Rambling Film

Official synopsis:  After being unemployed for several months, Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) devises a unique plan to secure a new job: eliminate his competition. Director Park Chan-wook keeps delivering us hit after hit, and yet the Academy refuses to nominate him. This film was South Korea's submission for Best International Film at this years Oscars, where it unfortunately missed and after watching it, I can confirm they've made a grave mistake. No Other Choice is a dark comedy. It starts with a happy, almost dream like moment between Man-su and his family before his gradual descent into an over the top plan to kill off his competition to get back into the Paper business. It has to be paper. That's what he knows and what he's good at. Nothing else will do.  Lee Byung-hun gives a great performance. He really makes you think for a while that he won't go through with what he's about to do, and when everything starts playing out, he still gives you hope that he might no...

We made it! The Oscar nominations are here and there are some great surprises (Delroy! Ugly Step Sister!) Some weird surprises (Wicked For Good completely blanking) and of course some egregious snubs. (I hunger and thirst for The Testament of Ann Lee) Sinners is now the most nominated movie of all time with a whopping 16 nominations! Below is a list of the nominee + my thoughts and comparisons to my predictions that I shared on Blue Sky. Best Picture Bugonia F1 Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners Train Dreams I went 9/10 with my predictions. I had It Was Just An Accident over F1. F1 is the only one I haven't seen yet, so I'll be getting on that soon. I never expected that movie to get so popular.   Best Director Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another Ryan Coogler – Sinners Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value Chloé Zhao – Hamnet I went 5/5 with my predictions here! I think this i...

Official synopsis:  As Spike (Alfie Williams) is inducted into Jimmy Crystal's (Jack O'Connell) gang on the mainland, Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) makes a discovery that could alter the world. We are very lucky to be blessed with The Bone Temple so soon after the great 28 Years Later came out last year. This time, it's Nia DaCosta in the director's chair, and she fits perfectly into the world that Danny Boyle and Alex Garland has crafted. She perfectly blends the film's superior budget while still throwing in some shots that feel very reminiscent of 28 Days Later , the film that started it all.  While the first part of Years caught me off guard with how emotional I felt watching it, Bone Temple caught me off guard with laughs. Which is kind of insane considering how dark this film gets. Ralph Fiennes' Dr. Kelson takes center stage this film and his interactions with his Alpha Sampson are one of the strongest parts of the film. They provide a lot of humor all whil...

Official synopsis:  A socially awkward tween, Ben (Everett Blunck) endures the ruthless hierarchy at a water polo camp, his anxiety spiraling into psychological turmoil over the summer. If you're a parent of a t(w)een, mainly a teenage boy, buckle up. Watching a group of kids my son's own age like this in a film made me want to scream. I promise, this film is good! But I wanted to scream. Kids can be cruel, especially kids like Jake (Kayo Martin) who is a ring leader that no one wants to cross, even if they know piling on Eli (Kenny Rasmussen) is wrong. Eli is already different, he's very much coded as being on the spectrum, but he's also clearly having an eczema flare up and thus gets labeled the titular "plague."  Ben tries to befriend Eli, he knows what Jake and the other boys are doing is wrong, but his own anxieties start to the best of him. Plus, he's at a sleepaway camp, there's really no one he can go to aside from his coach, Daddy Wags (Joel E...

Official synopsis:  A father (Sergi Lopez) accompanied by his son (Bruno Núñez Arjona)  goes looking for his missing daughter at a rave in Morocco.  Sirat has been making ways lately in the Oscar conversation. It's been nominated for a Golden Globe, it's appeared on more than one Oscar short list. Needless to say my interest in this has sky rocketed in the past few weeks. And boy, what a 180 this film does on the viewer. Realistically, I didn't go into this expecting a happy ending. It's already about looking for a woman who hasn't been heard from in 5 months, and her last sighting was at a rave. Those aren't great odds, but I was not expecting the level of cruelty this film actually goes to with the characters involved. The back half of this film is such a downer, and some of it felt pretty unnecessary.  I can see why this film was shortlisted for casting though, They have a diverse cast of characters. Not all are trained actors, and in the more dramatic scenes...

  That's a wrap for the Golden Globes! I went  23/28 in my picks. Below is a list of winners, my thoughts, and a few out of context quotes from the broadcast just for fun. "What can I say? I'm a greedy bitch" - Jean Smart "I'm Zoe Kravitz, I have my own shrooms" - Zoe Kravitz "This pussy don't pop for you" - Paul Thomas Anderson "And it turns out, we're dumb.." - Nikki Glaser "Bill Maher, you give us so much, but I'd like a little less" - Wanda Sykes BEST MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA Frankenstein Hamnet It Was Just an Accident The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners When Sinners won the box office award, in the back of my mind I was like "What did they give drama to instead?" When Wagner won, I thought The Secret Agent, but no, it was Hamnet all along. I think Sinners is the best film here, but I'll never be upset about a Hamnet win. What an excellent film. Chloe's speech was lovely.  BEST MOTION PI...

Official Synopsis:  Ann Lee, (Amanda Seyfried) the founding leader of the Shaker Movement, proclaimed as the female Christ by her followers. Depicts her establishment of a utopian society and the Shakers' worship through song and dance, based on real events. Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet struck gold last year with The Brutalist with Corbet at the helm. Now this time around, while they wrote together again, Mona takes the directing reigns and what a beautiful film she's crafted here. The Testament of Ann Lee is mesmerizing. It's a beautiful blend of drama, singing, and dance and flows together perfectly. It also works somewhat as a companion piece with The Brutalist . Ann is also a European seeking new life in America after being persecuted back home.(Though because of her religious fanaticism instead of a war) I think it would've been really easy to look at The Shakers with a cynicism. I know I would have, but Fastvold doesn't judge them, she just shows them for wh...

It's that time of year! I've already shared my Top 10 TV shows, and My 10 Worst films of 2025, now we get to the stuff I love. Like every year, it's hard to narrow down the 10. So first is a list of honorable mentions that nearly made the cut. Honorable Mentions 1. Sentimental Value 2. Mickey 17 3. Zootopia 2 4. Black Bag 5. The Ugly Step Sister 6. Thunderbolts* 7. The Roses 8. Rental Family 9. It Was Just An Accident 10. Bugonia Top 10 Films of 2025 in no particular order Did any of these end up on your list? Tell me your favs!

Official synopsis:  In 1977, a technology expert, Marcelo (Wagner Moura) flees from a mysterious past and returns to his hometown of Recife in search of peace. He soon realizes that the city is far from being the refuge he seeks. This film has had a steady amount of buzz since Cannes and is very likely going to be among the Best International Oscar contenders. Maybe even Wager Moura as a lead actor, he'd certainly deserve that. I feel pretty lucky that I've gotten to see as many of the International contenders before the nominations are even announced. Usually it's the other way around. That being said, I liked, but did not love  The Secret Agent . This is a pretty hefty film to get through, and the way it's told - often jumping from the past and present, deliberately misleading viewers, referencing Brazilian folklore that my ignorant American ass knew nothing about - was sometimes cumbersome. There was quite a lot of Googling happening after my watch. It's hard not...

The artist formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards re-named themselves as the Actor Awards and announced their nominations today! Below is a list of the nominations, followed by my thoughts. The nominee list is curtesy of   Next Best Picture OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners On paper I should love these, but because of SAG's stupid rules, I don't think the child actors in Hamnet even qualify, which is a damn shame considering how strong their performances were. Still, I like these. I would've like Wake Up Dead Man or Sentimental Value more than others, but I'm fine with them.  OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Jessie Buckley – Hamnet Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue Chase Infinity – One Battle After Another Emma Stone – Bugonia I WEEP for Amanda Seyfried in The Testament of Ann Lee. You can't tell me Kate Hudso...

Normally I don't even hate enough films in a year to fill out a top 10. I usually tack a "5 worst" at the end of my Top 10 of x year list. But this year, I somehow managed to watch a lot of bullshit. So here's what didn't work for me this year. If you like a film that's on this list. I'm jealous, trust me. I watched all of these films hoping I'd like them. 10. Superman - I've never cared for Superman as a property, but I thought if someone could make me like him, it would be James Gunn. Turns out he only made me like Lex Luther. The dialogue in this movie was horrendous and only Nicholas Hoult sounded natural.  9. Snow White - Rachel Zegler is a star and deserved a better film that didn't include nightmare fuel CG dwarfs and a walking cardboard cut out playing the evil queen. 8. Death of a Unicorn - The trailer for this looked like such a great time and it ended being so dull. Easily the biggest disappointment on this list.  7. The Woman in C...

Official synopsis:  While trying to manage her own life and career, a woman, Linda (Rose Byrne) on the verge of a breakdown must cope with her daughter's illness, an absent husband, a missing person, and an unusual relationship with her therapist. The Golden Globes are WILD for putting this film in their comedy category. While there's a few awkward laughs here and there, this film is pure parenting nightmare fuel.  Linda not only has the already tough responsibility of being a parent, but she's also a carer for her daughter who has a mysterious illness they can't seem to get on top of. Everything in Linda's life is falling apart.  This is a tough watch, but what makes it work is that Linda isn't out there making reckless choices that make her situation worse. Awful things just happen to her organically, and while that itself can also be hard to watch, it never fell into cringe territory to me. This is easily Rose Byrne's best performance. She's so good t...

We're a week away from the Golden Globes! I'll be traveling back home next Sunday so I'm hoping I get home and settled in before the ceremony starts. Below are my predictions on who I think will win, and in some cases, should win.  BEST MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA Frankenstein Hamnet It Was Just an Accident The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners Who will and should win: Sinners The only film that could even slightly challenge One Battle After Another for Best Picture at this point is Sinners, so I see it taking the prize. It's also the strongest movie of all the nominees, in my opinion. BEST MOTION PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY Blue Moon Bugonia Marty Supreme No Other Choice Nouvelle Vague One Battle After Another Who will and should win: One Battle After Another I would be shocked if something else one. Truly shocked. While I think Marty Supreme is right up there with it, One Battle is a better film overall. I can't speak for No Other Choice or Blue Moon, the only two f...