MERMAIDS

PLOT SUMMARY: An unconventional single mother relocates with her two daughters to a small Massachusetts town in 1963, where a number of events and relationships both challenge and strengthen their familial bonds.

WHERE TO WATCH: Max

JAIMEE’S NOTES: You may think, man we are doing lots of mermaid work lately, but you may be surprised to know that this movie has little to nothing to do with mermaids. This is a wonderful 90’s coming of age movie set in the 60’s with a young Winona Ryder and an even younger Christina Ricci and……..CHER! I love when Cher puts her actress hat on. Rachel Flax is a single mother of two who loves to date and have fun. Her older daughter Charlotte is obsessed with religion and her younger daughter, Kate is obsessed with swimming. A quote that made me LOL, Rachel: “Ok, how do I look?” Charlotte: “Like a woman about to go forth in sin.” Rachel: “Oh good, exactly the look I was hoping for.” Rachel is dating her boss and it does not end well, so they pack up and move from Oklahoma to Eastport, Massachusetts. Rachel is a little unstable and also gets restless as her and the girls have moved 18 times, but I think she’s a good mom overall. I do love that she only cooks like cocktail sized things and things on skewers, I just love that she does whatever she wants to do. Anyway, we are in Massachusetts and we meet the hot neighbor boy, Joe….who is actually Jake Ryan!? Omg. Charlotte has a huge crush on Joe of course, she’s 15 and he’s 26….a bit creepy. They also moved close to a convent and Charlotte is obsessed with spying on the nuns. One day when they go to the shoe store, Rachel meets Lou, who used to live in South Dakota. Lou is the fucking best. Lou is the light of our lives in this movie. Lou loves Rachel for everything she is and wants to know everything about her. Charlotte is trying to get closer to Joe, making sandwiches and going fishing. Rachel cuts her sandwiches into stars and she gets pissed. Moms on TikTok do that everyday now when they are making their kids lunches, Rachel was way ahead of her time. Charlotte has some weird thoughts; she wants to know if nuns wear their undies in the shower? I doubt it, girl. On a sad day, when President Kennedy gets assassinated and Joe is very emotional about it, Charlotte kisses him and then thinks she’s pregnant, oh girl. Charlotte continues to mature. Rachel and Lou’s relationship grows and has bumps along the way and Kate grows up and swims her heart out. This is one of those movies where there isn’t really a big thing that happens, just lots of very important little events….just like LIFE. There are relationship woes, family woes, and a traumatic event. In the end, I fucking loved this film. I love this family and I love how far we’ve come. I highly recommend watching. Cut to Cher with the credit song! SHOOP SHOOP!

THE FIRST WIVES CLUB

PLOT SUMMARY: Reunited by the death of a college friend, three divorced women seek revenge on the husbands who left them for younger women.

WHERE TO WATCH: Paramount+ or FREE on PlutoTV

JAIMEE’S NOTES: I cannot say enough about how much I love this movie. It has three of my favorite things: a terrific cast, powerful women, and female friendship. We have our four main friends played by absolute queens: Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Diane Keaton and Stockard Channing. Husbands played by Dan Hedaya (I can’t think of anything other than his role as Richard Nixon in the amazing movie, Dick), Victor Garber, and disgusting Stephen Collins, AKA Eric Camden….we all know what he did. And even new girlfriends: Marcia Gay Harden, Elizabeth Berkley and Sarah Jessica Parker!? The best. Oh and also a Maggie Smith appearance. My lord. Elise, Brenda and Annie reunite at the funeral of one of their best friends from college after not seeing each other for years. They all kind of find out they are having issues with their husbands or ex-husbands, these ladies are going through it! I feel like watching this and also The Golden Girls because they are supposed to be like in their 50’s on that show, yes an insane fact; but after watching these things, being a single woman in your 40’s and 50’s in the ‘90s seems hard as fuck! Everyone is so mean and insulting. The ladies all receive a letter from their deceased friend, Cynthia, and she expresses regret that they did not stay in touch. She thinks that would have helped with her mental health because she was also going through a very public divorce and was quite lonely. The rest of the ladies see this as a cautionary tale and agree that they must keep in touch and stick together because together they are stronger and they can stand up for themselves! After enlisting the help of Annie’s daughter, Chris, they start gathering information and pulling some stunts on their husbands so they can get even and get what they believe they deserve. I love that they make like an actual clubhouse and get business cards, very important! They are really wheeling and dealing, but you’ll have to tune in to see everything they do to the men and how it all turns out in the end! I just really love the confidence they all find and how much they all now value their friendship. They are there for each other always. Eventually the ladies open a crisis center for women in honor of Cynthia, which is so great. They also have some amazing celebrity guests stop by, including Kathie Lee Gifford, Gloria Steinem, and Ivana Trump who gives us a great quote, “Don’t get mad, get everything!” This movie ends with a perfect singing performance of You Don’t Own Me in smart white dress suits. This is a perfect movie, I just love them. For the love of god, cherish your female friendships, people!!

IRISH WISH

PLOT SUMMARY: When the love of Maddie’s life gets engaged to her best friend, she puts her feelings aside to be a bridesmaid at their wedding in Ireland.

WHERE TO WATCH: Netflix

JAIMEE’S NOTES: I was so excited to have a holiday appropriate, brand new, fun, LINDSAY LOHAN movie! Even though it had a Lifetime movie vibe, I loved every second of it. Every stupid second. Maddie is a book editor from Des Moines, Iowa apparently? She is in love with her author, Paul Kennedy, though he has no idea. She has also not told her two best friends that she likes this man, the only person that knows this information is her mom. Her best friends, Emma and Ayesha Curry lol…her name in this movie is Heather, I had to look it up, she’s just Ayesha Curry to me. Anyway, her best friends come to the book party and Emma and Paul have a little spark and fast forward….they’re in love, they’re getting married in Ireland! And Maddie never said a damn thing, which I guess it would be awkward at this point in time but kind of weird. She very much regrets that she didn’t share her feelings but she’s just being a good friend and attending the wedding. To me, this is so not a Lindsay Lohan type of character, she’s too passive! And also, like bitch get over it. But we’re in Ireland, guys! This movie was very clearly actually filmed there and it is beautiful! The scenery is everything. Like in every cliche rom-com where New York City is, “almost like another character in the movie” Ireland is for sure a character in this one! (Shout out They Came Together, we’ll save that for another movie day). Maddie is also such the clumsy, everything bad happens to me girl. The airline loses her luggage and she has to take a bus to the mansion, such a hard life. On the bus, she meets a nature photographer, James. They have a tiny tiff, but never gonna see him again, SURELY! Maddie goes off on her own one day…into the forest…and happens upon a lady who tells her about this stone chair called a wishing chair. And this bitch makes a wish TO MARRY HER BEST FRIEND’S FIANCÉ! Maddie wakes up the next day and her wish, of course, came true. So now, Maddie is planning her wedding to Paul with Emma and Ayesha Curry in tow. It’s very clear over this short time that her and Paul have little to nothing in common and her and their now wedding photographer, James have everything in common. And also Emma and Paul are still like pining for each other. How did she not realize this? Paul doesn’t even seem to like her when they are supposed to be engaged. But, there are lots of things I don’t get about this movie. Maddie’s friends didn’t know she doesn’t know how to ride a bike? What kind of friends are these ladies!? I taught one of my friends how to ride a bicycle in my carpeted basement in the winter. These are things you share! Also, side note, Maddie’s mom is kind of a disaster too, I see where she gets it from. Mom keeps missing her flights and falling down and she also sleeps with gloves on, like what!? All it takes for Maddie to realize she is making a mistake is getting stranded at a fun ass Irish pub with James, girl I get it. In her stunning plaid dress, Maddie learns that this forest woman was St. Brigid and she likes to fuck with people. She’s gotta undo this wish before the wedding! Will she figure it out in time?! If you’ve seen any Lifetime movie, you know the answer to this. This movie did give me some ideas if I ever get married, try to have it in Ireland and make my bridesmaids wear those ugly little straw hats. I could not look away, I need the straw hats.

THE LITTLE MERMAID (2023)

PLOT SUMMARY: A young mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress a prince.

WHERE TO WATCH: Disney+

JAIMEE’S NOTES: Our first live action Disney movie! I assume Disney’s goal with all of these live action movies is making money, of course, because people will want to see their favorites in a different light. But I will say, I learned so much in this movie that I feel like I did not know or realize from watching the original Little Mermaid. Maybe they added things to right their wrongs and make it more like the actual story from Hans Christian Andersen, which I kind of forgot about. Yes, everyone put The Little Mermaid original fairy tale on your reading lists. We even begin the movie with a super sad quote from the original story, “But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.” Damn. There may be differences in this movie, but one thing for remains…Eric….still hot. Hotter because he is a real live person. The plot is also mostly the same with some very different details. King Triton calls his daughters the daughters of the seven seas, so he gets around. Player, player. I also did not picture Flounder this way, I know this is what flounder fish are supposed to look like but I don’t have to like it. He’s too skinny, eat something Flounder. We have a Jaws interlude. We get to the fire on the ship scene and I loved the little addition of Ariel helping to push Max the dog to safety. Eric on the other hand sinks like a ton of bricks. Side note, I love how they made their hair move so realistically underwater, I can’t stop looking at it. By god, we get an Eric solo! I love it so much. And here are things we learn maybe from the actual story or things they added that just made sense; first of all Ariel’s mom was killed by a human!? This makes King Triton’s dislike of humans much more valid, as opposed to him just not caring for them. Also Ursula and King Triton are siblings! This also makes sense of Ursula’s anger and how they all even know each other. Bombshell revelations in this movie! I love how dark and scary they made Ursula’s dwelling and I thought Melissa McCarthy killed that Poor Unfortunate Souls rendition! I also kind of liked that they made Scuttle a girl, played by Awkwafina, I thought she was really funny, “Has Ariel killed the Prince yet?” Fun fact, when they go to the market together, there is a lady that gives Ariel something and that lady is Jodi Benson, the original voice of Ariel! So cute! The big fight scene with Ursula at the end was great! And Eric’s family always just finds him walking out of the sea, you can’t keep doing this Eric! And I really, honestly loved the ending. I felt much better about their life together knowing that their two communities have merged and have mutual respect. I felt the love. I’ll leave you with one final thing that made me really laugh at the end. King Triton out of the water looks wack as hell. Stay down there, King Triton, you’re scaring people.

THE TRUTH ABOUT JIM

PLOT SUMMARY: An investigator confronts a traumatic past and secrets that have plagued her family for generations. Was Jim Mordecai, their husband, stepfather, and step-grandfather a notorious serial killer?

WHERE TO WATCH: Max

JAIMEE’S NOTES: Once I saw the trailer for our documentary of the month, I was very excited for it. Meet Sierra Barter, she is trying to find the truth when it comes to her now deceased creepy ass step grandfather, Jim. Jim is a predator, Jim is violent, Jim ruined many people’s lives including his family’s. But the objective of this documentary is: Sierra is wondering if there is more. Could Jim have been a serial killer? Once you learn about Jim’s background, you know that this is a terrible person. Jim was married three times and has multiple children and step children, some that he sexually harassed, abused, or intimidated. Sierra’s mom, Shannon, is one of those step children. Shannon has some wild stories about Jim who, don’t you know it, also used to be her teacher. So Jim had access to lots and lots of young girls. Shannon always knew that something was weird with Jim and found him very creepy so it was very discouraging when he started dating her mom, Judy. Judy and Jim were eventually married and she was married to him until the day he died. I don’t mean to victim blame Judy, but she did not listen to one red flag that her daughter presented to her. She was manipulated fully and that made her and Shannon grow apart. Sierra spends the first couple of episodes talking to Shannon and Judy and also Jim’s previous wives and children. They all have some kind of creepy story or strong stance against Jim. Sierra also talks to former students of his who have, of course, more creepy stories. Sierra starts doing lots of research about two unknown serial killers, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer and the Zodiac Killer. She honestly has lots of great points and evidence. It may be mostly circumstantial, but to me it is very promising. Based on his location at the time, his violent tendencies, and one very chilling interview with a woman who saw her friends leave a skating rink with a man and then never saw them again. Shannon also found some damning evidence when they cleaned out Jim’s belongings after he died but sadly disposed of it. Now, don’t get too excited because I will say once I got to the end I was a little pissed. There is little to no resolution. From what Sierra and her private investigator said, the cops seemed to take their tips seriously and maybe they are taking lots of time to vet this and come up with more evidence. But damn, give us something! I can only hope that now that this documentary is out, they will work harder to give us an update. Overall, though, this was a very good, interesting documentary and I think if anything you get to watch this family talk through their traumas and become closer in spite of Jim. Worth the watch!