Rambling Film

It's SAG time on Sunday, and here I am again running late with my predictions. Below are who I think is going to win, and in some cases, who should instead.  Cast in a Motion Picture “Da 5 Bloods” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” “Minari” “One Night In Miami” “Trial of the Chicago 7” Who will win: Trial of the Chicago 7 Who should win: Any of them. I love all of the casts that were honored here. Only two of these films got Best Picture support, and I think there's a good chance Minari could win too, but for some reason I think Trial will be winning this one. Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”) Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”) Gary Oldman (“Mank”) Steven Yeun (“Minari”) Who will and should win: Chadwick Boseman This is Chadwick's year and anyone else winning would be a huge shock at this point. Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture Amy Adams (“Hillbilly Elegy”) Viola Davis (“Ma Raine...

We meet Cherry (Tom Holland) as your average college kid experimenting with weed he has a crush on a girl in one of his classes, Emily (Ciara Bravo) and then begin dating. They break up, and in his heartbreak he joins the army, goes to war, comes home with severe PTSD and ends up addicted to drugs. Emily also gets addicted, and Cherry starts robbing banks to support their habit. The Russo Brothers are apparently really tired of directing Marvel movies, so they decided to throw EVERY trick they learned in film school into this absolute mess of a film. The funny thing is, if you listen to interviews this film is supposed to say something about the opioid crisis and PTSD from war. Yet, it says nothing. Cherry never reflects on these feelings and his only scene with a psychiatrist is just a quick segue into him getting prescribed OxyContin for the first time.  This film has everything. Plenty of operatic overtures, "artful" flashback shots, voiceovers, breaking the fourth wall, a...

  This week's TV theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is something I love talking about. TV opening title sequences. It's a weird thing to be obsessed about but I love it. I normally just stick with 3 picks every week but for once I'm going to bump it to 6 because I just can't narrow it down. Instead of the normal gifs I use, I'll link youtube videos to each title sequence.  1) Game of Thrones - This is the undisputed winner of opening title sequences. The wonderful music, the ever changing map, this is my all time favorite opening title sequence. I still listen to the music from this show often, it's just so perfect. Watch 2) Mad Men - This is another one where the music really elevates it. While it's just a drawing of a man falling from a building past so many advertisements, the music accompanying it makes it perfect. Watch 3) Daredevil - The blood red covering New York, his saints, everything. Of all the Marvel shows, this one definitely had the ...

Writer/actress Allison (Aubrey Plaza) is in need of some inspiration and retreats to a secluded mountain cabin with a friend of a friend, Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and his wife Blair. (Sarah Gadon) What starts as an awkward meeting turns into full on jealously when the lines begin to blur. I've heard nothing but good things about Aubrey Plaza's performance in this, but I had never watched a trailer and all the reviews I read were spoiler free. The quick synopsis on IMDb doesn't really do this justice either. I was surprised to see the turn it took. I won't give spoilers either, but Black Bear in a way is two versions of the same movie. It takes a very meta approach that is pretty interesting, though I did prefer the first half of the movie to the second. Plaza is as wonderful as everyone says. This is easily her best performance. Gadon and Abbott were also very good in their roles. I think the film goes a bit too hard into showing us that they're having problems, b...

Mara (Katherine Langford) is having another boring day in homeroom when one of her classmates violently explodes right in front of her. Afterwards, a classmate Dylan (Charlie Plummer) confesses his crush on Mara when he realizes they might not have a lot of time left. These two fall in love while their classmates continue to mysteriously explode all around them. The premise of this film immediately caught my attention because it sounds so ridiculous. So when I signed up for a free trial of Epix to watch Saint Maud, and saw this was on there too. I knew I had to check it out. The film is very funny and Langford is a natural in this role. Mara is an overly sarcastic cool girl, which I find can be a trope that often feels phony. Like it's how someone who felt awkward in high school wishes they could go back and do it again with this perspective, but it works very well in this set up. No one knows why this is only happening to her classmates, and someone being incredulous and smart ass...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about those characters that have to fake it to make it. This week we're talking about fake identities. There's plenty to choose from, so here are three of my favorites. 1) A Knight's Tale - About a poor man who poses as a lord to enter a jousting tournament. This is one of those movies that's on TV quite frequently and if I catch it, I always sit down and watch it. I miss Heath Ledger and he and the rest of the cast are so great in this.  2) A History of Violence - About a family man who has tried to invent a new persona to step away from his violent past. This is one of my favorite Viggo Mortensen performances.  3) Parasite - About a poor family who lie about their credentials to become staff in a rich home. I still think about this movie so much. I very rarely buy films on DVD any more and this is one I bought immediately when it came out. It's so good.

Rosemary (Emily Blunt) grows up on a farm in Ireland falling in love with her aloof next door neighbor, Anthony. (Jamie Dornan) When Anthony's father, Tony (Christopher Walken) threatens to sell their farm to his American nephew Adam (Jon Hamm) Rosemary realizes she's on borrowed time getting Anthony to love her. My watching this is entirely Film Twitter's fault. Many of my mutuals watched it, and every single one of them expressed exasperation with this film's ending. What could possibly be so ridiculous that everyone was commenting on it? I won't spoil it for you, but the hyperbole is true. This film's third act is completely batshit...and it brings a smile to my face. This movie is bad. This is what foreigners think Ireland is like before traveling there themselves. It's got everything, stew, Guinness, extremely bright greens. None of the dialogue feels natural and some of the Irish accents, mainly Walken's are beyond tragic. But the film's bigges...

