Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
The way mentally challenged people are depicted on film is a mixed bag. For every great example, there are tens of horrible ones and entering any film that uses those issues as a central tenant is always a bit nerve wrecking. Thankfully, you can relax when sitting down to enjoy Chicken.
Have you ever read a book, watched a film or listened to a piece of music and wondered why you haven’t been doing this your whole life? That’s the feeling I got last year when I sat down and watched my first Studio Ghibli film. The second I turned on My Neighbour Totoro I fell in love, and I still can’t figure out what I had been doing for the previous twenty-three years. It’s a sadness that is compounded by them releasing what they say is their final film, When Marnie Was There.
Before we get into this, let’s make it clear that this post will include spoilers for The Nice Guys. Now that is out of the way, let’s go. The Nice Guys reads like a list of Shane Black’s greatest hits. Mismatched buddy cops (although in this case it is a buddy PI and a buddy tough for hire), fast-paced dialogue, jabs at corporate America, plucky young children and an underlying darkness beneath the jokes. There’s even some Christmas. It also has a plot that at some points is completely nonsensical.
Around two-thirds of the way into Money Monster it is tough to see where it is going to go next. Until that point, it has been a tight thriller all set within the confines of one studio. However, it becomes apparent that that portion of the film has lost steam and that something new has to be added. When it does come to be it loses everything that has made the film work and drops the whole thing into the ridiculous.
Music and cinema are natural bedfellows. From the piano led accompaniment of silent films to the pop soundtracks of Quintin Tarantino. However, very few directors have merged the two as effectively as John Carney. His breakout film Once was the first hint at that talent before Begin Again cemented it. Somehow, though, he has topped both of those with the quite frankly incredible Sing Street.
There’s something thrilling about punk rock on film. The wild and pissed off nature of it lends itself to any number of scenarios. However, very few films have captured that nature in the way Green Room does. When punk band The Ain’t Rights walk into a room full of Neo-Nazis and launch into a cover of The Dead Kennedys‘ ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’ it taps into the rebellion that lies at the heart of that scene. That that moment is encamped in a film that takes the siege horror genre and twists it in a whole manner of fucked up ways is just an added bonus.
The story of Florence Foster Jenkins is a mix of the bizarre and the inspirational. A New York socialite who was robbed of her status as a piano prodigy due to injuries to her hand, she went on to become a great supporter of the arts. However, she wasn’t content with just supporting them and decided to make steps into opera singing. Sadly, the only person unaware that she was awful, was herself, and she was kept ignorant of that right up until the moment she sang at Carnegie Hall.
WARNING: this review will contain a whole load of Richard Linklater loving, and if you ain’t down for that you should move along. Everybody Wants Some!! is the latest work from a man who over the course of thirty years has produced films as diverse as Boyhood and School of Rock. However, in among those vastly different films, there are themes that pop up time after time and the same goes for Everybody Wants Some!! Themes of growing up, love and philosophy that Linklater seems naturally drawn to.
Son of Saul is a hard film to love. Not because of any faults but because of its subject matter. Set in Auschwitz, it follows Saul, a Sonderkommando who works with the bodies of the dead, as he tries to conduct a proper burial for his son. While this is going on, his fellow Sonderkommando are planning an escape from the horrifying conditions that they live in.
It feels only natural that just a few months after DC released their big superhero rumble Marvel should come along with one of their own. For so long DC has been chasing at Marvel’s coattails and attempting to replicate their cinematic world that it is nice to see them doing something first for once. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop Captain America: Civil War from beating Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice at nearly every turn.
Ramblings About Wrestling 