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While there were some growing pains translating Tim Robinson’s character from sketches to a feature length (there’s only so much disbelief I can suspend that he ever acquired and maintained his wife, child and job before the events of the movie started), I can’t deny how many times I laughed in the theatre.

Some of the highest highs (action set pieces) and the lowest lows (front-loaded exposition dumps) of the franchise still makes this an unbelievably fun time in theatres.

Thinking and feeling a lot. I don't know when it started, but something crept up on me part way through. Will hopefully put into words another time. If this sits with me the way I think it will, I may bump it to a 5.

Watched on Friday May 23, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday May 21, 2025.

New favourite Wes Anderson

The raw materials that constitute this film are a 5/5. Maybe it was my headspace, but I needed a little more glue for this to work. Still absolutely stunning with so many fascinating sequences.

I can’t tell if this is great and I hate it, or it’s really bad and I like it. Matt Dillon is actually insane. More than one scene where I was highly uncomfortable. This just makes me sad we’ll probably never get a quality Divine Comedy film.

Watched on Sunday May 11, 2025.

Watched on Saturday May 10, 2025.

Watched on Thursday May 8, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday April 30, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 29, 2025.

Watched on Monday April 28, 2025.

Watched on Thursday April 24, 2025.

Watched on Thursday April 10, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday April 9, 2025.

Watched on Friday April 4, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 1, 2025.

Watched on Sunday March 30, 2025.

Watched on Friday March 28, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday March 26, 2025.

One of the greatest experiences in a theatre I’ve ever had. Seeing this on the big screen elevates everything that makes this insane movie special.

Watched on Thursday March 20, 2025.

Watched on Monday March 17, 2025.

Watched on Thursday March 13, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday March 12, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday March 11, 2025.

Beautiful in more ways than one, but it really felt like the deeper themes never make it to the surface. There's some sort of commentary here, it just doesn't land.

Watched on Saturday March 1, 2025.

1. My Favourite Film

“Mulholland Drive is all dream” (Roger Ebert).

Mulholland Drive is my favourite film because it epitomizes a worldview which continues to cast its influence on me to this day. In two and a half hours, Lynch tells a story in which fiction is truth and dreams are just as essential as reality. While the film is often characterized as bizarre and impenetrable, I believe Mulholland Drive may be one of the best attempts ever made to capture the subjectivity, with all of its inherent subtleties, of a person’s internal world. Through the character of Diane/Betty, what is deeply personal becomes universal, because for each person, life is deeply personal.

In the film’s first two bewildering hours, we are presented with a series of scenes that operate with their own internal dream-like logic. At first, characters seem to be introduced at random. A woman is in a car accident; a series of phone calls are made; a wide-eyed girl gets off a plane; a man has a waking nightmare in a diner. Eventually, we start to spend more time with Betty and Rita, and can discern that these are our protagonists. Two hours later, these women sit in Club Silencio, and a twist is revealed: Betty is Diane and what we have just watched is an elaborate fantasy in which she is attempting to shield her psyche from the hit she has successfully placed on her ex-lover, Camilla Rhodes.

There are endless essays on the particular ways in which Diane’s story is fed through Betty’s fantasies. One of the best parts about watching Mulholland Drive for the first, second, and now sixth time, has been drawing the parallels between their stories. Yet, with each successive view, I have become more convinced that these parallels are not just a set of easter eggs to be solved for our amusement. Rather, I believe that this entertaining and very worthwhile exercise is secondary to the meta-themes which define the film. Betty’s story is not simply analogous to Diane’s, it is the form and content of Diane’s psyche. Her inner world catalyzes and sustains the actions which lead to her supposed suicide. Her dreams are at the core of her reality.

2. Dreams as Truth

“The dream shows the inner truth and reality of the patient as it really is: not as I conjecture it to be, and not as he would like it to be, but as it is” (Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections).

