Need Some Movie Recommendations?
I’ve watched four movies recently, and I recommend all of them without reservation.
Wife Katrina, daughter Adrienne, and I watched Chasing 3000 Saturday evening. Here’s the trailer. This film stars Trevor Morgan and Rory Culkin as Mickey and Roger, two brothers from Pittsburgh who move to California when their mother (Lauren Holly) acts on doctor’s advice that the climate in the Golden State would help Roger’s muscular dystrophy related cardio-pulmonary problems. Mickey hates the move, mostly because he believes that he is asked to sacrifice too much for his younger brother, but also because the move takes him away from his grandfather (Seymour Cassel) and their beloved Pittsburgh Pirates and Roberto Clemente.
Like all the best baseball movies, Chasing 3000 is not really about baseball. It’s about family, sacrifice, growing up, and, most movingly, about the very real impact that a public figure worthy of admiration can have on the lives of his or her fans. Roberto Clemente was a class act in so many ways. For example, in August 1972, he was 30 hits away from 3,000 career hits. As the final week of the 1972 season approached, Clemente was well on his way to achieving this milestone. It was Thursday, 28 September 1972, playing against the Phillies, when Clemente got hit 2,999 off Steve Carlton. The next game was in Philadelphia, and the game after that was in Pittsburgh. Clemente had himself removed from the line-up so that he could get the magic 3,000th hit in front of his hometown fans. Clemente almost didn’t get it. He earned his 3,000th hit on his very last at-bat ever.
I also watched Imprint. Here’s its trailer. Starring Tonantzin Carmelo as a Lakota prosecuting attorney, Imprint seems a rare thing among movies focused on Native Americans in that the principal cast and the writer are Native Americans. This movie is a low-key supernatural thriller about a woman ashamed of her heritage coming to grips with her history, both as a Lakota as well as a member of a troubled family. The special effects aren’t great. None of the acting really shines. That said, Imprint is an effective, well-written ghost-themed mystery wrapped around family melodrama.
Radius, starring Diego Klattenhoff, Charlotte Sullivan, and Brett Donahue, is next. Of course, there’s a trailer. The film focuses on the growing, tense relationship between Liam (Klattenhoff) and Jane (Sullivan), two strangers who somehow ended up together in the cab of a truck before the truck leaves the road and rolls over in a field. Both emerge from the accident with no memories. Liam discovers that any living creature that comes within about 50 feet of him immediately dies. He and Jane together discover that not only is Jane immune to this effect, but that her presence near Liam prevents Liam’s deadly effects. Radius is a taut thriller that slowly reveals Liam and Jane’s connection through flashbacks leading to a final, chilling revelation.
And, lastly, son Christopher, daughter Adrienne, and I hit the theater to catch a matinee of A Quiet Place.
I won’t go too much into the plot of this film beyond this link for the trailer. There’s more than enough information out there on the Internet about A Quiet Place. Even Bishop Robert Barron, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, praises the virtues of this film in a thoughtful review that includes some pretty major spoilers. Director and star John Krasinski has helped make a masterful film that, to paraphrase one review, links A-List performances with a B-Movie plot to craft a genuinely scary story. A Quiet Place ought to establish Krasinski as one of the new Hollywood heavyweights in both acting and directing, and, as good as he is, Emily Blunt and Millicent Simmonds are even better.
And that’s it for this post. Nothing game-related for today, but instead some recommendations for four good to astonishing motion pictures.
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