Favorite Viewing of The Month?

Comes down to four movies for me.


Mardi Gras Massacre is a 70's slasher, kind of, with Blood Feast style gore and terrible, terrible acting especially by the bad guy and the strippers/hookers and the cops. It's about a nutjob trying appease an ancient deity by sacrificing the most "EEEEvil" strippers/hookers he can find by luring them to his apartment, stripping them down, strapping them spread eagle to a table where he then proceeds to cuts their hands, then their feet before finally ripping out their hearts. It sounds worse than it is because the fx are so cheesy. It's very bad but entertaining. Think Jack the Ripper meets Orgy of the Dead set in N'Awlins.


Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia Yep, it was that kind of month. If you saw She Wolf you can probably guess where this one is going and why you watch it - Dyanne Thorne. The first one is better, it's much more over the top and this one kind of loses it's way in the second half, when the setting changes to a Montreal brothel but you get what you expect for the most part. The torture isn't as nasty as the first one, actually, none of this is as nasty as the first one but at least the problems that drove Ilsa to do what she did in She Wolf seems to have been cured. She just needed a couple of chunky Russians.


Air The story of Nike and their recruitment of MJ. I won't say this is a great movie but it is a breezy good time. Biggest problem I had was it actually kind of makes you root for Nike but at the same time Viola Davis giving the terms to Nike and really changing how shoe sponsorships work was somewhat satisfying. Lots of nostalgia and a pretty good soundtrack made this better than expected.


Gaslight Ingrid Bergman is a wife who is slowly driven insane by her husband who is constantly messing with her head. I liked this more for the performances than the actual story but the story is alright, it's just that her descent seems to happen a little quick.


Almost by default Gaslight was the best movie I saw last month. With the exception of Air it was the only real FILM I watched and it was very good.


Aslo watched a film called The Invisibles about a group of Jewish folks who hide out in Berlin during WW2. Kind of a documentary with reenactments. I thought it was good but not spectacular. Onmly other movie I watched was Pearl, the prequel to X, and thought it was awful.

Sometimes it isn’t the masterpieces of cinema. Sometimes it’s just the type of movie I love, with an actor I love, in the aesthetic I love. Glad I finally caught up with this one.

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Letterboxd

August '23:

Coherence - Low-budget, high concept sci-fi that's sort of like Star Trek: TNG episode "Parallels" at a California dinner party.

Blue Spring - Excellent gang drama about what may be the worst high school in Japan.

Becoming Bond - George Lazenby tells his funny, inspiring and serendipitous life story.

I absolutely LOVE this movie...never get tired of rewatching it...Hoffman is brilliant.

Here are eight movies. Almost the same amount as July(7) except including 6 parts of Out 1 in July, that would have made 12(OUT 1 would have counted as one whole film). This month has not been exciting as last month due to most of it, I was not really in the mood to do anything at all. Things picked up at the end of the month, but nothing mind blowing or life changing has happened.

The Last Picture Show - Fun B&W picture from the 70s that shows how times changes. This was probably the first rated X movie that I watched. There were tons of sex and making out scenes in this movie as well. I thought Cybill Shepherd’s character(Jacy) was a shallow young lady and her mother(Ellen Burstyn) looked too young to be the mother. She was a mother to a much younger kid in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. I loved how this film had a theme about how times change when people grow older evidenced by events such as the closing of the cinema or Sam the Lion’s death. I would like to see this one again sometime.

If… - Strange 60s British picture about a man rebelling against the schoolboard. This is the second British movie I have seen where everyone except for the protagonists are jerks. The first one was Kes.

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof - I watched this one on television because I was excited about TCM at the place I was at. I liked everyone here except for Brick’s(Paul Newman) brother and sister in law(every time I see her she looks angry). I was especially touched when Brick told off his father(Burl Ives) by telling him that their immense wealth did not matter and that Big Daddy’s poor father died happy despite being impoverished. I also spent a lot of the movie admiring Elizabeth Taylor who lied about her pregnancy to Big Daddy at the end of the movie.

The Innocent - I felt bad after watching this one. I did not like that the protagonist was in jail at the end. But he did get married and still has respect. I did not root for any of the characters. I felt physically ill and rather depressed after watching this one. What is a good contemporary movie from the 2020s that I could watch?

Cooley High - Watched as part of a request so that I could have a conversation about it. The entire movie had numerous viginettes going on such as a party, a stolen car, and making out during a movie, and then the ending was depressing. Coshise gets beaten to death and nobody ends up any better in this picture. Highly recommended.

