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.

After the barren months of summer comes the fresh Autumnal hope…lets do this shit.

September

This Month’s List

1. Spider-Man: Homecoming (dir. Jon Watts, 2017)
2. The Imposter (dir. Bart Layton, 2012)
3. Fantastic Voyage (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1966)
4. Gremlins (dir. Joe Dante, 1984)
5. Shaolin Soccer (dir. Stephen Chow, 2001)
6. Pink (dir. Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, 2016)
7. Sunset Song (dir. Terence Davis, 2015)
8. Quiz Show (dir. Robert Redford, 1994)
9. Even the Rain (dir. Iciar Bollain, 2010)
10. Zombeavers (dir. Jordan Rubin, 2014)
11. Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (dir. Chiemi Karasawa, 2013)
12. Filth (dir. Jon S. Baird, 2013)
13. High and Low (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
14. Sexy Beast (dir. Jonathan Glazer, 2000)
15. Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee, 1989)
16. Westworld (dir. Michael Crichton, 1973)
17. In a Lonely Place (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1950)
18. Monster House (dir. Gil Kenan, 2006)
19. Suspiria (dir. Dario Argento, 1977)
20. Tampopo (dir. Juzo Itami, 1985)
21. Baywatch (dir. Seth Gordon, 2017)
22. It (dir. Andy Muchietti, 2017)
23. The Ladykillers (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1955)
24. Whisky Galore (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1949)
25. The Lavender Hill Mob (dir. Charles Crichton, 1951)
26. Went the Day Well? (dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, 1942)
27. Passport to Pimlico (dir. Henry Cornelius, 1949)
28. Kind Hearts and Coronets (dir. Robert Hamer, 1949)
29. The Man in the White Suit (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1951)
30. Silence (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2016)
31. American Splendor (dir. Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, 2003)
32. mother! (dir. Darren Aronofsky, 2017)
33. A Silent Voice (dir. Naoko Yamada, 2016)
34. Goon (dir. Michael Dowse, 2011)
35. Son of Rambow (dir. Garth Jennings, 2007)
36. The Secret Life of Bees (dir. Gina Prince-Blythewood, 2008)
37. My Winnipeg (dir. Guy Maddin, 2007)
38. Certified Copy (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
39. Charlie’s Country (dir. Rolf de Heer, 2013)
40. Safety Last! (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1923)
41. The Most Dangerous Game (dir. Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1932)
42. The Phantom Carriage (dir. Victor Sjostrom, 1921)
43. Wonder Woman (dir. Patty Jenkins, 2017)
44. The Passion of Joan of Arc (dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)

 

Netflix Watchlist Week

Ealing Studios Week

 

Highlights & Standouts

Lots of good stuff this month, I was taken on a trip into the human body in Fantastic Voyage, disgusted by sexual double standards in Bollywood courtroom drama Pink, and given a sizeable amount of vertigo in Harold Lloyd’s delightful Safety Last!. I very much enjoyed my week watching the best that Ealing Studios has to offer (not least because most of the films clocked in around the 90 minute mark), with the whimsical Whisky Galore! probably being my favourite of the bunch, but it was also great to see the range of Alec Guinness.

As a fun little wrinkle, and because I didn’t feel like I was stretching myself enough with this challenge, I made the decision this month that I wanted to see at least one film from every year from the last 100 years. A quick look over my list so far revealed I was missing about 33 years from 1917 until this year, so this influenced my choices of films to watch towards the end of the month. Some might say that considering I am already so far behind on the initial challenge I should probably focus on the task at hand, but adding this sub-challenge led me to Safety Last!, The Most Dangerous Game, The Phantom Carriage, and The Passion of Joan of Arc, so it’s already paying off. Plus it gave me an excuse to make another spreadsheet to track my films by year, and so help me, I do enjoy a spreadsheet.

 

Low Points & Disappointments

Baywatch managed to be pretty devoid of life, it’s not like expectations were high, but it fell short of producing any laughs or any standout action sequences, pretty unforgivable for a comedy starring Dwayne Johnson.

With the regards to other 2017 releases, Spider-Man: Homecoming, It and Wonder Woman were all perfectly watchable in their own way, but having heard lots of positives about all of them, including seeing them on a couple of best of the year lists, none of them lived up to the hype surrounding them.

