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Merissa (12061 KP) rated Wheels Up (Out of Uniform #4) in Books
Jun 18, 2018
Wheels Up (Out of Uniform #4) by Annabeth Albert
Wheels Up is the fourth book in the Out of Uniform series, and spend some time with Dustin, Dylan's big brother.
Dustin is bisexual, but his family doesn't know. Just as he is about to come out to his family, Dylan beats him to the punchline. Dustin then gets a whole heap of family pressure dumped on his shoulders. His dad wants grand-kids, after all! Plus being a SEAL hasn't always been the best situation to be in if you're gay or bi, so Dustin has stayed firmly in the closet. He has his 'special' time with an online friend though, and that is more than enough for him... or maybe not.
Now, I'm not American, and I'm not in the Forces, nor do I know of anyone who is, so the whole fraternisation rules are new to me. That being said, wow! After seeing how distracted Dustin became, I can sort of understand the no relationship part, but to have that enforced to such a degree you can't even be friends??? And I didn't get the enlisted part of it - sorry! However, that didn't stop my enjoyment of this story one iota.
I think my heart broke so many times reading this one. The need to be with each other, the wanting to show people, the absolute necessity of keeping it quiet. Dustin and Wes put paid to so many preconceptions - why is it always the big guy who is the bossy top? Big guys need cuddles too! And to be fair, I can see them needing someone else to take charge of them, after being in charge of others for so much of the time.
So much steam, so much heartbreak, so much worry, and so much hope. You get a HFN, which I just hope will be enough. Can't wait to read more and find out. There were no editing or grammatical errors that interrupted my reading flow, and I was thoroughly engrossed from start to finish. Absolutely recommended.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Dustin is bisexual, but his family doesn't know. Just as he is about to come out to his family, Dylan beats him to the punchline. Dustin then gets a whole heap of family pressure dumped on his shoulders. His dad wants grand-kids, after all! Plus being a SEAL hasn't always been the best situation to be in if you're gay or bi, so Dustin has stayed firmly in the closet. He has his 'special' time with an online friend though, and that is more than enough for him... or maybe not.
Now, I'm not American, and I'm not in the Forces, nor do I know of anyone who is, so the whole fraternisation rules are new to me. That being said, wow! After seeing how distracted Dustin became, I can sort of understand the no relationship part, but to have that enforced to such a degree you can't even be friends??? And I didn't get the enlisted part of it - sorry! However, that didn't stop my enjoyment of this story one iota.
I think my heart broke so many times reading this one. The need to be with each other, the wanting to show people, the absolute necessity of keeping it quiet. Dustin and Wes put paid to so many preconceptions - why is it always the big guy who is the bossy top? Big guys need cuddles too! And to be fair, I can see them needing someone else to take charge of them, after being in charge of others for so much of the time.
So much steam, so much heartbreak, so much worry, and so much hope. You get a HFN, which I just hope will be enough. Can't wait to read more and find out. There were no editing or grammatical errors that interrupted my reading flow, and I was thoroughly engrossed from start to finish. Absolutely recommended.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Josh Radnor recommended Tootsie (1982) in Movies (curated)
John Krasinski recommended The Verdict (1982) in Movies (curated)
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Stan & Ollie (2018) in Movies
Sep 28, 2021
When the laughter has to end.
The problem with any comedy double act is that if illness or death get in the way (think Dustin Gee and Les Dennis; or Morecambe and Wise) the wheels can come off for the other partner. “Stan and Ollie” tells the story of the comic duo starting in 1937 when they reached their peak of global popularity, albeit when Laurel was hardly on speaking terms with their long-term producer Hal Roach (Danny Huston).
As you might guess from this, the emotional direction for the film is downwards, but not necessarily in a totally depressing way. The film depicts the duo’s tour of Laurel’s native country (he was born in Lancashire) and this has its ups as well as its downs.
Not knowing their life story, this is one where when the trailer came on I shut my eyes and plugged my ears so as to avoid spoilers: as such I will say nothing further on the details of the plot.
My wife and I were reminiscing after seeing this flick about how our parents used to crack up over the film antics of Laurel and Hardy. And they were, in their own slapstick way, very funny indeed. The film manages to recreate (impecably) some of their more famous routines and parodies others: their travel trunk gallops to the bottom of the station steps, mimicking the famous scenes with a piano from 1932’s “The Music Box”. “Do we really need that trunk” Hardy deadpans to Laurel.
The turns
There are four star turns at the heart of the film and they are John C. Reilly as Ollie; Steve Coogan as Stan; Shirley Henderson (forever to be referenced as “Moaning Myrtle”) as Ollie’s wife Lucille and Nina Arianda (so memorable as the ‘pointer outer’ in the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ segment of “Florence Foster Jenkins“) as Stan’s latest wife Ida.