Diane’s story is a straightforward narrative about a failed actress who endures continual humiliation from an industry she idolizes as she becomes progressively more jealous towards an ex-girlfriend whom she eventually calls a hit on. Betty’s story is of an aspiring actress who chases her dreams in LA, but along the way becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding an amnesiac woman who she falls in love with, and an industry which is corrupted by a dangerous conspiracy. Of the two, Betty’s story is far more entertaining, but this is hardly a competition. We follow Betty for the lion’s share of the film, and her story is told in an endlessly engaging and unpredictably surreal manner. Hers is a world we can retreat into: there’s espionage, threatening cowboys, and even Billy Ray Cyrus. When we leave Betty’s world and enter Diane’s, the film becomes colder. We have entered the ‘real world’, in which life has consequences and time marches forward. Still, Diane’s story becomes one we empathize with. Despite its 30-minute runtime, we carry what we have learned about Betty into all of Diane’s encounters. We treat them as the same person because even though Betty is ‘fictional’, the dreams and desires which she embodies are the ones which define Diane.

At the core of Diane’s predicament is the ever-widening chasm between who she is and who she wants to be. The nature of this chasm is defined by how Betty differs from Diane. The first major difference between the two women is their outlook on life. Betty is wide-eyed and optimistic. Hollywood is a place where dreams come true and stars are made. She wants to not just be a movie star, but a great actress…or perhaps, both. Diane is nihilistic and bitter, having completely given up on her dream. Except, on closer inspection, she hasn’t. Those who have given up on their dreams don’t fantasize about who they wish they had been. There’s a crucial psychological truth that Mulholland Drive taps into about what hopelessness is. The belief that one can’t achieve their dreams does not mean they no longer desire them. The learned helplessness hypothesis is a sham, for if it was really true, a ‘hopeless’ person would no longer crave their fantasy — they would simply give up. Diane has not given up because if she had, her story would be defined by inaction. Rather, in her desperation, she commits an act of spiteful violence to do away with the constant reminders of her failure.

Betty’s world is a form of wish fulfillment, the term for when a person tries to satisfy their unconscious desires in their dreams or fantasies. In her fantasy, Betty is a do-gooder who tries to help others. When she meets Rita, a beautiful amnesiac, she does her best to keep her safe. Yet, Betty is not the only figment of Diane’s fantasy; the entire cast and context of the world she inhabits is. Betty is not just helping a woman in trouble, she is intentionally placing herself in a position of power over the woman who has scorned her. Her dreams betray her true feelings far more than first realized. Betty may be naive and kind-hearted, but she is also the sole agent in control of Rita. The love of her life has become entirely reliant on her — a reliance which Rita, on multiple occasions, expresses gratitude for. Despite being the one with all the power, Betty is portrayed as a virginal innocent who is eventually seduced by a seductive Rita. For Betty’s fantasy to satisfy her, she must have control and be the primary object of desire. Betty’s faux innocence is subsequently unraveled when she continually exclaims that she is ‘in love’ with Rita. Now that the conditions have been met in which she is both powerful and desired, she can express her true feelings. Making love to Rita is only half the wish-fulfillment, the rest is all contextual.

As an audience we, like Rita, completely fall for Betty’s innocence. When she auditions for a role and the older co-star begins to act creepy and coercive, our visceral reaction is to be protective of her. But we are thrown a curveball. Underneath her perfect innocence is a world-class acting performance that ‘feels real’, an effect that is all the more powerful because it follows an hour of unreal, sitcom-like acting. As soon as it’s over, Betty drops back into her uncanny doe-eyed optimism. In this moment, the ‘acting’ seems real and the ‘real’ appears like acting. This open-manipulation of the audience is the first time it is clear that what we are seeing is orchestrated. As viewers, we become conscious that Betty is not only a kind and innocent woman to be protected, but that she also possesses a powerful edge which, in this case, manifests as artistic brilliance. Our exposure to this tension, between naive innocence and edgy genius, places us firmly in the contradictions which comprise Diane’s delusions. What separates us from Rita is that, because we are not products of Diane’s mental construction, we are jarred by this display of contradiction. While I will discuss the implications of this blatant orchestration later — particularly in the context of Club Silencio — the important takeaway here is that Betty’s audition is a crucial demonstration of agency within the delusion. Diane’s fantasy is revealed to be dynamically constructed, willing to reshape the building blocks of reality — both in form (the darker shift in tone) and in content (Betty’s acting performance) — to satisfy the goals of her wish-fulfillment.

