Review - The Hunt on Amazon Prime

If you're looking for some kick-ass action, a twisted plot colored by wicked satire, then The Hunt is a movie you'll like.

The Hunt stars Betty Gilpin of GLOW, an acclaimed Netflix series, and Oscar Winner Hilary Swank.

The tite of the movie foreshadows the premise: ruthless elitists hunt those they label as worthless.

Gilpin is the intrepid will-not-back-down heroine. Swank is the wealthy leader of a bunch of amoral elitists who disdain those they deem as blights on the human landscape—deplorables.

I watched this on Prime, but if you're not an Amazon subscriber, you can rent or buy it on Amazon.

You can also wait a few weeks to see if it pops up on a free streaming service like Tubi.

BLURBING THE MOVIE

The film opens with a bit of backstory about the dangers of texting your cohorts about your heinous plans which lead to an outing on the internet. What happens next is still shocking.

That sets the viewers up for the scene where 12 strangers awake in a remote clearing. They all have ball gags in place and no idea of where they are or how they got there.

Because of the title and opening scene, you know these super-rich evil elitists are the hunters, and the clueless humans—society's deplorables—are the prey.

Crystal, (Betty Gilpin) one of their would-be victims, is not inclined to be a victim. What follows is a lesson in never-give-up- survival along with a big dose of retribution.

Gilpin is completely believable as a woman willing to fight—a woman who can handle herself in tough situations and who can read people and situations. She's a great character. 

MOVIE DATA

The Hunt was released in the USA on March 13, 2020, by Universal Pictures. Directed by Craig Zobel and written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof, it scored $12.4M at the box office. Since it was released during CoVid when most theaters were closed, it wasn't a financial success.

Yet, streaming online has drawn an audience because of its brutal satire and black humor as well as its theme of rich against the "deplorables," taken from a Hilary Clinton speech in which she called some Trump supporters "a basket of deplorables."

Political beliefs aside, the film is supposed to be satirical and succeeds in that. The action scenes are believable and scary, and the acting is superb. I must say it was weird seeing Hilary Swank in that kind of role. Betty Gilpin is just awesome in everything I've seen her in.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Definitely worth seeing if this kind of story is your cup of tea. Great characters, black humor, non-stop action, and an ending applauding an underdog who wins.

Joan participates in Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, affiliate advertising designed to help websites earn advertising fees by linking to products on Amazon. If you click an Amazon link in her post, she may receive a small commision at no extra cost to you.

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Home At Last

We had a wonderful time visiting family in Louisiana, but it's really good to be home again.

It's like Madeleine L'Engle once said, "Maybe that's the best part of going away for a vacation—coming home again."

I was away from the office much longer than I intended, but it was time well spent.

Of course, that means I'm way behind on, well, just about everything.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Catching up starts tomorrow.

6 More Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

I'm back with some more Useful Keyboard Shortcuts to make your life easier.

Previous posts about this subject are:

Keyboard Shortcuts for Punctuation Marks

Keyboard Shortcuts to Pick Colors

More Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows

1. Open Emoji Keyboard

When entering text, press Windows logo key + . (period)

2. Open date and time in the Taskbar

Press Windows Key + Alt + D

3. Reveal a typed password in a Sign-in screen

Alt + F8

4. Open context menu for the active window

Alt + Spacebar

5. View open apps

Ctrl + Alt + Tab 

6. Move cursor to beginning of next paragraph

Ctrl + Down arrow key

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Anything that saves time—even a few seconds is a very good thing.

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Stormy Weather Problems

Another rough weather week for the Texas Gulf Coast.

Every day this week, we've had a power outage. *sigh*

It's happened so frequently that I've been hesitant to turn on the computer for fear that a  sudden power surge or blackout may damage it.

We've had days where we had no power for 24 hours and sometimes a few hours at a time.

Yesterday, it was 95 degrees outside, and the power came on after 24 hour outage. Then 15 minutes later, it went off. Came on again, stayed on 3 hours, then off.

Much of the problem is the power grid that was literally flattened with the May 17 storm. That metal towers have been replaced with wooden poles until new metal towers can be erected. They're not a thing held in inventory. They have to be fabricated when ordered.

