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ccthewriter · 1 year

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CC's New Watch Ranking - April 2023

Every month on Letterboxd, I make a list of the 10 best films I’ve seen for the first time. It’s a fun way to compare movies separated in time, genre, and country of origin, and helps me keep track of what I’m watching! This is a breakdown of those films.

April! An early heat wave broke and gave us the rainy, misty days that this month is supposed to contain. My vegetable garden is starting to take root. This is the first year I’m planting in earnest, prepping trays of seeds to make their way outside. I’ve been learning a lot, and keeping my eye on the backyard window as I’ve been settling in to watch these films. Plants like music - do they like film scores? Maybe I’ll take my speakers outside and find out. I bet they’d love Angelo Badalamenti, whose work is featured heavily in this month’s list. After a slow start due to several exciting new work opportunities (yay!), this month ended up containing some cinematic heavy-hitters!

Click below to read the breakdown! Click��HERE for the list on Letterboxd!

10. The Hawks and the Sparrows

1966 - Pier Paolo Pasolini

A delightful absurdist tale by one of Italy’s greatest directors. A father and son, whose attitude seems ripped right out of Waiting for Godot, wander a road with indeterminate purpose. Along they way they meet a philosophizing talking bird, and fall backwards in time to the life of St. Francis. Interspersed are some scenes of modern (1960s) Italian life, including the real funeral procession of a Communist leader. It’s a strange, lopsided work, perhaps not achieving the thought-provoking or artistic heights that the director intended, but contains some brilliant gems of absurdism. I’m particularly struck by several shots and discussions that focus on the Moon. You may know, reader, that I am obsessed with Fellini’s Voice of the Moon. That is an absurd, wandering meditation on the moon’s symbolism and power, and echoes of those ideas are found here, too. It gets me wondering about what Fellini and Pasolini shared, the experiences that united their thought, and got them to create such interesting, parallel pictures.

9. For a Few Dollars More

1965 - Sergio Leone

Impeccable craft. The platonic ideal of a Western that so many movies/other media try to grasp, but can never quite achieve. (Looking at you, Mando.) While The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly might be the ultimate piece in this trilogy, For A Few Dollars More still manages to hold all the compelling, subtle characterization and breathtaking conclusion that makes that capper so legendary. Two bounty hunters seek out a mad fugitive - they all double-cross one another in pursuit of victory. There’s just grand vibes within this thing. A legendary score, gorgeous shots, handsome sweaty men trying to kill each other (aka flirting), and other tiny design choices that are beyond iconic. What’s not to love? Toss this on with a bourbon, pardner, and watch them shoot a hat.

8. Bitter Rice

1949 - Giuseppe De Santis

What if we fought back against systems that oppress the workers of the rice fields AND we were both girls 👀. First and foremost watch this if you love wlw - there is some subtext that occurs between the main pair as they squabble. A jewel thief, coerced into crime by her shitty boyfriend, hides out among rice workers with her stolen goods. She meets Silvana, a peasant who catches onto their scheme and ultimately gets entangled in their lives. It feels like both the thieving pair lust after her. The politics of this one are messy, to say the least. Francesca, the thief, sides with some scabs who want to work the fields despite not being part of the union. Silvana organizes the workers against them, but ultimately they come to a patronizing compromise to let both sides work together. The film doesn’t care about the details that would make this labor struggle real - what does it take to join the union? Who organizes it? Do the members get to vote about how they feel about the scabs? Pulling those threads makes the movie collapse, along with the shoe-horned melodramatic ending for Silvana, which seems born out of an American Hayes Code sense of what must happen to a woman who "chooses wrong." Despite these elements, the film is shot beautifully by Otello Martelli, Fellini’s cinematographer, and contains one of the greatest framing devices for a neorealist film ever devised. A voice over telling you that what you’re about to see is the real testimony of rice workers, which diegetically shifts into a radio announcer present at the scene, is inspired. A film to yell at as you enjoy it.

7. Touch of Evil

1958 - Orson Welles

The film opens with a bomb being place in the boot of a car. Then there is an unbroken shot lasting about 5 minutes of that same car driving slowly through a crowded street. It is breathtaking tension building. Hitchcockian perfection. What follows is a surprisingly nuanced exploration of police corruption. These pigs live in paranoid fantasies sustained by evidence that they plant - hatred, ignorance, and alcohol let them forget that they created the justification for their hate themselves. This film drips with noir style and culminates in a chase scene that’s just as satisfying as the end of The Third Man. Who else understands noir like Welles? He gives a remarkable performance here.

6. Inland Empire

2006 - David Lynch

Lynch was doing creepypasta lo-fi found footage before it was cool. Seriously, watch this film and be surprised that this came out before Marble Hornets! Lynch’s first foray into digital filmmaking follows the story of actor Nikki Grace, played by the inimitable Laura Dern. (Consider her!) She is cast in a film that she later discovers is an adaptation, derived from a production that was shut down due to strange events happening to the cast. This grounded framing quickly dissolves into classic Lynchian surreality. The narrative is intersected by stories of 19th century Polish sex workers, modern day drifters, an unnamed woman who watches the film’s events on a TV screen, and more flashes of disconnected images than I could ever try to remember. Terry Crews is there for a few minutes. Lynch’s films defy simple explanation, as their very structure seems to repel logical attempts to define them. It is enough to say that this all builds into a moving tale of the exploitation built within the Hollywood machine. To be an actor, even with all the progress we’ve made, is to give yourself up to depersonalization, to completely vanish in the eyes of the viewer. Audiences want to see a self that is inside you, but is not you. You can get lost pulling on that thread. And there are dark figures who are only too happy to encourage you to get lost, who want to sit behind a camera and watch your selves separate, so they can bottle it up and sell it for massive, massive profit. Fascinating to see such a film come from Lynch, who by all accounts is a highly ethical filmmaker and whose crews (particularly Dern!) adore working with him. I think it takes a fundamentally good and kind person to truly understand evil - they must have the good grace to recognize what lives within them, what lives within all of us.

(Also, these fucking rabbits terrify me in ways that I'm still understanding. I think I saw the short film Lynch made with them while I was under the influence of certain substances. They know what I'm thinking and will show up at my doorstep one midnight, I just know it.)

5. Lost Highway

1997 - David Lynch

Whereas Inland Empire explores the loss of self that’s a feature (not a bug) of acting, Lost Highway explores a broader loss of self that can happen any time, anywhere, to anyone. Recapping the plot, again, seems a little pointless, but in brief, it’s about a jazz musician who appears to be stalked by a shapeshifting entity. As he tries to understand why he’s being targeted, he gets arrested for (apparently) murdering his wife - but while in jail, he mystically transforms into another person entirely. This new character lives an entirely separate life that eventually intersects with the original one in shocking ways. It’s all very cyclical, and vague, and contains a host of implications that are too broad to clearly explain. Lynch is the ultimate Oneric filmmaker in this way - the content of the dream is so different than the lasting impression it gives you. Towards the beginning of the movie the main character has this exchange:

Fred: "I like to remember things my own way"

Cop: "What does that mean?"

Fred: "How I remember them, not necessarily how they happened"

That’s the ultimate explanation of how these films function. They are truly symbolic masses that pass through you, live inside you, and then transform into something greater than its sum ingredients.

4. Bound

1996 - The Wachowskis

So after dipping our toes into that Lynchian, vaguely defined dreamscape, here we have a much more straightforward film. What if the hottest most gorgeous most sapphic most jaw-droppingly sexy women imaginable did a crime together??? Wouldn’t that be cool?????? There really isn’t much in the way of symbolic nuance in this picture like there is in some of these other recommendations. This is just a straight-forward, tightly constructed crime thriller, starring (cannot emphasize this enough) just the biggest queerest icons you can imagine. I knew this movie would rewire me once I saw it, and am pleased to report that it really, really has. If you’re in the sapphic camp please check it out - it’s as required viewing as But I’m A Cheerleader is. Corky is a stone-butch ex-con who’s hired to renovate an apartment. She discovers that living next door is a mobster and his disaffected trophy girl Violet. Violet seduces Corky in the most noir femme fatale porn-adjacent way imaginable - quite literally “can you fix my pipes?” - and the two agree to pull one over on the mob so they can run off into the sunset. What follows is tightly constructed, steaming tension, as Hithcockian in perfection as Touch of Evil’s opening oner, but with a little more pulpy crass. Gays and theys, please, do not hesitate to watch this. It’s the film that let the Wachowskis make the Matrix, it is truly that spectacular.

