July 2016 Movie Round Up

Life got in the way majorly this year and so I am very behind on my reviews.  But lets catch up with some movies I saw way back in July!

We Are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson, 2013):  We Are the Best! is one of the most purely joyful movies about being a young teen that I have ever seen.  Klara and Bobo are best friends and wannabe punks in the Stockholm suburbs in 1982.  Bobo may have a single mother who is slightly unstable and Klara’s parents might fight too much, but ultimately they are two happy girls who decide to start a punk band mostly to spite some older boys at the community center who annoy them. There is just one problem, neither girl can play an instrument or read music.  They recruit Hedvig, a Christian girl who is something of a guitar prodigy and they begin preparing for their upcoming gig, a talent show of some kind.  

The details of the plot are unimportant, in fact there isn’t much plot other than that, We Are the Best!  just enjoys hanging out in the presence of the girls and delights in their love of punk, or what they think punk is.  The girls meet a teenage punk band of boys, Hedvig cuts her hair short and they write their one song “Hate the Sport”.  All three girls are wonderful characters and they have a natural glee that is infectious. Mira Barkhammar is particularly wonderful as Bobo, the smallest and most awkward of the three girls.  In the wrong hands Bobo could have been almost a tragic character, her aforementioned mother is a mess, she “cheats” with Klara’s “boyfriend” (by cheats, I mean goes to his house and talks with him) and is unhappy with her role as drummer.  Instead, Bobo is the movie’s heart, she is clever, sweet and endearing.  We Are the Best! is a lark of the best kind.  And you won’t stop singing “Hate the Sport” for weeks.  

Hail, Caesar! (2016, Joel and Ethan Coen): I watched this movie on a plane, and it was the perfect plane movie for a fairly bumpy flight.  I am not the worst flyer but having this ridiculous and entertaining ode to Hollywood made the anxiety of turbulence melt away.  Eddie Manix (Josh Brolin) is an executive at a movie studio in 1951, he loves his job but is contemplating taking a new, less demanding position with an aerospace company. 

In the course of a few days, we see Eddie help DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johannsen) deal with an unplanned pregnancy, set up two young starlets and most of all, try to solve the mystery of the missing Baird Whitlock (George Clooney).  Alden Ehrenreich is utterly adorable and captivating as Hobie Doyle, a cowboy actor moving into an upper class romantic comedy, his fish out of water sweetness and unfailing desire to please director Laurence Laurent (Ralph Fiennes, pitch perfect) is a wonderful combination and his set up with Hispanic actress Veronica Osorio has a undeniable romantic spark.  

Anyone with familiarity with the Coen Brothers may miss some of the biting darkness of  many of their films, Hail, Caesar!, shows the seedy underbelly of Hollywood but it is just so damn charming that I was enchanted.  Channing Tatum’s dance number that becomes increasingly and ridiculously homoerotic had me giggling and I loved Tilda Swinton in duel roles as twin sister gossip columnists.  Hail, Caesar! isn’t going to go down as one of the Coen’s best films, but it is a great way to spend a couple hours.  If you can, make it a double feature with Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels, its spiritual predecessor. 

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016, Dan Trachtenberg): To be honest, 10 Cloverfield Lane kind of went exactly where I thought it would (I am an uncanny movie predictor) but although predictable, I enjoyed this nifty little thriller until it becomes a “Cloverfield” movie in the last ten minutes.  Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is running away from her fiancé and is involved in a car accident in the middle of nowhere.  She wakes up chained to a bed but also with her wounds tended to. Her captor is Howard (John Goodman), who claims to be her saviour, telling her he saved her from the car after she was in an accident and that the world has been taken over by some kind of catastrophic event.  She’s lucky, really, that he will let her stay there with him and Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), who knew about the underground shelter and begged Howard to let him in.  From there, the story goes exactly where you think it will, flipping from suspecting Howard to trusting him and back again.  The idea of taking a small story in the face of the apocalypse is clever, the tension builds appropriately and the shit hits in the fan in the end satisfyingly.  Winstead and Gallagher have good chemistry and are strong enough but Goodman is great, playing someone clearly with social problems, perhaps with much deeper ones. I wish the movie had ended about ten minutes earlier and continued as a chamber piece and character study.  

It's Noon Somewhere...Blackberry Whiskey Smash

First off, is it whisky or whiskey and what is the difference?  I never know! According to Wikipedia it is a spelling difference between Scotts (whisky) and the Irish (whiskey).  And apparently,  American whiskey also uses the “e”.  So since we use good old bourbon in this cocktail, I guess Blackberry Whiskey Smash it is!  

 Anyway, as readers may recall, I have graduated from only drinking vodka and rum to drinking the brown stuff.  But Manhattan’s aren’t exactly what I want to drink when it is a million degrees and so humid you will sweat the moment you walk outside here in Northern Virginia (I am so sorry for every time I complained about it being to hot in Seattle, I had no idea).  When K and I were in New Orleans in May, we had a drink at the gorgeous Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel and I had a delicious drink with Whiskey and blackberries.  There it was called the Southern Gentleman and it was lovely.  So when we were looking for a lighter whiskey drink we decided to recreate something similar. 

Enter the Whiskey Smash, a delicious and refreshing cocktail that does require a bit of special equipment.  While the drink only has one spirit and only simple syrup as a mixer, it is a little more complicated than I prefer for an every day drink.  It requires crushed ice, there is just no way around it.  You can either use your ice maker if you have one that crushes ice (and I hate you) or your blender or a hand crank.  Or you could probably use a ziplock bag and a meat mallet but I wouldn’t recommend that unless you are very confident. The crushed ice is integral to watering down the otherwise super strong drink, but in a pinch you could serve it on the rocks.  It may not be as light and refreshing as it would be with crushed ice, but you have been warned!  

This drink could easily be made with any spirit, vodka, gin, or rum if whiskey isn’t your thing.  Start by muddling some mint leaves (the recipe we started with said seven and so I usually use seven but that is weirdly specific), so I would say between six and eight depending on the size, half a lemon quartered, a couple blackberries and half and ounce simple syrup in a cocktail shaker.  If you didn’t have a muddler you could use the handle of a wooden spoon.    Add two ounces of whiskey and transfer to a double old fashioned glass with lots of crushed ice. We use Maker’s Mark but any bourbon would work perfectly in this cocktail.  Garnish the crap out of this baby with mint sprigs and a couple blackberries.  This is a great, light tasting cocktail, perfect for summer drinking outside.  That is unless you live in the Commonwealth of Virginia where you drink it in your air conditioned home!  

Blackberry Whiskey Smash

Handful of mint leaves

1/2 lemon, quartered

3 to 4 blackberries

1/2 oz simple syrup

2 oz whiskey

Muddle all ingredients except whiskey in a cocktail shaker.  Add whiskey and pour stirred cocktail over crushed ice.  Garnish.  Enjoy. 

Julie

La Femme Recommends...Queen Margot

I don't watch Game of Thrones, but through cultural osmosis I have gathered that it is filled with shocking violence, graphic, sex and copious manipulations both political and personal. And while I have definitely heard griping that it’s confusing, with all the characters and lands and dragons, no one ever says its boring, which fantasy/period pieces are often accused of.  Well, Patrice Chéreau's  film, La Reine Margot (Queen Margot) 1994’s Game of Thrones (minus the dragons).  Only instead of the Red Wedding, we have the Red Honeymoon, The St. Bartholomew Day Massacre in 1572 Paris.  This “game of thrones”  is the Catholic monarchy, led by Catherine de Medici and her slithering sons, desperately trying to maintain power and basically wipe out the Protestant Huguenots.  

Queen Margot is plot heavy, there is no way around it.  The prologue begins with a long explanation of the complex relationship between the Catholics and Huguenots and that there are dozens of characters, some of whom blend into one another. I was intimidated but found myself almost immediately engrossed.  Perhaps a better knowledge of history would make the film a tad less confusing but I think that it is compelling enough even if you barely know your French history (guilty as charged).  

Margot (Isabelle Adjani) is the sister of the King Charles IX and the daughter of the truly evil Catherine De Medici (Virna Lisi).  As the film opens, Margot is forced to marry Henri of Navarre (Daniel Auteuil), a Protestant, to broker a peace between Catholics and Protestants.  Margot does not want to marry him and makes to clear to him that they will not be spending their wedding night together, but Henri is terrified that he will be murdered by her scheming family and begs Margot to be his ally.  She kicks him out and after getting in a fight with her lover, Margot declares “I need a man tonight”.  So she and her maidservant don tiny masks and roam the streets outside the Louvre.  There, she encounters La Môle (a smoldering Vincent Perez) and, I will put this the only appropriate way, she screws him in the alley.  I told you this wasn't your mom’s period piece. 

This makes Queen Margot sound like a tale of forbidden romance or perhaps a love triangle between Margot her husband and lover, and in some ways it is, but the impact of what happens next changes Margot and her fate forever.  Days after the wedding, when all the guests are still in Paris, Catherine de Medici and her two favored sons scheme to assassinate all of the powerful Huguenots who had attended the wedding and this leads to a massacre of Huguenots across the city.  The St. Bartholomew Day Massacre sequence in this film is horrific.  When I put this movie on my Netflix, I will be honest, I just expected some great costumes and maybe a doomed romance and some bodice ripping.  The massacre is so visceral and so terrifying. It is literally happening outside of Margot’s door and she witnesses first hand men and women being brutally stabbed to death. The graphic violence shocked me but also was so necessary because the intersection of life and death is one of the main themes. How close Margot is to extreme violence and extreme ecstasy throughout the film is highlighted perfectly in this unforgettable centerpiece.  Margot finds and helps an injured La Môle by hiding him in her room and we see her lustful handmaiden gleefully rip off La Môle's clothes, yes, to help him with his wounds but also to check out his abs.  This relationship between violence and death and love and lust is brought to the forefront. 

After the massacre, we find Margot changed. She has found love with La Môle but she has lost some of her gleeful joy and innocence.  She agrees to help Henri and go against her family.  La Môle, a Huguenot is also planning revenge. The remainder of the film includes: a wild boar attacking the King, Margot and La Môle making love completely nude in a crypt, executions and a book with poisoned pages that causes its victim to sweat blood.  And that is just the beginning.     

I loved the dual relationships Margot has with the two men in her life.  Her romance with La Môle is the stuff of fantasy films, he is gorgeous and dashing and honorable.  The chemistry between Adjani and Perez is electric, but their romance while passionate is also almost the last thing on their minds. Instead, they find in one another, a respite from the horror of the political situation they find themselves in.  Margot's relationship with Henri is almost more fascinating because while it isn't romantic in the traditional sense, she takes her wedding vows very seriously and wants to protect him because she made a promise to him.  The integrity that they both have is what binds them together and when Henri has a chance to escape without Margot he doesn't take it.  When Margot saves him from an assassination attempt and they consummate their marriage, it becomes an incredibly romantic  moment, not at all the beginning of their romance but securing their bond as husband and wife.

Daniel Auteuil is wonderful as Henri of Navarre and Virna Lisi is chilling as maybe the worst mother on film ever (eat your heart out Faye Dunaway).  I also loved the performance of Jean-Hugues Anglade as the weak willed king, you can see how terrified he is of everything, so afraid of the power he has and so afraid of losing that power at any second.  The cinematography by Philippe Rousselot is like a painting, it is stunningly beautiful and the costumes by Moidele Bickel have a lived in quality but are still sumptuous and elegant.  There is a very realistic quality to the whole film, Chéreau makes the viewer feel that they are in the  beautiful but dirty and chilly palace, there is a grit to the set design and costumes that keeps the film firmly on the ground and in our reality in so many ways. 

The film is perfectly composed but its Adjani that you can’t keep your eyes off of.  To call Adjani wonderful or marvelous or mesmerizing is an understatement. Her Margot is sensual, willful and intelligent and confident. Margot is cunning enough to protect herself and the ones she loves and time and time again, we see her stand up for herself and for her allies.  Adjani is the film and she makes Margot wonderfully multifaceted; we see her brazen sexuality, her tenderness towards her brother and her steel hearted will.  Margot’s journey is painful and tragic and exciting and Adjani expresses it all on her amazing face: ecstasy, joy and pure terror.  It’s a face that I won’t ever forget.  

