BEFORE: Welcome to March, it always gets here earlier than you think, and there's still nearly two weeks left of romance films. Believe it or not, I'm already working on NEXT year's romance chain, and I'm starting that process by reviewing all the films on my list (either saved to a DVD or my DVR, or available on streaming) that couldn't fit into 2021's 40-film chain, and figuring out how they may all fit together - or not, as the case may be. But I've got a jump on things because I've already got a 9-film linked chain, an 8-film chain, a 6-film and a 5-film. If I can connect them, that's nearly a whole month's worth of programming already! I've also got 7 or so little 2-film or 3-film chainlets I can use as connecting material - and I'm still on the hunt for more that will tie everything together.
What I SHOULD be working on, however, is October's horror chain, in a similar fashion, because October's going to be here before next February is, and knowing where the October chain could start is the best way to set a target, where I need to aim for in September. OK, I'll get working on that in just a couple days. I'm due to review what's new on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon at the start of every month, anyway. But just like with the romance chain, the trick will be finding horror films that aren't currently on my radar, but will link together the chainlets that I already have. It's lucky that actors who appear in one horror film (or one romance film, for that matter) often tend to appear in several, that makes things somewhat easier for me.
Brooklyn Decker carries over from "Results", and Kevin Corrigan will be back before the end of the month. Here are my upcoming links for March, in case you want to try to figure out my chain: Amy Seimetz and Ryan Eggold, Thomas Haden Church, Christina Applegate, Alexandria Daddario, Adam DeVine, Rebel Wilson, Anne Hathaway, Helen McCrory, Alistair Petrie, Simon Callow, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Emily Watson, Kerry Condon, Harry Dean Stanton, Forest Whitaker, John Finn, Connie Nielsen, Natasha Rothwell, Jimmy O. Yang, Michael Peña, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kevin Corrigan, John Hawkes, and Shia LaBeouf. Good luck!
THE PLOT: The relationship between two friends deepens during an impromptu road trip.
AFTER: No celebrity birthday tie-ins today, though it's the birthday of Zack Snyder, Ron Howard, Javier Bardem, Tim Daly, Catherine Bach, David Niven, Harry Belafonte, Justin Bieber, Roger Daltrey and my ex-wife. The fact that I'm back on a film with a lesbian theme is probably a little scheduling in-joke from my subconscious - this also happened two years ago when "Jenny's Wedding" also landed on March 1.
Unfortunately, this film's just not as interesting as "Jenny's Wedding", nor does it contain anything as shocking as what's in "Duck Butter". It's a rather simple story about a married woman who has a fling with her friend, then spends the second half of the film (three years later, they see each other again at the friend's wedding, to a man) trying to understand her feelings. While it's not your typical film by any means, that doesn't mean that it isn't quite boring, because it is.
In the first half, Sarah spends long days taking care of her daughter while her husband, Dean, is traveling for work, one long trip after another. We never really find out how Dean feels about Sarah, but I suppose it doesn't really matter, he isn't there, so they're physically apart and that leads to being emotionally distant, either intentionally or not. Sarah calls Mindy to go on a roadtrip, and the two women bond over late-night games of "Truth or Drink" and some form of intimate encounter, which is not seen by the audience. Then Mindy abruptly buys a bus ticket back to New York, and Sarah's left to wonder what it all meant.
Then the film skips ahead to Sarah's wedding in Tennessee, and it's all the standard traditions, from dress-fitting to a rehearsal dinner and a very wild bachelorette party. Except Sarah and Mindy get drunk again, and that means they're gonna kiss again. Then they have to spend the whole next day figuring out what that means, and whether they both love each other, which they do, and then what to do with THAT information.
Of course, with my experiences I'm going to naturally lean toward seeing this from the husbands' perspective (both of them), and also I'm going to wonder if it's fair to either of their husbands for them to get together on the down low. Also, are they truly lesbians, or only when alcohol is involved? And does that make a difference? But maybe the universe or my subconscious brought this film to me on this day for a reason - maybe I need to think back on my first marriage and be reminded that in some ways, maybe I wasn't as present as I could have been, and would that have made a difference, or was she always headed in a certain direction toward her future and my actions (or inactions) could only speed up or slow down the inevitable? Something to think about.
But this film is such a bad study of "Show, don't tell." There's just not enough "show" here, and to be honest, there's not much "tell" either. The main characters spend too much time NOT talking about what they should be talking about, there's too much quiet time, with people just thinking about stuff. And yes, this is another Sundance Festival film, it premiered there in January 2016, got a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize, but did not win. Yeah, that feels about right - that was the year that "Birth of a Nation" won, but also nominated were "Other People", "Tallulah", and "Swiss Army Man".
Also starring Riley Keough (last seen in "We Don't Belong Here"), Jena Malone (last seen in "Life as a House"), Amy Seimetz (last seen in "Alien: Covenant"), Marshall Chapman, Ryan Eggold (last seen in "Fathers & Daughters"), Rosanna Arquette (last seen in "Billionaire Boys Club"), Cary Joji Fukunaga, Jessie Ok Gray, Sky Ok Gray, Neal Huff (last seen in "Motherhood"), William Tyler.
RATING: 3 out of 10 fake mustaches
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