3. The Immortal Story

1968 - Orson Welles

Welles is a master storyteller, a magician, a ponderous and monologuing baron of Art whose work is now embedded in the history of this medium. When he’s not playing himself, he’s playing corrupt, ignorant men. What do you think compels him to do that? He had the power and resources to play anyone he wants - why was this the role he chose? These questions will naturally rise up when you’re watching The Immortal Story, Welles’ last feature fiction that he would ever direct. It follows the story of a wealthy businessman who has a meeting with his assistant late one night. The businessman - this baron - reveals that he despises fiction, and only wishes to tell or hear things that are true, like data in a ledger. But then he reveals a story a sailor once told him, about a wealthy man who once paid the sailor to sleep with his wife and produce an heir. His assistant knows the story; he says this is a common folk tale, repeated in every port, on every ship, and that his master is incorrect in believing he heard it from the person it actually happened to. This sends the businessman on an obsessed journey - he commands his assistant to recreate this tale, to hire a courtesan, to find a poor sailor, and reconstruct this tale exactly as it was told to him, line-by-line, so that… well, the baron’s reasons for recreating this tale are obscure. Obsession? Stubbornness? A late-life spark of creativity? These questions intermingle with the first few I proposed. What impresses me so much about this film is that it is Welles clearly exploring his own creative drive, questioning all the motivations that have driven him to the life he has been leading for decades. It’s an incredible meditation from one of cinema’s greatest filmmakers. I firmly believe it sets the ground for the future explorations of truth and fiction that Welles accomplishes in F for Fake. How appropriate that this is the capstone towards his fiction-telling career.

2. Mulholland Drive

2001 - David Lynch

The perfect fusion, and appropriate mid-point, between Lost Highway and Inland Empire. Lynch explores the fundamentals of identity as two people try to discover who they are within the mad dreamscape that is Los Angeles. A woman stumbles out of a car crash into the home of a newly-arrived dreamer, ready to go on an adventure and help this woman restore her identity. Or, perhaps the real story is that a jealous actress clings to a more successful starlet, but gets her heart toyed with and torn to pieces as part of some power-tripping game. Lynch is a master of montage, assembling seemingly random moments into a cohesive whole that leaves a distinct emotional message. The competing, lopsided, cyclical narratives that make up this film are no exception. All the cutaways to different characters that intersect with the main pair’s lives are incredible, too. This is the Lynch film that most feels like it captures life itself. Its many contradictions and absurdities, its passion and revulsion. The highlight is the scene where the protagonists sit and watch an underground show. “It's all just a recording,” the performer repeats. This film is just a recording. Our lives will become a recording, once we’re gone and can only be remembered by artifacts. In this moment the movie seems to speak to the viewers directly, reminding them that everything they’re watching is false - and they’re allowed to let it transport them to other realms, anyway.

1. The Music Room

1958 - Satyajit Ray

One of the things I like most about movies from before, say, 1975, is that they don’t mind really lingering in a certain mood. Much of this movie shows a bored man, descended from royalty, lounging around his dilapidated palace. He hides from responsibility, debts, and truths he’d rather forget. But one doesn’t get bored watching him linger. Almost like a survivor in a horror movie hiding from a monster, Biswambhar is actively hiding, actively moping and avoiding the reality of his situation at any cost. It is a remarkable effect. Biswambhar’s only passion in life is live music, and his music room is his treasure. When his family meets a tragic turn of fate, he is left alone in his palace, situated on a flood plain that will eventually sweep away all his land. He decides to spend the rest of his life waiting for the day, living on ever-dwindling reserves of treasure and sherbet. Destiny seems to call to him at one point, and he decides to spend the rest of his reserve on one final, grand act, like in the good-old-days. He hires a musician, invites all his neighbors, and acts like he hasn’t been a reclusive hermit for several years. We understand him the most in this moment. The way he lights up, reopening the music room. The fantasy he embodies. As the musician plays, and we linger in the majesty of her dance and the hammering tabla, we are mesmerized just as he is. Cascades of meaning become clear. This man has sacrificed everything just for this moment, has given it all away to live inside a happy bubble, shunning the outside world… and can you blame him? How can anything life offers compare to the astral travel music can provide? If only he could have found a way to balance his obligations and this passion. Maybe if he had been a musician himself. But no. He can only watch… just as we, watching this movie, are now. Satyajit Ray is a director most capable of making the audience question itself, whose films seem to provoke deep thought and lingering wonder long after the work is over. This film might be the greatest example of that ability. As our own world changes in uncertain times, with an unclear future, a film like this forces us to question just what we’re doing consuming so much media. Like Biswambhar, I think many of us are turning a blind eye to environmental change so we can linger in the happiness of the music room, too. That’s the lesson to take away from this film. One can’t live their life waiting for that room to contain magic once again…

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Thank you for reading! If you liked any of these thoughts feel free to follow me on Letterboxd, where I post reviews and keep meticulous track of every movie I watch. Look forward to more posts like these next month!

