Movie Tab II

J'ai perdu mon corps [I Lost My Body] (2019) - - the visuals and music are the real selling point here; the story is okay
브이아이피 [V.I.P.] (2017) - - a very solid Korean thriller with a trademark sexy 10/10 would bang (albeit he'd bang my head against the wall later) murderer, and a slightly more interesting than usual plot!
หมอนรถไฟ [Railway Sleepers] (2016) - - slow train trips, man! You know, some time ago I spent 10 hours on a train in a single day! This brings back so many memories!

Medea (1982) - - Zwartjes might be a poser and a pervert, but there is no denying he created some really thick atmosphere here! Not as kinky as his magnum opus Pentimento, tho!
Under the Silver Lake (2018) - - Hitchcock + Lynch + boobs = a clusterfukk of a movie like this one!
刀 [The Blade] (1995) - - Tsui Hark slays! Very entertaining! Too bad my favourite character - Blackie - was so poorly fleshed out!

Tokyo-Ga (1985) - what we learn is that Ozu was a good man, and that Wenders has no sh*t on Marker! Also, some Japanese Murican-wannabes dancing to among others Blondie's Call Me is worth it!
Flores (2017) - - one of the best shorts I've seen in a very long time. The omnipresent purple only adds to the beautiful, nostalgic atmosphere.
Die Tomorrow (2017) - - Thamrongrattanarit's (I know, just when you thought you were smart because you remembered Weerasethakul's name) essay on death might not be very revealing, and it's shrewdy filled with clichés, but damn me if it isn't pretty and moving.

Sailing a Sinking Sea (2015) - - yet another disappointment, but at least it's short and you learn a thing or two.
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005) - - really had my hopes high due to a high rating from a friend, but this one is just schmucky kitsch
鎖縛 [Sabaku] (2000) - - apparently the movie is loosely based on the Murder of Junko Furuta (just don't repeat my mistake and don't read this before sleep ;_; ), put emphasis on loosely. Anyway, this is the best "gay" "pinku" "directed by" Hisayasu Sato. Why quotation marks? Because its point isn't really being gay, although it contains some gay sex scenes (the final one is absolutely beautiful). Because it's not a pure pink film even going by the loosest definition, and because the credits at the beginning mention a mysterious "Casino" as the director of the film. Trying to clear it up, the film feels more like a sadistic horror than a pinku - something like Sato's Naked Blood, but much, much darker with underlying themes of a perpetrator becoming a victim and so on. Some scenes are really out there and downright disturbing (or they should be for a sensitive viewer, I'm not one), but I'm not sure whether disturbing enough for Sato to be afraid to put his name on it, so I see two possibilities here: 1) This was indeed directed by Sato who for some reason took on the pseudonym "Casino" for it 2) This was (co-)directed by some beginner director "Casino", and most probably ghost-directed by Sato. Dunno why I keep blabbering about it, but I guess I'm just happy I found a gay pinku I loved, no matter how far-fetched the definitions are.

世界 [The World] (2004) - - FFS finally a really great movie. Absolutely astounding, even if quite obvious. The little moments of sadness really get to you, like the last note of Little Sister, or Zhao Tao meeting the Russian girl in the toilet. Also, this turned out to be a personal film for me for reasons I choose not to disclose.
小武 [The Pickpocket] (1997) - - yet another gem from Jia Zhangke. This is like Bresson's... well... Pickpocket (duh) but stripped off its idealism!
任逍遥 [Unknown Pleasures] (2002) - - this one is considerably weaker than the previous two, but still a very solid Zhangke film!

漂泊者 [Hyohakusha] (2014) - - occasionally pretty, but nothing too fancy.
ドキュメント路上 [On the Road: A Document] (1964) - - eh... it was okay, I guess. I'm much more interested in Minamata: The Victims and Their World, tho!
Faust Sonnengesang (2011) - - my 9000th film!!! (Everybody gasps in amazement. @mark f laughs spitefully). 180 minutes of unadulterated visual masturbation is exactly what you'd expect me to love. Dat Napoleon-core triple screen towards the end, tho.

疾走 [Dead Run] (2005) - - a typical ok doomer (◡‿◡✿) 5/5 would suicide again flick. WHATTA HELL SABU WILL YOU HAVE MY BABY?! For those who don't know, SABU is basically Takashi Miike for cool people, and his Postman Blues, Blessing Bell, and Monday (DOES EVERYBODY WANNA TWIST!!! COME ON!!! BABY BABY!!! anyone?) are all outstanding movies I loved in the past. Decided to watch more SABU, and stumbled upon this gem. I'm not even going to attempt telling you what the movie's about, and what the characters are. Lemme just tell you one of them is a priest! And you don't even know how afraid I was this is going to turn into a Bible-reading circle-jerk I READ BIBLE AND BECAME A BETTER HUMAN BEING Christian movie bs cliche, but SABU is the man, he would never let me down!!! And oh man, this sheet gets more and more intense, and touching, and simply devastating! I cried through the entire second part of the movie!!! Yep, and saying it's emo is a very poor excuse of not getting its greatness, haters! I really love SABU's use of silence, his development of characters, his shots, pretty much everything! See? I can't even critque it properly, I'm just fanboying over it, sheeet.
Wundkanal [Gun Wound] (1984) - - very original and quite mysterious! You basically understand what's going on, and even get the final message, but the details are obfuscated, that is until you watch...
Notre nazi [Our Nazi] (1984) - - which shows the making of Gun Wound. Turns out the actor was a real Nazi, and the shooting of the film a form of trial & torture for him. A really drawn-out film, but along with Shoah and Marcel Ophüls' documentaries the best thing of this kind I've seen!

アンラッキー・モンキー [Unlucky Monkey] (1998) - - SABU doing Dostoevsky is exactly just like you'd imagine. Comical, surprising, touching! The protagonist's anguish reverbs through every scene - sad or funny, and the ending is purifying!
三峡好人 [Still Life] (2006) - - back to China, and this seems to be director's second most beloved film among my RYM friends, so I hoped for another 3 star Zhangke - close but no cigar!
地獄無門 [We're Going to Eat You] (1980) - - another Tsui Hark, his sophomore effort, is a kung-fu comedy with cannibals! Hoped for a more serious, gnarly & brutal film, but it plays like one of these Jackie Chan flicks. Entertaining, sure, but not brilliant.

Wisconsin Death Trip (1999) - - the premise is fine, and the execution amazing, but it gets repetitive way too fast. I mean, too many broken windows for my taste.
Picture of Light (1994) - - yet another hipter documentary that turns out to be merely watchable.
狛 [Koma] (2009) - - a very enjoyable short from Kawase, but I NEED MOAR!

ドライブ [Drive] (2002) - - yet another SABU goodness. Batsheet crazy, and just the kind of humor I like. Doesn't pack quite a punch I wanted it to, but oh my goodness if these final scenes aren't adorable. :3 Also, I want to learn video editing just so that I can paste my face onto the body of the man in the video above. :P
戦ふ兵隊 [Fighting Soldiers] (1939) - - this might be the best war documentary ever made, but I'm too dumb to understand it. Seriously, though, it's been banned, because the director who was supposed to glorify war basically made an anti-war documentary!
Temenos (1998) - - I don't even remember a single frame of this avant-garde film. Oh well.

夏時間の大人たち [Happy-Go-Lucky] (1997) - - a gr8 coming-of-age flick from Nakashima. Not as flashy as Memories of Matsuko and Confessions, and also not as amazing as the two, but still very enjoyable, and I like how it both starts and ends with basically a young boy commenting on somebody's boobs.
Bestiaire (2012) - - look at this hipster director thinking he's making an important point. Oh well, at least it's pleasantly contemplative.
親密さ [Intimacies] (2012) - - Hamaguchi nails it again. This is his most Rivettian film, but thank goodness it has nothing of Rivette's boring Out 1-core. The first two hours are spent on the preparation of a play, and the other two hours on the actual play - in its entirety! The final couple of minutes are soothing and cute!

