This post is a little bit late, but I’ve hit 125 new films for the year, which feels like a massive milestone for me. Over 1/3 of the way through my MovieADay goal, and I’ve seen so many fantastic films! In this set of twenty-five I’ve seen quite a few recent films (of them all, I highly recommend ‘Their Finest’ if you can still catch it at a theater near you!) as well as many highly rated films that have been on my to-watch list for ages. (Such as ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’, in which Dustin Hoffman pretty damn near broke my heart with his amazing performance.)

There were so many films that I really enjoyed this time around, so it was especially hard to pick my top highlights. I can say that I’ve fallen in love with bright, luscious pictures that invoke visions of Technicolor, a la Douglas Sirk (and in his own bright way, Jacques Demy) - so much so that I’m going to recommend ‘The Love Witch’ to anyone else like me who loves looking at beautifully saturated, lushly colorful films, no matter the content. (Not to go into too much detail, but while the film itself was gorgeous, the story dragged a bit. And by a bit, I mean a lot. But it was so pretty…)

Anyway, on to my highlights! As always, the full 25 are listed at the end of the post, and you can follow along with my up-to-the-day movie watching over on IMDb!

‘Witness for the Prosecution’ (1957) Marlene Dietrich is fantastic. And the story itself is a brilliantly executed triple-cross - it really does keep you guessing (I did predict one little wrinkle, which I won’t mention if you haven’t watched the film, but it has to do with the travel agent story). Taking a courtroom drama and turning it into something this compelling is no mean feat, and this film does it masterfully. Also something fun - I haven’t ever seen a film that has a note at the end for the audience to not spoil the ending for other people. That was entertaining. (And very sound advice, if I do say so myself! No spoilers!)

‘The Young Girls of Rochefort’ (1967) This is such a fun, sparkling musical from Jacques Demy (who I now kind of adore, and I am actively seeking out all his movies at the moment). It’s definitely reminiscent of the Hollywood musicals that inspired Demy, but with a very distinctive French flair that makes it stand on its own. Catherine Deneuve is sublime once again, and here acts opposite her real-life sister (though they are not real-life twins). Which is both a beautiful and tragic performance, because only three months after this film was released, Françoise Dorléac (Deneuve’s sister) died in a car accident. Back to the film though - the dancing is fantastic, the music numbers are brightly colorful and well-choreographed, and the hidden gems of George Chakris and Gene Kelly popping up in the story brought a smile to my face. Something to note - it is quite obviously dubbed (no live singing here), and in general none of the actors actually provided their own singing. It doesn’t subtract from the film though - if anything, it adds to the whimsical quality of the musical theme.

‘Logan’ (2017) I hesitated to include this in my highlights - it’s a bit plot light, action heavy, even though I enjoyed it - but I wrote a lengthy review of it right after seeing it, so I’m including it as is. An incredibly gritty, almost dystopian version of the typical superhero film - then again, Wolverine has always been more of an anti-hero than a superhero. Anyway, it’s set in the future - 2029 - and mutants have apparently been wiped out; the few left are living in hiding, like Logan is. He’s a driver, working in the States near the Mexican border, suffering from a serious drinking problem and possibly something more fatal. The film starts out with a bloody bang - a drunk Logan wakes up to find some guys trying to jack the wheels off his car, and he deals with them as Wolverine does. As the story goes along, we discover that Logan has a secret - he’s protecting an ailing Charles, who is on a regime of medicine that keeps his powers at bay, preventing seizures that have the capability to incapacitate and, we assume, possibly kill people.

Into their lives suddenly appears a young mutant - a girl, who seemingly has similar abilities to Wolverine, including adamantium enhancements on her skeleton. As they work to keep her safe, we slowly learn a bit more about this world that seems to have little room for the X-Men of old… but may have room for a new generation of mutants. What’s striking about this film isn’t anything to do with the plot or the story - while intriguing to see the affects of age on characters as iconic as Wolverine and Cyclops, the basic idea of ‘get a new mutant to safety through whatever means necessary’ is pretty much the plot. Through being the operative word there, as Logan tends to just go through people who stand in his way, quite literally. And here, the camera doesn’t look away, which is how all other X-Men films tended to deal with the brutality of what Wolverine can do - instead, in ‘Logan’ we’re shown the full extent of the damage those adamantium claws deliver. It’s a good film, and a good swan song for Wolverine. Let’s just hope it stays that way.

‘Baby Face’ (1933) I have a fascination for films released during the stricter years of the Hays Production Code era, specifically films that have clearly been changed or influenced because of those rules. ‘Baby Face’ isn’t necessarily one of those - some people even credit ‘Baby Face’ as one of the films that led to pressure for enforcement of the Code - it was still altered due to rejection from the New York Censorship Board. In this case, the ending was changed, and a few speeches and scenes were reshot or cut altogether, all directly affecting the perception of the female lead. What remains though, is a fascinatingly bold portrait of a woman who sleeps her way up to luxury, using men in the same way they used to use her. Barbara Stanwyck is just phenomenal, and the film itself is fascinating for how brazenly they discuss sex and female power over men. But here is where censorship takes over - the ending was changed to show a ‘happier’ ending, one of almost repentance (on her part) for her ‘evils’, which was a common adjustment for unfeeling female characters under censorship at that time. Also worth considering - she’s sleeping her way up in society, but in doing so she ends up becoming even more dependent on the men she’s seducing, since she sleeps her way out of working for a living. (At one point she basically becomes a ‘kept woman’, albeit to a man with a wife on the side.) Even within a bold tale of sexual favors and a seductive yet cold femme fatale, the idea that a woman could earn an independent life of luxury was incomprehensible. (Unless, of course, the original ending had been kept.)

‘Imitation of Life’ (1959) Just gorgeous cinematography; the film looked radiant and luscious with bold colors and textures. This is my first Sirk film, and I now want to watch everything he’s done. There seemed to be a lot about identity in this film, how the characters identified with each other and with life outside their home, and also the identity they wanted to have, yet struggled to maintain. The obvious example is for Sarah-Jane, for whom being able to pass as white inspired a herculean effort to disown her roots and her mother and ‘be white’, thus enjoying the privilege that came with that identity. But also present in the story were both mothers trying to find their identities as the mothers they were versus the mothers they wished they could be - for Lora, especially, every time she would commit to a path that would keep her home with her daughter, another path would open up that called to her ambition and dreams of stardom. Even though she felt at times something was missing from her life, she still couldn’t resist the siren song of the stage. Adding to this exploration of identity was the way it was filmed - Sirk used mirrors, and shots through doorways and windows, showing characters either observing each other or observing themselves at a distance, framed in separation from real life. The title itself suggests that what we’re seeing is an imitation, life viewed through a frame or reflection. I highly recommend seeing it.

‘Their Finest’ (2016) I loved this film! It’s a film about filmmaking, war, and women (among other things). It’s a gorgeous period piece, to start with, and the set design and cinematography are quite lovely. There’s comic moments, largely to do with the filmmaking process itself, jokes that land even better due to the dramatic irony (as the characters themselves are played by actors, therefore they are the actor-types they complain about, etc). The idea that film can transform real life into something inspirational - taking the spirit of the truth, if not the actual facts, and creating a story that’s a truth of it’s own to resonate with the public - is played well against the backdrop of a grittier, darker London under constant bombardment. That is their actual war reality, and yet instead the heart of the film is spent creating a war movie on location, in the Devon sunshine and far away from the bombings and deaths. It’s a well-executed juxtaposition, and a subtle commentary on the nature of film itself. But most of all, this is a film about the strength of women. It’s a gentle treatment, to be sure - not necessarily the forefront of bra-burnings and suffragette marching here - but it’s a stubborn, strong stance taken by those women in the film who say ‘yes, we can do this, we can be the heroes, we can inspire our country.’

‘Shutter Island’ (2010) So this is a fantastically well-executed psychological thriller from Scorsese that I was only half-spoiled on (in the sense that I knew there was some sort of twist/spoiler to be had, so I kept trying to figure out what it would be). The reason that it was a stand-out for me though was the visuals - good lord, this was a pretty film. Especially the dream sequences… without saying anything more specific, I can’t quite describe why they were amazing, but they really were stunning. Top notch cinematography paired with an almost Hitchcockian sense of psychological turmoil and unsettledness. And it checks off another IMDb Top Rated movie for me, so job well done.

All Films: 101 through 125

101. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
102. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
103. Cat Ballou (1965)
104. The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
105. Colossal (2016)
106. The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2013)
107. The Guard (2011)
108. Going in Style (2017)
109. The Fate of the Furious (2017)
110. The Love Witch (2016)
111. Double Indemnity (1944)
112. Logan (2017)
113. The Big Heat (1953)
114. The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
115. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
116. Baby Face (1933)
117. Gifted (2017)
118. Imitation of Life (1959)
119. Their Finest (2016)
120. The Circle (2017)
121. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
122. John Wick (2014)
123. Shutter Island (2010)
124. Adam’s Rib (1949)
125. Despicable Me 2 (2013)

My next 25 deadline is May 30th, smack dab in the middle of the Seattle International Film Festival. So I may either end up getting to 150 much faster than that, or my post may be late because I’m so busy watching movies! Either way, I’ll update when I can.

If you missed any of my previous MovieADay posts, catch them all here.