RECENT VIEWING
FLUFF FOR FUN
Love and Gelato (Netflix)
Lina promises her dying mother that she will spend the summer before college in Rome. In this bonbon to Italy, she falls in love with the city and the people. Along the way, she has several romantic interests while being under the protective care of Francesca, her mother’s longtime friend. It is a summer of firsts for Lina as she wonders about her unknown father. The movie is based on a young adult novel of the same name. I happened on this when I was looking for some treadmill viewing. It’s cute and sweet, and less predictable than I expected.
LASTING TRAUMA OF WAR
Causeway (Apple+)
I had just read a review of this new movie starring Jennifer Lawrence when the Chief Penguin and I were settling in to watch something else and up popped a link to Causeway. It’s a slow measured film about returning Afghanistan vet Lynsey who suffered a brain injury from an exploding IED.
Returning home after rehabilitation, she struggles to put a life back together. She meets car mechanic James who lost a leg in a car accident, and the two hesitantly gravitate toward spending time together. They are about as dissimilar as can be, one white, one Black, one straight, one gay, but both broken in some way. The performances are moving, Brian Tyree Henry’s as much as Lawrence’s. It’s painful viewing at points, but a meaningful film.
UNUSUAL HEROINE
The English (Amazon Prime)
Emily Blunt stars and is an executive producer of this western set in 1890 on the plains in Kansas and Oklahoma. Based on the review I read, I was predisposed to like it, but I’m finding it hard going.
Blunt is Lady Cornelia Locke, an English woman bent on revenge for the killing of her young son. On her journey, she encounters and is rescued by Sgt. Eli Whipp, a now retired Pawnee scout, played by Chaske Spencer. His goal is to file a land claim for an allotment in Nebraska. They are an unlikely pair, but slowly they begin to accept each other, and a fragile trust is born. It’s a lawless time out west with every man out for himself.
The scenery is stunning, the violence gruesome and gory, and the pace is deliberate and slow. I’ve watched almost three episodes of the six while on the treadmill, but it’s so slow, that I may return to it when I am not moving.
NEW FICTION
FAMILY SAGA
French Braid by Anne Tyler
Tyler’s most recent novel, French Braid, was my book group’s pick for November. While I didn’t love this book, most of the group didn’t care for it at all. We grappled with whether Mercy, the mother, was the focal point and if she was a typical woman of the 1950’s and 60’s, frustrated in middle age in her attempts to have a career.
Over 60 years, the book follows the Garrett family of Mercy, her husband Robin, and their three children, Lily, Alice, and David. It begins with their first family vacation in 1959 through the children’s marriages, Robin and Mercy’s 50th wedding anniversary, and the arrival of several grandchildren. They are a diffuse collective who are often detached and aloof from one another.
Mercy, an aspiring artist and unfulfilled mother, effectively leaves her husband for her art, but neither she nor the other family members publicly acknowledge that fact. David, the youngest child, seldom communicates with his parents or sisters and quietly marries a work colleague. In later years, a grandson doesn’t socialize with relatives believing they are unaware that he is gay and has a partner.
Tyler’s writing is always engaging even if you don’t care for the characters. You can appreciate what she is doing and how she demonstrates that common personality traits or actual gestures persist through the generations. They connect these seemingly disparate individuals like the kinked strands of hair in a French braid. (~JWFarrington)
DINING OUT
Scuderia Italian Cuisine, Bradenton
Located next to the Oakmont Theater on Cortez Road West, Scuderia is a new addition to Bradenton’s dining scene. It specializes in pizzas and pasta in an open space with an industrial feel to it.
We dined here recently with friends and found the service friendly and welcoming and the food very good. The portions are generous, and several of us had some to take home for the next day’s lunch. Among us, we sampled the penne pasta with meatballs, clams with linguini, and several of the chicken dishes. I thought the chicken franchaise with spinach was particularly good. Side salads came with a wide choice of dressings. Good for casual dining. Next time, we should try a pizza.
Note: Header photo is a scene from the film, Love and Gelato (Netflix Life).
