Dear Snidely: "if you have a bad taste in your mouth over the civil rights movement during the 1960s......" I was shocked to read this sentiment expressed, though I'm sure the comment was sincere. Do such people exist? " Yes, there are people who hated the civil rights movement; George Wallace for one. And then there are folks who do not enjoy reliving the bad scenes of the past. My comment was meant to convey the idea that this was a pro- civil rights movie. Personally, I thought the movie was excellent.

In the past few weeks I've seen quite a few movies. Loved Spotlight, loved The Big Short; both movies did, IMO, a great job working with fact based recent storylines. Enjoyed Brooklyn more than I expected to :). I only went because the Rotten Tomatoes ratings were sky high from both professional and audience reviews. I saw the documentary on Janis Joplin which was also terrific. I just saw Carol this week and urge anyone who wants to see an incredibly layered, well acted drama to go watch this one. Think I will see it again, actually, because there was so much going on that I know I'll get even more out of it with a second viewing. I loved The Martian, what a terrific story and Matt Damon was wonderful. Biggest disappointment for me was Joy. Definitely a meh. Although the reviews were mediocre I was stubbornly sticking to my theory that any move made by the team that did Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle MUST be good. I also have adored Jennifer Lawrence in everything I've seen her in so far....till this movie :(. Warning-spoilers ahead: to start with I think she was way miscast for this part. A twenty five year old, no matter how hard she tries, simply isn't believable as a beleaguered thirtysomething housewife and frustrated entrepreneur with the weight of a whole dysfunctional family on her shoulders. And the family--all the supporting characters were such stereotypes, and her immediate family were over the top cartoonish negatives. Impossible to buy that she would keep working so hard to take care of those nasty one-note meanies. Last but not least the plot didn't make sense to me. For those who have seen the film, why was she so freaked out that the manufacturer had 'my molds'. How the heck were they supposed to make the mop parts without molds?! And then, the scene in which she is completely beaten-half a million in debt, some lawyer telling her the patents are worthless and she can't fight the baddies, her father saying it's his fault for believing she could accomplish anything (WTF dad?!) capped by some other lawyer appearing in the room, handing her a pen to sign something which will completely wipe her out. Joy signs, and next scene *poof* she is in Dallas whipping out some monologue to some guy about making a phone call at which point the caves and some guy blubbers about paying her this n that, she walks out, puts on her sunglasses and the voiceover jumps us forward 20 years to her being a zillionaire. Huh?!?! The whole movie was such a let down.

I watched it this weekend, too. Thought it was pretty good. Not great, but enjoyable enough. Then I saw advertised an original Amazon series called Red Oaks, with the kid from the movie as the lead, so I watched that. It was fun because it was set in the 80's, so the music was from my era, but otherwise "meh.". (I'm watching while I sew, so I'm going through a lot of viewing material lately.)

If you have Amazon Prime, don't miss Sneaky Pete. It's 10 episodes and will definitely have another season. Brian Cranston is a producer and is one of the stars along with Giovanni Ribsi. We watched Whiplash last night. I thought it was a slow start and intense, but incredibly well done. Lion was fabulous! Passengers is really good too. I'm not a fan of Sci-Fi, but DH saw it on a flight and ordered it from Netflix so that I could see it. If you haven't seen the Crown or FEUD, they're good too!