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The Mission: Accomplished Monthly Review of December 2024

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In my introduction to the 2024 edition of my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, I wondered if it would be “third time lucky” — having failed to complete the Challenge in 2022 and 2023, could I manage it in 2024? And the answer is: yes. Hurrah! Although it’s not really “luck”, but a mixture of dedication (sticking at it all year), tweaking (making changes year-on-year to keep the task challenging but make it achievable), and working out the best way to approach it (learning what didn’t work on my first two goes so I could avoid those mistakes).

I’ve felt a greater sense of achievement in completing the Challenge this year than I have for years. Partly that’s because I failed the last two years, so no achievement-feeling there; but also, the previous version of the Challenge had become de rigueur. Some years I completed it as early as May (four times out of fifteen, to be precise, so almost a third of the times I did it). Even if I didn’t manage that, completing it hadn’t been a problem since 2012 (which was the last time I failed — every success since then happened no later than November). It had become a sprint to the finish line, which wasn’t really what I wanted it to be — it was supposed to be a challenge, and it was supposed to take all year. That’s more or less why I decided to mix it up, and the fact I failed the new-style Challenge on my first two attempts shows I’d succeeded in making it trickier for myself. So, to manage it on my third go… I think it’s justified to feel a sense of achievement. Sure, it’s still only “watching films” — arguably one of the easiest, most passive hobbies you can have — but it’s something.

Anyway, there’ll be more reflection on the Challenge in its entirety in the days to come, when I trot out my usual array of year-end retrospectives. For now, let’s zoom in on the final stretch…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#94 Look Back (2024) — Failure #12
#95 Hotel Rwanda (2004) — WDYMYHS #10
#96 The Holdovers (2023) — New Film #12
#97 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) — WDYMYHS #11
#98 Le Trou (1960) — Blindspot #12
#99 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) — WDYMYHS #12
#100 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) — Rewatch #12


  • I watched 14 feature films I’d never seen before in December.
  • That means I’ve achieved at least 10 first-watches in every month of 2024 — the first whole calendar year I’ve managed that since 2020!
  • And 14 equals April for the most first-watches in a single month of 2024.
  • I haven’t been mentioning those kinds of stats much this year, because most months have been unremarkable. December’s done alright, though: it’s beaten the rolling average of the last 12 months (10.9); beaten the average for 2024 to date (previously 10.6, now 10.9 too, natch); and beaten the average for all Decembers (previously 11.6, now 11.8).
  • Back to my 100 Films in a Year Challenge: six of those first-watches counted towards my Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • Normally I’d count the first 2024 film of a month as the New Film, because it’s a ‘higher’ category; and normally I’d be only too happy to keep the Failures slot open a little longer, because there’s always so many of them. But there are so many 2024 releases I’ve missed, it felt more productive to try to force myself to watch another one of them rather than another Failure.
  • This is the first time I’ve completed Blindspot in this new era — I was one shy in 2022 and three short in 2023. (I didn’t complete WDYMYHS in 2022 either, but did in 2023.)
  • I watched all six Wallace & Gromit films this month, but only one of them counted towards my Challenge. It was nearly none at all, but I didn’t get in the other rewatch I had planned, so Curse of the Were-Rabbit snagged that space. Shorts don’t currently count anyway (maybe one day), but Vengeance Most Fowl could’ve been here as a New Film, if there’d been any slots left.
  • This month’s concluding Blindspot film was French prison break thriller Le Trou.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS films represented a whole quarter of the list. They were genocide drama Hotel Rwanda, racism drama To Kill a Mockingbird, and superhero adventure Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Bit of a change of tone at the end there.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched The Holdovers and Look Back.



The 115th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
As I get started on my yearly review posts, I’m endeavouring to give everything a final score (for the stats) and starting to think about my top ten list. There are a few films this month that are in contention for the latter, and I’m still considering giving 5s for the former. One that feels like a lock for the list but maybe not for a 5 (because I enjoyed it a heck of a lot, but is it a 5-star film? Not sure yet) was The Good, the Bad, the Weird — recently released on 4K by Arrow, but I watched my old Blu-ray copy to decide if I wanted to buy that new version. Suffice to say, I did.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I’m beginning to suspect 2024’s average score might be a strong one (but, hey, you never know) because this was another month with no truly bad films (a sentence I feel I’ve written a lot this year). That said, Hotel Rwanda struck me as a somewhat old-fashioned movie-ised treatment of a very real tragedy, which is a less than ideal reaction to something that should really be powerful.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Wordpress seem to have revised their stats presentation, making this harder to work out (they no longer highlight it for me — I have to look up every post one by one), which is a shame and makes me disinclined to continue this next year. But, for now, I can say the most-viewed post during December was the November monthly review — the fifth time the previous month’s review has won this award in 2024. It only beat the Failures by one hit, though.(For what its worth: of the other seven winners, it was the previous month’s failures twice, and a film review the other five times.)



Every review posted this month, including new titles and the Archive 5


It’s 2025 — a quarter of the way through the century! Jesus. Everything just conspires to make you feel old nowadays, doesn’t it?

As ever, before I get into the swing of the new year, I’ll be spending a good few posts looking back at the old one. After another mostly-quiet year here on 100 Films, it’s going to be a busy week (give or take).

