Ghostwatch: a 1992 BBC special program about ghosts and ghost hunting. Surprisingly well done for reasons I don't want to spoil. Surely going to become a Halloween classic for me and mine.
The Most Unknown: I didn't watch this because I thought it looked bad. I was extremely mistaken! Nine scientists, all working at the boundaries of human knowledge, are introduced to each other in beautiful, contrived settings, to discuss their research. I learned some things that don't feel useless to know! It all felt and looked very Werner Herzog, and he in fact did consult on the movie. If you're looking for something in the 80-90 minutes range, watch this. I guess VICE paid for it? It doesn't really feel like them.
Lawrence of Arabia: This was my fourth or fifth watch - I forget - of Lawrence, which is my favourite movie. I got to share it with some friends who enjoyed it, I think. The movie remains a cinematic masterpiece - two stories about the life of one extraordinary man, neither of which can be told without the other. The dialogue is masterful - even when it's elaborate and figurative, there are no wasted words. Peter O'Toole delivers, as Lawrence, one of the most powerful film performances of the 20th century. It hurts a little to spend so much time watching one movie, but the trick is not minding it.
the original Halloween: what is there to say? John Carpenter's minimal synth score elevates a good slasher movie into one of the best ever. It's one of the cheapest-made best movies in the horror canon, and one of the best in general.
The Farthest: Voyager in Space: a beautiful and inspiring Irish documentary about the Voyager probes, the images they captured, and the meaning of this cosmic act for humanity. It pushed all the right buttons for me. Very beautiful, recommend.
Shirkers: I think this is the best movie I've seen all year. It's the Netflix exclusive documentary about a movie (also) called Shirkers, an avant-garde triumph of Singaporean cinema from 1992 that was, infamously, stolen. More than 20 years after it was made, the footage has been recovered, and the original director used it and some interviews to make a documentary about the movie and the surprising story of who took it.
The film itself is a real draw imo - it looks really really good. So too were the incredibly talented filmmakers - a group of three 18 and 19 teen girls, who were going to NYU and UCS. I think I have the timeline right; they were at the cutting edge of basically everything going on in movies at the time, but nobody ever saw it. They filmed on super 8 in 1992, it's a road movie that looks REAL good, and the colours are phenomenal. I really really liked this.
