Matthew’s Letterboxd Watchlist
We’ve made it to October, and I’m fully a month ahead of myself. Good thing as the Star Trek watching is getting more intense.
The Jungle Book
We’re going to be doing a season of Disney films on Pop Culturally Deprived and this is the first one we record (although the second we release). It was surprisingly more fun than I expected, but really doesn’t stand up well against more modern films for children, especially compared to the live action one that fixes a number of narrative problems.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
This will be the first we release in our Disney season on Pop Culturally Deprived. It’s a technical marvel, and I loved spotting all the things they do to really show off how good animation can be. Basically every Disney film after this is lesser because it’s either doing something Snow White did first, or you can see where they were looking to do something to save money.
Nineteen Eighty-Four
I’ve been meaning to watch this for a long time as I’d never made it all the way through the book. I can see why it has appealed for so long, and all the other stories so heavily based on this (Equilibrium and V For Vendetta we’re looking at you). However I don’t think it’s aged as well as it might have.
Jackie
Comments about the strength of Natalie Portman’s performance made me want to see this, and she is extraordinary. However the film doesn’t really carry the emotion of the piece with the gravitas it might perhaps deserve, or push the story hard enough to try to give us any feeling we’re seeing deeper revelations or details than normal.
Hocus Pocus
Another film we’re doing on Pop Culturally Deprived, it had been a long time since I’d last watched this film. It’s still very good, but the charm and enjoyment of the film is all about the witches themselves. Large parts of this could be removed or changed, and perhaps should be to make it even more of an enjoyable experience.
Final Score
Die Hard, but at a West Ham match. I wasn’t going to watch it but then it had a couple of good reviews. I wish I hadn’t, this was predictable and did very little that was actually interesting.
North by Northwest
The last Hitchcock I wanted to see, and I’m pleased I saved the best till last. More than anything I feel I now understand a lot of references and pastiches I hadn’t before, even ones that I didn’t realise were doing something based on this film – Big Lebowski particularly.
Personal Shopper
A recommendation from @thisaeshaw, this film kept popping up on my Netflix list as I’d watched Nocturnal Animals a while ago. Another very stylish film, I was astonished that it’s a paranormal film but it tries to absolutely say there are spirits and unusual things happening, whilst at the same time still keeping the ambiguity that the genre needs to be interesting. It’s a very hard thing to pull off but I felt the film did it pretty well.
The Post
I said about All The President’s Men that I felt modern films did these sorts of stories better because they help you understand the historical context and set up the tension better because they appreciate you might not know the story. The Post is a great example of this, as I felt I really understood each angle and circumstance on what was happening. But at the same time the tension was lost a bit because if they had made the safe decisions the story wouldn’t exist, so I think they might have focussed on the wrong elements to hang the narrative off.
The Lobster
I can completely appreciate how this film might leave people cold, but I really enjoyed this. The slightly askew humour of it alongside how literal every absurd thing seemed to be taken was a great change from a lot of other films. The performances were all the sort of slightly off-kilter takes on a character that worked with the story, and I thoroughly enjoyed how it didn’t seem to end , which often annoys me.
Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
A very poor documentary, this seemed to be concerned with only portraying positive things about the toys, series, and movie, almost as though it was trying to sell me more toys. The problems in the production of Master of the Universe are well documented, and not mention them except very obliquely shows this film didn’t want show the real situation, which meant I couldn’t really buy into anything it told me.
Cast Away
Another film I really should have watched a long time ago. By this point I knew all the key elements, and I was as annoyed by the too-long ending as expected. The film could have ended at many points to deliver something more powerful, but by trying to tell more story than necessary it ruined the excellent work done earlier.
The Secret World of Arrietty
We love most Studio Ghibli movies. This is not one of those that we love. There wasn’t much story here, which makes it reminiscent of My Neighbour Totoro, but there also wasn’t the magical fantasy and beautiful shots of that film. What should be the interesting thing about the Borrowers – using everyday things in interesting ways – was utterly missing here, which was a real shame.
Battle of the Sexes
Although I knew the overall story here this film did a great job of showing the motivations and other stories going on for each character. Steve Carell/Riggs didn’t come across as completely sympathetic but you really got a good viewpoint on why he was doing this. At the same time the supporting cast got a lot of time given to them which made it possible to also understand the situations that were arising and contextualise it. That it was done well enough you could even see parallels and impacts on the modern world shows how adept this film was.
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec
This film came onto the list because it was about to leave Amazon Prime. In all it was surprisingly good fun, a number of language jokes, some characters who really delivered humour whilst keeping the plot moving, and an interesting adventure story.
Downsizing
I think I liked this more than most, the ideas presented were very interesting and they returned to some of the same plot points a number of times which helped show how some of the character’s decisions were never the best. I can’t help but feel they could have leaned into the moral message a bit more, I’m not actually sure Matt Damon’s character had the realisation he should have at the end.
I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK
We ended up with mixed feelings on this film. There were some great ideas presented, but it didn’t do much with them. I was frustrated that good threads like the granny’s message were left unresolved, but at the same time liked the hope that the ending presented of people finding some peace or equilibrium within their fantasies. The film erred more towards the Dream Team portrayal of a home for the mentally ill than Cuckoo’s Nest, and as a whole probably had more in common (stylistically) with films by Jeunet like Amelie or Delicatessen. From a production perspective it was excellent though – the kinetic nature of the filming gave it a real feeling of being present for each scene, and the performances were all superb, we wanted to know more about each and every character.
The Frighteners
As we’re coming up to Halloween I thought I’d watch some horror or scary films that I’d missed. I always forget that Peter Jackson directed this. Fox is as good as ever, but the effects now let this film down a lot. The idea is interesting but the film gives you a lot of clues as it goes along so it’s pretty obvious what’s happening as the film goes along. Enjoyable enough, and probably one you could watch as a family which is always useful.
Videodrome
James Woods is a really interesting case. Any time he’s in a film it feels like stunt casting – getting this larger than life person to play a significant character. Yet here he doesn’t come across as wild or large as in other instances. The effects are really impressive, some great practical effects where you can’t see the seams, which is always good to see.
Poltergeist
I was very disappointed with this. I can understand why the ‘they’re here’ line is the famous bit, as Carol Anne is a great and memorable character, but everyone else is largely forgettable and the story is incredibly ordinary.
Recommendation
The Lobster is definitely the best film I watched this week, but I’m not sure it’s an easy film to recommend. It’s off kilter to a large degree, has an odd humour, and doesn’t really have an ending. Yet there was a lot to enjoy in the story that was told, particularly the juxtaposition of the two communities our protagonist finds himself in, and the extremes to which they go to make the world the way they want it.
Battle of the Sexes was also a great film, although it’s about a tennis match there was very little actual tennis in this, which is fine because the characters were so well written and portrayed, as well as showing the wider contexts and situations that caused this event to happen.