BEFORE: I forgot to mention who had the most appearances in the first half of Movie Year 11 - I believe it's James Franco, with 9 appearances, if I include the uncredited one in "Nights in Rodanthe" and his too-brief cameo in "Alien: Covenant". That might be tough to beat this year, because my linking's a bit more scattered than it was in 2018. Rose Byrne, Willem Dafoe, Bruce Greenwood and Common are next with 6 appearances each, and I've got 8 planned with Dwayne Johnson for late September/early October, but that won't be enough to beat Franco. Nicole Kidman's at 4 with I think two more coming up, and then lots of actors have 4 but could have strong showings in the 2nd half. There could also be someone who appears in a ton of documentaries, like Paul McCartney last year, who popped up in 19.
Ian McShane carries over from "John Wick: Chapter 2", and this was going to be my cue to go to the movies and see "Hellboy", which also has Ian McShane in it. However, that film was only in theaters for a few weeks, I guess it got killed by "Avengers: Endgame". It looks like it won't be available digitally until July, so I held a slot for it, but ended up being both too late and too early. So I'll have to catch up with that one next year. Maybe it will link via Ian McShane to "John Wick: Chapter 3" for me.
THE PLOT: Maynard is a beloved local businessman who is mistaken for the legendary Bigfoot during an inebriated romp through town in a makeshift gorilla costume. The sightings set off an international media spectacle and a windfall of tourism dollars.
AFTER: Agh, I didn't think about the possibility that this might be a Christmas movie, and now it feels sort of out of place, here in June. Oh, well, though we're about as far from Christmas as we can be on either end, I'm just going to treat this as a Bigfoot movie instead of a Christmas movie. But the connections to "It's a Wonderful Life" are all there - the film's tagline references it, and Pottersville was the name of Bedford Falls in the dark alternate reality glimpsed in "It's a Wonderful Life", the one in which George Bailey didn't live to grow up and save the town with his building & loan office. There's a bit at the end where all the residents of Pottersville show up to pay their tabs at the general store, and though it's not an exact clone of the ending of that Frank Capra classic, it's close enough to note the similarity, no doubt intentional.
(They never say what state this Pottersville is located in, but it could easily be the Pacific Northwest, which I think is the area most closely associated with Bigfoots. But the real Bigfoot Museum is in northern California, and there's also a real Pottersville in upstate New York, and this was filmed in Syracuse and Hamilton, NY, which are not that far from Seneca Falls, which was supposedly the inspiration for Bedford Falls in "It's a Wonderful Life". Hmmm...)
But Maynard Greiger doesn't save his town by loaning the residents money, or even extending them credit well beyond reasonable limits, he saves the town by putting on a gorilla suit and running around at night, causing many reliable people to conclude that Bigfoot is real, and must live somewhere in the forests outside Pottersville. This brings a famous naturalist/cryptozoologist with an Australian accent and a TV show to town, and this part of the plot shares at least some DNA with "Smallfoot". But this character is something of a phony, he doesn't really know how to hunt or survive in the wild, he'd rather stay in the hotel and doctor up the footage later so it looks like he participated in all of the outdoorsy stuff.
Of course, there are several Bigfoot-themed reality shows that this film is probably also poking fun at, like "Finding Bigfoot" and "Killing Bigfoot" and probably others - plus there's a nod to the famous Christian Bale on-set meltdown rant when he thought a crew member was blocking his shot while filming "Terminator Salvation". The TV host here is probably an amalgam of Bear Grylls mixed with whoever hosts those Bigfoot shows - that's right, I don't watch them, because I know that they're never going to find Bigfoot, because if they do, the show's over. So they have a vested interest in NOT doing what the titles claim.
It's a bit weird to see Michael Shannon playing the hero of the film - though there's no real villain here. But whatever you probably remember him from, be it "The Shape of Water" or "Man of Steel" or even "Midnight Special", he probably played a villain in it. I feel like both he and Ian McShane are always going to be good in something, even if the film may not be great. I wonder how good that movie is where he played Elvis Presley, meeting Richard Nixon played by Kevin Spacey. See how crossing one movie off my list can easily suggest another one to add?
But I'm done with Bigfoots and yetis as subject matter, at least. Now once I get past my documentary chain (this year's topics include politics, war, technology, comedians/celebrities and maybe space travel) then I can spend the summer focusing on films about World War II and British royalty (including the fictional King Arthur), before I get to the back-to-school material.
Also starring Michael Shannon (last seen in "Lucky You"), Judy Greer (last seen in "27 Dresses"), Ron Perlman (last seen in "Chuck"), Thomas Lennon (last seen in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"), Christina Hendricks (last seen in "God's Pocket"), Michael Torpey, Debargo Sanyal, Greta Lee (last heard in "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"), Blake Perlman, Elena Hurst, Timothy Davis-Reed, Mary Ashley, Julian Lerner.
RATING: 4 out of 10 Christmas songs
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