Rambling Film

  And now for the final TV theme of 2021! Thank you so much, Wanderer for keeping up with the TMP tradition. The last theme is TV shows focusing on Holidays. I've used pretty much all my favorite shows already this year, but here's what I managed to put together. 1) The Office - This show is often playing for background noise in my house, so it was easy to think of the Christmas Party episode in season 2.  2) The Brady Bunch - I wanted to pick at least one classic show for this theme, and the Brady Bunch Christmas episode was the first that came to mind.  3) Rugrats - I also wanted to pick something Hanukkah related so I went with one of the shows from my childhood. Living in a small Midwestern town, I'm fairly sure this show was the first time I had even heard of the Jewish holiday, and I'm thankful for it. 

Malik (Riz Ahmed) is a marine recently back from duty who takes his two young sons, Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada) in the middle of the night claiming microorganisms are invading the Earth via insects.  I don't recall seeing much advertising for this film. I had it on my watch list purely because of Riz Ahmed, so to be perfectly honest I thought this was going to be a sci fi movie. It's very much not that. It's about veterans coming back from warzones with PTSD. Malik has more to his story than that, which I won't go into because it's spoiler territory.  This story has been done before, but what makes this one stand out are Ahmed and Chauhan's performance. As the mother of a 10 year old myself (god, I'm old) I had to suspend a lot of disbelief on what this poor kid has to process throughout the movie, but performance wise they were great. Octavia Spencer also has a small role and I always love seeing her. Encounter may not be groundbre...

When a PHD astronomy candidate, Kate (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers a comet heading towards earth. She and her Professor, Dr. Mindy (Leonardo Dicaprio) attempt to warm the U.S government about their catastrophic findings, only for nearly everyone not to take them seriously. Adam McKay's been having a great success with his politically minded movies. Both The Big Short and Vice worked really well (for me, at least) but his latest film is a straight up satire and someone it's a bit too on the nose to really work as a whole. I've been thinking a lot about satires lately and how hard it is to get them to work. For every Tropic Thunder , Jojo Rabbit , and Drop Dead Gorgeous , you get hundreds of others that just miss the mark. This film, while still mostly enjoyable watch, doesn't really hit as a satire. It's more of a doomsday comedy where everything we're supposed to be laughing at feels a little too close to home. I think our main stars, Lawrence, Dicaprio, and Ro...

  A week in the life of comedy legends Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) as they try to tape one week of their hit show while dealing with possibly marriage ending allegations.  I was definitely one of those people that, despite loving Bardem and Kidman did a complete "...huh?" at their casting in this. I was honestly expecting this to bomb, but when early reviews came out telling us to trust the process, I decided to do just that. I'm honestly shocked at how much I liked this. Bardem and Kidman are never once convincing as the Lucy and Desi I'm familiar with from all the I Love Lucy reruns I watched as a kid, but they're very convincing as two comedians in an Aaron Sorkin movie. His movies have always worked for me. They have an energy that I can't get enough of, and I have yet to dislike something he's written/directed. I know that's the not the case for everyone, but if you're a fan of his work, you'll probably li...

  What I knew going in: The basic plot. George (James Stewart) has had it with life. An angel, Clarence (Henry Travers) is sent to intervene, and when George wishes he'd never been born, Clarence gives him a look at what life would really be like if that happened. I know, I'm very late on this beloved Christmas classic. It was just never something anyone in my house watched growing up. But thanks to Amazon Prime, I can finally check this one off. Is it about to become a classic in House Rambling? Maybe the first 10 minutes and the last 30. Those are the parts of the film that I found to be the most magical. Especially the ending. I think this movie has one of the best endings I've ever seen given its subject, I felt more moved in those few minutes than I did slogging through the mid section of this film. I just found it tedious. George's plans get ruined over and over and I kept counting down the moment until Clarence shows up. I feel like this is a movie you start, th...

  The final movie theme of 2021 from Wandering Through The Shelves is holiday parties! You know, those things I still haven't gone back to because of COVID. Some day.... Here's what I came up with.  1) The Night Before - I have to go with my man JGL's holiday party classic. He, Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie have great chemistry together. 2) The Happiest Season - Or, the film where Kristen Stewart and Aubrey Plaza's characters should've just gotten together. 3) Fanny and Alexander - So this movie is way too long, but the opening holiday party looked gorgeous. 

