How I Am Coping With "The New Normal"

In my last post, I talked about how "The New Normal" had affected my life, but I didn't really talk about how it made me feel.

I think that the pandemic has affected us older folks in a particularly troubling way.  I don't mean to downplay how awful it has been for people who have lost their jobs or families with young children who can't go to school, but there is light at the end of that tunnel.  At some point, people will resume their lives - they will get jobs, the kids will go back to school, parties will resume, etc. - but us people of a certain age don't have that much time left.  That light at the end of the tunnel is our mortality beckoning and we feel robbed. The Golden Years aren't so golden.

Those of us lucky enough to retire and feel good about it had plans.  I didn't work for over 40 years as a librarian to not be able to go to the library! I didn't work all of those years and save money for retirement only to stay home and watch television.  Don't get me wrong, I have and have had a personal relationship with television, 

but I don't need to watch it 24/7. I also have other interests.  

• I love movies and went to the movies every week and wrote reviews on this blog. I even belonged to a Fantasy Movie League. 

• Believe it or not, I actually liked going to the gym.

• I also liked to go out to eat and sit in a nice bar with a tasty adult beverage while listening to live music.  I have even been known to dance upon occasion.

 

• I liked to have friends over. 

• I moved closer to my son and grandchildren so I could spend more time with them.

• I planned to travel more. In fact, right before the pandemic hit, I had first class airline tickets to go meet my daughter in New Orleans for another mother/daughter trip (we have had some good ones)! 

We planned to go to Europe, which in the past had been fairly often. Now who knows?

Though I am hopeful that things will get back to normal, some kind of normal anyway, I can't help but think that I only have so much time to enjoy those things and people I love and that time is ticking away. 

And I know I am not alone having these feelings.  I volunteer as a peer counselor for seniors and so far everyone I have encountered who is in my age group feels the same - robbed of what little time that might be left.

So what to do?

I don't pretend to have the answers.  I have good days and bad days just like everyone else.  On the good days, I can be positive.  On the bad days, I can't imagine the point of even getting out of bed.  But I have figured out a few things that make me happy so I thought I would share them with you in case some of it might resonate and help you too.

• I write down how I feel.

This blog started when I retired.  I wanted to have a purpose but I also had many strong feelings about retirement and getting older.  So I wrote about retirement but then moved on to "reviewing" all kinds of things - from concerts to restaurants to life itself (here are some - "The Best of Rosy the Reviewer's Tuesday Blog Posts").  It eventually morphed into mostly movie reviews, but I always managed to add something about my personal life even to those.  This blog gave me an avenue to express myself.  I can't go to the movies anymore so am not regularly reviewing movies, but now I am back to talking about myself and how I see the world, which is where it all began.  And it helps me.  It makes me happy that perhaps it can help someone else.  You don't have to start a blog but it really does help to write down how you are feeling.  You could keep a journal or write letters or just start writing when something moves you.

• I cook.

And cook and cook and cook. The Covid "19" is real but I don't care. When I am at loose ends, I love to create something delicious to eat.  I also bought a bread machine which has given me hours of fun!

• I cuddle my dogs...or better yet, dress them up in costumes! (They LIKE it)!

Dogs can be such a comfort. I have heard that's it's almost impossible to get a rescue dog these days. I guess now that so many of us are in some form of lockdown, working from home or just not wanting to mingle with strangers, there is plenty of time to train a puppy or not feel guilty about leaving the dog home alone.  I have had dogs most of my life

and can't imagine not having a little creature to take care of (I know, I can take care of Hubby but he's not exactly a little creature)!  It feels good to be needed. 

• And speaking of being needed, I volunteer.

As I mentioned, I volunteer as a counselor for other people my age, people who are having a difficult time, are anxious, grieving or in some sort of transition. I offer support on whatever road they are traveling and at whatever speed. I spend an hour a week with them, these days mostly over the phone, and I hope that it helps them.  I know it helps me to feel I am helping someone else.

• I go for a walk and listen to music.

I am fortunate to live in a beautiful environment and being mindful of that is comforting.

• I meditate.

Spending still time with myself calms me.  When things get scary, I can say to myself, "Here you are, sitting quietly in a chair, and right now you are alive and well."

• I arrange my cookbooks by color.

 (oh, right, we've already been there - see the last blog post).

