Movie night!

I've been on a kick lately about finding 'different' movies at our local library.  Apparently the person in charge of buying movies has, let's call it, electic taste.  Happily, that fits in with my taste quite well. 

Recently I watched a new version of Much Ado About Nothing - done by Joss Whedon in 2012. 

Whedon got some publicity from the fact that it was filmed in his own home in, I think, 12 days.  Clearly then it was in present day California.  It was flimed in black and white which might put some people off but I'm more interested in the actual movie.  I really liked it.  Of course I like the Kenneth Branagh version but they are really very different.  This one felt more approachable but wasn't as pretty.  I mean a house in LA vs the Tuscan countryside?  The actors also were from a different strata:  Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Clark Gregg  vs Emma Thompson, Branagh and Richard Briers and the smaller rolls portrayed by the likes of Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington and Kate Beckinsale.  Very different indeed but each very good.

Then yesterday I found 'A Day Without A Mexican'.  It's a fantasy piece about a mysterious fog that surrounds California and makes all Hispanics disappear and all communication with the rest of the world ceases. 

It had promise but got really bogged down in the story about people who were downright dull.  There was a white woman whose Mexican husband and son disappeared, she never shed a tear.  (She did however reveal to the neighbor the reason her daughter was still around was because she was actually his child.)  The Senator whose maid disppeared (cover shot), his big problem was that he had no orange juice but he got to be acting-Govenor because the real guy had disappeared.  They were just people I didn't care about.  One Hispanic woman newscaster was supposed to have been spared; of course you know she can't be Hispanic regardless of her 'parents'.  One slightly funny part was where the handsome Hispanic weather forecaster is replaced with an older fat white guy who has no outside data or training in forecasting.  Interspersed there would be supposed facts about the importants of Hispanics in California.  I say 'supposed facts' because I hope they were true but really don't know and certainly don't remember them.  Things like 57% of firefighters were Hispanic or 35% of teachers - those aren't the numbers, I just made them up but you get the idea.  The actors were doing their best but it was all about the importance of Hispanics in today's California.  Gee, really?  I never would have guessed.  (You ought to check out my little town!)  Eventually, of course, the fog lifted and the Hispanics all magically reappeared not knowing that they had even been gone.

Anyway, I thank my local librarian for the fun films.  Hope you have a great day!