Rambling Film

Official synopsis:  A father-to-be (Daniel Roher) tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity. The Sundance Film Festival is always a good place to start when looking for new documentaries to follow throughout the year. This one in particular had quite a few good reviews after leaving the festival, but even I was surprised to see my theater actually opening it this weekend. I rarely see our big chain theater open documentaries, so I immediately wanted to support it. Of course I was the only one in the theater but hey! I did my part! The same team that brings us the AI Doc also brought us the Oscar winning Navalny . The production value is very good and leans heavily into the art that director/subject Roher makes. His drawings fill the screen in between talking heads, and he gets quite a few of those. The doc starts with the AI doomers, then the AI enthusiasts, then the big CEOs of some of these companies (minus two very well-known douchebags) Then it brings in ...

Official synopsis:  Science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up alone on a spaceship light-years from Earth. As his memory returns, he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious substance killing the sun, and save Earth. An unexpected friendship may be the key. Andy Weir is an author I've really come to enjoy over the past decade. I enjoyed Project Hail Mary too, and I already knew Gosling was in line to play this role while reading it. So how does the film stack up even with my book reader expectations? Pretty darn good! I will admit, tonally the two mediums are quite different. It's no surprise that directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller leaned heavily into the comedic moments. It's what they're good at, and it works more often than it doesn't.  Ryan Gosling is really the perfect actor to tackle someone like Grace. He has the perfect balance between comedic and dramatic abilities. Grace is a dorky middle school science teacher, but he's a damn smart ...

We made it to the biggest night of the year! This was certainly a whirlwind of a production. Host Conan O'Brien started out really strong with a Weapons parody, but the production for the rest of the show left a lot to be desired. The sound wasn't very good (maybe that was just my station?) the orchestra cut off several speeches including retracting the mic and dimming lights on winners. Completely awful look. I also felt really weird about the In Memoriam segment. It's awkward when certain people are called out above others. Because yes, there are arguably more popular people on that list, but they're ALL someone's favorite and it just felt a little odd to single some out, even if it was a lovely tribute I Lied To You and Golden's performances were 10/10 no notes. I went 18/24 with my picks! Even though there was a tie, one of my picks still won so I'm counting it. Below is a full list of winners followed by more thoughts.  Best Picture Bugonia F1 Frankenst...

Official synopsis :  In 1930s Chicago, Frankenstein (Christian Bale) asks Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening) to help create a companion. They give life to a murdered woman Ida (Jessie Buckley) as the Bride, sparking romance, police and radical social change. It's only fitting we get The Bride soon after Frankenstein. Not that either film is connected other than being Franken-Fan-Fic, but director Maggoe Gyllenhaal takes a huge swing with this and I'm here for it. The Bride! tries to be many things. A love story, a police drama, the start of a feminist movement. It also attempts to invoke the voice of the Mary Shelley, which is a bold choice. Not all of these things work. Penelope Cruz and Peter Sarsgard have an interesting dynamic as detectives, and I wish the film had done more with the part of the story that was linked to them BEFORE they are hunting for a pair of murderers. (No spoilers) I think they could've leaned more into the work Ida was doing prior and fleshed out tha...

  Official synopsis: A schoolgirl ruins her two headmistresses with a scandalous lie. What I knew going in: That it was an underrated Audrey Hepburn film This blind spot came from a reader comment, which are some of my favorites. I need people better versed in classic film than me to recommend titles, and this one came up when I expressed interest in wanting to see more Audrey Hepburn.  Seeing her and the wonderful Shirley MacLaine together was a treat. Both play young teachers whose lives are torn apart by one child's lie. And man was that child, played by Karen Balkin the ultimate little shit. There's a reason the highest rated review on letterboxd for this film simply says "can children get the death penalty" It's a frustrating film on multiple fronts. It shows homosexuality as something one should be "ashamed" of (you should never) but at the same time the fact that a film in 1961 was putting this much focus on it at all is pretty significant. Even...

 Okay, I still can't get used to calling these The Actor Awards. I thought the show was kind of chaotic. They started off with a really great skit with the Abbott Elementary cast then, they followed it up with some of the most awkward presenting banter I've seen in a long time.  I actually welcomed the "ad breaks" Netflix had where they paid tribute to different genres of films. They did somewhat redeem themselves with Miles Caton singing after the In Memoriam segment, but it was all over the place. I went 7/13 with my picks, which is awful, but hey! I like surprises too.  What did you think of the show? Below is a list of the nominees and winners + my thoughts.  OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners Samuel L Jackson was so excited to announce this win lol. One Battle has Best Picture locked up, so it's nice to see Sinners get to shine here. I saw online that Ryan Coogler became the...