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Flash Movie Review: Fair Play
AT A BUSINESS EVENT, I WAS introduced to a husband and wife, where the wife was the major breadwinner in the family. She was the head of her department that employed over 100 people. Their work directly affected the financial stability of the company. Her husband worked but I was not clear about what he did for a living. From the various times I ran into them at business functions, he was always there no matter where in the country the event was being held. I have known many couples where one makes a substantial amount of more money, so I am never surprised by such things. But here is the interesting thing I found with this couple; I have been around attendees and co-workers of the wife who mention the husband is a freeloader. They say he comes to every business event that involves a free meal. It is funny, because I have attended various events that served a meal, but I am not a fan of buffets. Hearing these comments made me wonder if they would have said the same thing if the husband’s and wife’s roles were reversed, where he was the major money earner, and the wife was not. The times I have been around the couple, I never got a sense that he was threatened or upset that his wife made more money than him. ON THE OPPOSITE END OF THE spectrum, I know a couple where the husband and wife both worked, but the wife had a difficult time remaining at a job. I knew she did not have a college education, not that it always means something, but it seemed to me she did not want to work. She was taking temporary jobs, working with a temp agency. One job would last one month, then she would have a couple of weeks off before she got assigned to another company. As time went on, it seemed as if her time off between jobs was being extended further and further. Normally, I would not pay attention to any of this because it is not my business; however, whenever I was around the two of them the husband would make passive aggressive remarks about her not earning her keep. For example, she was talking about a wedding they were going to attend and how she wanted to get a new outfit for it. Her husband suggested, in that pseudo kidding way, she find a job to pay for the outfit; except, I could tell he was not kidding. It came to the point I was uncomfortable engaging with them when they were together. I was feeling that same uncomfortableness as I watched the main characters in this dramatic, mystery thriller. WORKING AT THE SAME COMPANY CAN be challenging for a couple. Especially, when the policy frowns on such relationships. When one of the couple’s job duties changes, it sets in motion a series of events that test the couple’s resolve. With Phoebe Dynevor (The Colour Room, Bridgerton-TV) as Emily, Alden Ehrenreich (Oppenheimer, Cocaine Bear) as Luke, Eddie Marsan (Happy-G0-Lucky, Vera Drake) as Campbell, Rich Sommer (The Devil Wears Prada, Mad Men-TV) as Paul and Sebastian De Souza (Kids in Love, Medici-TV) as Rory; I thought Phoebe and Alden were excellent as a couple. The range of emotions they displayed made for some exciting moments in the story. I was fully engaged as the story unfolded, fascinated with not only the emotional side of the story but the business side as well. Unfortunately, the last part of the movie did not maintain the clarity of the story. I was getting confused and thought the script dipped into comic book theatrics. Also, it seemed as if the characters lost some of their authenticity. This could have been a fascinating study of gender equality/inequality, but the message got somewhat lost.
2 ¾ stars
Flash Movie Review: Equity
There is this great word I like to use; the word is “schnorrer.” It means freeloader, basically a person who is greedy. Here is a perfect example of a schnorrer. In my social circles there is an acquaintance, more like a friend of a friend. When a group of us go out for dinner we usually split the check. Sure sometimes you wind up paying more than the actual price of your meal, but it could also be less. Well this one individual/acquaintance always and I mean always orders the more expensive items on the menu, besides one or two additional alcoholic drinks. They never offer to throw in a couple of extra bucks for their meal; they just sit there and expect to pay the same amount everyone else is paying. This to me is a greedy person and I find them irritating; but I have a couple of options available at least. For one, I can request a separate bill or not go out when this person is invited. When it comes to seeing or hearing about greediness in companies it doesn’t irritate me, it makes me angry. Ever since the recent market collapse I find myself angry over the reports of the latest insider greed. You may have recently heard about the EpiPen price increase; it is things like this that tick me off. Or what about these corporations that decide to close some of their locations because they need to save money; however, in the next breath they are giving their executive staff a raise. The ones that are being affected by the closing are the people who work there. How can one not get angry over this type of thing? What I find even more despicable are those same executives who earn huge financial gains due to insider information; it is simply wrong. INVESTMENT banker Naomi Bishop, played by Anna Gunn (Enemy of the State, Breaking Bad-TV), had a lot riding on her latest business deal. Her reputation depended on it. This film festival nominated drama had a high powered cast of capable actors. Besides Anna there was James Purefoy (A Knight’s Tale, Solomon Kane) as Michael Connor, Sarah Megan (Backwoods, The Girl in the Park) as Erin Manning and Alysia Reiner (That Awkward Moment, Sideways) as Samantha. I understood what the writers were trying to do with this story. Most stories of this kind tend to be male dominated; this one was female driven. I wish we lived in a time where this distinction would not even need to be addressed, but alas that is not the case. The acting was exceptionally good in this movie. I needed a stronger script however. There were a few parts in the story that did not make sense to me. At least there was a fair amount of tension and decent pacing to keep the story moving forward. In fact, there were a couple of moments where I was getting angry at what was taking place in Naomi’s life. So you see the movie was having an effect on me; I do not like to be around greedy people.
2 ¾ stars
Flash Movie Review: Cosmopolis
The more money a person acquires, it seems to me, the less they maintain a grasp on the real world. When I see examples of obscene amounts of money being spent on outrageous objects, such as 24 carat bathroom fixtures or a bedroom set carved out of a rare, exotic wood in the shape of a venetian gondola; I think, is that really necessary? As the division between the have and have nots widens, we have here a movie that depicts a time of chaos. With life spiraling out of control; young billionaire Eric Packer, played by Robert Pattinson (Twilight franchise, Water for Elephants), decided to go outside to get a haircut. In a decked out limousine and accompanied by tough security man Torval, played by Kevin Durand (Real Steel, Legion), Eric became a witness to life outside of himself. Here was an instance where I had wished I read the book before seeing this film. It was hard figuring out what was happening at times. For example, why couldn’t Eric have his barber come to his limo like his doctor? I was hoping to see Robert stretch himself in this role, due to a majority of the movie was filmed of him inside the limo. Unfortunately, I found Robert falling back into his character Edward from Twilight, minus the pale, sparkly skin. The division of the classes was something I could pick up on; however, I thought the script was utterly wrong, providing me with nothing to sustain my interest. I was bored out of my mind and did not care about the various characters that popped in and out of the limousine, during this slow moving movie. Even casting Paul Giamatti (Sideways, The Illusionist) as Benno Levin was not enough to save this poor film. Maybe if the studio did not spend so much money for the actors and director, they could have gone more for quality, making this film understandable for the masses. Brief scenes with blood.
1 2/3 stars