Pride Month has started, and so my viewing habits (and four favourites on Letterboxd) will be adapting accordingly. It’s also where I find that I have the most fun with trying to adjust my viewing habits to watch at least one new queer film per day, so maybe you’ll notice that I have been gravitating towards such. A few of them even made the cut here, as you can see!
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: The Eel (1997, Shohei Imamura)
Probably might be among Shohei Imamura’s best films, or at least, I realized I might have underrated this when I first saw this as a teenager. With more familiarity towards the style of movies that Imamura’s career was built upon, The Eel plays out like Imamura being self-reflective. After all, it seems like this is his way of adjusting to a world where his brand of cinema no longer resonated like it once was. Touches are still felt in The Eel, but it gives you that urge to come back to his best works.
#2: Five Easy Pieces (1970, Bob Rafelson)
I’ve watched this movie a ton when I was in high school. This film doesn’t only contain one of my favourite Jack Nicholson roles, but it has maybe one of my favourite characters that he’s played. It all stems from the fact that Bobby Dupea wanders around, even to a point where he’s willing to destroy any sort of good will he’s built with others around him. In a way, he’s the perfect portrait of changing American values over time, and that’s something I find very deeply compelling as we’re watching in here.
#3: Fresh Kill (1994, Shu Lea Cheang)
Can’t say that I’ve seen this kind of maximalism in queer cinema outside of the films of Gregg Araki. Everything about Fresh Kill is evidently built on the shoulders of how queer people (in this film’s case, lesbians) had been tossed aside during the peak of the AIDS crisis. The world we’re seeing here has become dirtier as a result, but it feels more prescient than ever when watching it now. Technology moves forward, and puts money in the pockets of rich people, while working class citizens are left behind as if they don’t matter at all in the grand scheme. In this age of generative AI being pushed everywhere, it certainly stings more.
#4: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985, Paul Schrader)
Started off my Pride Month appropriately, by watching a film about a gay fascist who loved his country so deeply. Yukio Mishima is a fascinating figure, someone who saw through the covers that men presented themselves within, but also felt that it was a doorway to ultranationalism. There aren’t many other films out there quite like this, especially portraits of artists, that show how the art they created is as autobiographical as seeing their own story told. I think it’s Paul Schrader’s greatest film as a director, and certainly among the most beautiful films ever made.
#5: The Power of the Dog (2021, Jane Campion)
I first saw this film when it played at TIFF during its North American premiere. I remember the disappointment from seeing that it was Netflix who was distributing it, because I thought to myself that a film as beautiful as this should be seen on big screens. Yet, everything that builds itself up to, as Jane Campion shows, became much more than the ruggedness of the landscapes. They’re about as important to this story as Phil Burbank’s own views of masculinity, but the cracks within – especially as this unravels itself a story about queer longing. In my eyes, it’s also Benedict Cumberbatch at the best he’s ever been on screen.
The Complete Day-by-Day Log
First time watches are denoted with bold text. Scores are on a ½ to ✯✯✯✯✯ basis.
Friday
Audition (1999, Takashi Miike) - ✯✯✯✯✯
The Eel (1997, Shohei Imamura) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Charade (1963, Stanley Donen) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Backrooms (2026, Kane Parsons) - ✯✯✯½
Five Easy Pieces (1970, Bob Rafelson) - ✯✯✯✯✯
No Telling (1991, Larry Fessenden) - ✯✯✯✯½
Saturday
The Tempest (2010, Julie Taymor) - ✯✯½
Fish & Cat (2013, Shahram Mokri) - ✯✯✯✯
The Road to the Racetrack (1991, Jang Sun-woo) - ✯✯✯✯½
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981, Bob Rafelson) - ✯✯✯✯
The Bride! (2026, Maggie Gyllenhaal) - ✯½
Sunday
Yojimbo (1961, Akira Kurosawa) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Disclosure (1994, Barry Levinson) - ✯✯
Lou Reed’s Berlin (2007, Julian Schnabel) - ✯✯✯✯
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (2006, Stephen Kijak) - ✯✯✯½
Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998, John Maybury) - ✯✯✯
Monday
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985, Paul Schrader) - ✯✯✯✯✯
In Between (2016, Maysaloun Hamoud) - ✯✯✯
The Power of the Dog (2021, Jane Campion) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Keeper (2025, Osgood Perkins) - ✯✯½
Eileen (2023, William Oldroyd) - ✯✯✯½
Tuesday
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2025, Matt Johnson) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Miao Miao (2008, Cheng Hsiao-Tse) - ✯✯✯½
Flashdance (1983, Adrian Lyne) - ✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
One Battle After Another (2025, Paul Thomas Anderson) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Wednesday
Train to Busan (2016, Yeon Sang-ho) - ✯✯✯½
Paper Moon (1973, Peter Bogdanovich) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Benjamin Smoke (2000, Jem Cohen and Peter Sillen) - ✯✯✯✯½
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985, Héctor Babenco) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Corruption (1983, Roger Watkins) - ✯✯✯½, watched on 35mm
Thursday
Bad Girl Boogey (2022, Alice Maio Mackay) - ✯✯✯
American Animals (2018, Bart Layton) - ✯✯
Fresh Kill (1994, Shu Lea Cheang) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Atropia (2025, Hailey Benton Gates) - ✯✯
Yi Yi (2000, Edward Yang) - ✯✯✯✯✯
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