Film diary

Some films what I did see (unless I write otherwise, I saw them on the small screen.)

2015:

I've hardly watched a thing this year for some reason...

• Dallas buyers club. Loved it! The two main guys were great and it was a great story. My only reservation was that people watching it might think big diseases are best fought with hokum rather than science - some healthy scepticism of governments and big pharma goes a long way... but you don't want to end up at homeopathy.
• Place beyond the pines. A decent watch. Bit of a rambling old thing.
• Bloodline. Thought we'd try another box set type thingy. Got bored and gave up. 
• Contagion. Yep, it's fine. 
• Breaking Bad Season 2. Yep, it's a good one. Having a break now.
• Breaking Bad Season 1. We're late to the party, but we're now three episodes in.... and we're loving it! That fellow can act a bit...
• Mystery Road. An Australian movie. I shouldn't watch these - they make me very homesick. This was a good tale though.

2014:

This was our Costa Rican year...

• 22 Jump Street. Sometimes I like a daft movie. But this was beyond daft. I enjoyed it in a somewhat incredulous I-can't-believe-I'm-watching-this sort of a way.
• Night at the museum I, II. These are a little silly. OK, very silly. Not very good really, but I must admit I laughed a lot. I'm the sort of person who finds a man being slapped by a monkey very amusing. I'm not proud.
• Blue is the warmest colour. Got all sorts of attention for some lengthy lesbian love scenes. But it also won the Palme D'Or which (unlike the Oscars) can be a reasonable indication of a good movie. And, boy, this movie is good. Indeed, I'm going to break out the red font here: this is my film of the year. Completely brilliant piece of film-making - I was utterly engrossed in the whole thing from start to finish. The performance of the main actress is breathtaking - I cannot remember a better piece of acting..., well, ever. It's always hard to say why a good movie is goong - with this, I'd simply say that it made me feel a great deal. There are some moments in the movie when your heart just breaks for the woman at the centre of it, and not because they're working you over with spectacular tragedy or whatnot, but because you so completely inhabit her person and feel the pain and the loneliness that she feels when she hits difficulties... I think most people watching this movie are going to end up a little in love with Adèle, perhaps more than a little.
• Secrets and Lies. Guilty confession: I really do not like Mike Leigh movies. I feel like I should, because they stand for all the right things - social realism, an interest in the lives of ordinary people, progressive social values etc... But I usually just end up hating the people in his movies and mentally condemning the English working classes to oblivion. Case in point, the mother in this movie. My god, she is hellish. A brilliant piece of acting no doubt but the thought of her makes me grind my teeth.
• Dead Man's Shoes. A Shane Meadows movie about a man on a mission somewhere oop narth. I thoroughly enjoyed it. A couple of violent moments that were a bit much but very well done. The setting - some estate near Manchester I guess - was spot on.
• Threads. Some kind of 1980's BBC made-for-TV production thingy about what would happen if the Russians and yanks started a nuclear war. Very realistic and, in consequence, the grimmest thing I have ever seen by a country fucking mile. The first 20 minutes are all right and then it starts on a steep downward trajectory into hell and it doesn't get better at any point for any one. Jesus. 
• Melancholia. I love Lars Von Triers - Breaking the Waves is unbelievable. But this was a pile of shite. Just a bunch of characters being horrible to each other (in entirely unrealistic ways). And dull as you like.
• Gattaca. The version with Uma Thurman in. Cool movie this - just fluff really but nice fluff.
• Night at the museum. A kiddy flick. Pretty funny affair. I especially liked the psychotherapy for Attila the Hun.
• Nueve reinas. Some kind of con artist thingy from Argentina. We were bored stiff after an hour and turned it off.
