Oscars 2021: CODA

Of all the best picture nominees, this one I probably the most interesting to me. CODA stands for “Child of Deaf Adults” , and is the story of Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), the only hearing person in her family, who has a passion for music. She’s torn between pursuing her love of music or abandoning her parents—her father is a fisherman, and eventually they’re busted by the Coast Guard for not having a hearing deckhand on board. Does Ruby give up her dream of music school to stay and help her family?

(Other reviews in this series: West Side Story, The Power of the Dog, King Richard, Belfast, Dune)

CODA has been nominated for three Oscars: best picture, best performance by an actor in a supporting role, and best adapted screen play (Of the big five oscars, we have three nominations. Not bad!) It’s rated PG-13.

I was really worried about this one—I didn’t think I’d like it. I loved it. It’s so good and deals with so many issues around deafness, but also family!

Ruby’s parents are pretty isolated. At one point, Ruby’s mom, Jackie (Marlee Matlin) talks about how they have their own Deaf community, to which Ruby replies, “Who, your deaf friends? You see them once a month.” And that’s a real issue for her family. Even though her father, Frank (Troy Kotsur) is part of a family that’s been fishing in Gloucester, MA, for generations, he’s not “buddy buddy” with the fisherman. His son, Leo (Daniel Durant), who is also Ruby’s older brother, tries, but it’s hard because there’s no one to interpret for him, and reading lips only gets you so far. (This is illustrated perfectly in a scene where Leo goes to get a beer with the other fishermen, and he just sits at the table, staring at his beer can and missing what is going on around him.) Ruby has to translate everything for her parents—at their doctor appointments, at meetings, even calling her grandmother when her mother doesn’t want to use the video relay because of an interpreter being present.

( I will say, I get that and it’s very weird. It’s like this other person is in on these personal details of your life and you really wish they weren’t.)

(Also: I groan when I hear people say, “I’m deaf (or I have CF, or I have whatever) and I can do ANYthING!” No, you really can’t. You can’t! I can’t! I can’t scuba dive, for example! If you are profoundly deaf you need help interacting with the rest of the world. That’s vitally true, and I’m glad CODA showed it, because it’s too often easy to say “oh, well I don’t need help”. )

The family’s “plan”, if there was one, is for Ruby to continue being the hearing deckhand that the boat needs to operate under Coast Guard guidelines. She’s also their line to the world. But when she joins the school choir and finds out that her music teacher thinks she has a shot at a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, Ruby frantically tries to divide her time between fishing, school, preparing audition material, and being a normal teenager.

Daniel Durant (Leo), Marlee Matlin (Jackie), and Emilia Jones (Ruby) in CODA.

While Ruby’s family intesenly depends on her—something that her brother tries to get them to do less of, hoping they’ll rely on him (He has lip reading skills, and tries to insinuate himself into the hearing culture around him)—Ruby also expresses her ambivalence about leaving her family when she tells her teacher, “I’ve never done anything without my family.”

The Rossis are a vibrant, extroverted family, which can embarrass Ruby, but as one of her friends says, “You parents still like each other!” They’re close knit and that causes tension but they also really do want what is best for each other—even if that means change.

(There’s a crucifix in their house and Ruby wears a small Miraculous Medal throughout the movie. Loved it. :) )

Also from a music standpoint, it’s also accurate. Auditions tend to run the way they do in the movie and if you walked in without your music, you’d definitely get those looks. And you’d also definitely get those looks if you turned up dressed the way Ruby was dressed! (Also big dog, little dog? YES! cracked me up. But I wanted to scream, Ruby put on your concert dress it is right there!!!!!!!! when they left for the audition!)

If there was justice in the world, this would be the movie that people talked about instead of the inane The Power of the Dog, but, we sadly don’t live in this world. While there’s some crude sexual humor, this is a very warm portrayal of a loving family that has flaws and faults but also great strengths.

Kotsur is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the Rossi family patriarch, Frank, (He just won the BAFTA for it) and he does a great job creating a believable relationship with his daughter, and the struggle to stay with what’s familiar as opposed to being vulnerable to new people, who may or may not be totally straight with him.

Emilia Jones (Ruby) and Troy Kotsur (Frank)

I found this movie totally delightful, and I highly encourage you to see it.

Oscars 2021: "The Power of the Dog"

A continuation of the Oscars 2021 series. Previous entries: King Richard/ Belfast, Dune, West Side Story)

The Power of the Dog is nominated for 12 Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director (Jane Campion, The Piano) , Beset Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), Best Supporting Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jessie Plemons), Best Supporting Actress (Kirsten Dunst), best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and is rated R. (Top 5 Oscars nominations: 4, the most so far)

The story revolves around two brothers, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Burbank (Jesse Plemons) who have come back to their Montana ranch home. Upon their arrival in town, they and their workers have a meal at a boarding house restaurant, run by Rose (Kirsten Dunst) and her son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). George marries Rose after a few days’ acquaintance, and takes her back to the family home, with Jesse still working and living at the boarding house. Phil doesn’t, to put it mildly, like this. After a year spent at college, Peter comes to live with his mother and stepfather for the summer.

This is not a comfortable movie to watch. It’s a nicely produced movie, but it’s a movie that sets your teeth on edge. It makes me wonder if people actually liked this movie or if they just think it’s appropriate “artsy” and thus, should be nominated for things. There’s no real story, moral, theme, what have you. There’s no clear arc for the characters. It just…is.

Cumberbatch’s nomination is clearly because he’s playing a baddie, as the Brits would say. He’s good—Cumberbatch is good in just about any role he does—although his American accent is terribly flat (especially up against the Americans in the cast). But there’s no real brilliance in his acting, like there is in Will Smith’s Richard Williams.

The movie is based off a novel, and there are interruptions every so often of “chapter numbers” on a title card, which creates jarring jumps in time. The movie also takes place during Prohibition, but there is conspicuous alcohol consumption everywhere, even at Rose’s boarding house, which would clearly be illegal. (This also becomes a major plot point, which is not….feasible, given where the family lives.)

I kept thinking, What was the point of this movie? What’s the value of making it, of telling it? There’s no arc, no redemption, no…anything. It showcases the worst sides of humanity and honestly, we don’t need a movie that does that. The “gotcha” ending doesn’t even sound plausible to me.

So, as you can probably tell—I did not like this movie. It was a waste of two hours and a lot of acting talent that could’ve been put to better use.

Oscars 2021: "West Side Story"

Next Up in my Oscar Race reviews: West Side Story!

(Previous entries: King Richard, Belfast, Dune)

This remake of the 1961 Best Picture winner by Stephen Spielberg has been nominated for seven Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Ariana DeBose as Anita), Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Sound. (Big 5 nominations: two, director and picture, the same amount as Dune.) Of course the 1961 picture was adapted from the Broadway musical, which was nominated for the Best Musical Tony Award.