We have a backup portable generator, but it doesn't run the whole house, just select outlets including where the refrigerator is plugged in, the outlet that powers the router, and lights in the master bedroom and bath.

Unfortunately, I think we're going to have to upgrade to a whole house automatic backup system. Unable to get online makes for an impossible situation when all of my files are in the cloud.

For now, I've got to get back to saving my work in progress on a flash drive. The cloud isn't so great when you can't access it.

Cell phone power also has been spotty so it hasn't proved to be a reliable way to do much online.

WHY ARE THESE STORMS SO PERVASIVE

Frank Billingsley, weather man for KPRC Channel 2, said, “The water temperatures over the Gulf [of Mexico] and the Caribbean are the warmest this year on the planet, and the lack of El Niño has meant less shear, or upper level wind, to tear storms apart."

I also found out in doing a little research that this weather pattern isn't as abnormal as I thought.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Have a storm safety routine including knowing where to take shelter when a bad storm and/or tornado threatens. Be safe.

Authors and Intellectual Property

If you're an author or have another other creative career, have you made arrangements for what happens to your copyrights or artistic creations in the event of your death?

This is something too many authors don't think about. Your body of work—your intellectual property—is an asset that needs to be addressed in a will.

Even if you're not making a killing now with your writing, who knows what the future may hold for what you've written?

NOTE FOR THOSE WITH PUBLISHING ACCOUNTS

In the case of publisher accounts, you should already have an authorized representative on the account who can receive monies from the accounts and make decisions about the account should you be incapacitated or die.

IN THE EVENT OF DEATH

There are a few things you should do now to prepare for death which will come to all of us.

Estate Planning should take into account your intellectual property with a named person to inherit. The intellectual property should be spelled out, i.e., "all published and unpublished manuscripts, complete and in partial, without regard to copyright registrations, all notes, outlines, research materials, and other data associated with writing short stories, novels, or nonfiction books, manuscripts, and articles."

Take time now to make a file listing your intellectual property, where the physical papers, copyright registrations, publisher correspondence, contracts, licensing agreements, etc. are located. Also, if you are published digitally, a list of all publishers including logins and passwords along with a list of your social media accounts used for your business of writing to include logins and passwords.

HAVE A MEETING WITH YOUR DESIGNATED HEIR

Tell your heir what you are doing, where everything is located, and what can be done with your intellectual property in the future. Your heir can even sell his/her rights in the property to another party.

When the will is probated, your heir will have the right to do what he/she thinks best with your intellectual property. 

With that thought in mind, you need to write up what can be done with intellectual property and what you would like done with it if you have restrictions you want honored--which may or may not be enforceable. Your attorney can tell you that.

Your heir would submit a copy of the death certificate and the probated will showing him/her as the legally licensed owned of the intellectual property to any publisher/retailer, etc. who has published your books or wants to license rights in any way.

GIVE YOUR HEIR A COPY OF THE WILL

When you have your completed will, give a photocopy to your heirs and discuss everything with them. Also tell them where the original document is located so they can find it when they need it. This is super important because most of us who are married have it set up for spouse to inherit everything if one of us dies. If both of husband and wife die, your kids or the one kid who is the executor should know what to do.

(I recommend having 2 kids as joint executors if you have a lot of assets because it's a heartbreaking and difficult job.)

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Having a will is a way to make sure your family doesn't break apart over misunderstandings about who gets what when you die. I've known too many who ended up never speaking to a brother or a sister again because of fighting over assets.

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Freud's Big Question: What Do Women Want?

There's a new movie about Sigmund Freud on Netflix, Freud's Last Session. 

It's set when the world is on the brink of WW2. Freud invites C.S. Lewis over for a "charged conversation about love, family and the existence of God."

I wish they'd included a scene where Freud famously said, "The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is 'What does a woman want?' "

Geez. Freud was married to his wife for 53 years. Did he ever ask her that question? Or was the question exasperation at not being able to figure out what she wanted or what women in general wanted? (He probably thought it had something to do with sex, right?)

Maybe he left off three words. "What does a woman want in a man?"

