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An incomplete list - I definitely watched some things & forgot to note them here.

December

  1. John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum (2019), dir. Chad Stahelski. First off, this series continues to have great casting. Anjelica Huston, Halle Berry, Yayan Ruhian, Mark Dacascos (!). Really fantastic fight choreography. Silly but fun and very efficient story (of course - that's what I was expecting). I'm in better spirits today I guess as I enjoyed this entry more than the second.
  2. John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), dir. Chad Stahelski. Well executed, beautifully shot, expands on the "universe", so... more of the same, but in a good way, as the first itself was good. I wasn't quite in the mood for this today, I think, so it didn't hit right for me, but happy I saw it. The next one is on tubi too so I'll probably watch it soon.
  3. Wallander (BBC English-language version, 2008-2016). Watched all twelve episodes / films while recovering. Very good. Well acted (Branagh is great), strong writing, beautifully shot. Character over mystery here; it's a detective show more about the detective (and his family, his coworkers) than about solving the puzzle, I think. Was surprisingly sad and heavy. I'm glad I watched it but it was a little tough to watch right now.
  4. Hannibal (2013-2015), season 3 episodes 10-13. A fitting end I think. It's a little awkward for Dolarhyde to be present in the last few episodes but it works. I'm really glad I finally watched this, I enjoyed it a lot. And I'm happy it concluded where it did, I'm not sure I'd want to continue watching after Dolarhyde. I'd like to go back and rewatch some of this (the last few episodes in particular) when I'm not sick.
  5. Hannibal (2013-2015), season 3 episodes 7-9. Into the Manhunter / Red Dragon (2002) plot now. Richard Armitage is a good Dolarhyde. The dialog remains pleasingly gnomic. I'll be at the end soon and I'll be sad to see the show go; having said that, I'll be surprised if the next four episodes reach the height of the end of season 2 & its fallout.
  6. Hannibal (2013-2015), season 3 episodes 3-6. Yes, this is handling plot I've seen in Hannibal (2001) in a way I like a lot more. The dinner scene (with Crawford and Graham in this version) makes more sense I think. (And it cuts away at the right time). Having said that this both feels very slow and like it's moving through a lot of plot quickly; I suspect things are being left out. I would have liked to have spent more time with Inspector Pazzi, give him more room to come to his decision.
  7. Hannibal (2013-2015), season 3 episodes 1-2. First episode feels a little Patricia Highsmith, Lecter on his own Tom Ripley adventure. Second brings some clarity to the end of the second season though with another gut punch. It's getting into material I've seen before in other related films, Lecter in Italy.
  8. Hannibal (2013-2015), season 2 episodes 9-13. Plots within plots, wheels within wheels. Reaches a very tense and melodramatic point at the end of the season. Distressing and satisfying. A lot of gnomic conversations in this, questions answered with questions (which I suppose is to be expected in a show about psychiatrists). There's a twist I saw coming & was happy to see regardless. Onward to season 3.
  9. Hannibal (2013-2015), season 2 episodes 5-8. Impressively gross. The way this show associates images is both funny and very, very dark. Thinking specifically of the images of uncooked meat & human bodies and recipe cards & business cards. Framing Chilton for Lecter's crimes was also very funny and well-timed, well-positioned to relieve some of the tension in the show.
  10. Hannibal (2013-2015), season 2 episodes 1-4. Starting strong in the second season.
  11. Hannibal (2013-2015), season 1 episodes 9-13. The twists! Continues to be impressively bloody for a TV show. The season wraps up well & I'll definitely be watching it through to the end. I find the psychological interplay, the relationships between the regular characters, to be much more interesting than the serial killer monsters-of-the-week.
  12. Hannibal (2013-2015), season 1 episodes 3-8. This is much more bloody than I expected. Still liking the pacing. I think the fantasy of the gifted detective versus the masterming serial killer is pretty tired (and it's always been v. implausible) but this is really well done. And oddly sensitive.

November

  1. Hannibal (2013), season 1 episodes 1 & 2. Seems alright; I like the cast, the pacing of the first episode. It's striking how different this feels compared to Manhunter, the presence / absence of Michael Mann. Watched on Tubi.
  2. The White Orchid (2018), dir. Steve Anderson. Watched on Tubi while sick. A freelance investigator (think gumshoe, played by Olivia Thirlby) working for the San Luis Obispo social services office sets out to identify a recently murdered woman. It's reaching for classic mystery / detective fiction or maybe Hitchcock and not quite getting there. Felt weirdly out of time, anachronistic. Liked the low stakes, the slow pace, Thirlby and Nichelle Nichols's performances. The score, writing, and a few notably odd looking scenes drag it down. I want to like it but it's fading from my memory as I type. Watch if you're really into bad wigs.

October

  1. Cruising (1980), dir. William Friedkin. Another first-time watch, been meaning to see this for a long time. Al Pacino plays an undercover cop in pursuit of a serial killer that preys on men in New York's gay leather scene. Super complex and difficult; exploitative. Controversial. Very ambiguous & open ended in several ways. Both empathetic and homophobic in unexpected ways. I've seen it described as an "American giallo" and I think that's apt. Worth seeing, even if it's hard to chew on. Was convinced I should watch it after hearing Samm Deighan's podcast over at Cinepunx discuss it.
  2. To Live And Die In L.A. (1985), dir. William Friedkin. First-time watch for me. See this toot for comments.

August

  1. They Cloned Tyrone (2023), dir. Juel Taylor. Loved this. Really great script & performances. Seemed very self-aware to me. I haven't seen any of the movies I've seen this compared to ("Get Out", "Sorry To Bother You") so I'll have to get on that.

July

  1. ACCA 13 (2017) episodes 1-12 (full series). Added in December: I wish I'd have taken notes when watching this, I really enjoyed it.
  2. Annihilation (2018), dir. Alex Garland. Really great. Liked this a lot more than Ex Machina (the one other Garland film I've seen). The last 30 or so minutes are fantastic. I haven't read VanderMeer's novel but am now very much looking forward to it.
  3. Manhunter (1986), dir. Michael Mann. First watch (how have I not seen this before?). William Petersen is amazing as Graham. Feels really clean and precise, antiseptic; the Dollarhyde segments feel different so maybe that cleanness is a reflection of Graham's mind. "'cause everything with you is seeing, isn't it? Your primary sensory intake that makes your dream live is seeing. Reflections. Mirrors. Images. You've seen these films, haven't you my man?" Are you talking to the audience Mr. Graham?
  4. Die Hard (1988), dir. John McTiernan. Rewatch (of course). Watched on a whim after finding Ame & Gura's watch-a-long video on youtube. Still good, still like it. Better written than I remember.
  5. My Dinner With Andre (1981), dir. Louis Malle. Rewatch. Found on youtube. See this toot.

June

  1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991), dir. Jonathan Demme. Rewatch. I'm always surprised how complex this is. Layered. I recognize how bad some of the choices are here re: Buffalo Bill but I love the movie anyway.
  2. The Peripheral (2022) eps 7 & 8. I'm conflicted. This is a way more normal TV show than what I was hoping for, what I was expecting. It's a lot of people punching, shooting, stabbing, etc. . It's... fine, good even, but not what I wanted in a Gibson adaptation in 2022. I think I'd enjoy it a lot more on a second watch. Having said all of that I really need to re-read the book.

May

  1. John Wick (2014), dir. Chad Stahelski. Rewatch. I noticed more care & attention to detail in the script and writing this time, humor and foreshadowing I hadn't caught before. Delivers handsomely on the promise of Wick violently avenging his dog. Having said that I'm a little tired of some of the cliches on offer here, even some of the worldbuilding. Love the casting, particularly the smaller roles (Ian McShane! Daniel Bernhardt!). I should watch the sequels some time.
  2. Sorceress (1982), dir. Jack Hill. A Roger Corman produced swords & sorcery movie. Low budget (as you might expect). Goofy. '80s fantasy vibes, think Deathstalker and the like. Watched while reading a bunch of FTEQW-related source code. Watching because Twitch Of The Death Nerve recently talked about swords & sorcery films.

March

  1. Strip Club DJ's (2003), dir. Derrick Beckles. Documentary about strip club DJs (as the title implies). Hell vibes. I've run into people who do this kind of work and it's always sounded tough to me. Gnarly. Watched a pretty bad rip of a VHS tape on youtube.
  2. Psychic Vision: Jaganrei (1988), dir. Teruyoshi Ishii (and notably written by Chiaki J. Konaka). Wrote a bit about it (way too much actually) in this post to the fediverse.

February

  1. Ghost In The Shell: SAC 2nd Gig (2004), episodes 22-26. This is the good stuff. The Patlabor 2: The Movie stuff (see for example the discussion between Gouda and Batou on the rooftop in episode 22). Politically thorny. There's a lot you could nitpick here, "plotholes" and things that are a little too convenient, but none of it bothers me much. This is the best that made-for-TV Ghost In The Shell gets, I think.
  2. Ghost In The Shell: SAC 2nd Gig (2004), episodes 17-21. One thing I appreciate about season 2 and this run of episodes in particular is that we get to see Section 9 (our protagonists) lose. Those losses build to the end of episode 21 I think, where thru happenstance and planning they get massively outplayed. It's good. And it sets up the end of the series really well.
  3. Ghost In The Shell: SAC 2nd Gig (2004), episodes 5-16. Watched over the last few days. I like that this season feels more grounded, that the world feels more alive. There seem to be significant events happening inbetween the episodes, off camera so to speak. Now maybe that's due to budget or time or some other constraint but I like the effect regardless. Anyway, just a stray thought, these episodes are really good.

January

  1. Ghost In The Shell: SAC 2nd Gig (2004), episodes 1-4. I was right, I do still like the second season way more. Already this feels much more assured, clear, compact, complex than the first season. The political machinations remind me of the second Patlabor movie. I read somewhere that Oshii had some involvement with this season, I wonder how much. There are a few neat correlations between the first four episodes of this season and the first season, the one that comes to mind immediately is the Breathless-referencing episode in S1 and the Taxi Driver episode in S2. Both good episodes IMO. Whenever I rewatch these again I should do episode-by-episode writeups.
  2. Ghost In The Shell: SAC (2002), episodes 9-26. Watched over the last few days. It's been close to ten years since I last saw SAC, during which time I read the comic (1 and 1.5 in the hardcover editions published by Kadokawa). Finishing this first season confirmed my earlier suspicion that yeah this does feel more like the comic and feels cartoon-y in general. It's good and a lot of it still affects me the same way it did before (rest in peace Tachikomas) but I find the balance and focus of the '95 film way more interesting. Next up: the second season, 2nd Gig.
  3. Ghost In The Shell: SAC (2002), episodes 5-8. I don't know why I've never asked the question, but: this is a superhero team, right? If not literally then it might as well be. Anyway the overarching story kicks off with eps 4-6; I remember most of it, but not all.
  4. Ghost In The Shell: SAC (2002), episodes 1-4. Starting a rewatch. Have a lot of thoughts about the show, not sure how much I'll relay here. As an adaptation I think this is closer to the comics than Oshii's films; I prefer those films (1995 & 2004). Motoko's outfit is pretty silly.