Performance of the Month

Agyness Deyn- Sunset Song

September has been a fantastic month for strong, fascinating female characters. From the heroic trio seeking justice in an unfair patriarchal legal system in Pink, to Jennifer Lawrence’s bewildering and beguiling turn in mother!, to Juliette Binoche who is spellbinding in Certified Copy.  But it is Agyness Deyn who stood out the most in a month of standout performances, in Terence Davies’ magnificent Sunset Song, a coming-of-age story about Scottish farm girl Chris, at the turn of the 20th century.

It is a transformative performance, Deyn skillfully depicts Chris at numerous stages of her life (similar to James Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life), growing from timid, put upon daughter to proud matriarch of the farm. It is a heartbreaking journey along the way, with Deyn carrying the film with strength, vulnerability and poise.

 

Top 5 of the Month (in no particular order)

Sunset Song: Terence Davies sure knows how to make a disaster look beautiful. This adaptation of the Lewis Grassic Gibbon novel is both dreek and warming, his investment in character makes you fall in love, ensuring the oncoming heartbreak is all the more painful. Also its got Peter Mullan in it so you know it is well worth your time.

High and Low: one of the most in-depth police movies I’ve ever seen, Kurosawa’s attention to detail in this crime thriller is exceptional. He spends the first half of the film almost entirely in a single house, the second half takes places across a whole city, he is a master of getting maximum tension out of any setting.

mother!: it has unsurprisingly split audience opinion, but it is a film that captivated me from the beginning and was a masterful achievement in camerawork and pacing. Subtlety is not its strong suit but sometimes it does a person good to be clobbered over the head by a film. I was thinking about it for days afterwards so for me it 100% worked.

Certified Copy: Like mother!, its a film where decades seem to pass in the blink of the eye, and every interaction is crucial. It’s spiralling, thought provoking, and demanding of your attention. With picturesque settings and terrific performances, it’s another film that leaves a lasting impression. I don’t have time to go back and watch it again this year, although I very much wanted to as soon as I’d finished it, but it will be one of the first to get a re-visit at the turn of the year.

The Phantom Carriage: so ahead of it’s time in terms of special effects and narrative structure, it’s almost 100 years old but its influence is still seen in films today. I thought it was remarkable.

 

The Year So Far

Breakdown by Decade

2010’s- 110

2000’s- 17

1990’s- 15

1980’s- 10

1970’s- 24

1960’s- 16

1950’s- 9

1940’s- 8

1930’s- 6

1920’s- 6

Days to film ratio

221 films in 273 days. September was the most films watched in a single month, with 44, but that number only stopped me from falling further behind rather than catching me up. I will have to average around 48 films a month for the last three months if I’m to be in with shout.

Total time of film watching

22,422 minutes, 373.7 hours, 15.5 days.

Films by the Nations

USA	122
UK	55
France	25
Germany	13
Japan	12
Belgium	8
Italy	8
Spain	7
Canada	6
Sweden	6
Netherlands	4
Australia	4
Mexico	4
New Zealand	4
China	4
Hong Kong	4
Denmark	3
Luxemburg	3
Taiwan	3
Ireland	3
Norway	2
Greece	2
South Korea	2
Brazil	1
Austria	1
Switzerland	1
Romania	1
Argentina	1
Chile	1
Soviet Union	1
Cambodia	1
Hungary	1
Jordan	1
UAE	1
Qatar	1
Tunisia	1
Senegal	1
Finland	1
Israel	1
Indonesia	1
Czech Rep.	1
Iran	1
India	1

Some films are co-produced by multiple nations, which explains why the numbers may not add up.

Recurring Directors

Luis Bunuel- 3 (Los Olvidados, L’Age d’Or, Belle de Jour)

Alexander Mackendrick- 3 (The Ladykillers, Whisky Galore, The Man in the White Suit)

Danny Boyle- 2 (Steve Jobs, T2: Trainspotting)

Powell & Pressburger- 2 (A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes)

Mike Mills- 2 (Beginners, 20th Century Women)

Ridley Scott- 2 (Thelma & Louise, Alien: Covenant)

Ingmar Bergman- 2 (Persona, The Seventh Seal)

Charles Chaplain- 2 (The Great Dictator, Modern Times)

Mike Birbiglia- 2 (Don’t Think Twice, Sleepwalk with Me)

Akira Kurosawa- 2 (I Live in Fear, High and Low)

Richard Fleischer- 2 (10 Rillington Place, Fantastic Voyage)

Terence Davis- 2 (Distant Voices, Still Lives; Sunset Song)

Garth Jennings- 2 (Sing, Son of Rambow)

 

The complete list so far…

1. The Good Dinosaur (dir. Peter Sohn, 2015)
2. Your Name (dir. Makoto Shinkai, 2016)
3. Star Trek Beyond (dir. Justin Lin, 2016)
4. Notes on Blindness (dir. Pete Middleton, 2016)
5. Le Samourai (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
6. I am Not a Serial Killer (dir. Billy O’Brien, 2016)
7. Bridget Jones’s Diary (dir. Sharon Maguire, 2001)
8. Keanu (dir. Peter Atencio, 2016)
9. La La Land (dir. Damien Chazelle, 2016)
10. Train to Busan* (dir. Sang-ho Yeon, 2016)
11. Don’t Breathe* (dir. Fede Alvarez, 2016)
12. Nosferatu* (dir. F.W. Murnau, 1922)
13. Carrie* (dir. Brian De Palma, 1976)
14. Re-Animator* (dir. Stuart Gordon, 1985)
15. Jack Frost* (dir. Michael Coon, 1997)
16. Blair Witch* (dir. Adam Wingard, 2016)
17. What We Did on Our Holiday (dir. Andy Hamilton & Guy Jenkin, 2014)
18. The Devils (dir. Ken Russell, 1971)
19. Eddie the Eagle (dir. Dexter Fletcher, 2016)
20. Chef (dir. Jon Favreau, 2014)
21. The One I Love (dir. Charlie McDowell, 2014)
22. Steve Jobs (dir. Danny Boyle, 2015)
23. Manchester By The Sea (dir. Kenneth Lonergan, 2016)
24. The Killing (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1956)
25. In the Heat of the Night** (dir. Norman Jewison, 1967)
26. Shakespeare in Love** (dir. John Madden, 1998)
27. The Sting** (dir. George Roy Hill, 1973)
28. Mutiny on the Bounty** (dir. Frank Lloyd, 1935)
29. Patton** (dir. Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970)
30. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (dir. Gareth Edwards, 2016)
31. Little Men (dir. Ira Sachs, 2016)
32. Julieta (dir. Pedro Almodovar, 2016)
33. Fish Tank (dir. Andrea Arnold, 2009)
34. Spa Night (dir. Andrew Ahn, 2016)
35. 1984 (dir. Michael Radford, 1984)***
36. 10 Rillington Place (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1971)***
37. 44 Inch Chest (dir. Malcolm Venville, 2009)***
38. Watership Down (dir. Martin Rosen, 1978)***
39. Thelma and Louise (dir. Ridley Scott, 1991)
40. David Brent: Life on the Road (dir. Ricky Gervais, 2016)
41. The Fits (dir. Anna Rose Holmer, 2015)
42. The Magnificent Seven (dir. Antoine Fuqua, 2016)
43. Hello, My Name is Doris (dir. Michael Showalter, 2016)
44. Toni Erdmann (dir. Maren Ade, 2016)
45. Manhattan (dir. Woody Allen, 1979)
46. The Clan (dir. Pablo Trapero, 2015)
47. Black Sheep (dir. Jonathan King, 2016)
48. T2: Trainspotting (dir. Danny Boyle, 2017)
49. Florence Foster Jenkins (dir. Stephen Frears, 2016)
50. Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (dir. Kihachi Okamoto, 1970)
51. The Girl with All the Gifts (dir. Colm McCarthy, 2016)
52. Hidden Figures (dir. Theodore Melfi, 2016)
53. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (dir. Eli Craig, 2010)
54. The Secret of the Kells (dir. Tomm Moore & Nora Twomey, 2009)
55. Ixcanul (dir. Jayro Bustamante, 2015)****
56. Aquarius (dir. Kleber Mendonca, 2016)****
57. The Club**** (dir. Pablo Larrain, 2015)
58. Los Olvidados**** (dir. Luis Bunuel, 1950)
59. El Topo **** (dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)
60. Get Out (dir. Jordan Peele, 2017)
61. Wrinkles (dir. Ignacio Ferreras, 2011)
62. Logan (dir. James Mangold, 2017)
63. The Taking of Pelham 123 (dir. Joseph Sargent, 1974)
64. Laura (dir. Otto Preminger, 1944)
65. L’Age d’Or (dir. Luis Bunuel, 1930)
66. Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925)
67. Sausage Party (dir. Greg Tiernan & Conrad Vernon, 2016)
68. Love and Death on Long Island (dir. Richard Kwietniowski, 1997)
69. Moana ^(dir. Ron Clements, Chris Williams, Don Hall, John Musker, 2016)
70. Sleepless in Seattle^ (dir. Nora Ephron, 1993)
71. Paris is Burning^ (dir. Jennie Livingstone, 1990)
72. Sixteen Candles^ (dir. John Hughes, 1984)
73. National Treasure: Book of Secrets^ (dir. Jon Turteltaub, 2007)
74. Like Crazy^ (dir. Drake Doremus, 2011)
75. Kong: Skull Island (dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts, 2017)
76. I am Not Your Negro (dir. Raoul Peck, 2016)
77. Beginners (dir. Mike Mills, 2010)
78. Godzilla (dir. Ishiro Honda, 1954)
79. Tabloid (dir. Errol Morris, 2010)
80. A Matter of Life and Death (dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
81. Pink Narcissus (dir. James Bidgood, 1971)
82. The Devil Rides Out (dir. Terence Fisher, 1968)
83. Somm (dir. Jason Wise, 2012)
84. I Live in Fear (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1955)
85. White God (dir. Kornel, Mundruczo, 2014)
86. Super Fly” (dir. Gordon Parks Jnr., 1972)
87. Foxy Brown” (dir. Jack Hill, 1974)
88. Black Belt Jones” (dir. Robert Clouse, 1974)
89. Blacula” (dir. William Crain, 1972)
90. Three the Hard Way” (dir. Gordon Parks Jnr., 1974)
91. The Mack” (dir. Michael Campus, 1973)
92. Whale Rider (dir. Niki Caro, 2002)
93. Dragon (dir. Peter Ho-Sun Chan, 2011)
94. The Love Witch (dir. Anna Biller, 2016)
95. Distant Voices, Still Lives (dir. Terence Davis, 1988)
96. Headhunters (dir. Morten Tyldum, 2011)
97. Dead Ringers (dir. David Cronenberg, 1988)
98. Love is Colder Than Death (dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1969)
99. The Red Shoes (dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
100. La Promesse (dir. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 1996)
101. Lion (dir. Garth Davis, 2016)
102. To Kill a Mockingbird (dir. Robert Mulligan, 1962)
103. Fences (dir. Denzel Washington, 2016)
104. Theeb (dir. Naji Abu Nowar, 2014)
105. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (dir. Lotte Reiniger & Carl Koch, 1926)
106. Shaun the Sheep (dir. Mark Burton & Richard Starzak, 2015)
107. Kirikou and the Sorceress (dir. Michel Ocelot & Raymond Burlet, 1998)
108. Ghost in the Shell (dir. Mamoru Oshii, 1995)
109. Corpse Bride (dir. Tim Burton, 2005)
110. The Iron Giant (dir. Brad Bird, 1999)
111. 20th Century Women (dir. Mike Mills, 2016)
112. The Fate of the Furious (dir. F. Gary Gray, 2017)
113. Free Fire (dir. Ben Wheatley, 2016)
114. Eyes Without a Face (dir. Georges Franju, 1960)
115. Room 237 (dir. Rodney Ascher, 2012)
116. Mifune: the Last Samurai (dir. Steven Okazaki, 2015)
117. Paterson (dir. Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
118. Stagecoach (dir. John Ford, 1939)
119. The Assassin (dir. Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 2015)
120. Black Girl (dir. Ousmane Sembene, 1966)
121. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (dir. David Gelb, 2011)
122. Grey Gardens (dir. Albert & David Maysles, Muffie Meyer, Ellen Hovde, 1975)
123. The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young (dir. Anika Iltis, Timothy Anthony Kane, 2014)
124. The Last Waltz (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1978)
125. Where You’re Meant To Be (dir. Paul Fegan, 2016)
126. We Were Here (dir. David Weissman, Bill Weber, 2011)
127. The Look of Silence (dir. Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
128. The Resurrection of Jake the Snake Roberts (dir. Steve Yu, 2015)
129. Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2 (dir. James Gunn, 2017)
130. Chicken Run (dir. Peter Lord, Nick Park, 2000)
131. Meek’s Cutoff (dir. Kelly Reichardt, 2010)
132. Mindhorn (dir. Sean Foley, 2016)
133. Commando (dir. Mark L. Lester, 1985)
134. Sabotage (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1936)
135. The Levelling (dir. Hope Dickson Leach, 2016)
136. The Red Turtle (dir. Michael Dudok de Wit, 2016)
137. Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (dir. David Mirkin, 1997)
138. Alien: Covenant (dir. Ridley Scott, 2017)
139. A Fistful of Dollars (dir. Sergio Leone, 1964)
140. Breathless (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
141. Persona (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
142. Belle de Jour (dir. Luis Bunuel, 1967)
143. Bonnie and Clyde (dir. Arthur Penn, 1967)
144. Gregory’s Girl (dir. Bill Forsyth, 1980)
145. The Seventh Seal (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
146. Tarzan (dir. Chris Buck & Kevin Lima, 1999)
147. Brassed Off (dir. Mark Herman, 1996)
148. Eddie- Strongman (dir. Matt Bell, 2015)
149. The Spirit of the Beehive (dir. Victor Erice, 1973)
150. Raw (dir. Julia Docournau, 2016)
151. Catfight (dir. Onur Tukel, 2016)
152. The Great Dictator (dir. Charles Chaplain, 1940)
153. Don’t Think Twice (dir. Mike Birbiglia, 2016)
154. The LEGO Batman Movie (dir. Chris McKay, 2017)
155. Beauty and the Beast (dir. Bill Condon, 2017)
156. Batman: The Movie (dir. Leslie H. Martinson, 1966)
157. The Break Up (dir. Peyton Reed, 2006)
158. The Return of the Pink Panther (dir. Blake Edwards, 1975)
159. Sing (dir. Christophe Lourdelet & Garth Jennings, 2016)
160. Casa de mi Padre (dir. Matt Piedmont, 2012)
161. The Lobster (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)
162. Fifty Shades Darker (dir. James Foley, 2017)
163. Sleepwalk with Me (dir. Mike Birbiglia & Seth Barrish, 2012)
164. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (dir. Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone, 2016)
165. The Little Death (dir. Josh Lawson, 2014)
166. Okja (dir. Bong Joon Ho, 2017)
167. Dunkirk (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2017)
168. Prevenge (dir. Alice Lowe, 2016)
169. Daddy’s Home (dir. Sean Anders, 2015)
170. The Big Sick (dir. Michael Showalter, 2017)
171. Man Bites Dog (dir. Remy Belvaux, Benoit Poelvoorde & Andre Bonzel, 1992)
172. Personal Shopper (dir. Olivier Assayas, 2016)
173. Modern Times (dir. Charles Chaplain, 1936)
174. The Princess Diaries (dir. Garry Marshall, 2001)
175. Hausu (dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)
176. Baby Driver (dir. Edgar Wright, 2017)
177. Onibaba (dir. Kaneto Shindo, 1964)
178. Spider-Man: Homecoming (dir. Jon Watts, 2017)
179. The Imposter (dir. Bart Layton, 2012)
180. Fantastic Voyage (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1966)
181. Gremlins (dir. Joe Dante, 1984)
182. Shaolin Soccer (dir. Stephen Chow, 2001)
183. Pink (dir. Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, 2016)
184. Sunset Song (dir. Terence Davis, 2015)
185. Quiz Show (dir. Robert Redford, 1994)
186. Even the Rain (dir. Iciar Bollain, 2010)
187. Zombeavers (dir. Jordan Rubin, 2014)
188. High and Low (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
189. Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (dir. Chiemi Karasawa, 2013)
190. Filth (dir. Jon S. Baird, 2013)
191. Sexy Beast (dir. Jonathan Glazer, 2000)
192. Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee, 1989)
193. Westworld (dir. Michael Crichton, 1973)
194. In a Lonely Place (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1950)
195. Monster House (dir. Gil Kenan, 2006)
196. Suspiria (dir. Dario Argento, 1977)
197. Tampopo (dir. Juzo Itami, 1985)
198. Baywatch (dir. Seth Gordon, 2017)
199. It (dir. Andy Muchietti, 2017)
200. The Ladykillers (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1955)
201. Whisky Galore (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1949)
202. The Lavender Hill Mob (dir. Charles Crichton, 1951)
203. Went the Day Well? (dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, 1942)
204. Passport to Pimlico (dir. Henry Cornelius, 1949)
205. Kind Hearts and Coronets (dir. Robert Hamer, 1949)
206. The Man in the White Suit (dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1951)
207. Silence (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2016)
208. American Splendor (dir. Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, 2003)
209. mother! (dir. Darren Aronofsky, 2017)
210. A Silent Voice (dir. Naoko Yamada, 2016)
211. Goon (dir. Michael Dowse, 2011)
212. Son of Rambow (dir. Garth Jennings, 2007)
213. The Secret Life of Bees (dir. Gina Prince-Blythewood, 2008)
214. My Winnipeg (dir. Guy Maddin, 2007)
215. Certified Copy (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
216. Charlie’s Country (dir. Rolf de Heer, 2013)
217. Safety Last! (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1923)
218. The Most Dangerous Game (dir. Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1932)
219. The Phantom Carriage (dir. Victor Sjostrom, 1921)
220. Wonder Woman (dir. Patty Jenkins, 2017)
221. The Passion of Joan of Arc (dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)

