Movie Briefs

I Care A Lot­-Netflix Original

Legal guardian scams clash with the Russian Mafia in this all-villains-on-deck film.

Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike), the owner of Grayson Guardianship, carefully selects her clients. Elderly, wealthy, on the brink of a dementia diagnosis. She quietly goes about cutting off family and draining client bank accounts before the client suddenly deteriorates and ends up in a full-time care facility or a psychiatric living setting. Her well-practiced scam is upended when she takes on the mysterious Jessica Peterson (Dianne Wiest), who warns her that she is the worst mistake Marla ever made.

Marla blows off the woman's comments, but it isn't long before she runs into Roman (Peter Dinklage), who is oddly invested in Ms. Peterson and offers Marla a deal that erupts into pure chaos.

Using some of my favorite actors, I Care A Lot dives into the bizarre world of guardianship scams and brings attention to the horrifyingly everyday situations that arise from court-appointed guardianships.

It's not every day that all the characters are villains, so I was surprised that I found so much joy in watching them struggle for "top dog" status. It was a nice, easy watch that can stir emotion without exhausting your brain–unless you are like me, and immediately start researching guardianship scams

2067-Hulu

This Australian sci-fi thriller launches viewers to 2067, onto a desolate Earth without flora, fauna, or hope. Humans live on rationed, synthetic oxygen, and the world's leaders know that they are on borrowed time.

When a message reading "SEND ETHAN WHYTE" is intercepted by a team of time-travel scientists, humble yet angry, Ethan (Kodi Smit-McPhee) has the weight of the world dropped on him- quite literally. He gets launched 400 years into the future, where he discovers that the purpose of his mission has been a lie from the beginning.

Ethan sacrifices everything to save the world he once knew and leaves a message for political leaders that would forever change the course of humanity.

2067 was so far away from my "normal" movie selection, and I almost turned it off. Still, the producers did a great job of establishing relationships with the character early on, and I had to wait it out and see what happened to Ethan and the rest of the world. I'm glad I did!.