This blog will review the hottest in movies, music, and anything else that's hot in pop culture, sometimes with Delco flair. Check back frequently to see what will be getting in the spotlight!
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri/Fox Searchlight
And another year comes to a close. Inner turmoil about the state of the country and the values and norms we have long held have been thrown into chaos by a never stopping whirling dervish we call America. It was a strong year that had us more engaged - maybe too much? - as a society and more stubbornly steadfast. A more defined understanding of what we want our world to be was never made more clear until 2017 and it appeared on silver screens, and computer screens, all over the world. The first movie to hold up a mirror to make us reflect on who we are was February's "Get Out", that awesome horror comedy film from first-time director Jordan Peele who created a crazy original story about racism in America. It opened the floodgates for a lot of films to tackle pertinent issues, and it wasn't confined to documentaries- just look at Steven Spielberg's star-studded "The Post" as a big F-you to the Trump Administration and Fatih Akin's overbearingly trite hate crime film "In The Fade".
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017, directed by Martin McDonagh. U.S.A., U.K. English, Color, 115 minutes) We cringe to think justice has not been served when a crime is committed against ourselves or loved ones and no one pays for it. It's no secret that the legal system can move at a glacial pace, with rigidity and luck to ensure that the perpetrator is rightfully convicted. Sometimes the cops can be lucky and find their suspect in a quick amount of time. Sometimes it can takes weeks, months, years, or even never. We don't like feeling wronged having someone get away with a crime. This is the outline for "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri", a universal tale about society's expectations for the police to do something when it seems like they're not trying at all. "Three Billboards" balances that drive between social justice and police capabilities with dangerously sharp quips that tackle the process and the emotional turmoils of dealing with it all. There's a stark humanism here that has you rooting for the civilians as much as the police in equal amounts of laughs and heartbreak. Needless to say, it's one of the most satisfying movie-going experiences of the year.
Imagine being a young black man whisked away to a hyper rich, affluent country suburb where your girlfriend's well-off white family resides. Her parents fully embrace you and boast about their admiration of America's first black president, Barack Obama, as if they're conforming to the politically correct social register of appeasing any black guest that walks through their door with such an obvious plea that they are accepting of a black man courting their white daughter. Unfortunately, the Stepford persona of the family and their house staff, friends and other family members wears off in a situation that is so grim and fantastical you could never believe it was true if it weren't being told on the silver screen.
That is "Get Out" in a nutshell.
It is the incredibly relevant and popular story for the directorial debut of comic Jordan Peele who also penned the extremely creepy and funny film that tackles the current social climate of racism. It was recently announced that "Get Out" was classified into the comedy/musical genre field for the 75th Golden Globe Awards in 2018 and drew criticism for deeming a satirically serious - an oxymoron? - film about race relations as being anything but dramatic. Some viewed it as white privilege laughing at racism. Given that the persons who award the Golden Globes are foreign journalists, I doubt many are of the Aryan brethren.
"Last Flag Flying" and "Lady Bird" are two movies set in the few years proceeding 9/11 and how the social landscapes mold their varied and complicated characters. It's as much about these characters going through their own journeys as it is how we dealt with the greatest act of terrorism ever committed on our shores. Both films are pretty subtle about using that tragic event as a plot point instead opting to delve into the societal impact it had on our behaviors. These films are at times laugh out loud funny and equally heartbreaking. Lady Bird (2017, directed by Greta Gerwig. U.S.A., English, Color, 93 minutes) "Lady Bird" in its most basic form is a teenage coming-of-age film. It's a familiar subgenre, but some in the category are more interesting than others. This film, the directorial debut of Greta Gerwig, combines the whipper-snapper appeal of "Juno" and "Ghost World" with just the slightest dash of "Napoleon Dynamite" to round it out. Saoirse Ronan is the titular character who is smarter beyond her years and yet just basic enough for her posh Sacramento Catholic School upbringing in 2002. She clashes with her opinionated mother (Laurie Metcalf) and is adored by her father (Tracy Letts) as she navigates her young life with confidence, with friends, some lovers and a wicked sense of humor.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Ireland/U.K., English, Color, 121 minutes) Leading "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" are Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman as the well-off married doctors who live in a pristine house with two beautiful kids. The family's stringent aura is broken by a teenager named Martin (played by Barry Keoghan), a young man who wants revenge after his dad died on Farrell's watch a few years prior. Who's to blame for the death? It's not clear. No matter, Martin will start to manipulate and taunt the family until they're on the verge of killing each other. In an about-face from his raucously dark "The Lobster", Yorgos Lanthimos delves deeply into our own ethical and moral standards with this unsettling psychodrama. It's a stray from the warped settings of "Dogtooth" and "The Lobster" with a more precise, normal sense of place... and that makes this movie that much scarier. Nothing is scarier than realizing evil lurks in a place that could be our own community.
Anyone who's anyone from the Southeast area of Pennsylvania known as Delco - short for Delaware County - will tell you we are our own breed. We're horrible drivers, we're abrasive and the bar known as Barns (Barnaby's) is the hot drinking spot for a true Delconian.
Delco is so cool that the Oscar-winning film "Silver Linings Playbook" was shot in part in some of its communities. We didn't get to see the attitude that is definitive of the area, but it definitely put us on the map.
