Mandaris

Visiting a friend at the hospital 🏥.

The c-word is being put forth as a possibility.

It’s Friday. I hope that you are finding some happiness wherever you are in this crazy world.

I got my primary election packet today. Lot of reading to do.

I just thought it looked nice.

This morning, im concerned about climate change and spaces in file names.

Snoozing is self torture.

🍿 American Fiction (2023)- ★★★☆☆

I’ve been looking forward to seeing this movie for a while and was rewarded with a very enjoyable experience. This is a very solid film about family and finding your identity.

I’ve been dealing with how I work with unexpected things happening in my life and how to find joy in all the chaos.

This movie gives me hope in that I can also find some mirth in all the madness.

Thelonious “Monk” Ellison’s writing career has stalled because his work isn’t deemed “Black enough.” Monk, a writer and English professor, writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym, aiming to expose the publishing world’s hypocrisies. The book’s immediate success forces him to get deeper enmeshed in his assumed identity and challenges his closely-held worldviews.

The Movie Database

You can find a link to the American Fiction trailer on YouTube.

🍿 The Godfather (1972) - ★★★★☆

It’s a running joke amongst my friends that I know a lot of plot points for popular movies and films. What?! You haven’t seen The Godfather!? How did that happen?.

Oddly enough, I know most of the movie from watching Jane Austen’s Mafia and other parodies that have come out since the movie had come out in 1972.

It is a great film. And I’m happy to have seen it. The movie shows the characters as people and I have to say that I was emotionally invested in what happened to them. I really wish Connie had a little more agency, but I think it’s part of the time frame¹ of the source material and the plot.

I couldn’t give this movie 5 stars. I think it’s because of all the discussions and hype around it. Although, this was the first time that I’ve sat and watched this film, I’ve seen its echos and shades dozens of times. The memes, the quotes, the various characters.

Shouldn’t that give it the extra star?

I don’t know. I’ll have to think about that the next time someone asks me if I’ve seen it.

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

The Movie Database

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🍿 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) - ★★☆☆☆

Ok, the family has been watching Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2023) TV show and enjoying it. So we decided to watch this thing again.

It’s definitely a product of its time.

Movies like Harry Potter and Twilight had spurred studios to find more and more intellectual property. You get the feeling that they were trying hard to make something. The promise of a new hot franchise. There is a sequel to this and I hope that I don’t have to watch it.

I don’t know how much different this is from the book, but from I heard the original author and a lot of fans were disappointed.

I got to sit there and hear my kids repeatedly mention that the book and new series is better. I even got a “#NotMyGrover” during the 2 hour movie

In a lot of ways, we’re all better off. The original author, Rick Riordan, made sure that future adaptations of his work had higher standards.

This one isn’t a bad movie, but not really memorable for the right reasons.

Accident prone teenager, Percy discovers he’s actually a demi-God, the son of Poseidon, and he is needed when Zeus’ lightning is stolen. Percy must master his new found skills in order to prevent a war between the Gods that could devastate the entire world. The Movie Database

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🍿 The Lost City (2022) - ★★★★☆

This was a fun movie. I was bordering on a bad movie after a very long day and at the end, I was relaxed and laughing. It takes a couple of the various movie tropes and pokes fun and them and the usual formulas a movie looks this can take.

At first, I was going to give it 3 stars but just thinking about the movie now has put a little smile on my face so here’s your extra star!

Reclusive author Loretta Sage writes about exotic places in her popular adventure novels that feature a handsome cover model named Alan. While on tour promoting her new book with Alan, Loretta gets kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who hopes she can lead him to the ancient city’s lost treasure that featured in her latest story. Alan, determined to prove he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, sets off to rescue her.