When I first heard this was coming out (it was supposed to come out in 2020), I rolled my eyes. I grew up with the 1961 movie cast album, learning all the music and pretending to be Anita or Maria as a kid in the basement of our house. I didn’t think we needed a re-do.

My original assessment still stands: This isn’t a needed re-make. That being said, there are some strong points to it, along with some “meh”s.

Likes:

*Tony and Maria are actually the appropriate ages. As in, they don’t look like they’re in their late 20s or early 30s trying to play teenagers. Big plus. Same with the other actors. I love it when they’re the right age! (Or at least can pass!)

They look like teenagers! Yay! Ansel Elgort (Tony) and Rachel Zegler (Maria) meet at the Dance at the Gym.

It’s also great that everyone does their own singing, and everyone can sing. Some have done so on Broadway (Ariana DeBose was in the original Hamilton cast, and Mike Feist, who plays Riff, originated the role of Connor in Dear Evan Hansen as well as the role of Morris in Newsies. He’s also from Central Ohio! Yay local boy!) and are musical veterans (Brian D’Arcy James, who plays Officer Krupke, was in the original Broadway cast of Titanic, which was the first Broadway show I saw actually on Broadway.) I think that Elgort’s singing is just fine. Tony has a high tenor voice and it’s not an easy part to sing, but he does it well. (I do think that both he and Rachel Zegler, who plays Maria, could learn to emote a little more when they’re singing. They both do a lot of the “my face is blank while I sing!”)

*Ariana DeBose deserves her Best Supporting Actress nomination—her performance as Anita is extremely well done, especially in “America” and “A Boy Like That”. She is fabulous!

*Mike Feist is an amazing Riff, and for my money, the best actor amongst the “gang” kids. I feel like he shouldn’t been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, because he plays Riff just right: there’s an edge to him you believe, a fatalism that works for a kid who is supposed to be the leader of a gang. The scene where Riff goes to buy a gun for the rumble is one of the few good additions to the script, mostly because of Feist’s work in it.

Mike Feist as Riff

*Justin Peck’s choreography improves on some of Jerome Robbins’ original work; this is especially clear in the opening sequence, the re-imagined “Cool”, and the sprawling “America” sequence. Also those crisp motions leg movements during the Mambo section at the dance—gorgeous. Also “Officer Krupke”’s move from the streets to a NYPD precinct is a great call, with excellent choreography and vocals (check out the beginning, which starts a cappella and then the orchestration comes in.).

*The re-imagined “Somewhere” sequence works very well, especially as a solo for Valentina (Rita Moreno).

*it’s a gorgeous movie to look at. The cinematography, the color, the sets…gorgeous. Great production values. I definitely think it should win the Production Design Oscar. I also love Maria’s costumes for the last scene and “I Feel Pretty.”

Dislikes:

*The Spanish isn't captioned. This is a ridiculous decision on their part. I actually went back and read the screenplay, and then translated what was said, and it’s not the same as “what was just said next” as a lot of reviewers say. We’re missing the spice of the original, and in some cases we’re missing insults and even context. The song the Sharks sing in the opening fight with the Jets? Apparently it’s the Puerto Rican national anthem. If it was translated, we’d at least know what they’re singing about (Usually if a song is being sung in a non-musicals, the captions will give you the title of the song. This happened in Belfast.)

When Anita speaks to Valentina after her almost gang-rape, Anita is actually saying something along the lines of Valentina letting pigs in under her roof. It’s much sharper and harder than anything that Anita says after that. But Spielberg said that adding captions would have been disrespectful.

(I think it’s pretty disrespectful for those of us who rely on captions…but I digress. )

The only time I have ever seen the “no captions” thing work is on Outlander, where Gaelic isn’t subtitled because Claire doesn’t understand what’s being said, so the audience is as lost as she is. That’s the point.

Here the audience is just….lost. And the fact that it’s not even captioned for the hearing impaired? That’s ridiculous on a whole other level.

*Anita and Bernardo live together with Maria (which I really don’t think was happening among Catholics in the 1950s?) in a big apartment. We’re talking two big bedrooms and a large kitchen, bigger than any NYC kitchen I’ve actually seen, with an equally big dining room. This just struck me as unrealistic.

*And that leads into the re-writing of the script. Having Tony be an ex-inmate doesn’t work. You never buy it. You never buy that he’d break his parole to go to a dance (I mean, come on, are we in Les Miserables here? We’re going to rip up our ticket of leave and go on the run?). Why does this back story exist?

Valentina is also criminally underwritten when compared to Doc in the original. Doc had many more lines, and a lot more world-weariness that played against Tony really well. That doesn’t happen here at all.

(Also: Anita talking about having little mix during the Quintet while she’s….at Mass? Can we not?)

*The meeting scene. Tony and Maria meeting behind the bleachers is tacky, and it takes away the magic of the “eyes meeting across the room and the world fades away” thing. It’s just not magical anymore. And the re-write doesn’t help it here. Leave it alone, people! We get crappy dialogue where before it was better.

*Some of the the costumes. I like Paul Tazewell’s work in theater—he did the costumes for Hamilton. But the issue with some of the scenes is that the clothes are too theatrical. The general idea is that the Jets are in cool tones, and the Sharks are in warm ones. But at the dance, that translates into just about every Jet in a shade of blue (often the same shade of blue!), and every Shark in a shade of red.

See what I mean?

Again, this is great in theater. It works in theater. On screen it reads as off, at least to me. (The costumes are gorgeous, don’t get me wrong.) Compare it to Dune, where you have people who wear uniforms and color schemes, but it looks realistic as opposed to, “yes, we designed all of this! Look at our color scheme!”

I will say it’s not as overt throughout the entire film, and when it’s not, the costumes work much better.

A still from “America.”

Overall West Side Story is beautiful to watch. There are good performances, the music and dance are excellent; but there are things that keep it from being a great movie.

Oscars 2021: Dune

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Welcome to the continuation of my Best Picture Nominee Reviews! Here’s the overall list, with links to the reviews that are live, and notes about forthcoming reviews. I might not be able to see all the movies before the awards at the end of the month, but I’ll try!

(All the movies, with my linked reviews: King Richard/ Belfast , CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley , The Power of the Dog (review forthcoming) ,West Side Story (review forthcoming) )

Dune has been nominated for 10 Oscars: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Original Score, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Costume Design, and Cinematography. Of the “big five” awards (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay—original or adapted), it’s nominated for two. (For comparison, King Richard is nominated for three—picture, actor, and screenplay, and Belfast also is nominated for three—picture, screenplay, and director.)

