Posts tagged Romance
Obvious Child “Not the Worst Movie”
Jul 6th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
OBVIOUS CHILD has been getting outstanding reviews, but as with most movies these days, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
Heck, it won’t even be everyone’s glass of water.
Jenny Slate stars as Donna Stern, a struggling stand-up comic living in Brooklyn, New York, who is almost 30 years old and who also works in a bookstore to help pay the bills, because her comedy sure won’t.
We can tell this not only from what we see of her comedy act, but also from where she performs at a small bar and comedy club on open-mic nights.
Donna uses her own life and being a woman as material in her act, and not everyone will find jokes about vaginal discharge in women or her boyfriend Ryan particularly funny.
Especially Ryan, who says that he feels weird when she always makes jokes about him in her comedy act.
So, while Ryan is talking to Donna and breaking up with her, he keeps looking at his phone, saying that he doesn’t know where to look.
Donna uses her hand to circle her face and says, “Well, this is probably a good area.”
Donna learns that Ryan has been sleeping with her friend Kate, and the next day she stands across the street from Ryan’s apartment and sees Ryan and Kate come out to walk a dog, which really upsets her.
In the meantime, Donna learns from her boss at the bookstore where she has been working for five years that the bookstore is going to be closed.
Then one night at the comedy club, Donna meets Max, essentially picks him up, they have common interests and taste, they get drunk together, they go back to his place and dance and drink some more, and the next thing we see is Donna sneaking out of bed the next morning while Max is still asleep.
So, a few weeks later, Donna learns that she is pregnant, and she decides to have an abortion.
Even this new aspect of her life becomes material that she uses in her comedy act.
Well, what do you know, but Max has taken a liking to Donna, and he keeps showing up in her life.
OBVIOUS CHILD has an ending that might really annoy you, but it is not the worst movie I have ever seen.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Obvious Child – Movie Trailer
Jun 29th
For aspiring comedian Donna Stern, everyday life as a female twenty-something provides ample material for her incredibly relatable brand of humor. On stage, Donna is unapologetically herself, joking about topics as intimate as her sex life and as crude as her day-old underwear. But when Donna gets dumped, loses her job, and finds herself pregnant just in time for Valentine’s Day, she has to navigate the murky waters of independent adulthood for the first time. As she grapples with an uncertain financial future, an unwanted pregnancy, and a surprising new suitor, Donna begins to discover that the most terrifying thing about adulthood isn’t facing it all on her own. It’s allowing herself to accept the support and love of others. And be truly vulnerable. Never failing to find the comedy and humanity in each awkward situation she encounters, Donna finds out along the way what it means to be as brave in life as she is on stage. Anchored by a breakout performance from Jenny Slate, OBVIOUS CHILD is a winning discovery, packed tight with raw, energetic comedy and moments of poignant human honesty. Writer/Director Gillian Robespierre handles the topic of Donna’s unwanted pregnancy with a refreshing matter-of-factness rarely seen onscreen. And with Donna, Slate and Robespierre have crafted a character for the ages – a female audiences will recognize, cheer for, and love.
“Labor Day” Soft Spot in Your Heart
Feb 19th
“Soft Spot in Your Heart”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
LABOR DAY is based on the novel by Joyce Maynard, who was involved with reclusive author J. D. Salinger, and adapted and directed by Jason Reitman, whose previous movies have been comedies.
This movie is not a comedy.
The time is 1987 in a small town in New England, and we meet Adele, a divorced mother played by Kate Winslet, and her son Henry, who is 13 years old.
Henry narrates the story, but his voice is that of Tobey Maguire, who plays Henry as an adult at the end of the movie.
Henry makes the curious comment that his father believes that Adele is getting worse, and Henry says that he could feel his mother’s loneliness before he had a name for it.
Adele and Henry leave their house only once a month to go shopping, and we see them go to a store, where a man, Frank, played by Josh Brolin, approaches Henry and asks for his help.
Frank has blood on his stomach, his leg is hurting, and he asks for a ride. When they get into the car and Adele asks Frank where to, he answers, “Your house, just for a few moments to rest my leg.”
Frank says that he hurt his leg jumping out of a window, and he asks to stay with them until nightfall, when he will leave.
Then they learn that Frank is an escaped prisoner, where he was serving 18 years for murder, but he says that it didn’t happen the way it is being reported.
Frank ties Adele to a chair so that after he is gone, she can’t be accused of helping him, and then he prepares dinner and feeds her.
The next day is Friday, but because it is the Labor Day weekend, Frank is disappointed to learn that there will be no trains coming by, on which he planned to catch a ride.
So, Frank fixes their car, washes and waxes the floors in the house, and even teaches Henry how to throw a baseball.
As the weekend goes on, the relationship among the three gets more complicated, and we learn more about Adele’s condition through flashbacks, which make her more sympathetic.
Frank continues to show a more softer side, too.
LABOR DAY can easily find a soft spot in your heart, as well.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”