Fear not, intrepid film lover, we here at Popcorn Towers share your plight. The list of films we want to see is longer than the list of ones we have - hence this missive.
Grabbing any spare hours we have, we'll be watching the ones we didn't get the chance to see on the big screen and telling you if you should bother. We'll be adding others here as we go along, so pop back often.
And being helpful, we'll point you to where you can buy it too. 'Cos we're nice like that...
Breathe In (15)
Director Drake Doremus and his writing partner Ben York Jones, aided and abetted once more by the lovely Felicity Jones, this time teamed up with Guy Pearce, Amy Ryan and relative newcomer Mackenzie Davis to deliver another look at life, love and relationships.
Only this time, things are different.
Where Like Crazy was warm and inviting, Breathe In is cold, stark and almost haunting. Set at the same slow pace, Breathe is a study of how a marriage can fall apart if you don't pay attention.
Pearce is brilliant as a man who has given up his dreams of playing music to teach it, while Jones is as good as ever as the young exchange student piano prodigy who causes the many ripples in a previously still pond. Ryan, meanwhile, is more than up to the job of playing the cookie jar-collecting wife who thought everything was OK.
Sadly, with three actors delivering their A-game, Davis is the one to fall by the wayside a little bit as the daughter who is seemingly usurped by the English interloper. She flaps well, and looks lost on cue, but there's not the same depth to her performance the other actors are able to bring.
And this throws the balance of Breathe In off a weenie, which makes it harder to watch. And make no mistakes, Breathe In is a hard film to watch. So good are the performances, you feel every pang of a heartstring, every smash of a cookie jar, the pain and guilt of every stolen glance as teacher and pupil set about pleasing themselves at the expense of everything else.
It's for the audience to apportion blame here (and you will). Doremus is simply telling his tale, capturing the chaos allowing you to relate to whatever hits home and then explain yourself over a glass of wine afterwards.
There's no levity here, no fluff and smirk. It's muted colouring sets the sombre tone early on, with only a brief trip to New York offering respite. The result is a tough watch, but one that lingers long (in a good way) after the TV has been switched off.
Bachelorette (15)
Then it was, this summer, but if you blinked you missed it. Never saw a trailer, or an advert - if there hadn't been press screenings, it would have gone totally unnoticed. Which was a pity, because the reviews were very positive.
So, never one to let things get in the way of doing what we want we hit the Amazons, and two short weeks later the DVD rocked up. Free postage too. Call that a win. (The UK release looks like being in October.)
And so we settled down to see what all the fuss was about...
The story is becoming very well-worn. It's a wedding comedy a la Bridesmaids, whereby four friends who don't really like each other that much anymore have to gather because one of them has gotten herself all engaged and is about to have one of them there weddings.
With liberal use of booze, Columbian marching powder, a strip club, an ex's mum's house and the hotel, hilarity ensues.
Kinda.
It's a weird thing that I wanted to laugh a lot more at Bachelorette than I actually did. That's not to say it isn't funny - it is, in places. It's just that those places are a bit too far apart.
And it's not the performances, either. Kirsten Dunst and Isla Fisher are good, Rebel Wilson does what she does, and Lizzy Caplan is excellent at doing dark humour... Nope, that's all good.
Sure the male characters aren't up to much, but they're really just there for garnish anyhoo. It's the women who are taking centre stage here.
So why, why, why, why, why is it not a riotous laugh-in gag fest?
Part of the reason is the characters are so flawed and so damaged that the dark side of their personalities actually becomes a central theme, bringing the drama to the fore at the expense of the comedy.
The other issue is believability. By going for the traditional 'odd-ball mix of characters' (tight-ass, druggy loser, air head, normal but fat), writer Lesley Headland has actually pushed things too far. Dunst's character is SO uptight, there is no way she would lower herself to hanging out with Caplan's sluttish boozer or Fisher's empty-headed party girl. And she's certainly too shallow to still be friends with someone she once referred to as pig face.
Having said all that though, it does have its sweet moments. It's a bit 'comedy-by-numbers' at times, but when it works it really works (Caplan's chat over a wedding dress with a stripper in the club's toilet is a particular highlight) and there are romantic moments to keep things ticking along.
Sure, getting people to like the unlikeable (Dunst, Fisher and Caplan's characters don't have a lot to commend them) is a tough gig, but it can be done. Bachelorette is no We're The Millers, but it's still a thousand times better than Movie 43.
NO (15)
Not sure what tipped them off - the excessive censorship, the way people who disagreed with him disappeared, the fact he had taken over during a military coup and then decided to stick around - but someone somewhere thought all was not well, and so the international community came up with an ultimatum: Have a vote. Or else.
Of course, he wasn't too bothered. He ruled by fear, so let's face it no one - when asked - was going to choose option 'B'. He was fine.
Only he wasn't. Because people actually decided to take back control, and so began the No campaign, urging the people of Chile to grasp democracy by the scruff and make a change.
The story of that campaign is told here - and it's told damn well. Leading the way is the wonderful Gael Garcia Bernal (he of Y Tu Mama Tambien and The Motorcycle Diaries), who plays the advertising guru who is persuaded to drive the No bid.
The story is touching, heartwarming and thrilling. Shot in mock-documentary style, which lends a certain guerilla feel to the whole, it's worn-VHS tone and 4:3 ratio adds to the feeling that this is capturing events as they happen.
Even the subtitles are 'of the time'.
With 'cameos' from the celebrities who added their weight to the call for change, No captures perfectly the human spirit and how the impossible can be made possible if people are prepared to fight for what they believe in.
A message that needs to be heard today more than ever.
Good Vibrations (15)
Thank goodness, then, for punk music and
the wired and wonderful Terri Hooley (the man who introduced John Peel to The Undertones), whose one-man crusade to bring music to
the masses or go bankrupt trying is told here.
With stunning performances from Richard
Dormer (as Terri), Popcorn favourite Jodi Whittaker (as Terri’s long-suffering
wife) and Dylan Moran among many others, Good Vibrations is as heart-warming
and funny as it is graphic in its portrayal of a nation torn in two.
Mixing laughs with real tension and the odd
surreal moment with Hank Marvin, Vibrations will leave you grinning with moist
eyes.
You’ll be wanting the soundtrack too.
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