"This is off to a really bad start", I thought as Riz Ahmed was playing the drums and Olivia Cooke singing in the opening sequence. What can I say, I don't like heavy metal and that beginning made me kind of wish I was deaf so I wouldn't have to bear it. But people whose film opinions I trust loved Sound of Metal, I kept repeating myself, so I kept watching. And soon enough, I couldn't take my eyes off of Darius Marder's film as it became more and more powerful and thought-provoking as well as emotional and heartbreaking.
Despite the fact that I spend many hours a day on Netflix — either watching stuff or adding films to my endless watchlist — I would have never watched nor heard of Radha Blank's The Forty-Year-Old Version if it wasn't for Dell who praised it during Girl Week. And it would have been such a loss on my part as it turned out to be such an honest, intimate, and funny semiautobiographical dramedy.
After seeing other people's numbers, I decided to count how many films directed by women I have seen this year so far and, not to my surprise, it's a mere 27 out of 141. It gets a little better if I'm only looking at 2020 releases as it's 13 out of 35. The good news is that 3 of those films are in my top 4 of 2020, and therefore I'm going to pick them for this Thursday Movie Picks week.
I am a bit of Grinch when it comes to Christmas. While being all grumpy during the holiday season is not my vibe, I don't like the money and time wasted on decorations, I don't like people pretending to be happy when they are not, and I f***king hate Christmas songs. Hence I would have never watched Clea DuVall's Happiest Season were it not directed by a woman and praised by bloggers I follow. And it would have been a loss on my side because, while it has its flaws, it is an engaging, moving and heartbreaking film.
I was reading Allie's post about female directors of 2020 when I realised two things: first, I haven't seen a lot of 2020 releases; second, and most importantly, the majority of those I've seen were directed by men. So, since both she and Brittani praised Miranda July's Kajillionaire, I decided to start with it. And I am very glad I did as the comedy-drama is just as brilliant and touching as I was expecting it to be.
We are kicking off the month of December with a pretty vague theme as it's not said what kind of adaptations. Now, if you are not new here, then you know I am not a fan of musicals. It's just that people singing and dancing all of a sudden for no reason whatsoever doesn't really compel me. There are, however, some exceptions and over the years I've fallen in love with several of these films. So without further ado, here are my picks for the week.
I'm surprised by how fast November went by considering how much I struggle to find things to do as I have plenty of free time these days. Even more so when November weather is peaking and going for a walk is not fun at all.