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excusethequality · 5 months ago

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My 2024 in Film: April

Another month of films.

The sad part is I wouldn't be so far behind on these if I hadn't watched so friggin' many movies in March.

* = rewatches

81.

Bitch

(2017)

— Comedy Drama Directed by: Marianna Palka

A negligent husband/father is forced to start paying attention to his family when his wife suffers a mental break and stars thinking she's a dog.

I think it's worth noting that the actor playing the woman who thinks she's a dog is the director herself. I just think it makes the whole thing better knowing that all the weird scenes with her are ones that she created.

You know, I feel like this one would need a second viewing for me to really get a handle on it. I assumed I knew where it would go from the premise, but it tackles things rather differently than I was expecting. While the woman is almost always the central figure of the story it's actually her husband who we're primarily following and who is growing as a person through the process.

Since I found the woman who is having this break to be the more interesting figure, focusing on her husband was a little offputting. Especially because he is a wildly absent father and husband so watching him suddenly have to grow isn't the journey I came here for.

But there's some scenes at the end that made me start thinking that perhaps I had been looking at the story from the wrong angle and that perhaps the story was doing something subtler than I was giving it credit for.

I am still undecided on this one. But I will say that I have thought about it after I watched it and that can't be said for most movies.

82.*

For Your Consideration

(2006)

—Mockumentary Directed by: Christopher Guest

The set of movie is turned upside down when rumors of Oscar attention hit the set.

File under movies that took me half the movie to remember I had seen it before.

Sometimes Hollywood people want to make movies based on their life experiences as Hollywood people. The only problem being that life in the Hollywood bubble is FAR from a universal experience. So the more you know about the world surrounding Hollywood movies the funnier this will be. Which is rather unlike Guest's other films which have a much broader appeal.

It has its moments, but overall it just felt way too specific and a little ham fisted compared to his other work.

83.

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

(1997)

— Comedy Adventure Directed by: David Mirkin

Two best friends try to create the image of a successful life in order to impressive the people at their 10 year high school reunion.

I'll be honest, I've avoided watching this movie for years because I just assumed it would be something I wouldn't like. But I finally broke and figured I'd knock another classic off the list and give it a go.

Lo and behold I actually kind of love it?

Since no one makes movies about asexuals, the closest representation I can get is stories about extremely close friends. For instance here Romy and Michele are best friends who've lived together for years. I can't remember exactly, but I think their beds are even in the same room? Are they said to occasionally hook up with dudes? Sure. Do they also seem to be way more into each other than anyone else? Absolutely.

And that my friends, is close enough for me. It's a non-sexual long-lasting, deeply intimate relationship. I'll take what I can get.

It's a silly movie. I could understand if its style of humor wasn't for everyone, but I was having a great time.

84.

The Hating Game

(2021)

— Rom-Com Directed by: Peter Hutchings Based on: The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

After their respective publishing companies merge, two employees with very different styles start a bet to decide who gets to stay and who has to leave.

Okay, so this is just a very stock-standard enemies to lovers story. Usually that's a standard I enjoy, but here the whole thing is rather lukewarm because the two people are both corporate suits and fuck them.

Plus this is pulling on pigtails as foreplay style enemies to lovers. Not like a bitter rivals accidentally forge a bound of shared experience that only they can relate to, kinda enemies to lovers. So no thank you.

More importantly is the fact that early on we see the leading lady at home writing Smurfs fanfiction and then it's never brought up again?! I cannot stress enough how much this threw me. I was waiting the entire movie for that to somehow come back around.

My only guess is they threw that in because it sounded like a nerdy in a literary way kind of thing, without realizing that a person who would write Smurfs fanfiction is a very specific sort of person.

To further prove my point that the writers of this are strangely out of touch is the fact that at one point they refer to epipens as being nerdy...

...what the actual fuck are you talking about? The person has a deadly allergy! Plus the writer of Smurfs fanfiction does not get to mock the person with the epipen for being too nerdy!

Just very much an example of what you get when the popular crowd tries to write a "nerdy" character.

85.

Viktor und Viktoria

[English title: “Victor and Victoria”]

(1933)

— Rom-Com Directed by: Reinhold Schünzel

An aspiring singer impersonates a female impersonator to help a sick colleague, but when an agent discovers her she'll have to try and keep the ruse alive.

