Indie Gems: Honour

 Honor isn't everything...

Poor Mona. (Aiysha Hart) She's a successful woman from Pakistan living in London, and falls for a Punjabi man, Tanvir. (Nikesh Patel) But her mother (Harvey Virdi) and brother (Faraz Ayub) see this as dishonorable and try to kill her for shaming their family. They hire a nameless bounty hunter (Paddy Considine) to find her after she bolts on them.

The film is told out of sequence, so don't assume you know the ending right away. It's very interesting and sad knowing that things like this actually happen. I'm really becoming a big fan of Considine. I haven't seen this guy give a bad performance. All of the cast here really shine, even though there's so much tension going on.

It's very bleak and makes for a good, quiet thriller. 

Grade: B

Memorable Quote: "Come home. For me" - Adel (Shubham Saraf)

Thursday Movie Picks: Father/Son Relationships

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is father/son relationships. The only rule is that they must be biologically related (which unfortunately ruled out one of my favorites, There Will be Blood.)

1) The Music Never Stopped

Not enough people saw this wonderful little indie with top notch performances from J.K Simmons and Lou Taylor Pucci. Maybe more people will now that J.K Simmons has finally won an Oscar.

2) The Lion King

Simba and Mufasa's relationship is what drives one of Disney's best features. This is still one of my favorites to this day.

3) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi.

How about that daddy reveal at the end of Empire Strikes Back? Luke had to rethink his entire strategy after that. It probably has the most famous father/son reveal of all time. 

DVD Review: Calvary

Should've left town.

Father James (Brenden Gleeson) is a kind priest who is told during confession that he will be killed in seven days time. Why? Because the man confessing was raped by a priest when he was a child. That priest is dead, and even if he wasn't, no one cares about bad priests that die. He's going to kill Father James because he's good.

The film is very slow, very grey and dreary. It seriously drags its feet. It also has dog death about an hour in that I was not expecting and gaaaahhhhh I hate that!

But back to the film, Father James knows who confessed, he lives in a small town. But he doesn't call the police, he doesn't leave town, he just goes about his normal week. Gleeson gives a grand performance, as does the rest of the cast. I can see where this film might not be for everyone with it's pacing, but I enjoyed it for the most part. Even if I was kind of yelling at Father James to leave inside.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B-

Memorable Quote: "I don't hate you at all, it's just you have no integrity." - Father James (Brenden Gleeson)

2015 Academy Award Winners + my thoughts

This felt like the longest Oscar cast ever. Neil Patrick Harris was a shit host, I'm sorry. He's a great singer and showman but when he's not singing he's awkward as hell. The strongest part of this telecast were the Best Original Song performances. "Everything is Awesome" was the highlight of the night. "Lost Stars" is always a beautiful song to hear. Rita Ora has one hell of a voice, and the performance of "Glory" was very moving. Another great part about tonight? BIRDMAN!! Oh that makes me happy. I'm totally fine with not winning that annual pass to my movie theater for correctly predicting the Oscar winners. 

The winners are in blue, my thoughts follow in green.

Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
Sean Penn took way to damn long to announce the winner, but it was perfect when he finally did.

Best Director
Alexandro G. Iñárritu - Birdman
Richard Linklater - Boyhood
Bennett Miller - Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum - The Imitation Game
This made me so happy. I was worried Linklater was going to be rewarded for being mediocre for 12 years in a row. I'm glad they gave it to the very deserving Iñárritu.

Best Actor
Steve Carell - Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper - American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton - Birdman
Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything
Redmayne fangirled so hard. Like, the hardest I have ever seen someone fangirl at an awards show. I know people are going to hate his speech. Even though I wanted Keaton to take this, I'm fine with Redmayne. I know that's unpopular.

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard - Two Days One Night
Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore - Still Alice
Rosamund Pike - Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon - Wild
Why can't Rosamund have nice things?!??! Also I can't believe they missed the opportunity to show Jones' "I have loved you. I tried my best" clip. That scene broke me. 

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall - The Judge
Ethan Hawke - Boyhood
Edward Norton - Birdman
Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons - Whiplash
Predictable, but awesome. Call your parents.

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
Laura Dern - Wild
Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
Emma Stone - Birdman
Meryl Streep - Into the Woods
I really wanted to get on board with Arquette's girl power speech but the whole thing just felt so awkward. And she brought a list again!

Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki - Birdman
Robert Yeoman - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski - Ida
Dick Pope - Mr. Turner
Roger Deakins - Unbroken
I loved this win too. Not surprising. 

Best Foreign Language Film
Ida
Leviathan
Tangerines
Timbuktu
Wild Tales
I totally thought Leviathan had the momentum here, but Ida took it right back. good for Poland. 

Best Adapted Screenplay
American Sniper
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
I picked Theory to win here, and I was rooting for Whiplash, but I'm glad The Imitation Game won something and this acceptance speech was so beautiful. #stayweird

Best Original Screenplay
Birdman
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler


Best Make Up and Hair Styling
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy
I actually picked Foxcatcher here. I'm dumb.

Best Original Score
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Mr. Turner
The Theory of Everything
Good for Alexandre Desplat. I think I actually preferred his score in IG, but Budapest was on fire tonight. I'm just glad he won.

Best Original Song
“Everything Is Awesome” from The Lego Movie
“Glory” from Selma
“Grateful” from Beyond the Lights
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me
“Lost Stars” from Begin Again
The people that performed these songs were the stars of the night. 

Best Animated Feature
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Are you fucking kidding me? Big Hero 6? Who saw that coming? Ugh, how does the HTTYD franchise keep getting robbed like this?

Best Documentary Short
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Joanna
Our Curse
The Reaper
White Earth
I actually got this right!

Best Film Editing
American Sniper
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Whiplash
I may or may not have flailed when this happened. This film was editing gold. I wanted to throw an Oscar at the screen when I watched this film.

Best Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Mr. Turner
No one deserved this more, I'm glad Budapest won it. 

Best Animated Short
The Bigger Picture
The Dam Keeper
Feast
Me and My Moulton
A Single Life
I guessed this right too! I never get the shorts right, you guys!

Best Live Action Short
Aya
Boogaloo and Graham
Butter Lamp
Parvaneh
The Phone Call
I got this right too, just in case you thought I was done bragging. 

Best Sound Editing
American Sniper
Birdman
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Unbroken
Uggghhhhhhhh

Best Sound Mixing
American Sniper
Birdman
Interstellar
Unbroken
Whiplash

Best Visual Effects
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Best Documentary
Citizenfour
Finding Vivien Maier
Last Days of Vietnam
The Salt of the Earth
Virunga

Best Costume Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Mr. Turner

Dysfunctional Family Cast-a-thon

The Flick Chicks are women after my own heart, I love dysfunctional families. (Probably because I come from one and it's easier to cope knowing mine isn't the only batshit one out there.) This new blogathon they've set up is a cast-a-thon! Here are the rules:

1. Build a cast for your dysfunctional family from movies ONLY.  You can have as many characters as you like but you must include the following:

Lead Character - Generally the most normal of the family and spends a lot of time rolling eyes or telling family members off for their bad behaviour.

Inappropriate Mother/Father/Parents - Usually involves oversharing, inappropriate comments, name calling, swearing, drinking and/or drug use etc etc.

Stroppy Teenager/Manchild - Either the immature teenager who hates his family or the fully grown manchild who struggles to accept that he is an adult and should behave like one.

Uncomfortable Stranger - Usually a new girlfriend/boyfriend of someone in the family who is utterly appalled by the behaviour of the family they are staying with/meeting.

Traumatised Child - This is usually always a small child who has to witness the craziness of their family first hand and behaves in a certain way because of it.

Embarrassing Grandparent(s) - Whether alone or with their equally awkward spouse, you can always count on them to say or do something that mortifies the rest of the family.

Damaged Sibling/Cousin - Whether they have gone off the rails due to their messed up childhood or have just lost their way in life, there is always the sibling/cousin who doesn't quite feel they match up to the rest of their family.

Loyal Pet [Optional] - Despite their entirely dysfunctional family, the lead character can always rely on their loyal pet. Or can they?

They don't necessarily have to be in the named role in their original movie (i.e. the character doesn't have to be a mother figure in their movie to be chosen as the inappropriate mother) however you do have to explain your reasoning behind your choice.

2.  Include the banner above in your post and link it to this post.


3. Comment on this post or e-mail flickchicks2014@gmail.com to let us know you have contributed. 

Here is goes...

