Rambling Film

Official synopsis:  Frida Kahlo is a little girl who is different. Sparkling and vibrant, everything interests her. And when life's trials and tribulations come her way, she faces them with her overflowing imagination. I suppose most people outside of Mexico discover Frida Kahlo as a teenager or young adult. Her vibrant paintings are iconic, and we've seen plenty of film adaptations from her. But the filmmakers behind Hola Frida , and by extension the original mini series - Frida c'est moi this was adapted from want you to learn about her as a child.  For a children's film, I loved this. The animation style is fun and works well with the fantastical elements of Frida's imagination. The film mostly sticks with Frida as a child and how she overcame polio and the bullying that followed after her right leg never truly heals. It's a good story for kids. It has strong themes of friendship, standing up against bullies while also hearing them and the things they may b...

Official Synopsis : Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, the Fantastic Four (Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn) must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer. (Julia Garner) My dad's favorite comic book character has been Silver Surfer as long as I can remember, so that was always my primary interest in anything Fantastic Four related. I've always preferred the X-Men or Avengers over "Marvel's First Family" but that doesn't mean I haven't given every FF movie a chance. So how does this stack up to the misfires of the past? The only thing all three versions of The Fantastic Four have in common is casting Sue Storms that don't pull off blonde. This version, with Wandavison director Matt Shakman's very capable hands gives us a retro 60's vibe with a big focus on family.  This film easily has the best Marvel...

Official Synopsis:  In a climate change-ravaged world, a utopian society optimizes life, including parenthood assessments. A successful couple, Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Arayan (Himesh Patel) faces scrutiny by an evaluator, Virginia (Alicia Vikander) over seven days to determine their fitness for childbearing. When I first heard about this film coming off its festival run, I thought it sounded a lot like The Pod Generation , a 2023 film also about couples and pregnancy in the future, but the two films couldn't be more different. Where The Pod Generation was light hearted, The Assessment is uncomfortable. Mia and Arayan probably would be good parents, but Virginia puts them through the ringer in a way that will make you squirm in your seat. I love an Uncomfortable Dinner Scene ™ and boy does the Assessment have one.  All of the actors are putting in some of their best work here. Alicia Vikander is here to remind you that she is an Oscar winner and her range is on full display ...

Official synopsis:  To celebrate Lukas'  ( Paulius Markevicius)  victory at the martial arts tournament and Tomas' ( Giedrius Kiela)  birthday party, their wives, sisters Juste ( Agne Kaktaite)  and Ernesta ( Gelmine Glemzaite) organize a weekend at the country house with their families. Then the two families must navigate a near tragedy that occurs.  Lithuania's entry for Best International Film at the Oscars earlier this year now finally sees its U.S release. I'm not familiar with director/cinematographer  Laurynas Bareisa prior work. Here, he takes us through stages of grief. Not always linear, not always cohesive, but real all the same. The film jumps back and forth between time making you question what really happened and how the family was driven apart. This is a film for patient people. You might think that's an odd thing to say about a film with a runtime of 88 minutes, but Bareisa streeeeeeeeeeeeeetches some scenes to the maximum. I actually w...

Official synopsis: I n May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff, Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor Ted (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico. Ari Aster is one of the most talked about directors of the last few years. He started off with a bat-shit crazy short, then made two great features, and his last go at the theater - Beau is Afraid - was a self indulgent mess. But still, Aster has promise. And despite not like Beau Is Afraid and not wanting to sit through a COVID movie, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.  Three people walked out of my showing of Eddington at various points, and they were the lucky ones. I didn't think it was possible to be worse than Beau Is Afraid, but Eddington manages to be completely insufferable and ultimately has nothing of substance to say. And granted, the lead character of Eddington is SUPPOSED to be insufferable. He's an anti-masker and general doofus, but I kept waiting...

I'm a few days late with this post because (you guessed it) I've been traveling. But the 2025 Emmy nominations are here! Once again the Emmy voters voted like they've only seen 5 shows in some categories, but there are some nice surprises here.  Best Drama Series Andor The Diplomat The Last of Us Paradise The Pitt Severance Slow Horses The White Lotus I'm so happy to see Andor here after their amazing final season. I've seen 4 of the shows in this category, and others are on my never ending "I need to start this" list. I'm bummed for The Rings of Power, which never had a chance but I really enjoy.  Best Comedy Series Abbott Elementary The Bear Hacks Nobody Wants This Only Murders in the Building Shrinking The Studio What We Do in the Shadows I'm very happy for What We Do in the Shadows making it in for their final season. It really should win for how consistently hilarious it's been over 6+ years. I hear so many good things about The Studio and...

