This has been a very bad year. We started this year losing the great David Lynch, and just recently, we lost the great Rob Reiner. But the circumstances about Reiner’s death are perhaps most upsetting: he and his wife were murdered, with their son Nick Reiner as the prime suspect. Considering the fact that only recently, Rob Reiner has just supervised a beautiful new 4K UHD disc for This Is Spinal Tap, it only felt appropriate. Talk about a depressing lead into Christmas; even as I start going through some of the obligatory classics. So here we go again.
Without further ado, these are Friday’s Five Films. If you like what you’re seeing here, remember to subscribe for a whole lot more.
#1: My Night at Maud’s (1969, Éric Rohmer)
Sometime ago, I probably would have said this is my favourite of Éric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales. I think right now though, I’m probably leaning more towards a work like Claire’s Knee, but this much-needed revisit has only reminded me why I sought it as being revolutionary at a very important time in my life. It’s a movie about Catholicism, but it’s also about how we shelter ourselves from life experiences because of what we perceive of the world around us. Rohmer, being a devout Catholic, approaches this in good faith, especially because he knows it’s something we should be talking about, for we know it’s not something we can avoid in some way or another. And through spending the night with Maud, we just see our worldviews changing almost entirely.
#2: Short Cuts (1993, Robert Altman)
This was a favourite film of mine for a very long time, and revisiting it on a beautiful 70mm print has been immensely thrilling. I think the time when I first watched Short Cuts, I was fifteen years old, and I’d come fresh from having recently watched Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia for the first time. With Anderson’s film being a definitive turning point for my cinephilia, Short Cuts also left as big an impact on me. It all stemmed from how Altman’s ability to weave several stories into one epic narrative was unlike anything I’d seen before. And I think that it’s as beautiful an observation on American suburbia as one can get: we all could just as well be connected enough to know each other, but also not really.
#3: Strange Days (1995, Kathryn Bigelow)
If I didn’t just recently see Near Dark on a 35mm print, then I would be quick to call Strange Days my favourite Kathryn Bigelow (it’s only because I love both of these films dearly). In fact, I’m still amazed that this movie was released in the form we’re seeing here, because it’s a movie that the times certainly were not ready for. Given the sort of films that Bigelow is making now, I can’t help but lament the time when she made more overt genre pieces like this. It’s a very distinctly radical work (although, in fairness, that’s still a pretty low bar for a major studio), considering the circumstances which it was inspired by. And thirty years later, one can’t help but feel as if it might seem a bit too prescient in its portrait of America at the turn of the century.
#4: This Is Spinal Tap (1984, Rob Reiner)
One of the funniest movies ever made. And I think it’s a movie that’s made even funnier when you consider exactly how most music documentaries play out, especially while musicians wax poetic about their craft. What Rob Reiner created here is just immaculate: it’s musicians simply coming off as pretentious to the point that they read as being very silly. The fact that everyone is improvising on the spot only makes things better, because the fact that everyone is making stuff up as they go along creates the feeling of recreating a documentary. If it weren’t for The Princess Bride, I think I would be readily calling this his best film, only because said film remains one of my most-watched films through my whole life.
#5: Yearning (1964, Mikio Naruse)
Mikio Naruse’s greatest film, in my eyes. It’s the one that really emphasizes the lingering sadness of not being able to let go, and trying to live within an economy that has no real space for you anymore. Every minute of Yearning simply feels like it’s just shrouded in an all-consuming sadness that never lets go of you, but Naruse completely blindsides you with the many hardships life presents. Perhaps that’s also why he’s one of the greatest melodramatists that had ever lived: you’re seeing a filmmaker who understands the complexities of the human mind, especially when postwar Japan’s economic situation eats you up. And it’s simply astonishing.
The Complete Day-by-Day Log
First time watches are denoted with bold text. Scores are on a ½ to ✯✯✯✯✯ basis.
Friday
The Perfect Neighbor (2025, Geeta Gandhbir) - ✯✯✯½
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Short Cuts (1993, Robert Altman) - ✯✯✯✯✯, watched on 70mm
Saturday
Bloody Parrot (1981, Hua Shan) - ✯✯✯✯½
Mean Guns (1997, Albert Pyun) - ✯✯✯✯
The Home and the World (1984, Satyajit Ray) - ✯✯✯✯
Top Gun (1986, Tony Scott) - ✯✯✯✯½, watched on 70mm
Shogun Assassin (1980, Kenji Misumi and Robert Houston) - ✯✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
Sunday
Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Carnal Knowledge (1971, Mike Nichols) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Yearning (1964, Mikio Naruse) - ✯✯✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
All the Vermeers in New York (1990, Jon Jost) - ✯✯✯✯½
Monday
Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (1970, Yasuharu Hasebe) - ✯✯✯✯
This Is Spinal Tap (1984, Rob Reiner) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Familiar Touch (2024, Sarah Friedland) - ✯✯✯✯
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951, Albert Lewin) - ✯✯✯✯½
Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (2023, Rob Reiner) - ✯✯✯½
Eyes Wide Shut (1999, Stanley Kubrick) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Tuesday
The Endless Summer (1966, Bruce Brown) - ✯✯✯½
Black Magic (1975, Ho Meng-hua) - ✯✯✯
Reflection in a Dead Diamond (2025, Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet) - ✯✯✯✯
Wednesday
Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Lurker (2025, Alex Russell) - ✯✯✯½
Christmas, Again (2014, Charles Poekel) - ✯✯✯½
Megadoc (2025, Mike Figgis) - ✯✯½
My Night at Maud’s (1969, Éric Rohmer) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Die Hard (1988, John McTiernan) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Thursday
Chronic (2015, Michel Franco) - ✯½
The Princess Bride (1987, Rob Reiner) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Strange Days (1995, Kathryn Bigelow) - ✯✯✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
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Tony Scott is great, I’d recommend Man on Fire.