Bubbles, Tiers

Marxist ideology social context anti-colonialism
family city country

Old Ratings Compilation

For posterity.

2017 Top Ten List

TK

Four Modes of Documentary Storytelling

recording of everyday retracing event camera confession witnessing record

Manchester by the Sea Fragment

If Manchester by the Sea can be said to have a main visual motif, it is the harsh cold of winter. From the mounds of snow that Lee (Casey Affleck) shovels as he is introduced in the present, to the wispy breath of men struggling to get out of the chill, to the frozen ground that ultimately proves vital in the narrative, Kenneth Lonergan and cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes make plain the frigid backdrop where the film is set. But the content is anything but frozen; the setting informs but does not define the characters, their dreams, and their hang-ups. Against this harsh backdrop, Lonergan crafts something truly astonishing, a movie whose seemingly conventional nature only enhances its grasp of humanity.

Throughout his films, but especially in Manchester by the Sea, Lonergan works in paradoxically compatible modes of quotidian, often humorous interactions and devastating traumas.

Silence Thought

Arguably, the most challenging, rewarding films are those whose seams are apparent. Its flaws more often than not strengthen the mood of the movie, which is almost always a labor of love rather than a film that seems easily made. Silence is one of those movies.

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