BEFORE: Great, now I'm seeing posts online about Disney possibly moving the date of "Black Widow", because the movies that are being released in theaters are still under-performing, and Warner Brothers just moved "Wonder Woman 1984" from October to Christmas. I have planned for this, because I created two paths to the end of the year, and either one will still get me my "perfect year" (though frankly, in all other aspects 2020 has been anything but) - one path has "Black Widow" in it, and the other one does not. This really only affects the last nine movies of the year - and I'm determined to finish this year strong, regardless of whatever the date that movie theaters in New York City open turns out to be. And if I have to spend half of 2021 making up for all the movies that I DIDN'T SEE in 2020, so be it - I think a lot of people are going to be in that same boat with me.
But damn it, I'm also looking forward to watching "Hellboy" (the one that got released last year - the prequel? reboot?). Even though that's a very obvious October-style movie, I had it slated for the film to watch right after the "Black Widow" release on November 6, with David Harbour carrying over. (I briefly had a plan to drop it in right before the October chain started, if "Black Widow" got pushed into 2021, only I can't find the link on one end to make it possible - perhaps it was never there, and this was just a case of wishful thinking). So if "Black Widow" doesn't get released, then "Hellboy" is out of this year's schedule with it.
Here's the problem - my October horror chain this year is a linking masterpiece, if I do say so myself. But it's also a very fragile thing. It's like a giant Jenga pile, and if I start pulling out movies now, I don't know which one is going to make the whole pile collapse. Any and all efforts to start the October chain in a different spot have met with disaster - I can link to a film currently in the middle and head in one of the two directions from there, but the chain then will not (so far) link back to the next slot, and that would mean that one or more films on the schedule would have to be jettisoned.
Sometimes my chains are circular, I can identify cast members (coded in green) that are special links, which could allow me to flip around certain sections of the chain - this has been very helpful at least twice already this year. And while there are some actors who appear several times in non-sequential horror films this year, I can't find a section that will flip around and keep the same films, or even the same number of films, in the month. And I can't flip the whole horror chain around, because of the "Twilight" films - my actor links to and from them are not in ALL of those movies, so flipping it around would mean I'd have to watch that series in reverse order. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be recommended - but who knows? Maybe it would make them better. Still, let's not risk it.
But could there be another way to save "Hellboy", if needed? I went up and down my schedule today, looking for a way to drop it in, and there is one, only there are a couple of problems. Now that I've dropped "The Call of the Wild" and "Downhill" from this year's plan, one of the films I'm dropping in to replace them DOES link to "Hellboy". And since "Hellboy" also links to the last film in September before the horror chain starts, that seems like a possible solution. BUT it would mean dropping four other films from the line-up, then I'll come up short for September, and also for the year. Plus, one of those four films I really want to see, and I've re-scheduled it at least twice already.
Also, I would need to decide within the next five films if I want to do this, and it seems maybe Disney is delaying their decision as long as possible, to see when theaters in NYC and L.A. are going to open.
Interestingly (maybe) my chain from today's film to the first film of October is another big circle, in other words, "Liberal Arts" also links to the first horror film. I could drop "Liberal Arts", as Allison Janney is in tomorrow's film, and the gap would close up, but that doesn't help me. I could drop into the circle from another point, one actor from "Bad Education" is also in "Jumanji: The Next Level", then that links to another film later in the circle - but that doesn't help me either. Plus "Jumanji: The Next Level" is playing an important part linking two films at the end of the October chain. I could put "Hellboy" up in September and try to find a home in December for those four films I'd have to drop, but I'm not sure about that. Or maybe there's a film that could just take the slot "Black Widow", a film that would link to both the film before it and "Hellboy" - only I haven't found it yet.
So, I'm back where I started, with two paths to the end of the year, and I just have to wait to see if Disney's going to move "Black Widow", or offer it on Disney Plus at a premium price, or what. If "Black Widow" moves to, say, February, as some say it might, then "Hellboy" is out of the plan for 2020, that's the price that has to be paid. But I'm still thinking it could happen - I could travel to Hoboken, NJ to watch the film if it does get released on November 6, plus I have a ton of extra time built into the schedule - if it got moved to, say, early December I could still work it in. Stay tuned, because it's Disney's move to make.
Allison Janney carries over from "Bad Education", and it's a small consolation that BACK TO SCHOOL film #4 follows immediately after #3.
THE PLOT: When 30-something Jesse returns to his alma mater for a professor's retirement party, he falls for Zibby, a college student, and is faced with a powerful attraction that springs up between them.
AFTER: It turns out this is a film that could easily have been part of a February romance chain - but as with the other films I've watched this month that were kind of on that bubble, like "The Wilde Wedding" and "The Wife", it turns out that the leftovers in the romance section are sort of connecting a little bit better now that I've taken a few films away, it's kind of an improvement by subtraction, and it's resolved a few conflicts, or will keep me from making difficult decisions next February. I still should have plenty of time in December to review the February 2020 romance chain and move things around, should the need arise. Some more romances could pop up between now and then, you never know.
