1/15/22 – In the world of international crime, an Interpol agent attempts to hunt down and capture the world’s most wanted art thief.
Q-tips say: OK – silly but we did enjoy to a point. The nice thing here is that the humor outweighs the mindless action.
Mrs. Q says: Keep in mind, it is just a movie. We watched it on a cool rainy evening it was just about perfect for the time and place. It promises good action, charm, absurd journey. A film worth watching for a goofy good time. Just some good dumb fun. The final scene suggests a sequel.
Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil’s romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. He is a cowboy as raw as his hides. The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, reveling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter — all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her. As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form — he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil’s cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace?
Q-tips say: YES, see it. We enjoyed it. Won many awards.
Mrs. Q says: Filmed with stunning scenery, Dog can subvert your early opinions about who is “good” and “evil” in the drama, and make you reconsider your sympathies by the end. The movie is quietly, sneakily stunning.
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When whip-smart Cambodian doctor Thony De La Rosa comes to the United States for medical treatment to save her ailing son, she soon discovers her path won’t be as straightforward as she had hoped. As the system quickly fails her, pushing her into hiding, she resolves not to allow herself to be beaten down and marginalized, and becomes a cleaning lady for organized crime. Using her cunning and intelligence, Thony forges her own path in the criminal underworld, doing whatever she has to to survive.
Q-tips say: Like it. Mrs. Q says: Not sure if I would like it, but I do. So we will be watching it every Monday evening. Sometimes the usual sitcoms are ok – but sometimes not. So this is, for now, a nice change from the usual.
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1/2/22 – After his wife’s death, Stéphane moves to the mountains with 8-year-old daughter Vicky, who has stopped talking. One day, while walking in the forest, Vicky discovers a puppy that she decides to keep in secret. She names him Mystery.
Q-tips say: Yes, see it. We enjoyed this movie. It’s irresistible. Mrs. Q says: The movie has a simple plot, gorgeous scenery and adorable trained wolves of various ages depicting the titular pup as he grows up, faces his wildness and tries to reconcile this with his love for a little girl.
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12/2021 – Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), an astronomy grad student, and her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) make an astounding discovery of a comet orbiting within the solar system. The problem: it’s on a direct collision course with Earth. The other problem? No one really seems to care. Turns out warning mankind about a planet-killer the size of Mount Everest is an inconvenient fact to navigate. With the help of Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), Kate and Randall embark on a media tour that takes them from the office of an indifferent President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her sycophantic son and Chief of Staff, Jason (Jonah Hill), to the airwaves of The Daily Rip, an upbeat morning show hosted by Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry). With only six months until the comet makes impact, managing the 24-hour news cycle and gaining the attention of the social media obsessed public before it’s too late proves shockingly comical — what will it take to get the world to just look up?!
Q-tips say: How about we say: Don’t look at this movie instead of Don’t Look Up.
Mrs. Q says: This movie strikes a unique tone somewhere between comedy and drama, but ultimately underperforms at both.
12/21 – Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) are threatened by shocking personal accusations, a political smear and cultural taboos in Academy Award (R)-winning writer and director Aaron Sorkin’s behind-the-scenes drama Being the Ricardos. A revealing glimpse of the couple’s complex romantic and professional relationship, the film takes audiences into the writers’ room, onto the soundstage and behind closed doors with Ball and Arnaz during one critical production week of their groundbreaking sitcom “I Love Lucy.”
Q-tips say: Just ok – was hard, many times, when they switched to the past to the present, to adjust to which was which.
Mrs. Q says: A busy and oddly disjointed portrait of American TV icon Lucille Ball. Kidman’s Lucille Ball is a fully realized character… The problem is, Ball ends up being so unlikable you don’t want to spend this much time with her.
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George Bailey has spent his entire life giving of himself to the people of Bedford Falls. He has always longed to travel but never had the opportunity in order to prevent rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town. All that prevents him from doing so is George’s modest building and loan company, which was founded by his generous father. But on Christmas Eve, George’s Uncle Billy loses the business’s $8,000 while intending to deposit it in the bank. Potter finds the misplaced money and hides it from Billy. When the bank examiner discovers the shortage later that night, George realizes that he will be held responsible and sent to jail and the company will collapse, finally allowing Potter to take over the town. Thinking of his wife, their young children, and others he loves will be better off with him dead, he contemplates suicide. But the prayers of his loved ones result in a gentle angel named Clarence coming to earth to help George, with the promise of earning his wings. He shows George what things would have been like if he had never been born
Q-tips say: Yes, you probably have seen it before but Wonderful Life is one of a handful of films worth an annual viewing. Mrs. Q says: It is like a nice glass of Christmas brandy, it warms the heart and makes you feel good.
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Singers Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) join sister act Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy Haynes (Vera-Ellen) to perform a Christmas show in rural Vermont. There, they run into Gen. Waverly (Dean Jagger), the boys’ commander in World War II, who, they learn, is having financial difficulties; his quaint country inn is failing. So what’s the foursome to do but plan a yuletide miracle: a fun-filled musical extravaganza that’s sure to put Waverly and his business in the black!
Q-tips say: We enjoyed it. Great songs, gentle humor and a dose of syrup which is not to everyone’s tastes, but worth buying to keep that Christmas spirit going until next year. More for adults than the little ones.
Harry Connick Jr., Taraji P. Henson, and Celina Smith in Annie Live. A young orphan opens the heart of billionaire Sir Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.
Q-tip say: YES, see it- we enjoyed it. It was completely fine.
The story might be set in the Depression, but “Annie Live!,” warts and all, delivered a little ray of sunshine heading into the holidays — something forgotten by tomorrow, perhaps, but good enough for tonight.
