films seen in 2024, and the three degrees of the Mild peril video club
I’m not a film buff (which I usually justify by saying I have no particular desire to watch Citizen Kane, for example) but nevertheless I’ve realised in recent years that film is incredibly important to me. Not least because I think I take a ‘visual’ inspiration when composing music.
During my now traditional bout of illness between Christmas and New Year in 2023 I put together three lists, or ‘degrees’, of those films most important to me. The first degree covers the standards, the second those that are less fundamental but perhaps more important to me, and a third degree reserved for absolute mind melters. Of course the lists are constantly shifting, and you might notice the absence of a particular science fiction film trilogy that I have had a problem with up until very recently.
Here are the top five from each degree to give you an idea:
MPVC 1° : top five. If you haven’t seen all these, we can’t be friends.
MPVC 2° : top five. The number of these you have seen will determine the quality of our friendship.
MPVC 3° : top five. Mind melters, chin strokers - hard to find/understand/sit through without fidgeting.
It’s that time of year again (and yes I’ve been ill again) so rather than just a top ten of the films I’ve seen this year, here are those that I either put straight into one of the three degrees of the Mild Peril Video Club, or those that I think could make their way there in time. And it’s a top eleven because I really wanted to fit Erik the Viking in there at the last minute.
11 : ERIK THE VIKING • Terry Jones • 1989
Hangs together a bit better than Jabberwocky and even at times seems similar and a bit more coherent than Time Bandits, although ultimately not of the same calibre. It has a mythic resonance with a heavy helping of silliness, which is a magic combination for me.
10: RIDDLE OF FIRE • Weston Razooli • 2024
An epic quest for cooking ingredients. A weird idea, made weirder by the fact that they’ve clearly just let the kids be weird in their own ways too. The use of dungeon synth on the soundtrack and the faded postcard colouring are both inspired.
9: LONGLEGS • Osgood Perkins • 2024
I do need to give this another watch and I know it pissed a lot of people off but I assume that’s because they thought they were going in to watch some sort of ordinary film.
8: STARVE ACRE • Daniel Kokotajlo • 2023
The texture here is perfect, visually and aurally, but it annoys me that every interaction we have with ‘the land’ seems to need to come out as a ‘folk horror’. Certainly when the folklore is invented and can often come across as a bit silly.
7: LOVE LIES BLEEDING • Rose Glass • 2024
Didn’t know I needed a bodybuilding lesbian romance in my life. Insane soundtrack with everything from Throbbing Gristle to Harald Grosskopf. Goes weird, could have gone weirder.
6: THE JUNIPER TREE • Nietzchka Keene • 1990
Sweet and occasionally morbid, like all the best fairytales. The Icelandic scenery and a 21 year old Björk are both beautiful.
5: THE PRINCESS BRIDE • Rob Reiner • 1987
Yes that’s right, I’d not seen this until this year. I think if you’re watching this now it helps to know you are meant to have your tongue in your cheek, at least at first.
4: MONOS • Alejandro Landes • 2019
Dreamlike fantasy about a tribe of children in an unnamed war, in an unnamed country.
3: THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER • Joanna Hogg • 2022
The tone of the picture, the off-kilter 'middle of the night' feeling that pervades throughout, brilliant. It's a ghost story in the best possible way. Creepy yet comforting.
2: POOR THINGS • Yorgos Lanthimos • 2023
I don’t think I need to say anything about this as it came out this time last year and has been talked about a lot, but if you’re going to spend a lot of money on a film then please make more of this sort of thing, ta.
1: VIGIL • Vincent Ward • 1984
Magical in the true sense. Reminds you that every event can and should be seen as a moment of magical significance, and I think that is perhaps the definition of a child’s viewpoint in a film. One of those settings that seems to exist outside of time. One of those films where you want to lock the way it makes you feel inside your mind so you can experience every day through that filter.
• This list on Letterboxd
• Another list with some honourable mentions from this year
• My 2024 page on Letterboxd
• The first, second, and third degrees of the Mild Peril Video Club