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
(1/2)
@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?).
(1/2)
@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!)
(2/2)
Eric J
Ishmael Lasting