First Time Watches: June 2020

Another month, another bunch of first time watches, and another post about them. That’s where we’re at right now with this little bit of writing here. I’m going to be writing about the first time watches I had throughout the month of June 2020. This won’t be about the rewatches. This will be all about the movies that I saw for the first time. Only those movies will be a part of this.

June has been a busy month. We’re a few days into it as I’ve started writing this. I’m back to work since Ontario has started opening up again. But I’ve still managed to get some movies into my schedule. The world wouldn’t be right without movies. Of course, some of them have fit into the three year-long watching projects I’ve been doing. There have been some sports movies, some international movies, and some movies directed by women. There have also been some movies for my bad movie blog because I’m still doing that.

Again, I’m starting this post during the month of June, so I’m not entirely sure what all of the movies will be. There are only a few upcoming watches that I’ll have any idea about beforehand. Otherwise, I tend to choose as I go. Whatever I feel like seeing is what I end up seeing. I do know a few of them, however, and I’m about to get into them. Why don’t I start already?

2033

My international exploits took me south of south of the border for the first movie of the month. It was set in a dystopian Mexico where religion was outlawed and a general was in charge. A group of rebels came together to start an uprising, with the stepson of the general at their side. For the most part, it was an enjoyable movie with a fully fleshed out future society. The dynamics of the military rule and the religious uprising was something that struck a sweet spot in me. It was spying, fighting, and gunplay. The deaths mattered. They had weight. The only real problem with 2033 was that it was meant to be the beginning of a trilogy. Like any start to a planned trilogy, there was resolution without resolution. The story of getting people to the point of uprising was complete, however there were many loose ends meant to be tied up in sequels. The sequels never came, so those loose ends were left hanging. It needed the sequels that it never got to complete the overall story. That’s too bad because it was an interesting world to explore. More could have been shown.

Biker Boyz

In the early 2000’s, street racing was a big thing in movies. The Fast and the Furious came out in 2001 and spawned a franchise that is still ongoing. Torque was a motorcycle movie from 2004 that poked fun at the Fast and Furious movies, early in their run. A year before that, another bike racing movie came out. It was Biker Boyz. Biker Boyz was filled with a great early 2000s Black cast, some of whom were in the peak of their popularity, and others who would go on to bigger things. Derek Luke, Laurence Fishburne, Orlando Jones, Djimon Honsou, Terrence Howard, Larenz Tate, Tyson Beckford, Kadeem Hardison, Meagan Good, and Lisa Bonet all showed up and were involved in the bike action. The story was pretty generic. Kid wanted to be the best biker. He found out his dad was the king biker. They butted heads until coming to an understanding. But within that generic story was a whole bunch of dumb fun. Great cast, great fun, dumb as rocks. I wouldn’t change it for anything.

The Hottie & The Nottie

Oh gosh. Where do I even start with this one? I’m all for the romantic comedy concept where someone is so obsessively in love with the romantic interest that they don’t realize that the best friend is the person who is perfect for them. It might get annoying at times when, as an audience member, you know early on that the main character should be with the best friend. Their best friend or the love interest’s best friend. Whatever. They are a clueless character and you can see what they can’t for the whole movie. But there’s something about the main character realizing the error of their ways that works for me. It’s a lesson about learning from mistakes and finding out that maybe what they thought was right wasn’t. However, it doesn’t work for me when the story is wrapped up in the right romantic interest only being the right romantic interest after transforming from a “nottie” into a “hottie.” The guy wanted nothing to do with her when she was ugly, but when she got a full makeover, he suddenly saw that her personality was one that he liked. It seemed very shallow. The movie was a horrible moral placed on top of a romantic comedy story that I usually enjoy.

13^th

If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t know a whole lot about Black history until this year. Wasn’t really taught in school and I never sought it out. The most recent Black Lives Matter push opened my eyes to things that I saw but never paid much attention to. One of those things, highlighted by this documentary, was the systemic racism inherent in the justice system. Ava DuVernay put together a great documentary that showed how the 13^th amendment freed slaves as they were known but allowed the prison system to run rampant with a new form of slavery. The current police brutality, specifically against anyone of colour, could be traced back to slavery. The police originated from slave patrols. Laws were made and changed to discriminate against people who weren’t white, allowing people of colour to be imprisoned and used for convict labour. This documentary was a wake-up call that I needed. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Viva Riva!

