365 Films in 365 Days- December!
Inspired by the Doug Benson Movie Challenge, I attempt to watch 365 movies over the calendar year of 2017. Any genre of film is eligible, including documentaries and Netflix originals, as long as it’s something I haven’t seen before (you’ll have to trust me on that). The hope is I can cross off some films I’ve been dying to see for ages but have never gotten round to, as well as discover some gems I might never have come across otherwise.
As a fun little twist, every couple of weeks I will be drawing a random genre/category of film to focus on for the week’s viewing. This should hopefully keep things fresh.
I entered the final month off the back of 95 films in October and November, so cautiously optimistic, but with 49 films still to watch over what would be a busy festive period, also knowing there was still plenty of work to be done. So for the final time, settle in, it’s going to be a long month.
December List
- Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (dir. Griffin Dunne, 2017)
- The Parent Trap (dir. David Swift, 1961)
- The Violin Player (dir. Bauddhayan Mukherji, 2016)
- Bad Santa 2 (dir. Mark Waters, 2016)
- Limelight (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1952)
- Kill Baby, Kill! (dir. Mario Bava, 1966)
- Snow Trail (dir. Senkichi Taniguchi, 1947)
- Scanners (dir. David Cronenberg, 1981)
- The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1927)
- Better Watch Out (dir. Chris Peckover, 2016)
- Mudbound (dir. Dee Rees, 2017)
- Good Time (dir. Benny & Josh Safdie, 2017)
- High School Musical (dir. Kenny Ortega, 2006)
- Ingrid Goes West (dir. Matt Spicer, 2017)
- Hurricane Bianca (dir. Matt Kugelman, 2016)
- Point Break (dir. Kathryn Bigelow, 1991)
- Fitzcarraldo (dir. Werner Herzog, 1982)
- Masaan (dir. Neeraj Ghaywan, 2015)
- I Don’t Want To Be A Man (dir. Ernest Lubitsch, 1918)
- Dirty Dancing (dir. Emile Ardolino, 1987)
- Burden of Dreams (dir. Les Blank, 1982)
- My Neighbour Totoro (dir Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)
- Ten (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 2002)
- Goldfinger (dir. Guy Hamilton, 1964)
- The Shape of Water (dir. Guillermo Del Toro, 2017)
- The Disaster Artist (dir. James Franco, 2017)
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
- It Takes Two (dir. Andy Tennant, 1995)
- Cat People (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
- Howard the Duck (dir. Willard Huyck, 1986)
- The Music Room (dir. Satyajit Ray, 1958)
- Spite Marriage (dir. Edward Sedgwick & Buster Keaton, 1929)
- Hugo and Josephine (dir. Kjell Grede, 1967)
- Coco (dir. Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina, 2017)
- The Handmaiden (dir. Park Chan-Wook, 2016)
- The Golem (dir. Carl Boese & Paul Wegener, 1920)
- Quadrille (dir. Sacha Guitry, 1938)
- Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (dir. Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001)
- Fruitvale Station (dir. Ryan Coogler, 2013)
- Red Beard (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1965)
- The Virgin Spring (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1960)
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (dir. Jake Kasdan, 2017)
- Midnight Run (dir. Martin Brest, 1988)
- Ratcatcher (dir. Lynne Ramsay, 1999)
- The Villainess (dir. Byung-gil Yung, 2017)
- Broken Blossoms (dir. D.W. Griffith, 1919)
- The Lost City of Z (dir. James Gray, 2016)
- Confidentially Yours (dir. Francois Truffaut, 1983)
- Naked (dir. Mike Leigh, 1993)
Highlights & Standouts
One of the real highlights of the month was the realisation that I could still be surprised, wowed, and left in awe of films, even after a long year and an especially punishing couple of months. At the worst of times I’ve had to jump from film to film, barely having time to fully digest or comprehend what I had just seen before moving onto the next one. But this month there were films that staggered me (Fitzcarraldo, The Handmaiden), outraged me (The Virgin Spring, Fruitvale Station), and left me picking my jaw off the floor (The Villainess). At times throughout the year I’ve worried that going through so many film so quickly would leave me numb to the experience. December was not one of those times.
