June 16th, Movie 17

In the continuing binge of the June Swoon, I went back to Amazon Prime for a movie starring Samuel L. Jackson, Maggie Q, and Michael Keaton called The Protégé.

Samuel L. Jackson and Maggie Q play a pair of assassins for hire. Jackson found Maggie Q as a girl during an attempted hit and brought her along with him. He raised her in his world and she became a protégé of his. When she discovered his dead body, Maggie Q went on a revenge mission to kill those responsible for his death. Michael Keaton was unfortunately tied to those people and so became an unwanted enemy.

There were some decent parts of this movie. Some of the action was really well done and Maggie Q was awesome. Her character was bad ass and the film did a great job of showing that off.

They threw in a romantic tension between Maggie Q and Michael Keaton. That also worked although at times it felt rushed or forced. When they had moments to themselves, you could see the chemistry between them.

However, the third act came along, brought with it the most obvious “twist” ever in a movie, and took a film that was barely holding on the rails and sent it spiraling off the tracks. I can’t really go into it without spoiling it, but it is the immediate thought you have when something specific happened at the beginning of the film and it plays out exactly how you think.

I find Maggie Q to be a charismatic and interesting actor, but I do not think that she has found that role to send her into the next level. This one is not it. I love Michael Keaton, but some of the switches from Keaton to his stunt double were sadly obvious.

Overall, The Protégé was below average with a couple of aspects that were decent. There was a better. less painfully obvious, movie to be made with this cast.

June 15th, Movie 16

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is a biographical film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the eccentric British artist Louis Wain, in a film that encapsulates his life after the death of his father, through the roller coaster of a life that included his marriage to his beloved Emily (Claire Foy), her loss to cancer, his artistic flair for drawing cats, his struggle with mental illness and the constant weight of supporting a family of sisters.

Benedict Cumberbatch is remarkable in this movie, bringing such range to this odd character, but never playing him like he was less than what he was. The relationship between Louis and Emily was beautiful, despite it being tragically too short. Cumberbatch and Foy do a remarkable job working together breathe life, an electricity if you must, into the couple. The strange pairing really worked and created an undertone for the entire film.

There were plenty of other exceptional actors involved in this movie including Toby Jones, Taika Waititi, Andrea Riseborough, Adeel Akhtar, Phoebe Nicholls, Sharon Rooney, Sophia Di Martino, Aimee Lou Wood, Hayley Squires, and the narrator of the movie, Olivia Colman.

Imagine what the internet would be like today if Louis Wain would not have created the idea that cats could be featured in humorous poses or shown as more than just the evil villain of the animal world. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is a stylistic film with a top notch Benedict Cumberbatch performance and some real emotions brought about by a difficult life. It is currently available on Amazon Prime and I found it to be charming as well as an emotional ride.

June 14th, Movie 15

Today’s June swoon film is another International film that received a lot of love around Oscar time, though it was not a winner in the categories. This is listed as a romantic black comedy-drama directed by Joachim Trier.

Julie (Renate Reinsve) was a medical student in Oslo where she met and began a relationship with comic book artist, Aksel Willman (Anders Danielsen Lie), which became serious. However, once she met another man Eivind (Herbert Nordrum) at a wedding reception that she crashed, she began to wonder about her relationship with Aksel and she began doubting what she was feeling.

Julie decided to leave Aksel and she moved in with Eivind, who broke off his own relationship.

There is a lot going on in this story and the characters are extremely well developed and the film is beautifully shot. There are complex ideas with the film, dealing with Julie and her feelings of rejection by her father. The performances were all top notch, especially Renate Reinsve, who portrayed Julie’s fears and uncertainties so perfectly. I also want to shout out Anders Danielsen Lie, whose turn as Aksel is exceptional and deep. He balances out Julie, despite the fact that she cannot see it or feel it.

The only drawback to the film is that is is achingly sad, bordering on depressing. There is so little joy in the life of these characters and when the joy shows up, it is squashed by the maudlin characters and the internal strife working against them. I found it difficult to watch because of the tone of the film, wishing for something more fulfilling in the story.

It is a well crafted film that is a difficult watch. There are great performances that make it even more challenging to view.

June 13th, Movie 14

The film I am using for the June Swoon today is a film that is very divisive. I have heard people say this is a horrible movie and that they hate it and I have heard people say it was their favorite movie of 2021. So when Annette popped up on Amazon Prime earlier this year, I immediately placed in on my list to watch during June.

Henry McHenry (Adam Driver) was a controversial stand up comedian who met opera singer Ann (Marion Cotillard) and they fell in love. They get married and become the international “it” couple. Ann gave birth to their daughter Annette, things took a bizarre twist. Annette was shown as a puppet, and the marriage hit a rocky stretch where she winds up dead.

The film is a musical, with most of the dialogue coming through in song. The music, written by the Sparks, was remarkably energetic and enjoyable. I found myself joining in with some of the lines that were repeated. The third act song between Henry and Annette was just powerful and exceptional. The rest of the soundtrack was fantastic and helped create that same surreal feel of the film.

