At The Dinner Table! with Interstellar

I spoke to my mother about this movie. My confidence was at an all time high as I internalized this movie’s message about space travel, time travel, and love. Love would be the portal that takes me home, that gets me where I want to get to, and if I wanted it bad enough, that love would start with me.

I usually say some pretty deep things to my mother and she usually just listens to me in a way of awe that fills me. Although filled with what, I never really gave that thought, so I couldn’t tell you. She just listens to me, whatever I would say, while I put words and thoughts together from experiences, beliefs, and values that pretty much sit on the tip of my tongue until I find someone willing to listen to me for a while. Sometimes that’s all I look for from my mother if not to ask whether or not she needs help with anything or help provide her with space when I’m inclined to offer.
Then I’m on the road again, and where I’m going is anyone’s guess.

The characters in this movie hopped from planet to planet looking for a world that could sustain human life, as time on Earth was soon to expire. The problem with this expedition was that each planet, including the light years they traversed, had a function of passing time completely different from one to the other. It was either find a planet with sustainable life and grow old trying, or grow out of time with a dying planet and come back to find it so. The team was a novel group of experienced technicians, engineers, and pilots with astute awareness and attention to the world around them, united by hope that they carried to space.
If you ask me, I think the mystery surrounding this movie is quite clear. The cinematography, the storytelling, and pace was extraordinary. The revelation our pilot had brought me to tears, because in a way he was right (no, I won’t tell you what the revelation was).

I remember reading a review that was upset with the near end of the movie, and I had a speculation that they were upset only because with all the math, science, deductive reasoning and theory this movie brought to the table, it seemed asinine to bring “love” into the discussion. I figured that to them “it wasn’t a number” so why take all the intelligence and smarts this movie presented and shove it aside for an emotion. To that I would say, they weren’t paying attention to the daughter’s father who faithfully recited the line, “do not go gentle into that good night”. It was poetic, but the same engineering that sent our team into space was also part of a race of humans in this movie who produced the arts.

Cheers!

At The Dinner Table! with It Happened One Night

The first time I saw this movie I didn’t get to finish it, but it was too late. I was hooked. Strung up in the corner of a bar on a small TV while I’m waiting for an Open Mic to begin, is this movie playing silently with captions. I noted the laughter I could not contain and thought to myself, “how come I am enjoying a movie like this? There must be some kind of message in this movie about myself that I’m picking up.”

Well, this movie gave me more than an answer to that.

When I got around to watching the entire movie on my own, I realized that it had similar themes to other shows, especially the kind that Disney movies offer (the one that comes to mind here is Anastasia). I had a certain bias about film and upon encountering this movie that bias was distorted a bit. It kept me ignorant about what makes a good film. I learned that not every movie needs to be aware of my immediate circumstance to make a point about where it wants to take me, or the journey it has taken to meet me, and likewise not everything I watch needs to be a direct reflection of my state. My knowledge about production could not absorb the elements of this movie because I did not have time to think about camera angles, stunt doubles, and the cast while watching a movie in black and white. This movie forced me to pay attention to the plot, which had the added benefit of engaging my emotions much more than usual.

In what appears to be a casual and enthusiastic journey to nowhere, our main characters Peter Warne (a reporter) and Ellie Andrews end up on a bus ride together that turns out to be even wilder when he realizes the fiery woman he’s traveling with is the daughter of a wealthy businessman and a soon-to-be newly wed wife to King Westley. Peter discovers that she decided to marry him to spite her father, and has many opportunities to return her to her father for money, money he desperately needed. But his decision not to do this as he helps her avoid being discovered allowed him to see her for who she was, and her him. She would not have gotten to experience the side of life and romance that was unravelling before her eyes if she had stayed with her father on the boat from which her journey started.

I personally enjoyed the exchanges that Peter and Ellie had. They were strong, sexy, full of energy, and the way certain interactions went without my modern day social bells triggering an alarm was astonishing and felt really safe. It gave the romantic in me much hope, and filled me with endearing feelings I even now truly cherish.

Cheers!

At The Dinner Table! with Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

I remember finishing this movie with a feeling of surprise that it was so good. It was levels above the Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller (not you Steve Carell I love you) feel good comedy I was raised up on, and it certainly raised my awareness on the ceiling of expectations I had about comedic actors I’m familiar with. This movie had me experiencing levels of humor previously undiscovered in my gut.

This movie came by my table, and raised intrigue I usually don’t have for movies even if I want to watch them, but the reason for my intrigue is coming back to me as I type this now. Years ago, I saw Will Ferrell in a burgundy outfit at the Flatiron building with a few retro cars and taxis lined up with what looked like him coming off set. Having no idea what movie they were shooting I kept moving, thinking nothing of it.

I had my taste of Ron Burgundy before it even hit the box office.

The fight scenes were gritty, fantastic, and really enjoyable, even the internal fight Ron had with himself after feeling like he lost his mojo like Austin Powers was enjoyable. With such a unique character to explore in such a fresh developing world, it was fun to see his potential reveal itself in this one. The way they portrayed sex scenes, excellence, camaraderie, and the overall reality of Anchorman was truly original.

The only question I would ask myself about this movie is whether or not Anchorman 2 should go on the list of things to watch, since the first one was so good. I already missed the boat on seeing Will Ferrell in a burgundy suit for a second time in case I’m looking for motivation to hit that play button. Probably not, but either way, I’m glad I not only watched this movie but watched it and came away happy.

Cheers!

At The Dinner Table! with The Wolf of Wall Street

I will tell you now, I watched this video for “educational purposes”. Spiritual educational purposes that is. I thought Jordan Belfort had something to tell me through this dramatic depiction of his life, you know, the same life that inspired somebody to imagine it was worth making a movie about. It was such a fun movie though, and what made it not only fun but digestible was the storyteller perspective this movie would sometimes take, where the viewer is made to feel like they are being spoken to directly. I also have a preference for film experiences where me and all involved characters seem to know more than those in the movie itself.

Beyond the rated R section in which this content rests its laurels, for soft stomachs or the sexually and emotionally chaste, this might open you up in some unintended ways. As far as the educational aspect goes, it holds up in about the same way a caesar chicken salad bowl paired with a diet soda does. Still I went in with hope, finding myself entertained but not fulfilled, although I really shouldn’t be surprised since I knew nothing about the stock market at the time, and neither did the movie aim to teach me anything about it. That was when I allowed myself to enjoy this film for what it was.

I believe in the end of the movie more than any other part in this movie. Jordan is left to his millions, mansion, mobility, and strikes off to educate others on how to do this same. When I take note of that, I see how it was all about mobility from the very beginning. Mental mobility, emotional mobility, functional mobility and intellectual mobility were all essential to the prosperity and achievement that was on screen. Once those were systematic, so was the business, so were the finances, and the parties, and the drugs.

Another reason for having watched this movie was because Leonardo DiCaprio was in it. I chose to watch this movie rather than The Great Gatsby (which having read and loved the book, is of course on my list to see). Not to say that advertisements and the online collective that thought he deserved an Oscar award didn’t sway my decision making, but I didn’t even struggle with making this choice. That’s how deep in everyone’s pockets this actor is. So thank you for making it easy for me to decide, Leonardo. This movie may have been about Jordan but we made this movie about you, and in that I find very little regret. Supply and demand my friends.

Cheers!

At The Dinner Table! with Hercules

1997.
If I got your ears tingling with this review, I hope it takes you back to your childhood and make you want to watch this one again. For my generation, where music and animation really start climbing up in scale, this movie makes a strong entry point for the dreamers of Planet Earth.

I was familiar with the movie, the animated series, and live action show with Kevin Sorbo that came along with this title, and I couldn’t tell the difference between who was stronger, Xena the warrior princess or Hercules, the gifted hero sent from the heavens. Even more spectacular was how I learned what it was like to be so exquisitely talented that you MUST go on some sort of adventure to prove your worth. As if because of your innate gift you could just step out into the world and come into these fortunate circumstances that allow you to do whatever you liked and live a perfectly normal life among humanity.

I’m serious. These shows had an influence over me that education in schools just could not match. You could not tell me that it wasn’t possible to be great. You could not tell me that magical strength wasn’t real, and you especially couldn’t tell me that I was not allowed to have a super hot and pretty girlfriend like Meg to fight life’s battles with. Those “life’s battles” were not limited to putting out forest fires or shouting down a crowd of 500 trying to silence your truth. I thought I’d have a partner for life.
I wasn’t wrong, but this is the kind of inspiration Hercules put into my spirit.

