Well, I don’t know about you, but October’s been a funny old month around these parts. On the one hand, my minor medical maladies continued when I caught Covid. Fortunately, it was no worse than a bad cold, although it managed to linger somewhat in the form of a cough and a certain amount of lethargy, which ultimately led to me missing one of the two films I’d booked at FilmBath Festival. Disappointing, but at least it was one I’ll have a chance to see again in the future. The other screening — the one I made it to — included Danny Boyle’s rarely-seen short Alien Love Triangle, so I was glad not to miss that.

Also in the “negatives” column (as far as film viewing was concerned) was my personal marathon of various media in honour of Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary. Again, that robbed time from possible film watching, but not as much as feared after the BBC announced the new 60th anniversary specials won’t begin airing until 25th November. I’d been cramming stuff in aiming for 11th November, so I gained a bit of leeway once that news broke. Naturally, some of my re-gained time has been applied to movies.

And so, after all that tumultuousness, the past month in my Challenge ended up going as follows…

#73 Road to Utopia (1945) — Wildcard #9
#74 Partners in Crime (1961) — Wildcard #10
#75 Close-Up (1990) — Blindspot #8
#76 Flora and Son (2023) — New Film #9
#77 Nothing Sacred (1937) — Failures #10
#78 The Pigeon Tunnel (2023) — New Film #10
#79 Sing Street (2016) — Rewatch #10
#80 The Possessed (1965) — Genre #4

• I watched 10 feature films I’d never seen before in October.
• Yes, I’m back up to my minimum monthly target! At this point, I’ll save any more commentary on that until after we see how November and December play out.
• Seven of those films counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
• I completed my third Challenge category this month. After concluding Series Progression in August and Physical Media in September, this month it was the turn of the Wildcards. So much for them possibly being useful in December! The final two were spent on, funnily enough, a Series Progression and a Physical Media. Don’t expect any more to be crossed off until December now — two of them can’t be, due to their own rules; two of them shouldn’t be, because they’re designed to be paced throughout the year; and the other one is just too far off being done.
• This month’s Blindspot film was Abbas Kiarostami’s drama/documentary line-blurrer Close-Up.
• No WDYMYHS film this month. More on that in the “next month” section.
• From last month’s “failures” I only watched Nothing Sacred.

Favourite Film of the Month
There are multiple possible interpretations of “favourite” in this context. The usual one is “best”. Another might be “most enjoyable”, which is more what I actually aim for. This month, I’m slightly realigning that to be “one I’m most glad I’ve seen”. I may have seen ‘better’ movies this month, but Danny Boyle’s short Alien Love Triangle was really good and, thanks to its extreme rarity, I’m pleased I even got the chance to see it. I hope it’s made more widely available sometime, because it’s fun and deserves an audience, and because I’d like to see it again.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I guess this goes to the Edgar Wallace Mystery Partners in Crime, which wasn’t bad — as a series of B-movies, they’re mostly solidly entertaining — but everything else I watched this month was slightly better.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
My continued lack of posting in between these monthly reviews means this category was once again a two horse race. Although, as if in a vain attempt to keep things moderately interesting, this month it was September’s Failures that was victorious. Neither set the chart alight, mind — it’s still my old TV columns that do most of the business.

As we head into the final 50 ‘useable’ days of the year (approximately. It’s family and Christmas stuff that take out the rest), I’ve got 20 films to go to complete my 2023 Challenge.

That includes four for both Blindspot and WDYMYHS. Sounds pretty equitable, right? Ah, but not all films are created equal! Those four WDYMYHS noirs have a combined running time of just under 7 hours, while the four remaining Blindspots add up to a little over 18 hours. Yeah, I’ve accidentally saved the three longest for last, again. Oops. History suggests I’m going to fail to pull it off, but you never know…