(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . DVD review: Book Club: The Next Chapter [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-11-20 Whatever your opinion is of Book Club: The Next Chapter as a movie on its own merits, or in relation to the previous Book Club movie, I hope you agree with me that it’s a good thing that it was made at all. There aren’t many Hollywood movies with older women as protagonists, there should be more. This sequel was made on a $20 million budget (that’s an estimate) and its theatrical run made close to $29 million worldwide. The Hollywood bean counters have concluded that there should be more movies with older women as protagonists. A net return of 45% is preferable to just breaking even, and certainly preferable to failing to recoup the budget. I reviewed the first movie five years ago, gave it ★★★☆☆. I give the sequel ★★☆☆☆ but the DVD includes some interesting special features, so I add a full star to give it ★★★☆☆. Now I’m going to very quickly summarize the plot of the first movie, going all the way to the ending. Some might derisively say that’s not necessary, and make some tired joke about the highly cerebral plots of these movies, or they might quite correctly say that the sequel is written so as to not require deep knowledge, or any knowledge, of the first movie. There are these four women, Diane (Diane Keaton), Vivian (Jane Fonda), Sharon (Candice Bergen) and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) who have been friends for decades, and they have a book club, hence the title of the first movie. Sexually, the four of them are in a rut. Diane has accepted the death of her husband but she still has his ashes (this point is actually relevant to the second movie). Carol and her husband Bruce (Craig T. Nelson) are still together but haven’t had sex in months. Sharon is newly divorced. And Vivian has a bunch of soulless one-night stands. And then their book club selection is the infamous Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. For me personally, the only reason to read that book is that it has been banned, or “challenged.” Without a ban, it’s just not interesting to me. Carol (Mary Steenburgen, left) argues with her husband Bruce (Craig T. Nelson) in the first Book Club movie. The book does lead the four women on a sexual reawakening. Diane meets and falls in love with Mitchell (Andy Garcia), an airline pilot and wealthy patent holder. After a moral misstep, Carol is able to reignite the spark with her husband. Sharon gets a couple of suitors through Bumble. And Vivian finally acknowledges that the long string of one-night stands are a poor substitute for the love of her life, Arthur (Don Johnson). And they all live happily ever after? Aside from Sharon’s story, the first movie ends on a fairly definite note. But the coronavirus pandemic does not really fit in a happily ever after, does it? In real life, President Barack Obama (D, 2009 — 2017) was succeeded by business failure and future classified documents salesman Donald Trump (R, 2017 — 2021 and that better be it). We knew Trump was going to be bad, but we didn’t really know in what ways. If Trump had allowed the “deep state” to mount a proper pandemic response, the coronavirus would have been a very minor inconvenience in America like it was in New Zealand. That brings us to Book Club: The Next Chapter. The women of the first movie are still holding book club meetings, but over Zoom. The men are the same, except Bruce had a heart attack and the doctor forbids him bacon. Then the pandemic ends and the women decide they must travel to Italy, just the four of them. Why Italy, I don’t really know. As for the book club selections, they’re pretty much forgotten once they buy the plane tickets. Diane decides to bring along her late husband's ashes, and gets them lost on the train in Italy, along with all the ladies’ luggage. Even with this setback, I was getting bored and thought about stopping and ejecting the DVD. But just then a black guy (Hugh Quarshie) shows up. Something interesting might actually happen in this movie. The black guy might be a love interest for Sharon. And Carol might leave her wet blanket of a husband for an Italian chef she knows from long ago. But no, that won’t happen, it’s not really much of a spoiler to tell you that the possibility of Carol having an affair is played strictly for stale sitcom jokes. This movie’s just for lighthearted fun. It contains very little to invite closer examination. There will probably be a third Book Club movie. I intend to watch it, but not with very high expectations. There is some disagreement as to whether or not these movies pass the Bechdel test, which is a useful tool for screenwriters to consider as they work on their drafts. The Bechdel test is a test in which three yes-or-no questions are asked of a movie to measure how important women are to the story. A movie passes if all three questions are answered yes, and fails otherwise. The first question is whether or not the movie has at least two named women characters. A lot of movies fail on this first question, and not just the obvious suspects, like All Is Lost (to my surprise, Cast Away actually gets close to passing). The Book Club movies obviously get to move on to the second question, as to whether or not these named women characters speak to each other, and they do. The third question is whether or not they talk to each other about something other than a man. And they do, but so fleetingly that maybe it doesn’t count. Nevertheless, the women’s friendship is of greater importance than whatever men they stay or end up with. That’s rare in Hollywood movies. Book Club: The Next Chapter is rated PG-13 “for some strong language and suggestive material.” Both Book Club and Book Club: The Next Chapter are available on DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD for Next Chapter includes special features, including special features about travel and fashion. Not super long, but way more than what you get with most DVDs these days, and worth a full star in my opinion. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/20/2206797/-DVD-review-Book-Club-The-Next-Chapter?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/