Rambling Film

This weeks TV theme over at Wandering Through The Shelves is investigators. They can be police, or private. There's a ton of shows that could qualify here, most I haven't seen. But here are a few that I really enjoyed 1) Mare of Easttown - This HBO hit that had everyone talking post-show had an incredible cast, and some pretty shocking scenes. Plus, it took home a bunch of Emmys and is well worth the watch. And after you finish, watch the SNL sketch making fun of the accents because that's amazing too. 2) Unbelievable - I was watching a documentary the other day about women who had reported rapes, only to be charged with "false reporting" when they were telling the truth. It reminded me of the very powerful scene in this mini-series, where Kaitlyn Dever's character finally gets her justice when the cop that charged her for false reporting is proven wrong. Toni Collette and Merritt Wever are amazing as two female investigators who actually listen to their vict...

Fontaine (John Boyega) is a drug dealer trying to go about his day when he's gunned down in front of pimp Slick Charles' (Jamie Foxx) house, yet wakes up fine the next day. The two of them, along with Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris) stumble upon a massive government conspiracy when searching for answers.  On the surface, this is a very silly caper with an unlikely trio of protagonists. It's obviously much deeper than that, but I'm going to avoid spoilers here. Even though you'll probably arrive at the "why" conclusion before our leads do, it's still better to know less going in. John Boyega has to play it so straight in this film that I almost felt bad for him, because Foxx and Parris are having a hell of a good time. They are absolutely hilarious in this and their chemistry with one another is fantastic. Boyega is stoic as Fontaine who is going through a lot to say the least. There's definitely some plot holes here in there that get a little hard to ignore...

  What I knew going in: That it's one of the few Best Picture winners to also win Best Play at the Tony's. This is the tale of the famous Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce)....told by his rival Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) A man who is painfully aware he will never stack up to Mozart's genius. After attempting to take his own life, he recounts his tale of causing Mozart's death to a priest. (Richard Frank) I know I'm veeeeeeeeeeeerrrrry late with this take, but Amadeus fucking rocks. I was not expecting to completely fall in love with this the way I did. While not first and foremost a comedy, some of the cuts this film had were absolutely genius. Salieri at one point refers to himself as the "Patron Saint of Mediocrity" which might be one of my favorite lines of all time now. Everything about this film worked for me. The costumes, the music, the editing, and most of all the actors. Both Abraham and Hulce were outstanding and it's a pitty they...

Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez) is the charismatic son of the President of the United States. (Uma Thurman) Prince Henry of England (Nicholas Galitzine) was rude to him at a party once and Alex has not let that go. After a very public confrontation, they are forced to reconcile, but what it leads to instead is a solid friendship and eventually a forbidden romance.  I have never read the hit novel this is based on and I was sure this was going to be some Lifetime-y insufferable bullshit but damn it, I was wrong! It was so cute. Maybe I was just starved for an adorable gay romance because we don't get nearly enough of those, but as corny as this was it completely worked for me. The leads had a lovely chemistry and I completely bought into everything, even when it was almost too sugary sweet. They still felt like fully fleshed out characters and not a stack of tropes. Plenty of the comedic bits hit as well, which is always appreciated. If only we could be in a timeline ...

Jem (Eliza Scanlan) struggles as she comes of age in a fundamentalist Christian world. Her parents want her to be ready for courtship, but when her youth pastor Owen (Lewis Pullman) returns to her church after a mission trip, he throws her life off even more. This was a film coming out of Sundance that I had been looking forward to and was happy to find it as an option to watch on a recent Delta flight. Admittedly these weird religious cult-y dramas are right up my alley. Jem has it hard from all sides. She gets called out early on in the film for her bra being visible through her shirt (gasp!) She seems to have a large hand in raising her younger siblings. Her father (Jimmi Simpson) did not grow up in this cult, but rather was someone who was "saved" later on and he too is struggling recently, and Jem finds herself wondering about his life before he came to God. With all of this being piled on, it makes her an easy target for someone like Owen who is old enough to know bette...

