Rambling Film

Jang Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) is a detective investigating the death of a man who fell off the top of a cliff. He begins to suspect the late man's wife, a Chinese immigrant to Korea, Seo-rae. (Tang Wei) In following her, he becomes infatuated. Park Chan-wook's latest is currently streaming on Mubi, a service that I normally don't subscribe to, but went for a free trial just to view this. It's also South Korea's submission for Best International Feature at the Oscars, so I knew I had to check it out. Having enjoyed all of Park's work in the past, I had high hopes. At the heart of Decision to Leave is a murder mystery, and those I can't get enough of. That part of the film was very engaging, but I had a hard time buying the romance the film was supposed to be selling. Hae-joon becomes infatuated with Seo-rae. He has a perfectly good wife at home, but he falls for her. She eventually reciprocates these feelings in her own way, and I never once believed any of it....

  The final TMP of 2022 is here! And we're closing out with a TV edition about amnesia at Wandering Through The Shelves . This ended up being harder than I thought. I kept thinking of movies, but not TV shows. Here's what I managed to come up with.  1) The Sinner - I only watched the first season of this show but from what I remember Jessica Biel's character couldn't recall why she murdered someone so we're counting it here.  2) Full House - One of the most memorable episodes of this show for me was later in its run when Michelle falls off a horse and loses her memories for a few days. It sticks out because it was one of the few times both Olsen twins were on screen together. 3) Black Mirror (White Bear) - This might be a stretch because the show eventually explains how this happens, but I'm struggling here. In the episode titled White Bear, the lead character cannot remember a thing about her past or why people are trying to kill her. 

Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back to solve another mystery. This time, a tech billionaire Miles (Edward Norton) has invited his friends to his private island in Greece during the middle of the pandemic to solve a murder mystery game. Of course, it ends up being much more than that. I loved Knives Out  and I fully support Rian Johnson making a Benoit Blanc cinematic universe. The character is just great and watching him shine again was a delight. Again, Johnson is taking on the rich, but this time he's also taking on influencer culture and performative activism as a whole. This is one of those movies that's going to benefit from rewatching just to catch all clues you missed. I liked it immediately after watching it, but the more I saw with it, and talked about it with folx online, the more I loved it. Craig lays it on thick at the beginning but eventually finds his groove and it's just a joy to see him again. Janelle Monae is the star this time around. I loved wa...

As society moves from the silent era of films to the talkies, we follow various entertainers and their ambitions. Movie star Jack Conrad, (Brad Pitt) up and comer Nellie LaRoy, (Margot Robbie) an errand boy rising the ranks, Manny. (Diego Calva) A screenwriter who is fetishized and not given the credit she's due, Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li) and a trumpet player who is about to explode on the scene, Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo) Babylon is a whole lot of movie. Calling it ambitious feels like an understatement. It's a spectacle in every sense of the word. Director Damien Chazelle has come a long way from the relatively small scale Whiplash to this. The sets, the music, the costumes, everything breathes chaotic energy. Chazelle does a good job of wrangling it all together. It's a technical wonder, though he could manage his time slightly better. I wish I seen this before voting in the critics circles I'm eligible for because it would've cleaned house in several categorie...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves focuses on winter sports! I can't imagine living in a place where it never snows, so I have a soft spot for winter sports. Here's what I came up with. 1) The Mighty Ducks 2 - This is my favorite fo the Might Ducks trilogy. I recently rewatched these with my son and it still holds up as the best. 2) I, Tonya - Margot Robbie is so gloriously perfect in this movie about Tonya Harding and her skating career.  3) Blades of Glory -   I know a lot of people don't care for this, but the cast was hysterical and I the gif I've chosen above still makes me laugh. So ridiculous. 

This is going to be my TENTH year of doing Blind Spots! I love how this series gives me that push to look back. Sometimes that's hard when there's constantly new movies coming out that I'm excited for. I was hesitant even sharing a list this year because I finally retired DVD Netflix from my home, and that had served as a safety net for so many years when streaming got fickle. For now, I should be able to find all of these, but I'm making a larger alternate list just in case. Tell me what you think! Have you seen any of the films I have below? How do you think I'll like them? And if you have a suggestion for a back up film, throw it my way! 1) Amadeus 2) The Silence 3) The Big City 4) The Piano Teacher 5) The Fly 6) The Lady Vanishes 7) Happy Together 8) 8 1/2 9) Steel Magnolias  10) Blood Simple 11) Notorious 12) All the King's Men Alternates: Imitation of Life, Daughters of the Dust, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Wings, Lady Snowblood, Rebecca (1940),...

Set in a coastal town in England during the 1980's, Hilary (Olivia Colman) works at the Empire theater, but has little joy in it. She's on new medication for her mental illness, she's having an emotionless affair with her boss, Mr. Ellis (Colin Firth) and she just doesn't see the beauty in movies. They're for the customers. Then a new hire, Stephen (Michael Ward) comes along and changes her life drastically.  There's that saying "Don't quit your day job" and Director Sam Mendes should never stop directing. I'm always interested in this films, but after viewing this...maybe screenplays aren't his thing. This movie is kind of a mess story wise. All the trailers have you believe it's about the magic of cinema. They all have that long Toby Jones voice over in the projection booth and that lovely shot of Olivia Colman in a theater all by herself, but none of that is actually the focus of Empire of Light .  Maybe it wanted to be about that, b...

  What I knew going in: That it is apparently one of the most memorable war movies ever made.  Flyora ( Aleksey Kravchenko) is a young Belarusian boy who finds a rifle buried in the sand and joins the Soviet resistance during WWII. He then comes face to face with the horrors of war. Come and See is a film that comes up a lot on Film Twitter. Mostly it's brought up in the context of either "Great films I would never watch again" or "Show this to people so they can see what war is really like." Either way, despite knowing it was going to be brutal, it's one I've been meaning to see for a while, but I didn't put the greatest effort into it due to its content. My original Blind Spot for this month was meant to be Rebecca (1940) which disappeared from streaming. Then this fell into my lap. I did not expect this film to be shot the way it was. The best way I can describe it as avant garde. I was expecting this to be a more straight forward story, so I d...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is one suggested by yours truly. I just think the themes where we have to find something in the title are fun. Here's what I came up with 1) From Up On Poppy Hill - This is a highly underrated Studio Ghibli pick in my opinion, and the movie that really sparked the idea for this theme in the first place. I love Umi, she's such a wonderful character the the film is so vibrant. Highly recommend.  2) Water Lilies - I feel like I talk about this movie all the time, but I checked my keywords and I have shockingly not brought it up since 2020 so here I am again, imploring you to see my favorite Celine Sciamma movie.  3) Violet & Daisy - This is a fun, underseen film where Saoirse Ronan and Alexis Bledel play mercenaries. The late James Gandolfini is in it too. I enjoyed it. 

Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle as a teen, Mateo Zoryan as a young child) is growing up in post WWII America and discovers his love for making movies. His father (Paul Dano) thinks it's a hobby, but is proud of what he does regardless. His mother (Michelle Williams) encourages him, but when he discovers a family secrets involving her, it changes not only his, but his family's trajectory for good. This is one of those films where I was afraid of the buzz. I don't have the best luck with director's passion projects about their families. The widely popular Roma and Stories We Tell were good examples of well loved films that I just did not vibe with, and I didn't want to add The Fabelmans to that list. And the 2 and a half run time did not help. Luckily, despite some flaws, there's a lot to love about The Fabelmans. Obviously Stephen Spielberg knows his way around a camera. It's shot beautifully. Even the scenes where Sammy is filming for the first time are pr...

