David Boe

The amazing thing about a Billy Wilder movie is how modern it feels. I'm not a movie critic or even all that knowledgeable about films. But I've seen a couple of Billy Wilder movies, ("Some Like it Hot" was another one) and have been around long enough to have heard his name bandied about as one of the most respected and influential directors in Hollywood. This 1961 movie is one that, sixty years later, would seem utterly forgettable, yet it is thoroughly enjoyable. The star, James Cagney, is one of the legends whose name transcends Hollywood, and here, he is still in his prime. The movie may not be historically significant or especially memorable for the acting or the subject matter, but guess what? It's fun. It's a talented romp put together by some of the best people in the world at the time, doing what they love to do. Here you have an example of journeymen-level craftsmen and women, doing what they do best, and it's timeless. It's light, sweet and charming, and also filmed on location in Berlin, Germany, so you get a lot of great footage of that era. It's a fun diversion, a great story, with some of the best people of the day. What a joy!

It's NOT a comedy! It's superbly acted, but why does Amazon list it as: "LGBTQ, Comedy, Drama?" It's an intense and intensely sad, traumatic coming out story. I didn't laugh once. From the short description, I pictured something more like "Four Weddings and a Funeral." A light romp. Instead, I'm dealing with emotional fallout more in line with, I don't know, because I didn't see it (for the same reasons): The story about the gay kid in Wyoming who was murdered, and the actress won an Oscar. Was it "Boys Don't Cry?" I don't watch such movies because although I heartily support LGBTQ rights, I frankly get PTSD from watching graphic depictions of violence. AND THIS MOVIE HAS TOO MUCH OF THAT TO BE CONSIDERED A COMEDY. So I'm giving two stars to a movie that probably deserves Academy Awards for the quality of the acting because some idiot caption writer saw "LGBTQ" and "road trip to a funeral" and thought, "Oh, a gay romp through 1970's South Carolina. What a ball." I kept watching because I thought there must be some humor there somewhere. Now I won't be able to sleep for a week and I never want to swim in a lake for the rest of my life. So yeah, it's a great movie. BUT IF YOU WANT TO LAUGH AT SOMETHING, TRY RAGING BULL OR PLATOON. (That's a bad joke; I haven't seen either, for the same reasons.) Oh, and yet: Sophia Lillis is a wonder to behold. Her smile alone is worth five stars all by itself. But Amazon really needs to provide more accurate information in their little blurbs. It's a tremendous disservice to anyone who has PTSD or issues dealing with hateful, hurtful emotional content. Whoever decided this was a comedy should be fired.

I AM okay with this show. It's way cool. The super cute "17 year old white girl" (why did she insert "white" into her description? I dunno but it works) looks like the younger identical twin of Ellen Page, and I wonder where she came from. Like maybe straight out of one of Page's first movies, Hard Candy, in which she plays a different kind of 17 year old superhero. But that's another story. What I can't wait for is the next episode, since the first seven flew by with constant teasers of a future moment that only happens in what feels like the last 30 seconds (actually more like the last 5 minutes) of the last episode, and the whole superpower thing can actually get going. Since it seems like this little chick's powers are pretty awesome. My only real criticism is that the kids often talk more like 40 year olds. Or sometimes 60 year olds. People with real wisdom and an actual command of swear words. I mean, nobody I ever knew growing up would use the F word with a much younger sibling in the way that Syd (the lead character) does with her 10-year old brother; or the simple fact that all of the major actors have the presence and screen power of people twice their age. Nobody in actual high school has these kind of smarts, do they? Really? But all that's also okay; it's kind of like watching a super-idealized version of adolescence. One in which the main characters have the vocabulary, depth of life experience, and intellectual firepower to totally communicate all the sarcasm and emotional undercurrents of young adults as if they really understood them in real time, when in reality it can take years of distance to gain the kind of perspective that these kids seem to have been born with.