#but nevertheless I'd rewatch it again sometime

[excusethequality]

My 2024 in Film: September

Apparently I didn't watch a lot of movies this month.

Which is okay with me, because the year is nearly done and I am WAY behind schedule on these.

It's a good thing I don't have investors or they'd be furious.

* = rewatched

188.

Солярис

[English title: Solaris]

(1972)

— Sci-Fi Psychological Drama Directed by: Andrei Tarkovsky

A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a distant planet called Solaris to look into the strange reports being sent by those investigating the planet.

I've been meaning to watch this one forever, because I've often heard it compared to other movies I love. And yet it was very different from what I was expecting.

I was expecting much more of a hard sci-fi character-based kind of thing. So the psychological drama kind of story caught me off guard.

While it wasn't exactly my cup of tea, I definitely understand why it's talked about in sci-fi film conversations so much. I'll have to give it another watch sometime now that I'm prepared for the type of film it is.

So for the moment I'll file it under Films that weren't quite my thing, but I respect the craftsmanship of nevertheless. If you're in the mood for a really moody cerebral bit of sci-fi I'd recommend you give it a chance.

189.

The Bad Guys

(2022)

— Animated Crime Comedy Directed by: Pierre Perifel

After botching a heist and getting arrested, a group of thieves are left with one last desperate move to save their skins: become good guys.

I really wanted to like this one, because the animation and design work is really very good. Unfortunately it winds up being one of those rather unambitious kids movies that is content to just set up shop in the shallows and never attempt to tell a story with depth.

190.

Tread

(2020)

— Documentary Directed by: Paul Solet

The story behind a welder who turned a bulldozer into an armored machine of destruction and proceeded to use it to run a path of destruction through the town that had wronged him.

This is definitely one of those documentaries that doesn't quite have enough of a story to really warrant its length. But I can't say the story at the center of it all isn't incredibly fascinating.

191.

The Iron Claw

(2023)

— Sports Drama Directed by: Sean Durkin

A family of brothers attempt to follow in their father's footsteps on a path to being the greatest professional wrestlers in the business. But when they learn that it is path full of death and despair they must determine whether they should push forward or rethink everything.

I had avoided this one because I don't really care about professional wrestling. But I kept hearing such good things about it from so many friends of mine that I figured I needed to check it out.

It's actually a really phenomenal drama with some really great performances. It also managed to explain professional wrestling in a way that finally made it make more sense?

192.

TÁR

(2022)

— Drama Directed by: Todd Field

A famous musical conductor at the top of her field is forced to battle for her position when the forces around her begin to push her back and mistakes from her past come back to haunt her.

I've said this before, but stories of people slowly but surely destroying their own lives is one of my least favorite esoteric subgenres. They always just leave me so stressed out!

Cate Blanchett is fantastic as always. It's a really interesting character piece. It's very well made. But it stresses me out. File under great movies that can't say I want to see again.

193.

Sullivan's Travels

(1941)

— Comedy Adventure Directed by: Preston Sturges

A wealthy film director is sick and tired of making cheesy comedies and wants to make a serious film. In order to understand the lives of the poor he decides to undertake a mission to live among them and see what stories speak to them for himself.

This is a classic I've long heard of but never really bothered to pursue. However, Veronica Lake is such an intriguing figure that I wound up watching it just for her.

It's a very safe sort of older comedy. Certainly enjoyable, but not the sort of thing you'll feel compelled to tell your friends about. Perhaps a great option for a background movie?

194.

Nights and Weekends

(2008)

— Rom-Dram Directed by: Greta Gerwig & Joe Swanberg

The story of the a couple as they attempt a long-distance relationship.

After Barbie I figured I'd take a look at some older Greta Gerwig movies. Unfortunately I very much didn't enjoy this. It was only 90minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Definitely one of those movies that tries to be so realistic that it winds up being uncompelling because of it.

Also WAY more nude scenes than I would have liked.

Maybe this is relatable to other people, but certainly not for me.