Rama (Kayije Kagame) is a novelist who travels from Paris to Saint-Omer to cover the trial of Laurence Coy (Guslagie Malanda) a woman accused of murdering her infant daughter. Rama then realizes they have a stunning amount in common. This is France's submission for Best International Film at the Oscars and it's an interesting choice. The bulk of the film takes place in one location, and the majority of the dialogue is in the form of court testimony. That's where it's at its most compelling. Malanda and Valérie Dréville set the cadence for these scenes and they're very sell done. I'm glad they chose to unfold Laurence's story this way. It's one of those rare instances where tell works over show. Unfortunately the scenes outside of the courtroom don't work as well. Kagame is still wonderful in her role, and you can tell she wants to say so much, but obviously cannot.  I think at times it's a little too ambiguous for its own good. I don't need a...

  The HFPA is back on their bullshit with star-fucking and ignoring female filmmakers. Oh joy! They did manage to get a few things right in my book, so here I am talking about them. Below is a list of the nominations + some quick thoughts.  Best Motion Picture Drama Avatar: The Way Of The Water Elvis The Fabelmans TÁR Top Gun: Maverick I have no idea why Elvis landed here and not in Musical or Comedy. I have a long list of movies I'd stick in here before Avatar. The Woman King, Nope, The Northman just to name a few. But you know, HFPA has a thing about women.  Best Motion Picture, Comedy Babylon The Banshees Of Inisherin Everything Everywhere All At Once Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Triangle Of Sadness I have yet to see Glass Onion or Babylon, but I fully expected both to be here. I'm very happy for the big nominee of the day, The Banshees of Inisherin. I wish they would've made room for The Menu though. Best Director — Motion Picture James Cameron, Avatar: The Way O...

Sang-hyeon (Song Kang-ho) and Dong-soo (Dong-won Gang) run an illegal adoption business where they fast track adoptions to rich couples who don't wait to wait for the system. So-young (Ji-eun Lee) drops her daughter off at the orphanage to have a better life, but returns and quickly realizes what Sang-Heyon and Dong-soo are up to. She joins them on a search to find the perfect family for her baby. Director Hirokazu Koreeda follows up his succession Shoplifters with another film about found family and I continue to be here for it. I'm not well versed on his work, but I plan on catching some of his earlier films. Here he is making me root for human-traffickers. It takes a masterful filmmaker to do that. It's funny that even though Sang-Heyon and Dong-soo are committing crimes, you can't help but root for them. Especially Dong-soo. He's the emotional core of the film. It might sound strange not giving that title to So-young, the mother forced to make a difficult decis...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is retro-chic! Films set in modern times, but the styles of clothing and what not look like they could've been from an earlier decade. I love this idea. Here's what I came up with 1) God Help The Girl - This lovely little musical looks like it could be set in the 60's. In fact, I assumed it was until Emily Browning's character brought out her smart phone.  2) Magic Magic - Another Emily Browning film, I remember thinking the clothing in this film looked very dated, but in retrospect they were a bit ahead of the curve. There was lots of chunky sweaters and turtlenecks in this that I felt like just didn't fit with what the trends were at the time. Now, I wouldn't bat an eyelash. 3) It Follows - One of the cool things about this movie was you couldn't really tell what decade it was meant to be in. All the set pieces feel like an 80's movie, but people are driving modern cars. Jay has that little she...

In rural Ireland in the early 80's, a shy nine year old Cáit (Catherine Clinch) is the outcast of her very large and poor family. Her mother is pregnant with baby number 6, her father is an alcoholic, her older sisters tease her. To get her off their case, her parents sent her to live with distant relatives Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley) and Seán  (Andrew Bennett) who she's never met.  This is Ireland's submission for Best International Film (the majority of the film is in the Irish language) and from here on out, you will hear me screaming about this from the rooftops. It's a beauty of a film. I was a quiet kid myself so I immediately connected with  Cáit. She doesn't misbehave, she's not malicious, she's just awkward and only speaks when she truly has something to say. I loved her immediately. Watching  Cáit  come out of her shell and truly find her place with the  Cinnsealachs was a joy. Like our title character, this is a very quiet film. Its beauti...

