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eandrusk
Reviews
Love, Guaranteed (2020)
Another "digital dollar bin" find for RomCom fans!
Another "digital dollar bin" find for RomCom fans! Very predictable and feel-good-ey. Fans cheap RomComs gather round! Wouldn't watch it again, but wouldn't fight my way out of a room full of girls swooning either.
Marriage Story (2019)
A Beautifully Sad Film - A Netflix Best
Probably in a top 10 for movies made by Netflix this decade. This is a sad sad movie, but so is divorce and I thought the writers did a nice job of showing how even the most cordial of divorces can quickly descend into brutal warfare. Charlie (played by Adam driver) is a theatre director married to Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) in NYC. In what opens as a strained marriage. Before all hell breaks lose, each character is doing its best to end things amicably for the benefit of their child, but forced out of their control evolve and quickly hasten the dissolution of any mediation or consensus over various outcomes for each party. It's certainly a good movie, perhaps if for nothing else, allowing the audience to peer into the lives of two opposing sides to a divorce, having no preconceived notions or judgments, the ending is one at the very least of empathy for each individual party. It's merit rests on the relatability of its characters and its universal theme: navigating the hardships underlining marriage and divorce.
The Last Letter from Your Lover (2021)
Calling All Happy Endings - Not Bad for Netflix
Secret love letters from 1965? The aristocracy of NYC and across the pond? Old books and archives at a newspaper? Oh yeah, we're making a cliché romance drama, but in a surprising twist for Netflix, it ends well. Perhaps because it's based on a book, but if you like Soaps, need a good cry, or just like cliché romance stories, this is for you.
I love Shailene Woolley, but this wasn't her best acting. Specifically, I sort of hated how she was speaking, while reading her love letters in the background...it just felt very forced. Perhaps that's how the letters in the book were written, but they could have changed those a bit to make it sound less stuffy. I mean who writes like that? I can tell you that my grandparents certainly didn't.
These aren't great letters, they aren't really dynamic characters, but the actors weren't terrible, so that was a saving grace. I liked Felicity Jones for the role of kitschy journalist/investigator. Somewhat flat on character development, but for what it was, it's a watch for a rainy day. I watched it to revel in the 1960's crème de la crème, so if that's your thing, you too might relish the background scenery - boats, cars, European vacation homes circa 1960. They must have had a nice budget to do this film :-)
Chernobyl (2019)
A Must-See Series: Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid.
I think this was a really great mini-series worth every episode. Points for a super interesting setting, in the city of Pripyat, located a little over a mile from the nuclear plant, and inhabited mostly by power plant workers and their families. Today the city remains a sort of urban jungle, since it was evacuated the day after the explosion, giving residents little or no time to pack belongings and despite the risk, since the HBO's show's debut, tourism has increased exponentially, for those wishing to view the post-apocalyptic ruins of Chernobyl.
I was kind of at the edge of my seat because I learned about Chernobyl in school as a child, but I never actually had any formal education as to what happened to those exposed to nuclear reactors and the politics involved domestically within Russia. This series brought to light many stories that I think westerners are unfamiliar with and also gives a decent science run-down of how the incident actually happened i.e. The flaws behind the original RBMK nuclear reactors which were later retrofitted. There is a touch of some dark comedy as well, but its a mostly serious and sometimes terrifying take on an important event in modern history. Not only was this a riveting tale fascinating in-and-of itself (a lesson in the humanities), but the way its creators chose to tell the story was really brilliant. For example, the story starts off with the main characters suicide 2 years to-the-day after Chernobyl transpires, and then jumps backwards it explain all the events and characters that tie into the prologue. Also interesting, the last episodes that start in a wistful memory of the people affected by the catastrophe a day before, before giving away the final ending of the series, was spot on. If we would have seen that imagery before and/or closer to the beginning it would have felt cliche, but after you know the end, so see these humans in their former glory was a very heartening and mystifying experience: life unfolding unhindered by the tragedies which are to come. I also felt the story felt very authentically "Russian", and I believe the writers and producers put in a great deal of research to make that a reality, even asking survivors of Chernobyl to read parts of the script. Last, I think the message of the series is just as important today: a message on the importance of Truth. I could make a case that the themes imbued in this humble series, are even more important today than they were back then. Of the more interesting quotes, I've listed some of my favorites below. Perhaps they'll peak your interest and push you towards that stream button...
1. "You think the right question will get you the truth? There is no truth."
2. ". . . the core is open. It means the fire we're watching with our own eyes is giving nearly twice the radiation released by the bomb in Hiroshima. And that's every single hour. Hour after hour, 20 hours since the explosion, so 40 bombs worth by now. Forty-eight more tomorrow. And it will not stop. Not in a week, not in a month. It will burn and spread its poison until the entire continent is dead!"
3. "Have you ever spent time with miners?" "No." "My advice: tell the truth. These men work in the dark. They see everything. "
4. "You came off like a naive idiot. And naive idiots are not a threat."
5. "What is the cost of lies? It's not that we'll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all."
6. "These are the most important ninety seconds of your lives. Commit your task to memory, and do your job."
7. "You put a bullet in someone, you are not you anymore. You will never be you again. But then you wake up the next morning and you are still you. And you realise, that was you all along."
8. " Why worry about something that isn't going to happen? Oh, that's perfect. They should put that on our money."
9. "I've known braver souls than you, Khmoyuk. Men who had their moment and did nothing. Because when it's your life and the lives of everyone you love, your moral conviction doesn't mean anything. It leaves you. And all you want at that moment is not to be shot." - Boris Shcherbyna
10. "When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. "
11. "We're still wearing the f$%&ing hats." - naked Mineworker
12. To be a scientist is to be naive. We are so focused on our search for truth, we fail to consider how few actually want us to find it. But it is always there, whether we see it or not, whether we choose to or not. The truth doesn't care about our needs or wants. It doesn't care about our governments, our ideologies, our religions. It will lie in wait for all time. And this, at last, is the gift of Chernobyl. Where I once would fear the cost of truth, now I only ask: "What is the cost of lies?" ~ Valery Legasov.
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Pleasantly Surprised!
I really expected this to be terrible. I was pleasantly surprised! I mean, I suppose it goes to show what good acting can bring to a mediocre story. I usually can guess how movies end and this had a few twists and turns, since its a bit of a divergence from the classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarves story (no not the Walt Disney take, but the original German version - "Schneewittchen" for those cultural enthusiasts familiar with high and low German translations). In the original Grimm fairytale, whenSnow White is being transported in her glass coffin by the Prince to her final resting place at the palace, a servant of the Prince trips and inadvertently dislodges a piece of poisoned apple from Snow White's throat, reviving her and in typical german fashion after the accidental Heimlich maneuver, the Prince makes her his bride. But I digress...
I have watched this movie a few times, which is usually where I place the line between a 1-5 movie rating and a 5-10 rating movie. Would I own it? Maybe . . . Again a nice dividing line between a 6-9 rated movie. Yep, if you like fairy tales, you will likely enjoy this updated modern take on the classic story (whichever story you believe to be the classic I suppose). Give it a go and if nothing else, you can count on Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, and Chris Hemsworth doing a bang-up acting job.
Twilight (2008)
Classic Tween Thriller Bro-Mance
I mean this is a classic and I feel like everyone should see it, just based on the number of spin-off copy cats running around after this debuted. I know I know, Vampire movies have been around forever, but we probably haven't seen as many teenagers running around fantasizing about becoming a vampire or werewolf at the hands of Edward & Jacob (Robert Pattinson & Taylor Lautner, respectively), since 1994's Interview with a Vampire, which I consider to be the better and more mature version of this story. Personally, I don't love Vampire shows or Movies. I didn't really get into Buffy the Vampire Slayer or True Blood. That said, for what this movie was i.e. A movie make of Stephenie Meyer's bestselling book, "Twilight," I think they did a pretty great job because I didn't hate it. Maybe that's because the story takes some unexpected twists which can really be attributed to the writing of it's author, since this is a screen adaptation of the teen fantasy novel, but there are a lot of ways they could have made this terrible. The acting isn't bad, and I particularly liked the more somber and realist tone, set by some of the main characters, in particular Bella's love interest, Edward who sort of sulks around like most teenage boys do. He's sort of the Vampire version of every Emo teenager from high school and it works, despite all its clichés. Give it an honest shot! You might not watch it again, but you'll be glad to know what everyone's talking about.
Jungle Cruise (2021)
A Cheap/Corny Blockbuster through and through.
