Rambling Film

Happy Halloween! Our final festive theme at Wandering Through The Shelves is horror on the small screen. The only rule I gave myself is that I wouldn't use the TV shows I picked last year and thankfully there's still some great things out there. 1) The Haunting of Hill House This was an excellent mini series last year that I binged quite quickly. It even managed to get me with a jump scare.  2) Stranger Things While season 3 moved away from it's normal Halloween setting and instead happened during the 4th of July, it only made it slightly less creepy. 3) Black Mirror While this show as a whole isn't specifically horror themed. You can't argue with the fact that most of the episodes are literal horror movies. Whether you're being chased by robots, put in a scary video game simulator, or being blacked mailed into fucking a pig on national television. 

And this is the motherfucking game. Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) is a comedian trying to make it big. He creates the character Dolemite - a very vulgar, kung fu fighting alter ego that catches on and becomes a huge hit in the comedy album scene. Moore decides he wants to move to the big screen and sets out to make a Dolemite movie. When I started this film, I didn't think I knew much about Rudy Ray Moore, then as it went on I started recognizing several things, and it dawned on me I've had one of this films - The Human Tornado - in my Netflix Queue for over a year. But you don't need to know anything about Moore or Dolemite to enjoy this. It's such an easy film to love. What I liked the most about this film was its structure. Many biopics put a lot of focus on the hardships, and Moore faced plenty, but I liked that they didn't dwell on his set backs. Watching him do stand up is fun, making the movie is outrageous, and whenever they hit a bump, it...

The "gift" of a different life.  When Alex Lewis was 18, he was in a motorcycle accident. He sustained a head injury that left him in a coma, and when he woke up, the only person he recognized was his twin brother Marcus. He didn't recognize his parents, had no memory of anything that happened before the moment he woke up, and had to re-learn nearly everything. Since Alex had no reason at all not to trust Marcus, he decides to ignore their traumatic past and fill his brother's head with more hopeful and normal stories of their childhood. After their parents die, Alex finally begins to ask Marcus more hard hitting questions. What happened to Alex after his accident is extraordinary in itself. How do you lose everything except your knowledge of your twin? The brothers clearly have a strong bond and Alex speaks very fondly of Marcus. There's no hint of contempt for the deception. They wrote an autobiography together about this story back in 2013 that I hav...

October always brings wonderful horror recommendations from my fellow bloggers but today I wanted to talk about a few that don't get a lot of mentions - from myself included. I always have a few that I champion but the ones below I don't believe I've mentioned in a while. I'll also link to my old reviews of each film. Apologies for how terrible my writing used to be. (Not that it's good now, but it was once worse) 1) Red White & Blue No, not the prestigious Three Colors trilogy. Calling this film unsettling is an understatement. It shows the ugly side of human nature by showing us three individuals we want to sympathize with at first until they give us every reason not to. Full review . 2) Home Movie Found footage films aren't as much as a thing as they were a few years ago but one that consistently sticks in my mind as one of the better ones is Home Movie. It's not perfect, but it's different. It's about a couple whose 10 year old t...

This week's Halloween Theme from Wandering Through Our Selves is something you hope you're never a part of...a ritual. There are a ton of horror movies involving rituals out there and lucky for us, one of the best ones ever made came out this year. Here are a few I enjoy for varying reasons 1) Midsommar This is still one of my favorite films I've seen this year, and it's the prettiest horror movie you'll ever see. Even when those horrifying rituals show up. 2) The Ritual This one you can watch on Netflix about a group of men who get lost camping and stumble upon something sinister. It's pretty good, especially for how Netflix horror films tend to go. 3)The Wicker Man Now for something stupid! You can't not laugh during the Wicker Man remake. It's one of the funniest movies ever made. I suppose if you're a huge fan of the original you might be offended by this movies' presence but it's one of the best bad movies out there....

I thought it would be fun to showcase some of my favorite women in horror films. Whether they're final girls, scene stealers, scream queens, may queens, or even a prom queen, here's a quick list of some women I love. Let me know some recommendations you have as well.  Justine - Raw Oh Justine, I want you to figure it out too. Dana - Cabin in the Woods One of my favorite movies of all time. Laurie Strode - Halloween The ultimate final girl. Maddie - Hush The scariest home invasion movie I've seen. Suzy - Suspira I love this candy colored nightmare. Ellen Ripley - Alien This badass. Lizzie - The Perfection She was my favorite part of this.  May - May So creepy, and one I need to revist. Amelia - The Babadook One of the deepest horror films in recent memory. Selena - 28 Days Later For being so tough and protective of young Hannah. Carrie - Carrie The most memorable prom...

The rules are still in place It's been approximately seven years since we last checked in with our gang and now Tallahasse, (Woody Harrelson) Columbus, (Jesse Eisenberg) Wichita, (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigal Breslin) have crossed the country yet again and are now living at the White House. Little Rock however is getting stir crazy since she's never around people her own age. At first, Wichita understands, and they leave the boys in the middle of the night. But when they do pick up a hitcher Little Rock's age, she ditches her sister to be with him, and now she has to go back to ask for help. One thing hasn't changed, and it's the wonderful chemistry between the leads. They play off each other wonderfully. Breslin doesn't spend a lot of time with the main group, but the other three bounce off one another like no time has passed. There's several laugh out loud moments and many call backs to the original. Some funny (like getting "Murray...

