"You're more like Sarah Conner, and in the first movie too, before she could do chin-ups"

The movies in order of the screenshots from my last post ARE:

• Hunt for the Wilderpeople
• Kedi
• The Man from UNCLE
• Ocean's 11
• Terminator

After seeing Thor: Ragnarok and being so extremely delighted by it, I resolved to make a point of watching more of Taika Waititi's movies. Hunt For the Wilderpeople was first on the docket and came highly recommended by some pals, and I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that it has quickly taken its rightful place as one of my favourite movies. It's about grief and family and it is hilarious and poignant, I cannot urge you strongly enough to see it at your soonest opportunity, and then to watch it again soon after that. It's joyful and sad and funny and I love it. I also love New Zealand, and want to go back.

PICTURE THIS: your husband announces that he's downloaded a documentary about cats in Istanbul and shows you the trailer, asking if you'd like to watch it. Of course you would, you love cats, and turns out it is a delightful and heartfelt look at cats and the ways cities change over time. It's called Kedi and you're so glad you're married to such a lovely man.

LISTEN, The Man from UNCLE is a cinematic masterpiece, here I stand I can do no other. I could argue the merits of this movie all day (along with another perennial fave, Sahara, of COURSE), but I don't need to, since you need only to watch it to be UTTERLY CHARMED.

I watched Ocean's 11 and it made me even more excited to see Ocean's 8.

My phone's lockscreen is a picture of Arnold sitting on a rock, surrounded by (taxidermied) woodland creatures. I've been asked MULTIPLE TIMES "Oh, is that Josh?" only to have to reply "no....it's Arnold Schwarzenegger" so imagine my embarrassment when I ALSO had to admit to never having seen any of the Terminator movies except for portions of (maybe?) Terminator 3 which I saw in a hotel in Las Vegas after my pals and I realized we hated Las Vegas and before we went to see Ka which is a Cirque du Soliel show which still, years later, haunts me in a good way. ANYWAYS cut to Movie Cocktail Club and a double feature of Terminator and Terminator 2 (the 6th movie I watched this year, you get a fun bonus for the next guessing post) and I am very glad to have filled a severe gap in my Arnold watching history. Terminator was fun and good, featured some special effects that we laughed at now but I'm sure were amazing then, and a story line which maybe wasn't the sleekest but which I enjoyed.

If you only see one of these movies I have to strongly encourage you to make it Hunt for the Wilderpeople, you will not regret it, I promise.

1-5, 2018

New year new movie count!!! You know the drill: I watch the movies, I post the screenshots, you guess what they are. I believe in you.

watched in 2017

I stopped recording what movies I watched this year when I got to 13, and let me assure you: I watched way more than 13 movies. And so I cannot tell you everything I watched, because I don't remember. BUT I can talk about a few that were notable enough for me to remember when I watched them. Sometimes I'm good at remembering plots and storylines, but not when I watched something, or with whom, etc. Like, my list says I watched 2001: Space Odyssey this year but I feel like I watched it absolute eons ago. Perhaps because this year was extremely long, and very full, and at parts surreal. A lot happened this past year, both to me personally and on the international stage. I also watched District 9, and let me tell you: it is very weird to watch a movie like District 9 amid calls for building a racist wall and deporting refugees. It hits close to home, is what I mean.

Here's a short list of some of the other movies and shows I remember watching:

• Thor: Ragnarok (17) delightful and genuinely funny, highly recommend. Gonna watch through Taiki Waititi's filmography, I think. 
• The Monster (25) give me a silent movie and live organ music on Halloween or give me death. 
• Hidden Figures (16) I've said it before and I'll say it again: this movie is required viewing. 
• Contact (97) I loved this. I think it will become a movie I watch again and again. I love Space! I need a big sunhat! I want to read the book! Alright alright alright!
• Sunshine (07) this was the year of Space Movies, apparently. 
• Hot Fuzz (07) turns out this movie is a) as delightful and funny as everyone has been saying for ten years, and b) chock a block with really good and inventive storytelling and jokes.
• Logan (17) the more I think about it the more I appreciate it. It's a logical progression from the previous X-Men movies, and a reflection of the current climate. 
• Lion (16) I don't know what to say about this movie! It was very good, but everything I say feels irreverent somehow! 
• Atomic Blonde (17) I will watch any movie that prominently features Charlize Theron kicking everyone's ass.  
• The Fugitive (93) this one is in the canon for a reason, folks. I didn't kill my wife. 
• The Castle (97) there's a joke from this movie in Thor: Ragnarok, that's how iconic it is. 
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi (17) everyone who didn't like this movie can get stuffed. The last couple Star Wars movies have had the thesis "actually, war is bad" and I'm a fan. 
• Stranger Things 2 (17) Joyce and Steve are the Moms of the Year 1984. 
• The Good Place (S1) I have only seen season one so if someone spoils this show for me, just remember, I have a very special set of skills. 
• Brooklyn-99 - this was often our mealtime-tv, and I think we've watched it through like three times now. I love B99. 
• Parks and Recreation - the other day I saw someone on twitter say that they didn't like Parks and Rec and EXCUSE ME, how? 

I probably also watched Mad Max: Fury Road, because how is it possible for anyone to go an entire year without viewing that absolute legend. I live, I die, I live again. We are not things. 

As a final note: I CANNOT be the only person who sees this and thinks it was done on purpose: 

too much head stabbing

   The movies are AS FOLLOWS:

1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (86)
2. Lion (16)
3. Logan (17)
4. Sense and Sensibilty (08)
5. Sunshine (07)

   Ferris Bueller, always funny. Lion, always crying. Logan, always anxious. Sense and Sensibility, always proper. Sunshine, always concentrating on something else to free myself from Space Fear. 

   If you haven't seen Lion, I recommend that you do. It is beautiful and sad and Sunny Pawar is the most adorable child on the planet. I am not kidding when I say that I basically started crying a few minutes in and didn't stop until the end of the movie. If you're in an emotionally fragile state, maybe wait for a bit to watch this one. But do watch it! It's good. 

   LOGAN IS NOT A FUN ROMP THROUGH THE WOODS. BEWARE. I heard it described as feeling like a two-hour long anxiety attack and guess what: that's right on the money. It was good and I enjoyed it AND I felt exhausted at the end! I don't know if I'll ever watch it again. To me it felt like a logical progression from the rest of the X-Men movies; to Josh it felt like a re-hash of old ideas with nothing new besides more violence and f-bombs. And there is a lot of violence. Some of it seemed exploitative to me, or maybe the movie was just trying to get across the senselessness of it? I am not sure. I'm also not sure if this movie did what it was meant to do. All in all, I say it is very of the times. Could have done with ~75% less head-stabbing. 

   Sense and Sensibility the mini-series is a masterpiece, here I stand I can do no other. Down with Lucy Steele. 

   I am not good at watching scary movies even when I want to watch them and my experience with Sunshine was no exception. It was stressful! I spent a good deal of time either looking at my phone or intently embroidering. But it was also good? And I didn't get Space Nightmares, so that's also good? Some scientists/astronauts have to go shoot a bomb into the sun to re-start it. Things go wrong! The calls are coming from inside the house! Space! 

 

5-10, 2017

Hey ho here's some movies. Can you guess them??? I believe in you.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave"

   And the movies from the previous post are:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (68)
• District 9 (09)
• Hidden Figures (16)
• Love & Friendship (16)
• Rear Window (54)

   Watching 2001: A Space Odyssey was an experience. We had an installment of Movie and Cocktail Club that featured this movie, and three out of the four of us had never seen it before. What a ride. This movie is a) very long, b) has a large proportion of dialogue-less time, and c) was really enjoyable. When it ended I immediately started looking up criticism and commentary to read. Turns out, some people are VERY SURE about What It All Means. Also, Dave is bizarrely good looking. What does THAT mean. 

   Josh and I watched District 9 on January 20th, and let me tell you, that was a weird cognitive moment. Earlier in the day, 45 had been inaugurated, and then I was watching a movie about violence and misunderstanding towards refugees, forced relocation, building a wall to keep Others out, resistance only borne out of an experience of sharing in the suffering of a marginalized group, a lack of transparency in government, and a group of oppressors who believed that what they were doing was right. Does that, perhaps, remind you of something? I'm going to go ahead and say that, along with Children of Men and other dystopian movies, District 9  is only becoming more relevant and poignant. 

   Hidden Figures is required viewing. Go to a theatre, buy a ticket, spend money to watch this movie (as far as you are able; if cost is prohibitive, by all means, obtain it in another way. Please just watch it). This movie is not only required viewing, but also made me laugh out loud, made me tear up, made me confront internalized biases, was super interesting and entertaining, and only very slightly pulled its punches. Seriously. Hidden Figures. Go see it. This is not a drill. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Plus it's about NASA during the Space Race so, uh, SPACE. 

   Will Love & Friendship enter the my ranks of comfort watches? Trick question: it already has. 

   Rear Window is one of Hitchcock's triumphs, in my opinion. A high-stakes bottle episode! Grace Kelly's clothes (the real star)! Suspense! It's got it all. 

1-5, 2017

Another year, another movie count. Can you guess them all??????

movies of 2016

   This blog became mostly a movie blog rather than a book blog this year, due to: my brain. I started grad school. My reading and writing energy has been aimed elsewhere. And guess what? It was a good year for movies. This list may or may not include all the movies I watched this year, because I'm not always good at updating the list in my notes app. This list also doesn't include the tv I watched, just because I don't feel like including it. There was quite a bit, because I love tv. If you want to know my favorites they were the new X-Files episodes, Stranger Things, and Brooklyn-99. I have some THOUGHTS about Stranger Things which I may or may not share at some point in the future.

   Here's a legend for the list: an * marks a re-watch, bold means I watched it in theatres, underlined means I cried during a commercial for the Olympics that played before the movie started, italics means it was one of my faves this year, and a + means it's a documentary. If you want to read more about the movies, click on the "Movies" label and voila: there are all the movie posts, even though I didn't talk about the last few movies I watched.

• *Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (80)
• *Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi (83)
• *Tombstone (93) I love this movie so much. Can't stop won't stop.
• *Star Wars: The Force Awakens (15) a second theatre viewing, lovin' that stars war. 
• *Mad Max: Fury Road (15) WE ARE NOT THINGS.
• Stranger Than Fiction (06)
• *Cowboys and Aliens (11) 
• Mad Max (79)
• Mad Max: Road Warrior (81)
• Mockingjay, Part One (14)
• *Princess Bride (87) I'm not marking this as a favorite for the year because it is a favorite for the AGES. 
• Zoolander (01)
• Room (15) This movie is beautiful and heart breaking and uplifting.
• Matchstick Men (03)
• Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (85) I feel like people drag this movie, but I really liked it. Two men enter, one man leaves, am I right? Gotta get me a chain mail dress. 
• Brooklyn (15) 
• *Cat Ballou (65) Another favorite for the ages.
• *Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (09)
• Zootopia (16)
• +People of a Feather (11)
• Mockingjay, Part Two (15) I watched this while delirious as a result of driving for twenty hours in two days.
• *Flight of the Navigator (86) I watched this while eating waffles with my boyfriend.
• Huntsman: Winter's War (16) I don't care what ANYONE says, these movies are CINEMA GOLD. 
• +Somm (12) 
• +Somm: Into the Bottle (15) Can recommend watching two wine documentaries back to back while drinking cheap wine with your parents.
• Love & Friendship  (16) SO GOOD that I saw it twice in theatres. I paid ACTUAL MONEY, TWO TIMES. 
• True Lies (94) <3 Arnold <3
• The Secret Life of Pets (16) Do not recommend. 
• *Galaxy Quest (99) This is a comedy classic, clearly.
• *Emperor's New Groove (00)
• Star Trek: Beyond (16) The Sabotage scene? Hilarious. "Classical music" is such a good gag. 
• Matilda (97)
• *Mad Max: Fury Road (15) DID YOU THINK I WAS DONE WITH THIS MOVIE? I'M NOT. I NEVER WILL BE. I LIVE, I DIE, I LIVE AGAIN.
• Bring It On (00) Somehow hadn't seen this movie until now.
• Groundhog Day (93) I had a lot of thoughts about this one. Gonna watch it again soon, I think. 
• *Sahara () This is one of my all-time favorite movies, here I stand I can do no other. 
• +A Year in Champagne (14) This somehow became the year of Mad Max and wine documentaries. 
• *Northanger Abbey (07)
• Annie (14) Finally watched the newest version of Annie and you know what? It might be my favorite Annie.
• Doctor Strange (16) 
• Captain America: Civil War (16) I was weirdly disappointed in this one. I'm not sure if I saw it in theatres or not. 
• Arrival (16) IT AMAZED ME, please go see it. 
• *The Big Lebowski (98)
• Rouge One (16) An installment of Star Wars that is all about the cost of war? Yes please. 
• Spectral (16) Hilariously bad.
• *Red 2 (13)
• *Master & Commander (03) Boats boats boats!
• La La Land (16) Not perfect but you know what? I loved it. 