The Tough Monthly Review of November 2024

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Some months, I find it easy to know how to title or theme this monthly review. Other times, it’s tough to come up with an idea.

Yeah.

Anyway, on with the regular stuff…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#86 Lee (2023) — New Film #10
#87 Inside Out 2 (2024) — New Film #11
#88 The Seventh Victim (1943) — Failure #11
#89 Duel to the Death (1983) — Genre #9
#90 Blitz (2024) — Wildcard #10
#91 The Cranes Are Flying (1957) — Blindspot #11
#92 Dragons Forever (1988) — Genre #10
#93 First Knight (1995) — Rewatch #11


  • I watched 11 feature films I’d never seen before in November.
  • Seven of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • I’d hoped to get to #95 this month, which is the maximum I could by the end of November (because five categories have a “one per month” limiter in their rules). Still, only having seven left for December feels manageable.
  • Perhaps more importantly: reaching #90 means I’ve already beaten how far I made it in 2022’s Challenge (which I chose to abandon at #89).
  • And reaching #93 means I’ve also beaten 2023 (which I didn’t consciously abandon, although I stood no serious chance of achieving it at this point that year, when I entered December with 17 films still to go).
  • Shockingly, I almost made it all the way through the Martial Arts Genre category without properly including Jackie Chan (although he did feature in the clip-based documentary I watched as the category’s first film). With hundreds of films to choose from to finish off the category, making sure to include Chan properly seemed as good a deciding factor as any; although Letterboxd’s new list-stats feature showed me even that left 40 films to pick from. I chose Dragons Forever because it co-stars fellow big names Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, and was the trio’s final collaboration. That seemed like a fitting end-cap for the year.
  • More importantly: this is the first year I’ve actually completed the Genre category! (Though, as a caveat, I did watch 11 (out of 12) films for it in 2022, which would’ve been enough to meet the reduced count of 10 in 2023 and 2024.)
  • After reading ghostof82’s review, I found I had the passion* to make it happen**, and so watched Flashdance. It didn’t qualify for the Challenge, but I felt like mentioning it.***
    * a vague interest that wasn’t there before
    ** watch a film that was available on a streamer I’m already subscribed to
    *** just so I could repeat this quote/footnotes joke from my Letterboxd.
  • This month’s Blindspot film was Russian wartime drama The Cranes Are Flying.
  • No WDYMYHS films this month, even though I should have watched two. I’m at the pointy end of the IMDb Top 250 now, with all the films I’ve not already got round to for one reason or another; usually length or seriousness of subject. Getting through three of those in December — when the vibes are Christmassy joy, and so much time is consumed with family activities — is going to be the most challenging aspect of completing my Challenge.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched The Seventh Victim.



The 114th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
There were several strong contenders this month, and several where the difference between “best” and “favourite” may have come into play. Ultimately, I think the answer is probably the same either way, because I’m going to select Russian World War 2 drama The Cranes Are Flying — not the most fun film I watched this month, nor necessarily the one I’d rewatch soonest, but surely the most accomplished.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I suspect I’m broadly politically aligned with Ken Loach, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed The Old Oak. Sure, its storylines are worthy and its ultimate perspective correct, but it’s still heavy-handed, borderline amateurish, and occasionally a tough watch (as soon as the cute little dog encountered the barely-controlled bully breeds, I knew where that subplot was going).

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Since I’ve brought them back (albeit at the current rate of one a month — maybe I’ll manage to increase that in 2025?), film reviews have consistently outshone monthly reviews; and so it is this month too, with my review of Rosemary’s Baby the clear victor from November’s new posts.



Every review posted this month, including new titles and the Archive 5


Will it be third time lucky? I failed my new-style Challenge in its first two years, but this time I’m closer than ever. We’ll find out sometime in the next 31 days…

The Spooky Monthly Review of October 2024

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I’ve never been one to go in for the whole “watch only horror movies in October” thing. I’m not enough of a fan of the genre to delight in the prospect of immersing myself in it for 31 days straight; and, while I’m sure I have more than enough qualifying titles I want to see to fill that period (probably several times over), there’s so much else to watch too. I don’t know if I’ve ever gone a whole October without watching a single horror movie (I haven’t bothered to go back and check), but the very fact I think it’s possible says all it needs to, I feel.

That said, this year I did make a bit of an effort — while also aiming to hit my remaining Challenge categories, of course. So, for example, I picked out martial arts horror movies to tick off slot(s) in the Genre category; for my Rewatch, I looked to horror movies I’d been meaning to revisit; and for Blindspot, I specifically saved the two horror titles for this month — they weren’t originally included for that purpose (if they had been, I would’ve only picked one), but it’s a fringe benefit.

