It feels like it’s been a while since I hit a 25 film mark, but really, it’s just that SIFF wrapped up mid-June and I haven’t been crazily seeing three films a day anymore. (I’m still about 15 days ahead of my MovieADay resolution for the year though.) Seeing as I’ve slowed down a bit, I’ve gotten to wander through a few older films that have popped up on my radar, along with crossing off my “homework” movie for this quarter. Also - 200 new movies watched so far this year! That’s a big ‘un, folks.

As it’s heading into summer blockbuster season, I’ve got a few films that I’m very much looking forward to - one of them was ‘Baby Driver’, which exceeded my expectations, so more on that below. But summer also means crazy heat for about a month and a half (which is the new normal in Seattle… global warming is real), so I’ll be heading into the cinemas to escape the heat, and quite possibly watch some trash film along with the great.

In relation to this post, I’ve mixed things up a little bit - instead of only talking about films that were super standouts, I’ve thrown in a few that require some explanation or acknowledgement. I can’t really give a full review for every film in my lists of 25, because that would make these incredibly long and people would probably stop reading, but sometimes I just really want to discuss the bad films along with the good! I’ve also included my ratings of the films on the IMDb star scale, just for fun.

The full 25 I’ve watched is listed below my highlights, and to follow along with my updated-daily watched list, be sure to head over to IMDb here. You can also leave me film recommendations there, if you have something you think I need to see!

‘Mellow Mud’

I saw this during SIFF, and it stood out as one of my favorites of the festival. This was a gorgeously shot film, set in rural Latvia, which offers a moody portrait of a 17-year-old girl on the cusp of adulthood. Raja and her brother have been abandoned by their mother, and after certain events leave Raja to take care of her brother and their home in an attempt to keep the local social services in the dark about their situation, she attempts to travel to London and bring her mother home. In a sense it’s a coming of age story, but the light dialogue, gentle pacing, and picturesque filming locations really elevate this movie. It was a solid 8 out of 10 for me.

‘At The End of the Tunnel’

So this film won the Golden Space Needle Award at SIFF, which is the audience voting award, meaning the folks who saw it in Seattle really enjoyed it. I for one thought it was a perfectly paced thriller, combining a few twists and turns (enough to keep you interested), while featuring one of those endings where all the pieces just fall into place with a healthy dose of dramatic irony. Essentially, a paraplegic computer engineer who spends much of his time working in his basement begins to hear noises next door, and discovers a tunneling plot to rob the bank on the other side of his house. It’s well directed by Rodrigo Grande, who creates fantastic tension that builds throughout the story until it explodes at the climax of the film, in a spectacular (while somewhat gory) fashion. I gave it an 8, and would love the chance to watch it again.

‘Borders’ and ‘Boundaries’

These are two very different films, but both explore the stories of women, and both in well-executed ways. ‘Borders’ follows four women as they travel by bus from Senegal to Nigeria, highlighting the challenges that women face at the hands of men when traveling independently. They are all on the road for different reasons, but as their experiences bring them closer together, they build a connection that alters each of their lives. It’s beautifully filmed, and the Q&A afterwards with the director and lead actress was really fascinating - one of the things that stood out was that while the situations depicted on the road seem at times extreme and terrifying, it’s actually a watered down account of how things can be for women who travel alone there. (9/10) ‘Boundaries’ is a Canadian film, with dialogue that switches effortlessly between French and English in a way that I can’t help but be envious of. (My French is not even close to that level.) Three women with different goals are part of a negotiating conference between Canadian officials and a small (fictional) island nation off the Canadian coast. The oldest woman is the president of the small nation, the youngest woman is a newly elected politician on the Canadian delegation, and the other woman is the mediator, whose goal is to get the two sides to come to an agreement. The film looks at the individual struggles of each woman, and in subtle ways highlights the challenges women in these roles face that men do not. Another gorgeously shot film, the backdrop of the sparse, stark island community that is still stubbornly standing tall in their fight for a fair deal seems a perfect metaphor for these women. (8/10)

‘Lady Macbeth’

This film was a fantastic Victorian Gothic masterpiece (if that’s not a genre, it definitely should be). Florence Pugh doesn’t miss a note in her first lead performance, playing the titular character to perfection with, at times, chilling effect. Set in the soul-sucking time period of Victorian anti-feminism, the film watches a girl who was sold as a bride to a middle-aged man, and subsequently explores an affair with a man more her age. At the beginning of the film, Katherine is literally kept captive, as her father-in-law (who also lives in their house, acting more as a prison warden than a family member) forbids her to go outside, as it may have an “adverse” affect on her. This affect, as it later appears, is one of self-liberation, as once she does venture out of doors she begins an affair with a farm hand, and longer walks in the bleak yet picturesque English countryside slowly lead to a more daring woman. Yet as she continues, the film begins to acknowledge that her path is unsustainable in that time, as the measures to which she resorts to maintain her newfound freedom become darker and more oppressive to those around her. The visual aspects of the film are gorgeous - the set design and cinematography favor crisp yet earthy tones within spaces that meld a rustic unfinished feeling with clean puritanical oppressiveness. It’s still a Victorian period piece in costuming, to be sure, and the use of corset-lacing scenes provide the typical visual metaphor of a woman’s imprisonment, but the costuming deserves acknowledgement for the realistic reuse of recognizable gowns on Katherine, while providing a more subtle metaphor for her internal journey through the gradual dirtying of her signature blue gown over the course of the film. 8 out of 10, because it was so viciously delicious, and each static shot could have been a gorgeous portrait.

‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’

So I found myself in Eugene trying to kill time and avoid the heat, and this was the only film that was showing at the right hour, so I watched it. No, it’s not a terrible train wreck as I can only assume that ‘The Mummy’ is (I just can’t with that one, so I’m not going to try, thanks), but really, ‘Pirates’ is now a done and dusted series, so let’s let it go already, can we? Paying off Johnny Depp’s divorce is not a good enough reason to continue making these movies. This film was trying so hard to emulate the first Pirates that they went out and found a young actor that looked like a poor man’s Orlando Bloom. I’m pretty sure the casting notice must have read “If you have come in second in an Orlando Bloom look-alike contest, please apply”. (Let’s be honest, he wouldn’t come in first.) And the female lead was perfectly fine - it was admirable, in fact, to have her be an astronomer/scientist and essentially the brains of the party (though that in itself was not all that hard). But Jack Sparrow now desperately needs rehab (or maybe Depp does, but still), and it’s just not fun anymore. I was totally with his crew when they leave him at the beginning of the film - Jack Sparrow has become the worst part of these films. Also incomprehensible - how do they keep signing big names to go up against Sparrow?? Javier, you could be doing much better things with your time. And yet, at the end of all that, I was entertained for two hours while enjoying much needed air conditioning. So I still gave it a 6.

‘The Big Lebowski’

For my “homework” this past quarter, I went with a pop culture mainstay that I could not 100% say that I had watched all the way through. I have a few of those - films that I vacillate back and forth on whether, years and years ago, I may have watched in part or in full, but I do not remember, and now they are referenced and quoted so often that I just feel like I have seen them. The Big Lebowski was definitely one of those, and now that I have watched it in full, I can definitely say that I had not seen it all the way through at any point. And you know, I get it, I can see why it’s become such an oft-referenced mainstay, but that’s just a testament to the talents of the Coen Brothers. I’m not in love with it, it’s not something I now feel the need to rewatch and quote in my everyday life, but hey, at least I won’t feel like a total fraud nodding along when people say shit like “The Dude abides“ anymore. (7/10)

‘Baby Driver’

This film was everything I wanted. When I saw the first trailer, I was completely in love - the way music drove the action, and the editing, was sublime, and I was just mesmerized. The movie was all that and more. It’s a movie with great music, crazy car driving, and some shoot-‘em up action, but it’s executed to a tee and whole absorbing. It really is a fantastic ride, and the assembled ensemble of actors is fun on the level of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’, but it all comes down to the editing. In a way, Baby Driver plays out like an extended music video - when music is playing, the onscreen action is perfectly choreographed to it, whether it’s a high speed car chase or just Ansel Elgort going on a coffee run. And throughout the film, touches here and there (the color palette, the old-timey diner, the vinyl collection) create a stylistic retro vibe that really works. There’s a lot of action, to be sure, but it’s toe-tapping action, and I loved it, to the tune of 9 out of 10.

All Watched Films: 176 through 200

176. Mellow Mud (2016)
177. Lane 1974 (2017)
178. A Dragon Arrives! (2016)
179. Ivan (2016)
180. At the End of the Tunnel (2016)
181. Boundaries (2016)
182. Jason Bourne (2016)
183. Brainstorm (1983)
184. Wallflower (2017)
185. Borders (2017)
186. Forever Pure (2016)
187. Susanne Bartsch: On Top (2017)
188. The Song of Cotton (2016)
189. The Door (2017)
190. The Feels (2017)
191. Escape Room (2017)
192. Lady Macbeth (2016)
193. The Oath (2016)
194. Paths of Glory (1957)
195. And Then There Were None (1945)
196. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
197. The Big Lebowski (1998)
198. Baby Driver (2017)
199. Double Wedding (1937)
200. The Beguiled (2017)

That’s it for now - we just got home from ‘The Beguiled’, making it officially 200 new films watched so far this year. (By the way, I think Sofia Coppola knocked it out of the park with that film. It was GORGEOUS. A fantastically simmering Southern Gothic masterpiece.) One film I didn’t include was the Final Cut of Blade Runner, which I recently watched, or re-watched, I honestly couldn’t remember which cut I originally saw. Since so many people say that certain cuts change the entire affect of the film, I would be willing to say a cut that accomplishes that amounts to being a unique film experience… but I digress.

If you missed any of my past MovieADay posts, you can find them all here!