I’ve barely posted about movies this year, so I decided to do a quick movie round-up - very quick, as I’ve watched barely any movies this year! Some years are just not movie years, I guess…

The Balloonatic: a remix of a Buster Keaton movie set to the music of… okay I should have taken notes, I can’t remember the band, suffice it to say that it was a recentish band to which you would perhaps not expect Buster Keaton to be set. Smashing Pumpkins maybe? Lots of interesting cutting of the film which I don’t really have the technical vocabulary to describe, but just like - cutting what was clearly once one long shot into multiple shots? Kind of synced to the music?

I dragged the Brunch Bunch along to this showing, and we agreed that we’d see another if another came to town. But as we were just about the only people in the theater it is perhaps unsurprising that the theater has not booked another. Even an arthouse cinema has to have an audience.

Interview with a Vampire: I posted a bit of comparison to the book, but did not take time to note that this movie is an A++ example of complete commitment to an aesthetic, the aesthetic in this case being “decadent opulence spattered in blood.” This is an occasional aesthetic for me rather than one I would like to live in, but I admire the commitment.

The Shape of Water: This was a big disappointment, to be honest. Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is one of my all-time favorites, so I went into this movie with high hopes, but honestly it just draaaaaaagged for me. Also highly doubt the ability of the fish-man from the Amazon to survive in the icy coastal waters of the Atlantic.

Kiki’s Delivery Service. A rewatch! Still one of my favorite movies, probably my top two Studio Ghibli with My Neighbor Totoro (but now I feel bad leaving out Spirited Away...) Love Kiki, love Jiji, love the richly detailed setting (which we dubbed “Francemany,” as it is clearly a mash-up of various European localities), love Miyazaki’s love of flying machines. This is an aesthetic I WOULD like to live in.

Also a couple of documentaries. Take Joy! The Magical World of Tasha Tudor is about Tudor’s life at Corgi Cottage, built and largely run in the style of a 19th century farmhouse, where Tudor lives with her goats, her doves, her corgyn (Tudor’s plural of corgi), her one-eyed cat Minou, and seven looms. (These are not all Tudor’s looms. Sometimes she gives house-space to a friend’s loom, if the friend doesn’t have loom room, a loom being a large contraption.) An inspiring example of building your own little world and living in it.

This theme is further developed in Take Peace: A Corgi Cottage Christmas with Tasha Tudor, an enchanting documentary perfect for anyone who has ever enjoyed Tasha Tudor’s Christmas illustrations, as the illustrations apparently draw extensively on Tasha Tudor’s own Christmas traditions or possibly vice versa, in a virtuous cycle of candlelit charm.

If you can’t find the documentary, the photo book Forever Christmas appears to have been made in conjunction, and includes some material not included in the film. Can’t believe they left out the sleigh ride!