The Irishman (2019)

Though unduly long at 3:29, this story of a mid-century hitman working for the mob and Jimmy Hoffa is quite the masterpiece, and earned ten Oscar nominations but no wins (total 66 wins and 318 nominations, according to imdb).

Robert DeNiro plays the title role of Frank Sheeran, beginning and ending in a nursing home telling his life story (that technique is often called bookending). The movie flashes back to the 1950s-70s, when he begins working for mob boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) and later meets Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Almost 500 actors are listed on imdb, many uncredited. Digital technology rather than makeup was used to change the actors' ages, although coaches on set helped them with body language.

Martin Scorsese directs from a script by Steven Zaillian, adapted from Charles Brandt's 2016 book I Heard You Paint Houses.

Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto was also lauded for his beautiful camera work.

Robbie Robertson is the credited composer and you can stream the 65-track official movie soundtrack playlist on Spotify or one with 20 on Apple Music. Lots of fun songs from the various periods.

De Niro was last blogged for Joker, Pacino for Danny Collins, Scorsese for Rolling Thunder Revue, Zaillian for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the American remake), Prieto for Silence, and Robertson for Shutter Island.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is 96% and its audiences' 86.

We watched this at home on Netflix with friends on January 9, 2020, before the Oscars. We took two intermissions (grateful for the pause feature) because it's so effing long!

TV in the Time of Corona (comedy edition)

There are lots of lists out there of what to watch. Here's mine. I haven't included any brainless guilty pleasures--these listed are all solid in my opinion. Many will make you cringe and there's an overlap with F-bombs and sex. In alphabetical order.

Some of these we watch on our DVR but I've researched the streaming opportunities. See below for a key to the networks' abbreviation.

Straight up Comedies, the briefest of explanations, and a cast member or two:

• Alpha House (AM) Republican senators sharing a DC apartment. John Goodman +
• Black-ish (AB HU) Upper middle class black family in LA. Anthony Anderson, Tracy Ellis Ross +
• Breeders (HU) London couple struggling to cope with two kids. Martin Freeman, Michael McKean +
• Brockmire (HU) Alcoholic Major League Baseball announcer publicly melts down and moves to the minors. Hank Azaria, Amanda Peet +
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine (HU NB) Police ensemble. Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher +
• Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (NF) Jerry Seinfeld interviews comedians and drives interesting cars.
• Community (HU) Diverse group of community college students. Chevy Chase, Joel McRae, Alison Brie, Donald Glover +
• Curb Your Enthusiasm (AM HB HU) Larry David playing a version of himself. Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, J.B. Smoove +
• Episodes (HU NF SH) British writing team/couple working in crass Hollywood. Matt LeBlanc +
• Flight of the Conchords (AM HB HU) Folk-rock duo from New Zealand searching for stardom and performing hilarious musical parodies. Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, Kristen Schaal +
• Good Place (HU NB NF) Random people go to heaven. Kristen Bell, Ted Danson +
• Grace & Frankie (NF) Elder ladies become friends when their husbands marry each other. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen, Sam Waterston +
• High Fidelity (HU) Lovelorn female record store owner (based on the movie). Zoe Kravitz, Jake Lacy +
• Jim Gaffigan Show (AM) He plays a version of himself, a married comedian with five kids in NYC.
• Married (HU) American couple struggling to cope. Judy Greer, Nat Faxon +
• Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (AM) 1950s housewife turned stand-up comedian. Rachel Brosnahan, Tony Shaloub +
• Master of None (NF) East Indian-American actor navigates personal and professional life in NYC. Aziz Ansari, Lena Waithe +
• Modern Family (AB HU) Three generations in Los Angeles. Ed O'Neill, Sophia Vergara +
• Mom (HU) Recovering alcoholics in ensemble. Anna Faris, Allison Janney + (occasionally this dips into the next category, but not often)
• The Office (NB NF) A mockumentary on a group of Scranton office workers, with ego clashes, inappropriate behavior, and tedium. Steve Carell, John Krasinski +
• Parks and Recreation (AM HU NB NF) Absurd antics of small town's public officials. Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Rashida Jones, Rob Lowe +
• Schitt's Creek (HU NF) Wealthy family has to cope in backwater town. Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Daniel Levy +
• Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll  (HU) Formerly famous rock singer, his talented daughter, his old bandmates. Denis Leary, John Corbett +
• Sex Education (NF) English teenage virgin boy with sex therapist mother runs an underground sex therapy business with his crush. Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson +
• Silicon Valley (HB HU) Awkward computer nerds trying to make it big. Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr +
• Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (NF) Sunny naive woman, freed from captivity, lives in NYC. Ellie Kemper, Jane Krakowski, Carol Kane +
• Veep (AM HB HU) Female Vice President can't get respect. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky +

Dramedies--mostly funny but with varying degrees of drama:

• Atypical (NF) Teenage boy on the spectrum, parents, and sister. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Rapaport, Keir Gilchrist +
• Better Things (HU) Single mom/actress and three daughters in LA. Pamela Adlon +
• Californication (AM HU SH) Venice (CA) writer, ex-wife, daughter, and questionable choices. David Duchovny, Natascha McElhone, Evan Handler +
• Catastrophe (AM) Unplanned pregnancy makes a new family out of an Irish woman and an American man. Sharon Horgan, Carrie Fisher (late and briefly) +
• Fleabag (AM) Snarky English woman. Phoebe Waller-Bridge +
• GLOW (NF) Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Marc Maron, Alison Brie +
• Happy-ish (HU NF) Adman coping with turnover at work. Steve Coogan, Kathryn Hahn +
• High Maintenance (AM HB HU) Weed delivery man in Brooklyn. Ben Sinclair +
• The Kominsky Method (NF) Acting teacher and lawyer, 70+ best friends, survive pitfalls in LA. Michael Douglas, Alan Arkin +
• Mozart in the Jungle (AM) New York symphony with quirky conductors. Gael Garcia Bernal, Lola Kirke, Bernadette Peters, Malcolm McDowell +
• One Mississippi (AM) Comedian Tig Notaro plays a version of herself returning home after her mother's death and deals with her own health problems and her girlfriend.
• Orange Is the New Black (NF) Upper class white woman navigates diverse women's prison. Taylor Schilling, Donna Prepon +
• The Riches (HU) Gypsy family steals the identities of dead wealthy family and moves into their new house. Eddie Izzard, Minnie Driver +
• Shameless (NF SH) Poor family makes ends meet and gets into shenanigans in their own poor neighborhood. William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum + 
• United States of Tara (HU SH) Woman with multiple personalities and her family. Toni Collette, John Corbett, Keir Gilchrist, Brie Larson, Patton Oswalt +
• You're the Worst (HU) Toxic, self-destructive friends in LA. Chris Geere, Aya Cash +

We subscribe to or watch the following:
AB ABC (free with ads)
AM Amazon Prime
AP Apple TV+
HB HBO
HU Hulu
NB NBC (free with ads)
NF Netflix
SH Showtime

Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Saint Frances (2019)

Jack and I really liked this dramedy about a free-spirited woman who has an abortion and becomes a nanny to a precocious 6 year old. If that sounds simplistic, excuse me, because it is smart, funny, and poignant and has, so far won eight festival awards plus eight other nominations for director Alex Thompson and screenwriter Kelly O'Sullivan, both making feature debuts.

O'Sullivan also stars as Bridget and is no slouch in front of the camera. But then there's the delightful Ramona Edith Williams, who will be eight in May, upstaging everyone.

The nice indie-folk music by Quinn Tsan (Alex Babbitt is credited as assisting composer) can be streamed on Spotify (my account includes ads) or $11.99 on Apple Music, even with a full monthly subscription. For about 20 minutes of content. Hmph.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics love this, averaging 98%. The movie, though new, is streaming on several platforms right now. If you get email newsletters from your local art cinema, you may already have a link to rent this and have a portion of your fee benefit that theatre that has had to go dark in the current health crisis. Write me at babetteflix at gmail if you want the link that I used.

I'm inspired to add this letter from the writer/star:

When I got pregnant in my early thirties and knew immediately I would get an abortion, I had no idea what to expect. My mom got me the “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” pregnancy book one Christmas, hoping I would hurry up and give her a grandchild, but nobody proudly hands you a guidebook on what to expect with abortion.

I had no idea my abortion could be induced just with pills, and I had no idea how long my post-abortion bleeding would last. Women and girls are encouraged, outrightly or subliminally, to keep abortion, postpartum depression, periods, or any other innate part of womanhood that’s considered messy, “gross,” or shameful to ourselves. That makes for lonely, confusing, and isolating experiences. When my Mom finally learned what this movie was about, she said, “Well, you’re the first one in our whole family to get an abortion!” And I clarified, “Maybe I’m just the first person you know about.”

