September 2023 Film Watches

 

Patrice (Maxine Turenne) and Laura’s (Laura Guzman) friendship face the ultimate adolescent test in Stefani Saintouge’s Seventh Grade. DP: Brian Diggs.

Autumn meant comfort cinema over hot soups, hot chocolate, and hot tea. It started off with Park Chan-wook’s shocking Oldboy rerelease at the movie theater. I had never seen the twenty-year-old film before, let alone read the comic book, but was well aware of the cult status. Naturally, I saw it twice. Afterwards, I settled in for a few classic Hayao Miyazaki animations in anticipation for The Boy and the Heron coming out later this year and some beautiful short films on Issa Rae’s HOORAE YouTube channel (still highly recommend). I was glad to end with Billy Wilder’s The Apartment on its last day on the Criterion Channel. Funnily enough, however, it is available on Hoopla Digital.

September Film Watches 2023

1.) “Oldboy” (2006) Park Chan-wook #^ 9.5/10

2.) “Fat Girl” (2001) Catherine Breillat #* 3/10

3.) “Cocaine Bear” (2023) Elizabeth Banks #* 2/10

4.) “Dolores Clairbourne” (1995) Taylor Hackford # 9/10

5.) “Batman: Under The Red Hood” Brandon Vietti # 5/10

6.) “See How They Run” (2022) Tom George # 4/10

7.) “The Cat Returns” Hiroyuki Morita #^ (2002) 7/10

8.) “Ghost” (1990) Jerry Zucker 9/10

9.) “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988) Hayao Miyazaki #^ 7.5/10

10.) “Porco Rosso” (1992) Hayao Miyazaki #^ 6.5/10

11.) “The Kingsman Secret Service” (2015) Matthew Vaughan # 7.5/10

12.) “The World of Arietty” (2010) Hiromasa Yonebayashi #^ 7/10

13.) “Good Kisser” (2019) Wendy Jo Carlton #* 2/10

14.) “Year Of The Rat” (2022) Ricky Qi #^ 9/10

15.) “Love At Fifty” (2022) Tan Wei Ting #*^ 9/10

16.) “Seventh Grade” (2014) Stefani Saintonge #*+ 10/10

17.) “Dream” (2015) Nijla Mu’min #*+ 8/10

18.) “Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004) Hayao Miyazaki ^ 10/10

19.) “Home Away” (2013) Hannah Yohannes #*+ 10/10

20.) “The Big Chop” (2016) Derek Dow #^ 7.5/10

21.) “Joy” (2015) Solomon Onita Jr. #^ 10/10

22.) “Inamorata” (2017) A-lan Holt *+ 10/10

23.) “Party Girl” (1995) Daisy von Scherler Mayer #* 7/10

24.) “Vow Of Silence” (2014) Be Steadwell #*^ 9/10

25) “Boyz In The Hood” (1991) John Singleton #^ 8/10

26.) “Poetic Justice” (1993) John Singleton ^ 7.7/10

27.) “Liz And The Blue Bird” (2018) Naoko Yamada #*^ 10/10

28.) “A Backyard In Baldwin Hills” (2021) Dennis Williams III #^ 6/10

29.) “The Apartment” (1960) Billy Wilder # 9.5/10

# first time watch 

*woman filmmaker 

*+Black woman filmmaker 

*^ nonwhite woman filmmaker 

^nonwhite filmmaker 

Other notes: list of 29 films: 25 first time watches, 19 films directed/written by nonwhite filmmakers, and 11 films made by women.