Review: Knives Out

Do you suspect foul play?

Private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) has been called in to assist Detective Elliott (Lakeith Stanfield) in the mysterious death of Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) while nearly his entire family is in the house. Elliott is ready to label it as a suicide, but Blanc was sent on this case anonymously and suspects there's more to the story. Everyone is a suspect.

I've always loved director Rian Johnson's movies. Brick remains in top 5 of all time and of course I loved his last outing, The Last Jedi. I've been anticipating this since it was announced and it thankfully lived up to all of the hype.

I've read more "whodunits" then I have watched films about them. This is like a modern Agatha Christie novel only funnier. The script was smart, it kept you guessing and it had plenty of smaller things thrown in that came back later. I had a few cocktails before watching this so I wasn't trying too hard to guess who I thought was responsible for his death. I was happy to just be along for the ride.

This is a great ensemble cast but there are two standouts: Daniel Craig, and Ana de Armas, who plays Marta, Harlan's nurse. After seeing Craig in Logan Lucky I wished he would do more comedy and I got everything I could've asked for her. He's truly hysterical. Ana is the heart of the film and the one character we spend the most time with. I think she gives a wonderful performance too. The only highly credited actor that doesn't have as much to do is Jaeden Martell, but he's the butt of so many jokes that it's worth it.

It does end up being a bit predictable in parts but the entire film was such a joy to watch that it doesn't dampen it too much. Knives Out feels truly unique as you don't quite see films like this getting made anymore. 

Recommended: Yes

Grade: A

Memorable Quote: "Like that little nazi boy masturbating in the bathroom." - Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig)

The Best Shots of the Decade: 2010

This month, I wanted to start sharing "Decade" posts celebrating the 2010's. It's extra fitting that this year is the 10 anniversary of Rambling Film. I decided to split up each year, with 10 gifs from 10 different films. Here are some shots that stood out to me. Let's get a start on 2010.

Inception

Black Swan

Never Let Me Go

127 Hours

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Shutter Island

The Social Network

Fish Tank

Blue Valentine

How To Train Your Dragon

What I watched on TV in November

Mr. Robot - Sam Esmail is just showing off. There have been some beautifully directed and acted episodes this month, on top of a huge revelation about Mr. Robot. I still think the way they went about said revelation was wrong. Bringing back a character that has long been done with the series, then wasting our time with him, only to kill him afterwards...I just felt it they could've told it another way. Dom has been the standout for me this season and I loved her final badass moment.

Watchmen - This show outdoes itself with every episode. It's so beautifully shot and even though there's plenty of weird things in it, it still balances a very serious tone and a harsh look into the racism of my country.

His Dark Materials - This is getting better. I still feel like they info dumped quite a bit of things on me as a non book reader but it's become easier to follow and I like that Dafne has a bit more agency than she did in the first few episodes. 

The Crown- This season is hard to get into. I like Colman, but Claire Foy was just too perfect in this role, I think. And I find it so distracting that they didn't change her or Helena Bonham-Carter's eye color. They don't feel like Elizabeth and Margaret

Fleabag - I liked this a lot! It was such a quick binge My favorite line has got to be "I have two degrees, a husband and a Burberry coat!" I laughed so hard at that. Hot Priest was just as hot as I was promise. Andrew Scott...mmmmm

The Mandalorian - AKA the Baby Yoda show because holy shit, I'm obsessed with that little guy. I will quite literally lose my mind if something bad happens to him. Cuteness overload aside, I'm really liking this so far. It's shot very well and they introduce a few things from the animated series that are a joy to see in a live action setting. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Review: The Irishman

I heard you paint houses.

Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) is a former union worker who becomes a hitman for Russell Bufalino. (Joe Pesci) He also forms a friendship with Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) and reluctantly has a hand in his death.

I was only familiar with Jimmy Hoffa's name before watching this. I didn't know anything about the Teamsters and since I knew I was going to be sitting through nearly four hours of this film, I didn't bother researching because I assumed Scorcese would tell me everything I needed to know. And he did, this film is very thorough. 