36-40, 2016

   I was about to type, "round two! fight!" but we are so far beyond round two at this point. If you've been following along with this journey for awhile there may be a movie here which you will look at and say, "how many times are you going to watch that?" The answer is: so many times.

   Time to GUESS.

"Oh, I'll bring it. Don't worry."

THE MOVIES were as follows:

• Bring It On (00)
• Groundhog Day (93)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (15)
• Matilda (97)
• Star Trek: Beyond (16)

   I recently realized I had to fill a giant hole in my movie-watching life and finally watch Bring It On, and it Did Not Disappoint. It was fun! I was so glad about the cheque thing and how it wasn't the story of a white saviour. I also spent a great deal of the movie shouting things like, "they cannot actually allow 17 year olds to do this in real life". Like the car wash? Please tell me that is a movie-made myth. Also, Gabrielle Union was TWENTY-EIGHT when they made this movie.

   I watched Groundhog Day ALSO for the first time, and here are some thoughts I had, in no particular order:

• There is no explanation of why the day starts repeating, and no actual explanation for why it stops:
• Arguably, it stops because Rita agrees to stay at the hotel without Phil trying to ply her, but that's only circumstantial. 
• Phil indulges his id (the car chase, eating whatever he wants, picking up women, dressing up as Bronco), his ego (learning French, piano, etc), and his super ego (a wide selction of good deeds), all in turn;
• He also goes through the evil-neutral-good/lawful-neutral-chaotic spectrum, sort of?;
• This movie is MUCH DARKER than I thought it was;
• Phil doesn't know when the day will stop repeating, or even if it will. Based on his experience, he has to conclude that it is going to repeat forever, meaning:
• Phil has died and is in purgatory;
• Only when he has learned to disregard the self and only act with the good of others in mind does he complete the 2nd of Feb; and,
• And when he wakes up on the 3rd, he has worked his way through purgatory, and moved on.
• Based on clues, we have to conclude that Phil has been repeating the 2nd for at least several years. When he goes to the movie, he says he's seen it 100 times, and I was going to count how many times Rita slaps him when I realized, "I can just google this," and discovered that people have calculated either 8ish or 34 years.
• Based on his learning French (presumably, since he busted it out a few iterations into their date), piano, ice sculpting, and card throwing, I'm inclined to agree with 34 years. 10,000 hours to achieve mastery, you know? 

   If you thought I'd be tired of watching and re-watching Mad Max Fury Road yet, you thought WRONG. It's a cinematic triumph and I love it. 

   I had vague memories of both watching Matilda and not being allowed to watch Matilda, which I'm sure combined into baby-me watching it, getting scared, and then not being able to talk to my parents about it without blowing my cover (hi, mom). 

