BEFORE: I'm chipping away at the Netflix queue, too - 3 of my last 4 films are on Netflix, and one was on Hulu. But I've lost all hope of keeping an active queue on Hulu, movies just disappear from there so quickly, there's really no point. I just make a note in my files that's something's available on Hulu, then two years later when I finally link to a movie, it's either still there or it's not, and if it's not it's probably on Pluto or Freevee or Tubi, so I'll get it one way or another. Films tend to stick around a bit longer on Netflix, I'd heard that two years was the usual term but if Netflix produced the film, it's probably going to be available there forever. Still, I'm trying to get that list closer to cleared, the count is at 115 right now, but that included a few comedy specials and some TV series that I'll probably never get around to watching. Who has that kind of time? Oh, right, I do, for the next two months anyway.
Harris Dickinson carries over from "Triangle of Sadness".
THE PLOT: A woman who raised herself in the marshes of the Deep South becomes a suspect in the murder of a man with whom she was once involved.
AFTER: I did work at a screening of this film, it was last July - the theater had closed for roof repairs for two months, but something went wrong and they couldn't finish the repair, so the theater opened again after two weeks. Some of my co-workers had taken other jobs but I hadn't, so I was available to go back to work in mid-July, I think this might have been the first film screened when the place re-opened. Now it's almost a year later, and the theater's closed again to finish the roof work, and this film popped up in my chain. Now I'm wishing the theater would open again in mid-July, but I'm not sure that's likely to happen, so I have to fill up the next two months with chores at home or whatever odd jobs I can find for the summer, because I may be sidelined from that gig until late August.
Oh, well, can't afford to go anywhere, so it's a perfect time to stay indoors and watch movies, or go out on Tuesdays for matinee screenings and watch movies. I can take long breaks in September, when I'm bound to be much busier - if I want to hit my July 4 movie on time, I can't stop, not even for one night.
I'm not sure that "Where the Crawdads Sing" counts as a constructive use of my time - hell, I'm not even sure why I programmed this film, other than the fact that I worked at a screening of it and also, it's on Netflix. This screamed "chick flick" from the get-go, not that that's always a bad thing, because I watch romance films all February and I do secretly enjoy some of them. Shhhh...don't tell anyone. But this film can't decide what it wants to be - a romance, a crime thriller or a court-based legal drama. Somehow it's all three, but come on, I'm going to need you to FOCUS here and pick one thing.
By not concentrating on just ONE of these aspects, by default the movie is therefore all over the place, and I couldn't really find something to care about. So this girl, Kya, gets abused by her father, well, back in the 1960's in the Carolinas, there maybe was a lot of that sort of thing going on. Yeah, it sucks, but there's nothing I can do about it, is there? First her mother leaves, then her brothers and sisters take off, one by one, and she's left living with her father, dreaming of the day that her mother comes home. (She doesn't.). Eventually even her father leaves, and so she's left to fend for herself in the swamp. She learns how to harvest mussels in the swamp, and sells them to the general store to make some money. The helpful lady who co-owns the store helps her go to school, but I don't think she stayed long, because the other kids made fun of her. She becomes known as the "Marsh Girl" around town.
She forms a friendship with a boy named Tate Walker who fishes in the swamp, and when they're teenagers, he teaches her how to read and write. They start a romantic relationship, but when he leaves for college, he promises to return by the 4th of July. (He doesn't.)
A few years go by, and Kya forms another relationship, this time with the local high school quarterback, Chase. Things seem to be going well, but then Tate comes back and Kya doesn't feel she can trust him. But things don't go well with Chase, either, so basically Kya gets her heart broken twice. Yeah, but so what, we've all been there before, right? Kya instead focuses on drawing and writing about the plants and animals in the swamp, and eventually this leads to an illustrated book that she gets published. This was back in the day before self-publishing, when you had to go through a company that was based in a big city.
I should probably mention that the film started with a body found in the swamp - and Kya becomes the chief suspect in a murder trial, but then of course it takes the whole rest of the film to sort through the flashbacks and find out whether she's guilty or innocent. Kya has the help of a retired attorney who remembers her from when she was a young girl, but apparently in this case, Kya seemed to be presumed guilty just because she was "that strange girl who lives out on the marsh" and it became a challenge to convince the jury she was innocent. I don't know, I think this was a major time investment for a very small payoff, narratively speaking. I know I've got time to kill these days, but that doesn't mean I want to waste it on pointless stories.
Some would consider this film a success because it earned $144 million worldwide and only cost $24 million to make - but that's only one way to measure success, isn't it?
Also starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith (last seen in "Some Kind of Beautiful"), David Strathairn (last seen in "Nightmare Alley") Michael Hyatt (last seen in "The Little Things"), Sterling Macer Jr., Logan Macrae, Bill Kelly (last seen in "Aftermath"), Ahna O'Reilly (last seen in "Lucky Them"), Garret Dillahunt (last seen in "Blonde"), Jojo Regina, Luke David Blumm (last seen in "The King of Staten Island"), Blue Clarke, Will Bundon, Jayson Warner Smith (last seen in "Billionaire Boys Club"), Dane Rhodes, Eric Ladin (last seen in "American Sniper"), Robert Larriviere (last seen in "Fire With Fire"), Ron Flagge (last seen in "Green Book"), Joe Chrest (last seen in "Welcome to the Rileys"), Sharon Landry (ditto), Michael Wozniak (ditto), Jerri Tubbs, Michael A. Newcomer (last seen in "Breaking News in Yuba County"), Taylor Shurte, Grace Hinson, Charlie Talbert (last seen in "I Saw the Light"), Charley Vance (last seen in "Mudbound"), Don Stallings (last seen in "The Highwaymen"), Wyatt Parker, Payne Bosarge, Lillian Dorsett, Zoey Reid, Patrick Nicks, Adelaine Whittle, Emma Kathryn Coleman (last seen in "Capone"), Toby Nichols (last seen in "Trumbo"), Sarah Durn, Caroline Cole, Anna Kabis, Brad Blanchard, Leslie France, Sam Anderson (last seen in "Water for Elephants"), Kevin Clabert.
RATING: 5 out of 10 bratty schoolgirls
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