Category Archives: The June Swoon

Dust Bunny (2025)

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June 8

Day 8

Today’s June Swoon entry was a wild monster/thriller that I had never heard about before. It was entitled Dust Bunny, and I saw it on HBO Max.

What helped me pick the film out was seeing Mads Mikkelsen as the lead and Sigourney Weaver in a supporting role. Who knew that this was going to be a wild flick.

According to IMDB, “After losing her foster parents to a bedroom-dwelling beast, young Aurora hires her reclusive neighbor, a professional assassin, to hunt it, unknowingly thrusting him into a war against both human killers and supernatural terrors.“

The little girl, Aurora, was played by Sophie Sloan, who does an excellent job of presenting this little girl with a dark past and a serious attitude.

The monster is done very well too, keeping it fairly under wrapped for much of the film. It is not until the third act where we start to get a better glance of the monster. It did seem fairly practical of an effect too, which was a welcome bit for Hollywood today.

Mads Mikkelsen and Sophie Sloan were great together, elevating this movie’s script above a typical movie. They worked well together, showing some serious chemistry and some good laughs too.

This was a really weird movie. Think “Leon the Professional” if written by Roald Dahl and R.L. Stein. Hitmen and monsters do not necessarily go together, but this somehow fits wonderfully. 

John Candy: I Like Me (2025)

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June 7

Day 7

Today’s June Swoon 5 film was a documentary on Amazon Prime from last year that looked at the life and career of one of the most beloved actors/comedians of the past forty years, John Candy.

The doc started off with Bill Murray trying to come up with something bad to say about John Candy, and wishing the producers luck in their investigation to find some dirt on the man. It was a real funny kick off to the show and did a great job of pointing out how universally beloved men John Candy was.

There were a litany of stars who had nothing but amazing things to say about John Candy including Tom Hanks, Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara, Macaulay Culkin, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien, and Mel Brooks.

The doc does a great job of outlining how the death of John Candy’s father (when John was 5 years old) affected him as an adult, and how his behavior of drinking, smoking, eating led to his early death at 43.

It also showed what a lovely human being John Candy was and how much success he had as an actor, starting off with SCTV and ending as a movie star.

The doc also talked with John Candy’s family, his wife, his brothers, his son, and his daughter. They talked about the close relationship John Candy had developed with John Hughes, and how Candy wound up in 9 films from the director.

I liked John Candy, but I would never say that I was a huge fan of his, but I found myself tearing up at the end of the documentary, which tells you how well director Colin Hanks and the rest did with this doc. The story of them closing down a freeway in LA for John Candy’s funeral procession was amazing.

The doc is available on Amazon Prime and it moves at a brisk clip, moving through his way-too-short life and career. It is wonderful when you can look back on a person’s career and see only the good.

The Secret Agent (2025)

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June 6

Day 6

The Secret Agent was an Academy Award nominated film, nominated for  Best Picture, Best Actor , Best Casting and Best International Feature Film. Though it did not take any Oscars home, the film was an international success.

According to IMDB, “Amid the political turmoil of 1977 Brazil, a technology expert is forced into hiding and seeks help from the underground resistance as he tries to flee the country with his young son.”

Wagner Moura played Armando, a former professor who was involved in political bedlam during the Brazilian military dictatorship. Set in 1977, Armando traveled to Recife to see his son Fernando, and research his late mother, whom he did not remember.

There were assassins sent after him and there were several local problems he faced as well.

I had a difficult time following some of this movie as it was in Portuguese and the complex story kept me as the viewer off-center. I’m not ashamed to say that I was confused at time with what was going on. The film flipped time periods a couple of times and I was not sure what had happened,

There was a weird section of the film featured on a severed leg that had been found in a shark. This surreal scene was strange, but brought some levity to a difficult story. It sounded as if the scene had a deeper meaning.

The ending of the film was excellent and shocking. I was not expecting it. Wagner Moura was great in his role and certainly deserved his Oscar nomination.

Good Night, and Good Luck: Live From Broadway (2005)

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June 5

Day 5

I wish we got more of this.

