Rambling Film

Guys, I've had this in my drafts since October. It's time to get it out there. Here are a few movies I watched that I was too lazy to post full reviews on* Shutter - I'm not really sure why I had the original Thai movie in my Netflix queue. I never bothered with the American remake that came out after it, but someone must have told me something good about it because it arrived at my door after being in the dead zone of my Netflix queue for well over a year. It probably should've stayed there because man this film was trash. It had some creepy imagery, but the main character is unlikable to begin with, then it's revealed that he allowed his ex girlfriend to be raped by his friends (in a scene that goes on wayyy too long) So yeah, I'm glad you're being tortured by a spirit for all eternity. Bye, Felicia. F A Monster Calls - When I saw the trailer in theaters, I cried. So I knew there was no way in hell I was seeing this film with other people aroun...

It's 3:00am, do you know where your wife is at? In 19th century England, Katherine (Florence Pugh) is sold into marriage to a much older man, Alexander (Paul Hilton) They have a loveless marriage, and while he's away on business she strikes up an affair with one of her husband's workers on their estate, Sebastian. (Cosmo Jarvis...seriously) Now I know what you're thinking. You're prepared to root for Katherine's affair because her husband is such a piece of shit, right? After seeing a few scenes of Katherine and Alexander together I was looking forward to her going to get some actual D. Only she picks the absolute worst man possible and things just escalate from there. Katherine will do anything or kill anyone to continue her affair.  You have to give this movie (and book that it's based on) props for having such despicable characters and still manag ing to craft a decent story around them. Any sympathy I had for Katherine I quickly threw out ...

It's the last TMP of 2017 and we're finishing off with another TV edition. I love that Wanderer added these to the mix this year. This week we're talking about Friendship and I picked shows that the friends went through their ups and downs, but ultimately remained together. 1) Sherlock The ultimate bromance. I think Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were perfectly cast here. Even if the last series kind of sucked, I can't help but adore the three that came before that.  2) South Park Oh these boys, forever 4th graders getting into shit and teaching us lessons. I love that I've sort of grown up with this show. It always makes me laugh 3) That 70's Show I used to be addicted to this show before the later seasons got awful. I always enjoyed watching Eric and his gang. 

What a story, Mark. Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) is an aspiring actor in San Francisco when he meets the eccentric Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) in an acting class in 1998. They eventually move to LA together, and after getting shot down several times, they decide to make their own movie, which Tommy writes/directors/produces/stars. It becomes the legendary "worst movie of all time" The Room . I've talked about how much I loved Sestero's book of the same name. I read it in about three hours, I couldn't put it down. I've been eagerly awaiting this film ever since it's been announced. You can tell James Franco really cares about the source material. He could've made a movie that ridiculed Tommy (and let's face it, he would probably deserve it) but he didn't. He didn't shy away from how much of an asshole Tommy could be - including his horrid treatment of Juliette (Ari Graynor) who played Lisa in the film. But he also manages to mak...

Did we learn nothing from Eternal Sunshine? Gordon Dunn (Martin Donovan) invented a machine that can take memories from peoples' minds and display them on screen. You can watch a video of your past, always. Is there a part you can't quite remember? Something someone said that you didn't quite catch, well with this machine you can review it. Dunn dies mysteriously and a man named Sam (Peter Dinklage) steals his machine. He's desperate to relive his brother's last words to him. He also gets close to Dunn's widow, Carolyn (Julia Ormond) to learn more. This is Anton Yelchin's final film. I'm still not over his passing, I probably never will be. His part is small, but very memorable.  The idea of the rememory machine sounds goofy when you type it out, but on screen it's a fascinating (and terrifying) concept. Dunn essentially had a focus group of people he tested it on, and seeing the contrast of how some of them reacted. Dinklage gives...

This week Wanderer is asking us to do something a little different. Today we're talking about films we're excited for next year. I'm sticking with bigger budget ones here since I normally find all my indies to look forward to in January when Sundance hits. Here's what I'm currently hyping over: 1) Avengers: Infinity War You all know how much I love Marvel and the Avengers. This movie is going to be massive and I can't wait. 2) Black Panther He was a smash hit in Civil War and I'm looking forward to his solo movie. The cast is magnificent.  3) A Wrinkle in Time I've never read the novel, but I love Ava Duvernay and I think she's going to do a wonderful job with this film. Maybe I'll pick up the book before it hits theaters. 

Another year, another Blind Spot! I can't thank Ryan enough for starting this blogathon. He's the reason I'm making an effort to go back in time in cinema. It's something I always had a hard time being pushed to do. I jumped on the bandwagon in 2014, and I'm going to continue in 2018. But first, let's look at my final grades for my 2017 picks: 1) Sleepers (B) 2) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (A+) 3) Videodrome (B) 4) Paris, Texas (B) 5) Sunset Boulevard (A+) 6) Three Colors Trilogy: Blue, White, Red (B, B-, A-) 7) Jackie Brown (B) 8) Metropolis (C-) 9) Midnight Cowboy (C+) 10) Do The Right Thing (B+) 11) Boyz in the Hood (B) 12) In The Bedroom (B-) 2017 was my over achiever year because I squeezed the Three Colors trilogy in there. I now have two movies on my all time favorites list in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane and Sunset Boulevard. As always, the biggest plus is that I didn't hate anything. Thankfully that's only happened once...

This is not going to go the way you think. Picking up right where we left off. Rey (Daisy Ridley) attempts to convince Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to join in on the fight against the first order. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) remains conflicted as ever after being berated by Supreme Leader Snoke. (Andy Serkis) General Organa (Carrie Fisher) has to deal with hot headed Poe Dameron who hatches a risky plan with Finn (John Boyega) and new comer Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) that they hope will help the Resistance.  There's lots of opinions out there on this film right now. I read the spoilers ahead of time, and I'm not going to lie I hated how some of them sounded, but I was right to withhold judgment because this film played out far better than it read. And the thing that was making me the most nervous - my six year old sitting through a two and a half hour movie worked in my favor too. He loved it (though he now hates Chewbacca for eating a porg) Director Rian Johnson took a ...

