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Year 13, Day 59 - 2/28/21 - Movie #3,761

BEFORE: OK, last film for February, and March looks to be another full month, 31 films in 31 days coming up, including a St. Patrick's Day film, and hopefully "Wonder Woman 1984" are going to be in the mix.  But first I've got to finish the romance chain, 28 down and only 12 more to go, I think 40 is a nice round number for this year's total. 

Before I forget again, here are the format stats for February: 

8 Movies watched on cable (saved to DVD): Made of Honor, Like Crazy, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, The Jane Austen Book Club, Third Person, The Seagull, Hope Gap, The Bookshop

3 Movies watched on cable (not saved): The Art of Getting By, Emma., Chaos Theory

5 watched on Netflix: Always Be My Maybe, Duck Butter, Blue Jay, The One I Love, Results

1 watched on iTunes: Manglehorn
9 watched on Amazon Prime: Almost Friends, Little Italy, The Giant Mechanical Man, Happythankyoumoreplease, I'll See You in My Dreams, Paper Heart, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Life Itself, Rio I Love You
2 watched on Hulu: The Female Brain, Destination Wedding, 

28 TOTAL

Cable is still the preferred viewing format, not by much this month (11 films to AmazonPrime's 9) but WAY ahead for the year, 30 films out of 61, just about 50%.  Looks like I'm still not going to be cutting that cord anytime soon. My Netflix list is down to just 55 movies, and I should be checking off another 5 of them in March, but I'm overdue to go scrolling through Netflix (and Hulu, and AmazonPrime) looking for new contenders to add to my lists.  I'm going to need more romance films again next year, after all.  

Constance Zimmer carries over from "Chaos Theory". 

THE PLOT: Two mismatched personal trainers' lives are upended by the actions of a new, wealthy client. 

AFTER: I've been to Sundance three times - back in 1998, 2001 and 2004, and there are still films I saw there that just don't seem to pop up anywhere, on any cable channel or streaming service.  Like "Regeneration", which was a film about World War I soldiers recovering from PTSD - OK, I guess that one's on AmazonPrime now, but it took a LONG time.  And then there's "I Like Killing Flies", a wonderful little documentary about a NYC diner called Shopsin's... OK, that's on YouTube for free.  But what about "Scotland PA", which was a film that moved the plot of "Macbeth" to a Pennsylvania fast food restaurant - whoa, that's on YouTube now too.  Hey, maybe we ARE getting close to the point where every film ever made is available somewhere, that would be nice.  When "Breakfast of Champions" and "The Young Poisoner's Handbook" are streaming, I'll consider that maybe we've arrived.  

"Results" feels like a little indie, maybe a festival film (Yep, I'm right, this one played at Sundance in 2015), that didn't do much business when it was released (Yep, I'm right, this one only grossed $104,000 in the US), if it even GOT released, and now at least it's available on Netflix, so maybe finally it will reach some eyeballs. Does it deserve to?  That's really not for me to say, only I guess in some way it is. What's that line from "Casablanca" about how the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world?  That's about where I find myself tonight, wondering if this story about a gym owner, a fitness trainer and a rich client add up to a hill of beans.  Not really for me, because I'm a conscientious objector in the world of exercise - run if you want, or lift weights, or do yoga poses, I don't care as long as you leave me out of it. 

I guess there's something redeeming here, romance-wise, in that Trevor and Kat tried having a relationship once, it didn't work out, and then they kept working together, content to keep each other at arm's length, and somehow in a crazy way it takes the influence of Danny to get them back on the same page. It seemed like Danny was trying to get something going between himself and Kat, only that didn't really work, because it's a bit unprofessional for a trainer to have sex with their client.  And it's problematic after that, I'm guessing.  But then easygoing Danny must have realized his mistake at some point, became friends with Trevor instead, and then made plans to get Trevor and Kat back together.  

So as Trevor is expanding his gym to a larger space, with plans to have a bigger juice bar, a gathering space for seminars from fitness experts, and much more gym equipment, Danny invests in the new gym, then sells his 50% interest to Kat at a very low price.  But does Trevor want to be in business with Kat?  He offers to buy the shares for ten times what Kat paid, but at least this got them talking again, and then after realizing that they've been driving each other crazy all this time for no good reason, maybe these crazy kids are going to be OK.  Danny's going to be OK, too, as long as he has money and can throw parties that sorority girls will attend.  Look, I'm not sure that was the best advice, but it's a better track for him than getting back together with his ex-wife.  

I don't fault people for going to gyms or wanting to get in shape, but I would argue that restaurants and movie theaters should be more open right now and gyms should be more closed.  People sweat more in gyms, they breathe more in gyms, they touch shared equipment, it's just not good all the way around.  And we've proven already by our vaccination guidelines that grocery and restaurant workers are "essential", while trainers are just not. That may be my opinion, but it's also the government's.  But I don't fault anyone for working at a gym, as long as they're really into it. 

I'm going to go back to that documentary "I Like Killing Flies" to prove my point.  Restaurant owner Kenny Shopsin (the late Kenny Shopsin as of 2018) said, "Pick an arbitrary, stupid goal, become totally involved in it, and pursue it with vigor, and what happens to you in that pursuit is your life."  Kenny was a wise man. Every movie that gets released, on theater screens or home screens, is someone's arbitrary, stupid goal, so congratulations?

Also starring Guy Pearce (last seen in "The Catcher Was a Spy"), Cobie Smulders (last seen in "Spider-Man: Far from Home"), Kevin Corrigan (last seen in "The Next Three Days"), Brooklyn Decker (last seen in "Battleship"), Giovanni Ribisi (last seen in "Selma"), Anthony Michael Hall (last seen in "War Machine"), Tishuan Scott, Zoe Graham (last seen in "Secret in Their Eyes"), David Bernon (last seen in "Adult Beginners"), Elizabeth Berridge, Katie Folger, Elizabeth McQueen, Zack Carlson, Greg Dorchak, Lindsay Anne Kent, with a cameo from Paul Qui. 

RATING: 4 out of 10 kettle bells