DailyView: Day 67, Movie 116

One more DailyView film for the Fourth of July, once again playing on TCM, is Yankee Doodle Dandy, the biopic on the life of George M. Cohan.

Yankee Doodle Dandy followed the life of George M. Cohan (James Cagney) from his early days as a child star working with his father Jerry (Walter Huston) and mother Nellie (Rosemary DeCamp) to his comeback playing President Roosevelt.

This movie has two main attractions: the amazing music from Cohan and an Oscar winning performance from James Cagney. This certainly is the heavy focus of the movie. There is not as much about Cohan’s life outside of his theater work in this movie. In fact, most of the negative parts of Cohan’s life have been removed or ignored in this biopic.

There have been plenty of movies that are elevated by a profound lead performance from an actor, and Yankee Doodle Dandy feels as if this is one of those.

However, that is enough for an entertaining movie. The music alone is tremendous and shows how talented George M. Cohan was as a songwriter. Cagney’s performance brought the arrogance of the total package performer to light. He seemed to be tough to put up with at times, but people wanted to hook their wagon to his talent.

There were a few moments in this movie that do not play well today. For example, showing the 4 Cohans act in Vaudeville in blackface was a bit shocking. I know in 1942 when this was released, things were seen differently, but it was still an unexpected shock to see it.

A great performance can carry a movie and James Cagney’s performance here did that here. Yankee Doodle Dandy was a good movie for the 4th.

DailyView: Day 67, Movie 115

We’re back with another 4th of July movie for the DailyView, and this time I found a classic playing on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) called The Music Man. Set here in Iowa, this is a well known musical with a bunch of songs that were familiar to me. I had a basic idea of the story, but I had never watched this until now.

Con man Harold Hill (Robert Preston) arrived in River City, Iowa with a plan. He pretended to be a music professor from Gary, Indiana (Gary, Indiana…Gary, In-di-an-a). His scam was to convince the townspeople that the youth problems would be solved by forming a band, selling the kids the musical instruments, uniforms and music.

His co-conspirator, Marcellus Washburn (Buddy Hackett) provided some comedic relief to keep the “Professor” real. He was a friend of one of Hill’s former grifter colleagues. Hill needed the librarian and local music teacher Marion (Shirley Jones) to support his ideas so the townspeople would go along, but he found more than he expected from her and her little brother Winthrop (Ron Howard).

Of course, the heart of The Music Man is Robert Preston and Shirley Jones and the movie only works if their chemistry and talents work, and they absolutely do. Shirley Jones, who winds up in the Partridge Family, had been coming off Oklahoma and so she had a significant experience in the genre.

Seeing a young Ron Howard (dubbed Ronny Howard in the credits) was a weird surprise. Howard’s character, Winthrop, was another way that Harold Hill won over Marion. Winthrop was sullen and withdrawn, refusing to speak much at all because of the death of his father from the year before. He also had to deal with a speech impediment that was an area of embarrassment. Ronny Howard showed the future he was going to have soon with the Andy Griffith Show, Happy Days, American Graffiti and the eventual director chair.

There is amazing choreography in The Music Man too as the dance numbers fill the screen with joy and energy. The scene near the end at the dance festival is so much fun and lively.

The Music Man came from Broadway and most of the songs by Meredith Wilson were used. The Broadway production won multiple Tony Awards prior to the adaption for the big screen. The Music Man has been recreated for years since, with high schools performing the play over and again.

The film is a tad long and does feel like a play being filmed (much like the movie Fences or Hamilton), but there is a reason it is considered such a classic. The world loves the story of redemption and watching the love of a good woman change this con man appeals to the audience as a whole.

Plus, the music is great.

DailyView: Day 67, Movie 114

“Fast, faster and disaster.” -Johnny Knoxville

The next July 4th DailyView film is a documentary of someone who, as a young boy growing up in the late seventies, early eighties, you could not help but idolize. Robert ‘Evel” Knievel rode his motorcycle into my mind as a young boy and took his place as a hero for me.

I had no idea about what kind of a man Evel Knievel actually was. I was just a dumb little kid. It shocked me when they started talking about Knievel’s Snake River attempted jump because I remembered that. I remember watching it. I would have only been 5 years old, and that blows my mind.

I had the Evel Knievel cycle toys that were mentioned here. I oved those, despite them never working as well as they did in the commercials they showed.

Evel Knievel was one of my childhood heroes, and I was not the only one. Johnny Knoxville, from Jackass fame, was inspired by Knievel as well and he was the main thrust behind the documentary, Being Evel.

Being Evel was a well-balanced, well-constructed documentary that looked at Robert Knievel’s life from a little rambunctious kid to the apologetic man on his deathbed, and every wart in between. The film did not take a rose-colored glasses view of Evel Knievel and got plenty of voices from people in the know. There was also more tape on Knievel speaking than I had ever heard. There was truth behind the hero, who was not always heroic, that the film does a fantastic job of displaying.

Evel Knievel was larger than life for much of the American public during the 1970s, and the fascination of that public is a theme of this documentary. Filmmaker Daniel Junge gave us a special insight into the character of Evel Knievel and the drawbacks of Robert Knievel and how they were sometimes at odds with each other.

We saw how Evel Knievel was able to take his ability to jump a motorcycle and turn it into a spectacle, something that would attract the attention of the public that he so clearly craved. It showed us how lavish of a lifestyle he led, comparing Knievel to Elvis Presley and Liberace.

The footage of the crashes are right there, a major part of any story of Evel Knievel’s life. Some of them are difficult to watch. It was a powerful moment of uncertainty, and you can feel what the unknowing crowd must have felt watching this live.

He used to wear the red, white and blue jumpsuit and to someone like me, Evel Knievel was like a superhero. This documentary shows that side but is not afraid to give you an understanding of what was behind the façade.

DailyView: Day 67, Movie 113

Happy Fourth of July!

The DailyView is on the path for a star-spangled day today. I am looking at those all-American movies dealing with our country’s history or pride. First up is the Nic Cage action film, National Treasure.

Ben Gates (Nic Cage) is a historian whose family has been searching for a treasure that is at the heart of a conspiracy theory passed down throughout his family for generations. The legend included stories involving the Founding Fathers and secret societies. It has consumed much of Gates’s life searching for the treasure. When he found a certain clue, it led him to the belief that the secret of finding the treasure was to be found in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence.

National Treasure asks a lot of the viewing audience. It wants you be accept some really unrealistic situations and set ups. You have to be able to accept the irrational and improbable or else this entire movie falls apart under the weigh of the premise.

However, if you are able to look past the impossible, National Treasure provides a ton of fun and excitement. Yes, it may be a poor man’s Indiana Jones, but imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.

Of course, one of the biggest absurdities is what the Declaration of Independence goes through during the movie. To think that a document that old would be sturdy enough to take the beating that it does is difficult to look past.

As I said, National Treasure asks for its audience to look past the flaws in the plot and to focus in on the rollicking good time that it provides. And it is a good time. It may be a touch long, but it shows how important intelligence is in the world. It is not just about dumb action set pieces. It is about history and how important it is to know about the history of our country.

Nicolas Cage is great with this kind of role. He is willing to play over-the-top characters and he is very believable as a modern day treasure hunter. His sidekick, Riley (Justin Bartha) is given all of the best lines and knocks them out of the park. Jon Voight plays Ben’s father, whose life led him to disbelieve in the existence of the treasure. Sean Bean is here playing the “Belloq” (the character in opposition to Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark) role and he does a decent job, although I do not ever really feel as if he is a match for our heroes, even when it appears that he is in control.

You can’t nitpick this film because you will be doing it all day. If you want to have a good time, shut off your brain and let the action in.

This is the smartest dumb movie you’ll ever see.

DailyView: Day 66, Movie 112

The Fourth of July is almost upon us and I will be doing some “All-American” films for the DailyView, starting tonight with the parody/spoof Team America, from the minds of the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

The movie features an animation using puppets/marionettes for the characters. It is one of the most original looking movies I have eve seen. The strings to the puppets are visible the whole time and they move in the oddest ways. It was a fascinating visual to watch.

However, I am not sure this is my form of humor. In fact, a great deal of what was done here leaned toward humor that may not be appropriate for the current world. It seems that it could even be considered racist. Again, perhaps the fact that they are parodying the terrorists, the North Koreans, the liberal actors makes this okay, but there did not seem to be much more humor than that.

Team America fights terrorists across the globe and they do so no matter what. The opening scene found Team America confronting Muslim terrorists in Paris and this led to the destruction of the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre as Team America is ignorant of their surroundings.

This story features the recruitment of an actor named Gary (Trey Parker) to pull off an undercover job among the terrorist to discover who is behind the WMD attack discovered by I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E., their computer.

The film is really savage, but, to be honest, it is savage to everyone. Nobody looks good and they all fit in with the monologue given by Gary at the end of the movie.

I realized something tonight, too. I have always hated puke scenes, and now I know it does not matter if it is a real actor puking or a puppet doing it… I don’t like it.

There were funny moments, full cringe moments, stupid moments, crude moments. It is very much like an action movie with South Park characters.

DailyView: Day 66, Movie 111

Today’s DailyView is the sequel to one of the beloved 1980s classic films from Joe Dante, Gremlins. I will admit that I was not a big fan of Gremlins, so I have never seen Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

What I was aware of was that Gremlins 2: The New Batch takes a distinctly different tone from the original. Where as the original was more of a horror film with a touch of humor, The New Batch is a full out comedy.

Not just a comedy, but a bat shit crazy comedy. It would border more on a parody or spoof of Gremlins than a sequel. In fact, if you think about the movie as a spoof movie, it might be more acceptable. Otherwise, this is downright ridiculous and silly.

I mean… the film was interrupted by gremlins, literally, and they had wrestler Hulk Hogan, in a movie theater, chastising the gremlins for breaking the film. They do break the fourth wall several times in the movie, but none like this one. Hulk was in the theater dressed in his wrestling attire with his title belt around his waste.

It is amazing that, if playing the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, there is only one step from Hulk Hogan to Christopher Lee (who is also in this movie).

Our little hero, Gizmo, found himself in New York after being taken from Mr. Wing (Keye Luke) who was guarding him. Coincidentally, he turned up in the offices of Billy (Zach Galligan) who had dealt with the gremlins in the previous film. Of course, one thing leads to another and the building is overrun with the crazed and chaotic gremlins, leading to all sort of mischief.

It is totally, utterly bizarre. They certainly threw everything that they could muster at the screen for this. There are so many weird moments that it is impossible to detail them all. I will say, some of them did work. There are some funny bits as well (especially if you look at this as a spoof movie). There are so many insane things happen though that it feels a little desperate to surpass the original.

The cast included several familiar faces including Smallville’s Lionel Luthor himself, John Glover, Phoebe Cates, Robert Prosky (who must have taken this opportunity to become the TV station owner, so he was ready for Mrs. Doubtfire), Gedde Watanabe (as Japanese stereotype #1), Dick Miller, Robert Picardo, Haviland Morris, Kathleen Freeman and Dan and Don Stanton.

It was a wild ride. A complete farce of a film. Nothing like the original. Still had some insanity that was funny.

DailyView: Day 65, Movie 110

Here is another movie that I had never heard about. I saw a recommendation on Twitter for this movie from film critic William Bibbiani, who made mention that this movie would be leaving Netflix on July 7th. The film sounded fascinating and so it moved to the front of the list for the DailyView.

This one was intense.

Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his new girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) accepted an invitation for a dinner party from his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard). Their marriage had ended in tragedy and had caused both of them terrible pain and anguish, so returning to the house was going to be potentially triggering for Will.

Many of his old friends are in attendance at the dinner party too, trying to make the awkward situation a little more comfortable. Eden’s new husband David (Michiel Huisman) is there as well, trying to be welcoming. The entire evening is weird as Will struggled with the ghosts of the past.

Eden and David’s new friends joined the party. Pruitt (John Carroll Lynch) and Sadie (Lindsay Burdge) both had a strange presence about them and when Pruitt revealed that he had killed his wife and spent time in prison, things only became more bizarre.

After awhile, Will began to suspect that Eden and David had an ulterior motive for bringing everybody together and that it might be a sinister plan.