#movies #film #cc oc #letterboxd #movie ranking #The Music Room #Mulholland Drive #The Immortal Story #Bound #Lost Highway #Inland Empire #Touch of Evil #Bitter Rice #For A Few Dollars More #The Hawks and the Sparrows

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malemsodorfan · 4 months

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TTTE season and movie ranking beginning of 2024

Okay So I just did a ranking of all the season and movies I've seen as I've only watched all the seasons up to the BWBA movie aside from a few season here and there. So this year I hope to change that. So thats why throughout the year Im gonna go through the entirety show and specials and talk about the over the course of year and rank them all at the end to see how my tastes and opinions on the season have evolved. Since I haven't seen some of these seasons in years. So with that being said heres my current ranking.

THE SEASONS

THE SPECIALS/MOVIES

Stay tuned for more updates on my progress throughout the year.

#ttte #movie ranking #series review

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james-stark-the-writer · 5 months

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Ranking the Halloween movies:

#james talks #letterboxd #letterboxd list #movie ranking #halloween

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ryukang1995 · 6 months

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Mortal Kombat movies ranked (from best to worst)

1. Mortal Kombat (1995) - the best

The movie may be PG-13, and it's definitely showing its age (especially in regards to the FX), but it's still a fun movie with a great cast, entertaining fight scenes and a truly amazing soundtrack.

2. Mortal Kombat (2021)

I actually don't mind this one. Sure, it has pacing and editing issues, but the FX, casting, fight scenes and fatalities keep it afloat for me. It can be much better, but it also can be much worse.

3. Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind

The best of the Legends animated movies, though that may not be saying much since it has such a weird choice for source material (seriously, Kano's MK11 ending?!). Still, the movie manages to make the most out of it.

4. Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge

I actually felt this one was kinda overrated. I mean, it's okay, and it does have plenty of gore, but the fight scenes were basic, and the way they handled the lore and characters left a sour taste in my mouth.

5. Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match

I simply don't care for this movie. I hate Johnny Cage in these animated flicks, so why should I care about a movie where he's the main hero?

6. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

I know some will question why I didn't put this as the worst, but while this really is an awful flick, at least I can laugh at the movie for how such a shoddy production can be released in theaters. Plus, it has a great soundtrack.

7. Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms - the worst

A "film" that doubles down on everything we all criticized other MK movies for, and manages to squander the franchise's potential worse than the NRS timeline ever did.

That's all for now. If you disagree with any of these rankings, it's all good.

#mortal kombat #mortal kombat movie #mortal kombat 1995 #mortal kombat annihilation #mortal kombat legends #mortal kombat 2021 #scorpion's revenge #battle of the realms #snow blind #cage match #movie ranking

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the-anxiety-academy · 2 years

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My ranking of the Ice Age Movies

I recently rewatched the Ice Age movies for nostalgia purposes and I thought I'll give my thoughts on them.

Before you read! This is just my opinion! All of these films have a place in my heart and I love them all!

5. The Meltdown

Okay, I know that people will not like this but to me this movie just isn't special. Don't get me wrong! All of the Ice Age movies hold a place in heart but this one just has no special place in it. The only thing in this movie that stuck out to me was Ellie, Ed and Crash's first appearance, but aside from that, nothing much else. In fact, before I rewatched the film I couldn't even remember what it was about (besides Ellie and the brothers first appearance, of course).

Yeah, it's good, it's got a place in my heart, just not a special one.

4. Continental Drift

Now, this one was difficult!

The reason this one ranks above 2 is because, for me, it's more enjoyable and easy to watch and the introduction of Granny and Shiera makes it worth while. The reason it was so difficult to rank is because of nostalgia. I remember every fortnight going over to my nans house and watching this film on repeat and replaying my favourite parts. So that kinda made it more difficult to place it. But after thinking about it, it takes the 4th place for me.

Besides from the nostalgia and the new characters and its enjoyability, there was nothing else that catches my eye with this film.

3. Collision Course

Okay, hear me out.

I know this one isn't most people's favourite but I think it's good. The main reason it's as high as it is, is because of Buck and Granny, they are my favourite characters so their constant presence in the movie made it soo much better. Scrat having more appearances in this film also does it favours. (And the relationship between Buck and that Pumpkin made me realise something about myself that I never realised before).

