Friday's Five Films: July 11, 2025
Another weekly roundup.
The TIFF Story in 50 Films continues. A new retrospective has begun, curated by Guillermo del Toro, who can’t be at the Lightbox in person due to commitments on Frankenstein’s post-production. That’s okay, I think that we still had a lot of great films coming in left and right and that’s what keeps us all going. Frankly, I’m only getting myself caught up on television once again (I’m watching All of Us Are Dead and One Hundred Years of Solitude right now), so I still need to find that space to make room for great cinema as I always need it to energize me. And there’s a lot of it here.
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: Away from Her (2006, Sarah Polley)
A movie that perhaps hits more as I get older. I was wondering how much this would hold up, especially after the exposé had come forth about Alice Munro’s husband sexually abusing his stepchildren, but maybe this story has other layers to the fractured memory we’re seeing here. I think that this movie beautifully captures what it feels like to lose your own grip on reality to the point that you choose to blank out certain memories, but that’s maybe what makes it more heartbreaking too. Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent are just absolutely incredible here.
#2: Basquiat (1996, Julian Schnabel)
I always thought the optics of this movie were rather weird: Julian Schnabel was not friends with Jean-Michel Basquiat, yet he still made this movie like he were. Basquiat’s estate didn’t allow him to use any of his actual paintings in the movie, because Basquiat actively hated Schnabel. Meanwhile, that’s what the Criterion release says: he and Basquiat were friends. This restoration being done in black-and-white struck me as odd, considering it was a movie I remember being in colour. This was an accident with projection, but I think it ends up working beautifully for the movie, as a reflection of the attitudes of art that permeated the scene at the time: and how Basquiat existed within. I think that the black-and-white photography ends up adding another layer of beauty to this text.
#3: My Winnipeg (2007, Guy Maddin)
Had the pleasure of watching this bizarre masterpiece with live narration from Guy Maddin himself. It’s the perfect encapsulation of how we choose to remember artifacts from our past through another form of art that we love dearly. Sometimes we just have that habit of exaggerating these details, and yet it’s also another story in and of itself. This isn’t just any ordinary documentary, it’s the kind you need to see for yourself in order to believe it exists. It’s Guy Maddin trying to make a portrait of how he remembers his childhood.
#4: Read My Lips (2001, Jacques Audiard)
I’m not the biggest fan of Jacques Audiard. But I never really thought of him as a bad filmmaker; his sensibilities just don’t really do very much for me. However, if there’s one film that he’s made that I think stands apart from all the rest, then Read My Lips is that movie. It’s his best movie because it’s a plea from the unloved, but it’s also a movie that allows them to be messy. There’s so much of that present in Read My Lips that feels very refreshing, especially when you’re seeing a disabled person’s story be used as inspirational fodder for an able-bodied character in another. But here, it’s where said people get to take control: and I adore every minute of it. I wish that these were the sorts of movies that Jacques Audiard stuck to making instead of whatever he’s done now with Emilia Pérez.
#5: Rabid (1977, David Cronenberg)
Of the “trashier” era of David Cronenberg’s work, I would consider Rabid to be the second best. I say second best only because what I would place ahead of this is The Brood; and seeing this movie on a beautiful 35mm print with a post-screening Q&A with him only made every minute of this screening all the more fun. It’s especially fun listening to Cronenberg talk about where he makes up the science, but while watching Rabid, you can’t help but be drawn into how Cronenberg sees that these diseases that spread like wildfires are all born from human impulses. He’s a romantic, but that’s also what terrifies him most: romance can be vampiric and monstrous.
The Complete Day-by-Day Log
First time watches are denoted with bold text. Scores are on an out of five star basis.
Friday
Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg) - ✯✯✯✯✯
My Winnipeg (2007, Guy Maddin) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Mortal Kombat (1995, Paul W. S. Anderson) - ✯✯✯½, watched on 35mm
Saturday
Eephus (2024, Carson Lund) - ✯✯✯✯½
Basic Training (1971, Frederick Wiseman) - ✯✯✯½
Revenge (2017, Coralie Fargeat) - ✯✯✯✯
The Death King (1990, Jörg Buttgereit) - ✯✯✯✯½
Sunday
The Sentimental Swordsman (1977, Chor Yuen) - ✯✯✯✯½
I Am Not Your Negro (2016, Raoul Peck) - ✯✯✯✯½
Law and Order (1969, Frederick Wiseman) - ✯✯✯✯½
Moving (1993, Shinji Somai) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Monday
Rita (2024, Jayro Bustamante) - ✯✯✯✯½
Panda Plan (2024, Zhang Luan) - ✯✯
Branded to Kill (1967, Seijun Suzuki) - ✯✯✯✯✯
A Self-Made Hero (1996, Jacques Audiard) - ✯✯✯½
Allen Sunshine (2024, Harley Chamandy) - ✯✯✯✯
Tuesday
Lingering (2020, Yoon Eun-kyeung) - ✯✯✯
Time Bandits (1981, Terry Gilliam) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Cairo Time (2009, Ruba Nadda) - ✯✯✯½, watched on 35mm
Basquiat (1996, Julian Schnabel) - ✯✯✯✯½
Wednesday
Paper Moon (1973, Peter Bogdanovich) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Happer’s Comet (2022, Tyler Taormina) - ✯✯✯✯½
Rabid (1977, David Cronenberg) - ✯✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
Thursday
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971, John D. Hancock) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Read My Lips (2001, Jacques Audiard) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Away from Her (2006, Sarah Polley) - ✯✯✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
Re-Animator (1985, Stuart Gordon) - ✯✯✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
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Oooh, "Read My Lips" is such a sexy movie.
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