Matthew’s Letterboxd Watchlist
What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Deep Space Nine
We went to Destination Star Trek in Birmingham and watched the public premiere of this amazing documentary, which was attended by the majority of the cast and the key production team members. It’s an excellent documentary, done in a style exactly deserved by DS9. This was a series that did things differently than other Star Trek series, so to look back on it they conjure up an idea for the opening of a new season, they use the documentary clips themselves to actually give examples of people’s personalities and discuss some of the stories shared. It’s not a vital documentary to tell you about the process, but it is vital for any Star Trek fan.
Star Trek: Nemesis
At Destination Star Trek I cosplayed as Admiral Janeway from this film. When we got home we were tired and wanted something simple to watch, so I thought I’d revisit this film that I have rarely seen since the first time it was at the cinema. It’s not great, but I think I can appreciate the point at which it’s not great, and in ignoring them appreciate some of what it does well. That said, it’s not great.
A History of Violence
I’d been recommended to this a number of times so I finally got a copy to watch. It’s an interesting film, which often goes in a direction I don’t expect it to. But that said it never took any of those directions to a particularly novel place, so it felt more like it should be a short story than a full length film.
Coco
I’d been looking forward to watching this for a while. I think it’s a fun film but not as strong as Inside Out or some of the other Pixar films. Very heartwarming at the end, it does the delivery of everyone ends up happy very nicely.
Selma
I had to watch this over a couple of efforts as it came off Netflix, but then came onto iPlayer. However that did not detract from the film at all. Very powerfully told, and really looked at the different views within all sides, but still showed how the civil rights movement was absolutely committed to their cause.
Halloween
Continuing to watch horror or slasher films I’d not seen. I think I enjoyed this more than some others, it didn’t suffer from the building of the horror that others do – straight into being stalked and hunted. But even more than that I liked that when we came to the conclusion it kept me guessing as the viewer, eventually telling us what happened but leaving some questions open.
Evil Dead II
I saw the first a long time ago and wasn’t hugely moved by it. This sequel goes much more down the campy/jokey horror route, and I don’t think that helps. The main good thing I can say is that it’s not that long.
Army of Darkness
Sad that this trilogy took 3 films to get to a decent place, but this final instalment wasn’t bad.
The Omen
Another classic horror I felt I should have watched. The kid was terrific, and some really interesting stuff going on.
Friday the 13th
Pretty standard stuff, but well done by keeping the mystery going right till the end, barely even hinting at what’s going on.
The Thing
Another horror, it’s been done better elsewhere.
Don’t Look Now
As good as expected. Not perfect, a little bit too unhinged at times, in all it worked well.
Sing
I feel like the film is missing one good character to hinge everything together. Part of the problem is it felt like a poor kids version of BoJack.
Half Magic
Some of the points in this comedy were really well done, but at times not as forward thinking as it could/should have been.
Robin Hood
We’re talking about this on Pop Culturally Deprived, it’s a good fun film for younger viewers, but not got the depth to make it a true classic.
Tumbledown
Trying to watch more from Rebecca Hall, I really liked her pairing with Sudeikis. Probably better than with Anne Hathaway in Colossal, and the depth of emotion on show sold the premise of this film excellently.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Watching more Wes Anderson, I think his style doesn’t really gel with me. I enjoyed the core story, but the multiple times reminiscing over it didn’t work as a setup for me.
Permission
More Rebecca Hall watching, I think the film tried some interesting stuff but ended up falling into tropey elements of dealing with male female relationships.
Baby Mama
What seemed like it could be an interesting and forward thinking comedy ended up being atrocious, falling into lazy writing and jokes that are beneath Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
Bottle Rocket
Wes Anderson’s first film was pretty good. I liked the slow burn of it, that we knew the characters well from the beginning and were just watching them through an adventure.
Snowpiercer
I’d been recommended to this film from a lot of places, and I wasn’t let down. A great story, terrific action, superb performances. There are a few too many pieces that don’t hang well enough together to make me think this is a 10/10, but they’re not big enough to ruin it.
Recommendation
Easily this week Selma is the best thing I watched. Some really strong performances from all concerned, and I got a lot out of it showing the different facets of the civil rights activists which I don’t feel I’ve seen before in a film of this type. Powerful, moving, and visually arresting at exactly the times it needs to be.
Snowpiercer is also a terrific watch. Chris Evans is on great form here as the brooding hero, and the supporting cast get to be slightly hammy as their characters, and are relishing the chance to do so. The action was as good as you’d expect from this director, and the overall story was enthralling and interesting.