This Is Where I Leave You “And Stay with You Forever”
Sep 29th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU is a very funny movie with a very unfortunate title, but with a very good ensemble cast about a family who all get back together for a week in order to honor their father’s wishes when he dies.
Jason Bateman plays Judd Altman, and the movie begins when he comes home early from work and finds his wife in bed with his boss having sex.
Tina Fey plays Wendy Altman, Judd’s sister, and she calls Judd while he is still trying to process the new development in his life to tell Judd that their father died, and a dying wish of his was that the whole Altman family return home to sit shiva and mourn his death for seven days even though he wasn’t a practicing Jew.
Jane Fonda plays Hillary Altman, the mother who is a child psychotherapist with a very successful book that contains more information about her children than they cared to share, but she tells them, “Secrets are cancer to a family.”
Adam Driver plays Phillip Altman, the baby of the family, and although he has fancy possessions he is still regarded as worthless, and he shows up with his much older, richer girlfriend, who is a psychotherapist.
Corey Stoll plays Paul Altman, the oldest of the children, who stayed in town to help his father run the family sporting goods store, who is married to Alice, one of Judd’s old girlfriends and who badly wants a baby, but she and Paul are still childless.
And then there are other assorted family members and children, as well as another old girlfriend of Judd’s, Penny, played by Rose Byrne, who not only still lives in town but who also still has longings for Judd.
The family sits on the couch in the living room to receive neighbors and friends who come by to pay their respects, but when they can’t take the bickering anymore or the infighting among them, some sneak out of the house as often as possible.
Also, unexpected people show up unannounced which adds to the discomfort of the family, but delight to the audience, and some scenes are downright hilarious.
You will laugh, you will cry, you will think your pants will never dry.
THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU will stay with you forever.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
This Is Where I Leave You – Movie Trailer
Sep 22nd
When their father passes away, four grown siblings, bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, they ultimately reconnect in hysterical and emotionally affecting ways amid the chaos, humor, heartache and redemption that only families can provide-driving us insane even as they remind us of our truest, and often best, selves.
The Drop “Definitely Worth Seeing”
Sep 22nd
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE DROP is a very good, dark, and gritty movie that revolves around a bar in Brooklyn called Cousin Marv’s, which used to belong to Marv, played by James Gandolfini.
Bob, played by Tom Hardy, who actually is a cousin of Marv’s, tends bar there, and the bar is sometimes used as a “drop bar,” where bookies and dealers leave bundles of cash in envelopes for the crime bosses who control them to come by after hours to collect the money.
There is a rotating circuit of bars that are used as drop bars, but one night when Cousin Marv’s is the drop bar, it is robbed by two men wearing masks, and even though Marv tries to warn them about whose money they are stealing, the two robbers take the money anyway.
Bob notices that one of the men is wearing a wristwatch that is broken, but when he mentions this to the police who investigate, Marv gets upset with Bob.
One night Bob had been out walking in the neighborhood, and he discovers a bleeding puppy in a garbage can. The woman who lives in the house behind the garbage can comes out and starts talking to Bob about the puppy, which is not hers, nor does she know anything about it or why it had been left in her garbage can.
Bob promises to think about taking the dog to the shelter if she will just keep it until Saturday when he will come back to pick it up.
The woman’s name is Nadia, and Bob decides to keep the dog, but because he has never owned a dog before, Nadia goes with Bob to the store and helps him buy the necessities that Bob needs in order to keep he dog, which he names Rocco.
Meanwhile, the police keep coming around to investigate the robbery, the owners of the bar show up wanting the money that had been taken in the robbery, and a menacing man named Eric Deeds, who used to be involved with Nadia, shows up at Bob’s apartment, claiming that the dog is his, but he will let Bob keep Rocco if Bob will pay him $10,000.
The bar is designated the drop bar for Super Bowl Sunday, and everything comes to a head.
THE DROP is definitely worth seeing.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
