Last week we saw Mrs. Palmfry At the Claremont starring Joan Plowright as a woman who’s moved to London to be closer to her grandson. Said grandson doesn’t show up to visit but she remains at the hotel. After taking a tumble on the street she meets a charming young man, twenty-something, who quickly becomes a good friend and a stand in grandson. They learn from each other. When Joan needs someone most, he & his girlfriend are there.

This isn’t just another movie about the old learning to reconnect with life or the young learning to appreciate the adventure. This is about who family really is. Is it our blood relatives whom we are given or the chosen family we gather along the way? I would recommend this one to almost anybody as a bit of a melancholy feel good movie.

Good greif!! The news is all about the record gross earnings of the new Star Trek movie. Gee, could it be because ticket prices are at an all time high? Why do these folks think that gross earnings is a reliable measure for anything?

According to a report a few years ago the most viewed movie of all time (Gone With The Wind) ISN'T THE TOP GROSSING. The 10 top grossing movies weren't even in the top 50 most viewed (measure by number of tickets sold over time) though they were in the top 100.

Give some news that's worthy of the bandwidth!!

We watched A Very Natural Thing this week. In footage from the 1973 Pride Parade in NYC people talked about the need for people to be free to be themselves. The more things change the more they stay the same.

I really got the feeling that this was showing two sides of the gay community: Promiscuous (liberated) vs. Traditional (repressed). Mark was the gay man who was sexually liberated and stated that he wasn’t interested in romance or deeper relationships. David, former monk, brought the values of hearth and home with him to this relationship. Unfortunately, being liberated and being committed aren’t compatible world views, so things get rough and break apart, wounding David in a deep way.

When a new beau later asks him to move in, David says no. He likes what they have and even loves him but isn’t ready to take that step right now. My hubby was saying the beau should dump David but I was thinking that this isn’t a relationship to throw away yet. He grew in the first relationship and I think when he feels more secure he will rethink his position. Hubby felt David picked up the aversion to commitment that many gay men seemed to have in the 70’s. (Maybe it was just generalized as the sexual revolution ran its course?)

This is a much better movie than its cotemporary The Boys In The Band, much less self-loathing and more positive in scope.

LOVETT: It's priest. Have a little priest.

TODD: Is it really good?

LOVETT: Sir, it's too good, at least!
Then again, they don't commit sins of the flesh,
So it's pretty fresh.

TODD: Awful lot of fat.

LOVETT: Only where it sat.

TODD: Haven't you got poet, or something like that?

LOVETT:No, y'see, the trouble with poet is
'Ow do you know it's deceased?
Try the priest!

Monday I joined Netflicks for the 1 title at a time / unlimited per month ($8.99/month). In part because when I go to Blockbuster the selections are mostly new releases that are mostly dreck not worth paying to rent.

The first movie was The Spiderwick Chronicles! This is getting a recommendation. It is a pleasant kids-fare fantasy. By involving classic fairy creatures Brownies / goblins / hobgoblins / ogre instead of making up their own gave the story a degree of verisimilitude. They had their own delightful and quirky personalities (the rhyming Brownie or bird eating hobgoblin).

And at the end, the main character (Jared) won because of a sudden opportunity / inspiration instead of a thoroughly plotted plan. Kind of like the way that life actually works.

The Spiderwick Chronicles are, evidently, a series of books and it shows just a bit. There’s at least one scene that, seemed both necessary and extraneous to the story.

Next up…The Gay Decievers (1969), for someone else. We saw this once before, it’s a Vietnam era movie about a couple of draft dodgers pretending to be gay. I’m not so sure it would work today and it’s not really worth seeing again.

Last weekend we saw three movies:

Hairspray: Overhyped. It didn't have the edginess of the original (which wasn't as edgy as much of J Waters material, IMHO). I didn't like Travolta in the role of Edna Turnbladt. If it wasn't for Queen Latifah, this would have been a "non-buy" in my book.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: I liked it as a stand alone movie. Of the three Pirates movies it seemed to be the darkest and the most violent. It is third of three for me...but worth buying to have the complete set.

Long Term Relationship: I liked this movie, for the most part. The first scene (sexual in nature) seemed gratuitous and didn't really add to the storyline...although the two characters do re-encounter each other later. The rest of the story is a boy meets boy kind of story, the main complication being that Adam is a Republican, which neither the boyfriend or Adam's parents understand.

Without going into plot details, I would say that this movie is worth the rental. And, gratefully, there are no teenagers to be seen anywhere (though there is on character that act's like a high-schooler with a crush on his roommate...Adam's boyfriend).