The intentionality of Diane’s construction is clear in other elements of her fantasy. For instance, it is not random that in the ‘Betty’ version of Adam Kesher’s storyline, he is made out to be a cuck. As a form of justice, the man who stole Camilla from Diane has now had his wife stolen from him. The humiliation he endures, as he gets shouted at by an entirely uncaring wife and punched in the face by Billy Ray Cyrus, is an expression of Diane’s own pain. Adam’s wife couldn’t care less about him, just like Diane has made herself believe Camilla doesn’t either. It is also more than a happy coincidence that the elaborate conspiracy which prevents Betty’s career from taking off involves a plot in which Adam is humiliated by his producers: he loses all his money and, under potentially the threat of his own life, has to choose an actress against his will.

Mulholland Drive is fascinating because it depicts a fantasy, fully realized. The fantasy is more than just a peek at what Diane wants; the entire fantasy oozes with her hangups and neuroses. Consequently, the way in which Betty’s fantasy reflects Diane’s reality reveals more about Diane’s inner truth than any alternative way in which the film could have been presented. It is not the story as Diane or Betty would like it to be, but ‘as it is’. Betty’s story nails a sense of subjectivity because its elaborate attempts to avoid the truth are filled with holes. It is in these holes where the truth lies.

Yet, this subjectivity extends to Diane’s story as well. She may be presented as the ‘real’ one, but ultimately, both stories are housed within a fictional film called Mulholland Drive. While Diane’s perspective may be closer to the factual elements that have occurred, we still view the events through her subjective eyes. Her experience is akin to a waking dream. For example, Adam and Camilla’s announcement that they intend to be married appears to be entirely orchestrated as a plot to humiliate Diane. Their sneers, side-eyes and private laughs are clearly a product of Diane’s biased perception. If this is true, how are they really behaving? I believe the point of such a framing is that it may not matter. This is how it is to Diane, so this is what is true for her.

That film can show us the stories of characters so we can immerse ourselves in their lives and learn from their experiences is an incredible thing. But so often, the films we watch show us what is happening ’to’ its characters. We get an external picture. A character loses a job — that must be hard for them. A character experiences a breakup — they must feel quite lonely. A character loses a family member — they must miss them. We are continuously faced with the events which comprise the lives of others and, if we are empathetic, we try to imagine what it is like to be them. In the best kinds of films, our cues to empathize are strengthened and reinforced by a talented actor/actress portraying their emotions in as convincing a manner as they can. Mulholland Drive takes its call for empathy further by not only presenting us with a flawed protagonist — who is, by all s, a murderer — but showing the machinations of her psyche, putting us in the fully embodied (both internal and external) point-of-view of someone who spends everyday as themselves, with themselves. When ‘Diane’ is revealed, we don’t find an excuse for her pain. Our empathy isn’t reliant on any excuses. We empathize because we’ve come to know her intimately, “as she is.”

What Mulholland Drive demonstrates so well, is that our desires are more than just what we want — they define how we construct the narratives of our lives. The wide chasm between who Diane is and who she wants to be is the source of her pain, and often, the source of ours. And so, our empathy is not ultimately derived from the fact that we know Diane has had it rough, but from knowing that inside her, lives a Betty.

3. Dreams as Confrontation

“I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself” (Herman Hesse, Demian).

What makes Betty’s fantasy feel so real is its dynamic nature. At many points in time throughout the film, her shadow — the aspects of her consciousness which she refuses to acknowledge — attempts to break through. We are not only watching a fantasy, we are watching someone striving to maintain their fantasy in the face of inevitable ruin. While there are small signs of this tension everywhere, the scene in the diner serves as the roap for Diane’s internal conflict.

The diner scene is a dream within a dream, representing Diane’s inner turmoil in a manner that is far more abstracted and symbolic than the more direct parallels we see in Betty’s story. The qualities of this scene are far more like a dream than what will follow. In the scene, a man sits in a diner with his friend and recounts a nightmare he’s had. As he speaks, the camera bobs ever so slightly, like we are witnessing the POV of a dreamer. The man, who looks very disturbed, explains that in his dream he was in a diner, just like the Winky’s they’re currently at. He describes the time of day as “half-night”, an irrational but dreamily coherent way of describing the ineffable environments we find ourselves in when we dream. In his dream, his terror mounts, until he realizes that someone outside is “doing it.” In reference to that someone, the man says that he hopes he never sees him “outside of a dream.” His friend appears confused and gets up to pay the bill, but at the cash , the man realizes that his dream is playing out before him. The two go and investigate behind the Winky’s and encounter the monster, causing the man to faint in fear. This seemingly impenetrable scene is the clue for unlocking the conflict that plagues Diane. She, like the man in her dream, cannot accept the truth of what she has done and who she has become. By the end of the film, we realize that this monster lives within Diane, but for now, she isn’t ready to perceive this ugly truth. Like the man, Diane knows that something is wrong, but she does not want to see it out of her dreams; or, put another way, she cannot allow the truth of her crimes and tortured psyche to spill from her nightmares into the real world. Except, our dreams reflect our reality, so, one way or another, the truth will fight its way to the surface. The man’s collapse signals a failure to confront, and it is from this failure that we wake to Betty’s story. In lieu of symbolically accepting the truth of her dream, we must transcend to her fantasy — one which is constructed from far more palatable elements — if we are to navigate our way to the truth.