   DISTINCT LACK of needlessly naked ladies in Star Trek: Beyond, well done, JJ (and others). I found myself being jarred out of my suspension of disbelief by some VERY ridiculous physical feats, especially things like people sliding very fast down a long thing, landing squarely on their feet, and not immediately breaking every leg they had. It's like when people in movies use non-dynamic rope and don't get cut in half, or when there's some good ol' TV CPR. IT'S THE WORST. Other than that, this is a fun movie, Spock/Bones are great, the Sabotage scene was truly amazing, and there are ladies who exhibit agency and individuality. A good flick.  

31-35, 2016

TIME TO GUESS AGAIN, I have faith in you. 

"WRONG LEVER!"

   The movies from the last post:

• The Emperor's New Groove (00)
• Galaxy Quest (99)
• Love & Friendship (16)
• The Secret Life of Pets (16)
• True Lies (94)

   I don't think I need to tell you how good The Emperor's New Groove is. Pure gold. 

   Here is a video talking about how Galaxy Quest ought to be considered a comedy classic, and I am in agreement. What a gem of a film. I loled aplenty, as well as feeling genuine emotional attachment to the characters. 

   Love & Friendship easily earned a place in my top-five movies of the year, and I saw it twice in theaters. It is witty and hilarious. Kate Beckinsale plays a woman who is 40 times smarter than anyone else around her and absolutely runs circles around them. She essentially manipulates everyone into doing what she wants and it's amazing. And then! Other women in the movie learn to play the game and it is like this giant battle of wits with a polite veneer on it, it's so good. Here's the trailer. Highly recommended for anyone who likes jokes, banter, or good movies. Watched it twice in theatres. 

   I saw Zootopia earlier this year, and was so thoroughly impressed by it, and I think it may have heightened my expectations for The Secret Life of Pets. Pets was disappointing, racially problematic, and fairly boring. I thought it was going to be fun, and it wasn't. I thought that it would maybe have the same kind of thoughtful commentary that Zootopia did, and it didn't. It had one good joke near the end. Skip this one. 

   A few years back my brother and I spent a great deal of time watching Arnold movies, but somehow skipped watching True Lies. Imagine my glee when I was hanging with some pals and their cat, and we discovered that we were all in the mood for some Arnold time. True Lies  not only includes SEVERAL hilarious lines, it ALSO features and outdoor-to-indoor motorcycle chase when instead of being on a motorcycle, Arnold is RIDING A HORSE, and the horse TAKES THE ELEVATOR, and it is AMAZING.

   Movies! I love them. 

26-30, 2016

Gotta guess 'em all.

"Freshly opened tennis balls"

   Some of these movies I watched quite awhile ago, like, March. March! And then school hit me in the face and then school was all I did for some time and now HERE WE ARE (still talking about school, for some reason).

   THE MOVIES from the last post ARE:

• Flight of the Navigator (86)
• Huntsman: Winter's War (16)
• Mockingjay Part Two (15)
• Somm: Into the Bottle (15)
• Somm (12)

   I cannot give a high enough recommendation for finding a waffle place in your town or city that shows movies every Monday and then going to said waffle place to eat waffles and watch childhood favourites. And big news, I was somewhat concerned that seeing Flight of the Navigator as an adult would diminish it in my eyes/memories, but GUESS WHAT: it is fine. It is a fun movie. Fun fact: rewatching/changing/rebooting movies from your childhood will not, in fact, ruin your childhood. I know, it's a revelation. I too was surprised (I was not). 

   I have two problems with Huntsman: Winter's War and they are these: a) not enough Charlize Theron, and b) why call it Huntsman when CLEARLY the Huntsman himself is a secondary character? Riddle me that. Other than those complaints: this movie was everything I wanted it to be and more. Amazing costumes, ridiculous dialogue, many ladies, genuinely creepy bits, very fairy-tale-y fairy tale telling. A+. More Charlize Theron in everything. 

   My boyfriend and I watched Mockingjay Part Two in a couple of stages, one of which was while sitting on a couch in a hostel in the middle of Manitoba where we were the only guests after driving for ten hours to get there. Admittedly, I was in a bit of a daze. I was once again upset about how some things were dealt with, BUT, all in all: a satisfactory flick. The pacing was weird. 

