To The Maxxx

Another year of watching movies mostly at home! Would I have enjoyed certain titles more had I seen them on the big screen? Very likely! Did we buy a slightly larger TV? We sure did! Big screen or small, I found plenty to enjoy this last year… there may have even been a few instant classics. As per, I didn’t get to see everything on my list. But I am excited to say that I’ve finally gotten back into Letterboxd after almost a decade’s hiatus and it has injected some new excitement (and more organization) into my film-viewing habits. Here is my Top 20 as a list on Letterboxd, if you’re into that sort of thing. Otherwise, keep scrolling! Thanks for your passing interest in my taste in film. Happy watching!

TOP 10

Ranking is VERY loose, and subject to change as the years pass and the details fade.

1. DRIVE MY CAR, Ryusuke Hamaguchi

2. LICORICE PIZZA, Paul Thomas Anderson

3. BERGMAN ISLAND, Mia Hansen-Løve

4. BENEDETTA, Paul Verhoeven

5. WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY, Ryusuke Hamaguchi

6. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND, Todd Haynes

7. ANNETTE, Leos Carax

8. SPENCER, Pablo Larrain

9. THE POWER OF THE DOG, Jane Campion

10. THE LAST DUEL, Ridley Scott

Imagine my surprise upon drafting this list, that at some point in the last year Tumblr imposed a limit of 10 images per post! What’s a guy with a top 20 to do other than be bummed out?!

Here’s 10-20, sans photo, also loosely ranked:

• TITANE, Julia Ducournau
• WEST SIDE STORY, Steven Spielberg
• RED ROCKET, Sean Baker
• THE LOST DAUGHTER, Maggie Gyllenhaal
• THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, Joachim Trier
• MALIGNANT, James Wan
• CRYPTOZOO, Dash Shaw
• DUNE, Denis Villeneuve
• ZOLA, Janicza Bravo
• THE SOUVENIR: PART II, Joanna Hogg

And a special commendation to is-it-a-film-or-a-series, Peter Jackson’s THE BEATLES: GET BACK

I also enjoyed:

About Endlessness, Azor, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Beckett, The Big Trim, Boiling Point, Candyman, The Card Counter, Caveat, Censor, C'mon C'mon, Compartment No. 6, The Duke, El Planeta, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, The French Dispatch, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Good Boss, The Hand of God, A Hero, I’m Your Man, In the Earth, Jockey, Lapsis, Last Night in Soho, Limbo, Mad God, Mandibles, The Many Saints of Newark, MASS, The Matrix Resurrections, The Mitchells vs The Machines, The Night House, Nightmare Alley, No Sudden Move, No Time to Die, The Novice, Old, Old Henry, Only the Animals, Parallel Mothers, Paris 13th District, Passing, Pig, Prime Time, Quo Vadis Aida, Riders of Justice, Saint Maud, Seance, Shiva Baby, Stillwater, The Summit of the Gods, Swan Song (the one with Udo Kier that is), Test Pattern, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Undine, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Violation

And these documentaries:

Becoming Cousteau, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, Julia, kid 90, Like A Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres, Listening to Kenny G, Procession, The Rescue, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, The Sparks Brothers, Tina, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage

And some memorable (and mostly underdicussed) performances worth shouting out:

• Niamh Algar as Enid Baines in Censor
• Moises Arias as Gabriel in Jockey
• Javier Bardem as Julio Blanco in The Good Boss
• Don Cheadle as Curt Goynes in No Sudden Move
• Jodie Comer as Marguerite de Carrouges in The Last Duel
• Anders Danielsen Lie as Joseph in Bergman Island and as Aksel in The Worst Person in the World
• Ana de Armas as Paloma in No Time to Die
• Ariana DeBose as Anita in West Side Story
• Benicio del Toro as Moses Rosenthaler in The French Dispatch
• George DiCaprio as Mr. Jack in Licorice Pizza
• Virginie Efira as Benedetta Carlini in Benedetta
• Adèle Exarchopoulos as Agnès in Mandibles
• Mike Faist as Riff in West Side Story
• Brendan Fraser as Doug Jones in No Sudden Move
• Isabelle Furman as Alex Dall in The Novice
• Skyler Gisondo as Lance in Licorice Pizza
• Seidi Haarla as Laura in Compartment No. 6
• The Haim family as the Kane family in Licorice Pizza
• Brittany S. Hall as Renesha Bell in Test Pattern
• Rebecca Hall as Beth in The Night House
• Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom in Venom: Let There Be Carnage
• Harriet Sansom Harris as Mary Grady in Licorice Pizza
• Sally Hawkins as Maggie in Spencer
• Simon Helberg as The Accompanist in Annette
• Kathryn Hunter as Witches in The Tragedy of Macbeth
• Amir Jahidi as Rahim in A Hero
• Riley Keough as Stefani in Zola
• Udo Kier as Pat Pitsenbarger in Swan Song
• Vicky Krieps as Chris in Bergman Island
• Tōko Miura as Misaki Watari in Drive My Car
• Katsuki Mori as Nao in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
• Tim Blake Nelson as Henry in Old Henry
• Hidetoshi Nishijima as Yūsuke Kafuku in Drive My Car
• Allessandro Nivola as Dickie Moltisanti in The Many Saints of Newark
• Woody Norman as Jesse in C'mon C'mon
• Masaki Okada as Kōji Takatsuki in Drive My Car
• Taylor Paige as Zola in Zola
• Park Yu-rim as Lee Yoon-a in Drive My Car
• Martha Plimpton as Gail in MASS
• Renate Reinsve as Julie in The Worst Person in the World
• Simon Rex as Mikey Saber in Red Rocket
• Jonathan Richman as himself in The Velvet Underground
• Agathe Russelle as Alexia/Adrien in Titane
• Makita Samba as Camille Germain in Paris, 13th District
• Rachel Sennott as Danielle in Shiva Baby
• Reece Shearsmith as Zach in In The Earth
• Kiyohiko Shibukawa as Segawa in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
• Milena Smit as Ana in Parallel Mothers
• Kodi Smit-McPhee as Peter Gordon in The Power of the Dog
• Suzanna Son as Strawberry in Red Rocket
• Timothy Spall as Major Alistar Gregory in Spencer
• Dan Stevens as Tom in I’m Your Man
• Tilda Swinton as J.K.L. Berensen in The French Dispatch
• Honor Switon Byrne as Julie in The Souvenir: Part II
• Fusako Urabe as Moka in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
• Annabelle Wallis as Madison Mitchell/Emily May in Malignant
• Jeffrey Wright as Roebuck Wright in The French Dispatch

My Favorite Films and Performances of 2020

“I wish I could’ve seen it on the big screen.”

