Once the Oscars are done, the movie theaters are flooded with “summer movies” that are a bit of a crapshoot in terms of quality. But thanks to the pandemic, we can’t go to the theaters and instead are watching all new releases on our couches. Having watched three new movies this month, I can say couch-viewing is definitely the way to go. So plop down on your cushions with some popcorn and settle in for some light entertainment. These movies are fun and forgettable and given how the real world feels like it’s on fire right now (both literally and figuratively) these movies might be just what you need to distract yourself from the gaping maw of existential dread. Onwards!
The High Note: Dakota Johnson stars as Maggie, the personal assistant to famous pop star, Grace Davis (the fab Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter of actual famous pop star, Diana Ross, so that’s a fun bit of casting). Maggie harbors a desire to be a music producer but can never get Grace or her manager, Jack (played by Ice Cube) to take her seriously as she music-splains and showcases her exhaustive range of soul music trivia. She then meets a cute singer, David (the charming Kelvin Harrison Jr.), and talks him into letting her produce his demo. All told, it’s a light and frothy tale with music, romance, sunny shots of California, and reminders of what it was like when we were allowed to congregate in packed concerts and bars. I stumbled across quite a few headlines that mentioned a major twist in the third act of this movie, so I amused myself by trying to guess what it would be when I finally watched it - I got it exactly right and challenge all of you to try to do the same as that was a fun game to play when the film started to drag a bit. It’s no masterpiece, but it features fun performances and is a perfectly pleasant way to spend an evening. Which is all that most of us are seeking these days.
How To Build a Girl: I loved Caitlin Moran’s Moranifesto when I read it in 2016, and then I never read anything else she had written. Well, I corrected this a few weeks ago, when I devoured her two novels, How To Build a Girl and How To Be Famous. You need to read these books; they are brilliant and I seriously cannot remember reading something so insanely funny whilst simultaneously being incredibly insightful and moving. Sadly, the movie adaptation, which was also written by Moran, didn’t satisfy me quite as much. It does star the wonderful Beanie Feldstein as Johanna Morrigan, a sixteen-year-old growing up on a council estate in Wolverhampton with a chaotic family. Tired of being poor and dependent on welfare, she decides to seek her fortune, and through a stroke of luck, lands a job as a music critic for a rock magazine. While the book is hilarious, filthy, and evocative, the movie has to whittle down all of Johanna’s thoughts and adventures into a breezy two hours, and the result is a hodgepodge that cannot do the book and the main character enough justice. It isn’t a terrible movie by any means, so I do encourage you to watch it for a light distraction or some insights into what horny and dramatic teenage girls are like, but I definitely recommend you read the book afterwards to truly understand the genius of Moran’s work. I wish this book had been adapted as a TV show rather than a movie, because then, we wouldn’t have to resort to so many shortcuts and weird storytelling changes. But then again, it is quite a joy to watch Beanie Feldstein prancing around London in a top hat and fishnet stockings.
The Lovebirds: I saw so many trailers for this movie in theaters earlier in the year, so was delighted to see Netflix had picked it up for a pandemic streaming release instead. My sole reason for wanting to watch it was because it stars Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae, which is a romcom pairing made in heaven. They are charismatic and funny, so I had pretty high expectations going in. Unfortunately, this is a fairly average movie, and falls into the trap where the trailer spoiled most of the plot. Even towards the end, there were still scenes that had featured in the trailer and I felt like nothing was happening on screen that I hadn’t already seen before. The few twists that took place were things I had already predicted (although I watched this movie with my mother who gasped at some twists, so this is clearly only a problem if you have watched a ton of romcom action movies and know the familiar beats). But despite a fairly lackluster screwball comedy plot (couple on the run from the police because they are falsely implicated in a murder and have decided they must figure out what’s going on themselves), the reason to watch this movie is the central duo. Rae and Nanjiani are unsurprisingly great and play off each other in fun ways. Their relationship probably takes more twists and turns than the actual plot of this film, and it just had me jonesing for a conventional drama starring these two, without any added hijinks. So watch this movie for the performances, forgive its basic plot contrivances, and thank Netflix for letting us enjoy this diversion at home.
The Lovebirds: I saw so many trailers for this movie in theaters earlier in the year, so was delighted to see Netflix had picked it up for a pandemic streaming release instead. My sole reason for wanting to watch it was because it stars Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae, which is a romcom pairing made in heaven. They are charismatic and funny, so I had pretty high expectations going in. Unfortunately, this is a fairly average movie, and falls into the trap where the trailer spoiled most of the plot. Even towards the end, there were still scenes that had featured in the trailer and I felt like nothing was happening on screen that I hadn’t already seen before. The few twists that took place were things I had already predicted (although I watched this movie with my mother who gasped at some twists, so this is clearly only a problem if you have watched a ton of romcom action movies and know the familiar beats). But despite a fairly lackluster screwball comedy plot (couple on the run from the police because they are falsely implicated in a murder and have decided they must figure out what’s going on themselves), the reason to watch this movie is the central duo. Rae and Nanjiani are unsurprisingly great and play off each other in fun ways. Their relationship probably takes more twists and turns than the actual plot of this film, and it just had me jonesing for a conventional drama starring these two, without any added hijinks. So watch this movie for the performances, forgive its basic plot contrivances, and thank Netflix for letting us enjoy this diversion at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment