"My Cousin Rachel" is an excellent period piece that completely catches you off guard with its ending. I normally do not tend to favor these types of films but I gave it a try and I am so glad I did. The storyline is the following:
"Philip is a young Englishman who finds his cousin Ambrose dead after traveling to Florence, Italy. He vows revenge against Ambrose's missing wife Rachel, blaming her for his untimely demise. When Philip meets Rachel for the first time, his mood suddenly changes as he finds himself falling for her seductive charm and beauty. As his obsession for her grows, Rachel now hatches a scheme to win back her late husband's estate from the unsuspecting Philip."
Philip, played by Sam Claflin, does a great job but the most intriguing character is that of Rachel, played by the beautiful and captivating Rachel Weisz. She is fantastic and you are sympathetic toward her in the beginning but then things being to change and you wonder what her real motives are. Then, just as you begin to think you have it figured our, a twist comes that completely catches you off guard!
The movie is very well made and while there are just a few slow spots, overall it keeps your attention and makes you keep watching so you see what happens at the end. Well done...
The 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be held tomorrow night. In case you haven't been watching, the quality of television (reality shows aside) programming has skyrocketed in recent years. Not all of the best that tv has to offer will be represented but some damned good creative-types may be honored for their productions. What are your picks for the year's best? Mine (for a few of the categories) are in red.
Best Drama Series
Westworld This Is Us Stranger Things Better Call Saul The chances that a Breaking Bad prequel would actually be good were incredibly low but Better Call Saul's gotten better with each season. Heisenberg would be proud. The Handmaid's Tale The Crown House of Cards
Best Comedy Series
Silicon Valley Black-ish Atlanta Modern Family Master of None Veep Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Best Limited Series
Genius Fargo Feud: Bette and Joan Big Little Lies The Night Of
Best Documentary or Non-Fiction Series
American Masters Planet Earth II 30 for 30 ESPN's documentary series has shown time and again that you don't even have to like sports to be a fan of these peaks beyond the field/court/ring/pitch. The Keepers Chef's Table
Best Documentary or Nonfiction Special
L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later A House Divided 13th Amanda Knox
Best Television Movie
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Sherlock: The Lying Detective The Wizard of Lies Dolly Parton's Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love Black Mirror
Now THIS is how a scary film should be made! Not a gross or gory film but one that has sit-on-the-edge of the seat suspense and scares. The genius about the film is that you don't know too much about the situation other than that the family in the film is living during a time of disease and danger. The acting is great by everyone in this movie and you do not know what to expect or what is going to happen next. A brilliant film with a great ending! I hope to see more like this from the director in the future! Related:
November brings the last two comic book movies of the year -- one from Marvel and the other from DC -- and a bunch of other stuff. It'll be a miracle if Thor turns out to be any good but Justice League is nearly guaranteed to capitalize on Wonder Woman's enormous success earlier this year.
November 3
Thor: Ragnarok
The culmination of Thor's movie trilogy features the only two Avengers missing from the culmination of Captain America's movie trilogy -- the Hulk and Thor himself. There's no chance that Ragnarok'll be as good as Civil War but hopefully it'll be better than Thor and The Dark World.
A Bad Moms Christmas
The Man Who Invented Christmas
Last Flag Flying
Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Lady Bird
November 10
Murder on the Orient Express
LBJ
The Star
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Paddington 2
November 17
Justice League
If they're smart, DC and Warner Bros. will hone their movie-making formula and not throw the proverbial baby out with the bathtub. Green Lantern was unwatchable; the Dark Knight trilogy was art; BvS was great; Man of Steel had the potential for greatness (it certainly made up for Superman Returns); and Suicide Squad was on the right track -- though who knows what we were cheated out of by those reshoots? That's not a bad trajectory. The missteps are acceptable growing pains. As long as director Zack Snyder and screenwriter Chris Terrio continue to grow in the right direction (toward The Dark KnightRises, for example), we could all be in for some real awe-inspiring cinema by the time Darkseid makes his entrance.
