Thumbnails Aug 24

by Tony Medley

Sorry / Not Sorry (9/10): 98 minutes. NR. Streaming and available everywhere you can rent/buy movies. Louis C.K. was an immensely successful comedian/producer whose perversion was masturbating in front of women. It was a not-so-closely-held secret until it became a scandal. He made a 35mm film in 2017 called “I Love You Daddy” that was so disgusting it wasn’t released. Although I saw it, I did not write a review because the scandal broke almost immediately after my viewing, and I thought it would not see the light of day.

This illuminating documentary is based on the New York Times article, Louis C.K. is Accused by 5 Women of Sexual Misconduct by Melena Ryzlik, Cara Buckley and Jodi Kantor and is directed by Caroline Suh and Cara Mones.

Up-and-coming comediennes Jen Kirkman and Megan Koestler are interviewed at length about their experiences which shattered their lives. Also interviewed, Dana Min Goodman and Julia Willow were two female emerging comics whom he invited to his room where he asked if he could masturbate in front of them. When they were stunned into silence, he took off his clothes and, naked, did it. Their promising careers virtually died aborning as a result of this experience, and they explain why.

These stories are shocking, but equally shocking are the hypocritical people who defend Louis C.K. and diminish the women making the accusations, like Jon Stewart, Bill Maher (“there’s a litany of things that are a lot worse than [masturbating] in front of a few people.”), Dave Chappelle, and Luis J Gomez (“What did he do, he [masturbated] in front of a few women…who hasn’t?”).

The film concludes with Louis C.K.’s comeback and a few comments from people like Michael Ian Black, a comedian, who asks “How do we welcome people back and how do we not welcome people back?”

Louis C.K.’s victims have some comments about his comeback, too. This important film highlights the sordid underbelly of show business.

Joe Pickett (8/10): 2 seasons series of 10–50-minute episodes each, streaming Paramount+. TV-14. Based on CJ Box novels about a game warden, Joe Pickett (Michael Dornan) and his wife, Marybeth (Julianna Gill) and their children. In the opening season Pickett is new to the job and the story includes flashbacks to explain his character. Joe is up against some bad characters who do everything to thwart his efforts to clean things up all the while putting his family in dire danger. The scenery is beautiful, and the tension builds to a crescendo.

Fly Me To the Moon (7/10): 132 minutes. PG-13. I was inclined not to like this, mainly due to its star, Channing Tatum, who is of the Kevin Costner school of acting, a good-looking guy who just recites his lines and hits his marks. So I was surprised to find that, while frivolous, it was entertaining.

it seems to be germinated from a documentary made by writer/producer Craig Titley’s, Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? (2001) in which Craig postulated that the entire moon landing was a big scam telecast from a studio, and presented evidence to document the theory.

Although Titley’s film is uncredited, in this iteration, directed by Greg Berlanti from a script by Keenan Flynn, Rose Gilroy, and Bill Kirstein (multiple writers, generally a bad sign) Cole Davis (Tatum) is Apollo 11’s launch director. Foisted upon him by a White House PR guy, Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), is marketing whiz Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) who is an aggressive over-achiever with a mysterious past.

This is a romcom so there is a romantic attraction between Kelly and Cole, even though he fights her throughout the film. The best performance in the film is by Harrelson as the typical political dirty tricks guy.

Even though like most undisciplined movies today it goes on too long, it’s enjoyable and there are some impressive special effects.