Well, most of us are huddled indoors and won't be trick-or-treating this year. But Hollywood has come to the rescue with plenty of new movies to keep you entertained through the winter weekends. And this weekend, US readers get a whole extra hour to binge, thanks to Daylight Savings Time! I ploughed through these three movies last week, so settle down on the couch and see what tickles your fancy.
Rebecca: If you've seen the trailer, you know what you're getting. Sweeping and lush period drama that's a little bit creepy and has a twist ending. Ever since Daphne du Maurier wrote this
novel in 1938 there have been many iconic adaptations, but here's another one! And it's...fine! I'll admit, the main appeal to me was getting to watch that tall drink of water, Armie Hammer, saunter up and down my screen. But Lily James is lovely too, and Kristin Scott Thomas is incredible as Mrs. Danvers. Seriously, after watching this performance, you would much rather take care of your own household than ever consider hiring a housekeeper ever again.
For those of you who insist on knowing at least something about the plot, this is a story of a young woman (whose name is never revealed in the novel, so she's just "the second Mrs. de Winter") who has a whirlwind romance with Maxim de Winter in Monte Carlo. They get married after a fortnight and she is whisked away on a honeymoon and then on to his fabulous estate, Manderley, which is one of the finest houses in Britain. There, she meets Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper who was extremely fond of the first Mrs. de Winter, a woman named Rebecca. Mrs. Danvers does NOT like this new interloper, and there is DRAMA. It is a weird, unsettling tale, and as the movie hurtles on, it becomes clear that there's something mysterious about how Rebecca died. The movie is gorgeous to look at, but exceedingly frothy. If you already know the story and how things will end, there might be little to keep you glued to your screen here, but if you're just seeking a nice escape into some gothic melodrama with some actors who are easy on the eyes, you're in for a treat. It's a lazy Sunday binge, no harm, no foul.
: I mean, come on. You don't need me to tell you whether or not you would like this movie. You should have a pretty good idea already based on your reaction to
the first one. For the uninitiated, Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat, a journalist from Kazakhstan who goes to America and meets real-life Americans (not actors) and proceeds to gin up controversy. He is a posturing, right-wing nutjob, and as he travels the country (mostly the South) he tends to find people who go along with his craziness, thereby revealing the depths of lunacy that this country contains. In this sequel, he is accompanied by his daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova, a young Bulgarian actress breaking into Hollywood in the most spectacular fashion), and all manner of hijinks ensue. There's a debutante ball, there are some QAnon conspiracists, a wonderful woman named Jeanise Jones who is the voice of reason and the film's true hero, and of course, there's Rudy Guiliani.
The true wizardry of this movie is that Cohen and Bakalova are the only actors. They have to stay in character as these absolutely bonkers humans, and then interact with real-life humans, who don't seem thrown by their insanity at all. Cohen has been doing this for years, but I was so awed by Bakalova's ability to stay in character while she proceeded to do and say some spectacularly insane things. The movie ends with the most important message of them all: VOTE. And that is the point of this Subsequent Moviefilm. It is a reminder that America is just as nuts as ever, and if you want it to be a little less nuts, you need to go vote for it. Lord save us all.
On the Rocks: Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, and starring Rashida Jones and Bill Murray, I was definitely looking forward to this movie. And after watching it, I have mostly forgotten all about it. It's a good movie, I swear, but it is light and breezy, and ultimately it didn't profoundly resonate with me. It's a story about Laura (Rashida Jones), who is married with two young children, and her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans), who travels a lot as he is trying to get a new business off the ground. Due to certain circumstances, Laura starts to suspect he is having an affair, and when she confides in her father (played by Bill Murray), he immediately insists that they investigate. He is a bit of a philanderer himself, and is convinced men can't be monogamous, so with him by her side, Laura is increasingly paranoid that her husband is straying. Things escalate, and you should watch to see how it all pans out.
This is meant to be a light comedy, but what I took away from it was that this is a movie about the existential angst of being a wife and mother. There are so many shots of Laura just looking exhausted. And let's be very clear, this woman has a beautiful apartment in New York, comes from an exceedingly wealthy family, and is living the kind of cushy New York lifestyle that I have only ever seen in movies. I live in New York and still didn't recognize half the places they went to or talked about, because they are so out of my price range. But all the money in the world cannot solve for the emotional labor of being a mother and having a husband who will always say "I'll trust your decision" when you ask if you should get your daughter on a preschool waiting list. This is a movie that showcases everything that women are doing in their attempts to "have it all" and what a terrifyingly awful prospect that is. So, give this movie a shot, and depending on how you're feeling that day, you'll either be pleasantly cheered or come away with a sense of dread about running a household.
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