Letterboxd Wrapped and Timothée Chalamet's Fingernails
I couldn't stop staring at them
Last week Letterboxd users got their long-awaited “Letterboxd Year in Review” which is basically their version of Spotify Wrapped.
It’s a great way to see data points on how truly unhinged one’s movie watching habits are in comparison to other cinephiles. Shameless plug to follow me.
Here’s my 2024 results:
Note: my top actor is kind of embarrassing tbh. I thought it would be Zendaya given how many times I watched Dune, Dune: Part Two and Challengers, but I don’t think it took repeat watches into account… just unique views. So due to a Harry Potter marathon and an eleventh hour viewing of Van Helsing, Robbie Coltrane won. Steven was always going to be my top director given that I started a project to watch his entire filmography last year.
Movies I watched this week:
A Complete Unknown (2024):
Best Actor at the Academy Awards is a cursed category because it’s become almost impossible to win if one isn’t nominated for starring as a real person, living or dead, in a biopic. This has often led to a successful Oscar campaign for undeserved performances (ex: Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody, Gary Old Man for Darkest Hour, Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything, it goes on).
But once in a while, there’s a biopic performance that deserves the win. It happened last year with Cillian Murphy and Oppenheimer. Well folks, it has happened again. I am willing to look past everything I stand for with awarding biopic performances to say: just give him the Oscar!!! I dare you!
I am a moderate Dylan fan. There was a very intense period in high school where all I listened to was 60s and folk music. So I was pretty skeptical if Timothée Chalamet could pull it off. But from the moment he started singing, I forgot that I was watching Paul Atreides and I fully bought into it. From the voice, the look, the very overgrown guitar pick fingernails (ew?!), I was like “wow, yeah this is really Bob Dylan!!” Despite the conventional biopic tropes, I really enjoyed the movie. Ed Norton and Monica Barbaro were terrific as well and each earned their SAG nominations. Loved learning 60 year old situationship drama between Joan and Bobby.
We’re so lucky to witness the career of Timmy’s generational talent in real-time. I’ll most likely be watching this again soon.
Emilia Perez (2024):
There is something so deeply sinister about a French man making this movie. It’s about Mexican cartels but doesn’t have anything unique to say about how that impacts the Mexican people. The only insight we get about the damage caused is from the viewpoint of the person who caused it, and then leveraged as penance for prior sins. It’s also about the trans experience but doesn’t have anything to say about that either…
What does this movie have to say? I can’t be sure. The songs aren’t even good! At least the songs in Wicked are good.
Fallen Leaves (2023):
“Men are all cast in the same mold. Unfortunately it is broken.”
A simple, funny and honest movie that has a cozy vibe, featuring an alcoholic and a woman who steals expired food from her job. Beautiful colors.
Yuki’s Sun (1972):
This is Hayao Miyazaki’s first work as a solo director that I completely just stumbled upon while browsing Mubi. It’s about a girl, Yuki, who is abandoned at an orphanage and gets so happy talking to people that she hits them. Lol. Insane how this four-minute animation about a misunderstood child who endures tragedy becomes the blueprint for the rest of his career.
Decision to Leave (2022):
What’s more romantic than (allegedly) killing your husband(s) so the detective investigating his murder can spend more time with you? The things we do for a crush!
This ending left me speechless.