Teknolust - I got a 1$ month subscription to Mubi so that I could check that streaming service out. When I saw all of the colorful scenery with the background as well as the many different dresses the Tilda Swintons were wearing, I got interested in seeing this one. Overall this is one of the most different things that I ever picked to watch. It featured Tilda Swinton playing a doctor and several AIs that the doctor created. I know this movie does not appeal to everyone, but the dated feel of the picture made me feel rather nostalgic for the 2000s time period. Not the best movie but great to watch for the eye candy alone.

Desperately Seeking Susan - Like the last picture, I was interested in the eye candy of this movie as well at the datey-ness of it. Best aspect of this one has to be the style as well as great cinematography. Tristana - Luis Bunuel movie featuring Catherine Deneuve who is in custody of this much older man who she marries later in the movie. Luis Bunuel seems to like treating the opposite sex like “objects of desire” and has similar themes rampant around most of this movies. This is the second movie all month where a character loses a leg too(first was Paul Newman). I was satisfied and shocked by the end of the movie. Don Lope was a perverted old man and I was satisfied that Tristana opened the window and faked a doctor call on him. Then the ending where scenes play in reverse until you see Tristana leave the area she was in. The End. 😮

My favorite movie this month has got to be Cat On A Hot Tin Roof as it was the least tense picture of them all and has made me feel quite relaxed watching it.

Okay, for August the absolute best of the best were Scream, Asteroid City, Primary Colors, The Lion in Winter, My Man Godfrey and The Hustler


Honorable mentions are many : Presumed Innocent, Talk to Me, A River Runs Through It, On Golden Pond, Touching the Void, The Mother, Eddie Murphy: Delirious, Beau Is Afraid, The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Jane Eyre (2006), The Cable Guy and Blackberry

I'd gladly watch any of them again! They gave me much satisfaction.

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I've watched 63 films during September. My top 10 first time watches were:

I Like Movies (2022)

The Spy Who Caught A Cold (1995)

Macumba Sexual (1983)

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

H-8 (1958)

Mikey (1992)

Black Legion (1937)

Dead Reckoning (1947)

The Cheerleaders (1973)

Too Late For Tears (1949)

My favourite rewatches of the month:

Pretty Baby (1978)

Witness For the Prosecution (1957)

The Apartment (1960)

One of those is in my Top 10!

Is it The Cheerleaders? That one is in everyone's top 10!

Probably!

Either Witness For the Prosecution or The Apartment.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

September 2023:

Titicut Follies (1967)

Love both and would rate both 4.5/5...I really need to see The Apartment again, last and only time was like 20 years ago What I remembered was being very impressed.


Leave Her to Heaven is in my Top 10 profile. I haven't seen The Cheerleaders movie

September favorites:

The Bridge
Barbarian
Get out
The Masque of Red Death
Barbie

Honorable mentions:
Lady Snowblood
Hardcore
Rolling Thunder
Hive
The Steel Helmet
Curse of the Demon
California Split
The Pit and The Pendulum

I saw 15 movies this month, the most I have seen in a month. The previous record was March at 14, but because I had time, i decided to watch a movie a day in the last week so that I could beat the record. This last week was probably one of the most enjoyable moments that I had with movies for a long time and I might have found several favorites in the mix as well.
Here are the movies:
Woman On A Verge of A Nervous Breakdown
Smithereens
Matador
Volver
Johnny Corncob
Son of A White Mare
Synecdoche New York
==The Last Week==
Live Flesh
=The Perfect Run=
The Apartment
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Last Year at Marienbad
Ghost World
Snoopy Come Home
Woman In the Dunes
Superfly

Top five:
Women On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown - Looking for something to watch for my month-long subscription to Mubi, I found this movie and heard good things about it so I decided to check it out. I expected to feel lukewarm about WOAVOONB after a series of weaker films during the summer months, but when I saw the beginning of the film with the television broadcast, I started to feel interested. What I enjoyed about this one the most was how charming this one was with the protagonist Pepa slipping due to the departure of her lover. Interesting things include her making a drink with sleeping pills that would put most of the characters to sleep as well as a taxi driver that makes the movie even more fun. One of my favorite parts is when Pepa and the taxi driver chase after her lover's insane previous lover Lucia and later thwarts her attempt at killing Ivan(the lover). It was a great contrast to two people who were ruined by the same person with one woman wanting to let it go while the other one wanted revenge. Another great factor about the movie was the music used in this one(the other three Almodovar films I have seen also have great music as well). It is too bad that the other three Almodovar movies I saw were nowhere near as good as this one. Probably one of the best things that I have seen in a long time at this point.

