May 2019

This month, I headed to San Jose to see South Bay Musical Theater’s excellent production of Thoroughly Modern Millie (thank you, Jay Steele!), attended the Desert Storm Poker Run in Lake Havasu City, AZ (nearly fainting from heat stroke in the 100+ F temperatures) and wrapped up tutoring duties at John Muir Elementary School for the final time after seven glorious years. TV: I watched the final episode of The Big Bang Theory...so sad the series has ended its run. Jay and I watched several episodes of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s final season. BOOKS: I finished listening to Rachel Abbott’s The Shape of Lies and neared the end of Neil Simon’s Fools. MUSIC: I finished grading all 140+ songs of Death Cab for Cutie.

Here are the movies I saw in May:

LONG SHOT (2019)—Very entertaining romantic comedy about how presidential hopeful Charlize Theron falls in love with writer Seth Rogen (yes, it’s a science fiction picture). As preposterous as the plot is, and as silly as some of the scenes are, it’s amazingly enganging. Theron in particular is quite funny. (9)

A LITTLE PRINCESS (1995)—Adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel follows young Sara Crewe (Liesel Matthews), whose rich father must go off to war; after leaving the child in the care of despicable boarding school headmistress Miss Maria Minchin (Eleanor Bron), he is apparently killed in action, leaving Sara no option but to become an indentured servant. Disney-type production hits most of the right notes, altering the original story somewhat, but improving it overall. The cast is uniformly excellent. (9)

A DOG OF FLANDERS (1959)—Another famous children’s story, this time by Marie Louise de la Ramée writing as Ouida, adapted as a Disney-type family drama. A young orphan farmboy in Belgium, living with his milkman grandfather (Donald Crisp), take in an abused dog and nurse him back to health. The kid, who aspires to become an artist, is taken under wing by a local painter (Theodore Bikel). It’s a gentle and moving story; the only drawback is the comparatively lackluster performance by David Ladd as the boy. (8)

ECHO IN THE CANYON (2019)—Documentary about the development of the Southern California “Malibu Canyon” folk-rock style of music (Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Mamas and the Papas, Beach Boys), featuring interviews with most of the key players by Jakob Dylan (son of Bob Dylan). Mostly engaging; only frequent clips from the film that inspired the movie (Model Shop) distract from the musical entertainment. Featuring numerous classic songs re-worked by Dylan and various other contemporary singers and musicians, including Regina Spektor, Beck, Norah Jones, Cat Power, etc. (8)

SURVIVAL ISLAND (2005)—A married couple (Billy Zane and voluptuous Kelly Brook) and a hot Latin boathand (Juan Pablo Di Pace) are the only survivors of a yacht disaster. Washed up on a desert island, the trio go through various Lord of the Flies stages before someone gets killed. This is a pretty schlocky film—a guilty pleasure, if only for the psychological love-triangle drama and the fact that sexy Brook is frequently nude. The worst thing about it is a voodoo subplot that should have been taken out completely—without it, the movie would be 100% better. Enjoyable, for all of the wrong reasons. Original title: Three. (7.5)

THE PERFECTION (2019)—Apparently, this Netflix horror movie is the latest scarefest entertaining the nation—this month’s Bird Box. From what I understood, people are seriously grossed out by the disgusting and shocking nature of the film, so I felt I needed to check it out. It’s true that there are several extremely lurid images in the movie, many involving body mutilations and people vomiting, but I have a pretty strong tolerance for that kind of thing. What I don’t have a tolerance for is stupidity, and there are at least a couple of plot developments in The Perfection that preventing me from suspending my disbelief. Having said that, like the previous movie, much of it is enjoyably trashy; the cast is very good and the leads are quite attractive. Bonus: several gorgeous views of Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl building, which I love. (7)