Out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo came this crime thriller. Riva returned to DCR after spending some time in Angola. He stole gasoline from a violent gang and was going to sell it to make money. The gang followed him, though, and they searched the capital city of Kinshasa, looking for him. For the most part, it was a well-made movie. It had good characters, fine acting, and solid action. But there were some weird things. There was a shot of a woman peeing for some reason. I don’t know why. There was a sex scene through the grate over a window. Again, not sure why. There were things like that scattered throughout the movie that left me wondering what the filmmaker wanted to say. It was fine.

Youngblood

A few years after both being in The Outsiders, Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze reteamed for a hockey movie based in the Canadian city of Hamilton. A farm boy moved to the city to join a team. He got a spot on the roster and soon realized how tough the sport really was. Youngblood was a really Canadian movie, even though it was American produced and American made. It took place in the Canadian Hockey League. It was set in Canada. There were signs for Lotto 649 and Lottario. Those two signs stood out to me more than anything. There was also a young Keanu Reeves in one of his earliest roles, which consisted mostly of peeping on Rob Lowe having sex with the landlady. It wasn’t the best hockey movie ever made, but if you want a hockey movie, it’ll do you just fine.

Dope

I’m a fan of rabbit hole movies where someone finds a world within their world and travels through it, discovering weirder things around every corner. Dope fit right into that type of story. The main character stumbled into the drug world of his local community, meeting all the strange people involved in the drug deals. He almost got murdered, made some great punk music, and learned a lot about himself in the process. It all came together in a final essay scene that was as endearing as it was political. Everything about the movie worked from the acting to the music to the writing. I fell in love early and will surely be watching this one again and again.

 

The Weekend

Sasheer Zamata deserved more from Saturday Night Live. She was on the show for two years and her comedic voice was rarely heard. She was in a few sketches. She starred in a recurring sketch. But very rarely did any of her SNL work feel like her true voice was coming through. Not knowing what to expect from having her in a starring role, I turned on this romantic comedy about four people going to a bed and breakfast and dealing with their relationship drama. It was one of the only times I’ve ever felt the true Sasheer Zamata coming through the screen. I know that could just be the performance. She could easily be playing a character and her true style is completely different. But it felt true. It felt natural. It felt very of her, as though the character was made for her. She should be the star of more films. Her performance here was great. As was the movie.

Eegah

A while back, I found a box set that contained a few box sets in it. One of those box sets was called The Best of the Worst and featured some classic bad movies. By classics, I mean movies from before the 1970s. One of those movies was Eegah, an early 60s horror film about three people who encountered a giant, only to face the giant’s wrath. It featured Richard Kiel before he became famous. It featured the music of Arch Hall Jr. And it featured two extended sequences of a dune buggy speeding through the desert hillscapes. It was doing the dune. The movie wasn’t that good. It was a lower-budget version of King Kong with a tall man instead of a giant ape. I liked the music well enough, but the rest of the movie was a big old pile of mess. I would definitely watch it again if it was with friends, though.

Wadjda

My trip around the movie world took me to Saudi Arabia for this movie about how women were treated in the country. I haven’t experienced life in Saudi Arabia or life as a woman, so it would be difficult for me to fully relate to the movie. I haven’t gone through any of the experiences that the characters went through. However, there was a Saudi Arabian woman directing the film. Her life experience came through the story. She added the perfect amount of realism to it that helped me understand what the characters were going through. It helped me empathize with their plight. Wadjda was a movie that needed to be directed by a woman. Everything would have rung false without that touch. It was a fantastic little film from a corner of the world that wouldn’t normally have this kind of film.

