Hypothetical 2016 Village Voice Ballot

Best Film
1. Manchester by the Sea
2. Cameraperson
3. My Golden Days
4. The Handmaiden
5. O.J.: Made in America
6. Mountains May Depart
7. Cemetery of Splendour
8. Right Now, Wrong There
9. Kate Plays Christine
10. Certain Women

Best Actor
1. Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
2. Hidetoshi Nishijima, Creepy
3. Jung Jae-young, Right Now, Wrong Then

Best Actress
1. Kate Lyn Sheil, Kate Plays Christine
2. Zhao Tao, Mountains May Depart
3. Kim Min-hee, The Handmaiden

Best Supporting Actress
1. Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
2. Sylvia Chang, Mountains May Depart
3. Michelle Williams, Certain Women

Best Supporting Actor
1. Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
2. Tom Bennett, Love & Friendship
3. Mathieu Amalric, My Golden Days

Best Director
Jia Zhangke

Best Screenplay
Manchester by the Sea

Best Undistributed Film
N/A

Best First Feature
The Edge of Seventeen

Best Documentary
Cameraperson

Best Animated Feature
Kubo and the Two Strings

Worst Film
Suicide Squad

Movie Everybody Is Wrong About
La La Land

2016 EOY Preparation

Jia
Park
Kurosawa
Scorsese
Johnson

Lyn Sheil
Tao
Huppert
Braga
Deyn
Steinfeld/Kim/Kim/Kim/Huppert/Huppert/Bening/Beckinsale/Robinson/Cotillard

Affleck
Nishijima
Jung
Garfield
Hanks
Weiner
Corban
Marshall-Green
Driver

Hedges
Bennett
Kagawa
Ogata
Lafitte
Asano
Amalric

Gladstone
Chang
Williams
Courau
Farahani
Rice

MBTS
RNWT
Elle
Silence
MGD
TTC

Violence montage
The voice
The accident flashback
In living color
Throw away your books, run away in the fields
Emoji texting
Tête-à-tête/*Happy Hour scene*/The dinner invitation/Interrogation/Final confrontation/"Sing Sing Sing"/First night at Sound Machine/Claire and Tom's interlude/Menstruation discussion/The movie theater/Jamie's long drive home/The monkey's tale/"Go West" reprise

Ensemble
Happy Hour
Handmaiden
L&F
20th
HGBD
Silence
MBTS
CW
EoS
Rules

Cinematography
Handmaiden
MMD
Silence
SS
Shallows
Moonlight
CW
Paterson

Score
Handmaiden
MMD
MBTS
OJ
Moonlight
Paterson
KPC

Editing
Cameraperson
MBTS
Handmaiden
OJ
TTC/Aquarius
Silence
Happy Hour
Paterson

Body of Work
Huppert
Kim
Garfield
Williams
Broderick
Stewart

Breakthrough
Gladstone
Kim
Johnson
Craig
Hedges

Arrival Fragment

His focus remains resolutely on the efforts of humans to come to terms with these newfound entities. For all intents and purposes taking place in the present, complete with radio conspiracy theorists and a jab at Fox News, it is clear that underneath all the mammoth pods (the twelve spaceships that land in various places around the world) and the heavy military presence,

An Ethos

Wanted to post this to remind myself: "I definitely believe in some notion of objectivity and that there is an importance in the divide between that and subjectivity; readers should take into account the fact that there is a living, breathing person writing the piece and adjust accordingly but part of the onus is on the writer to deliver a fair and level-headed assessment of the film."

'94 1 22

An in-progress work of speculative fiction.

What if time stopped on January 22, 1994?

Not in the sense that the natural progression of events would stop, but in an altogether more surreal way. Without acknowledgment, the Gregorian calendar comes to an end on January 22, 1994.

First Best Scene 2016 Audit

my golden days final confrontation
cameraperson violence montage
ews!! first night at sound machine
kpc christine in living color
kubo monkey’s tale
tower claire and tom’s interlude
allied sing sing sing
handmaiden throw away your books run away in the fields
spl ii emoji texting
sully first landing
creepy interrogation

mmd
rnwt
certain women

Film Comment Top 50 Cross-Referencing

Really just noting myself, but wanted to look at any discrepancies between the Film Comment top 50 (I've found typically the most reliable for encompassing everything theatrically released in the given year) and D'Angelo's commercial release lists.
-Is Room 237 a 2012 or 2013 release? By all accounts it should be 2013 but D'Angelo specifically says it was released in 2012 in the week of December 7.
-Le Pont du Nord, 2013? Probable D'Angelo mistake.
-Cousin Jules, Dominique Benicheti: never heard of nor on D'Angelo's list.
-A Man Vanishes, Imamura, 2012
-Of Time and the City, Davies, 2009
-Gomorrah, Garrone, 2008
-Ashes of Time Redux, 2008: fairly understandable
-Fengming: A Chinese Memoir, 2008
-Killer of Sheep, 2007: the impetus for the list, especially because it's so freaking high (6!!)
Army of Shadows doesn't count anymore but for posterity's sake
-When the Levees Broke, 2006: not sure whether this was actually shown in theaters, should check
-No Direction Home, 2005: same as above
-Apocalypse Now Redux, 2001: odd coincidence in titling

Grasshopper Film Transmissions 10/10

Ten favorite films from the last ten years unless otherwise specified (same for alphabetical or chronological order).

Matías Piñeiro

1. Historias Extraordinarias (2008, Mariano Llinás)
2. Film Socialisme (2010, Jean-Luc Godard)
3. Happy Hour (2015, Hamaguchi Ryūsuke)
4. Hill of Freedom (2014, Hong Sang-soo)
5. A Thousand Suns (2013, Mati Diop)
6. Out-Takes From the Life of a Happy Man (2012, Jonas Mekas)
7. The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007, Éric Rohmer)
8. Syndromes and a Century (2006, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
9. Sweetgrass (2009, Ilisa Barbash & Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
10. Till Madness Do Us Part (2013, Wang Bing)

Corneliu Porumboiu

1. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu (2010, Andrei Ujică)
2. Hahaha (2010, Hong Sang-soo)
3. Le Havre (2011, Aki Kaurismäki)
4. The Loneliest Planet (2011, Julia Loktev)
5. Melancholia (2011, Lars von Trier)
6. Modern Life (2008, Raymond Depardon)
7. No Country for Old Men (2007, Joel & Ethan Coen)
8. A Prophet (2009, Jacques Audiard)
9. Stranger by the Lake (2013, Alain Guiraudie)
10. Windows on Monday (2006, Ulrich Köhler)

Pedro Costa

1. Un Conte de Michel de Montaigne (2012, Jean-Marie Straub)
2. Fengming, a Chinese Memoir (2007, Wang Bing)
3. Film Socialisme (2010, Jean-Luc Godard)
4. La Guerre d'Algérie! (2014, Jean-Marie Straub)
5. If I Were a Thief...I'd Steal (2013, Paulo Rocha)
6. The Itinerary of Jean Bricard (2008, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
7. The Strange Case of Angelica (2010, Manoel de Oliveira)
8. Syndromes and a Century (2006, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
9. These Encounters of Theirs (2006, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
10. Visit, or Memories and Confessions (1982/2015, Manoel de Oliveira)

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Favorite Films)

1. Blue (1993, Derek Jarman)
2. The Conversation (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
3. Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988, Terence Davies)
4. Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965, Russ Meyer)
5. Gattaca (1997, Andrew Niccol)
6. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003, Tsai Ming-liang)
7. Prefab People (1982, Tarr Béla)
8. The Puppetmaster (1993, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
9. Quick Billy (1970, Bruce Baillie)
10. Weekend (1967, Jean-Luc Godard)

Bi Gan

1. All Around Us (2008, Hashiguchi Ryōsuke)
2. The Assassin (2015, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
3. Gravity (2013, Alfonso Cuarón)
4. Kemonozume (2006, Yuasa Masaaki)
5. Leviathan (2012, Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)
6. Poetry (2010, Lee Chang-dong)
7. The Salt of the Earth (2014, Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado)
8. Silent Light (2007, Carlos Reygadas)
9. Stray Dogs (2013, Tsai Ming-liang)
10. Tabu (2012, Miguel Gomes)

Thom Andersen

1. These Encounters of Theirs (2006, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
2. 24 City (2008, Jia Zhangke)
3. It Felt Like a Kiss (2009, Adam Curtis)
4. Winter Vacation (2010, Li Hongqi)
5. The Kid With a Bike (2011, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
6. Le Havre (2011, Aki Kaurismäki)
7. Three Sisters (2012, Wang Bing)
8. Like Someone in Love (2012, Abbas Kiarostami)
9. You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (2012, Alain Resnais)
10. 52 Films (2015, James Benning)

José Luis Guerín

1. Flight of the Red Balloon (2007, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
2. Frontier of the Dawn (2008, Philippe Garrel)
3. Mountains May Depart (2015, Jia Zhangke)
4. Ne change rien (2009, Pedro Costa)
5. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013, Jim Jarmusch)
6. The Strange Case of Angelica (2010, Manoel de Oliveira)
7. Tabu (2012, Miguel Gomes)
8. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2011, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
9. Woman on the Beach (2006, Hong Sang-soo)
10. Yuki & Nina (2009, Hippolyte Girardot and Suwa Nobuhiro)

Robert Greene (Documentaries)

1. The Act of Killing/The Look of Silence (2012/2014, Joshua Oppenheimer)
2. Ne Me Quitte Pas (2013, Sabine Lubbe Baker and Niels van Koeverden)
3. Leviathan (2012, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel)
4. Below Sea Level (2008, Gianfranco Rosi)
5. Sleepless Nights (2012, Eliane Raheb)
6. Cameraperson (2016, Kirsten Johnson)
7. Homeland: Iraq Year Zero (2015, Abbas Fahdel)
8. Of Men and War (2014, Laurent Becue-Renard)
9. 45365 (2009, Bill & Turner Ross)
10. Disorder (2009, Huang Weikai)

Terence Nance

1. (T)error (2015, Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe)
2. The Band's Visit (2007, Eran Kolirin)
3. Boy (2010, Taika Waititi)
4. Children of Men (2006, Alfonso Cuarón)
5. Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2006, Michel Gondry)
6. Dheepan (2015, Jacques Audiard)
7. Fruitvale Station (2013, Ryan Coogler)
8. It Follows (2014, David Robert Mitchell)
9. Medicine for Melancholy (2008, Barry Jenkins)
10. A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi)
11. Timbuktu (2014, Abderrhamane Sissako)
12. When the Levees Broke (2006, Spike Lee)

Mauro Herce

1. Bastards (2013, Claire Denis)
2. The Day He Arrives (2011, Hong Sang-soo)
3. Fengming, a Chinese Memoir (2007, Wang Bing)
4. Lorna's Silence (2008, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
5. Ne change rien (2009, Pedro Costa)
6. Paranoid Park (2007, Gus Van Sant)
7. A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi)
8. Syndromes and a Century (2006, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
9. The Turin Horse (2011, Tarr Béla and Hranitzky Ágnes)
10. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

Honorable Mentions: Despite the Night (Philippe Grandrieux), Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard), Heartbeat Detector (Nicolas Klotz), Inland Empire (David Lynch), Lost and Beautiful (Pietro Marcello), Oleg and the Rare Arts (Andrés Duque), Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch), Phenix (Catherine Libert), Story of My Death (Albert Serra), Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)

