Rambling Film

  This week's TV theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about book to show adaptations. In the past I've tried to go with adaptations where I read the source material, but this week I decided to pick three shows where I've never touched the book(s) they are based on.  1) His Dark Materials - I had never even heard of this series of books until the Golden Compass was made into a movie and church going folk freaked out. I never bothered with any of that, but the HBO show had a great cast so I gave it a watch and I'm glad I did. I especially loved the second season and am very invested. Sometimes I have a bit of trouble following the "politics" of the show, which likely makes sense to book readers, but I still enjoy it.  2) The Queen's Gambit - I don't think I know a single person that didn't watch this on Netflix. Anya Taylor-Joy was wonderful and the costumes are everything. I may or may not have bought a dress specifically because it reminde...

Guy and Prisca (Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps) take their young children on an island vacation to get a quick reprieve from some family issues. When the helpful hotel staff directs them to a "secret beach" with a few other guests. They soon realize that they cannot leave, and that they're rapidly aging. I'm fairly sure when I reviewed Glass I said I was going to quit giving director M. Night Shaymalan chances, but there I was with a babysitter booked thinking The Green Knight came out a week ahead of time. Old was what we ended up with. Thankfully expectations were low.  Truth be told, the concept of Old isn't bad. The plot itself is actually very interesting and I was never bored, but god these characters have NO depth. I can't speak to this film's source material but Shaymalan seems to have put zero thought into them aside from writing an outline. The trophy wife is vain, the doctor is a dick, a child literally asks people what their occupations...

  What I knew going in: The basic premise and all the inspirations that came after. When a man overhears a group of bandits saying they're going to sack a small farming town after harvest, the townspeople hire samurai to protect them. I'm not sure if there's a film on my Blind Spot lists I've put off like Seven Samurai . 3 and half hours of this is a COM.IT.MENT. I ended up having to watch this over the course of a few days but I'm very glad I finally did. I really ended up loving this. The run time was always what put me off but in the end, I'm glad it was long. I loved that we really got to see the day to day of the townspeople and how the samurai come together and get to know each other. Most movies would cram all of this into a musical montage, but seeing it all play out was nice. I can definitely see where a lot of movies take inspiration from this, which is one of my favorite parts of watching these older films. If I had any issues with it, it's that ...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about summer break! Summer is halfway over here already and it feels like it's gone by so fast. But here are a few films I enjoy that give you that forever summer mood. 1) Adventureland - I re-watched this recently and I forgot how much chemistry Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart have together. This is a fun, nostalgic film to watch for anyone that's spent their summers visiting an amusement park or a fair. 2) My Girl - Full disclosure, I have never been able to watch this film without crying at the end, but I loved it growing up. I felt like I could relate to Vada and it was such a sweet story of first love. 3) Kings of Summer - This is a movie that surprised me. At first glance a movie about 3 teenage boys who decide to build a house in the woods didn't appeal to me, but I listened to my fellow blogger's reviews and gave it a go. I ended up really enjoying it! 

When Lebron James takes his son, Dom (Cedric Joe) to a sales pitch meeting, they're both sucked into a computer by a rogue algorithm (Don Cheadle) and are forced to play basketball against each other to escape.  It's sort of impossible for me to objectively review this. The original Space Jam came out when I was 9, so of course I loved it. I've seen it several times since and while I can admit it's kind of stupid, the nostalgia factor never goes away. So on principle, I was never going to like this. But now that I have a 9 year old of my own who really wanted to see this, I was open to it. I'm not above laughing at dumb things. And dumb this movie is. At least the first Space Jam was mostly about basketball, this is more about being a glorified WB sizzle reel. The big conflict between Lebron and Dom is that Dom would rather spend his days creating video games than play basketball like his dad, and it's his video came they play. Full of powerups and random charac...

