What I've Been Watching (Feb 2026)

 Oh no... I wasn't supposed to not update my blog for a month but I guess it just happened. Will not hopefully do that next month.

So. What did I watch this month?

Sunday 1st February  

Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)

Welcome to films from the 1940s. Racism? Yes. Crazy face-cards? Yes. Sets so beautiful they make you tear up? Yes. On first glance Black Narcissus is a classic nun in a foreign country film ala The Nun's Story, where the beautiful nuns go to a poorer country and "fix" everyone by teaching them Chri
stianity. The thing about Black Narcissus is that it doesn't really work out that way for them at all and they end up straying very far away from their original mission in a tale of lust, under eye makeup and what not to do on the side of a big cliff. I can't excuse the racist aspects of this film but I feel that the film doesn't exactly praise those aspects either, making it a much better watch than other films of the era. The look of the film is so beautiful, I think it's worth watching if only for that and the last half an hour of craziness.

 

Thursday 5th February

Priscilla (Sophia Coppola)

This film was a pretty big disappointment for me. I like some of Sophia Coppola's other films - Marie Antionette and The Virgin Suicides but have felt confused by some of her newer works. With Priscilla I thought it would be different, unfortunately not. The film is beautiful. Beautiful clothes, wonderful shots of beautiful people and a beautiful soundtrack. But apart from the beauty in this film I barely felt anything for any characters, especially Priscilla. I found there was a huge disconnect between her character and the audience leaving me confused about her actions and wondering the whole time what she was thinking about. I found the set up of scenes weird - you'd see Priscilla think about something, not talking, and then she'd go do something and then it would move quickly on to the next thing with zero explanation. Maybe I'm being harsh but I think biopics can be wonderful - see Control or Walk The Line so I was just sad this wasn't so good.

 

 

Sunday 8th February  

A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger) 

Powell and Pressburger strike again! My mum was watching this film and was about half way through until I asked what she was watching and was like omg I have been wanting to see this! So after her saying she was going to restart the film for me and me saying noo don't we ended up watching it together. Thank u mum. This film is like the question of whether love can save a life put to the test - literally. The premise is quite simple, a fighter pilot parachutes from his plane, minus a parachute and dies - at least he was supposed to! Miraculously he lands in the sea and is washed up on the shore alive to be found by the operator he was professing his love to on the phone before he jumped. It's all grand until the afterlife realise that they're missing a body and have to try and retrieve him at all costs. It's a wonderful philosophical time and worth everyone seeing!

 

Wednesday 25th February 

The Worst Person In The World  (Joachim Trier) 

I avoided watching this film for a loong time because I hate films about people making mistakes. That is not what this film is. Or is it?  We follow Julie through her adolescence and into adult-hood, she constantly changes her mind about everything (real.) from love to career. In an effort to find herself she instead finds comic book artist Aksel and we watch as they navigate their relationship through ups and downs, disasters and elation. The film is frustrating at times, but isn't life like that too? I thought the music in this was brilliant turning simple moments into music video like vistas. At times it brushes the lines between film and performance art making it an addictive watch. Simply this film is good if you want to think about death and stuff.

Rewatches

so. I saw Twilight in concert for my b-day!! hehe. It was really great to see it on the big screen and everyone was laughing and clapping at all the write moments. The orchestra were soo good too, ty to my sister for getting the tix :D I also rewatched Constantine this month and lost my mind again because it's just that perfect. I also finally watched the deleted scenes and honestly I get why they deleted them, I think the film is better making less sense lol. 

 

Any reccs? Let me know in the comments :) 

 

What I've been watching (Jan 2026)

 Didn't watch my first film this year until Sunday LOL but I guess we all gotta start somewhere. Since then I've watched a few more so I thought there's no time like the present to do a lil' film round-up for this month. I know I'll forget but I'm gonna try and do these monthly this year ^_^

Sunday 25th January

Conclave ( Edward Berger)  

Been wanting to watch this for a while now after everyone was raving about it, and so being me I watched it just over a year later, lol. Like probably most people who have seen it, the fact that I enjoyed it so much and wasn't bored was a real surprise. Obviously, I like films about religion but didn't think I'd be so fussed on a film about the pope, but actually it was a really riveting watch, barely feeling like the two hours went by at all! The main premise of the film is quite simple: the pope dies and so they have to pick a successor. Spoiler, the options are pretty bad, and so the main guy around the place, Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) attempts to sway votes into a direction that wouldn't mean that things would go back to the dark ages. The cinematography is great and makes something possibly boring into something really interesting. It got a 4 star rating from me!

 

Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)

Was clearly feeling a bit inspired on Sunday so thought I'd watch another clergy-based film from Ingmar Bergman. Winter Light has been on my list ever since I saw the film First Reformed, which is heavily based on it. I love First Reformed so much and have already seen Bergman's Through A Glass Darkly which I liked too so I had high hopes. And woah, this film is worth watching. The film begins in a rural church in Sweden that has a very small congregation. The priest is ill and depressed, and struggles to inspire hope in those around him seeking it. What follows is a set of highly emotional moments in which the priest attempts to find love within him for God and even the people around him whilst loosing faith in himself. I don't want to reveal too much but it really is a special film and sits nicely alongside Through A Glass Darkly which shares much of the same themes. 

“Beneath all my false pride and independent airs, I have only one wish: to be allowed to live for someone else.”

 

Monday 27th/ Tuesday 28th January 

Doubt  (John Patrick Shanley)

Had to put two dates on this film because I got half way and realised I had to get up early lol. Anyway, another film about the clergy. Your joking. Nope I really did it again. But this one has Meryl Streep in it so it's a win for everyone.

This one is about a Catholic school in NY in the 1960s and about how the principal of the school, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) is suspicious of priest,(Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Not much else actually happens in it but the acting is great and Amy Adams plays a really sweet character so I enjoyed watching it. I found the films discussion on doubt vs religious obedience really interesting but it never really explored anything properly in depth and just kind of stayed with a pretty surface level message. 

 

 

Boy A (John Crowley)

No priests, no nuns, no popes. Finally. Instead Boy A has you screaming out of anxiety and then just straight up sobbing. Felt an urge to watch every Andrew Garfield movie after seeing Under The Banner of Heaven so here's another one. Boy A is about a man emerging from prison to start a new life after committing (possibly?) a horrific crime as a kid. I should of known this film was going to make me anxious, even the premise is fear inducing and watching it they keep teasing you with,, ooh its all gonna go wrong,,,. It's a short exploration on forgiveness a la Adolescent and really makes you question some truths about the world. Probably will never watch again because it's actually nerve-wracking but it was pretty good anyway. 

 

Here's to more movie watching! See anything good this month - let me know in the comments!

2025 - a year in review⋆｡°✩

2025 is over... yay! or not yay? I don't know really, I kind of didn't enjoy the year as a whole so I think I'm okay with moving on. This year I did watch lots and lots more films, finally began making some art I liked again and went to some awesome shows - not all bad then!

 January

January began with a weird ghostly dream I had whilst staying in my friends spare room... So I guess the year was off to a good start? I began to start blogging more with avenue's Bloganuary challenge which was really fun and probably got me to start this blog somewhere down the line...

What I was listening to... on January 31st 2025 something amazing happened to me. I saw L.S Dunes live and met Anthony Greene, Frank Iero, Tim Payne, Tucker Rule and Travis Stever (!!) The show was so good that it made me obsessed with their latest album - Violet. Still one of the best ever gigs I've ever been too ^_^

craziest show ever...

 What I was watching... This month I rewatched 50/50 with Jospeh Gordon-Levitt, and even if I find Seth Rogan so unfunny I have a real soft spot for this movie. I also saw Sunshine Clearing which is another heartwarming one. Was probably still watching It's Always Sunny lol.

 

February 

Birthday month!! For my b-day I went to a cat cafe with my sister and had a lot of fun. This t'was the month I spent all my time working on my Thursday fansite - Voices On A String.

he did not gaf at all.

What I was listening to... discovered Q and Not U this month, accidentally listened to Ten Thousand Animal Calls so much it became my top song of the year LOL. choke enough by Oklou came out this month yayy!!

What I was watching... finalllly started Severance but spoiler - I still haven't finished S2.. sorry. Also got around to watching Anora which was.. okay?

 

March 

HUGE month for Thurs-heads (me) - I got to see Thursday live again T-T I screamed so hard to fast to the end the girl in front of me turned fully around just to see what the noise was. It was me. Met other Thurs-heads and freaked the fuck out when I saw the band walking on the other side of the road. Also Steve Pedulla blanked my ass even though I was trying to smile at him LOL. also saw Clairo with my bestie and that was fun AND chill. Awesome month. 

WHAT

What I was listening to... THURSDAY. Also I got an iPod Classic for my b-day :D

What I was watching... discovered about Matt Johnson. Lost my mind. Watched all of his films and NTBTS (ok maybe not all this month). Also got really into Steve Jobs biopics. Pirates of Sillicon Valley is like one of the greatest pieces of cinema. Alsooo saw Under The Skin WTF.

 April

Easterrr holiday!!!! Went to Italy and lost my damn mind at how beautiful the world is and ate the best gelato of all time. Officially removed all social media (essentially..) from my life and started this blog up! :) I read Catcher In The Rye finally. so good.

takee meee baaack

What I was listening to... was really in my indie girl era and only listened to Laura Veirs, onelinedrawing, death cab ect ect. Received an amazing cd mix in the mail from Finny and discovered so many great musicians.

What I was watching... saw soo many films this month, here's the low-down - worst: Boyhood (too damn lonng!) and The Amatuer (sadly boring..), best - Love Lies Bleeding (insane.) and Zero Day (also insane.).

 

May 

Played so much SSX3  I though I could do snowboarding tricks. Saw Michael Cera Palin which was really cool.

What I was listening to... Fancy That by Pinkpantheress came out and while it is good was slightly disappointing for me :'(. Began a long descent into the Tooth & Nail multiverse.

What I was watching... only saw incredible films this month: First Reformed, Kneecap and Rushmore. All life changing.

 

June

 Really damn hot already. :/ Perfected Now Press Repeat (music blog) and spent alot of time coding. Had a cute solo-trip to London and went to a Yoshitomo Nara and Jenny Saville art exhibit. 

MEAL OF THE YEAR .. maybe

What I was listening to... went insane with the tunes this month. Discovered eastern European emo/ hardcore, finally listened to Sufjan Stevens AND Jason Molina. and importantly, re-joined the cult that is mewithoutYou. This band ruined my year lowkey. 

 What I was watching... because I don't know what tv shows I was streaming it appears to me I only saw two things in June: GO (2001) - I cried and The Secretary - crazy ass movie with like THE BEST wardrobe of all time. insane. 

 

July 

Basically nothing happened. Except that my cousin did have a crazy wedding and I ran around in a fountain.

What I was listening to... got really obsessed with Frost Children. The mewithoutMentalillness is setting in.

What I was watching... back again with the life changing movies: Blue Gate Crossing, The Trotsky and New Waterford Girl. Wow have I been spoilt this year. Rewatched cycle 12 of ANTM for Allison <3

 

August 

Went to Wales in August and had an awesome time, saw The Get Up Kids and they were so awesome. Took pictures of beautiful things and enjoyed the wonderful weather. 

Prettiest place ever

What I was listening to... in my After era for real. Deftones Private Music came out and so did Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party by Hayley Williams so I was fed with new tunes.

What I was watching... saw Short Term 12 for the first time and was sad. Also saw Heretic and was unexpectedly surprised and how good it is. 

 

September 

Blacked out on August 31st and woke up October 1st.  

What I was listening to... the Tooth & Nail disease hit me fully during this time. Still not able to free myself from grip that Mae and Copeland have on me.

What I was watching... only saw Saint Maud this month, not a brilliant film but I still think about it often.

 

October 

Spooky season! Went on a solo trip to Bristol and had a mini-break at besties house over Halloween - befriended his dog after years of discontent.  

We ate Halloween UP

What I was listening to... began my long journey to listen to every T&N band from the 2000s and went crazy in the process. Made a whole site page about it which I still haven't finished...

 What I was watching... saw soo many films and got to watch some with my mum too which was fun. Went to the cinema for the first time in a while to see Brides and that was good. Best: Goodbye Lenin, Brother Sun Sister Moon. Worst: Jesus Camp.

 

November 

 Sold some of my cards at a local fair which was kinda cool. I feel like I spent most of November working on a CD mix for Finny and did nothing else lol.

