Three Movies and A Streaming Series (no spoilers!)

Because so much is being covered today, these critiques will be shorter than usual.  Here goes.....

"The White Lotus"

HBO has given us a second season of this Emmy Award winning series from 2021.  (My thoughts on that season can be found HERE.)  Season Two gives us more of the same: gorgeous scenery, this time in Sicily instead of Hawaii, beautiful, but not real likable people, twisty plot cliffhangers at the end of each of the seven episodes, and dead body at the very beginning, followed immediately by a flashback to "One Week Earlier".  

There are three separate plot lines following (1) two very attractive, very rich young couples;  the guys were college roommates who have both struck it rich in business, but will they remain friends, and will they remain happily married (if they ever were to begin with) as the week unfolds? (2) three generations of men from an Italian-American family (Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham is the grandfather and "The Sopranos" Michael Imperioli is his son) who are in Sicily to find their family roots, (3) Tonya McQuoid, played by the wonderful Jennifer Coolidge, the only recurring character from Season 1, who is at the White Lotus with her new husband, and (4) two beautiful - of course! - young Italian prostitutes who somehow manage to interact with all of them.  Oh, and throw in the story of White Lotus resort manager Valentina, who makes some steps towards self-discovery herself.  Mix it all up, and you have a wonderful melange of high quality soap opera-ish entertainment.

I think that I liked this season more than the first one, if for no other reason than many, but not all, of the characters in this season were people that you actually like and root for.  This is not a spoiler, but when the three De Grasso men do discover their ancestral home and some of their cousins?  Let's just say that the results are not what you would see in a Hallmark Channel movie.

The Grandstander gives this Three and One-half Stars, as he anxiously awaits Season Three in late 2023 or early 2024.

"See How They Run"

In 1953, an unscrupulous Hollywood producer (Ardian Brody) wants to make a movie from Agatha Christie's hit play, "The Mousetrap".  Trouble is,  no film production can be made until the play's run in London ends (SPOILER ALERT:  the play is still running in London, seventy years later), so what can be done to end the play's run? And what about the changes in the plot that Brody wants to make that are infuriating the screenwriter (David Oyelowo)?  A murder takes place, a whodunit unfolds, and the crime gets investigated by a half-assed Scotland Yard detective (Sam Rockwell) and an extremely overeager Women's Police Constable (something new in post-war England) played by the wonderful Saoirse Ronan.  As regular readers know, I love Miss Ronan in anything that she does, and she played this role to comic perfection, and the unraveling of the Whodunit makes for great movie-viewing fun.

Two and One-Half Grandstander Stars.

"Weird: The Weird Al Yankovic Story"

"Weird" is an apt title for this movie.  It is a send up of the kinds of movies we have seen in recent years about artists such a Freddie Mercury and Elton John, and told in the mockumentary style of "This is Spinal Tap".  Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame plays the adult Al Yankovic, and he proves to be the exception to the Hollywood tale of child actors not being able to make it as adults and outgrow the childhood roles that made them famous.  This is a fun movie and worth watching for two things alone:  (1) how young Al's father deals with a door-to-door accordion salesman, and (2) the original song that Yankovic himself sings over the closing credits.  If you're a person who leaves the theater or turns off the TV when the eight or nine minutes of credits start to roll, do NOT do so in this case.  It's hilarious.

This movie is available only on the ROKU streaming service, which I just learned is free.  Who knew?  Not me.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

"A Christmas Story Christmas"

Did a sequel to the now classic 1983 film "A Christmas Story" really need to be made?  Well, no it didn't, but that shouldn't stop fans of the first movie from seeing this.  Peter Billingsly, who played the air rifle longing Ralphie back in '83 returns as the now adult Ralph Parker.  The fact that Billingsly, who has spent most of his post-"Christmas Story" career as a producer got involved in this gave me hope that this would not be a cheap knock-off.  Anyway, the story takes place twenty-something years after the original, in 1972,  Ralph is an aspiring novelist with two kids of his own who learns that just before Christmas that his "Old Man" has died.  So, it's back to Indiana to settle affairs, celebrate Christmas, and, not incidentally, write the Old Man's obituary for the local newspaper.

The movie has many of the same characters and tropes from the original, adult Billingsly exhibits the same facial expressions as the kid Billingsly did, and his voice over narration of the story does full justice the the job that author Jean Shepard did in the original.

If you liked "A Christmas Story", and who didn't, I cannot imagine you not liking "A Christmas Story Christmas."

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

"The White Lotus" Concludes

Both the linked article in this post and my own comments contain spoilers about the HBO limited series, "The White Lotus."  If you have been watching the series and have not  yet seen the finale, you may want to come back to this post after you have watched that episode. 

I will say this.  HBO's recently concluded limited series was interesting.  Filmed in Maui, it was amazingly beautiful to look at, and it offered some pretty good performances by the actors (I will be addressing one in particular a bit later), and it offered a view of a slice of life and human nature that was absolutely abhorrent to watch.  One of the best comments about it that I saw came in a Facebook thread when someone said "I continue to watch in the hopes that everybody in it will die."  Yep, the characters in this one, almost every single one of them, were awful.  

I am not going to try a summarize this story of wealthy, privileged, white American one percenters as they griped and moaned about their lot in life  while condescending to those that they considered beneath them.  Instead, I will recommend that you read this analysis and summary of the series  by the Washington Post's Emily Yahr.   It is the best article that I read on the show since the series ended on Sunday.

As I said, all of the characters, some to more degrees that others, exhibited terrible traits and personalities.  The worst of all was the character Shane Patton, played by actor Jake Lacy.

Shane was a 30 year old, self-centered, silver spoon, spoiled brat millionaire who was at the White Lous resort on his honeymoon with his new wife Rachel, an aspiring journalist who still has to worry about her college loans.  The only time that Shane shows any interest at all in Rachel is when he talks about how beautiful and "hot" she is, or when he is having honeymoon sex with her.  Early on, Shane realizes that the gorgeous suite that they are in is NOT the suite that he - or rather his mother (who later shows up on their honeymoon) - had booked for them.  He spends the rest of his honeymoon week obsessing about getting into the right room, which was occupied by others, and making life miserable for Armand, the resort manager, and Rachel.   There may have been portrayals of bigger jerks in the history of movies and television, but right now, I am having a hard time thinking of who it might be.

Although he has a number of acting credits to his name, I was totally unfamiliar with any previous work of Jake Lacy, but I will say this:  He must be a pretty good actor because I will have a hard time ever watching him in anything that he may ever do in the future without intently disliking him as I think of the detestable Shane Patton.  If he plays Jesus Christ in a movie some day, I'll probably end up hating Jesus.  That's how convincing he was.   

Perhaps the best summary of him came in the final episode when Rachel finally had enough and told him that "he spent his honeymoon throwing a week long tantrum and ran to his Mommy to fix it when she showed up on his honeymoon."  I wanted to stand up and cheer.  But did Rachel actually follow through on her feelings?  You'll have to watch and find out.

My friend Elena made the following observation about the series:  "I watched, but I'm not sure if I'd recommend out to anyone."  That sums it up pretty well.

Two Stars from The Grandstander.

And, oh yeah, there are already plans for a Season Two of "The White Lotus, and yes, I will no doubt watch it.