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There's an old Rate Your Music review for Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music that reads "A great concept. Which is why I gave it 4.5 stars over on Rate Your Concept." Metal Machine Music is better than Robot Jox, and I'd only give the movie's concept a 3.5 at best, and this website isn't called Rate Your Movies, but otherwise ditto.

Impressively overheated; that credits sequence had me sick to my stomach. Love how this is never the movie it was 10 minutes ago.

Gazing into the abyss as a character-building exercise.

If this was a friend's student film, I'd be very nice about it at the post-screening and log it with a like. Since it's a generation-defining cult classic from 30 years ago, I do not feel the need to do this. A collection of half-decent ideas for scenes best half-ed.

But both girl and boy were glad
'Cause one kid had it worse than that

This review may contain spoilers.

Could see myself bumping this up eventually, but my initial reaction is that the second act loses a lot of luster once you clock what's going on, which I did almost immediately (I can thank Lost S2E18 for that). Great resolution though.

Watched on Saturday May 31, 2025.

Inoffensive note for the season to end on, but there's no way I'm watching another, even on the off chance this doesn't get canceled. I need to start respecting myself and my time!

Scalzi and co. dare to ask: what if Creature Comforts had zero redeeming qualities?

Watched on Thursday May 29, 2025.

I, for one, haven't watched enough Mr. Beast to recognize his voice and digitally recreated face on sight, so add his to the pile of generically bad LD+R performances as far as I’m concerned. And for once, there’s little else to complain about: this is exactly what I’d want from an unambitious sci-fi short about inexplicably naked warriors doing acrobatic gladiator matches with dinosaurs. Feels like a season 1 episode, though that’s faint praise.

I’ve never seen anything get bored of itself so quickly. Deeply embarrassing for all involved—I wouldn’t put this on a CV, would you?

Blocked John Scalzi on Bluesky for this one

Is Tim Miller simply incapable of understanding why anyone liked “Zima Blue”?

Watched on Monday May 26, 2025.

The “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” soundalike over the opening sets the tone for the film to come: heart in the right place, but it always feels like something’s being left on the table. Fun while it lasts; Robinson carries hard.

Watched on Sunday May 25, 2025.

It's too bad James Foley never got to direct more theatrical adaptations; he rises to the occasion of bringing dynamism to more statically blocked scenes, but also has a remarkable sense of when to get out of the text's way, often favoring shots that give the actors temporal and physical room to breathe. It's also too bad every one of those actors gives an all-timer performance apart from one all-timer miscasting, and I promise I'm not just saying that because of the sex crimes. Watch that scene with Lemmon at the end. Which of those two men do you believe?

edit: now you're telling me J.T. WALSH premiered the role on Broadway??? No excuse.

Watched on Friday May 23, 2025.

Some of the franchise’s best action spectacle propped up by some of its shakiest storytelling, with an identity crisis that runs deep: is Rogue One “a Star Wars story” or is it a chapter in “the Star Wars story”? Watching this for the first time after finishing Andor surely does it no favors—many of its indulgences come across in hindsight as “/r/StarWars writes the Andor finale,” ranging from the inoffensive (C-3PO/R2-D2 cameo, casual references to the Force, a well and truly checked out James Earl Jones) to the indefensible (that hideous facsimile of Peter Cushing). But there’s also a spark of genuine creativity and ion here, a sense that at least some of the people behind this care about these wars for the same reasons I do, and that’s not nothing. #ReleaseTheGilroyCut?

Watched on Friday May 16, 2025.

Pretty funny how one of these was really good and then they never did that again. For fans of the Eusexua video.

Almost impressive how this abruptly ends at the precise moment it becomes bearable

Not this shit again. Come the fuck on. Even the title’s wrong: it’s War of the Mini Worlds, idiots!

DEAD DOVE
Do Not Eat!

This was the Mamet play my theater professors would bring up most often, and…yeah, tracks! Didn't find this as provocative as I hoped or as reprehensible as I feared, but the latter's only because Mamet overplays his hand as Carol overplays hers at the end—up until she pulls out that list of books, her opportunism reads as an indictment of young women as a group, but past that point she tips over into caricature, purely a shrill mouthpiece for a vindictive and censorious Liberal Agenda. (Shrill as written, not as acted. I could've used more shrillness from Eisenstadt, actually.) Less dramatically effective, perhaps, but more honest, in a "fuck it, you wanna know what really bothers me?" sort of way.

About as bad as The Emoji Movie for most of the same reasons

If I wasn’t dealing with a monster sore throat I would’ve laughed out loud at the main character’s face reveal. Looks cool, but the Matrix Architect stuff sucks.

Enough years removed from my initial "holy fuck I have never seen anything like this" reaction to acknowledge this has a bit of a Game of Thrones S6E10 thing going on—part of the magic of Evangelion the series is how patiently it doles out its plot, which is anything but the case here, and End of Evangelion's most striking moments are ironically the ones that recall the show's shoestring episodes (thinking of Asuka's "I don't want to die" interlude and the [REDACTED] footage at the end). That said: holy fuck I have still never seen anything like this

Watched on Saturday May 3, 2025.

Mostly bad in predictable, inoffensive ways, as long as you aren’t too invested in the wider narrative this is allegedly concluding (J.J. Abrams sure isn’t!), but man, this has one of the worst third acts I’ve ever seen. John Williams has lost the Mandate of Heaven.

We are witnessing the birth of a generational talent.

You’re telling me they had this guy in the franchise mines for twelve fucking years?

Watched on Thursday April 17, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 15, 2025.

Watched on Sunday April 13, 2025.

Watched on Sunday April 13, 2025.

geeettttttt
bandersnatched on!!!

There are maybe five working filmmakers who could take this concept and make one of the best movies of the decade; unfortunately, this is a Black Mirror episode. And on the subject of reheated leftovers, how is this the show's second "interracial lesbian relationship in a simulated past that removes the racism and homophobia" story, and how have neither of them explored the implications of that concept beyond a couple lines' acknowledgement?

Stretches itself pretty thin (if they can balloon these to 90 minutes, why can't they cut them down to 35?) and falls off a cliff at the end, but the fundamentals are there.

I mean, this is just re-reheated leftovers at this point, isn't it? A little "One Million Merits" here, a little "Nosedive" there; throw in a healthy dose of "Be Right Back" and a fatal one of "Joan Is Awful" and you've got "Common People", an episode where every scene feels like a first take of a first draft of a first pitch. At least this show used to pretend it had something novel to say.

Brooker/Ali whiff the beginning and Haynes whiffs the ending, but I'd go as far as to call this a return to form, whatever that means for this show. Glad to have finally caught up with this season. Also Anjana Vasan call me

Well, you see, the thing about From Dusk Till Dawn is it was written by Quentin Tarantino.

This review may contain spoilers.

Gripe #1: I think this severely underestimates how traumatized Harnett’s character would be in this situation. I’m sorry, you force me to watch my wife and children murdered in front of me and follow it up with four years (mostly) alone on a tiny spaceship—brother, I’m out that airlock day one. I am not Josh Hartnett (nobody's perfect), but until the last 20 minutes he acts “stuck in space with dead wife” traumatized, max.

Gripe #2: This is conservatively the third “what if your partner used future tech to cheat on you” episode, but it already feels like we’ve gotten 10 of these, and they’re all so predictable from the jump. “What if she didn’t actually” is not a new angle, Charlie!

Gripe #3: We were robbed of Josh Hartnett playing Aaron Paul, ROBBED, I tell you!

Gripe #4: youtu.be/ROF4uNjrB4U

Nice to see a flash of the show’s old Channel 4 mean streak at the end, even if it does pull a punch or two.

This review may contain spoilers.

Great Value Shyamalan, but I ain’t picky. Also Harper deserved that for what she said to Yasmin

Watched on Thursday April 10, 2025.

My rating goes down the more I think about this, so I’m going to stop thinking about it : )

Watched on Monday April 7, 2025.

Watched on Friday April 4, 2025.

Eeeeehhhhhhyeah sure I guess? Probably hits hard if you're 20 and just started getting into film and also carry deep regrets about your ado…uh, your teenage years, and on both counts you don't have a clue that you've still got a loooooong way to go, buddy.

• Saw VI
• Saw V
• Saw II
• Saw X
• Saw
• Saw III
• Spiral: From the Book of Saw
• Saw 3D
• Jigsaw
• Saw IV

"Thank God you've returned…I need your help." - Atrus, Riven: The Sequel to Myst

"He's back again, and about time too
And this time, he's in the mood!" - Grant Kirkhope, "DK Rap"

"We're back!" - Lipgloss Twins, "Doodle"

Congratulations to Cinemonster on another year of Hooptober, and on an especially brutal set of criteria this time around. I was just barely able to get my vanity picks in there, and it took some work to find a 4+ film franchise I hadn't seen that wouldn't completely monopolize the list (I almost cheated with The Hills Have Eyes and its remakes). And FOUR Italian films -- you're killing me, man! In the fun horror movie way, of course.

In all seriousness, it's good to be back, in multiple senses of the word. On here and elsewhere, I've made no secret of the fact that 2023 was…not my best year, to put it mildly; I won't rehash everything that went on, but suffice it to say last year's "chill" Hooptober was very much needed. I didn't watch all my picks in time, and that's OK! It was chill!

But this year, we're BACK. I'm in a decent job again, I'm revving my social life back up, and I've been spending the past few weeks catching up on films I missed the previous couple years (how about Anguish, huh? what a picture!), so I'm ready to hit the ground running on my SEVENTH Hooptober! This year we travel back through 11 decades (but mostly the 70s and 80s) to experience:

- two films made RIGHT HERE IN AUSTIN, TX
- my first-ever Hooptober REWATCH (I couldn't up Austin Film Society screening a print of I Walked With a Zombie)
- including the aforementioned, three THEATRICAL SHOWINGS
- one BLU-RAY I have OWNED FOR YEARS but HAVEN'T WATCHED FOR SOME REASON
- two REMAKES (one of a film I watched for a previous Hooptober!)
- at least five HORROR COMEDIES
- three or four picks that are MAYBE NOT TECHNICALLY HORROR MOVIES
- for the first time, NO films by Jeff Lieberman (I watched all his horror movies! I even watched Doctor Franken! I'm free!)

