Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One

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This morning, I did the June Swoon 3 film for the day and it was on HBO Max. It was an animated Justice League movie called Warworld. I did not find it great, but it did reveal to me something that I did not know. There was another Justice League animated film out and available on Max which was based on one of the classic DC Comics storylines ever told: EYG Hall of Fame series, Crisis on Infinite Earths.

A wall of anti-matter is sweeping across the multiverse, destroying everything in its path. The Monitor (sort of like DC’s Watcher) recruited heroes from across all different worlds in an attempt to prevent the multiverse’s complete annihilation.

One of the most fun part about watching this movie was seeing the background heroes recruited to stand behind the main heroes. I saw everyone from Metamorpho to Hawk & Dove to Swamp Thing. These were just there for Easter eggs as none of them earned speaking roles.

Barry Allen (Matt Bomer), aka the Flash of Earth One, was one of the main characters as he had been in several previous films, introducing the concept of parallel earths. We saw Barry in multiple places during his own timeline as well as on different earths, such as Earth 3 with the Crime Syndicate. If you know about the original DC Max-Series, you know Barry Allan played a vital role in that story, and so it is effective that he is front and center in this one.

The animation of this film remains to be of a lower quality than one would expect from this type of a project. With animation that we see in weekly shows such as X-Men ’97, a feature length film should be better than what we get here. Still, it is watchable, but it just does not make me stop and be amazed at the shots.

The voice cast is once again assembled with some great voices. Along with Matt Bomer as Flash, there are Jensen Ackles, Darren Criss, Stana Katic, Meg Donnelly, Zachary Quinto, Jonathan Adams, Aldis Hodge, Jimmi Simpson, Ike Amadi, Alexandra Daddario, Nolan North, Lou Diamond Phillips, Matt Ryan, Keesha Sharp, Matt Lanter, Ashleigh LaThrop, Erika Ishii, Liam McIntyre, Zach Callison and Ato Essandoh.

This adaptation does a decent job with providing a story that works for the most part. This is an enjoyable film, and a much better one than the Warworld one that preceded it. It also did a decent job of being a part one, leaving us with a cliffhanger, and yet feel as if we got a complete story for the first part. On to Part Two!

3.8 stars

Justice League: Warworld (2023)

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June 4, 2024

The fourth day of the June Swoon 3: A Cinematic Flashback brought me to HBO Max and the first animated film of the month. It is also the first disappointment of the month.

At first, I felt that Justice League: Warworld was an intriguing concept. Seeing Wonder Woman in the old West was a neat concept and watching her square off with Jonas Hex opened a lot of possibilities. I was thinking this was much like Westworld and seeing the Justice League involved in this setting would be cool.

However, it was not just the old West. After her short bit was done, we came across Batman in the world of Warlord. Wonder Woman was there too. I did not understand what was happening and, if this was the case, why was Batman not in the old West. and where was Superman?

Eventually we came to Superman as an agent of the government in a black and white alien invasion film where both Batman and Wonder Woman would appear as would King Faraday. It also borrowed heavily from a Twilight Zone episode I saw last summer during the Daily Zone rewatch.

All of these side bits seemed to be nothing more than time wasters as the real plot started up in this episode as they came across Mongul, with Lobo, who has some weird sci-fi storyline. Apparently, Warworld is a massive weapon against the multiverse and he was in search of a key. Why he brought the Trinity into the story made no sense, but that was not unlike most of the rest of this movie.

J’onn J’onzz was here too and played a role in the end of the film, but the movie made the entire thing feel unnecessary as it was being used simply to introduce the idea of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The movie brought in what I assume was Harbinger at the very end to rescue the Trinity and set up the next animated film. I am only guessing that this is Harbinger since the look of the character is nothing like I remember. She looked more like Marvel’s Frankie Raye aka Nova than she did the Harbinger from Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Jensen Ackles lead the voice cast which included Stana Katic (formerly of Castle fame) as Wonder Woman, and Darren Criss as Superman. Other actors included Ike Amadi, Troy Baker, Matt Bomer, Roger Cross, Brett Dalton, John DiMaggio, Frank Grillo, Teddy Sears, Kari Wahlgren, and Robin AtkinDownes.