Deborah Stratman

1. Bernadette (2008, Duncan Campbell)
2. Bete & Deise (2012, Wendelien van Oldenborogh)
3. Charlie's Country (2013, Rolf de Heer)
4. Disorder (2009, Huang Weikai)
5. Dissonant (2010, Manon de Boer)
6. Ears, Nose and Throat (2016, Kevin Jerome Everson)
7. In Comparison (2009, Harun Farocki)
8. Jauja (2014, Lisandro Alonso)
9. Meek's Cutoff (2010, Kelly Reichardt)
10. Modest Livelihood (2012, Brian Jungen & Duane Linklater)
11. Sick Serena and Dregs and Wreck and Wreck (2007, Emily Wardill)

Zhao Liang (Favorite Films)

1. The Mirror (1975, Andrei Tarkovsky)
2. Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (2004, Theo Angelopoulos)
3. Underground (1995, Emir Kusturica)
4. Down By Law (1986, Jim Jarmusch)
5. Sátántangó (1994, Tarr Béla)
6. Stroszek (1977, Werner Herzog)
7. Siberiade (1979, Andrei Kochalovsky)
8. The Sting of Death (1990, Oguri Kōhei)
9. Songs from the Second Floor (2000, Roy Andersson)
10. Silent Light (2007, Carlos Reygadas)

Jean-Marie Straub (Some of his favorites)

1. Monsieur Verdoux (1947, Charles Chaplin)
2. Monsieur Verdoux (1947, Charles Chaplin)
3. Monsieur Verdoux (1947, Charles Chaplin)
4. Lady Windermere's Fan (1925, Ernst Lubitsch)
5. Gertrud (1964, Carl Th. Dreyer)
6. Les Dames du Bois du Boulogne (1945, Robert Bresson)
7. A Man Escaped (1956, Robert Bresson)
8. Diary of a Country Priest (1951, Robert Bresson)
9. City Lights (1931, Charles Chaplin)
10. Night at the Crossroads (1932, Jean Renoir)
11. all the Fords

Pietro Marcello (Favorite Films)

1. And Still I Believe (1974, Mikhail Romm)
2. Andrei Rublev (1966, Andrei Tarkovsky)
3. The Ascent (1977, Larisa Shepitko)
4. Come and See (1985, Elem Klimov)
5. Earth (1930, Alexander Dovzhenko)
6. Freeze Die Come to Life (1990, Vitali Kanevsky)
7. Getting to Know the Big Wide World (1979, Kira Muratova)
8. July Rain (1967, Marlen Khutsiev)
9. Maria (1978-1988, Alexander Sokurov)
10. The Mirror (1975, Andrei Tarkovsky)
11. The Red Snowball Tree (1974, Vasily Shukshin)
12. The Seasons (1975, Artavazd Peleshian)
13. Tale of Tales (1979, Yuri Norštejn)

Óliver Laxe

1. Dress Rehearsal for Utopia (2012, Andrés Duque)
2. Leviathan (2012, Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)
3. Lost and Beautiful (2015, Pietro Marcello)
4. Meek’s Cutoff (2010, Kelly Reichardt)
5. Mountain in Shadow (2012, Lois Patiño)
6. Our Beloved Month of August (2008, Miguel Gomes)
7. Pastourelle (2010, Nathaniel Dorsky)
8. Slow Action (2011, Ben Rivers)
9. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
10. A Useful Life (2010, Federico Veiroj)
11. Vikingland (2011, Xurxo Chirro)

Eduardo Williams (With Exceptions)

1. Bill Douglas Trilogy: My Childhood (1972) / My Ain Folk (1973) / My Way Home (1978)
2. The Death of Louis XIV (2016, Albert Serra)
3. Équation à un Inconnu (1979, Dietrich de Velsa)
4. Fango (2012, José Campusano)
5. Homeland: Iraq Year Zero (2015, Abbas Fahdel)
6. Manakamana (2013, Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez)
7. May They Rest in Revolt (Figures of Wars) (2010, Sylvain George)
8. O Fantasma (2000, João Pedro Rodrigues)
9. Rebels of the Neon God (1992, Tsai Ming-liang)
10. The Secret Nation (1989, Jorge Sanjinés)
11. Short Stay (2016, Ted Fendt)
12. Silent Light (2007, Carlos Reygadas)
13. Three Sisters (2012, Wang Bing)

Feras Fayyad (Influences)

1. City Lights (1931, Charles Chaplin)
2. A Clockwork Orange (1971, Stanley Kubrick)
3. Gates of Heaven (1978, Errol Morris)
4. Mamma Roma (1962, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
5. Nanook of the North (1922, Robert J. Flaherty)
6. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Th. Dreyer)
7. Rome, Open City (1946, Roberto Rossellini)
8. The Sacrifice (1986, Andrei Tarkovsky)
9. Seven Samurai (1954, Kurosawa Akira)
10. Tokyo Story (1953, Ozu Yasujirō)

Benjamin Crotty

1. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016, Ang Lee)
2. De Novo (2009, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster)
3. I-be Area (2007, Ryan Trecartin)
4. Lost and Beautiful (2015, Pietro Marcello)
5. Melvil (2006, Melvil Poupaud)
6. The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007, Éric Rohmer)
7. Rust and Bone (2012, Jacques Audiard)
8. They All Lie (2009, Matías Piñeiro)
9. Tom at the Farm (2013, Xavier Dolan)
10. Zodiac (2007, David Fincher)

Andrew Rossi
2007: There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2008: Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
2009: Videocracy (Erik Gandini), Food, Inc. (Robert Kenner), Precious (Lee Daniels)
2010: Inside Job (Charles Ferguson), Restrepo (Tim Hetherington & Sebastian Junger), Tiny Furniture (Lena Dunham), Inception (Christopher Nolan)
2011: The Story of Film (Mark Cousins), The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
2012: The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer)
2013: Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski), American Hustle (David O. Russell), Manakamana (Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez), Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)
2014: Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen), re-release at the IFC Center, The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci), re-release at Film Forum; Citizen Four (Laura Poitras) followed by discussion with Poitras and Kent Jones at New York Film Festival.
2015: In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai), Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou) and Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg), triple feature on flight to Beijing, Cathay Pacific.
2016: Hospital (Frederick Wiseman) followed by discussion with Wiseman moderated by Nicholas Rapold at the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam, Opening Night (John Cassavetes) followed by discussion with Gena Rowlands moderated by Jake Perlin at Metrograph, I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) followed by discussion with Peck and Dennis Lim at New York Film Festival.

Sean Baker

1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007, Cristian Mungiu)
2. The Act of Killing (2012, Joshua Oppenheimer)
3. Import Export (2007, Ulrich Seidl)
4. Involuntary (2008, Ruben Östlund)
5. Li'l Quinquin (2014, Bruno Dumont)
6. The Other Side (2016, Roberto Minervini)
7. Paradise: Faith (2012, Ulrich Seidl)
8. Poetry (2010, Lee Chang-dong)
9. Samsara (2011, Ron Fricke)
10. Secret Sunshine (2007, Lee Chang-dong)

Kogonada

1. 35 Shots of Rum (2008, Claire Denis)
2. Amour (2012, Michael Haneke)
3. The Arbor (2010, Clio Barnard)
4. Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009, Jessica Oreck)
5. Before Midnight (2013, Richard Linklater)
6. Clouds of Sils Maria (2014, Olivier Assayas)
7. Flight of the Red Balloon (2007, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
8. I Wish (2011, Koreeda Hirokazu)
9. Nostalgia For the Light (2010, Patricio Guzmán)
10. The Wind Rises (2013, Miyazaki Hayao)

5/5- Directors that ruled this era: Olivier Assayas, Terence Davies, Mia Hansen-Løve, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater

Sean Price Williams

1. L'histoire de Richard O. (2007, Damien Odoul)
2. "Merde" from Tokyo! (2008, Leos Carax)
3. 35 Shots of Rum (2008, Claire Denis)
4. Two Lovers (2008, James Gray)
5. Black Swan (2010, Darren Aronofsky)
6. Promises Written in Water (2010, Vincent Gallo)
7. The Ghost Writer (2010, Roman Polanski)
8. Aurora (2010, Cristi Puiu)
9. Goodbye to Language (2014, Jean-Luc Godard)
10. Elle (2016, Paul Verhoeven)

Jeff Malmberg

• The Oath (2010, Laura Poitras)
• Kurt Cobain: About a Son (2006, AJ Schnack)
• The Overnighters (2014, Jesse Moss)
• The Act of Killing (2012, Joshua Oppenheimer)
• Tchoupitoulas (2012, Bill & Turner Ross)
• Cameraperson (2016, Kirsten Johnson)
• Dear Zachary (2008, Kurt Kuenne)
• Only the Young (2012, Elizabeth Mims & Jason Tippet)
• The Beaches of Agnès (2009, Agnès Varda)
• Position Among the Stars (2010, Leonard Retel Helmrich)

Bill Morrison

1. WALL-E (2008, Andrew Stanton)
2. The Clock (2010, Christian Marclay)
3. Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012, Benh Zeitlin)
4. Leviathan (2012, Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)
5. The Act of Killing (2012, Joshua Oppenheimer)
6. Computer Chess (2013, Andrew Bujalski)
7. Boyhood (2014, Richard Linklater)
8. The Forbidden Room (2015, Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson)
9. Cameraperson (2016, Kirsten Johnson)
10. I Called Him Morgan (2016, Kasper Collin)

Bertrand Bonello

1. Death Proof (2007, Quentin Tarantino)
2. Steak (2007, Quentin Dupieux)
3. Zodiac (2007, David Fincher)
4. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
5. We Have a Pope (2011, Nanni Moretti)
6. Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
7. Spring Breakers (2012, Harmony Korine)
8. Under the Skin (2013, Jonathan Glazer)
9. The Assassin (2015, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
10. Twin Peaks: The Return (2017, David Lynch)

Radu Jude

1. The Autobiography of Nicole Ceausescu (2010, Andrei Ujicǎ)
2. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
4. Out-Takes From the Life of a Happy Man (2012, Jonas Mekas)
5. Pays Barbare (2013, Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi)
6. Goodbye to Language (2014, Jean-Luc Godard)
7. La Sapienza (2014, Eugène Green)
8. Homeland: Year Zero (2015, Abbas Fahdel)
9. The Exquisite Corpse (2016, Peter Tscherkassky)
10. António and Catarina (2017, Cristina Hanes)
11. El mar la mar (2017, J.P. Sniadecki & Joshua Bonnetta)

Blake Williams

1. Goodbye to Language (2014, Jean-Luc Godard)
2. Twin Peaks: The Return (2017, David Lynch)
3. The Woolworths Choir of 1979 (2012, Elizabeth Price)
4. Wild Grass (2009, Alain Resnais)
5. Margaret (2011, Kenneth Lonergan)
6. Knight of Cups (2015, Terrence Malick)
7. House of Tolerance (2011, Bertrand Bonello)
8. The Strange Little Cat (2013, Ramon Zürcher)
9. The Pettifogger (2011, Lewis Klahr)
10. Let Your Light Shine roadshow (2013, Jodie Mack)

Stephen Cone

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008, David Fincher)
2. 35 Shots of Rum (2008, Claire Denis)
3. A Christmas Tale (2008, Arnaud Desplechin)
4. Wild Grass (2009, Alain Resnais)
5. Rachel Getting Married (2008, Jonathan Demme)
6. Magic Mike XXLL (2015, Gregory Jacobs)
7. Summer Hours (2008, Olivier Assayas)
8. The Tree of Life (2011, Terrence Malick)
9. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013, Martin Scorsese)
10. The Royal Road (2015, Jenni Olson)

Travis Wilkerson (Significant First Views)

1. Heynowski & Scheumann
2. De Poes (1968, Johan van der Keulen)
3. Narita: The Peasants of the Second Fortress (1971, Ogawa Shinsuke)
4. The Forcing cycle (Lydia Moyer)
5. Wings "above all, but anything" (Larisa Shepitko)
6. Strong Island (2017, Yance Ford)
7. Milles Soleils (2013, Mati Diop)
8. Black Film (1971, Zelimir Zilnik)
9. Borom Sarret (1963, Ousmane Sembène)
10. Newsreel 63 - The Train of Shadows (2017, Nika Autor and the Newsreel Front)

Bonus wish to see: Tercer Mundo, Tercera Guerra Mundial (1970, Julio García Espinosa)

Peter Tscherkassky

1. A Serious Man (2009, Joel & Ethan Coen)
2. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3. Meek's Cutoff (2010, Kelly Reichardt)
4. Moonrise Kingdom (2012, Wes Anderson)
5. American Falls (2012, Phil Solomon)
6. Berberian Sound Studio (2012, Peter Strickland)
7. Nebraska (2013, Alexander Payne)
8. Creme 21 (2013, Eve Heller)
9. In the Basement (2014, Ulrich Seidl)
10. Untitled (2017, Michael Glawogger and Monika Willi)

Vivian Qu

1. Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
2. The Assassin (2015, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
3. Certified Copy (2010, Abbas Kiarostami)
4. Carlos (2010, Olivier Assayas)
5. Boyhood (2014, Richard Linklater)
6. Elle (2016, Paul Verhoeven)
7. Amour (2012, Michael Haneke)
8. The Square (2017, Ruben Östlund)

Bruce LaBruce

1. 35 Shots of Rum (2008, Claire Denis)
2. Trash Humpers (2009, Harmony Korine)
3. Fish Tank (2009, Andrea Arnold)
4. The Skin I Live In (211, Pedro Almodóvar)
5. Under the Skin (2013, Jonathan Glazer)
6. Fruitvale Station (2013, Ryan Coogler)
7. The Babadook (2014, Jennifer Kent)
8. Leviathan (2014, Andrey Zvyagintsev)
9. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller)
10. Tangerine (2015, Sean Baker)

Mark Cousins

1. Under the Skin (2013, Jonathan Glazer)
2. The Duke of Burgundy (2014, Peter Strickland)
3. Frank (2014, Lenny Abrahamson)
4. Cemetery of Splendour (2015, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
5. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller)
6. Lemonade (2016, Kahlil Joseph and Beyoncé Knowles Carter)
7. Moonlight (2016, Barry Jenkins)
8. Toni Erdmann (2016, Maren Ade)
9. Zama (2017, Lucrecia Martel)
10. "I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians" (2018, Radu Jude)

Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias

1. Let the Right One In (2008, Tomas Alfredson)
2. Fish Tank (2009, Andrea Arnold)
3. A Prophet (2009, Jacques Audiard)
4. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
5. Tabu (2012, Miguel Gomes)
6. Horse Money (2014, Pedro Costa)
7. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller)
8. Araby (2017, João Dumans & Affonso Uchôa)
9. Caniba (2017, Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
10. Good Luck (2017, Ben Russell)

Agnès Godard (Five Recent, Five All-Timers)

1. Certain Women (2016, Kelly Reichardt)
2. Burning (2018, Lee Chang-dong)
3. Zama (2017, Lucrecia Martel)
4. Taste of Cherry (1997, Abbas Kiarostami)
5. An Angel at My Table (1997, Jane Campion)
6. Phantom Thread (2017, Paul Thomas Anderson)
7. Twin Peaks: The Return (2017, David Lynch)
8. Brokeback Mountain (2005, Ang Lee)
9. Klute (1971, Alan J. Pakula)
10. Memories of Murder (2003, Bong Joon-ho)

Ricky D'Ambrose

1. In the City of Sylvia (2007, José Luis Guerín)
2. Profit motive and the whispering wind (2007, John Gianvito)
3. The Headless Woman (2008, Lucrecia Martel)
4. The Anchorage (2009, C.W. Winter & Anders Edström)
5. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (2010, Andrei Ujicǎ)
6. Tabu (2012, Miguel Gomes)
7. The Unspeakable Act (2012, Dan Sallitt)
8. A Distant Episode (2015, Ben Rivers)
9. The Event (2015, Sergei Loznitsa)
10. Poet on a Business Trip (2015, Ju Anqi)

Andrew Bujalski

1. The Act of Killing (2012, Joshua Oppenheimer)
2. Certain Women (2016, Kelly Reichardt)
3. Clouds of Sils Maria (2014, Olivier Assayas)
4. Creed (2015, Ryan Coogler)
5. Good Time (2017, Josh & Benny Safdie)
6. Inside Out (2015, Pete Docter)
7. The Kid With a Bike (2011, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
8. Manchester by the Sea (2016, Kenneth Lonergan)
9. No Home Movie (2015, Chantal Akerman)
10. The Social Network (2010, David Fincher)

Kevin Jerome Everson (Seen in Last Ten Years)

1. Florentina Hubaldo (2012, Lav Diaz)
2. The Illinois Parables (2016, Deborah Stratman)
3. Losing Ground (1982, Kathleen Collins)
4. Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death (2016, Arthur Jafa)
5. A Man Returned (2015, Mahdi Fleifel)
6. Market People (1978, Zelimir Zilnik)
7. Random Acts of Flyness (2018, Terence Nance)
8. Space Is the Place (A March for Sun Ra) (2011, Cauleen Smith)
9. Take This Hammer (1963, Richard O. Moore)
10. Until the Quiet Comes (2012, Kahlil Joseph)

Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Seen in Last Ten Years)

1. Li'l Quinquin (2014, Bruno Dumont)
2. Phat Free (1995-1999, David Hammons)
3. Touki Bouki (1973, Djibril Diop Mambéty)
4. A Thousand Suns (2013, Mati Diop)
5. The Holy Girl (2004, Lucrecia Martel)
6. Girls Tricky (2001, Steve McQueen)
7. Happy as Lazzaro (2018, Alice Rohrwacher)
8. Jakub/Old Believers (1992, Jana Ševčíková)
9. Spiritual Voices (1996, Alexander Sokurov)
10. Attenberg (2010, Athina Rachel Tsangari)

Rachel Kushner

1. The Cool World (1963, Shirley Clarke)
2. White Material (2009, Claire Denis)
3. Drive (2011, Nicolas Winding Refn)
4. Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
5. Spring Breakers (2012, Harmony Korine)
6. Ida (2013, Paweł Pawlikowski)
7. Tangerine (2015, Sean Baker)
8. Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present (2016, Tyler Hubby)
9. Loveless (2017, Andrey Zvyagintsev)
10. Zama (2017, Lucrecia Martel)

Christian Petzold

1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2008, Cristian Mungiu)
2. Melancholia (2011, Lars von Trier)
3. Oslo, August 31st (2011, Joachim Trier)
4. Ida (2013, Paweł Pawlikowski)
5. Mommy (2014, Xavier Dolan)
6. Being 17 (2016, André Téchiné)
7. Manchester by the Sea (2016, Kenneth Lonergan)
8. Good Time (2017, Josh & Benny Safdie)
9. Zama (2017, Lucrecia Martel)
10. Den of Thieves (2018, Christian Gudegast)

Jonathan Franzen

1. Wendy and Lucy (2008, Kelly Reichardt)
2. The Social Network (2010, David Fincher)
3. Melancholia (2011, Lars von Trier)
4. Flight (2012, Robert Zemeckis)
5. Foxcatcher (2014, Bennett Miller)
6. Gone Girl (2014, David Fincher)
7. The Big Short (2015, Adam McKay)
8. Don't Think Twice (2016, Mike Birbiglia)
9. Get Out (2017, Jordan Peele)
10. The Florida Project (2017, Sean Baker)

Hamaguchi Ryūsuke

1. Film Socialisme (2010, Jean-Luc Godard)
2. Unstoppable (2010, Tony Scott)
3. Hereafter (2010, Clint Eastwood)
4. Gebo and the Shadow (2012, Manoel de Oliveira)
5. Love Battles (2013, Jacques Doillon)
6. Trace of Breath (2015, Komori Haruka)
7. Elle (2016, Paul Verhoeven)
8. Paterson (2016, Jim Jarmusch)
9. The Other Side of Hope (2017, Aki Kaurismäki)
10. The Day After (2017, Hong Sang-soo)

Peter Parlow

1. Personal Problems (1980, Bill Gunn)
2. Django Unchained (2012, Quentin Tarantino)
3. Penguins of Madagascar (2014, Eric Darnell & Simon J. Smith)
4. The Second Game (2014, Corneliu Porumboiu)
5. Homeland (Iraq Year Zero) (2015, Abbas Fahdel)
6. Trolls (2016, Mike Mitchell)
7. O.J.: Made in America (2016, Ezra Edelman)
8. A Bread Factory (2018, Patrick Wang)
9. High Flying Bird (2019, Steven Soderbergh)
10. Avengers: Endgame (2019, Anthony & Joe Russo)

Mariano Llinás (Favorite Films)

1. Alexander Nevsky (1938, Sergei Eisenstein)
2. L'Atalante (1934, Jean Vigo)
3. La dolce vita (1960, Federico Fellini)
4. L'Eclisse (1962, Michaelangelo Antonioni)
5. The Iron Horse (1924, John Ford)
6. King Kong (1933, Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack)
7. North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock)
8. Pierrot le fou (1965, Jean-Luc Godard)
9. The Rules of the Game (1939, Jean Renoir)
10. Spione (1928, Fritz Lang)

Roberto Minervini

1. Dogtooth (2009, Yorgos Lanthimos)
2. The White Ribbon (2009, Michael Haneke)
3. Curling (2010, Denis Côté)
4. Hors Satan (2011, Bruno Dumont)
5. The Tree of Life (2011, Terrence Malick)
6. Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
7. Post tenebras lux (2012, Carlos Reygadas)
8. Spring Breakers (2012, Harmony Korine)
9. A Family Submerged (2018, María Alché)
10. Touch Me Not (2018, Adina Pintilie)

Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff (Ranked)

1. Caniba (2017, Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
2. The Act of Killing (2012, Joshua Oppenheimer)
3. Leviathan (2012, Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)
4. Homo Sapiens (2016, Nikolaus Geyrhalter)
5. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (2010, Andrei Ujicǎ)
6. Paradise Trilogy (2012, Ulrich Seidl)
7. Il Siciliano (2012, Carolina Adriazola & Claudio Pizarro & José Luis Sepúlveda)
8. A Story for the Modlins (2012, Sergio Oskman)
9. The House That Jack Built (2018, Lars von Trier)
10. Becoming Animal (2018, Emma Davie & Petter Mettler)

Ognjen Glavonić

1. Oki's Movie (2010, Hong Sang-soo)
2. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
3. Stray Dogs (2013, Tsai Ming-liang)
4. Kaili Blues (2015, Bi Gan)
5. Sieranevada (2016, Cristi Puiu)
6. Western (2017, Valeska Grisebach)
7. Milla (2017, Valérie Massadian)
8. Burning (2018, Lee Chang-dong)
9. Happy as Lazzaro (2018, Alice Rohrwacher)
10. I Was at Home, But... (2019, Angela Schanelec)

Ulrich Köhler

1. Material (2009, Thomas Heise)
2. Police, Adjective (2009, Corneliu Porumboiu)
3. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
4. This Is Not a Film (2011, Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb)
5. Summer of Giacomo (2011, Alessandro Comodin)
6. Spring Breakers (2012, Harmony Korine)
7. The Human Surge (2016, Eduardo Williams)
8. Toni Erdmann (2016, Maren Ade)
9. The Wild Pear Tree (2018, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
10. Present.Perfect. (2019, Zhu Shengze)

