Showing posts with label Save me the plums. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Save me the plums. Show all posts

Friday, August 30, 2019

"Where'd You Go, Bernadette" and The Week in Reviews

[I review "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" as well as two documentaries streaming on Netflix - "The Legend of Cocaine Island" and "Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist."  The Book of the Week is "Save Me The Plums" by Ruth Reichl.  I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "Cairo Station."]



Where'd You Go, Bernadette


It's what can happen if you don't follow your creative passions.

Maria Semple's book "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" was required reading for Seattlites because it takes place in Seattle, name-drops Seattle places of interest and is full of snarky but funny comments about Seattle.  Naturally, since I just spent 14 years there, I have read the book (and I reviewed it a couple of years ago) and was prepared to not like the film, because Seattle purists were already complaining about this film adapation so I had my reservations and I had a difficult time thinking how the film would work since the book is a series of letters and emails.  I also couldn't see Cate Blanchett as Bernadette either.  Bernadette was kind of a nut and I don't see Blanchett playing dippy types.  Maybe it's all of those queens she has played.  

But I try not to compare books and films because I see each as a separate art work, and you know what?  Those Seattle purists and I were wrong.  I really liked the film.  Whether you think writer/director Richard Linklater was faithful to the book or not, the film stands on its own as a fine film experience.

Bernadette Fox lives in a crumbling mansion in Seattle with her husband, Elgin (Billy Crudup), a tech guy who works at Microsoft (of course) and her daughter, Bee (Emma Nelson).  Bernadette is a transplant from California and hasn't made the transition well.  She suffers from anxiety but also doesn't suffer fools so she is in a war of sorts with the other mothers at her daughter's school and with her neighbor, Audrey (Kristen Wiig), over the blackberry bushes that are growing down the hill and impinging on Audrey's property.  As Seattlites know, blackberries take over everything and are a constant nuisance. That's also how Bernadette feels about her neighbor, Audrey.  Bernadette rarely leaves her house, so she has a virtual personal assistant in India named Manjula and delegates most of her tasks to him. More on him later.

Bee reminds her parents that she had been promised anything she wanted if she got a perfect report card, and since she did, announces that she wants to go to Antarctica.  Bernadette's first response is no because Bernadette doesn't even want to leave the house but after some thought she acquieses.  But before the family trip can take place Bernadette's husband is visited by the FBI.  Turns out Manjula is a Russian scammer and Bernadette has been giving him all of their personal financial information.  Likewise, Bernadette has indulged in some very nutty behavior and her life seems to be falling apart, so Elgin sets up an intervention of sorts to get Bernadette some help.  Bernadette may be nutty, but she's not dumb so when she excuses herself to use the bathroom, out the window she goes and disappears.

It is now Bee's mission to find her mother.  And that's when Bee discovers her mother was once a famous architect, and we learn how Bernadette ended up in Seattle as a middle-aged, anonymous misanthrope, with no real purpose in life, having lost her creative spark.

So where did Bernadette go?  And what will happen to her?

Director Linklater, who is a favorite of mine, also wrote the screenplay with Holly Gent and Vince Palmo, and it's a fairly faithful adaptation from Semple's book as far as the story itself is concerned, except Semple's device of using letters and emails to illustrate Bee's and Elgin's search for Bernadette is absent. Also some of the humor of the book, especially about Seattle, was lost because the book had a kind of wacky feel to it with Bernadette complaining about Seattle A LOT in the book, but as a stand alone film I still think this works just fine. I mean people who don't live in Seattle would hardly get half of the humor in the snarky Seattle bits.

Billy Crudup is an interesting actor.  I first noticed him in the 90's and especially loved "Waking the Dead (2000)."  He was a handsome young leading man and a good actor, and I thought he would be right up there with a Tom Cruise or other superstar of the day, but he never reached that status which I don't really understand but glad to see him here. In fact, I see him everywhere now. And he is a nice looking mature actor as well.  I am still on the fence about whether or not I buy Kristen Wiig as a serious actress.  She still has some of those SNL mannerisms, so even though she is playing a serious part, I often don't know whether to laugh or not. Young Emma as Bee is charming, but it was Blanchett's performance that was a revelation to me which made me wonder why I didn't think she could do anything.  Now I know she can.  I believed her as Bernadette. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...an enjoyable and inspiring film that reminds us it's never too late to find ourselves.




***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***
(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!



Streaming on Netflix




The Legend of Cocaine Island (2018)


An urban legend leads some knuckleheads on the hunt for buried treasure.

In this case, the "treasure" is $2,000,000 worth of cocaine.

Florida businessman, Rodney Hyden, heard the story of Julian Archer who supposedly pulled a bag out of the water off the Puerto Rican island of Culebra, which turned out to be 70 pounds of coke.  Julian didn't know what to do with it, so he buried it - makes sense, right? - and that's where it has been for 15 years.  When builder Rodney Hyden heard this story he thought finding that bag of coke was the answer to his problems.  It was the recession and his building business wasn't going anywhere.  He had had to downsize from his mansion to a double-wide trailer and didn't like this alteration of his lifestyle at all.  So when he finds out about that bag of cocaine, he thinks that's the answer to his problems.

"If you knew where $2,000,000 was buried in the ground, wouldn't you dig that shit up?"

Eh, sure.

So Rodney comes up with a plan and gets involved with a drug dealer to sell the cocaine, a drug traffiker with a plane to help him transport the drugs and a kid who's not all there to go with him to dig it up, but turns out he is also talking to some undercover cops.  Uh-oh. 

Is there really a bag of cocaine waiting for a ding bat to come and dig it up?  Will the ding bat, I mean, Hyden, find it?

Directed and produced by Theo Love, this film was a hit at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and continues Netflix's dominance with original and entertaining documentaries. It has its issues as a film, but it's still a fun experience.  And Hyden is a hoot.  He even plays himself in the reenactments!

Ever since the story of the Loud Family on PBS years ago, I have been a documentary junkie. I wrote a blog post about some of my favorites ("15 Must See Documentaries"), and this one is right up there!

Rosy the Reviewer says... there are so many crazy twists and turns and zany characters in this film that it feels like a comedy of errors rather than a documentary but it's a fun film experience.




Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist (2018)


The story behind the infamous "pizza bomber."

I'm sure you remember this story.  In 2003, Brian Wells, a pizza delivery man by trade, walked into a bank in Erie, Pennsylvania wearing a bomb collar and robbed the bank.  When he was apprehended, the police discovered he had a bomb around his neck.  He told the police he was forced to do the robbery and he only a certain amount of time to find the insturctions on getting the bomb off of his neck.  Unfortunately, while the police held Wells at bay trying to decide what to do, the bomb went off - and brace yourself. Footage of that is in the film and it's grisly, not to mention the description of what was done to Wells' body to preserve the collar bomb after he died.

As the story unfolds in this four part mini-series, we meet Bill Rothstein and Marjorie Diel-Armstrong, two highly intelligent people but also two wack jobs.  Rothstein had contacted the police because he had a frozen body in his freezer.  Yes, you heard me.  He then tells the police that the man in the freezer was killed by Marjorie Diel-Armstrong, a woman Rothstein had been involved with for years, and from there a complicated story featuring Marjorie's life and a cast of shady characters emerges. 

Through the use of archival footage and interviews with this strange bunch of characters, we learn that many were hoarders, many were mentally ill and almost all of them were evil. How did they all figure in that bank robbery? Did Wells willingly participate?   How did it all add up to a bank robbery and a bomb victim?

Directed by Barbara Schroeder and Trey Borzillieri, the film focuses mostly on Marjorie Diel-Armstrong who started out in life as a smart, attractive woman but ended up mentally ill but with a fascinating ability to get people to bend to her will.  Even director Borzillieri, who narrates the film and who actually formed a sort of connection with her, felt that pull. 

This is a fascinating tale that is not entirely satisfying because it was never clear whether or not Brian Wells was in on this grisly plan to rob a bank, but the filmmakers make a stab at it though we will never know for sure.  Rothstein died in 2004 and Diel-Armstrong died in 2017.

Rosy the Reviewer says...a perfect example of life being stranger than fiction. If you like "Dateline" and true crime, you will like this,



***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***


64 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?



Cairo Station (1958)


An Egyptian newspaper seller develops an unhealthy obsession with a woman who sells lemonade on the trains.

A newsstand owner in the Cairo train station finds a young man in the street.  The young man, Qinawi (Youssef Chahine), is lame, and mocked by workers in the station.  The newsstand owner takes pity on him and gives him a job selling newspapers.  Qinawi is slightly retarded and is also obsessed with Hannuma (Hind Rustum), a beautiful woman who sells drinks to passengers on the trains.  When she rejects him, Qinawi's obsession turns deadly.

Directed by Chahine, who also plays the part of Qinawi, the film is a combination of Italian Neorealism and good old-fashioned Hollywood film noir with all of its accompanying tropes - moody black and white photography, a provocative woman, dramatic music, sex, knives, even a strait jacket . I found this film not only fascinating but quite shocking in its themes for a 1958 film set in a Muslim country.  It explores what can happen in a sexually repressed society where marriage is the only option for sex and when women are not only objects of desire, but blamed for the ills of the world or in this case the reason our poor Qinawi can't get laid, which also resonates today with the spate of shootings by angry young white guys who can't get laid.  

The film also features the beautiful Hind Rustum in all of her sexual glory (she was called the "Marilyn Monroe of Arabia") and a reminder that not all Middle Eastern countries have a repressive dress code for women.  Yes, Egypt is a Muslim country but there is no requirement for women to cover themselves from head to toe or even cover their heads.  However, that doesn't mean a woman shouldn't dress modestly.  She should or run the risk of unwanted attention from men, something that never seems to change no matter where you live.

Why it's a Must See: "With the arrival of [this film], it was as if cinema had been reborn...[it] is vivid and moving, precise in its portrayals, original both as a creation of a single individual and as the embodiment of a secular culture, one that is so close and yet so different to that of the West."

---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Originally rejected by Egyptian audiences when it was released in 1958, the film was "lost" for many years but when found was hailed as a masterpiece and still holds up today, almost 60 years later.

Rosy the Reviewer says...finally...a film that I actually needed to see before I died.  It's a great film.
(b & w, in Arabic with English Subtitles - available on Fandor through Amazon Prime)




***The Book of the Week***



Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl (2019)


Yet another fascinating book from food writer and restaurant critic, Ruth Reichl.  This time she shares her adventures as the Editor in Chief at Gourmet Magazine.

I have read all of Ruth Reichl's books because I love food and restaurants.  But I also love really good writers, and as I read this book, I was reminded of what a wonderful writer Reichl is.  Whether she is talking about food or chefs or sharing recipes or just sharing anecdotes about her life, she does it in a warm and approachable way that is a joy to read.  Her descriptions are wonderful.

In 1999, when Conde Nast offered Reichl their top position at Gourmet (magazine), Reichl was the restaurant critic for The New York Times and did not see herself as any kind of manager.  I mean, she had been a former Berkeley hippie and was happy doing what she was doing.  But she also had a soft spot for Gourmet and was sad that it had become a fuddy duddy magazine aimed more at snobby rich folks than inspiring ordinary people to cook.  So against her better judgment she took the plunge and learned some things about herself.

"When I'd contemplated the job I'd worried about the burden of being a boss, afraid the staff would fear and resent me.  But now I saw that there was another side to that coin: Nothing feels as good as building a team and empowering people, watching them grow and thrive."

This is her story about her time at Gourmet and the challenges she faced right up until the magazine folded in 2009. Sadly, magazines are going the way of the dinosaurs. 

And it wouldn't be a Ruth Reichl book without wonderful anecdotes about food and cooking and, of course, recipes (Along with Frances Mayes, Reichl was the first to include recipes in her memoirs)! I look forward to making her "Spicy Chinese Noodles" and "Thanksgiving Turkey Chili."

Rosy the Reviewer says..one of my favorite writers. Keep 'em coming, Ruth!



Thanks for reading!



See you next Friday

for 


"David Crosby: Remember My Name"

and


The Week in Reviews

(What To See and What To Avoid)


as well as


the latest on



"My 1001 Movies I Must See



Before I Die Project" 







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Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned.

Next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). 


Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll down below the synopsis and the listings for the director, writer and main stars to where it says "Reviews" and click on "Critics" - If I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list.