The family also feels more put together. I don't know why but it feels like an actual family now, not just a bunch of people (mammals) forced to hang out, like in the earlier movies.

Yeah, so it's not my favourite but it's up there.

2. Ice Age

And the runer up; the og itself!

Again, not everyone's favourite but something about that found family gets me. Especially considering, most of the movie had only 3 constant reoccurring characters (not including the sabers, the humans and those two rhinos). It just felt more homely and familia and nostalgic.

And in top spot....

1. Dawn of the Dinosaurs

The nostalgia!

Oh, the nostalgia!

I was so excited to rewatch this one, for multiple reasons. One of them being the introduction of Buck but the other being its nostalgia and its familiar feel.

Not to be dramatic but at some points I was on the verge of tears at the familiarity of the film. Particularly the part where Sid drew the faces on the eggs, that part I remember so well and it still makes me happy when I watch it. Very few times have I rewatched a childhood movie and felt the same way as when I was a child, usually I'm just disappointed and wishing I hadn't rewatched the film so I could have the same image as when I was a kid. But not this one! This one is just as great as I remember.

So, do you agree with me or do you think my list is bad? Juat remember, it's just an opinion nothing serious.

#ice age #ice age the meltdown #ice age dawn of the dinosaurs #ice age continental drift #ice age collision course #manny the mammoth #sid the sloth #diego the sabertooth tiger #diego ice age #shiera ice age #granny ice age #buck weasel #ice age buck #buck wild #movie ranking #film ranking #movie list

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dovebuffy92 · 1 year

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My Ranking of Aaron Sorkin TV Series & Movies

I am only including movies he directed and wrote in this ranking.

1. The West Wing

2. The Newsroom

3. Studio Sixty on the Sunset Strip

4. Sports Night

5. Molly’s Game

6. The Trial of Chicago 7

7. Being the Ricardos

#aaron sorkin #tv show ranking #movie ranking #rankings #the west wing #the newsroom #sports night #studio sixty on the sunset strip #molly’s game #the trial of the chicago 7 #being the ricardos

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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 3 months

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internet-ghost-x · 1 day

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FINALLY finished Twilight and I have my official rankings 😌

#new moon and breaking dawn 2 are both tied for third though #twilight #twilight saga #new moon #breaking dawn #eclipse #the twilight saga #letterboxd #movie ranking

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artkiddies · 1 year

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My Top 10 Best TV Shows/Movies List of stuff I most enjoy watching this year, because consuming media is all I have left in my life rn (ranking in no particular order):

- This is Going to Hurt The show is the most perfect blend between comedy and tragedy I have ever watched. I love the British wit, humour that's dryer than the [redacted]'s [redacted], expertly interwoven with a devastating depiction of the NHS. It takes a poignantly critical look at the damages and absurdity stemmed from a broken system. The characters are so grounded and likable despite they are very flawed. Ben Whishaw's performance is as amazing as always, I enjoy his comedic performance a lot.

- Interview with the Vampire (TV Show) Do I need to say more? This show has occupied by dashboard for months now. Star-crossed vampire gothic romance; its own unique brand of humour; riveting tension between the characters with their own rich internal conflict; perfect metaphoric depiction of vampire as marginalized identity; adrenaline-pumping-artfully-grotesque horror; every skillfully genre-blending elements pushes the story into a breathtaking season finale. The pilot is also absolutely amazing, it's definitely my favorite episode. I rewatched it for double digits amount of time and everytime I'm still deeply moved by it. The performance and chemistry is honestly perfect. My passion for this show is off the roof, maybe it's the rose coloured glasses I literally can't think of any criticism for it... I know it's not to others but to me Interview with the Vampire is absolutely perfect.

After years of suffering from years of untreated Hannibal brain rot, this series feels like someone take a look at my brain, take my hypothetical ideal TV show and make it real. On another note, I finally watched the movie yesterday, and I now understand why they wrote it for Daniel to say "It was a fever dream told to an idiot." 😶

- The Bear A riveting series. THAT episode is a free trial of what heart attack feels like. I really like the trend of TV shows putting working class people at the forefront, while also doesn't provide a perfectly calculated, overtly-classic-Hollywood ending to their struggles. It felt realistic and very grounded. Incredible filmmaking, too.

- The Haunting of Hill House I never liked horror movie, I hate being scared but Mike Flanagan changed my mind since Midnight Mass. I really like in his show where the horror elements are used to externalize the character's internal and external struggles, ultimately it boils down to their psychology, which is the main driving force to the show. The story is so devastating, but the guiding philosophy throughout it is the light at the end of the tunnel. The show is an absolutely human, sympathetic, heartfelt response to grief and guilt. The confetti line will stay in my heart for years to come.

- Glass Onion Thank you Rian Johnson for being based. SO FRICKING FUN! I watched this while seeping from my My House My Rules My Coffee cup, an awesome sequel that doesn't disappoint! Casting Hugh Grant as Daniel Craig's husband is ICONIC!

- 飯戲攻心 (Table for Six) It was my first time in forever to watch a Hong Kong movie in theatre. Hong Kong lunar new year movies is honestly a pretty terrible genre. As always I went in with, I guess my Hollywood-washed taste in movies? I fully expected to scoff to no end, with an insufferable truckload amount of condescension ready to be dumped onto my poor friend who I went with. But turnt out the film is full of sincerity, a carefully and skillfully crafted interpersonal character driven script, full of dramatic tension. It felt like a theatre play, which I really love, it surprisingly goes very well with Hong Kongese humor. My favourite part is their subversion of character archetypes we've seen a thousand times in Hong Kong comedy movies, especially the tired misogynistic tropes. They actually wrote some well rounded, 2 dimensional female characters that's is at least 75% less misogynistic than usual? In my Hong Kong movies??? It's a nice surprise. The ending is a aerial shot of the Victoria Harbour, I couldn't admit to myself how much I miss Hong Kong and the shot unleash a lot of feelings in me. I would've fucking ball my eyes out and sob audibly in the theatre, if it wasn't for my fear of being curb stomped later by the couple I shushed earlier during the movie.

- Heartstopper My comfort show. Made me feel nostalgic for the pure teenage love I've never had. It's so well made and genuine. I like how it's able to avoid some tired annoying melodramatic beats this kind of story would be so easily falls into.

- Everything Everywhere All At Once **Insert you can make a religion out of this meme** I feel like the more I attempt to articulates my love for the movie, it will only diminish it. (I think I plagiarized this from a tumblr post? i'm sorry but they just put it so perfectly) It's my favourite movie of all time, obviously.

- Swiss Army Man (TW: Casual suicide mentions) As a person who have a long drawn suicidal ideation, I fucking love fun movies about killing yourself, Daniels made two extremely unhinged movies about it. They understood, they are the girls who get it. l pledge my unconditional and eternal allegiance to them(Of course until they make a bad movies or when I finally die you know). I watched this on my birthday, alone, kind of drunk and very depressed, then I received a text that made me feel even shittier, I cried until like 3am, trauma dumped on my dear best friend after she sent me a birthday text. Incredible experience, never want to felt that again.

- The Boys FUCKING COOOOOOL SHOW. Probably the only not-entirely-bad thing jizz basil ever contributed to.

Honourable Mentions:

- Peacemaker Fun superhero show with lots of heart.

- Moon Knight Oscar Isaac!! Episode 5!! AHHH!! but the other episodes collectively fall flat, I really looked forward to the series, but it left me a bit disappointed.

-Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Other than Shang Chi, this is the only other marvel movie from phrase 4 I think it's above average in terms of technicality. The villain is good too.

-The Newsreader Honestly I came for Sam Reid and stayed for Tim x Dale. I'm currently being thoroughly brain rotted by this super angsty ship that only 5 people care about. Also, Tim is low key one of the more interesting character from the show despite having so little screen time? Anna Torv had me in awe since Mindhunter, so it's hard to look away despite it not being a perfect show. I had a good time watching it. I also had a fun time yelling at the screen for fucking Geoff homophobic ass to fucking die already.

-The Haunting of Bly Manor Why not watch a show that'll make you cry and being scared all at once... - The H3 Podcast I know it's not a tv show/movie, but the podcast got me through a fuck ton of lonely and sad times this year (which is like 85% of my year but what's new lol), that's why I want to include it. I listen to Leftovers episodes repeatedly, a lot. It's bad how much I listen to H3... the soundbites pops up in my head when I just go about my daily life...

