This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year AND DECADE in Cinema" -- 2019

I am finding Phantom Thread underrated on most of these decade lists.

But don’t tell that to the cinema-equals-the-director’s-cut bohemian purity brigade.

I bet they want to see a 4-hour Bernie Sanders documentary, those purity commies.

I'm more or less proud of my critics group:

http://www.floridafilmcritics.com/2019/12/23/2019-ffcc-winners/

8. “Support the Girls” (2018)
If you sought this movie out after learning that Regina Hall was voted best actress by the New York Film Critics Circle for her work in it, you’d see that she delivers a gutsy, lived-in performance as the general manager of a restaurant called Double Whammies — and that Haley Lu Richardson also excels as the most devil-may-care of the waitresses. Yet the movie, directed by Andrew Bujalski, looks like what would have happened if Jonathan Demme had been the showrunner of an ’80s sitcom. The local-tavern-version-of-Hooters setting is never convincing (it’s “Cheers” with a pinch of downscale desperation), and though critics praised the sisterly solidarity of it, the filmmaking is too ramshackle to lend the empowerment much power.

MY HERO! THANK YOU!

Sight and Sound 2019 list

https://www.bfi.org.uk/best-films-2019

recently watched Ash Is Purest White and An Elephant Sitting Still. I thought they were both really great, they are two of my favorite films of 2019

Florence Pugh had a REALLY good year

Noted critic Barack Obama's list. Morbs may appreciate he dug The Souvenir.

Next up are my favorite movies and TV shows of 2019. Of course, there’s also American Factory, a film from our own production company, Higher Ground, that was recently shortlisted for an Oscar. Here’s the full list: pic.twitter.com/PEcgwotcxm

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 29, 2019

go directly to prison

my Obamacare budget has already cost me one rep cinema membership

He neglected to mention his appearance in The Image Book, i wonder why...

Six of his ten overlap with mine! I generally like Obama's aesthetic taste! I'd get a beer with that guy.

Reminder that PWB faps to an Obama speech in the pilot

A lot of movies started with "A" this year.

I refuse to believe that Obama's year-end lists aren't just culled from the Metacritic meter.

... _I_ don't like metacritic...
*kicks a rock*

Obama prob not crazy about The Report either

i'd sooner get a beer with Metacritic

I admit Morbs may have seen better days, but he's still not to be had for the price of a cocktail - like a salted peanut.

i'm at my peak right this minute i'll have you know

Reminder that PWB faps to an Obama speech in the pilot

― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Sunday, December 29, 2019 6:00 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Also, the opening scene of Booksmart pans around Beanie Feldstein's bedroom, which has a photo of Michelle on the wall.

until I reread that in the quote, my mind somehow interpolated PWB as JLG and I thought Simon was saying that Godard jerks it to Obama speeches in The Image Book, which I haven't seen... but seemed possible!

nah, JLG has it out for muslims

well see

Godard has never had it out for Muslims. if anything, he has an Israel problem...
The Image Book is an enormously empathetic and heartfelt film. "moral fault was merged with state crimes"
Its critique of the Middle East "lacking a territory," a place to express themselves outside of throwing bombs, this is of course a naive reduction
because when Godard says "if you ask me I will always be on the side of those who throw bombs," he sounds like the radical chic blowhard he was in '68-'72. But this film is more humble and open than any of that stuff. it's not a didactic film, it's 84 minutes inside the mind of a man at the end of his life. and he admits he knows nothing, all he has left is hope, "a necessary utopia." it's so beautiful

I only made it through like 14 minutes of The Image Book, presumably because I'm a huge dumbass

devvv had a good comment on letterboxd about Image Book, m/l it works as a pure light and sound show. I mean obviously ymmv but I think the pure flow of the film's images and sounds itself is what makes it so beautiful, compared to Ici et Ailleurs or Numero Deux, much more programmatic and willfully difficult films. I haven't read Finnegans Wake but it feels like the only proper comparison.

ok who is PWB

phoebe waller bridge, creator of fleabag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgHVoeo5K0s

reading the NYT's Year in Culture wrapup yesterday, i have never felt so alienated from everything

Obama probably didn't even recognize Jello Biafra in The Last Black Man in San Francisco pathetic.

— ℑ 𝔇𝔬𝔫'𝔱 𝔅𝔩𝔞𝔪𝔢 𝔜𝔬𝔲 (@NickPinkerton) December 29, 2019

I don't count for much but I put an end-of-decade detrius together.

I'm not sure i ever heard of Only the Young, but the library has it so i'll give it a go.

Yay! It's short and sweet.

Walter Chaw's year-end list is always a great read, no matter how seriously you can take a list that includes Terminator: Dark Fate and The Kid Who Would Be King but no Uncut Gems or Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

https://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2020/01/the-50-best-films-of-2019-by-walter-chaw.html

I've seen a number of serious critics who dislike the latter two

however, his #1 "group" includes Her Smell, High Life, and ye gods, An Elephant Sitting Still, plus the Tarantella, so you can't do much worse than that.

for a long film I thought An Elephant Sitting Still was mesmerizing

the quietness and overwhelming grayness and emptiness of tone, long hypnotic circling tracking shots, shunning of the most violent elements of the story, specific blurring or highlighting of background images, grim determination of characters, subtly hopeful ending - it was all so hypnotic and beautiful

I disagree in every particular; found it just overwhelmingly dreary

I can see not liking it but thought it was so unusual

wouldn't have thought that such a constantly moving camera could be that subduing, but it really drew me in

honestly gun to my head you could erase every Tarantino movie except Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and I would feel a mild sadness but it would be an easy choice

Don't trash movies you haven't seen

Get rid of Jackie Brown over my dead body.

Elephant Sitting Still was one of those movies I will never watch again but it was definitely a memorable experience.

Get rid of Jackie Brown over my dead body.

― temporarily embarrassed thousandaire (Eric H.), Thursday, January 2, 2020 5:59 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah wtf

Miami critics: https://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/miami-film-awards-2019-local-film-experts-pick-their-favorites-of-the-year-and-decade-11396761

I said gun to my head!

Won't someone out there help flappy bird?!