*=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

 

Twenty Best of the Year So Far…

Now that I’m over 200 films in, trying to narrow it down to just 10 films seems a bit perverse. So here’s my 20 favourite (in no particular order), along with my 140 characters or less Twitter reviews.

Your Name: “gorgeous animation. Takes the traditional body swap narrative and makes it poetic and poignant. Beautiful in every way”

The Great Dictator: “Utterly relevant, utterly charming, utterly marvellous”

Persona: “Mesmerising and bewildering. I couldn’t take my eyes off the whole thing and I’m still not entirely sure why.”

The Devils: “a superb, operatic orgy. A real forgotten masterpiece”

Train to Busan: “as relentless and knuckle-chewingly tense as Rec, but with better characters and subtext”

I Live in Fear: “devastating family drama set under the cloud of nuclear threat. Great to see Mifune in a non samurai role”

Los Olvidados: “savage social commentary, trippy dream sequences and ahead of it’s time camera techniques. Pretty damn amazing”

El Topo: “bloody & bonkers spaghetti western mixed with Don Quixote and a splash of Monty Python”

In the Heat of the Night: “grim film noir combined with sweltering racial tension with a terrific soundtrack”

Get Out: “oh man, this is a game changer in a lot of ways. Creepy & tense but impossible to shoehorn into a single category.”

Le Samourai: “a stylish cocktail of classic Hollywood noir & 1960’s French culture”

High and Low: “whether confined to 4 walls or a city wide search, Kurosawa delivers the most detailed, in-depth investigation narrative”

Onibaba: “splendid atmosphere, pacing and tone, merged together to create a massively satisfying/horrifying conclusion”

mother!: “it starts by bludgeoning you over the head with metaphor, and ends by bludgeoning you with images. But I found it remarkable”

Certified Copy: “mesmerizing performances, a blink-and-you-miss-it drama about love & regret. I loved it & really need to watch it again”

A Matter of Life and Death: “somehow manages to be prim & proper, and grand & fantastical all at once. A remarkable achievement”

The Phantom Carriage: “I’ve shied away from the term masterpiece during this year, but it feels appropriate here. It’s wonderful”

The Fits: “Should really be shown alongside The Falling. Bold performances and camarawork. Understated tale on power of peer pressure”

The Red Turtle: “minimal dialogue, simplistic (but beautiful) animation, maximum feels”

Sunset Song: “Terence Davies has a knack of making movies that will stun you with their beauty while at the same time break your heart”

Right that’s your lot for this month, you can track my progress on Twitter @clancyhighhat. Now leave me in peace, I’ve got a lot of work to do.