Movie Review: Focus [SPOILERS]

Image found here.

Redbox had a $1 off movie deal the other night, so I took advantage of it and rented Focus. I wasn't really sure what the movie was about, but I figured Will Smith and Margot Robbie were going to get it on, and that's hot.

Here's the story. Smith is a con-man (with a gambling problem), and Robbie wants to learn the trade. He teaches her, and they fall for each other. But he abruptly leaves her. Fast-forward three years. Smith is running a con for a race car driver (or race car owner/designer...?), and discovers that Robbie is dating that guy (i.e. sexy Karl in Love Actually). Seeing her again throws him off his game; Smith decides to con the man who paid him FOR the con out of jealousy. Smith begs Robbie to run away with him. As they're trying to get away, they are caught in the con and think they will be killed. We learn that Robbie was coning the race-car guy, too, and that Smith was conning her (sort of). He gets shot by his dad (pretending to be the race-car guy's bodyguard; I know, confusing), but he doesn't die, and the movie ends with Robbie walking Smith to the hospital.

Besides the incredibly hot cast, this movie is pretty boring. At first the whole part about her learning the art of the con is interesting. But you never really connect with the characters, there's very little action, and the movie just sort of ends without the film even telling a full story. The film feels like it's missing something (maybe focus?...See what I did there?), and the audience is left unfulfilled. A movie should transport you out of reality, but the whole time I was thinking "Why am I watching this movie? When is it going to be over?" I never got into the film and just felt "meh" about it. Two stars.

Movie Review: The Other Woman [SPOILERS]

Image found here.

I had a Netflix night at home, and stumbled across The Other Woman. The only reason I was even interested in watching it was because Natalie Portman is in it. The entire movie is based on the dysfunction of this family; I can't stand dysfunction in real life or otherwise (read my blog post about the movie Remember Me). The plot goes like this:

Portman is a home wrecker and has an affair with a man she works with. His ex-wife (played by Lisa Kudrow) is insanely bitter and tries to turn her son again his step-mother. The son himself (played by Charlie Tahan) is incredibly annoying and rude, using his mother's word to hurt Portman's feelings. The main issue that plagues everyone is that Portman's character lost her baby just days after the baby was born. Kudrow uses this to show that Portman is not a good mother; Tahan suggests selling the baby's things since she's dead and she wasn't even a real person (according to Jewish law). The death of her child haunts Portman, and at one point she even claims that she killed the baby! Her husband (i.e. the guy who married her because he got her knocked up) can't take all of the angst anymore, and Portman leaves. The movie tries to end somewhat happily when Kudrow and Portman have a moment of understanding, but it's not enough to save this sad story.

None of the relationships shown in this movie are happy (including that of Portman's parents: they got divorced because her father cheated), and quite frankly there is nothing redeeming about the film. Not even the costumes or the music or the cinematography are note-worthy. If you want to feel depressed and miserable, watch this movie. But otherwise, skip it. Portman has starred in many other films that are much better. I give this movie 1 star.

Movie Review: They Came Together

Image found here.

This idea behind this movie is a good one. Just how Scary Movie makes fun of horror films, They Came Together is meant to make fun of romantic comedies. But the main difference? Scary Movie is actually funny. I love romantic comedies, and a spoof is a brilliant idea! But this movie just doesn't pull it off. References to classics like When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, and Clueless simply re-do the old jokes/scenarios, but don't make them funnier or better. And the original jokes in this movie are horrible. The conversations saturated with sexual innuendos and comments about divorce between Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper are distasteful, and the childish humor of Christopher Meloni's character shitting his pants is just disgusting. There were too many uncomfortable moments and not enough legitimately funny bits to make up for them. AND there is absolutely no chemistry between Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd; their love for one another is not convincing! I'm just not buying it (plus, he's way cuter than she is).

Don't waste your time with this movie. And a side note: The Netflix show Wet Hot American Summer has a lot of the same cast members and is written by the same guys (Michael Showalter and David Wain). Needless to say, the show is just as terrible as this movie. Don't both with either of them!

Birthright Trip to Israel: Day 5

The Yad Vashem building and grounds. Image found here.

After a lovely breakfast at the Orchid Hotel, it was time to head out. We started the day visiting Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. "Yad" means "place" or "memorial," while "vashem" means "name;" this is a place for the names (or lack thereof) that were lost in the Holocaust. This Bible verse is on the museum's website:

"And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a "yad vashem")... that shall not be cut off."  -Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 5

First I should talk about the architecture of the museum. You start off at the back of the museum (near the upper-right in the photo above); you're high up and it's well-lit. But as you travel through the museum, it becomes darker, and you're traveling downward, representing how things got worse over time. You zig-zig through the museum, back and forth across the main hallway, which mimics the confusion and chaos of the time during World War II. But as you get to the end of the museum, you are coming up and into the light again, and at the very end, the museum opens up to face the city of Jerusalem in Israel, a land created specifically for the Jewish people.

We were led on a guided tour, and any guide certainly affects your experience. Our guide was very focused on the history: the timeline of when things happened, where things happened on a map, the statistics and numbers of facts, etc. So we got a very analytical tour, rather than an emotional one. I thought for sure I would cry my way through the whole museum, but I didn't. I think I was overwhelmed for one (there was just so much to see, read, and learn that I didn't have a moment to just think about one thing), but we also skipped things that probably would have made me more upset; we skipped the videos in which Holocaust survivors tell their stories; those are the things that would have impacted me the most. So unfortunately we did not get to see everything in the museum, and the tour left something to be desired (well, if you wanted to cry...).

Hall of Remembrance. Image found here.

The last room in the museum is the Hall of Remembrance (or Hall of Names), which features photographs and facts about people who were killed during the Holocaust. It is amazing to see all of the pictures, especially when some of them resemble people you know. Underneath the dome of photos are shelves where documents containing information about these people are kept. You can see the binders on the left side of the picture above; the museum has facts about four million people who were lost in the Holocaust. But notice the empty shelves on the right: those represent the two million people whom we know nothing about, and probably never will.

The Children's Memorial. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

There is a separate memorial for the roughly 1.5 million children who died in the Holocaust. The room is very dark, and we had to hold onto a railing along the side of the room to get our bearings. The only sound you could hear was a voice reading off the names and ages of some of the children who were killed. In the center of the room, there are just a few candles that are lit. However, because of the many mirrors that are all around the interior of the room, the candle light is reflected, giving the impression of hundreds, even thousands, of candles. The real candles represent the children who died in the Holocaust; all of the reflected candles represent the generations that would have been were those original children not to have died in the first place.

Although I was not emotionally affected like I thought I would be, this was still a very somber experience, and we took some time after our visit to break into smaller groups and talk about our feelings, past experiences, etc. For example, I talked about how sometimes people say I'm not "really Jewish" because my mother isn't Jewish; I'm not particularly religious or closely connected to Judaism, but I do feel like a part of my identity is denied when people say that. One of our American guides said, "You would have been Jewish enough for Hitler." I think I'm going to use that response the next time someone tells me I'm not Jewish...

Afterward we went to another shopping mall for lunch. This was disappointing because I can visit a shopping mall in America whenever I want; I didn't travel halfway across the world to do that! But again, because of the heat, we needed a place that was indoors and air conditioned, so that's what we got.

Surfing in the Mediterranean. Picture by Taylor Arion.

After the serious morning, we got to have some fun surfing in the Mediterranean! It was nice to go to the beach in Tel Aviv and just enjoy the afternoon. After surfing, we went to our new hotel, the Metropolitan. It was quite fancy, and it was embarrassing to show up sandy and sweaty from the beach; we immediately had to go to dinner because we weren't given time to shower first. But the buffet was amazing (especially the stuffed grape leaves and the chocolate mousse!), and we all stuffed ourselves before going up to our rooms to clean up before our night out on the town.

Israeli beer called "Gold Star" (quite an awkward name...). Picture by Jocelyn Rubin.

Tel Aviv has the reputation of being a big party town, but since we were only out for a couple of hours (and were back at the hotel before midnight), we did not see the rowdy, crazy side of the city. I was actually looking forward to potentially visiting a disco-tech, but because we had to head in so early, that did not happen. So we simply broke up into smaller groups and went to a few bars. I drank a Coke in a glass bottle (yum!), and I did enjoy the company of the few people in our group. Again, this gave us the chance to get to know each other better, which was really nice. We ended the night with tequila shots (I felt no buzz whatsoever), and I almost thought I had lost my wallet, but it simply was hiding in another pocket of my purse (whew!).

