MARE OF EASTTOWN – Dismal but interesting story of small town detective Mare Sheehan convincingly portrayed by Kate Winslet who is up for a SAG award for her performance. There are several mysteries to be solved during the course of this HBO miniseries, as well as a few surprising twists as residents of Easttown, PA, struggle through tragedy and hardship in their daily lives. Overall, the piece is a downer with only a handful of hopeful or comedic moments, but it is honest, and the work excellent. Most of the cast is British or American and unfamiliar with the specific dialect of Pennsylvania. Dana, Sandi and I agree they all capture it beautifully. The supporting cast includes Jean Smart (marvelous as Mare’s mother and also up for a SAG award), Evan Peters who does a great job playing drunk in one scene and many actors of color and maturity who give credibility to the makeup of the town. Three unanimous toasts! Cheers to the diversity, believability and brutal honesty of this piece. Boyfriends – 1; Girlfriends – 0.

CODA – Remarkable film depicting the experience of a deaf family in a hearing world. Impressive on so many levels. Deaf actors are cast in all the deaf roles. The work is outstanding. The story is unique and informative. Troy Kotsur who portrays Frank, the dad, is incredible. He is nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award for his performance and I will be voting for him. Linette and I both found him to be a stand-out. But it is impossible to single out one actor in such a unique piece. Eugenio Durbez who plays the teacher, Marlee Matlin (who is always top notch and plays the mom) and Emilia Jones as Ruby the daughter all shine in excellent performances. I don’t know if Emilia knew sign language at the outset of this project, or she had to learn it for this role, but she is completely convincing as the long-suffering daughter, and only hearing member of the family, who is relied upon as interpreter for the others. There is one powerful scene where we, the audience, briefly experience how it truly feels to be deaf in a hearing world. Even the scenes where the family is having conversations and disagreements typical in all families, but carried out in complete silence, had a profound impact on me. Packed with love, humor and heartache – this film is a must-see. Cheers to all involved in this project, deaf and hearing!! Unanimous toasts! Boyfriends – 1; Girlfriends – 1.

BELFAST – Written and directed by Kenneth Branagh, this film is a snapshot of a day in the life of folks living in Belfast during the extreme violence between the Catholics and Protestants in 1969. Gritty and raw, it tells this disturbing tale through the eyes of an 11-year old boy who lived it….that boy being Kenneth Branagh. The work is excellent, the cast superb and the cinematography outstanding. The scenes are short and to the point. The film opens in modern day Belfast in color and as the camera pans over a billboard, the film fades to black & white, transporting us back to 1969 and adding authenticity to what we are about to experience. And experience it we do. Immediately. We are plunged into the violence of the day, witnessing folks struggling to keep their families safe as they struggle to survive financially and emotionally within those families. We also witness the dichotomy of life continuing on a daily basis with some semblance of normality within the community. Many fled, many stayed, many died. Cheers to them all!! Unanimous toasts from the peeps! Boyfriends – 1; Girlfriends – 1.

GET BACK – Full disclosure…..all the peeps are Beatles fans – Mike and I being the most diehard of the bunch! So it is no surprise we all enjoyed this documentary of the fab four working in the studio back in 1969 as they prepared for a live performance or TV show or both. (They could never sort it out from one day to the next and only had a two-week window to put it together). Eventually the live performance would become the famous rooftop concert in London, there would be no TV show and many of the recordings would become part of the “Let it Be” album. There is so much to love about this 3-part series if you are a Beatles fan, and so much to discover if you are not. Mike and I felt like a fly on the wall watching these sessions, witnessing the true relationships between these four men, both personally and professionally. The biggest surprise for me was the love and humor of their brothers’ bond which is evident throughout, despite their frustration and resentment as they struggled to keep the band together and on task. Watching them work, seeing how they collaborated to make a song come to life and how they would playfully blow off steam as a respite from a creative block was fascinating. Unexpected gems are revealed in this peek into the late 1960s – the fashions (which Darlene and I loved), the archaic recording equipment and the free flowing cigarettes & alcohol. I enjoyed seeing the wives/girlfriends/kids visiting the studio and interacting with the guys. (Just an aside – Yoko comes off much better in this than her reputation at the time) One of my favorite parts was seeing the Beatles check out the newspaper articles written about them. One of them would bring in an article and read it to the others, and they would all have a good laugh at the lies being printed or comment on the information being broadcast by the press. The documentary wraps up with the entire rooftop concert cleverly presented in real time with a split screen. This enables us to see exactly what was happening on the roof, in the streets and by the cops simultaneously. It’s ingenious. It was interesting to learn the two surviving Beatles and the widows of the other two are all producers on this project. Also interesting is the excitement the Beatles continue to generate among younger folks. Linette’s son binged the whole series and then went out and bought all of the Beatles’ CDs. Incredible! As for me, the overall viewing experience was bittersweet. Because in the end, I was left with sadness. Sadness that the guys couldn’t hold the band together, sadness that so many of the folks in this documentary are dead, sadness that we won’t pass this way again. Still I’m grateful for the trip. Unanimous toasts!!! Cheers Lads! Boyfriends – 4 of course, plus 1 more; Girlfriends – 0.

NIGHTMARE ALLEY – Bradley Cooper delivers a riveting performance in this intense, disturbing film based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham. With it’s all-star line-up of Willem Dafoe, Cate Blanchett and Richard Jenkins, we are thrust into the dark abyss of the dregs of society and charlatans who cruelly prey upon folks desperate for relief from despair, pain and sorrow. Despite the heartbreaking (and often sickening) journey we travel with these characters, Darlene and I both liked this picture. There is a definite “film-noir” feel to it and the cinematography is outstanding. And it’s always a plus when a storyline surprises me – the twist at the end was both an ideal resolution and completely unexpected. Top-notch work! Two toasts. Cheers! Boyfriends – 1; Girlfriends – 0.

PATSY & LORETTA – Back in 1981 Sissy Spacek won an Oscar for her outstanding portrayal of Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter. That film revealed the close friendship between Loretta and Patsy Cline. This film from 2019 is a deep dive into that relationship. The dichotomy and attraction between these two iconic country music divas is very much on display and played convincingly by both actors who also do their own singing. Jessie Mueller nails Loretta’s accent to a T. Not a lot of new info in this film, but as a fan of Patsy and Loretta (the real folks), I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cheers! Boyfriends/Girlfriends – 0.

ARCHIVE 81 – this new series on NetFlix is supposed to be a supernatural thriller involving a cult and their mission to release a god/demon from another world. I wasn’t so thrilled. It’s eight monotonous episodes and a bit of a mind bend because we’re never clear on how an event happened or why. It’s long on humming, videos whirring, boring evil music, dark labyrinth corridors, and short on variation in the episodes or interesting writing. Kelly, on the other hand, liked it. She said she enjoyed the twists, especially the one at the end. (I didn’t really notice any). But she felt the actor playing the lead character, Dan, was flat and she won’t watch a second season, if there is one. On that we agree. One halfway toast. Zero boyfriends/girlfriends.

THE GILDED AGE – Think Downton Abbey meets obscenely rich late-1800s Manhattanites and you have a complete picture of this new Julian Fellowes drama on HBO. In fact, there’s no need to watch it. It’s a rehash of Downton Abbey set in a new location with a slight variation of snobbery, class and scandal. I was less than impressed. Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon turn in good performances. The rest of the cast is somewhat wooden and the dialogue and situations are predictable and dull. The women’s wardrobe is gorgeous and I found myself paying more attention to that than the storyline. If you’re a Downton Abbey fan like me, stick to rewatching the original on DVD and skip this knock off! No toasts, no boyfriends, no girlfriends.

THE FATHER – Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for his heartbreaking portrayal of an elderly man sinking into the dark abyss of dementia. His performance is brilliant. Olivia Colman is equally superb as his daughter. I had to be in the right frame of mind to finally watch this film because I knew it was going to be a depressing trip into the void we all fear. It did not disappoint. This piece is a brutally honest, gut wrenching depiction of a world where we no longer know ourselves or our surroundings and the folks in it. If you are up for the ride, it is well worth your time. Cheers! No boyfriends or girlfriends.

RED JOAN – Judi Dench stars in this film based on the book which is loosely based on the story of Melitta Norwood. Norwood became known as the granny spy when she was arrested in her English garden at the age of 87 for smuggling information to the Russians forty years earlier during World War II. It’s an interesting tale and I rather liked it, although the story telling is a bit choppy alternating between present day and flashbacks. Dench is always top notch and the rest of the cast delivers as well. I don’t know how much I believe about Norwood’s explanation for treason, and I have a hard time justifying it in any case, but it does provoke some thought on the subject. Neutral on the toasts. Zero boyfriends and girlfriends.