Rambling Film

Anthony McCoy ( Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is an artist stuck in a rut. He lives with his art dealer girlfriend, Brianna (Teyonah Parris) in a beautiful Chicago apartment, but when he hears the legend of Candyman, his inspiration takes him back to the former projects where the events of the 1992 film started. The 1992 Candyman is one of my favorite horror films because it legitimately scared me when I was younger. I had meant to re-watch it before seeing this, but didn't get the time. Thankfully this film recounts a lot of the bigger plot points. I was a bit surprised just how much the 92 film played into this one.  Director Nia DaCosta has a wonderful eye. The look and feel of this movie is creepy and gorgeous at the same time. Her direction is the best thing about this, even when the script is trying like hell to work against her. I loved the choice to tell some of the back story using shadow puppets, I loved all the shots in the art world, and the kills are brilliantly staged. One ...

This week's TV theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is exciting! Today we get to put our hopes out into existence with what books we'd like to see adapted into TV shows. Here are a few of mine that I think would make wonderful limited series. Come through, HBO!  1) Life Sentences - Laura Lippman is probably my favorite author. I love mysteries, and hers are so readable. One of her books was already adapted into a pretty good movie - Every Secret Thing - But it's Life Sentences that I think would make a good mini series. It's one of her most interesting books and there's plenty of amazing parts for actresses that I would love to see.  2) The Lovely Bones - Sure, the movie was ~fine~ but Peter Jackson was not the director for it. Let a female showrunner and writer take Lovely Bones to the small screen and give us what we should've had with the movie.  3) The Sundown Motel - This is a more recent read for me and it was a fun mystery/ghost story that I think ...

Stand up comedian Henry McHenry (Adam Driver) and opera singer Ann (Marion Cotillard) have a relationship that the tabloids love. Then they have a daughter together, the titular Annette and she has a very special gift. This has been one of my most anticipated movies of the year and when the Cannes reactions came out, I realized I had to set my expectations a little. Everyone said this movie was crazy. I just hoped it was fun crazy and not pretentious crazy. So what did it end up being? This is a true musical, very little is spoken, songs are made about the most mundane of things and some of the bigger ballads including child birth, Henry going down on Ann, and murder. That should tell you a lot about this movie. It's really *out there* and I love that about it. It's rare you see a film swing for fences like this and actually hit it out of the park. I loved it. I wanted good weird and that's what it provided. This is most definitely Driver's movie and he's incredible...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about treasure hunts. I had to laugh when thinking about this theme because it's so not my bag. My husband loves the National Treasure movies and I'm just solidly meh about them. I tried to think outside of the box a little, and not use franchises like that, Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean. Here's what I came up with. 1) The Da Vinci Code - I never read the book this was based on but I really loved the movie. I suppose I wouldn't had I actually gotten around to reading it, but until then I'll remain blissfully ignorant and enjoy myself with this. 2) Da 5 Bloods - While not my favorite Spike Lee joint, it fits the bill of today's theme. The film was about far more than just the gold.  3) King of California - This is a cute little film where Michael Douglas tries to convince Evan Rachel Wood there's gold buried under their local Costco. It's been a while since I've seen this, bu...

When we meet Bill (Matt Damon) we can tell immediately he's a bit "down on his luck." He was laid off from the oil fields and now does odd construction jobs, but can't find anything permanent. In between all of this, he jets off to Marseille, France to visit his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) who has been imprisoned there for five years for a crime she swears she didn't commit.  When Allison's lawyer refuses to chase a new lead, Bill takes it upon himself to find answers on his daughter's behalf, along with the help of a woman he meets along the way, Virginie (Camille Cotton) and her sweet daughter, Maya.  (Lilou Siauvaud) This is director Tom McCarthy's follow up to the spectacular Spotlight and while it doesn't reach that level, it's very engaging. Bill wasn't an easy character for me to get in to. In fact, I was annoyed with him almost immediately as perpetuated a lot of those "ugly American tourist" stereotypes. But even ...

