January in Review

Hello and welcome to another year of me watching things and writing about them because I don't know who I'd be if I stopped!

This year is a little different because, while I've watched a lot of movies with Tim over the past two years, I've watched every movie so far this year with him because we now share a living room. Does this mean I'll watch more movies? Fewer? (Less??) Who knows. We watched nine in January.

Let's get to it.

The Matrix

I was absolutely certain I had seen this, but then almost nothing was familiar, so I guess I either hadn't or my memory is terrible (both possible). I thought it was very creative and pretty fun, and I was surprised how little had been spoiled even though it's one of the most famous movies of the past few decades. Also, a Rage Against the Machine song plays during the credits, which is just incredible.

Nightmare Alley*

First movie theater outing of 2022! I honestly still don't know exactly how I felt about this one, but I know I liked it and also thought it was too long. Guillermo makes pretty movies and Bradley Cooper is pretty reliable. Cate Blanchett is so glamorous that watching her sometimes feels like having a panic attack.

Scream (5)*

Here's the thing: Scream (1996) is one of my favorite movies of all time. And I'm usually very much of the belief that if something is great, you should leave it alone. But not with Scream. I will happily watch new Scream movies until I die. This movie isn't perfect, but it's better than Scream 3 and that's all I could ask for.

The Babadook

A solid example of a horror movie that's about more than just monsters. An alternate title could be “Birth Control.” Also arguably an example of the Academy consistently ignoring horror performances. 

His House

This movie was just ok, but the story was unique.

The Amityville Horror (2005)

This movie, on the other hand, was not unique (if you'll recall, I took a nap in the middle of the original Amityville) and was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. There wasn't a single good thing about it.

The Clovehitch Killer

Pivoting again, this movie was very good. It had tight writing with a quiet menace throughout and the best performance I've personally seen from Dylan McDermott. The ending made me say "wild" out loud. Definitely give it a chance if you've considered it.

Django Unchained

I did not enjoy watching this and I wouldn't say it's very good. What it is is an ok movie with good performances from Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio and the same performance you always get from Samuel L. Jackson.

Rewatch: Tombstone. Tim and I did a double feature with Django and Tombstone because I had never seen the former and he had never seen the latter. Tombstone is one of my dad's favorite movies and therefore one that is endlessly quoted by my family. It's still good and Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday is still one of my all-time favorite performances.

Also in January, Tim and I watched a lot of TV. As mentioned before, we're watching Breaking Bad for Tim's first time and we're currently on season four. We've also continued to make our way through Avatar: The Last Airbender for my first time (we're almost finished) and I've got Tim watching The Righteous Gemstones with me. But our main obsession this month aside from Breaking Bad has been Netflix's Archive81. We frequently don't know what's going on, but in a good way.

Oh, and I watched all of the new season of Queer Eye (solo) in a few days, obviously.

This month in books, I successfully managed to read the ICYMI Book Club's first book of the year, Little by Edward Carey. I really enjoyed it and think it's just weird enough that anyone could like it. Now I'm reading God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney.