Chez Wombat

I think my last post must be partly affected by the old site as there's things not bolded I definitely had seen by that point! The Shawshank Redemption (1994) The Godfather (1972) The Dark Knight (2008) The Godfather Part II (1974) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) 12 Angry Men (1957) Schindler's List (1993) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Pulp Fiction (1994) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Forrest Gump (1994) Inception (2010) Fight Club (1999) Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) The Matrix (1999) Interstellar (2014) GoodFellas (1990) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Se7en (1995) It's a Wonderful Life (1946) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Saving Private Ryan (1998) Seven Samurai (1954) The Green Mile (1999) City of God (2002) Life Is Beautiful (1997) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Back to the Future (1985) Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) Spirited Away (2001) Gladiator (2000) The Pianist (2002) Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2004) (I watched this in the cinema on re-release, but didn't watch the individual parts, gonna bold them anyway x) Parasite (2019) Grave of the Fireflies (1988) Harakiri (1962) The Lion King (1994) Psycho (1960) The Departed (2006) Whiplash (2014) The Prestige (2006) American History X (1998) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) Cinema Paradiso (1988) Léon: The Professional (1994) Casablanca (1942) The Intouchables (2011) The Usual Suspects (1995) Django Unchained (2012) Alien (1979) Rear Window (1954) Modern Times (1936) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) WALL·E (2008) City Lights (1931) Apocalypse Now (1979) Memento (2000) Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Dune: Part Two (2024) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) The Lives of Others (2006) The Odyssey (2026) Sunset Boulevard (1950) Witness for the Prosecution (1957) Paths of Glory (1957) Inglourious Basterds (2009) The Shining (1980) The Great Dictator (1940) Aliens (1986) High and Low (1963) 12th Fail (2023) Avengers: Endgame (2019) Good Will Hunting (1997) Coco (2017) Toy Story (1995) The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Amadeus (1984) Your Name. (2016) 3 Idiots (2009) Braveheart (1995) Das Boot (1981) Princess Mononoke (1997) Oldboy (2003) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) American Beauty (1999) Capernaum (2018) Attack on Titan: The Last Attack (2024) Singin' in the Rain (1952) Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Joker (2019) Toy Story 3 (2010) Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) Come and See (1985) Requiem for a Dream (2000) Incendies (2010) Ikiru (1952) The Hunt (2012) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) The Apartment (1960) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Heat (1995) Scarface (1983) Up (2009) Reservoir Dogs (1992) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Double Indemnity (1944) Like Stars on Earth (2007) North by Northwest (1959) Full Metal Jacket (1987) A Separation (2011) I Swear (2025) Die Hard (1988) M (1931) Amélie (2001) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Vertigo (1958) Citizen Kane (1941) The Sting (1973) A Clockwork Orange (1971) The Truman Show (1998) The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Metropolis (1927) 1917 (2019) Snatch (2000) Shutter Island (2010) Downfall (2004) L.A. Confidential (1997) Green Book (2018) Dangal (2016) Bicycle Thieves (1948) Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Woman in the Dunes (1964) Jurassic Park (1993) Batman Begins (2005) Oppenheimer (2023) For a Few Dollars More (1965) Hamilton (2020) There Will Be Blood (2007) Some Like It Hot (1959) Taxi Driver (1976) The Father (2020) The Sixth Sense (1999) The Kid (1921) All About Eve (1950) Ran (1985) The Thing (1982) Casino (1995) No Country for Old Men (2007) Prisoners (2013) Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Unforgiven (1992) A Beautiful Mind (2001) Howl's Moving Castle (2004) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Finding Nemo (2003) Klaus (2019) Project Hail Mary (2026) Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle (2025) Yojimbo (1961) The Elephant Man (1980) The Great Escape (1963) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Dial M for Murder (1954) The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) Gone with the Wind (1939) Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) Catch Me If You Can (2002) Chinatown (1974) V for Vendetta (2005) Dead Poets Society (1989) Inside Out (2015) The Best of Youth (2003) Trainspotting (1996) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Rashomon (1950) Barry Lyndon (1975) Ben-Hur (1959) The Wild Robot (2024) Hacksaw Ridge (2016) Warrior (2011) Ratatouille (2007) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Million Dollar Baby (2004) Fargo (1996) Children of Heaven (1997) My Neighbor Totoro (1988) Gran Torino (2008) 12 Years a Slave (2013) Raging Bull (1980) How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Memories of Murder (2003) The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Before Sunrise (1995) Monsters, Inc. (2001) Blade Runner (1982) Gone Girl (2014) Ford v Ferrari (2019) Jaws (1975) In the Name of the Father (1993) Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc (2025) Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) Wild Tales (2014) A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016) The Gold Rush (1925) Mary and Max (2009) Sherlock Jr. (1924) Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) The Deer Hunter (1978) Logan (2017) The Wages of Fear (1953) Rocky (1976) The General (1926) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Tokyo Story (1953) Maharaja (2024) La Haine (1995) The Sound of Music (1965) Spotlight (2015) Jai Bhim (2021) The Terminator (1984) Wild Strawberries (1957) On the Waterfront (1954) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) The Third Man (1949) The Big Lebowski (1998) The Incredibles (2004) Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) Before Sunset (2004) The Iron Giant (1999) The Exorcist (1973) Room (2015) Hotel Rwanda (2004) Platoon (1986) The Seventh Seal (1957) Rush (2013) The Battle of Algiers (1966) Stand by Me (1986) The Wizard of Oz (1939) My Father and My Son (2005) The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Drishyam (2015) Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2019) 147/250, 17 up on five years ago, soo getting there! Only eight left in the top 50 so they seem like the logical place to start (Not admittedly sure I'm ever gonna check these anime TV Show movies though as I'll probably spend the whole thing confused!)

01; Fontaines D.C. - Starburster 02; Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Get Over You 03; Bananarama - Cruel Summer 04; Gary Numan - Intruder 05; Kate Bush - Babooshka 06; New Order - Ceremony 07; Texas - Halo 08; Depeche Mode - People Are People 09; Sam Fender - Getting Started 10; MARINA - How to Be a Heartbreaker 11; Zara Larsson - All the Time 12; Sam Smith - Like I Can 13; Adele - Oh My God 14; Darin - Electric 15; Tom Grennan - Royal Highness Great picks from the top 3, otherwise not the most vintage round but a lot of these have better to come. M83's entry would've been this cut from their sophomore album (continuing with the list in the other thread):

Sorry, my schedule was thrown out the window as I was busy today so couldn't vote in this, you can probably blame me for CHVRCHES losing their AQ, at least Last Man on Earth would've still been OK!

I would say look at the extent of it, a couple of posts deviation or chat about things other than the topic at hand is fine as long as it naturally fades and doesn't become continuous and purposeful, I would also look at what's being discussed - things like politics or current news/controversial events are usually divisive and can attract arguments so should be shut down or redirected as soon as possible. Most can be shut down by just a verbal reminder to stay on topic, it's if the individual continues despite this or if it's a pattern of behaviour where it becomes report-worthy.

Sorry I missed today, I was with family, however there are more than enough big favourites here for me to vote in. The Cure - Close To Me A-ha - Take On Me Kate Bush - Cloudbusting Talking Heads - Road To Nowhere The Waterboys - The Whole Of The Moon

I think even I prefer Zombie Nation here sorry I do appreciate and still really enjoy Midnight City for breaking M83 into the mainstream briefly, but I wouldn’t put it in my top favourites (now if it was something from Before the Dawn Heals Us…)

Congrats Leww! Very pleased with that winner, it was incredibly unsettling and experimental much like her last entry here, I really must check out that album at some point. That's a fantastic top 10 as well, I voted for all but two of them and one was a commiseration! Pleased that even though I only got 7 votes, they were all big fans. Thanks for hosting Callum, was a great spin-off as always and a very creative reveal.

Oops this is me, was hoping to do a bit better, that might be a new low for me in one of these </3 More of you need to stream Inferno x

Really liked both of the Robin Schulz remixes, but especially Prayer In C, the lyrics of that hit quite hard for a mainstream pop song so I'm glad his starpower gave that a chance at number 1.

Oh yeah, had I made it to another album track round, Car Chase Terror and Farewell/Goodbye would've been top of my list!

