Rambling Film

Because "Sexually confused" isn't PC title. So this is an interesting film to write about. It falls under the category of "Excellent Movies I Never Want to See Again."  Happiness is about a group of people trying to achieve just that. There's Joy (Jane Adams) who's trying to find herself after a string of bad break ups. She has two sisters; Helen, (Lara Flynn Boyle) a cold woman being prank called by her lustful neighbor, Allen. (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) And Trish (Cynthia Stevenson) who tells herself she has the perfect family, yet her husband Bill (Dylan Baker) is secretly a pedophile.  If this movie is anything, it's very ballsy. Particularly for Dylan Baker's character. Putting a pedophile at the center of the film is tricky, but the film never sympathizes with him. Not once. Baker, Hoffman, and Adams are the stand outs here. This film is filled with interesting characters, even though none of them are actually very likable. ...

This week's theme from Wandering through the Shelves is French Language movies! I love so many of these, this was really hard to cut down to three.  1) Water Lilies This is my favorite French film. It's coming of age/sexual awakening/trying to fit in combined. All of those things have been done countless times, but this film feels special. 2) The Intouchables I expected this film to be a hard drama and very depressing, it was actually very heart warming and pretty funny at times.  3) Caché When I first made this list, my #3 was Blue is the Warmest Color . Then I changed it to Tomboy because it wasn't as widely seen. Then I finally watched Caché  and knew it was the one that had to go here. Basically what I'm trying to say is there are too many French language films I love. (I could've thrown Laurence Anyways in here too) But Cach é was just SO interesting. This creepy guessing game keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The Independent Spirit Award nominees were announced yesterday. These awards are incredibly hard to call for me. A lot of these films don't get a ton of exposure and they have the weirdest eligibility rules. (That's why you're not seeing any individual awards for Foxcatcher here and why Magic Mike of all movies got nominated before.)  Here's a rundown of the nominees. My thoughts as always follow in green . BEST FEATURE  Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Producers: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole Boyhood Producers: Richard Linklater, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, Cathleen Sutherland Love is Strange Producers: Lucas Joaquin, Lars Knudsen, Ira Sachs, Jayne Baron Sherman, Jay Van Hoy Selma Producers: Christian Colson, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Oprah Winfrey Whiplash Producers: Jason Blum, Helen Estabrook, David Lancaster, Michel Litvak The only film I've seen here is Birdman, hopefully ...

A movie half empty. I've been pretty vocal about my complaints about Mockingjay being split into two movies. It's so unnecessary. Not enough to make me skip it entirely, I do love The Hunger Games trilogy, but splitting the movie was not only a bad narrative choice, but it highlighted my biggest complaint about Mockingjay in the first place. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is no longer the fierce competitor we saw from the first two films. She was always a little unhinged after the games. She's still confused on who she loves more, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) whose been taken captive by the capital, and her best friend Gale, (Liam Hemsworth) whose still been by her side this entire time. Katniss is now mopey, depressed, and clearly not understanding the gravity of the situation she's found herself in. The majority of this film, like the book it shot in an underground bunker in District 13, the one that we were all lead to believe was destroyed. District 12 h...

The Walking Dead After three straight weeks of bottle episodes, we're finally getting one with the whole group together again. Too bad it ended up being a bit underwhelming. At the hospital, Beth overhears the police saying they want to turn Carol's machine's off. When she stands up to them, Dawn says she can't go back on her order, but she gives Beth the medicine key to help. Beth, who has apparently never heard of the words "subtle" or "nonchalant" tries to help Carol. It was a sweet gesture, and one of my favorite moments, but it was so damn obvious. Then we meet up with GREATM (Tara's team name for Glenn, Rosita, Eugene, Abe, herself, and Maggie) Abe is still kneeling on the ground, dumbfounded by Eugene's confession. He's still passed out by the way, and Maggie takes care of him (and puts Abe in his place) while Rosita, Glenn, and Tara go fishing and get some water. Rosita gives us a little back story on how she met Abe. ...

What I knew going in: This was meant to be a companion piece of sorts to the insanely depressing Grave of the Fireflies. And I have a ton of memories of commercials for this movie when it was dubbed the first time back in 1998. I watched this movie with my three year old son. The film follows a family who moves to the country side and finds some friendly spirits in and around their house. Here's a breakdown of our experience. 5 minutes in - "Can we watch Ninja Turtles?" 10 minutes in - "Mommy, Ninja Turtles." 20 minutes in - "Ninja Turtles" Cat bus appears -  Kid: "...what?" Me: "See, that kitty is a bus!" Kid: "Kitties can't be buses!" Me: "Yes they can, see." Kid: "NO!" Me: *laughs at son's ridiculous response to the cat bus* Kid: "IT'S NOT FUNNY!" Then he got up and walked away so I finished this movie alone like a loser. Despite it not being his cup of t...

When you think your sex life sucks... Think about Dawn's. (Jess Weixler) She's a high school student that believes in purity. She's saving herself for marriage, refuses to think any impure thoughts, she's an all around good girl. Only all this is fueled by the fact that she has teeth in her vagina. You read that right. This is one of those movies that I heard about when it first came out back in 2007, and thought "That's so ridiculous...I have to see it." It took awhile, but I finally got to sit down and watch it. And this movie is ridiculous. There's plenty of shots of severed penises and lots of screaming, but it finds a good balance between being funny and being interesting. This film knows it's over the top and embraces it, and I can't help but love it for that. Grade: B Memorable Quote: "I'm a virgin.....in his eyes." - Tobey (Hale Appleman)

Promise me you'll make a better film next time. I'm going to spoil the ending of this film towards the bottom of my review. But let's face it, this film isn't that great to begin with, so you're not missing much. The film takes place in Germany before WWI. Friedrich (Richard Madden) is an ambitious young man who comes to work for Karl Hoffmeister. (Alan Rickman) Karl takes him under his wing and when he becomes ill, asks Friedrich to move into his house to help him with day to day operations, then report back to the office. While doing that, Friedrich and Karl's young wife, Lotte (Rebecca Hall) fall deeply in love, practically after first sight. You'd think with a cast like Rickman, Madden, and Hall, this movie would be great, but aside from them giving good performances the movie just fails all around. The editing is terrible, I felt like I was watching a slide show at times, and I had to wait for the slide to be replaced as we changed scenes...

Or the unexpected virtue of ignorance.  Riggan (Michael Keaton) is a has been actor who was famous for playing a super hero called Birdman. He's trying to stay relevant by directing and starring in his own broadway play. He clashes with his diva co star, Mike. (Edward Norton) His fresh out of rehab daughter, Sam (Emma Stone) resents him and is working as his assistant. He's driving his best friend/producer, Jake (Zach Galifianakis) crazy. Andrea Riseborough, Naomi Watts, and Amy Ryan also star. Birdman is so batshit crazy that I'm not even sure how it works, but it does. It's shot in "one continuous take."(Really there were a few edits made, but they're not easily spotted) There's always loud music playing. Riggan appears to move things without touching them and his alter ego Birdman is the voice in his head. The film is beautifully spazzy and all over the place. Let's talk the the actors, because they're wonderful here. Admitte...

The Walking Dead The search for Beth felt like an afterthought. This episode's main focus was thankfully on Carol and Daryl's feelings. We saw what Carol did for the short amount of time after Rick banished her. We learned that she once took Sophia to an abused women's shelter, but only stayed for a day before heading back to her abusive husband. She talked about not being sure if they get to save people anymore, but she's trying. Of course Daryl really gets Carol. He didn't push her into talking about what happened with Mika and Lizzie. When he saw she was bothered by a child walker in the shelter, he took it upon himself to burn the body for him. I love the relationship between these two. They work really well as a unit, and even though the plot called for them to make so many stupid mistakes during this episode, I can almost forgive it. Carol gets taken by the hospital people, and Noah held Daryl back from attacking them. So there you have it, Noah WAS th...

You will never look at hiking and smooth jazz music the same after this. Zach's (Dane DeHaan) dealing with the aftermath of his girlfriend, Beth's (Aubrey Plaza) death. When her parents (John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon) start inexplicably ignoring him, he comes to find out Beth has come back from the dead and they are trying to hide her. She doesn't remember anything from her death, and she's starting to show strange symptoms that are parents are in denial over. I love watching Dane DeHaan. He's got so much charisma and he provides a good balance of showing Zach's heartache, and still being hilarious at the same time. Aubrey Plaza is known for playing the same characters over and over (but she's good at her schtick) Beth is a little different, so it's a breath of fresh air for her.  Matthew Gray Gubler who plays Zach's older brother, Kyle is also hilarious in his small part. Anna Kendrick even shows up for a bit. This was an interesti...

This Thursday's picks are movies about making movies. Check out Wander's site for future Thursday Movie Picks .  Boogie Nights - Gotta love this look into the porn industry. This film has brilliant performances all around. Bowfinger - Do NOT laugh at me! I actually think this movie is pretty funny. Come on, the premise alone is giggle worthy.  Tropic Thunder - Bowfinger is funny, but this movie is hilarious and goes down as one of my all time favorite comedies. There's just so many memorable quotes. 

We were meant to leave this Earth. Sometime in the future, the Earth is dying. Dust storms are the norm and some crops are no longer going. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) was once a brilliant pilot and now stuck being a farmer. One day, he cracks a code with his daughter, Murph (Mackenzie Foy, then played by Jessica Chastain as an adult) that leads to him what's left of NASA. Headed by professor Brand (Michael Caine) and his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway) they tell Cooper that they need him to pilot a mission through a wormhole to find another planet to live on. That's the dumbed down version, there's way more too it, but it's probably better if you just see the film yourself.  If Interstellar is anything, it's ambitious. It spans nearly three hours intertwining with what's happening in space, and what's happening on Earth. The story is very interesting, and there's even a few tear jerker moments thrown in there. It's a very good sci fi fi...

