TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG (2020) & A GUIDE TO SECOND DATE SEX (2019)

5/6/20 - TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG (2020) - 6+/10

Manic and poetic, narratively and visually. It is punk, it is hard steel with a soft lacy dress underneath, it is a rebellion against truth and lies and form and fashion - it carves its own weathered path through the rock of myth. It asks for no quarter and begs for no virtuous admiration. It is, bleak and severe as the embittered progeny of an inhospitable land.

The spotlight night travels were enchanting. The dps work was quite good. As was the acting from a smorgasbord of kind and quality. McKay solidified his passion filled physicality and determined acting prowess. He is a star on the come up.Yes, this isn’t a “true” account, but it is a wickedly alternative twist on a legend, and it popped in a delightful way for me.

5/12/20 - A GUIDE TO SECOND DATE SEX (2019) - 3+/4-/10

A pretty generic romcom setup that struggles to get out of the gate. Eventually it hooks into a serviceable, if not pretty charming groove, but even at its height it still has some grating elements and can’t get out of its own way. I wanted to like this, seeing as how I like the actors and I thought the premise was cute, but it managed to have too many cringe worthy social situations, too many dickhead characters, it lacked in making an emotional connection for the majority, and it punched down instead of up where it could have swung.

The best parts of this film are pretty amiable, but they kept getting trumped by overwrought plotting or poor screenplay decisions/characters. It’s like it wanted to be more “teen ready” when it would have benefited from trying to appeal to an older audience. I didn’t hate the viewing, but it steered away from the path up the road to the shining hill and decided to drift off into cheesy stripmall nothingness.