Drama

Victoria and Abdul (2017)


Victoria and Abdul (2017)

Director:

Stephen Frears

Starring:

Judi Dench

Ali Fazal

Plot:

Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.

Review:

I was unaware of Queen Victoria’s relationship and fascination with India before this movie. It was quiet eye opening, though, it’s very obvious that the movie paints things in a very positive light for the queen, though, not actually the country.

Queen Victoria, Judi Dench, is bored with life and basically waiting to die. She hates her children and honestly seems to hate everything about her life but food. Until, one day, Abdul, Ali Fazal, shows up to present a mujer (?) to her. It’s a gold coin.

Fascinated by him, she ends up seemingly becoming obsessed with India. She hires him to teach her everything and finds a new purpose in life. The people around her, especially her son and the heir, are not very thrilled about that, but she’s the queen so they have to get over it.

Judi Dench was amazing, of course, and the story was interesting, but the pacing was kind of off. At first it seemed like this was all happening within a matter of months, but it actually happened over a period of years, but I only know that because of Wikipedia. I feel like they could have done a better job of showing the passage of time instead of trying to make Queen Victoria look like a fat, doddering old person.

Victoria and Abdul was mildly entertaining and presented a new story about an interesting monarch, but it went out of its way to show the titular people in a flattering light.

3/5

The American President (1995)


The American President (1995)

Director:

Rob Reiner

Starring:

Michael Douglas

Annette Bening

Plot:

Comedy-drama about a widowed U.S. President and a lobbyist who fall in love. It’s all above-board, but “politics is perception”, and sparks fly anyway.

Review:

The world was a different place when this was written. Kind of. I mean, yeah, the environment and guns were still a huge issues, but we actually thought they could be solved. We were innocent.

In the past I’ve liked this movie. It’s from Aaron Sorkin, so it definitely idealizes the American government but it’s also much more believable than the movie Dave. Now, though, it’s depressing to watch. It’s really impossible to watch and ignore the politics of everything and just take it as a romance. He’s the president, she’s a lobbyist. The politics are enmeshed in everything.

Maybe in another time I’ll be able to watch this again and enjoy it. I really hope so, I used to love re-watching West Wing. My heart just can’t handle it right now.

4/5

 

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-?)

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-?)

Network:

Amazon

Creator:

Amy Sherman-Palladino

Starring:

Rachel Brosnahan

Alex Borstein

Michael Zegen

Plot:

A housewife in the 1950s decides to become a stand-up comic.

Review:

Midge, Rachel Brosnahan, is your standard 1950s upper middle class housewife. Her world revolves around her husband, Michael Zegen, and she does everything in her power to make his life as easy as possible. He wants to be a stand up comedian so she makes sure he gets the best times at a club by making the manager brisket. She takes notes of things she thinks is funny, she notes down any time the audience laughs at one of his, she does all kinds of research. The woman waits until he’s asleep then takes off her makeup, does her hair up, and puts cold cream on her face. She then wakes up before the alarm goes off and gets herself all pretty so that he doesn’t ever see her not at her best. It’s ridiculous the lengths she goes, she freaking measures all of her body parts so that she remains skinny.

Naturally, he can’t handle her perfection and cheats on her with his ditzy secretary. After he bombs a stand up set her tells her because apparently he just can’t stop from being an asshole. I hated this man, I wanted him to suffer, I wanted him to die alone on the streets naked and unloved. Spoilers, that didn’t happen.

Midge grows a bit as a person, not huge leaps and bounds, but she starts to see that there is more to life than being a housewife. She uses her stand up to be introspective, though, often she uses it to just unleash all of her pent up emotions which is probably not the best thing. It bites her in the ass a few times, and by the end of the season she had yet to learn.

The relationship between Midge and her manager Susie, Alex Borstein, is almost as interesting as the relationship with her husband, though, a lot less dramatic. Watching the two women figure each other out and start to become friends was a nice contrast to the rest of Midge’s life.

I found Midge to be an incredibly interesting character. I honestly would have wound up in jail if I’d been in front of that judge. I’m really curious to see what comes next, maybe I’ll get my wish and her husband will wind up castrated in a ditch. I don’t think that’s how they’re leaning, though. I think they might try to have him grow as a person or he could double down on his asshole tendencies, we’ll see. Also, I borderline ship her and her manager Susie, but I’ll have to see how that plays out before I make my final decision.

Great show, if you have Amazon prime definitely check it out.

4/5

All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook By: Leslie Connor

All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook By: Leslie Connor

Plot:

From Leslie Connor, award-winning author of Waiting for Normal and Crunch, comes a soaring and heartfelt story about love, forgiveness, and how innocence makes us all rise up. All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook is a powerful story, perfect for fans of Wonder and When You Reach Me.

Eleven-year-old Perry was born and raised by his mom at the Blue River Co-ed Correctional Facility in tiny Surprise, Nebraska. His mom is a resident on Cell Block C, and so far Warden Daugherty has made it possible for them to be together. That is, until a new district attorney discovers the truth—and Perry is removed from the facility and forced into a foster home.

When Perry moves to the “outside” world, he feels trapped. Desperate to be reunited with his mom, Perry goes on a quest for answers about her past crime. As he gets closer to the truth, he will discover that love makes people resilient no matter where they come from . . . but can he find a way to tell everyone what home truly means?

Review:

I cried through this entire story, there are so many tear stains on the pages of this library book. I expected it to be well written based on the buzz around it, but I had no idea that I would end up crying so much. After the first chapter I knew that it was going to be an emotional journey so I had to read the last chapter to make sure there was a happy ending.

***SPOILERS***

There was.

Perry was so innocent and optimistic and just let things roll right over him that would normally drive an adult crazy. His ability to cope with things was remarkable and I wish I had his skills. Just when I was starting to think he was too good, though, Connor allowed him to get mad. He had been bothered by things throughout the book, but he was able to accept that there was nothing that he could do about them.

I do wish that he had a bit more fight in him, but the book acknowledged that was an area he could grow in. I also wish that the pay off at the end was a bit better. I found myself reacting like one of the characters and I wished things had been fair. I at least wanted the DA to have more negative backlash against him. It would have also been nice to learn more about Perry’s father.

There was so much love between the characters. It was beautiful.

4/5

Acts of Vengeance (2017)

Acts of Vengeance (2017)

Director:

Isaac Florentine

Starring:

Antonio Banderas

Christina Serafini

Karl Urban

Atanas Srebrev

Plot:

A fast-talking lawyer transforms his body and takes a vow of silence, not to be broken until he finds out who killed his wife and daughter and has his revenge.

Review:

I watched this movie, then literally completely forgot I had. It’s been an effort to remember enough to write this review.

Antonio Banderas character is a hot shot lawyer that talks his clients problems away. He’s a criminal defense attorney, something that pays well if you’re good and is required, but also comes with the price of knowing that you’re potentially getting bad guys back on the street. As long as the money is coming in he doesn’t care, but when his wife and child are murdered things change.

Karl Urban was jacked in this movie and I kept hoping for more, sadly I did not like his character and felt like he was wasted.

The action was alright, but this was not an action movie despite what the trailer seems to say. Yet another misleading trailer.

The idea is unoriginal, the acting is fine, the payoff is eh. Would not recommend.

2/5