June 22nd, Movie 23

Today, for the June Swoon, we jump into the Western genre with a film called Old Henry which was written and directed by Potsy Ponciroli.

Henry (Tim Blake Nelson) was a widower raising his teenage son Wyatt (Gavin Lewis) on a normal farm, living the peaceful life of a farmer. When Henry comes across an injured man named Curry(Scott Haze) with a satchel of money and a gunshot wound, a posse of men arrived, claiming to be the law. Henry did not know whom to trust, but, as things became more violent, a secret from his past was revealed changing the balance of the situation.

There may be some familiar moments in this movie, but it is extremely impressive in the way it carries itself off. Tim Blake Nelson is outstanding in the lead role as he reveals the darkness behind his squint. You can see that Henry wanted to be a good man for his son, but the situation pressed him too far.
I did not even begin to guess the surprise twist in the third act and I absolutely loved it.

The relationship between Henry and Wyatt was believable and understandable, especially after you learn the truth at the movie’s end. Both Nelson and Lewis do a great job of interacting, Nelson trying to protect the boy and Lewis looking to be allowed to be a man.

There is a solid cast along with Nelson, Wyatt and Haze. Other actors appearing in the movie included Trace Adkins, Stephen Dorff, Richard Speight, Jr., Max Arciniega, and Brad Carter.

Nicely paced with some wonderful shots, Old Henry takes the typical Western genre film and peppered it with great performances and a great reveal. If you are a fan of Westerns, you should give Old Henry a shot.

June 21st, Movies 22

As I was searching through movies for 2021 that I may have missed, I came across the DC Universe film Justice Society: World War II. I always enjoyed a good JSA story so I thought this would be a good film to include in the June Swoon.

The story kicks off with Barry Allen (Matt Bomer), aka The Flash. He was on a picnic with his girlfriend Iris (Ashleigh LaThrop) when he hears an explosion. He takes off to discover Superman (Darren Criss) fighting with Brainiac (Darin DePaul). During the battle, Flash runs really fast to catch a Kryptonite bullet, but he runs so fast, he transports himself accidentally to a different location.

At first, he thought he time traveled, but eventually, Barry realized that he crossed to a different world. In this world, he finds a group of heroes calling themselves the Justice Society was fighting against Hitler’s forces during World War II. The group was led by Wonder Woman (Stana Katic) and included Hawkman (Omid Abtahi), Hourman (Matthew Mercer), Black Canary (Elysia Rotaru), and Jay Garrick, the Flash (Armen Taylor).

Barry teams up with the JSA and their battle takes them to face off with King of Atlantis, Aquaman (Liam McIntyre).

As always, the DC Animation is very well done and this is no exception. The animation was better than normal, I thought and the characters are used in a wonderful manner. I loved seeing some of the JSA characters (although, I would have been up for a few more extra ones).

I liked the story. It was simple and straightforward. The voice acting was fine.

I do think that some of the story beats were rushed and that this could have been stretched out to a two-parter. I know they have done that before. The use of Dr. Fate was too much of a tease and I wanted way more with him. They had several “Batman Leaps”- which is a term we dubbed to describe a time where someone makes an unlikely, impossible, somewhat illogical inference of a clue (like they would do on the old 1966 Batman series). When Barry Allen met Superman in the “past” and realized that there were some differences, he immediately jumped to “different earth”.

Still, these complaints are nitpicks. I enjoyed the film well. I still think this could have been outstanding of they had done a few extra steps, but it was still a lot of fun.

June 20th, Movie 21

I had two choices this morning. I had dropped down to Encounter or Old Henry. I wound up choosing Encounter, that featured Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer, and was directed by Michael Pearce.

Malik (Riz Ahmed), a former Marine suffering from PTSD, showed up in the middle of the night, taking his children, Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada) on a late night road trip. Malik was here to protect them from an alien infestation of little parasites that he claimed had taken control of the boys’ mother and step-father.

Malik was taking the boys across the state toward Nevada and the base where he said scientists were working on ways to prevent the bug-like creatures from taking over people.

When he discovered that the boys’ mother was pregnant, Malik called his probation officer Hattie Hayes (Octavia Spencer) to go check on her. Hattie told Malik that he had missed his last meeting and that he was in trouble. This is the first indication that we had that perhaps the idea of parasitic bugs from space may not necessarily be reality.

I was having some initial issues with the story at first, but this switch in tone and direction worked really well for me. They spent a good chunk of the second act of this movie trying to show that the reality could be either direction.

I worried that the film would make us think one way and then throw a wrench into the story at the end and change everything. I definitely wanted one way and I was afraid that if they made that decision, the film would take anything positive and wreck it. Thankfully, it did not go that way.

However, the ending was a little silly and there were some things done by characters that did not make much sense. While the ending was weaker than I had hoped, it did not damage the remainder of the film.

Riz Ahmed is fantastic in Encounter as he always seems to be. Lucian-River Chauhan is excellent playing opposite Ahmed as Jay. Aditya Geddada had a few moments, but the character of Bobby does some things that did not ingratiate himself to the audience. Octavia Spencer was terribly underused and should have played a bigger role than she did.

I was happy to have included Encounter in the June Swoon because I did enjoy most of this movie. There were some flaws here and there, but the relationship with Malik and his to boys was a standout piece of the film and it kept me wondering exactly what was real and what was not.

June 19th, Movie 20

Um… okay.

I guess I did not know what to expect with Red Rocket, directed by Sean Baker. For some reason, I thought this was a French speaking film. I am not sure we could get further away from a French speaking film than this.

Former porn star Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) returned to his hometown of Texas City, Texas, to try and get his life back on track. He goes to his ex-wife (although she told him that they were still married) Lexi (Bree Elrod), who was living with her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss), and talked them in to letting him stay, promising to help pay rent.

He struggled to find employment as his porn star reputation got in the way, a reputation that he was actively trying NOT to hide. He winds up selling pot for a neighborhood dealer (Judy Hill) he knew from his days in Texas City.

When the money started coming in, Mike and Lexi started having sex again. However, after a trip to a donut shop, Mike met a seventeen year old girl Strawberry (Suzanna Son) who he fell for quickly and envisioned her as a porn star that he could manage, bringing him back to the top.

Simon Rex is a good actor and has some charm about him, but I so hated the character he played that I could not get past that. Mike is a horrible human being who is selfish, crude, cared only for himself, obnoxious… any sort of negative comment you could male about Mike would fit him well. He does not go on any sort of journey as out main protagonist, unless you consider him only getting worse. Not only is he having sex with the seventeen year old, cheating on his ex-wife, but he is preparing to take Strawberry to Hollywood and get her involved in the porn industry.

The other problem is that there just are not any characters here worth rooting for. Trailer trash, drug dealers, low lives. The only character worth anything turned out to be next door neighbor Lonnie (Ethan Darbone), who worshipped Mike and went out of his way to help him and eventually protect him. Mike did not appreciate poor Lonnie, and just uses the terrible thing that happened to Lonnie as a way to manipulate Strawberry.

The film ended with a scene that almost made me think that Mike would pay for his being such a jerk, but the movie does not take it far enough (although Mike running through the streets at night is pretty hilarious).

The actors all did exceptional jobs with their roles, but I just did not like anyone on the screen. The production of the film was top notch, and even if it is a metaphor for the Trump years, I just did not enjoy the trip. I was hoping it would end throughout the film.

June 18th, Movie 19

I was not sure what I was getting into with Happily, and now that I have finished the film for the June Swoon, I am not sure what I watched. I liked it a lot, though.

Happily was seemingly one type of movie and then a few unexpected themes injected themselves into the story which changed what it felt like what the story actually was. The ending was bizarre and left me unsure about what had been happening.

Tom (Joel McHale) and Janet (Kerry Bishé) were the perfect couple, despite coming up on fifteen years together. All of their friends hated them because they were always having sex and could not be more perfect. They hated them so much that they uninvited them to a weekend retreat they had been planning.

However, when a strange man named Goodman (Stephen Root) came to see Tom and Janet, insinuating that they were being forced to take an injection of some mysterious substance that would make them more like a normal married couple and they could not avoid it, things changed. There was suddenly a strange, almost sci-fi, feel that swept over the film. When Janet killed Goodman in a fit of self defense, Tom and Janet disposed of the body.

