My Month in Films: April 2012

19 films, 11 first time viewings

Best first time viewings
1. Gregory’s Girl (Bill Forsyth, 1981, UK)
2. Les amants du Pont-Neuf (Leos Carax, 1991, France)
3. Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck, 2007, USA)
4. The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2011, USA)
5. Avengers Assemble (Joss Whedon, 2012, USA)
6. City of Life and Death (Chuan Lu, 2009, China/Hong Kong)
7. Damsels in Distress (Whit Stillman, 2011, USA)
8. The Guard (John Michael McDonagh, 2011, Ireland)
9. Young Adult (Jason Reitman, 2011, USA)

Best rewatches
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954, USA)
Titanic (James Cameron, 1997, USA)

Worst
The Monk (Dominik Moll, 2011, France/Spain)
Small Time Crooks (Woody Allen, 2000, USA)
Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010, USA)
Like Crazy (Drake Doremus, 2011, USA)

My Month in Films: March 2012

20 films, 13 first time viewings

Best first time viewings
1. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957, Sweden)
2. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011, USA)
3. Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? (William Klein, 1966, France)
4. Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2006, Turkey/France)
5. Wild Bill (Dexter Fletcher, 2011, UK)
6. The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012, USA)

Best rewatches
Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993, USA)
Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985, USA)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante, 1990, USA)
Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008, USA)
The Secret of NIMH (Don Bluth, 1982, USA)
Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944, USA)
Godzilla (Ishirô Honda, 1954, Japan)

Worst
A Man’s Story (Varon Bonicos, 2010, UK)
Trishna (Michael Winterbottom, 2011, UK)

My Month in Films: February 2012

24 films, 19 first time viewings

Best first time viewings
1. A Night to Remember (Roy Ward Baker, 1958, UK)
2. When Harry Met Sally… (Rob Reiner, 1989, USA)
3. This Is Not a Film (Mojtaba Mirtahmasb/Jafar Panahi, 2011, Iran)
4. The Raid (Gareth Evans, 2011, Indonesia/USA)
5. Tales of the Night (Michel Ocelot, 2011, France)
6. The Muppets (James Bobin, 2011, USA)
7. This Must Be the Place (Paolo Sorrentino, 2011, Italy/France/Ireland)
8. Your Sister’s Sister (Lynn Shelton, 2011, USA)
9. Carnage (Roman Polanski, 2011, France/Germany/Poland/Spain)
10. Play (Ruben Östlund, 2011, Sweden)

Best rewatches
Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly, 1952, USA)
It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934, USA)
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997, Japan)
Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970, UK/West Germany)

Worst
The Iron Lady (Phyllida Lloyd, 2011, UK/France)

My Month in Films: January 2012

20 films, 12 first time viewings, and My Week with Marilyn was the only one that leaned towards being outright poor.

Best first time viewings
1. Happy Together (Wong Kar Wai, 1997, Hong Kong)
2. Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011, UK)
3. 2046 (Wong Kar Wai, 2004, Hong Kong/China/France/Italy/Germany)
4. Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975, Soviet Union/Japan)
5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher, 2011, USA/Sweden/UK/Germany)
6. The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise, 1945, USA)
7. Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939, USA)
8. I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943, USA)
9. Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982, West Germany/Peru)
10. The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011, France/Belgium)

Best rewatches
WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008, USA)
Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948, USA)
Adventureland (Greg Mottola, 2009, USA)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942, USA)
The Curse of the Cat People (Gunther von Fritsch/Robert Wise, 1944, USA)

Ten Most Anticipated Films of 2012

The following list and the blurbs for each entry were compiled for Reel Time‘s cumulative top 10 most anticipated films of 2012. A few of my write-ups were published in cases where some of my selections made the group list, but I thought I’d publish my entire contribution here for those interested.

Tentative Top Ten of 2011

The following list and the blurbs for each entry were compiled at the end of December for Reel Time‘s cumulative top 20 films of 2011. A few of my write-ups were published in cases where some of my selections made the group list, but I thought I’d publish my entire contribution here for those interested. The list has already changed somewhat, thanks to seeing at least one new potential contender for the top 10. 2011 was a very good year for film.

Being Reel Time’s only UK based contributor I am not going by US release dates, but I am also not going strictly by UK release dates as this would mean that some of last year’s awards contenders, such as Blue Valentine and Tangled, would have likely made the cut for me here. Instead, I am operating by a film’s debut release in English language territories outside of festivals, allowing me to include a few films currently only released in the UK but also the likes of Le quattro volte, which had originally premiered at Cannes 2010. Possible contenders for consideration that I did not get to see in time include Shame, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Weekend, A Separation, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (now viewed as of January 2nd), The Artist, and many of the other awards season favourites that will see their UK releases occurring in the opening two months of 2012.

My Week in Films: November 7th, 2011

Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey, 1974, Italy/France) 
Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia (Jean LaFleur, 1977, Canada)
Two films viewed in a double bill; both having a tendency to drag somewhat, but are full of campy charm. Blood, in particular, has some terrific humour and a fantastic performance from Udo Kier.

Matinee (Joe Dante, 1993, USA)
A wonderful tribute to a bygone era of the cinema experience, with great wit and a huge amount of charm. Just terrific fun; one of Dante’s best.

The Cell (Tarsem Singh, 2000, USA/Germany)
Not so spectacular narrative-wise, Tarsem’s film gets by on the basis of a familiar style of creepy imagery that is nonetheless enthralling, and a chilling atmosphere.


The Name of the Rose (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986, France/Italy/West Germany)
Some occasional appeal comes from the appealing Gothic imagery and unsettling victim reveal scenes, but this slowly becomes a very tedious affair.

Rewatches

Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984, USA)
Still funny, still charming, still good; I no longer think of it as a great or favourite film like I did in my youth, but there’s still much to enjoy here every time.

Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003, USA/Japan)
My first watch of this since its initial DVD release in 2004, at age 14, reveals it to be one of the most absorbing, delicate, beautiful, electric, visually and aurally stunning films I’ve ever seen. A new favourite.