Ryan McNeil
The baseball playoffs have been taking a healthy bite out of my watching habits lately (try to act surprised) as has a slightly nutty social calendar (okay, you can stop acting surprised now).
It’s funny though – the part of me that uses sites like Letterboxd and Goodreads feels a slight pang of shame in seeing my log listings slip. Like I’m not “doing as much” as others I know on both aggregates. That feeling spills over to this moment every week when I check in with you fine folks to rhyme-off my comings and goings for the week. However, that feeling is temporary. It’s tempered with a deeper rationalization that “they’re just movies”, or “they’re just books”, or “it’s just TV”. When I look back on a week gone by, I’d rather be able to say that it was a week where I spent a day with my extended family, an evening with my parents, and a night with a friend at improv than say “I watched twelve movies”
Don’t get me wrong, there have been lots of fun weeks where I’ve watched that many movies – and there will probably be more before the year is out. I just mean to say that I feel like there is more to all of this than just checking off boxes. Heck, even this series of entries. Sure it’s nice to catch up with everybody like this once a week (and admittedly takes very little brain power)…but the moment I figure out a better idea for my Saturday entries, I’ll be more than happy to shuffle off this series.
So even though it’s coming on the time of year when a lot of the good stuff is coming, let’s all try to strive for balance, shall we? Let’s watch our movies, read our books, follow our sports, and play our video games…but let’s try to offset those indulgences with a bit more quality time with others.
After all, I don’t think anyone has been on their deathbed and muttered that they wish they’d been able to watch more movies before their number was up.
Here’s The Week at Hand…
Screenings
FURY – This could have been so much better
BIRDMAN – I’/m a believer
WHIPLASH – I had to get past a wild amount of hype, but thoughts on this gem will drop tomorrow.
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
THE SMILING LIEUTENANT – I need to watch more movies where people sing over breakfast
JESUS CAMP – With Halloween coming, I’ll be hard pressed to watch anything scarier than this.
NIGHT AND DAY – I feel the urge to download a lot of Cole Porter now
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Seen Before
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS- It works for Halloween and for Christmas. Expect another viewing before we flip the calendar.
Boxscore for The Year
234 First-Timers, 164 Re-Watched
87 Screenings
398 Movies in Total
First-Timers: North by Northwest, my Blind Spot assignment in El Topo, Prince of Darkness, I Confess, and later tonight, The Holy Mountain.
Re-Watches: The Long Kiss Goodnight and The Emperor’s Club.
I’ve seen a few movies with varying degrees of quality this week. Several of them I even did articles for in my blog so I’ll put the links to those ones as well in my list. There were some I only saw part of as well, some I watched willingly and others I was forced to watch, and a few I only got to see part of for one reason or another.
Movies I watched in full:
-ReAnimator: fun movie, but it was a bit annoying because it was a last minute swap in my blindspot list because my DVD copy of the film I was supposed to watch wasn’t working properly. (http://hitchcocksworld.blogspot.ca/2014/10/october-2014-blindspot-challenge-re.html)
-Ms. 45: Actually a pretty well-executed thriller with some compelling action and a strong anti-heroine. (http://hitchcocksworld.blogspot.ca/2014/10/ms-45-and-urban-vigilantes.html)
-Mother: I know somewhere in Russia there has got to be something about their film industry I can get into. Unfortunately Soviet Montage cinema is not it, or at least this one wasn’t
-Rambo: First Blood Part II: Somehow going in EXPECTING it to be bad was setting my standards too high. (http://hitchcocksworld.blogspot.ca/2014/10/rambo-ii-this-time-its-not-rambo-1.html)
-Chariots of Fire: I won’t hail it as any great masterpiece but it was a pretty well-executed film.
Partially seen:
-The Birds: This was supposed to be my blindspot for this month but in an improbably twist of fate I managed to get the one copy that had a manufacturing defect that made it hard to watch. The tiny portion that I did see seemed pretty good, though.
-Winter’s Bone: It started off okay, but I found myself shutting it off halfway through because I got confused about what was happening.
Family time, or just non-movie time, is always a good thing. Movies will be there later.
For me it was all first timers:
The Host (2006)
Hex After Hex
The House on Skull Mountain
The Beyond
It’s funny that you talk about balance and still list seven movies. I’ve been doing basically everything but watch films lately, and it’s been great! I was getting burned out. I did watch two films this week:
EDGE OF TOMORROW – really enjoyed it. I’m a fan of time travel films, and time loops are especially fun. The raves were not over stated.
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST – more time travel! I felt like this was well done, had good acting, and nice action. Even so, I wasn’t blown away by it. It was solid and entertaining, so no big complaints. It just won’t be making any top 10 lists soon.
It’s been a good week. DYING to watch Birdman and Whiplash! I have a pretty good feeling that I won’t get to see either of them this year though *sigh*
Firsts: Gone Girl– Too blown away by Pike to think about other stuff in this film.
The Innocents– Quite creepy and beautiful.
Teeth– I loved it 😛 It was hilarious. Totally appropriate to watch it in the same week as Gone Girl too.
White Bird in a Blizzard– The twist in it almost ruined the film for me. Eva Green is amazing as always.
Stranger by the Lake– Gorgeous and thrilling. Loved it.
The First Time– I thought it was v. cute though that might be my bias towards Dylan O’Brien speaking.
Listen Up Philip– I found it tedious, almost insufferable. The performances are great but god, this gave me a headache!
Gloria– Absolutely lovely.
The Boxtrolls– So cute.
Show Me Love– I need to watch more Lukas Moodysson films. I like them.
Rewatched: Guardians of the Galaxy– Watched it on my flight. Still the #2 film of this year for me.
We Are the Best!– And this is still my #1. Wonder if Birdman will change that…
LOVE The Nightmare Before Christmas. Totally agree that it works for both holidays. Definitely a favorite of mine for the season. Maybe someone should call it Thanksgiving since it’s right in the middle . . .