2025 Movie Log in Review

Happy New Year! As is traditional, I start the new year off with a review of all the movies I watched in the previous year. Often these are movies I have seen before, especially seasonal family favorites that we return to every year, but you'll also find the list sprinkled with new releases, classics I watched for the first time this year, and lots of movies from the last few decades that I decided to revisit. I keep the log in a notebook throughout the year so that I can keep track of what I watched and when, and I now have a complete list going all the way back to 2010. I know there are lots of websites people use to track their film viewing, but I enjoy the old-school method of keeping a physical journal. This year the annual report has been delayed due to travel, weather, and family obligations in January, but here's the log report for 2025!

 

January (11)

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most  Foul (2024)

The Major and the Minor (1942)

The Princess Comes Across (1936)

 The Flame of New Orleans (1941)

Wicked Little Letters (2023)*

Mean Girls (20204)*

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)*

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)*

Rope (1948)

Saturday Night (2024)

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

* all watched on planes to and from London

 

February (10)

Girl Haunts Boy (2024)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)

Down with Love (2003)

Captains Courageous (1937)

The Fall Guy (2024)

Miss Congeniality (2000)

Deathtrap (1982)

The Nice Guys (2016)

Torch Singer (1933)

 

March (9)

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Ed Wood (1994)

Them! (1954)

Shockproof (1949)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

Supernatural (1933)

High Spirits (1988)

To Catch a Thief (1955)

Noises Off (1992)

 

April (5)

Woman of the Year (1942)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Smokey & the Bandit (1977)

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Foul (2024) - 2nd watch this year

Alias Nick Beal (1949)

 

May (5)

Thunderbolts (2025)

The Big Clock (1948)

Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)

Adam's Rib (1949)

Ordeal by Innocence (1985)

 

June (3) 

Dial M for Murder (1954)

Love Hurts (2025)

Addams Family Values (1993)

 

July (10)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)

Jaws (1965)

Jaws 2 (1978)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Superman (2025)

Rear Window (1954)

Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Star Trek: Section 31 (2025)

 

August (16)

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Psycho Beach Party (2000)

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

To Catch a Thief (1955) - 2nd watch this year

Desperate Journey (1942)

Mystery Street (1950)

House by the River (1950)

You Never Can Tell (1951)

The Wasp Woman (1959)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

America's Sweethearts (2001)

Start Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

Mallrats (1995) - not nearly as funny as I remembered from seeing it in 1995

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

 

September (5)

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

Village of the Damned (1960)

Mad Love (1935)

Bugsy Malone (1976)

The Thursday Murder Club (2025) - great cast but the books are much better

 

October (15)

Hold Your Man (1933)

Back to the Future (1985)*

Back to the Future II (1989)*

Back to the Future III (1990)*

Night Monster (1942)

Operation Mincemeat (2021) - delightful WWII story based on real events

Hangover Square (1945)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Timestalker (2024) - very weird but fascinating indie British comedy

Murder, He Says (1945)

The Fog (1980)

Christine (1983)

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters (2024)

KPop Demon Hunters (2025)

*We saw the stage musical of BTTF and rewatched the trilogy as a result

 

November (8)

The Mummy (1932)

Isn't It Romantic (2019) - a meta rom com about rom com tropes

The Wrong Paris (2025) - surprisingly hilarious rom com about reality dating shows

 Baby Face (1933)

The Ladykillers (1955)

Zero Effect (1988) - still a brilliant revision of the Holmes/Watson/Adler dynamic

The Decoy Bride (2011)

Just Like a Christmas Movie (2023) - more meta rom com but very low budget

 

December (9)

Oceans Eight (2018)

Jingle Bell Heist (2025)

Queen Christina (1933)

Wake Up Dead Man (2025)

The Thin Man (1934)

White Christmas (1954)*

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)*

Die Hard (1988)*

Scrooged  (1987)*

*Every year or it's not Christmas!

 

This year's total was 106 movies. I saw very few new releases in the theater (true since Covid started in 2020), and all 3 were summer blockbusters. I watched a lot of movies on the Criterion Channel and streamed some on Netflix or Kanopy, while the rest were from my physical media collection. I've been making more time to read in 2025 and hopefully 2026, as well, which reduces my movie viewing time but has helped me reclaim my attention span and ability to focus after Covid and the general state of things wrecked my mental health. If you make any New Year's resolutions, making time for the things that bring you joy is always a good one!

50 Favorite Films from the 21st Century

The recent list of 100 best films of the 21st century in The New York Times inspired me to think about my own list of favorite movies since the year 2000, even though I think 2025 is much too early to begin talking about the best movies of a whole century. Classic movie fans know that today's critical darling can fade into obscurity after a decade or two, even if it took home an armful of awards, while an overlooked flop can become a beloved staple. The NYT list was compiled with the input of some 500 film professionals, but my list of 50 favorite films is purely personal. My list is not meant to be analytical or in any way objective, and I knew when I read the NYT list that there would be little crossover between our picks. If, however, you're looking for some newer movies to watch that aren't already being touted to you by every major publication as "the best," then my picks might be able to help. 

When making my list, I asked myself these questions: 

1) Have I watched the movie more than once? (I keep a log of every movie I have watched since 2010)

2) Did I love it enough to buy a physical copy? 

3) When I think about the movie, what do I really remember about it and how I felt when I saw it? 

4) How often do I quote the movie? Has it become part of my family's shared language? 

Some additional context will also explain - if not justify - my choices. I became a parent in 2001, so I've spent most of this century raising a child while also working both part and full-time, meaning that I saw a LOT of family films and not nearly as many grown-up movies for much of this period, especially when it came to seeing movies in actual theaters. My personal tastes run to indie films (especially from the UK), musicals, smart comedies (but NOT raunchy ones), romantic comedies if they're clever about it, and horror comedies that aren't too graphic or gruesome. I love sci-fi, superhero, and comic book movies, but I don't want them to be joyless or grim because I already get my daily dose of despair from reading the news. Rather than ranking my choices, which I would find absolutely impossible, I'm presenting them in chronological order, so we can stroll through the first 25 years of this cinematic century together. Asterisks indicate my top ten personal favorites from this list!

 

1 O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) *

2 Chicken Run (2000)

3 The Emperor's New Groove (2000) *

4 The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003) *

5 Spirited Away (2001)

6 Love Actually (2003)

7 Down with Love (2003)

8 Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

9 Hellboy (2004) 

10 Shaun of the Dead (2004)

11 Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)

12 Corpse Bride (2005)

13 Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) 

14 Fido (2006)

15 Hot Fuzz (2007) *

16 Mamma Mia! (2008)

17 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)

18 True Grit (2010) 

 

19 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) *

20 The Shape of Water (2011)

21 Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) *

22 Warm Bodies (2013)

23 Iron Man 3 (2013)

24 What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

25 Chef (2014)

26 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

27 Hail, Caesar! (2016)

28 The Nice Guys (2016)

29 Hunt for the Wildepeople (2016)

30 Star Trek Beyond (2016)

31 Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

32 Kong: Skull Island (2017)

33 Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

34 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

35 Little Women (2019)

36 Knives Out (2019)

37 Rocketman (2019)

38 Emma (2020)

39 Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

40 Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

41 Werewolves Within (2021)

42 Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)

43 Glass Onion (2022) *

44 Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) *

45 A Haunting in Venice (2023)

46 Barbie (2023)

47 Hundreds of Beavers (2023) *

48 Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)

49 The Fall Guy (2024)

50 Superman (2025) *

 

2024 Movie Log in Review

It's time for my annual look back at the previous year's movie viewing! 2024 was another busy year for my family, and as usual my movie viewing was dependent on other people's schedules and preferences. My list for 2024 therefore represents a mix of old and newer movies, some chosen by the other members of the household. Many of these are films I have seen before, but I did manage to see some new-to-me pictures throughout the year, too.

Since the pandemic, my in-theater movie viewing has become almost non-existent, partly due to the closure of my favorite local theater but also because of ticket prices, audience misbehavior, and the long run times of modern movies with all of their attached ads and trailers. I don't live in a city with a real film culture or an indie theater/museum that shows a lot of classic films, so I watch most of those movies at home anyway, and these days I'm also watching newer movies from the comfort of my living room couch. Almost all of the movies in this year's list were either seen at home or shown by me to my lifetime learners and retirement community group. Thanks to my subscription to the Criterion Channel, I have access to some interesting new-to-me classics every month, but I've also leaned into physical media this year to expand my personal collection of films I want to continue to enjoy. I'll post later about the DVDs and Blu-rays I've recently added to my stash.

Here's the complete list of films viewed for 2024, with links to my relevant posts from this year on this blog and over at Classic Movie Hub.

January

Escape from New York (1981)

The Shadow of the Cat (1961)

The Cat Creeps (1946)

The Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)

The Pirate (1948)

Dumplin' (2018)

Nimona (2023)

Cat's Eye (1985)

Work It (2020)

Jezebel (1938)

We Have a Ghost (2023)

Burlesque (2010)

Lift (2023)

February

The Seventh Veil (1945)

My Name is Julia Ross (1945)

When Strangers Marry (1944)

Plus One (2019)

Heaven Can Wait (1943)

Dark Victory (1939)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Mad Love (1935)

Defending Your Life (1991)

The Frighteners (1996)

Hundreds of Beavers (2023)

March

Dodge City (1939)

Annie (1982)

Falling for Figaro (2020)

Damsel (2024)

The Ghost Goes West (1935)

Godzilla (2014)

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

Damn Yankees (1958)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

April

Lured (1947)

Three Godfathers (1948)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Born to Be Bad (1950)

Hundreds of Beavers (2023) 2nd time this year

Them! (1954)

May 

Vera Cruz (1954)

What a Way to Go! (1964)

Three Amigos (1986)

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

The Fall Guy (2024)

Laura (1944)

June

Noises Off (1992)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

The Ladykillers (1955)

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Born Yesterday (1950)

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

July

Phffft (1954)

Jaws (1975)

Out of Sight (1998)

State and Main (2000)

You Can't Take It with You (1938)

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

Artists and Models (1955)

The Big Sleep (1978)

August

Dangerous Crossing (1953)

Brighton Rock (1948)

The Last of Sheila (1973)

Inferno (1953)

Desert Fury (1947)

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)

Kansas City Confidential (1952)

His Kind of Woman (1951)

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Blithe Spirit (1945)

Con Air (1997)

Hope Floats (1998)

Brats (2024)

Twisters (2024)

September 

My Cousin Vinny (1992)

The Awful Truth (1937)

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Spirit Halloween (2022)

Muppet Treasure Island (1996)

Frankenweenie (1984)

October

Frankenstein (1931)

My Favorite Wife (1940)

Christine (1983)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

House of the Long Shadows (1983)

Viy (1967)

Fido (2006)

I Married a Witch (1942)

Addams Family Values (1993)

Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)

The Monster Squad (1987)

November

Notorious (1946)

Ghost Rider (2007)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

This Gun for Hire (1942)

Year without a Santa Claus (1974)

Muppets Christmas Carol (1992)

Scrooged (1988)

December

White Christmas (1955)

Anything Goes (1936)

On Dangerous Ground (1951)

Inside Out 2 (2024)

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Die Hard (1988)

It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)

Scrooged (1988) 2nd time this year

The Avengers (2012)

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Hit Man (2024) 

 

Total for 2024: 111

Annoyingly, my total for 2024 is 19 fewer than I watched in 2023, with several months where I only got to watch 6 movies (April, May, and June). In my defense, I was spending a lot of time in early 2024 finishing up Space, the Feminist Frontier: Essays on Sex and and Gender in Star Trek, and I was also finishing another novel manuscript that I will have to figure out what to do with in 2025. 

Happy New Year to all the classic movie fans and film fanatics! I hope your 2025 will be full of great movies and good fortune.

Modern Movies: HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS (2022)

I often tell people that I love "weird movies," and Hundreds of Beavers (2022) is definitely one of the weirdest, wackiest, and most purely delightful movies I have seen in a long time. This festival darling from Mike Cheslik (writer and director) and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews (writer and star) puts silent comedy, Looney Tunes cartoons, and modern video games into a blender to create an absurdist masterpiece with gags flying by at a breakneck pace for the entire 108 minute run of the picture. If you have the opportunity to see Hundreds of Beavers in a theater, you should skip this review and hurry out the door, but for those who - like me - have to make elaborate travel plans to see indie festival flicks, here's my review to encourage you to book the hotel and gas up the car (or at least make sure you track this one down when it hits streaming or physical media release).

Ryland Brickson Cole Tews plays the hapless Jean Kayak, whose boozy good times making and selling applejack abruptly end when beavers destroy his business. Forced to survive in the relentlessly cold winter, Jean learns by painful trial and error to hunt the beavers and other local critters (all played by actors in cartoonish costumes). He's encouraged in his efforts by an old Master Trapper (Wes Tank) and the attractive furrier (Olivia Graves), but as it turns out the beavers have much more grandiose plans than general mischief against the local humans.

There's so much going on in addition to this basic narrative that it's hard to know where to start, but try to imagine Tex Avery directing Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) with Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton in the starring role and you might begin to get the idea. The movie owes a lot to silent comedy, with many scenes evoking The Gold Rush (1925) thanks to the setting but also Modern Times (1936) and any of the Keystone Cops pictures. There are sight gags and stunts Keaton would love, especially the more meta examples like the holes that dot the landscape or the elaborate Rube Goldberg traps Jean builds. Watching the movie is often like watching someone play a puzzle game (I found myself especially thinking of the 1996 classic, The Neverhood), and the video game vibe is enhanced by action scenes that recall Frogger, Donkey Kong, and other iconic games as well as the intentionally flat and artificial backgrounds against which these scenes occur.

As funny as Cheslik and the other actors are in the human roles - and they are very funny, indeed - the "animals" in the movie are absolutely uproarious, and presenting the story this way is a brilliant stroke that effectively separates us from any expectation of a moral. I won't spoil the dozens of hilarious bits, but a few of my favorites include the two detective beavers, the melodramatic story of the rabbit family, the poker playing sled dogs, and the horse. There are also several delightful puppets to represent smaller animals, including a frog, some fish, and a very annoying woodpecker. Whenever you think the movie has surely reached peak absurdity, it raises the ante again, much to the whooping delight of the audience with whom I saw it. Because it's so maniacally silly, older children will almost certainly love it, but I should add that there's a brief pole dancing scene, a fair bit of sexual innuendo and imagery, and a lot of scatological humor, in addition to non-stop cartoon violence. It's all in service to the comedy, but it's important to consider your own tolerance or that of your children before taking anyone under 12 to see it. There was at least one kid who was about 10 in our small audience, and I could hear him laughing even louder than the adults throughout the movie.

If you want to learn more about Hundreds of Beavers or find the nearest theater screening, head over to the official website. A Blu-ray release is planned for Summer 2024, and the movie will stream on Fandor starting in the spring. I will definitely be buying a copy of the movie so that I can see it again and force all of my friends to watch it.

2023 Movie Log in Review

Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2024 brings you good moments and many great movies. It's time again to look back at the last year of my movie viewing and make the final tally of films watched. My classic movie choices for 2023 were heavily affected by the many great collections on the Criterion Channel last year, and I'm looking forward to another year of old favorites and new discoveries there. Most of the other streaming services continue to be useless for classic films, but I watched quite a few new movies on them. Visits to the theater continue to be low compared to pre-pandemic numbers; we saw a few new releases on the big screen this year - including super hit Barbie - but in general it just wasn't worth the cost and hassle, especially after we were accosted by a drunk/high and very noisy audience member at Dungeons and Dragons. Much of my energy in 2023 went to work on a forthcoming anthology of feminist essays about Star Trek, so I spent a lot of time rewatching episodes and films from that iconic franchise (more about that later!). 

Here's the monthly breakdown for every movie I watched at home or elsewhere in 2023.

January

The Woman on the Beach (1947)

Francis (1950)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

The Nice Guys (2016)

Love is News (1937)

Honor Society (2023)

Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

Big Brown Eyes (1936)

The Pale Blue Eye (2023)

Dead of Night (1945)

Goldeneye (1995)

February

The Unknown (1927)

Pillow Talk (1959)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Harvey (1950)

The Suspect (1944)

The World is Not Enough (1999)

Rosaline (2022)

The Sound of 007 (2022)

Lover Come Back (1961)

Phantom Lady (1944)

A View to a Kill (1985)

Send Me No Flowers (1964)

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

The Queen of Spades (1949)

March

Dancing Lady (1933)

The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)

The Princess Bride (1987)

42nd Street (1933)

The Heroic Trio (1993)

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)

Antman: Quantumania (2023)

Clue (1985)

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)

Thunder on the Hill (1951)

Prom Pact (2023)

April

Sky High (2005)

The Importance of Being Earnest (1951)

A Woman's Face (1941)

Grease 2 (1982)

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Magic (1978)

 

May  (my kid graduated from college and we had a big family trip to the UK!)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

The Damned Don't Cry (1950)

 

June

The Lost King (2023)

What's Love Go to Do With It? (2022)

For Me and My Gal (1942)

Monkey Business (1952)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

 

July

Polite Society (2023)

The Seven Year Itch (1955)

The Mad Miss Manton (1938)

On the Town (1949)

The Woman in Question (1950)

 

August

Haunted Mansion (2023)

Barbie (2023)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Asteroid City (2023)

Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Ladies in Retirement (1941)

Brigadoon (1954)

 

September 

Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980)

Mr. Vampire (1985)

Mr. Vampire II (1986)

Mr. Vampire III (1987)

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Jane Eyre (1943)

Mr. Vampire IV (1988)

MST3K: Beyond Atlantis (1973) - live at the Center for Puppetry Arts

Ivy (1947)

Moss Rose (1947)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2023)

Blanche Fury (1948)

Elemental (2023)

3000 Years of Longing (2022)

 

October

Red, White and Royal Blue (2023)

So Long at the Fair (1950)

Murders in the Zoo (1933)

Doctor X (1932)

Haunted Mansion (2023) - second time this year

The Old Dark House (1933)

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Corridor of Mirrors (1948)

Gaslight (1944)

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Dial M for Murder (1954)

The Monster Squad (1987)

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

So Evil My Love (1947)

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Devotion (1946)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Dead Again (1991)

Freaks (1932)

Madeline (1950)

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Haunted Spooks (1920)

Bewitched (2005)

No Hard Feelings (2023)

Casper (1995)

 

November

The Lodger (1944)

The Quick and the Dead (1995)

Johnny Guitar (1954)

Rancho Notorious (1952)

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

The Marvels (2023)

The House on Telegraph Hill (1951)

High Anxiety (1977)

Dragnet (1987)

Werewolves Within (2021)

The Cheat (1931)

Three on a Match (1932)

 

December

The Spiral Staircase (1946)

Repeat Performance (1947)

Bell, Book and Candle (1958)

The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)

Die Hard (1988)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Hudson Hawk (1991)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Scrooged (1987)

White Christmas (1955)

Chicken Run 2: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)

Love, Actually (2003)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

A Christmas Story (1983)

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Glass Onion (2022)

 

Total for 2023: 130

I watched 23 more movies in 2023 than in 2022, so that's an improvement! As usual, it's an eclectic mix of classics, new releases, family favorites, and weeknight compromises with the spouse.

 

 

2022 Movie Log in Review

Happy New Year! Here's my annual post listing every movie I watched in the previous year. Getting the Criterion Channel rather late in 2022 helped me add more new-to-me classics to my list - it's far and away my favorite streaming service at the moment, and I plan to continue using it in 2023. As always, my list is a wide-ranging collection of classics, favorite hits, and new movies. June and August were busy months for family travel, gardening, and other activities, which meant less time for movies. As always, we closed out the year with the family's holiday favorites.

Total for 2022: 107

January 

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)

Sparrows (1926)

Iron Monkey (1993)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Afterlife of the Party (2021)

Dark City (1998)

The Egg and I (1947)

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Easy A (2010)

Jonah Hex (2010)

Jolt (2021)

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

February

Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

It Happened One Night (1934)

Down with Love (2003)

Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies (2020)

Palm Springs (2020)

March

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

The Haunted Palace (1963)

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Turning Red (2022)

Save Yourselves! (2020)

That Night in Rio (1941)

Midnight (1939)

Death on the Nile (2022)

April

Holiday (1938)

The French Dispatch (2021)

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Turning Red (2022) - Second time

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Cruella (2021)

 

May

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) - Second time

The Lady Eve (1941)

The Lost City (2022)

Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

June

Fire Island (2022)

Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

 

July

Stage Fright (1950)

Bombshell (1933)

The Bad Guys (2022)

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000)

 

August

Lightyear (2022)

The Sea Beast (2022)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

September

Holiday Affair (1949)

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

The Blob (1958)

Star Trek (2009)

Destry Rides Again (1939)

The Mark of Zorro (1920)

Marjorie Prime (2017)

Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)

 

October

Do Revenge (2022)

Angel Face (1952)

Winchester 73 (1950)

The Corpse Vanishes (1942)

Tormented (1960)

The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)

Wolfen (1981)

Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001)

The Raven (1935)

Caught (1949)

The Mummy (1932)

November

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

This Gun for Hire (1942)

The Dark Corner (1946)

Cape Fear (1962)

The Glass Key (1942)

Out of the Fog (1941)

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

The Man from Laramie (1955)

The Divorce of Lady X (1938)

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)

The Bubble (2022)

See How They Run (2022)

The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022)

December

Twentieth Century (1934)

Murder, He Says (1945)

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)

You Never Can Tell (1951)

Pinocchio (GDT version) (2022)

Lady in the Lake (1946)

Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

His Girl Friday (1940)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

White Christmas (1954)

Scrooged (1988)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

Glass Onion (2022)

Knives Out (2019)

Your Christmas or Mine (2022)

The Addams Family (1991)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Easy Living (1937)

Strange World (2022)

The Adam Project (2022)

Bullet Train (2022)

The What-If Alternate Timeline of CRUELLA (2021)

When it first arrived, Disney's 2021 reboot of the various films based on 101 Dalmatians was widely discussed as yet another "prequel" to a well-known Disney property, but in order to appreciate Cruella fully you have to stop thinking about it as a prequel and instead consider it as an alternate timeline narrative similar to the multiverse arcs now at work in the Marvel franchise. This is NOT the story of how the villain of the 1961 animated movie became that character, and it's not the story of the villain from the 1996 live action movie, either. Instead, Emma Stone's version of Cruella is a character with a narrative arc all her own, distinct from those of the other Cruellas but still affected by many of the same elements with alternate versions of the same characters. She's much like the central Loki character played by Tom Hiddleston in the Disney Plus series; she is one of many possible Cruella variants, some of whom are truly villainous and some of whom are dynamic enough to become protagonists in their own right rather than merely antagonists to more conventionally heroic characters. When read this way, Cruella becomes a much more interesting and engaging movie, one that rewrites the iconic villain, sure, but also one that reaches deep into the sources of inspiration that formed the original Disney character.

