Oscars Fortnight: Gigi

Gigi (1958)

31st Academy Awards (1959)
Nominations: 9
Wins: 9

When getting into classic movies, the films that really got me hooked on the musical were the ones put out by MGM in the ’40s and ’50s, and particularly the ones produced by Arthur Freed. These encompassed films like Meet Me In St. Louis, On The Town, The Band Wagon, Singin’ In The Rain, and Best Picture Winner An American In Paris, among many others. The other Best Picture to come out of Freed’s mini-empire was 1958’s Gigi, a film I’d never felt all that compelled to see since it’s never been talked about in the same category of classic musicals the way the other films I just named are.

However, it became apparent why this was when I was talking to a friend who’d stumbled onto it in a bar and watched it in its entirety later out of curiosity for its creepy overtones and extravagant production value. Well, I can now say that the plot is indeed pretty uncomfortable to wrestle with, though its milquetoast Hayes Code-era treatment explains why it went down so easy with audiences at the time, in addition to its very accomplished pedigree behind the camera.

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Oscars Fortnight: The Conversation

The Conversation (1974)

47th Academy Awards (1975)
Nominations: 3
Wins: 0

A few days ago I finished Mark Seal’s 2021 book Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli, about the making of The Godfather. I imagine The Godfather is on a lot of people’s minds after the untimely passing of Robert Duvall.

Before reading this book, I always thought Coppola’s 1974 neo-noir thriller The Conversation was a style exercise for Coppola, a brief interlude between epics, a palate cleanser, if you will. It may have been those things, but I didn’t know until reading Mark Seal’s book that Coppola wanted to make The Conversation before The Godfather. The Conversation was his passion; The Godfather was just a gig, before it grew into something bigger than a cheap adaptation of a pulp crime novel.

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Oscars Fortnight: The Godfather Part III

The Godfather Part III (1990)

63rd Academy Awards (1991)
Nominations: 7
Wins: 0

This year we waited until there was less than half a fortnight until the Oscars to start our annual review series, so welcome to Oscars WEAK: a week of reviews of best picture winners and nominees. For my part, I’ll be starting with 1990’s The Godfather Part III, or, more specifically, the recut version director Francis Ford Coppola put out in 2020 for its 30th anniversary: The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. It’s the end of a journey that started late last year when YouTube started randomly(?) showing me clips from 2022 miniseries The Offer, the Miles Teller-led streaming prestige project about the production of the first Godfather (and how ultimately it was just as important as The Longest Yard). Intrigued by the amusing voices the entire cast seemed to be doing, I eventually caved and watched the whole thing, and, naturally, after those 10 episodes I had to rewatch The Godfather and then Part II. And you know what, they’re still pretty good.

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Freaky Friday: X-Ray

X-Ray (1981)

“Love hurts, love scars. Love wounds and marks any heart,” as Nazareth once sang, or the Everly Brothers, if you’re old school. Yes, love can take its toll on anyone, and in the case of X-Ray aka Hospital Massacre aka Or Else aka Ward 13 aka Be My Valentine, it’s a body toll.

I’m surprised there aren’t more horror Valentine’s Day movies. Hell, I’m surprised there aren’t more Valentine’s Day movies in general. A day where people are pressured to express one of the most powerful emotions by any means necessary feels like the perfect impetus for any kind of movie, whether it’s a rom-com or a slasher.

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John’s Top Ten Horny Movies

Last July, when I drafted a whole slate of “horny” movies for our annual Criterion Movie Draft, I came up with the idea to later post my own personal “Top 10 Horny Movies” list for the blog. “Like Porky’s–peering-through-a-glory-hole horny?” No. I mean erotic movies, it’s just funnier to say horny.

My prerequisites for this list are:

1. Does horniness drive the plot?

2. Are there sexy scenes and/or nudity?

3. Are the leads hot?

Of course, prerequisite 3 is subjective. It’s like that debate on The Office where everyone argues about whether Hilary Swank is hot or not. Who’s to say?

I haven’t seen every notable horny film ever made, but I know what I like, and, to be honest, it’s been a while since I’ve seen anything that’s come close to cracking this top ten. So let’s pour a glass of champagne, pop open a fresh tube of K-Y Jelly, and dive in.

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5 Other Movies That Came Out in 2025

My ranking of all the movies I saw in 2025 is here on Letterboxd. I find myself rather apathetic about writing up most of that list here, since John already covered a lot of my top 10 and Colin’s list is basically my remaining watchlist from the last year. So, in honor of the Mildly Pleased Awards which are probably not happening this year, here’s a write-up of my favorite movies from last year that aren’t those eighteen.

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Colin’s Top 10 Movies of 2025

2025 was a pretty good year at the movies for me, even if it didn’t seem like that great of a year for the industry as a whole. It probably speaks to that fact that I saw like 3 movies that I would’ve considered mainstream blockbusters over the course of the year. But as far as the types of smaller, more thoughtful films I like to seek out, there was plenty of good stuff to go around. I truly don’t know what to think of the increasingly bleak state of the theater industry, because this year I saw probably 75% of the movies I saw last year in theaters, and I’m not really sure what the point of movies are if not for the theatrical experience. Well, here are the movies that made me happy to go get lost in the dark of a half-empty theater.

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