Day 19.144: An odd cycle of movies

With Exile #4 going back to Massachusetts tomorrow, tonight the five of us completed a little cycle of movies. We often watch TV series together but there wasn’t time to start a new one so we decided to do some stand-alone film watching and it turned into an interesting little film festival. There wasn’t any planning behind it until we realized how we could bring it home tonight. 

We started with Project Hail Mary (2026) (featuring Ryan Gosling - this will help us close the loop later). Next was Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026) (small town feel-good), then Fargo (1996) (small town with murder), then, for the first day of Pride month, Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (secluded location, more murder) then Companion (2025) (secluded location, strange girlfriend, more murder). 

Tonight, we brought it all together with the charming Lars and the Real Girl (2007) featuring Ryan Gosling, small town and a strange girlfriend. Exile #2 and I had watched in many years ago - near the start of the Exile but I’d forgotten what a gem it is. 

Day 19.141; Exile #2’s Sunday Column #554

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #1 and I made the bold choice to get up at 5am to join our nature group at the coast for a couple of hours before church. I was not the only one to opt for a winter coat and nor did I regret it! Although we have not had any, there has been snow in the mountains, which is fairly unusual for Maine in May. It’s been pretty chilly though.

Afterwards, we swung by the house to grab the other Exiles and headed to church where Exile #4 joined the group of those being celebrated for graduating from college and high school.

Exile #4 then spent a bit of time catching up with a friend before we all settled down this evening to watch a movie. As always, we had a lengthy discussion about what it should be. Having enjoyed the very sweet Remarkably Bright Creatures last night, we opted for the grittier classic Fargo tonight. I hadn’t seen it since moving to the US, so I’m pretty sure I understood different things this time - but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it again and it seemed to be a hit with everyone.

Day 19.075: Project Hail Mary

Exile #2 and I fought off the jet lag to go and see this movie yesterday. I read the book last month as part of Elle’s Sci-Fi Book Club. Exile #2 knew basically nothing about the story. We both really enjoyed it from our different starting points.

Day 18.359: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #537

Exile #2 writes...

Although Exile #1 went back to work for one day last week, today really feels like the end of the holidays proper. We are all getting back into gear and thoughts are turning to jobs that have been waiting on to do lists. We postponed things just a little longer this evening, however, by spending the evening watching the sequel to Wicked, having refreshed our memories of the first movie last night. It is maybe not the best sign that we spent the first 10 minutes after the movie discussing the things that had made us giggle but we did generally seem to be in agreement that it was not as strong as the first one. Anyway, it was still fun to pass the time watching it together.

Day 18.335: Drive in; movie

Exile #2 and I took a little road trip this evening to Cambridge MA to see a movie. Yes, we have cinemas significantly closer than that, but not one that was showing The Cure: The Show of a Lost World - a concert film of the launch concert for their 2025 album. They played the new album in full followed by three other sets. 31 songs and nearly three hours in total. It was great to see it on the big screen with some other fans. 

Day 18.110: Duo: wren

We’ve had two Carolina wrens hanging out around our feeder and brush pile in recent days. If they are nesting nearby, we haven’t seen any real evidence of it. 

Day 17.301: Distraction election

Yesterday evening Exile #2 and I put thoughts of the election aside to go and watch a movie about…an election. 

Movie poster for Conclave outside the theater  

It is packed with drama despite the cloistered setting and was just what we needed. As my colleague who recommended it said, the soundtrack makes it great. That said,  everything is really good - the acting, the photography and the writing all get top marks. 

We couldn’t escape today’s news of course, but yesterday evening was blissfully still full of possibilities. 

Day 17.298: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #498

Exile #2 writes...

We woke to frost on the grass and temperatures below freezing. It was something of a jolt to the system after a couple of bizarrely summer-like days last week. But it put us in the mood to grab brunch at a cozy gluten free cafe on the home from church and while we were there, we booked some movie tickets for the week to come - more specifically for Tuesday night, when we will need all the distraction we can get.

At time of posting: just above freezing

Day 17.294: E5N1 Spoonhands

A few years ago, it would be the dance school’s Halloween party that would trigger either a dry-run for Halloween costumes or - sometimes - an alternative costume. Today, it was E5N1’s English class. Here he is as his twist in Edward Scissorhands.

Nothing that resembles a weapon allows though - so plastic spoons it was.

Despite having no plans for trick-or-treating, he has at least one - but probably two - other different costumes lined up for the next couple of days. 

Day 17.065: Movie night

With Exile #3 still away and E5N1 out a school music event, Exile #2 and I went to see Dune Part Two. 

2️⃣ 

No spoilers, but it was fantastic and well worth seeing on the big screen with the big sound system.

Day 17.018: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #466

Exile #2 writes...

E5N1 is currently in rehearsal for his school’s upcoming production of Mean Girls the Musical. This means almost nightly rehearsals, sometimes for singing practice, sometimes to learn choreography and occasionally to practice the odd line he has. So, sometime during dinner on Friday night, the conversation turned to difficult content in this and other musicals that has to be edited to make it acceptable for a high school performance.

