Tag Archives: What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen

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.

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.

100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024: Final Standing

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As the challenge tracker page will soon be replaced with a version keeping tabs on 2025’s effort, here’s an archive of how it looked at the very end of 2024.

The most noteworthy thing: it’s complete! For the first time since I revamped my Challenge in 2022, I’ve actually managed to get all the way to 100.

I’ll write more about that in the days to come. For now, here are the films that got me there…

On this page, I’ll track my progress with The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024. Learn more about the challenge here.

New Films

  1. Lift (2024)
  2. The Kitchen (2023)
  3. Dune: Part Two (2024)
  4. I.S.S. (2023)
  5. Murder and Cocktails (2024)
  6. Argylle (2024)
  7. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
  8. Robot Dreams (2023)
  9. The Fall Guy (2024)
  10. Lee (2023)
  11. Inside Out 2 (2024)
  12. The Holdovers (2023)

Rewatches

  1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse [3D] (2018)
  2. Dune: Part One [3D] (2021)
  3. Spawn: Director’s Cut (1997/1998)
  4. Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
  5. The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
  6. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
  7. Moana [3D] (2016)
  8. Hamilton (2020)
  9. Cutthroat Island (1995)
  10. Erin Brockovich (2000)
  11. First Knight (1995)
  12. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

Blindspot

  1. Only Yesterday (1991)
  2. The Innocents (1961)
  3. My Darling Clementine (1946)
  4. Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987)
  5. Yi Yi (2000)
  6. Army of Shadows (1969)
  7. Scenes from a Marriage (1974)
  8. Rio Bravo (1959)
  9. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
  10. Possession (1981)
  11. The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
  12. Le Trou (1960)

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…?

  1. In the Name of the Father (1993)
  2. Wild Tales (2014)
  3. My Father and My Son (2005)
  4. 12th Fail (2023)
  5. A Separation (2011)
  6. Like Stars on Earth (2007)
  7. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
  8. Incendies (2010)
  9. The Wages of Fear (1953)
  10. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
  11. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
  12. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Failures

  1. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)
  2. Ambulancen (2005)
  3. Black Tight Killers (1966)
  4. American Fiction (2023)
  5. Strays (2023)
  6. Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
  7. Alice (1988)
  8. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
  9. Desperado (1995)
  10. Host (2020)
  11. The Seventh Victim (1943)
  12. Look Back (2024)

50 Unseen

  1. Barbie (2023)
  2. Bottoms (2023)
  3. RRR (2022)
  4. Maestro (2023)
  5. The Monuments Men (2014)
  6. No Hard Feelings (2023)
  7. Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023)
  8. The Menu (2022)
  9. Fast X (2023)
  10. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Genre: Martial Arts

  1. The Best of the Martial Arts Films (1990)
  2. The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988)
  3. The Inspector Wears Skirts Part II (1989)
  4. The Mystery of Chess Boxing (1979)
  5. Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
  6. The Swordsman of All Swordsmen (1968)
  7. Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980)
  8. Dreadnaught (1981)
  9. Duel to the Death (1983)
  10. Dragons Forever (1988)

Series Progression

  1. Jackass Forever (2022)
  2. Despicable Me 3 [3D] (2017)
  3. The Fourth Square (1961)
  4. And Life Goes On (1992)
  5. Song of the Thin Man (1947)
  6. October Moth (1960)
  7. Man at the Carlton Tower (1961)
  8. The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935)
  9. Road to Bali (1952)
  10. Clue of the Silver Key (1961)

Wildcards

  1. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) — additional Failure from March
  2. Wicked Little Letters (2023) — additional Failure from July
  3. Godzilla Minus One (2023) — additional 50 Unseen
  4. Frozen II (2019) — additional Series Progression
  5. The Batman (2022) — additional 50 Unseen
  6. Golem (1980) — additional Failure from August
  7. Attempt to Kill (1961) — additional Series Progression
  8. Man Detained (1961) — additional Series Progression
  9. The Guest (2014) — additional Rewatch in October
  10. Blitz (2024) — additional New Film in November

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen All of the IMDb Top 250?