We were delayed in getting back to the hotel because one of the girls from our group was missing. We spent at least 20 minutes on the street counting off and trying to figure out where everyone was. Later we learned that this girl had gone back to the hotel to hook up with a local Israeli she had met while surfing. So she delayed all of us from getting to bed because she was selfish and self-centered. Lovely.

But otherwise, an interesting, good day.

Play Review: The Importance of Being Earnest

Image found here: http://scenatheatre.org/EarnestHome.jpg

I love Oscar Wilde, and while I couldn't really remember much about this story (I know I saw the movie before, but it was so long ago!), I did remember that I thought it was funny and cute. This version of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Atlas Performing Arts Center did not disappoint!

Algie and Jack. Image found here.

The set was quite pretty, with white terraces, wicker furniture, a tea table, and a lovely swing with vines climbing up the ropes. The set made you feel like you were in a garden or a sun room, which was very pleasant. The play started with the two butlers, Lane and Merriman, standing at the front of a stage (which was a bit awkward, since they stood there for some time just staring at us). Then we met Algie (played by Danielle Davy) and Jack (played by Nanna Ingvarsson); immediately we realized that women are playing the male roles! So that in itself is funny. We learn that Jack, who lives in the country, goes by the name of Ernest when he's in town (so he does not ruin his reputation when he is gallivanting about; he tells the people in the country that he goes to the city to visit his brother, Ernest!). The two men are talking when we meet Lady Bracknell (played by Brian Hemmingsen), who is Algie's aunt; we also meet her daughter, Gwendolyn (played by Graham Pilato). Seeing the men playing women is even funnier! So this is the story: Jack loves Gwendolyn, but Lady Bracknell will not hear of them marrying. But the two swoon over each other, and Gwendolyn confesses that she's always wanted to be with a man named Ernest. Jack then realizes that if he wants to be with Gwendolyn, he needs to change his name to Ernest and get rid of the fake brother he has invented.

Lady Bracknell and Miss Prism. Image found here.

A parallel story continues. Algie visits Jack's home in the country under the name of Ernest (so that the household just thinks Jack's brother, whom they've never met, is in town). Here we meet Jack's ward, Cecily (played by Robert Sheire), her governess, Miss Prism (played by David Bryan Jackson), and Dr. Chasuble (played by Amie Cazel). Algie and Cecily immediately fall for each other (Algie's a scoundrel and Cecily loves the idea of a bad-boy). Jack comes home to tell the family that his brother Ernest is dead, just to find Algie is playing Ernest right there! To add to the funny mess, Gwendolyn comes to the country house, and when she meets Cecily, they find out that they are both engaged to Ernest! They realize they are not talking about the same person, and once the whole cast is back on stage, the truth comes out about their real names, who they really are, etc. But all ends well and both couples get to be together. The end!

Gwendolyn and Cecily. Image found here.

The actors were very good, and I laughed the whole way through. The characters of Gwendolyn and Cecily were a bit over-the-top, but I think that's what made them so hysterical! Combine the great acting, the funny situations, and the incredibly clever writing of Oscar Wilde, and you've got an amazing show! 5 stars!

Restaurant Review: H Street Country Club

Image found here.

I went to see a play at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (blog post about that to come), and I wanted to eat somewhere nearby before the show. I chose the H Street Country Club. Here are my thoughts.

Pros:

-I was going with a friend who is vegetarian, so I wanted to pick a place that had several options for her. This restaurant offers a lot of vegetarian dishes, since all the tacos/enchiladas/burritos can be made with vegetables instead of meat. So that was great!

-Although the menu isn't very large, I did think the restaurant offered a good variety of Mexican food. I think there is something for everyone on the menu!

-Our waitress was really nice. She was friendly, very helpful, and she was honest (for example, I asked for sour cream, but she let me know that the restaurant charges for that).

-While my friend and I did not play the 9-hole miniature golf course upstairs, I do think the idea is cute (and very appropriate for the name!).

Cons:

-While our waitress did a good job, the rest of the staff was pretty worthless. The bouncer who was carding customers was on his smoke break and had to rush over to card me before I walked into the restaurant. I was not greeted by a hostess or bartender when I walked in; I wasn't even offered a drink at the bar. There were between 5-10 staff members in the area when I arrived, and not a single one paid attention to me unless I asked them a question. What kind of customer service is that?

