The Quite Nerdy Blog

Christmas is nearly here again which we probably should have seen coming due to it being annual and all but it still surprised us. Anyway, I wasn't sure what Christmas themed Top 7 to do as I've already done films in general and Christmas themed TV episodes. As you've probably worked out from the title, I chose unconventional films because Christmas is all well and good but it's fun to mess with the concept sometimes. 7. Gremlins Let's start with a real classic. Gremlins is technically a horror, although the fact that I can watch it probably disqualifies it as such. This is one of those movies that is for children but properly treats them maturely. This has a great story with some properly emotional moments, some great dark humour and fantastic violence that children are allowed to watch because that blood flying everywhere is green so it's comic violence. There are many fantastic moments in the film only possible due to the Christmas setting, although my...

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the first part of a new five part series based on a 120 page encyclopedia from the Harry Potter universe. It follows New Scamander as he comes to New York with some Fantastic Beasts, loses some of them and then has to work out where to find them. There is more to the plot obviously, it's also a story about people who think witches might be among them and don't like that one bit in a very Crucible way. There's also this bad guy called Grindlewald who has a very distinctive haircut and that will be a problem when it comes to big reveals. Of all the places to go in the Harry Potter universe, I'm not entirely sure why they chose here but they make a story out of the film and it works, even if I feel like saying there's four more coming after this is more than a little bit of a preposterous stretch. I'll get to acting because it's my favourite bit of the film. This isn't because the film contains real powerhous...

Arrival is a film by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario) and it stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. It's the story of 12 alien ships landing at seemingly random points on the earth. Amy Adams is called in to help decode their language as she's one of America's best linguists. They will have to cooperate with the aliens and especially the other people on Earth to try and work out what these aliens want. First off, I want to say that this is the kind of story we need right now as it's about how co-operation can actually save the world, something we all need to look around and remember. Other than that. it's an incredibly impressive story to watch unfold. It has a narrative complexity that seems overwhelming when it's finally laid clear but after thought, it's a story that makes genuine sense and addresses fascinating concepts that I'm not sure I've seen addressed in a sci-fi film before, definitely not in this depth. There's ...

Nocturnal Animals is the second film from Tom Ford, director of A Single Man, and tells three separate stories that are all very much linked. At the core of the film is the story of art gallery director, played by Amy Adams, who lives a largely pointless world. Her husband is often away on business trips, probably having an affair and almost pretending she doesn't exist. One day, Adams gets a copy of her ex husband's (Jake Gyllenhal) new novel and she starts to notice scary parallels between the fictional characters and the real world. The film unfolds across three timelines, the present, the past and the novel, a story about a family who end up stuck in the Texan desert. It's a very smart way of telling a very interesting story and it allows you to gradually connect the dots between the worlds. As you should have worked out, there are some fantastic performances here. The main one and probably one of the greatest in the film is Amy Adams. She has to carry most of the...

Unfortunately I didn't have time to see Doctor Strange before I wrote this so I won't cover it on the blog but I probably really enjoyed it. Regradless, this means I have another chance to talk about Black Mirror Season 3, this time in a real review. If you haven't seen the episodes yet, I'd recommend not reading this until you have because they're best enjoyed fully blind, although I will try to avoid any major spoilers as I run through them episode by episode. So let's dive into pretty much the most depressing series on TV once more! Episode One: Nosedive Director: Joe Wright ( Atonement, Pan) Genre: Social Satire/Tragicomedy Technology addressed: Social Media (desire for online validation) This was the episode I saw at the London Film Festival and you can read a more in depth look at that on the previous post I did on it. At the time, I said that if the rest of this season was anywhere near as good as this episode, I'd be delighted which is why ...