After working through many of Hollywood’s best known musicals, it’s time we move on to this classic that highlights the dancing ahead of the music. It’s also appropriate that we watch at least one film starring that great dancer of cinema Fred Astaire and he certainly does not disappoint here.

This topped critics’ lists of notable films last year and I did a bit of a double-take when I realized that it’s an entry in the exploitative rape and revenge genre. Still this was made by a woman French director Coralie Fargeat and I knew it wouldn’t have been so lauded had it been merely puerile so here we are.

So Searching turns to be just the perfect little American independent film. It’s the feature film debut of its director Aneesh Chaganty, it was made with a super low budget and it makes use of a clever new gimmick to tell its story. John Cho is of course a pretty recognizable Hollywood star these days but this is apparently still the first time an Asian American actor headlines a Hollywood thriller.

This is an MCU film so it was a must watch but I’m beginning to think that I’ll have to be pickier after Avengers: Endgame. As Marvel’s first solo movie featuring a female superhero lead, this was always going to be heavily anticipated and predictably elicited a toxic response from the anti-feminists. Unfortunately while the intentions here are laudable, this is a mediocre film at best, let down I think by the untested directing duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

Clocking in at nearly four hours, this is one of the longest films we’ve watched. It’s also one of the darkest, an observation that is made especially poignant by the fact that its director Hu Bo committed suicide shortly after finishing it at the age of 29. The film itself is based on a novel by the director himself, apparently being what caused him to shoot to fame. This therefore represents the director’s first and final feature film.

Here’s another John Hughes directed teen film that is considered a cultural touchstone of America. It also reentered the public consciousness recently when its star Molly Ringwald spoke about this along with The Breakfast Club in the wake of the #MeToo revelations. I wanted to watch this one as well because while The Breakfast Club isn’t exactly great, it did take the worries and concerns of teens seriously. Unfortunately Sixteen Candles is nothing at all like it and is an execrable film all around.

This film, made on the occasion of Karl Marx’s 200th birthday, caught my attention when it appeared on the festival circuit and so added it to my list. I only later noticed that it has a rather atrocious Rotten Tomatoes rating. Having watched it, I understand why but I don’t regret spending the time on it at all as I admire director Raoul Peck’s clear passion for the subject and for knowing exactly what he intended to achieve with this film.