-We were eating during happy hour, so I figured I'd get one of their $5 margaritas. Well, there's a reason the drinks are only $5. I don't know if it's the tequila or the margarita mix, but the drink did NOT taste good; I just finished it because I had paid for it.

-This is one of those Mexican restaurants that doesn't offer you chips and salsa right off the bat when you sit down. You have to pay for those! And the guacamole was $9, and although it was homemade and tasted quite good, it did not measure up to other guac I've had before (Rosa Mexicano's is amazing and definitely worth the money).

-The tacos were okay (you can mix-and-match), but after having the mini-tacos at A.G. Kitchen, these paled in comparison. I didn't finish them and didn't bother taking leftovers home.

-The cuisine and the name of the restaurant do not go together. When I think of a country club, nothing about Mexico comes to mind. I think of plaid pants, sweater vests, old scotch and English-inspired nibbles. The juxtaposition just doesn't work for me.

Birthright Trip to Israel: Day 4 (The Sabbath, Thank God)

Because it was the Sabbath, we got to sleep in! I couldn't believe it, but I actually slept until 9AM! Then I rushed to breakfast because it ended at 10AM, and I knew I'd be grouchy if I didn't get breakfast. I enjoyed mostly pastries and fruit, and then headed to our group's yoga session (I was so glad we just happened to have a yoga instructor in our group!). I had never done yoga outside before, and I really enjoyed feeling the lush grass and practicing under the shade of a tree (but we were on a slope, which was not ideal). I was very relaxed afterward, especially since we had never had the time to stretch before or after our hikes/long walks during the previous days. I was also quite pleased when others complimented me on my yoga skills (I do practice it once or twice a week!).

Then we all met up, and the group was divided into many smaller groups. Each of our groups discussed the daily Torah portion (Yes, that's a thing. I didn't know that!). My group talked about how your attitude or perspective can affect the outcome of your life. We talked about being an optimist versus a pessimist (we found that the Israelis have a more negative outlook on things), and also discussed living in the moment and enjoying the company of those around you (I was actually one of the few people on the trip who didn't bring a cell phone with me.). Then it was already time for lunch, and we got to enjoy some of the same desserts from the night before (cakes, pies, tortes, oh my!).

Next we had more discussions. We talked about "Jewish Identity" and what that means (This again was a small group activity, but I think it should have been something we did individually, since identity is as much an individuality thing as it is a group mentality.). Of course you can think of "Jewish Identity" as a whole (i.e. for all Jews), but that can differ from what it means on a personal level. For me, my Jewish identity is solidified in my family and the celebration of holidays like Passover and Hanukkah. But for others it means keeping a kosher home, observing the Sabbath, marrying another Jewish person, etc. Our second discussion was to prepare us for our visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. We did a shoe exercise where everyone took off one shoe and then others in the group had to describe the person who would wear that shoe (male, female, stylish, rich, etc.); this was to represent the fact that some of the only things left of the people who died in the Holocaust were items like their shoes. We also looked at images from the Holocaust, like the tattoos that survivors have on their arms or the emaciated bodies of the victims. The entire time we were talking, I kept thinking about the book Rena's Promise and how much I learned about the Holocaust through her story as a survivor.

Afterward we had some time to relax. Of course I like my "relaxing" time to be productive, but it wasn't. I couldn't fall asleep for a nap, and when I tried to read outside, one of the guys in my group insisted on having an awkward discussion about feminism (For example, he claims that birth rates amongst educated women are down because they claim they want to marry smart men but really they don't. Um, what?).

For dinner we got to go out on Ben-Yehuda Street in Jerusalem and could choose where we wanted to eat. Many of us went to an Italian place called Focaccia. The food was amazing: goat cheese pizza, sweet potato ravioli and lasagna, and of course focaccia bread. Since we were in smaller groups, the dinner allowed us to get to know one another better, which was really nice. Then we had time to go shopping (many of the stores gave discounts for people visiting on Birthright trips). I found a beautiful menorah as well as gifts for family members. Then it was time to head back to our luxurious hotel for the night.

What a relaxing day! It was awesome!