Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America

Year 18, Day 185 - 7/4/26 - Movie #5,365 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #4

BEFORE: So far so good with my SemiQuinCentennial review of 50 films, representing our great 50 states. But I think I'm going to be in trouble very very soon - I will explain tomorrow. Today a number of prominent directors carry over from "Jaws @ 50" - let's keep the focus on Martin Scorsese because he was in the recent "Star Wars" movie, too. At one point I was trying to figure out which film to try and land on Independence Day, and then I noticed one of my proposed docs had the word "America" right there in the title - well, that's the one, then, isn't it? And I made it work out. There's the TINIEST connection between Sergio Leone and one of our U.S. states, it's UTAH! Huh, so far it's been all states that I've lived in or visited, imagine that...

Date admitted to the U.S. January 4, 1896 (the 45th state)

Claim to fame: Parts of the Sergio Leone film "Once Upon a Time in the West" were filmed in Monument Valley, UT, although most of the film was shot in Spain.

Nickname: The Beehive Hairdo State

Prevalent language: Mormon

State Motto: "Industry"

State Flower: Sego lily
State Fish: Bonnevill cutthroat trout (WTF?)

State Reptile: Gila monster

State Mushroom: Porcini

State Drink: probably postum, which is fake coffee

State Insect: Western honey bee (which lives in a beehive, duh)

State Mammal: Rocky Mountain elk

State Tree: Quaking aspen

State Dance: None - nobody in Utah is allowed to dance

Notable Sports Teams: Umm, Utah Jazz? Is that a thing?

Fun Facts: The Puebloans, the Navajo, the Shoshone, the Goshute tribes, and then the Spanish conquistadors and European trappers all avoided the Utah territory for hundreds of years. I'm sure they all had their reasons. People stayed away in droves until the Mormons, who like the Puritans, had been kicked out of just about every place else, including Illinois, for being so religious and uptight, reached Utah in 1847 and began to practice polygamy until the LDS church banned it in 1890. Damn, that could have been such a fun state...

I visited Utah three times, not for Bryce Canyon or Zion or Arches or Monument Valley, but for the Sundance Film Festival in 1998 and 2001, and the Slamdance Festival in 2004. I have not been back since, and now Sundance is moving to Boulder, Colorado so I have no plans to return. 

FOLLOW-UP TO: "Once Upon a Time in America" (Movie #3,419)

THE PLOT: An homage by various film professionals to the legendary Italian director Sergio Leone, director of "Once Upon a Time in America" and famous for the creation of the subgenre "spaghetti Western". 

AFTER: I realize that it might seem a bit weird to turn over our nation's birthday - and the big 250th one at that - to a documentary about an Italian man. But think about it for a minute, we are nothing if not a nation of immigrants, so people of ALL nationalities make up America, plus we do owe some debt to two other Italians, Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci. Hell, our country is NAMED after an Italian man, so there you go. It's also the whole point of the documentary, to show that this Italian man had something of a unique take on the Western movie, which supposedly documents our country's history, but of course it never really did. Leone's take on Western movies was a re-invention of the tropes about good guys and bad guys, cowboys and Indians, farmers and cattlemen, and of course history was never really like the movies to begin with, so it's a re-imagination of another imagination, so at least two degrees removed from reality, but damn, if the movies aren't a lot more fun than boring old reality. 

Here's what I've seen out of Sergio Leone's films - the Clint Eastwood Western "non-trilogy" of "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", and about five years ago I watched "Once Upon a Time in America". That's it - but I didn't let my avoidance of Bergman films prevent me from watching "Trespassing Bergman", I just caught up with a bunch of Bergman films the following year. I have "Once Upon a Time in the West" on my DVR now, the hard part is linking back to a film from the 1960's - I thought that maybe I would take a break from the Doc Block and squeeze that film in, along with "How the West Was Won", but then when I took a look at the linking, it wasn't going to happen, my Doc Block came together a different way - you could say it kind of organized itself, and I couldn't fit in both movies. Anyway it seemed a bit weird to stop the Doc Block right after getting started, just to knock off a Western. I'll get to both of those classic Westerns some other way. Maybe. Someday. 

Sergio Leone was born in Rome in 1929, the son of an actor who used the stage name Roberto Roberti and silent film actress Edvige Valcarenghi, and he spent a lot of time on film sets as a child, so you can say he was kind of destined to be a film director himself. He studied law for a bit at university, but of course dropped out to work in movies. He worked as an assistant to the director of "Bicycle Thieves" and then wrote screenplay for the "sword and sandal" historical films that were hot in Italy during the 1950's. This led to A.D. work on "Quo Vadis" and "Ben-Hur", which were filmed in Europe but backed by American studios. He helped complete a film called "The Last Days of Pompeii" when the director got sick, and then got a chance to direct a film called "The Colossus of Rhodes", and by this time he knew how to make low-budget films that looked like large budget epics. 

When historical epics became less popular, he shifted his attention to Western films, and his style became known as "spaghetti Westerns", with some Japanese influence in addition to all the nods to the American West. If you watch those "Dollars" films, the characters are a lot more complex than those seen in traditional Westerns, everyone is somehow self-serving, it's like every man for himself, plus everyone looks dirty and unshaven and makes you glad the film was not made in Smell-O-Vision. He cast Clint Eastwood as the "Man With No Name" and since Clint had a month off from his TV work on "Rawhide" he gave it a go, and they ended up working well together, even though one spoke only English and the other spoke only Italian. Each film was more complex and technically well-made than the last, they kind of made each other better or something, Clint became his muse just like Harrison Ford did for George Lucas, together they just clicked and made something innovative and fresh in a genre that was pretty worn-out. 

Leone then got the chance to come to the United States and make "Once Upon a Time in the West", though as I said above it was mostly filmed in Spain and Rome - parts of Spain that looked amazingly like the American Old West landscape, plus a little bit filmed in Utah. I'll try to get to this film and then maybe I'll have more to say about it. Then Leone got an offer to direct "The Godfather", but he turned it down because he wanted to make "Once Upon a Time in America", and spent the next 10 or 11 years developing it, finally shooting a four-hour epic version that KILLED at the Cannes Festival, but was deemed too long by the studio, who then made a cut that was only two hours long, you know, for the American market because of the short attention span of dumb Americans. (well, the studio wasn't wrong...). People who have seen the entire four-hour epic cut, however, get a lot more out of it and I'm thinking the movie makes a lot more sense that way. 

He never made another feature after that, and died in 1989 - he had plans to make another epic about the Siege of Leningrad, but I think we can assume that he was creatively "stuck" after Hollywood tore the film he worked on for a decade and a half to shreds. What a terrible place Hollywood is, I bet he wished he never went there and had just stayed in Rome making the films he wanted to make. 

Directed by Francesco Zippel

Also starring Fausto Ancillai (last seen in "The Grand Budapest Hotel"), Dario Argento, Darren Aronofsky, Jacques Audiard, Damien Chazelle, Jennifer Connelly (last seen in "Jim Henson: Idea Man"), Robert De Niro (last seen in "The Comeback Trail"), Enzo Dililberto, Clint Eastwood (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Gian Luca Farinelli, Christopher Frayling, Andrea Leone, Francesca Leone, Raffaella Leone, Arnon Milchan, Frank Miller (last seen in "Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope"), Giuliano Montaldo, Noel Simsolo, Steven Spielberg (also carrying over from "Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story"), Quentin Tarantino (ditto), Giuseppe Tornatore, Hark Tsui, Carlo Verdone, 

with archive footage of Sergio Leone, Brian Bloom (last seen in "Smokin' Aces"), Charles Bronson (last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists"), Claudia Cardinale (last seen in "Effie Gray"), James Coburn (last seen in "Faye"), Jack Elam (last seen in "Kismet"), Henry Fonda (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), Ennio Morricone, Woody Strode (last seen in "Trumbo"), Lee Van Cleef (last seen in "High Noon"), Eli Wallach (last seen in "The Hoax"), James Woods (last seen in "Too Big to Fail")

RATING: 6 out of 10 extreme close-ups

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story

Year 18, Day 184 - 7/3/26 - Movie #5,364 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #3

BEFORE: If you know "Jaws" then you understand my motivation for landing this doc on July 3 - the mayor of that small fictional town threatened by the great white shark was concerned about the effect a shark attack would have on the upcoming July 4 holiday, all that tourist traffic. So yeah, talk about perfect timing - I had just two priorities when setting up this chain, I wanted the MOST American film to land on July 4, and THIS film to land on July 3. Umm, mission accomplished? 

