If Beale Street Could Talk: Love Can't Conquer Racism

Thanks to the score by Nicholas Britell and the deft screenplay and direction by Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk is one of those movies I watched with a perpetual lump in my throat. Beautiful, romantic, and terrifically sad, this is a film that immerses you completely in its characters and forces you to live their experience. When you leave the theater, you still won’t have left Beale Street.

The movie tells the story of Tish (KiKi Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James), two young lovers who are trying to build a life for themselves in 1970s Harlem. Unfortunately, you know right off the bat that things don't go right for them as the film follows a staggered narrative. Therefore, you know Fonny is now in jail, and you will need to contend with that as you revisit how he and Tish fell in love and what she's going to do when she discovers she is pregnant, while he has been wrongfully imprisoned.

Adapted from James Baldwin's searing novel, the movie conveys Baldwin's outrage and despair, with Tish's narration often quoting the novel verbatim. At times, this took me out of the film - Baldwin has a very distinctive voice, and I knew these were his words, not Tish's. But he still spoke the truth. This is a story about how racism infests every single aspect of this young couple's life, and as the opening title card notes, this isn't an individual story. This is a story happening all over America. Despite being set in the 1970s, it is heartbreaking to see how much of this still holds true in 2018, with white police officers falsely accusing black men of crimes, and minorities being pitted against each other to fight for whatever scraps of dignity they can get. Those who are poor try to make their way up, but the system is so inherently rigged against them that the only joy of this movie is watching the love between Tish and Fonny that blooms like a beautiful flower amidst the ugliness around them.

When a character speaks in this movie, they are almost always in the center of the frame, directly addressing the camera. Therefore, when Tish is talking to Fonny, it feels like she is talking to you. This is such a simple but brilliant way to immediately draw the audience into the story and make them feel like a part of this world. And these actors, though newcomers, are going to be household names. Layne and James deliver soul-captivating performances, wringing your heart out as their eyes burn with love and then gradually dim with the realization that life is always going to be unfair. Regina King delivers a knockout supporting performance as Tish's mother, a woman who stands by her daughter and future son-in-law in every harrowing circumstance. Colman Domingo is similarly wonderful as Tish's father, a man who has used every means necessary to support his family and will continue doing so for as long as he needs to.

If Beale Street Could Talk is a mood piece, much like Jenkins' previous masterpiece, Moonlight. There are no hurried takes; the characters have all the time in the world to have long conversations, exchange longing glances, and show you what it's like to be a black woman or man in America. Whether it's housing discrimination, police brutality, or sexual harassment, minorities get the short end of the stick, and often their only hope is to look out for each other. The only good white person in this whole story is the lawyer that Tish finds to help Fonny and even he quickly discovers that helping a black man means he will be ostracized by the establishment. As the movie ends, it becomes clear that this relentless cycle of racism couldn't be broken in the 1970s, and it sure doesn't feel like we have broken it in 2018. But perhaps one small victory we can point to is the presence of filmmakers like Jenkins who can now shine the spotlight on these stories.

The Favourite: Ladies In Waiting

From the minute I saw the trailer for The Favourite, I knew this was a movie I would relish. Starring the holy trinity of Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone, and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, this is a cinematic slam dunk. Throw in the fact that it's a periodic piece with gorgeous production design and snappy dialogue courtesy of writers Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, and this is two hours well spent at the cinema.

The movie is set in 1708 England during the reign of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman). A rather petulant and disinterested monarch, Anne has little interest in running the country and happily leaves the matters of governing and determining the course of the war with France to her right-hand woman, Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz). Sarah wields incredible political power and has the Queen's affections (which are more than just platonic), but she is also bracingly honest and refuses to be a toady. She tells the Queen if her make-up makes her look like a badger but will also take care of her when she has a severe attack of the gout. It's a bizarre relationship that gets strained when Abigail Hill (Emma Stone), a distant cousin of Sarah's, arrives looking for employment.

Do not be fooled by the pretty and poverty-stricken Abigail. She has had a miserable life after her father lost her in a game of cards to a German when she was 15 years old (yes, let that sink in) and when she arrives at the palace, she is bullied by the other staff, as well as Sarah. However, desperate to restore her status as a lady, Abigail starts to play a clever game, currying favour with Queen Anne and eventually setting her sights on replacing Sarah as the Queen's favourite. Watching how she goes about it is a masterclass in manipulation and it's rather wonderful to experience how you go from feeling sorry for Abigail, to rooting for her, to suddenly being horrified at her villainy. Sarah might be rude and demanding, but at least she does that to your face instead of in the shadows.

Olivia Colman is brilliant, playing a depressive queen who does still occasionally remember the enormous power she wields and can throw an epic tantrum. Rachel Weisz is a stylish and no-nonsense power broker who can handle war strategy and palace finances without blinking an eye. And Emma Stone is a ruthless mastermind, determined to make her way to the top but still naive enough to make mistakes along the way. All three actresses greatly benefit from Lanthimos' penchant for close-ups: they have incredibly expressive faces that can convey about 5 pages of storyline without a line of dialogue.

The dialogue is a sheer delight, full of barbed sarcasm and quintessential English dryness. It's not for everyone, but it sure was for me. And the music is eerie, with Psycho-esque strings in the background to remind you that as hilarious as some of the antics on screen may be, this is very much the story of a struggle for power with incredibly high stakes, and you shouldn't be lulled into a false of security. Lanthimos is fond of a fisheye lens and strange angles that can throw you off balance and remind you that all is not quite right in this palace. And at times he superimposes images of the three women on each other, as a reminder of how interconnected their lives have become and what a challenge it will be to untangle this mess.

Filmed at Hatfield House and Hampton Court Palace, this movie is utterly sumptuous and dripping with historical eye candy. Featuring the work of costume designer Sandy Powell (who also did Mary Poppins Returns - this woman is out to get ALL the awards this year), there are a lot of black-and-white outfits with intricate lacy designs that are geometric gorgeousness. This Vogue article elaborates in much more detail if you want to go down a rabbit hole. On the flipside, the men are foppish nightmares, bedecked in elaborate wigs, layers of face paint, and ever-increasing moles. The palace is rife with bored aristocrats engaged in insane pursuits like racing ducks or pelting naked men with oranges, while the main trio of women are essentially running the country.

The Favourite was my favourite for many reasons, but emphatically because it features three incredible female acting performances. This is still such a rarity in cinema, and to see three women at the top of their game have the chance to shine was a pure delight. The men really are supporting characters in this film, with very little to do but go along with the women's orders, and get manipulated any time they think they are in charge. Instead, it's the three ladies who get to banter with caustic sarcasm and prove that, who run the world? Girls.  

Mary Poppins Returns: Practically Perfect In Every Way

We all know 2018 has been a rough year. So what better way to end it than with a spoonful of sugar? Starring the bewitchingly delightful Emily Blunt as our favorite nanny, Mary Poppins Returns is everything you need to sit up and smile for a solid two hours. I should know - I went with my friend, Lynsey, who spent the entire film literally squealing with delight.

In this sequel, Mary Poppins returns to help the children of the now grown-up and widowed Michael Banks (played by Ben Whishaw - another delight). He has been struggling to keep the household together since his wife's death, aided by his sister, Jane (Emily Mortimer - yet another delight - notice a pattern?), and trusty housekeeper, Ellen (Julie Walters). Lin-Manuel Miranda is the neighborhood lamplighter, Jack, a former apprentice to Bert the chimney sweep from the prior movie, complete with Cockney accent (less awful than the much maligned Dick van Dyke accent but still dicey). And there are the three adorable children (Nathanael Saleh, Pixie Davies, and Joel Dawson) that Mary Poppins has to teach to use their imagination and put aside grown-up cares to remain children a bit longer.

The movie is a classic Disney romp from start to finish, brimming with brand new musical numbers and catchy choreography courtesy of director Rob Marshall. If you can, I would avoid reading the opening credits, because there are quite a few casting choices up front that are so much more exciting when revealed during the film. When I saw Sandy Powell was the costume designer, I got real excited, and boy, did she not disappoint. There's a sequence in the movie when the characters enter into a 2-D animation world, and the costumes that they are wearing do the most extraordinary job of looking like they're two-dimensional whilst being on three-dimensional humans. I can't quite explain the effect; they look slightly hand-drawn and drop-dead gorgeous.

I can't say the music is something that stuck in my head - there's no Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious-esque number that blew my socks off - but Blunt can sing her heart out and of course Miranda can too, so they sell every number. Some of the songs are incredibly moving and sad, whilst others are ribald and slightly scandalous for children - at one point, I wondered if Rob Marshall had forgotten he was directing Mary Poppins and veered off into Cabaret. But the special effects are jawdropping, and even though they're relying on old-school 2-D animation, they've found a miraculous way to blend it seamlessly with the 3-D action. By the end of this movie, you will feel like a little kid again, because you have completely suspended your disbelief and entered the world of your imagination.

Mary Poppins Returns says pish posh to cynicism; instead, every frame is pure joy distilled into its cinematic essence. It is the best Christmas movie you could offer up to yourself this year. We all need to rejoice: let Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda show you how it's done. 

Roma: Affecting Art

If you have a Netflix account, you may have noticed your login screen has turned into a black and white ad to Roma. Forget whatever you were planning on binge watching, and spend the next two hours watching Alfonso Cuaron's masterful ode to Mexico instead.

The movie tells the story of Cleo (first-time actress Yalitza Aparicio who must now star in ALL the things), a maid for an affluent family in Mexico City. The opening credits are of soapy water flowing over tiles in the forecourt of the family home, and as you watch the shadow of a plane flying overhead on the lapping waves, you know that what you are about to enjoy is an artistic feast for the senses. Indeed, it is paramount that you turn the volume up, because this movie surrounds you with the cacophony of Mexico City. Dogs are barking, cars are honking, crickets are chirping, the radio's blaring. While the foreground may follow Cleo's adventures, there are a thousand other stories taking place in the background. I liken it to a Where's Waldo book - you know there's a central character you're supposed to be looking for, but as you gaze at the page, there's so much happening in the periphery that you sometimes have to remind yourself to return to Cleo and her employers.

I won't go into any more detail about what happens to Cleo or the family she works for. Things build on each other gradually and by the time the film reached its conclusion, I was startled to discover that I was irrevocably in love with this woman and rooting for her every moment. The reason I was startled is because this is such a classically "arty" film; shot in black and white, with breathtakingly crisp cinematography and scenes that are staged to elicit the best effects of light and shadow to dazzle your eyes. In the midst of all this beauty, I didn't think I felt an emotional connection to the story, but how wrong I was. Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira (who plays Sofia, Yalitza's employer) both break your heart in different ways as women struggling to get by, even though they come from extremely different backgrounds.

Roma is a magnetic movie, compelling to look at and listen to, but also deeply affecting and emotional. It highlights the everyday beauty in a maid's mundane existence and the ugliness among the upper classes, and brings them together in dramatic set pieces that are as gorgeous as they are frightening. There are terribly sad moments, but also incredibly funny ones (watch out for every scene with the family car - they made me laugh and then reached a very satisfying resolution). I won't be surprised if Alfonso Cuaron nabs an armload of Oscars next year - as writer, editor, cinematographer, producer, and director, this is emphatically his vision and his story, and it is a love letter to the city of his childhood. In one scene, some characters watch the 1969 space movie Marooned in a theater, and you immediately know this is what inspired Cuaron to make Gravity 44 years later.

Roma reminded me a great deal of my summers in India, and made me wonder about the inner lives of the maids who always came in and out of my relatives' homes. I am woefully ignorant of Mexican history and did not understand the political backdrop of riots and unrest, but who cares about worldly matters when your only focus is to ensure that Cleo will be alright? Like the family she worked for, I loved Cleo so, so much, and I could happily spend a few more hours watching her lie in the sun after doing the laundry and listen to the birds sing. Does the art sometimes feel artificial and heightened? Yes. But does it star a woman who is so beguiling that you will find her every movement to be as graceful as a ballerina's? Yes.

Widows: Bleak Heist

If you go into Widows assuming you're going to be treated to a frothy Ocean's 8-style caper, you're going to be sorely disappointed. However, if you go into it expecting a noir thriller directed by Steve McQueen and starring Viola Davis with guns of steel, you will be thrilled beyond belief.

The movie opens with a heist gone wrong, and a gang of robbers are killed. Led by Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson), their misdeeds finally caught up with them. Unfortunately, the money they stole belongs to a Chicago gangster and he needs it to finance his political campaign. So he rocks up to Veronica's (Viola Davis) penthouse and demands that she pay up $2 million to satisfy her dead husband's debts. Thankfully, Harry left her his notebook, which contains the plans for his next heist, a job that would net a cool $5 million. So, Veronica reaches out to the widows of her husband's gang and asks if they will help her before they are all murdered by the mob. Unsurprisingly, they agree.

This female dream team includes Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Cynthia Erivo. You may think you know what part each has to play in the heist, but as the movie progresses, each lady demonstrates hitherto unknown depths and resolve to get this plan moving along. They may be poor and on the brink of ruin, but these women aren't going down without a fight. And all of this takes place against the political backdrop of the special election for Chicago's 18th Ward, a fight rife with corruption, racism, and nepotism ('Murica!). There are a lot of seemingly disparate plots in this film, but stick with it - they all coalesce in a fashion that led the audience in my particular theater to gasp out loud.

This movie is extremely dark and violent - Daniel Kaluuya plays one of the mobsters threatening the widows, and if you thought you loved him from Get Out and Black Panther, be prepared to now be insanely frightened of him for the rest of your days. He is a merciless psychopath in this movie, and I need him to star in a romcom ASAP so he can stop featuring in my nightmares. Meanwhile, the ladies of this film put Wonder Woman to shame. The minute Viola Davis is in a tank top hauling bags of money, you'll be wondering what her gym routine is, because that lady is a bona fide action star. The dialogue between her and the other women is a Bechdel dream, revealing little nuances of the women's characters. It is particularly enlightening to see how she and Erivo have a different dynamic as two black women, and the initial distrust and then grudging respect they amass for each other.

Co-written by Gillian Flynn and Steve McQueen, Widows covers a whole slew of themes, whether it's race, gender, or political corruption. It is a movie of our times and while oftentimes cringe-inducing with its violence, you will definitely whoop and cheer for these women as they overcome the odds to fight the man. Hollywood, pay attention. We want more movies like this please. 

Mary Queen of Scots: The Bland and the Beautiful

My main takeaway after watching Mary Queen of Scots was that this should have been turned into a Netflix series that I could cozily watch at home on a rainy afternoon. At least then there would have been time for character development, some attention to historical accuracy, and many more hours of gorgeous costumes, sweeping Scottish vistas, and Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie ruling the land. Unfortunately, as a movie, this endeavor is more irritating than enthralling.

As the title implies, this is the story of the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots (not sure why the film title eliminates the comma but add that as one more irritating thing about the film). Raised in France as a baby, she returns to rule Scotland at the age of 18 after she is widowed, and demands that Elizabeth I of England name her as the heir to both the English and Scottish thrones. As Mary, Saoirse Ronan delivers an unsurprisingly fantastic performance, while Margot Robbie is equally captivating as Elizabeth I (though she has much less screen time and seems to be relegated to a much more petty role). Honestly, if the movie had solely consisted of these two women engaged in heated political battle, it would have been glorious. But, as with real life, enter the men to ruin everything.

This movie feels like a soap opera and romance novel - not the good kind. I had to read an article afterwards about what was fact vs fiction to see if maybe this was one of those instances where I was being too critical and the events depicted in the film actually happened in real life. But no they did not. There are weird elements about the sexuality of certain characters, and frankly the notion that Mary picked her next husband after he went down on her is insulting. Give the woman a bit more credit for thinking with her head than her vagina. And Elizabeth I is portrayed as an oddly weak-willed monarch who is jealous of Mary's beauty and fertility. Again, ladies can be jealous of each other for their intelligence and political strategy, not just because they have pretty portraits and functional uteri.

Of course, the screenplay is written by a man (Beau Willimon of House of Cards fame), and it does feel like a TV movie than a proper cinematic spectacle. It's directed by a woman, Josie Rourke, who is a brilliant theater director, but needs to do a lot of work when it comes to film direction. There are set pieces in this movie, particularly the final face-off between the two Queens (which again, never happened in real life) that are highly choreographed and theatrical; rather then providing heightened tension, they feel staged and artificial. However, I will say this - the hair and costume design is bewitching.

Mary Queen of Scots has two incredible actresses and aims to tell the story of two incredibly powerful women. Unfortunately, it falls into the trap of all the men in the English and Scottish courts - it fails to recognize the intelligence of these women and decides to turn their relationship into a cat fight. Let's re-do this movie as a miniseries and give Mary her rightful due.

The Silence of the Girls: The Women of Troy Speak Up

I love classical mythology but Homer's Iliad never held much appeal for me. Men waging bitter war over a beautiful woman, with long odes to ships and Greek fighting prowess, topped off with the praises of the great Achilles? Yawn. When I took Classical Mythology 104 in college, I asked my professor what she thought of the movie Troy, and she looked at me in horror and said it was Hollywood garbage. However, I like to think that if I asked her what she thought of Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls, she would say she loved this book with all her heart. I certainly did.

The Iliad begins, "Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilles..." Right off the bat, we know this is a story about the anger of men and gods. But in The Silence of the Girls, we get the story of the enslaved Trojan women, the "prizes" of war, forced to witness the slaughter of their husbands, fathers, and sons, and then pressed into service for the very men who killed their families. In particular, this is the story of Briseis, the Trojan princess who became Achilles' slave and concubine. In the movie Troy, Briseis and Achilles are played by gorgeous actors and make sweet, sweet love. In this novel, Briseis is rightfully depicted as a victim of war, raped by her captors and always fearing for her life and the lives of the women around her. Towards the end of the novel she muses on how people of the future will hear about the tale of Troy and says, "They won't want to be told about the massacres of men and boys, the enslavement of women and girls. The won't want to know we were living in a rape camp. No, they'll go for something altogether softer. A love story, perhaps?" Well, Pat Barker isn't here to give you a soft love story. This is a story of war, and the anger of Briseus's daughter, Briseis. 

This novel is filled with gorgeous, riveting prose that brings the Trojan war to life. I recognized all the familiar names, but now they had rich internal lives, not just poetic epithets that glossed over their emotions and only emphasized their victories. While the focus of the story is Briseis, we get plenty of backstory on Achilles, an emotional wreck of a man who is absolutely destroyed when his friend and lover, Patroclus, is killed in his stead. He has abandonment  issues with his immortal mother, the sea goddess, Thetis, who Briseis reminds him of (which makes the whole thing creepily incestuous). And all throughout, we have Briseis, delivering a traumatic tale of shock, guilt, remorse, and survival. When Patroclus is kind to her, she feels conflicting loyalties. When the Greek armies start losing to the Trojans, she doesn't know how to feel: on the one hand, she wants the Trojans to win. On the other, she knows that this simply means she will be traded as a war prize to a new set of captors, who will not care that she was Trojan to begin with - now she is just a slave, a thing. 

In one memorable chapter, she starts naming the men that Achilles kills on a particularly bloody day and details the gruesome ways in which they were killed. However, she then tells the stories she heard from their mothers about who these men and boys really were. Instead of "Dryops. A sword swipe to the neck that very nearly took off his head," she tells us about, "Dryops, whose mother's labour lasted two full days." It is a story about humanizing the statistics of war and further emphasizes the futility of this nine-year catastrophe that was kicked off solely because one man stole another man's wife. Men are monsters, and this novels illustrates the toll that their arrogance takes on the women and children who are the innocent bystanders. 

I know it all sounds horribly dreary, but The Silence of the Girls is certainly one of the best books I read this year. Evocative, haunting, and rich, it tells an age-old story from a completely fresh perspective and immersed me into Homer's world in a way that I never thought possible. The next time I pick up The Iliad, I will be reading between the lines, searching for the names of those silent women. They are not just Priam's daughter, Hector's wife, Achilles' slave. They are Polyxena, Andromache, Briseis. "Oh, those fierce young women."

First Man: The Human Toll of Ambition

You may be wondering why you need to watch a movie about Neil Armstrong, when you already know he successfully landed on the moon in 1969 and uttered those iconic lines. However, in First Man, director Damian Chazelle tells a poignant story about men in the 1960s, the women who took care of their families, and the perils, rewards, and foolhardy ambition that fueled the US-Soviet space race.

Ryan Gosling plays Neil Armstrong, a casting coup because you need an actor in this role who can convey a great deal with his face instead of dialogue. This is a man who doesn't talk much, and instead is intently focused on his love of flying and eventually space travel. He is level-headed and calm in the most alarming situations, which is why he is a stellar astronaut, but also why he is a difficult husband and father. At the beginning of the film, we see how the Armstrongs' young daughter, Karen, dies at the age of two from cancer. Neil never discusses this with his wife or his colleagues, instead throwing himself back into work and shoving aside his grief. However, in moments of peril, visions of his daughter always come flooding back, and we see the culmination of that grief in a particularly profound moment during the moon landing.

Claire Foy is magnificent as Armstrong's wife, Janet, and is probably in the running for a Best Supporting Actress statuette this year. She grounds the whole movie, providing the female perspective in a story that is otherwise dominated by men and their ambitions to one-up each other. One of my favorite moments is when she storms into NASA demanding they turn her communication box back on so she can listen to what is happening to Neil in space (they cut off her comms when they realized he was getting into some trouble.) She rebukes them, declaring that they are all "boys building models out of balsa wood," which is not an inaccurate description of the entire Space program.

Indeed, the moments you spend inside a rocket are the most claustrophobic and bewildering of the movie. Expertly shot so that you can almost feel your stomach lurch and your chest compress as the G-force piles up during a launch, Chazelle has perfectly captured the absurd wonder of those early space missions. There are shots of streaky windows and rusty rivets, and as you watch the spaceship rattle and every dashboard light up and every alarm go off, you wonder how anyone ever made it into space, let alone landing on the Moon and safely returning. It's a magnificent space movie and the utter silence during key moments help to fuel your awestruck wonder at the visuals. Then the theremin-laced score swells and tugs at your soul some more. Ultimately this is a magnificent human story about how grief can fuel ambition and men can continue to strive for greatness despite personal tragedy. But again, they can only do this because of the women they leave behind. When Janet insists that Neil talk to their sons and prepare them for the fact that their father may never return from space, you are reminded of how much is being sacrificed.

There are many fine character actors throughout this film and you can start taking bets on which of them will die first to represent the rising death toll of the Gemini and Apollo missions that preceded the successful moon landing. There is so much tragedy that has been overshadowed by this unparalleled human achievement, and First Man gives those men their due.  Nowadays, we only hear that man set foot on the moon, but this movie highlights all the political protests against NASA and the huge cost of sending men into space instead of taking care of the people on the ground. It's a fight that continues today, which is why NASA has yet to send any men to the moon in the 21st century. Ultimately, First Man looks at whether all of this was worth the cost, and frankly, I still don't the answer.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: The Absurdity of Mankind

Last night I was reading up on The Myth of Sisyphus, an essay that posits Albert Camus' philosophy of the absurd and man's futile search for meaning. Then this morning, I watched The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the latest Coen Brothers film that is essentially a visual depiction of absurdism. I did not plan this, but my it was a revelation.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a series of short films that all take place in the old American West. The conceit is that you are reading a book called The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Other Tales of the American Frontier and an unseen hand turns the pages to introduce each new story and then show you the closing pages as you move on to the next vignette. That flourish made me glad I was watching on Netflix as I could pause the movie and read the last few words of every story to glean some more wisdom from the mysterious minds of Joel and Ethan Coen.

I won't delve into too much detail about each of the vignettes as they pack a wallop and should be experienced firsthand. But if you've ever watched a Coen Brothers movie before, you know what you will find. A bewildering mix of comedy and pathos, with dialogue that falls trippingly off the tongue and makes you want to write it all down so you can read those sentences over and over again. I simply do not understand how they can craft such poetry but every word is a delight. Most importantly, every actor they've hired delivers those lines with the appropriate panache. However, that is only the case in some of the stories. In others, dialogue takes a backseat to Bruno Delbonnel's epic cinematography where Nature provides the necessary poetry. The pristine landscapes and wilds of the frontier are jawdroppingly splendid and highlight the absurdity of it all. These men will play their foolish games to their foolish ends but the land will carry on long after they are gone.

Be warned: this movie is a Western and extremely violent and graphic in spots, oftentimes becoming Tarantino-esque. If bloodshed and bullet wounds turn your stomach, you might want to skip some stories entirely. But each one has one central thesis: men are constantly searching for something, and ultimately, it doesn't matter whether or not they get it. The journey is the destination. As Camus said, "The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." And you will really have to stretch your imagination because happy endings are not plentiful in this film.

Of the six vignettes, I naturally gravitated to the only one featuring a meaty role for a woman, The Gal Who Got Rattled. (One could argue that in the Wild West women didn't do much, but we all know that's a paltry argument and is my main quibble with this film - if you have six stories, can't some of them feature more interesting roles for women?) Zoe Kazan's performance is captivating, and the camera lingers on her face even when others are talking because getting her reaction to their words is more important than watching the words be delivered. This vignette felt the most sweet and hopeful...for a while at least. I also enjoyed Near Algodones, starring James Franco, as that featured some of the most outright absurdist comedy (Franco is not allowed to mumble more than a few words during the entire piece as that man is impossible to imagine as a cowboy). And for utter bleak despair, Liam Neeson and Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley's all grown up and magnificent in this role!) deliver quite the gut punch in Meal Ticket.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a cinematic feast, offering an amuse bouche to tickle every palate, but with a central theme of utter Sisyphean futility. It is beautifully shot, impeccably written, and well acted. I can't say it is a warm and fuzzy holiday movie, but it certainly shows you what cinema can do to transform the written word into a moving spectacle. 

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Bloody Good Fun

I started watching Chilling Adventures of Sabrina with a bunch of girlfriends who came over to my house to make bread pudding. Which really is the best way to start bingewatching any new series about an empowered young woman, no matter how gory and weird it may be. Subsequently I have finished watching the show at the gym, where I'm sure people passing me on the treadmill recoiled as they saw blood continually splatter on the screen during all manner of diabolical events.

I was a huge fan of Sabrina The Teenage Witch, which aired in the 90s and early 2000s and was a highlight of my childhood. I also read a lot of Archie Comics as a kid, so was well aware of Sabrina in the comics realm as well. However, apart from having the same characters, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is way darker than its predecessors lead you to expect. As evidenced by the fact that Netflix and Warner Brothers are currently being sued by Satanists who are objecting to how the show makes them look bad. Seriously. This show is bonkers and brilliant.

Kiernan Shipka plays Sabrina, a teenage half-mortal, half-witch (her mother was mortal, while her father was a progressive High Priest of the Church of Night), who has been living a mostly mortal existence in the outside world, with mortal friends and a boyfriend in her high school, but plenty of magic spells and incantations at home with her aunts Hilda (Lucy Davis) and Zelda (Miranda Otto) and cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo). However, upon the eve of her sixteenth birthday, things come to a head, and the Church of Night insist that she must fully embrace the witchy half of her nature after her dark baptism. At this point, Sabrina is too fond of her mortal friends, and what follows is the quest to find all the loopholes so she can have her cake and eat it too. And also combat the Dark Lord who is hell-bent on bringing Sabrina into the Church of Night, which gets up to all manner of bloody shenanigans.

This show is packed to the gills with jump scares, and a number of my friends have complained they got way too scared to wander around their houses at night after watching this show. I wouldn't go that far, because as freaky as it is, there's still a kitschy and fun element to it that helps release the tension. I was particularly delighted to discover that Richard Coyle (who I adore from Coupling) and Michelle Gomez (who I adore from Green Wing) are series regulars, playing terrifically devilish characters in vast contrast to the bumbling British comedy roles I've always seen them in. The entire cast of this show is fantastic; Lucy Davis and Miranda Otto are an excellent double-act as the indulgent and kind Hilda and strict and overzealous Zelda; Michelle Gomez is mysterious and bewitching (pun intended) while Richard Coyle as Father Blackwood is a deliciously unholy and horrifying villain. And Kiernan Shipka binds the whole thing together with the dazzling confidence and backbone we all knew she possessed as we watched Sally Draper grow up on Mad Men.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina may be about a Greendale coven and a teenager struggling with her mortal and witch identities, but it cleverly manages to incorporate real-world issues like bullying, homophobia, and the need to overturn stereotypical gender roles. The production design is impeccable with eerie sets that creep you out even if the actors are doing nothing out of the ordinary. And the costumes are gorgeous, with Sabrina often kitted out in a blood red coat that seems to lend her both the innocence of Little Red Riding Hood but also the worldliness of a witchy woman. Everything is heightened and crazy in this show, but the underlying storylines are magnificent and watching how everything culminates in an explosive conclusion will certainly whet your appetite for the second season. 

The Prisoner in the Castle: Maggie Hope Meets Agatha Christie

Over the years I have become an ardent fan of Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope series. Starting with Mr. Churchill's Secretary, which was released in 2012, the series tells the story of Margaret Hope, an American who moves to London at the start of World War II and becomes a part of the war effort. Over the course of the books, she has moved up from secretarial work to becoming a spy who has worked undercover in the US, Germany, and France. The stakes couldn't be higher and the emotional toll can be quite wrecking as you get through each installment, but MacNeal deftly weaves in historical facts with scintillating fiction to tell a story that reminds us what exactly this war cost the world decades ago.

The latest installment, The Prisoner in the Castle, is a bit of a departure for the series. Rather than putting Maggie in the center of the action in war-torn lands or Churchill's Cabinet Rooms, our heroine is on an island in the remote Scottish Hebrides. She knows too much and has been deemed a risk to the war effort, so has been exiled to a remote location with other British spies who can no longer contribute but know too much to be returned to civilian life. While that sounds rather dull, never fear, MacNeal is about to take inspiration from Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game to give you a chilling murder mystery where the inhabitants of the island start dropping dead in increasingly gruesome ways and Maggie must find the killer or be killed. 

I love a good murder mystery and when you combine it with a female heroine I've gotten to love over the course of seven novels, it's a recipe for greatness. The plot is juicy, the secondary characters are shady and intriguing, and the reveals startle you as you turn each page. Full disclosure, I started reading these books because MacNeal is a Wellesley alum and Maggie Hope also went to Wellesley, so there's nothing more entertaining than reading about a fictional woman who kicks ass and also happens to have attended your beloved college. However, putting that bit of partiality aside, I have truly enjoyed reading MacNeal's prose and how the plots get more riveting as Maggie becomes a more integral part of the spy network. World War II is a period in history that never ceases to captivate my interest, and this series does a phenomenal job of giving you a history lesson in the disguise of an espionage thriller.

The Prisoner in the Castle is well worth your time if you are a fan of the Maggie Hope series, or if you're merely interested in a stand-alone murder mystery (though a lot of the side plots may be lost on you in that case). It has thrills, chills, and a brilliant heroine who is not afraid to fight for her life, and you will not be able to put this book down until you have devoured every single page. It's a quick and engrossing read and perfect for a winter weekend when all you want to do is curl up on the couch and read about a fascinating woman having adventures during a fascinating time in our history. 

Can You Ever Forgive Me? A Tale of Forgery and Friendship

If you've somehow missed the memo that Melissa McCarthy is a great actress, you need to watch Can You Ever Forgive Me? immediately. Playing a cantankerous author who has burned all her bridges and is struggling to make ends meet, she manages to imbue this character with so much gut-wrenching pathos that you cannot help but root for her to succeed in her criminal exploits.

Based on the true story of author Lee Israel (as outlined in her memoir of the same name), this is a movie about a woman with an extraordinary writing talent but utterly unforgiving personality who went on to forge literary letters from people such as Noel Coward and Dorothy Parker in order to make money to survive her day-to-day existence in New York City. In cahoots with a man named Jack Hock, who she meets in a bar (they both happen to be gay so theirs is a platonic friendship that evolves into a doomed business arrangement), she sells her wares to various unsuspecting collectors, until the FBI finally catches up to her.

The story is interesting and it's wonderful to watch Lee's gradual descent into criminality. What starts off as a desperate forgery to get a few hundred dollars to pay her cat's veterinary bills eventually becomes a high-stakes criminal enterprise, complete with stealing documents from Yale's special collections. Throughout it all, while Lee is outwardly obnoxious and struggles to get along with the people in her life, Melissa McCarthy has moments when you see every single emotion playing on her face and you understand all of the pain this woman is going through deep deep down. There's one scene in particular when she's sitting in a jazz club - that scene devastated me and I still don't know why. It seemed to encapsulate her loneliness as well as her tentative hope that she had found a friend and finally found an answer to her financial woes. But again, none of that was proclaimed out loud, it was all just one long scene of staring at McCarthy's face.

The final moments of the film are equally powerful and I won't spoil anything here. However, thay do a splendid job of getting into this woman's psyche and explaining why forgery was such a perfect crime for her personality. And the final reckoning between her and Jack is quite bittersweet and apt for their relationship. Lest I forget, Richard E. Grant is an absolute marvel in this movie as well, and it's deeply satisfying to see his portrayal of the gay English dilettante opposite Melissa McCarthy and watch that unlikely friendship bloom.

Deftly directed by Marielle Heller from a screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeffy Whitty, Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a remarkable story made all the more remarkable by its actors. I cannot get over this Melissa McCarthy performance, and if she isn't nominated for an Oscar it would be an absolute travesty. Darkly funny, deeply moving, and terrifically intriguing, this is a movie that both entertains and affects you in unexpected ways.

Fahrenheit 11/9: Rage Against the Dying of the Light

This has been a rough political week (more than usual anyway) and many of my female friends are alternately furious and depressed by the Kavanaugh appointment to the Supreme Court. If you are feeling some outrage or despair, perhaps you might get some catharsis out of watching Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9, a dissection of what went wrong in 2016 and what America needs to do to move forward.

Will the first 20 minutes of this movie make you want to claw your eyes out? Perhaps. As you relive November 9, 2016, with the initial certainty and jubilation that Hillary Clinton would win and then the eventual jawdropping agony that heralded her defeat, part of me experienced the surge of utter misery that dogged me for weeks (and let's be honest, even now) after the election. But what follows is a careful look at the current state of American politics and the many ways in which our democracy is almost laughably undemocratic. Are there extended interviews with historians and Nuremberg prosecutors that compare us to Nazi Germany? You bet.

Much of the movie focuses on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, which touches upon corruption, greed, and wanton disregard for the poor and disenfranchised members of American society. A predominantly black and working class town, Flint has been neglected so thoroughly by our politicians that it is astonishing to witness how we so casually let this humanitarian crisis unfold within our borders. The villain of the piece is Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, a former Chairman and CEO of Gateway Computers, who prioritized profit over people and switched the drinking water source of the town of Flint to appease corporate interests. When the water was found to be contaminated and the children of Flint were registering abnormally high lead levels in their blood, did he immediately switch back the source of the drinking water? Of course not. Instead, the government conspired to forge lead level results, kept saying the water was safe to drink, and dismissed the citizenry and their health concerns, ensuring that the next generation of Flint children will face irrevocable mental and physical health harm due to lead toxicity. But when General Motors complained that the contaminated water was corroding their auto parts, they immediately got switched over to fresh water from the Lake. Our children don't deserve clean water, but our cars certainly do.

Don't be fooled; this isn't solely an anti-Republican movie. Moore heavily criticizes the Obama administration's response to the Flint crisis, including the President's visit to the town where he pretended to drink the water and therefore treated the entire episode as a farce. Going back to the election, Moore also delves into the Democrats' rigged primary system, where Bernie Sanders, despite being the favorite candidate, was shunted aside by the super delegates who handed the candidacy over to Hillary Clinton. After that, we have the electoral college to blame, a system where the person who wins the popular vote still loses the election and America continues to be this insanely undemocratic nation where the candidate that the majority votes for still doesn't get to be President of the United States.

So where do we go from here? The movie ends with a focus on the Parkland, Florida school shooting that mobilized a generation of teenage protesters who were too young to vote but old enough to organize the worldwide March For Our Lives. Along the way, Moore also interviews ordinary men and women who were energized by the election to run for office and win seats in the House of Representatives through grassroots campaigns that were driven by a promise to give all Americans a better life. What struck me about all these extraordinary human beings is their compassion and need to make America better for all Americans, not just the Americans in their immediate vicinity. Empathy is sorely lacking amongst our politicians, who are increasingly insular and incapable of voting for anything because it's a cause they believe in. Instead, all they know is they want to get re-elected and vote along Party lines. The hope of this film is that these new Representatives, like Alexandra Occasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, will re-invigorate the Legislative branch to represent a government that is truly by the people, for the people.

The appointment of Brett Kavanaugh is yet another slap in the face of the women of this nation who don't think it's too much to ask that the branches of our government not be staffed by privileged, empathy-deprived men who face serious allegations of sexual misconduct. Is there really no one else that we can get to take on these jobs? So if you are still reeling, take some nominal comfort from the rising political stars and activists highlighted in Fahrenheit 11/9, but also remember that the fight is not over. Rather than turning inwards in a depressive funk, keep speaking up, writing, and register all of your friends, family, and colleagues to vote in the midterm elections.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

A Star Is Born: Lady Gaga Takes the Stage

It has been a while since a movie has made me cry but A Star Is Born stirred up all manner of repressed emotions in me. A timeless story about love, fame, and tragedy, I had zero desire to watch this movie when I first saw the trailer. Who wants to see another remake, especially about such a depressing story, starring Lady Gaga of all people? But after reading the glowing reviews, my interest was sufficiently piqued that I found myself in the theater on opening night. And damn. I was floored.

To summarize the plot in broad strokes, Jackson Mayne (Bradley Cooper) is an alcoholic but very famous country singer who discovers Ally (Lady Gaga) singing in a drag bar and is instantly captivated by her voice. Enamored, he drags her on stage during a concert, where she sings a duet with him and finds instant fame. As her career is on the ascendant, Jackson's career takes a nosedive and he becomes more reliant on booze and pills. It's a classic romantic tragedy, and while none of what I've described sounds like it would be worth it, the following are all the reasons you need to buy a ticket ASAP.

The acting. I've always been a fan of Bradley Cooper, but in this movie, Lady Gaga is definitely the star (which I was delighted to see acknowledged by her top billing in the end credits). When she needs to sing in this film, she doesn't just belt out a number with her brilliant voice. She conveys all of the character's trepidation and nervousness, and then joy and elation when the audience cheers for her. And the chemistry between her and Cooper is eye-wateringly good. The way they trade banter, the little touches, how they lean in to each other. This movie contains the most eloquent love story I've seen captured on film in a long time. Watching Jackson and Ally fall in love and then spiral out of control as fame and addiction complicate matters is a gut punch and I'm still reeling after watching the film.

The music. Obviously Lady Gaga can sing. But turns out so can Bradley Cooper. And together, they complement each other wondrously, with each duet on stage conveying as much love and passion as all of their scenes off stage. If it wasn't enough to co-write, star, and direct the movie, Cooper wrote his songs as well, and the emotion he packs into every note is something to behold.

The characters. While the story might sound a bit pat, the backstory of these characters slowly unfolds over the course of the movie and you get so much insight into their histories and insecurities that you cannot help but root for them throughout the movie. Jackson is immensely flawed and difficult, but watching his interactions with his brother (Sam Neill) and how the two of them have coped with family trauma in vastly different ways is illuminating as the film hurtles to its conclusion. Watching Ally deal with her father and his friends tells you all you need to know about this kind but shy and careful woman. And for any Alias fans, there are some roles played by actors you will recognize, which further reinforces my opinion that Cooper must be the nicest guy in Hollywood if he's casting people he worked with on a TV show a decade ago.

This movie is gorgeous. A lot of it feels like a music documentary, with the lyrics and score telling you everything you need to know about the characters and the unfolding drama. It is so natural and unforced - the relationships feel real and you can personally empathize with these characters and what they must be going through. No one is a monster, but they are all battling demons. Watching A Star Is Born is guaranteed to stir up your insides and make your heart feel full to bursting. Even after writing this review, I haven't quite managed to convey the emotions coursing through me, so all I can say is watch it. And then maybe you will understand. 

A Simple Favor: A Complex Comedy Caper

Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively in a movie directed by Paul Feig. Honestly, it's a little surprising I wasn't immediately in the theater to watch A Simple Favor on opening day. But I hadn't heard much about it and wasn't sure what the story was. Turns out that might be the best way to go into this film.

Based on a novel by Darcey Bell, this movie tells the story of Stephanie (Anne Kendrick), a widowed mommy vlogger who is full of energy and enthusiasm and is therefore hated by all the other parents at her kid's school. Everyone is surprised when she accidentally befriends Emily (Blake Lively), a high-powered PR executive who is the exact opposite of Stephanie when it comes to mothering know-how. Yet, the two ladies strike up a quick friendship. One day, Emily calls up Stephanie to watch her son as she has to stay late at work to handle a crisis. A few days later, no one has heard from Emily, and the police are called. And then this movie gets truly bonkers.

There are so many twists and turns that even contemplating them all makes my head spin. Needless to say, I shan't spoil anything further for you. Instead, I'll wax lyrical about how excellent these two actresses are in these roles. Kendrick is her reliable high-strung comic self, playing Stephanie as an eager to please annoyance, who is also exceedingly kind and competent. But Lively is the true surprise of the film, playing a complete wackadoodle who hits so many notes over the course of two hours that you aren't sure if you should be tickled or terrified by her character. It's a virtuoso performance, further highlighting Paul Feig's claim to being a true woman's director. He always finds the best in his actresses, and in this movie, he delivers the goods. Lest I forget, Henry Golding also stars as Emily's beleaguered husband, Sean, and given that this is his second movie after his debut in Crazy Rich Asians, he has come out of nowhere and basically become the man of the summer.

It also behooves me to discuss the aesthetics of this film. The costume design by Renee Ehrlich Kalfus is utterly sumptuous; whether it's Stephanie's very twee and mommy-appropriate brightly-colored dresses, or every bizarrely brilliant fashion statement by Emily, this movie is a costuming delight, even to someone like me who buys all her clothes from the Gap. Lively is so stupidly gorgeous that she can pull off hats, watch chains, and detachable cuffs without looking remotely ridiculous for a single frame. And then there's that soundtrack. Featuring sultry French songs, they set the mood to make this a swoony, sexy, noir film that first seems like a fun comedy and then quickly turns into a much more freaky thriller. Accompanied by Theodore Shapiro's tantalizing score, the music perfectly sets the stage for the glamorous world Stephanie steps into and then exposes the seedy underbelly.

There is nothing simple about A Simple Favor. It is hilarious, dark, mysterious, and bewitching from start to finish. You won't be bored for a second and you will be reminded that this is what a summer movie is all about. If that Oscar category for Best Popular Film was still happening, this would definitely deserve a nomination, but oh well. Guess we'll just make it sure it wins at the box office instead.

Searching: Mystery on a Mac

Listen, I can't emphasize this enough. Stop reading this review and go watch Searching. It is such a phenomenal movie and you shouldn't be spoiled about any piece of it before you see it.

OK, still reading? Fine, I suppose you might need more convincing. The debut feature of director Aneesh Chaganty, this movie takes place almost entirely on a computer screen, and you watch the actors click on links, search through their emails, and FaceTime each other to discuss clues. John Cho stars as David Kim, a man who lost his beloved wife to lymphoma a few years ago but is striving to keep his teenage daughter, Margot (Michelle La), happy and thriving. When Margot goes missing, he starts investigating, trying to dig up clues from her digital footprint, desperately seeking any information that could help the police locate her. The detective on the case, Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing in a very out of character but fabulous role), is hell-bent on finding Margot, and together, the two of them scroll through the wilderness of the Internet, eager to find anything that could help solve this case.

There was an episode of Modern Family a few years ago that had a similar premise, i.e. all the action taking place on phones or computer screens. But to construct a feature-length film in the same fashion that fully captures the thrills and drama of the search and has multiple twists and turns and a truly beguiling mystery? That is a work of art that transcends all gimmicks. Seriously, do not be fooled into thinking this movie is all artifice and no substance. At its core, it has a solid story, and will have you on the edge of your seat with a whodunit conclusion that you won't see coming.

As a fan of mysteries and detective stories, this film was sheer perfection. I also got a giggle out of the gradual transition from Windows XP to an iMac, a nod to the rise of Apple over the years. The technological sleuthing is so well done - there's a whole sequence where David is trying to get access to Margot's e-mails, and watching him go through multiple layers of security verification is oddly satisfying and lends realism to this otherwise wild premise. Obviously, all of the texts being sent throughout this movie are sent way too fast--no one can type that quickly without any typos--but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for such moments because story will always take precedence.

Searching heralds a new genre of filmmaking, and while I think there may be many copycats in the future, I will be interested to see if any of them can beat the mastery of the original. It it such an elegant and suspenseful movie, and I dearly hope co-writers Sev Ohanian and Aneesh Chaganty get some screenwriting nods during awards season, because it richly deserves all the recognition it can get. 

Crazy Rich Asians: A Joy to Behold

Three years ago, I waxed poetic about my love for Kevin Kwan's novel, Crazy Rich Asians. Since then, I've read the sequels with similar joy, and when I heard John Wu would be making a movie, I was beyond excited. Much was said about how this was the first Hollywood movie in 25 years, since The Joy Luck Club, to feature an all-Asian cast. One must hesitate to add we're talking about Southeast Asian, as there have been movies featuring South Asian actors. And that kind of nitpicking gets into how this movie needed to be everything to everybody and means so much to the whole Asian diaspora. But guess what? Go into the theater and watch Crazy Rich Asians for two hours. And regardless of whether you're Asian or not, whether you're a fan of romcoms or not, you will come out of the theater feeling more joyful than you have felt in a LONG while.

First off, the cast. Almost every single cast member is a standout, and if you didn't know them before watching this movie, you will certainly be clamoring to see them after this film. Constance Wu is magnificent as Rachel Chu, an NYU Economics professor who has fallen in love with Nick Young (the delicious Henry Golding in his first ever movie role, but certainly not his last), a fellow professor who seems to be a "normal" man. When he suggests that she fly over to Singapore with him for his best friend's wedding and meet his family, she agrees; but when they board the plane and get upgraded to super-fancy First Class with their own private suite, she finally starts to understand that this man might not come from the same humble background as her and her single mother. When they arrive in Singapore, she is immediately swept away in a whirlwind of decadence, and when she visits her college friend Peik Lin (played by the hilarious Awkwafina, who really needs to be in ALL THE THINGS immediately), she is informed that her boyfriend is considered to be Singaporean royalty.

This is a classic romcom with soap operatic family drama courtesy of Nick's mother, Eleanor, who is played by Michelle Yeoh in the most riveting performance of the evil mother-in-law that you will witness on screen this year. Despite being the villain in this love story, you fully understand where this woman is coming from and her fear that her son has picked an ABC (American-born Chinese) instead of a traditional Singaporean woman who would know that she needs to put the needs of the family ahead of her own personal ambitions. As you get more of Eleanor's backstory, you see how she suffered the same persecution at the hands of Nick's grandmother, who never thought Eleanor was good enough for her son, and thus, we have the classic Asian history of mothers-in-law sabotaging their son's wives through the ages.

What makes Crazy Rich Asians so spectacular is the loving detail in the cinematography by Vanja Cerjul. I saw this film with my friend Katie, who is a fellow lover of the books. Thanks to our jobs, we have both also spent time in Singapore and were thoroughly delighted with how that city was depicted throughout the movie, particularly the hunger-inducing shots of Singaporean meals. Food is such a central theme of the books and Singaporean culture, and you need to ensure you bring a snack as you watch the cast munch on satay, dumplings, and all manner of delicacies that I pine for on a daily basis.

In addition, costume designer Mary Vogt does an excellent job of attiring the entire cast in just the right outfits to indicate their level of wealth. There's the flashy opulence of Eddie Cheng and his family, in contrast to the simple but powerfully wealthy elegance of Astrid Leong, who can shell out millions on earrings without a second thought, in further contrast to Rachel's Gap aesthetic. All of the accents also make it very clear where everyone lies in the social hierarchy - the wealthy families all sport English accents thanks to elite schooling at private schools and Oxbridge, while Peik Lin's nouveau riche family or Astrid's "commoner" husband, Michael, speak with much more Chinese-accented English. And let's not forget the brilliant score by Brian Tyler or the magnificent soundtrack featuring Cantonese pop covers of famous English songs. You may not understand the words but you will quickly recognize the tunes, and the foreignness of this setting instantly feels a bit more familiar.

Crazy Rich Asians might feel like it's dealing with people and places you know nothing about, but what is truly remarkable about this movie is the universality of its story and its appeal. It's a classic rags-to-riches tale, a Cinderella story about a poor woman who found her prince and the obstacles in their way towards finding true love. And it all takes place in a breezy two hours that will have you beaming from start to finish. I honestly don't know when I have seen a movie that delighted me so thoroughly in every single scene. I was overjoyed when I left the theater and I cannot wait to see every single sequel as well as what this cast goes on to do in the future. This movie hasn't just established a franchise. It has ushered a whole new way forward for Hollywood. 

BlacKkKlansman: History Repeats Itself

If you've seen the trailer for BlacKkKlansman, you expect it to be hilarious. Disturbing, but hilarious. The movie is based on the memoir of Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, who in 1978 set up an operation to infiltrate the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Give that story to Spike Lee, and what you get is a movie that is based on some fo' real, fo' real shit.

John David Washington (son of Denzel, if you weren't already aware) plays Stallworth, sporting a great afro and the ability to codeswitch between talking "jive" with his 70s brothers and sisters when he's undercover and then speaking the "King's English" when he's dealing with his white police colleagues. He teams up with a Jewish detective, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver at his best), to play the "white" Ron Stallworth at Klan meetings, while Ron will continue to talk to the various members on the phone and infiltrate their ranks. Obviously this is taking the buddy cop storyline to the extreme and it is extremely funny to watch how Zimmerman and Stallworth work with each other to sound more alike and get their stories straight. Which makes for a very entertaining first half of the film.

However, as the movie progresses, you are gradually reminded that as absurd and hilarious as this premise might be, we're still dealing with the Klan, a virulently racist and hateful group of men and women. Zimmerman is put into danger more than once by antisemitic Klan members, and as their operation goes deeper into the KKK, the stakes get much more higher. Yes, at first it is great to laugh when Stallworth manages to call up David Duke (played by Topher Grace who looks EERILY like Duke in the 70s), and hear him explain how he knows Stallworth's white because he doesn't pronounce the word "are" like a black man would. But sadly, that's just the tip of the racist iceberg.

The pacing of this film is a bit odd - the scenes are long and languid at the beginning, taking their time to set up the plot and the characters and steep you in the two different worlds Stallworth has to inhabit on a daily basis. But things pick up steam towards the end, moving quickly and tying up a lot of loose ends in extravagantly Hollywood fashion. Which is worth it, because you do want to celebrate the extraordinary work that Stallworth accomplished. But don't start feeling too good, because this movie ends on a shockingly sobering note. I won't give it away here but suffice to say, there was a woman loudly sobbing in the theater when the end credits started to roll and the rest of the audience were deadly silent. I remember sobbing last year when I saw the events that unfolded on the screen, so don't expect to feel terribly uplifted when you leave the theater. But it's still an excellent history lesson that will burn itself into your brain.

BlacKkKlansman is a thought-provoking and well-crafted movie, brimming with excellent performances, a brilliant soundtrack, production design that immerses you in the 70s, and a story that is so unbelievable it has to be true. It tackles the history of white supremacy and black power in the United States, and while it discusses these themes in the context of the 70s, it eventually makes it clear that this history hits a little too close to home in 2018. Watch this movie and get righteously angry. Then come up with a plan for what we're going to do so history can stop repeating itself. 

Netflix Stand-Up Specials: Comedy with a Twist

Stand-up specials are a difficult and wondrous thing. A person comes up on stage and makes jokes for an hour. Usually those jokes are of a personal nature, and whether or not the audience laughs is an indictment of whether or that comedian's life is worthy of entertainment. It takes guts to lay yourself bare in front of a sea of strangers, and lately, Netflix has offered up a slew of stand-up specials that showcase some of the best comedians out there. In this post, I want to highlight three comedians who really spoke to me. Not because they are raucously funny, which they are, but also because they present a different perspective, showcasing a life that is not like the one I live, and help audiences discover a whole new world outside of their own personal bubble.

Ali Wong: In her stand-up specials, Baby Cobra and Hard-Knock Wife, the one immediately obvious fact is that Wong is massively pregnant. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a pregnant woman perform stand-up. Turns out, it's pretty hysterical. Particularly when that pregnant woman is prone to delivering filthy jokes and discussing her prolific sex life in vivid detail whilst miming plenty of sexual activity in her pregnant state. If I was the kid in that womb, I'm not sure I would be delighted or utterly mortified when I came across these specials ten years' hence. Apart from that aspect, there's also the fact that Wong is half-Chinese and half-Vietnamese, which allows for a lot of Asian stereotype jokes (which is fine because she's Asian, OK?) The two specials are a perfect set because they logically follow from each other and demonstrate the trajectory of Wong's life. She was not a well-known comedian when she made Baby Cobra, but its popularity on Netflix meant that she is now a household name and Hard-Knock Wife outlines how she has been dealing with some of that newfound fame. Plus we get more stories about her marriage and her husband, a man who I would dearly love to meet because he seems like the complete opposite of his wife.

Hari Kondabolu: I'm Indian (shocker, I know) and I always enjoy watching an Indian perform stand-up and make fun of all the things about my culture that I have hitherto only viewed as annoyances. The first time I saw Hari Kondabolu was when he did a short set on a late-night talk show about how his father came to pick him up at JFK Airport, and a total stranger got in the car and started barking directions, assuming the brown man was a taxi driver. Then, of course, there was his wonderful The Problem with Apu documentary that took a look at all the reasons why Apu from The Simpsons was highly problematic. And now, there's Warn Your Relatives, an hour of him doing jokes on Netflix about how it feels to be a brown first generation immigrant. There's a long segment just about mangoes, and another on airport security. It is all topical, empathetic, hilarious stuff, and the highest praise I can give it is this: I immediately sat my parents down in front of the TV and told them they had to watch it. Reader, they chuckled.

Hannah Gadsby: Gadsby's special, Nanette, has spawned a thousand think pieces and received widespread acclaim. You shouldn't need me to tell you to watch it. But in case you do, here's the gist. Gadsby is from the island of Tasmania in Australia, a highly conservative part of the country where the fact that she is a lesbian wasn't particularly welcome. The special starts out conventionally enough, with jokes about Australia, being gay, and ordinary moments of everyday life, made extraordinary by Gadsby's verbal dexterity and ability to turn anything into a joke simply with her delivery. But the second half of this show is where things take a turn. A dark, uncomfortable, and remarkable turn. No need to spoil it, you can see for yourself. Just know that at the end of it, you will feel a deeply personal connection to this woman and the others like her who have to put up with a lot of shit everyday that is not always easy to turn into comedy.

So there you have it. Three very different individuals, in terms of gender, ethnicity, and sexuality, but all delivering incredible comedy. Perhaps you identify with some or with none, but regardless, the minute you are done watching their specials, you will have a much more expanded world view. To me, that is the greatest power of stand-up comedy. Its ability to make you laugh, but after the jokes stop, to also make you take a deep breath and think.

Blindspotting: Black & White Identity

Blindspotting is my instantaneous pick for Best Original Screenplay. The dialogue in this movie captured me from the first scene to the last, and in one climactic moment, had me at the edge of my seat, as Daveed Diggs' rap burned itself into my psyche. Written by Diggs and his childhood friend Rafael Casal (who co-stars in the movie), this movie is a searing look at race relations, identity politics, and the perils of gentrification.

Diggs plays Collin, a man who is on the last three days of his parole and trying his level best to keep his head down and come out unscathed. Unfortunately, that plan goes awry when he witnesses a white Oakland police officer shoot a black man on the street. He drives off, afraid to say anything or do anything as no one will believe his word as a convicted felon, but that moment is the beginning of a series of mishaps that reveal to him exactly how much being a black man in Oakland has cost him. Casal plays his best friend Miles, a fellow Oakland man, born and raised, who is tatted up and prone to some foolishness. As the movie progresses, we see how he is able to get away with this behavior much more easily because he is white, while everyone automatically assume the quiet and rule-following Collin is the troublemaker.

That's the harsh premise of the film, but make no mistake - this is a hilarious movie that will make you burst out laughing at multiple moments. It is scripted and edited impeccably, with not a single wasted scene or line of dialogue. Everything is set in motion to deliver an epic payoff, and when you get to that climactic moment when Diggs raps about everything that has happened to him over the past three days and led to this heartbreaking point in time, time seems to stand still and you simply cannot take your eyes off the screen.

Director Carlos Lopez Estrada has crafted a masterpiece, with evocative set pieces (who knew a pimped out Uber could be the setting for so much hilarity?) and a flair for creating tactile scenes that make the audience feel like they are a part of this world. I know nothing about Oakland, but after this movie, I feel like I have understood where exactly people come from when they complain about gentrification and the manner in which the takeover of their neighborhoods slowly erases their existence from the world. And I was watching with my friend, Lynsey, who is from Northern California and confirmed this story certainly rang true.

Blindspotting offers up an interesting take on what it is like to be from Oakland, whether you are black or white. There is a telling exchange in the film where Diggs asks Casal why it's OK for him to use the n-word, but Casal would never use it himself. There's another moment when Casal is percevied to be a white hipster posing as a "brother," and this misrepresentation of his identity infuriates him. While this is emphatically a movie about Collin and how his blackness makes him a target in all social scenarios, it is also cleverly a movie about whiteness and how it leads to misperceptions of its own. Ultimately, when you find out why this movie is called what it is, it leads to a whole host of revelations that will shake you to your core and make you look at the world around you in a whole new light. 

Eighth Grade: Childhood in the 21st Century

Eighth Grade is the kind of movie that is both extremely real and extremely fantastical. Which makes sense because that is how life feels when you're a thirteen-year-old girl: everything is hyper real, but a lot of it is also in your head. And thanks to writer-director Bo Burnham, we now have the chance to experience what exactly is going on in a young teen's head in our digital age.

The wondrous Elsie Fisher (give her all the Best Young Artist awards now) plays Kayla Day, an eighth-grader in her last week of middle school, who wins the dubious honor of being named "Most Quiet" by her classmates. She doesn't appear to have any friends, though she tries her very best to force herself to say "Hi!" and "Good job!" to the kids around her, all of whom are too busy checking their phones to give her the time of day. When she goes home, she makes motivational YouTube videos, where she dispenses wise thirteen-year-old advice on how to boost your confidence and make friends. No one, except her dad (the equally wondrous Josh Hamilton), appears to be watching these videos, but that is immaterial. They probably help Kayla more than she realizes, and give her the courage to put herself out there more before she transitions to the wilds of high school.

There's nothing more I want to give away about the plot because it is a film that needs to be experienced as it quietly unfolds. What I will say is that I was pleasantly surprised at how incredibly funny it was. I don't expect such movies to inspire laughter; I expect angst-ridden drama. However, thanks to Bo Burnham's comedic roots, the entire movie has a deft, light touch that reveals how, while teenage life can feel catastrophic when you're a teenager, in actual fact, it isn't that much of a tragedy at all. It is also scary to see the impact social media has on kids today - in one telling scene, we see how high schoolers who are merely four years older than Kayla already feel like she is a generation away from them because she got access to Snapchat so much earlier than they did. There is an odd generational hierarchy based on the arrival of various social media platforms, and it a complicated web to navigate amongst the other perils of adolescence.

Of course, there is one scene where my friend Katie and I started bawling, and that is when the much-needed heart-to-heart takes place between Kayla and her dad. This is where the "fantastical" portion of the movie comes in - most fathers have no idea how to talk to their daughters, but this movie will give them the ideal template. This father says exactly the right thing and reassures his child in a manner that will make every woman in the world sob. And of course, the reason he is able to say the right thing, is because Kayla is able to articulately voice all of the troubles that are swimming around in her brain. This is a conversation that both children and parents can benefit from; they may not be able to engage in it in real life, but they need to at least watch it in the theater so they can be reassured that this is how both sides feel about each other, even if they lack the vocabulary to communicate it.

Eighth Grade feels almost improvised - the dialogue is natural and never clunky, and you feel fully immersed in the world of this young girl and the trials that lie ahead. The sound design is particularly effective, with the use of loud music or complete silence so you can't hear certain conversations, because sometimes you don't need to know what people are saying to know exactly how they are feeling. It is sweet, funny, sad, and uplifting, a rollercoaster of emotions that captures the rollercoaster our heroine is going through. Everyone can relate to this girl, and everyone needs to see this movie. 

Queer Eye: Five Gay Guys Changing the World

A lot of people told me to watch Queer Eye but I was too busy watching "serious" things. Why would I bother watching a reality show on Netflix, based on a Bravo series I quite enjoyed a decade ago, but was definitely over now? Thankfully, my friend Laura made me watch an episode when I visited her, and after that, I binged two seasons in short order. My word, how the world has changed.

A primer for those who are in the dark: Queer Eye is a show where five gay men (the Fab 5) take over the life of a person (usually a heterosexual man, but more on that later) and give him a makeover in a week. The man is usually some kind of shlubby man-child who can't get a date or has a wife who wants to see him in a nice suit for once, and at the end of the week, the Fab 5 have given him a new wardrobe, a haircut, completely re-designed his home, and given him some basic life skills to make him a better human. The original Bravo show was titled Queer Eye for a Straight Guy, but there is a very important reason why the Netflix reboot is only titled Queer Eye. Instead of solely catering to Straight Guys, some of the best episodes deal with gay men or straight women who need to zhuzh up their lives.

The crucial component of the reboot is the cast. The five men are masters of their craft and pros at what they do. But beyond that, they never impose their views on the people they are helping. Instead, they see their role as partially therapeutic - they want to understand why these people have let themselves go, and then work with them to come up with solutions that will genuinely be embraced and used for the long term. So no one is forcing anyone to wear a pink shirt or shave off their beard - instead, they consult each individual to see what they are comfortable with before irrevocably changing their lives. In addition, we also get a lot more backstory about each of the Fab 5, many of whom are married or have kids. This is progress we never got to see in the original show where the gayness definitely felt very foreign. Here, these five men are living their lives, and their sexuality is simply one facet to extremely multi-dimensional personalities.

The other crucial component is location. Unlike the Bravo series set in New York City, this show is set in Atlanta, Georgia, which means a lot of the people they deal with are white Southerners who voted for Trump and haven't always had a favorable view of homosexuality. This is where we see the two sides reconcile and have sensitive philosophical debates about the great divide in America. The Fab 5 come in with their prejudices too, and over the course of the week, it is often miraculous to watch how both sides chip away at each other until they become the closest of friends and vow to never pre-judge others again. There's the episode where they had to help a white cop and Karamo, who is black, had a heart-to-heart with him about police brutality. There's the episode where they help a trans man, and Tan, who is a British Muslim who had to live a quieter gay life and didn't immerse himself in gay culture, had a heart-to-heart about how he never understood why trans people wanted to go through surgery until he met this man and finally felt his pain. Over the course of that episode, we also got to see the struggle this man went through just to get his gender marker changed on his driver's license, as well as the extreme panic that could be occasioned through the unbelievably fraught task of getting fitted for a suit.

Queer Eye is a show with the simple but devastating goal of engendering empathy. Not just empathy for the five gay guys, but for the people they help as well. It is a profound commentary on humanity and stripping away the labels that people put on themselves to reveal the common human beings underneath. People may claim to not understand one another and profoundly disagree on many fundamental things, but it turns out that when you just have a conversation and try to understand where the other person is coming from, you learn more about yourself than you could ever imagine. In each episode, the person they're helping has a different struggle and different goal in mind for the end of the week. By the time you reach the end of the episode, you'll discover that your heart had a little bit of a makeover as well.

Marvel Round-Up: The Avengers, Deadpool, and Ant-Man Sequels

Listen, I've made my love for Marvel movies quite clear on this blog. But it's also becoming increasingly clear that there are a LOT of Marvel movies to get through every year. It's only July and we've already had four movies out this year, with two more due before January. As such, I am growing wary of posting reviews of each individual film, unless of course, like Black Panther, they utterly blow my mind. So I give you my condensed reviews of the other three Marvel movies I've watched in 2018.

Avengers Infinity War: Do I remember anything about this movie? Um maybe? It was fine, OK? It has a lot of superheroes, including Spider-Man and Black Panther getting in on the action (with a whole set piece in Wakanda in case you were still suffering from Black Panther withdrawal) and Dr. Strange opening up portals all over the place, and it was all visually stunning. The Guardians of the Galaxy finally got to hang out with the rest of the cast of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which meant the jokes were great and the action sequences were even more out of this world than usual. The movie was also an ode to what an incredible achievement the MCU has accomplished over the past decade. It was particularly gratifying to see scenes where a bunch of women got together to kick ass, showcasing how the MCU has managed to up the estrogen levels in their movies a bit (though much work remains to be done of course). They started with Iron-Man, and now they have this entire coterie of movies and characters to draw upon. That being said, the most intriguing part of this movie was the very end, which reminded me a great deal of The Leftovers (oops, spoiler alert to those niche readers who are fans of both franchises). It definitely made me excited to see Part 2, so Marvel's still got it!

Deadpool 2: Meh. Turns out Deadpool is a bit of a one-trick pony for me. The first movie was a crazy ride and the first R-rated superhero film, and it was magnificent. But Deadpool 2 is more of the same without much more plot, and turns out I don't much care for that. In fact, it reminded me a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, where I discovered that while I absolutely LOVED the first installment, the second was just a repetition that wasn't as entertaining once the novelty wore off. If you like foul-mouthed superheroes getting up to all sorts of shenanigans, this is the franchise for you, but if you like something with a bit more meaning and emotion, move right along. The fact that this movie stars Zazie Beetz of Atlanta fame is of course a huge plus, but oh boy, there's only so much breaking of the fourth wall and general schoolboy snark that a girl can take.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: As the movie I've seen most recently, I can say I was pleasantly surprised and refreshed. It was a light and amusing summer movie, the perfect mid-week treat, and wasn't heavy-handed or portentous in any way. Paul Rudd was his charming, effervescent self, Evangeline Lilly got to be a bad ass, and more than anything, the visual effects of this franchise continue to delight me. The chance to play around with size allows for such dazzling creativity, and while much of it was already spoiled in the trailer, I still found myself gleefully cheering along to every action sequence, delighting in how Ant-Man and the Wasp kept getting tiny, then enormous, and weaponizing everyday objects to great effect to thwart the bad guys. If you want an entertaining movie that doesn't make you think too much, this is the perfect escape. And if you stay for the post-credits sequence (the first one, don't bother to stay till the very end for the pointless second one), there's a marvelous call back to Avengers Infinity War that makes the whole MCU come together.

Ultimately, the Marvel machine is adept at tying these movies together and making you want to watch every single installment so you can pick up on all the little Easter eggs from other movies. Not every movie they make is a rollicking success, but they always provide entertainment, no matter how forgettable. You may disagree with my recap of the three sequels above, but I think the one thing we can all agree on is that these movies aren't going anywhere, and no matter how ambivalent I may get about some of them, as long as they toss in a few Black Panthers once in a while, I'll be along for the ride.