Last (x) movies you saw (II)

Matchstick Men (Ridley Scott, 2003) 6/10
It Came from Kuchar (Jennifer M. Kroot, 2009) 7/10
The Face of AIDS (Matt Wolf, 2016) short, ok
The Swan (Anderson, 2023) 4/10
Once Upon a Studio (two zootopia guys, 2023) short, bad

spooky month leftovers
Black Sunday (Bava, 1960) 8/10
The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971) 7/10 ugh, female sexual hysteria
Nightbreed (Clive Barker, 1990) 5/10
964 Pinocchio (Shozin Fukui, 1991) 6/10
My house walk-through (2016) short, good

noirvember
The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler, 1942) 6/10
Fallen Angel (Preminger, 1945) 7/10 my fifth preminger and he is 5 for 5
The River's Edge (Allan Dwan, 1957) 7/10
Sapphire (Basil Dearden, 1959) 5/10
All Night Long (Dearden, 1962) 8/10

Extraction 2 (Hargrave 2023)
*The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Archers 1943)
Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (Wang 1985)
Ghosted (Fletcher 2023)
The Man from Laramie (Mann 1955)
M:I 2 (Woo 2000)
M:I Dead Reckoning Pt 1 (McQuarrie 2023)
Barbie (Gerwig 2023)
Oppenheimer (Nolan 2023)
The Heart of the World (Maddin 2000)
The Cry of Jazz (Bland 1959)
After Yang (Kogonada 2022)
The Play House (Keaton, Cline 1921)
Asteroid City (Anderson 2023)
*Resurrection (Petrie 1980)
Danger: Diabolik (Bava 1968)
Tenet (Nolan 2020)
Coogan's Bluff (Siegel 1968)
The Cowboy and the Frenchman (Lynch 1987)
Flesh for Frankenstein (Morrissey 1973)
Blood for Dracula (Morrissey 1974)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Scorsese 2023)
The Killer (Fincher 2023)

That's it going back to June. My movie and tv watching has dropped off almost to nothing, much of it attributable to the uncomfortable "home theater recliner" I got for my office.

The Killer (2023) 2.5/5
The Great Muppet Caper (1981) 4/5. Never saw it as a kid! A must for Charles Grodin fans.
*Where is My Friend's House? (1987) 5/5
Priscilla (2023) 3.5/5
I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967) 2.5/5. Not surprised when I saw this was originally supposed to be 3.5 hours long. Such a self-important chore to get through. There's a scene here where someone offscreen tries to imitate the voice of Martin Luther King and almost sounds like Putney Swope.
Return to Seoul (2022) 4/5. People who say they want complex, unlikeable female protagonists: here's what you asked for.
* The Devil, Probably (1977) 4.5/5
Body Snatchers (1993) 3.5/5

Short:
The Swan (2023) 3.5/5

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher, 2011)
Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)
The Dead Zone (Cronenberg, 1983)
Anatomy of a Fall (Triet, 2023)
House (Obayashi, 1977)
Carnal Knowledge (Nichols, 1971)
The Cell (Singh, 2000)
Laura (Preminger, 1944)
Saint Omer (Diop, 2022)
Red, White & Royal Blue (Lopez, 2023)
The Killer (Fincher, 2023)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Scorsese, 2023)
Support the Girls (Bujalski, 2018)

A Tale of Autumn (1998) 4/5
* Head (1968) 3.5/5
* Dersu Uzala (1975) 5/5
Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski (2018) 3/5
* Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) 5/5
52 Pick-Up (1986) 4/5
The Nickel Ride (1974) 4/5. A hidden gem; very Friends of Eddie Coyle-like.
* Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991) 3/5
* Defending Your Life (1991) 4/5
Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (2023) 3/5

Actually I should have revised the Struggle rating to 2/5. The apologetic tone it takes toward its subject has not sit well with me.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline 4/5
A Thousand and One 4.5/5
The Royal Hotel 3.5/5
May-December 4.5/5

From approx September to now:

Suspiria 2018
Venom and Eternity, 1951
Songs for Drella, 1990
Unfaithfully Yours 1948
An Actor’s Revenge 1963
Kagemusha 1980
Miss Julie 1951
Ghost 1984
The Terence Davies Trilogy 1983
Sorry We Missed You 2019
Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall 2022
When Evil Lurks 2023
The Long Day Closes 1992
Equus 1977
The Beekeeper 1986
Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor 2023
Barbara 2012
The Mother and the Whore 1973
Othon 1970
The Diary of a Chambermaid 1946
The State I Am In ‘Die innere Sicherheit’ 2000
Serpent’s Path 1998
Eyes of the Spider 1998
Men 2022
Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss 1982
Lola 1981
Don’t Look Up/Ghost Actress 1996
A Cure for Wellness 2016
Black Moon 1975
Yella 2007
Long Strange Trip 2017
Talk to Me 2022
Karen Dalton: In My Own Time 2020
Mother 2009
Exhibit A 2007
Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites 2019
Piggy 2022
Black Girl 1966
Evil Dead Rise 2023
How to Blow Up a Pipeline 2022
Moses and Aaron 1975
The Last Waltz 1978
Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band 2019
Kuroneko 1968
News from Home 1976

The Beekeeper was a disappointment, not top tier Angelopoulos for me. Evil Dead Rise was poor. I liked Men probably more than most. Working y way through Christian Petzold's filmography after Barbara stunned me.

Recent viewing, in theaters and streaming. All pretty good.

Anatomy of a Fall (in theater)
Killers of the Flower Moon (in theater)
Tranquility in the Presence of Others (MOMA)
The Old Man and the Gun (Lowery)
The Duellists (Scott)
The 39 Steps (Hitchcock)

No No: A Dockumentary (7.0)
Succession (season 4 -- 6.5)
The Killer (4.0)
Priscilla (5.0)
The Holdovers (5.0)
Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (7.0)
The Stones And Brian Jones (6.0)
Rush to Judgement (6.0)
May December (7.0)
Killers of the Flower Moon (6.0)

Takes me longer and longer to accumulate 10 films. Question related to one of the above: did Ali MacGraw win any acting awards for Goodbye, Columbus or Love Story? I’d have to check, but I doubt that she did.

getting my money's worth out of criterion channel

Svengali (1931) no rating because antisemitism but i was entertained by the lead's lack of subtlety
Mystery of the Wax Museum (Curtiz, 1933) 6/10 -- amazing red/green technicolor
Murders in the Zoo (1933) 5
One Mile from Heaven (1937) 3
Dragonwyck (J. Mankiewicz, 1946) 7 -- vincent price's first gothic movie
The Harvey Girls (1946) 6 -- i was in the wrong mood to watch fluff
Repeat Performance (1947) 6
I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes (1948) 6 -- this is why the "holiday noir" category exists, isn't it
So Long at the Fair (Fisher et al., 1950) 6
No Way Out (J. Mankiewicz, 1950) 2
Madeleine (Lean, 1950) 5 -- lean's least favorite of his own films
Still of the Night (Benton, 1982) 6 -- meryl streep's least favorite of her own films, at least at one point
L'Argent (Bresson, 1983) 8
Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (Wolf, 2008) 6
Old Dads (Bill Burr, 2023) 2
The Fall of the House of Usher (miniseries, Flanagan, 2023) 7
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) 5

Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023)
Satan's Brew (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1976)
Mad God (Phil Tippett, 2021)
The Big Game (Robert Day, 1973)
The Bay (Barry Levinson, 2012)
Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945)
The Harder They Fall (Mark Robson, 1956)
North Face (Philipp Stölzl, 2008)
Erin Brockovich (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)
All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)
Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis (Anton Corbijn, 2022)
Fear of Fear (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)
Election (Johnnie To, 2005)
The Experimental City (Chad Freidrichs, 2017)
Heart of Stone (Tom Harper, 2023)
Nothing Compares (Kathryn Ferguson, 2022)
Nico, 1988 (Susanna Nicchiarelli, 2017)
Bullet in the Head (John Woo, 1990)
Exiled (Johnnie To, 2006)
Little Richard: I Am Everything (Lisa Cortes, 2023)
Columbus (Kogonada, 2017)
Near Death (Frederick Wiseman, 1989)
Menus Plaisirs - Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman, 2023)
'Doc' (Frank Perry, 1971)
Moontide (Archie Mayo, 1942)
The Connection (Shirley Clarke, 1961)
Dear Mr. Brody (Keith Maitland, 2021)
Un couple (Frederick Wiseman, 2022)
*Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
River Road (Rob Willey, 2022)
Harmonium en Californie (Robert Fortier, 1979)
Black Sea (Kevin Macdonald, 2014)
The Whistleblower (Larysa Kondracki, 2010)
Good Guys Wear Black (Ted Post, 1978)
The Element of Crime (Lars von Trier, 1984)
Caprice (Joanna Hogg, 1986)
*The Wolf Of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
Barbie (Greta Gerwig, 2023)
Save The Tiger (John G. Avildsen, 1973)
The Nickel Ride (Robert Mulligan, 1974)
Mutiny in Heaven: The Birthday Party (Ian White, 2023)
*Thief (Michael Mann, 1981)

Wiseman is now one of the directors where I can justifiably claim that I've seen everything in their filmography. I need to fully debrief in the Wiseman thread, but Near Death is a masterpiece.

Agree about Near Death--I put it just a half-notch behind Welfare as his greatest film (though I still have many to see).

He's got another four-hour one for which I can't find a bloc at home to watch.

The Cassandra Cat (1963) 4/5. Delightful film on Criterion Channel about a tabby cat who turns people their true colors when he looks at them. Sort of the Zazie dans le Metro of the Czech New Wave.
Brigadoon (1954) 2.5/5
* Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) 5/5. Re-watched this on a whim. GTO still one of the all-time great movie characters.
* Millennium Mambo (2001) 4/5
The Rapture (1991) 3.5/5
May December (2023) 4.5/5
La Chimera (2023) 4.5/5. I hope this movie gets its due when it runs theatrically next year. Alice Rohrwacher is brilliant.
Fallen Leaves (2023) 4/5
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978) 1/5. Gave up on this after the graphic pig slaughter scene. I guess gawking at peasants for 3.5 hours used to entail witnessing such an offense but that's one thing the movies have largely fixed.

Busy month... and it ain't over yet.

The Idiots (1998) 4/5. Of course Lars Von Trier's contribution to the Dogme 95 movement is about a bunch of poseurs who backpedal on their own artistic movement as soon as it's convenient.
Ferrari (2023) 3.5/5
Bachelor Mother (1939) 3.5/5
* My Night at Maud's (1968) 4.5/5
Poor Things (2023) 3/5
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955) 4/5
Welfare (1975) 5/5. Frederick Wiseman doc. There is a long sequence where a racist WW II vet argues with a black security guard/Vietnam vet that might be one of the most enraging I've ever seen. Like the videos of the guy harassing the halal cart vendor.
La guerre est finie (1966) 3/5
Barbie (2023) 3.5/5
Of Time and the City (2008) 3/5
Saint Omer (2022) 4.5/5
Police Python 357 (1976) 4/5
* Little Murders (1971) 4/5
The Boy and the Heron (2023) 4/5
Rewind & Play (2022) 3/5
Afire (2023) 4/5
BlackBerry (2023) 3.5/5
The Glass Key (1942) 3.5/5

christmas crap wot i watched

A Christmas Dream, 1945, short
Lady in the Lake, 1946 5/10
Backfire, 1950 5/10
Roadblock, 1951 4/10
*A Charlie Brown Christmas, 1965 i like it
*Home Alone, 1990 5/10
It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown, 1992 meh
It's a Wondefful Knife, 2023 4/10

can’t figure out where i should talk about the iron claw a messy movie that contains my favorite scene in any movie i’ve watched this year