I could not believe my luck when I learned that the Earth, Wind & Fire documentary used footage from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" - the part at the end where the flying saucer lands and the benevolent, non-world destroying and non-human eating aliens come out. So Richard Dreyfuss carries over from yesterday's movie with a title that's way too long to re-type. 

Today's Semi-Quintencentennial "Get to Know a State" segment #3 is all about the Great Commonwealth of Massachusetts - here are some fun facts, figures and things I made up: 

Date admitted to the U.S. February 6, 1788 (the 6th state)

Claim to fame: "Jaws" was filmed there, in Martha's Vineyard and Falmouth. Other movies filmed in Massachusetts include "The Town", "Gone Baby Gone", "The Departed", "Black Mass" and "Mystic River". Spot the theme? 

Nickname: The Goddamn Frickin' Bay State

Prevalent language: Bostonian

State Motto: "All Hail to Massachusetts" 

State Flower: The mayflower
State Fish: The cod (because it sounds funny in a Boston accent)

State Reptile: The garter snake (because it sounds funny in a Boston accent)

State Bird: Wild Turkey

State Drink: also Wild Turkey (JK, it's cranberry juice)

State Insect: Ladybug (again?)

State Dog: Boston Terrier

State Tree: American Elm

State Dance: Square dance (again?)

Notable Sports Teams: Umm, all of them? It was all Celtics and Bruins when I was a kid, then the Patriots and the Red Sox started winning and took over when I was an adult.

Fun Facts: The Massachusetts Colony was founded by Puritans, people who were so uptight and overly religious that ENGLAND kicked them out, and that's saying something. But because they sailed to America on the Mayflower, that led to Thanksgiving, the greatest eating holiday of the year, even better than Super Bowl Sunday. Prove me wrong. Massachusetts was meant to be an "ideal" colony, where there would be no religious or political conflict and colonists would live in harmony with the indigenous Native Americas. What the HELL went wrong? Maybe everything was fine until the Irish and Italians showed up. 

Massachusetts is the home of Harvard, MIT, Boston University, Tufts, Wellesley College, Northeastern, and the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Still, 75% of my high school's graduating class probably ended up at U.Mass. That's right, I grew up there until I was 17 and could split for film school in NYC, leaving all those massholes behind. What can you say about a state whose greatest contributions to the world are the toll house cookie and the boston cream pie? 

FOLLOW-UP TO: "Spielberg" (Movie #3,958) & "Music by John Williams" (Movie #5,105)

THE PLOT: A tribute of "Jaws" (1975), the movie that sparked a lasting fascination with the ocean's most misunderstood predator. 

AFTER: There's no doubt that "Jaws" was one of the most influential, successful movies of all time. We didn't even know what to call a super-successful film until they invented the term "blockbuster" to describe it. DAMN, and then it ushered in the era of "Star Wars", "Close Encounters", "Indiana Jones" and so on. It was also the start of Hollywood putting a focus on work driven by special effects, the first film that succeeded in making the impossible look possible (even though it was technically still impossible) and then in the era of Lucas, Coppola, Scorsese and a hundred other directors, every type of story could then be told, they just had to use special effects to do it. 

Also, really the first franchise film, except for "Planet of the Apes" and "The Pink Panther" - and James Bond, I suppose. But notoriously each installment in a franchise would be of diminishing quality, and really, "Jaws" was no exception there. OK, fine, watch "Jaws 2" if you have to but if you stick around for "Jaws 3-D" or "Jaws: The Revenge" you really need to get a life, and I saw this as someone who watched both of those. The "Jaws" franchise, however, is still the most successful one started by a director who was never officially hired by Hollywood to do anything. Remember that Spielberg just walked into the Universal Studios office one day and picked out an office, after sneaking in as part of the studio tour. So everything he did after that, from "Jaws" to "Saving Private Ryan" to "Schindler's List" and the recent "Disclosure Day" is 100% NOT deserved. I can't just become a heart surgeon by walking into a hospital and starting to operate on patients, can I?  No, because there's a process doctors have to go through, and it's for everyone's protection. The same should hold true for filmmakers. 

Nothing succeeds in Hollywood like money, of course, and the $500 million that "Jaws" took in, considering the film's budget was only $9 million, well, that kind of makes everything OK then, doesn't it? What a return on the investment that Universal Pictures laid out - also remember that the shoot for "Jaws" went 100 days over, any other director would have had the plug pulled after 30 days, let alone 50 or 100. It literally would have been faster to raise a baby great white shark from infancy and train it to not eat humans than to build the mechanical shark that they did and get it to work properly. I'm pretty sure that even I could build a mechanical shark that doesn't do what it's supposed to - the hard part is building the shark and then making sure that it works as intended once the cameras start rolling. 

The shark was so problematic that crew members called the movie "Flaws" when they talked among themselves.  On average every 12-hour day on the shoot really included only four hours of actual filming. There was bad weather, there were boats that would not stay afloat, one actor (Robert Shaw) was problematic because he was either drunk or spending the day in Canada due to tax liabilities and legal reasons. All those times that you DON'T see the shark represent times that the mechanical shark wasn't working right, and then after the fact they tried to make up for it by saying that NOT showing the shark was a technique used to build up suspense, which is a complete load of B.S. Alfred Hitchcock was the one who developed the idea that the less you see, the more you get in terms of building up suspense, but you know Spielberg would have done it a different way if he could have. 

There is some actual shark footage seen in "Jaws" - what happened was Spielberg sent two shark experts down to Australia to shoot whatever they wanted, and that footage ended up being cut into the real film, and the planned sequences in "Jaws" were altered around whatever the real Great White in Australia did. There Spielberg goes, cheating again... film directors have turned out to be very untrustworthy people, for the most part. Finally when Spielberg was back in California, they shot more footage of stuntmen in swimming in a giant tank, to replace the footage that they did NOT get of Richard Dreyfuss's shark expert character in that cage. 

How did I NOT know that this film was shot in Massachusetts? It's so obvious to me now, because they hired local actors and non-actors to appear in the movie, especially for the crowd scenes and the one where the concerned citizens are having a town meeting. They all say they're worried about the "SHAAK", their accents are very strong - but I was probably a teenager when I first watched "Jaws", which meant I lived in suburban Mass. and that's just the way people talked, so it probably just seemed very "naah-mal" to me then. 

Of course, the main stars were imported from Los Angeles, eight actors total, and they all sound different from the local talent. Roy Scheider's supposed to be the police chief, but he's got no Masshole accent, that's a bit unusual. They never SAY Massachusetts in the movie, but come on - the book suggests New York, like Long Island maybe. The film made a bunch of changes from the book, though - 27 scenes or so in the film that were not in the best-selling novel. I should probably watch it again at some point, it's been a minute. The book mentions that Brody's wife used to date Hooper's older brother, and someone in this doc mentioned that the film kind of suggests they changed it to having dated Hooper, and as a kid I probably missed the potential love triangle aspect completely. 

Wouldn't you know it, just yesterday there was news here in New York of a shark attack on a local beach - so really, my timing could NOT have been better, like across the board here. We've got a heat wave going on right now, so thousands of people are probably heading to local beaches to try to beat the heat by swimming in the ocean, and come on, guys, terrible idea. The crowd in the ocean at Coney Island or Jones Beach probably looks like an all-you-can-eat buffet to a shark. 

This documentary was clearly funded by National Geographic, they've got interviews with marine biologists and shark experts talking about what the movie got right and what the movie got wrong. They also mention how there was a frenzy of people trying to kill sharks shortly after "Jaws" came out, but over time that turned into more of an interest and fascination for many people, which all means that before long, they'll be showing this dock-umentary during the annual "Shark Week" programming, if they haven't already been doing that. Fine, study sharks, go swimming with them, you do you, I'm still not leaving the house this weekend, not to go to the beach or to see fireworks or even to get some barbecue. Nope, it's too dangerous out there, there could be a shark in the Gowanus Canal and I might accidentally fall in. Or you never, know, one of those "Landsharks" seen on SNL could ring my doorbell. It's better to be safe than sorry. 

Directed by Laurent Bouzereau (director of "Music by John Williams" and "Faye")

Also starring Steven Spielberg (last seen in "Music by John Williams"), J.J. Abrams (ditto), Joe Alves, Jim Beller, Clayton Benchley, Nat Benchley, Peter Benchley, Wendy Benchley, Emily Blunt, James Cameron (last seen in "Sigourney Weaver, the Most Iconic Action Heroine"), Philippe Cousteau Jr., Cameron Crowe (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Rene Ben David, Guillermo Del Toro (last seen in "Drew: The Man Behind the Poster"), Candace Fields, Jonathan Filley, Carol Fligor, Austin Gallagher, Lorraine Gary (last seen in "Jaws: the Revenge"), Carl Gottlieb (last seen in "Into the Night"), Jeffrey Kramer (last seen in "Jaws 2"), Gibbs Kuguru, George Lucas (also last seen in "Music by John Williams"), John Williams (ditto), John Mandelman, Janet Maslin, Greg Nicotero, Stephen Palumbi, Jordan Peele (last heard in "Wendell & Wild"), Todd Rebello, Ian Shaw, Sid Sheinberg, Brian Skerry, Greg Skomal, Steven Soderbergh (last seen in "Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love"), Tracy Benchley Turner, Jeffrey Voorhees, Cynthia Wigren, Ross Williams, Robert Zemeckis (last seen in "Tom Hanks: The Nomad"),

with archive footage of Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "Sigourney Weaver, the Most Iconic Action Heroine"), Susan Backlinie, Hal Barwood, John Belushi (last seen in "Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print"), Dick Cavett (ditto), Albert Brooks (last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), David Brown, Helen Gurley Brown (last seen in "I Am Burt Reynolds"), Fidel Castro (last seen in "Rather"), Chevy Chase (last seen in "Pee-Wee as Himself"), Elliott Gould (ditto), Laraine Newman (ditto), Francis Ford Coppola (last seen in "The Kid Stays in the Picture"), James Corden (last heard in "Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway"), Joan Crawford (last seen in "Martha"), Verna Fields, Ariana Grande (last seen in "Wicked: For Good"), Ted Grossman, Murray Hamilton (last seen in "Rock Hudson: ALl That Heaven Allowed"), Goldie Hawn (also last seen in "Music by John Williams"), Roy Scheider (ditto), Robert Shaw (ditto), Alfred Hitchcock (last seen in "Ali & Cavett: A Tale of the Tapes"), Jimmy Kimmel (last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Craig Kingsbury, Conrad Krumm, Janet Leigh, Robert Mattey, John Milius, Richard Nixon (last seen in "Golda"), Richard Pryor (also carrying over from "Earth, Wind & Fire"), Chris Rebello, Matthew Robbins, Arnold Schwarzenegger (also last seen in "Sigourney Weaver, the Most Iconic Action Heroine"), Martin Scorsese (ditto), Joe Spinell, Quentin Tarantino (last seen in "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story"), Ron Taylor, Valerie Taylor, Dennis Weaver (last seen in "Spielberg"), Richard D. Zanuck, 

RATING: 5 out of 10 sleepless nights caused by "Jaws" shoot PTSD (that's your GUILT talking, Mr. Spielberg, because deep down you know you cheated your way into the film business...)

Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That's the Weight of the World)

Year 18, Day 183 - 7/2/26 - Movie #5,363 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #2

BEFORE: Barack Obama carries over from "Sigourney Weaver, the Ultimate Action Heroine", and I remember using him as a link last year, at just about this time, too - carrying over from the stockumentary about Tom Hanks to "Trainwreck: Poop Cruise" and then "Inside Job" and "Join or Die" right before July 4. This time I'm not putting all the docs with Obama in them together, I've got other fish to fry. But in honor of Barack AND the fact that this band was formed in Chicago, today's Semi-Quincentennial "Get to Know a State" segment #2 is all about the Great State of Illinois - here are some fun facts, figures and things I made up: 

Date admitted to the U.S. December 3, 1818 (the 21st state)

Claim to fame: Birthplace of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, also Styx, Fall Out Boy, the Smashing Pumpkins and the band that performed "25 or 6 to 4" whose name escapes me at the moment.

Nickname: Land of Lincoln or the Prairie State

Prevalent language: Italian, I think

State Motto: "This fell off the back of a truck, whaddaya gonna do?"

State Flower: Violent, whoops, I meant violet. 
State Mushroom: Giant puffball

State Reptile: Painted turtle (what's with all the turtles?)

State Bird: Northern Cardinal, who I think is now the new Pope

State Insect: Monarch butterfly

State Mammal: White-tailed deer

State Tree: White Oak (they apparently love only white things, just saying)

State Dance: Square dance (clearly this was voted on in the 1800's, time for an update)

Notable Sports Teams: Da Bears, Da Bulls, Da Cubs, Da Sox and Da Blackhawks and the Fighting Illini, whatever that is. 

Fun Facts: Illinois was the birthplace of the modern skyscraper, Twinkies, the first McDonald's franchise, and the home of the biggest mob hit in history, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, which inspired the movie "Some Like It Hot". However, most of the state's culture burned up in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, leaving them with only improv comedy and deep-dish pizza. While I appreciate any pizza that's larger than my own head, the Chicago versions of hot dogs ("dragged through the garden") and ice cream ("dragged through five clashing flavors") need to be avoided at all costs. 

I've visited Chicago twice, once in 2003 and again in 2021. The first time we took one of those mob-themed bus tours and the Field Museum, and both times we visited Navy Pier and the Billy Goat Tavern, because seriously, what else is there to do there? At least the second time we also went to Morton's steakhouse and the world's largest Starbucks (like, 6 floors of different coffee stuff).

THE PLOT: The rise and fall of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, told via exclusive access to the band's archives of visual, audio and written material, with the support of the band members and the estate of Maurice White. 

AFTER: I've maybe watched too many documentaries about bands, because they follow a formula, based on the lifespan of the band, it's a pattern that was set by the Beatles and has continued to manifest itself in the story of every band since. Eventually the same things will happen, the band will break up either due to creative differences or because the income has dried up. In the case of Earth, Wind & Fire, both things happened around about the same time. The money thing is kind of a given because as a band becomes more successful, they're forced to create a business, either a holding company or an LLC that is responsible for paying the bills, and keeping things legal - this company is sometimes run by family or friends of the band members, but not in all cases. But what happens then is the band has created this machine to process the money from the record company, but also pay for the tours, travel expenses, legal fees, merchandising, etc. and at some point the company is maybe laying out more money than it's taking in, often leading to the band members getting paid less and less over time. When you have a 15 or 16-piece band, with two drummers, a horn section, and back-up singers, well you can see the obvious problem, you can't treat all of those people as staff. The bass player for the Rolling Stones has had a 20-year temp job. 

At the same time, EW&F founding member Maurice White, who kept the books, wanted to embark on a solo career (what could possibly go wrong?) and maybe also saw that the income from each tour was less and less, and the band was losing money with each tour, then borrowing against the advance for the next record, and where does THAT end? So he basically fired the rest of the band and encouraged them to strike out on their own, although some who weren't ready had to sell stereo equipment for a while, and it was a couple years before Maurice figured out that he needed the rest of the band as much as they needed him to be in charge. But musical tastes of the public change over time, and by the time they got the band back together and were ready to tour again, it was nearly too late, they played to empty stadiums and had to cancel shows and issue a bunch of refunds, hoping that the new album would strike a chord with the public and they'd start showing up again. 

Earth, Wind & Fire kind of got saved by the next generation of rappers who sampled their hits (stealing the riff is OK I guess if you give credit and also re-introduce a bunch of old-timers to the new crowd of music fans) and the older EW&F songs got licensed to appear in TV commercials and films (like the "Trolls" movies). And then the band got the bump from winning an NAACP award plus getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Pack your bag, guys, you're heading out on tour again...

We therefore diagnose Maurice White as the band member with the worst case of "artist brain" - sure, he was a driving creative force, he was inspired by African musical instruments, Egyptian iconography and the theatrics of Doug Henning - PLUS he demanded that the band should learn at least a little choreography and wear outlandish costumes. BUT at some point this reaches beyond the principles of showmanship and becomes, "I'm in charge, everyone has to take my advice", and also "I get to sing about love and preach about faithfulness, but also I'm allowed to have a second secret family while I'm on tour." Yeah, we've seen this before and we'll probably see it again, famous people are just like regular people, except even more entitled. Sure, he felt abandoned by his mother when he was a kid, and this affected how he treated other people when he was an adult, but at some point, don't you need to get some therapy for your childhood trauma if it prevents you from treating people fairly later in life? Just saying. 

Still, this also works as a love letter to some of the greatest soul/funk/fusion jazz songs that the band is known for - "Shining Star", "Sing a Song", "September", "Fantasy", and we can maybe almost forgive them for their foray into disco with "Boogie Wonderland" because during that same time period they covered the Beatles song "Got to Get You Into My Life" and performed it in the god-awful-but-I-still-love-it movie "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". I just want Questlove to keep making documentaries, because he's got really good instincts and a knack for picking great subjects from the pantheon of American music. I think the only Earth, Wind & Fire album I own is their Christmas album, though, where they updated their song "September" as a holiday song titled "December". 

Directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson (director of "Summer of Soul")

Also starring Philip Bailey (last seen in "The Greatest Night in Pop"), Ralph Johnson, Verdine White (last seen in "Under the Volcano"), Patt Adams, Bob Cavallo, George Faison, Flea (last seen in "Queen & Slim"), David Foster (last seen in "Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall"), Michael Harriot, H.E.R., Jimmy Jam, Booker T. Jones (last seen in "A Star Is Born" (1976), Dennis Kimbro, George Massenburg, Al McKay, Michelle Obama (last seen in "The Six Triple Eight"), Anderson .Paak (last heard in "Trolls Band Together"), Herb Powell, Lionel Richie (last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Leonard Smith, Bruce Talamon, Wanda Vaughn, Wayne Vaughn, Eden White, Don KB White, Marilyn White, Don Whitehead, Stevie Wonder (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything")

with archive footage of Maurice White (last seen in "Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives"), Fontella Bass, Roland Bautista, Michael Beal, Chuck Berry (last seen in "The Beatles: In the Life"), Beyonce Knowles-Carter (last seen in "Jagged"), Jim Brown (last seen in "Draft Day"), Sabrina Carpenter (last seen in "Horns"), Chance the Rapper (last seen in "Slice"), Jessica Cleaves, George Clinton (also last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Don Cornelius (ditto), Phil Collins (last seen in "I Am Sam Kinison"), Ram Dass, Clive Davis (last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), Rhamlee Michael Davis, Morris Day (last seen in "Graffiti Bridge"), Neil Diamond (last seen in "Remastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black"), Melinda Dillon (last seen in "Spielberg"), Leslie Drayton, Richard Dreyfuss (last seen in "Music by John Williams"), Larry Dunn, Medgar Evers, Laurence Fishburne (last seen in "Pee-Wee as Himself"), Wade Flemons, Johnny Graham, Bryant Gumbel (last seen in "Martha"), Michael Harris, Doug Henning, Jennifer Holliday, Whitney Houston (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Michael Jackson (ditto), Yackov Ben Israel, Etta James (last seen in "Muscle Shoals"), Rick James (last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), Kendrick Lamar (last seen in "Straight Outta Compton"), Ronnie Laws, John Legend (last seen in "Martha"), Ramsey Lewis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (last seen in "Thunderbolts"), Mike Myers (last seen in "Terminal"), Don Myrick, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Prince (also last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Richard Pryor (also last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Minnie Riperton, Bobby Rush, Lui Lui Satterfield, Skip Scarborough, Sherry Scott, Marlena Shaw, Charles Stepney, Billy Stewart, Barbra Streisand (also last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Beloyd Taylor, Alex Thomas, Ellene Warren, Chester Washington, Thomas Washington, Muddy Waters (last seen in "Travelin' Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall"), Howlin' Wolf (ditto), Fred White, John White, Mimi White, Bill Whitten, Deniece Williams, Allee Willis, Wolfman Jack, Andrew Woolfolk

and Black Eyed Peas, Cameo, The Commodores, Gap Band, Brothers Johnson, Kool & the Gang, Pointer Sisters. 

RATING: 7 out of 10 meditation sessions

Sigourney Weaver, the Most Iconic Action Heroine

Year 18, Day 182 - 7/1/26 - Movie #5,362 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #1

BEFORE: After months of planning and preparation, the DOC BLOCK is finally here! Because of the way the linking worked out, I had this film at the top of the order practically from the start, and then when I learned that Sigourney Weaver had a role in the new Star Wars movie, well then by linking to THAT film I was really killing two birds with one stone, I could just keep the docs in the order I planned, no need to re-shuffle anything. Umm, except for a couple of exceptions, like I had one doc in the middle of things that I moved to the final slot, just to increase my chances of getting a good outro for the Block. And as I stated recently, I had maybe 43 or 44 Docs in the Block, which I have now bumped up to a very solid FIFTY, which should work out unless the linking fails and I have to cut something. 

But let's hope for the best - let me just do a quick check of my numbers for the rest of the year, I've got just under 140 slots left, if I use 50 of them for the Doc Block that will leave 90 slots. That could mean 30 for September, 30 for October, that should leave me 10 for November, 10 for December, and 10 for late August, if needed. Yeah, the math kind of works out, even if I don't know WHAT I'll be watching in those months yet. OK, we're good to go. 

So Sigourney carries over from "Avatar: Fire and Ash" - Now here's the linking for July, this should get me more than halfway through the Doc Block: Barack Obama, Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, John Lennon, Dinah Shore, Dick Clark, David Bowie, Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Kenan Thompson, Lorne Michaels, Conan O'Brien, Sean Penn, Sandra Bernhard, Johnny Carson, Paul Reubens, Dan Rather, Bill Clinton, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, David Lynch, Carl Reiner and Carol Burnett. Now that seems like an odd assortment of people to bring to the party. Speaking of parties, how about a belated birthday SHOUT-out to Dan Aykroyd, born on July 1, 1952 and appearing in "Ghostbusters" footage today...

The other programming note is that I did NOT take the time to re-organize the Block by subject matter, last year I put all the docs about musicians together, all the docs about athletes together, and so on. There was no need to do that this time around, because some of the linking here is SO niche that I felt if I re-organized everything, the chain was likely to break at some point - look, I've got a framework with a working chain already, so I'm just going to roll with it, but we're going to be bouncing around a LOT with the subject matter. The unifying factor this year seems to be that these people and things are very uniquely American - well, at least most of them are, there are some Canadian-Americans, one Italian and a Swedish pop group thrown into the mix, but mostly it's about American stuff like rock music, baseball and Hollywood stars. 

But since I have FIFTY docs coming up, and since it is America's 250th birthday, let me add a new feature for the semi-quincentennial. I can't promise I can keep this up for all 50, but let's try a segment I call "Get to Know a State", here are some facts and figures and things I made up about my first profiled state, NEW YORK. 

Date admitted to the U.S. July 26, 1788 (the 11th state, but come on, really it's #1)

Claim to fame: Sigourney Weaver was born there

Nickname: Empire State 

Favorite "Star Wars" movie: Episode V, obviously

Prevalent language: All of them

State Motto: "Excelsior", which is Latin for "You talkin' to me?"

State Flower: Rose
State Fruit: Apple (as in "The Big Apple")

State Reptile: Snapping turtle (don't ask me how I know this...)

State Bird: Eastern Bluebird

State Insect: Ladybug (some of which were once Manbugs)

State Mammal: North American beaver (too easy)

State Tree: Sugar Maple 

State Beverage: Milk (Yeah, right, really, it's Long Island Ice Tea)

Notable Sports Teams: None that come to mind, maybe the Buffalo Bills or New York Liberty?

Fun Fact: New York City was once the U.S. capital, the first one, but then it decided it was too cool for the job, also there was no chance for advancement and the pay was horrible so it quietly quit and let Philadelphia take over. 

Seriously, though, I've lived in New York City for 40 years now, and so I know there are really TWO different New York States of Mind - there's NYC & Long Island and then everything else is "upstate" - some people supposedly live north of Yonkers, but this is as yet unconfirmed. I've been all over the state, to Cooperstown, Lake George, Rhinebeck/Kingston, and as a kid my family took me to Ithaca, Rochester, Niagara Falls and Fort Ticonderoga. I would like to visit Woodstock and/or Tarrytown and maybe the Finger Lakes someday. Especially the Middle Finger Lake. New York State is also known for the invention of Buffalo Wings, the Garbage Plate (Rochester) and just ONE restaurant in NYC is where lobster newburg, eggs benedict and baked alaska were first served. That's Delmonico's, which has been open since 1837!

NYC is also the culinary home of bagels, pizza, cheesecake, pastrami sandwiches and black and white cookies, and that's just for starters. Every type of cuisine - Chinese, Indian, Japanese, deli - is available there, sometimes 24/7. How can you not love that? Come hungry, leave happy. Just don't get me started about the abomination called Manhattan Clam Chowder. 

THE PLOT: This German documentary explores the career and films of Sigourney Weaver, classifying her as the Most Iconic Action Heroine of all time. 

AFTER: There's some precedent for this, of course - two years ago the first film in my Doc Block was the one about Sylvester Stallone, and last year it was the film about Faye Dunaway. This kind of seems right in line with that, Sigourney Weaver is maybe part Faye and part Sly, if that makes sense. Dramatic actress plus action star, all in one package, which is kind of the point of this German documentary. This came into my possession because the PBS station here in NYC ran it on a double-bill with "Gorillas of the Mist" one Saturday night, and I figured I'd just grab it and pair it something else, like maybe the "American Masters" profile of Marlee Matlin, which of course they have not rerun since. C'est la vie - I don't miss out on documentaries, if they're not streaming somewhere then THEY have missed out on being part of my Doc Block. 

I've seen searching for the proper word for this kind of documentary, one that uses mostly archive footage, maybe they interview one or two people who happen to be available (and will sit down for an interview for free, or close to it). I mean, we have "Rockumentary" for docs about rock music, we have "Mockumentary" for staged docs like "This is Spinal Tap", in my mind I was calling these "Schlockumentaries", but that's not really fair, they do serve a purpose as they make my linking possible, even if they're not ground-breaking in any way. But they do pay fees for the licensing of footage and music, so I suppose they're good for the movie-studio economy and they run a TON of them on channels like AXS, Fuse and once in a while, PBS. (That means I already own the films, as PBS is owned by us all, so I might as well record them.). Well, damn, the word "Stockumentary" was RIGHT THERE, so from now on, around these parts and soon, hopefully everywhere else, that will be the new name for docs comprised mainly of archive footage from other films and other interview sources. 

Well, it's good to know that Sigourney herself was not inconvenienced in any way by the making of this German doc, they did sit down with some of her co-stars from this weird French comedy series that she appeared in, in which she poked a bit of fun at her non-reputation as a spoiled Hollywood star. Then they used a bunch of footage of her on various red carpets, attending the Cannes Festival, then of course a ton of dramatic movies that didn't do much bank, but really what they want to concentrate on here is the big franchises - "Alien", "Ghostbusters", and "Avatar", now of course we can add "Star Wars" to that list, but that happened after this doc was made. Really, nobody has a better track record when it comes to franchise films, even Stallone only had two, "Rocky" and "Rambo", maybe you can add "The Expendables" in there if you want. But Sigourney can do it all, from horror-scifi to comedy-scifi to fantasy-scifi. 

Her parents were Pat Weaver, who literally invented "The Today Show", her mother was an English actress named Elizabeth Inglis, and her uncle was Doodles Weaver, who performed in Spike Jones' band on old novelty records. Born in New York City, as mentioned above, she's famous for a number of films set in NYC, like "Ghostbusters" and "Working Girl". Her first name used to be Susan, but she re-named herself after a character from "The Great Gatsby". After doing some acting in NYC prep schools, she attended Sarah Lawrence College but transferred to Stanford as an English major, then got a Master's from Yale School of Drama in just 2 years. In 1974 she made her Broadway debut (acting opposite Ingrid Bergman!) and then her first movie role was of course "Annie Hall", a tiny character out on a double-date with Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.  

Everything changed, of course, with the release of "Alien" in 1979, Ridley Scott's sci-fi/horror ensemble piece, and the sequel directed by James Cameron - picking up as an action hero where Carrie Fisher left off and then like REALLY running with that. She kept working in both stage and screen, movies like "The Year of Living Dangerously" and plays like "Hurlyburly" and works of Christopher Durang and Stephen Sondheim. All that led to "Ghostbusters", "Gorillas in the Mist", "Working Girl", "Dave", "Death and the Maiden", "Copycat" and "The Ice Storm", some of which are mentioned here in this stockumentary. Three Oscar nominations, no Oscar (yet) but she has won a BAFTA, a Grammy and two Golden Globes. SEVEN Golden Globe nominations and four Emmy Award noms, obviously a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The film really makes a case for her being one of the most successful actresses of all time, and it's hard to disagree. 

There's plenty of movies they didn't even get to, like "Heartbreakers", "The Village", "Wall-E", "The Tale of Despereaux" and "Galaxy Quest". Near the end of this doc she's seen speaking out in defense of equality (gay rights, gorilla habitat conservation and preserving the oceans are among her supported causes, and she's jokingly introduced as a future President of the U.S. Sigourney for President? Well, I suppose we all know we could do a lot worse, and we have.

Directed by Bärbel Merseburger-Sill

Also starring Carlo Chratian, Matthias Harder, Valerie Steele, Neil deGrasse Tyson, 

with archive footage of Woody Allen (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "The House of Mirth"), Ursula Andress (last seen in "The Kid Stays in the Picture"), Marlon Brando (last seen in "God Is the Bigger Elvis"), James Cameron (last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Veronica Cartwright (last seen in "The Children's Hour"), Chevy Chase (last seen in "Pee-Wee As Himself"), Doris Day (last seen in "Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story"), Kevin Dunn (last seen in "Gridiron Gang"), Carrie Fisher (last seen in "Music by John Williams"), Jodie Foster (last seen in "Nyad"), Gal Gadot (last seen in "Heart of Stone"), Mel Gibson (last seen in "Force of Nature"), Cary Grant (last seen in "Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 24 Frames"), Pam Grier (last seen in "The Package"), Melanie Griffith (last seen in "Martha"), Linda Hamilton (last seen in "Terminator: Dark Fate"), Gregory Hines (also seen in "Music by John Williams"), Ian Holm (last seen in "Night Falls on Manhattan"), Ernie Hudson (last seen in "Champions"), Rock Hudson (last seen in "Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed"), Gale Anne Hurd (last seen in "De Palma"), John Hurt (last seen in "Hercules" (2014)), Scarlett Johansson (last seen in "Jurassic World: Rebirth"), Angelina Jolie (also last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Milla Jovovich (last seen in "No Good Deed" (2002)), Diane Keaton (last seen in "Love the Coopers"), Ben Kingsley (last seen in "Jules"), Kevin Kline (last seen in "The Extra Man"), Yaphet Kotto (last seen in "Live and Let Die"), Frank Langella (last seen in "Draft Day"), Brie Larson (last seen in "Stan Lee"), Janet Leigh (last seen in "The Fog" (1980)), Joel David Moore (also carrying over from "Avatar: Fire and Ash"), Rick Moranis (last seen in "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves!"), Carrie-Anne Moss (last seen in "Disturbia"), Bill Murray (last seen in "The Phoenician Scheme"), Helmut Newton, Barack Obama (last seen in "Mile 22"), David Hyde Pierce (last seen in "Vampire's Kiss"), Paul Reiser (last seen in "The Book of Love"), Ron Perlman (last seen in "Conan the Barbarian" (2011)), Harold Ramis (last seen in "Belushi"), Winona Ryder (last seen in "Homefront"), Arnold Schwarzenegger (also last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Martin Scorsese (last heard in "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu"), Jim Simpson, Tom Skerritt (last seen in "A Hologram for the King"), Harry Dean Stanton (last seen in "Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project"), Uma Thurman (last seen in "The Life Before Her Eyes"), Sam Worthington (also carrying over from "Avatar: Fire and Ash")

RATING: 6 out of 10 photography sessions with Helmut Newton

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Year 18, Day 181 - 6/30/26 - Movie #5,361 - FATHER'S DAY FILM #14

BEFORE: So there's this guy on Instagram (and I assume on TikTok and YouTube, too) who posts videos of what he eats - sure, lots of people do that now, and some people are speed eaters and some people are eating for quantity (mukbang?) and some people are shilling for restaurants and some people are protein maxxing - sure, it's a great big wonderful and confusing world of food videos. But this one guy fascinates me because he's obviously overweight, and he goes to fast food restaurants and orders like one of everything, which causes a lot of rage-baiting in the comments. You know the guy who says "Moooood" before he starts and also says "you guys" after every sentence - but he also says, "Watch me eat all this food in the next video" and then maybe there is no next video, so is he really eating all of that? I was raised to be skeptical, but yeah, considering his size, probably. But the videos are still framed as his "weight loss journey" and sometimes he says he's going to be on a strict diet for the next week, so that's an excuse to eat four pizzas and three ice-cream sandwiches in a video before the diet starts. 

That's kind of where I stand with narrative films, after tonight I kick off a 50-film Doc Block, you know, for Amurica, to celebrate the semi-quincentennial, but before I go on a narrative story diet, I'm going to binge out by watching both a "Star Wars" film and the latest "Avatar" sequel, which just made it to streaming on Disney Plus. So "Moooood, you guys, we're going to watch a documentary about Sigourney Weaver... AND THEN a documentary about Earth, Wind & Fire... AND THEN a documentary about the movie "Jaws"...  AND THEN...

Seriously, though, Sigourney Weaver carries over from "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu". And here are the format stats for June, which ends today, and I'll post the planned linking for July tomorrow. It's not 100% solid, like a few things could still change, but here's hoping I don't have to move too many things around during the coming month.

15 Movies watched on cable (saved to DVD): Cleaner, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, 47 Ronin, Good Fortune, Agent Cody Banks, Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, How I Live Now, On Chesil Beach, Inside, The Legend of Ochi, Aftersun, The Duke, Golda, Eddington, Freaky Tales

6 watched on Netflix: Back in Action, The Rip, Over the Moon, The Outrun, Denial, Caught Stealing

1 watched on Amazon Prime: Playdate
2 watched on Hulu: Big Fat Liar, The Man in My Basement

1 watched on YouTube: The Last Station
1 watched on Disney+: Avatar: Fire and Ash

1 watched on Peacock: Hamnet

1 watched in theaters: Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

28 TOTAL

FOLLOW-UP TO: "Avatar: The Way of Water" (Movie #4,520)

THE PLOT: Jake and Neytiri's family grapples with grief, encountering a new, aggressive Na'vi tribe, the Ash People, who are led by the fiery Varang, as the conflict on Pandora escalates and a new moral focus emerges. 

AFTER: We have a new leader for LONGEST movie of the year, this one weighs in at 3 hours and 18 minutes, or 198 minutes, which is longer than "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning", which was ONLY 170 minutes long. Jeezus, Tom Cruise, that's not even three hours long, are you even TRYING? James Cameron just schooled you in how to give the moviegoer more bang for their buck, and also make it impossible for a movie theater to schedule this film more than four times a day. How is a movie theater supposed to make money from this? Oh, right, by selling overpriced popcorn, soda and candy.  Well, that's very American, give people salty snacks and sugar water, ruin their health and also overcharge them for doing so. OH NO, you can't bring in bags of popcorn and soda you just bought at the corner store, you have to buy all your food and drinks at the theater itself, because the margins are so tight and they have to kick nearly all of the profit from tickets sales back to the film distributors, so that's really why movie theater snacks are so regulated and also expensive. 

But let's get back to how freakin' LONG this movie is - I could not finish it in one night, I had to save the final hour (the final battle) for this morning. To be fair, I did work late at the theater Monday night, I was pretty tired when I got home. But still, I persisted and watched about 65-68% of "Fire and Ash" before calling it a night. I would have preferred to watch the last hour on my computer, which has a full-screen mode, rather than on my phone, which does not. OK, my phone does have full-screen, but phone full-screen is much smaller than computer full-screen. 

Please, please, let THIS be the last "Avatar" movie - there have been three very long films in this franchise so far, and all together that's a trilogy that would take up too much of anyone's time to re-watch. I don't think I ever re-watched the FIRST "Avatar" movie, I only saw it once and then I was perfectly happy waiting 13 years for the sequel, and now I've only waited THREE years for the sequel to that. We don't need any more movies in this series!  Rumor has it that James Cameron wants to release at least two more, in 2029 and 2031, so realistically, expect them to be finished in like 2047 and 2050. I feel like a lot of this story has been going around in circles - Sully gets captured, Sully argues with humans, Sully gets violent, Sully breaks free and escapes. Repeat as necessary.  

OK, I guess they keep adding different clans, like in today's movie they added a fire-based clan, which kind of balances out the water-based Na'vi clan they added in the last film. Should we expect an earth-based clan in the next one, like they live underground or they live in mud? I think a better idea would be to end the series after three, because "Fire and Ash" feels kind of like the equivalent of "Return of the Jedi" in the "Star Wars" franchise, it's a wrapped-up storyline, maybe, and a lot of things feel like they sort of came full circle, so maybe just take a break here?  We had "ROTJ" released in 1983 and as far as we knew THEN, that was it for the "Star Wars" franchise, there wasn't even word of another film being made until 1997 when we learned that Episode 1 would be coming out in 1998. "Avatar" could maybe benefit from a similar 15-year break.  

Don't get me wrong here, I think these "Avatar" films are quite amazing, even if they're not 100% my cup of tea. There are still narrative plot-holes, specifically regarding how humans got so far from Earth in the first place, like that should have taken hundreds of years for them to travel that far, unless they invented hyperspace travel. Also, how do they communicate with home base on Earth, if they're so far away? Also, does anyone remember what the goal was, in trying to take over Pandora? Does anyone remember unobtainium, the most stupidly-named MacGuffin in film history? I think in the second film the goal of the humans taking over changed, and they started hunting the whale-like Tulkuns, because there was something they could harvest from the Tulkuns that was even more valuable? I forget, though, what was it? 

This is a very American attitude, we see another planet, somebody's homeland, something filled with natural resources, and we just say, "Oh, yeah, we want that." And in so doing, we feel that we're entitled to it, manifest destiny, or just plain greed or jealousy, but you know, even if we realize that it belongs to someone else, we still want it, and therefore we think we need it. It's almost exactly why Europeans colonized America, and screw the indigenous peoples, anyway. The Na'vi are still serving as a de facto symbol of Native Americans, a people who are very in touch with the spiritual world, who love and respect animals, who have a sense of honor and decency and rules to live by - also far too trusting of American humans at first, and they learned the hard way how incorrect that was. 

I'm sure it's a great, big, beautiful world with many more sections to explore, but come on, let's give it a rest for a while, I'm exhausted....

Directed by James Cameron (director of "Avatar: The Way of Water")

Also starring Sam Worthington (last seen in "Lift"), Zoe Saldana (last seen in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"), Stephen Lang (last heard in "My Love Affair with Marriage"), Oona Chaplin (last seen in "What If"), Kate Winslet (last seen in "Lee"), Cliff Curtis (last seen in "A Thousand Words"), Joel David Moore (last seen in "Avatar: The Way of Water"), Brendan Cowell (ditto), Britain Dalton (ditto), Trinity Jo-Li Bliss (ditto), Bailey Bass (ditto), Filip Geljo (ditto), Duane Evans Jr. (ditto), Dileep Rao (ditto), Kevin Dorman (ditto), Alicia Vela-Bailey (ditto), Johnny Alexander (ditto), Phil Brown (ditto), Robert Okumu (ditto), Jeremy Irwin (ditto), CCH Pounder (last seen in "The Naked Gun"), Edie Falco (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), Jemaine Clement (last seen in "A Minecraft Movie"), Giovanni Ribisi (last seen in "Strange Darling"), David Thewlis (last seen in "Macbeth"), Jack Champion (last seen in "Freaky Tales"), Jamie Flatters (last seen in "The School of Good and Evil"), Matt Gerald (last seen in "The Minus Man"), Daniel Lough, Keston John (last heard in "The Wild Robot"), Jamie Landau, Graham Vincent, Joel Tobeck (last seen in "The Water Horse"), Shane Rangi, Grant Roa, Howard Cyster, Laz Alonso (last seen in "Wrath of Man"), Wes Studi (last seen in "Being Flynn"), Dai Daniel.

RATING: 7 out of 10 underwater spirit trees

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Year 18, Day 180 - 6/29/26 - Movie #5,360 - FATHER'S DAY FILM #13 - WATCHED ON 6/10/26

BEFORE: OK, so full disclosure, I snuck out to the movies a couple of weeks ago and saw the new "Star Wars" movie - it's probably the LONGEST I've ever waited to see a movie from this franchise since the whole damn thing started, almost FIFTY years ago now. Honestly I don't remember how long "Episode IV: A New Hope" was in theaters before I saw it, my parents took a lot of convincing in those days if I wanted to see something that wasn't a Disney animated feature, I was only eight years old when "Star Wars" started up. But yeah, if you're going to transition out of kiddie movies and into the real hard-core stuff, that's the film you probably want to mainline, it's a gateway movie but I have to warn you, that's a real easy path to addiction, you're going to find yourself going to the theater again and again and again over your whole lifetime. What's worse is getting so hooked on the space junk that you actually consider a career in film production and you make your life decisions based on that, it can really mess you up, I can tell you firsthand. I'm only about 400 days clean myself, which means I get a chip or something, right?  (My name is John, I'm a former filmworker, it's been 400 days since I worked on a movie, but I'm still watching them every night and I feel the urge to produce again...)

If I've done this right, Pedro Pascal carries over from "Freaky Tales". 

FOLLOW-UP TO: "Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker" (Movie #3,396)

THE PLOT: Once a lone bounty hunter, Mandalorian Din Djarin and his apprentice, Grogu, embark on an exciting new adventure, hunting down Imperial warlords for the New Republic.

AFTER: I was very excited when I learned that Sigourney Weaver would be joining the "Star Wars" franchise, not just because she's a great actress, strong female figure, somebody on a par with Carrie Fisher, Natalie Portman, etc - but for me personally, I had a documentary about her sitting at the TOP of my Doc Block plan. Now part of this was just the way that the linking was going to shake down, but then once I saw today's film, it made my life so much easier, I already had my entry point to the upcoming chain. So all I had to do now was get HERE by way of Pedro Pascal, and it kind of took me all of June to do that, I really sort of had to bend my plans over backward to get here in basically three weeks' time. But I made it!

In the days that came after the release of this, the first "Star Wars" film we've been given in seven years, a lot of people complained that this one was too derivative. Please note that these are the SAME people who would complain online if the new "Star Wars" film was too much like the ones that have come before. So they want something new, but not TOO far out there, so new-ish? So this is kind of why every new character is sort of a riff on an older, established character - the Mandalorian has armor which is sort of like Boba Fett's, only better. And Grogu is sort of like Yoda, only cuter. The big cave-snake is kind of like a dianoga meets a krayt dragon, and that's a design choice that's pretty well calculated. They use the Hutts as characters, because that's easier than establishing a new species or a new gang of criminals. So what you end up with, therefore, is something that's a patchwork assembly of a bunch of things we've kind of seen before, but at the same time, that sets this film firmly in the Star Wars Universe. 

We still don't know the complete origin of Grogu, of course - they didn't explain this during the "Mandalorian" streaming series, and they're not going to explain it now. It doesn't matter where he came from, only that he's here. It would ruin the mystery if they named his exact species or said that Yoda had a fling with Yaddle but the Jedi back then didn't believe in attachments, so they just kept it casual. He got rescued from the Jedi temple before Order 66, that's all you need to know, Din Djarin is his father now, even though Grogu will outlive him, by like a lot. Stop asking so many questions, just roll with it, not everything needs to be fed to us as if we're hungry baby birds. 

It's good to see Din working for the New Republic, though - and tracking down Imperial fugitives for them so they can't work on re-forming the Empire or becoming rogue warlords on various planets in the Outer Rim. The sabacc deck of the wanted Imperials feels like a direct reference to the playing cards used to keep track of the Iraqi warlords during the real-life Gulf Wars. Anyway it seems the former Rebel Alliance has a handle on things and pays pretty well, so all of that feels like progress. Din and Grogu have a little homestead on a remote planet, I think they bought that with the bounties earned during Season 3 of the show. The rumor going around was that the plot of this movie would have been used for Season 4, but was compressed into a solo movie - I don't see how that's possible, there simply aren't enough twists and turns here to fill a TV season, but there are plenty for a two-hour film. 

And there's a new take on the Hutts, too, which you probably heard about already - we were introduced to a baby Hutt, Jabba's offspring, in the initial "Clone Wars" animated film, and now he's all grown up and trying to be better than his father. (Umm, yeah, Hutts can actually change their gender at different times in their lives, so we're not sure if Jabba is Rotta's father or mother. Let's say father, it's just easier, plus it fits with my theme, and this could be the LAST Father's Day film for the month, unless tomorrow...). Din Djarin is now tasked with rescuing Rotta the Hutt from captivity on the moon Shakari, where he's forced to fight gladiator battles in a sort of intergalactic WWE. (Hey, remember that scene in the first "Star Wars" where R2D2 played Holochess with Chewbacca? Yeah, it's exactly like that.). If Din can rescue Rotta, as a favor to the Hutt Twins (Jabba's replacements) then they'll work with the New Republic and divulge the location of the former Imperial Admiral Coin. It's a quid pro quo, of sorts.

A couple of problems arise when Din attempts his rescue. First he tries to buy out Rotta's wrestling contract from Lord Janu, only that's not for sale. Janu's planning a big match for Rotta's last fight, but the fix is in, there's no way he can survive, so really it's a death-match, and fans around the galaxy are ordering the Pay-Per-View, so no dice. Din also tries to convince Rotta that Janu doesn't have his best interest at heart, there's no way he'll ever be released from his contract unless he dies, and by the way, that's part of the plan. Rotta refuses to believe him, but he changes his tune during the gladiator match when he realizes it's a Royal Rumble, all the giant monsters in the galaxy against him. No worries, it's a Mandalorian and Hutt team-up that will save the day, win the match and also rescue Grogu from his adorable little cage. OK, so a few monsters got loose and terrorized civilians on Shakari, it's a small price to pay, anyway, Din's not getting paid to save civilians, he's only getting paid to deliver a Hutt. (You get your Hutt in 30 minutes or it's free, right?)

Rotta claims that being delivered to the Hutt Twins will be another death sentence for him, so he pleads with Din to not deliver him as planned - anyway Rotta's got the intel Din needed to find Coin, so sure, why not double-cross the Hutts? They were probably planning to double-cross Din, anyway, because they're Hutts. Din instead relies on a team-up with Zeb (an important character from the "Rebels" show who wasn't important enough to make it to the "Ahsoka" show) and they call an audible by going straight to attacking Coin's stronghold, which is pretty elegant, it cuts out the middle man and Din is able to deliver the highest card in that sabacc deck straight back to New Republic Headquarters.  But working his way up the chain of a crime organization, that's when you realize that this "Star Wars" movie is also kind of a Jason Statham movie. One-man army and all that.

Great, that wraps up the movie early, we can all go home and get some... wait, don't forget about the Hutt Twins, who do not like being double-crossed. Plus they have a bunch of bounty hunters at their disposal, so they send Embo to find Din and Grogu at their quaint little homestead on that remote planet, and that's when you realize that this "Star Wars" movie is also kind of a John Wick movie. Dozens of assassins trying to earn the same prize and all that. 

Embo attacks Din and delivers him to Nal Hutta, leaving behind Grogu and four small Anzellans (think Babu Frik from Episode IX) who were modifying his new Razor Crest spaceship to follow after and try to initiate a rescue. Things do not go well, because the Hutt Twins remove Din's helmet, which is a breach of the Mandalorian Code, and they intend to slowly torture Rotta for the next hundred years or so (remember the Sarlacc pit from Episode VI, something like that). They toss Din into a pool beneath their throne room (remember the Rancor pit from Episode VI) and he has to battle a giant Dragonsnake. Mando is saved by Grogu and the Anzellans, but is bitten by the Dragonsnake in the process, and hovers near death. Grogu, however, believes he is only "mostly dead" and tries to find him an antidote after they escape. 

(I think we all know the deal now when it comes to the Mandalorian - Pedro Pascal is NOT in the armored suit, not most of the time anyway. He provides the voice of the character, in the same way James Earl Jones always did the voice of Darth Vader. He does appear on screen for a couple of minutes, after the Hutts remove his helmet - but most of the time there are two professional stunt-men who do all of the physical stuff, and one of them is John Wayne's grandson or something. But at least they're getting screen credit now for their work, just like David Prowse did for being the physical body in the Darth Vader suit. Yeah, that was a guy who was very surprised when he finally saw Episode IV on the screen that his character sounded nothing like him, here he spoke all the lines on set and none of his dialogue was in the final film. Oh, well...)

It all builds to a climax as The Mandalorian, Grogu and their Hutt friend take on the Twins, Embo and a droid army (hey, remember the droid army from Episode I? Yeah, just like that, they're back). Meanwhile the Anzellans flew off to get reinforcements from the New Republic, and they return with the squadron comprised mostly of Lucasfilm employees making cameos, imagine that. I mean, there's power and there's power - in the future all of these visual effects guys will use AI to put themselves into EVERY movie, so sure, why not start now? I've got a bit of an issue with an overabundance of crew cameos here, but you know, George Lucas put his own kids into "Star Wars" movies and eventually made a cameo himself in Episode III, so sure, there's a bit of a precedence. Hell, even in the first "Star Wars" film the producer's daughter played a Jawa, nepotism is real and has always been part of the "Star Wars" universe. 

Anyway, it's fine, I'll take whatever "Star Wars" film they want to make for me, no complaints. If you really want to know why there's no fourth season of "The Mandalorian" it has more to do with the Hollywood labor disputes of 2023. If those hadn't happened, we'd all be watching season four on Disney Plus right now, but instead we have this film. It's fine. So it's the lowest grossing "Star Wars" film since "Solo", well that's kind of what you get when you Disney-fy the franchise. If you just want to make movies that appeal to kids, sure, it's going to hurt at the box office. Just think about that for a bit, Lucasfilm, you know what you have to do - you can have your puppet show but you've got to add in some stuff for the adults, the people who were kids back in the day and went to see Episodes 4, 5 and 6 in the theaters about 20 times each. But I suppose we're all in our 50's now, at least, and we'll probably all just watch this one ONCE in the theater and then catch it again on streaming. It's a different world now, just saying. 

