Our hometown film festival starts this month. Feel glad for us, people of Letterboxd, for we shall finally see Ex Machina on the big screen at the NZ International Film Festival. Still, not quite as long as it’s taken Tom Cruise to confirm a Top Gun sequel.

The NZIFF folks asked us to put a tour guide together, so we combined our own wishlists with a selection of films that are highly rated by you. Here are our recommendations.

So that’s us this month — indoors, in the dark, in our happy place. You?

Cheers,
The Letterboxd crew

Broadcast News

Letterboxd Family Podcasts

Podcasts are springing up faster than Saw sequels. This month we spotlight some Letterboxd users’ podcasts old and new.

Goonies Pinball

Cinereelists is a twice-weekly podcast by James and Zach. They’re well up beyond 100 episodes and they love lists as much as we do. Sometimes they also film their guests, like the guy who custom-made a Goonies pinball machine.

The long-running Canadian podcast Film Junk is a weekly hour-or-more audio show hosted by Sean, Jay and Frank. We like their synth styles and the way they say “out” and “about”.

Movies Now and Then is a brand new bi-weekly podcast covering a new release and a classic. In Episode 5, one of the hosts admits to having never watched The Godfather: Part II.

Kiss The Goat is a horror podcast focusing on films about the Devil. Prepare to enter the unholy circle.

Jurassic Park

Mark Boszko’s Optical Movie VFX podcast goes deep on visual effects and technology. The latest episode features Cinefex editor Jody Duncan talking about the history of the Jurassic Park series.

Need more? Try any of these: Film Pulse, See You Next Wednesday, Reel Fanatics, Now Playing, Rancho Notorious, Soundtrack of your Life, The Fabisch Factor, Best Worst Podcast, The Essential Film Podcast, The Pre-Post Film Review and Decades of Cinema. Email us about your podcast!

Opening Credits

In cinemas and coming soon
Inside Out
Inside Out

If we weren’t already blubbing by the end of Pixar’s neurological coming-of-age loveliness, the filmmakers got us with their final note dedicating the film to “our kids”, with the plea that they “never grow up”. Sniff.

Seen it? Here are some of the Easter Eggs it contains. And here’s director Pete Docter talking to The Dissolve about what didn’t make it to the screen, why Joy was unappealing at first, and an insight into the studio’s “brain trust” meetings.

Terminator Genisys

The latest Terminator franchise entry — despite the endorsement of James Cameron — sees Arnold taking a bit of a beating, both from our armchair critics and on-screen. Here’s a little insight into how the effects wizards spent a year creating one of the film’s centrepiece fight scenes. Always with a sense of humor, Arnold has been out and about promoting the film, working the crowd and only making a few people cry.

Jurassic World

Speaking of easter eggs, there were plenty in what turned out to be a pretty nostalgic return to Isla Nublar. Do you prefer to read or to watch?

Magic Mike XXL

“I’m not mad I saw it” might be the most spot-on review so far. Or David Ehrlich’s “like staring into the abs of god”.

Ant-Man

Paul Rudd’s superhero turn is upon us; early reactions suggest Michael Peña for MVP.

For more upcoming releases, visit The Trailer Park, a regularly updated list by Letterboxd member Phips.

Intermission

Distractions in film
Jabin Dickins

Allow us to indulge our obsession with Mad Max: Fury Road a few minutes longer. We got to chat with special effects supervisor Jabin Dickins (while he was on a barge off Australia at work on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales for the Norwegian directors behind 2012 epic Kon-Tiki). He talked us through the film’s bigger explosions, and revealed the hardest special effect to pull off.

Kids turned 20 recently and Larry Clark, Harmony Korine, Chloë Sevigny and co got together at BAM to reminisce about the relentless, visceral New York teen drama (continues here).

Dylan Schenker’s Ultimate Guide to Analog Control Panels in Sci-Fi Films. The title says it all.

With The Wolfpack recently opened in the US and coming to the NZIFF, we sat down for a quick chat with director Crystal Moselle about chasing people down the street and re-watching Heart of Darkness. Look for that on our blog sometime next week.

Star Wars

One star vs five stars, fight!
Spy

Spy

★ “Seriously this movie is everything you expect it would be from the trailer and worse… please go and watch Kingsman: The Secret Service again.” —Andrew Amphlett

★★★★★ “Aside from the fact that this is a comedy, this is a fully realized spy film, with impressive action, and a coherent spy narrative… Also […] takes the Bechdel test and throws it out the window. Feig and McCarthy have cracked the code; to make women equal to men in films, just treat them like human beings.” —Ferdosa

Jurassic World

Jurassic World

★ “This tasteless dinosaur massacre full of stock characters gone stale and poorly-rendered CGI, brought to you by Mercedes.” —goldenageof_

★★★★★ “Has any movie ever better expressed the disingenousness of Hollywood marketing their brutally violent (but PG-13!) movies to kids than Trevorrow has done right here?” —Dave Vonderhaar

Old School

Recent reviews of the classics
I Know Where I’m Going

“While the magic and wonder that I tend to associate with the Archers isn't missing here, it's more subdued in favor a quiet gentleness. The landscape of this small Scottish isle is populated with lovable eccentrics lovingly realized. The people are photographed in soft light and shadows, which frame a story about class pretensions and unexpected love, but that story hardly seems like the point, serving to contribute to a pastoral feeling as people discuss ambitions of changing the world of falconry or tell folk tales of curses which may or may not come true. Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey create a relationship which is, above all things, polite, empathetic, and kind. This sort of thing is all too often missing from more modern romantic comedies, which instead are driven by selfishness. This is a film where kindness, empathy, courage, and ultimately magic can lead people to love and happiness.” —Hannah

This is the End

A Single Man

Marriage for all in the United States of America! Get into some queer cinema to celebrate.

Daredevil

Not all marriages are built to last, so here’s a list of favorite Jennifer Garner movies.

Death Proof

The Quentin Tarantino universe, in detail.

’Round Midnight

Richard Linklater’s Jewels in the Wasteland is a great series run by our pals at Austin Film Society. Can’t be in Austin? Enjoy the series vicariously through their list.

The Godfather

All the films seen in or mentioned on Lost.

Shaun of the Dead
Alien

A list inspired by Taylor Swift’s ‘Bad Blood’ and a list of films directed by women for your next gender-led movie night.