Films

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
[#207 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

For the Love of Spock (2016)
[#208 in 100 Films in a Year 2020]

Music

A Curious Thing by Amy Macdonald

Life in a Beautiful Light by Amy Macdonald

I can't post listen counts for these older Amy MacDonald albums, because for some reason iTunes has lost that information; but it has been over seven years since I listened to any of them. They all feel very familiar, though, because they were listened to a lot and they're good. (Next up: the one I only just bought.)

this week on 100 Films

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


Before Midnight (2013)

The first two films are marked by an unreserved romanticism. Midnight is notably different, abandoning that lovey-dovey-ness and replacing it with a powerful examination of the tension in a long-term relationship. In some respects, it’s all the better for it. That’s in no way a criticism of the previous films, but it’s realistic that, as time goes on, people change. They can’t be young-spirited and full of the joys of first love forever.

Read more here.


Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)

the crazy story of how a director of surrealist Mexican art-films came this close to making an epic space opera out of one of the most acclaimed science-fiction novels ever written, but, in his failure, accidentally helped give birth to Star Wars (sort of), Alien (indirectly), and possibly the entire history of screen science-fiction that did actually get made in the ensuing 40 years. Sounds like a bit of a stretch? Um, well, yeah… but that doesn’t stop some of this documentary’s contributors from asserting it, and they do kind of have evidence.

Read more here.


Le Mans ’66 (2019) (2019)

It might look like a film for car nuts, and I’m sure they’ll get a lot out of it... but the rest of us are by no means left out, thanks to involving characters and exciting race scenes, even if some plot beats border on clichéd. Le Mans ’66 may not reinvent the wheel, but it works hard at refining it.

Read more here.


Love on a Leash (2011)

how do you rate a film like this? As an exercise in moviemaking, it’s a 1. The storyline is borderline nonsensical; it’s shot like an amateur using a camcorder for the first time; the sound mix is so unfinished I’m not sure it was ever started… And yet it’s constantly enjoyable, partly through a “so bad it’s good” hilarity (see the aforementioned terrible filmmaking), but also for the barminess with which it conducts itself, the relentless forward momentum of the storyline leading us in unpredictable narrative directions.

Read more here.


Memories of Murder (2003)

Loosely based on the true story of Korea’s first serial murders, and taking a procedural approach to the crime thriller genre, Memories of Murder invites comparison to David Fincher’s Zodiac for its methodical, realistic narrative style and plot that follows obsessed investigators chasing unsolved murders in the past. Zodiac is one of my favourite films, so it’s a tall order to be pitched against it. Fortunately, Memories of Murder is strong enough to withstand the comparison.

Read more here.


The 100-Week Roundup XI

Featuring...
- Compulsion
- Courage Under Fire
- Heathers

Read more here.


More next Sunday.