December 2024
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Ocean’s 11 1960, directed by Lewis Milestone Rating: 6/10 I love a good heist movie, including the Ocean’s movies. I grew up watching and rewatching (and rewatching and rewatching) the George Clooney and Brad Pitt trilogy, and when Ocean’s 8 came out I was very into it and get excited whenever I’m in a hotel and see
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The Phantom Carriage 1921, directed by Victor Sjöström Rating: 9/10 Another silent film in the Criterion Collection that is in my collection, Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage is centered around an old myth that the last person to die each year has to spend the next year collecting the souls of the dead until his or her
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Pandora’s Box 1929, directed by G.W. Pabst Rating: 10/10 When I watched this movie in high school, I was deeply unimpressed—mostly because I went in hoping for a silent movie retelling of the actual Pandora’s Box myth which I thought it would be really cool to see with Méliès style effects. What there is instead
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Spencer 2021, directed by Pablo Larraín Rating: 8/10 Like The Lion in Winter, Spencer shows the special kind of torture that comes with spending your Christmas with the British Royal Family as Princess Diana tries to survive the formalities and traditions while keeping her sense of self intact. This movie is far from perfect, but it still has
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The Lion in Winter 1968, directed by Anthony Harvey Rating: 10/10 I didn’t have super high hopes when I first saw this movie—it comes from an era of royal historical films that I find very stately and well-made but also very boring and way too long. But even at 134 minutes, this movie went by
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Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence 1983, directed by Nags Oshima Rating: 9/10 In a Japanese-run Prisoner of War camp in Java during WWII, the prisoners prepare for Christmas while Capt. Yanoi (played by Ryuichi Sakamoto) finds himself conflicted about his feelings for his prisoner Maj. Jack Celliers (played by David Bowie). This wartime Christmas story is
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Stalag 17 1953, directed by Billy Wilder Rating: 7/10 A bunch of sergeants are trapped in a German prisoner of war camp in this Billy Wilder classic, and that isn’t going to stop them from having a good time, especially for Christmas! When I saw this in high school, it was one of my favorites;
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The Hateful Eight 2015, directed by Quentin Tarantino Rating: 8/10 I love Quentin Tarantino, and the ads when this came out made it seem to me like a snowbound Western version of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, which is one of my favorite novels, so I expected this to become my new favorite Tarantino
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McCabe & Mrs. Miller 1971, directed by Robert Altman Rating: 9/10 I love when Westerns are set in locations that don’t look like the regular Wild West with tumbleweeds and cacti and such, and I also love the look of snow from growing up in Connecticut, so the look of McCabe & Mrs. Miller is very much
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This December, I am going to start posting a movie on Monday and a movie on Friday instead of just one on Wednesday. Because the holidays are approaching, each week’s pair is themed around going places for the holidays as I let the spirit of the season shine on. The first week of December I’ll
The Movie Room 