4v291o

I’ve encountered lots of different women in my time of watching films, but none quite like Bona. She embodies quite a few tropes frequently seen in women in melodrama-type films: the noble self-sacrificial martyr, the abused daughter, the neglected housewife (though she isn’t even that), the defiant feminist-adjacent woman choosing her own path, the obsessive pining lover whose feelings aren’t reciprocated. But to have this all condensed into one figure makes for a challenging viewing, especially given lack of clear motivating forces for her main desire. I honestly am not entirely sure what I think of it all yet, but the restoration is stunning and Nora Aunor is transfixing

The final third of this goes fucking crazy - the oil spill scene especially really does something that made me go “yeah, this is the guy who made La prisonniere and diabolique”. The tonal whiplash ‘epilogue’ sure is… something. I of course wish it stayed cemented to the dread but I get what it was doing and it was so unexpected I kinda liked it.

Unfortunately most of the build to that final third is just kinda…. meh? The nonstop racism of course is a slog to sit through, especially the weird kind of separation the film tries to paint between European foreigners who have such a tough time while the Americans are this portrait of capitalist success. It’s almost like the protagonists, if not the film itself, hold this resentment towards the Americans for having succeeded in the imperial project while the poor French and Italians and Germans are struggling alongside the “savages”. And without any real contention with the fact that well, the Europeans had their fair share of the bounties of colonial exploitation themselves and none of them should be there anyway, it’s just kind of strange and misguided.

But even beyond that the build up to the real tension and horror is just… conventional and boring.I’d of course be remiss to neglect to mention the unwavering homosexuality throughout, especially the kind of psychosexual tinge it gets as the film progresses. It’s really what kept me attentive enough for the final act to have the impact that it did, because without that, I really might’ve just given up an hour in.

Not intended to change anyone’s mind about the morality or ethics of bullfighting in either direction, probably just concretizes whatever one already thinks or is predisposed to thinking about it. It’s probably better for it, but it also makes the watch somewhat excruciating in its repetition, and I’m one who adores Serra’s style (when applied to fiction…). The question becomes one of the ethicality of exploiting the imagery of the fights rather than the bullfighting itself. And for me that’s a gray area and the film toes that line throughout, occasionally falling out of bounds here and there just to snap back. It’s no surprise, Serra is no stranger to provocation (for what it’s worth, I love his films but find most of his public speaking in interviews or q&as tedious), but it’s in a different realm from something like Liberté by nature.

So naturally the scenes outside of the actual act of fighting were the most compelling to me: the constant ego inflation, his self doubt about his worthiness being assuaged by more fluffing from the men with him about how big his balls are and how great he is, how much the bulls deserved to be killed, the elaborate and drag-adjacent act of dressing-up, the quiet prayers that seem more symbolic than religious. I wish it was more of this to be quite honest. The brutal, grotesque rituals of masculinity in its extremes just get exhausting. But I know that’s probably the point.

I was already hesitant about the premise going in—I’d never choose to watch something like this if not for the filmmaker behind it—and for me there’s no easy answer here. Need to sit with it I guess.

Artur Tort genius as always.

I have some reservations but that might be just the way this plays in the context of watching with a predominantly white American audience - the things that get oohs and laughs and other miscellaneous theater audience noises was a little eyebrow raising sometimes. Though I guess I should be happy I’m able to watch a Vietnamese film in theaters at all.

Still I loved this a lot. It feels so paralyzed in time, austere, haunted and almost post apocalyptic (in a way, it is). Kinda reminded me of Pedro Costa’s films, especially all the shots in the mines. But still really unique and special in its own vision. And I don’t think it quite falls victim to senseless miserablism, even if the ending teeters towards it. 

I suffered from the classic dilemma of “do I pee now and miss however many minutes of the film or do I spend the rest of the film thinking about how much I have to pee” and did the latter as long as I could until I had to go pee anyway. Need to rewatch under better conditions.

This movie has literally everything in it… I always forget there’s a murder side plot

Marianne Jean-Baptiste is the greatest living actress. No notes

Not quite as urgent or invigorating as parts 1 and 2, but still captures indispensable footage. Sure a lot of the workers talking may be going over similar things, but the fact that they’re all aligned and united is something worth hearing in and of itself.

Watched on Saturday May 24, 2025.

Over relying on a Trent reznor Atticus Ross soundtrack and silly camera gimmicks to distract you from the fact that my movie is kinda nothing and falls apart at the seams in the back half

The intro to the restored copy of the film uses very strange, even derogatory language towards the conditions of the people in Oman before the people’s revolution... “archaic”, “primitive”, “the Stone Age.” It almost feels penned by a liberal. Luckily the film itself isn’t marred by this language, instead asserting a revolutionary ideal more in line with the reality that contextualizes the situation: underdevelopment, impoverishment, purposeful manipulation of tribalism, etc. If Srour wrote this intro, as I’m assuming she did given the fact that she takes primary credit for the restoration, I feel like someone needs to tell her to read some Walter Rodney or something to remind herself of what she was filming here.

Anyways, loved this

John Woo giving us so many versions of chow yun-fat experiencing homosexual angst… we have to say thank you

An effective propaganda film full of truly staggering imagery. The rubble of bombed-out Hanoi and walls riddled with bullet holes, of course, but the images not dealing with violence too. The camera flows in this beautiful way through trees and sunlight and shadows in a way that reminded me of films like Ivan’s Childhood or The Cranes are Flying. I too want to hold a baby in my arms and tell him how much I hate Richard Nixon.

It’s mostly straightforward but there’s some really interesting moments here, like the arrested American soldiers being yelled at as they’re walked down the street. Considering when this was made, I wonder where they found the actors for that.

It’s fun to watch John mills try to play this hard boiled, wife beating, serious giallo/poliziotteschi detective and not sell it very well, but overall the film commits the usual crime of being not very interesting or compelling.

Every relationship is so amorphous, liquid, hazily defined. It makes for an almost nothing-movie that would be good enough on its own in how easily watchable it is. Until finally the morning fog clears and the sun shines into the frame and, it’s all clarified into something real. I’m starting to really get what Guiraudie is putting down.

Coproduit par Albert SERRA 🩷

Catastrophic fatalism painted with such meticulous attention. Gertrud’s hopelessness and resignation are almost contagious.

The lighting and shadows, the camera positions and the inability for characters to look anywhere other than somewhere distant off screen, behind the camera. Shots are so striking I found myself going “whoa” at a shot of a mirror without really being able to explain why.

Yeah it’s actually pretty charming. Could do with less misogyny- you know it’s a Hollywood film from the 50s when your harmlessly macho male character’s “quirk” is ohh he’s just a bit of a sex pest, don’t leave him alone with an unconscious 18 year old girl hehe! Yet it’s still one of the better Christmas movies I’ve seen. Peter Ustinov is so cute in this

Love the emo boys and their new bestie Angeli so much. Fun to see how similar high school is across cultures alongside the specificities mixed in (circumcision as a specific coming into manhood marker that becomes a point of bullying, but teenage boys will find any reason to call another boy a fag regardless). The soundtrack is perfect

So much fun in the first half (minus the two completely unnecessary slurs) it’s like this fun sexy not actually that repressed threesome. Liza is so good and the two men just try to keep up. Then it gets really boring and you have to wonder why someone like Stanley donen signed on to direct a movie with this many water-based action sequences

Wenders’ western, othering, exoticizing gaze is used very interestingly here. (the “komorebi” definition at the very end after the credits, lol…) When this kind of orientalist gaze is used it’s usually being like “look how cool the simple things are in [insert East Asian country]!” but that is also the kind of point Wenders wants to make here, small joys in a small life and all that. So it’s an interesting play between those two ideas.

The problem is the film kind of falls apart towards the end. This tonal whiplash of “actually sometimes life isn’t okay because [undefined family trauma] and cancer”. And this shift reveals how shallow everything leading up to that has been. I put this off for so long because the obvious music choice in the trailer seemed so trite, and the needle drops here are pretty similarly used. The last song… I mean come on. Others have pointed out this kind of fantasized vision of a working class life, and like yeah… oh your coworker quit last minute? Don’t worry you only have to work one (1) double shift before the company magically finds a perfect replacement employee the day after. And all the people you interact with on the job are nice and friendly and treat you with respect. It feels like such a cynical way to look at what the film is trying to do but when the film is honestly so empty…. Maybe the more negative emotions that work their way into the back half is supposed to nod towards the fallacy of the romanticization but if that’s the case it’s all done so clumsily I’m not quite convinced anyway.

Great lead performance, interesting textures in the dreams, not much else. Kind of the antithesis of Jeanne dielman in a way. I have no problems with a film where nothing happens, but there has to be some kind of driver behind the nothing. some reason, no matter how simple, for the film to be made and worth watching

Free Mahmoud Khalil, free Rumesya Öztürk, free Mohsen Mahdawi, free Palestine. Never forget how ugly the American police force is, no matter the party of the sitting president

Sorry I kinda loved this a lot. It wouldn’t know subtlety from a bag of bricks and it borders on repetitive in hammering in what it has to say (and what it has to say probably isn’t deep enough to warrant a feature length film), but it’s actually so silly and unserious that it works for me. Susannah York and Rod Steiger look like they’re having a lot of fun. William Hickey’s performance is really hit or miss but when it hits he’s a blast. It’s very crude and obnoxious but it kind of adds to the charm, especially when watching such a shitty copy since this seems to have been lost to time in obscurity. It almost feels like im just watching rod Steiger and Susannah York read lines for a special feature on a film that hasn’t actually been made yet. It makes so much sense that this was directed by the guy who directed Valley of the dolls

Hollywood could learn a thing or three from this. The people don’t want marvel movie 3846261619 with celebrity cameos and one-liners. We want sweeping historical fantasy epics with fox demons and intricate costuming and men in strangely erotic rope bondage I mean prisoner restraints

In a crazy twist this ended up being way more racist towards Filipino people than Japanese. Franco Nero sluts it up deliciously

I don’t get how someone can go from making something like this to drivel like the wind rises

Save me minor gay movies. Minor gay movies save me

“Once the anger goes, it seems like the only thing that’s left is the sadness… and just being tired. So I think I would like to just get away and not , not think about it for a while. Just rest… and heal. I’m with good people.”