And much more! All in all, it's perhaps a less eclectic selection than my past couple challenges, but even when you're back to basics, that still means you're…

Back to, back to, back to, back to you
I don't wanna fall right back to us
Maybe you should run right back to her
I don't wanna go back, back to (x8)

Back, back, back, back, back
Back, back, back, back, back (x8)

• Genuine: The Tragedy of a Vampire

  Film that exists in at least 2 available cuts
  Robert Wiene

• The Devil-Doll
• I Walked with a Zombie
• Lust of the Vampire

  Italian films

• Kuroneko
• Eggshells

  Films made primarily or entirely in Texas
  Tobe Hooper

• All the Colors of the Dark

  Italian films

• The Other Side of the Underneath
• Duvidha

  Indian films

• Phase IV

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Been years since I’ve seen some of these so a lot of this ranking is just vibes

1. Tenet
2. Oppenheimer
3. The Dark Knight
4. The Prestige
5. Memento
6. Dunkirk
7. Interstellar
8. Batman Begins
9. Inception
10. The Dark Knight Rises

read notes for occasional context

• The Internship
• Road House

  Told our boss “if you buy the DVD with both movies on one disc, it comes with snarky subtitles”

• Road House 2: Last Call

  see above—he called this one “even cheesier than the first”

• Sweet November
• Always Be My Maybe
• Analyze This

  Launched into a minute-long explanation of the “Barnes is okay, but that Noble is a vindictive prick” joke upon seeing a coworker’s Barnes & Noble bag

• The Whole Nine Yards

  got reminded of Michael Clarke Duncan’s character because we have a coworker with the last name Figueroa

• The Whole Ten Yards
• Friendsgiving
• Airheads

...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Every film featuring Zatoichi in some capacity, or starring characters who appeared in a Zatoichi film. This includes sequels, remakes, reboots, spinoffs, knockoffs,  and homages—sometimes recursively.

• The Blind Menace
• Yojimbo
• Sanjuro
• The Tale of Zatoichi
• The Tale of Zatoichi Continues
• New Tale of Zatoichi
• Zatoichi the Fugitive
• Zatoichi on the Road
• Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold
• Zatoichi's Flashing Sword

...plus 35 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Mostly limited to feature films, ranked chronologically (though Letterboxd has some strange ideas about certain films' release dates).

• Ecstasy
• Stormy Weather
• The Best Years of Our Lives
• The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
• Rebel Without a Cause
• It! The Terror from Beyond Space
• High and Low
• The Train
• The Sword of Doom
• Daisies

...plus 212 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films of cultural, historical, and/or aesthetic significance that nonetheless abide by the same basic conceptual or artistic principles as lowbrow internet content.

If you're a fan of the latter and want to try getting into the former, this is a good place to start.

HALL OF FAME:
Martin Arnold
Jean-Luc Godard
Michael Snow
René Viénet
Andy Warhol

• 66 Scenes from America
• 8½
• Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy
• Arnulf Rainer
• Being John Malkovich
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• Can Dialectics Break Bricks?
• Cremaster 3
• Dawn of an Evil Millennium
• Deafman Glance

...plus 35 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Asteroid City
• Seconds

In lieu of my usual semi-horror-related lyrics, I will instead be compiling a playlist of 10 X-themed songs to listen to if you want to get in the mood for this list:

A Tribe Called Quest - Excursions
Laurie Anderson - Let X=X
NAH - EXCRUCIATE
Elysia Crampton - Axacan
Danny Brown - XXX
X - I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts
Xiu Xiu - Apistat Commander
Liz Phair - X-Ray Man
MU330 - X-Mas Card
Charli XCX - Track 10

It's been a long time, Hooptober. And it feels even longer—since last year's Hooptober, I lost my job, got a new one, lost a friend far too soon, made a gratifying number of new ones, moved house, got back into VeggieTales for some reason, saw the best concert I have ever seen in my life, and much, much more. I've been put through the wringer this year, so this Hooptober I'm dispensing with the self-imposed criteria I put on myself for the last couple challenges. This is the CHILL Hooptober. This year I'll clear out my "Hooptober grab bag" list…maybe unwrap a Blu-ray or four…it's gonna be chill! We're gonna chill.

I do have to address the elephant in the room: for two years in a row now, I haven't had it in me to finish the complete Hooptober challenge. Many of my films from Hooptobers Ocho and Neun are missing reviews, and there's a few of them I never even got around to watching (and that's not counting Cinemonster's extra credit). So this year…you guessed it, I'm gonna be chill about it! Maybe I complete the challenge, maybe I don't! It's chill either way. (I promise not to say "chill" this much in my reviews.)

I sure hope I get around to all of these, though. Look at that variety! We've got 10 decades, 10 countries (if you count the movies with multiple countries listed), some stone-cold classics I've never gotten around to, some of the "worst movies of all time" (which I bet aren't that bad), a literal porno, several movies that almost certainly aren't horror at all but I'm putting them on here anyway, a rather problematic choice for an "LGBTQ+ connected film", and even Terror Toons! (I am decidedly unchill about the prospect of watching Terror Toons.) I think I picked a whole bunch of winners this year, and even if I'm proven wrong…well, you don't need me to tell you how I feel about that.

I'm writing this on September 1st, so I'll see you all again in two weeks. Take care of yourselves. And ah, hell, let's put some lyrics at the end, even though I said I wasn't going to earlier. This one goes out to Ben, a past Hooptober participant and a great, great friend.

We raced across the galaxy
Away from all our ugliness
I felt beautiful and free
Out where the devil can't exist

ALBANY ON TOP.

• Mystery of the Wax Museum

  Country: USA
  Decade: 1930s
  "X" in the title

• Cat People

  Country: USA
  Decade: 1940s

• A Bucket of Blood

  Country: USA
  Decade: 1950s

• The Birds

  Country: USA
  Decade: 1960s
  Alfred Hitchcock

• Dr. Terror's House of Horrors

  Country: UK
  Decade: 1960s
  Amicus
  Peter Cushing

• Seconds

  Country: USA
  Decade: 1960s

• Lisa and the Devil

  Countries: , Italy, Spain
  Decade: 1970s
  Satan/Devil centered
  Mario Bava

• The Beast Must Die

  Country: UK
  Decade: 1974
  Peter Cushing

• Blood for Dracula

  Countries: Italy,
  Decade: 1974
  Based on a work of or invoking the name Bram Stoker

• Hardgore

  Country: USA
  Decade: 1970s

...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The Universal Media Disc was a media format developed by Sony for use with their PSP video game console. While its primary use was to store PSP games, many UMDs also contained films, television, and music, in an effort to market the system as an all-in-one portable media device (similar to what smartphones would ultimately become).

This list is not comprehensive; to my knowledge, there is no complete list of UMD releases anywhere on the internet. I've sourced this list from this spreadsheet, which contains a whopping 1779 entries, many of which are not on Letterboxd (though most of the extraneous entries comprise television series, sports videos, and concert films with little English-language documentation). If you know of a film released on UMD which is not included in this list, or if I've misidentified a film with a common title, please let me know!

• 10,000 BC
• The 11 Commandments
• 13 Going on 30
• 16 Blocks
• 2 Fast 2 Furious
• 2012
• 21
• 24: Redemption
• 28 Days Later
• 28 Weeks Later

...plus 913 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Who's gonna win? Who's gonna lose? Whatever the ranking, these are all five baggers!

1. The 4th Annual Live 'On Cinema' Oscar Special
2. The 7th Annual Live 'On Cinema' Oscar Special
3. The 5th Annual Live 'On Cinema' Oscar Special
4. Our Cinema Oscar Special LIVE
5. The 10th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
6. The 3rd Annual Live 'On Cinema' Oscar Special
7. The 9th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special
8. The New ‘On Cinema’ Oscar Special
9. The 1st Annual Live 'On Cinema' Oscar Special
10. The 8th Annual Live 'On Cinema' Oscar Special

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Where your eyes don't go, a part of you is hovering
It's a nightmare that you'll never be discovering…

It’s baaaaaaaack…pack a port! That’s right: for my fifth Hooptober, I’ve committed to making half of my watches “international” films! Except we’re going to be smarter than the Academy and actually allow films from English-speaking countries in the global south, because uh, of course you should do that!

I have to be honest: last year’s Hooptober was a little rough. Not because of the films (though there’s no better word to describe The Green Elephant); nor was it because of the concept (forcing myself to include 50% or more female directors), which I consider a great success. I just wasn’t able to devote as much energy to this challenge as I would’ve liked. It was my first time not making it through all the extra credit films, and a good chunk of the movies I watched remain unreviewed.

This year will be different, though! I will watch EVERY movie on this list, and I will review EACH one of them, even if it’s just a single sentence! I don’t quite know how I’m going to work my viewing schedule around my two weekend trips in September and my pilgrimage to see Current 93 on Halloween, but dammit, I’m gonna make it happen! Full speed ahead! No brakes on the Hooptober ghost train! BOO BOOOOOOO!

I destroyed the bond of friendship and respect
Between the only people left who'd even look me in the eye
Now I laugh and make a fortune
Off the same ones that I tortured
And the world screams "Kiss me, Son of God!"

• The Golem: How He Came Into the World

  German silent

• The Unknown

  Lon Chaney film

• Challenge the Devil

  Christopher Lee films
  Blu-ray

• Sting of Death

  William Grefe

• The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism

  Christopher Lee films
  Blu-ray

• Blood from the Mummy's Tomb
• Vampyros Lesbos
• The Legend of Boggy Creek

  1970s regional US films
  Charles B. Pierce

• Leptirica

  Blu-ray

• Penda's Fen

  Blu-ray

...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Not on Letterboxd, in potential danger of removal from Letterboxd, or too much of a hassle to catalog:

Altered Innocence: Vol. 1
Avatar: The Last Airbender
By Brakhage: An Anthology
Cowboy Bebop
A Hollis Frampton Odyssey
Kaiba
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Paranoia Agent
Serial Experiments Lain
Steins;Gate
Twin Peaks seasons 1-2

• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• 5 Steps to Danger
• 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy
• The Act of Killing
• An Actor's Revenge
• The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo
• Adventures of Zatoichi
• Affirmations
• After the Rehearsal
• Akira

...plus 473 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

comment if you want in and I know you

• 'Neath the Arizona Skies
• 1857 (Fool's Gold)
• All Cops Ain't Bad
• And What Is the Summer Saying
• Apocalypse: Caught in the Eye of the Storm
• Aria
• Azumanga Daioh
• B.A.
• Bahia Blanca
• Before The Wrath

...plus 102 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 2012
• 964 Pinocchio
• Fishmans: Otokotachi no Wakare 98.12.28 @ Akasaka Blitz
• Alien Beasts
• Beautiful Swordswomen: Double Seppuku
• Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui
• Bionicle 3: Web of Shadows
• Bionicle: Mask of Light
• Castle in the Sky
• The Cat Returns

...plus 66 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Jackass Number Two
2. Jackass Forever
3. Jackass 3.5
4. Jackass 3D
5. Jackass: The Movie
6. Jackass 2.5

All the women you could ever need, as long as you don’t need more than eight (and a half).

• A Woman
• Two Women
• 3 Women
• Four Women
• Utamaro and His Five Women
• Blood and Black Lace
• 7 Women
• 8 Women
• 8 ½ Women

I've got lots of problems
Female trouble
Maybe I'm twisted
Female trouble…

The media shelf is up. The "spooky" sign is unpacked. The I.M. Meen costume is wishlisted. And now, it's time to ring in my favorite season of the year with my favorite seasonal tradition: Hooptober!

Last year, Cinemonster didn't require any films by female directors (no shade toward him, it was a packed set of criteria), and I ended up having an all-male directorial pool. One could argue this says more about the accessibility of the horror film industry than anything (this reasonably comprehensive list is soberingly short), but I still wanted to do better this year! So: in addition to Cinemonster's existing stipulations, I have the self-imposed restriction of keeping at least a 50/50 female-to-male director ratio. (This is not to exclude non-binary directors, of course—if you know any horror films directed by non-binary people that aren't We're All Going to the World's Fair, let me know and I'll make sure to watch them on my own time! Also, watch We're All Going to the World's Fair!) And I managed to juuuuuuust squeak by on that goal while still adhering to every requirement, as long as you don't count the extra credit films. I'll be sure to close the gap on the outstanding 1.5% in my non-Hooptober viewing. Maybe I can finally binge some Cecelia Condit…

All that to say, I think I've gathered quite an assortment here! I'm excited for yet another red-letter year of witchy watches and sinister cinema. (It's red-letter because the letters are written in blood.)

They say I'm insane
But I don't care
Go ahead
Put me in your 'lectric chair!

• Lake of the Dead

  Country: Norway
  Decade: 1950s
  Folk horror
  Film set in the woods

• She

  Country: UK
  Decade: 1960s
  Hammer

• Blood Bath

  Countries: USA, Yugoslavia
  Decade: 1960s

• The Vengeance of She

  Country: UK
  Decade: 1960s
  Hammer

• The Wicker Man

  Country: UK
  Decade: 1970s
  Folk horror

• Squirm

  Country: USA
  Decade: 1970s

• King Kong

  Country: USA
  Decade: 1970s
  Kaiju or Kong

• Home Sweet Home

  Country: Canada
  Decade: 1980s
  Films from 1981
  Person of color as director/lead

• Scanners

  Country: Canada
  Decade: 1980s
  Films from 1981

• My Bloody Valentine

  Country: Canada
  Decade: 1980s
  Films from 1981

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

very, very bad at ranking my faves, but this is how I’m feeling today

1. Stop Making Sense
2. A Moment of Innocence
3. Mulholland Drive
4. The Night of the Hunter
5. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
6. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
7. Wavelength
8. All That Jazz
9. Uncut Gems
10. Female Trouble

1. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
2. We're All Going to the World's Fair
3. Pleasure
4. On the Count of Three
5. Judas and the Black Messiah
6. The Sparks Brothers
7. Censor
8. Prisoners of the Ghostland
9. At the Ready
10. R♥️J

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

let’s gooooooo

will also be watching as many shorts as I can

• Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

  added this last-minute when I saw some second screening slots open up. funnily enough, the mixed reviews saying “could have been good but it’s 80% concert footage” were what won me over

• Wild Indian

  maybe my most anticipated of the fest? should be an interesting way to start off my Saturday [edit: no longer starting off my Saturday]

• The Sparks Brothers

  I'm in the "Sparks great, Edgar Wright OK" camp so I expect to enjoy this a fair amount

• R♥️J

  pure morbid curiosity. seems like the film version of every bad Shakespeare adaptation I saw in college

• Censor

  fun premise, hope it doesn't lean too hard on 80s nostalgia because I don't have any of that

• On the Count of Three

  OK soooooo this was supposed to be I Was a Simple Man, but then the reviews for that one started coming in and I realized I probably wouldn’t be into it (let alone at 9 AM) so I looked at my backup reservations and this looked like the safest bet

• At the Ready

  wasn't sure I had room for any more docs but that premise…

• Together Together

  might not actually watch this, depending on how early I get up on Sunday, but the premiere sold out quick so I figured I'd get a reservation just in case

• The Blazing World

  it was between this and Land, and while I think Land is going to get awards attention and would be a cool movie to have seen early, it also looks boring as fuck so I went with this one

• Prisoners of the Ghostland

  obvious pick. I don't expect this to be Why Don't You Play In Hell? level, but hoping it's at least a fun time—the whole exploding vest thing seems a little contrived, which is a silly thing to say about a Sion Sono film but the worst-case scenario for this one is that the craziness is self-conscious and/or inorganic

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My favorite time of year returns! Confession time: I have a private list called "Hoop-Tober grab bag" where I've been stockpiling horror movies all year, waiting eagerly for the time when I can finally watch them…and only 13 of them made it into the final list. Not that I'm complaining! When else would I get a chance to watch the likes of Rasputin: The Mad Monk or Ju-on: The Curse 2? Never. Never is when.

I gave myself a pretty astronomical amount of homework for this one—of the nine sequels on my list, I've only seen four of the originals. And I'm not making nearly as much of a dent in my Blu-ray collection as I did with last year's list, so that'll likely mean even more screen time. But I'll never say no to watching more horror movies, especially as part of this hallowed month and a half. Thanks once again, Cinemonster. You're a gift to this site.

• Bride of Frankenstein

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1930s
  2nd films of franchises

• The Mummy's Hand

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1940s
  2nd films of franchises

• Night of the Demon

  Country: United Kingdom
  Decade: 1950s
  Highest rated 50s film

• Rasputin: The Mad Monk

  Country: United Kingdom
  Decade: 1960s
  Non-Dracula Hammer film

• The Omega Man

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1970s
  Disease based films
  Film with a movie theater in it

• Ganja & Hess

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1970s
  Black director/cast/lead

• The Cars That Ate Paris

  Country: Australia
  Decade: 1970s

• Halloween Is Grinch Night

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1970s
  2nd films of franchises

• The Brood

  Country: Canada
  Decade: 1970s
  Body horror films

• A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1980s
  2nd films of franchises

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Haven’t seen The Elephant Man or Dune. If I considered them movies, the Twin Peaks pilot would be between Inland Empire and Wild at Heart, and Twin Peaks: The Return would be between Mulholland Drive and Eraserhead.

• Mulholland Drive
• Eraserhead
• Blue Velvet
• Inland Empire
• Wild at Heart
• The Straight Story
• Lost Highway
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

• Uncut Gems
• Parasite
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire
• The Irishman
• Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
• Knives Out
• Greener Grass
• Marriage Story
• Midsommar
• Joker

...plus 18 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• New Tale of Zatoichi
• Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival
• The Tale of Zatoichi
• Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold
• Zatoichi's Revenge
• Zatoichi's Cane Sword
• Zatoichi's Flashing Sword
• Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman
• Zatoichi and the Fugitives
• Zatoichi in Desperation

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I need as many of these as you've got. Please share your favorites!

• True Stories
• Paddington
• Paddington 2
• The Blues Brothers
• Stop Making Sense
• The Straight Story
• Spirited Away
• Over the Garden Wall
• Coco
• Beasts of the Southern Wild

...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Haven't seen The Good Dinosaur, Toy Story 4, or Onward.

1. Ratatouille
2. Up
3. Toy Story 2
4. Inside Out
5. The Incredibles
6. Monsters, Inc.
7. Toy Story
8. WALL·E
9. Coco
10. Toy Story 3

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

'Tis the season to stay inside till somebody finds you, and do whatever the TV tells you. With all my newfound free time (I casually say, pretending I don't still have 8.6 hours of remote work per day), I've been watching more television than film, but that doesn't mean I have to neglect my ever-growing watchlist. However, Letterboxd's "shuffle" feature just hasn't been doing it for me lately, so I came up with a more elaborate, specific, and generally fun way to randomly select what to watch on a given night. Here's what I've been doing. You can do it in any order, even omitting steps if you want, but this is my process:

1. PICK A GENRE

Go to random.org and generate a number between 1 and 19. The number you get will tell you the genre you filter for in your watchlist.

1 - Action
2 - Adventure
3 - Animation
4 - Comedy
5 - Crime
6 - Documentary
7 - Drama
8 - Family
9 - Fantasy
10 - History
11 - Horror
12 - Music
13 - Mystery
14 - Romance
15 - Science Fiction
16 - Thriller
17 - TV Movie (why is this a genre?)
18 - War
19 - Western

2. PICK A DECADE

Now that you've got your genre selected, generate another number between 1 and 10. This corresponds to a decade between the 1920s and 2010s, and is much more self-explanatory than the genres. I usually omit the 2020s and 1910s, because there aren't many movies to choose from in those years. But you can do it if you want. I won't stop you.

3. PICK A YEAR

Generate another number between 1 and 10, and you have a year. Pretty simple.

4. PICK A FILM

If there's more than one film from your chosen genre in your chosen year, then either generate another number to choose between them, or let Letterboxd do it for you by using the "shuffle" sorting option and watching the film in the #1 spot.

And that's how you COVID Roulette! This list will be updated with everything I watch as a result of this selection method. May the odds be in my favor.

• The Wages of Fear
• Cats Don't Dance

1. Stop Making Sense
2. A Moment of Innocence
3. Mulholland Drive
4. In the Mood for Love
5. His Girl Friday
6. A Brighter Summer Day
7. Mirror
8. The Human Condition
9. Make Way for Tomorrow
10. Paris, Texas

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Phantom Thread
2. Lady Bird
3. Blade Runner 2049
4. The Death of Stalin
5. Brigsby Bear
6. World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts
7. Call Me by Your Name
8. Thoroughbreds
9. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
10. The Killing of a Sacred Deer

...plus 36 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Hoo-huh-HAH-HAH-HAH!

My second Hooptober, and my first with a full-time work schedule. (Now that’s scary.) Since I exhausted most of the canon last year, I took the opportunity to get a little more eclectic with this one, with no fewer than three Frankenstein movies and a slightly more modern sensibility. Once again, this is also an opportunity to knock out a bunch of the horror movies in my Blu-ray collection that I haven’t seen yet. Can’t wait to return to my favorite six weeks of the year.

Because…you’re MIIIIIIIIIIINE!

• The Phantom of the Opera

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1920s
  Pre-1966
  Makeup by: Lon Chaney

• Drácula

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1930s
  Pre-1966
  Classic Universal
  Mexican director

• Frankenstein

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1930s
  Pre-1966
  Makeup by: Jack Pierce
  Classic Universal

• The Catman of Paris

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1940s
  Pre-1966
  Year ending in 6

• The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1950s
  Pre-1966
  Reptile Rampage
  35mm

• The Mole People

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1950s
  Pre-1966
  Year ending in 6

• Viy

  Country: Soviet Union
  Decade: 1960s
  Blu-ray

• Blackenstein

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1970s
  Black director
  Blu-ray

• Flesh for Frankenstein

  Countries: Italy,
  Decade: 1970s
  Makeup by: Carlo Rambaldi

• Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde

  Country: United States
  Decade: 1970s
  Year ending in 6
  Black director

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Low-concept audiovisual media, particularly (but not exclusively) media originating from the internet, that ends up embodying characteristics of high-concept performance art, whether intentionally or not. This is much harder to qualify than its companion list, but I was getting a lot of suggestions on that one that didn't quite fit, so I felt compelled to put them somewhere. Suggestions welcome, but don't be offended if I don't add yours. This list's a weird one.

• Baa Baa Land
• Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez!
• The Eric Andre New Year's Eve Spooktacular
• Live Forever as You Are Now with Alan Resnick
• Nathan for You: Finding s
• Paint Drying
• #PostModem
• Still Flowin The Movie
• Surfer: Teen Confronts Fear
• Too Many Cooks

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films where people become (or otherwise transcend) the roles they embody.

• 8½
• The Act of Killing
• Alps
• Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
• Black Swan
• Certified Copy
• Close-Up
• Dead Ringers
• The Duke of Burgundy
• F for Fake

...plus 13 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My personal canon. Movies that mean a lot to me. Movies I watch a lot. Movies I love to hate. You name it, this list has it.

• The ion of Joan of Arc
• Earth
• His Girl Friday
• Stormy Weather
• It's a Wonderful Life
• Ordet
• Throne of Blood
• Eyes Without a Face
• The Human Condition
• Harakiri

...plus 58 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films that seem to exist within their own insular worlds: pocket dimensions created in the first frame and destroyed when the lights go up. These can be characterized by unique atmospheres, framing devices, and/or storytelling languages; however, "uniqueness" ultimately matters less in this context than the consistency with which these qualities permeate the work in question. As such, this list is highly subjective; I couldn't tell you why Do the Right Thing fits while Tetsuo, The Iron Man does not, or why Mulholland Drive is not one of the three David Lynch films included, or why (only?) two of the Phantasm sequels are here, but it feels right to me.

• Caché
• Crash
• The Cremator
• Crime Wave
• Cure
• Do the Right Thing
• Earth
• Eraserhead
• F for Fake
• Goodbye, Dragon Inn

...plus 30 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I know I’ve got some gaps in here. I’ll get to them. One day. Maybe.

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Avengers: Endgame
• Black Panther
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
• The Avengers
• Iron Man
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Captain America: Civil War
• Captain America: The First Avenger

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Burning
2. Climax
3. First Reformed
4. Paddington 2
5. The Favourite
6. the Girls
7. Madeline's Madeline
8. Widows
9. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
10. Revenge

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

letterboxd.conexionsite.com/bmilot56/list/the-letterboxd-season-challenge-2018-19/

• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

  Week 1: September 9th-16th
  Coming of Age in the 2010s Week

• Don's Party

  Week 2: September 17th-23rd
  Australian New Wave Week

• Harakiri

  Week 3: September 23rd-29th
  Non-Kurosawa Samurai Week

• Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

  Week 4: September 30th-October 6th
  Masters of Trash Week

• Darkman

  Week 5: October 7th-13th
  Director Recommendations: Guillermo del Toro Week

• Malcolm X

  Week 6: October 14th-20th
  Lee, Lee, Lee, or Li Week

• The Spirit of the Beehive

  Week 7: October 21st-27th
  Janus Films Week

• Opera

  Week 8: October 21st-27th
  Horror Kings Week

• Detour

  Week 9: November 4th-10th
  Pre-50's Noir Week

• Planes, Trains and Automobiles

  Week 10: November 11th-17th
  Roger Ebert Week

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Not including stuff like Les Misérables, which used to get me good but I’ve since numbed to. If TMDb included television shows, I would add the Six Feet Under and The Leftovers finales. (The former in particular—I was physically unable to see the screen until the end of the credits.) Maybe “Ozymandias” too.

• Amores Perros
• Black Mirror: Hang the DJ
• Come and See
• Dancer in the Dark
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• The Florida Project
• Inside Out
• Irreversible
• A Moment of Innocence
• Moonlight

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Scorpio Rising
• The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome
• Fireworks
• Lucifer Rising
• Invocation of My Demon Brother
• Kustom Kar Kommandos
• Puce Moment
• Rabbit's Moon
• Eaux d'artifice

to watch in order of priority:

The Kingdom
The Element of Crime
Epidemic
Europa
The Five Obstructions
Manderlay

1. Dancer in the Dark
2. Dogville
3. Melancholia
4. Breaking the Waves
5. The Boss of It All
6. The House That Jack Built
7. The Idiots
8. Antichrist
9. Nymphomaniac

Better Cinco than never! Going for all first-time watches. Whenever possible, I will be prioritizing movies in my DVD/Blu-ray collection (gotta get through these somehow). I'll include those in the criteria, which will in turn be in the notes.

• Rosemary's Baby

  "Anniversary films" - 1/10
  6 countries (United States) - 1/6
  6 decades (1960s) - 1/6
  Before 1970 - 1/6

  Watch #1

• Night of the Living Dead

  "Anniversary films" - 1/10
  Before 1970 - 2/6
  Romero - 1/6

  Watch #2

• Dawn of the Dead

  "Anniversary films" - 3/10
  6 decades (1970s) - 2/6
  Romero - 2/6

  Watch #3

• Day of the Dead

  6 decades (1980s) - 3/6
  Romero - 3/6

  Watch #4

• Dead Ringers

  "Anniversary films" - 4/10
  6 countries (Canada) - 2/6
  Cronenberg - 4/6

  Watch #5

• Ring

  "Anniversary films" - 5/10
  6 countries (Japan) - 3/6
  6 decades (1990s) - 4/6

  Watch #6

• The Screaming Skull

  "Anniversary films" - 6/10
  6 decades (1950s) - 5/6
  Before 1970 - 3/6

  Watch #7

• Let the Right One In

  "Anniversary films" - 7/10
  6 countries (Sweden) - 4/6
  6 decades (2000s) - 6/6

  Watch #8

• The Devil Rides Out

  "Anniversary films" - 8/10
  6 countries (United Kingdom) - 5/6
  Before 1970 - 4/6
  Terence Fisher - 5/6

  Watch #9

• The Blob

  "Anniversary films" - 9/10
  Before 1970 - 5/6

  Watch #11

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

or any of you Region A Blu-ray fuckers I ain't picky

• All About Lily Chou-Chou
• American Movie
• As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
• Céline and Julie Go Boating
• The Circle
• Come and See
• Crime and Punishment
• Cure
• Crime Wave
• Goodbye, Dragon Inn

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

comment movies I missed

• The Darjeeling Limited
• Diplomacy
• The Fall
• s
• Irreversible
• The King's Speech
• Knowing
• Lola
• Love Exposure
• The Man from Earth

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I know what you're thinking: "another Letterboxd challenge?" The answer: yes, another Letterboxd challenge! I often watch infamous movies with full knowledge of their reputations, and I recently started tagging these log entries with "you know I had to do it to em" (#FreeLucky btw). "Why not have some more fun with it?" I thought. And so this challenge was born.

To clarify: these don't have to be bad movies, though many of them obviously are. They just have to be movies that go against the grain somehow—lack of commercial appeal, pushing the boundaries of good taste, uncomfortable glimpses into the director's singular worldview, upending the system with their mere existence…it's a broad descriptor. Whatever the reason, if you find these sorts of movies irresistible, this is the challenge for you.

With all that said, let's get into the criteria! Your lists must include…

Seven movies from the following directors (mix and match): Ed Wood, Neil Breen, Carl J. Sukenick, Damon Packard, Uwe Boll, James Nguyen, Amir Shervan

One movie with a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score

One movie with an F CinemaScore

One of the top 25 lowest wide release opening weekend grossers (if you choose Spider-Man/Men in Black II, you MUST watch them as a double feature and count it as one movie)

One of the top 10 biggest box office bombs

One movie rated zero stars by Roger Ebert

One Seltzer/Friedberg parody movie

One "dark age" M. Night Shyamalan movie (released between 2006 and 2013)

One film directed by or starring Tommy Wiseau that is NOT The Room

Two "mockbusters" (one live action, one animated)

One Netflix Original comedy

Two movies featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (one Joel episode, one Mike episode)

One movie starring Cameron Mitchell

One found footage horror sequel

One movie released by Happy Madison Productions

One movie released by Pure Flix

One movie directed by a career cinematographer

One movie directed by or starring a YouTube celebrity

One movie with the same title as an unrelated, more famous/acclaimed movie

One movie about the making of a bad movie

One movie from the Videonomicon library

One movie from Jason Coffman's Outsider Cinema list

Avoid rewatches wherever possible! Movies can fall into more than one category, but each category needs to be individually filled so it can add up to 30! Tag your lists and reviews with "you know I had to do it to em"! Comment your lists so I can add you to this very description! Watch them in any order! Try to finish by the end of the year so I can do this again! Have fun!

• Plan 9 from Outer Space

  Ed Wood

• Double Down

  Neil Breen

• Mutant Massacre 2

  Carl J. Sukenick

• Reflections of Evil

  Damon Packard

• Alone in the Dark

  Uwe Boll

• Julie & Jack

  James Nguyen

• Killing American Style

  Amir Shervan

• Killing Me Softly

  0% Rotten Tomatoes

• Killing Them Softly

  F CinemaScore

• We Are Your Friends

  Worst opening weekends

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Onto the very small bandwagon I go! Check out Evan's list for the category breakdown.

• Escape from New York
• The Fly
• The Stuff
• Black Sabbath
• This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse
• Stage Fright
• Raiders of Atlantis
• Crank
• Bad Taste
• Wendigo

...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Alien
• Aliens
• Blade Runner
• Conan the Barbarian
• Dark City
• Dark Star
• Darkness Falls
• Dreamcatcher
• Endless
• Frankenstein Unbound

...plus 13 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I'm coming up on my 1000th "watched" film on Letterboxd. Of course, I'm sure there are plenty of things in the database that I've seen but haven't marked yet, but those can wait! For my next ten films, I want only the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the wonders of the watchlist. They are, of course, subject to change on a whim.

Ranking so far:
Paris, Texas
Sunset Boulevard
Solaris
Sansho the Bailiff
Barry Lyndon
The Rules of the Game
Sans Soleil
Pickpocket

(Keep in mind that all of these are fantastic and the differences in quality are both minuscule and highly subjective.)

• Solaris
• Sans Soleil
• Paris, Texas
• Pickpocket
• Sansho the Bailiff
• The Rules of the Game
• Barry Lyndon
• Sunset Boulevard
• The Godfather
• Seven Samurai

• Alien Beasts
• Blood Debts
• Call Me by Your Name
• Casablanca
• Chinatown
• The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
• Dangerous Men
• Enemy
• The Fury
• Happy Together

...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I'm pretty sure I'm missing a couple, but John Paizs gives us precious few useful angles of the room in question. A second viewing might reveal more.

• Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders
• Chicago Confidential
• Hell's Island
• Live Fast, Die Young
• Outside the Law
• The Public Enemy
• Scandal Sheet
• The Sellout
• Stolen Face
• Teen-Age Crime Wave

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.