Rambling Film

Anthony McCoy ( Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is an artist stuck in a rut. He lives with his art dealer girlfriend, Brianna (Teyonah Parris) in a beautiful Chicago apartment, but when he hears the legend of Candyman, his inspiration takes him back to the former projects where the events of the 1992 film started. The 1992 Candyman is one of my favorite horror films because it legitimately scared me when I was younger. I had meant to re-watch it before seeing this, but didn't get the time. Thankfully this film recounts a lot of the bigger plot points. I was a bit surprised just how much the 92 film played into this one.  Director Nia DaCosta has a wonderful eye. The look and feel of this movie is creepy and gorgeous at the same time. Her direction is the best thing about this, even when the script is trying like hell to work against her. I loved the choice to tell some of the back story using shadow puppets, I loved all the shots in the art world, and the kills are brilliantly staged. One ...

This week's TV theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is exciting! Today we get to put our hopes out into existence with what books we'd like to see adapted into TV shows. Here are a few of mine that I think would make wonderful limited series. Come through, HBO!  1) Life Sentences - Laura Lippman is probably my favorite author. I love mysteries, and hers are so readable. One of her books was already adapted into a pretty good movie - Every Secret Thing - But it's Life Sentences that I think would make a good mini series. It's one of her most interesting books and there's plenty of amazing parts for actresses that I would love to see.  2) The Lovely Bones - Sure, the movie was ~fine~ but Peter Jackson was not the director for it. Let a female showrunner and writer take Lovely Bones to the small screen and give us what we should've had with the movie.  3) The Sundown Motel - This is a more recent read for me and it was a fun mystery/ghost story that I think ...

Stand up comedian Henry McHenry (Adam Driver) and opera singer Ann (Marion Cotillard) have a relationship that the tabloids love. Then they have a daughter together, the titular Annette and she has a very special gift. This has been one of my most anticipated movies of the year and when the Cannes reactions came out, I realized I had to set my expectations a little. Everyone said this movie was crazy. I just hoped it was fun crazy and not pretentious crazy. So what did it end up being? This is a true musical, very little is spoken, songs are made about the most mundane of things and some of the bigger ballads including child birth, Henry going down on Ann, and murder. That should tell you a lot about this movie. It's really *out there* and I love that about it. It's rare you see a film swing for fences like this and actually hit it out of the park. I loved it. I wanted good weird and that's what it provided. This is most definitely Driver's movie and he's incredible...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about treasure hunts. I had to laugh when thinking about this theme because it's so not my bag. My husband loves the National Treasure movies and I'm just solidly meh about them. I tried to think outside of the box a little, and not use franchises like that, Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean. Here's what I came up with. 1) The Da Vinci Code - I never read the book this was based on but I really loved the movie. I suppose I wouldn't had I actually gotten around to reading it, but until then I'll remain blissfully ignorant and enjoy myself with this. 2) Da 5 Bloods - While not my favorite Spike Lee joint, it fits the bill of today's theme. The film was about far more than just the gold.  3) King of California - This is a cute little film where Michael Douglas tries to convince Evan Rachel Wood there's gold buried under their local Costco. It's been a while since I've seen this, bu...

When we meet Bill (Matt Damon) we can tell immediately he's a bit "down on his luck." He was laid off from the oil fields and now does odd construction jobs, but can't find anything permanent. In between all of this, he jets off to Marseille, France to visit his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) who has been imprisoned there for five years for a crime she swears she didn't commit.  When Allison's lawyer refuses to chase a new lead, Bill takes it upon himself to find answers on his daughter's behalf, along with the help of a woman he meets along the way, Virginie (Camille Cotton) and her sweet daughter, Maya.  (Lilou Siauvaud) This is director Tom McCarthy's follow up to the spectacular Spotlight and while it doesn't reach that level, it's very engaging. Bill wasn't an easy character for me to get in to. In fact, I was annoyed with him almost immediately as perpetuated a lot of those "ugly American tourist" stereotypes. But even ...

  What I knew going in: Not much, other than seeing various gifs/photos Arthur (Christian Bale) is a journalist doing a piece on a glam rocker, Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and what happened to him after he faked his own death at a concert Arthur had attended. We also see Slade's life and his admiration for another rocker, Curt Wild. (Ewan Mcgregor) I don't often pick movies made in the 90's for my Blind Spot series, but I've been doing it a bit more lately because there are so many that I have missed, and this is one that gets brought up a lot. It's something I *should* have seen by now, but just haven't. And I have to say it was quite a bit different than I imagined. I always assumed Ewan McGregor had the focus in this film, because he's the actor that I always here people talk about when discussing this film, but he doesn't. Bale and Meyers have a lot more screen time than him, so I wasn't expecting that. I had actually forgotten Bale was in...

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is one that I suggested - movies that confuse you. If I don't "get" a movie, I'll admit that. It happens, and that's okay. Here are three movies that come to mind immediately that left me flabbergasted at the end. 1) The Fountain - Admittedly, I keep a list of movies I'm going to give a second chance to, and this is on that list, but I was so confused when leaving this movie. It's one of my husband's favorites, but I left it just thinking it was dumb. I don't remember much about the plot now other than I kept asking myself "Why?" throughout, but this one was a no for me.  2) Madeline's Madeline - This film got a lot of indie buzz and when I watched it I thought it was an absolute mess. It was so disjointed and I just didn't get it. I was incredibly disappointed with this. 3) Tenet - I love Christopher Nolan, I'll admit it, but I still don't understand what he was ...