Ryan McNeil
On New Year’s Day of 2014, I spent the day watching the Indiana Jones series on blu-ray. New Year’s Day of 2015, I spent the day reading a Dave Eggers novel. Maybe that day of pages-over-titles should have told me how this past year was going to go.
Back in the spring I noticed that my film-watching had taken a dip, and I guessed then and there that it might be a permanent change for the rest of the year. Turns out I was right. My overall tally is down this year, so too is my first-timer tally.
However, lest we start suggesting “Ryan is off movies”, my screening total remains more or less the same.
Still, my moviegoing in 2015 brought me some wonderful things. Thanks to my Blindspot ventures, I’ve been introduced to some killer classics that are bound to be future favorites. Ditto, the way I get TCM to play programmer for me (though I sure do wish they’d get their email reminder system fixed).
I even got to take part in my first out-of-town film festival by catching some of San Francisco’s Silent Film Festival at The Castro!
So perhaps that’s the thing; just because your consumption is taking a dip, it doesn’t mean that the enjoyment you take from it also has to wane. Perhaps the opposite!
Well, 2016 also began on the couch with a book, so perhaps my future holds more of the same. Or perhaps the consumption will climb back up.
Who’s to say? Either way – I’m good!
The final breakdown goes like so:
425 Films watched
248 First showings
177 Re-watches
116 Screenings
308 DVD’s
17 Different theatres
82 Commercial films
2 Film festivals
35 Festival screenings
16 Films watched twice each
3 Films screened in theatres twice (THE FORCE AWAKENS, AGE OF ULTRON, and INSIDE OUT)
Here’s the final week of 2015…
Screenings
THE HATEFUL EIGHT – This is in contention for my biggest disappointment of 2015.
JOY – This isn’t far behind in the disappointment department, but seems far more messy where HATEFUL EIGHT just seems so full of itself. More on this Wonder mop epic in a few days.
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS – My first proper experience in a Cineplex VIP cinema. There’s something very Vincent Vega about drinking a glass of beer in your screening.
Streaming/Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
DARK STAR – If I told you back in 1974 that the director of this movie was going to go on to become one of the most influential in genre films, you’d never have believed me. Thank God for second chances.
ROCKY IV – I told Lindsay that I knew everything that happens in this movie, even though I’d never seen it end-to-end. Turns out I was right.
RHAPSODY IN BLUE – New Year’s Eve viewing, and proof that bio-pics have long played fast and loose with the facts.
Streaming/Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Seen Before
EYES WIDE SHUT – Watched a few days before the 24th, in the future this could be a Christmas Eve selection.
ON THE WATERFRONT – Carefully chosen to get the taste of ROCKY 4 out of my mouth.
THE APARTMENT – My annual Christmas Eve watch.
STAR TREK (2009) – All of this discussion of that other Abrams movie made me want to go back to his last franchise venture…
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS – …and you can’t just stop at one.
INSIDE OUT – Every time I watch this film I notice more and more little details and fall deeper and deeper in love with it.
BIRDMAN – I still enjoy the heck out of this movie, but I wonder what the passing of time is going to do to it?
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY – Just because.
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA – In preparation for my year-end podcast, I revisited what I believed to be my favorite film of the year “just in case”. Turns out, I felt as deeply in love with this film on rewatch.
WORLD OF TOMORROW – This movie is going on my phone in the near future.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD – All of my Hateful Eight disappointment made me want to revisit a modern western that isn’t all sizzle and no steak.
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX – Lindsay has been working her way through the series. I happened to be home for the middle of it.
Boxscore for The Year
242 First-Timers, 165 Re-Watched
113 Screenings
407 Movies in Total
How’s about you – seen anything good?
How do you watch so many movies and read so many books and (presumably) have a life? HOW?!
Happy New Year btw 😛 Sorry I haven’t been around much. Will try to change that.
First and foremost, it all changes when you finish school and “get settled”. But specifically;
Not much time spent passively browsing online, not much time spent channel-surfing. When the TV is on it’s because I have something specific in-mind to watch.
As for the books, they are my workday company. To work, from work, and at lunch. I actually don’t read much at home.
All in all, just dumb luck and establishing a routine.
So how did you end up spending your New Year’s Day? 120 screenings for me in 2015, but only 286 films overall – a new low.
My NYD was spent listening to records, reading 300 pages of The Sparrow, and watching the Sherlock special. I regret nothing.
Nice! I read CAROL (or THE PRICE OF SALT if you will), watched HOT FUZZ and watched a few episodes of PARENTHOOD. Sherlock came out on the 2nd here, watched that then. I’m okay with all of this.
I’ve filed “The Price of Salt” away as one I want to read this year, but need to wait until I get a bit of the pile that has amassed read first.
Had you heard about Paulie’s robot birthday present before seeing Rocky IV? Seriously, I’m a little amazed that you’d avoided Rocky IV for so long. It’s also a really short 91 minutes! It’s like a Rocky movie without the character moments.
Here’s what I knew:
Apollo fights Drago in an exhibition bout; the fight kills Apollo.
Rocky agrees to a match in the USSR as some sort of…revenge? comeuppance? earned title fight? (who knows, who cares). The fight happens on Christmas in Moscow and Rocky wins.
Lindsay could have saved me 91 minutes – time I could have watched plenty of other things – and just said “That’s the whole movie, plus Paulie gets a toy robot”
R4 is for people who think TOP GUN is too subtle.