Rambling Film

Sibling bonding time. Michael (Adam Scott) is a writer who agrees to drive his brother, Tobey (Joel Bissonnette) around Los Angeles for the day to run errands. It's clear they haven't spent much time together recently. They find themselves taking a long look at their relationship as they go from one place to another, much to Michael's annoyance. When I first saw The Vicious Kind , which I raved about here many times, I loved it because it felt so different from what I had seen Adam Scott in. It turns out he's just had those dramatic performances hidden. Passenger Side doesn't match The Vicious Kind in greatness, but it does have one of the most realistic portrayals of sibling bonding I've seen in a long time. Tobey is very laid back, Michael is too uptight. Being forced into a shitty car for a day makes Michael in particular re-examine some things about his life. The film isn't without its flaws. Since it's essentially a "road trip...

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is movies about World War 1. I bet all of us could name 10 movies we enjoy about WWII before we could name 3 about WWI, right? This is actually tough to think about. This one doesn't get dramatized as much. So this week, I'm sharing the three WWI movies that I know for sure I've seen. (I know, sad) 1) The White Ribbon Of these three films, this is the most recent one I saw and also the one I actually want to rewatch. This movie was heavy, like really fucking heavy about a small German town right before WWI. I actually stopped it and picked it up the following day because I wasn't in the right mood for it.  2) Joyeux Noel  I saw this at the theater in the Mall of America when I ended up getting stranded in Minneapolis after a cancelled flight.  The film itself was a bit flimsy, but the acting was great. It's about various soldiers in WWI  that call a truce on Christmas Eve.  3) Flyboys ...

There is strength in unity Three years into the USS Enterprise's five year mission, the crew is getting bit restless. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) feels lost and wonders if Star Fleet really was for him. Spock (Zachary Quinto) is having a rough time with Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and is torn between what he feels is his duties on New Vulcan. When a distress call that turns into a trap destroys the Enterprise, the crew are split up on an unknown planet trying to fight off a being called Krall (Idris Elba) who is after an artifact that was on the ship. I've always had a soft spot for the Star Trek reboots. I grew up in a house hold where my dad loved the show and I thought it was so boring. The new films helped me look at it in a completely different way. That being said, when I saw the first trailer for Beyond , I was worried new director Justin Lin was going to stick us with The Fast and the Furious in Space. I'm thankful that wasn't the case. Beyond has a lot of ...

Put the camera away In 1973 Chile, Daniel (Daniel Brühl ) is a German man who is getting involved the resistance there. He's been drawing propaganda posters for the Chileans who want changes in their government. His girlfriend Lena (Emma Watson) is a Lufthansa flight attendant who comes to visit him. After a few days, Daniel is arrested and thrown into a torture chamber/cult commune by the secret police. This is run by Paul Schäfer, (  Michael Nyqvist)  who his followers treat as a vessel of God. Lena decides to infiltrate the commune to help free Daniel. Yes, I know. Another cult movie. Thankfully, Emma Watson has a better turn out in this one than she did in Regression . Don't get me wrong, she's still a wooden actress. But she's not asked to do much here other than keep a straight face, so it's bearable.  Brühl and Nyqvist above others carrying the acting weight. I didn't know about Paul Schäfer and the despicable things he did b...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is something every kid either treasures or despises: going to a summer camp. I fucking hate camping. I did church camp once and girl scout camp another time and I hated every minute of it. I love being outdoors, but I also love coming home to warm shower and a nice clean bed...inside. Not getting rained on in tents. These three films are camping movies I preferred watching as a kid instead of doing the real thing. 1) Camp Nowhere These kids are total shits, right? They don't want to go to real camp so they black mail their teacher into starting a fake camp with no adult supervision. Actually, I thought that was kind of awesome and Christopher Lloyd was sort of the man when I was a child. He was Emmett Brown AND the Pagemaster. 2) Heavy Weights AKA that movie with all the fat camp jokes. You know that big trampoline into the lake looked awesome. 3) Bushwhacked  This movie is inherently creepy when you thin...

2nd place. Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff (Tom Courtenay) are about to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary. Six days prior to the party they are going to throw for the occasion, Geoff finds out that his old lover Katya's body has been found preserved in a glacier. Back in the 60's, she had fallen off a cliff while on a hike with Geoff. Kate knew about her, but did not know that Geoff told everyone they were married so he is considered next of kin. Geoff begins to openly reminisce about their time together and Kate is faced with the realization that her happy marriage has really been here in 2nd place the entire time. Kate takes this all in a stride, at least more than I think I would've. As I watched, I wondered how I would've acted in this situation. It probably would've resulted in me yelling, swearing, and possibly punching Geoff for his bullshit at some point. But Kate doesn't lash out. She's heartbroken, plain and simple. Everything...

What I knew going in: The story (Which I think everyone knows) and that of all the film adaptations, this one is considered the best. Captain Keller (Victor Jory) wants to have his blind, deaf, and mute daughter Helen (Patty Duke) institutionalized as she grows harder and harder to control as she gets older. His wife Kate (Inga Swenson) begs him not to, and instead they hire a woman named Annie Sullivan (Ann Bancroft) to teach her to communicate. However the Kellers aren't accustomed to Annie's harsh teaching tactics and refuse to admit any faults of their own.  I had seen the Lifetime version with Hallie Kate Eisenberg as Helen, and now after watching this, I feel I can finally understand how terrible that one is in comparison. Everything looked far too polished. Bancroft and Duke are outstanding in their roles. Duke never for one second looks like she's acting. She's so convincing in her eyes, they're never focused on anything. Bancroft also makes us feel ...

That's so metal. After his mother is institutionalized, Brodie (Milo Cawthrone) is sent to live with his religious aunt and uncle in a small New Zealand down. He's into metal music and is an outcast with his family. One day he meets Zakk (James Blake) a fellow metal head who convinces him to find an old musician with him living in an abandoned house. When they do, they are given some sheet music that's called the "dark hymn" and when they play it, they accidentally release evil demons.  I love a good campy horror film with lots of gore, and in that aspect, this didn't disappoint. It's vulgar and gross and works perfectly. There's some clear homages to the Evil Dead trilogy as we get quite a bit of chainsaw action later on. Our lead characters even get more outlandish and beat a possessed person to death with dildos. Seriously.  Story wise, it could've used some polishing. Zakk is overwhelmingly irritating to the point where I was kin...

It's that time of year again. The Emmys don't get up early like the Oscars, so they didn't announce their nominees until 11:30 am. Anthony Anderson screamed a few times too. Here's a list of the 2016 Emmy nominations. My thoughts follow in green. Outstanding Drama Series The Americans Better Call Saul Downton Abbey Game Of Thrones Homeland House Of Cards Mr. Robot I'm really happy to see Better Call Saul, Game of Thrones, and Mr. Robot here. The Americans finally getting some love has to feel good for their fans. Oustanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Kyle Chandler - Bloodline Rami Malek - Mr. Robot Bob Odenkirk - Better Call Saul Matthew Rhys - The Americans Liev Schreiber - Ray Donovan Kevin Spacey - House Of Cards RAMI MALEK! That's my favorite nomination in this category. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Claire Danes - Homeland Viola Davis - How To Get Away With Murder Taraji P. Henson - Empire Tatiana Maslany - Orphan ...

On the eve before the gimmicky all female Ghost Busters, this week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is something we could always do with more of: female ensembles. I actually ended up using a lot of female ensemble movies in previous picks, so this is what I came up with: 1) Little Women My sister was in the hospital when we were kids, and for some reason this is the only thing she wanted to watch. So we watched it over and over. I was too young at the time to fully appreciate it, but I do so much more now.  2) Girl, Interrupted It's been a while since I've thought about this film. Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, and Brittany Murphy gave such excellent performances. Now I really want to re-watch this.  3) The Descent  One of my favorite horror movies involves a group of women that go spelunking. This film is so creepy, I always recommend it. 

Would you believe it? Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has just left her fiance and while driving away from the city she's run off the road. She wakes up in an underground bunker with Howard (John Goodman) who tells her there was an attack on Earth and radiation poisoning is in the air. There's also Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) in the bunker with them. He helped Howard build this before everything went down. Michelle becomes increasingly uneasy with Howard, even though she sees proof that he's not lying about what's happening outside. She and Emmett start plotting an escape.  I never planned on seeing this, but when early reviews came in, they were good. They also mentioned to go in as unspoiled as you could, so that's what I did. I've maybe read two reviews in full about this film. I skimmed the rest and went straight to the ratings to help form my opinion, and I'm glad I did. This film was great not knowing a lot about it. It really doesn't h...

