I used to be famous, 2022 Netflix

 I Used to Be Famous is a 2022 British drama about a singer out of career that struggling make a friend film made by Forty Foot Pictures for Netflix. Directed by Eddie Sternberg in his feature length debut, and starring Ed Skrein, Eleanor Matsuura and Leo Long. The film debuted on Netflix on 16 September 2022.

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Vince Denham used to be famous as "Vinnie D", one of five members of the boyband Stereo Dream. 20 years later, he lives unemployed in Peckham, London. Desperate to recapture his former success, he struggles to write a first solo album. One day he starts practicing on his keyboard in the middle of a market when 18-year-old Stevie starts drumming along. The crowd is captivated, but the show ends abruptly when Stevie's worried mother Amber pulls him away.

A video of the performance goes viral, and after some scouting Vince finds a local pub manager who agrees to let them perform at an upcoming music night. Vince searches for Stevie, and stumbles across him and Amber again when he overhears and joins a drumming circle at a church. He invites Stevie to perform, but Amber immediately refuses. She explains that Stevie is autistic: he is unable to handle crowds or unusual situations, and she does not trust that Vince can handle his meltdowns. However, she changes her mind when Vince is able to calm Stevie down with a drumming exercise they learned at the church.

Dubbed "The Tin Men", the gig starts well, but after Vince punches a man for heckling Stevie the landlord kicks them out. Amber breaks off contact between the two. Vince spirals into depression, remembering how he chose going on tour with Stereo Dream over visiting his terminally ill brother Ted, missing his death and causing an estrangement with his mother. Meanwhile, Stevie lashes out at Amber, accusing her of secretly resenting him for forcing her to quit her dancing career to care for him, and insisting that Vince meant well. He begins visiting local pubs and secures another gig for The Tin Men, then sets Vince up with an opportunity to apologise to Amber. Vince and Stevie begin practicing and writing new songs again.

Former Stereo Dream member Austin Roberts see a video of The Tin Men and offers Vince the chance to be the opening act on his final tour. Their old manager also offers him a recording contract, but dismisses Stevie as "a special needs kid"—he demands that Vince performs as a solo act, and only uses label-approved studio musicians instead of Stevie. Vince is appalled, but also unable to resist the opportunity—he accepts. He tries to let Stevie down gently by spinning it as an opportunity for him to pursue his own dream of enrolling at a music school. Stevie is distraught, but does as Vince suggests, and he manages to win a place at the Royal College of Music.

Amber visits Vince secretly and thanks him for making her realise Stevie's potential, but also demands that Vince cut off contact entirely, worried that Stevie now has an unrealistic expectation of achieving the success Vince promised. Vince agrees, but later in the studio is alienated by his label-assigned producers' choices, including removing Stevie's drumming for a more "contemporary" electronic beat. On Stevie's birthday, he decides to set up one final surprise Tin Men gig at the market where they first performed together. As Amber and Stevie arrive, he invites Stevie onto the stage. A huge crowd gathers and cheers for Stevie, and Amber, unable to resist, joins in.

Rating: 10 Stars

Easy A, is a 2010 American teen comedy film with Emma Stone

 “Easy A” is a 2010 American teen comedy film directed by Will Gluck and starring Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, before become a psycho in YOU was a really good boy, and Dan Byrd. The plot follows Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone), a high school student who lies to her best friend about losing her virginity, and then spreads a rumor that she has lost it to other students. The film is loosely based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel “The Scarlet Letter”.

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Shot at Screen Gems studios and in Ojai, California, the film was released on September 17, 2010. The film received positive reviews with high praise for Stone's performance, and was a major financial success, grossing $75 million worldwide against a budget of $8 million. Stone received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, while the movie won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Comedy.

The film is ranked as number 14 on Entertainment Weekly's 2021 list of the Best High School Movies.

PLOT

The story is narrated by Olive Penderghast, a seventeen-year-old high school girl living in Ojai, California, speaking into her webcam.

Olive lies to her best friend, Rhiannon Abernathy, about going on a date in order to get out of camping with Rhiannon's hippie parents. Instead, she hangs around the house all weekend listening to the Natasha Bedingfield song "Pocketful of Sunshine" from a musical greeting card her grandmother sent her. The following Monday, Rhiannon presses Olive until she lies about losing her virginity to a college boy. Marianne Bryant, a devout Christian whom Olive considers to be prudish, overhears her telling the lie and it soon spreads throughout the school. The school's church group, run by Marianne, decides to "save" Olive from her supposed promiscuity. Olive confides the truth to her friend Brandon, who is bullied by other students for being gay. Brandon asks Olive to pretend to have sex with him at a party so the other students will believe he is straight, to which she agrees.

