all game, lightly charming, and keep the fun propulsive the emotional dimension (a supporting storyline but still apparent in the original) is mostly abandoned here. And the reality is it is Rothe's show and aside from a fun suicide montage and Sophie's Choice kind of after thought she isn't allowed to bring her full potential to bear.

A relatively low budget, fun, entertaining piece of genre bending that doesn't quite live up to the original.

Rent It.