Well, due to sickness, you’re only getting reviews of movies I could watch from the comfort of my home.
To Leslie – I really enjoyed this depressing drama, but I didn’t realize how much it impacted me until I couldn’t fall asleep that night. I was probably awake for a good hour with scenes from this heartbreaking, but ultimately uplifting film replaying in my head. Leslie is a hot mess. Back some ten years prior, she won the lottery ($190,000 to be exact), and then proceeded to blow it on partying. When the money ran out, she left town, her son included. Now we meet Leslie, homeless, but just looking for a little bit of cash for some cheap alcohol. It takes the kindness of one man, Sweeny, who doesn’t give up on Leslie that she finally turns her life around. I’m sure this is the way for a lot of people who’ve won the lottery, but that didn’t make this any less hard to watch.
God’s Country – Whoa. This movie went places. Dark places. We meet Sandra getting ready to cremate her mother in the cold winter of small, rural college town. Her life is disturbed further when some hick hunters can’t get the message about not parking on her property. From there, it’s a battle of wills, but every interaction is so taut that you expect bloodshed at any moment. It was captivating to learn why Sandra moved so far up north after living most of her life in New Orleans, and it was equally unbearable to see these degenerate white men take up against this reasonable black woman just trying to live a quiet life. I won’t say any more for fear of spoiling it, but this is a must-watch. Chilling.
The Loneliest Boy in the World – I…don’t know what I was expecting with this film. Based on the movie poster and premise, I knew it’d be kind of goofy, but it had such a distinct style I wasn’t sure what to expect as it went along. We meet Oliver living in solitude for now, in his mother’s very pink home in the 80s. He’s about to learn if he can continue living there or be sent back to a facility. In order to do this he’s told the best way to stay is to make friends. When he can’t really do that successfully, he digs up his own friends…from a graveyard. Pretty soon Oliver has his own zombie family just trying to help him live his best life. At first, I was really turned off by the style of this film, as it reminded me of the really eccentric film with Ryan Reynolds called, The Voices, but as it went on, it just ended up being both pretty funny and very sweet. I kind of want to watch it again!
Catherine, Called Birdy – I’m not quite sure what appealed to me about this movie, but it just looked feel-good and I wanted to watch it. Of course, Lena Dunham directing and a terrific ensemble cast helped out with the decision, too. Catherine, called Birdy and just fourteen years of age, is enjoying her life causing mischief, but her father has other plans. The family is low on funds, and it being the 1600s means that Birdy can help the family out if she’s married off to a wealthy suitor. She spends most of the film trying to ward off these potential husbands, but over the course of the film we really see Birdy start to slowly mature. The ending wasn’t quite what I was expecting to happen, but overall it was a really enjoyable and funny watch. Evidently this is an adaptation of a children’s book, and based on critics’ reviews, Dunham did a great job in taking it to the screen.