2015 Thursday Movie Picks Schedule

Hello there! If this is the first time you've come to my blog, welcome. If you've been here before you may already know I created and host a weekly series called Thursday Movie Picks. The series had quite a successful run in 2014 and I had such a blast putting it together every week. I'd also like to take this chance to thank everyone who has participated; especially to frequent participants like Wendell, Hitchcock, Brittani, Big Screen Small Worlds and Mike. You've all made my Thursday Movie Picks experience better and introduced/recommended me a great number of movies I hope I'd get a chance to watch.

Now I am very happy to announce that Thursday Movie Picks is continuing in 2015 and excited to reveal the themes.

For the last few days I had such fun working the themes around (I like making the themes as much as I like picking three movies for those themes). It took me quite a while to sieve through themes I have at hand to decide which should be used for 2015 and those to be saved for 2016. Once that was settled it was then a matter of which theme should be fixed for each week. For 2015 I attempted to feature more variety and when appropriate fixed related themes for certain dates or themes relevant to a movie being released at that particular period. 2015 will also feature two special editions. This includes the Halloween Edition of Thursday Movie picks in October and additionally for the last Thursday for the first nine months of 2015 I'm running the All in the Family Edition which features the different relationships within a family.

Well...without further delay, as promised, here is the 2015 Schedule:


2015

January 1 - Bank Robberies
January 8 - Movies that feature an Irreparable Mistake
January 15 - Musicals
January 22 - Movies with Colour in the Title
January 29 - All in the Family Edition: Married Couples Movies (Suggested by Wendell)
February 5 - Romantic Comedies
February 12 - Unrequited Love
February 19 - Oscar Winning Movies (from pool of Winners of Best Picture/Best Animated Film/Best Foreign Film)
February 26 - All in the Family Edition: Father-Son Relationships (Biologically Related)
March 5 - Black and White Movies made since 1970 (Suggested by Wendell)
March 12 - Live Action Fairy Tale Adaptations
March 19 - Movies adapted from a Young Adult Novel
March 26 - All in the Family Edition: Mother-Daughter Relationships (Biologically Related)
April 2 - Teen Comedies
April 9 - Dance Movies (Excluding anything Musical or based on a Musical)
April 16 - Police Movies (Suggested by John Hitchcock)
April 23 - Superhero Movies
April 30 - All in the Family Edition: Father-Daughter Relationships (Biologically Related)
May 7 - Work Place Movies
May 14 - Foreign Language Movies - German
May 21 - Movies based on a Graphic Novel/Comic (Non-Superhero)
May 28 - All in the Family Edition: Mother-Son Relationships (Biologically Related)
June 4 - Kids Movies Adults Would Enjoy (Non-Animated)
June 11 - Movies Set in a High School, Secondary School or the Equivalent.
June 18 - Animated Movies
June 25 - All in the Family Edition: Sibling Relationships (Biologically Related)
July 2 - Adaptations of Classic Literature (No Poems or Plays)
July 9 - Road Trip Movies (Suggested by John Hitchcock)
July 16 - Science Fiction Movies (No Space/Aliens)
July 23 - Sequels
July 30 - All in the Family Edition: Twins
August 6 - Alien Invasion of Earth
August 13 - Movies with Devastating Crushing Endings that Makes You Want to Weep
August 20 - Foreign Language Movies - Asian Language Movies Set in East Asia (Non-Horror)
August 27 - All in the Family Edition: Stepfamilies
September 3 - Teachers
September 10 - Train Movies (Suggested by John Hitchcock)
September 17 - Journalists/Reporters for Print/TV
September 24 - All in the Family Edition: Adopted/Foster Families
October 1 - Halloween Edition: Alfred Hitchcock Movies
October 8 - Halloween Edition: Villainous Children (Suggested by Wendell)
October 15 - Halloween Edition: Asian Horror
October 22 - Halloween Edition: Werewolves
October 29 - Halloween Edition: Ghost Movies (Suggested by John Hitchcock)
November 5 - Secret Agents and Spies
November 12 - Movies about Music/Making Music/Musicians (No Biopics or focus on Real Life Musicians) (suggested by Wendell)
November 19 - Foreign Language Movies - Asian Language Movies Set in South East Asia (Non-Horror)
November 26 - Movies about Royalty
December 3 - Con Artists
December 10 - Movies Set in a Hotel
December 17 - Family Get-Together/Reunions
December 24 - Holiday/Vacation Movies
December 31 - Snowy Winter Movies

