What I Watched -- Sunlight Jr.

Random Netflix finds are becoming more and more common.  Mostly they are not great.  Sunlight Jr. was one of those.

It should be good.  It stars Naomi Watts and Matt Dillon, both of whom I like.  They play a Florida couple, hurting for money with not much in the way of prospects.  An unexpected pregnancy doesn't go quite as planned.

Bottom line: there is a lot here to work with, but it just doesn't come together.  Skip it.

Polite Society

Dad was in town recently, and we tried out a new place called Polite Society for dinner.  We were joined by S and G&G.

I liked Polite Society from the beginning.  I liked the pictures on their website, I liked the text on their website, and I liked how, well, polite they were on the phone when I called to make the reservation.  And then twice more to change it.

I will give Polite Society a thumbs up.  Not everything was spectacular -- Dad's steak was cold, my crispy onion straws had gone a bit soggy, and one of S's cocktails was a bit flavorless.  The first two I ascribe to the extended length of time we spent eating our appetizers; I'm sure they didn't anticipate we would be so deliberate about it, so I can't really blame them for this one.  As for the cocktail, well, they're not all going to be the great.  I've had some duds before, and I'm sure I will again.  It did come with a Luxardo cherry, so that's a plus.

I plan to go back for brunch to give it a second try!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Birthday, E!

What I Watched -- Night Owls

On our flight home from Florida, S scored with this cute-ish Netflix dramedy, Night Owls.  If it's not something that I've read outside reviews about (like Lion), Netflix has been very hit-or-miss.  We had a lot of misses, but this was a funny and sweet story about two people who are each so messed up and stuck in their own heads that somehow they make sense to each other.

The movie really has two characters: Kevin and Madeline.  The setup is simple: they get drunk and stumble home to have sex.  Much to Kevin's chagrin, it turns out that they are not at her house, but at his boss's house (who, it turns out, is the object of her affections, and the man with whom she's been having an affair for some time).  Kevin is tasked with keeping Madeline quiet (to prevent scandal for the local college football program) and alive (generally to prevent scandal), and through the time time they spend together, they learn a lot about each other, their town, and themselves.

Bottom line: like I said, a cute-ish dramedy.  The real winners are the two actors, who have great chemistry even in the face of a pretty bland plot.

What I Watched -- Lion

I've loved Dev Patel since Slumdog Millionaire.  He's fallen into that sort-of unenviable role as the grown-up Indian orphan, but he does it so well!  In Lion, his younger self isn't technically an orphan, but he does get separated as a small child from his mother and older brother, and ends up in an orphanage where he cannot speak the language.

After being adopted by an Australian couple and having what appears to be a lovely life, memories of his childhood begin to haunt him and he goes searching for his biological family.

It's a bit of a tricky film to balance, when you have a main character who is stuck between his past and his present.  You completely understand the pain of his Australian family, while at the same time understanding Saroo's need to find himself in his past.  It all becomes even more poignant when you are reminded, at the conclusion of the film, that it's a true story.

Bottom line: excellent.

What I Watched -- Bright

Bright is a Netflix exclusive, and it had gotten a fair amount of press, most of which was polarized, and the majority of which was not good.

However, it was not a completely unwatchable movie.  It was definitely some LOTR fan-fic-style story-telling, with orcs and elves and whatnot.  But it's a present-day tale, with Will Smith playing a human police officer who has been partnered, against his wishes, with the department's first orcish officer.  He's not such a bad guy that he'll sell out his partner, however, which puts him in a bit of a tight spot.

There's a lot of social commentary that doesn't add much to the movie.  Without it, it would be just a regular buddy cop drama; with it, it's a weird newsworthy attempt at movie making.  And it's making even more news now, since Netflix, who funded the first project to the tune of $90 million, is also working on a sequel.

Bottom line: not so bad I won't watch the second one, if for no other reason than to see how it goes.

Goals 2018 -- February Edition

I have a tech goal for myself this month.  To be fair, I started working on this over the holidays when I had some down time, but I would like to go through my multitude of email accounts and delete old, irrelevant, or otherwise unnecessary messages.

Boring, I know, but it's one of those things that just needs to happen.

Goals 2018 -- January Recap

Guys, I have done so many things differently this month!

Here are some of them:

1. I have been drinking more water.  A simple app on my phone reminding me to drink water has helped a lot with this.

2. I have paid more attention to what I eat.  I have not gone as crazy as E and cut out all sugar, but I have been keeping track of my intake, which I find is helpful in cutting down on sugar, because it becomes so clear that high-sugar foods just don't provide much in the way of sustenance.

3. I have gotten a new office chair.  It has no lumbar support at all, but paradoxically it seems to be having the effect of causing me to sit up straighter.  Rather than reclining against the back of the chair, I perch on the edge of it, which means I have to use my own core muscles to sit up, which makes me think about sitting up!  This is something that I have been wanting to pay more attention to for a long time!

4. I decided that wasting 20 minutes of good sleep by hitting the snooze button over and over was a stupid idea, and the constant crashing of my alarm clock app was making me nervous that one day it just wouldn't go off.  So I installed a new app, set it for the actual time I'm supposed to get up, and disabled the snooze function. I've overslept once; I'm not quite sure what happened, but I assume it was a sleep-induced brain fog that allowed me to think I still had the ability to snooze. Which I suppose, in a manner of speaking, I do.  I'm hopeful that I learned my lesson for a while. (Another option: wake up to a real clock alarm, rather than an app. Might try that next.)

So, here's hoping I sustain these positive changes for the long term!

Oh, and I cleaned out the fridge and pantry!

Before:

After:

You may not be able to tell much of a difference, but I can!

What I Watched -- Wildlike

After a couple more movie failures on our flight to Florida, we struck it rich with Wildlike.

There is some extremely difficult subject matter in the form of sexual abuse perpetrated by a family member, and that makes it quite difficult to watch especially the early parts of the film.

Mackenzie is played by Ella Purnell, with whom I am not familiar, but whose face reminds me of the big-eyed, Gothic-emo poutiness of Aubrey Plaza.  There was a definite make-up choice, though, that ties the amount of heavy black eyeliner worn by Mackenzie to the level of distrust she feels in her surroundings.

Eventually things go to a good place, when Mackenzie latches onto Rene Bartlett, a recently-widowed hiker off for some alone time hiking around Denali.  "Bart" is played by Bruce Greenwood, whose face I certainly recognize but can't quite place, even after reviewing his filmography, except for possibly his role as JFK in Thirteen Days.  During Bart and Mackenzie's time in the wilderness, we are treated to some stunningly beautiful scenery.  If I were to speculate about what the filmmakers were thinking, it would be about the healing powers of the the great outdoors.

Plus, I won't tell you what it is in the interest of not spoiling things too badly, but there's something at the end of this movie that I like a lot.