Fidelity to the 1961 animated classic is already an odd demand, not only because live action versions of that story were already made in the late 90s but because the original Disney movie is itself unfaithful to its source material in several significant ways. Dodie Smith's beloved 1956 children's novel features many characters and scenes that aren't in the Disney film. A third adult Dalmatian (the one actually named Perdita) is removed completely, with a dog originally named Missus assuming her name and erasing her from the story. The novel's Roger is wealthy because he is a "financial wizard" and not a struggling musician, so the family can afford all of their Dalmatians even when they end up with 101 of them (note that the 101st Dalmatian of the novel also isn't in the movie because he's the liver spotted love interest of the original Perdita). The Cruella of the book is more explicitly demonic and even more vicious than the movie version; she is also married to a submissive furrier who enables her obsession with fur coats. The changes don't make the Disney adaptation a bad movie, but they do make it a significantly different story from the novel. The live action versions get farther afield still, making Roger an American video game creator, Anita a fashion designer, and Cruella a fashion house owner and Anita's employer. In fact, the versions are so different (and set in different eras to boot) that the 2021 movie cannot possibly function as a true prequel to any of them.

Tallulah!

Instead, Cruella is its own story, a reinvention of the character that combines her most iconic traits with bits and pieces of the previous versions in order to make her a dynamic protagonist rather than a static villain. The movie does not attempt to make us like or forgive the other Cruellas; we like this new Cruella partly because she isn't them. Our glimpse of her childhood recalls the schoolgirl connection with Anita from the novel, her mannerisms are taken from the 1961 Disney film, and her fashion career is borrowed from the 1996 movie, but she is not simply a younger version of any of these characters. Disney opts to do something different by mining the tradition of the anti-heroine as filtered through one of the most important inspirations for the 1961 Cruella, the legendary actress and all around hellraiser Tallulah Bankhead. The film even signals the affiliation with a clip of Tallulah demonstrating her distinctive, throaty laugh in Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 thriller, Lifeboat. We see it play on a television set in a room with Estella/Cruella early in the story. Bankhead, known for her genius, self-destructive behavior, terrible driving, and theatrical personality, was definitely no saint, but this new version of Cruella has her charisma and charm as well as her less likeable qualities. It's refreshing to see a complicated, difficult, too-much female character be the heroine of her own life without having to be either a traditionally good person or a completely amoral anti-heroine of the Becky Sharp variety.

Because this Cruella is not the same as the previous versions, she can make different choices and develop different values. She loves fashion but isn't specifically obsessed with fur. She has a found family that she mistreats at times but ultimately loves, which includes several dogs. She is even the person who gives Pongo and Perdita to Roger and Anita, which she certainly wouldn't do if she wanted to make Dalmatian fur coats. Near the end of the movie, Cruella says about the Baroness: "The good thing about evil people is that you can always trust them to do something, well, evil." Cruella, despite her name, is not that kind of person, because her Estella side makes her capable of doing good. Currently, a sequel to the movie is in the works, and most fans and critics seem to expect it to launch us into the more familiar dog-napping, coat-making territory of the original story, but I really hope it doesn't go in that direction, because this Cruella deserves better. It's certainly possible that she might become a newer version of the Baroness, the murderous mother whom she deposes in the film, and therefore ruthless enough to become a full-blown villain, but it would be much more satisfying to see her continue to make bold new choices for herself, to continue to be the future she embodies in Cruella and not the past that she sees as the Baroness. To rope this Cruella back into the framework of the original story would be a grave disservice to her and to viewers who fell for her eccentric, outlandish personality.

I've watched Cruella a couple of times now, and while I have concerns about Disney's persistent efforts to strip mine its own properties, I think this movie is one of the best live action treatments of a classic Disney story and far more interesting and fun than the previous attempts to cash in on the Dalmatians' popularity, largely because it isn't about the dogs. It's fun, it's visually engaging, it features terrific performances from Stone and Emma Thompson, and it offers us a Disney "heroine" who is very different from the usual crowd of princesses and whose transgressive modernity is part of her appeal. I don't care that it isn't actually a prequel to 101 Dalmatians; that's why it works. This Cruella might well be brilliant and bad and a little bit mad, but she's more 70s counterculture rock goddess than maniacal puppy murderer, and I'd like to see any additional films about her continue to give her the freedom to be her own version of herself.

 

2021 Movie Log in Review

It's that time again, when I post my my movie log in review for the previous year and reflect on another year's worth of movie watching. 2021 continued to be dominated by the pandemic, which affected my movie viewing in several ways. I saw exactly one new release in an actual theater in 2021, and that was the disappointing Marvel offering, The Eternals. Alabama has done almost nothing to curb Covid cases, and theaters just haven't felt safe or worth the risk. Vaccinations did allow me to return to my lifetime learners and retirement community residents for film programs in the summer and fall, and I really enjoyed being with them again. With my family still at home for much of the year, newer movies remained a more popular group choice in the evenings, and I had less time to squeeze in classics that I hadn't seen before. We also watched a lot of British murder mysteries and Disney+ TV series.

Here's the list for 2021 - let's hope that we'll eventually see some normalcy again in 2022!

January (15)

The Return of the King (2003)

The Enchanted Cottage (1945)

Valley Girl (2020)

Dragonslayer (1981)

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003)

The New Mutants (2020)

Fisherman's Friends (2019)

Judy (2019)

Never Too Late (2020)

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

Max Reload and the Nether Blasters (2020)

Evil Under the Sun (1981)

The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

House (1977)

The History of Future Folk (2012)

 
February (9)

Yojimbo (1961)

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

The Flesh and the Fiends (1960)

Space Sweepers (2020)

Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997)

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)

Cast a Deadly Spell (1991)

Gotham by Gaslight (2018)

Justice League Dark: Apokalips War (2020)

 

March (2)

Legally Blonde (2001)

Stagecoach (1939)

 

April (6)

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

The Gay Divorcee (1934)

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

Mystery Men (1999)

Dark Shadows (2012)

The Reluctant Debutante (1958)

 

May (7)

Scooby Doo (2002)

In the Good Old Summertime (1949)

Summer Stock (1950)

The Harvey Girls (1946)

Separate Tables (1958)

Rachel and the Stranger (1948)

Bathing Beauty (1944)

 

June (11)

Streets of Fire (1984)

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

42nd Street (1933)

The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)

Dangerous When Wet (1953)

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

In the Heights (2021)

Luca (2021)

Suicide Squad (2018)

Roxanne (1987)

Hidalgo (2004)

 

July (16)

Demolition Man (1993)

The Mummy (1999)

Black Widow (2021)

The Avengers (2012)

Pygmalion (1938)

My Fair Lady (1964)

Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)

She's All That (1999)

Victor/Victoria (1982)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

The Opposite Sex (1956)

Miss Congeniality (2000)

Ocean's 8 (2018)

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Jungle Cruise (2021)

The Truman Show (1994)

 

August (7)

Ivanhoe (1954)

The Birdcage (1996)

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2020)

The Green Knight (2021)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park II: The Lost World (1997)

Cruella (2021)

 

September (4)

Cinderella (2021)

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

The 39 Steps (1935)

The Haunting (1963)

 

October (11)

They Drive by Night (1940)

Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

The Duff (2015)

The Haunted Hotel (2021)

Death on the Nile (2004)

Good News (1947)

House on Haunted Hill (1959) - Again!

Carnival of Souls (1963)

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

Monster House (2006)

Horror of Dracula (1958)

 

November (7)

The Sparks Brothers (2020)

To Have and Have Not (1944)

Free Guy (2021)

The Harder They Fall (2021)

The Eternals (2021)

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) - 2x this month

December (16)

Love Hard (2021)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Single All the Way (2021)

Mixtape (2021)

My Man Godfrey (1936)

A Castle for Christmas (2021)

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Encanto (2021)

Scrooged (1988)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Gremlins (1984)

Gremlins II (1990)

Love and Monsters (2020)

White Christmas (1954) 

Total film count for 2021: 111

Five Favorite Films: Marvel Movies

Recently I've seen both of the newest MCU movies, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and The Eternals (2021), and that inspired me to reflect on the MCU pictures as a group and my favorites among them. There are already more than 25 movies to choose from, not including the Disney Plus television series or the many upcoming releases slated for the next year, so there's a lot to consider when trying to pick just five favorites. My list isn't based on box office returns, critical reviews, or other fans' priorities; it's my top picks for the Marvel movies I enjoy watching the most and revisit the most frequently. Here are my five favorite films (so far!) from the MCU.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

As a classic movie fan I'm a sucker for the 1940s setting of this first Captain America adventure, but it's the heart of this picture that brings me back again and again. Chris Evans is perfectly cast as an old-fashioned good guy with a steady moral compass, and I simply adore Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter (I'm still bitter about the cancellation of Agent Carter). Sebastian Stan begins a long but engrossing character arc as Steve's friend, Bucky, and it's refreshing to go back to this first outing and see him before his dark period in the Winter Soldier role.

Ant-Man (2015)

Even though Edgar Wright left the project and was replaced by Peyton Reed as the director, Wright's distinctive sense of humor is still readily apparent in this smaller scale Marvel hero origin story. The zippy comedy, heist movie tropes, and casting all make this one a hit for me, and I also love its soft center theme of fathers who love their daughters. Paul Rudd, recently crowned the 2021 Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine, deserves a lot of credit for merging the comedic and dramatic demands of his role as Scott Lang. The supporting cast of loser ex-con buddies is so much fun that it's great to see them reunited in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), and I hope we'll see them again in the upcoming Quantumania sequel.

Doctor Strange (2016)

Here's another pick that has a lot to do with my personal preferences as a fan; I love the supernatural side of both DC and Marvel comics, and I really enjoy Benedict Cumberbatch's work in general, so Cumberbatch joining the MCU as the Sorcerer Supreme is a real treat. The What If...? Disney Plus series has shown us that Stephen Strange's journey could have taken a much darker route, but in the main timeline story we see him develop as a character and overcome his hubris, despair, and frustration. Benedict Wong is a scene stealer as Wong, and I really enjoyed seeing him return for Shang-Chi. I also appreciate the fact that Dr. Strange saves the day not by fighting and punching but basically by annoying his opponent until Dormammu finally gives up. In a universe full of muscle gods, a hero who thinks his way through a problem deserves special attention.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Speaking of muscle gods, here's Chris Hemsworth back in the fray as Thor in the third and by far the best of the Thor stories to date. A hilarious script and direction by the brilliant Taika Waititi make all the difference in this picture, although it also has a fantastic cast, great action scenes, moments of grand dramatic gravitas, and some truly inspired use of Led Zeppelin. Jeff Goldblum runs away with his scenes, giving regular scene stealer Tom Hiddleston a run for his money, and Tessa Thompson is brilliant as Valkyrie. Cate Blanchett radiates gleeful malevolence as Hela, an Asgardian so dangerous and twisted she makes Loki look like a saint. If I were ranking these five films by preference rather than release date, Thor: Ragnarok would be my top pick. It's just that much fun.

