Rambling Film

  It's another TV theme over at Wandering Through The Shelves and this week we're talking about home/lifestyle shows! When I moved to my current city 10 years ago, I didn't know many people. I moved in the dead of winter, I worked from home and had a new baby so I ended up spending a lot of time with HGTV. Today is a good week to revisit the shows I constantly consumed back then. 1) House Hunters - Yes, I know this show is staged, but I don't care. I love looking at houses. I also love the memes that come from this show and some of the crazy budgets. One of my favorite Youtube channels, Quality Culture just did a video on House Hunters and I agree with her 100%. 2) The Property Brothers - Ahh, those twins. They're charismatic and now have about 10 other shows besides this one. I liked this one because they actually talked about contingencies which is something my 3rd pick NEVER did. I always wonder about what the rest of the house looked liked though. They redid t...

Years after their successful TV show, Chip (John Mulaney) is selling insurance and Dale (Andy Samberg) had 3D surgery and is still trying to keep his dream alive at cons. When their friend Monterey Jack (Eric Bana) is kidnapped, they work with policewoman Ellie (KiKi Lane) to crack the case Rescue Rangers style. This wasn't even on my radar until one of my favorite podcasts, Double Toasted reviewed it. Since it's streaming for free on Disney +, it was an easy family movie night for us. I was wary, especially after films like Space Jam 2 ended up being an hour and a half of "remember this thing you liked!" but Rescue Rangers managed to have some serious laughs in there. Yes, there are a lot of Easter Eggs in there, but thankfully the film doesn't stop to look at most of them. They have a solid plot and stick too it. The only downside with it being on streaming, is you're probably going to pause and rewind a lot to see something again. There's a lot of dumb ...

Harper (Jessie Buckley) heads on a solo trip to the English country side after her husband's (Paapa Essiedu) death. The caretaker of the property she's staying at, Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear) seems a bit off, but it doesn't bother Harper at first. Now she's suddenly seeing many different men, all with the same face and her vacation doesn't go how she planned. I'm a huge fan of director Alex Garland's work, and when I saw the trailer I was immediately sold. Well, even the mighty must fall at some point, because this was Garland going full Von Trier and I am never heard for that. This feeling is familiar. I felt the same way when I watched Duncan Jones' Mute, a movie I have not thought about since watching it until I sat with my disappointment after watching this. Being so excited for something from a filmmaker you love, only to watch it bomb is the worst. Garland doesn't trust his audience to understand his symbolism. He has to flat out explain it at fir...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is mazes! The Maze Runner came to mind immediately but I barely remember that movie, so here are three films that stuck with me a little better. 1) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - There's a lot this film gets wrong compared to the book, but the maze at the end, and the graveyard scene are amazing and elevate this so much. 2) Pan's Labyrinth - Ofiela is a young girl in Spain pulled into a mysterious labyrinth. I really want to re-watch this. It's one of my favorite foreign films.  3) Alice in Wonderland - Alice heads through a maze to get to the Queen of Hearts. I've always loved this weird story. I still re-read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from time to time.

I think IMDb's description sums it up well: "The Monoliths push humanity to reach for the stars; after their discovery in Africa generations ago, the mysterious objects lead mankind on an awesome journey to Jupiter, with the help of H.A.L. 9000: the world's greatest supercomputer." Oh boy... It's not often I don't write my own summaries of movies but I felt it was important to remind myself of the official one while writing my thoughts. It is way too easy to forget what this movie is about while you're watching it. Honestly, I think the best thing 2001: A Space Odyssey has done for cinema is be an inspiration to better sci fi writers. It's harsh, I know. I've heard many a fan of this film state you need to see it multiple times to get its deeper meaning, but I'm sure there's a better movie out there for me to spend another 3 hours on. It's not that I hated this. I just wanted so badly to like it, and I found it dull and pretentious. Th...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is a curious one. We're looking for actors who are in the same family in real life, PLAYING families in a movie. It's like a dream within a dream. I had fun thinking of this one, my only regret is already using Donnie Darko. Here's what I came up with. 1) The Good Son - Macaulay Culkin plays the son from hell, but did you know his real life sister Quinn played his younger sister in this film? I have a soft spot for this movie. It's so dumb, but little Elijah Wood is always a joy to watch.  2) White Chicks - The Waynes brothers also play brothers in my favorite "so bad it's good" movie of all time. 3) Paper Moon - Ryan and Tatum O'Neil play father and daughter in this film that wrongly one Tatum an Oscar in the supporting category even though she was a co-lead. That's my main take away from this film. I didn't love it. 

Or rather, I want to talk about her. She's my favorite Avenger after all. I'm used to defending my fav. I want her to succeed. She's a highly powerful witch that has suffered great loses but can use her tremendous power to help now, right? Well, not according to Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Spoilers ahead. I'm writing this from an MCU perspective. Wanda has a long comic history that is occasionally translated to the films, more so now than in previous years. I've noticed there is sometimes a big divide between comic and movie fans. Those introduced through the films want Wanda to be a hero, as do a sizeable amount of comic fans. There's plenty out there that hate House of M for what it did to Wanda. But others want her to embrace her dark side and "go crazy." I'm firmly in the hero camp. That's what this post is about. I think Wanda in the MCU works better as a hero , and I'm baffled at the way the Multiverse of Madness was...

Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is still dealing with the aftermath of opening the multiverse. When young America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) comes into our universe with monsters hot on her tail, Strange along with Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong) have to help her along with keeping the world in order. Full disclosure, I have a longer post set to come up tomorrow specifically on how this movie handles Wanda Maximoff. That's going to have a fair amount of spoilers about how her arc ends, but this review will remain spoiler free. My biggest takeaway from this is that I hope Michael Waldron never writes these characters again. He was fine as a writer in Loki but the dialogue and characterizations here borderline on being awful at times. This is a film that truly only works because of its actors and the director's signature style. If you like how Raimi shoots his films, you'll love this. His weird camerawork is back and there's a scene he does with piano notes that ...

After a brief flirtation with Spring, we're back to being winter here in the upper Midwest so that meant for more time indoors. Here's what I watched on the small scene last month. The Dropout - I finished up this limited series. I was hoping the final episode would go a little bit more into her trial, but I suppose they completed filming before all of that happened. Overall, this was a lot better than I expected, and I'm glad I watched it. Tokyo Vice - If there's a show that caught me by surprise, it's HBO Max's Tokyo Vice. I kept getting ads for it on youtube. Ansel Elgort gave me pause, because I really don't care for him as an actor, but I'm glad I gave this a shot because I really liked it. I hope it gets a second season because the finale left a LOT of cliffhangers. It was also the weakest episode because of course one of our main characters had to do a Very Dumb Thing™ to add drama. That was my biggest complaint. Moon Knight - I think I'm in...

I've been excited for this week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves because we get to talk about fellow movie fans IN movies! The following picks came pretty quickly to me, and are easily my favorite of the topic. Here's what I came up with 1) The Dreamers - This might be a bit risque for some, but it's a film I think about and have seen often. Our protagonist Matthew has a line in the film where he says he sits in the front row at movie theaters because he wants to receive the images first, while they're fresh that I really love.  2) Cinema Paradiso - I was very late to this one. It was on my Blind Spot lists a few years ago and I think the final scene is an absolute masterpiece. It's one the next pick clearly took some inspiration from as well. 3) Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl - Our main characters make a movie for a dying classmate, and of course I cried like a baby at the end when they show it to her. 

We first meet Julie (Renate Reinsve) in university, jumping from major to major. But our main story starts on the cusp of her 30th birthday as we follow her relationship with her older boyfriend Aksel (Anders Danielson Lie) and her longing to find a concrete place in the world. With a title like this I expected Julie to be somewhat insufferable. After all, she's the worst person in the world, right? Wrong. There's no denying Julie is extremely flaky. In fact, it's something Aksel actually likes about her. But I never wanted to reach through my screen and shake her out of a decision. In fact, I related to Julie quite a bit. Especially now that I've also hit 30. I think (hope) it's natural to get to that age and wonder if you made the right career choice or to reflect on where you thought you'd be at this age. It's nice to see that internal crisis play out without being a dramatic mess.  Renate is outstanding. She's an easy lead to follow and she makes Jul...