bookishwench: (Default)
A truly pathetic number here.

The Marvels - I liked it. It's not a tier 1 Marvel classic, but I still basically liked it. And the Streisand scene was hilarious.
Mary - Mostly okay, but a little odd. Joseph appeared to be wearing trousers at one point.

That's it. I did rewatch some classics: Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, Hello Dolly. I also started the second season of What If . . . ?, which I liked, but I haven't wrapped it up. I need to get back up to speed with the MCU.

As far as books, I warned you about the pathetic number. There were four. I started reading several other books, most of them re-reads (Jane Eyre, The Phantom Tollbooth) and some new ones (Wind in the Willows, Mysterious Benedict Society). My attention span was rotten.

The Life of Rosa Parks - Kathleen Connors - This was banned in Florida. It took all of five minutes or so to read and had nothing a sane person could possibly find objectionable.

And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie - I listened to this as an audiobook while doing physical therapy. It was an excellent mystery.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation - Rosemary Sullivan - Another audiobook, and a good thing because I would never have known how to pronounce all the Dutch words in this. They make a very strong case for one person. This gave me a sense of closure.

The Cat Who Had 14 Tales - Lillian Jackson Braun - A short story collection, all of them involving cats. I have a very low tolerance for sad animal stories, so some of these were too much for me, but several of them were good reads.
bookishwench: (Default)
From everything I'm reading, Robbie got robbed.

Full list, highlighted if I've seen it, which I think is 1 right now; 23 categories, 120 nominations, 53 movies )

Yup, I need to do some watching before March.

Breakdown by numbers
Oppenheimer 13 (fee)
Poor Things 11 (in theaters)
Killers of the Flower Moon 10 (Apple)
Barbie 8 (including two for song) (Max)
Maestro 7 (Netflix)
American Fiction 5 (in theaters)
Anatomy of a Fall 5 (fee)
The Holdovers 5 (Peacock)
The Zone of Interest 5 (in theaters)
Napoleon 3 (fee)
The Creator 2 (fee)
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One 2 (fee)
Nyad 2 (Netflix)
Past Lives 2 (fee)
Society of the Snow 2 (Netflix)
20 Days in Mariupol 1
The ABCs of Book Banning 1
The After 1
American Symphony 1 (song)
The Barber of Little Rock 1
Bobi Wine: The People's President 1
The Boy and the Heron 1
The Color Purple 1
El Conde 1
Elemental 1
The Eternal Memory 1
Flamin' Hot 1 (song)
Four Daughters 1
Godzilla Minus One 1
Golda 1
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 1
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 1
Invincible 1
Io Capitano, Italy 1
Island in Between 1
Knight of Fortune 1
The Last Repair Shop 1
Letter to a Pig 1
May December 1
Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó 1
Nimona 1
Ninety-Five Senses 1
Our Uniform 1
Pachyderme 1
Perfect Days, Japan 1
Red, White and Blue 1
Robot Dreams 1
Rustin 1
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 1
The Teachers' Lounge, Germany 1
To Kill a Tiger 1
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko 1
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar 1
bookishwench: (Default)
I did okay with movies, seeing 33, largely because I pushed to see some of the Oscar nominees last year, looking forward to a fun, entertaining night. Gosh, thanks, Will Smith.

Anyway, leaving aside movies I rewatched, here are things I saw for the first time in 2022 in a vague order:

Encanto - Brilliant. I cannot state strongly enough how much I loved this movie. It is now my favorite Disney film, which is saying something.
Cruella - I was stunned by how much I liked this. Honestly, it was one of my favorites for the year.
Tick, Tick...Boom! Another one I loved (Miranda had a really good year). I remember when Larson's work started catching fire, and the tragedy that he died very young is still enormous.
Drive My Car -Phenomenal film. I loved this one.
West Side Story - It's like trying to redo the Mona Lisa. Except it's Spielberg. Which means he made a really good Mona Lisa.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story - This needs to win an Oscar for something. Seriously. This thing was a ride.
Don't Look Up - The problem with this satire? It isn't satire. It's a little too close to pure realism at this point, which depressed the hell out of me.
Being the Ricardos - Kidman was amazing at Lucy.
Flee - Yeesh, this poor kid.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - This may actually have been better than the first one, which is saying something.
Attica - What a nightmare. I'd never heard of this.
Luca - Very cute. Nicely done overall, good plotline.
Black Widow - This needed to be released before Endgame somehow. Occasionally the tone changes gave me whiplash, but I did like it.
No Time to Die - I really liked Craig's turn as Bond, and this was a good capper.
Dune - I saw this on my TV, and I think it really needed to be seen on a big screen, kind of like Lawrence of Arabia.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye - I felt really bad for this woman by the end, which was an accomplishment. Also, Andrew Garfield had a very good year.
Summer of Soul - Generally very good, but the line about killing white people made me a little nervous.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special - Just madcap enough, in my opinion.
Ant-Man and the Wasp - First, Pfeiffer has aged really well. Second, Ant-Man is ridiculously underrated. I really like his character.
Captain Marvel - I like Carol. Having her wander around most of the movie not knowing who she was kind of felt off, though.
Robin, Robin - This was up for short film, and it was really cute.
Spider-Man: Far from Home - This was... odd? I liked it, but I was expecting the tone to be different after Endgame.
Thor: Ragnarock - Finally got around to seeing this one. I'm not a huge fan of Waititi's take on this. It's a little too screwball comedy when I expect something almost Shakespearean with Thor and Loki.
The Lost Daughter - I felt like something flew over my head in this one. Excellent acting, but I never quite understood the point.
The Queen of Basketball - I didn't know anything about this woman. She led a very interesting life.
Nightmare Alley - A few bits of this I honestly couldn't watch. This was intense.
King Richard - The point made at the Oscars stands: the Williams sisters were the top tennis stars of all time, so somebody made a film about... their father.
The Batman - I could stand to see more of Pattinson's Wayne.
The Power of the Dog - Excellent acting, but ultimately it isn't something I'd ever see again.
The Long Goodbye - I don't know whether the sound mix was off-kilter when I watched this. It was frightening, though.
Three Songs for Benazir - Maybe I'm just not good with documentary format in general because this also felt strangely incomplete.
Lead Me Home - This documentary felt unfinished somehow.
The Windshield Wiper - Meh. Didn't really stick with me.
bookishwench: (Default)
I saw exactly one new movie this year: In the Heights, and that was streaming. I did love it, though.

ETA: Wow, did I get that wrong. Other (not new, but new to me) movies watched in 2021:
Gretel and Hansel - neat take on the fairy tale, liked Gretel here
My Favorite Year - watched this on TV in the hospital; forgettable
The Little Matchgirl (1914) - silent film, sad, surprisingly good special effects
The Little Match Seller (1902) - quite brief silent that packed a punch
The Glass Menagerie - I love Malkovich in this (I've seen it before)
Whisper of the Heart - The start of a Ghibli phase, really well done
Kiki's Delivery Servicee - again, really well done, fun, interesting look at creative block
Howl's Moving Castle - another Ghibli, but I kept feeling I wasn't quite understanding this one
The Great Gatsby (2013) - Dang if Lurhman didn't actually do a phenomenal job on this one

Aside from that, I did a lot of re-watches. I'm currently up to Ant Man for a Marvel run-thru. I also saw four of the five Marvel miniseries: WandaVision, Loki, What If...?, and Hawkeye. I still need to finish Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I enjoyed all of them, but more than that it's nice to see a format that's been dormant for quite a while get some new life. WandaVision in particular was amazing, and Hiddleston was having so much darn fun in Loki that it was one of my favorites.
bookishwench: (Default)
Ones I've seen (HAHAHAHAHA) in bold:

and the nominees are... )

Okay, so that's 124 nominations from 53 films. I have currently seen, uh, one. 2

Number of nominations for each film
11 JOKER
10 1917
10 ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD
10 THE IRISHMAN
6 JOJO RABBIT
6 LITTLE WOMEN
6 MARRIAGE STORY
6 PARASITE
4 FORD V FERRARI
3 BOMBSHELL
3 STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
3 THE TWO POPES
2 HARRIET
2 HONEYLAND
2 JUDY
2 PAIN AND GLORY
2 TOY STORY 4
1 A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
1 A SISTER
1 AD ASTRA
1 AMERICAN FACTORY
1 AVENGERS: ENDGAME
1 BREAKTHROUGH
1 BROTHERHOOD
1 CORPUS CHRISTI
1 DCERA (DAUGHTER)
1 FOR SAMA
1 FROZEN II
1 HAIR LOVE
1 HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD
1 I LOST MY BODY
1 IN THE ABSENCE
1 KITBULL
1 KLAUS
1 KNIVES OUT
1 LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL)
1 LES MISÉRABLES
1 LIFE OVERTAKES ME
1 MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL
1 MEMORABLE
1 MISSING LINK
1 NEFTA FOOTBALL CLUB
1 RICHARD JEWELL
1 ROCKETMAN
1 SARIA
1 SISTER
1 ST. LOUIS SUPERMAN
1 THE CAVE
1 THE EDGE OF DEMOCRACY
1 THE LIGHTHOUSE
1 THE LION KING
1 THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW
1 WALK RUN CHA-CHA
bookishwench: (Default)
Wow. I saw a truly pathetic number of movies this year.

Avengers: Endgame - Very good, kind of exhausting, could actually have been a little longer. Would have liked some tiny injoke about Beckett due to the title.

Downton Abbey - Nice to revisit the old faces. Not much of a plot.

Uh... that's it for actual new movies. I did watch Elf for the first time all the way through, a lot of fun, as well as My Neighbor Totoro, which was really beautifully animated, Anastasia, which I found disturbing, The China Syndrome, which was great for suspense, Fantastic Voyage, a nice bit of sci-fi history, and a handful of old silent shorts (The Haunted Castle, The Sprinkler Sprinkled, The House of Ghosts, and Steamboat Willie), which I find kind of neat.
bookishwench: (Meltha pink)
Finally saw this, and yes, it was wonderful. Highly, highly recommended.
bookishwench: (DruSpike theme match)
I saw the new version of Cinderella starring Lady Rose McClare Lily James and Cate Blanchett. I think the word "charming" applies here. Also, Branagh killed off poor Derek Jacobi again. He seems to like doing that. And it was fun to see Sophie McShera (Downton Abbey's Daisy) doing something here too. And I didn't realize that the fairy Godmother was Helena Bonham Carter for some bizarre reason.

That said, a group of about 7 or 8 people was further down my aisle, several of them children. They wouldn't shut up. Two of them got up twice to hit the snack bar (these were about 12 years old). A small child would intermittently cry. And then came the big moment: Cinderella tries on the shoe, it fits, and we find out what she's going to do to her step-mother and step-sisters, and... one of the kids throws up all over the place. The entire theatre gagged. The family decided to just remain there until the credits rolled, because apparently a vomiting kid was no reason to miss the last part of the movie. Nice.

I'm still correcting essays. They still stink.
bookishwench: (DruSpike theme match)
I saw only 8 movies in the theatre in 2014, some of them fairly forgettable, some of them very well done. Here we go.

Let the movies go, let them go... )

And there you have it.
bookishwench: (DruSpike theme match)
I miss Billy Crystal's montages. Anyway, for the heck of it, I'm listing all the best pic winners (courtesy of [livejournal.com profile] petzipellepingo and bolding the ones I've seen. There are some significant holes in here. (ETA most recent)

And the Oscar goes to... )

So, 42 43 of them. I'm actually more surprised at the break up in the 1950s than anything else, really.

Also, as far as my guesses on who will win: Argo, Steven Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jessica Chastain, Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Hathaway, Brave, and costume design to Les Mis.
bookishwench: (Indiana)

Apparently Disney bought Lucas out of the Star Wars franchise and is going to release Episode 7, which has been rumored about for thirty or so years, in 2015.  Apparently this will deal with the children of Han and Leia.

Um... well... that's...

Oh man.  May the Force be with us. 

I have a sudden urge to reach through time, grab Leia's shoulder, and shriek "IT'S A TRAP!"

bookishwench: (Nerdilicious)
Yes, after it won the Oscar my local movie theatre finally bought a clue and brough it in for the next week. Hence, I saw it today.

Really, really good movie )

Profile

bookishwench: (Default)
bookishwench

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
1516171819 2021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 11th, 2025 05:43 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios