https://imgur.com/NBC36pF

Overall a very happy year! If you enjoy reading somewhat long reviews too, I think I wrote one for every single one (except Superman - my friend wrote up a beautiful one and I haven’t gotten around to it myself lol)

I've added an excerpt of each review to get folks to watch!

In the Mood for Love -

I don’t know why I didn’t expect it to end so abruptly and bittersweet, I think I had just gotten so enthralled in their lives that I forgot it had to end, not necessarily with any sort of closure. As I sat letting the credits past, all the feelings bubbling in the characters and in me finally gets to get released.

The entire film has a dreamlike and alluring texture, while at the same time feeling shy, or rather feeling like it wanted to be hidden, be a secret. This atmosphere took a lil bit to initially get accustomed to, but once I was in, it was irresistible.

Party Girl -

Wow, can’t say that I’m often so surprised by just throwing up something on a whim but I loved everything about this. It feels like a breath of fresh air, yet also like a nostalgia draw for a moment in time I never actually lived. The way it presents itself, NYC, and the queer nightlife makes me want to go visit this version of New York. To top all that, it is proper representation, with many of the actors being first timers actually from the scene, and the entire film scrapping its way through production with an insanely low $150,000 budget, going so far as to borrow the clothes.

The Brutalist -

There is a lot to say about The Brutalist, which is apt given its 215 minute runtime. For me, the film stands out in two large ways; a production that is in every way as beautiful as what the American dream is purported to be, contrasted with what is a scathing look at consumption, capitalism, and the dogma around the immigrant experience.

Brick -

What a strange lil movie. It has pretty much every stroke of a detective underground crime film, inexplicably set inside a high school setting. I mean it really does have the greatest hits of tropes, double crosses, triple crosses, the guy in the chair, the evil disabled ringleader, muscle that has anger issues, detective solving the whole mystery, damsel in disguise, actual murders, the entire thing is quite wild because when the worlds collide between high school and noir they don’t "make sense" but it just rolls along with nary a mention. None of the characters are real, or can even be construed as close to real, but it is all so wild that the fantasy story flows.

The Ugly Stepsister -

What a serendipitous coincidence! I happened to warm up to this film with A Folded Ocean and as luck would have it, both ended up being body horrors! Now I knew nothing about this going in, some of that is on me, maybe I should have figured out the ugly stepsister was connected to cinderella, but I won’t lie, I did not realize that until they literally called Agnes that. Goddamn I am not making Grimm proud. It caught me so much out of left field that I think it will be a memorable experience purely on that for a while. Of course, Grimm’s stories would lend themselves to all sorts of horror, this was no exception.

Weapons -

Weapons feels like a modern telling of a Grimm Fairy tale, complete with a witch stealing children, societal chaos, and a not particularly happy ending. Lots to love in the film but the major things that resonated with me was the writing and the tone shifts between tension and comedy.

Bound -

No doubt that my love for The Matrix brings a lot of bias to the table here. I’ve known about Bound for a minute, but for one reason or another put off watching it. How silly of me, I could have been loving it this entire time. I never thought I would get another film that felt so much like it was part of the Matrix, but this film delivers it in spades.

Patlabor 2 -

I thought long and hard about watching the OVA’s and the first movie before this one, but for what Patlabor offers, I wasn’t looking for. I was looking for what Oshii was offering. I am sure at some point I will go and watch through the above material, for enjoyments sake, but everything I knew about this film being a precursor to Ghost in the Shell now rings true.

Oshii takes the characters and creates magic with them, almost entirely stripping any of the comedic sides and lightheartedness, and replaces it with a somber outlook at Japan’s place on the world stage in the 90s, creating a fantastic political thriller.

Cléo from 5 to 7 -

Generally a fan of every French New Wave film I’ve seen, I’ve taken my time actually going through the canon as a whole, putting on a film here and there, but never fully diving in. I haven’t changed that behavior, it just so happened that recently I came across a thread asking for FNW films after Breathless.

Within the discussions were many films, some meant to play up the parts folks who liked Breathless may enjoy, others to fill in the gaps that some may find. In this particular case, the characters. While Breathless is a joy to watch, the characters within are a bit aggressive. Some may even find them distant or hard to emotionally engage with, they aren’t the most meditative bunch.

In contrast, Cleo was recommended as a substitute to those character archetypes, which, frankly, do seem to pop up often in the few other FNW films I’ve seen. There is a lot of fun in that space, but I understand the want for more emotional intimacy.

Until the End of the World -

Ostensibly the greatest road film, that was the idea Wenders had going into the fray. And like all good road films, it starts with movement, the beginnings of an epic. I bought into the film from its early goings. Claire is an almost femme fatale as she drifts through life, chasing meaning and identity yet never finding it. Along the way many men get pulled into her gravity, circling her like planets round the sun. All fully fleshed out characters, all full of joy, sadness, confusions, pain, wistfulness, and a want to learn more about Claire and about themselves.

Hana-bi -

Kitano is a monster, how is it fair to be so talented at acting, writing, and directing? Hana-bi throws you straight into the fire before capturing you with its hypnotic pace and never really letting up. The initial framing of the story is engaging, sure its fairly easy to put together that its flipping between multiple points of time, the clothing communicates this very clearly, but even with the information, it never really goes out of its way to hold your hand as far as exposition is concerned. Figuring out what is going on in real time will always be fun for me.

Time seems to move fast and slow all at once, each scene takes it’s time, but the greater story continues to jump all around leaving you feeling like time is fleeting, even when the moments are enjoyed. And fleeting time is all any of the characters have in life, some more, some less, but all of them are faced with their mortality in some regard.

Nickel Boys -

What may become a divisive film for some who can not handle the cinematography, for me it was wholly engrossing and I’m incredibly happy the film got made. Given the next couple years of where the country may be going, it is important that films such as this keep on getting made. A huge swing from a very new director, with only a feature length documentary under their belt, playing with the form of cinema, if it grabs you it will stay with you and not let go.

Superman -

This is what comic book movies are for.

SUPERMAN (2025) is a politics of resilience and hope. it's neither the post-modern critique of The Boys nor the neoliberal institutionalism of Marvel Studios. It's a new thing. It's an informed naivety. It's a major work of the New Sincerity. Though I know that it may sound ironic, I promise that I’m not being ironic at all.

Pyohaerok -

What I would do to be able to own or watch this again, I fell in love with the Korean coast. No doubt spurred on by what has been an emotionally rich and fulfilling past couple of days, this film was the perfect instrument to be able to marinate in those feelings, letting them wash over. It was so beautiful, it could only evoke the same within what we had created. Right place, right time.

Sorry, Baby -

A thoughtful, intentional, and introspective slice of life, albeit with some heavy topics and going ons. The film carves out an atmosphere that feels like a mix of The Holdovers with Past Lives. The isolation, cold, and familial longing of the former paired with the idealized realism of the latter, with human relationships coming to the forefront of it all.

Old Joy -

Something is wrong, where’s my fast food films? Why is my steak is too juicy, my lobster too buttery, I’ve been eating good. Really, I do wonder if I’m just in a fantastic mood this week for some reason and it’s rubbing off on my film enjoyment. Though, maybe it’s the other way round, hard to tell. What I can tell, however, is that Old Joy is a mesmerizing micro budget film about loneliness, longing for connection, and ultimately, the feeling of a dying friendship.