Movies

There was quite the eclectic mix this weekend!

Bullet Train – After this movie had been pushed back three times from this past April, I was actually really excited to go see this movie! The cast was spectacular, the action sequences were tight and intense, there was a nice mix of comedic elements, and it was just overall pretty badass! Ladybug is back in the game, and his intro mission is to snag a briefcase off of a train heading from Tokyo to Kyoto. Too bad there’s a bunch of other people on board with the same agenda. Everyone seems to know about the bad guy the case is actually for: White Death (my favorite, and hopefully yours now too by this point – Michael Shannon). The lengths that these individuals go through to kill each other are both ridiculous and fun in their own weird way. This will definitely be getting a second viewing from me at some point.

Kimi – I wanted to get in some movies off of HBO Max before that Warner Brothers/Discovery merger makes any more content disappear off the face of the planet forever. Thus, I gravitated towards this compact thriller from Steven Soderbergh. Angela is an at-home employee for the company that brought the world Kimi. Think Alexa, but a lot more people monitoring by actual people instead of an algorithm. Angela is a customer service representative essentially, and while she’s running through her error log she hears a series of recordings that result in a woman being murdered. What makes this thriller even more interesting is that Angela is agoraphobic, and her fears were even more intensified with the pandemic. I like how they were able to incorporate the pandemic into this film without making it solely about the pandemic. This movie was a good time!

The Fallout – Woah. I think every human on earth should watch this heartbreaking film. It opens on Vada and Mia in the school bathroom. These girls have never really spent any time interacting with each other before, but then a horrific event ties them together forever. Another student opens fire in their school, so they crowd in a stall together hoping and praying they’re not the shooters next stop. While the two girls walk away physically unscathed, the rest of the film takes a dive into their psyche and how they are impacted in the aftermath of this event. It’s clear Vada doesn’t know how to process this, so in the meantime she makes new friendships, ends old ones, and tries a BUNCH of new things before she’s finally ableto get a little bit of a handle on things. This movie was a great example of how these terrible things that are happening daily now aren’t just impacting those whose lives are taken, but everyone else, too. Really powerful.

My Dead Dad – Lucas learns that his estranged and recently deceased father left his apartment complex for him to own and run. As he’s desperate to get out of Reno, Lucas makes the journey to LA but is left feeling in limbo as he tries to decide if he wants to rid himself of the place or actually spend time in this place his father called home. What makes the decision harder is how much he’s learning about his father through the tenants. It’s hard for Lucas to reconcile his father’s absence in his own life with how great of a person he was to everyone else. As much as this movie was about Lucas learning about his father, it was also about him learning about himself and what he wants out of life. There’s still a lot up in the air by the end, but the journey is a cathartic one. Surprisingly really enjoyed this quiet drama!

Alone Together – I…have no clue why I rented this. Even though Katie Holmes is a native to my home state, I should have known better than to rent a rom-com that wrote, produced, and directed. She plays June, a food critic looking to get out of New York City for the weekend at an AirBnB a few hours away. Turns out it’s double booked by another guy named Charlie. The two vow to figure it out in the morning, but then the pandemic strikes in earnest. The two are “stranded” out here, but manage to connect, if awkwardly at first. I mean yeah, if you spend that much time with someone you’re bound to have some interest in them by the end of it. I’d say 7 Days did this concept infinitely better, so you should go watch that instead.