Rambling Film

  It's our final mystery theme of the month over at Wandering Through The Shelves and as always we end with TV picks. This theme screams docuseries to me, and thankfully I watch a lot of those. They're interesting and make for good background noise while I work. Here's what I came up with. 1) Unsolved Mysteries - I have to go with the OG here. I watched this a lot when I was younger and now that Netflix has brought it back, I've watched the newer seasons as well. My favorite thing to do after watching an episode of this is go straight to reddit to read theories.  2) The Keepers - This is also a Netflix documentary, and is one of the most frustrating murder cases I've ever watched because I truly don't think it will ever be solved. Sister Cathy deserves justice, and I hope I'm wrong about this, and one day the truth comes to light, but I just don't know. I highly recommend watching this.  3) Disappeared - This is one that I mostly listened to while wor...

  What I knew going in: That Anna Magnani gives an excellent performance. During Nazi occupation of Rome, a resistance leader Giorgio (Marcello Pagliero) attempts to hide with his friend Francesco (Francesco Grandjacet) and his soon to be wife, Pina. (Anna Magnani) Meanwhile, we also check on his ex lover Marina ( Maria Michi) and a helpful priest, Don Pietro (Aldo Fabritzi) who believes it's the Godly thing to help the resistance.  Rome, Open City was never on my radar until I watched a video from the lovely Be King Rewind on Anna Magnani. Seeing it was available on HBO Max, it easily became part of my Blind Spot list.  This film is BLEAK. How could it not be? It's about the Nazi occupation, but somehow I was still caught off guard by how relentless this movie is. It's dreadfully sad, but also incredibly brave. Director Roberto Rossellini started shooting this 2 months after the Nazis left Rome in 1944. The time this was made makes it feel more urgent and dangerou...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is Female Investigators! The rules specify they can be police, or private. I kept thinking of TV shows that fit this theme, but movies were a bit tougher. Here's what I came up with.  1) Lost Girls - The mother of a missing girl essentially turns private detective in this when the police don't do enough. This is based on a true story and is absolutely heartbreaking. 2) Destroyer - Nicole Kidman gives an excellent performance as a police detective that reconnects with an undercover mission from her past. I had some issues with the film overall, but she was amazing in it.  3) Every Secret Thing - This is one of my favorite Laura Lippman books, and Elizabeth Banks plays a detective trying to solve a kidnapping.

Nelly (Josephine Sanz) has just lost her grandmother. Her parents (Nina Meuresse and Stephane Varupenne) are clearing out her house. While exploring the woods, she meets Marion (Gabrielle Sanz) who is building a tree house. I have to admit, when I first saw the trailer for this I thought to myself "I know the twist, but I want to see this anyways because it's Celine Sciamma" Only the thing is, there isn't a twist. This film is very up front with what it is. It has to be, it's barely 70 minutes long, and that made me love it even more. I love Sciamma's work, especially her queer stories. This isn't that, but it is about the love between a mother and daughter which I found so touching. It felt very authentic. Like we weren't watching a production, but rather children playing. It reminded me a bit of The Florida Project in that aspect. But more mystical.  Admittedly, it doesn't have the meat of her previous work but it's short and sweet and now st...

Tess (Georgina Campbell) is in Detroit for a job interview. She arrives late to her Air BnB only to find that it's been double booked, and another man, Keith (Bill Skarsgard) is also staying there. The house looks nice, but is in a very run down neighborhood, so Tess chooses to stay. She then discovers a series of tunnels beneath the house. I'll admit, the only reason I went to see this in theaters is because of director Zach Cregger. I used to love his sketch comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U'Know. I had seen the trailer for this and thought it looked fine, but he was the deciding factor in making it a theater watch vs a home watch.  Barbarian is easily one of the best horror films I've seen in a while. It's effectively creepy. It's going to give you some visuals that are very disturbing, but it's also clever and at times pretty damn funny. I wouldn't call it a horror comedy, but there's a few bits that come in about half way through when Justin Lon...

We have another Mystery edition at Wandering Through The Shelves ! This time we're focusing on media or technology. I kind of wanted to go a bit "out there" with this one. There's a lot of great journalism movies that fall under media, but I got stuck on one idea in my head and it just snowballed from there.  1) Hated in the Nation - Since it's Emmy week, I have been thinking about their dumb rules and how the series Black Mirror was allowed to submit episodes as individual movies - which brings me to one of their best episodes, the 90 Hated in the Nation, where several unexplained deaths seem to be linked to autonomous bees that are meant to combat climate change. This is so thrilling and interesting. It's one I've reached several times.   2) Searching - Told entirely through a screen, this film is about a father trying to solve his daughter's disappearance through her social media.  3) Arrival - There's a lot of technology involved with attemp...

