57 movies

I made a pretty deliberate attempt in 2023 to do two things: get back into watching movies regularly and get back into art. While I was working a full time job it always felt like such a huge time commitment but after quitting my job and suddenly having a lot more time on my hands it was not as big a hurdle as it had been. I watched 57 movies in 2023 so I'm certainly not breaking any records yet (maybe in 2024) but in the meantime I thought I'd reflect on what stuck out to me this past year before embarking on a more weekly format.

PULSE (2001)

A truly creepy and very atmospheric movie that was the perfect watch for a stagnant, hot, July night. In a time when the World Wide Web was a novel and exciting burgeoning technology, this movie takes a look at how, despite the internet's unprecedented ability to connect people, it can't stop loneliness and isolation from turning people into digital ghosts. It has a distinctly "urban legend" sort of vibe that struck me on a nostalgic level as someone who grew up in this era and the naturalistic approach to the dialogue lent a credibility to the story in the same way hearing someone's "it happened to a friend of a friend of mine" preface to an urban legend might. Eerily precient in how it portrays peoples' desperate calls for help as they record their last moments to the internet for everybody and nobody to see before succumbing to the ultimate loneliness: not being remembered by anybody. The omnipresent webcams broadcasting horrors you can't look away from were mesmerizing and if you can ignore the somewhat... lacking sfx near the end the result is well worth it. Unsettling in all the ways it intended and several more that it maybe didn't anticipate

LOVE SERENADE (1996)

Sisters in a small town fall for the siren call and sultry tones of a radio DJ exiled to the boonies. The DJ character looms large in a small town setting being a semi-famous figure and his voice going out over the radio as well as a speaker outside the station give him a rather omnipresent air, especially combined with his (alleged) experience both in life and with women. This leaves both sisters vying for his attention but projecting their own limited or warped ideas of what love is on their relationships with him. He's unrelentingly, unapologetically creepy and it fits the story in a sort of fairy tale way but it can be rather stomach-turning. Great quirky 90's vibe.

GUTLAND (2017)

Mildly surreal rural drama? Horror? Thriller? Slow and uneasy the whole way as you decipher what's going on like a slow-motion car crash in reverse.