Julie

La Femme in...Las Vegas

 Las Vegas was not originally on our itinerary.  We planned to go from Palm Springs to Flagstaff, Arizona, with a stop at the Grand Canyon.  But honestly, I am not a nature girl and our dogs are definitely not nature dogs and K and I figured we would spend maybe an hour or two at the Grand Canyon before one of us would say (yes, probably me) “I’m too hot, my feet hurt” and Rufus our thirteen pound terrier would have walked about 20 minutes tops before wanting to quit.  K is a casual MMA fan and a not so casual Conor McGregor fan and when he realized that he would be fighting in Vegas during our road trip and that we could make a side trip to see him, he was thrilled. Then we looked at the tickets left and I didn’t want to sell a kidney.  But we decided to just take the side trip anyway since neither of us had ever been to Vegas and it would be much farther away from Virginia.  Plus, a city built on drinking and gambling and glitter?  Sounds right up my alley.   

So here we go, K and J’s 48 hours in Vegas with two dogs.  

First of all, don’t take your dogs to Vegas, ever.  I mean maybe if you have one or two tiny little guys it would be fine, but don’t take a dog you can’t pick up, because it is a nightmare.  K and I stayed at The Paris and I had no idea how massive it would be or how far away our car would be from the lobby and the elevators.  And how many people would look at you like a freak show when you are walking your forty pound dog who hates tile floors through the casino to go to the tiny patch of astro turf they call a dog area. And a scary guy in the parking stairwell with a gun in his holster might give you a dirty look.   Once we made it through that gauntlet the first time, it got much easier and we figured out the best times of days to take them out.  They also got an early morning walk down The Strip which they loved, but otherwise, they were pretty much stuck twenty stories up for two days.  I will admit I had my first meltdown once we got to the room, telling K, “We can’t stay, we have to leave!” He talked me down and said, “What you need is a drink and you will feel better.” 

This was after midnight, look how bright it is inside!

So with that, we ventured out to The Strip. I have been lucky to travel to major cities all over the world and I have never felt more overwhelmed than I did in those first few moments in Vegas.  The amount of people on a Saturday afternoon crossing the street from the Paris to the Bellagio was overwhelming.  The people were a colorful crew, I saw bikinis(it wasn’t very sunny), shirtless guys in camo pants wanting to charge you to take a picture and have them hug you (nope, I’m good), people with selfie sticks, classy people, trashy people, old people, young people.  There was even a guy dressed like Watler White in the biohazard suit the looked so much like Bryan Cranston I thought it was some kind of late night show stunt.  And I though, “I hate this I want to go” while looking at a fake Eiffel Tower.  I know this sounds incredibly snobby but if I can’t be honest here, where can I?  It was so artificial and crowded and hot and I was hungry and I hated everything.  Then K and I walked into the Belaggio and sat down at the cafe and ordered food, and I saw the ridiculous pool outside and I got a cocktail and he talked me down, like he always does.  Also, I might have been hangry, maybe. 

Once I was able to accept Vegas for what it was, and let loose and accept it as Disney for adults, I would have a great time.  Just like Main Street USA is a fantasy of small town America, The Paris is a fantasy of France (you know, baguettes, Eiffel Tower, Breton stripes and tiny cute buildings.  They forgot the dog poop but kept the cigarettes, but you can’t smoke inside restaurants in France anymore so even that is inauthentic! I kid the French because I love them so much)  Once I got off my high horse and took it with the nature it was intended it was awesome, I almost let my snobbery get in the way of a good time.  

K and I had dinner at Scarpetta in the Cosmopolitan overlooking The Strip that night and it was strangely beautiful.  And we leant in to the luxury of the place and ordered bottled water which K drank in about a second and didn't realize.  I paid twenty five dollars for pasta with tomato and loved it.  We saw the drummer for the Foo Fighters on our way out holding court with three women (he really does have great hair).  Then we headed to our hotel and had drinks and people watched and laughed because it is so bright in there it feels like daytime all the time.  Then I played the Britney slot machine, and I was happy.  Can we talk just for one second about the Britney Spears Slot Machine?  It is the best, its like a huge arcade console you sit at with Britney Spears songs playing and lights and sounds and videos.  If someone can figure out how to get me one at home, I would never stop playing. 

The next day, Sunday, K and I headed to the very impressive Neon Light Museum, which is a large Neon Boneyard near the older part of Vegas.  At the yard there is a huge collection of Neon signs from all of Vegas’ history.  It’s basically Instagram Paradise.  The tour guide was funny and informative about the different signs until the rain started going crazy about halfway through and we had to cut it short.  So instead, K and I headed back to the strip, walked up to Italy (a.k.a The Venetian) and relaxed with the dogs until it was time for drinks. 

The Cosmopolitan is what I imagined Vegas, or the best of Vegas to be.  Glitzy, dark, lots of sparkles (and they had a Britney slot machine too!) and K and I had drinks in the stunning Chandelier Bar before heading back to dinner at Mon Ami Gabi at our hotel.  The food we had was mostly pretty great over the two days we were in Vegas and the steak at Mon Ami Gabi was no exception.  A waiter literally broke about 25 plates though in one fell swoop and that was by far the most memorable part of our evening. 

And what of gambling?  I hate to say it but we we were not winners, we put aside a small amount and came back with about $21.00.  We tried, slots, poker and roulette but it was ultimately that Britney machine that gave us our final win.  Vegas may be silly and overstuffed and indulgent, but we can all use a little silliness sometimes.  As we rode the elevator upstairs, I smiled at K and said, “you were right.  This was fun.” 

Julie

La Femme Recommends....Mommy

I first encountered Xavier Dolan at SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival) in 2009.  His first film, I Killed My Mother was playing and the blurb in the guide intrigued us. Films at SIFF are always a mixed bag, you don't know if you are going to check out a masterpiece or basically the most cliched indie you have ever seen.  In the case of I Killed my Mother we saw an audacious debut by a 17(!) year old director.  I was smitten, I loved Dolan's brash yet lush style and found the depiction of a teenager who loved his mother but also couldn't stand her realistic and moving.  Since then I have followed Dolan's career closely, and have generally enjoyed his follow up films.  But nothing has quite lived up to that debut.

That is until I finally checked out his 2014 film Mommy.  Starring Dolan regulars, Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clement, Mommy tells the story of Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), a rebellious, possibly dangerous teenager who after nearly killing a boy at some kind of boarding school is discharged to the care of his mother, Die (Dorval).  They both befriend their neighbor, Kyla (Clement), a former teacher who has developed a condition where she is unable to speak without a debilitating stutter.  The film begins with an epigraph telling us that the film is set in a fictional Canada where if a parent is unable to care for their child they can be involuntarily committed to a state run mental hospital.  Let’s just say once those words come on screen you pretty much know where this is going.  But, wow, the journey there is more exhilarating and devastating that I even imagined.  