I loved Victor/Victoria so much I had to check out the original to see how it compared.

I definitely didn't like it as much as that one. Victor/Victoria used the premise to tackle ideas of queerness & gender and question if society's norms regarding them make any sense in the first place.

This one, however, is just here to have a good time. It's only goal is to give the audience 90minutes of silly good fun with some singing and dancing thrown in to make sure you get your money's worth of entertainment.

Renate Müller is definitely the star of the show as she was actually quite delightful and cute. But the rest of it was a little flat for me.

86.

Orlando, ma biographie politique

[English title: Orlando, My Political Biography]

(2023)

— [I honestly have no idea what genre this would be] Directed by: Paul B. Preciado

An amalgamation of trans stories with that of the story of Virginia Wolfe's Orlando. As the actors playing Orlando change so does the interpretations of the story.

This was the final selection for my house's Roommate Movie Nights and our theme of "Oh! So that's a thing."

It definitely fits the bill as it certainly is an original piece.

I think I was at a large disadvantage here as I have never read or seen any form of adaptation of Viriginia Wolfe's Orlando. So when they intermingle between the real trans stories and Orlando I'm at a bit of a loss as to where the line is.

So yeah. I don't think I'm the right person to go to for an opinion of this one. It's certainly a movie with a style all it's own. I enjoyed the uniqueness and the charm it had in tackling its subject. There was a Virginie Despentes cameo and I was so proud of myself for noticing right away.

[Tangentially I love Virginie Despentes' books. She writes deeply flawed characters in such a fascinating way. She's like the chain-smoking French aunt you never knew you needed in your life.]

87.

We Summoned a Demon

(2017)

— Horror Comedy Short Directed by: Chris McInroy

Two men try to perform a ritual to make themselves cool, but inadvertently summon a demon instead.

It has its moments, but overall not really in line with my sense of humor.

88.

Manhunter

(1986)

— Thriller Directed by: Michael Mann Based on: Red Dragon by. Thomas Harris

A retired criminal profiler is brought back in order to catch a dangerous serial killer.

I feel like I've had to have seen this before at some point, especially considering how big of a fan I am of Bryan Fueller's Hannibal show. I even went and read all of Thomas Harris' books during those years. But if I had seen this before I had forgotten nearly everything. So let's just say it was new to me.

This movie does so many interesting things in its adaptation of the novel and it's especially fun to compare it with the other adaptations.

William Peterson has an intriguing take on Will Graham. But the highlight for me was definitely Brian Cox's Hannibal. Which is just extra fun considering how Anthony Hopkins, Mads Mikkelsen, and Brian Cox have all played the character of Hannibal Lecter, they all have incredibly different versions, but I love them all.

Things like this are part of why I quite enjoy adaptations. Being able to compare how different stories tackle things is fascinating to me.

I really wanted to like this movie more, but there's just a number of parts that really took me out of the story. The music choices were especially bizarre to me. There would be these really tense scenes and then the soundtrack would kick in and just ruin the vibes for me.

I dunno. I'm a sucker for interesting adaptations though and there's just too many interesting choices here for me to discount it. I can't say I loved it, but I also can't say I didn't enjoy the uniqueness of the ride.

89.

Citizenfour

(2014)

— Documentary Directed by: Laura Poitras

The journalists Edward Snowden released his information to document the events of his leaks live as they happened.

Continuing my documentary kick this year, and finding my way here because Kirsten Joshnson, the current reigning champion of my best of this year list, was the cinematographer on this one.

I thought it was just a straight forward documentary about the events of the Snowden leaks, but it is so much more interesting than that!

Laura Poitras was the one Snowden leaked the information to! So she has this record of the whole process. You get to be in the room with her and Snowden and see how they plan the leaks and hear how they react as Snowden witnesses the pieces of his life falling apart as the government tries to track him down.

Just a truly fascinating documentary.

Plus I love reading about cyber security issues, so this is just a win-win all around for me.

90.

Monsters Crash the Pajama Party

(1965)

— Sci-Fi Comedy Short Directed by: David L. Hewitt

Some college girls have a sleep over in an abandoned house as part of a sorority hazing ritual. Unfortunately for them there's a mad scientist living in the basement and he needs more test subjects.

