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Media itt: movie/film discussion - Beware Spoilers

Here are my 2025 Top 10 Movies — Part 1 (January-June). My rankings are very subjective. I am not trying to be 100% objective since I want them to reflect how I feel and my preferences in film. Generally, I most value films that 1. explore emotional and philosophical themes that Make You Think, 2. are intentional with its narrative where actions Make Sense, Happen For A Reason, and ultimately pays off, and 3. have protagonists worth rooting for. Complete, ever-updating rankings of all 2025 Movies watched here.
A Minecraft Movie
Another Simple Favor
Black Bag
Ballerina
Captain America: Brave New World
Companion
Drop
F1
Final Destination Bloodlines
Heart Eyes
How to Train Your Dragon
Lilo & Stitch
Materialists
M3GAN 2.0
Mickey 17
Return to Office
Sinners
Snow White
The Life List
Thunderbolts*
Honorable Mention: Return to Office
:toast::toast::toast: :heart:

I love Janel Parrish and there's a self-righteous diatribe against generative AI. Full review on Letterboxd.

Honorable Mention: Ballerina
:toast::toast::toast: :heart:

I wish Ana de Armas punched me in the face too.

#10: Heart Eyes
:toast::toast::toast: :heart:

Slasher x Whodunit x Romantic Comedy starring Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding? Sign me up. A very charming and enjoyable movie theater experience.

#9 Final Destination: Bloodlines
:toast::toast::toast: :heart:

Best since the original. Not only a good Final Destination movie, but also a good movie on its own. Rest in Peace, Tony Todd.

#8: F1
:toast::toast::toast: :heart:

I saw this alone at 9:15 AM on a Friday. Quintessential three-star film and knows exactly what it is. I don't know anything about F1, but the racing sequences and the intricacies behind the team strategy were great.

— Tier Break —

#7: Materialists
:toast::toast::toast: :heart:

Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal, directed by Celine Song. It really does Make You Think. Thoroughly enjoyed The Ringer's The Big Picture podcast about it.

— Tier Break —

#6: 28 Years Later
:toast::toast::toast::toast: :heart:

A fake horror film, especially past the first act. The Zombies, erm, infected were cool, but the coming-of-age backdrop layered with themes of mortality, masculinity, and militarism is where it truly shines. Memento mori.

— Tier Break —

#5: The Life List
:toast::toast::toast::toast::toast: :heart:

Film bro this. Film bro that. I don't care. Fuck you. Five stars. Sofia Carson changed my life.

#4: Thunderbolts*
:toast::toast::toast::toast::toast: :heart:

We are so back. Marvel should continue making actual Good Movies with resonant, mature themes where Florence Pugh still gets to be a badass, instead of churning out superficial slop-fest cash-grabs.

— Tier Break —

#3: Mickey 17
:toast::toast::toast::toast::toast: :heart:

Severance. Mickey 17 is a hero, doomed to fight a battle against fate he is destined to lose. If you can be replaced without consequence, what does it mean to be alive? Truly outstanding.

#2: Sinners
:toast::toast::toast::toast::toast: :heart:

This is cinema. Probably, objectively, deserves #1. Absolutely brilliant.

#1: Companion
:toast::toast::toast::toast::toast: :heart:

Severance, but even better, and for the girls and the gays. A chilling sci-fi horror about the illusion of choice, the entitlement of control, and the radical power of reclaiming your identity that really does Make You Think. Sophie Thatcher is her.
 
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Watched it for the umpteenth time in France in IMAX. This was absolutely overwhelming. Being able to witness this with this much quality (especially sound design wise), ngl I teared up when "The Journey to the West" burst when Ashitaka left his village. I trully encourage people who are able to watch this movie in IMAX to give it a shot.
 
Since libraries are based I picked up a copy of Tron: Legacy to watch with my friends tonight instead of D&D (a player is out). I plan on going back to pick up The Court Jester to watch that again.
 
For every day in the month of September, select Regal Theatres are putting on some classic movie. Got some good stuff in there like Taxi Driver, Vertigo, Citizen Kane, The Thing, Pan's Labyrinth, etc. I can't vouch for the quality of Regal's theatres but I heard about this and figured I would share
 
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chimp said:
For every day in the month of September, select Regal Theatres is putting on some classic movie. Got some good stuff in there like Taxi Driver, Vertigo, Citizen Kane, The Thing, Pan's Labyrinth, etc. I can't vouch for the quality of Regal's theatres but I heard about this and figured I would share
Click to expand...
My local regal has significantly nicer seats than my local cinemark. Unfortunately my local regal never does the cool stuff (i had to miss the EOE rerun because the nearest regal that had it was like an hour and a half by bus and I couldn't make time to go there) so I can't vouch for that one but overall they're the second nicest theater i've been to (first place goes to AMC, their seats are badass)

I don't watch movies in theaters much anyways unless I know it's gonna be worth it. My parents wanted to go watch the demon slayer movie in theaters and i'm obligated to comply because I want to see what ufotable delayed witch on the holy night for. I've also heard about a madoka magica rerun in theaters soon-ish and I might go see that if budget allows.
 
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So in College English 110 we have to watch this movie adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 after we have fully read and written an essay about the book. For the rest of the semester, we are going to have to make 2 rhetorical analysis essays on the movie. Let me tell you guys, that's going to be hard to do considering this movie is SO bad that it should be burned like the books in the film do.
Okay here's the skinny on the book. This is one of my favorite pieces of literature, only bested by PokeSpe RBY arc, the Sonic IDW Metal virus arc, Murder of Innocence by James Patterson, and Ungifted/Supergifted by Gordon Korman. Weird top list I know. F451 is about a beguiled "firefighter" named Guy Montag whose job is to burn books to erase their knowledge in service of a totalitarian government’s suppression of information and limitation of diverse ideas and perspectives. It isn’t a spoiler to say throughout the novel Montag is disillusioned with his career, and during his ideological reawakening, Bradbury reminds us: “the magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” The reason why books are banned in Montag's world is because its inhabitants are forced to think about uncomfortable subjects. Since the government wants to harbor a community in which everyone is happy, then what better way to do that then to eliminate all the things that would make people fight over things that don't make them happy. Ban racist books, then ban anything sensitive to a certain group of people. Instead, people spend all their time watching the equivalent of TV called parlor walls. entire walls of television designed for instant pleasure and satisfaction. The walls also prevent people from thinking of the horrible things the firefighters and the unnamed government do on a daily basis (burn houses and people for wrongthink). We see the effects of this through Guy's wife, Mildred. She drowns herself in entertainment, cares more about the "family" through the parlor than his own husband and is a hollow and morally bankrupt woman. It is because of this that Guy feels empty himself, until he meets Clarisse, a teenage girl who cares not about parlors but enjoys soaking up the beauties of the world. She makes Guy open up to reality and allows him to question his life and how "happy" he is. He has a nice job and wife, but are those things making him happy? The answer is no. He eventually rebels and keeps books while Clarisse disappears. That fucks him up, and gets tired of his wife's ignorance, so Guy joins a former english professor named Faber. He makes a good point on why the banning of books was self inflicted. Long story short: Montag's home is selected to be burned, he burns Beatty in retaliation, a mechanical hound poisons and chases him, with the help of Faber, he gets rid of his scent and successfully escapes to a forest where he meets people who memorize entire books, keeping the information intact for as long as the person lives. Then the town gets blown up by an unknown country. I love this book because its the perfect paradigm on how critical thinking is important in human life. It somehow aged like fine wine in the information overload era of today, despite being made in 1953.
And now is the time at which I actually talk about everything the movie FAILS at.
First, the setting. Poor, bland and uninspired. It looks like every other dystopian future town ever. Neon lights! Entirely Black Buildings! The whole Nine yards! Also, they broadcast all of the firefighter's raids on the skyscrapers and they have little transparent emojis jutting beside them. (LOOK LOOK SOCIAL MEDIA LOOK IT'S SO DEEP LOOK) I like it when media portrays how corrupt social media and politicians are, but not when it's just twerking right in front of you. It is for that reason why I don't enjoy Amazon prime's "The Boys" either.
Next the plot... OH MY GOD BRUH!!! IT'S SO BAD! They change shit for the sake of shit and nearly NONE OF IT makes sense. FUCKING NONE. So the movie puts a huge emphasis on Beatty being a conflicted man about books. In the book and movie, he quotes books all the time and thinks them as insanity. However, there are some minute long scenes, where they just focus on Beatty writing shit and burning it??? This really didn't need to be in the movie and we knew about Beatty's confliction just fine.
The first scene in the book has montag meet clarisse and their dynamic was peculiar, but it introduced their conflicting ideals. They meet eachother, and slowly but surely, Montag learns how valuable connections to a real person are. In this movie, Montag doesn't start with the Clair interaction, and instead is teaching the pro-firefighter propaganda to the kids. Clarisse and Montag have exactly ONE stinted interaction before Montag has the turning point with the old lady. A few hours later he... IMMEDIATELY searches for Clarisse. There was no buildup! What's worse, they try to make them a couple, which considering the little chemistry they have and also Clarisse being 17, works as well as a F.E.A.R Rattata against a Garchomp with Rough Skin. AWFUL!
The directors seem to just remove and hollow out the movie and add a bunch of unimportant shit to make it seem impactful, but in reality, it ends up being just more Hollywood teen sludge. The movie equivalent of the 11th hour Fire Red romhack which adds like 25 pokemon to each route, gives all the "trash" pokemon obscenely broken learnsets and stats which only serve to make their scrunglos viable for da Smogon.
Mildred is an important character who's a representation of the uncaring society of F451. She cares nothing that's on the parlor, and especially not Montag. Reiterating that she's one of the reasons why Montag feels empty. This would motivate the firefighter to rebel against the government. Imagine how tipped off I was when I found out Mildred was culled from this movie. YUP! GONE! An important character to the novel just expunged for no reason. WHY!? Was it to make room for Clarisse & Guy's """romance"""? This is like if I made a Diary of a Wimpy Kid reboot and culled Manny from the cast. Yeah I know, he's a piece of shit but he's still a Heffley. The series wouldn't be the same without him. Oh yeah, and Faber's just gone and so is the mechanical hound. Half the scenes are deleta est because of those 3 characters missing. But what will replace them? Oh yeah! THE FUCKING OMNIS plot. Beatty is ordered by the government to burn cleveland because APPARENTLY, there is... and I cannot make this shit up: A PIECE OF DNA THAT IS TAILORED TO CREATE. (or at least what I gleaned from the first watch) This plotline makes no narrative sense because they're burning, not because they have books. No, they're burning because they need to find one person who has a particle in their DNA that allows them to create??? WHAT!??! They broadcast that too but why? I mean the citizens are brainwashed but they can see through basic human empathy that the firefighters aren't even burning the books they're to hate!
I'd go on, but this is it. Genuinely so fucking awful (-65535/10) movie. Marmaduke 2022, I'm sorry I treated you too harshly. At least you have cartoon slapstick to make up for your shitty actions. Burn this movie with a Choice Specs Chi-Yu.
 
I just watched the Chainsaw Man movie

It's genuinely so much better than I anticipated, and I already anticipated a pretty good film

The paving was so perfectly done that I somewhat wish for Chainsaw Man to be adapted further through film. There's not a second wasted and there's still enough room for everything to breathe. Even the smallest character expressions are meaningful and properly framed

The art direction is soooo much better than that of season 1, and season 1 already looked good. It blends the real life backgrounds perfectly with the fluid and simple character animations, that allow so much expression through their simplicity and flatness. The way the lighting interacts with the faces and the eyes of the characters is absolutely beautiful. And it looks insane, chaotic, yet clearly legible during the intense action scenes. That by itself makes the movie superior to the source material. Some of the additions are also fantastic

I would genuinely give this movie a 9 or even 9.5 out of 10. If you read the manga or watched season 1, go see this movie I cannot recommend it enough
 
Local Dog said:
I just watched the Chainsaw Man movie

It's genuinely so much better than I anticipated, and I already anticipated a pretty good film

The paving was so perfectly done that I somewhat wish for Chainsaw Man to be adapted further through film. There's not a second wasted and there's still enough room for everything to breathe. Even the smallest character expressions are meaningful and properly framed

The art direction is soooo much better than that of season 1, and season 1 already looked good. It blends the real life backgrounds perfectly with the fluid and simple character animations, that allow so much expression through their simplicity and flatness. The way the lighting interacts with the faces and the eyes of the characters is absolutely beautiful. And it looks insane, chaotic, yet clearly legible during the intense action scenes. That by itself makes the movie superior to the source material. Some of the additions are also fantastic

I would genuinely give this movie a 9 or even 9.5 out of 10. If you read the manga or watched season 1, go see this movie I cannot recommend it enough
Click to expand...
i've heard a lot of really good things about this movie (especially pertaining to a certain scene) but chainsaw man is one of those things that i really dont want to go through more than once. fujimoto just LOVES writing depressing shit lol.
which is weird because out of ALL the anime i've watched and manga i've read the ONLY ones that i don't want to rewatch/read just because they're depressing are fujimoto works and takopi's original sin
 
col49 ryo yamada2001 crow crumbs Eagle4 chimp bruno BIHI trc Tomahawk emma and of course whoever else I didn't think to tag...

A few days late, but once again, it's time for our yearly movie roundup!

Starting off with Hooptober, which I actually did this year, although I didn't come close to finishing my list, or seeing most of the stuff I really wanted to, and instead going through a frustrating array of what largely turned out to be not great...bad habits I'll be forcing myself to change this upcoming year.

1. ID (2005, Kei Fujiwara) - not quite as good as Organ but still very good, pretty much what I wish most of Cronenberg was
2. The Outwaters (2022, Robbie Banfitch) - first half is cliche found footage lameness that goes on way too long (the brothers, the wannabe folk singer whose mom died), second half is terrific, genuinely experimental and abstract cosmic horror
3. The Empty Man (2020, David Prior) - a bit overblown in the detective goes down horror rabbit hole genre but a lot to like, great ending especially
4. A Cure for Wellness (2016, Gore Verbinski) - some ideas I liked, and gets quite nasty in parts, but ultimately a bit staid in the delivery of its idea and overall does too little, largely wastes the powers of Mia Goth
5. Deep Rising (1998, Stephen Sommers) - a blast!
6. The Blackening (2022, Tim Story) - had hopes it'd at least be funny but this has a terminal case 2020s not-even-a-real-movie syndrome, let alone a horror movie
7. Heart Eyes (2025, Josh Ruben) - a lot to like in the opening third - good slashing, good romcom setup, good leads - but the last two thirds don't quite justify the runtime, despite some great moments. would've been good at 80 minutes.
8. Final Destination 3 (2006, James Wong) - a blast!
9. MadS (2024, David Moreau) - I'm really starting to dislike this one-take trend (still haven't seen Adolescence) but this, while having the usual irritations of the conceit (kind of how I'm not crazy about steadicam just following actions in general) and not having much of a footing to hold onto character-wise, is still a pretty decent entry into the genre, an unusual French zombie movie that has a great sense of claustrophobia in the second half
10. The Happening (2008, M. Night Shyamalan) - I'm not quite buying the whole reclamation of Shyamalan as a master, and this thing isn't exactly great - the treatment of Zoey Deschanel character is horrible ("can you believe how crappy people are?!", the ending) - but ultimately, I enjoyed its goofiness, it looks good, the wind horror is played well, the moment with the old lady has a solidly Lynchian tinge
11. Signs (2002, M. Night Shyamalan) - Jesus and baseball will save us against the aliens. hated it.
12. The Village (2004, M. Night Shyamalan) - didn't care for the first two-thirds or so but it really picked up when Bryce Dallas Howard goes through the forest, liked that a lot
13. The German Chainsaw Massacre (1990, Christoph Schlingensief) - did not expect this to be a movie with so many things on its mind, genuinely good and nicely channels/parodies TCSM
14. Pola X (1990, Leos Carax) - started a little New French Extremity kick with this, and I'm still mostly not a fan. first half was largely listless, liked the second half more, overall okay. should've been shorter.
15. In My Skin (2002, Marina de Van) - the body horror cuts deep, and this is clearly an intelligently thought-out film, but sadly the non-horror ideas don't land, and the bland enactment most of the film drags
16. High Tension (2003, Alexandre Aja) - solid slasher, pleasantly surprised
17. Calvaire (2004, Fabrice Du Welz) - atmospheric opening, then most of it is a slog until the ending stretch gets pretty insane (one overhead camera movement channels the best of Gaspar Noe), which still wouldn't count for too much ordinarily but the final scene has some real heart I appreciated
18. Divinity (2023, Eddie Alcazar) - probably not a Real Horror Movie but close enough, kind of a shallow scifi nerd fantasy hung over a pretty cool 16mm b&w aesthetic, but that aesthetic was indeed pretty cool
19. Contagion (2011, Steven Soderbergh) - definitely not a Real Horror Movie but felt like it in spirit. really liked it at the start and Soderbergh, as always, settles for little more than "decent", a quality which has really started to irritate me. has many great moments of course but also infuriatingly underbaked and overwrought simultaneously.