I hadn’t read the massively popular sci-fi novel until right before I saw the movie. While some people said you didn’t need to read the novel ahead of time, I found that I did, and even then I’m still sort of sketchy about certain things. If I hadn’t read the novel, I think I would’ve been pretty lost. The screenplay does do a good job of exposition, but I still wondered about certain things and wanted more detail, which, of course, the source novel has. (You can’t get everything into a movie; it’s not possible.)

The novel is actually divided into two films, because the director, Denis Villeneuve (Arrival), didn’t want to skip anything from the book. So in order to present it in its entirety, it’s two films. This movie stops about halfway through the novel.

(Before we get into the plot: if you are a massive fan of Dune, I give you my apologies right now, because I’m probably mangling the plot in an attempt to simplify it. I’m sorry!)

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The basic plot: Paul Atreides, heir to House Atreides, is sent to Dune (aka, Arrakis) since the Emperor of the Galaxy (or something like that) has decided that his father, Duke Leto (Oscar Isaacs, The Force Awakens), is the new ruler of the planet. This comes with the extremely lucrative “spice melange” contract—spice is really the only thing worth having on Dune, which is a desert planet where the lack of water affects everything from the color of the sky to the clothing you wear. The spice has incredible powers—it enables higher levels of cognition, it makes space travel possible (you can’t navigate in space without spice, apparently), etc. (More here.)

However, this move comes with a cost, because the former rules of Arrakis are the Harkonnens, who are enemies of the Atreides, and they are, as one of the characters says, “BRUTAL!” So this promotion is not without a lot of danger, because obviously the Harkonnens are a little annoyed at this turn of events.

Our enemy: Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard)

Paul’s mother is Lady Jessica (the fabulous Rebecca Ferguson, Mission: Impossible, The Greatest Showman) and is a member of the aforementioned Bene Gesserit, an order of what are basically nuns (they have a Reverend Mother, for example) who are gifted in manipulation, both bodily and otherwise, politics, and all sorts of other shadowy machinations. Before the family leaves for Arrakis, the Reverend Mother (Charlotte Rampling) comes to test Paul with a few Bene Gesserit tests—a box of pain and the gom jabar. Paul passes these tests with flying colors, and the Reverend Mother thinks that Jessica has manipulated her body (when she was pregnant with Paul) to produce “a mind”—the great mind that can see beyond space and time, into the future and the past, and bring about all sorts of things. Basically, a Messiah.

Paul (Timothee Chalamet) undergoes the gom jabar test at the hands of the Reverend Mother (Charlotte Rampling)

So, with all this happening in the background, the Atreides family leaves their home planet of Caladan and take up residence on Arrakis/Dune. From the first, things are not good. There’s an assassin’s plot to try to kill Paul in his room, the housekeeper that Lady Jessica interviews gives her a crysknife, a Fremen’s weapon, to defend herself, and there’s rumors that someone is going to betray the family. Paul has been trained in combat, and he wants to prove his worth, but at the same time, his father is reluctant to let him do that, since he is the House’s only heir.

Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and Duke Leto (Oscar Isaacs)

And, just to make things really interesting, Paul has been having dreams about Arrakis and a certain Freman girl, and his dreams about the future tend to come true.

I think that’s enough plot to get you going, right?

The movie is, first and foremost, gorgeous. The scenery, the effects, the cinematography, and the costumes are first rate and deserve to win the Oscars for their respective categories, I don’t think anything else comes close in terms of costumes this year. Lady Jessica gets to wear a lot of fun things, but every person is costumed appropriately and well, in a way that is uniform but not over the top (I thought this about the West Side Story costumes but we’ll get to that in that review.)

Costuming: Lady Jessica and Paul on Caladan, at the “Herald of the Change” ceremony.

On Dune: Paul and Lady Jessica in stillsuits, which enable survival in the desert by recycling the body’s water.

The casting is an embarrassment of riches. Ferguson and Issacs interact well together, and with Paul, create a believable family. You feel the affection they all have for each other. It’s criminal to me that Ferguson didn’t get nominated in the Best Actress category, because her part is difficult and she pulls it off beautifully.

Chalamet, who plays the teenage Paul, has been in high profile projects before, especially Little Women and Beautiful Boy. He does justice to the role of the perhaps-Messiah of the galaxy, going from a boy eager to fight to one who knows he has to fight to fulfill his destiny, even if he’s not entirely sure what that is. There’s a mystical edge to the part that could be overdone, but I don’t think Chalamet does that.

Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck and Oscar Isaacs as Duke Leto

Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa are excellent as members of the Duke’s entourage, and Javier Bardem plays a Freman leader, Stilgar, with the appropriate shadowy qualities—we’ll see more of him in Part II, along with Skarsgaard’s Baron, who only appears in flashes but whose menace underlines the entire movie.

Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho,

Zendaya plays Chani (aka the Freman girl in Paul’s dreams) well, even if we don’t see much of her here. (Again, more to come in Part II). There’s also one more cast member I really liked. In a gender-bending role—the character is male in the novel—Dr. Liet Kynes (played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster) is the planet’s top expert, and she’s in charge of helping with the peaceful (ha!) transfer of power. Duncan-Brewster’s performance is excellent.

I really enjoyed Dune. Of course I think the Best Picture Oscar would go to it after the second installment, assuming it’s nominated again ( a la Lord of the Rings being nominated but not winning the top prize until Return of the King). It’s an “old school” kind of movie: adventure, action, drama, all put together in a complete, gorgeous package. I’m very excited to see Part II.

Oscars 2021: "King Richard", "Belfast" reviews

If you’ve been reading here for awhile, you know I like to review movies and I’m generally insterested in the Oscar race (well, assuming there re good movies in that race.) This year I’ve seen several of the movies up for Best Picture and I’m hoping to see more before the awards at the end of the month, and I’m writing reviews about them!

The nominees for Best Picture are:

Belfast (reviewed below)

CODA

Don’t Look Up

Drive My Car

Dune (review coming)

King Richard (reviewed below!)

Licorice Pizza

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

West Side Story (review coming)

In this first installment I’m combining two movies, King Richard and Belfast, because I mostly have short notes about them—but that doesn’t mean they’re not good!

King Richard has been nominated for several Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor (Will Smith), Best Supporting Actress (Aunjanue Ellis as Oracene ‘Brandy’ Williams, Richard’s wife), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing. It’s rated PG-13.

The film focuses on Richard’s drive to ensure that his daughters, Serena (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton) get the world class tennis training he knows they deserve. He’s doing his best, teaching them skills he’s found in magazines and on VHS training tapes, but he knows the girls deserve better than practicing on a public park tennis court, where they’re also harassed (maliciously) by a gang of guys. The desire for excellence isn’t just in tennis, it’s in life, as seen in the scenes at home, where the girls are told to reach for excellence in every part of life, and to be humble. (A scene where Richard makes the family watch Disney’s Cinderella drives this point home in a cute way.)

Eventually Richard gets training for Venus, but not Serena; Serena enters tournaments on the sly and begins racking up her own wins. So with two potential champions in tow, Richard begins to search for sponsors and opportunities—but he wants to do it his way, which begins to cause some problems with the coaches and tournament directors. The film climaxes with Venus’ match against world number 1 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (who, by the way, was one of my favorite payers to watch back in the day). But undergirding the story is the question: is Richard doing this for his girls, or is he doing it for himself?

Smith and Ellis make a great couple, and their scenes together are fiery and realistic. They both deserve to win their respective categories. The girls who play Venus and Serena are excellent as well, both in their tennis skills and in their portrayal of young girls with incredible talents, being driven by their father in ways they sometimes don’t want to be (such as when they’re practicing in a downpour). Sidney is especially notable because she’d never played tennis before shooting this movie!

Even if you’re not a tennis fan, this is an enjoyable movie to watch because of the focus on the family and Richard’s quest to see his girls reach tennis stardom.

Demi Singleton (Serena) and Saniyaa Sidney (Venus), training with their dad.

Belfast is based on the life of director Kenneth Branagh, who grew up in Belfast until he was nine and his family moved to England to escape the escalating “Troubles.” Buddy, the nine year old boy at the center of the story, is played charmingly by newcomer Jude Hill, who is absolutely perfect in the role (it also makes me wish the Academy still did Juvenile Oscars.)

Buddy lives with his older brother Will (Lewis McAskie), his Ma (Caitriona Balfe, Outlander), Pa (Jamie Dornan), and in the same neighborhood as his Grannie (Judi Dench, charming as always) and Pop (Ciaran Hinds, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II). He has a crush on Catherine, a Catholic girl in his class at school. He loves playing int he alley with the other neighborhood kids and wants to do his space project with Catherine.

Then the Troubles begin in his neighborhood, on August 15, 1969 (as a card tells us). There is violence on Buddy’s normally quiet street, and there are barricades set up that he has to go through to get to school. There’s violence against the local Catholics, and Buddy asks his cousin what the difference is between the religions—she says you can tell mostly by their names, until Buddy stumps her with “Thomas” ,which can go either way!

In a very funny scene, Pa tells the boys that Catholicism is a “religion of fear”, then cuts to the boys attending service, where their pastor is preaching unrelenting hellfire at them, making Buddy terrified of choosing the “wrong way” that leads to hell.

Ma (Caitriona Balfe) and Pa (Jamie Dornan) dance at a neighborhood party.

Pa works in England, but that doesn’t mean the family is exempt from local problems. There are men in the area who want Pa to join them to “remove” the Catholics from the area; there are debt collectors calling and sending overdue bills, and Ma worries about money and the safety of her boys. Can the family stay in Belfast with all the chaos around them, or should they decamp for England?

This is a very sweet streak to this movie, since it’s told through Buddy’s eyes. We see him absorb the violence, but he doesn’t really understand it. When one of his friends decides to join a crowd of rioters in looting a Catholic-owned grocery, Buddy tags after her, not knowing that it’s wrong since adults are doing the same thing, and if adults are doing it, it must be OK, right?

The violence is tempered with Buddy’s innocence (especially in his scenes with Catherine, played by Olive Tennant. They’re perfect). Is there violence in the film? Yes. It’s not gratuitous and it’s never close up, but it’s there (Buddy and Will hide under the kitchen table while Ma hides in the living room as a car bomb explodes, for example). Buddy worries about his family, especially his ailing Pop. But even with the danger, Buddy feels secure with his family, and that warmth is tangible and important to see in movies. (Especially since one of the other nominees, West Side Story, essentially does away with family underpinnings.) In fact, that’s one of the things I liked best about both Belfast and King Richard: the emphasis on family.

Belfast has been nominated for seven Oscars: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Ciaran Hinds), Best Director (Kenneth Branagh), Best Performance by an Actress a Supporting Role (Judi Dench), Best Original Song (Van Morrison) and Best Sound. It’s a shame Balfe wasn’t nominated for best actress, since she’s been nominated in other major award shows (BAFTAs, Screen Actors’ Guild, Critics’ Choice Award, and the Golden Globes.) and she gives a luminous performance.

At the Golden Globes, Belfast won Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for several other awards, including Best Picture—Drama. It’s rated PG-13 and is available to stream on via iTunes.

Have you seen either film? What did you think?

Seven Quick Takes: Advent, History, Radio Show, and the Only Movie You Need!

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Heigh ho, heigh ho! Welcome back to Seven Quick Takes.

We’ll start this week with….Patty. :) Per usual!

She has recently really gotten into baby dolls (these are all her sister Bridget’s) and I love watching her play little mama with them.

Also, Patty turns 16 months old tomorrow! Here’s a flashback photo from a year ago.

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Advent is coming! Advent is coming!

May I suggest that, if you are looking for an Advent devotional, that you take a look at Take Up & Read’s? It’s called The Holy Way and a lot of love and careful attention went into this book! We’d love to have you spend Advent with us. You can order your copy now.

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I’m going to be on Al Kresta’s radio show on Tuesday to talk about my book and All Souls’ Day! I will post the link when it’s up, but if you have Catholic radio in your area, check to see if Al’s show is aired where you are!

-IV-

Continuing down the list, history!

Well not really history, civics.

Basically these days I use my Political Science degree to teach people civics on the internet. :-p

Today’s lesson is: how a bill becomes a law in the US Congress.

It’s introduced in either the House or the Senate. The house it’s introduced in has to pass it. After they pass it, it goes to the other house. If it’s not passed, it’s dead. If it is passed, the president can sign it or veto it. If he vetoes it, then Congress can try to override the veto. If they don’t override it, bill’s dead. Can be introduced next session.

Veto override requires a two-thirds majority of members present.

To just pass something, you need a majority. That’s it.

There’s a lot of talk about how “well you really need 60 in the senate these days.”

That is, to put not too fine a point on it, crap. Yes, the U.S.. Senate has the filibuster. Yes, it requires 60 votes to stop a filibuster. But that’s not to pass legislation.

Capisce? Do we get it? Please don’t say you need 60 votes to pass a bill in the Senate, because you don’t.

-V-

So, my dad and I, after many sojourns in ERs where we have to entertain ourselves, came up with the list of Essential Movies that Explain Life. What that means is, we draw on them heavily in regular life because they capture some truth or bon mot that applies to multiple situations.