Santa Claus (David Harbour) is losing a bit of his Christmas Spirit. He's getting hammered on the job, and shows up at a huge mansion to give little Trudy (Leah Bradley) her gifts. Only on this night, a group of thieves led by Mr. Scrooge (John Legiuzamo) are here to rob Trudy's grandma of her millions. Santa is now forced to sober up and kick some ass. The trailer to this film is hysterical and promised me campy B movie glory, so of course I wanted to see it opening night with a packed crowd. If only it lived up to the craziness the trailer promised. No one goes to a movie like this for anything other than seeing Santa kill bad guys. The first half of spent on building up the story and watching Santa get his ass kicked. Which wouldn't be terrible if we didn't have to sit through some truly horrendous acting awhile doing it. Ligiuzamo is phoning it in, but the real culprit is Alex Hassell who plays Trudy's dad. The best way I can describe it is that he thinks he...

Carl (Harris Dickerson) is a model in a PR beneficial relationship with an influenser, Yaya (the late Charlbi Dean) They're gifted a trip aboard a luxury cruise with the uber-rich and what starts as a perfectly Instagramable trip turns into chaos. Winner of this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes, and the subject of so much Twitter buzz, this has been on my radar for a while. Even with all that high praise, I kept my expectations in check because I wasn't a huge fan of director Ruben Östlund's last film, The Square . Thankfully I had nothing to worry about here.  If there's one thing I can suggest it's not reading the synopsis on IMDb before watching this. Not that it gives a huge part of the plot away or anything, but what it describes as the catalyst doesn't actually happen until well over 2 hours into this movie. One could go into it with the wrong expectations. Ultimately, this is a film about classism and the hierarchy in jobs that deal with the rich. It...

I'm a bit lighter on TV this month now that I've gotten time to go to the theater more. Here are my quick thoughts. The White Lotus - I feel like EVERYONE on this show, minus horny grandpa could be a murderer. I'm still not loving this season, but I am looking forward to seeing where it goes. Andor - This was a massive success in my house. I looked forward to it every week. I had such low expectations for this show going in and they knocked it out of the park. I can't wait for the second season. Atlanta - This was their final season and while it was a bit all over the place, I'm glad they ended with the focus on the main four and didn't do as many side stories. This show is definitely not perfect, but I appreciate it so much. The Resort - I watched about 4 episodes of this show before I just skipped to the last one to hear the catch. This should've been a movie, not an 8 episode TV series, they didn't have nearly enough story to fill those gaps. A Frie...

Laura (Andrea Riseborough) lost her young daughter in a car accident years before. When a new family moves in next door, their daughter Megan (Niamh Dornan) starts saying mysterious things to Laura making her wonder if she's her dead daughter reincarnated.  This film was one I've had on my watch list for a while thanks to some festival buzz and now it's available on Hulu for all to see. At a brisk 83 minutes, you can certainly find time for it. I love it when thrillers have short run times like that because it doesn't give you any time to stall. For me, this film was a bit unique in that we as the audience will deduce what's going on long before Laura does, so it's not about us wanting to find out the answer with her, but rather wanting her to put the dots together as soon as she can. Andrea Riseborough continues to be one of the most talented actresses working today and I'm still waiting for the Academy to notice. Give this woman more work, she kills in eve...

I'm back after a week off from Wandering Through The Shelves ' Thursday Movie Picks and this week we're talking about combat sports! This will be properly awkward because I kind of hate the Rocky movies and I expect those to get picked a lot this week. Here's what I came up with 1) The Wrestler - I grew up watching professional wrestling and following it online. I think wrestling forums were the first thing I ever really engaged with on the internet, so of course I love this flick. I loved the backstage things we saw. 2) Fighting With My Family - Another wrestling film which blessed us with the most perfect line of dialogue in the gif above. 3) The Fighter - I hate David O. Russell but ugh...this movie is so good. I want to watch it again.