Moneymakers & Spenders
John Krasinski is in the midst of a great career. He is best known for being part of the ensemble of The Office, which shot 188 episodes, of which I’ve seen bits and which seems an above average sitcom. His future may be behind the camera. He was the brains behind the smash horror hit, A Quiet Place (2018), starring, directing, and contributing to the screenplay. I watched it last night courtesy of Netflix. Although it is a familiar story, it is so well executed, accent on suspense rather than gore. It seems a sort of sequel in the Alien series. Predatory creatures are wiping out earth’s population. They possess heightened hearing, and survivors must be quiet to elude a ghastly fate. The family at the center of the narrative communicates largely by sign language. All predictability is wiped out by an early incident, which amplifies the tension throughout the remaining running time, which comes in at a tidy 90 minutes. There is some gore, but a lot less than in many modern flicks. A lot of the creepiness comes from night scenes of sparse lighting and sound effects, the latter of which received an Oscar nomination. Is it perfect? Of course not. The viewer will likely be asking several questions beginning with “Why don’t…?” But this is a movie about scares, and on that account it is aces. 298,000+ users at IMDb have rated A Quiet Place, forging to a consensus of 7.5 on a scale of ten. Made on a budget of $17 million, it returned an astonishing $332 million worldwide. A sequel is in the works, which I think is a mistake, as the ending was clever and the immediate future obvious. This was only Krasinki’s second full length feature. He also prepped by directing three episodes of The Office. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here. Hopefully it won’t be several more sequels. Here he is along with his co-star, the wonderful Emily Blunt:
“Shoulda seen it coming,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk when he heard an aspiring porn star shot a video while in traffic in one of his self driving models. As a dirty old man I’m embarrassed that the thought never occurred to me, either. There will no doubt be a lot of this in the future. Keep your eyes on the road — if you can.
April tax receipts came in at an all-time high, and still the budget deficit continues to soar. It is 37.7% higher than last year. Every member of congress should be fired.
What a gorgeous afternoon. Since I was out of cookbooks, I took one off the shelf at the old house before I left, not realizing it was in Italian. Fortunately, Ann bought it. Grazie, cara mia. And thanks also to the elderly woman who purchased two more Debbie Macomber paperback romances, and to Sasha’s grandma, who selected two books in Russian; and to the Latina abuela, who chose Toni Morrison’s Beloved; and to the gentleman who jumped on the Broadway soundtrack of Gypsy starring Bette Midler; and to the couple who who took home Bhagavad Gita, which is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata; and to the guy who opened up the back of his SUV and donated about 30 books, a blend of fiction and non, some in Russian.
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