The Small Short. When Ellen Martin's (Meryl Streep) husband dies in a boating accident, she expects a big pay out from the boat company's insurance policy. Only she finds out it's fraudulent and linked to a law firm in Panama ran by our narrators -  Jürgen Mossack (Gary Oldman) and Ramón Fonseca. (Antonio Banderas)  Stephen Soderbergh apparently really liked The Big Short , because that's exactly what he's attempting to do here structure wise. Instead of the housing crisis,we have an insurance scam. It is well directed but the characters are not nearly as compelling as The Big Short , or most recently Hustlers to pull this type of film off.  Before I watched this I had read some negative reviews that all talked about Streep, but it was Oldman and Banderas who I thought were completely insufferable. Oldman's accent is atrocious, he sounds like he's just trying to mimic Banderas so I was quite confused when his character mentions being from Ger...

What I knew going in: That it was weird. Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) is a factory worker in a world that apparently barely survived a nuclear holocaust. He is forced into marrying a girl he had sex with, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) after she gives birth to a mutant baby out of wedlock. Parenthood is not for these two. I knew this was going to be weird, but holy shit. I always assumed Rubber would continue to reign supreme as the strangest thing I've ever watched but I think this actually takes the cake. Eraserhead definitely wants you to decide what this film means to you. After I sat there incredulous for a while after the fact, I pulled up this films' IMDb page, read the synopsis and some of the reviews and there are people who put a lot more thought into this then I did.  I'll be the first to admit, I'm not in the best place to watch this. A film like this is probably best seen at a midnight movie. Not when you're depressed and lonely, like I am at the mo...

I think we're alone now.  Lizzy (Caitlin Gerard) lives isolated on the plains with her husband, Isaac. (Ashley Zukerman) He's gone for many days at a time, leaving her isolated save for an occasional visit from neighbors Emma and Gideon. (Julia Goldani Telles and Dylan McTee) But Lizzy is plagued by evil spirits...or is she? Maybe it's just her mind playing tricks on her. If you've been here for awhile you know I struggle with Westerns. It's a genre that never fails to bore me. Thankfully at a brisk 1 hour 26 minutes, The Wind never has time to be boring, even though it is what you could call a "slow burn" in a sense. Dread plagues Lizzy. You get an uneasy feeling watching this throughout. She's also somewhat of an unreliable narrator in a way. The film constantly asks you to question what's happening to her. Is the isolation affecting her head space? Is there really a demon out there? Both?  I loved how Gerard plays this part. She doesn...

This week's Halloween theme from Wandering Through The Shelves was one that I suggested. Jump Scares...that actually do their job. I think sometimes horror fans are immune to jump scares because we see so many. Or the film is predictable and you can see them coming a mile away. But sometimes..they're effective. Here are a few that had me flying out of my seat. 1) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) Yes, I chose the remake. This is honestly probably the dumbest thing I've ever jumped at...the scene where Sheriff Hoyt comes up to the teenager's car window out of nowhere. It's such a cheap move but for some reason or another I did not see this coming at all. 2) It This film was effectively creepy without relying on jump scares but when Giant Pennywise came out of the projector the Losers were watching, that had me out of my seat.  3) The Descent I'm sure you can guess what got me in this film before I even say it. Yes, that car crash/fake out ...

Yeah bitch, escape! Following being set free from his captors, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) looks to leave Albuquerque and start a new life, but nearly every obstacle possible gets in his way.  I've you've been reading here, you know how much I love Breaking Bad . I think it's one of the best - if not THE best show on television and the ending was perfect and fulfilling. But Vince Gilligan always has surprises for us. I didn't think I needed more backstop on Saul Goodman, but Better Call Saul has been a great show. Now he offers us a chance to see what happens to Jesse after he and Walt part ways. In my head, I gave Jesse a happy ending. Now we get to see if he actually gets one.  I loved El Camino . It works perfectly as an extended epilogue to Breaking Bad . I had almost expected them not to revisit anyone else from the series, but they incorporate familiar faces seamlessly. Nothing about it is cringy or forced. Aaron Paul is still fantastic as ever,...

You can play it. Charlotte (Allison Willams) used to be a cello prodigy before she had to quit taking lessons at a prestigious school to go care for her ailing mother. Now she travels to Shanghai to meet the other gifted student who took her place, Lizzie. (Logan Browning) They hit it off immediately, then things go way downhill.  I've read a lot of positive, but extremely vague reviews of The Perfection before hitting play on Netflix, and for good reason. The less you know about this movie, the better. The only warning I'll give you is not to eat anything while watching it, especially if you have issues with seeing people vomit on screen. Because a part of this film has a lot of that.  I'm pretty blown away by this if I'm honest. The film makes you question nearly every person that is on screen eventually and there are parts of this film I found downright scary. Not in the jump scare way, but in a very sinister, uncomfortable fashion. Logan Browning ...

Promise you won't forget me. Show business has not been kind to one of its biggest stars and Judy Garland (Renee Zellweger)is forced to move to London to do a string of shows in 1968 in order to earn enough money to give her children a stable home.  Everyone knows who   Judy Garland is but just how deeply? I can admit that I don't know everything about her. Sure, I knew about her life in broad strokes, I've seen a handful of her movies and listened to her music, but I've never read a biography or watched a documentary on her. So in that aspect, I didn't have any expectations for how they told Judy's story. That worked in my favor as the film follows a very standard biopic formula. The one thing I was worried about going in was Zellweger. With the way the trailer was cut, it gave me the impression that she was going to be pulling a face the entire movie to try to make herself look like Garland, and that wasn't the case. The makeup and her actin...

I'm a sucker for scenes with falling snow. Since it's starting to snow outside now, I figured I'd share a few of my favorite snowy scenes from films I enjoy. Brooklyn (2015) Kill Bill vol 1 (2003) Edward Scissorhands (1990) Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Crimson Peak (2015) The Chronicles of Narnia (2005) TV Bonus: Jon Snow himself - Game of Thrones (2010-2019) What are some of your favorites?