The animated series gave me a glimpse into a demigod’s humanity, even if his inevitable homecoming (or several) to Mount Olympus meant our separation, and the end of our adventures together. Not to mention, the themes were so closely tied in with the belief system I was raised up in that the bridges in my head had neatly crossed, yet never tangled. When I went to sleep at night I never dreamed of lifting cars to rescue strangers, or stopping robberies, so my inspirations only went so far. I left that to the live action show, where even though I might not have had long flowing hair, I could still be someone whose presence could be counted on. Throughout every episode, just as I could count on being spared 30 minutes to see through the eyes of our hero, I expected being counted among those who others could look up to in time of need. Besides, with my presence being as amazing as Hercules, I could just watch problems fade off of people’s faces as I do what any hero l believed in would do.

The animations of my generation really instilled the kind of values in me that I’m sure Generation X had been striving for years to build, but even as that’s what they were going for, that’s not how things look… and that’s a good thing.

Cheers!

At The Dinner Table! with Incredibles 2

Two words: Modern Classic.
This movie was literally designed to be a classic in its viewer experience and feel. The musician in me is bursting at the seams at how rich this movie with its musical score. It has this fantastic rhythm that catches and snatches attention to nearly every turning point and climatic moment in this film. The producers of this movie clearly took notes from the animations of beloved franchises like Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry, and then took a stroll along the Hollywood strip and through theaters worldwide in its own brilliant glory.

The first Incredibles was a smash hit in my eyes, I’m not even going to get into whether or not it was critically acclaimed by Rotten Tomatoes. Incredibles 2 did what movies with sequels usually squander; a second chance to prove to viewers what went right the first time around. The family friendliness both within and without this film fill up the space as it relates to ethics and morality, and then the addition of superheroes and superpowers turn this formula inside out. Sure, there are lessons to be learned in this movie, but we learn them through how we see a superhero family, be a family.
However, here is something I’ve consistently noticed on my travels that I need to mention concerning that line of thought:

The majority of this film much like the last shows us how the Incredibles cooperate with each other, and a lot of their cooperation does not require them to interact with the world through a direct challenge to their power, but rather through a connected sequence of thinking as a unit that their powers can adapt to. I’ve noticed this in other films where the problem is not so much the threat our protagonist faces (since they can just blow things up), but rather a discovery of an unconnected line of necessary, functional thinking that would allow for a specific flow of power that is fantastic and human in substance and control. This family CAN quite literally do it all, but they are in a society that does not need their powers if they cannot integrate them. Mr. Incredible’s powers would have been much more of a threat if it had cost a competing insurance company money on the market. Without that kind of sly navigation of his abilities in the eyes and interests of investors, Mr. Incredible is pretty much incredulous. Otherwise, if and when the threat becomes so large it cannot be thoughtfully contained, our heroes let loose like Superman did when he realized Darkseid can actually take his punches.

However, this movie challenges what I just posited in the first 15 minutes of this film when Mr. Incredible even couldn’t stop the Underminer’s treadwheel with just his superhuman strength. Although, what I’m talking about is a balance between how a hero reacts or responds to what they will and won’t do, over what a hero can and can’t do.

Many parts of this movie make me ooze with joy because of how fun and entertaining it is. I know the artists and editors had a blast on this project outside of how it made the box office feel. Sometimes you can just tell how engaged workers on a project felt because of how the movie itself feels, and when it’s easy on the eyes it’s a bonus. Take it from me, a producer himself.

Cheers!

At The Dinner Table! with Split

Along the lines of things being a long time coming, this movie is among my list of all-time favorite movies (all-time favorite meaning it’s worth watching on repeat and owning a physical copy of).

James McAvoy is enjoyable to watch on screen. He’s as familiar to me as Shia LeBeouf is as an actor. I remember reading James being praised for properly portraying the multiple personalities very well and not just being someone who is diagnosed with a personality disorder. This is where “Split” touches base with my heart. This world did not prepare me for the way they depicted Kevin James, who even though he was seeing a therapist still had struggles breaking through the obstacles of his past. There was space in this movie to offer Kevin compassion as well as the girls one of his personalities abducted while we uncovered the mystery of the hidden personality that loomed about this film.

I’ve long been fascinated with the concept of having multiple personalities and operating on a functional level with the rest of humanity. While this movie helped me explore what kind of life such a person would lead, it was clear that Kevin had an issue much more complex and elaborate. Such so that even the viewers were left to guess what exactly that looming personality (character?) The Beast really is. The psychological mystery behind how personalities work and how this movie tackled the issue without demonizing Kevin gave me hope beyond the movie.