The animation was fine, but did not standout in any instance. The characters did not feel right. Even in Elseworld type stories, the characters needed to feel like the characters we know in order for us to relate to them. Much of the story was convoluted and only felt as if it existed simply to put them in these specific settings. Worse yet, was it simply felt like a commercial for the next DC animation film.

Usually, the DC animated movies are very well done. This was quite a step down.

The X-Files S5 E9

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Spoilers

“Schizogeny”

… or the killer tree episode.

I first thought this was the episode with the kid who could summon lightning and was always in the arcade, but it switched up quickly. I do not remember this episode at all. Perhaps that is because this is terrible.

Did I mention killer trees?

Poor Aunt Linda.

I think there was an intention to speak against abuse in children, but the ridiculousness of the rest of the episode just did not fit with the topic. The tone of this episode was all over the place and the abuse did not work for the story.

And evidence that Mulder should not be involved in car chases.

The X-Files gave us, perhaps, the first crazy Karen. Decapitated, even.

If I missed this the first time around, it seemed that I was lucky. This was one of the worst X-Files episodes in a long time.

Bates Motel S2 E1

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Spoilers

“Gone but not Forgotten”

I was about halfway through the episode on Amazon Prime when my internet went out. So I had to wait a couple of hours before I could finish the season premiere of season two of Bates Motel.

One of my favorite scenes of the show happened in this episode. Vera Farmiga had the most righteous rant at the city council meeting and I threw my arms into the air as she ripped into the council and the prudish women who had presented about removing books from the school. This gave another great look at the character of Norma Bates, who is being shown to be a force of nature.

The show took the character of Bradley in a different direction this season as she tried to kill herself at the beginning of episode 1. She started going all in on an attempt to find out about her father, who died in season one. That led her to killing the guy that had some knowledge of the death in a shocking moment. Then she drew Norman into the problem at the very end of the episode. I did not remember this part of the storyline from the first time I saw this back in season two, so it was a cool, seemingly new, feature.

Norman is continuing to have trouble getting over the death of Miss Watson. The show is implying that he had something to do with the murder. Norman does not remember what happened that night, but, when he was talking to Norma about it, Norman said that he did not remember and when he left, he could have been there to help her when the person who killed her arrived. You could see that Norma was thinking that Norman had something to do with the death.

Great kickoff to season two.

Thanksgiving (2023)

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Eli Roth’s holiday slash-fest is the next film in the June Swoon 3 as I pulled up Thanksgiving on Netflix this morning.

Slasher movies are not my favorite sub-genre of horror film historically, but I have to say that I fund Thanksgiving to be a decent film with plenty of scary (maybe gory is the better word) moments and a film that avoided a lot of the typical stupid behaviors associated with slasher films.

I liked how this film started off, setting up suspects for who would eventually be the John Carver murderer. There were a ton of red herrings in the film and I really liked how they went through these methodically.

Some of the kills were really gruesome too. A couple were so bad that I actually had to avert my eyes once or twice. I know I am a wuss, but I am not big on the gore.

The Black Friday scene was absolutely over the moon and set this craziness up perfectly. It also introduced us to some eventual victims who I was looking forward to seeing get their comeuppance for their crazy behavior during this riot.

The film does a great job of taking comments or incidents from the beginning of the film and pay them off in the finale. That was some solid writing and made everything feel important.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and brought a new flair to the slasher sub-genre.

Bates Motel S1 E10

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Spoilers

“Midnight”

Season one of Bates Motel wrapped up with some major events that both put an end to some dangling threads and set up what will be happening in season two.

Norma goes to Sheriff Romero with the details about Abernathy’s threats at the end of the previous episode. Romero basically tells her that he would take care of it and that she should trust him. I don’t know why anyone would at this point because Romero is sus as hell.

Norma asked Dylan if he could get her a gun and teach her to use it. Dylan refused at first, but changed his mind and they had a nice mother-son moment while shooting cans and bottles.

Norma still planned on going to the meeting with Abernathy at midnight.

Meanwhile, Norman and Emma decide to go to a school dance together, but Norman’s obsession with Bradley tanked that.

Prior to Norman and Emma going to the dance, Norma told Norman about her brother. She said that when she was 13, her brother would make her have sex with him and she told Norman because she just needed someone to know. You could see how this news affected her barely sane son.

So at the dance, when Emma leaves Norman alone, Bradley’s boyfriend punched Norman and he started walking home in the rain. Miss Watson picks him up and takes him to her house to fix up his bloody eye.

Norma went to the docks to meet Abernathy despite Romero’s warning for her to trust him. She saw Romero arrive and hid. Romero confronted Abernathy and shoots him multiple times, shoving him into the water. Romero then told Norma, whom he knew was there, to go home. It was a laugh out loud moment when Norma popped up from her hiding spot after Romero said that. Romero told Norma that she needed to trust him when he says to trust him.

Romero is a bad ass in these episodes. He is also a huge riddle. Is he corrupt? Is he just like a vigilante, taking care of things on his own? He says that this was his town, to what extent does he mean that? Nestor Carbonell brought the intensity of this character to the screen and would become a series regular in season two.

We then see Miss Watson dead on the floor of her home with her throat slit. We know Norman was there and we know that “Mother,” the delusion that Norman sees, told him that he knew what he had to do. Did Norman off his teacher? We did hear Miss Watson on the phone earlier with what sounded like an old boyfriend so it may not be cut and dried that Norman killed her.

After a couple of lesser episodes, the season finale of season one of Bates Motel really rocked and set up everything for the series moving forward.

Ezra

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A new film featuring a character with Autism was at Cinemark this weekend, and I had heard some positive word of mouth about the film, so with a light weekend of new movies, I decided to give it a shot.

According to IMDB, “Tony Goldwyn’s EZRA follows Max Bernal (Bobby Cannavale), a stand-up comedian living with his father (Robert De Niro), while struggling to co-parent his autistic son Ezra (introducing William Fitzgerald) with his ex-wife, Jenna (Rose Byrne). When forced to confront difficult decisions about their son’s future, Max and Ezra embark on a cross-country road trip that has a transcendent impact on both their lives.“

Bobby Cannavale is the definitive stand out in this film as the deeply troubled father who still loves his son, Ezra. Cannavale was given a really meaty role with plenty of deep seeded troubles and he does an exceptional job. Much of it is the chemistry between Cannavale and William Fitzgerald, who is the young actor they found to play Ezra. Fitzgerald is very good in this role too. Director Tony Goldwyn held a nationwide search for a child actor with Autism, providing as realistic of a performance as possible.

Robert DeNiro gives a strong supporting performance as Cannavale’s father. There are some story in the film for DeNiro and Cannavale to play and, while it does not dominate the film, it adds a nice flavor to Ezra.

There are some parts of the story that stretch believability and I will say that the ending felt too emotionally manipulative, but I thought most of the story was well done.

3.75 stars

The Zone of Interest (2023)

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The next film in the June Swoon 3: A Cinematic Flashback is the second consecutive Oscar winning international film. The Zone of Interest is a look at a slice of life among a career driven man, his wife and happy family as they deal with the daily events of their lives.

Oh, did I mention that he was a Nazi commandant?

Oh, not just any Nazi commandant, but Rudolf Höss of Auschwitz?

I knew the film was a Holocaust setting, but I was unaware what I was about to watch. Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), along with his wife Hedwig Höss (Sandra Hüller), were our main protagonists. I did not figure out who they were until a bit into the film and to say that I was shocked when I figured it out would be an understatement.

There were a couple of times where I had to stop and say to myself that I was not feeling sorry for Rudolf Höss. The film did a great job of showing the entire person that this evil man was and displaying that even evil men and women have sides to their personality that you may not expect.

I do not think the film humanized Rudolf Höss as much as it showed how real life has plenty of shadows and moments where even the worst of us have quiet times.

Sandra Hüller appeared in her second consecutive film in this year’s June Swoon with her role as Hedwig. This was a wicked woman too as the film showed her being soft and loving, as well as moments when she would switch immediately to cruelty and a savageness that was unexpected. There was a scene where she told her Jewish servant that she could have her husband scatter her ashes across the land. I literally gasped at that comment.

As an A24 film. The Zone of Interest did not really have a laid out plot. It was more of an exploration of daily life just outside of the worst concentration camp in the Holocaust. It did not feel as if anything was building to a climax. It was just a series of scenes that were very powerful in their own.

One of the most effective techniques used was the management of sound. The film would have scenes with the happy family or of the beautiful home they enjoyed, but in the background, you could hear the sounds of gunfire, or dogs barking, or the suffering of Jewish prisoners. The sound cues of the film made this a truly haunting effect, without ever having the visual imagery on the screen. This juxtaposition is clearly why the film was able to win the Best Sound Oscar at the Academy Awards.

I have to say that the beginning was an odd experience for me. The film began with an extended black screen, though I could hear sound going on. I honestly thought that there was something wrong with MAX. I almost stopped it so I could see why it was not showing a picture. I was able to determine that this was intended.

This was the Academy Award winner for Best International Feature Film (although it was not up against Anatomy of a Fall) and received a nomination for Best Motion Picture as well as Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jonathan Glazer. This is one of those films that could stay with you for awhile and the image of the ending with present day Auschwitz was extremely poignant.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #100

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June 1, 2024

Double-Sized Special Edition

Welcome to the 100th post in the EYG Comic Cavalcade! In comics, the 100th issue is always considered a major milestone, a big deal. Something is special about the number 100. Perhaps it is the roundness, the evenness of the number. Just like in the world of comics, we at EYG will be celebrating this massive landmark with an oversized entry. Plus, I love the special banner that goes along with this double-sized post. There will be a new one for next week too!

It feels like just yesterday when Todd was telling me that the name Comic Cavalcade was already used for a comic series from DC Comics from the last century. It was why I added the EYG in front of it. Fortunately, DC has not sent any lawyers after me just yet.

I said this was post #100, but it goes further back than that. In fact, when I started doing these posts, the title was Comic Catch-Up. Marvel had introduced Legacy numbering a few years ago to account for the overall issues in a series so they could reboot/restart different books at a new #1 and still have the large number that fans liked so much. It was a sales technique that allowed the House of Ideas to put out more #1s.

For us, there were 50 posts under the banner of Comic Catch-Up, so you could say that, with this post, out Legacy number is 150.

Actually, this will be post #380 under the category heading ‘Comics this Week’ on the site. That included some early posts I did on certain books, the favorite comic covers of the week, and the banners.

But, for me, the Legacy number is 150for a specific reason. In January 2023, my collection was a mess. I had unread books scattered in piles all over my room, some in the original plastic bag I purchased them in from Comic World. There was such a massive undertaking that it just felt as if there was no sense in even trying to organize. let alone read them.

I made a decision. Near the end of the month, I committed myself to reading at least one hour every day, trying to make a dent in the seemingly endless piles. To keep myself motivated and honest, I would write a post for EYG detailing the comics that I read. I would call that post EYG Comic Catch-Up.

That first post I wrote included the following comics: Fantastic Four #2, Joe Fixit #1, Photon #1, Amazing Spider-Man #17, Unwanted #1 & 2, Strange #10, and Wasp #1.

With this renewal to my devotion of reading the comics I already had, I started to see progress. In fact, as the post numbers increased, my piles began to dwindle away.

Then, it seemed like the column was less about catching up and more about adding new comics to the read list. I had discovered new series along the way such as Gideon Falls, Middlewest, That Texas Blood and so on (Thanks eBay!)

Because of that, I chose to make a change. I decided to end EYG Comic Catch-Up and reboot it as EYG Comic Cavalcade.

March 21, 2023 saw the first post for EYG Comic Cavalcade go live. Now, 14 months later, this is my 100th post under this category.

I am very proud of my collection. I no longer have piles of unread comics sitting around collecting dust. Now I have dozens of boxes filled with bagged and boarded books.

I have set a goal that I will have all of my comics rebagged, reboarded and reboxed before the end of the summer. I was originally going to start the process in the summer, but I have been working on the collection on and off over the last six months or so. I am down to around 6-7 long boxes remaining. It has been really fun seeing what I had in my collection as I put them in all new protective materials.

And I have been taking inventory on my phone with an app called CLZ. It has been a great tool to help me organize my collection in one place. It has allowed me to search through back issues of books and know what I need.

There us still a lot of organizing to be done for my collection, and that is a long term goal. I want to get all the books together and not spread out in boxes everywhere.

I am grateful that I have EYG because writing this column has inspired me to take care of my collection. I was ashamed before with how I disregarded the comics I bought and now I am much happier than I have been in quite awhile.

The plan is to continue with the EYG Comic Cavalcade, maintaining the current numbering system. With school now out, I will be spending my Wednesday afternoons, which are of course NEW COMIC BOOK DAY, at Comic World so the column should be posted earlier than before.

I also got several New Warriors from volume one this week. Again, thanks to Todd and his nose for back issues. I have New Warriors #63, 68, 72-74, Annual #1 and Annual #2. Of course, I did not need Annual #2. Todd had called me from a comic shop with the four annuals asking me what I had. I said I had #2 and #3. To my surprise, Annual #2 was in the pile of books I got last Wednesday. It was funny.

After all that, reflecting back over 100 posts and beyond, we still have other new books this week:

Drawing Blood #2. “Metropolis and All the Jazz” Script by David Avallone and artwork by Ben Bishop. Cover art was by Kevin Eastman. Bookman has all kind of troubles from the Lithuanians he owed money, his Broadway play and too much sake. And whose funeral is it?

W0rldtr33 #10. Written by James Tynion IV and art and cover art by Fernando Blanco. We get to see how things started off with Azzy and Gabriel. This continues to be a weird book that can be difficult to follow. It is that high level of rigor that you always know you are going to get with James Tynion.

Black Panther: Blood Hunt #1. Written by Cheryl Lynn Eaton and art by Farid Karami. Cover art was done by Andres Sorrentino (Bronze Medalist). T’Challa battles against the hunger that is overtaking his new vampire form and Shuri attempts to help him. Black Panther is a major force in this Blood Hunt storyline across all of Marvel.

Midnight Sons: Blood Hunt #1. Written by Bryan Hill and art by German Peralta. Ken Lashley & Juan Fernandez did the cover art. Blade seems to be the big bad of this crossover, but Johnny Blaze wonders what is going on. So he recruits Danny Ketch and Victoria Montesi to see what they can figure out… or destroy Blade in the process.

Fall of the House of X #5. “Now and Forever” Written by Kieron Gillen and art by Luciano Vecchio. Cover art was done by R.B. Silva & David Curiel. Jean Grey-Phoenix. NUFF SAID!

Night Thrasher #4. “Whose Streets? Our Streets.” Written by J. Holtham and art by Nelson Daniel. Cover art was by Alan Quah. I believe this short series came to a close here as it certainly felt like a wrap up. Night Thrasher, Silhouette and O.G. end up together ready to make life better in Harlem. This was a short and quick series, but I would not be opposed to adding some more former New Warriors and doing this right.

Jackpot & Black Cat #3. Written by Celeste Bronfman and drawn by Emilo Laiso & Giada Belviso. Pablo Villalobos did the cover art. MJ has figured out what is happening with Felicia and comes to have dinner with her and Felicia’s new love, Amelia.

X-Men: The Wedding Special #1. As the wedding of Raven Darkholme and Irene Adler approached, there are a bunch of X-Men who have their own concerns or issues with the happy couple. There are multiple artist and writers doing part of this book. I do like the wedding scene but a lot of the rest of the book is okay, at best.

Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver #4. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Lorenzo Tammetta. Russell Dauterman did the cover art. This short series comes to an end, leading directly into another Scarlet Witch #1 coming soon. I liked the inclusion of Pietro in this series but there is no really reason this couldn’t have been a story arc in the previous Scarlet Witch series. The absolute definition of Legacy numbering happening here.

Hellverine #1. “Resurrection” Written by Benjamin Percy and drawn by Julius Ohta. Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer and Marte Gracia did the cover art. What the flaming hellfire adamantium claws was this? I was not a fan of this comic.

Pine & Merrimac #5. Written by Kyle Starks and illustrated and cover art by Fran Galan. With Parker killed last issue, this was going to be an issue about grief. However, something weird happened in the end of the book that was totally unexpected and ended this final issue of the series in a HUGE cliffhanger. What happened? I don’t know but I love this comic and I hope this means that they intend on picking it back up in the future.

Avengers: Twilight #6. “The World is Watching” Written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Daniel Acuna. Alex Ross & Daniel Acuna did the cover art. The future Avengers come to a conclusion against the Red Skull as Thor and Hulk square off in a final battle. This has been a very satisfying series and it wraps up nicely. I am never a huge fan of alternate futures, but Chip Zdarsky always does great work.

Spider-Boy #7. “And His Amazing Friends.” Written by Dan Slott and art by Paco Medina. Cover art (variant) by David Baldeón (Gold Medalist). Spider-Boy is in his final showdown with Madame Monstrosity and he gets some back up. Hoo-boy does he get some back up. It is a beautiful black and white variant cover this week.

Ultimate Spider-Man #5. Written by Jonathan Hickman and guest artist David Messina. This issue focuses on Harry Osborn and how he came to be this ultimate universe Green Goblin. In fact, I’m not sure Spider-Man is seen in the book.

Universal Monsters: Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives #2. Written by Dan Watters and Ram V with art by Matthew Roberts. Cover art was by Matthew Roberts and Dave Stewart (Silver Medalist). I really loved the first issue of this book, and this second issue is just as good. Gill Man is causing a ruckus. This is a beautifully drawn book and is a fun read.

Saga Vol. 6 & 7. The sixth and seven volumes of the nine volume collection continue to be exceptional writing by Brian K. Vaughn. There was a terrible loss in these two volumes as one of my favorite characters seems to be gone for good. This has been a brilliant series so far and with only two volumes left, I am excited about finishing it.

Other books this week: The Six Fingers #4, Torpedo 1972 #3, Nights #7, Count Crowley: Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter #4, Project: Cryptid #9, and The Bloody Dozen #6.

So this brings to a close for the EYG Comic Cavalcade #100. I have loved rededicating myself to a hobby that I have done since I was in 5th grade, and here is to another 100 posts moving forward.

Doctor Who S14 E5

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S14 E5, S1 E6???

SPOILERS

“Dot and Bubble”

Wow, what an ending.

At first, I thought this was going to be an episode with a theme about the dangers of social media, but it became so much more in the last five minutes.

Lindy is our main protagonist in this world called Finetime. She was very unlikable but the Doctor and Ruby tried their best to help her avoid being eaten by a large bug-monster creatures. These bug-creatures are just really creepy and seeing them devouring the people of Finetime was unnerving.

Most of the episode had the Doctor and Ruby appearing on screens inside the ‘bubble’ , the screen-like function that went around their heads and allowed them access to the social media world. They did a great job without being in much of the episode.

Lindy became even more unlikable as the episode progressed and when Ricky September showed up and she tossed him to the wolves, I really started to want to see her pay for her meanness.

Only it got even more.

The last five minutes revealed that Lindy was a racist and she made implications that she wouldn’t go with him because he was different. It did not come right out and said it was because he was black, but that is absolutely what she was referring to in that ending.

Going back for a minute. In the Bubble, the Doctor and Ruby see whom Lindy said was her mummy, but it was the same actress who has been in all the other previous episodes. She is played by Susan Twist, and this episode, the Doctor and Ruby realized that they recognized her face from previous episodes.

I think this is an episode where a second watch, after knowing the ending, makes the rest of the episode look differently than it did on the first view.

Another strong episode with a very creative story.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

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The third annual June Swoon got underway this morning with an Oscar winning foreign film that I had missed from 2023. Anatomy of a Fall received a lot of Academy buzz earlier this year as it was nominated in several major categories, oddly enough except for Best International Film.

