Joshua Gulch

For week 46 I watched as many movies as there have been Charles. In 'Pool of London' (1951), sailors on leave got into girls and trouble. Jessie Matthews conned her way into the London theatres in 'Evergreen' (1934). Ended with a pair of actors needing to escape London in 'Withnail and I' (1987).

Of all the movies I've seen, allow me to name the four most recent. 'Amanda' (2022) about Amanda making a friend, 'Lilya 4-ever' (2002) about Lilya trying to survive creeps, 'Tony Takitani' (2004) about Tony's shopaholic wife, and 'Silvia Prieto' about Silvia Prieto finding another Silvia Prieto.

Thanks! Looking forward to what you cook up for us this week.

Unmasked four new-to-me films in week 44, watching a spooky masked man targeting models in 'Blood and Black Lace' (1964), a gas mask clad bank heist with 'The League of Gentlemen' (1960), a time traveler with a mask in 'Timecrimes' (2007), and mask-wearing travelers in 'Lost in New York' (1989).

Wish I'd made more time in week 43 but still enjoyed these three. A phone in the past changed the future in 'The Call' (2020), a time machine displaced Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 'Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession' (1973), and a journalist learned his lesson in 'It Happened Tomorrow' (1944).

Pulled four films under one roof for week 42, watching a house become a prison in 'Home' (2008), youths trying to save their housing complex in 'Gagarine' (2020), the last night of an aging cinema in 'Goodbye, Dragon Inn' (2003), and a bored hotel night clerk people watching in 'Nightshift' (1981).

In spite of the prompt I found three films for week 41. A worker disappeared among land being reclaimed in 'A Land Imagined' (2018), the elusive Chan is in fact very much missing in 'Chan is Missing' (1982), and a husband disappears prompting an emotional crisis in 'Under the Sand' (2000). Poof!

Stalked my watchlists to find three films for week 40. A woman hunted a soldier through the forest to seek revenge in 'The Nightingale' (2018), two captains tried to outsmart one another in 'The Enemy Below' (1957), and a family came under scrutiny for girl's death in 'An Inspector Calls' (1954).

Four films bloomed on my tv in week 39. Happy flowers infested brains in 'Little Joe' (2019), a rich botanist married a selfish schemer in 'A New Leaf' (1971), Jeffrey Combs played a manipulative mold in 'Motivational Growth' (2013), and I tried to learn if corn is a grass in 'Grasses' (1970).

In week 38 I caught up with four films I'd missed as a teenager. 'But I'm a Cheerleader' (1999) had been on my watchlist forever, 'In the Soup' (1992) was a new discovery that I enjoyed, and ended with a Parker Posey double feature of 'The Daytrippers' and 'Waiting for Guffman,' both from 1996.

Screenshot from the end credits of Muse. Particularly the section reading "Music: Marcin Masecki, Based on motifs from "Noche de las Estrellas" by Jose Louis Padula and "Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael / Mitchell Parish, Copyright EMI Mills Music Inc / Sony Publishing, Poland."

Didn't plan to watch 'Muse' for this challenge until the credits said Marcin Masecki adapted music based on motifs by Padula and Carmichael. If music is a universal language then musical notation is its written form, and in 'Muse,' the music plays an instrumental (pun) role in telling the story.

Four adaptations in week 37 with 'The Cruel Sea' (1953) from a novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, 'Muse' (2025) from motifs notated by Jose Luis Padula and Hoagy Carmichael, 'Tank Girl' (1995) from a comic by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin, and 'The World of Kanako' (2014) from a novel by Akio Fukamachi.

Week: 36. Films: 3. Words: 2. Watched 'Magic Farm' (2024) about a documentary crew who didn't know where they were, 'Air Doll' (2009) about an inflatable doll who grew a heart and a sense of whimsy, and 'Silent Running' (1972) about an environmentalist gone rogue in space with his robot friends.

The poster for The Juniper Tree. It features a black and white photo of Björk, sitting on the gravel-strewn ground, staring upwards toward the upper left corner. "She's got a weird expression on her face," to borrow a line from a Sugarcubes song. Near the bottom right corner, in a large blank space below the picture, are small silhouettes of some birds flying. The title is at the very top, squeezed into a narrow space above the photo, in a black serif font.

The poster for Licorice Pizza. It's a painted illustration. Alana Haim makes up the central focus, filling most of the space, as she stands with her hand on her hip, holding out her other hand toward us, staring us in the eyes with her offering. In her hand is a small teenage boy, sitting cross-legged. In circles around her head are portraits of the many supporting characters. The title is centered, below her outstretched hand, in jaunty white letters that look kind of handwritten. The poster does not indicate the gross relationships that fill this movie.

The poster for Suddenly. Against, a yellow background, a sepia-toned drawing of Frank Sinatra grabbing a woman by her shoulders and she looks distressed and tries to pull away. He's sneering at her as his hand squeezes her arm. The tagline proclaims "Sinatra... as a savage, sensation-hungry killer!" Below, in scrawled orange lettering, is the title, with an exclamation point on the end for emphasis.

The poster for Rancho Deluxe. It's an illustration featuring a woman with a tight red t-shirt, white vest, cowboy hat, boots, and gloves, and cut-off denim shorts, sitting on a vehicle whose front is a full on bull, as in an actual cow with a nose-ring and horns, and whose back is a trike motorcycle with large back wheels and exhaust pipe. An engine block sticks out of the cow's back. She's twirling a lasso above her head, the rope spelling out the title in cursive. Needless to say the cow-bike-thing doesn't actually appear in the movie, though I think it could, nay, should have.

... as well as a pre-Debut Björk in her film debut 'The Juniper Tree' (1990), Alana Haim and Tom Waits acting inappropriately in 'Licorice Pizza' (2021), Frank Sinatra planning an assassination in 'Suddenly' (1954), and Jeff Bridges rustling cows and being a nuisance in 'Rancho Deluxe' (1975). (2/2)

Seven days of polymaths for 35. A young Jenny Lewis beat up a gross teacher in 'Foxfire' (1996), Cher swooned for one-handed bad boys in 'Moonstruck' (1987), Billie Piper wrote, directed, and starred in 'Rare Beasts' (2019), and Danny Elfman was a swingin' Satan in 'Forbidden Zone' (1980)... (1/2)

The mission that I chose to accept in week 34 led me to watching 'The Wild Robot' (2024) with M:I film series actor Ving Rhames, 'Lured' (1947) with the original series' Desilu chief Lucille Ball, and 'Dead Reckoning' (1946) with no connection to later films that have shared the same name.

I tried to treat all sides equally during week 33, with the party girl vs. preacher man in 'Sensation Seekers' (1927), the Tsarists vs. Bolsheviks in 'The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty' (1927), and colonialist settlers vs. native populations in 'White Material' (2009). Not all were sympathetic though.

I only needed one, two would have been appropriate, but I watched three for week 32. 'Titanic: The Arabic Version' (2016) was a dumb little parody that got some actual laughs, 'Love Lies Bleeding' (2024) muscled its way into my heart, and 'Evil Does Not Exist' (2023) was a beautiful ode to nature.

Cuomo's using the Adobe font ASAP if anyone wants to make their own, uh, "fan" edits.

Andrew Cuomo's dumb new logo, transformed into a hideous approximation of the old goatse image. I feel shame, but am okay with it. I have embraced that shame and it is now part of me. Forever.

Let's just say I felt inspired.

Made small use of a history degree this week with a trio of films about days of yore. The skewed biography of Prime Minister King in 'The Twentieth Century' (2019), an expressionistic demise of a famed aviator in 'Mynarski Death Plummet' (2014), and a slice of WWI misery in 'Many Wars Ago' (1970).

