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Flash Movie Review: Night Swim
BEFORE I HAD ANY UNDERSTANDING ABOUT proper dieting, I tried a variety of ways to lose weight. During my elementary school years, I went on a daily lunch of clear chicken broth with a few oyster crackers. I lost a few pounds but did not give as much thought to my food intake for breakfast and dinner. Another diet I tried was eliminating bread, no more sandwiches or toast in the morning. All that happened was me being hungry and eating more ice cream instead. Because gym classes always caused me anxiety, I never thought about doing some type of exercise, except for a short period where I found a book that went through the exercise routines of the Canadian Mounties. I could not tell you where I got this book, but I tried doing the various exercises three times a week. It lasted for almost two months, but then again, the results were not dramatic, and I was looking for some serious weight loss. By the time I got to high school, my doctor put me on a pill to try and lose weight. I never knew what it was but some years later I found out the pills had a legal form of “speed.” My freshman year I remained skinny; however, when my days at school turned to the dark side during sophomore year, I put all the weight I had lost back on and then some. IT WAS NOT UNTIL YEARS LATER, when I went to an aerobics class with a friend, that I finally understood the way I needed to lose weight. Due to the dramatic weight loss, I achieved, I was always being asked for weight loss advice from members of my classes. I shared my simple philosophy: one must burn off more calories than they take in. The things I saw through my years of teaching went from dramatic to scary. There was a woman at one club who had gotten so skinny that her hair started to fall out and she stopped menstruating. Another member at one of the other clubs got into weight training, but never incorporated any form of aerobics. They simply got bigger and bigger, which meant their weight was increasing as well. There have been so many stories I have heard about the things people do to feel better about themselves. One person did liposuction, but it left her misshapen and half of her stomach remained numb from the procedure. I tried my best to guide members if they asked me, but only by telling them what I did to lose weight. One of the main characters had the right idea about working out in their pool to feel better, but things did not end up the way he had hoped in this horror thriller. THEIR NEW HOUSE HAD EVERYTHING THE family wanted; but had something else that they did not want. With Wyatt Russell (Overlord, Everybody Wants Some!!) as Ray Waller, Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin, Bad Samaritan) as Eve Waller, Amelie Hoeferle (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) as Izzy Waller, Gavin Warren (The Man in the White Van, A Hard Problem) as Elliot Waller and Jodi Long (The Tale, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) as Lucy Summers; this film missed an opportunity to create a scary thriller. Instead, all it offered was a poor excuse for a horror movie. Though the actors tried their best, the script was dull and unimaginative. I felt the scenes were clips from other horror films except with poorer special effects. There were a few scenes that sparked hope inside of me, but sadly the script did not veer off its mundane, average story. It would be best if one passed up on this mess of a picture.
1 ½ stars
Flash Movie Review: NYAD
I WAS FORTUNATE THAT I NEVER injured myself while teaching one of my fitness classes. My good fortune came about from a discussion I had with one of my earliest directors at the fitness center. When I first arrived there, many of the members thought I was the director’s brother because we were so similar in our coloring and temperament, though she was over a decade older than me. When she hired me, she explained her philosophy on teaching classes, which included how she not only paid attention to the members’ form and movement, but to own as well. Back when I started, high impact aerobics was still a thing and she told me to begin the exercise demonstrating the high impact moves, but to drop down to low impact to protect my body. It was great advice because, through the decades, I was able to maintain teaching 15 to 20 classes a week without any soreness in my joints or muscles. Though that early director retired from her position, she still maintained her training license the entire time I was working at the fitness center. She may have been the oldest trainer on the fitness floor, but she was still getting results out of each of her clients; she was and still is an inspiration to me. WHILE I WAS TEACHING FITNESS CLASSES, I decided to go back to school to become a yoga instructor. Once I completed my courses, I introduced yoga classes into the fitness center. One of the instructors that was hired was an older person. Nothing was said about it, this was just an observation. She and I struck up a friendship since we had similar styles in our yoga practices. Looking at her, I had to say she looked like she was in her 50’s. The yoga program was an enormous success for the center, and we were able to offer several classes throughout the week. At some point, in one of my conversations with this older instructor, she told me her age. I was shocked when she said she was about to turn seventy years old. I was only shocked because she did not look it, and no one could imagine she was that age based on the yoga poses she taught in her classes. During her time at the fitness center, I grew to admire her accomplishments based on the personal stories she shared with me. It is because of her and my earliest fitness director that I felt I could have a lengthy career in fitness/yoga. They taught me age was only a number; it did not need to represent me. THOUGH SHE DID NOT COMPLETE HER swim between Cuba and Florida decades earlier, a marathon swimmer never forgot her dream. She was determined to be the first person to complete the course, even when others said she was too old. With Annette Bening (Jerry and Marge Go Large, Death on the Nile) as Diana Nyad, Jodie Foster (Hotel Artemis, Flightplan) as Bonnie Stoll, newcomer Anne Marie Kemf as Candace, Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man, Anonymous) as John Bartlett and Eric T. Miller (Separation, Redemption in Cherry Springs) as Coach Jack Nelson; this true story was a showcase for the acting skills of Annette and Jodie. They were wonderful in their roles, staying strong and solid throughout the film. The story is incredible; but more than that, I never found myself bored while watching the scenes unfold. I would have appreciated a little more background story to the characters because at times I did not understand why people were putting up with Diana’s behavior. Regardless, this was an entertaining and inspirational movie. Even if one does not find this biographical, sport drama appealing, one cannot fault the message, to never give up on one’s dream.
3 ¼ stars
moviejoltz 