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.

I can only assume this is a satire.

Otherwise, it is one of the stupider movies I have seen in awhile.

That, however, does not make it a terrible movie. In fact, there are some funny bits in Idiocracy, the next movie in the DailyView. It is not great though. In fact, it leans heavily on stupidity and that tends to be a joke that runs its course early in the movie.

Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) was in the army, and sneaking by without accomplishing anything. Then, he got reassigned to be in a special project, to test a way to freeze him and have him thaw back out in a year. They picked up another test subject, a prostitute Rita (Maya Rudolph). They put both of them into the status chamber and put them to sleep.

Major problem… the military man in charge of the program got taken over and the world went to crap. Joe and Rita spent not one year, but 500 in the chamber. When they awoke, it was 2505 and the world was all dumb people. They tried to make it to a time machine to find their way home, but troubles popped up everywhere.

There were some funny bits, but the movie carried on like an overlong SNL skit.

Luke Wilson is pretty average in the film. That is what the character is supposed to be. There is little personality to Joe and he does not show a lot of emotion. You would think a few of the situations he finds himself in might lead to a touch of emoting.

Maya Rudolph is funny too, but her character has a one trait that they try to milk as a joke throughout the entire movie too. She is a likeable actress so you want to root for her, which is the key for the movie.

Every other character in the movie are completely annoying. Dax Shepard as Frito is desperately unfunny. Terry Crews as President Camacho is too over the top. The rest of the cast is all the same, just playing stupid humanoids.

The movie does not hold up very well either. Some of the words they use are words that most people do not use anymore. They are insulting and not funny.

In the end, the movie did not have enough of a plot to carry itself through the whole time and there is not much in the way of characters. There are some funny moments, but not enough to justify the film.

Today’s DailyView film will wrap up the Bourne trilogy of films that I had not originally seen. There are two more Bourne films and I have seen both of those, and, quite frankly, are a serious step down in quality over the first three.

Bourne Ultimatum sees Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) back in conflict with the secret organization, Operation Blackbriar, within the CIA, now led by Noah Vosen (David Strathairn). Bourne comes out of hiding to meet a reporter (Paddy Considine) who has been running a story on Blackbriar and Bourne’s background. During the meeting, the reporter gets killed an triggered one of the old memories of Bourne’s recruitment into the program to start with and Jason decided that he needed to follow the lead to the end of the road.

The Jason Bourne franchise has been exciting and filled with dramatic action. Matt Damon has been the key to all of it as he plays Jason Bourne with a generousness about him. He is real and honest despite the fact that he is an assassin and has done terrible things over the years. He is intelligent and is a thinking man’s action hero.

Speaking of action, I do wish that there would be less of the “shaky cam” shots during the action scenes. I makes it difficult to see (and yes, I know that is the purpose of the shaky cam). With as much hand-to-hand combat and chase scenes that fill this movie, that shaky cam becomes an annoyance more than anything.

I have to say, the appearance of Nicky (Julia Styles) in this film felt forced and too coincidental. Her use during The Bourne Supremacy (after a much large role in the Bourne Identity) made sense, but this one just felt as if they wanted to toss her in as a hook between the three films. I’m not sure she was needed here. Having said that, Julia Styles is always solid and Nicky has been a good character in the franchise.

Bourne Ultimatum is the loudest, brashest of the trilogy, with nonstop action. This brings the trilogy to a satisfactory conclusion (including an exceptional ending shot) and it does that without sacrificing the thinking man motif that the previous films had adopted.

This was an experience.

A few years ago, there was a special online showing of the Beatles classic Yellow submarine animated movie, and I missed it. I came in near the end and I hoped that I could start it over. Unfortunately, I could not and any time I tried to find it, I was unable to find it.

Since I have been doing the DailyView, Yellow Submarine was one I was hoping to watch, but, again, it was not easy to find. Finally, I discovered it on Apple + and I got the chance to watch the surreal fantasy.

I love the Beatles. I am a big fan of their music and the way the movie seamlessly interweaved the music of the Beatles, not only as songs in the movie, but also as part of the dialogue and the story was remarkable. The word play involved in Yellow Submarine was brilliantly manipulated. Sure, some of the jokes were groaners, but that went right along with the Beatles.

