Favorite Viewing of The Month?

Easily Scream, Blacula, Scream and Chameleon Street.

Hat tip to Netflix mini-series Mask Girl.

1.A Hen in the Wind
2. Osama
3. As Tears Go By

Was a rather bland month of films.

I got some greats in, like Alien and Aliens on the big screen, and finally seeing The Big Sleep. Sense and Sensibility was absolutely amazing, and I got a second viewing of The Banshees of Inisherin in - great movie. Also - Long Weekend freakin' rocks. Not as many truly spectacular movies this month though.


There were a plethora of really good movies though - honorable mentions to Lords of Dogtown, August: Osage County, The Missouri Breaks, Rumble Fish, Departures, Prizzi's Honor, Missing, Saturday Night Fever, Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen, classic 1969 documentary Salesman, Caligula - The Ultimate Cut, Howl's Moving Castle, Dial M For Murder, The Family Man, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Last Train Home, Detour, Infernal Affairs, Criss Cross and The Asphalt Jungle. There is absolutely no way you could sneer at that bunch of movies. A fantastic line-up.

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Yes! Gloria is one of my all-time faves. Great film.

I heartily agree with that. Past Lives is on that "Best of" list for 2023.

Those are some really good ones!

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Gun Crazy was probably my favorite November first time watch

All The Light We Cannot See

Yet another slow month for me with only eight films.

The Sacrifice Game - Considering how predictable the film is, it's a surprisingly entertaining little horror. Sure, the twist can be seen a mile away, but the thing still works. The young lead actress is excellent in her role. 3/5

There were also three 2.5/5 films. The Sadness is like a modern Romero tribute with some tone issues. The gore is fine, even though I didn't find the movie as gruesome as its reputation. The Communion Girl is a Spanish tribute to J-horror, especially Ringu. Its eagerness to copy its idols exceeds the quality of its writing, but it's still OK. Lady Ballers is a mirror image of woke, in both good and bad. It's clumsily written, overtly political, disgustingly formulaic, but at least it tries to laugh at the right things (I admit, there's at least half a point extra for the subject).

The least favorite viewings of the month were Thanksgiving (Eli Roth proves, once again, that he's physically unable to make a good movie) and Rebel Moon - Part One (Netflix has lobotomized Zack Snyder and here's the result). I generously gave both 1/5.

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I watched 70 feature films and 11 short films this month.

My favourite first time watches:

(feature films)
Heaven Down Here (2023)
May December (2023)
The Holdovers (2023)
When the Cat Comes (1963)
I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes(1948)

(shorts)
Once Upon a Studio
Camp Courage
Pete
Boom
The After

Favourite rewatches:

Scrooge (1951)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

28 films for me this month. The highest I rated were:

City Girl
The Last Picture Show
May December
Carol
Damnation
Seventh Seal (rewatch)
Full Metal Jacket (rewatch)
Amores Perros (rewatch)

Probably sounds sad, but nothing much has resonated with me this month. Enjoyed a rewatch of Once Upon a Time in the West, but that’s to be expected, I guess.

1) Paper Flowers (1959)
2) 28 Up (1984)
3) 21 Up (1977)

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IMDb
Letterboxd

1. Barry Lyndon
2. Secrets & Lies
3. Amour
4. Lilya 4 Ever
5. Dead Man's Letters

Okay, December was probably my best viewing month - there are many greats to mention here. Possession, Funeral Parade of Roses, Mad God, King and the Clown, The Housemaid, Nitram, Triangle of Sadness, Lincoln, Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Touch of Evil, Out of the Past, Saltburn, The Maltese Falcon, Gilda and Room at the Top. That's a record for so many insanely good movies in one month.


Crazy stuff. Honorable mentions are : Gun Crazy, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The Old Oak, Tunes of Glory, Thieves' Highway, Popeye, Philomena, Murder, My Sweet, Romulus, My Father, The Boy and the Heron, The Beach Boys : Endless Harmony, TÁR, Talk to Me, Speak No Evil, Joint Security Area, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Pearl and Targets. Has to be one of my best ever viewing months.

December '23:

I played catch-up on 2023 releases all month. These are the best ones I saw:

Asteroid City
BlackBerry
Bottoms
Chevalier
Polite Society
Sisu
They Cloned Tyrone

Here is everything I think I've watched:

The Way of the Dragon dir. Bruce Lee
Fist of Fury dir. Lo Wei
The Legend of Drunken Master dir. Jackie Chan, Lau Ka Leung (I watched both versions of Drunken Master 2)
Jackie Chan's Police Force dir. Jackie Chan (I watched both versions of Police Story)

To watch (I have the downloads and stuffs)

-Wing Chun (1994)
-Royal Warriors (1986) dir. Corey Yuen
-Police Story 4: First Strike (I watched both versions of First Strike)

To watch:

The Fearless Hyena


My favourite viewing of the month (so far) is..
THE WAY OF THE DRAGON

I like Drunken Master 2. But Dimension's re-edit is complete garbage.

I saw way too many great films in January! Here we go, there's Nobody Knows, Taste of Cherry, Pale Flower, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, What Happened Was..., Kiss Me Deadly, In a Lonely Place, Cold War and The Match Factory Girl - those were only the absolute best of the best.


The other honorable mentions - all films very much worth praising - were The Rescue (2021), A River Called Titas, El sur, Lolita (1997), Pickup on South Street, The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, The Young and the Damned, Ace in the Hole, Dry Summer, Touki Bouki, Scarecrow (1973), Dream Scenario, Mustang (2015), Queen & Slim, The Ear (1970), Carriage to Vienna, Society of the Snow, Drifting Clouds, The Innocents (2021), Across 110th Street, Poor Things, Calamari Union, The Round-Up, The Breaking Point, Match (2014) and Barbara (2012) - a hectic month, with so much praise to dole out.

This is an easy one:




Poor Things. Not only the best of last month but one of my favorites of the last few years. Can't wait to see it again.

The Holdovers was a nice film and When Evil Lurks was a very good, gooey, horror film with a couple pretty WHOA! scenes. I would highly recommend that one to horror lovers.

Best first time watches of January:

Life Itself (2014)
Umberto D. (1952)
20 Days in Mariupol (2023)
Girls at 12 (1975)
The Anne Frank Gift Shop (2023)
Ninety-Five Senses (2022)
Lamb (2015)
Girl Flu. (2016)
The Music of Regret (2006)
Bottoms (2023)

Honourable mentions: The Zone of Interest (2023), The Sound of Fury (1950), Forbidden Games (1952), Rhubarb, (1951), PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023)