DailyView: Day 60, Movie 103

Next up on the DailyView was Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film, Almost Famous. Crowe worked as a journalist for Rolling Stone magazine while he was a teenager, and he was able to go on the road with many of his rock and roll idols. This inspired the story told in Almost Famous.

Teenage prodigy William Miller (Patrick Fugit),a writer with Creem magazine, had a chance to write an article for Rolling Stone magazine about the up-and-coming band Stillwater. In order to gain access to the band, William travelled on tour with Stillwater, getting close to guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup). Lead singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) distrusted “The Enemy” -the rock journalists.

During the connection with Stillwater, William met Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), a ‘band aid’, a more positive term for a groupie who followed the band around because she loved their music. Penny was having an affair with Russell, but befriended the young William.

As the band struggled with their interpersonal issues, William was learning about life in rock and roll, the ups and the downs and the world around him.

Almost Famous was a wonderful movie. It was a love letter to rock and roll as well as a coming of age story with a special twist. Patrick Fugit was sweet and innocent as William and he brought every ounce of that to the role. His chemistry with both Russell and Penny was a major strength of the film. William’s consistent attempt for the one-on-one interview with Russell, which kept getting interrupted or pushed off was a great hook for the relationship.

I loved the airplane/electrical storm scene. It was such an amazing sequence of events that brought all of the conflicts out into the open. There has been a history of rock stars dying in small plane crashes that when Russell starts singing Buddy Holly songs, it is both funny and poignant.

Another great band moment was the ‘Tiny Dancer’ moment upon the bus. There was the message that, no matter what troubles might be facing the group, the music is always what they have.

Frances McDormand was William’s over-protective mother Elaine, apparently based on Crowe’s own mother. McDormand was her normal brilliant self, infusing the character with more than just the stereotypical over-protective mother. She brought an intelligence and a humanity the role and created someone who you could tell loved her children more than anything.

Almost Famous was a truly enjoyable film with some of the best characters you will find, brought to life by skilled actors. The music is well designed and fit beautifully in the story.

DailyView: Day 59, Movie 102

Over at Starz, I chose an animated movie to continue the DailyView this afternoon. It is a cult classic film from 1981 called Heavy Metal. The movie is an anthology movie based on short stories published in Heavy Metal magazines. The film is an adult animation directed by Gerald Potterton.

The framing device that crosses through the different stories is a small, glowing green orb that has significant evil power, leading to the deaths of many that come in contact with it. The voice cast is extensive, including John Candy, Don Francks, Richard Romanus, Harvey Atkin, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Rodger Bumpass, Harold Ramis, and Percy Rodrigues.

The animation was groundbreaking at the time. Now it looks choppy and a bit underwhelming. However, many of the images standout and definitely have a flavor to them that makes you know the movie you are in.

Of course, the soundtrack is one of the film’s most celebrated trait. There are songs from Black Sabbath, Journey, Sammy Hagar, Stevie Nicks, Blue Öyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Devo, Riggs, Grand Funk Railroad, Don Felder, Donald Fagan, Nazareth, and Trust.

As for the film, I have to say that I probably would have liked this more when I was in high school. The graphic violence and nudity among these animated stories are meant to target the young and horny males and their adolescent fantasies much more than someone my age. It does not age well either as there is a ton of misogamy toward every woman character in the movie.

There are some interesting parts of Heavy Metal, but the negative outweigh the rest for me.

DailyView: Day 59, Movie 101

I have been enjoying some Jimmy Stewart movies recently and how could you go wrong with a good Western. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance not only has Jimmy Stewart, but also features the one and only John Wayne.

The film begins with Senator Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) returning to a Western town where he spent some of his younger years to attend the funeral of one of his friends, Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). While there, Ransom recounts the story of how he met Tom and got involved with the outlaw/hired gun Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin).

On his first trip to two, Ransom’s stagecoach was hijacked and robbed by Liberty Valance and his crew (which included Western veteran, Lee Van Cleef). Valance gave Ransom a beating to go along with the robbery. Tom and his handyman Pompey (Woody Strode) discovered the badly beaten lawyer and brought him to the doctor. Once recovered, Ransom started washing dishes at the local eatery with Hallie (Vera Miles) and he set up his own law practice.

