Rambling Film

What I knew going in: Apparently nothing. Abby (Frances McDormand) is having an affair with Ray, (John Getz) a man that works for her husband Julian. (Dan Heyada) Juilan hires a seedy PI (M. Emmet Walsh) to follow them, and it all goes down hill from there. The funny thing about this blind spot is I was sure I had seen part of it before, then when I started watching it absolutely nothing looked familiar. So I was clearly mixing it up with something else. That said, the Coen Brother's debut is something I've longed to see. And it certainly is a debut. Very rough around the edges and not the most visually appealing, but you see the beginnings of what the Coen's will become as directors. The same goes for McDormand in her debut performance. She's the highlight of the film. I can't say I loved this movie. It's very uneven. The best way I could describe it is that its "in between" moments aren't very compelling compared to the bigger story beats. The l

Based word for word from an FBI transcript during a search of her home, we follow Reality Winner (Sydney Sweeney) a former NSA linguist who is being arrested for leaking classified documents. Reality (yes, parents actually named her "Reality Winner") was eventually given the longest sentence ever (5 years) for violating the espionage act. Writer/Director Tina Satter originally adapted this story as a play, and it very much still feels like one on film. It's a very interesting concept to go word for word from an interview/quasi-interrogation. Using film as a medium allows Satter to add a few cuts to a script or a recording device when necessary to break up the scenes. It works very well for the most part. Sweeney has proven herself to be a very capable actor on various TV shows, so it's no surprised she shines here as well. We spend a lot of time in Reality's personal space, and Sweeney's face says so much. The FBI agents she interacts with, played by Josh Hami

This week's TV theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is one of my favorite things to talk about - a TV show's score or opening themes. This was pretty easy for me, and I ended up with a theme within a theme since they're all HBO shows. Here's what I came up with. 1) Game of Thrones - No hyperbole, but I think Game of Thrones has the best composed music of any TV show ever. Ramin Djawadi just completely knocked it out of the park. Not only are the opening credits iconic, but so many of the themes are perfection. 2) Westworld - Another product of Ramin Djawadi, I've been listening to this score a lot lately. It's very different from what he did with GoT, but it's still lovely and haunting. 3) Succession -  Nicholas Britell gave us an all timer with Succession's opening piano theme, but as of late he's really been stepping his game up during the show as well. As it's in the final season, I notice the music a lot more. 

This documentary follows the rise and fall of one of the most prominent models and eventual tabloid fodder of the 90's and early 2000's. I read a lot of tabloids in the early aughts. It was an easy way to pass the time between classes or on breaks from work so I felt like I knew a lot about Anna Nicole even before watching this. And even though I didn't learn too many new things, it was nice to have the context behind some of it. With interviews with former friends, colleagues and family, the documentary does a good job of telling Anna's story. It's not afraid to mention her flaws or go easy on her eventual drug addiction, but it doesn't paint her as a saint either. I somewhat expected it to go heavy on her naivete but it was clear to point out when she was calling all the shots. What the doc doesn't have is interviews with Howard K. Stern or Larry Birkhead. Something I had wondered about. I suppose neither of those things are missed. Those around them tell

This story chronicles the rise and fall of Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug (Matt Johnson) the two inventors of the BlackBerry and Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) the eventual co-CEO who took them to the top. What can I say? These fast paced corporate rise and fall stories just work for me. This one especially because I was once too addicted to my Blackberry. I loved that little keyboard, man. It took me a long time to acknowledge the fact that Android and Apple's browsers were just better. My love of the BlackBerry even had me get a Droid Pro for a while because I missed that keyboard.  Despite my crackberry, I didn't know much about the company in general aside from touch screens running them out of business. For that, this film was informative.  This might be the best Jay Baruchel has ever been in a film. He's perfectly cast as the founder. Soft spoken, but clearly brilliant. He's of great contrast to Glenn Howerton's fierce Jim. He's not an actor I'm ver

After an attack orchestrated by the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) and carried out by Adam Warlock, (Will Poulter) Rocket (Bradley Cooper) is gravely injured. This kicks off a mission for the rest of the Guardians to delve into Rocket's past to save his life. I'm late on this review because life gets in the way, but you've probably heard time and time again how dark this is. And that's true. There's a lot of implied (and some seen) animal torture here. But it also gives us the most compelling Guardians story to date. I have to shout out the VFX team first and foremost. They absolutely killed it here. As did the makeup team. If there's any justice, both teams will be Oscar nominated by the end of the year.  Karen Gillan as Nebula was the standout actress for me in this film. I love how far Nebula has come as a character, and Dave Bautista as Drax finally gets to do a little more than being big and dumb. (though he's excellent at that)  If I had one disapp

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is a reoccurring one - Period Dramas! The week where I have to force myself not to choose the same movies over and over because there are so many that I just adore. I decided to go with more recent watches this time around. Here's what I came up with. 1) The Wonder - This little Netflix gem starring Florence Pugh who basically says "fuck these religious extremists" was a great find last year. Highly recommend. 2) Lady Chatterly's Lover -   I really hope they paid the intimacy coordinator AT LEAST $500,000 because these sex scenes....wow.  3) The Woman King - I'm still annoyed at this film getting zero Oscar nominations. How anyone watches this and does not immediately think it's deserving of several is beyond me. 

April has been a hell of a month on the small screen for me. There's been so many great things to watch. Here's my brief rundown of everything I had going on last month.  Beef - I binged this the day it came out, so I saw all of it before the discourse on David Choe started becoming more mainstream. Not having that information definitely made me view it in a more positive light, but I completely understand if you read those stories about him first how it would dampen the show for you. Over all - I thought this was good. It did run a little long, I don't think it needed as many episodes as it did, but it had moments that were absolutely brilliant and Steven Yuen and Ali Wong were great.  The Mandalorian - I know a lot of people didn't care for this season and while I agree it's the weakest I really liked the last few episodes and I think it ended on a great note. I'm excited to see where it goes next with Mandalore, and DIN GROGU! I'm in love. Ted Lasso - W

This documentary follows the story of famed author Judy Blume, who found her fame writing children's books in the 70's, then expanded to both young adult and adult novels.  Judy Blume was essential for me as a girl growing up in the 90's. Thankfully, my school didn't ban her books. My favorite was Blubber . I no longer have my original copy, I settled for a reprint that I bought again as an adult. When I saw someone holding the copy that I had in the film, I actually felt jealous. That's how attached to this book I am. Deenie was another one that I adored. It was the first time I heard someone talk about masturbation as a normal thing and not a joke. You have to understand that for me as a preteen at that time, I had American Pie and Slums of Beverly Hills as my guide for that. And it's not even a main plot point in the book, it's just something that happens and that was eye opening for me. And like my Judy Blume story, you'll hear plenty others in th

Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) is an 11 year gold being raised with no religion by a Jewish father (Benny Safdie) and a Christian mother (Rachel McAdams) They want her to choose a religion when she's older. When a move from NYC to the New Jersey suburbs is sprung on her, Margaret begins talking to God as she navigates one of the hardest phases of life...puberty. I won't get too much into my own personal journey with Judy Blume's book this is based on because I talk about it quite a bit in my Judy Blume Forever review, which I have scheduled to go up on Wednesday. I had always planned on going to this, but what surprised me is that my 11 year old son asked to go too because he had read this book from his teacher's personal library. This was a great idea until he loudly asked me as we were getting up to leave if I also cried when I first got my period. Being a parent is fun.  My kid's volume control aside, I enjoyed this! It's very similar to what I remember from t