Movie Monday 10/14

sigh...still badly crashed, going on two weeks now. This is a bad one - perhaps the worst I've experienced in several years. I think it was triggered by exposure to my son's cold. By the end of last week, it had developed into bronchitis, and I was hoping that starting antibiotics would help. I felt even worse on Saturday - maybe from the exertion of going to the doctor's office and the drugstore - and was still stuck in horizontal position. I missed out on our local CFS group's potluck dinner, though my family still went. I felt a little better Sunday and thought it was finally over, but I woke up this morning worse than ever - again, I probably did too much, too soon yesterday.

So, I haven't had the energy for writing much here, but I have been posting brief updates and comments on my new Facebook page for Learning to Live with ME/CFS. If you are on Facebook, check it out and click "Like" to get blog updates and join the conversations!

Anyway, with all this time spent on the couch, I saw two movies this weekend, one with my family and one on my own when they all went out Saturday evening:

Friday night, my husband and I and our 15-year old son watched Iron Man 3, and we all enjoyed it very much! With all superhero/comic book movies that have come out in the past 5 years or so (and there have been a LOT of them), the Iron Man movies are my favorite, perhaps because of the considerable charms of their leading man, Robert Downey, Jr. In this one, Downey returns in the title role as Tony Stark, with his sidekick played by Don Cheadle (now called Patriot Man by the US government), and his now-girlfriend Pepper Potts, played by Gweneth Paltrow - how can you miss with these three accomplished actors? A new villain is on the scene, a mysterious terrorist who calls himself The Mandarin, played hilariously by Ben Kingsley. As with previous Iron Man movies, there is a lot of action, amazing technology, and cool stunts, as well as an engaging storyline and a nice dose of humor.

Saturday night, with my family away at the party I wanted to go to and maybe feeling a little sorry for myself, I cross-referenced 50 Best Romantic Comedies Of All Time with movies free on Amazon Prime and came up with Chasing Amy. Made in 1997, it stars a young Ben Affleck and Jason Lee as Holden and Banky, best friends and comic book writing partners. They meet another comic book creator named Alyssa whom Holden falls for almost immediately. There is a catch, though: Alyssa is openly, blatantly, and proudly gay. She and Holden become good friends, but he wants more. Meanwhile, Holden's close relationship with Alyssa begins to come between his and Banky's 20-year long friendship. I really liked this movie, especially the fact that it was unique and unlike any other movie plot I'd seen before. Not your typical light and fluffy rom-com, it has some funny moments but also delves fairly deep into serious questions of what is love, what is the difference between sex and love, and what does it take to build (or destroy) a relationship. The film earns it R rating with plenty of very frank talk about sex, so you might want to skip this one if that makes you uncomfortable. For me it was a welcome distraction from a rotten week, and I found that the characters really stuck with me afterward.

Have you seen any good movies lately?

P.S. If you are also interested in what I've been reading (plenty of reading time last week!), check out the Monday post on my book blog.