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The kids were at their grandparents tonight and so that meant we could do anything we wanted.
We decided to watch two films. Which these days feels incredibly hedonistic. The kids stay up a bit later now and it means we rarely have 90 minutes before we're falling asleep and certainly not four uninterrupted hours.
Once again I will remind those without children or responsibilities to enjoy the incredible freedom they have. Not by going round the world or making love to a thousand different partners. Just make sure you enjoy lounging around doing fuck all.
We watched
The Drama, which I didn't like to start with, then briefly had my interest piqued, before going back to not liking it even more. As I get older I don't really want to watch films where people make stupid decisions and then reap the rewards - I don't like the anxiety this induces.
This one seemed to be about some really unlikable people fucking things up and doing incredibly stupid things (not in a funny way) and it just made me squirm. I don't know if they were all meant to be unlikeable or if we were meant to root for one or two of them, but I wasn't rooting for any of them. At the heart of it is people revealing secrets from their lives and then having to live with those secrets being out. The secret of the unpleasant friend is much worse than Zendaya's secret (and I think maybe that's deliberate, but it only gets mentioned once that this is possibly the case). I don't think Zendaya's secret would be as big a deal as the film makes out, though I suppose it does highlight the problems inherent in marrying someone you don't fully know and maybe none of us can ever fully know anyone.
So that bit is the bit where I thought - OK I am piqued. But also the film had peaked. Because then it was just back to unlikeable people being much too mean to each other and making incomprehensible mistakes. And perhaps just a bit too stylised and boo to the ending.
We then watched
Good Fortune in which Keanu Reeves plays a minor angel who wants to save souls and change lives but turns out to be bad at it. This was much funnier and more enjoyable and Reeves is excellent in it. I would have quite liked the whole thing to be It's A Wonderful Life where the life not lived is way better than the one that is being lived (and it is mainly that). It slightly went off the boil for me when Seth Rogan is let in on what's going on, maybe a tad too early, buy it was still quite a brave Hollywood take on wealth and the gig economy and how that might not be sustainable in the long term. It's slightly undercut by all the actors in it actually being millionaires, but at least it's trying. Again the ending might have been a bit glib, but plenty of stuff to think about and good to see the precariousness of most people's lives set against the luxury and ease of the few. If you only watch one of these films then watch this one. If you have time for two then watch this one and something else.
