June 30, 2023

Day 30, Movie:30

The June Swoon 2 comes to an end today with a bizarre real story that plays with perspective and feels as if it couldn’t have really happened. It did though.

My Old School is a documentary on Hulu that told the tale of 16-year old Brandon Lee who enrolled at Bearsden Academy, a secondary school at a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. Set during the mid 1990s, Brandon was an excellent student who made friends, starred in the school musical and lived with his grandma. Brandon, though, was not what he appeared to be. In truth, Brandon Lee was a pseudonym of Brian MacKinnon, a 32-year old man who had attended Bearsden Academy during the 1970s.

This alone was wild, but the doc, directed by former classmate of ‘Brandon Lee’ at Bearsden, Jono McLeod, included such amazing things as an actual interview with Brandon/Brian himself, who is implied to have had plastic surgery. Brian refused to be on screen, so instead they had actor Alan Cumming (star of stage, Schmigadoon, and X2: X-Men United as Nightcrawler) play Brandon and lip synch the interview that had been given. Cumming did an astonishing job with his lip synching and I never would have guessed that it wasn’t his own voice had the doc not told this at the beginning.

SPOILERS- at this point, if you want to watch this, you may want to skip the next section as I am going into some details on the craziness that this documentary covered.

This was still not the weirdest aspects of this story, as Brian befriended another teenage boy in his class that had the same name, Brian MacKinnon. Brandon/Brian said that he had the ability to hypnotize people, a skill he used on teachers and admin in order to avoid a birth certificate. He stayed with his grandma, who supposedly died at one point, only to be found alive, and then to be discovered to not be his grandma, but his mother, who was supposed to be an opera singer that had died before he came to Bearsden Academy.

The documentary interviews a bunch of the kids and teachers who knew Brandon Lee and who even spent time with him. Some of the teachers had actually been at the school when Brian MacKinnon was there in the 70s and when Brandon Lee was there in the 90s. The doc showed us a recording of the actual play that Brandon Lee starred in and a kiss that he shared on stage with with co-star, a 16-year old.

It was fun to listen to the adult version of these kids who all had differing ideas and POVs of what happened, some even still not 100% sure what he had done. It seemed to have developed into an almost urban legend.

There were actual footage from the time as well as animated reenactments of things that happened. Some stories were told several times because some of the students saw things in a different light. The animated secti0ns of the film used voice actors Lulu and Clare Grogan to create the reenactments.

I found this story entertaining and downright unbelievable. The story is told extremely effectively with the animation, the interviews and the amazing Alan Cumming. Truly a mind-blowing documentary.

June 29, 2023

Day: 29, Movie:29

I always love Helen Mirren. I have also always loved Jim Broadbent. Putting these two iconic British actors together in a film had to be a great idea.

Thankfully, it was.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “In 1961, Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent), a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly — he had long campaigned for pensioners to receive free television. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge — Kempton had spun a web of lies. The only truth was that he was a good man, determined to change the world and save his marriage.”

Jim Broadbent has never been more charming than he was here in this Don Quixote-type story of a man who fought for little things. But there was more to the story than his mission to get free television in Britain. His wife Lilya (Helen Mirren) and he had lost a daughter in a bicycle accident and they had never dealt with that loss together. The film was as much, if not more, about grief than it was about any fight for justice.

Based on a true story, The Duke does what British films do wonderfully well, provide an oddball character, play it for some witty laughs and be filled with heart. The Duke may be a tad sentimental, but the central performances here are so good that any drawbacks the film may have are overlooked.

June 28, 2023

Day: 28, Movie: 28

A poor man’s Scream.

I chose this movie for today’s June Swoon 2 because I saw it on Peacock and they always have the Rotten Tomatoes score listed. It said it was 87%. That made me think this was a film to watch. Boy, I was wrong.

According to IMSB, “In April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, college student Parker Mason (Gideon Adlon) takes her best friend, Miri Woodlow (Bethlehem Million), to her family’s lake house to quarantine her. They arrive at the luxurious and secluded lake house when Parker receives a cryptic text message. The girls head to a small dock to get a tan and Parker receives another message that unnerves them both. From that moment on, all the tranquility they were looking for turns into a fight for their survival.“

This was so dumb. Everything from the choices these characters make to the reasons behind the killings, I did not enjoy this movie at all. There were a few main characters and I knew nothing about any of them so I had little reason to root for their survivals.

The performances were fine for what they were. The actors involved were not the problem in this movie. It was the script and the writing. Setting this in the middle of the pandemic was fine too. The use of COVID as a plot point did not bother me, mainly because there were so many other problems to deal with.

