I’m not going to lie, folks – I really don’t want to write this blog post. I don’t want to write anything right now. November has been an awful, awful month, for myself and probably for you too. As I type this, I am in the midst of a particularly rough depressive streak which has lasted all month, trying to stay away from alcohol even though all I want to do right now is drink until I can’t feel my face. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen lately as well as giving repeat listens to David Bowie’s Blackstar for the first time since January – I miss them both more than ever right now.

This monthly recap post will be a little different in that I won’t supply my usual mini-reviews. I’ll just list off my bottom and top five of what I watched in the past month. Frustratingly, I only did one video review this month, but I’m hoping to perk back up by December to get back on track with those again. I did keep up the movie-a-day average, mainly because I primarily used movies as a mode of escapism and self-care for my depression and anxiety. Also, the vast majority of what I watched were 2016 releases, so I’ll probably write about a few of these in my year-end 2016 post anyway.

I promise that I’ll get back to writing again soon. I just need time for rest and healing.

So, here is the full list of what I watched in November. As always, asterisks indicate rewatches.

1. Ah-ga-ssi (The Handmaiden) (Park, 2016)
2. Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Blank, 1980)
3. Escape From New York (Carpenter, 1981)
4. Mou gaan dou (Infernal Affairs) (Mak & Lau, 2002)
5. Mascots (Guest, 2016)
6. This Is Spinal Tap (Reiner, 1984)*
7. The Big Lebowski (Coen, 1998)*
8. Inherent Vice (Anderson, 2014)*
9. Sausage Party (Vernon & Tiernan, 2016)
10. Gas Food Lodging (Anders, 1992)
11. Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016)
12. Doctor Strange (Derrickson, 2016)
13. Everybody Wants Some!! (Linklater, 2016)
14. Hardcore Henry (Naishuller, 2016)
15. The BFG (Spielberg, 2016)
16. The Shallows (Collet-Serra, 2016)
17. Swiss Army Man (Kwan & Scheinert, 2016)
18. Justin Timberlake + Tennessee Kids (Demme, 2016)
19. Green Room (Saulnier, 2016)
20. 13th (Duvernay, 2016)
21. A Bigger Splash (Guadagnino, 2016)
22. Arrival (Villeneuve, 2016)
23. Knight of Cups (Malick, 2016)
24. Team Thor: A Mockumentary (Waititi, 2016)
25. Midnight Special (Nichols, 2016)
26. Nocturnal Animals (Ford, 2016)
27. The Love Witch (Biller, 2016)
28. The Edge of Seventeen (Fremon, 2016)
29. Vampire’s Kiss (Bierman, 1988)*
30. Kubo and the Three Strings (Knight, 2016)*
31. Gamer (Neveldine & Taylor, 2009)
32. Demolition (Valée, 2016)
33. Sing Street (Carney, 2016)*
34. Sliding Doors (Howitt, 1998)
35. Short Cuts (Altman, 1993)
36. Wui wan ye (Out of the Dark) (Lau, 1995)
37. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Alfredson, 2011)
38. Inner Workings (Matsuda, 2016)
39. Moana (Clements & Musker, 2016)

Since I like to end things on a good note, here are my bottom five films of the month:

5. Sliding Doors

4. Hardcore Henry

3. Gamer

2. Sausage Party

1. Everybody Wants Some!!

And finally, these are the top five new viewings of November:

5. The Edge of Seventeen

4. Green Room

3. The Love Witch

2. Escape From New York

1. Moonlight