BEFORE: I've still got another 12 films to go, even though I'd REALLY like to watch a different sort of film right about now, I'm about 2/3 through this topic as of today. And I'm also looking at how the pieces might come together for next year's romance chain, even though what I have are a bunch of tiny little pieces, it's nothing like a possible month-long chain right now. The longest mini-chain I have is nine films long, the next biggest is 8 films, then a 7-film, a 6-film, a couple of 5's, and so on, plus 22 singles that don't link up with any other films. Ah, but a lone film is just one that hasn't made a match yet, so if I keep adding films to this category and keeping an eye on the color-coded possibilities, there's still something resembling hope that I can put a chain of 28 films or longer together from what I have on the list, I just need to keep finding more romances each month and working them into the system, that's all. I guess maybe one year soon that might be possible, but studios keep releasing films on this topic, and every month I get an e-mail from IMDB with a list of the films added to each streaming service, so I'm still here.
Mackenzie Davis carries over from "What If". Here's the line-up for Tuesday, 2/25, Day 25 of TCM's "31 Days of Oscar".
Best Adapted Screenplay Winners and Nominees:
6:00 am "Little Caesar" (1930)
7:35 am "Great Expectations" (1946)
9:30 am "Baby Doll" (1956)
11:30 am "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961)
2:45 pm "Elmer Gantry" (1960)
5:15 pm "Lolita" (1962)
Oscar Worthy Entertainers:
8:00 pm "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942)
10:15 pm "Cabaret" (1972)
12:30 am "Lili" (1953)
2:00 am "The Broadway Melody" (1929)
3:45 am "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936)
6:45 am "The Sunshine Boys" (1976)
I was at 118 seen out of 280, and I've seen just another 4 out of Tuesday's 12 - "Elmer Gantry", "Lolita", "Cabaret" and "The Sunshine Boys". SO now 122 seen out of 292 takes me to 41.7%.
THE PLOT: Three best friends find themselves where we've all been - at that confusing moment in every dating relationship when you must decide "So...where is this going?"
AFTER: I'm sorry if I'm posting late tonight, I went to an event at the Brooklyn Brewery for National Twin Peaks Day, apparently February 24 is the day that Agent Cooper first arrived in Twin Peaks in the first episode of that show, so as part of NYC Beer Week the brewery decided to host a tribute to David Lynch and his famous quirky TV show from the late 1980's, there was a costume contest and they played footage from the show on a big screen and there was a table full of donuts. Those things were for the people who paid the extra $22 ticket, I got in for free because I just wanted to hang out, I hadn't been over to their tap room in about five years, and I used to go over there all the time for block party beer festivals and also special dinners and tasting events. But I preferred to spend my money on their beer, and not such frivolous things as the donuts and the pointless photo booth. I had about four beers there, and I swear their tasting glasses have gotten smaller, like I don't really believe those were 12 oz pours, but I didn't call them out on it. The biggest disappointment, though, was not being able to purchase the Black Yukon Sucker Punch drink, which was also only available to just the ticket-holders, despite the fact that I was willing and able to pay for one, they WOULD NOT sell it to me. This was apparently a cocktail mentioned in one episode of the show, now this version was probably just one of their stronger beers with some mysterious blue foam on top, and I didn't REALLY want one until I was told that I could not have one without paying $22 more for the VIP ticket. Yeah, nice try, but I can just drink your other beers and pay regular price. And then to really stick it to them, I bought a 6-pack of their Chocolate Stout and four cans of their other specialty beers and paid full price to carry those home. Yeah, I sure showed them....
No, I don't make a habit of drinking on Monday nights, that to some people is called a warning sign. But once in a while it's OK, especially if I have the day off tomorrow, I can sleep in. I still need to stay up late watching tomorrow's movie, so yeah, I have a feeling I'm going to get a late start tomorrow. Ah, well, our taxes got done this weekend, so I deserved a night out and a little reward. Today's film has a lot of scenes with bros drinking in bars, trying to meet women, because when you're in your 20's or 30's, that's what you do, right? One of these three best friend-bros is married, but early on in the film his wife asks him for a divorce, she confronts him with the divorce lawyer who she is also having an affair with, so yeah, that probably means it's over. Mikey gets right back into drinking at bars with Jason and Daniel, and they do what they can to help him, since he's been off the dating scene for a while.
The three friends make a pact, they're all going to play the field for a while, none of them is going to have a serious relationship for a while, because that would violate the bonds of friendship as currently defined. But then Jason starts a relationship with Ellie, one of the clients he's designing a book cover for, however after sex he misreads the clues in her apartment, which lead him to think she's a hooker. Meanwhile Daniel sleeps with his female wing-woman from the bar, and they start seeing each other on the regular. Mikey meets up with his ex-wife for sex and thinks that they can start fresh and maybe make things work again, so one by one all three men violate the pact, however none of them want to admit it to the others, because that's the same as losing a bet or something. It's all pretty childish, really. Why is it considered a failure between men to be in a steady and semi-serious relationship?
All their secrets are revealed during Thanksgiving, where Mikey cooks dinner for his ex-wife but then finds out she's still sleeping with that lawyer, and the other two friends find out that Daniel and Chelsea are a thing, so he basically lied about that to save face with his friends. And Jason is deciding whether he should go to Ellie's father's funeral, since they haven't been dating that long, and that's a serious step forward for their relationship that he may not be willing to make. Unfortunately that's a real garbage-human thing to do, to not be there for another person when they need support. Well, if the shoe fits... At this point on of the three men gets hit by a taxi and ends up in the hospital, really, all of them deserved a lot worse, and it doesn't seem all that fair that they didn't get it. The film tries to pull as much entertainment as it can out of men treating women, and each other, very badly, but really, there's only so much it can do there.
Whether you're officially dating, or just having sex, or merely hanging out, there's really no excuse for people being terrible to teach other, and we shouldn't excuse any character who does that just because they're insecure and conflicted about what they want out of life.
Directed by: Tom Gormican (director of "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent")
Also starring Zac Efron (last heard in "Scoob!"), Miles Teller (last seen in "Allegiant"), Michael B. Jordan (last seen in "Creed III"), Imogen Poots (last seen in "The Father"), Jessica Lucas (last seen in "She's the Man"), Addison Timlin (last seen in "Stand Up Guys"), Josh Pais (last seen in "Spoiler Alert"), Evelina Turen (last seen in "Arbitrage"), Karen Ludwig (last seen in "Stanley & Iris"), Tina Benko (last seen in "The Kitchen"), Joseph Adams (last seen in "Touched with Fire"), Lola Glaudini (last seen in "Down to You"), John Rothman (last seen in "Say It Isn't So"), Barbara Garrick (last seen in "Far From Heaven"), Raul Casso, Kate Simses (last seen in "What's Your Number?"), Emily Meade (last seen in "Thanks for Sharing"), Alysia Reiner (last seen in "Spider-Man: No Way Home"), Yuval Boim (last seen in "Norman"), Dan Bittner (last seen in "Tesla"), Reif Larsen, Chris Grace, Victor Slezak (last seen in "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"), Justin Nappi, Tom Riis Farrell (last seen in "The Stepford Wives"), Julia Morrison, Amanda A. Lederer, James P. Anderson, Rachel Heller (also last seen in "Arbitrage"), DB Woodside (last seen in "Paul Blart; Mall Cop 2") with a cameo from Michael K. Williams (last seen in "The Purge: Anarchy")
RATING: 3 out of 10 sparsely attended book readings
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