This was originally a live broadcast of the Broadway play, Good Night and Good Luck on CNN and CNN International. I wish that there were more examples of this form, movie recorded as the Broadway play, so we could get more of an exposure to this type of entertainment.

I have been excited to see this since I put it on the Netflix queue and i figured the June Swoon 5 would be a perfect place for it.

This play showed the lead up and eventual confrontation between the junior senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy and CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, as well as the journalists and news people behind the scenes at CBS.

I found this to be completely enthralling and totally thrilling. The play used videos of Joseph McCarthy as well as other important people of the time to help illuminate the story.

George Clooney starred as Murrow and he was excellent. A personal favorite of mine was also here, Clark Gregg, who was well known as Agent Coulson in the MCU. He played newscaster Don Hollenbeck. There was a scene in this play between Clooney and Gregg that was just amazing and showed off Gregg’s skills tremendously.

Glenn Fleschler played Fred Friendly and his relationship with Murrow was another part of this story. It was some of the best dialogue you will hear and consistently was both funny and poignant.

The only thing that was distracting for me was that fact that every time the character of Joe Wershba, played by Carter Hudson, spoke, it sounded like John Ratzenberger. That did not take away from his strong performance in the play, but it was something that I thought of every time he spoke.

I wish there were more of these type of films. Not just adaptations of stage plays, but actual stage plays as they are presented on Broadway. I would definitely go see something like this in a theater.

Rental Family (2025)

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June 4

Day 4

So the June Swoon film for the day is Rental Family, a film featuring Brendan Fraser. It was one that I thought about going to the theater to see, but it did not work out. I decided that I would save this one for June Swoon.

According to IMDB, “An American actor in Tokyo struggling to find purpose lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. He rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the beauty of human connection.”

I am torn on this movie. Not because I did not enjoy it, because this was a beautiful movie filled with emotion and lovely exteriors and great performances. The problem I had was with the central concept of the idea of rental family, not the movie but the business that Shinji Tada (Takehiro Hira) was running. He would send actors into situations to play relatives or friends or whatever to people who are emotionally challenged.

For example, in this film, Brendan Fraser played an actor named Phillip who was struggling with his career. He moved to Japan several years before and he joined in the company where he is sent into a situation where he was pretending to be the absentee father of a little girl, Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman). He was hired by her mother to help her get into a specific school.

The problem is they do not tell Mia that he is pretending and they pretend that he is her long, lost father, and they told Phillip that he needed to not get close to her. How is he supposed to do that, get to know her and not get close to her.

It just felt gross. I felt that these characters were so emotionally manipulated in this that it, as I said, felt gross.

However, so much of the movie is so wonderful that I kind of held my nose and moved along. To be fair, I think that it is gross is meant to be part of the themes of the film.

There is another storyline where Phillip is pretending to be a journalist interviewing a big time former actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto) which was a beautiful tale of friendship and life.

I loved the relationships Phillip developed with both Mia and Kikuo, which made his constant lies all the harder to watch. You can tell from Fraser’s excellent performance how the lies were affecting him as well.

While I had trouble with the concept of the film, everything else was amazing. I loved the story, the characters, the performances, the relationships and the chorography. Rental Family was an outstanding movie that made me feel icky at a few times.

All the Empty Rooms (2025)

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June 3

Day 3

I thought we’d start off day 3 of the June Swoon with some tears.

Wednesdays are always a challenge during the June Swoon because it is “new comic book day” and I head out to spend time at the two comic shops that I patronize. So I have to look for a movie that can fit into the time frame available. Many times that means I use a short.

In this case, I pulled up the 2026 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Short Film on Netflix, entitled All the Empty Rooms.

In this doc, we follow CBS newsman Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they travel around the country, documenting bedrooms of victims of school shootings.

In the short, we see the final four children’s bedrooms and hear from the families of the victims.

The four kids involved in this doc were Hallie Scruggs, Dominic Blackwell, Gracie Anne Muehlberger and Jacklyn Jaylen Cazares. According to Wikipedia, there were several others involved in Hartman’s project that were not shown in the doc.

