kathyprice

I was not familiar with Chonda Pierce when I came across this documentary, so I don't have a lot of embodied fondness for her. And I'm not a Christian, so I don't have that connection with her message.

Having said that, I really enjoyed her humor. She is known as the Queen of Clean, and that is refreshing. I'm not opposed to unclean comedy, but I appreciate that someone is able to find plenty of humor in less risqué subject matters. It's probably good for humor to find comedy in everyday, non salacious subjects.

I have two gripes with the documentary: the amateur production values, and the story itself.

I read that Chonda gave the directing duties to a first-time documentarian. The editing is very awkward, which takes away from the story line and her stated message of hope. It's obviously very difficult to stitch together a coherent movie from such a wealth of footage. I wish it had been handed over to a more experienced director. She is now filming another movie with the same director. Hopefully he learned from his first attempt. If not, it's a pity.

The story is very sad. The comedian sacrificed her family for her career. That is never a good story. She has deep regrets about that. Her daughter won't talk to her. Her husband is dead of alcoholism. And her son seems shell-shocked by what happened to his happy family.

Chonda's frequent mentions of Jesus and the bible are like tonic to her fans. She says she is tired of Jesus being dragged through the mud by nonbelievers. Nobody drags Jesus through the mud. However, his teachings might lead some of his followers to consider a change of behavior.

One would wish she paid more attention to her family. When her husband stopped telling her about the son's soccer games because he knew it made her sad she was missing her son's life, it seems like Jesus might have told her to get off the tour bus, go home and tend to her family.

I'm not laying all the blame on her for what happened. But an absentee mother is never good for a family. I'm sure all who share her faith would agree with that, especially those who believe the family unit is the heart of society. If this documentary serves as a cautionary tale, and helps other parents stay inside their families and avoid divorce and jobs that require absence from the home, then this is a valuable documentary. But if the message is that Jesus has it all covered and we don't need to change our behavior, then the movie just mildly entertaining, and not much more than that, other than sad.

I wish Chonda and her son and her daughter much happiness and reconciliation in the future.

Maybe you have to be a girl to appreciate this hilarious movie! Lucky for me, the theater where I saw it was 90% female. I laughed harder during this film than any in recent memory. You already know the story -- an uptight FBI agent and a raunchy local cop try to bust a drug ring. The writing, characters and performances are a delight. I roared, I yelled, I laughed, I whooped, I even got teary eyed. Of course, the constant albino put downs are not cool. But still funny! Apologies to our albino citizenry.

There's got to be some good reasons why this film sells out theaters. If you're a guy, maybe miss this one. If you're a girl, grab some friends and have a night of it.

It is my fervent wish that these two characters portrayed by these two actresses show up in some more buddy films. I'll be the first in line.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

I wasn't sure what I felt as I walked out of the movie theater. I had just watched this couple bicker for 2 hours. Somehow, I wasn't bored, and was not happy to see it end.

The Good

Amazing long scenes with two masterful actors gave me a chance to appreciate their talent. Deply's Celine brought to mind a stern Hillary Clinton and Hawke's Jesse a bumbling, clueless dude. Bill Clinton?

Hawke's angst over abandoning his teenage son in favor of this new woman and his new family will certainly resonate with so many men today. He used an example of Deply being late to pick up their young daughters from school and the panic she felt to explain how he feels that about his son all the time. Well played.

The Bad

No magic between the two, so little affection. The bickering and "issues" would have been easier to digest had there remained some kind of magical, lyrical love between them. We could have felt the tug between true passion and the burdens of real life and real conflict. As it sits now, all we have are the conflicts. Just stop, is what I was thinking.

But Maybe . . .

It could be that when the next installment arrives in 2022, the couple will have fallen love again. The daughters will be 16, perhaps in boarding school, the son from a first marriage will be a young man and maybe even presenting a grandchild. Who know if all of these characters will be alive? There could be a death, no?

If the couple falls in love again, or becomes bonded again over tragedy, we could look back at this film as commentary on the burden that raising children is to a romantic relationship. If the couple are still together 9 years hence, and able to love more and bicker less, perhaps even showing compassion toward each other, we could all say: see, it's best to endure the tough times and let the love return.

However, if this is to be the last movie of the series, not good. Very unsatisfying. I guess I'll reserve judgment on this installment until 2022. Time will tell.

This movie is about an alcoholic woman's transformation during a wild road trip. While I found the first 20 minutes hard to get through, and almost stopped watching, I found the remainder of the movie mesmerizing. Tilda Swinton is beyond amazing. You can't take your eyes off her. And you can't wait to see what will happen next as she digs herself deeper and deeper into a mess.

Having said all that, there were major gaps in the story line. For instance, she was out of money, which is why she tried to pull off this stunt, so where did she get all the money she used on the trip? Did I miss something? With Thelma and Louise, they robbed the convenience store to get money. Julia needed to do something like that to explain her funds.

The beginning was especially awkward as a nutty woman from an AA meeting approached Julia with a scheme to kidnap the woman's son from a guardian and get ransom. That whole proposal happened too quickly and was jarring. Then, what happened to that woman during the story? We never found out.

I'm surprised to find so many things wrong with the story line and yet still give his movie a high rating. Swinton is that good. If you can get through the first bit, and suspend disbelief a little more than normal regarding plot, watching this woman's journey from a boozy barfly into a compassionate being is well worth the trip.