The original post: /r/movies by /u/PureLionHeart on 2025-01-01 16:03:47.

So, why did I decide do this? Short answer: Twitch streamer Northernlion and Cine2Nerdle Battles, the former a movie trivia machine, and the latter a movie-trivia PVP game. Hoping some folks are familiar with both or either as explaining makes this giant post even bigger. Anyway, those got me to finally make a Letterboxd, and set me on a movie frenzy which peaked in early January. So I figured I’d try and get through a year’s worth. One a day was already kind of out the window as I started late, but 365 seemed surprisingly doable given the appetite I suddenly had for it (and sure enough I went over). There were so many classics I hadn’t seen, recent beloved movies I didn’t get to see in theatre, etc. Hilariously, I actually thought I’d “run out” of the best stuff before the year was out, but of course that’s patently absurd, especially with some of the choices I made. I suppose I should apologize up front for the anime movies too, which some might consider boorish to count, but what the hell, I wanted to see them. I ended up with 391 movies new to me, including 11 rewatches, mostly to show my wife or prepare for a sequel.

That all said, I don’t recommend this. It’s easy to burn out and just really not be in the mood some days when you’re stuck on such a goal. There were some days I put on a movie I knew I wouldn’t be too concerned about, and I’m sure you can notice them. And really, I only had the luxury of time to do this since my backshift job allows me a lot of downtime, so yes, I know I’m blessed there. It’d be downright unreasonable otherwise. Anyway, hopefully someone enjoys this read, and maybe discovers a movie they were unaware of or watches something they’ve been putting off. But really, I wanted to make a post like this also just for me, as something of a year-end review, to go back and recap everything since it can be easy to forget with such a deluge. So I won’t feel too bad if this goes unnoticed, as I kind of suspect.

But enough about all that. Here’s the Letterboxd Diary of what I’ve seen this year. Out-front note, I didn’t give star scores, as I always hate looking back and being utterly embarrassed by younger me’s choices. So I just noted whether I liked it or not, and added my favourites to the appropriate list. I’ll mainly use this post to showcase my Top Ten, a list of the surprises both good & bad, and some random musings on actors, directors, genres, whatever. And don’t worry, I don’t believe there’s any spoilers here.

Top 10 (alphabetical):

• Anatomy Of A Fall - Just an utterly fantastic drama and mystery. There’s really not much more I can say, save that Sandra Huller is fantastic and I hope to see her in a lot more.
• Asteroid City - Turns out I love Wes Anderson’s work, and this one has enraptured me for reasons I can’t really articulate. I still think about it, and devoured YouTube essays as a result.
• Coherence - Thrilling, and a fabulous ending. I had heard it was insanely confusing to understand, but highly disagree, unless you’re trying to track everyone, which the movie really points out itself as foolish. The book was real heavy-handed, though.
• Dune: Part Two - Just an amazing follow-up. I’ve not read the books, but I know I am actively failing the material every time I’m cheering for Paul, but so be it. And God-damn, Austin Butler was amazing with the subtleties. He could not have been hornier for Paul, and I’ll stand by that viewpoint.
• Hell Or High Water - Heard good things, but didn’t expect such a great, tight plot acted so well. Chris Pine was great, sure, but Ben Foster is the real treat. Been keeping an eye out for his work since.
• Locke - This should not have worked, but dammit, does it ever. Any movie that has me cheering at the end is an all-timer. I was on the edge of my seat since so much could have gone every which way.
• Take Shelter - I discovered Jeff Nichols’ work this year, and loved all but The Bikeriders. This one had me uneasy all the way through in the best way. And yes, I’m one of those folks who subscribes to the ending being another dream/episode.
• The Hunt - Damning, depressing, terrifying stuff. More a horror movie than most films I’d watch. Especially as it goes on and things just don’t improve. Drives home the ending all the further. Mads’ best work, and I say that despite adoring Hannibal.
• The Vast of Night - The biggest surprise of the year, probably my overall favourite just on sheer unreadiness. For all the movies I liked this year, nothing gave me the outright chills except this and Coherence, and this was an order of magnitude stronger. Why such a surprise? I thought I was about to watch It Comes At Night, and had the wrong movie. If there’s one absolute recommendation in this entire post, it’s this movie. Easily.
• Women Talking - My wife could not have undersold this more. She liked it, and broadly explained it as the women taking a vote about what to do with the men of the town. That’s it. I assumed something supernatural, as she’s much more into horror and the like. The actual content was much more harrowing and enthralling.