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Ever since I began my 100 Films in a Year Challenge all the way back in 2007, I’ve kept track of my progress in completing one of the best-known “best of” lists on the internet: the IMDb Top 250. At first, I just noted how many I’d seen from the list as it stood at the end of December (21 in my first year, for example). Later, I began to monitor how many that meant I had left (I first noted in 2012 that there were 119 to go — i.e. almost half). Ultimately, over the first 17 years of this blog, my annual statistics say I’ve watched 211 films from the Top 250 — but films come and go from the list, and many of those 211 won’t even be on there anymore. For example: since I had 119 films left to go, I’ve watched 145 more, but I still have 19 outstanding.

That’s why I’ve made the IMDb Top 250 the subject of 2024’s WDYMYHS: to push myself closer to completing the list. I’ve thought about doing this for several years, but WDYMYHS requires only 12 films and I’ve always had more than that left to go. But the chances of landing on exactly 12 at exactly the right time (i.e. in December/January) are moderately remote. It could probably be done, but it would require specific effort, and always carry the risk of a new film entering or one dropping out. Indeed, as if to prove my point, when I made the decision to do this in mid-December there were 17 films I’d not seen on the list and had been for many months. A couple of weeks later, almost out of nowhere, two more have popped on. If I’d managed to get my unseen count to exactly 12, it would now be 14 and I’d have to abandon the idea again. So that’s why I’ve decided to just go for it with 17 19 remaining.

All of them are listed below, in the order they appeared on the Top 250 last Sunday, from highest to lowest ranked. (The films and their ranking may well still be the same on the day I post this, but it’s already changed since New Year’s Day so nothing is guaranteed.) “But WDYMYHS is a 12 film category!”, I hear you cry (um, maybe). “How can you do it with 19 films?!” More on that post-list.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Across
the Spider-Verse

12th Fail

 12th Fail
Incendies

Incendies

To Kill a Mockingbird

 To Kill a Mockingbird
A Separation

A Separation

Like Stars on Earth

 Like Stars on Earth
The Great Escape

The Great Escape

Godzilla Minus One

 Godzilla Minus One
In the Name of the Father

In the Name
of the Father

Wild Tales

 Wild Tales
The Wages of Fear

The Wages of Fear

Mr. Smith Goes
to Washington

 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda

Jai Bhim

 Jai Bhim
The Best Years of Our Lives

The Best Years
of Our Lives

The Handmaiden

 The Handmaiden
My Father and My Son

My Father and My Son

The Grapes of Wrath

 The Grapes of Wrath
Amores Perros

Amores Perros

So, 19 films, eh?

Well, the rules of WDYMYHS haven’t changed — to complete the category, I still need to watch 12 films, preferably one per month — but this year it’s from a list of 19, not just a specific 12. I could have chosen 12 of those 19, but it seemed silly to specify them when any of the 19 contributes towards my ultimate aim of completing the Top 250. I don’t know if I’d bend the rules that much for Blindspot, but as WDYMYHS is my own thing (albeit created with the same intent (and, *ahem*, first)), well, I can do what I want (not that the Blindspot Police are going to come and arrest me if I did start messing with that too. But I digress…)

Plus, IMDb’s list is an ever-changing beast. It was quite stable for most of 2023, but there’s always the possibility an older film will suddenly gain enough votes to chart, or a new release will be so well-received it shoots right in — as we’ve seen in the past couple of weeks. So if I did specify 12 films, one or more of them could become outdated as the year went on.

Relatedly, therefore, even the 19 films listed above may not be the ones I watch to actually complete the category. Any film that is on the Top 250 at the time I watch it will count for WDYMYHS. So, it’ll probably be 12 of these 19, but possibly not. (If a film drops off after viewing, it will still count towards my challenge. Putting myself in the position of having to retrospectively rule out films that previously counted would be madness.)

And that’s that. Which of the 19 will make the final 12? Or maybe I’ll watch them all and finally finish that bloody list? Or could 2024 be a year of cinematic brilliance and upend the whole lot? We’ll see in (just under) a year’s time…

The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2024

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They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Nonetheless, here I go for a third time with the new-style 100 Films in a Year Challenge, despite having failed to complete it the first two times. Hopefully, another hoary old saying will apply: third time lucky.

There are two reasons to be optimistic. First, it’s not exactly the same each year — it’s (mostly) new films, and I’ve also tweaked the categories… although not necessarily to make them easier, because of the second reason: I’ve almost got there both years so far. Okay, in 2022 I stopped pretty far short at #89, but that was because 100 became unattainable and so I didn’t keep trying to close the gap. In 2023, I stuck at it a bit longer, reaching #92. In both cases, better time management earlier in the year could have made a huge difference in terms of completing the challenge. Indeed, in both years I met my old-style challenge (“watch any 100 films I’ve never seen”) with relative ease.

I’m hoping that in 2024 I’ll finally learn from my mistakes and pull my finger out earlier in the year — though I did try to do that in 2023, with limited success, so we’ll have to see how it goes.

Now, this year’s categories and their rules.

First, the one rule that applies across all categories: a film can only count once. Sounds kinda 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 that’s general release date (i.e. not festival screenings, etc) in the UK (i.e. not in the US, nor any other country) is between 1st January 2024 and 31st December 2024. 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 2024’s Challenge). Maximum one per month (with rollovers, as above).

Blindspot

x12. Unlike most other categories, these 12 films are specifically chosen and named in advance. They’re all films I feel I should have seen, or that “great movies” lists tell me I should have seen. Designed to be watched one per month, but doesn’t have to be. You can read about this year’s 12 in their own post here.

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…?

x12. Similar to Blindspot, in that these are 12 specifically chosen films to be watched one per month, but my selections here are based around a theme. This year’s theme: the IMDb Top 250. Wait — 250 films?! No, don’t be silly. But it’s not exactly 12, either. For a full explanation, look 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 force my hand. A maximum of one per month counts, but rolls over if necessary.

50 Unseen

x10. This year’s only entirely-new category, although it’s broadly similar to “failures” in that it’s an incentive to watch films I missed — in this case, from previous years (my annual “50 Unseen” lists) rather than just the previous month.

50 Unseen replaces Physical Media. It was a nice idea to try to make me watch more DVDs that I’ve owned for decades, or 3D Blu-rays that I simply haven’t got round to, and I still support that as a goal; but, in reality, I foresaw that category in 2024 filling up with Edgar Wallace Mysteries and/or random freshly-purchased 4Ks. I wanted to find space here for my 50 Unseen, and Physical Media seemed the best category to lose for now. If I ever get my series watches in hand, hopefully I can replace Series Progression with a new version of Physical Media sometime in the future.

Genre

x10. Any films from within a specified genre. Unlike most of the above categories, these can be watched at any time — maybe I’ll spread them throughout the year; maybe I’ll binge them all back to back. Most likely it’ll be somewhere between the two. This year’s genre: martial arts.

Series Progression

x10. Any instalment in one of the many film series I’m already watching (there’s a Letterboxd list of them here). If I start a new series, the first film can’t count, but any further films can.

Wildcards

x10. Slots that can be used to add a film or films to any other category, provided the category’s own requirements have already been met (e.g. no 11th Genre film until I’ve filled the original ten, but I could use a wildcard for a second New Film in January).

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.

100 Films in a Year Challenge 2023: Final Standing

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As the challenge tracker page will soon be replaced with a version keeping tabs on 2024’s effort, here’s an archive of how it looked at the very end of 2023.

Sadly, it’s incomplete, for the second year running — you can see where I fell short in red below. Some of those lengthy Blindspot films were always going to prove a challenge, and in the end they were one I didn’t surmount in time; and I kept thinking I’d do some kind of giallo marathon, but never quite got round to it.

Oh well. Maybe I’ll finally get all the way to 100 in 2024…

On this page, I’ll track my progress with The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2023. Learn more about the challenge here.