The King of Comedy (1982) - - yeah, it's so much better than The Irishman, but it doesn't really say much, because Scorsese's latest film was TERRIBLE. This one... it's simple and quite enjoyable.
采油日记 [Crude Oil] (2008) -
- Oh hai, Minio, I didn't know it was you. What did you do during the weekend?
- Oh nothing much, just watching a film. Spent 4 hours looking at men sleeping and going in and out of a single room, then another 4 hours looking at oil rig workers at work, and then 4 hours looking at men chilling in the middle of a desert, and then again chilling in some huts, watching TV... 840 minutes in total! Ha! And what was your longest film you've ever seen?
- It seems to me you're just easily impressed with long things!
- Why, you normie! Get back to your Avengers franchise binge, n00b!

I mean, when you're looking at a fixed shot of two men sitting almost motionlessly in a room for 15 minutes, a man entering a room feels like an extreme twist. Hell, I wish there was an audience cheering sound effect every time it happened, like in Lynch's Rabbits.But of course later on we do get out of the room (I really thought it's gonna be 15 hours in just this one room), and camera becomes more mobile, following the crew members all around the rig. Don't get me wrong, static shots abound, but there are some tracking ones which is also a sort of a twist.

It took me 2 freakin' days to finish this movie, and I also watched other movies inbetween the sessions. No doubt the most challenging movie-watching experience ever.
ハードラックヒーロー Hard Luck Hero (2003) - - yet another SABU. Too much in your face, nothing is left to viewer's interpretation, but it's funny and very entertaining. I read that apparently "Sabu was commissioned to make this film to showcase the boyband V6.", so that would explain a lot.

파란 대문 [Birdcage Inn] (1998) - - been years since I've seen a Kim Ki-duk film, and I'm glad I left out his first three films when I was binge watching his filmography, so that I can watch them now! He seems to be universally hated safe for 3-Iron and the seasons film, but I absolutely love him, and even though I can see some criticism as in he's too forceful with symbolism, I don't give a flying damn. It's a really moving film, and the final scene is one of the most memorable ones I've seen recently.
カケラ [Kakera: A Piece of Our Life] (2010) - - this has lots of potential, but the great moments are somehwat lost in the convoluted structure of the film. Hard to believe director's next film will be one of the best movies of the decade.
L' amour fou [Mad Love] (1969) - - after loving Intimacies decided to give Rivette another chance, but even though the film has good moments, it's tedious, and pretty bland. I couldn't care less about most Rivette's filmography, which only further proves he's not a filmmaker for me.

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San Franciscan lesbian dwarves and their tomato orgies.

Fixed Bayonets! (1951) - - maybe it's just me not having seen a war movie for a long time, but the explosions in this one felt very gritty and real! It's a rather typical well-made man's cinema war film, but what can I say, I really, really liked it! The minefield scene was tense!
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972) - - directed by Paul Newman! Yes, the Paul Newman! Still, it kinda fell over my head.
아리랑 [Arirang] (2011) - - Kim Ki-duk's documentary (although he calls it a drama himself) in which you can't really tell which parts are real and which faked for the sake of the film. Oh well.
烹尸之丧尽天良 [Human Pork Chop] (2001) - - other people made it sound as if it was one of the most gruesome and disgusting CAT III films. Hardly. It's not very good either.
Hypnosis Display (2014) - - nice flickering colors are always cool, but once you've seen 100 films like this, it gets old
야생동물 보호구역 [Wild Animals] (1997) - - Kim Ki-duk's sophomore effort shot in France (and starring Denis Lavant in a minor role!) is probably his roughest film (not just around the edges, but in the very core!). I'm not sure if that's intentional, but the director seems enamored with the 80s, kitschy, schlocky French cinema of the time and... HK action cinema (?!). The buddy part is really nice, so is the Paris-Texas-esque subplot which has its resolve in the final minutes!
Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) - - a fascinating story, but told in a rather typical way, and there is not enough of Herzog narration!
Il deserto dei Tartari [The Desert of the Tartars] (1976) - - watched this half-asleep which admittely wasn't a good idea, but ended up really liking it even though I was also a little bit disappointed given this was recommended by friends as a great masterpiece. The painterly quality of the cinematography kept me glued to the screen, tho.
紙の月 [Pale Moon] (2014) - - an interesting and ultimately moving story!
真晝之星空 [Starlit High Noon] (2005) - - a younger brother of Last Life in the Universe. Gotta love its aesthetic as well as the melancholic tone!
악어 [Crocodile] (1996) - - Kim Ki-duk's debut and holy cow! So much gratuitous violence and (attempted) rape in this one! Only in the first 20 minutes three different men try to rape a woman, the last one succeeds, but almost gets his cock cut off for that!!! The movie is rough as f*ck (technically, too), and even the attempts at poetry don't change its sinister tone!
団鬼六　縄責め [Rope Torture] (1984) - - a gr8 disappointment
Zuma (1985) - - Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to make this 130 minutes?! It's laughable how Zuma chooses to rip off every girl's shirt/bra to uncover her breasts before he kills her. A very lurid and hilarious way to cater to the sex-hungry audience. There are not enough murders, but those that are there are pretty cool, e.g. using the snake he has attached to his neck to break through a girl's chest and rip off her heart! Brutal! LOL @ Zuma getting run over by a steamroller and needless to say surviving it! Obviously we have a forced romance, too!
다른 나라에서 [In Another Country] (2012) - - the cutest and most charming Hong from those I've seen so far! Occasionally rough acting, but who cares when Huppert is so nice, and the adorable lifeguard is my hero. "I WILL PROTECT YOU!"

minio, congrats on your 9000th.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Thanks. I think I covered most widely agreed upon masterpieces as well as obscure and esoteric gems in these 9000. Obviously, I left out some movies, but you can never watch everything, can you? There are still some classics I'd like to see before I hit 10000. Namely some New Hollywood movies (Five Easy Pieces and Two-Lane Blacktop) that I never seem in the mood to watch, and many, many more.

I mostly focused on European, American and (East) Asian cinema, really deep diving into the last one in the recent years. I'm still almost completely ignorant of Indian cinema. It really seems like such a giant, undiscovered land to me, but sadly it never seemed particularly exciting to explore, so there's that - I really only know the basics of the basics - obviously Satyajit Ray and some Ghatak, Mani Kaul etc.

By the way, I'm watching Sátántangó now. I have Eastern European Movies again.

Well, at last!!!

Uncut Gems - Adam Sandler plays a Jewish diamond merchant who has a serious gambling problem, owes money to some very bad people, and who is just a giant schmuck all around in this intense, anxiety causing nightmare of a movie. Is it good? Yes. Did I enjoy it? no. I honestly wanted to leave around the half way point. It's so ridiculously tense, I could feel it triggering a panic attack. Sandler's character is so unlikable, so pigheadedly stupid, that you just can't stand watching him screw up over and over again. At one point he starts crying "I don't want to do this anymore," and I was feeling that same way. I'd watch Grown Ups or Happy Gilmore a thousand times before I'd watch this again. Like I said, it's a well made film with even a few dark laughs here and there but it's so relentlessly loud, chaotic, dark and depressing that I found it too hard to watch. I felt depressed for hours afterwards. Maybe I'm getting too old. This wasn't for me. I don't even know what to rate it.

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"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/

Die, Monster, Die! (1965) –
A young man travels to a cagey old shunned manor to meet a lady. Poorly titled, campy early Lovecraft adaption with Karloff. Convenient lapses of logic, and brief action scenes wherein everyone suddenly gets bad knees, but a very good atmosphere and fun mystery.



Bunker Palace Hotel (1989) –
In a dystopic future, a handful of upper-class people seek refuge within an odd, malfunctioning underground hotel. It’s mostly in French, but I feel that it’s bleak & stylish Eastern Euro sci-fi in spirit. Just not as good or philosophically potent as Tarkovsky and the like.



Fat City (1972) –
Gritty slice of life centered largely on a broke, washed-up boxer. The plot seems rushed at times, but most of it is depressing naturalism with a non-traditional story arc. Good if you like the sort.

Overlord (2018) –
American troops on a secret mission to take down a Nazi radio tower that turns out to be sheltering sinister experiments. Some dumb thriller logic and uncreative one-liners, but it’s pretty entertaining when left brain is set to dormant. The Nazis are smart enough to reanimate dead tissue, but not quite smart enough to realize that one of their motorcycle cops driving towards them with hands bound and mouth taped shut is a bad omen.

An update right before New Year's Eve! Yes, below is the soundtrack to the post that is also the Letter From the Mountain soundtrack.



マリアのお雪 [Oyuki, the Virgin] (1935) - - Mizoguchi does Stagecoach before John Ford! A moderately successful attempt and clearly before Mizoguchi got on his streak of masterpieces.
餓鬼草紙 [The Water Was So Clear] (1973) - - no talking - just the way cool kids like it. Monks having to fight temptation is one of my favourite traits in cinema.
People's Park (2012) - - an astounding one-take documentary on the never-ending park alleys full of people. I wasn't lied to when they told me there are too many people in China, but observing them in such an uncut, fluid manner was almost like being there, surely a tremendous experience!
Befrielsesbilleder [Images of Liberation] (1982) - - von Trier's graduation film and also a great intro to his first full length. Great use of colour (oranges!) and thick atmosphere. Convoluted plot, but who cares?
Ways of Seeing (1972) - - an insightful documentary that makes some interesting points on art. I found the point about the presence of a painting in company of other paintings that change its meaning super funny in our era of Tumblr in which classical masterworks of painting are displayed next to naked models and memes on never-ending scrollable Tumblr pages. Truly incredible times we live in.
여자는 남자의 미래다 [Woman Is the Future of Man] (2004) - - it was okay, the two protagonists are extreme oddballs, and there are many blowjobs in this Hong Sang-soo film.
Dyn Amo (1972) - - arresting! One of Dwoskin's best. The marriage of music and visuals is especially effective, and the final minutes of the film haunting.
El mar la mar (2017) - - an okay experimental documentary from the director of People's Park. This time it's about USA border-crossing experience.
Hunted (1952) - - this Bogarde thriller turned out to be unexpectedly touching - loved the understated yet poignant ending!
A Letter to Three Wives (1949) - - uhm, it was watchable, but I really expected a better film. It was well written, after all it's a Mankiewicz picture... I wonder if somebody had to monitor this fridge 24 hours a day so that food doesn't spoil.
L' hirondelle et la mésange [The Swallow and the Titmouse] (1920) - - well, the acting and everything else is quite realistic and untheatrical for the time of its release, but it's not really anything amazing...
Comizi d'amore [Love Meetings] (1965) - - just when I thought I already watched all of his films years ago, it turned out I hadn't seen this Pasolini documentary. It's interesting how backwards-thinking people were back then. The film is entertaining, alright.
The Lighthouse (2019) - - Robert Eggers sure nailed this one, and made this his second masterpiece after the engrossing The VVitch. This is like a remake of Gardiens de phare (1929) after 90 years with the screenplay written by Lovecraft and Freud (too many penises), and cinematography shot by Nykvist. Surely a work to revel in, and the attention to detail as well as the aesthetics are so special. Can't wait for his version of Nosferatu! Normally, if I heard the idea of remaking it, I'd say "Come on dude, don't do it, you ain't no Herzog", but now that I know Eggers will do it, I'm pretty sure he can pull it off!
Puika [Boy] (1977) - - a Latvian masterpiece! Sort of like Zerkalo, but without metaphysics and Spanish guitarists. A beautiful poetry of everyday life in the 19th century. The Russian dubbing version has an unnecessary narrator, tho!
学校 [A Class to Remember] (1993) - - Yamada delivers yet another beautiful and wise film and yet another dose of tears! A splendidly successful endeavour. Can't wait to see the other three parts. Yamada was my best discovery of 2018, and the discovery was indeed extended through 2019, too!
Heimat ist ein Raum aus Zeit [Heimat Is a Space in Time] (2019) - - Penisshark xD. The director managed to make an even more tedious and uninteresting film than even the nastiest Straub-Huillet efforts. The first part concerning World War II is okay, but what follows is insufferable! Look, I don't mind your Brechtian, Commie-praising shenanigans, just make it more interesting next time kthxbye.
不貞の季節 [I Am an S+M Writer] (2000) - - if you think about it, this is a really down heartening film about a dude being cheated on and what not, but it's played for laughs, and it has ropes, so I enjoyed it.
监狱不设防 [Jail House Eros] (1990) - - crazy and enjoyable. The goofball comedy in the first two thirds is something you simple get used to after you've seen a lot of crappy HK cinema, but the final third has some really cool magic stuff!
Sudden Manhattan (1997) - - kinda like Hal Hartley, but with the weirdness cranked up to 11. Adrienne Shelly RIP
阿弥陀堂だより [Letter From the Mountain] (2002) - - scratch my ballsack and lick my soles!!! I'M SO PUMPED! This is the best film I've seen in a long time, and it made me cry several times, and not the way I cried on countless movie. When it ended I was crying so hard I would start choking. So powerful! It's out of this world aesthetically with stellar cinematography and wonderful music, and so touching. GHAA! It's about healing yourself by healing others, on life and death, and that even in Paradise people aren't immortal. It's so simple yet so incredible. I dunno if my strong reaction to it means it's a masterpiece or I'm just becoming a neurotic pussy, but I'd take it either way. Just watch it
Wołanie [Calling] (2014) - - a solid Polish Lisandro Alonso-core!
A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (2013) - - don't really know what to make out of it, but it was quite good.

