Movie Diary 2023: The Return
It’s been 5 years since I started Movie Diary 2018, my extremely successful and beloved blogging project. I stopped working on it shortly after 2019 started, really hoping to commit to the bit of having this project only last for a year-ish.
Since Movie Diary 2018 ended there was a short period of doing a newsletter that never really went anywhere, I think because my heart really wasn’t in it, and I’d gotten pretty tired of writing about every single movie I was watching almost every week. I probably should have held out and switched it over to Substack to get a chance at getting all that early Substack money, but c’est la vie.
I also got into making synthesizer music under the name AISUS. I’ve released a few EPs, which you can listen to on my Bandcamp as well as all the other major streaming places. I’m working on a full length album, hopefully I’ll have it ready sometime this year.
I guess I’ve been having the itch to blog again. This year, I decided to keep a little notebook where I write down the names of all the movies I watch. For first watches, I try to write a little thing about it, mostly to help me remember how I felt about it. It’s been nice, sort of meditative in a way, and looking back at my notes from this first month of 2023, I thought, “Obviously this could make for some easy content.”
This is all preamble to me telling you that the Movie Diary 2018 project is back, but it’s a little different this time. Firstly, it’s called Movie Diary 2023 now. Secondly, I’m pretty much just typing up my notes from my little notebook, so most of these reviews are going to be pretty short, and it’s all going to be about first watches. I might add some bits here and there if I think of other stuff while I’m typing it all out, but I really just want to keep it quick. I’m busy, you’re busy. We’re all busy people. I’ll update about once a month, but that might change, who knows? Oh also, I’m not sure about what’ll happen with guest-writers. It was hands-down my favorite thing about Movie Diary 2018, so I’d love to do it again, but I haven’t really thought about it or approached anyone yet. We’ll see what happens.
So welcome back to you and to me. I hope you have fun reading this again.
Marnie (1964) - dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Fucked up! Perverse! The scene with the horse was one of the most intense and stressful things I’d ever seen from Hitchcock, especially after learning about Tippie Hedren and Hitchcock’s whole deal.
M3GAN (2023) - dir. Gerard Johnstone
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Absolutely delivered everything I wanted. Everyone in the theater lost their minds when M3GAN started singing! A true argument for the importance of theatrical releases.
Armageddon Time (2022) - dir. James Gray
A lot of conveniences and cliches to take you to a place that’s ultimately really interesting and devastating — watching someone fail at a moral dilemma. It sort of feels like James Gray has been wringing his hands about these feelings for a long time, and it’s pretty interesting to see him lay out this experience about meaning well and failing at being a good person.
Corsage (2022) - dir. Marie Kreutzer
A interesting Vicky Krieps performance in an ultimately boring film, but it’s pretty tough to convey boredom without looking boring I guess.
Skinamarink (2023) - dir. Kyle Edward Ball
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A really scary concept that got wasted on this sludgy movie. I’d never seen so many people get up to go to the bathroom during a movie. Probably would have worked better as a weird little short, this felt like it was about an hour too long. Some fun moments though. Everyone rightly talks about the toy phone thing, but I loved the bit where the toilet disappears and the kids set out some buckets. I wasn’t so into it, but I guess overall it’s a good thing for cinema when a microbudget thing like this can still be released and get so many people talking about it, so I can’t really be upset about that. Also, unfortunately I always gotta hand it to a movie that has the stomach to kill a kid. A lot of movies don’t have the guts!
The Menu (2022) - dir. Mark Mylod
An extremely stupid movie with some fun jokes. Very “A 20 year old’s favorite movie”-core. Loved Nicholas Hoult in this, I’m so happy every time he gets a chance to be funny.
Party Girl (1995) - dir. Daisy Von Scherler Mayer
Very cute and fun. No one does a weird little gesture like Parker Posey! All the outfits were great. The whole look of 1995 New York is a reminder of what we’ve lost and how far we’ve fallen, everyone looks so cool and free in a way that I think we can’t get back.
Seven Chances (1925) - dir. Buster Keaton
I’d never seen a Buster Keaton movie before, pretty much just the highlights that everyone knows about, but never a full movie of his. Lots of gags, some dangerous-looking stunts as expected. The back half of the movie where he’s running, getting into car crashes, dodging boulders, and just generally getting thrown into mayhem was super exciting. Definitely understand the influence on Jackie Chan, Jackass, Mission: Impossible-era Tom Cruise, etc. Some wildly racist and antisemitic bits in there as gags but that just sort of happens with these things, I guess. Oh well!
Sharp Stick (2022) - dir. Lena Dunham
I liked where it ended up, but tonally this movie was so weird to me. The performances were really great, but they seemed like they were all from slightly different movies. Kind of hard to get a real handle on it, but there are some genuinely affecting and funny moments. Very fun to see Jon Bernthal do a character who would slot seamlessly into GIRLS.
Croupier (1998) - dir. Mike Hodges
I feel like this would have been better without the voice over narration, but it does sort of fit— I just didn’t like it. They also really hit you over the head with the whole tiresome “dueling personas of a writer” thing. Plenty of other great things in this movie— Clive Owen is one of the all-time menacing guys, the particulars of being a working croupier were super interesting— but overall kind of a sloppy story that’s too interested in tying things up with a neat little bow for our main character. Also, kind of shitty how his girlfriend suddenly ends up murdered, with kind of a mystery as to who did it, and our guy is just like, “Oh damn that sucks, well good luck.”
Aftersun (2022) - dir. Charlotte Wells
Very evocative, very vibes-y movie. Really nails a nostalgic feeling of a summer trip at 11 years old, a liminal space at a liminal age. There’s a tenderness throughout that makes you apprehensive at the notion of conflict arising, but when it does, it unexpectedly feels like a kind of relief. The central question of “What did you think you would be doing at this age when you were 11?” cuts so deeply.
January 2023 Rewatches and the hottest people in them
Singin’ In The Rain (1952) - dir. Stanley Donen
- Gene Kelly
Phantom Thread (2017) - dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
- Daniel Day-Lewis
Moonstruck (1987) - dir. Norman Jewison
- Nicolas Cage and Cher
Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) - dir. Olivier Assayas
- Kristen Stewart
The Mask of Zorro (1998) - dir. Martin Campbell
- Antonio Banderas