A Satisfying Bar Graph

(Over 1,900 of these are shorts.) 
 

Themes and Nanogenres Mid-Year Check-In

Letterboxd's themes and nanogenres tracking is a fun idea, but it's taking a long time to tag the hundreds of thousands of films on the site. Hence, I'm sure I've seen more than 33 "Moving Relationship Stories" this year. 

I feel kind of accused by "Intense Violence and Sexual Transgression" appearing in my top ten themes. I don't shy away from that sort of thing, but I'm not actively looking either. My affection for the horror genre probably has something to do with it. 
 

Arnold's Path

A giant straddles the Terminator between light and shadow
Like Atlas, but actually Hercules
A Dutch treat from Austria, caught in a Matrix of illusion
A Julius Caesar, torn between worlds to rule
A Quaid/Hauser, lost in conflicting roles
A Kaminski/Brenner on both sides of the coldest war
A Danko, a Richards, a Slater, a Kimble, a Langston
A Trench-ant master, caught in a Fries frame
Doctor, President, Patron, Hood, and yet always a Self
The once and future King Conan Kalidor
Ahhhhnold, the T-800

Oscar Fail 2026

One answer away from getting a passing grade on my Oscar winner guesses, despite having seen 49 out of 50 of the nominees. Well, there's no accounting for the Academy's taste, I suppose. 
 

Earl's 2026 Oscar Predictions

I've seen every film on this ballot save for Avatar: Fire and Ash, so technically I suppose this is the best-informed about the Oscar nominees that I've ever been. All this means is my guesses have a tiny bit more weight to them than they normally would, but who can predict the tastes of the Academy's actual voters? Not me. 
 
Here's how I rank the ten Best Picture nominees, starting at the bottom and working my way up:  

• F1: Beautiful score and visuals, painfully predictable story
• Frankenstein: Incredible makeup and costumes, but adds nothing new to the myth
• The Secret Agent: Love the surreal bits and the cinematography, the rest feels fairly rote
• Marty Supreme: Competently told but predictable
• Hamnet: Beautiful production design and a powerful, transcendent finale
• Train Dreams: Just lovely start to finish
• Sinners: Bold, exciting, scary, a powerful metaphor for the Black experience
• Sentimental Value: Engaging, with heart-rending performances
• Bugonia: Superb acting, suspenseful, with Yorgos' trademark surreality
• One Battle after Another: Captures the chaos of the world we're enduring right now
  
  
  

25,000 Films

 

As of today, I have seen 25,000 films. The 25,000th was D.W. Griffith's 1910 one-reeler, The Usurer. 

Last year, Letterboxd separated feature films from shorts. So, technically, 25,000 when shorts are included...

...but only 10, 640 if we're talking about feature length movies. Still not bad. 

And here are the shorts. 

Letterboxd List Progress

Four lists completed (for now) with three less than five films each to go and one with only 20 to go. 

Using these lists, I've discovered dozens of great films I might not have experienced without their guidance. On the flip side, there are some pretty terrible movies on the more popular lists, like the box office top 100 and the IMDB top 250. But you have to take the good with the bad. 
 

Back in Theatres: Movies I watched in 2025

 

I needed escape in 2025, and the movies delivered. The vast majority of the films I watched in 2025 were shorts, so don't be alarmed by that huge number on the left; only 538 of the 3,363 were feature-length films (one hour or longer). 

Here are some of my favourite feature-length films of the year. 

For the first time since December 2019, I went back to theatres this year. I chose times designed to reduce exposure to COVID-19, and I'm happy to say the strategy worked; neither Sylvia nor I fell ill. 

Anyone who knows me can't be surprised that James Gunn's Superman was the film that brought me back to the theatre experience. I simply couldn't miss seeing the latest iteration of my favourite fictional character on the big screen. Sylvia, sport that she is, came along with me, and while I'm sure she didn't enjoy it as much as I did, she did like the film, which I think of as a return to form after Zack Snyder's bleak, colourless, cynical interpretation in Man of Steel and its follow-up films. 

