26 Currencies Available at IB

Added on November 19, 2025 by C. Maoxian.

USD — United States Dollar
AED — United Arab Emirates Dirham
AUD — Australian Dollar
CAD — Canadian Dollar
CHF — Swiss Franc
CNH — Chinese Yuan (Offshore)
CZK — Czech Koruna
DKK — Danish Krone
EUR — Euro
GBP — Great British Pound
HKD — Hong Kong Dollar
HUF — Hungarian Forint
ILS — Israeli New Shekel
JPY — Japanese Yen
KRW — South Korean Won
MXN — Mexican Peso
MYR — Malaysian Ringgit
NOK — Norwegian Krone
NZD — New Zealand Dollar
PLN — Polish Złoty
SAR —Saudi Riyal
SEK — Swedish Krona
SGD — Singapore Dollar
TRY — Turkish Lira
TWD — New Taiwan Dollar
ZAR — South African Rand

Eighty Movies That Turn Us On

Added on November 18, 2025 by C. Maoxian.

The National Society of Film Critics put out a book in 2005 called “The X List.” These were the 80 films listed in the book, sorted chronologically:

Pandora's Box 1929
Morocco 1930
The Mummy 1932
Shanghai Express 1932
Trouble in Paradise 1932
Baby Face 1933
Ecstasy 1933
The Song of Songs 1933
It Happened One Night 1934
Tarzan and His Mate 1934
Wuthering Heights 1939
Rebecca 1940
Ossessione 1943
Laura 1944
Gilda 1946
Carmen Jones 1954
Picnic 1955
Baby Doll 1956
Horror of Dracula 1958
The Long, Hot Summer 1958
Eyes Without a Face 1959
Hercules 1959
Black Sunday 1960
Hercules Unchained 1960
Peeping Tom 1960
Splendor in the Grass 1961
Bye Bye Birdie 1963
Contempt 1963
Secretary 1963
Persona 1966
Belle De Jour 1967
Frankenstein Created Woman 1967
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls 1970
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis 1970
Klute 1971
McCabe & Mrs. Miller 1971
Behind the Green Door 1972
Deep Throat 1972
Last Tango in Paris 1972
Don't Look Now 1973
Shampoo 1975
In the Realm of the Senses 1976
Young Lady Chatterley 1977
Days of Heaven 1978
Talk Dirty To Me 1980
Body Heat 1981
The Makioka Sisters 1983
A Nos Amours 1984
Crimes of Passion 1984
Blue Velvet 1986
The Unbearable Lightness of Being 1988
The Fabulous Baker Boys 1989
La Femme Nikita 1990
Basic Instinct 1992
The Last of the Mohicans 1992
Poison Ivy 1992
The Age of Innocence 1993
Crash 1996
Irma Vep 1996
Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life 1997
The Tango Lesson 1997
Great Expectations 1998
Eyes Wide Shut 1999
Forever Mine 1999
Baise-Moi 2000
In the Mood For Love 2000
O Fantasma 2000
Intimacy 2001
Mulholland Drive 2001
Y Tu Mama Tambien 2001
Femme Fatale 2002
Irreversible 2002
Laurel Canyon 2002
In the Cut 2003
Twentynine Palms 2003
Anatomy of Hell 2004
Bad Education 2004
Kinsey 2004
Troy 2004

Elle Fanning's Closet Picks in the Criterion Closet

Added on November 18, 2025 by C. Maoxian.

I’ve added the ten movies Elle Fanning picked in her Criterion Closet appearance.

The Red Shoes
The Virgin Suicides
Daisies
Bringing Up Baby
To Die For
The Power of the Dog
The Worst Person in the World
Parasite
The Princess Bride (rando pick)
I Knew Her Well (rando pick)

Ella Fanning had one original pick: The Power of the Dog. No one in the history of Closet Picks has chosen this movie. This is why my Master List of Closet Picks in the Criterion Closet is so valuable.

Movies Watched -- A Face in the Crowd (1957)

Added on November 18, 2025 by C. Maoxian.

125 minute running time so a bit on the long side, but this was an interesting movie I’d never heard about before four people picked it in their Criterion closet picks videos. (Look at the master list to see who those four people are.) I should add that the reliable John Farr also recommended it too.

Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan “cooperated” with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the early 1950s and probably felt pretty awful about it, so they made a political movie like this one to make amends maybe? It’s about the rise of a “demagogue in denim” and how TV’s invention has shaped American politics.

This movie reminded me of Nightmare Alley (1947) in a way (another movie I love and recommend) … sort of stripping away and laying bare the mythology of America. Andy Griffith’s breakout role and young Walter Matthau also appears. This is a green-go recommended movie.

… outcasts, hobos, nobodies, gentlemen loafers... one time or all time losers, call us what you want to...

Claire Danes's Closet Picks in the Criterion Closet

Added on November 17, 2025 by C. Maoxian.

I’ve added the seven movies Claire Danes picked in her Criterion Closet appearance.

A Woman Under the Influence
Defending Your Life
Dogfight
Some Like It Hot
Streetwise
The Breakfast Club
The Grifters

Claire Danes didn’t have any original picks, although to date only one other person has selected Streetwise and one other person selected The Breakfast Club. This is why my Master List of Closet Picks in the Criterion Closet is so valuable.

Movies Watched -- Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

Added on November 15, 2025 by C. Maoxian.

91 minute running time … rated R for “disturbing sexual content involving children” which made me go hmmm? The is a W.D. By movie … the young woman who made it, named Miranda July (not sure if that’s a real name … no, her real name is Grossinger, so her dad is Jewish), also stars in it. John Hawkes is in it, he looks like David Thewlis and plays the father of two beautiful mulatto boys.

This is a weird movie, unconventional … Miranda July is goofy and pretty and has shockingly blue eyes … the movie is funny and quirky and different, but not good enough to recommend. July is interested in sexuality, especially teenage sexuality, and human relationships in general.

I did watch it from start to finish, which means that it’s not terrible.

Criterion Collection Closet Picks Master List

Added on November 13, 2025 by C. Maoxian.

I have a lot of time on my hands so I made a sortable master list of all the closet picks ever made by those invited by the Criterion Collection to raid their closet. The movie selections made by every guest, from Agnes Varda to Zoe Kravitz, is included in the list. There are over 2,500 rows in the list (and counting).

It’s interesting to see what are the most common picks, but I find it more interesting to see which movies have only been picked once despite there having been over 300 closet videos posted to date. For instance, I never would have watched The Cremator, which I enjoyed, if Carrie Coon hadn’t recommended it, and she is the only person who did so.

Enjoy! If you find any mistakes or omissions, please email me and I’ll correct it.

Movies Watched -- Past Lives (2023)

Added on November 5, 2025 by C. Maoxian.

106 minute running time … this is a W.D. By movie, written and directed by Celine Song … not sure how autobiographical it is … girl leaves Korea for Canada at age 12, moves to New York at age 22 or 24, final age in movie is 32 or 34? She’s attractive, she’s smart. Her English name is Nora. She had a childhood sweetheart in Korea that she later briefly connects with at age 22? via a number of Zoom calls (very romantic). Finally he comes to visit her in New York when she is in her early 30s and married. The movie jumps back and forth among these 12 year periods. A story of lost love or what could have been, I guess.

Lots of musical cues in this movie, lots of piano and heartstring stuff. Nora went to an artists’ colony in Montauk at age 22 or 24 where they left the doors open and there were nicely arranged flowers and other still life tableaux mysteriously scattered about. In one scene you see the various artists in attendance which include one gay black man, one lesbian, two bearded guys, and Nora (the token Asian woman). At this equal opportunity artists' colony she met a short, nerdy Jewish guy named Arthur and "seduced” him. She really had to encourage him to make a move because he’s a real nebbish. He also plays video games at age 33 so you know he’s a total loser, despite writing a best seller which is inexplicably titled “Boner.” (Some kind of inside joke?)

[Insert some Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty shots, all of which are required to qualify for movie industry tax credits. The streets are clean and the subway is well lit and sparkling and not filled with crazy homeless people.]

The Korean boy has grown into a strong handsome young man, very sweet and sensitive … when he visits her in New York, Nora and her husband have dinner with him and her little dork of a husband decides to wear a brown Mr. Rogers button-up cardigan over a cowboy shirt to the meal. Nora and the muscular Korean man in fashionably tight shirt have a nice heart-to-heart talk and Nora wonders to herself, what the hell am I doing milquetoasty Arthur whom I haven’t looked at even once tonight?!? She doesn’t say this, but we know she’s thinking it. The Korean guy is more blunt: he asks her to imagine if she had stayed in Korea and they had a mess of pure little Korean children together.

Later she sees the Korean guy off to his Uber to the airport and gives him the chance to sweep her off her feet and bundle her back to Korea (which she really wants), but he wimps out and blows it, so she goes back to Arthur in his brown cardigan and their crummy East Village apartment that costs $4,300 a month and weeps. The End.

Worst Adverse Excursions in October 2025

Added on November 1, 2025 by C. Maoxian.

If you survived these outlier moves in October 2025, congratulations! It’s a good practice to go back and study all the outlier moves from the prior month at the start of a new month.

Click on any chart to enlarge it.

October 6: SPRB, SOPA