This is not a review of a film version of the Jack London classic. I reviewed an audio version of that book a while back. This latest Call of the Wild is a 2007 independent documentary about ill-fated American wanderer Christopher McCandless made by Ron Lamothe of Terra Incognita films (http://terraincognitafilms.com). I first heard about it from a link on the Wikipedia entry for Christopher McCandless and later read good reviews of it on the forum about him (www.christophermccandless.info/forum). Some people had seen it on Showtime or on their local PBS station. I enjoyed the film Into the Wild that came out in 2007 and I listened to an audio version of the book by Jon Krakauer one year later (see earlier review). Though I don’t feel I can completely relate to McCandless, I do find his story compelling. The Call of the Wild seemed like it had a different take on the story, perhaps a more personal and honest account than the Hollywood movie.
We don’t have Showtime and they weren’t showing The Call of the Wild on PBS that I knew of so the only way I could see the film was to order the DVD from the Terra Incognita website. I did so and it came in the mail a few weeks later. I figured I would just save it until I had to call in sick from work. With something fun to do on a sick day, I’d probably never call in sick, and so far I hadn’t. My wife and I decided to watch it on April 2, 2010 that was our 5-year anniversary but also a Good Friday so it didn’t feel right to do anything overly extravagant. One of our cheap date ideas is to stay in for the evening and watch a DVD and we had a DVD readily available.
We made some Act III microwave popcorn and popped in the DVD. Right away we noticed that it had no special features, only the choice between watching the film and selecting chapters. We chose the former. Each chapter begins with white text on a black background. I noticed that the chapter names, at least some of them such as the earlier “The Law of Club and Fang” and the later “The Sounding of the Call” are also the names of chapters in Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. The film is 108 minutes long and has some soundtrack of mostly rock songs such as Supertramp’s “Dreamer,” interestingly enough. It consists of Ron Lamothe following in the footsteps of McCandless, visiting the places where he went, talking to some of the people who knew him, and giving his own thoughts. He skips around a bit as he goes through the events of McCandless’ life, but I had no trouble following.
Lamothe’s film is different from Into the Wild even though it was made at the same time and Lamothe often ran into Sean Penn and the Hollywood filmmakers. It seeks to tell the true story, visit the actual locations, even travel by hitchhiking just like McCandless did. Lamothe goes to the actual homes where McCandless spent his early childhood in El Segundo, CA and most of his childhood and youth in Annandale, Virginia. The film includes many actual photographs of McCandless and chooses to go to actual over picturesque locations. Lamothe doesn’t get to interview any of the major figures of McCandless’ life such as his family because they’re working with Sean Penn. He still talks to several different people who knew McCandless casually at different points in his life.
This account is very personal. Lamothe was born in the same year as McCandless and had his own adventure in Africa after he finished college. He also has an indirect connection to McCandless. Lamothe’s film explores larger themes such as Generation X, the need for adventure, and to test oneself. He gives his own speculation about why McCandless took his journey but also lets the people he interviews give their opinions. Some are sympathetic, others, such as the Alaskans he talks to, are critical. One interviewee is actually indifferent. Lamothe doesn’t go into his own theories as much as Krakauer does in his book. The film doesn’t get into the dysfunctional family situations. Unlike the book and Hollywood film it has these montages illustrating the themes such as one of Alaska that includes a shot of Rob Morrow from Northern Exposure. The film also gives more complete backgrounds of some of the places such as Oh My God Hot Springs and the “Magic Bus.”
One problem I had with the film was a problem with the DVD. Many times it would just stop and freeze. Speeding ahead caused it to go ahead a chapter. The only way to deal with it was to roll it back a bit. The freeze points seemed to get more frequent towards the end. We were able to catch the entire film but all the active intervention with the DVD made for a less relaxing movie watching experience.
I feel that The Call of the Wild tells a more accurate story of McCandless than Sean Penn’s Into the Wild. It provides some good background information and some interesting personal viewpoints. Still, I prefer the Hollywood movie Into the Wild as a more enjoyable film to watch and not just because the DVD played more smoothly. But The Call of the Wild still made a decent cheap date for our anniversary.
A few months after we watched the DVD, Ron Lamothe emailed me (and others) asking how I found out about the film. I wrote him back and also mentioned the difficulties I had with the DVD. He offered to send a replacement copy. I accepted and received the DVD a few weeks later. It took me awhile to get around to watching it, but when I did it worked much better. Thanks, Ron.
On Saturday, November 20, 2010, my younger brother visited me and we saw the film Unstoppable at the Edwards theaters on Lake Ave. in West Covina. It had been raining hard earlier that day and we didn’t feel like driving out somewhere too far. I had seen previews for Unstoppable and started to read a synopsis online. But I stopped almost immediately because it seemed like something I would want to see. I did read that it got good reviews. What caught my interest was that it was about trains in which I have an interest because I commuted by train for several years.
My brother and I caught the 2 pm showing at the Edwards cinema located towards the end of Lake Avenue and east of the Westfield West Covina. The Best Buy used to be located off Lake Avenue but has since moved to the Westfield. Parking for the Edwards is further down on Lake in a structure and it was free. We then had to cross a small street into a plaza with several chain eateries. Unstoppable had been out for one week by then and the big movie out during the weekend of November 20 was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. There weren’t very many kids or adults at the theaters when we went, though, and no queue at the ticket window. Our tickets to Unstoppable cost $9 each, a bit expensive for Edwards but then the theater was very nice with colorful red carpeted floors and lights. One theater had a large neon sign above it that said Chinese and another had the name Egyptian, both named after famous old theaters in Hollywood.
We passed one theater near which someone was dressed as the character Megamind from the movie of the same name. He posed for photos with some kids and even waved at us. The halls to get to theater 11 got rather cavernous and we eventually found it right at 2 pm. There weren’t very many people there and, surprisingly, there were several children. I thought the film was rated PG-13 so I think it was OK that they were there. I guess I thought they would be seeing Megamind or the Harry Potter film. We found some seats towards the middle back. Also surprisingly, they weren’t showing any motion ads before the film. Perhaps we missed them. Soon after we arrived the screen went through this virtual coaster ride through the theater intro: get popcorn and snacks, don’t talk, turn off cell phones, etc.
There were at least five previews, mostly for films coming out next year and none of them seemed particularly interesting to me. The first was “The Next 3 Days” where Russell Crowe’s character tries to break his wife, played by Elizabeth Banks, out of prison. Then there were Sactum, a 3D film produced by James Cameron about some spelunkers or cavers who are trying to escape a flooding cave. Next was Suckerpunch that I didn’t even understand. Some young blond woman gets thrown in a mental health facility and plans an escape that turns into a video game fantasy? There was a preview for Battle L.A. that I heard was similar to a film just released called Skyline. The last trailer was the only one that wasn’t for an action film. “Love and Other Drugs” looked like a romantic comedy set around the release of the drug Viagra and starred Jake Gyllenhall and Anne Hathaway. The previews finished at 2:20 pm and it was finally time for the feature presentation.
The feature began like an ordinary day for railroad workers in Pennsylvania. Captions mentioned the names of the rail yards and towns and I’m now sure if they were real or made-up. Things quickly go from ordinary to out of control though that’s still almost predictable. We wouldn’t have a movie if it was just an ordinary day. I found all the references to trains and railroad terminology very interesting. They used terms such as “main”, “siding”, “rip track”, and “switches”. They’re fairly understandable but still interesting. I learned that a conductor for a freight train differs from one for a commuter train. On a freight train the conductor attaches the freight cars and directs the engineer where to go. I also enjoyed watching the train dispatchers at work getting trains out of the way of the runaway train and using a big electronic board to track the locations of every train. I wondered if they use something similar at Metrolink.
The actors do well despite slightly cookie-cutter roles. Denzel Washington plays the long-time railroad engineer and Chris Pine plays the upstart conductor. I think he’s best known for playing Captain James Kirk in the 2009 film Star Trek. Rosario Dawson plays the chief dispatcher with a moral conscious. There are many supporting characters such as the incompetent engineer played by Ethan Suplee, the railroad upper management, and a welder with a mustache, pony tail, and cowboy boots. I like that some of these characters, especially the latter, were still portrayed as more than they appeared on the surface. And then there were the trains that were like characters themselves. The runaway train seemed especially anthropomorphic like the villain of the film. It was train number 777 that I guess was a reference to the incident that inspired the film. In the early 2000’s there was a runaway train in Ohio that I think had 888 or 8888 in its name. The film also makes distinctions between the trains by making train 777 have a red engine and all the other trains have blue engines.
The setting is also featured very prominently in the film. Rural Pennsylvania is cloudy and green with industrial-looking towns. It’s very different from a sunny L.A. setting and so much more authentic to the story. I have some coworkers who work from home in rural Pennsylvania and I wonder if it looks the same as in the film. Maybe I’ll ask them sometime. The names of the towns seemed legit but they could also have been fictional: Brewster, Arklow, and Stanton.
The best parts of the film were the action and suspense. I kind of knew how things would end but had no idea how they would get there. The characters tried many different things to stop the train and in the process I learned more about railroad operations such as how every train car has its own brakes. A few things may have seemed a little unbelievable, but for the most part it was regular employees responding to an extraordinary situation. It wasn’t about highly skilled secret agents, superheroes, crime fighters or mercenaries. There really wasn’t any malicious violence though the runaway train could seem very vicious. The action literally had us holding our breaths and kept our full attention. It couldn’t have been much more gripping.
I mentioned to one of my coworkers in Pennsylvania that I had seen the film Unstoppable that was set there. She hadn’t seen it. I later read that the film was based on a real even that took place in Ohio in 2001. The movie was filmed in both Ohio and Pennsylvania. They had a train actually derail unplanned that delayed filming for one day. Because of all the work and despite the challenges, the actors and filmmakers put together an excellent movie.
We saw the film Ramona and Beezus on Sunday, July 25, 2010 at the Rave movie theatres at the Town Square shopping destination in Las Vegas. This was the second film we saw in theatres in two days after seeing Inception at the Brenden theatres the day before (see earlier review). We went to Las Vegas to see a Keane concert on the preceding Friday, eat at some restaurants, and take a vacation (see later reviews). My wife had read the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary as a child and also saw and enjoyed the 1980s Ramona TV series starring Sarah Polley as Ramona. I hadn't read the books but had heard of them. I guess I thought they were for girls. I did read at least one book by Beverly Cleary, though. In the fifth grade I participated in the Battle of the Books competition where teams of three answer questions about books from a book list. One book on the list was Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. Much later, at the L.A. Times Festival of Books in 2007, my wife, her sister, and I saw Sarah Polley discuss her new film Away From Her. My wife's sister got to say some words to Sarah Polley, complimenting her much earlier performance as Ramona. Polley said she was a fan of the Ramona books and gave our sister her autograph.
I had looked up theatres showing Ramona and Beezus and the locations and times were more limited than other major motion pictures. This surprised me because the move came out for wide release on July 23. We had originally planned to see the film at the same place we saw Inception, the Brenden Theatres at the Palms. But for variety we decided to go to the Rave Theatres. They are located at the Las Vegas Town Square, a shopping destination similar to Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga and The Shoppes at Chino Hills. After going to mass at Guardian Angel Cathedral, we drove to the 15 freeway, took it south and exited at Russell Avenue. We then turned right onto Las Vegas Boulevard. We passed where the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign is located in the median. There's a place for cars to pull over and people to take photos in front of the sign. The Town Square was located on the west (right) side of the road just past the airport grounds on the left and between Sunset Road and Loop Road. It has three parking garages and parking lots in front and back. We turned right from Las Vegas Boulevard onto Town Square Blvd., drove through the interior streets and ended up parking at the back south lot fairly close to the Rave Theatres building.
We walked around the Town Square looking for a place to eat lunch. There were several bars, most of them on the second floor of buildings, and a Churrascaria called Texas de Brazil that only offered a Prix Fixe menu. We ended up eating at Tommy Bahamas (see later review). In the middle of the Town Square they have a small park with a footbridge over a clear pond.
