JANUARY:

Supermarket Woman, 1996. Japanese comedy about a man with a struggling supermarket who runs into an old high school flame and, upon realizing she has Housewife insight into supermarket operations, hires her. Fascinating to see 1990s fashion in Japan.

Emilia Perez, 2024. An interesting crime…musical about a cartel warlord who hires Zoe Saldana to help him get sex-change surgery, hide it from everyone, and deposit his wife Selena Gomez and their kids in a new life. Four years later, the warlord is a charity guru who wants the kids back, so Saldana is called back into service and things go….awry. Lots of singing, some dreadful. 

Wonka, 2023. A Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prequel that not only doesn’t suck, but is a scrumpdiddlyumptious prequel.  Will probably be one of my favorite movies of the year. 

Night of the Hunter, 1955.   Robert Mitchum  plays a seriously disturbed killer who acts like a preacher:  while in prison for an evidently minor crime (stealing a car is a 30 day sentence), he learns of a man who robbed a bank and hid the money with his son.  Mitchum, upon getting freed,  and knowing that the bank robber is now hanged, decides to seduce the widow and see if he can’t find the stolen loot. The result is a disturbing but captivating crime-horror drama in which the preacher winds up chasing two children. Interestingly, Mitchum played another murderous parson in Five Card Stud. This was loosely based on a true  story.  

Midway, 2019.  An action drama about  the early Pacific War, which begins with the assault on Pearl and culminates in the battle of Midway, in which the naval and air forces of the empire of Japan got a righteous comeuppance.  Gorgeous visual shots, good acting. Dennis Quaid has an understated role. 

Father Goose, 1964. Cary Grant plays a coast-watcher in the Pacific Theater. After trying to help a nearby fellow coastwatcher, Grant encounters a woman and a bunch of girls who he has to rescue. Hilarity ensues as they disrupt his whisky-soaked bachelor existence on the island.

Election, 1999. Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick. Broderick plays a high school civics teacher whose best friend’s career was ruined by sleeping with a student, Reese Witherspoon — who is smart, ambitious, and into older guys. Resenting her for ruining his BFF’s life, and resenting his own attraction to her, Broderick recruits a football himbo to run against Witherspoon in the SGA elections, while simultaneously falling into an affair with his former BFF’s wife. Odd film: enjoyable enough, but none of the main characters were sympathetic and I was mostly watching it for the obvious humor of Ferris Bueller being a high school teacher, and the general presence of Reese Witherspoon, who Freeway has enticed me into liking. Also, I saw a computer in the movie that baffled me: it looked NOTHING like 1990s computers. Possibly a NeXTstation. 

The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014. A movie about a hotel concierge and his sidekick during the outbreak of WW2.  PACKED with talent: Jude Law, Ralph Fiennes,   Ed Norton, F. Murray Abraham, etc. 

Man Hunter, 1986. Crime/suspense/horror drama about a serial killer known as The Tooth Fairy. Unfortunately, my two movie-watching buddies kept nonstop talking and arguing, so I missed a lot of the quiet moments, but got the general jist. Movie ends with a weird Baywatch style still — all pastels and upbeat music after two hours of grimness. One of two movies featuring Hannibal Lecter.

Desperate Living, 1977. A friend of mine was having his 65th bday party and he really likes John Waters film for some reason, so the rest of us endured this while he laughed and laughed. A schizophrenic wife and her panicky maid who has been stealing murder the wife’s husband and then run off to an outlaws camp in the woods, where a woman whose bad acting is only worsened by her teeth has proclaimed herself the Queen: the wife and maid room with a pair of women, one of which wants to be a man and is fomenting rebellion against the Queen. This is only slightly less trashy than Pink Flamingos, and that’s saying something. Presumably the worst movie I will see this year.

Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events. 2004. Still one of my very favorite films after all this time. Introduced the ladyfriend to it.

Eraserhead, 1977. Watched in honor of its deceased director David Lynch. I have no idea what that was about. 

JAWS, 1975. Spielberg & John Williams on music. This was my first time. Enjoyed the superb use of camera angles and music; have never failed to like Richard Dreyfuss.  Very effective suspense thriller.

Dance, Girl, Dance, 1933. Ladyfriend and I watched this thinking it was the 1940 version with Lucille Ball (her favorite), but the youtuber who uploaded it didn’t realize it was the 1933 original and not the 1940 movie with the original name. Given that the Hays Code didn’t hit until ’34, this movie features a lot of risque stuff: a couple “living in sin”, a man groping a woman’s chest, female actresses showing much more skin than one would expect, etc.

The Hangover, 2009. Four dudes go to Vegas for a bachelor party. Three dudes wake up in a hotel suite with chickens and a tiger.  Oh! And a baby. Don’t forget the baby. A search for the fourth dude commences,  limited by the fact that no one can remember what happened last night. (After they remember, of course, that they’ve left a baby alone with a tiger and several chickens.) 

Legend, 2009. Tom Hardy plays the Kray twins, who ran London’s underground in the fifties and sixties.

Being There, 1979. A simple-minded gardener who has been raised in a townhouse and has never been beyond it is forced to leave after the Old Man of the house dies.  He wanders the streets and becomes one of the most influential men in the world. Fascinating movie, especially the ending. 

All the Way, 2016. A film about LBJ’s rise to power and his attempt to secure it via the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. Some amazing acting, especially  from Bryan “Say My Name” Cranston.

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. 1982. A re-watch, obviously. Still the best ST film.  Great music, effect, acting, and story. 

Star Trek: The Search for Spock, 1984.  Unexpectedly funny, unexpectedly heart-wrenching. “My God, Bones, what’ve I done?”

Risky Business, 1983. Tom Cruise is a prep teenager whose parents have left him the house for a few days.  After being encouraged by one of his friends to live a little, he winds up in hock to a prostitute, at war with Joey Pantoliano, and  short one $40,000 Porsche.  I have never seen Joey Pants with hair.