As expected, I did more movie-watching related to this Oscar season in February, which included several screenings with this year’s nominees, all thanks to the American Cinematheque: Sir Roger Deakins; Martin McDonagh, Colin Farrell, and Brendan Gleeson; Brendan Fraser; and Paul Mescal. On top of seeing those Oscar nominees at the Aero, I also got to see Paul Thomas Anderson again, this time with John C. Reilly for the world premiere of Boogie Nights in 70mm. Another screening trend for me was a delightful handful of screwball comedies: Ball of Fire and a Preston Sturges double feature at the Academy Museum, and a Claudette Colbert double feature at the New Beverly. And two more movies I want to mention that I enjoyed seeing on the big screen (at the Academy Museum no less) were Now, Voyager and Catch Me If You Can, both on 35mm! Anyway, March looks to be a promising month, with at least one more screening with some Oscar nominees before the Academy Awards in less than two weeks. And as usual, I plan to make my annual Oscar picks and predictions post before the ceremony. But before we move ahead to the next 31 days, a quick look back at what I watched over the last few weeks.
New-to-Me Films by Decade:
- 1910s – 0
- 1920s – 0
- 1930s – 1
- 1940s – 1
- 1950s – 4
- 1960s – 2
- 1970s – 2
- 1980s – 1
- 1990s – 5
- 2000s – 0
- 2010s – 1
- 2020s – 6
List of New-to-Me Films:
- The Secret of Convict Lake (1951)
- Murder, He Says (1945)
- Appointment with Death (1988)
- Highway 301 (1950)
- 1941 (1979)
- Rhubarb (1951)
- You Never Can Tell (1951)
- Seven Psychopaths (2012)
- Waiting to Exhale (1995)
- How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)
- The Gilded Lily (1935)
- Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
- Summer and Smoke (1961)
- Little Big Man (1970)
- Empire of Light (2022)
- EO (2022)
- Le pupille (2022)
- The Sea Beast (2022)
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
- School Ties (1992)
- The Mummy (1999)
- Blast from the Past (1999)
List of Re-Watched Films:
- Kiss Me Kate (1953)
- Hangover Square (1945)
- Ball of Fire (1941)
- Fargo (1996)
- The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
- Boogie Nights (1997)
- Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948)
- The Palm Beach Story (1942)
- The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944)
- Midnight (1939)
- Now, Voyager (1942)
- In Bruges (2008)
- The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
- Lightning Strikes Twice (1951)
- Catch Me If You Can (2002)
- The Third Man (1949)
- The Whale (2022)
- Hunt the Man Down (1950)
- Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
- Aftersun (2022)
List of Films I Saw in Theaters (re-watches marked in italics):
- Ball of Fire (1941)
- Fargo (1996)
- The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
- Boogie Nights (1997)
- The Palm Beach Story (1942)
- The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944)
- Midnight (1939)
- The Gilded Lily (1935)
- Now, Voyager (1942)
- In Bruges (2008)
- The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
- Catch Me If You Can (2002)
- The Third Man (1949)
- School Ties (1992)
- The Whale (2022)
- The Mummy (1999)
- Blast from the Past (1999)
- Aftersun (2022)
How cool it must be to see all those movies, old and new, at all those old-time theaters! Are there any more in your area that you haven’t yet visited, but would like to see a movie at?
Of your new-to-me films, I really love ‘Seven Psychopaths’…but then, I’ve loved every one of Martin McDonagh’s films, and I only recently discovered that he had a new one out. And I thought ‘Highway 301’ was a good, unheralded little noir…always a treat to find one of these out there.