Rambling Film

I heard you paint houses. Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) is a former union worker who becomes a hitman for  Russell Bufalino. (Joe Pesci) He also forms a friendship with Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) and reluctantly has a hand in his death. I was only familiar with Jimmy Hoffa's name before watching this. I didn't know anything about the Teamsters and since I knew I was going to be sitting through nearly four hours of this film, I didn't bother researching because I assumed Scorcese would tell me everything I needed to know. And he did, this film is very thorough.  De Niro, Pesci and Pacino are very good. Pesci was probably my favorite, all three give wonderful performances and I imagine we'll be seeing all of them throughout Oscar season. As someone who watched The Godfather Parts I and II about 10 times this year, seeing Pacino screaming at people was a nice call back to that. The film is also littered with great actors, mostly from Board...

Don't let it go, come back. A few years have passed since we last left Elsa, (Idina Menzel) Anna, (Kristen Bell) Kristof, (Jonathon Groff) and Olaf. (Josh Gad) While everything is running smoothly in Arendelle and Anna is determined to make up for lost time with her sister, Elsa is hearing voices that are calling her far away to an enchanted forest their parents told them about when they were children. I chose the Captain Marvel banner for Dell's Girl Week to talk about the ladies in this film because Elsa is a super hero at this point. She's permafrosted Olaf and she can form ice into anything she wants now. I found Elsa's journey in this film to be far more interesting this time around. Instead of running, she's looking for her purpose. Anna is the one the fairs a little worse, she's obsessed with her sister to the point where it's kind of annoying, but it does lead up to her best song - Next Right Thing - so all is forgiven at the end.  In t...

Happy Awkward Family Dinner Day, my American friends! I hope everyone behaves themselves today. If you're here reading instead - this week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is about those TV series that take place after the world has gone to shit. I already used most of the shows that came to mind first for this theme so this is what I have left over. I had to cheat a little. 1) Fear The Walking Dead This show started off by showing civilization during the outbreak and had fairly interesting characters. Then TWD poison Scott Gimple got involved, the best characters are dead and now the show is basically The Walking Dead in a different location. 2) The Last Man On Earth I haven't seen the entire series in full but it was an amusing take on a small group of people after a virus wipes out most of the humans on Earth.  3) Watchmen So this isn't technically dystopian but it's an alternate version of our reality and things are pretty rough. T...

Dell over at Dell on Movies  is celebrating another Girl Week! It's where we highlight the wonderful woman in films. This time around, I figured I would look at the past decade and highlight the women that are behind the camera in various capacities instead of in front. Here are some women I feel made a huge difference these past 10 Years. I'll be listing the credentials of their work that I have seen, or plan to if it's a 2019 release. Dee Rees - Director: Pariah (2011) Bessie (2015) Mudbound (2017) I think Dee Rees is one of the most interesting directors out there right now. She came out strong with a lovely film representing the LGBTQ+ community, then brought her talents to TV, then only a few years ago gave us the wonderful Mudbound. Carey Mulligan mentioned once that if Dee Rees were a man, she'd be directing Star Wars. Here's hoping studios toss as much money at her as possible because she deserves every penny of it.  Mindy Kaling - Writer: The...

Won't you be my neighbor? Journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) is a cynic. His estranged father Jerry (Chris Cooper) has just re-entered his life and his boss at Esquire Magazine takes him away from the investigative pieces he normally writes and has him profile Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) instead. That interview changes his life. I've always been aware of Mister Rogers but I never grew up watching him religiously. I'd catch an occasional episode here and there but it was never an after school thing for me like it was for many. Because of that, I was surprised at how much this film effected me. I cried like a baby consistently throughout. Director Marielle Heller crafts this film like it's an extended episode of Mister. Rogers' Neighborhood. We open with him, the scene transitions are of toys traveling from one place to another, and Lloyd is profiled just as Mister Rogers would do for any of his guests. This isn't a Fred Rogers biopic, it's very ...

What I knew going in: The basic story and the two famous lines. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is a cynical American man living in Casablanca, Morocco during the early stages of WWII. He runs a popular night club which also doubles as a place where people can secretly buy exit papers to flee. When his ex-girlfriend, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) shows up with her husband looking for papers herself, things get complicated. I was putting this off because for some reason I thought this film was three hours long. Turns out it's not even 90 minutes. A  very brisk one at that.  I ended up liking this far more than I expected to, it's a really solid film Strangely enough, it wasn't Rick and Isla together I loved so much, it was Rick and his friendship with the police captain Louis Renault. (Claude Rains) Rains and Bogart have excellent chemistry together. I loved that the setting was mostly in the club as well. It gives the film an upbeat vibe even though it's dealing wi...

These last few months have been....something. Thankfully, Netflix has been there for me on both the streaming and DVD side. Deep Red - For someone who counts Suspiria as one of their all time favorite movies, I haven't seen any other Dario Argento movie. I decided to fix that starting with Deep Red. I really liked it. I liked the aesthetic and enjoyed the "whodunit" part of the mystery, even if the killer ended up being a bit of a stretch at the end. B Eli - For a Netflix horror film, this was actually pretty decent. It's very basic but it didn't end the way most horror films telling that story would have. I appreciated that. C+ High Life - This is easily one of the worst films I've seen this year. It's less of a science fiction film and more about a study on sex. Robert Pattinson is not a compelling lead. I know the internet is obsessed with him right now but I find him to be pretty mediocre. The only decent thing is Mia Goth and Julie...

Awards season is kicking off with the beloved Spirit Nominations. I love independent films and my favorite thing about these is getting more recommendations. But I have to say....this year's nominations are weird. NO Jojo Rabbit, barely any Marriage Story and way too much Lighthouse and Hustlers for me personally. Plus a few big snubs, but hey, there's nothing wrong with being unpredictable. Here are the nominees + my thoughts.  BEST DIRECTOR Alma Har’el, Honey Boy Lorene Scafaria, Hustlers Julius Onah, Luce Robert Eggers, The Lighthouse Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie, Uncut Gems Honey Boy and Uncut Gems are the only two I haven't. Out of the ones I did see, Luce was my favorite. Otherwise these were pretty surprising aside from Eggers and Har'el. I expected Baumbach and possibly Taika if Jojo Rabbit qualified here. BEST SCREENPLAY Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story Jason Begue, Shawn Snyder, To Dust Ronald Bronstein & Benny Safdie & Jo...

This week's theme from Wandering Through Shelves is memorable scenes that take place over a meal. When I saw this topic, these three films came to my mind immediately: 1) Jurassic Park Lex and her Jello shaking when she hears the dinosaurs approaching is absolutely iconic. Honestly, Lex herself is iconic. She's the most underrated character in all of Jurassic Park. They should dump Chris Pratt and just bring her back. Then maybe the new films wouldn't be so awful. 2) Inglorious Basterds Hans Landa ordering cream for Shoshanna's strudel had me on the edge of my seat. And this is a film that already opened with a very tense scene involving her family hiding from the nazis. Shoshanna kept it together while he was there, but the viewers were a wreck for her.  3) Lady and the Tramp Is there a more iconic scene involving spaghetti? I still have zero interest in the live action remake though. This was fine.

Two or Three hundred years? Former driver and current car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) is tasked with designing a car to beat Ferarri at the 24 hour Le Mons race in the late 60's. He wants the best driver for the job, the volatile Ken Miles (Christian Bale) to drive it, but mustache twirling villain and Ford VP Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) does just about everything possible to stand in Ken's way. I don't care about racing. I never have, but I was pleasantly surprised with Rush a few years ago so despite my indifference I decided to see this one for the actors.  This is yet another instance of a movie being two and half hours when it really doesn't need to be. The length makes the film wildly uneven. The racing is thrilling, but other parts are frustrating. Especially Josh Lucas. There's a difference between an effective antagonist and an annoying one. Leo Beebe is the latter. He was so over the top smug and goes through the entire movie comple...

If only Oxford has a counter-fitting course.. Kim Ki-woo (Woo-sik Choi) lives with his parents, Ki-taek and Chung-sook (Kang-ho Song and Hye-jin Jang) and sister Ki-jung (So-dam Park) in a basic apartment doing odd jobs to make ends meet. By luck, one of his friends offers him a tutoring position for a rich family. Ki-woo decides to scheme his family members into jobs within the rich household, but they all pretend not to know each other.  If you've spent any amount of time on Film Twitter since Cannes, Parasite has been all the buzz. One consistent thing I heard was to know as little as possible before going in. So I did. I only saw the trailer for this film for the first time last week when I went to see Jojo Rabbit . The hype was impossible to escape. I had high expectations until I saw a tweet calling it a mash up between Burning and Roma . That brought my expectations down substantially considering I think both of those movies are awful. Thankfully, this...

I used to call it the shining... About forty years after his run in at the Overlook Hotel Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) now goes by Dan and is a recovering alcoholic laying low in New Hampshire. He has telepathic conversations with another person like him, Abra.(Kyliegh Curran) When Abra witnesses Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and her group of shine stealing cultists known as the True Knot murder a young boy (Jacob Tremblay) she begs Dan to help her.  I'm not sure if many people would venture into Doctor Sleep without having seen The Shining , but just in case you haven't, you really need to have seen The Shining to make sense of this film. I've never read the book this is based off of myself, but with how much information is in this film, they must have done a decent job adapting it. I really liked Ewan and Kyliegh in these roles. It's sad to see Dan grow up to be so troubled, but I'm glad we also got to see him getting his life back together. ...