I found this to be really engaging and thoroughly engrossing as the film slowly built the tension with its gradual development of the story and the interactions between the different characters. We discovered bits of information as the film progressed, each nugget creating another layer of anxiety. All the while, the film continued to keep you doubting whether Will was a reliable source or was the trauma of his past causing him to be delusional.

John Carroll Lynch is wonderfully eerie in roles like this. He was brilliant in David Fincher’s Zodiac and he picks up that same type of tone here.

The pace is intentionally slow, but once it “hits the fan” it goes crazy. The final shot of the movie was creepy and spoke to the scope of what felt like a small and intimate moment in time.

I enjoyed The Invitation a lot. It was tense and nerve wracking without being terribly over-the-top. The characters were handled well considering the number of them and Will and Eden’s horrible past makes perfect sense for what was to happen.

DailyView: Day 64, Movie 109

This was another one of the seminal films that inspired the creation of the DailyView. Spike Lee’s classic Do the Right Thing is considered his masterpiece of race relations and, sadly, it is every bit as relevant in 2021 as it was at the end of the 1980s.

The narrative structure of the movie is uncommon. To be honest, it is more of a character piece than it is a story. The film is about race and the people living in this area of New York. It bounces around to the different characters and we see about their daily lives on this day of a terrible heat wave in Brooklyn.

The plot point that leads to the third act riot was that Sal’s Pizzeria, run by Italian-American Sal (Danny Aiello), was a spot in the neighborhood that everyone went to. One particular patron, Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito) took offense to the Wall of Fame, a location in the pizzeria where there were pictures of famous people were displayed, bit there were no black people. Buggin’ Out believed that, since black people were the main customers of the store, there should be representation of famous black people on the wall as well.

This confrontation happened early in the movie but does not really carry through the whole film. It happens early and then is revisited at the end in one of the most powerful and painfully realistic scenes in movie history.

Spike Lee plays Mookie, a young man working as a delivery persona at Sal’s. If there was a main protagonist here, Mookie would be it. We get more from his point of view through the film than other characters. He is also important in the end riot scene. However, there are a ton of amazing actors involved. Sal’s son Pino is played by John Turturro, and Pino is filled with anger and racism. You can feel that Pino is on the edge the whole film. Ossie Davis is Da Mayor, an old man who wanders about the street, injecting himself into the drama, and trying to win favor of Ruby Dee’s Mother Sister. Samuel L. Jackson was the radio DJ Mister Senor Love Daddy, the voice of the goings-on. Bill Nunn is Radio Raheem, who plays a major role in the third act. Paul Benjamin, Robin Harris and Frankie Faison are the three men sitting on the street, talking about whatever random ideas that are going through their lives. We also see such notable actors as Rosie Perez, John Savage, Roger Guenveur Smith, Martin Lawrence, Rick Aiello, Joie Lee, Richard Edson, and Steve Park.

The end of the film is truly powerful and can be looked at in a variety of ways. Everyone seems to have a part in what happens, but the perception of fault can be depended on who is watching.

This is a film that is must viewing for everybody. It is an electric film.

DailyView: Day 63, Movie 108

It is going to be a full day today, so I am returning to Charlie Chaplin for today’s DailyView to watch the 1918 silent movie classic, A Dog’s Life.

In A Dog’s Life, Charlie Chaplin is in his Tramp character again and he is hungry. So he is stealing food using his slight of hand and his slapstick style. He then rescues a stray dog, named Scraps, from a pack of other dogs and the two of them become fast friends. Charlie then gets into a story involving a pair of thieves who steal a wallet that they bury to avoid the police. Scraps finds the wallet and digs it up, and Charlie gets the money, the end result being a wild chase with the thieves.

Charlie Chaplin’s physical comedy is fully on display here, a master of the pratfall and slapstick. Being able to create such a fun and engaging story with a limited number of words written on the screen is an amazing talent. Chaplin is a genius in the simplistic storytelling that gets the message across.

Chaplin wrote and directed A Dog’s Life, which was a financial success and a huge hit, being the first film to make $1 million dollars.

Edna Purviance appears here as she does in many of Chaplin’s films, playing a love interest for the Tramp.

I am thankful that HBO Max has this list of Charlie Chaplin films available on its streaming service which has allowed me to see some historically classic films, and to have films that fit into those days where life is busy.