KYMM'S 365 DAY MOVIE CHALLENGE: The Point (1971, dir by Fred Wolf, USA) [Based on the music album by Harry Nilsson]

Acid trip? Kid’s film? Harry Nilsson album? All of the above. Ah the 1970’s. . .

I have a habit of starting movie-watching projects, making a spreadsheet (the best part), then abandoning them unfinished, aways meaning to get back to them, but rarely doing so.

At the end of 2020, I thought of a new project that encompasses all of the old ones: 365 Films in 365 Days, watching at least one film a day for 2021.

The idea is that I can use the abandoned project lists as ideas of films to watch, but, and this is crucial, I can also watch whatever I like because I am free and sometimes you just gotta watch what you gotta watch, man.

As I write this, it is February 28 and I have watched 62 films, due to some double features, and I haven’t missed a day! Admittedly, sometimes I am scrolling through the TCM app at midnight, desperately trying to find something that is under 75 minutes, but you see some interesting things that way, and I am here to bring them to your attention. Ready? Then we’ll begin.

Of course, after all that, this first film in question is not a TCM midnight desperation film, but a favourite film of childhood that doesn’t seem to have trickled down to the later generations, but it should have, because it is lovely, Harry Nilsson’s The Point (1971).

In a land where everyone must have a point, and it’s right there on the top of their heads, a little boy called Oblio is born with no point! He wears a pointed cap, but the evil Count has him banished to The Pointless Forest, where he discovers that nothing is really pointless.

Harry Nilsson came up with the concept while on an acid trip, and you can kind of tell, but it is a lovely film with a terrific soundtrack, delightful animation, and some of the best voice actors of the era. It does move at a slower pace than more recent kids films, as us kids of the 1970s had a different attention span, but it is definitely worth watching by viewers of any age. It recently was restored from a 16mm print, is available on a lovely Blu-ray edition if you are an old person who still watches physical media (that is me, I am that old), but is also available on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Vudu, and for rent on iTunes and Apple TV+.

Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” @Kymmz on Facebook, Twitter, and Letterboxd.