2nd: Wreck-It Ralph – Rich Moore (2012)
Really, really impressed by this. As someone who doesn’t watch much animation, let me weigh in: this, to me, seems like exactly what you would want an animated movie to do (i.e. using it to explore a whole world/story that a non-animated film couldn’t). Even aside from that ingenuity, this film works because the story is good, the voice actors are great (John C. Reilly is perfect), and the jokes are genuinely funny.
Grade: B+
3rd: Ralph Breaks the Internet – Rich Moore, Phil Johnston (2018)
This movie really bothered me and then I read this piece by my friend, Max and he nailed down the critiques I was feeling but couldn’t articulate. His piece is specifically focused on the false dichotomy the film sets up around “toxic” masculinity, but I think these ideas could be applied to many different aspects of the film, such as the movie’s disingenuous critiques of Disney and the internet. So a really bad movie that led to some wonderful reading:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295036.2022.2067347?journalCode=rcsm20
Grade: D
6th: Moonage Daydream – Brett Morgen (2022)
Saw at Austin Film Society which was cool as hell! Hooray for awesome theaters! Thank you Mr. Linklater! Alas, this is one of the worst films I have seen in a while. Overlong, uninformative, and irritatingly tedious. Which, if you have David Bowie as your subject, tons of live footage and interviews at your disposal, and me as your audience (an unabashed lover of the “rockumentary”) and that’s my review, you’re in trouble.
Grade: D
14th: Soul – Pete Docter (2020)
Gioia was feeling unwell and requested a comfort movie. I chose this. She said she was thinking more of a comfort movie for her (aka something she had seen before and liked). I insisted that if she had watched this before, it would already be a comfort movie for her. She said “Okay, let’s watch it, I guess.” And what do you know? We watched it and she thought it was “pretty good.” I guess I’m a regular Marty Scorsese introducing the world to new films 🙂
Grade: A-
17th: Sleepaway Camp – Robert Hiltzik (1983)
Robert Hiltzik asking big questions like, “If a film is offensively bad can it also be badly offensive?” The answer may disturb you.
Grade: B
18th: The Blair Witch Project -Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez (1999)
Man, I would give anything to have seen this and thought that it was a real found-footage documentary
Grade: B+
19th: The Wicker Man – Robin Hardy (1973)
Man, I’m not one to get too bent out of shape by films drawing inspiration or retreading over similar ground as a predecessor. Still, it’s hard not to note how much a film like Midsommar or a series like The Third Day (both works that I really enjoyed) must have taken from this. Aside from originality, what I think most elevates The Wicker Man over more modern films, is how much fun this film is. There’s a playfulness here, one that is absent in pretty much every recent horror movie I’ve seen, that doesn’t detract from the story or its ending but actually adds to it.
Grade: B+
20th: Scream – Wes Craven (1996)
Usually not a fan of hyper-meta, we’re in on it too style movies, but this was genuinely a lot of fun! Thought the ending/reveal was particularly inspired which is kind of rare for a pulpy horror movie. Guess I have to watch like 6 more of these now!
Grade: A-
26th: Barbarian – Zach Cregger (2022)
Fun and surprising which I think is probably the most important criteria when it comes to a horror film. I must say, however, that I am way more compelled and interested by the first part of the movie (i.e. before the big twist) than the rest of it. To be honest, I would have much rather seen the rest of that movie than what follows.
Grade: B
27th: Malignant – James Wan (2021)
[Ray Romano voice] Frickin’ best movie ever
Grade: B+
28th: Malignant – James Wan (2021)
This is now my favorite movie.
Grade: B+
28th: House -Nobuhiko Obayashi (1977)
To be clear, I loved it. But would really, really appreciate someone explaining this movie to me like I’m five
Grade: B+
30th: Nope – Jordan Peele (2022)
First off, this movie made me realize that in the hellscape that is film/cinema in 2022 (in which movies can only be a) A TV Show B) A franchise spectacle devoid of thought. C) An art film), Jordan Peele is undeniably our most important director (i.e., can make a film that reaches the most people and is also full of thought and meaning, not to mention is a Black director that makes films either tangentially or directly concerned with what it means to be Black in America.) I will say that out of his three features, I “enjoyed” this one the least. I’m pretty confident that will change as I think about, read about, and rewatch this film more. To be honest, I’m really just waiting to read the twitter thread akin to the one that Peele himself retweeted about Us that opens up a whole new line of thinking/insight into the movie. Lastly, I’ll just say that despite everything I’m trying to explain/capture about Peele above, sometimes film is as simple as seeing something and feeling that connection. The best way I can explain that is in the moment when Holst arrives with his homemade camera, and OJ and Em finally have this release of emotion in hi-fives. I don’t know what else I can really say about it except that that moment was completely exhilarating to me and is easily my favorite movie moment of the year.
Grade: B+
31st: Shoah – Claude Lanzmann (1985)
In his essay, “From the Holocaust to ‘Holocaust,’ Lanzmann identifies a central tension in approaching this subject. Mainly that the Holocaust was at once a singular, incomparable event and also not an aberration or an anomaly. That in approaching this subject matter, one must realize that there is no understanding or generalization to make sense of it (or as Lanzmann puts it: Here, there is no why), and yet, one must also not allow for this lack of comparison, of generalization, of mystification to abdicate the personal and collective responsibility that humanity had in the systematic annihilation of six million Jewish people. There is a similar tension to the one Lanzmann identifies in the process of reviewing or discussing his film. In fact, watching this film for the first time 37 years after its release, I couldn’t help but note how all of my preconceived notions about the film had been based on these generalizations and legend-making of its existence (the 9.5-hour length, the 11-year production, the refusal to use archival footage) that not only distract but take away from this film’s very essence. I cannot emphasize enough that these aspects of the film are not extractable feats of filmmaking but the very core of its being. I anticipated in writing this review, I would assess and analyze the personal, emotional, and intellectual journey I had in watching this film (which is essentially what I try to do in writing any review). However, to me, this film, in its essence, is a transmission. And so, while I have an incredible number of thoughts and feelings about Lanzmann’s film, I think they’re best kept to myself. Sharing the specifics of what I think or feel about this film cannot replicate what watching it instilled in me. More importantly, they cannot function as a substitute for anyone else in place of watching the film. And so, I would really just implore anybody to watch this film and, as much as they can, to enter into it without hesitancy based on its daunting legacy. In that way, they too can receive this film’s transmission, at once a collective and singular experience.
Grade: A
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