The area was in conflict over the idea of becoming a state or remaining a territory. Ransom was nominated as a delegate to go and make that decision. Liberty Valance wanted to be a delegate too, and challenged Ransom to meet him in the street that night.

This was a fun movie. Jimmy Stewart was his typical top self here, taking the stand for law and order. John Wayne was at his most John Wayne-ish, using his famous phrase “pilgrim” when speaking to Ransom. The relationship between these two men turned out to be an important one, and was built on mutual respect for one another. They could not have been further apart personality or philosophy wise, but their friendship was the center of the movie.

Although it was not just the friendship that was the key here, but the differences between our two heroes. Tom was more of the ‘solve the problem with the gun’ type where as Ransom was the ‘let the law find the answer’ and these philosophy of the Old West were at conflict throughout the movie. Both men eventually came to see the importance or the necessity of the other’s world view.

There were plenty of other well known Western stars involved here, including Lee Van Cleef from the Dollars trilogy, Denver Pyle from Grizzly Adams, Oscar-winner Edmond O’Brien, John Carradine, the comedic Andy Devine, and Ken Murray.

The legend of the shooting of Liberty Valance lets the movie play with perception and reputation as well. There are a bunch of themes in the movie and it balances them with fun, some oddball humor and two excellent performances from two of the biggest movie stars of the time. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was an exceptional Western.

DailyView: Day 58, Movie 100

This is the one hundredth film in the DailyView and I wanted to pick something special. I decided on Children of Men from director Alfonso Cuarón, and at first, I did not think I had found something worthy of number 100. As the movie went on though….

The year was 2027 and the world had gone into a horrible place. The youngest person on earth had just died and it had been 18 years since the women on the planet had become infertile. This divided the world into factions and terrorist groups looking to rise up and take over. Local government bureaucrat Theo Faron (Clive Owen) was approached by his ex-wife Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore) to get papers to help a young immigrant girl Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) get to safety. Julian had connections with the terrorist group The Fishies, including Luke (Chiwetel Ejiofor). When Theo gets Kee to the Fishies’ holdout, he realizes the importance of the girl: she is pregnant.

I was bored at the beginning of the movie and I was afraid that I was going to have to do a negative review for #100. However, after the first 20 minutes or so, this film picked up big time, to a point where I was hanging on every word and I had to wipe away tears from my eyes. I understand that the beginning of the movie needed to have some world building going on, but it nearly lost me a couple of times. I am so happy that I stuck with the film.

SPOILERS: The film for me really picked up pace when Julianne Moore gets shot and killed in the first act of the movie. I had no expectation for that happening and it immediately showed the viewers that absolutely anything could happen. END OF SPOILER.

Easily my favorite character in the movie is played by Michael Caine. Caine steals every scene he is in and he is just completely engaging and entertaining. He played a character that was just so kindly and easy to love that you can’t help but be enthralled with him.

There are some scenes, in particular in the third act, that require you to not breathe, because they are so tense. The whole time, I had no idea what was going to happen, because the movie had laid the groundwork for something tragic to perhaps happen. It made it just as likely that the film would end in tragedy as it did to end in happiness. That made the trip all the more suspenseful.

The images of the world were astounding, masterfully envisioned by Alfonso Cuarón, who would take that brilliant eye for imagery into a list of successfully beautifully shot movies, proving that he is one of the top directors working today.

Children of Men nearly lost me in the first 20 minutes, but I stuck with it and the work that first part of the movie does pays off in spades. It is a brilliant movie with real human emotions in a world that is not that unlikely and one that has ties to the present day issues.

DailyView: Day 57, Movie 99

Gareth Edwards’ feature film debut was Monsters, a science fiction horror movie, working on a low budget. I had not known about this movie until I ran across it on Amazon Prime and it sounded interesting.

Six years before, NASA had sent a probe into space to investigate the possibility of extraterrestrial life. when the probe returned to earth, it crashed in Mexico and giant tentacled creatures appeared. They were isolated in Mexico in an area dubbed ‘The Infected Zone.’

Photojournalist Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) was recruited by his employer to help escort his daughter Sam (Whitney Able) back to the US from Mexico. When they lose their passports, they have to find their way back through the Infected Zone, trying to avoid the dangers surrounding them.

With the demands of the low budget, Edwards provided us with a film that focused on characters and their fears, worries and thoughts of the future. The creatures are kept to a minimum and that makes their appearances all the more compelling. The design of the creatures is spectacular, again maximizing the limits placed on the production.