After a fight with Rhiannon over her new reputation as a "dirty skank", Olive decides to counteract the harassment by embracing her new image as the school tramp, wearing more provocative clothing and stitching a red "A" onto her clothing, inspired by Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, which she was reading in her English class. Boys who have had no previous luck with girls beg Olive to increase their popularity by saying they have had sex with her, which she does in return for gift cards to various stores. Things get worse when Micah, Marianne's boyfriend, contracts chlamydia from sleeping with Mrs. Griffith, the school guidance counselor, and blames Olive. As Mrs. Griffith's husband, Mr. Griffith, is Olive's favorite teacher, she accepts the blame to spare their marriage.

The church youth group, which now includes Rhiannon, begins harassing Olive in an attempt to get her to drop out of school. Olive is asked out on a date by Anson, Rhiannon's crush, which ends badly when Anson tries to bribe Olive to actually have sex with him and not just pretend that she did. Olive later reconnects with Todd, her childhood crush and the school mascot, who tells her he does not believe the rumours because she lied for him when he was not ready for his first kiss years ago. Olive decides to ask everyone she lied for to help her by telling everyone the truth, but nobody is willing to relinquish their newfound popularity. When Mrs. Griffith also refuses to tell the truth, Olive threatens to expose her affair, but Mrs. Griffith says no one would believe her. Out of spite, Olive immediately tells Mr. Griffith, who subsequently separates from his wife.

After talking with her open-minded mother, Olive comes up with a plan – she performs a song-and-dance number at a school pep rally to draw people's attention and tells them to watch her webcast later that night, promising an online sex show with Todd when in reality, it is the webcast that has served as the narrative device for the film. As she is concluding her webcast, Todd comes by her house riding a lawn mower. She signs off by saying that she may lose her virginity to Todd sooner or later, but declares that "it is nobody's goddamn business." Olive texts Rhiannon and apologizes for lying to her. She goes outside to meet Todd and the two share a kiss before riding off on the lawn mower.

Rating: 10 Stars

Beyond the Universe, 2022

Beyond the Universe, 2022 is a film about a young and talented pianist named Nina who dreams of playing with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra. However, her life takes a toll when she is diagnosed with lupus, a disease that attacks the body’s tissues and organs. Nina’s health deteriorates, and she needs a kidney transplant to survive. Amidst her struggles, she finds love and support from Gabriel, a young doctor. Gabriel helps Nina overcome her insecurities and fight for her dream. The film revolves around their romance and Nina’s journey to fulfill her musical aspirations. 

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Talented pianist Nina Soares started playing at eight, and wanted to join the symphony orchestra from 13. At that age she collapses during an important recital, and is soon diagnosed with lupus.

Now a young adult, Nina discovers the lupus has damaged her kidneys so severely they are working at under 10%, so is put on a kidney donor list and must undergo four hours of dialysis three times a week. There are over 14,000 people before her on the list.

After a month, Nina is scheduled to start dialysis. That morning, she sees the São Paolo Symphony Orchestra is seeking a piano soloist. After teaching a lesson at the music conservatory, Nina is warily OK to practise after hours, but her work mustn't suffer.

Nina plays piano in the train station by the hospital, as Gabriel is passing through on his bike. Mesmerized, he crashes into the piano. Unimpressed, Nina stops, heading to the hospital.

Gabriel is a resident doctor at Nina's hospital. There, he is constantly brightening up patients' days. Gabriel and fellow resident Yuri compare notes on their crushes, one the chance encounter in the station and the other through an app.

The next day Nina finds Gabriel on her medical team, and is surprised by the strong connection they have. Initially she is very pessimistic, but he insists she keep fighting. Gabriel finds her a practise piano when the conservatory fires her, then rushes her across town to apply for the audition.

Hospital director Doctor Alberto summons Gabriel, who is also his son, reminding him of his Hippocratic oath, because of Nina. The young adults end up making a trade, he teaches her to cycle while she teaches him to play piano, afterwards they go dancing and kiss.

During her long dialysis sessions, Nina befriends Amanda, who's under the same treatment. An optimist, she attributes her attitude to her daughter. Observing the chemistry between Nina and Gabriel, she predicts her young friend's outlook might be improving.

Although the pain from the lupus makes her hands ache, Nina practises through the pain and gets to the first audition. Initially pausing after a shooting pain, she powers through and passes to the second round. Gabriel invites Nina to a celebratory dinner.

Yuri, also Gabriel's roommate, preps dinner. His love interest Tulio arrives before Nina, and he mildly irritates Gabriel, who gets them to leave so he can be alone with Nina. She spends the night, and in the morning he tells her about a hike he does annually to honor his mother, his inspiration who died of cancer when he was 13.

Alberto confronts Gabriel about secretly getting tested to donate his kidney to Nina, which Gabriel then shares with her the negative result. Although he'd planned to attend Nina's second audition, Gabriel unexpectedly has to do clinic hours. He crashes his bike hurrying to get there, just as she collapses at the piano.

Nina wakes three days later in the hospital, dejected. When she realizes Gabriel might lose his residency due to their inappropriate doctor-patient relationship, she gets discharged without telling him. Finding her at home, Nina pessimistally doesn't want to request an appeal with the orchestra or stay together. She suggests he apologize to the disciplinary hearing committee.

When Nina tells Amanda what happened, she calls her an idiot for not fighting for Gabriel. So, she goes to his hearing and convinces them to keep him on, taking full responsibility for their interaction. Gabriel then gets Nina to go to the hospital, allegedly for Amanda's birthday. The chapel is set up with a piano, so she performs for one of the orchestra's jurors, who offers her another audition.

Gabriel soon leaves for his annual hiking trip, but first gives Nina his mother's lucky necklace to protect her. On the top of the mountain, he suffers a great fall. Although rushed to the hospital, Gabriel contracts a subdermal hematoma and passes away in the operating room. Nina and Alberto bond over their grief for Gabriel. The director discovers he is compatible to donate his kidney to her.

One year later, on stage with the São Paulo orchestra, Nina dedicates a song she wrote in Gabriel's honour.

Rating: 10 Stars

Me Time, 2022 - Comedy

Me Time is a 2022 American buddy comedy film written and directed by John Hamburg. The film stars Kevin Hart, Mark Wahlberg, Regina Hall, Luis Gerardo Méndez, and Jimmy O. Yang. It is about a stay-at-home dad as he finds himself with some "me time" for the first time in years while his wife and kids are away. He reconnects with his former best friend Huck for a wild weekend that nearly upends his life.

Me Time was released on August 26, 2022, by Netflix.

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Best friends since high school, Sonny and Huck stopped meeting up every year on Huck's birthday 15 years ago when Sonny had a near death experience.

Now Sonny is a stay-at-home dad, putting all of his focus on his family. Huck contacts him, as he does every year, for the annual celebration. Not wanting to attend, Sonny finds himself with some "me time" for the first time in years while his wife and kids are away.

After only a few days, Sonny is bored. He plays golf every day but is terrible, partakes of massive amounts of food at a big barbecue a few days in a row but projectile vomits, none of his friends can participate with him so he's lonely and bored and his kids don't seem to miss him.

Sonny ends up going to Huck's wild weekend birthday bash. Arriving at the meeting point, everyone is skinny dipping. Afterwards they load onto Huck's chartered bus and put on matching track suits.

Meanwhile, Sonny's wife Maya and kids get a visit at the place her parents have taken them to from her wealthy client Armando, who Sonny fears is interested in her.

The bus dumps the party group in the desert, where there are communal yurts set up, and the plan is to forage for their food. They are given hardware to do it, so Sonny heads off to do number two. A mountain lion chases him, but he wards it off by stabbing it with an EpiPen, and is nicknamed Big Dog.

That evening, when Sonny calls his family, he finds out Armando visited them by seaplane. Maya is offered a big project. Jealous, when he yells they hang up on him.

Stan, Huck's loan shark arrives, seeking the $47,000 owed him. His muscle Dorit breaks Sonny's finger, then burns down the site. Once everyone goes, Sonny stays behind to help Huck salvage what they can. Huck confesses he's fallen on hard times and is lonely.

On their way back to LA in an Uber, Sonny spots Armando's. The three break in and pull off some gross pranks, but inadvertently hit one of his tortoises. All is caught on camera.

Sonny offers his house for Huck to continue his birthday celebration, as his family is still away. Someone shares a party notification via social media, and it becomes a rager. Seal comes, and Sonny jams with him. Just as the party is at the most out of control the family shows up, and Maya leaves with the kids. She asks him to clear out and stay away for a bit.

While they are separated, Sonny tries to make amends, apologizing to Armando and working hard on the talent show. As the closing act Dash, Sonny's son, has a meltdown declaring he hates the keyboard. Realising he's been selfish and overcontrolling, he apologizes to everyone, encouraging all who want to perform.

Sonny chases down Huck, convincing him to join him in a party planner company.

Rating: 10 Stars