When Betty arrives at LAX, she is seen off by an elderly couple. The identity of this couple is a mystery. While their conversation suggests Betty met them on the flight from Deep River Ontario, we are only a few minutes out from the opening Jitterbug Competition sequence in which they seemed to have also attended. Putting their unclear identities aside, it is the nature of their conversation which is especially strange. From the terribly overdubbed dialogue, it is clear that there is something inherently fake about the interaction. Our suspicions prove correct as, after parting ways, the elderly couple sits in the back of a limo with uncanny grins which signify that something is very, very wrong.

Next, Betty arrives at her beautiful new apartment and meets Coco, who leads her to her unit. On the way, Betty almost steps in dog poop in the courtyard, which is zoomed in on twice. It may sound absurd, but poo, in dreams, is said to represent the need to let go and change, as well as our fears or concerns about feeling inadequate. Its symbolism is derived from the fact that it is the ultimate mess: waste material which comes from us and must be disposed of. This subtle symbol of disruption, right as Betty is about to enter her dream apartment, signifies that what she is keeping from herself, what she has not dealt with, is right there in front of her. That night, Louise Bonner, the mysterious neighbour, delivers a scary omen to the two woman. She claims that something bad is going to happen. This dark omen portends Diane’s ruin, but luckily enough, Coco appears to put an end to this disruption. The next day, after finding the dead body of Diane, the women run into the courtyard in fear, their bodies tracing after them like they are being torn apart. After this, Rita and Betty work together to maintain their identities. They help each other stay in the dream, even going so far as to have Rita wear a matching blonde wig.

What is fascinating about these disruptions is the way in which they become progressively more apparent to Betty. The elderly couple’s grins may hint at a sinister truth, but Betty, by design, never sees it. The poo in the yard is a disruption which Betty does see, but Coco is quick to take her away. Louise Bonner’s omen actively disturbs Betty, but once again, Coco comes to the rescue. And finally, the discovery of Diane’s body is so devastating that it threatens the integrity of Betty and Rita’s place in Diane’s dreamworld. Yet, like every prior disruption, it is with the help of those around her that Betty can continue on the road that will inevitably lead her to Club Silencio.

Now, if we accept that this is some form of a dream, then we also understand that everyone within the dream is an aspect of Diane. Our nightmares do not exist purely to terrify us; often, even the scariest dreams contain minor calls to action — small encouragements from somewhere deep inside to resolve the issues that plague our lives. On a second, third, or in this case, sixth watch, you can see the way in which characters both service Betty’s dreams, playing into her fantasies and wishes, while also trying to slowly guide her to the truth. If our dreams enabled us to live in fantasy forever, Betty would go on to become a famous actress and spend her life with Rita. But the architecture of the dream demands a slow spiral to the truth. The people Betty interacts with may serve a variety of roles in her delusion, but their ultimate purpose is to facilitate growth. Rita is both an objectified alternative to Camilla, whom Betty can direct and control, and the catalyst for Betty to go on an adventure that will ultimately expose her. Despite our perception that Rita is oblivious, she serves as Betty’s guide, taking her from mystery to revelation. Even our wildest fantasies are infused with a moral quality, subtly hinting at who we ought to become.

The sequence at Club Silencio operates on several different levels. First, it symbolizes the fact that Betty’s life is a constructed performance; both Betty and the world she inhabits are not real. When we’re told that, despite the sound of a band playing, there is no band, we are presented with a metaphor for Betty’s false reality. This realization strikes Betty somewhere deep, causing her to shake uncontrollably. I interpret this as the moment when she is symbolically called out for the false fantasy she has constructed, and, being so close to the truth, is almost ejected from her dream. The only reason she doesn’t wake up is because Rita holds her in place — another moment when Rita preserves the integrity of the dream.

