(title mostly from The Beatles song of that name on their U.S. 1966 Yesterday and Today album)
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): When the few remaining top contenders for awards—such as Nomadland (Chloé Zhao, 2020) and Minari (Lee Isaac Chung, 2020) will finally become available to me—I’ll easily line up to see/review them, but in these doldrums weeks of February 2021 sometimes it takes a bit of internal-negotiation to decide what to streaming-screen (still no theaters except drive-ins open in my area, none anywhere close) especially when I encounter lots of mixed-messages from various reviews about the potential quality of my mulled-over-choices. The overall-tepid-response to Malcolm & Marie could easily have put me off, but some local San Francisco-area-praise lured me to it anyway, fortunately, because I found this film to be a great exploration of smoldering problems within a relationship as an up-and-coming-filmmaker (John David Washington) has a glorious night with the premiere of his new work only to go home with his girlfriend (Zendaya) to find she’s not only angry to not have been acknowledged in his remarks about his influences but also steamed the film seems based on her struggles with drugs, making her wonder if he has any insight of his own or simply functions as a conveyor of her experiences; their verbal sparing into dawn is just all we have in this somewhat-claustrophobic-film, yet that’s more than enough (Netflix).
In the Short Takes section I’ll offer remarks on Bliss, quite a mind-bender (with considerably-worse-critical-dismissal than Malcolm …) in which a distracted-from-life-man (Owen Wilson) with serious problems meets a woman (Salma Hayek) who says he’s living in a simulation she’s created, wants to help him re-enter the real world he’s disconnected from. Obviously there are allusions here to The Matrix trilogy (Larry/Lana and Andy/Lilly Wachowski; 1999, 2003) about living in an artificial environment (although the “real world” in Bliss is a paradise compared to the devastated-Earth Neo [Keanu Reeves] and his colleagues must navigate) as well as to the surreal-futuristic-sci-fi Zardoz (John Boorman, 1974) where a seeming-paradise of technologically-enhanced-“eternals” will be intentionally destroyed by an designated-savior (Sean Connery), for me a much-more-engaging-exploration of some themes hinted at in Bliss, but a film similarly savaged by critics in its time although it’s gained better acceptance in recent years, a status I doubt will ever be attained by Bliss (Amazon Prime). Also in Short Takes I’ll offer a cluster of suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, ye tedious software!) along with my standard dose of industry-related-trivia.
Here’s the trailer for Malcolm & Marie:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $. To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid those important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like this:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: On the triumphant night of the premiere of his new production, aspiring-star-filmmaker (he's director, screenwriter, producer) Malcolm Elliott (John David Washington) and his girlfriend, Marie Jones (Zendaya), return to their fancy hilltop home in Malibu, him ecstatic over audience response and praise from critics at the after-party, her annoyed as anger rapidly grows over his forgetting to thank her in remarks about special influences (apparently he made his only comments before the showing—dramatically necessary to spark their fight but odd he wouldn’t also speak after the screening where he’d get a chance to apologize publicly for his previous omission—because he notes he tried to apologize while the film was being shown but she said “No problem”; Marie starting changing her mind, though, during the party when people privately noted to her what a slight that was—even if unintentional), especially because she feels the story about a young woman struggling with drug addiction is based on her situation (she could probably have a long talk after a rehab session with Greg from Bliss [reviewed below] about their mutual difficulties) even though he insists she’s only a partial influence, his plot’s based on many people he’s known. What starts out as just a few caustic remarks from one to the other (the only characters in this entire story) becomes a continuous flow of mutual-bile, although they do lighten up at one point during this nighttime conflict, seem on the verge of Seinfeld’s noted make-up sex (at another point they even laugh about him becoming famous, devolving into a “LEGO movie-sellout”), then return to demeaning, damaging verbal attacks (never does it get physical) in a real-time-flow of point-counterpoint-anger leaving us to wonder if we’ll even have 2 characters left by the end of this ongoing confrontation which does ultimately break from its presentation of temporal unity, because we finally get to dawn although what’s on screen doesn’t even exceed 2 hours, as they both, from exhaustion, fall asleep for awhile.
During the fighting, though, he accuses her of being “delusional” and “crazy,” feels she’s wasted her talent by not continuing her previous (but brief, surely; she’s only 20) acting career, is just looking for excuses to hang onto him for emotional/financial survival while she calls him “needy,” blasts him for basing his new-found-fame (his previous cinematic efforts haven’t been all that well received) on her life without having any artistic depth of his own, coming from a well-to-do-background while letting most people think he’s up from the streets. (My thought here: this charge seems akin to the similar sometimes-perception of John Singleton that’s often misconstrued, too, due to the ghetto-content of his breakthrough Boyz N the Hood [1991]; Singleton said he grew up in South Central L.A., made an effort to avoid unhealthy influences, but his parents were both professionals, he graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in a program propelling him directly into the industry, so Malcolm’s situation may be like Singleton’s but not for reasons most assume, as Marie so snidely reminds him.)
In an interesting twist on his anticipated fame, though, Malcolm also complains about White reviewers who see his work as racially-motivated, racially-focused when he simply wants to be respected in the manner of someone like William Wyler,* known for command of his craft rather than being the “next Spike Lee or Barry Jenkins” where he’s a prominent Black filmmaker seen through the lens of his cultural identity rather than simply as an artist. (Just as, I’ll add, it rarely matters Pablo Picasso was Spanish, Jackson Pollock was from Wyoming before becoming a NYC celebrity, because they’re remembered for their work, not their backgrounds; however, Malcolm’s argument shows some notable ego as he’s denigrating content of reviews that haven’t even been written yet, although one coming out this early A.M. in the Los Angeles Times confirms his concern.) While you might think watching 2 people lash out in their emotional frustrations in a confined space (even one as architecturally-enticing as this one) would get tedious, the quality of the writing (Levinson again) and delivery of these lines (likely with improv added) makes for a compelling cinematic experience, altered only a little when one or both of them step outside for a smoke. It may sound more like filmed (35mm, displaying the gorgeous range of B&W tones in this equally-unlikely achromatic filming process) theatre than cinema, but when such a situation works due to staging (including camera movement), engaging dialogue, actors in command of their craft you don’t need a lot of filmic tricks here for ”opening up the space” anymore than they were needed with a larger cast, color cinematography, and a few secondary sets in the fabulous Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (George C. Wolfe, 2020; review in our December 31, 2020 posting). Much of what this couple hurls is better seen than verbally recounted, but for the sake of using my spoilers I’ll just say ⇒Regarding acting, she’s angry about not being cast in his film as she sees it as her life story, also wants him to respect rather than pity her. Exhausted, they sleep 'til dawn; then she wakes, goes outside, he joins her.⇐
* When’s the last time you heard his name come up in a film script? Although you might know him better by his work during Hollywood’s Golden Era (and slightly beyond) than his name: Wuthering Heights (1939), Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Roman Holiday (1953), Ben-Hur (1959), Funny Girl (1968), many others from a long career (bolded titles won him Oscars as Best Director). As an aside, he was one of the few classic American (although immigrated from Alsace [in Germany before WW I, France after]) directors to emphasize a wide-shot, deep-focus, long-take approach rather than a lot of cutting; I’m lucky enough to have met him not long before he died (1981) to briefly discuss this process, often done in collaboration with famed-Citizen Kane-cinematographer-Gregg Toland. Malcolm’s to be commended for wanting to join such lofty company.
So What? Malcolm & Marie has the notable distinction of being the first Hollywood production made during the COVID-19 restrictions (summer of 2020), although shot in northern California near Carmel-by-the-Sea (a place with special memories for my marvelous wife, Nina, and me; remind me to tell you sometime about the “Little Gun Inn”) rather than in southern CA’s Malibu where the story’s set. Further, the cast (all both of them) and the 20-person-crew had to work in strict quarantine conditions in one of the few places in the state then where filmmaking was still allowed (with precautions), so they all got to know each other well during the time when this film was shot over a 2-week-period. For me, what results from this close collaboration is a powerful exploration of the fragility that may underline what seems (even to those directly involved) to be a stable relationship when in fact there’s unspoken resentment about what each sees as a failing in the other: Malcolm’s witnessed Marie’s depression during her addiction/sobriety stages, doesn’t truly trust her not to fall back again, probably feels a bit paternalistic about how he stood by her during hard times; Marie sees him as narcissistic, focused only on his work and the desire to be praised (properly, at that) for it rather than sharing the energy she feels is necessary toward the development of their relationship.
With these repressed hostilities spewing out, diatribes do frequently turn into soliloquies of extended delivery, yet I found them to be powerful, authentic (if maybe a bit too carefully-crafted at times to organically reflect the heat of the moment), just as I'm amazed every time I revisit the fabulous film adaptation (never saw a performance of the Edward Albee stage original [1962]) of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966) where Elizabeth Taylor equally tears into Richard Burton (who fights back just as cruelly), a masterpiece often cited in reviews of Malcolm ... (and by Levinson in his Related Links interview far below) as a comparison illustrating the script failures of this work (not so much the performances, though Zendaya’s usually more lauded than Washington). But, just because you have a 5 stars-worthy-exemplar like … Woolf? to appreciate for its accomplishments doesn’t mean you can’t also have a 4 stars-contemporary-excursion into similar territory, using new grievances (something we’ll never run out of), new failures, new difficulties even if the foundational struggle’s easily alluded to—as long as the writing, acting, filmmaking processes justify such praise as I and a limited number of others have assigned to Malcolm … . If you need a sample of the venom unleashed on this film (although many other examples are also easily found) you might want to read these blistering rejections from The Atlantic’s Shirley Li or Vulture’s Angelica Jade Bastién; however, you can also explore a (mostly) opposite viewpoint from The Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday (although why her supportive comments rate only 2 of 4 stars is a bit odd to me), as well as a direct response from director Levinson. If, after all that, you’re interested in how Zendaya and Washington viewed what they contributed to this creation, here’s their breakdown (6:50), along with Levinson, of the mac & cheese scene which comes during the early stage of their confrontations as he chooses to eat comfort food rather than continue addressing her frustrations with his bad attitude.
Bottom Line Final Comments: Where this film’s concerned, the CCAL’s very close to OCCU status with those at Rotten Tomatoes offering only 59% positive reviews while their comrades at Metacritic go even lower with a 53% average score (however, if you want to find them really wallowing in OCCU territory take a look at the review below of Bliss); where Zendaya’s concerned, though, there was some after-the-fact-disappointment from various analysts of the movie business she was left out of Best Actress considerations by both the Golden Globes (their complete list is in Related Links; awards Sunday, February 28, 2021) and the Screen Actors Guild (awards Sunday, April 4, 2021)—which is always a tough decision when you get down to the pool of top contenders, yet only 5 will be chosen (Washington wasn’t named either, but I’d seen no speculation he would be); beyond that, I can’t really say much about either group’s noms because there are just too many intriguing possibilities I haven’t had a chance to see yet. What I can say is I thoroughly enjoyed Malcolm …, don’t truly understand how so many reviewers can be so reserved about it, and find no fault it “plays” like a theater performance given its tiny cast, single set, and flow of action that almost parallels real time (but, unlike something akin to Rope [Alfred Hitchcock, 1948], where careful staging of movements and props covers up most of the shot transitions so the flow of the story presents itself seamlessly on screen, apparently with few cuts, Malcolm … uses lots of cuts, an active mixture of wideshots and closeups to make this experience more cinematic, although the choice to shoot in B&W does render it with a more-conscious-aesthetic given the expectation of color in almost every screen-vehicle in our culture). As for any concern about excessive-theatrical-nature here (with some of those critical complaints being those extensive soliloquies as these lovers spend most of the night berating each other), I’ve got no problem with that, as long as it’s done as well as we have it here, although a good many of the naysayers feel this extended-verbal-beatdown is much too calculated, artificial. All I can say to that is if you’ve never been in a situation with a significant other (where during an argument your emphasis shifts from the 1st to the 2nd word in that phrase), with the basic complaints laid out early on, only to be repeated for hour-upon-miserable-hour (yes, I’ve been there in a couple of past relationships), then I either salute you or express sympathy you’ve never had an ongoing-involvement long enough for such a miserable-emotional-breakdown to occur.
Despite the OCCU reticence, I highly recommend for you to consider watching Malcolm & Marie, supposedly playing in some theaters (though I find no evidence of such) but mostly available through Netflix streaming. I’ll close with my Musical Metaphor of The Beatles’ “I’ll Be Back” (on two 1964 albums, A Hard Day’s Night in the U.K., Beatles ’65 in the U.S.) at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fJSTBNTac6k, where either main character could sing this to the other: “You could find better things to do than to break my heart again […] I wanna go But I hate to leave you.” How long such a possible leaving will be postponed for the frustration-filled-lovers in Malcolm ... is hard to say.
SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)
Bliss (Mike Cahill) rated R 105min.
