Films

Millennium Actress (2001)
[#254 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary (2019)
[#253 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

Just my somewhat-belated and shorter-than-usual monthly TV column over at 100 Films in a Year this week...





More next Sunday.

TV

Michael McIntyre's The Wheel
1x01 Episode 1
Over-complicated and kind of silly, but also passably entertaining.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Knives Out (2019)
[2nd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #44

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

More titles from my US spending spree arrived this week, alongside a couple of UK new releases. I'm just waiting on two more of the former now. As for the latter, those never end...

Number of titles in collection: 2,484 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,081 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,403 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 87 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 6,404 [up 16]
Number of films: 2,860 [up 17]
Number of additional cuts: 200 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [no change]
Number of short films: 785 [up 14]

It's also time for the monthly running time update. It's been a pretty busy month (a net increase of 28 titles), so how big a bump has that generated?

Total running time of collection (approx.):
463 days, 19 hours, and 4 minutes.
(Up 3 days, 9 hours, and 19 minutes from last month.)

That's the fifth month this year to have an increase in excess of 3 days. Next time I do one of these I'll be including the year-on-year increases, and I think it's gonna be a biggy!

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Ordet (1955)
[#252 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #11

Films

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)
[#251 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

FilmBath Shorts
[#250j–v in 100 Films in a Year 2020] And that's the last thing I'll be watching from AMPLIFY! as the festival is now well and truly over (although I do still have some screeners knocking about...)

Films

CINECITY Open Shorts
[#250a–i in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

My Mexican Bretzel (2019)
[#250 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the Q&A that followed the film on AMPLIFY!, which you can also watch on YouTube.

Plus, I finally got round to watching some of the festival's shorts programmes. Across these I watched 26 short films today, so I'll list the programmes rather than every individual short...

Cornwall Film Festival South West Regional Shorts
[#249a–k in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Cornwall Film Festival International Shorts
[#249l–s in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

New Voices Shorts
[#249t–z in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

2 new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


The IMDb New Filmmaker Award 2020

Why would you watch an awards show after its happened? Well, in this case, you get to hear the judges’ musings on what makes a good film — and when those judges are BAFTA-nominated director Coky Giedroyc, Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning producer Amanda Posey, and the CEO of IMDb, Col Needham, those are opinions worth listening to. Even better, you get to watch the five nominated shorts in full, and they’re good a bunch. But don’t just take my word for it: take my, er, word for it, in the form of these reviews…

Read more here.


Some Beasts (2019)

Sometimes, one thing can ruin an entire movie. Depending on how harsh a critic you are, I’d say that’s quite rare. Unless it’s threaded throughout the entire film (like, say, a terrible lead performance, or a consistently poor cinematography decision), a small constituent part would have to be truly horrendous to take the entire rest of the movie down with it. Some Beasts is one of those films. The problem arrives in the final 20 minutes, which makes it a massive plot spoiler. Out of some lingering respect for storytellers, I provide this spoiler warning; others would argue content of this nature doesn’t deserve such courtesy.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

I went a bit crazy with orders from the US recently (thanks to Barnes & Noble's Criterion sale being price-matched by Amazon.com), and that's bearing fruit now as they start to arrive. Every title is a Blu-ray, but it's a real mix of upgrade types (including DVD-to-BD, DVD-to-4K, BD-to-4K, BD-to-BD, and BD-but-I'm-keeping-the-DVD-too), as well as plain ol' new acquisitions. Consequently, the net title increase doesn't tell the whole story -- though even that's higher than normal. I really need to learn some self control...

Number of titles in collection: 2,478 [up 9]
Of which DVDs: 1,082 [down 3]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,396 [up 12]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 87 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 6,388 [up 14]
Number of films: 2,843 [up 10]
Number of additional cuts: 197 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [no change]
Number of short films: 771 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Fisherman's Friends (2019)
[2nd watch] Rewatchathon 2020 #43

Films

Influence (2020)
[#248 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the Q&A that followed the film on AMPLIFY!, which you can also watch on YouTube.

I also watched tonight's live Q&A about You Will Die at Twenty (having watched the film itself yesterday, of course).

Films

You Will Die at Twenty (2019)
[#248 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

The IMDb New Filmmaker Award 2020
Including the 5 nominated shorts, which become 100 Films in a Year 2020 #247a—e.
[Watch the ceremony and shorts (again) on AMPLIFY!]

Films

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
[#247 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

TV

Small Axe
Mangrove
[#246 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Should this count as Film or TV? It's a series of five thematically-linked feature-length episodes, directed by filmmaker Steve McQueen, and this first one was the opening night film at the London Film Festival. So it's a film... but it's a TV series... but it's a series of films... that most people will watch on TV, one per week... though in the US, the promos don't call it "a series" or "miniseries", but "a collection of five films"... but... Oh, the line is so blurry now!
Anyway, I've listed it as TV, because that's where I watched it, but I'm also going to count it for 100 Films.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Lie (2018)
[#245 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

See also: today's TV post

this week on 100 Films

4 new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


Jojo Rabbit (2019)

some people really took against the film. Others, less vitriolic, thought it didn’t measure up to writer-director Taika Waititi’s high standard. I don’t think it’s as good as Hunt for the Wilderpeople or What We Do in the Shadows (both modern classics, more or less), but I did like it a lot. When it hit the mark with its humour, it was very, very funny; but it balances this with emotional and hard-hitting bits.

Read more here.


Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)

the film’s tension crushes in all the time, throughout. Or perhaps not tension, exactly, but worry; uncertainty; anxiety. What’s going to happen? What’s going to go wrong? How are they going to deal with this, that, and the other? Horribly, this is probably what it’s like to be a young woman a lot of the time, especially in America. That’s the film’s power: it takes a real-life experience lived by so many, and it doesn’t just show it to us, it makes us feel it.

Read more here.


Patrick (2019)

To sum this up as “Agatha Christie meets the Coen brothers in a nudist camp” doesn’t feel too wide of the mark. Okay, there’s no murder, so perhaps mystery-genre fans could think of a better author than Christie to sub in. But the fact remains that the missing hammer isn’t just a story hook to hang something else on: it’s a solid mystery narrative, with clues and red herrings and twists. Conversely, it’s not just a mystery... It’s very much a comedy-drama, in that it’s not out-and-out seeking to provoke laughs, but it’s frequently absurd to the point of being laughable

Read more here.


Waxworks (1924)

Often billed as the first portmanteau horror movie, Waxworks only fits the bill in the loosest sense: its “three stories” are actually two stories and a dream sequence, the first (and longest) of which is, if anything, a swashbuckling farce... It’s a welcome watch for fans of silent cinema or early horror (with caveats about its “horror” content duly noted), and there are enough good parts to recommend it, but I wouldn’t argue it’s a classic in any enduring sense

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Films

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020)
[#244 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Normally I try to leave Christmas movies 'til December, but when you've got multiple family members to keep happy... Maybe I'll let this open the floodgates for 2020 early (I really want to watch Klaus, and Christmas Chronicles 2 is out in something like 10 days).

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

A couple of hours after I posted last week's count, I realised I'd accidentally left out an entire release. Oops! That was a 4K upgrade for the Three Colours Cornetto trilogy, with one box set replacing my three individual editions (a mix of DVD and BD copies). So that's factored in this week now, alongside eight brand-new acquisitions.

Number of titles in collection: 2,469 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,085 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,384 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 85 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 6,374 [up 15]
Number of films: 2,833 [up 7]
Number of additional cuts: 194 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 8,982 [up 6]
Number of short films: 771 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Children in Need 2020
I didn't really intend to watch this (I haven't for years), I just wanted to catch up with certain parts later (like the Goes Wrong Show sketch); but I had nothing else to do at the time it started, so I bunged it on and ended up leaving it on in the background throughout. It wasn't bad. Maybe it helps that it was only 3 hours this year — so much less filler.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Coded Bias (2020)
[#243 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

An Impossible Project (2020)
[#242 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
+ the Q&A that followed the film on AMPLIFY!, which you can also watch on YouTube

A double-bill of two very different tech documentaries: An Impossible Project is about trying to keep analogue alive; Coded Bias is all about algorithms dictating our lives (you can't get much more digital than that!)

Films

Falling (2020)
[#241 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week...


Luxor (2020)

part gentle romantic drama, part tourism video. There are multiple scenes of Hana leisurely roaming around ancient monuments, soaking in the atmosphere and history... There’s a lot going on internally for these characters — a lot of stuff we’re not privy to — which will work for some viewers and wholly turn off others. I found Hana’s mental state to be infectious, to a degree. There’s evident nostalgia for her previous time there, tinged with a certain amount of melancholy.

Read more here.


The Mole Agent (2020)

sound like the setup for a comedy: it’s about a doddery 83-year-old who must learn to be a spy. And, indeed, there are scene where the film is very amusing; particularly early on, when the octogenarian in question, Sergio Chamy, struggles to get to grips with the technology he’ll need to use... [But] it’s ultimately a powerfully affecting experience. It’s a film that intrigues you with its laughable premise, then swings round to punch you in the emotions with a crystal-clear message.

Read more here.


Rose Plays Julie (2019)

Long Lost Family meets rape revenge thriller in this Irish drama… Between its heavy issues and unwaveringly doom-laden tone, Rose Plays Julie is not a light viewing experience. If you like the idea of slow-burn dramatic thriller that spends a lot of time focused on people's still faces as they process information silently and internally, and leaves you with a lot to chew over when it's done, this is a film for you. If you think that sounds inscrutable or dull, steer clear.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

Once again, a mass of stuff only turned up on Saturday morning; and once again, I was busy with other stuff all day (what could possibly be more important than updating my DVD/Blu-ray count?!)

There are 9 additions, all told (one BD-to-4K upgrade is 'hidden' in the count); 6 of those turned up today. Among them were 16 films and a further 5 additional cuts. That's due to there being three chunky box sets: two Hammer collections from Indicator (thanks to a sale), and the long-awaited 4K set of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (one film, tonnes of discs, and several alternate cuts). Tis a beauty. I suppose it ougth to replace my old copy, Arrow's Blu-ray from years ago; but as there are no 1080p film discs in the new set, I also kinda feel like hanging onto it. I'll probably do that "for now" and then just forget about it...

Number of titles in collection: 2,464 [up 8]
Of which DVDs: 1,086 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,378 [up 8]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 83 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 6,359 [up 21]
Number of films: 2,826 [up 16]
Number of additional cuts: 193 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes: 8,976 [up 1]
Number of short films: 771 [no change]

Incidentally, ever since the days of DVD, when an HD format was but a twinkle in someone's imagination, I've not counted CD discs in this tally (because it was a list of my DVDs, not CDs, duh!) That comes to mind because the Dawn of the Dead set includes a trio of soundtrack CDs, which would almost double its contribution to the discs count. I don't even know how many other bonus CDs I have buried away in my film collection. Maybe I should add another stat for it...

See you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Showrunners (2014)
[#240 in 100 Films in a Year 2020] aka Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show

Films

Rose Plays Julie (2019)
[#239 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Films

Hot Fuzz (2007)
[3rd watch]
Rewatchathon 2020 #42. Considering how much I enjoyed this (and how often it's on ITV2), it's kind of remarkable that I've only watched it once since seeing it at the cinema back in 2007; and, according to my records, that was around when it came out on DVD, in late '07 or early '08 — so I haven't rewatched it in over 12 years. This is a long-overdue rectification of that. (Don't get me started on Shaun…)

Straight afterwards, I watched the audio commentary by director Edgar Wright and his mate, Quentin Tarantino. I only intended to listen to the first couple of minutes, but got sucked in for the full two hours. It’s a very laidback, chatty track; not great for learning about the film itself, but for anecdotes and surrounding inspirations, it’s not uninteresting. It does feel like just hanging out with two movie buff friends having a natter.

Films

An American Werewolf in London (1981)
[#237 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]
Blindspot 2020 #10. This was supposed to be October's Blindspot film, for Halloween, but I messed up. But hey, it's only one day late!

Robolove (2019)
[#238 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

this week on 100 Films

It's that time of the month again, folks: 100 Films in a Year's monthly review...





Also this week, 5 new film reviews...


Vampires Suck (2010)

there are plenty of cheap, uninspired, crass, and rip-off gags, but some of it also made me laugh, so it’s not a total washout. It’s never as funny as the real thing at it’s funniest (Face Punch forever!), but it wasn’t as uninspired as I expected.

Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XIV

Featuring...
- It’s Such a Beautiful Day
- The Lives of Others
- Jennifer’s Body
- Going for Golden Eye

Read more here.


More next Sunday.