2025 Film Challenge

Well, where do we start?

Netflix:

• Heat (We Built This City/ 2. Urban Crime)
• Da 5 Bloods (We Built This City/ 3. Political Turmoil)
• The Hateful Eight (Are We There Yet?/ 1. A Film Taking Place In a Single Day)
• They Cloned Tyrone (The End Is Nigh/ 4. Totalitarian Film)
• Goodfella (Leaving Soon) (Are We There Yet?/ 4. A Narrated Film)
• Talk To Me (Joy To The World/ 2. Halloween)
• Leave The World Behind (The End Is Nigh/1. Environmental Collapse or 4. Totalitarian Control)
• Hunger (We Built This City/ 4. Female Suppression or Eat, Pray, Love/ 1. A Film Centered Around Food)
• Past Lives (Eat, Pray, Love/ 3. Romantic Film)
• Starship Troopers (The End Is Nigh/ 4. Totalitarian Film)
• Train To Busan (The End Is Nigh/1. Environmental Collapse)
• Psycho (Freudian Slip/ 3. A Film with Overtly Sexual Themes)
• American Gangster (We Built This City/ 2. Urban Crime)

Prime:

• The Menu (Eat, Pray, Love/ 1. A Film Centered Around Food)
• Out of Sight (We Built This City/ 2. Urban Crime)
• The Big Lebowski (I have always depended on the lists of strangers / Roger Eber'ts Great Films)
• Empire Records (Are We There Yet?/ 1. A Film Taking Place In a Single Day)
• The Third Man (The Golden Age Part 2 / 3. Film Noir)
• Bones and All (Eat, Pray, Love/ 3. Romantic Film)
• Knives Out (Are We There Yet?/ 4. A Narrated Film)
• Charade (I have always depended on the lists of strangers)
• Heathers (Location, location, location…location/ 2. School)
• Manhunter (G. Freudian Slip/ 2. protagonist is a strong father figure)
• The Fog (Joy To The World/ 2. Halloween)
• Suspiria (2018)(Freudian Slip/ 3. A Film with Overtly Sexual Themes OR We Built This City/ 4. Female Suppression)
• The Descent (Freudian Slip/ 1. Dreams Play a Significant Role)

One thing I'd like to say is there's more free options out there for streaming depending on how you go about your streaming, a good chunk of the movies I've watched were on Youtube, Tubi, Internet Archive via Google search and random Roku apps.

Another Section in the book.

I. The Golden Age Part 2: The Warring 40s
[watch a 1940s Hollywood film for each of the challenges relating to the decade]
1. a film that won an Academy Award - The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) (4.3/5)
This is the film that beat It's A Wonderful Life for Best Picture at the Oscars.I can't say it's better or worse. On it's own its a very good film. I liked it better than I thought I would.

2. a World War II film - The Negro Soldier (1944)(3.3/5)
A propaganda film that does what it was supposed to do. It was an ok production, but it felt like a long-form US Army commercial.

3. a film noir - The Set Up (1949)(3.3/5)
I liked the cinematography more than anything.

4. a film directed by John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston or Joseph L. Mankiewicz - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)(4.7/5)
A simple story done beautifully. And you can't go wrong with Humphrey Bogart. This may be the 3rd best Western I've seen this year. Possibly the second.

5. a film starring Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn or Judy Garland - The Big Sleep (1946)(3.7/5)
I gave up trying to follow this plot midway. I think both of them are red herrings and the sole purpose of this movie is to watch Bogart and Bacall go back and forth with the innuendos. Whatever. If they don't care about the story, why should I? If you like the Bogart/Bacall combo, it's a treat.

Anyway, on to the next...

Thank you so much. Oh ill look into tubi, I have found that YouTube does have a few but not many. I managed to get a lot of older movies on YouTube but not any that are relatively new.

I love that movie, but the plot was butchered to pieces, first because unlike the book, the censors wouldn't let them outright say any story elements involving pornography or homosexuality (the books in the store are porn, and the murdered owner and his male assistant are lovers), they cut out a major scene explaining the plot in order to add more romantic scenes of Bogart and Bacall, and they completely changed the ending.


I let's still a great film, but for the reasons you mentioned.

Yeah, I heard about that stuff too. They also had two writers taking turns writing scenes as well as the ongoing rewrites by a separate team during the production. The story didn't stand a chance, really.

My other gripe was that we didn't get to see enough of Carmen, who was supposed to be the main focus of the whole thing. Instead, she pops up a couple of times to say "You're cute" and dips out lol. (I'm oversimplifying).

They shoehorned Bacall in and she "Bogart"-ed that whole show. The thing to me is, I didn't find her character interesting enough to warrant that much screen time. I liked that banter her and Bogart had though.

With a coherent plot, I would've given it 4+. The performances are what made that movie.

It's been a while since I read the book, but Carmen isn't that heavy in it from my memory.

I'm a big fan of the film. It might have muddle the plot a bit, but I think it echoes the spirit of the book nicely.

"I let's still a great film"?


Why the hell does my phone keep screwing up what I'm typing?

Completed another section. One is a TV movie, but I'm counting it.


G. Freudian Slip
[watch a film featuring each of the themes reminiscent of Sigmund Freud]
1. a film in which dreams play a significant role
Blue (1993)
2. a film in which the protagonist is a strong father figure
Little House: Look Back to Yesterday (1983)
3. a film with overtly sexual themes
Lure, The (2015)

TV Movies have always been fair game in my book

I personally don’t include tv movies. Unless it also had a theatrical release like several Bergman films.