Crazy Rich Asians

An absolutely delightful summer flick which has significantly more depth than the average Rom Com.  Enough layers to have you laughing, crying, thinking and going "aww" a lot.  Three of us, with distinctly different tastes in storytelling, saw it and all three absolutely loved it.  Terrific actors, writing, direction, cinematography.  Really nothing more to say.  Great film.  Would be glad to see again.  Catch it while you can still see the excess of Singapore on a large screen.

Summer TV

This being summer, there are a variety of offerings.  While I am enjoying The Outpost (on the CW) and am finally binge-watching Leverage, two shows really stood out.

Pose on FX.  Grab the kleenex as this is the "This is Us" for the LGBTQ community.  Set in the late 1980s underground drag queen scene, the glitter doesn't begin to cover up the struggles, not only from AIDS but from society in general.  Tossed away by their families, the core story is how these people ache find a sense of belonging.  Trapped in the sex trade and unwelcomed by the rest of the gay community, they find solace with the families they create.  Production quality is top-notch with major kudos for two stars, MJ Rodriguez and Indya Moore, who captivate with their sensitive, layered performances.  They illuminate the screen in every scene.  Producers have assembled the largest LGBTQ cast ever in this profound, touching drama.  The only piece of advice is to dump or downsize the B line story of mainstream Wall Street types using these women.  Not really necessary, IMHO.  One look from Ms. Rodriguez and you can feel all the triumph and the pain.  Brava, Bravo.  Has already been given a second season so binge season one now.

Dietland on AMC.  Imagine if #MeToo morphed into a femanista terrorist organization.  This complex show is drama, black humor and political satire.  It's difficult to watch.  Even with the outlandish plot lines (Julianna Margolies plays a women's magazine editor who has a lot in common with a certain Scottish drama royal) there is a very real thread in terms of how women view themselves, societal and personal issues of weight and the reasons we don't always report sexual assaults.  The show makes my list of "must watch" because it challenged me in every episode to take what I believe and examine it.  Joy Nash, as lead Plum Kettle, is the standout star and addictive to watch as she peels away the emotional layers to find her center.  Perfect for the end of August, it will leave you feeling "schooled."

A Wrinkle in Time

So bad.  So very, very bad.  A true travesty.  Take a deeply loved children's book and mix it with a director more familiar with music videos than literature and you get two hours of visuals and special effects scored with pop music favorites that not only doesn't bear any resemblance to the original plot of the book but doesn't seem to have a plot of its own.  The plot could be taken as:  Oprah changes dresses a lot, diversity is only possible in families if you adopt the children (and Asian kids are always brains), and "Tessering" is a fun psychedelic experience which includes music by Sade and Sia.  Given the great cast and impetus to update the story a bit this could have been much better.  I spent the entire film wanting it to be better.  Next time, Hollywood, get an experienced director.  For those still looking for a decent film version of this book, try the 2003 made-for-TV version.  It's plodding but so much better than this.  But then, anything could be.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Finally splurged to get the Castle DVD set.  Ironically, this summer also saw a whole series of Castle rip-offs.  Seriously?  Cable TV seems to be caught in the same morass of Hollywood and Broadway, struggling to come up with something new.  That being said ...

Castle -- the semi-original.  Oddball cop pairings are nothing new but ABC did it well with Castle, which bounced between kind of funny and kind of dark without going too far in either direction.  The chemistry between Castle and Beckett always seemed a tad forced, IMHO.  I was nearly laughed out of the room when I once made the mistake of saying this out loud.  I was vindicated when the series wrapped and it was revealed that Fillion and Stanic were definitely not on each other's Friends and Family plan.  It doesn't matter.  Flying quips and good pacing, along with predictable but interesting twists, made this worth the hour.

Take Two -- Unlike Castle, where a writer shadows a cop who flings subtle insults at him backed by a quirky cast, this one is a troubled actress who shadows a private eye/former cop who has little respect for her.  They are backed up by a quirky cast.  Seeing a pattern?  This one is almost too hard to watch.  Plots are utterly forgettable and the solution to the mystery easily reached in the first five minutes.  Rachel Bilson is bubbly to the point of being in a sitcom, while Eddie Cibrian is just moody.  Makes the chemistry on Castle look good.  While it has aged better than the premiere promised, I don't see this one staying on my DVR.

Private Eyes -- this Canadian import on Ion is about a former hockey player shadowing a private eye who was a cop's daughter.  They are backed up by a quirky cast, which includes a blind daughter for the hockey player.  This takes a page from the Castle playbook as Castle's interactions with his mother and daughter were some of the best scenes of the show.  In Private Eyes, it is a father and daughter but doesn't stray much from the formula.  The mysteries are a tad more complex, the characters somewhat more real and overall show less fluffy than Take Two.  If I had a choice between the two shows, Private Eyes wins hands down.

Carter -- another Canadian import (on Bravo) which features a troubled actor shadowing his female cop friend.  Frankly, by the time this one debuted, I was done.  Didn't even bother.

Who wore it best?  Castle.  Private Eyes is a contender, though, and worth a summer play.

