A couple of months ago, a new person joined my team at work. She’s 19 years old. Part of me still processed that as “just a few years younger than me, then”. Of course, that’s just my mind cheating me. When I started this blog — 200 months ago — I was 20 years old. She would’ve been about 3. Why is it that, as you get older, the world seems to conspire to make you feel it?

(For what it’s worth, because I didn’t do these monthly reviews from the very start, this is, to be accurate, the 160th monthly review; and the 99th in (more-or-less) its current format, as chronicled by the numbering of the Arbies. I still kind of think of these monthly columns as “something I started doing later”, when in fact I’ve now been publishing them for 80% of the blog’s lifetime.)

I predicted at the end of last month’s update that August was going to be an inauspicious celebration of that landmark; and while the month wasn’t anything spectacular, it turned out mostly ok — as we shall see…

#59 The Imitation Game (2014) — Rewatch #8
#60 Santo vs. the Zombies (1962) — Series Progression #10
#61 Marriage of Convenience (1960) — Physical Media #7
#62 Murder on the Orient Express (2017) — Physical Media #8
#63 Greatest Days (2023) — New Film #8
#64 Urge to Kill (1960) — Physical Media #9
#65 65 (2023) — Failures #8

• I watched 10 feature films I’d never seen before in August.
• That’s the second month in a row I’ve hit my minimum target of 10 new films. And it’s the first time I’ve managed to reach 10 in consecutive months since February 2022. You wouldn’t think it was so hard, but it seems — for me nowadays — it is.
• Five of those films counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with two rewatches.
• This is one place the month was less than ideal, because I should have reached #66. But being only one film behind target isn’t so bad, especially when you consider I thought this month might be a total disaster.
• Though, to continue with the negatives, after spending two months triumphantly getting back on track, unfortunately I didn’t find time for either Blindspot or WDYMYHS during August. I’m hoping to get on top of them (again) in September.
• In brighter news, I completed my first Challenge category, Series Progression. I’ve currently got over 30 film series on the go, so it’s not really a surprise that I found this category fairly easy. (Not to mention that five of the nine categories are consciously designed to not be finished until December; and Wildcards rely on other categories’ stipulations being completed; so really there are only three categories that are likely to wrap up first.)
• Right behind is Physical Media, now only one film away from completion.
• Meanwhile, Genre is still 80% incomplete. I’m gonna have to do some kind of giallo marathon at some point, I think.
• From last month’s “failures” I only watched 65.
• And yes, I did deliberately pace my viewing so that 65 was #65.

Favourite Film of the Month
Slim pickings this month, to be honest. Some of August’s ten new films have managed to make the long list for my end-of-year “best of”, but then I’m quite lax about what gets on the list so I have maximum options when I come to decide (in case of opinions changing on reflection). I won’t be surprised if they all get culled fairly easily, come the time. That said, I was a lot fonder of Amazon Prime spy thriller All the Old Knives than most reviewers. It’s not up to Le Carré standards, but it’s pretty good if you’re a fan of that kind of spy tale.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
Conversely, this has to go to another spy flick. Despite a strong cast (Sirs Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier) and director (Terence Young, who helmed three Connery Bonds), and interesting real-life inspiration (the defection of Kim Philby), The Jigsaw Man is an undercooked disappointment, with almost no redeeming features whatsoever.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
August 22nd was the six-month anniversary of the last review posted to this blog, which even then was just a shorts roundup. I haven’t reviewed a feature since February 10th. 2023 is turning out to be something of a disaster in that regard. More pertinently, it means this month’s audience award has just two competitors once again — namely, July’s monthly review and its failures. Of the two, it was (as the bold link may’ve given away) the former that triumphed, meaning the review has beaten the failures four months in a row.

The centenary-related celebrations aren’t over because, by sheer coincidence (I certainly didn’t plan it this way back in 2015), next month is the 100th edition of my Monthly Arbitrary Awards, aka the Arbies! Do I have anything special planned to mark the occasion? No. Will I think of something in the next 30 days? Maybe.

Over in the real world, I’m leaving my current job to start a new one. Sounds time-consuming and antithetical to getting films watched, doesn’t it? Oh dear. On the bright side, I have a small amount of time off in between roles, so hopefully i can cram a bunch of films in then. I’ve certainly got plenty that I want to catch up on.