Well, those were my plans, anyway. Did I meet them all, or did I drift somewhere along the way? Read on to find out…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#76 Attempt to Kill (1961) — Wildcard #7
#77 Man Detained (1961) — Wildcard #8
#78 Host (2020) — Failure #10
#79 Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980) — Genre #7
#80 Erin Brockovich (2000) — Rewatch #10
#81 The Wages of Fear (1953) — WDYMYHS #9
#82 Rosemary’s Baby (1968) — Blindspot #9
#83 Dreadnaught (1981) — Genre #8
#84 Possession (1981) — Blindspot #10
#85 The Guest (2014) — Wildcard #9


  • I watched ten feature films I’d never seen before in October.
  • Eight of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with two rewatches.
  • I only ‘needed’ to get to #83 this month, so I’m currently ahead of schedule. More on why that’s especially beneficial right now in the “next month” section.
  • Outside of the Challenge, Encounter of the Spooky Kind was my 100th new film in 2024. That may not be my ‘official’ goal anymore, but hitting that milestone still feels worthy of note.
  • This month’s Genre films were both chosen because they were also labelled as horror films. Encounter lived up to it; Dreadnaught was a stretch (it’s sort of like a slasher movie, but only in a handful of individual sequences, not across the entire movie).
  • Three more Wildcards down, leaving just one for the final sixth of the year. I should have gone for a New Film on Halloween (I even had several horror options on hand), as I didn’t watch a 2024 release in October in the end, but I really fancied rewatching The Guest (which, if you don’t know, is set around Halloween, including a climax at the venue for a high school Halloween dance).
  • Possibly my most film-snob-y habit / opinion / whatever is that I insist on watching (feature) films on a TV (or at the cinema, obv). I don’t watch them on a computer; nor on a tablet; certainly not on a phone. But I made an exception for Host, because it’s such a ‘Zoom call’ movie that it kinda felt wrong to watch it on my TV when it was just as easy to watch it on my desktop (because it’s streaming on iPlayer).
  • This month’s Blindspot films were a pair of horror flicks I’d been saving especially for October, so I’m glad I got them both in. Specifically, they were Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession. Also, I’ve just realised they were both directed by Polish émigrés and about bad/abusive marriages. Coincidencetastic!
  • I didn’t have any outright horror films to choose for this month’s WDYMYHS viewing, but I went for The Wages of Fear because it has “fear” in the title — as good a reason as any, I guess.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Host.



The 113th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
It was a largely middling month, quality-wise, which would often make this category hard, but in fact made it easy, because one new film I watched was actually great and so stood head and shoulders above the others — that being Rosemary’s Baby. (I just realised the award title doesn’t actually specify “new film”, but it should. If rewatches were eligible, The Guest would’ve walked it.)

Least Favourite Film of the Month
The flip side to (almost) everything being middling is that there was nothing outright terrible. The two I’d single out at the bottom of the barrel are Dreadnaught and Attempt to Kill. The latter takes it because, although it’s not bad, it is thoroughly mediocre from beginning to end; and while I didn’t actually care for a lot of Dreadnaught, at least it has some fantastic sequences.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
There was only one film review to compete with my monthly summary and “failures” this month. Whether or not the fact it was for an acclaimed film by a beloved director had any bearing on the post’s success, I don’t know; but either way, the victory goes to Incendies.



Every review posted this month, including new titles and the Archive 5


Just two months of the year remain, and I feel like I need to be tactically-minded to complete my goals — after all, I failed in my New 100 Films Challenge in both its first and second years, so perhaps a different focus is needed to get it over the line this time.

On the bright side, I’m currently ahead of target pace, which is potentially a big bonus. That should go without saying as a general point, but it’s specifically the case with regard to the end of December. The final weeks of the year are a bad time to be trying to catch up, or even stay on target, as Christmastime family commitments make it trickier to watch films (especially specific films, as opposed to “what can we find to appease everyone?”) If I can get further ahead of target in November, that might enable me to push through the final few Challenge films in early December. According to the rules, December could be left with a minimum of five films (a new film, a rewatch, a ‘failure’ from November, plus the twelfth films from Blindspot and WDYMYHS) — if I can get to #95 by the end of November, that would be super.

All of which said, I don’t want to ‘gamify’ my film viewing too much, because that tick-box mentality is not the right way to approach art. But it’s been my attitude (for almost 18 whole years now) that if having these goals pushes me to watch a film, rather than spending another evening deciding it would be easier to just veg on social media or whatever, that can only be a good thing.

The Incendiary Monthly Review of September 2024

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I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you… this month’s films.



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#67 Godzilla Minus One (2023) — Wildcard #3
#68 Incendies (2010) — WDYMYHS #8
#69 Desperado (1995) — Failure #9
#70 The Fall Guy (2024) — New Film #9
#71 Frozen II 3D (2019) — Wildcard #4
#72 The Batman (2022) — Wildcard #5
#73 Golem (1980) — Wildcard #6
#74 Cutthroat Island (1995) — Rewatch #9
#75 Rio Bravo (1959) — Blindspot #8