Never underestimate the depths of depravity, idiocy, desperation, violence, ugliness, … that the white man will sink to when an expansion to his golf course is being threatened. It sounds like a cartoonish exaggeration to say it, that it was all over a fucking golf course, and yet it was. An expansion of an existing one at that. 

So much respect to the Mohawk people and their Warriors.

I tried writing long form for the first time in a while after feeling the need to express my thoughts about this film at greater length. Not sure if I'll use substack long term or if this was a one-time thing I had to get off my chest

Layers of trauma collapsing onto each other in a despairing isolation. Surrounded by unaddressed wounds but their inexpressible nature can only be depicted through twisted dreamlike images, or a cheerful song about all problems being easily solvable through god. Really interesting use of extreme artifice and detachment

Mostly cool but the tonal shifts between outright horror and exaggeration/drawn out scenes leaning into goofy territory don’t quite work for me. Also knowing about the tree rape scene somehow still did not prepare me for the tree rape scene. Just way more male-centric than I usually like in my horror movies.

The camera, lighting, and fog machine work overtime in this one. I’m shocked more of this visual style hasn’t been ripped off in modern horror, but maybe it’s just something about the way that the backlit fog interacts with the film grain (and stock) that just can’t be replicated on modern equipment, let alone digital. The POV camera whenever it’s circling the house and looking into windows is another highlight. Also the claymation at the end is crazy.

“It was a beautiful idea. Too beautiful to happen.”

The cinematic universe of Jean Gabin in movies depicting fatalistic, tragic love between men continues to expand. The dangers of being a man in love with another man in a 1930s movie; doomed to fall victim to having that desire misplaced onto another woman and creating competition where there should be romance. One must leave, or else one must kill the other. Failing that, some other plot device must intervene: deported for unspecified political activism in Spain, or falling off a second-story roof to your death. All you can do is savor the moments while they last.

So many gorgeous images in this one-Julien Duvivier with cinematographers Marc Fossard and Jules Kruger exploit the picturesque river setting beautifully. But the shadows too, enhancing the (albeit overwrought and frequently misogynistic) downbeat moments in an almost impressionistic way at times.

Watched on Saturday March 22, 2025.

Movies like this don’t come around very often

Watched on Sunday March 16, 2025.

The children yearn for technicolor. Cynthia SINGS but the movie and mixing kind of beat her into this muffled middle ground so she doesn’t turn it into a one woman show, resulting in her performance being left hollow and unimpactful. Ariana is funny. Michelle yeoh stuns in every outfit change. The rest is just forgettable

Great movie to watch while jet lagged, sick, coming down from an emotionally taxing episode, and altogether slightly—maybe more than slightly, but I’m feeling generous with myself today—delirious. Though I didn’t fully fall in love with the film (and maybe my state contributed to that), I understand her. I also finished reading Sharp Objects today, and I’m reminded of Amma:

“Sometimes if you let people do things to you, you’re really doing it to them. Know what I mean? If someone wants to do fucked-up things to you, and you let them, you’re making them more fucked up. Then you have the control. As long as you don’t go crazy.”

Lise had already gone crazy, but she still had control.

Watched on Thursday February 27, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

Really unexpectedly intense, almost violent, even before the dead man. Where typically one can speak of film in of the “the camera follows” “the camera lingers”, etc, here it feels like the physical film and sound tape are the providing the thrust of the film and the camera is almost as ive as the handful of people that appear on screen. Toes the line between narrative film and “pure” experiment, the former being an impossible label given, well, everything about it, where the latter label might balk at the concept of characters, dialogue, and the most necessarily fictional/narrative of them all: death.

Such an exceedingly silly movie, love it

- Jacqueline wells being carried around for half of her screentime, I don’t know if she ever moves any amount of physical distance on screen without being manhandled

- Bela Lugosi killing a cat with a thrown knife before anything weird even starts going down and everyone acting like he’s just a little quirky for it

- David manners (what an appropriately boring name) just kind of playing a silly little old Hollywood romantic lead who never quite grasps that he’s in a universal horror movie 

- the dressing gown budget. I was being fed well

- bela lugosi’s henchman (who I think he calls Domo at one point??) just randomly being in yellowface for genuinely no reason. But like the kind of yellowface that’s so badly done you spend the whole movie second guessing if you’re not just seeing things

- 2 cops bickering about whose hometown is cooler in what seems like a blatant filler scene? For a 60 minute movie? Literally anything else could have been done to pad the runtime a little more. There’s a basement with embalmed women framed in glass that could get a little bit more substance.

- lugosi and Karloff seem to be making up the films rules as they go along and the other just accepts it. Oh we have to play chess now? Oh your servant is working for me now? There’s dynamite rigged to blow this whole place up? What the hell, sure

- the set is so cool that I still don’t get why the film is so short when I want to spend more time wandering its halls and staircases and revolving chambers

- something about war crimes and trauma and betrayal just being thrown around. And daughters and wives and daughters becoming wives or something. But mostly they’re just some extra words in the script to give lugosi motivation to chain up Karloff and strip his shirt off

“..like their finest and most legitimate victim!”

Obsessed from start to finish. Love Mati Diop so much. The haunting ghostliness of the King Ghézo voiceover pairs so well with the more grounded discussion scenes.

A really cool document. Directly grappling with French colonialism and racism and the ugliness of capitalism at a relatively early time for the white European metropole. But it unfortunately falls into the trap of white people (quite literally) speaking for black people, treating Africa as a monolith, and being maybe a little too comfortable with talking about Africans as such simple, even primal beings who are inherently closer to god/nature due to their simplicity. And makes so much of white people ripping African art and creation away from their place of origin and context while participating in the same by not bothering to name or contextualize any of its images (of statues or present day Africans).

Really smart preface screening for Dahomey though

It’s funny how many beats this borrows from 2. Almost as funny as me still crying multiple times and laughing a lot despite the obvious drop in quality, not as well written of a villain, and sally hawkins being sorely missed. whatever!!!!!

It’s fun! The music just kinda sucks honestly and prevents it from being a full on blast. I don’t really mind the shaky acting from the ing actors but the characterization and writing need some polishing too. Kind of like a trans Shaun of the dead with super explicit politics, and though from a clearly white lens she at least tries to not be blind to others in her messaging. Alice Maio Mackay is 7 years younger than me and way more aware than I was (of both myself and the world around me) so it’s cool to see regardless of if the final product is a little rough. I think Adeline Last has a lot of real potential too.

The first half of the film is perhaps a lot more interesting to me than the second. Yes, Scotty’s male fantasy is at the center of the film, but what of Madeleine? To give into the past, let a ghost take the steering wheel for a while and allow yourself to be taken over by something that feels bigger than you are. Of course this line of thought doesn’t really make sense given the the reveal and second half of the film, but it’s still there (if only as the woman that Scotty falls in love with, and the woman that Judy embodies so well). Or I just love Kim Novak.

Filled with this stark, desperate loneliness in its stripped back performances, mostly empty frames, sparse use of music. It’s unbearable and serves as a grounds for the audience to understand Paul’s attachment, even reliance, on Philippe. Navigating into dangerous territory—not just because he’s well aware of its impact on his social standing (gay, dating someone much older, relying on him for money), but he also seems to have a sense of the tangible emotional and psychological risk of being with a much older man—because it’s the only avenue he sees other than stagnation, which is even more unthinkable. I think it’s a nice touch that the film makes no qualms about repeatedly pointing to the strange, confusing nature of this quasi-paternal-but-also-romantic(?)/sexual-and-also-transactional pedophilic relationship instead of like… a doomed romance.

On Philippe’s side, the film spends much less time justifying his pursuit of an underage boy, and it’s for the better. Where it gets complicated is how little judgement the film places on the relationship, on the long term damage that the grooming of a teenager, let alone one of a lower socioeconomic class, has. I think I’m willing to give some grace here knowing that the film was apparently semi autobiographical regarding relationships that Gerard Blain had and abuse that he suffered when he was young, and the film is so effective in its quiet despair that I think, at least for me, the message comes across regardless. Plus, not every predator is some evil manipulative caricature. And that’s part of the danger and the complicated form that trauma from a relationship like this can take.

Kinda mind blowing. Intelligent and inventive and has a surprising sense of humor at times. There’s a little bit of like… everything I like about movies thrown in here and all of it works so well. Making visible that which was made invisible, panning the camera of history to the left and right to see what was obscured, erased, implied out of frame. Holding the various tensions of being a Lebanese or Palestinian woman in the 20th century (and beyond).

first time watches >10 minutes

2024: 138
2023: 55
2022: 234
2021: 455
2020: 455
2019: 215
2018: 409
2017: 415
2016: 395

• One Sings, the Other Doesn't
• Red Rooms
• Lover Come Back
• 5 Broken Cameras
• From Ground Zero
• Tongpan
• Comrades, Almost a Love Story
• Szamanka
• Finding Phong
• The Wizard of Oz

...plus 46 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Very loosely ranked. The ones near the top are personal favorites of mine

I already have my honorary gay movies list but I made that before I really got serious about gay subtext so I mixed them together with movies that I claimed to be gay culture just by nature of the themes aesthetic etc.
SO I decided to make a dedicated list of actual gay subtext (characters/relationships) since people kept asking me for recs

Feel free to leave recs but I want to keep this as solely my own list of movies that have my stamp of approval since I can only trust myself with these things. gay subtext watchlist here though!