* Click the following linked keywords for a rough guide to Young Adult Novels, Classic Literature,  East Asian Countries and South East Asian Countries which may be helpful for your picks for a few of the themes.


So there they all are, the themes for the whole of 2015. I hope you like them and join me in sharing three picks each Thursday. For new future participants, the rules of Thursday Movie Picks are outlined on the series page here. I will also post this schedule up at the series page for easy reference. If you have any questions or require clarifications regarding any of the 2015 Thursday Movie Picks themes (a few of them have caveats), do comment below.

Thursday Movie Picks #22: Movies that Feature a Family Secret

Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each. For more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.

---

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies that Feature a Family Secret

---

Family secrets can be so terrible that they devastate a few generations. When I came up for this topic, I felt sure I had watch a lot of such movies enough to warrant making it a topic for one of the weeks. However when it actually came to picking my three picks, two came easily to me but the third proved to be much harder. Still, I managed and what I came up finally is two hidden gems and one favourite.

Adore (2013)

Adore wasn't at all critically well received but I thought it wasn't that bad. Coincidentally I watched Adore around the same time as I watched The Oranges. They have a similar premise where a middle age person starts sleeping with their best friend's child. In The Oranges a man hooks up with his best friend's college grad daughter while Adore does a gender reversal where two women who are best friends sleeps with each other's teenage sons. While The Oranges went for a safer route being a dramaedy, Adore certainly explored more of the messiness of the secret affairs that destroys the couples' other relationships. 

August: Osage County (2013)

So this is the movie that spark the theme this week. And the family secret thoroughly surprised me....not as to what the secret was but that there was one because for most of the movie it was all about the tension between a mother and her three adult daughters who have returned home when a tragedy occurs. 

In My Father's Den (2004)
One of my favourite movies ever. So many pretty scenes! But the story and how it unfolds is just beautiful. In the movie Matthew Macfadyen stars as Paul a world weary war photographer who has returned home to New Zealand, after years away, for his father's funeral. Back home he reconnects with the people he left behind and even befriends his ex-girlfriend's 16 year daughter to the disapproval of everyone else. When the girl disappears, Paul becomes the prime suspect. Injected between the present time we see glimpses of Paul past which slowly paints the reason why he ran away from home so long ago, and ultimately revealing its ties to the current crisis. The secret and especially its devastating consequence is pretty mind-blowingly heart wrenching.

---

So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?

---

Check out my past Thursday Movie Picks

---

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

---

Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday Movie Picks #21: Movies Adapted from a Play (non-Shakespeare and non-musical)

Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each. For more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here. 

--- 

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies Adapted from a Play (non-Shakespeare and non-musical)

---

I've never actually watch a play before. Okay scratch that, I have watch a school play or two. Maybe they were bad productions but I don't think stage plays are for me. The setting is just too artificial and unnatural and to compensate this actors have a tendency to overact and so I just can just believe anything I'm seeing. But I have greatly enjoyed a couple of movies based on a play. I like dialogue heavy movies and often movies based on a play are that. So here are three of my favourites 

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

The Tudor reign of England is full of drama that makes for interesting TV and Movies and this is one the best movies set in that period. In A Man for All Seasons, King Henry VIII is determined to break off from the Roman Catholic Church and divorce his then wife Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Thomas More a lawyer and one of Henry's key counselors refuses to support the divorce and the break with Catholic Church and is charged with treason. As a lawyer More certainly has a way with words and fights the charges made against him all while balancing sticking by his principles and walking the line to ensure he does not offend the king. If you like courtroom dramas I definitely recommend this.

Closer (2004)

Closer features some of the most messiest relationships on screen...I mean these people are just awful towards one another. Now it kinda sounds bad to say that this makes for such a great watch, but it is especially because the performances here are just so wonderful and raw. And I love how the story is just contained. All we get is just the four actors and the relationships between them and that is how each is defined by. 

Proof (2005)

Wow, it has been almost a decade since I saw this. Just a few years before, A Beautiful Mind which was the more popular movie that features a brilliant and mentally ill mathematician was released. Unfortunately I did not like A Beautiful Mind. I love Proof. Proof to me felt more modest and grounded. In Proof Catherine's father, Robert, a brilliant but mentally ill mathematician has just died. She struggles to cope with her grief, the arrival of her sister for the funeral and one Robert's former students who has come to rummage through his stuff in the hopes that Robert had made some mathematical breakthrough during periods of clarity, and the fact that she may also very well have inherited her father's insanity.

So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?

---  

Check out my past Thursday Movie Picks 

---  

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)  

Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday Movie Picks #20: Foreign Language Movies - French

 

Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each. For more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here. 

--- 

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Foreign Language Movies - French

---

 

Most of the time when I watch a foreign language movie, I come into it knowing very little. I simply pick them up because they have become available and also because I want to watch more variety. Often I am pleasantly surprised by how good they are and enjoyed watching them. This week I've set the foreign language to French and I'm planning to have other Foreign Laguage themes next year. My picks this week features two favourites and one hidden gem.

À la folie... pas du tout aka He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (2003)

First up is my hidden gem pick. Audrey Tautou is one of France's popular exports and movies starring her are relatively easier to find in Singapore. This one is I suppose one of her comparatively less popular movies and I thought it has a pretty unique narrative splitting the movie into two to show the perspective of both parties in the relationship. Just when you think you know what the story is, it flips it around.

Jeux d'enfants aka Love Me If You Dare (2003)

Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard (now real life couple) stars as childhood friends who continue to play their game of dare in adulthood to often disastrous consequences. Jeux d'enfants has a similar look to Amelie and if you like movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind about messy unconventional romances presented in a quirky style I definitely recommend this.

Les Choristes aka The Chorus (2004)

For last week's theme, one of my picks was Dead Poets Society. This week is another unmissable movies featuring an inspirational teacher. In Les Choristes a teacher at a school for troubled boys form a choir despite facing disapproval from the principal. The movie also feature some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard.

So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?

---  

Check out my past Thursday Movie Picks 

---  

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)  

Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday Movie Picks #19: Movies Set in a Boarding School

Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each. For more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.

---

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies Set in a Boarding School

---

Another late posting this week. Oh well, better late than never. 

I don't know about you but when I was a kid, I wanted to go to a boarding school. I blame it on some of the children's books I read that kind of romanticised boarding schools with stories of friendship and adventure, which is why this week's theme is Movies Set in a Boarding School. Now the first movie that came to mind were of course the Harry Potters movies, there were after all 8 of them and were hugely popular, but nope I'm going to pick a different three for my favourites

Cracks (2009)

In Cracks, a couple of girls in a swim team look up to their swim teacher, the glamorous Miss G who charms them with romantic tales of adventure. I've never really like Eva Green in anything I've seen her in because she always seem a little too theatrical, but I think she works in this movie as a teacher who loves being adored by her students and is quite a diva. Oh and I love the costuming for Miss G, she really does look glamorous.

Dead Poets Society (1989)

An old favourite. So many great moving scenes...such as the end when the students all stood on their desks. Another favourite is when Mr Keating explains why poetry and pretty much goes for literature and art in general is important.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Another Peter Weir movie. It is Valentine's Day and the movie opens with girls from a boarding school in Australia at the beginning of the 20th century getting ready to go for a picnic at hanging rock. There's a a sense of dreamy-ness to this movie that I really like as we see the girls excited for this fun outing and and also a hauntingness, which reminds me a little of the Virgin Suicides, as we know from the on set that some of the girls would disappear never to be seen again. The movie also has some beautiful shots of the landscape and I just love the costumes in this movie as well.

So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?

--- 

Check out my past Thursday Movie Picks

--- 

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :) 

Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday Movie Picks #18: Movies about Making Movies

Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each. For more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.

---

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies about Making Movies 

---

Nope I did not forget about this week's Thursday Movie Picks, just a little late (ok, very late) that's all. This week I don't have the usual favourite picks that I usually do because even though I have seen a bunch of movies fitting this theme I can't say that I have really loved any of them. So my picks are simply the three movies that I liked more than the rest:

Hitchcock (2012)

Psycho is one of my favourite Hitchcock movies so it was fascinating seeing how it got made.

Saving Mr Banks (2013)

Mary Poppins was one of my favourite movies growing up and I certainly wore out our VHS when I was a kid. So once again seeing the behind the scenes of the making of this loved movie was great, the storyboards, the song writing and etc. But I have to say the parts about Travers childhood was a little dry, even though I know it's there to explain Travers protectiveness over Mary Poppins, I much prefer seeing those scenes of them in the meeting room making decisions about the movie.

Super 8 (2011)
I probably am not the only one who thinks this, but Super 8 feels like it's trying to be a Steven Spielberg (he is one of the producers) movie or even one of those 80's movies with its tale of friendship, adventure and the supernatural. Now I don't mean it in a bad way because to an extent it does achieve that and what I like most about Super 8 is the sense of nostalgia it has. Plus the movie has a bunch of kids trying to make a movie; how cute is that right? Come to think of it, I find there's a lack of movies with themes of friendship and adventure in recent years. The 80's had E.T., The Goonies and Stand By Me and I'm struggling to find good ones from the 90's and 2000's.

---

So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?

---

Check out my past Thursday Movie Picks 

---

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :) 

---  

Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday Movie Picks #17: Movies Featuring Amnesiacs

Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! The last few weeks we've had the Halloween Edition and now we're back to regular programming. Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, here's the rules of this weekly series: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each. For more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.

---

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies Featuring Amnesiacs

---

So I came up with this theme because I had at that time read a few amnesiac theme books including Before I Go to Sleep which, depending on where you are in the world, the movie adaptation opens around this time. I haven't watch the movie yet but am definitely looking forward to it

Anyhow back to today's picks, which will be my favourites:

The Bourne Trilogy (2002-2007)

Memory loss would suck for just about anyone but probably worse for an assassin which is the predicament Bourne finds himself in; waking up with no knowledge of who he is and now being the one hunted. I thought I had picked this for the Assassin themed Thursday Movie Picks several weeks ago but turned out I didn't so it definitely gets a place this week. Love the action sequences in this trilogy.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Most stories about memory loss deals with the involuntary kind as a result of trauma or a degenerative disease but this one is unique with its premise of people voluntary going through a procedure to erase parts of their memory. It's an unconventional love story of sorts...are people fated to meet, fall in love and make the same mistakes if they have no memory of it happening before?

The Lookout (2007)

In the Lookout, after a bad car accident, Chris suffers from brain damage which affects his short term memory. While working as a janitor at a small local bank he gets himself mixed up in some bad company who are planning to use him in a heist. Joseph Gordon Levitt is great as Chris, a guy who is struggling to remember to do everyday tasks, and Matthew Goode...what a turn he did playing the villain, an American bad boy, in the Lookout (this was of course way back before he did Stoker) so unlike the the other charming and well dressed English dudes he had been playing.

---

So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?

---

Check out my past Thursday Movie Picks

---

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

---

Participating Blogs/Bloggers