In a way, I was hoping it gave me the strength to answer my own question: do I praise my complexities and exist without self-doubt or do I turn these dynamic colors of my living experience into something simple and repetitive for others to parse out and ride that wave, knowing where it leads?
It was the knowing where my life leads that was problematic for me, not because I understood myself well enough to know my life’s trajectory, but because it sounded like everyone else in my life knew it.

The Beast is not a hero to anyone in the film save Kevin James who protects him and all 23 of his personalities, since the trauma from Kevin’s childhood keeps him from rescuing himself, but the concepts explored here run deep. So deep, that as I’m writing this I’m finding out that “Glass” and “Unbreakable” are sequels and prequels to this one.

… I promised myself not to watch anymore movies until I post reviews of all the list of movies I have in my already watched, so until then I’ll be saving movie night for a distant rainy day.

Cheers!

At The Dinner Table! with Lucy

This one’s been a long time coming… Primarily because it feels like a send-off.

This review is being done off of a three time viewing by the way.

Easily one of my all-time favorites both because of its concept and Scarlett Johannson’s face. I just love the stoicism in her face. It would be unfair to criticize her lack of expression since if we look beyond that it rhymes with the rapidly building intelligence that came alongside her trauma. It’s the same thing I felt with Jessica Alba in Fantastic Four. She sat pretty and was badass because her capabilities made it so, although I liked her more as an actor than the Invisible Woman. In actuality, I have always liked the “power through trauma” concept since in a lot of ways I can resonate. That is where the movie “Split” (another all-time favorite) took the concept, but in a way that can go pretty wrong too. But we’re not here to discuss what can go wrong because so much about this movie was made so right.

As one who obsesses about origins it was easy to identify with what when went on in this movie. Immediately after our girl Lucy was made to be a victim, she reversed every role in the book. By unlocking her abilities and learning what she could about what ultimately was her own inner universe, she changed the world. She refused to stay behind to see what was left of it or rather, what it could become. In fact, she made the choice to become what she did with the time she had. It felt like we were chasing an afterimage of someone who was soul-bound, something the characters in the film could not anticipate.

This movie feels less like an adventure about where Lucy could have gone and more about where we as a collective group of people could be. The visual effects feel incredibly believable and totally integrated into Lucy’s character and newfound powers. The way she tunes into audio events and memories, tapping into movements with her mind and body in tandem, all of it really gives me the sensation that with enough concentration, I could do it too. If there was anyone that made me believe that I could be a hero, it was Lucy.

The groundedness I received from knowing Lucy was human resolved a lot of the suspension of disbelief I might have received from knowing that our protagonist was a complete alien and then on top of that, gifted, like Superman. Lucy however, did in fact become alien; Alien to our primitive ways of being and belonging, alien to social convention and constructs. Besides, Earth is usually the place where aliens learn what their planet was missing and that is consistent with all main sci-fi themes from sources like Star Trek, Justice League, and Mass Effect to name a few (Mass Effect because they are explicit about discrimination against humans which is a refreshing take). Other sci-fi sources show why Earth is better in a competitive sense via weaponry, science, or in how their society operates.

Lucy takes this idea from the ground up, lifts it into the air, and dispenses it throughout the atmosphere.

Heroines have always held a special place in my heart in the world of fantasy and the supernatural, because there the playing field levels out and differences are flattened. What occurs at the same time is that the masculine and feminine role becomes magnified as the essence of power takes more and more physical form, rather than biology and chance. That is what any Doctor Strange film portrays effortlessly, which is probably why that series flows so well for me.

But now, here’s the really important question…
Is there any CPH4 on retail… or wholesale?

Cheers!

At The Dinner Table! with Why I Left The Clubhouse App (And You Should Too)

Clubhouse, the app where throat chakras go to get noosed.

This easily qualifies in the Audibyte category At The Dinner Table!. I haven’t been on this app in approximately 7 months, and that isn’t counting the times I scroll through the titles of each room hoping that it would draw enough of an appeal up for me to enter.
It doesn’t though. It just doesn’t.

I often remind myself that my frustration with this app is not connected to the suggestion that “it just ain’t for the weak”. It is hard to get good information or get into good conversations once the speaker count reaches over 10+ people, and without good, consistent moderation the conversational rails detract from the main goal of the room. It is easy however, to get into something casual if you want to drift from room to room and listen to a little bit of this, or a little bit of that. Much like a tv channel, you surf down the aisles looking for something good. Over time though, the drama is what reels in the empathetic and those who desire to clarify and understand what is happening in a room. Unfortunately, this is a cycle. Once it is understood that this is a cycle, it looks more like a trap.