After lunch we found the Rave Theatres that are in the second level of the building farthest west. We had never been to the Rave brand of theatres before since they didn't have any in L.A. that we knew of. The Rave Theaters building is fairly prominent with a festive blue, red, and green color scheme. The main sign actually says "Rave Motion Pictures". We climbed the stairs to the second level, bought our $8 matinee tickets for the 1:50 showing at the outdoor counter, and entered. Like Brenden the day before, Rave charges matinee prices for all showings before 6 PM. The theatre showing Ramona and Beezus seemed very small. It had stadium seating and a sign just inside the door said it had a capacity of 105. The theatre filled up nearly completely, mostly with young girls and their parents. I did notice a group of older women in one of the closer rows. Perhaps they read the original editions of Cleary's books that came out in the 1950s and 1960s. The screen and motion ads they played were similar to the ones we saw at the Terra 6 theatre when we saw Toy Story 3 on June 28. They were put on by the same company, Screenvision. We again saw the ad for the mobile phone preview of Inception. There was also one for K12.com, an online public school.
At 1:50 the previews began. The first was for the animated film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, the first of three previews to show a rodent. The next was for another animated film, Rango, with Johnny Depp providing the voice of the title chameleon and this time the film had a talking rodent character. Next was Nanny McPhee Returns with Emma Thompson in the title role and Maggie Gyllenhaal in a supporting role. The next preview was a modern day retelling of Gulliver's Travels starring Jack Black. The last preview, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader featured another talking rodent character.
After the previews, the feature presentation began. I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it but I ended up liking it very much. It stars newcomer Joey King as 9-year-old Ramona and Selena Gomez as Beezus. The supporting cast includes John Corbett, Bridget Moynahan, Ginnifer Goodwin, Sandra Oh, and Josh Duhamel. This makes the second time Sandra Oh has been cast with an actress who played Ramona. She was in the 1999 film Guinevere that starred Sarah Polley. Josh Duhamel also starred in the TV show Las Vegas. Selena Gomez also sings. She and her band, the Scene released a song for the movie, "Live Like there's no Tomorrow", that my wife downloaded after we saw the movie. The actors all do a great job, especially King and Gomez. They seem like real sisters.
The film takes place on the real Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon, the same setting as the Ramona books. It also seems to take place during the time period of the books since there are no references to modern popular technologies such as smart phones, e-mail, social networks, the Internet, and texting. It's actually hard to pinpoint the exact time period, though music from the 1980s is referenced as the period when some of the adults were in high school. But the time period really doesn't matter since the situations are timeless. Many are also hilarious, and, at times, heartwarming. My wife cried at parts and I nearly did. The characters are all very likeable, though imperfect and there are no real villains. The plot is told in small vignettes some of which are connected and all are settled by the end. There's much we could relate to including job instability and a character mentioning Alaska. I've also lived in Oregon and have heard of Grant High School that Beezus attends.
I actually liked this film better than Inception, the film we had seen the day before. Ramona and Beezus was rated G rather than PG-13 but still had many complex elements. It easily could have but did not get cheesy or have too many cliches. Everything seemed fresh and real rather than recycled plots from Cleary's books. My wife was reminded of many things such as the cat's name and Ramona's baby sister Roberta.
The audience enjoyed the movie and all the little children were fairly well behaved. Only once did one of them sneak up behind me and tap me on the head. Ramona and Beezus is a film about and for both adults and children.
We saw the film Inception on Saturday, July 24, 2010 at the Brenden movie theatre at the Palms hotel and casino in Las Vegas, NV. We had driven to Vegas the day before and attended a Keane concert at the House of Blues Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, eaten at several restaurants, and we would see another movie at a different theatre the next day (see future reviews). Before going to Vegas I looked up what theatres were near our parents' condo where we would stay. All theatres were showing Inception at many different times. It had come out the previous weekend. We decided to go to the Brenden theatre because we didn't have that brand of theatre in the L.A. area and I had also never been to the Palms. It was built in 2001 and owned by the Maloof brothers who also own the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team. It's not on Las Vegas Boulevard (a.k.a. "The Strip"), but further west on Flamingo. After having a big brunch at Hash House a Go Go (see later review), we drove to the Palms and parked in the west parking garage.
We arrived at the Palms well before the next showing of Inception at 4:30 PM. We had just missed the prior showing. They were also showing it in 3D Imax format for around $15 per ticket. But we just wanted to see the matinee showing in the regular format for $7.75 per ticket. Matinee tickets were available for showings before 6 PM. In our spare time we walked around the Palms a bit. They have a very good New Mexican restaurant called Gardunos where my wife had eaten when she visited the Palms for the first time many years before. Their menu listed fajitas (chicken, steak, and shrimp), a chicken stir-fry that sounded good, and sopaipillas. We thought about eating there the next day, but ultimately didn't because we went to a different theatre. Near the Brenden Theatres at Palms there's a food court that has a counter for Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs, the company that puts on the famous hot dog eating contest on Coney Island, NYC on the Fourth of July. At the food court Nathan's they served their famous hot dogs for $3.95 along with several other items including hot dog nuggets.
The Brenden Theatres are at the west end of the casino to the right after entering the main entrance and just passed the food court. Above and across from the indoor ticket counter is a large neon sign that shines "Brenden" in red letters and "Theatres" in blue. The ceiling above is an oval-shaped model of a night sky with many twinkling stars. We bought our tickets and entered the theatres proper. Just inside on the floor in front of the concession stand is the Brenden Theatres version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, only cleaner since it's indoors. It had stars for Michael Jackson, Dennis Hopper, Nicholas Cage, Shaquille O'Neal, Hugh Hefner, Toni Braxton, Joseph Jackson and Family, and the Maloof Brothers. Usually there was a special message to or about the recipient below the star from Jeremy Brenden. We followed the hall to the right of the concession stand and found theatre #9 showing Inception. The number for each theatre was in large red font on a shiny silver disco ball.
We were glad to find that theatre # 9 had stadium seating as I believe they all did. The seats were red with high backs and armrests with cup holders. It wasn't very crowded initially but did mostly fill up by the time the film started. The screen showed still ads for the Palms, local business such as Pole Position go carts and a gun range that gave patrons the opportunity to fire automatic weapons. There were also ads for Brenden theatres in other locations such as Vacaville, CA and Modesto, CA. At 4:30 PM the recurring still ads ended and the show began with an animated ad for Brenden theatres. Next came the previews: The Town starring Ben Affleck, The American starring George Clooney, the Paul Rudd/Steve Carell comedy Dinner for Schmucks that my wife learned from our brother-in-law was a remake of a French film, Wall Street: Money Never Dies, Tron Legacy that comes out in December, and finally, the road comedy Due Date with Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. The Tron sequel looked the most interesting because of its "throwback" status.
