June 7, 2023

Day: 7, Movie: 7

The June Swoon 2 gets really gross today with the horror/comedy film that can be found on Shudder called Glorious. The film was directed by Rebekah McKendry and featured one basic location, a rest stop bathroom.

Wes (Ryan Kwanten) is traveling with all of his stuff in his car. He was depressed and sad and stopped at a rest stop where he promptly begins to drink and burn items from the car. He could not bring himself to burn the photo of Brenda (Sylvia Grace Crim), the woman he had just lost.

Passed out, Wes laid on the ground all night. In the morning, Wes rushed into the bathroom to throw up. When in there, he was engaged in conversation by a voice form the next stall. Not really wanting to start a conversation, Wes tried to get away, but he realized that the bathroom door could not be opened and that the voice had something to do with it.

The voice told Wes his name was Ghatanothoa (J.K. Simmons), a demigod who was trying to hide from his father, a primordial who had accidentally formed the universe, and Ghatanothoa needed a favor from Wes to avoid its father’s detection and, thus, the destruction of the entire universe.

Glorious was bloody, grimy and darkly funny. The dialogue between Wes and the demigod was both ridiculous and informative. Wes’s constant desperate attempts to escape kept turning out to be failures and he kept flashing back to memories of Brenda.

JK Simmons is, as always, great. His voice was the perfect catalyst for the craziness that was going on in this bathroom. The tale was insane, yet you believed what was happening.

There was a hilarious situation involving a glory hole that has to be seen to be believed. Then, the unexpected twist at the end of the film was shocking and completely out of nowhere, challenging everything that we had known up until that point, and yet, made total sense.

Glorious has a down ad dirty feel to it, much like the setting of a rest stop bathroom, and it keeps you off-balance. The end had that Twilight Zone type feel to it. It is a short film (only 79 minutes) but it uses every second well.

June 6, 2023

Day: 6, Movie: 6

It is amazing to think that this is the same actor who played Ms. Trunchbull in last year’s Matilda the Musical.

Emma Thompson is an unbelievable actor and the range that she can show in a calendar year of performances is astounding.

In Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Thompson played a retired teacher who had recently lost her longtime husband and she wanted to experience some sexual experiences that she never had with him. So she hired a young male sex worker to make those experiences come true.

Thompson, whose character was named Helen, got more than she was expecting. She showed such an amazing amount of nervous energy and uncertainty over what she was planning that everyone could relate to the feelings that this was stirring up.

Daryl McCormack played Leo Grande, the sex worker who is much more than a hired prostitute. He ran his own company and provided services to his clientele that they required. Well-spoken and intelligent, his very nature confounded Helen as she was not expecting someone like Leo Grande.

The dialogue between the two actors was impeccable. The dialogue gave us glimpses into who these two individuals were as people and was sexy and uncomfortable at the same time. There was an undeniable chemistry between Thompson and McCormack that pulled you into the connection between them. The movie becomes much more than just a sexual encounter. It is a character piece between two people who are able to bring the best out in each other.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is currently on Hulu and it is a film that gives two outstanding performances in a sexual coming-of-age story for any age.

June 5, 2022

Day: 5, Movie: 5

The next June Swoon 2 movie is Candy Land, and it is not a happy-go-luck children’s saccharine sweet game adaptation. There is nothing for children in this film.

The movie dives into the world of truck stop sex workers and the inherent dangers that these workers face as there is a slasher in their midst. The likable group of sex workers who formed a bond between them are faced with the brutal slaying of several individuals.

I don’t want to go into too many specifics here to avoid spoilers, but the film does not shy away from any of the graphic imagery that one would see in a slasher movie. There is a lot of blood here. It also does not leave out the sexual section of this environment either.

The film does take some time to introduce us to these characters and understand why many of them are living the life that they are living. They are not portrayed as victims here, but it does not ignore the ugliness that can come with this lifestyle.

It is a movie that can be extremely uncomfortable to watch at times, and it is unapologetic for its choices. I expect that there would be plenty of people who will not like this film because it deals with several scenes that are tough to watch.

This is a movie that I am glad I saw, but not one that I will revisit any time soon. Candy land was directed by John Swab and is currently available for rental on Vudu.

June 4, 2023

Day: 4, Movie: 4

I have a low budget horror/drama for the June Swoon 2 today. I found it on Amazon Prime awhile ago and had placed it in “My Stuff” at the streamer. The premise of the film intrigued me so I added it to the list, intended for the June Swoon.

A disgraced podcast host Allen (Jasper Hammer) received a letter from a man named Don (Ben Hall), a widower who claimed that there was a monster in the woods behind his home. Allen, hoping to use this story for redemption, took Don’s offer to come and help him kill it. However, Allen soon realized that he had gotten himself into a situation that he had simply not expected.

First of all, it was clear that this movie was very low budget, so some of the things that it has in it do not look the greatest. Some of the booby-traps set up at Don’s home were silly and should not have worked the way they did. Having said that, the look of the film is not a criticism. I am sure they did the best they could with the budget that they were afforded.

The key to this movie is the interactions between Allen and Don. Both men were broken, from different reasons and both men were filled with pain. Finding this unlikely connection between them was the heart of the film. Some of the best scenes were the ones where these two men spoke to each other. Don was clearly an unhinged individual who set up a series of bobby-traps around his house that put anyone around him in jeopardy.

The stories of Don’s late wife really helped to humanize him and definitely touched Allen.

