Comfortably, I have decided to reflect on a few months at a time. The beauty of blogging and its form is how you can pick and choose when you will commit to a moment of prose. Today is Day 158, and I have watched 154 films so far this year. 209 days remain and, as noted in the last reflection, the key is not in cramming every waking moment with a movie, but in balancing my time so that a film is viewed happily and without (too much) sacrifice. I am still up-to-date with Game of Thrones, and fully appreciated the finale of Mad Men. The British election, with all the articles and news coverage, was also a hurdle to get over. Thank God, my film-a-day lifestyle hasn’t been hampered too much by TV-watching.

A British Affair

The joy of watching films so regularly is when you stumble across the little gems that would’ve passed you by. Beginning with Terence Davis Distant Voices, Still Lives on April 13^th, I seemed to become enamoured with British cinema. Capitalising on this interest, I devoured Pride and The Full Monty (many parallels, and both outstanding triumphs!), and then ’71 and Bloody Sunday (A riveting Irish ‘troubles’ double-bill) and climaxing with The Falling at the cinema and In the Loop, the latter I had been meaning to see since its release. The Falling, on the other hand, seemed to carry a mysterious, art-house-meets-mainstream aura that I couldn’t ignore. Every single film was incredible, and I can only promise that this will continue into the future.

Travelling and Trips

Prior to April, a weekend away meant I would fall behind on the task at hand. Between the complicated process of cashing-in those Ultraviolet codes and watching something cinematic on a screen smaller than A4, I simply couldn’t bring myself to watch while moving. That was until I found the infamous online retailer that seems to pride itself on ease and cost-effectiveness. Without sounding like a salesman (let’s be honest, they don’t need me), Amazon have really grabbed the whole renting process by the horns. Outside of the ridiculous Amazon Pride service, when you are stuck for a film to watch, and a Kindle is all you have, for £2.50, you can choose a strong film to while away the time. Travelling between London and Birmingham, I managed to watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall (the looks from fellow passengers when Jason Segal’s member appears…) and Margot at the Wedding (again, a little awkward when Nicole Kidman pleasures herself…). In fact, the process sped up the journey and ensured that I wasn’t restricted to a streaming catalogue of crap or a film I’d already seen.

It was nice to find those directorial gems that I hadn’t seen before too – Noah Baumbach, Richard Linklater (Bernie and Dazed and Confused merely add to a canon that’s already so strong) and even Matthew Vaughn, all continue to sink into my movie-obsessed mind. Let alone the documentaries too – The Invisible War highlights how women in the US military are treated so appallingly; Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room reveals how the capitalist system inevitably breeds money-hungry, and deeply duplicitous men; Beyond Clueless gleefully lifts 90’s teen movies onto a pedestal and showcases what it says about the widely criticised teen-movie genre of the era. All of which, are must-see’s.

I have found that holidays, jutting into a routine, can play havoc with my film watching if I’m not careful. And I have to brace myself as the summer holidays are due soon…

Read my reflections on January, February and March and track my entire journey on Letterboxd