Rambling Film

And you thought you didn't fit in. Morris (Markees Christmas) is a 13 year old boy who moves to Germany with his father, Curtis. (Craig Robinson) Morris doesn't have friends yet, the only people he interacts with are his father and his German teacher Inka. (Carla Juri) He finds his solace in hip hop and freestyle rapping. Then he sees Katrin (Lina Keller) and develops a crush, now it's time for him to come out of his shell. I liked how minimal this movie is. It's not really coming of age, it's more about trying to find your place as you navigate your new home. Morris' relationship with Curtis is strained at times, of course it is. Being a teenager is terrible. (Katrin tells Curtis about how her mom is a bitch and I feel like I probably said those exact words more than once as a teen)  Robinson's performance is very underrated. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award but I wish more people were talking about what he does here. A lot of...

The final theme of 2016 from Wandering Through The Shelves is all about coming home. This is another hard one because I know I've used a lot of movies that would fall into this category previously. But I'm going to try to showcase a few wonderful indies that deserve to be seen. 1) Hello I Must Be Going Amy is going through a divorce and ends up having to move back in with her parents. This features a brilliant performance by Melanie Lynskey.  2) Martha Marcy May Marlene Martha goes home to her sister's after spending a few years in a cult. Brilliant performance by Elizabeth Olsen and is so quietly creepy.  3) King of California Instead of children going home to their parents, this one is about a father that goes home after being in a psychiatric facility. He then tries to convince his daughter there's gold buried under a Costco. 

Apocalyptic learning.  Nell (Ellen Page) and Eva (Evan Rachel Wood) are sisters living with their father (Callum Keith Rennie) in a secluded house. One day the power goes out state wide and doesn't come back. After a freak accident, Nell and Eva are left to live off the land around their house on their own. Page and Wood are two of my favorite actresses, so I was excited to hear they were in a film together at Sundance last year. Unfortunately this film isn't good enough for them. I never read the book this was based on, but Nell mentions early on that she's studying for her SATs, which threw me off completely because these two do not look like they could pass for teenagers.  Nell and Eva are also not very likable and make so many terrible decisions that it became obvious what's forcing the plot here. Then things get rapey, because of course they do. To be fair, the film did get the depression part of that right, but it's not enough to make up for the...

Another year is over and I completed my 2016 Blind Spot List! This event has been a great way for me to actually get off my ass and watch so many classics. I'll always be grateful to Ryan for starting it. Before I put up my 2017 List, here's how I did in 2016. 1) Au Revoir Les Enfants (A+) 2) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (A) 3) The Apartment (B) 4) Marnie (B) 5) Funny Face (B-) 6) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (A) 7) The Passion of Joan of Arc (C) 8) The French Connection (B) 9) JFK (C+) 10) The Miracle Worker (A-) 11) All The President's Men (A) 12) Chinatown (A-) Au Revoir Les Enfants was easily my favorite of the bunch. The only one I disliked was The Passion of Joan of Arc, even though I didn't want to. For next year, I'm going to get a bit ambitious as I wanted to do the Three Color movies, but had so many others I wanted to throw on here. So I'm going to combine them into one month. here's my 2017 Blindspot List: 1) Sl...

Who needs social skills? Ben (Viggo Mortensen) raises his 6 children off the grid. They live in the woods, live off the land, he homeschools them. When we meet the family, we learn Ben's wife is away at a mental hospital, then we learn she kills herself and her father (Frank Langella) will not let Ben and his family attend the funeral. But they are very much in the "fuck the man!" mindset so off they go, even though Ben is missing some queues from his children during this truly upsetting time. Ben's children are little geniuses but they completely lack social skills with people who aren't living off the grid. That's apparent when the oldest son Bo (George MacKay) has these most awkward encounter with a girl and her mother in the history of movies. (at least that's how it feels) Bo also harbors a secret about wanting to go to real college, so you can tell throughout he's just waiting for the perfect moment to spring that on his dad. Morte...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is movies about parties. I think I kind of screwed myself during college week back in September. Luckily, there's still a few movies that I haven't used throughout the year that fall into the party category. 1) Superbad The party: An almost end of school party where our protagonists attempt to buy booze and chat up the girls they have crushes on. This is one of my all time favorite comedies. A lot of the kids in this film reminded me of a few I went to high school with.  2) American Pie The party: An after prom party where our main boys all want to lose their virginity. I always call American Pie "my" high school movie even though it came out when I was in junior high. It was one that everyone saw, but never told our parents we watched it. It still holds up. 3) This Is The End The party: James Franco throwing one because fuck you that's why. I love this movie. You have to love it wh...

Stardust. Rogue One tells us the story of how our heroes in A New Hope got their hands on the Death Star plans. Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is rescued from an Imperial prison to assist the Rebels. Her father, Galen (Mads Mikkelson) is responsible for designing the Death Star and he's sent a defected pilot, Bodhi (Riz Ahmed) to deliver a message. Jyn goes along with Captain Cassian (Diego Luna) in a risky attempt to help reveal the weak spot her father built in the Death Star. One of the best parts of this movie are the Easter eggs. There's so many and it just makes me so happy to be a Star Wars fan. Seeing Gold and Red Leader, hearing "General Syndulla report to briefing" over the intercom (yay Star Wars Rebels ) and seeing old favorites like Bail Organa and Darth Vader again. The visual effects team created something truly incredible with bring Grand Moff Tarkin back. When I heard they were adding him digitally, I expected it to be one quick scene, but...

Manchester by the zzzzzzzzzzzzz Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) works as a janitor in Boston and mostly keeps to himself. He doesn't do small talk, he spends a decent amount of time drinking. When his older brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler) dies, he finds himself made the legal guardian of his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges) but he's not ready to commit to something that big.  When you go into a movie that you know is going to be a downer, you expect to at least be blown away by the acting and the story. Manchester by the Sea crawls in a perfectly straight line. No ups or down. There's no gigantic epiphany for Lee. He doesn't change in a big way at the end of the film, he simple exists in his sadness. That's what this is. Sometimes terrible things happen, and sometimes you don't get the help to cope.  Affleck is good, but he has two emotions. Drunkingly hyper in his flashbacks, zombie in his present. I kept waiting for a moment where he breaks down and dis...

A little late, but I saw so many great movies this week I just didn't have time to talk about TV.. Agents of SHIELD I really don't know how I feel about the winter finale. On one had, this episode had some really great moments with Fitzsimmons, Mack, and Coulson. But there was some cringeworthy stuff too.  Daisy Sue being the face of SHIELD? The fact that Coulson even suggests that shows what's wrong with this show. Daisy shouldn't be the focus. She's an uninteresting Mary Sue who can barely act. This show is likely going to be cancelled this season, and on one hand I'll be sad as I've grown to love some of the characters on this show, but on the other hand, I'll be happy never to see Daisy again. Her presence on the show actually annoys me more then the fact that AoS makes it completely unbelievable that no one would call the Avengers. Ghost Rider had a pretty anti climatic finish, but I don't think that's the last of him we'll see...

Put some of it back together. Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) enlists in the army during WWII. He wants to be a medic after falling in love with a nurse, Dorothy. (Teresa Palmer) But he doesn't want to carry a weapon. He states he's there to save life, not take it. What he ends up doing is saving over 75 people in combat in Japan, without ever firing a gun. The trailers for this film did nothing for me. But alas, I'm an Oscar junkie and when this film kept popping up on lists, I knew I had to see it. I'm glad to say it was a lot better than I gave it credit for. (And my husband is making sure to rub it in) Hacksaw Ridge isn't perfect. In fact, it's almost as if you're watching two separate films. The first half is the cheesiest love/underdog story you've ever seen, and the back half is like Mel Gibson watched Saving Private Ryan then did a line of coke. It's ultra-violent and intense.  Acting wise, Garfield is good and he and Palm...

Girl problems? Start a band. When Conor's (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo)  family runs into money troubles in 1980's Ireland, they send him to a new school. He's bullied the first day by another student, and by a priest who gets after him for the color of his shoes. Then as he's leaving he sees a girl, Raphina ( Lucy Boynton) standing outside the school. She says she's a model, so to impress her, Conor offers her a part in his band's music video. Then he goes off to start said band. I kind of boycotted this movie when it first came out. I loved director John Carney's other films, Once and Begin Again . Then he went on this tirade about how Keira Knightley wasn't a good actress or singer in Begin Again and he was completely wrong about it so I decided not to give that dick some theatrical money. He apologized, I got over it, and now Sing Street is on Netflix Instant. It really is a wonderful little gem with catchy songs that I hope get some attenti...