Surprises (Good & Bad):

• The Vast Of Night - One more shout-out, because my God. Expected a likely mediocre horror, got a feature-length Twilight Zone episode that kept me enraptured the whole way through.
• The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs - So wildly inconsistent, wow. My fault, I didn’t know it was an anthology. I could have watched two straight hours of Tim Blake Nelson singing and shooting, and Near Algodones was still good, but the rest did little for me (maybe The Mortal Remains). Not helped by the fact my wife decided to get high to watch it with me during the Buster Scruggs section, and then got subjected to the nightmare that is Meal Ticket at her peak. The poor woman.
• Tar - The wife and I actually gave up on this early on in the classroom section as it seemed too esoteric for us, with no knowledge of the subject matter, but I gave it another crack myself later in the night, then eventually convinced her to go back. So fantastic once the movie fully revealed itself. And I cannot stress enough how surreal it was that just earlier that day, and for the past few weeks, I had been replaying Monster Hunter World…
• The Hunt For Red October - I just find it hilarious they had English, Scottish, Swedish, and New Zealander actors doing Russian accents…
• The Killing Of A Sacred Deer - This was my first Yorgos Lanthimos film, and nearly put my off his whole filmography. The plot is fantastic, but I utterly loathed the monotone delivery throughout. Thank goodness he’s loosened up on that. I couldn’t imagine Poor Things without the over-the-top deliveries like Ruffalo’s.
• Sicario - Good enough movie, but man does it feel unusual for Denis Villeneuve in retrospect of his later work. I also bring this up because I dared to try the sequel and quit less than 10 minutes in when they added Muslim suicide-bombers to the Mexican cartel, and it was blindingly clear the intention and views of the film and filmmakers.
• Moonrise Kingdom - My wife and I were struggling on what to think of this for a decent chunk of runtime, until we finally settled on a description of immense sincerity. We loved it by the end and were actively rooting for everyone.
• Ad Astra - What little I heard about this was as a boring, dull, sci-fi movie. I don’t get it at all. Hell, there’s a car chase with guns on the moon! And in a spaceship taking off! But who cares, because the contemplative acting and dialogue are the real point, and it’s great at that.
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - This movie is an enigma to me because from the sum of its parts, it should easily be one of my all-time favourites. I adored The Nice Guys, for example. But I swear, I just couldn’t get into it. It just never seemed to come together for me, and I just don’t know why. I may rewatch it again, maybe I was just in a bad mood or something.
• Mud - I knew of this solely from Cine2Nerdle and getting beaten with it, and it was my intro to Jeff Nichols as mentioned. I generally don’t care for coming-of-age films, but this one was fantastic with the way it approached a boy learning of love in so many different ways. Take Shelter did more for me, but this was very nearly in my Top Ten as well.
• Furiosa - I’ll just be honest, this was a let-down for me. Still good, undeniably, but Fury Road is a masterpiece and this just couldn’t measure up. Surprisingly, I think one of the biggest faults lies in the soundtrack. Nothing hit as hard, and music was used much more sparingly. It was shocking that the biggest chase scene was nearly silent compared to what Fury Road did at every opportunity.
• Babylon - Incredibly up-and-down. It largely didn’t click for me, especially the saccharine ending, except for every moment Brad Pitt was on screen: he was solid gold. And that speech by Jean Smart, too. I loved seeing her since Legion may well be my favourite TV show.
• It Follows - Turned out to be a massive disappointment, really. I think I was expecting a more methodical, robotic force that required clever rule use and the like, and while that’s there to an extent to be sure, the continually revealed ability of the creature to think and react diminished things for me. It’s less a force of nature, which makes it feel less scary somehow.
• **I’m Thinkin…

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