Rambling Film

Worst. STD. Ever. Jay (Maika Monroe) has what starts off as a normal sexual encounter with a boy, Hugh (Jake Weary) she's been dating. Only after they are finished, he informs her that he has passed something onto her. "It" is going to follow her. It will always be a person walking directly towards her, and it will move slow. She can't let It touch her, or else she's dead, and he's dead too as it will go back to him. Her only hope is to pass it to someone else and to get the chain away from her. Jay is conflicted on giving another person this terrifying death sentence. Then there's the fact that she has to convince her sister, Kelly (Lili Sepe) and her friends Paul (Keir Gilchrist) and Yara (Olivia Luccardi) to believe her.  The thing that stands out the most in this film is the score. It almost becomes it's own character in the film, the way Susperia's did. It's booming and ominous and adds so much more. I absolutely loved it. This...

The Walking Dead This worked very well as a character driven episode, but not well as a finale. I loved that Morgan came back, and characters like Glenn, Sasha, and Father Gabriel had great scenes. I felt like there was too much of Daryl and Aaron in danger. I'm sorry, but Daryl is an invincible character, so any scene of him in danger just makes me roll my eyes. He's not going anywhere. I have one major complaint, and it's where they are going with Carol. Anyone who has even glanced at my TWD posts know she's my favorite character and I'm fiercely protective of her. I do not understand where the writers are going with her. Why have her lie in front of her own group? What's the point of that? Why is she still undercover at this point? Why is Carol the only one that isn't allowed to grieve? Why is she the only female who doesn't have other female friends? I feel like the writers are missing a grand opportunity for Carol to get the events of The ...

Paradies: Hoffnung The 3rd part in Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's Paradise trilogy is Hope . This one follows Melanie (Melanie Lenz) a thirteen year old who is sent off to a weight loss camp and finds herself falling for her camp doctor, (Joseph Lorenz) who also seems to have some serious issues understanding his own feelings. This film is morbidly fascinating. I always find movies where someone feels uncomfortable interesting for whatever reason, but I call this "morbid" because I wanted to sit down pick these character's brains and at the same time shake them and yell "what the fuck are you thinking?" It's easy to see why a thirteen year old insecure girl would have a crush on an adult. Being a teenage girl is filled with a lot of weird emotions, but the doctor himself wasn't helping. What on Earth could possibly be going through this guy's mind? He should've shut that down immediately. The weird thing is, the film didn...

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is mother/daughter relationships. The kicker once again is that they have to be biologically related. Here's my favorites: 1) Thirteen The ongoing battle between Tracy and her mother is one of the most interesting parts of this film. I think every teenage girl should watch this film. Even with their mothers 2) What Maisie Knew I've never wanted to smack Julianne Moore as much as I did in this film. Poor Maisie. This little gem is a fascinating look on parenting.  3) Carrie "Worst. Mother. Ever." - Carrie, probably. *click those gifs to be redirected to their makers*

The wonderful Andrew over at A Fistful of Films has a wonderful idea for a blogathon . He ask us to post a collection of moments where the film we were watching really spoke to us. Here are the rules: 1) Pick a number between 1 and 100 (any more than 100 is just gaudy) 2) Choose that many cinematic moments that are either your all time favorites or ones that could, on any given day, be your all time favorites 3) Post them on your blog (or Tumblr or whatever) with the above header (or one you create for yourself) 4) Send me the link by either posting it here in the comments or getting ahold of me on Twitter ( @fististhoughts ) Here's an example of what he's looking for We all have them in the back of our minds; those moments that make us think "man, this is what the movies are all about". We relive those moments in our mind's eye, remembering them and dissecting them and adoring them. They come in all shapes and sizes, from all types of films, and yet t...

My week in TV, brought to you by insomnia and too much wine.. The Walking Dead Rick completely lost his shit and he's lusting HARD over Jessie. Damn Little Sam runs to Carol during Rick and Pete's fight, aww. Glenn telling Nicholas he's "saving him" is interesting. I think they're going to get in one hell of a brawl, and Glenn will kill him. His first human kill, by the way. I loved seeing the women together on this show. Rosita, Michonne and Sasha were my favorite part. I'm so nervous for the finale though. I need Carol to survive. Seriously, take someone else but her. I will rage. RAGE! Better Call Saul We got to see Mike in his sneaky action again, that was grand. We also got the batshit Kettlemans back in the episode. There's only three episodes left. I'm sad already, this season flew by. Agents of SHIELD Okay, Kyle MacLauhlan is fucking TERRIBLE. He is so over the top and campy and not even in a good way, and omg can some...

What extreme are you willing to go to get your point across? Hunger follows the lives of prisoners in Northern Ireland in the 1981. Specifically around the IRA Hunger Strike. The main focus is on Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) who goes through the hunger strike. Though we start the film with a guard played by Stuart Graham and another prisoner, Davey (Brian Milligan) before we get to Bobby himself. After seeing both Shame and 12 Years a Slave, I knew I had to check out director Steve McQueen's first feature film. His honest style is still there. He never shies away from showing us something graphic if it's necessary to see. Admittedly, I don't know a lot about the IRA hunger strike. So even though this film is very bleak, I found it to be very interesting. Saying that Fassbender is great almost feels repetitive at this point because I don't think I've ever seen him give a bad performance. He works well with McQueen and it's easy to see why they ...

Happy Thursday! This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is YA adaptations. I'm cheating this week.  1) The Harry Potter franchise My all time favorite YA novels. I'm not sure if I'll love anything quite as much as I love Harry Potter. I've never queued up at midnight for a release of another book. 2) The Hunger Games franchise This was very unexpected. Even thought Mockingjay Part 1 was a let down (kind of like the book) the other two were so good that they're easily on my favorites list. 3) To Kill A Mockingbird Whenever people bitch about YA novels, I remind them that technically this one is too. This is an important book to read when you're a kid. That's why so many schools assign it to them. *click those gifs to be redirected to their makers*

Quarter life crisis Megan (Keira Knightley) is 28 years old and still not sure what she wants to do with her life. She went to college, got a degree, and ended up not liking her field. She's been with her boyfriend, Anthony (Mark Webber) since they were in high school. After he proposes to her, she flakes and crosses paths with Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) a teenager she buys alcohol for on a whim. She decides to lay low with Annika and her divorced father, Craig. (Sam Rockwell) I'm not quite sure how I feel about this movie. I can't fully relate to Megan, though I think it's natural that we all sort of regress a little here and there. I could never befriend Annika the way she did, but at the same time the movie really hammers in the fact that Megan's adult friends are the worst . It's easy to see why she would be attracted to a man that looks like Sam Rockwell. I would be, but I ended up feeling bad for her actual boyfriend who seemed like a pretty st...

The Walking Dead RIP Noah. How ironic that you died in a revolving door, much like the revolving door of black men on this show. So who goes next season? Father Gabriel or Morgan? There can only be one. I actually though Noah's death was very powerful and gory, which is something the last few deaths (aside from Tyreese) as lacked. Steven Yeun's (Glenn) performance made it 100 times more powerful too. He was just incredible here. Carol is trying to hard not to get close to another child and they just gravitate towards her. Melissa McBride was great tonight as well, but now that she knows about Pete? I'm excited for her and Rick to be gathering more evidence on this next week. (Assuming that's what they get to do) Eugene getting his hero moment was awesome. I love that guy. Now please let Tara survive, because I love her too! Also Father Gabriel, you fucking weasel. MOTHER DICK! Better Call Saul This episode was really Better Call Mike. We got insight on...

She's just gone and she's never coming back. In the fall of 1988, seventeen year old Kat's (Shailene Woodley) mother, Eve (Eva Green) disappears without a trace. Her soft spoken father (Christopher Meloni) clams up over this. Eve had been acting strange lately, and the police think she may have just left on her own. I had kind of a visceral reaction to this film. It has it's flaws. Eva Green's American accent is extremely shaky, you have to suffer through Shiloh Fernandez's "acting," but damn did I enjoy this.  Director Gregg Araki just makes interesting films, though they're not everyone's cup of tea. I liked the flow of this one. I liked that the dialogue wasn't overly stylized and that Kat's narration actually sounded like it was from a teenager. Woodley is a very capable actress when she's given good material, and she was very good here. She got a lot of press for doing nude scenes in the film, but her performance...

