Mountainhead

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June 18

HBO Max has a movie called Mountainhead on its streaming service released in 2025. I scheduled this as the second film for the June Swoon today.

Mountainhead is a dark comedy that takes four characters who are the richest men in the world, who come together for a boys’ weekend, to discuss how much money they have and how they can control the world through economic turmoil with their technology and their influence.

Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith and Ramy Youssef played the four tech billionaires who are preparing their ideas for creating a Utopian society with their AI and their tech skills.

The film started off with a lot of dialogue dealing with their plans and how they can use their manipulative abilities. The second part of the movie went into a dark and possibly ridiculous plan to eliminate one of their own.

This is clearly a satire poking fun at billionaires and their narcissism. The first part of the dialogue was difficult to follow. With all of the tech terms, it could have been as if they were speaking a different language. After that, the talented actors made the film wild. Looking at it like a satire helps it our.

2.75 stars

The Last Showgirl

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June 18

Hulu was the destination this morning for today’s June Swoon entry, the independent film The Last Showgirl starring Pamela Anderson.

Pamela Anderson was most well known for her role on the television show Baywatch, a role which she parlayed into an infamous lifestyle and career. Whether fairly or not, Anderson was perceived in a manner that may not have been too positive.

However, Pamela Anderson completely dominated this role in The Last Showgirl, bringing an energy and an emotion that she has never shown before. She was a revelation.

According to IMDB, “When the glittering Las Vegas revue she has headlined for decades announces it will soon close, glamorous showgirl Shelly sets out to plan her next act. Reconciling the decisions she’s made and the community she has built, Shelly decides to repair her complicated relationship with her daughter.”

I kind of get the same kind of feeling with this movie that I had with The Wrestler. Performer, getting old, and desperately hoping to hold on to what they know best. Anderson’s character, Shelly, is less miserable than Randy “The Ram” Robinson, but she definitely has parts of her life that she looks back upon with regret.

The film has a solid cast around Pamela Anderson, including Dave Bautista, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Billie Lourd, and Jason Schwartzman.

Pamela Anderson proved that she was more than just her red bathing suit. She was compelling, passionate, emotionally-charged and carried this movie completely. She showed that she was more than what people gave her credit for back int he Baywatch days. She is an actor.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

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I have started season 10 of The X-Files, with just 15 more episodes to complete my rewatch of the whole series. I have been working on this on and off since late 2023. With the end in sight, I thought it would be a good choice to go ahead an rewatch the second of the X-Files movies that came out in 2008, The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

According to IMDB, “Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) worked at the F.B.I. as partners, a bond between them that led to them becoming lovers. But now they’re out of the F.B.I. and have begun new careers. Scully works as a staff physician at a Catholic hospital. Her focus these days is on a young boy with an incurable brain disease. Administration wants to give up on him. Scully, who feels a special bond with the boy, does not. Meanwhile, Mulder’s focus is on clipping newspaper articles, throwing pencils into his ceiling and writing about the paranormal. Scully and Mulder are brought together as partners again when a special case requires Mulder’s expertise, and Scully is prevailed upon to convince him to help. The case involves a pedophile priest who claims he is having psychic visions regarding the whereabouts of a missing F.B.I. Agent.”

First off, I love the characters of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. They are some of my all-time favorite TV characters. They are a major selling point for this movie, especially since I am right in continuity of the TV rewatch to where this film would take place. Seeing David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson together once again would improve any movie.

It just does seem that this movie does need that improving. The story in this film is fairly ugly and has moments where it is just not easy to follow. It is convoluted and turns into the weirdest “Frankenstein” type film, seemingly from out of nowhere. The secondary plot of the boy with the disease that Dr. Scully is trying to help despite the administration at the hospital that she works is too medical TV show for a movie like this.

Father Joe (Billy Connolly) is a bizarre choice in many ways, but I do enjoy the conflict that he throws into the mix. As a possible psychic seeing flashes of the kidnapping, that is questionable enough, but when it was revealed that he was a pedophile as well, it was a rough choice. The character is still kind of set up to be the heroic one, which did not go well for Scully and, I would guess, most of the audience. Billy Connolly is an awesome actor though and this was a solid performance.

I do wish this story had a little more construction to it, because what they gave us seemed too strung together without enough connective tissue. Still, I did enjoy seeing my two favorites back together in a movie that would be basically a “monster-of-the-week” structure from the show.

The X-Files S10 E1

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“My Struggle”

Debuting on January 24, 2016, a whole fourteen years after the end of season nine, The X-Files returned to FOX for a condensed six episode event season. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reunited as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully for the series that kicked off with yet another massive government alien conspiracy.

As I stated last time, that blasted Cigarette Smoking Man is alive and showed up at the end of this episode, receiving news that the X-Files have been reopened.

Joel McHale appeared on the new show as Tad O’Malley, a right-wing conspiracy online host who pulled in Mulder and Scully to share with them the conspiracy that he believed he had uncovered.

There were hints dropped through the episode that gave us background behind the current state or lack thereof for the relationship between Mulder and Scully.

The biggest issue I had with the episode was the amount of monologues detailing information that the episode had. It was a gigantic exposition dump, which was meant to not only review much of what the show had already investigated, but also setting up the ideas for moving forward. Honestly, much of the episode felt similar to a path that the show had taken in a previous season.

Still, it is great to have Mulder and Scully back together. I still would like CSM to be dead, and stay dead, but what can I do. He does make a really compelling antagonist.

Rust

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June 17

The second June Swoon film of the day is one that had quite a tragic lead up until release. There was an accidental shooting with a gun with blanks that led to the death of the cinematographer of the film that caused a ton of negative press and a controversy in the political world. After charges were dropped against star Alec Baldwin, the decision was made to finish the film for release.

According to IMDB, “An orphaned boy of 13 left to fend for himself and his younger brother in 1880s Wyoming is sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher. His estranged grandfather breaks him out of jail and they go on the run to Mexico.”

Ignoring the backstage drama and tragedy that engulfed the movie prior to its release, I thought Rust was a pretty decent Western. Starring Alec Baldwin as Harlan Rust and Patrick Scott McDermott as Harlan’s grandson Lucas, Rust was beautifully shot and featured some solid performances from the cast.

Alec Baldwin and Patrick Scott McDermott had a nice pairing, working very well with one another. The strength of the grandfather/grandson relationship was at the heart of this film. Harlan was a notorious criminal and killer across the Western parts of the United States during the 1880s. He arrived to save Lucas from being hanged for the accidental shooting of a man.

Lucas did not know who Harlan was and their slow development of their relationship was well done and well acted. Throw in the constant pressures and dangers of being pursued by bounty hunters and the law and Harlan and Lucas had to face plenty of obstacles.

In the genre of the Western, Rust is not going to provide anything new and special, but had everything that a Western should have.

The imagery of the Old West looked spectacular in the film and the landscapes of the time were portrayed beautifully by the filmmakers.

Over all I thought this was a decent film. It took some time to set up and would be considered a slow burn, but I was never bored and I did enjoy the central relationship at Rust’s core.

3.85 stars

Ultraman: Rising

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June 17

The June Swoon film today sees us head back to animation for a fun tryst into the world of the classic superhero character of Ultraman. Ultraman: Rising brings the character back into the present world of Kaiju fighting and worldwide threats.

The original series of Ultraman debuted in 1966 and there have been many versions of the hero over the decades. This co-production between Tsuburaya Productions, who owns the franchise, and Netflix Animation looks to reintroduce the hero to the world. And with this film, they have done a wonderful job of it.

According to IMDB, “Ken Sato, a superstar baseball player who returns to Japan to become the latest hero to carry the mantle of Ultraman. His plans go awry, however, when he is compelled to raise a newborn kaiju monster the offspring of his greatest enemy as his own child. Sato will also have to contend with his relationship with his estranged father and the schemes of the Kaiju Defense Force.“

Tying this new hero Ken Sato to Japanese baseball is a excellent idea. Shohei Ohtani is a huge draw among the MLB baseball stars worldwide and having Ken Sato in that vein should help connect this to other fans around the globe.

