Wedding Season | Movie Review

The funniest part about not knowing a lot about romantic comedies is that I don’t really know what to look for when I’m searching for a movie. I just pop into the “romance” category and cross my fingers. Is there some sort of romcom database somewhere? It would be helpful.

Asha (Pallavi Sharda) is a successful economist works in microfinance to get loans for women in impoverished countries to start their own businesses. Her mother, Suneeta (Veena Sood), is desperate to find the right man for her daughter so she writes an online dating profile for Asha without Asha’s knowledge. One of the men that replies is Ravi (Suraj Sharma). Well, it’s Ravi’s parents that reply, setting them up on a date. The first date goes badly but Asha and Ravi agree to fake date in order to keep unwanted attention away from themselves during wedding season, when they have 14 weddings to attend. They end up spending so much time together that the fake dating turns real.

While this was a fairly standard romcom plot with the twist of Indian culture, I found myself enjoying Wedding Season. None of the characters came off as annoying or outrageous. Even all of the parents and aunties in the movie came off as lovingly overbearing. There is one part where Ravi’s parents are a little too much and my heart broke knowing what he had to go through growing up. But even they come around at the end to apologize for their misdeeds.

Yes, Wedding Season is full of tropes. But it was enjoyable and easy to watch. I’m giving it a 4 out of 5 with the hopes that DJ Spellbound can perform at one of my parties.

The People We Hate At The Wedding | Movie Review

You know, I’m not completely sure The People We Hate At The Wedding fits the romcom category. But Amazon listed it as both a comedy and a romance movie so I watched it. Now that I did…I’m not completely sure it’s a comedy either.

Eloise (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is the first child of Donna (Allison Janney), from her first marriage to Henrique (Isaach De Bankolé) when she lived in England. After they broke up, Donna moved to the United States, married her second husband Bill (Andy Daly), and had two more children: Paul (Ben Platt) and Alice (Kristen Bell). As the children grew up, they grew distant. Now Eloise is about to get married and she has invited her American family to join her, much to their dismay.

This is another movie where almost all of the characters are terrible people. Alice is sleeping with her married boss, Paul is a therapist at a terrible clinic attempting to treat OCD through exposure therapy, Paul’s boyfriend Dominic (Karan Soni) bullies Paul into doing whatever he wants to do, Donna may have abandoned Eloise as a teenager…it’s kinda hinted at but not actually stated, Henrique sleeps around with much younger women. Eloise is the best of the characters and the one we’re supposed to sympathize with. However, she has done her fair share of terrible things as well. While it can be fun watching a dumpster fire, it would have been great if the fire was put out a little sooner.

I suppose, in the end, I would give The People We Hate a 3 out of 5. It definitely would have ranked higher if EVERYONE wasn’t so terrible. I guess Dennis (Dustin Milligan) is a good guy but he’s only in like 4 scenes. He barely counts as a character. I need someone actually in the movie to cheer for!

You People | Movie Review

I had heard that You People was a terrible movie. Of course that means I had to watch it. I’m not sure that it’s terrible but I’m not sure that it’s good either.

Ezra (Jonah Hill) is a Jewish man who falls in love with Amira (Lauren London), a black woman. When the two get engaged, they have to figure out how to blend both their families and their cultures without anyone getting hurt or offended. It is much more difficult than either imagined.

Hm. Let me start off by saying that I didn’t hate You People. It has an extremely strong cast - Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nia Long, David Duchovny, and so many cameos that I couldn’t possibly name everyone. They were wonderful. My problem is the script.

I’m not really sure what the point of the movie was. Sure, it was about how cultures are different but, at the same time, it didn’t do anything to resolve the culture issue. Instead, they made Amira’s dad, Akbar (Murphy), a straight up asshole to Ezra. It wasn’t about culture. It wasn’t about Ezra not understanding black problems in the world. It was about Akbar not wanting his daughter to date a white man but he didn’t want to admit it. On the other side, Ezra’s mother, Shelley (Louis-Dreyfus), tries to center everything around herself. When Amira first meets the family and tells them what she does for a living, Shelley literally makes it about herself. At no point does she ever try to understand Shelley or learn more about her as a person. She just wants to be seen as “not racist” so instead she’s a jerk.

If all of the family members had come together with the intention of actually meeting each other and learning more about who they are, this might have been an amazing movie. But no. It’s about Who Has It Worse - Black People or Jewish People. And I wish I could say that it was only the parents who had this mindset. But we don’t even see Ezra and Amira talking to each other about their cultures and their differences. We only see Ezra learning about the black experience through his podcast co-host, Mo (Sam Jay). And even that barely scrapes the surface.

I would love to tell everyone to go watch this movie. That they will learn so much about people who live different lives. But no. All you will learn is that Jonah Hill is sarcastic and Lauren London is gorgeous. And, really, you should have known that before the movie even started. I give it a 2.5 out of 5.

About Fate | Movie Review

After I watched Shotgun Wedding, Amazon Prime recommended About Fate. It seemed like an easy enough watch so why not?

Griffin (Thomas Mann) wants to propose to his girlfriend, Clementine (Madelaine Petsch). Margot (Emma Roberts) wants her boyfriend, Kip (Lewis Tan), to propose to her. When both dates go wrong, Griffin and Margot find themselves thrown together by fate. Maybe they will find the love they are looking for with each other.

About Fate was fun but not the same kind of fun as Shotgun Wedding. Poor Margot kept getting lambasted by her sister, Carrie (Britt Robertson). No matter what Margot did, Carrie assumed that she would mess it up. While pressure like that would almost always result in failure, Margot always came through for her sister. Sure, it wasn’t “perfect” but, news flash, nothing is perfect.

Thankfully, the relationship between Griffin and Margot kept the movie entertaining. This is one of the few movies where I kinda wished the rest of the characters would just go away so Griffin and Margot could have fun in their own little world. Everyone else sucked.

So where would I stick About Fate? Probably at a 3 out of 5. This isn’t necessarily a movie I would watch again but I might be interested in a movie about Griffin and Margot’s life after they get married. Just not their actual wedding. I don’t want to see either of their families any more.

Shotgun Wedding | Movie Review

Since February is a short month and the month of love, I’m going to attempt to do daily romantic comedy reviews for the entire month. I don’t usually watch a lot of romcoms so some of these movies may be very old. But we’re going to start out with a new one - Shotgun Wedding, which was released on Amazon Prime on January 27.

Tom (Josh Duhamel) and Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) are having a destination wedding. They have gathered all of their family members on a private island in The Philippines. As the bride and groom are getting ready, a band of pirates attacks the rest of the guests, taking them all hostage. They demand a ransom from Darcy’s father, Robert (Cheech Marin). Unbeknownst to everyone, Tom and Darcy are actually arguing, debating whether or not they actually want to get married. When they find out their loved ones are in danger, they work together to save everyone’s lives, reigniting their love along the way.

To be honest, I expected this to be a stupid movie. As I said earlier, I don’t watch a lot of romcoms and the ones starring Jennifer Lopez always seem to be terrible. Imagine how happy I was when I found myself actually enjoying Shotgun Wedding! I think what held it together for me was the ensemble cast. Instead of everything focusing on Darcy and Tom, we had comedy heavyweights Jennifer Coolidge and Cheech Marin alongside the extremely talented D’Arcy Carden, the often-forgotten talent of Melissa Hunter, and the over-the-top acting of Lenny Kravitz. Since the movie split its’ time between the couple and their families, there was a lot more meat to its’ bones.

I wanted to list my favorite parts of the movie here but I’m having a difficult time pinning down one or two moments. The fight scene at the end is pretty cool. So is the zipline scene and the fight in the kitchen. And so is the scene where Darcy confronts her family. I would probably have an easier time listing the things I didn’t like about the movie…though there aren’t a lot of those moments either. I don’t think I would put this as a 5 out of 5 movie but it’s definitely a 4 out of 5.

Infinity Pool | Movie Review

My husband and I have become recent fans of Mia Goth’s work, thanks to X and Pearl. When we saw she had a new movie coming out, Infinity Pool, we knew we wanted to see it. I don’t think we fully knew what we were in for. The plot description for this is long so buckle in.