Low Points & Disappointments
Well I must say I didn’t think much of the original Parent Trap, and after supplementing it later in the month with the Olson Twins’ It Takes Two, it’s safe to say I’ve had my fill of twin-based, mistaken identity comedies.
Unpopular opinion time; I’m sick of Pixar films that feature unlikely friends going on an adventure, encountering a popular folk-hero, then realising they have a dark side. So in that respect, I was a little let down by Coco. That being said it is still visually stunning, the music is toe-tapping fun, and it definitely made me cry, so back off everyone, it’s still good. Just shows that Pixar can still make thought-provoking movies of worth, even if their playbook needs some freshening up.
Performance of the Month
It’s hard to see past David Thewlis, who stands out on this monthly list in the same manner he dominates Mike Leigh’s poisonous drama Naked, that is to say obnoxiously bludgeoning you with insults until you have to pay attention to him. He fully embodies the odorous character of rapist Johnny; watching him is liking watching in Smell-O-Vision, as if you can inhale his 5-day-old stench through your screen. It is a fascinating character, one that is dominating and manipulative, yet completely out of control and barely able to conceal his rage.
Volatile doesn’t quite do justice to Thewlis here. Every kind offer thrown his way is met with contempt, any attempt at a normal conversation is met with patronising sarcasm, every borderline compliment is met with a vicious put down. His insults are almost Shakespearean. He will go down as one of cinema’s great anti-heroes, as he doesn’t get any heroic moment of redemption. For all the hardships that befall him he doesn’t come close to eliciting sympathy. If you’re being generous, you might pity him, but even that comes at a stretch.
Top 5 Films of the Months (in no particular order)
The Villainess: The opening sequence contains some of the most relentless, jaw-dropping, action based visuals I’ve ever seen, as our titular villainess- unseen through the filming choice of first person perspective- goes on a seven minute rampage of dismemberment, disembowlment and general martial arts badassary. So impactful is this opening that you would be forgiven for thinking the rest of the film could never live up to it’s first chapter, and yet what is so impressive about The Villainess, is that after this chaos comes a film of surprising depth, drama and emotion. I guess you really can have it all.
Fitzcarraldo: a mad director drags a boat over a mountain in a jungle in order to make a film about a mad music lover who drags a boat over a mountain in a jungle. How very Herzog. But there’s more to the film than just the bizarre technical achievements. Like the best jungle movies it feels like it has been made under intense suffering of cast and crew, with backstage emotions lending a desperate, trapped quality to the performances on screen. I hope everyone attached to the project can take solace in the fact that they did not suffer in vain.
The Music Room: A cautionary tale about pride and decadence, as an ageing Indian landowner obviously looks past his familial and financial difficulties in the favour of hosting lavish parties in his crumbling empire. A timeless, powerful story, as well as a showcase for the traditional Bengali music and dance, captured in such loving detail, you almost see the old fool’s point.
The Handmaiden: For straight up visuals, this may be the most beautiful film I’ve seen this year, and I do not say that lightly. It is also an example of clinical filmmaking of the highest, most satisfying, order.
The Virgin Spring: a film that does not offer any easy answers or happy resolutions. Bergman is brutal in his message; the world is a cruel, hard place, with religion offering comfort in theory, but not so helpful when the wolves are at your door.
The Year in Full…
Breakdown by Decade
2010’s- 165
2000’s- 33
1990’s- 24
1980’s- 21
1970’s- 28
1960’s- 31
1950’s- 15
1940’s- 15
1930’s- 13
1920’s- 11
1910’s- 3
Days to film ratio
1:1 on the dot. Unless I miscounted…
Total time of film watching
The final time clocks in at a smidgen over 37,000 minutes of film watching, with the final total being 37,009 minutes, making it 616.81 hours, nearly 26 days of film watching fun.
Films by the Nations
USA | 200 |
UK | 74 |
France | 43 |
Japan | 27 |
Germany | 21 |
Canada | 12 |
Italy | 10 |
Hong Kong | 9 |
Sweden | 9 |
Belgium | 8 |
Spain | 8 |
India | 8 |
South Korea | 6 |
Mexico | 5 |
New Zealand | 5 |
China | 5 |
Australia | 5 |
Netherlands | 4 |
Denmark | 3 |
Luxemburg | 3 |
Taiwan | 3 |
Ireland | 3 |
Greece | 3 |
Switzerland | 3 |
Iran | 3 |
Norway | 2 |
Cambodia | 2 |
Chile | 2 |
Soviet Union | 2 |
UAE | 2 |
Senegal | 2 |
Austria | 1 |
Brazil | 1 |
Romania | 1 |
Argentina | 1 |
Hungary | 1 |
Jordan | 1 |
Qatar | 1 |
Tunisia | 1 |
Finland | 1 |
Israel | 1 |
Indonesia | 1 |
Czech Rep. | 1 |
Poland | 1 |
Czechoslovakia | 1 |
Bulgaria | 1 |
Jamaica | 1 |
Peru | 1 |
West Germany | 1 |
Some films are co-produced by multiple nations, which explains why the numbers may not add up.
Recurring Directors
Luis Bunuel- 4 (Los Olvidados, L’Age d’Or, Belle de Jour, Viridiana)
Akira Kurosawa- 4 (I Live in Fear, High and Low, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail, Red Beard)
Alexander Mackendrick- 3 (The Ladykillers, Whisky Galore, The Man in the White Suit)
Powell & Pressburger- 3 (A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp)
Hayao Miyazaki- 3 (Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro)
Abbas Kiarostami-3 (Certified Copy, Close-Up, Ten)
Alfred Hitchcock- 3 (Sabotage, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog)
Ingmar Bergman- 3 (Persona, The Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring)
Charles Chaplain- 3 (The Great Dictator, Modern Times, Limelight)
Danny Boyle- 2 (Steve Jobs, T2: Trainspotting)
Mike Mills- 2 (Beginners, 20th Century Women)
Ridley Scott- 2 (Thelma & Louise, Alien: Covenant)
Mike Birbiglia- 2 (Don’t Think Twice, Sleepwalk with Me)
Richard Fleischer- 2 (10 Rillington Place, Fantastic Voyage)
Terence Davis- 2 (Distant Voices, Still Lives; Sunset Song)
Garth Jennings- 2 (Sing, Son of Rambow)
John Hamburg- 2 (I Love You, Man & Why Him?)
Blake Edwards- 2 (Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther)
Taika Waititi- 2 (Thor: Ragnarok, Boy)
John Ford- 2 (Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine)
Carl Theodor Dreyer- 2 (The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr)
Victor Sjostrom- 2 (The Phantom Carriage, A Man There Was)
Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor- 2 (Safety Last!, Dr. Jack)
Garry Marshall- 2 (The Princess Diaries 1 & 2)
Dee Rees- 2 (Pariah, Mudbound)
Satyajit Ray- 2 (Devi, The Music Room)
David Cronenberg- 2 (Dead Ringers, Scanners)
Ernest B. Schoedsack- 2 (The Most Dangerous Game, King Kong)
Ryan Coogler- 2 (Creed, Fruitvale Station)
Francois Truffaut- 2 (The 400 Blows, Confidentially Yours)
The complete list so far…
- The Good Dinosaur (dir. Peter Sohn, 2015)
- Your Name (dir. Makoto Shinkai, 2016)
- Star Trek Beyond (dir. Justin Lin, 2016)
- Notes on Blindness (dir. Pete Middleton, 2016)
- Le Samourai (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
- I am Not a Serial Killer (dir. Billy O’Brien, 2016)
- Bridget Jones’s Diary (dir. Sharon Maguire, 2001)
- Keanu (dir. Peter Atencio, 2016)
- La La Land (dir. Damien Chazelle, 2016)
- Train to Busan* (dir. Sang-ho Yeon, 2016)
- Don’t Breathe* (dir. Fede Alvarez, 2016)
- Nosferatu* (dir. F.W. Murnau, 1922)
- Carrie* (dir. Brian De Palma, 1976)
- Re-Animator* (dir. Stuart Gordon, 1985)
- Jack Frost* (dir. Michael Coon, 1997)
- Blair Witch* (dir. Adam Wingard, 2016)
- What We Did on Our Holiday (dir. Andy Hamilton & Guy Jenkin, 2014)
- The Devils (dir. Ken Russell, 1971)
- Eddie the Eagle (dir. Dexter Fletcher, 2016)
- Chef (dir. Jon Favreau, 2014)
- The One I Love (dir. Charlie McDowell, 2014)
- Steve Jobs (dir. Danny Boyle, 2015)
- Manchester By The Sea (dir. Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