Basically an old story (Mummy Meets Pirates of the Caribbean) with new Actors/Actresses. I think I really wanted to like this movie? But in the end there were some fatal flaws: (1) Dwayne Johnson's character, while entertaining and believable just had really poor chemistry with Emily Blunt. I kind of felt like I was watching 2 siblings kiss at the end. It was just awkward.... terrific actors, but terrible romance on screen (2) The special effects were cool, and I loved the scenery, but some of the main happenings in the movie had been stolen from other movies almost polar-by-play, for example, in the scene where Emily Blunt steals the arrow-head from the library and falls off the ladder - kind of a big part of the Movie the Mummy -- some of the elements of the movie also felt like a nod back to Pirate of the Caribbean...in the end, elements of the movie just were not unique enough to be considered on their own merit. I've said it lots, but honestly the movie writers are just copying the SAME. DAMN. OLD. MOVIE. Over and over again! Please stop! Get your own ideas Gens Y and Z. In the end, I felt like they could have done a TON of stuff with a theme of Conquistadors, but they just didn't do any research and they didn't use their brains to try to make something more creative. There were some cheap laughs with the tribe knowing Dwayne Johnson, etc. Which were nice fluff, but in the end the plot just wasn't there to make a hearty movie. A Cheap/Corny Blockbuster through and through, but I guess it had a Disney "feel good ending" which I liked, so I wouldn't refuse watching it again if forced.
American Horror Stories (2021)
Not My Cup of Tea
I know some people are really into this show, but for me, it just wasn't that interesting. I liked how each episode is a separate story, but in general, some of the topics are repeat and others are original but not that interesting. Just my opinion.
The Witcher (2019)
Eh . . . GOT meets Magic
I just couldn't get into this show. I tried, but I think it was released right after GOT, and anything short of AMAZING was probably not going to peak my interest. Perhaps, this was poor timing on when the show released, or perhaps I'm being unfair. Either way, if I stop watching after a couple episodes, my gut says it's not a great show.
Perhaps this is a good show for people who are into other kinds of sci-fi / fantasy than myself? ¯\_("~)_/¯
Z: The Beginning of Everything (2015)
Foiled by Bad Writing -OR- a Cancelled 2nd Season?
I had high expectations for this series, but in the end, there were some fatal flaws, the biggest of which might have been that it's missing a season? Perhaps they intended to shoot a second season where Zelda has a child and then Fitzgerald goes to Hollywood. For what they did show, I think several episodes were great and really showed the luster and enchantment between the couple and the twenties. I loved the beginning episodes in the south and it really built up the main character as a rebel without a cause. Zelda is fiesta and enchanting, and everything we expect her to be. Then the tumultuous love unfolds in later episodes, ... all important stories to share in the initial episodes: The booze, booze, booze, which would help even the strongest of relationships crumble, and all of the tensions that go along with careers of men, and the stifling of careers for women throughout history. I liked that they were able to draw on factual evidence that Zelda and her husband wrote similarly enough to concede that his stories were not purely his own. However, I thought the last episode or two fell flat and were somewhat liberal with the truth. Zelda tried to run away from her husband with another man when they lived on the French coast (around the time he wrote the Great Gatsby) and sure enough, given the times, he locked her in a room until she promised she wouldn't leave him, because you know...the 20's...and Scott likely wasn't having extramarital affairs until he lived in Hollywood, so there are tons of plot holes here and to be fair, I can't for the life of me figure out why they made an entire episode out of driving to Montgomery from the East Coast. I mean, on screen, it's just as boring as it sounds, and doesn't do anything to develop the characters or the plot which is their lives. YIKES! Big fail on the last 2 episodes. My guess is that season 2 would have had a few episodes dedicated to their time in Paris, Zelda's tense relationship with Hemingway, and eventually the death of her father, who was a Supreme Court Justice (a detail which is baffling to leave out, as it develops his character). Last, Zelda's time in and out of institutions would have been an interesting plot twist. I feel some of these episodes were just down right boring, and they could have really had more bang for their buck with a better writer to adapt the book to a screenplay. WTF, writers?!?!?! You kind of rendered a brilliant idea dead in the water. Sigh. What a sweet and heart-aching story, fumbled before it fully took off. And who wasn't craving a glimpse into their fancy life in Paris? I mean HELLO it's in a ton of other charming movies, but not a show about Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald themselves?!?! This had to have been a second season cancellation, in which case, please bring season 2 back, please! I will mumble curse words here while I'm waiting.... F#%&;/+ no good w#$&;/%...
Baltimore Rising (2017)
Educational Appetizer on Systemic Issues
This movie is about the riots and trials following the death of Freddie Grey, which medical examiners ruled a homicide while in Baltimore police custody. My only complaint about the film is that I felt more details could have been given initially about the death, as it really opened with a landscape which was riot and unrest. I really loved everything else and felt it was a great depiction of black people trying to pull each other up by their boot straps. It also pays tribute to the actions of several law enforcement leaders bent on working with the community to change the system. My favorite part was when the black community members (some ex-convicts) play a football game with the Baltimore police department in an effort to show solidarity between groups.
I really appreciate all the deeper dives into the lives of protestors who's rights were violated, when police arrested them. It was also great to hear their parents voice their concern over parenting and pushing their children to not sacrifice their education or future opportunities for the cause of Black Lives Matter. I felt it made all of the stories exceptionally relatable, as we could sense the youthful hunger for change while simultaneously acknowledge the plight of real world responsibilities (having a job, going to college, etc.) which are often difficult for young activists to manage simultaneously. Any white Mom or Dad with a son or daughter who is an artist or has chosen a less lucrative career path can relate to these challenges. Showing families and universal struggle helps bridge the gap between races and widen the audience for who these people are and what they are trying to do.
Finally, a lasting message was left in that (1) although officers were not convicted of crimes, the Department of Justice investigation of the Baltimore police found and documented major problems in the criminal justice system and (2) the language of community members around job creation in Baltimore as being a tool for lowering crime in the city was a convincing dialogue with law enforcement. In the first sense, I think institutional support such as that provided by the DOJ gives legitimacy to the movement. In the second sense, I thought the consideration that law enforcement needs help from other policy makers to create jobs and opportunity to reduce crime and over-policing, is a good point. It should not remove them from accountability, but it should inspire other black men and women to become economists and help solve issues of unemployment and underemployment in our cities.
I will admit the ending felt more sobering than inspiring. I guess I can't expect a happy ending to an unjust world, but I was hoping to find the thin line between challenge and opportunity, and I think this ended with an air of hopelessness. I suppose that may have been the point.
Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland (2018)
A Great Call to Action and Deeper Thought
Really insightful. This doc is asking all the right questions of Americans and our institutions. I found it interesting that Sandra's messages resonate so well with people across races. Her voice calls for friendship across racial divides and a better understanding of each other (as she put it, more black people need white friends and more white people need black friends). I did not find her words or this documentary's purpose was to "incite" but rather to "unite", as she says so eloquently in her online videos prior to her death. I also thought it gave an accurate depiction of the law enforcement involved and did unfairly portray them. We are called to stop and think when we see the video of the police officer removing her from her vehicle, the escalating situation, and her senseless death. Sandra Bland's death is still surrounded in mystery, but she will not be forgotten. I think the title of the film resonates will all humans. If I had known Sandy, I'd like to think we would have been friends.
Nova: Killer Volcanoes (2017)
Great Mystery for History/Science Loving People
The documentary runs 53 minutes long and flows like a mystery/thriller where scientists are trying to solve a mystery of what volcano could have cause a large scale catastrophe in the 1200s. The following synopsis explains the happenings (spoiler).
Mass grave burials are discovered in London. Carbon dating puts a deadly event responsible around 1250 A.D. (before the Black Death). History books in London reference a famine in 1258 matching other historical records of famine around the world in 1258, so a volcano is suspected, based on what we know large volcanoes do to the world today (lower earth temperature causing shorter/worse growing seasons).
Specifically 30% of Londoners would have died at this time, gaining the name, "the Year without a summer". As a example from historical volcanoes shows, Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted in 1815 caused massive consequences across the world in 1816 (it snowed in June in NYC). Volcanoes that have extreme eruptions, can secrete volcanic gas and ashes in a large cloud high in the upper atmosphere, reflected out into space, causing a cooling in the earth temperature around the world by 1 to 2 degrees for a few years. In addition, this sulfur would spread across the hemisphere and be present chemically in snowfall around the world.
