Train to Busan (2016)
A South Korean zombie epic might not be everyone’s first choice but I have yet to get through this without crying in two particular scenes.
Continue readingDay 29: A film that always makes me cry
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Day 28: My favourite non-English language film
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Let the Right One In (2008)
This one was a hard one to decide. There are a few that I’ve already listed for other prompts and I was going to choose Yiorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster (2015) until I realised it’s in English (duh!). It came down to exquisite Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In or astounding Estonian B&W In the Crosswind (Risttuules) (2014).
Continue readingDay 27: A film I love but would never watch again
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Dancer in the Dark (2000)
The experience of watching this unique musical tragedy by Danish director Lars Von Trier is burned on my brain. I was a new mum and it was a rare moment when the baby was asleep and I had a few hours to watch a film.
Continue readingDay 26: My favourite family-friendly film
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What We Did On Our Holiday (2014)
My favourite family-friendly films have a bit of salt and sour with their sweetness and this gorgeous British comedy is genuinely funny, a little bit sad and a tad subversive. It also has some of the best child actors in the business.
Continue readingDay 25: My favourite LGBTQI+ film
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Gayby Baby (2015)
I’m not at all an expert on LGBTQI+ films and will be interested in what my more learned friends post. I nearly chose Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (2016), which was a delight from start to finish, but Maya Newell’s Australian documentary about same-sex parents remains one of the best documentaries I have seen.
Continue readingDay 24: My favourite film with a colour in the title
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Three Colours: Blue (1993)
I found this the hardest prompt of the lot but, in the end, I couldn’t not choose Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Trois Couleurs (Three Colours) trilogy. After Hal Hartley, Kieślowski was my next favourite director and this trilogy was the first time I saw films that interconnected.
Continue readingDay 23: My favourite romcom
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Trust (1990)
My first favourite director was Hal Hartley, born from seeing and loving his first two features; The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust (1990). Trust might not be typically classed as a romcom – the romance doesn’t drive the narrative and the comedy is decidedly dark – but it is hands down my favourite.
Continue readingDay 22: My favourite film that passes the Bechdel Test
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Roma (2018)
Have you heard of the Bechdel Test? The concept was created by Alison Bechdel in 1985 in a strip called The Rule in her comic Dykes to Watch Out For. It tests films on three criteria: it must have at least two women (named characters) talk to each other about something other than a man. It is a very low bar to pass but still more than 40% of US films fail it.
Continue readingDay 21: My guilty pleasure film
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The Decoy Bride (2011)
The definition of guilty pleasure is “something that one enjoys despite feeling that it is not generally held in high regard.” I have a trousseau of romcoms that would fit this brief and one of my favourites is this British gem starring Kelly Macdonald and David Tennant.
Continue readingDay 20: My favourite film when I was a kid
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Bugsy Malone (1976)
As a teen, I loved Grease (1978), Star Wars (1977) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) but at age 11, I discovered cinema and my life was never the same.
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