Sam (Karen Gillan) is a second generation assassin who makes a rogue choice in saving young Emily (Chloe Coleman) and finds herself running from the very people who hired her.  I'm almost embarassed to admit at this point that I didn't get into the John Wick films. The first didn't hold my attention so I never bothered with the others, and this film has essentially been marketed as the "Female John Wick." But I ended up having a lot of fun with this. There are plenty of badass women assassin movies out there but I love that this one chose to feature all their leads above the age of 30. Since I'm in my 30's now as well, that's very appealing to me and I loved the action. It was fun, over the top, and gory and I loved the settings they chose to showcase it. (A bowling alley, a library, etc.) While there isn't a ton of "showy" moments for acting, Gillan was great and I loved Lena Heady, Carla Gugino, Angela Bassett and Michelle Yeoh as wel...

Curt (Don Cheadle) is a criminal fresh out of prison who is given a "babysitting" job by Jones. (Brenden Fraser) He's working with two men he's never met before. Russo (Benicio Del Toro) and Charley (Kieran Culkin) but what seems to be an easy job turns into so much more.  This film has a great cast. So many wonderful actors show up, even though some of it is for a short amount of time. But my god, the double crossing in this movie was excessive. It's like that scene in episode 5 with Loki when all the variants start betraying each other. It's meant to keep us on our toes but it just got irritating after a while.  The actors are what keep this film going. Cheadle and Del Toro area always fun to watch. David Harbour was the standout for me. Watching him punch an old guy in the face while crying and apologizing was the highlight of the entire movie. This is very much a streaming movie. It's currently available on HBO Max and in theaters, and I'm glad I h...

  Films not in the English language is always one of my favorite themes from Wandering Through The Shelves . I always end up with a larger watch list after the fact. As always, a rule for myself is to try not to use ones I have in the past. This time, I ended up with a very depressing theme within a theme. Losing a child in various ways. 1) The Broken Circle Breakdown - From Belgium, this story is about a couple who fall in love despite being opposites. They eventually have a child who is diagnosed with a terminal illness and this movie is about how it affects them. I really liked this movie, despite the weird rant the main character goes on towards the end that brings the film to a screeching halt.  2) Loveless - From Russia, a young boy overhears his parents talking about his future in the midst of their divorce. Neither want him, so he runs away. Now the parents must find him. I would never watch this film again but good lord does it live rent free in my head. This fi...

  The Emmy nominations are finally upon us, and they're actually...pretty good? Of course there are some awful snubs but a lot of my favorite shows like Ted Lasso, Wandavision, The Crown, and The Mandalorian got 20+ nominations. Boy do I have THOUGHTS!  Outstanding Drama Series “The Boys”  “Bridgerton”  “The Crown”  “The Handmaid’s Tale”  “Lovecraft Country”  “The Mandalorian”  “Pose”  “This Is Us”  I'm glad the Emmys didn't snub Lovecraft Country like others did. The Boys made me laugh. I know a lot of people love that show but outside of Karl Urban I just could not get into it. Emmys are still holding onto This Is Us for dear life.  Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Uzo Aduba, “In Treatment” Olivia Colman, “The Crown” Emma Corrin, “The Crown” Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale” MJ Rodriguez, “Pose” Jurnee Smollett, “Lovecraft Country” MJ Rodriguez is my favorite nominee here. She's been consistently snubbed for her work...

On the run after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Natasha's (Scarlett Johansson) plans of laying low are interrupted when her sister from a past life, Yelena (Florence Pugh) gets her involved in a sinister plot involving the famed Red Room.  My family and I went to the theater again together for the first time since The Rise of Skywalker and boy did it feel great to see the Marvel logo on the big screen again. I have so many feelings about this movie.  I find myself at an awkward crossroads with Natasha. I love her, I still think her dying in Endgame was a big mistake, and that gives this film an air of too little too late, but Scarlett Johansson as an actress has proven so disappointing lately with her defense of Woody Allen among other things. I'm so invested in Natasha as a character it's mostly easy to look past, but it's never far from my mind. I couldn't help but feel bitter leaving this, even though I enjoyed the first half immensely. The second h...

Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar Rahin) is arrested and held in Guantanamo Bay prison for years without being charged. A couple Albuquerque lawyers, Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley) attempt to fight for his freedom, while prosecutor Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch) will do everything he can to prevent that. This film wasn't on my radar at all until the Gloden Globe nominations came out last year. And even though this was giving me Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker vibes, I went against that thinking this would be more of a courtroom drama. *Narrator* It wasn't. There was a lot of potential in this story, but it's all thrown out for some torture flashbacks. I left this film feeling like I didn't even learn much about Slahi himself. They breeze by everything like they want to get to the hard stuff. Director Kevin Macdonald's features just keep going down hill from the excellent Last King of Scotland . I get he has interest in the mo...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is films about Female Athletes. Not going to lie, this is thrown together because I accidentally posted next week's theme this morning. So here's what I very quickly came up with. 1) Bring It On - The essential early 2000's cheerleading movie. I still have a soft spot for this. For me personally at the time, it made Cheerleading look interesting, which is something I didn't think possible for me.  2) Love & Basketball - Sanaa Latham's part of film certainly qualifies here. I still love this. It's one of the best teen dramas out there. 3) Brittany Runs a Marathon - I don't care if Brittany isn't a typical athlete, it takes A LOT of athleticism to run a marathon. I think Gillian Jacobs is great in this. It's a very sweet little film.  

Zola (Taylour Paige) is a part time waitress/part time dancer in Michigan who meets a woman named Stefani (Riley Keough) at work and is soon talked into a cross country trip to Florida under the pretense of dancing. Of course, there's more. I feel like anyone with a Twitter account has probably run across the infamous set of 2015 tweets that this film is based off of. I saw them too, around the time the rights were purchased to make a film. I didn't go back to re-read the story before watching this, but I did notice some difference. Zola , much like the tweets that came before it, is a mess. A fun, entertaining, and occasionally highly uncomfortable a mess. I was surprised how heavily this film leaned into its Twitter cred so to speak. I expected a "based on a true story" title card at the beginning and for us to move on, but it's woven into the entire story. I didn't realize before watching that the last feature director Janicza Bravo did was one I absolutely...

This month was tough. I had a lot personal things going on, so I left my DVR and streaming lists collect my TV shows while I dealt with that. Eventually I'll catch up with Pose and The Bad Batch. Maybe I'll start Kevin Can F--- Himself, but I didn't watch a ton this month. The Handmaid's Tale - I finished this in 3 days. I'm torn how I feel on this over all. I should split it up into pro's and cons. Spoilers, obviously PROs 1) Fred got what he deserved. That was satisfying. 2) June finally made it to Canada, and her testimony at Fred's trial was one of the best scenes of the season.  3) Commander Lawrence still had something to do. He's probably the most intriguing character on the show right now. I'd love to see some flashbacks from his life prior to Gilead.  4) I missed seeing June and Moira together, so their scenes were nice. 5) This show does a fabulous job of making you love both June and Luke and June and Nick. Both sets of couples have so ma...

  It's the first TMP of the month and you know what that means - It's Oscar edition! This week we're talking about two categories. Cinematography and Visual Effects. Honestly, has there been an Oscar category I've bitched about more on this blog than Visual Effects? Nothing I ever want to win does. I'm constantly mad about it, but I'll do my best to find 3 winners that I actually like. Cinematography is easier, I normally love that category. My biggest hurdle was the fact that I picked some of the movies I would've talked about here already. Here's what I came up with. The first three for Cinematography, the last three for visual effects. 1) Pan's Labyrinth - I love that this movie was nominated for so many Oscars, but I especially love that it won this. It was so beautiful and frightening. 2) There Will Be Blood - I recently re-watched this again and I can't help but admire just how expertly this was shot. 3) American Beauty - I still love thi...