Nothing else to say
Pulling off a directorial debut is something I imagine is far from easy for most people.
You need a cast and crew that not only trusts you, but is also talented in their line of work. True, actors who turn directors more than likely pick up some tricks from others they have worked for in the past, though the great teacher known as experience is something yet to be obtained. Perhaps most important, the story they want to tell has to be not only possible to film, but personal to them.
In the past years of movie going (when it was safe to actually go to the movies), I would sometimes actually manage to see so many that I would be able to make up a list of the year’s ten worst films. During the pandemic, I (like many) spent some time watching past movies I have missed out on while trying to watch the new releases. Still, there were some films that stood out to me not as the worst per say so much as they were, in some way shape or form, just did not live up to expectations (though a few were so bad I had little expectations to begin with.)
Here are the six most disappointing films of 2020
J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis was released in the politically intense year of 2016 (though not nearly as much it would seem as 2020 has been). Admittedly, I knew nothing about that until about half way through the film (which I will take all the blame; I suppose I need to get out more.)
From what I have heard, the book talks more about the tales of a young man who grew up in Middleton, Ohio, under the values of his family’s past when they lived in the Appalachia Mountains of Kentucky. From what I have heard, the book also manages to deal with the political climate of the country at large, which may explain some of why the book was a bestseller. I can say for certain that the film adaptation, Hillbilly Elegy, has nothing in it about the political outlook of any kind. In fact, there was more than political commentary that was lost in translation from page to screen.
Despite all the division that the year 2020 has brought us, one thing we all have in common is we all yearn for a form of escapism.
That feeling of “I need a break” has been in our fiber from the beginning (after all, God did rest on the 7th day), yet we can sometimes forget the feeling happens for children as well. They will turn to books, imaginary friends, toys, or movies (guilty as charged to this day). It is told so truthfully in My Neighbor Totoro, easily a film I love to retreat to in times of anxiety and unrest.
As kids, remember how easy it was to make friends?
Perhaps a parent’s friend had kids your age, or you met a new kid on the block. You looked at that kid, and thought “We are about to be friends!”…maybe even “BFFs”. As you got older, you realized hardships would come in the way, and you would either survive them together or, sadly, have to go your own separate ways. Years would go on, and you would meet people you had no intention of being friends with, but God had other plans, and it worked out in the end.
In just over a year, Disney Plus has unsurprisingly joined the ranks of Netflix, Hulu, and others as one of the top tier streaming platforms. It helps when you have not only a vast well of nostalgia in both film and television, but also some original content as well (perhaps most notably The Mandalorian).
Of course, the service does have its fair share of flaws, yet there is one that I find personally irritating. They have catagorized Fantasia (as well as its rather underrated sequel, Fantasia/2000) as a musical. I can understand needing to organize films (anyone who has seen my DVD/Blu Ray collection would attest to that), but I refuse to think of Fantasia as a musical. It is far more than that.
In the classic 1994 film Forrest Gump, there is a brief scene where the titular character is spending the night at the Watergate hotel in Washington, D.C. He calls the front desk, informing them of people with flashlights in a room outside his window “keeping him awake.”
While that is undoubtably not what happened, it was my introduction to the Watergate Scandal. Even nearly half a century later, the events that would lead to President Nixon’s resignation is still regarded as one of the biggest political bombshells the world has ever witnessed, yet it was not as if Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein volunteered knowing what it would eventually lead to.
It has always been at the same street corner, across the street from the water tower and a few blocks from the local mini-golf course of my childhood. To this day, I have seen groups of five or so people with signs, protesting against abortion. It has been so common to me (it still happens to this day) that I find it odd when I don’t see anyone in lawn chairs at that spot.
While I am not sure if that qualifies as a “peaceful protest” (I have never heard of any of them being arrested or anything), I was thinking of it a bit during The Trial of the Chicago 7 (streaming now on Netflix). It focuses on the true story of the men who were brought to trial after being charged with the intention of starting riots during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, even though the protests were meant to be peaceful in their opposition against the Vietnam War.
“Lisa, vampires are make-believe, just like elves, gremlins, and eskimos.”
— Homer Simpson
While they are indeed fictional (unlike the very real eskimos), that does not make vampires any less fascinating. For over a century, we have seen Vampires as not only monsters, but charmers, cereal mascots, teen heart throbs, superheroes (it was announced not long ago that Blade would make his appearance in the MCU), and muppets that helped us count as kids (“Von!” “Two!”…)
It was a spine tingling time as a 13 year old on a Tuesday in June of 2001.
The American Film Institute was revealing their annual Top 100 list that they would do every year. That year’s was entitled 100 Years, 100 Thrills. As the countdown was concluding, I had made a $5 bet with my dad (the most I could afford at that time) over which would be number one. He was going with Jaws, while I was rooting for Psycho. By the end, Jaws was number 2, and I had won five dollars, bragging for some time afterwards.
Nothing else to say