And then you have small rooms that appear to function very well, where nobody but who the moderators know are on stage. Then you realize why they are small. You are visiting a home where you can hear everything that is going on inside, but every single door is locked, and the path to the front door is more like approaching an armed security system with minefields hidden underground.

I came into this app during its premiere, where it was impossible to get onto the app without a direct invite from someone who was directly invited onto the app. I know what the app intended to attract from its user base because I was one of them, and for a while, this was panning out pretty well. You would find me in introvert rooms, music rooms, poetry rooms. Friendships and romances were budding and friendliness towards newcomers were abundant. Easily two months in though, this stopped being the case, especially once the app was publicly available to those with a phone capable of downloading it from an app store.

The more new users, the more my usage dropped. As my usage of the app dropped, the more flagrant and foul the overall app atmosphere became. The temptation to restore what was left from the beginning stages was strong but the accessibility made it too attractive for open mouths to be fed. And fed the users were.

Now, it seems to be how practicing bullies get their home-schooling. A digital penitentiary if you will.

I made mention of the throat chakra and the noose to start this digest, and it is no joke. It is far too easy to feel at home on this app, as if you were speaking to a best friend or friends. not only because you can, but because you get to discuss whatever you want from the comfort of your home, with very little danger or harm brought to your person. Yet it is exactly these characteristics that attract those with shorter-than-average attention spans. The average quality of any one room out of 15 can enlighten an individual on how well a room can stay on topic without needing crowd control over small misunderstandings and personal slights. Hosting a quality room with intelligent discourse is a wet dream, but without intentional moderators and attending hosts, it is a dry, pipe dream.

I cannot imagine the throat chakra or a well functioning esophagus agreeing with dry pipes.

So I say, spare yourself the dream. The digital world was meant to facilitate real world discussion, not the other way around. Clubhouse is better left as a conversational conductor for those who have yet to develop real world interpersonal skills.

Cheers!

At The Dinner Table! with Free Guy

I haven’t heard anyone say this before, let alone write it, so I guess I’m going to be the first:

Ryan Reynolds is a genius. I have a funny way of connecting the dots on things like these. And he’s a great actor.

This movie came out in 2021 but I’m not too late, especially when part of the core message of this movie is that “you can do whatever you want”. I know this because a bot told me so, whose name is Guy.

Seriously though, this movie gave me “Don’t Worry, Darling” vibes but with its essence completely uprooted from the ground and given a floating pavilion to rest upon. I loved “Don’t Worry, Darling” for the same reason I liked this movie. Although, where (DW,D) excited me, “Free Guy” gave me emotions to feel. “Free Guy” actually expanded the concept of virtual reality to a landscape that was much less underground and very much integrated into everyday life. Seeing YouTube Stars like Ninja, Pokimane, and Jacksepticeye were surprising spectacles and I appreciated how real it made my world feel as a streamer and gamer. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why I enjoyed this movie so much. It really appealed to my sensibilities as a gamer, and not just as a movie I ought to watch.

Sometimes the realism most movies attempt to project exhaust my ability to relate to the characters on the screen. I admit, I sympathize; it may be difficult to create emotions whereby a viewer can invest interest in a movie, but it is even more tiring for a viewer to go through a movie, knowing that it is based in fantasy, and depend entirely on human emotion to draw the bridge of feeling between us, the world, and our protagonist(s).

That is what this movie was able to tackle through the world of video games, in which gamers like me could easily relate.

The element of love that was weaved through one man’s intelligent ability to code made its way to the girl of his dreams, and it was an eloquent display of just how powerful love is. The relationship between Guy and Buddy was also a generous and magnificent display of how powerful the right kind of friendship is. I literally burst into tears when Buddy’s rebuttal to Guy was that he was not sorry, that “it’s been the best day of my life”.
It blew the tear ducts out of my eyes.

On top of this movie being a video game, I think the concept of virtual reality had an impact on me in this way:
When building concepts in a world one knows is limitless in scope, it can be hard to isolate what experiences to select, but the concepts solidify easily when it is time to characterize them. It is something I believe people use to covet when access to technology was not as advanced, multifaceted, and available as it is today. I can imagine the producers of this movie facing this creators’ dilemma, trying to pin down the “facts” of the film but then realizing just how well curved the edges of this movie could become.

So “Free Guy” is the kind of movie you get when life on Earth with technology makes total sense.

Cheers!