• The Servant
• Kamikaze Girls
• Women in Love
• The Singer Not the Song
• The Browning Version
• The Family Way
• The Bloodettes
• Lady Killer
• The Valley of the Bees
• t Security Area

...plus 431 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

definitely incomplete because i have terrible memory, feel free to suggest anything

PS: please release the imperial dreams OST

• Neptune Frost
• Phantom Thread
• Fireworks
• The Deadly Affair
• Rockers
• Looking for Mr. Goodbar
• Lemonade
• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
• Moonlight
• Porco Rosso

...plus 567 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Alphabetical order

i tried to keep it at a max of 100 but i have too much love to give... I made a shorter version though!

• 10 Cloverfield Lane
• 12 Angry Men
• 24 Frames
• The 400 Blows
• 45 Years
• Accident
• Affirmations
• After the Storm
• Air of Paris
• Alien

...plus 608 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

films grappling directly with colonialism, neocolonialism, imperialism, etc

recommendations welcome -- the first half of the list (up to and including Touki Bouki) i have seen and heartily endorse, the second half i have yet to see but have been recommended

Note: the places some of these films pertain to (ie Palestine in It Must Be Heaven and other films) are not "post"-colonial, but the word postcolonialism refers to the field of study rather than the literal state of having been decolonized/liberated

Note 2: I am excluding the work of Ciro Guerra after learning about the accusations made against him by multiple women.

• Oh, Sun
• The Night
• I Am Cuba
• Bamako
• Neptune Frost
• Leila and the Wolves
• The White Silk Dress
• Flee
• Atlantics
• Blood of the Condor

...plus 163 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

For the purposes of this list I’m going for 50+ years old 

Beginners pending rewatch

Recommendations very very welcome

• Twilight's Kiss
• The Shape of Water
• When I'm Sixty-Four
• Magnolia
• Swan Song
• Lilies
• Brother to Brother
• Pain and Glory
• Bye Bye Victor
• Days

...plus 52 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

A ranking of every lgbt+ film I’ve seen (and enjoyed) so far – including any film featuring a lgbt+ main character, even if their identity is underplayed. Excluding movies I feel either portray their identity negatively or just plain bad movies

will continue to build as time goes on

this ranking is meaningless at this point but ive been doing this too long to stop

1. The Handmaiden
2. A Single Man
3. Moonlight
4. Happy Together
5. I Killed My Mother
6. I Love You Phillip Morris
7. Big Eden
8. Tropical Malady
9. Victim
10. Querelle

...plus 305 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Feel free to leave more recs, I’m mostly aiming for older movies but I’ll take anything if the subtext is heavy enough (also rewatches are listed here if i only watched them before i was Awakened)

I also have a list of gay subtext in film so hopefully all of the movies here will be moved to that once I watch them.

• Flesh and the Devil
• The Beloved Rogue
• Wings
• Noah's Ark
• Days of Youth
• Journey's End
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Little Caesar
• 6 Hours to Live
• First a Girl

...plus 112 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

because i feel bad claiming to love asian cinema when i don't even watch movies from my mom's home country... lets hope i can find these with english subs because im americanized as hell :\

• The Vertical Ray of the Sun
• Three Seasons
• Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories
• The Town Within Reach
• Clash
• Owl and the Sparrow
• 2030
• Buffalo Boy
• Travelling Circus
• Living as One Should

...plus 42 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. I Saw the TV Glow
2. From Ground Zero
3. I'm Still Here
4. Evil Does Not Exist
5. Red Rooms
6. A Donkey
7. Love Lies Bleeding
8. Cuckoo
9. Orlando, My Political Biography
10. Monkey Man

...plus 22 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

first time watches >10 minutes. lets hope i do better than last year

2023: 55
2022: 234
2021: 455
2020: 455
2019: 215
2018: 409
2017: 415
2016: 395

• V/H/S/99
• To My Father
• Big Night
• Past Lives
• Nightfall
• One Way or Another
• Spacked Out
• Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels
• Jenin, Jenin
• Bye Bye Tiberias

...plus 128 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

movies that made me cry and/or want to die, in no particular order (other than the #1 spot)

will grow as I watch more movies and pretty much just a reference for myself to use when i feel like dying

• Grave of the Fireflies
• The ionate Friends
• The White Silk Dress
• Pariah
• A Single Man
• Your Name.
• Penny Serenade
• Moulin Rouge!
• Moonlight
• Happy Together

