watching

jude's movie log

i watch a lot of movies. you'll find brief reactions to them here. my top movies of the year are here.

2024

Office Space (1999) dir. Mike Judge
Milton can have a little a arson, as a treat.
-- 6/2/24
Birth/Rebirth (2023) dir. Laura Moss
sometimes a family can be an overworked maternity nurse, a hospital pathologist who wants to cure death, a reanimated little girl, and a piggie named Muriel.
-- 5/4/24
The Wind (2018) dir. Emma Tammi
i am going to be thinking about that creepy-ass pamphlet forever, probably.
-- 5/4/24
Speak No Evil (2022) dir. Christian Tafdrup
a cautionary tale about the dangers of people pleasing.
-- 4/13/24
Monkey Man (2024) dir. Dev Patel
imagine, if you will, that John Wick had a story that was good. this is that film, and also so much more.
-- 4/5/24
Femme (2023) dir. Sam H. Freeman & Ng Choon Ping
Nathan Stewart-Jarrett should win an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Tony, a Grammy, and a JD Power award for his performance in this film, holy fuck!
-- 4/5/24
Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024) dir. Adam Wingard
Kong picks up a child and uses them as a melee weapon. uncle behavior.
-- 3/31/24
Love Lies Bleeding (2024) dir. Rose Glass
lesbians will say "I know a spot" and then take you to their dad's body disposal site.
-- 3/15/24
Stopmotion (2023) dir. Robert Morgan
love a movie that smells absolutely gnarly.
-- 3/7/24
The Last Duel (2021) dir. Ridley Scott
a really cool medieval Rashomon.
-- 3/2/24
Dune: Part Two (2024) dir. Denis Villeneuve
saw this with my brother and one of my best friends. bestie and i have not read Dune, seen Dune 1/David Lynch's Dune. had a great time.
-- 3/1/24
Out of Darkness (2022) dir. Andrew Cumming
the twist in this one made me audibly gasp, and my brother laughed at me.
-- 2/10/24
Satan Wants You (2023) dir. Steve J. Adams & Sean Horlor
i would like to physically fight Lawrence Pazder, due to him being the Worst.
-- 1/29/24
Night Swim (2024) dir. Bryce McGuire
spooky swimmin' in the haunted pool...
-- 1/9/24
The Iron Claw (2023) dir. John Maybury
my brother and i's primary hangout activity is watching the saddest movies ever.
-- 1/6/24
Love Is the Devil: Study For a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998) dir. John Maybury
fantastic performances by the leads, but it ultimately feels hollow. maybe that's the point.
-- 1/4/24

2023

Gangs of New York (2002) dir. Martin Scorsese
history is often a profoundly nasty and ugly place, and i think Scorsese's work is stronger because it acknowledges this.
-- 12/9/23
Godzilla Minus One (2023) dir. Takashi Yamazaki
i love to go to the movie theater to see the big lizard and then cry my face off.
-- 12/3/23
Napoleon (2023) dir. Ridley Scott
i think that every biopic about a " Great Man " should take great pains to exhibit that he was actually a little freak, like the rest of us.
-- 11/25/23
Anatomy of a Fall (2023) dir. Justine Triet
marriage is starting to seem like kind of a bad deal, guys.
-- 11/4/23
Terrified (2017) dir. Demian Rugna
genuinely had a hard time falling asleep after watching this one.
-- 10/28/23
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) dir. Martin Scorsese
Grandpa has done it again-- made a fuckin' MASTERPIECE.
-- 10/21/23
Bad Things (2023) dir. Stewart Thorndike
more haunted places that aren't houses, please! the interiors of the hotel in this one are so otherworldly and creepy, i'm obsessed with it.
-- 9/16/23
Our Father, the Devil (2021) dir. Ellie Foumbi
the tension did not leave my body for this entire film. fuck.
-- 9/9/23
Aurora's Sunrise (2022) dir. Inna Sahakyan
a heartbreaking and beautifully made film.
-- 9/9/23
BS High (2023) dir. Travon Free & Martin Desmond Roe
yeehaw, a local story.
-- 8/24/23
Talk to Me (2023) dir. Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou
absolutely loved this movie; it was not well served by its trailer.
-- 8/23/23
Meg 2: The Trench (2023) dir. Ben Wheatley
the movie to watch if you want to have no thoughts other than "shark big" for 116 minutes.
-- 8/6/23
Home Movie (2008) dir. Christopher Denham
the real monsters were the family Youtubers all along.
-- 7/6/23
Evil Dead Rise (2023) dir. Lee Cronin
this movie innovates by introducing Chekhov's Woodchipper.
-- 4/21/23
Possession (1981) dir. Andrzej Zulawski
worst vibes imaginable, 10/10.
-- 3/4/23
Pearl (2022) dir. Ti West
the film that boldly asks... "what if theater kids were evil, instead of just annoying?"
-- 2/22/23
The Menu (2022) dir. Mark Mylod
stop making Nicholas Hoult a heartthrob and let him be a weird little bastard! it's what he's best at!
-- 1/15/23
Skinamarink (2022) dir. Kyle Edward Ball
this movie felt like wandering into someone else's nightmare and being unable to find the way out, and it was everything i wanted.
-- 1/13/23

2022

Glass Onion (2022) dir. Rian Johnson.
in what other film will you see Benoit Blanc lose a game of Among Us to Angela Lansbury? truly, a delight and a masterpiece. i also personally enjoyed the very explicit dismissal of a rich "genius" as a vain and vapid dipshit in a pleather vest. plays very well at present.
-- 11/25/22
Hellraiser (2022) dir. David Bruckner.
Jamie Clayton is in this movie, and that is unfortunately the most positive thing i can say about it.
-- 10/31/22
Smile (2022) dir. Parker Finn.
it's... fine? i liked the soundtrack a lot, and it creeped me out, but ultimately, i wanted a bit more from the movie than it was able to give.
-- 10/28/22
Deadstream (2021) dir. Joseph Winter & Vanessa Winter.
shockingly, this... was kind of good? i expected to just watch an annoying man get eaten by ghosts, but it was actually smart and funny.
-- 10/25/22
Poser (2021) dir. Ori Segev & Noah Dixon.
if this had come out when i was nineteen, i would have been obnoxiously obsessed with it. seeing it as a 29 year old, i mostly was surprised to find out that my neighborhood is apparently... hip and trendy? also, i know about Damn the Witch Siren because of this movie, so that's enough of a win for me.
-- 9/8/22
Feels Good Man (2020) dir. Arthur Jones.
i thought this was a really interesting look in how symbols can change and evolve over time, whether we want them to or not. also, there's a sequence where Alex Jones is once again exposed as a huge asshole in deposition, which is one of my favorite things to see on film.
-- 8/26/22
Capturing the Friedmans (2003) dir. Andrew Jarecki.
the Satanic panic is just a nonstop chain of misery, huh?
-- 8/23/22
Glorious (2022) dir. Rebekah McKendry.
cosmic horror in a rest stop, starring the disembodied voice of JK Simmons. if that can't sell you on a movie, i truly don't know what to tell you.
-- 8/20/22
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) dir. Halina Reijin.
solid addition to the "do not go to a second location with rich people" subgenre.
-- 8/19/22
Sister Act (1992) dir. Emile Ardolino.
i'm not normally a big comedy person, but i really liked this movie. it also gave me a lot of feelings as a former Christian, current ??? about what faith could do in this world if so many people in power weren't obsessed with using it as a cudgel. ah well. also, the weird fundamentalist versions of pop music (if you know, you know) want what the songs in this movie have.
-- 8/9/22
Nope (2022) dir. Jordan Peele.
i have been spinning the words "bad miracle" around in my head for six days and counting. also, it is my personal mission to cyberbully everyone who said "this is gonna be Peele's Signs" for being boring, annoying, and apparently unwilling to engage with any work without a comforting patina of some piece of media they have already digested. like putting a pill in a piece of cheese for a dog.
-- 8/4/22
The Godfather (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola.
don't know what i can possibly say about this movie that a million smarter people haven't already said better. it's gorgeous, brutal, and visually and narratively rich. i've watched it twice and i'm still thinking about it.
-- 8/3/22
A Lonely Place to Die (2011) dir. Julian Gilbey.
nature is beautiful, but 90% of it seems like it's none of my business.
-- 7/3/22
The Black Phone (2022) dir. Scott Derrickson.
Finney Blake is a Final Girl. also, more movies should have surprise James Ransone in them. saw his name in the opening credits and spent the whole movie waiting for him like a jump scare.
-- 7/1/22
All About Evil (2010) dir. Peaches Christ.
a masterpiece, no notes.
-- 6/30/22
The Found Footage Phenomenon (2021) dir. Sarah Appleton & Phillip Escott.
i will watch every single documentary that Shudder puts out about different horror subgenres, and that's just something that i know about myself. the primary result of this one was me throwing a minor fit about the difficulty of finding Ghostwatch to watch through conventional means. i will still probably watch the next one, even if it's about like, 2000s Saw/Hostel clones.
-- 6/3/22
Men (2022) dir. Alex Garland
an ouroboros of Rory Kinnears.
-- 5/20/22
Hatching (2022) dir. Hannah Bergholm
delightful creature effects and a really great story. there's a repeated motif of doubling/mirrors that i found super interesting.
-- 5/1/22

X (2022) dir. Ti West

this movie manages to be both incredibly horny and very unsexy at the same time. this is not a criticism.
-- 4/24/22

We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021) dir. Jane Schoenbrun
the more i think about this one, the more i like it? Schoenbrun captures this profound sense of isolation in the way that Casey's online and offline worlds are structured, and as you watch it, you feel yourself falling down that rabbit hole with her. also, i hope to see Anna Cobb in a million more things, because she was excellent.
-- 4/24/22
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) dir. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
i don't know how to put into words how much i loved this? it was beautiful and profound and funny and just felt... true. it made me want to turn into one of those weirdos handing out xeroxed tracts on street corners, but my tracts are about why you should see this movie, not like... biblical literalism.
-- 4/14/22