Beatriz at Dinner (2017)

We really liked this fish-out-of-water story of a Mexican immigrant holistic healer thrust into a wealthy couple's small party honoring a smug hotel mogul. Salma Hayek is terrific in the socially awkward title role, as is John Lithgow as her insufferable nemesis (last blogged for Savages and The Accountant, respectively). The hostess, played by Connie Britton (most recently in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), wants to be nice but doesn't really know how to bridge the social gap. The supporting players are all wonderful: David Warshofsky (after Wilson he had a series arc on Scandal) as the host, and as guests Chloë Sevigny (covered in Love & Friendship), Jay Duplass (mostly behind the camera as a director and writer), and Amy Landecker (lots of small roles, but best known, along with Duplass, for 33 episodes of Transparent as two adult children of their transgender parent).

Director Miguel Arteta (last helmed Cedar Rapids) works from an original script by Mike White (wrote Arteta's The Good Girl (2002), School of Rock (2003) and its upcoming TV series, co-wrote Nacho Libre (2006), wrote alone Year of the Dog (2007), and was series creator and co-star of 18 episodes of Enlightened). We didn't love the ending of this movie and, with friend Ellen who saw it at the same time, have thought of several alternatives we'd have liked better. But it didn't dampen our enthusiasm much.

The filming locations aren't listed on imdb so we can only guess if the gorgeous sets were really shot at a gated community in Newport Beach, but I do recall that there was a Mexican crew listed for the scenes from Beatriz' past (or dreams?).

Mark Mothersbaugh's (after founding the band Devo he has scored, to name a few, 15 episodes of Peewee's Playhouse (1986-1990), The Last Supper (1995), Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), 200 Cigarettes (1999), The Royal Tenebaums (2001), Thirteen (2003), 169 episodes of Rugrats (1991-2004), Envy (2004), 12 episodes of Big Love (2006),  Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and Last Vegas) music is really good but I can't find a single clip online. So, instead, I'm listening to Musik for Insomniacs on Youtube while writing.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 76% and its audiences 72. That's too low. Jack and I recommend it.

Milestone alert! The alphabetical index of movies that I've seen since September 3, 2008 will now read 950 (until I publish a post on the one I saw two weeks ago). Getting close to 1000!