I had a super busy month, so I didn’t keep up my usual pace of movie watching. But I did see a couple of great movies (and a few that were terrible)!
Nosferatu
United States of America | 2024 | 133m | English, German, Romanian, Russian, Spanish
Absolutely blew me away. Astounding directing, cinematography, and style. Without the overbearing music some of the acting would come across as goofy, I’m sure, but I think it all worked incredibly well for the most part. Gorgeous shots, one after the other. Just shy of five stars for feeling a little long, but I’m eager to buy the 4K disc and watch it again soon without all the deep nighttime black colors ruined by Prime Video’s streaming artefacting.
COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing
Japan | 2025 | 105m | Japanese
A Miku Who Can’t Tell A Coherent Story. Listen, all I really knew about Hatsune Miku going into this was that she’s the embodiment of a music software for synthetic vocals. But apparently there are like 10,000,000 other characters in the mix because every few seconds a new person with two-tone cotton candy-colored hair would show up and I had no idea who any of them were. Nor did I understand why none of them seemed the least bit surprised to see holograms appear from their smartphones and start carrying on conversations. A truly bizarre movie that left me 100% confused from start to finish, and I’d like to think that I have an above-average tolerance for weeb nonsense. I will beat you over the head with one of those multicolor LED light sticks if you tell me this was a good movie.
The Slumber Party Massacre
United States of America | 1982 | 77m | English
Absolute dogshit movie with the exception of a couple of clever, funny moments (eating the pizza, opening the fridge without looking inside). Zero horror or tension at all. Bad acting, bad directing, bad script, bad ending, bad characters… I could go on. Body Double is clearly the superior power-drill-killer movie. This slumber party is a snoozer!
After Hours
United States of America | 1985 | 97m | English
I mean, I don’t hate it, but my thoughts after it ended are “Who cares?” and “What was the point of any of that?”
The humor is of the type where on an objective level I can acknowledge that the plot has a couple of funny contrivances but I think I only cracked a smile like twice. Maybe if you think the pointless inclusion of rape/suicide themes are laugh-out-loud hilarious you’ll get more out of this than I did. Worst Scorsese movie I’ve seen.
The Baby
United States of America | 1973 | 84m | English
My “wtf” tag on Letterboxd was made for movies like this. The Baby is absolutely bonkers 70s schlock about a grown-ass man who behaves like a baby and the women around him who all have their own reasons for wanting to keep him that way. None of it is played for laughs; this movie is dead serious about its diapered, full-size adult man whimpering and writhing around, pawing at his babysitter’s chest for a feeding. Why do I always watch such uncomfortable movies on airplanes? I can only imagine what the person sitting next to me thought if he caught a glance at my screen.
Other Movies I Saw This Month
- Black Caesar (1973) [2.5/5]
- Play Misty for Me (1971) [2.5/5]
- Anora (2024) [4/5]
- Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) [4.5/5]
- Commando (1985) [4/5]
- Ran (1985) [4.5/5]
Best Movies I Saw This Month
- Nosferatu
- Ran
- Commando
Worst Movies I Saw This Month
- COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing
- The Slumber Party Massacre
Josh Anderson 