Ride the Eagle

Slacker musician Leif Reinhold (Jake Johnson) is told of his estranged mother Honey (Susan Sarandon)'s death. She leaves him her a large cabin but the conditional inheritance comes with many tasks to complete. One of the tasks is to call his former love Audrey (D'Arcy Carden). Carl (J. K. Simmons) is Honey's ex.

Jake and D'Arcy have a nice comedic chemistry even on the phone. I wouldn't them doing something more in another movie. The phone sex is fun. They have the same comedic sensibility. They could have done more in this movie like talk about their past relationship. It would have been fine to have them talked the whole movie. Jake and J. K. are also good but they are one person removed. There is always going to be a hole in the middle of their connection. This is a fine little indie.

1) I've written about the recent "rent an Airbnb and use it as a set for your indie film" phenomenon but this was actually done right. A huge part is because of competent actors and likeable/intriguing characters.

2) Free of the usual unnecessary agenda (except for a global warming vs politicians bit) which is refreshing from an American comedy these days.

3) Not a great deal of twists here but it's a comfy film for a great hang. All the 5 characters (dog included, since it got a lot of screen time) were superb with JK Simmons not having a lot to do and the ex gf's phone quips being my favorite.

The film is a lot more emotional and engaging than I expected. Despite the grim subject, it still manages to maintain a light tone, which is good. I enjoyed watching it.

First off, not sure if this was written as a pandemic movie, or if they had to adapt it to pandemic conditions, but conceptionally it works without a pandemic and that's awesome.

Second, I think the algorithm got me, suggesting this via Hulu from my internet searches. My mother just passed away from covid, and i've had to deal with her estate. I heavily suspect google provided that information to hulu.

And now on content, this movie hits home in alot of areas. My mother was a bit crazy, had secrets, and weird stuff that i've been having to deal with in just sending her off. It's not a conditional list, but I think most people who die before their 70s aren't as prepared as they should be. This leaves alot of unfinished things. This movie's turn of using a mother who knows she is near death to send her son on missions is much less tragic and opens itself to a pleasant, although not hilarious, comedy. The characters go through many things that i've had to, but with different details. The main character gets through this and is a better person on the end, its definitely heartening to have that presented to me at this point. Good stuff.

This story sounded cheesy and cliche, but it turned out to be quite a nice story.

The good: this movie has got a lighthearted, mellow, witty kinda feel to it.

More good: great actors, BUT they dont really excell at comedy. BUT it'll do...

The bad: the jokes are just not up there yet. They just miss the mark a bit. Still reasonably amusing to watch, but with some better direction and timing, it could have been funnier.

Not annoying. Only a bit slow. But the nice kind of slow...

6 and a half star is perfectly capturing the quality of this movie. But I'll upgrade it to 7 stars, because this movie is so nice and mellow... I liked that...