DailyView: Day 316, Movie 449

Who would have thought that 11 + minutes could be so compelling?

This morning, I watched the sci-fi/horror short called The Sky, directed by Matt Sears. It was just over eleven minutes long and, my goodness, it was good.

Two women were sitting together on a hill, watching the darkening sky and playing “Never Have I Ever”. Ellie (Chloe Fox) received a voice mail from her estranged mother (Renee Sears), begging for her to come and meet her before everything ends. Ellie’s friend Victoria (Charlotte Christof) talked her out of leaving saying that it was “too late.”

This is an apocalyptic tale about the end of the world. We do not need to know about the reasons the world is ending, because the short is really about family and what is important in life and the importance of mending fences while you still can.

The special effects for this short was impressive. The sky itself feels like a character as it slowly comes along, marshaling destruction in its path.

Chloe Fox was the definite standout in this short. She does a great job with her frightening performance. And the heartbreaking ending is extremely powerful as well.

It is a strong short that you should find. It is on YouTube and it is just a minimal time commitment to see how effective movies can be at presenting a message.

DailyView: Day 315, Movie 448

Tonight’s DailyView takes us to Disney + and, from there, to Egypt in the Valley of the Kings where, in this documentary, we see the story of the discovery of the Ancient Egypt tomb of the boy king, King Tutankhamun, but we see it in a way that we had never seen it before… in color.

This National Geographic documentary takes old photos and films from the 1920s and, through research and a caring artistic touch, brought accurate color to them, bringing a new perspective to the iconic expedition led by British archaeologist Howard Carter into the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

It spends time showing us some of the colorization skills used, but it is not the sole focus of this doc. They used the colorization to show the story of the exhibition in a new light. While the color was fine, the story of King Tut was much more fascinating to me. I have always enjoyed Egyptian mythology and the time of the kings, and King Tut brought the whole mystery together.

The doc does touch upon the “curse” that supposedly led to the death of Howard Carter’s beneficiary, Lord Carnarvon. The doc debunked the speculation on a curse with a simple blanket statement that it was made up by some journalists who were lacking anything to report.

The process of the colorization was fun, but it was most effective once they actually got inside the tomb of Tutankhamun. The beauty of the treasures found inside the tomb was considerably more illustrious with the color intact.

While this was interesting, there was not much new included in the story that added to what was known. It was a quick and fun watch and could show someone with less knowledge of the topic a good introduction to the story.

DailyView: Day 314, Movie 447

One of the classic horror/thriller films from the 1970s, Don’t Look Now is tonight’s DailyView film. It starred Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie and was directed by Nicolas Roeg.

According to IMDB: “John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie) are in Venice when they meet a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be psychic. She insists that she sees the spirit of the Baxters’ daughter, who recently drowned. Laura is intrigued, but John resists the idea. He, however, seems to have his own psychic flashes, seeing their daughter walk the streets in her red cloak, as well as Laura and the sisters on a funeral gondola.“

The feel of this film is the key to it. It has an eerie feeling of dread from the moment that John Baxter gets the flashes of images that showed him his daughter drowning. The guttural scream ripped from his body as he pulled his daughter from the water, knowing that there would be nothing that he could do to save her and not understanding how this image had come to him.

Donald Sutherland is amazing kicking off this film. That powerhouse scene set the tone for what we were in for.

The uneasiness of the moments in Italy, when John would see something or someone that shouldn’t be there, including the mysterious woman in the red coat, keeps everyone off-kilter and anxious. You are never quite sure what is real and what is John’s imagination or his grief or his mind.

Laura is worse yet as she buys into the mysterious sisters immediately after being told information that she believed the sister should not have known. Some of the trances that Heather (Hilary Mason) would go into were frightening. Not only because of the actual trance/fit but also because we do not understand what is happening and we assume that it is something important.

Without spoiling anything, the ending of Don’t Look Now was shocking and surprising and made for a sensational conclusion. I have a suspicion that there were things that I did not pick up on and that there may yet be something hidden that I did not find. It was a film that kept me thinking after it was over and that is always appreciated.

DailyView: Day 313, Movie 446

Zathura was a film that I had never heard of, but with the directorial skills of Jon Favreau behind it, I figured it would be an enjoyable film. Then, I read the synopsis and I thought that it sounded a lot like Jumanji. I came to realize why that was. Apparently, this was based on a book by the same author that wrote the original book, Jumanji, Chris Van Allsburg. In fact, this movie was a stand alone spin off of the 1995 Jumanji film.