Mommy is operatic, charismatic and almost schizophrenic much like Steve, a live wire of unbridled emotion.  When we first meet Steve, we are terrified because of the things his mother and his counselor have said about him in the opening scene of the film.  But, when we meet him he seems just like an overgrown kid, scared, funny, charismatic.  It isn’t until later that we discover his true potential for danger.   Quickly the situation escalates with Steve nearly fighting with a black cab driver over his racist comments.  Pilot and Dorval have a natural chemistry that tows the line perfectly between loving and creepy.  At times Di seems more like a friend then a parent, desperately trying to relate to Steve but also intensely worried about him and frightened of him.  Eventually Steve and Die get into an incredibly terrifying, violent fight and Diane has to barricade herself in the basement.  After she gets the courage to emerge, she finds Steve in the garage with Kyla tending to his wounds. Kyla is reluctant to get involved with the family but once she does, she is able to bring stability and hope to Di and Steve’s home. Again, her relationship with them is ambiguous, we see the flicker of romantic feelings between Steve and her but Dolan is clever enough to never follow up on that, instead keeping the relationship caring and loving with a hint of something more.  This paradise they have found in one another is unsustainable and eventually we learn that Steve and Die can’t escape their past actions.  Fate has been barreling towards them all along, they were just too busy to notice. 

Dolan has always been an incredibly flamboyant filmmaker and Mommy is no different.  Mommy is presented in a 1:1 ratio, what that means is that for nearly all of the film, the picture is a small square in the middle..  The effect is divisive and challenging to the viewer but I quickly got used to it and found that it was able to highlight the way the characters feel trapped in their lives.  Perhaps the single most euphoric moment of the movie is when Steve, finally feeling happy and free, pushes the aspect ratio out with his arms and the glorious full screen envelops the scene. It feels like you have been holding your breath and you can finally breathe, the viewer feels the same dizzy happiness that Steve feels in that moment, quite simply it is one of the most stunning filmmaking sequences of the last decade.  Moments later, Di receives news that will alter their lives forever and begins to put in motion the inevitable fate we have been anticipating since that opening epigraph. Music also plays a huge part in the production and emotion of the film, something that Dolan has excelled at since the beginning.  From the Celine Dion dance sequence where we see Kyla beginning to open up to Oasis’  “Wonderwall” playing during the shift in aspect ratio, Dolan makes the music so inextricably linked to the scenes that you cannot separate them in your mind.  

Mommy is the kind of movie that overwhelms you with emotion, the performances are big but hold back just enough to be the best kind of melodrama,  there are fights, attempted suicide, incredible fantasy sequences and total heartbreak.  Dolan’s films are never the kind you can be ambivalent about, he wants you to be screaming and crying and laughing just like the characters.  And with Mommy, you do.  Mommy should be a dour film in so many ways, that epigraph warns us exactly what will happen and we know the film is leading to tragedy for this family.  But instead of tragedy, we see joy, instead of death, there is life, instead of the world closing in on us, it opens gloriously. 

Julie

La Femme in....California

In March of 2016, K and I and our two dogs travelled from Seattle WA to Alexandria VA.  I will be chronicling our two week trip across the US in a three part series on this blog.  This first part will be impressions and stories from the first part of our trip to Palm Springs, CA.  We stopped in Ashland, Oregon, Carmel and Santa Barbara, CA.  This is our story.

Mt. Shasta

Monday, February 29, 2016

We left bright and early Sunday morning with a destination of Ashland, Oregon.  This was no ordinary Sunday, it was Oscar Sunday, which is practically a holy day in our household.  So we booked it through nearly all of Oregon and arrived at our hotel mere moments before the show.

The morning is the part of the day I neglect the most but also sometimes the most precious. Usually, I sleep in and miss any semblance of the sunrise.  Not this morning, soon after the sun rose we were on the road.  Road trips are apparently not for sleeping in.   Leaving Ashland, we quickly found ourselves in the Siskiyou Mountains.  Of course, I made K stop at the first view point and took silly selfies in the early morning haze.  Mt. Shasta was looming overhead and the air was so crisp and the morning sun so ethereal.  Driving through the mountains was bittersweet, I know we won't be seeing any like this for quite some time.  And leaving Oregon means goodbye PNW, for now at least.

Carmel.  Carmel.  Man, is this paradise for bougie people like me or what?  We took the dogs to the beach and they loved it so much.  Snooker was like a puppy again, frolicking and so desperately wanting to be off leash like all the other native dogs.  Rufus ran into the water and was shocked by the waves, he got so wet and got tossed a bit by the strength.  But the next one he was right back in the water!  We walked and walked and it was so gorgeous.  Writing about nature is hard, it's like the right words are so cliche but so true and too small to explain the overwhelming beauty.  This town though, everything in it is so perfect, the building and the shops are so quaint, and the beach is stunning. I mean they have a Tiffany in this town!  Manhattan's outside for happy hour and later we had dinner on an adorable patio. In February!   K rolled his pants up because he got wet on the beach and he looked so relaxed and cute with his ankles showing and his red boat shoes.  I wish we had one more night in this town. Definitely want to come back and explore this area more.

Carmel, CA

 K and I went in the pool of our hotel after dinner.  We were the only ones there and I love the quiet of floating in a pool and looking up at the stars.  K laughed at my Facebook post about it but I was just so happy I wanted to share (after wine (and those Manhattan's), don't Facebook).  But as I lay floating in the quiet, looking at those west coast skies, I said to myself, "Don't forget these moments.  There is magic in them".

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Route 1.

Ragged Point

Highway 1 from Carmel to Ragged Point! What a drive, I will just say I am glad I had K at the wheel!  Those views, I think I am slowly falling for this state.  The cliffs were so high and there were times you would see the road up ahead and be like how are we going to make it???? But it was amazing. What a feat of engineering.  As soon as we drove it, I wished we had stopped more at every viewpoint to take photos because the three or four times we stopped didn't seem like enough! And down by Big Sur?  In the woods?  So magical.  Stopping at Ragged Point, the last stop before the road evens out and you just drive by the coast, we stopped for a bit and saw a family traveling the road in vintage cars!  This is another place I can't wait to revisit.

Solvang

Of course, we had to stop in Solvang for lunch, everyone's favorite fake Scandinavian town.  This place is no Leavenworth but still pretty cute.  And I got an awesome tomte!  Traveling with the dogs is both the best and worst, its great because they get excited seeing different things but it's also kind of a drag.  We had wanted to stop at Hearst Castle but couldn't leave them in the car because it's a beautiful day and much too warm.  At Solvang, we found a dog friendly place to eat but they shoved us in the side patio all by ourselves.  Only one of us can go into stores at a time which is great for me because I just say, "look what I got!", but not so much for K waiting outside with the beasties.

K, Rufus and Snooker on the pier in Santa Barbara. 

We spent the afternoon in Santa Barbara, drinking margaritas at a Mexican restaurant on State Street.  The dogs were happy in the air conditioned hotel room so we could wander down the street, do some shopping and stop for drinks. My first disappointment in California.  Santa Barbara is charming but not everything I hoped it to be, the downtown area has become such a big mall.  Only chain stores to be found and lots of dirty college kids smoking weed (oh god, I sound so old!).  I did have the quintessential California moment though: a busker with white boy dreads singing Sublime.  And the produce at that farmer's market, insane!  Dogs loved the pier though but after Carmel I think we are spoiled for beaches.  

Wednesday, March 2 to Friday March 4, 2016

The Saguaro Hotel

Finally my Palm Springs dreams have come true!  I have been dreaming of this mid century paradise for years and am so excited to finally be here!  Our hotel, the Saguaro is a candy colored dream.  As I sat out by the pool on the day we arrived (of course, K was at the gym!), I couldn't stop laughing at the fellow guests.  Of course, there were couples old and young, groups with their friends, etc.  There were also blogger girls, a very strange breed.  They asked for the prettiest drinks (which they weren't planning on drinking) and posed for photos for each other for two hours.  It was so funny to watch them and watch the other guests ask them what the heck they were doing!  It made sitting by the pool alone a lot more fun.

Bougainvillea for days.

At night here, it is so easy to forget we are outside, it is so warm out but so temperate.  It is the perfect temperature at night.  We went to drinks at a place that used to be Cary Grant's, Copley's,  home and then to dinner at Birba for pizza.  K made fun of me because I ordered a side car at Copley's but the poor bartender didn't know it.  I thought that was an ok drink to order in a fancy place, oops.  Palm Springs is definitely a martini town but I'm not ready for that!  Driving home from the restaurant we opened the sun roof and listed to Lana Del Rey.  I will just say, this is the most appropriate time to listen to her and I feel like Palm Springs is making me like her more (don't tell K).

Frank Sinatra's House!

This time in Palm Springs has been so necessary before we hit the road for the next week or so.  It's hot here, super hot, so we haven't been doing too much.  Pool time, walking in downtown Palm Springs with poor Rufus trailing behind because he is so hot!  We bring water everywhere and give him plenty of chances to drink and rest but he is such a baby and he hates the heat.   By early afternoon we are ready for lunch and to be done walking around.  The shops here are so cute, so much mid century goodness, it is so my aesthetic.  We drove around and looked at the amazing mid century architecture, but mostly we have shopped, ate and drank and went for a spa day together at our hotel.  We also went inadvertently to a gay bar, oops.

TIKI!  In the last three days we have been to two amazing tiki places.  First was Bootlegger Tiki, a tiki revival tiny hole in the wall.  My Mai Tai was awesome but K loved his drink so much, calling it the best cocktail he has ever had! And it had rum!  So basically, my life is complete. On our last night, we visited Tonga Hut, an old school place.  Our waitress was no nonsense but super friendly and K had a drink in a pineapple.  Two totally different places but both doing the work of spreading the tiki gospel.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Off to Vegas!  On the way we skirted the edge of Joshua Tree.  What  a landscape, I can't wait to come back and explore more.  This short trip has brought that California Dreaming to the forefront of my mind.  What an incredibly varied and beautiful state it is.  Also, Palm Springs is pretty much my dream.  Now...Viva Las Vegas!

Julie  

It's Noon Somewhere....Thyme Grapefruit Sparkler

Spring and summer call for lighter cocktails.  When the weather is warm I just don't want to be drinking something heavy or super strong.  My brother and his boyfriend came down from Philly for Easter and we were planning our Easter lunch at about 3 p.m.  Now in my family you can't have a party without appetizers and you can't have appetizers without cocktails.  I jokingly nicknamed the three guys the Negroni Gang because that is the kind of cocktails they prefer, very strong and not too sweet!  Manhattans, Negronis and Martinis are what they all drink but I knew if we started at one in the afternoon with drinks like that, Easter wouldn't turn out too great!

So my brother and I decided we needed to come up with something light and fruity.  We were doing a lunch, not a brunch so nothing too breakfasty.  After some online research we came up with an idea upon an idea for a grapefruit sparkler with vodka and sparkling wine.  And rosemary simple syrup.


Then we went shopping and couldn't find rosemary anywhere.  It was the day before Easter and literally every store we went to was sold out.  We had some at home but just enough for the lamb we were planning on serving.  But we did have thyme so the rosemary simple syrup became a thyme one.  And it was delicious and perfect!  So you could do rosemary or thyme, whichever you prefer.  Additionally, if you wanted something even lighter you could just use Seltzer Water or Club Soda.

This was the perfect drink for the afternoon and would be great for a Mother's Day Brunch or Lunch. I think it would be great all summer long and I will definitely be adding this one to my regular rotation. As my brother and I said on Easter, since its so light we can have three instead of two!  And we did!

Thyme Grapefruit Sparkler

2 oz vodka
1 oz grapefruit juice
1/2 oz thyme simple syrup
sparkling wine

To make the thyme simple syrup cook 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water with a few thyme springs in the pan until the sugar dissolves.  I usually do this the day before so it has plenty of time to cool in the fridge.  It stays good in the fridge a few weeks.

Mix the vodka, grapefruit juice (you can use an type of grapefruit you like) in a shaker with ice.  Strain into a cocktail glass and top with sparkling wine.

