At eighty six years old, Sophia Loren still has formidable screen presence, and that is very evident in ‘La Vita Davanti A Sé,’ (The Life Ahead) which is available to stream on Neflix. The film, directed by her son Eduardo Ponti, is based on the 1978 novel ‘Madame Rosa.’ (There has been an earlier film adaptation of the same novel, but I have never seen it) Loren plays Madam Rosa, and it is a juicy role – she plays a former Holocaust surviver who is also an ex-street walker. In her older age, she takes care of children of other street walkers.
A young Senegalese kid, Momo, is sent to her care, sand played by Ibrahima Gueye, Momo is your typical troubled kid. They first ‘meet’ when the kid steals a bunch of candlesticks from her. But as these things go, they form an unlikely couple, and blah blah blah, you know what happens next. To be honest, the narrative here is reed thin, but the small moments that make up the film somehow make a great platform for Loren (and Gueye) to shine. There are no surprises in how the story unfolds, but you believe it still, and will even be touched by it.
I’ve been burned too many times now with these Netflix teen films that I was ready to write off ‘The Kissing Booth 2’ right away. Besides, I cannot remember a lick about the first movie, only that I kind of liked it? And anyway, the sequel, directed by Vince Marcelo, clocks in at two hours and twelve minutes. I mean, who does it think it is, Titanic? About a couple of minutes into in, I was already sold. Joey King is really great, and she can make you believe in anything here, and she enjoys a breezy chemistry with Joel Courtney that you can kind of forgive the silly plot, and the sillier circumstances that their characters get into. And I did not need a lot of convincing in the story, even if some of it is far fetched. They even give the gays a throw-around minor storyline (every representation helps!) Before I knew it, I was swooning, I was crying and laughing along with the characters. I am sorry I doubted you, kissing booth, I eagerly await the third installment.
Walter Mercado passed away recently, and I have a lot of Facebook friends who noted and grieved his passing, mentioning how fabulous he was. I honestly wasn’t too familiar with him, though I kind of remember him from my New York years. The Netflix documentary, ‘Mucho Mucho Amor,’ through a lot of archival footage shows what a grand and majestic presence he was on Latin television, as he gives the daily horoscopes clad with capes ornately designed with glitter and Swaroski crystals (Gianni Versace made him one) I have to admit doing the gay gasp seeing some of these costumes, and also wonder how Latinos just embraced him, considering how a lot of men embraced the Macho culture. I guess Walter Mercado was non-binary before anyone knew what that was – he looked kind of like a woman, and not really like a man. It is safe and sexless, though, so in a way it felt ‘safe,’ kind of like the eccentric uncle from that side of your family.
Is Netflix really ushering a new age of teen movies? Or is it just the same old crap? Hav e to say that nowadays it feels like there’s more trash than gold there, and you can put ‘Feel The Beat’ in the meh department. Elissa Down’s film is formula through and through, and I just couldn’t get into it – it took me two days to watch this when something like this should be a nice easy viewing. I think it may also have to do with Sofia Caron, who stars in the film. I guess she has done a slew of Disney films as a teen, but i really did not know. She is one of the most wooden actresses I have ever seen. There is not a lot of characterization here, and I felt nothing for her character. The kid dancers were cute, and Wolfgang Novogratz’s crooked smile got me, but honestly, there is nothing here for me to write about.
Luha Thoughts 