So those are a few things I do when "The New Normal" gets depressing.

But I have also discovered that it's not all about the externals, the keeping busy thing, the negatives around the pandemic.  Yes, it's a pain to wear a mask, to not be able to go to a concert or sit inside a restaurant, or think that in my lifetime I will never wear all of the clothes and shoes I have accumulated (especially that sequined jacket!). 

And yes, I get bored, but I can still be happy, because I have discovered some mental exercises I can do to change my feelings. Because in the end, it's really just you and your relationship with yourself.

What you think can change how you feel. 

I discovered some of that over the years through meditation, but thanks to my peer counseling group, I have also discovered that there are certain characteristics of happy people that we can cultivate and they have nothing to do with physical attractiveness, money or even finding Mr. or Mrs. Right. They are all inside ourselves.  They are spelled out in an excellent book called "Real Happiness: Proven Paths for Contentment, Peace & Well-Being" by Jonah Paquette and being reminded of what real happiness is has helped me through this time. 

Really happy people cultivate gratitude, practice kindness and compassion toward others and themselves, live in the present moment, are optimistic, strengthen their relationships and practice forgiveness.  The book has several exercises to help you do just that so you can join the ranks of truly happy people.

Now I am certainly not there yet. But there are a few little things I do when I am feeling down and kind of hopeless.

• I buy stuff off the Internet (just kidding - well, sort of, but not recommended)

• I savor a moment or a happy memory.

• I entertain The "What's the worst thing that could happen?" scenario.

I think we all tend to catastrophize a bit when something goes wrong.  We go to the worst possible scenario.  But you know what?  That's okay.  Go there.  Ask yourself, "What's the worst thing that could happen?"  After you have wallowed in that a bit, think about the best possible outcome.  What would you wish for?  And after you have basked in that, ask yourself, "But what is the most likely?"  When I think about time ticking away, the worst thing that could happen would be, well, duh...to die. But then I think, the best thing would be that I live to be 100 which would give me (mumble) years left.  At this moment, I seem to be in good health, my Dad lived to be 83 despite a cancer he refused to treat and my mother lived to 91 so it's likely I still have quite a few years left and the pandemic will likely be over well before that.

• I feel grateful for what I do have and the time I have left.  I have a loving Hubby, loving children and grandchildren, a clean (most of the time), dry place to live and friends who show they care.

There.  I feel better already.

So yes, there are times I feel robbed thinking that I don't have the freedom to do everything I want to do in the years I have left, but none of us know what the future may hold, so I plan to make the most of the years I have left...and things are looking up already!

Thanks for reading!

See you again soon!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to click on the share buttons to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn, email it to your friends and LIKE me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer 

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.

The New Normal

Remember when someone would say "That's not normal" or we wish things were "normal" and someone else would pipe up and ask "What's "normal?"  "Define 'normal."

Well, today, ironically, thanks to the coronavirus, we have a "New Normal" to try to define.

So just what is the "New Normal?"

Here are some thoughts on that:

• The New Normal means that, because of Covid-19, it's safer to stay home.  The upside of that is Hubby is home more.  The downside of that is that Hubby is home more.

• The New Normal has given us a new expression: Covid Fatigue.  That's when you wake up in the morning and the realization hits you that we are in the middle of a pandemic and you have to stay home, wash your hands, wear a mask when around other people and go on endless dog walks for exercise.  It's also the reason you would rather just stay in bed and watch endless reruns of "The Price is Right" on the Game Show Channel. 

• The New Normal dictates that we have to wear masks everywhere and because of that we are suddenly getting zits where zits never were before. One has set up permanent residence on my chin. It's a new medical mystery called Mask Acne!

(But, hey, I am trying to make the best of it, seeing it as an opportunity to make a fashion statement and I have always been into fashion! I have a mask for every occasion and every outfit).  

Here are a few:

And I probably have about 25 more!

• The New Normal makes going to the store an adventure.  You never know what you will find or won't find. One day there is no toilet paper, Wet Wipes, or bleach.  The next trip, no flour or pasta. For awhile there was no Thai peanut sauce.  What was the deal with that? Each trip we discover something else the store has run out of.  Rumor has it stores are going to run out of outdoor heat lamps this winter.  And what's the deal with coins being in such short supply?