On a deeper level, I think Club Silencio is making a wider comment about the role of art, fiction, fantasy and dreams. What is fictional may be make, but it is often real enough to us. When Betty and Rita watch Rebekah Del Rio sing, they begin to cry. They are filled with emotion. Yet, just moments earlier, they were repeatedly told that what they are hearing is entirely fake. Despite the consistent warnings, when Rebekah Del Rio drops to the floor and her singing continues, Betty and Rita are still shocked. This is what watching a film is like. You spend the whole intro reading the opening credits in which real people’s names are listed. It’s an implicit sign that what you are about to see is a production. But every time — assuming the film is at least decent — we get sucked in. Even within this film, Betty’s audition plays with this idea: we are presented with an acting performance that feels far more ‘real’ than anything that came before, thereby calling into question our conception of what constitutes reality. Regardless of what is real, we are still filled with emotion when the characters we identify with find success or failure. These powerful emotional responses are meaningful to us and may even have the ability to affect our lives. So, if the emotions we feel are real, and our behaviour changes accordingly, what does it mean when we argue that fiction isn’t real?

The ending of Mulholland Drive depicts the end of both a dream and a life. It gives me chills every time and often fills me with powerful emotions that are hard to describe. In horrifying detail, we witness the moment when the fantasy can no longer hold, and the full psychological repercussions of Diane’s actions catch up with her. The imagery of those elderly characters, running towards her with sinister grins plastered across their faces, is an artistic choice that abandons realism. But Lynch trusts that, as humans who possess our own sets of desires, expectations, and, most importantly, dreams, we will ‘feel’ the truth of what is happening. Imagine the same scene, but it is simply Diane crying hysterically on her bed until she eventually commits suicide. We would see that she’s sad and, to some degree, we would understand why she’s sad. Yet, it is only because we have peered through the window into her internal dreamworld, that we understand the magnitude of her despair. Do the elderly couple represent the expectations, familial or otherwise, that mock her? Are they her grandparents, a personification of everyone she’s disappointed back home? Is it both? Or does it perhaps lose some of its bite to put it into words. David Foster Wallace once compared suicide to the act of jumping from a burning high-rise: the fear of falling is still present, but the terror from the psychological flames that plague them is worse. By the end of Mulholland Drive, we have become intimately familiar with the qualities of Diane’s mental flames. We are witnessing a more accurate depiction of her despair because we are placed inside her nightmare — just as we have a better understanding of who she is because we know her dreams.

4. The Art Life

“I don't know why people expect art to make sense. They accept the fact that life doesn't make sense” (David Lynch).

Mulholland Drive may be typically billed as a confusing and trippy movie, but emotionally, it’s entirely coherent. Once the film is finished, all of the small surreal flourishes that are initially so confusing become easier to digest. These quirky details are not elements of the plot to decipher, because the mystery is not what happened. By the end of the film, we already know enough: Diane is a woman whose despair and jealousy led her to call a hit on her ex-lover and, as a result of the guilt that torments her, she commits suicide. What has happened is clear. The true mystery lies in who it happened to. Contrary to other films which embrace ambiguous storytelling, the clues left for the audience to solve are all about delving deeper into the complexity of Diane as a person. Betty’s story is not a roap for interpreting the plot, but more like a cipher for making sense of what should be considered the greatest depiction of a person’s psyche in cinema.

It’s hard to know the degree to which Lynch was influenced by Carl Jung. While Mark Frost, the co-creator of Twin Peaks, is an open Jungian, Lynch’s focus has always been more on advocating for transcendental meditation. In his book Catching the Big Fish, he repeatedly discusses how, while we may live our lives as conscious individuals, there is a Unified Field that unites us all. In Lynch’s view, everything is like a collective dream shared by humanity. For him, films are an extension of that collective dream, and a conduit for us to empathize with each other. The life and dream we are shown in Mulholland Drive is a tale so personal that it takes on a universal quality. The way we relate to Diane and Betty’s story calls into question how we relate to those around us. How much effort do we actually make to recognize that the actions of others are motivated by an internal world as complex as ours, with dreams and nightmares that mirror our own. To the degree that we internalize this empathic act of perspective-taking, the way we see the world meaningfully changes. If there is a concrete message which Lynch aimed to communicate through Mulholland Drive, I believe it would be this. So, in a way, the Cowboy is right: our attitude goes some ways to the way our lives will be.

