It’s that time of the year, I guess.

Since I don’t often see movies when they are first released due to living in a small city in Finland, I like to update my list when I’ve seen more of the movies, so here we are. The original list is available here.

Movies still on my watchlist (meaning I haven’t seen them): Dust Bunny, Hedda, Blue Heron (which opens here in a few weeks), The Furious (which also opens around here soon), Feels Like Home, Mother of Flies, The Serpent’s Skin, Sore: A Wife from the Future, Marshmallow, Nirvanna The Band, The Show, The Movie, Resurrection, Redux Redux, Twinless.

At least the list has changed quite a bit from the first list…

Here’s the new one, in no particular order (except the last one is the last one added after much contemplation):

Eo-jjeol su-ga eop-da or No Other Choice

When I think back to what movies about fathers were like, examples like Planes Trains and Automobiles and Vacation come to mind. You know, fathers as the head of the family, trying to connect or make sure their family has fun. Well, in a way this is similar, but very different. In No Other Choice, the father is left unemployed and due to the horrible economic situation, the only way he knows how to get a job, is to kill the two people he assumes would be ahead of him in the process. Since he isn’t exactly an assassin, this leads to comical situations, but at the same time, the weight of the situation looms all over this.

Weapons

It’s cool when these movies, which are basically experiments in form and structure, can do so well. Also, instantly iconic villain. It’s just that she’s hard to use again… except that apparently there’s an upcoming prequel in a couple of years. This is much faster than most of these horror franchises take to move the highlight completely to the villain. (Assuming that’s what they are doing.)

Bring Her Back

Another horror movie about magic in the modern world. I love the approach here. There’s just this low quality VHS she’s using, because there’s nothing else. Also, the whole ritual is extremely complicated, but that’s just great. That’s how it should be.

Sinners

The third act is kind of a letdown, but the first two are immaculate. Just a great celebration of Black culture, but packaged in a way us whities can also enjoy.

Sorry, Baby

A very dry and dark comedy. Just the way I like it. A great debut film.

Sirat

You don’t really know where this is going at any point. For some, that might be a negative (and if done badly, it is), but this one manages to somehow make it all worth it.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

I was promised something very dark and that’s exactly what I got. Rose Byrne carries this hard. The whole film is very much focused on her and the exhaustion her character is feeling in this impossible situation. The thing I love here is that the movie doesn’t shy away from being very real. This includes things like alcoholism and the inability to handle living with a very sick kid with no support system.

Yek tasadof-e sadeh or It Was Just an Accident

If I had to choose one movie to be the best of the year, I think this would be it. A man working at a car repair shop meets a client he thinks tortured him in prison. He decides to take revenge by burying the torturer alive in the desert. However, the torturer manages to sow just enough suspicion, because the prisoners never actually saw their torturers. So, the man decides to figure it out whether this is the right guy and finds other victims to help him out.

This is one of those movies from Iran which were shot secretly. It’s just a little too real. The ending is also very touching.

Kontinental ’25

A bailiff is kicking out a man who is living in a basement. The bailiff is trying to make all of this as easy as possible, but when she (and the cops she brought with her) leave the man alone to pack, the man opts to kill himself instead. This causes the bailiff to have personal crisis.

Whenever a movie escapes the confines of Romania, it’s great. This is one of those movies.

Den stygge stesøsteren or The Ugly Stepsister

It was this and Sentimental Value, both Norwegian movies, competing for the last slot. I went with the body horror. The concept of Cinderella from the point of view of one of the stepsisters is great and the way they depict the burden of being a woman here is just horrific… in the best possible way.