And when it comes down to it, I enjoyed this way more than I did the original Jumanji film with Robin Williams.

Brothers Walter (Josh Hutcherson) and Danny (Jonah Bobo) were always fighting, with Danny always trying to compete with his older brother Walter. So when Danny discovered a board game called Zathura in the basement and started to play it, strange things began to happen. This included the sudden shock of their house flying through outer space.

Each turn of the game presented a card with a new problem for the space shuttle house: Aliens invading, a malfunctioning robot, a meteor shower.

Their sister Lisa (Kristen Stewart) was in cryogenic animation from the card upstairs in her bathroom when the next card stated to rescue the astronaut (Dax Shepard). The astronaut brought in a new perspective and a helping hand with the dangers of the game.

The brothers had to continue to play the game to try and make their way back home.

The center of the film is the relationship between Walter and Danny. It felt like a realistic relationship that could be real brothers. They argued, fought and said things to hurt the other one because they are not sure what else they could do. Both Hutcherson and Bobo nailed their performances and did so in a way that brought deep emotion between the boys.

The addition of Dax Shepard elevated the material even further and his own backstory was a fantastic inclusion in the story of the boys.

Kristen Stewart and Tim Robbins, who played the boys workaholic dad, have less to do in the story, but they both make the best of their screen time.

The special effects were really cool for 2005 and the aliens here were scary. This movie is a great family film, not just something that kids would enjoy. There is a strong message of brotherly connection and some exciting action. Yes, it is very much like Jumanji, but that can be excused since they are both from the same mind. Plus, this is a better story.

DailyView: Day 312, Movie 445

I had never seen seen this Tom Hanks film, That Thing You Do! before and I do not know why. I have always enjoyed Tom Hanks and I have loved music for years, especially within the 1960s. And I really enjoyed this movie.

According to IMDB: Recounts a fable of a pop rock band formed a year after the Beatles took America by storm in early 1964. Jazz aficionado Guy Patterson, unhappily toiling in the family appliance store, is recruited into the band the Oneders (later renamed the Wonders) after regular drummer Chad breaks his arm. After Guy injects a four/four rock beat into lead singer Jimmy’s ballad, the song’s undeniable pop power flings the Wonders into a brief whirlwind of success, telling the tale of many American bands who attempted to grab the brass ring of rock and roll in the wake of the British Invasion.

The music of this film was so entertaining. I enjoyed the title track, which was a good thing considering how many times we heard it. The music of the 60s was absolutely another character in the film, not only the music of the Wonders, but also the jazz, the other singers in the state fair tour and so on.

I thought Jimmy’s (Johnathon Schaech) choices at the end come out of nowhere. I kept expecting there to be a triangle between Jimmy, Guy (Tom Everett Scott) and Faye (Liv Tyler), but I was happy that the stereotypical trope was kept out of the film. It felt so much more realistic than just the soap opera twist.

Tom Hanks is great, unsurprisingly. He played off the characters so well without showing anybody up. He was the perfect supporting actor in this movie.

There is a great cast to including Ethan Embry (The Bass Player), Charlize Theron (Tina), Obba Babatunde (Lamarr), Giovanni Ribisi (Chad), Chris Ellis (Phil), Alex Rocco (Sol), Bill Cobbs (Del Paxton), Peter Scolari (Tony), Rita Wilson (Marguerite), Chris Isaak (Uncle Bob) and Kevin Pollak (Boss Koss).

I found this to be light and energetic. Thoroughly entertaining. The music was great and the characters were fun. I’m glad I finally got around to That Thing You Do!

DailyView: Day 312, Movie 444

Morgan Spurlock shot a documentary that looked at certain individuals who had a name of Hitler. There were a few that were related to Adolf Hitler, one who claimed to be the nephew of Hitler, a neo-Nazi who named his son Adolf Hitler, one guy whose first name was Hitler, a young teen girl whose last name was Hittler, and another man who was o relation but still had the last name.

I’m torn on this documentary. Honestly, the stories were not that fascinating with the exception of the neo-Nazi. Most of them were basically “I have the name Hitler, people look at me funny” and “I ignore the name.”

The film showed the man whose first name was Hitler asking his father on the phone why he named him Hitler. The man said that he did not like to use a name that anybody else was using. What? The son then told him that he liked the name and it made him who he was, but that felt like he was placating his father despite what had to be a tough first name.