The Fantastic Four are my favourite Marvel characters (alongside Spider-Man), so nor could I resist seeing their first official MCU film, Fantastic Four: First Steps. I thought it was a lovely throwback to the spirit of the original comics from the 1960s, with rich characterization for all four leads, amazing production design, and a self-contained, thrilling adventure harkening back to some of the best of the Lee/Kirby comic run. Sylvia skipped this one, and I don't blame her; I don't think she would have gotten much out of it. 

Finally, I won tickets from Letterboxd to see The Long Walk, which adapts one of Stephen King's earliest and most chilling novels. Sylvia came along with me, and we were both impressed by the film's stark production, creating a dystopian near-future (or perhaps recent alternate past) of a fallen United States and the fascist measures it takes to entertain and distract its citizens. Mark Hamill is incredible in this as the tyrant who organizes the titular long walk, but it's the young men competing in the event who really steal the show. The film is raw, disconcerting, unforgiving, and doesn't leave the audience with any means of escaping its bleak, hopeless message. 

My favourite film of the year, though, has to be Yorgos Lanthimos' latest surreal masterpiece, Bugonia. Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone are utterly captivating in this tale of desperate paranoia, and that's all I'll say for fear of spoiling the film's tremendous impact. It really is worth seeing. 

With that, here are some screenshots from my year in film as compiled by Letterboxd: 

At this rate, it's going to take me a long time to finish my watchlist...

See you at the movies! 

These Violent Movies Have Violent Nanogenres

Some time ago, Letterboxd added theme and nanogenre tags to their films. Only a small subset of Letterboxd's hundreds of thousands of films catalogued have these tags, which is why I suspect my lifetime nanogenre stats make me look a bit crazed. 
 

Movies I Watched in 2024

The Flasher

I visited Letterbox today to see if I'd added The Flash to my watchlist. I had, but for some reason the film's description caught my eye. I read it, and came as close to a literal double take as I ever have. Clearly someone is having a bit of fun at the expense of Warner Brothers and Ezra Miller, who plays The Flash in the film.  
 

Movies I Watched in 2022

To my horror, I watched even more movies in 2022 than I did in 2021. However, an even greater proportion of the films I watched were shorts, which reduced my actual time devoted to screening movies. Progress? 

Here's the breakdown of what kind of movies I watched and where they were produced, along with the new Themes and Nanogenres features Letterboxd introduced last year. 

Bruce Willis was in some great films, and a lot of terrible films. OCD is a terrible thing. Thankfully, Cary Grant's filmography has a much greater percentage of good-to-great films than Willis'. Oddly enough, I actually started and ended 2022 with a Cary Grant-starring film. 

I find it amusing that my fourth-ranked star of the year turned out to be Gene Autry's horse. 

I can now say with authority that most (but not all!) of Elvis' films were terrible. Interesting time capsules, but terrible.

This might be the last year that you'll see such a preponderance of 19th-century directors on this list. Simply put, I've now watched over 60 percent of films made in the 1800s, and those remaining either aren't online (or they've simply eluded my searches) or they've been lost. 

Of the films I screened this year, here are a few words about some of my favourites: 

Close-Up (Abbas Kiarosami, 1990)
Is Close-Up a documentary or drama? It's hard to say, because not only is it based on real-life events, all of the roles are played by the actual people involved in those events. And somewhat amazingly, they're all excellent, from the cab drivers to the lawyers, judges, criminals, and victims. Of course they're authentic and know their parts, since they've already lived through the events shown in the film, but they also hit their marks and deliver their lines with confidence and feeling. (That being said, they're speaking Farsi, so I could be missing something.) More than just an unusual gimmick, choosing this methodology creates a picture that upends our notions of identity, art, relationships, and reality itself. It's on the Criterion Channel, so if you're a subscriber, don't miss it. 

Elvis (Baz Luhrmann, 2022) 
Another big, brash, colourful Baz Luhrmann blockbuster, the sort of movie I try to be skeptical about but winds up sucking me into its world anyway. Shamelessly manipulative (like all films, but more so), Luhrmann and Austin Butler, who is incredible as a multilayered King, make you wish the world was more like Elvis saw it--as a place where race didn't matter, only the music mattered. Was Elvis really as inclusive and colour-blind in real life as he's portrayed in this movie? Maybe not; probably not. But it's a beautiful thought anyway. 

Crumb (Terry Zwigoff, 1994) 
Robert Crumb seems to me a genius, but wow, he has issues with women, and he must have been really hard to live with. If you're interested in art, comic books, and the counterculture, this is a must-see documentary. It's chock full of laughs, but also filled to the brim with moments that will have you cringing. A difficult but educational watch. 

A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974) 
I finally got around to watching some Cassavetes pretty late in life, and so far A Woman Under the Influence is my favourite. Gena Rowlands is an incredible force as Mabel Longhetti, a vibrant, complex person suffering from mental illness who just isn't having her needs met by anyone in her life, not even her genuinely loving but frustrated and somewhat clueless husband, played by Peter Falk in certainly the best role I've ever seen him in. It's a sad and beautiful film. 

The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson, 2021) 
Anderson's eye for beauty in both the physical and emotional landscapes shines through in a warm, wondrous tribute to the people who tell our stories, large and small. The French Dispatch joins a very small number of films that I would describe as perfect--perfect in that they deliver a profound intellectual or emotional experience, and perfect in that I wouldn't change a single element. 

Streetwise (Martin Bell, 1984) 
Documentarian Martin Bell briefly documents the ramshackle existence of a group of homeless teenagers living on the streets of Seattle. These kids display heartbreaking toughness to mask deep vulnerability and longing, and one can't help but wonder how they turned out, and how much worse things are for the homeless today. 

Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984) 
I don't run into films I describe as perfect (see above for my definition) very often, but in 2022 I was lucky enough to see two: The French Dispatch, and Paris, Texas. Every aspect of this tightly-knit family drama is meticulously crafted--performance, direction, lighting, cinematography, screenplay, just...everything...is letter-perfect, and on top of all that the story itself is one of the most emotionally fraught I've ever experienced. And it is utterly lovely. Words fail me. 

The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) 
Actor Charles Laughton directed only one film, but it's one for the ages. Drenched in film noir atmosphere, dripping with suspense and dread and yet somehow possessing its own queer beauty, Night of the Hunter is one of the great crime thrillers. Deserves all the accolades it's received over the years, and more. 

Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)

Everything about this film is a paralyzing litany of horror, but Aleksei Kravchenko's performance as poor traumatized Flyora somehow captures all the pain and agony of the millions who suffered through the greatest tragedy in human history. His face is both young and old in the same moment, a visage twisted by shock. But he remains human to the last; he marches on, not like a machine, but like a man - heavily burdened, but somehow, impossibly, alive, aware, and ready to endure even more. Bleak as this film is, Flyora's resilience is testament to the human spirit; it's the spirit of the rainbow that swept across Glasha early in the film, a small miracle emerging out of nowhere like a benediction.

Letterboxd List Progress May 2022

 

In my quest to watch every movie ever made, I'm naturally devoting a lot of my time to tracking down the greats. If I don't live long enough to see every film, I'm at least going to try seeing the most acclaimed. Lists aren't infallible or unbiased, and they'll inevitably miss many great works, but they serve as an excellent starting point. Above, you can see where I stood as of last March in terms of completing twelve of the "best-of" lists selected by Letterboxd. 

Here's where I stand now. Note that Guillermo del Toro's Film Recommendations has been replaced by Top 250 Horror. For the record, I'm now at 51% of the del Toro list. The Top 100 Documentaries is now the Top 250 Documentaries; amusingly, despite watching a bunch of documentaries since last March, my percentage complete remains exactly the same. 

As you can see, I'm tantalizingly close to finishing off the IMDb Top 250--just 15 more movies to go, including big titles such as Wall-E and Requiem for a Dream and lesser-known works such as The Secret in Their Eyes and Jai Bhim. 

I'm off to a good start with the Top 250 Horror list, which comes as no surprise since I'm a fan of the genre. I've made quite a bit of progress on the Top 100 Animation List, discovering incredible works like Perfect Blue and Waltz with Bashir alongside the formulaic Disney stuff that gets more and more grating as I grow older and more cynical. 