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shironezuninja · 1 year

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Oh, Cool. I found a T.M. Revolution single album for the Japanese theatrical release for Spider-Man 2.😆🥰 One of the consolations of a popular film that didn’t resonate to my liking.😅

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ccthewriter · 9 months

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CC's New Watch Ranking - June 2023

June! An exhausting month. We wrapped on the movie after a number of 12+ hour days. That, on top of two new jobs that picked up this month, turned June into a stressed mess for me. I spent a lot of time in bed and in the garden, trying to quiet an overstrained brain. For the first time in three years, I have seen only the 10 films on this list this month! That’s why Zaslav felt safe firing all the TCM folks, he knew I was away. But this gives me a chance to discuss some movies I wasn’t crazy about and explore why. There’s something to be learned from every film, even those that don’t please. (I am going to yadda-yadda through some entries, though.)

Click below to read the breakdown! Click HERE to view the list on Letterboxd!

10. Night Moves

1975- Arthur Penn

Was kind of disappointed that this didn’t move for me as it does for others! It reminded me too much of this schlocky film I watched earlier this year Stick. Stick had Burt Reynolds going to Miami to be a double-agent chauffeur for the mob. Or something. Night Moves had the exact same thing happen? Or something? Maybe that’s on me for not paying better attention.

I promised myself I would explore why this didn’t capture me. The best I got is that it’s a slow moving mystery centered on a rather boring figure. Next!

9. Bringing Up Baby

1938 - Howard Hawks

See, I heard about this movie a long time ago. Never in my life did I think the ‘Baby’ in the title was a leopard! This is a fun slapstick comedy about a man who fumbles his hot paleontologist wife for a pathologically lying Katherine Hepburn. I get it, who wouldn’t do the same in that situation, but I was surprised there wasn’t more back and forth between Hepburn and Grant’s fiance. Not quite as charming as another slapstick comedy on this list, but still immensely satisfying.

Cary Grant in a fluffy nightie? 👀 Reeks of gender.

8. Bend of the River

1952 - Anthony Mann

The river! It bends! I find myself watching a lot of pre-1955 movies while I’m doing other tasks. Cowboy flicks and noirs make great background noise. Their rhythms and plots can be so predictable that you can fall right back in if you lose attention for a few minutes. This one gripped me, though. My cinematic nemesis James Stewart plays a black hatted cowboy trying to reinvent himself, escorting a group of settlers to their new home in Oregon. The supplies they ordered don’t arrive in time, so before winter sets in he rides to find what happened to them, visiting the den of villainy and sin known as… Portland. It’s very funny to see the city depicted as a town full of drunken gold miners and thieves, when in a century it will be home to queer witches and their burlesques. (Hi Caity <3) Fun plot, a few interesting reversals, and more colonial assumptions than I can typically stand. It’s no McCabe and Mrs. Miller, but if you’re in the mood for a PNW Western, look no further.

7. Step Brothers

2008 - Adam McKay

A movie so culturally dominant that I knew a huge amount of lines without ever having to see it. It was fun! Will Ferrell and John C. Riley have perfect comedic chemistry, and embody this strange energy of 15 year olds trapped in 40 year old bodies perfectly. The entire film works off of their performance. Just like last month’s Face/Off, two actors giving singular, unique performances is all you need to make a memorable picture.

6. Battling Butler

1926 - Buster Keaton

It’s Buster Keaton! It was fine. I don’t have any more interesting thoughts on him in this movie than I would have in the next one.

5. The Cameraman

1928 - Buster Keaton, Edward Sedgwick

Extremely fun. Buster doing a bit of metacommentary on how artists are valued, and the systems they have to engage with in order to find work. Extra satisfying to view amidst the writer’s strike. These studio heads would have nothing without the footage that the people on the ground capture. The Tong War battle at the end is particularly engaging. It’s the sort of Looney Tunes/Roger Rabbit comic energy that I adore, able to float through a conflict without any worry or care. Satisfying, destiny-bound ending.

4. Once Upon a Time in America

1984 - Sergio Leone

Now we get to the good stuff. Sergio Leone is synonymous with the Wild West - why is it so surprising that he would take on another classic tale of Americana? A gangster drama, an immigrant story, a distinctly East Coast experience of the twentieth century and the superpower that defined it. Where his cowboy movies focus on the mythic qualities of its protagonists - framed among giant landscapes, attention drawn to their weapons and horses - the protagonists of this film are framed within a series of relationships. It is their association with the people around them, the space between their bodies, that Leone captures so well. It is a promise of genius from a filmmaker whose career ended too early. This is a freewheeling biopic of a Lower East Side urchin who rises up towards the top, intersecting with high levels of power and upheavals in his closest bonds. Framed by an opium dream, not afraid to break free from logic, this is a masterful exploration of a cinematic space from one of our best directors.

