I am always so very behind in watching movies. H & I just watched Wonder last night on Amazon Prime. It was Wonder-ful!
Love, Gilda was shown for free on CNN last night. I’m not sure if it will air on additional days or not. Great movie about the late, great comedian.
I wanted to like Mary Poppins Returns more than I did since the original Mary Poppins is so iconic to my childhood. But there is something about Emily Blunt that makes her Mary Poppins much less likable to me. It may be eye rolling or that she’s just not all that nice.
On the plane, just saw The Wife with Glenn Close and Three Identical Strangers. I knew the Glenn Close character had been helpful to her spouse’s writing career but what we learned was surprising. Then on the trip back watched RBG and Tully. RBG was really good. Ginsburg looked so frail (even before her recent health problems)- I hope she can keep going a while longer.
I watched BlackkKlansman last night. Good film, hard to listen to a lot of it. Lee did a good job of bringing in subtle humor to balance intensity.
I just saw A Star is Born - I know, very late! I thought it was beautiful and heart wrenching and lovely. About 5 minutes in my hubby looks at me and asks “is this a love story!??”
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@Barbalot I also wen to see Mary Poppins as well, with full sisters, daughters and neices entourage. I also wanted to like/love especially as it was a new story. But ugh, I also thought Emily Blunt got Mary all wrong. Played her as posh. The tone and accent was off putting and condescending. All the songs were in her comfortable range which ended making them rather flat. Lin Manuel…don’t know where to start w that. Great composer/lyricist…singing and dancing not so much. And the bmx bike like stunts??? And oh my stars…that they did not leave that Merrill Streep scene on the cutting room floor boggles the mind. The last 10 minutes saved the movie for me with those special appearances. On the upside, had a wonderful afternoon with family and enjoyed a decadent bag of popcorn!!
@Barbalot Gilda is airing again Saturday night.
I loved Mary Poppins Returns, as did my husband and sister. Got tearful more than once. Enjoyed the cameos toward the end but those were not my favorite scenes. Different strokes!
I’ve been keeping my lips zipped on Mary Poppins Returns, but I will say that I agree with Barbalot and EENYMum that it didn’t live up to my expectations. I had cried at previews in anticipation as the original was a childhood favorite. I liked it, but didn’t love it as I wanted to. I agree that Meryl Streep’s part added next to nothing.
I saw Vice on Sunday and thought Christian Bale and Amy Adams were superb in their roles. I enjoyed it.
Gotta say that I loved Aquaman 
I saw Mary Poppins Returns a couple of nights ago. Personally, I (and my spouse) loved Emily Blunt, but little else about the movie. (We liked Emily Mortimer and the lone actor reprising a role in the original, too, a lot.) The script was awful. The songs were unmemorable, and relentlessly on-the-nose didactic. Not fun. The Book-By-Its-Cover song was alright, but that was about it. It was ironic to have Lin-Manuel Miranda – a fabulous professional songwriter and completely inexperienced film actor – in the cast giving so-so performances of so-so songs he could have written 100 times better. Ben Whishaw, who has been great in all sorts of things, most recently A Very English Scandal, is a black hole of energy in this movie. There was good stuff in all of the production numbers, but there was a lot of excess-for-its-own-sake, too.
And . . . I can’t talk about it much without spoilers, but has there ever been a more blatant ode to White Privilege? Apparently, three of the biggest problems affluent white people face are: first, they have so much capital it’s hard to keep track of it; second, they borrow meaningful sums of money for consumption with no particular plan as to how to repay the loan; and third, sometimes their peers treat them as if they were common poor people and fail to afford them the sort of accommodations and leniency their class status demands.
Roma forms a great pair with Mary Poppins – a black-and-white love poem to an indigenous nanny for a privileged family going through some hard times in Mexico City, 1970. Lots of songs, but no production numbers, and no animated penguins.
We also loved BlacKKKlansman, unconditionally.
I binged Parfum on Netflix over the weekend. A German noir which is beautiful but hard to stomach, both because of the creepiness of the crime involved, and because there’s not a single significant sympathetic character in the whole six-hour production. The women are so beautiful that you want to think they are sympathetic, but you lose that illusion fast. A couple of the men are beautiful, too, but they get exposed as s-heads from the get-go. There’s no one with whom to identify, unless you really hate yourself.
Every major female character gets to spend quite a bit of time full-frontally naked on camera; the men are shot much more modestly. Really? I thought we might be past that now, but apparently not, or at least not in Germany.
One reason to watch, however, is to catch Valerie Stoll, a completely stunning young actress who plays the younger version of one of the main female characters in extended flashbacks. I hope to see her in more, better roles in the future.
Mary Poppins Returns is one of those movies that some are going to like and others not as much. You are not going to hear the beloved classics from Mary Poppins. Current Rotten T reviews give it 79% positive critic reviews, 69% audience reviews. I enjoyed it . Lots of people here posting don’t seem to like it , probably at higher rates than critics and general audiences. But this seems to be a very discerning crowd.
Loved BlacKKKlansman.
Saw The Mule. It did remind a bit of Gran Torino. In parts, it’s unexpectedly funny. Worth seeing.
Wasn’t on my list so soon, but NYE afternoon, theater was jammed and Green Book was sold out.
I’m hearing the same reaction as @Barbalot, to The Favourite. That friends found it not amusing, even annoying. Too bad, cuz I like Olivia Coleman, from “Broadchurch.”
So, what are the “must see” Oscar contenders?
I watched the trailer for The Favourite and it did not appeal much and my interest is further squashed by comments here.
I’ve seen Roma. Definitely worth seeing. I did like it but I wasn’t floored by it. It’s a quieter movie in its pacing, IMO.
@JHS, It you are concerned about white privilege, or privilege in general, you may need to stay away from lots of movies or TV shows. I still don’t get Hazel . One school aged kid, modest house, non working mom, and she still needs a full time live in maid! But I love it still! My dad was a steelworker, no Hazel in my house growing up!
Green Book was very well done.
Has anyone watched any of the TV episodes of You on Netflix?
I had someone urge me to watch this, it I couldn’t get past a few episodes.
I watched Roma again last night and enjoyed it more. I really like it as I spent time in a South American country as a teenager in the 1970’s. It really reminded me visually of the life there. It was one of the most visually accurate, real to life movies I’ve ever seen. The acting was great.
We had maids similar to the ones depicted in the movie. I remember we had a more mature cleaning lady that came once a week and did our laundry just like how it was shown in the movie.
Spoiler…
What I found so true to life was that there was affection on both sides between the employer/employee, but in the end they were still just treated like servants. I never liked having maids in the house, one was my age and it felt so wrong to me.
“I love you Cleo, we love you so much”.
Now, go get us some tea.
@bookworm
I watched You. I thought it was a little creepy but interesting,
I’ve always been a history buff, so I’m looking forward to seeking “They Shall Not Grow Old” when it comes out in a week or so. I know it’s a documentary as opposed to a movie, but it’s supposed to be phenomenal. Good to see Peter Jackson return to form after those dreadful Hobbit movies.