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hunt for the wilderpeople. [trailer park.]

It’s a big day for Taika Waititi fans. First, the spinoff/sequel for What We Do in the Shadows got an official title: We’re Wolves (Get it? Werewolves… We are wolves). He’s apparently going to do that as soon as he wraps on Thor: Ragnarok. Then, the teaser for his Sundance film Hunt for the Wilderpeople came out, and the bit of footage we’ve been gifted looks as great as one would expect.

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keanu. [trailer park.]

Yup. Yup yup yup.

I already would have been excited/intrigued by what Key and Peele would do for their first big film, but that kitten, though!

Also, two different George Michael songs. That’s my guilty pleasure jam right there.

Put the pussy on the chain wax!

More Key and Peele references, etc. etc.

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‘sunday candy,’ by donnie trumpet & the social experiment.

Recently, two friends of mine were discussing how much they hate end of year lists. As is obvious from this blog most years, when I actually get around to making my own year end lists, I have to respectfully disagree.

My favorite thing about end of year lists is that I inevitably miss a bunch of stuff through the year, now more than ever. When other folks share their favorite stuff from the year, it makes it easy for me to discover great things from the year that would have otherwise slipped through the cracks. I can adjust my must-watch and listen and download lists accordingly. I love it.

Case in point. Last April, Chance the Rapper gave me a really great belated birthday gift. I’d already experienced and loved the album, but the music video for “Sunday Candy” I’d missed entirely.

Then Stereogum’s “50 Best Music Video’s of 2015” remedied that.

This single take music video of a fake high school musical is a delightful companion to the unabashedly joyful song Chance wrote for his grandmother.

Maybe you can make it through watching this video without smiling, but I definitely can’t. After we watched it I made Emily watch it again immediately. I’ve watched it another time since then. I’m going to go watch it again now.

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high-rise. [trailer park]

I’ve had several people, most importantly my wife, tell me that they formerly relied on me for their trailer exposure and are now missing out without RtM. I don’t post trailers much anymore because I was wildly inconsistent and it misrepresented which trailers I liked most, because I’d share one when I saw it and found it interesting, but then never get around to posting one I was way more excited about. It’s basically a metaphor for this entire blog, where I write and share less than I’d like just because I’m less consistent (a wild understatement) than I want to be and irrationally care about what that says concerning each shared artifact’s significance to me. I should just ignore that and share stuff when I have the time.

High-Rise is second on my ‘to read’ shelf right now. I’ve been interested in this film for a while, reading about it on movie news sites, and this trailer only increases that interest.

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eight thoughts on ‘the hateful eight’ 70 mm roadshow.

Just in time for the run to end, at least here in Seattle, I finally made it to see the 70mm Roadshow version of The Hateful Eight.

Here are eight thoughts I had about the movie.

1. Ennio Morricone is a god.
2. All movies over two and a half hours long should have an intermission. This one was so great.
3. I really hope Tarantino does another western. He claims he needs to do one more to be a “real” western director, he also still claims he is only going to make two more films in total.
4. It was really interesting watching the film while keeping in mind it was originally a Django sequel. I’m glad Tarantino changed it.
5. I’m pretty sure I would pay money to watch Walton Goggins read a phone book.
6. I really hope more directors start doing the 70mm thing, but if only one did it, it had to be Tarantino.
7. The western is the most misunderstood and underappreciated genre in film.
8. I’m so glad Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino found each other.

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my year in shows, 2015.

And, a new addition to my lists. Here are all the shows I watched for the first time this year. This is the first time I’ve actually kept a list going all year. If a show doesn’t have a list of seasons or specials next to it then I watched the whole thing this year, or it was only a single run.

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Rick and Morty (Seasons One & Two)
House of Cards (Season Three)
Portlandia (Seasons Three – Five)
Moone Boy

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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Season Ten)
The Mindy Project (Season Three)
American Horror Story: Freak Show
The Walking Dead (Season Five)
Man Seeking Woman (Season One)
Archer (Season Six)
Justified (Season Six)

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Daredevil (Season One)
Inside Amy Schumer (Seasons One – Three)
Mad Men (Season Seven)
Bob’s Burgers (Season Five)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Season Two)
Silicon Valley (Season Two)

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Game of Thrones (Season Five)
Community (Season Six)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Bojack Horseman (Season Two)
Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp
Adventure Time (Season Six)
True Detective (Season Two)
Master of None (Season One)

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Fargo (Season One)
Black Mirror (Seasons One & Two, White Christmas)
Jessica Jones (Season One)
Last Week Tonight (Season Two)

Bonus: Shows I Rewatched Episodes of Regularly All Year

Archer, Sunny, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, Arrested Development, Bob’s Burgers, Seinfeld

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my year in movies, 2015.

Every year I share the list of every movie I watched. Many years, it’s with a bunch of other lists I make of all sorts of favorite things and whatnot. We’ll see if that happens this year, but at the very least, here is my 2015 in movies.

125 is better than last year’s 105, but I really miss the days when 200 movies a year was the minimum. Anyway, on with the list!

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The key is mostly the same as always:
(#) Movie I saw in the theater.
[#] Movie I saw for the first time.
E# Movies I watched with Emily.
Favorites (These underlined films cannot be movies I saw this year for the first time, they have to be movies that have been able to stand up after at least one repeated viewing.)
*Best movies I’d never seen before. (It doesn’t matter when these movies came out, I saw them for the first time this year, and they were awesome.)
Halloween Movie Fest.

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – E1
2. The Imitation Game [1] (1) E2
3. The Guardians of the Galaxy
*4. Persepolis [2]
5. The Guardians of the Galaxy – E3
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel
*7. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes [3]
8. Horns [4]
*9. Birdman (or, The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) [5] (2) E4
10. What If [6] E5
*11. Calvary [7]

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12. The Equalizer [8]
13. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – E5
14. Arbitrage [9]
*15. Whiplash [10] E6
16. John Wick [11]
17. The Trip to Italy [12] E7
18. eXistenZ [13]
19. They Came Together [14] E8
*20. Kingsman: The Secret Service [15] (3) E9
21. Gone Girl [16] E10
22. St. Vincent [17] E11
*23. Frank [18]
24. The History of Future Folk [19]
*25. The One I Love [20]
*26. Paris, Texas [21]

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27. The Double [22]
*28. Throne of Blood (Kumonosu-jô) [23]
*29. The Silence (Das letzte Schweigen) [24]
30. Nightcrawler [25]
*31. Housebound [26]
*32. Top Five [27] E12
33. Shadow of the Vampire [28]
*34. 13 Assassins (Jûsan-nin no shikaku) [29]
35. The Boxtrolls [30] E13
36. Hot Fuzz
37. John Dies In the End [31]
38. The World’s End
39. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug [32]
40. Girl Most Likely [33]
41. Shut Up and Play the Hits [34]
*42. What We Do in the Shadows [35] (4)

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43. Avengers: Age of Ultron [36] (5)
44. Avengers: Age of Ultron (6) E14
*45. Brooklyn Castle [37] E15
46. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World [38]
47. Natural Born Killers [39]
48. Now You See Me [40] E16
*49. Fury [41]
50. Pitch Perfect 2 [42] (7) E17
*51. Mad Max: Fury Road [43] (8)
*52. Ex Machina [44] (9)
53. Zoolander
54. Star Wars – E18
*55. Inherent Vice [45]
56. A Fantastic Fear of Everything [46]
57. Spy [47] (10) E19
58. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief [48] E20
59. High-Fidelity E21

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*60. Inside Out [49] E22
61. Wet Hot American Summer – E23
*62. Dope [50] (11) E24
63. Ant-Man [51] (12) E25
64. Say Anything… – E26
65. Slow West [52]
66. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation [53] (13) E27
67. The Guest [54]
68. Hurricane of Fun: The Making of Wet Hot American Summer [55]
69. Theory of Everything [56] E28
70. The Crossing Guard [57]
71. Life of Crime [58]
72. 48 Hrs. [59]
73. Dear White People [60] E29
74. El secreto de sus ojos – E30

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75. Hot Fuzz
76. Three Colors: Blue [61]
77. Best Exotic Marigold Hotel [62] E31
78. Creep [63]
79. The Skeleton Twins [64]
80. Harmontown [65]
*81. Life Itself [66] E32
82. The House of the Devil [67]
83. Magic Mike XXL [68] E33
*84. Kingsman: The Secret Service – E34
85. Dawn of the Dead *1978*
86. Day of the Dead [69]
87. The Martian [70] (14) E35
*88. The Haunting [71]
89. Pulse [72]
90. Byzantium [73]
91. The Empire Strikes Back – E36
*92. It Follows [74]

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93. Pan’s Labyrinth – E37
94. The Devil’s Backbone
95. Witching and Bitching [75]
96. The Wicker Man *1973* [76]
97. Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead [77]
98. Frenzy [78]
*99. The Babadook [79]
100. Crimson Peak [80] (15)
101. The Blair Witch Project [81]
*102. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [82]

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103. Spirited Away – E38
104. Spectre [84] (16) E39
105. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 [85]
106. Seven Psychopaths
107. Better Living Through Chemistry [86]
108. People, Places, Things [87] E40
109. Jurassic World [88] E41
110. The Kings of Summer – E42
111. Rocky – E43
*112. Spotlight [89] (17) E44
113. Cop Car [90]
114. Return of the Jedi – E45
*115. Me and Early and the Dying Girl [91] E46

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*116. What We Do In The Shadows
117. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. [92] E47
*118. The Tale of Princess Kaguya [93] E48
*119. Amarcord [94]
*120. The Force Awakens [95] (18) E49
121. Trainwreck [96] E50
122. A Very Murray Christmas [97] E51
*123. The End of the Tour [98] E52
124. Inglourious Basterds
*125. The Force Awakens – (19) E53

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