Tag Archives: 100 Films in a Year Challenge

Live Like a Month, Die Like the Review of July 2025

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If you’re wondering what the hell that title is supposed to mean, the only explanation I can offer is to see #61 below. Other than that, yeah, it’s meaningless. Such is life sometimes, my friends.



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#59 Heads of State (2025) — New Film #7
#60 The Invisible Swordsman (1970) — Failure #7
#61 Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976) — Genre #5
#62 Stargate (1994) — Rewatch #7
#63 The Wolf Man (1941) — WDYMYHS #7
#64 The Notebook (2004) — Blindspot #7


  • I watched six feature films I’d never seen before in July.
  • That’s the first time I’ve failed to reach my minimum monthly target of ten films since November 2023 (at least back then I had a Doctor Who-shaped excuse). Sadly, that means this ends a run of 10+ months that isn’t even my second-longest (this time I reached 19 months, but I hit 21 in 2020/2021, and my record is 60 from 2014–2019). I’m doubtful August will go too well either, but we’ll see.
  • Five of those six counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • That’s slightly above my minimum monthly requirement of five, but behind the average need to reach 100 (which is eight). Of course, thanks to bumper months earlier in the year, I’m still well ahead of target overall — to stay on pace, I only need to reach #58 by the end of July, and I got there last month.
  • I watched the extended cut of Stargate, which I’ve never seen before, but the additions are minor enough that it isn’t worth counting as ‘new’; especially as I haven’t seen it for the best part of 30 years, so I didn’t notice any changes myself, only read about them online.
  • This month’s Blindspot film was Nicholas Sparks-based romantic weepy The Notebook.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was classic Universal horror The Wolf Man.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched The Invisible Swordsman and finally rewatched Stargate.



The 122nd Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
Nothing spectacular this month; indeed, the highest star rating I gave on Letterboxd to a first-time watch was 3½ — hardly a ringing endorsement. I handed that out to two films, both of which were underwhelming or flawed in some ways, but entertaining in others — the latter elevating them above 3 stars, but the former preventing them from hitting the giddy heights of 4 stars. It’s basically a coin toss which I preferred, so because it has a much cooler title I’ll pick Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man. (The other was Heads of State, by-the-way.)

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I felt disappointed by two films in particular this month, so the question is: which was worse? That’s got to be The Wolf Man, which I’ve been meaning to watch for many years and hoped would be up to the high standards of the other classic Universal monster movies, but I found it to be riddled with faults. Shame. (The other was The Invisible Swordsman, which I’d never heard of before Arrow announced their Blu-ray earlier this year, so it was much less long-awaited.)


As I said earlier, I suspect August will turn out to be another below-par month — but you never know. Still, I’m glad I’ve built up a significant lead on my Challenge, because it means even if I just watch the ‘required’ five films (new film, rewatch, failure, Blindspot, and WDYMYHS), I’ll still end the month ahead of target pace.

The Unseasonably Hot Monthly Review of June 2025

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“It’s summer, of course it’s hot,” cry certain people. Yeah, but yesterday was 10–12°C hotter than the average for this time of year, so all the “it’s just summer” people can F off. And let’s not start on the “oh we have those kinds of temperatures all the time” foreigners.

Also, I prefer the cold, so even “regular summer” is a pain in the arse.

Anyway, enough about UK weather (it’s due to break tomorrow anyway, hooray) — here’s what I’ve been watching over the past month…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#51 Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) — New Film #6
#52 The Untouchables (1987) — WDYMYHS #6
#53 Shoot First, Die Later (1974) — Genre #4
#54 Hardware (1990) — Failure #6
#55 28 Days Later (2002) — Rewatch #6
#56 28 Weeks Later (2007) — 50 Unseen #5
#57 Saltburn (2023) — Blindspot #6
#58 Paddington in Peru (2024) — 50 Unseen #6


  • I watched 12 feature films I’d never seen before in June.
  • That’s the first time this year I’ve reached above my minimum target of 10.
  • Seven of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • That’s enough to keep me a whole month ahead of target. In fact, I’ve been doing so well at that, I now only need to average seven Challenge films per month for the rest of the year (normally it’s 8.5 for the back half of the year).
  • A fair chunk of my viewing this month was taken up with the favourite films of work colleagues. My team discussed our favourite-ever movies early in the month, and of the 18 picks, I’d not seen five — so I caught up on them all immediately. The only one that qualified for my Challenge was The Untouchables, because it was already on my WDYMYHS list (the team’s other picks didn’t conveniently slot into one of my incomplete categories — how inconsiderate!)
  • This month’s Blindspot film was Emerald Fennell’s kinda-kinky reimagining of Brideshead Revisited, Saltburn.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was Brian De Palma’s stylish but, uh, not exactly historically accurate retelling of the mission to arrest Al Capone, The Untouchables.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Hardware, Paddington in Peru, and Shoot First, Die Later.



The 121st Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
I’m not sure if it’s a “great movie” in its entirety, but The Untouchables has style to spare, plus one of the greatest shootouts in cinema history.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I feel mean picking one of my colleagues’ favourite films here… but hey, there’s no way they read this blog, so why not? It’s not that Save the Last Dance is necessarily terrible for what it is, it’s just that what it is isn’t exactly my kind of movie. That said, nearly a quarter of a century on from its release, it does feel rather dated.


Summer, summer, summertime. Whether the “good” weather stays or not, you can feel that summer season hitting the big screen, with the likes of Superman and a new Jurassic World on the horizon. Are either enough to tempt me out to the cinema? I’m currently unsure. (Find out next month!)

The Finally Deadly Reckoned Monthly Review of May 2025

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Has Tom Cruise reckoned his final impossible mission? Time will tell. I sort of hope not, even if it might be time to change up how they make those movies to bring a little more focus back to story and character instead of just extravagant stunt sequences.

They are really, really good stunt sequences, though…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#41 How to Train Your Dragon 3D (2010) — Rewatch #4
#42 Trancers (1984) — Failure #5
#43 I Saw the TV Glow (2024) — 50 Unseen #4
#44 Illustrious Corpses (1976) — Genre #3
#45 Spartacus (1960) — WDYMYHS #5
#46 Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) — Rewatch #5
#47 Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) — New Film #5
#48 The Graduate (1967) — Blindspot #5
#49 Funeral in Berlin (1966) — Series Progression #7
#50 Backfire! (1962) — Series Progression #8


  • I watched 10 feature films I’d never seen before in May.
  • Eight of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with two rewatches.
  • I finished March a whole month ahead, April one film behind being a month ahead, and for May… I’m a month and one film ahead! The end of June might seem like it’s halfway through the year, but it isn’t in terms of days — so, the target date for #50 is actually a couple of days into July.
  • This “month ahead” business will inevitably slow down at some point — not just because of my usual tardiness, but because some films are ‘locked’ to certain months. There are five categories limited in that way, which means the last point I can still be “a month ahead” is the end of September. But that’s something to aim for, eh?
  • This month’s Blindspot film was only the third movie to take over $100 million at the US box office, The Graduate. (Surprising fact, huh?)
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus.
  • It’s not much of a Stanley Kubrick film (in the sense that, while he did direct it, he later disowned it), but Spartacus is the first Stanley Kubrick film I’ve watched since 2022. I went through a period (about a decade ago now) where I was watching an unseen Kubrick every year. Although that regularity has tailed off, I now have only two of his features left to see (Fear and Desire and Lolita). I own both, so perhaps I’ll try to complete the set sometime soon.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched The Graduate, Illustrious Corpses, and Trancers.



The 120th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
I’m not coming across many five-star films this year (in fact, the total so far might be none), but a couple have come very close, and I Saw the TV Glow is one of those. It’s hard to describe what it is without seeing it, though I saw someone say it’s the 2020s answer to Donnie Darko and that feels very on point.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
There have been numerous screen adaptations of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, and I’ve seen a few of them now. 1989’s Ten Little Indians is probably the worst, although I didn’t dislike it as much as its poor reputation would suggest. That said, it’s only worth watching for people who have exhausted other, better Christie adaptations.


