This year I set a new movie resolution! Though somewhat less ambitious than 2017 with my Movie A Day project, it still has the potential to expose me to plenty of fantastic films that haven’t crossed my screens as of yet.

For 2019, each week my goal is to watch 3 films that are new to me. Of course I can go over this number, but with the wedding and the job searching and the myriad travels I have ahead of me, I felt three was a reasonable number to aim for. But to keep it interesting, I’ve made sub-goals for my weekly films:

• One film from my collection (I own close to 100 that I haven’t seen… I would like to whittle that down!)
• One film directed by a woman
• One film in cinemas

In reaching these goals, I can always knock off two requirements with one film (‘Desert Hearts’ has been in my collection for months, for example, and is also directed by a woman, so it’s high on my list to pop into the Bluray player!) but I hope that this will keep me energized and searching out new films throughout the year.

I intended to write a weekly blog post about what I’m watching, but I’ve already fallen down on that goal a bit! But there’s no harm in starting now, is there? As we’re still in the middle of the third week of the year, I’ll just reflect on the first two weeks of this plan.

WEEK ONE

January 1 - 6th (the year started on a Tuesday, and my weeks are Monday through Sunday)

Watched:

‘Mary Poppins Returns’ (2018)
‘Bumblebee’ (2018)
‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018)

So in the process of the move, and the subsequent chaos that was this fall and holiday season in a new country - traveling around for weddings and events, and trying to settle into a new apartment and life - I missed SO MANY films in the cinema. So many. I try not to think about it, because I kind of want to cry. Also, the UK is behind on the release schedule for a lot of the major film releases in the US, which as a film lover is crazy frustrating when I hear great things about a film and it’s not coming out for another month or two here! Not to mention Bristol doesn’t get nearly the number of US indie films that Seattle gets because of SIFF programming. (There are pluses to being over here, don’t get me wrong - being closer to Europe, there are a lot more foreign language films that come through the local cinemas. But still. I’m missing my SIFF cinemas.)

All this means that once I settled down after the new year, all I wanted to do was catch up on films that are currently in cinemas so as to not miss any more of them! So I powered through three new release films in the space of three days.

Now, I fully admit that I did not make my sub-goals - none of these were from my personal collection (obviously), and none were directed by a woman. ‘Bumblebee’ was written by a woman, which is great, and is way better for it in my opinion, but yeah, no women directors. Sadly, I’m pretty sure there were no new releases in the cinema that were directed by a woman that I could have seen, so that just serves to highlight the problem, no?

‘Mary Poppins Returns’ was a lovely, happy film that warmed the cockles of my heart on a cold winter day. Emily Blunt is fantastic and magical, and the casting of Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw as Jane and Michael Banks was perfection. But it was really Lin-Manuel Miranda who made me smile with joy the most, because he was always so joyful! The songs and adventures were fun and lovable, and the film itself was a visual feast that was bright and engaging when it wanted to be, but also poignant and bittersweet when it was needed. Though I will admit, as nice as the songs were, I couldn’t hum you a one now - but for about a week after watching it I kept getting ‘Let’s Go Fly A Kite’ stuck in my head. I guess you just can’t shake those childhood memories!

‘Bumblebee’ should be subtitled “The Transformers Movie that Doesn’t Suck!” I hesitate to say “finally” because really, we never NEEDED another Transformers movie (or another, or another), but this one works. Why does it work? The retro nostalgia is one reason - by trapping it in the past, you get a more tactile surrounding to work with once the Earth-based story gets going. The music is a part of that, and the song choices are pretty great - I’d happily own the soundtrack, provided that you keep ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ safely on the internet, thank you. The 80’s setting also throws back to the animated Transformers movie and television series, including a great little moment where Bumblebee plays “The Touch” on his radio to encourage Charlie.
But really, Hailee Steinfeld is the reason it works. She is the heart of this movie, and she’s fantastic. With her at the center ‘Bumblebee’ often comes across as a teenage coming-of-age story - really, this could be a John Hughes film, if not for the giant robots and occasional army interludes. (Serious props for the John Cena line “They’re called Decepticons! Deception is basically in their name!” Because really… he’s very very right.)
Shout out to Christina Hodson - she’s the writer - the only woman to ever write for a Transformers movie - and I enjoyed her story, so bravo Christina.

‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ was such a cool movie! I went in not really knowing what to expect, and was blown away by the animation and the awesome story. It’s a witty, fast-paced film that looks amazing as it mixes together some of the best parts of superhero films and spins out something fresh and new. It’s emotional, it’s clever, it’s funny, but most of all it’s genuinely fun.

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This post ended up longer than expected, so I’m going to take a break and put my Week Two watched list on a separate post. In the interlude, if anyone has a hookup for screeners on the DL that could satisfy my intense craving for the US indie scene… I’m just saying…