Anatomy of a Fall tells the story of a couple and their 11-year old son. The couple had been having troubles since an unfortunate accident that led to their son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner),when he was four years old, losing much of his vision. Moving back to his hometown, Samuel (Samuel Theis) struggled to write, battled his guilt over Daniel’s accident and resented his wife, Sandra (Sandra Hüller).

So a day after an especially violent fight, Samuel was found outside of their home, dead from a fall out of the third story window. Isolated as they were, Sandra became the prime suspect in the death of Samuel and she is placed on trial for the murder.

This may be a spoiler, but I do love how the case is resolved (or not so much), storyline wise. I find that an intelligent manner of storytelling and allows you the viewer to add to the tale being told.

There were some excellent performances. Sandra Hüller received an Oscar nomination as Leading Actress in a Feature, and it was well deserved. Hüller brought plenty of emotions to the role, from an icy response to passionate rage. Milo Machado-Graner was just as excellent as the visually-impaired Daniel. Daniel had to go through a lot of pain and anguish during the film, and had to perform as a visually-impaired child too. He may have been the I See Child Actors Award winner at the EYG Year in Review section had I seen this film last year instead of during the June Swoon. His work was exceptional and every bit as compelling as any of the adults in the film.

The film may be slow for some, but I was engrossed from the first moments of the film, wondering the whole time what the truth of the story would be. The court scenes were fascinating too, as this was the first time I had ever seen a court case portrayed from a French court. The differences were striking from the US courts that I am more familiar with.

Anatomy of a Fall is beautifully constructed as a mystery, as a courtroom drama and as a personal story of a family filled with pain just trying to get by. Great performances fill the two hours and thirty minutes of the film and I can certainly understand why it had received as many Oscar nominations as it did.

Jim Henson Idea Man

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Director Ron Howard brought the new documentary of EYG Hall of Famer Jim Henson to Disney + today, and it was lovely, showing the magic that this amazing man brought to the world through his creations.

The Muppets have been one of my favorite IPs for decades. I remember coming home from elementary school to watch the Muppet Show. It was a seminal show for my childhood, and Jim Henson was the driving force behind it.

The loving manner in which Ron Howard moved us through the early years of Jim Henson right up to his death was beautifully conceived and joyous to watch.

With interviews from the Henson kids, Frank Oz, Rita Moreno, Jennifer Connolly, and other Muppet performers combined with older and newer clips of Jim Henson himself, the documentary does an excellent job of giving the story of genius.

The section of the documentary that spoke about the death of Jim was especially affecting, and the clips from the funeral from the group of speakers was very emotional and seeing Big Bird sing “It’s Not Easy Being Green” was an amazing tribute. I was unaware that Henson passed away at age 53, which is simply too young. The mind boggles at what this creative genius could have accomplished if he had spent more time on the earth.

The doc went into his time on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and his feature films The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Some of his early short films were fascinating to see and illustrated what a creative force Jim Henson could be. It was a wonderful love letter to the legacy of this man who was responsible for so much entertainment during his life.

The doc pushes all of the nostalgia buttons while still providing an engaging look at his life and career and how much he affected the world. This is an excellent documentary on an amazing individual.

4.6 stars

Bates Motel S1 E9

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Spoilers

“Underwater”

Poor Norma.

She has had a rough time. Finding the cadaver in her bed only started her stress. She was clearly afraid that this was the start of something worse, and she was very apparently correct.

The scene with Norma in the car with Jake in her backseat telling her to bring him the money that Shelby owed him was tense. Poor Norma had no idea what he was talking about, but she was stuck.

And she needs help but there is not much that Sheriff Romero could do and his comments to Norma with the flowers was completely understandable, even though she was 100% right.

Norman is still slowly descending into his craziness and I know it is heading toward his teacher getting the death treatment. Norman is showing the cracks in his life, especially when he trots into the house with his stuffed dead dog.

This is the penultimate episode of season one and it is again kind of a feeling of set up than a full story. It is a solid episode but it is not the same as the first half of this season.