- The Killing (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1956)
- In the Heat of the Night** (dir. Norman Jewison, 1967)
- Shakespeare in Love** (dir. John Madden, 1998)
- The Sting** (dir. George Roy Hill, 1973)
- Mutiny on the Bounty** (dir. Frank Lloyd, 1935)
- Patton** (dir. Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970)
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (dir. Gareth Edwards, 2016)
- Little Men (dir. Ira Sachs, 2016)
- Julieta (dir. Pedro Almodovar, 2016)
- Fish Tank (dir. Andrea Arnold, 2009)
- Spa Night (dir. Andrew Ahn, 2016)
- 1984 (dir. Michael Radford, 1984)***
- 10 Rillington Place (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1971)***
- 44 Inch Chest (dir. Malcolm Venville, 2009)***
- Watership Down (dir. Martin Rosen, 1978)***
- Thelma and Louise (dir. Ridley Scott, 1991)
- David Brent: Life on the Road (dir. Ricky Gervais, 2016)
- The Fits (dir. Anna Rose Holmer, 2015)
- The Magnificent Seven (dir. Antoine Fuqua, 2016)
- Hello, My Name is Doris (dir. Michael Showalter, 2016)
- Toni Erdmann (dir. Maren Ade, 2016)
- Manhattan (dir. Woody Allen, 1979)
- The Clan (dir. Pablo Trapero, 2015)
- Black Sheep (dir. Jonathan King, 2016)
- T2: Trainspotting (dir. Danny Boyle, 2017)
- Florence Foster Jenkins (dir. Stephen Frears, 2016)
- Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (dir. Kihachi Okamoto, 1970)
- The Girl with All the Gifts (dir. Colm McCarthy, 2016)
- Hidden Figures (dir. Theodore Melfi, 2016)
- Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (dir. Eli Craig, 2010)
- The Secret of the Kells (dir. Tomm Moore & Nora Twomey, 2009)
- Ixcanul (dir. Jayro Bustamante, 2015)****
- Aquarius (dir. Kleber Mendonca, 2016)****
- The Club**** (dir. Pablo Larrain, 2015)
- Los Olvidados**** (dir. Luis Bunuel, 1950)
- El Topo **** (dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)
- Get Out (dir. Jordan Peele, 2017)
- Wrinkles (dir. Ignacio Ferreras, 2011)
- Logan (dir. James Mangold, 2017)
- The Taking of Pelham 123 (dir. Joseph Sargent, 1974)
- Laura (dir. Otto Preminger, 1944)
- L’Age d’Or (dir. Luis Bunuel, 1930)
- Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925)
- Sausage Party (dir. Greg Tiernan & Conrad Vernon, 2016)
- Love and Death on Long Island (dir. Richard Kwietniowski, 1997)
- Moana ^(dir. Ron Clements, Chris Williams, Don Hall, John Musker, 2016)
- Sleepless in Seattle^ (dir. Nora Ephron, 1993)
- Paris is Burning^ (dir. Jennie Livingstone, 1990)
- Sixteen Candles^ (dir. John Hughes, 1984)
- National Treasure: Book of Secrets^ (dir. Jon Turteltaub, 2007)
- Like Crazy^ (dir. Drake Doremus, 2011)
- Kong: Skull Island (dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts, 2017)
- I am Not Your Negro (dir. Raoul Peck, 2016)
- Beginners (dir. Mike Mills, 2010)
- Godzilla (dir. Ishiro Honda, 1954)
- Tabloid (dir. Errol Morris, 2010)
- A Matter of Life and Death (dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
- Pink Narcissus (dir. James Bidgood, 1971)
- The Devil Rides Out (dir. Terence Fisher, 1968)
- Somm (dir. Jason Wise, 2012)
- I Live in Fear (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1955)
- White God (dir. Kornel, Mundruczo, 2014)
- Super Fly” (dir. Gordon Parks Jnr., 1972)
- Foxy Brown” (dir. Jack Hill, 1974)
- Black Belt Jones” (dir. Robert Clouse, 1974)
- Blacula” (dir. William Crain, 1972)
- Three the Hard Way” (dir. Gordon Parks Jnr., 1974)
- The Mack” (dir. Michael Campus, 1973)
- Whale Rider (dir. Niki Caro, 2002)
- Dragon (dir. Peter Ho-Sun Chan, 2011)
- The Love Witch (dir. Anna Biller, 2016)
- Distant Voices, Still Lives (dir. Terence Davis, 1988)
- Headhunters (dir. Morten Tyldum, 2011)
- Dead Ringers (dir. David Cronenberg, 1988)
