Dobes Zone

       2022 was another bizarre year with a lot of bad news but I did watch nearly 300 films and short films.  I wanted to write a bit about my favorite new (to me) watches. It was a tough choice because I watched so many films that were fun, beautiful, affecting, and exciting. I tried to pick things that surprised me and which I kept thinking about.      I'm notoriously bad at watching new movies the year they actually release- especially since I don't go to theaters much anymore, so a lot of these will be older films. Like last year, I will also be including 10 of the films at the end that were total stinkers, but truth be told, I didn't watch a ton of films that I outright hated.    Cabaret scene from Adele Hasn't Had Her Dinner Yet       In no particular order, here are the hits! 1) On the Silver Globe (1988) Many folks have only seen Zulawski's Possession (an incredible film) but it's been nice seeing a little more lo...

 It's been a busy October and I'm realizing that I have not shared anything to my blog in a while. At a friend's suggestion, I'm cross-posting some of my letterboxd reviews of some of my favorite new watches as well as rewatches from this month. I watched in total, 42 feature length films and 5 short films , some on my own, some in streams I hosted or in streams hosted by others. Everything I watched this month was horror or a thriller dealing with horror themes.   Here's a couple of my favorite new watches from this month. It's not all of them, but these felt like the reviews most worth sharing.   Eyes of Fire (1983) A lovely dark fairy tale set in pre-revolutionary war colonial America. An arrogant preacher has seduced a married woman and when the townsfolk try to have him hanged for it, he and his followers set out into the woods to start a new settlement- which they are wholly unprepared for. Also to be fair, hanging a guy for witchcraft and devilry bec...

 2021 was a bad year in a lot of ways but it was a stellar year for me in terms of watching new films (or at least films that were new to me). I spent a lot more time doing solo watches as well as hosting movie streams over discord with a fun and friendly group of folks who share my passion for weirdo cinema. I'll admit that this year was not particularly one where I watched a ton of current releases but I'm hoping to catch up soon- still need to see Titane, Benedetta, tons of other stuff. So here in no particular ranking or order are a bunch of my faves from this year. I'm also listing at the end the movies I didn't enjoy. I'm not including short films on this list either but might consider making another post about favorite shorts by theme. You can also check out my letterboxd to see all the stuff I watched in 2021 and years prior. My Faves viewed in 2021 1) Shirley (2020) I started my year off strong by catching a digital screening of Shirley (paired with Leigh...

House is an interesting film that I'd seen before but had not revisited in a while. Now that the film is on Blu Ray it felt like a good time to rewatch and take some screen caps of the paintings that feature in the film- some of which give little plot hints about the weird goings-on in the haunted house (though they're largely in the background for ambience more so than plot!) I'd always liked the weird surreal paintings and wanted to get a good look at them again. Roger Cobb is a Vietnam veteran and a horror novelist whose son went missing, causing his divorce. When the aunt who raised him commits suicide in her eerie old house, he returns to stay there and attempts to write a book recounting his experience in Vietnam. As we find out, the house itself and his past may have had a role in the disappearance of his son as strange creatures and phenomena appear. The film has a somewhat silly tone that cuts through the sadness of Roger's ordeal. We get a sense of his trauma ...