So M83 weren't actually my first choice this time and someone beat me to it. That act is still in the competition so I will keep quiet for now, but I've always been a big fan of their massive soundscapes and epic scope (so good they cause @Brélican persistent amnesia x) so like with Bowie, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to explore their music a bit more, I did decide to mainly stick to Hurry Up We're Dreaming and before as the material since has been patchy - and I was really pleased to experience that along with Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, Before the Dawn Heals Us and Saturdays = Youth, they were fantastic albums which indeed just reinforced they good they are great soundscapes. The groups looked competitive and I didn't think I'd be able to make it all the way to the live shows, I didn't really have a strategy and was just playing round by round with a handful of big ones I was saving, Oblivion was a good start, being a past BJSC winner, and Kim & Jessie was one of their most pop-leaning and well known of their singles, I sadly flew a bit too close to the sun with my next one... I guess with how well Warszawa went down for me last time, I had some confidence that Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun may pick up similar levels of support but sadly it didn't quite click as I'd hoped with my intended crowd and I clearly got too overconfident in a pop music competition. I think the song reflects what M83 do best with the long, ambient soundscapes that create a resounding epic feeling , it might seen a bit static to some but this is what I love them for so I don't regret sending it and I would've at some point even if not then. And I think it very much fits the brief of 'could've been a single' within their context - M83 are hardly hitmakers and they've released instrumental tracks of the same length before, this one also received a music video and an edit which none of their album tracks have, plus it's their highest rated album track on RateYourMusic and was ranked as their best or amongst their best songs by many publications. M83 aren't really a singles band apart from the obvious one, a lot of what they didn't release are mainly longer, instrumental works so almost anything I'd picked would've likely been the same. Outro though was always going to be my last pick, it's one of my all time favourites despite it's overuse in Media and just works so much better closing out anything. It would've been wiser for me to use this as my album track and I did consider it, but I would've been sacrificed this poetic moment otherwise. If I'd have sent Midnight City, I would've been doing it just to get back in, and I'm not sure it would've beaten Enjoy the Silence anyway (I would've ranked it lower myself!), and it would've gone unsent (and a bit of a hot take, it's far from their best for me, it's very good, but not sure I'd put it in my top 5 songs from them!) It was far more satisfying knowing I had no chance and being pleasantly surprised I finished in the top half with the perfect closer. In the version of events I went with strategy and did send Outro to the album tracks round and that saved me (and for those of you that were interested in discovering some more songs from them) then I probably would've gone: Don't Save Us From The Flames for part 2 of Boot Camp > We Own the Sky for Six Chair > Wait for Judges Houses and I have literally no idea what I would've sent to the next part as they're almost all soundtrack interludes I'm not familiar with! Off the chance I made it through, it would've left me with Midnight City for this round. I would've also really wanted to send something like Dead Seas... like Run Into Flowers at some point. Anyway, thanks all for having me again if for a shorter time this time, I still had a great time and good luck to those left, I of course will continue to throw my support behind the old men and women of the live shows as long as possible x And I may or may not have an idea of sneaking in an old woman to the Females round next time, let's see x

Some good winners there. I do naturally tend to support the traitors more, but Romesh and Bash were both very good faithfuls and made their views clear throughout, and lovely people. A shame Michael wasn't there as he was possibly the best Faithful we've seen, but he was an obvious choice for murder, just a day too late and his influence remained. Maya sadly was never going to last, she started out well but crumbled towards the end and Kenny did the right thing jumping ship, I think he would've been a worthy winner but what a huge mistake he did going for green so early, he was absolutely gone from then. James B sadly really messed it up for himself too getting too defensive, clearly that bonfire sparked a light in his heart x Wasn't quite as good a series as last time, but I still very much enjoy seeing the nuances of the gameplay and how people reach to pressure and seeing the shift of power constantly, I couldn't have called how it would've gone going into it which is always good. I do find the worst part still to be the tasks, they really need to link it more to traitor and faithful specific tasks that build ammunition to theories, the blindfold task was at least a good start.

Well this nicely makes up for last round where all my favourites went out, excellent to see Kate back and a win for all the retro crowd tonight *. I'm glad we went with this one act per category model as I'm not sure that would have been the case if all were together and it's a very diverse list of finalists.

Wow, people really were marking down, I thought Stan would be top 4 at the least! I would've loved to see Habits here for Tove rather than Talking Body, but it was extremely competitive so probably hard to judge.

Oh wow, the old man came through That's a great result for a classic song I guess people marked Calvin down more than I thought? Oops x Should've been I'm Not Alone!

Excellent outcome for the groups, Both of the top 2 are good but Enjoy the Silence is an all time favourite and I ranked it 2nd/1st apart from me. I'll save my M83 blurb for once these are done but I am actually pleasantly surprised to finish as high as 4th in a field like that!

The irony is that I discovered them through blocking a scene you can't remember being played on 6Music in the morning! They just said they can't say their name but it's a word for 'wee' Will definitely check this album out, I have heard a few other songs and they point to a very striking sound.

Wow, Thank you all so much! I couldn't quite believe the landslide winner predictions until I saw it, especially with my luck in contests, I'm so glad it stood out to everyone else as much as it did me. I'll certainly be checking out their album when it comes out tomorrow just on the basis of this, crazy to think that this was a last minute switch out based on a song I heard by chance that morning! The indie contests have always been ones I've never been able to crack despite having many top 10s in both, so it's great to finally get a win in one after fourteen (!) years of taking part in UP. Certainly makes up for the near miss in BJSC recently x A fantastic top 10 as well, I can't ask for much better than myself and my 20 in the top 2 and I voted for a further seven of those songs and a few just outside. Senegal definitely deserved a bit better though, that was a similarly intense, standout listen. Many thanks to Mattias for hosting and doing so through your personal circumstances at the moment, hope things start to improve for you.

Just Fine, probably her worst song (at least a better one is here too x). That Tweenies song is a bop, how dare you all x

I'm not sure, the fact Michael was the one that turned suspicion on James that led to him to just admit it surely confirms him as a faithful? It may keep the question mark on Maya as well, they really missed a trick not killing him over Sharon, could've avoided all of that! If the Faithfuls win, it'll be down to him. Be interesting to see what way James' giving up does for the game - it could well take the heat off Maya and Kenny in the short term as another faithful going would've seen the suspicions still remain. I'm not quite make sure what to make of him overall, his attitude was quite refreshing but it was hard to root for someone so detached and the traitors work best when they feel well connected.

And some excellent songs in the top 3 atm, I did not have otay:onii down as Jade, but what a standout moment that was, would be an excellent winner (and we both gave each other 20 so I suppose we'll both approve whichever way it finishes!) and Maria & The Mirrors was a wonderful evolving piece of sound.

Well, hasn't this been a turn out! It's fairly rare I change an entry midway through confirmations but hearing this early morning on Emily Pilbeam's 6Music show (where I have also find my BJSC entry for this month, she has taste x), I was just absoutely floored and had to. It's a difficult listen for sure, the raw anger and emotion is palpable and the journey from her constantly struggling over her words and starting again to her almost explode as the feelings all come back, I like also how the 'Cuts' serve as both a performance piece but also have a new meaning as the song goes on, like inflicted wounds. I really wanted to share it, but I was hesitant as I just wasn't sure how many would react as it is very visceral and difficult listen (and I can't imagine how hard it would be for someone that's experienced this) and these song contests are generally quite light-hearted in nature, I thought the Indie contests would be best and given we'd just had Nuggets, this would be the best option. Suffice to say, my fears have been well and truly proven wrong now, thank you all so much for the generous points, it would be my first win in fourteen years of taking part, but we all know well that the universe just has a way of telling me no with these things, so I'm manifesting another bridesmaid position, nonetheless, I'm thrilled so many of you made a good discovery here.

Very helpful summary, thank you! I've mainly been looking at various poll predictors here and here, it seems like there's reason for hope. I think the House should be a done deal for the Dems but I'm more concerned about the Senate. The percentage isn't high enough to be confident. I could put up with Trump as a lame duck for two more years but I'm scared what he'll try if he still has power given it's the last time he'll be able to do so. I'm cautious of reading too much from the polls as 2022 in particular got it vastly wrong on the Republican end where they only narrowly won the House and lost the Senate despite polls saying otherwise (granted this was the first election after Jan 6 and Roe v Wade, I like to think Americans might use this to fully reject the Iran war if it's not hitting them hard enough already), and perhaps gave a bit of false hope that the Dems could hang on for a second term...

Yeah, these can be done any day and we'll all be here, please ensure you're safe first and foremost. I'm so sorry, that sounds like a horrible situation. I'd be more than happy to lend a hand with results if you need.