Author: ameliaxi86

I always try to avoid sad movies, especially sad movies that are based on true stories. They give me depression.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is one of those movies. Every character in this story is sad–a desperate middle-aged female writer, her gay friend who’s single and has AIDS and her old cat that’s dying.

Usually a movie with this type of set up is definitely on my no-watch list, but I couldn’t resist Can You Ever Forgive Me? for two reasons:

1. The timing of when I found this movie was just right. I was so stressed out from prepping for all the finals while trying to find a job, and needed to watch some other losers struggling with their life too so I know I’m not alone.

2. The main character is played by Melissa McCarthy! So how sad can it be? If she’s in the movie then this is gotta be a comedy in some way.

And then I felt so sorry for my misperception about Melissa McCarthy. It turns out she not only can make me laugh, she can make me cry as hard.

The year is 1992. Lee Israel (played by Melissa McCarthy) is an author of a few best-selling books. Unfortunately, her latest biography of the cosmetic tycoon Estee Lauder became a commercial failure because Lauder herself also published her own memoir that outsold Israel’s version.

This incident, plus Israel’s antisocial personality and alcoholism, led to the end of her career. Struggling to pay bills, she found a shortcut to easy money–forging famous people’s personal letters, and selling them to collectors. Many of the letters she forged are apologies, which usually end with “Can you ever forgive me?”

(One of the letters Israel forged)

Israel has forged over 400 personal letters, and made over thousands of dollars from them. But despite the huge crime she committed, the public understood and sympathized her. Even the judge didn’t give her bar times. Why is that?

Because people resonated with her. There are countless talented writers who are fully committed to words and are not good at self-promoting. They don’t know how to publicize themselves or exaggerate their achievements, so they have to keep struggling until they become obsolete. And the people they are losing to are the braggers who prioritize building a name for themselves over actual writing. Like Israel’s publisher said to her, no one will buy books from an author they’ve never seen in TV, or heard of in radio.

And I’m guilty of that too. Many times when I pick up a book from a bookstore, I see if I recognize the author first, before I try to figure out what the book is about. And if the book is either written by a famous author, or endorsed by other famous people, I’ll put it down.

With readers like me…and collectors who are willing to pay hundreds for one piece of letter of someone well-known, no wonder writers are chasing after fame. And Israel eventually realized that. She wrote the book Can You Ever Forgive Me? based on her crime history, then became rich and famous. Ironic, but that’s life. No publicity is bad publicity. As I live more I believe it more.

(The real Lee Israel. She’s really bad-ass looking)

Life lessons aside, I want to talk about Melissa McCarthy. I was very familiar with her, and have watched so many of her movies, but I wouldn’t say I was a big fan. One reason is that her roles are very much the same–funny, goofy, energetic, always make people laugh their ass off while screaming “omg I love her!”

(Melissa in Spy)

(in Life of The Party)

(in Tammy)

Whenever I think of Melissa McCarthy, I feel like it’s almost inaccurate to call her “Melissa the actress,” it should be specifically “Melissa the comedian.” Because she’s so successful as a comedian, to a point that having her in the cast list becomes quality assurance for a comedy. But also because of that, I can’t imagine her starring in any other genres. I thought she just can’t be serious.

Until Can You Ever Forgive Me? showed me she can, and she’s good. 

(A quote from Lee Israel, regarding her literary forgery charge)

It was almost embarrassing that I walked into a theatre prepared to be amused by Melissa McCarthy, but ended up weeping over her scenes. When she lost her cat, when she pled guilty in front of the judge, when she reconciled with her gay friend and tried not to cry over his illness…I never knew watching Melissa McCarthy can be heart-breaking.

And that made me a believer of Melissa McCarthy, the actress.

For anyone who wants to see a serious Melissa, and for anyone who live alone with cats, I recommend this movie to you.

After an extensive amount of research and video-editing, here it is: an easter egg hunt in Ralph Breaks the Internet!

The video is not super well-made so I’m not confident enough to make it public yet. Please use the password “lovedisney” to access.

Many thanks!!

I’m a movie lover and I watch a lot of movies. When people learn that 9 out of 10 ask me, “so do you have a favorite movie?” Before 2012, I would give answers that made me sound sophisticated and deep (when you’re young you try so hard to be old)… but after 2012, the answer had always been,” Wreck-It Ralph.” And I genuinely meant it.

In 2012, Wreck-It Ralph came out. Within just one week, the movie reached an astonishing 50 million box office, highest in Disney history. That year, it received Best Animated Film nomination at both Oscar and the Golden Globe.

It was phenomenal.

I can’t talk about the movie’s success without mentioning its unconventional set-up: its protagonist is a villain!

Ralph, a villain in an arcade game, is tired of being a villain, and wandered around in other people’s games to find meanings for himself. But wherever he went, he couldn’t help to be destructive. His self-esteem grew increasingly low, until he met the little girl Vanellope in Sugar Rush, who was alienated by her peers for her “glitch.”

As an antihero type of work, the movie was refreshing to Disney audience. It was a challenge to make it good but they executed it perfectly.

It might be over a year ago that its sequel–Ralph Breaks the Internet, released its trailer. And the feeling of knowing this movie is already made but I can’t immediately go watch it was torture for me. Withstanding the torture for a year, and meanwhile torturing my boyfriend for it by bringing it up every two weeks (a lot more frequent during the past 2 months), I finally went to see it this Thanksgiving!!

Now I have a new favorite movie.

Please please, if you haven’t yet, go watch it.

One of the biggest surprises in Ralph Breaks the Internet is its easter eggs–those hidden messages, characters, or inside jokes. Disney owns too many copyrights to not do things like that.

A quick review of Disney’s acquisition history: in 2006, Disney bought Pixar for 4.7 billion. In 2009, it bought Marvel for 4 billion. In 2012, it bought Lucasfilm for 4 billion. Disney has all the freedom to put any of their characters into its movie, and it did. Just think about it, the stormtroopers, Iron Man, Disney princesses and Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh all gather in the same place. How exciting is that?

Not long ago, the movie Ready Player One promoted itself for its abundance of easter eggs. They’ve been proud of it, until Ralph Breaks the Internet showed up. It’s like Disney saying, “suck it, Warner Bros.”

Except for the beloved characters, Ralph Breaks the Internet is also packed with our favorite brands.  

From Facebook, Google, Amazon, to “Chinese Twitter” Weibo, and e-commerce site Tianmao, no matter where you are from, there will always be a logo that you point to and say “omg they have that on there!” And Disney did all these name-mentioning FOR FREE.

I thought at least eBay should have paid Disney a ton of money, because it’s featured as a major part of the film. Like, half of the story happens in eBay, and when they are out of eBay, there’s an “eBoy” constantly reminding them to go back to eBay. To my surprise, eBay didn’t even know it’s in the movie. (?!!) After the movie launched, they made a call to Disney just to thank them.

The absolutely best part of Ralph Breaks the Internet is Vanellope’s interactions with all the Disney princesses. The way Disney handles self-deprecating here is jaw-droppingly funny (was that a word? You get my point).

Vanellope tried to fit in by claiming she is a princess too. To verify that, the princesses asked her a series of questions:

“Have you been poisoned?”

“Cursed?”

“Abducted or enslaved?”

“Do people assume all your problems got solved because a big strong man showed up?”

When Vanellope finally answered “yes” to the last question, which she meant Ralph obviously, the princesses gladly accepted her as a part of the princess gang.

Of course, a successful movie can’t just be a copyright show-off, or be content to a quick laugh. As its set-up suggests, Ralph Breaks the Internet discusses the online world and how it has influenced our lives. In order to afford the steering wheel for Vanellope’s racing game, Ralph was instructed to make money by filming short videos on BuzzTube (like YouTube). He did the kinds that were most likely to go viral: hip-hop dancing, makeup tutorial, all kinds of fails, and those stupid self-abuse ones (think cinnamon/pepper challenge). Sure enough, he became famous in hours.  Immersed in the fame and love, Ralph stumbled into the comments room, and found some unexpected hate comments. It was such a sad scene. Seeing this, the BuzzTube director lady Yess told Ralph, “the first rule of becoming Internet-famous: never look at the comments.”

Yea, it’s so easy to hate online. Anonymous comments don’t bear responsibilities. I’m happy to see an animated film exploring the dark truths of the web and telling them to the kids.

A movie full of surprises, please go see if you haven’t yet. Hope to see you in the theatre cuz I’m watching it one more time.