They are:

1) The Wizard of Oz : “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking!” "Well, being a Good Christian Woman I can’t say it!” “What a world, what a world!”

2) The 1995 Pride and Prejudice. The only version. If you know, you know. “You do not make allowances for differences of situation and temper.” “The more I see of the world, the more I am dissatisfied with it.” “You have delighted us long enough.” “What do we live for, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”

3) Mr. Mom. “I can’t believe it!” “I can’t believe it!” “You’re doing it wrong!” “No, lie to him. He likes it.” “Whatever it takes.” "

4) A Christmas Story: “It could be anything!” “Don’t you feel terrible? Don’t you feel remorse for what you have done?” “

Now, I’d add two other things to this—Christmas Vacation has gotten a lot of us during the pandemic, because “Whatever Russ, whatever.” And also Home Alone gives us this great gem:

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Is there anywhere else int he world that does not trick or treat on Halloween? Or is this a uniquely central Ohio/Ohio thing? I as talking to Patty’s mom the other day and she said that she couldn’t believe we had trick or treat not on Halloween. I never really thought about it because that’s just how we do it here, but yes, it’s….weird.

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And I have begun writing out my Christmas cards. Yes, I begin Christmas prep early!

Seven Quick Takes: Royal Wedding Cake, Patty, and movies!

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OK because I am a Royal Family NUT (I am, if you do not know this about me), I was very happy for Prince William and Katherine as they celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary yesterday!

Look at this adorable video!

But something even better than a video? CAKE.

Namely, the groom’s cake that Prince William had at his wedding reception.

Courtesy of Darren McGrady, one of the queen’s former chefs (he also cooked for Princess Diana and Princes William and Harry at Kensington Palace after her divorce), shows us how to make it, and it’s FOUR INGREDIENTS!

(You will need a 6”x 2” cake ring, though. I’m getting this one.)

Happy anniversary, Your Highnesses, and many more!

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Yesterday was also St. Catherine of Siena’s feast day, and you can read all about her in a post I wrote a few years ago!

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Patty is TEN MONTHS OLD TODAY.

She likes to blow raspberries!

I mean how is this possible she’s so big, she is STANDING UP now!

She likes swings, baths, kolaches, most food, her siblings, and…food. :)

I swear when I see her I will kiss her face off.

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I watched a few movies this week! I used to do movie reviews pretty regularly, so I’ll do a few here for you.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based on the August Wilson play of the same name, is on Netflix right now, and was nominated for several Oscars, including best actress (Viola Davis as Ma Rainey) and best actor (Chadwick Boseman, in his last role). The play focuses on one day in Chicago in the 1920s, when Ma Rainey and her band are recording an album at the behest of her white manager. I learned, in researching this, that Denzel Washington has a contract with Netflix to produce all of the plays in Wilson’s Century Cycle (also called the Pittsburgh cycle) as movies for Netflix. The first one in the series was Fences, starting Washington and Davis, and was also Oscar-nominated, with Viola Davis winning Best Supporting Actress for her work as Washington’s wife.

Ma Rainey is an intense film, with the tension rising right from the start. Levee, played by Boseman, is a member of Ma’s band, but he doesn’t want to play her music the way it’s always been done—he wants to rearrange it and make it faster and hotter. He has a sort of jittery energy that parlays into deep pain and pathos as the story moves on. The other members of the band are older men, well-seasoned musicians who know what they have to do to get along in a world that’s run by white people. Their interactions make up most of the film and you can tell that the dialogue is adapted from a play, because it’s melodic, dense, and intricate.

Davis, in the movie for less than a half-hour, hits all the right notes (and I’m not trying to make a pun) as the titular band leader. When she arrives late to the session, the energy revs up, and so does the tension.

I don’t want to give away the plot, but the performances are searing. Boseman, in particular, delivered two monologues that are so wide-ranging in color and tone, and so intense, that you have no choice but to watch him. I really felt like I was in theater during those scenes. He really is the highlight of the entire movie.

The film won two Oscars, for costume design and for makeup.

Chadwick Boseman (Levee), front, with the band members (l-r: Glynn Turman [Toledo], Michael Potts [Slow Drag], and Colman Domingo (Cutter).

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The Heiress came out in 1949 and stars Olivia de Havailland (Melanie in Gone With the Wind) in an Oscar winning performance. Based on Henry James’ novel Washington Square, The Heiress tells the story of plain, awkward—but very wealthy—New Yorker Catherine Sloper, who would rather spend time on her embroidery than on polishing her social graces. This continually frustrates her father, Dr. Sloper (Ralph Richardson), who cannot believe that Catherine is the daughter of his ‘perfect’ wife, who died when Catherine was small. (Of course no one can measure up to the picture of his wife that he has in his head). His casual cruelty toward his daughter is like a razor, cutting any self-esteem or confidence she has to shreds.

Things come to a head when, at a party, Catherine meets Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), a young man who takes interest in her in a way no man has before. But her father forbids her to marry Morris, saying that he’s only after her money. Is he? Or has Catherine found true love?

Again, no spoilers here, but De Havilland’s performance is incredible. I wish that it was in color so we could really appreciate Edith Head’s costumes, but they’re also gorgeous in black and white. I love De Havilland in Gone With the Wind, but I’d never seen any of her other movies, so I really wanted to see this one.

Montgomery Clift (Morris) and Olivia de Havilland (Catherine) in The Heiress.

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A Little Chaos (2014). While going through my Netflix queue, I saw that I had this, and thought, eh, what the heck? I am so glad I watched it! Directed by Alan Rickman (who also stars as the French King Louis XIV), the story focuses on the construction of the gardens around the palace of Versailles. He chooses landscape architect Andre Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts) to supervise the planning. Surprisingly, Le Notre chooses Madame Sabine de Barra (Kate Winslet) as one of the designers, assigning her the task of creating an outdoor ballroom, with fountains and landscaping.

This sounds….like an odd premise for a film, right? But in Rickman’s hands it is enchanting. There are so many good actors in even small roles, including Jennifer Ehle, who plays one of the king’s mistresses, Stanley Tucci, who plays Duke Philippe, the king’s brother, and Helen McCrory as Madame Le Notre (McCrory sadly just passed away from cancer—you might know her as Mrs. Malfoy in the Harry Potter films) Watching Winslet and Rickman interact in a scene in the garden, where the mourning king is mistaken for a gardener by Winslet, is one of the best scenes in the film. (I mean, Sense and Sensibility reunion!)

Winslet and Rickman in one of the Versailles gardens.

