Matthew’s Letterboxd Watchlist
Christmas with the Kranks
CWTK is one of my favourite Christmas movies. It’s not the best written, especially earlier on, but when it gets into the turn at 45 minutes it becomes much more fun. And then the ending always leaves me with tears in my eyes. We’re covering this on Pop Culturally Deprived so you can hear more thoughts and discussion about the film.
They Shall Not Grow Old
I’ve seen some questions about whether this should be done, and I’m firmly of the opinion it’s good to do this. It has helped push the understanding of the realities of war more into focus. I’m on the fence about the addition of sound, it had a slight air of Monty Python, but I can understand doing it. The film was hard but also gripping, and they didn’t pull back from any elements of the war.
The French Connection
This has been on the list all year and so I finally got around to watching it. There’s a lot in this that I can see being used for future films, throw in some charming leads and more action and this almost becomes Bad Boys. The chase sequence was as good as I’d heard, really interesting techniques that I’m not sure have been copied.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The final film for our Disney month on Pop Culturally Deprived, and it’s not a good one. This film is not fun, the songs are poor, and it has slowly over time become more casually racist.
Midnight Cowboy
Another Oscar winner I wanted to watch, and as much as the story has no real point or growth, it’s an interesting insight to a different life at the time. With a different ending this could have been another film like Taxi Driver or King of Comedy.
Smashed
Octavia Spencer being in AA and helping other people is how I first found her, on Mom. She’s even better in this. All round the performances are great and the writing is well done. I’m not sure I liked the very ending, but it’s a brave film that looks at a number of viewpoints of alcohol abuse.
Game Night
This was a perfect film to watch on a Friday night after a long week. It’s fun, but doesn’t really have depth. The ending was a little irritating too. I’d compare this to Keeping Up With The Joneses, perhaps more fun, but lacking the excellence of Jon Hamm and Isla Fisher.
The Babadook
I didn’t have time to watch this before Halloween, but I think that helped. This is a terrific ‘scary’ movie, that has so much to it allowing much discussion. The core story was well done and the child’s performance is pretty incredible. The actual horror could be about parental pressure, mental illness, grief, or many other things.
Dear White People
Still working through Tessa Thompson’s back catalogue, and this is the big one. Every story in this is well done – setting us up to know what’s coming and seeing all the poor decisions that lead to it really helped it. The pacing suffers in the middle, I think they’re setting up too much perhaps. But I’m looking forward to watching the Netflix series based on this.
I Know That Voice
A documentary I’ve been looking forward to for a long time and it’s a lot of fun. A little light on detail at times, there could be more about the technical elements of recording and creating voices, but the huge range of interviewees makes this very well rounded, and overall a lot of fun.
Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri
This was gripping throughout. Details were drip fed just well enough to make them revelatory, and the turns it often took were unexpected and original. The ending is going to divide opinion, I think I like it because it reframes the movie as people dealing with anger, grief, and other difficulties.
Fargo
After watching Three Billboards we were compelled to rewatch Fargo. It’s still one of the best made films I’ve ever seen, I love how much we see two people against one in most scenes. And best of all Marge is a fascinating character, clearly very intelligent and competent, but able to soften and make other people feel comfortable around her. The couple of occasions she has to take control of a situation she does so without even flinching, and it’s wonderful writing and delivery.
War on Everyone
I’d have enjoyed this more if the main characters hadn’t been so despicable. It made the rest of the film difficult to engage with, which is a shame because as a darker comedy this would be really good.
The Zero Theorem
I think having watched several of his films this year I can call it and say that I’m not a fan of his style. It’s too scattergun to do abstract things that distract from the core story, which I’m not sure is that good anyway.
A Christmas Prince
Netflix taking on even the Hallmark style TV movies is an interesting move, compared to their attempts to create drama to compete with the biggest networks. However this is fairly fun. It’s very obvious, and the ending is disappointing (why didn’t the King change the law whilst alive, and why isn’t he changing the law to make his daughter able to become Queen?), but comfy enough.
Primer
The 365th film I’ve watched this year, and I’ve been looking forward to Primer. It’s referenced in many places about good modern sci fi, and I can see why. The unfolding story explaining each stage and finding out the stories going on that we haven’t been told about really help drive it forward, and having facets like the father as questions that don’t get resolved because of the very nature of it really give it good depth.
13th
Ava Duvernay’s exploration of the way racial injustice has morphed over years in the US is an exceptionally well-told documentary. Going from the civil war to modern elections is a lot to cover, but the filmmakers take you step by step through it. Interviewing people from both sides of some of the debate can reduce the argument or statement being made, but it was used in such a great way to show how the opposites are both ridiculous and dangerous.
When a Stranger Calls
Listed as an early Tessa Thompson film I thought I’d give this a chance. She gets about 50 seconds in this film. The rest of it is interesting, and I like the idea of taking the psycho-caller trope and making that the whole film, but I think it ends up being evidence for why it’s usually portrayed as the opening act. There was no way she wouldn’t get out of it, they had to manufacture scares in very cheap ways, and we got absolutely nothing about the stalker because she couldn’t really contact anyone.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
This has been on the list for a while, and ultimately I’m a bit disappointed. The subversion of the nerdy girl becomes beautiful trope is very good, but in a children’s film a lot of the audience won’t have seen the original trope done much if at all. The comedy was generally lacklustre, and the characters were more ridiculous than the norm for a film of this type.
Recommendation
This week had four films I gave 10/10 to. So I think I have two I would recommend. They Shall Not Grow Old would be a really interesting way of presenting the real stories from the soldiers on WWI on its own. Presented in such a way with colourised footage that has had frames added to smooth out the motion and upscaled it is now also an astonishing technical feat. This will be the film used to present the realities of war in schools and on Remembrance Day for many years to come.
Ava Duverney’s 13th is also a striking documentary. One to demonstrate the problems currently affecting the USA, it takes a long look at the historical elements and how they built to the current situation. It also takes in the views of people causing some of the oppression and racist behaviour, dismantling those views without needing to vilify or comment on people directly. It is incredibly well woven, powerfully told, and would make anyone want to work towards equality and diversity in every arena.