Ezra

Year 17, Day 172 - 6/21/25 - Movie #5,055 - FATHER'S DAY FILM #10

BEFORE: At last, I've reached the end of the Father's Day chain - it turned out to be 10 films over the course of three weeks, that's a pretty healthy examination of the topic of fathers of all kind - I'm sure there will be more films about fathers to come, but this is a good stopping point, now just one more film tomorrow and then I can start the Doc Block where I want to, and it will be synched up to have some appropriate films on and around July 4, and then I'll pay tribute to some fallen comedians and other famous people, I'll include a few rock concert films and we'll have the whole doc (and rock) thing wrapped up before the 2nd week of August. It's going to be another hot Doc summer, I can tell. 

Bobby Cannavale carries over again from "Old Dads". 

THE PLOT: A stand-up comedy writer navigates the complexities of living with his father while co-parenting his autistic son with his former spouse. He grapples with hurdles as he balances family responsibilities and his career. 

AFTER: This is a movie that went through a couple of different titles, originally it was called "Inappropriate Behavior", then in some countries it was released as "Standing UP", which was not a terrible pun, a reference to both stand-up comedy and the fact that Ezra's father is standing up for him and trying to do the right thing for him. 

In his own way, of course, it's very difficult for Max, a comedy writer, to know what the right thing to do is where his autistic son, Ezra, is concerned. When we first meet the characters here, Max and Jenna are divorced and co-parenting, Jenna has a boyfriend, Bruce, and Max takes his son Ezra out to events and then sneaks him into the Manhattan comedy clubs later, not only to show him his world but because he calls Ezra his "good luck charm", his "mojo man". This can get awkward (and does) because Max includes stories about his autistic son in his stand-up act.  I guess maybe he does a different set when he knows his son is in the audience?

It's hard for any parent to know how to raise an autistic child (or "neurodivergent" or "on the spectrum" or whatever the current preferred euphemism is these days. We still don't know exactly what autism is or what causes it, we just know it's on the rise. Or maybe as a society we all just got better at diagnosing it, who can say?  Some people say it's vaccines, but I think if it were that simple, it would be easily proven (or disproven) so I suspect it's something more complex than that, it's just that the people who are SURE of that without the data to back it up are just very vocal about it.  Some people say it's chemtrails, but those people also wear foil hats and think that fluoride is turning the frogs gay. You know, like our Secretary of Health and Human Services thinks. This is the same guy who talks to crows, left a dead bear carcass in Central Park as a joke, and drove home from the beach once with a big whale head on top of his car - do we really want to believe THIS guy about vaccines causing autism?  Whatever this nut job believes, I automatically want to believe the opposite. 

Max thinks the best place for Ezra is a public school, where he can meet a greater variety of kids, and get more of an understanding about the world. But his ex-wife wants to send Ezra to a special-needs school, and after an incident where Ezra tried to run across town at night and tell his father something, and got hit by a taxi, a doctor wants to put him on a new drug and also supports the idea of a special-needs school. Max's outburst and physical threat against that doctor gets him put under a restraining order, so he can't see his own son for three months. 

Believing that he has no other choice, and wanting to remove his son from a "toxic" environment, Max then kidnaps his own son, despite Max's father trying to talk him out of it. Max drives with Ezra all the way to Michigan to visit an old friend, then while he's there he gets the call from the Jimmy Kimmel show, that they want him in L.A. to be on the show the following Friday.  Well, they're already on a road trip, what's another few thousand miles?  But it's just not going well, Ezra wants to go home and is uncomfortable on the road, uncomfortable eating with metal utensils, uncomfortable being hugged or touched. Ezra is uncomfortable a lot, it seems. Also Ezra's mother has tried to keep his disappearance quiet, however when she does mention it to the authorities, it forces them to send out an Amber alert.  

Max's ex-wife and father team up to drive to Michigan and find them before the police do, but Max and Ezra are already on the road to Nebraska, where Max grew up and where his father separated from his mother, also he's got another family friend there, Grace, who runs a horse farm, and Ezra does enjoy petting a horse, eating ice cream and spending time with Grace's daughter, Ruby.  Max and Ezra leave Nebraska and run into Max's father at a truck stop, but by this time Max's father has had a change of heart, he blames himself for not sticking with his son years ago, and says that he admires Max for sticking his neck out for Ezra and trying to do what's right. 

Max and Ezra make it to Los Angeles, visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and get ready for Max's appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show - but federal agents are already there, waiting for them, I guess it wasn't too hard to figure out where Max was heading when all they had to do was watch ABC's promos for who was appearing on the Kimmel Show that week. Better luck next time, I guess. 

I suppose this is as authentic as a film can be on this topic - the screenwriter, Tony Spiridakis, based the story on his relationship with his own autistic son and the break-up of his marriage when his son was a teenager. What he learned over time was that he didn't need to "fix" his son's condition. The actor who plays Ezra, William Fitzgerald, also has the condition, and also one of Robert De Niro's seven children does, too. Well, you can't say that people associated with this movie didn't do their research. 

Directed by Tony Goldwyn (director of "The Last Kiss")

Also starring Robert De Niro (last seen in "Killers of the Flower Moon"), Rose Byrne (last seen in "Juliet, Naked"), William A. Fitzgerald, Vera Farmiga (last seen in "The Many Saints of Newark"), Whoopi Goldberg (last seen in "Till"), Rainn Wilson (last seen in "The Meg"), Tony Goldwyn (last seen in "Insurgent"), Geoffrey Owens (last seen in "Somewhere in Queens"), Alex Plank, Matilda Lawler, Tess Goldwyn, Sophie Mulligan, Daphne Rubin-Vega (last seen in "Tick, Tick...Boom!"), Ella Ayberk, Dov Davidoff (last seen in 'Hustlers"), Emma Willmann, Greer Barnes (last seen in "Joker"), Meg Hennessy, Lois Robbins (last seen in "Motherhood"), Barzin Akhavan, Jacqueline Nwabueze, Myra Lucretia Taylor (last seen in "See You Yesterday"), David Marciano (last seen in "Red State"), Amy Sheehan, Donna Vivino, Eddie A. Bryant, Joshua Hinck (last seen in "Admission"), Zoe Cali, Jackson Frazer (last seen in "Clifford the Big Red Dog"), John Donovan Wilson, Thomas Duverné, Jennifer Plotzke, Joe Pacheco, Mia Caro, Jimmy Kimmel (last seen in "Money Shot: The Pornhub Story"), Guillermo Rodriguez

RATING: 6 out of 10 glasses of pineapple juice

Old Dads

Year 17, Day 171 - 6/20/25 - Movie #5,054 - FATHER'S DAY FILM #9

BEFORE: Let's wrap up the Father's Day films with the last two, this is where I initially wanted to be four days ago, I got there, I just had to scramble a bit and move some things around. It's fine. Rachael Harris should really update her IMDB page and Wiki page if her scenes got cut out of "Daddy Day Care", I'm just saying. 

If I'd known I was going to move this one further down the chain, I could have cut to the Doc Block a day or two earlier, because two people from today's cast make appearances in two separate docs, again, just saying. But it's fine. Bobby Cannavale carries over from "Incoming"

THE PLOT: Three best friends become fathers later in life and find themselves battling preschool principals, millennial CEOs, and anything created after 1987.  

AFTER: Bill Burr was born in 1968, the same year as me, which is technically Generation X - so no more shouts of "OK, Boomer!"  But Generation X is getting older now, we're all on our second (or third) spouses and most of us have kids (I've abstained though) and we're starting to see that movies just aren't directed at us any more. Jesus, on my last road-trip I realized that I now qualify for the senior specials at IHOP, that's a tough one to face. I mean, I'll happily take $3 off my shrimp and pancakes dinner (not a thing, it turns out, but chicken and waffles, somehow that's acceptable) but why try to make me feel old just because I'm over 55?  I guess we're dying off if we're in a demographic that Hollywood doesn't care about?  Well, finally there's a romance film directed at not just men, but men of a certain age, and well, it's about time.  

You didn't hear it from me, but Tom Cruise is about to turn 63 in July. It's too bad he already made a film where he was in a wheelchair, because he's eventually going to need one again. Brad Pitt will turn 62 in December and George Clooney turned 64 in May. It might be time to start filming "Ocean's 66". Look up more celebrity ages if you want to feel old, too. It used to be a safe haven for us to go on a cruise, if we stuck to Holland America, which tends to serve an older demographic - it makes sense, if you want to feel skinny, just hang out with fatter people. But we went on another cruise line in March and we were NOT the youngest ones anymore, so that means we're officially part of the older crowd. And that's OK, as long as you don't act old.  You can feel old, just try not to look like it, it's a sign of weakness and then before you know it, you're getting the AARP magazine in the mail and the only people who call you are scammers claiming they're from the bank and saying they need you to confirm your password.  

But a lot of the humor in this film comes from the fact that things that Boomers and Gen X did or said are just not acceptable anymore, which means that the older generation thinks that the younger ones are too soft and too entitled, and the Gen Z and Gen Alpha people think that the older generations were unenlightened and insensitive. It's possible that both things are true, but really most of the jokes here belong in a Bill Burr stand-up routine instead of being forced into the framework of a film's narrative. Can older men have very young kids, with their second or third wives?  Sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they SHOULD. What's the incentive to save up for their kid's college education if statistically they'll probably be dead when the kids are sending in their applications?  It's just not their problem, then, is it? 

Jack started a throwback sports apparel company, and ran it with his two best friends, Connor and Mike. But now Jack has sold the business to a millennial start-up manager, provided they can stay on as employees and equity shareholders. However, the first thing the millennial dude does is fire everyone else born before 1985, which, by the way, is kind of illegal, that's age discrimination.  The new boss also wants to completely overhaul the business and become carbon-neutral, gender-neutral and get out of the team jersey business, instead he wants to create a "lifestyle" brand based on the idea that famous people are getting off of social media, so the next people to become influencers are people who aren't famous at all, and this leads him to the illogical conclusion that the new spokesman should be a guy who moved out to the desert decades ago and lives like a hermit. Even for Gen Z, that makes no sense. 

Meanwhile, Jack gets involved in a feud with his son's pre-school director because he was two minutes late for pick-up, and in general is one of those control freaks (Rachael Harris is a perfect casting choice here, and this way her scenes can't be cut for once).  Mike, a divorced father of two adult kids, learns that his young girlfriend is pregnant even though he got a vasectomy, and Connor is married to an insane helicopter mom who won't let him discipline their out-of-control son. All three are sent out to the desert to find this mystery man, and, well, what could POSSIBLY go wrong there? It leads to them all getting fired for the most invasive and unlikely reason possible. So now all three men are meant to feel even more marginalized by modern society, but hey, at least Jack now has more time to work on the pre-school fund-raiser. 

Disputes between the friends and their wives all spiral out of control, and the men decide to solve everything with another road-trip, this time a bachelor party-style trip to a desert casino. Sure, that'll fix everything, strippers and alcohol and maybe some drugs. But it's actually the bar fight that brings them together, plus a phone call that informs Jack that his wife is in labor with their second child. That, plus a ride from an even older Uber driver who's somehow more politically incorrect than all three of them put together, inspires the three men to change their ways, and Jack finally agrees to therapy to deal with his anger issues. Relatable. And probably also very cringe-worthy if you're under thirty. 

Directed by Bill Burr

Also starring Bill Burr (last seen in "Leo"), Bokeem Woodbine (last seen in "The Big Hit"), Katie Aselton, Reign Edwards, Jackie Tohn, Miles Robbins, Rachael Harris (last NOT seen in "Daddy Day Care"), Dash McCloud (last seen in "Venom: The Last Dance"), Justin Miles (last seen in "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip"), C. Thomas Howell (last heard in "Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay"), Bruce Dern (last seen in "Cut Bank"), Dominic Grey Gonzalez, Natasha Leggero (last seen in "The Do-Over"), Katrina Bowden (last seen in "Sex Drive"), Angela Gulner, Josh Brener (last seen in "The Front Runner"), Erin Wu, Justene Alpert, Cameron Kelly, Cody Renee Cameron (last seen in "The Clapper"), Joe Bartnick, Paul Virzi, Chelsea M. Davis, Carl Tart, Nate Craig, Rick Glassman (last seen in "A Futile and Stupid Gesture"), Abbie Cobb, Ron Taylor, Nia Renee Hill, Tom Allen, Rory Scovel (last seen in "Babylon"), James Lavon Miller, Steph Tolev, Paul Walter Hauser (last heard in "Inside Out 2"), Michael Sean McHale (last seen in "Get Him to the Greek"), Jeff Wolfe (last seen in "Drive")

RATING: 6 out of 10 e-scooters

Incoming

Year 17, Day 170 - 6/19/25 - Movie #5,053

BEFORE: OK, another high school film popping up in the chain - I guess this has been on my list since last August, but I wasn't able to work it in last September, which would have been more appropriate since it's set at the START of a school year.  But August was all about connecting the Doc Block to the horror chain, so my options were somewhat limited. We'll just have to trust that the chain knows what it's doing. 

Thomas Barbusca carries over from "Luckiest Girl Alive" - hey, if you can get work playing "the weird kid" in high-school movies, good for you. Stay in that lane and make the most of it, bro.

THE PLOT: Four freshmen navigate the terrors of adolescence at their first-ever high school party. 

AFTER: Well, if it works, keep doing it, that's for sure - which is why Hollywood keeps remaking "Superbad", if you think about it. "Booksmart" was the female version, and "Good Boys" was the middle school version, now they've just made it again but with four teenage boys instead of three. I guess if you're a pair of brothers that have been working on a TV series for a very long time, and you get the chance to make a movie, you can do a lot worse than remaking "Superbad", only with teens who record everything they do for social media. 

There's also a fair bit of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" in this film's DNA, notably when the two boys who couldn't get into the big party decide to borrow one's stepfather's fancy car, I got immediate vibes of Ferris and Cameron, so naturally I fully expected the car to be destroyed before the end of the movie - and it was, but in a much different and funnier way.  They put a twist on it, besides the fact that it was an electric car, and that was greatly appreciated. Also, remember the prinicipal in "Ferris Bueller" who kept trying to prove Ferris was ditching school and pretending to be sick, and he ended up getting bitten by a dog, beat up by Ferris' sister who thought he was an intruder, and then his car got towed, and he had to ride the bus home - they should have called the film "Ed Rooney's Very Bad Day" or something. Well, there's a teacher like that in this film, but he's not the nemesis of the kids, instead he's a chemistry teacher who tries a bit too hard to be cool and befriend the teenagers, to the point where he shows up at the big teen party at the fancy house, and shows the kids the chemistry behind doing flaming shots and beer bongs. Things go south when he uses alcohol to spit fire as another bad decision/chemistry demonstration, and sets himself on fire. Jumping in the pool saves him, but not before he gets badly burned, and a bunch of his students record his drunken party antics on their phones - yeah, there's just no way THAT can come back and bite him in the ass. Anyway, he ends up burned, drunk and down on his luck, which is what reminded me of Principal Ed Rooney. 

The main story here is Benj Nielsen navigating life as an incoming high-school freshman, he's got a crush on his sister's best friend, Bailey, but doesn't know how to make a move on her or find out if she feels the same way about him. The party at Koosh's house seems like it would be a great opportunity, they could share a beer (despite being underage, duh) and maybe dance, from there a make-out session doesn't seem too out of the question. But you know how this goes, if that's the goal then events are going to keep happening that are sure to get in the way.  For starters, the tough skater teens that Benj's senior car-pool buddy sold fake Ecstasy to show up at the party, they're looking for a fight, and they think Benj is the chemist behind the drugs. Then another senior messes with Benj and gives him what he thinks is a line of cocaine, but it turns out to be ketamine, and he just sits in silence with the drug slowing him down while the party proceeds at fast speed around him.  

Meanwhile, Koosh (who lives in the house with the parents away, where the party is) has been surveying the whole scene with cameras all around the house, and he's picked his mark, a girl that he can pretend to get locked in the spa with when he gives her a tour of the house, and then he offers her a massage and a soak in the hot tub, and things seem to be going great, he seems to have charmed this girl, but then he slips on the wet floor and dislocates his shoulder, which means a trip to the E.R. Karma's a bitch, isn't it, Koosh?

Also meanwhile, the other half of the foursome, Connor and Eddie, are bored because they couldn't get into the party. They decide to take a joyride in Eddie's mother's boyfriend's luxury electric car, but after stopping for ice cream, they decide to swing by the big party, you know, just to see what it's like, a recon mission for the next high-school party they get invited to. Katrina, one of the more popular senior girls, mistakes their car for her Uber, she's totally drunk and gets in the car and wants to be taken home, only she can't quite say her address. But first, a trip to Taco Bell and she eats a bunch of bean burritos, what could possibly go wrong there?  Connor and Eddie face a very nasty situation in the back seat, also they still have to get this senior girl cleaned up somehow and back to her home safely, because, you know, they're nice guys. It pays off for them in the end when Katrina finally wakes up and realizes how much they helped her, even if she can't remember any of it. 

Lessons are learned, like Koosh learns that locking a girl in your basement might not be the best way to win her affections.  Benj learns that he should have just stayed true to himself and not pretended to be something he's not just to win over Bailey.  Like, even if that had worked, and Bailey expressed her love for him, then she'd be doing that to the fake Benj, and really, where would that have gotten him?  Benj's sister learned that she needed to let her ex-girlfriend go, like once she's dating someone else, she's not going to come back, especially if you keep bugging her about it. She learns she needs to become a better person, and getting a nose job is not useful unless she also changes who she is on the inside.  And the chemistry teacher learns why teachers shouldn't party with their students, really, no good can come of it.  Mr. Studebaker is still a great character, maybe the funniest and smarmiest one in the film, but only because he's so horribly misguided. 

High school will eat you alive, if you let it - but it's also where you set the stage for who you're going to be when you're an adult.  Also, it's probably where you'll meet the love of your life, at least until one or both of you go off to college in another city and you won't see each other again until the awkward 10-year reunion. High school is also where you can focus on your studies and gain intelligence, only not so much wisdom. Wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from making mistakes, and the characters in this film make a lot of mistakes. But then, what do you expect? It seems like everybody has to learn about relationships the hard way, by making those mistakes. 

I always say, "Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is really a fruit, but wisdom is knowing enough to not put it in a fruit salad."

Directed by Dave Chernin and John Chernin

Also starring Mason Thames, Ali Gallo, Kaitlin Olson (last seen in "Champions"), Isabella Ferreira (last seen in "Joker"), Raphael Alejandro (last heard in "The Wild Robot"), Ramon Reed, Bardia Seiri, Kayvan Shai, Nolan Bateman (last seen in "Fist Fight"), Eric Grooms, Loren Gray, Bobby Cannavale (last seen in "When Trumpets Fade"), Gattlin Griffith (last seen in "Joker: Folie a Deux"), Phillip M. Lawrence, Javion Allen, Steele Stebbins (last seen in "Vacation"), Scott MacArthur (last seen in "The Starling"), Dinora Walcott, Elijah Ocelotzin Espinoza, Stefanie Rons, Devon Weetly, Max Tepper, Sammi-Jack Martincak (last seen in "I Love You Phillip Morris"), Victoria Moroles, Danny T Miller, Anissa Borrego, Kim Hawthorne (last seen in "The Chronicles of Riddick"), Imogen Tear, Talia Bernstein.

RATING: 6 out of 10 red Solo cups

Luckiest Girl Alive

Year 17, Day 169 - 6/18/25 - Movie #5,052

BEFORE: No clue what this film is about, I chose it not for the subject matter, but it popped up as one of the most logical steps to help me link from Father's Day to the start of the Doc Block, which will still be in 5 days, even after my last-minute addition yesterday and reversing the order of the the next four films. I added one, but also dropped "Roger Dodger", which I'll have to get to another time. It's not like I've passed on that film three or four times already...

Scoot McNairy carries over from "A Complete Unknown". 

THE PLOT: A woman in New York, who seems to have things under control, is faced with a trauma that makes her life unravel. 

AFTER: You know, I said that June was a month for Dads and Grads, then I went ahead and focused on the Dads and forgot all about the Grads. (It's also Pride Month, I know, but except for Roy Cohn in "The Apprentice", I just haven't been able to work anything appropriate in - at least when I get to the Doc Block there will be docs about Bob Fosse and Liza Minnelli, so just, you know, hang in there. I've got another Elton John doc and one about queer stand-up comics but they won't be in the chain until July). Right, grads, which means high school students, who are future grads. So here we go, half of this film is flashbacks to when Tifani, the lead character, was in high school at the prestigious Brentley school, the other half shows her as an adult, now going by Ani, in the weeks leading up to her wedding, while also deciding between taking a job at the New York Times or moving to London to get into an MFA program. 

But her past trauma is re-activated when she's contacted by a documentary filmmaker who's making a film about the school shooting that she survived. It's here where the title of the film starts to make sense, only by the middle of the film I wasn't sure if it was meant to be completely ironic, when you consider what we all learn along the way from the flashbacks.  Then by the end of the film, who knows, maybe it's meant to be an authentic title after all, it's all about how you look at things, I guess. 