• True Detective. This isn't a movie, it's a police detective 8 part series. We watched it in 8 nights absolutely riveted. In actual fact I think the second half is slightly weak, but that may only be because the first half is so fucking ace. Overall it's a damn fine piece of work. Really beautifully shot, lovely landscape, great characters, and some oh-my-god brilliant acting. The weakness, if there is one, is that I never find serial-killer gigs that satisfying... `Getting their man' is, in the end, kind of a one-dimensional process. Having said that, I think the makers of this one realised that and ended up being a hell of a lot more interested in the relationship between the two main guys, which is brilliantly done...
• Paris, Texas. I downloaded this ages ago but never started watching it because I heard it was `difficult'. Turns out it's actually a pretty straight-down-the-line sort of a movie, and aint hard work at all. Better than that, it's pretty damn good - interesting story, engaging characters, really beautiful cinematography and a fucking cool soundtrack (thanks to Ry Cooder). Winsville, Arizona.
• Stepford Wives. I read the book, so I wanted to see the film. Turns out it's the shitest film ever made. I made it through the first 20 minutes but it was so excruciatingly awful I had to turn off. I was surprised - I generally rate Nicole Kidman, but this was the stuff of nightmares.
• The Secret Garden. Another film about posh children in an England that never existed (see next entry). Also very enjoyable - in fact I think I liked this one more.
• The Railway Children. A story about the poshest three children on earth and the appalling privations that they find themselves in when their daddy ends in jail. Except that those privations looked pretty damn nice to me - lovely house in the yorkshire dales spending your days gadding around the countryside. Having said all that, I rather enjoyed this - I ended up nostalgic for an England that probably never existed, but is nice to dream about.
• Monsters versus aliens. This was great. An animation that I can watch with my kids, while laughing at the adult jokes. My favourite genre.
• 500 Days of Summer and Some title about Timothy Green. I group these together because I watched them in Spanish as part of a recent Spanish course. Both movies, so far as I could tell, are shite. Both are particularly useless if you want to use them to learn Spanish - dubbed stuff is so much harder to understand. It may be unfair on these two movies, but it just made me think of all the fucking BRILLIANT Latin American movies that are out there, and I end up watching total dross like this.
• El Regreso. A Costa Rican movie that I watched in Spanish. Thus I didn't understand half of it - but I still got the impression that it was a good movie.
• When a man loves a woman. Let me count the ways in which this movie should be shit. First, the title, obviously. Second, Michael Bolton's song of the same name is the main entry in the sound track. Third, Meg Ryan. (Actually I'd never seen anything by Meg Ryan; this is just blind prejudice from me based on her reputation as the 90s queen of romcoms.) Anyway, never mind all that: this movie was fucking great. It's on the subject of alcoholism and I was absolutely convinced that it would be the sort of Hollywoood-lite treatment that would make me want to vomit. I was wrong, it was cracking. Actually I think I cried.
• Forbrydelsen II. This isn't a film, it's a Danish crime series. It's actually a little silly and over the top but jeepers it's gripping. We found it free on youtube and were well chuffed.
• Four weddings and a funeral. Watched this for a bit of British nostalgia, although it's nowhere near as good as I remember it. Quite a lot of the scenes that I remember as being hysterical were really just a bit lame. And the central premise of the film is a fairly questionable one. But there are worse ways to spend an hour and forty.
• Boys don't cry. This is a cracker. It's also about crackers (the red neck Texan sort) and they don't come out looking too good. In fact, Jesus H. Christ, watching this film is a trauma. But it's mighty well done, and it's a story that needs telling.
• Girl Interrupted. We saw this ages ago and watched it again. It's good! It suffers unfavourably from Angelina Jolie's character being too much like Jack Nicholson's in One flew over the cuckoo's nest. Unlike the whole of the rest of the world, though, I didn't much care for OFOTCN, the film (partly because I thought the book was so damn awesome), so I was cool with Angelina. She'll be so relieved to hear that. (I was also slightly mystified about what this film was really about. What the fuck is Winona Ryder doing in this film, apart from being slightly weird? Oh well, shrug and keep watching.)

2013:

• Moon. Oh boy. Oh boy. This was the last film of 2013 and it was.... film of the year. Just like 2012, the very last film I watched was the best. Cracking bit of low effects sci-fi; great concept; beautiful execution. And what a jaw-dropping bit of acting. Sam Rockwell take a bow, tiger, that is a piece of work right there.
• World War Z. Watched it over Christmas. It's got Brad Pitt in it who's a nice fellow. And the book is aceville Arizona. But the film, meh, it's alright but that's all.
• Solaris. I've already reviewed this once. And it was a rave (see below). What the fuck was I thinking? I rewatched it with Bronco and KLS - after telling them how ace it was - and we all agreed it was a load of shite. Jesus. Great concept (I guess that's what worked for me first time), but then they stick George Clooney in it and he does his long broody thing and after the 80th repeat of that lovely face holding the same goddamn expression, you want to scream. So, um, not as good as i first thought.
• Confessions of a dangerous mind. It was a laugh! I like Sam Rockwell -- the boy can act -- and this is a fair story. Perfectly reasonable way to pass a couple of hours.
• Ratatouille. I am so in to PIXAR these days. For straight out good, happy, laughing, fun times I think it's hard to beat a PIXAR animation with the nice pictures, the adult wit and whimsy, and my boys sitting on the sofa eating pizza and utterly engrossed. I fucking love it.
• Out of Sight. George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. Either of those names would be enough for me to think this was a sure-fire stinker, but both of them?? My God this had the potential to be the movie-equivalent of a red hot corkscrew up the jacksie. However. It turns out it's not that bad! It's not that great either, but Steven Soderbergh is the director so you're going to find a little bit of quality in there somewhere.... Still, at this stage 2013 has been the year of quite a lot of shit movies, and I would really like the worm to turn.
• Galaxy Quest. Recommended by my friend the Wallace. Who has many fine qualities but I'm not sure that film criticism is one of them. Still I had a bit of a laugh with this one. 
• All the pretty horses. The cleanest pair of cowboys this side of the cordilleras. And one of the shittest adaptations you're every likely to see. A shame because the book is cracking, but you can't cast Matt Damon and his fucking massive smile to play a character who does very little other than chew, mumble, ride horses, and get stabbed and shot.
• Monster's ball. It was alright this one. Little bit too much Hollywood but I've seen worse.
• The road. Ooh, this one's a bit grim guvnor. Now I know what cannibals keep in their pantry.
• The conversation. My mate Barnacle recommended this. I hereby de-recommend it - so slow I nearly turned to rock.
• Hugo What is it with Martin Scorsese? An era of unbelievable movies - Taxi Driver, Casino, Goodfellas, Raging Bull - and then horseshit ever after. This one aint terrible I suppose, and it's a kid's movie so you've got to alter your expectations. But kids' movies don't HAVE to have massive holes in the plot, so why does this one? Och weel, my boys enjoyed it well enough which is all you can ask I suppose.
• Alien 3 Me and the woman completed the trilogy. This is the weakest by a country mile but I still enjoyed it.

2012:

• Festen Well I think the year kept the best until last. Tremendous. This was the first Dogma movie, a style which has since been made famous by Lars Von Trier. Festen isn't by Von Trier - it's by a guy I'd never heard of - but it's got all the immediacy that makes Dogma so compelling. No back-ground music, hand-held cameras, actors `being themselves': it gives a sense of real intimacy - as if one is watching real events in real time. And what events they are - it's the story of the most disastrous birthday party of all time. In turn funny, tragic and very very moving. I can't recommend it highly enough.
• Greek Pete This was advertised at the end of Mon frere (see below). A documentary about a rent-boy. Well so we thought - turns out it was a mockumentary. Still it was well-done and engaging, and really gave an insight into a whole section of society that I know nothing about. There were a few scenes that were pretty full on - bloody hell!
• Mon frere I watched this with the woman, who was pretty underwhelmed. In contrast I really liked it. There were a load of medical scenes, nothing gruesome just very matter-of-fact and, like TDBATB below, I really felt like I was experiencing them for myself. The frankness of the film was pretty full-on too, and I really liked that - it made me realise the places I can't go myself. (Amusing aside: the DVD we got of this had a load of `trailers' that, unusually, came after the main movie. They all had a theme - gay men - and each was more intense than the last. By the end our eyes were goggling!)
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly It's an astonishing story, which I was already familiar with (I read the book). And the film really does it justice. It manages to get you really inside the body of someone who is `locked-in'. Which is kind of disturbing, but also what this film really should try and do. Great stuff.
• Boogie nights. Loved the first half of this - when everyone's having a great time. The second half of it all falling apart was a bit of a drag though - you could see it coming a mile off. The really original thing about this film was showing that people in the porn industry could be warm and loving (no, not that way) and genuine rather than the usual portrayals of people being all broken. I guess the broken thing came in via the second half and that's when it became a little hackneyed.
• Capturing the Friedmans. Cracking doco, with some really interesting things to say about memory, our perception of truth, collective hysteria, family dynamics. Great stuff (but awfully bitter).
• Witness. Harrison Ford number that I watched on a plane. Actually quite good. i used to love Harrison Ford but then I turned 15 and realised that he was a bit silly. Did alright with this one though.
• Swiss Family Robinson. Currently watching it with my little feller. God I wish I was living in a tree house on a desert island. Civilisation can bugger off as far as I'm concerned. Mind you I'd hope to have some more enlightened gender roles than the ones on display here. But one musn't quibble.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This is the Johnny Depp version, not the Gene not-Hackman-the-other-one one. It was a laugh. Watched it with my boys which made it good.
• Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I love Narnia. It's that simple. Even despite loads of incredibly earnest English school children.
• Terminator. More classic sci-fi as I attempt to watch all the movies that everyone else was watching when I was too much of a snob. This isn't on the Alien level but it was a bit of a laugh. And goodness me Arnie was a large man wasn't he?
• Alien 2. Not as good as the first one but still pretty ace.
• Alien. Oh. My. God. What a brilliant movie. Believe it or not I'd never seen it. Watched it with the woman who was similarly bowled over and she HATES science fiction. Tremendous suspense, a beautifully understated treatment of the scary-monster genre (a genre not normally given to understated treatments). And some of the scenes in it are instant classics - monster on face, John Hurt's stomach, the android or whatever he was talking through a puddle of white sick. Simply ace.
• La femme Nikita. Load of shite really but  it passed the time. I was hoping it would help me improve my French but I'm too rubbish to take anything in.
• Apocalypse now. I'm one third of the way through the director's 3 1/2 hour cut. So I can't speak with authority, but so far, very VERY good. It's got Catch 22's black war humour (that surfing colonel is a blast!). I don't know whether to laugh or be utterly appalled - which is exactly the point. I'd also not realised that it was `based' on Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Thoroughly looking forward to what comes next...
  