Lead character (the normal one) - Gilbert from What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Inappropriate parents - Lester and Carolyn from American Beauty

Uncomfortable stranger - Iris from Your Sister's Sister.  

Traumatized child - Cid from Looper

Embarrassing grandparent - Grandmother from Flowers in the Attic

Damaged sibling - Kelly from 2:37

Loyal pet - Arthur from Beginners.

Manchild - Cyrus from Cyrus

The setting would be Lester and Carolyn pretty much being themselves from American Beauty. Gilbert, their oldest son is 100% done with his parents at this point. Kelly, the middle child feels that no one loves her because her parents are always fighting, Gilbert has left, and Cid, her little brother is too young to lean on and is prone to anger. Gilbert's girlfriend Iris thinks everyone is crazy but doesn't do much to help. Grandmother is so bible thumping insane that she has been locked in the attic. The only other family member in town is Uncle Cyrus, but sometimes even Cid is more mature than he is. In the end, Cid taps into his TK powers and blows everyone up to lead a relatively more normal life with the adorable family dog, Arthur. fin.

Can you handle that fucked up-ness? 

Indie Gems: Love is Strange

How fitting is it that my 1000th blog post is an Indie Gem. :)

Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) have been a couple for nearly 40 years. Once they decide to married, George looks his job teaching at a Catholic school because of it. No longer able to afford their apartment, they are forced to live separately until they find a new one since none of their friends can take them both. George lives with his neighbors (Cheyenne Jackson and Manny Perez), who party way too much, and Ben stays with his nephew's family (Darren E. Borrows, Marisa Tomei, and Charlie Tahan) who let's face it, are all a bunch of chodes. 

Lithgow and Molina are really wonderful here. They carry the film and their chemistry is everything. They're honestly the only two likable characters, even when they aren't without their flaws. The rest of the cast is great too, but it's hard to compare them with the leads.

The film has good pacing and the story is interesting, though two things bothered me a little. There's a subplot involving Joey (Tahan) and his friend stealing French books, but they never tell us why. And because I'm such a wuss, I wish the film had ended about 10 minutes sooner so I didn't have to know the actual ending. That made me sad.

Grade: B

Memorable Quote: "To the motherfuckers." - George (Alfred Molina)

Thursday Movie Picks: Oscar Winning Movies

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is Oscar winning films. (And if you're not participating in this, you really should be) The only catch was you had to picture winners from the Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, or Best Foreign Film categories. I decided to choose one from each. Here are my favorites:

1) American Beauty

I'm not sure if I'll ever love another movie as much as I love this one. It's been my favorite for years.

2) Life is Beautiful

I realized when going through the winners that my favorite foreign films rarely win. This film is my favorite of all the winners. (From the films I've seen, of course) It's brilliant. 

3) WALL-E

I think this is Pixar's best work, and it's the first time that I can recall watching an animated feature and thinking to myself: "Wow, we have come so far with animation." This is gorgeous.

Review: Still Alice

This film is terrifying.

It really is. Alzheimer's is a scary disease, and it does do a good job of showing how devastating it is. 

Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is a genius professor who after gradually forgetting things goes to a neurologist and is diagnosed with early on set Alzheimer's. She's 50 years old. This film is about how she and her family, consisting of her supportive but workaholic husband John, (Alec Baldwin) bitchy daughter Anna, (Kate Bosworth) nice daughter Lydia (Kristen Stewart) and might as well by a wall peice son, Tom (Hunter Parrish) deal with it.

I think this is an important film, it certainly raises awareness for Alzheimer's, but it can't shake the Lifetime-y feel and the fact that aside from Alice there's not much to the other characters. 

I almost hate saying this because it's taking away from the film, but now I'm even more annoyed that Rosamund Pike is going to lose the Best Actress race to Julianne Moore. Moore was heartbreaking here, there's no doubt, but this isn't even her best performance. The whole film just felt underwhelming, though I have to admit the ending was kind of perfect.

Recommended: Yes/No. It's not a good film, but not a bad one either. If your a fan of Moore, definitely see it.

Grade: C+

Memorable Quote: "I wish I had cancer." - Alice (Julianne Moore)

2015 Academy Awards: Who will win, who should win.

Here are my Oscar predictions. I also entered a contest at my local theater where the winner gets a free annual pass, so my need to get these right is even greater! Luckily I'll already have my alcohol ready for when I fail.

Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
Who will win: Boyhood
Who should win: Anyone but Boyhood and American Sniper 
I kid, not really. Birdman should win, followed by Whiplash

Best Director
Alexandro G. Iñárritu - Birdman
Richard Linklater - Boyhood
Bennett Miller - Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum - The Imitation Game
Who will win: Richard Linklater
Who should win: Alexandro G. Iñárritu. 
Linklater will get awarded for being mediocre for twelve years in a row while everyone else who made a good film will get ignored.

Best Actor
Steve Carell - Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper - American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton - Birdman
Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything
Who will win: Eddie Redmayne
Who should win: Michael Keaton. 
I still think he has a bit of a chance, but I now see the Oscar going in Redmayne's direction

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard - Two Days One Night
Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore - Still Alice
Rosamund Pike - Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon - Wild
Who will win: Julianne Moore
Who should win: Rosamund Pike

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall - The Judge
Ethan Hawke - Boyhood
Edward Norton - Birdman
Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons - Whiplash
Who will and should win: J.K Simmons

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
Laura Dern - Wild
Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
Emma Stone - Birdman
Meryl Streep - Into the Woods
Who will win: Patricia Arquette
Who should win: Keira Knightley.
Mediocrity will triumph again.

Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki - Birdman
Robert Yeoman - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski - Ida
Dick Pope - Mr. Turner
Roger Deakins - Unbroken
Who will and should win: Emmanuel Lubezki

Best Foreign Language Film
Ida
Leviathan
Tangerines
Timbuktu
Wild Tales
Who will win: Leviathan
Who should win: It's hard to judge, the only one I've seen here is Ida, and I'm just sure that probably shouldn't win.

Best Adapted Screenplay
American Sniper
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
Who will win: The Theory of Everything
Who should win: Theory, I think deserves it. 
I liked Whiplash better, but it really shouldn't be in Adapted anyways.

Best Original Screenplay
Birdman
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler
Who will and should win:Birdman

Best Make Up and Hair Styling
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy
Who will win and should win: Foxcatcher.
Budapest could take the win here, but I think Foxcatcher has a stronger chance.

Best Original Score
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Mr. Turner
The Theory of Everything
Who will win: The Imitation game.
Who should win: All are worthy, though I haven't seen Mr. Turner. I feel like Desplat is overdue for a win. I think I may have filled out Grand Budapest on my theater ballot though.

Best Original Song
“Everything Is Awesome” from The Lego Movie
“Glory” from Selma
“Grateful” from Beyond the Lights
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me
“Lost Stars” from Begin Again
Who will win: Glory
Who should win: Lost Stars or Everything is Awesome

Best Animated Feature
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Who will win: The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Who should win: How To Train Your Dragon 2.
I think HTTYD2 deserves to win, but for some reason, I can't actually see the Academy giving them the win. I think the two less popular ones, Princess and Song have a better chance. 

Best Documentary Short
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Joanna
Our Curse
The Reaper
White Earth
Who will win: Crisis Hotline
Who should win: N/A haven't seen any.

Best Film Editing
American Sniper
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Who will and should win: Whiplash

Best Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Mr. Turner
Who will and should win: The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Best Animated Short
The Bigger Picture
The Dam Keeper
Feast
Me and My Moulton
A Single Life
Who will win: Feast
Who should win: N/A haven't seen them.

Best Live Action Short
Aya
Boogaloo and Graham
Butter Lamp
Parvaneh
The Phone Call
Who will win: The Phone Call
Who should win: N/A haven't seen them.

Best Sound Editing
American Sniper
Birdman
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Unbroken
Who will and should win: Interstellar

Best Sound Mixing
American Sniper
Birdman
Interstellar
Unbroken
Whiplash
Who will win: Interstellar
Who should win: Whiplash

Best Visual Effects
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Who will win: Interstellar
Who should win: Either that or Guardians. I'm undecided.

Best Documentary
Citizenfour
Finding Vivien Maier
Last Days of Vietnam
The Salt of the Earth
Virunga
Who will win: Citizenfour
Who should win: N/A because yet again, I haven't seen these.

