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Reviews
The Iron Claw (2023)
Sleepy Rating Scale- sitting in bed
Well this movie was incredibly depressing. Then I found out they left one death out of the storyline to spare us 😩. I'm surprised this movie wasn't nominated for any Oscars but instead we had to deal with the snore fest of Oscar nominations this year. Also Zach Efron's new face that he doesn't claim was hella distracting. He says it's from PT to his masseter muscles post jaw injury but I don't buy it. He use to be such an attractive guy and now he looks inflammed. Anywho, I do think the movie could have gone a little more in depth to the drug and steroid use the brothers engaged in. Also a little bit more clarity on the mental health issues that obviously was so pervasive with the Von Erich brothers. I think this would have helped explained why so many of them killed themselves instead of just blaming it on a curse.
Mea Culpa (2024)
Sleepy Rating Scale- Knocked out
So I only watched it because everyone was talking about this movie on social media. Well it was terrible. Unfortunately it's another Tyler Perry blunder where he uses the same plot formula for his non-comedic movies that involves a successful Black woman who gets dickmatized by a trifflin man then there is a crazy plot twist at the end that makes no sense. With this one, Mr. Perry threw in a comical fight scene at the end that I don't think was supposed to be funny at all. Only nice parts of this movie was the the two good looking actors- Kelly Rowland and Trevante Rhodes. I know it's Black History Month but someone had to say it, this movie sucked!!
La sociedad de la nieve (2023)
@sleepyratingscale- Wide Awake
Everyone has insisted I watch this movie, so I was eager with anticipation to see it. I already knew what was coming since I'd seen 1993's Alive, which also covers the Uruguayan plane accident. But with this version, director J. A. Bayona had me glued to the screen with his storytelling skills. This guy's a genius; I mean, did you see The Impossible in 2012? Another tearjerker triumph!
First off, Society of the Snow's casting with Uruguayan and Argentinian actors was so key. He also did a better job of making the audience feel closer to the harshness of the cold weather and isolation. The plane crash itself was a rollercoaster ride of emotions; at one point, I swear I was holding my head, begging for a break. I appreciated that everytime someone died, the movie paused to reflect on their death, which was so powerful.
The last 30 minutes of the movie, I was drowning in a sea of tears. How on earth did these survivors ever go back to normal life? The PTSD, the trauma; it all must have been so heavy to bear. But, I'm glad their story was retold in Society of the Snow.
Britney Spears: The Woman in Me (2023)
Sleepy rating scale 4- Sitting at edge of bed
It's a quick read. I listened to it on Spotify. Nothing earth shattering in there that I hadn't already heard. Unfortunately social media already informed us all about the juicy details of her book. There were things I found interesting:
1. She said she prepped for role in Shondra Rhimes Crossroads by using method acting. Girl, that role was not that deep for all that 😒.
2. I feel bad about anything harsh I ever said about Britney post her Justin Timberlake breakup and during her Kevin Federline phase. Those were some rough patches in her life where we were only being shown or told one side of what was going on.
3. I'm still confused how her dad got her into that conservatorship especially with his reported history of alcoholism. There are so many other artists with real addiction and mental health problems **cough cough Kanye West** that could use one but it would never happen for them.
4. Britney does downplay her addiction to Adderall, which may explain the erratic behavior we see on IG. I think she also uses IG as a place for her to freely express herself unapologetically because she was held captive for so long.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023)
Sleepy rating scale 5- wide awake
Went to the ERAS tour movie opening weekend. Went to the concert in May night three at MetLife which I posted about it back then, so for congruency, we went day three of the movie opening!
The movie was amazing, really well done, excellent shots of her, and really captured the energy of the concert. We were the only ones dressed up. A lot of people were wearing the tour T-shirts, but we were in full Swiftie gear.
I expected everyone in the theater to be up and dancing. I was pretty bummed out when everyone who was around my age sat there and barely sang. However, the coolest part was when all the teen/tween girls went up to the front of the theater and started dancing together. I wish that same energy was in the audience from the millennial parents!!!
I stand by my statement from the concert - she is the Beatles of this generation. It's Taylormania (for those who don't know Beatlemania was a thing).
American Crime Story (2016)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting in bed
The most recent season of American Crime Story is Impeachment. American Crime Story is an anthology tv series where the last 3 seasons have focused on different real crimes in America's history. They had a season on the murder of Versace and then another on the OJ Simpson trial. I think the OJ season was the best one.