I just did not connect with this film at all. It felt like I had seen it all before and the characters were so one dimensional and lacking depth that I couldn’t care much when they were being attacked. Go rent Scream movies instead.

June 27, 2023

Day: 27, Movie: 27

A psychological horror film from Shudder called What Josiah Saw is one of the more unsettling and disturbing films I’ve seen in awhile. There was plenty of icky concepts and things happening.

It is the story of one family who come back together to face the horrors of their past. Three children, Eli (Nick Stahl), his twin sister Mary (Kelli Garner) and their slower brother Tommy (Scott Haze), and their slimy father Josiah (Robert Patrick), face with their sins from their life.

The film was broken into three sections. The first section included Tommy and Josiah, which included one of the most disturbing scenes of the flick. The next section was with Eli trying to get his life straightened out, but really not have much success. There was a whole section with Eli and a bunch of gypsies. Then we met Mary and her struggles in trying to become a mother via adoption. She was also shown as suicidal over something from her past. Eli came to see her about the oil company letter wishing to buy their childhood home property.

This is where the story came together as the three kids reunited and the past comes up. I won’t go into what that was because there were some major revelations here.

It was an uncomfortable film. There were very few characters that felt worth rooting for, though I did kind of connected with Eli, even though the very end of the film took that away from me.

I had a little trouble getting into the movie at first because Robert Patrick was such a horrendous person. Robert Patrick delivers an amazing performance because I really hated this character.

I’m not sure I would recommend this movie to many people. It was a slow burn and definitely filled with scumbag characters. Still, I thought the story was well developed and the performances were outstanding. This is another one that I will never watch again, but not because it was bad. I just felt like a shower afterwards.

June 26, 2023

Day: 26. Movie: 26

The twenty-sixth movie of the June Swoon 2 was found on Hulu and it was a thriller called No Exit. Dennis Haysbert, formerly President Palmer on 24, was the only actor I recognized from the cast, although I discovered that Danny Ramirez was Joaquin from the Falcon and the Winter Soldier Marvel + series.

Our main protagonist though was Darby (Havana Rose Liu). Darby was in rehab when she received a phone message that her mother was in the hospital with a brain aneurysm. Darby was not allowed to make a phone call without the doctor’s permission, and the doctor was out of touch for the weekend. Darby broke out of the hospital and started for Salt Lake City, where her mother was.

However, there was a huge snow storm and the roads were impassable. Darby was redirected to a mountain rest stop where several people were also waiting out the storm. As she was out trying to get reception on her cell, Darby stumbled across a little girl who was tied up in the back of a van. This was when Darby realized one of the people at the rest stop was a kidnapper.

No Exit had some good excitement and some moments of thrills. Overall, it was a decent flick. However, there were plenty of plot holes or events that were either incredibly coincidental or very hard to believe. I do believe that if you choose to do so, you could pick apart this movie fairly easily.

Despite those problems, Havana Rose Liu was extremely likable and easy to root for, even with the errors that she had clearly made in her life. The other people in the rest stop were also a nice mix of characters, especially Ed (Dennis Haysbert), a former Marine.

Is any of this likely? It certainly stretches credibility in several moments, but director Damien Power knows the strength of this film is in his small cast and the claustrophobic setting and both of those work very well.

June 25, 2023

Day: 25, Movie: 25

I feel sick to my stomach.

It has been a long time since I have seen a movie as disturbing, unsettling and upsetting as Soft & Quiet, which I found on Netflix for the June Swoon 2.

I had no idea what this movie was about. The synopsis for the movie did not prepare me for what I was going to get. Shown in real time, a group of women, led by kindergarten teacher Emily (Stefanie Estes), held a meeting at a local church for their club. From there, things spiral out of control.

These seemingly sweet and kindly women were a part of a club of “like-minded” women. This was a nice way to put racist. They were an white support group that complained about every minority in the area. That was dark enough, but I had no idea what was coming next.

As they were heading to pick up some wine and go home to continue their meeting (after getting kicked out of the church), they came across a couple of Asian women at the store and engaged in some vicious comments.

This escalated to the point where the women went to the Asian women’s home to teach them a lesson.

It amazes me how much hatred there is for people in the world based on nothing but physical differences or perceived slights. Watching this really drove home the point how much hate can be a cancer and how it can become more easily.

This was a horror movie in the way that real life can be a horror. Blumhouse produced this movie and it absolutely created horror in me.

This movie was not an enjoyable experience, but it was not enjoyable because of the way it made me feel. The movie was extremely effective in its story and the acting felt real. There are several movies that I think are powerful and brilliant movies that I will never watch again. This is one of those.