Last week we had toys, now we move to video games! Wandering Through The Shelves asks us to chose three movies based on arcade and/or board games. This was kind of hard, because I can't say that I like many of these movies. So I decided to go with one good, one so bad it's good, and the other flat out terrible. Here we go. Semper fi, motherfuckers.  1) Silent Hill Let's start with the Good. Silent Hill got off to a bad start for me (the little girl screaming 'SILENT HILL!' was awful) but it quickly picked up the pace to become one of the creepiest things I've ever seen.  2) Mortal Kombat I thought this movie was pretty awesome as a kid, but really it's so bad. But I'd say it falls under the category of "so bad it's good." It's been years since I've seen it though. 3) House of the Dead Okay, so that's not a gif from the movie. But watching paint dry would be more interesting.  If there was ever a...

Man, these snuck up on me. I completely forgot they were being announced this morning so I'm a few hours late. I think a lot of people are re-evaulating their Oscar predictions after reading this. There were some nice surprises, some shocking ones, and a few big snubs.  Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Captain Fantastic Fences Hidden Figures Manchester By The Sea Moonlight First off, if you think La La Land is being snubbed, you're wrong. That film is about a duo. Secondly, holy shit, Captain Fantastic! That's amazing and a complete surprise. Actually, come to think of it, everything but Moonlight is a surprise to me. I didn't think Hidden Figures would gain enough traction and I didn't think Machester By The Sea was being sold as an ensemble movie either.  Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Amy Adams - Arrival Emily Blunt, - The Girl on the Train Emma Stone - La La Land Meryl Streep - Florence Foster J...

Brace yourselves for a whole lot of ugly coming at you from a never ending parade of stupid. Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga) are an interracial couple in 1950's Virginia. They go to Washington DC to get married, only to be arrested after being caught in bed together because the marriage isn't "valid there." Eventually they are told to leave Virginia and not come back for 25 years. After Mildred writes to her senator, a lawyer from the ACLU (Nick Kroll) is assigned to their case and helps them get the justice they deserve. It's amazing how relevant who you're married to still is today. Also amazing is that someone else's marriage isn't anyone but theirs business. That's what I wanted to scream at the screen while watching this. Director Jeff Nichols has always been good at telling stories about people in the South. Telling a true story is different for him, but it pays off with his vision. Edgerton and Negga ...

Revenge. Susan (Amy Adams) is an art gallery owner that's suddenly disillusioned with her career and is married to a man (Armie Hammer) who clearly wanders. One day she receives a manuscript from her ex husband, Edward. (Jake Gyllenhaal) She left him almost 20 years ago on terrible terms, and he's dedicated this very violent book to her.  The TV spots for this film feel like they're advertising a completely different movie. From the trailers, it seems as if Gyllenhaal's family is kidnapped and he either set it up himself complete with a crooked cop, Andres (Michael Shannon) and an unpredictable man, Ray. (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) or he goes after them. In a way, that's almost a blessing, because the film is completely different and going into it mostly blind proved to be a good move.  Nocturnal Animals plays out in Susan's life, the story in which she's reading, and a few flashbacks. The story has some of the most uncomfortable scenes I've s...

Who announces on a Monday? This is my sleeping in day, so it was the first time in the seven years of my blog I didn't see the nominations in real time. Here are the nominees with a few thoughts.  Best Motion Picture -- Drama Hacksaw Ridge Hell or High Water Lion Manchester by the Sea Moonlight I actually had to edit my earlier comment because I remembered that Silence should've already screened for the HFPA and it's left out. Wow.   Best Director -- Motion Picture Damien Chazelle -- La La Land Tom Ford -- Nocturnal Animals Mel Gibson -- Hacksaw Ridge Barry Jenkins -- Moonlight Kenneth Lonergan -- Manchester by the Sea I love that Tom Ford got a nomination here. I don't think he'll repeat at the Oscars but it's nice to see. Denis Villenueve not being here for Arrival is the big shocker.  Best Screenplay -- Motion Picture Damien Chazelle -- La La Land Tom Ford -- Nocturnal Animals Barry Jenkins -- Moonlight Kenneth Lonergan -- Man...