June 14, 2023

Day: 14, Movie: 14

This Places Rules was the latest movie released in 2022 that will be today’s entry on the June Swoon 2 list. It was released on HBO on December 30, 2022 and then on HBO Max the next day. This documentary followed the events that led up to the January 6th insurrection, and was directed and hosted by journalist and YouTube content creator Andrew Callaghan.

The film went to several of the major events prior to Jan. 6th, interviewing the extremists on both sides. This doc does a great job of not only laying out the bizarre thoughts of Trump supports, Qanon wackos, and Proud Boys, but also extremist on the left like Antifa and BLM.

Some of the wildest scenes of the movie involved Alex Jones, host of Info Wars. His far right propaganda highlighted some of the worst natures that we as the people have, while truly showing that what Jones (along with others) really wants is to make money off the selling of merchandise. It was revealed that Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio not only sold Trump merch, but also merch for Joe Biden.

The interviews of random people at the rallies are jaw dropping. Some of the insanity that comes from these people defy all logic. Another fascinating moment of the doc was his interview and time spent with the Spencer family, who were big Trump supporters and Q-believers, in particular the young kids of the family. Then, at the film’s end when Q’s dates passed without anything happening, the disappointment and realization of this family that Q was not what they thought was an amazing punctuation on the film.

Callaghan’s confrontation near the end of the film of “The Inglorious Patriot” Dave Todeschini was epic. Todeschini spent all of his times talking about his personal battle against the pedophiles of the world, how Hollywood would drink the blood of babies, only to have Callaghan point out to him that in 1999, Todeschini had been arrest and convicted on sexual abuse charges of young boy.

While This Place Rules is not a laugh out loud film, the humor comes in the shocking realization of what some people really think and what they are willing to say or do.

June 13, 2023

Day: 13, Movie: 13

Olivia Colman has become one of our best current living actors working, and she brings her best no matter what project she is in. This is a perfect example as today’s June Swoon 2 is Empire of Light, a film that did not receive near the amount of love as many had anticipated.

According to IMDB, “Hilary (Olivia Colman) is a cinema manager struggling with her mental health, and Stephen (Micheal Ward) is a new employee longing to escape the provincial town where he faces daily adversity. Together they find a sense of belonging and experience the healing power of music, cinema, and community.“

There was a lot of good things here. First was the performances, led by Olivia Colman. Michael Ward was excellent as Stephen. There were solid supporting performances from Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Tom Brooke, Crystal Clarke, and Tanya Moodie.

There were also several very good scenes in the film that brought some emotional heft and strong character development. The film looked beautiful too.

This is where things kind of went off the rails. The positives of this film are there, for sure, but there are other issues that drag this down, most of which deal with the story being told.

The film did lack a general narrative throughline. It felt as if it tried to do way too many different things and none of them worked together very effectively. The movie lacked a focus as this film felt as if it were about mental illness, racism, the power of the cinema and theater experience, relationships at the work place, adultery and the use of power to get your way. These all were used and most of them used equally which made the film feel too muddled.

There also seemed to have a couple spots at the end of the movie that could have served as an effective ending, but it kept going back to continue the story. Some times that works, but here it just felt like the movie wasn’t sure how to end.

Empire of Light had its moments and Olivia Colman is, once again, exceptional, but it feels to much of a mess to be a great movie. It is currently passable at best.

June 12, 2023

Day: 12, Movie: 12

With the June Swoon 2 in full swing, I came this morning to an Academy Award winning film that I had not seen from 2022. Women Talking was written and directed by Sarah Polley and won the Oscar for the Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as being nominated for Best Picture.

Women Talking featured a powerful ensemble cast that included Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jesse Buckley, Frances McDormand, Judith Ivey, Kate Hallett, Shelia McCarthy, Ben Whishaw, August Winter, Liv McNeil, Michelle McLeod, and Emily Mitchell.

It was 2010 and a group of women from a Mennonite colony discovered a horrendous secret. There were men in the colony who would take horse tranquilizers and drug the women in order to rape them. When one of the men were captured, he revealed the others involved too.

These men went to a neighboring city for trial and most of the men from the colony went to help with bail, leaving the women and children behind. The group of women who had all at one time been raped or assaulted came together in order to decide what they were going to do. Would they stay and allow it to keep happening, would they stay and fight or would they leave the colony?

Most of the movie was this debate among the women, trying to keep themselves and their children safe as well as keep their religious faith.

There is a reason this was a screenplay winner at the Oscars. The dialogue and the character interactions here were remarkably powerful and covered every aspect of the situation. The conflicts within each woman was shown with understandable relatability. There was anger, grief, guilt, confusion all beautifully portrayed by a very talented ensemble cast. None of the survivors had the same reactions and that made it all the more potent.

There is not much action going on, but you do not miss it because the tension of the conversations were so high, you feel as if you’ve seen such a dramatic decision.

Women Talking could be a challenge for some people, but it is an outstandingly acted film with amazing character driven dialogue that provides an empowering message.

June 11, 2023

Day: 11, Movie: 11

I have been waiting anxiously to watch this Korean made film for the June Swoon 2. Decision to Leave was a popular hit of the international films last year, but I have been pushing it off because of the length. The film was almost 2 hours and 20 minutes, which was long for a film that required reading.

Before I go on about the movie, I have to complain about the captions. The English translation was small on the screen and some of the dialogue went too fast. It was difficult to keep up with the flow of the story without being 100% sure what they just said. I have said that in previous subtitled films, you forget that you are reading and just fall into the story, but this time the reading was more difficult at times that it never truly allowed me to lose myself in the story.

That is not necessarily a flaw of the film as much as it was Vudu and its presentation. I will not hold that against Decision to Leave, but there is no doubt that it affected my viewing pleasure.

According to IMDB, “From a mountain peak in South Korea, a man plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man’s wife Seo-rae (Tang Wei). But as he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire.”

I did enjoy this movie with its mystery at its core. Exactly how much of a role had Seo-rae played in her husband’s demise or was it actually just suicide? The film does a great job of keeping the story going as you are never sure what the truth is.

The relationship between Hae-joon and Seo-rae felt wrong for most of this movie as you could never be sure if she were playing him or if she was just a victim of the situation. This relationship caused Hae-joon’s marriage to crumble, although there are some hints in the movie that implied that Hae-joon was already not very happy with the path of his life.

Reason to Leave was directed by Park Chan-wook, who also directed the iconic film Oldboy. Park Chan-wook created a beautiful look to the film and brought a great deal of magic to the love story.

Decision to Leave tells a solid romantic story with touches of tragedy mixed in. The performances are all really strong and the film looks lovely. It is a touch long, but it takes its time telling the story effectively.

June 10, 2023

Day: 10, Movie: 10

The June Swoon 2 continues today with Breaking, a movie based on a true story starring John Boyega.

Former Marine Brian Brown-Easley (John Boyega) “is denied support from Veterans Affairs, financially desperate and running out of options, he takes a bank and several of its employees hostage, setting the stage for a tense confrontation with the police.” (IMDB)

John Boyega was amazing as the desperate Marine was and how he was trying to shine a light on the problem that he was facing. It was not just that he needed the money, which he did, but he wanted that the VA, which had denied his money, to make things right.

Boyega showed how troubled Brian was, both with the situation and with the mental aspect. He was more than just a troubled man. He was shown to be a good man even though the two hostages he kept in the bank were afraid for their lives. Nicole Beharie and Selenis Leyva are tremendous as the two bank employees remaining as hostages. The negotiator was played by Michael Kenneth Williams and he brought an empathy unlike most any other character in the film.

There was a lot of tension developed in the film by not only the situation but also the character dialogue. You were never sure exactly what was going to happen. You might feel that this situation was going to end up tragic, but there were plenty of uncertainty about what was going on. That made this an effective way to create a mood.

I am not sure if the film was able to shine enough of a light on the problem facing Brian. There are issues with the way the VA treats some vets and this film touched on it, but it needed to go into it more if they wanted it to be a message.

Breaking was a film that I had always heard positives about, but I never got around to seeing it in the theater or on streaming. It made a great film for the June Swoon 2.

June 9, 2023

Day: 9, Movie: 9

The June Swoon 2 this morning features a movie that was utterly beautiful.

Bill Nighy gave an Academy Award nominated performance as Mr. Williams, a grim and humorless bureaucrat whose life changed after receiving a diagnosis giving him just a few months to live.

Mr. Williams decided to do something worthwhile will the few months he had remaining and he took up the fight for a local playground.