  • I watched 10 feature films I’d never seen before in September.
  • Eight of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • Four of those qualified as Wildcards. That’s… fine. I mean, I should’ve been watching Blindspot and WDYMYHS films instead, really, but at least I was watching something. I always intend to leave the Wildcards as late in the year as possible, because they’re considerably easier to cross off than some other categories; but I’m also not going to watch a film that could qualify and not count it just so the slot is left open to be filled later — that’s a different kind of madness.
  • I left it so long to watch Godzilla Minus One that I didn’t think it was going to qualify for my Challenge. Let’s walk through the categories. My “New Films” go by UK release date, but G-1 is a seemingly-rare example of a film that is foreign language and an Oscar nominee, but was actually released in the UK in its original year of release. It was on my WDYMYHS list when I published that in January, but has since dropped off the IMDb Top 250 so no longer counts. It was in both May and June’s “Failures” after being surprise dropped on Netflix on June 1st, but I wasn’t subscribed at the time (I’m, uh, still not) so I missed that. It also featured in August’s Failures, but technically that was the black-and-white version so it would sorta be cheating. I could have waited until the UK disc release delivered it onto the Failures for a fourth time, but I have a suspicion that won’t be out until December. There is a theatrical re-release coming in the interim, but that only works for qualification if it (a) screens for more than one night (I don’t think it actually did last time, at least not near me), and (b) it’s released one month and is still screening the next (to qualify as a “failure”, again). But, for all that, it does perennially qualify thanks to being on my 2023 “50 Unseen” list… but I used up all the slots in that category already… but that’s what Wildcards are for! Hurrah! (And whew!)
  • For some reason I thought I had one Series Progression slot left to go, and Frozen II was going to fill that slot. It wasn’t a fault in my record keeping, just in my memory. So, as a wildcard, Frozen II could’ve counted as either Series Progression (that series being the Disney Animated Canon) or 50 Unseen (it was on 2019’s list). I went with the former because, as I said, that’s what I thought I was doing; and also because I’ve already has a 50 Unseen wildcard, so let’s keep it mixed up.
  • I’d been trying to keep the Batman films on my List of Reviews page in some semblance of series order, though that was always made harder by the animated films taking place in various different chronologies, not to mention two-thirds of the Dark Knight trilogy not even beginning with the word “Batman”. Now, after The Batman, I’ve just given in and put it in full-on alphabetical order. That also doesn’t feel quite right (the four Burton+ live-action films are now scattered and out of sequence), but nothing’s perfect (except arguably strict chronological across all the films… but even that throws up oddities, like interrupting the aforementioned live-action run with 1993’s Mask of the Phantasm).
  • This month’s Blindspot film was Howard Hawks and John Wayne’s response to High Noon, Rio Bravo. It’s a good film, though (even setting aside political leanings) I thought High Noon was better.
  • No WDYMYHS film this month, meaning I’m two behind on both the Blindspot categories. That’s intentional for Blindspot itself (I’ve got two horror films on the list, so I intend to watch both of those in October), but WDYMYHS now just needs to be caught up on.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Desperado, The Fall Guy, and Golem.



The 112th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
Quite a few films I enjoyed this month, even though a couple fell a little short of my high hopes for them (said hopes were probably too high, but what can you do?) One that absolutely lived up to its billing was Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies — one of those films that’s truly gruelling, but also truly exceptional.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
One of the things about liking 3D is that I’ll watch almost anything in 3D, which is how I came to watch “nudie cutie” Adam and 6 Eves. It’s a 60-minute film that exists to primarily show off topless women, with some pun-laden narration because, I dunno, I guess someone thought if they made it funny it would somehow stop it being crass? It didn’t work; it just made it worse.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Hey, would you look at that: I posted some actual film reviews! And one of them came out on top, too, with The Swordsman of All Swordsmen being my most-viewed post of the month. That said, it was only slightly ahead of the August monthly review; and the other new review post (Hepworth shorts) was way down the list. But if I was doing all this just for hits, I’d’ve given up a long time ago.



Every review posted this month, including new titles and the Archive 5


For some people, October is all about the horror movies. I always feel like I’ll go all-in on that too one year, but every time it rolls around I haven’t even considered that “one year” being this year. I do have a couple of seasonally-appropriate flicks I’ve been holding back for the occasion, though, so in 31 days we’ll see just how horrific my month gets.

The Wicked Little Monthly Review of August 2024

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In the spirit of “littleness”, I don’t have any great or insightful or amusing intro ideas for this month, so let’s just dive on in…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#59 Scenes from a Marriage (1974) — Blindspot #7
#60 Robot Dreams (2023) — New Film #8
#61 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) — Failure #7
#62 Road to Bali (1952) — Series Progression #9
#63 Clue of the Silver Key (1961) — Series Progression #10
#64 Hamilton (2020) — Rewatch #8
#65 Wicked Little Letters (2023) — Wildcard #2
#66 The Swordsman of All Swordsmen (1968) — Genre #6


  • I watched 11 feature films I’d never seen before in August.
  • Six of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with two rewatches.
  • That leaves me bang on target with the Challenge, which is slightly better than this time last year — which is good, because things only got worse month by month last time.
  • This post’s namesake, Wicked Little Letters, could’ve qualified as a wildcard on two fronts: as an additional New Film or an additional Failure. It doesn’t really matter which I class it as, but because it was a Failure in both February and July (and as one festival screening makes it, on most listings, a 2023 film rather than a 2024 one), it felt more fitting to designate it an additional Failure.
  • This month’s Blindspot film was Scenes from a Marriage. I should’ve watched two to get fully caught up, but (as discussed last month) I’m intentionally putting off that double-bill until October (let’s hope that pans out!)
  • No WDYMYHS film this month. I had a few days at the end of the month where I intended to get one in and, you know, I just didn’t feel like any of them. That’s just how it goes sometimes. I feel like that’s ok when I’ve still got a whole third of the year left to get caught up. That said, out of the past five runs of Blindspot/WDYMYHS I’ve only succeeded once, so maybe I should take the task a little more seriously.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Wicked Little Letters and rewatched The Man from U.N.C.L.E..



