I was tickled with how much good stuff was in theaters for me this weekend!
The Flash – Say what you will surrounding the controversial shit storm Ezra Miller has caused in their personal life recently, but they make an entertaining Flash. That’s how I chose to go into this over the weekend. At almost two and a half hours I was nervous at what this was going to be, but I found myself laughing a lot (purposely), my eyes lighting up at some cool cameos, and overall invested in the story. Barry is getting ready to go to his father’s hearing the next morning when he accidentally discovers he can run fast enough that he can essentially deposit himself into the future. Obviously, that’s a bad idea. Even if he could stop his mother from being murdered and his father from being falsely imprisoned for it, a whole lot else is going to change in the process. Barry learns that the hard way, but not before we get to see, as I said, some really cool cameos! It’s DC’s take on the multiverse and I liked it!
No Hard Feelings – Talk about two perfect worlds coming together. Jennifer Lawrence in a raunchy, R-rated comedy. The world has finally healed. I was also happy to learn that this was coming from the team that brought us Good Boys, the last really funny R-rated comedy, in my opinion. While there were some inconsistencies here, I did laugh very hard for the first hour or so. Then they tried weaving some more serious bits in that just really stunted the flow of the whole thing. That’s not to say that Lawrence wasn’t totally delivering. She served. Given that she’s an Oscar winner, there were some things that shocked me, but in the most hysterical way. I hope this is the beginning of her getting back on our screens, but if not, I was happy with this one entry.
Asteroid City – Wes Anderson is perhaps my favorite director, so I was going to see this film regardless. However, his last film didn’t quite land for me, so I went in with a little bit of trepidation. I can confidently say though that this is my favorite of his since Moonrise Kingdom! A bunch of really random people gather at the smallest town on the planet, in the middle of the desert, called Asteroid City. While in the middle of a genius convention (?), an alien touches down and steals the meteor that the town is known for. In chaos and quarantine, we get some really interesting and fun scenes between all sorts of characters. I laughed a lot and really enjoyed the dipping in and out of the film within a film as we learned how it came to be. I definitely would like to see this again!
Past Lives – A hit at Sundance, and an even bigger hit with critics, this quiet drama ultimately tells the story of a woman coming face to face with the road not traveled. Nora immigrates to Canada with her family when she is just twelve years old, leaving behind her best friend and crush, Hae Sung. Another twelve years pass when the two reconnect thanks to the help of Facetime. The two are virtually inseparable, but Nora decides to end things to focus on the goals she has for herself since successfully immigrating to America. It’s shortly after where she meets her husband and then we are shifted forward in time another twelve years. Hae Sung is finally “on vacation” in New York and it’s like he and Nora effortlessly picked up right where they left off. Nora loves her life, so it’s heartbreaking to see this other good life she could have also had. Very moving.