Now we have the Comedy Central web series called "Delco Proper", a series of short scenarios that could seem aberrant to those not familiar with this wonderful pocket of the state, but is not at all shocking to those who call Delco home.
In the first episode, Tommy, Izzy and John attend a high school classmate's funeral, or as Tommy refers to as, a "high school reunion".
"It's a funeral, Tommy," says John.
"OK, a sad high school reunion," Tommy assuredly responds.
In Delco, one seems to stick around longer than they mean to, and when an impromptu high school "reunion" isn't happening at a local watering hole, a funeral will suffice. Anytime you see more than one of your classmates in public, it can almost always be a "sad" high school reunion, funeral not needed.
It's part of our charm.
In Delco, we don't ask ourselves why we haven't left yet, we ask why everyone else is still here.
Meanwhile, Izzy wants to kick funeral-goer Donny's ass and hopefully throw him through a stained-glass window. Why? Who knows, it's Delco. Who says we need a legit reason to fight someone?
What transpires in the six-minute episode is, I guess you could say, Delco proper: arguing at a funeral; trying to get laid at said funeral; cursing during a eulogy. It's not to say that these are inappropriate events, they are, but not so inappropriate to us in Delco. There's nothing so shocking that could happen here that would make us say, "that would never happen here!", it's usually always, "only in Delco".
A shock to the pride of Delconians is that aside from the show's name, you wouldn't even know it was set in Delco. There are no defining landmarks that screams Delco - give us a Wawa or something! The characters and situations are typical of our people, you could easily see that if you've lived here long enough, but there's no way to say it's about us if it weren't for the show name. If you took Delco out of the title this would seem like the workings of any other show about foul-mouthed guys pushing themselves in unnecessarily comical situations, or one that exploits a certain event to benefit their own selfish means (which is typical in Delco).
That said, "Delco Proper" is a pop of laughs for its short runtime. It borrows heavily from the film "Clerks" where dialogue is a profanity-laced look at life yet is comforting in that it sounds authentic and true to life, and the characters mirror that film's Dante and Randall (who, also, cause trouble at a funeral). The situations the characters get involved in combine the craziness of the aforementioned with the workings of a "Seinfeld" episode
I'm not saying I didn't laugh, but there is nothing about Delco in this series, so far, whose physical identity resembles the name.
Evan Mathew Weinstein and Larisa Polonsky are love interests in "Leaving Circadia" (Courtesy of Facebook)
If you've left college in the past 10 years (graduated or otherwise), it's quite possible some of you have been "privy" to that sudden realization that the parties are over and it's time to join the real world.
You've studied for four years, or longer, getting a piece of paper saying you have accumulated enough knowledge in an area of study that you can use it in the work place. Or maybe college wasn't for you and now you're struggling to find a good job that doesn't need that (un)necessary bachelor's degree.
Then all of a sudden people you went to high school and/or college with are getting married and having kids and you're just like "huh, what have I been doing with my life?" And the next thing you know you're 30 and you don't know what you've done lately.
"Leaving Circadia" explores this post-college rut.
Les Infidèles (The Players) (France, 2012, directed by Emmanuelle Bercot, Fred Cavayé, Alexandre Courtès, Jean Dujardin, Michel Hazanavicius, Jan Kounen, Eric Lartigau and Gilles Lellouche. in French with English subtitles, color, 109 minutes)
Never has a film taken such a prominent look at the cheating ways of men as "Les Infidèles (The Players)" has. This collection of short films explores so many different kinds of men (all being played by Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lellouche) that you feel bad for them even though you know you shouldn't.
The film opens and closes with the story of Fred (Dujardin) and Greg (Lellouche), two buddies who love staying out late, sleeping around and pretending they're still in the prime of their lives while their wives stay at home. Mounting pressure from their wives find the two going to Las Vegas for one final screwfest before fully committing.
A penis pump is one way Patrick Moote hopes to measure up in 'Unhung Hero'
It's Memorial Day, and instead of celebrating and watching parades and whatnot, I decided to watch a documentary about penis size. Yes, a comedic, light-hearted documentary about the lengths one man goes to to measure up with more average-sized males. I didn't mean for this to happen, but it was too interesting to stop.
It all started in Dec. 2011 when actor Patrick Moote proposed to his girlfriend at a UCLA basketball game. They were front and center in the "mistletoe cam" as the live proposal was broadcast on the big screens throughout the arena. As he proposed, his girlfriend walked away and he stayed there looking completely shot down. Video of the proposal (see below) would go on to create a worldwide sensation causing people to ask why she would let him down.
With family in toe, "This is 40" is not your typical holiday family film. Photo courtesy of Universal
This is 40
Judd Apatow's self-proclaimed 'sort of sequel' to "Knocked Up," "This is 40" is a mature and relate-able comedy. Studying the relationship of a 40-year-old couple (Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd), "This is 40" encompasses all of the harsh realities of being parents and lovers in this ever-changing world; sex, money, in-laws, teenagers, school parents, etc. Laugh out loud funny and endearing, this is a film a lot of couples can relate to during the holiday season. But in typical Apatow fashion, the film runs a little long.
