Rambling Film

Censor takes place in  1980's England during its peak video nasty era. Enid ( Niamh Algar) is a film censor who takes her job very seriously. She ends up in a precarious position at work, and that added stress is topped off when she views a particularly gory movie that is eerily similar to her own sister's disappearance when they were children. Now she had to learn more. This film is an expanded version of director  Prano Bailey-Bond's 2015 short Nasty and I'm always here for female directed horror. Under the male gaze, I can only imagine the things we'd see Enid see while she's censoring films. I really liked the story she tells her. At a brisk 84 minutes, the film doesn't have time to drag, even though some of those minutes could've been a spent a little better. Algar is a great lead. This is the first film I've seen her in and I hope to see more. Enid on the surface is a typical straight laced woman but the tragedy in her past still resonates w...

  How have we already reached the final Halloween theme from the month? Wandering Through The Shelves  always finishes her months with TV picks, so our final spooky pick is TV shows centered around horror. This category is hard not to reuse old picks because I've only watched so many TV shows about horror, but thankfully this past month I actually watched three new shows that all fall into this category. 1) What We Do in the Shadows -   About the daily lives of a group of vampires in Staten Island. I have no idea why it took me so long to get into this FX show but I love it. I prefer it to the movie version and every single episode makes me laugh my ass off. The episodes stream next day on Hulu if you don't have cable, and I highly recommend it. 2) Squid Game - A group of people in debt are given the chance to play children's games to win a large sum of money, only losing will mean sudden death. Like everyone else on the internet, this Netflix series pulled me in, but th...

Paul Atredies (Timothee Chalamet) is the son of the powerful Duke (Oscar Isaac) who has just been given stewardship over the desert planet of Arrakis. There, one of the most important substances in the universe, "spice" is mined. Paul has been having dreams about this planet, mainly about a young woman, Chani. (Zendaya) He's unaware of what his destiny awaits. I'm somewhat of a Dune noob. I never read the books, nor did I see David Lynch's effort before this. I did see the documentary Jodoworsky's Dune , which I hated. I didn't expect to ever be looking forward to another Dune adaptation until they attached one of my favorite directors,  Denis Villeneuve. So I can only speak for myself, someone without a lot of knowledge of the source material, but I absolutely loved this. I wanted to see Dune on the big screen, so I went to the theater instead of watching it for the first time on HBO Max. This is the first Max release that I actually did that for, and I...

  What I knew going in: The basic plot Seymour (Rick Moranis) is a loney flower shop worker who crushes on his colleague Audrey (Ellen Greene) while they both dream of leaving Skid Row. Seymour comes across a strange and unusual plant and comes to find out that it lives off blood. Yes, I had to make a quick change to my Blind Spot list because once again, I cannot find Suddenly, Last Summer anywhere. This was a film that I have always meant to see as I love musicals, but somehow missed. Since it was available on HBO Max, I went for it, and I am so glad I did. I loved this! It's so much fun, and I've watched it twice this week already. I was very familiar with the stage show, and I know the movie has a different ending. (I also watched the original ending on youtube, which I liked. My son thinks the movie ending is better) I loved how catchy the songs were, the Greek Chorus was wonderful and I loved how over the top and ridiculous everyone was. Plus, a plant tells Rick Moranis ...

This week's Halloween Theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is horror comedy! I tend to enjoy these films because camp and horror go so well together. There's a lot to choose from, but here's what I came up with. 1) Deathgasm - This little film from New Zealand about a group of kids in a heavy metal band who summon a demon is as ridiculous as the title sounds.  2) Zombieland - At this point, Zombieland is a classic. The rules Columbus talks about are still pretty widely quoted today. I love this movie.  3) Warm Bodies - This was one that I watched solely for Teresa Palmer and ended up really enjoying. Who knew a zombie romance could be so funny? 

When Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer) is attacked by Jacques Le Gris, (Adam Driver) her husband Jean (Matt Damon) challenges him to a trial by combat. The film is told from all three of these characters' perspectives. I have to admit, I've been going back and forth about this movie. Driver is one of my favorite actors right now, so I wanted to see it for him, then I heard how they handled the rape scene and that gave me pause. Ultimately I decided to go for it and I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would, but it's still not without its faults. The choice to show three different point of views was an interesting one. I was afraid it would go the route Vantage Point did and be repetitive and annoying, but thankfully it wasn't. The overlap is different enough to not grate your nerves, except for one scene; the rape. If you've been around here you probably know I have a hard time watching scenes of sexual assault. As a SA survivor myself, it's just so...

Picking up right where the last film left off, Laurie, (Jamie Lee Curtis) Karen (Judy Greer) and Addyson (Andi Matichek) are being rushed to the hospital to tend to Laurie's injuries. Meanwhile, Michael is still alive, slaughters what appears to be the entire Haddonfield fire department, and he's on his merry way to do more murders. But while Laurie is recovering, the now grown Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) is ready to lead a mob to kill him for good. While I've been a fan of this franchise I didn't think it needed another movie so when the last one came out, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it and how well I thought it handled Laurie's PTSD. Now after watching this, it really made me realize just how much this franchise depends on Laurie. You watch it for gory kills by Michael Myers, sure. But Laurie is the glue that holds this together and despite what the trailers make you believe, she's not the main focus of this movie. In a way, Tommy i...

Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) are farmers in rural Iceland when one of their sheep gives birth to something very special.  The less you know about Lamb , the more it will work for you. The internet went pretty wild when A24 first released this trailer over the summer. To be fair, the trailer gives us the It Comes At Night treatment, where it makes the film seem like a horror film when in fact, it's just a drama basked in uneasiness. There is the feeling of dread as you're watching this, because you this movie isn't going to let this happy little family stay that way. We spend a lot of time just watching Maria and Ingmar do their day to day before the titular lamb is even born. If I'm honest the film could've shaved about 10-15 minutes off of its run time but the cinematography is gorgeous so at least there's a lot of beauty in this mundane life we've been dropped into. It's a quiet film and the ending is going to make or break i...

  This week's Halloween theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is movies about folk or urban legends. There's plenty of those, and the only rule I set for myself was not to use Urban Legend, because that's too easy. Here's what I came up with. 1) Candyman (1992)- Say his name 5 times.. This is still one of my favorite horror movies, and I have an even bigger appreciation for it after how Nia DaCosta's 2021 remake frames it in retrospect. It made me afraid of parking garages and park bathrooms my entire childhood. 2) When A Stranger Calls (2006) - Yes, I'm going with the remake. I like Camilla Belle and I wish she had a better career. But what better choice than "the call is coming from inside the house!" to use for Urban Legend week. 3) The Ring - You die 7 days after watching the video tape. I still think this is the best PG-13 horror film out there. It holds up even though I've seen this 100 times.

Why yes, this is a post I normally write in January, but I had told myself I hadn't read enough books last year to justify it. Then when I started counting up what I've gotten through this year, I realized I didn't do as badly as I thought. So here's my belated quick reviews. Selznick's Folly - This is technically a script, but it fits in here. I read this because of Be Kind Rewind's wonderful youtube channel on actresses in Classic film. Unlike the books, I'm not going to give this a grade because it's not exactly complete, but it was an interesting read. Attack on Titan by  Hajime Isayama  - You may or may not remember me raving about this manga in the past, then it decided to end on the worst note possible. One of my biggest annoyances was how Mikasa, the strongest female character in the entire series simped over Eren the entire series. It was an annoying unrequited love that had purpose and potential for Mikasa to overcome, but then she never does....

We've made it to October which means we're on for another Halloween month at Wandering Through The Shelves! This week we're talking about horror films that take place in schools. Here's what I came up with.  1) Jennifer's Body - This movie is having a bit of a resurgence. Once a flop, now rightly a cult classic. This movie is just fun. 2) Spontaneous - While not a conventional horror movie, there's enough blood in this to make me count it. This movie is about kids who start spontaneously combusting in school, and it's exactly as you imagine it.  3) The Faculty - One of my favorites from my childhood. I need to re-watch this film about creepy teachers again.

Eddie (Tom Hardy) is trying to get his career back on track with Venom living inside him when a convicted serial killer, Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) insists he be the one to interview him before he is executed. When Kasady gets a taste of the symbiote within Eddie, he comes the foil to Venom; Carnage. The first Venom is a film I'd classify as "so bad, it's funny" so that's exactly where my expectations were for this one. Throw in the very excitable director, Andy Serkis, and I had hopes this would be both dumb and fun. And it is! There's plenty about this film that works, Eddie and Venom are a funny duo, there's a great dick joke that lands perfectly. Harrelson plays Carnage like an over the top weirdo at a poetry slam, Michelle Williams clearly still has someone pointing a gun at her off screen because she is doing the bare minimum here. That's the fun and dumb I was looking for. At a brisk 90 minutes, we don't have time to drag, which is nice...

A prequel to HBO's legendary show, The Sporanos, this time we're following the infamous Dickie Moltisanti, (Alessandro Nivola) Christopher's father and a character who died long before we meet the Tony Soprano we know. We the younger versions of plenty of familiar names, and most of all Dickie's issues with another criminal, Harold (Leslie Odom Jr.) I watched The Sopranos for the first time during lockdown, so a lot of the story was fresh in my mind. I was pumped for this. While some aspects of that show did not age well at all, Tony Soprano is such a compelling character and I was happy to see his quasi-origin. Even better, HBO got the late James Gandolfini's son Michael to play Tony in this. He's not a seasoned actor, but just seeing his face which looks so much like his father's made me happy. Unfortunately, this prequel has too many issues to make me love it overall. It doesn't do anything to ruin the series it builds off of, it's just very under...

Well I certainly made up for my slower months in September. I feel like I'm watching SO much stuff on TV right now. It's almost overwhelming, but I've got quite the variety to talk about this time, so here's what been happening on the small screen in House Rambling Film. Ted Lasso - Fresh off their multiple Emmy wins, season 2 continues to be just as great. These last couple of episodes have been quite a bit more emotional and heavy than their usual, but they still throw some great laughs in there. Jason Sudeikis is just phenomenal in this. God, what was Olivia Wilde thinking leaving this dude? Mr. Corman - I'm TRYING hard to love this show because of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but his character is just...not great. That's a shame because the concept and whimsy is really different than anything else on TV right now, and I like the risk he takes, but Josh needs to get out of this rut. The newest episode finally caught up with COVID-19 times, and honestly I'm jus...