Next came the feature presentation. Earlier we had learned that it was directed by Christopher Nolan who had previously directed Momento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight. He also wrote Inception and my wife read that he had originally come up with the idea when he was a teenager. I had seen the DVD's of Momento and Insomnia and enjoyed them. I had also seen parts of the two Batman films. Inception stars Leonard DiCaprio and the main cast includes several other established stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Marion Cotillard, Tom Berenger, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine. The poster also listed Tom Hardy though I hadn't heard of him. The posters also seemed to give some of the main characters their own titles: the Extractor, the Point Man, the Forger, the Architect, the Tourist, etc. We had seen the previews available on mobile phones as an ad before seeing the movie Toy Story on June 28. It looked surreal.
The film does involve some outside reality concepts that are interesting. Most are explained, though not right away. Not everything is explained, but just enough for the viewer to follow. The film is fairly action-packed from the beginning and doesn't let up much. That's a good thing because it's a fairly long movie at two and a half hours. The fast pace makes it seem a bit shorter. However I also found all the action to be a bit exhausting by the end. All these things happening so quickly and all at once nearly gave me a headache. By then I did get bit lost and had to think about it later to figure it all out. There's a bit of humor, but mostly, everyone is serious.
The actors did well in their roles. DiCaprio brought his usual charming intensity. I wonder if he could ever just play a laid back goofball. Well, not this time, it's another charismatic leading man. But the others still held their own opposite him especially Tom Hardy and Ellen Page. The characters' relationships to each other were complex and it was hard to tell whether they were friends or just forced to work together. Cillian Murphy seemed like a completely different person from the scheming villain in Batman Begins. Pete Postlethwaite had a cameo.
Overall, I couldn't get into the film completely. Some concepts seemed just a little bit far-fetched and difficult to take seriously. Despite the A-list cast and acting, the primary focus was DiCaprio's character, Dominic Cobb. I was never sure about the motivations of the others on his team. Some things we could relate to included a scene that looked like it was filled in Downtown L.A., possibly on Hope Street or Wilshire Blvd. It hadd Famima!! in the shot. The characters also refer to a type of limbo. A while back, my wife and her sister obtained an autograph from Joseph Gordon-Levitt. They've also seen Johnny Marr live and he helped compose the music for Inception. Finally, the film was fairly free of computers, e-mail, smart phones, texting, social networks, and other popular technologies, just like our Vegas vacation.
After the movie ended we couldn't help joking about it and relating it to our own lives. I'm glad we didn't spend the $15 for the 3D Imax.
We saw Toy Story 3 on Monday, June 28, 2010 at the Terra Vista 6 cinema in Rancho Cucamonga. It was the second film we had seen in theaters in 2010 and the first children’s film I had seen in a very long time, possibly since the 1990’s. I had seen the first Toy Story when it came out in the mid 1990’s. I think it was one of the first if not the first computer-generated cartoon major motion pictures. I enjoyed it very much not only for the animation but also the humor, character, and the story. The idea that toys have lives of their own when the kids are away is intriguing. I did not see Toy Story 2 when it came out in 1999. Maybe I felt I had outgrown it or I didn’t want to see it in a theater full of young kids. Within the past couple of years I’ve seen parts of it when they played the DVD at our church’s hot dog Saturday night and when they showed it on TV.
My wife had seen the first two Toy Stories and wanted to see the third. It sounded interesting because it would take place around 10 years after the previous one. Again I didn’t want to compete with the crowds of kids so we decided to see it on a Monday matinee. My wife planned to take the Registered Medical Transcriptionist (RMT) exam in Rancho Cucamonga on Monday, June 28 and I had some spare vacation time. We originally planned to see it at the AMC Theaters at Victoria Gardens shopping destination. They charged $11 for the 3D version for matinee. They also had a 2D version that I believe was less expensive though the price for the matinee wasn’t given online. The evening prices were $11 for 2D and $14 for 3D. Using moviefone.com I checked whether there were any closer and less expensive theaters and found one: the Terra Vista 6 that’s only 3 miles from the test center.
I researched the Terra Vista 6 online and learned that it showed first run movies at bargain prices: $5 for matinees and $7 for evening shows after 5 pm with discounts for students, seniors, and kids in the evening. On yelp.com past patrons said it was an old cinema and I figured (correctly) that it didn’t have stadium seating. They said it was clean and never crowded. On the 28th we drove to the test center on the southwest corner of Carnelian and Base Line in Rancho Cucamonga. We arrived at the intersection 45 minutes early so we decided to “do recon” of the theater and the place where we would have lunch. We drove further south down Carnelian to where it became Vineyard, crossed Foothill, and turned left on Arrow Route. On the Southeast Corner of Archibald and Arrow Route was a strip mall that contained Guido’s Deli where we planned to have lunch. We recalled this place from when we tried to eat dinner there before attending the Fashion Empire 2009 Mood Indigo Fashion Show in June 2009 (see earlier blog).
We found Guido’s that actually has the sign “Guido’s Pizza” above it and continued to drive east on Arrow Route. We turned left on Haven, crossed Foothill again, and turned right on Town Center Drive. There were a couple of drives to the right with signs that said “Food Court”. The MapQuest directions said the theater was on the left side of Town Center Drive going east but we couldn’t find it there, only some open space and a few office buildings. After dropping my wife off at the test center I returned to Town Center Drive for a second “recon”. This time I was more successful since I noticed a building with “Theater” on it on the right side of the road. I turned right into the second drive with the “Food Court” sign and made another left into the parking lot before the drive reached the small roundabout. The parking lot was empty. The theater building was tan-colored and looked a bit like a mission-style building. On the north side it had a row of “buttress” pillars similar to a mission building. I followed them and turned right to the east side of the building where the entrance was.
The Terra Vista 6 did not look older or very different from most movie theaters, at least from the outside. It had ticket windows outside, video games and a long concession counter inside, movie posters, and a large board with movie times and prices above the ticket windows. The entrance was near a plaza and across from ta Subway sandwich café and a taco eatery. There were benches and tables near the eateries for outdoor seating. The theater was closed at this early hour of 9 am. I left, drove west on Town Center Drive and turned right (north) on Haven. I merged to the left lane that led to the 210 freeway west. While my wife took the exam I returned home and shopped for our weekly groceries. She called me around noon to say she was done and that she had passed the exam. I returned to the test center, picked her up and we drove to Guido’s to get lunch (see later review).
We drove to the Terra Vista 6, parked, and ate lunch at one of the outdoor tables near the plaza. There was still a lot of time before the 2:50 showing of Toy Story 3 so we walked to an ice cream parlor, Marble Slab Creamery, that’s located on Foothill to the south and east of the cinema. On the way we saw a building with a Mervyn’s sign but it turned out to be closed. We walked south on Aspen and then east on Foothill to a large shopping center that included a Bally Total Fitness. Marble Slab had signs for a “Buy One get One Free” special. Other signs said they made their own ice cream and served freshly baked cones. My wife had the Banana Traveler: sweet cream ice cream with banana, Reese’s peanut butter cups, and caramel. She enjoyed it and it followed an “Elvis” food theme from the days before: “Elvis” crepes of banana and peanut butter at our sister- and brother-in-law’s baby shower on Saturday, and leftover bananas with peanut butter (a.k.a. Elvis Dipping Area) on Sunday.
We returned to the theater where there were many parents with young kids gathered around. They had a queue set up to the right of the entrance for those who had bought tickets to the 2:50 showing of Toy Story 3. There were just a few others buying tickets so we quickly bought ours for $5 each and queued up at 2:24 pm. A mother with a young child in front of us asked if we could save her spot. We couldn’t since the queue started moving at 2:30 pm before they came back. We entered and found our way to Theater 6 to the right of the concession counter. The theater wasn’t very crowded when we got there and we found seats towards the center. All the other seats soon filled with kids and their parents and some teenagers. The theater did not have stadium seating and, unlike what it said on yelp.com, it was crowded with kids, most of them shorter than us so no one blocked our view. Overall the kids were very well behaved throughout, not making much noise during the movie or talking excessively. I didn’t think anyone had to make their way in front of our seats.
Other than the lack of stadium seating the theater did not seem old. Its floor sloped down toward the screen that didn’t look too small or too large. On the screen they showed motion (as opposed to still) ads for HGTV, Sprint, and movie and music trivia. There was a spot for the film The Sorcerer’s Apprentice that starred the guy who played Oswald on Numb3rs and compared the new film to the Fantasia cartoon. There were also spots for Argosy University (targeting the unemployed on a Monday afternoon?), the trailer for the movie Inception available on Sprint phones, a TV movie or show called Standing Ovation, the Toy Story 3 sticker collection, and a Google ad featuring the Toy Story characters. The official trailers began at 2:51 pm. First was the third installment of the Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader directed by Michael Apted. It would be screened in 3D as I believe was said for all the films previewed. I thought it was a bit ironic that they were advertising these films as showing in 3D in a non-3D theater before a film that was showing in 3D at other, more expensive theaters. Next was a quick trailer for Smurf’d that wasn’t coming until summer 2011. The last trailer was for the animated movie Tangled, a variation of Rapunzel.
Before the feature presentation they showed this very strange short animated film called “Night and Day” that involved these literally transparent cartoon characters who never spoke. I couldn’t really get into it and I was glad it was short.
Then the feature presentation began. I’m not going to give much detail because I don’t want to spoil it but it was excellent. We already knew a bit about it from the previews online and reading reviews. While eating lunch a woman sitting near us told us a spoiler but we still enjoyed the film very much. It has excellent animation, action, and effects, all better than the first two Toy Stories. But it’s the story (the toy story?) that truly elevates it. The main characters are now well-known and have their own histories but we still got to see other sides of them, some hilarious. I thought the film explored deeper and more complex themes than the first two: family, growing up, transitions. Nothing really new, but still different from the toys’ perspective. It made think of the toys I used to play with.
The voice acting by both the familiar and new characters was top notch. I really thought of them as full living characters and not just things, just like how children see their toys. The film has a lot of humor and some suspense that I thought got rather intense for its G-rating. Parts get emotional and I was almost brought to tears as my wife was. Everything is well paced and easy to follow but a lot was unexpected even with the spoilers we knew beforehand. The film lasts for one hour and 45 minutes but doesn’t seem that long. There are many new characters some of whom are well developed and complex, others are hilarious. Overall, I couldn’t find any flaws with the film. It would have been worth seeing in 2D at the AMC evening show for $11 or even in 3D for $14. We got a real steal seeing it for $5. As we left we saw people queuing up for the 5:15 pm showing of Toy Story 3. This crown looked like it had more teenagers. The film appeals to all generations.
We saw the film The Runaways on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at the AMC Covina 30 in Covina. Before seeing it, we hadn’t seen a movie in a theater since seeing 17 Again at the Pacific Theaters at the Americana on Brand in May 2009 (see earlier review). The AMC Covina 30 is the second closest movie theater to our home after the Regency on Citrus Avenue in Azusa (where we saw The Soloist in April 2009, see earlier review). But we hadn’t seen a film at the AMC Covina 30 since we saw Blades of Glory there in April 2007 nearly three years ago. It seems like a long time ago now. I think I once read that at one point the AMC Covina 30 had the most screens of any multiplex in L.A. County.
I first heard of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts when I first start listening to Rock and Roll music in the early 1980’s. I remember the song “I Love Rock and Roll” that I learned much later was a cover. In the mid to late 80’s I remember songs by Lita Ford playing on the radio such as “Kiss Me Deadly” and “Close my Eyes Forever”, her duet with Ozzy Osbourne. But it wasn’t until the mid-nineties that I heard of The Runaways. My younger brother bought a book published by SPIN magazine that was an encyclopedia of alternative music. It included all the bands and artists that they classified as “alternative” and listed and rated their albums. I’ve always enjoyed browsing through encyclopedias and back then there wasn’t much on the Internet. The alternative music encyclopedia had an entry for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts that mentioned The Runaways and that Lita Ford was part of the group.
