After the crazy trip that was My Own Private Idaho, I thought I should watch this earlier film by Gus Van Sant. Oddly enough while this does begin as literally a drug-fueled trip, it is actually a much more conventional film than I expected. Perhaps one of the most interesting stylistic choices is the use of slow, moody music as the soundtrack to reflect the main character’s contemplative nature even as he lives a fast, dangerous life.

Onwards as we move through the filmography of Hou Hsiao-hsien, we have this exquisitely crafted Flowers of Shanghai. My wife recounted to me how she’d tried to watch this multiple times over the years but failed to finish it every time. The reason is that the predominant language used in the film is Shanghainese which made it quite incomprehensible. But this time, we watched it all the way to the end, thanks to the power of English subtitles.

Mike Leigh is another British director of some renown but I don’t believe we’ve seen anything by him before this. Similar to Ken Loach, he is known for championing the working class in his work and the subject of this historical epic is indeed about the struggle of the British people for their voting rights in the early 19th century. Unfortunately while beautifully shot, this is a dreadfully boring work that even the most hardened of film connoisseurs will struggle to keep awake for.

We watched this on YouTube as one of the many media works being made available for free during the global lockdown. My wife and I went to watch the Phantom of the Opera when the global tour arrived in Kuala Lumpur last and we considered going to Cats when it supposed to come this year as well. I argued against that as I thought it was a silly show and indeed it was cancelled way before covid-19, likely because of low advance ticket sales. The debacle that was last year’s star-studded film version only reinforced my poor impression of this musical. But since this is free online, I went along with watching this in full just so that I can finally say that I’ve done it.

Very often I have films sitting in my queue for so long that I forget why I ever put them on it. I knew going in this one that it’s a thriller or action movie starring Tom Cruise but little more than that. But after the usually patient pacing of the opening sequence of Cruise in a taxi literally cruising through the city at night, I wondered who the director is and of course it’s Michael Mann. That in of itself is a good reason for wanting to watch this.

This documentary was added to my list because of its prominence among critics last year but I never realized how heavily inspired it was by the Jacques Demy film Model Shop. By pure coincidence, we only got around to watching that earlier this year and we’re very glad we did as Echo in the Canyon refers to it almost constantly as a sort of record of what mid-1960s Los Angeles looked and felt like. The producer himself acknowledges that it was watching the film that inspired him to embark on this project to find out what the music scene at the time was light and to organize a sort of tribute concert for those great bands.

This is an earlier film by the same Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos who brought us The Lobster and The Favourite. When he made this, he hadn’t yet become famous so this was made with unknown actors and a limited budget. In fact, it takes place almost entirely within the confines of a family’s house. Yet it doesn’t disappoint with regards to its weirdness quotient while being somewhat easier to understand in terms of theme.