It’s been a quiet summer here at 100 Films…

#108 Shin Godzilla (2016), aka Shin Gojira
#109 This is the End (2013)
#110 Death Note (2006), aka Desu Nôto
#111 Nashville (1975)
#112 Death Note: The Last Name (2006), aka Desu Nôto: the Last name
#113 The Girl on the Train (2016)
#114 21 (2008)
#115 Death Note (2017)
#116 Eddie the Eagle (2016)
#117 Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008)
#118 Into the Woods (2014)

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• With 11 new films, August has the lowest total for any month of 2017 to date.
• It’s below the August average (previously 11.78, now 11.7), the rolling average of the last 12 months (previously 14.6, now 14.25), and the 2017 average (previously 15.3, now 14.75).
• With such low numbers, other stats can rack up quickly: over a quarter of films were from Japan, another over-a-quarter were Death Note movies, and just under a fifth starred Emily Blunt.
• This month’s Blindspot film: the film that established Robert Altman’s trademark ensemble style, Nashville.
• No WDYMYHS film this month. There are only 10 of them, so two months were always going to go without. August is the first of those.

The 27th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
It was kind of an unremarkable month quality-wise as well as numbers-wise this August — plenty of films I liked, some I even liked quite a bit, but few that I loved. The exception would be Shin Godzilla, which seems to have a mixed response generally but I was this close to giving five stars.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
To repeat myself: it was kind of an unremarkable month, which also means there was nothing remarkably bad. That said, Netflix’s remake of Death Note was a disappointment. I don’t care about its relocation to America, I don’t even care that it wasn’t especially faithful to the original characters, I just care that it wasn’t very good in its own right.

Biggest Dick of the Month
Satan may rock up with a giant schlong in This is the End, but he’s got stiff competition (er, as it were) from James Franco, especially as James Franco is playing James Franco. But they’re both beaten by Light Yagami, who as well as being a cocky little shit (spoilers!) murders his completely innocent and perfectly sweet girlfriend just to prove he’s not a murderous psychopath. What a dick.

Least-True True Story of the Month
Eddie the Eagle may’ve invented a character out of thin air to be its hero’s coach, thereby completely changing the story of how he trained to compete in the Olympics — or “the whole story of the film” — but it’s got nothing on 21. The Vegas heist drama makes massive changes to the non-fiction book it’s based on that include simplifying the card counting system (the central point of the film), setting it in the present day (when surveillance technology would prevent them doing what they do), changing the characters’ ethnicities (whitewashing!), and, er, inventing half of the events that happen to them. Compound that with the fact the “non-fiction” book it’s based on is itself half made-up and you’ve got a film that’s roughly as historically accurate as Game of Thrones.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
For the third time this year, this film blog’s most-read new post was about TV: The Past Month on TV #21, which covered Top of the Lake: China Girl, Game of Thrones episodes 2-5, Twin Peaks episodes 11-14, Line of Duty series 3, Peaky Blinders series 2, and more. (The highest film review was in (a fairly distant) second, and was something some people would argue is also a TV review: Netflix’s Death Note.)

22 Jump Street	Arrival
Death Note (2006)	Death Note: The Last Name
Death Note (2017)	Free Fire
The Fugitive	Headshot
Jaws	Money Monster
Shin Godzilla	Suicide Squad
Transformers 2: IMAX Edition

The Past Month on TV #21	The Past Fortnight on TV #22

My Rewatchathon continues to toddle along at a reasonable pace, but quite far behind where it ought to be — I should be well into the 30s at this point. As my titular goal has flourished for the past few years, this is making me remember the days when it was a struggle…

#25 The Fugitive (1993)
#26 Ghost in the Shell 3D (2017)
#27 Arrival (2016)
#28 Jaws (1975)

As well as my full cinema review of Ghost in the Shell (linked above), I posted a few thoughts after my rewatch on Letterboxd.

2017 moves into my top five best-ever years (probably).