Halfway through the year. I mean, not for me — I’ve already done that. But for, y’know, time.

The Painful Monthly Review of April 2025

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Parts two and three of the Kizumonogatari trilogy are, allegedly, two of the 100 greatest animated films of all time. The third was, for a time, one of the 250 greatest films of all time. Having consequently watched them (no, I hadn’t heard of them before that either), I can say that, in my opinion, they most certainly are not. But hey, it’s always good to discover new things.

They’re part of a wider long-running anime franchise that fans call the “Monogatari series”. For those who don’t know, “monogatari” means “story” — hence much more famous films like Tokyo monogatari and Ugetsu monogatari and Zatoichi monogatari and Kaguya-hime no monogatari. Imagine calling your series the “Story series” and, like, it not being Toy Story.

Anyway, “kizu” means “scratch” or “wound” according to Google Translate, along with a bunch of variants about scars and hurt. Basically, it’s a painful story. Yeah, checks out. Seemed like a reasonable adjective for this review too, as I did sit through three of those things.



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#34 A Real Pain (2024) — New Film #3
#35 The Black Watch (1929) — Failure #4
#36 Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu (2016) — Series Progression #5
#37 Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu (2017) — Series Progression #6
#38 Havoc (2025) — New Film #4
#39 Cat People (1942) — Blindspot #4
#40 Saboteur (1942) — WDYMYHS #4


  • I watched 10 feature films I’d never seen before in April.
  • Seven of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge.
  • Having ended March a full month ahead of schedule, in April that lead slipped slightly… but only by one film. And that’s still better than February, which was two films behind being a month ahead (you follow?) Being almost a month ahead might not be as good as being a whole month ahead, but it’s not too shabby.
  • I can pinpoint the specific category where I failed, because I didn’t manage any rewatches this month. It’s always a shame not to hit my monthly goals, but it also feels like a particularly easy one to catch up.
  • Of the ten films I did watch, half of their titles begin with the letter K. The last time I watched a film that’s title began with the letter K was July 2024, nine months ago. What does this signify? Absolutely nothing, I just happened to notice it.
  • This month’s Blindspot film was Val Lewton’s first horror production for RKO, Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was, for the second month in a row, a Hitchcock thriller, although one not as significant: wartime ‘wrong man’ adventure Saboteur.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched The Black Watch and Knight Chills.



The 119th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
While calling the whole month “painful” might be a bit of a stretch, nothing really stood out as incredible either. There’s some films I’ll comfortably give four stars, but nothing I loved. The nearest was probably Cecil B. DeMille’s silent epic about Jesus, The King of Kings — not my typical fare, what with not being religious, but if you ignore all the worship-y stuff, it’s a pretty good story, well-told here.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
Anyone who read my introduction can make a reasonable guess at what’s coming here. The trilogy does improve as it goes on, to some degree, leaving Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu as the weak link to be overcome to reach the dubious highs to follow. (They’re not that high.)


Next month’s New Film is already locked in, because I’ve booked my ticket to see Tom Cruise once again take on his greatest enemy: his own mortality — possibly for the last time — in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

Final? Final?! Let’s hope not.

The ⅓ Monthly Review of March 2025

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I tried to find an elegant way to use the title to express the concept “I’ve watched a third of my Challenge, even though we’re only a quarter of the way through the year”, but somehow I couldn’t condense that into just a word or two, and so I’ve resorted to echoing August 2016’s title — although then it was just bluntly factual, lacking even the trace of irony present in using ⅓ at the ¼ point. Shame on you, past me, for your lack of… eh, it’s pretension, really.