- Love is Colder Than Death (dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1969)
- The Red Shoes (dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
- La Promesse (dir. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 1996)
- Lion (dir. Garth Davis, 2016)
- To Kill a Mockingbird (dir. Robert Mulligan, 1962)
- Fences (dir. Denzel Washington, 2016)
- Theeb (dir. Naji Abu Nowar, 2014)
- The Adventures of Prince Achmed (dir. Lotte Reiniger & Carl Koch, 1926)
- Shaun the Sheep (dir. Mark Burton & Richard Starzak, 2015)
- Kirikou and the Sorceress (dir. Michel Ocelot & Raymond Burlet, 1998)
- Ghost in the Shell (dir. Mamoru Oshii, 1995)
- Corpse Bride (dir. Tim Burton, 2005)
- The Iron Giant (dir. Brad Bird, 1999)
- 20th Century Women (dir. Mike Mills, 2016)
- The Fate of the Furious (dir. F. Gary Gray, 2017)
- Free Fire (dir. Ben Wheatley, 2016)
- Eyes Without a Face (dir. Georges Franju, 1960)
- Room 237 (dir. Rodney Ascher, 2012)
- Mifune: the Last Samurai (dir. Steven Okazaki, 2015)
- Paterson (dir. Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
- Stagecoach (dir. John Ford, 1939)
- The Assassin (dir. Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 2015)
- Black Girl (dir. Ousmane Sembene, 1966)
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi (dir. David Gelb, 2011)
- Grey Gardens (dir. Albert & David Maysles, Muffie Meyer, Ellen Hovde, 1975)
- The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young (dir. Anika Iltis, Timothy Anthony Kane, 2014)
- The Last Waltz (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1978)
- Where You’re Meant To Be (dir. Paul Fegan, 2016)
- We Were Here (dir. David Weissman, Bill Weber, 2011)
- The Look of Silence (dir. Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
- The Resurrection of Jake the Snake Roberts (dir. Steve Yu, 2015)
- Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2 (dir. James Gunn, 2017)
- Chicken Run (dir. Peter Lord, Nick Park, 2000)
- Meek’s Cutoff (dir. Kelly Reichardt, 2010)
- Mindhorn (dir. Sean Foley, 2016)
- Commando (dir. Mark L. Lester, 1985)
- Sabotage (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1936)
- The Levelling (dir. Hope Dickson Leach, 2016)
- The Red Turtle (dir. Michael Dudok de Wit, 2016)
- Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (dir. David Mirkin, 1997)
- Alien: Covenant (dir. Ridley Scott, 2017)
- A Fistful of Dollars (dir. Sergio Leone, 1964)
- Breathless (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
- Persona (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
- Belle de Jour (dir. Luis Bunuel, 1967)
- Bonnie and Clyde (dir. Arthur Penn, 1967)
- Gregory’s Girl (dir. Bill Forsyth, 1980)
- The Seventh Seal (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
- Tarzan (dir. Chris Buck & Kevin Lima, 1999)
- Brassed Off (dir. Mark Herman, 1996)
- Eddie- Strongman (dir. Matt Bell, 2015)
- The Spirit of the Beehive (dir. Victor Erice, 1973)
- Raw (dir. Julia Docournau, 2016)
- Catfight (dir. Onur Tukel, 2016)
- The Great Dictator (dir. Charles Chaplain, 1940)
- Don’t Think Twice (dir. Mike Birbiglia, 2016)
- The LEGO Batman Movie (dir. Chris McKay, 2017)
- Beauty and the Beast (dir. Bill Condon, 2017)
- Batman: The Movie (dir. Leslie H. Martinson, 1966)
- The Break Up (dir. Peyton Reed, 2006)
- The Return of the Pink Panther (dir. Blake Edwards, 1975)
- Sing (dir. Christophe Lourdelet & Garth Jennings, 2016)
- Casa de mi Padre (dir. Matt Piedmont, 2012)
- The Lobster (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)
- Fifty Shades Darker (dir. James Foley, 2017)
- Sleepwalk with Me (dir. Mike Birbiglia & Seth Barrish, 2012)
- Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (dir. Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone, 2016)
- The Little Death (dir. Josh Lawson, 2014)
