Movie review for a life challenge
Unfixed prompt
Poet Laureate and luminary Andrea/Andrew Gibson was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021. And then earlier last year, they had a recurrence. To help navigate through the shock, grief and frustration, they channeled their inner Roger and Ebert and wrote a review to Cancer the Sequel and found much needed breath, perspective and levity:
I give Cancer The Sequel a one star review. Mostly because I don’t like sequels. The original was fine. Why make another? Cancer The Sequel has the same incredible cast, but there are some moments of bad acting, particularly on the part of the lead who I heard kept breaking character and screaming, “I demand a stunt double for the chemo scenes!” What a wimp. Something that generally irks me is when they kill the villain in the original movie and then bring the villain back in the sequel like, “Oh look the villain didn’t really die!” Are you kidding? We saw the scans. We saw the blood tests. The villain was dead. Besides, how many times can a director aka surgeon scream “cut! cut! cut!” before it’s just unbelievable? That’s not even to mention the issue of genre. I have no idea if I’m watching a comedy, a thriller, or a meditation documentary narrated by the inventor of the panic attack. Rumor has it, the lead had a lot of trouble staying on script. Even refused to pick it up (the script) from the pharmacy––something about the sight of the anti-nausea meds making them nauseous. How does that even make sense? In spite of the movie looking like it was filmed on an iPhone, it went way over budget, as can be expected with catastrophic insurance. In the original film, the cinematographer (CT scan) was great, but in the sequel one can’t help but wonder what the camera could have caught had the film crew arrived a bit earlier, or used a wider lens. Might have been an entirely different movie altogether. One thing I’ll vouch for is the supporting cast. They’re fantastic––though they admittedly look like they’ve aged more than a year in a year. (Movie industry work is relentlessly grueling). Another positive––both the sequel and the original never suggest the doctors are the heroes—a mistake commonly made in most American Films. My last note is this––the soundtrack in the sequel is just as off mood-wise as it was in the original. Dance remixes of Justin Bieber ballads is simply not the way to go when making a movie about a topic this serious.
Nothing like Andrea’s wit and brutal honesty to inspire reflection on own personal narratives. After eight years of living with the never-ending rocking, bobbing, swaying symptoms of Mal de Débarquement Syndrome, my review has evolved from a one star horror flick (I think the cinematographer was drunk because the camera never steadied) to a five star Pixar animation starring a symbiotic ecosystem of fantastically diverse species.
Are you looking for a fresh perspective on something in your life? Is a little cathartic play in order? If so, I hope you’ll share!
What’s the title of your film? Is it a short, a feature or a series? A drama, comedy or spaghetti western?
Is it a blockbuster or a sleeper? Who is your audience?
How many stars do you give it… today. And why?
If you could do a rewrite, what would change?
Kim, my first thought when I read your personal movie review was The Blair Witch Project!
Such a great idea — to think of a situation in your life as a movie. It feels like a good way to get a bit of distance from what could be an intense time.
Sometimes, in harder times, I think of myself as the hero of the movie and I try to think about what the hero would do in this situation how would they respond to the situation at hand.
Thanks Kimberly :)