Movies and Recovery

Since I knew I would have some "down time" while recovering from total knee replacement surgery, I requested a bunch of videos from the library that I'd been meaning to watch. I just wanted to make some quick notes. It's weird for me to watch so much media in less than a month's time!

Ready Player One - I loved this! I'm not really a video game person, but I loved all the 80s cultural references and music. I loved the underdog beating the Goliath. Perhaps I had low expectations and that's why it surprised me so much. Louie and I watched it together and he enjoyed it, too. True confession: after I had returned it to the library, I was looking at clips on YouTube and ended up getting it from the library a second time and re-watching it! I just really enjoyed it.

Iron Lady - I'm glad I watched this without Louie. Although I love Meryl Streep and I'm up for learning about historical figures and eras, it was a bit slow-paced. It opens as Margaret Thatcher is in her dotage and uses flashbacks to tell her story. I liked that she was a shopkeeper's daughter and "rose above" her "station" in life. I'm glad that she made her way in a man's world.

Crazy Rich Asians - I watched this one alone, too. Louie said he wasn't interested, but I think he might have enjoyed it. I was delighted by Rachel's story. I think the cast was fantastic (though I didn't know who Awkwafina was before this). My favorite scenes were when her mom came to see her (I cried) and the Mah-jong game. I would watch this again! Loved it!

Manchester By the Sea - I got this thinking it was something else. My friend Kathy loved this and I need to ask her why. I thought it was super depressing. Casey Affleck plays a man who is deeply troubled. He seems to be dead inside. He gets into bar fights. When his brother dies and he has to return to deal with the details, he learns his brother has left him in charge of his teenage nephew. Long, sad, winding story with an unsatisfying (to me) resolution.

A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish - Netflix. Louie watched it with me and said, "I think the target audience was 13 year old girls." "We didn't have to watch the whole thing!" We usually decide within 10-15 minutes if it's worth the hour and a half. Oh well. It was cute. I like Cinderella stories.

Knight Christmas - Netflix. I had watched this home alone and should have waited to watch it with Louie. Not much less silly than the other one, but geared for an older audience at least.

White Christmas - Netflix. Also watched alone. For the third(?) time in my life.

Woman in Gold - watched alone. So cool! I'm amazed at how it turned out. In fact, I had to look up the info online afterward. The painting is in the U.S. now! Absolutely amazing. The interviews afterward made me chuckle. The young lawyer dude never comments on how cool it is that RYAN REYNOLDS is portraying him!

Ender's Game - DVD. Rewatch for us. Just makes me want to reread Card's books which are so much better than this movie. Interesting to see Harrison Ford as Graff . . .

A Brilliant Young Mind - I liked it more than Louie did. Asa Butterfield is incredible. I'm so very glad that our children were not autistic! I loved the young girl.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? - This documentary about Fred Rogers was extremely well-done. I thought about my mom and how much she loved Mr. Rogers and what he stood for. This was worthwhile and interesting. I like Mr. Rogers more and more the older I get and the more course the world gets.