Rambling Film

  We have a connection. A young woman (Jessie Buckley) is going to meet her boyfriend Jake's (Jesse Plemmons) parents for the first time. She's already thinking of ending their relationship. As she goes over this in her mind, Jake almost seems to hear her thoughts. When she arrives at his family's home and meets his parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis) things get stranger. Have you ever felt like a movie was effectively gaslighting you? Because that's how I felt watching I'm Thinking of Ending Things. I didn't realize until sitting down to write this review that Buckley's character is credited as "young woman." She's introduced as Lucy, but then later on we learn that might not even be her real name. Her not having a name in the credits is honestly the icing on the cake of how bothered I am about the way her character is treated. I wanted to like this movie so much. The trailer was awesome, I love the actors involved and I've enjoyed ...

2020 continues to be the absolute worst, and here I still am, escaping with my small screen... Pose I finished the second season and wow this cast just knocks it out of the park. The Emmys need to stop ignoring the women on this show who are just wonderful each week. The Alienist This season was going so well until the ending...what was that? It was so bad. An unnecessary death just so another character could man up and get revenge. The main character deciding a loveless marriage is better for him because he wants kids. No Teddy Roosevelent cameo like in the book (I like Brian Dohgerty as an actor, it would've been nice to see him again in this) I'm so disappointed. If anything good can come from this, I hope Rosy McEwen gets offered a ton of new projects because this was her first screen role and she was fantastic.  The Sopranos I'm still making my way through this for the first time and am on season 3. I thought the episode with the rape scene was wildly unnecessary and d...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is domestic thrillers. Even though this is a pretty broad category, I struggled with it a bit. I might be reaching a little on the "thriller" part of this, but here's what I came up with. 1) The Gift A married couple's life is thrown for a loop when an old friend shows up bearing gifts. Honestly, I had pretty low expectations for this movie but it ended up being so good and completely disturbing. Joel Edgerton, Rebecca Hall, and Jason Bateman were all excellent.  2) Swallow A woman stuck in a mundane marriage starts swallowing random objects to regain control. This film is one of the most beautifully shot of 2020 so far and while it may not be a traditional thriller per say, you're constantly on edge thinking about what could happen to Hunter next. 3) Hard Candy This one doesn't involve a married couple, but a man who lures a 14 year old girl to his home when she has other plans in mind. It has all the ...

Pay for your crimes.   In the last year of his life, Al Capone (Tom Hardy) or how he's referred to in this film - Fonse is suffering from  syphilis  in his Florida home while being under surveillance by the FBI. As he continues to deteriorate, he tries to remember where he buried a large sum of money, while his wife Mae (Linda Cardellini) takes care of him. I knew going into Capone it was going to be horrible, but I expected it to be funny bad. And part of it is. Whatever the fuck Tom Hardy is doing here is hilarious. The film's climatic moment features him running around his yard, in a full diaper with a tommy gun growling like a cartoon character who spent their entire life smoking two packs a day. But for the rest of the time, its almost painfully boring. Writer/Director Josh Trank uses a lot of hallucinations and flashbacks to tell his story, but he can't weave them together coherently. It's a mess of a screenplay. I had the same incredulous moment watching Acad...

This week's TV theme from Wandering Through Shelves is prequels. I'm actually a bit excited this week because I get to gush about one of my favorite animated shows. The other is a popular show airing now, and the 3rd is something from my childhood that I probably should've left there. 1) Star Wars Rebels The first season of this show is a little rough because it is geared towards younger kids, which I obviously am not, but this show gets SO good. Hera and Kanan in particular are some of my favorite characters in the Star Wars canon. (and they are also the best ship...sorry Han/Leia) I've been re-watching random episodes of this lately and it's just so good. Highly recommend.  2) Better Call Saul As much as I love Breaking Bad, I was always iffy on this as a prequel idea but it turned out to be wonderful. I'm excited for its final season. Excited and scared..Kim has been so dumb lately and I hate seeing it happen. 3) Muppet Babies I randomly get this theme song s...

  The wonderful Dell over at Dell on Movies  is back with his annual summer Against The Crowd Blogathon! I've participated in this every year , and it's always a fun post to write. This year it snuck up on me though. Where did August go? It's not like I've been doing anything. As always, here are the rules: Pick one movie “everyone” loves (the more iconic, the better). That movie must have score of 75% or more on rottentomatoes.com (or at least 7.5 on imdb.com). Tell us why you hate it. Pick one movie that “everyone” hates (the more notorious, the better). That movie must have a score of 35% or less on rottentomatoes.com (or 4.0 or less on imdb.com). Tell us why you love it. Include the tomato meter scores of both movies. Use one of the banners in this post, or feel free to create your own (just include all the pertinent details), or just mention this blogathon if using an audio or visual medium. Let us know what two movies you intend on writing, vlogging, posting,...

I re-subscribed to Hulu for a short time to watch a few TV shows, and while I was there I cranked out a few movie watches as well. Here's a few quick reviews of movies available on the platform. Hail Satan? - This documentary about the Satanic Temple was very enlightening When it comes to religion, I'm at a place where I just....I don't care to hear about it. I consider myself spiritual, but I view religion as a private thing and it irks me to no end when people try to force their religion on others, which is a big part of what the Satanic Temple works against. If you're going to put up a statue of the 10 Commandments, then all other religions should be allowed to have their beliefs showcased as well.  T hey don't actually worship Satan, but instead recognize him as a symbol for someone who was ousted from society for not following the status quo, and now fights back at injustices. As one of them puts it: w"hen Abraham is told to kill his son, Satan didn't...