Both Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able do a great job of bringing their characters to life and enriching them with real problems and character traits. They have a solid chemistry between the two and you can root for them as they are making their way through the Infected Zone.

The Infected Zone is very effective as well because we really do not know what to expect. Some of the horrors that we see are even more emotional because of the mysterious nature of the plot.

I really enjoyed much of the cinematography of Monsters, as there were some wonderful shots using the darkness as well as some beautifully constructed lighting. The imagery of the film makes up for the lack of the big budget. It goers to show that you can absolutely make an effective monster movie on a reasonable budget and have it be every bit as tense and suspenseful as the big budget films are.

Monsters was an unexpected treat and created a really solid tone that kept me on the edge of my seat, unsure what was going to happen next.

My knowledge of Coen Brothers films is low. I have not seen a ton of them, so this is a good opportunity, during the DailyView, to catch up on some of them. One of the highest rated of the Coen Brothers films was the Nic Cage starring vehicle, Raising Arizona.

Small time thief H.I. McDunnough (Nic Cage) was being arrested and taken to jail on a regular basis. Every time he was arrested, he had his mug shot taken by a female cop named Ed (Holly Hunter). Each time, H.I. started to fall for her more and more. Finally, deciding to turn his life around, H.I. proposed to Ed.

The couple had some happy days together until Ed decided it was time to have children. She found out that she was barren and they did not make the best adopted parent candidates.

Meanwhile, furniture magnet Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson) and his wife Dot (Frances McDormand) found themselves having quintuplets. Desperate to have a child, H.I. and Ed kidnapped one of the children, telling themselves that they were helping out because Mrs. Arizona had too many than she could handle.

A cast of weird characters rolled through the film, including two of H.I.’s former prison mates with Gale (John Goodman) and Evelle (William Forsythe), H.I.’s boss Glenn (Sam McMurray), and the bloodhound tracker Leonard Smalls (Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb).

Raising Arizona was extremely funny and weirdly eccentric. The Coen feel is all over this movie. I enjoyed the amazing characters that help to create the world. The key to the characters is that, even though they are bizarre, they are real people with thoughts and feelings. They are not just caricatures.

NIc Cage is great here. I actually forgot that Cage was playing H.I. after awhile and he blended himself into the character. Holly Hunter made a great match with him and their coupling worked well. You rooted for these people despite their seemingly countless poor choices. And the diaper chase scene was just hilarious.

I also doubled over from laughing when john Goodman had asked where the bank tellers were during their robbery. OMG!

This was a wonderful film, full of uncertainty and humor. I enjoyed this a great deal.

When it comes to the DailyView binge, they can’t all be winners.

The Manhattan Project is a nonsensical teen thriller where our young protagonist steals plutonium and builds a homemade atomic bomb. Yup. He’s our hero. In no way should he be considered a terrorist.

First face I saw when the film started was John Lithgow, so I had some initial hope that this might be a fun ride, but that was stifled fairly quickly. Lithgow was working in a lab that was involved in the creation of weapons for the government. He meets a woman whose precocious teen son Paul (Christopher Collet), who would set up little explosions at school as pranks, is a scientific genius. He’s also a bit of a jerk.

For some reason, he decides to break into the lab, which he does with an unnerving simplicity, and steals some of the lab’s specially designed plutonium, replacing it with dish liquid soap. Then Paul takes that plutonium and builds an atomic bomb that he wants to enter into a science fair.

That wasn’t even the most egregious act of idiocy involved here. The whole thing heads to a standoff at the lab with the army and FBI agents (I guess). It got to a point where I was hoping the bomb would go off. It would have made for a more realistic film.

My major issue with the movie is that Paul literally commits treason, builds a nuclear device, threatens to detonate it and he’s our hero. It is not even one of those young people movies where the protagonist stumbles into the situation by accident. Paul specifically sets up the standoff for… well, I’m not really sure why, but there is no world in which this kid was innocent. He is absolutely 100% a terrorist.

It is ridiculous, stretching credibility beyond any reasonable level for this type of movie. How does Paul not wind up in prison for the remainder of his life? He has to be on a no-fly list, doesn’t he? Perhaps this is an origin story of a new super villain, because , honestly, Paul does not display much regret in his actions. He uses the threat of the detonation of a nuclear bomb to get what he wants without concern for anyone else around him.