Don't put him in a box. Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) was adopted from war torn Eritrea as a child by the affluent family Amy (Naomi Watts) and Peter. (Tim Roth) They've worked hard to make sure he reaches his full potential, and so far, they've succeeded. Luce is a kind boy, he's good in school and in sports, but when he writes a troubling essay in Mrs. Wilson's (Octavia Spence) class, Amy in particular is forced to consider the idea that maybe he isn't perfect. Luce makes a comment about the harmful nature of tokenism and stereotypes early in the film. Why is it okay that the school makes it clear how much they want Luce, a boy with a tragic past to succeed and not another black student who gets kicked off the track team for weed in his locker and loses his only shot of college because of it? Why does Mrs. Wilson project onto some students and not the others? Why can't Amy see any grey area at all in her son's life? These are all valid question...

The world is on fire and today Wanderer is having us find political films. It's fitting The Report comes out tomorrow, a political film I've been looking forward to seeing. But my theater isn't getting it so until I get to feast my eyes on more Adam Driver, here are a few other films I enjoy. 1) Milk This was one of my favorites movies of that year. Despite not really caring for Sean Penn, he was excellent as Harvey Milk and the supporting cast was fantastic. 2) All The President's Men You all know how much I love journalism movies and this one about the Watergate scandal is still one of my favorite films I've seen on my Blind Spot journey. 3) Recount With Jay Roach's Bombshell out soon, maybe more people will go back and find this TV movie he did about the 2000 presidential election. I really enjoyed it. It got a lot of Emmy and Globe love, but I still feel like it doesn't get talked about that much. Denis Leary and Laura Dern were the s...

Hail King Henry When his father and brother die, the reluctant Hal (Timothee Chalamet) finds himself crowned the King of England and his pacifist ways tested.  I had no idea this movie was even in the works until about a month ago. I liked the trailer, I thought Timothee's English accent sounded good and Joel Edgerton is always a pleasant surprise, but what really sold me was hearing about Robert Pattinson's bat shit crazy performance as a French prince.  And ridiculous it is, so much so that Pattinson feels out of place. Like everyone else is taking this film seriously except him. But it works in its own strange way. It's levity for the heavy burden we watch Hal carry.  Speaking of Hal, Timothee Chalamet is outstanding here. It's a shame the film isn't better. It feels like a mature progression to his career. He starts out without many cares and then when the crown is thrust upon them he adapts the best way he can.  The King is about as ...

Run, little rabbit. Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) is a 10 year old fanatic joining a Hitler Youth camp in Germany. He tries to be devout, but he's awkward and scared. He also sees Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi) as an imaginary friend. His world views are challenged when he finds out his mother, (Scarlett Johnasson) is hiding a Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin Mackenzie) in their home. This has been one of my most anticipated films of the year. I love Taika Waititi, everything he does is so much fun but making a satire about Nazis was a risky move. Thankfully, it paid off as this is easily one of the best films I've seen all year.  Roman Griffin Davis is an extraordinary young actor. Jojo is such a vulnerable character and even though he's spouting off some terrible nonsense, you realize he's a product of his environment. His mother tries to change that, and I loved their scenes together. They were so warm and sweet and of course being a mother to a son myself made ...

He'd do it for me. Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton) is a private eye whose mentor, Frank (Bruce Willis) is gunned down before his eyes while working a case. He attempts to solve Frank's murder and seeks out the woman Frank was following, Laura. (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) He doesn't have all the pieces, but he does have a brilliant mind...that occasionally causes outbursts as he suffers from Tourette's Syndrome. I save that for last because Norton mostly uses Tourette's as comedy relief aside from a very sweet scene in a night club (with the lovely Michael Kenneth Williams on the trumpet) and a few interrogations.Perhaps the book this film is based on plays it differently. I'm finding myself at a bit of a crossroads with this movie too. (and like The Lighthouse , Willem DaFoe makes an appearance here too) I left it thinking I probably would've enjoyed the book more as I love mysteries. One of the reasons is because you can sit with a few chapters before st...

Pray on it Somewhere secluded in Appalachia, Mara (Alice Englert) is secretly pregnant out of wedlock and cannot tell anyone. Her father, Lemuel (Walton Goggins) is a pastor of their small church, where they hold venomous snakes and speak in tongues. When Sister Hope (Olivia Colman) finds out, she and her lover, Augie (Thomas Mann) are forced to confront their sins and go through a dangerous tradition at their church. I've been waiting to see this film since it premiered at Sundance earlier this year. It had plenty of positive reviews then promptly dropped off the face of the Earth until now. In a way, I get it. Movies dealing with religion, mainly one that paints it in a very bad light can be fairly niche. But it still disappointed me that this film wasn't talked about more considering the setting alone gives Ozark and Winter's Bone vibes, and those are still fairly popular.  I'm happy to say it was worth the wait. It's a deliberately paced film th...