Stan (Bradley Cooper) is a drifter who ends up getting a job as a carny under Clem. (Willem DaFoe) His ambitions eventually take him even further, but when he meets Doctor Ritter (Cate Blanchett) his deceptions are going to run deeper than they ever have before. If this film's hefty 2 and a half hour run time is putting you off, don't worry. This film feels shockingly short. It covers a lot of ground but it went by a lot faster than I expected it to. I know this is a remake of a 1947 film, but I can't say that I ever saw it. In fact, I didn't even read about it. I saw it based on the trailer alone, which doesn't give you a whole lot of what's going on. I loved that. This film is gorgeous. The cinematography, the sets, the costumes. The only film I've found as pretty this year is Spencer.  While that film was light and airy, this is dark and filled with lots of reds and jewel tones. It's fitting for a movie about someone obsessed with power and money. Sta...

Peter (Tom Holland) is having a tough time after his identity is outed against his will. Worse, it's having effecting those closest to him, like MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) badly. He turns to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to see if he can cast a spell to make people forget Peter Parker is Spider-man, but it goes horribly wrong and suddenly people from various universes that know his identity are being pulled into Earth. I can fully acknowledge that there are some holes in this story in order to make everything flight, but I don't care. I had SO much fun watching this. I haven't been this excited in a theater since Avengers: Endgame. It felt so good to feel the energy of a crowd like that again. This is a love letter to anyone who's been a fan of the Spider-man films. And not just the ones in the MCU continuity. It even took bits from other properties that I had issue with in the past, and made them work. It was just a joy to watch from start to finish. ...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is about those folks who are new to the city. They're mostly from a small town with big dreams. Truthfully, I know this should've come easy to me, but I struggled a bit. Here's who we're talking about this week.  1) Downsizing - Paul shrinks himself down to 5 inches for an economic and environmental benefit, so he's very new to his tiny city. This wasn't great, but it was very creative and Hong Chau gave a stand out performance.   2) Jetsons: The Movie - This is a favorite from my childhood. Judy's story was my favorite, and also best fits with the theme. Her being to a new city, finding a new boyfriend, and of course the space malls. I loved it.  3) An American Tail - The ultimate "New to New York City" movie. I stand by that this one is better than Fievel Goes West. 

My final entry in the 2021 Blind Spot Series is scheduled to post on Christmas Day (It's A Wonderful Life) so I thought now would be a good time to share my 2022 list! I'm being a bit ambitious with one month again, and am finally going to tackle the Before trilogy. I'm also giving myself a nice stack of alternates in case I run into availability issues like I did this year. So what do you think? Have you seen any of the films I'm planning on watching? Am I in for a good year? 1 Mrs. Miniver 2 Rebecca (1940) 3 An American in Paris 4 Bicycle Thieves 5 City Lights 6 Rome Open City 7 2001 A Space Odyssey  8 Breathless (1960) 9 Thelma & Louise 10 Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight 11 Through A Glass Darkly 12 A Star Is Born (1954) Alternates: Suddenly, Last Summer. Come and See. She Got Game. 8 1/2. I'll Be Seeing You

  No, the Globes aren't really relevant this year, but for the sake of consistency on the blog, I'm going to talk about them. I'm traveling for work again this week, so I plan on doing a better breakdown of the Critic's Choice Award nominees, both TV and movie, but that will have to wait for the weekend. Here are the nominations + some quick thoughts. Best Motion Picture, Drama Belfast CODA Dune King Richard The Power of the Dog I think these will all be Best Picture nominees as well. I'm team Power of the Dog all the way. I wish something as great as Nine Days could be here. Best Picture, Musical or Comedy Cyrano Don’t Look Up Licorice Pizza tick, tick...BOOM! West Side Story I was hoping Annette would've been nominated here. This is a category I hope to catch up on soon. I've only seen Tick, Tick Boom. Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”) Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”) Nicole Kidman (“Be...