195.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

(2007)

— Documentary Directed by: Seth Gordon

The story of a man on a quest to overthrow a tyrant and claim the throne of being the greatest Donkey Kong player in history.

I thought I had seen this, but upon hearing my roommate's description of it I realized that I actually hadn't.

In any case it does what any great documentary does: make something simple incredibly compelling.

Billy Mitchell has got to be one of the most weirdly intriguing film antagonists I've ever seen.

It's always so fascinating when a good documentary gives you a look inside a corner of the world you never knew existed.

196.

Periodical

(2023)

— Documentary

Directed by: Lina Plioplyte

A documentary about periods in the United States and people's perception of them.

The best piece of advice I ever got in college was when I was trying to come up with a topic for my thesis paper and my advisor told me that I needed to get specific, because if your topic is too broad it makes it harder both for you to write and for your reader to care about.

And I've thought about it a lot over the years and she was 100% correct. You can see examples of it being true in all sorts of media too.

Here is an example of a subject that was too broad. And because of that they're forced to try to cover it from all angles, which isn't really an achievable goal for a 90 minute movie on a big topic.

So I wouldn't say it's bad, but I would say it's very muddled.

197.

Shattered Glass: A WNBPA Story

(2024)

— Documentary Directed by: Andrea Buccilla

A look into the lives of WNBA players as their players' union works to decide on the best way forward to create a better situation for women in sport.

I'm not a big basketball person, so I'm sure this will hit fans on a different level than it hit me.

It's certainly interesting getting that behind-the-scenes look at the lives of professional athletes and seeing their perspectives on some of the issues they have to face.

From a filmmaking perspective I can't say I found the telling of the story to be particularly memorable. But it was still a fine watch.

198.

The Outsiders

(1983)

— Coming-of-Age Drama Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Two young friends from the wrong side of the tracks must go on the run after a fight leaves them wanted by the police.

In all the times I've seen Step Brothers, I never knew that Kathryn Hahn's character was making a reference to this! I just thought it was a fun silly line!

I honestly don't remember any more what prompted me to check this out from the library.

I don't know how to describe this. The best I can do is that this is the type of movie I would probably never seek out again, but if I was flipping through the channels and I saw it was on TV I would probably watch it.

Or I guess the modern equivalent would be that I wouldn't pay to rent it, but if I see it streaming some years from now I'll probably give it another watch.

I don't really have many thoughts on it it though. It's the type of movie you can just feel must have been based on a book, I can say that about it. Just one of those movies that hits you in middle. It's not really doing anything wrong, it's just not doing anything special for me. So I enjoyed watching it, but I definitely haven't been thinking about it much after having seen it.

199.

Jawbreaker

(1999)

— Comedic Crime Directed by: Darren Stein

A group of popular high school girls find themselves in a sticky situation after their prank takes a deadly turn.

This is another random movie I've always meant to get around to watching and then never have.

It's weirdly both not as dark as I was expecting nor as funny as I was expecting.

A true neutral outing for me. I didn't hate watching it by any means, but it didn't really make me feel much of anything. In a year I very well might have trouble telling you what the plot was even about.

200.

American Movie

(1999)

— Documentary Directed by: Chris Smith

The story of a filmmaker whose passion for making movies threatens to undermine the rest of his life.

My documentary kick for the year continues!

Like The King of Kong here is a documentary about very specific people and their unique challenges, but wherein the people involved are just so utterly fascinating.

The main character certainly wasn't very likeable to me, but his dedication to his dream is kind of inspiring (albeit in a slightly perverse way). The whole thing almost feels like it could be a mockumentary, except it's not...which is certainly a compelling area to be in for a documentary.

I really wound up liking this a lot more than I thought I would. If nothing else the BFF relationship between Mark and Mike is amazing.

201.

Switchblade Sisters

(1975)

— Action Crime Drama Directed by: Jack Hill

A gang of girls fight to stay on top as their allegiances and loyalties are tested.

There was a podcast I listened to back in the day that was named after this movie!

