The Bat Cave

Movies – My focus last month was to watch all the Oscar nominated shorts and the Oscar nominated feature films I wasn’t excited about. I did end up watching all the shorts, but after watching Over the Moon on Netflix, I decided I didn’t want to finish my Oscar watchlist. I’ll save that bucket list project for when I’m retired. Hell, I didn’t even win my damn Oscar pool, so what’s the point? I was pretty excited to get back to watching movies I actually want to see after the Oscars aired. I did not get my money’s worth from AMC A-List last month as I saw Godzilla vs. Kong in early April, streamed Mortal Kombat on HBOMax, and then cancelled my tickets to Raya and the Last Dragon multiple times. Because of the ongoing pandemic, the movie theaters don’t have early matinee showings and any movie I watch is going to cost me at least three hours of poker and with Raya streaming for free on Disney+ in June, I just haven’t had the desire to go see it. Another thing that has become pretty clear to me: writing is my absolute last priority. I’ve gone from writing thoughts on every movie I see to only doing so less than 33% of the time last month. Plus, I didn’t post a single album review for any music I listened to. Yikes. I have a hard enough time balancing work, study, mental and physical health, hobbies, and family time. Posting movie reviews just hasn’t fit in my schedule since I’ve been back to playing.

• Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
• Mortal Kombat (2021)
• Over the Moon (2020)
• Sound of Metal (2020, re-watch)
• Swallow (2019)
• Friday the 13th Part III (1982, re-watch)
• Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981, re-watch)
• Friday the 13th (1980, re-watch)

Movies I watched, but didn’t review (ratings out of 10):

• Shiva Baby (2021, watched twice) – 8
• Burrow (2020, re-watch) – 6
• Colette (2020) – 6
• Concerto is a Conversation, A (2020) – 6
• Do Not Split (2020) – 6
• Genius Loci (2020) – 4
• Hunger Ward (2020) – 5
• If Anything Happens I Love You (2020, re-watch) – 8
• The Kid Detective (2020) – 7
• The Letter Room (2020) – 6
• Love Song for Latasha, A (2020, re-watch) – 7
• The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020) – 6
• Opera (2020) – 8
• The Present (2020) – 8
• Two Distant Strangers (2020) – 5
• Yes-People (2020) – 4
• Feeling Through (2019) – 7
• White Eye (2019) – 7
• The Lost Boys (1987) – 7
• Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986, re-watch) – 7
• Clue (1985) – 7
• Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985, re-watch) – 3

2021 Best Feature Films: My top 25 of 2021 through April
2020 Best Feature Films: My top 25 of 2020 through April
2020 Best Documentaries/Docu-Series: My top documentary style films of the year
Focused Watchlist: A list of 30 movies that are at the top of my watchlist with a breakdown of how I formulate my picks
May 2021 – New to Theaters and Streaming: Ranking new and old movies I want to see coming to streaming or theaters this month

I also went crazy and made a best films of the year list for every year from 2020 to 1982, the year I was born. I ranked 25 films for 2000 and later and 10 films for 1999 to 1982. I started fizzling out on my lists in the early 90s as I just haven’t seen most of the important films from those early years when I was a kid. I have all the lists on my blog here. Enjoy!

T.V. Shows (Ratings out of 5)

• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier season 1 (2021, Disney+) – 3.5

Currently watching:

• Schitt’s Creek season 6
• Invincible season 1
• The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers season 1

Music

None!

Movies – I got back to “normal” life during the last week of March, re-activating my AMC A-list membership and returning to the movie theaters. I also got back to doing my day job: playing poker. I still watched an absurd amount of movies in March, but with getting back to the poker grind last week and doing all my fantasy baseball drafts (five of them!) the week before that, I didn’t review most of the movies I watched. I’m guess that’s how it will be going forward. I’ll probably still watch 2-4 movies a week, but I won’t have much time to write about them. If I wind up reviewing a movie that I haven’t yet, I’ll just post the link in next month’s post like this. I’ll say this much: Anthony Hopkins in The Father is my favorite performance of 2020.

• Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell (Netflix, 2021)
• I Care a Lot (Netflix, 2021) – Golden Globe winner for Best Actress in a Comedy
• Zack Snyder’s Justice League (HBOMax, 2021)
• Collective (2020) – Nominated for Best International Feature and Best Documentary
• Emma. (HBOMax, 2020) – Nominated for Costume Design and Makeup/Hairstyling
• I’m No Longer Here (Netflix, 2020) – On the shortlist for Best International Feature Film
• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix, 2020) – Nominated for Best Actor and Actress, Production and Costume Design, and Makeup/Hairstyling
• Mole Agent, The (Hulu, 2020) – Nominated for Best Documentary and on the Best International Feature Film shortlist
• My Octopus Teacher (Netflix, 2020) – Nominated for Best Documentary
• Sound of Metal (Amazon Prime, 2020 – re-watch) – Nominated for 6 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor
• The Last Blockbuster (Netflix, 2020)
• Time (Amazon Prime, 2020) – Nominated for Best Documentary
• The Burning (Tubi, 1981

Movies I watched, but didn’t review (ratings out of 10):

• Nobody (2021) – 7/10
• The White Tiger (Netflix, 2021) – Nominated for Best Original Screenplay – 7/10
• What Would Sophia Loren Do? (Netflix, 2021) – On shortlist for Best Documentary Short Subject – 6/10
• Better Days (2020) – Nominated for Best International Feature – 7/10
• A Love Song for Latasha (Netflix, 2020) – Nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject – 6/10
• If Anything Happens I Love You (Netflix, 2020) – Nominated for Best Animated Short – 8/10
• News of the World (2020) – Nominated for 4 Oscars – 6/10
• Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020) – Nominated for Best International Feature – 8/10
• The Father (2020) – Nominated for 6 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay – 8/10
• The Midnight Sky (Netflix, 2020) – Nominated for Best Visual Effects – 5/10
• To: Gerard (Peacock, 2020) – On the shortlist for Best Animated Short – 6/10
• Just Mercy (2019) – 8/10
• Phantasm 2 (1988) – 6/10
• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) – 6/10
• Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982) – 5/10
• Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) – 6/10
• Friday the 13th (1980) – 7/10

2021 Best Feature Films: My top 25 of 2021 through March
2020 Best Feature Films: My top 25 of 2020 through March
2020 Best Documentaries/Docu-Series: My top documentary style films of the year
2020/2021 Oscar Watch: My list of favorites for the major Oscar categories
Focused Watchlist: A list of 30 movies that are at the top of my watchlist with a breakdown of how I formulate my picks
April 2021 – New to Theaters and Streaming: Ranking new and old movies I want to see coming to streaming or theaters this month

I also went crazy and made a best films of the year list for every year from 2020 to 1982, the year I was born. I ranked 25 films for 2000 and later and 10 films for 1999 to 1982. I started fizzling out on my lists in the early 90s as I just haven’t seen most of the important films from those early years when I was a kid. I have all the lists on my blog here. Enjoy!

T.V. Shows (Ratings out of 5)

• WandaVision – Season 1 (2021) – Disney+ – 2.5
• Schitt’s Creek – Season 2 (2016) – Netflix – 4.5
• Schitt’s Creek – Season 3 (2017) – Netflix – 4
• Schitt’s Creek – Season 4 (2018) – Netflix – 4.5
• Schitt’s Creek – Season 5 (2019) – Netflix – 4.5

Music

• Che Noir – After 12 (Rap, 2020)