The doc was directed and produced by Joshua Seftel.

This documentary was poignant and truly showed the pain and the love of these surviving family members and how much their loss affected their lives. It also showed how their love is everlasting, even years after the death of their children.

Fackham Hall (2025)

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June 2

June Swoon 5: Day 2

The second film in this year’s June Swoon is a comedy that combines the feel of Wuthering Heights and Downton Abby with Airplane! and Naked Gun.

According to IMDB, “A new porter forms an odd bond with the youngest daughter of a well-known UK family. As the Davenport family, headed by Lord and Lady Davenport, deals with the epic disaster of the wedding of their eldest daughter to her caddish cousin.“

While I compared this to Airplane! and Naked Gun, I think the comedy and writing in this is a little more subtle at times, and does not have the real, over-the-top type jokes of those two, which I liked quite a bit about this.

I will say that it took a bit of time to get the story going, but it was always very funny.

The cast was led by Thomasin McKenzie and Ben Radcliffe as Rose and Eric. They made a nice pair together and gave the odd cousin-thing a surprise twist. Other cast members included Damian Lewis, Hayley Mills, Tom Felton, Katherine Waterston, Jason Done, Emma Laird, Adam Woodward, Ramon Tikaram, Lily Knight, and Erin Austen.

The film was lightweight, but funny and funny can overcome plenty of flaws.

Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching (2025)

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June 1

Day 1-June Swoon 5

And with that, the June Swoon 5 is underway.

The June Swoon kicked off this year with a documentary that I watched for free on YouTube that I had heard about from film critic William Bibbiani. He had it as one of his favorite movies from 2025, which sounded strange considering it was a documentary about birdwatching.

I tell you what…this thing was one of the most entertaining documentaries I have seen in quite a while. I found myself engaged and laughing loudly multiple times throughout the nearly two hour run time.

Two brothers, Owen and Quentin Reiser, with zero birdwatching experience, decided to attempt a “Big Year” by traveling across the USA in a Kia minivan and listing as many species of birds that they could see.

A “Big Year” is a competitive birding challenge to spot as many bird species as possible across the Lower 48 United States in a single calendar year.

During the year, the Reiser brothers met many other birdwatchers along the way and these people were every bit as engaging as the birds that they were following.

Another major aspect of fun in this doc was the inexperience and the reactions of these two men. Their observations were hilarious which came from a place of unfamiliarity.

Several “listers,” which referred to a group of highly competitive birdwatchers who compile a list of the number of species that they see in a calendar year, trying to break the record of bird species seen, appeared on the documentary as Owen and Quentin came across them on their travels.

Some of these included Tammy and David McQuade, a married couple who recorded 700+ sightings in multiple consecutive years, and Ezekiel Dobson, a 19-year old who broke the record of birdwatching with 758 recorded sightings in 2024.

The unconventional manner that they undertook was one of the most enduring parts of the doc. They spoke about things like eBird, an app that helped identify birds, how Cracker Barrel would allow them to sleep in their parking lot for free, and the advantages and disadvantages of playback, recorded sounds of birds intended to attract the birds. It reminded me a lot of the old Squatch calls from Finding Bigfoot.

The Reisers planned on spending as little money as they could, so they even went as far as attempting to build their own boats, to varying degrees of success.

This had no right to be as entertaining as it was, bit Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching was a great film to kick off the fifth annual June Swoon.

Absolution

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June 30

We have arrived at the final day for the June Swoon 4: Two Day. The final movie for the 2024 films (“It’s Then, Now”) is a Liam Neeson film called Absolution that I watched on Hulu.

A lot of Liam Neeson films are similar over the last few years and they have titles that are anything but distinct. This movie had the same feel to it. The title “Absolution” seemed just as random as many of the other films. It i snot memorable.

However, Absolution does take some different steps in the story to set itself apart from “Retribution,” “The Ice Road,” “The Marksman,” “Cold Pursuit,” “The Commuter” and such.

According to IMDB, “An aging gangster attempts to reconnect with his children and rectify the mistakes in his past, but the criminal underworld won’t loosen their grip willingly.”

This summary from IMDB does not touch upon the seminal fact of the story that made this Liam Neeson performance different than all the others. Since it is not mentioned here, I will avoid spoiling it and say that this one fact really adds to the typical character that Neeson plays.

Neeson’s co-star was Yolanda Ross and she was excellent in her role. I thought the scenes with Neeson and Ross stood out from the rest of the movie and I wish there had been more of this.

I also liked the young actor Terrence Pulliam, who played Dre, Neeson’s estranged grandson. The two of them also had some good scenes that gave Neeson’s character more depth than it would have had. Pullian does not have a ton of dialogue, but he played the scenes well with his facial features and looks.

Some may think that this story was too slow, but I liked the pace of the film. It gave us a chance to get into the character Neeson was playing and connect with the choices he had made and the regrets that were swallowing him.

There was a series of weird scenes with Neeson and his father (Josh Drennan) that seemed to be in a different movie, but these scenes did not derail the film for me.

Absolution was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I did actually like a lot of what was there. It has a 55% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a shockingly low 32% audience score. I think it is much better than that.

The Order

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June 29

The penultimate day of the June Swoon 4 saw me head over to Hulu for a movie listed there called The Order.

The Order was directed by Justin Kurzel and starred Jude Law and Nicolas Hoult in a film dealing with the FBI vs. White Supremacists. This movie is based on the non-fiction novel The Silent Brotherhood: The Chilling Inside Story of America’s Violent, Anti-Government Militia Movement by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt.

According to IMDB, “In 1983, a series of increasingly violent bank robberies, counterfeiting operations and armored car heists frightened communities throughout the Pacific Northwest. As baffled law enforcement agents scrambled for answers, a lone FBI agent (Law), stationed in the sleepy, picturesque town of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, came to believe the crimes were not the work of traditional, financially motivated criminals but a group of dangerous domestic terrorists, inspired by a radical, charismatic leader (Hoult), plotting a devastating war against the federal government of the United States.”

I was impressed with the performances of Jude Law and, especially, Nicolas Hoult. Hoult was extremely sinister as leader of the Order, Robert Matthews. Nicolas Hoult lost himself inside this role and delivered a chilling performance. I think this bodes well for Hoult’s soon to be role of Lex Luthor in the upcoming Superman movie in July. Jude Law played well opposite Hoult too.

It is a sad tale that there are people who feel the way these characters do in The Order. I don’t understand why people have to approach others with hate because they have something different about them. Movies like this remind us how far we still have to go.

Babygirl

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June 28

I was going to go to see Babygirl at the end of last year, but something came up that caused me to not go. At that point, I put it on the list for the June Swoon. It was available on HBO Max and today was the day that I finally watched it.

I just did not like this movie.

According to IMDB, “Romy, the head of a large company, accustomed to managing people, becomes the plaything of young intern Samuel. The rules are simple: she obeys all his orders, and he keeps her secret. But the passion that escapes outside the office threatens to destroy them both.”

I want to start out by saying that this is a truly brave performance by Nicole Kidman. What it exposes to her as an actress is a passion for her work and her commitment to the role. The underlying insecurities of Romy had to be difficult to play and she does it with a flourish.

I did not enjoy the story. I found it dull and I was not interested in all the sex scenes that they showed. The scenes were very intense but I just found most of it uncomfortable.

Antonio Banderas was great in his supporting role. Banderas has been a great performer over the last several years as he has found a bunch of great roles and has excelled in them.

Hitpig

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June 27

The June Swoon has been on a bit of a down swing. It happens every year as we go through stretches of movies that are not very good. We’ve been luckier this year than before as we have had some really good films. Then there was Hitpig.

Hitpig was an animated movie from 2024 featuring a strong voice cast with a poor script. The humor is forced, the story is predictable and the dialogue is cringy.

