Welcome to October, folks! Autumn is officially here, though yesterday morning felt like Winter with temp in the 40s already, ugh. Autumn in Minnesota is rather unpredictable. We went from mini dress + sandals weather to jacket + boots in the span of 18 hours! I sure hope we still get some Indian Summers in October though, fingers crossed.
It’s yet another slow month for press screenings for me. Either the timing doesn’t work out or I’m simply not interested enough in seeing them. I also didn’t watch a lot of new stuff, but did see a lot of old favorites, some are Toby Stephens-related [natch!] But hey, October is TCFF month so there’ll be a heck of movies to watch this month, yippee!!
Posts you might’ve missed:
- 10 Memorable Scenes Set in NYC
- This Week’s Question: Favorite Recent Casting News?
- Interview Special: Black Sails‘ Sean Cameron Michael
- Music Break: Top 5 Favorite Batman Themes
- Broadway Review Special: Les Miserables
- Spotlight on 2014 TCFF Lineup!
- Ted’s Ranking of David Fincher Films
- Ted’s Review: The November Man
- Ted’s Review: The Equalizer
Blogathon:
Fisti Recastathon: Recasting 3 Oscar-nominated roles w/ 3 actresses of color
New-to-me Movies/TV:
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014)
Gotham Series – Pilot
Ladies in Lavender (2004)
The main draw for me was of course the two female leads. I LOVE seeing real-life Dame BFFs Judi Dench and Maggie Smith together on film, and they played sisters in this one. Their lives was turned upside down when a mysterious foreigner washed up on the beach of their 1930’s Cornish seaside village. Daniel Brühl played the young stranger whom Dench became infatuated with. It’s a sweet and touching film, though there’s a 30+ age gap between Dench and Brühl, it’s not at all creepy and their bond is more of a soulful nature. The pace is a bit on the slow side though, but the actors were able to keep my interest. There’s drama with a bit of mystery here as Brühl‘s character befriends a Russian woman, played by Natascha McElhone. Game of Thrones‘ actor Charles Dance actually directed this one and I think he did a great job! There’s gorgeous violin music here too, courtesy of Joshua Bell, though Brühl did a convincing job pretending to be a maestro violinist. (3.5 out of 5)
Beginners (2010)
I’ve been wanting to see this for ages, glad we finally did. It’s quite a moving story about father/son relationship, and how a young man named Oliver deals with his dad, Hal, coming out as gay AND he also has terminal cancer. The story weaves back and forth between the time they spent together and the time following Hal’s death. I thought all the relationships presented in the movie was dealt in a touching, funny and poignant way. Christopher Plummer won an Oscar for his performance and rightly so. But I have to say Ewan McGregor‘s sensitive performance was terrific as well, and so was Mélanie Laurent and Goran Visnjic in the supporting roles. (4 out of 5)
September Blindspot: Double Indemnity (1944)
Rewatches:
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
- Phantom of the Opera (2004)
- The Great Gatsby – TV Movie (2000)
- Persuasion – BBC miniseries (2007)
- Jane Eyre – BBC miniseries (2006)
- Cambridge Spies – BBC miniseries (2003)
Favorite Movie Seen in September 2014:
This is an easy pick for this month. It’s definitely going to be on my Top 5 Favorite Blindspot films of the year. It’s my first viewing of Barbara Stanwyck but certainly won’t be the last! I need to check out more Billy Wilder’s work, too!
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What I’m looking forward to in October:
October is always an exciting time for me because of TCFF. Hope you’ll stay tuned for the coverage and reviews!
What you won’t see here this month is any kind of horror/slasher marathon of any kind. I’m not a fan of that genre nor do I generally celebrate Halloween, so this site will remain relatively horror-free.
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So, what movies did you get to see in September and which one is your favorite?
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
I can’t believe summer’s over and it’s already October! I hope we still get some more warm weather this month since I’ll be moving into a new place at the end of the month. I don’t want it to snow or rain on that day.
Didn’t see a lot of new movies, besides The Equalizer, I didn’t see or watch any movie at all this past month. That will change once I moved into a new place and have my home theater again. I’ve bought so many Blurays and I’m itching to watch them on my mini theater. And now that Dolby Atmos is available for home theater, I can’t wait install and listen to it at my house!
Yeah, seems that we skip Fall and right into Winter Ted 😦 I sure hope we’d see another 70-degree day again, or even mid 60s!
