Rambling Film

  What I knew going in: The premise. Karin (Harriet Andersson) is recently released from a mental hospital and goes on vacation with her husband, Martin (Max von Sydow) to visit her father and brother (Gunnar Bjornstrand and Lars Passgard) in their remote cabin. She slowly starts to unravel. I had to bring my boy Ingmar Bergman back to the Blind Spot series. Yes, he's my boy now that this ongoing series is what is directly responsible for introducing myself to his work. I've been wanting to see this one for a while considering how much I love von Sydow's work with Bergman, but it's Andersson who is the true star here. Frankly, all of the men in Karin's life kind of suck. Her husband talks to her like she's a child while simultaneously trying to have sex with her, which dials the ick factor up to eleven. Her dad is pretty self centered. There's nothing wrong with Minus, her brother but this poor kid doesn't have it easy either. It's devastating in a w...

Ladybug (Brat Pitt) is bestowed with that unfortunate code name as he's about to do what he thinks will be a simple "snatch and go" job aboard Japan's bullet train. He soon realizes he's not the only one after that bounty. I can't said I had much of an opinion on Bullet Train . The trailers looked fun enough, and it's full of actors I enjoy, but it never did make my "must see" list. Clearly I'm a clown because this movie was awesome. Know what you're in for. It's goofy as hell, occasionally gory, and feels an awful lot like a Guy Richie movie at times. I had so much fun watching it. Most of that is due to Pitt and Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry, who play a pair of British assassins also aboard the bullet train. Their banter is absolutely hilarious and I would watch hours upon hours of their adventures. I wasn't expecting to laugh at this nearly as much as I did. I daresay I had about as much fun with this as I did Top ...

This week's theme from Wandering Through the Shelves is a cultural difference that I will never be able to wrap my head around: boarding school. I can't image sending my kid away for school and seeing them at the end of each day. I know it's normal, I just couldn't do it. When it comes to this theme, absolutely NOTHING came to my mind. Several movies did, but not TV shows. It took me a while, but I managed to string something together. 1) The Facts of Life - This was a show that was occasionally on Nick and Nite that I'd watch. I remember liking it, but at this point I think I remember the theme song more than I do the actual episodes.  2) Umbrella Academy - I gave up watching this after a few episodes, but if I recall the kids were at a boarding school/home school type situation a la X-Men.  3) Wolfboy and the Everything Factory - This is a cute show on Apple TV. Wolfboy gets sent to a boarding school before he finds himself in the Everything Factory. 

Maurice and Katia Krafft were two French volcanologists who met by chance and fell in love. They shared a mutual love for volcanos and spent the rest of their lives getting as close as possible to them. Their research has informed several scientists after them, and even helped aid countries with evacuation plans. Narrated by Miranda July, this film is told entirely through their vast collection of archived footage. Necessary backstory: My 10 year old son wants to be a volcanologist when he grows up. He's watched every nature documentary on streaming and read every book our local library has on volcanos. When this film premiered at Sundance, I mentioned the Kraffts' names and he immediately relayed information about their untimely deaths. I knew I had to put this on my watch list, and lucky us, our theater got this film. You know that Once Upon A Time in Hollywood meme of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV? That was my kid every time they mentioned the name of a volcano he rec...

A sequel to 2009's Orphan, we get the origin story of a dwarf woman (Isabelle Fuhrman) turned child pretender Esther before she landed with the family we knew. Here, she escapes from an asylum and poses as the missing daughter of a wealthy New England family. Murders ensue.  You have to admire the filmmaker's audacity in using the same actress THIRTEEN YEARS after she played a 12 year old. Gone are her chubby cheeks from the original, and in is a mature face that the filmmakers just ask us to pretend is 10. Sure, why not. It's a Paramount Plus release after all. I was a fan of the original, and honestly I'm a big fan of this one too. Without going into spoiler territory, this film has a twist that is completely bonkers and made the film so much more fun to watch. It also helped me come to terms with Isabelle's casting. It makes sense. I know that sounds weird, but watch it and you will see. So is this for you? If you're a fan of the original and have access to P...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is Dark Academia. I'm not going to lie, I had to Google that. It's not a subculture of film I've heard mentioned very often. After educating myself quickly, here's what I came up with. 1) Kill Your Darlings - This movie is a fictional take on the poets of the beat generation. I love it. There are so many wonderful actors in this and If I had my way, I'd be throwing awards at everyone in this left and right.  2) Jane Eyre (2011) - When I read the description of "Dark Academia" I thought of this first, but I wasn't sure if it exactly qualified. Since Jane is a governess, I decided to go for it.  3) Cracks - So I hated this movie, but I think it fits. It's about an elite boarding school in the 40's and it wastes the talents of Juno Temple and Eva Green. 

Marcel (Jenny Slate) is a shell that talks. He has one googly eye and of course, his shoes on. He once lived in a home with a huge family of shells, but after the humans who owned the house got in a fight, all the other shells minus Marcel and his Nana Connie (Isabella Rossellini) where taken away. Now a documentary film maker Dean (director Dean Fleischer-Camp) begins to film Marcel, and he turns into a sensation. I knew this film was based off a previous work, but I haven't seen the short films that both Fleischer-Camp and Slate wrote together. I went to this based on the adorable trailer and it was exactly what I hoped it would be. Heartfelt and pure. Slate has a beautiful voice and I loved listening to her as Marcel. She brought so much character to him and I thought shooting this like a documentary was clever. It touches briefly on trending culture. Marcel initially wants help finding his family, but people are more concerned with posting their photos in front of his house ins...

Danni (Zoey Deutch) is a photo editor at a New York magazine, and she is desperate for attention at any cost. She's rude, tone-deaf, fake. The movie even has a disclaimer of an "unlikable female protagonist" and she lives up to it. When she decides to fake a trip to Paris on her Instagram, she ends up taking it a step further by faking to be a survivor of a violent incident that happens there.  I can admit this movie isn't perfect, but it was very fun to watch. It's extremely on the nose, logic be damned. Danni sucks, but she was fascinating to follow. Watching her go lower and lower in her depravity was never annoying and Deutch was so believable. Then there's Dylan O'Brien playing a Pete Davidson type. It was the icing on the amusing cake. What I appreciated about this was it isn't trying to be a commentary about Zillenials (which is what Danni calls herself and where director Quinn Shephard falls as well) as a whole. It's about a specific type o...

  *We’re still on an image break here, I’m sorry it’s ugly* This week’s theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is a bit long. It was written as “Aging leading men playing younger, against younger actresses.” That’s very specific and I’m going to try my best to find dudes playing way younger than they’re supposed to be. The first film that came to mind was The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, because Casey Affleck is laughably supposed to be 19 in it, but he has no leading lady to qualify. So here’s what I came up with. 1) Save The Last Dance - I loved this when I was a teenager, but the internet absolutely clowns on it now and I’m afraid to re-watch. Still, Sean Patrick Thomas was 30 when this movie came out, and he was playing a high schooler against Julia Stiles who was legitimately 18-19 when the film was made. 2) Ferri Bueller’s Day Off - Alan Ruck was a whopping 30 playing a high schooler. Sure Broderick was in his 20’s but the women in this movie we...

*We’re almost done with the image break!* July really flew by, didn’t it? I had a decent amount of things I watched on the small screen and will finish up in August. Have you seen any of these? What did you think? Stranger Things - The last two episodes dropped at the beginning of the month, and despite me not *loving* this season, I binged all 4 hours of those two episodes back to back starting at 10:00pm. It was very engaging, I couldn’t help it. Going into their final season next year will certainly be interesting considering where they left of. Hopefully there’s not as long of a wait between seasons like there was this last time. I hope the Duffers take the criticisms this season got to heart like they have in the past, and make the necessary corrections going forward. This show really is at its best when everyone is together in Hawkins.  Hacks - I watched the first few episodes but ended up putting a pause on it to catch up with some other things. It’s funny so far. I see now ...

  *I’m traveling so no images, unfortunately. Phone blogging is fun* This week’s theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about my least favorite subject…Math. As soon as letters and numbers came together, I completely lost it, and I’ve struggled with math ever since. Somehow I birthed a kid who loves it, so I guess this week is for him. Here are some movies I love that have a bit of Math in them. 1) Hidden Figures - A feel good movie the genius women of NASA. I really like this and I’ve watched it a handful of times since its release.  2) Good Will Hunting - It took me forever to actually watch the movie that put Affleck and Damon on the map, and turns out it’s pretty freaking good. 3) Gifted  - This looked like a Lifetime movie but my thirst for Chris Evans compelled me to watch it, and I cried like a baby. It was cute. 

  *We’re still on an image break for the next couple of weeks* Ben (B.J Novak) is a writer in New York who thrives on hookup culture. He’s not interested in being tied down to anyone. When we first meet him, he and John Meyer of all people are shooting the shit and talking about how they store hookup names in their phones. So imagine Ben’s surprise when he gets a call from Ty (Boyd Holbrook) who tells him his girlfriend is dead and he needs to attend her funeral in Texas. She apparently made their relationship out to be far more than it was, and he finds himself intrigued enough by her death, and possible murder to pitch it to his friend Eloise (Issa Rae) as a podcast idea.  B.J Novak is a great writer, and that doesn’t get said enough. I feel he’s only talked about in relation to The Office, or his relationship with Mindy Kaling. But even if he hasn’t been putting a lot of great thing on screen lately, his writing has always been solid and this script is no different. It’s ve...