The idea of Joan Jett and Lita Ford working together seemed intriguing but I didn’t pursue this interest because the Internet wasn’t a reliable source for research, the music stores only carried the popular stuff, and my musical tastes were more current alternative. I hadn’t even heard any of The Runaways’ music. It wasn’t until late 2009 or early 2010 that I would hear of the Runaways again. I saw the early preview for The Runaways movie on imdb.com. It looked like the typical rock band biopic with young stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, a former young child star who is now a teenager. But the trailer also included a loud, rockin’, slightly silly and very catchy Runaways song “Ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry Bomb!” (I think the song is actually just called “Cherry Bomb”.) Stewart plays Joan Jett and Fanning plays Cherie Currie, the lead singer of The Runaways. Scout Taylor-Compton plays Lita Ford in what turns out of be a supporting role. It was hard to get the song “Cherry Bomb” out of our heads.
We decided to see the movie because the music sounded good and the story looked interesting. The Runaways were one of the first all-girl bands. The website for the movie, www.runawaysmovie.com, has a cherry bomb burning down and exploding for an intro and a cherry bomb wick for a scroll bar. But the best part of the site is that it plays the song “Cherry Bomb” in its entirety over and over: “Hello Daddy, hello Mom! I’m your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!” The website said that the movie would be out in theaters on March 19. This was earlier than the April release given for the film on imdb.com. It’s always difficult to catch a movie after the first few weeks that it’s out (as L.A. Downtown News would say, its “first-fun” period) because so many other movies come out to take its place. After March 19, we learned that The Runaways had only been released in a limited number of theaters and wouldn’t be released widely until April 9.
We figured we would wait until after April 9 to see the film since March was a busy month for us. But then the weekend of March 27-28 opened up. We looked up online to see what select theaters were playing the film and found that one of them was the AMC Covina 30. I guess they have so many screens that they can include limited release movies. We looked up the best times and prices and found that the evening shows cost $11, the afternoon shows cost $9, and the one morning showtime at 11:45 am cost only $6 per person. That was our choice.
On Saturday, March 27 we left home at 11:35 am and got to the AMC Covina 30 less than ten minutes later. There were other people there; many kids possibly there to see How to Train Your Dragon. The tickets really did only cost $6 each. We arrived at theater number 6 where the movie was showing. It looked like the previews had already started but they were actually just ads. I guess now they show motion ads rather than still ads that they used to show before the film started. It’s almost like watching TV commercials. There were ads for the Marines, the TV show “V”, Coca-Cola, the UFC, and a Black-Eyed Peas concert. Then they showed a scrolling ad for the AMC Movie Watchers’ Network before the previews. There were four previews, two of which I had seen before. The first was the screwball comedy Get Him to the Greek starring Jonah Hill. The next was the more sophisticated comedy, “Cyrus” also with Jonah Hill. The third was expected: the latest Twilight movie, “Eclipse”, starring Kristen Stewart and with Dakota Fanning in a cameo appearance. That one didn’t look very different from the other Twilights. The fourth preview was for The Joneses, another silly movie. So the previews consisted of three silly movies and a blockbuster.
Now to review the feature presentation itself: it begins by giving the year: 1975 and the entire film really captures that time period through the costumes, setting, attitudes, and the music. It takes place in the L.A area except for the parts where the group is on tour. The cars all look retro, the phones have dials (though the pay phones are touch-tone. Did they have touch tone back then?) My wife loved the costumes: the leather and polyester, and some of the space-age looking costumes the band wears while performing. Then there’s the resistance to all-girl rock and roll bands at the time. Even the Runaways have a male record producer calling their shots in the beginning.
The story covers about what’s expected in a biopic of a rock band: its formation, rise, and internal conflicts. The scene of their preparation for angry concertgoers is interesting. The story is paced very quickly, perhaps too quickly. I think Cherie Currie was in the band for a few years but it seems much shorter than that in the film. The story focuses primarily on Cherie Currie and Joan Jett. The band’s manager, Kim Fowly, played by Michael Shannon, plays a strong supporting role. He has some of the most humorous lines. The other Runaways play smaller supporting roles. I’m not even sure if the bass player has any full lines. Another strong supporting role is Cherie Currie’s twin sister, Marie Currie, played by Riley Keough. I didn’t think they looked like identical twins; sisters, maybe. Riley Keough looks more like her late grandfather, Elvis Presley, another Rock and Roll pioneer.
The movie is rated R for language, teen drug use, and sexuality and it contains all of these in abundance. There actually isn’t very much nudity, though they use strategic camera angles. Given the R rating and the rocker lifestyle, I expected some of this base activity to be portrayed but not to the extent that it was. I thought it got a bit monotonous and detracted from the story and character development. I would have liked to have learned more aspects of the characters. All the Runaways are young teens but we only see the parents of one of them. We see them playing music together, using drugs together, arguing, but very little conversation. Was there not much of that? Not much time with all the drugs, fighting, and debauchery? Perhaps so since the film was partially based on the autobiography Neon Angel but Cherie Currie and Joan Jett was an executive producer for the film. After building up to their success, the “lifestyle” gives the film a negative tone that it doesn’t quite recover from by the end.
What keeps the film going is the music. Not just The Runaways’ music but popular music of the time period such as David Bowie, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and even Don McLean. The film features a young Rodney Bingenheimer who looks and sounds a lot like the real one (who we saw at a Vines concert in 2002, I believe). Some of the music is what influenced the Runaways such as Suzi Quatro. Other songs such as “It’s a Man’s World” are a soundtrack to the story. But the best is that the song “Cherry Bomb” is featured prominently and even multiple times. We learn a story of the song’s origin. It’s such a silly-sounding song and yet they sing it so strongly and seriously. It strongly features Cherie Currie and Joan Jett but also Lita Ford with her guitar solo and the other Runaways. Kim Fowly is also involved. For me, “Cherry Bomb” is what makes the movie.
