Favorite Viewing of The Month?

Favourite re-watches:



Favourite first time watches:

__________________
Letterboxd
Entertainment log

The best of July were the following :



The honorable mentions are plenty : The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Tangerine, Local Hero, Gosford Park, Pecker, Primal Fear, Mission Impossible, Buena Vista Social Club, The War of the Worlds (1953), Our Story, The Fire That Took Her, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hell is for Heroes, Lifeboat and The Pursuit of Happyness.

__________________

This was one of my best months ever for movie watching. I watched 107 films this month!

Best first time watches of the month:
High and Low (1963)
Oppenheimer (2023)
The Swearing Jar (2022)
If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? (1971)
The Slumber Party (2023)
Troop Zero (2019)
Threads (1984)
The Public Enemy (1931)
Femme Fatale (2002)
Asteroid City (2023)

Best re-watches:
Pretty Baby (1978)
Curly Top (1935)
Annie (1982)
Lolita (1962)
The VelociPastor (2018)

Worst first time watches:
White Lightnin’ Road (1967)
Sensation Hunters (1945)
The Exotic Ones (1968)

I do not know, I was kind of struggling with even trying to get a movie in on most weeks of July. I usually stalled all day long and this kind of stresses me out because summertime seems like a great time to be watching movies, but then I end up wasting too much time. But anyway, I still got enough movies this month to watch and improved from last July. Here are the movies I saw:

OUT 1 Noli Me Tangere(Episodes 3-8) - Already seen 1-2 in November, and this month I finally decided to finish the series. It is such a unique idea for a film that involves two parties that perform plays as well as a young man who is obsessed with these groups. He thinks that the thirteen are like some deadly cult, but they seem to not do anything at all but rehearse plays. It even felt like I was watching 400 Blows and Stolen Kisses at some points, because Jean Pierre Leaud, the guy who played Antoine Doinel was in it and had a similar personality. I feel as though I can relate to this actor. I was so disappointed about the ending, because of how everything new in everybody's lives seemed to fall apart and how even after Pauline(Bulle Ogier's) character confesses her love for Colin(Jean Pierre Leaud's character) with her friend, she instead changes her mind and goes back with her husband with Colin just forgetting everything and going back to his ordinary life. That last episode kind of shocked me after I was done watching this. In a way, everything comes back together and in another way, it all falls apart. I do not remember everything about the entire movie since it is thirteen hours and with tons of avant-garde sequences, but I had a thrill watching this. It might actually be the best Rivette movie that I have seen yet and I kind of feel influenced to make my own version of the movie.

It Always Rains On Sunday - Probably one of the weakest things that I watched on my own. It was not offensively awful, I just found it to be too vanilla for my liking. Any British noirs that I would like if I did not have a taste for this one?

Sweet Charity - This is Bob Fosse's first theatrical film and what a fun movie this one is. Some parts that I enjoyed while watching this were the If They Could See Me Now number, The Rhythm of Life scene, Big Spender, and especially the Rich Man's Frug sequence. I feel a little strange saying this, but I like this one as much if not more than Cabaret.

In The Heat of The Night - A pretty good police movie about Virgil Tibbs and Bill Gillespie trying to figure out a murder case. I like this one for its actors and for Quincy Jones's soundtrack. Rod Steiger won best actor for this movie, but poor Sidney Poitier who gave a slightly better performance does not get nominated. I know it had nothing to do with racism since he already won for Lillies In The Field.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore - I do not know why this is not talked about when it comes to Scorsese's movies. This movie is fantastic. When I was watching this I was happy about the story of a struggling woman who had lost her husband and had to move, and I was especially happy when I saw that there was a misbehaving son in the movie. He was making jokes about dogs biting gorilla balls as well as tripping waitresses at the diner. I sure did feel bad for Alice throughout the run of this movie.

La Collectioneuse - The third Eric Rohmer movie that I have seen. It of course had the charm that I come to see French movies for. This was a pretty short movie that lasted under 90 minutes. Like Claires Knee, it took place in a beach setting which added to the charm of the movie, and like that has a maddening vacation with the desires of other women. Now I must watch the other three moral tales.


La Piscine - This is the last film I saw this month and another really good French film. My favorite part here was when Jean-Paul drowns Harry and then his girlfriend(Romy Schneider) and a detective try to decipher what had happened. Also, it appeared that Harry had a lust for his daughter(Jane Birkin RIP) as in one scene he admits that he never tries to connect with women anymore because he has his daughter.

My favorite on this month has got to be...























































































Out 1 Noli Me Tangere



Yes, this is probably the best thing all year so far. I know I am very biased around Jacques Rivette, but his work is so unique that it inspires me in a way. My only problem with him is that he never includes enough music in his movies. If I were to make a Rivette film, I would also add my own touches to them as well as add some Hollywood fare to make it more accessible as well.

One of the greatest French movies/series that I have seen so far.

The Time Machine (1960)

For the last month, my top two were probably:
-El Cochecito (1960)
-From the Life of the Marionettes(1980)

I need to see Asteroid City. I am not very familiar with Anderson's work, but this one sounds fun/interesting.

First: Psycho-Pass: Providence theatrically
Rewatch: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind theatrically

__________________
Look, Dr. Lesh, we don't care about the disturbances, the pounding and the flashing, the screaming, the music. We just want you to find our little girl.

July '23:

Beau Travail - A man comes to terms with the consequences of his gender-prescribed conditioning.

Barbie - A man and a woman come to terms with the consequences of their gender-prescribed conditioning.

Deep Cover - The hypocrisy of the war on drugs is on full display in this great '90s crime drama, and Jeff Goldblum yells about barbecued jumbo shrimp.

My favorite movie of all time is Forrest Gump.

Attica! Attica!

My top 5 for July:

1. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
2. Nights of Cabiria (1957)
3. La La Land (2016)
4. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
5. A Star is Born (2018)
6. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Worst? The Last Summer (2019), a group of young'ins last summer before starting college. Too many people and storylines to keep track of. I cared more for the nerds clicking with a group of young brokers and with two ad interns than I did for the main two group of lovers. Sorry, KJ Apa fans.

Only watched a few movies that would qualify as decent. Moonfall was awful. Meatballs 2 doesn't quite pack the punch that it used even with Paul Reubens and Kim Richards trying their best to elevate the material. It really comes down to three movies:


Police Story 3: Super Cop - Really solid action flick with Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh.


Barry Lyndon - Will probably watch this again in a couple years. Looks absolutely amazing and I really liked it AFTER O'Neal becomes Barry Lyndon but that first half was a slog.


So the best of the month would be Gimme Shelter. The Rolling Stones documentary about the tour that ends in San Fran with the Hell's Angels as security. We all know how well that worked for the customers. Solid documentary

As I Was Moving Ahead Occcasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
Grim (1985)
Thunder (1982)

__________________
IMDb
Letterboxd

T=theaters

(T) Asteroid City (Makes up the rather mediocre The French Dispatch)
(T) Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse
Warlock (1959 Western)
Belle Du Jour
The Farewell


That’s it really. Was a rather weak month of viewings, and I actually went a few weeks where I didn’t watch much. Only about 30 films watched last month, as opposed to where I usually watch somewhere around 40 a month.

The 2019 film? Bummer. For a second I hoped you meant Klimov's Farewell.

__________________
San Franciscan lesbian dwarves and their tomato orgies.

Yep. Really good film. Although YMMV.

I’m hoping to see more of Klimov, since I really enjoyed Welcome, or No Tresspassing. I have Adventures of a Dentist saved and ready to watch soonish.

Top 3:

1. Embrace of the Serpent
2. Made in Hong Kong
3. Tar

Feature length films:

Seven Chances (1925) -
Hellzapoppin' (1941) -

Short films:

Thunder (1982) -
Zone (1995) -

The Vampires of Poverty (1978) -

I frequently thought about "Cannibal Holocaust" while watching this as both films are similar in the sense they criticize the opportunism of documentarians and the media for going too far for commercial gain. By the time I finished this film though, it was clear to me that Mayolo and Ospina made the scathing critique of opportunism which Deodato's film fell short of. Like, not to crap on "Cannibal Holocaust" or anything - I find the film decently interesting. It just doesn't hold a candle to this film. Given the unsimulated animal cruelty throughout it, it was too hypocritical for me to take its points seriously. It's an insincere film. This film, on the other hand, displays far more sincerity towards these themes (the mockumentary aspect is a large part of why it works so well since it prevents it from becoming what it criticizes), giving them a strong bite in the process. The tv film crew in this film, though they denied the accusations of exploitation thrown at them from the Columbian citizens, clearly embodied them as they were more concerned with creating a spectacle out of their misery (searching for prostitutes and 'crazy' people to film) than showing any concern about their living conditions. In fact, a scene where the film crew paid young boys to take off their clothes in front of the camera was downright disturbing to watch. Also, since the film crew's treatment of the Columbian citizens doesn't get half as extreme as what we see from the characters in "Cannibal Holocaust", its critique feels lived-in since their behavior feels eerily akin to the type of misery porn which regularly goes on in real life. So, in short, if you found "Cannibal Holocaust" interesting but felt that its hypocrisy caused its points to fall apart, do yourself a favor and watch this film. It's a near-masterpiece of mockumentary filmmaking.

Sorcerer

A two way tie between

Guys & Dolls starring Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando
Amadeus 1984