DailyView: Day 267, Movie 373

I was watching 10 Things I Hate About You on Disney + and I was about half way into it when I made a realization… this movie was basically William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. I have never actually read the play, but I have seen other adaptations over the years (especially Moonlighting’s Atomic Shakespeare) and I recognized the story.

I was unsure about this movie. I liked the beginning of it, but it felt like it was going to end in ways that I really did not. However, I think the film nailed the ending without damaging the female characters, which was something that I was worried about. Julia Stiles’s Kat Stratford and Larisa Oleynik’s Bianca Stratford came out looking strong and anything but weaklings.

Bianca cannot go out with anyone until her older sister Kat does. This is the rule placed on them by their overprotective father Walter (Larry Miller). New student Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has fallen for Bianca, and he sets a plan in motion to have rebel Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to try and date Kat so Bianca could be free to date whom she wanted.

Of course, there are a lot of issues that mess the plan up, but when Patrick and Kat start to hit it off, you start to root for them as a couple.

There are funny moments, but the best aspects of 10 Things I Hate About You is the relationships between the characters. Are there ridiculous things that happen? Of course. But I have to say that I think that this is one of my favorite rom-coms around. Heath Ledger is great and charming. He and Julia Stiles had chemistry for miles. Joseph Gordon-Levitt may have gotten away with his role in the action without any real consequence. Larisa Oleynik showed so much more depth than it looked as if she was going to have.

I found this fun and was happy I got a chance to add it to the DailyView.

DailyView: Day 266, Movie 372

Paul Rudd is really a treasure.

He is the star of the 2016 film The Fundamentals of Caring which is just fabulous. Is it sentimental and pull on your heart strings? Absolutely. However, it is so charming and warm that it completely feels sincere and deserved.

Paul Rudd played Ben Benjamin, who was a retired writer trying to get over a personal tragedy. Ben applied for a job as a caretaker for a teen boy named Trevor (Craig Roberts), who was wheelchair bound because of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and was a handful of attitude.

Ben was able to throw attitude back at Trevor as well and is able to convince Trevor’s mom (Jennifer Ehle) to let him take Trevor on a road trip to the Deepest Pit. Along the way, they pick up Dot (Selena Gomez), a teenager on her way to Denver, and a pregnant woman name Peaches (Megan Ferguson) who was going back to her parents home after her husband was deployed back to Afghanistan.

Yes, there are contrived moments that you would expect in this type of movie. We’ve seen it before, but it is so good because of the chemistry with Paul Rudd and Craig Roberts, as well as Selena Gomez. The interactions with these characters, especially during the road trip are what makes this a special movie.

Paul Rudd is exceptional in this movie. He brings every ounce of charm and warmth that he has, as well as a serious dose of shenanigans. He is a major reason to watch this movie.

The film avoids the major trap doors that a movie like this could fall into and is just an enjoyable piece of entertainment.

DailyView: Day 265, Movie 371

So I decided to watch another short from the early days of movies tonight for a specific reason. I found the Three Stooges in a short called The Sit Downers from the year 1937. The reason I chose this was because of the year 1937. I had not seen a movie in that year for the DailyView yet. With that year now checked off, I have watched at least one movie from every year from 1929-2020. There are only four more years remaining (all in the 1920s) and I will have seen a film from 1915-2020. Those final four years are a goal for the final 100 days of this binge.

Anyway, this is the first time I used The Three Stooges in the DailyView. I have seen Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, Abbot & Costello, The Marx Brothers, but Larry, Moe and Curly had not made the cut. Until tonight that is.

This film was very funny, filled with Stooge-y humor, slapstick and plenty of “nyuck, nyucks”.

Larry, Moe and Curly wanted to get married to three sisters, but the sister’s father refused to give permission. So the Stooges staged a sit in protest in order to change the father’s mind. After weeks of sit downing, and plenty of support from fans across the country, the father gave in.

So they got married, but they discovered that the free house they thought was donated to them had to be constructed by them before the honeymoon. Weird premise, I know, but it was really funny. I think every slapstick crew has done the construction gags, but this one worked well. The Stooges had great comedic timing and made the unavoidable accidents very funny.

Some of this film is believed to have been inspired by Buster Keaton’s film, One Week, which was one of the DailyView films watched.

The Stooges worked well together and I laughed several times during the film. It was an easy watch and a fun time.

DailyView: Day 265, Movie 370

Officially 100 days remaining in the DailyView as of today!

I watched the new trailer last night for Marvel Studio’s next Disney + series, Moon Knight, debuting at the end of March. The actor starring as Moon Knight is the ever awesome Oscar Isaac. In honor of the great trailer, I found a film on the list featuring Mr. Isaac. That turned out to be Inside Llewyn Davis.

Ethan and Joel Coen wrote and directed this film about a down on his luck folk singer in 1961 named Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) as he struggled to try and find his way through the difficulties life threw at him.