Ruth (Sandra Bullock) has just been released from prison after doing twenty years for murdering a cop. She longs to reach out to her younger sister, Katie (Aisling Franciosi) but the law prevents her from doing that. She tries to keep her head down and go about things legally, but it's never easy for convicts when they get out of prison. Director Nora Fingscheidt has tackled tricky subjects like this before. Her last film, System Crasher was excellent. That alone caught my attention for this movie, along with Viola Davis, Rob Morgan, and Jon Bernthal. (Though Viola's part is tiny) This film struggles with a subplot issues. There's two main stories. There's Ruth, trying to reintegrate into society and there's the sons of the man she killed who want their revenge. The latter is completely unnecessary. There are plethora of prison/revenge movies out there. I don't think Ruth needed an enemy in the form of another person. The world was already her enemy. You don...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is a trope I haven't thought of in a while: Rags to Riches. Aside from one pick that came to me immediately, I had to think about the other two for a while. Here's what I came up with. 1) Annie - It's a hard knock life for Annie. The little Orphan who charms a billionaire's heart. I love this movie, I watched it quite a bit as a kid. There's been several remakes and stage shows, but the 1982 version always has my heart. 2) The Tale of Princes Kaguya - A simple bamboo cutter and his wife find a small child inside of a stalk of bamboo and she goes into a beautiful princess. While this isn't my favorite Studio Ghibli film, the animation is gorgeous. It's lovely to watch. 3) Cinderella - There's so many versions of this I could've chosen from, but the cartoon makes me think of my son, who watched this every day for months when he was a toddler. He loved her. 

Will (Winston Duke) used to be alive. Now he's a recluse, in a small house on the beach conducting interviews for human souls. If they pass, they get the honor of being born. Aside from his interviewees, only friend and colleague Kyo (Benedict Wong) visits him.  I had heard a few good things about this film months ago, so I had it saved in my Netflix DVD queue, ready to go whenever it came out. I even saw it as an option on a flight recently, and decided to wait. Now I'm glad I did because I would've been a blubbering mess on that flight. I was not expecting this movie to hit me so hard emotionally. I cried several times. Not always because I was sad, but because there was so much beauty to be found in this story. It's hard to call it wholly original, when Pixar's Soul was just released last year, but it felt that way. Something happens to Will early on that makes him go on autopilot. He can't see the beauty there is in the world. (Which he gets to watch on a s...

Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Burbank (Jesse Plemmons) are brothers running a ranch in 1925 Montana. Phil is well educated, George flunked out of school. Phil is charismatic and cruel. George is quiet and a bit oblivious. They're still sharing a the room they grew up in at their home, despite their parents not living there. Phil is seriously co-dependent. So when George springs a marriage to Rose (Kirsten Dunst) on him. He does everything in his power to make Rose feel uncomfortable in her new home, including taking an interest in her son, Peter. (Kodi Smit-McPhee) This movie has been raved about for months and it easily catapulted to the top of my most anticipated list because of it. Director Jane Campion's The Piano is one of my all time favorites, and I couldn't wait to see her back in top form. This absolutely lived up to my high expectations.  I haven't read the book this is based on. None of my local libraries had it, so I went in very blind. None of the...

Another month, another quick review of TV shows from House Rambling Film. Here's what I was watching last month. Succession - My husband and I seem to be on opposite sides this season. He doesn't think much has happened, and I have lived for every minute of Roy family drama. It doesn't bother me that not a lot of time has passed, they're hot messes and I'm here for it. Hacks - I watched a few episodes of this on a flight earlier this month and thought it was hysterical. Unfortunately I haven't finished it, because my husband also wants to watch it, and I'd rather just start from the beginning again. The Morning Show - My God, did this season suck. I usually role my eyes when people say shows are trying too hard to be woke because including lesser shown people/groups/relationships on TV is NEVER a bad thing, but I actually see what some of the (good faith) people were talking about now. Yikes. American Crime Story - This was a very solid season and I hope ...

Wanderer's final Oscar theme for the year is one of my favorite categories - Best International Film! I've used a lot of my favorite winners of the course of the year, so I decided I'm going to talk about a few underrated winners in my opinion. Here's what I came up with.  1) Cinema Paradiso - I didn't watch this movie until a few years ago, and it was so good I don't understand how it's not consistently raved about. It's a love letter to movie lovers and has one of the best final scenes ever. In fact, I should be watching this again right now. 2) Departures - When I did the Best Picture round table on Fisti's old blog years ago, I think I was way more into Japan's winner than everyone else was. I just think it's such an interesting concept - A man returning to his home town to work in a traditional Japanese morgue. 3) In A Better World - This Danish winner is ultimately about tolerance and that grey area when bad people do bad things to yo...

Buddy (Jude Hill) is a young boy growing up in 1960's Belfast in the midst of local rioting between Protestants and Catholics. His mother (Caitriona Balfe) wants her family to say in Belfast, it's all she's even known, but his father (Jamie Dornan) wants them to leave. This is a deeply personal film for writer/director Kenneth Branagh, and critics are already calling this the Best Picture front runner. Because of Branagh's connections to the story, and it's black and white setting, it's getting compared to Roma . Thankfully the comparisons stop there. The story is wildly different. The film is set from Buddy's eyes. Even though he's not always on screen, vital information is given to us in bits and pieces, much like a child would overhear. Jude Hill gives an extraordinary performance. He's fun, curious, and has plenty of worries. He was my favorite thing about the film Balfe also gives a great performance as the mother that is keeping everything toge...

Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) is a normal woman who by chances, meets Maurizio Gucci. (Adam Driver) His family is behind the powerhouse fashion empire, and Patrizia takes this opportunity to pursue him, fall in love, and eventually instigate several changes within the company. A movie like this could go several different ways and for one as hotly anticipated as this, many people had their expectations set. For me, I wanted over the top and ridiculous. One look at Jared Leto in his fat suit, and Lady Gaga's over the top accent in the trailer, I knew what I wanted from it.  Thankfully, I received that. As much as I dislike Leto as a person, his take on cousin Paolo Gucci made me laugh my ass off. For a film that cracks two and a half hours, that levity was needed throughout. The real stars are of course Gaga and Driver, who are both well cast. Patrizia has a big personality and Gaga was perfect for her. Maurizio is shy, and I love when Driver tackles these more understated characters...

Aspiring playwright Jonathan Larsen (Andrew Garfield) is about to turn 30 and is about to showcase what he considers his life's work. He's broke, his relationship is facing hurdles, and his friends are dying. Life isn't easy. Jonathan Larsen would eventually go on to create Rent , which I have to admit that I don't exactly care for. I appreciate it for tackling the AIDS crisis and for being a huge hit with many LGBTQIA+ characters, but at the same time...I kind of hate most of them. I bring this up because there are aspects of Larsen's life that are present in the film that clearly inspired Rent . He wrote what he knew, obviously, so that did effect me negatively. If you love Rent, or haven't seen it, it probably won't be that way for you, but I have to be honest about my bias.  Andrew Garfield is truly wonderful in this. For a guy who never sang prior to this film, he did a great job. He's not a very strong singer, but he's the writer. No one expe...

  What I knew going in: The drama with casting. Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) is a full of himself professor who bets a colleague he can turn crude flower seller, Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) into a well spoken lady. Once again, the movie I had planned to watch this month (Jungle Fever) fell through, but thankfully Dell's Girl Week blogathon was there to give me some inspiration. I've been wanting to expand my Audrey films lately, and this one is currently streaming on Netflix. I know a lot of people kind of hate Audrey in this role. Marni Nixon dubs all of Audrey's singing because she didn't have the range required for the music. Julie Andrews didn't get to reprise her stage role which angered everyone. However, all these years later I feel I can unequivocally say that Audrey and Marni are the best part of this movie and it's utterly dull every moment they're not on screen. Audrey plays Eliza like she's on stage. Her movement are very over the top ...

  One of the best things about Dell's blogathon, Girl Week is that sometimes an actress or a film is put on your radar that wasn't there before. The film I'm going to talk about today is Annette , which was very talked about this summer (because its excellent) but I want to focus on one particular actress today, and how her small scene left such a huge impact. While the majority of the film, the titular Annette is played by a puppet, but in the final 10 minutes, she's played by Devyn McDowell. Annette visits her father in prison, and tells him a lot of hard truths. She's never going to sing again, he ruined all of that for her, and she struggles with whether or not she should forgive and forget her parents. These are big emotions for a small child. Annette never should've been put in this position in the first place, but she is and what takes place is the best scene of the film. Devyn and Adam Driver sing "Sympathy for the Abyss" which is a beautiful, ...

  Friends, I'm really excited for The Power of the Dog . It's one of my most anticipated films of the year, and it stars one of my all time favorite actresses - Kirsten Dunst. And since Dell is kind enough to host another Girl Week , I thought today would be the perfect time to nerd out about Kirsten's performances ahead of her next release. I've seen way too much of her work to do a regular numbered list. We'd be here a long time if I talked about every film, so I'm breaking them down into a few separate categories.  We're Dun(st) Here (or: films I didn't like, but watched for her anyways)  Woodshock On The Road Melancholia (she's actually amazing in this....but Lars Von Trier) Elizabethtown Mona Lisa Smile All Okay Things Wimbledon The Beguiled Hidden Figures The Spider-man films Kiki's Teeny Service (Or, same as the previous category, but tween me loved them ) All I Want Dick Fifteen and Pregnant Bring It On Nostalgia™ Small Soldiers Anastasia...