Scarlett Letters

BLINDSPOTTING
My first film of the festival stars Daveed Diggs (HAMILTON) as Collin and word artist Raphael Casal as Miles, two lifelong friends who work as movers. Collin is three days from the end of his parole, and all he wants to do is stay out of trouble long enough to make it free and clear. Miles is a family man with anger issues who regularly loses his cool trying to be cool as the Oakland neighborhood he grew up in changes around him. The film starts with two events that set everything in motion: the appearance of a gun and the shooting of a fugitive by a policeman. And things begin to roll. The film is billed as comedy, but I'd call it a dramedy. It deals with some of the key issues of our days: gun violence, black/white politics and racism, how we become who we are and what we do and don't see in the people we love. It's an incredibly thoughtful film, a Diggs is terrific a Collin, a man becoming something new in his own experience and recognizing things about his life that he never saw before. Casal is strong as his troubled wingman. Collin and Miles love hiphop, so there's a through thread about how they freestyle as they do their work that ultimately pays off in a tense and dramatic climax. The film gets a general release this year and is well worth seeing.

PROSPECT
In a future where humanity regularly is out among the stars, Damon (Jay Duplass) is a widowed prospector roaming the planets in search of gemstones requiring meticulous skills to be retrieved. His teenage daughter Cee (Sophie Thatcher) travels with him. Damon's gotten word of a motherlode, what he intends to be their last expedition so he and his daughter can give up their peripatetic life and settle somewhere. They're on a clock, though. Their last stop is also the last run on an interstellar shuttle route; if they miss their pick up, they're stranded. To say more than that things don't go as expected would be to spoil an interesting adventure. The movie was clearly influenced by "Firefly"; the filmmakers did a Q&A after the screening and admitted as much. That flavor is definitely there. It's also influenced a bit by STAR WARS and a bit by ALIEN as well. I found it a little slow in the middle, but the story never stopped moving. Sophie Thatcher was excellent as the wary, older-than-her-years Cee. Pedro Pascal as Ezra, a stranger they encounter along the way, is terrific, and channels Mal Reynolds in a way that was both a little disconcerting and a little delightful. The worldbuilding is interesting; one definitely gets the sense that there's a larger society and history beyond the confines of this story and I am curious about it. The movie was shot in the Hoh Rainforest here in Washington State, so the scenery is awash in lush greenery that, to me at least, was familiar in its beauty and its alienness. This film is also getting a general release--in about two months--and could be worth your time.

1. The return of heat to the Pacific Northwest plus the resurgence of hot flashes has made for a very uncomfortable spring.

2. I woke this morning to find both cats on the bed: Sophie by my pillow and Zeke by my feet. This is unprecedented. I'm hoping it will continue.

3. SIFF (the Seattle International Film Festival) starts this week. I have tickets for 12 films and vouchers for 10 more, should I choose to use them. I may end up sharing them with friends; we'll see. I am, on the one hand, really looking forward to it; I adore the festival and have seen some brilliant films as a consequence. I am, on the other hand, so greedy of my time and I worry about getting overwhelmed, as I do each year, toward the end of the festival. I shall have to monitor myself carefully, being sure I get enough sleep and down time. If 12 seems like a lot, bear in mind that the festival offers 400+ films over the course of three weeks and full series pass holders often take their entire vacations to attend films all day every day for the duration. I'm a piker compared to these folks. I wish that, one year, I could buy a pass and just chow down. Perhaps I will.

4. I spent yesterday morning repotting plants and getting the balcony ready for summer. Last night, surrounded by blue-and-pink flowering hydrangeas, I sat on the balcony and enjoyed the coolth of the evening. It was lovely.

5. Yesterday afternoon, I had lunch with the ever-delightful varina8 and saw RBG, the documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which I enjoyed quite a bit. She's a hero of mine, a fascinating woman, very much a role model for our time. Recommended if you get the chance.