Tuesday: A Poignant Portrayal of Grief and Connection

“Tuesday” is not a film for everyone. Directed by Daina Oniunas-Pusic, it tells the heart-wrenching story of a mother coming to terms with her daughter’s impending death and grappling with how to live in a world without her. This powerful and unconventional movie may leave some viewers feeling bored or uncomfortable, but I found it to be a deeply rewarding experience.

The film confronts the concept of death head-on, symbolized by a parrot aptly named Death. This unique portrayal adds a layer of poignancy and meaning to the story, creating a compelling emotional connection between the parrot and the dying daughter, Lola. Without giving too much away, the parrot’s interactions with Lola are both touching and profound.

You need to watch the film to see how the story unfolds, but I can say that the ending was particularly moving. In my reviews, I often gauge a movie’s impact by how much it makes me think, laugh, and cry. While “Tuesday” didn’t bring me to tears, it did evoke laughter and deep contemplation. It’s not a film I would recommend to my parents, as they might find it slow, but it made me reflect on my own life and how I would handle similar situations.

“Tuesday” carries a powerful message, and the performances from the cast, including Bea, Lola, and even the parrot, are exceptional. Despite its challenging themes and pacing, this film is worth your time for its emotional depth and thought-provoking narrative.

If Movie Review: Evoking Emotions and Reservations

I hear that “If” isn’t receiving the love it anticipated, and I have to admit, I’m not sure I’m going to be the one to change that narrative.

The film centers around Bea (Cailey Fleming), who returns to the home where her parents lovingly raised her. Her father (John Krasinski) is hospitalized, presumably for a heart condition. During his hospital stay, Bea starts encountering Imaginary Friends (IFs).

She also meets Cal, who also hangs out with and sees the IFs. Bea and Cal embark on a mission to reconnect these forgotten IFs with new children, as their original companions have grown up and lost their childlike imagination.

The movie alternates between Bea visiting her ailing father and her quest to find new friends for the IFs. In my opinion, Krasinski’s role as the sick father could have been omitted, focusing solely on the adventure of finding new partners for the IFs. This would have streamlined the story.

The film’s target audience is somewhat ambiguous. While the IFs are cool and cute, most of the kid-friendly fun is in the trailer. As a kid, I probably would have lost interest before the third act. However, as an adult, I appreciated the movie’s conclusion.

The ending wraps up everything nicely, which was exactly what I needed that evening. It was heartwarming to see adults embracing their inner child, and kids being kids. Despite the predictability, the connection at the end was satisfying.

As I continue my journey through movie watching and life, I find myself judging films based on how much they make me think, laugh, and cry. “If” managed to evoke all three emotions, and for that, I would recommend it, albeit with some reservations due to the occasionally choppy storyline Krasinski crafted.

A Review of ‘Am I Ok?’ with Dakota Johnson on HBO Max

So I was notified about this movie from a friend, so of course I watched it. It looks like it’s a movie that was made in 2022 but never made it out to the theaters and played in some festivals, and finally made itself a home on HBO Max here in 2024.

Am I ok? is about Lucy, a 32 year old woman living in Los Angeles pretty much living life and not doing much with it. She was a painter who no longer paints and works as a receptionist as this VERY SLOW spa! Her best friend, played by Sonoya Mizuno, gets a promotion and she tells Lucy that she is moving to London.

Lucy takes a reflective look at her life, which is what resonated with me in this film. At just 86 minutes, Dakota Johnson’s portrayal of a thirty-something woman grappling with uncertainty is compelling. She’s stuck in a dead-end job, confused about love, and often overwhelmed. When life gets tough, she retreats emotionally. However, with the support of a new friend and by addressing issues with her best friend, Lucy begins to discover herself and work towards rejuvenating her life.

It’s a fast watch, Johnson is really good in this film, the supporting actors are ok and you get a little bit of Sean Hayes from Will and Grace in a very small role. Check it out on HBO Max

The Watchers: Gripping First Half and Underwhelming Conclusion

“The Watchers,” Ishana Shyamalan’s debut film, presents two distinct narratives. The first 45 minutes, heavily featured in the trailer, introduce us to Mina (Dakota Fanning), who embarks on a journey to deliver a bird to a zoo in Belfast. Her adventure takes an unexpected turn when her car breaks down in a forest. As night approaches, she encounters a woman named Madeline who urgently advises her to seek refuge in a bunker to avoid certain death. Inside the bunker, Mina meets Ciara and Daniel, who inform her of strict rules to follow due to a mysterious presence watching them in the forest.

I found the initial segment gripping and immersive. The suspense of what lurks in the forest kept my mind racing with possibilities. The tension mounted each time the characters came close to breaking the rules, heightening my anticipation and fear for their safety.

However, the second half of the movie took a different direction, culminating in a less satisfying reveal and an inevitable escape attempt. While the twist held some interest, it ultimately left me underwhelmed and disappointed with the conclusion.

Overall, “The Watchers” managed to hold my attention for most of its runtime, showcasing Ishana’s inherited storytelling prowess. Despite my mixed feelings about the ending, the film’s engaging first half made it worth watching. Now, having seen this, I am even more excited for her father M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming movie, “Trap,” hitting theaters in August.

Revisiting Saving Private Ryan: A Heartfelt June 6th Tradition

So my mom’s birthday is June 6th and every year since I moved away from my childhood home of Pittsburgh, I have called my mom several times on her birthday, but as the day starts we are all reminded that D-Day was June 6th, 1944.

So this year, I wanted to revisit Saving Private Ryan and especially the opening scene. Now I watched most of the movie on my phone and some of it on my tv via Apple TV+ and I was hooked throughout my 2 hours and 49 minutes. There’s so much to say and I had three moments throughout my rewatching that moved me to tears.

1. The opening scene: What I remembered from watching this previously is the puking and the lost limbs, but what moved me was actually thinking about all those soliders that didn’t have a chance and died so quickly. I was overwhelmed with grief and shock watching the first 10 minutes of that scene.
2. The moment that Tom Hanks stopped the internal fighting with his squad and told them where he was from and what he did before the war. The fact that he was a teacher just hit me in that moment.
3. The final scene that moved me was when it went back to the Private Ryan with his family as an older man and asked his wife, “Tell me I’m a good man.” Damn that got me.

I think that viewing this movie every year now on June 6th might be a thing for me. I was proud that I did.

After watching the movie, realizing all the awards it was up for, I was blown away that It didn’t win Best Picture and then lost to Shakespeare in Love! I watched an old Youtube clip of the announcement of that Best Picture Award back in 1999, read by a young Harrison Ford.

The cinematography was just breathtaking and the acting performances by Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg and Jeremy Davies were just spectacular! The sound of the war scenes, the french music and especially the sound of the bullets, should have won this film those awards.

Bad Boys 4: Ride or Die

Ok, here goes, the first official summer movie for me as school ended on May 24th and I headed to the beach for 10 days so, after settling back home, I had to make my way to the movies. Nothing like heading to watch Will Smith, Martin Lawrence and so many others from the previous three movies that I so pumped for this movie. One thing was for sure, I anticipated that there would be lots of action.

So my first piece of advice before going to this film, make sure that you have watched the previous Bad Boys movie, because there are a lot of references back to that film. I don’t like to give things away, but there’s a moment in the opening 20 minutes that will shape the entire film for one of the characters and it’s pretty funny.

One thing that stuck out to me was how funny Martin Lawrence was, there were several laugh out loud moments with his interaction with Will Smith and others throughout the film. Will Smith, to me, wasn’t as funny, but with people still struggling to want to watch him on the big screen because of his slap of Chris Rock, I thought he did a nice job and I look forward to more Will Smith on the big screen.

The chemistry is there with our lead actors as the story develops, where some bad guys (Eric Dane from Grey’s Anatomy) start to frame the Captain Howard, who was killed in the last movie, saying that he was working with the cartel and taking money and then as Marcus and Mike try to find out what’s going on, they are framed as well. This has them trying to figure out stuff and being chased at the same time.

A shout out to what I thought was the funniest interaction and that was with Tiffany Haddish. I didn’t expect to laugh as much as I did when our Bad Boys went to visit her.

This is a must movie to see in theaters. It’s a lot of fun and was a blast to watch. A solid B movie. It was fun. Now if I had to give it a critique, I felt the POV action at the end was a bit much. It felt like too much of a video game and I wasn’t a fan. To me the flyovers were fun and the classic slow motion circle shots were fun to watch again. The movie not winning any awards, but it was a fun summer film to see!

One last thing I want to say, REGGIE!

So, I’m Going to Try This Again

So, as I wrapped up another school year as a teacher, my 27th on the books, I was sitting down with our new, yet not so new, assistant principal, Mrs. Tartt and we were talking about the upcoming movie, Bad Boys for Life and how excited we both were to go watch it.

She told me that her and her husband, Mr. Tartt (had to say it this way, HA HA, Christine) were seeing it on opening night. I told her I was too. She told me that she wanted to me to let her know my feelings on it and I told her about this blog, how I used to write about movies, try hard to stay on top of it and then stop.

So I am trying again.

But before I start a post on Bad Boys: Ride or Die, I am going to share a top ten that I want to watch this summer!

• Get Out – Seen it – Love it
• White Chicks – NEVER HAVE SEEN IT
• Collateral – Seen it, but need to watch again
• Bad Boys 2 – Seen it several times!
• Hunger Games: Catching Fire #2
• Sex and the City – Seen it and really like it
• What Lies Beneth – NEVER HAVE SEEN IT
• Equalizer 2 – Loved Denzel but I like 1 and 3 better
• American Fiction – This is an amazing film, was in my top 5 last year.
• Avatar – Loved it, but never saw ANY Avatar movies in a theater.

So I have some watching the do! I saw Bad Boys: Ride or Die last night, post coming, and with it being June 6th, I watched Saving Private Ryan, so I am going to say a couple things about that experience as I haven’t watched that movie in quite some time!

Hopefully talk soon.

Jim