The designs of the characters are great, as they are all awesome to look at and engage the creativity of the viewers’ imaginations.

The CGI/animation works very well too. There is the feel of old school Japanese monster flicks as well as the current day look of a big budget animated movie. The colors are flashy and entertaining.

The story does more than the typical fighting Kaiju story as it wraps itself around the idea of fatherhood and the relationship between father and sibling, both with Ken and his father, but also Ken and Emmy, the baby Kaiju that Ultraman rescues. This is a universal theme to which everyone could relate.

The villains of the KDF are a little underdeveloped. There are some interesting things going on with the KDF, but it is really basic and surface level. There are some deeper ideas available had the film chose to develop them.

Overall, I thought Ultraman: Rising was really solid. I enjoyed the superhero action and they developed the character of Ken Sato very well. This is a fun film on Netflix.

Duster s1 E5

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“Ravishing Light and Glory”

It is the Fourth of July on Duster and we have two separate storylines that are coming together well.

Jim has been fired for losing the Hughes car last week, so he go to see Saxton’s daughter Genesis. He discovered that her girlfriend is being forced into marriage by her criminal father for business purposes. Seeing a chance to get back into good graces of Saxton, Jim takes Genesis to help bust up the wedding.

Sadly, this comes at the cost of spending the 4th with Luna and giving David a chance to be the hero.

Meanwhile, Nina wants to go undercover inside Saxton’s organization as a Russian interpreter. She needs help to get an in with Saxton. When Jim tells her that he got canned, she decides that Jim’s father Wade is the way in.

The scene between Jim and Wade where Jim tells him his suspicions that Saxton had put the hit out on Joey is a good scene. Both men showed their level of pain at the potential betrayal, even if neither of them wanted to accept it.

There are scenes in Washington D.C., including a wild Richard Nixon appearance. There are a lot of things going on here and the last three episodes could be amazing.

The X-Files S9 E17, E18, E19, E20

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The final season of The X-Files in its original run was season nine. The show returned for two shortened seasons after that, but this was the final four episodes of The X-Files

“Release”

The show is clearly beginning to wrap things up for the original run and one of the dangling mysteries of the last few years was what had actually happened to Agent Doggett’s son. Well, this episode provided some closure to that story as we get the man who had killed him and the reason why the boy was killed. The only piece of the story that was left dangling was the fate of Brad Follmer, as played by Cary Elwes. We learn that Brad has been taking money from the mob and he wound up shooting the actual killer at the end. We never see Elwes again in the series so it is unclear what exactly happened to him.

“Sunshine Days”

Here’s the story, of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls…..

Yeah, this was a weird episode. Of course, Ben Linus was here. That always throws me off somewhat. Michael Emerson is an awesome actor, but he will always be Ben Linus to me. Then, the fascination with the Brady Bunch was a strange choice, right down to naming Emerson’s character Oliver Martin, in reference to Cousin Oliver.

The overall story of this episode was flat and I did not find it very compelling. I did like seeing Ben Linus again.

“The Truth Part 1 and Part 2”

This was the two part series finale, again of the original run of X-Files episodes and saw the return of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder. Duchovny had been gone the entire season and had agreed to return for this final wrap up.

The military had decided to put Mulder on trial for the murder of Knowle Rohrer, the “super soldier” who had been running around, surviving death several times over the last few seasons of the show. Of course, this was all part of the government conspiracy that the show had been investigating for the last nine seasons.

The military trial of Mulder was a sham, of course, as one of the men who sat in judgment was one of the aliens, The Toothpick Man (Alan Dale, also a LOST alum, playing Charles Widmore). These two episodes featured the return of multiple characters from the nine years, including  Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden), Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka) and Jeffrey Spender (Chris Owens), all of whom testified in the trial. We also had a group of ghosts appear to Mulder in visions such as Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) and X (Steven Williams) as well as the Lone Gunmen.

Of course, the final return was that of the “Wise Man” who Mulder and Scully go to for answers at the end, and it turned out to be the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) himself. Seeing that rotten bastard again did not make things great and neither did seeing him burned to death as I know he returned in the later seasons of the show. I have no idea how he survived this time, but seeing him alive really was a smack to the face.