Enjoyed a rose-colored week 30. Began with 'Immaculate' (2024) which grew more red as the story progressed. Followed with the red-colored personas of 'Nimona' (2023). Finished with two redheads: Vincent van Gogh in 'Loving Vincent' (2017) and ultimate redhead Karen Gillan in 'Late Bloomers' (2023).

A busy week 29 only left room for two films. Two Laurels and two Hardys caused five times the shenanigans in 'Our Relations' (1936) while Lee Pace and others pulled double duty between the fact and fiction storylines of 'The Fall' (2006).

Played the name game in week 28 by watching 'Seconds' (1966) with Roy Scherer Jr., 'Rain' (1932) with Lucille LeSueur, and 'Mermaids' (1990) with Cheryl Sarkisian and Winona Horowitz. If those really are their names!

A really off week only allowed me to witness a singular act of kindness with Aki Kaurismäki's 'Le Havre' (2011), where an old man tried his hardest to assist a young migrant boy in avoiding immigration police to help him get to his family. A very timely good deed in these trying times.

Only sinned a little in week 26. Probably still gonna wind up in an upper circle of Hell, with some of the poets, at least. I watched a case of generational wrath in 'Revenge' (1989) and the gratuitous gluttony of 'Viva' (2007). Add in my own sloth this week and it ain't lookin' good for me.

The poster for True Stories. Set against a white backdrop, David Byrne sits wearing a green suit with bolo tie, dark cowboy hat, sunglasses, and cowboy boots. He's grinning at a newspaper he's holding, the film's title in large text filling the entire front page. A guitar is partially out of frame to the right.

The poster for Mass. The four letters of the title fill the entirety of the poster, split into two levels -- MA on top, SS below -- with a white background behind. Each letter contains a dramatically lit headshot of each of the four actors in the film: Ann Dowd in the M, Reed Birney in the A, Martha Plimpton in the first S, and Jason Isaacs in the second S. It's a very commanding poster.

The poster for It's What Each Person Needs. An extreme close-up of a woman's wrist fills the entire frame, the edges of her hand nearest the camera completely blurry, the focus trained on a brightly colored bead bracelet on her wrist. It looks like colorful teeth sticking out of her wrist. Had I not seen this shot in the film I wouldn't have a clue what I was looking at. The title is at the very bottom in a pink serif font.

... then moved onto small town life with David Byrne and the Talking Heads' 'True Stories' (1986), spent an afternoon talking through trauma with 'Mass' (2021), and ended with a short documentary about connecting to the lonely in 'It's What a Person Needs' (2022). 2/2

Week 25 spoke to me on multiple levels and six films. Began with a mute woman on a feminist rampage with 'Ms .45' (1981), and moved onto paranoia over the telephone line in 'Sorry, Wrong Number' (1948), and saw Jean-Luc Godard philosophizing again in 'Goodbye to Language' (2014)... 1/2

The poster for Sokea mies joka ei halunnut nähdä Titanicia, or, The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic. The background consists entirely of a very blurry black and white photo of a man in a wheelchair. Over top, in braille, is the title of the film in six rows of large white dots. Below, in simple, smaller text, the title is written out in Roman letters.

The poster for Celle que vous croyez, or, Who You Think I Am. The entire poster is a closeup of the side of Juliette Binoche's head, the left side of her face. The front of her face is cut off the side. Her eye is closed and she's smiling slightly. The image is distorted by a pixel effect overlaid, and the colors are skewed so black shades are tinted more blue. The title is set to the center left, partially over her cheek, in simple white letters.

...along with 'The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic' (2021), and 'Who You Think I Am' (2019).

Most of the questions I asked this week were "who?," which maybe says more about myself than it does about these films. 2/2

Asked quite a few questions in week 24 and even got some answers back with 'The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future' (2022), 'The Man Who Cheated Himself' (1950), 'What Do Men Want?' (1921), 'When Little Lindy Sang' (1916)... 1/2