Stranger Than Fiction, #7: A bizarre, tiny time capsule

Is this for you?

If you want a narrative, look elsewhere. This isn't a movie; it's a curiosity cabinet on film. You’ll probably love this if you spend your weekends looking at old black-and-white photos of people doing things that make no sense today. If you need a plot, or even a reason why someone is fishing for pearls in a bathtub, you're going to be bored out of your mind. 🥱

It feels like a fever dream you had after watching Mickey Mouse Classic Shorts and then eating too much cheese. Nothing connects. The camera just points at stuff.

The highlight reel

The artist drawing with a typewriter? That was actually impressive. Who thinks to do that? Most of us just struggle to hit the right keys for an email, and this guy is making art. It’s baffling.

Then there’s the lion cub bathing. Why is the lion in the house? Who is filming this? The movie doesn’t care to explain. It just shows the cub, the water, and moves on before you can ask, 'Wait, is that legal?'

• The mail train is cute, but it’s painfully slow.
• The pet cemetery part is... a bit eerie, actually.
• The blind violin maker is a weird contrast to the rest of the silliness.

The rhythm of this thing is completely busted. One minute you're watching a pearl diver, the next you’re in a one-man town that looks like a set from A Scream in the Night but with zero tension. It's like the editor was just picking random scraps off a cutting room floor and gluing them together.

Some random notes

Charles E. Ford doesn't really 'act' here, he just stands near things. You can tell he’s just as confused as we are. Sometimes he looks directly into the lens like he’s waiting for a cue that never comes. It’s charming in a really awkward way.

I caught myself wondering about the logistics of that battery-powered train. The batteries probably died halfway through the shoot, right? They just didn't show us that part. It feels less like a documentary and more like a collection of 'hey, check this out' moments found in a basement.

Honestly, it’s not a film you analyze. It’s a film you just sort of let happen to you while you eat a sandwich. It’s not profound, it’s just there. Like a weird uncle at a family barbecue who only talks about his stamp collection.