So when I saw that it was streaming on Tubi I was compelled to give it a watch.

I had a great time watching it, but I'd understand if someone felt differently.

Like, a completely over-the-top kind of campy girl gang version of Othello?

It's a hell of a ride that's for sure.

202.

My Blind Brother

(2016)

— Darkly Comedic Rom-Dram Directed by: Sophie Goodhart

A man feels duty bound to help his blind brother in spite of how doing so often prevents him from living his own life.

Question: Will I watch a film just because Jenny Slate is in it?

Answer: Yes. Yes, I will.

It's actually less of a comedy than I was expecting and much more of a kind of dark drama, wherein the laughs serve both to cut the tension, but also somehow make it all seem that much sadder?

Usually I'm not a big fan of Nick Kroll, so I was shocked to see him giving a really excellent performance in this movie. I've definitely thought about his character after the movie was done.

203.

The Wild Robot

(2024)

— Animated Sci-fi Family Directed by: Chris Sanders

After being lost at sea a robot designed to help people wakes up on an island inhabited only by animals. Unable to fulfill its purpose it struggles to find a way to create a life for itself.

I've become so jaded by modern movies recently that I really didn't think I was gonna like this one. I thought it was just gonna be a real middle of the road bit of cliche. But, gosh darnit, it won me over.

I'll be the first to admit that the plot could use a little tightening up. There's definitely some bits that seemed a bit rushed. But never before have I seen a movie that could land an emotional beat regardless.

The fucking music, and voice acting, and art direction are all fire. And there is not an emotional beat this movie can not hit. I cried like 3 or 4 separate times. One of those times I was even like, oh jeez that's a little contrived. And then 1 minute later was starting to tear up.

It's just so wholesome and sweet. I could nitpick some stuff, but there's no point. Just go in there to enjoy it.

204.

Threads

(1984)

— Apocalyptic Drama Directed by: Mick Jackson

A dramatic attempt to show what the effects of a nuclear war would have on the world through the lens of a group of people in Sheffield, England.

For some reason this month 3 different people made references to this movie entirely independently of one another. As such I felt compelled to find and watch it.

Okay, so...this is probably just a me thing, let me start out by saying that. It's a really interesting idea for a project, I can see what it was trying to do, but...it made me want to punch a hole through a wall.

It is like the dramatic reenactment of a newspaper think piece. It is like if you tried to shrink an entire miniseries into a single film, but couldn't afford a professional editor.

The way they used the sound effect of typewriter sounds SO MUCH dealt me critical amounts of psychic damage and after a while it affected my ability to pay attention to what was happening.

Just...I don't know. Go read Barefoot Gen instead. It's better. It's more horrifying. It's a true story. It will scare you so bad you will want to slap anyone who talks about how we should nuke anything.

205.

Wicked Little Letters

(2023)

— Crime comedy Directed by: Thea Sharrock

It's 1920 and a small British town is under attack from a mysterious letter writer bent on rudely and profanely insulting people in town.

I've warned you before that I'm very character centric when it comes to stories. So I'm very biased towards this one. I had a great time. Does it have a really amazing story? Umm...I would say, not really? Do I care? No.

Olivia Coleman and Jessie Buckley are just so fucking good in this! They are just a joy to watch.

Did the whole bit with the cop trying to prove herself and solve the case bore me? Yes. A little bit. But I don't even care. Buckley and Coleman are giving a friggin masters class on creating fun characters in here. And I, for one, was having a ball.

206.*

The Wild Robot

see #203

I went and took my mom to see it.

Did it make me cry all over again?

YES. You know damn well it did, okay? I'm not made of stone!

——————

——————

September Stats

——————

Movies watched this month: 19

Rewatch percentage: 5.3% (1/19)

Favorite new movie of the month: The Iron Claw

Least favorite: Nights and Weekends

——————

Previous months’ posts:

JAN | FEB | MAR p.1 | MAR p.2 | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG

[stairset]

Okay so just purely based on my first viewing this is all the Tales of the Jedi episodes ranked from my most to least favorite. Obligatory spoiler warning.