The animation was filled with color and flowed through this movie like nothing I had ever seen. The animation was influenced by everything from Picasso to Monty Python. The character designs was so trippy and creative that it is difficult to describe. It is an experimental explosion of color and totally unique.

The people of Pepperland are attacked by the music hating Blue Meanies and Captain Fred (Lance Percival), in his Yellow Submarine, was sent to Liverpool to recruit the Beatles (John, Paul, George and Ringo) to come back and help save Pepperland and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Along the way, the Beatles and the Yellow Submarine encounter all kinds of bizarre creatures and song-induced lands such as Sea of Time, Sea of Nothing, and Sea of Holes among others. They meet Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D. (Dick Emery), the Nowhere man who helps them fix the engine of the Yellow Submarine after it breaks down.

I’ll say this again, I have never seen anything quite like Yellow Submarine.

Now, the Beatles themselves did not voice the characters of the Beatles in the movie. They were voiced by he following: Paul Angelis (George and Ringo…as well as the lead Blue Meanie), John Clive (John) and Geoffrey Hughes (Paul). The real life Beatles made an appearance at the very end in a live action shot.

Songs appearing in the movie included the title track, Eleanor Rigby, All Together Now, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Nowhere Man, among others.

If you love the Beatles, you’ll love this too. It is a beautiful mess of chaos and colorful fantasy. It is wild and crazy. Loved it. It is a visual smorgasbord to our eyes.

The DC Animated movies have always been great stories with average animation. One of the biggest beneficial characters of these animations has been John Constantine. Not only has he had his own animated web series (which was compiled into this film), but he also was one of the prime characters in the most recent series of Justice League Dark animated films. It is a character that has come a long way since the Keanu Reeves movie.

Matt Ryan voiced Constantine (and played him in a live-action series as well) and rapidly became a huge fan-favorite among the fandom. Ryan provides a perfect voice for the occult detective and you can tell how well he does during this film.

Constantine is brought into a hospital by his childhood friend Chas (Damian O’Hare), whose daughter has slipped into a coma. The doctors were at a loss and Chas thought his old friend Constantine might have insight that the doctors did not have. He discovered that the little girl’s soul was no longer in her body, and he set off into the darkness to try and save her from the demons.

The animation on the DC films are always the biggest weakness of them. The animation is typically just average, basic as you may see on any television cartoon. However, I will say that there are several moments in Constantine: City of Demons- The Movie where we have what looks like still shots and they are beautiful. So while the animation itself is average, at best, there are some great shots in the film. Those do make the overall movie better to look at.

The story is solid and has a real powerful and emotional twist at the end. The battle between Constantine and the demon Beroul (Jim Meskimen) is extremely well done and works on several different levels. This would lead into the Justice League Dark films that starred Constantine as a major player.

Constantine: City of Demons-The Movie is violent, bloody, gory and a load of fun. Probably not for the youngest viewers, fans of the Constantine movie and live action show should enjoy this take on the demon hunter.

Trying to get the taste of Dr. Giggles out of my mouth from this morning’s DailyView, I went back to an old standby, one of my favorite directors of all-time, Alfred Hitchcock. There have not been many Hitchcock films that I have not enjoyed and this is another one that fits right into that category. The Wrong Man was from 1956 starring Henry Fonda.

Christopher Emanuel “Manny” Balestrero (Henry Fonda) is a kind, honest, selfless man, a great husband and father. He plays in a local band and struggles to get by in the world. Despite this, he is happy with his wife Rose (Vera Miles) and two sons.

Rose was having dental problems and they needed $300 for the trip to the dentist. Manny went to the insurance company to borrow money against his wife’s policy. While there, the staff of the insurance company believed that he was the same man who had robbed their business twice before. Manny was arrested and put on trial for the crmes.

The film started off with a monologue from Alfred Hitchcock himself stating that this movie was unlike any one he had done before because the movie told the case that was real and that every single word was true. He said that there were twists that created the same amount of suspense as anything that he could have made up.

Henry Fonda is very compelling as the innocent man accused of the crime. Watching him as he trustfully allowed the police to do whatever they wanted, walking him through the shops he was meant to have robbed was just amazing. If these are true, the evidence collection of the police is totally tainted. This was one of the best parts of the film, watching the police doing their job, honestly, but incompetently, collecting evidence. The lineup seemed to easily argued against with the way they ran it. I kept waiting for the defense attorney to go after the lineup, but it did not happen.

The nervous breakdown by Rose was a hugely tragic moment of the film and with it being a true story, this really showed how painful this false arrest caused. Manny was such a respectful and honest guy, but his milquetoast personality allowed things to go too far. Someone a little more confident would have stopped things earlier. The costs to prove his innocence was more than just monetary.

The tension of the story came from the reality of the situation. Knowing off the bat that this was a true story and that every word was true, as Hitchcock said, limited the film in my opinion. However, the details did still feel as if it were made up, proving that the cliché about truth being stranger than fiction is completely true.

Ooh boy.

I was scouring through Starz this morning looking for the first movie for the day of the DailyView when I came across a movie that I had never heard of. I read the Amazon Prime synopsis and I I was intrigued. It said, “When the psychopathic son of a mass-murdering doctor escapes from a mental institution, he seeks revenge on the citizens of the town where his father was finally captured.” It sounded like a tense and anxiety filled thriller. However, that could not be farther from the truth. This was a ridiculous movie that surely set the genre back.

That psychopathic son was played by Larry Drake, spouting one liners after every murder that he committed, horrid puns that were almost never funny. He went about a reign of terrors of murders that have little connection to him. He seemed to have that slasher movie villain power of being right where he needed to be in seconds. His performance was meant to be comically eerie, but it was much more cartoony than it was eerie.

There was the daughter from Picket Fences (I loved that show) and Mark Healy from Roseanne. They were a couple of teenagers, and she had a bad heart. We see no evidence of that besides the weird monitor she had to wear. She does a lot of active stuff in the film for the bad heart.

Larry Drake had to giggle through the whole film too, thus the name Dr. Giggles.

For a little bit, I thought that I might be able to classify this one as “So bad, it’s good.” The more it went on though, I realized that category was too good for this movie.

I’m not spending one more minute on this one. It’s terrible.

Creepy children.

The DailyView today heads back into 1960 to one of the classic horror/sci-fi films of the time featuring the horror trope of creepy children. The Village of the Damned was directed by Wolf Rilla and starred George Sanders and Barbara Shelley.

one normal day, the entire village of Midwich all at once passed out and stayed unconscious for several hours. It was unclear what had caused the phenomenon, but everything was kept silent. A few months later, several women discovered that they were pregnant, including a few of them who could not possibly be pregnant.

When women gave birth, it was all on the same night and the children seemed more advanced than they should have been. As they grew, it became clear that the children were special. Gordon Zellaby (George Sanders), the father of one of the children, David (Martin Stephens), and a scientist, believes bringing the children together is the way to determine exactly what was going on with them. It does not take long to see that this may not have been the best choice ever made.

Village of the Damned is a classic horror movie that has a remarkable eerie feel and a tone that can’t help but create a ton of anxiety and tension.

Creepy children always work well in horror to build suspense and an uneasiness among the viewers and these children with their blonde hair and strange glowing eyes absolute fill that mark.

It is intriguing as well that the film really only touches upon what is going on with these children and does not go into great detail. I think that is effective and helps continue to build an uncertainty in the movie.

Great film with some gore-less scares.

I wanted to get an older movie watched again in the ongoing DailyView. I have been doing several movies of the last three decades or so, but it was time to head back in time once again… this time to a movie that holds a surprising amount of relevance in today’s world, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

The Frank Capra classic starring James Stewart as Mr. Jefferson Smith, leader of the Boy Rangers, was appointed by a crooked governor to replace a senator who had died. Smith, honest and true, if not quite a bit naïve, admired his state’s other senator, Senator Paine (Claude Raines), who knew his father, a former senator too. Smith arrived in Washington with his eyes filled with patriotism, fawning over the monuments and statues, unable to see the nefarious actions of those around him.

Senator Paine was involved with Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), a businessman from his state, to push through a bill to build a dam that would provide Taylor with more money. In fact, Taylor is shown as a political influencer, manipulation the press and controlling what many senators would do.

When Smith discovered the truth, he was preparing to reveal it to the Senate when Paine, backed by Taylor, framed him for a crime.

Jean Arthur played the role of Clarissa Saunders, Smith’s secretary. She does a great job in the film as a disillusioned cog in the wheel of Democracy who slowly becomes inspired by the actions and words of Jeff Smith.

Smith engaged in a filibuster to get his message out, showing a whole different world than today’s Senate. At this time, the filibuster meant that the senator performing the filibuster had to stand and continue to speak on the Senate floor. If he would have yielded his time, the filibuster would have ended. That is perhaps the way the filibuster should return to in today’s divisive political landscape.

It is a powerful film showing how easily it is for senators to slip under the control of other forces and how that can limit the work of the lawmakers. Even at this point, the Congress had a feel of corruption, a group of men (all men at this point) who had their own concerns and were only worried about being reelected. Sadly, it feels as if this is still a major problem in the Senate today.

It was funny. At one point, Saunders mentioned that there were 96 senators, and I thought to myself, what about the other four? I had not realized till a few minutes later that this movie came out prior to the admission of Hawaii and Alaska as states, and the 96 senators would have been the proper number.

James Stewart is great in his role, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Lead Actor. He was a perfect star to portray the honesty and naivety of Senator Jeff Smith. His wide eyes told the audience how important this was to Smith and gave the people the hope that this institution could give it its best.

If only there was a Jefferson Smith in the Senate today.

The DailyView continued today with the quintessential 90s high school movie, Clueless. This was, again, one of those movies that I had not considered to be interesting to me. I was wrong. I really enjoyed this one.

Cher (Alicia Silverstone), a Beverly Hills student, at first glance, seems to be the stereotypical Valley girl type of character, but nearly immediately, you can see how much more there is to her than just a vapid, blonde teenager. She goes through several different issues such as grades, boyfriends, fashion and social status in the school.

Cher is concerned with her friends and their lives and she wants to be the friend who helps the others out. It is selfish of her, but she does it in such a sweet manner that you can’t help but like her for it. Alicia Silverstone is wonderful in the role and creates a character that plays both into and out of the expectations.

A young Paul Rudd is here too, playing a step-brother, of sorts, named Josh. Josh’s mother was married to Cher’s father (Dan Hedaya) for a minute. They were now divorced, but Josh would still come over to help with the work on Cher’s father’s lawyer cases.

We get several other characters in Cher’s orbit including her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) and her boyfriend (Donald Faison), a new girl Tai (Brittany Murphy) who becomes Cher’s ‘project’, Christian (Justin Walker) the boy who dresses better than Cher, and teachers Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn) and Miss Geist (Twink Caplan) who Cher hooks up so they would ease off and give students better grades.

I loved every scene with Mr. Hall. Of course, I love Wallace Shawn (Vizzini from The Princess Bride) and, as a teacher myself, I loved his banter with his class. He was so funny and witty with this group of odd ball high schoolers that I would have liked even more from him.

We also got stoner/skateboarder Travis (Breckin Meyer) who had a thing for Tai but was not considered datable material by Cher and the popular girls. Travis’s arc of the movie was one of the better ones and he gets quite a bit done for the limited screen time he got.

There were many legitimately funny moments that I laughed out loud at, as well as several smart and subtle moments of humor. The script was very clever, showing these potentially generic characters in a much more three-dimensional light. Clueless was written and directed by Amy Heckerling, who also directed Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Heckerling clearly has some comedy chops when it comes to high school movies.

Nicely paced, the film took its time and used each of the 90+ minutes extremely well. Each character received a well-written and charming scene to develop who they were as characters. There was a great scene with Cher and her father that told us everything we needed to know about them.

I was truly clueless thinking that I wasn’t going to like Clueless. This was funny and clever, filled with great characters and a ton of fun. A top notch cast handles the surprisingly deep script with a deft precision.