December, 2019 movies watched-

Hostiles (2017) Not quite a contender for my westerns list but very much worth watching.

Marriage Story (2019) + Was still hoping for more.

The Hanging Tree (1959) + Solid atypical western starting Gary Cooper.

Dead Man's Line (2018) Excellent crime documentary.

Lonesome Cowboys (1968) The worst movie on the current westerns list.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) Nowhere near perfect yet perfectly awesome.

The Cowboys (1972) - A touching western?

The Salvation (2014) Bleak and brutal the way I like it, but no better than average.

Black Killer (1971) Mediocre spaghetti with Klaus Kinski.

Deadbeat at Dawn (1988) + Recommended for fans of violent cult movies.

Face to Face (1967) Very good spaghetti from the current westerns list.

Dolemite is My Name (2019) + A feel good movie and entertaining.

Navajo Joe (1966) Fun spaghetti with Burt Reynolds.

The Grey Fox (1982) From the westerns list and featuring a great performance from Richard Farnsworth.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) + A must watch for the westerns list.

Heller in Pink Tights (1960) + Pretty enjoyable and much better than I expected.

The Mercenary (1968) - Good time spaghetti.

Skin (2018) - Surprisingly up there with American History X.

Red Sun (1971) + Another fun western with a super cool cast.

The Misfits (1961) + Quite haunting in large part to real life drama and tragedy.

Total December viewings-20
Total 2019 viewings-183
6 year total since keeping track-2163

Not enough Black Metal!!!!

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"This Would Sharpen You Up And Make You Ready For A Bit Of The Old Ultra-Violence."

Parasite (2019) - ★★★★
Dead Man’s Letters (1986) - ★★★★★
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) - ★★★★
The Irishman (2019) - ★★★★
GoldenEye (1995) - ★★★



Alien (1979) - ★★★★
Aliens (1986) - ★★★★★
Alien³ (1992) - •
Alien Resurrection (1997) - ★
Prometheus (2012) - ★★
Alien: Covenant (2017) - ★★


It (2017) - ★★
It Chapter Two (2019) - ★★


Star Wars (1977) - ★★★★
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - ★★★★★
Return of the Jedi (1983) - ★★★★
The Phantom Menace (1999) - ★★
Attack of the Clones (2002) - ★★
Revenge of the Sith (2005) - ★★★★
The Force Awakens (2015) - ★
Rogue One (2016) - ★★
The Last Jedi (2017) - •
The Rise of Skywalker (2019) - •
The Mandalorian [TV] (2019) - ★★

Thank God they weren't stupid enough to make a Solo origin movie...

A Perfect World (1993) -

An escaped convict kidnaps and gradually forms a bond with a fatherless boy. It's a good movie that occasionally forgoes common sense to milk the dramedy (e.g. tying the kid to the car roof with a thin rope to simulate a rollercoaster). I wanted to see the kid take flight like a blown off hat just to ice the cake for doing something so silly.


Color Out of Space (2019) -

An extraordinary fallen meteorite starts to alter the area around it and encourages Nic Cage to be himself. A beautiful psychedelic haze met with Evil Dead-level schlock. Some questionable character choices, unnatural dialogue, and Cage sporadically doing what I'd describe as an angry Tarantino impression. Goofy, but fun, bizarre, and uber atmospheric. Given my love for Hardware and Dust Devil, I'm very biased because I want Richard Stanley to do well and make more movies.