• The New Normal is buying clothes at the mall, getting them home and discovering you are no longer a size 8 because you gained 15 pounds. You didn't discover your new clothes didn't fit until you got home because the store no longer lets you try things on there!

• The New Normal is discovering you haven't gained 15 pounds, you have gained 20 pounds!

• The New Normal is trying to find fun things to do at home like buying a bread machine and making a fresh loaf of bread every day.  The house smells delicious but, gee, you wonder why you have gained 20 pounds?

• The New Normal is lots and lots of television and movies at home. Recently watched all 10 seasons of  "Curb Your Enthusiam" in one day while eating a nice piece or two of freshly baked bread slathered in butter. This has become a habit.  "Schitts Creek" is next. And I see more bread in my future.

• The New Normal is wondering how you will lose that 20 pounds because your gym is closed.

• The New Normal is no more all-you-can-eat buffets.  Good thing, though, because you need to lose that 20 pounds.

• The New Normal is lots and lots of walking your dogs because the gym is closed and it's one of the few ways you can get some exercise.  You are grateful to not only have a beautiful place to walk, not to mention gratitude for being able to actually walk, but to be completely honest, you are really getting tired of lots of walking... and so are the dogs.

"Let's go for a walk!"

"Do we have to?"

• The New Normal is not being able to use the toilet at Starbucks.  In fact, public toilets are few and far between requiring preplanning for all walks and thus making said walks a tat uncomfortable.

• The New Normal is Zoom happy hours or drinking in the driveway with your neighbors because the bars are closed -- and happy hour seems to start around noon.

• The New Normal is drowning in a mountain of Amazon boxes because after a couple of glasses of wine at Happy Hour, some retail therapy seems like a good idea, but you are still wondering how you got the idea to order "Brazilian Bum Bum Cream."

• The New Normal is no live music, no dancing, no movies, no parties, no reunions, no church, no weddings, except on your own, virtually or in a parking lot. Just to rephrase that, fun has been banned.

• The New Normal is working at home, if you even have a job, and not being able to get anything done, because your kids are bugging you to help them get on the computer so they can attend their virtual school. And you can't get rid of the kids, er, keep them busy with sports because most of those activities have been suspended.

• The New Normal is going to the doctor or dentist and discovering there are no magazines to read in the waiting room which makes going to the doctor or dentist even more boring. And that's even if you dare go to the doctor or dentist.

• The New Normal is having to eat outside at restaurants, which probably explains the upcoming shortage of outdoor heaters.  

• The New Normal is no carpooling, no hugging, no hand shaking, no sitting next to anyone, basically no human contact lest we catch Covid. You can't even imagine what dating must be like now, so that is one reason you are over all of that and thankful to be old.

• The New Normal is no more trips to Hawaii or Europe, because Hawaii requires a two-week quarantine upon arrival from the mainland and the Europeans don't want us.

• The New Normal is getting so bored staying home all of the time that you put your cookbooks in order by color.  Well, I did, anyway.

Okay, I don't mean to be so negative.  Things may have gone to hell but there must be some positives to this. Will something good come out of all of it?

Let's hope so.

I have to believe that our happiness isn't totally dependent on all of these externals.  We humans are resilient creatures, and though we are being tested, I have hope that things will improve.  With a little gratitude about what we do have and some hope for a brighter future, we will get through this. We might even come out of this better people.

As Maya Angelou said, 

"Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time.  Invite one to stay."

I choose hope.

But now, no more splitting hairs about what is or is not normal. We remember what normal was. So next time someone says "I wish we could go back to normal," I don't think we will say "What do you mean? What's normal?"  I think we know.  And I have hope we will get back there again.

This is some of what Normal used to look like.

Like I said, I choose hope.

I bask in those happy memories and plan to be around to make many more.

Feel free to share what you miss or don't miss from the pre-Covid days or if you think some good will come out of this, please share it!

Thanks for reading!

See you again soon!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to click on the share buttons to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn, email it to your friends and LIKE me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer 

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.

Rosy the Reviewer Recommends: Some Oldies But Goodies You Might Not Know About

[I review "Sorry We Missed You," "Ali and Nino," "London Town," "How to Build a Girl," and "7500."]

Since many of us still can't go anywhere or have nowhere to go, if you are stuck at home, here are some movies you might not know about that are worth seeing.

Sorry We Missed You (2019)

A family struggles to makes ends meet as a U.K. delivery driver gets caught up in the exploitation of the gig economy.

Since the 2008 crash, Ricky (Kris Hitchen) and Abbie (Debbie Honeywood) have been fighting a losing battle. They lost their home and are drowning in debt and struggling to get by as they raise their two teens, Seb (Rhys Stone) and Liza (Katie Proctor).  When Ricky is offered a chance to start his own franchise as a delivery driver (think a contract driver making deliveries for Amazon), he jumps at the chance, but to afford his own delivery van, he talks Abbie into selling the family car which she needs to travel to her job as a home health care worker for older adults.But she is a supportive wife and takes the bus. Both parents work long, difficult hours, most days a week, and the family is suffering. Son Seb doesn't help with his skipping school and getting into trouble and young Liza is feeling the stress of the family strife, wetting the bed and having panic attacs. And when Ricky is assaulted while making one of his deliveries, the stress all proves to be too much. 

I love my British “working class” dramas and no one does them better than director Ken Loach. Loach is probably not that well known in the U.S. but his film “Kes” was voted the seventh greatest film of the 20th century by the British Film Institute and is in the book “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (I loved that one too)!" His socialist ideals are reflected in his films as he deals with social issues like homelessness, poverty and the everyday worker. Here he takes on the gig economy.

So what's the "gig economy?"

Basically, companies hire people for short-term jobs or "gigs."  This is cheaper for the company because they don't pay benefits and it can be a boon for the worker to work at home or have flexible work hours. But it is all rife with exploitation - there are no aforementioned benefits, companies often pay less than a full-time employee would get and the worker has no rights and no job security.

That is what Ricky faces as he tries to make a go of his delivery franchise under the supervision of the ruthless Maloney (Ross Brewster), who isn't doing our Ricky any favors.

With a screenplay by Paul Laverty, the film is slow moving but mesmerizing, because Loach depicts real life like no other director, provides no easy answers and reminds us that no matter where we live, we are all struggling for the good life. This film will give you a whole new perspective on that white van that pulls up to your house to deliver your Amazon package or that note that is left on your door when someone tries to deliver a package - "Sorry we missed you." A whole lot of people are getting missed these days.

And you will be sorry if you miss this brilliant film.

Rosy the Reviewer says…this compelling, award-winning film is highly recommended but warning: those Northern England accents can be challenging to the American ear and there are no subtitles but you can do it! Paying attention and concentrating is good for the brain!

(Available On Demand and from Amazon Prime as well as on DVD from Netflix)

Ali and Nino (2016)

A classic love story about a Muslim Azerbaijani boy and Christian Georgian girl in Azerbaijan from 1918-1920.

Bet you never wondered what was happening in Azerbaijan (do you even know where it is?) and Georgia (no, not that state in the U.S., the country in Asia) during W.W. I, right? Well, this film highlights that little known part of history while at the same time telling the love story of Ali (Adam Bakri) and Nino (Maria Valverde).

As teens, Ali and Nino fall in love. Based on the supposed true story of Ali Khan Shirvanshir, Ali is a rich Muslim boy living in Baku in Azerbaijan. Nino is a Georgian Orthodox Christian whose wealthy Kipiani family also lives in Baku. Despite their differences, Ali and Nino are going to wed but then World War I breaks out in Europe and there is that little matter of a kidnapping.

Malik (Riccardo Scamarcio), who is supposedly Ali's friend, has also fallen in love with Nino and kidnaps her, planning to force her to marry him, but Ali confronts and kills Malik, forcing Ali to flee the country.

Now Nino is damaged goods and her family wants to send her off to Moscow but she is determined to find Ali, which she does. Nino and Ali are reunited in the mountains, are married and live what looks to be a happy life in the country, despite their aristocratic upbringings.  But the Bolsheviks, who have amassed 30,000 troops on the Azerbaijan border have other ideas and, so does Ali, who decides he needs to fight to keep Azerbaijan free. If you watch enough historical romances, you know that romances like this are never allowed a happy ending. This film is no exception but though it's a heart-wrenching ending, it is also a stunning one. 

Written by Christopher Hampton (based on the book by Kurban Said) and directed by Asif Kapadia, this is a dramatic love story that is beautiful to look at with a mesmerizing score that will transport you to another world.