June 24, 2023

Day: 24, Movie: 24

I chose to go with Downton Abbey: A New Era as the June Swoon 2 film for the day despite the fact that I never watched any episodes of the original PBS series or the first feature movie. I wondered as I was watching A New Era how much of this movie would have been affected by me not watching anything prior to it. I didn’t feel lost as I watched it, but I wondered if it would have felt richer if I had.

There were several storylines going on during the film. First, some of the crew went to the South of France to see a villa that had been left to Violet Grantham (Maggie Smith). Second, a Hollywood movie crew came to Downton Abbey to film on location. There were other storylines involving the staff too.

There did feel like there were some storylines were ignored or pieces of the plot were never fully addressed. Again, that may be because I do not know these characters as much as a longtime fan of this property would be, but there were some moments that felt lacking.

I did like the idea of the Hollywood movie angle. It was actually the story of Singin’ in the Rain as the film they were making was a silent picture, but silent pictures were on their way out. So they changed it to a ‘talkie’ picture. Problem was (just like Singin’ in the Rain) the lead actress of the film, Myrna Dalgleish (Laura Haddock) had a voice that was terrible and they had Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) dub the film. So this story worked because, one of the greatest musicals of all time already used it.

I do love Maggie Smith. Every minute she was on screen, the movie truly popped. It was a shame that she did not get more time, but it did make sense for the narrative. I also enjoyed the ultimate British butler Mr. Carson (played by Jim Carter) bringing the British to France.

I found this Downton Abbey film to be passable. I was not totally lost and it was enjoyable enough. They did cram a lot into the two hours and it felt as if it could have been shortened up some to make it more concise. Still, not bad.

June 23, 2023

I have a busy day today at the movie theater; in order to fit everything in to the schedule today, I had to make plans for the June Swoon 2. What I planned was to watch a short this morning. The short I decided on was on Netflix and had been the Academy Award winning short for Best Documentary short at this previous Oscar ceremony. It was called The Elephant Whisperers.

This doc took us to India where we meet an indigenous couple named Bomman and Bellie, who were able to raise two orphaned baby elephants. At first, they were given responsibility over a calf named Raghu, who was frail and sickly. Bomman and Bellie cared for the baby elephant and a bond grew between them. From the great success that they had shown with Raghu, the park rangers of the Mudumalai National Park entrusted them with a second baby elephant named Ammu.

Watching the interactions with the elephants and Bomman and Bellie was fascinating and beautiful. The couple truly treated the elephants as part of their family. Bellie spoke of the loss of one of her own children, a daughter, and how Raghu was able to comfort her, literally wiping away her tears. This was a poignant moment in the doc.

The doc showed the elephant kicking a soccer ball around, playing freely like any little kid might.

The imagery and picturesque shots of the park made The Elephant Whisperers even grander than it would have been. Director Kartiki Gonsalves made her film debut with this documentary, spending five years with the family of the Kattunayakan tribe.

The 41 minute short is a beautiful piece of art and shows a close relationship between humans and elephants. The film does a great job of showing the bond between them and the feelings shown by both human and animal.

June 22, 2023

Day: 22, Movie:22

As we are starting toward the last week and a half of the June Swoon 2, there are some films that I have never heard of before. Significant Others is one of those. I found it while going through Prime (it looks like it was on Paramount +) and the premise sounded decent. The Rotten Tomatoes score was fresh so I put this on the list.

Unfortunately, I did not like this one much at all.

A couple go hiking on a trail and plan to spend time in the wilderness. Harry (Jake Lacy) was much more excited about the trip than Ruth (Maika Monroe) was, but harry had more on his mind. After hiking awhile and setting up camp, Harry proposed marriage to Ruth. However, Ruth is very anxious about marriage and she had a panic attack.

The next day, they find a dead deer, covered with some kind of black goo. Harry thought it had some kind of disease. Ruth came across a cave that held a surprising truth that she was not expecting.

I won’t go any farther to eliminate any spoilers, but this film took a big step down from this point on. I had some tension building at first as I wondered what was going to happen in these woods. When it happened, things changed dramatically, including a tone that bounced all over the place.

The film was short, but felt longer than it was. The performances were fine and the film looked decent. Still, I feel that much of the story went off the track after awhile.

June 21, 2023

Day: 21, Movie: 21

Today’s June Swoon 2 film was a real surprise. Honor Society is a coming-of-age comedy that was on Prime (Paramount +, I believe) starring a strong cast of young actors in a very creative and unexpectedly funny movie.

