Watched on Thursday January 16, 2025.
]]>
Watched on Thursday January 16, 2025.
]]>
Watched on Wednesday January 15, 2025.
]]>
Watched on Sunday January 12, 2025.
]]>
Once again, great cinema got me eating crow.
]]>
60% the raddest thing ever, 40% the most boring thing ever. If made today it would be 90% the most boring thing ever and lost in a sea of streaming, since the 80s brashness is what makes it work. Kinda a must watch genre film and the ending is awesome too. Will def grow on me over time.
]]>
Watched on Saturday January 11, 2025.
]]>
Watched in 3D and it is a completely different experience. Genuinely sent me back in time to my 12 year old self in theater again.
]]>
Watched on Friday January 10, 2025.
]]>
Næsferatu.
]]>
Rear Window drunk off its gourd smashing lips with Vertigo on bathsalts in a coffin. Basically still one of my favorite films ever and so underrated and undercategorized as a comedy. Almost no other film feels the same amount of unrestricted, alien and impossible to pin down in the same way chancing upon an R rated film for the first time as a kid felt like. Limitless nonsense filmmaking and just astoundingly fun in it brazeness.
]]>
Pregaming good kid, m.A.A.d city
]]>
Never grew up with this and saw it when I was entering adulthood. My impression was that it was a good movie by any real metric, but felt both too close to the age I had just put behind me and too distant from its framing device to really fall on either side of the narrative's emotional tracks.
Now with distance, a lot of life and a whole lot more of reflecting on the years I was too busy initially putting in the rearview mirror, it came crashing down on me with the weight of the world on this revisit, wave after wave.
The weight of the world is the weight of time, realized and unrealized. And a moment in time, photographed, captured in the medium made up of embered things, imagined/remembered times, will become truer and more personal given the distance and accumulation of actual lived memories of your own. You can't help but reflect on this fabricated memory and insert your own real memories between the lines.
Movies are inhereted memory, an amplifier to one's soul and core being.
Truly one of the greats. But then aren't all movies one of the greats when given enough context and weight?
Every film and memory is eventually given the curse and gift of one inevitable weight. The weight of time.
]]>
Cinema is alive and well. One step closer to my heart, Rouge. Coolest Akira bikeslide in years (somehow perpetually tired of them and yet always so delighted when they pop up and pop off).
]]>
This review may contain spoilers.
A sun rises. A sun sets.
A son rises. A son rests.
A wick's flame is extinguished, yet the light remains. A brighter tomorrow.
Consequences.
]]>
Art is expression within confined boundaries, be they literal, formal, emotional, narrative or whatever limits a person or groups of people can be set. It is a medium completely rooted in humanity and the persons expressing within and through it, so no human when fully engaging with art can ever be truly limited in spirit as the confines of art are in and of themselves sparks of liberation by way of creativity and expression. No human is bound in their entirety when their spirit can soar beyond the limits set for them.
]]>
Watched on Thursday December 19, 2024.
]]>
This review may contain spoilers.
Rules & consequences.
Before anything else it must be said that this is the Wick series brought to its full realization. It is the fun that's been promised, it is all the heights of the previous entries, with even more overt Matrix-references, color, contrast, high-concept fights, humor, stunts and world unveiling than you see in most film entries of most film series combined. To call this peak cinema is as self-evident as light casting shadows.
Tick tock, Mr. Wick. Time waits for no one and as we find out at the start not even for the boogeyman. The end is coming and everyone John involves in his fight for survival is a reminder that none are untouchable and no one can outrun death forever, especially if you piss off the highest of powers.
The hunter becomes the hunted. Wick against the world is such a blast of a premise as the societies he has relied on and navigated with ease have now been turned against him, revealing over time the strenghts and weaknesses of the world that has bred him and broken. The further in John goes the more we see the thin lines that hold this inner world together and that the only things that actually make any position of power within is if the players honor it. It is a thin, thin line of internal structure and even though John is not aware of how thin it truly is, he shows us the edges clearer than he can see them. We see that there is a possible end to this world of death beyond him.
A world enforced with reminders of 'might makes right' under the veneer of rules and a society, where those who know the rules best are also the likeliest to exploit and rewrite the world to their liking. The only true people in such (or any) worlds are those who honor and respect one another above any hierarchy and ruleset.
As much as the attempt to fight against the world is a noble and cheer-inducing one we know that the only way to truly come out on top and come to a clean, safe home is to play by the rules if you can't break the world that enforces them. That means consequences.
And consequences are next on the menu.
]]>
This review may contain spoilers.
Repetition until it feels right is pretty much the modus operandi of the Rebuild series, as we go through the beats and highlights of the original series, but the further we venture in the further it starts to carve its own identity and tune in every facet. This being the point where we split entirely in two as the visuals now have almost no resemblance remaining of the original series. We're through the looking glass and we have no idea what lies beyond the boundaries around the corner, all we can do is wander on and grab hold of what is familiar, but even then we come to learn that all we hold firm can turn to dust when we, like Shinji, must see that we can not go back, we can not return, we can not unbreak, we can only rebuild.
To rebuild means to work from the rubble. This is the point where we clear the rubble lest it turn into a pit that swallows all with time. As time waits for no one but returning to what once was puts all in a state of arrested development where it will twist and keep twisting further if we do not shed our old selves, our ties, what binds us to the old world. Repetition for repetition's sake bears no fruit, but repetition for the sake of change is to rise from the ashes, to discard what works and what doesn't, to shed your old self.
Repetition until it sounds right.
In the end it just becomes right. The penultimate threshold into what the series leaves us with, breaking it all and putting strain on the credulity of the mechanics of this world, its physics, history, function and fiction, so that we may come into the final chapter as hollowed out as Shinji to shed the ties that bind to transcend beyond it all. To transcend you must shed the ties that bind you, but not discard them. You must realize your relationship and reliance on them.
You can rebuild, but you must see the dust of the fallout to know that what came before is over. What you and all you knew in this world is over. You can be happy, you can be whole, you can make a difference in this world through your existence alone and bring about joy and transcendence to all around you that no one else can. You just have to shed your old self, your old world. You must realize what has changed and that you have the opportunity to as well. Following the paths others set for you will only lead to further ruin, to the perpetuity of an antiquated and hostile world structure of unresolved conflict and unrealized visions of others. You must walk your own path and walk it with confidence and accumulated compassion in your heart. A duet can only take you so far if you are half of a whole. You must play it until it sounds right to you.
Ego death as a film.
Repition until it sounds right.
In the end it just becomes right.
Everybody finds love in the end
]]>
The trans representation and casting in S2 is okay in my book when taken in the context of how fucking dire the state of gender and LGBTQ+ folks in SK is. Context matters. Plus as a tall masc-looking trans woman with a masc voice this is the most visually presented I've felt in any piece of media and it made me feel even cooler and valid abt myself and confident in not looking 100% cis. I think that's worth something.
Gonna say it's also a breath of fresh air in a sea of farts to have this show sticking to its S1s principles when its own platform does not (Squid Game: The Challenge, Squid Game Yule Log???) and its immitators tell on their own garbage selves like Mr. Beast. Glad it's also not being drawn out in perpetuity in its main form since it is officially ending in 2025.
U can criticize this as being baby's first anti-capitalism media but genuinely any piecr like this that reaches hearts and minds on a wide scale and gets at least some ppl to reflect on the systems in place is ultimately a good thing when compared to the supressive alternatives. I don't fw ppl turning their nose at mainstream material when it actually goes for disruptive and effective modes of subversion of the systems around us and makes it extremely watchable AND uniquely made/told.
]]>
It's such a massive stretch to label this as a military propaganda piece when its core tenet is anti-suicide. A military is a death cult incarnate, using people's self preservation tendencies to propogate control and harm to the point where one would lay down one's life without truly weighing its value in comparison to blanket orders. You are only of use as sacrificial lamb who can and will be slaughtered physically, morally or philosophically if you stick around long enough. You as an individual, a soul and a life is of more use to such an institution and system dead than alive in most cases, you are only worth your use to it.
Conversely this film is clearly about a collective of 'the useless' banding together at every turn for something beyond them with the intent of coming out the other side alive and whole. It doesn't want you to envision a home to fight for no matter the cost but a home to come back to. It sees a family and forged friendships of coming together not through ideal systems but through many of life's most non-ideal circumstances to build something unique and true and personal. Something to live for that is not strictly normative but is basef in community and most importantly self-value and collective effort.
The military instills your role as a maggot, a being without control beyond your sole function as different types of cannon fodder. But in reality no person is useless. No person's life is small enough to sacrifice at the death altar of a system's ideal and goal. Individual, and nore importantly, collective action is far more important, powerful and needed especially when said actions are founded in valuing one another fully in one's mere existence.
No threat is powerful or giant enough to crush all of us, no matter how often it comes back bigger and badder.
You matter and your existence matters. You are worth more alive and happy in this world and the world is worth more with you in it, happy to be here.
]]>
Happy holidays!
]]>
I have two sides regarding this film, the one that loves this and the other that hates it. Both are one. Both admire the audacity of it.
Will need a lot of time and distance from this to fully appreciate it, just definitely not this year and certainly not after last year.
Are You Tired of Being Nice? Don't you just wanna go apeshit?
Format change jump scare!
]]>
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Side B
The most apologetically F U N of all of Evangelion in its first half, showing us the lives that could be built up in this world if allowed to grow and evolve in a non-apocalypse. What begins as a promise becomes a battle against fate. The tones of the first half and the second half becoming two hands that wash one another, promises made and broken, expectations built destroyed and given a chance to be fulfilled anew. Subversions of subversions, plans within plans, no fate written and yet the original track keeps coming back and back to play anew, to correct the 'deviations'. Each time any change is made it has dire, world-shattering consequences, the good changes and the bad.
The demarcation of Evangelion set in stone and you can never go back. What you wish from this point on is that the happiness you glimpse in the first half, the world Shinji so desperately wants and places all his hopes on, comes to fruition at some point. Though in the darkest of days it is so impossible to see that light, that hope when all seems fated to destroy what you build up and rebuild.
Keep placing your faith in others, keep growing alongside them, keep going and fight, fight, fight for all you cherish, no matter if that is the world or a single person or your place in it. All things be damned if you cannot fight for what you love and a place in the world for it. Even if its for the wrong reasons to others it's always worth a shot if it's the true thing in your heart based in love and understanding, you can do better once on the other side of the end of all things.
]]>
Watched with my oldest friend; my brother.
Still melts away any cynicism you take into this film. Hoping to bid it welcome into my home every year from here on.
Watched on Saturday December 21, 2024.
]]>
A very structured film about inherently unstructured lives, peppering their very special night of compassion with tiny miracles initiating monumental moments of soul searching and sharing as they shepherd their star to its manger.
]]>
This review may contain spoilers.
"Rules. Without them, we'd live with the animals.
The Matrix-coding weaves the fabric of Wick's first steps to the threshold of his decent into hell. Anyone can be turned against you within the system, Morpheus understands the system better than most as one of its key breakers who was initially wounded by it into waking up to its existence and power, green letters on computers weave the ebb and flow of all these inner workings writing the fate of all within through numbers, players, codes and most importantly... rules. Rules that govern the system that John wants to break free of.
As much as the film reminds you that its cinematic influences are rooted in the visual, the stunts, actions and the simple story of love causing chaos with the literal projection of Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. at the start, it is a bait and switch to what trajectory we are going down. We get so invested in what is in front of our eyes, in the act of killing, so motivated on behalf of John that we too fail to hear. So busy crossing off names with blood that the words spoken in between go unheeded in importance of the rules governing every world, especially John's. Every word matters as much as every action and if you do not treat actions and words with the gravity of life itself within those systems that govern you, they will be your self-made downfall. You will look back and see the literal writing on the wall revealed to you, the words you knew and didn't know were there to warn you the whole time.
Fittingly the film ends not just on the sunset of John's old world as he crosses into the night of his own making, but on unheard lyrics that come with the theme music that we have heard and been ampted up by until this point through John's odyssey. The writing on the wall was always there, he once heeded the gravity of words and actions, but was blinded by loss and seeing the system's flaws and restrictions too clearly to think they did not apply if he cared hard enough to be (and he was) justified in his actions against it.
He wants to be free of the system so badly that he ignores the rules as they have been turned against him at every opportunity and enslaved him in his quest for his own little piece of peace in this world. And that is why in his victory he fails to see how when he thinks he is in some way above them as a means to an end, there are consequences for shifting the powers that govern the system. He may be a legend within the system, but what players in the shadow of legends would not risk it all to be higher up on that mountain? There is always a cost, everything's got a price, especially freedom from systems beyond our sole control.
John takes flight at the end, in what initially starts as a flight of freedom soon becomes a flight for one's life, as all the system's players are activated. Everyone can be an agent, a system's unknowing player of the rules that maintain its power and status quo. The machine can rage back. The countdown to maintain the status quo has begun, and the house always wins.
]]>
Terrified faces turned toward an escalating, repeating apocalypse... together. Each conflict, each respite a facilitator of understanding and increasing faith in each other to cancel the apocalypse and face any and all threats between heaven and hell in unison. Protecting for the sake of protecting. Placing faith in one another to find faith within oneself.
]]>
Every movie is a miracle.
]]>
This review may contain spoilers.
Hoping to end the year on a series re-watch of John Wick & Rebuild of Evangelion to cap off an amazing year on increasingly banging bangers.
Coming into this revisit of the first John Wick, the first in eight years (!) I was convinced it could be skipped in the quadrilogy set I bought earlier this year, as it might feel quaint and eternally fresh in the mind compared the absolute blast to one's cinematic soul that the latter half of the series becomes. Revisiting the latter half is the main motivator for this kick-off, as was the second film as it is THE ONLY John Wick film I've not revisited and the only one I remember not liking. The first JW in my memory soured a tad last time I saw it in 2016, the winter before the first sequel dropped.
I am happy to report that the film was absolutely essential and far, far better than the last time. Both for how taughtly wound it was and how it is the foundation for all the GOOD things that the series makes good on as it goes along while still being the best at the time ten years ago at being a John Wick entry, which is only one of the highest positives a positively existing action film can be in the modern age.
The main thing that sets it apart from the rest is the very beginning, which this time felt both more emotionally resonant and welcome (plus surprisingly brief and to the point), especially when looking back at the mayhem that follows. Like, how can you not be absolutely destroyed when you follow the bloody dog's trail to his owner as the last things that poor pup does? Like damn, those dudes deserved everything that came for 'em and more. The somber and kind of low-energy opening quarter here is probably the biggest downer and dour part of the entire series and that alone makes it stand apart from the rest as something that may have more conventionality to it, but even then knocks it out of the park. This franchise has always been the best at what these films have sought to be at any given time and even at such a departure point to set us up it is still firing on all cylinders with perfect aim.
The biggest strength of that opening's tone and set-up is that when we enter the W O R L D of Wick the rest of the film feels as strong and fistpumpingly effective and varied as the film's latter half does by comparison with the opening. You enter a world of elegance, codes and high concepts after high concepts with so much promise at any corner we turn into. Strings of interesting people and locations and ways to of doing the same thing over and over again that the titular character excels at that soon becomes fulfilling in its very own special way and very soon the appeal of this whole shabang becomes evident when all these varied individuals and banger action sequences start coming in: after you pay that dour tax at the start there is a shrouded world of fun and elegance revealed to you that seems to stretch on endlessly. And it mostly does!
Everyone's got a code and part of the fun is seeing people challenge the codes in place and circumvent the rules, which wouldn't be as fun if the rules and mannerisms that keep it all together weren't equally fun and lean-in-with-head-in-hands captivating. Recently I've found some new respect and intrigue for acting, an art in film that has for the most part eluded me and been a subject of disinterest (hey, you've got your own artistic blind spots), and here everyone puts their own tiny spin and ticks and commitment to the bit in a way that made me perk up and notice their quality and versatility as artists in their own right, which says a lot for their power and command of the film format when so much here is (really awesome and silly) exposition between the explosive action bits and Lore(tm).
The only, only thing that still does bring down a tad, and not as a comparison point to the rest of the films, but as its own small failing, is that Nyquist's character as fun as he is to watch, is not high concept enough and defined or hatable to warrant that last stretch even though the film definitely needed a big bang capper. It's just too bad the film did not cultivate those final action moments in the same way it did for the son, who is put down without much of a fight but it felt like a fistpumping finale all the same due to the strong set-ups and payoffs.
Like, yes the character is a powermonger with capitalist tendencies who has some respect and fun within all this theater of violence, but a fistfight between him and Wick still just feels like a 'atomic bomb vs coughing baby' end on the action side of it. It's not entirely off though, since lore-wise it is hella fun. The guy who has built his empire on Wick's qualities and skill and who throughout the film has been using the same world and codes Wick excels in against him without a shred of honor ending up finding himself in a position that shows how unmatched he is in Wick's immediate world and that his endlessly underhanded opportunistic tendencies get him his just desserts. As well as knowing where the rest of the series goes makes the 'I'll be seeing you' death he has becomes comically ironic for him. But the execution is just not high concept enough compared to the promises of the rest of the film and nowhere near as fun, especially when you say on paper that it's a fistfight in the rain after a killer car-as-passive weapon-to-gun.
With that finale we almost dip into that opening's self-serious dourness and by-the-number 'necessity tax' needed for having a formula fulfillment again but thankfully swings around at the end for some more hopeful doggy silliness and a surprisingly beautiful callback shot for Wick himself to end on, before displaying the credits over the saturated, dense and expansive shots of the city from above, signaling stylistically and story-wise the trajectory of the rest of the series.
The Wick is still lit and it's gonna burn so bright on its path through further mayhem. Even though Mad Max: Fury Road is the greatest action film of our time and Furiosa kicked all the ass, the John Wick series and Mission Impossibles have been the real two giants of action at the top of the food chain competition for the past decade, sizing one another up and evolving in the fight for the top into stronger and stronger forms for the modern soul of the genre.
Roll credits and roll on.
]]>
vér LIFUM í ÞJÓÐFÉLAGI!
]]>
2014: A Most Violent Year
2024: A Most Violent Death
Meat and potatoes are sometimes exactly what you need, as they can be cooked excellently and be truly nourishing and nutritious. A prime meal even.
]]>
Watched on Wednesday December 11, 2024.
]]>
Watched on Wednesday December 11, 2024.
]]>
"You finished it."
-"Not quite. There's room for a little more."
My year of healing is coming to an end soon and today may have been the greatest day of my life so far, even though it is no different than any other day. But that in and of itself speaks volumes about what the difference is between now and when I last saw this.
I am at a crossroads of saying goodbye to so many old hurts and struggles and currently life is falling into place where I never thought it could. I see so clearly the road that came before, rocky, treacherous and full of moments that journey could have ended. It seemed impossible and scarring beyond fixing at the time, but it is now behind me. There is a future that I thought impossible on that horizon and right in front of me in the day to day, made possible only by having reached my hand when I thought I couldn't go on. Though not without the aid of those closest and friendships forged along the way as they extended the hands needed to grab when hanging on the end of all things. Beyond is a future just as fixed in place as the stars in the night. There is light and beauty that no shadow can touch and I feel that light within me and ahead.
My biggest takeaway is that each and everyone of us needs to support each other in any way we can and that we should fight for the world we want to see, within us and around us. What that looks like is personal to you and what those allies and obstacles are varies from person to person. But you will eventually see your path once you start walking it and you will find strength to go where you thought impossible and impassable once you look back when you're beyond your journey's end.
And even then, your story is not over. Not quite. There's room for a little more.
“You cannot always be torn in two. You will have to be one and whole for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be and to do. Your part in the story will go on.”
]]>
Privilege destroys us all.
]]>
Best modern scifi is happening exclusively in western adult animation.
]]>
Between this LOTR anime and Wicked adaptation, someone in Hollywood really got 16-year-old-me's letters.
Earnest paperback Middle Earth entry, which is close to how I discovered the franchise in the first place, so this is pretty much hitting all the bases for me. Not exceptionally but fully doing its most and best with obviously limited resources and a lot of love.
Also, CAN WE STOP RE-ANIMATING THE DEAD. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
]]>
Been waiting for half of my life (literally, I was like 16/17 when I chanced upon the musical and couldn't go back) for something that has been an amalgamation of a read book, an endlessly played Broadway soundtrack and a summary of the lines between.
I've never had the chance to experience the play proper so the film adaptation, always stuck in development hell, has been my one and only hope of accessibility to this story beyond the written word and the sung songs to be experienced in its audio-visual fullness.
To contextualize where that wait lead me, the closest approximation to this was probably Friendship is Magic, but even that magic faded and there would be years and failed take-offs beyond that, hearing the voice that was defined by Wicked then become defined by Frozen, which was also a brief placeholder for the Wicked film that never could seem to be.
So to say I was emotionally primed for this to squeeze my heart like no other film is an understatement. The only thing it needed to do was to hit those beats and numbers right, but it went so beyond that in translating that to the screen. The moments between have become just as charged, soaring with Powell's best since my fave film score ever in between the preexisting numbers, and each scene, song and sensation enhanced through the varied visual interpretations and angles/close-ups not possible on a stage. It is a perfect film adaptation of a perfect play and I had to watch most of it through teary eyes of joy, relief and the disbelief of this dream having finally come true. I knew I was doomed when I was already crying from the loads of emotions that flooded during the very first musical number.
Everyone deserves the chance to fly and everyone has a chance to take this flight that I have sought in so many other things in its absence until now.
]]>
Maximum damage. All eyes on me.
After the pitch-perfect opening and the row after row of memorable images and scares what stands out the most is actually the core feeling of increasing isolation of Skye that stands out and had me ugly-crying between the terrors on display. That isolation, even though for the purposes of this story is enhanced by something supernatural, is defined by how completely alienated her entire normal existence already is from anything that could bring her true comfort and salvation from her past and inevitable path towards destruction.
When the transference of the entity has taken hold of her, the world literally turns upside down in the camera, preparing us and her for an incoming space of falling and falling and falling further, until she is on the bottom of all things. But in all honesty though the entity uses all the isolating and alienating pressure cookers of her life to maximize the mental breaking, she was already set to fail, already under growing pressure, already trapped between bad coping mechanisms and internal pains that she alone has to bear. So when that world is flipped towards oblivion there is barely any difference in what pressures are applied and what she has to look forward to even if she defeats her demon.
Not being believed is world-ending in its own right, but when you are already trapped in an entirely performative and untrustworthy world that puts your existence below all, then what difference does an entity of pure maliciousness make when it is just speeding up your fail-state and revealing how ravenously hungry the world is for everything you are and can take for itself from you. One's role in the grind, even at the height of power and glamor, will move on without us, but when given the chance to touch our existence it will grind us for all we are until we are husks, pure performative spectacle or a conduit to influence countless others to contribute their souls as well.
]]>
One of the most visionary shows of our time, arriving fully formed out the gate in its best, tightest possible incarnation one could dream of.
The kind of instant classic that seems to have always existed, as you can never beyond it imagine a world where it didn't.
]]>
I remember when Southland Tales came out and this is the exact way it was received. I will hear of nothing else cause it would go contrary to my actual lived out history.
I loved this tbh and I am baffled ppl I respect find this dry since it is the same Coppola I wished to see again but dared not dream. The same one who made One from the Heart and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Operating on multiple layers of formality and excess, masking a romantic heart at the center who has drifted further and further into a life larger than life. It might be THE film of our time about the enormity of time as it is anachronistic within its universe, created and composed over decades, in a medium that is made up entirely of time, flows together in complete fluidity and slogs just as much, and talks about a pastpresentfuture that both has, is and does not exist yet all at the same time.
It is a megalomaniac creation where everyone within it is performing for a audience just off the edge of the screen as if in a theatrical play, created originally to be distributed live like One From the Heart almost was instead, and funded through a personal wealth do large that any relatability one could experience beyond the extremely unhinged formal aspects is rendered entirely inept as the one behind it all hasn't experienced that kind of everyman connection to the world in decades. So every character is a walking ideal, platitude and Randian-Godlike and yet so universally understandable as an archetype they cease to be or ever was a person. Everyone is an aspect of the different parts of humanity's soul here and the world is philosophically at risk from non-universal connection between one another. To define any aspect of the film's philosophy and characterization as anything more specific than the most broad universally relevant concept is to both shrink its Greek-comedy existence, epic scale and find far more specific meaning than the film could ever offer.
It is a megastructure in that it is so firmly universal and yet a monument to wealth, creation, human endeavour and the enormity of time and creation that one cannot see anything personal in it as much as a collective universality that you walk through and explore and admire but don't take with you as something that can change you or any place it was not built in. It will always be firmly planted in one place, to be explored and studied but never turned into spiritual fulfillment or a greater universal good. It will simply exist for as long as its existence is maintained, studied and toured.
You can't take it with you.
PS: I never want to see LaBeouf in a film ever again, thanks.
PPS: with the on-set accusations it is probably best for everyone in every sense if this is FFC's last work and fittingly an ego stroke with mass beyond anything we will ever see again in our lifetime perhaps (not worried at all about Bezos or Musk producing anything this immense and loaded since they have no drive for it and seem content to just drive out massive amounts of frivolous content or divisional outrage bait).
]]>
Watched on Tuesday November 26, 2024.
]]>
It's not novelty, it's magic.
]]>
Amazing action and sound design, which is what this mostly consists of. Probably the best Sonic movie content there is, which makes you wonder if the titular character is what holds his own series back from its potential. Seriously tho anything involving Shadow, Rouge, Amy, Tangle (and especially) Whisper is just the best thing ever each time they show up.
]]>
The greatest 90s film not made in the 90s.
Reminds me why animation is my favorite visual medium ever.
Every instance of Farmer Jim is the best thing I've seen this year.
]]>
Watched on Saturday November 23, 2024.
]]>- Sonic the Hedgehog 3
In cinema with Hilmar, Þrándur & Sunny
- Stand by Me
- Nosferatu
In cinema with Andrea, Sunny & Þrándur
- Body Double
With Kría
- Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
3D With Kría
- The Hidden
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- The Fall
With Stulli
- Pretty Woman
With Andrea & Róbert
- The Handmaiden
With Róbert & Andrea
In almost no order.
Total number of entries being how many years I've lived. Only including feature films, not miniseries or shorts.
The ones that speak to my soul and touch upon what I look for in the medium. 🧡
- Dirty Pair: Project Eden
Tied with Evangelion 3.0+1.0 & I Saw the TV Glow
- Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
Tied with Dirty Pair: Project Eden & I Saw the TV Glow
- Mind Game
- A Silent Voice: The Movie
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie
- The Last Unicorn
- Project A-Ko
- The Village
- Pompo the Cinephile
- Mad Max: Fury Road
...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>A work in progress like myself
- The Snow Queen
- Batman & Robin
- Gremlins 2: The New Batch
- Ghost in the Shell
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
- Frozen
- The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
- Inside Out
- Your Name.
- A Silent Voice: The Movie
...plus 61 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Randomizing films from IMDB's Top 250 films as a long term revisiting project. Also an all around reminder to reflect on the joys of film both collectively and personally.
If I don't like a film from the roulette I need to revisit it a cpl of times to get a grasp on what qualities it has and why it doesn't work for me or why I was put off by it initially. If it works with albums, it works with films.
Current five in the rotation from randomization.
]]>All the 2025 titles I've seen in alphabetical order. Includes titles that are marked 2024 that were not available until 2025, thus qualifying as 2025 titles (see notes).
- Nosferatu
Not theatrically released in Iceland in 2024. Released 01.01.2025
That I've seen.
Hoping to add/see/love more in the future.
- Goodbye, Don Glees!
- God of Gamblers
- To Be or Not to Be
- Vampires
- DAICON IV Opening Animation
- ミシマ:ア・ライフ・イン・フォー・チャプターズ
- Koyaanisqatsi
- Wild Things
- The Remains of the Day
- Liz and the Blue Bird
...plus 311 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Limiting to 20 to shuffle. Now including overdue rewatches
- Dream Scenario
- Harmagedon
- Céline and Julie Go Boating
- The Concierge
- Ash Is Purest White
- Song to Song
- Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
- Limbo
- Starman
- Rebels of the Neon God
...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Don't want to add further social medias beside this one for logging or keeping track of stuff.
Ongoing
TV: -
Game: Metaphor Refantasio
Book: Howl's Moving Castle
Manga/Comics: The Girl from the Other Side
All the 2024 titles I've seen in alphabetical order. Includes titles that are marked 2023 that were not available until 2024, thus qualifying as 2024 titles (see notes).
- Aftergames
- Aggro Dr1ft
Not theatrically released in Iceland in 2023. Unavailable for VOD until 2024.
- Alien: Romulus
- American Fiction
Not theatrically released in Iceland. Unavailable for VOD until 2024.
- Anora
- Anyone Else But Me
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
- Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
- Bob Marley: One Love
- Challengers
...plus 58 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Fave game: Alan Wake 2*
Fave show: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End*
Fave song: Dream Getaway by Maximum Love**
Fave video: The Story that Created Frieren by RCanime
Fave read: Land of the Lustrous & Yokohama Kidaishi Kikou*
Fave rewatch: Your Name (before and after starting HRT)
Fave cinema going experience: I Saw the TV Glow
- Look Back
- I Saw the TV Glow
- Perfect Days
- Wicked
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- Civil War
- Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver
Rebel Moon 1 & 2 Director's Cuts
- Monster
- Dune: Part Two
- Mars Express
Tel einungis frá og með íbúðinni sem ég flutti í 2019, en það voru mörg fyrir það.
- Dirty Pair: Project Eden
- The Legend of Hei
- Sailor Moon S the Movie: Hearts in Ice
- Unico in the Island of Magic
- R.O.D: Read or Die
- Genius Party
- Neo Tokyo
- GANTZ:O
- Goku Midnight Eye
- Penguin's Memory: A Tale of Happiness
...plus 33 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>No titles that were on my previous lists that were delayed.
Previous Years:
2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.
If announced for 2025: Wasted Chef will take top place.
Also if announced, a new Makoto Shinkai film will be placed under Avatar 3
Could be deleted due to no confirmed release date and written here for posterity:
A New Dawn by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya
Grotesque by Atsushi Nishigori
Films I've gone to the cinema to see since January 2014. In order of when I saw em in cinema.
- Frozen
- Stalker
- Gravity
- Filth
- The Wolf of Wall Street
- American Hustle
- Dallas Buyers Club
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- The Lego Movie
- Nebraska
...plus 189 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>"The whole idea that a movie should only be seen once is an extension of our traditional conception of the film as an ephemeral entertainment rather than as a visual work of art."
- Stanley Kubrick
Titles with 4 or more watches. Only going by letterboxd logs. See notes for them numbers.
- Dirty Pair: Project Eden
32x
- Mad Max: Fury Road
12x
- A Silent Voice: The Movie
11x
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie
9x
- Project A-Ko
9x
- Your Name.
8x
- Pompo the Cinephile
7x
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
6x
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
6x
- The Matrix Resurrections
6x
...plus 52 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Removed watched and added here with who recommended in the notes:
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/watched-from-the-mutuals-recommend-me-list/
SWEET LORD, BURGER, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE
letterboxd.com/racecaracecar/list/films4laxi2laxi/
- Céline and Julie Go Boating
- Song to Song
- Fresh Kill
- Phantom Thread
- Wild Strawberries
- A Brighter Summer Day
- October (Ten Days that Shook the World)
- Horse Money
- Starman
- Green Snake
...plus 96 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>letterboxd.com/laxi/list/mutuals-recommend-me/
- Evil Dead Trap
From Burger's banger list
- Terra Formars
From Burger's banger list
- Mississippi Masala
Iska's rec
- A Touch of Sin
From Burger's banger list
- Massacre Gun
From Burger's banger list
- Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
From Burger's banger
- His Motorbike, Her Island
From Burger's banger list
- Xanadu
Suzie's rec
- Ryusei-Kacho
From Burger's banger list
- Royal Warriors
From Burger's banger list
...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>The greatest gift and subgenre of the 2020s.
Partial remakes/Déjà vu interpretations that are actually sequels and stealth-meta commentary by their creators, where the main cast fights for each other and to be free of the shackles of fandom/IP expectations towards a new dawn of limitless possibilities for the authors and audience alike.
Not listed but def included: Final Fantasy VII REMAKE
]]>No short films, no miniseries, nothing under 60 min runtime.
- 101 Dalmatians
- 101 Reykjavik
- 102 Dalmatians
- 10 Cloverfield Lane
- 10 Things I Hate About You
- 12 Years a Slave
- 13 Ghosts
- 1408
- 1492: Conquest of Paradise
- 1917
...plus 2344 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Anime films that were shown more than once per release in at least one theater in Iceland and were not part of a festival or a cultural exhibition.
- Alakazam the Great!
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro
- Treasure Island: The Movie
- Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
- Pokémon: The First Movie
- Pokémon the Movie 2000
- Pokémon 3: The Movie
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
- Pokémon 4Ever
...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>A ranKING of a filmography (so far)
Let the doves fly and guns be wielded like swords.
- Mission: Impossible II
- A Better Tomorrow II
- The Killer
- Face/Off
- Hard Boiled
- Bullet in the Head
- A Better Tomorrow
- Hard Target
- Once a Thief
- Paycheck
...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>A ranKING of an absolute king.
I need to rewatch all of these.
Note: There is absolutely no bad entry here.
...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Only blu and 4K
List is to keep track of collection.
- 10 Cloverfield Lane
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The 400 Blows
- The Abyss
4K
- The Adventures of Robin Hood
- A.I. Artificial Intelligence
- Akira
4K
- Aladdin
- Alien: Covenant
4K
- Alien³
...plus 453 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Will update this list at the end of the year to reflect the top titles at that point, but will be posting this halfway point now and putting the titles in the description at year's end to reflect on.
Including the titles that were not available until after new year's.
]]>Update 3.9.2022: replaced Pappírs Pési with Blossi
Update 7.4.2023 - Replaced Myrkrahöfðinginn with Berdreymi
Update 23.6.2024 - Replaced Svartur á Leik (Black's Game) with Á Köldum Klaka (Cold Fever)
- Heima
- When the Raven Flies
- Angels of the Universe
- Benjamin, the Dove
- Lamb
- Children of Nature
- Remote Control
- Of Horses and Men
- Sweet Track
- Movie Days
...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Bamboozled
- Do the Right Thing
- Girl 6
- Malcolm X
- Da 5 Bloods
- Crooklyn
- Pass Over
- Get on the Bus
- Jungle Fever
- Summer of Sam
...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Inspired by the wonderful Lee W’s 2010s canon
The order is a rough estimate, though the closer to the top, the more accurate. Will be doing these for every decade I've been alive, starting with the 90s.
I see no difference in faves and best as I can never live outside a personal subjective experience.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie
- Ghost in the Shell
- The Thin Red Line
- Bram Stoker's Dracula
- Princess Mononoke
- August in the Water
- Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
- The Matrix
- Perfect Blue
...plus 40 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Going to shuffle titles from here on out so I don't end up having to watch like 6 musical anthology films in a row.
]]>Spider-Men, we're at it again. This time with 50% more Spider-Men! Oooh yeah. Not quite a bug. Not quite a man. How do I break out from this Spider-Man clan?
]]>The duality of responses to desaturated cinematography with intentionally super shallow depth of field.
The Batman: "Looking good, Susan"
-"Awww, you're sweet."
Rebel Moon: "Looking good, Susan."
-"Hello, human resources?!"
- Inu-Oh
- Three Thousand Years of Longing
- Eastern Promises
- Fitzcarraldo
- Xanadu
- Police Story
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
- Hellraiser
- Jackass: The Movie
- The Transporter
...plus 289 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Fave game: Goodbye Volcano High
Fave show: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
Fave song: Silent Running by Gorillaz
Fave video: The Incel to Trans Pipeline and Inside Mari by Ceicocat
Fave rewatch: Evangelion 3.33
Fave cinema going experience: Barbie+MI:DR+Oppenheimer
Every title that I currently have listed as a ★★★★★ film on letterboxd.
- Steven Universe: The Movie
- The Kiss
- Interspecies Reviewers
- Children Who Chase Lost Voices
- Princess Mononoke
- Wizards
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie
- Takeshita Performance 2: Godzilla vs Mito Komon
- Hellbound: Hellraiser II
- Tetsuo: The Iron Man
...plus 316 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Update 7.11.2023: No festival titles included.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Elf
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
- Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- The Medallion
- Scary Movie 3
- Kill Bill: Vol. 1
- Love Actually
- The Emperor's Club
...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Top most rented video tapes were announced in the daily papers on tuesdays back then.
If you ever wanted to know the tastes of the general Icelandic public in terms of new films, well there you go.
No titles that were on my previous lists that were delayed.
Previous Years:
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2018/
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2019/
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2020/
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2021/
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2022-1/
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2023/
A list of some faves in the sea of 'content'
Specials and making of's are stand-ins for their respective series, while individual shorts belonging to anthologies get their own spot.
Not including titles that are technically Netflix originals as they were first distributed by another company (Uncut Gems, Annihilation, Wakfu season 3)
Some TV that is not on letterboxd:
Castlevania
I Think You Should Leave
She-Ra
Mindhunter (season 2)
Terrace House: Aloha State
- BoJack Horseman Christmas Special
- Black Mirror: San Junipero
- Black Mirror: Playtest
- Devilman Crybaby
- Wild Wild Country
- The Other Side of the Wind
- The Night Comes for Us
- The Haunting of Hill House
- Love, Death & Robots: Zima Blue
- Love, Death & Robots: The Witness
...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Posters specially made by a variety of artists for Svartir Sunnudagar (Black Sundays), cult classic screenings at Bíó Paradís.
- 12 Angry Men
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
- Akira
- Alien
- Alphaville
- An American Werewolf in London
- Amores Perros
- Angel Heart
- Attack the Block
...plus 199 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Gap-Toothed Women
- Malaria
- Photodiary
- The Mummy's Dream
- On Your Mark
- Me and The Matrix
- Ryusei-Kacho
- Daicon Film's Return of Ultraman
- Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris
- James Baldwin: From Another Place
...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Solar Eclipse
- Night Music
- Coming Out
- The Pillar of Fire
- A Terrible Night
- Humongous!
- A White Spot on the Back of the Head
- Joy Street
- Program
- Love, Death & Robots: Bad Travelling
...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Old Man
- The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon
- Santa: The Fascist Years
- Snowbrawl
- Everything in This Dream
- Piper
- Your Face
- World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime
- Puparia
- Logorama
...plus 72 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Putting Evangelion 3.0+1.0 at the end since I remember watching it but forgot to log it.
- Muppets from Space
- Riders of Justice
- One Hour Photo
- Taste of Cherry
- Cat People
- Cop Secret
- Mass
- Zeros and Ones
- The Harder They Fall
- Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
...plus 276 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>One per user
See notes for links
- After Earth
- Ambulance
- Avatar: The Way of Water
- Beowulf
- Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle
- Blonde
letterboxd.com/mc1383/film/blonde-2022/1/
- Halloween
- Hellraiser
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
letterboxd.com/cecilselwyn/film/jay-and-silent-bob-strike-back/
- King Kong
...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>No titles that were on my previous lists that were delayed.
If it turns out to be a feature film then PHOENIX: EDEN 17 takes spot number 4.
Update 13/12/2022 - How Do You Live announced for release in 2023
Previous Years:
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2018/
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2019/
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2020/
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2021/
letterboxd.com/laxi/list/most-exciting-films-of-2022-1/
A ranKING of a filmography
- Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
- Gunbuster
- Cutie Honey
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
- Ritual
- Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo
- Shin Godzilla
- Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>I am not finishing Abduction lol
]]>and probably more.
Ranked filmography.