December 2020 Watchlist: Dumpling December!

December 2020 Watchlist: Dumpling December!

Every December our team has a big group cooking experience that we’ve affectionately titled Dumpling December, when we get together and share new and family recipes for dumplings from all over the world. We had to do it distance style and just eat with our eyeballs this year, so we started sharing movie dumplings too- movies with a whole ‘nother movie in them. Now we’re gonna share ‘em with you too! Join us on Patreon [ www.patreon.com/westsidevideo ] for an extended watchlist (and for a movie night watchbox delivered/mailed to your door every month), and join our Discord [ https://discord.gg/DNjrjaAuTD ] for multiple absolutely FREE movie screenings every month!

Be Kind Rewind (PG-13, 2008) - Our greatest fears as a video store are realized in the beginning of this film, when Jack Black accidentally erases all the VHS rentals in a local shop. The new manager then recruits him and community members to remake the erased films, and honestly it’s just really fun and creative and inspiring and we’re not crying YOU ARE.

Bowfinger (PG-13, 1999) - Steve Martin can’t get Eddie Murphy to agree to be in his bad movie, so he gets the brilliant idea to simply film him paparazzi-style and use that footage, which is perhaps simultaneously the most stupid and most entertaining idea ever. 

Inland Empire (R, 2006) - David Lynch makes an actress lose her dang mind as she melds with her character. Sounds...about right honestly.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (R, 2001) - Bluntman and Chronic comics are based on Jay and Silent Bob...so how come they aren’t getting any cash for the movie adaptation of their life adventures? They go on a road trip to right wrongs and figure out what’s up with Good Will Hunting 2. Nooch!

Matinee (PG, 1993)  - John Goodman’s one-man studio premieres MANT (half-man, half-ant; get it?) in a Key West theater during the Cuban Missile Crisis alongside Cathy Moriarty’s jaded d-list starlet, juxtaposing real life and the film until it’s tough to tell them apart. Come for the quirky stories, stay for the many irl b-movie cameos!

Singin’ In The Rain (G, 1952) - A musical about a silent film crew transitioning to talkies would be good enough, but putting Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Cyd Charisse, Rita Moreno and more is movie magic within movie magic.

Son of Rambow (PG-13, 2007) - Join a couple of school kids- one raised without any popular culture in a very religious setting, one raised on films entirely because no adults have paid any attention- as they attempt to make a film sequel to First Blood.

Their Finest (R, 2016) - A secretary gets voluntold to become a propaganda film screenwriter for British morale during the Blitz. Lone Scherfig gives us a worthy addition to the WWII film genre.

Trollhunter (PG-13, 2010) - A bunch of college kids start documenting their search for the bear behind several human fatalities...but like...what if it was not a bear, but a TROLL?

What We Do In The Shadows (R, 2014) - Imagine Real World with vampires. Hilarious, right? It 100% works- so much so that they made an also hilarious show out of it!

Better representation of all genders and deeper writing of all characters and relationships helps people connect to the story you're trying to tell.

It just kills me when writers create franchises where like 95% of the speaking roles are male, then get morally offended that all of the popular ships are gay. It’s like, what did they expect?

Dancing in Film: Halloween Edition

Featuring Corpse Bride, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (chgph. Michael Smuin), Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (chgph. Anne Fletcher), Young Frankenstein (chgph. Alan Johnson), Hocus Pocus (chgph. Kenny Ortega), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (chgph. David Toguri), The Addams Family (chgph. Peter Anastos), Beetlejuice (chgph. Chrissy Bocchino), It 2017 (chgph. Roberto Campanella), and The Skeleton Dance

February 2021 Watchlist: African History Is Black History Too

There are movies made and/or set in every single country in Africa. We recommend you start with these. Our reviews of each unlock for our Patreon patrons- www.patreon.com/westsidevideo!

Algeria - The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Angola - Hollow City (2004)

Benin - Africa Paradis (2006)

Botswana - A United Kingdom (2016)

Burkina Faso - Yaaba (1989)

Burundi - Gito, L'ingrat (1992)

Cameroon - Ninah's Dowry (2012)

Cabo Verde - Bataque, the Soul of a People (2006)

Central African Republic - The Silence of the Forest (2003)

Chad - Abouna (2002)

Comoros - L'Ivresse d'une Oasis (2011)

Democratic Republic of the Congo - Viva Riva! (2010)

Republic of the Congo - La Rançon d'une alliance (1974)

Côte d'Ivoire - Night of the Kings (2020)

Djibouti - Dhalinyaro (2017)

Egypt - Cairo 678 (2010)

Equatorial Guinea - Where the Road Runs Out (2014)

Eritrea - Milenu 2009

eSwatini - Liyana (2017)

Ethiopia - Lamb (2015)

Gabon - Dôlè (2000)

The Gambia - Gambia: Take Me To Learn My Roots (2019)

Ghana - The Burial of Kojo (2018)

Guinea - Dakan (1997)

Guinea-Bissau - Mortu Nega (1988)

Kenya - Rafiki (2018)

Lesotho - This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2019)

Liberia - Murder in the Cassava Patch (2012)

Libya - Lion of the Desert (1981)

Madagascar - Madagascar (2005)

Malawi - The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)

Mali - Bamako (2006)

Mauritania - Soleil Ô (1970)

Mauritius - Lonbraz Kann (2014)

Morocco - Horses of God (2012)

Mozambique - Sleepwalking Land (2007)

Namibia - Hairareb (2019)

Niger - The Fruitless Tree (2016)

Nigeria - The Wedding Party (2016)

Rwanda - Grey Matter (2011)

São Tomé and Príncipe - Mionga ki Ôbo (2002)

Senegal - Black Girl (1966)

Seychelles - Bolot Feray (1995)

Sierra Leone - Paradise Island (2009)

Somalia - The Somali Dervish (1985)

South Africa - Duma (2005)

South Sudan - Jamila (2011)

Sudan - Beats of the Antonov (2014)

Tanzania - Kiumeni (2017)

Togo - Ashakara (1991)

Tunisia - The Season of Men (2000)

Uganda - Queen of Katwe (2016)

Zambia - I Am Not a Witch (2017)

Zimbabwe - Neria (1993)

Welcome to today!

What the fuck is going on? What. The fuck. IS GOING ON?

Johnny Mnemonic (1995) dir. Robert Longo

mark your calendars, folks