So enough of that, let’s get on with the films…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#23 Never Back Losers (1961) — Series Progression #3
#24 Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962) — Wildcard #7
#25 Hooray for Hollywood (1982) — Wildcard #8
#26 The Sinister Man (1961) — Series Progression #4
#27 Lifeforce (1985) — Failure #3
#28 Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983) — Wildcard #9
#29 The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) — WDYMYHS #3
#30 Revolver (1973) — Genre #2
#31 Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) — Blindspot #3
#32 The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) — Rewatch #3
#33 Mobile Suit Gundam (1981) — Wildcard #10


  • I watched 10 feature films I’d never seen before in March.
  • All of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • But most significantly, getting to #33 means I’m a whole month ahead of target.
  • I think it’s the new-style Wildcards that have really made a difference — rather than rear-loading them to help me across the finish line (a plan that only worked once out of three attempts), they’ve now helped give me a healthy head start. It’s no coincidence it’s become my first completed category of the year. In my introduction I mentioned the possibility of adding a mitigating rule so that I didn’t burn through those ten slots too quickly. The fact it took me three months to get here makes me think the current, simple rules are more-or-less ok — it doesn’t need to be forced to drag further into the year just for the sake of taking longer.
  • Conversely, I failed to watch a New Film in March. As someone who doesn’t get to the cinema much, it’s always harder to add to that category early in the year, but I still had options. Considering how far ahead I am overall, it doesn’t worry me — it’s an easy one to catch up later. It’s a shame not to hit the goal every month as planned, but it’s not something I’m going to lose sleep over.
  • The Man with the Golden Gun could also have counted for Series Progression, because it’s part of my chronological rewatch of the Bond films (which has, ridiculously, been going since 2012), but it served a stronger purpose counting for Rewatch this month.
  • This month’s Blindspot film was D.W. Griffith’s insanely-expensive anthology epic Intolerance, aka Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (I feel like it used to commonly go by the short title and now commonly goes by the long one, and there’s a reasonable argument either way).
  • Not that it matters, but I bought Intolerance on Blu-ray ten years ago this month, but only just put those discs in my player. And I’m sure that’s not even close to the oldest unplayed title I own.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was — to quote Hitch himself — “the first true Hitchcock picture”, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Lifeforce.



The 118th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
It’s sort of ridiculous and clearly more of a “cult classic” than a genuinely great film, but I really enjoyed Lifeforce. It’s a film that’s not afraid to go big and barmy, despite its limitations, and I admire that ambition. And, yeah, Mathilda May doesn’t hurt either. As I wrote on Letterboxd, “this is exactly the sort of stuff stereotypical 13-year-old boys should want to watch, not more Marvel slop.”

Least Favourite Film of the Month
It feels somewhat like punching down to pick on films from the Edgar Wallace Mysteries for this award — they’re somewhere between a ‘quota quickie’ and an anthology TV series, after all, and I’m sure no one involved thought they were making Great Art that would still be watched over 60 years later. Nonetheless, many of them are perfectly fine entertainment, so it’s still noteworthy when they fall short; and, to be honest, I didn’t watch anything else that bad this month. Of the two Edgar Wallaces I watched in March, particular dishonour goes to The Sinister Man for being casually racist — not maliciously so; more through ignorance, a lack of accurate information, and therefore poorly engaging with its own themes and content; but still, watching today, even at its best its somewhat laughable.


I got through ‘April’ in March — will I get through ‘May’ in April? Even if I don’t, I hope I don’t throw away this nice lead I’ve built up.

The Belated Monthly Review of February 2025

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A belated ‘hello’ from me for this month’s look back at last month. Don’t take this post’s delayed appearance as a worrying sign of me slipping further away from the blog — I simply had a busy end to February, meaning I couldn’t get a head start on this, and then an occupied weekend (mainly Oscar-focused), which combined meant I was only able to crack on with this post today. Similarly, I wouldn’t bank on seeing the “failures” before Thursday.

(Related side note: across 116 adjective-led monthly reviews, can you believe I’ve never used “belated”? This certainly isn’t the first late edition! Maybe I previously thought it was too obvious. Well, I’ve burnt that usage now.)

