Rambling Film

Official Synopsis: The adventures of Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) as she sets off to the forests outside Portland to find her kidnapped brother. Ever since the first trailer for Wildwood premiered with "The hands that created Coraline" my family and I have been sold. I didn't realize until after I saw this film that it's based on a book (written by Colin Meloy of The Decemberists) so I can't speak for how the story goes adaptation wise. Count me in with everyone else saying Wildwood is a visual masterpiece because it is stunning. It brought me back to when I saw WALL-E in theaters for the first time and how blown away with how far animation has come then. That feeling stays here. There were several times throughout the film where I just kept thinking "wow" or "how did they pull that off" or "God, that must have taken forever." And these thoughts didn't distract me from the story in any way, it just made the ride so much ...

  Official Synopsis: Dismissed as underdogs before they even step onto the pitch, the Emei Women’s Football Team enters the prestigious Supreme Invincible Cup determined to prove everyone wrong. Back in 2005 I went on a date with a guy who took me to see a movie called Kung Fu Hustle.  He’d loved the director’s previous film, Shaolin Soccer and insisted that it was okay that I hadn’t seen that one before we dove into Hustle. I was pretty flabbergasted with that movie at the time, but I did grow to appreciate how ridiculous it was. So when I saw Shaolin Soccer  was getting a spiritual successor following a woman’s soccer team, I of course wanted to check it out. Unfortunately the majority of the goofy kung fu one would expect from a Stephen Crow film takes a back to seat to complete AI slop. According to Chow, about 50% of the film’s budget went towards generative AI for the visual effects and if I had known that before pressing play, I would’ve skipped it all together on...

This summer I decided to finally see what all the fuss was about The Diplomat , the Keri Russell led drama that recently premiered its 4th season on Netflix. Now that I'm finally caught up. It's time to put my thoughts down on "paper" The Good * The actors: Russell is perfectly cast and I really need to go back and watch The Americans  * Rufus Sewell is fascinating. I always think of A Knight's Tale when I see him, and this type of role that borders on being a villain is great for him.  * Ato Essandoh should be getting way more attention for this role that he does * Rory Kinnear playing the British Prime Minister again! At least there's no pigs involved in this show. * Georgie Hensley is so sweet. I wish she was in the show more.  * Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford are both great additions to the show later on in the series. * For the story - especially the first season, it moves very quickly and there's always a mystery to be solved.  The Bad * It is v...

Official Synopsis:  Liz Baxter (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor)  works as a nanny for a prominent white family in Oakland, California. In 1967 she discovers that the Connor children are suffering under the hands of their mother, Jane, (Rachel Lefevre) and attempts to step in to protect the children. This film is based on an autobiography of the same name written by Todd Connor, one of the children who Liz ultimately saved. According to Connor, Liz's bravery goes unnoticed for years until he stands up at her funeral and shares how she saved his and his siblings' lives. I haven't read his novel so I can't compare the film to page, but the admiration for Liz is easy to see.  Writer/Director Sterling Macer Jr has a tough task of re-contextualizing a child's story of his caretaker that he loved so much with what was going on in Okaland in the 60's. This was the during the rise of the Black Panther movement and any encounter a black person had with law enforcement in that time...

Official Synopsis: Thirty-four days before she's sent to prison, notorious Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait becomes a mind-bending three-year journey. I can't remember the last time a documentary has generated this much buzz prior to Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's You Can See Everything . Fielder, famous for his comedy staring incredulously at the never blinking Elizabeth Holmes in that teaser was enough to make everyone both uncomfortable and intrigued. And that feeling it kept out for it's nearly 3 hour run time. It feels far more cinematic than the typical talking heads style doc we're used to.  Like everything else you've probably heard, the less you know about where this goes the better. I would take it a step further and tell you to not even look at the film's IMDb page if you REALLY want to be surprised.  The amount of access Elizabeth and her husband...

I went into East of Eden with zero familiarity of the source material. I’ve never read the book. I never saw Elia Kazan’s 1955 film. But I’m a big fan of his granddaughter Zoe Kazan, so when I saw she was adapting it into a series, I knew that’s what I would start with. This version plays out across 7 episodes giving Kazan plenty of time to flesh out the characters. I enjoyed the series overall, though I expected a bit more from the ending. Florence Pugh is the absolute stand out and it’s nice to see what Joseph Zada can do ahead of his big turn in the upcoming Hunger Games adaptation. I did decide to look up what big changes Zoe made to the source material, so I thought it might be fun to talk about those. Cathy Ames is more fleshed out - I can’t say I’m surprised to hear that a male author in the 1950’s didn’t give his female character any agency but this show is good BECAUSE it chooses to follow Cathy so much. It never makes excuses for her, but it explains why she views the world t...