It was a strange year, and even stranger year of movie watching. In 2020 I saw only one of my top films in a theater, which is crazy (like much else over these past months). But the experience of keeping up with the movies this year was a reminder that great filmmaking can transcend the specifics of the viewing experience. In your living room, in bed, projected onto the side of a garage, streaming on Twitch, broken up into multiple sittings, maybe even on your phone (desperate times)… if doesn’t matter as long as it connects with you. A great film has the power to soothe and transport, to alter your perspective, to re-wire your brain. So while I didn’t get on a single airplane last year, I definitely went places. And I’m grateful for these changes of scenery. For the time-travel as well; last year in my house, we found great comfort in revisiting a bunch of old favorites. It was also an opportunity to finally watch a number of those older films that had someone evaded us… a year of catching up, now or never. We were members of a weekly movie club for some months — that was cool. Another pleasant silver lining was the emergence of virtual film festivals, which have been a fantastic opportunity. I hope that they can continue in some form when this pandemic is in the rearview. Because, you know, getting to Park City is a real schlep. All this to say: like you, I’ll always remember 2020. In this truly crummy year, the movies really helped.

I’m including some of the film festival stuff that’s coming out a little later, because the boundaries between 2020 films and 2021 films feels blurry to me without proper theatrical releases.

TOP 5, loosely ranked. I love these deeply.

1. LOVERS ROCK, Steve McQueen

2. NOMADLAND, Chloe Zhao

3. ANOTHER ROUND, Thomas Vinterberg

4. TIME, Garrett Bradley

5. MARTIN EDEN, Pietro Marcello

——————–

The rest of the Top 25, in alphabetical order. I loved these.

À L’ABORDAGE, Guillaume Brac

BACURAU, Kleber Mendonça Filho

COLOR OUT OF SPACE, Richard Stanley

THE FATHER, Florian Zeller

FIRST COW, Kelly Reichardt

I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS, Charlie Kaufman

JASPER MALL, Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb

LUXOR, Zeina Durra

ALEX WHEATLE / EDUCATION / MANGROVE / RED, WHITE AND BLUE, Steve McQueen

THE NEST, Sean Durkin

NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS, Eliza Hittman

NEW ORDER, Michel Franco

THE PAINTER & THE THIEF, Benjamin Ree

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD, Armando Iannucci

POSSESSOR, Brandon Cronenberg

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, Emerald Fennell

RELIC, Natalie Erika James

SAINT FRANCES, Alex Thompson

SOUND OF METAL, Darius Marder

THE TRUTH, Hirokazu Koreeda

——————–

I also enjoyed (some more than others):

Apples, The Assistant, Babyteeth, Bad Education, Black Bear, Blow the Man Down, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Butt Boy, The Climb, Da 5 Bloods, Deerskin, Emma, The Father (Bulgaria), Greed, His House, The Hunt, I Used to Go Here, I’m No Longer Here, Impetigore, The Intruder, The Invisible Man, Kajillionaire, La Llorona, Let Them All Talk, Lost Girls, The Man Who Sold His Skin, Mank, Never Gonna Snow Again, News of the World, One Night in Miami, Palm Springs, Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, Rebecca, She Dies Tomorrow, Shirley, Slow Machine, Sorry We Missed You, Soul, Spree, Straight Up, A Sun, Swallow, Tenet, Tesla, Tommaso, The Traitor, The Trip to Greece, True History of the Kelly Gang, Uncle Frank, Under the Open Sky, The Vast of Night, Vitalina Varela, Wendy, The Whistlers, Wildland, Young Ahmed

——————–

And these documentaries!

American Murder: The Family Next Door, The American Sector, Assassins, Beastie Boys Story, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, Bloody Nose Empty Pockets, Boys State, Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero, Circus of Books, Class Action Park, Collective, Crip Camp, David Byrne’s American Utopia, Dick Johnson is Dead, Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds, The Go-Go’s, Gunda, Miss Americana, MLK/FBI, The Mole Agent, Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado, My Psychedelic Love Story, Mystify: Michael Hutchence, Narrowsburg, On the Record, Other Music, Sisters with Transistors, Spaceship Earth, The Way I See It, Whirlybird

——————–

And these shorts:

Bye Bye Body (which I edited), Fit Model, Friday Night Pizza for Daddy, Hard Cracked the Wind, The Human Voice, John Was Trying to Contact Aliens, Michael’s Preference West, What Did Jack Do?, World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime

——————–

My favorite performance of the year:

Frances McDormand as Fern in Nomadland

——————–

Favorite ensembles:

À l’abordage, Another Round, Bad Education, Babyteeth, Bloody Nose Empty Pockets, Blow the Man Down, Emma, First Cow, Kajillionaire, Let Them All Talk, Lovers Rock, Mangrove, Mank, One Night in Miami, The Personal History of David Copperfield, Promising Young Woman, True History of the Kelly Gang

——————–

More memorable (and in some cases under-discussed) performances:

• Christopher Abbott as Colin Tate in Possessor and as Gabe in Black Bear
  
• Idir Ben Addi as Ahmed in Young Ahmed
  
• Riz Ahmed as Ruben Stone in Sound of Metal
  
• Daniel Algrant as Kelvin Kranz in Let Them All Talk
  
• Maria Bakalova as Tutar Sagdiyev in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
  
• Haley Bennett as Hunter Conrad in Swallow
  
• John Boyega as Leroy Logan in Red, White and Blue
  
• Rob Brydon as Rob Brydon in The Trip to Greece
  
• Jessie Buckley as Young Woman in I’m Thinking of Ending Things
  
• Nicolas Cage as Nathan Gardner in Color Out of Space
  
• Salif Cissé as Chérif in À L’abordage
  
• Sheyi Cole as Alex Wheatle in Alex Wheatle
  
• Cleopatra Coleman as Trina in The Argument
  
• Carrie Coon as Allison O’Hara in The Nest
  
• Michael Angelo Covino as Mike in The Climb
  
• Willem Dafoe as Tommaso in Tommaso
  
• Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst in Mank
  
• Catherine Deneuve as Fabienne Dangeville in The Truth
  
• Katie Findlay as Rory in Straight Up
  
• Sidney Flanigan as Autumn in Never Rarely Sometimes Always
  
• Johnny Flynn as George Knightley in Emma
  
• Julia Garner as Jane in The Assistant
  
• Robbie Gee as Simeon in Alex Wheatle
  
• Chris Giarmo as himself in David Byrne’s American Utopia
  
• Betty Gilpin as Crystal Creasey in The Hunt
  
• Ethan Hawke as Hank in The Truth
  
• Kris Hitchen as Ricky Turner in Sorry We Missed You
  
• Anthony Hopkins as Anthony in The Father
  
• Jonathan Jules as Dennis Isaacs in Alex Wheatle
  
• Sandra Guldberg Kampp as Ida in Wildland
  
• Joe Keery as Kurt Knuckle in Spree
  
• Udo Kier as Michael in Bacurau
  
• Orion Lee as King Lu in First Cow
  
• Delroy Lindo as Paul in Da 5 Bloods
  
• Peter Macdissi as Walid “Wally” Nadeem in Uncle Frank
  
• Matthew Macfadyen as Wilcock in The Assistant
  
• George MacKay as Ned Kelly in True History of the Kelly Gang
  
• Yahya Mahayni as Sam Ali in The Man Who Sold His Skin
  
• Luca Marinelli as Martin Eden in Martin Eden
  
• Tuppence Middleton as Sara Mankiewicz in Mank
  
• Mads Mikkelsen as Martin in Another Round
  
• Wunmi Mosaku as Rial in His House
  
• Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia Kass in The Invisible Man
  
• Kelly O'Sullivan as Bridget in Saint Frances
  
• Shaun Parkes as Frank Crichlow in Mangrove
  
• Robert Pattinson as Neil in Tenet
  
• Paul Raci as Joe in Sound of Metal
  
• Kadeem Ramsay as Samson in Lovers Rock
  
• Gayle Rankin as Marissa in The Climb
  
• Tanya Reynolds as Mrs Augusta Elton in Emma
  
• Tyler Rice as Detective Russell Fox in Butt Boy
  
• Andrea Riseborough as Hana in Luxor
  
• Cecilia Roth as Marta in The Intruder
  
• William Sadler as the Grim Reaper in Bill & Ted Face the Music
  
• Kenyah Sandy as Kingsley Smith in Education
  
• Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn as Martha Trenton in Lovers Rock
  
• David Strathairn as David in Nomadland
  
• Michael Stuhlbarg as Stanley Edgar Hyman in Shirley
  
• Swankie as Swankie in Nomadland
  
• Tilda Swinton as Woman in The Human Voice
  
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca
  
• Steve Toussaint as Ken Logan in Red, White and Blue
  
• Alec Utgoff as Zhenia in Never Gonna Snow Again
  
• Jairaj Varsani as young David Copperfield in The Personal History of David Copperfield
  
• Ben Whishaw as Uriah Heep in The Personal History of David Copperfield
  
• Sharlene Whyte as Agnes Smith in Education
  
• Letitia Wright as Altheia Jones-LeCointe in Mangrove
  
• Ramona Edith Williams as Frances in Saint Frances
  
• Kôji Yakusho as Masao Mikami in Under the Open Sky
  
• Youn Yuh-jung as Soon-ja in Minari
  
• Helena Zengel as Johanna Leonberger in News of the World
  

——————–

Favorite pre-2020 films I saw for the first time in 2020:

Blood on the Moon, But I’m A Cheerleader, Crooklyn, Cure, Daughters of the Dust, The Death of Dick Long, Deep Cover, The Draughtsman’s Contract, Eyes of Laura Mars, Give Me Liberty, Greener Grass, Hardcore, High Hopes, The Last Party, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Maiden, One Day Pina Asked, Persona, Right Now Wrong Then, Right On!, The Seventh Victim, Slightly French, Synonyms, Tammy and the T-Rex, Variety, The Watermelon Woman… and a tip of the hat to Coppola’s new The Godfather Part III recut, The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone

As per, I did’t get to watch everything. But these are the films that did the most for me in 2019. If it’s not on here, I either didn’t have the opportunity to see it or I just plain didn’t dig it.

TOP 5, loosely ranked. I love these deeply.

1. ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, Quentin Tarantino

2. PARASITE, Bong Joon-ho

3. UNCUT GEMS, Josh and Benny Safdie

4. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, Céline Sciamma

5. MONOS, Alejandro Landes

The rest of the Top 20, in alphabetical order. I loved these.

THE AMAZING JOHNATHAN DOCUMENTARY, Ben Berman

BEANPOLE, Kantemir Balagov

THE FAREWELL, Lulu Wang

A HIDDEN LIFE, Terrence Malick

IN FABRIC, Peter Strickland

THE IRISHMAN, Martin Scorsese

KNIFE + HEART, Yann Gonzalez

KNIVES OUT, Rian Johnson

THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO, Joe Talbot

THE LIGHTHOUSE, Robert Eggers

LORDS OF CHAOS, Jonas Åkerlund

MARRIAGE STORY, Noah Baumbach

MIDNIGHT FAMILY, Luke Lorentzen

THE SOUVENIR, Joanna Hogg

TRANSIT, Christian Petzold

                                                          —————

I also enjoyed, some with reservations:

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, Ad Astra, Arctic, The Art of Self-Defense, Ash Is Purest White, Atlantics, Birds of Passage, Climax, Dark Waters, The Dead Don’t Die, Diamantino, Diane, Dolemite is My Name, Downton Abbey, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Ford v Ferrari, Gloria Bell, Greta, Her Smell, High Flying Bird, High Life, Hotel By The River, Hustlers, I Lost My Body, Les Misérables, Little Women, Midsommar, The Mustang, Non-Fiction, Pain & Glory, Peterloo, Ready or Not, The Report, The Standoff at Sparrow Creek, Us, Waves, Wild Rose

And these documentaries:

Amazing Grace, Apollo 11, David Crosby: Remember My Name, The Great Hack, Hail Satan?, Honeyland, The Kingmaker, Knock Down The House, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, One Child Nation, Well Groomed

                                                         —————

Did anyone ask for my favorite movies of the decade? No. Will I list them now, allowing only one title per director? Yes.

Carlos, Dogtooth, Force Majeure, Green Room, Inherent Vice, Mad Max: Fury Road, Mandy, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Parasite, Shoplifters, The Social Network, Toni Erdmann, Under The Skin, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Wild Tales

                                                         —————

My favorite performance of the year:

Adam Sandler as Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems

                                                         —————

Dynamic Duos:

Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton & Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Valerie Pachner as Franziska Schwaringer & August Diehl as Franz Jägerstätter in A Hidden Life

Robert Pattinson as Ephraim Winslow & Willem Dafoe as Thomas Wake in The Lighthouse

Vasilisa Perelygina as Masha & Viktoria Mironshnichenko as Iya in Beanpole

                                                         —————

Favorite Ensembles:

Climax, The Dead Don’t Die, Dolemite Is My Name, The Irishman, Knives Out, Les Misérables, Marriage Story, Monos, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Parasite, Peterloo, Uncut Gems, Us

                                                         —————

So many memorable performances:

• Alan Alda as Bert Spitz in Marriage Story
• Christian Bale as Ken Miles in Ford v Ferrari
  