After suddenly being re-invited to the weekend getaway, Tom and Janet decided that this was, perhaps, a prank perpetrated by one of their friends. They decided to go to the retreat and try and figure out who was behind it. When, on an alcohol run, Janet saw an decidedly not-dead Goodman stalking her, the whole weekend took a definitive change.

I was engage in what was happening in Happily even though I was not sure what it was that was happening. The ending really switched up the movie’s tone and mood as we realized that what had been happening was not what we thought. While the ending left me scratching my head about several specific details, and the film never truly gave us answers, I have never been one who required that everything be explained to us. I can understand that there may be some people who felt that the end of the movie was not satisfying because of that. I appreciated the film giving the viewers something potentially open ended to think about.

The cast was strong. Along with Kerry Bishé, Joel McHale and the always great Stephen Root, there was Al Madrigal, Natalie Zea, Paul Scheer, Jon Daly, Breckin Meyer, Shannon Woodward, Charlyne Yi, Natalie Morales, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste.

I appreciated this movie because I was unsure the style of a film I was watching and I enjoyed seeing how it was going to play out. It was an original idea and nicely acted and designed.

The June Swoon for today brings us to an independent film written and directed by Emma Seligman called Shiva Baby. This is a short, little film that has a lot of humor and some of the most realistic and awkward moments you would ever experience.

Danielle (Rachel Sennott), a college senior, was having sex with her sugar daddy Max (Danny Deferrari). After this, Danielle had to go to a Shiva with her parents Joel (Fred Melamed) and Debbie (Polly Draper). Little did she know that her ex-girlfriend Maya (Molly Gordon) and Max, with his wife Kim (Dianna Agron) and baby would also be at the Shiva, creating a ton of uncomfortableness.

This was the basis for the majority of the movie. Poor Danielle was under scrutiny and pressure from all areas of that Shiva: her parents, Max, Maya, other relatives curious about what Danielle was doing with her life.

Rachel Sennott does a really solid job showing how much pressure she was loading on her shoulders. You wished she would just let someone in and let them help her, but you can understand why she does not trust any of the people in her circle. You are never sure exactly what was going to happen next.

The portrayal of the Jewish culture here was well done and made it so that those people who may not be Jewish understand what was going on as well.

The ending was just as awkwardly painful as you could imagine.

Shiva Baby was quick and well done.

June 16th, Movie 17

In the continuing binge of the June Swoon, I went back to Amazon Prime for a movie starring Samuel L. Jackson, Maggie Q, and Michael Keaton called The Protégé.

Samuel L. Jackson and Maggie Q play a pair of assassins for hire. Jackson found Maggie Q as a girl during an attempted hit and brought her along with him. He raised her in his world and she became a protégé of his. When she discovered his dead body, Maggie Q went on a revenge mission to kill those responsible for his death. Michael Keaton was unfortunately tied to those people and so became an unwanted enemy.

There were some decent parts of this movie. Some of the action was really well done and Maggie Q was awesome. Her character was bad ass and the film did a great job of showing that off.

They threw in a romantic tension between Maggie Q and Michael Keaton. That also worked although at times it felt rushed or forced. When they had moments to themselves, you could see the chemistry between them.

However, the third act came along, brought with it the most obvious “twist” ever in a movie, and took a film that was barely holding on the rails and sent it spiraling off the tracks. I can’t really go into it without spoiling it, but it is the immediate thought you have when something specific happened at the beginning of the film and it plays out exactly how you think.

I find Maggie Q to be a charismatic and interesting actor, but I do not think that she has found that role to send her into the next level. This one is not it. I love Michael Keaton, but some of the switches from Keaton to his stunt double were sadly obvious.

Overall, The Protégé was below average with a couple of aspects that were decent. There was a better. less painfully obvious, movie to be made with this cast.

June 15th, Movie 16

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is a biographical film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the eccentric British artist Louis Wain, in a film that encapsulates his life after the death of his father, through the roller coaster of a life that included his marriage to his beloved Emily (Claire Foy), her loss to cancer, his artistic flair for drawing cats, his struggle with mental illness and the constant weight of supporting a family of sisters.

Benedict Cumberbatch is remarkable in this movie, bringing such range to this odd character, but never playing him like he was less than what he was. The relationship between Louis and Emily was beautiful, despite it being tragically too short. Cumberbatch and Foy do a remarkable job working together breathe life, an electricity if you must, into the couple. The strange pairing really worked and created an undertone for the entire film.

There were plenty of other exceptional actors involved in this movie including Toby Jones, Taika Waititi, Andrea Riseborough, Adeel Akhtar, Phoebe Nicholls, Sharon Rooney, Sophia Di Martino, Aimee Lou Wood, Hayley Squires, and the narrator of the movie, Olivia Colman.

Imagine what the internet would be like today if Louis Wain would not have created the idea that cats could be featured in humorous poses or shown as more than just the evil villain of the animal world. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is a stylistic film with a top notch Benedict Cumberbatch performance and some real emotions brought about by a difficult life. It is currently available on Amazon Prime and I found it to be charming as well as an emotional ride.

June 14th, Movie 15

Today’s June swoon film is another International film that received a lot of love around Oscar time, though it was not a winner in the categories. This is listed as a romantic black comedy-drama directed by Joachim Trier.

Julie (Renate Reinsve) was a medical student in Oslo where she met and began a relationship with comic book artist, Aksel Willman (Anders Danielsen Lie), which became serious. However, once she met another man Eivind (Herbert Nordrum) at a wedding reception that she crashed, she began to wonder about her relationship with Aksel and she began doubting what she was feeling.

Julie decided to leave Aksel and she moved in with Eivind, who broke off his own relationship.

There is a lot going on in this story and the characters are extremely well developed and the film is beautifully shot. There are complex ideas with the film, dealing with Julie and her feelings of rejection by her father. The performances were all top notch, especially Renate Reinsve, who portrayed Julie’s fears and uncertainties so perfectly. I also want to shout out Anders Danielsen Lie, whose turn as Aksel is exceptional and deep. He balances out Julie, despite the fact that she cannot see it or feel it.

The only drawback to the film is that is is achingly sad, bordering on depressing. There is so little joy in the life of these characters and when the joy shows up, it is squashed by the maudlin characters and the internal strife working against them. I found it difficult to watch because of the tone of the film, wishing for something more fulfilling in the story.

It is a well crafted film that is a difficult watch. There are great performances that make it even more challenging to view.

June 13th, Movie 14

The film I am using for the June Swoon today is a film that is very divisive. I have heard people say this is a horrible movie and that they hate it and I have heard people say it was their favorite movie of 2021. So when Annette popped up on Amazon Prime earlier this year, I immediately placed in on my list to watch during June.

Henry McHenry (Adam Driver) was a controversial stand up comedian who met opera singer Ann (Marion Cotillard) and they fell in love. They get married and become the international “it” couple. Ann gave birth to their daughter Annette, things took a bizarre twist. Annette was shown as a puppet, and the marriage hit a rocky stretch where she winds up dead.

The film is a musical, with most of the dialogue coming through in song. The music, written by the Sparks, was remarkably energetic and enjoyable. I found myself joining in with some of the lines that were repeated. The third act song between Henry and Annette was just powerful and exceptional. The rest of the soundtrack was fantastic and helped create that same surreal feel of the film.

Adam Driver is outstanding as Henry McHenry. He created a character that elicited such a feeling about him. While his singing skill is only okay, he can present other emotions and feeling through his facial features and his body language.

The visuals in the film are beautiful and are staged with perfection. There are a bunch of great dramatic scenes as well, including one between Adam Driver and Simon Helberg.

I certainly can see why some people may not love this movie. I could even see why they might hate it. It has its share of bizarre moments that can be considered dreamlike or uncanny. It is a dark romantic musical that I enjoyed.

June 12th, Movie 13

Ok. So I looked to extend my list of 2021 movies today by searching through some of the “underrated” movies from that year. One that I came up with was on Hulu entitled Censor.

The synopsis sounded intriguing. According to IMDB: “In 1985, Enid Baines [Niamh Algar] works for the British Board of Film Classification during the height of the Video Nasty controversy. Enid’s co-workers call her “Little Miss Perfect” due to her strictness in recommending that violent content be cut or banned. While Enid is having dinner with her parents, they discuss the disappearance of Enid’s sister Nina when the two were little. Enid’s parents have since declared Nina legally dead, but Enid is convinced that her sister is still missing.”

It had a high 89% on Rotten Tomatoes as well, so I decided that Censor would be the film that I used for the June Swoon today.

And yet, this film failed to grab my attention at all. I was uninterested nearly from the start of the film and I could not wait for the end.

I am not sure that I have given this film a fair shot. I had commercial issues with Hulu, which I thought I had a subscription that included “no ads” (I actually did not have that feature).

The film had a definite B-movie horror vibe to it. That is not a bad thing, but it just could not pull me back into the narrative once I was out of it. I do like horror movies.

Perhaps one day this will have to be used as one of those “Do Over” films on a Sunday morning, but, as for now, Censor was just not for me.

June 11th, Movie 12

Today, I opened up HBO Max and watched one of the films that I have been waiting to watch for awhile. Drive My Car was getting a ton of buzz around Oscar time and it had become available on HBO Max around that time, and I really considered watching it then. However, I added it to the June Swoon list and decided to wait. Meanwhile, every time I looked at “My List” on HBO Max, there Drive My Car was looking right back at me.

Well, today was the day for the 3 hour Japanese film to finally get played. Was it worth the wait? Sure. Did it blow my mind? Not quite.

According to IMDB: “Two years after his wife’s unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There, he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900. As the production’s premiere approaches, tensions mount amongst the cast and crew, not least between Yusuke and Koshi Takatsuki, a handsome TV star who shares an unwelcome connection to Yusuke’s late wife. Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, Yusuke begins – with the help of his driver – to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind.“

This film is a real character study mainly featuring Kafuku and Misaki, as the film goes deep into the loss and the grief they suffered and were having what was a difficult time getting past. Both characters were emotionally distant but would eventually bond over the Saab 900 and Misaki’s skill at driving the car. As time passes, they begin talking about their losses, able to put in words thoughts that had clearly been weighing on their mind.

While there were a few other characters in the film that were interesting, the main focus was on the director and the driver. There was a character who was one of the actors in the play who spoke with sign language. I found her to be a fascinating character and she was one of the earliest people who helped start the bonding between Kafuku and Misaki.

I’m not sure this needed to be three hours long, as it did feel its length. Still, it was beautifully shot and the performances were strong. Drive My Car won the Best International Feature Film Academy Award this year and I could see why. It also received a nomination for its director, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, though he did not win.

Drive My Car is available on HBO Max.

June 10th, Movie 11

I gained a whole new respect for Oscar Isaac after watching him on the Moon Knight Marvel TV show. His acting chops were outstanding. I had seen him in other films before, but he did not jump out at me as much as he did when he was Marc Specter on Disney +.

Perhaps I should go back and look closer at some of his other performances.

Oscar Isaac starred in The Card Counter, a drama involving a man who learned how to count cards while in a military prison and who began to use the skill as a gambler. Isaac was completely amazing in the role and his performance was easily the standout performance of the film.

Oscar Isaac played William Tell, who had a dark past that he was trying to put behind him when he was approached by La Linda (Tiffany Haddish). La Linda ran a stable of gamblers for a group of investors who back gamblers for a portion of their winnings. Tell turned her down. However, when he was approached by another person, a younger boy Cirk (Tye Sheridan), who told Tell that he knew who he really was and that Tell had known his father. Both were trained by a Major John Gordo (Willem Dafoe) in advanced interrogation techniques which led to Tell’s imprisonment and Cirk’s father’s suicide.

Tell convinces the boy to come with him and join him on his gambling trips. He called La Linda, telling her that he had changed his mind and wanted to join up.

Oscar Isaac was amazing here, but I do not want to take anything away from Tiffany Haddish either because she absolutely matched him in every scene that they shared.

The film took more swerves than I expected and it really worked. The whole narration by William Tell explaining some of the intricacies of poker as well as counting cards. It was a fascinating addition to the film that was already full of tension and suspense.

The character of William Tell was extremely deep and developed.

The Card Counter was a very solid and enjoyable film.