Bottoms (Seligman, 2023)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Lawrence, 2023)
Le Samourai (Melville, 1967)
Passages (Sachs, 2023)
The Holdovers (Payne, 2023)
While You Were Sleeping (Turteltaub, 1995)
Duel (Spielberg, 1971)
Notting Hill (Michell, 1999)
Ida (Pawlikowski, 2013)
Personal Shopper (Assayas, 2016)
Premium Rush (Koepp, 2012)
Master Gardener (Schrader, 2022)
Josie and the Pussycats (Kaplan/Elfont, 2001)
Poor Things (Lanthimos, 2023)
Pickpocket (Bresson, 1959)
Maestro (Cooper, 2023)
Love Actually (Curtis, 2003)

The last movie I watched in 2023 was MIDNIGHT RUN, which came out when I was 16 but which I had never seen until now. A couple of lines made me laugh, but honestly I am very much not a Charles Grodin fan, so it mostly seemed like a waste of Yaphet Kotto.

I've gotten into this strange habit of seeing Kelly Reichardt films on planes, which is maybe not ideal, but "Showing Up" was still pretty good. Also saw "The Creator," which I mentioned on the/a Radiohead thread. It reminded me of tons of other stuff, from "Blade Runner" to "AI" to a few action films, but its visuals, set pieces and mood made an impression on me, even if the movie ultimately fell a little short (and felt a little long). I thought "Monsters" was pretty thoughtful/striking, so it was good to see Gareth Edwards cash in some of his Hollywood franchise chits to make another more personal sci-fi movie.

that time of year when the xmas tv has finished and new season hasn't really started so i'm taping any film from tptv that looks even vaguely interesting to watch during the day

Not As A Stanger, robert mitchum and frank sinatra want to become doctors. two big name actors in a film i've not heard of.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048432/

yesterday was Landfall, about an RAF pilot accused of bombing a british submarine. starring no-one you've ever heard of but "From the novel by Nevil Shute".

also spent the time between xmas and new year catching up on recent dvds

Agnus Varda - Cleo from 5 to 7
Bela Tarr - Turin Horse
Tomu Uchida - Mad Fox

all of which i enjoyed.

(actually, Not As A Stranger features Gloria Grahame, the third film i've seen with her in it in the last month (Human Desire, The Man Who Never Was) ((also, it's a wonderful life, which was on A LOT over christmas but which i didn't watch)))

Thirteen Women (Archainbaud 1932)
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (Lam Mai-Choi 1991)
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai 2003)
The Quick and the Dead (Raimi 1995)
Frontier Marshal (Dwan 1939)
Casino (Scorsese 1995)
May December (Haynes 2023)
The Grandmaster (Wong 2013)
Men (Garland 2022)
eXistenZ (Cronenberg 1999)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Anderson 2023)
High Anxiety (Brooks 1977)
*Being John Malkovich (Jonze 1999)
Maestro (Cooper 2023)
*L.A. Confidential (Hanson 1997)
Blast of Silence (Baron 1961)
The Equalizer 3 (Fuqua 2023)
The Equalizer (Fuqua 2014)
The Equalizer 2 (Fuqua 2018)
Birth (Glazer 2004)
Harry Brown (Barber 2009)
Little Odessa (Gray 1994)
Puss (Shore 2021)
The Diabolic Tenant (Méliès 1909)
India Song (Duras 1975)

* Altered States (1980) 3.5/5
The Iron Claw (2023) 4/5
Anatomy of a Fall (2023) 4/5
Panic in the Streets (1950) 3.5/5
An Accidental Studio (2019) 3/5. Doc on Handmade Films currently on Criterion.
Godzilla Minus One (2023) 4/5
The Holdovers (2023) 3.5/5
SubUrbia (1996) 2/5. Had this soundtrack on cd in the 90s but never saw the movie. Steve Zahn nearly carries it but kind of a botch job from Linklater.
* Mean Streets (1973) 4.5/5

The Invisible Ray (Hillyer, 1936)
Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki. 2023)
The Johnstown Flood (Cummings, 1926)
Deluge (Feist, 1933)
*The Old Dark House (Whale, 1932)
One Day in Hollywood (Caldwell, 1924)
*From Soup to Nuts (Kennedy, 1928)

January:

The Long Hair of Death (Margheriti, 1964) 88 Films Blu Ray 6/10
The Vengeance of She (Owen, 1968) Hammer Film DVD Box Set 4/10
The Beguiled (Siegel, 1971) DVD 8/10
Saltburn (Fennell, 2023) Amazon Prime 6/10
Poor Things (Lanthimos, 2023) Cineworld 8/10
Jackass Forever (Tremaine, 2022) C4 4/10
Two Mules for Sister Sara (Siegel, 1970) DVD 7/10
Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson, 2002) DVD 7/10
Witchhammer (Vavra, 1970) Second Run DVD 7/10
Barbarian (Cregger, 2022) Amazon Prime 7/10
The Holdovers (Payne, 2023) Cineworld 6/10
Blood Work (Eastwood, 2002) DVD 5/10

Leave the World Behind (6.0)
A Promising Young Woman (6.0)
Past Lives (7.5)
Napoleon (6.0)
Funny Girl (7.0)
Anatomy of a Fall (7.0)
The Office (S1-S9 – 7.5)
The Reckless Moment (6.5)
The Zone of Interest (6.0)
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer (6.5)

A Touch of Sin (Zhangke Jia, 2013)
*Shotgun Freeway: Drives Through Lost L.A. (Morgan Neville, Harry Pallenberg, 1995)
*Like Water for Chocolate (Alfonso Arau, 1992)
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Steven Soderbergh, 1989)
Prey (Dan Trachtenberg, 2022)
Deep Cover (Bill Duke, 1992)
Trespass (Walter Hill, 1992)
A Most Violent Year (J.C. Chandor, 2014)
Anselm (Wim Wenders, 2023)
Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987)
Silvia Prieto (Martín Rejtman, 1999)
Leave The World Behind (Sam Esmail, 2023)
India Song (Marguerite Duras, 1975)
Stanley Kubrick's Boxes (Jon Ronson, 2008)
Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (Rob Reiner, 2023)
Ferrari (Michael Mann, 2023)
Det perfekte menneske (Jørgen Leth, 1968)
*Dekalog (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1989)
Walking and Talking (Nicole Holofcener, 1996)
*Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)
That Summer! (Harley Cokeliss, 1979)

That Summer! noteworthy for having the best soundtrack album to a movie that no one saw
https://www.discogs.com/release/2177877-Various-That-Summer

Big Time Gambling Boss (1968) 4.5/5
Love Affair (1939) 4/5
The Zone of Interest 4/5
Chess of the Wind (1976) 4/5
Happy Hour (2015) 4.5/5
* Blackhat 3.5/5 Did not like this previously but found the director's cut enjoyable.
* A Tale of Winter (1992) 4/5

Fast X — reprehensibly stupid. 0/10
Inferno (Dario Argento, 1981) — felt like it was happening in slow motion; gave up halfway through. 3/10
King of New York — a fucking classic. Can't even count how many times I've seen it. 10/10

Inferno is one of the many kinds of slow I love. I could live in that movie, minus getting murdered

Inferno has the greatest bad score of all time - supplied to us, the viewers, by none other than Keith Emerson himself

laat month

little murders, dir. alan arkin, 1971 8/10
the hit, dir. frears, 1984, 7/10
the barefoot contessa, dir. the other mank, 1954, 6/10. tries to do the kane thing but the subject isn't very interesting. defines her in terms of what the men around her feel.
pearl, dir. west, 2023, 8/10
nimona, netflix, 2023, 6/10
*rewatch, galaxy quest, dir. parisot, 1999, 8/10. a comfort movie.
a bunch of old disney bullshit not worth mentioning

