The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is currently streaming on Netflix. Yes, the title is obnoxiously long. It’s a historical drama and better than the book it’s based on in my opinion. The cast is fantastic. It’s also beautiful to look at. It’s a nice little flick to spend an afternoon watching.

The film, as I mentioned, is based off of a book with the same name. I was curious as to how the adaptation would work as the book is told entirely through letters. Juliet Ashton is an author who travels to Guernsey after being hired by the times to write an article about the Nazi occupation in Guernsey.

Lily James stars as Juliet. James is fantastic as our protagonist bringing a certain charm to the role. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was started by a few of the islanders as a way to cope with the occupation. While interviewing the members, Juliet befriends Eben (Tom Courtenay) a grandfather who was separated from his grandson during the occupation and Isola (Katherine Parkinson) an eccentric bootlegger.

The Society also includes Amelia (Penelope Wilton) who lost her daughter and unborn grandchild during the occupation and Elizabeth (Jessica Brown Findlay) who was arrested during the occupation by the Nazis and sent away leaving behind her own daughter. Wilton delivers a strong performance as a grieving woman who is also weary of allowing strangers into the society. Sidney (Matthew Goode) is Juliet’s publisher who just wants Juliet to write the article and return home so that she can finish her book tour.

Sidney is also Juliet’s closest friend, but he has a difficult time understanding why Juliet is becoming so enamored with Guernsey and the members of its society. The person who initiated the correspondence with Juliet was Dawsey (Michiel Huisman). Dawsey is a pig farmer who was left to raise Elizabeth’s daughter after her arrest. It’s not hard to figure out that he and Juliet will fall in love, but when they meet she is engaged to Mark (Glen Powell).

There Are a few letters written at the start of the film, but of course this isn’t the way the entire film is told. The majority of the film is spent trying to solve the mystery of what happened to Elizabeth. The love triangle is also major plot point of course, but that is the least interesting aspect of this film. Although, I do appreciate that Mark was more important in the film than he was in the books. Film Mark solves the mystery of what happened to Elizabeth and is more likable than his book counterpart.

The film can be predictable. Yes, Juliet ends up with Dawsey instead of Mark. Even so, it’s an enjoyable film. It’s sweet and you root for the members of the society in every way.

The Two Popes (2019)

The Call of the Wild (2020)

I’ve never read this book. It’s about a dog and his human though, so sign me up.

I’m a sucker for any film that stars a pooch. The pooch in this film is computer animated. If this is a faithful adaptation of the novel it’s based on, I can see why.

This dog goes through a lot. With how vocal animal advocates are it’s easier to animate the dog, but there is an element missing with a fake dog.

This seems to be the trend. Many films have been relying on animated animals as I suppose it’s cheaper in a sense to have just animators as opposed to trainers, handlers, etc. I get it, but I’d much rather see a real life dog interacting with the actor. Anyway, this film also stars Harrison Ford.

There is a lot of action in this film. Most of the time our four legged friend is in some sort of danger and he has to figure out how to get out of it.

Our protagonist is Buck the dog who begins as the mayor’s dog before being stolen and sold to gold miners in the Yukon. He escapes and is adopted by friendly mailman named Perrault (Omar Sy). He remains with Perrault until the mailman ends up without a job and has to sell his entire sled team. Buck is then bought by a cartoonish fortune seeker (Dan Stevens) who abuses Buck and the other dogs. During these different parts of his journey he always encounters John Thornton (Ford) until Buck finally ends up in Thornton’s care.

Buck is cute and you root for him every step of the way. Ford is great as usual. The film is also visually stunning.

“The Call of the Wild” is a charming film. Ford seems to genuinely enjoy interacting with Buck even though he’s not actually there. Some moments are sad and tense, but it was fun to join Buck and Thornton on their wild adventure.

Ma (2019)

Teenagers make dumb decisions in a horror movie. Standard and expected.

“Ma” stars Octavia Spencer in a formulaic horror film. Spencer is great as always.

Spencer seems like she genuinely had fun playing Sue Ann, a woman who holds a grudge against those she went to school with. She has every right to feel that way as it turns out.

The film opens with Maggie (Diana Silvers) and her mother Diana (Juliette Lewis) moving back to Diana’s hometown. Maggie is nervous about starting at her new high school especially since it’s the middle of the school year.

Diana works as a waitress at the local casino so she’s not there to see Maggie off. Everything turns out alright, though. Maggie quickly becomes friends with some of the cool kids at school. As it’s a small town, the teens usually spend their weekends drinking. The problem? They need someone to buy the booze for them as they’re all underage.

Sue Ann works as a vet’s assistant and while walking one of the dogs in their care, she bumps into the teens outside a liquor store. She agrees to buy the booze for them and even invites them over to her house to party. She has a basement they can use. They’re allowed to come over whenever they want. The only thing they can’t do is go upstairs.

Inevitably, some members of the group have to go upstairs and things start unraveling.

As with any horror movie, the kids are dumb.

Ma threatens one of the boys with a gun and makes him strip. If the kids spend too much time away from Ma’s the more she texts and video calls them in an attempt to get them to come over. Still, the kids continue to go.

They’ll do anything to keep partying. After all Ma provides them with a place to party and all the booze they could possibly want.

Maggie is the only one seemingly creeped out by Ma and becomes hesitant to go. Once Ma realizes that these are the kids of the classmates that would bully her, she becomes more insistent in trying to get closer to them.

It’s possible that the kids are only stupid because their parents are. The parents make just as many dumb decisions. The father of one who finds out how much time his son has been spending at Ma’s house decides to take matters into his own hands instead of getting the authorities involved.

Spencer reunites with Tate Taylor who directed “The Help”. The film culminates into gory ending (gory compared to the rest of the movie, but not near as gory as others).

Ultimately the film is unsatisfying. Sue Ann’s motivation is justified. Still it seems rather silly to be targeting the children of those who bullied her.

 Not to mention that no one seems to have a single functioning brain cell.

2.5/5 stars ✨

The Invisible Man (2020)

A Sign of the Times at Theatre 511

Javier Muñoz was fantastic in this one man show. The show itself was engaging to a point, it did start getting repetitive towards the end. Muñoz engaged with the audience and drew everyone in to his story. He was a delight to watch from beginning to end even as some points were repeated. The show did start to drag towards the last third of the show, but this could be easily resolved by cutting moments. There were also a few false endings that made the show feel longer than it was.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)