...plus 818 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Kinda bad ngl

1. Monster
2. Pictures of Ghosts
3. Four Daughters
4. Bye Bye Tiberias
5. The Blue Caftan
6. The Taste of Things
7. Bottoms
8. Polite Society
9. Anatomy of a Fall
10. Theater Camp

...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

first time watches >10 minutes

2022: 234
2021: 455
2020: 455
2019: 215
2018: 409
2017: 415
2016: 395

• Escape to the Silver Globe
• Ghostbusters
• Triangle of Sadness
• Shall I Compare You to a Summer's Day?
• Saint Omer
• Towards Tenderness
• Malcolm X
• Aftersun
• Evil Dead Trap 2: Hideki
• Corsage

...plus 45 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

anticipated: broker, the blue caftan, godland, till, all the beauty and the bloodshed, the quiet girl, Argentina 1985

1. Memoria
2. Neptune Frost
3. Benediction
4. Saint Omer
5. No Bears
6. Pacifiction
7. Great Freedom
8. A Short Story
9. Decision to Leave
10. Everything Everywhere All at Once

...plus 46 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

first time watches >10 minutes

2021: 455
2020: 455
2019: 215
2018: 409
2017: 415
2016: 395

• The Lost Daughter
• Rumble Fish
• Death of the Sound Man
• Uski Roti
• The Shower
• The Cave of the Yellow Dog
• The Razor's Edge
• Samui Song
• Wandering Heart
• The Slender Thread

...plus 224 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

rough ranking as usual

i have some of these directors' filmographies ranked, links are in notes for each

honorable mentions (aka need to watch more before i can add them): Ava DuVernay , Michelangelo Antonioni, Shinju Iwai, Jane Campion, Julie Taymor, Lino Brocka, Gillian Armstrong, François Ozon

1. Tropical Malady

   Apichatpong Weerasethakul

2. The Tree of Life

   Terrence Malick

3. The Meetings of Anna

   Chantal Akerman

4. The Handmaiden

   Park Chan-wook

5. Our Little Sister

   Hirokazu Kore-eda

6. Possession

   Andrzej Żuławski

7. The Servant

   Joseph Losey

8. Perfect Blue

   Satoshi Kon

9. Ran

   Akira Kurosawa

10. Taste of Cherry

    Abbas Kiarostami

...plus 69 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Anticipated: pleasure, night raiders, freda, lingui: the sacred bonds, what do we see when we look at the sky?, woodlands dark and days bewitched, boy meets boy, cleaners, ode to nothing, summer of soul, azor, prayers for the stolen

1. Titane
2. Flee
3. Swan Song
4. ing
5. Wife of a Spy
6. Azor
7. Petite Maman
8. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
9. The Humans
10. Wandering Heart

...plus 65 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Favorites of mine (chronological order) from an era that I've recently taken a special interest in - with an emphasis on gayness in front of and/or behind the camera - check notes :)

Basically it all started on 5/6/2020 when I watched the servant for the first time.

(using 'gay' as an umbrella term to include bisexuals ie. Joseph Losey and Michael Redgrave, as I personally do not like using the word 'queer')

• The Private Life of Henry VIII

  - gay cast
  - gay subtext

• The Clairvoyant
• Knight Without Armour

  - gay cast
  - gay subtext

• The Lady Vanishes

  - gay cast
  - gay subtext

• Pygmalion

  - gay director
  - gay subtext

• Climbing High

  - gay cast

• Goodbye, Mr. Chips

  - gay cast
  - gay subtext

• Night Train to Munich

  - gay subtext

• Gaslight

  - gay cast

• Kipps

  - gay cast
  - gay subtext

...plus 120 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

my favorites list is too long so I decided to make a short version to try to portray my taste more concisely. honestly the ranking beyond the top 5 is VERY loose
... this used to be a top 30

Honorable mentions aka movies it was painful to leave out of this list: Andrei Rublev, Kamikaze Girls, Certified Copy, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Godzilla (1954), Shin Godzilla, Samsara, Harakiri, Come and See, Hero (2002), Three Colors: Blue, Princess Mononoke, Georgy Girl, Girl with Green Eyes, Long Day's Journey into Night (2018), Boom!, Close-up, In the Mouth of Madness, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Apocalypse Now, Middle of the Night, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Moulin Rouge!, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, A Separation, Badlands, There Will be Blood

1. A Single Man
2. Solaris
3. Moonlight
4. Possession
5. The Handmaiden
6. The Tree of Life
7. House
8. The Red Shoes
9. Hunt for the Wilderpeople
10. The Silence of the Lambs

...plus 50 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

based off US release dates. only including movies i actually liked

still a work in progress obviously but i feel like ive seen enough to publish now

notable movies im dying to see: burning, long day's journey into night, rafiki, ash is purest white, widows, under the silver lake, radegund, colette, the tale, blindspotting, the breaker uppers, 3 faces, birds of age, shirkers, at eternity's gate, an elephant sitting still

• Paddington 2
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Shoplifters
• Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts
• Vox Lux
• Sorry to Bother You
• Shirkers
• Hereditary
• Cold War
• Madeline's Madeline

...plus 44 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

(that im interested in and/or have seen). gay sex, religion and politics mostly

WIP since i'm still reading

not on letterboxd: too many to list

• Blissfully Yours
• This Area Is Under Quarantine
• Insects in the Backyard
• Supernatural
• Father & Son
• Samui Song
• Beautiful Boxer
• Homogeneous, Empty Time
• Anguished Love
• Boundary

...plus 31 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

first time watches >10 minutes

2020: 455
2019: 215
2018: 409
2017: 415
2016: 395

• Wolfwalkers
• I'm No Longer Here
• Julia
• Twilight's Kiss
• Liberté
• Beasts Clawing at Straws
• Nomadland
• Horse Money
• Crash
• Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

...plus 445 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

not including movies i hated like velvet buzzsaw and high life and the lighthouse  😌

high priority watchlist: jojo rabbit, and then we danced, vitalina varela, birds of age, la belle epoque, varda by agnes, an elephant sitting still

1. Bacurau
2. Long Day's Journey into Night
3. One Cut of the Dead
4. The Body Re When the World Broke Open
5. Pain and Glory
6. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
7. In Fabric
8. A Hidden Life
9. Parasite
10. Atlantics

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

priority horror movies.. reviving this from last october <3

• At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
• [REC]
• Inside
• Onibaba
• Plush
• Suicide Club
• Lord of Illusions
• Fright Night
• Friday the 13th Part 2
• Faust

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

If someone seeing this knows someone who works at Janus or some place similar tell them I am willing to sell my organs if necessary

Also I’m aware that some of these have international releases but I need eng subs for the non-English ones so 🥺🤲🏼

• The Singer Not the Song
• Millennium Mambo
• When the Tenth Month Comes
• Providence
• Oh! What a Lovely War
• That Certain Summer
• Corridor of Mirrors
• Staircase
• On the Silver Globe
• The Third Part of the Night

...plus 54 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

first time watches >10 minutes

2019: 215 😞
2018: 409
2017: 415
2016: 395

• Diary of a Shinjuku Thief
• Devi
• Lilies
• Ride Like a Girl
• In Fabric
• Booksmart
• Joker
• Big Deal on Madonna Street
• Urban Rashomon
• Rope of Sand

...plus 444 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

First time watches only, films 10 minutes or longer

2016: 395
2017: 415

• Wind River
• Hush
• It's Only the End of the World
• Free Fire
• Daisies
• The Corridor
• Logan Lucky
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• Saw III
• Spectral

...plus 399 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Once again, first time watches only, films 10 minutes or longer

2018: 409
2017: 415
2016: 395

• Roma
• Dracula
• Roman Holiday
• Mr. Skeffington
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• The Favourite
• Shoplifters
• Winter's Bone
• The Miseducation of Cameron Post
• Pooka!

...plus 205 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

ty hanna <3

• The Bewitched House
• Twilight of a Woman's Soul
• Cabiria
• Fanchon, the Cricket
• The Vampires or, The Arch Criminals of Paris
• The Dying Swan
• Satan's Rhapsody
• Daddy-Long-Legs
• The Symbol of the Unconquered
• The Love Light

...plus 37 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

us release dates. im not including da 5 bloods on this list because it fucking blows

need to see: gossamer folds, his house, the father, identifying features, the metamorphosis of birds, tigertail, days, the wanting mare, aswang, minyan, there is no evil, time, undine, nova lituania, collective, futur drei, you will die at twenty, rocks, miss juneteenth, quo vadis Aida?, língua franca

1. Dry Wind
2. David Byrne's American Utopia
3. Lovers Rock
4. Liberté
5. Minari
6. Shiva Baby
7. Twilight's Kiss
8. The Tree House
9. One Night in Miami...
10. Matthias & Maxime

...plus 46 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

ive mostly shunned these kinds of movies for a while bc they never really do anything for me but recently ive been in a cracked out mood and theyre becoming my lifeblood, these are all movies people with more experience with the genre have told me to watch, feel free to rec more!

i put them in chronological order bc not having an order was bothering me

removed swing time bc i found out fred astaire wears blackface in it

• Sadie Thompson
• Merrily We Go to Hell
• Top Hat
• Angel
• Dark Victory
• The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
• Waterloo Bridge
• The Lady Eve
• Meet John Doe
• Sullivan's Travels

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Sorry straights these movies belong to the gays :/ go find some new favorites

feel free to suggest some more gay movies

• Kamikaze Girls
• Lady Killer
• t Security Area
• The Red Shoes
• Deception
• Air of Paris
• The Master
• The Ascent
• Hamlet
• The Hit