The actors all play their roles well, especially the two leads, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, along with Michael Shannon and Riley Keough. Kristen Stewart looks a lot like Joan Jett looked back then and I think the real Joan Jett couldn’t tell Stewart’s singing from her own. Speaking of Riley Keough’s family, as we exited the AMC Covina 30 we noticed an Elvis Presley pinball machine in the lobby. It had flashing squares for Elvis songs such as Hound Dog, Blue Suede Shoes, Jailhouse Rock, and All Shook Up. There was a picture of Graceland, and a little model of the “Heartbreak Hotel”. The best was one of the ball return paths that had the message “Elvis has left the building”. Maybe we’ll see a Runaways “Cherry Bomb” pinball machine someday.
On Monday, May 18 we saw the film 17 Again to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of our first date. For the previous Christmas, friends had given us gift certificates for two free movie tickets at Pacific Theaters, two free drinks, and a free large popcorn. We decided to use them at the Pacific Theaters at the Americana on Brand shopping destination in Glendale. It’s an outdoor mall developed by the same group that developed the Grove in West L.A. The Americana has only been around since May of last year. Going there was appropriate because my wife lived in Glendale ten years ago. We decided to see 17 Again because we liked the synopsis given in the Regency Theaters brochure we picked up when we saw The Soloist in April. My wife also wanted to see the genuine “Shaggy Zac.” She had played MANGO during a girl’s night out and one of the profiles was “Shaggy Zac.”
To get to the Americana we drove west on the 210 to the 134. There wasn’t much traffic just after 11 am. We exited at Brand in Glendale and drove south past Gaucho’s Village restaurant, Porto’s Bakery, the Mann movie theaters, Borders, and the Glendale Galleria, a large indoor mall. The Americana is just south of the Galleria across the street from what used to be a Tower Records. We turned right into the parking garage that’s free on Monday through Thursday and is similar to the garage at the Grove with its circular ramps for ascending and descending. We parked on the third level and walked to the escalators. Just like the Grove there are comfortable chairs at each landing and a large lounge with a player piano at the street level. We arrived around two hours before the movie start time at 1:55 pm so we explored the Americana. Like the Grove it has tracks for a trolley (that we did not see) and a large fountain that has choreographed “shows”. The lamp posts along the sidewalk have large bases from which music plays. There were very few people around given it was Monday. The only places with many people were the restaurants such as the Cheesecake Factory.
We walked around and visited stores that weren’t at malls or shopping destinations closer to us such as Victoria Gardens. Kitson L.A. sells trendy women’s and men’s clothing that’s fairly high end: men’s jeans cost $190-$230 per pair. They also sell books, toys, and gifts such as “Schticks” that are little signs that commuters can use to communicate with other drivers. The signs said things such as “Settle Down” and “My Fault”. We bought a set of Cinema Sweets-flavored chap sticks. My wife had read about the next store we visited, Vera Bradley, in Rachael Ray Magazine. The company is based in Indiana and makes dyed quilted pattern handbags, purses, quilts, rugs, ties, and many other items. They even make furniture though they don’t yet sell it at the Americana store. It’s one of the only Socal stores and it has been there since the Americana opened in May 2008. We bought a wallet colored similarly to the Seattle Seahawks logo and some decorative binder clips. Paperchase sells trendy stationery with various cartoon characters, pencils, frames, and toys. At Sony Style we played around with the VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC, a tiny but very expensive laptop ($1,500) and the Sony Reader. J. Crew had slightly less expensive jeans ($96-$150) but you can only get the relaxed-fit jeans by ordering from the catalog.
We walked to the southeast corner of the Americana where the Pacific Theaters Glendale 18 is located. The theater lobby is much more elegant than most with decorative carpeting, high ceilings, and a large mural of classic movie-style images. They traded our passes for two $8.75 tickets. Once inside we used gift certificates for a medium drink (normally $4.25) and medium popcorn ($6.00). The film was showing in a small to medium-sized theater down the hall and to the left of the concession stand. There were six trailers: Fame, Paper Heart, My Sister’s Keeper, I Love You Beth Cooper, Shorts, and Land of the Lost.
The feature presentation is pretty good. It’s a modern-day fairly tale about second chances. The plot is similar to many earlier films, though this one tends to be more comedic and offers a present-day take on the story. The film never takes itself very seriously and I believe this makes it better.
Most of the film takes place in the fictional Hayden High School in the L.A. area and the characters’ homes. I thought the film portrayed a modern-day high school very well. There’s a great scene where the main character tries to walk through a crowded hall of students for the first time in 20 years. The students are constantly using their cell phones for calling, texting, taking photos, and shooting video for YouTube. Actually, the portrayal of an L.A. area high school isn’t completely accurate because they don’t show any outdoor “halls”. That’s probably because most moviegoers outside of L.A. can relate better to indoor halls. I like how the film contrasted the cheerleader routines from 20 years ago and today.
Though the film portrays some reality, there’s also a lot of unreality. Some characters seem a bit too well off given their assumed education level. How could someone afford a house in the L.A. area without a college degree? Also some things just seem to work out too well such as the main character having a rich best friend. Some of the minor characters seem one-dimensional such as the bully boyfriend. I also had some difficulty getting a sense of the story’s time span. It’s best to keep in mind that this is a fairly tale, a fantasy set in a present day, real setting.
All the main and supported actors are very good and have some very funny lines. Thomas Lennon of Reno 911 fame, who plays the main character’s best friend, provides a lot of comedy. He plays this overgrown sci-fi geek who has the same Darth Vader pillow that we got at the Star Wars Episode III costume exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) nearly four years ago. The actor who really carries the film is Zac Efron who plays the main character at 17. I felt convince that he really was a 37-year-old trapped in a 17-year-old body. His personality matched that of his older self played by Matthew Perry. Efron’s character has some great exchanges with Thomas Lennon’s character. The rest of the cast including Leslie Mann as the main character’s wife, Michelle Trachtenberg as his daughter, and Margaret Cho, in a cameo role as a teacher, are all very enjoyable.
The story is interesting and not as obvious and the premise makes it seem. It is well-paced and I never felt things were dragging. The soundtrack is very good including hits from the 80’s such as “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins and songs from today such as “Naïve” by The Kooks. It’s a family friendly movie with a heartwarming story and lots of humor. As stated, it never takes itself too seriously. Though its unreality is hard to relate to we can all identify with wanting a second chance. Catch it while it’s still in theaters.
Spoiler alert.
Before Monday, April 27 we hadn’t seen a movie in a movie theater for over 18 months. The last one we saw was Into the Wild in October 2007. It’s actually difficult to catch a movie we want to see because so many films come and go through theaters. We usually don’t want to pay the $8-$10 tickets and when we get passes, they’re usually only good for two weeks after the release. Still, we wanted to see The Soloist because most of the events on which it is based took place in Downtown L.A. when we lived there 3-5 years ago. It’s about our old home.
We had often driven past the sign for the Foothill Cinema theaters just up the street north of us. It seemed like an old independent theater that charged less than most. During the past couple of years it has been renovated and is now the Regency Foothill Cinema 10, though I’ve also seen it listed as Golin Theaters under moviefone.com. They’ve added stadium seating to at least some of the theaters and increased admission but it’s still only $7 for regular showings and $5 for matinees, a real bargain for the first run movies it shows. The sign is no longer displayed along the road and the building is located discreetly behind the shops at the redone Citrus Crossing shopping block. But it’s easy enough to find. We did recon a few days before to figure out how to get to and from the theater and whether what we read about it online was true. Other than the name, “Golin,” everything was. They do charge the low admission and have further discounts for seniors and children, though no student discount that we could see. They don’t have as many showings or theaters as some of the larger multiplexes such as the AMC Theaters Covina 30, but they have enough. There doesn’t seem like much parking as most of it is along the curb in front of the theater, though I think there’s more in the back.
We went to the 12:45 pm Monday showing of The Soloist because we figured they would more likely charge matinee price and it wouldn’t be very crowded. I had heard the theaters had stadium seating but I wasn’t sure if all of them had it. If it didn’t at least it wouldn’t be crowded and we could still see. We arrived and parked in one of the angled spots along the curb in front. They have windows outside to buy tickets, but since there were so few people the guy at the window told us to go inside and buy our tickets at the concession counter. The inside looks like a regular theater lobby, though a bit smaller, with a room with arcade games. The restrooms are upstairs, though they also have ones downstairs for the disabled only. Next to the cash register they had a box of brochures for Regency Theaters (www.regencymovies.com). It listed the latest movies showing with a little synopsis of each. The one for the Soloist was completely wrong. It said something about a jazz musician/ hitman unwittingly hired to take out himself. It was very silly and not at all what the movie is really about. They must have a low-bid contractor doing their brochures or something. However, my wife liked the seemingly accurate synopsis of the film 17 Again, and now even wants to see that film.
Our tickets for The Soloist indicated that it was in theater number 7 that did have stadium seating. The theater didn’t have the annoying smell of popcorn and it didn’t fill up much. The other patrons were mostly elderly, probably taking advantage of not working during the day and the senior discount. There were a couple of patrons in front who had the annoying habit of occasionally commenting during the movie. Before the movie started they showed slides of E! True Hollywood trivia on the screen, mostly questions about films coming out in the next month or two and interesting facts about actors and directors. The film began at 12:48 pm with some car commercials. They showed the same one for the Nissan Z twice in a row; it begins just like a movie preview. There were only three trailers, all for films I already heard of: My Sister’s Keeper with Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin, The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, and Imagine That with Eddie Murphy. They don’t seem like films I want to see. At least Imagine That is more comprehensible than Murphy’s last film, Meet Dave.
As for the film we came to see, The Soloist, we enjoyed it very much. It’s based on a true story about L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez meeting and getting to know homeless musician Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Jr. Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx play Lopez and Ayers. Steve writes columns about Nathaniel, columns I read when originally published, and over time slowly but perhaps unwittingly gets much closer to him than he normally gets to his column topics. He wants to help Nathaniel but finds it much more difficult and complicated than he thought. Both Steve and Nathaniel go through many changes over the course of the film, though much is left unresolved. It’s not like most Hollywood movies where the characters go through a major positive transformation with a happy ending but it’s more like the real life on which it is based. Rather than a turnoff I found the ambiguities refreshing, like the film was trying to present the real story rather than try to manipulate the audience.
There was a lot in the film that we could relate to: current events we’ve read about, places we’ve visited or heard about, and people we’ve seen. The depiction of the Skid Row area looks just as dirty, crowded, gritty, and scary as the parts of the real Skid Row that we’ve seen. Many real homeless people from there appear in the film. One of them, who had a small speaking role, was recently shot and killed in the lobby of the supportive housing complex depicted in the film and where the real Nathaniel Ayers currently lives. My wife cried when she saw his name in the credits. The film shows parts of Pershing Square, some of which didn’t look familiar to us, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the real musical director Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting. We’ve seen him in concert and I chatted with him when I got his autograph. Then and current Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is played by a younger, taller, and better-looking actor, though he initially sounds a bit like the real “Smooth Operator”. We’ve seen the real mayor several times. The film portrays current events such as the effects of the Safe Cities Initiative and the newspaper business suffering from fewer people reading them.
Both lead actors do excellent jobs as do the supporting cast including Catherine Keener as Steve’s fictional ex-wife. The real Steve Lopez is not divorced. Foxx embodies the complicated and conflicted Nathaniel and Downey Jr. especially captures Steve’s ambition, challenges, frustrations, and also his low-key acceptance, and sense of humor. Ayers and Lopez have some humorous interactions. They thoroughly portray the difficulty of getting Nathaniel into housing after being homeless for many years and I could almost sympathize with Nathaniel’s reluctance to make the change. Scenes with voiceover and seemingly dream sequences capture Nathaniel’s struggles and his love of music. The classical music is beautiful and sometimes played against complementary scenes such as colored lights and a trip down a familiar part of the L.A. River.
This film has some things in common with other good films we’ve seen in the past several years. Into the Wild also had a scene with the L.A. River and starred Catherine Keener and Jena Malone. Collateral was also a movie starring Jamie Foxx with scenes filmed in Downtown L.A., and Shattered Glass also had a character that was a journalist named Steve or Stephen. As stated, the film doesn’t have much resolution and Steve and Nathaniel’s story goes on. There was a column in December about them celebrating Beethoven’s birthday. The film does not seem overly long or like it could have included more. Despite not resolving the issues presented it is still about friendship and personal triumphs, and it made me feel good despite its reality. I recommend it to anyone. I also recommend the theater that’s a find in the San Gabriel Valley. We’ll be seeing more films there, I’m sure.
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