Media itt: movie/film discussion - Beware Spoilers

I can do it briefly since this year tbh I didn't watch as much as I wanted to unfortunately. I'll do my favourite films I've seen this year for the first time , and films I've appreciated more than before.

1. The Northman (2022)
2. Licorice Pizza (2021)
3. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
4. The French Dispatch (2021)
5. The Worst Person in the World (2021)
6. El Buen Patron (2021)

I don't know why The Northman has mixed reviews, I thought it was insanely good. Licorice Pizza and The French Dispatch were just super entertaining and the latter might be my second favourite Wes Anderson. Mishima's really good too, Paul Schrader films are always a hit for me, I don't know if that says something about me lol. The Worst Person in the World should really click with most people in Western (European?) countries of our generation, it has some zeitgeist feeling seeping through that all of us should feel and it does it well. El Buen Patron feels like a top tier Coen brothers film to me with a great performance from Javier Bardem.

1. Fallen Angels (1995)
2. In the Mood for Love (2000)
3. The Social Network (2010)

For some reason, Wong Kar Wai's films really clicked with me this year. Especially Fallen Angels, god damn if that movie doesn't evoke some weird familiarity. Do recommend. Also, The Social Network, every time I watch it I expect it to not live up to my previously high expectations, yet it still does every time. So good.
 
Very interesting lists/recommandations in this thread, definitely getting inspiration from these for my future watches. I don't precisely keep track of the films i watch so i'll try to post my 20 favorites movies from the ones i've watched the last year or so (off the top of my head (no specific order/ranking)).

1. Vortex (Gaspar Noé, 2021/2022) - Definitely my favorite movie from the past 5/6 years maybe, by far my favorite Noé movie
2. Equinox Flower (Yasujirō Ozu, 1958)
3. Late Spring (Yasujirō Ozu, 1949)
4. Tokyo Story (Yasujirō Ozu, 1953)
5. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
6. The Parallax View (Alan Pakula, 1974)
7. Apollo 10 1/2 (Richard Linklater, 2022)
8. Les yeux sans visage (Georges Franju, 1960)
9. Pater (Alain Cavalier, 2011)
10. Fury (Fritz Lang, 1936)
11. The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson, 2021)
12. The Sadness (Rob Jabbaz, 2022)
13. Blade of fury (Sammo Hung, 1993)
14. Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992)
15. Van Gogh (Maurice Pialat, 1991)
16. Une sale histoire (Jean Eustache, 1977)
17. Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959)
18. Il Boom (Vittorio de Sica, 1963)
19. All the Marbles (Robert Aldrich, 1981)
20. Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)

Exploring Ozu's filmography has definitely been my cinematographic highlight this past two years, i feel like his movies gave me a completely different perspective on life and on my personal relations with my family and friends.
 
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BKC said:
Now, here are my very favorite films I've seen for the first time since exactly one year ago (in order of having seen, not ranking). There was a lot more I'd love to have included but I tried to restrain myself (lol) (also didn't include any of the movies mentioned above). It's been an amazing year of discovery!
1. Carnival of Souls (1962, Herk Harvey)
2. Eyes Wide Shut (1999, Stanley Kubrick)
3. Paris, Texas (1984, Wim Wenders)
4. High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)
5. Birth (2004, Jonathan Glazer)
6. Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)
7. The French Connection (1971, William Friedkin)
8. Blowout (1981, Brian de Palma)
9. Band of Outsiders (1964, Jean-Luc Godard)
10. Jigoku (1960, Nobuo Nakagawa)
11. Burning (2018, Lee Chang-dong)
12. The American Friend (1977, Wim Wenders)
13. Damnation (1988, Bela Tarr)
14. Censor (2021, Prano Bailey-Bond)
15. Fear X (2003, Nicolas Winding Refn)
16. Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 1960s in Brussels (1994, Chantal Akerman)
17. Jeanne Dielman (1975, Chantal Akerman)
18. Dead Man (1995, Jim Jarmusch)
19. Soy Cuba (1964, Mikhail Kalatazov)
20. A Woman Under the Influence (1974, John Cassavetes)
21. The Cranes are Flying (1957, Mikhail Kalatazov)
22. Letter Never Sent (1960, Mikhail Kalatazov)
23. The Double Life of Veronique (1991, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
24. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975, Peter Weir)
25. Twilight (1990, Gyorgy Feher) - if you even remotely like Bela Tarr this is a must-watch
26. The Human Condition (1961, Masaki Kobayashi) - I'm counting all three installments as one nine-hour film (as per most sources I could find), but even if you considered them three separate films they'd all be on this list. King Kobayashi.
27. Samurai Rebellion (1967, Masaki Kobayashi)
28. The Devil's Trap (1962, František Vláčil)
29. The Valley of the Bees (1968, František Vláčil)
30. Raise the Red Lantern (1991, Zhang Yimou)
31. Carrie (1976, Brian de Palma)
32. The Night is Short, Walk On Girl (2017, Masaaki Yuasa)
32. The Sword of Doom (1966, Kihachi Okamoto)
33. Thief (1981, Michael Mann)
34. Down by Law (1986, Jim Jarmusch)
35. Pulse (2001, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
36. Something Wild (1961, Jack Garfein)
37. Dreams (1990, Akira Kurosawa)
38. Rebels of the Neon God (1992, Tsai Ming-liang)
39. Belladonna of Sadness (1973, Eiichi Yamamoto)
40. The Meetings of Anna (1978, Chantal Akerman)
41. Kolobos (1999, Daniel Liatowitsch & David Todd Ocvirk)
42. Dream Demon (1988, Harley Cokeliss)
43. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, Wes Craven)
44. Two-Lane Blacktop (1971, Monte Hellman)
45. Casino (1995, Martin Scorsese)
46. Alice in the Cities (1974, Wim Wenders)
47. Beau travail (1999, Claire Denis) - previously, the most powerful ending to a movie I'd ever seen was L'eclisse's...and that one's still incredible beyond words. However, this tops it. As soon as it ended, I rewound and watched it five more times.
48. All the Colors of the Dark (1972, Sergio Martino)
49. Death by Hanging (1968, Nagisa Oshima)
50. Mother Joan of the Angels (1961, Jerzy Kawalerowicz)
51. The Silence (1963, Ingmar Bergman)
52. News From Home (1977, Chantal Akerman)
53. The Warped Ones (1960, Koreyoshi Kurahara)
54. Irma Vep (1996, Olivier Assayas)
55. Trouble Every Day (2001, Claire Denis)
56. Happening (2021, Audrey Diwan)
57. Inland Empire (2006, David Lynch)
58. The Wailing (2016, Na Hong-jin)
59. Le doulos (1962, Jean-Pierre Melville)
60. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, David Lynch)
61. Love Exposure (2008, Sion Sono)
62. How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989, Bruce Robinson)
63. August in the Water (1995, Gakuryu Ishii)
64. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, Celine Sciamma)
65. Maborosi (1995, Hirokazu Koreeda)
66. 3 Women (1977, Robert Altman)
67. Shoot the Piano Player (1960, Francois Truffaut)
68. Manchester by the Sea (2016, Kenneth Lonergan)
69. The Snow Woman (1968, Tokuzo Tanaka)
70. Phenomena (1985, Dario Argento)
71. Autumn Sonata (1978, Ingmar Bergman)
72. Red Moon Tide (2020, Lois Patiño)
73. A Visitor to a Museum (1989, Konstantin Lopushansky)
74. Hazard (2005, Sion Sono)
75. The Earrings of Madame de... (1953, Max Ophuls)
76. Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang)
Looking forward to what everyone else has been seeing!

Finally, Albert Serra's Pacifiction is my favorite film of the year (thus far). Seek it out!!!

CINEMA!!!!!
Click to expand...

Great list, and one that could stand as its own set of all-time favourites. This recent year has probably been the one in which I've watched the least movies in probably the last 5-6 years, which is a bit sad, but it becomes harder to fit them in as much as you get older.

Nonetheless, the best of what I've seen since my last list (best first. The top 3 are perfect, masterpieces, 10/10, whatever you want to call it):

Baxter, Vera Baxter (Duras, 1977)
My Darling Clementine (Ford, 1946)
Nomad (Tam & Tong, 1982)
L'Argent (Bresson, 1983)
A City of Sadness (Hsiao-hsien, 1989)
Senso (Visconti, 1954)
M (Lang, 1931)
Imitation of Life (Sirk, 1959)
The Great Silence (Corbucci, 1968)
Sabrina (Wilder, 1954)
Moonrise (Borzage, 1948)
Parsifal (Syberberg, 1982)
The Exterminating Angel (Buñuel, 1962)
Il Sorpasso (Risi, 1962)
Day for Night (Truffaut, 1973)
A Wedding (Altman, 1978)
Le Samouraï (Melville, 1967)
Identification of a Woman (Antonioni, 1982)
Abuse of Weakness (Breillat, 2013)
Paris, Texas (Wenders, 1984)
Queen Christina (Mamoulian, 1933)
Life Is a Bed of Roses (Resnais, 1983)
Happening (Diwan, 2021)
Toute une nuit (Akerman, 1982)
In Front of Your Face (Hong, 2021)

I haven't explored it in much thoroughness, but to be honest this is looking like the worst year in film in a long, long time. Most of the totems have been pretty disappointing so I'm hoping there's good stuff to come yet.
 
My all time recommendations as a film student:
Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961)
Ma vie en rose (Alain Berliner, 1997)
Il n'y aura plus de nuit (Éléonore Weber, 2020)
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)
A Short Film About Love (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1988)
Pastoral: To Die In The Country (Shūji Terayama, 1974)
Where Is My Friends House? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985)
Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)
Pirosmani (Giorgi Shengelaya, 1969)
Sayat Nova (The Color of Pomegranates) (Sergei Parajanov, 1969)
Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)
Le Sang d'un poète (Jean Cocteau, 1932)
The Holy Innocents (Mario Camus, 1984)
Songs from the Second Floor (Roy Andersson, 2000)
Vivarium (Lorcan Finnegan, 2019)
Porto (Gabe Klinger, 2016)
 
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Violent Night has convinced me that every Christmas film should have copious amounts of gratuitous violence and gore. Film’s funny and inventive, got excellent action sequences, and has some pretty creative deaths to boot. Most fun I’ve had watching a film in ages.
 
Avatar: The Way of Water is an exciting, action-packed movie that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat! The special effects are top-notch, and the visuals take you into a world unlike anything ever before seen on the big screen. The story is unique and richly layered, with plot twists and turns that will keep you guessing. There is something for everyone in this movie, from intense fight scenes to quieter moments of wonder. Whether you're a fan of Avatar or simply someone looking for a great movie experience, Avatar: The Way of Water is sure to please.
 
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is an exciting, action-packed movie that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat! The special effects are top-notch, and the visuals take you into a world unlike anything ever before seen on the big screen. The story is unique and richly layered, with plot twists and turns that will keep you guessing. There is something for everyone in this movie, from intense fight scenes to quieter moments of wonder. Whether you're a fan of Jeanne Dielman or simply someone looking for a great movie experience, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is sure to please.
 
Another year I've procrastinated making a Letterboxd, so I have no choice but to curse all of your eyes' with my 2022 film/TV rankings.
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I won't bore you all with a 15,000 word essay featuring surface-level amateur commentary, so I'll let the list (mostly) speak for itself. I will say that this ranking was much, much harder to put together than my equivalent lists for video games and books. So many great movies on the list, with lots of variety between genres and styles that it was very hard to develop a ranking I felt comfortable with, especially with the top 10.

Some random thoughts:
-I can appreciate Bram Stoker's Dracula for the technical aspects but going in after reading (and really enjoying) the novel, I was a bit disappointed. If you are going to change a character soooo drastically (dracula-stically?) then you might as well go ahead and change anything else needed to fix the odd, rushed pacing. I mean you have Anthony Hopkins playing Helsing and I feel like he was barely in it. I also do not really like that they tried to make Dracula a sympathetic character... he is, after all, a creepy, baby murderer. I'll never forgive them for doing my beloved Mina Harker like this.....

-Pursuit of Happyness is fine... if you like CAPITALIST PROPAGANDA!!!!!! Omg millionaire brokers actually do have hearts....

-Hellraiser is such lovable camp. I watched it expecting it to be scary but I mostly just laughed a lot.

-I finished the Harry Potter series and honestly, my thoughts on them are mostly.... Eh? I know they are for kids and all, but I mostly found them to be boring; especially the latter movies. I think to me the strength of Harry Potter is on the world moreso than the characters. I find the draw to be in Hogwarts.... Diagon Alley.... Hagrid's Hut..... and less with Harry and Voldemort and Ron and Hermoine... Voldemort is kind of a boring villain in my opinion. Genuinely if you put a gun to my head and said "name me one thing that happened in Order of the Phoenix," I'd basically be Avada-Kedavra-Bullet-In-the-Face'd. Is that the one with the pink lady? Also fuck JK Rowling.

-Perfect Blue was a cool animated Japanese movie, tackling themes regarding fame and the treatment of girl's in media industries. Definitely recommend checking it out, even though I felt it was slow at some points.

-I have really mixed feelings on It Follows. The atmosphere is top notch, but the concern that arises with this movie's premise is that it'll just devolve into a cat and mouse chase with the protagonist going somewhere, waiting for the being to show up, then the protagonist going somewhere else. And... unfortunately, that is kinda what happens? I was absolutely sucked in for the first 30-minutes or so... I think it started to fall off for me once they go to that lake house and it grabs the main girl by her hair like a Looney Tunes cartoon.

The analogies between teen/unprotected sex are obvious (they KNOW the dangers!!! WHY do they keep having sex with her??) but I think this movie was moreso about the inescapability of death. It was when I first started dating my girlfriend that I started to truly fear dying, thoughts of leaving people behind- or those people leaving me behind- and slowly coming to terms with the ending of your life- it's quite terrifying- and this feeling permeates through the entirety of the film, which takes place in this dilapidated, decaying city. The 'it' constantly takes the forms of people the targeted knows, and what could be a better analogy for the all encompassing death? The characters know that no matter what, death marches towards them, but they end the movie deciding to spit in it's face and live life to the fullest anyway! How ironic that death kills you by having sex- the way that new life is created- with you.
Toward the end of the movie one of the characters reads a passage on her dumbass seashell phone that basically says everything I said here much more eloquently.... so perhaps this is a common theory but it's just my thoughts!

-I love how magic is portrayed in Howl's Moving Castle (and Spirited Away). It is so whimsical and vibrant- yet mystifying, mysterious and dangerous.

-The House was a really neat stop-motion horror anthology featuring 3 separate stories all connected by taking place in the same house. My favorite one was the second one.

-I watched the entirety of Game of Thrones last summer. My feelings match the feelings of the general populace; seasons 1 to 4 were excellent, seasons 5 and 6 were boring and seasons 7 and 8 were hilariously, frustratingly bad. While I enjoyed some aspects of season 8 at face value (it was fun seeing all these characters come together in Winterfell) it is excruciatingly hard to avoid this series' problems. I hope someone comes out with a fan edit of seasons 5 to 8 or something.

-2001: A Space Odyssey may have had some really slow points, but this movie is like being an adult watching a magician. You KNOW there has to be some kind of trickery for these effects, and part of the fun is just trying to figure out how the hal they did it! It is easy to take these special effects for granted nowadays when movie-magic can be replicated so easily with CGI, but seeing some of the behind-the-scenes for this movie just blows you away!

-I was not initially sold on Synecdoche, New York. However, I think I ended up watching this in the perfect environment to appreciate its ending sequence. I was there, sitting on the couch, while my girlfriend sat opposite of me, minding her own business. This movie must perfectly capture what it's like to die, with your entire life flashing before your eyes. Not just your life, but all the lives you wished you lived, too. I looked up after the ending and saw my girlfriend siting tthere, and I think in that moment I understood............ something. It felt important, though.

Also the main character looked so much like videogamedunkey and that made the movie really funny to me.
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-La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) is a french/czech animated sci-fi movie that you should watch if you absolutely love weird surrealism. Might possibly be my most favorite sci-fi film I have ever watched so far; so lovably bizarre and imaginative. I really had trouble not putting it at #1.

-I went back and forth between Mad Max: Fury Road and No Country for Old Men as my #1s so many times, and I am still not sure if I'll stick with No Country at the top for long...... Mad Max was so awesome, right from the first second it's hitting you with these incredible stunts and action sequences. My only complaint is that the action sequence at the climax felt a bit more underwhelming than the movie's first ~20-ish minutes, but honestly that is such a high bar to cross it's hard to fault the movie for it. No Country for Old Men is tense & bleak but I genuinely feel like this is one of those movies where watching it just *makes* you a better writer. That said it got me to read Cormac McCarthy so honestly fuck this movie....

Bye.
 
avatar the way of water is about what happens when skaters meet surfers and how if they worked together and learned each others ways they could defeat the us military. Surprisingly unexplored narrative space.

3/10 overall, luv skaters but HATE water. Surfers/skater should NEVER form alliance
 
My friends deceived me. They told me we'd be watching me Puss in Boots, but we ended up watching some weird spy movie called "Operation Fortune"

I spent the whole time wishing I had been watching Puss in Boots instead. Decent cinematography and a climatic ending wasn't enough to make up for how painfully average the first half was.--

Aside from that, I also finally got around to watching 'The Foreigner'. It's refreshing to watch Jackie Chan performing in a more serious role than his usual jokester one! Arguably his best acting since Crime Story! The plot was a little all over the place, and the presentation of the whole 'Troubles' was iffy at times, but I nonetheless enjoyed the movie!
 
Anyone else see Skinamarink?

Loved it at first, then I started to hate it, but then it pulled me back in. Analog horror isn't for everyone and this movie is slow, at times feeling like a haunted ViewMaster. But the pervasive and claustrophobic dread that oozes out of every shot is so palpable it's almost addicting. It is scary, yes, but in a way also... comfy? Like it captures that feeling of being a kid and falling asleep on the couch while the TV is on, and being carried to bed by.... someone....

I will say that one trope I don't love with Analog Horror is that not much is ever explained. I think this OK when we're talking about a 10 minute Youtube video, but when committing 90+ minutes of my time to a film, I kind of hope to be fulfilled with some sort of something by the end.

Would definitely recommend if you like horror just be aware of what you're getting in to.
 
Saw the most movies I've seen in theaters in a while that weren't Marvel, and all in back to back weekends lol.

Mario movie was good, lots of neat references and overall enjoyable, Dunkey's review is spot on

D&D movie was way better than I thought it would be. Not a 10/10 by any stretch but very enjoyable and the references were decidedly not cringe at all

Renfield was great, way more actiony than I had expected going in. Nicolas Cage gives an insane performance and Hoult and Awkwafina are also pretty enjoyable.

Overall a great time to go to the theaters if you haven't in a while
 
I hadn't been to the movies since 2018 and I made up for it by watching Barbie and Insidious on the same day lmao. Ok, I'll post my impressions.

Barbie; It has a fresh humor with Margot Robbie being the backbone of the film, capable of making us laugh and get emotional. I can't think of a better actress for this role, she has all the necessary qualities to bring this character to life, as well as embodying a beauty canon so close to Barbie that it's scary.

Maybe it would have been nice to give 'Mattel' more play, but I understand that you don't want to risk it. I can also understand people who don't like Barbie.

Insidious: the red door; I don't understand why it has such negative reviews. Honestly, I liked it. What's more, I think it's one of the best in the series. More than worthy debut of Patrick Wilson as a director, taking over from James Wan. Ok, maybe it's not the same, but she doesn't want to look like his mentor either. It is a very human film, more prone to the lively and that knows how to measure time well and takes the construction of the plot calmly. I like that the entire original cast has been brought back and that Tucker and Specs come out in some way. Well that, I think it's not as bad as they paint it and it's a good ending for the Lambert family. Will it also be the closure of the saga? I say no.
 
I came out of Oppenheimer and I greatly enjoyed it. Only thing that I can critize is that the first 15-30 minutes are somewhat hard to follow due to it starting basically in the middle of things, being fast paced and non linear, but afterwards it's greatly enjoyable. If you have the opportunity, watch it in IMAX, the sound elevates the movie and the natural film grain adds to the atmosphere

It's weird how Nolan is somehow able to do amazing things when he's constrained by adaption, but completely fails as a creator once he has full freedom
 
I watched Barbie today and wow, I knew it would have a feminist message but it was ultimately deeply human and tackled the human condition in a genuinenly mature way

I loved how the Kens weren't evil but just wanted to be treated like actual people. They didn't want to hurt the Barbies and saw an opportunity in their warped form of patriachy. I feel like its a comment on how extreme ideologies and oppression often come from reactions towards mistreatment

I did dislike greatly how the Mattel executives weren't really villains. It was all set up and it would make complete sense for Will Farrell and his cohorts to be the villains, but I don't think you can do such a thing in a movie ultimately sponsored by Mattel
 
The movies lost William Friedkin today - most famous for The Exorcist, which still remains viscerally unsettling, but responsible for so many more amazing films than that. Hurricane Billy was also responsible for several of the greatest car chases ever put to film; it really is almost impossible to argue against the pursuit of the elevated train in The French Connection as the single best car chase ever - the palpable lack of shooting permits practically explodes through the screen - but going against traffic in To Live and Die in LA sure comes close. Jade is overlooked in general, but its chase is similarly incredible. Of course, arguably his greatest car scenes - and scenes in general - aren't chases at all, but instead the moments in Sorcerer where trucks filled with dynamite must cross fragile rope bridges in the midst of a heavy storm. Unbelievable stuff. And then there's Cruising, which plunders depths of complication and uncertainty that leave the viewer shaken as much as the most virtuostic set piece. I haven't seen Bug yet, but I will tonight.

Friedkin was an incredibly important part of making New Hollywood what it was; his fearlessness and intensity in pretty much everything he took on have directly inspired many, many movies that you like. Anyone who hasn't seen any of the aforementioned movies, please do so.

RIP


(If you want more of the man himself, I recommend Friedkin Uncut, which thanks to his raucous personality - and the excellent list of talking heads - is perhaps the most out-and-out enjoyable movie documentary I know of!)
 
Five Nights at Freddy's
• Rotten Tomatoes: Critic Score – 28%,

Audience Score – 89%

Wtf.
I never played the videogame, so I guess this movie will be rated higher by fans who have played it. I, on the other hand, expected something more and not so much family drama from our protagonist. I think it is very wasted. Please, I hope there isn't a sequel. I am grateful to be able to see this film before its premiere in Spain, this way I save myself from wasting time at the cinema. They have saved my life lmao.
 
It's November 1st! My favorite month is finally here! And thus, so is another round of our yearly movie round-ups!!!

Of course, before I get to that, I must link this post about my own adventures in making a movie...please do check it out: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/i-made-a-movie-kinda.3730604/#post-9842728

ANYWAY, I didn't have much as much of a Hooptober this time around--I wound up with less than half of last year's total, though I did see some great stuff of course--so I'll skip the "writeups" of last year in favor of a sparser approach. Also, I did start the month with a rewatch of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Ya gotta. Classic Leatherface and his wacky shenanigans. I still have a few Hoopers I gotta get to (Mortuary, Poltergeist, Night Terrors)...but he's really become a favorite of mine.

1. Djinn (2013, Hooper) - had some characteristically great Hooper ideas--the midpoint is generally solid--but overall the whole thing is too TV movie-drenched. Much better than it would've been in anyone else's hands but still not exactly good
2. Salem's Lot (1980, Hooper) - watched the full miniseries cut, surprised by how much it dragged, and I ultimately found it to lack bite (ha)
3. The Damned Thing (2006, Hooper) - now this was more like it! Genuinely unsettling and nasty all the way through
4. Sleepaway Camp (1983, Hiltzik) - speaking of nasty, this was surprising in that regard with how cruel all the kids were. Pretty decent
5. Shocker (1989, Craven) - liked a lot! This is far too underrated, Craven was really in the zone here
6. Ravenous (1999, Bird) - tonally strange, ultimately liked it decently enough, though it took a while to catch on to what it was doing (less horrifying than you'd expect, more snowy and atmospheric than you'd expect)
7. Body Parts (1991, Red) - liked a lot, very fun slasher riff on Cronenberg or something
8. Murder Party (2007, Saulnier) - not great but ultimately charming in its heart
9. The Undertaker (1988, Steffanino) - liked a lot, grimy slasher in the vein of Maniac and such
10. Loft (2005, K. Kurosawa) - the best horror I saw all month, Kiyoshi masterfully doing what he does best and really dragging out the pace to wonderful effect, everything is firing on all cylinders here
11. The Scary of Sixty-First (2021, Nekrasova) - wonderful 16mm cinematography in an exploitation horror riff on Eyes Wide Shut, very fun
12. The Love Witch (2016, Biller) - liked the ideas, less so the bloated execution of everything beyond how it looked
13. Knife + Heart (2018, Gonzalez) - very solid modern giallo with a much more personal impact than most in the genre, the ending is particularly excellent and the whole thing looks incredible
14. Train to Busan (2016, Yeon) - a blast! I'm not normally a fast zombie guy but this brings the intensity so nicely I didn't mind
15. Kill List (2011, Wheatley) - had to cleanse Meg 2 from my system somehow...anyway I'm not sure about how the ending fits (though in and of itself it is good) but overall this is quite good and takes a really interesting approach throughout
16. Aenigma (1987, Fulci) - started stronger than it finished so overall just decent, but has some really great atmosphere and camerawork going on
17. Def by Temptation (1990, Bond III) - feverish mix of joyous fun and devilish intensity, also looks absolutely amazing
18. The Howling (1981, Dante) - this was really great, and I think I prefer it to its most common point of comparison, An American Werewolf in London. Should be much more well-regarded!

So now, since for many of us, our top 40/50/whatever isn't changing (that much, anyway, and if anything it's just growing more and more--though maybe I'm just speaking for myself), I once again invite everyone to post their favorite things they've seen over the past year! Of course, if you want to post your top (insert number here), I have no objections.

Personally, I limited myself to that which I gave a 9 or 10 out of 10--assigning numbers to this stuff can of course be incredibly silly (and I easily could've added MANY more films which I loved similarly), but is basically my necessary arbitrary cutoff so I don't list literally hundreds more things I really enjoyed...I have seen a lot (too much) since last November 1st. I also did more director binges than I've done in the past, hence why a lot of names appear repeatedly and in close proximity! For my own sake/time, I had to stop myself from writing about all of these...though maybe I will come back to them and describe (some of) the impact they've had on me.

1. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974, Peckinpah)
2. Le bonheur (1965, Varda)
3. Shallow Grave (1994, Boyle)
4. Mean Streets (1973, Scorsese)
5. All That Jazz (1979, Fosse)
6. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939, Mizoguchi)
7. White Material (2009, Denis)
8. Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018, Bi)
9. The Searchers (1956, Ford)
10. Coach to Vienna (1966, Kachyňa)
11. Bad Lieutenant (1992, Ferrara)
12. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Pontecorvo)
13. A City of Sadness (1989, Hou)
14. Flowers of Shanghai (1998, Hou)
15. The Assassin (2015, Hou)
16. Millennium Mambo (2001, Hou)
17. My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989, Tam)
18. Lifeforce (1985, Hooper)
19. The Last Wave (1977, Weir)
20. The Headless Woman (2008, Martel)
21. La ciénaga (2001, Martel)
22. Diary of a Country Priest (1951, Bresson)
23. The Parallax View (1974, Pakula)
24. Koyaanisqatsi (1982, Reggio)
25. A Short Film About Love (1988, Kieslowski)
26. A Short Film About Killing (1988, Kieslowski)
27. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972, Fassbinder)
28. Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974, Rivette)
29. Amsterdamned (1988, Maas)
30. Sunset Blvd (1950, Wilder)
31. India Song (1975, Duras)
32. Vive l'amour (1994, Tsai)
33. Kagemusha (1980, A. Kurosawa)
34. Abhijan (1962, Ray)
35. Skinamarink (2022, Bell)
36. Toute une nuit (1982, Akerman)
37. The Last Days of Disco (1998, Stillman)
38. The Leopard (1963, Visconti)
39. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, Altman)
40. Le deuxieme souffle (1966, Melville)
41. Dersu Uzala (1975, A. Kurosawa)
42. Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Aldrich)
43. Vampyr (1932, Dreyer)
44. In a Lonely Place (1950, N. Ray)
45. The Murder of Mr. Devil (1970, Krumbachová)
46. Canal (1957, Wajda)
47. Tokyo Sonata (2008, K. Kurosawa)
48. Scenes from a Marriage (1974, Bergman)
49. Rififi (1955, Dassin)
50. Le cercle rouge (1970, Melville)
51. Landscape in the Mist (1988, Angelopoulos)
52. Stray Dogs (2013, Tsai)
53. The Piano Teacher (2001, Haneke)
54. Army of Shadows (1969, Melville)
55. Tár (2022, Field)
56. Rear Window (1954, Hitchcock)
57. Play It As It Lays (1972, Perry)
58. Short Cuts (1993, Altman)
59. Lilja 4-ever (2002, Moodysson)
60. Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Leone)
61. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2002, Wang)
62. Angel Dust (1994, Ishii)
63. Earth (1930, Dovzhenko)
64. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989, Greenaway)
65. Fires on the Plain (1959, Ichikawa)
66. La captive (2000, Akerman)
67. Wings (1966, Shepitko)
68. Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees (1975, Shinoda)
69. Pale Flower (1964, Shinoda)
70. Ulysses' Gaze (1995, Angelopoulos)
71. Barry Lyndon (1975, Kubrick)
72. A Spring for the Thirsty (1965, Illienko)
73. Salto (1965, Konwicki)
74. Badlands (1973, Malick)
75. A Page of Madness (1926, Kenosuga)
76. A Touch of Zen (1971, King)
77. Himiko (1974, Shinoda)
78. Black God, White Devil (1964, Rocha)
79. Pastoral: To Die in the Country (1974, Terayama)
80. This Transient Life (1970, Jissoji)
81. Across 110th Street (1972, Shear)
82. Eureka (2000, Aoyama)
83. Ganja & Hess (1973, Gunn)
84. Songs from the Second Floor (2000, Andersson)
85. L'intrus (2004, Denis)
86. Platform (2000, Zhangke)
87. Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999, Jann)
88. Variety (1983, Gordon)
89. Goyokin (1969, Gosha)
90. Samurai Assassin (1965, Okamoto)
91. Patlabor 2 (1993, Oshii)
92. Take Out (2004, Baker / Tsou)
93. In a Year with 13 Moons (1978, Fassbinder)
94. The Wages of Fear (1953, Clouzot)
95. Diabolique (1955, Clouzot)
96. The Mother and the Whore (1973, Eustache)
97. The Amazonian Angel (1992, Klonaris / Thomadaki)
98. Until the End of the World (1991, Wenders)
99. Perfect Days (2023, Wenders)
100. Mandala (1971, Jissoji)
101. Ordet (1955, Dreyer)
102. Face to Face (1976, Bergman) - I had to make an exception for this, which stands head and shoulders above as the single best film I've seen all year. Cinema at its most powerful and harrowing. I genuinely felt indecent watching Liv Ullman go to the horrible places she went--I can't recall anything else in recent memory that provoked anything close to resembling the reaction this one got out of me. I can only attribute its lack of regard as among Bergman's best due to its relative obscurity--it is quite difficult to find--but I cannot emphasize enough how incredible it is. Please seek it out, and just as you would with Scenes from a Marriage/Fanny & Alexander, the extended TV cut is the only way to go, especially since it's still only in the ballpark of three hours.
103. tokyo.sora (2002, Ishikawa)
104. Fanny and Alexander (1982, Bergman)
105. World on a Wire (1973, Fassbinder)
106. Devi (1960, S. Ray)
107. Su-ki-da (2006, Ishikawa)
108. Soleil Ô (1970, Hondo)
109. Night and the City (1950, Dassin)
110. The Girls (1968, Zetterling)
111. Taipei Story (1985, Yang)
112. Places in Cities (1998, Schanelec)
113. Petite maman (2021, Sciamma)
114. La vérité (1960, Clouzot)
115. La prisonnière (1968, Clouzot)
116. The Days Between (2001, Speth)
117. Z (1969, Costa-Gavras)
118. The Sun in a Net (1962, Uher)
119. Dragon's Return (1968, Grečner)
120. The Holy Girl (2004, Martel)
121. The Wind Will Carry Us (1999, Kiarostami)
122. Out of the Past (1947, Tourneur)
123. Nostos: The Return (1989, Piavoli)
124. A Day Off (1968, Lee)
125. Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980, Fassbinder)
126. The Weeping Meadow (2004, Angelopoulos)
127. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970, Petri)
128. No Home Movie (2015, Akerman)
129. Dreams (1955, Bergman)
130. Summer Interlude (1951, Bergman)
131. They Live By Night (1948, N. Ray)
132. Pickup on South Street (1953, Fuller)
133. Our Daily Bread (1970, Kaul)
134. Deep Cover (1992, Duke)
135. At the First Breath of Wind (2002, Piavoli)
136. The War is Over (1966, Resnais)
137. Devil in a Blue Dress (1995, Franklin)
138. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023, Scorsese)
139. Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962, Varda)
140. Bigger Than Life (1956, N. Ray)
141. Underworld USA (1961, Fuller)
142. My Night at Maud's (1969, Rohmer)
143. A Face in the Crowd (1957, Kazan)

As for 2023 releases, Perfect Days is my favorite so far--utterly sublime stuff, Wenders really is amazing--and Killers of the Flower Moon is not far behind. I was utterly absorbed to the point where I would've watched another hour, easily. I can't praise it enough, but I want to highlight the ending as particularly astonishing.

I also very much enjoyed Anatomy of a Fall, Kore-eda's Monster, and the new Mission Impossible, which I think is the best in the series. As a huge fan of Under the Skin/Glazer in general, I cannot wait to see The Zone of Interest.

col49 trc BIHI Tomahawk mathsman 5imian Eagle4 ryo yamada2001 and of course anyone else who feels like posting--please share your favorites of the past year, this October, all-time, whatever. I love reading these and, as always, adding to my never-ending watchlist!

CINEMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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2023 first watches - vaguely ordered, 1 per director:

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939, John Ford)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947, Charlie Chaplin)
The North Calotte (1991, Peter Nestler)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Robert Aldrich)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939, Howard Hawks)
Sparrow (2008, Johnnie To)
Man on Fire (2004, Tony Scott)
Vive L'Amour (1994, Tsai Ming-liang)
Ivan the Terrible (both parts, Sergei Eisenstein)
You Only Live Once (1937, Fritz Lang)
Peking Opera Blues (1986, Tsui Hark)
Femme Fatale (2002, Brian De Palma)

Favorite(?) 2023 release was mi:7, thought everything else i saw was really bad.

Have not been keeping up w/ upcoming stuff but im looking forward to seeing Ferrari :]
 
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Another year gone already? Oh no... As the kids might say, "2015 is just 4 months away."

