Ryan McNeil
A quiet week, but one with a little bit of everything. Two screenings, a year-end screener dvd, and some old favorites to round things out.
At the cinema, I was truly chuffed to experience CITIZENFOUR, since it’s handily one of the best films I’d seen all year. The trick at this point is trying to figure out how to write about it, since it’s not the sort of film that easily lends itself to analysis. Likewise, I (like many of you) paid full price for half-a-story’s worth of a movie.
At home, the screener dvd’s started showing up. The only funny thing is that the package that usually contains the best stuff showed up this week…and it did contain a lot of the best stuff – unfortunately, it was primarily stuff I’ve already seen (and oddly, a lot of it is already on Netflix).
And then the light turned green on watching the Christmas films (we had a big parade on Toronto this week, so that’s usually the tipping point). I know it might seem strange to be talking about holiday fare already, but the way I see it, if you space them out a bit over several weeks, it doesn’t feel like you’re stuffing your face in the days leading up. Likewise, you can pay attention to other things in those last few days and give yourself a break from all things red-and-green. What say you folks? Too early?
Here’s The Week at Hand…
Screenings
CITIZENFOUR – Honestly gang, I really wanted to just come home and scrub my footprint when this was done.
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY pt. 1 – We really gotta stop splitting these movies in two.
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
THE GOODBYE GIRL – Yeah, I can understand the hype.
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING – Well that was pretty…
HEARTBURN – The only Mike Nichols film on Netflix I hadn’t seen.
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Seen Before
GHOSTBUSTERS – We got to introduce my seven-year-old niece to this pop culture touchstone
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS – Also for my niece – she loved Sally
GROSSE POINTE BLANK – How do I always forget how killer this soundtrack is?
LOVE ACTUALLY – So what’s the first Christmas movie you reach for each winter?
Boxscore for The Year
252 First-Timers, 177 Re-Watched
92 Screenings
429 Movies in Total
First-Timers: Mud, my Blind Spot assignment in Spirited Away, The Tempest (2010 film), and Maps to the Stars.
Re-Watches: Three Men and a Baby, Three Men and a Little Lady, The Legend of Zorro, and Basquiat.
You just reminded me – save your money and skip Mockingjay. Your muse is in it for literally five seconds at the very end.
Hey, what a coincidence. I just saw Ghostbusters last weekend for the first time since I was in Grade 3. I feel like I would have been able to enjoy it more if I could watch it without constantly being distracted by the fact that there were no female Ghostbusters.
Aside from that, I’ve had to see The Bourne Supremacy, which was better than I expected, and I just saw The Artist which was a strange but interesting film.
What made The Artist feel strange to you?
LOVE The Nightmare Before Christmas! One of my favorites.
As for what I usually reach for first during the Christmas season, it’s usually Home Alone or Jingle All the Way. Although White Christmas is probably my favorite Christmas movie. And I love catching Back to the Future playing on TCM through the month of December.
Also, isn’t The Theory of Everything a screening? I want to see it!
Re: The Theory of Everything…
I’m a member of OFCS, and this time of year I get screener DVDs sent to me
I don’t really reach for any holiday movies myself. I do intend to watch Christmas-themed horror movies every year, but for some reason that rarely happens. Maybe this year! I like your “space them out” strategy too.
For me, first-timers:
The Guyver – for podcasting purposes.
One Million-Year Trip: Bandar Book – ’70s anime that’s a lot of fun.
And I re-watched:
Nightbreed – although this time I watched the newly released Director’s cut, which is basically a different, much better film.
Maybe they were tweets I saw in your feed, but it feels like I was reading about The Guyver a lot last week. Am I missing out on something?
Should watch Nightmare before Christmas this season. I only watched it as a Halloween film. And regarding Christmas films, I always said that I would watch the 2009 version of a A Christmas Carol (the animated one) but failed each year. It’s become a tradition to fail watching this film. I don’t know if you saw it but if you did, is it worth it?
This week I haven’t seen much. Just three movies, all in a theater.
Fury – it shows the horror of war. I found it interesting that they chose to focus on the men in the tank for once. but it was predictable. good but predictable
Whiplash – I was amazed by this film. I saw it during a festival about psychoanalysis and film. It doesn’t come in Romania until February so it’s good I saw it now. I would really like to know how Miles Teller learnt to play the drums like that.
Clouds of Sils Maria – During the same festival. I just got back from a screening. I am mixed on it. But the acting is solid as well as the visuals. I did feel disappointment after watching it. I appreciate it more in retrospect. However, I am glad I saw it because at my home it’s coming out all the way in April and was very interested about it. Glad I got that out of the way.
I also saw the TV show Broadchurch. A small town murder that shakes the whole population. Everyone has secrets of course. It works great as a murder mystery and a study in grief and how media responds to this type of events. It’s only 8 episodes. Oh, and the acting is top notch.
Have a great week!
I did see Zemeckis’ CHRISTMAS CAROL actually! If you click the review index you can even see what I thought about it after my screening five years ago (geez, time flies)
I’m actually jealous of you getting to see Sils Maria because that was one I heard A LOT of great things about coming away from TIFF, but didn’t have a chance to see during the festival. Something tells me I’ll be waiting a while to finally get my crack at it.