The Apartment - As a fan of older b&w movies, I needed to check this one out before it left Criterion Channel at the end of the month. I was debating on whether to watch this one or not, but after reading about Full House a lot, I saw that PapouliI(Jack Kruschen) was in this movie as the doctor, and therefore I had the drive to watch it. I thought it was fun to watch with great dialogue, characters, and story. Best pre-70s movie that I have seen since I saw Rear Window last year. My favorite part would be when CC Baxter is bonding with Fran after she is made to stay at his place after a suicide attempt. Also the part at the end where C.C. stands up to his boss and bans him from using his apartment for dates and later gets karma when Fran leaves him for C.C., prompting the iconic "shut up and deal" closing line.

Ghost World - A cult film featuring Thora Burch, Scarlett Johannson, and Steve Buscemi. Thora Burch as Enid was my favorite character as she had the most personality and was really a character that I could connect to. She was cynical and is depressed due to having to go to art class for the summer. Some of my favorite parts include Enid being rude to everyone at the movie theater with her getting fired from it, the fight at the convenience store(Babu from Seinfeld was the manager), Enid listening to the old blues record, as well as the ending where she boards the bus that the old man on the bench went on.

Snoopy Come Home - I actually already saw this movie when I was 6 years old, but I forgot most of what had happened and wanted to rewatch it for years. Expectedly, I thought this movie was wonderful and should get more respect. My favorite parts were: The "romance" between Snoopy and Peppermint Patty(one of the scenes that I remembered when I was 6 and it stuck with me since)(reminded me of how Spike was infatuated with The Girl in The Red Truck sixteen years later), the song that Lila sings in the hospital, Snoopy and Woodstock in the woods, Snoopy and Woodstock being taken in by a girl who would abuse him, as well as Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty at the carnival. Yeah, it seems like cartoons especially ones with the Peanuts are more memorable than most live-action movies. This is a movie that could make predictability emotional. We all knew Snoopy would stay with Charlie Brown but his going away party was still emotional. One more note is that it kind of shows some themes of racism with all of the No Dogs Allowed signs.

Woman in the Dunes - A man who examines bugs gets trapped in a below-ground house with a woman who lost her husband and child. Throughout the man tries numerous ways to escape the house and back to the surface, but by the end, he stays put in order to use his new way of collecting water with capillary action. Over time, he tries to assert dominance against the titular woman in ways such as gagging and tying her up as well as destroying parts of the house to make a ladder. By the end of the movie, it appears that due to his 7-year disappearance, he must have settled with the woman and accepted what had happened to him. Coincidentally, the man(Eiji Okada) was also in another movie that I watched that week(Hiroshima mon Amour).

Honorable Mention

Synecdoche New York: Due to depression, this one was the perfect one to watch at the time. This powerful movie makes me fear that later in my life things will change for the worse(ex. my child getting tattoos and later dying of cancer). This was one of the darkest things that I have ever seen and the fact that Phillip Seymour Hoffman died in real life 6 years after this movie makes it even more bleak to watch. Do not watch if you are in a good mood, watch it if you are in a bad mood so that you could have something to relate to.

The MVF of the month(for now) has got to be...







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Ghost World(2001)


This film was a journey that will stick with me for a while.

Least Favorite Film: Live Flesh - After such an awesome first film I saw of Almodovar and two really good other pictures, this one just felt off. I was bored and never really interested in Live Flesh, to say the least. Some of it also reminded me of Matador due to the ending scene where characters are killed off alongside the main woman. Along with this, it did not help that later on the same day, I would watch the infinitely better 1960 Best Picture Winner.

Damn that month went quick. The best from it included : A Matter of Dignity, Metropolis, Avengers : Infinity War, Mission Impossible : Fallout, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Past Lives and The Elephant Man. A superb group of films.


As always, the honorable mentions are many. Barefoot Gen, The Red Awn, Step Brothers, Ice Age, Beauty and the Beast, Theater Camp, Kung Fu Panda, The Auschwitz Report, The Big Trail, Hombre, Inside Deep Throat, Wonder Wheel, The Outlaw Josey Wales and Flipped. I had a blast with those quality movies!

Banner month for movie watching. Had time for 3:


H-8 - Best movie of the month

Asteroid City - Didn't like it.

Shivers - Re-watch. So disgusting.



That's it.

The World's Greatest Sinner

September '23:

Weathering With You - Another beautiful and unconventional love story from Makoto Shinkai. It may have the most amazing animated depiction of Tokyo I've ever seen and that includes Akira and Ghost in the Shell.

The Quiet Girl - A short, sweet and heartwarming movie from Ireland about how a little love goes a long way.

The Grey Fox - Very good Canadian western about the real stagecoach and later train robber Bill Miner. A must-see for Richard Farnsworth (R.I.P.) fans.

Some Came Running



Watched this the last day of the month. Not only my favorite viewing last month but a possible new favorite overall. Really tremendous film.