The movies I saw in April were a very mixed bag, with the first being pretty dang perfect, the second pretty disappointing, and the third pretty much a complete waste of time.
The pretty dang perfect one was Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and Stack, twin brothers who buy an old saw mill in 1930s Mississippi and spend one very eventful day turning it into a juke joint. Like a more musically inclined From Dusk Till Dawn with a pinch of Footloose and a handful of Mississippi Burning mixed in, this movie both looks and sounds great, especially one sequence that effortlessly blends many decades worth of music and dancing styles together into one masterful and gorgeous minute of cinema.
Also impressive was the job Jordan did portraying subtle differences in the twins' personalities, but even more impressive was how the filmmakers made it appear as if there were actually two of him on screen without relying on any of the cringe-worthy effects usually deployed when one actor plays dual roles.
The pretty disappointing movie was The Accountant 2, though likely mostly because of my own expectations. I loved the first movie so much that seeing the trailer for its sequel made me squeal out loud in the theater, and I can't remember being more excited for a second installment since maybe The Empire Strikes Back.
But while Empire is easily argued to be even better than the original Star Wars movie, I found nothing about The Accountant 2 that was even as good as the first, let alone better, as one trailer promised. But if you liked the relationship between the brothers that Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal play in both movies, their few good scenes together could be enough to recommend this movie. Otherwise, the best thing it has to offer is Bernthal strutting around in his underwear.
As disappointing as The Accountant 2 was to me, however, it was a cinematic masterpiece compared to Havoc, a Netflix original starring Tom Hardy and Timothy Olyphant. The movie sounded so promising that it achieved the near-impossible feat of getting both my husband and me to agree on watching it, but the promise faded so quickly that we almost turned it off. And by the end I felt like I sat through a violent video game that I wouldn't want to play, let alone just watch being played.
And while Hardy and Olyphant can usually make even the most despicable cads charming, the only character I found worth rooting for in the movie was a young female cop with only a few scenes, though she did manage to star in just about the only scene I liked.
Grandma, left, and her lifelong friend Mina in their 20s, circa 1939.
Grandma at the laundromat: “No TV!! Dryer took quarter!”
Welcome to the days of my grandmother, who wrote down each morning when she woke up, recorded everything she ate, noted any phone calls or mail she received, then reviewed any movie she went to see before settling down with the television and a crossword puzzle in bed.
That was cool.
Because her journals are just about my favorite things to read these days, and have become one of the best forms of free mental health medication I can find these days.
The entries below are from May of 2000, when she was 84 and living alone in a trailer park. But don’t feel sorry for her, because she was the most fiercely independent person I have ever known, living in one of the most beautiful places I have ever known: Santa Cruz, California.
See some of her journals and learn more about her long and full life in this video:
But I didn’t know it’s name when we first met, only that it had super cool antennae that looked like huge cat whiskers on its tiny body, and that it was letting me take as much video and photos as I wanted while it perched on a purple flower.
That was cool.
Even cooler was how a fellow hiker stopped to ask what I was crouching over so I could show her the super cool insect, which then made us both happy.
But coolest of all is how I learned the name of my new friend: A family member who just happened to know an entomologist she could ask!
Less than two hours after she forwarded on my photo, “Pete” from the Essig Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Berkeley, identified the creature as a “fairy moth, (family Adelidae) - probablyAdela trigrapha, or a close relative. They are day-flying moths with super long antennae that usually emerge as spring flowers start to peak.”
That was super cool.
So cool, in fact, that knowing someone who knew the perfect person to ask for an ID on that moth made me even happier than seeing the moth did. Because I am still, and hope to always be, someone who prefers learning things from people like Pete, instead of “Professor Google.”
Grandma in Paris: “Tried two stockings today for warmth. Found heater in bedroom. Was off! No wonder cold.”
Welcome to the days of my grandmother, who wrote down each morning when she woke up, recorded everything she ate, noted any phone calls or mail she received, and reviewed any movie she went to see before settling down with the television and a crossword puzzle in bed.
The entries below are from April of 2000, when she was 84 and living alone in a trailer park. But don’t feel sorry for her, because she was the most fiercely independent person I have ever known, living in one of the most beautiful places I have ever known: Santa Cruz, California.
Another reason not to feel sorry for my grandmother is that she was in Paris that month — yes, still traveling overseas by herself well into her 80s! Paris was a city she loved so much she tried to go back every year, and this trip she got to save lots of money by staying in a friend's apartment. As a very frugal woman, this made my grandmother very happy.
On another trip she invited me along, when she was 80 and I was 25, and you can read both of our journal entries during that trip here.
See some of her journals and learn more about her long and full life in this video:
