Spiritual predecessor to Conclave. A distinct pleasure to watch Sean Connery play Shermonk Holmes and say things like, "the hunchback was a heretic." Much like Conclave, I think if I actually read this book it would kill me, but I enjoyed this film. All the monks looked really fucked up and spooky and that was awesome--not enough weird looking guys in films anymore. Made me remember all the Aquinas lectures I went to in college where I didn't understand a thing that was said.

I bet it felt really good when he was gnawing on his arm like that

Perhaps it's trite to say but it's sort of incredible how David Lynch could create stuff like this and be a normally functioning human being; though the astonishing thing about his work is that all the horrors are firmly rooted in our world--assault, child abuse, misogyny--Lynch just has a unique way of synthesizing his thoughts and feelings about violence. His imagery, while seemingly otherworldly and surreal, gets us closer to our world and our lives.

Watched on Sunday January 19, 2025.

my cat did not like this lol

Insanely funny and fucked up, just an incredible film: My favorite of the year! Sebastian Stan is so excellent in this, and I loved Renate Reinsve. There's so many wonderful character details. I loved when she tried to squeeze his blackhead or how she ate her pizza.

The body horror stuff in this was disgusting, I love that they went there. Adam Pearson is so funny and good in this, seems ironic that he's not getting as much acclaim as Sebastian Stan.

I appreciated how this film surpassed the question of ugliness and asked: "What if someone was better at living your life?" Watching Edward watch Oswald sing an incredible song at karaoke was so great--you can tell he realized he had done everything wrong in that moment. You are you everywhere that you go.

I love Luca Guadagnino. His movies are always fun, stylish, and occasionally disturbing. I loved this film: the first hour was really excellent. I loved the colors and setting. Everything felt in homage to Querelle. I think Daniel Craig is so incredible in this film. Loved the way he tries to play Daddy yet fails to impress Allerton. The first sex scene was very sensual, impeccable when he kissed his broken rib.

The second half pushed me out a little bit, but that's natural, given the trajectory of the story. Lesley Manville brown face?? I think it's a funny concept to be so rich, bored, and drug addicted you traipse through unknown Amazonian terrain to get high. Can't do Ayahuasca in the jungle & vomit out your heart anymore, because of woke.

The ending is very haunting. This is a film about being lost and alone, whether that's metaphorically (being queer in the 50s) or literally (disappearing or getting so high you lose all capacity for life).

Amazing score, I loved that it was anachronistic. The Come as You Are needledrop during the cock fight goes crazy. I honestly wish there had been more sex.

Goodbye, David ❤️

Sort of a masterpiece, completely over the top and beautifully shot with delicious technicolor. Giulietta Masina is one of my favorite actresses: I love her sweet round face and earnest eyes. Nights of Cabiria is still my favorite Fellini but I want to live in this film. I love that the Italians found it too gauche.

I really liked the scene with the bullfighter as I've always been fascinated by them. I read Death In the Afternoon ironically a few years ago but ended up really enjoying it. The scene with the play and nuns is probably one of the best things I've ever seen. I love all the costumes and the set design. Easy favorite film for me.

I really ride for Almodóvar but I truly loathed this. I can't understand why the dialogue was so stilted or the acting was so overwrought--perhaps to make it more novelistic? It felt like I was watching a bad, melodramatic play. I can't get over how bad Tilda Swinton is in this film. I'm sure her overacting was intentional by why?

I think the premise is really profound: giving integrity to the terminal. How do we support the ones we love as they die? It just fell so flat for me. It works better as an ad for Architectural Digest. John Turturro gives a wonderful performance.

It's funny that The Dead is featured so prominently in this film considering I just watched it. It works wonders as a conceit: a life in longing, realizing that you have never loved nor felt as though you could. Makes you want to turn this off and watch The Dead.

I also kill for inspiration

A cute, funny film. Just a bunch of people hanging out. I loved the novelist's ruminations so much. The scene at the ramen shop with the novelist and the actress was so perfect.

To be fair, I still think this is one of the best films of the year, but I was a little underwhelmed. I thought the directing and acting was exquisite, but the writing was a mess. The story was all over the place, fragmented beyond belief. I know this is an asinine comment but I truly think this film could have benefited from being shorter. I don't mind that it meandered but I think the length encouraged Corbet to keep the story going and it would've been much more impactful had it condensed time and gave us a few really good plot points.

I think the first act is really solid and then it all falls apart. The rape stuff was handled poorly--melodramatic spectacle, kind of embarrassing. For me, the pleasure comes from the appreciation of architecture. I loved the stuff in the limestone quarry and found the connection between Laszlo's mental entrapment and his proclivity for brutal, fortress like structures to be incredibly profound. The Goethe quote about freedom really sets the tone of the whole film. I loved the sequence of Laszlo haunting the tunnels.

Adrien Brody is, of course, exquisite. He was just on Maron's podcast saying he hates being typecast and I sympathize but he literally has the perfect face for a suffering turn of the century European immigrant like I'm sorry dude, you freak it every time. Guy Pearce goes fucking crazy, like literally just the campiest new money Fitzgerald villain you could possibly imagine. Watching them interact is so fun. Also, Joe Alwyn as the pudgy failson is so so good. Felicity Jones is great but her character is a trope, it was sort of hard to watch at times.

I saw some discourse about this being a Zionist vehicle and while they do return to Israel, I think the film is very critical of that decision. They choose to return out of fear. I liked when Harrison's son compared the community center to a barracks--that felt really on the nose for me. Brutalism as a way to feel safe while conceptualizing detainment as both tragic yet not without hope.

An incredible little film! Swift and lean, such good acting, looooooved Freddy's drunken antics. The ending made me cry

Always makes me cry when Kiki can't hear Jiji speak anymore...good thing my black cat still talks to me and I can understand everything he says 🥰 skill issue, imo

Well, it's certainly a film! For the record, I saw this against my will. I went to see The Last Showgirl and they were having trouble screening it tonight so they offered me a free ticket to this film instead and I'm a good sport so I said sure. First of all, this film does not need to be 2 1/2 hours of Bob Dylan's life--he is not that interesting!! Halfway through the film I thought "God, I want to punch him," and then somebody did, so that was cool.

The worst part is that there is some excellent acting in this film. The actress who played Joan Baez was so great! I would've treated her right!! I loved Boyd Holbrook's Johnny Cash. Also Scoot McNairy made me cry as Woody Guthrie and Ed Norton gives one of my favorite performances of the year as Pete Seeger. Timmy is just horribly miscast and it's not his fault because I don't think he's a bad actor but he's very obviously doing a caricature of Dylan and I think this could've been a stronger film had they cast someone, well, completely unknown. But hey, what do I know about Hollywood?

I think this is a beautifully shot film, and the script is very funny, but Dylan's character isn't compelling. I do think it's hilarious that the real Bob Dylan "acted out" the script before signing off on it. What a weird dude. Love when he puts on the leather jacket at the end and becomes Bad Bobby. All his music sounds like a nursery rhyme, sorry. I understand that I'll never understand ❤️

I appreciate how she understands that sometimes you just want to fuck with an academic.

Loved this sweet sad film. Really lovely to see a single father portrayed in this light: far from perfect but still good. Barry Keoghan is such a great actor, I cried when he sang Yellow lol. Franz Rogowski is also transcendent. A beautiful sad person with a good, quiet soul. When he confronted his father, I cried. Talk about range: so different from his role in Passages. I think this film tried a little too hard at times, but I really loved it.

I was supposed to do a full Twin Peaks rewatch (including the Return) in October, but I just didn't make it happen. I finally finished rewatching seasons 1 & 2. I'm still lukewarm on the entire original series, but I had never seen this before, so I figured I'd watch it, and I was blown away. Wow!! Can I say something controversial? This is better than the show. And I know you can't have one without the other but still. I wish Twin Peaks had been a triptych of films instead of a show and a movie.

I think if you showed this to someone who had never seen Twin Peaks they would love it. Perfectly streamlined yet still horrifying. The show adds richer context obviously but this is so moving. I also loved the prologue with the FBI guys: It was funny yet haunting. Poor Laura, Sheryl Lee is truly excellent. I loved the confrontation with her and Bobby after she has sex with James. The Roadhouse stuff is really incredible.

Lynch's horror is so unsettling, the nose guy is really terrifying. I need to rewatch The Return still, I haven't seen that since it aired live and I don't really remember anything except the atomic bomb episode.

Watched on Friday January 3, 2025.

Money is like fucking heroin to boring people.

Wow!! I love Benji, I'm crying. I feel like him, with all my burdensome feelings. I was just crying to my therapist today how I feel like a damp feelings monster who overreacts to everything. I really felt seen by Benji, Kieran Culkin is so good. Really just a sweet, touching film, wish I had included this on my favorites of 2024 list.

I'm a warden who hates prison.

Yes, I'm libbing out and watching another prison rehabilitation through Shakespeare film. I find the warden very interesting--I mean, it's like a white CEO saying he's committed to diversity: If you were so committed to prison abolition, you'd resign! However, maybe that's too idyllic. To have a prison warden highlight the arts as rehabilitation is pretty profound.

I found it moving that they're performing The Tempest as a goodbye for some inmates getting paroled. "Release me from my bands with the help of your good hands." !!! Shakespeare really is a perfect way for people to work through the violence of emotions. His plays are full of murder and crime.

I watched Sing Sing last month, which is about a theater program at Sing Sing Prison and because that's a "feel good" film, a lot is left unsaid. This documentary makes it a point to have the inmates name their crimes. Hard to watch these men who seem very nice and quiet admit to murdering their wives and sexually assaulting children. But therein lies the crux of prison abolition: No matter the crime, one has to believe that rehabilitation is possible. I truly think it is possible for all of us, and programs like these highlight the ability to help and reform. Cages do nothing but hinder progress.

Cute and funny, I loved the staircase scene

I was so invested in this when I thought it was a fictionalized crime. It works as a satire of the true crime docu-drama, I like the artistry, but as many have said, spotlighting an actual murder and interviewing those involved feels sort of diabolical. Like at what point are you just making the poor documentary you set out to lampoon? I really wanted to like this but idk.

You are not cursed, you are loved by me.

A miraculous film, surely one of the best of the 21st century. I love the moment that she first realizes she's going to poison him, when he doesn't say "I love you." She is a creature of desire. I've always been moved by the scene where she asks Cyril to help her make a nice dinner for Reynolds and she tells Cyril that she wants to show love her way. Complementary torture. I thought the scene with his mother was especially sad this time around. Reynolds Woodcock is such a delicious name.

I really loved this! Meditative but not without intrigue, I love how the art came alive. I've always been interested by museum curation; I like to know why things are placed where. My pretentious view of creative nonfiction is that it's an act of curation. Memoir, personal essay--all ways of curating the lived experience. I always say that The Pillowbook was the first memoir: a list of things that are true, though there is a lot of "untruth" in life, which is why the speculative or mystical parts of this documentary were so wonderful.

Catholics are always doing evil shit and immediately feeling guilty about it. God, I love my people

Watched on Wednesday January 1, 2025.

Just a perfect film. I could watch them forever. I don't relate to this film yet of course I do: being close with your father means hating him, but loving him all the same.

Watched on Tuesday December 31, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday December 31, 2024.

Watched on Monday December 30, 2024.

I wish there hadn't been music but I really loved this one, so haunting

crazy, loved this

A silly melodrama. Did not find this sexy at all, and I'm trying to be objective but you simply can't put Antonio Banderas in the cuck role and expect me to find that believable. Oh? He's a successful artist with a little tummy who is nice and has vanilla sex??? Like I'm literally flushed around the ears but okay.

The kink stuff just felt flat. Like the milk stuff was sooooo performative. I liked the part where she pretended to be a little horse and eat the piece of strawberry candy from his hand, though, that was fun, but not in a sexual way I just think that as a former theater kid my heart yearns for roleplay.

I think it was the fact that Samuel was supposed be like a gangster white boy or something and I found him repulsive, which I think is the point to a certain extent, Harris Dickinson plays him very well. During the sex scenes they both just seemed really unsure, which is maybe supposed to be reflective of their past trauma but this film does not allow for depth so it just read as strange. Like I want them fucking and sucking with bravado don't waste my time with weird cult trauma if it never truly gets unpacked! Though I thought the club scene was exquisite, wish there had been more of that kind of stuff.

The ending felt very pat, big girl boss vibes but whatever. Female Jeff Bezos can come again so let's all exhale. I did think it was cool that Nicole Kidman's orgasmic yelps were very guttural, like she did not play around lol

kind of corny at times, The Music Man is sexier. loved all the costumes and the Halloween stuff

very quiet and dream-like

fun as fuck, I'm obsessed. thank you, señor waters

Haven't seen a Wallace & Gromit film since I was 8. I used to rent them from the library and watch them obsessively. I've always yearned for an English way of life. Something that is probably caricature but I love all the tea time and jams, sweaters and grey weather. This was cute and fun. Gromit should've killed Wallace.

falls pretty flat. the melodrama muddles the messaging because the Magdalene laundries were pretty heinous. cillian is so pretty

A surprisingly charming film! I loved the opening dialogue, Sylvia is such a treat. The ghost is also a lot of fun, I love how much she loves him. The dog was cute, too, I had a few cocker spaniels growing up. My favorite was a black one named Daisy and she was sweet and fat and would let me sleep on her :)

Debated over the star rating for awhile; ultimately I did like this, though I think it brought nothing interesting to the story, besides Lily Rose Depp's performance which I felt like was phenomenal. This is a thinly veiled vanity project for Eggers and while I could appreciate the artistry, it did little to impress me.

I really love Herzog's adaption because it's so somber and melancholic. Obviously, this is a horror movie with heightened horror, but I thought Orlok's disposition was silly. He's a physical beast as well as a mental one: Why have both? It took me a really long time to get into it. I think the strength of this version is the acting. Lily Rose is excellent, and Willem Dafoe really chews the scene--I loved it! Did not like the weird Jesus? denouement moment with him in the mirror, though. I did cry at the end, though I always do because I find Ellen's battle against Orlok to be very moving. I think this is worth seeing if you love Nosferatu, I thought the opening scene was incredible and terrifying, but this didn't stun me at all.

I actually didn't know this was a queer film, which seems like ignorance on my part. A very interesting film, I'd like to rewatch it again someday, I don't think I was prepared for its darkness. This goes without saying but Ryuichi Sakamoto's score is so legendary. Just delightful and also haunting. There's a scene where Bowie's character is holding Lawrence in his arms and the song that plays is indescribable. The score becomes it's own character and that's really incredible.

Watched on Tuesday December 24, 2024.

It's not the pot, it's you.

I haven't seen this in a very long time. Kubrick was sort of the gateway to film for me, as I think he was for a lot of people, so it's easy to move past him but his films were so incredible.

When I was a lot younger, I thought this film was about misogyny. Not that it's a misogynist film, but that it's a film about men hating women; now I think it's a film about the patriarchy. The pleasure of watching this film is that Bill assumes he is just like all the powerful, rich men he services as a doctor, but he's a prostitute to them just like all the women. I think, especially with all the homosexual undertones (and explicit homophobia) in this film, there's a lot being done to expose the kind of toxic masculinity that breeds under the patriarchy. Like Bill isn't mad at his wife for having a fantasy, he's mad that another man had an experience with her he hasn't: He's tormented by the thought of a man having his wife or his possession.

He thinks he can just walk into a secret meeting unscathed. He is a stupid idiot and it's so much fun to see his world rocked. You can just as easily become the target of the patriarchy if you misstep: if you don't perform in the way you are meant to.

For a straight guy orgy, the mansion party is sort of the gayest thing ever. Like "hey, let's all wear costumes and watch a bunch of beautiful masked women perform theater for us." It's funny that this film was supposed to be so scandalous when even the orgy scenes are so artistic they are barely erotic.

I think the ending is sort of spectacular, because, through fucking his wife, Bill is allowed back into the patriarchal sphere. His role is to be a father and a husband, and any deviation from that will be punished. He knows that now. Such an interesting conclusion: To know you are worthless.

I've always felt so badly for Mandy and Domino in this. If that was me at the secret society orgy, I would've saved them. Nicole Kidman so crazy hot in this it scares me. I feel like a different species. Merry Christmas I guess.

Watched on Tuesday December 24, 2024.

Watched on Monday December 23, 2024.

a perfect film that does give me hope for the future, as silly as it sounds

This one is so much more sensual than the 2019 version! Like, I think it's really beautiful that Greta's version focuses less on the romance and more on the relationships between sisters, but it's astonishing how much more romantic this one is! It's refreshing in some ways: I want to see people kiss!! The scene at the theatre with Jo and Freddy Bhaer was gorgeous. I'm also so glad they aged Amy up because Kirsten Dunst looked sooooooo young in the beginning. I think this is a good Christmas film. I relate to Jo March more and more every day.

I don't think anyone is contesting that this is one of the greatest movies ever made, but it's worth repeating considering there's so much shit that's come out in the past ten years. Incredible writing, directing, and acting. I used to watch this movie a lot on Easter, never on Christmas though I felt like watching something long and beautiful tonight.

Julie Andrews is so magnetic in this film, she reminds me of Giulietta Masina in a way with her sweet sadness. I had forgotten how lovely the scene in the convent is, after Maria runs away from the family after admitting that she loves Capt. Von Trapp. Maria won't say anything about what happened, she only prays to God. When the nuns confront her, Maria (still kneeling in prayer) says, "I can't bear to face him." And there's this sweet ambiguity about whether she means God or Georg, because she's worried that she's betraying God by loving a man. I find that really breathtaking: to love someone so much it shakes your faith, though in most religions: God is love and love is godly.

The song they sing together after that, where Maria tearfully says she must've done something right in her youth to be able to love such a man, made me weep. Love when Capt. Von Trapp rips the nazi flag obviously that's so hot like please tear my panties in half.

I also loved all the reprisals in this, they were all so beautifully done to add much more context to the scene, like when the children somberly sing Maria's songs when she's gone, or when "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" plays as she's walking down the aisle in the most gorgeous wedding dress ever created.

Such an important "quirky girl saves the world" film.

• Conclave
• La Chimera
• Trap
• Flow
• Anora
• The Beast
• Sing Sing
• Janet Planet
• Challengers
• Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Thirst
• Oddity
• The Demon
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man
• The Lawnmower Man
• Someone's Watching Me!
• Psychomania
• The Visitor
• Impossible Horror
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Spirited Away
• Nights of Cabiria
• A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
• Jaws
• The Piano
• Rear Window
• Columbus
• Zodiac
• Singin' in the Rain
• Mikey and Nicky

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Past Lives
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Oppenheimer
• Anatomy of a Fall
• The Boy and the Heron
• John Wick: Chapter 4
• May December
• Asteroid City
• Monster
• Priscilla

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Zodiac
• Gone Girl
• Se7en
• The Social Network
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Panic Room
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Fight Club
• Alien³
• The Game

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• In the Mouth of Madness
• Rapture
• The Vanishing
• Flesh for Frankenstein
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales
• The Shining
• Thirst
• Unfriended
• The Cell

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Vivarium
• The Cat in the Hat
• Scream
• See How They Run
• To All the Boys I've Loved Before
• It Happened One Night
• So I Married an Axe Murderer
• I Married a Witch
• Blue Velvet
• Mandy

...plus 46 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Spirited Away
• Baby Face
• Columbus
• Memories of Murder
• Nights of Cabiria
• Sharp Objects
• The Trouble with Harry
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Dead Poets Society
• Ernest & Celestine

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Nightcrawler
• Brick
• Chinatown
• Zodiac
• Inherent Vice
• The Long Goodbye
• Harper
• Blade Runner
• Memories of Murder