Hang A Lantern On It: 2022

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Monday, August 15, 2022

Mack and Rita: When RomComs Go Bad

I'm about to say unnescesarily mean things about a movie I saw this weekend, so you have a chance to bail out now because I have warned you. I went into Mack and Rita knowing almost nothing and expecting nothing. I was only there because I needed to charge my car for a couple of hours, and I have one of those "see all the movies you want for 24 bucks" deals with Regal. So I gave it a try.

You may not be aware but Mack and Rita is about an adorable 30 year old influencer named Mack who feels a little adrift in her life. She's making a comfortable living encouraging people to use a certain nail polish or conditioner but she secretly wishes she didn't care what people think about her, the same way that the great aunt that she grew up with didn't care. On a Palm Springs trip with her best friend and a couple of shallow, cartoonish acquaintances (friends? Whatevs) her feet get tired from
her high heels and she splits off to find a place to sit. She finds a tent run by some kinda shaman/hippie/guru who allows her to stretch out in his mystical tanning bed. There's wind and loud music, and she shouts that her fondest wish is to be cool like her great aunt. And then through dubious magical means, she emerges as Diane Keaton.

I'm exhausted trying to write that down and it's only the first act. In the second act she tries to find the guru so she can change back, and her hunky next door neighbor whom she never quite connected with somehow falls for her as Keaton. It's not for the squeamish.

Anyway of course it's silly but I've seen this kind of nonsense play just fine in other movies. The script isn't the problem, and the casting seems great. But I haven't seen a comedy where so many credible jokes simply fail to land since Vibes, the Jeff Goldblum/Cyndi Lauper joint in the eighties. I think the director is the problem this time. Nothing works. Keaton isn't funny (still charming of course but charm ain't always enough) the romance is forced, the story seems even worse than it must have on paper. Oh and Wendy Malick somehow fades into the background. IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? Oh yes, yes it is. Glad she got work though.

15 minutes in I was reminded that most movies that are made never wind up in theaters. And I thought "why oh why not this one too?"

It begs the question of how it's fair for me to even bring it up, right? Well, you're probably not going to see it. Maybe you didn't even hear of it. I might be on the only person on the internet who is writing about this at all, which makes this a good shot at getting higher hit counts. Proof that influencers are ruining everybody's lives.