- Okja (dir. Bong Joon Ho, 2017)
- Dunkirk (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2017)
- Prevenge (dir. Alice Lowe, 2016)
- Daddy’s Home (dir. Sean Anders, 2015)
- The Big Sick (dir. Michael Showalter, 2017)
- Man Bites Dog (dir. Remy Belvaux, Benoit Poelvoorde & Andre Bonzel, 1992)
- Personal Shopper (dir. Olivier Assayas, 2016)
- Modern Times (dir. Charles Chaplain, 1936)
- The Princess Diaries (dir. Garry Marshall, 2001)
- Hausu (dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)
- Baby Driver (dir. Edgar Wright, 2017)
- Onibaba (dir. Kaneto Shindo, 1964)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (dir. Jon Watts, 2017)
- The Imposter (dir. Bart Layton, 2012)
- Fantastic Voyage (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1966)
- Gremlins (dir. Joe Dante, 1984)
- Shaolin Soccer (dir. Stephen Chow, 2001)
- Pink (dir. Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, 2016)
- Sunset Song (dir. Terence Davis, 2015)
- Quiz Show (dir. Robert Redford, 1994)
- Even the Rain (dir. Iciar Bollain, 2010)
- Zombeavers (dir. Jordan Rubin, 2014)
- Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (dir. Chiemi Karasawa, 2013)
- Filth (dir. Jon S. Baird, 2013)
- High and Low (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
- Sexy Beast (dir. Jonathan Glazer, 2000)
- Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee, 1989)
- Westworld (dir. Michael Crichton, 1973)
- In a Lonely Place (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1950)
- Monster House (dir. Gil Kenan, 2006)
- Suspiria (dir. Dario Argento, 1977)
- Tampopo (dir. Juzo Itami, 1985)
- Baywatch (dir. Seth Gordon, 2017)
- It (dir. Andy Muchietti, 2017)
- The Ladykillers (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1955)
- Whisky Galore (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1949)
- The Lavender Hill Mob (dir. Charles Crichton, 1951)
- Went the Day Well? (dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, 1942)
- Passport to Pimlico (dir. Henry Cornelius, 1949)
- Kind Hearts and Coronets (dir. Robert Hamer, 1949)
- The Man in the White Suit (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1951)
- Silence (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2016)
- American Splendor (dir. Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, 2003)
- mother! (dir. Darren Aronofsky, 2017)
- A Silent Voice (dir. Naoko Yamada, 2016)
- Goon (dir. Michael Dowse, 2011)
- Son of Rambow (dir. Garth Jennings, 2007)
- The Secret Life of Bees (dir. Gina Prince-Blythewood, 2008)
- My Winnipeg (dir. Guy Maddin, 2007)
- Certified Copy (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
- Charlie’s Country (dir. Rolf de Heer, 2013)
- Safety Last! (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1923)
- The Most Dangerous Game (dir. Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1932)
- The Phantom Carriage (dir. Victor Sjostrom, 1921)
- Wonder Woman (dir. Patty Jenkins, 2017)
- The Passion of Joan of Arc (dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
- Raiders!: the Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (dir. Jeremy Coon & Tim Skousen, 2015)
- Before Midnight (dir. Richard Linklater, 2013)
- Happy Together (dir. Wong Kar-Wai, 1997)
- Weekend (dir. Andrew Haigh, 2011)
- The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (dir. Stephan Elliott, 1994)
- Pariah (dir. Dee Rees, 2011)
- Hedwig and the Angry Inch (dir. John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)
- Tomboy (dir. Celina Sciamma, 2011)
- A Jihad for Love (dir. Parvez Sharma, 2007)
- Victim (dir. Basil Dearden, 1961)
- Pontypool (dir. Bruce McDonald, 2008)
- I Love You, Man (dir. John Hamburg, 2009)
- Sex and the City (dir. Michael Patrick King, 2008)
