Rambling Film

It's the end of the month so we have another special TV edition. This week Wanderer wants us to talk about high school. You know, that thing for awkward people like me that we try to forget. However, here are some great shows about high school that I always recommend: 1) The Wonder Years The summer before 6th grade, I broke my foot and ended up spending a lot of time in bed because of it. Lucky for me, Nick at Nite had a Wonder Years marathon on that started from the beginning so I got to watch all of it. I was addicted to this show and when I excitedly told my dad how awesome it is, he had to gently tell me that it's an old show that was on in the 80's. It felt so modern compared to the other things I watched on Nick at Nite that I had no idea it wasn't a new show. Derp.  2) Ja'ime: Private School Girl This was a mini series that aired on HBO and it was fucking hysterical. Chris Lilly is apparently an Australian national treasure but this was my firs...

What's left out here? Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) hunts predators on farm lands for a living. While he's on a job at the Wind River Indian Reservation, he stumbles upon a corpse of a girl he knew, Natalie. (Kelsey Asbille) FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) is the only agent available and is sent to investigate Natalie's murder. But she soon finds out that the law is handled very differently there. Writer/Director Taylor Sheridan is on a role. He's written wonderful films like Sicario and Hell or High Water , and he brings the same level of precision here. But it has to be said, this film really is just Sicario on a Native reservation. Jane is an FBI agent with a good heart like Kate. Cory, like Alejandro is driven by a family tragedy. They even have a conversation towards the end of the film with "wolves" thrown in. But what it lacks in originality it makes up everywhere else. I'm okay with seeing another version of Sicario because...

Prayer hands emoji. Social media addict Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) is fresh out of a mental institution following a disastrous breakdown. When she finds her new obsession, a popular Instagram user named Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen) Ingrid cashes in her inheritance check from her recently deceased mother and heads to California to insert herself into Taylor's life.  I tend to roll my eyes a bit when I hear the complaint "people these days look at their phones too much!" Sure, there's times and places when you shouldn't but most of the time I just get bitterness from that statement. Ingrid though, she's worthy of having that criticism. She's probably the most sympathetic antagonist I've seen in a long time. Everything she's doing is wrong. By the way she gets into Taylor's life, to how she treats her well meaning land lord Dan (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) but you can't help but feel bad for her. She needs serious help and real friends. ...

I saw the devil. I've been majorly slacking on these lately. It's nice out, I'm not inside to watch movies enough. No one noticed, right? Brimstone follows a mute woman Liz (Dakota Fanning) living a quite life with her husband Eli (William Houston) and his children. When The Reverend (Guy Pearce) arrives in their small town, Liz knows she's in danger.  I have to preface this by saying this movie is two and half hours, and the DVD I got from Netflix said it was an hour and forty-three minutes. So I started this at about 10:00pm after a few glasses of wine. I didn't notice the length until I happened to glance at my watch and saw it was midnight and still going. So that's a plus on its part. It's long, but it doesn't feel that way for the first two hours.   But man, this movie is weird. I still have a hard time accepting Fanning as the adult that she is when she was such a prolific child actress. So to see her in a few of the situations in th...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is another form of entertainment we love: stage performances. There's a lot to choose from, here are three of my favorites. 1) Get Over It This is one of my favorite rom coms. I loved it as a teen, Ben Foster is trying to get with Kirsten Dunst so he auditions to be in his school's stage version of A Mid Summer Night's Dream. Plus Kirsten Dunst sings and it's lovely. 2) Birdman This all in one take (but not really) look at Riggam, a fading actor appearing on Broadway is amazing. I'm still so happy this won over Boyhood for Best Picture. 3) The Producers Yes, I'm talking about the remake. I like it. It's funny. I know everyone else hates it. (mental note: write a guilty pleasure review of this)

What I knew going in: It often appears on "Best of" lists for independent films. As a lover of indies, Paris, Texas has always been one that has escaped me. So many hailed it as one of the best. Yet, I kept skipping over it in my Netflix queue. Thankfully the Blind Spot Series gave me the motivation I needed. Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) has been missing for four years when he decides to wander back into society and meet up with his brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell) who in turn has been raising Travis' seven year old son, Hunter. (Hunter Carson) Travis decides he wants to find his long lost wife and takes Hunter along for the ride. Travis wasn't a likable character for me. He's selfish and reckless but at the same time I was still so curious about his journey. The film didn't answer all the questions I had, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. Stanton is excellent and carries everything well. It tends to feel longer than it's 2 1/2 hour run time, but...

Watching. Always watching. We start with a couple known only as C (Casey Affleck) and M. (Rooney Mara) She wants to move. He wants to stay. After C dies in a car accident, he rises again as a ghost under a literal sheet. He could move on, but he chooses to go back to his home to watch M. Eventually, M has to move on, but C is now stuck there.  I'm a huge fan of director David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints  so I've been curious about this since it premiered at Sundance. The film is shot in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. It's almost as if you're watching the film through a camera or a window. Even the corners are rounded. It's an interesting way to frame this story. This movie isn't going to be for everyone. It's a very somber film. With lots of long takes and little meaningful dialogue, but you can't help but admire the risk Lowery took with this. We're literally following Casey Affleck under a bed sheet for most of this film. But s...

