The Man Who Knew Infinity

On Tuesday, May 31, 2016, I went to see the movie The Man Who Knew Infinity featuring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons.  This movie is about S. Ramanujan, a poor man from India (Madras, in fact) who was a talented pure mathematician.  He was admitted to Cambridge University and worked with Professor Hardy to publish many theorems and solve unsolvable problems in mathematics.

However, part of his time in England was during the First World War, so he had to deal with that.

Dev Patel is an excellent actor.  The more I see him in movies, the more I feel that he is becoming a stronger actor.

I highly recommend that you watch this movie.

The Lobster

On Tuesday, May 24, 2016, I went to see the movie The Lobster, featuring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux and Ben Whishaw.

The movie is set in a dystopia where the city has declared that single people are a burden to society and that couples are more safe and stable.  So, if for whatever reason people become single, they are checked into this hotel where they have 45 days to find another love...  If not, they will be turned into an animal of their choosing and released into the woods.

This movie is a commentary on many things...  What it means to be a couple...  Lots of focus is on finding a common interest...  For example, both people have a limp, or both people have a lisp, or both people have nosebleeds, or both people have no feelings...  And for fear of being turned into an animal, certain people resort to lies in order to avoid that fate...

But then it also comments from the other side...  Because in this movie, there is also a society of loners, where people must be single...  Falling in love, relationships, romance, flirting is not allowed and is punishable.  In this faction, everything about being single is deemed important and all values that are attributed to couples is frowned upon.  No intercourse can be had...  It's just masturbation.

It seems like that in this movie, there is no happy medium between the two...

Perhaps this is a social commentary on what our society has become...  Our society has become the instant gratification (swipe right on Tinder, quick messages and quickies on Grindr and all sorts of other apps) and not about the long term...

Some parts of the movie were hard to watch and towards the end of it, I felt that the movie was getting too long.  But, aside from those issues, the rest was enjoyable.

Mother's Day

On Tuesday, May 17, 2016, I went to see the movie Mother's Day, featuring Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Gardner and Jason Sudeikis.

This movie follows the story of four major characters, Sandy (played by Aniston), Miranda (played by Roberts), Jesse (played by Hudson) and Bradley (played by Sueikis) and how each of them celebrate/pass Mother's Day.  Sandy is a divorced mother who found out that her ex remarried a way younger woman, who now has to learn to share her children with someone else, Miranda is a highly successful and career driven woman who chose her career and not a family, but we find out that she once was in love and did have a child, Jesse is married to an Indian doctor, but has had to live a life away from her parents because the parents did not approve of this marriage...  Jesse's sister lives close to her and she is in a long-term relationship with a woman.  Bradley is a widower, as his wife was killed in combat (she was with the Marine Corps).  His story is that this Mother's Day would be the first without his wife.

You'll have to watch the movie to see how all of these peoples' lives intertwine and how everything gets resolved!

Miles Ahead

On Tuesday, May 10, 2016, I went to see the movie Miles Ahead.  This movie is about Miles Davis, highlighting his period where he was silent for five years (our on hiatus).

Of course, these events are fictionalized, but it was interesting to see Don Cheadle play Miles Davis and try to wrap my mind around some jazz music.  Apparently, Miles Davis dislikes the term jazz and prefers the term social music.

The movie also features Ewan McGregor as the reporter/journalist from Rolling Stone magazine.

Great acting, great music.  I don't know too much about Davis' life and music, so I can't truly appreciate the scope of the movie (or perhaps how bad it was).  But, I still don't have an ear for jazz.

A Hologram For the King

On Tuesday, May 3, 2016, I went to see the movie A Hologram For the King, featuring Tom Hanks, Sarita Choudury and Alexander Black.

The story is about Alan, played by Hanks, who is in divorce proceedings with his soon to be ex-wife and he has to go to Saudi Arabia to try and close the deal with the King.  However, once he gets there, he realizes that there are many obstacles and he must overcome them to close the deal...  He also must overcome personal obstacles as well.

During his stay there, he meets Yousef, his driver and Zahra, a doctor who treated Hanks.

A funny, heart warming story that's not too serious.  However, the story line is not one that is supremely developed.  And the ending was wrapped up very quickly.  But it was nice to see the scenery and the characters that were being developed.

My biggest beef is the "blackfacing" of the character played by Alexander Black.  The character is supposed to be of middle-Eastern descent, but is played by a white male...