• The Thin Red Line. Splendid. More here
  
• The Debt Bloody great. Helen Mirren and that English bloke who's in everything. A bloody brave movie to make as well - anything remotely critical of MOSSAD is a good candidate to receive a lot of stick. To be fair their criticism is fairly muted but at least they raise a few questions. Someone should do a movie about Mordechai Vanunu - they'd have to shut MOSSAD down after that (he says in futile hope).


• The Rum Diaries Johnny Depp is a splendid actor. He doesn't quite save this movie but he comes close. If they could have figured out a decent ending I'd have given it three stars but it faded away which was a shame.


• A life through her eyes or something. Can't remember exactly. This is a fuck-up of a movie. Great acting, good idea, interesting plot, Uma Thurman. All the ingredients for a nice film. But when they put it all together in the editing studio they forget to check that it made sense.


• Drive Great! I really liked this. Great to look at - the automobile aesthetic is so clearly a deliberate ploy but it works beautifully. And I hate cars! Great plot, splendid acting, a bit of grizzly violence but no more than is necessary...


• The Ides of March I remember the moment when I discovered that movies about the American primaries can be truly ace.... It was halfway through Primary Colours. What a great movie. This one seems to be just a remake. It's so similar I can't believe they've bothered to make it again (idealistic candidate with a snake in his pants, an increasingly cynical aide looking on in despair but taking solace in a rather lovely young thing who's also on the candidate's team, etc etc). They didn't just remake it, they remade it in a mediocre way and they didn't credit it. George Clooney can't do nothing right (except Solaris).


• I forget the name No, that's not the name - I've really forgotten it. It was some swish thing with Justin Timberlake and a futuristic world where time is literally money. It all looked rather nice and I've got a weak spot for these dystopian style things (Enemy of the State for instance). But this didn't rise to great heights; Justin's a nice boy but I think Will Smith has got him covered.


• Whale Rider A lovely New Zealand number. Damn fine. If I told you the story you'd think it was some big ole cliche, but somehow or other it actually works. I felt kind of emotional at the end, although there was a child involved and I'm a big sook around the kiddies. Actually the lead role is taken by a young girl and my goodness she is good. There's a scene where she has to make a speech and gets all choked up - bloody hell, it was brilliant.
  


• The Mission. Oh. My. God. Where do I start? I saw this ten years ago, thought it was amazing, and started watching it this time around worried it might disappoint. After ten minutes I knew that it was even better, far better, than I remembered. Utterly, utterly compelling. Acting of the highest quality from De Niro and Irons and a number of nameless others. A delightful setting. A musical score from Morricone of the highest quality. And, through it all, a story of unbearable pathos; tragedy of the first order. For all that this is a brilliant movie, the story is so moving that the artistic experience of the movie-goer was entirely subsumed by the human experience of watching other peoples' lives. I'm out of words. Just watch the damn thing.
  


• The Sixth Sense. I well enjoyed this. I saw Shymalayan's movie "Unbreakable" a few years ago and really enjoyed it. He really knows how to tell a tale. There isn't anything more to it than that, but it was an hour and a half well spent.
  

