Three movies: watch or don't watch

Three movies that you can now rent on Amazon for cheap money.  Way cheaper than seeing them in a theater. In order of when I watched them, they are:

The Skeleton Twins.  Sort of funny, sort of sad, very good. Twins who are now grown-ups of a sort, like we are all sort of like grown-ups but still aren't so certain of that label.  They haven't seen each other in many years but they try to commit suicide independently of each other.  They fail. (No spoilers here.) They reconnect and try to figure out their lives and why they feel so miserable.  They don't really succeed at that but they do realize that their sibling connection is important.  Not schmaltzy, sometimes funny, often serious.  !00% worth watching.

Gone Girl. If you read this book you will understand this short review.  I wanted to throw the movie across the room, much like I wanted to throw the book across the room when finished with it. It follows the book fairly well but it is so long, almost two and a half hours, and the two main characters are so sleezy and creepy and so unlikable that by the time the thing is finished you feel completely used and you want to have a big drink of something strong and harsh to combat the slime you feel all over your body.  Well, other than that, it was technically well done (Fincher is a great director) and hard to fault.  But way too long and, honestly, if you haven't seen it, don't bother.  You end up regretting the 150 minutes you wasted.

Boyhood. OK, this is totally worth the 150 minutes. We all know how Linklater, the director, made this happen.  The story is simple, it follows two kids and their divorced parents for about 14 years, he films them having a life.  Nothing much happens except all the stuff that happens to all of us during a 14 year span of a life: divorce, moving, jobs, babies, teenagers, angst (teenage and adult), regret, joy, sorrow...... it goes on and on.  But in this movie, it goes on in a small, sly way, in a way that draws you in, even if nothing drastic happens. The viewer gets hooked on "regular life" and goes along for the ride.  Whether it's a great movie is in the eyes of the viewer but one thing is for sure: it's a game changer. The fact that Linklater could even make a move like this opens up the genre to more movies in this realm. But I doubt that anyone can make one that tops this.  "Boyhood" is a masterpiece of calm, real, crazy life. See it.

Watching it, I kept waiting for the big BLAM,  a car crash, a shooting, something way out of the norm.  That doesn't happen here. The drama is all in how the people are, how they respond and deal with all the crap of life.  And that's enough.

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