Mulholland Drive is a cautionary tale about what it means to run from yourself and avoid uncomfortable truths. It’s also a call to action, urging us to transcend to a higher state of awareness by taking of our dreams and desires, lest we be ruled by them. Even further, it’s a plea for empathy and a dismissal of the false dichotomies in which we perceive and judge others. Good and Evil are convenient constructs that allow us to categorize people in our lives into those who do good and those who do bad. For those who view people this way, ignorance is bliss. The true burden, however, lies in attempting to understand the ‘why.’ If we simply watched a film about Diane’s life, we would see why she did what she did; by viewing her internal world, we ‘feel’ why. As Diane dies, we are shown an overlay of both Betty’s hopeful face and the monster’s dark eyes. Diane, Betty, and the monster are all aspects of the same person. Like Diane, each of us contains these multitudes: how we present ourselves to the world (Diane), our deepest desires — simultaneously selfish and pure (Betty) — and the monstrous darkness that lurks behind our diner, which “we don’t ever want to see outside of a dream.” If we can recognize these multitudes in ourselves, and experience this complexity in art, perhaps we can extend that same grace to those with whom we share our lives.

Horrifying

Watched on Sunday February 16, 2025.

Watched on Friday February 14, 2025.

Watched on Thursday February 13, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday February 12, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday February 5, 2025.

Drove an hour each way for a screening in Waterloo. The theatre was packed, filled with mostly elderly people, which I’m unsure if I should be surprised by. It followed a moving tribute for Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s taken me years to watch this because I had seen so many bits and pieces over the years (and I believe we watched the last half in high school?)

Powerful and emotional. It’s really a cut above the rest of Spielberg’s filmography. It works as a character study, an epic and a historical tribute. Just masterful.

Minor thematic spoilers: 

Feeling overwhelmed.

Was already one of my favourites and seeing it on the big screen only affirms this. I really want to write something long and detailed that can express how I’m feeling and why this film touches me the way it does…there’s something biblical (in the figurative sense) about the way Marcello moves through episodes of emptiness. Generic, unfocused pleasure leads to indifference and indifference leads to spiritual death. La Dolce Vita is as filled with meaning as its character’s are without any.

Knowing these broken people were not always broken humanizes their meaninglessness. There are subtle nods to this. Coming first to mind is Marcello’s final conversation with his father. Second is his proclamation of Sylvia as divine, objectifying what’s beautiful to fill a spiritual hole. Third, and probably most importantly, is Paola, who serves as a (by the end of the film, painful) reminder that the sweet life is not something to be bought and consumed, but is a way in which one orients themselves towards life — a commitment that must be continually made to suffuse the episodes of our lives with warmth and optimism.

If I could expand on this further, it would be on my visceral reaction that truthfully hit me like a ton of bricks. Knowing this is a movie I love still didn’t prepare me for that. Maybe I’ll add more to this later, or maybe Letterboxd isn’t the place to do a full excavation on my psyche.

Vantablack comedy. Caught a free screening at UofT and I'm incredibly appreciative to the full theatre who suffered through this with me.

"You know about death, that it's just a change, not an end."

Rest easy Mr. Lynch, and thank you for everything.

Watched on Sunday January 12, 2025.

Watched on Saturday January 11, 2025.

Watched on Thursday January 9, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday January 7, 2025.

Okay wait, so this was basically gothic Babygirl.

The highs were really high but the lows dragged. I feel like I’m being too harsh on this because the original Nosferatu is on a very short list of silent films which I more than just appreciate. It was pleasantly surreal to see Nosferatu’s strange plot play out in 2024.

I think I may change this to a higher rating later. I’m not exactly sure what stopped me from fully embracing this. It looked great, the actors were very strong (especially Lily Rose Depp), the costumes and effects were really cool, and some of the visual motifs and call backs got me good…I just don’t know.

EDIT: Turns out, I had to sleep on it. I like this much more today. Maybe Orlok visited me in my dreams. From 3.5 -> 4.

