1. I saw 176 movies this past year, an average of 3.4/week.
2. My watch vs. rewatch ratio: 55% of the movies were new to me, 45% were rewatches.
3. The average running time of the movies I watched this year: 1 hour/48 minutes.
4. My biggest movie-watching day is Sunday. I think that's because my movie group meets on Monday and I'm catching up.
5. My biggest week of movie going was April 21-27. 13 films in all. No surprise there, since that was the week of the TCM Classic Film Festival.'
6. There was one week in May and another in October when I watched no movies at all. The reason is simple: BASEBALL!
7. The oldest movie I saw this year was from 1930. The Divorcee, starring Norma Shearer. It was considered scandalous at the time and it's still rather frank about extramarital sex. I love pre-code movies (movies made before the Production Code of 1934).
8. Four were released in 2025 – Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, One Battle After Another and Sorry, Baby. You may not have heard of Sorry, Baby. I liked this little indie film about a woman recovering from trauma. The writer-director-star, Eva Victor, was the darling of Sundance and has been nominated for a Golden Globe. (PS Nothing bad happens to the kitten. You need to know this.)
9. The 50th of the 174 movies I saw this year was Misery. It was a special 35th anniversary screening at the TCM Classic Film Festival with Kathy Bates and Rob Reiner. I attended two Festival events with him and he seemed like a sweet, joyous man. His murder makes me so sad.
10. The 100th was Mrs. Miniver (1942). It was a movie group selection. I liked it well enough (I gave it 3.5 stars) but others in the group loved it. Mostly, though, our conversation about the movie was memorable because of what Betty revealed. She asked why Mrs. Miniver didn't just grab the Nazi's gun. I said, "She's a suburban housewife. How would she know how to use a gun?" Betty shrugged and said she had a FOID (Firearms Owner's ID) card and usually carried her gun. I do not find this news comforting. If you knew Betty, you wouldn't, either.
11. The 150th was The Locket (1946). Oh, this psychological thriller is trippy! It has a flashback ... within a flashback ... within a flashback. It made me question everything I was watching. What if one of these narrators is that famous unreliable narrator?
12. This year I gave 16 movies a full five stars. Of those 16, my fellow Letterboxers nearly agreed on two, giving both Psycho (1960) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946) 4.5 stars. The online community disagrees with me most vehemently on Jailhouse Rock (1957). Letterboxers give it an average of 3.2 stars. They are simply wrong. Elvis getting everybody on the whole cell block to dance to the "Jailhouse Rock" is one of the most iconic musical numbers of all time – right up there with Julie Andrews twirling around on that mountaintop and Gene Kelly stomping in puddles. I will die on this hill.
13. The star I spent the most time with this year was Robert Redford. I watched 8 movies that he starred in and one (Ordinary People) that he directed. Many of his movies were suddenly available to stream after he died in September.
Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.
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