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Two Movies To Set Things Right, At Least For A While, Or, Saturday Morning at 10:01 am

Serendipitously, today I am recommending two movies. Both can be found on streaming platforms, both leave you joyous but wistful, both somehow involve people I know. Sound like ingredients for a good watch?

Where In The Hell, Laramie Dennis’s (a younger friend of mine) debut film, is streaming on Amazon. A road trip, essentially, in which one of the two protagonists is looking for her girlfriend, who seems to have slipped away from their Northern California motel in the night, and the other – a young Asian man – is trying to make it to Canada for an audition. All of this while traveling through the extraordinary scenery of remote California locations during the pandemic. Dialogue and cinematography and general feel are A+.

To watch if you:

  • Appreciate a side of subtlety with your poignant humor
  • Love good art direction and a trip through places both ordinary and unfamiliar
  • Prefer optimistic endings that don’t package up your feelings like a grab-and-go sandwich
  • Love watching new actors deliver extraordinary performances, especially when they haven’t had plastic surgery as far as you can tell (not to take anything away from Joohun Lee but Cam Killion is a star)
  • Like it when narrative of any sort stays with you for a while
  • Are happy when good movies win awards
  • Want to close your streaming window in a state of belief

Green lettering ANDRE IS AN IDIOT, above an image of a man with long wild gray hair holding a cat,.

Andre Is An Idiot, arriving on Netflix June 17th, is about a man who turns down his best friend’s plans that they get colorectal cancer screening together, and subsequently dies of the selfsame disease. Yes, really. And it’s not sad. Really. A documentary about a wildly creative, irrepressible, and probably difficult man who died as he lived, we follow him, his friends, family and therapist through his last years. It’s not sad but it is funny; a portrayal of human growth and change when it’s too late but still matters. My brother, Peter Carnochan, is the therapist.

To watch if you:

  • Enjoy watching someone truly live their own life
  • Believe that being willing to admit your mistakes and keep trying to do your best is one of the best traits in a human being
  • Are willing to enter someone’s reality all the way
  • Feel science and logic cannot and should not explain everything we experience
  • Are glad that wisdom is available
  • Are happy when good movies win awards (in this case, the U.S. Documentary Audience Award and the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival)
  • Want to close your streaming window in a state of belief

And with that, here’s to art, as always. Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend!

21 Responses

  1. “[W]hen it’s too late but still matters” is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read. Thank you.

    1. That’s so nice of you. I’m honored by those times when words I don’t plan give access to this kind of feeling.

  2. Beautifully expressed , Dear, they both sound delightful, thank you. When I watch a movie that uplifts, I often get pretty loud about sharing the good news. There aren’t a lot of instructive, tender tales out there, and really, we need them so badly. I saw a Pedro Almadovar movie called The Room Next Door recently and it was one of those stories that felt familiar but explored fresh imaginings in a fulfilling and inspiring way. Tilda Swinton was one of its stars. She’s also in a an Italian film called I Am Love. A masterpiece, I believe.

    1. We do need them badly. I adore Tilda Swinton. I’ll look up The Room Next Door, thank you.

  4. These sound beautiful and I’ll look forward to watching them both. Hearty cheers for your brother and your friend!! Thank you for sharing, Lisa. I love “when it’s too late but still matters,” too, and I’ve felt SO much of that lately. If only we could all go back and put our wiser minds into our younger lives.

    A wonderful, wonderful weekend to you too. xo

    1. Thank you. I often think about had I know then, and I feel better if I also remember, knowing what I know now might have saved me from some stupidities but it also might have created opportunity for some others;)

  5. Does brother Peter play himself in the film? I just watched the trailer and saw a scene where Andre and another male are sitting in chairs opposite each other, I think that might be the therapist scene. If that is he, the Carnochan clan is not only brilliant, but a handsome lot as well!

    1. He does! Everyone plays themselves! And if the scene is two men on a porch, facing each other, yes, that’s my brother and handsome he is indeed:).

  6. Gotta see both of them – thank you for the recommendations! We need something uplifting, or good and generous, maybe even quirky at times – to get ourselves out of today’s funk.

  7. Looking forward to the Andre is an Idiot on Netflix, but don’t have Amazon Prime as I’m boycotting Amazon.

    1. I don’t have it either, and only buy from Amazon in exigent circumstances, but I paid to rent this movie because in the end I decided supporting a talented friend was my main goal. xo