 

The Wedding Year

Sometimes, a movie can make do on an interesting premise. All it must do is follow through on that premise and I’ll likely give it a pass. This one mostly followed through on an idea that I thought was clever. It was about a relationship that played out through a series of weddings that the characters attended. The problem was that the wedding part was only the middle act of the movie. The idea could have been better served had the first and third acts also stuck to the concept. A year of weddings with a year of romantic comedy playing out. The two leads were good and well suited to the material. In the first and third acts, the movie did delve a little too much into music video looking montage at times. I liked it, but probably would have liked it a little more had it hammered that wedding idea home harder.

Me Without You

This was the first true look into the career that Michelle Williams would have. It was an independent British drama about the toxic relationship that two friends had. It played out the relationship through a few different stages of their lives, as one friend eventually pushed back against the other’s manipulative personality. The cast was good, even if Michelle Williams’s accent was a little spotty at times. It might not have been the showiest movie in terms of story action, but the performances more than made up for that. It was all about that acting. It’s worth checking out, though I’ll likely never revisit it.

John Henry

The Terry Crews starring crime drama popped up on Netflix recently, so I decided to give it a whirl. Crews doesn’t normally get the lead role. He’s usually the funny supporting character that gives a little bit of relief from whatever is going on. That wasn’t the case here. He the lead, in a dramatic role. It was completely against what you usually get from the guy. And… It was okay, I guess. It’s nothing against Crews. He did the best he could with the role. It just felt like John Henry was a movie where the director took a back seat so that the cinematographer could get some cool shots. Then, when the film was complete, they realized that the cool shots couldn’t make up for the lack of story, and the movie was hurt by it. That’s a long way of saying that it was style over substance. Not a great one.

Da 5 Bloods

I have liked everything I’ve seen from Spike Lee. His previous movie, BlackKklansman was one of my favourite movies of 2018. I was definitely going to be in for a new movie that he dropped on Netflix. And, for the most part, I enjoyed it. There were good characters, good performances, and a solid enough story. My only real issue was the editing. I understood putting the real world elements into the movie, to highlight the injustice that Black people go through on a daily basis. It was striking imagery that was meant to impact people. It did that. But it also took away from the pacing of certain scenes. As characters talked, flashes of other images would cut in. It would break the flow of the cinematography, which hurt things a little bit. In terms of message, it worked spectacularly. In terms of storytelling, it hurt the movie a little bit. Other than that, it was a pretty fantastic flick. It’s on Netflix, and most people have Netflix, so there’s really no excuse to not see it.

The Fencer

The international journey continued with this Estonian story that was co-produced by Estonia, Finland, and Germany. It was based on the true story of Endel Nelis. He was an Estonian fencer who was forced into the Nazi military when the Germans invaded his home in World War II. He deserted the German army, but that didn’t matter. The post-war Soviet Secret Police were hunting down anyone associated with Nazi Germany. He hid in a small town as a physical education teacher. The town rallied around him when he started a fencing club. The kids were good at it. They were so good that they went to a big tournament and put up a formidable fight. It was basically a ragtag team movie with fencing and a true-life Cold War story. Damn good movie.

Early Man

Aardman is one of the few production companies still doing major feature length stop-motion animated films. They also frequently infuse a British sensibility into things. This one had that sensibility in the jokes, the voices, and the story. It was a soccer movie. Or a football movie, depending on the part of the world you’re from. Some stone age cavemen type people living in a lush valley were forced out of their home and into a desolate wasteland. The only way to get their home back was to beat some Bronze Age people in a soccer (football) match. They brought together their band of misfits to play against the best of the best, hired by the rich Bronze Age leader guy. I loved every minute of the movie and would gladly watch it again.

Dying to Dance

Mary Margaret-Humes was in this. That was the sole reason I watched it. She was Dawson’s mom on Dawson’s Creek, and I was in between seasons of the show, so I checked out everything the actors released from that year. This was a television movie about anorexia in the ballet world. Anorexia can affect a large amount of teens, but the rate is much higher in ballet because the dancers are expected to be small and light. For the most part, this Lifetime film worked. It laid out the problems with anorexia. It showed how bad things could get. It showed the family aspect where the people around her noticed her problems, tried to get her help, and were rejected by the suffering girl. It could have been a devastating movie. It almost got there. But the problem was the Lifetime Network melodrama that found its way in. Overacting and all that stuff. It had potential that it almost met. It never quite got there, though.

