What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*

TV

When the Weather is Fine (2020) – Ep 6-7

My slow and steady watch of WtWiF continues, and with the school reunion upon us, we learn a little bit more about the town and its people, both their younger selves as well as the people they have become. The whole of Episode 6 had a nostalgic vibe to it, with old friends reuniting and rekindling past friendships (and rivalries).

This episode introduced guest star Kim Young-dae as our convenient plot device – I mean, past flirtation, to push Hae-won (Park Min-young) into realizing her feelings for Eun-seob (Seo Kang-joon). The episode ended with Hae-won’s moonlit confession of her feelings – only for the next one to start with Eun-seob  awkwardly responding “okay” and then running away. To add insult to injury, Hui (Kim Hwan-hee) witnessed the whole thing, but is luckily there to guide her through the rejection with all of her 15 years of life experience. Hui is slowly becoming my favourite character, maturing and growing and putting stupid boys in their place where necessary.

Another one of my faves is Jang-woo (Lee Jae-wook), who is somehow bumbling yet confident, surly but warm-hearted. The fact that such a genius can be so stupid sometime amuses me to no end, and I’m happy that he’s there to provide a link between our characters and act as a bridge between the sometimes disjointed aspects of the narrative.

Speaking of disjointed, I feel like sometimes the tone of the show shifts too far in one direction or another, starting off extremely light-hearted but getting melancholic quickly. There seems to be a sadness that the writers like to lean into more than I find necessary, and the end of Episode 7 is a prime example of that. There seems to be something greatly bothering both our leads, but they seem unable to express themselves or move forward from it, so rather they wallow in their despair.

I’m quite ready for springtime to come to this sleepy town, and with it bring new life and joy to our characters as they find their own paths to happiness.

Movies

Molly’s Game (2017)

This movie is so Sorkin. I didn’t think that Aaron Sorkin would ever be used as an adjective, but there it is. Molly’s Game encompasses so many aspects that I have come to associate with the man’s writing and directing style, that it’s almost like a signature, a style of the auteur.

The film starts with Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) waxing poetic about the worst thing that can happen in sports, all as a lead up to describing her own horrific skiing injury and resilience, before the film cuts to the future where Molly is being arrested for running illegal gambling games. The film then continues to jump back and forth between future-Molly looking for a lawyer to defend her case and past-Molly as she declines into the questionable world of gambling and the various vices that accompany it.

The film banks a lot on star power: Idris Elba player the big-shot attorney who tries to hold Molly accountable for her past actions and delivers inspirational monologues; Kevin Costner plays Molly’s father, who pushes her to the point of breaking, and is the cause of much of her rebellion; Chastain herself brings a strong performance to the table, making us question her character’s morality and whether she is worth the effort of rooting for, just to have her much-anticipated moment of victory by the end of the film. There are also a slew of cameos throughout the film, the most prominent of whom is Michael Cera as Player X, who I can only think  to describe as scummy and questionable.

Overall, the film delivers a fast-paced, high-intensity mystery packaged as a drama, and it was a thrill to watch. Sorkin manages to pull off what he does best, taking morally grey characters and getting people to root for their cause by slowly peeling back the layers of their characters and showing us that they’re just like the rest of us.