De Niro, Pesci and Pacino are very good. Pesci was probably my favorite, all three give wonderful performances and I imagine we'll be seeing all of them throughout Oscar season. As someone who watched The Godfather Parts I and II about 10 times this year, seeing Pacino screaming at people was a nice call back to that. The film is also littered with great actors, mostly from Boardwalk Empire and it was nice to see them pop up here and there. Even though it often left me wishing we'd see more of them. This is clearly the trio's movie. No one else comes close to mattering as much as they do.

I liked the film overall. I think the time period was captured so well and I loved seeing who was going to cameo next. I felt I learned something from the story and I can see why Scorcese really wanted to make this film. I really only had two issues with it.

The biggest struggle for me in this film was the pacing, which I usually never take issue with in Scorcese's films. The first hour flies by then the middle of the film comes to a screeching halt. I understand why its so long, but I was never unaware that I was watching a 3 and a half hour movie. It doesn't start picking up again until the end and was just very inconsistent. I didn't hate any part of it, plenty of movies have little slumps, they just don't last an hour and a half.

Much has been made about the digital de-aging process and I don't think they were nearly as successful as those "theme park" movies Scorcese hates so much. No matter what age we're watching Frank, Russell, or Jimmy, they all still move like 70 year old men and their eyes are constantly watering, which draws a lot of attention to the fact that you're watching VFX. You get used to it, but I don't think it's as good as many people were saying.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B

Memorable Quote: "Why haven't you called Jo?" - Peggy Sheeran (Anna Paquin)

Review: Frozen II

Don't let it go, come back.

A few years have passed since we last left Elsa, (Idina Menzel) Anna, (Kristen Bell) Kristof, (Jonathon Groff) and Olaf. (Josh Gad) While everything is running smoothly in Arendelle and Anna is determined to make up for lost time with her sister, Elsa is hearing voices that are calling her far away to an enchanted forest their parents told them about when they were children.

I chose the Captain Marvel banner for Dell's Girl Week to talk about the ladies in this film because Elsa is a super hero at this point. She's permafrosted Olaf and she can form ice into anything she wants now. I found Elsa's journey in this film to be far more interesting this time around. Instead of running, she's looking for her purpose. Anna is the one the fairs a little worse, she's obsessed with her sister to the point where it's kind of annoying, but it does lead up to her best song - Next Right Thing - so all is forgiven at the end. 

In true Frozen fashion, some of the plot points are horrendously stupid. It's easy to overlook them with the music. You can tell the new songs were written so that the vocalists could show off more. I really liked Into The Unknown and Show Yourself. While they feel a bit derivative of Let It Go, the music is gorgeous and they are extremely catch. Evan Rachel Wood is a nice addition as Anna and Elsa's mother in a flashback. I've always enjoyed her singing voice so I was happy to hear her again. 

The most surprising thing for me personally was that I actually liked Olaf's song When I Grow Up. I normally cannot stand him, and I still haven't recovered from that horror story of a short that was in front of Coco, but that song was pretty funny.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the original so I ended up preferring this one. When I asked my son what he thought, he also said he liked this one better because there were more subplots. (Though that was a word I had to teach him, he described it as "like when you play a video game and you get a bonus level")

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B-

Memorable Quote: "This is fine." - Olaf (Josh Gad)

Thursday Movie Picks - TV Edition: Dystopian/Apocalyptic

Happy Awkward Family Dinner Day, my American friends! I hope everyone behaves themselves today. If you're here reading instead - this week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is about those TV series that take place after the world has gone to shit. I already used most of the shows that came to mind first for this theme so this is what I have left over. I had to cheat a little.

1) Fear The Walking Dead

This show started off by showing civilization during the outbreak and had fairly interesting characters. Then TWD poison Scott Gimple got involved, the best characters are dead and now the show is basically The Walking Dead in a different location.

2) The Last Man On Earth

I haven't seen the entire series in full but it was an amusing take on a small group of people after a virus wipes out most of the humans on Earth. 

3) Watchmen

So this isn't technically dystopian but it's an alternate version of our reality and things are pretty rough. That counts, right?

Girl Week 2019: Wonderful Women of the Decade

Dell over at Dell on Movies is celebrating another Girl Week! It's where we highlight the wonderful woman in films. This time around, I figured I would look at the past decade and highlight the women that are behind the camera in various capacities instead of in front. Here are some women I feel made a huge difference these past 10 Years. I'll be listing the credentials of their work that I have seen, or plan to if it's a 2019 release.

Dee Rees - Director: Pariah (2011) Bessie (2015) Mudbound (2017)
I think Dee Rees is one of the most interesting directors out there right now. She came out strong with a lovely film representing the LGBTQ+ community, then brought her talents to TV, then only a few years ago gave us the wonderful Mudbound. Carey Mulligan mentioned once that if Dee Rees were a man, she'd be directing Star Wars. Here's hoping studios toss as much money at her as possible because she deserves every penny of it. 

Mindy Kaling - Writer: The Mindy Project (2012-2017) Late Night (2019) and published author.
I adore Mindy Kaling. I think she's so sweet and funny. I read both of her books and I always keep an eye out for her new projects. I haven't seen her current project, Four Weddings and Funeral on Hulu, but when I re-sign up for that service, I'll definitely check it out. She's always reliably funny. 

Greta Gerwig - Writer/Director: Frances Ha (2012) Mistress America (2015) Lady Bird (2017) Little Women (2019)
Gerwig has been an indie darling over the past few years but she's rightfully earned it. Lady Bird especially proved that not only is she a solid writer, but an excellent director to. I'm looking forward to see what she does with Little Women next month.

Rachel Morrison - Cinematographer: Sound of my Voice (2011) Fruitvale Station (2013) Cake (2014) Dope (2015) Mudbound (2017) Black Panther (2018) Seberg (2019)
Morrison was someone I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't know of until Mudbound came out. She earned her first Oscar nomination for Cinematography and became the first woman to do so. That's amazing, and I realized just how much of her work I had seen and enjoyed. If anything, she made me more mindful of looking at all the credits for those behind the scenes.

Lynne Ramsay - Director: We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011) You Were Never Really Here (2017)
Lynne Ramsay is directing films that get her thiiiiis close to the Oscars but they have yet to nominate her. She was robbed of an Oscar nom for Kevin and she directed Joaquin Phoenix in a way Todd Phillips could never dream of. I always pay attention to what she has coming up.

Haifaa Al-Mansour - Director: Wadjda (2012)
I haven't seen nearly enough of her work but I loved Wadjda and reading what she had to go through to make that movie in her native Saudi Arabia - including sometimes having to give said directions over walkie talkie is unbelievable. She's directing an episode of a mini series - The Good Lord Bird coming out next year that I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for.

Ava DuVernay - Director: Middle of Nowhere (2012) Selma (2014) 13th (2016) A Wrinkle in Time (2019) When They See Us (2019)
13th is one of the best docs of the decade. I also loved Middle of Nowhere when I was FINALLY able to see it after years of waiting for it after the festival circuit. DuVernay's voice is always one I want to listen to.

Mica Levi - Composer: Under The Skin (2013) Jackie (2016) Marjorie Prime (2017)
There are several spots where films are sorely missing women but composers is certainly at the top. Levi composed one of the best scores of the decade in Jackie and her music also elevated the other two films of hers I've seen

Jenji Kohan - Showrunner/Producer: Orange is the New Black (2013-2019)
Jenji has produced plenty of other things aside from OITNB, but that is the show I specifically want to talk about. She created a show with the most diverse cast of women on television and I'm so happy she did.



There are so many more to list. Who are your favorites?