Inclined to Opine

Sometimes you stumble on a perfect gem of a film and you just want to share how much you loved it with the world. This movie is a breath of fresh air. It tells an incredibly small story that is somehow imbued with truth in every moment. It is extraordinary, beautiful, hilarious, heartbreaking, but most of all human. Rarely have I watched such well written dialogue, making me half hope someone turns it into a play. It takes a good long look at what it means to grow older, to grieve and regret, and is one of the most sex-positive films I have ever encountered. It acknowledges the essential importance of sexuality and its power to transform a person’s life, and how mind and body are inexorably intertwined so that it’s impossible to fully enjoy one when the other isn’t on board. The care this movie shows in how it depicts current hot topics like consent, the abundance of porn, and gender double standards along with the taboo and perceived shame that still surround sex work is exquisite. An...

Like many classic musicals, my first encounter with My Fair Lady was through the film version. Beloved and rewatched many a time, I was excited to finally see it live. Either I am misremembering the film, or it took some liberties with the stage version by condensing it. I say this because I found the show long-winded and repetitive : every song had a reprise, scenes were drawn out, three verses sung without any new emotion… The second act, in particular, dragged on endlessly, with a too-long “I’m Getting Married in the Morning” number full of show girls (and boys) that seemed rather irrelevant to the story exhibiting uninteresting choreography. There also seems to be an imbalance between the acts, with the second having far fewer songs to buoy it along amidst dialogue after dialogue; the pacing wasn’t brilliant and I found myself thoroughly bored until the end of the ball. I will, however, say that, not knowing any other versions of the stage show, I am inclined to think this is a str...