The filmmaker wants to interview Ani and get her side of the story, because another survivor, Dean Barton, who survived the shooting but lost the use of his legs, has agreed to be interviewed for the documentary, and he's also put forth a theory that Ani was somehow complicit in the shooting. OK, we're intrigued, but perhaps Dean is full of crap or perhaps Dean has his own agenda, or hell, maybe the filmmaker is saying Dean said this JUST to get Ani to agree to tell her story. Either way, settle down, because it's going to be a while until we all learn what went down that day.  In the meantime there are dress fittings and guest seating charts to work out, plus invitations have to go out, then there's the rehearsal dinner, and every once in a while we see Ani imagining that she's stabbing her husband or commiting some other kind of atrocity, and then she binge-eats three slices of pizza, so it's possibly that she's still not quite come to terms with her trauma.  

Anyway, the flashbacks begin and the rest of the film plays out in a sort of split timeline, bouncing between past and present. You probably know how I feel about this kind of film, so I don't really need to say it again - this is only useful and allowable when one timeline gives us insight, intentional or accidental, to the other timeline. This is one of those cases, because we really have no idea what happened in the past, so probably when those details are revealed, it should give us some insight to Ani's state of mind in the present, why she has vivid waking dreams of stabbing people whenever she picks up a knife. Yeah, maybe don't have the rehearsal dinner at a steakhouse, just saying. 

Ani really gets triggered when she goes out to dinner with her fiancé and another couple, the woman is her fiancés workmate, but that woman's husband is Mr. Larson, who was a teacher at Brentley, one that Ani turned to for help after a house party where she had sex with three boys from school, and since she didn't want to have sex with them, that's classified as a gang rape. Dean was one of the three boys, and Mr. Larson got in trouble for letting the kids go home unsupervised from a school event, which is when the gang rape occurred. Ani refused to allow the principal to call her mother because she felt embarrassed over what happened, but obviously that would have been the right thing to do.  Instead she told her friend Arthur about it, and Arthur and his friend Ben had been bullied by the same three boys, so yeah, this is becoming clearer now, Arthur and Ben shot up the school to get their revenge on their bullies, who were also the ones who raped Ani.  

Dean became an advocate for gun control, and Ani, encouraged by her magazine editor, starts to feel the need to tell her story in print (umm, why not just tell your truth in the documentary? That would probably be easier, though I see how writing the article could be more cathartic.) and then she also approaches Dean at a book signing. Dean does agree that the situation was very confusing, but OK, sure, he probably ignored her cries to stop, but since he's got a wife and daughter and has done SO much good work for gun control, plus he's in a wheelchair, he appeals to her good nature. Just kidding, he threatens to double down on his claim that Ani was in league with the shooters if she comes forward with a rape accusation.  

Look, it's 2 am and I just got home from working late at an event, so this is probably going to come out all wrong, but of course Ani should speak her truth about what happened to her. Of course if she was raped she should come forward and talk about it, even if she didn't talk about it then. But two of her rapists were shot in the attack and the third lost the use of his legs - it's not a trauma competition, nor should it be. It's a very weird place to be when you find yourself saying that your gang-rape is a bigger trauma then getting shot. Whatever else you feel, you're alive and your rapists aren't, isn't that, umm, something?  Sure, tear Dean's life apart and call him out in print if you feel you have to, just, I don't know, try not to enjoy that too much?  

More women read the article and come forward with their own stories of rape and assault, so yeah, I guess that's a good thing in the end. But I'm not sure that article is the best way to start your career at the New York Times, because then, well, what are you going to do for an encore?  Again, just saying. 

Directed by Mike Barker (director of "A Good Woman")

Also starring Mila Kunis (last seen in "Jupiter Ascending"), Finn Wittrock (last seen in "Long Weekend"), Chiara Aurelia (last seen in "Gerald's Game"), Connie Britton (last seen in "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"), Justine Lupe (last seen in "Frances Ha"), Dalmar Abuzeid (last seen in "Pompeii"), Alex Barone, Jennifer Beals (last seen in "Runaway Jury"), Carson MacCormac (last seen in "Shazam! Fury of the Gods"), Thomas Barbusca (last heard in "Ron's Gone Wrong"), Isaac Kragten (last seen in "The War with Grandpa"), Gage Munroe (last seen in "Devil"), Alexandra Beaton, Nicole Huff, Rebecca Ablack, David Webster, Brigitte Robinson (last seen in "Crimson Peak"), Peter Nelson, Leah Pinsent, Sonia Beeksma, Kylee Evans, John Beale, Angela Besharah, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll (last seen in "Priscilla"), Melody Shang, Susan Hamann, Dani Pagliarello, Katie Sexton, James Gerald Hicks (last seen in "Midway"), Jessica Angleskhan, Gabrielle Hespe, Anne Windsland, Emily Klassen, Nneka Elliott (last seen in "In the Shadow of the Moon" 

RATING: 5 out of 10 packages of Swedish Fish (served in a high school cafeteria?)

A Complete Unknown

Year 17, Day 168 - 6/17/25 - Movie #5,051

BEFORE: Since we're at the halfway point for the year, maybe it's time to pause and take stock. I had this linking problem because the next film queued up in the chain was "Old Dads", with Rachael Harris carrying over from "Daddy Day Care". BUT as I said yesterday, I didn't see her anywhere in the film, she's listed in the cast on IMDB but not on Wikipedia. You know, from time to time this happens, at least it's not MY mistake from reading the credits wrong, or my software pasting her name where it's not supposed to be.  

Here's what I think happened - her scenes in "Daddy Day Care" were cut from the film, that happens too, from time to time. The credits list her as a "co-worker" named Elaine and I went back and scanned through the film again, looked at all the office scenes, and again, did not see her. I googled her name with the title of the film and found a posting in a forum from another person, several years old, but also wondering where she is in the film, because that person watched the whole film TWICE and didn't see her either. So I suspect she's not there, her scenes got cut and only the credit remained. I could just not mention it at all, watch "Old Dads" next and you would never know the difference - but I would know that the chain got broken and it would keep me up nights if I didn't try to fix it.  

So I found a work-around, if I just follow a different actor out of "Daddy Day Care" I can make it right, all I have to do is drop one film that I've been trying to get to, flip another section of four films around backwards, and it will re-connect to the chain exactly where I originally planned to be, the film that's going to connect to the start of the Doc Block. I'm still going to get there at the same time, I'm still going to get to two more Father's Day films, though a bit later than planned, and I'll be watching almost the exact films this week I planned to, just in a different order. OK?  And the chain remains unbroken, that's the important thing. I'll leave Rachael Harris' name in the credits, but since I didn't see her and I can't find any third party proof that she's in "Daddy Day Care", I can't in good conscience use her as a link.  Anyway, I've been itching to watch "A Complete Unknown", so it's a win all-around.  AND by changing the order and adding this film at the last minute, I can send out an unplanned Birthday SHOUT-out to Monica Barbaro, born on June 17, 1989 - she plays Joan Baez, which I'm guessing is a major role in this film. 

Speaking of Joan Baez, I'm planning to watch a documentary about her that got left out of last year's Doc Block. I've got TWO others on the docket about Johnny Cash, and TWO with Al Kooper, and we'll probably see the real Bob Dylan in some archive footage somewhere. Remember that it's just one week until the Doc Block starts on June 23, and the set list is solid, the only one I might want to add at this point is the one about Barbara Walters, but I can't do that until I know who's in it, which will tell me where to put it. I can hold a place for it in August (where I THINK it might fit) but if the linking's not there, I'll have to sideline that one and start next year's documentary line-up with it.  

Here at the halfway point of Movie Year 17, there's a three-way tie for the most appearances, between Sally Field, Samuel L. Jackson and Liam Neeson, who have all been in NINE films.  Allison Janney is in 2nd place with 7 appearances, thanks to "A Thousand Words". And tied for third place are Joe Chrest, Eddie Murphy and Channing Tatum with 6 each. But we're coming up on the Doc Block, which should shake things up a bit. 

Finally, an update on the October Shock Block, I've been working with the cast lists for the horror films on my radar, and I've put together TWO chains of 19 or 20 films - which is fine because I may be busy in October plus we may take a week to go back down to North Carolina and visit my parents, so 19 or 20 films would be enough. One chain would have "Renfield", "Nosferatu", "Kraven the Hunter", "Hocus Pocus" and the reboot of "A Nightmare on Elm Street", and the other chain would focus heavily on Bruce Campbell and then transition to the "Final Destination" and "Candyman" films. I'm leaning toward watching the first one and saving the second one for next year, but right now I'm not sure which one I can link to from whatever I watch in September, so I have to keep my options open.  I don't know if I'll be able to put a horror chain together in 2027, by then I may just have little mini-chains that don't connect to each other, we'll see. There's always the "Saw" franchise, I guess, there are like 9 or 10 of those films. 

Elle Fanning carries over from "Daddy Day Care". 

THE PLOT: In 1961, an unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York City with his guitar and forges relationships with musical icons while on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. 

AFTER: And of course, I have stories from the front lines on this one, because I worked at the premiere of "A Complete Unknown" late last year, December 13, 2024, 12 days before the official release of the film on Christmas. Elle Fanning was there, so was Edward Norton, I was working outside so I saw them on the red carpet, and director James Mangold as well. And there were fences put up to corral the many Timothée Chalamet fans that were there, and he did come back out of the red carpet tent to meet with some of the fans. I swear to you that at that the same time, a woman passed out in the street, now I'm not saying there was a direct connection, but it did happen. I'm a professional, so my first responsibility was to make sure that the police officer on duty called for an ambulance, the event had plenty of security guards who made sure the woman was safe, but I made sure the EMTs got there quickly, and I checked with them about her condition every few minutes. She was fine, I believe she recovered in time to watch the movie, and I just had to fill out an incident report about it - I resisted the urge to write that she passed out from an overdose of Chalamet. 

The film kind of blew me away - although maybe anything would have looked spectacular after "Daddy Day Care", so it's a bit tough to say. But they really nailed the LOOK of 1961 Greenwich Village, or at least the way I imagine it to be. There are streets in the West Village that still maybe look a lot like they did back then, or if you go to St. Mark's Place and say, 2nd Ave. you may find that block is just as dumpy as it ever was, only now it has more weed stores and cell phone dealers. So how did they nail this look?  Ah, they shot in New Jersey, it seems like they found blocks in Jersey City or Red Bank or Elizabeth that could be transformed into streets with East Village cafés and record stores with a little effort, or maybe it was CGI, who can say?  All I know is they somehow duplicated the facade of the 8th St. Playhouse (only, NITPICK POINT, the marquee is on the wrong side, don't ask me how I know this.). You know what, I don't want to know whether it was CGI or a backlot or magic, for once. Let's just let it be. 

But it FEELS like they stuck an electrode in to Bob Dylan's brain and asked him to remember coming to NYC in 1961, the set design is THAT good.  I know we don't have that tech yet, and I know that A.I. isn't good enough to do this yet, because then the background players or the crowd at the concerts would have extra arms and legs or something. Maybe they got 1,000 people to pretend to be watching the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, I don't know.  But it sure looked real and authentic.  There a couple shots that just HAD to be shot in NYC, like the exterior of the Chelsea Hotel, which probably does look exactly like it did in the 1960's. Inside and outside, because it's got historical landmark status and you can't alter it. 

This is a film about fame, what it means to want to be famous, what it means to BE famous, and then what comes after, which in some cases results in a famous person wishing to be anonymous again, or at least incognito, because of all the ramifications of fame.  Now, by no means was Bob Dylan the first person to have groupies, because there was Elvis and Ricky Nelson and probably Buddy Holly got his share of women throwing themselves at him, too. This is part of the deal, it comes with the territory, just maybe Bob Dylan wanted it and then wasn't ready to handle it.  But he was probably the first "folk" singer to be a superstar, you just can't imagine Pete Seeger or Woody Guthrie having ravenous fans, right?  Or girls lining up outside the concert hall for the Kingston Trio to have a chance to go backstage and party with the group.  

Here's how Dylan was ahead of his time - first, networking. I don't know if they called it that back then, but as soon as he came to town, he visited Woody Guthrie in the hospital, he was just that much of a fan. Pete Seeger was there, and once Seeger heard Dylan play, he thought he'd found the new voice of folk music, someone who could reach the younger crowds in a new way. He wasn't wrong, but if Dylan hadn't gone to the hospital, the journey might have taken longer, with years spent playing in little cafés trying to get something going. Writing letters to Johnny Cash apparently went a long way, too.  

Second, what we now call "influencing", which back then was just self-promotion. Be seen, be loud, get a motorcycle. Wear a hat, wear a leather jacket, something people will remember when you play the clubs.  Hook up with Joan Baez, who already knows the club scene and is close to landing a record deal.  Then of course, keep writing songs and pushing the creative envelope in hopes of getting a record contract, too.  Johnny Cash probably has some good advice on getting ahead, listen to your agent and record execs, up to a point, anyway.  Surround yourself with other musicians, go to their gigs and see if they want to play on your album, it never hurts to ask. 

Then, after a couple of hit records, like "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan", it's time for the next phase, what we now call being a "disruptor".  The film takes us from Dylan's NYC arrival in 1961 to the infamous Newport Folk Festival concert, where he "went electric" and played with amplified instruments, something that had been a no-no at that event, since it apparently wasn't the way God intended folk music to sound. But Dylan was turning into more of a rock musician anyway, and electricity had been around for a while. It's a really weird distinction, I mean, the folk musicians used microphones that ran on electricity, what's the big deal?  But this is when he notably got booed off the stage and only played three songs before leaving, as people were throwing stuff at the stage. But interpretations of the crowd reaction have differed over the years, some people say the sound system was just BAD, and people were booing that.  Or they were booing the fact that Dylan played a short set, so maybe it's tough to say.  Anyway, it appears to all be Johnny Cash's fault, because he advised Dylan to "track mud on the carpet", metaphorically meaning to mess things up, so he did.  

Dylan messed up his relationships, too - he had a thing going with a steady girlfriend, the one who appeared on the "Freewheelin'" album cover with him, they changed her name for the movie. But singing with Joan Baez, touring with Joan Baez, harmonizing with Joan Baez, well, naturally something was due to happen there.  This all comes to a head during the same Newport Folk Festival, Dylan had invited "Sylvie" there to reconcile with her, but then she had to watch him sing "It Ain't Me Babe" with Baez, and she either realized that Bob and Joan were a couple, or that she would never feel right knowing they were on tour together, or that Bob would never be exclusive with her - either way, the relationship was essentially over due to Dylan's infidelity.  Whether his break-up with Sylvie influenced his attitude and made him take that out on the Newport crowd, that's open to interpretation.  

Young Dylan learns that he can't have it both ways, he can't have the steady girlfriend AND the affair. He can't have stardom AND artistic freedom.  He can't be a folk icon AND play rock music. Maybe he's an entitled musical genius, or maybe he's just like everyone else, he wants what he has already and JUST a bit more. But what's clear is that at this point in his life, he didn't want to be tied down, he didn't want the record company or the fans to define him, and he didn't want to be held back artistically. The "artist brain" demands that musicians always be moving forward, writing new material, thinking about new ways songs can be performed, and that was Dylan to a "T". I remember in the Tom Petty documentary the Heartbreakers talked about being Dylan's backing band on tour, and they had to be ready to perform any Dylan song in any style or at any speed that Dylan called for.  

And you can't really say Dylan was wrong, because the career has lasted for almost 70 years, with 125 million records sold, at least three Greatest Hits albums, 40 studio albums, 104 singles, a Christmas album (somehow) and even the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature, which he notably did not show up to claim. That's OK, it's the thought that counts.  The performance by Chalamet was amazing, he really nailed the cadence of Dylan's singing and he really played guitar and harmonica in Bob's style.  My favorite parts might have been the re-enactments of the recordings sessions for "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues", but then, I'll watch any documentary about sound studios or how songs came together during the recording process.  There doesn't seem to be any lip-synching here, Edward Norton, Monica Barbaro and Boyd Holbrook all did their own singing, and it can't be easy to sing like Joan Baez. 

We're coming up on the 60th anniversary of the festival where Dylan "went electric", which was July 24, 1965. There really couldn't be a better time to watch this film, if you want to celebrate the occasion. Over the course of the film, other notable events are mentioned, like the Bay of Pigs invasion and the JFK assassination, but musically, that folk festival is the important one. This film got 8 Oscar nominations, but didn't win any, which is a damn shame. I sincerely doubt that I'll find "Anora" to be more deserving of winning Best Picture when I finally watch that. 

Directed by James Mangold (director of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny")

Also starring Timothee Chalamet (last seen in "Men, Women & Children"), Edward Norton (last seen in "Asteroid City"), Monica Barbaro (last seen in "Top Gun: Maverick"), Boyd Holbrook (last seen in "The Bikeriders"), Dan Fogler (last heard in "Free Birds"), Norbert Leo Butz (last seen in "Better Living Through Chemistry"), Eriko Hatsune, Big Bill Morganfield, Will Harrison, Scoot McNairy (last seen in "C'mon C'mon"), P.J. Byrne (last seen in "Somewhere in Queens"), Michael Chernus (last seen in "People Places Things"), Charlie Tahan (last seen in "Poms"), Eli Brown, Nick Pupo, Laura Kariuki, Stephen Carter Carlsen, Eric Berryman (last seen in "Barry"), David Alan Basche (last seen in "United 93"), Joe Tippett, James Austin Johnson (last heard in "Inside Out 2"), Kayli Carter (last seen in "Charlie Says"), Alaina Surgener, Will Price, Joshua Henry (last seen in "Tick, Tick...Boom!"), Molly Jobe, Peter Gray Lewis (last seen in "Motherless Brooklyn"), Peter Gerety (last seen in "Stop-Loss"), David Wenzel (last seen in "On the Rocks"), Riley Hashimoto, Eloise Peyrot, Maya Feldman, Reza Salazar, Craig Geraghty (last seen in "The Many Saints of Newark"), Michael Everett Johnson, Andy Talen, Zoe Zien, Arthur Langlie, Jordan Goodsell, Liam Craig (last seen in "Random Hearts"), Ian Kagey, Dave Maulbeck, Lorin Doctor, Steve Bell, Malcolm Gold, Patrick Phalen, Douglas Marriner, Justin Levine, Mark Whitfield Jr., Joshua Crumbley, Felix Lemerle, Malick Koly, Andre Chez Lewis, Jimmy Caltrider, Sunny Jain, James Archie Worley (last seen in "The Other Guys"), Elliot S. Nesterman, Sarah Swift,

with archive footage of Bette Davis (last seen in "Mike Wallace Is Here"), Walter Cronkite (last seen in "Fly Me to the Moon"), John F. Kennedy (last seen in "Nyad"), Paul Henreid (last seen in "Now, Voyager").

RATING: 8 out of 10 scrapbook photos from Minnesota

Daddy Day Care

Year 17, Day 167 - 6/16/25 - Movie #5,050 - FATHER'S DAY FILM #8

BEFORE: I've managed to avoid this film for, geez, 22 years now.  Some of the kids seen in this film probably have kids of their own by now. It just always looked silly and maybe even stupid to me. Well, my opinions tend to change now when I want to put a themed chain together and a film has just the linking that I need. 

Eddie Murphy carries over one more time from "Imagine That". This will be the last film with him for now, but he'll be back when I get to my Doc Block. Sure, I could cut to documentaries from here, but I've still got two more Father's Day films to get to. 

THE PLOT: Two men get laid off and have to become stay-at-home fathers when they can't find jobs. This inspires them to open their own day care center. 

AFTER: Well, this wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Sure it's a bunch of silly fun, with a lot of things designed to appeal to both kids and parents, like it's not a very challenging or believable plot, but I'll try to just work through it and enjoy it for what it is. Other people seem to have enjoyed this one over the years, but other people find children appealing and/or interesting, and me, not so much. Eddie Murphy's character maybe has a point at the end, you shouldn't just treat kids like tiny adults, they're different. Still, being different doesn't necessarily mean they're interesting.  

Several of these Eddie Murphy comedies this week feel like they're cut from the same cloth, where his character struggles to balance his work life and his home life, and eventually figures out that he needs to tip the scales more toward the home life, spend more time with his kid, even if that means quitting the job or spending less time at the office. Apparently there was some kind of epidemic in America where fathers were spending too much time at work, and based solely on the Eddie Murphy filmography, it seems this epidemic stretched from 2003 to 2012. Well, eventually he stopped making films with this as the lesson learned, so I guess we fixed that problem. Men happily started working less and women started filling those executive jobs they passed on, so it seems that it all worked out.  

