Katie Says Goodbye (2016) Strives to Find Meaning Out Of Misery

Katie (Olivia Cooke) dreams of leaving her past behind to move to San Francisco and attend beauty school. While pulling double-shifts as a waitress where her tips are wasted by her alcoholic mother, the seventeen-year-old supplements her savings as a prostitute. As she reserves every dime she can for greener pastures, falling in love with an ex-convict Bruno (Christopher Abbott) spirals her life out of control.

Everyone in Katie Says Goodbye has to forge their way in a claustrophobic nowhere town in the middle of the desert. There’s little to do for its residents except serve travelers on the road, drink, have sex – either for fun or as a gig. Left to fend for themselves with the basic necessities, Katie makes the best of what she has always looking for the silver lining. A few glimpses at her day-to-day life of monotonous waitressing, and excitedly gleaming at passing trains offers no rhyme or reason as to why she remains abundantly hopeful, and yet the film lovingly sets up this infectious charm only to gradually deconstruct it.

Hugh Jackman World Tour Was The Greatest Show

When I saw tickets for Hugh Jackman's world tour go on sale last December, I didn't know anything except that I had to be there. I didn't know how I was going to go to the arena where the show was  held, what the arena's layout was, if I bought tickets that had a decent view, or if I'd have money to get a hotel for the night. #mydreamsarebiggerthanmybankaccount I definitely didn't know that six months later, I'd save up enough to attend, but also be as sick as one can possibly get without going to the hospital the day of. As sure as I was the day I bought the tickets, I knew I had to be there.

With a relentless fever, drippy nose, burning lungs, and not being able to move without sweating through my clothes, I WAS LIVING at this concert. Both literally and figuratively. I'm still not 100% well as I'm writing this, but at least I'm not Patient Zero right now.

From Broadway and movies to his own triumphs and personal interests, Jackman's show is a showstopping combination of who he is as an actor on stage and in film as well as a kid who had a big dream to entertain. Just as the world tour is called, it's all about The Man, The Music, The Show. And whatta man whatta man whatta man he is, I mean music, I mean show, it was.

Booksmart (2019) Is A Genuine Revelation

Photo Credit: United Artists Releasing

Every generation has a coming-of-age movie that speaks to them - Say Anything, The Breakfast Club, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Mean Girls. Joining a solid pack of recent flicks exploring girls' complex emotions and moving into the real world - Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, The Miseducation of Cameron Post - Olivia Wilde's directorial debut with Booksmart explores even the bookworms don't know it all.

From earning admission into Yale to doing charity work in Botswana, best friends Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) have high aspirations for themselves and their classmates. When Molly discovers that the slackers have also leveled up into amazing post-high school opportunities without sacrificing fun, she encourages Amy to squeeze four years of partying into the night before graduation. 

Rocketman's (2019) Imagination Almost Burns Itself Out

Paramount Pictures

Biopics tend to play it safe. They're afraid to veer too off from presenting the facts by the books and  rests on its laurels about whoever the story is based on. Given the freedom to delve into Elton John's colorful and bold life, Rocketman explore more than thirty years of the iconic musician's life. Combining elements of music and story, director Dexter Fletcher's goes all in, to the point that you wish he reeled it back just a little.

Growing up with his cold father and self-absorbed mother, a young Elton John finds refuge, imagination, and identity in his musical gifts. The lack of love he didn't received as a child, homophobia, and toxic relationships turns into a devastating recipe for substance abuse as he rises in the music industry. (Read the full review below)

Watching Game of Thrones For The First Time

If anyone told me eight years ago I’d binge-watch Game of Thrones months ahead of its series finale, I honestly wouldn’t believe them. I was never a fan to brag about not watching a popular show, as if ultra-cool fans who weren't interested in the series act like they deserve some sort of medal for living off-the-grid. Game of Thrones, in the beginning and its peak, didn’t appeal to me because The Walking Dead was ruling my life, and after trying to watch one episode, I just didn’t connect. Giving it another chance, and having been 98% unaware of its biggest moments, felt like a fun challenge. And if there is one thing that I accept more in life than anything else, and what I actually think I'm decent at, it's live-tweeting a whole series on a ridiculous time limit.

But that's exactly how I decided to ring in 2019.

Quick Tv Reviews: The Orville, Survivor: Edge of Extinction, What We Do In The Shadows

With all of the streaming services available and tapping our fingers on apps to find exactly what we want, it's a little odd to talk about traditional shows - those old things we used to wait wait-to-week to watch an entire series unfold. The Orville, Survivor: Edge of Extinction, What We Do In The Shadows recently wrapped up their latest series, and were some of the traditional shows I enjoyed this past Spring. They may not be "on" or available right now, but thought it'd still be fun to share my thoughts on their latest seasons.

What are you watching right now? anything on streaming or traditional tv? Let me know in the comments.

John Wick (Chapter 3 - Parabellum) Is Back So Tell A Friend

Lionsgate

After making a name for himself on a bus with Speed (1994), as the Chosen One in The Matrix (1999), and fighting demons in Constantine (2005), Keanu Reeves headlining a spy movie was an absolute no-brainer. But nobody could’ve probably anticipated the unstoppable resurgence his career would’ve taken with John Wick in 2015. The start of a non-stop action chronicle where his character brutally, endlessly assassinates other assassins is just something we can't get enough.

The John Wick series is unlike any other spy movie. In one-fourteenth of the time of James Bond’s legacy, fans have gobbled up John Wick and all the new ways he can kill someone over the past four years. It isn't that he just massacres bystanding hitmen; it's the intense choreography Keanu and the stunt crew perfect for every action scene; his enigmatic reputation and the relateable relationship Wick has with his dog; the slick direction of Chad Stahelski; the sleek production design as Wick sheds blood in a nightclub, on the city streets, or by a dockside that keeps us wanting more. While John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum carries over all of the stunning elements from the first two films, it also proposes that idea that sometimes story can damper the action.