Paul is so unlikable that I simply did not want to root for the arrogant like worm, and that really hamstrings the movie that is basing the audience’s reactions on how much they want to see Paul succeed.

This one was a dud.

After watching today’s episode of Loki, I was enjoying the reaction to the show by the Late to the Party crew and they made a reference comparing this episode to Time Machine. Well, I chose to watch The Time Machine in response. Now, I believe that Robert and Vanessa from Late to the Party were referring to the 2002 version (which I have seen years ago) but the 1960s version was on my queue at HBO Max, and it would work perfectly for the DailyView today.

Based on the classic novel from EYG Hall of Famer H.G. Wells, The Time Machine tells the story of H. George Wells (Rod Taylor) and his invention of a time machine allowing him to travel into the future. Once there, he discovered that the future was a dark and dangerous place.

Wells travels to multiple futures, discovering about several wars that will occur and how the time becomes a world completely different. The people of the Eloi, vapid and slow (all oddly blonde), and the Morlocks, the night creatures, are the ones remaining. This is the timeline that the movie focuses upon as the others are just stops along the way. Color perhaps to show how humanity wound up as it does in the Eloi/Morlock future.

The epic sci-fi film has some wonderful effects for 1960. The practical sets and the design of the Morlocks were frightening. The Morlocks’ glowing eyes were especially creepy. It did win an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects for Gene Warren and Tim Baar.

The confrontation with Wells and the Morlocks was quite well done and was an exciting scene.

I liked this classic and it was cool to be able to see this iconic story unfold.

The next film in the DailyView binge is from the new Showtime channel I picked up on Prime Day. It is listed as leaving Showtime on June 30th so I decided this was the best time to give it a watch. It is the sequel to First Blood, which sent John Rambo back into Vietnam to find evidence that some POWs are still there. Rambo: First Blood Part II seemed to embrace the ideas and philosophies of the 1980s, where as the original was more of the 1970s.

John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is serving a prison sentence doing hard labor when Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna) arrived to present him with a mission. The government wants to send him back into Vietnam to investigate whether or not there are American POWs in a prison camp. Rambo’s mission was not meant to be one with confrontation, but when he discovered that there was a POW there, Rambo was not going to let it go.

When the project head Murdock (Charles Napier) found out that there was an actual POW there, he ordered Rambo to be left behind. Bad choice.

Rambo: First Blood Part II is a step down from the excellent First Blood. That movie had more to it than this does. This one is about creating a super hero, someone who can fight and gain revenge for the slights of the world. The original movie was more about an idea, a philosophy. This is all about violence and revenge. The PTSD from First Blood is replaced with the unstoppable warrior looking for vengeance.

That does not make this a bad movie, just a different one. One that less depth, but more over-the-top action.

I have to say that the weirdly accented Russians that show up midway through the plot are a strange addition. Of course, the reason is that the Russians in the 1980s were more of the villains to the US than the Viet Cong were. Unfortunately, they sounded more like British or perhaps German Russians instead of Russian Russians and it was funny.

The action of this movie would wind up inspiring a lot of the type of movies from the 1980s. It stretches credibility a long way and it is difficult to buy that Rambo is as much of a indestructible force that he was. This took this franchise away from the message film to the shoot-’em-up, blow-’em-up movie, where the number of explosions are the most important.

Again, that does not make this a bad movie. It has its place.

Today is day 2 of Prime Day on Amazon and I stopped by to see if I could find a good deal, and boy, did I. They were offering specific channels for $0.99 a month for two months. I have already several channels on Amazon Prime so I took the chance to add two more, Paramount + and Showtime. They are two more sources for me to use for this DailyView activity, which is awesome. Then, in August, I can cancel them if I choose. If I watch one movie that I would have had to rent, it makes the deal worthwhile.

And the first movie to watch off Showtime was a film about which I have one of my favorite stories from my movie viewing experiences. It is the Scarlett Johansson led science fiction film, Under the Skin.

I went to see Under the Skin when it was in theaters. I went to the movie theater in Dubuque that is now Phoenix Theaters. It was an early Sunday morning and it was scheduled for an 11:20 showing. As always, I am early and was there by 10:45. I was the only patron in the theater, which I usually enjoy, but would play a big role in the story.

