My recent exchange with Alex has led to seek some areas where he and I might be able to agree, and that led me in turn to think about some films that most of us would agree should be supported, films intended for families and children. I have a twelve year old daughter, and have seen a lot of 'children's films' over the last few years, many of them quite excellent, and many of them dreadful. I don't want to necessarily talk about films like Finding Nemo or Cars or similar mainstream films--I loved Nemo, anticipate liking Cars, but y'all know those films. But it seems to me that there a number of terrific films that don't get mainstream attention, that folks on the List may have never heard of, but films that deserve our support. This isn't really about LDS films per se, but our religion is, after all, centered in families. So Alexander Michaletos perhaps this category isn't off-topic. I should note that while none of these films are perfect, they're all quite strong, and they all have the Lexie seal of approval, Lexie being my daughter.

Duma is a Carroll Ballard film; Ballard is better known for directing The Black Stallion (1979), Never Cry Wolf (1983) and Fly Away Home (1996). He specializes, in other words, in lovely, family oriented films about people making some kind of connection with nature. Duma is no exception. It's about the relationship between a young boy and his pet cheetah. Set in South Africa, Xan (Alexander Michaletos, who appears to be about 13), finds a baby cheetah, adopts it, gives it the name Duma, and takes it to his family farm. Xan has a close relationship with his father (Campbell Scott), and under his father's direction, raises Duma, though his father warns him that they'll have to release Duma back into the wild, and even shows Xan on a map a good place where Duma might prosper. Then Xan's father dies, and Xan goes on a quest to return Duma to the wild. Xan's mother, (Hope Davis), is understandably frantic, and her search for her son is one subplot in the movie--another involves Xan's friendship with an African man, Ripkuna (Eamonn Walker) who helps him on the way.

It's a lovely film to watch, and although the plot is both a trifle shopworn and implausible, terrific performances and beautiful shots of the cheetah in full sprint more than make up for it. Lexie found it completely riveting, and I enjoyed it very much. Cheetahs are spectacular creatures, and a bush baby Xan befriends on the way steals the movie. And Walker is tremendous. And it got no marketing at all--so far it's grossed around 800,000 dollars, a paltry amount considering how much effort went into marketing dreck like Cheaper By The Dozen II.

A film by Danny Boyle, who's better known for Trainspotting (1996) and 28 Days Later (2002). Millions is, in other words, a complete departure. A boy named Damien (Alex Etel), a five year old who is quite obsessed with Catholic Saints ever since the death of his mother, is much given to hiding in a playhouse he's built from cardboard boxes. One day, a bag full of money falls through the roof of his playhouse. It's in fact stolen loot, thrown from the train by a criminal, but Damien is convinced that it's a gift from God, and that he's been given the responsibility of doing good with it. His older brother, Anthony, finds out about the money, and as far as he's concerned, it's time to party. The boys' father has moved them to a new neighborhood, and Anthony ingratiates himself with the local boys by buying them all sorts of cool ipods and similar hot toys. Meanwhile Damien looks for poor people he can bless with it. At one point, Damien finds some Mormon missionaries sharing an apartment, is convinced that God wants him to help them, and slips thousands of pounds through their mail slot. The Elders use it to upgrade the apartment's dishwasher, a moment I found quite terrifically funny. In time, Damien's father and his girlfriend get involved, and I found the ending a trifle unsatisfactory. But the movie gets so much right--including the decision to downplay somewhat the efforts of the criminal gang to get their money back, a story element that I felt was handled in a delightfully non-Hollywood manner (I was afraid the movie was going to turn into Home Alone or something)--I really fell in love with it. I love the film's meditation on spirituality, innocence, goodness, kindness. Lexie absolutely loved the movie as well. It's a little preachy in places, but with such good humor and affection for its characters, I found it unobjectionable. It was quite a hit in the UK, but only did around 6 million in the States.

This film is a documentary, and provided the basis for the recent Antonio Banderas movie, Take the Lead (2006). And I hate to say "for a documentary, it's really entertaining," because that implies that docs aren't usually entertaining, which is far from the case. But it's fair to say that children don't see a lot of docs, and don't tend to like them much. This one will change their minds, though.

It follows a group of fifth grade kids in New York as they compete in a city-wide ballroom dance competition. And it's just tremendous. It's got the really short boy who is partnered with one of those girls who got her growth early--she towers over him, and he's got this look of amazement and fear that's just tremendous. It's got this amazingly opinionated and bossy little girl who completely steals the movie, even though she's no great shakes as a dancer. It's got this wonderful, dedicated, a little weepy, very young looking teacher, who you know is a terrific teacher, but who is just that much too idealistic, so her 'I love you guys' speech is rather comical, while also moving and sincere. It's got cool kids who lose it when asked to actually . . . touch . . . a girl. It's got other cool kids who lose it just as badly when told they're going to have to touch boys. It's got kind of geeky kids who find themselves in dance, and it's got this one Dominican kid who, it turns out, is a marvelous dancer, who you really end up rooting for. Lexie thought it was a wonderful movie, so long as we promised we wouldn't make her take ballroom classes. It made 8 million, which is great for a doc, and also less than a sixth than Robin Williams' awful RV made.

I'd love to hear if any of you have similar favorites. These are just a few recent films that I thought got overlooked, but which were also quite lovely.

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Eric Samuelsen
June 6, 2006