Rambling Film

Official Synopsis : A minor disagreement between neighbors in Florida takes a lethal turn, with police body camera footage and interviews probing the aftermath of the state's controversial "stand your ground" laws. When the Gotham Award nominations were announced the other day, someone kindly posted on Blue Sky where you could watch a handful of the nominated films on streaming. This documentary is currently on Netflix, and despite trending at #2 as I write this, I somehow completely missed it.  This documentary is not only a very necessary commentary on Florida's "stand your ground" laws but it's a test of endurance. Because you will be watching lot of bullshit unfold and you're only going to get madder as it goes on. Murderer Susan Lorincz called the police on the children in her neighborhood for having the audacity to play in a field near her apartment that was NOT her property so many times that there was enough body cam footage of it to make a f...

Official Synopsis: A college professor Alma (Julia Roberts) finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil Maggie (Ayo Edeberi) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues, Hank (Andrew Garfield) and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light. Luca Guadagnino is one of those directors that I keep trying to love. Often, I find myself lukewarm. I think highly of Call Me By Your Name and Challengers for the most part, they're not perfect, but the pros far outweigh the cons. With After The Hunt, I was so on board with what this film was doing for the longest time, until it felt like it was starting to interrogate me with endless "what ifs" then didn't even have the courtesy to answer all of them. I'm begging writers to stop using ambiguity as a crutch. Materialists caught a bit of flack earlier this year for how it frames a character's sexual assault, but by the time this film was over, I think what After The ...

Official Synopsis:  Valentín (Diego Luna), a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina (Tonitiuh), convicted for public indecency. An unlikely bond forms as Molina recounts a Hollywood musical plot starring Ingrid Luna. (Jennifer Lopez) I'll start off by saying I've never seen the 1985 version of this film, nor have I seen the stage show. So fortunately for me, I don't have anything pre-existing to compare this to. And even more fortunately for me, I LOVED every moment of it. Sometimes a film feels like it's made for you, and this one feels like that for me. A film about a movie lover, that breaks into a technicolor musical, yet also features some very good dramatic performances. It had everything I could want.  Diego Luna has chemistry with everyone he encounters. I've known that in a while, but I feel like between this and Andor I've spent a lot more time with him this year and it really hammers it home. I loved both his scenes in the musical numbers, and ...

Official synopsis:  Follows headteacher Steve (Cillian Murphy) battling for his reform college's survival while managing his mental health. Concurrently, troubled student Shy (Jay Lycurgo) navigates his violent tendencies and fragility, torn between his past and future prospects. You've got to love Cillian Murphy winning that Oscar and going back to making these smaller scale, quiet films he loves. This time he's re-teaming with Small Things Like These director Tim Mielents. This film touches on mental health, how underfunded some of the resources are, and how you really have to be caring and committed to help these individuals through it. And to top that off, they're all being filmed for a news segment.  Steve is shot pretty frantically at times, which perfectly captures the hot and cold moods we find at this school. Mielents manages to do this in a way that doesn't feel amateur. Sometimes it was a little distracting, but it always made sense. If anything, this fil...

Official Synopsis: In Northern England, Jem (Sean Bean) heads out on a journey into the woods to reconnect with the estranged hermit brother, Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) with whom he shared a complicated past that was altered by life-changing events decades ago. Sometimes you have to thank good old fashioned nepotism because without it, we might not have seen the return of the great Daniel Day-Lewis. This film, written and directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis is the first time we've seen him act since 2017's Phantom Thread .  He's still got it, but no one ever doubted that. Anemone is a very slow burn about the relationship between brothers and fathers and sons and every time the film stops to discuss those stories, it's great. There is an excellent story here, unfortunately it might have been a bit too much to handle for a first time director who's eager to show what he can do behind the camera. A lot of this film is lost on long takes, montages, and sweeping scenery. ...

Official Synopsis:  A platoon of Navy SEALs embark on a dangerous mission in Ramadi, Iraq, with the chaos and brotherhood of war retold through their memories of the event. I normally only write reviews of new releases on my blog, and share my thoughts for what I watch at home for my letterboxd , but Warfare blew me away and I just NEED to talk more about it. I almost went to see this so many times in theaters, and inevitably something always came up. Now that's it's available on HBO Max, I finally took the plunge, and I'm kicking myself for not throwing some theater money at this.  I can't think of another film that captures the pointlessness of the Iraq war more than this one. Co-director Ray Mendoza, (who is played by  D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai in the film)  wanted to tell the story of this mission. In fact, the entire screenplay was written around his and his fellow SEALS recollections. What struck me was how easy it would've been for them to leave out the parts...

Official Synopsis:  Comic and podcast pioneer Marc Maron reflects on loss and growth after the death of his partner, Lynn Shelton. As he processes grief and crafts comedy, he revisits his career, family struggles, and the evolving comedy world at 60. I like Marc Maron's comedy, but I loved Lynn Shelton's directing. She had a great eye and made so many interesting indie features. She was taken far too soon by a blood disease she didn't even know she had back in 2020. This documentary is a way for her partner Marc to process his grief while still keeping her spirit alive. Are We Good? is a mix of sweet and cynical, just as you'd expect it to be. Maron has always been the type to lay it all out for his fans. His podcast, standup, and instagram lives are proof of that, and he does the same here. What this turns into is a very sweet look into what a Comedian does after loss. Do they still keep being funny? Is that appropriate? If so, how soon?  I realized as this doc came to...

Official synopsis:  When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue one of their own's daughter. Despite Paul Thomas Anderson directing, and excellent talent like Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall and Benicio del Toro being involved, I wasn't quite sure what to think of the trailer of One Battle After Another. It looked....fine. When the second trailer came out, wildly different than the first, I wondered if this was going to have a tone problem. Thankfully, that was just another case of trailer editors' poor decisions, because One Battle After Another has a lot to say, and is far more timely then you'd think.  It's great to see a major studio back a film that is very harshly critiquing those against immigration. Even more so, it lampoons the white supremacists at the very top of the ladder. I wonder if those who see this film will even recognize themselves. In between all of the harshness, it's spri...