July was a very underwhelming month of TV for me. It got better towards the end, but I don't have a lot to talk about this month. Here's what I was watching on the small screen. Secret Invasion - I watched one episode of this, forgot about it the next, then just continued to put it off. I didn't care for how the first episode ended and it sounds like it doesn't get better. I may download it and watch it on my next plane ride if nothing better comes up, but I don't have high hopes for now. The Clearing - This ended exactly how I thought it would. Overall, this show as fine. Drags a bit hear and there but makes for a good binge watch even with its faults.  Betrayal: The Perfect Husband - I binged this all in and one and MAN this guy is a trash fire. Crime docs are easy for me to get through so if you're not into those, this may not be for you. But if you are, this is on Hulu. What We Do in the Shadows - Now THIS saved July for me. Only the first few episodes ar...

Ria (Priya Kansana) dreams of becoming a stunt woman and her biggest cheerleader is her older sister Lena. (Ritu Arya) Lena is going through a rough patch. She's recently dropped out of art school and spends most of her time in bed until she meets Salim (Akshay Khann) and agrees to marry him after only knowing him for a few days. Ria realizes that she has to save her sister from this marriage.  My local theater had this film for about a week before getting rid of it. Of course, I missed it and was beyond annoyed, but thankfully this is now available to stream on Peacock. I adore this movie. It's ridiculous and funny and the cast is so charming. You'll notice a heavy influence of Edgar Wright, but writer/director Nida Manzoor has crafted something completely original, even with the stylistic choices. It all works. Many other reviews I read pointed out their disappointment with the fight choreography, and that's something I completely understand, but it didn't bother ...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about the female experience in the work place and I hate to gloom and doom everyone, but these are literally the first movies that came to mind... 1) She Said - Last year's investigative reporter film about the women who broke the story about Harvey Weinstein was very well done, but didn't seem to resonate with a larger audience. Probably because of the subject matter.  2) The Assistant - With a quiet performance by Julia Garner, this is the day in the life of an assistant to a powerful figurehead (kind of like the one taken down in She Said. *cough cough*) 3) The Devil Wears Prada - Keeping with the theme of horrible bosses, at least we're dealing with cattiness over harassments here. 

In the not so distant future, AI has become an even bigger part of life. So much so that Rachel (Emilia Clarke) an ambitious business woman decides to use the Womb Center to grow her baby in a pod instead of becoming pregnant herself. Her botanist husband, Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofer) is less enthused with the pod, and with the world in general. In a time where actors are on strike, studios are trying to replace real people with AI, and the owner of Twitter is actively trying to turn his website into a crypto-bro haven, The Pod Generation's  biting satirical take feels even more relevant. More than once in the film, someone mentions that they don't need real nature because they have "nature pods now." Rachel's therapist is essentially the eye of Sauron and the kids at a pre-school don't physically make art anymore. They just give suggestions to the computer making it for them.  The film is completely centered on Rachel and Alvy's story, which works against it ...

Mutant turtle brothers Donatello (Micha Abbey), Raphael (Brady Noon), Michelangelo (Shaman Brown Jr.), and Leonardo (Nicholas Cantu) have been raised to avoid humans and stay hidden in the sewers, but despite all that, the long for a normal teenage life. When they meet April O'Neil (Ayo Edebiri) by chance, they decide to team up to stop the mysterious Super Fly (Ice Cube) from terrorizing the city so people will see them as heroes and ultimately accept them. I grew up with TMNT and have seen many variations throughout the years. This is definitely one of my favorite ones. The animation is like someone's sketch book came to life. The jagged lines and chaotic style really suit what they have going on here. Plus, the turtles actually feel like teenagers, which is something that has been missing for a while. I'm used to them either feeling like adult frat boys or 10 year olds.  I love the voice actors they chose, they suit their parts well and Ice Cube as the villain was so fun...