And it seemed as if life was spending the entire movie throwing difficulties at poor, sad-sack Llewyn.

This was a fantastic film. It was extremely funny as everything seemed to be collapsing around his life. Oscar Isaac is amazing in the lead role, both in the acting and the singing areas. It is a complicated and deep role. Llewyn has so much go against him, but you still want to root for him, no matter how poorly he reacts to the situation.

There was also a brilliant performance, albeit a short one, by John Goodman. Goodman steals every scene he was in and provided some of the best laughs of the film. That character was such an original and exceptional part of the movie.

The film does not really have a plot, as it is more like a series of scenes involving Llewyn Davis strung together. I found a quote from Joel Coen on IMSB that said “the film doesn’t really have a plot. That concerned us at one point; that’s why we threw the cat in.”

I was thoroughly entertained by Inside Llewyn Davis and it only makes me even more excited for Oscar Isaac is the MCU.

DailyView: Day 264, Movie 369

Here is one that was a tough watch.

Elephant was written and directed by Gus Van Sant. It tells the story of a group of kids at the fictional high school of Watt High School in the days before and up to a school shooting.

Based tentatively on the 1999 events at Columbine, Elephant followed several students, played by mostly unknown and non-professional actors, reliving several scenes from differing POVs. Much of the beginning of the film was slow and focused in on the characters, their typical lives of high school students. The over-the-top nature of some high school movies were kept at a minimum and set up the eventual slaughter carefully. If you did not know that this movie had the events in the third act, you might be wondering what movie you were watching.

Although I had not ever seen this movie and I was not aware of what the topic was, I had first heard about this on the Top 10 Show and, I think it was Matt Knost, who said that it was a good movie but it was one where he didn’t feel the need to revisit it because of the topic. I do not remember him mentioning the school shooting aspect, but that did put me on guard for this and, as a teacher myself, the signs were there if you knew what to be watching for. I assumed that this would wind up to be a school shooting film and when I saw the one shooter looking online at a gun website, I knew I was right.

There was controversy surrounding this movie a few years later as the shooters behind the 2005 assault on Red Lake supposedly had seen the film and was inspired by the third act. How accurate that is may be up for question, but it brought some controversy to Elephant.

It is difficult to classify this because the topic is one so close to home as a teacher, but still something that is important to see. The production of the film was well done and the actors did a great job, especially for the lack of experienced actors that were involved. It is definitely a rough watch, but I think it is a valuable experience.

DailyView: Day 263, Movie 368

I have never been a huge fan of Will Farrell and because of that, I have never seen Step Brothers. Last year, I had never seen Elf for the same reason and, when I watched it, I loved it. So the hope was strong for another iconic Will Farrell movie being better than I thought it would be.

Hope was fleeting.

I hated this movie.

So much.

I couldn’t stand either of the lead characters, the humor was the lowest form of humor around, and I found this so stupid.

Some of the quieter moments was better, but they were few and far between. I did enjoy Richard Jenkins and Mary Steenburgen as the parents of the step brothers. Kathryn Hahn is always great.

I gave it a chance, but this is just not for me.

DailyView: Day 262, Movie 367

A Kind of Murder is a 2016 psychological thriller with some noir tendencies with an interesting performance from Patrick Wilson. After that, there is not a whole lot remaining.

Patrick Wilson played architect Walter Stackhouse, who wrote stories on the side. He was fascinated by the idea of murder and he collected clipping of killing from the paper. When bookshop owner Marty Kimmel (Eddie Marsan) has his wife murdered and the police suspected him, Stackhouse was intrigued. He approached Kimmel to see what he could see.

When Stackhouse’s wife Clara (Jennifer Biel) wound up dead after several suicide attempts, the police were suspicious of Stackhouse, especially when he would lie about seemingly anything.

Detective Corby (Vincent Kartheiser) was convinced that Stackhouse was a copycat killer to Kimmel and that they both had killed their wives. He was determined to prove his theories true.

The film had a nice visual component to it. It looked great and the tone of the film was benefitted by the look of the film.

One of the issues was that the characters were not well developed, outside of Stackhouse (and that was mostly because of the performance of Wilson). There was a whole adultery angle involving Stackhouse and a singer named Ellie (Haley Bennett) which was of no consequence. We saw Clara had mental illness, but we did not go into any details on it or let it become a key component for the story. It was just a reason why Stackhouse was unhappy.

We knew almost nothing about Kimmel. He felt like a creepy little guy, but other than that surface level, we do not see anything from him. Detective Corby was nothing more than a stubborn cop who was sure he was right.

The film was not a terrible watch, but it was far from good. I did not hate watching it and there were some technical aspects of A Kind of Murder (dumb title too, by the way) that were positive. Overall though, this was not a standout.