Tie between The Sith Lord and Practice Makes Perfect. One FINALLY shows us the moment Dooku officially went to the dark side on-screen and it adds some extra context to the events of The Phantom Menace that will surely make for a good rewatching experience, and the other is just peak Anakin and Ahsoka material that feels straight out of early Clone Wars they're both executed fantastically.

Life and Death. This episode is a good example of how less is more sometimes. It's very simple but very cute and entertaining and it's nice to get a glimpse of where Ahsoka came from and what her people's culture is like. Also baby Ahsoka is adorable.

Tie between Justice and Choices. These episodes are tied cause they're very similar, like they both follow the same basic story beats of "Dooku and another Jedi have to solve a dispute between some well-intentioned extremists and a corrupt senator and Dooku almost goes too far before the other Jedi gets him to stop" and the fact that they used that basic setup for two episodes in a row makes them both feel a bit less interesting and unique compared to the others but nevertheless that doesn't make them bad and they're both done well and it was nice seeing glimpses of Dooku's relationship and Qui-Gon and friendship with Mace before his fall.

Resolve. The opening is fantastic, I loved every second of it. The rest is just okay. They basically just speedran through the entire plot of a 30-chapter book in less than 20 minutes and it's just not nearly as good and also for whatever reason they got rid of the entire supporting cast from said book and replaced them with some new characters who aren't even given names. I was cool with Siege of Mandalore changing the flashbacks from the Ahsoka book cause they had understandable reasons, and cause the changes actually improved the story, and at least the rest of the book was unchanged. But now we have this episode changing the rest of the book too and these changes are more like the Bad Batch/Kanan retcons in that they don't make the story better and there's no good reason for it. If the book didn't exist I'd probably like this episode a lot better but when there's already a better version of the story out there then yeah that makes it hard to judge the episode on its own merits. But again the opening scene was great so there's that I guess.

[ch4nb4ng]

(This is a late reply heh)

OMG SAME HEREEEE I'm more of action and thriller show type of person and I only mostly watch romance shows that have a plot (that being said I disliked nevertheless with passion I don't like that show AT ALL)

but sometimes if the general vibe of the show is nice and the cast (yes ahn bo hyun can have my heart) has chemistry between them, like yumi's cells currently has, I'd like it

ALSO JINYOUNG, BEING IN IT BRO I DIDNT KNOW AND I SCREAMED SO MUCH WHWNI SAW HIM IM SO EXCITED THAT HE IS THERE GALAGAKVSLAHAOAHAUDEK

Back to the topic of ahn bo hyun, look that man is S0000 handsome like damn boi and his character in this show is a FUCK YES from me and I LOOOOVE how they showcase the independence in the relationship and that it should be important (woong being his #1 priority)

also 2nd season? I didn’t know so that’s kind of exciting WOOOO

okay yes I HATED nevertheless like by episode 5 i’m like bruh bc every episode is just going through the same toxic look of her with jaeon i’m like girl 😭 even han so he’s said in an interview if there was one thing you could say to your character what woudl you say and she said “come to your senses” LMAO

yes i agree ! i think they have such good chemistry (although i haven’t watched so 12 yet and i did not like the preview) AND YES i had no idea jinyoung was going to be in it either ! fucking hate his character tho massive snake and he’s cutting woong’s grass.

i am so in love with anh bohyun rn. so like basically if i watch something and i really like one of the actors i will go through a massive phase of just binge watching their stuff and i’m doing that with him rn. i kind of want to rewatch itaewon class bc of him but i cannot stand yiseo she does my head in !?

yes their relationship is so healthy it’s so good and i love them i’m and if they break up i’m never watching a k drama ever again bc like they are truly one of my fav couples im k dramas that i have ever seen.

thank you for giving me an update omg ! i’m glad you’re enjoying it ! last two eps come out this weekend though i’m really sad about it :(