A separate issue: no new film reviews yet this year. I now ‘owe’ at least three, to fulfil my commitment of reviewing the previous month’s favourite: The Good, the Bad, the Weird from December, Milano Calibro 9 from January, and whatever this month’s winner is (see below to find out!) I’m hoping to begin that catch-up in March, but we’ll see what else life throws my way.



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#12 Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) — 50 Unseen #3
#13 Macbeth (2025) — New Film #2
#14 Vendetta for the Saint (1969) — Wildcard #3
#15 Silver Blaze (1937) — Series Progression #2
#16 Long Story Short (2021) — Wildcard #4
#17 Róise & Frank (2022) — Failure #2
#18 Snake Eyes (1998) — Rewatch #2
#19 Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) — WDYMYHS #2
#20 Freaks (1932) — Blindspot #2
#21 Grand Theft Hamlet (2024) — Wildcard #5
#22 Marty (1955) — Wildcard #6


  • I watched 10 feature films I’d never seen before in February.
  • All of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • #22 is the furthest I’ve reached by the end of February since my new-style Challenge began in 2022 — my target for this point is only #16, so I easily cleared that. (I would have had to get all the way to #24 to be a whole month ahead.)
  • Watching Silver Blaze means I’ve finally finished the Arthur Wontner Sherlock Holmes films (what survives of them, anyway: there were five; one is lost), which is the first time in quite a while* I’ve been able to remove a series from my “in the middle of” list. (* The last was Song of the Thin Man, completing my Thin Man rewatch, back in May 2024 — nine months ago.)
  • This month’s Blindspot film was Tod Browning’s enduringly-controversial carnival drama Freaks.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr — it’s the one where the house falls around him.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Róise & Frank and rewatched Snake Eyes.



The 117th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
I’m borderline on whether this even counts as a “a film”, because it’s a filmed stage production — that’s the kind of thing I’ve gone either way on in the past. The deciding factor, really, was that I saw it in a cinema — not only because “what you see in cinemas is films”, but because if I didn’t count it, I wouldn’t be able to count it towards my stats at the end of the year, which could potentially lead me to write something like “I made no trips to the cinema this year” when I had, in fact, made one. Also, the fact I’m now saying it’s the best feature-length filmed thing I watched this month is another reason it seems worthy of inclusion. Anyway, it’s the David Tennant and Cush Jumbo-starring version of Macbeth, which seems to have been so popular they’ve scheduled multiple encore screenings and even a proper re-release — so if you missed it and are interested, keep your eye on local listings.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
No disasters this month, which leaves me with the always-slightly-awkward task of lambasting something I fundamentally enjoyed, just not as much as everything else. If you were to look at my Letterboxd diary, you might think this an easy decision: there’s only one film there I’ve graded 3 stars, so it’s that one… right? But I don’t feel like Silver Blaze was that bad. But then, what was? So, any pick is a bit harsh, but I’ve still settled on <strongLong Story Short, which I think I may have slightly overrated because its concluding message hit me particularly hard, for whatever reason.


Reviews? Maybe! Films? Definitely. And, launching off the success of this month, there’s a very real chance I’ll be a whole month ahead of target on my Challenge by the end of March. No guarantees, though — you’ll just have to come back in 31 29 days to find out.

The Back to the Start Monthly Review of January 2025

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As always, the triumph (or failure, but you feel it more after triumph) of the end of the year is followed by being kicked right back to the start. So, without further ado, the 19th year of my Challenge began with…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#1 Death Goes to School (1953) — Wildcard #1
#2 Anna Karenina (2012) — 50 Unseen #1
#3 The Six Triple Eight (2024) — Wildcard #2
#4 Run Lola Run (1998) — Failure #1
#5 Eraserhead (1977) — Blindspot #1
#6 Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger (2025) — New Film #1
#7 Milano Calibro 9 (1972) — Genre #1
#8 Ice Age: Collision Course 3D (2016) — Series Progression #1
#9 Empire of Light (2022) — 50 Unseen #2
#10 Fist of Fury (1972) — WDYMYHS #1
#11 Oliver & Company (1988) — Rewatch #1


  • I watched 10 feature films I’d never seen before in January.
  • All of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • Regular readers may be aware that the target for the end of January (to be on track for #100) is #8, so I’m nicely ahead. Mind you, I’ve been ahead every year of the new Challenge so far; in 2022, I even made it one further. Point being: it doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot.
  • More importantly (I think), I’ve managed to get all nine Challenge categories underway — the first time I’ve achieved that in January.
  • An even longer-held first (which I can report on because, yes, I keep records of ridiculous things like this): 2025 is the first time in the 19-year history of this blog that I’ve watched films #1 and #2 on the same day. (With the caveat that my records are a bit less thorough for 2007 and 2008, so it may have happened all the way back then as well.)
  • On the downside, I didn’t manage to post any film reviews this month — neither an attempt at starting 2025’s coverage, nor my favourite film winner from last month. Having devoted so much time to my end-of-year wrap-up posts at the start of the month, then having a busy time at the ol’ day job, I didn’t squeeze any review-writing in. I’ll try to get back on it next month.
  • This month’s Blindspot film was the debut feature by David Lynch (RIP), Eraserhead.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was Bruce Lee classic Fist of Fury.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Run Lola Run.



The 116th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
I’d never previously seen a poliziotteschi, this year’s chosen genre, so I decided to dive in with something that is regularly highly recommended — and (as you’ve surely guessed from this intro) it paid off, with Milano Calibro 9 (aka Caliber 9) being just about my favourite film this month (“just about” because there were a couple of other very good ones). That’s fortunate — imagine if I’d hated it just after I’d committed myself to a year of them?

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I finally went back to a film series I was working through a few years ago, and almost immediately regretted it. I did wonder if they were always this bad, but the internet assures me that, no, Ice Age: Collision Course really is a nadir.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
You might be expecting me to again mention my lack of reviews, and I was going to, but something more pressing has emerged. Unfortunately, WordPress / Jetpack recently changed the way they display traffic statistics, which means it’s become a pain in the arse to work out the winner of this category every month. I battled through to the end of last year, but I’m not going to put up with it going forward — so, sadly, the audience award is no more.

And on that downer…


February is the shortest month of the year. Fortunately, I’m already ahead of schedule. Will I still be ahead as we head into March? Find out in 28 days!

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen These Films You’ve Bought Multiple Times?

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Reader, I want to make a confession: sometimes I buy new copies of films I already own but have never seen. Never mind blind buying, I blind upgrade. It’s stupid, I know — why not at least watch the copy I already have to see if I like the thing before purchasing it a second time? But when Blu-ray came along, the leap in quality from DVD was so great (especially with a new transfer and/or restoration) that sometimes it feels like “why would I watch this crappy version just because I already have it when that better one exists?” And now with 4K… well, I do it less often, because the jump between HD and UHD isn’t always as pronounced (and if they fuck it up, sometimes the new version is worse).

Nonetheless, the theme of this year’s WDYMYHS was provoked by my relatively recent (i.e. in October) purchase of Le Samouraï in 4K. I first owned that film on DVD, didn’t get round to watching it, then a Blu-ray came along, and it seemed like it would be worth an upgrade. I didn’t get round to watching that either before the 4K came along — well, I wasn’t going to upgrade again! But then the reviews were so good… I did at least manage to resist until it was discounted. Although, all three of those were Criterion editions, so it was never truly cheap. Eesh. I really hope I like it as much as I’m expecting to…

That might be my most egregious example of ridiculous triple-dipping (I feel like I’ve more than triple-dipped on some titles, but at least those were ones I already knew I liked), and it’s what led me to this theme: I wanted a selection methodology that would force me to finally watch Le Samouraï, so what better than the very reason I wanted to be forced to watch it? I was certain I’d find another 11 films (at least) that had a similar purchase history. And, reader, I did. Of course I did. I won’t give you the full story of how many times I’ve re-bought them or why, but I’ve owned them all at least twice without ever actually watching them — until now!

