Rambling Film

This week, Wandering Through the shelves asks us to explore heist movies. Since I'm complete Joseph Gordon-Levitt trash, I decided to do a theme withing a theme. All of my picks are JGL films, because while heist movies aren't my favorite, sticking him in one is a sure fire way to make me see it.  1) The Walk This is probably one of the most unique heist movies out there because there's no guns and no one dies. That doesn't make it any less thrilling and this is also one of the few 3D films that absolutely needed to be shot that way.  2) The Lookout This is a very quiet heist movie. JGL plays a janitor at a bank who suffered from a traumatic brain injury years before. Because of this, he's suckered into a robbery. 3) Inception Stealing things from dreams. Now this is one hell of a heist movie and is still one of my favorite movies of all time. I love everything about it. I'm still pissed Nolan didn't get a best director nom for this.

Express yourself. This biopic of the iconic rap group NWA starts with following the three biggest stars, Eazy-E, (Jason Mitchell) Ice Cube, (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) and Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins) from the very beginning. E selling dope, Cube writing lyrics on the school bus, and Dre with his DJ gigs. They eventually start to record with two more artists, DJ Yella (Neil Brown. Jr) and MC Ren (Aldis Hodge) and become a sensation on the club scene. This leads to a man named Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti) coming on as their manager, but specifically closest to E, and the eventual downfall of NWA, and the rise of many other things. The run time kept putting me off seeing it in theaters. 2 1/2 hours is steep. The movie feels it, but there's so much to cover that it's completely understandable. I really enjoyed Straight Outta Compton . I can't call myself a massive NWA fan. I only knew of their big hits, but I listed to plenty of Dre and Cube afterwards. The nostalgia is str...

The Walking Dead Has there ever been an episode of television with such an obvious plot device?Nothing this week felt natural. It was all forced to get our biggest fighters outside of the walls, and to get Carol and Morgan separate from the rest of the group. (Because God forbid Carol be with her family in one of the biggest episodes of the series next week.) The showrunning in this show is terrible. I don't know why someone doesn't reel him and and tell him "enough with the fake out deaths. Enough with trying to force comic character traits into TV characters. Enough."  The high lights of this episode? Well, we saw Glenn and Maggie in the shower, Rick and Michonne rolling around in bed, and Rick told Morgan he agrees with Carol on essentially everything, so that was hilarious considering so many within the fandom try to condemn Carol for her actions while excuses characters with penises who do the same things. Everything else was shit. Better Call Saul ...

Bridge of fucking over Tom Hanks There's a story Rudolf Abel, (Mark Rylance) a Soviet spy arrested in New York in the height of the cold war tells his lawyer, James Donovan. (Tom Hanks) He tells him about a man he knew as a child that was a friend of his parents. How his father told him to watch him, and he did, and saw the man did only unremarkable thing until one day, he did one thing that wasn't. That's how I felt watching this film. It gets several Oscar nominations, it's like the Academy is telling me to watch it. Yet, it's a completely unremarkable film except for Rylance (the one remarkable thing) The trailers of this film never excited me, but I wanted to see this before the Oscars aired (I'm sure this won't be published until sometime in March/April, but know I'm writing this review on February 22nd.) I tried to look on the bright side of things, Spielberg doesn't make bad movies, but he does make typical ones, and that's wher...

No peace, no pussy. Chi-Raq is a play on Chicago and Iraq. Particularly the South side of Chicago with all its gang violence. The film is a modern retelling of the Greek play Lysistrata, and our Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) is fed up with her boyfriend, a gangster actually going by the name Chi-Raq. (Nick Cannon) After witnessing a mother (Jennifer Hudson) weeping in the street over her 10 year old daughter being shot, Lysistrata decides to organize all the women together to hold back giving their men any action until the violence stops. Where did this film come from? I didn't hear about it until a few weeks ago when bloggers began posting glowing reviews. After watching it myself, I'm shocked this film wasn't bigger, it has so much to offer. The film tackles serious social issues with a touch of humor and heart break. They speak as if they're in a play, with frequent rhymes and lengthy dialogue. Plus, how many other films are you going to see counter prote...

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is musical biopics. I think this genre tends to be more mediocre then amazing. Still, there's some excellent films out there. Here are three of my favorites.  1) Walk The Line This is easily my favorite music biopic of all time. It's so wonderfully acted by its leads and you can't go wrong with Johnny Cash's music. 2) Nowhere Boy This isn't the most factual bio pic of John Lennon, the film takes a lot of creative liberties, but it still works so well. It's a nice little gem.  3) Love & Mercy The Beach Boys might not be the flashiest band out there, but I have to mention last year's film staring the wonderful Paul Dano. It does a nice job of showing the "Then and now" aspect of lead singer Brian Wilson.  Bonus: Sid and Nancy - The reason this is a bonus is because it's been so many years since I've seen it, where as the rest I've seen recently or enough t...

What's in this weed? Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) is a simple stoner who lives in West Virginia. He works at a gas station, he's in love with his girlfriend Phoebe, (Kristen Stewart) but he has extreme panic attacks when he tries to leave town. He's stuck. But Mike isn't really just a stoner, he's actually a secret CIA experiment that when activated by Victoria (Connie Brighton) turns into a one man killing machine when another CIA agent, Yates (Topher Grace) tries to terminate him. American Ultra is billed as an action comedy. It fails on the comedy part, but it's got the action scenes down very well. It's spectacularly gory and I loved that about it. I only wish the film was a bit more cohesive. It's strange trying to describe it. It's not hard to follow, but it's completely convoluted at the same time. It's like the only think we're really meant to retain in this film is all the kills Eisenberg gets. Now, I love Eisenberg and...

What I knew going in: No much, other than it's frequently raved about. Jeanne d'Arc (Maria Falconetti) is on trial for heresy since she says she has visions of God during the 100 Year War. I'm sure you know the story of how she becomes a martyr and is burned at the stake. This film focuses on her trial. The DVD gave me two options of watching this. The Silent version and the Voices of Light opera version. I decided to go out of my comfort zone and stick with the silent version, which I started to regret about half way through the film. Sometimes, movies just aren't for you, and The Passion of Joan of Arc is one of those for me. I don't completely oppose silent movies, but I don't think drama works well with that gimmick. Slap stick comedy, sure, but a film like this started to feel unintentionally campy at times. Falconetti is 95% brilliant in this movie. The pain on her face is so powerful, but there's that 5% where her eyes go a bit too wide and...

Rambling TV is a weekly series where I ramble semi-coherently about the things I've watched on television. This week is brought to you by sadness because I believe I'm watching a character assassination on TWD The Walking Dead Another week, another chapter in Carol's misery tour. I've lost a lot of faith in show runner Scott Gimple for a number of reasons but the fact that he can't seem to get Carol out of this funk is only making it worse. I'm not sure why he felt giving Carol all the negativity comic Andrea and Michonne ever had was a good idea. It's not going to get him an Emmy nomination. (hint: the writing needs to be better and you have to display a variety of emotions, not just sadness. Melissa McBride is an amazing actress. She can do it all) So now he makes her leave? And part of the reason this  seems to be dragging out is per Lennie James (Morgan) Gimple accommodated his schedule and shifted the arc he wanted to give him in season 5 to seaso...

Reason #651324 why I hate camping. Alex (Jeff Roop) loves the outdoors. He takes his lawyer girlfriend, Jenn (Missy Peregrym) out on a hiking trip in the backcountry of Canada. He wants to bring her to this beautiful lake he remembers fondly from his teenage years. On their first night, they meet a lone camper, Brad (Eric Balfour) who is pretty creepy and rattles Alex enough that he leads Jenn off the main trail to avoid him again. Only they've now wandered into the territory of a very predatory black bear. I first heard of this film over on Rhino's blog and immediately threw it in my Netflix DVD queue. I love horror movies, and I'm always on the look out for small indie ones.  The build in this movie is intense. Alex sees bear tracks early on, so we're left on the edge of our seats for not only the bear, but we wonder if the creepy hiker comes back into play as well. Jenn and Alex are a believable couple and even though the film has to use a few annoyi...

