I apologize for the lack of activity throughout February - evidently it was a much busier month for me than January with less time to devote to checking out movies and coming up with blog posts. Don't worry, I've got some ideas for March that will hopefully make things a little more active around here. For now, here's five first-time watches I caught up with and enjoyed in February that I think are definitely worth adding to your watchlist!
Cooley High (1975)
directed by Michael Schultz
Cooley High is a high school hangout movie not too dissimilar from films like American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused in the way it focuses on the lives of several high school friends over a short period of time, and for the most part eschews any emphasis on plot to focus instead on characters. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the primary reason it exists was due to American International Pictures trying to cash in on the success of American Graffiti in the early 1970s (as well as their successful line of blaxploitation pictures). It could have been just a generic and forgettable cash grab of a film, but thankfully Cooley High is well written and performed and its focus on Black students growing up in the Cabrini-Green projects in Chicago allows it to stand out from many other movies set in high schools.
The film was written by Eric Monte, who would go on to have lots of success in television (notably co-creating the show Good Times). Monte himself grew up in Cabrini-Green and threw lots of autobiographical elements into the story, and it shows in the best way possible. The characters and locations feel fully realized and while the film takes a tragic turn in its final act, it allows its characters to experience joyful times as well (and the tragedy itself was based on a real-life incident in Monte's life, so it's not just shoehorned into the film's story for no good reason). Characters misbehave and go to parties, movies, the zoo, and other fun locations to pass the time while also dealing with life events like falling in love and preparing for post-grad life. It definitely feels like the type of film that influenced many slice-of-life films that followed, and certainly seems like a blueprint that auteurs like Spike Lee and John Singleton have followed (stuff like School Daze and Boyz n the Hood definitely came to mind while watching).
The film's Chicago setting is also particularly interesting to me as someone from the Chicago area, and Cooley High is also fascinating as a time capsule of 1970s Chicago. There's iconic locations like Lincoln Park Zoo and Navy Pier as well as plenty of CTA trains and buses. Some elements look the same as they did 50 years ago (hello, CTA signs) but most locations in the film are either no longer there or have turned into something completely different from what they were in the film (including Cabrini-Green itself). There weren't a ton of films being shot in Chicago in the 1970s so the film functioning as a historical document of the city, in addition to a coming-of-age tale focused on Black youth, really makes it a fascinating and important watch.
Desperate Living (1977)
directed by John Waters
I'll say right away that Desperate Living will not be for everyone. It is perhaps one of the least accessible John Waters films (maybe even less accessible than Pink Flamingos as it's not as well known for its notoriety despite its many, many shocking moments) and had this been the first Waters film I'd seen I may have downright hated it. Having seen most of his filmography at this point, however, I've become well attuned to his sense of humor and found this grotesque and crass film to be utterly entertaining.
There's no Divine in this one, but there's plenty of Waters regulars in the cast, including Mink Stole and Edith Massey, who each deliver some of their very best performances. The first 10 minutes are essentially just Stole having an extreme freakout as a rich white suburbanite mother in the way only Stole in a Waters film can, and it's one of the funniest scenes I've seen in recent memory (some of the dialogue is truly insane). Once we get into the plot - basically Stole accidentally (?) kills her husband with the help of her maid (Jean Hill) and in order to escape the law they hide out in a decrepit town called Mortville, ruled by fascist Queen Carlotta (Massey) - we are introduced to numerous other characters who almost make Stole's Peggy Grable seem grounded in reality. There's botched sex change operations, nudist colonies, "backwards day" proclamations, rabies potions, and much much more. The way Mortville looks is truly something to behold - the set is full of color yet it's shabbily put together and it comes off almost looking like something you'd see at an elementary school play - truly some perfect production designing for the film.
I don't want to reveal too much more about the film itself - I'll just say if you've liked Waters' work in the past and enjoy seeing his thoughts on suburban life, class and sexuality relations, and fascism, and are up for an unquantifiable number of bad taste moments, it's worthy of your time. And I'll say that the evolution of Stole's character played particularly interesting to me watching it in 2025.
Helter Skelter (2012)
directed by Mika Ninagawa
Helter Skelter has been on my watchlist for a while and it's truly something to behold. Based on a manga from the 1990s and set in present day Tokyo, the film follows a beautiful model who has undergone a series of experimental plastic surgeries as her life begins to spiral out of control - she starts experiencing side effects from the surgeries, delves deep into drugs, and sees her place as a top idol in Japan taken over by a younger new model. It's a type of story that we've seen done other times (more on that in a second) but I'm not sure if there's anything else out there that really looks like Helter Skelter.
Mika Ninagawa comes from the photography world in fashion and advertising and those influences definitely seeped into her film. It's an incredibly flashy and colorful film with tons of cutting and editing to the point that it's almost a headache to watch it. There's also a truly bizarre hallucination sequence and plenty of elements that come off as unnatural, however the ideas of the film surrounding the beauty industry and celebrity standards (especially in Japan) are deeply grounded in reality. For each moment of candy colors and absurd psychological horror, there's a much more grounded moment that slows everything down. The film has a distinct sense of place in showcasing early 2010s Tokyo through the types of phones and social media that characters use while also clearly communicating the impact that characters like Erika Sawajiri's Lilico have on the general public - it's an interesting change considering when the manga was created but I think it makes perfect sense given the film's subject matter.
