Charlize Theron – Thelma and Alice

long shot

I saw Long Shot last weekend, when it opened, and really enjoyed it, but I’ve been struggling since then to write a review. On the one hand, it was the easygoing, funny, romantic comedy I’ve been waiting for. Seth Rogan and Charlize Theron are both charming and fun to watch. I laughed a lot and never felt bored. On the other hand, there was something amiss about the world they occupied, an alternate version of D.C. that was sometimes depicted realistically, sometimes satirically, and sometimes seemed to be a part of a TV-D.C. whose qualities I hadn’t yet learned. I wasn’t there for the sharp political satire, so I mostly didn’t mind, but some of the nonsensical aspects of the setting did make the characters less believable — and that made their romance a little less believable too.

Continue reading “Long Shot” →

tully

I saw Tully over the weekend with two women who are mothers, like me. Once upon a time, we all had toddlers at the same playschool, but now our kids are in kindergarten, each in a different school. We were all really looking forward to seeing a movie that dwelled on the experience of motherhood, especially the early baby years. Movies are full of mothers, of course, but they don’t usually spend a long time in the landscape of babyhood, and the unsettling transition between pregnancy and, I don’t know—what do you call not being pregnant? Post-partum? Is it that there is not good word for it, or is that I have a six-month-old baby and my vocabulary is still a little out of focus as my mind continues to process the experience of pregnancy, childbirth, and a whole new person in our family?

The best thing about Tully was the way it caught the mood of this post-partum period. It’s a weird, spongy phase, when you’re soaking up so much of life, and at the same time, completely wrung out. Continue reading “Thoughts on Tully” →