Directed by Jon Favreau (director of "Cowboys & Aliens")

Also starring Brendan Wayne (last seen in "Cowboys & Aliens"), Lateef Crowder (last seen in "Triple Frontier"), Sigourney Weaver (last seen in "Butterfly in the Sky"), Jonny Coyne (last seen in "Secrets & Lies"), Matthew Willig (last seen in "Term Life"), Hemky Madera (last seen in "The Happytime Murders"), Cullen Douglas (last seen in "Love Liza"), Nigel Gibbs (last seen in "Eagle Eye"), Bahia Haifi, Ajay Mehta (last seen in "Too Big to Fail"), Peter Breitmayer (last seen in "A Serious Man"), Rose Portillo (last seen in "The Mean Season"), Joel Stoffer (last seen in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"), Sonny Saito (last seenin "Letters from Iwo Jima"), Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (last seen in "Robocop" (2014)), Landis R. Fields IV

with the voices of Steve Blum (last heard in "Shazam!"), Shirley Henderson (last seen in "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy"), Stephen McKinley Henderson (last seen in "Good Fortune"), Martin Scorsese (last seen in "Beatles '64"), Jeremy Allen White (last seen in "Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere") and cameos from Doug Chiang, Deborah Chow, Lee Isaac Chung, Anthony Daniels (last seen in "A Disturbance in the Force"), Dave Filoni (ditto), Rick Famuwiya, 

RATING: 8 out of 10 snowtroopers (Hey, remember when they attacked the rebel base on Hoth in Episode V? Yeah, kinda like that...)

Freaky Tales

Year 18, Day 179 - 6/28/26 - Movie #5,359

BEFORE: The end of the month is coming up quickly, just two films to go, then we can start exploring American history and American pop culture through the Documentary Block. So far I have not had to re-organize the list of scheduled films, but I feel I'm jinxing it just talking about it. I will do everything in my power right now to stick with the plan, I have every reason to believe that the chain is solid and will not fall apart on me, but, you know, I've said that before and had to scramble halfway through to fix a bad link. Hopefully there's enough crossover and enough redundancies in the cast lists so if that does happen, I can patch it very quickly and just keep moving on. 

You know what, I've decided to really go for it, if I can just beef up the chain a little bit, I think I can do FIFTY docs, here in this special anniversary year of our country. Yes, I know the country is turning 250, but I simply can't watch that many. I'm going to go for 50 - fifty states, fifty stars on the flag, President Grant is on the $50 bill, what could be more patriotic? I'll probably stay up really late tonight trying to find five more docs that are both interesting and streaming somewhere, and it would be helpful if they were about American stuff, too, but I'm flexible on that, because what is America if not a melting pot? And if I can't make it to 50, if I can get to 49 I can count "The Saint of Second Chances", which I watched back in January. 

Pedro Pascal carries over from "Eddington" and I think you know where I'm heading next after this. I've been taking the long way instead of shortcuts, and so still one very LONG film to watch before I say farewell to the narrative form for the next month and a half. 

THE PLOT: Four interconnected stories set in 1987 Oakland, CA about the love of music, movies, people, places and memories beyond our knowable universe. 

AFTER: I would say that this film might also qualify as a "fever dream" story, like the last two films, only it's a bit too short and it makes just a little too much sense, if you know what I mean. Plus it's based on real specific events, like somebody must have LIVED this, and it's unlikely that anyone would have dreamed this. But then again who knows?  Ah, one of the film's directors grew up in Berkeley and hung out in Oakland, so that tracks - but he would have been only 11 years old in 1987, a bit too young to go to punk concerts or fight against neo-Nazi gangs, but I bet I can tell you what basketball team he rooted for and what kind of music he listened to.

You know, the film doesn't HAVE to ring true, 100% - it can be somebody's unreliable memory about what that town was like in that year, or it can be a fantasy about what it might have been like if you believe in aliens, the untapped power of meditation, and have your own theories about how rap battles got invented. Again, who's to say? As long as it leads to an entertaining film we can take a little walk on the weird side. And we all know from "Pulp Fiction" that separate stories can come together and the same people can pop up again in different situations - what year does "Pulp Fiction" take place, does anybody even care? Some year when boxing matches were a big deal, heroin was the drug of choice and people were nostalgic for the 1950's, dude, that could be ANY TIME, and Tarantino had been writing and refining the story since the 1980's so overall it has this timeless throwback feel that's baked right in. This film is kind of like that, a bit non-linear and ultimately folding back on itself, only transferred to Oakland in a very specific year. 

As for me watching this film RIGHT NOW, at this time of year, at this point in the chain, it's darn near perfect. Part of the film is set during the NBA Playoffs in 1987, which is a real thing that happened, a battle between the Golden State Warriors and the L.A. Lakers in the conference semifinals. Sleepy Floyd was a real NBA player for the Warriors, he'd transferred in from the New Jersey Nets or something, but he does not play himself in this film, he plays a different character (same goes for Too $hort). I can't really confirm whether there was a real-life attempt during this playoff game to rob a bunch of basketball player's homes, because thieves knew that all of the player's families would be at the game, but it's possible. 

The other reason the timing is perfect has everything to do with tomorrow's film, which is set of course in that galaxy far, far away. Today's film has not one but TWO actors known for being in the "Star Wars" franchise, however their characters never met or shared screen-time together. But we can wonder from THIS film what things might have been like if Din Djarin, aka the Mandalorian, ever faced off against Orson Krennic. I mean, Krennic was top-tier in the Empire but maybe he was no good in a fight, different skill-sets and all that. So unfortunately the world may never know, but we can see here that they're both playing similar roles in "Freaky Tales", Ben Mendelsohn played a crooked cop who's the head of a very evil organization, while Pedro Pascal is playing a hired gun, an enforcer type who tracks down people who owe money, essentially a bounty hunter, right? And the ending kind of leads perfectly into the themes of the Mandalorian series, but I don't want to give anything away.  

It's probably a very tough thing, weaving together four separate stories, Tarantino-style, and coming out with something coherent at the end. Like we never really find out HOW all this freaky stuff is happening, like how does the bus take off and fly through the clouds? How did Sleepy Floyd take out an entire band of gangsters, martial-arts style, without ever leaving his house? Umm, astral, projection, sure, but HOW is that possible? For that matter, you might ask how the bad guy just kind of explodes at the end, "Scanners" style. I don't know man, just roll with it maybe, go to the workshop and learn about unlocking the powers of your own mind, I guess. 

Look, it was a different time, back in 1987 - but one thing everybody knew for sure in their hearts was that Nazis are bad, mmKay? Whether you're an NBA star or a punk music fan or a wanna-be female rapper, you come together and you fight back against the Nazis, otherwise they'll take over the whole country, we've seen this happen before. Why the alt-right NeoNazis were allowed to march in the U.S. back in 2021 without people coming together to disband them, or better yet, evict them from the country, I have no idea. If you're looking for people to kick out of the country and send to South America, I say start with the Nazi skinheads. 

Directed by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck  (co-directors of "Captain Marvel" and "It's Kind of a Funny Story") 

Also starring Jay Ellis (last seen in "Somebody I Used to Know"), Normani, Dominique Thorne (last seen in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"), Ben Mendelsohn (last seen in "Killer Elite"), Ji-young Yoo (last seen in "Moxie"), Angus Cloud (last heard in "The Garfield Movie"), Jack Champion (last seen in "Retribution"), Keir Gilchrist (last seen in "The Stanford Prison Experiment"), Marteen, Tom Hanks (last seen in "The Phoenician Scheme"), Too $hort, Sleepy Floyd, Marshawn Lynch (last seen in "Bottoms"), Zack Roberts, LeQuan Antonio Bennett, Michelle Farrah Huang, Dan Marotte, James Coker, Mike Infante, Chachi Delgado, Yong Kim, Amy Bui (last seen in "We Have a Ghost"), Jordan Gomes, Ryan Tasker, Trestin George (last seen in "Fruitvale Station"), DeMario Symba Driver, Tyra Monique, Robert Parsons, Tim Armstrong, Natalia Dominguez, Sedrick Cabrera, Ryan Pratton, Jay Liu, Sam Skolnik, Armand Munoz, D'Angelo Mixon, Max Carpenter, James Asher, Skipper Elekwachi, Michael X. Sommers (last seen in "The Matrix Resurrections"), Cheryl Vienna, Samuel Ademola, Alie Davis, Alexis Zollicoffer, Peter Lee Thomas, Andrew Roach, Chris Mullin, Stephanie Heiner, Glenn Davy, Josh Schell, Brandon C. Davis, Tracy Todd

RATING: 5 out of 10 underdog movies recommended by Hank at the video store