Saint Frances endeavors to normalize and destigmatize those parts of womanhood that we’re encouraged not to talk about. I wanted not only to talk about these subjects, but to show them onscreen unapologetically, realistically. This movie could be called “There Will Be Blood 2,” and a sense of humor is a vital intention of the film. Saint Frances tries to show that abortion doesn’t always have to equal trauma, periods shouldn’t equal shame, and postpartum depression shouldn’t equal isolation.

This story and these characters are filled with sincerity, empathy, humor and 6 tons of love. And there’s that healthy amount of blood.

Thank you for watching. I truly, truly hope you enjoy.

-Kelly O’Sullivan

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019)

Jack and I loved this docu-drama about Dylan's 1975 tour (which I saw live in Boston!) weaving truth with fantasy. In fact, we thought it was a concert documentary until well into the second hour (it's 2:22 long) when I recognized fictitious Representative Jack Tanner (from the series Tanner '88, played then and now by Michael Murphy). Bette Midler's husband Martin von Haselberg plays Stefan von Dorp. I love it more now.

Here's a wikipedia article about the actual tour and here's a set list from the movie. Some songs are available on an album on Spotify and, with a subscription, on Apple Music. The latter is also selling a bigger compilation for a whopping $79.99, even with a subscription.

Director Scorsese was last blogged for Silence, which tells me I completely forgot to write about The Irishman. Coming soon to babetteflix.

We highly recommend this, as do Rotten Tomatoes' critics, with an average of 92% (no audience ratings available). It's a Netflix original, which we streamed February 25, 2020, and it's still available.

The Third Wife (2018)

This gorgeous cinematography nominee is about a 19th century Vietnamese girl entering an arranged marriage with a man and his two wives. Then-12-year-old Nguyen Phuong Tra My makes a terrific acting debut, as I recall (we streamed it quite a while ago). Watch the trailer here. The movie did not win the Spirit award for cinematography but racked up a number of other nominations and wins.

It's the feature debut of director/writer Ash Mayfair, after several short film, who is currently "reworking" her movie into a silent black and white film, entitled Between Shadow and Soul, with an expected release date of May 5, 2020 (but who knows in these uncertain virus times?).

The nominated cinematographer Chananun Chotrungroj is also a woman, while the composer An Ton That AKA Aaken is not. His entire score is available for streaming (and purchase) here.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is 89 and its audiences' 67. We rented it on Amazon Prime on February 7, 2020, before the Spirit and Academy Awards, and it is still available.

Troop Zero (2019)

Jack and I enjoyed this story of outcast kids banding together to form a scouting troop in 1970s Georgia. The young cast is headed up by McKenna Grace and Charlie Shotwell, with elders Viola Davis, Alison Janney, and Jim Gaffigan, among others.

Directors Bert & Bertie, two women, work from a tight script by Lucy Alibar.

The country-tinged music by Rob Lord is behind the Apple Music paywall but it's on spotify for free (with ads) and I'm grooving to it right now. One song title reminded me they often say "funna" instead of "fixing to," which I especially noticed since I always watch with closed captions." There are plenty of songs, too, listed here.

Grace was last blogged for I, Tonya, Shotwell for The Glass Castle, Davis for Widows, Janney for Bombshell, Gaffigan for It's Kind of a Funny Story (though his comedy stylings can be enjoyed in many stand-up specials and 23 episodes of The Jim Gaffigan Show), and Alibar for Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics average is a cool 66% and its audiences' slighter warmer at 78. We liked it more than that.

You can stream this Amazon original, included with Prime, as we did on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2020.

Milestone alert! I have seen and written about 1200 movies since beginning the blog on September 3, 2008. I've written about 19 that I saw before that date, and have seen others that are still in draft form. Catching up in the quarantine!

Bad Boys for Life (2020)

All I remember is that I laughed some but not enough, when Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return as aging detectives, 25 years after the first movie and 17 after the second. Apparently there's a fourth one in the works.

Co-directors Adil and Bilal worked from a script by Chris Bremner, Peter Craig, and Joe Carnahan.

Lorne Balfe's compositions are supplemented by lots of songs.

Smith was last blogged for Aladdin and Balfe for The Florida Project.
Lawrence's only appearance in these pages is as a nominee for Worst Actress Golden Raspberry Award (Razzies) for Big Momma: Like Father, Like Son (2011), when I used to cover those.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is 77%, and I'm on board with them, not their audiences at 96.

We saw this in an actual theatre with friends on February 12, 2020. It's scheduled to be released at the usual outlets on March 31, 2020.