Rambling Film

The first TV theme of 2019 from Wandering Through The Shelves is about looking back at the new shows 2018 gave us. The problem for me is, I didn't actually pick up any new ongoing series. Everything new that I watched and enjoyed in 2018 was limited series. So here are some shows I started watching, but haven't finished. 1) Barry Barry won big at the Emmys and I normally enjoy Bill Hader but I found this to be incredibly dull. I only made it through four episodes before I gave up. This wasn't for me. 2) Succession Admittedly, I keep starting the first episode and getting distracted by other things. I do really like Kieran Culkin so I might try harder but the pilot doesn't do much for me. 3) The Bodyguard Richard Madden is insanely hot and I started watching this Netflix show for him. It's interesting at times, but not consistently enough for me to want to binge this quickly. I've been stuck on episode 5 or 6 for quite some time. 

Oh January releases. Since my theater hasn't seen it fit to bless my city with If Beale Street Could Talk yet, I've been spending a lot of my time with Netflix. One of my goals is to watch everything in my Instant queue before 2019 is up, but I've got all that nonsense in a separate post. Below are a few quick reviews courtesy of my DVD queue, with a few exceptions The Good Fair Game - Despite this staring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, apparently this never pinged my radar. (or it did and I forgot) but after watching Vice and hearing them reference this real life case, I was happy to see this was available to stream on Netflix - and I liked it! It's not amazing by any means but perfectly watchable. B Fyre - Everyone knows about the failed Fyre Festival at this point and who can resist Netflix and Hulu putting out documentaries at the same time? Fyre is Netflix's and is far superior to the Hulu doc because it doesn't try to blame millennials for everything....

There wasn't even a televised red carpet for the SAG's tonight.I caught a stream on people.com and it was one of the most dreadfully boring things I've ever seen. I was hoping this wasn't a bad oman for how this show was going to go...but it was. Host Megan Mullaly took so many long pauses between everything she said it was so awkward. This show really doesn't need a host. I went  10/13 with my picks which was far better than the Globes. Here are the winners + some quick thoughts. Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture A Star Is Born Black Panther BlacKkKlansman Bohemian Rhapsody Crazy Rich Asians” Thank God Black Panther won this. After that bullshit with Rami I was afraid for a bit. Chadwick gave a wonderful speech and I hope this wins Best Picture.  Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Christian Bale, “Vice” Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born” Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody” Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book” John Dav...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is one that I suggested because I just can't resist talking about bad movies. I always try to sit through movies at the theater no matter what, and believe me there's plenty that I should've walked out of (Hi every movie Uwe Boll has ever made) but here are the only ones that I actually did leave early.  1) The Jungle Book (1994) My entire family walked out of this movie about 20 minutes in. Honestly, I was too young to remember everyone's reasons. I know the wolves getting hurt bothered me but none of us were having this. We left the theater and walked into another.  2) The Devil's Rejects This movie was absolute trash. Mind you, Rob Zombie is a shitty screenwriter to begin with and the film's predecessor, House of a 1000 Corpses wasn't good either. Its hyper-sexual because that's how Zombie thinks people actually talk, and he framed his villains as the heroes only they are so dul...

The most wonderful time of the year (for Film Twitter) is here and it's...well...it's something. If you're a huge fan of Roma (I wasn't) then you're probably over the moon. Super Hero Fatigue™ still proves to be bullshit as Marvel walks away with 9 nominations, and for some reason the Academy still can't use their 10 fucking slots. Here are the nominees + my quick thoughts.  Best Picture Black Panther” A Star Is Born  Roma The Favourite Vice Bohemian Rhapsody Green Book BlacKkKlansman This is so dumb. Just pick 10 movies. The fact that Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book are taking time away from better movies and they STILL didn't pick 10 is just egregious. I'm happy Black Panther got in since that was still a bit of a question mark. I hope it wins.  Best Actress Glenn Close: The Wife Lady Gaga: A Star Is Born Yalitza Aparicio: Roma Olivia Colman: The Favourite Melissa McCarthy: Can You Ever Forgive Me? Simon asked the best question...

We live in a world of Superheros.  David Dunn (Bruce Willis) has been using his super strength for years as some what of a vigilante around Philadelphia, aided by his son, Joseph. (Spencer Treat Clark) He's been tracking someone kidnapping young girls, and when he comes across Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) their very public fight lands them in a mental institution run by Dr. Staple (Sarah Paulson) who wants to prove to these men that they are delusional in their belief that they are superheros. Of course, our title character Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) also resides at said hospital.  Despite thinking both of the film's predecessors, Unbreakable and Split were just okay, I bought into the hype with this one. But It's taken me a while to write this review. I'm very annoyed with a lot of Glass, actually, I'm mostly annoyed with director M. Night Shaymalan.  Shaymalan apparently thinks only comic nerds are vaguely familiar with how comics work. ...

Here it is! My annual Top 10 list + bottom 10 because we had that many disappointments this year. I watched 179 films in 2018, a good chunk of them 2018 releases. There are a few 2018 films I wish I could've seen before making this list, such as If Beale Street Could Talk and Vox Lux , but my theater hasn't gotten them and unless one of them ends up a Best Picture nominee in February, I probably will have to wait until DVD.  Below are my 10 favorite films of the year, a few that just missed, plus some honorable mentions. Then of course we bring it home with the 10 worst films I saw, plus some random winners just for fun. Top 10 Films of 2018 "We're here to fight, and if you stand in our way, we'll fight you too." "Wakanda Forever!" "I want to understand it." "Imagine that." "All power to all the people." "Hot damn." "I hope your month is full of successful d...

Time for my SAG predictions. There's no way I can bomb as hard as I did with my Globe predictions, right? RIGHT?! Here's who I think will win, and in some cases, who should win.  Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture A Star Is Born Black Panther BlacKkKlansman Bohemian Rhapsody Crazy Rich Asians” Who will and should win: Black Panther Hear me out. I know you're thinking "All the signs point to Bohemian Rhapsody." And you're probably right, but something tells me the actors are going to vote differently on this than the rest of the industry will. I think they will honor Black Panther here. I'd be fine with this, BlackKklansman, or Crazy Rich Asians winning.  Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Christian Bale, “Vice” Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born” Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody” Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book” John David Washington, “BlacKkKlansman” Who will and should win: Christian Bale This is by n...

Why are you even doing this? Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin) are going through a bitter divorce. They're trying to sell their apartment so they unfortunately still live under the same roof. Their biggest issues is their son, Alyosha. (Matvey Novikov) Neither actually want him. Boris has already gotten his new girlfriend pregnant and they won't have the room, and Zhenya is enjoying her freedom too much. They entertain the thought of dropping him at an orphanage, though Boris is afraid his conservative boss will find out. Alyosha listens to all of this from the bathroom and cries himself to sleep. He runs away the next day, and his parents don't notice he's gone until two days later. This might be one of the harshest movies I've ever watched. Zhenya and Boris are terrible people. All I wanted to do was take Alyosha away, wrap him in a warm blanket, and punch both of his parents in the face. It's a bit jarring to see two people act so s...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves wants us to look back at 2018. I decided to choose three films that surprised me with how much I liked them.  1) Searching When my theater opened Searching, I had never heard of it, so I watched the trailer and it looked like a really basic thriller, but I like John Cho and had nothing to do, so I went anyways. So glad I did because this was really enjoyable and they made the most of the gimmicks they used. 2) Dumplin' I cried like a baby in this. It was just so sweet. Sometimes I forget that I need to watch movies where nice things happen, I'm always drawn to darker things.  3) Blindpsotting When I saw the trailer for this, I thought it looked like so many other movies I had seen like it and upon watching it, it didn't check any of the boxes I expected it too. I really wish I would've gotten to see this in theaters and given them some of my money because it was extraordinary. 

The Notorious R.B.G After last year's wonderful documentary following Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we get the dramatic story of how she started out. We meet up with Ruth (Felicity Jones) as she's starting law school at Harvard. Of course none of her professors (Sam Waterston and Stephen Root) take her seriously, but her husband Marty (Armie Hammer) always does. We see her go through school, struggle to find a job as a lawyer due to gender discrimination and finally take on Charles Moritz's (Chris Mulkey) tax case that puts her on the map. I feel like this movie has almost been forgotten. It was talked up like it was going to be a massive awards contender only for it to be pushed to a January release with little fanfare. It's almost ironic considering all Ruth has had to fight for. For what it's worth, On The Basis of Sex might not be perfect but it's still a very good film. While the film does take its liberties as biopics do, it do...