June & July 2023 Film Watches

 

A scene from Hong Song-eun’s Aloners (2021). 

I combined June and July watches due to watching a handful of films in July. This begins the first of several showings of Celine Song’s Past Lives (saw three times), a few selections from the Criterion Channel’s erotic series (which greatly excluded filmmakers of color and women), and some treasures seen overseas during my time in London— a highlight that includes Dionne Edwards’s underloved Pretty Red Dress and Davy Chou’s Return To Seoul, a favorite from many Best of 2022 Films lists. 

June Film Watches

1.) “Past Lives” (2023) Celine Song #*^ 8.5/10
2.) “Broker” (2022) Hirokazu Kore-eda #^ 8/10
3.) “Return to Seoul” (2022) Davy Chou #^ 8.5/10
4.) “The Hound of Baskerville” (1959) Terence Fisher # 6/10
5.) “Addams Family” (1993) Barry Sonnerfield 7/10
6.) “Past Sins” (2006) David Winning # 3/10
7.) “Pretty Red Dress” (2023) Dionne Edwards #*+ 9.5/10
8.) “Ms. Matched” (2016) Max Jean # 2/10
9.) “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (2001) David Yates 7/10
10.) “Superintelligence” (2020) Ben Falcone # 2/10
11.) “Veracity” (2015) Seith Mann #^ # 8/10
12.) “Dream Lover” (1993) Nicholas Kazan # 5/10
13.) “Single White Female” (1992) Barbet Schroeder # 4.5/10
14.) “You and I and You” (2015) Terence Nance #^ 7/10
15.) “The Couple Next Door” (2020) Abbesi Akhamie #*+ 10/10
16.) “The Last Seduction” (1994) John Dahl # 3/10
17.) “Wild Orchid 2: Blue Movie Blue” (1992) Zalman King # 1.5/10
18.) “Northanger Abbey” (1987) Giles Foster # 7.5/10
19.) “The Assassin” (2016) Hou Hsiao-hsien #^ 6.5/10
20.) “Cinnamon” (2023) Bryian Keith Montgomery Jr. #^ 6/10
21.) “Still Waters Run Deep” (2017) Abbesi Akhamie #*+ 9/10
22.) “Paraya” (2016) Shateel Magen and Martin Morganfield #*^ 8/10
23.) “Gallo Rojo” (2016) Alejandro Fadel and Zamo Mkhwanazi #*+ 8.5/10
24.) “Lokoza” (2016) Zee Ntuli and Isabelle Mayor #* 9/10
25.) “The Beast” (2016) Samantha Nell and Michael Wahrmann #* 8/10
26.) “Beyond Merritt” (2014) Reuben Johnson #^ 6/10
27.) “Aloners” (2021) Hong Sung-eun #*^ 10/10


July Film Watches

1.) “The Perfect Find” (2023) Numa Perrier #*+ 5/10
2.) ”Lying Eyes” (1996) Marina Sargenti #* 2/10
3.) ”The Phone Call” (2013) Mat Kirkby # 8/10
4.) ”Lady Chatterly’s Lover” (1982) Just Jaeckin # 4/10
5.) ”Barbie” (2023) Greta Gerwig # 7/10
6.) ”All That Heaven Allows” (1959) Douglas Sirk 9/10

# first time watch 

*woman filmmaker 

*+Black woman filmmaker 

*^ nonwhite woman filmmaker 

^nonwhite filmmaker 

Other notes: list of 33 films: 30 first time watches, 15 films directed/written by nonwhite filmmakers, and 12 films made by women.