Author: James D. Ward

If you’re on Letterboxd, I’m here.

Films seen: 12
Films directed by women: 1 (up 0)
Strong recommendations: Grease, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Moonrise Kingdom, Apocalypse Now

Again, the fewest films in a month so far, but I think I may have forgotten about one? Which would make it a steady thirteen as our regular minimum. We’ve been playing a lot more Warhammer, which can prevent a film being watched, and also finished off Gravity Falls, which I do recommend.

I’ve noticed that my quarantine comfort go-to is the musical. When I’ve foregone a film entirely, it’s been for a recording of a stage musical, so it’s more common than represented here. Actually, I did rewatch Swing Time in the last few months, probably April, which I haven’t logged, and that’s a great film. Consider it mentioned.

Full list follows:

If you’re on Letterboxd, I’m here.

Films seen: 13
Films directed by women: 1 (up 0)
Strong recommendations: Knives Out, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Moulin Rouge!, Dirty Dancing

The fewest films in a month so far, but still working out as a film every two or three days. However, the first five films were watched in four days, with a further double bill on the 17th, so it felt much more irregular than that. I’ll probably save my chat around the “films directed by women” stat until the year-end wrap-up, which is likely to be January 2021, and looking that far in the future is not how I live my life. I will say that you rarely come across them by accident, certainly not by watching Hollywood fare. I could stand to make much more of an effort in that regard. The last two months it’s been 1, and both of them are co-directions.

The main reason there are fewer films is because this month we were peer-pressured into watching Tiger King. I don’t necessarily co-sign the hype on that show. It’s a fascinating story, and there’s never a dead moment. However, it’s still an episode or two more than I could stand spending that much time with those terrible and sad people. It wasn’t really what I was looking for in quarantine. It was absurd, but I don’t think the show ever read as funny to me. We watched the eps one by one, but I think we’d have done better to binge them, as the Netflix gods decree, which would have possibly evened out the experience for me. As it is, adding that on top of/alongside our usual TV schedule knocked out watching films completely for about two weeks, and I usually prefer watching a full film meal to frittering away every evening on TV shows.

Full list follows:

If you’re on Letterboxd, I’m here.

Films seen: 21
Films directed by women: 1 (down 5)
Strong recommendations: Raiders of the Lost Ark, A Scanner Darkly, Fantasia, Cabaret

“I don’t suppose I’ll watch as many next month.” Too right. Also, I’ve really let this log slide. Although, looking through the archives has reminded me how many great movies I’ve watched this year. (Putting things on Letterboxd works out about as well as Goodreads for me. There’s phases where tracking helps me watch or read more, and phases where the practice of doing so puts me off. Clearly we slipped into the latter.)

I’ve done a blog about film habits this week, which you will find here. It was going to be in this post, but it was getting long. March for me was about rewatching Indiana Jones for the first time in years, and the launch of Disney+ expanding my access to loads of 70s kids films I will never watch.

Full list follows: