As sometimes happens, this will be a two-parter, the second half coming around this time tomorrow. I will mention the negative experiences I’ve had then the trio of theatrical pictures I’ve seen since the last time, one of which I didn’t really like.
On the 7th of this month, the plan for the evening was to visit the food trucks that are in downtown Clermont, an activity that’s been done on several occasions previously. Now, parking has always been an issue and it’s only become worse as of late. On the evening of the 7th, what I discovered was that some mental giant made the problem worse—I could write for paragraphs about it but I’ll be brief instead. This included requiring to pay to park in certain areas! What, now I need to get there a long time before the event stars to assure that a spot less than a mile away could be had for free? I said, “to heck with that!” (only, the phrase was stronger than that) and went to a fast food place instead for dinner. As nice as the downtown of my city is, this and other reasons are why I rarely visit it… there isn’t the mood to visit that area again anytime soon.
To air another grievance, recently I returned to a Dave’s Hot Chicken for the first time in months. Don’t visit the location in Altamonte Springs, which I’ve been to before. Perhaps never again! The service was bad and somehow, they found a way to create a bad chocolate milkshake! I didn’t know such a thing was possible; if it has way too much syrup, then it will be no good.
On a lighter note, two of the three films on the big screen I really enjoyed. Conclave is wacky because the format was of a political drama that you’d see in the 70’s, but the subject was “Cardinals feuding with each other over the election of a new Pope.” The plot was full of dialogue but that was no problem with me. The story becomes far-fetched by the end but I was still invested. Thus, it was a movie I highly recommend.
Black Bag is a spy thriller which is not about James Bond antics or action scenes. Rather, it’s another movie centered around dialogue; spy Michael Fassbender thinks that his spy wife Cate Blanchett is involved in something nefarious-that is a problem as they actually have a strong marriage. Naturally, the truth is quite a bit more complicated than that. The movie felt mature & retro, was nicely-acted and had an awesome jazzy score. Henceforth, it’s another film I recommend.
Unfortunately, Mickey 17 was one I didn’t care for; many do, but I didn’t. Bong Joon Ho is hit or miss with me. His Korean movies The Host and especially Parasite are well worth seeing, IMO. However, his Snowpiercer was a shrill, irritating, obvious satire about how bad capitalism is, a constant refrain from the director. Sadly, Mickey 17 was also a shrill, irritating, obvious satire about how bad capitalism is. The fact that the focus turned out to be on (far left) Mark Ruffalo doing an OBVIOUS Trump impersonation was unfortunate. I won’t state my political opinions here; what I can say is that especially now, it’d be nice to forget about politics and all the turmoil while watching a film. Instead, it seems like Hollywood likes making divisive movies in recent years; I do get why “the right” has some complaints about that.
As for Mickey 17, despite the best efforts of Robert Pattison and supporting character Anamaria Vartolomei (who showed up for like 20 minutes and seemed like a pivotal role… only for her to vanish completely until the ending), the movie started off fine then became worse and worse into a truly awful final 20 or 30 minutes before end credits. It committed many modern movie sins, from “constant F-bombs” to “not knowing when to end.” Unfortunate. No one seems to know why some dude was in a PIGEON costume for a few scenes, not even the movie’s supporters!
Fortunately, when I return tomorrow, plenty of positive moments will be discussed, from my birthday to a day trip done with Dad and a family friend to St. Augustine.
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