Rambling TV: Thoughts on TWD, Agent Carter + more

Rambling TV is a weekly series were I ramble semi coherently about the things I watched on television. My DVR tried to sabotage me this week, but I prevailed. 

The X-Files

Of course one of the stronger episodes would be 1) the season finale and 2) end on a massive cliffhanger. I'm glad this show returned, but if they come back, I hope they polish things up a bit better. They can leave agents Miller and Einstein off too and give us more Skinner.

Agent Carter

I missed the first 15 minutes because my DVR is (apparently) mad at me. It also failed to record American Crime this week. Mrs. Jarvis is alive, but unable to have children. Peggy and Jarvis actually have a much needed spat getting all their grievances out in the air, and they apologize immediately. I love their relationship. Chief Thompson flip flopped so much in this episode he gave me whiplash. It's like this show never knows how much of a douchebag they want him to be.

The show also did this weird musical number in one of Peggy's dreams, where we got to see Angie again, but the rest was just so corny I kind of cringed throughout. 

Better Call Saul

This week saw the return of Mike, who tries his hardest to get the idiot Pryce to not report a robbery to the police. He enlists Jimmy to create an elaborate hoax to where Pryce wasn't hiding drugs, but actually erotic videos of him squatting in pies.

Kim wasn't thrilled to hear Jimmy planted evidence, and I think that was foreshadowing to see what drives them apart for good before he becomes Saul.

Chuck also returned, and I still want to punch him in the face for what he did to Jimmy last season. I hope Jimmy actually does do that eventually.

The Walking Dead

For an episode that finally introduced the Hilltop Colony, a big deal in the comics, it was fairly boring. Not a bad episode at all, just not great. 

Maggie showed great leadership qualities when it came to cutting a deal with a new douchebag, Gregory. I still hate how they sort of shoehorned this plot without explaining why Maggie wanted to shadow Deanna at Alexandria, or why Deanna had her last moments with Michonne instead of her. I just think they could've worked better.

This Abe/Sasha/Rosita love triangle is so gross. I hate how Rosita is getting screwed here.

The foreshadowing was so heavy in this episode. Ugh, I'm not ready for the deaths to come.

On the shippy said, there was some goodies. Cute Richonne and Glaggie moments, and Daryl getting all defensive over Carol when Jesus mentioned the cookies, and not shooting down Abe when he mentioned settling down. I'm sure he was thinking of Carol there. 

Vinyl

The scenes with Lester day dreaming about singing made me so sad. I hope this means we're going to see more of him now that Richie approached him again.

One thing that bothers me though, Jamie taking the blame for something Julie did? I hate that trope. I just want Jamie to succeed in something. 

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2016 Academy Award Winners

Chris Rock was on FIRE tonight. I absolutely loved his hosting gig. He talked a lot about #OscarsSoWhite but I loved the way he went about it. Sure, he had a few things fall flat. Like Stacey Dash (although in hindsight, it's hilarious no one cheered for her) and a Girl Scout cookie gig that was too similar to Ellen's pizza one. The Weekend was the best musical act. Gaga brought abuse survivors on stage with her, and they somehow managed to stand out even with her massive ego. But there were some great surprises, a few let downs, and a whole lot of love for Mad Mac: Fury Road. The winners are highlighted in blue, please excuse me, I have had a Cersei amount of wine.

Best Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
I literally squealed when Spotlight won. My husband made fun of me, I probably woke up my kid for a second, but I'm so happy. I wanted this so badly, this is such a lovely important film and a worthy Best Picture winner. 


Best Actress
Cate Blanchett - Carol
Brie Larson - Room
Jennifer Lawrence - Joy
Charlotte Rampling - 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn
Brie won as expected and gave a lovely speech where she thanked film festivals for showing Room. Very classy on her part. And Jacob Tremblay was so excited.

Shout out to the lovely Saoirse in this dress

Best Actor
Bryan Cranston -Trumbo
Matt Damon - The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant
Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl
LEO FINALLY HAS AN OSCAR (I love how everyone stood up like they knew it was overdue)

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh -The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara - Carol
Rachel McAdams - Spotlight
Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs
Despite Vikander's ego being massive and this role not being supporting, she did deserve a win here. She was great, though I'm bummed Kate didn't win. 


Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale - The Big Short
Tom Hardy - The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo  -Spotlight
Mark Rylance  - Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone  - Creed
I cannot believe Sly lost here. This was a huge shock to me. Rylance was the best part of Bridge of Spies, but he got rewarded for being chill. That's sort of a slap in the face to this category when so many great performances like Paul Dano and Michael Shannon got snubbed, and the dude who wins gets it for remaining calm. It did help, apparently. 


Best Director
Adam McKay - The Big Short
George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro G. Iñárritu - The Revenant
Lenny Abrahamson - Room
Tom McCarthy - Spotlight


Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short
Brooklyn
Carol
The Martian
Room
Adam McKay has an Oscar!

Best Original Screenplay
Bridge of Spies
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton


Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa
Boy and the World
Inside Out
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There


Best Documentary Feature
Amy
Cartel Land
Look of Silence
What Happened Miss Simone
Winter on Fire
This is such a weird win. I felt like I shouldn't have been watching Amy, it's such a sad, particularly weird doc. I haven't seen the rest of these, but I'm going to eventually.


Best Foreign Language Film
Embrace of the Serpent - Colombia
Mustang - France
Son of Saul - Hungary
Theeb - Jordan
A War - Denmark


Best Original Score
Bridge of Spies
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens


Best Original Song
“Earned It,” Fifty Shades of Grey
“Manta Ray,” Racing Extinction
“Simple song No. 3,” Youth
“Til it Happens to You,” The Hunting Ground
“Writing’s on the Wall,” Spectre
I cannot believe this. This song is terrible, come on. I know none of these songs were all that strong, but this one? Part of me is happy Gaga doesn't get to stroke her ego, but man, Writing's on the Wall is just not good.


Best Cinematography
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario
This pisses me off so much. I saw it coming, but Roger Deakins deserved it. Sicario was the best shot film of the year and he didn't rely on gimmicky camera tricks like Lubezski did. This is such a disappointment to see Deakins getting screwed again.


Best Film Editing
The Big Short
Mad Max Fury Road
The Revenant
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Fury Road parade begins. All the winners were so excited, and I love that a woman edited this film. She gave a great speech.


Best Production Design
Bridge of Spies
The Danish Girl
Mad Max Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant


Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Mad Max: Fury Road
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared
The Revenant


Best Costume Design
Carol
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant


Best Animated Short
Bear Story
Prologue
Sanjay’s Super Team
We Can’t Live Without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow
This surprised me. I've never seen Bear Story, but I thought World of Tomorrow had this. 


Best Visual Effects
Ex Machina
Mad Max Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
This was a huge surprise. I love that a little film like Ex Machina took this. (Even though I'm still salty about Age of Ultron not even being nominated) But after Fury Road took so many in a row, I expected that here too.


Best Sound Editing
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Sicario
Star Wars The Force Awakens


Best Sound Mixing
Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens


Best Documentary Short
Body Team 12
Chau, beyond the Lines
Spectres of the Shoah
A Girl in the River
Last Day of Freedom
According to presenter Louis CK, this award went home in a Honda Civic.


Best Live Action Short
Ave Maria
Day One
Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
Shok
Stutterer

Indie Gems: Tangerine

Nothing is easy.

Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) is a trans working girl who has just been released from her month stint in prison. It's Christmas Eve, she meets her friend and fellow worker, Alexandra (Mya Taylor) a few hours before her show only to learn the news that her pimp/boyfriend, Chester (James Ronsone) has been cheating on her. Sin-Dee makes it her mission to find the woman and confront chester, while Alexandra reluctantly tags along. 

The film was shot entirely on an iPhone 5S. It's completely basked in the tangerine glow of its namesake. Strangely, it fits the tone so well. A harsh film like this benefits from a lens that is imperfect. I went in thinking "it's a shame a story like this had to be shot on a cell phone." (I assume it was for lack of funding) but that's not how I left at all. It just worked.

Rodriguez and Taylor, both in their debut feature roles feel so natural. They sound as if there was no script. That they could've been two random women just having a conversation (and a few different screaming matches) I hope they both find work after this, because I'd love to see them again. And casting James Ronsone was an excellent choice, seeing as there's no one I quite hate more then the guy that played fucking Ziggy Sobotka on The Wire. Rage just flows through me upon sight. 

The film isn't without its flaws. A subplot with a cab driver and client of Alexandra's ends on a tedious note instead of an intriguing one and at times it does feel a bit muddled. But it's an overwhelmingly sad story that I'm glad I had to opportunity to watch after all the buzz it generated.

Grade: B

Memorable Quote - "The world is a cruel place." - Alexandra (Mya Taylor)

Thursday Movie Picks: Love Triangles

The final Valentine's Day theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is something I cannot stand: Love triangles. I fucking hate love triangles. Most of the time they're so unbelievable and plot driven. Then the person I want to be the winner usually loses. It was hard to find three movies with love triangles that didn't piss me off, but I think I found an eclectic trio.

1) There's Something About Mary

Okay, so there ends up being more people involved in this then just Healy and Ted. But I love this film, it's one of my favorite comedies. I remember video taping it on Starz when I was about 12 or 13 and labeling it something else so my parents didn't know I had it. There fault for letting me have a TV in my room.


2) Y Tu Mamá También

This is actually a very beautiful story and the three leads have an insane amount of chemistry.

3) The Dreamers

Okay, so two of these are brother and sister. They go half Lannister, I get it. But this movie is really worth seeing. I love watching movies about other film fans. It's fascinating. (Though I disagree with their statement that movie lovers like to sit in the front. Back row, aisle seat, please.)

Review: The Witch

Blessed be. 

After Willam (Ralph Ineson) and his family are banished from their plantation, they strike up a life in the wilderness, barely getting by. Their crops are failing, their newborn baby disappears while under the watch of oldest daughter, Thomasin. (Anya Taylor-Joy) William's wife, Kate (Katie Dickie) starts to lose her faith, and things keep getting even more strange as the smaller children believe a Witch has cursed their family.

This is a film I've been looking forward to since it premiered at Sundance. Christian fundamentalism fascinates me in a completely morbid way, so a film about a family like that in the 1600's is instantly appealing. 

Director Robert Eggers based a lot of the dialogue off of fables and stories written around this time, so the puritanical nature is captured well. There's an underlying creepiness throughout that goes into full swing when we hit the 3rd act. Although the film suffers from a serious pacing problem. It trudges along slowly and doing so, it might make the ending anti climatic for some.

The acting here is fantastic. Katie Dickie is always reliable, but the two stars are Taylor-Joy and Harvey Scrimshaw who plays the oldest son, Caleb. I hope these two get plenty of work following this because they showed incredible range and were easily my two favorite characters. (And also the only two, minus the baby I didn't feel like punching at least once during the film's run time) The Witch succeeds in being very unsettling and gives us something that I feel like we haven't seen lately in the horror world.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B

Memorable Quote: 'Twas only a jest." - Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy)

Review: Son of Saul

You had one job, Saul...

Saul Ausländer ( Géza Röhrig) is held prisoner at Auschwitz and is working as a member of the Sonderkommando. He helps clean up the bodies that go into the gas chambers. When he comes across a boy who he thinks is his son from a previous relationship, Saul ignores his part in a plot with the other kommandos to escape and tries to find a Rabbi to properly bury the boy.

This film is bleak, though being a Holocaust film that's not surprising. What did surprise me was how interesting the premise of the story was to me and how frustrated I felt watching it play out. It's ambiguous on whether or not this is actually Saul's son. I don't believe it is, which makes his focus on burying him even more difficult to watch as he consistently messes up the plan that the other kommandos put in place. It's sad to see them in this situation and to see their means to escape being lost with each passing mistake Saul makes.

Like the recent film Mommy, this is shot with a 1.375:1 aspect ratio. We rarely follow anyone but Saul and we only see what he sees. I think this was a great choice as it makes the film feel claustrophobic. The people in the camps were living on top of each other as it is, and the way this is shot really magnifies that with how close everything is. 

I enjoyed the acting very much and it was extremely well shot, but this is definitely a movie I wouldn't rush out to see again.

Recommended: Yes/No. It's hard to recommend a film like this. On one hand, see it as it's going to win an Oscar, but on the other, it's not the strongest film out there at the moment. 

Grade: C+

Memorable Quote: "You have no son." - Abraham (Levente Molnár)

Rambling TV: Thoughts on TWD, Agent Carter, + more

Rambling TV is a weekly series where I ramble semi-coherently about the things I watched on television. This post is brought to you by Moscato.

Agent Carter

I never thought this show would make me feel so sad. I saw the ending coming a mile away but it was still a gut punch. Poor Jarvis.

I'm not a fan of love triangles at all, but I think Peggy could solve her problem with a simple three way. I wouldn't complain.

Chief Thompson is such a wild card. It's like they go back and forth on whether or not he's going to be a complete asshole, or only a semi asshole. I'm rooting for semi.

The X Files

This episode was like the Twilight Zone. Mulder and Scully are working with their younger doppelgangers and then Mulder trips on schrooms. What the fuck is this show doing?

American Crime

I completely forgot to babble about this show last week. It's so intense. I don't even know what to think or who to feel sorry for or who to hate the most now. It's just this massive social clusterfuck that I can't take my eyes off of.

The Walking Dead

RICHONNE IS CANON! I have to admit, when I read the spoilers on Wednesday I was shocked they were going about this so quickly. I always knew Rick and Michonne would get together. I just didn't think it would be on the episode following Rick chopping his forced comic love interest. I still hope Michonne is able to have stories separate from the Grimes, they've been her anchor since season 4 and she's had nothing out side of them, but for now, I'm happy. The scene was so sweet and not at all how I pictured it, but in the best way ever. It was so fun and natural. Now I just need Carol and Daryl to get together. 

I am very disappointed we don't get to see a lot of the fall out of the mid season premiere. I wanted to see Carl struggling with his injury, Michonne struggling with having to kill Ron. Glenn and Maggie seeing each other again, Carol and Daryl seeing each other again. Rosita and Abraham also need to have a discussion, I think it was a massive mistake to skip all this due to time. They could've had the mid season premiere be the mid season finale and got rid of half the filler from 6A. Aside from the Richonne moment, and Michonne's scenes with Carl and Spencer, I felt this episode largely fell flat. Daryl and Rick's Excellent Adventure was Prey level bad with chasing Jesus. 

Better Call Saul

I forgot how beautifully this show is shot. I have to say, this episode was a bit boring. Nowhere near the quality of the first season, but it did have a great set up at the end. I look forward to seeing where it goes.

Vinyl

The first 10 minutes of this episode were fucking hysterical. After watching TWD try to do comedy, it was a stark contrast on how much they failed at that. Bobby Cannavale's kung fu coke fueled punching was perfect. This was a really strong episode and didn't drag at all like the opener did. I actually think their ratings might climb with this one. 
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