New Films

  1. Shotgun Wedding (2022)
  2. Die Hart (2023)
  3. Murder Mystery 2 (2023)
  4. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)
  5. Air (2023)
  6. John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
  7. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
  8. Greatest Days (2023)
  9. Flora and Son (2023)
  10. The Pigeon Tunnel (2023)
  11. Quiz Lady (2023)
  12. You Hurt My Feelings (2023)

Rewatches

  1. Streets of Fire (1984)
  2. The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes’ Greatest Case (1932)
  3. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
  4. West Side Story (2021)
  5. The Thin Man (1934)
  6. Moneyball (2011)
  7. Black Dynamite (2009)
  8. The Imitation Game (2014)
  9. Spy (2015)
  10. Sing Street (2016)
  11. Doctor Who (1996)
  12. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Blindspot

  1. Black Girl (1966)
  2. Tropical Malady (2004)
  3. Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
  4. Killer of Sheep (1978)
  5. Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
  6. Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
  7. Beau Travail (1999)
  8. Close-Up (1990)
  9. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
  10. Shoah
  11. A Brighter Summer Day
  12. Pierrot le Fou

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…?

  1. Gun Crazy (1950)
  2. Ace in the Hole (1951)
  3. Scarlet Street (1945)
  4. In a Lonely Place (1950)
  5. Night and the City (1950)
  6. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
  7. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
  8. Nightmare Alley (1947)
  9. The Killers (1946)
  10. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
  11. Out of the Past (1947)
  12. Mildred Pierce (1945)

Failures

  1. The Magician (1926)
  2. A Night at the Opera (1935)
  3. Confess, Fletch (2022)
  4. Red Eye (2005)
  5. The Shiver of the Vampires (1971)
  6. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021)
  7. Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical (2022)
  8. 65 (2023)
  9. The Pied Piper (1986)
  10. Nothing Sacred (1937)
  11. From Beijing with Love (1994)
  12. A Haunting in Venice (2023)

Genre: Giallo

  1. The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)
  2. Blood and Black Lace (1964)
  3. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
  4. The Possessed (1965)
  5. The Cat o’ Nine Tails (1971)
  6. 5 to go…
  7. 4 to go…
  8. 3 to go…
  9. 2 to go…
  10. 1 to go…

Series Progression

  1. Fantasia (1940)
  2. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
  3. John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
  4. Clerks II (2006)
  5. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers — Extended Edition (2002/2003)
  6. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King — Extended Edition (2003/2004)
  7. After the Thin Man (1936)
  8. Another Thin Man (1939)
  9. Santo vs. Infernal Men (1961)
  10. Santo vs. the Zombies (1962)

Physical Media

  1. The Goddess (1934)
  2. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
  3. Police Story (1985)
  4. John Wick (2014)
  5. Clue of the Twisted Candle (1960)
  6. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring — Extended Edition (2001/2002)
  7. Marriage of Convenience (1960)
  8. Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
  9. Urge to Kill (1960)
  10. Death on the Nile (2022)

Wildcards

  1. 7500 (2019) — additional January rewatch
  2. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) — additional Failure from December 2022
  3. Glass Onion (2022) — additional June rewatch
  4. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) — additional July new film
  5. Oppenheimer (2023) — another July new film
  6. Living (2022) — additional Failure from June
  7. Fisherman’s Friends: One and All (2022) — additional September rewatch
  8. The Man Who Was Nobody (1960) — Series Progression #11
  9. Road to Utopia (1945) — Series Progression #12
  10. Partners in Crime (1961) — Physical Media #11

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen These Films Noirs?

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My name for Blindspot before someone else created Blindspot, “What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…?” (WDYMYHS for short) works in the same way: 12 films I should have seen but haven’t, watched one a month throughout the year. (And these, too, contribute to my 100 Films in a Year Challenge.) To differentiate the pair, I now use Blindspot to focus on Great Movies™ I should have seen, whereas WDYMYHS takes a particular ‘theme’ each year. Last year, it was 1986. This year, it’s film noir.

If you’re getting déjà vu, it’s because in 2022 film noir was the theme of my Challenge’s ‘Genre’ category. Why the jump from Genre to WDYMYHS? What makes that different? Well, when it was just a genre I was free to watch any noirs, and so I tended towards ones that were short or to hand, to facilitate easy viewing. That meant I didn’t make significant headway into the many highly-acclaimed noirs I’ve not seen. So, this year’s selection redresses the balance by being a list of some of the most important noirs I’ve never seen.

First, the 12 films I’ve chosen, in alphabetical order. Afterwards, I’ll write a little about how and why I decided these are “important” noirs.

Ace in the Hole

Ace in the Hole

The Asphalt Jungle

The Asphalt Jungle

Gun Crazy

Gun Crazy

In a Lonely Place

In a Lonely Place

The Killers

The Killers

Mildred Pierce

Night and the City

Night and the City

Nightmare Alley

Nightmare Alley

Out of the Past

Out of the Past

Scarlet Street

Scarlet Street

Shadow of a Doubt

Shadow of a Doubt

Sweet Smell of Success

Sweet Smell of Success

Normally it’s Blindspot’s selection process that gets very technical while WDYMYHS is a bit more intuitive, but this year it’s the latter that has used various lists in an attempt to define its 12 films. Not that I got insanely technical with it — no need for Excel spreadsheets and formulae here. Instead, I cross-referenced a handful of key lists, and that got me results I was happy enough with.

First, long-time readers of this blog may remember me referencing the book Pocket Essentials: Film Noir at one time or another in the past. It was the first book I bought after my interest in noir was piqued; a small, slim volume that’s mostly made up of a massive list of noir films. It’s still my go-to reference after watching a noir — to see if it’s in there, and see if there’s a rating (you can’t blame the book’s sole author for not having seen them all). Indeed, even though I now own some large and beautiful noir-related books (Taschen’s Film Noir: 100 All-Time Favorites immediately comes to mind, a book I really should spend more time with), Pocket Essentials is the only book I’ve referred to in forming this list. Before beginning that exhaustive list of every noir they could manage, the book highlights seven key titles for analysis. I’ve seen six of them, meaning the seventh — Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt — went straight into my WDYMYHS selection.

For the remaining 11, I looked to four lists. First up was TSPDT’s 100 Essential Noirs. (On TSPDT’s site, these 100 have been subsumed into the ongoing 1,000 Noir Films project. You can find lists of just the initial 100 on iCheckMovies and Letterboxd.) With a whopping 72 films I’d never seen (thus proving my point that there are many “essential” noirs I still need to see), I made it a requirement that a film had to be on this list to be included.

The next two lists, which I considered equally, were IMDb’s Film-Noir Top 50 and the top 25 noirs of the ‘Czar of Noir’, Eddie Muller. Although both those lists are ranked, I ignored that in favour of which films were on both lists. Despite not having seen 30 films on the IMDb list and 20 on Muller’s, there were, as it turned out, just nine overlaps. They included the #1 film on Muller’s list, In a Lonely Place, but not my highest-ranked unseen film on IMDb’s, 6th placed White Heat; nor, indeed, the film ranked 2nd by Muller, Criss Cross. Funny stuff like that happens when you use multiple lists, which is part of why I do it so often.

Anyway, adding those nine got me to ten. This is where the fourth and final list came in — though it wasn’t a list as such, more using other opinions as a decider. Going back to the 100 Essential Noirs, I sorted it by the ratings of Letterboxd users, and included the top two that weren’t already in. Those were Ace in the Hole (the 2nd highest that I hadn’t seen on both IMDb’s list and by Letterboxd ratings, but not on Muller’s list) and Mildred Pierce. The aforementioned White Heat missed out by one place.

Or maybe it didn’t. Well, I mean, it did; but I also mean, maybe it will still end up included. I say that because, while normally Blindspot and WDYMYHS wouldn’t qualify for wildcards in my 100 Films Challenge (they’re lists of 12 films taking up 12 slots — there aren’t any to be wildcards), this year there sort of are spare films. In the case of Blindspot 2023, because it’s entirely based around the Sight & Sound poll, films from the rest of the list are allowed as wildcards. For WDYMYHS, as being on the 100 Essential Noirs was an entry requirement, I think the rest of that list should be eligible for wildcards. That’s quite a lot of possibilities (60, to be precise), but I probably won’t actually get round to any of them, so hey, why not?

The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge, Mk.II

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Alright, here we go: after spending the first week of 2023 wrapping up 2022, it’s finally time to move on to the new year.

For the 17th year in a row, I’m going to attempt to watch 100 films in a year. But, for the second year in a row, that’s not just any old 100 films: following on from last year’s grand re-envisioning of the challenge, it’s 100 films that fulfil certain categories and criteria. Those categories and criteria have undergone some changes, however — hence Mk.II.

When I conceived of this new-style challenge, it was always my intention to vary the categories somewhat year by year (there was a reason last year’s goal of watching 12 film noirs came in a category called “Genre”, not “Film Noir”), but actually undertaking it for a year has thrown up a few pointers about how it could work better, or cases in which the rules needed to be clearer. Consequently, some of this year’s categories are mere refinements on what went before, while others are the same but with new contents, and a couple have been replaced wholesale for the sake of variety.

The one rule that applies across all categories: a film can only count once. Sounds kinda obvious, but the categories are not mutually exclusive — I could watch a DVD of a film in this year’s genre that’s also part of a series, and technically that could count in any one of three categories. Similarly, if I rewatch a film that I’ve already counted, the rewatch can’t count. As a separate viewing, it sort of still fulfils the criteria, but I feel it’s better to have 100 totally unique films. (It also means I can accurately track my progress in a list on Letterboxd, whereas I couldn’t if repeats were allowed.)

With that said, this year’s categories are…

New Films

x12. Any film that’s general release date (i.e. not festival screenings, etc) in the UK (i.e. not in the US, nor any other country) is between 1st January 2023 and 31st December 2023. 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 2023’s Challenge). Maximum one per month (with rollovers, as above).

Blindspot

x12. Films I feel I should have seen, or that “great movies” lists tell me I should have seen. Not just any old films, but 12 films specifically chosen and named in advance. Designed to be watched one per month, but doesn’t have to be. I’ll name this year’s 12 in their own post soon. Teaser: the recent publication of Sight & Sound’s once-a-decade poll has had a significant bearing on this year’s choices…

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…?

x12. Similar to Blindspot, in that they’re 12 specifically chosen films to be watched one per month, but these are all based around a theme. This year’s theme: film noir. “Hold up,” I hear you say, “wasn’t film noir a different category last year?” Why yes, it was 2022’s Genre. What’s different about it being 2023’s WDYMYHS theme? I’ll explain when I name the 12 specific films in their own post, soon.

Failures

x12. Every month, I list my “failures” — new releases or purchases that I failed to watch in the previous month. Sometimes, I catch up on some of them. Often, I don’t. Making it a Challenge category will hopefully force my hand. As with new films and rewatches, it’s a maximum of one per month, but rolls over if necessary.

Genre

x10. Any films from within a specified genre. Unlike most of the above categories, these can be watched at any time — maybe I’ll spread them throughout the year; maybe I’ll binge them all back to back. Most likely it’ll be somewhere between the two. This year’s genre: giallo.

Series Progression

x10. Any instalment in a film series I’m already watching (there’s a Letterboxd list of them here). If I start a new series, either by accident or choice, the first film can’t count, but any further films can. I thought about replacing this category, but while I’ve still got so many series on the go, I wanted to keep the incentive to push on with them.

Physical Media

x10. Last year, I had a whole category dedicated to DVDs, because I’ve got so many of them that I’ve never watched. Frankly, it’s a category I thought I’d change — but I have so many unwatched discs, it needs to stick around if it’s to make any serious dent in its purpose. However, I’ve widened it this year, because I also have a massive pile of unwatched 3D and UHD Blu-rays. So, not any physical media counts, just those three formats. I know that makes the category title inaccurate, but “DVDs and 3D Blu-rays and 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays” seemed unwieldy. As with genre and series films, these can be watched at any time.