As much as I hated the story of Crazy Rich Asian, I LOVED its all-Asian lineup. I got to see so many fresh Asian faces in one movie and was curious about each of them.

I decided to pick on Awkwafina. Her character in the movie was just too memorable. At first I didn’t appreciate her ridiculous look, as I mentioned in my last post. But now I kinda see where they are going with this–people recall ridiculous stuff!

             (A review of her look. This is totally meme-ready. )

I also remembered Awkwafina well because she really really looked like one of my cousin brothers.

  Twins right?? Lol

I texted my cousin he could definitely dress as Awkwafina for Halloween and people won’t tell. He never replied though.

Before Crazy Rich Asian, Awkwafina was in another 2018 movie–Ocean’s Eight, which was also the first occasion I got to know her. Before the movie came out, I was really hyped up because I was a huge fan of George Clooney’s Ocean’s Eleven series. Some of the biggest names were in the cast list–Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway (goddess!), Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, and…Awkwafina??

I frowned at the odd name. Why would someone name their kid Awkwafina? It’s like telling people you’re intrinsically awkward, or you’re a bottle of water… Even Awkwafina herself said in an interview that her name in the Ocean’s Eight cast “stuck out like a sore thumb.”

But she also said, “but they’ll never forget that name, so it works in my favor.”

Yea. You are good at letting people not forget you. With the name and that look in Crazy Rich Asian, you’re probably stuck in many people’s head already.

It turns out I misunderstood Awkwafina’s parents. They actually gave their kid a very normal name–Nora. Nora grew up in Queens and attended the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, a.k.a. the Fame school.  She gave herself the stage name “Awkwafina” at age 16, while she was browsing at a convenience store. She went for a  “stupid name” for an alter ego to her quiet and more passive personality. There were a few other options, such as Dassani, with two S’s. Her love for the names of bottled water was unexplained. Just some random shit she did as a kid…that ended up impacting her whole life.

That got me wonder whether Eminem got his stage name while browsing at a convenience store too, and whether he hesitated between M&Ms and Skittles.

Before Awkwafina was an actress, she was already a rapper (since age 13!).  She became popular in 2012 for her song “My Vag.” I’ve seen that song’s name here and there but never listened to it and never figured out what a vag was. Until I listened to it for the sake of research and learned that vag is VAGINA and was like…eww…why would you…

Then I learned it was a response to another song–Mickey Avalon’s “My Dick”, and was supposed to be an anti-gender discrimination and woman empowerment thing. Oh ok, cool.

As vulgar as “My Vag” was, the song was extremely successful and the music video garnered over three million views on YouTube. But meanwhile, it got her fired from her office job at the time, and prevented her from getting hired for a long time afterward. In an interview Awkwafina reflected that the “My Vag” song opened a door to her actress career. Of course! Because it closed all other doors to regular jobs, dude.

Sandra Bullock actually knew Awkwafina from “My Vag” before they became co-stars in Ocean’s Eight. Btw, Ocean’s Eight was such a great movie, but to be honest Awkwafina in that movie was like, meh. She was the least famous in the cast, so she got the least screen time and the least cool role, which was reasonable, and I mean, what else can you ask for when you’re already starring alongside Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett and Rihanna? If “My Vag” opened a door to acting, then Ocean’s Eight must have opened doors to millions of opportunities. One being Peik Lin–the coolest role in Crazy Rich Asian, where she showed all the potentials that she didn’t get to show in Ocean’s.

(Hollywood star Olivia Munn dressed as Awkwafina’s role in Crazy Rich Asian for Halloween)

After Ocean’s Eight and Crazy Rich Asian, Awkwafina’s name is put on a completely different level. And now she even has a Comedy Central show based on her own life–Awkwafina! Still in production, the show tells the story of how this Asian American rapper and actress dealt with her early 20s, and lived in shadow of her more successful cousin. That’s funny because my Awkwafina look-alike cousin also has a more successful cousin–me!

Jk. My cousin thinks I’m pretty successful only because he knows I drive a BMW to school. He’s in China, where BMWs are incredibly expensive. But I didn’t tell him that my BMW is old. It’s a 2007 model with a ton of old car problems, and it’s freaking GREEN. I don’t think any car brand ever make green cars anymore. If you ask me why I bought that car, I can only tell you, CAR DEALERS ARE THE GREATEST LIARS AND BULLSHITTERS.

Anyways, back to Awkwafina. Originally known for her songs “My Vag” and “NYC Bitch$,” Awkwafina was seen as “unfiltered” when it comes to expressing herself through music. Her supporting role in Crazy Rich Asian was a success also because of her “unfiltered” type of acting. When asked about how her family thinks about her acting career, Awkwafina said her grandma didn’t think highly of it, and grandma said to her, “you’re not even acting, that’s just, like, you.” Lol grandma don’t worry, that’s not even a concern at all, that’s exactly why Awkwafina appeals to young audience. We love seeing people being raw and genuine on the other side of the screen. We love watching people who are more ordinary than remarkable. So Awkwafina, stay unfiltered.

While I was researching Awkwafina, I came across a news that Aquafina admits it’s plain tap water. Interesting. I don’t drink Aquafina anyway, so, stay unfiltered, both of you.

“Asian Black Panther“? Not that exciting.

“Asian Fifty Shades of Gray“? Not that sexy.

As an Asian myself, I always wanted to sound supportive when people asked me how I liked Crazy Rich Asians, and the best answer I could give was

“Oh the production quality was REALLY good!”

By that I meant, the story was not.

(⬆️ me most of the time during Crazy Rich Asian)

Here’s what the story was about: NYU professor and Chinese immigrant Rachel Chu was invited by her longtime boyfriend Nick Young to visit his family back in Singapore, and unexpectedly found that he’s actually the heir of the most wealthy family in Southeast Asia. She met Nick’s disapproving mom and jealous women friends, who tried their hardest to break them up, but the couple stood strong and were eventually happily married.

Since when are 1960s Disney stories back again?

This very cliche plot is probably forgivable because the movie is designed to be a simple, feel-good romcom. But, as a movie that promotes itself as “groundbreaking,” and “revolutionary,” I expected it to communicate some progressive points of view. Apparently I expected too much.

In fact, it surprised me with some of the most stereotypical depictions of Asians and women:

Asian parents are close-minded, even the ones with the highest social status.

Nick’s mom, Eleanor, disapproved of his girlfriend Rachel because she’s not a real Asian, but an Asian-American…what??? Do Asians discriminate people like that now? I had no idea. And she kept saying to Rachel stuff like “you’re not one of us,” “you’ll never be enough,” it made little sense to me how a person with her background and education could make such narrow-minded statements. I mean, if she’s from a suburban area or a small town, it would make sense. But she’s a global citizen who’s speaking fluent English and doing business with people around the world. Her mind was supposed to be open. 

Today many Asian countries embrace Western cultures. Asian international students like myself, and business people, like Jack Ma, are making a lot of efforts fighting the stereotype that Asians are small-minded. But here is this movie reminding people, “oh yeah, we are.”

 

There’s just no real friendship between good-looking women, is there?

Crazy Rich Asian’s storyline is cliche, and its casting of female is also old-fashioned. The cast basically tells us, “stay away from pretty girls, they are mean.” In the movie, the nice-looking women were all being fake nice to Rachel while privately called her a “gold-digging bitch.” When Rachel found out, they expressed their hate by leaving a bloody dead fish on her bed (…you had to go that far??). Rachel’s only real friend, Peik Lin, was…like this:

(oh so this is what nice girls should look like)

No offense Awkwafina I’m only commenting on your character. I know you are typically like this:

So why did she have to play ugly in the movie? Couldn’t she be pretty and nice at the same time? Do humorous women must also be funny-looking?

Beautiful women are stigmatized enough in the media. Too often we see a pretty face and think of dumb, mean, boyfriends stealers…that’s why we need fewer Crazy Rich Asians, but more Ocean’s Eight and Big Little Lies.

 

Wait…who are these English-speaking Chinese living in Singapore?

Until the movie was over, I still wasn’t clear about the characters’ identities. They called themselves Chinese, but they lived in Singapore and had the culture of Southeast Asia, and they all spoke fluent English. The characters’ background was too complicated. Most Asian audiences couldn’t relate, and most American audiences got confused. It might be the director’s way to celebrate diversity, but then it’s also not diverse enough for its exclusion of darker-skinned Asians such as Indians and Pakistanis (yes a lot of them are crazy rich too).