Let's start with Hooptober. I won't lie, my horror movie selection for this year was... short, to say the least. I almost forgot it was October, some might say! The one that stands out in my mind was Trouble Every Day. Claire Denis had one bad blip on my radar with Stars at Noon, but otherwise continues to impress me the more of her filmography I watch. I'll make up for it in short order, I'm sure. Other horror movies I saw this month, starting with rewatches:

1. Carrie (1976, de Palma) - I'm creeping into the list even though I watched it on September 30. de Palma can do no wrong!
2. Cure (1997, K. Kurosawa) - watched this with a coworker. This movie never lets me down.
3. I Saw the Devil (2010, Jee-won) - Great serial killer thriller. Loved the dynamic and the pacing of this one.
4. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil - Will admit that I hadn't seen this campy horror-comedy since I was in high school. Was impressed with how well it held up through the years (and my ever-growing, increasingly-"pretentious" taste).
5. Penance (2012, K. Kurosaw) - This was a TV miniseries, which should have been a bit of a red flag re: pacing. Overall solid, though some episodes were definitely better than others.
6. Train to Busan (2016, Yeon) - Another movie I hadn't seen in years. A bit campy (feels like someone took Snowpiercer and said "What if also zombies?" at times, but that's not a bad thing), but overall good.
7. Dark Water (2002, Nakata) - My one let-down this month, unfortunately. Was not a fan of the way it was paced or its story. Not the worst movie I've ever seen, but probably the worst I saw last month.
8. Deep Crimson (1996, Ripstein) - This I hesitate to really call a horror film, though it was certainly unsettling. A Mexican director's take on the same story that inspired The Honeymoon Killers. I would say it's certainly worth checking out.

As for the rest of my year, I had a comparably slow year compared to last year. I took a month-long vacation, I had my heart broken a time or two, work picked up like nobody's business. However, I would say things are getting back on track, both personally and movie-wise. Let's get out of my story and back into cinema, shall we? I'll have to be a bit more generous than Kev's "9 or 10 out of 10" to compensate for the much lower volume, but let's get through some of the ones I quite liked this year. Let's relax it to 7 or 8 out of 10, shall we? I'll go in watch order, not necessarily order of how much I liked them.

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014, Anderson) and The French Dispatch (2021, Anderson) - Grouping these two together. Both were rewatches, but they were rewatched with a new perspective on the art form and with someone I quite cherish. Probably not ones that I need to tell most of you to watch, but hey.
2. Broker (2022, Kore-eda) - Kore-eda's submission for last year's Cannes festival. I can't think of a single one of his films that didn't leave me touched in one way or another. Great stuff, and a well-deserved award for Song Kang-ho!
3. Midsommar (2019, Aster) - Don't laugh at me for leaving this until 2023 to see.
4. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007, Schnabel) - Now we're getting weird. I read about this man (and this movie) first in my high school French class. I finally went back and watched it and was not disappointed.
5. All That Jazz (1979, Fosse) - Wait, that was THIS year? I can't praise this movie enough. I tell literally everyone I know to watch it. They're all annoyed by the constant pestering until they finally watch it and say "you were right." This now includes you - go watch All That Jazz.
6. A Short Film About Love/A Short Film About Killing (1988, Kieslowski) - The feature versions of the episodes in Dekalog (which are sitting on my shelf, mocking me - once I finish writing this and finish the movie I paused to write this, I may start working on that!).
7. Do the Right Thing (1989, Lee) - When someone tells you they've never seen Do the Right Thing, you sit down with them and watch Do the Right Thing. It's the right thing to do (get it? I'll be here all week).
8. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985, Schrader) - Paul Schrader's magnum opus, if I may be so bold. I don't know many who'd disagree with that assessment. Wonderful through and through. I've always liked Mishima's writing, so seeing it brought to life alongside his life in this way was *chef's kiss*.
9. The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001, Miike) - A pleasant surprise from the catalog of Takashi Miike, much better known for films like Ichi the Killer and Audition. Not nearly as in-your-face brutal, but the juxtaposition with the pleasant demeanor of the family was interesting.
(ok, I need to stop writing so much about each entry or I'll never finish)
10. India Song (1975, Duras)
11. Ritual (2000, Anno) - Will note that I had only ever seen Eva from Anno up to this point. Very pleasantly surprised by this one!
12. Letter Never Sent (1960, Kalatozov)
13. My Broken Mariko (2022, Tanada) - Caught this on a flight to Tokyo and was much better than I expected.
14. Sorry to Bother You (2018, Riley)
15. Nope (2022, Peele) - This was the year I finally got around to all the Jordan Peele horrors. This was not my favorite - that title goes to...
16. Get Out (2017, Peele)
17. The Shape of Water (2017, del Toro)
18. Take Aim at the Police Van (1960, Suzuki)
19. Psycho (1960, Hitchcock) - Don't ask me why I watched this in February and not in October. Another classic that needed a fresh watch!
20. Mulholland Dr. (2001, Lynch) - I do have to come back to this every so often to make sure it's as good as I remember (it always is!)
21. Amelie (2001, Jeunet) - A bit hammy, but I feel like its rating got bumped a little due to the circumstance under which it was watched. Overall fun.
22. Aftersun (2022, Wells) - This was a beautiful film that had me remembering my own childhood memories.
23. Cabaret (1972, Fosse)
27. Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001, Cuaron) - Oh, to be a teenager, right?
28. The Last Days of Disco (1998, Stillman) - One of many on this list that Kevin recommended, but I think the first so far that I would not have known existed without him.
29. Throne of Blood (1957, A. Kurosawa) - I'm reminded of a conversation I had with the friend I visited in Tokyo. She doesn't know much about movies (bless her heart), and when we were talking about the Ozu event they were having at TIFF, she asked me "Why would they have some other guy's favorite films as its own block?" Well, "some other guy" was none other than Akira Kurosawa. She may have received a lecture that day, but at least it included Throne of Blood! Another fun fact about Throne of Blood: Thomasin McKenzie (Last Night in Soho, The Power of the Dog) watches it every Christmas with her family.
30. Sound of Metal (2019, Marder) - Very moving and thoughtfully made.
31. 3 Women (1977, Altman) - I actually must confess that I've watched significantly less of Altman than I probably should have by now. That said, this is, thus far, my favorite of his. All three leads put on spectacular performances.
32. White Material (2009, Denis) - Remember what I said before about Denis only having the one bad blip? This was one of the better blips. Great story, fantastic performance from Isabelle Huppert (we'll see her again in a minute).
33. Chungking Express (1994, Kar-wai) - I can tell just looking at my movie list that this is right around heartbreak the first. Still a wonderful film. "Do memories have an experiation date? If so, I hope they last 10,000 years." An all-time favorite and all-time great.
34. Why Don't You Play in Hell? (2013, Sono) - Fuck Bombers!
35. Le Samourai (1967, Melville)
36. Band of Outsiders (1964, Godard) - Had a friend visiting for these last two. We watched a little bit of French New Wave, you might say.
37. The Call (2020, Chung-hyun) - Threw it on because it was on Netflix and starred Jun Jeong-seo, who I've had a bit of a thing for since I first saw Burning way back in 2018. Another pleasant surprise!
38. Still Walking (2008, Kore-eda)
39. Logan (2017, Mangold) - One of VERY few permissible comic book movies.
40. Inferno (1980, Argento) - Another "Why was this not an October watch?" movie. Oh well!
41. Alice in the Cities (1974, Wenders) - I love Wim Wenders and am infinitely jealous of anyone that has gotten to see Perfect Days.
42. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013, Jarmusch) - "Tell me about spooky action at a distance again."
43. Dune (2021, Villeneuve)
44. Days of Being Wild (1990, Kar-wai)
45. Eraserhead (1977, Lynch) - Another one of those "had to revisit"s
46. The Wolf House (2018, Leon and Cociña) - A very interesting mixed-media animated allegory
47. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, Demy) - Wow! I remember thinking about how wonderful the coloration in all of the shots was throughout the entire film.
48. Ronin (1998, Frankenheimer) - Sometimes we enjoy a little De Niro gangster movie.
49. Funny Games (1997, Haneke)
50. The Neon Demon (2016, Refn)
51. Stalker (1979, Tarkovsky) - see above note about Do the Right Thing.
52. Prisoners (2013, Villeneuve)
53. City of God (2002, Meirelles)
54. The Thin Blue Line (1988, Morris) - I need to watch more documentaries. If anyone has any suggestions on that front, do let me know!
55. The Kings of the World (2022, Mora) - This really felt like being back home in poverty-stricken South America at times.
56. Suzhou River (2000, Ye) - And here comes heartbreak number two! Great movie about a lost love.
57. Kanal (1957, Wajda) - I'm now reminding myself that I've promised I'd watch Ashes and Diamonds for MONTHS now. Soon, I swear!
58. Fantastic Planet (1973, Laloux) - A cute little animation about humans being kept as pets.
59. The Lighthouse (2019, Eggers) - Was fortunate enough to catch this at a local theater.
60. The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006, Loach) - As per my very close Irish friend, "The only Irish civil war movie that should ever be recommended."
61. Belladonna of Sadness (1973, Yamamoto) - The fact that someone sat down and traditionally animated this is mind-boggling.
62. Contempt (1963, Godard)
63. Raise the Red Lantern (1991, Yimou) - Probably the best movie I've seen that's just two hours of women being catty to one another.
64. La Pointe-Courte (1955, Varda) - Agnes Varda's debut feature. One might say she always had that "touch"
65. Sada (1998, Obayashi)
66. Daisies (1966, Chytilova) - Managed to convince my mom to go see this when they showed it at a local theater. Always a pleasure!
67. Three Colours (1993/94, Kieslowski) - Just lumping the three of these together. Beautiful trilogy. Loved all three actresses. A bit of a duality with Antonioni's trilogy (though I can't take credit for this observation)
68. Happy Together (1997, Kar-wai)
69. TAR (2022, Field) - Cate Blanchett was robbed!
70. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959, Resnais) - Has become one of my favorites the more I dwell on it. "Why not you? Why not you in this city and in this night, so like other cities and other nights you can hardly tell the difference? I beg of you." A wonderful exploration on memory and love.
71. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975, Forman)
72. The American Friend (1977, Wenders)
73. Paris, Texas (1984, Wenders) - This was probably my third or fourth viewing of this film within a six-month span. Another, like All That Jazz, which I recommend to everyone. Simply magnificent; perfection on the screen. A definite all-time favorite.
74. The Color of Pomegranates (1969, Parajanov)
75. Amadeus (1984, Forman)
76. Tampopo (1989, Itami)
77. Chinatown (1974, Polanski)
78. The Red Shoes (1948, Pressburger and Powell) - One of Marty's favorites!
79. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974, Peckinpah)
80. Millenium Mambo (2001, Hou)
81. The Piano (1993, Campion) - Holly Hunter won Best Actress for a role where she doesn't speak for 95% of the movie. I'll leave it at that.
82. Le Doulos (1962, Melville) - I was on a noir kick, it seems. Not a bad kick to be on.
83. Shanghai Express (1932, von Sternberg) - Another of Marty's favorites. Great stuff!
84. Badlands (1973, Malick)
85. Antiporno (2016, Sono)
86. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970, Jires)
87. Bullet Ballet (1998, Tsukamoto)
88. Pacifiction (2022, Serra) - One of my favorite films I've seen this year, I think. The ending was somethin else!
89. The Piano Teacher (2001, Haneke) - I put this one off for far too long (sorry, Kevin!). I told you we'd be seeing Isabelle Huppert again!
90. Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Aldrich)
91. The Mill and the Cross (2011, Majewski) - This was a bit of an oddball one. Don't remember quite how I stumbled upon it, but was pleasantly surprised. More of an exploration of visuals and cinematography than anything else, accompanied with very little dialogue. If that's your speed, can recommend!
92. The Souvenir/The Souvenir: Part II (2019/2021, Hogg) - First of all, there's just something so endearing about Tilda Swinton appearing in a supporting role alongside her daughter, Honor. Either way, it was a touching story, though that may also be rooted a bit in personal background.
93. Barry Lyndon (1975, Kubrick) - Another movie I put off for entirely too long!
94. Mommy (2014, Dolan) - Kinda sad to see him leave the world of cinema; this was great
95. The Structure of Crystal (1969, Zanussi) - Very thought provoking film
96. 2046 (2004, Kar-wai) - Wow! I didn't think a movie could live up to being In the Mood For Love's spiritual sequel, but it certainly did!
97. The Man Who Sleeps (1974, Perec and Queysanne)
98. Syriana (2005, Gaghan) - Perhaps an over-inflated rating on my part, but it's my very best friend's favorite movie
99. Asteroid City (2023, Anderson) - Listen, you were warned at the VERY beginning of this list that I had a thing for Wes Anderson.
100. Seven Samurai (1954, A. Kurosawa) - I swear I didn't have planned for this to be the 100th movie on this list, but nonetheless one of the best of all time.
101. Good Time (2017, Safdie bros.)
102. Last Life in the Universe (2003, Ratanaruang) - This was quite touching in its exploration of two broken and flawed lovers.
103. Flowers of Shanghai (1998, Hou) - Alright, I get it, Hou, you're really good at this whole "movie" business. I'll watch the rest of em soon enough.
104. Victoria (2015, Schipper) - A special shoutout to DP Sturla Brandth Grøvlen (who also worked on Vinterberg's Another Round!) for managing to capture this all in one take.
105. The Nice Guys (2016, Black) - Obligatory Ryan Gosling entry
106. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Gondry) - This one always gets me. We're coming up on present day and heartbreak the third, hence this rewatch
107. Old Joy (2006, Reichardt) - My first Kelly Reichardt film. It was very sweet! Made me want to call all my old friends and check on them.
108. Petite Maman (2021, Sciamma)
109. Dreams on Fire (2021, McKie) - I loved the aesthetic and music choices in this one!
110. Blue Valentine (2010, Cianfrance) - Obligatory Ryan Gosling entry the second.
111. My Night at Maud's (1969, Rohmer) - Thank you, Kevin, for this one! Poignant, philosophical, aesthetic.
112. The Before trilogy (1995/2004/2013, Linklater) - And now we really ARE at present day, since Before Midnight is the movie I currently have paused.