What I was listening to... really in my Christian rock era: Sounds Like Silas, Cool Hand Luke ect. Mainly listening to the mix I made for Finny lmao.

What I was watching... watched Under The Banner of Heaven which is defo the best tv I have seen all year.

 

December

Christmas-time.. mistletoe and wine... December was really good! Saw my friends more often and attempted a Christmas movie challenge which I STILL have not finished writing about T-T. Went on a cute trip with my mum to a stately home and had some good soup. 

Wish this was my house LOL

What I was listening to... listened to lots of metalcore this month e.g Underoath, Hopesfall, I Promised The World.

What I was watching... so. many. Christmas films... also I saw Tick, tick... Boom! with my sister and enjoyed it a lot. 

 

The Stats:

Films seen:  61 (an all time record I think?)

Music scrobbled on last.fm: 9,609 (a record low i think, got into CDs and iPod listening this year!)

Best Film: Rushmore or A Charlie Brown Christmas

Best TV: Under The Banner of Heaven or The O.C

Best new music: Both After EPs for sure!!

Top song: All Deliberate Speed by Mae <3 <3

Best concert: Thursday obvs, but L.S Dunes was incredible.

 

 Happy New Year readers of the blog! Thank you for supporting me this year ^_^ here's to another one! 2006 let's go~

Film-mas Day 4# A Charlie Brown Christmas

 I must confess something. I have never actually seen a Peanuts, Charlie Brown or Snoopy related thing in my life. Why? I have no idea but now is a great time to start. A Charlie Brown Christmas is by far the shortest on my list of films at a mere 25 mins (compared to The Holidays 138 mins, yawn). I actually watched the whole film whilst I ate lunch lol. 

The films plot is simple yet entirely relatable. Charlie Brown, our main character, is feeling depressed this Christmastime and it's not only because everyone he meets, including his dog is mean to him - he's just not feeling the xmas spirit! And what do you do when your depressed? You seek incredibly cheap psychiatric help from a girl who won't stop insulting you. So when said roadside psychologist tells Charlie to direct her Christmas play, he accepts her offer hoping that it might give him the Christmassy vibes he's been missing. For my Christmas play veterans out here, you know this can't be an easy task, oh and also when everyone in the play is mean to you the whole time, it's most definitely not going to be simple. Will the Christmas play cure Charlie of his depression? Will the cast members - including Snoopy stop insulting him? These are the sort of questions that came to my mind watching this film, and fortunately they were all answered! That's the kind of miracle that happens with a 25 min film, no chance to get lost in the plot sauce. 

This film is truly wonderful and the most Christmassy of all I've seen so far. I can see this getting played every Christmas from now on and it's even inspired me to check out some more Peanuts episodes. 

Christmassy rating: 10/10

Rewatch value: 10/10  

Overall rating: 10/10 

 

Film-mas Day 3# - A Christmas Story

Day 3 (?) it's A Christmas Story Time! Apparently this film is quite the American classic Christmas movie but I hadn't heard of it before and neither had my mum - so I guess it hasn't made it to overseas audiences just yet. A Christmas Story was released in 1983 so you could call it a bit of a lower scale prelude to Home Alone, which would come out 7 years later. 

A Christmas Story is narrated by an older version of the character Ralphie looking back on the Christmas he had when he was 9 years old in the 1940s. The story begins with Ralphie begging his parents to give him a bb gun for Christmas and his mother telling him "You'll shoot your eye out!", which becomes a bit of a recurring statement in the film. (nearly missed the FOB reference - Yule Shoot You're Eye Out anyone???) It's almost like no one in the film wants a 9 year old child to have a gun. crazy. The film has a few standout scenes - both good and horribly hard to watch. My favourite scene in the film is when Ralphie is writing an assignment for his teacher about what he wants for Christmas, which we now know is a gun. Ralphie writes: "What I want for Christmas is a legendary official Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot Range Model air rifle with a compass and this thing which tells time built right into the stock.". Convinced this is the best thing anyone has ever written ever, Ralphie shows it to his teacher and imagines she will be so shocked by his talent that she'll persuade his mom to get him the gun. Unfortunately for Ralphie the essay is only C+ worthy, and like his mom, his teacher reminds him, "P.S You'll shoot your eye out!". 