Paul Harrill (Films and Television Show With Favorite Performances)

1. Party Down (2009-2010, John Enbom and Rob Thomas and Dan Etheridge and Paul Rudd)
2. The Unspeakable Act (2012, Dan Sallitt)
3. The Master (2012, Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Congratulations! (2014, Mike Brune)
5. Paddington 1 & 2 (2014/2016, Paul King)
6. Christine (2016, Antonio Campos)
7. Moonlight (2016, Barry Jenkins)
8. Toni Erdmann (2016, Maren Ade)
9. Princess Cyd (2017, Stephen Cone)
10. The Show About the Show (2017, Caveh Zahedi)

Brett Story

1. Nostalgia for the Light (2010, Patricio Guzmán)
2. Let the Fire Burn (2013, Jason Osder)
3. Guidelines (2014, Jean-François Caissy)
4. From Deep (2014, Brett Kashmere)
5. Force Majeure (2014, Ruben Östlund)
6. Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003, Thom Andersen)
7. Toni Erdmann (2016, Maren Ade)
8. The Illinois Parables (2016, Deborah Stratman)
9. Tonsler Park (2017, Kevin Jerome Everson)
10. Get Out (2017, Jordan Peele)

Dan Sallitt (Ranked)

1. Old Dog (2011, Pema Tseden)
2. The Day He Arrives (2011, Hong Sang-soo)
3. A Month in Thailand (2012, Paul Negoescu)
4. The Mend (2014, John Magary)
5. Scaffold (2017, Kazik Radwanski)
6. The Whispering Star (2015, Sion Sono)
7. Sleeping Beauty (2011, Julia Leigh)
8. Love Battles (2013, Jacques Doillon)
9. Radio Mary (2017, Gary Walkow)
10. Of Women and Horses (2011, Patricia Mazuy)

Yung Chang

1. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020, Eliza Hittman)
2. Murmur (2019, Heather Young)
3. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018, Hu Bo)
4. The Florida Project (2017, Sean Baker)
5. Moonlight (2016, Barry Jenkins)
6. The Assassin (2015, Hou Hsiao-hsien)/Timbuktu (2014, Abderrahmane Sissako)
7. Stranger by the Lake (2013, Alain Guiraudie)
8. Her (2013, Spike Jonze)
9. Three Sisters (2012, Wang Bing)
10. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
11. A Prophet (2009, Jacques Audiard)

Manfred Kirchheimer (Favorite Films in No Particular Order)

1. City Lights (1931, Charles Chaplin)
2. Seven Samurai (1954, Kurosawa Akira)
3. Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
4. Wild Strawberries (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
5. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Gillo Pontecorvo)
6. The Talk of the Town (1942, George Stevens)
7. Casablanca (1941, Michael Curtiz)
8. In a Lonely Place (1950, Nicholas Ray)
9. The Band Wagon (1953, Vincente Minnelli)
10. The General (1926, Buster Keaton)
11. Outcast of the Islands (1951, Carol Reed)
12. A Heart in Winter (1992, Claude Sautet)
13. Strange Victory (1948, Leo Hurwitz)
14. The Quiet One (1948, Sidney Myers)

Valentyn Vasyanovych (Favorite Films From the Last Ten Years [With a Couple of Exceptions] That Appreciate the Visual Solution, in No Particular Order)

1. Silent Light (2007, Carlos Reygadas)
2. Roma (2018, Alfonso Cuarón)
3. Ida (2013, Paweł Pawlikowski)
4. About Endlessness (2019, Roy Andersson)
5. The Woman Who Left (2016, Lav Diaz)
6. Paradise: Love (2012, Ulrich Seidl)
7. The Lighthouse (2019, Robert Eggers)
8. Son of Saul (2015, Nemes László)
9. The White Ribbon (2009, Michael Haneke)
10. Of Horses and Men (2013, Benedikt Erlingsson)

U.S. Girls (In No Particular Order)

1. Asphalt Watches (2013, Seth Scriver & Shayne Ehman)
2. A Bread Factory (2018, Patrick Wang)
3. Tickled (2016, David Farrier & Dylan Reeve)
4. Into the Inferno (2016, Werner Herzog)
5. Dark Horse (2011, Todd Solondz)
6. Toni Erdmann (2016, Maren Ade)
7. Casting JonBenet (2017, Kitty Green)
8. John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (2018, Julien Faraut)
9. The Act of Killing (2012, Joshua Oppenheimer)
10. The Florida Project (2017, Sean Baker)
11. Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project (2019, Matt Wolf)

Pere Portabella (Recommended Films)

1. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928, Charles Reisner and Buster Keaton)
2. L'Âge d'Or (1930, Luis Buñuel)
3. Hellzapoppin' (1941, H.C. Potter)
4. Ordet (1955, Carl Th. Dreyer)
5. Night and Fog (1956, Alain Resnais)
6. Black God, White Devil (1964, Glauber Rocha)
7. Plácido (1961, Luis García Berlanga)
8. The Sacrifice (1986, Andrei Tarkovsky)
9. Paraguayan Hammock (2006, Paz Encina)
10. The Turin Horse (2011, Tarr Béla and Hranitzky Ágnes)

Kate Novack (Ten Favorite Films)

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Chantal Akerman)
2. Ida (2013, Paweł Pawlikowski)
3. Stories We Tell (2012, Sarah Polley)
4. The Gleaners and I (2000, Agnès Varda)
5. The Act of Killing (2012, Joshua Oppenheimer)
6. America (2019, Garrett Bradley)
7. Janie's Janie (1971, Geri Ashur)
8. Town Bloody Hall (1979, Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker)
9. Opening Night (1977, John Cassevetes)
10. L'Avventura (1960, Michelangelo Antonioni)

Isabel Sandoval (Eleven Years)

1. Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
2. Drive (2011, Nicolas Winding Refn)
3. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
4. Burning (2018, Lee Chang-dong)
5. Synonyms (2019, Nadav Lapid)
6. You Were Never Really Here (2018, Lynne Ramsay)
7. Transit (2018, Christian Petzold)
8. Phantom Thread (2017, Paul Thomas Anderson)
9. Black Swan (2010, Darren Aronofsky)
10. Kaili Blues (2015, Bi Gan)

Sky Hopinka

1. The Story of Milk and Honey (2011, Basma Alsharif)
2. A Symptom (2014, Ben Balcom)
3. Kaili Blues (2015, Bi Gan)
4. Ears, Nose and Throat (2016, Kevin Jerome Everson)
5. Inaate/Se (2016, Adam Khalil & Zack Khalil)
6. The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016, Brett Story)
7. This Action Lies (2018, James N. Kienitz Wilkins)
8. Terror Nullius (2018, Soda Jerk)
9. The Giverny Document (2019, Ja'Tovia Gary)
10. The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn)

Japanese Breakfast (No Particular Order)

1. The Handmaiden (2016, Park Chan-wook)
2. Burning (2018, Lee Chang-dong)
3. Parasite (2019, Bong Joon-ho)
4. The Skin I Live In (2011, Pedro Almodóvar)
5. Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
6. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller)
7. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017, Noah Baumbach)
8. A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi)
9. Phantom Thread (2017, Paul Thomas Anderson)
10. The Farewell (2019, Lulu Wang)

Stephin Merritt

1. The Assassin (2015, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
2. Bacurau (2019, Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles)
3. Elle (2016, Paul Verhoeven)
4. The Forbidden Room (2015, Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson)
5. The Human Voice (2020, Pedro Almodóvar)
6. Okja (2017, Bong Joon-ho)
7. One Cut of the Dead (2017, Ueda Shin'ichirō)
8. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013, Jim Jarmusch)
9. Train to Busan (2016, Yeon Sang-ho)
10. Under the Skin (2013, Jonathan Glazer)

Joe DeNardo

1. Zama (2017, Lucrecia Martel)
2. Force Majeure (2014, Ruben Östlund)
3. El mar la mar (2017, Joshua Bonnetta & J.P. Sniadecki)
4. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011, Göran Olsson)
5. The Turin Horse (2011, Tarr Béla & Hranitzky Ágnes)
6. The Young Karl Marx (2017, Raoul Peck)
7. Viola (2012, Matías Piñeiro)
8. Atlantics (2019, Mati Diop)
9. Let the Fire Burn (2013, Jason Osder)
10. El Futuro (2013, Luis López Carrasco)

Paul Felten

1. Margaret (2011, Kenneth Lonergan)
2. In the Family (2011, Patrick Wang)
3. Like Someone in Love (2012, Abbas Kiarostami)
4. Cosmopolis (2012, David Cronenberg)
5. In Another Country (2012, Hong Sang-soo)
6. The Academy of Muses (2015, José Luis Guerín)
7. Certain Women (2016, Kelly Reichardt)
8. Cameraperson (2016, Kirsten Johnson)
9. Vox Lux (2018, Brady Corbet)
10. So Pretty (2019, Jessica Dunn Rovinelli)

C.W. Winter & Anders Edström

1. No Home Movie (2015, Chantal Akerman)
2. Stemple Pass (2012, James Benning)
3. Vitalina Varela (2019, Pedro Costa)
4. The Image Book (2018, Jean-Luc Godard)
5. Color Correction (2015, Margaret Honda)
6. A Way in Untilled (2012, Pierre Huyghe)
7. Let the Summer Never Come Again (2017, Alexandre Koberidze)
8. All the Cities of the North (2016, Dane Komljen)
9. Love Songs (2016, Jean-Claude Rousseau)
10. Un conte de Michel de Montaigne (2013, Jean-Marie Straub)
11. 'Til Madness Do Us Part (2013, Wang Bing)
12. Cemetery of Splendour (2015, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

John Gianvito

1. Five Broken Cameras (2011, Emad Burnat & Guy Davidi)
2. The Woman Who Left (2016, Lav Diaz)
3. Martírio (2016, Vincent Carelli and Ernesto de Carvalho and Tatiana Almeida)
4. The Taste of Cement (2017, Ziad Kalthoum)
5. By the Time It Gets Dark (2016, Anocha Suwichakornpong)
6. Women With Gunpowder Earrings (2018, Reza Farahmand)
7. Leave No Trace (2018, Debra Granik)
8. The Cordillera of Dreams (2019, Patricio Guzmán)
9. The Social Dilemma (2020, Jeff Orlowski)
10. La France contre les robots (2020, Jean-Marie Straub)

Honorable mention (being on the cusp of the last 10 years): Slave Ship (2010, T. Marie)

Todd Chandler

1. The Dazzling Light of Sunset (2016, Salomé Jashi)
2. Drills (2020, Sarah Friedland)
3. The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016, Brett Story)
4. Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris (1971, Terence Dixon)
5. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020, Eliza Hittman)
6. Purge This Land (2017, Lee Anne Schmitt)
7. Taste of Cement (2017, Ziad Kalthoum)
8. Three Landscapes (2013, Peter Hutton)
9. Tonsler Park (2017, Kevin Jerome Everson)
10. The Wonders (2014, Alice Rohrwacher)

Radu Muntean (Favorite Films)

1. L'Argent (1983, Robert Bresson)
2. Climates (2006, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
3. No Country for Old Men (2007, Joel & Ethan Coen)
4. À nos amours (1983, Maurice Pialat)
5. Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino)
6. Scenes From a Marriage (1973, Ingmar Bergman)
7. Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
8. Murmur of the Heart (1971, Louis Malle)
9. A Woman Under the Influence (1974, John Cassavetes)
10. Zama (2017, Lucrecia Martel)

