Rambling Film

 Honor isn't everything... Poor Mona. (Aiysha Hart) She's a successful woman from Pakistan living in London, and falls for a Punjabi man, Tanvir. (Nikesh Patel) But her mother (Harvey Virdi) and brother (Faraz Ayub) see this as dishonorable and try to kill her for shaming their family. They hire a nameless bounty hunter (Paddy Considine) to find her after she bolts on them. The film is told out of sequence, so don't assume you know the ending right away. It's very interesting and sad knowing that things like this actually happen. I'm really becoming a big fan of Considine. I haven't seen this guy give a bad performance. All of the cast here really shine, even though there's so much tension going on. It's very bleak and makes for a good, quiet thriller.  Grade: B Memorable Quote: "Come home. For me" - Adel (Shubham Saraf)

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is father/son relationships. The only rule is that they must be biologically related (which unfortunately ruled out one of my favorites, There Will be Blood.) 1) The Music Never Stopped Not enough people saw this wonderful little indie with top notch performances from J.K Simmons and Lou Taylor Pucci. Maybe more people will now that J.K Simmons has finally won an Oscar. 2) The Lion King Simba and Mufasa's relationship is what drives one of Disney's best features. This is still one of my favorites to this day. 3) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi. How about that daddy reveal at the end of Empire Strikes Back? Luke had to rethink his entire strategy after that. It probably has the most famous father/son reveal of all time. 

Should've left town. Father James (Brenden Gleeson) is a kind priest who is told during confession that he will be killed in seven days time. Why? Because the man confessing was raped by a priest when he was a child. That priest is dead, and even if he wasn't, no one cares about bad priests that die. He's going to kill Father James because he's good. The film is very slow, very grey and dreary. It seriously drags its feet. It also has dog death about an hour in that I was not expecting and gaaaahhhhh I hate that! But back to the film, Father James knows who confessed, he lives in a small town. But he doesn't call the police, he doesn't leave town, he just goes about his normal week. Gleeson gives a grand performance, as does the rest of the cast. I can see where this film might not be for everyone with it's pacing, but I enjoyed it for the most part. Even if I was kind of yelling at Father James to leave inside. Recommended: Yes Grade: B...

This felt like the longest Oscar cast ever. Neil Patrick Harris was a shit host, I'm sorry. He's a great singer and showman but when he's not singing he's awkward as hell. The strongest part of this telecast were the Best Original Song performances. "Everything is Awesome" was the highlight of the night. "Lost Stars" is always a beautiful song to hear. Rita Ora has one hell of a voice, and the performance of "Glory" was very moving. Another great part about tonight? BIRDMAN!! Oh that makes me happy. I'm totally fine with not winning that annual pass to my movie theater for correctly predicting the Oscar winners.  The winners are in blue , my thoughts follow in green. Best Picture American Sniper Birdman Boyhood The Grand Budapest Hotel The Imitation Game Selma The Theory of Everything Whiplash Sean Penn took way to damn long to announce the winner, but it was perfect when he finally did. Best Director Alexandro G. ...

The Flick Chicks are women after my own heart, I love dysfunctional families. (Probably because I come from one and it's easier to cope knowing mine isn't the only batshit one out there.) This new blogathon they've set up is a cast-a-thon! Here are the rules: 1. Build a cast for your dysfunctional family from movies ONLY.  You can have as many characters as you like but you must include the following: Lead Character - Generally the most normal of the family and spends a lot of time rolling eyes or telling family members off for their bad behaviour. Inappropriate Mother/Father/Parents - Usually involves oversharing, inappropriate comments, name calling, swearing, drinking and/or drug use etc etc. Stroppy Teenager/Manchild - Either the immature teenager who hates his family or the fully grown manchild who struggles to accept that he is an adult and should behave like one. Uncomfortable Stranger - Usually a new girlfriend/boyfriend of someone in the family who is...

How fitting is it that my 1000th blog post is an Indie Gem. :) Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) have been a couple for nearly 40 years. Once they decide to married, George looks his job teaching at a Catholic school because of it. No longer able to afford their apartment, they are forced to live separately until they find a new one since none of their friends can take them both. George lives with his neighbors (Cheyenne Jackson and Manny Perez), who party way too much, and Ben stays with his nephew's family (Darren E. Borrows, Marisa Tomei, and Charlie Tahan) who let's face it, are all a bunch of chodes.  Lithgow and Molina are really wonderful here. They carry the film and their chemistry is everything. They're honestly the only two likable characters, even when they aren't without their flaws. The rest of the cast is great too, but it's hard to compare them with the leads. The film has good pacing and the story is interesting, though tw...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is Oscar winning films. (And if you're not participating in this, you really should be) The only catch was you had to picture winners from the Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, or Best Foreign Film categories. I decided to choose one from each. Here are my favorites: 1) American Beauty I'm not sure if I'll ever love another movie as much as I love this one. It's been my favorite for years. 2) Life is Beautiful I realized when going through the winners that my favorite foreign films rarely win. This film is my favorite of all the winners. (From the films I've seen, of course) It's brilliant.  3) WALL-E I think this is Pixar's best work, and it's the first time that I can recall watching an animated feature and thinking to myself: "Wow, we have come so far with animation." This is gorgeous.

This film is terrifying. It really is. Alzheimer's is a scary disease, and it does do a good job of showing how devastating it is.  Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is a genius professor who after gradually forgetting things goes to a neurologist and is diagnosed with early on set Alzheimer's. She's 50 years old. This film is about how she and her family, consisting of her supportive but workaholic husband John, (Alec Baldwin) bitchy daughter Anna, (Kate Bosworth) nice daughter Lydia (Kristen Stewart) and might as well by a wall peice son, Tom (Hunter Parrish) deal with it. I think this is an important film, it certainly raises awareness for Alzheimer's, but it can't shake the Lifetime-y feel and the fact that aside from Alice there's not much to the other characters.  I almost hate saying this because it's taking away from the film, but now I'm even more annoyed that Rosamund Pike is going to lose the Best Actress race to Julianne Moore...