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is intersecting stories. The funny thing is, the two movies that immediately came to mind were Crash and Babel, two films I didn't like at all. Then there's films like Pulp Fiction and Magnolia , excellent movies, but I expect to see those quite a bit this week. I tried to think outside the box a bit, while my first pick could be a popular one too, the others were smaller indie films. 1) Snatch It's almost embarrassing how long it took me to finally see this. My husband laughed at me the entire time we were watching this because I was like "This is so good!" and he kept saying "nice if you to arrive in 2012." (when I watched it) The quick pace of this film is fantastic. Boxers, robbers, jewelers, gangsters, and assholes all intertwine here. 2) American Gun This is a very interesting film about gun culture in the U.S. We follow a high school principle in an inner city school, a mot...

Back to black. I felt like I shouldn't be watching this, a documentary on the late singer Amy Winehouse. It's as if I was intruding on her personal moments and I couldn't shake how uncomfortable this entire film felt.  Amy was absolutely singular. She had raw talent, a voice like no one else and from the home videos we are shown, she had that spark at a very young age. She also apparently lacked guidance. Her father bailed, then only came back into her life when she was famous. Her mother dismissed Amy telling her about an eating disorder as a young teen. It's small things like these that just add to the pile of addiction and troubles Amy dealt with in her short life. It's hard to enjoy something like this. I liked Amy. She put out great records, but everyone knew she had a problem. This entire documentary is based on home movies, televised events, and paparazzi footage. There's very few talking heads, instead the camera focuses on Amy w...

Rambling TV is a weekly series where I ramble semi-coherently about the things I watched on television this past week. In a shocking turn of events, I wrote this post completely sober.  The Walking Dead Did you know that Carol and Maggie, despite their groups meeting at the farm in season 2 have only interacted directly 3 times? Once in episode 510, last week's, and now tonight's episode. That's pathetic, but show is the way this show handles female relationships. That's why this episode was so special. It was pure filler, yes, but it involved two women who should've interacted more saving themselves. They didn't need to be rescued by their respective men. Maggie was ruthless tonight, this has been the most I've liked her character in ages. Gimple forgot about her for the longest time. Carol finally admitting that she's not okay (To Daryl, her "person," who Gimple has not had directly interact for an entire season) is huge. This is th...

Let me tell you something about Regina George Sarah. Charlie (Joséphine Japy) is your average French teenager. Somewhat shy, just going about her existence. Her parents fight and are going through a separate so she can be a bit melancholy at times. When a new girl, Sarah (Lou de Laâge) shows up at school. She and Charlie form a fast friendship that ends up getting more intense than either girl, especially Charlie expected.  This is Mélanie Laurent's second outing as a director, but the first that I've seen. She captures the lives of these two teenagers well. The friendship between these two girls is complicated to say the least. It felt very real to me. How mean and dependent teen girls can be. There was always a part or two I felt like I could relate with.  The film certainly didn't end where I thought it would either, and that's what makes it stand out from others in this genre. It's beautifully shot and the two leads are perfectly ca...

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is about Narrators that never grace us with their physical presence on screen. I ended up having to cheat a bit with my 3rd pick.  1) Little Children An unknown man narrates this story about two people, their infidelities as they meet up on play dates with their children, and the recently released pedophile in their town.  2) (500) Days of Summer Another unknown man explains Tom's mindset as he thinks he's found the perfect girlfriend in Summer. 3) A Christmas Story This is narrated by adult Ralphie, who technically never appears on screen. I tried to avoid using this one, I really did. But sometimes you just have to go with the first film that comes to mind.

The denial is strong with this one. The Friedmans are a typical upper middle class family in New York. Arthur and Elaine are the parents. They have three sons, David, Seth, and Jesse. In the late 80's, Arthur and Jesse are arrested on child pornography/molestation charges. The documentary examines the case against them and raises questions on whether or not they were actually guilty of all of the things they were accused. I've been watching a lot of true crime documentaries lately. This was a very unique experience as I'm not sure I've ever wtf'd so hard while listening to a family. The amount of what has to be denial is astounding.  The documentary is a bit bias, and that's fine. It happens. Andrew Jarecki (who later went on to direct HBO's documentary The Jinx ) seemingly wants to clear Jesse Friedman's name. So as I listened to his side, I tried to keep an open mind. They made a few points about the abuse being "outlandish" b...

Don't dream. I wasn't going to review Zootopia. I usually don't type up posts about the movies I tag my child to unless they have a strong impact on me one way or another. This one, I wasn't expecting much. I didn't even know what it was about as the only preview I had ever seen was the sloth one. I haven't been this pleasantly surprised while watching an animated movie since I saw How to Train Your Dragon. Judy (Ginnifer Goodwin) is a small town rabbit who dreams of becoming the first bunny cop in the big city of Zootopia. She has these small town ideals where she thinks everyone gets along in the big city and she's really going to make a difference. She immediately gets put on parking duty and gets conned by a fox named Nick. (Jason Bateman) Fox represent a species that's almost always shit on in Zootopia. They're all called sneaky and untrustworthy. Judy volunteers herself to help solve a missing animals case, and realizes that Nick can...

Rambling TV is a weekly series were I ramble semi coherently about things I've watched on television this week. The Walking Dead I need to get my ranting out of the way. We need to talk about what they're doing to Carol. I read spoilers, when I read that Carol was going to end up kissing Tobin, I was immediately annoyed, because if Carol's kissing anyone, it should be Daryl. But Eventually after thinking about it, I was hoping this would be a small minute of happiness with this red shirt. It wasn't. Carol is still hurting badly, and NONE of her family members seem to notice. It's like she's going through an identity crisis. In this episode, we saw her in her normal clothes, then revert back to Suzy Homemaker for a bit. She's hiding what happened with Morgan, like I knew she would, but her interaction with Tobin felt like something an addict would do. Give herself a high for a minute, then go back to misery. Tobin did say something very nice, (albeit ...

You're not special. Amy (Emma Roberts) just graduated from college. She believes she's destined to be the next great poet, but the reality is that she's 90k in student loan debt and has no job. Her parents tell her they can't fund her aspiring poetry career, so she gets a job at a sex store to pay the bills while she writes. She also takes up stalking her favorite poet, Rat Billings (Jon Cusack) who tolerates her presence.  I'm always kind of afraid to watch movies like this. I'm 28. I fall into the "millennial" category. And so many are portrayed as entitled brats who think things would be handed to them as opposed to working hard for it. It bothers me because that bad rap is almost consuming, giving off the impression most people my age are like that when in fact, there's plenty of us just over here working and doing our own thing. It's one of the reasons I couldn't get into a show like Girls . It just rubs me the wrong way. ...

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is Storms. Sometimes Disaster films work, right? I decided to pick three that I had very strong reactions to. Reactions that consisted of Sadness, Humor, and Fear . Here we go. 1) The Impossible Sadness - I have never been so thankful to watch a movie at home instead of a theater. I cried through this entire thing. Naomi Watts broke my heart. That little boy they saved broke my heart. I could cry again just thinking of it.  2) The Day After Tomorrow Humor - Jake Gyllenhaal is STILL playing a teenager? ( Donnie Darko fan) Wtf is with those wolves? Okay, the CGI in this movie was great, but then I get right back to wtf'ing.  3) Twister Fear - The movie itself isn't scary, but the simulator at Universal Studios scared the shit out of me. I've seen enough tornadoes in real life and that felt just as real. Fuck that, 11 year old me nearly cried. 

A letter to his son about his father. When I watched Making a Murder on Netflix, one of the recommended films that came up when I finished was this one. I wasn't aware of the story, though I knew child custody was a big part of it. So I went in with an open mind. Film maker Kurt Kuenne's initial intention with this documentary was to make it about his friend, Andrew, the documentary's first subject after he was murdered by his ex girlfriend, Shirley. After his body was found, Shirley fled the U.S back to Canada and announced she was pregnant with Andrew's son. Andrew's parents also moved back to Canada to fight for custody, and Kurt made a cross country road trip trying to gather as much footage as possible so Zachary could know his father as he got older. It's easy to rage over cases where the justice system fails families. I felt the same way watching Making a Murderer , the Paradise Lost movies, etc. This one caused me to have tears streaming...