The most intriguing one was how the neo-Nazi, who had swastikas tattooed on his neck and with him sporting a little Hitler mustache, had his children taken away from him. He had named his one son Adolf Hitler. This was the most conflicting part of the doc for me. The kids were taken away for some other reasons but it is hard to believe that it wasn’t connected to the name. The father was in a Nazi organization and had gone to a court date in a Nazi uniform. While he has a complete right to believe anything that he believed, the idea of children in this place is a challenge for me.

I believe that the Neo-Nazi loved his children. I’m not sure the doc gave us a full picture of the situation.

Morgan Spurlock had approached a Holocaust survivor at the end of the film and asked him what he thought of the idea that the remaining descendants of Hitler lived near him and the man gave a wonderful answer about not blaming someone for what their parents/ancestors had done. He implied that he came across this philosophy as he grew older. It was a nice ending to the so-so doc.

DailyView: Day 312, Movie 443

Gary Cooper starred in one of the greatest Westerns of all time, High Noon. If you are making a list of classic and iconic Westerns, this one would absolutely make the list.

The story is simple. Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) was getting married to Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly) and was handing the job of marshal over to someone new. However, on the day of his marriage, he heard that an outlaw that he had previously sent to jail, Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), was returning on the noon train with the intention of meeting up with his gang and killing Kane.

Refusing to run from Miller, Kane attempted to recruit members of the town to form a posse of deputies to stop the gang from running wild, but, to his consternation, he discovered that his friends and fellow townsfolk did not want to join in on the posse. This led to Kane having to face off with Miller and his three gunmen on his own.

The plot of High Noon occurs in real time as the building dread of the train arriving in Hadleyville, New Mexico continued to eat up the nerves of the people and the anxiety of the audience members. You could feel the isolationism felt by the heroic Marshal Kane as he struggled with the call of duty to the town and the fact that the town was dismissing him outright. You can see the conflict within Kane about whether he should just up and leave the town and start his life anew elsewhere. Eventually, his dedication to his duty would not allow him to push the Frank Miller problem off to someone else and he knew what he had to do.

The film was one of the first Westerns to have adjusted the role of the female characters, with Amy playing a significant role in the third act showdown between Kane and Miller. There were some push back against the change of a Western trope from some of the people involved in making Westerns. John Wayne was a known opponent of High Noon, calling it “the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life.” Still, High Noon became an extremely influential film of its time.

The final shot of the film was an epic one, which showed the contempt that Kane had grown inside him for the town that had left him to die.

High Noon was a legendary Western that took many of the genre tropes and played with their expectations, creating a new style of hero and supporting characters.

DailyView: Day 312, Movie 442

This one is a tough one. I remember seeing trailers for this movie, 99 Homes starring Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon, when the film was in theaters, and I was looking forward to seeing it. However, it never came to any of the theaters that were in my area and it slipped into the abyss. I found it on a list of underrated films and I then rented it from Vudu.

The film is a difficult watch, and really takes the character played by Andrew Garfield and puts him through the wringer. Garfield, who had a fantastic 2021 being named the EYG Star of the Year, earning an Oscar nomination and appearing in the biggest film of the year, has been able to show how amazing he is as an actor, and he brought all of his skills to this morally grey film.

Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) was a struggling construction worker who lived at home with his mom (Laura Dern) and his son Connor (Noah Lomax). They were set to be evicted from their home by the sheriff’s department and real estate operator Rick Carver (Michael Shannon). Carver was detached and cold as the eviction was taking place, with Dennis taking his family to live at a motel.

Dennis discovered some of his tools had been stolen, so he went to Carver’s place of business and confronted the movers who he believed had taken them. Carver was impressed with Dennis’s manner and he offered him a job. Soon, Dennis had become Carver’s assistant and was doing evictions along with him.

Andrew Garfield is sensational in this movie as Dennis slowly loses himself as the money and the success rolls in. He started everything with the noble attempt to regain his family home, but as the money increased, Dennis found himself doing things that he did not expect.

Michael Shannon was excellent as he always is. There was a predatory nature to the character of Rick Carver that Shannon played expertly. His emotionless manner showed him to be a shark of a man who was doing actions that were borderline criminal and he pulled Dennis into the world along with him.

It was tough to watch Dennis succumb to the darker aspects of himself as he became more like Carver with every eviction. Dennis knew what he was doing was sketchy, at least, since he did not tell his mom what exactly he had been doing. When she found out, sparks really began to fly.

