Rambling Film

  This week's TV theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is that one I saw I'm going to do better with every year, then never do. There is so much TV to watch in English that I rarely get to anything else, and the few I do, I've talked about before. So here's me reaching again. Recommend something fun to me in the comments. 1) Yu-Gi-Oh - I've never watched this show, but as a kid I remember thinking it was so weird that so many adults liked this, and jokes on me because now I'm an adult who likes anime too. We can all grow, folks.  2) Pokemon - My son is obsessed with this. He takes great pride in his cards and tells me all about them, and I know nothing, because I don't watch this either.  3) Scenes From A Marriage - This is kind of a cheat, because while it aired as mini series in Sweden, I've only seen the film cut, but I'm watching the remake so it reminded me of this. 

While attending a religious college, Tammy Faye (Jessica Chastain) meets Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) and together they build a televangelist empire.  Truth be told, I knew nothing about the Bakkers prior to watching this movie. I know televangelism is a thing, but it's something I never encountered growing up. Of all the real life figures in this film, I only recognized one name and it was because Jon Stewart dragged him all over The Daily Show back in the day. So because of this, I can't speak to whether or not most of it is accurate, but I can say I was entertained. The beginning of the film shows a bunch of news clips about the real rise and fall of the Bakkers, which I thought was a weird choice, but I'm assuming the majority of the people watching this would already be familiar with them, and not watching it because it could be an Oscar contender like me. But after that, we jump right into the story and briskly move along. One of the things I appreciated the most ab...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is all about femme fatales. This made me realize that a lot of the films that come to mind when I think of this, I haven't actually seen. I tried to pick three different types of femme fatales. Here's what I came up with. 1) Sin City - This movie is chuck full of women that could be considered femme fatales, mainly the Dames of Oldtown. I've seen this movie so many times. It's one of my favorites. 2) Chinatown - I had to go with at least one classic film here, and Chinatown is one that came to mind. Evelyn is a woman who looks like she's capable of anything, and she is.  3) Brick - I wanted to go a little out of left field for my last pick, so I landed on Laura, this film's high school version of a femme fatale.

  What I knew going in: The basic premise. Charlie (Harvey Keitel) is a small time criminal in Brooklyn, He's in love with Teresa (Amy Robinson) who is family doesn't approve us because she has epilepsy, and he spends a good amount of time trying to reel his sort of friend/fellow criminal Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) from being the walking dumpster fire that he is. Charlie wants to rise in the ranks, but everything seems to be working against him. I've been trying to go back and catch some of Martin Scorcese's earlier work. Last year, I got around to Raging Bull , and I knew that Mean Streets was going to be next. I had to laugh while watching this, because it's the first time I've thought Scorcese's direction was bad. Obviously it's one of his earliest films so he was still trying to find his footing at this point, but it's easily the least polished of any of his films I've watched.  For me, the only thing making this film worth watching is Harve...

We made it to Emmy night! Seth Rogen immediately called them out for having a roof when they promised an outdoor event, and then we were off to a show that had way too many stupid comedy bits. The funniest bits of the show were not from host Cedric The Entertainer, but were rather a few quips from presenters. From the categories below, I went 14/21 with my picks. Below are the winners (highlighted in blue) + a few thoughts. Outstanding Drama Series “The Boys”  “Bridgerton”  “The Crown”  “The Handmaid’s Tale”  “Lovecraft Country”  “The Mandalorian”  “Pose”  “This Is Us”  Everyone knew this was coming. Respect to the majority of the cast and crew sitting in a fancy bar in London in the middle of the night.  Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Uzo Aduba, “In Treatment” Olivia Colman, “The Crown” Emma Corrin, “The Crown” Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale” MJ Rodriguez, “Pose” Jurnee Smollett, “Lovecraft Country” I love Olivia, and her s...

Markus (Mads Mikkelson) is a miltary man whose called back home when his wife is killed in a tragic train accident. Only, maybe it's not an accident at all. A Mathematician, Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) switched seats with Markus' wife prior to the crash, and feels incredibly guilty, even more so when he sees Markus' daughter Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg) all alone at the hospital. He concludes that there are too many factors that lead to this not being an accident. Along with his colleagues Leinart (Lars Brygmaan) and Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro) they bring their suspicions to Markus and what unfolds is a violent tale of revenge. Mads Mikkelson is one of my favorite working actors right now so this has been on my watch list for a while. I know he has worked with director  Anders Thomas Jensen several times, but this is the first time I've watched one of their films and now I need to search out the rest. I knew I'd like this, but I wasn't expecting to love it as much...

  This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves has plenty of films to choose from..Outlaws! I decided on a theme within a theme this week with everyone's favorite outlaw 1) Robin Hood - Disney's version is unapologetically my favorite because I had it on VHS growing up so I watched it over and over.  2) Robin Hood: Men In Tights - I thought this film was SO funny when I was a kid. My dad and I watched it together quite a bit, and I still find it pretty funny now. 3: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - I love how bad this is. The true gem of this film is Christian Slater delivering one of the greatest lines in cinematic history: "Fuck me, he cleared it!"