Wildcards

x10. Last year, every category had 12 films, leaving an awkward four spare. My solution was to make them ‘wildcards’ that could be added to any category, thus turning a bug into a feature. That feature had the potential to be so useful that I’ve expanded it.

You see, towards the end of 2022, the Challenge was dictating my viewing more than I would like. I wanted to catch up on recent releases, and also watch some Christmassy fare, but none of those films would have qualified for the Challenge, and I still had a couple of dozen films left to complete it, so I felt forced to watch DVDs and film noirs and so on instead. Okay, that’s partly my own fault for not getting on with them earlier in the year; but this new-style Challenge was always going to be a work in progress, so I thought that, for Year Two, I’d build in a potential fix. Hence: the revised wildcard category.

As you can see, I’ve more than doubled the quotient, and I’m removing the limit of one wildcard per category (as there are only eight other categories, that wouldn’t work anyway). These ‘new’ wildcards still need to be attached to an existing category, but it can happen as often per category as I want (provided the category’s requirements have already been met, e.g. no 11th Genre film until I’ve filled the original ten). I imagine, therefore, that these will mostly get used on additional new films, perhaps rewatches and failures, but who knows? We’ll see how it goes… and change it again for 2024, if needs be.

All that make sense? If not, let me remind you that you don’t really need to worry about any of this — it’s only me who has to work it out.

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.

100 Films in a Year Challenge 2022: Final Standing

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As the challenge tracker page will soon be replaced with a version keeping tabs on 2023’s effort, here’s an archive of how it looked at the very end of 2022 — sadly incomplete, after I chose to abandon it. Hopefully I’ll fare better in 2023.

On this page, I’ll track my progress with The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge. Learn more about the challenge here.

New Films

  1. Mass (2021)
  2. The Misfits (2021)
  3. Django & Django (2021)
  4. Death on the Nile (2022)
  5. Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)
  6. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022)
  7. Ambulance (2022)
  8. Prey (2022)
  9. Persuasion (2022)
  10. Scream (2022)
  11. See How They Run (2022)
  12. Doctor Who Am I (2022)

Rewatches

  1. Gosford Park (2001)
  2. A Room with a View (1985)
  3. West Side Story (1961)
  4. The Father (2020)
  5. On the Town (1949)
  6. Top Gun (1986)
  7. Calamity Jane (1953)
  8. Batman: Dead End (2003)
  9. Paddington 2 (2017)
  10. The Two Faces of January (2014)
  11. Enola Holmes 2 (2022)
  12. Avatar (2009)

Blindspot

  1. L’avventura (1960)
  2. Los Olvidados (1950)
  3. A Man Escaped (1956)
  4. High and Low (1963)
  5. To Be or Not to Be (1942)
  6. Paris, Texas (1984)
  7. Mirror (1975)
  8. La Grande Illusion (1937)
  9. Come and See (1985)
  10. A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
  11. Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)
  12. Yi Yi

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…?

  1. Flight of the Navigator (1986)
  2. She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
  3. Cobra (1986)
  4. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
  5. Pretty in Pink (1986)
  6. A Better Tomorrow (1986)
  7. Mona Lisa (1986)
  8. The Mission (1986)
  9. Howard the Duck (1986)
  10. Manhunter (1986)
  11. The Name of the Rose
  12. The Transformers: The Movie

Decades

  1. Broken Blossoms (1919)
  2. The Navigator (1924)
  3. Shot in the Dark (1933)
  4. Penny Serenade (1941)
  5. The Monolith Monsters (1957)
  6. Carry On Spying (1964)
  7. The Hobbit (1977)
  8. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
  9. In the Line of Fire (1993)
  10. Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper (2004)
  11. Voyage of Time: An IMAX Documentary (2016)
  12. Free Guy (2021)

DVDs

  1. Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise (2007)
  2. Tintin and the Temple of the Sun (1969)
  3. The Flying Deuces (1939)
  4. Mifune: The Last Samurai (2015)
  5. Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (1972)
  6. Clerks (1994)
  7. Walk the Line (2005)
  8. The Mindscape of Alan Moore (2003)
  9. The Blues Brothers (1980)
  10. 3 to go…
  11. 2 to go…
  12. 1 to go…

