Usually, at the end of these recap articles, I write something like “I wrote longer reviews for each movie I watched on my Letterboxd account” as I’m not writing about them here. I’m going to stop doing that as, starting September 1st, I’ll use Letterboxd only to keep track of my viewing. I grew tired of writing those reviews and choosing a rating.
I’ve been using Letterboxd for a decade now. Last year, at the same time I think, I decided to stop because I had become too self-conscious of my viewing habits, in a way. Like, I felt forced to watch a 1940s movie because I hadn’t done that for some time. I like 1980s-90s movies, but I always try to balance with… you know, some stupid shit. Anyway, I came back and started to write reviews for everything as I thought it would be a good complement for this blog, but I think I should write more here instead.
I doubt that I’ll have the time to do that immediately as my life is a tad out of order lately, but it’s my ambition. For now, let’s take a look back at my media consumption of August 2024!
I started the month with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and you can read everything I thought about it here. And a few days later, I also wrote about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
I watched another Sean Connery movie, The Anderson Tapes (1971) directed by Sidney Lumet about the conception and execution of a heist in an apartment building under surveillance. I like the concept and some of the editing was brilliant, but the story felt empty, barely an excuse for a film.
The film noir The Glass Web (1953) directed by Jack Arnold had ideas, but nothing memorable except a good performance by Edward G. Robinson.
I continued my re-read of the Criminal Comic Book series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. In fact, I went all in on that for a few days, and it was great. Seven TPBs, two graphic novels, and one big deluxe volume. I don’t think I’m forgetting something. It’s quite interesting to see how the two creators’ styles evolve, seeing the art becoming something so distinct while the writing goes quickly from standard noir to pure psychological thrillers. You have all the hallmarks of the genre, but it’s more about the characters than the twists and turns. And the arts really put it in perspective as Phillips clearly was more and more comfortable at imposing his own voice. He and Brubaker became so complementary that it feels natural when they progressively take their distance from the roots of the series to expand their world, taking it away from the dark and dirty alleyways to… everywhere else. I just loved revisiting the series.
At the opposite end of that sentiment, I rewatched Timecop (1994) directed by Peter Hyams starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. It was just stupid, but not in a good way.
The Doug Kenny biopic A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018) directed by David Wain missed the mark and failed to be funny, despite being about a man whose humor had a huge impact on American culture. Kenney was cofounder of the National Lampoon and produced pure comedy gold for some time, but had a tragic end. The movie failed to capture what made him so funny and insisted on putting the death of his brother at the center of everything in his life, without really building anything on it. At least, Domhnall Gleeson was really good as Henry Beard, Kenney’s best friend and Lampoon co-founder.
I tried to watch the Batman: Caped Crusader animated show, but after two episodes I just stopped. The writing is good, I’m not sold on the aesthetic though, especially the character design. However, my problem with it is mostly that it’s another Batman in his early years kind of show, and I’m bored by that.
After mediocre to bad movies, I went with a sure winner and watched Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001) directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. It is a longer episode of the show. It should have been shorter, but I like the montages and the more lengthy shots. The movie takes its time to tell a solid story and stays entertaining from start to finish.
My monthly Miyazaki was Ponyo (2008), another cute little movie, this one with a fun take on the Little Mermaid type of story.
I watched the political satire Wag the Dog (1997) directed by Barry Levinson with Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and Anne Heche, and it was underwhelming.
More satisfactory was my rewatch of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), and I wrote about it.
Because of its cast, The Women (1939) directed by George Cukor was for a long time on my watchlist, and I finally saw it. It was a fun watch with great one-liners and energetic performances, but too much about the men that were not in the picture.
Cure (1997) directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa was presented to me as Japan’s Memories of Murder, but it certainly was not. It’s the type of movie that seems to tell you something, but do it without enough substance, so it’s up to you to give it meaning. A lot of people seem to like that. I don’t.
I watched the third season of The X-Files and, as usual, I wrote about it, listing my favorite episodes and talking about what I like less.
I went On My Shelf and put the Blu-ray of John Dies at the End (2012) directed by Don Coscarelli in my player. I love the book, but the movie while not as good is still fun and weird enough.
The Palm Beach Story (1942) is a screwball comedy directed by Preston Sturges that was funny enough, but mostly forgettable beyond Claudette Colbert’s performance, until the last WTF crazy minute. The ending is so wild that I laughed out loud for some time.
I rewatched Frost/Nixon (2008) directed by Ron Howard, even if it doesn’t feel like a Ron Howard movie for some reason. Michael Sheen and Frank Langella gave truly great performances, and the script does a lot with so little, it’s impressive. Howard builds the suspense and sticks the landing with grace.
John Woo remade The Killer which encouraged me to rewatch the original from 1989. I always thought it was too melodramatic, but the action scenes are great and Chow Yun Fat was legendary. I forgot enough about it to not realize how influential it was on John Wyck.
I read “The Instant Enemy” by Ross MacDonald. It was another really solid entry in the Lew Archer series, even if the connection between all the characters pushed the story into predictable territory. It’s all about generational trauma and Archer’s way of dealing with things and his view of them is what gave the book its true value.
I’m not that familiar with Mike Hammer, but I quite like Ralph Meeker’s performance in Kiss Me Deadly (1955) directed by Robert Aldrich, a very well-made noir that kept me engaged with his directing and main performance, but lost me with his script that felt built around a too vague idea to really take hold.
To conclude this month, I put in the player my Super Troopers Blu-Ray, and I’ll write something about it shortly. I’m always surprised that this little stoner comedy holds up that well. The gags are mostly still pretty good.
I wrote longer reviews for each movie I watched on my Letterboxd account if you want to read a little bit more developed thoughts and ideas (well, for the ones I didn’t write about on the blog at least). Also, take a look at my June 2024 recap if you missed it.