Rosy the Reviewer says...it's a sort of Azerbaijani Dr. Zhivago that will remind you that things could be worse.
(In Azerbaijani, Russian and English with English subtitles. Available on DVD and to rent on Amazon Prime and Vudu)

London Town (2016)

A 14-year-old boy's life is changed forever when he discovers the music of The Clash.

With a screenplay by Matt Brown and directed by Derrick Borte, this is another one of those coming of age films the Brits do so well, where a young man’s life is transformed by music (“Blinded by the Light;” “Yesterday”). 

This time it’s The Clash that saves 14-year-old Shay (Daniel Huttlestone) from the sadness of his broken home (his mother, Sandrine (Natascha McElhone), left them to live a bohemian life in London) and the responsibility to take care of his younger sister, Alice (Anya McKenna-Bruce), and help his Dad (Dougray Scott) in his piano shop.  But when his Dad has an accident and can no longer work, Shay has even more to deal with when he tries to keep things together. 

It doesn't help that the late 1970's were turbulent bad times in the U.K. with the rise of the National Front and the tough economy for the working class under the Thatcher government, so no wonder the music was angry and skinheads and punks surfaced. People also said “piss off” a lot back then, too.

But then Shay meets Vivian (Nell Williams) on the train.  She is a punk girl and introduces Shay to the punk scene. Vivian explains the politics of punk: that The Clash are punks and punks support racial cooperation and working-class empowerment and the skinheads are gits, that's Brit speak for the kinds of folks who advocate white supremacy and support the National Front. After meeting Vivian, Shay embraces punk - jeans, leather jacket and died black hair fashioned into a pompadour. But despite the joy of his punk life, Shay soon discovers that he isn't going to be able to keep things going on the homefront.  But then he meets his Clash idol, Joe Strummer(Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and things start looking up.

But despite the nod to history, this film is nostagia and all a bit of a fantasy. I mean, can this 14-year-old kid really get away with keeping the family going by dressing up as a woman (so he will look older) and driving his Dad’s cab? And when Shay meets Joe Strummer in the flesh, is Joe really likely to help this kid open up a new business? But that’s okay. Suspend your disbelief. We need nostalgia and fantasy today, and this all works because of the engaging young actors and the adorable Jonathon Rhys Meyers?

Rosy the Reviewer says…Clash fans will enjoy this, but so will those who enjoy well-made movies that celebrate the power of music to heal and those who can remember what it was like to be young. Let’s just say I do and I do and I chuckled at the end with tears in my eyes. It’s one of those kinds of movies.

How to Build a Girl (2019)

Who knew that young, shy Johanna Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein), growing up on a council estate in Wolverhampton, England would become an influential music critic?  Well, you heard it here first, folks!

It's the 1990's and 16-year-old Johanna Morrigan lives with her aspiring rock star father Pat played by Paddy Considine ("aspiring rock star" is a euphemism for unemployed), her depressed and overwhelmed mother Angie (Sarah Solemani), and brothers Krissi (Laurie Kynaston), Lupin (Stellan Powell) and two infant twins. But she yearns to escape and become a writer and she gets hope when she wins a poetry contest.  So when the family faces a financial crisis, Johanna vows to earn money to help her family.  Her brother, Krissi, tells her about a London music paper - D&ME - that is looking for a rock critic and she is able to convince them to give her a chance, even though it's a boy's club and she is taken on as a kind of joke.

But it's no joke to Johanna who takes this all very seriously, especially what a rock critic should look like.  Johanna decides she needs to build herself up as a proper rock critic with an edgier style, red hair, and a top hat and sets out to immerse herself in the rock and roll scene.  When she is sent to Dublin to interview musician, John Kite (Alfie Allen), he is instantly taken with her bubbly personality and the two have a bit of a fling.  

But then she is fired for writing a glowing review of Kite (deemed a schoolgirl crush by the male magazine editors), so she decides the road to success lies with edgier, cruel even, reviews.  She is rehired and, under the guise of "Dolly Wilde," writes scathing reviews and becomes a popular critic, so popular, in fact, that she receives the "Arsehole of the Year Award (in England, I guess that's a compliment)."  She also becomes sexually promiscuous and drinks a bit.  Alright, she drinks a lot, which doesn't help when she runs into John again and drunkenly confesses her feelings and tries to kiss him. But he rejects her because he doesn't approve of her mean reviews.  Things go from bad to worse for our girl until she realizes she needs to build herself back up yet again, this time for the better.

