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…

#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.

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!