LOVE & MERCY

What a great biopic of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys! The film deals with his relationship with his bandmates and brothers,  his relationship with his father (what a piece of self-esteem and confidence shatterer he is!), his musical composition talents, his mental illness, the period in the 80's when, because of his dysfunctional behavior, he was under the legal and pharmacological total control of a psychiatrist wondrously acted by Paul Giamatti, (this doctor eventually lost his license and was ordered to cease all contact with Brian), and his 2nd marital spouse (Elizabeth Banks).

It was done really well as far as going back and forth in time from the 60's to the 80's. Paul Dano played Brian during the time of the Beach Boys' peak and his increasingly bizarre behavior and starting a drug and drinking habit. Dano was superb.

John Cusak was good too. He was Brian during the time of his "imprisonment" by the psychiatrist and the meeting with his future wife and her actions which resulted in his family filing a lawsuit against the psychiatrist. This led to a total revision of the diagnosis of his mental problems and a regimen of different drugs which resulted in significant functional improvement. So much so that he had 5 kids with his second wife (added to 2 from wife #1) and began performing solo.  A good role for Cusak who sort of mumbles and flat-lines his speech and facial responses anyway.

The movie could have been shortened by about 15 minutes or so towards the end but this didn't change my reaction to this film which deserves a solid 8. Oh, and fortunately, there wasn't much Beach Boys music in the movie since i have never cared for their songs.

THAI HOUSE - CHARLOTTE, NC

This restaurant was right next door to an awesome used book store called The Last Word  that we were browsing in so it was a logical choice for dinner.

I really liked the atmosphere. Very well decorated and we felt like we were in the middle of a temple with ornate wall hangings and all the wait staff were dressed in colorful spangled and jeweled outfits. Even the men had those billowy white shirts with high collars and tight wrists and they were wearing Disney pirate pants; like pantaloons; or Aladdin pants; in shiny greens and reds.

We ordered Pad Thai  and also a stir fry chicken-ginger dish. All the chicken was white meat but a tad dry and the ginger dish lacked flavor (i even had to add some salt which i've never done to a Thai dish). There were way too many ginger julienne spears too. The Pad Thai was the better of the 2 entrees; very tasty with great flavor.

and we have a lot left over for lunch today. If we lived in Charlotte, this restaurant wouldn't be my number 1 pick for Thai but i wouldn't protest if this was the only place open.

JURASSIC WORLD

Well, i thought i'd get my blogging feet wet by doing a brief movie review. I'm not sure what happened to bring on my writer's block. In small measure, there was the fact that i didn't have a camera (many reasons; couldn't make up my mind; Walmart's selection was always very poor because not many people were buying them anymore given the great quality of photos taken by Smartfones.) to take pictures to go along with our travel adventures on road trip #2.

Anyway, here i am.
The movies being shown in Charlotte are all blockbuster Marvel comic stuff. (of course, that's pretty much just what's out there, isn't it? unless you have a Loft like theater, like us fortunate Tucsonians.) So our cinematic forays have had a desperation thread.



So that's why we saw Jurassic World. However, we were both surprised by the film and highly entertained.

It was well acted (Chris Pratt had a leading role and was excellent and the lead actress was a Jessica Chastain look-alike. none of the actors were annoying; not even the 2 young kids.) and fast paced.


The dinosaur chase and fight scenes were fun and interesting; cinematography great and there was humor and also some fantastic chomping of human body parts.

We  also saw Spy last week which we wouldn't have normally seen and really liked that one. some good belly laughs. Also saw San Andreas which we would not have seen absent our Charlotte stay and alicia working evenings and being in a socially isolated bubble at the moment. Also saw the second Avengers which we would have seen anyway since we liked the first one so much. but thought this sequel lacked pizz-azz.

So i guess Bill and I are now ready for Ted2!!!!!!!!!

See you at the movies, folks. glad to be back in the balcony.