wildcat challengers, really?

Time to check out a dance card or two, isn't it?

You betcha!

Of course, I refer to my AMC A*List, which was actually full for a change.

The only one that I had company at was that first one, "Wildcat", with Barbara by my side for that particular take on (Mary) Flannery O'Connor.

We had missed the screening at the Trustees Theatre, complete with Q&A by its writer and director, Ethan Hawke, as it sold out within days of being announced.

No worries!

AMC to our emotional rescue (sans Hawke)!

I liked being privy to her thoughts and frame of mind as she wrote her short stories, watching her fanciful characters come to life on the silver screen before us, as they must have on the backdrop of her imagination - very nice!

The middle movie is a secret.

I'm seeing it again next Tuesday, with family, but I was supposed to wait, but I just couldn't anymore, as I've been waiting to see "IF" ever since the first previews hit the cinema.

Plus, it has Ryan Reynolds, who will also be appearing in a new Deadpool flick soon... but not quite soon enough, as it will also have Hugh Jackman roaring in with Wolverine!!!

Plus, I caught the Drew Barrymore chat with John Krasinski (the writer, director, and producer, as well as "Dad" in the movie) and knew I needed to see it NOW.

So... I've done so, but I'll talk more about it after I see it again, next Tina Tuesday.

Seriously!

I have to wait!

And what's with "Challengers" popping back up on my dance card?

You're right, you're bloody well right, as Supertramp would say, and no, I'm not talking about the character played by Zendaya in the tennis movie, though she certainly was one.

Pun most def intended.

(smile!)

The reason I deigned to see it for a second time was this: I really like watching friendships between men, and I wanted to see this one again.

Two guys who'd met in boarding school when 12 years old, playing doubles tennis and being unbeatable, taking the juniors championship when 18.

That's when they met her, both of them wanting to be with her, with one in it for the lust and the other worshiping her skill.

She told them the winner of the next game, which pitted the two against each other instead of as a team, could be with her.

The lustful one won out.

The worshipful one asked that the luster not tell him if he had bedded her, but the luster just had to brag.

So, as an inside joke, he told his friend that he would serve like him if he had, taking a moment to place the tennis ball on the racket just as the friend would do.

So, if he served in his own usual manner, that would mean he had not slept with the girl.

And he served like his friend, so now they had a secret the girl didn't know.

Flash forward 13 years.

They're all 31 now and the worshiper is married to the girl, and ready to retire from tennis.

She is not ready for him to do that and says she will leave him if he loses this game.

And who is the man he is up against?

His lustful friend that he has lost track of long ago... but she has not.

She meets with him, to make a deal about the game, sealing the deal as she has before.

And when the two men are on the court, facing off against each other, as she watches from the stands, the lustful one remembers the inside joke he'd once shared with his best friend, wondering if the other will remember it, too.

Fabulous ending!

What about the previous week's A*List?

Well, "Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes" has already been discussed enough.

And, if not for having Jamie Fox and Mickey Rourke, as God and the Devil, respectively, I don't think I would have bothered with this Tyler Perry parody.

However, May 14th was Tina Tuesday and that means movie day, so I planned a double.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, nope, that didn't happen.

The luncheon for two Pirates - looking way beyond 40 - ran an hour longer than I'd expected.

Not wanting to be out into the night, I canned all thoughts of the double header and took the next available movie.

That was "Not Another Church Movie", with a lead character named "Taylor Pherry", who had to keep telling folks the "p" is silent... so, unbeknownst to them, that was an inside joke for me, and all the encouragement I needed to stay.

Good thing I'd seen "The Kentucky Fried Movie" after my last dinner with the bfe - that blast from the '70's certainly put that movie into the right frame!

(smile!)