1st: White Noise – Noah Baumbach (2022)
Paraphrasing from Adam Nayman: Noah Baumbach is clearly much better at making movies about people who read White Noise than making White Noise. Paraphrasing from myself: Not a particularly good film or good adaptation, but I enjoyed it more than expected.
Grade: C+
2nd: Magnolia – Paul Thomas Anderson (1999)
PTA’s version of coked-out movie but cut with with antidepressants 🐸.
Grade: B+
3rd: C’mon C’mon – Mike Mills (2021)
New year, same me (getting fucked up by a beautiful movie).
Grade: A
12th: 20th Century Women – Mike Mills (2016)
Mike Mills fuck me up.
Grade: A-
15th: Nuts in May – Mike Leigh (1976)
The only way this could have been better is if I randomly decided to watch tv in 1976 and this was on. Truly incredible stuff from Mike Leigh and the BBC.
Grade: B+
16th: Abigail’s Party – Mike Leigh (1977)
Mike Leigh is a motherfucker <3.
Grade: B+
18th: Brigsby Bear – Dave McCary (2017)
When you punish a person for dreaming his dream
Don’t expect him to thank or forgive you
The best ever friend movie crew out of salt creek
Will in time both outpace and outlive you
Hail Brigsby
Hail Brigsby tonight
Grade: B+
19th: Hard Labour – Mike Leigh (1973)
Missed opportunity to call this ‘Bleaker Moments’ and start the Mike Leigh Cinematic Universe.
Grade: B
19th: The Kiss of Death – Mike Leigh (1977)
There is a character in this movie who appears in multiple scenes just to have one line of dialogue, that being “alright.” His name is Froggy. Mike Leigh gets it.
Grade: B+
21st: Who’s Who – Mike Leigh (1979)
Even if it’s a miss there’s always something special. In this case, so many cats!
Grade: C
23rd: Grown-Ups – Mike Leigh (1980)
For being a great humanist, Mike Leigh sure doesn’t seem to like people…For the first hour or so I thought maybe he had made a movie that wasn’t going to resonate with me and them POW! that last act. Also, it must be asked. Is this part of the Adam Sandler Universe or the Secrets & Lies Universe?
Grade: B+
25th: Everything Everywhere All at Once – Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan (2022)
My favorite universe is the one in which Gioia laughs and cries at all the same parts each time we watch this. Oh wait, that’s this one :)))))
Grade: A-
25th: Home Sweet Home – Mike Leigh (1982)
Fucking vicious.
Grade: B
25th: Four Days in July – Mike Leigh (1984)
Aye, a bloody way to finish these early Mike Leighs innit? Normally, I get about 85-90% of what these characters are sayin but this one I says to Gioia I says I can only bloody understand bout half of these characters, can’t I. Who knew I needed subtitles for my own bloody language? A right state that is. Still, a lotta laughs, I must admit. Especially the baby Hitler stuff. Come on.
ETA:
Sorry if this is offensive! What I’m trying to say is that I love Mike Leigh even when his movies are almost beyond comprehension. Okay byeeeeeee.
Grade: B-
27th: Possessor – Brandon Cronenberg (2020)
Planning on writing some more about this one, mainly, about how hard it fucking rips. But also had a thought that what if Brandon Cronenberg was still a filmmaker, but made little slice of life human dramas like a Linklater or Sciamma. That’d be funny, right? Okay, off to see Infinity Pool!
Grade: A-
27th: Infinity Pool – Brandon Cronenberg (2023)
this says it all.
Grade: B+
29th: Mr. Turner – Mike Leigh (2014)
Ah yes, the number one Mike Leigh stan here to say that I’ve never subscribed to the idea that Leigh’s cinematography and compositions were lacking. Not to get into a whole thing, but there’s a difference between something being flashy for the sake of being “interesting” and something actually suiting the material. That being said, what a fucking treat to watch Leigh flex every visual muscle he’s built up over the course of 20+ films. The cinematography, sets, costumes, and (of course) paintings are just masterfully done. What better way to showcase the life of a “complicated genius” than to consistently contrast the beauty of early 19th century life (landscapes, quaint towns, early industry) with the fucking decrepitness of early 19th century life (disease, filth, poverty, inequality). At the end of the day, there’s probably not quite enough ingenuity in the story for it to rank up with Leigh’s very best films (those of course being totally singular masterpieces). But from a technical standpoint, this may be as fine a film as he’s ever made.
Grade: B+
31st: Us – Jordan Peele (2019)
Seeing Us for the first time was one of my favorite movie-viewing experiences! My second viewing did not disappoint. First off, the screening was part of an SAIC Art History course and let me tell you, after a lifetime of not speaking in class, it was almost painful to just have to sit and listen through a really fascinating discourse. As for the movie…man, I just don’t get what people are not seeing in this one. Us has garnered a reputation as being Peele’s weakest film and the only way I can really wrap my head around that critique is as an acknowledgment of how magnificent Get Out and Nope are. But the push-back seems to go beyond that to a degree that I have a really hard time understanding. And look, everyone sees films differently, but for me, Peele’s main attraction as a filmmaker is that his films are as richly textured and layered with meaning as any director I can think of while also being incredibly effective as pieces of entertainment in their own right. Maybe that is a sliding scale depending on the viewer, but again, for me, Us navigates it pretty superbly. For one, I find the general concept of the film and many of its sequences to be truly frightening. And two, I just think there’s as much depth and detail and meaning in this film as anything I’ve seen. I feel like you could go on for hours exploring the ties to Reagan and the turning point in class inequality as the starting point of the film’s plot (when Adelaide first encounters Red), or even just the mechanics of the underworld’s tethering to those above.
Grade: A-
Sam Writes Shit 
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