hopscotchee: murderous mickey shay score: 70 rating: R time: 101 minutes
it's time for a lil' cup of what we call a refresho drama - don't you think?!?! sophisticated and clever, this female led, directed, and written concoction beautifully stirs together the tug-of-war battle between holding onto what you love and coming to terms with the truth, while simultaneously adding a dash of spice through classic family conflicts and sparring opinions. awe-inspiring itself, an equally remarkable cast lines this movie up with names such as, hillary swank, robert forster, blythe danner, and, the man himself, the murderous mickey shay!! yes folks, he returns!! and yes folks, he kills this role, once again!! so what are you waiting for, get a warm blanket, get cozy, and get ready, because it's definitely time you watch what they had!!
pulling out the classic, even if overstated, iggy azalea line and most appropriate intro paragraph lead-in, first things first (i'm a realist), though this refresho drama wasn't steamy or full of eye-candy, syrupy elements, that's exactly what made this film standout and grab the hearts of its viewers. from the script down to the hair and make-up, this drama was the true realist (quoting back to iggy), which could be seen with the abundant, generic sweaters and layered clothing or, our personal fav, nick's bar that looked and felt like an actual bar that one could go to in real life. in other words, the bar wasn't suited up with an impractical amount of bar-swag, but instead used its quaintness (and beautiful natural lighting) to be quite hillary-swanky (hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe). reeling back from our awesome pun, the importance to this was that by depicting an everyday family with an everyday life, that's truly authentic and representative of a ordinary family, allowed for the plot to hit closer to heart and create a bigger impact.
secondly standing on its own was the acting, as can be seen, scoring the highest out of all of the categories. though, yes, going into the film we weren't doubting the impressive talents of one of our deadlist alumni or the legacies of the other notable names, however, as we watched minute by minute of the movie, we were absolutely consumed with the pure family dynamic!! we've got to give the incredible, back-and-forth, whip banter, that brought lots of joy to the story, to the script, however the deliverance of it with such ease and humor is 100% credit to the cast. they not only played that bickering fam to excellency, they layered it along with great camaraderie and chemistry that felt natural, only establishing the actresses and actors' hard work and dedication toward the film to work up to that level of vulnerability and companionship. so, yeah, this kinda just further proves our deadlist review of mickey shay!! just saying - hashtag 5sos
all this said, no matter how wonderful and delicious any warm drink is, eventually they all cool down. unfortunately, for our refresho drama its 'cool moments' (and not the good sense of cool) came from a few inconsistencies throughout. for instance, the sound quality from scenes were a bit irregular at times. there was great quality in the indoor scenes, but then low quality during the (spoiler) shower scene between bridget and her mom - which is understandable. you don't want to get mics wet, however, the switch was still kinda a jarring jump in audio. additionally, another inconsistency that we noticed was with the pairing of music to the movie. some of it didn't feel fluid or like it went along well (or as well) as it could've played alongside the script.
that said, one more thing we must mention is, although this movie from our filmmaking-appreciative standpoint was genuinely notable, from an entertainment stance what they had's sentimental qualities and saddening plot-twist ending may leave viewers a bit gloomy-feeling. this does not in any way make the film bad, it is just a disclaimer we wanted to clear.
all in all, despite a few inconsistencies, bringing the laughs, love, and tears, what they had is a sweet and tender take on the struggle of letting go and what it means to be a family - and such a perfect refresho drama for our hopscotch.
-- thanks, mickey xo