Black Panther (2018)

It's not just respect for the tragically short career of Chadwick Boseman that makes me include this movie in my five favorites; it's a gorgeous, riveting action picture with a fabulous cast and a fascinating glimpse of Afrofuturism that sets it apart from all of the earlier Marvel movies. Boseman is pitch perfect as T'Challa, but the movie provides such good roles for women, too, especially Danai Gurira as Okoye and Letitia Wright as Shuri. The MCU has come a long way from Black Widow as the only girl in the boys' club, but Black Panther does a particularly good job of showcasing different female characters, with different talents, attitudes, and relationships, and even though I will miss T'Challa I'm excited to see where Wakanda Forever will take the remaining characters.

Final note: 

I thoroughly enjoyed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and it might well displace one of these older movies in my top five over the next few months, but it's too early to say how many times I'll feel drawn to rewatch it. 2022 will bring us a lot of sequels featuring heroes we've already met, so we'll see if those stories can beat the appeal of the previous installments!

A Tallulah Tribute in CRUELLA (2021)

We finally got to watch Disney's latest entry in the live action treatments of 101 Dalmatians characters, which this time moves the focus off the dogs entirely and charts the early misadventures of its title anti-heroine, Cruella de Vil. Early reviews of Cruella (2021) were mixed enough that we chose not to pay for Premiere Access and instead waited for the movie to drop to regular subscriber streaming, but I thought it was a fun romp with a lot going for it in spite of some flaws. For fashion nerds and Emma Stone/Emma Thompson fans there's a lot to love, although it's certainly far afield from the original 1961 Disney movie, which was itself notably different from the 1956 novel by Dodie Smith. 

One small detail that endeared the movie's creators to me is the inclusion of a quick but much appreciated tribute to Huntsville native and stage legend Tallulah Bankhead, whose throaty laugh, mannerisms, and infamous London driving inspired the Disney animators who first brought Cruella to life on screen. In an early scene in Cruella, the young Estella is in a room where Tallulah appears on a small television screen, her head thrown back as she delivers her deliciously raucous laugh. The scene on the television comes from Tallulah's most memorable film, Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944), in which Tallulah stars as a reporter trapped on a small vessel with other survivors of a German U-boat attack. It's the best place for modern viewers to see the legendary star in action, although she also made memorable appearances in Stage Door Canteen (1943), A Royal Scandal (1945), and the 1960s Batman TV series.

The Cruella of the 1961 Disney film is an absolute villain who schemes to make fur coats out of puppies, but the Cruella embodied by Emma Stone is perhaps more like Tallulah herself, a complicated, flawed, sometimes bad and sometimes mad woman riding a tidal wave of misadventures through an unconventional but always interesting life. In fact, a biopic about Tallulah Bankhead would make an amazing movie and probably present an Oscar opportunity for the actress able to play her. Until some studio decides to make that movie, or adapt one of several stage plays about her life, Cruella is as close as we're going to get. 

For more about Tallulah Bankhead:

"Tallulah Bankhead's Huntsville Roots: Maple Hill Cemetery"

"Southern Voices on the Silver Screen"

2020 Movie Log in Review

As we all know, 2020 was a year unlike any other. With the pandemic raging and constant political crises unfolding, we needed movies to comfort us more than ever but couldn't leave the house to enjoy them. My 2020 movie log reflects the fact that I usually had company on the couch and that our collective tastes leaned toward movies that took our minds off the overwhelming problems of the day. With that in mind, here's the log for 2020.

 

January 

The Black Cauldron (1985)

But I'm a Cheerleader! (1999)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2017)

Troop Zero (2019)

MIB International (2019)

Blinded by the Light (2019)

Master of Dark Shadows (2019)

Payment on Demand (1951)

The Strawberry Blonde (1941)

Old Acquaintance (1943)

February

Big Business (1988)

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

The Spiral Staircase (1946)

The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)

Night of the Comet (1984)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

To All the Boys: PS I Still Love You (2020)

Birds of Prey (2020)

The Fog (1980)

Shaun the Sheep: Farmaggedon (2019)

Tremors (1990)

March

Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Casablanca (1942)

Onward (2020)

Galaxy Quest (1999)

Tremors (1990) - yes, again

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

The Mask of Zorro (1998)

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2020)

April

Smoke Signals (1998)

Jaws (1975)

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

The More the Merrier (1943)

Willow (1988)

Rashomon (1950)

The Women (1939)

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

May

The Half of It (2020)

Tangled (2010)

Star Trek Nemesis (2002)

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Star Trek: Generations (1994)

Escape from New York (1981)

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Emma (2020)

Soap Dish (1991)

June

Rocketman (2019)

The Vast of Night (2019)

Batman Forever (1995)

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Heartbreakers (2001)

Marty (1955)

July 

Knives Out (2019)

The Haunted Mansion (2003)

The Invisible Man (1933)

Hamilton (2020)

Clash of the Titans (1981)

Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

The Creeping Flesh (1973)

Madam Satan (1930)

Mortal Kombat (1995)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

The Avengers (2012)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic World (2015)

August

Extra Ordinary (2020)

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Feel the Beat (2020)

Steel Magnolias (1989)

Jumanji: The Next Level (2020)

Emo - The Musical (2016)

Bill and Ted Face the Music (2020)

