I ended up not watching quite as many movies as I typically do in March. Part of that was due to spending time with my family, who visited me during the first week and a half of the month for my birthday. So this wrap-up post will be brief. But before going over the new-to-me movies I watched in March, I do want to mention that it was another fantastic month of repertory screenings, which included seeing Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, the director of the new Oscar-winning film Drive My Car, introduce All That Heaven Allows, and an Edith Head tribute series at the New Beverly. For the latter, I was just at a double feature last night that included The Sting, and it might just be my favorite theater experience because of how engaged the audience was with such a fantastic film. And according to recent reviews on Letterboxd, Quentin Tarantino was in the same audience! Maybe one of these days I’ll spot him myself at his theater. Regardless, as you’ve probably noticed in my monthly posts, I’ve been really enjoying these screenings around L.A., and that’s going to ramp up toward the end of the month with the in-person return of the TCM Classic Film Festival! I’ll be posting my tentative picks for the fest in the coming days. Until then, a look back at movies I watched in March…
New-to-Me: 20
Re-Watched: 10
New-to-Me Films by Decade:
- 1910s – 0
- 1920s – 1
- 1930s – 0
- 1940s – 1
- 1950s – 2
- 1960s – 1
- 1970s – 1
- 1980s – 4
- 1990s – 3
- 2000s – 3
- 2010s – 0
- 2020s – 4
List of New-to-Me Films:
- Sweetie (1989)
- Two Friends (1986)
- When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)
- Arthur (1981)
- The Jewel of the Nile (1985)
- 5 Fingers (1952)
- The Quiet American (1958)
- Turning Red (2022)
- After Yang (2021)
- The Batman (2022)
- Margot at the Wedding (2007)
- Nine (2009)
- Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)
- Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
- Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)
- The Seventh Veil (1945)
- The Divine Lady (1929)
- The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
- The Visitor (2007)
- The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
A Few Favorite Discoveries:
Turning Red (2022), directed by Domee Shi
The trend for my movie-watching year so far has included recent animated movies being among my favorite discoveries of the month. This time around it’s Pixar’s newest film Turning Red, which follows 13-year-old Mei trying to navigate her life in Toronto… with the added hurdle of turning into a giant red panda when she gets too emotional. As the premise promises, it’s a fun movie full of laughs as well as heartwarming moments between Mei and her friends and her family, and it does a great job of capturing the growing pains of being a teenager.