This most recent season of American Crime Story is on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. I was 12 at the time when the whole mess was going on and didn't really realize at the time until I watched the series all the manipulation that was going on between Linda Tripp to get Monica to tell her the tea of her relationship with President Clinton. I always wondered how things would have panned out if such a scandal happened in the time of social media and the MeToo movement. I don't think she would have been ostracized as she was. So much blame was put on this 22 year old woman at the time early in her career dealing with one of the most powerful men at the time who was 27 years her senior.
Fatherhood (2021)
@sleepyratingscale- awake in bed
I heard about this movie from my friend Danise after I posted about Kevin Hart move from comedic acting in True Story.
Well in this Netflix movie he plays a single dad trying to figure out how to raise his child alone. As a mom who suffered a ton of grief and trauma around the birth of my own daughter, the beginning of the movie was a little triggering for me. I think when u are young you have certain hopes and dreams for what parenthood should be like. Then something can happen to completely shatter that. Parenting is hard and there is no manual that babies come with. Fortunately some of us have a partner or someone to co-parent with and figure out the trials and tribulations along the way. This movie takes you through what it would be like when that partner or co-parent you originally planned to have is no longer available.
I will say I do like when Kevin Hart plays in these more serious roles. It shows more of his range. Although the banter between him and Lil Rey sometimes was corny or fell short, overall the movie was simple and sweet. It does get a little slow after his daughter is older and able to speak.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting in bed
I finally watched Avatar Part 2. Yeah I know I'm late to it but it's bc I'm cheap and was waiting for Disney to stream it 😬. Did it have to be 3+ hours?! Completely unnecessary. I loved the first Avatar, which I saw in 3D and was truly just mesmerized by the beauty of the cinematography and didn't pay attention to the semi-recycled plot of colonizer coming in to ruin nature. So with Way of the Water, when u really think about it, the plot is pretty uncreative since it's basically the Colonel looking for Jake Sully the whole time. Although the scenes in the water were beautiful, did they really have to take so much time showing all the intricacies of teaching the kids to be underwater creatures?! Anywho there were about 3 times the movie could have ended but it kept going. Also why did the kids all have different accents?! Aren't they come from the same place?! Still one of the best uses of CGI I have ever seen but if James Cameron is going to keep having more and more sequels let's add some more creativity to the plot.
American Tragedy (2019)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting in bed
Mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine school shooters, is who this documentary mainly circulates around. She tries to grapple with how her son became the monster that shot up a school. When Columbine happened in 1999, at the time such an incident was unheard of although now it has sadly become so common in occurrence. Sue Klebold attempts to look back at the moments she missed, what she didn't see in Dylan, how she didn't notice the arcinary he was building in their garage. This documentary brings up interesting points about how America should be concentrating on preventative care as a way to curb future mass shooter creations. With so many aspects of physical health, we promote healthy eating and exercise but with school shootings we teach people what to do in the moment when it's already occurring. The documentary pushes for mindfulness which is great and all but we all know that the real problem is how easily youth can gain access to assault type riffles is what is problematic.
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me (2023)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting in bed
Sad how so many American famous people we literally watch their rise and downfall. This documentary is about Ms. Smith's life from her start in a small town in Texas, getting married and pregnant at 19 years old, becoming a stripper than Playmate with the rest of her life being history. In this day and age, we don't really see people's claim for fame being Playboy anymore. She was actually a very beautiful woman in the beginning. I think I really forgot about that because I more saw her in The Anna Nicole Show TV series where she usually appeared to be under the influence of some sort of downer drug. So many stars have endless access to drugs because of how much money they have. Per her wiki page, choral hydrate, a sedation med used in the OR was in her system at the time of her death. Reportedly she had a lot of pain issues and at some point was prescribed methadone for her pain. Who are these doctors prescribing sedation meds and such big gun medications for pain?! Same thing happened with Michael Jackson being on propofol. Just straight criminal activity. I didn't realize she didn't get any of her sugar daddy's (89 year old billionaire J. Howard Marshall's) money after he died but he spent millions of his money on her while he was alive. I forgot about so many aspects of her life- her son dying of an OD as well and the whole drama about who was her daughter's baby daddy.
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022)
@sleepyratingscale- awake in bed
I expected so much more. Seemed like a surface level movie of Whitney's life. Like a Lifetime movie instead of something for the big screen. Naomi Ackie acted her role well. I do feel the makers of the movie could have gone way more in depth into Ms. Houston's life. I wanted them to delve deeper into her issues with Bobby Brown, spend less on her relationship with Robyn, and show more how her substance abuse directly affected her career. I didn't fall asleep but I don't watch it in one swoop bc I would get bored and come back to it later. At least it was better than the film Lifetime put out a couple of years back on Ms. Houston's life.
