I won't include things like The Bourne Supremacy, My Cousin Vinny, or The Tree of Life -- all of which I've watched repeatedly in the past two months -- or other movies that I happen to catch on TV. Below is a list of movies I've watched with intent, in most cases for the first time.
- Apocalypse Now - A+; Holy shit.
- Rosemary's Baby - B+; It really made me want to watch Manhattan Murder Mystery.
- Midnight Cowboy - A; Much better than I expected. A story of a relationship over a brief period of time, which I always like.
- Brokeback Mountain - B; Not as good as I expected. A story of a relationship over the years, which I usually don't like.
- Bernie - B, All those brilliant townsfolk stole the show.
- Wanderlust - A-; This will be underrated forever.
- Another Year - A-; That couple is so gracious and smug and real. And that poor woman.
- The New World - B; Everything that people hated about The Tree of Life (that I loved), I kind of hated in this movie. Wish I had seen it in a theater.
- Carnage - B; I vote for Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet.
- Birdemic - A+/F; Holy shit.
- Melvin and Howard - B+; This is one time I wish I had bothered watching a preview or read a synopsis beforehand. It was hard watching this while readjusting my screwy, unfounded expectations.
- Do the Right Thing - B+; Please stop yelling, Lil Gus Fring.
- In America - A-; omg bawling.
- Damsels in Distress - A-; Adam Brody should have won awards for this. To say nothing of Greta Gerwig. I <3 Whit Stillman so much, 4ever.
- The Savages - B; Not as good as it thinks it is, but still good. Reminded me why I originally thought PSH was a genius.
- The Maltese Falcon - A-; I love Peter Lorre. What a weirdo.
- Casablanca - A+; It's still so good.... the set-up, the story, the characters, the duality in every one of them.
- A Nun's Story - C+; Holy moly it is so, so long. But Peter Finch is kinda sexy, and Audrey Hepburn really is a great actress.
- The Triplets of Belleville - A; Next time Jon and I talk about movies with "Bad Ass Women" we will have to include Madame Souza. And the triplets of Belleville for that matter.
- Wait Until Dark - B+; Way better than it has any right to be, if you give in and roll with it. Alan Arkin is fantastic. And Audrey Hepburn really is a great actress.
- The Night of the Iguana - A; <<APPLAUSE!!!!!>>
- Billy Budd - B; Disappointing. It was all a little too black and white.
- Rachel, Rachel - B+; Oh, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel...
- The Deer Hunter - A; In the first hour absolutely nothing happened and it made the rest of the movie all the more tragic. Wow.
- Wild Strawberries - A; So profound, so delightful. What a combo!
- Days of Wine and Roses - C+; A rare instance of "exactly what I expected."
- Auntie Mame - B; This would have been really good if it had any plot whatsoever, or character development instead of just *character!* in new situations. Actually it would have made a good season of TV. Superkudos to the art director/set designer.
- Baby Doll - A; This was the most pleasant surprise so far. I loved this movie. Carroll Baker is so sexy. Eli Wallach is so sexy, strangely. The scene on the porch swing should be talked about more. Karl Malden is so John C. Reilly.
- The Informer - A-; Pretty effective for as over-the-top and 1935-y as it is.
- Splendor in the Grass - D; Boo. The melodrama. Every character is a caricature. I would have liked more of her mom, who might have maybe had some nuance. Horrible.
- Alice Adams - B-; A better version of every bad girl-with-dreams movie made in my lifetime.
- The Magnificent Ambersons - B; This has been called a masterpiece but I don't get it. It is kind of a mess and really boring. Who cares about these people? Maybe as an allegory.
- An American in Paris - C+; Oh man I love Gene Kelly. Otherwise I hate this.
- Gigi - B; Much better than An American in Paris. I now also love Louis Jordan.
- Blow Up - A-; I need to watch this like 5 more times.
- Stagecoach - A; Bravo! There are a lot of characters, and every character matters, and the interactions between each character matters. And then there are the Cavalry and the Apaches to keep things interesting if you don't care about things like characters.
- A Place in the Sun - A-; About halfway through I was giving this an F in my head because I saw where it was going and I hated it. Then it went exactly there and I liked it anyway. Well done! Montgomery Clift, yowza. Elizabeth Taylor, stunning, and excellent at fainting. Poor, frumpy Shelley Winters. I bet her clothes were actually in black and white.
- Mrs. Miniver - B; Super hokey but I enjoyed it. I found being beaten over the head fairly effective. But it's 2013 so oh well.
- Kitty Foyle - D; Boring, insulting, dumb. I give it a D instead of an F only because it made me like the guy that you are supposed to hate and I am giving it the benefit of the doubt that this was cleverness on someone's part and not just a mistake.
- She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - B; Why is Ben Johnson so good in everything? I kind of just watched the whole movie to see what awesome thing he would do next.
- Anatomy of a Murder - A-; Panties! This was way better than it should have been, thanks to the writing and all the actors - Jimmy Stewart, and George C Scott, and Lee Remick, and Ben Gazzara, and Murray Hamilton and sexy, awesome Eve Arden. Is she the inspiration for Joan Holloway? She has to be!
- The Lavender Hill Mob - B+; This probably would have been a huge hit with me if I saw it in 1951.
- The Train - B; I think there were 2 A+ movies here that each got half-made and so it isn't as good as it should be. But I really liked it. Burt Lancaster deserves a special award for sliding down that ladder, getting shot on the bridge, and hammering out all those railroad ties. I thought the cinematography was A+++, from the very first shot on.
- Ball of Fire - A-; Considering my favorite movie ever is What's Up, Doc?, it's pretty ridiculous I just now watched this. Check it out and count the homages. With that fancy word I will conclude this nonsense.
