MOVIES:
The Shape of Water. So, something sort of crazy happened to one of my friends over the holidays. She had to go in for a medical test that was very expensive and not covered by her insurance, so she reluctantly set up a GoFundMe for it. People were starting to send in a little bit of money and then one of her friends tweeted the link to Guillermo del Toro (the director of this movie and many other visually stunning films), asking him to retweet the link. Instead of retweeting the link, Mr. Del Toro paid the remainder balance of the GoFundMe. How amazing is that! My friend was able to get her test without worrying about the cost (and she will be okay). SO even though I rarely go to the movies anymore, I knew that I had to go see The Shape of Water as an homage to the dude who helped my friend. Not like it was a hardship or anything, I love GDT’s work and even went to his art show at LACMA in late 2016 (At Home With Monsters).
Anyway, this is kind of a Beauty & the Beast fable, about a mute janitor lady who works in a government facility. There she witnesses the delivery of basically the Creature of the Black Lagoon and adventures ensue as she tries to figure out how to help him escape.
Other than being about 20 minutes too long, it was pretty good – nice visuals and some great performances.
Kong: Skull Island. Took me two tries to get through this one (fell asleep the first time) but it was actually a pretty decent monster movie! Was also a period piece – the movie is set in 1973.
The Fate of the Furious. I think this is the 8th Fast & Furious movie? Something like that. It is dumb. But fun. I will say though that I miss Paul Walker (RIP). This one had Charlize Theron as the bad guy in it. I do NOT know what she was doing in this movie aside from collecting a paycheck. Also one of the side characters dies. 🙁 Also there is a submarine.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. This Guy Ritchie King Arthur adaptation is over the top and ridiculous. But there is NO LANCELOT in it! I hate Lancelot! He is the worst! So is Gwinevere! I rather enjoyed it.
TV:
The Alienist. OK, so when I was a kid I found this book in my house and I remember the dark and creepy cover and FOR SURE thought that it was going to be about aliens. Man, was I 100% disappointed. For one, I was way too young to be reading this book about a late-19th-century psychologist and the grotesque murders he was investigating… for another, I never even got that far into the book to realize that’s what it was about because it was so, so boring. When I realized it was not, in fact, about extra-terrestrials, I bounced.
But now that I am twenty-five years older <insert grimace-face-emoji here> and basically watch non-stop true crime 24/7, this type of stuff is my jam. Also, Cary Fukunaga produced and his work is also my jam (first season of True Detective, anyone??). So I decided to give this a try.
The pilot episode is pretty terrible. Setting-wise, costumes, Luke Evans, that’s all fine. But hot damn do the accents suck and like the acting is terrible and it’s violent and depicts boy-whores which is so off-putting on so many levels. But if all that still doesn’t put you off, the second episode was much better. The acting was better and everyone seemed a little more at ease with their characters and what not. I’ll continue giving this a try.