These were the other Hooptober entries that I was most looking forward to and put off, wanting to wait for the "perfect time" to watch them, which of course never came... I've really gotta break this habit (which means no putting them off until next October).
Terrifier 3 (2024, Damien Leone)
The Ghost Snatchers (1986, Lam Nai-Choi)
Calvin Lee Reeder: The Rambler (2013) + The Oregonian (2011)
Adam Chaplin (2011, Emanuele De Santi)
Premutos: The Fallen Angel (1997, Olaf Ittenbach)
The Appointment (1981, Lindsey C. Vickers)
New Religion (2022, Keishi Kondo)
Kisapmata (1981, Mike de Leon)
In a Glass Cage (1986, Agustí Villaronga)
Save the Green Planet! (2003, Jang Jun-hwan) - I've wanted to see this for a while and refuse to see Lanthimos' remake until I've done so
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971, John D. Hancock)
Star Time (1992, Alexander Cassini)
Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964, Bryan Forbes)
The Last Slumber Party (1987, Stephen Tyler)
Shatter Dead (1994, Scooter McCrae)
Uncle Sam (1996, William Lustig)
Martin (1977, George A. Romero)
Ernest R. Dickerson: Bones (2001) + Demon Knight (1995)
Planet of the Vampires (1965, Mario Bava)
Jean Rollin: The Living Dead Girl (1982) + The Grapes of Death (1978)
Lake Mungo (2008, Joel Anderson)
Marebito (2004, Takashi Shimizu)
Occult (2009, Koji Shiraishi)

Now, for the highlights of the last year... I watched a lot less this time around, not intentionally, and it did frustrate me at times, but on the bright side I think the viewing I did do was more intent as a result, even if I did let myself repeatedly get distracted from my many "priority watchlists" by something I'd just heard of many times. So, rather than utmost favorites/masterpieces or whatever, these are just films I liked that I felt like mentioning.

1. Cry of the Hunted (1953, Joseph H. Lewis) - the dream sequence is better than anything in Gun Crazy (which, to be clear, is superb).
2. I Wake Up Screaming (1941, H. Bruce Humberstone)
3. The Big Combo (1955, Joseph H. Lewis) - definitely joined team Lewis after this one. Should really have myself a Noirvember this month.
4. Frankenstein (1931, James Whale)
5. Gate of Flesh (1964, Seijun Suzuki)
6. Emak-Bakia (1926, Man Ray)
7. The Starfish (1928, Man Ray)
8. The Mysteries of the Chateau of Dice (1929, Man Ray)
9. Nanook of the North (1922, Robert J. Flaherty)
10. Early Summer (1951, Yasujiro Ozu)
11. Through the Ruins (1982, Claudio Caldini)
12. Early Spring (1956, Yasujiro Ozu)
13. Fighting Elegy (1966, Seijun Suzuki)
14. The House of Lost Souls (1967, Jiří Hanibal)
15. Story of a Prostitute (1965, Seijun Suzuki) - his 60s streak is just so ridiculous
16. Late Autumn (1960, Yasujiro Ozu)
17. Destiny's Son (1962, Kenji Misumi)
18. Evil Sword (1965, Kenji Misumi)
19. The Big Clock (1948, John Farrow)
20. Beware of the Car (1966, El'dar Ryazanov)
21. The Wind Rises (2013, Hayao Miyazaki)
22. Tales of the Taira Clan (1955, Kenji Mizoguchi)
23. Portrait of Madame Yuki (1950, Kenji Mizoguchi)
24. The Woman in the Rumor (1954, Kenji Mizoguchi)
25. Evil Does Not Exist (2023, Ryusuke Hamaguchi) - I would put this among the very best films of the decade thus far, up there with Zone of Interest. Liked it much more than Drive My Car. (Gotta get to Happy Hour!!!)
26. Lili Marleen (1981, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
27. Down With Love (2003, Peyton Reed)
28. Eight Deadly Shots (1972, Mikko Niskanen)
29. Peter Ibbetson (1935, Henry Hathaway)
30. Moonrise (1948, Frank Borzage)
31. Battle in Heaven (2005, Carlos Reygadas)
32. Silent Light (2007, Carlos Reygadas)
33. Vitalina Varela (2019, Pedro Costa)
34. The Virgin Suicides (1999, Sofia Coppola)
35. Tomboy (2011, Céline Sciamma)
36. The Garden of Delights (1970, Carlos Saura)
37. Cousin Angelica (1974, Carlos Saura)
38. Blindfolded Eyes (1978, Carlos Saura)
39. Deprisa, deprisa (1981, Carlos Saura)
40. Shiva Baby (2020, Emma Seligman)
41. The Soft Skin (1964, Francois Truffaut)
42. Anora (2024, Sean Baker)
43. The Blue Angel (1930, Josef von Sternberg)
44. Morocco (1930, Josef von Sternberg)
45. I Only Want You to Love Me (1976, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
46. Oyuki, the Virgin (1935, Kenji Mizoguchi)
47. Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom (1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
48. In the Realm of the Senses (1976, Nagisa Oshima) - watched this and the above on New Year's Day...perhaps a telling start to the year
49. Days of '36 (1972, Theo Angelopoulos)
50. The Hunters (1977, Theo Angelopoulos)
51. Smiles of a Summer Night (1955, Ingmar Bergman)
52. Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979, Werner Herzog)
53. Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998, Aleksei German)
54. My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument (1996, Arnaud Desplechin)
55. The Straits of Love and Hate (1937, Kenji Mizoguchi)
56. The Life of Jesus (1997, Bruno Dumont)
57. Twentynine Palms (2003, Bruno Dumont)
58. Somewhere (2010, Sofia Coppola) - probably my favorite non-LIT of hers
59. Last Days (2005, Gus Van Sant) - probably my favorite of his!
60. Still Life (2006, Jia Zhangke) - I really owe myself the binge of his other stuff, especially since I want to see it all before I watch Caught by the Tides, which I hear nothing but raves over
61. Son of the White Mare (1981, Marcell Jankovics)
62. The Beast (2023, Bertrand Bonello)
63. The Limits of Control (2009, Jim Jarmusch)
64. Los días perdidos (1963, Víctor Erice)
65. Modern Times (1936, Charlie Chaplin)
66. Cloud (2024, Kiyoshi Kurosawa) - another one of the best of the decade
67. The Boston Strangler (1968, Richard Fleischer)
68. The Narrow Margin (1952, Richard Fleischer)
69. War of the Worlds (2005, Steven Spielberg) - not a Spielberg guy at all but he directed the hell out of this (dumb ending notwithstanding)
70. Red Rooms (2023, Pascal Plante) - another one of the best of the decade!
71. La libertad (2001, Lisandro Alonso)
72. Los muertos (2004, Lisandro Alonso)
73. Fantasma (2006, Lisandro Alonso)
74. Liverpool (2008, Lisandro Alonso)
75. Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Alfred Hitchcock)
76. The Stranger (1946, Orson Welles)
77. Barton Fink (1991, Joel & Ethan Coen) - love the Blood Simple-style humor/horror as we are, uh, shown the life of the mind in the latter half
78. Smiley Face (2007, Gregg Araki)
79. The Living End (1992, Gregg Araki)
80. Totally Fucked Up (1993, Gregg Araki)
81. The Doom Generation (1995, Gregg Araki)
82. Nowhere (1997, Gregg Araki)
83. Mysterious Skin (2004, Gregg Araki)
84. The Beaches of Orouet (1971, Jacques Rozier)
85. Paper Moon (1973, Peter Bogdanovich) - ridiculously charming
86. A Serious Man (2009, Joel & Ethan Coen) - at least top three best/ funniest of theirs
87. The Match Factory Girl (1990, Aki Kaurismäki)
88. Drifting Clouds (1996, Aki Kaurismäki)
89. You, the Living (2007, Roy Andersson)
90. Ossessione (1943, Luchino Visconti)
91. Michael Clayton (2007, Tony Gilroy)
92. The Rules of the Game (1939, Jean Renoir)
93. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994, Joel & Ethan Coen) - this one might actually be the funniest, good Lord
94. Mifune's Last Song (1999, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen)
95. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014, Roy Andersson)
96. Miracle Mile (1988, Steve De Jarnatt)
97. Speaking Parts (1989, Atom Egoyan)
98. Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988, Guy Maddin)
99. Winchester '73 (1950, Anthony Mann)
100. Time of the Gypsies (1988, Emir Kusturica)
101. I ♥ Huckabees (2004, David O. Russell)
102. Miami Connection (1987, Y.K. Kim / Park Woo-Sang)
103. Killers on Parade (1961, Masahiro Shinoda)
104. The Tin Drum (1979, Volker Schlöndorff)
105. Carmen from Kawachi (1966, Seijun Suzuki)
106. Sullivan's Travels (1941, Preston Sturges)
107. The Lady Eve (1941, Preston Sturges) - Barbara Stanwyck...
108. Saint Jack (1979, Peter Bogdanovich)
109. Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980, Tsui Hark) - insane
110. Bonnie and Clyde (1967, Arthur Penn)
111. You Can Count on Me (2000, Kenneth Lonergan)
112. In the Bedroom (2001, Todd Field)
113. Our Marriage (1962, Masahiro Shinoda)
114. An Inn at Osaka (1954, Heinosuke Gosho)
115. 9 Souls (2003, Toshiaki Toyoda)
116. Winter Vacation (2010, Li Hongqi)
117. Y tu mamá también (2001, Alfonso Cuarón)
118. Inherent Vice (2014, Paul Thomas Anderson)
119. My Twentieth Century (1989, Ildikó Enyedi)
120. The Birds (1963, Alfred Hitchcock)
121. Queen of Earth (2015, Alex Ross Perry)
122. In Vanda's Room (2000, Pedro Costa)
123. The Way of the Gun (2000, Christopher McQuarrie)
124. Marnie (1964, Alfred Hitchcock)
125. The Asphalt Jungle (1950, John Huston)
126. Diary of a Chambermaid (1964, Luis Buñuel)
127. Tristana (1970, Luis Buñuel)
128. A Woman's Story (1963, Mikio Naruse) - the fourth master of Japan's golden age, indeed
129. An American in Paris (1951, Vincente Minnelli) - blasphemously prefer this to Young Girls of Rochefort
130. Round About Midnight (1999, Makoto Wada) - come for the "Hitchcockian Japanese jazz thriller" description, stay for the heart and the camerawork that has no reason to go as ridiculously hard as it does
131. Ecce homo Homolka (1969, Jaroslav Papoušek) - Tarkovsky wishes he could end a film with Ode to Joy the way this does
132. The Spies (1957, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
133. Dial M for Murder (1954, Alfred Hitchcock)
134. Happy End (2017, Michael Haneke)
135. Au revoir les enfants (1987, Louis Malle) - ending really got me
136. River of the Night / Undercurrent (1956, Kozaburo Yoshimura)
137. Bamboo Doll of Echizen (1963, Kozaburo Yoshimura) - Ayao Wakao supremacy. I actually said "oh no" out loud by myself in the apartment... been a while since I was that affected by a film
138. Strangers on a Train (1951, Alfred Hitchcock)
139. One, Two, Three (1961, Billy Wilder) - utterly hysterical, deserves more recognition as among Wilder's best
140. La terra trema (1948, Luchino Visconti)
141. Death in Venice (1971, Luchino Visconti) - extraordinary. I'm not sure I want to go as far as saying this pioneered a new cinematic grammar, but, well, I sure have thought it!
142. The Damned (1967, Luchino Visconti)
143. The Trial (1962, Orson Welles) - favorite Welles
144. The Big Risk (1960, Claude Sautet)
145. The Child (2005, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
146. Panique (1946, Julien Duvivier)
147. The Beast to Die (1980, Toru Murakawa) - the best film I saw this past year, challenging like little else, just tremendous
148. The Temple of the Wild Geese (1962, Yuzo Kawashima)
149. Yokohama BJ Blues (1981, Eiichi Kudo) - love
150. Petal Dance (2013, Hiroshi Ishikawa)
151. Birds, Orphans, and Fools (1969, Juraj Jakubisko)
152. A Squandered Sunday (1969, Drahomíra Vihanová)
153. As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000, Jonas Mekas) - I was actually quite mixed on the experience of this because I actively disliked the preciousness of Mekas' constant voiceover (a problem I had already had with Lost, Lost, Lost) but there's no denying what an achievement this is
154. End of Watch (2012, David Ayer)
155. Road to Nowhere (2010, Monte Hellman)
156. Bunny Lake is Missing (1965, Otto Preminger)
157. Blue (2002, Hiroshi Ando)
158. (Haru) (1996, Yoshimitsu Morita)
159. I've Heard the Ammonite Murmur (1992, Isao Yamada)

As you may have noted, I binged a lot of Hitchcock this year, really starting to appreciate why he's the master...and apart from these first-time viewings, I rewatched Vertigo, Rear Window, and North by Northwest (I'll revisit Psycho soon). Won't be surprised to see him as my most-viewed director at year's end (last two were Mizoguchi and Lynch). Speaking of, the loss of Lynch has of course hung over this entire year - again, fitting - and upon many revisits of my favorite director, most of them in the theater, I present my Official Lynch Viability Rankings (major works only):
S TIER
1. Mulholland Drive
2. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
A+ TIER
3. Lost Highway
4. Blue Velvet
5. Eraserhead

A TIER
6. Inland Empire (probably should be higher but I have to see again)

A- TIER
7. Twin Peaks: The Return (might be higher after I see it across a weekend in the theater next month)
8. Twin Peaks 1 & 2

B TIER
9. The Straight Story
10. Wild at Heart

B- TIER
11. The Elephant Man

BEYOND RANKING:
Dumbland (masterpiece)

STILL HAVEN'T SEEN (SOMEHOW):
Dune

As for 2025 films thus far, my favorites have been Sirat, One Battle After Another, and Bi Gan's Resurrection. Still have much to look forward to: If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, The Mastermind, and I'm really hoping that No Other Choice sees Park Chan-wook establish a sort of late style that began with the Hitchcockisms of Decision to Leave, my appreciation of which has grown over time. There are many others, of course, but these are the top three!

I've also had many excellent rewatches this year, and have been lucky enough to catch many of them in a theater - saw Apocalypse Now and The Thin Red Line within two days of each other - so here's ten that had the best of them brought out by the big screen:
  1. High & Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)
  2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, Robert Altman)
  3. Army of Shadows (1969, Jean-Pierre Melville)
  4. PlayTime (1967, Jacques Tati) - this is pretty much the best thing ever, how on Earth does it even exist
  5. Letter Never Sent (1960, Mikhail Kalatozov)
  6. Lost Highway (1997, David Lynch)
  7. Solaris (1972, Andrei Tarkovsky)
  8. Heat (1995, Michael Mann)
  9. The Sacrifice (1986, Andrei Tarkovsky)
  10. Blow Out (1981, Brian De Palma)

Finally, I'm holding myself accountable by making this list of what I will have watched, finally, by this time next year, a mix of stuff I know I'll love and major classics that I somehow have not yet gotten to (did you see I only just got to The Rules of the Game this year? scandalous) (actually it's not "somehow", it's that thing where I wait for the perfect moment I must accept doesn't exist):
Satyajit Ray: the Apu trilogy (and many others - The Music Room most comes to mind - but seeing that I love Devi, as well as Charulata and Abhijaan, this is really inexcusable)
Abbas Kiarostami: the Koker trilogy (I love The Wind Will Carry Us as well as Closeup and Taste of Cherry so this is similarly baffling). Also want to check out that Ozu documentary (iirc?) he did
Alain Robbe-Grillet: I have a box set of the six films he made from 1963-1974 (L'immortelle through Successive Slidings of Pleasure), which I'm certain will be up my alley
A Fugitive from the Past (1965) - compared to High and Low and directed by Tomu Uchida, whose Bloody Spear at Mt. Fuji, Mad Fox, and Hero of the Red-Light District I really like...
The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979)
New Religion (2022)
Angela Schanelec: The Dreamed Path / Afternoon / I Was at Home, But... / Music / Orly - I absolutely love Places in Cities and really like Marseille and Passing Summer, so I really should be devouring these...though, in my (very light) defense, they can be kind of a pain to track down.
Maurice Pialat: everything, seeing as I venerate À nos amours.
Yoshishige Yoshida: everything, seeing as I absolutely loved Affair in the Snow and have three of his other films on Blu-ray.
Miklós Jancsó: Elektra, My Love / The Roundup / The Red and the White / Red Psalm - others as well, but mostly these four. I saw his three Presence films, which were wonderful, and yet...
La Cérémonie (1995) - and more Chabrol in general, but mostly this
The Bed You Sleep In (1993) - haven't seen any Jost yet, many intrigue me, this the most
The Other Side of the Underneath (1972) - seen it described as "Céline and Julie Go Schizophrenic", which, yes please
Robert Altman: many, I've seen seven but need a lot more
Ernst Lubitsch: many, in spite of my love for To Be or Not to Be I haven't been spurred me into the rest yet
Hou Hsiao-hsien: many, three years ago I saw four films of his in one day and loved all of them, and yet...
Jia Zhangke: Unknown Pleasures, The World, A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart, Ash is Purest White, and of course Caught by the Tides. Also wouldn't mind rewatching Platform (or Pickpocket / Still Life, for that matter, but mostly Platform), but priorities...
Josef von Sternberg: mostly Shanghai Express but several others as well, and I'd like a rewatch of the incredible Scarlet Empress while I'm at it...
The Annihilation of Fish (1999) - as a huge fan of the masterful To Sleep With Anger as well as Killer of Sheep, I'm certain I'll love this
Stagecoach
Lawrence of Arabia
Black Narcissus
Malcolm X
Federico Fellini: just about everything, really spurred on to this after just rewatching 8 1/2 in the theater
Jacques Rivette: Out 1 / La belle noiseuse / Histoire de Marie et Julien / L' amour fou / Secret Defense / Gang of Four / The Nun - I've already seen many of his films and love them, and I've wanted to see Belle noiseuse for something like 3.5 years...though I'm currently most intrigued by the monster Out 1.
Pauline on the Beach (1983) - love Rohmer, seen many and want to see more, but this one intrigues me the most
Apres-mai (2012) - love Assayas, seen many and want to see more, but this one intrigues me the most
Fat Girl (2001)
Arnaud Desplechin: absolutely loved My Sex Life... and he seems to have many more I'll enjoy
Gakuryuu Ishii: Crazy Thunder Road / Burst City
Koreyoshi Kurahara: I Hate But Love / Thirst for Love
Hideki Anno: Ritual / Love & Pop
Sion Sono: Noriko's Dinner Table / Himizu
Shinya Tsukamoto: Tokyo Fist / Kotoko
Hirokazu Kore-eda: After Life / Still Walking
Paul Schrader: Light Sleeper / Affliction
Werner Herzog: Fitzcarraldo / Stroszek
Joe Dante: Gremlins / Gremlins 2
Michele Soavi: Cemetery Man / Stage Fright
Raúl Ruiz: City of Pirates / Mysteries of Lisbon / Manoel's Destinies / The Three Crowns of the Sailor / Love Torn in Dreams
Tabu (2012)
The Strange Case of Angelica (2010)
God's Comedy (1995)
Shunji Iwai: All About Lily Chou-Chou / Hana and Alice / Love Letter / Swallowtail Butterfly / A Bride for Rip Van Winkle
Shinji Somai: Moving / Tokyo Heaven / Typhoon Club / Lost Chapter of Snow: Passion
Tetsuya Nakashima: Kamikaze Girls / Memories of Matsuko / Confessions / The World of Kanako
Linda Linda Linda (2005)
Swing Girls (2004)
Celia (1989)
Céline (1992)
Happy Hour (2015)
The Fifth Seal (1976)
Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
and plenty others...but I'll stop there.

Finally, I'm happy to announce that, should all go well, my film (the English title will be The Place Between) will release next year.

Looking forward to reading everyone else's posts :)

Cinema
 
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Hey

Hooptober was fun again this year, as I tend to find my viewing habits invariably drama-leaning, thus any excuse to really dig into genre flicks is a welcome one. Horror as a genre also tends to feel so much more open to critical exploration, with initial reception so often being hand waves that with a little digging folks can find greatness outside the established canon that feels like your own, unique ‘discovery’. My top five within the originally planned 31 (which dq’s an entirely lovely rewatch of The Wizard of Oz, always bangs) for this month were The Mothman Prophecies / Communion / Island of Lost Souls / Eaten Alive / Def by Temptation, though I found myself pushing a few extras and got a lot out of Pengabdi Setan, Scream Blacula Scream, and the Last Warning, among others.

Maybe a weird way to frame this, but I turned thirty this year (gross, I know), and it’s presented a moment for self reflection. For a few years now, this one case study that may well have since been contested sorta loomed over me as a consumer of art that this was the age that we on average tend to stop being receptive to new ideas creatively. Never was this really a factor in how I went about things, mind you, but nonetheless it’s the kind of idea that concerns a person; I like engaging with everything I can, gain perspective from those willing to lend it and hopefully continue to grow and change throughout my life, so to reckon with this idea that I will simply always hit the wall eventually is a bit difficult. Maybe that’s truly happened, and I simply haven’t the presence of mind to find those walls on my own, but it would appear that I’ve overcome that barrier for the time being, and couldn’t be happier. This all to say, keep pushing, exploring, strive to be just a bit better every day.

Despite saying this, I definitely found myself watching less this year, as I’ve been taking steps to diversify my free time and reconnect with folks, but I still be lovin’ movies y’all. A few directors finally, truly clicked with me, others have confirmed themselves as overall faves, and felt like I grew further away from proper ‘conversational’ films than ever. I’d definitely like to sneak in some more contemporary films next year; I realized around August I hadn’t watched anything from this year, thought it would be pretty funny if I only saw that War of the Worlds remake, and then didn’t even do that. The guiding theory was always that there’s just so much out there that taking a swing with whatever’s playing in a non-cultural epicenter theatre is probably not going to be as gratifying, but there’s something to be said of always missing out on *the conversation*, what’s all this for if we aren’t sharing in it right? To be a bit self-critical of my habits as a viewer, I have found myself much less receptive to action and western films than I’d like, and while there are of course exceptions I don’t find myself to be able to fully meet them on their terms many a time. Feels like hack shit to look over my fave westerns and it’s Leone and a few genre deconstructions, screams too good for this and I would like to do better. By extension there are a whole lot of American auteurs whose work has gone on to shape the landscape of film (talking Hawkes, Ford, Eastwood, even Mann if we wanna talk [relatively] modern) who I mostly seem to appreciate in the abstract at this time. If it ends up truly not being for me then so be it, I really cannot control who I feel and would make no effort to, but would like to really hunker down on it in the coming year. Hardly a foreign issue for me, not until Pickpocket did I feel any deeper connection to the work of Bresson, but it feels a bit lazy to just poke at the filmography of such influential figures now and then to just chock it up to difference in taste.

All that out the way, here is my list of film recs that I first watched this year, ordered roughly by personal enjoyment:
  1. Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003, Tsai Ming-liang)
  2. Trás-os-Montes (1976, Margarida Cordeiro/Antonío Reis)
  3. Peeping Tom (1960, Michael Powell)
  4. Straw Dogs (1971, Sam Peckinpah)
  5. Andrei Rublev (1966, Andrei Tarkovsky)
  6. The Cloud-Capped Star (1960, Ritwik Ghatak)
  7. Friday Night (2002, Claire Denis)
  8. Hellzapoppin’ (1941, H.C Potter)
  9. The Human Condition (1959, Masaki Kobayashi)
  10. The Mothman Prophecies (2002, Mark Pellington)
  11. Mandala (1971, Akio Jissoji)
  12. What’s up, Doc? (1972, Peter Bogdonavich)
  13. Morning Patrol (1987, Niko Nikolaidis)
  14. Tea and Sympathy (1956, Vincente Minnelli)
  15. Kings of the Road (1976, Wim Wenders)
  16. Vidheyan (1994, Adoor Gopalakrishnan)
  17. Freeze Me (2000, Takashi Ishii)
  18. Dirty Harry (1971, Don Siegel)
  19. Duel to the Death (1983, Tony Ching Siu-Tung)
  20. Paris qui Dort (1925, René Clair)
  21. Short Eyes (1977, Robert M. Young)
  22. That Day, on the Beach (1983, Edward Yang)
  23. Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Sergio Leone)
  24. Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese)
  25. Salt for Svanetia (1930, Mikhail Kalatozov)
  26. One Way or Another (1975, Sara Gómez)
  27. Je tu Il Elle (1974, Chantal Akerman)
  28. Killers on Parade (1961, Masahiro Shinoda)
  29. Alexandria…Why? (1979, Youssef Chahine)
  30. O Sangue (1989, Pedro Costa)
  31. Quién te Cantará (2018, Carlos Vermut)
  32. Adieu Philippine (1962 Jacques Rozier)
  33. The Phantom Carriage (1921, Victor Sjöström)
  34. Century of Birthing (2011, Lav Diaz)
  35. Illuminacja (1973, Krzysztof Zanussi)
  36. Zodiac (2007, David Fincher)
  37. Jallikattu (2019, Lijo Jose Pellissery)
  38. Weighed but Found Wanting (1974, Lino Brocka)
  39. Close-up (1990, Abbas Kiarostami)
  40. The Falls (1980, Peter Greenaway)
  41. The Court Jester (1955, Melvin Frank/Norman Panama)
  42. Splendor (1999, Gregg Araki)
  43. Electra Glide in Blue (1973, James William Guercio)
  44. A Tale of the Wind (1988, Joris Ivens/Marcelline Loridan-Ivens)
  45. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011, Göran Olsson)
  46. Khayal Gatha (1989, Kumar Shahani)
  47. I’ve Heard the Ammonite Murmur (1992, Isao Yamada)
  48. Angel Dust (1994, Gakuryu Ishii)
  49. O Bobo (1987, José Álvaro Morais)
  50. Love is the Devil: Study for the Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998, John Maybary)
  51. The Incident (1967, Larry Peerce)
  52. Metropolitan (1990, Whit Stillman)
  53. Chocolate Babies (1996, Stephen Winters)
  54. Patty Hearst (1988, Paul Schrader)
  55. Suzaku (1997, Naomi Kawase)
  56. Museum Hours (2012, Jem Cohen)
  57. The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994, Kaizo Hayachi)
  58. The Fifth Cord (1971, Luigi Bazzoni)
  59. Boyz n the Hood (1991, John Singleton)
  60. Syndromes and a Century (2006, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
  61. The Insect Woman (1963, Shōhei Imamura)
  62. Please Baby Please (2022, Amanda Kramer)
  63. Seduced and Abandoned (1964, Pietro Germi)
  64. The Right Stuff (1983, Philip Kaufman)
  65. Baraka (1992, Ron Fricke)
  66. The Last Warning (1928, Paul Leni)
  67. Long Day’s Journey into Night (2018, Bi Gan)
  68. Margaret (2011, Kenneth Lonergan)
  69. Night Games (1966, Mai Zetterling)
  70. Communion (1989, Philippe Mora)
  71. Keane (2004, Losge Kerrigan)
  72. How to have Sex (2023, Molly Manning Winter)
  73. Tree of Life (2011, Terrence Malick)
  74. The Ruling Class (1972, Peter Medak)
  75. Night on Earth (1991, Jim Jarmusch)
  76. Kaiba (2008, Masaaki Yuusa)
  77. Touch of Evil (1958, Orson Welles)
  78. The Baker’s Wife (1938, Marcel Pagnol)
  79. Scream Blacula Scream (1973, Bob Kelljan)
  80. Bedevil (1993, Tracey Mouffat)
  81. Don’t Look Back (1967, D.A Pennebaker)
  82. The Sound of Music (1965, Robert Wise)
  83. Wonderful Town (2007, Aditya Assarat)
  84. Little Murders (1971, Alan Arkin)
  85. Madame (2010, Qui Jiongjiong)
  86. The Housemaid (1960, Kim Ki-young)
  87. Bushman (1971, David Schickele)
  88. Brute Force (1947, Jules Dassin)
  89. Dr.Giggles (1992, Manny Coto)
  90. When the Tenth Month Comes (1984, Dăng Nhât Minh)
  91. Earth (1930, Oleksandr Dovzhenko)
  92. Stormy Waters (1941, Jean Grémillon)
  93. The Sea Wolf (1941, Michael Curtiz)
  94. The Goodbye Girl (1977, Herbert Ross)
  95. For Kayako (1984, Kōhei Oguri)
  96. Gates of the Night (1946, Marcel Carné)
  97. P.P Rider (1983, Shinji Sōmai)
  98. Tales of the Golden Geisha (1990, Jūzō Itami)
  99. Franz Fanon; Black Skin, White Mask (1995, Isaac Julien)
  100. Scarface (1983, Brian De Palma)
  101. Il Sorpasso (1962, Dino Risi)
  102. The Defiant Ones (1958, Stanley Kramer)
  103. Little Children (2006, Todd Fields)
  104. The Snow Woman (1968, Tokuzō Tanaka)
  105. The Ox-bow Incident (1942, William A. Wellman)
  106. Aparajito (1956, Satyajit Ray)
  107. Stray Dog (1949, Akira Kurosawa)
  108. Marathon Man (1976, John Schlesinger)
  109. Anino Sa Likad ng Buwan (2015, Jun Robles Lana)
  110. Il Sorpasso (1962, Dino Risi)
  111. The Late Show (1977, Robert Benton)
  112. Island of Lost Souls (1932, Erle C Kenton)
  113. Japón (2002, Carlos Reygadas)
  114. Michael Clayton (2007, Tony Gilroy)
  115. Wendy and Lucy (2008, Kelly Reichardt)
  116. Non-Stop (2014, Jaume Collett-Serra)
  117. Il Grido (1957, Michelangelo Antonioni)
  118. Death Race 2000 (1975, Paul Bartel)
  119. Eaten Alive (1976, Tobe Hooper)
  120. My Own Private Idaho (1991, Gus Van Sant)
  121. Gomorrah (2008, Matteo Garrone)
  122. Pengabdi Setang (1980, Sisworo Gautama Putra)
  123. A Bigger Splash (2015, Luca Guadagnino)
  124. Speaking Parts (1989, Atom Egoyan)
  125. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969, Sydney Pollack)
  126. Wishing Stairs (2003, Yun Jae-yeon)
  127. Looking for Langston (1989, Isaac Julien)
  128. Def by Temptation (1990, James Bond III)
  129. Ophelia (1963, Claude Chabrol)
  130. Come Here (2021, Anocha Suwichakornpong)
  131. Top Hat (1935, Mark Sandrich)
  132. The Dance of Reality (2013, Alejandro Jodorowsky)
  133. Code Unknown (2000, Michael Haneke)
  134. Julien Donkey-Boy (1999, Harmony Korine)
  135. Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980, Tsui Hark)
  136. April Story (1998, Shunji Iwai)
  137. Such a Pretty Little Beach (1949, Yves Allégret)
  138. Repast (1951, Mikio Naruse)
  139. Gilda (1946, Charles Vidor)
  140. Miss Tu Hau (1963, Pham Ký Nam)
  141. The Stange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981, Walerian Borowczyk)
  142. Aimless Bullet (1961, Yu Hyun-mok)
  143. The Northerners (1992, Alex Van Warmerdam)
  144. Love and Anarchy (1973, Luna Wertmüller)
  145. Rodrigo D. No Futuro (1990, Víctor Gaviria)
  146. Songs from the Second Floor (2000, Roy Andersson)
  147. Hear the Wind Sing (1981, Kazuki Ōmori)
  148. Klute (1971, Alan J. Pakula)
  149. Lucky (2017, John Carroll Lynch)
  150. Foreign Correspondent (1940, Alfred Hitchcock)
  151. Still Walking (2008, Hirokazu Kore-eda)
  152. Night and Day (2008, Hong Sang-soo)
  153. The Italian Job (1969, Peter Collinson)
  154. Acéphale (1968, Patrick Deval)
  155. Evil Dead Trap (1988, Toshihiru Ikeda)
  156. The Dark Half (1993, George Romero)
  157. A Letter to Momo (2011, Hiroyuki Okiura)
  158. Hidden Blade (2023, Er Chang)
  159. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978, Fred Schepisi)
  160. Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974, Alain Robbe-Grillet)
  161. The Harder they Fall (1972, Perry Henzell)
  162. I, the Executioner (1968, Tai Katō)
  163. Only the River Flows (2023, Wei Shujun)
  164. Ride Lonesome (1959, Budd Boetticher)
  165. Talk Radio (1988, Oliver Stone)
  166. The Peacock King (1988, Lam Nai-Choi)
  167. Wood Job! (2014, Shinobu Yaguchi)
  168. Crooklyn (1994, Spike Lee)
  169. Caídos del Cielo (1990, Francisco J. Lombardi)
  170. Widows (2018, Steve McQueen)
  171. La Antena (2007, Esteban Sapir)
  172. Something You Said Last Night (2022, Luis De Filippis)
  173. Tiga Dara (1956, Usmar Ismail)
  174. About Schmidt (2002, Alexander Payne)
  175. Barbarella (1968, Roger Vadim)
  176. The Little Girl from Hanoi (1974, Hai Ninh)
  177. Radioland Murders (1994, Mel Smith)
  178. The Devil’s Advocate (1997, Taylor Hackford)
  179. Quadrophenia (1979, Franc Roddam)
  180. Love and Death in the Garden of the Gods (1972, Sauro Scavolini)
  181. The Caller (1987, Arthur Allan Seidelman)
  182. Lorenzo’s Oil (1992, George Miller)
  183. The Damned Don’t Cry (1950, Vincent Sherman)
  184. Letter to Momo (2012, Hiroyuki Okiura)
  185. Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932, Robert Florey)
  186. Chekhovian Motifs (2002, Kira Muratova)
  187. The Trip (1966, Roger Corman)
  188. Pamfir (2022, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk)
  189. El Río y La Muerte (1954, Luis Buñuel)
  190. In the Name of Christ (1993, Roger Gnoan M’Bala)
  191. Moments in a Stolen Dream (1977, Mike De Leon)
  192. Beginners (2010, Mike Mills)
  193. Drive (1997, Steven Wang)
  194. Priest (1994, Antonia Bird)
  195. True Romance (1993, Tony Scott)
  196. Rubin and Ed (1991, Trent Harris)
  197. Alma’s Rainbow (1994, Ayoka Chenziro)
  198. My Fair Lady (1964, Greg Cukor)
  199. Gods of Egypt (2016, Alex Proyas)
  200. My Winnipeg (2007, Guy Maddin)
  201. Nosferatu (2024, Robert Eggers)
  202. The Savage Eye (1959, Ben Maddow)
  203. Druid Gladiator Clone (2003, Matt Farley)
Hoping for another good one in the next pass
 
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It’s been close to a year since I got the spark for movies. I’m not entirely sure why, but I always had a certain apathy toward the medium, even though I’ve seen several inspiring films like Mulholland Drive, Stalker, Taxi Driver, and Logan in previous years. Despite those experiences, I averaged less than five films a year, and a lot of those were films I’ve already seen / have on VHS/DVD. Perhaps it was the recent decrease in my free time and a new environment that caused me to seek other mediums in an escapist way. As a result, my “yearly” roundup is closer to an overview of how my ideas of cinema changed from effectively rock-bottom. I’ve focused on watching “classics” to get a solid foundation, which means that I found most films to be noteworthy. Overall, I think I’ve watched around 60-70 new movies this year, plus a dozen rewatches.

I’ve put a great deal of thought into what cinema really means to me, and I’ve noticed myself asking what a movie makes me feel in the moment. With David Lynch passing early this year, I decided to revisit Mulholland Drive and watch more of his films. By now, I can confidently say that Lynch is my favorite director. The way his mind works is something I can never truly understand -- I even bought a copy of Room to Dream in the hope that I could psychoanalyze him just a bit more. There’s just something in his idea of noir that goes beyond aesthetic into the realm of the soul.

1. Blue Velvet (Lynch, 1986) - The outward appearance contrasted with the soul: this is the core of Lynch’s films. Blue Velvet exemplifies the danger of nostalgia warping the view of the past. Lynch often makes the audience uncomfortable to make us realize our unconscious biases. Whether we analyze ourselves beyond that moment of revelation is up to us, but Lynch surely leads us a long way.

2. Lost Highway (Lynch, 1997) - narratively unstable. The abstract mixing of time and place serves to divide the truth – something that Lynch will improve upon in the future. Over this Summer, I was thinking about the core idea that inspired this film: how does someone who committed murder live with themself? Given that Crime and Punishment is my favorite book, I was thinking about how I would answer this question. In my daydream, a picture of a Kabuki theater entered my mind. Everyone in the audience except the main character would be wearing masks as they watched the play. I thought this was an interesting idea and noted it down. Later that Summer, when reading the Lost Highway chapter of Room to Dream, Pullman described that either he or Lynch came up with a shorthand for the character, which was "it goes kabuki" (Pg 336 for those who care). Whether this was some unconscious pull-over from Mulholland Drive's Club Silencio or not, this moment sold me on the idea that Lynch operates with some universal instinct.

3. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (Lynch, 1992) - Tragic by the classical definition. Spaces inside spaces. How do we interpret reality? How do we interpret film? In the end, what we see is a product of electricity. My favorite of Lynch’s films, apart from Mulholland Drive. I even got to see it in a theater the second time, which was even better! Best ending in cinema.

4. After Life (Kore-eda, 1998) - Genuinely up there with Mulholland Drive for me. One of the great parts of cinema is how every person can have a different interpretation. After Life is like a therapist in how it can make you confront your thoughts with its questions. I think I cried for a fourth of the movie’s runtime, and most of that wasn’t necessarily because of the story (although it can be heartbreaking). As people are interviewed, some memory or thought will eventually come to mind. Depending on how you have lived, that thought might be melancholic, but there’s a chance it will rip you apart. This thought is true to you because you can’t lie to yourself; you will know something is wrong. Transcendental in its topics, Socratic in its questions – After Life is something special.

5. Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1975) - another film that can have a greater meaning depending on how you have personally lived. Deeply poetic. A slow meditation through life and the nature of our minds. Tarkovsky might be my second favorite director so far.

6. L’Avventura (Antonioni, 1960) - the desolate lives of the rich. A town of pretty houses with nothing in them. The people who face this existential condition bond with each other in sparks that quickly fade, only to be quickly replaced. Perhaps this movie is indicative of the modern condition; dopamine is so widely sought after, shortening the attention spans of people and relegating enjoyment to a mindless fantasy. What was once an aspect of the rich now strangles the common person into a passive state. Some things are better unanswered. Monica Vitti is soul-crushingly beautiful.

7. Hot Fuzz (Wright, 2007) - gives no rest. Incredible use of set-up and payoff
8. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
9. Dreams (Akira Kurosawa, 1990)
10. Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954) - Wonderful concept with the energy to back it up. Might be better than Vertigo (blasphemy I know)
11. Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-Wai, 1995) - Emotion filmed in a way I never thought possible. Seeing Hong Kong in this light is truly special.
12. Carnival of Souls (Harvey, 1962) - jumpscared me in fuckass ways 3 times. The church organ music is sick (will elaborate further in the Nosferatu section). The uncertainty of God is bone-chilling. Watching episode 8 of Twin Peaks: The Return reminded me of this film. There’s something about driving a car in pitch darkness in black/white film that just fits.
13. One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island (Hosoda, 2005) - captures the spirit of One Piece better than Oda in recent years (I jest…). The eerie existence of people who’ve had their dreams crushed. Mind you, this movie was made before we got to Thriller Bark, although there were certainly some thematic hints of this in Alabasta and Jaya. The other One Piece movies I’ve seen feel genuinely dogshit in comparison. Rewatching Strong World this year was excruciating; it’s completely lifeless, even though it was written by Oda himself. Baron Omatsuri is as nightmarish as One Piece may ever be. I'm probably overrating this film, but c'est la vie.
14. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958) - might be near perfect like 2001, but something is missing for me to truly love it.
15. Batang West Side (Diaz, 2001) - longest movie I’ve seen, but it’s worth it. The slow descent into complete isolation. There’s a sequence that culminates in such a mindbogglingly good shot. Gorgeous.
16. Uncut Gems (Safdie, 2019) - nuts-to-your-ass type shit.
17. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979) - Third best ending in cinema.
18. The King of Comedy (Scorsese, 1982) - Had to stop the movie for like 5 minutes because I was so anxious near the end. I was fucking sweating from how bad I was cringing. 4.5/5 would watch again. Horror movies don’t have shit on this.
19. The Horse Thief (Zhuangzhuang, 1986) - This is a deeply meditative piece on eastern religion and the dissonance between faith and reality. To impose oneself onto the abstract qualities of karma and fate.
20. For a Few Dollars More (Leone, 1965) - might be my favorite spaghetti western
21. Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone, 1968)
22. Duck, You Sucker (Leone, 1971)
23. Unforgiven (Eastwood, 1992) - gruesome in a way that does not hide horrible people from scrutiny, even if they are “heroes”
24. Shutter Island (Scorsese, 2010) - notable for reminding me of the wonder that I got from films like Mulholland Drive.
25. Casino (Scorsese 1995)
26. Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980) - doesn’t glorify the boxing life; instead, it flaunts the flaws of the best and their journeys.
27. Drive (Refn, 2011)
28. Only God Forgives (Refn, 2013)
29. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979) - half comedy, half psychological, messed up on both fronts
30. The Conversation (Coppola, 1974) - I wished I liked this better. It does a lot that I like with the idea of privacy in the age of recordings, and Gene Hackman is great as always.
31. North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)
32. Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975) - I’m now through most of Kubrick’s filmography, and so far my favorite is still The Shining. Barry Lyndon is gorgeous, though. Need to watch Eyes Wide Shut.
33. Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick, 1964) - Horrifying in a comedic way. It doesn’t seem so far-fetched in today’s climate.
34. Full Metal Jacket (Kubrick, 1987) - definitely don’t like it as much as Apocalypse Now, but it has some very good moments in the first half.
35. Chinatown (Polanski, 1974) - experience doesn’t mean improvement. Some things are just out of reach.
36. Beau Travail (Denis, 1999) - second best ending in cinema. Contemplative of the male psyche/form in a way that very few men can hope to accomplish in film.
37. Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922) - The version I watched had a church organ soundtrack, and I love how it sounds. Instead of the high-pitched violins, you can achieve some of the lowest notes imaginable. There was an intense moment where the music went into this heartbeat-like rhythm, and the reverberation made me feel like my head was going to explode. With horrible earbuds!!! Crazy shit.
38. 12 Angry Men (Lumet, 1957) - characterization is done very well here.
39. Fires on the Plain (Kon Ichikawa, 1959)
40. Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001) - one of the most distant and frightening movies of all time
41. Le Trou (Becker, 1960) - was engaged the hole way through
42. The French Connection (Friedkin, 1971) - Gene Hackman is great in this. Tells the viewer so much while giving information sparsely
43. The Seventh Seal (Bergman, 1957) - existential dread manifested. Need to watch more Bergman
44. Belle de Jour (Buñuel, 1967)
45. Chime (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2024)
46. The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998) - dude...
47. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Hooper, 1974) - last 20 minutes rocked
48. Suspiria (Argento, 1977) - I don’t think I’ve seen a horror movie as ludicrous (in a good way)
49. Mad Max: Fury Road (Miller, 2015)
50. Scarface (De Palma, 1983)
51. Helter Skelter (Ninagawa, 2012) - idol culture taken to the extreme
52. A Snake of June (Tsukamoto, 2002) - A tough watch, but the blue filter + rain aesthetic is phenomenal. Stirring oneself out of apathy
53. Le Samouraï (Melville, 1967) - can definitely see how this inspired the lone-wolf noir films
54. The Long Goodbye (Altman, 1973)
55. Street of Crocodiles (Quay’s, 1986) - a world built on the inanimate, and the stream of consciousness that follows.
56. Big Trouble in Little China (Carpenter, 1986) - dumb but fun
57. In the Mouth of Madness (Carpenter, 1994) - Cool idea, could have been executed a little better.
58. Blade Runner (Scott, 1982) - Great, but Harrison Ford is not that guy
59. Die Hard (McTiernan, 1988)
60. Ip Man (Yip, 2008) - the fight scenes are some of the best
61. Mean Streets (Scorsese, 1973)
62. Shaun of the Dead (Wright, 2004)
63. Berlin Horse (Le Grice, 1970) - the beauty of editing to create so many variations on the same scene, each with a different feeling.

I got a long way to go, but I'm hoping to continue the movie watching for a while longer. :toast:
 
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