2019 [in films]
For the last three years, I’ve managed to watch more films than I did the year before. In 2017, I saw 181 films. In 2018, it was 182. In 2019, I watched 184 films in all, not counting rewatches and works in progress. I know this because I’m a big old nerd and I keep track of what I see in not one but two places: a spreadsheet I keep for my own records, and my tracking online over at Letterboxd (go ahead and give me a follow!). I do it for the fun of it, because when you watch as many films as I do (which actually pales in…
2016 [in Film]
As with last year, I don’t really see the point in building any suspense when it comes to sharing my favorite films. It’s not like you’ve been holding your breath, wondering what I’m going to say. (And if you have, thanks for being such a big fan. And sorry for the lack of ceremony here…) The best film of 2016, far as I’m concerned, is Moonlight. Exceptional in every aspect, it is the nuanced yet powerful story of a boy becoming a man and the forces – internal and external – that shape him. Where Boyhood relied on a gimmick (albeit an impressive one) to chronicle one character’s life, filmmaker Barry…
2015 [in films]
When you’ve seen 160 films in the span of 365 days, you’d think it’d be easy to pick your favorites. You’ve seen enough that the cream should theoretically rise to the top, leaving all the mediocre movies to fade into memory. I suppose when I get down to it, that’s true. I can tell you what my favorite movie of the year was without contest: Brooklyn takes the top spot for me (how’s that for not burying the lede?). Behind that, there are several front-runners for something close to a top ten, which I’ve expanded on below. It’s after that where things get murky. I liked a lot of movies…
2015 [in films – documentary]
Of the 160 movies I watched in 2015, 44 of them were documentaries. That means that roughly one third (28%) of the hours of film I absorbed were factual accounts of the world around us. From finally watching 1990’s groundbreaking Paris is Burning to cramming in as many of the Oscar Documentary shortlist films, I managed to see films about religion, culture, crime, history and more. I didn’t see some of the most talked about docs of the year, including Michael Moore’s latest Where to Invade Next, Laurie Anderson’s Heart of a Dog, or Josh Oppenheimer’s follow up to The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence among them. That said, I feel…