DailyView: Day 261, Movie 366

This was a film that I found on Netflix and has been on my queue for a few weeks. It sounded intriguing and I had never heard about it back in 2017 which is strange since I was watching a ton of movies at the time. 1922 was an adaptation of a Stephen King novella featuring Thomas Jane, Molly Parker and Neal McDonough.

To prevent his wife Arlette (Molly Parker) from selling the land she had been given by her father and taking their son Henry (Dylan Schmid) away, farmer Wilfred James (Thomas Jane) conspired with his son to murder her. After they buried her in a well on the farm, strange things begin to happen. Is the land cursed?

1922 was an excellent film with some amazing tone. There is a grubby, down and dirty feel to the film that really worked well with the story that was being told. The use of the rats in the film was simply unnerving and kept me on edge. I would not define this as a horror movie, per se, but it has the tension and anxiousness that many top horror flicks do have.

There are plenty of great looking shots on this small farm, through the corn field and the cinematography was beautiful.

Thomas Jane is outstanding in the role of Wilfred James. He seems so unlikable at first, but Jane does such a strong job in his performance that you can’t help but feel for him as so many things start to go wrong for him.

This was a well done, but kind of uneasy film to watch. I enjoyed the tense storytelling and the characterizations of the different actors.

DailyView: Day 260, Movie 365

With the new Scream out tonight, it was time to bring up another short from the past of cinema to fill the DailyView and today we find a Laurel and Hardy short on YouTube called Unaccustomed As We Are.

The set up was simple. Oliver Hardy brought Stan Laurel back to his apartment with the promise that his wife (Mae Busch) would cook Stan a wonderful steak dinner (with nuts). However, when they arrived, Mrs. Hardy was anything but cooperative, tired of Oliver pulling this surprise on her all the time.

Mrs. hardy left Oliver, so he decided that he would cook the dinner himself, leading to all sorts of hilarities.

They tossed in a misunderstanding with the neighbors as well to add to the slapstick fun.

This was Laurel & Hardy’s first “talkie” film and it used several techniques of the medium that would become staples. Across the hall, Mr. Kennedy (Edgar Kennedy) was getting smashed by his wife, Mrs. Kennedy (Thelma Todd) and all we heard was the crashing and the breaking of objects, something that they could not have done in the silent films that preceded it.

This was a simple short and it was entertaining. Their work would become stronger over the years, but this is solid for what it was.

DailyView: Day 259, Movie 364

Today’s DailyView is on Netflix and it is a Jack Black biographical comedy film about a Polish-American polka band, led by a man named Jan Lewan. Jan Lewan was the head of a polka band and was arrested for running a Ponzi scheme that cheated seniors out of their money.

Jan Lewan was struggling to be successful with his store while pursuing his love of performing polka. When he started to take “investments”, according to the film, he did not realize what he was doing was illegal. When approached by Ron Edwards (J.B. Smoove), an officer for the SEC, Jan discovered the hole that he had found himself in. With a deadline of three days to return all the money to his investors, Jan, instead, doubled down on the scam and conned his way out of trouble.

When Jan’s wife, Marla (Jenny Slate), wanted to enter the Mrs. Pennsylvania Beauty Pageant, Jan made the victory happen. When the truth came out, the scandal frightened Jan’s investors and the light began to shine on Jan’s crooked plan.

Jack Black is fantastic as Jan Lewan. He played the Polka King with such a warmth and kindness that , despite the fact that we could see the criminal aspect of what he was doing, you couldn’t help but root for him.

One of the best parts of the film is the performance of Jacki Weaver as Barb, the mother of Marla. She had an adversarial relationship with Jan and was having an affair with Jan’s friend and band member Mickey Pizzazz (Jason Schwartzman). Weaver was hilarious in her anger and frustration with the Polka King.

The polka music was fun as Jack Black sang the songs. The polka music made the whole film feel surreal.

The film was entertaining and worth a watch on Netflix.

DailyView: Day 258, Movie 363

When I was looking for a movie to watch to honor Sidney Poitier after his passing away, I wound up watching To Sir, with Love II. This was the film I should have watched.

Lilies of the Fields, in which Sidney Poitier won an Oscar (the first African American to win an Academy Award), is such a charming, funny, engaging film and I was not expecting it to so entertaining. I laughed more in this than I did in Dirty Work yesterday.

Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) was heading out West when he stopped at a farm for some water for his overheating car. The farm was run by a group of East European Catholic nuns, led by the strict Mother Maria (Lilia Skala) and they believed that he was sent by God to help them build a chapel.

The clash of personalities between Poitier and Skala is one of the best parts of the film. Both are stubborn and they work tremendously well together.

The score of the movie was outstanding too. I loved the soundtrack to so many of the moments of the scenes. There is a great scene where Poitier and the nuns sing “Amen” and it was completely wonderful.

The film is shot in black and white and it really fits with the feel of the film.