Genre: Film Noir

  1. Escape in the Fog (1945)
  2. My Name Is Julia Ross (1945)
  3. Johnny Gunman (1957)
  4. Repeat Performance (1947)
  5. He Walked by Night (1948)
  6. The Guilty (1947)
  7. Killer’s Kiss (1955)
  8. The Killing (1956)
  9. Christmas Holiday (1944)
  10. I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes (1948)
  11. Mr. Soft Touch (1949)
  12. 1 to go…

Series Progression

  1. Jackass Number Two (2006)
  2. Encanto (2021)
  3. Scream 2 (1997)
  4. The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes’ Greatest Case (1932)
  5. Scream 3 (2000)
  6. Scre4m (2011)
  7. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
  8. Quatermass 2 (1957)
  9. Jackass 3D (2010)
  10. 3 to go…
  11. 2 to go…
  12. 1 to go…

Wildcards

  1. Munich: The Edge of War (2021) — additional ‘New Film’ in April
  2. Scream (1996) — additional ‘Rewatch’ in June
  3. The Thrill of It All (1963) — additional ‘Decade’ for the 1960s
  4. Where will it go?

What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen These Films from 1986?

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After a couple of years ‘off’ (or, if you prefer, combined with Blindspot, because they’re essentially the same thing), “What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…?” is back!

Now, it’s part of my All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge (you may have heard about that — I feel like I bring it up enough) and has a slightly refined focus. Whereas before it featured great or significant movies I should’ve seen from across film history, now I’m giving it a specific theme each year. For the inaugural year of its new version, I’ve picked my birth year: the 12 films from 1986 that I’m most surprised I haven’t seen.

First, the films I’ve chosen. After, I’ll natter a little about how and why.

A Better Tomorrow

A Better Tomorrow

Cobra

Cobra

Flight of the Navigator

Flight of the Navigator

Hannah and Her Sisters

Hannah and Her Sisters

The Hitcher

The Hitcher

Howard the Duck

Howard the Duck

Manhunter

Manhunter

Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa

The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose

Pretty in Pink

Pretty in Pink

She’s Gotta Have It

She's Gotta Have It

The Transformers:
The Movie

The Transformers: The Movie

First, for the sake of context, here are all the feature films from 1986 that I have seen (taken from what I’ve logged on Letterboxd, which should be thorough at this point), in alphabetical order…

Iron Eagle
The Karate Kid Part II
Labyrinth
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Little Shop of Horrors
The Money Pit
Never Too Young to Die
Platoon
Stand By Me
Top Gun
When the Wind Blows
.

Yes, Biggles. I loved the books as a kid, so I guess I had to see the film, even though it’s some weird-ass post-Back to the Future time-travel-based reimagining.

To select the list of films I needed to watch, I had a root around 1986’s highest-rated and most popular films (two different things) on both IMDb and Letterboxd, compiling a long-list of possibilities. That came to around about 30 titles, from which I selected the final 12 based purely on my own level of awareness — for example, Manhunter went straight into the final selection because, given the kinds of films I particularly like, it seems ludicrous I haven’t seen it yet. (It’s partly because I only own it on DVD. I never got round to importing the Shout BD, and now it looks to be out of print, with copies on sale for hundreds of dollars. Mad! And annoying.) I expect, if other people were presented with the same long-list, they might make slightly different selections. Such is life.

One in particular that I nearly included was Star Trek IV. It must be good, right, because it’s an even-numbered one. Also, everyone seems to know about “the one with the whales”, and it’s that one. But as I’m currently working my way through the Trek films anyway (albeit slowly: TMP was last February and Wrath of Khan last July), it seemed unnecessary, even futile, to include one here.

In conclusion, it wasn’t a particularly involved or technical selection process this time. At least that means this explanation is a lot shorter than my normal verbosity. In the unlikely event you’re missing that, there’s always my Blindspot post.