   My parents took me for delicious curry dinner after I finished my school, and afterwards we bought some wine and watched two documentaries about wine back to back. Somm is about people getting ready to take the Master Sommelier (a word I can never pronounce properly) exam, which is an insane three-day exam that only takes place once a year and to which these peeps dedicate their LIVES. It is nuts. Somm: Into the Bottle is less about people and more about wine itself, and features people opening bottles of wine that are so old and rare, and then being absolutely giddy over them. It also talks about everything from fungus to WWII to earthquakes to family drama sparked by barrels. I live tweeted these, so if you follow me on the twitter you were absolutely inundated with wine tweets. I'm not sorry. I recommend watching wine documentaries while drinking wine, it's a recipe for enjoyment. 

21-25, 2016

Once again, can you guess them all?

"I've been taking lessons"

   It's been two weeks since I last posted? I've been doing a lot of learning about the geography of the Canadian North. It's very interesting! Anyways, the movies from the previous post ARE:

• Brooklyn
• Cat Ballou
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• People of a Feather
• Zootopia

   Brooklyn is really lovely and really well done and I recommend you all go see it asap. I laughed, I cried, it moved me, Bob. Cat Ballou has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and I watch it probably every year and it is SO FUNNY and Nat King Cole sings the narration soooooo, also see this one asap. You know how in a series there is the one book where not much stuff actually happens but the book still has to be there? Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Also, in the movie when Snape reveals that he's the titular Half Blood Prince it feels like way more of an afterthought than it does in the book AM I RIGHT. People of a Feather is about eider ducks and dams and the Inuit of the Hudson Bay. A friend of mine told me they were screening it at a museum downtown and I was like "obvs we are going". Zootopia has it all: A+ animation, A+ story, A+ jokes, A+ commentary on race relations. I advise you to add it to your watch-asap list. 

16-20, 2016

   I haven't been reading much! I have been watching several movies! Can you guess them all?

"Two men enter! One man leaves!"

   FOLKS, I sometimes forget how much I like movies and then I watch a bunch of good ones in a row and I'm like "movies are the best" and I am just constantly enamored with STORIES and how people TELL THEM and I've been learning a little bit about film theory and it is making me like movies EVEN MORE.

   ANYWAYS. Here are the movies from the previous screencap post:

• Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (85)
• Matchstick Men (03)
• Princess Bride (87)
• Room (15)
• Zoolander (01)

   If you're wondering how soon Max gets beyond the Thunderdome in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, it is pretty much right away. As in Road Warrior and Fury Road, Max isn't a character in these movies so much as a catalyst; things are already happening when he comes on the scene, and would have happened without him, he just sort of trips into playing a part. An accidental, reluctant savior, of sorts. George Miller assigns some messianic imagery to Max, either directly through paintings on walls or indirectly though the structure of the story - where Max arrives, helps a group through violent change, and then leaves the group to build their own lives in his absence and pass their story down. There are believers and doubters in the groups he encounters in the three subtitled movies, along with a Big Bad on the other side. Anyways. Beyond Thunderdome is good! Tina Turner is fabulous! This movie has the least sexual violence out of the series!

   You know how there are some phrases that are weirdly hard to say? Think "rural juror". "Long con" is one such phrase for me, which makes talking about Matchstick Men somewhat difficult. Don't worry though, it's still a good flick. When you watch it you can play a fun game where every time Frank comes onscreen in increasingly ridiculous garb you can say to your movie-watching companion (in my case, boyfriend) "wow, you should get a shirt/hat/outfit like that." It's hilarious, I promise. Also, the first movie I saw Sam Rockwell in was Moon and you NEED to watch Moon asap.

   Highly recommend going to see Princess Bride in a theater full of other people who love Princess Bride. Mega joyful.

   Room is amazing and I cried throughout the whole thing. I wish I had something more intelligent to say than "this movie is important and painful and beautiful, please go see it." Brie Larson won best actress and she deserved it. I haven't read the book yet, but when I got home from seeing the movie I put a hold on all three formats that my library has of it, and whichever one comes in first is going to be consumed.

   I've finally seen Zoolander and so many of the jokes from my youth suddenly make sense. Blue steel.