As I delete and form stronger boundaries between myself and all social media, the question Do I have to make a letterboxd? threatens to tear a hole in my stomach. For now, for my life and my time and my goals, this blog is more than enough. Here are some movies I loved, and all the other movies I'm glad I watched anyways.

Contents

Four shorts

Balikbayan (2004)

Money, talent, people, resources drained systematically from the colonies and returned piecemeal, transformed, dead.

Dad's Dead (2002)

Hallucinatory character study of the kind of person you just cannot remember without distortions. One of the most disturbing films I've ever seen, and I just watched it on my phone in the bathroom.

Ballerina (2007)

I watched this when I really, really needed to calm down and it was better than a warm bath.

DumbLand (episodes 1-8) (2002)

And these I watched when I needed to scream and scream. These horrible, bitter, hideous cartoons were more healing and cathartic than any other piece of art I engaged with this year.

Top ten

10. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)

I've had my Weird Al phase, and I've delighted to see him pop up in everything from Adventure Time to Comedy Bang Bang over the years, always generous with his seemingly boundless energy. But, I was nervous about this film. Even though the trailer looked funny, if the movie ended up falling flat it would break my heart. But it was incredible, hysterical. They found everything that they could possibly do with the biopic parody concept. Radcliffe commits to the ludicrous character they've concocted for Al with perfect deadpan gravitas. The furious passion on his face as he sang Another One Rides The Bus will stick with me for a long time. Kept me laughing all the way through to the end of the credits.

9. The King of Comedy (1982)

The longer this sits with me, the more convinced I am that this is my favourite Robert De Niro role. A potent film about admiration, imitation, the wrong reasons to want to make art-- the wrong reasons which most artists probably still have buried in their hearts somewhere, more or less.

8. Delikado (2019)

A vibrant, thrilling, urgent documentary about militant grassroots ecological activism, profiling people who risk their lives to save the rainforest with their bare hands, and the many political connections they have to make in order to continue their work.

7. No Ordinary Man (2020)

Billy Tipton was a stealth transmasculine jazz singer, talented and successful for a time, who faded into obscurity until in his death he was stripped violently of privacy and reduced to salacious tabloid fodder, as so many of our trans ancestors have been. This documentary approaches the re-making and understanding of his life in a radical, polyvocal, critical, historical and creative way. The talking heads are contextualized, their expertise and points-of-view meaningful. The re-enactments are interpreted by a wide cast of transmasculine actors, with all of their different visions of Tipton given space to breathe and blossom. The film talks back to Diane Wood Middlebrook's book Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton and picks apart its "polite, carefully measured transphobia," a variety of transphobia I still have a difficult time responding to in my own life. The interview with Billy Tipton Jr., who had long defended his father as a good man, even in the face of outrageous opposition, was absolutely heart-wrenching. He admits to the directors that in meeting them, this was the first time he had ever met anyone who "thought what my father did was a good thing". The complexity of that statement, from this man who was practically alone for so long in remembering his father kindly, but who has never had any connection to the trans community is profound and moving. For that alone, this movie would be worth it, but for us, and for history, it's worth even more still.

6. Lost Highway (1997)

The most slick, cool, focused version of David Lynch's vision and obsessions. I love Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette in this, both of whom found a way to act within the sleepy surreal Lynchian tone while also drawing from a deep, dark well of emotion. Every scene is true to itself and the structural mysteries are purposeful and few. This has sort of become Lynch's forgotten film, but it might be my favourite?

5. Thief (1981)

James Caan is fantastic, charismatic and grounded and rough, as safecracker Frank, a highly skilled worker, valued, sought-after, but still screwed over by his bosses. He's ready to retire, but they aren't ready to let him go, so they withold the bulk of his wages in order to keep him ensnared in their service. The petty perks they offer Frank do not distract him from their theft of his wages, and he proceeds on a one-man mission to get what he's due. These tropes are familiar (how many movies about organized crime center on a character who wants to get "out of the game"?), but this movie highlights the universal character of this struggle for working people generally, and Frank is brimming with class consciousness. It's the class consciousness, however, of a relatively chauvinistic, white male tradesman, and one without anyone on his side to struggle with him. Ugly but sympathetic and just. And c'mon, the glossy wet neon streets and the sparks flying as he does his work are just hypnotic.

4. The Mark of Zorro (1940)

I watched three movies from director Rouben Mamoulian in quick succession: Blood and Sand, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and then this. Each are creative, stylish films which stand out as classics ahead of their time. But while I have critiques of the former two, The Mark of Zorro is pure pleasure to watch, with Tyrone Power as Zorro almost too charming to stand. This is a funny, action-packed, sprightly movie, telling a feel-good story of righteous rebellion.

3. Southern Comfort (2001)

Trans people living in the usamerican south at the turn of the millennium, a time and place just outside of my own context, with whom I share some language and experience but who face odds, make choices, and have values I have to stretch my mind to understand. Robert Eads was Daddy more than anyone else could dream to be, and all the folks in his chosen family are so beautiful that everyone oughtta meet them. God damn medical neglect...

2. Gloria (1980)

You're a little kid, old enough to be a wiseass, but tiny, and vulnerable. Your whole family is killed in a mob hit, and the killers are coming for you next. Your only hope is your Mom's weird cat lady friend from down the hall, and she's not happy about it. Gena Rowlands is a terrifying powerhouse, a badass unlike any other I've seen on film, but with a kind of strength you find in real life all the time.

1. Mysterious Skin (2004)

Every moment of this film, front-to-back, is about childhood sexual abuse and its consequences. Neil and Brian are two boys living with different types of denial. One can't remember what happened, the other forgot how it felt, and for both the wounds have been left open to fester in different ways. The other films I've seen from Araki (The Living End, The Doom Generation) share with this one an unabashed and direct discourse. But those two voice clearly the rage of the doomed, with biting and cynical humour which lets us engage with dark subject matter with ironic detachment. Mysterious Skin, on the other hand, is tender and honest and acutely painful, and in touching those feelings can almost leave room for something like hope. The performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet, and their child counterparts Chase Ellison and George Webster are devastating and human and real. Bill Sage, who plays the abusive coach, gives a horrifying and brave performance, for how naturally he plays it, for how the coach acts without a second thought. He never sneers for the camera, never makes it clear he knows how wicked he is. It is not easy to watch. I imagine that if you don't need this movie, or if you aren't ready for it, you won't like it much. But I did, and am, and it's one of the most important I've seen.

On re-watches

Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)

God I wish this movie didn't have such long, boring stretches.

The Emperor Jones (1933)

Love Paul Robeson and it has its moments.

Terminal USA (1994)

Still great, still got laughs the second time.

Vertigo (1958)

The romance is completely without chemistry, especially the first time around. Just don't care about this one so much.

Psycho (1960)

Anthony Perkins is adorable.

Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

That end disaster sequence is still one of the more amazing things you can see.

Safety Last! (1923)

Cute little Harold Lloyd really climbed that building huh.

Rope (1948)

This movie rules.

The Raid: Redemption (2011)

Great fights but harder to watch than I remembered, more upsetting.

By Hook or by Crook (2001)

If you're a masc you should really watch this!! Everyone else too. Harry Dodge's performance makes me go feral.

The Holy Mountain (1973)

Man, when this was one of the only psychedelic movies I'd ever seen it totally blew my small mind. Now, I just think it's pretty good.

School of Rock (2003)

The perfect Jack Black movie secretly contains Joan Cusack at her funniest, too.

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Perfectly cool in every way.

Freaks (1932)

Disabled people sticking together in militant struggle, in abject circumstances. It's a horrible shame that this is still one of the few major motion pictures with this many disabled people in the core cast. It's a great watch, a moving story, and a piece of cinema history we still need to learn from.

Westworld (1973)

I like it!

Blade (1998)

God, what fun.

Kill Bill: Volume I (2003)

Been on a Tarantino break for nearly a decade, and you know what? This movie doesn't really work for me anymore. The fights are fun, though.

Blow Out (1981)

Weird to watch this without the experience of being surprised by the turns it takes. Still think it's really good.

Asparagus (short) (1979)

What a film!

Rear Window (1954)

The premise is unbeatable, and the apartment complex set is just perfect.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Still unique as an art object, and I can understand why the teens and tweens find it so compelling. But it's also, mostly, pretty bad.

The Fast and Furious series

I'd seen 7, 8, and Hobbs and Shaw in theatres, and knew some day I'd have to go back and watch the whole series. These are the only modern day action movies I care about anymore, for reasons I find difficult to put into words. They're just... weirder, arguably less propagandistic than the superhero movies, Mission Impossibles, James Bonds, Transformers, etc. that comprise the rest of the genre today. But I still don't know whether they're "good" movies, whether I can recommend them or not, even though I love them. Somewhere in your heart, you already know if the Fast and the Furious movies are something you'll enjoy. Since I don't know how to compare them to anything else, I'm comparing them only to each other.

In ascending order...

Fast & Furious (2009)

Drab aesthetics, unmemorable action, not fun.

Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

The action concepts should've been exciting, but felt tired.

Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

The bad comedy was a cringey and constant distraction.

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

Pretty good. The final action sequence is one of the most tense in the series. Dragged in parts.

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Better story, characters, and villain than the first film. More exciting, more colourful, more fun. The best writing Roman ever gets, by far.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

Weaker than the first two on story and characters, but this is the first time the series really delivers on creative, slick, sick car action.

Furious 7 (2015)

Iconic, huge, dumbassed action set pieces.

Fast Five (2011)

The safe sequence in this film is the heart and soul of what this series oughtta be, complete with footage of all the innocent bystanders who have to run for their lives from the wanton destruction.

Fate of the Furious (2017)

Not since 2 have we had a villain with an actual personality, ideology, and motive. From this point onward, unhinged and well-executed action is the norm.

Fast X (2023)

Dom teaching his tiny son to stunt drive. A massive bomb rolling through the streets of Rome all the way to the Vatican, in a callback to the safe sequence from 5. The return of Charlize Theron.

F9 (2021)

An important corrective to the series, fixing the problems most of the other movies have had with Roman, and of course, bringing Han back. The most I've cared about the story in any of these. And they fly a car into space.

Tier List, all new watches (FF series excepted)

S

A

B

C

D