-Hell yeah
-Bringing kink back to the silver screen
-Better than I thought it would be (both in of enjoyment and what I think was the director's intent)
-Can't ignore this is 25 years post Eyes Wide Shut
-Nicole Kidman and Harris lived in their roles, can't think of a duo who would've done this better
-Killer soundtrack
-Date night is watching fetish content (with a moral?) in a room full of people
-Huge for the dairy industry

Watched on Wednesday January 1, 2025.

Watched on Monday December 30, 2024.

Watched on Tuesday December 24, 2024.

Watched 31/52

Finished 16/52 by end of 2023

letterboxd.conexionsite.com/benvsthemovies/list/the-criterion-challenge-2023/

Deleted: Battle of Algiers; Kes; Ghost Dog, the Ascent, Dying at Grace, Fish Tank; The Phantom Carriage

6: Kes

10: Last Story of Chrysanthemum, Happy Together, Scenes from a Marriage (If alternative watched first before Fish Tank, make I, Daniel Blake, #21, Certified Copy #50)

11,12: Center Stage and Irma Vep

21: Fish Tank; Secrets and Lies; Kes

23: Salo, Seconds, Safe

28: Scenes From a Marriage

34: Kagemusha

39: Blow Up, Rumblefish (replace 22 to Being There), Dead Man, Alice in the Cities

17: Magnificent Andersons, Faces,

22: Being There (if Rumble Fish is used for #39), The Parallax View

24: Gilda

26: Lola, Rushmore, Ballad of Narayama

29: Charade, Monterey Pop

45: Mouchette, Playtime

Matter of Life and Death

1. An Actor's Revenge
2. La Promesse
3. Flowers of Shanghai
4. Dead Ringers
5. Ossos
6. Bringing Up Baby
7. Sans Soleil
8. Jimi Plays Monterey
9. Black Panthers
10. Certified Copy

...plus 42 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Ranked except documentaries and mini-series are just put at the bottom because they are not conventional films.

1. Eyes Wide Shut
2. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
3. Three Colours: Red
4. Exotica
5. La Belle Noiseuse
6. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
7. Cure
8. GoodFellas
9. A Brighter Summer Day
10. Pulp Fiction

...plus 45 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Ranked except documentaries and mini-series are just put at the bottom because they are not conventional films.

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Yi Yi
3. Before Sunset
4. The Best of Youth
5. Werckmeister Harmonies
6. Inland Empire
7. Synecdoche, New York
8. Love Exposure
9. Spirited Away
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

...plus 41 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Updated every 10 films. If I watch 10 films and none make it in, then I will add one I've already seen.

Films are loosely ordered, except for the final 4 which are placed chronologically as film series that are better considered as whole.

# of films first watched in 2021: 38
# of films first watched in 2022: 34
# of films first watched in 2023: 20

Series that could be included:
-Kingdom I,II, and Exodus
-Up Series
-Neon Genesis Evangelion
-Serial Experiment Lain

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Fanny and Alexander
3. Eyes Wide Shut
4. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
5. Ikiru
6. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
7. Three Colours: Red
8. Stalker
9. Apocalypse Now
10. It's a Wonderful Life

...plus 149 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Have seen 52/52
My films selected for the Criterion 2022 challenge: letterboxd.conexionsite.com/benvsthemovies/list/the-criterion-challenge-2022/

Finished 32 in 2022, finished the whole list on May 11, 2025

1. After Life
2. Nosferatu
3. City Lights
4. Rome, Open City
5. Diary of a Country Priest
6. Last Year at Marienbad
7. Céline and Julie Go Boating
8. Taipei Story
9. Life, and Nothing More…
10. Fat Girl

...plus 42 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

letterboxd.conexionsite.com/benvsthemovies/list/the-criterion-challenge-2021/

Finished 40/52 by End of 2021
Completed: Dec 30, 2024

1. Fanny and Alexander
2. Stray Dog
3. Breathless
4. Rosemary's Baby
5. North by Northwest
6. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
7. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
8. Y Tu Mamá También
9. The Gold Rush
10. Convict 13

...plus 42 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

If nothing from the year is 4.5 or above, I will not include the year.