The 111th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
At either end of this month’s viewing sit the two best (new) films I saw this month. Now, I should probably pick the “insight into the human condition”-packed Bergman film, but, you see, that movie doesn’t have any sword fights, whereas The Swordsman of All Swordsmen has seven really good ones. Sorry, Ingmar.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
I expected Save the Cinema to be a pleasantly quirky British true story kinda film — a sort-of genre we seem to have specialised in for the past couple of decades — and it is, kinda… but it also feels like an imitation of one, where it’s going through the expected motions but doesn’t properly hang together in its own right. Shame.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
No reviews again this month (at this point you’d be more surprised if there had been, right?), so once again it’s a two-way battle between the monthly review and failures. The victor, by a considerable margin — and, somewhat intriguingly, continuing the alternating pattern that’s been going on since April — is July’s monthly review. Will the failures win again next month? Will there actually be some reviews in contention? Find out in 30 days’ time…


Summer’s over, here comes autumn. I know that kind of thinking depresses many people, but I welcome it. Heck, it’ll be Christmas before we know it. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves — I’ve still got 34 films left to go in my challenge, after all.

The Mysterious Monthly Review of July 2024

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I know why you’re really here, dear reader. Films? Pfft! It’s for the latest update on how many hours of Critical Role I’ve watched, isn’t it?

Well, even if it isn’t, totting that up sparked something of a mystery for me this month. I don’t feel like it’s been a particularly unusual 31 days, and yet my Critical Role-related viewing was less than half that of June, meaning it was even below what I watched in April and May (though not quite back down to where I started in March).

Did that mean I reverted my viewing time to films? Nope! I’ve still only made it to ten new films this month (plus one rewatch for the Challenge), and even getting there included a little bit of a deliberate push over the last week. Perhaps it was TV, then? Well, I did watch a few classic Doctor Who serials — but even they only add up to about 7½ hours of viewing.

So where did my time go instead of any obvious options? No idea! Probably wasted it on Twitter or something. This is why I continue to benefit from the existence of the Challenge: to motivate me to stop wasting my time.



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#50 Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) — New Film #7
#51 Like Stars on Earth (2007) — WDYMYHS #6
#52 Alice (1988) —Failure #7
#53 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) — 50 Unseen #10
#54 Moana 3D (2016) — Rewatch #7
#55 Kung Fu Hustle (2004) — Genre #5
#56 The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) — WDYMYHS #7
#57 The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935) — Series Progression #8
#58 Army of Shadows (1969) — Blindspot #6


  • I watched 10 feature films I’d never seen before in July.
  • Eight of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • With Mutant Mayhem, 50 Unseen becomes my first completed category of this year’s challenge. In the end, 7 out of 10 films were from 2023’s list — which is fine. I mean, it’d be nice to watch more from older lists too, but it’s no surprise that the most recent list gets more focus. (Of course, more 50 Unseen films may still qualify (indeed, I hope they will) in the Wildcard category.)
  • Conversely, Genre has only just reached the halfway point. But at least that’s not too far behind where it should be. And there’s only been one Wildcard, but then that’s partly their point (i.e. to still be around towards the end for maximum flexibility).
  • This month’s Blindspot film was the first I’ve seen directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, namely his French Resistance thriller Army of Shadows.
  • That means I’m still behind with Blindspot (having missed it in May, I’ve still got one to catch up). But I’m currently kind of ok with that, because I realised that I have two horror films on the list (Possession and Rosemary’s Baby) so, consequently, October would be the best month for a double dose.
  • I did catch up on WDYMYHS this month, though. Those films were Bollywood dyslexia drama Like Stars on Earth and three-hour post-war romantic melodrama — and Best Picture winner — The Best Years of Our Lives.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Alice.



The 110th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
A tight race between two excellent films from the end of the month, here, but I’m going to give the edge to Army of Shadows because… I don’t know, probably because I watched it most recently. Maybe if they were the other way round, The Best Years of Our Lives would’ve snagged it. They’re both great, anyway.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
No outright duds this month — arguably The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes came closest, but it’s mostly fine with flaws inherited from the source novel. The reason it’s not my pick here is that it was about what I expected it to be, whereas I’d been somewhat looking forward to Kung Fu Hustle for some time, but found it to be a little disappointing. There’s some good kung fu sequences, but a lot of the humour didn’t land for me and the narrative felt like too much of a shaggy dog story.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Just two to choose from again this month (I really need to put some effort into reviews). The monthly review won last time; the time before was the failures; and the time before that was the monthly review again… This month, the pattern continues (or, you could argue, is properly established) thanks to a victory by June’s failures.


Disc releases of big films from earlier in the year are beginning to come through now, so hopefully I’ll finally start catching up on all those films I sort of intended to see at the cinema but couldn’t be bothered to.

The Sunny Monthly Review of June 2024

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We’ve been experiencing a patch of seasonal weather for a change here in the UK, hence the adjective in the title of this month’s review. For some people, such weather might affect their film viewing — getting out while it’s nice and all that. Not me, though — I prefer the colder, winterier weather myself.

Not that staying inside in the cool has done anything to help my film viewing either, mind. It might have done, were it not for my Critical Role addiction continuing to get implausibly stronger: this month it ratcheted up to over 74 hours of my viewing time. During that, I crossed the quarter-way mark of Campaign 2, which made me realise just how long it’s going to take to catch up at my average pace so far (literally years), so that might explain why I watched quite so much this month — some futile attempt to speed that along. “Futile” because, even if I kept up 74 hours a month from now on, it would still take me roughly 16 months to get in pace with new episodes. So maybe I’ll ease off. Or, who knows, maybe I really will watch three solid days’ worth every month until the end of 2025…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#43 Man at the Carlton Tower (1961) — Series Progression #7
#44 Sleepless in Seattle (1993) — Rewatch #6
#45 Argylle (2024) — New Film #6
#46 Fast X (2023) — 50 Unseen #9
#47 Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) — Failure #6
#48 A Separation (2011) — WDYMYHS #5
#49 Yi Yi (2000) — Blindspot #5


  • I watched ten feature films I’d never seen before in June.
  • Six of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • The end of June is halfway through the year, of course, so only being on #49 makes it look like I’m behind; but the months are longer in the second half of the year, on average, so #50 isn’t actually ‘due’ until about July 2nd. I had hoped to get to #50 this month nonetheless, but things didn’t quite work out.
  • Also not working out as planned this month: Blindspot and WDYMYHS. After failing both last month, I should’ve watched two of each to catch up, but didn’t. On the bright side, I did get them both ticking over; coupled with the fact I’m still on target overall, that’s not too concerning — yet. I’ll try again next month.
  • So, this month’s Blindspot film was Edward Yang’s Yi Yi — I finally watched it after three years on the list (sort of: it was on 2022’s list and 2023’s allowed wildcards). It’s hard to say if it lived up to the hype when the hype is so large, but it’s certainly very good.
  • And this month’s WDYMYHS film was Iranian relationship drama (that turned out to not really be a relationship drama after all; at least not primarily) A Separation.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Four Flies on Grey Velvet (though via a UHD download I already had, rather than the Prime Video appearance that earnt its place on the failures list).



The 109th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
The past few days I’ve been feeling like I haven’t seen a film I truly loved for ages and, looking back over June’s viewing for this category, I can see that feeling isn’t exactly wrong. There were some I admired this month though, most of all Yi Yi. I wouldn’t bank on anything from June making my year-end best-of list, mind. That said, it’s not been a stellar year all round, so if thing’s don’t pick up…

Least Favourite Film of the Month
On the other hand, it’s not exactly been bad — I have most of my viewing from this month down for a 3 (when I finally get round to posting reviews). Aside from a couple of 4s (and Yi Yi may yet nudge a 5 on reflection), the only outlier is Fast X — I may yet decide that only deserves a 2.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
No reviews this month (oops), so the contenders here are limited to just the two posts from the start of the month. Of those, May’s monthly review triumphed with 77% more views than May’s failures.


No predictions (other than “more Critical Role”), but I’m now beginning to amass movies I missed earlier in 2024 on disc, so I ought to pay attention to those, really. (More details on which movies those are exactly in the failures post, which would normally land tomorrow but might be a day or two late this month.)

The Thin Monthly Review of May 2024

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A year after I started a rewatch of the Thin Man films by bingeing half of them, I finally got round to the other half — hence the title of this monthly review; because, while it’s by no means a spectacular month, it’s not an especially thin one either.

That said, movie watching still continues to be sidelined by my current obsession: Critical Role. After last month’s solid 48 hours of viewing, my pace dipped slightly to 43½ hours — though that shortfall can be entirely explained by my time not being wholly my own for the last week of the month. The way things are going, maybe I should rechristen the blog “100 Episodes of Critical Role in a Year”. (And it was only after drafting that sentence in my mind and drafting it again on screen that I remembered this site isn’t actually called “100 Films in a Year” anymore. Ho hum.)



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#33 Strays (2023) — Failure #5
#34 The Mystery of Chess Boxing (1979) — Genre #4
#35 Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023) — 50 Unseen #7
#36 The Menu (2022) — 50 Unseen #8
#37 And Life Goes On (1992) — Series Progression #4
#38 Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) — Rewatch #4
#39 The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) — Rewatch #5
#40 Song of the Thin Man (1947) — Series Progression #5
#41 October Moth (1960) — Series Progression #6
#42 Murder and Cocktails (2024) — New Film #5


