What variety for this week's #LetterboxdFriday!
A Different Man (2024) - 4.5 - What a delight!
A Field in England (2013) - 2.5 - What a slog!
Drop (2025) - 2 - What a dumb movie!
April Fool's Day (1986) - 4 - What a fun time!
A Nice Indian Boy (2024) - 3.5 - What a charming yet average rom-com!
An interesting week for #LetterboxdFriday:
Warfare (2025) - 4 - Viscerally asks "what's the point?" and leaves you to piece together an answer.
Anchoress (1993) - 4.5 - Just a beautiful film about a girl who, enlightened or not, wants to live her life her way.
Mad Foxes (1981) - 4 - Euro-sleaze exploitation that will deliver 77-mins of WTF.
Penda's Fen (1974) - 2.5 - I appreciate much of this stream of consciousness self-discovery, but I'm not British enough to fully connect with it.
The Pledge (1982) - 2 - Basically nothing.
The Sermon (2018) - 4 - When two people really love each other...
Robin Redbreast (1970) - 4.5 - Terrific! Rosemary's Baby but in a village.
The Wedding Banquet (2025) - 3 - Fine, predictable, mostly good performances.
The Brutalist (2024) - 4.5 - Still so great.
Sinners (2025) - 4.5 - From Dusk Till Dawn but meaningful and actually good.
The Ugly Stepsister (2025) - 3.5 - Cinderella with a hint of The Substance and a touch of Pearl.
The Order (2024) - 4 stars - Jude Law looking like a trim Gene Hackman in a good movie about some hateful folks. Sadly still relevant.
The Muppet Movie (1979) - 4.5 stars - Always a hoot!
One of Them Days (2025) - 3.5 stars - Fast-paced silly fun.
White Lightning (1973) - 3.5 stars - Can't go wrong with Burt Reynolds chewing gum and cackling in a car.
The Shrouds (2024) - 4 stars - Love, loss, grief, multinational techno-conspiracies, dreams...it's Cronenberg, baby!
An almost great week for #LetterboxdFriday!
The Wicker Man (1973) - 4.5 - Fulfilled my wish to watch it, @willhopkins, and it was great!
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (2019) - 4 - Pretty good doc about sound design; cried for no reason at the end.
The Producers (1967) - 4 - Brisk, zany fun!
Fight or Flight (2024) - 2 - Screen Unseen. Went in blind. Should've just seen Sinners again instead, but here we are.
Scanners (1981) - 4 - Maybe I'm entering my Cronenberg Appreciation Era?
A short #LetterboxdFriday for a change.
Thieves Like Us (1974) - 4.5 stars - Excellent Robert Altman. Colorful characters, great environmental storytelling, Carradine and Duvall just chewing it up. Kind of a "Bonnie & Clyde if Bonnie stayed home" thing going on. Loved it.
A Simple Favor (2018) - 2.5 stars - Gone Girl for babies.
Another Simple Favor (2025) - 1.5 stars - I don't know why they made a sequel or why they tried to make it zany. A worse Murder Mystery 2 meets a worse Barb & Star.
Was busy/had no time for #LetterboxdFriday last week, so here it is on a Tuesday(!):
Eternal Sunshine... (2004) - 5 + a heart
Sneakers (1992) - 5 + a heart
The Vanishing (1998) - 4.5
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) - 5 + a heart
To Live and Die in LA (1985) - 4.5
Slugs (2025) - 5
Final Destination (2000) - 3
Final Destination 2 (2003) - 3
Final Destination 3 (2006) - 3.5
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) - 2
The Final Destination (2009) - 0.5
Final Destination 5 (2011) - 3.5
#LetterboxdFriday is here and I'm very tired.
Friendship (2024) - 4 stars - Good as a comedy, works better as a light horror in my mind.
Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025) - 3 stars - Solid entry in the franchise (though 5 had a great ending that kinda wrapped up the series, in a sense). Good family representation and a decent enough send-off to Tony Todd.
Manhunter (1986) - 4.5 stars - When Michael Mann is good, he's great.
#LetterboxdFriday is upon us.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - 4.5 - A classic for a reason.
The Life of Chuck (2024) - 3 - A lot of folks will really like this tale told in three acts about a guy named Chuck. It's schmaltzy and I think it's only just fine.
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) - 4.5 - Diane Keaton as you've never seen her before. An unhinged Richard Gere. William Atherton in an almost normal/romantic role? An ending that left me in stunned silence. Fan-fuckin'-tastic.
For #LetterboxdFriday this week, I can confirm to @ishmaellasting that The Trip (2010) series (not movie) is better than the movie. I already enjoyed the movie, but wondered if it was worth my time to watch six 30ish-minute episodes of a 100-minute movie. The answer is yes, it is! Really great to see how it was formatted and what was cut and it works so much better in the episodic format. If you only have 1.78 hours (I did the math), though, the movie is still worth a watch. - 5 stars
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My #LetterboxdFriday continues!
Jacqueline Novak's "Get on Your Knees" (2024) may not be for everyone, but I absolutely loved it. Just a fantastic, manic 90 min. set of poetic prose, mostly about blowjobs. - 5 stars
American Ninja (1985) is fine, but what brings it up from 2.5 to 3 is watching Michael Dudikoff and Steve James just being friends. They should've been huge together but their time was cut short with James' untimely death in '93. RIP, king (or whatever they say these days).
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A great #LetterboxdFriday!
40 Acres (2024) - 4 - Maybe rated a little high, but went in blind and really enjoyed it.
The Warriors (1979) - 4.5 - A movie about a gang trying to get back home; filled with lovely touches and style.
