Matthew’s Letterboxd Watchlist
Due to some pretty heavy illness this week I wasn’t able to watch many films. Almost any in fact. It ended up with one movie watched on the Monday evening, and that’s it. Having gone from a 14 movie week that’s a big difference.
I asked for questions or comments on Twitter that you folks might want addressed, and I had a really fascinating on from AES (@thisaeshaw) – Do you think you’ve already seen (this year) the best five films you’ll see this year? Or do you know there’s something top coming up?
Let’s apply some stats to that – I’ve seen 29 films this year that I rated 10/10. That’s almost one a week, so probably 3 per month. So I’ll probably end up seeing another 11-14 films that are 10 out of 10.
So it’s pretty easy to say that no I’ve not seen the best five, but hen looking at just films I hadn’t seen before, Get Out, Citizen Kane, I Tonya, Amelie, Sunset Boulevard, The Player – all films that could be on a provisional top 5 – it’s going to be hard to top them.
And looking at my watchlist, there’s a number of films on there that I’m really excited to see. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, I Know That Voice, Snowpiercer, Seven Samurai, A Quiet Place… these are all pictures I can’t wait to be available on one of the services I use as soon as possible.
Short answer, no I haven’t seen the best five. Probably best three or four so far, but there’s definite scope for more high quality films to come.
Thanks for the question AES, if anyone else wants to ask anything, make a recommendation, or discuss views on movies, look me up on Twitter, I’m @matthewvose.
Next Gen
So the only film I watched this week has just come onto Netflix. It’s a really odd one. It looks like Big Hero 6, it feels like Big Hero 6, and it has a style like Big Hero 6. I kept looking for why they might make a film so similar to something that’s still quite recent, and I’m not sure. Some of the plot points were things we’ve seen in Terminator: Genisys, Halo, and others over recent years, and the Big Hero 6 vibe is so strong. There’s a kernel of a great element about how hate and violence against an ‘other’ (in this case robots and humans) is actually destructive to the person carrying that hate, as well as the power of non-violence, but the film never quite goes there, and definitely eschews the non-violence in favour of a very violent, 10 minute, slow motion filled finale. A bit disappointing on all those points, and yet it was quite fun (which given Big Hero 6 is good fun I’m not surprised about). So it was enjoyable enough for what it was.