Getting Around
Friday night’s movie fix, courtesy of Netflix by mail, was a winner. On the Rocks (2020) is the story of a woman married approximately ten years, mom of two adorable daughters, who fears her husband, who travels frequently on business, is having an affair. Enter her dad, a wealthy art dealer, womanizer, world traveler, who prods her to investigate. Rashida Jones and Bill Murray are outstanding as the leads. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, it is a witty portrait of father and daughter that had me chuckling. The two aspects I admire most about the flick is that it doesn’t go where I thought it would, and the lack of focus on the woman’s interracial marriage — no lecture on race or tolerance-yay! Jones is the child of such a union, father music master Quincy Jones, mom Peggy Lipton of The Mod Squad fame. Even though the lives of the characters, well-to-do Manhattanites, are completely different from my own, I enjoyed the film. Marlon Wayans plays the husband. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t recognize Barbara Bain as the grandma. Now in her 90’s, she has worked steadily through the years since her popular run as Cinnamon in 88 episodes of Mission: Impossible. Coppola has 26 titles under her name in the category of Director, 14 as Writer, 24 as Actor, 15 as Producer. Jones is also on an impressive run, 81 titles, co-star of several successful TV series, seven credits as Writer, six as Director, 19 as Producer, and she also sings. 32,000+ users at IMDb have rated On the Rocks, forging to a consensus of 6.4 on a scale of ten, much too low in my opinion. It runs only 96 minutes, another plus. There is some profanity, but a lot less than in much modern fare. Released during the pandemic, it did not do well financially, returning about a million against whatever was its production cost, which I was unable to track down… Murray’s character is aloof from the damage he has caused his family, dismissing his cheating as man’s nature. Curious about any parallels to his personal history, I scanned his info and found this: “Ex-wife Jennifer Butler filed for divorce on May 2008 on the grounds of drug addiction, physical abuse, adultery and abandonment.” She was his second. He is currently single, father of six. Here are the leads in character, photo from Google Images:
In a similar vein concerning Murray’s fictional character, headline from foxnews.com: “A look at Elon Musk’s girlfriends, ex- wives, and 10 children with 3 women.” Touche`.
Also from FN: “US spending to counter Russian war effort exceeds first 5 years of war costs in Afghanistan.” I still believe it’s right. Detractors have cited Ukraine’s corruption. Is any government free of corruption?
Discouraging statement from nypost.com: “Traditionally conservative Colombia took a sharp leftward lurch last month with the election of Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla with the M-19 terrorist group.” Let’s see if he tanks the economy faster than Quid Pro Joe.
My thanks to the kind folks who made purchases today at the floating book shop — all outgoing across a wide spectrum, fiction and non, no incoming — yay!
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