Jacob (Steven Yeun) his wife Monica (Yeri Han) and their two children Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan S. Kim) are Korean immigrants who have recently moved from California to Arkansas to fulfill Jacob's dream of starting a farm. Told mostly from the perspective of David, they face many hardships adjusting to farm life. Monica's mother (Yuh-jung Youn) also comes to live with them which David has a hard time adjusting to. I've been a huge fan of Steven Yeun since watching him on The Walking Dead so this has been one of my most anticipated films for ages and it absolutely lived up to my expectations.  Director  Lee Isaac Chung makes a very heartfelt and honest "American dream" film. Even though we've seen plenty of these in the past, this didn't feel repetitive. Immigrants often face a lot of harassment in the form of racism and xenophobia, and while there are a few quick comments of it, I liked that it wasn't a huge part of the narrative. I think that he...

We've finally made it to our last big nomination list. This season has gone on forever and now we finally have our Oscar nominees. Thankfully this year I'm much more happy about the list of nominations than I was last year when there was so much garbage. But of course, there's always a few misses I'm sad about. Here's a list of the nominations + my thoughts. Best Picture “The Father” “Judas and the Black Messiah” “Mank” “Minari” “Nomadland” “Promising Young Woman” “Sound of Metal” “The Trial of the Chicago 7″ It drives me insane when the Academy doesn't fill all 10 Best Picture slots. There's always 10 movies worthy of the title of Best Picture. You're telling me there was no room for Another Round, One Night in Miami or Ma Rainey's Black Bottom when you nominated them in so many other places? Or Da 5 Bloods in general?  Best Director Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”) David Fincher (“Mank”) Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) Chloe Zhao (“Nomadland”) Emera...

  Bette Davis is an actress that's sorely missing from my personal watch list. Every time I've seen her in a film, I've loved her performance. So this year, I made a point to have a few of her films on my Blind Spot list. The first of which being Of Human Bondage Phillip (Leslie Howard) has enrolled in medical school and falls for a very indifferent waitress, Mildred. (Bette Davis) Over the span of a few years, she rejects him, runs off, comes back, gets pregnant, ruins his life, etc. But Phillip just can't let her go. I watched this on Amazon Prime, which totes this film as "gloriously remastered" but in all actuality, the quality is still very poor so it's hard to appreciate any beauty this film once had. I don't hold it against a film made in 1934. I'm just happy I was able to see it at all. From a story standpoint, it's frustrating seeing Phillip make so many mistakes. He's not completely innocent all the time, Mildred shouldn't hav...

When I watch a movie I usually try to write something about it within the next day or two. But with the rise of Letterboxd, I find himself leaving a few quick thoughts there and moving on. I actually did plan on writing a few things about the following films below, but they slipped my mind. So here's a few quick thoughts. The White Tiger - This Netflix movie has been slowly gaining some awards momentum so I decided to check it out. It gets off to a really good start. It's very energetic and I enjoyed the narration, then it just fizzles out. While it says something interesting about the class divide in India, I just got bored with it. I felt it was all over the place. C The Climb - This film starts off with a long one take tracking shot of two friends riding bike and it's wonderful to look at. There's a lot of clever shots in this. It can at times feel like the directors are showing off, but I really enjoyed this story of two men and their friendship. It was sharp, fun...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is movies that haven't stood the test of time. There are so many films that are going to fall into this categories. Mainly comedies. We could probably talk about the entire Hangover trilogy here, but I decided to pick from a few different genres. Here's what I came up with. 1) Ace Ventura: Pet Detective - When I was a kid, I watched Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls all the time, but I believe I only saw the first one once. When the trans community started talking about how offensive this movie was, I struggled to even remember what happened in it. Then I watched the documentary Disclosure where they showed clips of the awful transphobia that happens in this film. I struggle now to even think how anyone found this funny. 2) Swing Time - This was on my Blind Spot list last year and I was absolutely loving this movie until Fred Astaire dawns black face in order to perform a tribute to Bill Robinson. This totally ruined the m...

This is the one awards show I never get to watch due to the time difference but I can't resist talking about them because this year they're even more out there than usual. Below are my thoughts.  Best Film “The Father” The Mauritanian” “Nomadland” “Promising Young Woman” “The Trial Of The Chicago 7” The Mauritanian is definitely picking up steam in the race, right? I wish The Sound of Metal was here instead.   Leading Actress Bukky Bakray, “Rocks” Radha Blank, “The Forty-Year-Old Version” Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces Of A Woman” Frances McDormand, “Nomadland” Wunmi Mosaku, “His House” Alfre Woodard, Clemency” I'm floored British national treasure Carey Mulligan got snubbed here, but I'm so happy for Radha Blank. The Forty-Year-Old Version is excellent and is severely under nominated. Alfre Woodard was great in Clemency, which qualified for awards last year in the U.S. I've never heard of Rocks or His House but they're both on Netflix so I'll have the chance to che...