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January 2014: Cinema

Published by Willow Catelyn Maclay on February 1, 2014

 It was admittedly a slower month at Château de Willow because of my new found obsession with wrestling (which is totally an art form itself) and my general burnout after trying to watch every critically acclaimed picture from the last year. I did however finally get to see two very good pictures from Elaine May. She came onto my radar last year after watching the powerhouse dark comedy A New Leaf, and she is one of those rare filmmakers who has a perfect resume. My boyfriend also introduced me to Godard’s King Lear which I found to be a brilliant picture that nearly destroys cinema in it’s 90 minute run time to rebirth it all over again. In return I introduced him to Godard’s Je Vous Salue, Sarajevo, so I think we both kicked the world’s ass at how cinephile relationships are supposed to work. It was a fun month, but honestly a little thin on older pictures. I’m hoping that February is a little more diverse.

Best of the Month
The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, 1971)
Ishtar (Elaine May, 1987)
Titicut Follies (Frederick Wiseman, 1967)
King Lear (Jean Luc Godard, 1987)
Come Drink With Me (King Hu, 1966)
This Gun For Hire (Frank Tuttle, 1942)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
3 Women (Robert Altman, 1977)
Beyond the Mat (Barry W. Baulstein, 1999)
Four Heads are Better than One (Georges Méliès, 1898)
The Butler (Lee Daniels, 2013)
The Past (Asghar Farhadi, 2013)

Best Rewatches
Je Vous Salue, Sarajevo (Jean Luc Godard, 1993)
Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, 2006)
The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2013)
Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)
Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1992)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013)

Worst
Admission (Paul Weitz, 2013)
This is 40 (Judd Apatow, 2012) [rewatch]


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4 Comments

  1. Anonymous Anonymous

    YESSSS WRESTLING OBSESSION. Also, yes to reminding me to see more Elaine May.

    February 1, 2014
  2. s s

    Yay for T2 & Bman Returns, of course! Also didn't imagine you'd be into The Butler, though I haven't yet seen it myself, to be fair. Reviews weren't bad for it or anything, after all.

    February 3, 2014
  3. Willow Maclay Willow Maclay

    well, I've been a fan of Lee Daniels for a little while now. I loved The Paperboy so I went into The Butler thinking I'd at least appreciate his auteurist qualities on the film, and I did.

    February 3, 2014

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