"Straight down the line"

   And here they are! the 11th-15th movies I watched this year, as seen in this post:

1. Casino Royale (06)
2. Double Indemnity (44)
3. Drive (11)
4. Mildred Pierce (45)
5. Not Another Happy Ending (13)

    The next step you should really take in your life is to watch Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce at your soonest opportunity, this is not a drill. They are both masterpieces and let's face it, you are doing yourself zero favours by missing out on them. Watch more film noir, you will not regret it. ALSO: film noir is definitely what my term paper is about and boy howdy I have never used the word "fatalistic" so much in a paper in my LIFE. For reference, some film noir keywords: fatalistic, pessimistic, corrupt, hopeless. Fun!

   If you are on the hunt for a podcast where two people who clearly love movies sit down and talk about movies, then may I suggest The Canon? They had an episode about Casino Royale and after listening to it I said "they are right, it IS a great movie" and had a serious James Bond hankering until I phoned my brother and said "WE ARE WATCHING CASINO ROYALE TONIGHT I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY." And even though it's the only James Bond movie I've seen I still love it, and still say things like "but this movie shows us WHY James Bond is James Bond!" as if I am an authority on James Bond.

   I could go on and on and on and on about Drive and how fantastic it is, but I will spare you because I have never seen a movie be so polarizing as Drive is (except maybe The Fountain, but I don't know why because that movie is a cinematic triumph). A friend of mine and I have had long, drawn-out, in earnest conversations about why Drive is amazing (my opinion) and why Drive is terrible (her opinion). People seem to either LOVE it or to HATE it, with little leeway in between. BUT Drive is, indisputably, neo-noir, and I partly chose to write about film noir because it meant watching and writing about Drive. I read the book last year, it was good. I always want to be the Driver for Halloween. What I will say about Drive is that it does exactly what it sets out to do.

   Every once in a while you watch a whole bunch of movies about murder and mayhem and you just really need a palate cleanser. And so you find an indie rom-com about writers and publishers and Karen Gillan is in it and it's called Not Another Happy Ending and it's cute and does the palate-cleansing trick so you can get back to some super pessimistic movies, as is your wont.

   Also: film noir is making a comeback and that is significant, and says a lot about North American society and ahhhhh everyone should do film studies, at least a little.