Here's a few movies I watched recently that I didn't post full reviews of for one reason or another. (Yes, I know I should've done a full one for Finding Dory as I loved it so much) Everest I had no intentions of seeing this in theaters, but it's on HBO now so my husband and I gave it a watch. It was decent. Nothing spectacular but it was suspenseful and I did find myself caring for the characters. I had read about the 1996 Everest tragedy prior, my husband hadn't, so he was surprised at the ones who perished where as I was ex pectin it. Grade: C+ Summer Storm I didn't finish this movie. I actually can't remember the last time I got a movie from Netflix and returned it without finishing. I just didn't buy this as a self discovery story. It's a German film about young men at a summer camp for rowing, and one of them realizes he has a crush on his best friend. Only the first few minutes of this story make it quite unbelievable as they ...

When keeping it real goes wrong.. I'm sure I've used that title for my review before, but it applies so well to this series of vignettes about how people handle stressful situations. Wild Tales gives us six unconnected stories;  Pasternek - Passengers on a plane realize they all know Pasternek and question why they're all there. The Rats - A waitress comes face to face with a man that ruined her family's life, and her cook suggests they put rat poison in his food. Road to Hell - The most intense case of road rage I've ever seen.  Bombita - A demolition engineer is really pissed off about getting a parking ticket.  The Deal - A man in a rich family kills a pregnant woman in a hit and run, and his parents attempt to pay their gardener to admit to the crime. Til Death Do Us Part - A bride finds out on her wedding day that her husband has been cheating on her. Do you ever laugh at completely inappropriate things? That's t...

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is movies that are set in a single location. I'm kicking myself for using Moon already, that would've worked perfectly here. Movies like this always fascinate me when they work. Look at Phone Booth, that movie had no right to work, but somehow it did. Here are three of my favorite single location movies.  1) Buried The location: A Box, underground. It's terrifyingly claustrophobic and aside from Deadpool it's the best performance Ryan Reynolds has ever given. 2) 12 Angry Men The location: A conference room. Watching this jury work out whether a men is guilty or not is one of my favorite things to happen in a classic film. I love this movie.  3) Carnage The location: a house. I almost hate admitting I like Roman Polanski movies, but I liked this one. I think it's largely forgotten too, despite having a wonderful cast and witty dialogue. 

Bossypants. Maggie (Greta Gerwig) is a 30 something in New York who can't hold down a relationship, but decides she wants to have a child of her own as she's 100% capable of doing so. She finds a token interesting and good looking dude named Guy (Travis Fimmell) to be her sperm donor, but wants no relationship with him. By change she meets and older, married fellow teacher/wannabe author named John (Ethan Hawke) who she falls in love with after believing she can save him from his shrill wife, Georgette (Julianne Moore) Look, it's hard not to like Greta Gerwig. She's like Zooey Deschanel was in the mid 2000's; the current indie darling. She's always likable and gives a good performance, but aside from that, nothing in this movie felt natural. Maggie and her friends all speak in platitudes, the dialogue was downright cringe worthy at times. It's also fairly predictable, and as we got closer towards the end, I realized that I didn't understand wh...

Maybe we're all pieces of shit. Hank (Paul Dano) is stranded on an island somewhere in the north pacific. He's been there for a while, and just as he's about to hang himself, a farting corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) washes up on shore. Within minutes, Hank is riding this thing through the water like a jet ski in hopes that he will find civilization again. This corpse eventually starts to speak to Hank, his name is Manny, and Hank finds himself explaining the meaning of life to him. Manny isn't just dead weight for Hank to carry around for company either. Aside from fart skiing, he turns into a water faucet for Hank to drink, his boner works as a compass, and he is eventually used to hunt small animals to. Manny is a Godsend, but the more he tries to remember about life, the harder it is for Hank to hit him with reality. If you couldn't tell by my brief plot synopsis, this movie is fucking weird. The Lobster may have just been unseated in the bizarre movi...

Where's the honor in this? Umay (Sibel Kekilli) lives in Turkey with her young son, Cem (Nizam Schiller) and her husband Kemal. (Ufuk Bayraktar) Kemal is abusive. He pushes Ulmay around, rapes her, and also hits their young son. Umay takes Cem back to her family in Germany for solace, but since she left her husband, she's "dishonoring" her family and they try to force her to go back. When she refuses, she creates even more tension. Especially when she wants nothing more to be surrounded by family. Full disclosure, this movie is fucking devastating. I haven't felt this empty watching a film in a long time. It's good, it's very good. You can tell it didn't have a huge budget and was probably shot on a hand held camera, but the story is captivating. Umay really loves her family despite nearly every single one of them slapping her at one point in the film. I would've said "fuck it" and left about 15 minutes in, but Umay stays. She want...