Julie

La Femme's Essentials....Rachel Getting Married

Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married is one of those films that is just so perfectly watchable.  If it's on TV, I will pretty much drop everything and watch it, even though I own it.  Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) may be the one getting married, but our main character is her younger sister, Kym (Anne Hathaway).  Kym is picked up from rehab by her father (Bill Irwin) and stepmother and begins to disrupt the weekend right away, beginning by demoting the maid of honor and giving a terrible, selfish toast at the rehearsal dinner.  We are immediately thrown into the family dynamic, and boy is there a lot of emotion and dysfunction in this upper middle class, perfect-looking family.

Hathaway gives her soul up to Kym.  You know that raw emotion Hathaway had in the “I Dreamed a Dream” sequence in Les Miserables?  I find this performance even more heart wrenching.   Demme smartly shows us right away why Kym is the way she is, which allows us to understand her and like he even though her behavior can be infuriating.  As a teenager, she was troubled, doing drugs and struggling with an eating disorder.  Her mother left her in charge of her younger brother, and Kym accidentally killed him in a car accident.  Her anguish and guilt over his death is fully realized, and it gives you incredible sympathy for Kym.  She feels like she is going to be paying for this her whole life.  Kym could so easily be horrendous, but she is so fully realized and Hathaway shows us her good qualities, how funny she is, how warm she can be, and how badly she wants to change her behavior. But, expectations and her own guilt prevent her over and over again.

The last two paragraphs might make Rachel Getting Married sound like an incredible downer, and yes, there are moments that are uncomfortable, trying, and tragic.  But Jonathan Demme imbues the film with such vitality, and the moments of joy are just as urgent as the moments of anguish.  The camera seems to roam freely throughout the home, following the family but also giving glimpses of the wedding preparations, giving the film an energy of excitement and preparation.  He also uses diagetic music perfectly, the wedding celebrations involve incredible musical performances but also the musicians are friends and family practicing around the house, and we have roving bands of different types of musicians playing in the background.  It's not distracting, its just natural and adds to the feeling that we are flies on the wall to this family’s weekend.   Demme treats all of the characters with such humanity that there isn't one weakly drawn character in the ensemble; from Rachel's family to the wedding party to the guests, each character gets respect and they all seem like they have lived before the film and will keep living after it.  One of my favorite performances is very small but a perfect example of Demme's humanity.  While at a hair appointment with her sister, a man approaches Kym.  He tells her they were at rehab together  a few years ago.  We learn that in rehab Kym made up a terrible story in a group therapy exercise. This man is so thankful to her and thanks her for sharing and for helping him with his sobriety, it is a heartbreaking moment. The guy is basically a device to cause Rachel to get completely fed up with her sister’s behavior and starts a fight involving her whole family, but Demme doesn't treat it that way, and the actor who plays the man at the salon is just so emotive and real that you can't ever forget his face.

Demme is juggling a lot of balls in the film but keeps them all up perfectly.  We have to acquaint ourselves with Kym's different dynamics with every member of her family and the wedding party.  We have Kym's struggle to connect with her estranged mother (Debra Winger). The scenes between Hathaway and Winger are maybe the most uncomfortable in the whole movie because Kym's mom just seems to hate her and seems like she almost wants to forget her family.  There is also Kym's relationship with her father, Paul.  Bill Irwin is a revelation in this film: he is the happy father of the bride, but also the very worried father of Kym, and the grieving father of the son he lost.   Irwin imbues Paul with everything you want in a father, he is so caring and so, so sweet but really smart and funny and you can see the joy he has for his family radiating in his face.  The scene where he and his soon to be son in law, Sidney, compete to see who can load the dishwasher the best is perfectly executed, and Irwin goes from competitive to elated to devastated so naturally.  I won't spoil the end of this scene, but it’s like watching a bubble burst, from compete joy to utter sadness in a second.  And it seems so natural.   I also love the peripheral romantic entanglement Rachel has with the best man (of course, right?).  They only have a few scenes together, but the chemistry is palpable, and Mather Zickel is incredibly charming.

And finally, with Rachel, there is resentment but great sympathy for her sister's situation, but also anger that this weekend is again being dominated by Kym.  Rosemary DeWitt is wonderful, bringing to life the older sister who is trying to hold everything together.  The wedding scene in this movie is probably one of my favorite weddings ever in cinema.  Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe), Rachel's fiancée, sings his vows to her in a Neil Young song "Unknown Legend". This moment is incredibly emotional and evocative, but the song doesn't seem like a traditional love song and doesn't even seem to fit in the moment at first, but somehow Adebimpe completely sells it and gives the relationship between Sidney and Rachel that has been mostly in the background, obscured by family drama, a real weight, and there is no way to watch it without crying, I'm just warning you.

Rachel Getting Married is a movie I have been meaning to highlight on this blog since the beginning.  I saw this movie in the theatre in 2008 (at the old Metro in the U District!), and I literally cried almost the whole movie.  Some were sad tears and some were happy but I walked out knowing I loved this movie.  And, in a way, it’s a really easy movie to talk about because the script by Jenny Lumet is incredibly strong, and the acting is great and Demme is bringing amazing, exciting, almost Dogme 95 energy to the film.  So, all this should make it easy to write about, but I found it incredibly hard to explain not why you should watch this movie, but why I love it.  This movie just hits me in the gut and I don't know why.  I can't particularly relate to Kym or Rachel and the family isn't like mine at all.  But the movie hits me equally hard every time I watch it: it's emotionally exhausting but leaves you feeling gratitude and hope.  Sometimes you can't say why something touches you so deeply it just does.  And it isn't just the expertly made film, there is something deeper that you can't put your finger on.  It's like the song Sidney sings in the wedding scene.  It doesn't seem to match up to their life but the emotion is there, deep and vital and universal.  That's Rachel Getting Married.

Julie

Things I Love...4/6/16

1. The Hour: When K and I came to the DC area for the first time last October, we knew that there was a possibility that we would move here.  So we decided to explore a couple different areas in Maryland and Virginia.  Alexandria was the place we fell in love with, with its super charming old town and quaint vibe, we thought "this was a place we could live"!  And much of that charm came from this amazing shop, The Hour, a vintage cocktail boutique on King Street.  We walked in and marveled at the gorgeous, mint condition vintage glassware, cocktail shakers and more.  I had started a very small collection of vintage glasses that I had found in various antique shops throughout the Pacific Northwest but honestly none of them had been that great.  The Hour isn't your local goodwill, it is a boutique full of amazing and unique pieces and for me it is definitely a special occasion kind of shop.  So far, I have an amazing cocktail caddy set and most recently a set of black and white glasses.  The only problem is they are so beautiful I am afraid of breaking them so they mostly sit in my china cabinet, but I do break them out on occasion.  I love both of them and can't wait to add to my collection, the Hour is a treasure and if you find yourself in Alexandria, please check it out.

2. Machiavelli:  This is a sad one for me, because on of the things I am currently obsessed with is out of my reach (well, its a plane ride away but I'm not that crazy. Yet.)  Machiavelli is quite simply one of the best restaurants in Seattle.  It is cheap, incredibly consistent and delicious. The wait can be terribly long because they don't take reservations but the bar is cute and the bartenders are nice and make great, simple drinks. Or you can go around the corner to Rumba, another place I miss!   The food is simple Italian American but it's fresh and flavorful.  I think Italian food is something that can so easily be so mediocre and can be so much better at home.  Restaurants either try to be too fancy or not fancy enough with huge servings of overcooked pasta and heavy sauces.  Machiavelli isn't like that, the servings are perfect sized and perfectly cooked every time.  One thing I really value in a restaurant is consistency and I know it will be great no matter when I go, in fact I have been there tons of times and the service and food are always amazing, I have never had a bad experience.  Fettuccine Alfredo is my favorite and I don't order it anywhere else because no one can beat Machiavelli's smooth and creamy but not heavy sauce.  K and I are trying to explore lots of new places in the DC area and every time he asks me where I want to go for dinner, I say "Machiavelli!"  I don't know if I will find a place as great as it here but I am willing to try.

3. Adam and Jessa:  I have been a fan of Lena Dunham's Girls since it premiered but I have to admit there have been times I have almost given up on the show.  Sometimes I feel like Dunham is working so hard to show us the characters flaws and appalling behavior, she doesn't highlight the characters strength.  Jessa was one of those characters to me.  I loved Jemima Kirke in Tiny Furniture, Dunham's film debut, in which she placed Lena's close friend, but Dunham often didn't let Kirke highlight her natural charm.  Instead Jessa never really found her place on the show, she was never endearing, sometimes funny but mostly just such a unnecessarily cruel character to nearly all of her friends and family.  Jessa was vindictive and selfish but I would have been hard pressed to find anything positive to say about her.  Until the end of last season and the start of this one.  Jessa has found a calling and a new boyfriend, Adam (Adam Driver, every one's favorite Neanderthal), Hannah's ex.  You know, I used to love Hannah and Adam together but now that I see Jessa and him together I can't believe I didn't see it all along.  They very well may end up destroying each other but for now there is a new calmness in each of them I hadn't seen before.  There is a new tenderness in in them but they are still as perverse as ever (that role playing scene had me dying of laughter). Driver and Kirke have amazing, natural chemistry together and I want every episode to be just about them.  Plus, Jemima Kirke looks so insanely hot right now, she is just radiant. Adam and Jessa 4EVA!

It's Noon Somewhere...Manhattan

This certainly isn't the most exciting cocktail I will ever post, but its a classic for a reason (and let me tell you, I have a fabulous, fun cocktail coming up very soon!).  This is the story of how I learned to stop worrying and drink whiskey.  When I started drinking cocktails, I hated anything brown (even dark rum!) and could basically only stomach the sweetest drinks out there and a Cosmopolitan or  Lemon Drop came in a martini glass so I felt fancy getting them (also Sex and the City, right?).  So for the last few years those have been my go to unless a bar had a fancy menu and then I would try something new, usually with vodka or rum and sometimes gin or tequila.  But I had tried whiskey and couldn't stand it, so I generally avoided it like the plague.

But after a while, I got sick of ordering the same freaking drink everywhere.  Plus, every time K and I went to a dive bar or a place with no menu to order an original cocktail from, I would be stumped as to what to get.  And I would almost always get a Cosmo, a drink I do like a lot, but I got bored and tired of the sweet and tart taste.  I wanted something with more bite, and something with a bit more cocktail cred.   And at home, I was in a rut. More often than not on the weekend we aren't bar hopping but we are at home with cocktails and appetizers making dinner.  And we have a pretty fully stocked bar but we generally like to keep it simple.  Tiki is my jam but it is better left to the professionals, too much juice!  So at home every weekend I would have Cosmos, so much that I almost grew to dread them.

So I decided to teach myself to like whiskey.  At first, it was hard for this sweet loving girl.  I started by ordering drinks at bars that had whiskey and other things I thought I'd like.  And then I just started ordering Manhattan's on the rocks and before I knew it I would get them up sometimes too! And then I realized I actually liked them.  This isn't to diss Cosmopolitan's or "girly" drinks, I still love them.  All flavors make cocktails wonderful, sweet, tart, bitter and acid are all necessary.  I was just stranded on the girly drink island and needed a change.

Instead it is a celebration of my newfound appreciation of whiskey, particularly in the Manhattan.  I would have loved to get K to write this post because he has much more insight than I do, so I questioned him a bunch about how to make a good Manhattan.  Here is what I gleaned: technically, Rye is better than Bourbon, but Bourbon is acceptable, and when K first started drinking and we were on a budget he did a blend.  I now have a taste for Michter's which is lovely but a little spendy, we usually buy Maker's Mark or Bulleit, but Canadian Club or Seagrams is very budget friendly, especially if you aren't semi professional drinkers like us.  Also, stirring is encouraged but shaking will make it a little thinner on the tongue, which I like.  Angostura bitters are traditional, but K prefers Peychaud for flavor and color (got to keep it NOLA), and finally, a cherry is the best garnish but an orange peel is a beautiful substitute.

K and J's Manhattan


2 oz whiskey

3/4 sweet vermouth

2-3 dashes Peychaud bitters




Mix all ingredients in a shaker and shake with ice (or stir if you prefer).  Serve up or on the rocks.  Maraschino cherry required (that's my rule, not K's).




Cheers!

Julie

An Update

There have been a lot of changes in the La Femme world since I last blogged.  This little blog is a labor of love but so often I get so busy that I forget all about it.  Please forgive the radio silence but to say I have been busy the last few months is an understatement.  K graduated from law school in December and in January we made the decision to move to the Washington D.C. area for a new job!