  What I knew going in: Not much, other than seeing various gifs/photos Arthur (Christian Bale) is a journalist doing a piece on a glam rocker, Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and what happened to him after he faked his own death at a concert Arthur had attended. We also see Slade's life and his admiration for another rocker, Curt Wild. (Ewan Mcgregor) I don't often pick movies made in the 90's for my Blind Spot series, but I've been doing it a bit more lately because there are so many that I have missed, and this is one that gets brought up a lot. It's something I *should* have seen by now, but just haven't. And I have to say it was quite a bit different than I imagined. I always assumed Ewan McGregor had the focus in this film, because he's the actor that I always here people talk about when discussing this film, but he doesn't. Bale and Meyers have a lot more screen time than him, so I wasn't expecting that. I had actually forgotten Bale was in...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is one that I suggested - movies that confuse you. If I don't "get" a movie, I'll admit that. It happens, and that's okay. Here are three movies that come to mind immediately that left me flabbergasted at the end. 1) The Fountain - Admittedly, I keep a list of movies I'm going to give a second chance to, and this is on that list, but I was so confused when leaving this movie. It's one of my husband's favorites, but I left it just thinking it was dumb. I don't remember much about the plot now other than I kept asking myself "Why?" throughout, but this one was a no for me.  2) Madeline's Madeline - This film got a lot of indie buzz and when I watched it I thought it was an absolute mess. It was so disjointed and I just didn't get it. I was incredibly disappointed with this. 3) Tenet - I love Christopher Nolan, I'll admit it, but I still don't understand what he was ...

Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) once again uses her team of super villains to neutralize a threat. Led once again by a more chill Rick Flag (Joel Kimmaman) we see some familiar faces like the newly jailed again Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and some new ones in the form of Bloodsport (Idris Elba) a marksmen who is being blackmailed into the squad.  Five years after David Ayers released his embarrassment of a movie, James Gunn gives us The Suicide Squad we should've had all along. He dials up the gore, the ridiculous characters (Hello King Shark and Weasel) and there's plenty of one liners to make us laugh throughout.  Margot Robbie continues to be the star of the DCEU, but it's Idris Elba who I loved watching the most. He's not simply a Will Smith replacement from the first go around, his character was just fun to watch and I loved his report with Ratcatcher II (Daniela Melchior) her sweetness was much needed in a film full of characters who are unapologetic assholes. Po...

I did a little bit better this month! The weather is still gorgeous outside, which makes staying in and watching TV a bit harder but one of my favorite shows came back this month, and I also found another surprise mini series that I adored. Here's what I watched in the month of July Dr. Death - This is on Peacock, which I only have to watch Premiere League but when I saw trailers for this mini series it immediately grabbed my attention and it ended up being very good. It was so engaging as both a medical drama and a courtroom drama in the last few episodes. It's based on a true story which is absolutely baffling that this was able to go on for so long. I can't remember the last time I saw Joshua Jackson actually sink his teeth into something, and he gets a ton of opportunities to do that here. (He even weathers a very unfortunate fat suit for a few episodes) Christian Slater is always fun to watch, and he was very amusing here. I've been so over Alec Baldwin lately bec...

It's another Oscar edition over at Wandering Through The Shelves and this month we're talking about costumes and Makeup/Hairstyling. Makeup ended up being harder for me because I had already used a few of my favorites, so here's what I came up with.  Costume 1) Black Panther - Comic book movies are often overlooked in non special effects categories to seeing this film win for its absolutely stunning costumes was such a nice feeling.  2) Moulin Rouge! - The costumes in this are everything. Bright, sparkly and fun, just like the musical.  3) Some Like It Hot - I had to go with one black and white pick, and this one is hands down my favorite win. This movie is so fun. Makeup & Hairstyling 1) Mrs. Doubtfire - The makeup in this family classic still holds up. Of course I have a soft spot for this for nostalgia purposes but you can't deny that Robin William's Mrs. Doubtfire costume still looks great. 2) Star Trek - I unapologetically love the Star Trek reboots. I ...

Gawain (Dev Patel) is the King's nephew and knight in training when he accepts a challenge from The Green Knight. (Ralph Ineson) One year later, he's tasked with tracking that Knight down, and encounters much more on the way. This has been one of my most anticipated films of the year, and I purposely avoided reading the book so I could go in as blind as possible, now after leaving it, I wonder if that was the best choice. I had to sit with this a bit. I liked it, but I wanted to love it. Dev Patel is a fantastic actor and I'm 100% here for him getting leading roles, especially in projects like this. He doesn't have a ton of dialogue, but he's very easy to watch. Alicia Vikander also gives a wonderful performance in her two roles.  The standout of this film is the cinematography. It's absolutely gorgeous and it will be a travesty if it's not an Oscar nominee, let alone winner. I loved how everything looked. It was so eerily beautiful.  Let's talk about th...