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is live action fairy tales. This was another tough one for me. Luckily I gave it more time and realized there's some great live action fairy tale type movies out there when only mediocre ones just came to mind. 1) Pan's Labyrinth This is one of my favorite movies period. So dark and beautiful. 2) Finding Neverland Oh Johnny Depp, what happened to you?  3) Alice in Wonderland Okay, so I know a lot of people hated this, but I liked. Even more so when I saw it a second time. I love the cast and Burton is very right for Wonderland. (Or Underland) *click those gifs to be redirected to their makers*

What I knew going in: The basic story. Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) comes across a side show act centered around a "freak" known as the Elephant Man. This man is actually John Merrick (John Hurt) who suffers from a mysterious illness. Treves attempts to take him away from his abusive life to study him further, only to find out that John is actually a very articulate and gentle soul. It's only March, but this is my favorite one so far. It was shot in 1980, but it's shot in black and white and it makes it feel much older. The story was fascinating, and aggravating at times. Seriously, I wanted to punch that Night Porter so badly. Both Hopkins and Hurt were wonderful. Hurt especially gives a great performance under all that make up. I've had quite a few people tell me this isn't of of Lynch's bests, but honestly, this is fantastic. The only film of his I've seen in full is Eraserhead, and this one felt so different. He's on my Bli...

The Walking Dead I wasn't crazy about a lot of this episode, so it had a few bright spots. Carol and Rick being on the same page. Drunk Abe, lots of Aaron, but since TWD fandom is one of the most dramatic, a lot of that bullshit weighs the episode down. Whatever. Carol on.  Better Call Saul This show really knows how to build, don't they? I can't wait for next week's episode. I love that they're getting more into Saul/Jimmy and Mike's relationship now. And that advertisement with the jello was genious Agents of SHIELD Raina turned into this crazy porcupine, and that makes her face more bearable for me. (She's gorgeous, but Raina is so smug) I loved Fitz being there for Skye, at first I thought he was really angry, but him protecting her like that was wonderful. Now get him and Simmons back together in the lab please. Mack...mmmmmmmmmmmmm May is such a badass. I love her more and more with each episode. And oh my God, Kyle McLachlan is on...

And you thought your marriage counseling was weird. Ethan (Mark Duplass) and Sophie (Elizabeth Moss) are having marital problems. They're seeing a therapist (Ted Danson) who recommends they go to a secluded house to work on their issues. When they get there, everything is beautiful. It's big, there's lots to do. There's a guest house across the lawn, and that's when the mysterious things start happening.  Moss and Duplass are great here. The entire film rests on their shoulders and they run with it. It's very different from anything else I've seen on this subject, and that just makes me love it even more. The further we get into the film, the more questions arise, and it's just fascinating to see what these characters do. This film is on Netflix Instant, and don't let anyone spoil the twist for you. It's a fun experience.  Grade: A Memorable Quote: "Why did you do it?" - Sophie (Elizabeth Moss)

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is black and white movies made after 1970. I almost skipped this one because I had trouble finding movies that were entirely in black and white that I liked, so I kind of cheated a little. 1) Sin City A few colors here and there, but mostly black and white so I think it counts. It's one of my all time favorites and is stunning to watch. 2) Clerks This might not be everyone's type of film, but it's a good laugh. 3) Schindler's List There was one red coat, this counts, right? This film is a masterpiece, but one I probably wouldn't want to watch again anytime soon. It's so sad. 

"You must really hate the Beatles." When we first meet Eleanor (Jessica Chastain) and Conor (James McAvoy) they're happy and laughing and seemingly on their way to a long, happy love life. Fast forward a bit and they are separated and Eleanor is throwing herself of a bridge. After he failed suicide attempt, we watch her try to navigate life along while he attempts to get her back. After he finds her, of course. There's a lot of really lovely things about this film. The cast being the best. McAvoy and Chastain have so much chemistry. This film was always going to be ambitious. It was shot in two different segments, "Him" and "Her" showing their different points of view. But apparently that's not for everyone, because we get the sloppy cut of "Them" together. Knowing how it was supposed to go, Them feels like it's just missing something. I'm not one to advocate for longer films very often, but I would've happily ...

I forgot to do this last week because I was in Oscar mode. So here are my jumbled TV thoughts for the past two weeks The Walking Dead So the group finally ends up at the Alexandria Safe Zone. Here are some things I love: Carol is a genius. Acting like she's a meek little housewife, can't hold a gun, and loved Ed. LOL She's the group's secret weapon for sure. Rick saying they'll take this place if the people are weak. And that shower scene! Why isn't this show on HBO? Glenn punching douchebags.  These last few episodes have really picked up after that awful hospital story. Agent Carter Please, please, PLEASE renew this for season 2. This show is so intense for something on ABC. They blew someone up last week and ended on one hell of a cliffhanger.  Then there's the fact that Peggy let Steve's blood go. That's the perfect way to show that this show can exist without dropping Captain America references. Peggy is strong enough to ha...