If you've spent any time here, you know how much I love Dell and his blog. He and his co-host KG are bringing back one of my favorite events, the Against The Crowd blogathon! This is my 3rd year participating.( 2015 and 2016 ) Here are the rules in his own words: 1. Pick one movie that "everyone" loves (the more iconic, the better). That movie must have a score of 75% or more on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you hate it. 2. Pick one movie that "everyone" hates (the more notorious, the better). That movie must have a score of 35% or less on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you love it. 3. Include the tomato meter scores of both movies. 4. Use one of the banners in this post, or feel free to create your own. 5. Let us know what two movies you intend on writing about in one of the following ways: Comment on this post Comment on KG's Movie Rants Tweet me @w_ott3 Tweet KG @KGsMovieRants1 Now, I was ready to tear apart the live action remake...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves needs your help.  Okay, I couldn't help it. To be fair, I didn't pick movies with damsels, but here are some films that I really enjoy where someone had to be rescued.  1) The Martian Watney gets left behind on a mission to Mars and NASA has to spend probably a trillion dollars to get him home. I loved the book and the movie, and you know what, I like that the HFPA put it in the comedy category at the Globes. Fight me.  2) Argo What's so amazing about this movie, a real life rescue mission about six Americans stranded in Iran in the 80's is how even though you know the ending, the film makes it feel like something could go horribly wrong. That's masterful.  3) The Rescuers The Rescuers: Down Under came out during my life time, but this one came out in the 70's, and I thought it was the sequel when I was a kid. I didn't realize this one came first. Everyone seems t...

I'm not like you. The true story of Jeannette Walls (Brie Larson, Elle Anderson, and Chandler Head at different stages) and how she grew up in poverty with her nomadic parents (Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts) before becoming a journalist in New York City. Before I knew there was a movie in production, I read Jeannette's memoir of the same name after reading about another family forcing their children to live in poverty. I couldn't put it down, I finished it in one day. Jeannette Walls is a better person than I am, because I don't think I would've spoken to my parents ever again after leaving them. Once I learned a film was coming out, I was excited about the cast, but I had one fear: That the movie would somehow romanticize her experience. And they did. The Glass Castle gets the melodrama treatment that the memoir didn't have. Everything has been made to look "neater." When Jeannette was three, she severely burned herself cooking h...

As I was writing my post on little seen 90's shows, I couldn't help but think of Don Bluth. He's a legendary animator who walked away from Disney and made his own films with varying results. I've seen all of his feature films with the exception of  Bartok the Magnificent , a straight to DVD spin off of Anastasia he did. He didn't write all of these, but he directed them. Here are my rankings of his films from worst to best. 10) A Troll in Central Park I used to love this movie when I was a kid, but when I happened to catch it again when I was older it just did not hold up. One thing I always appreciated about Bluth's films growing up is they were a little creepy, and I liked that. But the animation in this one is creepy for all the wrong reasons.  9) Titan AE It may seem strange that this one is so low, but honestly it's not memorable to me at all. I think I actually remember more from A Troll in Central Park even though it's ranked lower....

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves celebrates everyone's favorite popcorn flicks: Summer blockbusters. There's so many to choose from, so I'm going to pick the ones that had memorable theater experiences for me.  1) The Dark Knight One of my all time favorite movies, I'll never forget the reaction of the audience when The Joker did his pencil trick. Gasps, "oooohhhhhs" then everyone clapped. I love moments like those, even if I barely heard the dialogue that followed. 2) The Avengers I consider May a "summer" month. I'm in the super small minority that actually likes Age of Ultron better, even with its flaws. But I had so much fun seeing this in theaters, the audience about died when Hulk punched Thor out of frame during the big battle of New York.  3) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes I love the Planet of the Apes prequels, and I went with this one specifically because of the above gif. Everyone in my ...

They're kids... The Detroit riots of 1967 are the focus of this film. Mainly, the incident at the Algiers Motel is the focal point of the story. We follow a security guard, Dismukes (John Boyega) who is just trying to do the right thing and is caught in the fray. There's Larry (Algee Smith) and Fred, (Jacob Latimore) the former an aspiring singer who grab a room at the motel after being told they cannot go on stage during the riots. Julie (Hannah Murray) and Karen (Kaitlyn Dever) are the lone two white females that are stopped at the hotel. Greene (Anthony Mackie) a returning army vet trying to find work is also stopped among others at the hotel. Police Krauss, (Will Poulter) Demens, (Jack Raynor) and Flynn (Ben O'Toole) make their night a living hell.  I always appreciate movies that teach me something new about a time in history. I learned about the Detroit riots, but never specifically what happened at the Algiers Motel. It's cruel and sadly still a possib...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is all in the family. And these families all commit crimes together. There's a lot of really obvious picks here like the Godfather that I haven't watched in ages so I avoided going that route. Here's three I like. 1) Eastern Promises This is one of my all time favorite movies and is firmly in my top 5. Semyon's family deals in a lot of shady things, mainly forced prostitution.  2) Animal Kingdom These Aussies are, you guessed it, also doing shady things down under. And they're lead by the wonderful Jacki Weaver as the matriarch.  3) Oliver & Company And to go a little lighter - a family of stray dogs that steal things. But they're adorable and one of them is voiced by Billy Joel so of course we don't hold it against them. 

Putting together my three picks for the Non English TV Show edition of Thursday Movie Picks got me all nostalgic. Now I'm remembering all these shows/movies I used to watch and I felt like making a list out of them. I'm not going to include the big ones like Doug, Rugrats, Rocko's Modern Life, Hey Arnold, All That, Clarissa Explains it All, Alex Mack etc. Those are very popular with my fellow 90's kids and are easily memorable. These are the ones I had to dig a bit for in my brain. I'm going to start with the shows that I remember the earliest, and go from there. Most of these are TV shows, with a few movies thrown in. 1) Eureeka's Castle This can best be described as a derpy puppet show. They had a bat that constantly flew into things, but you bet your ass my 2 to 3 year old self was watching this every morning.  2) David The Gnome Like I said during TMP, this was a show I never realized was a dub until I found IMDb. It was originally a Spanish...