by ·Comments Off on The Edge of Seventeen (2016, Kelly Fremon Craig)

Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Begin Again) is an awkward teen who likes a guy (“bad boy” Alex Calvert), is liked by a different guy (cartoonist Hayden Szeto), hates her brother (Blake Jenner of EWS!!) and has a best friend (Haley Lu Richardson, kidnappee in Split) who starts dating the brother. So far, so typical. But the sparkling dialogue and the work by Woody Harrelson as her patient, smartass teacher should ensure this movie’s place in Teen Film Eternity, to run on cable (or streaming or whatever) for generations.

David Ehrlich’s review got our butts into the theater:

Unfolding like a symphony of small humiliations, there isn’t a moment in this movie that doesn’t feel at least vaguely familiar, and there isn’t a moment in this movie that doesn’t feel completely true … the scenes with the highest potential for hokeyness are the ones that Craig and her cast most relish … When shit gets heavy between Nadine and her brother, both Steinfeld and Jenner tap into a sense of depth so real that it almost seems alien to the genre.

by ·Comments Off on Moonlight (2016, Barry Jenkins)

It’s 2017 but I’ve still got eighteen 2016 movies to catch up with. I won’t spend much time on this one since it was everybody’s favorite and there’s a ton of writing about it. Three episodes in the life of Little/Chiron/Black, played by different actors. First he finds a substitute family with Miami drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) and his wife (Janelle Monae), then he begins discovering his sexuality with a friend named Kevin, and finally he’s a drug dealer himself in the image of Juan. As with Certain Women, the third part is overwhelmingly great. Trevante Rhodes as the oldest Chiron gives a sensitive performance that allows his shy younger selves to slowly bleed through the gangster facade as he reconnects with Kevin.

Bonus points for “Classic Man” and the Hokusai poster, right after we rewatched Kubo over Thanksgiving, making this the fourth Hokusai-referencing movie of the year. We listened to an interview with the director discussing Chiron’s mother’s similarity to his own mother, and marveled at the fact that Naomie Harris appears in all three episodes and shot all her scenes in three days.

by ·Comments Off on The Movie Year in Review, 2016

Happy New Movie Year! Here is a look back at the previous movie year.

The Lists:

Favorite 2016 Movies
Favorite Recent Movies watched in 2016
Favorite Older Movies watched in 2016
Special Screenings and HD Rewatches, 2016
Favorite Shorts of 2016
2016 Movies To Watch
Previous year lists

–
Bonus List: The Year in Television

Best shows I watched this year, not counting shows I/we haven’t finished yet, and excluding some miniseries that I am counting as movies:

1. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
2. Master of None
3. Archer
4. Neon Genesis Evangelion
5. Black Mirror
6. Rick and Morty
7. Horace & Pete
8. Veep
9. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
10. BoJack Horseman

–
BLIGS:

I find either top-1000 lists or large collections of annual top-ten lists very appealing, because among all the obligatory auteur favorites and consensus greats there’s plenty of room for unusual selections. And 1000 titles seems like a good canon size, a whole lifetime of film viewing for normal, non-movie-obsessed people, and can cover the entire timeline of film history. A compulsive list-o-phile, I’m always tempted to make my own top-1000 list, but stop myself because I feel like I’ve never caught up with enough of the classics – and also it’d be a lot of work, nobody would ever read it, and as soon as I watch Fanny & Alexander or The Passenger or Paterson it’ll probably change.

As recently discussed in the 10th Blogniversary post, my go-to top-1000 lists have been Jonathan Rosenbaum’s and They Shoot Pictures. I just realized there are massive movie lists online by three more of my favorite critics on their personal sites: Vadim Rizov, Mike D’Angelo and Michael Sicinski. Plus you’ve got your Sight & Sound polls, your Cahiers top-tens, Edgar Wright’s recent list, recommendations from books and magazines and all over. And I’ve started organizing and tagging these.

So, to celebrate my turning A Certain Age this year, instead of listing my favorite movies, I’ve made a composite checklist of the top 1000 unseen movies that I need to watch. Maybe if I get through these, I’ll list my own favorites. No promises.

Almost all are narrative features that I think I might be able to find on video (aiming for HD). Probably half are written and directed by white male Americans, too bad. Mostly excluded are shorts (because I’m tracking them elsewhere) and documentaries (ditto) and avant-garde features (because of availability) and everything from Africa (because we watch those on Katy’s schedule) and movies I’ve already seen and hope to rewatch and anything from the current decade.

Needed a stupid, catchy name for the list, settled on BLIGS (short for “obligatory”, acronym for “Big List I Gotta See”). Sortable list of bligs is here.

–
Sally Jane Black:
“I haven’t finished watching a movie until I write about it.”