According to IMDB, “Hitpig is a pig hired by humans to bring back their escaped animals. It’s not easy, but it’s a living. His latest hit is Pickles, a naive but vivacious elephant who has escaped the clutches of an evil Vegas showman. Though Hitpig initially sets out to capture the perky pachyderm for big cash, the unlikely pair find themselves on an unexpected adventure criss-crossing the globe that brings out the best in both of them. Set in a futuristic cyberpunk world, Hitpig proves sometimes what we want isn’t what we need. From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Berkeley Breathed’s wild imagination comes an adventure about learning that sometimes what we want isn’t what we need“

The voice cast was stacked. The cast included Jason Sudeikis, Lilly Singh, Flavor Flav, Rainn Wilson, RuPaul, Anitta, Andy Serkis, Hannah Gadsby, Lorraine Ashbourne, and Charlie Adler.

The animation is good and the colors and character designs are well done. Little kids probably will enjoy the bombastic nature of the story and will be distracted by the look. Unfortunately, I need more in an animated movie than this offers.

Your Monster

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June 26

Rom Com- Horror? No way that is going to work.

Except it really does. Your Monster is a surprising film with some deeply troubled characters and an ending that is absolutely wild.

According to IMDB, “After her life falls apart, soft-spoken actress Laura Franco finds her voice again when she meets a terrifying, yet weirdly charming Monster living in her closet. A romantic-comedy-horror film about falling in love with your inner rage.“

Melissa Barrera is Laura Franco and Tommy Dewey is the Monster living in her closet. Unexpectedly, the pair hook up and seem to really get along. However, Laura is dealing with some deep seeded trauma from a relationship with Jacob Sullivan (Edmond Donovan), a writer/director of a play that he had originally written for Laura, only to recast when they broke up.

Laura has plenty of issues in the film, dealing with her own feelings of betrayal and anger. She is clearly not ready for any kind of relationship so, when she walks onto tryouts for the play, things were awkward.

The chemistry between Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey is off the charts and makes the weird story work. If that center relationship did not have the chemistry it did, the film would be a total flop. I was wondering about some of the characteristics of the character of Laura, but it all made sense in the end.

This was unexpectedly good and really became more of a character study. It is the type of film that might require a second viewing to see the subtleties in the story.

Chicken for Linda

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I have no idea where this one came from.

I had Chicken for Linda on my list of movies for the June Swoon, but I do not remember where I heard about it. I knew it was an animated movie, but that was about it. I had rented it on Fandango at Home, but when I started it, I realized that it is in French.

According to IMDB, “Linda is unfairly punished by her mother, Paulette, who will do anything to make it up to her. Even a chicken with peppers when she can’t cook. Linda absolutely wants to have the chicken that her father made that day…But there is a strike, a general strike.“

The film is unlike any animated film I have seen. The animation was very stylish and different than I had seen before which was a cool feature of it. The colors made much of the film stand out and each color had a purpose to the characters.

The story was very sweet, and surprisingly deeper than one would expect. It had a lingering sadness to it with plenty of humor and joy to go around. Ridiculous situations occur all around and the animation style served it well.

All this trouble for chicken with peppers?

Tuesday

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June 24

I have not seen a movie start off with a bigger WTF in a long time than Tuesday, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

A24 has used some bizarre concepts to deal with serious issues, from farting corpses to being transformed into animals if they can not find love. On the surface, it may seem absurdist at times, but there are always deeper undertones in the narrative than what you would expect.

This movie deals with death, but not just the grief and pain of the loss, but specifically the inability to accept the inevitability of the end and the strides someone will go to to avoid that acceptance.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus played Zora, the mother of Tuesday (Lola Petticrew), who is a 15-year old, wheelchair bound girl with an incurable fatal disease. Julia Louis-Dreyfus gives the best performance of her career, which is saying something, as she struggled with the denial, taking steps to avoid the loss unlike anyone has every done before.

I am trying to remain somewhat vague in my details of this movie, because I went into it with no expectations for it and I was blown away by the surreal aspects of the film. If you can go into this film without any knowledge of the way the story progresses, the better your experience will be.

Tuesday is a powerful piece that deals with something that everyone can relate to and does it in a poignant and emotional way. It is another winner for A24 and their amazing catalogue of films. It is available on HBO Max.