Little Monsters

I saw a clip of this movie a while back where a teacher, played by Lupita Nyong’o, was leading a class of young children in single file through a field filled with zombies. That made me want to see the movie. The imagery of children walking through the zombie apocalypse led by their teacher was something I hadn’t seen before. I didn’t know I wanted it until I saw it. I found it on Amazon Prime recently and decided to throw it on for a watch. It was a delight. There was a guy who broke up with his girlfriend and got the hots for his nephew’s teacher. He accompanied the class on a field trip to what was essentially a petting zoo where there would be an appearance by a beloved children’s television host. Then zombies happened, the television host turned out to be a jerk, the teacher became a badass, and the guy learned a lot about caring for people other than himself. It was fun and funny, and featured an important inclusion of Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off. I’m going to be revisiting this one for sure.

Blood Diner

This one, however, I’ll hopefully never have to watch again. Blood Diner was originally conceived as a sequel to Blood Feast by people who saw and loved that 1960s splatter flick. Somewhere along the line, it stopped being a sequel. Instead, it became a movie that had pretty much the same story with an 80s mentality. And a lack of quality. I can see where people would latch onto this one and fall in love with it. It had all the trappings of a cult classic. There were some 80s tunes. There was cannibalism. There was a character who was just a weird life-sized ventriloquist dummy. It just never came together for me the way that it should have. I’m okay never seeing it again.

Stranger Than Fiction

I slept on this comedy classic for far too long. I don’t know what I was thinking. Will Ferrell played a man who discovered that his life was being written by an author. Not just written about, but actually crafted. There was an author writing her next novel, and he was a character. Everything she was writing was happening to him. He could hear her voice as he did things. He fell in love, searched for answers, and ultimately was willing to give his life for a better ending to the novel. It was one of Will Ferrell’s best performances ever. It might be the best he’s done. The romance between his character and the baker played by Maggie Gyllenhaal was fantastic, especially when he gave her a bunch of flours. It was bittersweet in all the right ways. I loved it.

The Forsaken

Filmmakers can be inspired by all kinds of things. Frequently, they get inspired by the movies they saw years before the movies they made. Or they were inspired by movies that came out at the same time that they were making movies. The Forsaken was a horror flick clearly inspired by the desert road horror of the 1980s. Movies like The Hitcher, Near Dark, and The Wraith clearly paved the desert road that The Forsaken sped down. There was a guy driving from the west coast to the east coast for a wedding. He picked up a hitchhiker and they ended up fighting off a bunch of vampires. All of this happened on the open road, through very small towns and roadside motels. It fit well into the early 2000s resurgence of this kind of movie that also included Joy Ride and Jeepers Creepers. When will the next deserted road horror boom come?

And with that road trip, June 2020 came to a close. There were twenty-one first time watches. They ranged from horror to independent drama to romantic comedy. There were many years and many genres spanned. I got through them. I hope you got through this post. It was fun sharing my thoughts on each and every one of the movies with you.

Next month, I’ll be doing the same. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the movies I watched in July. Again, there will be a wide array of genres and years. There will be laughs, scares, ooooohs, aaaaahs, and AAAAAAH!s. Sports and teen movies and international movies and female directed movies will be all over the month. It would be nice if you came back next time to share in the month of first time watches I’ll be having.

Before you go, let me just toss a few plugs in here. I write about bad movies over at Sunday “Bad” Movies. I write about Power Rangers here. You can find me on Twitter here and here, or Instagram here and here. You can find my pal Jaime Burchardt on Twitter. While you’re at it, check out Talk Film Society. They’re frequently doing good things in both written and podcast form. Go find Seequels, a great podcast they put out where Sara, Shak, and Alejandra watch one direct-to-video sequel/prequel/franchise continuation each episode and talk about it. And Billy Zane. They talk about Billy Zane a lot. Check that out. They probably don’t need my recommendation because they’re way more popular that me, but whatever. See you people next time!