99 Homes was tense and full of anxiousness. The performances were tremendous and the story really focused on how easy it was to take advantage of the differing classes in American society. This is a film all home owners should see.

DailyView: Day 311, Movie 441

I set myself several “unofficial” goals for the DailyView. The main official goal, of course, was to watch a movie from 2020 or before that I had never seen, every day, for 365 days. However, I have set a few “unofficial” goals to go along with the main one, as much for fun as anything else. Today, I accomplished the first of those “unofficial” goals thanks to Sherlock Jr. a silent film from 1924 starring Buster Keaton.

As of this moment, I have seen, as a part of the DailyView, at least one movie from every year from 1915 through to 2020. The final year I needed to complete that feat was a film from 1924. While investigating what films would work for that year, I found the Sherlock Jr. film with Buster Keaton.

I have to say that I liked this more than some of the other Buster Keaton films I have seen. I found myself laughing several times as his variation of slapstick that was such a staple of the silent films of the 1920s.

Buster was a movie projectionist and a janitor. He wanted to get a gift for his girl (Kathryn McGuire) but he did not have enough money. When he bought a less expensive version, he changed the price to make it look like he spent more.

However, this led to him getting tied up as a suspect in taking the girl’s father’s watch, actually taken by the Local Sheik (Ward Crane), and he framed Buster for the theft.

Returning to the theater, Buster played a movie and began to dream that he was in the sotry of each.

As I said, I found this very funny, and Buster was excellent. While I have always preferred Charlie Chaplin, this Buster Keaton was charming, engaging and extremely expressive during his troubled dream. There is a chase scene that is just expertly choreographed and designed.

There was a tremendous scene where Buster walked down through the audience of the movie theater and walked up straight into the movie on the screen. That sequence was masterful and a genius bit of effects for the time. According to Wikipedia, Keaton had said “that his character walking onto the screen and into a film was ‘the reason for making the whole picture…Just that one situation.’ “

There were some other amazing stunts in the film, including one with a train and a nearby water spout, Buster leaping into a small suitcase and a whole stretch of a motorcycle ride. These are fabulous and Buster was known to have done his own stunts. In fact, according to Wikipedia, Buster had seriously injured his neck during the water spout stunt, perhaps even having broken it.

Sherlock Jr. was a lot of fun and I am please that it was able to check off the first of the “unofficial” goals for the DailyView, which has less than two months to go.

DailyView: Day 311, Movie 440

Stan Lee is one of my idols. He created so much of my childhood with the hand that he had in designing the Marvel Universe of characters. Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk etc. were so important to me then, and remain so to this day. It is a legacy that Stan Lee will never lose.

However, not everything Stan Lee did turned into a classic. Case in point, The Condor.

Stan Lee created a series of heroes for POW Entertainment in the early 2000s, which included a character named Mosaic. Here, Lee introduced a Latino character called the Condor, which was a skateboarder with nanotech technology. This film and the hero surrounding it was lifeless.

Tony Valdez (Wilmer Valderrama) was a famous skateboarder who was up for a major championship. When his skateboard was sabotaged, Tony wound up losing the competition. His parents were killed in a car wreck after they were run off the road and Tony wound up being beaten up by the same assailants, who break his legs terribly.

With a diagnosis of not being able to walk again, Tony’s friend Sammi (Kathleen Barr) brought him the nanotech and a powered up skateboard. Tony wound up in a costume as The Condor, and he went to try to gain justice for his parents.

The animated movie is typical for the low budget type of animation. Basically, what you would expect on a cable network show. None of the animation stands out.

The voice cast was average too. Wilmer Valderrama, from That 70’s Show, is fine as Tony, but nothing else stands out. Stan Lee makes his typical cameo in the film as a random grandfather of a girl saved by the Condor.

The story is your typical superhero fare, nothing remarkable or interesting. The character of Condor is basically like the character of Rocket Racer from Marvel, which should tell you how uninspiring he is. It takes too long to set up the conflict and the villains are as stereotypical as you are going to find.

Not everything can be Spider-Man. The Condor doesn’t even come close.

DailyView: Day 311, Movie 439

The follow-up documentary from Seth Breedlove to the On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Legend doc is subtitled The Search. This documentary is very much the story of the title, a search for Bigfoot.

Three sections are used here just like the previous film. Each section is an interesting look at some of the different individuals and/or organizations that are in pursuit of the mysterious Bigfoot.

