{"id":98909,"date":"2025-07-14T13:36:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T20:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=98909"},"modified":"2025-07-15T21:45:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T04:45:24","slug":"summer-viewing-whats-a-new-film-fanatic-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=98909","title":{"rendered":"Summer Viewing: What’s a (New) Film Fanatic to Watch?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nWhen I was a teenager back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Danny Peary’s Guide for the Film Fanatic<\/em> was a goldmine discovery<\/a>. I’ve followed it faithfully — watching its recommended blockbusters and obscure indies, trashy WTF titles and beautiful foreign films — for decades. <\/p>\n

But I wonder: how would my younger self, plopped into this cinematic day and age (with all its riches and overwhelm), respond to my nascent love of film? <\/p>\n

David Sims<\/a> of The Atlantic<\/em> recently published an article (June 25, 2025) entitled “Your Summer Project: Watching These Movies”<\/a> — and, I was intrigued. I can imagine young-me stumbling upon this article and using it as a guide, so I thought I would take a closer look and respond, linking to my own reviews whenever possible. (I’ve also added release dates throughout — I’m never sure why these aren’t automatically included with movie titles, harumph.)<\/em>. <\/p>\n

In his article, Sims offers up “Twelve franchises, genres, and filmographies to dig into,” explaining: <\/p>\n

The question that beguiles almost every film fan, from the obsessive cineast to the casual enthusiast, is the simplest one: What should I watch next? Endless carousels on streaming services that feature very little of note don\u2019t provide much help. As a way to avoid decision paralysis, I always have at least one movie-viewing project going, a way to check boxes and spur myself toward new things to explore\u2014be it running through an influential director\u2019s filmography, checking out the cinema of a particular country or era, or going one by one through a long-running series.<\/p>\n

Plenty of obvious candidates exist for these kinds of efforts, such as the diverse works of Stanley Kubrick or the films considered part of the French New Wave. But I\u2019ve identified 12 collections that feel a little [are] more idiosyncratic — more varied, and somewhat harder to find. They\u2019re ordered by how daunting they may seem based on the number of entries involved. The list starts with a simple trilogy of masterpieces and ends with a century-spanning challenge that only the nerdiest viewers are likely to undertake.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love it! Peary is a self-proclaimed checklist nerd, and I am too. <\/p>\n

So, what’s on Sims’ list? <\/p>\n

1. The Apu Trilogy.<\/strong> Great starting choice! Sims writes: <\/p>\n

The defining work of the director Satyajit Ray\u2019s (1921-1992) long career, The Apu Trilogy, played a significant role in bringing international attention to Indian cinema. But the films, released in the late \u201950s, also marked a seminal moment in multipart cinematic storytelling. Ray fashioned a bildungsroman that charts the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of Apu, a boy who moves from rural Bengal to Calcutta, as his country dramatically changes in the early 20th century. The director\u2019s style is careful, poetic, and light on melodrama, but he involves the viewer so intimately in Apu\u2019s world that every major development hits with devastating force. The Apu Trilogy sits on every canonical-movie syllabus and has had obvious influence on filmmakers around the world, but this is not some homework assignment to get through; each of these films is sweet, relatable, and engrossing. As a bonus, check out The Music Room<\/em><\/a>, which helped further bolster Ray\u2019s reputation around the same time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Note:<\/strong> Sims ends each of his recommendations with links to go stream each film immediately — what an incredible world we live in! Check out his article<\/a> for the streaming links, but in the meantime, here are my reviews of films in the Apu Trilogy, with a quote provided from each review: <\/p>\n