I will be monitoring this thread closely to steal borrow for my own watchlist in the upcoming days. I may not have watched a TON of movies this year, but I did watch a lot of really good ones. Here's to more movies and more years to come!
 
I had intended to do the Hooptober thing but forgot, and was rightly cursed with one of my least fruitful months all year. Not fruitless, frankly I had a ton I've gotten into this pass, but I was nonetheless owned with this one and I will be sure to respect the rules on the next go. To keep it succinct my top 5 for this past month was Dr.Caligari (1989), Pontypool, I Walked with a Zombie, #horror (maybe a sea change for me, check back in a year b.c apparently this one is largely reviled and I found it to be a very good debut, holes in the brain ig), and 964 Pinnochio.

I've been trying my best to keep track of everything I've liked enough to consider recommending to a person, intending to keep it to the one per director but after a while I came to accept that I probably goofed that up somewhere. Here is that list, sorted roughly in order of my personal enjoyment. If you need a top 40 then I welcome you to stop reading as you get to that, but as I said I think all of these are worth a shot and I don't doubt that our tastes me differ, so my best stuff might well not be yours.
  1. Eros + Massacre (1969, Yoshihige Yoshida)
  2. Floating Weeds (1959, Yasujirō Ozu)
  3. A New Old Play (2021, Qiu Jiongjiong)
  4. The Look of Silence (2014, Joshua Oppenheimer)
  5. 12 Angry Men (1957, Sidney Lumet)
  6. La Ville des Pirates (1983, Raúl Ruiz)
  7. Mikey and Nicky (1976, Elaine May)
  8. Amarcord (1973, Federico Fellini)
  9. All About My Mother (1999, Pedro Almodóvar)
  10. This Transient Life (1970, Akio Jissôji)
  11. L’Avventura (1960, Michelangelo Antonioni)
  12. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)
  13. Election (1999, Alexander Payne)
  14. Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (1971, Shūji Terayama)
  15. Vortex (2021, Gaspar Noe)
  16. The House is Black (1963, Forugh Farrokhzad)
  17. Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
  18. Harlan County USA (1976, Barbara Kopple)
  19. Kaili Blues (2015, Bi Gan)
  20. Platform (2000, Jia Zhangke)
  21. Flowers of Shanghai (1998, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
  22. Psycho Beach Party (2000, Robert Lee King)
  23. Struktura Krysztalu (1969, Krzysztof Zanussi)
  24. Magnolia (1999, Paul Thomas Anderson)
  25. The Color of Pomegranates (1969, Sergei Parajanov)
  26. Post Tenebras Lux (2012, Carlos Reygadas)
  27. Mirror (1975, Andrei Tarkovsky)
  28. Safe (1995, Todd Haynes)
  29. West Indies (1979, Med Hondo)
  30. Z (1969, Costa-Gavras)
  31. Lourdes (2009, Jessica Hausner)
  32. Blue Island (2022, Chan Tze-Woon)
  33. In Cold Blood (1967, Richard Brooks)
  34. Pigs and Battleships (1961, Shohei Imamura)
  35. For All Mankind (1989, Al Reinert)
  36. Hanagatami (2017, Nobuhiko Obayashi)
  37. Decision to Leave (2022, Park Chan-Wook)
  38. Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace (2004, Richard Ayoade)
  39. 9 Souls (2003, Toshiaki Toyoda)
  40. Cocote (2017, Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias)
  41. Repulsion (1965, Roman Polanski)
  42. All Light, Everywhere (2021, Theo Anthony)
  43. L’Inhumaine (1924, Marcel L’Herbier)
  44. The Stone Wedding (1973, Mircea Veroiu/Dan Pita)
  45. The Celebration (1998, Thomas Vinterberg)
  46. Port of Shadows (1938, Marcel Carné)
  47. Detention (2011, Joseph Kahn)
  48. Tokyo Idols (2017, Kiyoko Miyake)
  49. The Naked Island (1960, Kaneto Shindō)
  50. Los Olvidados (1950, Luis Buñuel)
  51. Birth (2004, Jonathan Glazer)
  52. Divorce Italian Style (1961, Pietro Germi)
  53. Castle of Purity (1973, Arturo Ripstein)
  54. The Brickmakers (1972, Marta Rodríguez/Jorge Silva)
  55. Peppermint Soda (1977, Diane Kurys)
  56. The Doom Generation (1995, Gregg Araki)
  57. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, Peter Jackson)
  58. Portrait of Jason (1967, Shirley Clarke)
  59. Dr. Caligari (1989, Stephen Sayadian)
  60. Stardust Memories (1980, Woody Allen)
  61. Golden Eighties (1986, Chantel Ackerman)
  62. The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013, Hélène Cattet / Bruno Forzani)
  63. The Fabelmans (2022, Steven Spielberg)
  64. Robinson’s Garden (1987, Masashi Yamamoto)
  65. Deep Cover (1992, Bill Duke)
  66. The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973, Wojciech Has)
  67. La Cieńaga (2001, Lucrecia Martel)
  68. Touki Bouki (1973, Djibril Diop Mambéty)
  69. Dreams (1990, Akira Kurosawa)
  70. The Fifth Seal (1976, Zoltán Fábri)
  71. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)
  72. Aloners (2021, Hong Sung-eun)
  73. Conte D’été (1996, Éric Rohmer)
  74. Mur murs (1981, Agnès Varda)
  75. Mother I am Suffocating, this is my Last Film about You (Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese)
  76. Black Girl (1966, Ousmane Sembéne)
  77. Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy (2013, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit)
  78. After Life (1998, Hirokazu Kore-eda)
  79. Foxtrot (2017, Samuel Maoz)
  80. The Dazzling Light of Sunset (2016, Salomé Jashi)
  81. Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964, Bryan Forbes)
  82. The Game (1997, David Fincher)
  83. Fire of Love (2022, Sara Dosa)
  84. The Mist (2007, Frank Darabont)
  85. Japanese Girls at the Harbor (1933, Hiroshi Shimizu)
  86. Crumb (1974, Terry Zwigoff)
  87. Nashville (1975, Robert Altman)
  88. Jules and Jim (1962, François Truffaut)
  89. The Wanderers (1979, Philip Kaufman)
  90. Peppermint Candy (1999, Lee Chang-Dong)
  91. Deep End (1970, Jerzy Skolimowzki)
  92. Tangerine (2015, Sean Baker)
  93. The Exiles (1961, Kent Mackenzie)
  94. The Cat Has Nine Lives (1968, Ula Stöckl)
  95. Noisy Requiem (1988, Yoshihiko Matsui)
  96. All Night Long (1962, Basil Dearden)
  97. Norte, the End of History (2013, Lav Diaz)
  98. The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed)
  99. Monos (2019, Alejandro Landes)
  100. The Iron Ministry (2014, J.P Sniadecki)
  101. Taste (2021, Bao Le)
  102. One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island (2005, Mamoru Osoda)
  103. Pontypool (2008, Bruce McDonald)
  104. Manta Ray (2018, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng)
  105. High School (1968, Frederick Wiseman)
  106. The Mourning Forest (2007, Naomi Kawase)
  107. Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022, Halina Reijin)
  108. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting Existence (2014, Roy Anderson)
  109. Black River (1957, Masaki Kobayashi)
  110. I Walked With a Zombie (1943, Jacques Torneur)
  111. Gabbeh (1997, Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
  112. Friday Night Lights (2004, Peter Borg)
  113. The Heroic Trio (1993, Johnie To)
  114. Man with a Movie Camera (1929, Dziga Vertov)
  115. The Tenth Victim (1965, Elio Petri)
  116. Museo (2018, Alonzo Ruizpalacios)
  117. A Matter of Life and Death (1946, Emeric Pressburger/Michael Powell)
  118. A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi)
  119. Hardcore Henry (2015, Ilya Naishuller)
  120. Lola Montés (1955, Max Ophüls)
  121. Run Lola Run (1998, Tom Tykwer)
  122. Thieve’s Highway (1949, Jules Dassin)
  123. Vestida de Azul (1983, Antonio Giménez Rico)
  124. Up in the Air (2009, Jason Reitman)
  125. The Panic in Needle Park (1971, Jerry Schatzberg)
  126. Distant (2002, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
  127. Elevator to the Gallows (1958, Louis Malle)
  128. The Given Word (1962, Anselmo Duarte)
  129. Avril et le Monde Truquè (2015, Franck Ekinci/Christian Desmares)
  130. Thumbsucker (2005, Mike Mills)
  131. The Searchers (1956, John Ford)
  132. The Secret World of Arrietty (2010, Hiromasa Yonebayashi)
  133. The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982, Paolo Taviani/Victorio Taviani)
  134. Wolf Guy (1975, Kazuhiko Yamaguchi)
  135. Five Easy Pieces (1970, Bob Rafelson)
  136. Kamikaze Hearts (1986, Juliet Bashore)
  137. Diamonds of the Night (164, Jan Nēmec)
  138. The Big City (1963, Satyajit Ray)
  139. Y Tu Mamá También (2001, Alfonso Cuarón)
  140. The Damned House of Hajn (1989, Jiri Svoboda)
  141. Carriage to Vienna (1966, Karel Kachyna)
  142. Cool Hand Luke (1967, Stuart Rosenberg)
  143. Mean Streets (1973, Martin Scorsese)
  144. March Comes in Like a Lion (1991, Hitoshi Yazaki)
  145. Mysterious Objects at Noon (2000, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
  146. Born on the Fourth of July (1989, Oliver Stone)
  147. Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995, Todd Solondz)
  148. Contempt (1963, Jean-Luc Goddard)
  149. From Beijing with Love (1994, Stephen Chow/Lee Lik-Chi)
  150. #horror (2015, Tara Subkoff)
  151. Purple Noon (1960, René Clément)
  152. Waxworks (1924, Paul Leni/Leo Birinski)
  153. 964 Pinocchio (1991, Shozin Fukui)
  154. Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (2017, Molly Surya)
  155. Hunger (2008, Steve McQueen)
  156. Irma La Douce (1963, Billy Wilder)
  157. From Here to Eternity (1953, Fred Zinnemann)
  158. Hiruko the Goblin (1991, Shunya Tsukamoto)
  159. On the Town (1949, Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly)
  160. Cooley High (1975, Michael Schultz)
  161. Bad Fever (2011, Dustin Guy Defa)
  162. She was like a Wild Chrysanthemum (1955, Keisuke Kinoshita)
  163. The Stranger (1946, Orson Welles)
  164. It (1990, Tommy Lee Wallace)
  165. Demon Pond (1979, Masahiro Shinoda)
  166. Royal Warriors (1986, David Chung)
  167. Hangover Square (1947, John Brahm)
  168. Wolf’s Hole (1987, Vēra Chytilová)
  169. Sholay (1975, Ramesh Sippy)
  170. Night Train to Terror (1965, Gregg Tallas)
  171. Twice Upon a Time (1983, John Korty/Charles Swenson)
  172. The Enchanted Desna (1964, Yulniya Solntseva)
  173. Inspector Ike (2020, Graham Mason)
  174. Shakespeare-Wallah (1965, James Ivory)
  175. Bloody Son (1996, Nina Menkes)
  176. La Vallée Close (1995, Jean-Claude Rousseau)
  177. Mariner of the Mountains (2021, Karin Aïnouz)
  178. Boy Meets Girl (1984, Leo’s Carax)
  179. Taxi (2015, Jafar Pahani)
  180. Police Story 3: Supercop (1992, Stanley Tong)
  181. Shanty Tramp (1967, Joseph G. Prieto)
  182. Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959, Guru Dutt)
  183. Fragile as the World (2001, Rita Azevedo Gomes)
  184. Dying for Gold (2019, Catherine Meyburgh)
  185. The Temptation of St.Tony (2009, Veiko Ōunpuu)
  186. Kimi (2022, Steven Soderbergh)
  187. Drive into Night (2022, Dai Sakô)
  188. Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020, Kim Jong-Hoon)
  189. Causeway (2022, Lila Neugebauer)
  190. Summer 1993 (2017, Carla Simón)
  191. When the Cat Comes (1963, Vojtêch Jasny)
  192. The Party (2017, Sally Potter)
  193. Harvie Krumpet (2003, Adam Elliott)
  194. Lawrence of Arabia (1962, David Lean)
  195. Cryptozoo (2021, Dash Shaw)
  196. Performance (1970, Donald Cammell/Nicholas Roeg)
  197. Nazareno Cruz and the Wolf (1975, Leonardo Favio)
  198. Until the End of the World (1991, Wim Wenders)
  199. Dirty Ho (1979, Lau Kar-leung)
  200. Masques (1987, Claude Chabrol)
  201. Take Aim at the Police Van (1960, Seijun Suzuki)
  202. 40 Guns (1957, Samuel Fuller)
  203. Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013, Jeff Barnaby)
  204. Herod’s Law (1999, Luis Estrada)
  205. Horrors of Malformed Men (1969, Teruo Ishii)
  206. The Death of Louis XIV (2016, Albert Serra)
  207. Mala Noche (1986, Gus Van Sant)
  208. Wedding Doll (2015, Nitzan Giladi)
  209. City of the Sun (2017, Rati Oneli)
  210. La Soledad (2016, Jorge Thielen-Armand)
  211. Say Anything… (1989, Cameron Crowe)
  212. Surf’s Up (2007, Ash Brannon/Chris Buck)
  213. The Saddest Music in the World (2003, Guy Maddin)
  214. Kékszakállú (2016, Gastón Solnicki)
  215. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992, Brian Hensen)
  216. A Quiet Dream (2016, Zhang Lu)
  217. Aftersun (2022, Charlotte Wells)
  218. The Inheritance (2020, Ephrsim Asili)
  219. Butterfly Vision (2022, Maksym Nakonechnyi)
  220. Electric Dragon 80.000 V (2001, Gakuryu Ishii)
  221. West Beirut (1998, Ziad Doueiri)
  222. Rat catcher (1999, Lynne Ramsay)
  223. Another Day in Paradise (1998, Larry Davis)
  224. One Step Behind the Seraphim (2017, Daniel Sandu)
  225. Memories (1995, Koji Morimoto/Katsuhiro Otomo/Tensai Okamura)
  226. Bleak Moments (1971, Mike Leigh)
  227. Flaming Ears (1992, A.Hans Scheirl/Dietmar Schopenhauer/Ursula Pürrer)
  228. White Men Can’t Jump (1992, Rob Shelton)
  229. The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954, Kenneth Anger)
  230. Mr.Bug Goes to Town (1941, Dave Fleischer)
  231. The Burning Hell (1974, Ron Ormond)
  232. In the Basement (2014, Ulrich Seidl)
  233. Animal Kingdom (2010, David Michôd)
  234. Der Golem: Wie er in die Welt kam (1920, Paul Wegener/Carl Boese)
  235. Crippled Avengers (1978, Chang Cheh)
  236. Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (2022, Richard Linklater)
  237. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969, George Roy Hill)
  238. Coffee and Cigarettes (2003, Jim Jarmusch)
  239. Points and Lines (1958, Tsuneo Kobayashi)
  240. Downtown ‘81 (2000, Edo Bertoglio)
  241. The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (1962, Joseph Green)
  242. The Garage (1920, Roscoe Arbuckle)
  243. Bless Their Little Hearts (1983, Bill Woodberry)
  244. Dark August (1976, Martin G. Goldman)
  245. The Unbelievable Truth (1989, Hal Hartley)
  246. Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984, Sam Firstenberg)

