Rambling Film

It's the end of the month so we have another special TV edition. This week Wanderer wants us to talk about high school. You know, that thing for awkward people like me that we try to forget. However, here are some great shows about high school that I always recommend: 1) The Wonder Years The summer before 6th grade, I broke my foot and ended up spending a lot of time in bed because of it. Lucky for me, Nick at Nite had a Wonder Years marathon on that started from the beginning so I got to watch all of it. I was addicted to this show and when I excitedly told my dad how awesome it is, he had to gently tell me that it's an old show that was on in the 80's. It felt so modern compared to the other things I watched on Nick at Nite that I had no idea it wasn't a new show. Derp.  2) Ja'ime: Private School Girl This was a mini series that aired on HBO and it was fucking hysterical. Chris Lilly is apparently an Australian national treasure but this was my firs...

What's left out here? Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) hunts predators on farm lands for a living. While he's on a job at the Wind River Indian Reservation, he stumbles upon a corpse of a girl he knew, Natalie. (Kelsey Asbille) FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) is the only agent available and is sent to investigate Natalie's murder. But she soon finds out that the law is handled very differently there. Writer/Director Taylor Sheridan is on a role. He's written wonderful films like Sicario and Hell or High Water , and he brings the same level of precision here. But it has to be said, this film really is just Sicario on a Native reservation. Jane is an FBI agent with a good heart like Kate. Cory, like Alejandro is driven by a family tragedy. They even have a conversation towards the end of the film with "wolves" thrown in. But what it lacks in originality it makes up everywhere else. I'm okay with seeing another version of Sicario because...

Prayer hands emoji. Social media addict Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) is fresh out of a mental institution following a disastrous breakdown. When she finds her new obsession, a popular Instagram user named Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen) Ingrid cashes in her inheritance check from her recently deceased mother and heads to California to insert herself into Taylor's life.  I tend to roll my eyes a bit when I hear the complaint "people these days look at their phones too much!" Sure, there's times and places when you shouldn't but most of the time I just get bitterness from that statement. Ingrid though, she's worthy of having that criticism. She's probably the most sympathetic antagonist I've seen in a long time. Everything she's doing is wrong. By the way she gets into Taylor's life, to how she treats her well meaning land lord Dan (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) but you can't help but feel bad for her. She needs serious help and real friends. ...

I saw the devil. I've been majorly slacking on these lately. It's nice out, I'm not inside to watch movies enough. No one noticed, right? Brimstone follows a mute woman Liz (Dakota Fanning) living a quite life with her husband Eli (William Houston) and his children. When The Reverend (Guy Pearce) arrives in their small town, Liz knows she's in danger.  I have to preface this by saying this movie is two and half hours, and the DVD I got from Netflix said it was an hour and forty-three minutes. So I started this at about 10:00pm after a few glasses of wine. I didn't notice the length until I happened to glance at my watch and saw it was midnight and still going. So that's a plus on its part. It's long, but it doesn't feel that way for the first two hours.   But man, this movie is weird. I still have a hard time accepting Fanning as the adult that she is when she was such a prolific child actress. So to see her in a few of the situations in th...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is another form of entertainment we love: stage performances. There's a lot to choose from, here are three of my favorites. 1) Get Over It This is one of my favorite rom coms. I loved it as a teen, Ben Foster is trying to get with Kirsten Dunst so he auditions to be in his school's stage version of A Mid Summer Night's Dream. Plus Kirsten Dunst sings and it's lovely. 2) Birdman This all in one take (but not really) look at Riggam, a fading actor appearing on Broadway is amazing. I'm still so happy this won over Boyhood for Best Picture. 3) The Producers Yes, I'm talking about the remake. I like it. It's funny. I know everyone else hates it. (mental note: write a guilty pleasure review of this)

What I knew going in: It often appears on "Best of" lists for independent films. As a lover of indies, Paris, Texas has always been one that has escaped me. So many hailed it as one of the best. Yet, I kept skipping over it in my Netflix queue. Thankfully the Blind Spot Series gave me the motivation I needed. Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) has been missing for four years when he decides to wander back into society and meet up with his brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell) who in turn has been raising Travis' seven year old son, Hunter. (Hunter Carson) Travis decides he wants to find his long lost wife and takes Hunter along for the ride. Travis wasn't a likable character for me. He's selfish and reckless but at the same time I was still so curious about his journey. The film didn't answer all the questions I had, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. Stanton is excellent and carries everything well. It tends to feel longer than it's 2 1/2 hour run time, but...

Watching. Always watching. We start with a couple known only as C (Casey Affleck) and M. (Rooney Mara) She wants to move. He wants to stay. After C dies in a car accident, he rises again as a ghost under a literal sheet. He could move on, but he chooses to go back to his home to watch M. Eventually, M has to move on, but C is now stuck there.  I'm a huge fan of director David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints  so I've been curious about this since it premiered at Sundance. The film is shot in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. It's almost as if you're watching the film through a camera or a window. Even the corners are rounded. It's an interesting way to frame this story. This movie isn't going to be for everyone. It's a very somber film. With lots of long takes and little meaningful dialogue, but you can't help but admire the risk Lowery took with this. We're literally following Casey Affleck under a bed sheet for most of this film. But s...