Miscellaneous Movie Moments XCI (April 2023)

We've reached the time of year--long days and mild weather--when I will go see pretty much any film that's not a horror movie. I am largely omnivorous.



Although I've got to confess: I did not diligently take notes on the miscellaneous films I watched this month, so it's mostly bullet-ish points to go along with the usual GIFs.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves | A Thousand and One | Suzume | Air | Renfield | The Super Mario Bros. Movie | Chevalier | L'Avventura | Star Wars: Episode VI--Return of the Jedi | Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXVIII (January 2023)

The time has come, y'all! OSCAR WATCHING SEASON. I do like January as a movie-watching month--it's a good mix of genre stuff and awards bait stuff, and sometimes those two things even overlap.

Willow | Black Adam | Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery | Top Gun: Maverick | The Banshees of Inisherin | Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio | RRR | Elvis | Fire of Love | All Quiet on the Western Front | Shortcomings | Fancy Dance

Bridgerton 1.01: Diamond of the First Water

I decided to rewatch Bridgerton from the beginning again and things kind of got out of hand.

The Whistledown Report
I may be paraphrasing some of this.

• "It has been said that of all bitches, dead or alive, a scribbling woman is the most canine. If that should be true, than this author would like to show you her teeth." That is a KILLER opener, but my god, Whistledown, who the hell actually said that?
  
  
• Featherington has three ladies on the marriage market and their mother has shit taste in clothes and also manners.
  
  
• Violet Bridgerton and her late husband churned out a clutch of ridiculously attractive children, but Lady Whistledown finds their alphabetical naming convention utterly banal.
  
  
  
  This is, for the record, accompanied by a couple of portraits that are hilarious mostly because it's clear they were painted somewhere in the recent past, which means poor Gregory and Hyacinth got shoved into a closet or something for the space of a month or so.

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXV (April/May/June 2022)

After my Oscars binge, I vowed to take a break from prestige films and go all in on my most beloved genre, science fictiony action. It's been a good three months, let me tell you.



Death on the Nile (2022) | Stargate: Continuum | The Batman | Spider-Man: No Way Home | The Lost City | Turning Red | Moonfall | Casablanca | Galaxy Quest | Ghostbusters: Afterlife | Ron's Gone Wrong | Dog | Moneyball | Morbius | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Miscellaneous (Oscar) Movie Moments LXXXIV (March 2022)

It's OSCAR SEASON, baby. I spent my entire Spring Break watching all the films I hadn't already seen and it was so worth it.

I'll probably post a full Oscars index post tomorrow or Sunday. Anyway. Onward!

Drive My Car | Summer of Soul | West Side Story | Licorice Pizza | Nightmare Alley | The Hand of God | The Mitchells vs. the Machines | CODA | Attica | The Tragedy of Macbeth | Coming 2 America | Parallel Mothers | Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom | Four Good Days | Writing With Fire | Cyrano

Movie Moments LXXXIII: The Tempest Edition (February/March 2022)

Adaptations of Shakespeare's The Tempest are hella wide-ranging, y'all.

The Tempest (2010) | Forbidden Planet | Yellow Sky | Ex Machina

Normally I try to watch these in chronological order, but I figured I should start with the most straightforward version first.

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXI (January 2022)

It's Oscars season, y'all!

Venom: Let There Be Carnage | No Time to Die | Respect | | The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love | Flee | The Worst Person in the World | Encanto | The Power of the Dog | Passing | Simple as Water | The Eyes of Tammy Faye | The Lost Daughter | Procession | Don't Look Up | Faya Dayi | Being the Ricardos | tick, tick...BOOM! | Swan Song | 892 AKA Breaking

Movie Moments LXXVIII: Tim Burton Edition

Happy Christmas, Dani! You are the only person for whom I would watch these festivals of cheery macabre.

Previously, from the Oeuvre
Seen:
Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish

Not Seen:
Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland, Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie, Big Eyes, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Dumbo

What's the Deal
I've just never been a fan of creepy, you know? Say "Tim Burton," and my brain conjures up a Johnny Depp in white pancake makeup stabbing people and I think we're all past that stage in our lives. Then again, I've enjoyed the Burton films I have seen (except Edward Scissorhands, obvs).

Movie Moments LXXVII: Wes Anderson Edition

Happy Christmas, Jeff and Stacey! I hope you enjoy my enduring resentment reluctant admiration! Or whatever.

Previously, from the Oeuvre
Seen:
The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Not Seen:
Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch

What's the Deal
Look, I recognize Anderson's a wizard at framing a tableau, but there's only so much twee that I can take, ESPECIALLY if it's all White people, all the time. There's enough out there for me to watch, obvs, that it's easy enough to rule out a whole pool of films that I know are Not For Me.

That said, knowing this antipathy, Jeff gave me all of Anderson's films on DVD for my birthday once. I trust he enjoyed the entirety of the Fast and Furious movies I gave him in response. So yeah, I have all these movies already, so I GUESS I will watch. (Though I confess I have streamed them here, for ease of use--I pause more readily when I stream, and I don't when I watch on discs. Go fig.)

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXIII (November 2021)

Free Guy, 02 November 2021, Blu-ray via Redbox
I wonder what it would have been like to watch this movie without knowing its central conceit: That is, Ryan Reynolds plays an NPC in an FPS named Free City and, one day, he becomes aware.

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXII (October 2021)

Three non-mermaid movies for the month of October: The Green Knight, Dune, and A Place Among the Dead.

Movie Moments LIV: Gatsby Edition (January 2021)

Funny story: I didn’t actually read The Great Gatsby until a few years ago. Like, I knew it was a classic, etc, etc, but I’ve never been all that eager to gobble down tales of rich white people experiencing woe. When I was in Louisville for the AP Reading a few years ago, though, someone told me the Seelbach Hilton was known as “the Gatsby hotel”--apparently it was a favored haunt of F Scott himself. So when we had an evening free, I read the whole novel on my phone while lounging in one of the hotel bars. I mean, I had to, right?

Movie Moments XLIX: October 2020 (Emma Edition)

While it seems like I should have strong opinions about Emma, according to my book log, I read it it 2009. TWO THOUSAND AND NINE, friends. I remember zero thoughts I originally had about this text. What I CAN tell you for certain is I just am very not down with any of the dudes Jane Austen paints as romantic leads. (Darcy? Ugh. Knightley? UGH.) Anyway, how much more quickly would this story move if everybody was very clear about who they were talking about in every conversation?

But also: Emma (2020) has my favorite proposal scene ever. And I HATE proposal scenes.

Movie Moments XLI: August 2020 (Pride & Prejudice/Bridget Jones Edition)

Darcy is the worst and the Bennet sisters have questionable taste in men.

ANYWAY. Back to the classics.

Movie Moments XXXVII: July 2020 (Romeo & Juliet Edition)

Seven adaptations of Romeo and Juliet! I should also note that I find nothing in the original text romantic or even sweet. How many hours this week will I spend yelling at the TV because teenagers are being teenagery? WE SHALL SEE.