Becky's Greatest Hits Vol. II

 

  Much like the first movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel , this film is definitely charming and sweet.  The kind of movie that makes you think but doesn't overwhelm you and gives you pleasant dreams at night as opposed to wide-awake yuckiness.   My only hope is that Dev Patel never gets cast as some kind of Indian villain because it would surely break my heart!

  Frenchie: "Beauty school sure wasn't what I thought it would be."   Vi: "Nothing ever is."    

  Let it go, let it go When I'll rise like the break of dawn Let it go, let it go That perfect girl is gone!   Here I stand In the light of day Let the storm rage on, The cold never bothered me anyway!     (From the first time I saw this movie, I knew exactly why so many adults loved it as much as children.  That movie is about empowerment!)

I can't even tell you how happy I am that this is not a row of accountants.

  Given my love of the Patti Smith/Robert Mapplethorpe love story/friendship , I was keen to check this one out.  This documentary focuses more on the relationship/patronship of Sam Wagstaff to controversial artist/photographer Mapplethorpe.    As a teenager in the 90's, I was very interested in Mapplethorpe's work .  Of course, at the time, it was very hard to actually see any of his work.  He had already died by that time , but he was still largely considered a pornographic pervert of the 1980's.  I remember writing a paper on censorship in high school and including the few bits and pieces of him that I could find.    Then as an adult, I learned about Robert Mapplethorpe through the eyes of Patti Smith , his young love and lifetime friend.    She speaks throughout this documentary and gives voice to how the friendship between the two of them made way for the three of them as Wagstaff came into the picture.    Others are not so kind.  They call Wag

For a documentary that you know already is going to have a sad ending, this is actually pretty entertaining and sweet.  With interviews from his many siblings and fellow comedic actors, the idea you always had that Chris was a really sweet guy and funny even off-stage is solidified.  Luckily, the doc didn't delve too hard into his final dark days, but instead focused on the loss felt by those around him.  Being that Chris Farley was such a big part of my teenage years in his time on SNL, I still feel sad to this day when I consider he's not around anymore.  But I also still enjoy everything he left behind and am grateful to him for it.

So this week one of my cousins had a baby, my child finished another successful summer at day camp, my husband's band played their one year anniversary show and I tried (unsuccessfully) to lure a stray cat from the woods to be my daytime friend.  Who's winning at life now????

This is one of those peel an onion, there's lots of layers kind of movies.  It's also the kind of movie where nothing really big happens and there's not much resolution to many unanswered questions.  However, it does make you think......about poverty, immigrant culture, work life, city life, and all the many things we never really know about each other. 

The Commonwealth

This novel provides a fictionalized account of the Mountain Meadows massacre which occurred in Utah in 1857.  I had never heard of this event until I read the book, but I have always been intrigued by the Mormon influence in our past and present culture here in America.  The story is told through the eyes of 3 of John Lee's 18 or so wives and actually taught me quite a bit about The Principle of plural marriage within the Mormon faith.  It's also interesting to think about how hard the Mormons are still trying, to this day, to make their religion acceptable to the rest of us.  But as long as there are characters like Warren Jeffs still walking around, I think they'll always have a hard go of swaying public opinion.

As far as I'm concerned, only Sheldon Cooper and Oscar groupies would find this interesting.  30 minutes in and I still couldn't get there.  Boring.  Sorry, nerds.

"So hoist up the John B's sail See how the main sail sets Call for the Captain ashore Let me go home, let me go home I want to go home, yeah yeah Well I feel so broke up I want to go home....."

Whatever shall I do with the rest of my summer????

  Conquered.   What else you got for me, world?