James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) is a novelist, though the only book he has published was released six years ago. Unable to write another book, he goes on vacation to Latoka with his wife, Em (Cleopatra Coleman). The two are having relationship difficulties that worsen when James meets a fan named Gabi (Mia Goth) and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert). After dinner that night, the two couples decide to go on a seaside picnic the next day, even though tourists are forbidden from leaving the resort. They spend the day eating and drinking but, as James is driving the group back to the resort, he hits and kills a local farmer crossing the street. The punishment for the crime is death. However, the local detective makes a deal with James. For a large sum of money, they will create an identical clone of James. The clone will take the punishment while James goes back to his regular life, after watching the clone get murdered. Em is horrified by the whole thing and wants to go home. James has an opposite reaction and decides to stay. From here, James spends his time with Gabi, Alban, and their friends, who have all committed serious crimes on the island and have been cloned as a result. The debauchery continues until James can’t take any more. He tries to leave the group but they won’t allow it. Will he be able to get out or is he trapped in a life of crime forever?

Yeah. For those that don’t know, this is a movie directed and written by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg. As such, Infinity Pool does have a lot of very disturbing scenes. There are drug-fueled orgies (which were apparently tamed in order to get the R rating), fairly graphic murders, and a lot of blood. It is very over the top.

Did I like it? There were a lot of things I liked. The clone issue is always an interesting plot device. Who is the “real” person and who is the clone? I also liked Gabi’s leadership of the group. Everything seemed to be her idea and everyone else was just following along, even though they also enjoyed what they were doing. I don’t think that we necessarily needed all of the weird visuals that sometimes made me difficult for me to understand what was happening but that is a typical Cronenberg trope. His dad does stuff like that and now he does too. It should be expected when you hear their name.

With that said, I don’t think I would recommend this movie to just anyone. It is a very specific type of person that enjoys Cronenberg movies. If you enjoy the trippy type of visuals and absolutely gore that comes with the family name, you might like this a lot. For me, I’m giving it a 3 out of 5.

Dog Gone | Movie Review

To be honest, I kept passing by Dog Gone on Netflix ever since it came out on January 13. The thumbnail looked boring, the preview looked boring, the description was boring. It just didn’t look like a movie I would enjoy. But I’m a reviewer so I finally put on my big girl pants and turned it on.

Fielding Marshall (Johnny Berchtold) is in his senior year of college. After his girlfriend breaks up with him, he adopts a dog named Gonker. When graduation rolls around, Fielding misses the ceremony because he lost track of time camping with his dog. Needless to say, his parents, John (Rob Lowe) and Ginny (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), are not happy. Fielding and Gonker move back to the Marshall home to try to figure out what to do with their life. While hiking with his college buddy, Nate (Nick Peine), Gonker chases a fox and gets lost. Fielding and John spend the next couple of weeks together searching for their dog.

If you are looking for a movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat, Dog Gone is not it. Instead, you will find a heartfelt drama that is based on a true story. While the search for Gonker drives the plot, it’s the strained relationship between Fielding and his father that is the core of the movie. As such, I found Dog Gone to be fairly dull. The parts that I found most interesting were the parts involving Fielding’s mother, Ginny, and her past relationship with her parents and the dog that she briefly owned. Those were the parts that made me teary-eyed. Not the testosterone-filled “Let’s not talk about anything” men. They were actually kinda annoying.

I would have preferred if Dog Gone was told from Gonker’s point of view, like Homeward Bound. It also would have made the title a little more appropriate. Yes, it’s the name of the book that the movie is based on but it still feels disingenuous. The Search for Gonker or Where Has My Dog Gone? would have been better titles. Anyway, I didn’t like the movie but I didn’t hate it either. It just needs more dog.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 - Mostly because Gonker is a good dog and the credits are filled with pictures of the cast and crew with their pets.

How I Caught My Killer | Series Review

The title of Hulu’s How I Caught My Killer intrigued me. A lot. Like, what could that possibly mean? I knew it was a docu-series, meaning these were true stories. Were these stories where victims called their friends or loved ones and told them who killed them before they died? Sadly, no.

How I Caught My Killer is a nine episode series that tells nine separate stories of murder. In most of the stories, the killers were caught thanks to some clues from the victim’s cell phone GPS or diary entries or a conversation they had with someone in the days before their death.

Hulu has a lot of true crime documentaries on their roster. It seems like every time I try to watch one of them, I find myself disappointed. In this case, the series wants you to believe that the victims made a conscious decision to identify their attacker. Alas, that is not the case. While the victim’s cell phone or personal conversations have a hand in catching their killer, it’s nothing that the victim did on purpose. In a lot of these cases, it was the cell phone’s GPS that told the police where the victim’s body was or what their movements were before their death. Unless you are actively turning off your GPS, I wouldn’t count that information as you “finding” your killer.

Not only are the victims not “catching” their killer, in some of the stories, they had nothing to do with the arrest at all. In one of the stories, an ex-boyfriend who was already in jail told the police that the killer confessed to him and that is how she was apprehended. Now, I’ll admit that some of the stories had some awful police work but just as many of the stories relied totally on the police doing their job. Looking into a victim’s text history or Facebook chat history is basic policework. And none of those messages were “Hey, I’m going to murder you tomorrow.”

The only positive thing I can say about this series is that I was not familiar with a lot of the stories. I stopped consuming a lot of true crime media during the pandemic because it was doing bad things to my mental health. But it is still pretty rare for a docu-series like this to be filled with stories that I haven’t heard about. I just wish the series was a little more honest about it’s content.

Missing | Movie Review

When I saw the trailers for Missing, I couldn’t decide what to think of it. On one hand, it looked like a Netflix or Shudder original movie rather than a theatrical movie. On the other hand, it seemed like an interesting premise. Since I had some time, I decided to check it out.

Grace (Nia Long) and her boyfriend, Kevin (Ken Leung), are going on vacation to Colombia. June (Storm Reid), Grace’s 18-year old daughter, is staying by herself in Los Angeles. However, when June goes to the airport to pick them up after their trip, neither Grace nor Kevin can be found. When the police and FBI take their time investigating the case, June turns to the internet to find her mom by herself.

I will say that Missing did keep my attention through the entire 2-hour runtime. The various twists and turns in the case were both intriguing and fairly realistic. I can believe that June would run into all sorts of red tape while dealing with detectives. And June was extremely innovative using internet tools like TaskRabbit (well, the Colombian equivalent) and live feed cams to try to track her mom’s movements in another country. I don’t know that I would have done as well as she did.

With that in mind, I’m not sure this is worthy of a theatrical release. The whole movie was supposed to feel close and personal, which is lost when you’re sitting in front of a huge screen with other people. I think it might have felt a little more targeted if it was a streaming release. Especially with the twist ending. Missing deserves to feel personal. And I feel like I lost that in a theater setting.

Despite wanting a more personal feeling as I watched the movie, I would give this a 4 out of 5 stars if I rated movies. (Should I give movie ratings?) It was really good and I didn’t predict the twist, which I usually do. I would probably watch it again to see if there was anything I missed during my first watch.

7 Women and a Murder | Movie Review

This was originally on my list of Christmas movies. However, after some digging, I realized that 7 Women and a Murder isn’t really a Christmas movie. It takes place during Christmas but it’s only mentioned twice. So it got kicked out of the Christmas lineup.

Susanna (Diana Del Bufalo) has come home for Christmas. Shortly after her arrival, her father, Marcello (Luca Pastorelli), is found dead. All seven women in the house have a motive for his murder. But which of them did it?

Right away, I knew this Italian movie was going to fall under the love-it or hate-it categories. Netflix has it listed as an Agatha Christie or Knives Out type of movie. While I can see the similarities, I don’t think that 7 Women is anything like those. Both Agatha Christie and Knives Out have a singular detective trying to figure out who perpetrated the crime at hand. In 7 Women, they are left to try to figure out the killer on their own. As a result, everyone lies to one another and tries to out each other’s secrets. Without that impartial third party, the movie ends up just being about bickering women who point their finger at anyone but themselves.

That isn’t to say the movie isn’t interesting. It just isn’t as fun as the established detective movies. Personally, I always try to figure out who the killer is when I watch whodoneit movies. Doesn’t everyone? Isn’t that the whole point of the movie? But in 7 Women, we aren’t given any clues to try to piece together the puzzle. And, honestly, the solution is a little bit of a let down.

Instead of using the story or the plot to keep the audience’s attention, 7 Women uses the characters to keep us involved. Unfortunately, all of the women kinda suck. The least annoying of them is the youngest daughter, Caterina (Benedetta Porcaroli). But she still isn’t someone we want to be innocent.

Maybe it’s the differences between Italian and American cultures. Maybe this movie would be better if I understood Italian family dynamics. As it is, I spent too much of the movie waiting for something to happen and nothing did. I wanted to like it so much and, in the end, I didn’t.