If he had asked his wife, Mrs. Freud might have said, "For heaven's sake, pick up after yourself, Siggy." Or she might have giggled and said, "Romance me into bed." (Maybe?)

WHAT WOMEN WANT

As a romance author, the characters I create have wants hidden deep inside. Allowing the heroine to voice her wants and needs is part of her growth from the beginning to the end. 

In romance novels, the heroine's wants and needs are often confessed to the man who becomes important to her. 

Sometimes, the hero recognizes what she wants and needs to be happy in life without the heroine saying a word.

By the way, those wants and needs are usually NOT about sex. In my book, Deceptively Yours, Tatiana wants Declan, but she won't—can't—take action to get him.

Declan knows what she wants and also suspects what she needs—acceptance. The reason for her specific wants and needs is revealed in the book of course.

WHAT WOMEN WANT IN A MAN

Here's what some wise women have said about that issue, and most of it is also NOT about sex.

"Every woman wants a man who'll fall in love with her soul as well as her body." —Rainbow Rowell

"What women want is what men want. They want respect." —Marilyn vos Savant

"Women want to see the truth. They don't want to see some perfect girl." —Reese Witherspoon

"Women want love to be a novel, men want it to be a short story." —Daphne du Maurier

"Women want to talk first, connect first, then have sex. For men, sex is the connection. Sex is man's language of intimacy." —Esther Perel

"Women want to be treated as equals, not sequels."—Kathy Lette

"Many men honestly do not know what women want, and women honestly do not know why men find what they want so hard to comprehend and deliver." —Deborah Tannen

"I don't think any woman wants to be known for being beautiful or busty. I think you want to be known for who you are." —Jamie Lee Curtis

"Every woman wants to be first to someone, sometime in her life and that desire is the explanation for many strange things women do." —Eleanor Roosevelt

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

All of the above are true. Dave Barry also had something to say, and it seems he has some understanding of women. "What women want: To be loved, to be listened to, to be desired, to be respected, to be needed, to be trusted, and sometimes, just to be held."

P.S. Show this post to the man in your life.

Joan participates in Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, affiliate advertising designed to help websites earn advertising fees by linking to products on Amazon. If you click an Amazon link in her post, she may receive a small commision at no extra cost to you.

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Review - A Simple Favor on Netflix

Released in 2018, A Simple Favor, starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, might be said to be a Walter Mitty story at heart with a touch of female vengence.

Kendrick plays Stephanie, a widowed, single mother in Connecticut who works as a vlogger when she meets long-legged, gorgeous blond Emily, played by Lively, who is everything Stephanie is not, but would love to be.

Glamorous Emily is a woman who has it all—a successful career, beauty, sex appeal, and a loving family.

Stephanie makes Emily her new best friend, and the good times roll. 

One day, Emily simply disappears. Stephanie decides to find out what happened to her, and that is a journey yielding some shocking surprises for our wallflower.

MOVIE DETAILS

Despite the ending scene epilogue that tells what each character is now doing, this isn't based on a true story, but on a novel, A Simple Favor by Darcy Bell.

Directed by Paul Feig,the cast is rounded out by Henry Golding as Sean Townsend, Emily's husband, Linda Cardellini, Dustin Milligan, Ava LaFramboise, Rupert Friend, Jean Smart, Joshua Satine, and Eric Johnson.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Kendrick seems to be typecast as the woman who is mostly ignored by those around her.

In just about each movie with her cast in that role, she reaches a tipping point that propels her into assertiveness and sometimes outright violence.

A SIMPLE FAVOR 2

In March of this year, Amazon MGM Studio gave the greenlight to a sequel to the movie which will bring back Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively in their respective roles.

From what I gather, the sequel takes place in Capri, Italy, and the plot revolves around Emily's plan to marry a wealthy Italian businessman. This story too will probably be twisted and include murder, secrets, and betrayal. 

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Let me just say that this twisted, convoluted movie is an "underdog wins" flick you'll enjoy.

Joan participates in Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, affiliate advertising designed to help websites earn advertising fees by linking to products on Amazon. If you click an Amazon link in her post, she may receive a small commision at no extra cost to you.

Sign up for I LOVE READING, Joan's free NL, to receive exclusive content and book news about giveaways, bargains, and new releases.