Calcutta, dir: John Farrow, 1946 - Middling
Scala, dir: Jane Giles, Ali Catteral, 2023 - Moving
Outside The Law, dir: Jack Arnold, 1956 - Solid
Brief Encounters, dir: Kira Muratova, 1967 - Engaging
The Fall Of Ako Castle, dir: Kinji Fukasaku, 1978 - Diverting
Fire And Ice, dir: Alain Cavalier, 1962- Unladingsticking
Hanuman, dir: Prasanth Varma, 2024- Fun
Ladies Man, dir: Jerry Lewis, 1961 - Baffling
The Bit Between The Teeth, dir:Laurent Heynemann, 1979 - Great
Night At The Crossroads, dir: Jean Renoir, 1932 - Ramshackle

JAN:

Ferrari (Mann, Martin 2023)
May December (Haynes, Burch, Mechanik 2023) 📺
Godzilla Minus One (Yamakazi 2023)
Poor Things (Lanthimos, McNamara, Gray 2023)
The Holdovers (Payne, Hemingson 2023) 📺
Somewhere In Queens (Romano, Stegemann 2023) 📺 0/10
How Do You Live? (Miyazaki 2023)
Theater Camp (Gordon, Lieberman, Platt, Galvin 2023) 📺
Saltburn (Fennell 2023)
All Of Us Strangers (Haigh after Yamada 2023)
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Demy, Legrand, et autres 1964)
The Happiness of the Katakuris [カタクリ家の幸福] (Miike, Yamagishi 2001)
Anyone But You (Gluck, Wolpert, Shaxberd 2023)
Safety Last! (Newmeyer, Taylor, Lloyd, Havez, Roach, Taylor, Whelan, Walker 1923)
Hairspray! (Shankman, Shaiman, Waters, Wittman, Dixon, O'Donnell, Meehan 2007)
A Woman Of Paris (Charles Chaplin 1923)
They Made Me A Fugitive (Cavalcanti, Langley, Budd 1947) 📀
The Kid (Charlie Chaplin 1920 / 1972)
Córki dancingu (Smoczyńska, Bolesto 2015)
* City Lights (Charles Chaplin 1931)
Master Gardener (Schrader 2023) 📀
The Beekeeper (Ayer, Wimmer 2024)
Modern Times (Charles Chaplin 1936)

Ladies Man, dir: Jerry Lewis, 1961 - Baffling

saw this at an unannounced screening a year or two ago and it makes total sense as a formal experiment on the big screen. although I'd already seen Pig In The City and Witches Of Eastwick (on purpose) the same day so my practical spectacletations may have been overly calibrated, and my logic receptors beaten to a nub. (My only Lewis to date.)

Re-watched Jim Jarmusch's STRANGER THAN PARADISE last night, and Richard Edson gives one of the great unsung comic performances of the '80s in that movie. Everyone else is in dry hipster mode; he goes full Bowery Boys.

YES

Berlinale-haul:

Dahomey (Mati Diop)
The Devil’s Bath (Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala)
L’Empire (Bruno Dumont)
My Favourite Cake (Maryam Foghaddam & Behtash Sanaeeha)
A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sang-soo)
La Cocina (Alonso Ruizpalacios)
Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)
Who Do I Belong To (Meryam Jaabeur)
Shambhala (Min Bahadur Bham)
Vogter (Gustav Möller)
Langue Étrangère (Claire Burger)
A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)
Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)
Sterben (Matthias Glasner)
Gloria! (Margherita Vicario)
Architecton (Victor Kossakovsky)
Another End (Piero Messina)
From Hilde, With Love (Andreas Dresen)
Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)
Black Tea (Abderrahmane Sissako)
Abiding Nowhere (Tsang Ming-liang)
Arcadia (Yorgos Zois)
Cidade; Campo (Juliana Rojas)
Demba (Mamadou Dia)
Favoriten (Ruth Beckermann)
Mãos no fogo (Margarida Gil)
Some Rain Must Fall (Qiu Yang)
Tú me abrasas (Matias Piñeiro)
Afterwar (Birgitte Stærmose)
Kottukkaali (PS Vinothraj)
All The Long Nights (Shô Miyake)
The Editorial Office (Roman Bondarchuk)
In The Belly Of A Tiger (Siddharta Jatla)
Shahid (Narges Kalhor)
La Hojarasca (Macu Machín)
What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov? (Faraz Fesharaki)

The keepers are the first eight or so + Kottukkaali, Tu me abrasas, Afterwar, Cidade; Campo and yeah, Abiding Nowhere, though it's once again just a monk walking slowly. This time in Washington DC, for 80 minutes.

How's the new Kossakovsky?

I'd like to see the new Ruizpalacios. I thought "A Cop Movie" was incredible.

The new Kossakovsky is like Aquarela but for concrete, so if you liked that, you'll like this. I didn't, so I don't.

I hope the new Ruizpalacios will be his breakthrough. It takes place in New York, and is a bit more mainstream than his earlier films. Reminded me quite a bit of a Spike Lee film.

Fargo (S5 – 6.5)
The Teachers’ Lounge (6.5)
One from the Heart (5.0)
Miss Americana (5.0)
Trans-Europ-Express (7.0)
New Waterford Girl (7.5)
Mid90s (7.5)
Let Them All Talk (6.5)
Who’s That Knocking at My Door? (6.0)
Midnight Cowboy (10.0)

Rep theatre three-quarters full today for the last one--felt good.

February:

Off Balance/Phantom of Death- decent giallo from Cannibal Holocaust's Ruggero Deodato starring Michael York
The Spider Labyrinth- long unavailable 80's Italian horror with some great paranoid/cult vibes, recommended
Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby- almost as good as the first Freeway, somehow
Road House- I used to fuck movies like this in prison
The Boy and the Heron- perfect movie. no notes
Prague Nights- great Czech portmanteau folklore/horror
*Dredd- checking in periodically as I am wont to do. Still great
The Hourglass Sanatorium- Absolutely gorgeous but also incredibly difficult to parse compared with Has' Saragossa Manuscript; going to finally read Bruno Schulz and come back to this one later
*Possession- highly recommend seeing this one in a packed theater with a bunch of first-time viewers
The Wild Goose Lake- beautifully photographed, feels like a Chinese riff on a Coen brothers crime movie, reductive as that take is
Schizoid- Klaus Kinski is in it, it's directed by the guy who produced (iirc) Dallas, my memory of this movie is rapidly fading even as I type this
Tammy and the T-Rex- highly recommend seeing this one in a packed theater. I didn't do that, I streamed it at home, and it suffered for it
Leviathan (the dumb George Cosmatos monster movie one)- this and Deep Star Six were 1989's Volcano/Dante's Peak
Smile (the Michael Ritchie one)- unexpectedly great. "You've got to learn to expect a little less out of life"
The Tune- I like Bill Plympton in small doses but a feature-length musical is a big ask. Still technically astonishing as his work always is

pretty good February

The Zone of Interest
Anyone But You
*Blow Out (10)
Origin
Depeche Mode 101
Gidget
Out of Darkness
Bushman
Leila and the Wolves
*Modern Romance
*Turning Red
*Wonder Boys
Drylongso (10)
*Drop Dead Gorgeous
*Miss Congeniality
Lisa Frankenstein
Drive-Away Dolls
Gaza Ghetto: Portrait of a Palestinian Family

Birth (2004) 3/5
* The Conformist (1970) 4.5/5
The Book of Life (1998) 4/5
Dick (1999) 3.5/5
Loulou (1980) 4/5
Cane River (1982) 3/5
The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984) 4/5
* Wanda (1970) 4/5
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) 4/5

Sexy Beast (Glazer, 2003)
Groundhog Day (Ramis, 1993)
A Thousand and One (Rockwell, 2023)
The Teachers' Lounge (Çatak, 2023)
Anaconda (Llosa, 1997)
Terms of Endearment (Brooks, 1983)
Deep Blue Sea (Harlin, 1999)
A Matter of Life and Death (Powell and Pressburger, 1946)
Priscilla (Coppola, 2023)
BlackBerry (Johnson, 2023)

Found BlackBerry a little disappointing; liked Air (they came out at the same time) better.