Two Lane Blacktop (1971) -

Two drag racers pick up a girl and challenge Warren Oates to a cross-country race. A very good helping of 70s Americana.




"....... I'M NOT INTO THAT."


Charley Varrick (1975) -

Pro thieves hit a small town bank that happens to have mob connections. A cool 70s Don Siegal thriller with Walter Matthau and a characteristically peppy Lalo Shifrin score. I counted at least 4 baritone voices I wish I had.


The Towering Inferno (1974) -

An ensemble of people trying to escape a burning skyscraper for nearly 3 hours. I guess you could say it’s a… forget it.


I doubt this could have been made elsewhere.

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January, 2020 movies watched-

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) - Not my type but it was really good.

Midsommar (2019) + It really leveled off after a very promising start.

The Last Sunset (1961) Pretty good from the westerns list.

The Magnificent Seven (1960) Repeat A terrific remake even if it pales in comparison to The Seven Samurai.

Heaven's Gate (1980) + Good movie that had to be great to be successful.

Day of Anger (1967) Outstanding spaghetti western.

Joker (2019) + Funniest movie since The Hangover.

The Proposition (2005) Brutal Australian western that turned out average.

In the Realm of the Senses (1976) Nauseating and boring.

The Quick and the Dead (1995) Good cast and entertaining enough.

The Manson Family (1997) Sick and crazy.

The Hunting Party (1971) Great story, should be remade.

Total January viewings-12

Preparing for my directorial debut in May, I decided to revisit the films of my greatest influence:

Blazing Saddles - Mel Brooks' most scathing film, a relentless satire on racism and Western movies. He honestly thought his career would be over once the film was released, but he stood by it all the same and it was the biggest hit of the year it came out, and Madeline Kahn's supporting role won her an Oscar nomination.

High Anxiety - A funny but admittedly lesser Mel Brooks effort, this parody of Alfred Hitchcock's filmography has some really big laughs and just as many groans and lulls. Mel does not really make a great leading man, (Gene Wilder was forced to drop out due to scheduling problems, and this film would go up an entire rating if he'd done it, to be honest) and the film banks so much on his meager acting skills that it just sits there when it should be hilarious. Still, there's a few highlights. Madeline Kahn again as a ditzy Hitchcock heroine, and Harvey Korman as an unscrupulous psychiatrist get some laughs, even as the plot lets them down by making zero sense. That's the thing about Mel Brooks, even his most ridiculous parodies had real plots that people could follow and care about. This one not so much. Also it's filmed rather lifelessly, like a mid seventies TV movie, and Mel is a much better director than that.

February, 2020 movies watched-

Cat Ballou (1965) Repeat Viewing + Worth seeing just for Lee Marvin.

Open Range (2003) + A big surprise and a contender for my westerns list.

The Scalphunters (1968) A lot of good but a little uneven.

Terror in a Texas Town (1958) - From the current westerns list, this one has a noirish feel.

Cheyenne Autumn (1964) It didn't exactly keep me glued to the screen but it's a very well put together film.

Hustlers (2019) Pretty much a total dud.

Meek's Cutoff (2010) An aggravating ending but mostly terrific.

Keoma (1976) + Good grimy spaghetti with Franco Nero.

How the West was Won (1962) An incredible cast but nothing that'll stay with me.

February viewings-9
Total 2020 viewings-21

Since August 2019:
Parasite-

-
Joker-

+
Jesus is King-

-
Vice- -

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My Darling Clementine 1946 Directed by John Ford
Death Rides a Horse 1967 ‘Da uomo a uomo’ Directed by Giulio Petroni
Companeros 1970 ‘Vamos a matar, compañeros’ Directed by Sergio Corbucci
Queen & Slim 2019 Directed by Melina Matsoukas

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Hombre 1967 Directed by Martin Ritt
Uncle Buck 1989 Directed by John Hughes
The Proposition 2005 Directed by John Hillcoat
Kubo and the Two Strings 2016 Directed by Travis Knight
Hostiles 2017 Directed by Scott Cooper
Honey Boy 2019 Directed by Alma Har’el
Marriage Story 2019 Directed by Noah Baumbach
1917 2019 Directed by Sam Mendes

