February really flew by this year, and I didn’t get a chance to watch as many movies as I would’ve liked, especially with it being TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar. My spring break is next week so I’m hoping to get a good number of movies in while I don’t have to immediately deal with school work and projects! So, without further ado, let’s take a look at my month in movies.
New-to-Me: 14
Re-Watched: 4
New-to-Me Films by Decade:
- 1920s – 0
- 1930s – 4
- 1940s – 0
- 1950s – 1
- 1960s – 1
- 1970s – 1
- 1980s – 1
- 1990s – 1
- 2000s – 1
- 2010s – 4
List of New-to-Me Films:
- Cleopatra (1963)
- American Sniper (2014)
- Little Women (1933)
- A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
- Boys Town (1938)
- Pride & Prejudice (2005)
- The End of the Affair (1999)
- The Gunfighter (1950)
- The Judge (2014)
- Two Days, One Night (2014)
- Inherent Vice (2014)
- The Big House (1930)
- Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
- The Elephant Man (1980)
Monthly Tallies
- Best Picture Nominees Watched: 7
- Movies Watched from The Criterion Collection: 0
- Movies Watched via the Watch TCM app: 8
- Movies Watched on TCM: 2
- Movies Watched on Hulu: 0
- Movies Watched in theaters: 0
Trends and Notes
- Watched 10 films from TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar program, though 4 of them were re-watches.
- Watched 4 new releases, 3 of them were in a row.
A Few Favorite Discoveries:
Pride & Prejudice (2005), directed by Joe Wright
I read the book back in high school but admittedly have not seen any straight film adaptations of the famed novel. This was such a pleasant film, and Keira Knightley was wonderful as Elizabeth Bennet. Knightley had natural chemistry with everyone she shared the screen with, I especially loved her scenes with Rosamund Pike as sister Jane, Donald Sutherland as Mr. Bennet, and of course Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy. The cinematography also really elevates the film as it brings more scope to seemingly small scenes.
The Gunfighter (1950), directed by Henry King
Fresh off of his fourth Oscar nomination for Twelve O’Clock High (also directed by Henry King), Gregory Peck gives another great performance in an unusual western. Instead of presenting a famed gunslinger on a high pedestal, The Gunfighter brings the aggressive western role down to earth and shows the more human side of Peck’s character as he struggles with his ruthless reputation. In this noir-ish western, Johnny Ringo (Peck) wants to leave his days of killing behind and lead a normal life with the family he left behind, but that’s all easier said than done. Though there’s a couple of action scenes in the film, much of the tension comes from the dialogue and the passing time as Ringo tries to escape his fate. The film is also very reminiscent of another revisionist western, High Noon, which actually came out two years after this film.
The Elephant Man (1980), directed by David Lynch
I posted my second entry for my 2015 Blind Spots series yesterday on The Elephant Man, and it was also one of my top favorite discoveries for February. My thoughts on it can be found here.
