Normally I do most of my movie watching at weekends. What with work and other commitments, weekdays tend to have more of a focus on TV, which this week meant finishing off Season 1 of True Detective and catching up with the first two episodes of Season 5 of Game of Thrones, all of which was awesome. Then the weekend rolled around, and this happened:

Yep, we got a puppy. This is Malakili Urak-Hai Robocop Patroni Hagrid Yoda Cluitt-Green, or M.U.R.P.H.Y. for short, a two month old labradoodle, and as such I didn’t watch a great deal of movies this week and, if the past weekend is anything to go by, never will ever again. But he’s all kinds of adorable (you should watch him hunting a tennis ball), so I can’t stay mad at him, regardless of how often he pees in the hall. Anyway, here’s what I watched this week:

White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)

Full disclosure, we bailed on this 30 minutes in because it didn’t seem to be going anywhere and hadn’t gone anywhere so far. Also I’d heard literally nothing about it, good or bad. We only watched it because I’d assumed that, because it starred Shailene Woodley, it would be based on some young adult coming-of-age book and Aisha would enjoy it, but in reality it looked like it was heading towards some kind of benign thriller interspersed with dream sequences and therapy sessions, so we bailed. And no, don’t worry, I’m not counting this as part of any of this year’s goals.
Lists: None
Choose Life 2/10

Educating Rita (1983)

Apparently Julie Walters used to be young. I’d never have believed it had I not seen this movie. She plays a working class girl who goes by the name of Rita. She works as a hairdresser, and lives an unsatisfying life in an ordinary house with Denny (Malcolm Douglas), a man who likes nothing better than spending every evening down the pub, and who can’t understand why his wife is unhappy and doesn’t want a child yet. Rita wants to further herself and open up her opportunities in life – she doesn’t necessarily want a more extravagant or lavish lifestyle, she’d just like to have the option, and thus enrols in an evening program to be taught literature by Michael Caine’s Dr. Frank Bryant. Frank, however, has his own problems, namely a cheating girlfriend and an issue with alcohol, in that he keeps turning up to lectures steaming drunk. I was expecting a retelling of My Fair Lady starring Alfred and Mrs. Weasley, but this plays out a lot differently (I assume, I haven’t seen My Fair Lady yet). And it’s really quite good. Not exactly ground breaking, but still worth your time.
Lists: TiVo Movies.
Choose Film 7/10

Batman (1989)

Nominated for me by DJ Valentine of Simplistic Reviews, I’ll be reviewing this soon.
Lists: Nominated Movies, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Empire’s Top 500, Empire’s Top 301
Review coming soon.

Posts you may have missed:
Ace in the Hole
Le Cercle Rouge
One-Eyed Jacks
USA Road Trip: Sling Blade
Lambcast #266 Lambpardy: Lambpardy is the Lambcast’s regular movie-themed trivia game, based on Jeopardy, duh. Todd is the reigning champion, but two newcomers – Will Slater and Shane Young – aim to bring him down. Do they succeed? Listen to find out. This was a great show, especially because at under 75 minutes it’s been the shortest show I’ve had to edit in a long time.

Goals Update
Aim: Watch all saved TiVo films
Watched: 23
To go: 38
Should be on: 20
On Track: Yes!

Aim: Watch 59 movies released in the UK in 2015
Watched: 6
To go: 53
Should be on: 10
On Track: No!

Aim: Review Kate Winslet’s remaining films
Reviewed: 0
To go: 3
Should be on: 1
On Track: No!

Aim: Watch 12 “bad” films from the 1001 List
Reviewed: 1
To go: 11
Should be on: 4
On Track: No!

Aim: Watch 1 nominated film a week from the 1001 List
Reviewed: 9
To go: 43
Should be on: 17
On Track: No!

Aim: Cross off 75 films from the 1001
List Reviewed: 20
To go: 55
Should be on: 25
On Track: No!