In the first section, the doc takes a look at some of the more “out there” theories of Bigfoot and its ability to evade discovery. These theories include ideas that the Bigfoot creature is from UFOs or are inter-dimensional travelers that step through portals and that is how they are so elusive. The first section is really a weird group of theories that, to me, undermines the topic.

In the second section, the tale becomes considerably more relevant and intriguing. Breedlove goes to Area X, one of the hotspots of Bigfoot encounters with the NAWAC, the North American Wood Ape Conservancy. The most fascinating part of this section is how some of the searchers went out with their guns and with an intent of proving the existence of the creature by killing one and bringing its body to science. This debate has raged in the Bigfoot community and it is dealt with in a serious manner.

The final section sees Breedlove meet up with some of the “weekend warriors” who dedicate their time, almost like a hobby, to heading out into the woods and trying to find whatever they could. These lesser scientific methods were interesting too.

Some of the best parts of the doc were recordings of vocalizations and other sounds that are difficult to explain. These recordings are always creepy and unnerving. Of course, this is not evidence of anything, but the ability to hear the unknown sounds brings a reality to the investigatiom.

Seth Breedlove’s cautious skepticism is a welcome attitude. He is legitimately out to try and find out, one way or another, if these creatures are real and that provides his documentary with an importance that may not be provided by a doc from either a true believer or an outright denier.

There are more of these docs that I will be looking at later. They are well done and informational.

DailyView: Day 310, Movie 438

Taika Waititi has become one of my favorite directors. His work on Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and Jojo Rabbit has been awesome. So when I came across an earlier film on Vudu called Boy with Taika as the writer and director, I was excited to watch it. He did not disappoint.

11-year old Boy (James Rolleston) lived with his brother Rocky (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu), their gran and a goat. Gran left for a week, leaving Boy in charge of the children living with them. However, Boy’s absentee father Alamein (Taika Waititi) returned to his sons from prison hoping to find a bag of money that he had buried years before. Boy had always admired and dreamt about his father in noble ways, but Alamein did not match this fanciful creation in Boy’s head.

Taika Waititi has the ability to take some of the most ridiculous things, seemingly random bits, but still highlight the humanity and the heart of the situation and the characters. Rocky believed he had magic powers, which was a silly, childish notion, but it came from a tragic backstory. He was told that he had magic powers because when he was born, he was unable to control them and their mother died. This, of course, was the way to explain to the kid that his mother had died in childbirth. It was both sweet and sad at the same time.

There are many examples of this in Boy. The relationship between Boy, who idolized the fantasy version of his father, and his father, who in real life was a gang member who drank a lot and was extremely selfish, is one of great depth and emotion.

James Rolleston is excellent as the titular role, and he has a shine in his eyes. His presence on screen is special and his chemistry with Taika Waititi is obvious. This is the essential relationship of the film and if it did not work, the film would fall apart.

The allusions to Michael Jackson was funny, too, as was the use of the Thriller dance at the end of the film using Māori cultural music.

Boy is filled with charm and packs a surprisingly emotional punch. There are some great performances from the three main characters, each bringing something special to the tale. This felt like a small, personal story and it was a wonderful film. You can see many of Taika Waititi’s skills beginning to develop here that would lead him to become a hugely successful director.

DailyView: Day 309, Movie 437

Since I am heading off to The Batman tonight, I decided to do a short this early morning for the DailyView, but I went in a different direction. Instead of heading back into the 1920s or 1930s for Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy or Buster Keaton, I scoured YouTube for more recent shorts that would fill the same section. I found a list of good possibilities and today, I am watching a horror short called Other Side of the Box.

It is a scant 15 minutes, but Other Side of the Box manages to be very unnerving and intense in the short time frame. A couple is at home preparing dinner when an old friend, and possibly an old flame for the woman, arrives with a Christmas present. The present was a strange box that seemingly had no bottom. Then, someone is suddenly peaking out of the box.

The box is obviously cursed and leads to some scary moments in the short.

It does not give us much along the lines of resolution to the set up provided in the story. This short feels like one that could easily be expanded into a longer film, much like Lights Out or The Babadook. In fact, there feels like there is a rich backstory, not only of the box, but of the couple and their friend that could be mined to easily reach feature length.

The film starred Nick Tag and Teagan Rose as the couple and Josh Schell as the friend.

This was a winner at the SXSW Film Festival for the Grand Jury Award.

There was a lot of tension built and some powerful scenes without any gore or violence shown. It is an eerie and disturbing short that I hope finds its way into explaining the set up more.