In alphabetical order, they are…

The City of Lost Children

The City of Lost Children

Fist of Fury

 Fist of Fury
The Lodger

The Lodger

Out of Sight

 Out of Sight
Project A

Project A

Saboteur

 Saboteur
Le Samouraï

Le Samouraï

Spartacus

 Spartacus
Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Tenebrae

 Tenebrae
The Untouchables

The Untouchables

The Wolf Man

 The Wolf Man

As I intimated in the introduction, these aren’t the only 12 films I’ve upgraded without watching, so how did I settle on this particular batch? For once, it was mostly personal preference rather than other people’s rankings. I started by making a list of eligible titles, along with how many times I’d owned them — given the theme of the list, I wanted to err towards the ones I’d repurchased the most. Then I simply picked the ones I wanted to include.

Except it wasn’t quite that simple. In compiling the list, I noticed a couple of themes. Thanks primarily to some films being released repeatedly in sets, there were multiple films on the list directed by Alfred Hitchcock, or Dario Argento; or starring Bruce Lee, or Jackie Chan, or Buster Keaton; or from the classic period of Universal’s horror output… I decided that, as those were clear groups, representative examples of each should definitely be included. And that’s when I did fall back on old tricks: I ranked each group by their popularity and average ratings on Letterboxd. That wasn’t the be-all-and-end-all (neither of the two Hitchcocks I chose were in his top two), but it was a useful guide. I chose one from each category, with the exception of Hitchcock, who gets two because I’ve upgraded his films in different ways for different reasons. Saboteur represents the 14 titles that Universal have repeatedly reissued in box sets of varying kinds. The Lodger represents the rest, though in particular his British pre-Hollywood career.

With the five other films featuring work by visionaries like Stanley Kubrick, Steven Soderbergh, Brian De Palma, and Jean-Pierres both Jeunet and Melville, it looks like another exciting year ahead for this category. Let’s hope they live up to my expectations — I’ve certainly spent enough money on them.

Blindspot 2025

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This is my 13th year doing a version of Blindspot, so I’m not sure my customary introduction to the concept is still necessary. But in case there are still people who haven’t heard of it: this is a challenge in which you pick twelve films you’ve never seen but feel you should have (your blindspots) and watch one per month throughout the year.

Regular readers will know that my Blindspot selection process is often tortuously complicated. I don’t just pick twelve films I feel like watching, but compile various “great films” lists and use them to concoct some kind of ranking. Not so this year. I’m still using other people’s opinions, I’ve just made it very simple: every film on the list is the most popular one I’ve not seen (according to Letterboxd) from each decade since the origin of feature films.

In chronological order, they are…

Intolerance

1910s
Intolerance

1920s
Häxan

 Häxan
Freaks

1930s
Freaks

1940s
Cat People

 Cat People
Rebel Without a Cause

1950s
Rebel Without a Cause

1960s
The Graduate

 The Graduate
Eraserhead

1970s
Eraserhead

1980s
Kiki’s Delivery Service

 Kiki's Delivery Service
Girl, Interrupted

1990s
Girl, Interrupted

2000s
The Notebook

 The Notebook
Midsommar

2010s
Midsommar

2020s
Saltburn

 Saltburn

Normally I close out this post with a lengthy explanation of my process, but, um, I’ve already covered that this year. I suppose I should preemptively add that, yes, I’m aware the very first feature-length film was released in 1906; but few followed until the 1910s, so I still feel fine with this basic concept.

To finish, a bit of… trivia? I don’t know. Anyway: I did consider making this year’s selection simply the all-time most popular films I’ve not seen (that’s sort of what Blindspot is, after all), but Letterboxd skews incredibly recent in that regard. I mean, if I’d taken those twelve, two-thirds would have been from 2023–2024, and the oldest would have been from 2012. That’s the kind of thing I have the 50 Unseen category for.

The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025

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For the 19th year in a row, I’m going to try to watch 100 films in a year. And for the fourth year in a row, I’ve made it much more complicated than that. I don’t know if I can still call it “new-style” at this point, but nonetheless, here I go again with the, er, more-recent-style 100 Films in a Year Challenge.

