It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Natural Wonders of Washington State (1939)*** (out of 4) Fans of James A. Fitzpatrick's TravelTalks series will certainly want to check out this entry as it's one of the best ever made. We visit Washington State to see, as the title says, some "natural wonders" but even though the film at times gets off its subject matter there's still some really beautiful images to take in. Snoquality Falls, Mount Shuksan, Mount Baker volcano and Mount Rainier National Park are a few of the locations that we visit and it's clear that Fitzpatrick wants to bring attention to the beautiful mountaintops covered in snow as well as the white stuff on the ground. One of the funniest bits shows a group of people going down a mountain of snow on their butts. We're shown a group of people putting wax on their behinds then putting a wooden board down their pants so that the wax can be ironed to where it gets hard and allows them to go down the mountain. I've certainly never seen anything quite like this so at least the short will offer you something new. The rest of the film takes a look at the snow, the waters, the falls and various other sites and in all the glorious Technicolor that the series is best known for. The images are all quite striking as they jump off the screen and you can't help but get caught up in their beauty.