They dropped a date: December 22, 2012, which is supposedly the date of the alien invasion.

I do not know what was to become of Doggett and Reyes as they drove off into the distance. Reyes has never won my favor in this series, but her final repose after testifying just about won me over. Another plot line that was never dealt with was the supposed feelings that Doggett had for Reyes. A few episodes again, there was a huge deal about how much they loved each other, but it was never mentioned again.

Deputy Director Alvin Kersh was also a bizarre character, as he seemed to be leading the trial against Mulder, going as far as suppressing evidence that proved Mulder innocent. Kersh looked to be fully opposed t Mulder, though he does help Mulder and Scully escape from captivity when Skinner and Doggett break him out. This is yet another character that is unclear of his motives and weakens the story.

Mulder and Scully end up together, snuggling on a bed somewhere, still holding out hope.

I am not sure how I feel about the conclusion of the show. This finale did not really wrap anything up and only served to leave plenty of things dangling or unanswered. Every question does not have to be answered in a finale for me, but it felt as if they brought up a major storyline in the last episode. I know it is dealt with in the future episodes, but we did not know that at the time.

Season ten only has six episodes to it and it will be next.

Magazine Dreams

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June 16

Magazine Dreams was intended to be released originally in 2023, but it was pushed back, and not released until 2025. Part of the reason was said to be because of the writer’s strike, but a big reason was because of the trouble that the movie’s star, Jonathan Majors found himself in.

Jonathan Majors was in a scandal involving his girlfriend at the time who claimed that he physically assaulted her. It led to Majors losing several major projects and jobs in Hollywood, most notably the main villain role in a future Marvel Studios Avengers film.

Pushing this film back makes real sense because it has Majors playing the role of a mentally ill bodybuilder, who while on steroids, was showing violent tendencies and was involved in several scenes featuring assault.

After watching this uncomfortable movie, it makes me all the more sad that Jonathan Majors derailed his career the way he did, because he is spectacular in this role. He was so believable as a man on the very edge of losing it that it felt like he wasn’t just acting. It is so sad that it is going to be difficult to separate real life from this performance in Majors’ situation.

Without any spoilers, I am not sure that the ending worked. I am not sure that the ending was earned, meaning, I don’t think the character’s choice fit with what the film had given us. Still, the fall of this character is developed extremely well.

There felt as if there were too many storylines in the film, none of which truly pays off. I think it could have benefited from a story rewrite, focusing down some of the events that occur. However, Jonathan Majors really does step up his game.

I don’t know what Jonathan Majors’ career holds for him, but he is undeniably a brilliant actor. His performance in Magazine Dreams is top line, but my guess is that a deserved Oscar nomination will not come.

3.6 stars

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

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June 16

The world of Middle Earth can hold many stories, both before and after the well known Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy. The world of animation seems to fit perfectly among the setting. Unfortunately, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim does not take advantage of the medium to the point that it could’ve.

According to IMDB, “Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, it tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan. A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless lord of Rohan, with dubious ancestry, having many ties to Dunland, he seeks vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg-a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.”

This movie is okay, but it could have been so much more. The story of Héra is one that we have seen dozens of times. Filled with cliches, there are no really good character moments or story bits. The battles are the best part of the film, but they do not hold the same oomph that they could have because these characters are not deep and do not make you invested in their story.

The animation is, at best, average. Some background scenes look good, but much of the actual character animation looked choppy and, at times, cheap. They tried to cover some animation with snow and other imagery, but it did not work.

The relationship between Héra and Wulf was touched upon, but it was not developed to an extent that I believed the eventual response. Perhaps I can see Wulf’s anger toward Helm Hammerhand, but his all-consuming hatred is unexplained. He comes off as just a one-dimensional villain.

The film is way too long too. At two hour and fourteen minutes, it way exceeds what an animated film, even an animated epic as this intended to be, should be. Still, this is not the worst film I’ve seen. It just could have been so much better.

Poker Face S2 E8

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“The Sleazy Georgian”

I loved this episode. I loved it because it was different than any other Poker Face episode. It started out as always, showing the crime before Charlie gets involved. This crime is a money drop gone wrong, with Shauna from Yellowjackets involved with John Cho. It seemed as if the whole thing was going down in a bad way with a couple of dead bodies.

It was pretty clear that there was some con going on, but I thought that it might have been a con gone wrong and that John Cho, who was playing a man named Guy, had actually bit the big one.

However, we go to Charlie meeting Guy in a hotel bar at breakfast time, just like Shauna did. In every other Poker Face episodes ever, this would be before the crime we see in the cold open, but this time, it was after. Guy was trying to set up Charlie for the con, and, of course, failing miserably because of her lie detector skill.

Guy introduced Charlie to his crew and they all kind of bonded… to a point where they wanted to have Charlie join them in a con. She wanted to think about it.

When she came back the next day, she had discovered that Shauna (Ok, not Shauna… Melanie Lynskey, who plays Shauna is playing Regina in this episode) had killed herself after the con.

In an attempt to get the money Regina had lost (which came from an orphan fund) back, Charlie agreed to join the con.

At this point, the show flipped things around again and I really liked the results. I have to say, I really thought this was Guy trying to prove that he could get away with lying to Charlie. That was not it.

I love the fact that Charlie is shown to be smarter than anyone else, even if she does not seem to be. She has so much common sense and does not just rely on her ability to tell when someone is lying. She set up a con to con the con, and got him in the end. The character of Charlie is also so original and unlikely looking of a protagonist who gets by with her smarts. I love how she is really not your typical hero.

This was a lot of fun and I thought the fact that they broke the format even more than ever before was an awesome thing.

Finger Food

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Because of the length of The Brutalist and a couple other commitments today (including Sunday Morning Sidewalk and a Dodger game), the second June Swoon film had to be a live action short. Going on YouTube, I found a neat little sci-fi/comedy bit called Finger Food.

The film starred Ali Khan, Jessica Balmer, Angus Barnett, Debbie Chazen and the scene-stealing and totally hilarious Maggie Ollerenshaw. This cast has been very active in the world of movies and shows as they all have quite a strong list of projects they had appeared in.

The synopsis of the short in the YouTube said “Jason desperately wants to be liked by his girlfriend’s parents. Things prove more difficult upon a horrifying discovery...”

This was really well done. It was laugh out loud at times and I loved the work from all of the main actors in the short. As I said, Maggie Ollerenshaw stood out as Nana, perhaps the creepiest nana of all time.

There is a moment in the short movie that you suddenly get an understanding of what might be happening involving a fly that was a shocking and sudden event that truly caught me off guard and I did not see it coming. Well done on that.

The short ended with me wanting to know so much more. The situation that Jason had found himself stuck in was unbelievable and I really would like to know what was going to happen.

4.4 stars

The Brutalist

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June 15

This is probably the biggest film during the June Swoon this year. The Brutalist is a multiple Academy Award winning epic film. It is a massive three and a half hour long with an intermission in the middle, even on HBO Max.

Adrian Brody won his second Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect who immigrated to the United States after surviving a concentration camp during the Holocaust. László meets industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren, played by Guy Pierce, who also received an Academy Award nomination for the role. He became László’s client, hiring him to design a project in honor of his dead mother.

Felicity Jones was another cast member to receive an Academy Award nomination for her role as Erzsébet Tóth, László’s wife, a journalist and a survivor of Dachau. These three performances were the backbone of the movie.

The look of the movie was amazing. The shots of the film was both wonderful and painful. There was a lot of dread in the shots. The music made this movie even more special, compelling the story to move in such a major way. Both the cinematography and the score were award Academy Award wins.

The second half of the movie does go off the tracks a bit, but that feels like it was destined to do so after such a brilliant first act. Some of the resolution of the ending seemed unsatisfying after such a commitment to the film. Without spoiling what happened, it felt as if it came out of nowhere. Still, there are some powerful ideas happening within the film.

I do think this is easily a film built on the performances, as well as the technical aspects. These are standout sections of The Brutalist.