The Phoenician Scheme (2025) - 4.5 - This really worked for me. A lovely send-off to a father-in-law.
The Trip to Italy (2014; series, not movie) - 3.5 - The movie might actually work better for this trip?
28 Days Later (2003) - 4.5 - Prep for Years; still holds up!
#LetterboxdFriday already?
28 Weeks Later (2007) - 4 stars - That opening!
The Trip to Spain (series, not movie) (2017) - 5 stars - A return to form!
28 Years Later (2025) - 3 stars - Alright...
The Trip to Greece (series, not movie) (2020) - 4 stars - That ending!
Nosferatu in Venice (1988) - 3 stars - Charming in its own way, despite itself.
I've been away the past few weeks, so here's me catching up with #LetterboxdFriday:
Jaws - The original summer blockbuster, still great at 50.
The Menu - Liked it even more on rewatch at 30,000 feet.
The French Connection - One of my dad's favorites, easy to see why.
Babette's Feast - What a delight to rewatch a favorite on a plane and cry.
Big Night - I'd like to give it a more fair shake and rewatch it when I'm not constantly dozing off mid-flight.
Kadaicha - Fun Aussie teen folk horror.
#LetterboxdFriday already?
Blood Hook (1986) - 3.5 stars - Silly, sleepy summer horror with loveable characters that's about 10 minutes too long.
The Tenant (1971) - 4 stars - I might have rated this .5 too low; it's great and I keep thinking about it days later.
Justin Willman: Magic Lover (2025) - 4.5 stars - I might have rated this .5 too high, but it really is good and Willman is a natural performer.
My #LastFourWatched this #LetterboxdFriday:
High School Musical (2006) - 2.5 - We have free Disney+ until the end of August so we're catching up on classics we missed.
Eddington (2025) - 4 - A big satire mirror reflecting all of our dumb right back at us.
The Naked Gun (1988) - 5 + ♥️ - Perhaps a perfect comedy. So smartly stupid.
The Naked Gun (2025) - 3.5 - Like 3/4 of the way there, then it pivots to a Lonely Island type of humor that is fun in small isolated doses, but not needed here.
A true #LastFourWatched this #LetterboxdFriday.
Queens of the Stone Age: Alive in the Catacombs (2025) - 4 stars - 30 minutes of dressed-down QOTSA songs in sepia-toned 4:3.
Yokohama BJ Blues (1981) - 4 stars - If Robert Altman were Japanese and made The Long Goodbye.
Freaky Friday (2003) - 4 stars - Pretty competent body-swap movie; Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan nailed it.
Tanner '88 (1988) - 4.5 stars - A wildly inventive experiment that just blew me away. For real.
#LetterboxdFriday is here.
Freakier Friday (2025) - 3 stars - Lindsay Lohan was great.
Adaptation. (2002) - 4.5 stars - Bold! Audacious!
Relay (2024) - 3.5 stars - A mostly competent corporate thriller throwback - Riz Ahmed was great.
Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) - 4 stars - Love to watch a family torn apart by a terror of a gal.
Weapons (2025) - 4 stars - Spellbinding!
Punch-Drunk Love (2002) - 4.5 stars - Love is a powerful thing.
3 Women (1977) - 5 - What a film! Altman created a dreamy one here; Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek are magical.
Shin Godzilla (2016) - 4.5 - When disaster strikes, bureaucracy fights back. It's so good!
Naked Gun 2½ (1991) - 2 - Worse than I remembered!
Naked Gun 33⅓ (1993) - 3 - Better than 2½!
Shanks (1974) - 3.5 - Fantastic physical performances (feat. Marcel Marceau), the movie takes many strange turns!
Bring It On (2000) - 2.5 - A product of its time! It's fine.
#LetterboxdFriday is here!
Cure (1997) - 4.5 stars - Bleak and beautiful.
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) - 5 stars - Big ol' bummer how the tiny town of small brained and smaller hearted bullies in this movie are now in charge of the country. Fucking sucks, in fact.
Stone (1974) - 3 stars - A leisurely hang with a Satanic biker gang in Australia. There's more to it than that, but that's the vibe. It's fine.
Four-star #LetterboxdFriday this week.
Cloud (2024) - 4 stars - Bleak, but oddly fun!
Popeye (1980) - 4 stars - Perfect blend of Altman bringing the cartoon/comic to life with a perfect (especially Shelley Duvall) cast. #Movies
@ej for 28 Weeks I couldn’t get over the idea that their emergency plan in the face of a horrifically infectious disease was the opposite of social distancing and quarantining. And this was before I even heard of social distancing.
I know, suspension of disbelief and all, and maybe it was because I was 15 years younger.
@ishmaellasting I actually didn't find the cuts I noticed to be Brit-centric for a global audience's behalf.
Some of Coogan's phone calls with agents/Brydon's calls with wife seemed new, and there were a few unfamiliar restaurant kitchen shots/food preparation moments (though it could be forgetfulness on my part).
Some impersonations went longer (for the better!), one of which is notably missing from the film: Stephen Hawking (maybe they thought it would play offensive globally?).
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@ishmaellasting There was also a slight rearranging of some of the events (the Ben Stiller dream happens later in the movie, for instance).
All said and done, I think a fan of the movie that hasn't seen the series absolutely should, and that a fan of the series that hasn't seen the movie only should if they're curious, otherwise there's no need.
(I apologize for having to split that up, my instance obviously has different character limits; I tried, though!)
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Eric J
George Hotelling
Ishmael Lasting
Chris "Crunchy Leaf" Salzman