2011:

• The Talented Mr Ripley. There's nothing wrong with this movie but somehow it didn't quite get through to me. It was a pleasant enough couple of hours and everything's done very well and Matt Damon and Jude Law are two lovely fellows but, still, what was the point?? I felt very similarly about the book.
  
• Gran Torino. OK, I guess. Except that while watching I realised that I've been wasting a lot of evenings watching mediocre films (see below) and one day I'll be as old as Clint Eastwood and have just as many regrets.
  
• Heat. Robert de Niro and Al Pacino face off. I came out of it as I went in - liking Robert de Niro and thinking Al's a bit of a nob. He's just not in de Niro's league. All his characters are obsessive shouty bullies who piss me off. De Niro on the other hand... well, two words: Raging Bull.
  
• Rushmore. I wanted a comedy and found a recommendation for this on the internet. Well I now de-recommend it. Load of shite.
  
• Candy. Adapted from the book by Luke Davies. The woman and I both read the book about five years ago and thought it brilliant; the film doesn't quite match it but it was still great. And not nearly as grim as you might imagine, seeing as the main characters are a young Australin couple on heroin... Heath Ledger is splendid, as is Abbie whatsername, who plays his lover. Far from the usual overblown drugs nonsense, this one is spot on.
  
• Twin Peaks. It's not a movie, it's a miniseries, but what the hell. I missed it first time round (in the eighties) so it's all new to me. I bloody love it. Agent Cooper is hilarious, and David Lynch is a goddamn genius. I'm only on episode four which means LOTS MORE TWIN PEAKS FOR ME!
  
• The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. It took me a month to watch this - three sittings - so I could hardly call it gripping. But it is pretty damn cool. When does a film move beyond ridiculous and become genius? This one just about manages it.
  
• Children of Men. A dystopian thriller along the lines of 28 Days Later. There's something about this kind of apocalyptic setting that really does it for me. I enjoyed this film immensely.
  
• Kids. If you want to be put off sex, this might do it. Nasty little film about boys in New York behaving like absolute bastards. Culturally it's kind of interesting but I was left feeling nauseous.
  
• Do the Right Thing. Liked it. It's a slow burner this one but it certainly bursts into flame by the end.
  
• Creation. Fascinating film covering part of the life of Charles Darwin. Beautiful film.
  
• Unforgiven. It's not as good as IMDB might make you think, but it's a decent watch. Clint Eastwood is great. I generally find Morgan Freeman bloody irritating but he was good in this.
  
• The curious case of Benjamin Button. I'd heard of this and been interested because it's directed by David Fincher (who directed Fight Club, the greatest movie ever made). And it's based on a story by F Scott Fitzgerald which must be a good thing (Well, I guess that's true. Personally I hated The Great Gatsby). However the main premise of the movie (a man who ages backwards) seemed so absurd that I couldn't be bothered... But then someone lent us the DVD so I thought What the hell! Turns out it's pretty decent. Got a bit bored in  the second half when it's mainly Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett shagging, but the first half was good. And the backwards-ageing-thing was a remarkably effective method of calling one's attention to the pathos of ageing. The fear and sadness of feeling one's body slowly falling apart; that much was quite arresting.
• Toy Story I, II, III. Thoroughly entertaining. Something I can watch with Junior and everyone's happy. I wouldn't watch it if I didn't have a child but, still, I can't complain.
• The secret in their eyes. Argentinian movie about a policeman and a murder and stuff. It beat A prophet to Best Picture at the Oscars which means it must be good. (In a parallel universe where the Oscars actually mean something.) It wasn't as good as A prophet but it was pretty damn good nonetheless.
• I'm Still Here (Spoof?) documentary about Joaquin Phoenix' attempt to become a rap singer. Great concept; shitty film. Two hours of "JP" becoming increasingly abusive towards, well, everyone. Not pleasant.
  
• Un Prophete. Absolutely fucking brilliant. Completely compelling story of a young Arab guy doing time in a French prison. It's (fairly) realistic and it's set in a prison so it can be pretty grim... but it manages to be more than that. In certain cinematographical circles, grimness is a virtue in itself but I don't concur; if making film is an art then there must be beauty in it. This film delivers.
  
• Life is Sweet. Mike Leigh has his moments, but not in this film. Terrible. We didn't get to the end.
  
• The Incredibles. The child has just reached the age (2 1/2) where we can now watch movies together, half an hour at a time. The Incredibles was our first attempt at this, and it went well. He enjoyed it; me too. Especially the first half where Mr Incredible has a mid-life crisis. One draw-back: too much shooting. Don't want the child ingesting too much of that.