Honor (Angourie Rice) was a senior hoping to escape the town she lived in by getting a recommendation to Harvard from her sleazy guidance counselor, Mr. Calvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). She discovered that she was one of four potential candidates for his recommendation and she decided to go out of her way to bring the other three candidates down.

Honor is also our narrator for the movie, breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the camera during each scene. This worked extremely well because of the charming nature of Angourie Rice. It also helped us get inside the head of Honor, whose behaviors and actions were pretty rotten. Because she kept speaking to us and explaining the thought process behind everything, Honor avoided becoming one of the ‘mean girls’ that typically populate this kind of movie.

In fact, although the group of characters in this movie certainly fall into the normally stereotypical tropes of a coming-of-age movie, these characters defy those expected roles.

As Honor is moving through her plans, you can see the development of the character and the lessons she learns along the way. You knew something was going to come crashing down at some point, because it always does in this style of movie. However, I will say that Honor Society pulled off a late movie twist that I did not see coming that played with all of the expected tropes. I was very impressed with the reveal in this film.

Mind you, things turn out a little too nicely, with the feel of a sitcom. The way this high school film ended this story was too perfect for it to be realistic, but it did feel like something more fantastical than a realistic portrayal so I did not hold that against it.

The cast was excellent. Gaten Matarazzo, Armani Jackson, Any Keum, Kelcey Mawema, Avery Konrad, Kerry Butler, Danny Wattley, Miku Patricia Martineau, Andres Collantes and Michael P. Northey are all great in their roles. Gaten Matarazzo gave an especially strong performance here, getting to do more than he has done on Stranger Things.

I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. It was a lot of fun, filled with a fantastical story mechanic and plenty of laughs. Angourie Rice was very charming and she is so likable, even when her character is pulling things that you shouldn’t be liking. A hoot of a film.

June 20, 2023

Day: 20, Movie: 20

Today’s June Swoon 2 film was one that I found on Peacock the other day as I was searching for more 2022 movies to add to the list. It is a film from New Zealand directed by Gaysorn Thavat called The Justice of Bunny King.

Bunny King (Essie Davis) was a woman who had been convicted of manslaughter after killing her abusive husband in self-defense. Bunny had her kids taken away from her and placed in the system. Once she had served her time, she came out and had to jump through several hoops in order to attempt to regain custody of her kids.

She started to live in the garage of her sister’s (Toni Potter) home because Bunny was unable to find a home of her own and that was the first step in getting her kids back. However, Bunny caught her sister’s husband Bevan(Erroll Shand) molesting his step-daughter Tonyah (Thomasin McKenzie). Bunny’s sister did not believe Bunny and took the side of her husband, throwing Bunny out of their house.

Bunny stealing Bevan’s car, taking Tonyah and hiding out with her. Bunny’s plan was to have a birthday party for her daughter, who was turning six. Things went poorly after that.

Essie Davis was magnificent as Bunny King. You could tell that Bunny had plenty of problems, including a temper that caused her to fly off the handle, but you knew that she loved her children and she loved her niece. Even though she may not have made wise choices, she did them for the right reasons and that made her easy to root for even though she was basically kidnapping Tonyah.

Thomasin McKenzie, who appeared in other great movies such as Last Night in Soho and Jojo Rabbit, was exceptional as the young girl who Bunny was trying to rescue from the abusive circumstance she found herself in. McKenzie was quiet and moving as she displayed the loyalty to Bunny despite Bunny’s rapidly elevating behavior.

The story was dark and at times tough to watch. Bunny’s bad behavior was never acceptable, but you certainly understand where it was coming from and at the heart of the woman was love. Not a role model for sure, Bunny King is a survivor and a force of nature. She actually reminded me quite a bit of the character of Leslie from To Leslie. Both women are rude and their malfeasance is against norms, but they have a hidden strength.

The Justice of Bunny King is on Peacock.

June 19, 2023

Day: 19, Movie: 19

Last year, Andrea Riseborough received a controversial Best Actress in a motion picture Oscar nomination from out of nowhere for her role in the independent film, To Leslie. It was unexpected and got a lot of people talking.

She deserved that nomination 100%.

I watched To Leslie this morning for the June Swoon 2 on Netflix and this movie was excellent. Andrea Riseborough played Leslie, a former lottery winner who drank away her winnings and ended up leaving her son, James (Owen Teague).

Hitting the bottom, Leslie returned to her hometown trying to find any way to survive. When local motel clerk Sweeney (Marc Maron) offered her a job as a maid, Leslie finally had to confront the demons that had sent her down her life’s path.