1. Sherlock Jr.
2. Faust
3. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
4. The ion of Joan of Arc
5. M
6. Design for Living
7. It Happened One Night
8. Grand Illusion
9. The Rules of the Game
10. Citizen Kane

...plus 81 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1998-2024

• Buffalo '66
• Eyes Wide Shut
• In the Mood for Love
• Y Tu Mamá También
• City of God
• The Best of Youth
• Sideways
• Caché
• The Fall
• Smiley Face

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

Films I saw years ago that I need to see again

• Under the Skin
• Belle de Jour
• Wild Strawberries
• Tokyo Story
• Romeo and Juliet

Ranked except documentaries and mini-series are just put at the bottom because they are not conventional films.

1. The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
2. Amour
3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
4. Blade Runner 2049
5. An Elephant Sitting Still
6. Parasite
7. Carol
8. Climax
9. I Saw the Devil
10. Shame

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

NFF: Nigel Film Festival

Opening Night (Thursday): Paper Moon

Day 1: Morally Grey (Friday)
The Searchers
Mother
Badlands
Paths of Glory
California Split
The Act of Killing
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Thief (Midnight Madness)
Army of Shadows (Centrepiece)

Day 2: Taste of Italy (Saturday)
Bicycle Thieves
Il Soro
Rome, Open City
Nights of Cabiria
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Midnight Madness)
Rocco and his Brothers (Centrepiece)

Day 3: Life of a Samurai (Sunday)
Yojimbo
Harakiri
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Tampopo (Midnight Madness)
Ran (Centrepiece)

Day 4: 'Old' Classics (Monday)
Design for Living
The Rules of the Game
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Sullivan's Travels (Midnight Madness)
The Red Shoes (Centrepiece)

Day 5: Anime is good (Tuesday)
Grave of the Fireflies
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Waltz with Bashir
Paprika (Midnight Madness)
Princess Mononoke (Centrepiece)

Day 6: Potpourri (Wednesday)
The Last Picture Show
Bottle Rocket
A Separation
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Midnight Madness)
Jean de Florette (Centrepiece)
Manon of the Spring (Centrepiece)

Day 7: Unsolved Murder (Thursday)
High and Low
Shadow of a Doubt
The Third Man
M
Diabolique (Midnight Madness)
Memories of Murder (Centrepiece)

Day 8: 'Modern' Classics (Friday)
Nashville
La Haine
Wild Strawberries
Blade Runner 2049 (Midnight Madness)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Centrepiece)

Day 9: Love (Saturday)
Before Sunset
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Palm Springs
Before Midnight (Midnight Madness)
Short Cuts (Centrepiece)

Day 10: Life-Affirming (Sunday)
Amélie
Paddington 2
Where is the Friend's House?
The Young Girls of Rochefort (Midnight Madness)
Yi-Yi (Centrepiece)

Closing Night: Fanny and Alexander

1. Paper Moon
2. The Searchers
3. Mother
4. Badlands
5. Paths of Glory
6. California Split
7. The Act of Killing
8. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
9. Thief
10. Army of Shadows

...plus 49 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Aftersun

  Session #1: She Comes First
  (Debut films by women)
  Picked by Max

• Lady Bird

  Session #1: She Comes First
  (Debut films by women)
  Picked by Isabel

• Hook

  Session #2: Lil Stinkers
  (Under 30% on Rotten Tomatoes)
  Picked by Zach

• Pompeii

  Session #2: Lil Stinkers
  (Under 30% on Rotten Tomatoes)
  Picked by Adam

• Palm Springs

  Session #3: Time is of the Essence
  (Short movies about time travel)
  Picked by Isabel

• Primer

  Session #3: Time is of the Essence
  (Short movies about time travel)
  Picked by Adam

• La Jetée

  Session #3: Time is of the Essence (Bonus Short Film)
  (Short movies about time travel)
  Picked by Adam

• Bottle Rocket

  Session #4: Not Like Other Heist Girls
  (Unconventional heist movies)
  Picked by Zach

• Sexy Beast

  Session #4: Not Like Other Heist Girls
  (Unconventional heist movies)
  Picked by Max

• The Big Chill

  Session #5: Memory
  (Films related to memory)
  Picked by Eben

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

• The ion of Joan of Arc
• City Lights
• M
• The Rules of the Game
• Citizen Kane
• Sullivan's Travels
• Laura
• Rome, Open City
• It's a Wonderful Life
• The Red Shoes

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.