Further Decline (Patreon)

One year to the week after voting for The Decline of Western Civilization (which I had never seen and wound up very much enjoying), y'all have chosen Part II: The Metal Years, likewise unseen by me. Handily defeated returning contender Stuck on You, 57% to 43%. Metal isn't exactly my favorite musical genre, but I gather that one needn't be a fan to appreciate this portrait of hedonism—easy to believe, given the original film's amused tenor. I'll be watching it via Kanopy. 

Three weeks ago, shortly after Threads' triumph, James Hansen chose to pick up defunct request The War Game, which had been an option for 49 weeks before being abandoned. It's now hit the magic #52 (i.e., a year), automatically qualifying by dint of longevity. In a remarkable coincidence, the film that James switched from—early silent drama Shoes, one of the few extant features directed by Lois Weber—got selected by the algorithm, right at the moment when he very likely would have switched back. (It had already been around for 30 weeks.) That one's streaming on the Criterion Channel. August's other random selection, Vice Squad, came and went repeatedly over several years, though only for 11 weeks total; it's rentable from the usual suspects. I haven't seen any of these suckers, which is pretty remarkable when you consider than I'm gradually closing in on 10,000 features. Still so many more in the wings...

Oh, and while deleting the above from my master list, I discovered that someone had requested Youth of the Beast several years ago. You may recall that I watched and reviewed that in June, having completely forgotten that it had ever been a request. Sometimes you just get lucky (though I'd likely have written a bit more had I remembered; sorry about that). Same deal with my forthcoming review of Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, a past request that I watched this week because I reached The Testament of Dr. Mabuse in my glacially slow survey of the Criterion Collection. (I will die before catching up at the rate I'm going.) 

My thanks as ever to each of you for your support, which continues to warm my heart (and feed my stomach).