My ultimate ambition is to be as happy in my life as Michael Portillo is whenever he's standing in a beautiful Japanese city

Sorry everyone, I made a deal with a monkey's paw to trade out any possibility of more Buffy for two lost episodes of Doctor Who

Agreed

And Vanessa Williams doesn't seem to have said anything so far

The BBC really making Claudia Winkleman prove herself tonight by having her do her first chat show gig with four of the most annoying people available

Why would they put Jeff Goldblum on this 😭

Anyone else noticed that the second series of pokemon diamond and pearl has the best theme tune ever composed

5 things I like

1. Beautiful cities
2. Lake District peaks
3. Memorable films
4. Improv
5. Cats

5 people to whom I do not apologise

1. @shellsbian.bsky.social
2. @ryanrigby.bsky.social
3. @kimberleychiu.bsky.social
4. @claralaherty.bsky.social
5. @andrewphillip.bsky.social

My main opinion about the Pokemon TV show is that the episodic quality level is inversely proportional to how good the fans think it is

Ash shouting "PIKACHU USE THUNDERBOLT!" as he battles a Powerful Opponent: boring. Better in the games

All the little pokemons forming a band: epic television

Well, yes

(I'm watching the Diamond and Pearl ones from 20 years ago and they're great)

Though I must state for the record that a significant part of the appeal is that those little pokemons are sooooo CUTE

"It's actually very sophisticated, with a surprisingly literate, intelligent sense of humour - it's much more high-brow than you would expect - indeed, it's culturally enriching!" ~ me when I tell people that I'm watching the pokemon tv show intended for children

Of course, based on the demographics of this series, the producers are evidently much closer to doing an all-white series instead

They should do an all-Black series of #TheTraitors so we can find out what happens when there isn't the factor of racism involved

In 2023, I watched 125 films, but Letterboxd year in review still told me that my most watched actor was Anthony Daniels

So that can happen to the best of us :P

By way of clarification, Lola refers to Jacques Demy's 1961 film, and Black Christmas refers to Bob Clark's 1974 film.

Thank you very much, and have a lovely 2026!

And so ends the thread for 2025!

Some special mentions:

Phenomena
The Company of Wolves
The Rules of the Game
Black Christmas
Bianca
The 400 Blows
The Stepford Wives
Lola
Delicatessen
The Lost Boys
Ginger Snaps
Spirit of the Beehive
A League of their Own

All bangers in their own right

Tatsuya Nakadai as Lord Hidetora Ichimonji in Ran (1985)

1. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)

The most epic adaptation of Shakespeare ever filmed. A sprawlingly epic samurai film, as a warlord confronts his children carving up his empire.

Blood! Flags! Swords! Water and fire and hills! Vivid, glorious reds, yellows, greens, blues! Nothing else hits like this.

Rüdiger Vogler as Philip Winter and Yella Rottländer as Alice van Damm in Alice in the Cities (1974)

2. Alice in the Cities (Wim Wenders, 1974)

Every Wim Wenders film unfolds like the most magical dream, in the truest sense of film as dream. It conjures a sense of place and experience like nothing else.

A man finds himself with a little girl, as they hunt through Europe for a remembered house.

Keir Dullea as Dr David Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969)

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1969)

Absolutely monumental filmmaking. Totemic. Watching this is like witnessing the entire grandiosity of human history placed before your very eyes.

A masterwork of precision, every shot constructed like in nothing else. Astonishing.

Bertil Guve as Alexander in Fanny and Alexander (1982)

4. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)

A 5 hour runtime washes away as this delightfully compelling tale of a family in 1900s Sweden unfurls into an epic of intimate proportions.

Profound joy, tragic loss and the terror of power dynamics are brought to life with visual beauty.

Alexandre Rodrigues as Rocket in City of God (2002)

5. City of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002)

There is rhythm and groove in every pore of this kinetic realisation of violent crime in 1970s Rio. Impossible to look away from, constantly changing gear and exploding with life even as the streets explode into blood and death.

Choi Min-sik as Oh Dae-Su in Oldboy (2003)

6. Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)

A man is in prison, but he doesn't know why, until one day he mysteriously emerges out into the world in a suitcase.

What's going on?

Whatever it is, it's a perfectly executed, dynamic thriller with some shocking twists and direction to die for from Park.

Mimi, a pop idol, confronts herself in Perfect Blue (1997)

7. Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon, 1997)

A terrifying whirlwind of nightmarish terror and confusion, as a pop idol finds her world and sense of reality crashing around her amidst the madness of celebrity obsession and the darkness of fandom.

Another masterclass in animation from Satoshi Kon.

Chisū Ryū as Shukichi Hirayama, Setsuko Hara as Noriko Hirayama and Chieko Higashiyama as Tomi Hirayama in Tokyo Story (1953)

8. Tokyo Story (Yasujirō Ozu, 1953)

A couple travel from their rural town to the big city to visit their adult children, but find themselves more of a burden than a blessing.

An intimate, moving, tragic portrait of life. It will make you call your parents and wallow in regret and fear.

Oscar-winning Tatum O'Neal as Addie and Ryan O'Neal as Moses Pray in Paper Moon (1973)

9. Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich, 1973)

A travelling conman finds himself in debt to a forthright young girl in the Depression-era American south.

It is a timeless film, and a perfect road trip film and a portrait of a lovely relationship with all the thrill of a crime movie.

Justice Smith as Owen and Jack Haven as Maddy in I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

10. I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun, 2024)

What if you got too into a TV show?

Or maybe... maybe you're not into it enough

What can that kind of obsession help you learn about yourself? When that path opens, you can embrace your identity, or suppress it.

This is a unique exploration of that.

Apologies for that clerical error. The thread jumped a time track.

Harold Russell as Homer, Dana Andrews as Fred and Fredic March as Al in The Best Years of our Lives (1946)

11. The Best Years of our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)

Three men return from the Second World War, and try to re-enter their old lives. But it is no longer so simple. Relationships have changed and the men themselves have been irrevocably changed by events.

Pitch perfect comedy drama.

William Shimell as James and a Cannes award-winning performance from Juliette Binoche as Elle in Certified Copy (2010)

11. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)

Two people meet for the very first time.

Or do they?

How long have they known each other?

Which version of themselves and their lives is real, and which is pretend?

What is a relationship? What is a lifetime? What is it to love, and to know another?

Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon (a Bob Fosse self-insert) and Ben Vereen as O'Connor Flood in All That Jazz (1979)

11. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)

Absolutely insane autobiopic from Fosse. Unhinged, really, to make a film like this about oneself - to call it "warts and all" is an understatement. Fosse presents himself as a demented figure, and the crescendo is perhaps his most maximalist number ever.

I've accidentally done too many films on this list and I only just realised. But I'm gonna keep going anyway. We'll say the next few are all #11

Hope everyone is enjoying the dying embers of 2025