NETFLIX

HILLBILLY ELEGY
* * *
(J. D. Vance memoir)

Who would have thought that after reading J. D. Vance’s memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” that he would be the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States?

If you haven’t read the book, you can catch the movie version on Netflix.

The movie, and the book, concentrates on Vance’s years as a young boy growing up poor in Appalachia and then moving with his family to a small Ohio town, bringing the culture and family problems with them.

The story flashes back and forth a bit too frequently, tying J.D.’s past with his present life as a student at Yale Law School.

His mother (played by Amy Adams) gave birth when she was an unwed teenager. She managed to get a nursing degree, but drugs got the best of her, ruining her life and making it difficult for everyone around her, especially J.D.

Glenn Close is good as Mamaw, the crotchety, foul mouthed, but often wise grandmother who can be credited with saving J.D. from his past.

The movie deals head on with the culture and obstacles facing the “poor whites,” including poverty, addiction, lack of education, and family abuse.

J.D. rises above all that by graduating from Ohio State and getting a scholarship to Yale Law.

The movie is a downer at times but will certainly gain wide interest now that Vance has become a national figure.

FIND ME FALLING
* * *
(Romance in Cyprus)

Harry Connick Jr. plays a middle-aged one-hit singer/songwriter who hasn’t had a song on the charts for years.

He escapes to the beautiful Greek island of Cyprus, buys a house on the edge of a cliff and wants to be left alone.

No one told him that the nearby cliff was the popular place for suicides. The running joke has him trying to build a fence to prevent anyone jumping.

He runs into an old flame who he had left in the lurch and the flame is lit again.

And then there is her daughter, who is the singer at the local bar. But that’s another story.

If you stick around, there is a corny twist at the end of the romantic story.

“Find Me Falling” is a piece of fluff that fits the category of a “date night movie.”

WARWICK SHOWCASE

TWISTERS
* * * (Joyce)  * * ½ (Don)
(Disaster movie with love story)

Following up with the 1996 tornado disaster movie, “Twisters” adds a corny love story and more modern techniques to fighting tornados to its unbelievable script.

Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kate, a National Weather Service employee based in New York.

She is asked to join a former colleague (Anthony Ramos) in Wisconsin on a dangerous expedition to stop tornadoes before they land and destroy everything in sight.

Five years have passed since the pair nearly died along with their team chasing a tornado, and there is a lot of guilt and blame beneath the surface.

It’s a new ballgame, as the crew has more modern equipment and knowledge, as they gather, along with tornado chasers, who just do it for the thrill and a spot on TikTok.

Kate encounters self-proclaimed tall, handsome and arrogant Tornado Wrangler Tyler (Glen Powell), and the two immediately clash. It is a case of scientific knowledge vs gut reactions.

The crews chase the tornados as cars, houses and people fly around them.

Will the two end up working together to save the townsfolk by diverting the tornado?

What about her other friend who is passionately in love with her? Joyce enjoyed the love story. I dug the special effects.

We both had problems with the stupid story.

AVON

TOUCH
* * ½
(Sentimental romantic tale)

This sentimental romantic tale is about an Icelandic senior citizen whose doctor tells him it is time to get his affairs in order.

Kristofer had one big affair in his youth that was interrupted when his Japanese girlfriend and her family disappeared fifty years ago.

Off he goes to London and then Japan, searching for her.

The movie jumps back and forth between Kristofer as a youth working in a Japanese restaurant in London and as an old man returning to the two countries in search of his first love.

It is slow moving, with most of the two hours spent on the younger time of his life.

Does he find her?

You will have to sit through movie, with its English and Icelandic and Japanese subtitles, to find out.