Hulu recently dropped season 4 of the much debated but beloved The Bear , so you know I was there to watch it. All 10 episodes went by very quickly, so here are my likes, dislikes, and hopes for season 5. LIKES * The cast is still top notch and I admire this show's commitment to the entire cast and not just the "main characters" They've made an effort to flesh everyone out. * The returning guest stars. It may have been kind of flimsy getting Will Poulter's character back in Chicago, but I loved it anyways. Luca is a great addition, as is the rest of the Ever crew that came along.  * This was Abby Elliott's standout season and I will scream if she's not Emmy nominated for it. Her fight with Neil in the office about Francie was hysterical.  * Syd's "I'm getting my hair done" and that guy responding "oh so like an hour?" COMEDY DISLIKES * Ebraheim's side story of expanding The Beef should be working, but the fact that it's...

Official synopsis:  A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When young Spike (Alfie Williams) leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors. 28 Days Later is one of my favorite horror films and hearing Danny Boyle and Alex Garland would be back for another installment after skipping the sequel, 28 Weeks Later was enough to have me seated.  I have to say, the trailers did a great job of not showing you exactly what this movie was about. In fact, the film is kind of split into three mini stories. One of Spike and his dad (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) on a coming of age journey. The second, a survival story with his mom (Jodie Comer) and the third, encountering the doctor (Ralph Fiennes) he had been searching for. The ending also directly leads into the sequel that has already been filmed. More on that later. It's nice to see Danny Boyle with a budget consid...

Official synopsis:  Sally Ride's groundbreaking journey as the first American woman in space concealed a deeply personal story. Her life partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy, unveils their covert 27-year romance and its accompanying sacrifices. Sally Ride lived an extraordinary life that was taken car too soon by cancer. Her obituary was the first time the general public knew she had a female partner in Tam. Now, Tam shares their love story while Sally's friends and co-workers all share their memories of her work. You can tell this documentary was made with a lot of love. Even the classmates Sally had to essentially compete against speak of her fondly. Sally deserves way more credit for her amazing poker face in my opinion. Watching news clips of some of the dumb, sexist questions she and the other female astronauts got for *gasp* being women were so cringe worthy. She handled it with much more grace than I could've mustered. If this is your intro to Sally ride, I think the docum...

Official synopsis:  A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker, Lucy (Dakota Johnson) finds herself torn between the perfect match, Harry (Pedro Pascal) and her imperfect ex, John. (Chris Evans) Quick story time because the most ridiculous thing happened to me when I saw this movie. When I purchased my ticket, I saw two other seats were purchased in the back row. I always pick the front. Random dude walks in and says "hi." I say "hello" back, and he chooses to sit DIRECTLY behind me in an empty theater. About 5 minutes in, he asks if he can sit next to me, which I say "no." He tries to talk to me more, so I get up and move to the other end of the aisle. This is apparently his cue to walk his ass to the back of the theater to his assigned seat. And of all the movies this encounter could happen to me in, it's the one about how creepy dating and going to meet up with a stranger can be. The irony is too much. I was cautiously optimistic about director Cel...

Official synopsis:   The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (William Powell) looks down from Heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style. This is one those classic films that I had never heard of until one of my favorite readers/classic film extraordinaire Joel recommended me to me. It was an easy sell. Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly. I'm in. Said follies are divided into segments. Some being comedy bits and others musical numbers. I think the film could've made better use of its framing device by having Ziegfeld talk in between all or most of the segments. He only appears at the beginning and it didn't feel like enough.  Of all the segments, I enjoyed the musical numbers the most. Watching Astaire and Kelly tap together is a treat, as is any time Judy Garland is on screen. I wish she would've gotten to sing a little more in her sketch.  On top of having a very compelling cast, the sets and costumes are glorious. They're so g...

Official synopsis: A suburban dad, Craig (Tim Robinson) falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor, Austin. (Paul Rudd) Tim Robinson has been on the comedy scene for quite some time, but for the past few years he's been gaining momentum via his Netfix show I Think You Should Leave . He's basically the king of cringe comedy at the moment. That's not everyone's cup of tea, but it is something you absolutely have to be okay with before going into Friendship . Friendship feels like a feature length I Think You Should Leave sketch. It's awkward, hilarious, and will test your patience with how long a bit can go. And I mean that in a positive way. Craig is a deeply uncomfortable dude. He can't help but just make everything a bit more weird. It's easy to see why he becomes to infatuated with Austin, who is the epitome of "cool" to him. The script has issues. It's not really sure what to do with its 3rd act, but I laughed so much that I can't be ...

I've been really putting off the final season of this acclaimed series. The way the world is today, this just seems like even more of a possibility than it already did. And having read both The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, I knew there was more to come.  I ended up knocking out the entire season on a transatlantic fight (do not recommend that for episode 9) Here's what I liked, disliked, and my final thoughts. LIKES * All episodes felt "complete." They didn't drag things out for multiple episodes. Most things they start out to accomplish in the beginning are seen through in the end, and I appreciated how buttoned up that was. Especially since this show does have a bit of a history with meandering.  * Nick's choices were unambiguously bad. If you've spent any time on the Handmaids Tale subreddit, there's a lot of ~discourse~ around Nick. The official tag for posts about him there is "wet for war criminal" which is kind of hilarious....

  Official synopsis : When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped (Amber Midthunder), a man incapable of feeling physical pain (Jack Quaid) turns his rare condition into an unexpected advantage in the fight to rescue her. I could not find time to go out to the theater this week to see Final Destination: Bloodlines like everyone else, but thankfully for me another cringe injury flick dropped on Paramount Plus this week.  Look, this movie is VERY formulaic, but I cannot deny just how attached I got to Nate. He's just SO pure and Jack Quaid (who looks so much like his dad when he smiles that it's actually kind of distracting) played him so well. I cannot imagine anyone going into this film and not liking Nate. And I will forever be on the Amber Midthunder train, so I'm happy to see her again as well. If you're not good with gore, then this film is not going to be for you. Nate takes quite the beating and the camera does not shy away from some of his injuries, even though you...

Official synopsis:  The authorized documentary of Kellie Maloney, the famous British transgender boxing manager. This unique film will explore Kellie's story of truth and denial, as she confronted uncertainty and ultimately accepted herself for who she was. Full disclosure, I did not know who Kellie Maloney was before watching this film. I don't watch boxing, where she had a successful career when she was presenting as Frank Maloney. I don't watch Celebrity Big Brother, which she appeared on as well. This was my introduction to Kellie, and I'm glad to have "met" her.  It's beautiful when someone can finally feel like they can be themselves wholly. Kellie transitioned "late" in life, but it's never too late. The doc is very balanced with showing Kellie's early career. Her ex-wife, Tracey and daughters all get a say - and are very frank (no pun intended) that things were messy when Kellie came out and she and Tracey separated. Thankfully, a...

It's hard to believe I was once one of those people who thought "Do we really need an Andor series?" when it was first announced. I hate my words after the first season, now even more after the second and final season. Andor is one of the best things Star Wars has ever put out. Now that it has come to an end, here is what I liked and disliked about season 2. Don't worry, I didn't dislike much. LIKES * Showing how every day people fight fascism. Star Wars has always been good vs evil but it's often framed through the Jedi fighting the Empire. Andor is a series that rarely even mentions the Force, and there's no Jedi to be found. Everyone is a regular person trying to fight oppression. I love how Andor was able to showcase this.  * The Ghorman Massacre was just as awful as I expected, but mirroring them after the French during WWII was pretty genius on the creators' parts. Ghorman is something that's been mentioned in other Star Wars shows, particul...

Official synopsis:  A couple, Annette and Ben (Daisy Ridley and Shazad Latif) find their lives turned upside-down when their daughter (Hiba Ahmed) is cast alongside a controversial major star. (Matilda Lutz) I find it amusing that in a film where a couple is having issues and actively working against each other would have parts of the actual film doing the same thing. On one hand, you have the actors giving very committed, nuanced performances. Especially Ridley. She's stoic yet overwhelmed and you want to scream at Ben through the screen to just HELP her. (Putting a pillow over his head and ignoring the crying baby in the middle of the night? Unforgiveable.) Then on the other hand, you have the composer who wrote a score that is trying its hardest to make this into a corny Lifetime thriller. It reminded me a lot of May December , which is also a good film with a terrible score. It just doesn't fit. It's so over the top and ridiculous.  Magpie might be a hard sell at first...

  Official synopsis: A post-apocalyptic romance in which a buoy (Kristen Stewart) and a satellite (Steven Yeun) meet online and fall in love after the end of human civilization.  "Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun in a sci-fi movie" is all you need to say to sell me. I especially loved the weird approach this takes, with them voicing a buoy and a satellite respectively. That is, I loved it for the first 15 minutes. Sometimes feature length films work better as shorts and Love Me is absolutely that kind of film. It takes far too long to get going and spends most of its run time hiding its gorgeous leads behind goofy looking animation. In fact, the film is kind of a mash up of animation, CGI, and live action. It's visually pretty ugly to look at most of the time. This is something the film likely could've gotten away with had its runtime been 25 minutes, but at 90 it just got frustrating.  Stewart and Yeun do give good voice performances and the little time we see them o...

Official synopsis:  Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation. Director Pedro Almodóvar's first feature length film in English came and went without a lot of fanfare. Until I saw it as an option to watch on my recent flight, I had completely forgotten it had been released already.  Not only was this a surprise reminder, but it completely blew me away. I love this film, and I think I told every single one of my coworkers that they NEED to watch it on their flights home. This story is about death. About fearing it and accepting it, but it's also about friendship and how strong those bonds can be, even when you spent time apart and it was just so easy for me to fall in love with Ingrid and Martha. While there are some awkward moments between them, most of their time together is just so achin...