This year, I feel a renewed sense of confidence in this Challenge actually having a point, thanks to finally completing it in 2024. I mean, if I kept failing it, why keep doing it? Surely that would mean it just doesn’t work? But now I’ve done it, I’ve proved to myself I was right: it’s not an unreasonable exercise. (Talking entirely about myself, here. I’m sure the kind of people who routinely watch 300 or 400 or 500 or more films year after year would have no problem dashing this off in amongst their viewing.)

You might think that, having apparently hit upon the right formula after three years of trying, I wouldn’t make any changes to the Challenge for 2025. And… you’d sort of be right. That wasn’t my motivation, but I have got a balance of categories that I’m happy with. So, no brand-new categories this year, although I have completely changed the rules for one (and another almost got replaced — read on to find out which); plus, a couple of others have changed their specific theme, as always.

But enough of being vague — let’s get into this year’s categories and their rules.

First, the one rule that applies across all categories: a film can only count once. Sounds obvious, but the categories are not mutually exclusive: I could rewatch a film from a series I’m halfway through that’s in this year’s genre, and thus it could qualify in three categories — but it can only be counted in one of them.

New Films

x12. Any film with a general release date (i.e. not festival screenings, etc) in the UK (i.e. not in the US, nor any other country) between 1st January 2025 and 31st December 2025. Maximum one per month (but rolls over if I fail to watch one).

Rewatches

x12. Any film I’ve seen before (unless it’s already been counted in 2025’s Challenge). Maximum one per month (with rollovers, as above).

Blindspot

x12. Twelve films, specifically chosen and named in advance, that I should have already seen. Meant to be watched one per month, but I typically fail at that and have to play catch up. This year’s twelve are discussed in a dedicated post here.

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…?

x12. Similar to Blindspot, these are twelve specifically chosen films meant to be watched one per month, but here my selections are based around a theme. This year’s theme, and the twelve films selected, are discussed in a dedicated post here.

Failures

x12. Every month, I list my “failures”: brand-new releases, additions to streamers, and disc purchases that I failed to watch in the previous month. Sometimes I catch up on some of them the next month. Often I don’t. Making them a Challenge category helps with this. A maximum of one per month counts; if I miss one, I catch up on that specific month later.

50 Unseen

x10. Any unwatched film from one of my year-end ’50 Unseen’ lists. It’s likely to be dominated by films from 2024’s list as I catch up on what I missed last year, but anything from the previous 18 years is eligible. (If you’re interested, there’s a complete list of candidates here.)

Genre

x10. Any films from within a specified genre — or, arguably, a sub-genre: I’m not focusing on anything broad like “Action” or “Comedy” here, but something relatively specific. Previous choices have included film noir, gialli, and martial arts movies. This year, it’s back to Italy for poliziotteschi.

Series Progression

x10. I considered replacing this category (not just for the sake of it — I had a specific idea), but it fills a gap the other categories don’t reach (and my replacement wouldn’t have been so unique). Besides, Letterboxd tells me I still have 33 series underway, so it’s a worthwhile cause. The rules haven’t changed: any instalment of a film series I’m already watching qualifies; if I start a new series, the first film can’t count but any further films can.

Wildcards

x10. For 2025, I’m turning the Wildcard category on its head, because it now has only one rule: films can’t have qualified in any other category. If I watch two brand-new releases in January? Sorry, that second one just doesn’t count. If I’ve filled up Series Progression and then watch an eleventh film? Nope, no doing. This is a way to capture (and encourage) my viewing of anything and everything not covered by the other categories. (With such simple qualification criteria, there’s every chance I’ll burn through these ten slots fairly quickly. I considered introducing a second rule to mitigate that, but decided to see how it goes in 2025 and maybe I’ll tighten it up for 2026, if that would be productive.)

As the year goes on, you can follow my progress on the Challenge Tracker page, and also via my monthly reviews; or there’s always my Letterboxd for the guaranteed most up-to-date status of my film logging.