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Busterdome.Best Scrugg: The Gal Who Got Rattled. Worst Scrugg: Johnny Got His Canon.

More airplane flicks:Finally saw Lola rennt for the first time. Lived up to the hype, great fun all around.I watched and enjoyed Alex Garland's Annhilation under a dark blue blanket. Was pretty sceptical for the first half and not really invested in the characters, but I really liked the trippy ending and it had me pretty hooked as it developed its theme. Stayed with me, thought about it some later too. I thought Daniel Lopatin did the soundtrack while watching but I think it turned out to be other dudes in his orbit, was a bit too forced hip for me at first and then grew on me a lot as the film got more psychedelic and ended up being pretty appropriate and well done. Passed the Bechdel test with flying colours. All in all, it was pretty damn good for Hollywood high-concept sci-fi, which normally tends to annoy me.

Phoenix by Christian PetzoldPretty blown away by this.

gaetano wrote:"Roma" by Alfonso Cuaron is a masterpiece in movie-making. Go see it on the big screen, as it will be around for only another 2 days or so, then it goes straight to Netbucks.saw this today in a theatre. i liked it. thanks for the recommendation.

Last-days-of-Filmstruck movie excursions:Onibaba (1964, dir. Kaneto Shindo) - an extremely atmospheric suspense-horror movie, just a really satisfying watch. Got an incredible location and a cool score also.Heat Wave (Kagero) (1991, dir. Hideo Gosha) - stylized female-led Yakuza gambling-house revenge movie, very fun, recommended.Death By Hanging (1968, dir. Nagisa Oshima) - incredibly sharp political black comedy. One of the funniest movies I've seen. Just watch it.The Organizer (I Compagni) (1963, dir. Mario Monicelli) - one of the best and realest films about labor organizing. I resisted watching it for a while because I'm literally a labor organizer now and I try to avoid entertainment that looks too much like what is stressing me out but it's actually pretty easygoing - it's a drama, but has a lot of comedic elements and a pretty uplifting spirit.

I saw Shoplifters, which won at Cannes this year. It's pretty great. Had some very touching moments and raised valid questions about the nature of family. Not much "happens", but it never feels like 2 hours.The director, Hirokazu Kore-eda, has made other stuff that I'm only aware of in passing (No-one Knows, Still Walking, Maborosi). I dipped into them and, while well-shot, I think I've lost the patience for their noted slowness which I would have more than amply provided in my 20s. I'll give them another attempt at some point soonish.

Oliver Twist (1948)Not really a Christmas movie, but it makes sense to watch it during Christmas in some way, it has ten times the drama of the latest Netflix fad. It's genuinely creepy, there are no songs at all, and the characters are all "Spot On" as my UK pals would say. 5 stars, thanks TCM.

Who's using Kanopy? Probably free through your local library and full of good stuff.

Antero wrote:Last-days-of-Filmstruck movie excursions:Onibaba (1964, dir. Kaneto Shindo) - an extremely atmospheric suspense-horror movie, just a really satisfying watch. Got an incredible location and a cool score also.That movie is excellent. Check out Kuroneko which was made a few years later by the same director. It's one of my favorite vampire movies. The cinematography is once again unreal. I've been watching a lot of Shudder this year and found Hellhouse LLC to be a really good and creepy found footage horror movie, I know it's a played out genre, but it made me afraid of the stairs in my house for a couple of weeks because I thought there was going to be a 7ft eyeless animated clown puppet standing in the dark stairwell. The second one just came out a few months ago, I didn't think it was nearly as frightning.

Maybe this belongs in the horror thread, but I recently watched It Follows and Hereditary. Both were surprisingly excellent and original. I say 'surprisingly' because a few recent horror films that got raved about I didn't find that interesting or scary, aside from a few jump scares (The Conjuring, the Evil Dead remake, etc).