Did I watch this entirely because of the title?

...yes.

Am I proud of that fact?

No.

Not gonna lie: this was a rough watch. They really jumped in with a basic set up to a story and a gimmick, started shooting immediately, realized they didn't know where to go from there, then padded...that...shit...out...to...30...minutes.

The humor is so lazy it hurts. And the whole gimmick is that during one single scene the "monsters" in their bad Spirit Halloween-style costumes would leave the movie and run through the theater before returning to the movie. Even if I had witnessed the gimmick in action it wouldn't have mattered.

The thing's only 30 minutes and by the end it felt like it had gone on for ages.

91.

The Last Unicorn

(1982)

— Animated Fantasy Adventure Directed by: Jules Bass & Arthur Rankin Jr.

A unicorn goes on a quest to find the others of her kind.

This is one of those ones I've heard about forever, but never seen. But leave it to Rankin Bass to make something really unique, but deeply weird.

I honestly don't know what to say. It's a movie that both delivers some amazing emotional beats and will also routinely break their own flow with utterly weird scenes that don't really have a point. (looking at you scene where Alan Arkin is forced to motorboat a busty tree)

If the pacing flowed a bit more evenly I think I would have loved this one, but it was just too cluttered for me to fully invest it.

Also they were dirty for making Jeff Bridges sing that song. Y'all knew damn well he couldn't hit those notes and you made him do it anyway.

92.

Jumanji: The Next Level

(2019)

— Fantasy Comedy Adventure Directed by: Jake Kasdan

The crew from the previous movie wind up back inside the game, because of reasons! But this time some old guys are along for the ride too.

For those who have never seen Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), let it be known that it is far better than it has any right to be. It actually has some really interesting character work and Jack Black is quite fun in it.

This follow-up to it, however, doesn't make any sense. I am convinced the script was made in a single draft. Because anytime it finds that it wrote itself into a corner it will god-machine its way out. None of the character work makes much sense, but you can see them trying to replicate some of the notes of the other movie and just failing completely.

You cannot convince me that this wasn't made just to cash in on the success of the first one.

On another note, I feel like we as a society need to accept that Dwanye "The Rock" Johnson cannot act.

I think due to the sheer number of movies he's starred in that we've convinced ourselves that he can, because why else would he have so many movies?

I think even he has been fooled. "I've been in SO MANY movies," he thinks to himself. "I must be an incredible actor. I must surely be capable of doing this movie that requires me to portray both a depressed young man in the midst of a breakdown AND Danny DeVito portraying a man who is angry at his aging body and at his life filled with regrets."

Yet here we are.

Two hours and $125 million later.

Thinking to ourselves, "You know what…he is not good at this. Was he ever good at this?"

And the fact of the matter is: No. Not really.

93.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

(2023)

— Action Adventure Directed by: James Mangold

Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. has retired from adventuring, but is thrown back into the thick of it when a mystery from his past causes factions begin to converge around him.

I could have watched this at the theater I worked at for free, but after Kingdom of the Crystal Skull I really wasn't prepared to sit through 3 hours of this without the ability to take a break.

But the completionist in me finally won out so I picked it up from the library.

All they had to do to make this plot work was do a twist on The Last Crusade, where this time Phoebe Waller-Bridge was the adventurer and Harrison Ford was the old father figure whose passions have come back to haunt him, and it would have been a really fun ride. Instead we're stuck following this old Dr. busted "get off my lawn" Jones around and she's just kind of there.

There's just so much going on here and none of it means anything.

In other news, Karen Allen is aging gracefully af. Holy smokes.

In fact, I take back my earlier plot outline. I want Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Karen Allen as my dream duo for things that could have been made instead of this. In fact I just want them to work together on anything, it doesn't even have to be this.

94.

Anatomy of a Murder

(1959)

— Courtroom Drama Directed by: Otto Preminger

A former D.A. and current small town lawyer agrees to take a case defending a man who has been accused of murder after he killed a man he claims raped his wife.

Fucking Jimmy Stewart.

I often will watch something purely based on someone's recommendation or having read something about it that intrigued me, so I frequently don't know the cast of an older movie before I see it. And this bastard is always sneaking his way into my watchlist, in spite of the fact that he drives me up the wall.

Y'all, I don't even know.

It's shot really well, there's some interesting scenes and some great performances (not you, Stewart), and I know it has a pretty great reputation. But Jimmy Stewart playing a wealthy lawyer who doesn't pay his employees and takes a case to defend an abusive murderer for fun and sport? I just have a real hard time getting into that.

95.

Lake Placid 2

(2007)

— Made-for-TV Horror Directed by: David Flores

The events of the first movie have become mere rumors, but it turns out those giant crocs aren't content to let themselves become merely the stuff of legends.

I have a soft spot for the original Lake Placid. Don't get me wrong, it's a ridiculous movie, but it's the fun kind of dumb. Plus Betty White is in it and she is just a treat.

I assumed going into this that it wouldn't live up to the original, but at least it might bring some cheesy good fun. I was not prepared for just how low the budget of this movie was.

I actually had to pull out my phone and make sure this was actually a legitimate sequel early into the movie, because it is just so much cheaper than the original. It appears that the Sci-Fi channel somehow ended up with the rights to the property and decided to make some low budget made-for-tv movies with it.

Although 30 year olds playing teenagers never fails to make me laugh, it is not a good movie. The best thing about it is that they got Cloris Leachman to do their version of the Berrty White role (an amazing choice), but the writing is so bad that her talent is really wasted here.

For sure filing under bad films to laugh at with friends, but not to watch alone.

96.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

(1994)

— Queer Road Trip Adventure Directed by: Stephan Elliott

3 drag performers go on a road trip across Australia in order to get to a big gig.

My go-to drag road trip movie has always been To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar, but I figured I had gone long enough without having seen this.

I really like Hugo Weaving and Terence Stamp. Guy Pearce remains on my list of actors I just can't get into though.

I still need to get around to doing some research on this one. I'm curious what queer people think of it today and also what their consensus (if any) was back in the 90s.

Although I truly have no idea what the hell they were thinking with the Cynthia character, because that bit thoroughly confused me. It's hard to see that and not wonder, "how exactly did they think this wouldn't be considered racist?"

It's hard not to compare and contrast this with To Wong Foo, even though they are tonally very different. To Wong Foo is much lighter and more of a story about the importance of being yourself, surrounding yourself with people that support you, and not letting adversity tear you down.

Priscilla has a much darker and more realistic undercurrent and seems to be more of a story of knowing who you are, but struggling to figure out exactly how you're supposed to fit into a world that wasn't built with you in mind.

Like always, it would be great if a movie with a trans character had actually gotten a trans actor for the role. But at least Priscilla was written and directed by a gay man, so for a mid-90s movie it's still far queerer than most.

97.

Minding the Gap

(2018)

— Documentary Directed by: Bing Liu

Filmmaker Bing Liu dives into skateboard culture, coming of age, and a search for identity in this documentary. He combines the skating footage from his younger years with modern interviews with his old skating group to try and learn the role skating had in their lives and what it means now that they've gotten further into adulthood.

This movie is so good!

I went into this thinking this was a different skating boarding documentary, so I was a little confused at the start, but what a happy accident!

Part of what makes it so compelling is how Bing Liu straddles the line between documentarian and participant. The story he's able to capture is one only possible from him and because of his relationship with the group

Definitely one of my favorite things I've seen this year.

98.*

Minding the Gap

(2018)

see #97

Did I watch this and then immediately watch it again with the commentary?

Yes.

Yes I did.

99.

Vox Lux

(2018)

— Drama Directed by: Brady Corbet

A former survivor of a school shooting and current pop star struggles in a life where her public image has dominated how she is seen by both the world and herself.

I kind of hate this movie. I'm not sure it deserves to be hated though. A LOT of my hatred comes from the fact that Natalie Portman is the star and she is doing a BIZARRE accent the entire movie. Which is made all the weirder because at the start of the movie you see her character as a kid and she very much does not have the accent.

So here's this character that somehow grew up to have what I can only describe as the New York equivalent of the Dick Van Dyke-style British accent that Americans do. At not point does it ever approach accuracy, but you can kind of see where they were trying to go with it?

If you see me talk about enough movies you'll start to notice that I have a very hard time overlooking certain details in movies. It's why I traditionally don't like Hitchcock movies, because he is the master of throwing in random details of the type that I can't not fixate on.

And having the main character doing an absurd accent for the whole movie is so utterly distracting to me. Was the movie aside from that fact any good? I don't even know. Anytime I thought I was starting to understand the themes of the movie is would seemingly abandon that thread and start doing something else.

I just don't know. Whatever this movie is, it's definitely not for me.

100.

Paddington 2

(2017)

— Family Comedy Adventure Directed by: Paul King

A simple attempt to find a birthday gift for his mother goes horribly astray when it leads to a chain of events that get Paddington thrown in prison.

The Paddington movies have the sort of heart that you just so rarely see from family movies these days. Lots of others in the genre feel like some sort of innocuous thing that was grown in a lab and designed by committee to as unoffensive as possible.

But the Paddington movies have a charm and a soul all their own. And the direction of both films is leagues beyond what you'd typically expect from the cgi-character has an adventure family genre.

I'll admit that I like the first movie better as I found the whole thing to be overall tighter. But this is still a lot of fun. I wouldn't say this one is up there with the family movies that everyone needs to see, but it's still a charming little film that's awfully hard not to enjoy.

101.

Bad Black

(2016)

— Action Comedy Directed by: Nabwana I.G.G.

An American doctor in Uganda must get martial arts training from a child in pink crocs known as Swaz if he ever hopes to get an heirloom back from the notorious gangster Bad Black.

This is a kind of movie that you just need to see to understand.

Imagine a movie made by a group of money without a lot of money or equipment or training, but a hell of a lot of passion and fun. They're out here with the kind of originality that you only get from those who were never taught what the rules were, because—for better or for worse—they're breaking all of them.

It's definitely not going to be for everyone. But if you love action comedies and weirdly memorable b-movies, then it's certainly something you might want to try out.

102.

Good Time

(2017)

— Crime Drama Directed by: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie

A criminal's desperate attempts to get his brother out of jail lead him to going to increasingly dangerous lengths as his desperation increases.

Jeez, there's a lot going on in this one. I enjoyed it, but I think I'd need to really sit down and dedicate some real time and thought to breaking it down properly.

The fact that it mostly takes place over a single night gives it this really interesting sort of tension. Robert Pattinson is fantastic. And this character we're following is really intriguing.

He's a really well written antihero. He is far from a good person and over the course of the movie he does a number of terrible deeds. He's greedy and uses people and is selfish. But like any good character you can't help but to find his struggle compelling because he really is willing to risk it all to help his brother.

It's certainly something I'll have to give another watch down the line.

103.

The Happytime Murders

(2018)

— Comedy Whodunnit Directed by: Brian Henson

In a world where humans and puppets live together, a puppet P.I. and a Human homicide detective must team up to solve a string of brutal puppet murders.

This was kind of exactly like what I thought it would be like, but I'll admit that it has its moments.

I feel like there's too ways to play puppets in the real world: A) a Muppets style (they're just there and no one calls attention to it, or B) a sci-fi style (where you take it seriously and try to explain how exactly that works).

This one tries to explain how this all works and create a believable human/puppet world, but they aren't great explanations and there's no consistency. Like in one scene a puppet will be able to beat up a human, but in another they'll be unable to do anything because they're just full of cotton.

If you're going muppets style I can easily suspend my disbelief, but if you specifically tell me this world has rules and then are constantly breaking those rules then that fucks really takes me out of things.

I don't really have much to say about this. There are certainly some fun parts, but it's a very one-note kind of movie. And the one note is just: "isn't it funny when puppets do or say crude things!"

104.

龙马精神

[English title: “Ride On”]

(2023)

— Action Comedy Drama Directed by: Larry Yang

An aging stuntman is given another chance at stardom when his beloved horse is shown to also have a knack for stuntwork.

When I saw the trailer I was just thinking: "Jackie Chan and a horse? That's a recipe for silly good fun."

I was not expecting a really thoughtful and poignant story to be hiding in there!

