I’m reasonably sure I won’t be watching a movie tonight, so here’s this month’s movie list!

Edit: I watched a movie, but you’ll have to wait an entire month to find out which one.

She’s All That, 1999. Another movie from my youth that I didn’t see. Was amused to see Matthew Lillard, aka That Guy from Scream. The story is a loose adaptation of Pygmalion: after he’s dumped by his Mean Girl girlfriend, Big Man on Campus makes a bet that he can make any girl the prom queen. He chooses a clumsy art girl and finds himself developing Feelings for her.

Jules et Jim,  1962. Two men in 1912 meet and become instant friends, even though they fight on different sides in the Great War – Jules is Austrian.  They meet a woman – Catherine – and are enchanted by her,  though Jules, knowing Jim’s penchant for womanizing, asks him to leave Catherine alone. The film follows the three’s relationship for ~ ten-fifteen years. It’s hard to tell other than the Great War happening and a child appearing. Catherine, who begins the movie as kind of a manic pixie dream girl, bringing out these guy’s personalities,  proves to be more troubled than either of her admirers could imagine.

Amarcord, a 1973 movie that follows a year in an Italian village sometime during the Mussolini regime. I think it was 1920s, as there’s no sense of a war on. Weirdly, although fascism features in the movie, it’s not the point of the movie. I can’t see a film of this type being made in 1970s Germany. The film is mostly follows one family, and specifically a young man within the family, as the seasons change and various drama goes on. We witness schoolboys misbehaving in the classroom, boys pining for girls, the family dealing with a mentally ill uncle, that sort of thing. Sometimes an older and very merry historian wanders through telling us about the buildings around us. It’s a very….male movie, I will say, in terms of story and where the cameraman’s eye drifts. There’s one scene where Mussolini visits: after he leaves there’s still a giant composition of his face made of roses, and two teenagers get “married” in front of it. I’ve been reading up on the film and evidently it was Fellini’s attempt to capture the nostalgia of his youth on camera, complete with old folk traditions like setting an effigy of a witch on fire to invite the onset of spring.

Midnight Cowboy, 1969. Jon Voight plays a Texan who believes he is God’s gift to women and makes his way to New York, there to seduce rich ladies and get money. Instead, he finds himself bankrupt and living in an abandoned building with Dustin Hoffman, a hustler and pickpocket who obviously isn’t doing too well. The two strike up an unlikely friendship,  but as Dustin Hoffman’s health continues to deteriorate, they try to make their way for Florida.  There are lots of scenes that mix Voight’s anxiety about the present with trauma from the past. Given the new rating “X” at the time for some sex scenes, later reduced to “R”.  The source of the “I’m walkin’ heah!!!” quote that, judging by YouTube, really annoys New Yorkers.  (And it was ad-libbed: a taxi rolled through despite the street being closed for filming!)

Twelve Angry Men, 1954. One of my favorite movies, a fascinating character drama. A boy is on  trial for mudering his father: eleven men are content with the mountain of evidence presented in court, but Henry Fonda has questions. 

Tokyo Pop, 1988. ChatGPT recommended this to me after I asked for “Movie Suggestions for People Who Love Citypop”. (Citypop is a Japanese music genre that combines jazz, pop, and rock in….interesting ways. It’s one of my minor addictions. Interesting,  someone has remixed music from The Sims and Stardew Valley with a citypop vibe.) It’s about an American woman who goes to Tokyo to play in a Real Rock Band with her bestie, only to find that said bestie has left for Thailand.  Ah, those pre-cell phone days. She falls in love with a local. 

Tampopo, 1985. Two Japanese truckers are given refuge in a crappy ramen restaurant and the elder – who is fond of dressing like a cowboy – resolves to help the chef-owner Tampopo turn her ramen shop into a landmark with the Best Ramen in Japan.   My cinema buddy and I ate ramen during this, but we did not have any pork with which to follow Sensei’s advice of talking to it and then prayerfully eating it.  We just had hot sauce.  (Buldak ramen – I don’t know what flavor, but man,  the noodles are thicker than Maruchan and the flavor is intense.)

Yours, Mine, and Ours, 1968.  Bit of a rom-com about a Navy widower and a Navy widower with large families who marry and make a HUGE family, to be governed with Navy discipline.

Ramona and Beezus, 2010.  A sweet family drama loosely based on the Beverly Cleary novels, following the antics of Ramona Quimby as her big sister is starting to get into relationships, her ally Aunt Bea is being reeled in (“like a sea bass!”) by her high school sweetheart, and her parents are stressed by a layoff.

The Daytrippers, 1996. A woman (Hope Davis) discovers a letter in her apartment that makes her think her husband is cheating on her with someone named “Sandy”. She takes the letter to her parents and her sister’s boyfriend – an author – to see what they think. This leads to the entire family piling into an aging station wagon to go from Long Island to New York to see if Davis’ husband Stanley Tucci is cheating on her. They spend the day in New York while they’re waiting for an opportunity to spy on Tucci,  and get invited to dinner by Beansie from The Sopranoes.  Ultimately Davis finds answers, but not the ones she expected. It’s a weird….drama  with comedic elements.

Karate Kid: Legends, 2025. A young man in China is uprooted to New York with his mother, who wants to leave sad memories behind. Adept in kung fu, he decides to compete in a NYC-wide karate competition, both to put a bully in his place and to win money that can be used to bail a new friend — and his cute daughter — out of a financial pickle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the original (yes, I’m a terrible geriatric millennial), but I enjoyed this thoroughly. The visuals were especially nice — from the comic-book esqe points that appeared every time a body or head blow was struck, to the finale which takes place on an open roof in the middle of New York City.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1990.   The original live-action film based on the heroes in a half shell that I was obsessed with as a kid.   I enjoyed the nostalgic trip back – especially the music and the WTC skyline – but watching it as an adult made me realize my parents were very longsuffering to let me watch this as much as I did.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, 1991.  My very first David Warner film, I think, followed by Star Trek V.  My brain distinctly remembers Dominos branding all over the opening scene, but when I watched it again there wasn’t any to be scene – and all the pizza, strangely, was cheese only. Ew.    In this film, Shredder – who is much harder to take seriously in his sparkly purple outfit now that I’m not a kid – is out for revenge against the Turtles for destroying his criminal organization last round.  The inclusion of Vanilla Ice never fails to be funny.  (Stop! Collaborate and lissen!)

Princess Diaries, 2001. Anne Hathaway tries to look Hollywood Ugly with frizzy hair and prominent glasses, and is then told she’s a princess and has to learn how to conduct herself.

The Devil Wears Prada,  2006. Anne Hathaway plays an aspiring journalist who lands a job at a fashion magazine with a psycho boss. Stanley Tucci also appears.