And I really liked both of them.
The context of learning all the details of Ezra Miller's many trespasses -- literally and figuratively -- in the time since I started my Flash viewing did not turn me off to them. In fact, I thought they were hilarious in this film, at the times they were supposed to be hilarious, and poignant in the times they were supposed to be poignant. (Miller is non-binary, hence the "they" pronoun. The grammarian in me still has a hard time with that pronoun and wishes there might be a better option.)
But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Wednesdays are the day I most consistently go into the office. I didn't last Wednesday because I was still at the tail end of being sick, nor did I any of the other days last week, but this past Wednesday it was back to business as usual.
So Wednesday is also the day when I am out of the mix for domestic things, a price my wife will gladly pay because she enjoys having the house to herself those days. And she doesn't really have an issue with me just extending my absence until, oh, 11:30 at night if that's what it takes for me to catch up on the movies I haven't seen in the past two weeks.
The only thing about the schedule I drew up for Elemental and The Flash, though, was that it worked best for me to come halfway home on the train rather than staying in the city, and to see both movies at the Sun in Yarraville. That's my favorite cinema so no issue there. The issue is that the Sun is also where I started watching The Flash on Sunday. They are so casual at this place that I know they're not keeping track, but I did feel bad about making the same cinema give me a free ticket to the same movie twice. I did wonder whether it would be the same clerk who had served me on Sunday, but it wasn't, and they probably wouldn't have cared anyway.
But I am getting ahead of myself again as Elemental was the first up at 4:50. I had to leave work 20 minutes early to make it on time, but my boss is also one of those who doesn't care about such things. I had barely gotten the words out of my mouth (I didn't state the reason I was leaving early) and she was metaphorically brushing me out the door with her hands. In fact, I left early enough that not only did I catch the train I needed to catch to make the movie on time, but I caught the one before it.
As I said, I really enjoyed Elemental. It steadily climbed from 3.5 stars to 4 stars to 4.5 stars as I was watching, and though it's a generous 4.5 stars, I don't give that rating out willy nilly. It got there in the end, as Pixar usually but not always does. (In fact, wondering if I were too generous toward Pixar in general, I've re-read my two-star review of last year's Lightyear, to confirm that I'm not totally in the bag for this company.)
The Flash was set to start at 7:30, which left me plenty of time to go next door to Grill'd to get three sliders, a Corona and a basket of fries, or chips as they call them here. While waiting for the food to arrive, I started my review of Elemental -- and while eating it, I finished it. Yeah, I've gotten this review-writing thing down to a science. (You can read the review here.)
But I also took my time with it. Seven thirty came and went and I was still leisurely wrapping up my dinner.
It wasn't that I knew the Sun plays a lot of trailers. They don't, actually. You can rely on a movie to start within five minutes of its scheduled start time.
It was that I had already seen 25 minutes of The Flash just three days earlier. In fact, I think I arrived late on purpose just for the novelty of it.
I got in at about 7:38, and sure enough, the movie had already been going on for a couple minutes.
I wondered for a moment if the other people in the audience shook their head at me casually sauntering in late. I had wondered the same thing about the woman who'd gotten me my ticket -- who was the same one who had gotten me my Elemental ticket, and we had a little laugh about that.
But I know I didn't miss any of The Flash -- in fact saw 20 minutes of it twice -- and that's all that matters.
And I'm glad I prioritized tying up that loose end, as I really liked this one too. The review is here if you would like to read it.
And just when I thought I was all multiverse'd out.
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