Bill Nighy is absolutely transcendent in this role. He is subtle and powerful with every glance and every slight word. He is never over-the-top, even though the situation could call for it. He was reserved yet determined to not fail in his final effort.

He had become withdrawn and callous within his job before the diagnosis altered his thinking. He spent some time with a former co-worker, Margaret Harris (Aimee Lou Wood), whose energy and willingness to embrace life attracted the old man. He wanted to remember how to engage in the daily joy of being alive while he still had the opportunity.

The film started off making it seem as if the leading protagonist would be Mr. Williams’s newest co-worker, Mr. Peter Wakeling (Alex Sharp), but he ended up as a supporting player in the story. Through his eyes, we get the chance to see the results of what Mr. Williams was able to accomplish.

Living was directed by Oliver Hermanus and the film is an adaption of a 1952 Japanese movie Ikiru which had been directed by EYG Hall of Famer Akira Kurosawa.

I have not seen the original film from Kurosawa, but this new adaptation is lovely, life-affirming and filled with a zest for life that is too easily lost. Bill Nighy is spectacular in his reserved and measured performance that will no doubt break your heart while inspiring you to do better. Living was a wonderful experience.

June 8, 2023

Day: 8, Movie: 8

A Netflix documentary featuring Robert Downey Jr and his father Robert Downey Sr. has been on the streamer for awhile now, existing on My List since it came out. The June Swoon 2 allows me the chance to actually watch this.

Robert Downey Jr. is clearly one of the most charismatic actors we have today and this documentary shows that. It also spends a lot of time with Sr. and we get a good idea where a lot of RDJ’s personality came from.

The best parts of the doc were when we saw Jr. and Sr. interacting, especially when they included RDJ’s son Exton.

The documentary was shot in black and white and it added that gravitas to the film. It was a feel of something special and you get some truly amazing moments between father and son.

One of my favorite moments in the doc was when RDJ was singing a German folk song, “Fischerweise” with Sean Hayes on the piano. It was a request from Sr. and it is apparently something young 15-year old RDJ did in a contest. This section of the doc was hilarious.

Thinking back, I probably should have saved this film for Father’s Day in the June Swoon 2, but it fit today better, time wise. This is a beautiful love letter to a father from a son and from a couple of classic filmmakers.

June 7, 2023

Day: 7, Movie: 7

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 6, 2023

Day: 6, Movie: 6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 5, 2022

Day: 5, Movie: 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 4, 2023

Day: 4, Movie: 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 3, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

June 2, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 1, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 30th, Movies 31

The June Swoon comes to a close today with the final film in the binge. The choice I made was a football movie featuring J.K. Simmons and Stephan James called National Champions. Truth is the film is less about football and more about the system of college football and how the NCAA makes billions of dollars while the student-athletes get nothing.

In National Champions, two football teams are preparing for the college championship game when the star quarterback LeMarcus James (Stephan James) and his friend, another player Emmett Sunday (Alexander Ludwig) announced that they were going to boycott the game unless the NCAA changed their system and began paying and providing benefits to the players that the NCAA was building their brand upon.

LeMarcus and Emmett went around to players on the team trying to build up support, others to join in on the boycott. Meanwhile, Coach James Lazor (J.K. Simmons) was trying to hold his team together before the big game and met up with the officials of the NCAA trying to break down the boycott.

The fact that the NCAA is a billion dollar business that absolutely takes advantage of the young men to make that money, and then the athletes are not allowed to benefit for it. The small percentage that go on to the NFL may benefit from their college games, but the vast majority of the players will not play any more. Many of them find themselves back in poverty or in financial difficulties and facing injuries or pain from their playing days.

The film really did a great job of building tension as they approached the game and what the individuals involved would do in order to get the game played. JK Simmons was fantastic as always, but so was Stephan James. These performances were what this film depended on.

I do believe that the storyline involving Coach Lazor’s wife Baily (Kristin Chenoweth) and a professor at the college Elliott Schmidt (Timothy Olyphant) was too far, and, in the end, was a strange twist. This actually hurt the story and distracted from the overall story. It is a shame because I do love Timothy Olyphant.

The film’s message is one that is absolutely a problem that needs to be addressed and the movie does a great job of showing the troubles with the NCAA and college football. It is able to present the message while still being entertaining.