So, I am writing to you from our new apartment in Alexandria, Virginia an adorable hipster coffee shop in Washington D.C..  In the last few months we sold our house, left our jobs, K took the bar, we found a new apartment across the country, spent two weeks driving across the country with our two very bad dogs.  We have a gorgeous apartment in Alexandria, Virginia, a few miles south of D.C. and about twenty minutes away by metro.   And so that leaves me much like I was when I started this blog almost 4 years ago, a temporary housewife. 

Une Femme Julie won't change at all, well, if it does it will be for the better with more posts! I have plans for more content and I will be committed to bringing stories from our trips to family and friends that may be interested now that we live across the nation.  That isn't to say that this is becoming a personal

blog, I started this blog for one reason, to improve my writing, and I remain committed to that approach.  So come back for stories of our trip across the country, new adventures on the east coast and of course, cocktails and movies.

Thanks for reading! 

Julie

Movie Roundup January 2016

Phoenix (Petzold, 2014):  Phoenix led to an interesting discussion between K and me.  Christian Petzold's 2014 film about a Holocaust survivor who has facial reconstructive surgery and searches Berlin for the husband who may have betrayed her to the Nazi's in the first place.  The question I asked is, does having one (or maybe two) amazing scenes or sequences make a movie great?  The ending of Phoenix is so stunning, haunting and frankly perfect.  The whole movie builds to that moment like a freight train that can't be stopped.  And while I think the film is good even without that ending, with it, I think it might be great.   But when I think of some of my favorite movies, there isn't one scene that stands out above and beyond literally every other scene.  Obviously when the ending is the scene that leaves a huge and lasting impact, the film is building to a climax, and Phoenix does that expertly.  When I  thought about it later, there was no other ending, but that didnt stop it from shocking me and literally leaving me breathless. 

Nelly (Nina Hoss, goddess!) is liberated from a concentration camp but has been shot in the face and left for dead. She has facial reconstructive surgery, and when the doctor presents her the choices of how she can look, she only wants to look like herself.  He cautions her against this as it won't be an exact replica but she has no other choice.  As the only survivor of her family, she has come into a large inheritance and is living with a friend in post war Berlin.  Nelly only has one goal, to find and be reunited with her husband Johnny, a jazz musician.  When she finally finds him, he doesn't recognize her, or doesn't want to, instead he tells her she resembles his ex-wife.  Johnny is after that inheritance and wants her to pretend to be his wife so that he can get it. Did I mention that Johnny may or may not be the one who betrayed her in the first place.  Ronald Zehrfeld is marvelous as Johnny,  he is menacing and intense but also charismatic and sad and you see why Nelly wants to be near him no matter the circumstances.  Nelly's gradual realization of just how little she knew Johnny is heartbreaking and Nina Hoss is wonderful as a woman very slowly regaining her confidence after the unthinkable.  And that ending. 



Tangerine (Baker, 2015):  I hate to admit the first few minutes of this movie, I thought, nope, this isn't for me.  I found the two leads, particularly Kitana Kiki Rodriguez as Sin-Dee, grating and thought they seemed too over the top (I mean I get that transgender prostitutes in L.A. may be over the top in general, but I found the tone too unrealistic and annoying, frankly).  But I am happy to say, once Sin-Dee finds out that her boyfriend (James Ransone, a.k.a. everyone's favorite f**k up Ziggy from The Wire!)  is cheating on her while she was "away" and rushes out of Donut Time to find him and confront him, I was already getting sucked in.  Thanks to Mya Taylor as Alexandria, who manages to ground the over the top performane of Kiki Rodriguez, I found a character to relate to in a world very different from my own.  Taking place in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, Sin-Dee and Alexandria are on a mission to confront drug dealer Chester (the aforementioned Ransone, who is hilarious in this small part).  Shot on an iPhone, Tangerine is alienating and brash, you aren't supposed to connect with the characters, at least at first, more like a hurricane, you are immered in their lives.  And these lives are hard, Sin-Dee and Alexandria are trans woman and prostitues.  We meet the various drugs dealers, fellow prostitues, and one very sad Armenian taxi driver that they share their meager existence with.  Tangerine is non stop from that moment that Sin-Dee rushes out of that donut shop a few minutes in, and at times the film can be trying with the non stop confrontation, screeching and screaming Kiki Rodriguez gives us as Sin-Dee who does everything she can to hide her feelings behind the facade of being the biggget bully in history.  Alexandria is dragged along with her, reluctantly, watching out for her friend, all the while hoping for her own big night, performing at a empty nightclub a sweet, sad version of "Toyland".  The climax of the film when they finally confront Chester reaches absurdity in the best way.  And the final moment is so sweet and tender,  something I didn't except from the film when it started.

The Last Five Years: (LaGravenese, 2014):  I hate it that so many times I come on this blog and say, look this movie might not be that good but its in my bailiwick or my wheelhouse or that it hits my particular pleasure centers.  But, The Last Five Years,  is absolutely one of those movies.  I was unfamiliar with the musical that this movie is an adaptation of but Netflix found it for me and suggested it.  We follow a couple Jamie and Cathy and the span of their marriage.  The hook is that while Jamie sings his songs chronologically from the beginning of their relationship, Cathy sings her songs backwards, from the end.  If we're talking about how one scene can really color your perception of a movie, The Last Five Years is in fact a much better example than Phoenix.  Phoenix has interesting themes and good acting and stylish directing, The Last Five Years has a couple good songs and Anna Kendrick.  But the scene in which the Jamie and Cathy finally meet in the middle and he proposes to her is a stunner.  I actually didn't really realize they never sang together until that moment, but having a musical where two characters in love don't sing together is like having a romantic comedy where the characters never kiss.  It's integral and that's why "The Next Ten Minutes" is like the most romantic kiss you have ever seen, like top three kisses in the history of kisses kind of thing.

Anna Kendrick is winning as always and she brings Jamie's songs alive even though she doesn't sing in them, she is a strong actor who is able to convey a lot of emotion with her face.  Unfortunately, I can't say the same for our Jamie (Jeremy Jordan).  He is charming enough in his songs but can't match up to Kendrick in hers.  Ultimately, I think the movie also has the "Blue Valentine" problem, where one character is too unlikeable, I think we aren't supposed to like Cathy because she is needy and a little bit of a mess but Jamie is so smug that I just can't help but think, girl, you can do better than him!  If doomed romance, musicals and Anna Kendrick are your sweet spot, this movies for you.  This is my perfect, oh its on TV movie.  Netflix and Chill, K?

All three of these are currently streaming on Netflix!

Julie