At the beginning of the year I decided to take part in The Criterion Challenge 2025. It’s unofficial; not run by Criterion, just some guy’s idea. What you do is select a movie for each of 52 given categories, and watch them within the year. With the calendar quickly coming to a close, I decided to go for it and knock out as many of my remaining categories as I could. Many of these were films I was least inclined to view throughout the year, so it felt a bit like homework. Some were indeed not my cup of tea, but others were great finds I otherwise probably wouldn’t have queued up. I ended up completing the challenge this month! I'm still not sure if I'll do it again next year.
Black Comedies
Bugonia is a 2025 absurdist black comedy by one of my favorite auteurs, Yorgos Lanthimos. An unnerving, funny, and thrilling movie with wonderful style and fascinating ideas. Emma Stone’s performance is amazing and Jesse Plemons is terrifying, as usual. Big fan of this one.
The Funeral is a 1984 Japanese black comedy in which a colorful ensemble journeys through the funeral process for a family patriarch. Although it's steeped in Japanese culture, it’s pretty accessible. Death is universal, after all. Spoiler: There’s this compelling theme of playing one’s part socially. Two characters who are actors by trade study a video to learn the proper “lines” to perform during their bereavement. A showy materialist plays the part of the Buddhist priest. The widow’s speech, saved for the final moments of the film, cuts through the artifice with its simple authenticity. A wonderful ending.
Divorce, Italian Style is a 1961 Italian black comedy. Back then, and until 1970, divorce was illegal in Italy. So what’s a man to do? Plan to murder his wife, of course. The closest thing I’ve seen to it is Unfaithfully Yours (1948), though this film is more both more serious in its examination of Italian society, and just plain funnier.
Documentaries
Hoop Dreams is a 1994 documentary following two young men in Chicago as they pursue their dream of reaching the NBA. In the early 90s this was certainly one of my dreams as well. This was the only time in my life when I was seriously interested in sports, and the only sport I was into was basketball. So I felt a connection to this film. And it provides ample material mull over, including the sports industry and how it impacted early 90s black communities in Chicago. As the years flicked by through the film, I couldn’t help feeling concern for the real individuals on camera, as the personal dramas of their lives hurled onward. Thought provoking. I’m still thinking about it.
I don’t love David Lynch’s work. I know that’s not a popular take among film buffs. I did love Twin Peaks—well, its good parts, anyway. But his other stuff left me cold. The image he projects is that of the Gnostic, presenting nonsense as secret knowledge from a reality more real than our own. In actuality he’s making it up as he goes along, and if you don't know that, and you're looking for meaning, the result is that it feels like Lynch either fails to communicate his meaning, or he's hiding that he doesn't have meaning to impart at all. His films fascinate me up until the point when they roll my eyes. Lynch/Oz is a series of video essays where the inspiration he took from The Wizard of Oz is theorized upon. And this made a sort of sense to me; I hate The Wizard of Oz too.
Crumb is a 1994 documentary about the cartoonist Robert Crumb. I’ve always found his work grotesque, so this was a strange curiosity door to open, but it certainly provided context.
Asian cinema
A Brighter Summer Day had been on my watch list since viewing Yi Yi last year—both films being directed by Edward Yang—but at 4 hours runtime, I’d been putting it off. It’s gorgeous, with intriguingly complex characters, and it’s a fascinating insight into a community and historical period I knew nothing about. A pain point for me was confusion. It weaves a lot of small threads together that were difficult for me to follow on first watch.
Throne of Blood is a 1957 Akira Kurosawa work with excellent atmosphere. It feels somewhat like what would happen if some samurai slipped into the Twilight Zone.
Memories of Murder is a 2003 crime thriller by Bong Joon Ho. A bit like Zodiac (2007) except also funny. I’m not sure how Bong makes humor work even in this, but he does. His visual mastery is on display here. The way he moves the camera, frames his shots, times his cuts, it’s all lovingly dialed in.
Perfect Days is a 2023 drama by Wim Wenders, set in Tokyo. It’s beautiful inside and out. Wonderful to look and, and to reflect upon. This is a new favorite and Wenders has become one of my favorite filmmakers over the past couple of years. I’d like to continue my journey with him.
Foreign films
The Last Wave is a 1977 film by Australian filmmaker Peter Weir with an engrossing mystery.
The Lure is a bizarre disjointed Polish music/sex/horror phantasmagoria. I couldn’t decide if it was one of the worst things I’d ever seen or if it was really interesting.
Mr. Klein is a wonderful 1977 mystery/thriller from France, starring the unattainably handsome Alain Delon. Sumptuous and grimy settings in juxtaposition highlight the hypocrisy and injustice of French complicity during Nazi occupation. And they provide fertile ground for a search for self.
This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is visually striking and deliberately paced, slowly unfolding into a work of astonishing beauty and sadness. The score mixes traditional lesiba playing with dissonant horror instrumentation, which to me, summoned an otherworldly atmosphere of apocalypse.
The Devil’s Backbone is strange ghost story set at an orphanage during the Spanish Civil War. It’s directed by Guillermo del Toro, and the nearest comp I can think of is his Pan’s Labyrinth.
Spider-Man
I was a 16 year old boy in 2002, so of course I love the film Spider-Man, a movie about a misfit kid who is suddenly in possession of amazing skills, but who must be careful how he uses them. “We are who we choose to be. Now choose!” As I rewatched this movie with my kids, I found myself a 39 man who’s already made many of his choices. The truth is we are not our worst decision, and self-formation is a lifelong process. Yeah, the movie is cheesy from my current vantage point, but that doesn’t mean it can’t also be profound. And it’s wonderfully wrought.
I probably can’t express how much I love Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. I was a teenager when it debuted, the right age to want to believe a young man doing his thing could make the world a better place while simultaneously finding love. The right age to feel like the soundtrack is ‘my music’.
A confident Raimi flexes his horror chops in how he stages the villainous and multi-armed Doc Ock. Some of the computer graphics are apparent but the action sequences are creative and exciting. It's better acted than the first film and it balances a range of tones.
It benefits greatly from the solid foundation of the prior movie. The characters of Peter, Mary Jane, Aunt May, and Harry are all established, and ready for a deeper development than could otherwise occur. The Empire Strikes Back works similarly for me, where the first movie lives in my memory and serves to springboard the second. The second film is where the characters are truly challenged.
Every imaginable force of antagonism besets Peter Parker who’s kind of a hapless guy just trying to do the right thing, and I’m not sure what it says about me to admit this, but I have often strongly identified with him and turned to this movie for catharsis.
Five stars. Bury me with my DVD copy of this fun, brilliantly conceived blockbuster.
Misc
Rushmore is a 1998 comedy from Wes Anderson. I’m a fan of his films, but a blindspot for me is his early work, including this title. I knew it was about a teen with a difficult personality, and that really didn’t sound like a good time to me. Well, I was delightfully surprised. Yes, just about everything Max Fischer does is not what you’d want, but I laughed a lot at the situations, the editing, and at the inimitable Billy Murray.
In a Lonely Place is a great noir with Humphrey Bogart, who’s great as a broken and violent artist. The film mixes crime and romance to wonderful effect.