Official synopsis : After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, an unconventional team of antiheroes must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Thunderbolts is the Marvel film I've been anticipating the most post Endgame. (While I enjoyed Black Panther 2 , part of me still dreaded having to face that film without Chadwick Boseman) I had high hopes, and I was not disappointed. If anything, I was surprised at just what kind of film this ended up being. You see, I expected this to lean goofy. More Guardians than Avengers, and while there were some great laughs, mostly thanks to David Harbour's hilarious Red Guardian, I was not prepared for how this film would tackle mental illness. We all know Yelena (Florence Pugh) is suffering after Natasha's death, but we haven't really seen her address her feelings, and once she and her rag tag team meet Bob (Lewis Pullman) they are all faced with some pretty emotio...

If you've been reading here for a while, you probably already know how highly I regard Black Mirror. It's one of my favorite shows ever, it showed up a LOT during my Thursday Movie Picks run and a few years ago I ranked all the Netflix shows I had seen, and it was the easy #1. It's not always a perfect show. Anthologies rarely are, but even when I dislike an episode, I'm always going to watch whatever comes next. With the 7th season currently available to stream, here are my quick thoughts on each episode in the order I watched them U.S.S Callister - Into Infinity - I started out with the direct sequel to season 4's best episode The U.S.S Callister. I thought this was a solid start, it was definitely missing Michaela Coel big time, but Cristin Milioti is such a star. I think it took the logical next step for that story. Common People - This episode was absolute nightmare fuel and that's honestly Black Mirror when its at its best. When they started explaining the...

Official synopsis:  Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) applies his brilliant mind and illegal methods to reconstruct the unsolved puzzle of a Treasury chief's murder. 2016's The Accountant was a film that grew on me. When I saw it in theaters for the first time, it was just ~fine~ But when I watched it a second time on blu ray, something clicked. I realized just how much I liked these characters and I've re-watched the film several times since. So when the sequel finally came to fruition, it was a no brainer that I would watch. I'm glad to be back into Christian's world. This time around, he doesn't have Dana (Anna Kendrick) to play off of, but his brother Braxton. (Jon Bernthal) They haven't seen each other since the events of the last film played out, so there's a bit of animosity there, mostly on Braxton's part. I wasn't prepared for how amusing this film would be. Bernthal is kind of hysterical. He talks about Christian's "condition...

Daredevil coming to Disney Plus was always a big deal for myself, and a lot of other Marvel fans. It was the best of the Netflix MCU shows (in my opinion) and finding out that it would be brought into MCU proper was a great feeling. So how did season 1 do overall? Let's look at the good, the bad, and what we can look forward to. The Good * Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio continue to put in great work as Matt Murdoch and Wilson Fisk. There's a really great scene in the later episodes where both characters are coming to terms with their alter-egos separately, and the scene cuts back and forth between them.  * The fight scenes continue to be top notch. * It was nice to get an episode that focused solely on Matt Murdoch being a lawyer. * It still felt very adult. I know there was a lot of worry of it "losing its edge" moving over to Disney Plus, but there was plenty of brutality and a few F bombs. See? What were you worrying about? * The Punisher telling cops who we...

Official synopsis:  Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. I've been slacking at going to the theater and blogging about what I watch from home lately. Thankfully Sinners was so good it gave me that kick I needed to get online and write about it. I don't use the word "genius" lightly but what director Ryan Coogler and composer Ludwig Göransson do with music in this film is genius. I'm always a fan of Göransson's scores. He's ended up as a top artist on my Spotify multiple times, and I loved the bluesy guitar music he wrote here. There's a scene that I don't want to spoil that's truly an all-timer with what Coogler adds into the music. The film takes its time building up to the eventual confrontation our main characters will have with the vampires. We learn plenty about the twins, their lov...

Official synopsis:  A film that weaves together re-enactments, archive footage and fairy-tale sequences to create a testament to the history of Lebanese and Palestinian women to the political struggles of the twentieth century. Commemorating its 40 year anniversary, Lebanese director Heiny Srour 's film was recently restored and released in North American cinemas for the first time. Shot over the course of 7 years and often times in secret, it takes a look at the lives of women through the time traveling titular character, Leila. ( Nabila Zeitouni) It was impossible to watch this and think of my own privilege. Especially when you're met with such striking images like the women sitting on the beach, clad in full burkas while the men are allowed to frolic in bathing suits. It's a frustrating double standard that is not lost on me. I am a bit ashamed that this film was never on my radar prior to its re-release. This is a special Blind Spot. While my list is normally made up of...