Adam Driver is outstanding as Henry McHenry. He created a character that elicited such a feeling about him. While his singing skill is only okay, he can present other emotions and feeling through his facial features and his body language.

The visuals in the film are beautiful and are staged with perfection. There are a bunch of great dramatic scenes as well, including one between Adam Driver and Simon Helberg.

I certainly can see why some people may not love this movie. I could even see why they might hate it. It has its share of bizarre moments that can be considered dreamlike or uncanny. It is a dark romantic musical that I enjoyed.

June 12th, Movie 13

Ok. So I looked to extend my list of 2021 movies today by searching through some of the “underrated” movies from that year. One that I came up with was on Hulu entitled Censor.

The synopsis sounded intriguing. According to IMDB: “In 1985, Enid Baines [Niamh Algar] works for the British Board of Film Classification during the height of the Video Nasty controversy. Enid’s co-workers call her “Little Miss Perfect” due to her strictness in recommending that violent content be cut or banned. While Enid is having dinner with her parents, they discuss the disappearance of Enid’s sister Nina when the two were little. Enid’s parents have since declared Nina legally dead, but Enid is convinced that her sister is still missing.”

It had a high 89% on Rotten Tomatoes as well, so I decided that Censor would be the film that I used for the June Swoon today.

And yet, this film failed to grab my attention at all. I was uninterested nearly from the start of the film and I could not wait for the end.

I am not sure that I have given this film a fair shot. I had commercial issues with Hulu, which I thought I had a subscription that included “no ads” (I actually did not have that feature).

The film had a definite B-movie horror vibe to it. That is not a bad thing, but it just could not pull me back into the narrative once I was out of it. I do like horror movies.

Perhaps one day this will have to be used as one of those “Do Over” films on a Sunday morning, but, as for now, Censor was just not for me.

June 11th, Movie 12

Today, I opened up HBO Max and watched one of the films that I have been waiting to watch for awhile. Drive My Car was getting a ton of buzz around Oscar time and it had become available on HBO Max around that time, and I really considered watching it then. However, I added it to the June Swoon list and decided to wait. Meanwhile, every time I looked at “My List” on HBO Max, there Drive My Car was looking right back at me.

Well, today was the day for the 3 hour Japanese film to finally get played. Was it worth the wait? Sure. Did it blow my mind? Not quite.

According to IMDB: “Two years after his wife’s unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There, he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900. As the production’s premiere approaches, tensions mount amongst the cast and crew, not least between Yusuke and Koshi Takatsuki, a handsome TV star who shares an unwelcome connection to Yusuke’s late wife. Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, Yusuke begins – with the help of his driver – to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind.“

This film is a real character study mainly featuring Kafuku and Misaki, as the film goes deep into the loss and the grief they suffered and were having what was a difficult time getting past. Both characters were emotionally distant but would eventually bond over the Saab 900 and Misaki’s skill at driving the car. As time passes, they begin talking about their losses, able to put in words thoughts that had clearly been weighing on their mind.

While there were a few other characters in the film that were interesting, the main focus was on the director and the driver. There was a character who was one of the actors in the play who spoke with sign language. I found her to be a fascinating character and she was one of the earliest people who helped start the bonding between Kafuku and Misaki.

I’m not sure this needed to be three hours long, as it did feel its length. Still, it was beautifully shot and the performances were strong. Drive My Car won the Best International Feature Film Academy Award this year and I could see why. It also received a nomination for its director, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, though he did not win.

Drive My Car is available on HBO Max.

June 10th, Movie 11

I gained a whole new respect for Oscar Isaac after watching him on the Moon Knight Marvel TV show. His acting chops were outstanding. I had seen him in other films before, but he did not jump out at me as much as he did when he was Marc Specter on Disney +.

Perhaps I should go back and look closer at some of his other performances.

Oscar Isaac starred in The Card Counter, a drama involving a man who learned how to count cards while in a military prison and who began to use the skill as a gambler. Isaac was completely amazing in the role and his performance was easily the standout performance of the film.

Oscar Isaac played William Tell, who had a dark past that he was trying to put behind him when he was approached by La Linda (Tiffany Haddish). La Linda ran a stable of gamblers for a group of investors who back gamblers for a portion of their winnings. Tell turned her down. However, when he was approached by another person, a younger boy Cirk (Tye Sheridan), who told Tell that he knew who he really was and that Tell had known his father. Both were trained by a Major John Gordo (Willem Dafoe) in advanced interrogation techniques which led to Tell’s imprisonment and Cirk’s father’s suicide.

Tell convinces the boy to come with him and join him on his gambling trips. He called La Linda, telling her that he had changed his mind and wanted to join up.

Oscar Isaac was amazing here, but I do not want to take anything away from Tiffany Haddish either because she absolutely matched him in every scene that they shared.

The film took more swerves than I expected and it really worked. The whole narration by William Tell explaining some of the intricacies of poker as well as counting cards. It was a fascinating addition to the film that was already full of tension and suspense.

The character of William Tell was extremely deep and developed.

The Card Counter was a very solid and enjoyable film.