As I was sitting in my seat waiting for the show to start, the commercials were not playing properly. I did not know this at the time. It was playing over the speakers, but had nothing on the screen. Even the sound was off a little, which created an almost eerie soundtrack for the morning.

As I sat there, I was wondering when the film would start. This was pre-cell phone for me (in fact, this was one of the key reasons why I eventually got one), so I had no idea what time it was. I have a good internal clock so I expected it was close to time. Up at the front of the theater, there was a little temp box which I walked up to and it also had the time on it. It was just a few minutes away from the start of the movie so I went back to my seat and sat down, expecting the film to start in any minute.

The next thing I know, one of the attendants came into the theater and said to me that I should have told them that the film was not working. It was almost in a chastising manner. I told her that I did not have a watch or phone and I had no idea about the time. She told me it was 12:30. I had been there over an hour in an empty theater with no movie playing.

I couldn’t believe it. I must have sat down and fallen asleep, but I did not feel as if I had slept. They told me that they could not start the film now because it would screw up the rest of the day’s showtimes and they gave me a free pass, and I left. I considered using the free pass to come back to the theater later that day to see the next showing of Under the Skin, but I was too creeped out to do so. I made jokes about having “missing time” which is even more ironic when you consider the fact that Under the Skin is a science fiction movie about aliens.

I have never watched Under the Skin in the eight years since that failed attempt despite several possible chances to see it. I know it was on Netflix for awhile and it had made it on my queue, but never to my screen.

Until now.

The movie started with a cold open before the title card that was one of the most effective use of creepy sounds and darkness that I can remember form a movie. It was disturbing and unsettling.

Scarlett Johansson played The Female, an alien being who takes the form of a beautiful woman, and goes searching through Scotland, trying to lure men into her van, taking them to be … devoured, I guess?

The atmosphere of this movie is the most significant aspect of this film. I got a distinct Twin Peaks feel several times as I was watching, especially the scenes of the men and The Female in the darkness. Some of the imagery of Under the Skin absolutely gets under your skin as a viewer. It is meant to be unsettling and it works extremely well. There is an undercurrent of horror that sneaks up on you. You’re never sure what is happening and you are kept confused to a point where you feel ill at ease.

The score of the movie is perfectly in place and drives up the tension and anxiety of each moment with Scarlett Johansson and her victims. It is a haunting experience. The score was composed by Mica Levi.

The final act, where The Female begins to experience the human condition more than she had, really becomes something like you would find in the weirdest places in Twin Peaks or inside the mind of David Lynch. I would not be surprised to find out that Twin Peaks was an inspiration for director Jonathan Glazer. The final scenes are as disturbing a climax as you are going to see.

This would be the prime example of an art-house picture. The story does not feel like the main focus of the movie, but the compilation of scenes amazing to watch and disturbing to experience is the main force behind Under the Skin.

I have been focused on the films leaving HBO Max at the end of the month, because, this is too easy of a source for the DailyView. Each month, I check over the list so I know what I need to see. There were not too many films on the list leaving on June 30th, but there were a couple. One of which was the baseball classic, The Natural.

Although I had never seen the movie The Natural, with Robert Redford, all the way through, I have seen the iconic moment at the very end of the movie, the one with the lights. So I went into the movie with a spoiler knowledge of the movie. However, everything that led up to that scene was new for me.

Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) was a young pitching phenom on his way for a try-out with the Chicago Cubs when he was shot by a woman (Barbara Hersey). Years later, a grizzled Roy Hobbs showed up to the New York Knights with a contract to play right field. At first, his manager Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) wanted no part of the old rookie, but, after seeing Hobbs hit with the bat that he had made himself, he changed his mind.

There was a sub plot involving a character named The Judge (Robert Prosky) who had something in the contract stating he could fully buy the team if they did not win the pennant (a very A League of Their Own vibe). There was some kind of conflict with The Judge and Pop that the film does not really go into details on.

That would be one of the biggest issues I had with The Natural. There are so many plot points that are either mentioned, hinted at or implied that it makes the whole story weaker. I loved the baseball scenes. They were all great and brought some solid suspense and tension to the movie. However, there was not much explained.