Erika Sawajiri gives a truly starmaking performance as Lilico, a character for whom you're struggling to figure out exactly how you feel. It's clear that what's happening to her is a byproduct of the cruel industry in which she works, but she's also an incredibly manipulative person who does some despicable acts herself. Sawajiri apparently had some real-life troubles with drugs, which is unfortunate and also adds an extra weird element of irony to everything her character goes through here.
Pre-2024, this film was being compared to stuff like Perfect Blue and The Neon Demon. Now in 2025, it's impossible not to think of The Substance. I'm not sure if Coralie Fargeat saw Helter Skelter and/or was influenced by it, but the similarities are unmistakable. Hence if you dug The Substance, I think this is well worth checking out - it's rooted more in psychological horror rather than body horror but possesses that same scathing critique of beauty standards with a truly distinct visual palette that makes the film that much more uncomfortable to watch.
It's a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point (2023)
directed by Daniel Kremer
I very nearly wrote about Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point last month, which I finally caught up with and found absolutely fascinating. After watching that, it seemed like the perfect time to dive into Daniel Kremer's unique essay film from 2023, and it turns out it was, as I really enjoyed It's a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point.
As the title may suggest, the thesis of the film is centered around forming a connection between Zabriskie Point and the epic madcap comedy classic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. These are two films whose subject matters are completely different yet whose locations are very similar - both films feature California's Death Valley prominently. As a result, Kremer splices footage from the two films together to make it seem like the events in one movie impact the other, and vice versa. For example, Kremer shows us the men from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World stumbling into the sand orgy scene from Zabriskie Point, and imagines Spencer Tracy's police captain calling for the raid on student protesters in Zabriskie Point's first half. Both films also have pretty significant explosions that Kremer focuses in on. It's a really clever idea and these moments are definite highlights of the film.
There's much more going on here, however, than just splicing together footage. Kremer takes the commonality of these two films as a starting point to analyze the way that the desert (and Death Valley specifically) is used in cinema, while also providing an analysis of American counterculture cinema in the 1960s. The film also has a deep personal connection to Kremer - Zabriskie Point was his favorite film as a child, which he recognizes as a very strange choice, but he's able to explore his own personal history (including developing into a film obsessive and also dealing with a stutter growing up) through the film he loved so dearly.
For anyone interested in under-the-radar films, there's no shortage of titles name-dropped by Kremer throughout the film, many of which I'm eager to check out. I consistently found myself engaged throughout the entire runtime, learning about historical and cultural elements that add new depth to not just the two key films of the subject matter but many others as well. And while familiarity with the two main films discussed is some nice context to have, I do think this is accessible from premise alone - even if you've never seen either It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World or Zabriskie Point, I think you may still find this interesting and enjoyable (as long as you don't mind some spoilers).
Linda Linda Linda (2005)
directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita
I already mentioned both a high school movie and a Japanese movie, and last month I mentioned a Bae Doona film, so why not end things with a really charming Japanese high school movie that stars Bae Doona? Linda Linda Linda is the story of a group of four girls who form a rock band to perform at a school festival. In particular, they want to cover songs by an '80s Japanese punk band named The Blue Hearts, who made the track "Linda Linda" which inspires the title.
Much like Cooley High, this takes place over just a few days as we see documentation of the start of the festival from the very beginning. We're immediately thrown into the drama surrounding this band, so it takes some time to pick up on the context of everything that's going on. Essentially, there are three girls who have already played music together in the past, but they are looking for a new singer, having had a falling out with their previous one. They spontaneously recruit Korean exchange student Son (Bae Doona), who immediately accepts without fully understanding what she just agreed to do. As we follow these four girls learning their instruments and songs to prepare for the big festival, we see a beautiful friendship develop and it's utterly delightful to behold. They each have their own personalities and personal histories that are explored, and I found guitarist Kei's deadpan reactions to everything particularly entertaining, as well as Son's arc to overcoming her stage fright.
Interestingly enough, the style of the film reminded me more of Japanese arthouse films than your typical American high school movie. There's a lot of long takes and static shots, and the film is leisurely paced, allowing characters to take their time figuring out what their individual actions are in conversations and activities - it feels more natural than the often rushed nature of many movies. This also leads to some awkwardly comedic moments sprinkled throughout the film. There's also some fun deviations from the plot, including a particularly inspired dream sequence.
The buildup is slow and steady but the payoff is absolutely beautiful, and the final performance at the end of the film truly feels cathartic and inspirational. If there's ever a movie to make you want to pick up an instrument and start a band, Linda Linda Linda may be it. And hey, there is a band called The Linda Lindas that took their name from this film!
That wraps up some brief thoughts on five films that I'm glad I caught up with over the past month. These aren't definitively my "five favorite films I saw in February" but rather five films I enjoyed that I felt like writing about on this blog. As always, stay tuned for another iteration of titles next month!
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