But for my purposes, this counts as a "back to school" film - in a different sense, where an alumnus goes back to visit his college when a favorite teacher is retiring. The main character works at a college in New York City (they don't say which one) but he's not a teacher, he's in the admissions department. But they do say which college he goes back to visit, it's called Kenyon College, which happens to be the alma mater of both the film's star and director, Josh Radnor, but also of Allison Janney, who plays a English lit professor who specialized in the "Romantics" - this is the work of Keats, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, etc., not necessarily works with romance in them, but certainly full of emotions. Oddly, this is the third film in recent memory that depicts or implies a romantic relationship between a teacher and a (current or former) student - the others were "The Wife" and "Bad Education". It's a bit of a loose running theme, it seems.
Jesse Fisher's not in a good mindset, because he's just broken up with his live-in girlfriend in NYC. So a trip back to Ohio seems like a chance to clear his head, and the first thing he does when he arrives is meet his professor's best friends, and they happen to have a college-age daughter that Jesse hits it off with. Despite the age difference, they strike up a correspondence and Jesse then keeps finding more excuses to fly back to Ohio to see Zibby. He also forms a friendship with Nat, a mysterious stoner-like character who mostly appears on the campus at night to bring Jesse some spiritual-ish wisdom and then bring him to parties. It wouldn't be the first time that a character turned out to be imaginary, and in fact Jesse even asks Nat at one point if he's real - that doesn't seem to be the case here, I mean it's possible, but then it would have been horribly telegraphed.
Zibby may be only 19, while Jesse is 35, but she's very mature for her age, and, let's face it, he's just the opposite, somebody who never really matured, which may explain why that woman broke up with him at the start of the film. So maybe they could make it work - or maybe they're fooling themselves, and a lot of people just never think of themselves as old. Even the retiring Professor Hoberg says he still thinks of himself as 19, even though he's taught at the college for 37 years. Hoberg later rethinks his desire to retire and begs the head of the department to let him come back, but it's too late, his replacement has already been hired.
As Jesse grows closer to Zibby, however, for some reason he starts to look for reasons why it may not work out, and he focuses on a vampire book that she's reading as a symbol of their differences. He even reads the whole novel just to prove it's as terrible as he thinks it is, and the resulting argument over this book is either a symbol of their age difference, or represents Jesse's need to self-sabotage, or both. Or maybe it's just a dig at literature like "Twilight" or "True Blood", it's tough to say. At least one actress here also appears in the "Twilight" movies, so maybe it's just an inside joke.
In some ways this is a bit of an anti-romance, because rarely do you see a story like this that highlights the differences between two people after they meet - the general pattern for any relationship is that two people will tend to focus on the things they have in common when they first get together, and then later in the relationship focus on the things that they don't have in common, especially when one or both are looking for reasons to split up. The Jesse-Zibby relationship does it differently, pointing out both at around the same time, because this age difference is a big hurdle that's there right from the start, and when things start to get more physical, it becomes this insurmountable thing, leading to the possible conclusion that maybe both of them should be dating someone more age-appropriate. I tend to agree, a 35-year old man should probably not consider a romance with someone whose age ends in "-teen".
It turns out that Libby eventually admits that she was using Jesse as a bit of a short-cut, and there are steps to her personal growth and relationship experiences that she needs to experience on her own schedule. It's rare to see a character who's able to admit something like that - I'm reminded of the film "I Give it a Year", which had a married couple who tried very hard to keep their marriage together, but ultimately had to follow the logic that was showing them at every turn that they were both better off scrapping the marriage and starting fresh with other people. It defies movie romance logic, sure, but you want to feel like that's a common occurence in people's everyday lives.
Still, the relationship was a mostly positive thing for both of them, you can't say they didn't give it a try, and in the end, that's what this crazy life is all about - meeting people, connecting with them, growing together with them if you can, and if not, then growing apart and trying again. The whole film is sort of about the inevitable need to move forward, and the futility of going back to an old school or an old way of life. As I said before, I didn't HAVE to watch this film here, if I'd skipped it then the chain would have closed up the gap, but I'm glad I had a slot to spare for this one here.
NITPICK POINT: One of the earliest scenes shows Jesse bringing his clothes to a NYC laundromat, and for some reason, somebody steals his laundry. Why? Who the heck steals somebody else's dirty clothes? This doesn't seem to connect to anything in the rest of the film, so why is it even there? It goes nowhere and just doesn't feel like something that even happens.
Also starring Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen (last seen in "Avengers: Endgame"), Richard Jenkins (last seen in "Darling Companion"), John Magaro (last seen in "Marshall"), Elizabeth Reaser (last seen in "Hello, My Name Is Doris"), Kate Burton (last seen in "Where'd You Go, Bernadette"), Robert Desiderio, Zac Efron (last seen in "The Beach Bum"), Kristen Bush, Ali Ahn, Ned Daunis, Gregg Edelman (last seen in "The Proposal")
RATING: 6 out of 10 classical music pieces on a mix CD
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