  • I watched 10 feature films I’d never seen before in May.
  • Seven of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with three rewatches.
  • That means my Challenge is back on target, after being slightly behind for the last two months. In fact, it’s ever so slightly ahead (by a grand total of one film), which is nice.
  • It also means I’ve hit my ten new films minimum target for every month in 2024 so far, equalling my annual total for each of 2022 and 2023. I managed ten months in 2021 — hopefully it’ll be all twelve this year (which I last achieved in 2020).
  • And Life Goes On is the second film in Abbas Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy, after watching the first for Blindspot last month. It’s also known as Life and Nothing More…, which seems to be a more accurate translation of the original Persian title, but the Criterion BD uses And Life Goes On, and as that’s the film’s primary release method in the UK and US nowadays, I feel like that’s the title I should go with, whatever the rest of the internet wants to pretend.
  • As I mentioned in the introduction, I finally finished the Thin Man series again, the first half of which I watched at the end of last May — neat, but I didn’t realise it had been so long. This trio could qualify as either Rewatches or Series Progression; as I was behind on the former, that’s where I counted two of them, with the series’ final film getting the latter category to its halfway point.
  • It feels a little like cheating to count October Moth as “series progression” for the Edgar Wallace Mysteries, because it wasn’t really an Edgar Wallace Mystery: it was one of seven other films bundled with those films for TV sales. But it’s included in the DVD set (albeit as a special feature), and I watched it as “the next film in the Edgar Wallace Mysteries box set”, so I think that’s qualification enough. Just about.
  • Despite all those successes, I didn’t watch either a Blindspot or WDYMYHS film this month. Well, it wouldn’t truly feel like my 100 Films Challenge if I didn’t have something that needed catching up.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Strays.



The 108th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
I’d heard good things and so been looking forward to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves anyway, but obviously it particularly aligns with my other interests right now. It may not be the outright ‘best’ movie I watched this month, but it’s a massively fun action-adventure.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
Almost like the antithesis of Honor Among Thieves, the ’80s TV movie Mazes and Monsters is notorious for two reasons: starring a pre-fame Tom Hanks, and being a ludicrous ‘Satanic Panic’-motivated riff on Dungeons & Dragons, which at the time was a fairly new game that reactionary oldies were, well, reactionary about. The film itself doesn’t manage to transcend that drawback — it starts out more-or-less alright, but ends up just silly.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
A random bunch of reviews of films I watched years ago clearly weren’t of particular interest to readers, because May’s winner was April’s failures.



Every review posted this month, including new titles and the Archive 5


2024’s halfway point approaches.

The Critical Monthly Review of April 2024

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In the introduction to last month’s review I mentioned that, among other things, I’d spent 26½ hours watching Critical Role (and related content… by which I just mean after-show Talks Machina). Well, my maths tells me that in April I watched another 48 hours. Two solid days’ worth! Sure, when you consider that in the context of 30 days it doesn’t sound a lot, but I’m not sure I spent that much time on one other single thing (excepting sleep). And I’m actually holding back a bit, forcing myself to do other things with my free time and not just stream, stream, stream. There’s certainly a lot to get through: I’m only 10% through Campaign 2 — just 630 hours to go.

And yet, despite that, my movie watching is doing ok. So ok, in fact, that in April I watched the most films of any month so far this year. As the star of one of them might say: wahoo!



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#23 The Monuments Men (2014) — 50 Unseen #5
#24 American Fiction (2023) — Failure #4
#25 The Fourth Square (1961) — Series Progression #3
#26 The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) — Wildcard #1
#27 The Inspector Wears Skirts Part II (1989) — Genre #3
#28 Spawn: Director’s Cut (1997/1998) — Rewatch #3
#29 I.S.S. (2023) — New Film #4
#30 12th Fail (2023) — WDYMYHS #4
#31 No Hard Feelings (2023) — 50 Unseen #6
#32 Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987) — Blindspot #4


  • I watched 14 feature films I’d never seen before in April.
  • As I said at the start, that’s the best month of 2024 so far, meaning it raises the average for the year to date from 10.3 to 11.3, and the rolling average of the last 12 months from 9.1 to 9.3.
  • Nine of those counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge, along with one rewatch.
  • That’s more than the usual eight needed to keep things ticking over, but not quite enough to catch up to target pace. Still, I was two behind at the end of March, now I’m only one behind. Maybe one day I’ll get ahead again, like I used to in the old days…
  • Several of this month’s Challenge films presented a choice of which category to qualify them for. For example, American Fiction could have been April’s New Film, as it was only released in February here; but as I.S.S. was actually released this month over here, that seemed even more fitting for the category. Plus, American Fiction had been in the Failures two months in a row (from its theatrical release in February and its subscription streaming debut in March), so that felt even more fitting.
  • Meanwhile, The Super Mario Bros. Movie could have been another 50 Unseen; but as that category is already halfway complete, I decided to finally inaugurate the Wildcards, counting the film as an additional Failure from March.
  • This month’s Blindspot film was the first film in Abbas Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy, Where Is the Friend’s House?, which I’ve wanted to see since learning about it in The Story of Film nine years ago (see the reference under my comments on Part Thirteen).
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was one of the newest entries into the IMDb Top 250, Indian exam drama 12th Fail.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched American Fiction, The Inspector Wears Skirts 2, No Hard Feelings, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.



The 107th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
Quality-wise, this is one of those months that felt fine but, when I look back, there aren’t a huge number of contenders for films I really loved. That makes this winner an easy pick, though: it’s American Fiction.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
The flipside is that there aren’t too many terrible films, either. By a nose, the (dis)honour goes to The Inspector Wears Skirts Part II. On the bright side, watching it now did save me from spending £30+ on parts three and four…

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Not many posts in contention this month, My review of I.S.S. interested hardly anyone, so the winner almost by default (there’s also the “failures”, of course) was March’s monthly review.



Every review posted this month, including new titles and the Archive 5


I’ve got some time off work at the start of May, so it may be an absolute banger of a month… or I may spend all that time watching Critical Role. Find out in 31 days!

The Eggy Monthly Review of March 2024

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In case you somehow missed it, it’s Easter weekend. That’s the only reason for the title. There are no eggs involved anywhere else in this post.

In terms of observations actually related to the blog, I only managed to keep one of my two main viewing goals ticking over — that is to say, I hit my “ten new films per month” target, but fell short of keeping my 100 Films Challenge on track (more detail in Viewing Notes, as usual). That said, I’m pleased to have achieved even that much in March, when films have found themselves competing with an uncommon amount of other stuff for my entertainment time. To be specific, I’ve started a rewatch of the ’90s X-Men animated series (I’m ten episodes in, which adds up to 3½ hours); finally been playing point-and-click adventure classic Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (for about 11 hours); and, most consumingly of all, found myself somewhat obsessed with cult-phenomenon actual-play Dungeons & Dragons series Critical Role (I’ve watched 26½ hours, plus untold more spent reading around it, and barely made a start on it); and that’s without counting up sundry other bits and pieces, like reading books and comics, or slowly rewatching Blackadder.

Anyway, to get back to the films (though there’s always the comment section if you’d like to talk about the other stuff), here’s, um, the films…



This month’s viewing towards my yearly challenge

#17 Dune: Part Two (2024) — New Film #3
#18 Maestro (2023) — 50 Unseen #4
#19 The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988) — Genre #2
#20 Black Tight Killers (1966) — Failures #3
#21 My Darling Clementine (1946) — Blindspot #3
#22 My Father and My Son (2005) — WDYMYHS #3


  • I watched 11 feature films I’d never seen before in March.
  • Just six of them counted towards my 100 Films in a Year Challenge.
  • That means (as I said at the start) that I exceeded my “ten films per month” minimum target — for the first time this year; also, that’s the fourth month in a row, which is the most consecutive ten-film months since a pandemic-aided run of 21 months in 2020/21. (The all-time record remains 60 months, aka five solid years.)
  • But (as also mentioned at the start) I fell short of where I should be in my Challenge — but only by two films. I’ve got the rest of the year to catch that up, so it’s far from a disaster. Yet.
  • This is also the first month of 2024 without any rewatches; although I did still manage two short films (I don’t think I’ve mentioned it, but I’m aiming to watch at least one of those each month too. That’s sort of an “unofficial” goal, though, in that I’m not exactly tracking it… except I am, because I keep records of all these things).
  • In terms of history and percentages and stuff, this is the best March since 2021, but because it’s still below March’s all-time average of 14.9, it brings it down to 14.6.
  • Conversely, being higher than last March means it does increase the rolling monthly average of the last 12 months, bringing it from 8.8 to 9.1. If I can continue my ten-films-per-month streak, eventually it’ll get above 10.0 again…
  • I posted my Dune: Part One review right at the end of February, fully intending to quickly follow it with my Dune: Part Two review in early March. That didn’t happen, obviously.
  • I’ve been buying Radiance releases since they sprung into existence back in mid-2022 (indeed, I’ve got 30 of the 37 titles they’ve released to date, plus several of their “partner label” releases too), but Black Tight Killers is the first one I’ve actually watched. I’m not one of those collectors who buys stuff just to keep on his self unopened… but I do have a bunch of stuff on my shelf unopened, because I am one of those collectors who’s interested in almost everything but can’t find the time to watch it all.
  • This month’s Blindspot film was John Ford’s version of the Wyatt Earp / gunfight at the O.K. Corral legend, My Darling Clementine.
  • Letterboxd informs me that My Darling Clementine was the first film I watched on a Tuesday this year. So there you go.
  • This month’s WDYMYHS film was Turkish intergenerational family drama My Father and My Son.
  • From last month’s “failures” I watched Black Tight Killers.



The 106th Monthly Arbitrary Awards

Favourite Film of the Month
I confess, I didn’t have any particular expectations of John Ford Western My Darling Clementine. Not that I thought it would be bad, but — despite it clearly having enough acclaim to get onto my Blindspot list — I didn’t sit down expecting a masterpiece or something either. Perhaps that’s what allowed it to blow me away, first from a visual standpoint (this is a film where even the day-for-night photography looks good) and then by… well, everything else.

Least Favourite Film of the Month
This has to be Alan Bennett adaptation Allelujah, which for much of its running time is an amiable-enough pro-NHS / anti-cutbacks polemic, before a final-reel twist threatens to undermine the whole thing. What a way to mangle your own point.

The Audience Award for Most-Viewed New Post of the Month
Now, technically — technically — the winner for this month was February’s Failures, which was way down the overall chart. I stress technically because I’m going to say the award actually goes to something I posted in February… but I posted it on February 29th, so it didn’t have much of a chance last month; and February 29th isn’t a real day anyway, so it’s sort of part of March. Very tenuously sort of. Anyway, that makes the winner my review of Dune: Part One, which actually cracked the overall top ten (at #8).



Every review posted this month, including new titles and the Archive 5


What balance will my entertainment choices level out at in April? Find out next month!