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+ Bad Day at Black Rock 1955 Directed by John Sturges
+ 3:10 to Yuma 1957 Directed by Delmer Daves
+ Blast of Silence 1961 Directed by Allen Baron
+ The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962 Directed by John Ford
+ A Bullet for the General 1966 ‘Quién sabe?’ Directed by Damiano Damiani
+ El Dorado 1967 Directed by Howard Hawks
+ A Fistful of Dynamite 1971 ‘Giù la testa’ Directed by Sergio Leone
+ Sleuth 1972 Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
+ St. Elmo’s Fire 1985 Directed by Joel Schumacher
+ Out of the Furnace 2013 Directed by Scott Cooper
+ The Last Black Man in San Francisco 2019 Directed by Joe Talbot
+ Dark Waters 2019 Directed by Todd Haynes
+ Richard Jewell 2019 Directed by Clint Eastwood

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- The Lost Weekend 1945 Directed by Billy Wilder
- The Killers 1946 Directed by Robert Siodmak
- Night and the City 1950 Directed by Jules Dassin
- Last Train from Gun Hill 1959 Directed by John Sturges
- Good Time 2017 Directed by Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
- Ford v Ferrari 2019 Directed by James Mangold

_
Murder, My Sweet 1944 Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Dark Passage 1947 Directed by Delmer Daves
Devil in a Blue Dress 1995 Directed by Carl Franklin
The Peanut Butter Falcon 2019 Directed by Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz
Dolemite Is My Name 2019 Directed by Craig Brewer
Joker 2019 Directed by Todd Phillips
Jojo Rabbit 2019 Directed by Taika Waititi

_
+ Winchester ’73 1950 Directed by Anthony Mann
+ The Hill 1965 Directed by Sidney Lumet
+ The Sword of Doom 1966 ‘大菩薩峠’ Directed by Kihachi Okamoto
+ Paper Moon 1973 Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
+ Badlands 1973 Directed by Terrence Malick
+ Dead Man 1995 Directed by Jim Jarmusch
+ The Man Who Wasn’t There 2001 Directed by Joel Coen
+ Uncut Gems 2019 Directed by Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
+ The Irishman 2019 Directed by Martin Scorsese

_
The Gunfighter 1950 Directed by Henry King
The Big Country 1958 Directed by William Wyler
Samurai Rebellion 1967 ‘上意討ち 拝領妻始末’ Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Piper 2016 Directed by Alan Barillaro
Knives Out 2019 Directed by Rian Johnson

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Letterboxd
Entertainment log

March, 2020 movies watched-

The Tree of Life (2011) A lot of great things but at least to me there were times it got in over it's head.

The Lighthouse (2019) Genuinely creepy and it looks great.

Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) Very enjoyable western thanks to Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn.

Parasite (2019) The funniest Asian movie I've seen.

Gandhi (1982) - Amazing portrayal of an amazing man.

The Big Gundown (1966) A great month going with all very good movies. This time it's spaghetti with Lee Van Cleef.

Babel (2006) A new favorite and an excellent companion piece to Amores Perros.

My Best Friend (1999) - Werner Herzog documentary about his relationship with Klaus Kinski.

Jojo Rabbit (2019) A fine film that's too whimsical for my taste.

Four of the Apocalypse (1975) - One of the westerns I was most looking forward to-fail!

My Left Foot (1989) More entertaining and moving than expected.

Snowpiercer (2013) Not quite for me, but not bad and worth watching.

March viewings-12
2020 viewings-33

Just realized my last post here was exactly 3 years ago...


McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) +
Bone Tomahawk (2015) -
The Abyss (1989)
Platoon (1986) -
Red River (1948) +
Things to Come (1936) -
Spenser Confidential (2020) +
Parasite (2019) +
Patton (1970) -
American Made (2017) +
Mission Impossible 2 (2000) rewatch
Mission Impossible 3 (2006) +
The Amazing Spider Man (2012) -
The Princess Bride (1987) +
Mission Impossible 4 (2011)
Mission Impossible 5 (2015)
Mission Impossible 6 (2018)
The Scalphunters (1968) -
Sunshine (2007)
Jack Reacher (2012) -
Naked Lunch (1991) -
Secrets & Lies (1996) -
Inglorious Basterds (2009) rewatch +
The Platform (2019) +
The Gentlemen (2019)
My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
Rango (2011) rewatch -