I tried my best with that. Anyway, an extra day off means I packed in some more movies!
The Iron Claw – Not being a big wrestling fan, I knew next to nothing about the Von Erich family. So seeing their plight play out on the big screen was something else. This family’s story is something over the top you’d expect Hollywood to make a fictional story about, but it actually happened to them. I’m with Kevin, the Von Erich name is a cursed one. While trying to make it to the top of the world of wrestling, four of the five brothers faced deeply tragic deaths far too young in their lives. Kevin takes it, and keeps taking it, until he finally learns to stand up to his cold, cold man of a father. It seems his own made family is what keeps him going, but it was so tragic to watch what unfolded in his life.
Anyone But You – You know what, I’m not mad that I watched two rom-coms this weekend. Both were satisfying in vastly different ways. For starters, this one is in the beautiful and sunny Sydney, Australia, so that warmed my heart a little bit. Also, I was surprised at just how likeable Sydney Sweeny was as the lead. I know Glen Powell is, but it was cool to see that she could match his charm. They play one night stands, Bea and Ben, who end up meeting each other again on the way to a wedding. Everyone there makes it their mission to get them to reconnect only so that the wedding isn’t completely destroyed by their petty antics. It’s a soft R rom-com, so there were some solid jokes in there, but my favorite bit had to be seeing Gata playing Ben’s best friend! Gata is the best!
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – I guess I maybe should have watched the first Aquaman again before heading into this sequel, you know, given that the original came out five years ago. But I didn’t and I think I managed alright. Arthur, aka Aquaman, is now the king of Atlantis, but he’s finding it harder to change things than he initially thought. Then our bad guy Mantis from the first film finds some demonic trident in a hidden and frozen kingdom and starts wrecking havoc on the earth, which in turn, messes up the oceans. Things get even more dire when his son is kidnapped as part of the master plan Mantis has been cooking up. He knows that Orm is his only hope in successfully stopping this madness. It was all fine. There was more Amber Heard than I was expecting, but there was a lot of Patrick Wilson, so I’m willing to let my mind blank her out. I’ll be interested to see where his character goes next given that Gunn has chosen to keep Momoa on as Aquaman.
Poor Things – I’ll start by saying yes, this new Yorgos Lanthimos film is weird, as are all of his other films. But, just like The Favourite, this latest film has taken a turn for the commercial…kind of. I think people will blindly go see this because they see Emma Stone and the trailer had some amusing bits. What they won’t be prepared for, and frankly I wasn’t either, is the amount of sex in this movie. It’s all there to prove the point that women should have just as much free will as men and not be judged so harshly for it. And also just freedom. The amount of men that try to trap Bella is unreal, and she just manages to outsmart all of them. The cast here is a delight, as is all of its wonderful oddness. Certainly for a very specific audience, but you know that will always include me.
Holiday in Handcuffs – Gosh, a classic. I know it’s a corny made-for-television Christmas movie that came out in the mid-2000s, but it’s just so dang good! Really, the only thing that gives it away anymore is it’s grainy mid-2000s picture! It’s fairly topical, though the premise itself is outlandish. Trudie gets dumped just as she’s about to spend Christmas with her family in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Fearful of this making her parents even more disappointed in her, she kidnaps a handsome stranger at gunpoint and takes him with her. Too many things work out well for Trudie, but they’re both cute and do things that illicit laughs, so I can overlook the cheese. Of course they both catch feelings – would it be a Christmas movie if they didn’t?! This movie still makes me happy even though I am now older than Melissa Joan Hart was when this came out.
The Climb – Not to be confused with Miley Cirus’ song of the same name, this indie darling back from 2019 was so, so fun to watch again. The story itself is unbelievably awkward, but also something I’m sure people on this earth have gone through. Kyle gets the news broken to him as he’s peddling for his life up a hill that his best friend Mike has been sleeping with his fiancé, Ava. Obviously, those relationships are over for Kyle, but when something like karma leaves Ava dead an undetermined amount of time later, he reluctantly starts letting Mike back into his life. I’m not sure that Mike is a good friend. For all the strides he tries to make over the course of the film, there’s always a bit of selfishness tainting it. Actually, maybe that is why his friendship with Kyle, his polar opposite, does work after all this time and drama.