Tell Me Who I Am (2019)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting at edge of bed
This emotional documentary makes the watcher think about what they would do for their twin or sibling so they don't have to continue to share the pain you feel on a daily basis. If your sibling or twin lost their memory, would you provide them with happy memories or the terrible memories of what their life use to be?! Do you lie to them or just lie by omission? If u were abused, is it ok for those memories to stay repressed or do u really need to know the details of it to move on from something u actually have no memory of?! So many rhetorical questions to ponder on as u watch this one. Get ready for the water work folks, as u watch these twins try to figure this out. It's heart breaking.
Manhunt (2017)
@sleepyratingscale- wide awake
I have only seen season 1 which was on the Unabomber and how he was ultimately captured. I also recently listened to a podcast by Apple TV+/Pineapple Studios called Project Unabom, which probably more accurately tells the details of the almost 20 year investigation to figure out who he was. The tv series makes it seem like it was this lone FBI agent who figured it all out but my guess is he represents a conglomerate of different people involved. The interesting thing the podcast points out how women were actually key to different aspects of the investigation that if weren't brought up he probably would never have been caught. When I watched the show, I couldn't stop watching at the time because I heard about the Unabomber but not the intricate details about his ideologies and his background or that UNABOM stood for University and Airline Bomber.
House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths (2021)
@sleepyratingscale-sitting in bed
This is a weird one. I had never heard about what happened prior to the documentary. I think it's best to watch it without knowing what it's about. The premise is based out of New Delhi, India where 11 family members are found hanging in their household and everybody is trying to put the pieces together to understand what led to this tragic event. I will admit they could have cut it down into like a 2 hour documentary. The first episode repeats itself a lot instead of getting into the nitty gritty. I think this quote from the documentary is a perfect summary of the entire situation there is a "thin line between faith and delusion. Where do u draw the line?!"
Still (2023)
@sleepyratingscale- wide awake
Loved it!! I forgot how amazingly charming he is. His comedic timing is superb. He makes jokes about himself and his situation, so you can't feel sorry for him. He hasn't let Parkinson's disease stop him. Loved how they piece together aspects of his movies and tv shows to tell his story. Side note- I still think Back to the Future is the best trilogy of all time!! I had the biggest short man crush on him. It's so crazy that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in his 20s and for so many years was hiding it from the general public as he continued to act. I wanted to cry as I watched but I had the feeling he doesn't want me to cry about his plight but he just seems and looks like he is trapped. Though he has to fight hard to be still now or take medications to be in that state, he has not remained still and continues to advocate for more research and being unapologetically himself.
The Rachel Divide (2018)
@sleepyratingscale
I never saw this when it initially came out but it sure was cringe. The documentary centers about Ms. Rachel Dolezal who coined the term of being a transracial black woman. The white privilege of it all. The amount of eye rolls I did as I watched this documentary, I'm surprised my eyes didn't get stuck. When she said "I'm not going to stop being unapologetically black," I wanted to scream into the tv "YOU AINT BLACK!" Then at the end when she changed her name to the Nigerian name Nkechi, I about lost it and then she didn't even pronounce it right. I was like you have to be f&@king kidding me. Us Nigerians don't want you either. She just seems hella confused and obviously hates her biological family. It's a lost cause lady.
Amanda Knox (2016)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting in bed
I t's a quick watch. When everything was going on in regards to Amanda Knox I was in the thick of residency and didn't pay attention to the details. I will say after watching this documentary, I don't think she is guilty. Seems like the police really wanted to make her and 2 males fit the circumstances around what happened. Unfortunately, I am not sure if this murder was ever solved. There is someone in jail for it but I worry if that person was truly the killer either. The whole situation seemed very sensationalized around sex, rituals, and what have you. I wonder if those elements really existed.
Jury Duty (2023)
@sleepyratingscale- wide awake
My work bestie told me about this show. And I binged it over the weekend. It's so cute. The premise is a documentary is being filmed about jury duty but all the jurors are really actors except Ronald Gladden. Ronald was a good sport because with all the craziness that was going on, I would have lost my patience. It reminded me of a show that came out in 2003 on Spike TV called The Joe Schmo Show where everyone in the reality show being filmed are actors crafting hilarious events around a real person. I'm not sure there will be able to be another season of jury duty since the jig is up so I doubt it can be repeated.
Tulsa King (2022)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting in bed
This show is actually pretty good.
I was a big fan of Sylvester Stallone as a kid with the Rocky and Rambo movies (I have an older brother). I haven't seen much of his work until the Creed movies where we saw his legit acting chops that earned him an Oscar nomination for the first installment of the series.
For Tulsa King, Sylvester Stallone plays a Mafia member recently released from prison and adjusting to his new life in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trying to not be an ageist but at his ripe age of 76, he is kinda of sexy in this role. I wonder if there will be a season 2 because you never know these days.
TIME: The Kalief Browder Story (2017)
@sleepyratingscale- wide awake
Well I wasn't expecting the end of this documentary. I guess there was enough foreshadowing for it to be clear. I wasn't sure what to expect actually. I had never heard about this young man's story until I watched this doc. Jay Z was one of the executive producers of this documentary series. When Jay Z came out in the 90s, I never thought he would become a voice of reason and one of the richest rappers to date!!
This documentary touches on so much that is wrong with the American judicial system today- the punitive nature does not rehabilitate youth but unfortunately turns them into a mental health/complex trauma mess. Mr. Broder spent about 300 days in solitary confinement at Rikers while serving a 3 year jail sentence for a stolen backpack. I would love to do a study on his mom for the amount of adverse childhood events (ACEs) in her life that likely resulted in many of her health problems. Kalief's story is depressing and a hard listen but one that is needed to be told for their to be change.
Shrinking (2023)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting at edge of bed
I'm enjoying this show. The plot centers around grieving a love one's death but the show still makes this subject matter light and funny. It's nice to see Harrison Ford in a comedy role which he doesn't do often and he does a good job at it. The episodes are nice and short which will always increase the score on the sleepy scale because u don't have enough time to fall asleep. Despite the heavy subject matter, it's a feel good show where you watch a therapist trying to move on in life with his teenage daughter but neither of them are doing a spectacular job. No tears for me yet but a lot of laughter.
Swarm (2023)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting at edge of bed
This was a strange one but I liked it.
I had no clue what the show was about when I started watching but then when I realized it I thought it was hilarious. If u are a fan of Donald Glover's work on the show Atlanta, then you will like the dark satirical humor of Swarm. I think it's best to watch it without having any clue where it's going. I personally think the show could have ended after episode 6. The episodes are short so I watched it pretty quickly. Also Paris Jackson was in the movie, which I had no clue of while I was watching. And also it's Billie Eilish's acting debut. The series is so absurd you can't stop watching.
Yellowjackets (2021)
@sleepyratingscale- wide awake
So season 2 is currently going on. I got into this show last year when it originally came out. It's like a mix of Lost, the book Lord of the Flies, and the 1993 movie Alive about the Uruguayan rugby team that crash landed in the Andes and took to cannibalism to stay alive. My hope is that Yellow Jackets actually explains what is happening instead of leaving a lot of crap unanswered like Lost did. I still don't understand why they were pushing that damn button on Lost or why there was a polar bear on the island. Anyway season one of Yellow Jackets was interesting and brought up a lot
of questions about what happened to these youth after they crash landed. What means did they result to, to survive?!
The Family I Had (2017)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting in bed
It centers around a horrific event and the aftermath of it. If you were a parent would you still love your child despite knowing what they are capable of. The documentary brings to question the whole nature versus nurture question. What causes someone to be evil? Are they born that way or is it because of the circumstances they are born into? The documentary leaves a lot unanswered and I wish they would have delved more into the why. So we only got surface level explanations as to why things went left for this young man. I give the mom props to be able to allow us into her live and listen to the scrutiny I'm sure she received .
21 Bridges (2019)
@sleepyratingscale- sitting up in bed on this one
I watched this because Netflix said it was going away in March. I guess we need to start buying dvd collections again. This was Chadwick Boseman's last theoretical release movie pre his death. He was such an amazing actor!! There was supposed to be a sequel that he was going to produce but of course that no longer happened.
This movie is kind of like a plot within a plot. It's pretty fast paced so no time to sleep. It's hard to say much about the plot without spoiling the movie. All I can say, is as I'm watching the movie I just kept saying to myself I can't believe Mr. Boseman was battling cancer and running all around the place in this movie. He was truly dedicated to his craft. I'm still trying to watch all the cluster of movies he acted in during his final years- 3 down, 5 more to go.