During the pandemic I stopped watching movies and became obsessed with a video game called Dark Souls and getting good at leaping up on a wall in Oolacile. If what I’ve written makes no sense or sounds pointless to you, it was, but believe me, at the time, nothing was more logical or rational1.
The quarter prior to this summer, I was finally back in a classroom, and I realized I loved movies again. I thank the students for that, as they gave me someone to talk with about the films. This summer, reinvigorated, I watched countless films, a swath of which were slashers and gialli. My wife somehow put up with me during this completely different descent; I thank and love her for that. Because of this, she gets the actual “Best” award; she deserves it.
This is a best “best” of list of 13 films I watched.
- Best Bad Movie – The Prey (1980)
- Best Marion Davies Film – Not So Dumb (1930)
- Best Total Shit Show (Rip Torn is a Hero) – Maidstone (1970)
- Best Antonioni – L’Avventura (1960)
- Best Transfer (UHD/4k) – Tenebrae (1982)
- Best What the Hell is this Film I am sooooo completely lost… – Sweet Trash (1970)
- Best Theme Song (Amanda Lear) – The Pyjama Girl Case (1977)
- Best Contemporary-ish Film – The Stylist (2020)
- Best Performance (Yaphet Kotto) – Bone (1972)
- Best Silent Film that Nerds on the Web Argue if whether it qualifies as Silent or Not – The Single Standard (1929)
- Best 8mm – The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo (1987)
- Best Action – John Wick (2014)
- Best Nic Cage, but also the only Nic Cage film I watched, so this film probably shouldn’t count for anything – Valley Girl (1983)
- I still sneak in wall leaps from time to time. ↩