At which point, Exile #1 and I thought of Grease! We have talked before about how much of it went over our heads as little kids. Exile #1 remembers seeing it at the movies with his big sisters. I remember wearing out the soundtrack album we had on vinyl. Turns out neither Exile #3 or E5N1 had seen it, so what else could we do but put it on? It’s still a lot of fun, we laughed all the way through, and Exile #1 and I saw new things, watching it with some experience of American high school culture. But it’s still funny how much we didn’t notice!

Day 16.270: Buena Vista Social Club

Some friend invited Exile #2 and me to have dinner with them and then join them at this event:

A showing of the movie Buena Vista Social Club organized by a local radio station. The photo was during a short pre-show talk from a local musician. 

We had a great time and had Cuban rhythms in our heads all the way home from Portland. 

Day 16.180: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #441

Exile #2 writes...

It’s been a weekend of fun things. Exile #3 managed to get out to spend the evening with a couple of friends yesterday, and the rest of us had a trip to the cinema to see Spider-Man: across the Spiderverse today. Exile #4, who is a huge fan of animation, had been desperate to see it and fortunately managed to remind us just in time so that we could catch it at the cinema. It is a beautiful, imaginative, (and very funny) piece of work. So glad we made the effort to see it.

Day 15.124: Lower brow entertainment

After our theater trip yesterday, we went to the movie theater today to see Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It got mixed reviews from the teenagers, but Exile #2 and I were rather more generous in our takes on it.

In particular, we both thought that Elizabeth Olsen was excellent throughout - and had us both tearing up at times.

Overall, it was quite overblown, but I thought in quite a successful way. 

Day 14.353: An actual movie - on the big screen

We went to see a movie today - our first visit to the cinema in a long time. In fact, our local cinema has gone out of business, been shuttered for several months and then re-opened under new owners since we last went there.

The movie was great - it was this one (my tip is don't search for images of this film if you're avoiding spoilers - I didn't make that mistake, but looking for an image for this post revealed that it was just as well):

Day 14.350: Exile #2's Sunday Column #376

Exile #2 writes...

We took it fairly easy today. It snowed overnight and that meant there was a little bit of not-too-urgent shoveling to do.

We were sharing a song at church but we had prerecorded it and submitted to the person in charge of pressing the buttons for our online service, so all we had to do was plonk ourselves down on the sofa at the appropriate time. In fact, perhaps the most stressful thing we did all day was play a game of Ticket to Ride (or the train game, as everyone seems to call it). As usual, there were tense moments as we attempted to complete our routes, but Exile #1 ultimately won. We made up for the mild peril by watching Encanto this evening. It was delightful, and made me glad that the younger Exiles have not decided they are too old for an animated Disney movie.

Day 14.119: Exile #2's Sunday Column #345

Exile #2 writes...

Today was Mother’s Day, and I was very pampered. The young Exiles surprised me with a selection of succulents as a gift, and they organized dessert to go with a dinner that Exile #1 cooked. All this, after putting in some serious time in the yard yesterday, to help me construct another raised bed. We finished the day off by watching School of Rock, a really fun movie which I had somehow never managed to watch.

Day 14.007: Exile #2's Sunday Column #331

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #1 and I often celebrate birthdays and anniversaries by going to see live music. In fact, Exile #1 was reflecting the other day on how lucky we’ve been to catch so many of our favorite bands recently - not knowing everything was about to come to a screaming halt. Needless to say, we’ve been missing it dearly.

This week, however, we got a little reminder of how great it can be by watching the concert film of David Byrne’s American Utopia (directed by Spike Lee). We weren’t sure whether it would appeal to the younger Exiles, so we started watching it ourselves on Thursday night. However, after about an hour, we knew we needed to persuade them to see it.

It’s hard to describe, a wonderful blend of music, dance, and staging, We couldn’t really do it justice with words. So, we put it on and before long, they were hooked. It is quirky, as you might expect but great entertainment and irresistibly joyful. My favorite film review show described it as the movie we need right now and, in our case, I have to agree!

Day 13.246: You can't take the sky from me!

After we finished watching Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, we chose Firefly for our next family (minus Exile #3) viewing experience. We finished in about two weeks with the final episode on Thursday night followed by the Serenity movie yesterday evening.

Today, after lunch we started a game of the Firefly board game - as expected it got quite intense (not sure why Exile #4 is wearing their hood:

By dinner time we were still playing and wondering what to do about the dinner table looking like this:

So naturally, we brought a table in from the garage and squeezed it into a corner so we could eat like this:

and continue (but not complete) the game after dinner. Maybe we'll finish tomorrow!

Day 13.186: Recital at the Drive-in

The signs outside Saco Drive In were for the next few days' showings of The Empire Strikes Back (apparently currently leading box-office charts thanks to a resurgence of drive-in showings). But tonight, it was  different kind of show as we gathered to watch my videos of Exile #3's dance school recital.

We parked up in social-distanced spots as the sun was setting:

and a couple of hours and twenty dance numbers later the show was coming to an end with Exile #3's senior solo:

It all looked pretty good on the big screen - and it's a relief to be the other side of it.