3. Asteroid City

2023 - Wes Anderson

I feel so lucky to be alive at a time when I can see Wes Anderson movies in theaters. The sheer thrill of this opening sequence…. A black and white TV format exploding into a wide frame, desert-chic phantasmagoria, a MINIATURE TRAIN MODEL title sequence… god. Irreplaceable cinematic moments. It needs a gigantic screen to be really understood.

I think a lot of the theatre-going experience, of the crowd itself, as I remember this film. It was a great sample audience. A group of teen boys who must have just started their summer break. Several pairs of old women enjoying long-scheduled friend dates. A nuclear family. Me, alone, having made use of the Value Tuesday discounts. ($1 off hot dogs!) The whole crowd laughed throughout the thing - has Anderson ever been this funny? It made me feel a lot of hope, that an audience would take such pleasure in little background beats and quiet humor. Much of movie rhetoric paints The Audience writ-large as a bunch of mindless Marvel fans who need jokes telegraphed from a mile away. How hard the subtle humor hit really made me happy.

The story itself is something I’m going to have to meditate on. Anderson is working some meta-commentary that can be hard to grasp with only one viewing. I get the sense he’s looking at his own work and his style of directing. He’s famous for his ensembles - it’s a movie about a cast making a play. He’s famous for his invented worlds - we walk backstage and meet a writer-director who literally lives in a set after the performances are done. He’s a director beset by nostalgia for times he never lived - Jeffrey Wright says to a bunch of young geniuses, “Should have picked a better time to be born.” This is why I feel such a thrill, such satisfaction, in being alive while his movies are airing. I get to witness the years, hopefully decades, of discussion that this movie inspires. I think this is already ripe for a “Underappreciated in its time despite being his masterpiece” sort of thing.

2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

2023 - Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers

God, what a lovely film to watch. My gushing excitement for this is cut by the recent revelations about its production. I spit on the names of Lord and the names of Miller, I wish them to suffer as they have made others suffer. I think of how beautiful this film is - how every frame is a gorgeous vortex, how you could hit pause at any moment and drink in one billion details that all add up to an incredible whole. I think of the well-crafted story, the nail-biting cliff hanger, the desire I had walking out of the theatre for simply MORE. And I think of how much better this could be if the artists making it were paid more fairly and given more breaks. Look at how beautiful this movie is - IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH MORE BEAUTIFUL IF THE WORKPLACE WAS LESS TOXIC. I reject any narrative about this film that says that, somehow, all the blood sweat and tears made it what it is. No. Absolutely not. This move is what it is because of hundreds of people toiling *despite* the invented hardships. It is so symptomatic of what is wrong in Hollywood, why so many people are striking now. They are being hampered from making their work excel because of these greedy people at the top who project their insecurity and petty rage all the way down.

Anyway. I love Miles. I love Gwen. I love all my Spiderfriends. Hope to see them again some day under less toxic circumstances.

1. What’s Up, Doc?

1972 - Peter Bogdanovich

I’ve been studying the screwball comedy this year. It’s an oft-used term without a great definition. It’s got romance and laugh, it has some odd personalities… but what else? Does it need an aggressive woman? A reluctant man? Do they need to be thrust together by fate? Do you *have* to have an outstanding ensemble, or does that just happen by coincidence? As I try to pick apart these elements I watch this on a whim one day and see that Peter Bogdanovich has already done all that research and found his answer. Screwball comedy? It looks like this. It’s What’s Up, Doc?

From the old-Hollywood opening credits that’s a hand turning a book, to the delightful absurdity that is its central premise - what if a spy, a jewel thief, and some dude all had the same luggage? - everything about this is finely tuned to make you laugh. Barbara Streisand is more or less literally playing Bugs Bunny. How amazing is that? There are so many things that will make you well up laughter that I hesitate to try and explain them more. Just watch this incredibly funny, charming movie. I have a private litmus test for how good a movie is. Often I’ll watch stuff with my wife sitting next to me as she plays video games. If a movie drags her attention away from the game and keeps her locked in the whole time, that is a great film. It was that way with this. Highly recommended.

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#movies #film #cc oc #letterboxd #movie ranking #What's Up Doc?#across the spider verse #Asteroid City #Once Upon A Time In America #The Cameraman #Battling Butler #Step Brothers #Bend of the River #Bringing Up Baby #Night Moves

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