The movie is relatively simple to follow along but then you reach the end and wonder what just happened in the last 1hr 30mins. The film really lacks any solid plot but it does have some rather good moments I'd watch again - not including the weird racist bit stuck on the end. Overall, I probably would watch the film again but only if someone else wanted to see it - for now, I think I'll stick with Home Alone. 

Christmassy rating: 8/10

Rewatch value: 5/10  

Overall rating: 6/10 

 

Film-mas Day 2# - The Preacher's Wife

Okay, so it's not exactly day 2, but also I accidentally gave myself a few extra days before Christmas so I get some more days to finish the challenge lol. I also have made some fancy icons for each day, so scroll down to check out the icon I made for The Holiday! Day 2 is the 1996 film: The Preacher's Wife. Although this film has romantic moments it's more of a moralistic Christmas film, not to dissimilar to It's A Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol. I hadn't heard of this film before my research into Christmas movies so I was totally surprised when I saw the star-studded cast this film has - Whitney Houston, Denzel Washington and surprise guest, Lionel Richie?

The most Christmassy!

As the title suggests the movie is about preacher Henry Biggs (Courtney B Vance) and his wife Julia (Whitney Houston) as they try and save their church from demolition. They have the most adorable kid ever called Jeremiah who sees angel Dudley (Denzel Washington) fall from the sky after he was asked by God to help the Biggs family out. Dudley keeps trying to help Henry and his family with their problems but has problems getting through to Henry, who doesn't believe that he is an angel. However, Dudley has better luck with Julia and accidentally begins to fall in love with her, further making Henry's life worse and pushing him away from his family. 

I really enjoyed watching this film but found that the message got a bit lost in the middle of the film. I think that they probably could of cut out a few storylines and focused more instead on the story's villian, Joe Hamiliton, because his story feels quite rushed. Personally, I like this type of Christmas movie with a feel good moral message, rather than just - Isn't it so great to be in a relationship in the holiday season? Although the movie itself focuses a lot on the Church community and the character's faith I think it could be enjoyed by people of any religious background because you don't need to be Christian to get it, y'know. Whitney Houston in particular is just perfect in it, and she gets to sing a lot which is brilliant, the sad thing is though, that this was her last ever film before she died. It's good it has such a heart warming message though, so people can remember her fondly.

The Christmas vibes were strong with this one so my Christmassy rating is gonna be high!

Christmassy rating: 9/10

Rewatch value: 6/10

Overall rating:  7/10

 

12 Days of Film-mas Christmas movie challenge! Day 1#

So, I guess it's December 8th already... 12 days till' Christmas?! Okay I had one day to think about this and realise that the 8th of December IS NOT 12 days till Christmas LOLLL I cannot count. I will be doing this anyway though and just finishing on the 20th lmao :0 Inspired by Finny's 31 Days of Teen Screams this year I'm doing a 12 days of film-mas, where I'll be watching 12 films (Christmassy of course) in 12 days. 

I'm gonna be real with this one - I have barely watched any Christmas films and I also really do not like Love Actually. On these 12 days I'm gonna try and watch only films I have never seen before, so I can officially say that I have watched the best Christmas movies. To date my favourite Christmas film is Nativity! but this could all change... ok maybe not but I'll see...

Day #1 - The Holiday

this coat... ahhh

I have spent 22 years of my life nearly watching this film and then not. As it's my sister's favourite I thought it would be a good start! It's a classic rom-com and has so many stars in it I can't count lol, it's like every single person in it is famous lol. The premise is simple - two single women swap houses for the holiday season and find themselves falling in love - not with eachother
LOL. All the sets and costumes in the film are adorable - especially Cameron Diaz' afgan coat. The whole film is very cute but kind of hard to keep up with as it keeps switching between story lines, so you don't really get to know the characters properly before, especially as Cameron Diaz and Jude Law's story line gets the most screen time. Personally, the Christmas vibes aren't really all there until you get to the end and are like ohh its a Christmas film but I imagine if you watch it every year it helps get one into the spirit. My mum watched the end of it with me and I much preferred watching it with someone else than on my own - helped with the cozy vibes. 

Christmassy rating: 4/10

Rewatch value: 5/10  

Overall rating: 5/10