Jane Schoenbrun

1. Hide Your Smiling Faces (2013, David Patrick Carbone)
2. L for Leisure (2014, Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn)
3. Teen Dream Trilogy: A Million Miles Away, Blood Below the Skin, Crystal Lake (2014-2016, Jennifer Reeder)
4. The Fits (2015, Anna Rose Holmer)
5. Tired Moonlight (2015, Britni West)
6. The Grief of Others (2015, Patrick Wang)
7. Field Niggas (2015, Khalik Allah)
8. Princess Cyd (2017, Stephen Cone)
9. Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018, RaMell Ross)
10. Fourteen (2019, Dan Sallitt)

Camilo Restrepo (Greatest Influences)

• The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962, Robert Bresson)
• Sans soleil (1983, Chris Marker)
• Red Desert (1964, Michelangelo Antonioni)
• Modern Times (1936, Charles Chaplin)
• Perfumed Nightmare (1977, Kidlat Tahimik)
• Antonio das Mortes (1969, Glauber Rocha)
• Images of the World and the Inscription of War (1989, Harun Farocki)
• In Vanda's Room (2000, Pedro Costa)
• Rodrigo D: No Future (1990, Victor Gaviria)
• Mysterious Object at Noon (2000, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

Michelangelo Frammartino (Favorite Films)

1. Rome, Open City (1945, Roberto Rossellini)
2. Paisan (1946, Roberto Rossellini)
3. Germany Year Zero (1948, Roberto Rossellini)
4. Stromboli (1950, Roberto Rossellini)
5. The Flowers of St. Francis (1950, Roberto Rossellini)
6. Europa '51 (1952, Roberto Rossellini)
7. Journey to Italy (1954, Roberto Rossellini)
8. Fear (1954, Roberto Rossellini)
9. India: Matri Bhumi (1959, Roberto Rossellini)
10. The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966, Roberto Rossellini)

Anthony Banua-Simon

1. Aniara (2018, Pella Kagerman & Hugo Lilja)
2. Hitler's Hollywood (2018, Rüdiger Suchsland)
3. The Image You Missed (2018, Donal Foreman)
4. Inherent Vice (2014, Paul Thomas Anderson)
5. Little Joe (2019, Jessica Hausner)
6. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
7. Phantom Thread (2017, Paul Thomas Anderson)
8. Tabu (2012, Miguel Gomes)
9. Vic + Flo Saw a Bear (2013, Denis Côté)
10. Zama (2017, Lucretia Martel)

Andre Gregory (Favorite Films)

1. Before and After Dinner (2013, Cindy Kleine)
2. Cape Fear (1991, Martin Scorsese)
3. Eyes Wide Shut (1999, Stanley Kubrick)
4. Happy Hour (2015, Hamaguchi Ryusuke)
5. Mirror (1975, Andrei Tarkovsky)
6. Rear Window (1954, Alfred Hitchcock)
7. The Sacrifice (1986, Andrei Tarkovsky)
8. The Shining (1980, Stanley Kubrick)
9. Some Like It Hot (1959, Billy Wilder)
10. We Feed People (2022, Ron Howard)
11. anything by Tarr Béla

Kimi Takesue

1. Days (2020, Tsai Ming-liang)
2. Moonlight (2016, Barry Jenkins)
3. No Home Movie (2015, Chantal Akerman)
4. The Turin Horse (2011, Tarr Béla and Hranitzy Ágnes)
5. Burning (2018, Lee Chang-dong)
6. This Is Not a Film (2011, Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb)
7. The Missing Picture (2013, Panh Rithy)
8. Two Days, One Night (2014, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
9. Cameraperson (2016, Kirsten Johnson)
10. Stories We Tell (2012, Sarah Polley)

Sydney Lemmon (Favorite Films)

1. 8½ (1963, Federico Fellini)
2. Babel (2006, Alejandro González Iñárritu)
3. The Conformist (1970, Bernardo Bertolucci)
4. Days of Heaven (1978, Terrence Malick)
5. Eyes Wide Shut (1999, Stanley Kubrick)
6. I Knew Her Well (1965, Antonio Pietrangeli)
7. Pacifiction (2022, Albert Serra)
8. The Seventh Seal (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
9. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, Elia Kazan)
10. A Woman Under the Influence (1974, John Cassavetes)

Albert Serra

1. Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018, Bi Gan)
2. Climax (2018, Gaspar Noé)
3. Story of My Death (2013, Albert Serra)
4. Staying Vertical (2016, Alain Guiraudie)
5. Hard to Be a God (2013, Aleksei German)
6. Goodbye to Language (2014, Jean-Luc Godard)
7. Western (2017, Valeska Grisebach)
8. The Woman Who Left (2016, Lav Diaz)
9. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018, Hu Bo)
10. Elle (2016, Paul Verhoeven)
11. Wicked Games (2023, Ulrich Seidl)

Hayakawa Chie

1. American Honey (2016, Andrea Arnold)
2. Arrival (2016, Denis Villeneuve)
3. Happy as Lazzaro (2018, Alice Rohrwacher)
4. Loveless (2017, Andrey Zvyagintsev)
5. On Body and Soul (2017, Enyedi Ildikó)
6. Happy Hour (2015, Hamaguchi Ryusuke)
7. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020, Eliza Hittman)
8. House of Hummingbird (2018, Kim Bo-ra)
9. Roma (2018, Alfonso Cuarón)
10. Compartment No. 6 (2021, Juho Kuosmanen)

Afterschool Idea

It might seem counter-intuitive to talk about a film as being about the loss of innocence when its protagonist is literally introduced while masturbating to porn. But this is precisely Antonio Campos' goal in Afterschool.

Distinct Creations

"My favorite characters."

1. Close-up (Hossain Sabzian)
2. Eraserhead (Henry Spencer)
3. Paris, Texas (Travis Henderson)
4. Mulholland Drive (Adam Kesher)
5. Carol (Therese Belivet)
6. Blade Runner (Rick Deckard)
7. Yi yi (Ting-Ting)
8. Until the End of the World (Eugene Fitzpatrick)
9. Out 1 (Colin)
10. A Brighter Summer Day (Xiao Si'r)
11. The Night of the Hunter (Harry Powell)
12. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Dale Cooper)
13. The 400 Blows (Antoine Doinel)
14. In the Mood for Love (Chow Mo-wan)
15. Trust (Matthew Slaughter/Maria Coughlin)
16. The Third Man (Harry Lime)
17. Seven Samurai (Kikuchiyo)
18. Mistress America (Tracy Fishko)
19. Manhunter (Will Graham)
20. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (David)
21. Blue Velvet (Jeffrey Beaumont)
22. Sunrise (The Wife)
23. Lost in Translation (Bob Harris)
24. The Devils (Urbain Grandier)
25. Casablanca (Rick Blaine)
26. My Golden Days (Paul Dedalus)
27. Inherent Vice (Doc Sportello)
28. Thief (Frank)
29. Phoenix (Nelly Lenz)
30. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Wallace Wells)
31. Queen of Earth (Ginny Lowell)
32. The Insider (Dr. Jeffrey Wigand)

The Sound of Music

"My favorite uses of original score, many of which I consider among the greatest."

1. Paris, Texas
2. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
3. The Young Girls of Rochefort
4. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
5. Carol
6. Blade Runner
7. Mulholland Dr.
8. The Night of the Hunter
9. Mistress America
10. Sans soleil
11. The Devils
12. Blue Velvet
13. The Third Man
14. La jetée
15. Heat
16. Meek's Cutoff
17. Seven Samurai
18. The 400 Blows
19. Breathless
20. Vertigo
21. Koyaanisqatsi
22. Godzilla
23. The Last of the Mohicans
24. La dolce vita
25. Taxi Driver
26. Blow Out
27. Persona
28. Public Enemies
29. Halloween
30. L for Leisure
31. Ran
32. Manhunter
33. Thief
34. The Thin Blue Line
35. Days of Heaven
36. The Thin Red Line
37. Sweet Smell of Success
38. Blackhat
39. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
40. Chinatown
41. The Insider
42. The Social Network
43. The Keep

The Personal Touch

"My favorite acting performances, many of which I consider among the greatest."

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Renee Falconetti)
2. Persona (Liv Ullmann)
3. Paris, Texas (Harry Dean Stanton)
4. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Sheryl Lee)
5. Mulholland Dr. (Naomi Watts/Justin Theroux)
6. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Haley Joel Osment)
7. Inland Empire (Laura Dern)
8. The 400 Blows (Jean-Pierre Leaud)
9. In the Mood for Love (Tony Leung)
10. The Night of the Hunter (Robert Mitchum)
11. The Devils (Oliver Reed)
12. M (Peter Lorre)
13. Out 1 (Jean-Pierre Leaud)
14. A Brighter Summer Day (Chang Chen)
15. Carlito's Way (Al Pacino)
16. The Shining (Shelley Duvall)
17. Trust (Adrienne Shelly/Martin Donovan)
18. Sunrise (Janet Gaynor)
19. Jeanne Dielman (Delphine Seyrig)
20. Tokyo Story (Setsuko Hara)
21. The Double Life of Veronique (Irene Jacob)
22. Seven Samurai (Toshiro Mifune)
23. Carol (Rooney Mara)
24. Until the End of the World (Sam Neill)
25. The Insider (Russell Crowe)
26. Manhunter (William Petersen)
27. Blue Velvet (Kyle MacLachlan)
28. Eyes Wide Shut (Tom Cruise)
29. Eraserhead (Jack Nance)
30. Wendy and Lucy (Michelle Williams)
31. Phoenix (Nina Hoss)
32. Public Enemies (Christian Bale)
33. Mistress America (Lola Kirke)
34. Heat (Robert De Niro)
35. Queen of Earth (Katherine Waterston)
36. Casablanca (Humphrey Bogart)
37. Wild at Heart (Nicolas Cage)
38. Blackhat (Chris Hemsworth)
39. Ran (Tatsuya Nakadai)
40. The Social Network (Jesse Eisenberg)
41. Brazil (Jonathan Pryce)
42. Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly)
43. Inherent Vice (Joaquin Phoenix)
44. My Golden Days (Mathieu Amalric)
45. Ali (Will Smith)
46. Orphan (Isabelle Fuhrman)
47. Kate Plays Christine (Kate Lyn Sheil)
48. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Zhang Ziyi)

Lightning in a Bottle

"My favorite film scenes, the ones that capture the essence of cinema."

1. Mulholland Dr. (Club Silencio)
2. Paris, Texas (Coffee shop)
3. Close-up (Sabzian's speech)
4. Yi yi (First date)
5. Heat (The heist)
6. The Night of the Hunter (The river)
7. Persona (The son)
8. In the Mood for Love (Corridor glance)
9. Out 1 (End of Chapter 7/Equipage)
10. Inland Empire ("Sinnerman")
11. Meek's Cutoff (Fade to black)
12. The Devils (Execution)
13. Blade Runner (Tears in the rain)
14. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (The train station/Epilogue)
15. Miami Vice (Opening club)
16. Blue Velvet (The church)
17. A Brighter Summer Day (The murder)
18. Days of Being Wild (Preparing for what comes after)
19. Trust (Counterpoint monologues)
20. L for Leisure (Dance in the headlights)
21. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Perfect day)
22. Seven Samurai (Final battle)
23. The 400 Blows (Freeze-frame)
24. Manhunter ("In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida")
25. Chungking Express (Light chase)
26. Passion (Afternoon Of A Faun)
27. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Execution)
28. Battleship Potemkin (The Odessa Steps)
29. Carol (Happy New Year)
30. Phoenix ("Speak Low")
31. The Gang's All Here (Final number)
32. Sans soleil (The black)
33. Lost in Translation (The club)
34. Godzilla (The rampage)
35. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Frank's birthday)
36. Ali (Opening montage)
37. Blow Out (Fireworks)
38. Holy Motors (Entracte)
39. Dressed to Kill (The Met)

The Written Word

"My favorite screenplays, many of which I consider among the greatest."

