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.