Coogan and Reilly do an outstanding job of impersonating the comic duo. Both are simply brilliant, playing up to their public personas when visible but subtly delivering similar traits in private. Of the two, John C. Reilly’s performance is the most memorable: he IS Oliver Hardy. Not taking too much away from the other performance, but there are a few times when Coogan poked through the illusion (like a Partridge sticking its head out from a Pear Tree you might say).
Henderson and Arianda also add tremendous heart to the drama, and Arianda’s Ida in particular is hilarious. Also delivering a fabulous supporting role is Rufus Jones as the famous impressario Bernard Delfont: all smarm and Machiavellian chicanery that adds a different shape of comedy to the film.
Another Fine Mess?
Actually, no: it’s one of those pleasant and untaxing cinema experiences that older audiences in particular will really enjoy. However, the film’s far from perfect in my view: the flash-forwards/flash-backs I felt made the story bitty and disjointed; and ultimately the life story of the duo doesn’t have a huge depth of drama in it to amaze or excite, the way that 2004’s “Beyond the Sea” (the biopic of Bobby Darin) did for example. But the film never gets boring or disappoints.
I’d like to say that the script by Jeff Pope (“Philomena“) is historically accurate, but a look at the wikipedia entries for the pair show that it was far from that. Yes, the tours of the UK and Europe did happen, but over multiple years and the actual events in their lives are telescoped into a single trip for dramatic purposes. But I think the essence of the pair comes across nicely. Laurel’s wikipedia entry records a nice death-bed scene that sums up the guy:
“Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. “I’m not,” said Laurel, “I’d rather be doing that than this!” A few minutes later, the nurse looked in on him again and found that he had died quietly in his armchair.”
“Stan and Ollie” has a few preview screenings before the New Year, but goes on UK general release on January 11th. Recommended.
As you might guess from this, the emotional direction for the film is downwards, but not necessarily in a totally depressing way. The film depicts the duo’s tour of Laurel’s native country (he was born in Lancashire) and this has its ups as well as its downs.
Not knowing their life story, this is one where when the trailer came on I shut my eyes and plugged my ears so as to avoid spoilers: as such I will say nothing further on the details of the plot.
My wife and I were reminiscing after seeing this flick about how our parents used to crack up over the film antics of Laurel and Hardy. And they were, in their own slapstick way, very funny indeed. The film manages to recreate (impecably) some of their more famous routines and parodies others: their travel trunk gallops to the bottom of the station steps, mimicking the famous scenes with a piano from 1932’s “The Music Box”. “Do we really need that trunk” Hardy deadpans to Laurel.
The turns
There are four star turns at the heart of the film and they are John C. Reilly as Ollie; Steve Coogan as Stan; Shirley Henderson (forever to be referenced as “Moaning Myrtle”) as Ollie’s wife Lucille and Nina Arianda (so memorable as the ‘pointer outer’ in the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ segment of “Florence Foster Jenkins“) as Stan’s latest wife Ida.
Coogan and Reilly do an outstanding job of impersonating the comic duo. Both are simply brilliant, playing up to their public personas when visible but subtly delivering similar traits in private. Of the two, John C. Reilly’s performance is the most memorable: he IS Oliver Hardy. Not taking too much away from the other performance, but there are a few times when Coogan poked through the illusion (like a Partridge sticking its head out from a Pear Tree you might say).
Henderson and Arianda also add tremendous heart to the drama, and Arianda’s Ida in particular is hilarious. Also delivering a fabulous supporting role is Rufus Jones as the famous impressario Bernard Delfont: all smarm and Machiavellian chicanery that adds a different shape of comedy to the film.
Another Fine Mess?
Actually, no: it’s one of those pleasant and untaxing cinema experiences that older audiences in particular will really enjoy. However, the film’s far from perfect in my view: the flash-forwards/flash-backs I felt made the story bitty and disjointed; and ultimately the life story of the duo doesn’t have a huge depth of drama in it to amaze or excite, the way that 2004’s “Beyond the Sea” (the biopic of Bobby Darin) did for example. But the film never gets boring or disappoints.
I’d like to say that the script by Jeff Pope (“Philomena“) is historically accurate, but a look at the wikipedia entries for the pair show that it was far from that. Yes, the tours of the UK and Europe did happen, but over multiple years and the actual events in their lives are telescoped into a single trip for dramatic purposes. But I think the essence of the pair comes across nicely. Laurel’s wikipedia entry records a nice death-bed scene that sums up the guy:
“Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. “I’m not,” said Laurel, “I’d rather be doing that than this!” A few minutes later, the nurse looked in on him again and found that he had died quietly in his armchair.”
“Stan and Ollie” has a few preview screenings before the New Year, but goes on UK general release on January 11th. Recommended.