September

Countess Dracula (1971)

Twins of Evil (1971)

Stage Mother (2020)

Wonder Man (1945)

The Sons of Tennessee Williams (2010)

Fade to Black (1980)

Poltergeist (1982)

Disclosure (2020)

Valley Girl (1983)

Suburban Gothic (2014)

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

October

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Paris is Burning (1990)

Theater of Blood (1973)

The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)

The Monster Club (1981)

Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020)

Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989)

The Addams Family (2019)

The Selling (2011)

How to Survive a Plague (2012)

The Petrified Forest (1936)

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

The Red House (1947)

Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)

Paranorman (2012)

The Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting (2020)

November

Now, Voyager (1942)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

The Late Edwina Black (1951)

Holidate (2020)

Sabrina (1954)

Hello, Dolly! (1969)

That Touch of Mink (1962)

Return of the Jedi (1983)

White Christmas (1954)

 

December

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Jingle Jangle (2020)

Barbarella (1968)

Rogue One (2016)

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Mank (2020)

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)

A Christmas Carol (1938)

The Prom (2020)

Scrooged (1988)

Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020)

A Christmas Story (1983)

Die Hard (1988)

Soul (2020)

The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

The Two Towers (2002)

(And the first movie of 2021 was, of course, The Return of the King!)

Total movies watched in 2020: 128

Side note on 2020 viewing: We also watched all four seasons of Star Wars: Rebels this year, which was time well spent. Other TV series for 2020 included Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, The Mandalorian, Bridgerton, and the British comedy/quiz series, QI, which became a favorite bedtime show for the whole family.

Following Along with Film and Narrative

I haven't posted a classic movie review here in several weeks because the pandemic means that my movie watching is more a group activity than my choice alone. Normally I have Monday nights to myself to watch old movies and weeks together when the spouse is away on work travel, but right now we're all at home and trying to make the most of family time! That means a lot of more recent movies that appeal to the spouse and kid and fewer films that make good blog posts for Virtual Virago. We are, however, watching movies together, especially because one of the kid's classes this term is Film and Narrative, with a different movie assignment each week. Watching a college student work through someone else's course has been really interesting to me as a former college professor, and I've enjoyed - but sometimes really questioned - the choices for this film course.

We've watched Hot Fuzz (2007), Smoke Signals (1998), Jaws (1975), Rashomon (1950), and Edge of Tomorrow (2014) together as part of the kid's film course, with the last one being the only odd choice of that lot. Sure, it's got the whole non-linear, time looping story line set against a sci-fi version of the Normandy invasion, but it's still a Tom Cruise movie and not the most original or provocative example one might have chosen. The spouse and I had seen all of these films before, of course, but they were all new to the kid, who really liked Smoke Signals and Jaws but was wishing the syllabus had more comedy to balance to out the drama and action.

The professor had the students pick a final film on their own, preferably something outside their "comfort zone," and the kid asked me to suggest some comedies for the assignment. Off to the DVD closet we went! We ended up watching The Women (1939), which was a huge hit thanks to the gleefully awful performances of Rosalind Russell and Joan Crawford. It definitely provided something different from the films on the syllabus, and it gave the kid plenty to write about for the assignment. Sadly, we're now at the end of the semester, so we don't have any more movies to watch for the course.

Following along with the kid's film class got me thinking about what movies I would put on a syllabus for a similar course. This happens to be the second college film and narrative class the kid has taken; the first was as a dual enrollment student at the local university. The first class provided the students with a list to choose from for each unit, which I think worked better and created a lot more opportunity to delve into different interests, while this second class only had the one open option and all the rest assigned (which they normally watched in class as a group). I wonder if a film and narrative class works better if it sticks to a theme as opposed to being a little of this and a little of that, all over the cinematic map, but I realize it's an introductory level course and not a special topics section.

The kid's most recent class watched:

The Cameraman (1928)
 Cat People (1942)
 Batman Returns (1992)
Hero (2002)
The Way Way Back (2013)
Creed (2015)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Smoke Signals (1998)
Jaws (1975)
Rashomon (1950)
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
(WALL-E from 2008 was also on the original syllabus but got dropped due to the pandemic closing campus and sending students home.)

Most of this list is pretty good, really, but I would definitely make some changes. For one thing, I'd like to see a little better representation of women as protagonists here, not just supporting characters. There are obvious boxes being checked in terms of minority and international representation, but some of those choices could be better (why come in with Creed for a bunch of kids who probably haven't seen any of the earlier Rocky films?). Here are the substitutions I might make:

Batman Returns (1992) - Change to Blade (1998) because it's not a sequel, features a black comic book hero with a great female lead, too, and taps into the enduring interest in vampires

The Way Way Back (2013) - Change to The Breakfast Club (1985) because I feel like John Hughes needs to be in here somewhere and the ensemble cast gives lots of teen types to explore. I also don't love having really recent movies in the mix because 1) kids are more likely to have seen them anyway and 2) they need more time to shake out into "important" and not so much.

Creed (2015) - Change to The Color Purple (1985) because Blade gets you a black male superhero fighter and this list still needs more women's stories in it. Even Hidden Figures (2016) would be great if one is just determined to have really recent films on the list.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014) - Change to Dark City (1998) because it still has lots of mind-bending weirdness and sci-fi cred but also tech noir cool and was Roger Ebert's favorite film of 1998. It's more original but less obvious than The Matrix (1999) and offers lots of opportunities to talk about film noir and science fiction and the nature of identity and memory. I will probably put Dark City on any syllabus where it makes any sense to have it because it's just that fantastic. I used to teach it as part of my film noir unit, and it always went over really well.

What 12-13 movies would YOU put on a film and narrative syllabus? I'd love to see your lists in the comments section!