- The Overnighters (dir. Jesse Moss, 2014)
- My Life as a Courgette (dir. Claude Barras, 2016)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (dir. Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg, 2017)
- The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1945)
- The Haunted Strangler (dir. Robert Day, 1958)
- The Survivalist (dir. Stephen Fingleton, 2015)
- The Secret Life of Pets (dir. Chris Renaud & Yarrow Cheney, 2016)
- Why Him? (dir. John Hamburg, 2016)
- Blade Runner 2049 (dir. Denis Vileneuve, 2017)
- Viridiana (dir. Luis Bunuel, 1961)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1934)
- Loving Vincent (dir. Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman, 2017)
- King Kong (dir. Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)
- Second Coming (dir. Debbie Tucker Green, 2014)
- Fantastic Planet (dir. Rene Laloux, 1973)
- Sleeping With Other People (dir. Leslye Headland, 2015)
- The Pink Panther (dir. Blake Edwards, 1963)
- The Devil Wears Prada (dir. David Finkel, 2006)
- Grandma (dir. Paul Weitz, 2015)
- Assault on Precinct 13 (dir. John Carpenter, 1976)
- Friday Night Lights (dir. Peter Berg, 2004)
- Bobby Fischer Against the World (dir. Liz Garbus, 2011)
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (dir. Cody Cameron & Kris Pearn, 2013)
- 5 Card Stud (dir. Henry Hathaway, 1968)
- The Death of Stalin (dir. Armando Iannucci, 2017)
- Dark Horse (dir. Louise Osmond, 2015)
- The Expendables 3 (dir. Patrick Hughes, 2014)
- Weiner (dir. Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg, 2016)
- My Darling Clementine (dir. John Ford, 1946)
- The Wailing (dir.Hong-jin Na, 2016)
- The Help (dir. Tate Taylor, 2011)
- Creed (dir. Ryan Coogler, 2015)
- Most Beautiful Island (dir. Ana Asensio, 2017)
- House on Haunted Hill (dir. William Castle & Rosemary Horvath, 1959)
- Thor: Ragnarok (dir. Taika Waititi, 2017)
- Over the Top (dir. Menahem Golan, 1987)
- Delicatessen (dir. Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1991)
- Vampyr (dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)
- The Finances of the Grand Duke (dir. F.W. Murau, 1924)
- Gate of Hell (dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953)
- Ornamental Hairpin (dir. Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)
- John Wick: Chapter 2 (dir. Chad Stahelski, 2017)
- The Holiday (dir. Nancy Meyers, 2006)
- The Lady in the Van (dir. Nicholas Hytner, 2015)
- Playtime (dir. Jacques Tati, 1967)
- The Legend of the Drunken Master (dir. Chian-Liang Liu, 1994)
- Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (dir. Nicholas Meyer, 1982)
- A Man There Was (dir. Victor Sjostrom, 1917)
- Close-Up (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
- Bad Moms (dir. Jon Lucas & Scott Moore, 2016)
- The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (dir. Djibril Diop Mambety, 1999)
- Come and See (dir. Elem Klimov, 1985)
- Eraserhead (dir. David Lynch, 1977)
- The Florida Project (dir. Sean Baker, 2017)
- Ponyo (dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 2008)
- The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (dir. Garry Marshall, 2004)
- Frankenstein (dir. James Whale, 1931)
- The Charge of the Light Brigade (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1936)
- What Did The Lady Forget? (dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 1937)
- Dark Alibi (dir. Phil Karlson, 1946)
- Devi (dir. Satyajit Ray, 1960)
- Jackie (dir. Pablo Larrain, 2016)
- A Colt Is My Passport (dir. Takashi Nomura, 1967)
- Dangal (dir. Nitesh Tiwari, 2016)
- Lady Macbeth (dir. William Oldroyd, 2016)
- Boy (dir. Taika Waititi, 2010)
- Fever Pitch (dir. Bobby and Peter Farrelly, 2005)
- Dr. No (dir. Terence Young, 1962)
- Field of Dreams (dir. Phil Alden Robinson, 1989)
