Honorable Mentions…

Perfect Days

This film is a gentle embrace for the soul, a meditation on finding beauty in the mundane. It follows Hirayama’s quiet routine of cleaning toilets in Tokyo, intertwined with his love for music, cassettes, books, and unexpected encounters. It’s simple and invites a profound appreciation for life's small and yet beautiful moments.

Invincible

Bias alert: a Canadian film from Quebec, so of course, I like it. In just 30 minutes, this heartbreaking film captures the complexity of the human condition as it explores the final 48 hours of a 14-year-old boy incarcerated in a youth detention center. Léokim Beaumier-Lépine delivers an impressive performance, embodying Marc’s longing for freedom, his isolation, and his self-sabotage. Quel dommage it didn’t win the Oscar—it was absolutely brilliant!

Other movies watched (in order of preference)

• Ninety-Five Senses

• The Zone of Interest

• Bobi Wine: The People President

• 20 days in Mariupol

• Pachyderm

• Wish

• Knight of Fortune

• Island in Between

• The Barber of Little Rock

• Red, White and Blue