With the recent news about the death of Amy Winehouse it got me really thinking about another high profile musician’s suicide. It is actually really shocking and sad to find out how many things were similar between Kurt Cobain’s untimely death and Winehouse’s. Luckily I found on instant streaming a documentary about Kurt looking into the scandals, and conspiracies surrounding his death. Unfortunately, I don’t actually have much to say about this BBC documentary about the truth behind Kurt and Courtney. I had hoped it would have been more interesting. I thought it would be more factual or have real truths in it. Instead, it relies heavily on the testimonies of people who have very questionable relationships with either star. Most of their interview-ees knew them “way back when” before they were stars. So I hardly think they have any real insights into who Kurt was and why he committed suicide. The speculation gets quite thick when they delve into the conspiracy theories that Courtney had something to do with Kurt’s death. I’m not saying that she isn’t insane, bizarre, and that I am rather sad for their little girl Frances Bean. But it might be a jump to say she only married Kurt to eventually kill him for his money. The most shocking thing I learned from this documentary is that Kurt was only 27 when he died and so was Amy.
Skip Kurt and Courtney and watch an actually interesting and inspiring documentary called Dear Zachary. This movie is so heart warming while taking some shocking twists and turns. The explanation says “When a filmmaker decides to memorialize his murdered friend when his ex-girlfriend announces that she is pregnant with his son” which is all true but it is so much more than that. This is a story of love to an unborn child about who his father was and how much everyone loved him. The filmmaker, a childhood friend of the murder victim, spends hours, months, years devoted to capturing who this man was so that his son, Zachary, can know the kind of man his father was. The filmmaker interviews friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, girlfriends, just about everyone, until you get the real sense that Zachary has a father to be truly proud of. I will let the rest of the story explain itself because there is a lot more to it than that. The twists and ups and downs it takes could only be from real life! In the end this sad story speaks of love and devotion.
On that “feel good movies” theme I watched these next two love stories. Do you want to watch a movie with the kid from the AT&T roll-over-minutes commercials and the female JD on the extended season of Scrubs? Then you should watch Nice Guy Johnny.
Johnny Rizzo , (aka Max Baker from the commercials) is engaged to a not-so-nice girl that is demanding he take a boring “real life job” so they can start their life. But Johnny’s dream is to make it as a sports radio talks show host. Will Brooke (aka the replacement JD), the free spirit he meets in the Hamptons, inspire him to live his dream? Watch him wrestle with his decision and the pretty boring plot it provides. There really isn’t much of a story to follow other than Johnny makes it abundantly clear that he “is not that guy” willing to have an affair with a pretty girl. The acting is blah, and I never cared much about anything that was happening in this movie. And yes, the ending is what you guessed it would be. So, maybe it’s a good movie to fall asleep to.
After feeling a bit jipped on the feel good theme I decided that maybe Muriel’s Wedding would do the job. Sadly, this Australian made romantic dramedy makes you go through quite the process to see any pay off of a dissatisfying happy ending. An overweight Toni Collette plays the frumpy Muriel who uses her parents blank check to take a trip with her mean-girl friends. A whole bunch of things happen like she meets a true friend (who gets cancer) and moves to Sydney where she decides to marry a handsome Olypmic athlete (for his green card) in exchange money and fame. Sound a little complicated? It is. Full of drama and lacking on the romance the only comedy comes from her changing her name from Muriel to Mariel. This couldn’t be a more typical 90’s movie so if you like them, then you will like this movie.
