Monthly Archives: December 2021

Movie Review: The Tender Bar

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There will probably never be a lower budget movie that both Ben Affleck stars in and George Clooney directs than the new film “The Tender Bar”. This story is very simple, and very often the simpler the story, the better the movie. Tender Bar stars a young newcomer Daniel Ranieri, who plays the young version of the main character J.R, played by Tye Sheridan. Daniel is one of those very rare young actors who just can walk in and be a very strong presence and never appears to be acting. He was found by accident by George Clooney supposedly in a funny Youtube video where he was cursing constantly – leading to an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show, and a starring role in this movie. An amazing and very unlikely path to fame.

The simple story here is about a young J.R., who loves to read and one day just wants to be a writer. His family is very poor, and he and his mother have to move back in with her father played by Christopher Lloyd. Ben Affleck plays his uncle, who owns a local bar and takes the place of his father – an abusive alcoholic who proves a blessing that he does not live or stay in contact with this gifted and likeable young boy.

The central and best part of this movie is the story when J.R. goes to Yale and meets a very attractive young woman named Sydney in one of his classes; who then proceeds to torture him for years, leading him on, time after time. From one of J.R. friend’s account, “She dumped you 9 times”. The irony is, J.R. being so in love and never giving up, is the reason for Sydney’s not respecting him leading to his endless torture. At times it was almost as if she enjoyed torturing this young man, who was so desperate to impress her and break out of his average life to become someone she could respect. J.R.’s life is never easy but he eventually gets a job at the NY Times that goes both very well, and then not so great. Proving what we all know – what we imagine what our life should be – is very often not how things turn out. I did think that the ending of this film was too abrupt, almost as if they ran out of ideas, and I thought of one great revenge ending for J.R. that was in my head, but once again – not how real life happens. This film is about real life, and that is the most important point.

Once again I am stunned by the stupid and low ratings on Rotten Tomatoes of only 49% – once again the critics missed the point, missed the boat, and are completely wrong about this very good movie. I rate The Tender Bar a solid 85% and highly recommend it.


Movie Review: Spiderman: No Way Home

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The need to suspend all common sense in order to watch science fiction/Marvel movies has been increasing over the years and just might have reached a new high with the latest Spiderman movie “Spiderman: No Way Home”. The story started with the world finding out the identity of Spiderman aka Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, and as a result Peter Parker, his girlfriend MJ, played by Zendaya and best friend Ned played by Jacob Batalon could no longer get into MIT – due to recent negative and untrue press about Spiderman. The solution, Parker goes to Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch and asks him to reverse time in such a way that nobody knows his true identity; except for certain people who Parker chooses as Doctor Strange is creating the-reversal-time-with-exceptions-spell. Unfortunately the Doctor’s last minute changes cause some kind of a warped wrinkle in time where all the previous Spiderman’s and Spiderman villain’s come back to their world. This premise not only suspended but actually broke all levels of plausibility. While seeing all of this unfold I was more amazed that a thought like this could have been conceived, than I was annoyed at how insane this idea was. Coming up with a new idea that has never been done before can sometimes become a thin line between creativity and absurdity.

Once again the special effects for this latest Marvel movie are spectacular and it is always impossible not to be impressed with the computer generated effects within movies like this one. Unfortunately, the insane idea and at times, slow moving story tainted what could have been one of the better Spiderman movies. For me, the most amazing fact about this Spiderman movie is that the critical ratings are so high – 94%. My rating is around 75% with a mild recommendation mostly for the most die hard Spiderman fans.

Hulu Series Review: Dopesick

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“Erin Brockovich”, 2000, “Dark Waters”, 2019 and eventually a new movie will be released about the poisoning of water in Flynt Michigan in 2014 – all have one thing in common. The greed of some very wealthy companies and individuals who could have ever cared less about the “common people”, “the poor”, he “unfortunatet masses” who they share this world with. These are corporations and individuals (Pacific Gas and Electric and Dupont) who did not care if the common people died, as long as the profits continued to role in unabated. How do people like this exist? Where do they come from? How can they sleep at night? These are questions I asked myself while watching these two great movies.

The new Hulu 8 part series “Dopesick” is about Purdue Pharmaceutical and the Billionaire Sackler family who created a drug called OxyContin. Purdue executives said OxyContin was the greatest pain killing drug ever created. They also said that the odds of ever becoming addicted to this drug were less than 1% – a lie they even put on every bottle. Over time, as the drug grew in popularity, only because of the massive marketing and mass lying campaign, the company continuously changed the lies into a moving target of deception that over time caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. In fact, Purdue Pharmaceuticals has been the main cause of the Opioid crisis in this country.

The cast for Dopesick is outstanding, starting with Michael Keaton, who plays a small town doctor who becomes addicted to OxyContin after prescribing it to several of his own patients. Rosario Dawson and Peter Sarsgaard are great in their roles as Government agents who spend years trying to stop and then prosecute the executives of Perdue Pharma. The standout in this series is actor Michael Stulbarg who plays Richard Sackler who was the architect of the marketing deceptions that went on for years and ultimately killed thousands of Americans. Richard Sackler is the embodiment of pure evil throughout this entire well told story. Kaitlyn Dever is another standout in this series in her role as a young coal miner who becomes addicted to OxyContin and later Heroin after a back injury after an explosion in a coal mine.

The Greed displayed by the many sales people who traveled this country and lied to so many doctors and Hospitals was a times very hard to watch, because they all knew that this drug was killing people for years.

The IMDB rating for this series is a very high 88% and I agree with this high number and highly recommend this series, which is every bit as good as Erin Brockovich and Dark Waters in showing the worst parts of humanity.