Eye Dosing 2021

The Earth has completed yet another lap of the Sun. As we hurled through space I watched a bunch of films.

In January a group of us started using Amazon Prime’s watch party feature to virtually watch b-movies together. We would select a couple of films each Saturday, watch in sync in our respective homes and chat about each film live. We’d rip them to pieces, revel in the bad delivery of lines and let ourselves be amazed by competent practical effects. All while cherishing a way to share time with friends in a pandemic lockdown.

Maybe you fancy watching b-movies yourself but don’t know where to start. Chopping Mall is a slasher movie where mall security robots go berserk hunting down teen employees at night. The Stuff is a satirical sci-fi horror where Americans become addicted to a sugary alien substance that gets marketed to the masses as a dessert. Warning From Space is the first colour sci-fi film released in Japan and features truly adorable aliens. Leprechaun is a terrible comedy horror starring Warwick Davis and Jennifer Anniston. Bad Taste is Peter Jackson’s first feature film, completely incoherent with amazing practical effects. Spaghetti Man is an enjoyable comedy action film whose protagonist unwittingly eats a radioactive bowl of pasta.

If you prefer cinema excellence over silliness then my favourite contemporary watches this year include: Saint Maud (2019), Wild Rose (2018), Bacurau (2019), The Florida Project (2017), The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012), The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq (2014), This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection (2019), Jojo Rabbit (2019), Tangerine (2015). I also watched Paris, Texas for the first time and was utterly blown away. The Sweet Hereafter was a slow burn that I’m not sure I can say I enjoyed yet stuck with me after. Maeve (which I loved), shot and cast in Belfast while the Troubles were raging, offers a multi-layered interrogation of nationalism and patriarchy within the frame of an unconventional coming of age story.

In February the gem of a human Jim Groom asked if I needed a Criterion flash sale middle man. It’s difficult in the UK to get ahold of Criterion releases. Some make their way to eBay and Amazon but not all and usually with a reasonable mark-up. Of course I said yes and Jim managed to order my wish list to the US and lugged them back to Europe in June when he next visited. I was particularly excited to pick up a collection of Chantal Akerman films alongside Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project volumes.

The bulk of my film watching happened at the end of the year. Almost all the films I watched for the first four months were b-movies. Looking back through my log I watched four films between the end of April and the beginning of October. I still haven’t been brave enough to head back to a cinema yet – something I plan to do in 2022!

I’m still using a spreadsheet to log films I’ve watched and enjoy posting a roundup here. I’ll happily witness the chaos of Letterboxd vicariously through things like @InsaneLetterbox but ain’t about being on another social media platform. Until very recently I haven’t been very good at keeping a wishlist of films I want to see. For next year I want to organise myself ahead of time instead of watching just whatever hits the front page of streaming services.

B-movie club:

• Chopping Mall (1986)
• The Stuff (1985)
• Ice Cream Man (1995)
• Llamagendon (2015)
• Leprechaun (1993)
• Killer Sofa (2019)
• Final Exam (1981)
• Caroushell (2016)
• Attack of The Lederhosen Zombies (2016)
• Gargoyles (1972)
• Bad Ben (2016)
• Bad Taste (1987)
• Ticks (1993)
• Basement (2010)
• Black Sheep (2006)
• Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001)
• Cowgirls Vs Pterodactyls (2021)
• Inseminoid (1981)
• Spaghetti Man (2016)
• Hell Goes To Frog Town (1988)
• Giant Killer Ants (2017)
• Society (1989)
• C.H.U.D (1984)
• Super Mario Bros (1993)
• White Fire (1984)
• Warning From Space (1956)
• The Slayer (1982)

Everything else:

• Arrival (2016)
• La Jetée (1962)
• All The President’s Men (1976)
• What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993)
• Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
• A Band Called Death (2012)
• The six feature length films of Can’t Get You Out of My Head (2021)
• Upgrade (2018)
• Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020)
• Passengers (2016)
• Behind The Rent Strike (1979)
• Bacurau (2019)
• Alpha (2018)
• Risen (2016)
• The Equalizer (2014)
• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• Uncle Buck (1989)
• The Fifth Element (1997)
• Paris, Texas (1984)
• Shape of Water (2017)
• Dirty Dancing (1987)
• The Hidden Fortress (1958)
• The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
• Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021)
• This Island Earth (1955)
• Saint Maud (2019)
• Murder On The Orient Express (2017)
• Wild Rose (2018)
• All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2020)
• Trains, Planes and Automobiles (1987)
• Robinson In Space (1997)
• The Dark Knight (2008)
• Mulholland Drive (2001)
• Halloween (1978)
• Halloween (2018)
• Mind Blown (2017)
• Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
• Big Trouble In Little China (1986)
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012)
• The Nun (1966)
• Liberté (2019)
• The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq (2014)
• What We Do In The Shadows (2014)
• The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
• The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017)
• Maeve (1981)
• Censor (2021)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
• The Lost Boys (1987)
• Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
• This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection (2019)
• Brave (2012)
• Paddington 2 (2017)
• Tangerine (2015)
• Jojo Rabbit (2019)
• The Florida Project (2017)