• Antonio Banderas as Salvador Mallo in Pain and Glory
• Paula Beer as Marie in Transit
• Annette Benning as Senator Dianne Feinstein in The Report
• Juliette Binoche as Selena in Non-Fiction
  
• Damien Bonnard as Ruiz in Les Misérables
  
• Jessie Buckley as Rose-Lynn in Wild Rose
• Sofia Buenaventura as Rambo in Monos
• Tom Burke as Anthony in The Souvenir
  
• Julie Butters as Trudi Fraser in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
• Honor Swinton Byrne as Julie in The Souvenir
• Louis Cancelmi as Sally Bugs in The Irishman
  
• Chang Hyae-jin as Chung-sook in Parasite
  
• Cho Yeo Jeong as Park Yeon-kyo in Parasite
  
• Ana de Armas as Marta Cabrera in Knives Out
  
• Laura Dern as Nora Fanshaw in Marriage Story
  
• Wayne Diamond as High Roller in Uncut Gems
  
• Julia Fox as Julia in Uncut Gems
• Kevin Garnett as Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems
  
• Rebecca Gayheart as Billie Booth in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
  
• Jon Glaser as Mark in Hustlers
  
• Adèle Haenel as Héloïse in Portrait of a Lady on Fire
  
• Julie Hagerty as Sandra in Marriage Story
  
• Tim Heidecker as Josh Tyler / Tex in Us
  
• André Holland as Ray Burke in High Flying Bird
  
• Isabelle Huppert as Greta Hideg in Greta
• Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Sheila in In Fabric
  
• Karl Johnson as Lord Sidmouth in Peterloo
  
• Lee Jung-eun as Gook Moon-gwang in Parasite
  
• Martha Kelly as the Evaluator in Marriage Story
  
• Ted Levine as John Brennan in The Report
  
• Ray Liotta as Jay Marotta in Marriage Story
• Jennifer Lopez as Ramona in Hustlers
• Jonathan Majors as Montgomery Allen in The Last Black Man in San Francisco
  
• Idina Menzel as Dinah Ratner in Uncut Gems
  
• Noémie Merlant as Marianne in Portrait of a Lady on Fire
  
• Fatma Mohamed as Miss Luckmoore in In Fabric
  
• Julianne Moore as Gloria in Gloria Bell
• Elisabeth Moss as Becky Something in Her Smell
  
• Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite Is My Name
• Julianne Nicholson as Doctora Sara Watson in Monos
  
• Alessandro Nivola as Sensei in The Art of Self-Defense
  
• Lupita Nyong'o as Adelaide Wilson / Red in Us
  
• Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman and as Marvin Schwarz in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
• Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino in The Irishman
  
• Mary Kay Place as Diane in Diane
• Florence Pugh as Dani in Midommar
  
• Keanu Reeves as Keanu Reeves in Always Be My Maybe
• Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
  
• Franz Rogowski as Georg in Transit
  
• Taylor Russell as Emily in Waves
  
• Andy Serkis as Parker Wembley in Long Shot
• Wesley Snipes as D'Urville Martin in Dolemite Is My Name
  
• Song Kang-ho as Kim Ki-taek in Parasite
• Tilda Swinton as Zelda Winston in The Dead Don’t Die
  
• John Turturro as Arnold in Gloria Bell
• Zhao Shuzhen as Nai Nai in The Farewell
  

          … and Sayuri the pit bull as Brandy in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

                                                         —————

Favorite older film I saw for the first time in 2019:

War and Peace, Sergei Bondarchuk, 1965

                                                         —————

THE END!

Tomorrow: Oscar nominations
Today: My opinion

So much to see this year. As usual, I did’t get to catch everything that I’d hoped. But these are the 25 films that moved me the most in 2018. If it’s not on here, I either didn’t have the opportunity to see it or I just didn’t dig it.

1. ROMA, Alfonso Cuarón

2. MANDY, Panos Cosmatos

3. BURNING,  Lee Chang-dong

and the rest of the Top 25, in alphabetical order:

BEAST, Michael Pearce

BLACKkKLANSMAN, Spike Lee

BLAZE, Ethan Hawke

BORDER, Ali Abbasi

COLD WAR, Paweł Pawlikowski

THE FAVOURITE, Yorgos Lanthimos

FIRST REFORMED, Paul Schrader

THE GUILTY, Gustav Möller

HAPPY AS LAZZARO, Alice Rohrwacher

THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, Lars von Trier

LEAVE NO TRACE, Debra Granik

McQUEEN, Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT, Christopher McQuarrie

REVENGE, Coralie Fargeat

SHOPLIFTERS, Hirokazu Kore-Eda

SUSPIRIA, Luca Guadagnino

UNSANE, Steven Soderbergh

VOX LUX, Brady Corbet

WESTERN, Valeska Grisebach

WILDLIFE, Paul Dano

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?, Morgan Neville

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE, Lynne Ramsay

Those were the 2018 films that I loved the most. This is the next tier – films that I enjoyed… sometimes with reservations, but I enjoyed them nonetheless:

22 July, All Good, American Animals, Annihilation, Ash Is Purest White, Bad Times at the El Royale, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Black Panther, Cam, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Death of Stalin, Dogman, Early Man, Eighth Grade, Game Night, Green Book, Halloween, Hereditary, I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians, If Beale Street Could Talk, Isle of Dogs, Lean On Pete, Let The Sunshine In, Love After Love, Never Look Away, The Other Side of the Wind, Paddington 2, Private Life, Red Sparrow, The Rider, A Star Is Born, The Sisters Brothers, Sorry To Bother You, Support The Girls, Thoroughbreds, Upgrade, Zama

And these documentaries:

Free Solo, Grace Jones: Blodlight and Bami, Minding The Gap, Shirkers, Studio 54, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, Whitney, The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling

Favorite Short Film:

FAUVE, Jeremy Comte (watch it here)

Small-Screen Freshness:

Barry, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, The Deuce, Escape At Dannemora, GLOW, High Maintenance, Insecure, Mosaic, Wild Wild Country

My favorite performance of the year:

Nicolas Cage as Red Miller in Mandy

Power Trio: 

Bill Heck as Billy Knapp, Grainger Hines as Mr. Arthur, Zoe Kazan as Alice Longabaugh in “The Gal Who Got Rattled,” The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Dynamic Duos:

Ben Foster as Will and Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie as Tom, Leave No Trace

Tomasz Kot as Wiktor and Joanna Kulig as Zula, Cold War

Favorite Ensembles:

Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Happy As Lazzaro, Isle of Dogs, Shoplifters, Sorry To Bother You, Widows

So many more memorable performances:

• Yoo Ah-in as Lee Jong-su, Burning
• Mahershala Ali as Dr. Don Shirley, Green Book
• Yalitza Aparicio as Cleo, Roma
  
• Juliette Binoche as Isabelle, Let The Sunshine In
  
• Madeline Brewer as Alice Ackerman / Lola_Lola, Cam
  
• Jessie Buckley as Moll, Beast
  
• Steve Buscemi as Del Montgomery, Lean On Pete
  
• Henry Cavill as August Walker, Mission Impossible: Fallout
  
• Jakob Cedergren as Asger Holm, The Guilty
  
• Toni Collette as Annie Graham, Hereditary
  
• Olivia Colman as Queen Anne, The Favourite
  
• Daisy as Butterscotch, Damsel
• Ben Dickey as Blaze Foley, Blaze
  
• Matt Dillon as Jack, The House That Jack Built
  
• Yannis Drakopoulos as the Lawyer, Pity
  
• Cynthia Erivo as Darlene Sweet, Bad Times at the El Royale
  
• Rupert Friend as Vasily Stalin in The Death of Stalin
• Marcello Fonte as Marcello, Dogman
  
• Claire Foy as Sawyer Valentini, Unsane
• Hugh Grant as Phoenix Buchanan, Paddington 2
• Richard E. Grant as Jack Hock, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
  
• Regina Hall as Lisa, Support The Girls
• Josh Hamilton as Mark Day, Eighth Grade
• Ethan Hawke as Reverend Ernst Toller, First Reformed
• Nicholas Hoult as Lord Harley, The Favourite
• Udo Kier as Hans, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
• Regina King as Sharon Rivers, If Beale Street Could Talk
• Jude Law as The Manager, Vox Lux
• James Le Gros as Cubby, Support The Girls
• Matilda Lutz as Jen, Revenge
  
• Logan Marshall-Green as Grey Trace, Upgrade
  
• Eva Melander as Tina, Border
  
• Carey Mulligan as Jeanette Brinson, Wildlife
  
• Meinhard Neumann as Meinhard, Western
  
• Evan Peters as Warren Lipka, American Animals
  
• Joachin Phoenix as Joe, You Were Never Really Here
• Jesse Plemons as Gary, Game Night
  
• Charlotte Rampling as Matron, Red Sparrow
  
• Andrea Riseborough as Mandy Bloom, Mandy
  
• Jason Ritter as Bill, The Tale
• Linus Roache as Jeremiah Sand, Mandy
  
• Jake Ryan as Gabe, Eighth Grade
• Mark Rylance as James Halliday, Ready Player One
• Aenne Schwarz as Janne, All Good
  
• Tilda Swinton as Madame Blanc, Helena Markos and Lutz Ebersdorf as Dr. Josef Klemperer, Supiria
  
• Dolly Wells as Anna, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Michelle Williams as Avery LeClaire, I Feel Pretty
• Angela Winkler as Miss Tanner, Suspiria
  
• Anton Yelchin as Tim, Thorougbreds
• Steven Yeun as Ben, Burning

And a special commendation to all the bunnies in The Favourite.

Favorite older film I saw for the first time in 2018:

INDISCREET, Stanley Donen, 1958

THE END!

Tomorrow: Oscar nominations
Today: the stuff that I loved

I hope you check out something on this list that you haven’t heard of, or reconsider something you didn’t intend to see. If it’s not on here, I either didn’t have the opportunity to see it or I didn’t really care for it (and here’s 2016 and 2015 for your perusal).

1. TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN, David Lynch

Without question, the greatest cinematic experience of my year was 18 hours of new David Lynch material, unfurling over four months. However, if we’re talking strictly about theatrical releases, my favorite film of 2017 is

2. PHANTOM THREAD, Paul Thomas Anderson

and the rest of the Top 25, in alphabetical order:

AFTER THE STORM, Hirokazu Kore-eda

THE BIG SICK, Michael Showalter

BPM, Robin Campillo

BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99, S. Craig Zahler

BRIGSBY BEAR, Dave McCary

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, Luca Guadagnino

DUNKIRK, Christopher Nolan

FACES PLACES, Agnès Varda & JR

THE FLORIDA PROJECT, Sean Baker

GET OUT, Jordan Peele

GOOD TIME, Josh and Benny Safdie

IN THE FADE, Fatih Akin

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER, Yorgos Lanthimos

LADY BIRD, Greta Gerwig

THE LURE, Agnieszka Smoczynska

MOTHER!, Darren Aronofsky

PERSONAL SHOPPER, Olivier Assayas

RAW, Julia Ducournau

THE SHAPE OF WATER, Guillermo del Toro

THE SQUARE, Ruben Östlund

SUNTAN, Argyris Papadimitropoulos

THIRST STREET, Nathan Silver

THE WORK,  Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous

But that’s not all! I enjoyed so many more 2017 movies. Sometimes with reservations, but enjoyed nonetheless:

A Ciambra, Baby Driver, Battle of the Sexes, Beatriz at Dinner, The Beguiled, Blade Runner 2049, Brad’s Status, Colossal, The Commune, A Cure For Wellness, Darkest Hour, Detroit, The Disaster Artist, Donald Cried, A Fantastic Woman, Foxtrot, Free Fire, Gerald’s Game, The Ghoul, Girls Trip, Graduation, The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki, Happy End, The Hero, Hounds of Love, Hostiles, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, Ingrid Goes West, It, John Wick: Chapter 2, Lady Macbeth, Landline, The Lego Batman Movie, Logan, Logan Lucky, The Lost City of Z, Lost in Paris, Loveless, Marjorie Prime, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Nocturama, Okja, Patti Cake$, The Post, Prevenge, Roman J. Israel, Esq., Song to Song, Split, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Stronger, Super Dark Times, Thor: Ragnarok, T2 Trainspotting, Thelma, This Is Not What I Expected, The Trip To Spain, The Unknown Girl, Wind River, Wonderstruck, The World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts

And these documentaries:

All These Sleepless Nights, Brimstone & Glory, City of Ghosts, Contemporary Color, David Lynch: The Art Life, Dawson City: Frozen Time, Icarus, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, Karl Marx City, Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press, Risk

Small-Screen Wonders:

Atlanta, The Deuce, GLOW, Mindhunter, Nathan for You “Finding Frances,” Top of the Lake: China Girl, Vice Principals

My favorite performance of the year:

Michael Stuhlbarg as Mr. Perlman in Call Me By Your Name.

Dynamic Duos:

Fiona Gordon as Fiona & Dominique Abel as Dom, Lost in Paris

Armie Hammer as Oliver & Timothée Chalamet as Elio, Call Me by Your Name

John Hamm as Water & Lois Smith as Marjorie, Marjorie Prime

Vicky Krieps as Alma & Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock, Phantom Thread

Favorite Ensembles:

Beatriz at Dinner, The Big Sick, Detroit, The Florida Project, Free Fire, Hostiles, It, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Lady Bird, Okja, The Post, T2 Trainspotting, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

More memorable (and in many cases underrated) performances):

• Lior Ashkenazi as Michael Feldmann, Foxtrot
• Kris Avedisian as Donald, Donald Cried
  
• Nahuel Pérez Biscayart as Sean, BPM
• Emma Booth as Evelyn White, Hounds of Love
  
• Rob Brydon as Rob, The Trip to Spain
• Lindsay Burdge as Gina, Thirst Street
• Bene Coopersmith as Bene, Person to Person
• Siddharth Dhananjay as Jheri, Patti Cake$
  
• Kirsten Dunst as Edwina, The Beguiled
• Buddy Duress as Ray, Good Time
• Betty Gabriel as Georgina, Get Out
• Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster, Thor: Ragnarok
• Tiffany Haddish as Dina, Girls Trip
• Adèle Haenel as Jenny Davin, The Unknown Girl
  
• Fantine Harduin as Eve, Happy End
• Harriet Sansom Harris as Barbara Rose, Phantom Thread
  
• Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Travis, It Comes at Night
• Sally Hawkins as Elisa, The Shape of Water
• Sylvia Hoeks as Luv, Blade Runner 2049
• Lil Rel Howery as Rod Williams, Get Out
  
• O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Dan Pinto, Ingrid Goes West
  
• Dafne Keen as Laura, Logan
• Udo Kier as Placid Man, Brawl in Cell Block 99
• Kirin Kiki as Shinoda Yoshiko, After The Storm
• Kevin Kline as Maurice, Beauty and the Beast
• Diane Kruger as Katja Sekerci, In The Fade
  
• Jarkko Lahti as Olli Mäki, The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki
  
• Alice Lowe as Ruth, Prevenge
  
• Melanie Lynskey as Ruth, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore
• Lesley Manville as Cyril, Phantom Thread
  
• Garance Marillier as Justine, Raw
  
• Elizabeth Marvel as Jean Meyerowitz, The Meyerowitz Stories
  
• Tatiana Maslany as Erin Hurley, Stronger
  
• James McAvoy as Dennis et al., Split
  
• Kyle Mooney as James Pope, Brigsby Bear
• Terry Notary as Oleg, The Square
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Woman, mother!
• Florence Pugh as Katherine, Lady Ma
• Lance Reddick as Charon, John Wick: Chapter 2
  
• Andrea Riseborough as Marilyn Barnett, Battle of the Sexes
  
• Millicent Simmonds as Rose, Wonderstruck
  
• Maryana Spivak as Zhenya, Loveless
  
• John Turturro as Alan, Landline
• Daniela Vega as Marina Vidal, A Fantastic Woman
• Denzel Washington as Roman J. Israel, Esq., Roman J. Israel, Esq.
  
• Michelle Williams as Gail Harris, All the Money in the World
• Dwight Yoakam as Warden Burns, Logan Lucky

Favorite older films I saw for the first time in 2017:

MARRIED TO THE MOB, Jonathan Demme, 1988

THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972

PAPER MOON, Peter Bogdanovich, 1973

PIECES, Juan Piquer Simón, 1982

Fin!

Download 5-part mix here: http://bit.ly/1P4eBRh or Spotify playlist (missing some songs) here: http://spoti.fi/22BHqhZ 
Cliff Martinez “Get Well Or Jump Off”
From The Knick. This is the first track of Part 1, which is entitled BEFORE WE BEGIN.
Bouquet “Come To Your House”
Field Music “The Noisy Days Are Over”
Mura Masa “Lovesick Fuck”
Empress Of “Water Water”
Goat “It’s Time For Fun”
Car Seat Headrest “Something Soon”
Charlie Brand “Baby Blue Motorcycle”
Chris Stamey “The Summer Sun”
1977. From this year’s Ork Records box set, released by Numero Group.
Shannon and The Clams “Point of Being Right”
Last Ex “Hotel Blues”
Blur “Lonesome Street”
Operators “Ecstasy In My House”
Alex Calder “Strange Dreams”
Waxahatchee “La Loose”
BEAK> “The Meader”
Sweet Spirit “I’ve Made Up My Mind”
Molly Nilsson “1995”
Arp “Pulsars e Quasars”
Julia Holter “Sea Calls Me Home”
End of Pt 1 ———————————
Wild Nothing “To Know You”
This is the first track of Part 2, entitled WIND UP.
Deradoorian “A Beautiful Woman”
Wilco “Taste The Ceiling”
HEALTH “LIFE”
FFS “Johnny Delusional”
Gardens & Villa “Fixations”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra “Can’t Keep Checking My Phone”
Bully “Reason”
HeCTA “Sympathy For The Auto Industry”
Spoon “TV Set”
The Cramps cover
Colleen Green “Whatever I Want”
Sufjan Stevens “Blue Bucket of Gold (Remix)”
Cat’s Eyes “Opening Credit Song”
from The Duke of Burgundy
Martin Courtney “Northern Highway”
Gun Outfit “Legends Of My Own”
Micachu & The Shapes “Oh Baby”
Tobias Jesso Jr. “Crocodile Tears”
Little Wings “Light Brang”
Autolux “Change My Head”
End of Pt 2 ———————————
Belle and Sebastian “The Party Line”
This is the first track of Part 3, entitled MOVEMENT. This song also came out at the very end of 2014, but whatever.
Daphne “Vikram”
Chairlift “Ch-Ching”
Thundercat “Them Changes”
Shamir “On The Regular”
Also technically 2014, but I was way late to this.
Frankie Cosmos “Sand”
Tanlines “Pieces”
Deerhunter “Breaker”
Grimes “Kill V. Maim”
Animal Collective “FloriDada”
Mariah “Sora Ni Mau Maboroshi”
1983. Reissued this year by Palo Flats.
Tirzah “Make It Up”
Django Django “First Light”
Brenmar feat. Uniiqu3 “Hula Hoop”
WIN WIN “Don’t Freak Out”
Telekinesis “Sleep In”
YACHT “Don’t Be Rude”
Baio “Sister of Pearl”
Destroyer “Tines Square
Force Publique "Excess”
End of Pt 3 ———————————
Royal Headache “My Own Fantasy”
This is the first track of Part 4, entitled RIPPERS.
Hop Along “The Knock”
Viet Cong “Continental Shelf”
Sleater-Kinney “A New Wave”
Thee Oh Sees “Lupine Ossuary”
Simon Doom “My Baby’s A Baby”
U.S. Girls “Sed Knife”
Disappears “Breaking Glass” (Live)
David Bowie cover
Alex G “Kicker”
EZTV “Hard To Believe”
Mike Krol “La La La”
The Distributors “Never Never”
1980. From the new compilation [Cease & Desist] DIY! (Cult classics from the Post-Punk era 1978 - 82) from Optimo Music.
Coke Weed “Dead Man Walking”
Protomartyr “Clandestine Time”
Torres “Sprinter”
Katie Dey “Unkillable”
Helen “Covered In Shade”
Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield “Roman Candle”
Elliott Smith cover
The Mantles “Island”
Jessica Pratt “Back, Baby”
End of Pt 4 ———————————
Beach House “Majorette”
This is the first track of Part 5, entitled ALL FALL DOWN.
Chrome Sparks “Moonraker”
Ultimate Painting “Kodiak”
Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell “God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get)”
El Perro Del Mar cover
Widowspeak “Dead Love (So Still)”
Katie Von Schleicher “Baby Don’t Go”
Kurt Vile “Life Like This”
Benji Hughes “Freaky Feedback Blues”
Tame Impala “The Moment”
Lower Dens “Quo Vadis”
Boy & Bear “Walk The Wire”
La Grima “Lithium”
Nirvana cover
Weyes Blood “Maybe Love”
Aphex Twin “avril altdelay”
Björk “Stonemilker”
Natalie Prass “Reprise”
Chromatics “Girls Just Wanna Have Dub”
Cyndi Lauper cover
Atticus Ross “Believe”
From Love & Mercy
Yo La Tengo “Deeper Into Movies”
Yo La Tengo cover
Joanna Newsom “Time, As A Symptom”
End of Pt 5. End of mix. End of 2015.

newflags:

Leonard Cohen’s “Midnight Run For Cheetos At The Local 7/11" – May 23, 2015

Photo by Bob Faggen.
Photo & caption contributed by Leonard Cohen.

Tomorrow: Oscar nominations!
Today: one guy’s opinion!

For those of you who care, here are the movies of 2014 that I enjoyed more than the rest of ‘em. If it ain’t here, I didn’t really care for it OR I just damn didn’t see it. And, for those who missed it, here are my year-end music favorites + mix.

20,000 DAYS ON EARTH, Iain Forsythe & Jane Pollard

THE BABADOOK, Jennifer Kent

BOYHOOD, Richard Linklater

THE CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA, Olivier Assayas

EDGE OF TOMORROW, Doug Liman

FORCE MAJEURE, Ruben Östlund

GONE GIRL, David Fincher

THE HOMESMAN, Tommy Lee Jones

INHERENT VICE, Paul Thomas Anderson

LEVIATHAN, Andrey Zvyagintsev

MOMMY, Xavier Dolan

MR. TURNER, Mike Leigh

NYMPHOMANIAC, Lars von Trier

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, Jim Jarmusch

UNDER THE SKIN, Jonathan Glazer

WHAT IF, Michael Dowse

WHITE GOD, Kornél Mundruczó

WILD TALES, Damián Szifrón

———————————————-

I also enjoyed:

Blue Ruin, Citizenfour, The Double, The Drop, Enemy, Evolution of A Criminal, Finding Vivian Maier, Frank, Fury, The Gambler, Godzilla, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Guest, The Humbling, Ida, The Imitation Game, The Immigrant, Jodorowsky’s Dune, John Wick, The Lego Movie, Listen Up Philip, Love Is Strange, Maps To The Stars, A Most Wanted Man, Nightcrawler, Obvious Child, The Rover, Starred Up, Top Five, A Touch of Sin, Two Days One Night, The Two Faces of January, A Walk Among The Tombstones, Wetlands, Wild, Young & Beautiful

And…

• TV, but I’m counting it: Doll & Em, The Knick, Olive Kitteridge, True Detective
• Released in 2014, but included on my previous year’s list: Borgman, Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors, We Are The Best

Repeat viewings:

• 3 times: Under The Skin — this is my favorite movie of the year!
• 2 times: Birdman, Boyhood, Edge of Tomorrow, Force Majeure (second favorite!), Gone Girl, Inherent Vice, Mr. Turner, Whiplash

Sub-genre of the year — “Doggie Drama”

• The Drop, John Wick, The Rover, White God

———————————————-

Instant favorite director:

• Ruben Östlund

Favorite performances of the year:

• Scarlett Johansson in Under The Skin
• Timothy Spall as J.M.W. Turner in Mr. Turner

MVPs:

• Jake Gyllenhaal — as Adam & Anthony in Enemy, as Louis Bloom in Nightcrawler
• David Harbour — as Frank Masters in The Equalizer, as Ray in A Walk Among The Tombstones
• Boyd Holbrook — as Jeff in Gone Girl, as Billy in The Skeleton Twins, as Peter Kristo in A Walk Among The Tombstones
• John Lithgow — as Ben in Love Is Strange, as Reverend Alfred Dodd in The Homesman, as Donald in Interstellar
  
• Lance Reddick — as Major Carver in The Guest, the Hotel Manager in John Wick
• Mia Wasikowska — as Ava in Only Lovers Left Alive, as Hannah in The Double, as Agatha Weiss in Maps To The Stars

Greatest loss:

• Philip Seymour Hoffman

Favorite ensembles of 2014:

• The Grand Budapest Hotel, Force Majeure, The Homesman, Inherent Vice, The Lego Movie, Mr. Turner, What If (aka The F Word)

More memorable performances of 2014:

• Riz Ahmed as Rick in Nightcrawler
• Will Arnett as Batman in The Lego Movie
• Patricia Arquette as Olivia in Boyhood
• Jamie Bell as K in Nymphomaniac
• Juliette Binoche as Maria Enders in Clouds of Sils Maria
• Emily Blunt as Rita in Edge of Tomorrow
• Body & Luke as Hagen in White God
• Josh Brolin as Lt. Det. Christian F. “Bigfoot” Bjornsen in Inherent Vice
• Rob Brydon as “Rob Brydon” in The Trip To Italy
• Nick Cave as “Nick Cave” in 20,000 Days On Earth
• Hong Chau as Jade in Inherent Vice
• Marion Cotillard as Sandra in Two Days, One Night
• Essie Davis as Amelia in The Babadook
• Laura Dern as Bobbi in Wild
• Anne Dorval as Die in Mommy
• Michael Fassbender as Frank in Frank
• Ralph Fiennes as M. Gustave in The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Tom Hiddleston as Adam in Only Lovers Left Alive
• Bill Irwin as TARS in Interstellar
• Alejandro Jodorowsky in Jodorowsky’s Dune
• Carla Juri as Helen in Wetlands
• Agata Kulesza as Wanda in Ida
• Roman Madyanov as Vadim Sergeyich in Leviathan
• J. Mascis as the Janitor in The Double
• Jefferson Mays as Dr. Threeply in Inherent Vice
• Julianne Moore as Havana Segrand in Maps To The Stars
• Johannes Moustos as the Cleaner in Force Majeure
• Elizabeth Moss as Ashley Kane in Listen Up Philip
• Jack O’Connell as Eric Love in Starred Up
• Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Jonas Loogan in A Walk Among The Tombstones
• Guy Pearce as Adam in The Rover
• Adam Pearson as the Deformed Man in Under The Skin
• Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne in Gone Girl
• Antoine-Olivier Pilon as Steve in Mommy
• Erica Rivas as Romina in Wild Tales
• Matthias Schoenaerts as Eric Deeds in The Drop
• Jason Schwartzman as Philip Lewis Friedman in Listen Up Philip
• Dan Stevens as “Adam” in The Guest
• Uma Thurman as Mrs H. in Nymphomaniac
• Agata Trzebuchowska as Anna in Ida
• Marine Vacth as Isabelle in Young & Beautiful
• Michael Kenneth Williams as Neville Baraka in The Gambler
• Casey Wilson as Noelle Hawthorne in Gone Girl

———————————————-

Favorite older films I saw for the first time in 2014:

Investigation of A Citizen Above Suspicion, Elio Petri, 1970

The Last Detail, Hal Ashby, 1973

The Uninvited, Lewis Allen, 1944

———————————————-

THAT’S ALL FOLKS!

I know! I know. 2014 is over.

But as tradition dictates, here’s my annual year-end mix. Mostly songs released in 2014, with a handful of older jams that also stuck with me this year. Related: I’ll have my 2014 film list up in a few weeks. Still digesting and sneaking bites of leftovers. But now… MUSIC!

FOURTEEN (Sung To The Tune Of ‘Jolene’) 

A 2014 Maxx Mixx
Compiled by Max Goldblatt
December 31, 2014

Download Stream

00:00 / OPERATORS /Ancient
06:20 / IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE / Uwa the Peacock (Eki Ko Inuen Uwa)
11:40 / J.J. CALE / Wish I Had Not Said That
14:54 / FLOATING ACTION / House of Secrets
18:17 / SYLVAN ESSO / Play It Right
21:15 / SPOON / Inside Out
26:06 / MINIATURE TIGERS / Frazier Ave
29:25 / EX HEX / War Paint
33:19 / TIMBER TIMBRE / This Low Commotion
38:19 / WILLIAM ONYEABOR / Fantastic Man
44:40 / AMAZING BABY / You’re Not The Man
48:58 / MAC DEMARCO / Blue Boy
51:01 / CARIBOU / Second Chance
54:52 / PETER MATTHEW BAUER / Shiva The Destroyer
58:42 / BILLY SWAN / Don’t Be Cruel
1:02:40 / THE ECHO FRIENDLY / I Wanna Get High With You
1:05:52 / PINK MOUNTAINTOPS / Sell Your Soul
1:09:38 / SHOCKWAVE RIDERZ / Mountaintop Rock
1:12:11 / NAT BALDWIN / Knockout
1:16:43 / THE SORONPRFBS ft. MICHAEL FASSBENDER / I Love You All
1:20:27 / JOSEPH / Shopping
1:23:49 / BOOGARINS / Lucifernandis
1:27:37 / ANGEL OLSEN / Unfucktheworld
1:29:40 / FUTURE ISLANDS / Fall From Grace
1:33:44 / BENJI HUGHES / Monterey

——————————————————————————-

//////15 Favorite Albums///////

THE COLD WAVE

A Mix From Berlin
Compiled by Max Goldblatt
December 3, 2014

DOWNLOAD STREAM

140 MB / TRT 1:16:08

00:00 / RHEINGOLD / F.A.N.
05:15 / DAVID BOWIE / Fantastic Voyage
07:57 / THEE OH SEES / Lupine Dominus
10:59 / SAÂDA BONAIRE / You Could Be More As You Are
16:47 / JJ BURNEL / Euroman
20:11 / ARIEL PINK / Not Enough Violence
26:06 / THE CLEAN / Safe In The Rain
27:54 / X-MAL DEUTSCHLAND / Matador
32:40 / CLUSTER / Hollywood
37:00 / VIVI BACH & DIETMAR SCHÖNHERR / Molotow Cocktail Party
39:28 / MODERAT / A New Error
44:29 / MAZZY STAR / Five String Serenade
48:41 / LA DÜSSELDORF / La Düsseldorf
52:25 / HENRY BADOWSKI / My Face
55:38 / LOWER DENS / Lion In Winter Pt. 2
59:00 / GRAUZONE / Eisbär
1:02:22 / ANNIE / Anthonio (Berlin Breakdown Version)
1:06:16 / SIBYLLE BAIER / Forgett
1:08:23 / NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS / Jublliee Street (Live)

IS IT COLD YET

A mix of mostly bummerjams
Compiled by Max Goldblatt
October 15, 2014

Download Stream
139.17 MB /  TRT 1:15:57

00:00 / PEARLS BEFORE SWINE / When I Was A Child
04:40 / BALLET SCHOOL / Cherish
08:21 / BERT JANSCH / In The Bleak Midwinter
10:37 / BROADCAST / Echo’s Answer
13:33 / GABOR SZABO / Love Is Blue
17:46 / FLOATING ACTION / Fang And Fur
21:08 / THE MOVE / No Time
24:44 / THE ROLLING STONES / Heaven
28:59 / CHAVEZ / Unreal Is Here
31:07 / ANGEL OLSEN / Lights Out
35:23 / FRED NEIL / The Dolphins
39:19 / OPERATORS / Cruel
42:19 / JIM SCHOENFELD / Before
45:40 / PETER MATTHEW BAUER / Fortune Tellers
49:06 / UNICORN / Autumn Wine
51:53 / EMA / When She Comes
55:26 / TIMBER TIMBRE / Run From Me
59:33 / BILL FAY / Release Is In The Eye
1:01:44 / ELLEN O / Heaven Looks Like Flowers
1:04:20 / TIM BUCKLEY / Once I Was
1:07:35 / MICA LEVI / Love
1:12:38 / EX HEX / Outro

One of my favorites covered one of my favorites. And it was good. 

REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT

I took this photo of Mickey Rooney at a book signing in May of 2009. It was the end of the event and Mickey seemed tired. His handler had wandered off and Mickey sat perfectly still for a while. At peace.

michaelleviton:

 Victoria Will  Tintype portrait of Philipp Seymour Hoffman

NEW Timber Timbre “Hot Dreams”

I wanna wake from hot dreams of you.