I know Crazy Rich Asians is a movie with a purpose of entertainment, not cultural education, and it has definitely delivered its promise to entertain—with its feel-good story and exceptional visual presentation. It has also done a successful job introducing some talented but lesser-known Asian-American actors (hurray to that). But as a film that makes extensive references to culture, it could have been more thoughtful towards any cultural- or political-related depictions to give itself a stronger voice. Many Asians, when watching this movie, tried to relate but failed. Some critics called the movie a “banana” type of expression because it’s yellow on the surface and white on the inside. And ratings proved it–Crazy Rich Asians has a 92% score on Rotten Tomato, but only a dismal 64% on Chinese film-critics site Douban (and continuing to drop).

Were Asian culture and identity merely consumed for fun? Probably, and it’s not a bad thing as long as the fun aspect is appreciated. Such a light-hearted movie is also a good way for Asian actors and producers to get a foot in Hollywood. But if the same production team is telling another Asian story in the future, we will want to see more depth, more meanings, and more genuinity.

Well this blog somehow turned into an essay now, sorry about that…

But honestly, I was too disappointed to write anything fun.

One of my favorite part about watching a movie is to learn about actors who are new to me. In Searching, the one who caught my eye was definitely John Cho, who played David Kim.

From the perspective of screen times, Searching is very much a one-man show for John Cho. His acting skill was closely examined, literally, through the numerous close-up shots of his face. The panic, despair, and anger felt by a dad losing touch of his daughter, were so vividly showed by his nuanced facial expressions.

Searching was my first chance getting to see John’s acting , but before that I’ve seen his face so many times already. The first encounter was a poster of the movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, where he apparently played a main role.

I saw the poster from a listicle titled “10 Movies Starring Talented Asian Actors” or something. This poster…well, didn’t interest me at all. The long and emotionless title, the goofy faces of the two characters, I could almost immediately picture in my mind the story of two dumb kids getting in dumb trouble at the restaurant, so I chose to pass. But it turns out I might be wrong about at least two things. First, according to Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was actually not bad (74% is considered pretty fresh). Second, they were not kids…John Cho was already 32 years old when he played in this movie!

So that’s your 32-year old face. Good for you John.

Later, I saw John again in another poster for the TV series Selfie (where he finally looked like someone his age):

Huh that is a very interesting pair. As a big fan of Guardians of the Galaxy, I immediately recognized that girl in front of him…

it’s her!!

The creepy blue-skin bad-tempered villain Nebula whose face gave me goosebumps. As soon as I recognized her I felt sorry for John. He’s definitely gonna get bullied…I mean look at him in the poster getting half of his face blocked and looking all helpless. Geez, tough. This show had a rotten tomato rating of 56% (nah), and never really became popular, so I didn’t watch either.

I saw John’s face a few more times here and there, but was never really drawn to any of the shows he played. I always felt like there’s something about him that made me feel sympathy. Maybe it’s his brows. They are always slightly frowned, which led me to believe he must be living a kind of sad life. And sure enough, he lost his daughter in Searching!

Since I’ve grown extremely familiar with John’s face, when I first saw the Searching trailer, I got so excited. I pointed to him and said to my boyfriend, “ah I know this guy!!” Even though I honestly didn’t. But I knew immediately that I didn’t want to miss this movie of his, because he’s playing a role that I thought was so perfect for his face–a miserable father! Yes! That’s what I’ve always been waiting to see him play! (Wow sometimes you just don’t realize how evil yourself are until you read your own inner thought.)

Anyways, so I watched Searching and John really NAILED his role. The movie got a 94% rotten tomato rating which proved I made a great choice. But now I feel guilty, because John’s figure as a miserable father is so engraved in my head I can’t see anything else in him (shout out to his acting again)… Therefore, I have decided that I’m going to follow John’s every movie hereafter, especially if it’s a HAPPY one.

Finishing of with a fun fact–John Cho is actually the person who popularized the term “MILF,” while he played in American Pie.

Man, that’s some big achievement.

“David Kim’s daughter is missing. He can’t find out where she is, until he finds out who she is.”

The first time I saw the trailer for Searching was probably half a year ago, and I was immediately intrigued. The trailer told the story of a high school-aged girl went missing, his father, who claimed to know his daughter very well, used every possible resource online to search for her, only to find so many hidden facts about his daughter that he had no idea of.