Take "Daddy Day Care" for example, Charlie's wife is ready to return to the workforce as a practicing lawyer, coincidentally about a week before Charlie's job at the food marketing company (is that a thing? is it an advertising agency or a grocery company?) gets phased out because it turns out no kids want to eat a vegetable-based breakfast cereal. Duh, kids like sugar and chocolate in their cereal, how could Charlie NOT know this? So the couple suddenly has just one income when they were expecting to have two, but they had just one before, the only problem is that they were planning on enrolling their son Ben in a prestigious academic preschool, and now that's going to be tough. The very simple answer would just be to have Charlie stay home and take care of their son, but the very simple answer doesn't have much comedic potential - so we need the more complex, outlandish solution to the problem, which is to have Charlie and his co-worker Phil open up their own daycare, despite the fact that neither man has much experience taking care of kids or relating to kids. BUT if they can pull this off, they'll provide an affordable service to the community while also earning money and becoming independent business owners. Say it with me now, "What could POSSIBLY go wrong?"

First off, nobody wants to leave their kids at a daycare run by two men, because it seems just creepy and wrong. Sure, it's sexist to think that women are better at caring for kids, and maybe these women need to get over themselves and think outside the box, but I bet a few of them would hire a manny instead of a nanny, because their husband's not likely to cheat on them with a male babysitter. (Then again, who knows?).  Anyway, it's a tough sell at first, but they manage to get started with nine kids in their care, and the kids manage to wreck the house and the backyard, because they failed to think of constructive activities to keep the kids busy all day.  Some really bad planning there, plus I would imagine that repairs to the house after the kids finish wrecking it are going to negate all the profit from the income.  

The Cruella-like headmistress of the competing Chapman Academy has a direct line to the local child services director, so she keeps calling in complaints on the business that is stealing her students. The investigator keeps coming around to make sure that Daddy Day Care is compliant with all local laws and regulations, and when the ratio of kids to care providers is insufficient, Charlie and Phil hire Marvin, the weird guy from their old job who smelled the mail for some reason. BUT he's great with kids, and he speaks both Star Trek AND comic book, so the dude can't be all that bad. The day care manages to be successful once Charlie learns to not give the kids so much sugar and devises more activities like "share your pet" day and puppet shows. His own kid, Ben, also learns to share his toys and develop skills to help him make friends. 

But the headmistress persists, and sends the inspector over AGAIN because there's another rule that says a day care in a private home can only have a maximum of 12 kids, and Daddy Day Care has 14. Rather than kick two kids out of the program, Charlie and Phil decide to find another space, which means paying rent, which means having a fund-raising event with bouncy houses and a petting zoo and a bake sale. (Again, #WCPGW?). This is where things get really hard to believe, because suddenly they've got an army of volunteers wearing custom made yellow t-shirts, and the cost of making those t-shirts alone would have made this event a non-starter. NITPICK POINT. (Yes, I've had t-shirts made for events, they're not cheap.)

After the headmistress sabotages the fund-raiser, it looks like they won't be able to afford the new space (even though the old comic-book/collectibles shop space was just SITTING there, all boarded up) so Charlie and Phil manage to get their old jobs back, only this time they have to market a very sugary cereal to kids, but hey, this should be easy, what kid doesn't like cotton candy?  As with yesterday's film, though, Eddie Murphy's character has a change of heart right in the middle of an important business meeting, and realizes his mistake of not spending more time with his own kid. So he becomes even more determined to rent the new space and make the day care work. 

There's way too much slapstick comedy here for any adult to stand - Jeff Garlin falling down, Jeff Garlin getting kicked in the nuts, Jeff Garlin getting chased by bees. Milk gets spilled everywhere, poop and pee get splattered everywhere, and my lifestyle choice to not have kids got re-affirmed, at least.  But at least two men got out of the corporate world of selling sugar to kids and tried to make a difference, so at least that's something?  There are still plenty of things that don't make sense, however, like if the headmistress is worried about attendance at her academy, and concerned that Daddy Day Care is taking her clients, why is she seen on the phone telling a parent that their kid is not accepted?  

I've got a real linking problem - I was counting on using Rachael Harris as my link to another father-themed film, only I didn't see her anywhere in the film. Sure, I tend to rely on the IMDB credits, and most of the time they're correct, but this time they could be wrong. I went back to re-scan the film to determine what scene she might have been in where I missed seeing her, but no luck. This could present a problem for getting to tomorrow's film....

Directed by Steve Carr (director of "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and a segment of "Movie 43")

Also starring Jeff Garlin (last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Steve Zahn (last seen in "Your Place or Mine"), Regina King (last seen in "Year of the Dog"), Anjelica Huston (last seen in "The Last Tycoon"), Khamani Griffin (last heard in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2"), Kevin Nealon (last seen in "I Am Chris Farley"), Jonathan Katz, Lacey Chabert (last seen in "Black Christmas"), Max Burkholder (last seen in "The Purge"), Jimmy Bennett (last seen in "The Amityville Horror" (2005)), Leila Arcieri (last seen in "xXx"), Shane Baumel (last heard in "The Ant Bully"), Elle Fanning (last seen in "The Nines"), Felix Achille, Hailey Noelle Johnson (last seen in "Friends with Money"), Siobhan Fallon Hogan (last seen in "Clifford the Big Red Dog"), Arthur Young, Wallace Langham (last seen in "My Dinner with Hervé"), Lisa Edelstein (last seen in "Betty White: First Lady of Television"), Mark Griffin (last seen in "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"), Laura Kightlinger (also last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Cesar Flores, Connor Carmody, Kennedy McCullough, Alyssa Shafer (last seen in "Just Like Heaven"), Bridgette Ho, Brie Hill Arbaugh (last seen in "Paul Blart: Mall Cop"), Susan Santiago (last seen in "The Hate U Give"), Annabelle Gurwitch (last seen in "Ambulance"), Mary Portser (last seen in "Slums of Beverly Hills"), Timmy Deters (last seen in "Kicking & Screaming"), McNally Sagal (last seen in "Ocean's Eight"), Damani Roberts, Tara Mercurio, Gary Owen (last seen in "Ride Along"), Fred Stoller (last heard in "Open Season 3"), Joan Blair, Bess Meisler (last seen in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2"), Sonya Eddy (last seen in "Coach Carter"), Paul Anthony Reynolds, Rachael Harris (last seen in "Unfrosted"), Michelle Krusiec (last seen in "What Happens in Vegas"), Kristin Cruz, Brian Palermo (last seen in "The Happytime Murders"), and the band Cheap Trick

RATING: 4 out of 10 plastic lightsabers

Imagine That

Year 17, Day 166 - 6/15/25 - Movie #5,049 - FATHER'S DAY FILM #7

BEFORE: Eddie Murphy carries over again from "A Thousand Words", and it's Father's Day for real today. Did I pick the right film to land on the holiday itself?  I sure hope so, because I've got three more films on the topic of fathers which will now be reviewed after. Sure, it's just one day, but if I can knock off three more films about fathers and still get to my Doc Block on time, why wouldn't I do that? Who knows if I'll be able to link to those films next year?  

That's a wrap on the Tribeca Film Festival, today is the last day and I'm not scheduled. I've got two other events I'm working this week, but overall it seems things may slow down for the summer, which means I've got to find another job soon. The last celebrity sightings by me yesterday were Sam Rockwell, Lucy Liu, David Cronenberg, Joe Hill, John Densmore (from The Doors) and Aidan Quinn, who I spotted in the crowd. It was something of a slow rainy day, I suspect most people caught the films they wanted to see early in the week so they could spend time with their fathers this weekend, or travel somewhere to do so. 

I'm also at the halfway point for June, and one film away from the halfway point of the year, which comes a bit early because I've limited myself to 300 movies for the year, not 365. 

THE PLOT: A financial executive who can't stop his career downspiral is invited into his daughter's imaginary world, where solutions to his problems await. 

AFTER: This is a totally different film from yesterday's, because in that film Eddie Murphy's character had a son, and here his character, Evan Danielson, has a daughter. Also in "A Thousand Words" his character worked as a literary agent, and here he plays an investment expert. See? Totally different thing - but what's the same is that the main character has to balance his work life and his home life, and the work life is taking up all his attention and his child is being neglected. Bad father!  Men just can't skate on child-rearing duties any more, even if they are the main bread-winner of the family. So in several of Murphy's films this week, he has to learn how to be a true father, not just a genetic one, and that takes time and effort and a desire to do better.  Really, we could just skip to that, only then the movies would be only five minutes long - so he's got to learn this lesson, but the long way, by making mistakes and by being a neglecting father at first. Why, it's almost like there's a formula being used here, but that's only because there totally is. 

As a result of the parental neglect (little Olivia's mother works, too, so she's kind of double-neglected - but I bet her mother's better at juggling responsibilities!) or perhaps as a by-product of it, Olivia won't give up her childhood blanket, and she uses it as a conduit to speak to her imaginary friends, Princesses Kupida, Sopida and Mopida, also Queen Qwali). Her teacher has allowed her to bring the blanket to school, however Olivia's use of it has become disruptive, as she sits outside at recess an extra hour, in her own imaginary world. Evan's efforts to take her blanket away all fail, but when he has to watch his co-parented daughter for a whole week, he's determined to find a solution for the blanket fixation.  When those fail, he chooses to bring her to the office because she can't make it through a day at school without the blanket or screaming non-stop when she's without it.  

Then something unusual happens, while Evan's not watching her, she paints and colors all over his work reports, and he's forced to bring those reports with him into a meeting, where his co-worker and rival investment strategist Johnny Whitefeather is stealing his clients and influencing his boss by using a bunch of Native American customs and idioms to predict the financial success of investment opportunities.  Evan has something of a meltdown, and wildly declares that he's got a similarly successful system, based on his daughter's drawings. He's being sarcastic, but he declares one company "sparkly" and another company with its pants down, and with doody in its pants. During the meeting, reports come in that the stock of the "sparkly" company has risen sharply, while the other company got caught in a fraud case, and actually has no financial success.  Evan's boss wants to know how his "predictions" came so close to the breaking news.  

Evan's daughter had already been trying to relay messages from her imaginary friends to him about which companies were good investments, but Evan had ignored them until this meeting - then suddenly he's drawn into her world, and if there are more predictions to be had from Sopida and Mopida, or if his daughter is some kind of child investment savant, he's only going to get more information by playing along with her and contacting her IF's with the blanket method.  Time and again he gets the imaginary princesses' opinion of companies, and time and time again, their opinion turns out to be quite accurate, whether a company is a "crybaby" or wants to "marry" another company.  The girl may know nothing about leveraged buyouts or corporate mergers, but the advice she relays turns out to be correct each time, so maybe she's just incredibly lucky.  Investment strategy could be mostly guesswork, iany

Evan rediscovers his inner child, and his daughter enjoys playing games with her father again, what could possibly go wrong with getting investment advice from imaginary princesses and relaying that information to investors?  When their investment company gets bought out and Evan has to compete against Johnny Whitefeather for the position of head of the division, the Native American man tries to compete by buying a sacred native blanket and forcing his son to chain drink Red Bulls so he can reach a similar enlightened awareness of investment strategies.  Meanwhile Evan loses access to the blanket at a critical time when his week with his daughter is up and she's booked into a pizza party and a sleep-over, forcing Evan to embarrass himself by sneaking in to the sleep-over house and trying to steal the blanket.  

He fails to realize that the blanket is useless without his daughter "relaying" the information from the princesses, it's all really coming from her imagination, see?  But now she knows that her father only played with her to get access to the blanket, and she feels worse than ever.  So bad that she may not be able to sing her solo at the school concert. Her only hope is that her father comes to the realization that spending time with his daughter was much more important than getting the investment advice that would secure him a promotion. But that would mean that Evan would have to choose to go to her concert rather than his meeting with the new CEO, which OF COURSE is scheduled to happen at the same time.  

This film was not a financial success, and Murphy at one point referred to it as one of the worst films he ever made, but how could it be, with "Meet Dave" and "Norbit" on his filmography?  Look, any film that contains four cover versions of Beatles songs can't be all bad, especially since they're ones I've never heard, and I've been collecting Beatles covers for decades.  I think maybe family-friendly films like this need to be rated on a separate scale, like of course there wasn't a lot of Murphy's traditional humor here, because this is a movie kids and parents can watch together.  And isn't that really the best you could do on Father's Day, find a movie you can watch with your kids? 

Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick (director of "Smallfoot")

Also starring Thomas Haden Church (last seen in "Spider-Man: No Way Home"), Yara Shahidi (last seen in "Peter Pan & Wendy"), Ronny Cox (last seen in "Deep Blue Sea"), Stephen Rannazzisi (last seen in "Paul Blart: Mall Cop"), Nicole Ari Parker (last seen in "How It Ends" (2018)), DeRay Davis (last seen in "Code Name: The Cleaner"), Vanessa E. Williams (last seen in "Candyman"), Martin Sheen (last seen in "I Am Burt Reynolds"), Lauren Weedman (last seen in "Horse Girl"), Timm Sharp (last seen in "Queenpins"), Stephen Root (ditto), Daniel Polo (last seen in "I Am Michael"), Richard Schiff (last seen in "Whatever It Takes"), Marin Hinkle (last seen in "Players"), Bobb'e J. Thompson (last seen in "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"), Blake Hightower (last seen in "Be Kind Rewind"), Michael McMillian, Catherine McGoohan (last seen in "Elizabethtown"), James Patrick Stuart (last heard in "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2"), Tonita Castro (last seen in "Wilson"), Charlie Koznick, Talen Ruth Riley (last seen in "Two Days in New York"), Jonathan Mangum (last seen in "The Bucket List"), Mike Vorhaus, Bob Rumnock (last seen in "Divergent"), George Karl, Heidi Marnhout, John Nance, Jeff Kosloski, Allen Ross, Rachael Bard, Bernard Cottonwood, Blanche Zembower, Robert Seay (last seen in "Get Him to the Greek"), Tom Wiens, Kellie Sprague, Pipier Ngubo, Allison Weintraub, Erik R. Norris, Joe Sikorra, Diane Goldberg, Luke McEndarfer, Barron Christian, Skip Crank (also carrying over from "A Thousand Words"), Traci Paige Johnson, Donovan Patton, with cameos from Allen Iverson (last seen in "Hustle"), Carmelo Anthony, Mel Harris, Bruce McGill (last seen in "Runaway Jury").

RATING: 5 out of 10 slides at the pizza party