2010:

• The Wrestler. Watched it on New Year's Eve. Very enjoyable. Particularly interested by the portrayal of the ``trailer-park life" that so many Americans have to endure. Working at the supermarket doing some shit-awful job, and going home to a mobile home. No wonder he doesn't want to give up the wrestling.
  
• A fish called Wanda. Watched it the day after watching Kes (see next entry); it was a much-needed antidote. Obviously very daft, but I enjoyed it immensely. I laughed out loud several times, particularly at Kevin Kline.
• Kes. Watched it on Boxing Day with woman and sister. Thought it would be a bit of a heart-warmer seeing as how it's about a boy and his friendship with a bird (a kestrel). Turns out that it's the most depressing movie ever made. I love Ken Loach, and will watch anything he directs, but this made me want to kill myself.
• Nil By Mouth. Another grim one, but also brilliantly compelling. And I do occasionally now quote from it: "Cunt! CUNT! I'm gonna stab you in the head!".
• Dog Pound. Saw this at the Cube Cinema; a little grim (there's a theme here) but it was a good watch.
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. So-so; I found it a bit dull, frankly; the book is much better. Me and the woman saw it at the cinema and afterwards wondered whether we really wanted to fill our heads with stuff like that - extreme sexual violence with no artistic justification...
• Twelve monkeys. Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt - need I say more? Well, actually, this was a surprisingly good movie for a Hollywood number. I enjoyed it.
• Blade Runner. I was very disappointed. The book is ace, but this was disjointed and a bit shit I thought.
• Seven Years in Tibet. A great true story - I definitely want to read the book - but possibly the worst accent I've ever seen in a movie (Brad Pitt being German). There's a guy who narrates some of the Thomas Tank engine episodes, that my child watches, who manages to sound French when he's trying to be Scottish - he's the only other contender for the worst accent gong.
• American Swing. About a swingers club in New York. Titillating, and very amusing. Made me wonder if I am living life to the full.
• The Waiting City. Saw this at the cinema. It was alright; mainly because it made me nostalgic for India.
• Solaris. Bloody great! And it's got George Clooney in it! Two sentences which don't normally go together.
• Man on Wire. Best movie I watched all year. Brilliant, occasionally hilarious, frequently jaw-dropping documentary about a tight-rope walker.
• The Grizzly Man. Another brilliant doco.
• Brokeback Mountain. I'd seen this before, so I won't count it as my best movie of the year. If I had to list my all-time favourite five movies, though, Brokeback would be on it.
• Lust: Caution. Directed by Ang Lee (who directed Brokeback Mountain). Beautiful cinematography, as is his style. A very impressive movie although lacked a certain je ne sais quoi in comparison to Brokeback.
• The Last Station. Very enjoyable fictionalization of the last years of Tolstoy's life. I particularly enjoyed this because Tolstoy is one of my heros. Anna Karenina is about the best book I've ever read.
• Run Lola Run. A bit of fluff; a reasonable way to pass an hour.
• Leon. Fucking terrible. The most implausible load of shite you could imagine.
• The Triplets of Belleville. A French cartoon about the Tour de France, and other things. A bit weird, but kind of cool too.
• Bob, Sue, and Rita too. Supposed to be a classic of British cinema, but just made me realise how crap movies were in the 80's.
• My Beautiful Laundrette. Supposed to be a classic of British cinema, but just reinforced how crap movies were in the 80's.
• No Country for Old Men. I'd previously only seen The Big Lebowski and O Brother Where Art Thou by the Coen brothers and had presumed they just made shit movies. But then I saw NCFOM and had to reassess - it was enthralling (although the violence was a bit heavy at times) and had some truly great lines:

``Sheriff, that's an awful mess."

``Well, if it aint, it'll do 'til the mess turns up."

• Fargo. This made me realise that my original assessment of the Coen brothers was, in fact, correct. NCFOM must have been an exception. Left me with a similar feeling to The Girl Who Shat on Her Father's Jumper (see comments above) - my spirit was polluted with the mindless violence of this film.

  2009:

• Let the Right One In. It's the only movie I can remember watching last year, so it automatically gets the Best movie I watched all year gong. Mind you, it deserves it. Swedish, with vampires. Absolutely ace.
• There Will Be Blood. Hang on, I remembered: I did watch another movie in 2009. And it was a great one. I'm going to declare it a joint winner of the Best movie I watched all year gong.