Sam

A screenshot of the “Recent Activity” section on Letterboxd showing four film posters with ratings underneath. From left to right: Irma La Douce (a colourful illustrated poster with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, rated 3.5 stars with a like), Dead of Winter (a lone figure walking through snow toward a cabin, rated 4 stars with a like), Broadway Danny Rose (a black-and-white poster featuring a door labelled with the title, rated 4.5 stars with a like), and Funny Girl (a vintage romantic poster of Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif, rated 3.5 stars).

#LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched 📽️
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1. Irma La Douce – Studio Paris, charm on overtime
2. Dead of Winter – Snow, suspicion, Thompson with a rifle
3. Broadway Danny Rose – Showbiz schmucks, big heart
4. Funny Girl – Streisand belts; story catches up later

A screenshot of the “Recent Activity” section on Letterboxd showing four film posters with ratings underneath. From left to right: Diner (a group of young men in tuxedos posed around a diner booth, rated 3.5 stars), Forbidden Planet (a sci-fi poster featuring Robby the Robot carrying a woman, rated 3 stars), The Aviator’s Wife (an illustrated poster of a couple embracing outdoors, rated 4 stars), and Angels with Dirty Faces (a painted noir poster of James Cagney holding a gun and listening intently, rated 3.5 stars).

#LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched 📽️
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1. Diner – Nostalgia, neurosis, and scared of growing up
2. Forbidden Planet – Big ideas, shiny tech, thin humans
3. The Aviator’s Wife – Jealousy writes the script
4. Angels with Dirty Faces – Gangsters, guilt, and Cagney doing the hard sell

It’s fine, it’s nice, it’s It’s pretty alright in bursts, some good performances but nothing else.

A screenshot of the “Recent Activity” section on Letterboxd showing four film posters with ratings underneath. From left to right: Silver Linings Playbook (a split portrait of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence overlaid with diagrams, rated 2.5 stars), Good One (a close-up of a young woman looking up through trees, rated 4.5 stars), The River (a vintage illustrated poster of a couple mirrored upside-down, rated 3.5 stars), and Viridiana (a stark black-and-white image of a woman’s face in shadow, rated 4 stars).

#LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched 📽️
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1. Silver Linings Playbook – Chaotic rom-com, therapy by shouting
2. Good One – Quiet tensions, faces saying more than words
3. The River – Renoir goes tropical; everything drifts
4. Viridiana – Piety, provocation, Buñuel twisting the knife

A screenshot of the “Recent Activity” section on Letterboxd showing four film posters with ratings underneath. From left to right: The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (a colourful screwball comedy poster featuring Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken, rated 3 stars), Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood standing beside his car holding a gun, rated 3 stars), The Hunt (close-up of Mads Mikkelsen looking over his shoulder, rated 4.5 stars), and Gimme Shelter (a concert stage bathed in darkness and yellow light, rated 3.5 stars).

#LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched 📽️
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1. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek – Screwball chaos firing in all directions
2. Gran Torino – Grumpy redemption arc, heavy on the sermons
3. The Hunt – Civilisation collapses faster than expected
4. Gimme Shelter – When the dream curdles live

A screenshot of the “Recent Activity” section on Letterboxd showing four film posters with ratings underneath. From left to right: The Ballad of Narayama (an elderly woman standing in a forested mountain setting, rated 4.5 stars), Short Cuts (a stylised red heart graphic on a cream background, rated 4 stars with a like), The Remains of the Day (Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in period dress by a window, rated 4 stars), and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (a yellow poster featuring the three-headed dragon attacking, rated 3 stars).

#LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched 📽️
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1. The Ballad of Narayama – Survival as tradition, mercy as crime
2. Short Cuts – Altman unravels a whole city
3. The Remains of the Day – Repression, regret, perfect posture
4. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster – Rubber suits, cosmic chaos

A screenshot of the “Recent Activity” section on Letterboxd showing four film posters with ratings underneath. From left to right: Samurai Rebellion (a black-and-white image of a samurai holding a sword, rated 4.5 stars with a like), The Party (a stylised poster featuring a chaotic artwork framed above a black pedestal, rated 2 stars), Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire in the Spider-Man suit swinging between buildings, rated 4 stars with a like), and Tokyo Sonata (a minimalist poster of a family seated around a table, rated 4 stars with a like).

#LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched 📽️

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1. Samurai Rebellion – Kobayashi turns honour into an act of defiance
2. The Party – One gag stretched until it snaps
3. Spider-Man – Origin story done right: earnest, agile, still fun
4. Tokyo Sonata – Middle-class collapse played as quiet horror

A ★★★★ review of Still Walking (2008) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 16 — 🌲 Nature, Melancholy & the Transcendent Family gatherings are meant to be comforting. This one feels more like sitting too close to a radiator: warm, but slightly unbearab...

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A ★★★½ review of Branded to Kill (1967) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 15 — 🌘 Surrealism, Dream Logic & Myth If classic noir is cigarette smoke, guilt, and shadows, this is cigarette smoke, guilt, and a mild concussion. The whole thing struts like...

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A ★★★★½ review of A Fugitive from the Past (1965) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 14 — 🕶️ Noir, Crime & Shadowland Three hours can feel like a dare, but this one makes the case for its length. What starts as “man on the run” turns into something heavier: a s...

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A ★★★ review of The Family Game (1983) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 13 — 🏠 Family, Society & Soft Anarchy This isn’t cosy “family life” so much as family admin. It’s not Ozu in style, but it’s got that Ozu-ish focus on routine — only here the p...

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A ★★★ review of Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 12 — ⚡ Punk, Industrial & Body Havoc It feels like Miike starting to really stretch his legs: ambitious, grubby, and uninterested in playing nice. On paper it’s a neat hook — t...

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A ★★★★ review of Love Exposure (2008) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 11 — 🔥 Rebel Cinema & Youthquake This has been sat on my shelf for years, mostly because four hours looks less like “let’s stick a film on” and more like an endurance event. Tu...

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A ★★★½ review of A Scene at the Sea (1991) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 10 — 🌲 Nature, Melancholy & the Transcendent It’s easy to forget Kitano can do gentle. He’s often associated with that early crime run — Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Sonatine — ...

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A ★★★½ review of A Snake of June (2002) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 9 — 🌘 Surrealism, Dream Logic & Myth It starts out with erotic noir vibes: hush-hush phone calls, back-alley tension, that itchy feeling someone’s always watching. Then you rea...

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A ★★★½ review of A Colt Is My Passport (1967) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 8 — 🕶️ Noir, Crime & Shadowland It’s funny how different the air feels. Classic American noir is all compression and claustrophobia — everything squeezed into alleyways. Here, ...

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A ★★★★ review of Giants and Toys (1958) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 7 — 🏠 Family, Society & Soft Anarchy The first thing that hits is the cheek. This is corporate warfare fought with caramel and publicity stunts, and it’s properly sharp about h...

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A ★★ review of The Crazy Family (1984) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 6 —⚡ Punk, Industrial & Body Havoc There’s a version of this that might’ve been a riot: leaner, meaner, and edited with the discipline it keeps refusing to practise. As it is, ...

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A ★★★ review of Burst City (1982) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 5 — 🔥 Rebel Cinema & Youthquake It feels like someone found a portal to the future, filmed it in a scrapyard, dared you to keep up. Then they hurled back the result in time. On...

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A ★★★½ review of Maborosi (1995) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 4 — 🌲 Nature, Melancholy & the Transcendent This film feels like it’s unfolding under a low cloud. You can guess what’s happened, but it won’t hand you certainty—and grief rare...

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A ★★½ review of Labyrinth of Cinema (2019) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 3 — 🌘 Surrealism, Dream Logic & Myth By the time this kicks off, it feels like you’ve been handed a cinema ticket and a safety helmet. Obayashi’s final film starts in a closing...

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A ★★★★ review of Intimidation (1960) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 2 — 🕶️ Noir, Crime & Shadowland I love a noir that gets to the point. Intimidation is barely an hour long, and it wastes none of it. Kyosuke Takita (Nobuo Kaneko) manages a ban...

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A ★★★★ review of Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (1955) Japanuary 2026 Film No. 1 — 🏠 Family, Society & Soft Anarchy It starts like a simple road trip: a young samurai, Sakawa Kojūrō, heading to Edo with two attendants — Genpachi carrying the spear, Genta ...

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Japanuary 2026 Japanuary 2026 is less about ticking off canonical masterpieces (though there are a few) and more about range, texture, and mood. This is a month built on contrast: sweaty counterculture rubbing up ag...

boxd.it/QWe6C

Poster-style image reading “JAPANUARY 2026” with “CELEBRATING JAPANESE CINEMA” below, over a moody night-time Japanese street scene: a lone person in a coat walks across a zebra crossing towards distant traffic lights and glowing shop signs.

Japanuary = my annual excuse to binge Japanese cinema for a month. Canon + deep cuts, samurai to surreal, ranked by enjoyment not homework. Mini-reviews incoming. Recs welcome. #Japanuary

A screenshot of the “Recent Activity” section on Letterboxd showing four film posters with ratings underneath. From left to right: Still Walking (a pastel-toned illustration of two figures walking along a country path, rated 4 stars with a like), The Band Wagon (a colourful poster of a dancing couple mid-kick, rated 3 stars), Dodsworth (a classic Hollywood poster of a man and woman in close embrace, rated 4 stars), and Branded to Kill (a stark black-and-white image of a man’s face overlaid with white butterflies, rated 3.5 stars with a like).

#LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched 📽️
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1. Still Walking – Family grief, gently devastating
2. The Band Wagon – Showbiz egos, tap shoes, and redemption arcs
3. Dodsworth – Midlife regret in impeccable tailoring
4. Branded to Kill – Hitmen, butterflies, and pure cinematic derangement

A screenshot of the “Recent Activity” section on Letterboxd showing four film posters with ratings underneath. From left to right: How to Get Ahead in Advertising (a surreal image of a man bursting from a TV screen in a field, rated 3.5 stars), His Kind of Woman (a colour noir poster of a woman leaning over a man in bed, rated 4 stars), Cries and Whispers (a stark red poster with a woman’s face emerging from darkness, rated 4 stars), and A Colt Is My Passport (a black-and-white noir poster of a man holding a gun, rated 3.5 stars).

#LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched 📽️
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1. How to Get Ahead in Advertising – Capitalism screams back
2. His Kind of Woman – Bogart growls, Mitchum smirks, chaos reigns
3. Cries and Whispers – Bergman turns pain up to eleven
4. A Colt Is My Passport – Hitmen, highways, and cool nihilism

A screenshot of the “Recent Activity” section on Letterboxd showing four film posters with ratings underneath. From left to right: Intimidation (black-and-white noir image of a masked man holding someone at gunpoint, rated 4 stars), Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (stylised red-and-black poster with Mount Fuji, rated 4 stars), Terror Train (horror poster with a screaming face framed by train tracks, rated 3 stars), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (cartoon Grinch in a Santa suit beside Cindy Lou Who, rated 2.5 stars).

#LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched 📽️
boxd.it/94Euv
1. Intimidation – Lean noir: one bad choice, no exits
2. Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji – Samurai swagger, hard look at violence
3. Terror Train – Party costumes and Jamie Lee doing the heavy lifting
4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! – Peak grump

A screenshot of the “Recent Activity” section on Letterboxd showing four film posters with ratings underneath. From left to right: The Crowded Day (a black-and-white British drama poster featuring four figures in a domestic setting, rated 3.5 stars), Tales from the Crypt (a skull-faced horror image against a dark background, rated 3 stars), The Holiday (a split romantic-comedy poster with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black, rated 3.5 stars), and The Bishop’s Wife (a vintage poster of Cary Grant dancing with Loretta Young, rated 2.5 stars).

LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched 📽️

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1. The Crowded Day – Kitchen-sink Britain, boxed in and quietly furious
2. Tales from the Crypt – Glee, morality & a meat cleaver
3. The Holiday – 2 continents, 4 romances, p friction
4. The Bishop’s Wife – Heavenly charm, the halo slips

A ★★★½ review of The Advent Calendar (2021) Decembinge 2025 Film No. 23 — 💀 Slashers, Santas & Sinister Snowfalls It starts with a stack of familiar ingredients: a lone woman looking for love in the all the wrong places — who happens to be a wh...

Advent Calendar
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ½

A Cursed Countdown with Teeth

#Decembinge 2025 Film No. 23—💀 Slashers, Santas & Sinister Snowfalls

It starts with a stack of familiar ingredients: a lone woman looking for love in the all the wrong places — who happens to be…

Continues at boxd.it/cbxlux

📽️ #MovieChallenge