I’d never seen a film that Rickman directed, and based on this he was delightful director. The film has a delicate storyline, focusing on love, loss, and relationships (with a gorgeous score). Schoenaerts, who I’d never seen before, is a wonderful actor. His scenes with Winslet shine.

(And gosh it made me miss Alan Rickman!)

Sabine de Barra (Kate Winslet) and Madame de Montespan (Jennifer Ehle) at Fontainebleau.

It’s a hidden gem of a film, really lovely to watch and think about.

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And on that note—-have a lovely weekend! Watch some movies and read some books! :)

Movie Review: Fatima

I wrote a review of the new Fatima movie for the local Catholic paper! Yay!

Here’s the beginning:

There are almost as many film versions of the story of Our Lady of Fatima as there were appearances by the Virgin. With so many versions, do we need another account of the apparitions of Mary that occurred more than 100 years ago? Yes, because this version brings the story of the three visionaries and their world to realistic life. 
 
Other tellings of the story have focused on the three seers – 10-year-old Lucia dos Santos and her cousins, Francisco, 9, and Jacinta Marto, 7 – and what they beheld in a two-dimensional way. The current film gives depth and realism to the apparitions with its vivid storytelling….

Read the rest at the Columbus Catholic Times!

Seven Quick Takes--Welcome July!!!!! (And a baby!!!)

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Welcome, July!!!!

Fireworks at Colonial Williamburg

Gosh, I’m so glad we’re in July. Yayyyy July!

So much to talk about today!!!

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OK first, WELCOME TO MY NEW GODDAUGHTER!

Patricia Mary

6/30/20

7 lbs 15 oz.

She’s my cousin’s daughter, and my first goddaughter! She was born on our grandma’s 90th birthday, and, coincidentially, has the same name as our Grandmother—full name, I mean. The Patricia was for my grandmother, but the Mary is also our grandmother’s middle name!! So how nice is that? Grandma got a pretty awesome present!

You can’t tell in the photos, but she’s a ginger, like her mom!

So she’s been in the hospital for a few days because they had to make sure she tested negative for COVID after a few tests. She’s passing with flying colors though so yay! My cousin can nurse her but she has to gown up because she actually tested positive for COVID—even though she has no symptoms. BIZARRE.

Anyway, I hope by the time this is live, they’re able to go home!

She’s the fifth child in my cousin’s family. They have two daughters—Susie and Bridget—and two boys—Frankie and Johnny. Bridget, in particular, is very happy to have another sister!

So, yes, as her godmother, I am going to spam you all with photos of her because that is my job as godmother.

(And to spoil her rotten….)

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(OK she’s ADORABLE, RIGHT?!?!!?)

I already have a godson, who will be 23 this year. So I’m really happy to have another godbaby, and my first goddaughter. It’s so fun to spoil the littles. Not that I couldn’t spoil my godson, but it’s harder since he’s all grown up and I can’t pay him $1 to see if he knows his prayers anymore. :) He recently graduated from the University of Pittsburgh (A semester early!), so yes, I am insanely proud of him too. :)

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So it’s Fourth of July Weekend! I recommend watching Gettysburg, John Adams, and 1776! (SIT DOWN, JOHN!)

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Also reading John Adams, The Killer Angels, and 1776 are great reads for July, especially the latter. For kids, the Felicty series from American Girl is great for learning about colonial history, and I also really like the Revolutionary War series from Laurie Halse Anderson, told from the perspective of a young slave girl, Isabel, and her friend, Curzon. This is fabulous trilogy: Chains, Forge, and Ashes. (and these are also great books for adults, too! Anderson is a great writer.) Learning history is so important and fiction is a great way to spark interest and learn things!

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Also, reading the Declaration of Independence is a good idea….

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I’ve never been a huge fireworks person, but I did top this with a picture of the CW fireworks because….awesome, right?

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And finally, if you missed the posts from this week, here they are:

There are sleeves on the cardigan!

Glorious Scars

A New Review of Living Memento Mori!

Seven Quick Takes--Second Friday of Lent

Linking up with Kelly!

I took this picture before Mass last week—I couldn’t resist the light.

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On the blog this week:

Virus Lent

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There’s a story about St. Teresa of Avila and Lent that I think is a propos. She once had a great program of Lenten penances planned. She was going to do everything. It was going to be great!

Then she was sick. For all of Lent. And she complained to the Lord about this. “Lord, I had so many great penances to offer you,” etc.

“This is my Lent for you,” He told her.

Looks like, no matter what our penances and plans were, we’re getting the Lent that Jesus wants for us right now.

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Like I wrote in my last post, I’m essentially living like I did right after my transplant—not really leaving my house, people coming to me. I’m not actually opposed to this, but what makes it scary for me is that the world around me is caught up in it, too. Whenever I’ve been sick before, there’s always been some sense of normalcy around me to cling to—school went on, I could go to the movies when I felt better, etc.

Now, nothing’s normal. Here, schools are closed starting Monday. The bishops’ conference of Ohio has dispensed us all from the obligation to attend Mass—and I wasn’t going to do that anyway, on the advice of my doctors. It’s just weird.

Last night after dinner I went and stood on my porch for a minute. It was a lovely night—the sun was setting, it was warm, I could hear the train coming through town. But it felt so eerily calm, like it does before a big storm.

All that to say, that it’s a weird time.

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If you’re in the same boat I am and can’t go to Mass, make a spiritual communion! And also try to keep the Sabbath holy—which we should be doing anyway, but if nothing else, this gives us time to really use Sunday as a day of rest. We all need rest right now! There are no sports to watch, and probably no sports games to go to. There’s nothing else. So let’s bring back the Sabbath! Let’s live it! (book recommendation: Souls at Rest.)

And also, let’s pray with our families! We should be doing that anyway, but let’s bring it back, because man do we all need prayer right now! (Book recommendation: The Little Oratory)

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If we’re doing book recs, um, mine? :)

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So while I’m here in my cloister I’ve made a list of things to do—writing, of course, so there will be ore writing here on the blog! I’m going to do the long awaited Outlander and Catholicism series, so be on the lookout for that! I’ll also be writing about illness and virtue—how we practice faith in times like this—and I’ll be doing a post on St. Damien of Molokai, who seems appropriate right now.

I’m also going to be baking a lot—mostly bread. I’ve been wanting to get in to the habit of making my own bread, and now I have the time to do it….and I also have time to knit like a crazy person. I have all this time…of course there is prayer, also. Lenten practices are still going. And cleaning the house, of course.

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I’ll also be watching a lot of movies, starting with the Hobbit series, because, why not, and also Knives Out, which I never saw in the theaters but am excited to watch now. I have to have some exciement, right?

Christmas is Practically Here Seven Quick Takes

Linking up with Kelly!

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So gonna start off with—I saw Star Wars last night. No, not at midnight. At a special 5:00 “fan screening”—I did get a cool opening night pin (sorry, bad photo in dark theater!):

So that was pretty cool. And there were heated seats in the theater—talk about decadence. I’d actually been wanting to try this out, and it was like a nice heating pad feel in your lower back, so I have to say, enjoyable. And you could turn it on and off! Yes, I am easily amused.

Anyway, no spoilers here, but I think it’s the best Star Wars movie since Empire. The critics who are giving it crap? What are they watching? No idea. But it’s good.

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I am going to start Christmas baking this weekend, because I only have to make two things—Ina’s Hermit Bars, and her crumble bars—for the family to nosh on over Christmas Day. I’ve made the hermit bars every Christmas for a few years now, they’re easy and delightfully good. I don’t do the glaze thing. To me, it’s an easy way to cut down on sugar intake by removing it and thus we can have more sugar later. Right? :)

For the crumble bars, I leave out the almonds, and you can use any type of jam you like. I’m using blueberry this time.

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I’ve started a baby blanket for a friend’s baby….

Bad apartment carpet, forgive me. :)

The yarn is Knitpicks Shine Sport, which I really like (L-R: Robot, Clarity, Sky, and French Blue). It’s so smooth in my hands, but it’s not sliding all over the place (One reason I love using wooden needles. When I tried metal ones, disaster.). It’s 60% cotton and 40% beechwood fiber, whatever that is, but I figured this would be good for a baby. And it’s washable!

The pattern is….another story.

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I’m making the Quince Sully blanket pattern. Pretty, right? I looked at the “skills needed” section and thought, OK, I have all those skills. I can pick up stitches and change colors and knit and purl and totally long tail cast on (that’s the only one I do…..)….

Bought the pattern.

then read the pattern.

The pattern calls for binding off the main color sequence (stripes), and then picking up the border and increasing stitches and god knows what else, and the number 600 something popped up, and I just went oh….

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Whhyyyyy pattern writer? WHYYYYYY?????

Anyway, besides that bit of crazy, it’s really easy to do, with a nice seed stitch row with every color change. I really like doing it. I’m just scared of the border. It might not happen.

I do not think the baby will mind if there is no border, right? Because, um, my skills may not be up to it.

Sigh….
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It’s that time….if you haven’t pre-ordered the book, please do so! If you have, MUCHAS GRACIAS!

Next week….well, OK, in January, there are fun graphics coming!!! I’m excited about them!
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Two more gifts to wrap. Well, three. Two of them go in gift bags, and one requires actually wrapping, at which I AM TERRIBLE. Oh well!

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Are y’all done shopping? Sort of done? Haven’t even started? :)

A Little Book and Movie Talk

I know, I hardly ever write on Saturday, but, I wanted to share some things with you, and there wasn’t an “official” Seven Quick Takes yesterday, which is good because I was editing the last bit of the manuscript! So the manuscript is edited! My editor will read it again, and then send it to the copy editor at Ave Maria Press in early July.

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I should also be getting cover design shortly….and pre-orders should open soon!

Can you feel the excitement? I can!!!!

(Sign up for updates to get the news FIRST on all the book stuff!)

Anyway, speaking of books that aren’t mine….

The Feast of St. Thomas More was on the 22nd (which is also my mom’s birthday).

The Fourth of July is this coming week

So, in the spirt of both those things, let me offer you some good reading and film suggestions!

(These are Amazon affiliate links, FYI!)

St. Thomas More

If you aren’t familiar with this awesome saint, become so!

For movies, of course it’s A Man For All Seasons.

For books: The King’s Good Servant, But God’s First, by James Monti

For a look at the relationship with his daughter, Meg (which was a great one), read A Daughter’s Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg, by John Guy

American History

The Battle of Gettysburg raged from July 1-July 3. I highly recommend reading Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels and watching the film Gettysburg (which is based on Shaara’s book).

If you want to go back to the Revolutionary War, I suggest HBO’s series John Adams (Fabulous, based on the equally great book by David McCullough), the musical 1776 (great music, but also a great story), and the book 1776, also by David McCullough. Reading 1776 is an eye-opener. There was really no way the US was supposed to win the war, and that comes through with incredibly clarity in McCullough’s writing.

But we did win.

In terms of kid-friendliness—they can totally watch 1776. It’s very family-friendly. John Adams isn’t not family friendly but it’s sort of long, so I don’t know if it would hold kids’ attention, but older kids and teens? Definitely. Gettysburg is also long, and while it’s not incredibly graphic, it is about war. (Obviously) But I think kids could watch some of it. Teens, definitely.

#13 Paul, Apostle of Christ

I totally missed this movie when it was in the theaters, but I picked it up on DVD, and it’s great!

I gotta say, I knew very little about Paul’s life until I worked on Flourish, the new Take Up and Read book that focuses on the Book of Romans (and that you can BUY RIGHT NOW HERE!). Watching this movie was a great way to cement that knowledge and also watch some great acting. (I love Jim Caviezel!)

So if you haven’t seen it, I recommend it. And the Flourish study starts October 14! I’ll post more about it—INCLUDING a give away!—as we get closer to the start date!

Christmas favorites: Books and Movies

I wrote these last year, but I must bring them back out for this year's Christmastide! 

First up: my favorite Christmas movies. 

Followed by: Favorite Christmas Books for Grown-Ups. 

My Favorite Christmas Movies

I've shared with you some of my favorite Christmas songs, and Christmas books, and now it's time for Christmas Movies!!! Few things say Christmas more to me than certain films. 

In no particular order, here are my favorite Christmas movies (or cartoons): 

** Mickey's Christmas Carol: This is from the 80s and features some dynamite Disney animators in their early stages; names like Glenn Keane and John Lasseter are in the credits. It's not entirely authentic to Dickens' tale, but it's a great introduction to the story, with beautifully animated characters and a pitch-perfect Scrooge McDuck. And how can you not love the Ghost of Christmas Present? 

Candied fruits with spiced sugar cakes! 

** The Santa Clause: Kids today will be blown away by the size of the cordless phone....but the movie holds up well. Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) finds a fallen Santa Claus in his front yard on Christmas Eve, puts on the Santa suit, and becomes...Santa Claus. Only he doesn't believe it. But when he starts gaining weight by the ton and growing an impressive Santa beard right after shaving.....maybe there's something going on after all. A great family movie that will probably make you want cocoa. 

Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) tries a cocoa recipe 1500 years in the making at the North Pole. 

**'Twas the Night Before Christmas: This is an OLD Rankin-Bass cartoon. The town of Junctionville, NY has annoyed Santa because someone wrote a letter calling him a "fraudulent myth". How can the town get Santa to forgive them? 

