qz thoughts2025 Modular Film Festival
So this year I have decided to try the "Modular Film Festival" which is a series of prompts for movies to watch, one per day of September. The 2025 list was shared as a letterboxd user list. I was thinking about posting this as weekly updates, but September doesn't neatly divide by seven, so I'll mix it up a bit. Eight films in the first installment.
- A movie that nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Television Movie
RKO-281 (1999)For me, that other film about making Citizen Kane : RKO 281 (1999).
Mank is a minor character in this one. The focus is mostly on Welles and some on Hearst, and a lot on the pressure exerted to suppress the film.
50 takes of a line out of 60
- A French New Wave Movie
La Jetée (1962)A little bit of a stretch since it's a short, but it's in 1001 Movies You Must Watch so I don't feel bad about the length. Jetée, like Savage Eye (1959, but I watched last week), breaks rules about how films are made. This is a slide show with audio and a single motion clip, yet it is pretty effective. The story subject helps make it work. (Terry Gilliam remade this as Twelve Monkeys; "remade" used loosely.)
- A movie that seems fake on Tubi
The Machine Girl (2008)I watched a Bionic Man/Woman film last month, so the title lured me in. Japanese schoolgirl films are something I don't watch normally.
This enhanced young woman on a revenge mission makes the new "Toxic Avenger" seem sedate and plausible. Two minutes to first geyser of blood. Curiously there are no blood waterfalls when people get holes through torsos. That's probably all you need to know.
- God forbid women have hobbies
But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)Hobbies. That's a hard one. Jobs? Hopes and dreams? Sure. Cheerleading sounds like a hobby, so time to watch this one.
As yesterday, not my usual tastes: I tend to leave teen lesbian stories out of my film watching.
Unlike yesterday, this was a lot a of fun, and very carefully styled. Would look for more like this. The sexuality was rather mild, as noted in This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)
- A movie at least 100 years old
Safety Last (1923)I've been meaning to watch this for a while, I've viewed and enjoyed a bunch of other silents in the past few years. I found most of the first hour a bit tedious, humor derived from awkwardly covering up lies just isn't that funny. The building climb, with clock scene, in the last twenty minutes is the good part. (Buster Keaton's antics are better for my money.)
- A Wallace Shawn movie
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989) Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989)Having seen both "My Dinner with Andre" (1981) and "Princess Bride" (1987) too recently to repeat, I picked a Paul Bartel film I had not watched.
Shawn here has the role Bartel usually saves for himself: husband to Mary Woronov. Fun absurdist comedy about class, akin to "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972).
Four castration themed pick-up lines out of four.
- A movie Roger Ebert gave one star or less
The Green Hornet (2011)I remember reading reviews of this when it was new, and remembering liking the trailer. It's really dumb, seemingly existing to answer the question "What if Batman were very stupid?" Unfortunately that drags down pretty much the whole film (while leaving enough contextless scenes for a trailer).
Except for Christoph Waltz. I liked him, he does a good job generally with funny bad guy.
- A movie shot in Luxembourg
Hysteria (2011)This is a period rom-com hung on a largely fabricated story about inventing the vibrator by a doctor specializing in the malady "hysteria." Much "humor" is based on the medical ideas of period. Much drama comes from the well-off not caring about the poor.
Luxembourg fills in for Victorian London. City scenes and sets were fine, perhaps heavy handed with the advertising, but the costumes did not all seem era appropriate.