Rambling Film

Work of the author. Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling) is an artist in West Germany. He's often haunted by growing up during WWII, and how his beloved Aunt Elizabeth (Saskia Rosendahl) who fed his creative spirit was sent to her death by the Nazis because of her mental illness. He meets and marries Ellie (Paula Beer) whose father, Professor Seeband (Sebastian Koch) doesn't approve of Kurt and unbeknownst to him is the same doctor that is directly responsible for his aunt's death.  I saved this movie into my Netflix queue after this year's Oscar nominations came out. Never Look Away was not only a Foreign Film nominee, but was also a surprise entry into the Cinematography category. What I didn't notice until I opened the DVD Netflix sent me is that this movie was over three hours long. It's probably for the best I didn't pay attention to that before because I'm not sure if I would've put in the effort otherwise.  Is every bit of its hefty run...

This week's TV theme from W andering Through The Shelves is gangsters. This is yet another reminder for me that I need to start Peaky Blinders. Here are my favorite shows featuring a gangster or two. 1) Boardwalk Empire "You can't be half a gangster" is something Jimmy tells Nucky in Boardwalk Empire's first season, and he eventually accepts his fate. While BE wasn't perfect I think it has one of the best casts ever assembled on television.  2) Breaking Bad I could count the wonderful Gus Fring as the ultimate gangster, but let's go with Jesse Pinkman's friends like Badger, trying their hand at the wannabe gangster game. 3) The Wire Indeed, The Wire had its fair share of gang members and drug lords. This was a show that lived up to every expectation I had, which was rare.  I also have a funny memory of binging this with my husband. I put our then two year old to bed one night and joked "Mommy and Daddy need to watch The Wire...

One of my goals for 2019 was to finally watch all the films I've had saved in my Netflix streaming queue for what seems like an eternity. I estimate that all of the titles below have been in my queue for at least a year. 41 total, and I did it! I'd like to thank the horrid winter we had this year that made a lot of this possible. Here are my very quick thoughts on all the titles in my black hole of a queue. Now only a few films + a bunch of TV shows are left in it. Time to binge all that TV, I guess.  The Life and Death of of Marsha P. Johnson - I had never heard of Marsha and was happy to learn about her but I think this doc tried to take on a bit too much at once. It was good, but could've been better - B The White Helmets - After watching the full length Last Men In Aleppo I never did get around to watching the short film following the same brave men helping save people in their war torn cities in Syria. This was very good and I'm glad more has been expand...

Surprise! Jay (Dev Patel) is headed to a wedding in Pakistan, only it's not your typical affair. He's armed with several passports, a few guns, and a plan to kidnap a bride, Samira (Radhika Apte) instead of watching her nuptials. I knew nothing about this movie before I selected it while browsing through my in flight selection. Let's be honest, Dev Patel with his beard is enough to get me to watch anything. The thing The Wedding Guest does very well is it keeps you guessing on what the characters'  motivations are. Jay is our eyes to this world, but he's obviously not a good person. Samira is dealt several shitty hands throughout but it's never certain where she's going to land by the end of it. Do you want them to trust each other? Fight? Run? There's plenty of possibilities and the film doesn't take the most obvious choices either. I think Patel and Apte are both good here. Neither role is really requiring a lot from them in ter...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is either something you love or hate; Period Dramas. I admit that sometimes they get old but I don't avoid movies because of the time frame. Here are three that definitely stick out. 1) The Favourite This film has the perfect title considering it was one of my favorites from last year. If you're iffy on period pieces, this gloriously petty story about Queen Anne and two women vying for her attention is a good place to start. 2) Lady Macbeth While I didn't love this film I admire it. Following completely unlikable characters is a tough sell but this did it and Florence Pugh was amazing as a young woman sold off into marriage that makes questionable choices. 3) The Edge of Love This one doesn't go quite as far back as the others but no one ever talks about this film staring Keria Knightley, Sienna Miller and Cillian Murphy in the 1940's. The most famous thing about it is probably the fact th...

What I knew going in: Not much, other than what it was about. Mabel (Gena Rowlands) is a housewife who lives to please her husband, Nick. (Peter Falk) However she suffers from a mental illness that neither Nick, nor anyone else in their family is equipped to help her with. When putting together my Blind Spot list, this was a recommendation I got on Twitter and it was a film I was familiar with due to all the praise for Gena Rowlands' performance. That aspect of the film was no hyperbole. Rowlands is fantastic. It's sad to watch Mabel who with a less shitty husband and more supportive social circle could've gotten the help she needed and thrived. There are parts of this movie that are so deeply uncomfortable that it kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to follow. Speaking of Mabel's husband, Nick really is the worst, right? This is nothing against Falk who's great, but Nick is so unlikable that the film, which is already far too long at ...

Dream big. Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) is a long running late night talk show host whose ratings have been declining. When she's accused of hating women by her colleague, Brad (Denis O'Hare) she immediately orders him to hire a woman. Enter Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling) an essay winner with no comedy experience who happens to be in the right place in the right time, and now she's the only non white male on Katherine's writing staff.  I've been looking forward to this since it was announced at Sundance, but when the first trailer came out I put the brakes on my hype a little because it was kind of awful. I'm happy to say that the trailer did not do this film justice at all.  Mindy Kaling is a great writer and even though the script plays it pretty safe, I love what she did here. There's plenty of laughs and the characters were easy to warm up to. Molly is instantly likable and Katherine is fairly complex. The privilege drenched writing staf...

You can start over. Ollie (Tessa Thompson) is trying to lead a straight(er) life after getting caught running drugs over the North Dakota/Canadian boarder. When her sister Deb (Lily James) falls pregnant and knows she can't afford to have the baby, Ollie turns to dealing again for hopefully the last time.  First off, thank you all for leaving comments on the two posts I had scheduled while I was on vacation. I'm currently typing up a bit of content, then I'm off to read your lovely blogs. Even when I travel I normally set aside time each night to check out my blog roll, but I was EXHAUSTED at the end of each day. I'm happy to be back in the swing of things. I had to laugh when I started watching this movie and realized it was set around the area I grew up in. (Though they choose a fictional name for the town) They certainly capture the despair and general bleakness of Western North Dakota well, especially now that oil drilling is so common there. The desp...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about characters that are undercover. There's a lot to choose from, so I went with a theme within a theme. All of these movies are about law enforcement agents going undercover. Two sets of cops and one FBI agent. All with varying degrees of comedy involved. 1) 21 Jump Street I didn't have the highest expectations for this but my husband and I got a rare date night away from our then baby so we went to this on opening night and laughed our asses off. Comedies are the only times I like big crowds in theaters, all that laughter is contagious.  2) Kindergarten Cop I watched this movie so much as a kid and sadly, I still quote it frequently. 3) Big Momma's House Yes, I'm aware this movie is dumb as hell and full of stereotypes but I laughed.

You came here for a reason. Tori (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle (David Denman) have been struggling with infertility when a space ship crash lands in their yard carrying an infant, they raise their son - Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) and all goes well until he turns 12 and starts acting strangely. Now they must confront the fact that they haven't told him where he really came from. Taking heroes and turning them into bad guys is fairly common in comics but not so much on screen, so I was looking forward to this take on "Superman, but evil."  Most horror movies require at least one character to fall victim to plot and make poor decisions. In this one it's Tori, who protects her son and makes excuses for him despite the increasingly weird shit that happens around him. I know it's realistic and I made my peace with it, but it's still slightly annoying. There's some serious gore in here from time to time, you will certainly cringe but it's not a...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about those unsung heroes (or your worst nightmare, depending) babysitters. I don't think I ever had a babysitter that wasn't a family member. I never babysat either when I was a kid, I'd only occasionally help a friend who was tasked with it. So even though I cannot relate at all, here are some films about babysitters. 1) Halloween Laurie Strode is the queen of all babysitters. Look at what she had to go through? 2) Adventures in Babysitting This was on TV last year and was a nice refresher because even though I know I watched this when I was a kid, I couldn't remember much of it.  3) Mrs. Doubtfire And now for our lone Nanny, I still adore this movie. It's one of my favorite family films. 

Let them fight. It's been five years since Godzilla has last been seen and the Monarch corporation is on the verge of being taken over by the U.S Military. When Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) decides to go full Thanos on earth, her ex husband Mark (Kyle Chandler) must work together with other Monarch scientists, like the returning Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Wantanabe) to gain control of the newly released titans, especially the powerful Ghidorah. I really liked 2014's Godzilla and at first I was disappointed Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson weren't returning with the others, but turns out they saved themselves from probably having to do something stupid. There is no shortage of stupid in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Most of the humans exist to make terrible decisions.  You have to decide for yourself what you're wanting from this film before seeing it. If you want to see monsters fight each other, you won't be disappointed. If you want a c...

Work hard, play hard. Amy (Katilyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) have spent their entire school years studying to get into good colleges and never going out and partying like their classmates. On the last day of school, they find out that plenty of their classmates that did party all got into good schools or got good jobs right out of college anyways. Determined to make up for lost time, they decide to party hard on their last night as high schoolers.  When I first started seeing advertising for this movie I didn't like how it kept getting compared to Superbad. Sure, it's about kids partying towards the end of school but it seemed different enough. After watching, it actually takes a few things beat for beat from Superbad so the comparisons are warranted. Thankfully it doesn't make it any less enjoyable.  The strongest thing in Booksmart is the friendship between Molly and Amy. Of course like any teen movie, they will momentarily have some trouble b...