I really enjoyed the part where they look at ice from 1000 feet below the north and south pole earth surface to find evidence of sulfuric acid. Since these ice sheets containing snowfall from the 13th century, both show sulfuric acid, they can narrow down the suspected volcanoes in the world to ones within a certain distance of the equator (the only ones which could spread sulfuric acid to both the northern and southern hemispheres).
Next, scientists looks through known volcanoes in Mexico, Indonesia, etc. which all would have been capable of putting out sulfuric gases to both the northern and southern hemispheres. Geographer, Frank Lavigne, and volcanologist, Jean-Christoph Komorowski, look through volcano candidates which could be responsible. Geographer Lavigne, hunts through large volcanic craters via satellite photos. Volcanologist Komorowski explains when volcanoes erupt, magma cools and solidifies, creating a pumice rock, which can be dated. Some volcano candidates can be eliminated based on the pumice rock around them, which can be too old to have erupted in 1258.
Mount Rinjani in Lombok, Indonesia sits in a caldera, likely an older, now dead, volcano and all around this volcanic system are pumice quarries identified in satellite images. Some of these quarries are up to 150 feet deep which is rare (Pompeii for example produced pumice 15 feet deep much closer in distance to Pompeii). So this eruption in Indonesia made pumice much further and much deeper than Pompeii, so it must have been a massive eruption.
Finding burned wood inside the pumice, can be carbon dated (wood contains carbon unlike rock), to date the eruption. Also ancient texts in Indonesia, can be dated to the 13 century. They tell a story of a huge volcanic eruption, Mount Samalas. That volcano would have sat next to Mount Rinjani and the ancient texts tell a story of it's eruption.
Since they find pumice so far away on other Indonesian islands, they can estimate how high the eruption would have needed to blow, and likely it was significantly higher than the Mount Helen eruption. Volcanic ash from the area can be comparable up to 99% to the volcanic ash in the polar ice caps, which would indicate the ash had the same origin (statistics).
Historians and scientists now can put together a narrative about this volcanic eruption, which might be the largest in history. Since 1257, at least 7 explosive volcano eruptions have happened near the equator. These massive volcanic eruptions cause climate change and have economic consequences far-reaching across the world.
Brúðguminn (2008)
Meh - Unique but Just Meh
I guess I gave it a star for the setting in Iceland which is beautiful. I did enjoy watching the main characters roam around a picturesque little town. However, the plot is sort of all over the place. I think they split up the timeline to try to seem unique, but it doesn't add a whole lot to the plot after intrigue. I mean, I literally kept watching the movie because I was interested in unraveling the plot (same reasons we watch a thriller), but because it was supposed to be a comedy, and even if a dark comedy, it really lost it's luster at the end. I would have preferred to see the main girl ditch this loser, but they end up tying the knot. While I do find the way they get married tragically funny, after a few cheap laughs it just felt like a hollow ending. There is little to no character development on the part of the young fiancé, which means an audience can't comprehend why she stays with the groom. Instead the focus is all on her parents and the man's previous wife. The actors weren't bad, but the actual story itself is just "meh". Basically I can summarize in one line: "washed up loser professor finally get's forced into marrying young student to find that happiness is fleeting in the end". In the end, it's not particularly clever or funny after all (even for a dark comedy, if that's what it's meant to be). I'd watch these actors again though in another movie with a better plot - so one star!
Julie & Julia (2009)
Meryl Streep & Amy Adams are Heart-warming
What's better than a movie about food? A movie about life that uses food as a coping mechanism? An interesting comparison between characters from very different time periods who only share one thing in common: the recipes they cook with. The film is charming and entertaining enough to watch on a lazy weekend. Would definitely watch again and again and could add this to a list of "feel good" movies or movies that make me hungry. That's a win-win in my book! Nothing too heavy-hearted here: an instant pick-me-up about regular life.
Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (2017)
Incredibly Intwresting Piece
A film that carefully cronicles one of the best writers of our century. I found it thought provoking and although sad, one would be remiss to not watch it. Especially helpful for younger generations who perhaps did not grow up reading her books, but can still appreciate their appeal.
The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)
movie meant the world to me and hopefully a lot to the world
I struggle with my rating here between a movie I would force down people's thoats (9 stars) or a movie a would strongly recommend and force down the throats of people with specific interests (in this case, mathematically inclined/scientific people - 8 stars - because maybe if you hated math you wouldn't appreciate the significance of this). What I arrived at was a 9/10 because Dev Patel does an absolutely amazing job here and I think the story is even MoRE important than Lion (also dev Patel). The basic gist here is protgonist, Ramanujan, is proving amazing things in math, under the tutaluge of a Cambridge professor and I mean EPIC things that scientists are still using for work on black holes today. Okay so nerdy-side bar, If you're into math but always hated proofs, you can identify with Ramanujan because he hates them too. He's brilliant and just knows things in math are true because...well he knows...despite being a poor chap from India with no means. He sends his proofs to a dude in UK who recognizes his awesomeness and brings him to Cambridge and well, this poor Indian man struggles to prove the very essesne of what he "knows" already to be true. The professor keeps insisting he prove concepts formally in proofs but we learn Ramanujan is sick and so he's rushing to leave as much legacy as he can before his time is up. Is this a nerdy math thing? Ya. - end side-bar**** But can anyone who's struggled through school or academia reciprocate? HELL YA. We've all been in that spot where we fail English, but love music. Or we love history, but suck at math. Ramanujan is brilliant at one side of math but struggles with the other side because, oh right! He was born poor and didn't have the same access to education. Most of us can't claim the same excuse, but even if we can, we are inspired because he fights through and ya there's all the other hardships too, like discrimination, India-English tensions via colonialism, etc. But what's rises to the surface here, is one man's will and maturity to leave a legacy behind which we probably didn't deserve (the mathematical gifts continue to be used in science today). It's also quite sad he had to sacrifice so much in order to give this gift and one wonders what his legacy could have been had he not been born into a country enslaved by a foreign occupier. So Dev Patel, f*#~ ya! This was beautiful and I cried a lot watching him eat his tiny vegetarian meals and feeling misplaced in an odd new world in the West. The way he never sees his wife and family but gives this all-sacrificing gift to the world is inspiring, but also heartening. A character conflicted by his choice of legacy over family and comfort, is a deeper concept that is complex and difficult to show on screen. I they did a great job with the minutes they had though. Overall, it's a must-see movie.
Blue Jasmine (2013)
Intriguing Antiheroine, Comedy Little Too Dark
I liked this movie and definitely thought it was worth seeing. I feel it might be a movie where you see different things every time you watch it. The highlight really is Cate Blanchett's acting job and of course the composition of the main jaracter Woody Allen has written, which is a character we hate, but also recognize as quite complex. I'm not sure why the sexual harassment scene is introduced and then sort of left. We never do anything with the scene and to be honest, it's recognizable that this is written by a man, because we have a scene where he protagonist is so clearly humiliated that she says, "I'm never coming back," but then her next reaction is to go out and date someone? It just doesn't add up in my mind as most women that experience this don't rush off to date someone, but I suppose if I'm totally fair, the point of her character does appear to be a woman who is dependent on the men in her life, so perhaps this was Woody Allen's line of thinking (damsel in distress, now unemployed, rushes to fix her problems with a new husband). But I digress...I have this movie at 6 because I honestly do not get the "comedy" part of the genre. I love other films by Woody Allen that I do find comedic in a dark way. However, I fail to see the humor in any part of this film, so I don't really know what to do with that classification. Everything in this film to me is sad, and while I meagerly smiled at the opening of this Jasmine character talking to herself, as the story goes on, I don't find her mental heath as funny (really just sad). In any case, I think the movie still makes it's point and is worth seeing because the main character is so multidimensional that you mostly hate her and find her culpable but yet you see the human side of her and almost feel sorry for her that she is built so miserably: she's the only one to blame for her situation but it doesn't mean you can't feel sad about it (if you have a heart). Perhaps she's mental, but isn't that he point? A character, we recognize at first is just living in rich "La La Land" is actually truly out of touch with reality (from a mental health standpoint as well). I think if you've worked around enough idiots in finance, you recognize that yes, this culture exists and is abhorrent, but also, there is something tragically wrong with the types of people that are wrapped up in such criminal affairs. Books have been written about crooks who have mentally rationalized bad behavior as good, and so I found this movie was intriguing and a quiet nodd to some of the behavioral finance literature that was also prevailing around the time it was written (though I doubt Woody Allen read them, but perhaps a freak accident). Really, we're talking about a society that is massively out of touch with reality and Jasmine is just one of many examples. I don't get the dark comedy, but not a bad social commentary, if you can get past the recent scandals of the writer himself.