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The Curious Case of Natalia Grace--A Review

 I had read an article and decided to give this docuseries a chance. Boy was I engrossed in the first season. You constantly felt the tug of who is lying? Who is telling the truth? I finished the first season in one day and was looking forward to the meeting of Natalia and her adoptive father, Michael. I have to say that he came across as a douche bag. I didn't believe his story that he was abused. I do think he was manipulated. He talked about Kristen, the mother using sex as a weapon against him. He seemed to want to do a lot to please her as well as turn a blind eye to the abuse. I really wanted both him and Kristen in jail. The second set of episodes were supposed to represent Natalia's point of view. They did firmly establish in my mind that she was really a child at the time of all this and not an adult. We also learned that she was probably sexually abused in the orphanage and that could explain why she came on sexually to men. However, I still feel icky at the idea that

Quick Takes on Recent Films

  I saw a slew of movies recently that are up or will be considered for Oscars. Here is my ranking of the ones I saw. From least favorite to best film. 4. Maestro-Bradley Cooper is riding off of his success directing and starring in A Star is Born. I had high hopes for a film about Leonard Bernstein, but I found that the movie was unfocused. Bernstein's music was dropped into scenes and didn't fit in with the action that was going on. The script was focused on the relationship between Bernstein and his wife. His career as a conductor and his penchant for men were dropped in, but you didn't know how that made him as a person. I felt that either a queer filmmaker or actor should have been in this movie. Carey Mulligan was fantastic though! 3. May December- It had good acting moments, but I really wanted to focus more on Gracie and Joe than Rebecca. It just felt like a tired schtick of an actor who wanted to absorb themself into a subject they were fascinated by. When Joe has

Lessons Hollywood Should learn from 2023

Superhero and other franchises struggled this year. I think the answer can be found in a couple of movies that came out this year. The success of Godzilla minus One. Godzilla is one of the longest running franchises in history and you want to know why? Toho Studios knows when to pull back. When the movies aren't doing well or interest wanes they put Godzilla on ice for 5-10 years. Instead of a Star Wars movie and tv show each year, why not do a trilogy and then wait 5-10 years to start another? Instead of doing back to back 10 year story arcs for superhero movies why not do stand alone movies or mini story arcs. I think when Avengers Endgame happen people were like great. We made it through this series! They weren't thinking, "Yeah, I can't wait for 25-30 movies to reach another conclusion". The audience attention spans have worn thin and they are looking for something new. It doesn't mean the era of superheroes is over, it's people are looking for somethi

Scandoval: 7 Seasons in the Making

       I first started watching Vanderpump Rules during Season 3. I started watching, because I was a huge fan of Lisa Vanderpump. She was my favorite housewife on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I wanted to try the show to see what the restaurant looked like. 7 seasons later and I'm still watching. The season that I started with was when Tom Sandoval and Kristen Doute broke up due to her sleeping with his best friend. It was hinted at that time that Tom S. was not that faithful himself. There was talk of an affair with a girl in Miami. Tom had befriended Ariana and began dating her shortly thereafter. Kristen believed that they had hooked up prior to being official. Ariana denied it, but something makes me think something did happen. She has been very coy recently, and seemed to throw a bit of shade at Tom at the reunion.      Flash forward to Season 10 and we have Tom S. cheating on Ariana with Raquel. In prior seasons, it seemed that the passion and love that Tom and Arian

Revisiting the Hill Season 2

Season 2 came and went as I streamed it. One thing I am missing is hearing Natasha Beningfeld's Unwritten. I wonder why it was removed? We have come to the season where Heidi chooses Spencer over Lauren. We also get the aftermath of Lauren choosing Jason over going to Paris. The introduction of Brody Jenner as a potential love interest. So how did this season shake out for me. In a nutshell, it's about making bad choices and the consequences of those decisions. My opinion of Heidi hasn't changed. She is one of those girls that doesn't have many female friends and is all about her man. She continues to do so little on the job; yet, gets a whole bunch of praise. I read that Heidi has said the job was fake. That she was pretending to work there, not actually work there. I did not like Spencer pressuring Heidi to move in with him. How long had they dated at this point? I wouldn't move in with a guy I didn't know better, let alone a guy threatening to break up with m

Revisiting the Hills Season 1

 I realized that I missed watching Season 2 of The Hills: New Beginnings. After finishing it, I went back to watch the OG series. Several things stood out rewatching the series again. I'm going to focus my thoughts on Season 1, because I just completed it.  First off, you can tell off the bat that Heidi is very immature. She's enrolled in college; yet, she can't bother to go to class or finish school. Then she complains when she gets a f/t job, and considers quitting because it's too much work. Was she expecting her parents to pick up the tab for her whole life? But I guess that's how life is for you when you come from a privileged life.  Second, Whitney and Lauren are the true BFF's of the series. The way they look out for each other on the job. They are both serious about the internships and their careers. I loved when Whitney got opportunity to walk the runway, when a model didn't show up for the show. It does seem like some of the things that happen on t

An Ode to Chris Cornell

One of my routines every morning is to psych myself up by listing to music that makes me want to dance or sing along. Lately, I have been in the mood for Rage Against the Machine. I've been struck by the song "Bulls on Parade" and it triggered a memory. The Jimmy Kimmel show would have concerts on the street off of Hollywood & Highland. I was lucky enough to attend one of these concerts that featured Audioslave. Audioslave is made up of members of other bands that have broken up, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine. At the time, they were performing songs from Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine in their sets. So I was so excited to find out they would be performing a concert for the Jimmy Kimmel Show. I went to Hollywood & Highland a little bit early to have dinner and to stake out a good location to watch the show. I found a spot on the second level that would be looking down on the stage.