I enjoyed this way more than I ever expected that I would. I can see why Sidney Poitier received an Oscar for his work. I watched this with a smile on my face the entire time. It was great.

DailyView: Day 257, Movie 362

Yesterday we lost Bob Saget, former star of Full House and America’s Funniest Home Videos. It was an unexpected blow after a tough few weeks. Bob Saget was a beloved comedian and comedic actors around.

So, in honor, I found a film that was directed by Bob Saget for the DailyView today. It also starred the recently departed Norm McDonald. It was called Dirty Work.

Unfortunately, this was not a great example of Bob Saget’s humor or quality work, because this wa absolutely horrible.

I feel bad that I picked this film to commemorate the life of Bob Saget. I should have kept looking.

Mitch (Norm McDonald) and Sam (Artie Lange) are close friends, but when Sam’s father Pops (Jack Warden) needs a heart transplant and the crooked doctor (Chevy Chase) said he could get a heart for $50,000, Mitch and Sam start their own business of revenge.

Norm McDonald is a great comedian. He is not a great actor. In fact, he is really a poor actor. I don’t want to pile on here.

The story was lame. There was almost no humor. I may have snickered once or twice.

This was also the final movie appearance by Chris Farley. RIP.

I guess the moral of the story is, if you want to honor Bob Saget, go watch some Full House episodes.

DailyView: Day 256, Movie 361

Heading over to Disney + for the day, I watched The Sign of Zorro, a film from 1958 that was actually an edited version of an eight episode TV program about the outlaw Zorro.

Starring Guy Williams as Don Diego de la Vega, the mysteriously masked Zorro, this film had several storylines weaving the way through, including an imposter Zorro, the fight for honorable justice and an attempt to keep the identity of Zorro secret.

Britt Lomond played the crooked commandant Capitán Monastario, whose power hungry nature placed him in situations where he would do what was best for himself no matter what and this put him on the opposite end of Zorro’s blade.

There was a lot of fun in this black and white thriller, with plenty of swordplay and some fancy horse riding action.

The humor was fine. Most of the acting was passable. Diego’s loyal servant Bernardo (Gene Sheldon) interestingly enough was mute in the show and he decided to pretend to be deaf as well. I wonder what the purpose was to have Bernardo to be mute. I had never seen that version of the character before, but my familiarity with Zorro is limited.

The Sign of Zorro was a lot of fun and presented a hero who lived up to the name.

DailyView: Day 256, Movie 360

Two all-time greats are together on stage for a variety show for Netflix and the result is a lot of laughs and some fun music. Steve Martin & Martin Short are longtime friends and it certainly comes through in this show on the streaming service.

They go from doing stand up comedy slamming each other (lovingly, of course) to individual moments on stage for each to banjo playing, a “ventriloquist” act with Jiminy Glick, to a duet with a backing band, Martin and Short really bring plenty to the show.

It is a quick show too. Honestly, it was over before I knew it. Even with the encore that was “required” by a guy from Netflix, the show zipped through rapidly.

Some of the best moments of the show were when Martin and Short were just telling stories about their lives and their past. Steve Martin meeting Elvis, Martin Short meeting Sinatra among other show how much funnier real life can be over scripted material at times.

Martin Short and his marionette legs was really funny. There was a pianist taking several daggers from the pair as well, as good of a sport as one could expect.

This was fun and enjoyable for the short time that it took to watch. It is currently on Netflix if you like either of these two comedic men.

DailyView: Day 256, Movie 359

American Factory was a documentary on Netflix from 2019 that wound up winning an Academy Award for best documentary at the Oscars. I think one of the big reasons why this doc received such accolades was the fact that this was the first film acquired by Barack and Michelle Obama’s new production company, Higher Ground Productions. Of course, it was also because it was a well told story filled with a ton of drama and compelling stories.

American Factory told the stories of the workers of a Chinese glasswork plant called Fuyao, that had relocated outside of Dayton, Ohio, with plenty of promises of better jobs and chance to create a cultural connection with another arm of workers. Both American workers and Chinese workers were hired for positions within the company and the doc spent a good deal of time emphasizing the differences between the culture and the work ethics of the two group of workers. It was intriguing to hear what the Chinese workers thought of their American counterparts, who approached the job in a much different manner.

The doc was directed by Julie Reichert and Steven Bognar was also able to highlight the conflict between workers and their bosses, and followed the attempt to unionize the plant as well as the efforts to keep the union from gaining a foothold inside Fuyao.

There some fascinating film of a trip by the American bosses to the plant in China. It included a New Year’s Eve party thrown by the company that included singing and dancing, as well as weddings. It was an amazing cultural example of how differently we approached these events.

One of the best parts of the doc was that the stories were all balanced out. They did not favor one over the others. The documentarians provided the images and the narrative and allowed it to speak for itself.