Here are my Oscar predictions. I also entered a contest at my local theater where the winner gets a free annual pass, so my need to get these right is even greater! Luckily I'll already have my alcohol ready for when I fail. Best Picture American Sniper Birdman Boyhood The Grand Budapest Hotel The Imitation Game Selma The Theory of Everything Whiplash Who will win: Boyhood Who should win:  Anyone but Boyhood and American Sniper  I kid, not really. Birdman should win, followed by Whiplash Best Director Alexandro G. Iñárritu - Birdman Richard Linklater - Boyhood Bennett Miller - Foxcatcher Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel Morten Tyldum - The Imitation Game Who will win: Richard Linklater Who should win: Alexandro G. Iñárritu.  Linklater will get awarded for being mediocre for twelve years in a row while everyone else who made a good film will get ignored. Best Actor Steve Carell - Foxcatcher Bradley Cooper - American Sniper Benedict Cum...

Okay Daryl, now you have to initiate the next one. The Walking Dead did something shocking you guys, fucking SHOCKING. They passed the Bechdel test! A lot of the episode was focused on Sasha and Maggie and their grief losing their siblings: Michonne and Carol had this little moment: Then Rosita and Tara had this one: Maggie and Carol spoke to each other for the first time since season 2 (though they did share a group scene in S3) More of my favorites Carol and Michonne You guys, TWD NEVER lets the females bond or talk to each other! This was progress. And they finally showed weather on this show so that's about time. Aaron, a popular comic character finally showed up. The only problem I had with this episode was the excessive Daryl man pain Sasha and Maggie being broken up about this makes sense, and to an extent, Daryl's does too. Beth was a kid that he lost because he made a stupid mistake, but did we need that much of him moping? ...

What I knew going in: That this film would be very trippy, and something about a penis. With the amount of people that told me I need to see this, I was expecting this film to be much older. It was released in 2009. Easily my youngest Blind Spot. Oscar (Nathanial Brown) is an American drug dealer living in Tokyo that is shot and killed early on in the film. The film is shot entirely from his perspective. First as he's alive, he's our eyes in real time. Then after he's passed, we hover above our remaining characters; His younger sister, Linda (Paz del la Huerta) and friends Alex (Cyril Roy) and Victor. (Olly Alexander) This movie is so beyond belief fucked up I can hardly explain it. The opening credits alone should come with a seizure warning. It's full of psychedelic graphics that cut away from the story, but strangely work with the narrative. There were a few times that I found the film to be a bit much, but it was very interesting. The acting in this movie...

So about that nun thing... Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) was raised in a Catholic orphanage. In the days before she is going to take her vows to become a nun herself, she's encouraged to go visit her aunt Wanda, (Agata Kulesza) her only known relative. When she goes there, she finds out that her given name was Ida, and she's actually Jewish. Her parents died during WWII, and Anna and Wanda go on a road trip of sorts to go find her parents' graves. Let's get the good out of the way. This film was beautifully shot. Black and white was absolutely the best choice for this film and it's breathtaking to look at. It's too bad the rest of the film didn't live up to that. The film is about 80 minutes long, so it zips by, and leaves way too many questions than answers.  It's sad because the story sounded so interesting on paper, and the film had a lot of potential, but it wastes it with boring side stories, a climax that doesn't really fit with the...

Because fuck you, that's why. I know you've probably heard a great deal of people rip this film apart, but it's actually very enjoyable if you understand what you are about to watch.  Wallace (Justin Long) is a podcaster that flies to Winnipeg to meet with a kid that accidentally cut his leg off with a katana. Unfortunately, by the time he gets there, the kid has passed away and he's forced to find another strange story to talk about instead. He sees a note on a bathroom bulletin board asking offering a room to someone that can perform house hold chores and listen to adventures. The man who wrote that is Howard Howe (Michael Parks) and as soon as Wallace enters his home, he's offered spiked tea, and Howe slowly reveals his plans to turn Wallace into a walrus. Johnny Depp, Haley Joel Osment, and Genisis Rodriguez also star. I love campy horror movies and that's exactly what this film feels like. It's outrageous, over the top and hilarious. Plus...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is unrequited love! By the way, you should show your love for Wanderer by participating in this every Thursday, it's fun. Here are three of my favorite gems where love came up a little short.   1) (500) Days of Summer Poor Tom, he finds what he thinks is the perfect girl in Summer and it all falls apart. 2) God Help The Girl Poor James, he finds the perfect girl in Eve and it turns out she's just a little focused on herself and strings him along.  3) Water Lilies  Poor Marie, it's hard enough suddenly finding yourself attracted to a girl on your swim team only to find out she's just a little bi curious and not into you at all.

Here are my top 10 favorite films of 2014, and of course, the bottom five. Keep in mind with the bottom five, there are probably worse movies that were released, but these are the ones I actually watched. Top 10 Honorable Mention : (The green films were in my Top 10 at one point, but were eventually replaced with something else) Foxcatcher, Guardians of the Galaxy, Filth, Breathe In, Obvious Child , Neighbors, God Help The Girl, Night Moves , Captain American 2: The Winter Solider, Enemy Bottom 5: (No gifs for these assholes) Ride Along The Amazing Spiderman 2 The Monuments Men A Promise They Came Together