Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

 "I'm thinking of worms." -Mike Gabler I enjoyed the first episode of Survivor 43 , but I wasn't fully hooked.  After watching episode 2, consider me hooked.  What a fun episode.  I loved the insanity of Cody picking up the Beware Advantage.  There was some absolutely stupid gameplay that was highly entertaining to watch.  I'm rooting for Cody now, even if I think he has a zero percent chance to win the game.  Now, let's wade into this nonsense and figure out who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Let's start on the Baka tribe.  It was great to see the guys form an alliance when it was initially set up to appear like they weren't playing at all.  Now I think they absolutely have an edge.  Gabler especially needs this because he isn't doing all that well physically. We also have Jeanine who went through Gabler's bag to confirm how long his Idol is good for.  It's a classic move and I love it, even if it may come back to hau...

 "Everyone is acting like I'm crazy.  And I'm not crazy." -Alice Chambers Alice (Florence Pugh) lives a seemingly idyllic life as a housewife.  Her husband, Jack (Harry Styles), goes off to work everyday, while Alice and the other women stay home to clean and shop.  Alice becomes curious about the secretive nature of her husband's work, but as she asks questions, she meets resistance from just about everyone. What Works: This film has some serious issues, but Florence Pugh is not one of them.  She gives a fantastic performance.  She's extremely charismatic and likable and you feel really bad for her as the what feels like the entire world gaslight her.  She's an excellent protagonist and the movie does a good job of putting you in her headspace. The cinematography is also very good.  There are a lot of mirrors used and the movie does a good job of using the camera to make you feel unsettled. Probably the biggest praise I can give the movie is that...

 "I don't feel anything." -Sayid Jarrah "The Package" picks up with the Man in Black (Terry O'Quinn) leaving his camp on a mission.  While he's gone, Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) decides to leave and go find Sun (Yunjin Kim) on his own.  Before he can, Zoe (Sheila Kelley) and her team attack the camp and knock everyone unconscious before kidnapping Jin.  He is brought to Hydra Island, where Zoe asks him questions about the surveys he did on pockets of electromagnetic energy while with the Dharma Initiative.  Jin asks to see Widmore (Alan Dale), who tells him that if the Man in Black gets off the Island, everyone would simply cease to be and shows him pictures of Ji Yeon to emphasize his point. The Man in Black goes to visit Sun, who has grown frusterated with Ilana's (Zuleikha Robinson) plan to wait for Richard (Nestor Carbonell) to return.  The Man in Black offers to take Sun to Jin, but she runs from him.  He chases her and she hits her head on a tree and ...

"Losing my leg is the best thing that ever happened to me." -Noelle Lambert Survivor is back, baby!  And I am hyped!  This was a solid premiere and I'm really optimistic about this season.  The cast has a lot of potential and we don't have the Hourglass or the Do or Die this time around.  I do wish the person who had been voted out had gotten a stronger edit, but beyond that I don't really have much in the way of complaints.  But we do have to figure out who played well and who sucked, so let's take a closer look! Who Played Well: We'll start over on the Baka tribe.  Elie formed an alliance with the girls as well as a bond over metal music with Gabler.  She was also the one who organized the vote against Morriah.  I'm not sure how I feel about the move overall considering Morriah got very little in the way of an edit, but Elie got her tribe to unanimously vote her way, which is typically a good thing. Jeanine was also in the girls alliance with El...

 "How much longer do you intend to hold us all hostage?" -Petula Spencer When a murder occurs at the theater performing the famous whodunnit, The Mousetrap, Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are assigned to the case.  As they interview the suspects, parallels between The Mousetrap and the actual murder become apparent and no one is safe. What Works: Far and away the best part of the movie is Adrien Brody, who plays a drunken, asshole of a movie director.  He is the movie's narrator and doesn't much care for whodunnits.  He also is the only character in the movie to have any sort of personality.  It's too bad he doesn't get more screen-time because he brings some liveliness and conflict to the film.   This is a mystery comedy film and the comedy is very hit-or-miss.  There are some genuine hits though and I laughed a fair amount. Finally, this movie gets very meta in terms of whodunnits.  It explores the s...

"I do love a good audience." -Pearl This prequel to X  tells us the origin story of X's killer, Pearl (Mia Goth).  As a young woman stuck living on a farm, Pearl had dreams to becoming a star.  Unfortunately, Pearl's mother and the rest of the world seemed to be against Pearl achieving her dreams.  Desperate, Pearl turned to murder in order to find a way to stardom. What Works: Pearl is a movie that deeply appeals to me.  It's shot and starts off with the tone of a classic Hollywood film.  Think something like The Wizard of Oz .  The movie begins with Pearl talking to farm animals about her dreams of becoming a star.  Knowing what we know about Pearl, this all feels very surreal.  Of course, this movie has a dark and twisted edge to it, but still manages to hold onto the classic Hollywood feel.  I love this twist on a classic genre and director Ti West makes it work incredibly well. Mia Goth gets to show off a wide range of depth for the...

"You're going to have to kill the Devil." -The Man in Black   "Ab Aeterno" picks up with Ilana's (Zuleikha Robinson) group discussing what to do next.  Ilana says that Richard (Nestor Carbonell) knows what they should do.  Richard denies knowing anything except that they are all dead and in hell.  He storms off into the jungle planning to join the Man in Black's (Terry O'Quinn) group. In flashbacks, we learn that Richard was living in the Canary Islands in 1867 when his wife, Isabella (Mirelly Taylor), became ill.  He went to a doctor (Jose Yenque) for help, but could not afford the medication and accidentally killed the doctor when he tried to take it anyway.  Richard returned home to find Isabella had succumbed to her illness.  He was arrested and sentenced to death. At Richard's final confession, the priest (Juan Carlos Cantu) refused to forgive Richard's sins. Just before being hanged, Richard was sold into slavery and sent aboard the Bla...

 "Shake it for the Lord!" -Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and his wife, Trinitie (Regina Hall), run a Southern Baptist megachurch.  A scandal causes them to lose most of their congregants and they are forced to close the church.  With a month until Easter, Lee-Curtis hires a documentary crew to film them as they prepare to reopen the church. What Works: I went into this movie expecting it to be a satire of megachurches and for the first half of the movie, that's the case.  The movie does a great job of pointing out the hypocrisy of these churches and the theatrics they use.  It's both funny and intelligent.  These aren't all cheap shots like you might expect.  There is some really intelligent humor here. The second half of the movie gets more serious, which doesn't completely work, which I'll get to later.  What does work are the performances of the lead characters.  Regina Hall is fantastic as our main ...

It's that time again: The Snubby Awards!  For those of you who don't know, the Snubby Awards take a look at all of the Best Picture nominees from a given year and determine if the best film won or if one was snubbed.  If that's the case, they win the coveted Snubby Award! This time we'll be taking a look at the 2005 Oscars, which was a really solid field of movies.  The nominees were:  The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray, and  Sideways  with the winner being  Million Dollar Baby .  Did Million Dollar Baby  deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Let's find out! #5.  Finding Neverland Finding Neverland is a biographical film about J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan .  This movie focuses on the relationship Barrie had with the family that inspired him to create Peter Pan.  This is a fun and very whimsical movie.  It makes you want to be a kid again and both Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet do a fantastic job....

 "I'm the smoke thing." -The Man in Black "Recon" picks up with Sawyer (Josh Holloway) taking care of Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) at Claire's (Emilie de Ravin) camp.  The Man in Black (Terry O'Quinn) returns with his group, which includes Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Claire, and many Others.  The Man in Black then sends Sawyer over to Hydra Island to do some reconnaissance on the Ajira survivors, with the ultimate plan being to take the plane and fly away from the Island. Sawyer finds the remaining passengers of the Ajira flight all dead, but encounters a woman named Zoe (Sheila Kelley), who claims to be the sole survivor.  Sawyer figures out she is lying and pulls a gun on her, but she calls out for reinforcements who capture Saywer.  He is brought onto a submarine and meets Charles Widmore (Alan Dale).  Sawyer offers to lure the Man in Black to Hydra Island so Widmore can kill him.  In exchange, he wants safe passage off the Island for e...

 "Everyone's dying to meet you." -Oliver Alexander With the recent death of her mother, struggling artist Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) has no remaining family and feels very alone.  That is, until she takes a DNA test and discovers she has distant cousins in England who are extremely wealthy.  They invite her to visit during a large family wedding, where Evie falls for an associate of the family, Walter (Thomas Doherty).  But this family has secrets... What Works: This movie works because of Nathalie Emmanuel.  She gives an extremely likable performance.  Evie is very much a fish-out-of-water due to both class and race and that makes her very relatable.  She works as a waitress for a catering company and understands what it's like to have to work for terrible customers.  She takes great sympathy on the maids who work at the mansion.  Plus she's very charming.  She's a character who is very easy to root for and that makes a world of differenc...