Amy's F-It List

So here's the concept. A 25-yr-old lady working as a dollar store employee has an episode at work, she sees a doctor, she gets the bad news. She has a brain tumor, a Glioblastoma, and she will die in three days. (In reality the condition is NOT that deadly for an otherwise healthy person.) So she decides, with the encouragement of her sister, to make her F-it list (rhymes with bucket list). But the first five are trivial things, like the people who use the phone when in line, or mistaken fast food orders, or the people who bring 20 items to the 5 item line, or misbehavior at the school drop off lane. And she eats cake and ice cream for breakfast instead of healthier oatmeal.

Number six on her list is a big one but we have no hint of it until, literally, the last minute of the movie. Most of the movie seems to just be killing time, like the several slow conversations with her sister, or between her pregnant sister and her husband.

The actresses who play the two sisters are very capable, Alyson Gorske as the dying girl, Amy Taylor. And Angel Prater as her pregnant sister, Mary Taylor. The plot also contains a scheme to get back $300,000 that they considered "stolen" from them by a businessman. But truthfully, the script is awful, sophomoric, several scenes are played out in a cartoonish manner.

No, not a good movie at all. Filmed in the year 2000 during COVID time, much of it in Sacramento and nearby cities. I watched it streaming on Amazon Prime.

So I now have a crush on Alyson Gorske after watching Obliterated on Netflix, so now I am obligated to watch everything she has ever been in. Amy's F-it List has a premise that could go in a lot of directions and I had no idea going in what kind of tone this movie would have. I expected a light hearted drama which seems like what they were aiming for, but it misses the mark

For a brief synopsis, basically our heroine is living a dead end life after the death of her father when she finds out she has a terminal brain tumor, so she and her sister go on a quest to check off her f it list. From the moment the list is introduced everything just feels rushed and nothing is given the weight it should have given the circumstances involved. The moments that should be funny just come off as corny and the moments that should be heart wrenching just feel like nothing. There's no weight to the subject matter. Much like Amy, it feels like the film makers had a list of scenes to get through, but not enough to connect them and better understand the characters. It doesn't evoke any emotion for the heavy subject matter

This feels like a rough draft of a better movie. Honestly this seemed like a movie I could have seen in the 90s. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the direction, script, and acting all do not seem in line with modern film making and cultural sensibilities. One egregious example is the final list item that is just sort of thrown in like an after thought when it should be a huge all encompassing topic. I think we are supposed to surmise that this is the reason Amy's life goes off track, but the whole movie pins this on her father's death, so it just doesn't work and feels like a cheap ploy to shock the audience

Alyson Gorske and Angel Prater who plays her sister are fine actors, they just didn't have the right ingredients to make this work. It all just comes off as a senior year film studies project. However, I like the idea and think it could work in a more refined movie, and given my new crush on Gorske I can't give this less than a 5. If you have nothing else to watch on a Sunday afternoon it might help you pass the time while scrolling on your phone and folding laundry.

You can make a movie about how crummy a single women's life is. You can make a movie about a terminal cancer diagnosis. You can make a movie about a bucket list. You can make a movie about hookup culture. You can make a sexual assault revenge movie. You can maybe make a movie with two or three of these plot points. But you cannot make a movie with all of them.....with a budget as low as this.......in seventy eight minutes.

This is a bad movie not because of all the above but the sheer hubris of a writer director that should know better. The direction and editing are weak, the acting is corny and if you think the viewing public will accept 'boss babe gets her revenge on a bunch of white guys' storylines anymore, then you are very much mistaken and will soon join the queue at the employment centre nearest you soon enough.

So many ridiculous things in this movie, like after collapsing while at work for a super discount store, getting a phone call saying you have glioblastoma with less than a week to live. Having had a coworker come in with that same diagnosis, stage 4 glioblastoma, live those last days with a what worse can happen attitude. From taking a baseball bat to the truck of a guy who cut her off, to smashing the phone of a lady always delaying the coffee shop line, living the life with no cares. It is so stupid at times is a movie that had me wondering what crazy thing will they come up with next. The shocking end is a reason to keep watching to the end.

This is a sleeper that was well steered by its Director Mark S. Allen. Sometimes you encounter these little indie films coming out of backwater cities that create a sense of place. We have seen it with the Pacific Northwest where everything is rainy and grainy. We have seen it with the Deep South where everything is down home and steamy. What about Sacramento - a flat place with a river and a bridge?

This film uses lots of drone shots to get above the flatlands and give Amy's life some welcome dimension. It throws in some obvious CGI clouds above the horizon and let's us all resonate with goofy Zoom calls.

Once you get past all these low budget choices, what you are left with are the strength of the characters in this fable. First and foremost. Alyson Gorske as Amy has a winning attitude (similar to a young Jennifer Aniston) that makes you want to pull for her even as she faces insurmountable news about her mortality. Her sister Mary (played with empathy by Ms Taylor) inhabits her role much more than the average sidekick in a zany comedy. Mary springs into companionship when Amy's fate is revealed and, even though her first pregnancy is a topic to be considered, the movie keeps the focus on Amy and her final redemption. Finally, there is a roster of character roles that color this production upside, downside, left and right side. I had that same feeling of being introduced to funny people as I was watching the Princess Bride movie. Somehow the obvious lack of slickness works to propel the story along.