Film review - Girl Most Likely

We got free tickets to a screening of this film that I probably wouldn't have bothered to go to otherwise. I do tend to judge films by their posters and trailers and in this case neither have appealed to me.

Which is a shame, because I found this funny and highly enjoyable, even if it is only scoring less than 6 on IMDb. It's feel-good movie with some stand-out performances from Kristen Wiig in the lead, Annette Bening, and particularly Matt Dillon, playing a guy who might be a total flake, or might not. My favourite character was Ralph, played by Christopher Fitzgerald. Glee fans will also enjoy Darren Criss's performance.

The plot is fairly simple. Wiig plays Imogene, a playwright who never lived up to her potential, whose life comes unstuck. She winds up in a psych ward and gets put in the care of her mother who she has been estranged from for years. To make matters worse, this means she has to leave her 'successful', cool Manhattanite life to slum it back in her hometown on the New Jersey shore. But that forces her to confront her own failings and discover her family aren't all they seem after all.

So far, quite predictable. But there's more to it than you'd believe from my rubbish precis in the previous paragraph. It's a coming of age tale for a girl in her 30s taking stock of her life, and maybe that's what chimed with me, being a guy in my 30s reflecting at present on what I want to be doing with my life.

The jokes are reasonably sophisticated and aren't belaboured. In fact it's the throwaway prop gags and references that made me realise this was a better film than many. Stuck back in New Jersey with just the clothes she left behind when she left in the 90s, Imogene ends up wearing a Friends t-shirt. I thought that was funny and, in a way, authentic. That's just one example.

There are also some touching moments. Ralph makes a sheet-fort as a makeshift bedroom for Imogene, as her room is unavailable to her. There's also a moment later on that made the audience go 'Aw!', again involving Ralph. But it doesn't lapse into ridiculous schmaltz, although the ending felt a bit sudden and too perfect. Still, that's a minor gripe.

It's a feel-good movie and it made me feel good. So, job done.

Rating: 8/10

My Ground Zero story

It's hard to believe it's six years since 9/11.

Earlier this year I visited Ground Zero, which has apparently gradually shrunk as parts of it are redeveloped. Opposite the site where the Twin Towers stood is St Paul's Chapel, which I think is the oldest church in New York. The chapel became an emergency room following the terrorist attacks, and then a place to eat and crash out for those working through the debris several storeys underground. In the chapel are a large number of displays about the aftermath of 9/11, photos of the church workers and volunteers who gave up their time to care for the rescue workers who still had to toil on even though there was no hope of rescuing any more survivors.

St Paul's Chapel was where George Washington worshipped on a regular basis - in fact Washington's private pew was kept as a kind of monument to the first president. But with space at a premium, the church leaders decided they'd have to use Washington's pew as if it was any other part of the church.

Because Washington suffered with foot problems in his life, they turned the pew area into a podiatry station. As you can imagine after 12 hour (or more) shifts down in the rubble, workers were footsore. Damp conditions didn't help and there were numerous bits of rubble or metal which could scratch or pierce a worker's foot.

What you need to know is that Americans are very aware of their history. It isn't as long a history as most European states, but they celebrate it with far more reverence than we do. So, converting the pew was a big deal. But they managed to turn it into a useful treatment point, which didn't preserve a historical event, but used it as an inspiration to create a further bit of history.

I'm not sure there are many churches in the world which would do that. But perhaps there should be.

And that's my Ground Zero story.

Mets 2 Phillies 5

When you're a visitor with a one off chance of seeing a top flight sporting occasion, you want something memorable. Like when we went to see Newcastle United and the Toon had three men sent off - two of them for fighting each other.

Going to see the Mets was one of the things I was most excited about before we went, but I desperately wanted it to be memorable, and it was, but for the wrong reasons.

On a freezing cold night at Shea Stadium we saw a Mets pitcher melt down in front of us. With two out in the third inning he inexplicably walked four players, effectively giving the opponents two runs. [NB - if a pitcher throws four pitches outside the strike zone the batter gets to walk to first base. The guy at first moves on to second and so on. So you can walk in a run if the bases are loaded and the better doesn't swing at the fourth wayward pitch.]

Then with the bases still loaded, the pitcher proceeded to hit the next batter with a pitch, automatically walking him to first, and with everyone moving up a base, scoring the Phillies a third.

It was one of those rare occasions that will probably get dragged up again and again, like the triple sending off, and we were there to see it. Unfortunately there was no way back for the Mets and by the end of the ninth we were so cold we just wanted the game to end.

Still it was great to go and see a game at Shea, especially as the stadium is going to be pulled down soon and the Mets will move to a brand new stadium next door.

A busy Tuesday

We met one of our cartooning heroes - Dan Piraro, creator of Bizarro. He was as pleasantly weird as you'd expect a cartoonist to be, and graciously gave us an hour and a half of his time at the Atlas cafe on 2nd Avenue. The pic is taken outside with Dan holding his scooter helmet even though (ssshhh) he claims he doesn't have a licence for it...






This was after a walk round Chinatown, Little Italy and the Jewish quarter. We capped off our day with more shopping and in the evening I pigged out on a Froot Loops marshamallow confection. Those who know my passion for Froot Loops won't be surprised to hear that I forced myself to eat it all! (I have got a photo but it's on Cath's camera and it's too late for me to work out how to get stuff off that onto here.)

Into the holiday proper

Dear all back at the office... missing me yet?

Can't say I'm missing work. Not after the excitement yesterday of visiting Central Park, the zoo, Grand Central Station, California Pizza Kitchen, World of Disney, and the Empire State Building. But today is the first work day I'm off, so it calls for something special.

How about a trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island? Yeah, that'll do...

The "Snapple" incident

"Snapple" is a delicious fruit drink. It is also apparently a dangerous substance when you're trying to enter the Empire State Building. Going through security the terrified shouts of "Bottle! Bottle! It's a Snapple!" resulted in a standoff between security and us.

Later, having viewed the night-time cityscape safely in a Snapple-free zone we were able to reclaim our potentially lethal bottle of still orangeade, although Cath was asked if she could pick it out of a line up.

That's how criminal it is to drink Snapple in the tallest building in New York.

An hour in NYC and we're talking to the NYPD

Here's a rule I always stick to - never, ever say how well your journey is going until you get there.

Unfortunately we are travelling with someone who doesn't obey the rule. After a hassle free entry into the good old US of A, with a very friendly immigration officer who had a wonderfully authentic New York accent, and picking up a cab easily, we made very good time into Manhattan itself, heading towards our hotel.

"Blimey, we're making good time..." remarks Ab, at which point me and Cath both say "Nooooooo, aw, you've jinxed it now." Then at the next intersection a crazy ass cyclist decided the best thing to do with his time (and ours) was to cut up our cab and get himself knocked off. Four police officers, a fire truck with a complete crew, and an ambulance all turned up, even though the guy was OK (although he developed a suspicious limp and stopped demanding money from the cabbie when the cops turned up). "You guys alright to wait?" asks Mr New York Cop, then came the questions. "First time in New York?" "First time you've ever been in a cab that's run over a cyclist?" etc. etc.

We got on our way eventually, after sitting there like lemons for about 45 minutes. Ironically it meant our cab ride took as long as the guide book had warned us it could take. That's the thing about jinxes. There's a level of irony at work at a deeper level in the universe. As we sat there waiting for the cops to let us continue on our way Cath remarked: "Well, at least it isn't raining."

Guess what happened next.

Amsterdam

From Cardiff to Schippel (Skipple) airport took us not very long at all. Kudos to Irony Boy for driving us to the outskirts of Barry in the middle of the night. Talk about a sidekick being worth his weight in gold.

Schippel airport is easily one of the nicest airports to hang around the transit lounges in. We met up with Abs OK (she'd flown in from NuKassel) but then we had a typical moment. Cath was feelign rough so me and Abs went to find some lunch. Abs wanted something savoury but we ended up with waffles and ice cream from the Haagen Dazs stall. Which would be fine, except that Abs is allergic to dairy. So, just before we got on a nine hour flight to New York, her stomach starts making ominous wambles.

The joys of travelling with family...

Baseball’s back, baby

With the new season getting nearer and, more importantly, our trip to the Big Apple almost happening, guess how excited I was to print out tickets to see the Mets play the Phillies. That’s right. We’re going to "Meet the Mets, whoah".

OK, it’s not the Padres, who will always remain the first team of preference for me, but hey, it’s the Mets at Shea Stadium. And at what works out at about £45 for three of us in decent seats, the price comparison with going to a football match (even at a lowly league 2 club) makes a night out in New York seem amazingly cheap.