Andrea Riseborough was amazing as Leslie. Her performance was stellar, with every look, every glance filled with pain and meaning. The struggle of alcoholism was real and Riseborough portrayed it with an achingly powerful realism.

She masterfully played on the emotions of the viewers. At the beginning of the movie, I found her to be a horrible character and, before long, I was rooting for her. She ran the gamut of emotions and I was never quite sure what the end result of the film was going to be.

Marc Maron as Sweeney was a awesome supporting character as well, bringing a lifeline to Leslie just when she needed it. At first, you wondered why he decided to do what he did for Leslie, but as the film progressed, his motivations became obvious and perfectly understandable.

The film also featured an epic performance from Allison Janney as Nancy. When we first meet Nancy, you could understand and support her and as the movie moved along, Nancy became more of an antagonist that the audience could hate. This character was so three-dimensional that she felt like a real person who held grudges and who had reasons for them.

These characters in this movie were extremely well written and developed. They were real people facing the difficulties that life brought and not always facing then in a positive manner. There is an authenticity to the story and the characters that serves this film well.

June 18, 2023

Day: 18, Movie: 18

The June Swoon 2 continued today with another interesting documentary that was on Prime. Wildcat focused in on a British war veteran Harry Turner who left Afghanistan suffering from PTSD. Harry traveled to Peru where he joined up with wildlife biologist Samantha Zwicker, who was involved in the rescue of wild animals threatened by poachers.

As he was joining up, they received a baby ocelot named Khan and Harry became very connected to the wildcat. They began working with the baby ocelot in order to be able to release him into the wild in about a year and a half.

However, tragedy struck, leading to the cat’s unexpected demise, and the subsequent arrival of a second ocelot baby for the pair to raise.

I will say that this documentary was only partially about the cat; it was really more about Harry and Samantha and their traumatic backgrounds. The film does a remarkable job showing the mental distress that Harry was going through, and the illness that he suffered. The portrait of a man who tried to deal with his mental illness by cutting himself on the arm. How he spoke about the suicidal thoughts that troubled him. This was one of the most compelling parts of the doc.

There was also some great moments with Harry and his parents and younger brother who came to Peru to visit him. The relationship between Harry and his brother came through extremely well.

This was a top notch documentary that really has a solid and emotional story at its core. Wildcat is a great story for animal lovers as well as those who are interested in human drama.

June 17, 2023

Day: 17, Movie: 17

After a busy day at the theater and writing reviews, I was able to finally get to the June Swoon 2. Today, I went on to Shudder at Prime and picked out a horror/thriller called Burial.

A group of Russian soldiers have the task of taking the body of Adolf Hitler from the bunker where he had shot himself and deliver it back to Russia to Stalin. They are being pursued by German soldiers determined to reclaim the body of Der Fuehrer.

The Russians included translator/intelligence officer Brana Brodskaya (Charlotte Vega) who was determined to not fail in the transition of the body back to the Soviet Union.

The film also included a local Polish man Lukasz (Tom Felton) who helped the Russian avoid capture by the German, which included the  German “Werewolf” partisans.

There is not much of a horror element to the movie, being more of a thriller/war movie. Still, there are some suspenseful scenes with the characters in the woods and some of the images connected with some delusions that were tense.

I enjoyed this movie. I liked the way this movie was framed, with actor Harriet Walter, playing an older version of Brana, narrating the story of what happened during the final days of the war in Europe. The film truly picks up steam when Tom Felton arrives and we first learn about what is inside the box.

This was a good watch on Shudder and is a quick watch too. I liked this one.

June 16, 2023

Day: 16, Movie: 16

Hulu is the location today for the June Swoon 2 as I came across a dark comedy/drama film directed by Jerrod Carmichael called On the Count of Three. This was a film where the premise really snagged me when I came across it.

Two long-time friends are both at a point in their lives where they are both suicidal and agreed to shoot each other. Played by Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott respectively, Val and Kevin have had horrendous backstories that have led them both to stand opposite each other with a gun pointed at their heads.

However, Kevin hesitated and knocked the gun aside, wanting to have one more day to do some things that they wanted before the end.

Dark and funny at times, Val and Kevin run around the town doing some shocking things that do a great job of informing these two characters. They are so messed up, but you can’t help but find yourself rooting for them and hoping something happens to change their minds on the ultimate end.

Tiffany Haddish, Henry Winkler and J.B. Smoove have vital supporting roles in the movie that give the pair some dramatic characters to play off.

The third act of the film is dramatic and the ending is amazing. No spoilers, of course, but it is a satisfactory ending to the movie.

On the Count of Three is an excellent dark comedy with some wonderful character development.