...plus 193 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

rebuilding this bc its been too long <3

• All Quiet on the Western Front
• American Honey
• Aparajito
• Auntie Mame
• A Better Tomorrow
• Blissfully Yours
• The Blood of a Poet
• The Blue Note
• Céline and Julie Go Boating
• Charulata

...plus 94 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• A Most Violent Year
• But I'm a Cheerleader
• Paddington
• Paddington 2
• X-Men: First Class
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Aliens
• Clueless
• Paprika
• Little Miss Sunshine

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This is both reductive and inaccurate due to how many movies I’ve missed that have come out this decade but whatever lists are fun 😌🙈🤗

sorting by release date

• Boy
• Certified Copy
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
• Confessions
• Incendies
• Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
• Pariah
• Perfect Sense
• A Separation
• The Tree of Life

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

dont come @ me i'd die for him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. The Tree of Life
2. Voyage of Time: Life's Journey
3. Badlands
4. A Hidden Life
5. Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
6. Days of Heaven
7. Song to Song
8. The Thin Red Line
9. The New World
10. Knight of Cups

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

claude rains is at the center of the cinematic universe

• Here Comes Mr. Jordan
• Angel on My Shoulder
• Touch of Pink

  I realize this is an explicitly gay movie but if you think about the depth to Kyle maclachlan’s portrayal of the ghost of cary grant and how that fits into the narrative and then Cary’s actual life.... it counts

• Topper
• A Matter of Life and Death

everyone is doing it and someone asked me to so.. here

• In the Mood for Love
• Moonlight
• The Remains of the Day
• Happy Together
• The Red Shoes
• Y Tu Mamá También
• Lovesong
• Chungking Express
• Desert Hearts
• Pride & Prejudice

...plus 11 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

i should be doing a paper but i'm making another pointless letterboxd list instead - tried doing that sort by color that people do but i suck at it so..

also after making this i realize i'm biased towards minimalism and/or bright colors

edit: so many posters keep getting changed to uglier ones so if you see one that looks extremely out of place thats probably why

• Death by Hanging
• Harakiri
• Caché
• A Page of Madness
• The Red Shoes
• Candyman
• Phantasm
• Kes
• Lady Vengeance
• Queen of Earth

...plus 160 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

i love them but why do they only watch depression

• Lady Vengeance
• My Brilliant Career
• The Sound of Music
• Children of Men
• The Hidden Fortress
• Enemy
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Bad Genius
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Certified Copy

...plus 26 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

i mightve went a bit overboard

• The Red Shoes
• The 400 Blows
• Possession
• The Ascent
• Certified Copy
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
• House
• News from Home
• Yojimbo
• Ran

...plus 51 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Our Little Sister
• Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
• Sans Soleil
• The Ascent
• Koyaanisqatsi
• Army of Shadows
• Certified Copy
• Fireworks
• News from Home
• The Second Mother

...plus 36 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

any recs are welcome because this really is one of my favorite things

• Solaris
• The Sacrifice
• Mirror
• The Tree of Life
• Woodshock
• The Witch
• First Reformed
• Thelma

only including movies i actually really liked (4+ stars).

strong contenders that i still need to see: the killing of a sacred deer, beach rats, step, probably more

1. Phantom Thread
2. Get Out
3. Logan
4. The Shape of Water
5. Columbus
6. It Comes at Night
7. Mudbound
8. God's Own Country
9. 24 Frames
10. Alien: Covenant

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

very loose ranking

1. Meshes of the Afternoon
2. Night and Fog
3. Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
4. Spacy
5. A Letter to Uncle Boonmee
6. Grim
7. Phantoms of Nabua
8. Billy Star
9. In a Heartbeat
10. Illusions

...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

for three...extremes i'm only considering his segment 'Cut'

1. The Handmaiden
2. Lady Vengeance
3. Stoker
4. t Security Area
5. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
6. Oldboy
7. Thirst
8. I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
9. Three... Extremes

To quote myself, movies that made my brain go “ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i need THERAPY” (either during the movie, thinking about it afterwards, or both)

Yes this list title is 100% honest and not a hyperbole or an exaggeration. No I will not elaborate further.

• Columbus
• Love, Simon
• Magnolia
• Gerald's Game
• The Shape of Water
• Possession
• I Killed My Mother
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Happy Together
• News from Home

...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

why has cam seen only like 1.5 movie ever

1. Hero
2. A Single Man
3. The Assassin
4. The East
5. Murder by Numbers
6. Taking Lives
7. Solaris
8. I Know Who Killed Me
9. Insidious
10. Insidious: Chapter 2

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Monsters vs Aliens
• Waking Life
• To the Wonder
• Ivan's Childhood
• Solaris
• The Hitch-Hiker
• Pet Sematary
• Daughters of Darkness
• It Follows
• May

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.