Rambling Film

A lot can be said about a movie from its poster. If I had seen this poster first, I probably would've skipped it in theaters. Seriously this is the go to generic ensemble cast poster, and few good things come of it. Gunther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a spy trying to bring some validity back to his name. When a tortured Chechen man, Issa (Grigoriy Dobrygin) shows up in Hamburg, Gunther links him to wealthy business man that's been accused to transferring money from charities to Islamic terrorists. Issa has help from his lawyer, Annabel (Rachel McAdams, in a terrible German accent) and a reluctant banker, Tommy. (Willem DeFoe) Here's the thing about this movie. It's interesting, it builds to a good climax, then promptly falls flat on its face. The ending was not satisfying at all. Maybe the novel it was based on has more details, but I couldn't help but be disappointed. Throughout the film, I kept trying to reason with myself that this film ...

I think we're all still trying to absorb the news that the great Robin Williams has passed away of an apparent suicide.The cause of death just makes it sting more. Sometimes the ones that make us laugh are the ones that are hurting the most. It's tragic all around, depression is a nasty disease. I hope one day the stigma around depression and suicide can be lifted. It's not a "selfish" act, it's a desperate one, and words like that can hurt. But I'm going to try to keep this light, because that's what Robin Williams really was for me. He was funny and likable. So much so that I couldn't even watch Jack without crying as a kid (and probably as an adult if I tried again) because the mere thought of people being mean to Robin Williams is un-fucking-bearable.  Here are my 5 favorite Williams films. RIP sir, you were a big part of my childhood.  1) One Hour Photo This is my all time favorite Williams performance because it was something so diff...

What if I showed you something that would take your breath away? Ian (Michael Pitt) is a molecular biologist who's fascinated with the human eye. He's been taking pictures of them ever since he was a kid. He thinks that he can actually disprove God if he maps out the human eye from the beginning. His new lab partner, Karen (Brit Marling) is up to the task of helping. But one day, Ian meets Sofi (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) and falls in love with her hard and fast. She's a very spiritual being, and in some ways a polar opposite of Ian. When tragedy strikes, Ian is faced with another hurdle later on in life that brings memories of Sofi and gives him the opportunity to make one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. Steven Yeun also stars as Ian's best friend and fellow scientist, Kenny. I've been looking forward to this one since it appeared during the Sundance Film Festival in January. I had high expectations, and the reviews I read all started gre...

And you thought your teenager was angsty. Hubert (Xavier Dolan, who also wrote and directed this) is a selfish, angry teen who is almost obsessed with his hatred of his vain mother. (Anne Dorval) It seems to consume his thoughts and his solutions for said hatred are never feasible.  This film was very interesting. I watched it with my teenage niece, and she found herself agreeing with Hubert on most things, where as I tended to side with his mother. I kind of had to laugh about it afterwards. She thought the mother was wrong for telling Hubert she'd consider about letting him move into his own apartment (he's 16) and I told her Hubert was stupid for even thinking that his mom would actually allow it. It made for an interesting discussion, because neither of these characters are likable, yet I was still glued to my screen the entire time. Dolan was a teenager when he made this semi-autobiographical film, and that in itself is impressive. He could've made himse...

"Sort of inspired by this novel. Sort of." That's the title card that should've appeared at the beginning of this movie, which was LOOSELY adapted from a novel of the same name. A woman (Scarlett Johansson) roams the streets of Scotland chatting with the locals, picking up hitchhikers, seducing them, and then they just disappear. What happens to them? This movie isn't going to tell you, which makes it kind of feel like a "Build Your Own Adventure" of sorts. I'm really torn on this, because I read the novel and the film chose to only adapt 1/3 of it. We're shown countless scenes of the woman picking up her prey, but the film never tells us what she's doing with them, which was the most interesting part of the novel in the first place. The repetitive nature made this film drag and the conclusion left me wanting more. There are a few great things about this movie. The cinematography is breathtaking and the score is absolut...

The people who wrote 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' must be so rich. Seriously, how many movies is that song in? It's EVERYWHERE. Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is a scavenger from Earth who calls himself "Starlord." he steals a mysterious orb to sell to someone, but soon finds out it's far more important than he thought. Ronan (Lee Pace) is after him for it, and he must band together with a group of misfits who all have their reasons for fighting against Ronan as well. There's Gamora (Zoe Saldana) a daughter of Thanos, who Ronan was working for. She wants them all dead. Rocket and Groot (Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel) are bounty hunters who are in it for the money, and Drax (Dave Bautista) had his family murdered by Ronan and wants revenge.  I never did get into the Guardian comics like I did some of the others in the Marvelverse, so I knew the least about them, and went in pretty blind. This is definitely the funniest film Marvel has put o...

pretty much dead already Only three more episodes of True Blood left! There were quite a few things I liked about tonight's episode. Of course most of the things I didn't involved Bill. Am I the only one that keeps pausing next week's preview to see if it looks like Eric's Hep V veins are gone? They'd better be. Click those gifs to be redirected to their makers. Eric and Pam interrogate Amber, who has done a complete 180 since being cured and won't give her sister up. She lets is slip that Sarah is now the cure for Hep V, and Eric stakes her because he hallucinates Sarah in her place. Mr. Gus makes Pam and Eric an offer. He'll track down Sarah with them, and he wants to synthesize her blood and distribute it as 'New Blood' And he needs Eric to be the spokesperson since no one trusts their company anymore. It's a lot of money, so eventually he goes along with the idea. Sarah runs to the abandoned Light of Day church and hall...