A man (Owen Wilson) is distracted from his life, fired from his job when he meets a woman (Salma Hayek) who says he’s living in a simulation she’s created (The Matrix, anyone?), that the much better real world exists somewhere else which she’ll take him to; this movie has a potentially-intriguing premise but comes off as too disjointed and overall a bit of a flop, proceed at your own risk.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
In choosing to ignore the mediocre CCAL numbers for Malcolm & Marie, intrigued by my interest in its stars, encouraged by a couple of local-San Francisco-area-critics I’m willing to listen to, I found myself rewarded with a solid cinematic experience, so I ventured further into the realm of critical doom as the OCCU’s really harsh on Bliss, with numbers of 29% at RT, 38% at MC. Still, there were local enthusiasts again, along with a potentially-intriguing-concept, so I gave it a shot. Unfortunately, it’s mostly a misfire, although not as horrible as its worst dismissals would indicate, as the concept has real potential, the acting by the leads pushes its idea as far as they can, but in the end there’s not nearly as much there as you’d hope. Essentially, Greg Wittle (Owen Wilson) is disengaged from his work at some large phone center, spending his time in a roomy office drawing pictures of places and people popping into his mind, even as daughter Emily (Nesta Cooper) pleads with him to attend her college graduation but he hesitates, not wanting to start a row with his ex-wife. Fired by boss Bjorn (Steve Zissis), Greg lashes out, accidently kills him, hides the body behind a curtain, heads to a bar across the street where he meets Isabel Clemens (Salma Hayek) who claims they’re among those few actual people in this existence, a simulation she's created with her Brain Box technologies.
She shows her command over this environment by throwing Bjorn’s body through his office window as if he’s committed suicide to take pressure off Greg who then takes up with her in a squatters’ area by a freeway overpass (even as Emily keeps trying to find him) until Isabel gets some blue crystals from Kendo (Ronny Chieng) to transport them to the real Earth (they land in sort of an Italian coastal location, lush with technological advances) where they’re both scientists as well as a romantic couple, but her research is questioned so she devises a public display with Greg to show how her intervention made a positive impact (despite his private qualms of seeing ghostly-Emily trying to bring him home). ⇒Insurrection (seemingly a bleed-over from the simulated-world) flares up, as Isabel decides she and Greg must return there to quell these problems; she gets more crystals from Kendo but shoots him. Police arrive, as Isabel uses the crystals to escape after which Greg goes to a rehab clinic, later makes contact with Emily giving the impression everything involving Isabel was the result of drug-induced-delusions on his part.⇐ (If you’d like more plot details [spoilers included, of course] here’s a video (15:51) to aid with that.) There’s potential for a useful Matrix-like sci-fi story here but that doesn’t come to fruition as this is a jumbled mess, so unless you already have free access via Amazon Prime, just want to kill some time, you could find better ways to get through the day. Maybe you’d prefer to just listen to my Musical Metaphor (to complete my Beatles trifecta) of “I’m Only Sleeping” (1966 Revolver U.K. album, U.S. Yesterday and Today) at https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=BT5j9OQ7Sh0, alluding to Greg in his alternative-mindset where, for most of his story, he pleads with everyone: “Please don’t spoil my day, I’m miles away And after all, I’m only sleeping […] When I’m in the middle of a dream Stay in bed, float up stream.” In the end it’s Emily, not “Isabel” who brings him stability, but we may not care much by the time his issues are addressed.
Suggestions for TCM cablecasts
At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are U.S. Pacific Daylight so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed. These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like even better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click the down arrow at the right of each listing for additional, useful info.
I’ll bet if you checked that entire schedule link just above you’d find other options of interest, but these are the only ones grabbing my attention at present. Please dig in further for other possibilities.
Friday February 12, 2021
1:00 AM Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Once a decade, Sight & Sound magazine polls film critics on All-Time #1; in 2012 Vertigo ended Citizen Kane’s (Orson Welles, 1941) 50-year run on top (Kane’s still #1 for me), certainly one of Hitchcock’s best, but a hard choice also. James Stewart’s an ex-cop with a fear of heights, shadowing—then romancing—a friend’s possibly-faithless wife (Kim Novak), who seemingly leaps to her death … or does she? Stewart’s character’s a real departure.
5:00 PM Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Do you really need my description to know what this one’s about? If so, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre are “looking at you, kid,” to watch it! (A movie truly defining what I consider to be a 5 stars-“classic,” celebrated for decades as a story of hope, patriotism, and making the right decision when romance conflicts with greater needs in the early years of WW II.)
7:00 PM West Side Story (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, 1961) One of the best musicals ever, adapted from a successful 1957 Broadway play, itself adapted from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the rival families now being rival NYC street gangs as Jets Tony (Richard Beymer) falls for Sharks’ relative Maria (Natalie Wood) but the entrenched rivalries (Whites vs. Puerto Ricans) lead to tragedy. Huge Oscar winner: Best Picture, Director(s), Supporting Actor (George Chakiris), Supporting Actress (Rita Moreno), Film Editing, Scoring for a Musical, Sound, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design (last 3 all for color films), Honorary Award to Robbins for his marvelous choreography, also highest grosser of ’61 (Pauline Kael hated it; she’s one of the few).
Saturday February 13, 2021
11:00 AM Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965) Epic adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel (1957)—less emphasis on history (Russian Revolution, Civil War), more on affair of Zhivago (Omar Sharif), Lara Anipova (Julie Christie); also stars Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger. 10 Oscar noms (The Sound of Music also had 10, beat Doctor … in 4 of those categories), won 5: Best Art Direction, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design, Original Score.
Sunday February 14, 2021
9:45 PM City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931) On my all-time Top 10 list, combining the Tramp’s physical-dexterity-comedy (especially in the prizefight scene) with subtly-serious observations during this early-Depression era as he tries to help a blind woman (Virginia Cherrill) he’s fallen in love with, her mistakenly thinking he’s a rich man; there’s an actual millionaire also (Harry Myers) who buddies with the Tramp when drunk, dismisses him when sober. Poignant ending left open to interpretation.
Monday February 15, 2021
10:15 PM Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, 1958) Not as bluntly controversial as the stark Tennessee Williams play it’s adapted from, this still burns with passion, hatred, interpersonal misery as alcoholic, depressive Brick’s (Paul Newman) chastised by both his fed-up wife, Maggie “the cat” (Elizabeth Taylor), and dismissive, dying father Big Daddy (Burl Ives). Maybe if you’re from the South (I am) you’ll fully appreciate how true to some lives this more-or-less-fictional-story ultimately is.
If you’d like your own PDF of ratings/summaries of this week's reviews, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: Extras for you: (1) February 2021 debuts on Netflix; (2) February 2021 debuts on Amazon Prime; (3) February 2021 debuts on Hulu; (4) February 2021 debuts on Disney+; (5) February 2021 debuts on HBO Max. This section closes with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder of streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts.* Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it!
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problems’ been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
AND … at least until the Oscars for 2020’s releases have been awarded on Sunday, April 25, 2021 we’re also going to include reminders in each posting of very informative links where you can get updated tallies of which films have been nominated for and/or received various awards and which ones made various individual critic’s Top 10 lists. You may find the diversity among the various awards competitions and the various critics hard to reconcile at times—not to mention the often-significant-gap between critics’ choices and competitive-award-winners (which pales when they’re compared to the even-more-noticeable-gap between specific award winners and big box-office-grosses you might want to monitor here as well as here due to many 2020 releases being tracked on the 2021 list, although the income situation for 2020’s skewed due to so many award-contenders getting limited or no theatrical releases)—but as that less-than-enthusiastic-patron-of-the-arts, Plato, noted in The Symposium (385-380 BC)—roughly translated, depending on how accurate you wish the actual quote to be—“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,” so your choices for success are as valid as any of these others, especially if you offer some rationale for your decisions (unlike many of the awards voters who simply fill out ballots, sometimes—damn it!—for films they’ve never seen).
To save you a little time scrolling through the “various awards” list above, here are the current Golden Globe nominees for films and TV from 2020-early 2021.
Here’s more information about Malcolm & Marie:
https://www.netflix.com/title/81344370
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sS6dAoVfEU (8:11 interview with actors Zendaya and John David Washington on a little bit of how this film was shot, then some trivia) and (sorry for this link-length) https://www.youtube.com/watch?sc_src=email_2205379&sc_lid=174005876&sc_uid= VfAah02i0H&sc_llid=75703&sc_eh=ca891157c745a5a61&utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium =email&utm_campaign=020521+DE+MALCOLM+%26+MARIE+-+All+Other+Markets&v= QLllr3uYJj4&feature=youtu.be (9:41 interview with director Sam Levinson)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/malcolm_and_marie
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/malcolm-marie?ref=hp
Here’s more information about Bliss:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10333426/ (best I can do for an official site)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IckAxD11cgk (4:34 interview with actor Salma Hayek)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bliss_2021
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/bliss-2021
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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker. But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"
—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come.
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