The first month of 2o18 is all over and done with, and with the end of the month brings a new promise of Oscar season new releases and the earthly desire of a golden man statue . With another month gone, it is time to reflect on the good things. I’ve seen a whole bunch of good films this month, and some classics, but have been mostly bingeing American Horror Story.
Here are the films I watched in January:
- The Villainess (2017)
- Teen Wolf (1985)
- Awakenings (1990)
- Men & Chicken (2015)
- Pretty Woman (1990)
- Get Out (2017)
- Yojimbo (1961)
- Analyze This (1999)
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
- Darkest Hour (2017)
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
- All the Money in the World (2017)
And here is a selection of some other things I’ve enjoyed during the month of January!
The Book of Mormon & Hamilton
I went and saw The Book of Mormon with my mum for our shared Christmas present, and I loved it! I’m honestly not a person who enjoys musicals very much because sometimes the cringe is just too strong. But it was a lot of fun, and I think having an appreciation of South Park helped that. During one particular song, I overheard my mum saying, “Hahaha! It’s so rude!”, which I also thought was funny.
I also went through a phase where all I listened to was the Hamilton soundtrack. It’s so bloody good and catchy. I’ve never even seen the musical and I know next to nothing about North American history but I feel like rap battles set in the 1700s really help me to learn.
American Horror Story
I have always meant to watch American Horror Story, and then I realised it was all on Netflix, and life got just a little bit better. I’ve started at season one, Murder House, which I really enjoyed. Asylum was initially a bit of a mess but then my enjoyment and commitment to the characters made it great. Now, I’ve almost finished Coven and have been enjoying it too, except it seems to be getting more messy as it progresses. I haven’t heard great things about the rest of the seasons so we’ll see how I feel about them. But so far, the episodes have been well-directed and the visuals are consistently great and super creepy. I love Sarah Paulson and I love Evan Peters. The ensemble cast is so great, and Jessica Lange is glorious.
Some posts I’ve enjoyed this month
- Moss and Fog continue to kill it with the interesting visuals: a social decay visual experiment, retro sci-fi and horror collages (super cool), and alternative movie posters.
- Everything Movie Reviews made a great list of the worst films of 2017, and they are all really bad!
- Mettel Ray made a lovely list of the best and worst of 2017 across all kinds of fun media.
- The m0vie blog wrote an awesome and detailed review of the first episode of Twin Peaks entitled ‘Northwest Passage’.
- Everything Movie Reviews wrote a lovely review of The Shape of Water (2017) which makes me realise I need to see this film ASAP.
The Blindspot challenge!
Lots of people are doing the Blindspot challenge again this year, and it’s great! I love looking through everyone else’s lists because it’s interesting to see what people have missed out on and want to prioritise seeing, and I always tend to add more films to my own watchlist as well. Here’s a selection of Blindspot 2017 roundups, and Blindspot 2018 lists for your fun and reference:
- Here’s Mettel Ray’s most excellent Blindspot 2018 list.
- Cinema Parrot Disco ranked her 2017 Blindspot films, and chose her 2018 Blindspot list which is packed to the gills with great stuff.
- Dell On Movies chose his 2018 Blindspot list.
- Keith and the Movies chose his 2018 Blindspot list and it’s pretty fantastic.
- Zoe of The Sporadic Chronicles of a Beginner Blogger ranked her 2017 Blindspot films, and selected her 2018 films too.
So, that’s my update from January 2018! Not a bad way to start off the year. Is there anything in particular you enjoyed this month, any posts you think I should check out? Feel free to let me know below!
FILM GRIMOIRE 
When I saw Book of Mormon I thought it would be ruder haha. It was a great performance. Would love to see Hamilton. American Horror Story is dark for sure. I’ve only seen a few episodes of it.
Yeah, I almost expected some South Park level filth but it was quite subdued in comparison! Loved it though.
You are correct: the best way to learn history is through great hip hop music, and “Hamilton” does that so well…based on the trailer, “The Villainess” is now on my list
Hamilton is so good. And I hope you love The Villainess when you watch it!
A fine summary and excellent post, Anna.
Thanks Vinnie! 😀
Anytime Anna.
I need to see The Villainess, real soon. I’m very jealous because I will probably not get to see Hamilton anytime soon. Thanks for the link!
You’re welcome Wendell! I hope Hamilton comes to Australia at some point. At this stage I’ll just know all the music and never see the actual play.
Thanks for the links!
I must say, American Horror Story was sooooo good for the first two seasons, and then it just progressively gets messier – you totally called it. Freak Show and Roanoke are absolutely godawful. Looking forward to how you feel about the rest!
You’re welcome Zoe! I’ve just gotten up to Freak Show and I’m actually not hating it yet!
A lot of people didn’t rate AHS Coven but I loved it. I have not watched the ones after that though.
I ended up really liking Coven! So far Freak Show isn’t so bad, but people say it gets worse as it goes on.
Thanks for the links, Anna! I love seeing other people’s Blind Spot choices – will definitely be checking these links out. 🙂 You saw some great films this month. Was surprised how much I liked Darkest Hour. Oldman was brilliant. I’m sure you didn’t like Teen Wolf as much as I do. Haha! But I AM an 80s kid. I badly want to see Yojimbo (and all the Kurosawa films I’ve not yet seen). Would be interesting to compare to Leone’s A Fistful Of Dollars since it’s the same story.
You’re welcome T9M! I love that Blindspot challenge. I have yet to formulate my thoughts on Darkest Hour, although Gary Oldman will always be amazing at whatever he does. Yojimbo is such a classic though, as is Teen Wolf!!
[…] On Film Grimoire, Anna shares her January 2018 favorites. (Ann’s monthly post of her favorites is one of the things that inspired me to include a “links from last week” section to these weekly review post.) […]
[…] myself scrolling through Film Grimoire a bit tonight and stumbled upon a post of Anna’s from early January but it talked about something I thought was rather […]
Great compilation
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