Q-Tips Reviews

PARASITE –  Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist, to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. The Kims provide “indispensable” luxury services while the Parks obliviously bankroll their entire household. When a parasitic interloper threatens the Kims’ newfound comfort, a savage, underhanded battle for dominance breaks out, threatening to destroy the fragile ecosystem between the Kims and the Parks.  There are subtitles for you to understand and enjoy.

Q-tips say:  A movie about the poor & rich. The Obama’s production co. did this movie. The other half liked it.  Mrs. Q did not. Since when is it ok to kill just to get what you want whether you are rich or poor?

Marriage Story –   A stage director and his actor wife struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal and creative extremes.  

Q-tips say: Was good but long. A story about the trials and tribulations of divorce and custody battles, is really nothing we haven’t seen before.

Mrs. Q says: The most entertaining characters are the two lawyers … they’re both just awful and they’re in it for themselves … I would watch an entire film or series just about the  lawyers going at each other.

Live Twice Love Once –  Emilio searches for the great love of his youth, with the help of his daughter and granddaughter. Will he be able to reconnect with this lost love before his memory fails?

Q – tips say: Was OK – enjoyed it.  Drama about facing Alzheimer’s.  Need to know: that Live Twice, Love Once is a Spanish-language film set in and around Valencia, Spain. It’s a dramatic story, incorporating comedy and irony, about a university mathematics professor after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. As the retired professor’s condition worsens, his relationship with his exasperating but well-meaning daughter and his own awareness of what is to come send him on a journey to find an early love that he’s never forgotten. Some profanity is included, mostly “f–k,” often uttered by a precocious 11-year-old. While there’s no sexuality, infidelity plays a role in the story. Wine is consumed in social settings; some drunkenness occurs at a boisterous wedding. For English-speaking audiences, the film is available on Netflix, either translated (dubbed) into English or with English subtitles.

TROOP ZERO – In rural 1977 Georgia, a misfit girl (Mckenna Grace) dreams of life in outer space. When a national competition offers her a chance at her dream, to be recorded on NASA’s Golden Record, she recruits a makeshift troop of Birdie Scouts, forging friendships that last a lifetime and beyond. NOTE: PG (for thematic elements, language, and smoking throughout.)

Q-tips say: We did like it.   The movie offers a lovely message of self-worth that makes the picture mandatory viewing for pre-teen audiences.

Once upon a Time in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino’s ninth feature film is a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor…Sharon Tate.

Q-tips say:  Complex, conversation-starting look back at the film business at the close of a tumultuous decade.  No real plot, fancy car driving shots with some stand out scenes but overall disjointed and a tad dull.  Many famous names/actors.

1917 – At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (Captain Fantastic’s George MacKay) and Blake (Game of Thrones’ Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers–Blake’s own brother among them.

Q-tips say: 1917 is an impressive technical achievement, 1917 captures the trench warfare of World War I with raw, startling immediacy.   War remains hell, and this movie shows us that inferno to devastating effect. Not an easy movie, but certainly a memorable one. Technically, it is undeniably impressive.