August: Osage County

Since I began with my favorite movie, it makes sense to follow up with my least favorite movie next. When I tried to think of my least favorite movie, August: Osage County was the only movie that came to mind, and I'm sure there's been another movie that I disliked more than this, but when I saw Osage County it made such a negative impact, it's the only one I can think of now. The main component that went into me finding this movie so unpleasant, was that my mom got me to go with her by telling me this was a comedy. If you Google August: Osage County the genre description tell you that it is a Drama/Comedy. That is an out the ass lie. Nothing about this movie was funny in any way, and I enjoy dark comedy very much, but this wasn't dark, it was just Meryl Streep being blatantly rude, mean, and selfish to her family. It was sad and painful to watch everything unravel. And I wish the acting was sub-par so I could have maybe not taken it too seriously but the problem was that the acting was good; it was really good, I mean it was Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts and Benedict Cumberbatch. The cast was really good, which made it worse to watch because it was believable that these insane situations were actually happening to this poor family. I've never walked out of a movie before because why do that? Movie tickets are $11, I'm gonna stay and watch the whole thing otherwise it's a waste of money, but hypothetically, if I could have walked out of any movie I would've choose this one; it's not worth staying for the whole movie since nothing changes and everything just gets worse for everyone.

For me, I really wanted to like Osage County. I don't think I've ever seen a movie with Meryl Streep as the leading role that I didn't at least find some entertainment in. What I found interesting about August: Osage County was that the movie was based on a play by Tracy Letts, and I've seen the screenplay of Death of a Salesman and the live theatre version of The Seagull and neither of those clicked with me when I watched them, and they haven't clicked with me since, so maybe, I just need to stop watching sad plays. I try to avoid depressing content of really any kind, so believe me that the only reason I saw Osage County is because the two pieces of information I had about it was that my mom claimed it was a comedy, and Meryl Streep was the lead. If I had known anything else about the plot of the movie I would have never seen it, because pretty much the only reason I hated this movie was the plot; the reason why the cast had to come together and meet at Meryl Streeps house and what transpires there was the only terrible thing about it. The acting was fine, there were no plot-holes, there was nothing really problematic about it, it passes the Bechdel test--so on and so forth; it's just so hard to get through how depressing it is. It's totally subjective, so if you like depressing ass movies maybe watch it, but just know that there are some really iffy story-lines.

The whole reason Meryl Streep's family has to come and see her, is because her husband found someone to take care of cancer stricken Streep, and then went out and killed himself. So everyone has to come for his funeral and they stay with Streep even though they all hate being around her. Already the most unfortunate circumstances.
There are three sisters (Meryl Streep's daughters) and their families that stay with Meryl Streep, and her sister and her husband live nearby. One sister brought her creepy ass boyfriend, one sister is "seeing somebody" (will come back to that), and the main sister who Meryl Streep hates the most, Julia Roberts, is separated or divorced from her husband and brings her moody teenage daughter. Julia Roberts for the better part of the movie is just fighting with Meryl Streep and she's also the only one to accept and tries to do something about her moms addiction to her cancer pain pills.
The creepy boyfriend of the one sister hits on Julia Roberts' daughter, smokes weed with her later in the movie, and then tries to hook up with her. Thankfully, Julia Roberts steps in and stops everything that's about to happen, tells her sister about what happened, and the sister and her boyfriend just leave the next day, meanwhile Julia Roberts' daughter gets her dad to pick her up and she leaves too. Mind you this kid is supposed to be, like, 14 max, so everything the douchey boyfriend does is close to the creepiest, worst thing he could do in this situation.
The sister that is "seeing somebody" is actually seeing Benedict Cumberbatch, Meryl Streep's sister's kid, the sister's cousin. But it turns out Meryl Streep's husband and sister got together once (and Meryl Streep totally knew about it apparently) and so Benedict Cumberbatch is actually her brother. Julia Roberts finds out this information, tells her sister, and the sister gets pissed off at Julia Roberts and just leaves. Because somehow, her falling in love with her cousin/actual half-brother is Julia Roberts' fault?
 Finally, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep have one final standoff, Julia Roberts leaves, and the movie ends with her pulling over on the side of the road, getting out of her car, and just standing looking out at, like, a cornfield or something. Nothing is resolved; everything just goes to shit.

There's really no uplifting message to this movie; maybe if Julia Roberts and her sisters stuck together to actually help Meryl Streep with her addiction it would be easier to watch, but they just leave Meryl Streep full of cancer and fully addicted to pain killers with this poor helper, hired by her now dead husband, who is supposed to take care of a dying Meryl Streep. I couldn't believe mom honestly thought she was taking us to a comedy, but she was just as shocked that it wasn't the comedy she believed it to be. Every scene just set up the family in a worse situation than the one before. It was so unpleasant to watch, and painful to get through and no one needs two hours of that kind of stress in their lives. Watch the Lego Movie or Tangled or Fox and the Hound--something animated with a happy ending because that's what everyone needs in their lives, not August: Osage County.