Deadpool

Hands down one of the more conflicted reviews of my life.  I LOVED the humor, which begins with opening credits and was smart and sharp.  I laughed through the entire film, which had an interesting plot -- and that's not easy to say in the glut of super-hero films out right now.  This one manages to avoid the cookie-cutter storyline in almost every action movie of the summer.  They do it by allowing Deadpool to be the complex anti-hero that he is.  But.  This isn't just R Rated, it is the closest I have seen to an "M" rating in a long, long time.  Every song used in the film is a rap thing with the F word throughout.  The violence is visceral, with digitized blood spatter on the camera lens, a beheading in the first three minutes and brain matter spewing out repeatedly in head shot after head shot.  There are a lot of head shots.  And chest shots.  And yes, more beheadings.  Not to mention the sex -- although I'm never going to complain about seeing Morena Baccarin in hooker-wear.  All of that being said I'm giving it a thumbs-up.  Prepared for the gory violence, lewd conduct and obscene language I could tolerate, even enjoy the sequel.  This is tongue-in-cheek (and other places ...)  If I know that and don't take it seriously, there are serious hee-haws to be had.  But don't take the kids.

This is Spinal Tap

Nope, never saw this.  Feeling a burning need to understand the pop culture references to this 1984 film, I finally carved out time to check it out.  HILARIOUS, in a very dry sherry way.  From the opening DVD slide (don't push Play too fast) through the credits this is one subtle but ridiculous film.  I'm not sure it was the first mockumentary but it is definitely one of the best.  Coming across so legitimate that the uninitiated might mistake it for reality you really have to pay attention to the dialog (and exploding drummers).  I was laughing days later and still thinking about it.  Yes, this could have been the Beatles had they made it to the 1980s.  Bravo to the very clever writers/producers:  Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner.

Oceans 13

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, etc.  Cons, thieves, Vegas, twists.  No better or worse than the other two, just a fun, airy way to spend a couple of hours.  I was going to say, "Yay, I finally finished the Oceans franchise" but now there is Oceans 8.  Definitely looking forward to exploring the X chromosome version.

The Giver

Somehow this 2014 film slipped by me.  (To be honest, a lot of things have slipped by me in the past few years).  Since it got very iffy reviews I didn't put it high on the list.  That was a mistake.  In my humble opinion, it is great.  Strong cast and well directed, there is little to pick on.  The struggle, I think, is a typical one.  When you have an award-winning, classic book, people who love the book will never like the film version because a two hour movie just can't capture all the subtleties of a book.  And for those who haven't read the book (yeah, you should really read the book) you might feel a little lost.  In this shorter film there isn't a lot of time given to exposition, so the viewers have to jump right in.  It's an amazing book and there is a reason it is still being read all these years later.  The issues it deals with are complex and film isn't always the best medium for complexity.  That being said, the director (Phillip Noyce) does a good job of finding the right balance.  He incorporates modern news footage into the "memory" sequences which gives context to the messages the Giver is trying to share with Jonas but he also keeps the pace up.  For me, the film works because it honors the ideas and concepts of the book but allows the film to be a different entity and that, I think, is the best you can do when taking a book to film.  As long as you can appreciate the difference between a movie and a book, this is totally worth the time.  (PS, on a very similar note, check out the Wonder film).

Coco

In addition to reading a little and writing a lot, I am using the summer to explore the treasures that are APL DVDs.  Coco, winner of last year's animated film Oscar, was the most recent delight.  And a delight it is.  Visually stunning, fresh and layered, this one is a film which can really be appreciated by the entire family.  Demystifying death by exploring the Dios de la Muerte celebrations of Mexico, the movie touches on deep topics with a sensitive brush.  The hugely engaging and fully dimensional lead character, Miguel, feels so real he could step off the screen and be one of any of the kids who play ball in the street on my block.  With enough twists to keep me engaged (I didn't see most of them coming) and a well-thought out script I fully enjoyed this contemporary, clever tale.

"Snuff" by Terry Pratchett

I got this book through a series of happenstances.  I found out at the last minute that Sir Terry Pratchett was doing his "final book tour" and would be in DC at the end of the week.  Days later I was at the booktalk and had dug up the funds to get a signed copy of the book from, and picture with, the author.  I treasure that photo, when Mr. Pratchett said I must be a librarian, as I had the Orangutan hair!  Unfortunately life intervened and the book sat on a shelf for nearly a decade.  I finally had time to read it this summer but I have struggled with it.  I have read none of the "Men At Arms" series of the Discworld novels and haven't, in fact, read any Discworld novels in nearly 20 years.  Jumping in at the middle as it were, I tried to catch up with the many characters and histories, including a version of Ankh-Morpork which seemed to be more Steam Punk than the mythical world I remember.  That being said, the character of Sam Vines was perfect for me in this place and time.  Sam Vines is a strong but flawed leader who is forced to take a vacation with his much smarter wife and inquisitive son.  I literally picked this book up on the first day of retirement when I was feeling a little lost.  Vimes' struggles matched my own.  Sir Terry's prose also remains excellent.  Take this line:  "Vimes also indulged in a rare cigar because, well, what good is a snooker room without smoke twisting among the lights and turning the air a desolate blue, the color of dead  hopes and lost chances?"  It is that prose, and his biting social commentary (this book features a group of creatures considered to be somehow "lesser" in the society, a perfect lesson for America in 2018) which made Sir Terry Pratchett a brilliant literary addition to the modern canon of fiction.  Bravo and RIP.  You are missed.