The ‘Book Club’ Spends Its ‘Next Chapter’ in Italy: Shall We Join Them?

May 7, 2023

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Good Reads (CREDIT: © 2023 FIFTH SEASON, LLC)

Starring: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Andy García, Don Johnson, Craig T. Nelson, Giancarlo Giannini

Director: Bill Holderman

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Saucy Puns

Release Date: May 12, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: They’re not reading anything as spicy as Fifty Shades of Grey this time, but Vivian (Jane Fonda), Diane (Diane Keaton), Sharon (Candice Bergen), and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) are still keeping their book club going. And they’re not going to let a little thing like a pandemic get in their way. Yes, indeed, the opening of Book Club: The Next Chapter is a COVID-19 period piece, as the ladies Zoom out their thoughts about the likes of Normal People, Untamed, and The Woman in the Window. When they’re finally able to reunite in person, they quickly decide that there’s simply no better time for an Italian vacation. Along the way, old flames are rekindled, the local authorities get snippy, and the wine flows freely. So not much in the way of reading, but I guess all book clubs need to close the back covers eventually.

What Made an Impression?: Before the days of easily accessible commercial plane flights, there were plenty of travelogue films showing off various corners of the world to viewers who would never actually see them in person. Travel documentaries still exist today, of course, as do their close fictional counterparts like Book Club: The Next Chapter. The difference nowadays is that if you have a few spare benjamins lying around, you can hop across the Atlantic without too much trouble. I’m not saying that this movie is just an extended commercial for Italy’s tourism board, but I’m also not not saying that.

As for the actual people romping around Italy, they know why we love them and they’re here to deliver. If you want the offbeat fashion, Diane Keaton is rocking them. If you want someone who can slay hearts at any age, Jane Fonda is here. If you want the deadly zingers, Candice Bergen is going to deliver them. And if you want a warm and vulnerable conversation, there’s not many who can do that much better than Mary Steenburgen. This is basically like the European leg of their greatest hits tour, and it’s also kind of just an excuse for them to go on vacation together. And hey, if Adam Sandler can build a huge chunk of his career out of that strategy, then why can’t this quartet of septuagenarian and octogenarian legends do the same?

Book Club: The Next Chapter is Recommended If You Like: An overabundance of food-based sexual metaphors

Grade: 3 out of 5 Wedding Dresses

Mini-Movie Review: ‘Poms’ is Stranger Than It Probably Means to Be, and That’s a Good Thing

May 9, 2019

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CREDIT: STX Films

Starring: Diane Keaton, Jacki Weaver, Rhea Perlman, Pam Grier, Celia Weston, Alisha Boe, Charlie Tahan, Phyllis Sommerville, Bruce McGill

Director: Zara Hayes

Running Time: 90 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Mild Senior Sauciness and a Surprising Amount of Casual Misogyny

Release Date: May 10, 2019

Even though I’ve known that Poms is about senior citizen cheerleaders ever since I first heard about it, its title has mostly made me think about POM Wonderful, which of course had me wondering: would this movie be as wonderful as its juicy almost-namesake? (I also thought about French actress Pom Klementieff, but I knew that punniness wouldn’t lead me quite as far.) While I would hardly go so far as to praise Poms as “wonderful,” the POM connection still feels appropriate, as it is the sort of drink I would have on a relaxing Friday evening at my parents’ house, the perfect setting for watching something like Poms that we didn’t feel the need to rush out to the theater for. The journey of Diane Keaton, Jacki Weaver, and the rest of their retirement community squad never makes much of a lick of sense, which is not necessarily a problem because this isn’t the sort of premise I demand too much logic out of. But even beyond the fact of women in their sixties, seventies, and eighties pulling off whatever acrobatics they can, Poms strains credulity with its sneakily bizarre dialogue. Thus, there is a whiff of (probably accidental) surrealism that pairs well with girl-power-at-any-age gumption and helps to patch over the straight-down-the-middle production values.

Poms is Recommended If You Like: Legendary actresses getting work into their seventies

Grade: 3 out of 5 Shimmies

What Won TV? – June 11-June 17, 2017

June 18, 2017

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In this feature, I look back at each day of the past week and determine what shows “won TV” for the night. That is, I consider every episode of television I watched that aired on a particular day and declare which was the best.

CREDIT: ABC/Lou Rocco

Sunday – The $100,000 Pyramid, for Leslie Jones’ reaction
Monday – Better Call Saul
Tuesday – Downward Dog
Wednesday – Fargo
Thursday – AFI Life Achievement Award for Actress, Director, and Climate Change Denier Diane Keaton
Friday – RuPaul’s Drag Race: Extra Stressful Reunion Edition
Saturday – Orphan Black