The film certainly implied that there was some kind of supernatural power going on. Something about the bat Hobbs had made out of the tree from his old farm that had been struck by lightning. The lightning bolt symbol is implied to have helped another player magically when he started to wear it. However, none of this is more than just a hint.

Glenn Close played Iris, the girl Hobbs proposed to before he left for the try-out, and she showed back up later in the season to help break him out of a slump. A slump that was apparently caused by him dating Kim Basinger.

After he was shot by Barbara Hersey, we do not know where he was or what had happened to him for 16 years. The shooting was such a shock in the film, but played almost nothing for the film. The film tosses aside a bit of details about the woman targeting other top athletes, shooting them with a silver bullet. This led to a health issue stemming from the shooting that made little sense as well.

This feels too much like a fantasy, maybe the whole thing is Roy Hobbs’s dying delusion after being shot and left on the floor of the hotel room. That makes almost more sense than the story that they presented.

If the film just stuck to the baseball bits, this would not have been bad, but the story surrounding the baseball in The Natural was so disjointed and messy that it is terribly inconsistent. The movie does have some moments, but it is such a jumble that it becomes unnatural.

The DailyView for today is an epic of a movie, a biopic from from Martin Scorsese, about the life of the eccentric and, at times, recluse life of Howard Hughes. The Aviator is nearly three hours long and, although it could have been trimmed here and there, it paints a brilliant picture of Hughes and his life.

Leonardo DiCaprio played the eccentric businessman and he was utterly transcendent in the role. His performance was amazing, bringing such depth and life to the infamous character. DiCaprio perfectly displayed the traits that Hughes suffered with, from OCD to his germaphobia, that fought against the brilliance of the mind of Howard Hughes. You could see the horror in the face of DiCaprio as he could see that these tendencies were stopping him, but he could not do anything about it.

DiCaprio won an Oscar for his role in The Revenant, but that performance pales in comparison to his work on The Aviator.

Cate Blanchett did win an Oscar for this movie. She played Kathryn Hepburn, the actress, and her relationship with Howard Hughes was intriguing. DiCaprio and Blanchett had such chemistry with their peculiar characters that they made the first part of the movie so enjoyable.

The third act of the movie brought in Alan Alda as Senator Ralph Owen Brewster, who was looking to pass a bill making Juan Trippe’s (Alec Baldwin) PanAm the only airline to fly international flights. Hughes’ TWA was looking to press itself into that market. Brewster forced Hughes into hearings to try and force him out of the market and help pass the bill. These scenes of the hearing with Alan Alda and Leonardo DiCaprio sparring was so satisfying, especially with the way the Senate is today. Watching Hughes bring the pain to the crooked Senator was life affirming.

There was also a scene where Hughes crashed his experimental plane that was just filled with tension and suspense. The special effects were stunning and created a scene that was compelling as could be. I do say that the after effects of the crash seemed to be glossed over quickly. They delved into the mental aspect of the crash, but he had severe physical issues that appeared to be passed too easily.

Great performances and a beautifully shot film made The Aviator an exceptional film. It may have been a bit long, but DiCaprio was totally enthralling every second he was on screen.

So, every father is not necessarily a great father, but the story of a real jerk of a father trying to find his retribution for his family is a great Father’s Day DailyView binge. When you toss in the bizarre world of Wes Anderson, you’ve got yourself a wacky and fully entertaining film.

The Royal Tenenbaums is a brilliantly bizarre film with one of the best ensembles you are going to find. Gene Hackman was a natural treasure, and, since his retirement, he has been missed. Anjelica Huston, Danny Glover, Owen and Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow and Bill Murray made this ensemble such a wonderful group.

Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) was an absentee father of three children who had their own specialty: Richie (Luke Wilson) was a professional tennis player, Chas (Ben Stiller) had just lost his wife and was overcompensating with his two boys, and the adopted Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) whose relationships were difficult.

Royal decided to come back and try and make up for his past behavior, while pretending that he was dying of stomach cancer.

The eccentrics of this movie is just awesome. I loved how weird these characters were and yet how you could relate to them on a internal level. They were real humans and that made them even more connectable than ever.

This may not be for everyone, but I certainly enjoyed the bizarreness of The Royal Tenenbaums.

There are very few movies that I would consider ‘perfect.’

Today’s movie for the DailyView comes pretty damn close.