I went 14/21 with my picks...just like last year. Don't let anyone ever tell you I'm not consistent. Overall, the show itself was kind of boring. There were a lot of comedy bits that just didn't land for me, but thankfully the speeches and some of the presenters made up for it. A lot of my favorite shows won, and a few others that I need to watch did too! Here is a list of winners + my quick thoughts. OUTSTANDING DRAMA Better Call Saul Euphoria Ozark Severance Squid Game Stranger Things (Season 4, Volume 1) Succession Yellowjackets I'm glad Succession won this. I was starting to lose confidence with how much they'd been losing in other categories.  LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA Jodie Comer, Killing Eve Laura Linney, Ozark Melanie Lynskey, Yellowjackets Sandra Oh, Killing Eve Reese Witherspoon, The Morning Show Zendaya, Euphoria Zendaya wins again! Her speech about hearing fan's stories and knowing a Rue and loving a Rue was so lovely. You can tell she pours her heart ...

Director Baz Lurhmann is back with a sprawling biopic about the legendary Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) as told through the eyes of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) I attempted to see this movie in theaters several times throughout the summer and every plan fell through. Thankfully it's now streaming on HBO Max, so it made for an easy viewing. (and no theater money wasted) I like Baz's style, but I don't always love his movies. Moulin Rouge! is the only one I absolutely love, but when I heard he was directing this, I thought it was the perfect fit. However, the finished product is quite muddled. It's held together by a very strong lead performance by Butler, but it's very chaotic and messy. Having Parker be the narrator on paper sounds fine, but Hanks is so over the top it became very distracting. It's like he was in a completely different movie than everyone else. Thankfully, it's not all bad. I liked that the film didn't shy away from how mu...

It's another mystery edition at Wandering Through The Shelves. This week we're talking about historical ones. Let's see what I came up with.. 1) Changeling - I'm usually not a huge fan of Eastwood movies but I adore this one, about a real life kidnapping. Angelina Jolie gives one of her best performances. There's a few weak spots (hello Jeffrey Donovan and whatever the fuck your accent was doing) but overall, I really enjoyed this. 2) The Black Dahlia - This murder mystery is infamous. I know this movie is overwhelmingly known as "bad" but I've always enjoyed it. All the actors involved were good and the costumes and set design were lovely. 3) JFK - Back and to the left. You can't deny this film about a murdered president is very engaging. 

This month flew by. I did a lot of flying at the beginning of it, which contributed to this list a lot. I also meant to finish Hacks and start Reservation Dogs and I didn't accomplish that. Maybe next month. Here's what I've been watching on the small screen. Westworld - S4 was definitely better than S3. It ended on a really interesting note and as always, Aaron Paul stole the show. I'm disappointed Thandie and Evan didn't share the screen. Season 5 will be its finale season and I am interested in seeing how they end it all since they appear to be going back to their roots.  What We Do in the Shadows - The episode where they make fun of home flipping shows is fantastic. This show is so consistently funny, you should watch it if you aren't already. The Most Hated Man on the Internet - This is a documentary series on Netflix that my sister recommended and it's another reminder of how vast the internet is. The website this doc is about was apparently huge, but...

It's almost time for the Emmys and I have to get my predictions out there. Last year I went 14/21 for the categories I predicted. Not terrible, but not great. Let's see if I can do better this year. I'm predicting 21 of the categories again. Let's see who I think will win, and in some cases who should win instead.  OUTSTANDING DRAMA Better Call Saul Euphoria Ozark Severance Squid Game Stranger Things (Season 4, Volume 1) Succession Yellowjackets I'm so torn on this. Ozark and Better Call Saul are ending. Squid Game made a huge showing at SAG, everyone loves Succession, and Yellowjackets is a very popular freshman series. The only thing I'm sure of is that Stranger Things and Euphoria aren't winning. I have to go with my personal favorite. Who will and should win: Succession LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA Jodie Comer, Killing Eve Laura Linney, Ozark Melanie Lynskey, Yellowjackets Sandra Oh, Killing Eve Reese Witherspoon, The Morning Show Zendaya, Euphoria For me it...

  We're starting a new monthly theme over at Wandering Through The Shelves.  All during the month of September we're talking about mysteries. Our first theme is films about capers. Here's what I came up with. 1) Snatch - This is the first film to come to mind, and now I really want to watch it again. It's just so quick and fun and silly. 2) The Brothers Bloom - Admittedly, this is probably my least favorite of Rian Johnson's work, but it also came to mind pretty quickly. It's still a good enough watch if you want to round out his filmography. 3) Dog Day Afternoon - This one I'm a little iffy on it necessarily being a caper, but it's pretty light so it feels that way. Great performances by those Corleone boys ;)