I know it sounds weird to say, but I've actually thought about this one a lot since I watched it. Hiding in the silliness is this thoughtful look on a life and career in stunt work. But it also works as just an older person looking back and wondering if some of the decisions they made in the past were worth it. Then looking to the new generations and seriously considering whether or not the old ways are actually better or if the new trends have merit.

Not to mention that Jackie is out here doing some really fantastic acting.

It's definitely not a perfect film though. It's probably the only time I've watched a Jackie Chan movie and wished there weren't as many fights. This time I'm here for the drama! The character work, the relationships between Jackie's character trying to make up for lost time and create a better relationship with his daughter, there's so much here. Most of the fights just seem shoehorned in because you've gotta have fights in a Jackie Chan movie, right?

I dunno. In spite of its flaws it has given me more food for thought than a lot of "better" movies I've seen this year and I quite like it. I wouldn't recommend it if you want pure Martial Arts action, but if you're in the mood for something silly, something sweet, something quirky, and something lighter but with some hidden depths? It's got you covered.

105.

무림여대생

[English title: “My Mighty Princess”]

(2008)

— Wuxia Rom-Com Directed by: Jae-young Kwak

A high school girl tries to navigate the troubles of high school and of her father's attempts to get her to dedicate herself to her training in martial arts.

I only just realized that a lot of people might not know what Wuxia is. So for context Wuxia is a genre of Chinese fiction that deals in historical martial arts fantasy. The closest approximation in Western literature I can think of would probably be something like the tales of Arthur and the knights of the round table? Where there are monsters and magic, but they're the magic and monsters of olden days, not full-blown high fantasy. And we follow heroes who have a strict code and fight for what's right.

Umm...what are some examples people might be familiar with in America...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is based on a classic Wuxia novel. And Kung-Fu Panda was inspired by the genre (although they definitely cross pollinated it with some Western storytelling styles).

Anyways, it's a genre style that definitely had an impact across Asian fiction.

My Mighty Princess kind of aims to combine a high school rom-com with a more classic wuxia story and it's a tricky one for me diagnose.

I think there's a lot to love in this. The humor is quite fun and the setup is solid. It's just that there's a pretty heavy tonal jump in the middle. It starts out full rom-com then switches gear in the middle to start the wuxia angle and it's way too big of a shift for me. I definitely would have preferred if the genres were a bit more evenly melded from the start.

Then there's this whole weird b-storyline with this high school student who keeps trying to win the heart of this cop lady and that doesn't really go anywhere.

I'm probably a little overly harsh on it, because I quite like parts of it, but I didn't love it overall. And it's always annoying when that happens, because you kind of want to rewatch it, but then again you kind of don't.

106.

The American Buffalo

(2023)

— Documentary Directed by: Ken Burns

A look at the colonizers history with the American buffalo and how it relates to their history with the indigenous peoples.

Technically I think this might be a miniseries not a movie, but it's short enough to watch during a single sitting so I'm gonna count it.

It's pretty standard for a PBS-style documentary. The subject matter is interesting, but I think it perhaps would have been better handled by a native director instead of the whitest man alive. And I also was pulled out of it whenever they got famous people to read the bits of diaries and whatnot.

You'd just be listening and then suddenly be wondering, "wait, why is Paul Giamatti talking right now?"

107.

The Taming of the Shrew

(1967)

—Shakespeare adaptation Directed by: Franco Zeffirelli Based on: The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

A group of men seek to coerce a strong willed woman into a bad marriage in their attempts to wed her younger and more demur sister.

I'm not gonna lie, I've seen a number of loose Taming of the Shrew adaptations, but I've never actually seen a more-or-less direct adaptation or the play itself.

It turns out that the actual story is super fucked up? The whole "taming" idea was always a little iffy depending on how it was deployed, but in the story they are just straight up abusing the shit out of her? Full on mentally and physically abusing her into submission?

I don't really have any insight for this. When I wasn't a little bit bored I was just sitting there being deeply uncomfortable.

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April Stats

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Movies watched this month: 27

Rewatch percentage: 7.4% (2/27)

Favorite new movie of the month: Minding the Gap

Least favorite: The Taming of the Shrew

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Previous Months’ Posts:

JAN | FEB | MAR.p1 | MAR.p2

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