In honor of Father’s Day, I chose Road to Perdition as the DailyView binge film and I am so glad that I did. This is a movie that I had seen small bits of when I was younger, but never watched all the way through. Directed by Sam Mendes, the film was based on a graphic novel of the same name written by Max Allen Collins.

In 1931, mob hitman Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) went out on a job with Connor Rooney (Daniel Craig), the son of mob kingpin John Rooney (Paul Newman). Unbeknownst to him, Michael’s son, Michael Jr (Tyler Hoechlin) had hidden in the car and was watching as Connor murdered a man.

Connor, not thinking that the boy could keep the secret, went to Sullivan’s house in an attempt to silence him. He ends up killing Sullivan’s wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and his younger son Peter (Liam Aiken), thinking he was Michael.

When Sullivan discovered this, he and Michael fled the area. However, Sullivan was not ready to let everything go and he set his sights on revenge against Connor. Meanwhile, in fear for his son, Rooney hired an assassin Maquire (Jude Law) to find Sullivan.

This film is a piece of art. The cinematography of the film, from Conrad L. Hall, received an Academy Award nomination. The imagery of Road to Perdition tells the story more than much of the scripted word does. The team between Hall and Mendes created a visual masterpiece of violence and the love of a father for his son.

It also blew my mind when I learned that the young actor playing Michael Jr. was Tyler Hoechlin, who would grow up to be our newest Superman in CW’s excellent TV series, Superman and Lois. Hoechlin had a difficult task, acting opposite such titans as Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Jude Law, and the boy does a remarkable job. He plays the pain and the guilt of the situation beautifully and really tugs on the emotions of the viewers.

You won’t find a more complicated character than Michael Sullivan Sr and Tom Hanks gives a nuanced and compelling performance. It is no the role we are used to seeing Tom Hanks play, but he does it masterfully. Everything is underlaid by his love for his son and the pain of loss that he has suffered. You can feel the conflict that he feels as he does what he believes he has to do.

The theme of fathers and sons are all throughout this, making it a perfect film for Father’s Day. Road to Perdition has immediately become one of my favorite Tom Hanks movies, easily my favorite mob movie and a masterfully adapted graphic novel. Brilliant cinematography and exceptional performances make this an emotional ride and one of the best movies you are going to find.

In honor of Juneteenth, today’s DailyView is an Academy Award winning musical from 2006, featuring a who’s who of black actors and performers, Dreamgirls.

Originally a Broadway musical in 1981, Dreamgirls was written and directed by Bill Condon. The film is a fictional story heavily based on the girl groups of the 1960s, in particular The Supremes.

In 1962, Deena (Beyoncé Knowles),Effie (Jennifer Hudson) and Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose) were three friends from Detroit who formed a group called the Dreamettes and they perform in a local talent show. While they did not win, they caught the attention of ambitious car salesman Curtis Taylor Jr (Jamie Foxx), who placed them as the background singers to R & B star Jimmy ‘Thunder’ Early (Eddie Murphy). Their talents broke through as they became headliners. However, Curtis made Deena the lead singer of the group over Effie, the prior lead singer, driving a wedge in the group and sending the proud and stubborn Effie out of the group.

The music of the film is stunning. There are so many great singers involved in the project that every song has such depth and beauty. Powerhouse musical performances from all involved throughout the whole of the film. Jennifer Hudson standing out from a brilliant musical cast with a once-in-a-generation voice.

There are performances all over this movie that are just amazing. Eddie Murphy steps out of his usual work to become the R&B star. Murphy’s performance is so wonderful that you don’t see him as Eddie Murphy, but as Jimmy Early, speaking in first person. Jamie Foxx is excellent as the manipulative manager who rode to success on the backs of his performers.

The glitz of the film was spectacular. The bright, shiny imagery helped to illuminate the performers on their elevation in the music business. The stage sets and the choreography was perfectly done.

The story, at times, felt a little disjointed as I was not sure who was meant to be our main protagonist. The main point of view of the film seemed to shift between Effie, Deena, and Jimmy through much of the movie. It seemed as if the first half of the movie was focused on Effie, but then she disappeared for a good chunk of the film. Everything came together well in the third act, but that did not take away the fact that the story became muddled in the middle.

Despite the issues with the story in the middle, Dreamgirls is a triumph of music and performances and I enjoyed this movie quite a bit.