**How The Grinch Stole Christmas: (both of them) Of course, the animated version cannot be beat. But the live-action one has its charms, especially in some of the dialogue. 

**A Charlie Brown Christmas: Right? I mean, you just have to watch it. 

** Muppet Christmas Carol: I LOVE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL. I usually watch it at least twice. If you haven't seen it, you must, because it's the most faithful movie version I've found, with the narrator (Gonzo) actually reading parts of the prose as the narration. Michael Caine is Scrooge, Kermit is Bob Cratchit, and Miss Piggy is his wife, Emily. Rizzo the rat is Gonzo's sidekick. The whole gang is here, with great music, too. 

Michael Caine and the muppets 

**The Family Man: This is sort of a take on It's a Wonderful Life. High-flying financier Jack Campbell has the perfect life: a penthouse in Manhattan, a fancy car, and a huge salary. But one Christmas Eve he gets the chance to see what would've happened if he'd chosen to marry his college girlfriend, Kate (Tea Leoni)--and he wakes up the next morning in suburban New Jersey, with a wife, two kids, and a job at a tire store. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Jack, in his alternative life, is given the chance to have the job he has back in "real" life. He tells Kate, "we could have a life that other people envy!"

"Oh, Jack," Kate says. "They already do envy us."

**The Holiday: A sweet movie wherein two women--Kate Winslet in England, and Cameron Diaz in LA--decided to switch homes over the holidays as they try to escape their lives. The movie really is sweet (meaning touching) and features great performances by Jude Law and Jack Black as the men in the women's lives. 

**The only "Old" movie on this list: Meet Me In St. Louis. I love it mostly for Judy Garland, and the movie gave us the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Which, of course, Judy slays. 

**And finally, the coupe de grace of all Christmas movies: A Christmas Story. In my family, we could probably recite this guy. If you haven't seen the tale of Ralphie and his Red-Ryder BB gun (with this thing that tells time!), you are missing out. FIX IT. 

The Parker Clan of Cleveland Street: L-R: Mom, the "Old Man", Randy, and Ralphie. 

Questions, I Have: Star Wars Episode VII

So, this is very SPOILER HEAVY. If you  don't want spoilers, then skip this post. Go read yesterday's! 

(you were warned)

Ok, we're going now. :) 

So I saw Episode VIII: The Force Awakens last week, and overall, I liked it. The dialogue was five million times better than in any previous installments, the effects were well done, the acting was solid, the music was great. I really liked the blend of old and new characters. 

THAT BEING SAID: I have a list of questions. In no particular order:  

1. Where the HECK did the First Order come from? The Sith is gone, presumably, at the end of ROTJ (Episode VI), because the Emperor and Darth Vader are dead, and "two there are", Yoda tells us in the prequels. And that's it. There's not like a Sith Training Academy. You have a master and an apprentice--and both are dead. So there's no Sith, and presumably no one to run the Empire, because I'm pretty sure the Rebellion/Republic went after them with all the Power of the Force and we saw all those parties at the end of the Reworked Episode VI, Indicating that we were free from evil, Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, Etc. 
   So...First Order. Where did you come from? 
2. We know, from the prequels, that the Stormtroopers are basically disposable clones. Well, obviously, Finn is not a clone of Bobba Fett's Dad. So are we doing like a Lunar Chronicles thing and stealing them from their parents when they're born and basically brainwashing them into being Stormtroopers? (I'm not saying that HUGE PLOT HOLES aren't a part of the Canonical Star Wars Universe, because they are...)
3. Also, Finn: When you were being trained as a Stormtrooper, what did you think you were going to be doing? Petting kittens? 
4. Why Do Rey and Luke want to get back to these crummy desert planets?! SERIOUSLY?!?!?! It's a DESERT! ( I know, I know: it's home. OK. Fine. STILL.) 
5. Why did Mark Hamill get top billing and the have precisely one scene, at the very end, with NO DIALOGUE? Also, why did he act like a Disney Princess and play the "this is all my fault, I'll run away now" card when Ben Solo/Kylo Ren Is turned....evil? 
6. Also, why is he living on Skellig Michael? Has he become an Ancient Irish Monk? 
7. Are Han and Leia divorced? Were they married to begin with, ever? If they were, does that make Han Galactic Royalty?  If they're divorced: did they have irreconcilable differences? Is there no fault divorce in this galaxy? 
8. Why do the bounty hunters want Han and Chewie? 
9. Why did they get rid off/sell the Falcon? 
10. If they knew where the Falcon was all the time, why didn't they go get it?
11. WHO is the crazy Supreme Leader Snoke? Is he REALLY a crazy huge thing, or is this like the Wizard? Pay no attention to the man behind the projection? Is he some sort of Sith derivative? 
12. Don't we NEED the Sith to balance the force? So are they really gone? 
13. Rey sure has a lot of power for never being trained as a Jedi. I mean, she almost took Kylo Ren down and he's supposed to be like, the MAN, here. (Random side note: He is MUCH more intimidating with the mask. Also, does he remind anyone else of Syndrome from Incredibles?) 
14. Which guy--Finn or Poe--is Rey going to fall for? 
15. I would've liked it if Han had said "If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine" before his son killed him. (Fathers and sons have SERIOUS issues in these movies.)
16. Who makes up the Rebellion? WHY is there a rebellion, when they won? (That connects to the first question)
17. Are there Ewoks in our future? I hope so. (This really isn't a serious question)
18. Why are the Empire/First Order weapons so FREAKING EASY TO DEFEAT? "Oh, yes, it's completely unbeatable, except for this glaring error that is easily spottable by our enemies! Ha ha! And it's basically the same problem we had thirty some years ago! (No, we do NOT learn from our mistakes.) "
19. Also, how does one turn a planet into a weapon? Without, you know, destroying said planet?  (Yes, I know the planet was destroyed at the end of the movie.) 
20. How long do Wookies live? 
21. WHY would you have Daniel Craig in a movie and not SHOW us Daniel Craig? I mean, come on, JJ! 
22. Why don't the stormtroopers have better armor after all this time?
23. Why does C3PO STILL think that everything is going to turn out badly? Come on, 3PO. Trust the humans and R2 and BB8 (who is AWESOME, by the way).
24. Is Rey Luke's daughter? I want some massive Rey backstory, here. What is going on with parents leaving her, etc. Why do parents leave their kids so much in these stories? And if Rey is Luke's daughter, then who is Rey's mom? Who was taking care of her? Because I doubt she was scavenging parts and brining them to trade as a four year old. Is she some sort of crazy collection of Midichlorians that make her magical, or something? 
25. I still don't really know what a Midichlorian is.