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my year in movies, 2020.

By • On • In another day. another movie., halloween movie fest, hmf, movies, scott • 5 min read

A new year is officially underway, which means it’s time for my annual tradition of sharing every movie I watched the previous year. You know, the list which absolutely no one asked for, but that keeps on coming back just the same. [I did miss 2018 somehow. I’m still not sure how that happened.]

This year was, quite predictably, unprecedented as far as my movie-watching habits went. I watched 221 movies this year! Mostly because once quarantine began, depression and anxiety became my only daily obligations, resulting in 2020 being my biggest movie-watching year since I started keeping track back in 2008. [If you’re curious, the tally for previous years is: 150 in 2008 – 200 in 2009 – 200 in 2010 – 203 in 2011 – 200 in 2012 – 167 in 2013 – 105 in 2014 – 125 in 2015 – 125 in 2016 – 144 in 2017 – 104 in 2018 – 126 in 2019]  

I love publishing these lists, so I hope someone out there likes ‘em. And if any other nerds out there kept track of the movies they watched last (or any) year, I’d love to see the list! I genuinely like this sort of thing, whether it’s my list or anyone else’s.

Anyway, here you go, every movie I watched in 2020.

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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 — Underlined titles are then ones that have stood up, after repeated viewings, and still keep me coming back for more. They’re the ones I’ve seen before, and will certainly watch again.
**Best new (to me) movies — Titles with an asterisk are the films I loved the most out of those I’d never seen before.

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January 

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**1. Her Smell [1]

2. Brittany Runs a Marathon [2] E1

**3. Maiden [3] E2 

4. Missing Link [4] 

**5. I Lost My Body [5] 

6. Long Day’s Journey Into Night [6] 

7. Good Boys [7] 

8. Ash is Purest White [8] 

9. Alita: Battle Angel [9] E3 

10. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – E4 

11. Paddington 2 

12. The Adventures of Tintin

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February 

—————

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13. The Gentlemen [10] (1) E5 

14. Beginners 

15. Inside Llewyn Davis – E6

16. Win Win

17. The Other Guys

18. Birds of Prey [11] (2) E7

19. Shame

20. The One I Love 

21. Bad Boys for Life [12] (3) 

22. Safety Not Guaranteed 

23. About Time 

24. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

25. My Own Private Idaho [13] 

26. Blinded by the Light [14] E8

—————

March 

—————

—————

**27. Ford v Ferrari [15] E9 

**28. Midsommar [16] 

29. Fast Times at Ridgemont High [17] 

**30. The Invisible Man [18] (4) 

31. Onward [19] (5) E10  

32. Color Out of Space [20] 

33. Mission: Impossible – E11 

34. Frozen II [21] E12 

35. Sleuth (1972) [22] 

36. Yesterday [23]  

37. The Avengers – E13 

38. On the Town [24] E14

39. The Sandlot – E15 

40. The Battered Bastards of Baseball – E16 

**41. Pain and Glory [25] 

42. No No: A Dockumentary – E17 

43. 61* – E18 

44. Knives Out – E19 

45. The Battery [26] 

46. The Natural – E20 

47. Everybody Wants Some!! – E21 

48. Damn Yankees [27]  

49. The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings [28]  

50. The Pride of the Yankees [29]  

51. For the Love of the Game [30] E22 

52. Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story [31] 

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April

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53. Bull Durham – E23 

54. Pelotero [32] 

55. Sugar – E24 

56. Brothers in Exile [33] 

57. Fear Strikes Out [34]  

58. Moneyball – E25 

59. Field of Dreams – E26 

60. A League of Their Own – E27 

61. Iron Man 3 – E28 

62. Take Me Out to the Ballgame [35] E29

63. Off the Black [36] 

64. Cobb [37] 

65. Thor: The Dark World – E30 

66. The Stratton Story [38] 

67. The Phenom – E31 

68. The Bad News Bears 

69. Major League – E32 

70. Eight Men Out – E33 

**71. I Will Buy You [39] 

72. Bang the Drum Slowly [40] E34 

73. Love Wedding Repeat [41] E35

74. Captain America: Winter Soldier – E36 

75. Holy Motors [42]  

76. Guardians of the Galaxy – E37 

77. Avengers: Age of Ultron – E38 

78. Zombieland: Double Tap [43] 

**79. Kagemusha [44] 

**80. Police Story [45] 

81. Rocketman [46] E39 

82. Minority Report 

83. Ant-Man – E40 

84. His Girl Friday – E41 

85. Diamantino [47]

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May

—————

—————

86. Captain America: Civil War – E42 

87. Doctor Strange – E43 

88. Drugstore Cowboy [48]

**89. Sex, Lies, and Videotape [49] 

90. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 – E44

91. Seven Samurai – E45 

92. Spider-Man: Homecoming – E46 

**93. Sword of Doom [50]  

94. Peanut Butter Falcon [51] E47 

**95. The Handmaiden [52]

96. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – E48

97. The Night Comes For Us [53] 

98. Thor: Ragnarok – E49 

**99. Transit [54] 

100. McCabe and Mrs. Miller [55] 

101. Black Panther – E50 

102. Under the Skin [56] 

**103. Extraction [57] E51 

104. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood [58] E52 

105. Y Tu Mama, Tambien [59] 

106. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)[60] 

107. Avengers: Infinity War – E53 

—————

June

—————

—————

**108. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [61]

**109. Queen & Slim [62] 

**110. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans [63] 

**111. Blindspotting [64] 

**112. Emma. [65] 

113. Local Hero [66] 

**114. Vast of Night [67] 

115. Malcolm X [68] 

116. She’s Gotta Have It [69] 

117. Foxy Brown [70] 

118. The Favourite [71] 

119. The Royal Tenenbaums [Commentary: Wes Anderson] 

120. Doctor Sleep [72] 

—————

July

—————

—————

**121. Hamilton [73] E54

122. Plus One  [74] E55 

**123. Beauty and the Beast (1946) [75]  

124. Abominable [76] E56 

125. House of Flying Daggers [77] 

**126. Palm Springs [78] E57 

127. I Am Not Your Negro – E58 

**128. Steven Universe: The Movie [79]  

129. Avengers: Endgame – E59 

130. Soylent Green [80] 

131. Cold Case Hammarskjöld [81] 

**132. Thunder Road [82] 

**133. All About My Mother [83] 

134. Aniara [84] 

135. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am [85] E60 

—————

August

—————

—————

136. One Cut of the Dead [86] 

137. The Souvenir [87] 

138. Extra Ordinary [88] 

**139. Da 5 Bloods [89] E61 

140. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof [90] 

**141. Blindspotting – E62 

**142. Volver [91] 

143. Short Cuts [92] 

**144. Kwaidan [93] 

145. Guns Akimbo [94] 

146. Class Action Park [95] E63  

—————

September 

—————

—————

147. Get Duked [96]  

148. First Love [97] 

149. The Old Guard [98] E64 

**150. Three Colors: Red [99] 

151. Climax [100] 

152. MFKZ [101] 

153. Happy Death Day [102] 

154. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 

**155. Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé [103] E65

156. Point Break – E66

157. Prospect [104] 

158. 13th [105] E67 

159. The Lure [106] 

160. Tigers Are Not Afraid [107] 

161. WolfCop [108] 

162. Get Out – E67 

**163. The Skin I Live In [109] 

—————

October

—————

—————

164. They Live [110] 

165. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer [111] 

166. Grave Encounters [112] 

167. Under the Shadow [113] 

168. Nightbreed [114]  

169. Night of the Living Dead – E68 

170. Straw Dogs [115] 

171. Shaun of the Dead 

172. 1408 [116] 

173. The Howling [117] 

174. [REC] 

175. ParaNorman – E69 

176. Return of the Living Dead [118] 

177. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – E70 

178. Vampires vs. The Bronx [119] 

179. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon [120] 

180. Save Yourselves! [121] E71 

181. The Hunger [122] 

182. Lake Mungo [123] 

**183. Audition [124] 

184. Juan of the Dead [125] 

185. Cabin in the Woods – E72 

—————

November

—————

—————

186. Enola Holmes [126] E73 

187. Tale of Tales [127] 

188. Molly’s Game [128] 

189. The Lovebirds [129] E74 

**190. Uncut Gems [130] 

**191. All In: The Fight For Democracy [131] E75

192. Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man) [132] 

193. Three Identical Strangers [133] E76 

194. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

195. The Endless [134] 

196. The Happiest Season [135] E77 

197. Home Alone – E78 

**198. Black Christmas [136] 

199. Knives Out – E79 

200. Better Watch Out [137] 

201. Elf – E80 

**202. Matador [138] 

203. Tenet [139] E81 

204. Manhunter [140] 

—————

December 

—————

—————

**205. Uncorked [141] E82 

206. Krampus [142] 

207. Bad Education (2020) [143] E83 

208. The Brothers Bloom 

209. The Nightmare Before Christmas – E84 

210. The Night Before [144] E85 

211. Rare Exports 

212. A Muppet Christmas Carol – E86

**213. Christmas Evil (You Better Watch Out) [145] 

214. A Christmas Horror Story [146] 

**215. The Wolf of Snow Hollow [147] 

216. A Christmas Story – E87 

217. Get Santa [148] E88 

**218. Klaus [149] E89 

219. Wonder Woman 1984 [150] E90 

**220. Soul [151] E91 

221. Miss Bala [152] 

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bull durham. [another day, another baseball movie.]

By • On • In scott • 5 min read

“Excuse me, but what the hell’s going on out here?”

“Well, Nuke’s scared because his eyelids are jammed and his old man’s here. We need a live … is it a live rooster? We need a live rooster to take the curse off Jose’s glove, and nobody seems to know what to get Millie or Jimmy for their wedding present. That about right? We’re dealing with a lot of shit.”

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You don’t have to know me that well before you realize I’m not one to speak in absolutes, especially when it comes to cinema. I’ll praise the things I love, I’ll critique the stuff I don’t – so long as it’s in the right context – but I’m allergic to any claims that make our experience of the the world narrower. Five greatest this and ten worst that is bullshit clickbait, not a way to engage film — or life for that matter. People can continue to ask me for my five favorite movies until the end of time [it happens constantly], but I will never give a straight answer. The parameters of the question are nonsense.

And yet, while I live my whole life by the creed above, I have absolutely no problem saying that Bull Durham is the greatest movie that will ever be made about baseball. It’s the exception that proves the rule.

Bull Durham is one of those rare instances where a story embodies the essence of what it depicts. The movie isn’t about baseball, it is baseball. It reverberates with the same heartbeat you’ll hear deep down – if you can tune out all the extra bullshit – at the core of the game.

Bull Durham reveals that baseball is more than a sport, it’s a religion. The faithful worship a deity that is romantic and holy, but unvarnished, profane, and steeped in the ordinary dailiness of life. The articles of faith demand a streak of irreverence in the devotions of the faithful.

It should come as no surprise that it was written and directed by a man who played minor league ball for five years — not some casual layperson or weekend warrior, but a true believer, properly initiated into the faith.

Players are among the faithful, many as devout as the impassioned supplicant of any other god. After all, religion is humanity’s attempt at finding some level of agency and order in a chaotic universe. You can’t control droughts, plagues, natural disasters, or the mystery of death, but maybe you can negotiate with the higher powers who can. Which is what makes it a direct analogue to baseball.

More than in any other sport, a ballplayer isn’t in control of the outcome of their actions. The variables in baseball are crueler. A perfectly executed pitch can result in a weak, broken bat single that finds a hole, driving in runs or breaking up a no-hitter. The hardest hit ball all day may become just another zero in the box score. It’s why ballplayers are by far the most superstitious athletes in the world. The game, like life, isn’t fair. It’s a game of hanging breaking balls and missing your pitch; not a game of inches, but fractions of an inch. On every single pitch, a slight, barely perceptible tilt in angle separates success from failure. Greatness and mediocrity are separated by a razor’s edge.

Crash Davis — philosopher, poet, and career minor leaguer — explains: “You know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It’s 25 hits. Twenty-five hits in 500 at-bats is 50 points, OK? There’s six months in a season. That’s about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week, just one, a gork, a ground ball — a ground ball with eyes! — you get a dying quail, just one more dying quail a week and you’re in Yankee Stadium.”

Playing a game like that for a living, it’s understandable one would seek the rituals and offerings that might appease the gods.*

And if baseball is a religion, Crash Davis is high priest. Nuke Laloosh** may be a force of nature, an insane talent, but he may pitch an entire, bright but relatively brief career without ever truly understanding the game. But Crash pours over the minutia in order to read the meaning – quite literally – between the lines. He lives and breathes the game, putting in the work everyday well after it’s clear that those twenty-one days in the show are all he’s ever going to get.

But Bull Durham isn’t just a hymn to the players who understand the true holiness of the game, it’s just as much a hymn to the zealots, the happy few whose love of the game defies the boundaries of reason. There are plenty of baseball fans, even rabid fans of their clubs, who remain reasonable in their reverence. Perfectly ordinary folk. And then there’s the sort whose devotion runs deeper than that, to a degree that looks ridiculous to those outside the fold. It gets to the point where our belief is barely metaphorical anymore. Deep down, we almost believe that baseball is a key to unlock the secrets of the universe.

Annie and Crash reflect this faith back to us. And like us, they see the world differently than most. It’s no coincidence that Shelton has written both of these characters as philosophers pondering the mysteries of the universe, as readers of fiction and poetry who speak in grand romantic metaphors. That’s the sort of soul most likely to fall this deeply in love with the game. You’d be hard-pressed to find this particular brand of disciple who wasn’t. [That is by no means meant to discredit other lovers of the game, those who hold a deep and abiding affection that never reaches this degree of absurdity.]

You can definitely enjoy Bull Durham as a great film, even if you don’t care about baseball. It’s a well written, well-crafted film, populated with lovable (now iconic) characters, and immensely quotable dialogue. It’s sharp, well paced, and wonderfully shot — a scene that comes to mind is when they switch to handheld while we hear Crash’s thought process during a particular at bat. [I love that scene, especially when Crash tells the bat boy to shut up. Classic. I’ll laugh at it ever time.] And you’ll definitely enjoy the film more if you appreciate baseball to any degree.

But, like baseball, there’s another level under the surface for those with eyes to see. Visible to those whose love of the game exceeds rationality. For this sort of disciple, and I obviously consider myself among them, Crash Davis is our high priest, Annie Savoy is our patron saint, and Bull Durham is our blessed sacrament.

*In case you’ve any doubt that a player’s superstitions can reach religious levels, take the case of batting legend Wade Boggs as an example: He ate chicken before every game [one and a half chickens a day]. He woke up at the same time every day and ran sprints at 7:17 pm. He beat a path from the dugout to third base by taking the exact same route, there and back, every time. He drew the Hebrew for ‘life’ in the batter’s box before every at-bat [he isn’t Jewish]. He asked Sherm Feller, the public announcer at his home park of Fenway, not to announce his uniform number during introductions, because Boggs once broke out of a slump on a day when Feller forgot to announce his number. Are you sure it’s only a coincidence that he was one of the greatest hitters of all time? The dude once went a an entire season — 719 plate appearances — in which he only struck out 34 times! Something was working.]

**In a sad coincidence, Steve Dalkowski – the man who inspired Shelton to write the character of “Nuke” LaLoosh – died last week due to complications of Covid-19. He never made it past the minors, but one season, in 62 innings, he struck out 121 batters and walked 129.

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halloween movie fest 2017 is here (and not a moment too soon)!

By • On • In another day. another movie., movies, scott, vampires, zombies • 2 min read

You wouldn’t know it from the weather in Brooklyn, but the time has come for another Halloween Movie Fest. Or, as my great-great-grandather always used to say, “Thank God, it’s Halloween Movie Fest!” Or, TGIHMF. (How would I trademark that? I feel like it’s definitely going to catch on with a wider public.)

HMF is my favorite annual glorious waste of my own time. I really need it this year, because the world is falling apart and depression is a fucking asshole.

I am so ready for this excursion into the familiar world of Halloween and its related cinema, a tradition that began for me in 2009.

I love Halloween, with its deep reliance on story and myth. For me, it’s like an entire holiday dedicated to telling ghost stories around a fire on a chilly autumn evening. HMF has come to be a means of extending that feeling throughout more of the month.

For previous fests, I would select a specific number of films and watch a movie a day. [That’s always the format for Another Day, Another Movie]. However, this year I’ve chosen 31 films, one for every day of the month, and I’ll get through as many as I can. I hereby promise all four people who read this blog that I will watch no fewer than 21 films. However, I doubt my schedule will allow me to watch a movie a day for the entire month of October. I’ll be damned if I’m not going to try, but odds aren’t great.

The 2017 list includes some straight scary fare, a few horror comedies (because obviously), some lighter Halloween-friendly films, and Room 237, a documentary about interpretations of The Shining and the intense devotion to the film’s many mysteries (I might be stretching my own premise a bit with that last one).

19 of the 31 are films I’ve seen before, so obviously I’m leaning into some favorites I’m in the mood to rewatch. Many are films I loved after seeing them for the first time during previous Halloween Movie Fests.

Here are the films, in no particular order:

  1. Shaun of the Dead
  2. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
  3. The Shining
  4. Room 237
  5. Under the Shadow
  6. Don’t Breathe
  7. The Void
  8. XX
  9. 28 Days Later
  10. What We Do in the Shadows
  11. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
  12. Tetsuo: The Iron Man
  13. It (2017)
  14. The Haunting
  15. House
  16. Phantasm
  17. Beetlejuice
  18. Dead of Night
  19. Pet Sematary
  20. Housebound
  21. Pontypool
  22. Cabin in the Woods
  23. The Babadook
  24. Let the Right One In
  25. It Follows
  26. The Evil Dead
  27. Evil Dead II
  28. Army of Darkness
  29. Coraline
  30. The Devil’s Backbone
  31. Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some movies to watch.

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night two: ‘cronos’. [halloween movie fest, 2016.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., hmf16, scott, vampires • 1 min read

ensminger-cronos-splsh

“I don’t know what’s happening to me, but I think it’s better if we stay together.”

The second night of HMF and I’m revisiting a favorite from nights of Halloween past.

Guillermo del Toro’s debut feature has all of the themes he comes back to again and again. Del Toro himself said:

“To me, Cronos contains the essence of what I want to do … a sincere declaration of how I view the world.”

Both literally and figuratively, this is vintage del Toro.

His best work uses and subverts genre trappings and fantastical horror to showcase the beauty and monstrosity of humanity. The horror of the monsters in the del Toro canon always pale in comparison to what humans are willing to do to one another in a quest for power, money, or youth.

Del Toro said of Cronos, “I do what I’ve done in Devil’s Backbone, what I’ve done in Pan’s Labyrinth, etc. Which is, I take the central monster figure and I make it the saddest figure in the tale.”

This is a story of the inherent tragedy of vampire lore. One of the central themes in many vampire stories is the loss of humanity in the pursuit of immortality. The inability to accept the reality of death results in a half life. Vampires are immortal, they reject death, but only by becoming death. They live forever, but only in darkness, only by consuming life itself. #fucktwilight

These stories are often about the destructive potential of the human quest for immortality. Thus, Guillermo del Toro is the perfect storyteller for the genre, and it in turn is a perfect playground for his first feature.

Cronos is arrestingly grotesque and beautiful, often at the same time. A monster story about what it means to be human. A horror film about love, family, redemption, mortality, and sacrifice. Or to put it more simply, Cronos is Guillermo del Toro at his best.

Will I Ever Watch It Again? Most definitely. As is easily seen above, Cronos is included amongst my very favorite Halloween Movie Fest films from the seven years I’ve done it.

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night one: ‘near dark’. [halloween movie fest, 2016.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., hmf16, movies, scott, vampires • 1 min read

 “Boy, you people sure stay up late.”

“We keep odd hours.”

And we’re off! Night one kicks off with Kathryn Bigelow’s cult classic about a guy who tries to convince a young lady to engage in some casual sex, and as these things often go, she turns out to be a vampire. Our young cowboy finds himself thrown in with a gang of asshole vampires who terrorize bar-flys, truck drivers, and hitchhikers along remote portions of Texas and Oklahoma highway.

The film is pretty to look at, and it’s easy to see the DNA of a directing style that would eventually win Bigelow a ton of awards for The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. 

neardark1_758_426_81_s_c1

Critics liked Near Dark, and as I already mentioned, it became a cult classic. In some ways, I can see why. The idea itself was an interesting take on both vampire movies and neo-westerns, and at times it delighted in its own violent mayhem. It also featured a synth soundtrack by Tangerine Dream that had some great moments.

However, overall, this one was just too nonsensical in all the wrong ways for me. The writing and story just didn’t hold together at all. It was erratic and silly, but to me it didn’t seem to be so intentionally. Everyone has the sorts of holes and weaknesses that prohibit enjoyment, and Near Dark had too many for me.

If anyone wants to have a specific conversation about what didn’t work for me in Near Dark, I’m game. I just didn’t want to go on and on bitching about it in this post. That’s just not what I want RtM to be. I’m also totally down if someone who loves this movie wants to enlighten me concerning its virtues. I would genuinely enjoy learning to see it through a fan’s eyes.

Will I Ever Watch It Again? No. There’s definitely something I’m missing. It’s got a big following of folks who love it and rewatch it, so I’ll leave them to it.

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halloween movie fest 2016!!

By • On • In another day. another movie., hmf16, movies, scott • 1 min read

 

04-a-girl-walks-home-alone-at-night1

Sing it with me!

/ It’s the most wonderful tiiiime of the year. When the zombies are lurching and vampires and slurping so we live in feeeeaaar. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. / It’s the hap-happiest season of all. With the slashers all stalking and spirits all walking down your bedroom haaaaallll! /

Absolutely terrible adaptations of Christmas songs aside, October is back and the Halloween season is upon us. For my money, it’s right on time. I mean, it’s always right on time, but this year it’s even righter on time. Yup, it’s so perfectly timed I’m not even using well constructed phraseology anymore.

It’s been such a crazy year for me since Halloween Movie Fest 2015. We live in Brooklyn now, a very recent development, and I miss Seattle terribly. I’m surrounded by strange new things, thousands of miles from my friends and the home I grew to love over the course of nearly a decade.

What better way to feel something familiar than to slip into the tradition of Halloween Movie Fest? I hope it will be the movie-watching equivalent of putting on a perfectly aged sweatshirt on a chilly, rainy afternoon.

This year, there will be an ‘Another Day, Another Movie’ (ad,am) festival within HMF16. Some Inception-level shit. The first 10 of the 20 nights of HMF16 will be a vampire themed version of ad,am. More on that in the post for the first portion of the (mostly) one man movie festival. For now, the important thing is that bloodsuckers will make up half of this year’s list.

what-we-do-in-the-shadows

Here are the movies:

Movement 1 – The Vampires

  1. Near Dark
  2. The Lost Boys
  3. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
  4. What We Do In the Shadows
  5. Nosferatu the Vampyre
  6. Martin
  7. The Horror of Dracula
  8. Cronos
  9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  10. Trouble Every Day

Movement 2 – Everything Else

  1. The Witch
  2. A Tale of Two Sisters
  3. They Look Like People
  4. We Are Still Here
  5. Attack the Block
  6. Kill List
  7. The Hallow
  8. The Invitation
  9. Berberian Sound Studio
  10. Pontypool

we-are-still-here_dagmar

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win win, and more generally, thomas mccarthy. [things i’m thankful for #26]

By • On • In movies, scott, things i'm thankful for. • 1 min read

I loved this movie. Everyone should watch it.

I fell in love with all of the characters early on, and delighted in them for 106 minutes. I want to write like Thomas McCarthy does. All three of the films he’s written and directed are perfect (The Station Agent, Win Win, The Visitor. He also wrote the story for Up.)

He’s a master at writing these small, intimate stories that restore my hope in the beauty of interpersonal relationships and the power we have to love each other, and heal each other, and just how much we all need one another. It was exactly the movie I needed, at exactly the right moment. Right down the The National playing over the closing credits.

Seriously. Watch this movie.

 

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five things i’m thankful for. [#16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

By • On • In movies, scott, television, things i'm thankful for., trailer park • 1 min read

I’ve been gone for a few days, eh? I’ve even considered placing the blog on an official hiatus since only four people read, but for now I am going to keep plugging away purely for my own benefit, which is probably the point, anyway. To be honest, I’m in a lot of pain right now, battling depression to the greatest extent I ever have, which is really saying something. That makes it really hard to be thankful for things, but I’m going to try, and hopefully I won’t get fired from my job before I can get healthy enough to be a real person again, or at least half a person.

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#16. Take Shelter

This movie was stunning. I could feel it, even through the pain of recent days. Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain were revelatory, giving performances of tremendous nuance and beauty. It was also, for its flaws, such a beautifully healthy marriage, which you  almost never see in film. (Although, the trailer makes it seem like that’s not the case.)

The themes of mental illness and isolation in this movie, as well as the worry about becoming the same as a mentally ill parent, hit so close to home. Yet, it was comforting instead of overwhelming to see themes I feel lately projected before me.

One of the best films I’ve seen in a long time, while never giving away too much at one time. I wouldn’t  be able to set up the film as well as the really well-crafted trailer lays it out, so just watch that if you’re curious:

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#17. The Gods Themselves – Isaac Asimov

“Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.” – Friedrich Schiller

A brilliant book by the man with the most prolific science fiction writing career of all time. His grasp of issues was way ahead of his time, in so many ways.

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#18. Community

A new episode may never air again, but I’ll always cherish the seasons we have. Until it is officially cancelled (it’s still just on hiatus, right?), it’s my favorite show on television.

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#19. Jeremy Lin

I’m a Knicks fan. Have been since my emergence from the womb. So, obviously I love watching this story unfold. This kid is electric.

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#20. Emily

My wife is the best. That’s all there is to it.

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villains, part one. [the many lists of 2011.]

By • On • In invasion/visitation movies, lists of 2011, movies, nerd candy, scott • 2 min read

With the heroes dispensed with HERE and HERE, it’s onto the villains. Enjoy.

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1. Voldermort – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two

All these years of movie lists, Voldemort had to make it onto the list eventually. He’s not just a villain, he’s the villain of the last decade+. He is the evil wizard. Everyone knows his name, Harry Potter fan or not. An entire generation’s Darth Vader. And Ralph Fiennes played him to perfection in each of the Harry Potter films.

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2. The Alien – Super 8 

It’s not new, but I think that this alien reveal was as satisfying as the reveal in Signs was disappointing. A creature of a delightfully strange, yet familiar, biology, from across the stars. I loved this movie, and the alien played no small part in that. It wasn’t just good enough to keep me from enjoying the rest of the movie, it was a huge part of what made the movie work.

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3. Men Who Hate Women – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The villains in this movie weren’t just bad guys. They were disgusting, stomach-turning monsters. What made it all the worse was that they are so commonplace in the world. Men across time have truly been capable of this sort of disgusting evil. They are powerful characters that stay in the consciousness, which is exactly what Larsson had in mind in their creation, making it impossible to ignore the violence perpetrated in systems that favor sexism and abuse.

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4. Sakharine / Red Rackham – The Adventures of Tintin

One of the villains in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo started taking Daniel Craig’s pants off. The actor portraying the villain in this movie gets to take Daniel Craig’s pants off every day… Daniel Craig.

He was perfect as the villain, especially in the storytelling pirate sequence when Craig is Red Rackham. I LOVED the pirate scenes. Lots of anger on the internet about this movie, but I love it. Up with Tintin!!

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5. Nigel – Rio 

Two words: Jemaine. Clement. Comedic brilliance. I fricking love Jemaine, and I loved this character. Although, it could be argued that the true villain in this movie was Will.I.Am for sucking up the joint and making for a decidedly painful musical number. However, the rest of the cast (especially Jesse Eisenberg and Tracy Morgan) makes up for where Will and Jaime Foxx led things off course at times.

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