BEFORE: OK, it's the last day of June, so here's the format breakdown for the month:
9 Movies watched on cable (saved to DVD): Side Effects, Dog, Clerks III, School Ties, Respect, Blended, That's My Boy, Black Adam, DC League of Super-Pets,
5 Movies watched on cable (not saved): Slice, Nobody, Wit, Street Kings, Just Before I Go
9 watched on Netflix: Senior Year, Bullet Train, Dope, Murder Mystery 2, Enola Holmes, Enola Holmes 2, The Man from Toronto, Kate, Where the Crawdads Sing
3 watched on Amazon Prime: Air, The Tender Bar, Hercules (2014)
1 watched on Hulu: Triangle of Sadness
1 watched on Hulu: Triangle of Sadness
1 watched on Disney+: Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again
1 watched on HBO MAX: Come and Find Me
29 TOTAL
Well, that's how you make a dent in your Netflix list, I guess. A strong showing for that platform, which is surprising because for the past few months I haven't been adding a lot of movies there, the system seemed to be not adding anything I really wanted to see. But other than "Bullet Train" and "Enola Holmes 2", I think I probably added these movies at least six months ago or longer, I'm just finally getting around to that part of my watchlist, I guess.
As for HBO Max, I know it just got a re-design and they claim to have the best selection of movies now, but I've been counting anything I watch on premium cable, including HBO, under "cable" and I only resort to the MAX streaming site when I have to. In the case of "Come and Find Me", my DVR screwed up and only recorded PART of the movie, and then it was no longer available on demand, so I had to go to the streaming site, which I just don't do very often, as that means I have to watch the film on my computer upstairs, sitting at my desk, when I'd much rather be downstairs in the recliner. So all that affects the stats for HBO Max.
Garret Dillahunt carries over again from "Come and Find Me".
THE PLOT: On the verge of giving up on life, a guy travels to his hometown to make amends.
AFTER: For those of us non-famous people, or people like me who have been in a couple of movies, almost accidentally, acting sure seems like a dream job. You show up, people dress you and give you a haircut, all you have do is look presentable and say your lines. In movies you don't even really have to memorize them, because they only shoot a few lines at a time, and somebody's also standing there to tell you what your lines are. Then you get paid, move on to the next film and repeat until you're rich and famous. What's the down side? Well, there surely must be one, because so many actors seem eager to become producers and directors. I'll admit some producing credits are honorary, like Millie Bobby Brown has producing credits now because she brought the "Enola Holmes" books to the attention of the production company she was working for, and that's how these deals get done sometimes. It's all part of the game - but I think many actors think that there time in front of the camera is limited, like who wants to look all old and stuff on film - so they get into producing or directing for some job security.
At some point, whether they have any talent as a producer or director is a bit beside the point, because they probably have a network of people supporting them and a bunch of actor friends they can call on to be in a film, so something good is probably going to result? This film was directed by Courteney Cox, that's all I'm saying. So naturally you'd expect David Arquette to make an appearance, because they were still together as a couple at the time, and she's probably friends with a lot of the other actors who were cast as well. And the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014, so no doubt some of her connections probably came in handy there as well - I'm not saying the film didn't DESERVE to play at Tribeca, I'm just saying that nothing probably plays at Tribeca these days UNLESS somebody uses their connections. It's just how the game is played now.
But I have to wonder, she probably could have directed any film she wanted, why THIS one? It's a strange film, not really a drama but not really a comedy either, maybe it's a little bit of both, but it's also a bit dark and it's about how people don't really get along with each other without much difficulty, and about how life can beat you down until maybe you think about ending it all, and then maybe you do find something else to care about and continue on.
Ted Morgan returns to his home town to do three things - tell off the teacher who yelled at him in math class, confront the bully who beat him up on a daily basis, and then kill himself. OK, that's one small but mighty to-do list. But nothing really goes as planned, he gets caught up in the weird daily lives of his older brother's family, including his gay nephew and his brother's wife who spits in her husband's coffee and does some x-rated sleepwalking. Then he meets a woman who he knew back in junior high (?) and she's married with five kids, but dis-satisfied with her life and eager to have an affair with him, for old time's sake. Ted can't help but try and help other people with their problems, to the point where he almost forgets why he went back home in the first place.
