We're All Animals, After All

A Speaks Movie Review

★★★ 1/2 out of ★★★★

Thursday Movie Picks: Intersecting Stories

Now here is a theme I can't quite put my finger on. There are so many places I feel this can go what with so many movies that follow multiple characters and storylines. My mind instantly goes to something from Altman in the vein of Nashville or Short Cuts and beyond that to the Altman-inspired work of Paul Thomas Anderson in Boogie Nights and Magnolia. 

But I don't really want to go there. I've used about every P.T. Anderson movie by now, and, as much as I love those Altman films, I haven't seen them in so long that I wouldn't even know what to say about them.

So, it's Thursday, which means it's time for another entry in Wandering through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. This week...Intersecting Stories, but I'm throwing a curve ball...

Thursday Movie Picks: Movies Narrated by Narrators That Do Not Appear on Screen

Now, this is a good one. It's so good, in fact, that I literally overloaded, shut down, and ultimately went with the three of the first four that came to me (and the fourth is here as a bonus). I love so many movies that use this technique, but I just couldn't find them. This is a trio of movies taken to greatness by the voice of an unseen omniscient narrator, three films that hinge on it for humor, for nostalgia, for exposition, for how imagined histories shape the best narratives. Plus, that bonus...

'Vinyl' Got Good

It really did. Now, I'm not one who came out instantly jaded from the get-go like so many others. I'm totally 100% fine with another Terrence Winter HBO project set up by Martin Scorsese, and this time starring Bobby Cannavale, the guy who played the best Boardwalk Empire foil of them all, as record label head Richie Finestra.

The (Official) Top 15 of 2015

I owe my return to full-on cinephilia to my wife, Amanda. She encourages my movie-watching, plans dates for us to go to the movies, inspired me to start up this blog. Save one or two this year, she is at my side for every single movie I see, at least at the movie theater. And, this year, 2015, is the year we've been able to see the most.