The monster involved in this story is an enigma. We know practically nothing about it, though there are some mysterious people as part of this story who obviously have some connection to it. The monster was used very well in the film and actually did look pretty decent when we finally get a look at it. Mind you, that scene was pretty much an apparent green screen, but, again, I appreciated the effort. In the end of the film, the film has some almost mega commentary about the monster that works for the whole film.

The performances of Jasper Hammer and Ben Hall stole the show. Ben Hall especially filled what could have been a cliched character into something rich and multidimensional.

This was a quick watch and was much better than I thought it would be, better than it had any right to be. Good performances and a surprisingly effective monster story blended together into a solid movie.

June 3, 2023

The first film of the June Swoon 2 that is not very good is Hulu’s Grimcutty.

An internet meme comes to life to attack kids, forcing them to cut themselves, and drive parents into a frenzy. Asha (Sara Wolfkind) begins to see the creature and she desperately looks for ways to save herself and her family. Meanwhile, her parents (Usman Ally, Shannyn Sossamon) are becoming panicky and more strict with social media.

I will say off the top that I think there is something in this premise that could have led to a decent film. Unfortunately, the execution of the film itself is severely lacking. There are some gapping holes in the story, the acting is average at best, and, probably the most unforgivable, the creature of Grimcutty is silly looking.

The message of this movie is worthwhile though. Grimcutty is a creepypasta (which, according to Wikipedia, is a “horror-related legend which has been shared around the Internet“), and is based upon real life events (such as the Momo Challenge Hoax). The film deals with the concept of addiction to social media and how if can affect your life in a negative manner. That is a viable story beat, but the themes just do not carry through this movie.

This feels like a film that could have benefited from a series of re-writes and going back over to tighten up ideas. I do think there could be a very effective and interesting film somewhere within Grimcutty. Sadly, this just is not it.

June 2, 2023

I love baseball. Although he never pitched for my favorite baseball team (that’s the Dodgers), I was always a fan of the intimidating Nolan Ryan. There was just something about the Ryan Express that was awesome. He pitched in a day where pitch count was not used. I can’t imagine how many pitches Nolan Ryan would throw in a game. But he had an attitude that if he had anything left in his arm, he wanted to go back out there.

So this Netflix documentary of Nolan’s massive 27-year baseball career, starting with the New York Mets, heading through the California Angels, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, is a fascinating watch.

You know you are something when a former president of the United States is a talking head in your documentary. George W. Bush was a former owner of the Texas Rangers so he had several insider points of view.

Nolan Ryan struck out over 5000 batters in his career. He threw a remarkable 7 no hitters (shattering Sandy Koufax’s record of 4). He won over 300 games. He was inducted as a first ballot Hall of famer. An argument could be made that Nolan Ryan is one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the sport that thrives upon its records and history unlike any other sport.

Listening to Nolan Ryan himself speak about the highlights and challenges of his storied career was thrilling. The film spoke to his wife Ruth Ryan and to several of his children to get the inside of the pitcher.

It was also cool to see so many of Nolan’s contemporaries speak about him too. We saw George Brett, Dave Winfield, Bobby Valentine, Enos Cabell, Roger Clemens, Jose Cruz Sr., Craig Biggio, Rod Carew, Art Howe, Randy Johnson, Cal Ripken, Pete Rose, Ivan Rodriguez, Craig Reynolds, Mike Maddux, and Steve Buechele among others.

Mike MacRae was the narrator, bringing a Texas feel to the documentary. He did a nice job of setting up some of the key moments in Nolan’s career and building anticipation.

Nolan Ryan was a pitcher unlike any other that stepped on a major league mound. He was dominant, but, playing for some bad teams, really held back his overall reputation. After watching this, I appreciate Nolan Ryan all the more.

June 1, 2023

The second annual June Swoon gets underway today with the first film from 2022 that I had not seen. Some of these film I have been anxious to watch, but I have pushed it off until June came around. This film, which wound up on critic Dan Murrell’s top ten best list of 2022, was the comedy film, Brian and Charles.

Brian (David Earl) was a lonely and isolated inventor who was struggling after a particularly harsh winter in Wales. To combat the loneliness, Brian created a robot named Charles (Chris Hayward). Amazingly, Charles worked and the twosome became close friends.

However, Charles began to feel the need to expand his horizons and travel outside of Brian’s house, which made Brian nervous, afraid of what people would think and of the reprisals of a local bully, Eddie (Jamie Michie).

Brian and Charles was a funny, heart-warming story of two friends, one of which happens to be a robot with his torso made out of a washing machine. It is a weird, eccentric movie that was a lot of fun to watch. The center of it, of course, was the relationship between Brian and Charles. Charles was like a child, hard headed at times and other times filled with wonder for the world. Brian tried to keep Charles isolated, but it was clear that things were about to change.

It was also strange as several times Brian turned to the camera and spoke to it, breaking the fourth wall. It wasn’t just Brian either as Charles addressed the audience, and even Eddie looked toward the camera at a certain point of the story. There was even a moment when Brian was rushing out of his house that he told someone (a cameraman, perhaps?) to get out of the way. It was a quirky and odd trait of this movie that kept it feeling like a documentary of some sort.

Brian was given a love interest in Hazel (Louise Brealey) who added a human feel to Brian. Their relationship was sweet and felt very sincere, considering the movie included a giant robot that liked to dance and wanted to go to Honalulu.

I found myself laughing quite a bit and the film was very wholesome and smart. We are kicking of the June Swoon 2 with a definite winner. I watched Brian and Charles on Prime.