Rambling Film

Official synopsis:  A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When young Spike (Alfie Williams) leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors. 28 Days Later is one of my favorite horror films and hearing Danny Boyle and Alex Garland would be back for another installment after skipping the sequel, 28 Weeks Later was enough to have me seated.  I have to say, the trailers did a great job of not showing you exactly what this movie was about. In fact, the film is kind of split into three mini stories. One of Spike and his dad (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) on a coming of age journey. The second, a survival story with his mom (Jodie Comer) and the third, encountering the doctor (Ralph Fiennes) he had been searching for. The ending also directly leads into the sequel that has already been filmed. More on that later. It's nice to see Danny Boyle with a budget consid...

Official synopsis:  Sally Ride's groundbreaking journey as the first American woman in space concealed a deeply personal story. Her life partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy, unveils their covert 27-year romance and its accompanying sacrifices. Sally Ride lived an extraordinary life that was taken car too soon by cancer. Her obituary was the first time the general public knew she had a female partner in Tam. Now, Tam shares their love story while Sally's friends and co-workers all share their memories of her work. You can tell this documentary was made with a lot of love. Even the classmates Sally had to essentially compete against speak of her fondly. Sally deserves way more credit for her amazing poker face in my opinion. Watching news clips of some of the dumb, sexist questions she and the other female astronauts got for *gasp* being women were so cringe worthy. She handled it with much more grace than I could've mustered. If this is your intro to Sally ride, I think the docum...

Official synopsis:  A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker, Lucy (Dakota Johnson) finds herself torn between the perfect match, Harry (Pedro Pascal) and her imperfect ex, John. (Chris Evans) Quick story time because the most ridiculous thing happened to me when I saw this movie. When I purchased my ticket, I saw two other seats were purchased in the back row. I always pick the front. Random dude walks in and says "hi." I say "hello" back, and he chooses to sit DIRECTLY behind me in an empty theater. About 5 minutes in, he asks if he can sit next to me, which I say "no." He tries to talk to me more, so I get up and move to the other end of the aisle. This is apparently his cue to walk his ass to the back of the theater to his assigned seat. And of all the movies this encounter could happen to me in, it's the one about how creepy dating and going to meet up with a stranger can be. The irony is too much. I was cautiously optimistic about director Cel...

Official synopsis:   The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (William Powell) looks down from Heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style. This is one those classic films that I had never heard of until one of my favorite readers/classic film extraordinaire Joel recommended me to me. It was an easy sell. Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly. I'm in. Said follies are divided into segments. Some being comedy bits and others musical numbers. I think the film could've made better use of its framing device by having Ziegfeld talk in between all or most of the segments. He only appears at the beginning and it didn't feel like enough.  Of all the segments, I enjoyed the musical numbers the most. Watching Astaire and Kelly tap together is a treat, as is any time Judy Garland is on screen. I wish she would've gotten to sing a little more in her sketch.  On top of having a very compelling cast, the sets and costumes are glorious. They're so g...

Official synopsis: A suburban dad, Craig (Tim Robinson) falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor, Austin. (Paul Rudd) Tim Robinson has been on the comedy scene for quite some time, but for the past few years he's been gaining momentum via his Netfix show I Think You Should Leave . He's basically the king of cringe comedy at the moment. That's not everyone's cup of tea, but it is something you absolutely have to be okay with before going into Friendship . Friendship feels like a feature length I Think You Should Leave sketch. It's awkward, hilarious, and will test your patience with how long a bit can go. And I mean that in a positive way. Craig is a deeply uncomfortable dude. He can't help but just make everything a bit more weird. It's easy to see why he becomes to infatuated with Austin, who is the epitome of "cool" to him. The script has issues. It's not really sure what to do with its 3rd act, but I laughed so much that I can't be ...

I've been really putting off the final season of this acclaimed series. The way the world is today, this just seems like even more of a possibility than it already did. And having read both The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, I knew there was more to come.  I ended up knocking out the entire season on a transatlantic fight (do not recommend that for episode 9) Here's what I liked, disliked, and my final thoughts. LIKES * All episodes felt "complete." They didn't drag things out for multiple episodes. Most things they start out to accomplish in the beginning are seen through in the end, and I appreciated how buttoned up that was. Especially since this show does have a bit of a history with meandering.  * Nick's choices were unambiguously bad. If you've spent any time on the Handmaids Tale subreddit, there's a lot of ~discourse~ around Nick. The official tag for posts about him there is "wet for war criminal" which is kind of hilarious....