I’m glad you got a new place now, so when are you moving in? I’d love to watch a movie together again in your new home cinema (w/ Dolby Atmos no less!), maybe then I get to meet your girlfriend 😉
Hopefully I get to move in the last week of October but the current tenants are still living at the house. So most likely it’ll be November first. I can’t wait to finally have my own place again and watch movies on my home theater. Yeah we can do a movie night again.
If she’s free I’ll bring my girlfriend to the TCFF, she works a lot so we don’t get to see each often. Maybe you can meet her then.
Playtime was obviously the best film I saw in September as I just love what Jacques Tati does.
I should put one of Jacques Tati’s work on my next year Blindspot 🙂
Ah! I have been such an absentee blogger, Ruth. My apologies!!! I will promise to be more consistent, so long as you promise to keep yourself warm in the coming weeks/months! I forgot how cold it gets in the upper midwest! Yikes!
I’m also glad you throw up posts like these, it helps me get back into the swing of things. Lots of stuff to check out for sure.
Looking forward to your TCFF coverage Ruth, always some gems in the festivals. The best film I saw in September was Pride, which was absolutely brilliant and well worth checking out.
Hey Chris! I hope you’d stop by, I have some volunteer reviewers so yeah, we’ll get some recommendations for sure. Pride is a British movie right? I saw the cast is very good!
Looking forward to your TCFF reports :). Gaslight, Laura, and Rebecca was a trifecta for me.
Hi Cindy! Wow, what a trifecta! I still need to see Gaslight and Laura!
I only saw 2 films in September. One was Guardians of the Galaxy which was fun. But I thought Frank with Michael Fassbender to be really endearing and slightly unpredictable than usual. Not for everyone but it was well done I thought – not super serious and with a dry sense of humor. Recommend to closet hipsters everywhere…
I’ve been hearing tons of good things about Frank. I’ll give that a shot for sure. Seems that Dohmnal Gleeson has been making interesting role choices, he must got that from his dad Brendan.
Lots of great stuff as always Ruth. Always a top read!
Awww thank you Mark, really appreciate your readership man!
I didn’t see much new stuff either. In terms of movie watching it’s been slow but the month has flown by. Well I did finally get around to The Usual Suspects, never saw it before but I was spoiled on the ending so no big surprises … dozed off a few times so I’ll have to rewatch it hehe. Beginners sounds pretty good, never heard of it before might have to check it out some time. Cheers!
Oh that’s a bummer that someone spoiled the ending for you! I had that happen on a few films as well, so I ended up not seeing it. Beginners is a sweet drama/comedy, worth checking out for sure!
Hey, you liked Beginners! I really enjoyed that film, and I thought the performances were great, especially Ewan McGregor’s. I still remember Christopher Plummer telling everyone that the dog in Beginners was better than the dog in The Artist since both films were nominated for awards at the 2011 Academy Awards, and the dog from The Artist got a lot of coverage.
I also remember hearing that everyone thought Christopher Plummer was FINALLY awarded an Oscar since he was gipped for The Sound of Music, haha. Who knows. 🙂
Beginners was a pleasant surprise indeed, it’s deeper than I thought and I like that it’s not sexualized which is nice when that happens. Plummer was so good and convincing as a gay man too! Oooh right, the dog was the same one as in The Artist, I LOVE that one.
Oh I agree Plummer should’ve won for Sound of Music!
I know, I thought Plummer was great! Yeah, Plummer definitely should have won for Sound of Music . . . at least he finally go an Oscar!
Cool month! Glad you liked Beginners. That one is so great!
Thanks Fernando! Yeah I’m glad I finally saw Beginners.
I loved Beginners!
Yeah it’s a good movie!
I don’t see much movies lately…busy with TV Series, but I do have favorite movie which definitely will be on my top 5 list of this year. It’s Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno….and I am looking forward to see the other half this October, Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends.
Have fun at TCFF Ruth 🙂
Was that one of the Japanese films you reviewed recently? Thanks Nov, hope you’ll stop by during TCFF coverage!
Yup…that’s the one 🙂
Hopely I am not too busy 🙂
YAY! Double Indemnity takes the top spot! Glad you finally watched Beginners. I love the performances, and Melanie Laurent is actually my CinSpec winner for Best Supporting Actress that year. 🙂