Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Language Lessons and Supernova

                                My Top Three This Week - PRIDE EDITION

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. It is that time of year again. Pride. We made it a whole year and things are opening up. We said good bye to some of our favorite series like Pose and Special and we will be sad to see them go but new things are on the horizon. If you have not joined Frameline Film Festival and gotten a streaming pass -get it NOW.

1) Everybody's Talking About Jamie will officially be out in September but I was able to see a premiere in San Francisco and it was fantastic. Based on the smash London musical, Jamie which is  also based on a  television documentary Jamie : Drag Queen at 16. This is a boy who lives his life out loud .. with music numbers. He wants to be a star and  famous drag queen and his first step is getting through high school with his best friend Pritti and his drag queen mentor Loco Chanelle The score is pop music at it's finest with some great numbers and the cinematography and wardrobe is  eye-popping. Max Harwood as Jamie is electrifying and Lauren Patel as his best friend Pritti is a scene stealer. Richard E. Grant as Coco is a heartfelt performance as is Sarah Lancashire as his mother as well as Sharon Horgan as the misguided Miss Hedge. A great film.

2)  Language Lessons ( a Frameline event) i-directed by Natalie Morales and starring Morales and Mark Duplass as a terrific story for our time and an unexpected love story between a gay man and an online Spanish teacher. Duplass is Adam who receives 100 Spanish online classes from his husband Will.During the beginning lessons with Cariño (Morales) his husband his killed in an accident . He is devastated and Cariño helps him heal through speaking Spanish during their classes. He is in Oakland and she is in Costa Rica. Their bond continues until he becomes concerned when she appears with mysterious bruises on her face and then begins the deepening of their story. Heartfelt and funny with genuine tearful moments that will punch you in the gut.

3) Supernova streaming now on Prime is beautifully shot and Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci are completely believable as Sam and Tucker a long time couple are traveling across the English countryside for one last time before Tucker finally succumbs to his dementia, There are few laughs in this heartbreaking and realistic view of what it means when you vow " in sickness and in health" for any relationship - gay or straight. Watch this with someone you love.

A Quiet Place Part II, Lisey's Story and Army of the Dead

      THE HORROR OF IT ALL    

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. If you are a Stephen King fan like me you will be happy to see some of my content will reflect my love for all king ventures, but I will now regularly be reviewing horror in all of its  the forms. I just saw the Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and it will not be making the cut. I felt it was such a departure in quality from the previous films. But I have some favorites below you might like.

A Quiet Place Part II - streaming for rent or at your local theaters is a welcome sight for all of us waiting for a perfect summer movie. This is it. What is great about this is that in the opening we see the beginning of the invasion and it sets the pace for this sequel, This takes place months after the first movie and the Abbott  family is struggling to survive without Lee. The creatures that we only saw at the end of part one are now everywhere and the family is running low on oxygen ( see first movie). We discover that sometimes there are things worse that the monsters we know. This is a fast paced and thrilling ride for the Abbotts as their world is now in an upheaval. Emily Blunt is as amazing in this as anything she does , but the stand out is Millicent Simmonds as Regan. This  young actress steals the movie.

Lisey's Story is a different kind horror streaming on Apple TV + is the story of Lisey Landon ( Julianne Moore) whose famous author husband Scott (Clive Owen) has died and vultures are circling around his unpublished works. She has been battling several of them for awhile while dealing with her two sisters played by Joan Allen and Jennifer Jason Leigh. That is perfect casting. But her dead husband is playing a scavenger hunt with her and darker secrets will be revealed.  In addition there is sinister relentless killer obsessed with Scott's work. There is some great acting and story building going on here and for all of you Stephen King fans this is allegedly his favorite book. This is going to be a building slow burn horror story.

Army of the Dead on Netflix  from Zac Snyder is visually stunning with the perfect place for a zombie outbreak- Las Vegas. A group of money hungry folks make a deal to enter the quarantine zone for a big heist when anything that can go wrong does. This is a caper/horror combo which I love. This has varied degrees of success in the horror genre but I really liked the scope of it all with some great actors such as Dave Bautista, Garret Dillahunt, Tig Notaro and Raul Castillo. This is a fun watch and the zombies are fast and smart.

Mare of Easttown, Cruella , Plan B and Girls5eva

 My Top Three This Week

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers.Next week will be all about Pride Month with lots of new content but until then I have a few things for you to enjoy. Friends : The Reunion on HBO Max is a emotional trip down memory lane and Pink -All I Know So Far documentary on Amazon will blow you away.

1) Mare of Easttown streaming on HBO Max has just released its final episode  of this fantastic limited series and I wanted to watch the entire series before I wrote about it. This is probably one of the most successful series that HBO has done and if you haven't watched this yet you should. The story begins with a discovery of a murder and renewed interest of  a missing girl cold case. Kate Winslet is magnificent as  Mare Sheehan who is struggling with her own demons as she tears the small Pennsylvania town and its people apart looking for a killer. This is such a great ensemble cast and everyone is a fully developed character. Speaking of the cast -Jean Smart as Mare's mother is a fully realized character and I cannot stress what a stellar cast this is with Julianne Nicholson, Guy Pearce, Angourie , Joe Tippett and Evan Peters.

2) Cruella -in theaters and streaming on Disney+ has the best character chemistry I have seen in a long time. Emma and Emma trade insults like playing cards and every scene with them sizzles. This is the origin story of Cruella  and it is a beautiful film full of color , wardrobe and cinematography . The story begins with a young girl , orphaned at an early age she learns to become a pickpocket with two young boys who take her in and she finds her dream of designing clothes for the Baroness ( Thompson) who gleefully steals all of her staff's designs. There begins the story and it so happens that the Baroness has some very vicious Dalmations. This is a very fun watch!!

3)  Plan B a Hulu Original movie from director Natalie Morales is the female Superbad.or Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Sunny ( Kuhoo Verma) a smart overachiever makes a dumb drunken mistake and hooks up with the wrong guy and her only answer is the Plan B pill but her local pharmacist refuses to give it to her, She enlists her best friend Lupe ( Victoria Morales) to go on a road trip to Grand Rapids to Planned Parenthood. While this may not seem like a comedy, it is hilarious and the perfect Friday Night Movie.

Bonus: Girls5eva streaming on Peacock is from the minds who brought us 30 Rock and  The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. This hiarious series stars Busy Phillips, Paula Pell, Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Ashley Park as Girls5eva a one hit wonder girl group who is reunited after they are sampled by a  hot rising singer. Did I mention they were hot in the 90s and this is 2021 and they are struggling to recapture the magic. This has so many famous guest stars and Fey does a cameo as Dolly Parton and Andrew Rannells is very funny as Phillips husband.