For Sama is a heart-wrenching documentary about the civil war in Syria that appears on a couple of these lists. The first time I tried to watch it, I had to stop about ten minutes into the film because it was wreaking emotional havoc on me. I came back to it about a month later and managed to finish, and I'm glad I did. It's brutal, courageous, honest, and moving, and it's also an important historical document. It's on Amazon Prime--don't miss it. 

All of Everywhere and Everything at the Same Time Sometime Soon

 

Michelle Yeoh is a wonderful actress and I love parallel universe stories. But the main reason I'm excited to see this is how quickly it's jumped to the top of Letterboxd user ratings before it's even been released. I hope it's as good as they're claiming! 

Themes & Nanogenres Makes Earl Look Like a Maniac

Letterboxd rolled out a new feature for its Patrons, and my list for 2022 makes me look like an utter maniac. I blame myself for finishing the Halloween series this year and for watching a couple of the Hellraiser films, but honestly, I've watched far more straight drama films, comedies, romance films, Westerns, etc. than I have horror this year. Very weird. 
 

Film 10,000

I knew that this month I`d see my ten thousandth movie, and I`ve been carefully considering which film to watch for that particular milestone. Unfortunately, earlier tonight I got carried away watching some shorts and accidentally went over the line. Argh! But counting backwards, I now retroactively recognize The First Shot (Brandon Hicks, 2021) as Film 10,000. 

The Words Behind the Pictures

I don't know exactly how Letterboxd defines a writing credit for the purposes of their database, but I suspect it's broader than just screenplays, judging by some of the names on my list of most-seen films written by these people. 

Having seen all the films that Charlie Chaplin has directed, I suppose it's no surprise that he's also my most-seen writer, too, given the amount of control and involvement Chaplin had in his films. 

The next three names in the list--Maltese, Foster, and Pierce--all wrote a bunch of Looney Tunes shorts. 

Ben Hecht, next on the list, has a fascinating filmography, writing superb films like Notorious, Spellbound, Scarface, Design for Living, Stagecoach, The Thing, and Strangers on a Train, but also z-grade stuff like Queen of Outer Space, the 1967 version of Casino Royale, and Switching Channels. 

Felix Adler wrote Three Stooges shorts. 

Ian Fleming makes the list thanks to James Bond and Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. 

David Lynch, of course, writes or co-writes most of the material he directs.

Clyde Bruckman is another writer of Three Stooges shorts, but also features from comedy greats such as Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. 

Woody Allen, like Chaplin and Lynch, writes much of his own material. 

Stephen King makes the list, I suspect, because of "story by..." credits for the many adaptations of his novels and short stories. 

Laurent Bouzereau produces short documentary "making-of" subjects that appear as special features on many of my discs. 

Orson Welles, again, is another film polymath. 

George Lucas makes the list thanks to Star Wars, Indiana Jones, American Graffiti, etc. 

Sylvester Stallone, I suspect, is here thanks to the Rocky and Rambo franchises. 

Elwood Ullman is another Three Stooges writer. What a fun job that would have been...

Richard Matheson is a well-regarded prose fantasist, SF author, and contributor of teleplays to The Twilight Zone, among other shows. Here for adaptations, much like King, I suspect. 

Ethan Coen is of course one-half of the famous Coen Brothers writing-directing team.

And finally, David Cronenberg is another director who writes much of his own material. 

 

Letterboxd List Progress March 2021

As of tonight, I've now completed two more of Letterboxd's official "Top" lists: AFI's 100 Years, 100 Movies, and the Box Office Mojo All Time 100. The box office list was the hardest to finish off, as there are a lot of terrible films on it, including the three Hobbit movies, which capped the list for me. Looks like the IMDB Top 250 is the one I'll probably finish next. 

If I were to guess which list I'll finish last, it'll probably be 1,001 to See Before You Die. 

Finished the Best Pictures

Today I achieved my goal of seeing every film awarded the Oscar for Best Picture. I finished the list of 92 films this year with Parasite (way back in January); Braveheart (earlier this month); All Quiet on the Western Front, Dances with Wolves, and Gigi (over the last few days); and, today, The Last Emperor and My Fair Lady. 

Fifteen movies to go before I'll have seen every single nominee, however. 

Sunday, Monday, Movie Days...

It took me half a year, but I managed to spread my movie screenings exactly equally across the week.