Ryan McNeil
This is the third year in a row I’ve logged my watching habits, so once again when it comes to this year-end post, I’m able to look at patterns in my passion.
The first number that jumps out is the overall number, which for the first time climbed up over 500. Considering last year was just twenty or so lower than this year, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve reached my saturation point. Barring a major life change (one that would give me far more free time or far less), it looks like this is my sweet spot. Know what folks? I’m cool with that. I watch more than most, but still find plenty of time to other things and see other people. To paraphrase Norman Bates, the hobby is still passing my time – not filling it.
One nice little uptick was in my first-time watches (any wonder that I’m the blindspot proponent?). Part of the swell could likely be credited to my starting to use Netflix (how do y’all get anything done?). Part of it also comes down to the amazing things the theatres in my city program. This year my new-to-rewatch ratio was almost two-to-one, so if that was any sort of quiet resolution in 2013, I’d consider it achieved.
And speaking of, I don’t really have any specific resolutions for this year! The directors who I’m hoping to dig into include Altman and Lubitsch, along with hopefully finishing off the Wilder filmography once and for all.
Beyond that, I’ll just take it as it comes. The final breakdown goes like so:
508 Films watched
294 First showings
214 Re-watches
117 Screenings
391 DVD’s
15 Different theatres
98 Commercial films
2 Film festivals
36 Festival screenings
18 Films watched twice each
2 Films screened in theatres twice (THE WORLD’S END and GRAVITY)
Here’s The Final Stretch of 2013…
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
DESPICABLE ME 2 – Yeah, those minions are pretty damned cute.
CRYSTAL FAIRY – And the award for the worst film I watched in 2013 is…
TOKYO STORY – This on the other hand was glorious.
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Watched Before
NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION – My place always feels so under-decorated after watching this.
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK – Sasha James came over. She’d never seen it.
ELF – The Christmas film from 2003 that wasn’t being discussed endlessly last month.
THE ICE STORM – Cause y’know…
BREATHLESS – I want my life to be this stylish.
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE – This *was* going to be a screening, but the aforementioned ice storm quashed that idea.
A CHRISTMAS STORY – You’ll put your eye out.
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE – Oh Robert Pattinson, if only you’d quit while you were ahead.
THE POLAR EXPRESS – Christmas Eve watching part one.
WHITE CHRISTMAS – Christmas Eve watching part two.
MAN OF STEEL – What’s that? You hate it? Wow, you’re the only person who’s told me that.
THE DEPARTED – Guess who upgraded a bunch of Scorsese film to blu-ray on Boxing Day?
DJANGO UNCHAINED – Almost a year after I watched it the first time.
CITY LIGHTS – Whenever I’m feeling crummy, show me the boxing scene.
BEFORE MIDNIGHT – Yep. I do love this film.
RAGING BULL – Quick show of hands, how many of y’all know this is my Twitter banner?
DOGMA – Hey Kevin Smith, why did you stop doing stuff this good?
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS pt 1 – This still annoys me, which is unfortunate…
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS pt 2 – …because together these films make for one amazing watch.
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY… – I might have to start making this a New Year’s Eve tradition.
Wow! 500+ films is quite an achievement, especially with so many first-time watches. Here’s what I’ve been watching:
THE WOLVERINE – I enjoyed this a lot despite it following a pretty generic plot at times. Jackman really owns the character by this point.
JACK REACHER – I violated my resolution not to watch dull, generic films with this one.
PIRATE RADIO – Did this as part of a “Secret Santa” swap among bloggers, and it was good fun.
THE EAST – Enjoyed this a bit more than SOUND OF MY VOICE, yet I still wasn’t blown away by it. Brit Marling is very good, though.
MILLENNIUM ACTRESS – A confounding film, but also so intriguing.
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES – Strong acting (mostly) and very ambitious, and it’s hard to knock down a movie for trying. I struggled with the last act, though.
Something tells me I’ll never get to the 500 threshold again. But hey, who knows?
Believe it or not Millennium Actress was actually listed for me as part of my anime syllabus back in the day. Who’d have guessed? I remember really being rather smitten with it, so you might wanna go digging through my back pages.
I somehow keep forgetting all about Pirate Radio. Thanks for the reminder.
I think you have a shot at 500 again, especially with all the options out there. But that takes some serious dedication. I think mine will go up a little in 2014, but probably still be in the usual range.
500+ films, damn… I did over 470. In the course of these final days of 2013. I saw the following first-timers: Nebraska, Inside Llewyn Davis, Au Hasard Balthazar, The Wolf of Wall Street, Popeye Meets Hercules, Jack the Giant Slayer, Anchorman 2, and American Hustle.
In Re-watches: Namath, Hoosiers, Skyfall, Black Narcissus, The Cowboy Way, and City of God to close the year.
Would you believe I’ve never seen Hoosiers? Maybe I should have listed it on this year’s blindspots! Or maybe I should just get off my ass and give it a look without excuses.
I *do* have Balthazar on my DVR now ready for the watching, so at least I’ll be able to get past that “shouldaseen” in the near future. Course, if I’d been on my game, I would have caught that when it screened at The Lightbox last spring.
I knew it was your twitter banner.
Also, I’d tell you to watch more new films than do rewatches, but you rewatched more films than I saw this entire year. 2013 was a slim movie-watching year for me.
I do hear your voice in my ear everytime I think about watching new versus revisiting the familiar. I think a ratio of about 3:2 is about right, especially since I always want to give first-timers due attention (whereas with a rewatch I can be moving about, glancing at my phone, that sort of thing).
Loved your Discoveries post btw – here’s to more of the same in 2014!
I recognized your Twitter banner a while back, but it still gives me a smile when I see it. It’s a good, subtle one.
Lubitsch is superb. Enjoy. Trouble in Paradise is my favorite. I don’t know if The Love Parade ever made it to DVD, but it’s fantastic as well.
For me in first-timers:
Swing Time
White House Down
Europa Report
Fairy Tales
Seedpeople
And I re-watched:
Raw Deal (the ’80s Arnold one)
Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu
Thelma & Louise
According to Letterboxd I watched 232 movies in 2013, which seems paltry compared to your total, but it still seems like a whole lot of movies in the grand scheme of things.
Considering how bloody a place Twitter can be sometimes, I think it’s especially apropos! That said, I have one in mind to change it to and might pull the trigger soon.
How’d Thelma & Louise hold up for you? I was lucky enough to see a screening of that summer-before-last with Sarandon and Davis in town to introduce it.
As for Europa Report, was it my imagination or didn’t that feel like a film we’ve already seen before?
Hahaha, Twitter is something of a bloody ring at times! Probably why I don’t engage too much there.
I liked Thelma & Louise OK. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid (when I saw it a couple of times). I’m surprised it won Best Screenplay to be honest. There had to be better things out there. But I enjoyed it.
There is something of a familiar quality to Europa Report, but I don’t know if I can think of another movie that actually does what that movie sets out to do. All I could think of while watching it was Ben Bova’s novel Mars, which is very similar in many ways.
re: the oscar for T&L’s screenplay…
One thing I really started seeing last year when I dug into seeing past Best Picture winners was that these films are often signposts of where the world – and more recently America – is at when they’re being handed out. So in T&L’s case, recall that 1992 was just one year after Anita Hill sparked the conversation on sexual harassment.
There’s an empowering element to Thelma & Louise, something that was uncommon at the time, and a marker of the (still-too-fucking-slowly) shift in sexual politics.
I ended off the year with the following:
First Time:
Drug War – Loved it.
American Hustle – Laughed a lot but did not stick with me.
2 Guns – Pretty much what I expected. It killed a few hours.
Riddick – Could have been better…could have been worse.
Trance – Least favourite Danny Boyle film. The gender politics would make for a fascinating essay though.
The Broken Circle Breakdown – Loved it.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Considering that I was ‘meh’ to the first one, I had a lot of fun with this film.
Inside Llewyn Davis – Really enjoyed it.
Miami Connection – This film is a special kind of bad. Hilarious if you watch random clips but painful if you have to sit through the whole movie.
Troll 2 – Awful film but a lot of fun to watch.
Sherlock, Jr. – It was a pleasure to finally meet you Mr. Keaton. Hope to see more of you soon.
The Wolf of Wall Street – Plays like Wall Street meets The Hangover but man was it fun to watch.
Wings of Desire – Nice film to end the 2013 Blind Spot series on.
Re-Watched:
The Sound of Music – Still not sure why this is a holiday tradition for us. Film is still lovely.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) – Just not a fan of Burton remakes (e.g. this, Planet of the Apes, Alice in Wonderland, etc.)
Frances Ha – Not quite as funny as I remembered but still great.
Fast Five – Still brings a smile to my face.
Skyfall – May need to move this into my top 3 in terms of favourite Bond films.
Quiet few weeks, eh C?
Lordy what a time for us to be skipping pub night! Is it the end of January yet?