- Creep (dir. Patrick Brice, 2014)
- Dr. Jack (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1922)
- Lady Snowblood (dir. Toshiya Fujita, 1973)
- Chafed Elbows (dir. Robert Downey Snr., 1965)
- Kes (dir. Ken Loach, 1969)
- Jim & Andy: the Great Beyond- Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (dir. Chris Smith, 2017)
- Justice League (dir. Zack Snyder, 2017)
- Howl’s Moving Castle (dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 2004)
- Madea Goes To Jail (dir. Tyler Perry, 2009)
- The 400 Blows (dir. Francois Truffaut, 1959)
- Lady Bird (dir. Greta Gerwig, 2017)
- The Wedding Date (dir. Clare Kilner, 2005)
- Skiptrace (dir. Renny Harlin, 2016)
- Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (dir. Griffin Dunne, 2017)
- The Parent Trap (dir. David Swift, 1961)
- The Violin Player (dir. Bauddhayan Mukherji, 2016)
- Bad Santa 2 (dir. Mark Waters, 2016)
- Limelight (dir. Charles Chaplin, 1952)
- Kill Baby, Kill! (dir. Mario Bava, 1966)
- Snow Trail (dir. Senkichi Taniguchi, 1947)
- Scanners (dir. David Cronenberg, 1981)
- The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1927)
- Better Watch Out (dir. Chris Peckover, 2016)
- Mudbound (dir. Dee Rees, 2017)
- Good Time (dir. Benny & Josh Safdie, 2017)
- High School Musical (dir. Kenny Ortega, 2006)
- Ingrid Goes West (dir. Matt Spicer, 2017)
- Hurricane Bianca (dir. Matt Kugelman, 2016)
- Point Break (dir. Kathryn Bigelow, 1991)
- Fitzcarraldo (dir. Werner Herzog, 1982)
- Masaan (dir. Neeraj Ghaywan, 2015)
- I Don’t Want To Be A Man (dir. Ernest Lubitsch, 1918)
- Dirty Dancing (dir. Emile Ardolino, 1987)
- Burden of Dreams (dir. Les Blank, 1982)
- My Neighbour Totoro (dir Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)
- Ten (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 2002)
- Goldfinger (dir. Guy Hamilton, 1964)
- The Shape of Water (dir. Guillermo Del Toro, 2017)
- The Disaster Artist (dir. James Franco, 2017)
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
- It Takes Two (dir. Andy Tennant, 1995)
- Cat People (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
- Howard the Duck (dir. Willard Huyck, 1986)
- The Music Room (dir. Satyajit Ray, 1958)
- Spite Marriage (dir. Edward Sedgwick & Buster Keaton, 1929)
- Hugo and Josephine (dir. Kjell Grede, 1967)
- Coco (dir. Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina, 2017)
- The Handmaiden (dir. Park Chan-Wook, 2016)
- The Golem (dir. Carl Boese & Paul Wegener, 1920)
- Quadrille (dir. Sacha Guitry, 1938)
- Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (dir. Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001)
- Fruitvale Station (dir. Ryan Coogler, 2013)
- Red Beard (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1965)
- The Virgin Spring (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1960)
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (dir. Jake Kasdan, 2017)
- Midnight Run (dir. Martin Brest, 1988)
- Ratcatcher (dir. Lynne Ramsay, 1999)
- The Villainess (dir. Byung-gil Yung, 2017)
- Broken Blossoms (dir. D.W. Griffith, 1919)
- The Lost City of Z (dir. James Gray, 2016)
- Confidentially Yours (dir. Francois Truffaut, 1983)
- Naked (dir. Mike Leigh, 1993)
*=Horror Week
**Best Picture Oscar Winners Week
***John Hurt Week
****Latin American Cinema Week
^ Wifey’s Choice Week
“Blaxploitation Week
Animation Week
Documentary Week
1960’s Week
Netflix Watchlist Week
Ealing Studio’s Week
LGBTQ+ Week
Blind Netflix Choice
That’s it for December, and for the year as a whole. I will be posting my definitive favourite 20, as well as writing up a final summary of the year shortly, along with some fun statistics and links to spreadsheets (cause who doesn’t love a spreadsheet?). But until them, I think I’ll go for a walk outside.