Good movie-ing this year gang, here's to another
 
this is neat because on my birthday (oct 26) i always remake my top 25 films list, even though it's becoming increasingly possible to order let alone choose which films make the list: here

Crash (Cronenberg)
Heat (Mann)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Hooper)
The Matrix (Wachowskis)
Angel's Egg (Oshii)
The Matrix Revolutions (Wachowskis)
Ghost in the Shell (Oshii)
Knock at the Cabin (Shyamalan)
Cléo from 5 to 7 (Varda)
House (Obayashi)
Rehearsals for Retirement (Solomon)
New Rose Hotel (Ferrara)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
Cat Soup (Sato)
Miami Vice (Mann)
Melancholia (von Trier)
Halloween II (Zombie)
Gummo (Korine)
Spirited Away (Miyazaki)
American Psycho (Harron)
Runaway (Kanye West)
Sherlock, Jr. (Keaton)
Trainspotting (Boyle)
The End of Evangelion (Anno)
Hana-bi (Kitano)

spent most of the year focusing on tv anime and such (and i'll spare y'all the thoughts on those lol), so didn't see as many movies as i'd liked. nonetheless, i still managed to see so many beautiful films, and discovering myself and some of my favorite directors in the process. more than ever i'm convinced movies are sacred, magical things and that it's something worth living for

my first time watches that i've hit with a 5/5 this year, in watching order:
- videodrome (cronenberg); so dense, atmospheric, and fascinatingly philosophical that after the credits it felt like 8 hours had just passed. it's the experience i only really get from binging a book, except in cinema form. but cronenberg's work remains so wonderfully grotesque that it's a joy to watch also
- king of new york, the addiction, new rose hotel, bad lieutenant (ferrara); formalist excellence within sleazy frameworks, few things more poignant than king of new york's ending, more visceral than the addiction's graduation party, more prescient than new rose hotel (my favorite review ive ever written), or deeply moving as bad lieutenant's apparition of christ. very wounded, intimate, spiritual, conflicted etc. a remarkably rewarding filmmaker and i cannot help but commend a man who bleeds himself and all of his faults upon his own canvas
- the passion of joan of arc (dreyer); one of the most spiritual experiences i've ever had, genuinely has remained with me for months. joan being burned at the stake could be considered the best scene of all time, and it was made in 1928. they'd solved the movies back then everything we got after is just bonus tbh.
- knock at the cabin (shyamalan); in a year and decade where homophobic and transphobic sentiment is on the rise, where queer people are getting increasingly endangered in the US, where it feels like the apocalypse is perpetually right around the corner, where all feels truly lost, knock at the cabin was such a revelatory and important movie that asserted that we're always going to be here, we're always going to matter, we will always persist. it's a queer movie that acknowledges all that is lost but all that can and still will flourish; an assertion that we deserve to live even in times where it gets so difficult to believe that. a declaration of love from shyamalan, cried so much over this
- digimon adventure (hosoda); won't talk about this too much but hikari struggling and fighting so so hard to save the friend she'd made just earlier in the day just makes me sob man

movies i saw in cinemas this year:
- shoplifters (kore-eda; obviously good while not exactly my speed, sakura ando might be the best actress nobody talks about)
- m3gan (cringe)
- creed iii (potent cinema, quite hopeful about mbj's future directorial career)
- fast x (real cinema, from the flame to the kid to the nos to the dom to the cross to the bicep through the fucking car. real cinema is fucking back)
mission impossible dead reckoning part one (funny how a movie warning about the spooky AI might as well have been made by AI)
- oppenheimer (visceral and a behemoth, turned me into a nolan believer)
- barbie (i turned around and saw all of the teenage girls in the theater crying, like damn. whatever i can say about how shallow i find its feminism has to be offset by the fact this is probably the first time all of those teenagers found representation and catharsis through film, and that's ultimately what it's about to me. + immaculate production design and ryan gosling swept)
- killers of the flower moon (more qualified people have spoken about the decision to focus on ernest burkhart over mollie -- i think it undercuts some of its potential, as scorsese seems to struggle to balance ernest's filmic arc and the very real and very serious ramifications of the Osage's killings -- but its admirable that its been made regardless)

other things i wanna talk about a bit:
- watched a few de palma's this year. great movies but the one that stuck with me most is blow out (ending; nsfw). jesus christ man. i think the montage scene assembling the crash's pictures and sound together is one of the most essential scenes in film history. de palma remains underrated; capable of mending fierce political expression with formalist (re-)construction. and then u got shit like snake eyes which is just a pure fun sugar rush so who knows
- twilight baseball scene. sickly blue filter gives a persistent feeling of cold and wetness in some forgotten bumfuck part of the US where nothing ever happens. awful awkward stilted conversations between people who are experiencing these feelings for the first time. such a fascinating document and depiction of contemporary youth novel aesthetics/being an edgy high schooler. can't help but be sucked into its forgettable mundanity and its subsequent suspension thereof, climbing through treetops and exploring a world totally unknown like bella does. so it's unstylish and lame and every line is difficult to get through (though very funny in retrospect, like how we laugh at the cringey we used to say) but that doesn't make twilight bad; it makes twilight all the better!
- looking for an angel. queer people die too much
- i understand why southland tales is so divisive (though i think its aesthetics of screens-within-screens causing information overload is incredibly inventive and prescient) but even then its ending gotta be so undeniable, "i forgive you" (nsfw) being one of those things that have sat with me all year
- miami vice (2006) is unreal. colin farrell gives one of the best performances in film history here. painting with digital. fucking unbelievable
- im too tired to write more but please watch rehearsals for retirement by phil solomon. perfect movie in just 12 minutes, perfect editing cinematography storytelling through visuals further developing the medium through a deeply personal way
- my goal for this year is to watch at least the movies in this list, though i may deviate from it

ignore the top 4 labels (its for picking letterboxd favorites, i wanted to change my lineup every month but i fell off halfway through the year)
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i'm still at the start of my journey through cinema and it's so exciting. i already love it so much and i can only feel my love for the movies grow each passing year. god bless. wishing y'all another wonderful year with the movies, may you find a bunch of new favorites. thank you bkc for tagging :toast:
 
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