The Walking Dead After last week's disaster of an episode, TWD pulled its head out of its ass and provided us with a good hour of TV. Sure, it was another bottle episode, but this one was needed. The big reveal was that Eugene came out and said he wasn't a scientist. He lied because he wanted to live, he thought D.C would actually have the answers and he knew no one would travel with him if they knew the truth. Abe beats the shit out of him before Glenn pulls him off. I think Tara was a big reason Eugene confessed as well. She was being very sweet to him and gave him a few good talks during this episode about friendship. I guess he felt comfortable enough to say it. Glenn continues to be leadership material/mediator.  Every time Abe's dumbass wanted to do something, Glenn would try to reason with him and give him actual advise. This is why I love Glenn. Why don't more people listen to this guy? AND we got a sex scene between Abe and Rosita! WITH THRUSTING!...

Rob, make out, rinse, repeat. Admittedly, this is not my kind of movie. My husband threw this in our Netflix queue because we're both big Michael Pitt fans.  Based on a true story, Tommy and Rosie (Michael Pitt and Nina Arianda) are two small time criminals that start robbing Mob social clubs. They end up getting ahold of an important list, and suddenly the mob AND the feds are after them. Pitt and Adrianda were pretty damn amusing, but the the movie itself was very uninspired. I think it will ultimately end up very forgettable. Ray Romano, Samira Wiley, and Andy Garcia show up in bit parts, but nothing in this film dares to be different. We've seen this 100 times. Recommended: No Grade: C Memorable Quote: "You aren't going to do anything for these kids?" - Jerry (Ray Romano) 

You are being watched. A local TV host Georges, (Daniel Auteuil) gets video tapes left at his doorstep wrapped in bizarre children's drawings. The tapes are merely surveillance of his house. His family, wife Anne (Juliette Binoche) and young son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky) going about their daily business. At first, Georges is open with Anne regarding this, but when he starts to have a hunch on who's sending them, he starts keeping secrets. When Josh over at  The Cinematic Spectacle named this his Best Picture winner in his CinSpec awards, I knew I had to see this. We'll ignore the fact that he made that post in January..my Netflix queue is full, okay?! Needless to say, it lived up to his praise.  Michael Haneke is a director that practically forces you to watch his films. Not a bad force, but he needs your full attention because you're going to have to look for small details that are not as insignificant as they first seem. I loved the myst...

It's not creepy.. Sam (Justin Long) is a writer who has a crush on a Barista he just met named Birdie. (Evan Rachel Wood) He decides he's going to stalk her on facebook to find out what she likes, so he can get into all of these things first before he approaches her again. Because charades like this last forever and no one ever figures them out. On paper, this looks promising. Wood is one of my favorite actresses, Sam Rockwell, Sienna Miller, Vince Vaughn, Keir O'Donnell and Peter Dinklage are all in it. Well turns out those people I just listed get to show up for five minutes at a time and leave while we're still stuck watching the entire film.  Evan Rachel Wood is too talented for this, and nearly everything about this script lets her down. Birdie borderlines on being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl and it takes Sam a beat too long to realize that he's the problem. 5 minutes of Dinklage being hilarious and Wood singing can't save this. Recommended:...

If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket. Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a thief that's focused on finding himself work that will earn him a decent amount of money. One day he comes across a crash on the highway and notices the freelance cameramen that film the event and sell them off to news stations. He decides this is for him, and delves into this world headfirst. He starts selling his footage to to a specific news director, Nina. (Rene Russo) But he's never satisfied, and continues to make more questionable decisions when it comes to the crime scenes he's filming.  There's no other way to put it. Lou Bloom is a slimy bastard. Literally everything he does is morally wrong and he's a total dick on top of it. His ego is out of control, but that in itself is so fascinating. Gyllenhaal is fantastic here. Lou is a very forceful person, and you're almost afraid to see how far he will go to get what he wants. Lou is kind ...

*click those gifs to be redirected to their makers.* Brace yourselves, bitching is coming. The Walking Dead This week's episode was all about the show's least compelling character, Beth. Where has she been? At a hospital, run by a cop named Dawn. What are these people doing? Looking for a cure? Nope. Just surviving. These idiots, two years into the apocalypse still think someone is coming to save them. Beth befriends a boy named Noah, who mentions he's from Richmond where they "had walls." (Remember that) and they attempt to escape, but only Noah gets away. Beth gets caught after she shots several walkers in the head, in the dark...because apparently being knocked out in a hospital has turned her into an expert marksman. The episode closes with Beth probably about to kill the doctor, when Carol gets rolled in on a stretcher. Because how else are they going to make this story interesting? They have to add a character like Carol. This episode killed seaso...