If you liked Beanie Feldstein in "Booksmart," - I did - you will like her even more in this film based on a (sort of) true story.  Though Beanie is not British (in fact, she is Jonah Hill's sister), she does a good job of making us believe she is. But you don't have to know who Beanie is or be young to enjoy this film about a young girl coming of age and finding herself. I may be old but I can still remember what that was like (and you "Game of Thrones" fans will enjoy seeing Alfie Allen doing something besides getting abused as Theon Greyjoy)!

Adapted for the screen by Caitlin Moran, from her own novel, and directed by Coky Giedroyc, this film is a refreshing story that is funny, heartwarming and, yes, sweet.

Rosy the Reviewer says...just the antidote you might need for a particularly bad day. I know it was for me. Loved it!

(Available on DVD from Netflix and to rent on Amazon Prime)

7500 (2019)

Hijackers try to take over a plane while a soft-spoken co-pilot tries to save the passengers and himself.

Who knew Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be a believable action star? I still remember him as the wise-cracking kid from “3rd Rock from the Sun.” But this is no ordinary Bruce Willis type action film. This is a film about a real life man thrust into a very real life, believable and scary situation.

Here Gordon-Levitt plays Tobias Ellis, an American co-pilot on a German commercial flight on its way to Paris from Berlin. The film starts out showing the routine and tedium of loading a regular commercial flight, its very normalcy ominous because of what is to later transpire. We see the passengers sitting in the waiting area, and then, we can see from the camera on the flight deck, the attendants in the kitchen, greeting the passengers as they board and the pilot and co-pilot performing all the checks and cross-checks as they get ready for take-off. It’s all very ordinary and routine.

And then, as one of the flight attendants enters the flight deck to bring the pilot some water, a hijacker makes his way in and attacks the pilot and Tobias and kills the flight attendant. Tobias manages to knock out the hijacker with a fire extinguisher and get the flight deck door closed, but he and the pilot are both injured, stabbed by shards of broken glass fashioned by the hijackers.

As Tobias radios the control tower (“7500” is the air traffic control code for a hijacking), the hijackers are pounding on the flight door and we can hear screams and noises as the hijackers wreak havoc in the cabin, something made more frightening because we can’t see into the cabin, only what is happening right outside the flight deck door, so our imaginations run wild. Tobias ties up the hijacker in the cabin and tries to tend to the captain as well as fly the airplane back to Hanover, the nearest airport, in a very tense real time 20 minutes, with the hijackers standing in view of the flight deck, threatening to kill passengers if Tobias doesn’t open the door. It was the longest 20 minutes of my life! I found myself yelling at the TV – “Don’t open the door!” And yet we see the hijackers killing the passengers. What should Tobias do? White knuckle time on the plane (and in my living room)!

This is a tour de force for Gordon-Levitt. Most of the film takes place in a claustrophobic confined space as Tobias wrestles with life and death situations while dealing with the hijacker left in the cockpit and trying to get the plane to Hanover. Gordon-Levitt is believable as an unlikely hero, thrust into a situation he did not see coming.

I have always been fascinated by thrillers that take place on airplanes. Maybe it’s because I have never quite understood how planes fly and have a love-hate relationship with flying on planes. And the whole hijacker film trope has been in the American consciousness ever since the 60’s when it seemed like there was a hijacking every week (there actually was), and then that very, very terrible day, 9/11. I still haven’t gotten over the film “United 93,” a wonderful story of heroism but a brutally sad depiction of the 9/11 plane that is believed to have been headed to crash into the White House or the Capitol and the passengers that rose up against the hijackers, foiling their plan but, unable to save themselves, crashing into a Pennsylvania field.

Rosy the Reviewer says…written by Patrick Vollrath and Senad Halilbasic and directed by Vollrath, this is another inspiring portrait of heroism which is what we need right now. It’s also a tense and wonderful film that is not to be missed.
(Streaming now on Amazon Prime)

Thanks for reading!

See you again soon!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to click on the share buttons to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn, email it to your friends and LIKE me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer 

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.