My writing has gotten worse and lazier lately, but it has been a year full of distractions… at least I’m keeping up. Here’s to a better 2017.

by ·Comments Off on Favorite 2016 Movies

As always, a “2016 movie” is defined as a movie released in 2016 (or the last couple years) which I had a reasonable opportunity to see (played theaters within an hour’s drive of here, or came out on blu-ray) for the first time in 2016. So, Carol is a 2016 movie, and I guess Elle and Jackie will be 2017 movies.

The ranking of some of these is shaky. I’m not sure exactly how much I like The Handmaiden or Cosmos or Hateful Eight or Everybody Wants Some!! or a couple others until I watch them again. I was going to make a separate “great but unranked” list but I’ll just wing it because who cares.

1. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin)
2. Carol (Todd Haynes)
3. Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight)
4. The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer)
5. Experimenter (Michael Almereyda)
6. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
7. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)
8. La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
9. Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie)
10. Lemonade (Beyoncé Knowles)

11. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos)
12. Cosmos (Andrzej Zulawski)
13. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt)
14. Show Me a Hero (Paul Haggis)
15. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman)
16. The Handmaiden (Chan-wook Park)
17. The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
18. Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater)
19. Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
20. One More Time With Feeling (Andrew Dominik)

21. Hail, Caesar! (Joel Coen)
22. Mia Madre (Nanni Moretti)
23. The Witch (Robert Eggers)
24. A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino)
25. HyperNormalisation (Adam Curtis)
26. Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman)
27. Office (Johnnie To)
28. Swiss Army Man (Daniels)
29. Sing Street (John Carney)
30. Chi-Raq (Spike Lee)

Runners-up:
The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig)
The Invitation (2015, Karyn Kusama)
The Meddler (Lorene Scafaria)
Where to Invade Next (2015, Michael Moore)
Francofonia (2015, Aleksandr Sokurov)

by ·Comments Off on Favorite Recent Movies watched in 2016

Last year I focused on movies that were five years old and made a 2010 Redux list. I tried that again this year, watched a bunch of 2011 movies that I hadn’t seen, but really was trying to catch up on recent movies in general. So instead of a 2011 Redux, here are the best things I saw from the last five years.

1. Ernest & Celestine (2012, Stéphane Aubier)
2. Song of the Sea (2014, Tomm Moore)
3. When Marnie Was There (2014, Hiromasa Yonebayashi)
It was a good year for animation at our house.

4. Night Moves (2013, Kelly Reichardt)
5. La Sapienza (2014, Eugène Green)

6. Call Me Lucky (2015, Bobcat Goldthwait)
7. Vivan las Antipodas (2011, Victor Kossakovsky)
8. Goodbye First Love (2011, Mia Hansen-Løve)
9. Killing Them Softly (2012, Andrew Dominik)
10. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (2011, Johnnie To)

11. Sicario (2015, Denis Villeneuve)
12. The Mill and the Cross (2011, Lech Majewski)
13. Life of Riley (2014, Alain Resnais)
14. The Arbor (2010, Clio Barnard)
15. The Imposter (2012, Bart Layton)

16. Norte, the End of History (2013, Lav Diaz)
17. Tom at the Farm (2013, Xavier Dolan)
18. The Color of Noise (2015, Eric Robel)
19. Bridge of Spies (2015, Steven Spielberg)
20. The Deep Blue Sea (2011, Terence Davies)

21. The Day He Arrives (2011, Hong Sang-soo)
22. Life Without Principle (2011, Johnnie To)
23. Monsieur Lazhar (2011, Philippe Falardeau)
24. The Woman (2011, Lucky McKee)
25. The Big Short (2015, Adam McKay)

by ·Comments Off on Favorite Older Movies watched in 2016

Older than 2011, that is.

1. Shoah (1985, Claude Lanzmann)
2. Shirin (2008, Abbas Kiarostami)
3. The Band’s Visit (2007, Eran Kolirin)
4. An Affair to Remember (1957, Leo McCarey)
5. Gilda (1946, Charles Vidor)

6. Le Grand Amour (1968, Pierre Etaix)
7. La Ciénaga (2001, Lucrecia Martel)
8. Summer Wars (2009, Mamoru Hosoda)
9. Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998, Julio Medem)
10. Pit and the Pendulum (1961, Roger Corman)

11. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010, Banksy)
12. Targets (1968, Peter Bogdanovich)
13. Secret Sunshine (2007, Lee Chang-dong)
14. Rosetta (1999, Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
15. Innocence (2004, Lucile Hadzihalilovic)

16. Bend of the River (1952, Anthony Mann)
17. Ponyo (2008, Hayao Miyazaki)
18. Hyènes (1992, Djibril Diop Mambety)
19. Black Christmas (1974, Bob Clark)
20. Whispering Pages (1993, Aleksandr Sokurov)

by ·Comments Off on Special Screenings and HD Rewatches, 2016

Most of these I first watched 20+ years ago on videotape. Some I didn’t remember at all, a few I remember quite well, and a few I’ve never seen before. Half I watched at home on shiny new blu-rays, the rest at The Ross or the Alamo. Ranked based on presentation and rediscovery (I don’t actually like Varieté and Mad Max 2 better than Colonel Blimp). It makes sense to me. I don’t have to explain myself to you people.

1. Variety (1925, E.A. Dupont)
With live music by Alloy Orchestra at The Ross

2. Possession (1981, Andrzej Zulawski)
3. The Devils (1971, Ken Russell)
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978, Philip Kaufman)
Three of my favorite horrors, beautifully presented at the Alamo

5. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981, George Miller)
6. Ali (2001, Michael Mann)
7. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, Jacques Demy)
8. The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967, Jacques Demy)
9. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992, David Lynch)
10. News From Home (1977, Chantal Akerman)

11. Only Yesterday (1991, Isao Takahata)
12. Wendy & Lucy and Old Joy (2008, Kelly Reichardt)
13. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004, Hayao Miyazaki)
14. Phantasm (1979, Don Coscarelli)
15. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943, Powell & Pressburger)

by ·Comments Off on Favorite Shorts of 2016

I watched 200+ shorts this year, so this took some figuring out.

1. The Exquisite Corpus (2015, Peter Tscherkassky)

2. Masterworks of Avant-Garde Film

This blu-ray from Flicker Alley needs its own section, or else its individual films would’ve dominated the shorts list. Some revelatory works, beautifully restored. Links to the writeups, and my favorite creators from each:
Part one – Robert Florey, Ralph Steiner, Jay Leyda, Fischinger, Watson & Webber
Part two – Maya Deren, Rudy Burckhardt, Bute & Nemeth
Part three – Jim Davis, Hilary Harris, Bruce Baillie, Francis Thompson
Part four – Larry Jordan, Bruce Posner, Brakhage & Solomon

3. Lumière!

I’ve only watched part of the disc so far, so look for the second half to turn up on next year’s list.
Chapters 1 & 2
Chapters 3 & 4

4. Der Apfel (1969, Kurt Weiler)
5. Father and Daughter (2000, Michael Dudok de Wit)

6. Animations by Rein Raamat

Lend (1973)
a bunch more

7. Piper (2016, Pixar/Alan Barillaro)
8. Black Soul (2000, Martine Chartrand)
9. The Danish Poet (2006, Torill Kove)
10. Jammin’ the Blues (1944, Gjon Mili)

11. Four by Vuk Jevremovic

12. Uncle Yanco (1967, Agnès Varda)

13. By Brakhage, Volume 2
Program 2 (1967-1976)
Program 3 (1972-1982)

14. Spies (1943, Chuck Jones)

15. Carmen and Papageno (1933/35, Lotte Reiniger)

16. False Aging (2008, Lewis Klahr)
17. Lorenzo (2004, Disney/Mike Gabriel)
18. Harvie Krumpet (2003, Adam Elliot)
19. Blinkity Blank (1955, Norman McLaren)
20. We Can’t Live Without Cosmos (2014, Konstantin Bronzit)

by ·Comments Off on 2016 Movies To Watch

Not every 2016 must-see, but a few notable ones.

I don’t understand theatrical distribution, never know what’s gonna play in town. Some movies I definitely missed or they came out on video without playing theaters here. Some have either been announced to play here in Jan/Feb or IMDB lists a U.S. release in 2017. And some exist in that Queen of the Desert limbo where nobody’s currently talking about it and you can’t tell if it’s opening next weekend or in six months or never. Anyway the distinction is important when deciding what’s safe to watch on video.

Movies I (Probably) Missed:

April and the Extraordinary World
Hello, My Name Is Doris
Manchester By The Sea
Kate Plays Christine
Creative Control
Under the Shadow
American Honey
Lo and Behold
Cameraperson
Indignation
Happy Hour
Creepy
Fences
Loving
Krisha
Demon
13th

Movies (Probably) Still to Come:

I Am Not Your Negro
The Lost City of Z
Personal Shopper
The Red Turtle
Things to Come
The Salesman
Toni Erdmann
Fire At Sea
Evolution
Paterson
Julieta
Silence
Jackie
Elle

Movies In Limbo:

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki
Yourself and Yours
The Ornithologist
The Dreamed Path
Hermia & Helena
A Quiet Passion
Endless Poetry
Voyage of Time
Son of Joseph
Daguerrotype
Kékszakállú
Aquarius
Christine
Nocturama
Neruda
Tower