W and I saw Star is Born, both liked it. Gaga and Cooper are good, not perhaps academy award deserving as I’ve seen suggested in some reviews.
I watched HBO documentary “The Sentence”. It’s about mandatory minimum sentencing and how it affected a family. I went through several tissues by the end…
I hope Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are both nominated. I thought Bradley Cooper was wonderful. Enjoyed James Mason and Kris Kristofferson as well but was very impressed by Cooper and his needing to sing, play guitar, as well as act (and direct).
I love everything America Ferrara does. On the plane to LA I recently saw her movie Real Women Have Curves (2002) about a Latina from an underprivileged family ends up with a full scholarship to Columbia despite her parents hesitation to let her go so far from home. Having gone through the college app process twice recently, I couldn’t help be critical of the fictitious portrayal, for instances everyone knows (haha) you don’t apply in June for a September start date. But all in all she is delightful and beautiful.
I also saw Freda (Freda Kahlo) which started out good, but I missed the ending because the plane landed and I didn’t even feel bad about it. It was overexposed when it came to Diego Rivera’s philandering. I love Salma Hayek though and her performance is brilliant and she is truly beautiful despite how hard that unibrow tried to make her unappealing.
Ooh, Widows, with Viola Davis, is getting superb early reviews. 11/16.
Saw A Star is Born and D and I both really liked it. We really want to see Bohemian Rhapsody, and I hope it’s still at a theater in our area when she comes home for Thanksgiving break.
Last week we saw a wonderful documentary at the IMAX theater at Seattle Center— “Pandas”. Less than an hour long and it was fantastic, about American researchers lending support to the panda program in Chengdu. Really engaging. We loved it.
Saw A Star if Born last night. I agree that Lady Gaga was excellent, as was Bradley Cooper. I thought there were serious problems with some of the plot. I won’t give anything away, but I thought it would be more about the relationship when her star is ascending and his is waning. I also was unclear about what Ally truly wanted in her career. It was an enjoyable movie (loved the music!) but did not live up to the hype for me.
Loved Jason Isbell’s music and I hope more people find out about him from this movie.
I saw Can You Ever Forgive Me (based on a true story) - it was very good, and I look forward to reading the book - I think Melissa McCarthy is a better actress then I gave her credit for.
Jason Isbell has a great Tiny Desk concert on NPR. Really like him.
DH and I went to NYC this past weekend. On the airplane ride home, I watched two documentaries:
Being George Clooney, a very interesting look at foreign dubbing artists. They are truly artists, yet are paid peanuts for their work and relate stories about how they are given very little respect by the studios who truly do depend on them to make their films profitable overseas. Highly recommend.
Halloween, The Inside Story. Very enjoyable documentary about how the original Halloween film was conceived and filmed, as well as how it affected the film industry.
H and I saw A Star is Born yesterday. I thought both Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper were very good. I agree that the plot didn’t do well defining their relationship or what type of career Ally really wanted.
I enjoyed “A Star Is Born” very much. I agree that the script is weak in spots, but the excellent performances kept me from minding too much. I loved the chemistry between Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. And something I never thought I’d say - Andrew Dice Clay was terrific.
I prefer the 1954 version, which I think developed the characters more successfully. I loved the “La Vie en Rose” segment of the current film, but kept wishing they’d just had Gaga sing “The Man That Got Away” instead.
Yes, as much as I loved the movie and love GaGa, it just could not begin to compare to The Man That Got Away. ITA agree re Andrew Dice Clay! 
I went to see Beautiful Boy. A hard look at a difficult subject, drug addiction. It’s based on 2 books, Beautiful Boy and Tweek, written by father and son (David and Nic Sheff, respectively), each their perspective of their life during a period of time in the early 2000s. I had read Beautiful Boy when it came out and I wept for the family and the young man addicted, my brother was a heroin addict in the 70s and it tore our family to smithereens (he is clean and sober going on 41 years). Steve Carell is an amazing serious actor and Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name and Ladybird) is exceptional in this film.
It’s not a lighthearted film, and there may be triggers for some, but it is an important story and really should be seen. As Roger Ebert would have said, two thumbs up.
We went to see First Man yesterday. It was decent but not great. It needed editing, IMO. Too slow in parts. I actually fell asleep for a few minutes which I never do at movie theaters.
Went to see Bohemian Rhapsody - really loved it and so did the audience. Ahh, the music! I know there are some factual errors but it was entertaining nonetheless. The Live Aid concert - wow! Disappointed that the movie kind of ended abruptly, but otherwise it was great.
I absolutely loved everything about Bohemium Rhapsody, the music and recreations were superb and it really tugs at your heart strings. The world is a better place because of Freddie Mercury.
We just saw Bohemian Rhapsody yesterday and thought it was great. My only quibble would be that the young Freddie Mercury seemed to look more like Mick Jagger than he should, but I’d have to look at old clips of Queen and see if that’s because he did. And sometimes the actor looked like in addition to the buck teeth he had other strange implants in his mouth. It was distracting.
I want to see Bohemian Rapsody, it sounds great!
Went to see Hunter Killer, it was decent. Disconnected scenes at first and my husband kept mocking it, but once it got going, it was much better.
Went to see Old Man and the Gun on Friday night. The story is based on the exploits of Forrest Tucker–a guy who escaped from numerous prisons where the authorities sent him. He was an exceedingly polite and gentlemanly bank robber who committed bank heists well into his late 70s and couldn’t stop himself. Robert Redford played Forrest and Sissy Spacek played his love interest (Jewel). Both did a great job and have aged gracefully. Keith Carradine (one of my all time favorites starting with Nashville) also had a very small role. The movie moved a little slowly for my taste–but it was worth seeing.
Watched Miss You Already (Drew Barrymore) on Demand free movies last night and really enjoyed it. Beware, its a tear-jerker.
Going to see Bohemian Rhapsody this afternoon before the Pats game, I’m hearing really good things about it !