But then he does buckle down and get to the items on his list - he finds the teacher who embarrassed him in math class, but she's living in a nursing home, and it's unclear whether she can even understand what he's saying or why he's mad at her. Turns out Ted visited at the wrong time of day, when she hadn't had her meds yet, according to her granddaughter who Ted will no doubt fall in love with once she's done documenting his impending suicide for the local newspaper. And then a few days later, Ted's chance to get back at this teacher goes away, if you catch my meaning.
Ted meets his school bully, Rawly, as an adult, with the intent of doing something violent to him, but Rawly's glad to see him, and admits right off the bat that he was a total dick to Ted. Rawly's a widower with a young son with Down syndrome, so Ted forms a friendship with him, and figures out pretty quickly why Rawly was a bully, because his father was abusive to him. Rawly enlists Ted's help to try and kill his father, and that doesn't go as planned, either.
Meanwhile, Ted's mother is living with her life-partner, a woman who dresses and performs as Elvis, and we don't get to hear her sing ANY Elvis songs, because the film clearly couldn't afford the music rights, so we don't even know if she's a GOOD Elvis impersonator - probably not, so maybe it's for the best that we never hear her sing. And Ted's mom reminds him about how he and his father used to go on hunts for Wammy, the local crypto-creature that's a knock-off of the Loch Ness Monster (much like "Champy" up in Lake Champlain). Yeah, there's a tidbit that might be important later on, the movie's just weird enough to go there.
Everything comes out in the end, including Ted's plan to kill himself, while his brother's family tries to unravel what it means to have a gay son who's self-hating because he's afraid of how he'll be treated in his small town of ignorant people - but clearly helping the current school bullies beat up his own boyfriend for being gay is not the way to go. Umm, yeah, so happy Pride Month, everyone, I hope it was a good one. I tried to include some relevant films, I really did - still, I didn't get to "Fire Island" or "Bros", but hey, there's always next year.
It occurs to me that yesterday's film's title and today's form an interesting little pairing - "Come and Find Me, Just Before I Go". If you saw those two titles together on a marquee, it would almost make some coherent sense. I wonder how often that happens on my blog - I couldn't really find any other good side-by-side pairings so far this year, except maybe "Everything Everywhere All At Once Turning Red". Maybe "The Last Summer Sierra Burgess Is a Loser"? or "My Best Friend's Girl, Gloria Bell"? "The Object of My Affection, Touched With Fire"?
Also starring Seann William Scott (last seen in "The Rundown"), Olivia Thirlby (last seen in "Nobody Walks"), Kate Walsh (last seen in "After the Sunset"), Kyle Gallner (last seen in "The Finest Hours"), Rob Riggle (last seen in "The War with Grandpa"), Evan Ross (last seen in "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2"), Cleo King (last seen in "Dogville"), Missi Pyle (last seen in "Ma"), Elisha Cuthbert (last seen in "Goon: Last of the Enforcers"), Mackenzie Marsh (last seen in "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday"), Connie Stevens (last seen in "Tapeheads"), David Arquette (last seen in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Clancy Brown (last seen in "Promising Young Woman"), Jack Quaid (last seen in "Rampage"), Eddie Perino, George Finn (last seen in "Time Lapse"), Griffin Gluck (last seen in "Trust Me"), Beth Grant (last seen in "Amsterdam"), Tate Berney, Ryan Hartwig, Jack McGee (last seen in "Domino"), Noah Munck (last seen in "All About Steve"), Peggy Miley (last seen in "Suburbicon"), Alisha Wainwright, Thomas Fowler, Joey Nader (last seen in "White Noise"), Lily Berlina, Andrew Gray McDonnell (last seen in "A Futile and Stupid Gesture"), Coco Arquette, Parvesh Cheena (last heard in "The Bob's Burgers Movie"), Diane Ladd (last seen in "A Kiss Before Dying"), Gavin Bryson Thompson, Angeline-Rose Troy, Ellen D. Williams.
RATING: 6 out of 10 loads of laundry
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