Readers of this blog will no doubt be familiar with the social media site Letterboxd. If not, here’s a friendly nudge: check it out! In my view, it’s one of the best things going for the rabid cinephile or up-and-coming-critic. You can post lists of favs, watch lists, and your own reviews and ratings–all of this for friends and followers. Even readers who don’t have accounts can access it all!
In this post, I wanted to collect some reviews I’ve been posting there for the last year or so. After joining the site, I immediate sensed that it would be the best home for my day-to-day reviewing–certainly better than this site or my Facebook page. On Letterboxd, people are there for one reason, to exchange about movies–to rate, review, debate, and share. The site just makes it easier to carry on a conversation about film.
Here, then, are some items (with links) I’ve reviewed on Letterboxd. Happy clicking!
Franchises (and Popular Standalones) New and Old
As I continue to research the history of media franchises, I’ve tried to balance my viewing between current and “legacy” film series, and to use Letterboxd reviews to comment on things like storytelling within the series and plot structure (I am increasingly fascinated, and in many cases frustrated, by the number of characters and subplots franchise movies now jam into their swelling run times). These reviews aren’t detailed analyses, but many of them certainly contain insights–amidst some punchy opinions and prose–that will be of interest to film analysts.
I’ve been keeping up with many ongoing series, like the new Sony Spider-Verse entry (here), the Fast & Furious film currently in theaters (here), and all the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fare (here, here, here, here, and here.) There haven’t been any new James Bond films, but I’ve reviewed a documentary about the series’ music (here).
The latest efforts to spin film series off into TV shows also caught my eye–both the recent Star Wars entry Andor (here) and the surprisingly reserved Lord of the Rings show that dropped on Prime last year (here and here). In my view, the show delayed the protagonist’s quest for far too long.
The return of the Predator franchise just under a year ago was a pleasant surprise (here), same for the new Evil Dead installment (here), but the sequel to Knives Out proved to be a real disappointment (here). The latest Creed film was somewhere in between (here). Jurassic World Dominion was a mess (here.) I was initially rather disappointed in the new Avatar film (here), as I wrote on this website, I saw it a second time, and it won me over.
I’ve also looked into action-adventure films from a variety of genres, like Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (here), RRR (here), Cocaine Bear (here), and Ambulance (here). Most I found engaging; some, less so.
Over the last year, I’ve returned to numerous series from the past. I am especially pleased with my reviews–all quite detailed–on the Winnetou/Old Shatterhand films of the 1960s. This West German franchise is a real eye-opener. One might call it an MCU before the MCU! Especially intriguing is the intricacy of the series’ storytelling and the tricky production circumstances surrounding the films (two competing companies produced the films, some of which fed into those of the competition). I comment on all of these aspects of the series and more (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). It’s best to read these in order–my sense of what’s happening behind and in front of the camera shifts over time.
Other old school franchises from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s have occupied my time, too, proving to me that most film series are cumulatives–i.e., neither purely serial nor purely episodic, they mix traits of both. This goes for the original Godzilla series (here, here, and here), but not for the British Carry On films (here), which is one of the clearest instances of episodic storytelling in film series history (the films are set in the same “world,” but with the same actors playing different characters, anthology-style, so no elements of plot continue from film to film). Lately, I’ve also re-watched the Rocky series (here, here, and here), and discovered that it’s relatively ambitious in its cumulative storytelling. Crossing the globe, I found a more recent franchise–the Bollywood trilogy Dhoom–was rather engaging, too (here).
Art Cinema Old and New
Here and there, I’ve kept up with art cinema, especially movies of a sparser variety (perhaps to cleanse my palette in between all that franchise maximalism). I especially enjoyed Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo’s latest (here). British film and TV director Alan Clarke’s work–now available on blu-ray–is not to be missed. I had a seen a number of his movies over the years, but getting the chance to see Contact (here) and Christine (here) for the first time proved to be a revelation. Truly one of the world’s great minimal filmmakers.
I didn’t think that Tár (here) was all that innovative, but two other films–the Macedonian-Australian art-horror flick You Won’t Be Alone (here) and French auteur Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman (here)–each blew me away. Again, the magic of sparseness.
Lastly, I returned to one of my all-time sparse favs, Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped (here), and the epiphany hit me: different Bresson films work best at different points in one’s of life.
Miscellany: Blocks, Docs, TV, and More
Rounding out this little collection, I’ve very much enjoyed a number of black/black-cast films lately, all now available to stream. Not just Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (here), but The Woman King (here), which still feels like it’s underappreciated. A shame, because it’s really… new. Three Thousand Days of Longing is really old in some ways, but entertains (here). Don’t sleep on Steve McQueen’s Uprising series (here), by the way–it’s a great nonfiction companion piece to his masterwork, Small Axe.
More TV and documentary: visually and tonally, The English remains one of the best shows I’ve seen in a while (here). A new documentary about President Nixon brought the history of oppositional politics alive (here).
Finally, some re-viewings. I returned to Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, and felt the need to capture my ambivalence about the film (here). By contrast, I continue to believe that Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is one of the best films ever made (I discuss one of its precursors here). Pitch Black continues to be a bright light in the history of franchise fare (here). Red Sonja is definitely not (here).
See you over at Letterboxd!
Moving Patterns 