1. Paris, Texas
2. Sans soleil
3. Close-up
4. The Night of the Hunter
5. Trust
6. La jetée
7. In the Mood for Love
8. Mulholland Dr.
9. Persona
10. Yi yi
11. Heat
12. A Brighter Summer Day
13. Carol
14. Mistress America
15. Inland Empire
16. Blue Velvet
17. Carlito's Way
18. Breathless
19. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
20. Death Proof
21. The Devils
22. Out 1
23. Paths of Glory
24. Last Year at Marienbad
25. Inherent Vice
26. Lost in Translation
27. Seven Samurai
28. Before Sunrise
29. Sweet Smell of Success
30. Chungking Express
31. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
32. The Insider
33. Inglourious Basterds
34. The Shining
35. Sunrise
36. Queen of Earth
37. Casablanca
38. Brazil
39. Night and Fog
40. The Battle of Algiers
41. M
42. The 400 Blows
43. Public Enemies
44. Ran
45. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
46. Phoenix
47. My Golden Days
48. Looper
49. Thief
50. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
51. Blow Out
52. Ali
53. Wild at Heart
54. The Terminator
55. The Social Network
56. Manhunter
57. Miami Vice

The Cinematic Element

"My favorite uses of editing, many of which I consider among the greatest."

1. La jetée
2. Sans soleil
3. Breathless
4. Inland Empire
5. Cameraperson
6. Persona
7. Heat
8. Battleship Potemkin
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc
10. Eraserhead
11. Mulholland Dr.
12. In the Mood for Love
13. Death Proof
14. Godzilla
15. Seven Samurai
16. The Battle of Algiers
17. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
18. Possession
19. The Devils
20. Yi yi
21. Stop Making Sense
22. Out 1
23. A Brighter Summer Day
24. Trust
25. Manhunter
26. Public Enemies
27. Nosferatu
28. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
29. Mad Max: Fury Road
30. Ran
31. The Forbidden Room
32. Mistress America
33. The Insider
34. D'Est
35. Miami Vice
36. My Golden Days
37. Wild at Heart
38. The Young Girls of Rochefort
39. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
40. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
41. Ali
42. Blackhat
43. Hot Fuzz

Eye of the Beholder

"My favorite uses of cinematography, many of which I consider among the greatest."

1. Eraserhead
2. In the Mood for Love
3. Chungking Express
4. Days of Heaven
5. The Assassin
6. The Thin Red Line
7. Paris, Texas
8. The Night of the Hunter
9. Carol
10. Blade Runner
11. Heat
12. Sans soleil
13. Mulholland Dr.
14. Public Enemies
15. Thief
16. Blue Velvet
17. Out 1
18. Manhunter
19. The Double Life of Veronique
20. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
21. Yi yi
22. Persona
23. Inland Empire
24. The Young Girls of Rocherfort
25. Koyaanisqatsi
26. Miami Vice
27. Horse Money
28. Possession
29. A Brighter Summer Day
30. Blackhat
31. Close-up
32. Meek's Cutoff
33. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
34. Ran
35. The Master
36. Eyes Wide Shut
37. Stop Making Sense
38. Sicario
39. Inherent Vice
40. Wild at Heart
41. Vivre sa vie
42. The Devils
43. Jeanne Dielman
44. Lady Blue Shanghai
45. Blow Out
46. Sunrise
47. Carlito's Way
48. Ali
49. Pina
50. Non-Stop
51. D'Est
52. Trust
53. Days of Being Wild

Former Favorite Romances

Formerly: Muted Passions; The greatest cinematic love stories I've ever seen.

1. In the Mood for Love
2. Paris, Texas
3. Trust
4. Carol
5. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
6. Sunrise
7. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
8. Before Sunrise
9. Casablanca
10. Breaking the Waves
11. Annie Hall
12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
13. The Young Girls of Rochefort
14. Journey to Italy
15. Mulholland Dr.
16. Miami Vice
17. Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau)
18. Pierrot le fou
19. Eyes Wide Shut
20. Wings of Desire
21. Wild at Heart
22. The Duke of Burgundy
23. Phoenix
24. My Golden Days

2015 First Watches (Unranked)

(500) Days of Summer 8½ A Clockwork Orange A Dinner of Men A Hard Day's Night A Trip to the Moon A Wild Hare A Woman Is a Woman A Woman Under the Influence A.I. Artificial Intelligence Adaptation. Aguirre: The Wrath of God Ali: Fear Eats the Soul Alphaville American Graffiti Andy Warhol Screen Tests Ani*Kuri15 Annie Hall Aparajito Army of Shadows Au hasard Balthazar Austerity Measures Autumn Sonata Badlands Barry Lyndon Barton Fink Battleship Potemkin Before Sunrise Billy's Balloon Birdman Black Mass Blue Velvet Bottle Rocket Boyhood Brazil Breaking the Waves Breathless Brooklyn Chi-Raq Chinatown Close-Up Cobain: Montage of Heck Cool Cat Saves the Kids Creed Dancer in the Dark Days of Heaven Dazed and Confused Double Indemnity Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Dredd Drive Duck Amuck Dune Easy Rider Edge of Tomorrow Eraserhead Everest Ex Machina Eyes Wide Shut Fargo Film Ist. Film ist. 7-12 Five Easy Pieces Foxcatcher Full Metal Jacket The Geography of the Body Ghost in the Shell Grave of the Fireflies Halloween Heat Her Home/Alone Horse Money If 6 Was 9 In the Heart of the Sea In the Mood for Love Inland Empire Inside Job Inside Out It Follows It's Such a Beautiful Day Ivan's Childhood Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse Journey to Italy Jules and Jim Key Lime Pie Killer's Kiss Koyaanisqatsi Kustom Kar Kommandos L'Atalante L'Avventura Eclipse La dolce vita La Jetée La Notte Last Year at Marienbad Lawrence of Arabia Lily and Jim Live Freaky Die Freaky Lolita Lost Highway Lost in Translation Love & Mercy M Macbeth Mad Max: Fury Road Magnolia Masculin Féminin Mattress Man Commercial Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Melancholia Midnight in Paris Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Moonrise Kingdom More at 11 Mothlight Mulholland Drive Nashville Network Night Music Night and Fog Nightcrawler No Country for Old Men On the Waterfront One Froggy Evening Operation: Rabbit Outer Space Paris, Texas Pather Panchali Paths of Glory Penis Boy Penis Man: Dickapitated Persona Phoenix Picnic at Hanging Rock Pierrot le fou Pina Playtime Premonitions Following an Evil Deed Punch-Drunk Love Quantum of Solace Queen of Earth Rashomon Rejected RoboCop Room 8 Rushmore Sans Soleil Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Selma Seven Samurai Sicario Singin' in the Rain Six Men Getting Sick Some Like It Hot Spartacus Spectre Spotlight Star Wars: The Force Awakens Stellar Stop Making Sense Straight Outta Compton Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans Sunset Boulevard Sweet Smell of Success Tangerine Taxi Driver The 400 Blows The Alphabet The Amazing Spider-Man 2 The Amputee The Assassin The Big Lebowski The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari The Celebration The Danish Girl The Darjeeling Limited The Double Life of Veronique The Duke of Burgundy The Elephant Man The Garden of Earthly Delights The Gift The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The Grand Budapest Hotel The Grandmaster The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 The Imitation Game The Killer The Killing The Last Picture Show The Leisure Class The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou The Lion King The Martian The Matrix The Meaning of Life The Night of the Hunter The Passion of Joan of Arc The Royal Tenenbaums The Rules of the Game The Seventh Continent The Seventh Seal The Shining The Star Wars Holiday Special The Straight Story The Theory of Everything The Thin Blue Line The Thin Red Line The Third Man The Umbrellas of Cherbourg The Walk The Web The Wold Shadow The World of Apu The Young Girls of Rochefort There Will Be Blood Tokyo Story Tootsie Trainwreck Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Vivre Sa Vie What's Opera, Doc? Whiplash Wild at Heart Wings of Desire Wisdom Teeth World of Tomorrow Yi Yi

Quick Update/Incoming Influx of Lists

Moving further and further away from Letterboxd, please excuse the multitude of poorly formatted lists.

The Shallows First Draft

The strand that most strongly connects the disparate films of Jaume Collet-Serra, whether it be his early horror films, his consistent run with Liam Neeson, or his latest triumph The Shallows, is his emphasis on tactility. Whereas the previous films confined themselves mostly to confined locations or cities that seemed like mazes, this film goes to the expanses of the ocean.

A Bob Dylan Ranking

1. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
2. The Times They Are A'Changin'
3. Another Side of Bob Dylan
4. Bob Dylan

In Praise of the Elemental

I was briefly discussing how Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Blue Velvet have much in common, and I described how films that feel elemental, such as Sans soleil, Miami Vice, and Out 1 are often among my favorites, and a friend responded with this: "The best movies tend to be the ones whose appeals are intuitive rather than logical."

American Honey v1

A little morsel from a first conception of American Honey.

Both as blunt as its title suggests and strangely elusive, American Honey moves with all the forcefulness of the old van that the film spends so much time in. To describe it as meandering is putting it lightly—at its heart the film is rudderless and nigh-anchorless. Of course, it is difficult to determine whether Arnold thinks of this as a feature or a demerit, and just as hard for the viewer to decide at what points the movie veers into this pitfall. Wildly inconsistent, frequently enervating,

2016 EOY Preparation

EXTREMELY preliminary.
Best Actress:
Kate Lyn Sheil - Kate Plays Christine
Zhao Tao - Mountains May Depart
Agyness Deyn - Sunset Song
Blake Lively - The Shallows
Kate Beckinsdale - Love & Friendship

Best Actor: Tom Hanks - Sully
Logan Marshall-Green - The Invitation
Chris Pine - Hell or High Water
Jake Gyllenhaal - Demolition
Anton Yelchin - Green Room

Best Supporting Actor:
Mathieu Amalric - My Golden Days
Tom Bennett - Love & Friendship
Aaron Eckart - Sully
Louis Koo - SPL II
Ralph Fiennes - A Bigger Splash

Best Supporting Actress:
Lili Taieb - My Golden Days
Zoey Deutch - Everybody Wants Some!!
Chloe Sevigny - Love & Friendship
Dakota Johnson - A Bigger Splash
Kaho - Our Little Sister

O.J.: Made in America (in parts)

Part by part thoughts, many of which will likely end up in my formal review.

Part 1: It seems like the main intent of O.J.: Made in America is deflation, an exposé of the culture and society of the times even while O.J.'s rise goes higher and higher. The opening of O.J. in prison is crucial to sustain the opening, almost celebratory section that would fit into a standard sports doc, which is then crushed by the subsequent section on LA in the 1960s.

Part 2: The Rodney King and Harlins sections are among the most powerful stretches of films I've seen this year. I'm so impressed how they manage to prolong the LA sections until right before the viewer wants to get back to OJ; it's a wonderful juggling act that Edelman and co. pull off perfectly.

Broadway by Light

"Broadway by Light" never seeks to settle into one particular pattern; there are recognizable groupings of various signages, but there isn't a true sense of progression until the short's ending as dawn appears. But what is most striking is just how looming these ostensibly commercial products appear, towering over the other objects in the frame, especially the men that infrequently appear as almost automatons at work. Aside from some astonishingly flurries of signage rushing at the screen, Klein's editing is mostly static, but nevertheless "Broadway by Light" is a strange, defiant experience.

House of Little Deaths

Scout Tafoya seems to be aiming for two simultaneous and seemingly incongruous approaches here, mixing an intent eye on the prostitutes at the heart of House of Little Deaths with a more experimental and abrasive tone. The first half brazenly rejects all attempts at narrative, consisting solely of a single night in the brothel that forms the base of the film, as the prostitutes turn their tricks for a seemingly endless parade of men. Despite the observant shots of them as they get ready for the night, the women all seem to coalesce into one many-formed entity—perhaps for the best. The second half unfortunately does decide to venture into narrative, with increasingly diminishing returns from the already admittedly punishing first half. However, this is somewhat offset by the startling disruptions, such as the repeated shots, the extreme close-ups, the cuts to silence/mismatched shots with dialogue, and especially the colors, which are repeatedly tinted in many different hues, from blinding white to deep reds. House of Little Deaths is more than likely an hour too long and too impenetrable for its own good, but it is an admirable, worthy effort nonetheless.

Bad Seed

Bad Seed proceeds for most of its runtime in a pleasing and sedate pace, and perhaps the aspect that most distinguishes it is its general weightlessness. Though the narrative is set around a gang of car thieves that the main character, Henri (Pierre Mingand), is unwittingly dragged into, Wilder wisely feels no urge to infuse the film with additional urgency or weightlessness, mixing in liberal amounts of wit, ostensibly extraneous segments (the height of which is Jean's kleptomaniacal obsession with neckties), and a gleeful satirical element in showing the rich society and their haplessness in the face of the thieves. Even the potential thorns of the romance between Henri and Jeanette (Danielle Darrieux, in a wonderfully coy performance) are elided, as the general arc is preferred over any "big" moments. Nevertheless, Wilder's first film is made with a not insignificant amount of flair, using superimpositions and fast-paced editing (especially in the final chase) to match the screenplay's charms. The film does end in a shockingly melancholy fashion, but the film up to that point is so generous in its easygoing way that it almost feels like a natural transition. Bad Seed is a charm and a joy, where its lightness of tone and feeling is a feature rather than a demerit.

A David Bowie Ranking

Transferred and altered from Topsters.net.

1. Station to Station
2. Heroes
3. Young Americans
4. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
5. Low
6. Hunky Dory
7. The Gouster
8. Let's Dance
9. Diamond Dogs
10. Aladdin Sane
11. Scary Monsters
12. Blackstar
13. The Next Day
14. The Man Who Sold the World
15. Heathen
16. Reality
17. Lodger
18. Black Tie White Noise
19. Outside
20. Earthling
21. Hours
22. Space Oddity
23. The Buddha of Suburbia
24. Tin Machine
25. Tonight
26. Pin Ups
27. Never Let Me Down
28. David Bowie

2016 Halftime Scenes of the Year

So I can remember at the end of the year.

• The party or the final confrontation, My Golden Days
• Trauma montage, Cameraperson
• First night at Sound Machine, Everybody Wants Some!!
• The main event/Christine in motion/Gun range, Kate Plays Christine
• Opening credits, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
• The wedding, Sunset Song
• Rhythmic exercise, Cemetery of Splendour
• First dance/final dance, Mountains May Depart
• Opening the presents, Henry Gamble's Birthday Party
• The 12 Commandments, Love & Friendship

Another Previous Favorites List

1. Mulholland Dr.
2. Eraserhead
3. Paris, Texas
4. Blade Runner
5. Close-Up
6. Yi Yi
7. In the Mood for Love
8. A Brighter Summer Day
9. Sans soleil
10. Persona
11. Heat
12. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
13. Seven Samurai
14. "La jetée"
15. Trust
16. Sunrise
17. The Night of the Hunter
18. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
19. Stop Making Sense
20. Blue Velvet
21. Carol
22. The Young Girls of Rochefort
23. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
24. Mistress America
25. The Battle of Algiers
26. Manhunter
27. 2001: A Space Odyssey
28. Lost in Translation
29. Tokyo Story
30. The 400 Blows
31. The Devils
32. Journey to Italy
33. Vertigo
34. Inland Empire
35. "Duck Amuck"
36. Jeanne Dielman
37. Out 1
38. Meek's Cutoff
39. Sunset Blvd.
40. Lolita
41. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
42. "Outer Space"
43. The Passion of Joan of Arc
44. Miami Vice
45. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
46. "Night and Fog"
47. Paths of Glory
48. Death Proof
49. Public Enemies
50. The Double Life of Veronique
51. My Golden Days
52. M
53. Casablanca
54. "World of Tomorrow"
55. Eyes Wide Shut
56. Phoenix
57. Last Year at Marienbad
58. Singin' in the Rain
59. Brazil
60. Wild at Heart
61. The Shining

Oeuvre Lists

Taken from Letterboxd.

The Coen Brothers "Sometimes it's a hard world for the little things."

1. Barton Fink (Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Actor (John Turturro), Best Performance (John Turturro), Best Art Direction, Best Ending; Palme d'Or, FIPRESCI Prize, Vulcan Award (Dennis Gassner, Nancy Haigh))
2. Fargo (Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Frances McDormand), Best Cinematography, Best Score; Grand Prix)
3. Inside Llewyn Davis (Best Sound, Best Scene ("Fare Thee Well"), Best Use of Song ("Fare Thee Well"), Best Original Song ("Please Mr. Kennedy"); Jury Prize)
4. Raising Arizona (Best Costumes; Cannes Best Actor (Nicolas Cage))
5. The Man Who Wasn't There (Best Supporting Actress (Scarlett Johansson), Editing; Cannes Best Screenplay)
6. A Serious Man (Cannes Best Direction, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury)
7. Intolerable Cruelty
8. Burn After Reading (Best Ensemble)
9. No Country for Old Men (Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem))
10. Hail, Caesar!
11. The Big Lebowski (Best Visual Effects)
12. True Grit (Cannes Best Actress (Hailee Steinfeld))
13. Miller's Crossing
14. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Best Makeup)
15. Blood Simple
16. The Ladykillers
17. The Hudsucker Proxy

Paul Thomas Anderson "We may be through with the past, but the past is never through with us."

1. Inherent Vice (Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Katherine Waterston), Best Ensemble, Best Editing, Best Costumes, Best Makeup; Palme d'Or, FIPRESCI Prize)
2. The Master (Best Supporting Actor (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Scene (Informal Processing); Grand Prix, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury)
3. There Will Be Blood (Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Performance (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Visual Effects, Best Score, Best Ending; Jury Prize, Vulcan Award (Johnny Greenwood))
4. Punch-Drunk Love (Best Actress (Emily Watson), Best Sound, Best Use of Song ("He Needs Me"); Cannes Best Direction)
5. Magnolia (Best Original Song ("Save Me"), Cannes Best Actor (Tom Cruise))
6. Boogie Nights (Cannes Best Actress (Heather Graham))
7. Hard Eight (Cannes Best Screenplay)

Stanley Kubrick "Gentlemen of the court, there are times that I'm ashamed to be a member of the human race and this is one such occasion."

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Use of Song ("Also sprach Zarathustra"), Best Scene (Frank's birthday); Palme d'Or, FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury)
2. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
3. Paths of Gory (Best Ending; Grand Prix)
4. The Shining (Best Actress (Shelley Duvall), Best Performance (Shelley Duvall), Best Editing, Best Sound; Jury Prize)
5. Eyes Wide Shut (Best Ensemble, Best Art Direction; Cannes Best Actress (Nicole Kidman))
6. Lolita (Best Supporting Actress (Shelley Winters); Cannes Best Actor (James Mason))
7. Dr. Strangelove (Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Peter Sellers), Best Supporting Actor (George C. Scott); Cannes Best Screenplay)
8. Barry Lyndon (Best Cinematography, Best Costumes, Best Makeup, Best Score; Cannes Best Direction, Vulcan Award (John Alcott))
9. Full Metal Jacket
10. The Killing
11. Spartacus
12. A Clockwork Orange
13. Killer's Kiss

Quentin Tarantino "Do you know what I do? This is what I do. I kill people and sell their corpses for cash."

1. Death Proof (Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Editing; Palme d'Or, FIPRESCI Prize, Vulcan Award (Sally Menke))
2. Inglourious Basterds (Best Direction, Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz), Best Performance (Christoph Watlz), Best Art Direction, Best Scene ("Cat People (Putting Out Fire)"), Best Ending; Grand Prix)
3. The Hateful Eight (Best Actor (Samuel L. Jackson), Best Supporting Actor (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Best Ensemble, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup, Best Score; Jury Prize)
4. Pulp Fiction (Cannes Best Screenplay)
5. Jackie Brown (Best Actress (Pam Grier), Best Use of Song ("Didn't I"); Cannes Best Direction)
6. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Best Sound; Cannes Best Actress (Uma Thurman), Prize of the Ecumenical Jury)
7. Kill Bill Vol. 2
8. Django Unchained (Best Costumes, Best Original Song ("Ancora Qui"); Cannes Best Actor (Christoph Waltz))
9. Reservoir Dogs

Michael Mann "There is a flip side to that coin."

1. Heat (Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Ensemble, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Score, Best Scene (The heist), Best Ending; Palme d'Or, FIPRESCI Prize)
2. Manhunter (Best Use of Song ("In-A-Gadda-Vida"); Grand Prix)
3. Miami Vice (Best Supporting Actress (Gong Li), Best Costumes; Jury Prize, Vulcan Award (Dion Beebe))
4. Public Enemies (Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale; Cannes Best Actress (Marion Cotillard))
5. Thief (Best Art Direction; Cannes Best Direction)
6. The Insider (Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Best Performance (Russell Crowe); Cannes Best Actor (Russell Crowe))
7. Ali (Best Makeup; Cannes Best Screenplay)
8. Blackhat (Best Visual Effects; Cannes Best Actress (Tang Wei))
9. The Last of the Mohicans (Prize of the Ecumenical Jury)
10. Collateral
11. The Keep

David Lynch "Mother, they're still not sure it is a baby!"

1. Mulholland Dr. (Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Justin Theroux), Best Supporting Actress (Laura Harring), Best Ensemble, Best Use of Song ("Llorando"), Best Scene (Club Silencio), Best Ending; Palme d'Or, FIPRESCI Prize)
2. Eraserhead (Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Original Song ("In Heaven"); Grand Prix, Vulcan Award (Frederick Elmes, Alan Splet, and David Lynch), Prize of the Ecumenical Jury)
3. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Best Actress (Sheryl Lee), Best Performance (Sheryl Lee), Best Score; Jury Prize)
4. Inland Empire (Best Editing; Cannes Best Actress (Laura Dern))
5. Blue Velvet (Cannes Best Screenplay)
6. Wild at Heart (Cannes Best Direction)
7. "Premonitions Following an Evil Deed"
8. "Lady Blue Shanghai"
9. Twin Peaks
10. The Elephant Man (Best Costumes, Best Makeup)
11. The Straight Story (Best Actor (Richard Farnsworth), Cannes Best Actor (Richard Farnsworth))
12. Lost Highway
13. Dune
14. "Sailing with Bushnell Keeler"
15. "The Alphabet"
16. "Six Men Getting Sick"
17. "The Amputee"

Wise Guys

It's hard to convey just how much of a travesty Wise Guys is. Unlike similar comedic De Palma misfires such as The Wedding Party and Get to Know Your Rabbit the film is never boring, but it is perhaps something worse: actively aggravating. Everything in the film, from the score to De Palma's direction (one of the few redeeming factors, as his visual sense of rhythm and the occasional trick including his trademark split-diopter remain intact) to the acting in particular, is heightened past the point of absurdity. The characters and plot are reduced to caricatures, and the viewer gets the sense that the filmmakers are laughing at their characters, providing little in the way of anything to sympathize with.

