Rambling Film

  Remember 50 years ago when I was putting together underseen movies of the past decade and had to break it into several parts because I had too many? Well, that's still a work in progress but Dell's Girl Week has given me the motivation to keep on going. Here are a few of my favorite films from the past decade where it centers around a female character Afternoon Delight - Kathryn Hahn plays a woman who heads to a strip club to spice up her marriage and ends up bringing home Mckenna (Juno Temple) to help nanny for her children after befriending her. Hahn and Temple are great and I thought it tackled that sexual slump that people can sometimes go through really honestly.  Breathe (Respire) - Mélanie Laurent may be famous for what she does in front of the camera, but here she steps behind the camera and tells a story about two Parisian teenagers who become friends, then something more. It may not be the most original story but I thought it was a great film. Columbus - Casey...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is the one I dread every year because I do not watch enough TV shows that aren't in the English language. Since I don't re-use the same choices I have in past years (ie: all the anime I watch), please join me once again in reaching for the stars. And while we're here, let's make it GIRL WEEK too! All of my picks star women. 1) Unorthodox HEAR ME OUT, the majority of this show was in Yiddish so I'm counting it. It's a wonderful four part mini series on Netflix that I highly recommend. Shira Haas is fantastic in it.  2) Yashahime  This is in Japanese and is the sequel to the first anime I ever got into, Inuyasha. It's funny, I tend to write my TMP posts in advance, usually in a rough draft that I clean up the night or so before, and I had written "Maybe I'll like this better by the time this is ready to post." Spoiler alert, I don't. The more I watch, the more annoyed I get. The new...

  It's that time of year again over at Dell on Movies - Girl Week! All week long, ladies have the focus. I always love making lists, as I've done a few times for this blogathon in the past, but this time I wanted to show some love for the animated girls. Here are a few underrated female characters from animated movies.  Saoirse from Song of the Sea - I adore this movie and while Saoirse is silent for 98% of her time on screen, I really just enjoyed her presence She's a Selkie, so she can turn into a seal. While the film is mostly from her brother's point of view, we never lose sight of Saoirse's place in all of this. And her Selkie scenes are visually stunning. Penny from The Rescuers - I feel like everyone prefers Rescuers: Down Under but I always had a soft spot for the original. Penny has it so rough and I think as a mostly sad child I felt like I could relate to her a lot. Even though she's in such an awful situation, she still finds the bright side of th...

Learn to be deaf. Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is in a metal band with his girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) when he starts experiencing intermittent hearing loss. When he goes to a doctor, he finds his hearing at the 20% mark and a cochlear implant is 40k and not covered by insurance. Through his sponsor, he goes to see Joe (Paul Raci) a man who runs a program for deaf individuals. There, he teaches Ruben "how to be deaf" as he puts it, while Ruben comes to terms with his life completely changing. I was lucky enough to see this early, it hits Amazon Prime in December and it's one I've been looking forward to since seeing the trailer. I've been a fan of Ahmed since he blew me away in The Night Of, and I knew he'd be wonderful here. It's fitting that a film like this would be so quiet. It's somewhat of a slow burn, but I appreciated how the pacing did not lag when it came to Ruben working through his new way of life. They could've easily dragged out his acclimati...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is all about the times where our protagonist is actually an antagonist. It's not easy to tell your story from the villain's POV, but here are three films that do it well. 1) American Psycho I'm sure this one will be popular today, but how can you not go with Patrick Bateman? Sociopath extraordinaire and frequent fan of video tapes. 2) Pretty Persuasion This one might be a bit obscure, but Evan Rachel Wood's Kimberly puts the Plastics to shame. What she does in this film is some high stakes teenage fuckery.  3) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street I love that Tim Burton went full gore with this musical. While it's easy to feel sympathy for Sweeney, the guy does murder a lot of people.

  What's your share? Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) and her parents, Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger) have been scammers as long as she can remember. Stealing, haggling, trying to get by on the cheapest thing possible. That's their life. While doing an elaborate scam to get some insurance money, they happen across Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) who happily joins them on what she thinks will be a light hearted way to earn extra cash. But when Robert and Theresa start treating her very differently, Old Dolio starts to realize just how much love she's missed out on over the years. Director Miranda July is a very interesting filmmaker. I loved her first feature, Me And You And Everyone We Know , but was far less impressed with her las t, The Future . I'm happy to say that Kajillionair e is more in line with her first. I'm not even sure I'd call this "quirky" July's filmmaking is a bit beyond that. It's meticulously weird, but in a way th...

  What I knew going in: That this was a popular French New Wave film Jim (Henri Serre) a Frenchman is friends with Jules, (Oskar Werner) an Austrian living in Paris in the 1910's. They both fall in love with a woman named Catherine. (Jeanne Moreau) Catherine eventually marries Jules, and after WWI, the three meet again in Germany and Catherine starts falling in love with Jim. The film follows these three as they attempt to make a relationship work. I picked this film as I wanted to see more work from director François Truffaut and this seemed like a fairly popular choice, but I have to admit I'm a bit perplexed after watching it. Jim and Jules together make a great pair of friends. Catherine is to put it blunty - kind of a flake, but I wouldn't say I disliked her character. I just found nearly every decision this trio makes to be kind of illogical and I never understood how these two guys would go to such lengths to keep Catherine. I also don't understand why Catherine...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves was a suggestion by me! I wanted to talk about female DP's because we never hear enough about them. We didn't even have the first Oscar nominated female DP until Rachel Morrison was honored for Mudbound in 2018. So here are three very beautiful films shot by women 1) The Neon Demon Shot by Natasha Braier, say what you want about this movie's plot but there's no denying that this neon drenched film is beyond gorgeous. Braier shots this like the candy colored nightmare its mean to be.  2) Black Panther Shot by Rachel Morrison, while Mudbound earned her that first Oscar nomination, Black Panther should've been her second. It's the most beautifully shot of all the Marvel films.  3) Water Lilies Shot by Crystel Fournier, She was director Céline Sciamma's DP on her first three features and as I've mentioned before, Water Liles holds a special place in my heart. It's such a wonderful coming of age ...

  An unlikely friendship. Kathy (Hong Chau) has recently lost her sister and goes to another town to clean out her house. Unbeknownst to her, she became a hoarder in her life and Kathy has a ton of work cut out for her. Her young son, Cody (Lucas Jaye) comes with her and after a bad run in with some neighboring kids, forms a bond with the retiree next door, Del. (Brian Dennehy) Think of it as Gran Torino , but without turning all the racism into comedic relief. This is a very quiet film anchored by the lead actors. There's nothing showy, though it's shot very beautifully. It also doesn't end in tragedy, which is someone unexpected in stories where a young person befriends an older one like this. Hong Chau is a really interesting actress and I hope she continues to get a bunch of work. I really liked her character here. She's just trying to get through this, and do what's right for Cody. She's quick not to take shit from the micro-aggressions coming from her ...

  Be your "own" boss. Ricky ( Kris Hitchen) has just gotten a job as a delivery driver in the UK hoping it solves he and his family's financial woes. His wife Abbie (Debbie Honeywood) is a carer, and their two children Seb (Rhys Stone) and Liza Jae (Katie Procter) couldn't differ more academically. But the delivery job isn't what he expected it to be, and the added stress that comes with it leaves them worse off. Director Ken Loach's last feature, I, Daniel Blake was the main reason I wanted to see this. That was a very hard hitting look at the lower working class in the UK, and Sorry We Missed You is no different. Ricky's family feels real. You might as well be watching a documentary, nothing about this feels artificial. If you've ever struggled with money, it can be a tough watch, but thankfully Loach isn't relentless with this content. There's a few laughs thrown in to break the tension. What I appreciate most about this feature was the re...

  I think I'm going to make this a ~thing~ at my blog, ranking TV shows network by network. I already ranked the episodic TV shows on HBO here, but I wanted to separate the mini series just because I watch so much content on that channel. I'm also going to include the few Docuseries I've watched here as well, but I'm going to leave out Vice since that morphed into its own channel and I feel like the lines are so blurred content wise. So here we go, hopefully I don't forget something like last time. The Pacific - This is one of the first mini series I remember watching on HBO and honestly I could not tell you a thing about it now. I remember thinking the actors were good, but it just didn't stick with me over time. I'll Be Gone in the Dark - This documentary personally was just very hard to watch. I feel so deeply for the victims and I'm glad they got the chance to tell their story, but it wasn't an easy viewing, which is why it doesn't rank hi...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is bookish movies. I feel like this theme could go a few ways, but I'm interpreting it as films where books play a huge role to central characters. Here's what I came up with. 1) Matilda Neglected Matilda's imagination comes to live when she reads. This is such a sweet movie and I've had a soft spot for it since I was a kid myself.  2) Little Women Jo March dreams of being a writer and I love how Greta Gerwig left Jo's romance subplot open to interpretation. Did it happen? Was that just Jo's imagination as she pitches her book? You can have it either way. 3) Stranger Than Fiction   Even if Will Ferrell is not your cup of tea, you absolutely have to see this film about a man who wakes up one day hearing narration, and it turns out he's the lead in an author notorious for killing her main character's new book. It's lovely and I still cannot get over the moment where Harold gives Ana, his baker...

In a month where Halloween was essentially cancelled, at least I had my TV. Here's what I watched. Lovecraft Country - This show is amazing but that finale...I'm gonna need Ruby to be OKAY next season. (If there's a next season?) and I also need an explanation on why they framed Dee like a Bond villain at the end of it. Either way, this show hit it out of the park. Jig-a-Bobo and Rewind 1921 were tremendous episodes.  The Sopranos - I finished! I must be dumb because I did not see Tony killing Christopher coming at all. I expected Paulie and Chris to get into it and be the end of each other. I really didn't care for the focus going on AJ during the last few episodes. He was such an awful character and it felt like a nuisance. Bobby's death hit me the hardest in the final season. I don't care for the ending, but I knew it was going to end that way before I started, so at least I was prepared. The Third Day - This show should've been called "Poor choic...