What I knew going in: That the film was once lost, then mostly recovered with a few title cards to fill in the gaps.  December was a rough go at the Blind Spot. My original pick was Cinema Paradiso, but it's been stuck in "Very Long Wait" hell on Netflix all year. So I held a twitter poll on what I should replace it with, and In The Heat Of The Night won. Then what do you know, Very Long Wait there too. None of these films were on Youtube or Daily Motion. I'm sure I could've found them on Vodlocker but the audio is always out of sync towards the end so I had to go with what came in 2nd on the Twitter poll. Good ol' Metropolis. And look at that, Netflix has it on instant stream. Set in the year 2026, a futuristic city is run by lowly workers underneath the streets and buildings the upper class call home. One day Freder ( Gustav Fröhlich) sees a beautiful woman (Brigitte Helm) and follows her underground to see the workers that fuel the city. He never kn...

I should put a trigger warning on this topic from Wandering Through The Shelves for myself. Small towns aren't for everyone. I was born and raised in one, I hated every minute of it. I hate walking into any given establishment and knowing somebody. I hated limited everything. And movie wise, I hated that I always had to drive two hours away to see indie films. Moving was one of the best things I ever did, even if it's not in a huge city. At least it's not a small town. Anyways, rant aside, here are some films about small towns that subtly capture how horrible they can be for some. And how well they fit for others. 1) Waitress This is probably one of the sweetest movies I've ever seen. Jenna is a small town waitress/pie extraordinaire who finds herself pregnant by her loser husband when that's the last thing she wants.  2) Snow Angels An ensemble drama about life in a small town before a tragedy strikes. The performances in this one are great, partic...

I got to watch this one live unlike the Globe nominations on Monday. (I'm feeling better too, strep throat is a bitch) Did you all suffer through that awkward banter that made these nominations last way too long? In case you didn't, here are the nominees plus my thoughts.  Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture The Big Sick Get Out Lady Bird Mudbound Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri I love this category. Every single film. I'm especially happy for The Big Sick after the Globes snubbed it completely.  Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name James Franco, The Disaster Artist Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq. I'm so happy Daniel Kaluuya got in. I'm surprised they went with Denzel over Daniel Day-Lewis who I figured would get nominations no matter what. *Continues praying that my theater opens The Disaster Arist so...

Nostra brought back his relay blogathon and this time we're looking for the ten best Christmas movies of all time. The rules are simple. The rules are, just like the past relay races, very simple: The list has 10 Christmas movies (in random order) and when the baton is handed over to a new blogger, he or she has to remove one title of the list (with an explanation why) and add one new title. Once that is done a new blogger is contacted who will take the baton and run with it, doing the same (you can reinstate a title which has been previously removed). As Christmas is in three weeks I want to ask you to publish your entry as quickly as possible to make sure the list changes as much as possible before the 25th of December. Add the logo of this relay race to your post and also add links to those who came before you making it easy for everyone to find all the entries It's funny, as I was watching this relay go around, I kept waiting for someone to add Nightmare Before Chri...

This was the first year since I started tweeting that I didn't get to live tweet the Globe nominations. But I have strep throat so I slept in. Here are a list of nominees + my belated thoughts.  Best Motion Picture - Drama "Call Me by Your Name" "Dunkirk" "The Post" "The Shape of Water" "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" The usual suspects here. I think all of these will be nominated come Oscar morning too.  It's too bad Wind River or Mudbound couldn't sneak in.  Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy "The Disaster Artist" "Get Out" "The Greatest Showman" "I, Tonya" "Lady Bird" I knew The Greatest Showman would get nominated here despite looking like a hot mess, but leaving out The Big Sick is some old bullshit. I'm happy for Lady Bird and Get Out and I really want to see The Disaster Artist and I, Tonya. Best Performance by an Actress in a...

I hope you're ready for some rom coms! This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is about ugly ducklings that become swans. You know, that moment a girl takes off her glasses and she's now totally hot? Yep. That shallow shit. There's actually a handful of films I enjoy despite this trope. Mostly for nostalgia reasons. Here's three of my favorites.  1) She's All That This is the obvious choice. I thought of going with something a little older like Funny Face but this is like the Godfather of ugly duckling movies. Lainey's walk down the staircase after getting a hair cut, an eyebrow wax and a nice dress is iconic.  2) Jawbreaker I love this movie so much. Fern Mayo goes from frumpy to the ultimate hot bitch Violette. So catty, so ridiculous, so amazing.  3) The New Guy You guys remember DJ Qualls? Or that time he was a huge nerd at one school, got expelled and became the cool kid at another? Well, that was this movie. This isn...

Say it loud. Behold the field where Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) grows her fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and see that it is barren. So barren that after months of hearing nothing about her teenager daughter's rape/murder case she puts up three billboards in that field aimed at the town's Sheriff (Woody Harrelson) for not trying hard enough to solve the crime. While he feels bad, he's dying of cancer and doesn't have much time left. Once his racist lose canon deputy Dixon (Sam Rockwell) gets involved, things escalate.  I love director Martin McDonagh's work. In Bruges is one of my all time favorite films so my expectations for this were high. They were met on every level. McDoagh's signature inappropriate humor is there. The fast quips and the lines that truly make you say "what the fuck?" Underneath that, this film has a ton of heart.  It presents several characters who both likable and unlikable at the same time. Even our lead Mil...