I’ve been expecting Searching to come out since then, but deliberately kept my hopes down because there is this type of movie, that everything about it that’s worth seeing is in the trailer (cue Jurassic World and Crazy Rich Asian). In other words, the trailer is so good that the real movie disappoints you. However, with an intriguing trailer, Searching still managed to surprise me. In fact it’s the BEST movie I’ve seen this year.

There are two things about Searching that made it so much cooler than most other movies of its type.

First, the entire movie was presented through digital screens–phone, computer or video surveillance. You never see the characters in a real world context. (watching the movie is like looking through your own laptop, fun!)

For Searching, this visual presentation technique fits perfectly, because a major theme of the movie is to discuss how digital media has made it easy for people to fake themselves. When we see Margot (the daughter)’s so-called friend, who didn’t even know her and didn’t give a damn about her disappearance, live-streaming herself weeping over Margot’s missing just to get online viewers, yes I thought of somebody in my life as I rolled my eyes. You probably did too.

Second, as creepy as the trailer appeared to be, this suspense move is actually about love and family.

I was long expecting Searching to be a thriller, for how it was portrayed in the trailer, and that its trailer played right after the one for The Nun (the type of thriller that can seriously shorten my life span). After the Searching trailer repeatedly mentioned “marijuana,” I was so blindly confident that the missing daughter was involved in some sort of drug dealing, and realized how cliche I was when I found out that the movie is simply about love.

Margot changed, because she loved her mother — The death of Margot’s mom changed her life. It directly caused her to quit piano class and smoke weed, and contributed the most part to her missing. When fish_n_chips tried to make friends with Margot by making up the story of his own mother having cancer too, he could have never anticipated that Margot would actually send money to support him. It turns out, Margot is the kind and sweet girl who her father thinks she is.

David hided, because he loved her daughter — Sure, David’s love for Margot was pretty explicit–the whole movie is about him searching for her. But the misunderstanding between the two that in some way caused her missing, also implicitly showed David’s love as a father. Bearing the pain of losing his wife, David tried his best to not let his emotions out and upset Margot. Typing in “your mom would be proud too,” and deleting it, wanting to say something on her mom’s birthday but ending up saying “today is Tuesday,” David was too protective of his daughter to open some conversations.

Detective Vick killed, because she loved her son — The big question for a suspense movie would usually be “who’s the murderer?” In Searching, the “murderer” is Detective Vick. Though it was her son who, accidentally, pushed Margot off the cliff, Detective Vick was the one who, intentionally, covered the fact, volunteered to take the case, actively led the investigation into a completely wrong direction and went as far as to kill an innocent scapegoat. Behind every well-planned step is her love for her son. When she was finally revealed as the villain, I was shocked but at the same time convinced. She’s a mom. That explains everything she had done.

Hello from Amelia (me, on the left) and Teemo, one of the other people’s dogs that I had taken care of before.

I am crazy about dogs. In college, I was always actively volunteering to babysit dogs while their owners went on vacation. I remembered those dogs well–Doby, Rifle, Bibi and Teemo. I’m posting Teemo here with me because he was the only one who, according to his human mom, continued to search for me after returning home. Which I later realized it might not be me, but the treats I was secretly feeding him, that he was looking for.

This blog was supposed to be about dogs. But the fact that I don’t own one makes it weird to write a blog about them. I have not yet owned a dog because I can’t imagine that after 13, 14 years, this dog of mine might leave me, forever. I always thought that I’ll only get a dog when myself has 13 or 14 years to live too. But chances are I’ll just get over this dog’s lifespan thing and get one when I have a job and have the money.  

Anyways. I decided to write about my second biggest passion–movie. I don’t own a dog, but I do own a ton of movie-watching experiences. Spoiler alert upfront: I will be commenting on specific plots, especially the twists and the holes.  I will also give attention to a cast member who particularly interests me, research the hell out of this person and share interesting insights about him/her. My movie-related self intro will end here because I’ll talk about it a lot more later and it’s the second-biggest passion after all.

By the way, I don’t watch dog movies. The best dog movies are always the saddest. Tried Marley & Me, tried A Dog’s Purpose, each time ended up losing my breath from crying. It might be shameful to admit, but I can hardly watch Budweiser’s dog commercial.