Best Costume Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Mr. Turner
Who will and should win: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Rambling TV: Thoughts on The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul + more

Okay Daryl, now you have to initiate the next one.

The Walking Dead did something shocking you guys, fucking SHOCKING. They passed the Bechdel test!

A lot of the episode was focused on Sasha and Maggie and their grief losing their siblings:

Michonne and Carol had this little moment:

Then Rosita and Tara had this one:

Maggie and Carol spoke to each other for the first time since season 2 (though they did share a group scene in S3)

More of my favorites Carol and Michonne

You guys, TWD NEVER lets the females bond or talk to each other! This was progress. And they finally showed weather on this show so that's about time.

Aaron, a popular comic character finally showed up. The only problem I had with this episode was the excessive Daryl man pain Sasha and Maggie being broken up about this makes sense, and to an extent, Daryl's does too. Beth was a kid that he lost because he made a stupid mistake, but did we need that much of him moping? I know the general audience (and AMC) love their brooding cash cow, but this was just too much. At least it was Carol that kind of gave him a pep talk.

Also Judith is turning into Benjamin Button, right? That kid is aging backwards.

Better Call Saul let us see Tuco in all his bat shit glory. I missed that. Saul negotiating broken legs for his clients was priceless. This show also depresses me in a way because damn, do I miss Breaking Bad.

Agent Carter is also got pretty real last week. Peggy's outed to her fellow agents just when she was starting to get their respect. She's about to be interrogated. I just want her to save the day and have all her male colleagues bow down to her greatness.

Also that scene with Angie fake crying and asking Thompson his grandmother's name was the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've seen on TV all week. "Gam Gam."

19 Kids and Counting is back this week, Brace yourselves. Snark is coming!

*click those gifs to be redirected to their makers*

2015 Blind Spot Series: Enter The Void

What I knew going in: That this film would be very trippy, and something about a penis.

With the amount of people that told me I need to see this, I was expecting this film to be much older. It was released in 2009. Easily my youngest Blind Spot.

Oscar (Nathanial Brown) is an American drug dealer living in Tokyo that is shot and killed early on in the film. The film is shot entirely from his perspective. First as he's alive, he's our eyes in real time. Then after he's passed, we hover above our remaining characters; His younger sister, Linda (Paz del la Huerta) and friends Alex (Cyril Roy) and Victor. (Olly Alexander)

This movie is so beyond belief fucked up I can hardly explain it. The opening credits alone should come with a seizure warning. It's full of psychedelic graphics that cut away from the story, but strangely work with the narrative. There were a few times that I found the film to be a bit much, but it was very interesting. The acting in this movie is a bit weak to be honest. (minus Olly Alexander) It relies heavily on the atmosphere to tell its story, but thankfully that's enough.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B+

Memorable Quote: "Do you remember our pact?" - Oscar (Nathaniel Brown)

DVD Review: Ida

So about that nun thing...

Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) was raised in a Catholic orphanage. In the days before she is going to take her vows to become a nun herself, she's encouraged to go visit her aunt Wanda, (Agata Kulesza) her only known relative. When she goes there, she finds out that her given name was Ida, and she's actually Jewish. Her parents died during WWII, and Anna and Wanda go on a road trip of sorts to go find her parents' graves.

Let's get the good out of the way. This film was beautifully shot. Black and white was absolutely the best choice for this film and it's breathtaking to look at. It's too bad the rest of the film didn't live up to that. The film is about 80 minutes long, so it zips by, and leaves way too many questions than answers. 

It's sad because the story sounded so interesting on paper, and the film had a lot of potential, but it wastes it with boring side stories, a climax that doesn't really fit with the rest of the film, and way too many questions. Example without spoiling anything: Anna was dropped at the orphanage anonymously by some random with no relation whatsoever to her family. Yet they manage to track down her aunt? Who had assumed she too was dead up until that point? How?

Recommended: No

Grade: C

Memorable Quote: "So what now?" - Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska)

Indie Gems: Tusk

Because fuck you, that's why.

I know you've probably heard a great deal of people rip this film apart, but it's actually very enjoyable if you understand what you are about to watch. 

Wallace (Justin Long) is a podcaster that flies to Winnipeg to meet with a kid that accidentally cut his leg off with a katana. Unfortunately, by the time he gets there, the kid has passed away and he's forced to find another strange story to talk about instead. He sees a note on a bathroom bulletin board asking offering a room to someone that can perform house hold chores and listen to adventures. The man who wrote that is Howard Howe (Michael Parks) and as soon as Wallace enters his home, he's offered spiked tea, and Howe slowly reveals his plans to turn Wallace into a walrus. Johnny Depp, Haley Joel Osment, and Genisis Rodriguez also star.

I love campy horror movies and that's exactly what this film feels like. It's outrageous, over the top and hilarious. Plus you have to appreciate how this film came about. Director Kevin Smith read a (fake) article about a man seeking someone who would dress up as a walrus and role play with him. They then theorized this entire movie during their podcast and had their Twitter followers vote #WalrusYes or #WalrusNo on whether or not that should make it into a film. That's pretty bold. 

Grade: B

Memorable Quote: "What kind of elephant?" - Wallace (Justin Long)

Thursday Movie Picks: Unrequited Love

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is unrequited love! By the way, you should show your love for Wanderer by participating in this every Thursday, it's fun. Here are three of my favorite gems where love came up a little short.  

1) (500) Days of Summer

Poor Tom, he finds what he thinks is the perfect girl in Summer and it all falls apart.

2) God Help The Girl

Poor James, he finds the perfect girl in Eve and it turns out she's just a little focused on herself and strings him along. 

3) Water Lilies 

Poor Marie, it's hard enough suddenly finding yourself attracted to a girl on your swim team only to find out she's just a little bi curious and not into you at all.

Top 10 Films of 2014 (and bottom 5)

Here are my top 10 favorite films of 2014, and of course, the bottom five. Keep in mind with the bottom five, there are probably worse movies that were released, but these are the ones I actually watched.

Top 10

Honorable Mention: (The green films were in my Top 10 at one point, but were eventually replaced with something else) Foxcatcher, Guardians of the Galaxy, Filth, Breathe In, Obvious Child, Neighbors, God Help The Girl, Night Moves, Captain American 2: The Winter Solider, Enemy

Bottom 5: (No gifs for these assholes)

Ride Along

The Amazing Spiderman 2

The Monuments Men

A Promise

They Came Together

Rambling TV: Thoughts on The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul + more

The Walking Dead

The mid season premiere came back with doing something that TWD does frequently: killing off the black men on this show. You can't expect a show that seemed to have a "one black man at a time" rule in the past to actually keep three? So for those reasons, they had to chop Tyreese.

It was heartbreaking. As a Walking Dead spoiler addict, I knew Tyreese was going to die in either episode 9 or 10 for months now. But that didn't make it any easier.

I liked that they brought back dead characters like Lizzie, Mika, Bob, Martin, and The Governor to "talk" to Tyreese as he spent nearly the entire episode hallucinating. (Though I had to be subjected to Emily Kinney's "acting" for a few more minutes, that was painful) 

Chad L. Coleman owned this episode and gave a great performance. I also like that other characters like Glenn and Michonne got more to do. The Terrence Malick style directing definitely doesn't suit Greg Nicotero, so I felt the episode failed on that front, but the performances carried it through. RIP Tyreese.

Better Call Saul

Keeping with the depressing theme AMC had going last night, this show opened up with the most depressing post Breaking bad flashback ever: Saul working at a Cinnabon in Omaha. Just like he told Walt he probably would.

This show got off to a great start and that ending was everything. Tuco!


Agent Carter

I'm seriously loving this show. 98% of the men are complete douche canoes, but it's okay because Peggy is going to prove them all wrong eventually. I've never wanted to kick Chad Michael Murray in the balls so badly before.

Star Wars Rebels (seriously)

Have you ever been in the position where you over think the TV shows your kid watches? That's where I'm at with Rebels. In retrospect, letting my three year old watch this show was a huge mistake, because now he thinks everything is a blaster. But since my husband and I are big Star Wars fans, when he showed interest in the preview, we were like "why not?"

First, the main character, Ezra (because hipsters) is annoying as shit. But the characters of Kanan and Hera (the two main adults), now they are fascinating, and now I'm weirdly invested in a fucking kid's show. Star Wars canon is all over the place and always contradicts itself, but I can't help it. We watch this show all the time now.

*click those gifs to be redirected to their makers*