The narrative itself is surprisingly coherent, following a clear emotional throughline that takes the odd couple at its center on a relatively satisfying arc. But what rankles is the depiction of it, how willing De Palma is to indulge Harry and Moe's hijinks; even the ending is botched, as the characters leave virtually unchanged, with only the slightest bit of luck keeping them from destruction. Granted, the mob aspect is performed rather well, due to the intensely committed and effortless performances of Dan Hedaya and Harvey Keitel, respectively, but it is lost among the endless scenes of Harry and Moe shouting at each other before plunging into the exact same mannerisms.

DeVito's and Piscopo's performances, unfortunately, are in large part responsible for the morass that Wise Guys gradually plunges into. In the first quarter or so, where their characters' plotline is equally balanced with that of the mob's, it is still fairly grating, as they fail to nail the timing of the already tedious screenplay. But from the racetrack onwards (excepting the admittedly funny torture sequences), the film focuses almost entirely on them, and the two become even more eager to mug and belittle anyone they meet; their friendship is the only thing that feels real, but it is surrounded by thick layers of cheese and hair-tearing stupidity that refuses to let up.

Perhaps the worst part of Wise Guys is that it isn't even poorly put together; the pacing is fleet for the most part, there are rarely any serious defects in the filmmaking (aside from, of course, the egregiously long car-starting sequence), and the story is coherent. The tone, however, is so gleefully stupid, so idiotically pleased with itself and its even more pea-brained protagonists, that the film is ruined; I'm not certain if it was my trust in De Palma or my vastly different sensibilities, but I was revulsed in a way that few, if any films had caused. Simply put, for me Wise Guys is irredeemable on almost all accounts.

A Cowboy Bebop Ranking

1. 20 "Pierrot le Fou": Part noir, part horror, all nightmare; welcome to the madhouse.
2. 18 "Speak Like a Child": A mediation on the image, analog, treasure, the past, and our characters. Plus, best pre-title-card sequence.
3. 06 "Sympathy for the Devil": Beyond life and death; the blues have rarely been blown stronger.
4. 25 "The Real Folk Blues (Part 1)": As lyrical as the beginning of the end can get.
5. 04 "Gateway Shuffle": The ideal for character dynamics, over the top bounty of the week, etc.
6. 05 "Ballad of Fallen Angels": Heroic bloodshed, with about as much sadness.
7. 14 "Bohemian Rhapsody": More than two people are playing in this chess game.
8. 26 "The Real Folk Blues (Part 1)": The end; if it pulls one too many punches, it does so gently.
9. 23 "Brain Scratch": Incredibly daring conceptually, and it pulls it off spectacularly.
10. 11 "Toys in the Attic": Endlessly amusing, and more than a little creepy.
11. 24 "Hard Luck Women": If this wasn't uneven this could be the best; pure bittersweet emotion with some of the best (vocal!) music choices.
12. 13 "Jupiter Jazz (Part 2)": An uncommon kind of humanism for Cowboy Bebop.
13. 03 "Honky Tonk Women": Pure flash and style.
14. 01 "Asteroid Blues": The first, and still one of the most iconic to me; doesn't hurt that it's genuinely emotional.
15. 02 "Stray Dog Strut": A great deal of fun, and Ein is extremely cute.
16. 12 "Jupiter Jazz (Part 1)": A tad bit too much setup but Gren might have been formative.
17. 10 "Ganymede Elegy": Moreso the blues, and all the better for it.
18. 21 "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui": Heady, but moving; also, Faye and Spike as fairy godparents.
19. 17 "Mushroom Samba": Too light but the hallucinations are among the best sequences in the show (and very cute Ein!)
20. 19 "Wild Horses": Not wild enough.
21. 16 "Black Dog Serenade": Somewhat scattered but haunting.
22. 15 "My Funny Valentine": It doesn't sing as much as it should have.
23. 09 "Jamming With Edward": A little uneven, but Ed is so fun.
24. 08 "Waltz For Venus": Rocco sorta gets on my nerves, but genuinely moving.
25. 22 "Cowboy Funk": Andy's lame.
26. 07 "Heavy Metal Queen": The first insubstantial episode, with too many lows.

Jason Bourne

Going to start posting all my non-important-film reviews on here now.

There's no doubting that Jason Bourne feels for large chunks of its runtime like a sledgehammer pounding the viewer into submission. The deftness of the editing doesn't go far enough in alleviating the signature, almost headache-inducing shaky cam style. It is true that this particular choice creates a continual heightened state of intensity, but for the most part this energy is misdirected, creating an environment where every scene rather than just the action scenes is emphasized. (Though it is all almost worth it for the emotional impact that occurs when the climactic emotional confrontation starts, as the camera suddenly stabilizes for almost the entire scene.) Nevertheless, despite some rather clunky beats, especially in the first half that operates more in an expository mode, the movie gains traction and achieves genuine, fairly intelligent thrills.

Jason Bourne's plot has been pared down to essentially two narratives, with almost no digressions. The first is that of Bourne's continual quest for answers regarding his past, and the second is the CIA's efforts to both catch him and deal with ramifications following his emergence. Perhaps ironically, it is the second of these plotlines that is more interesting, as the film operates better in a procedural gear that observes as the rapid exchange of information that occurs inside Langley works in concert to find and capture Bourne. In a barrage of technical data on computers, fast-paced dialogue, and clear but urgent commands, the CIA appears like a genuine threat even to a near-superhuman like Bourne, aided in no small part by the coldly menacing performance of Vincent Cassel as an operative, fittingly known only as the Asset.

Bourne himself is a force of sheer will, but lights of humanity continually shine through, especially in the extreme close-ups on his face, tracing the lines and scars of the past that cut even deeper than those on Tommy Lee Jones' face. This sense of humanity is even stronger in the people of the future, so to speak, in the forms of Alicia Vikander and Riz Ahmed. Their characters are played as energetic and ambitious, injecting a sense of tension as both characters' (especially Vikander's Heather) motivations seem unclear.

The sequencing of the film is particularly of note, revolving around three sequences functioning as a continual cat-and-mouse game where the identities can change at a moment's notice. Greengrass cuts smoothly and swiftly, often between three separate viewpoints, as the pursuit moves cleanly between crowds, cramped apartment buildings, and subterranean passageways, before exploding into fast-paced fistfights. The London sequence is perhaps the highlight of these, forming the tipping point where each of the characters' true allegiances is revealed, and Heather must scramble to decide which side she is on.

Despite its glaring flaws, Jason Bourne is a treat, as its frenetic pace eventually envelops the viewer. It's undeniably enervating and dour, but by the time "Extreme Ways" plays, Greengrass, Damon, and co. have announced and made a solid case for their intentions: Jason Bourne is back, both in the narrative and in the real world.

Admins Only

Mirror (19/2) Heat (18/3) 2001: A Space Odyssey (15/2) The Green Ray (15/2) Jeanne Dielman (15/2) Sans soleil (15/2) Playtime (13/2) Out 1 (13/2) Femme Fatale (12/2) Sunrise (11/2) Only Angels Have Wings (11/2) Imitation of Life (10/2) Carlito’s Way (10/2) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (10/2) The Aviator’s Wife (10/1) Lost in Translation (10/1) Le Bonheur (9/1) A Woman Under the Influence (9/1) Exotica (9/1) Margaret (8/2) Beauty and the Beast (8/1) Pickup on South Street (8/1) Weekend (8/1) Close-Up (8/1) Au hasard Balthazar (7/2) A Touch of Zen (7/2) Stop Making Sense (7/2) Mulholland Dr. (7/2) Chelsea Girls (7/1) Inland Empire (7/1) My Darling Clementine (6/1) The Young Girls of Rochefort (6/1) The Terrorizers (6/1) Metropolis (5/1) Brief Encounter (5/1) Early Summer (5/1) Vertigo (5/1) La Dolce vita (5/1) La Notte (5/1) Lawrence of Arabia (5/1) Le Cercle Rouge (5/1) McCabe and Mrs. Miller (5/1) The Godfather, Part II (5/1) Grey Gardens (5/1) Taxi Driver (5/1) Autumn Sonata (5/1) Days of Heaven (5/1) Raging Bull (5/1) Blow Out (5/1) Blade Runner (5/1) Body Double (5/1) Die Hard (5/1) Total Recall (5/1) A Brighter Summer Day (5/1) The Age of Innocence (5/1) Safe (5/1) Princess Mononoke (5/1) The Last Days of Disco (5/1) Punch-Drunk Love (5/1) Tropical Malady (5/1) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (5/1) Wendy and Lucy (5/1) The Social Network (5/1) The Master (5/1) The Forbidden Room (5/1) Mistress America (5/1) The Night of the Hunter (4/1) The Earrings of Madame de… (4/1) All About Eve (3/1) Hiroshima mon Amour (3/1) “Outer Space” (3/1) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (3/1) A Streetcar Named Desire (2/1) Breathless (2/1) Solaris (2/1) The Red Shoes (1/1) Johnny Guitar (1/1) The Battle of Algiers (1/1) Paris, Texas (1/1) American Honey (1/1)

Two Ways of Shooting a Scene

By coincidence, the two films I watched yesterday (functionally speaking) both involved an authority figure of some sort (in Blue Ruin a police officer and in Wendy and Lucy a security guard) waking up the protagonist that had been sleeping in their car. But what interested me even more was the way in which the two directors filmed it. There is no doubt after watching much of both director's oeuvres that I prefer Reichardt in general, but these instances are perfectly indicative of their respective styles. For Saulnier's part, he shoots it in a subtly showy way. It starts with a push-in from the front passenger's seat that follows the police officer before panning to show her tapping on the window. He then cuts to a close-up from the driver's seat that pans up as Blair's character wakes up, then tracks laterally as he unlocks the door and speaks to the officer briefly. Finally, it cuts shortly to a view of the officer from the passenger seat, then a shot from the outside of the two cars. For Reichardt, she uses a perhaps less fluid and/or showy but more impactful method. She begins with a close-up on Wendy's face as the tapping on the window begins. Then, a long static shot from the passenger seat is used as she gets up and puts the key in the ignition. An extreme close-up is used on the key, before cutting back to the same shot. That shot is held until the next segment of the scene, as Wendy and the security guard push the car. I'm not entirely sure why one works better for me; perhaps I simply admire how Reichardt works much better with her protagonist. But regardless, it's fascinating how such a specific scene appears in two radically different films.

A Previous Favorites List

This was my previous "biased" favorites list before I revised it extensively.

1. Mulholland Dr.
2. Eraserhead
3. Blade Runner
4. Close-Up
5. Yi Yi
6. Paris, Texas
7. In the Mood for Love
8. Persona
9. Sans soleil
10. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
11. The 400 Blows
12. 2001: A Space Odyssey
13. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
14. Carol
15. The Young Girls of Rochefort
16. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
17. La jetée
18. Stop Making Sense
19. Sunrise
20. Seven Samurai
21. The Night of the Hunter
22. Duck Amuck
23. Heat
24. The Passion of Joan of Arc
25. Paths of Glory
26. Tokyo Story
27. The Devils
28. The Shining
29. Blue Velvet
30. Mistress America
31. Lost in Translation
32. The Battle of Algiers
33. My Golden Days
34. World of Tomorrow
35. Brazil
36. Wild at Heart
37. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
38. Casablanca
39. Last Year at Marienbad
40. Night and Fog
41. Inland Empire