2020: Good riddance (Patreon)

Happy to be kicking off the new year with a canonical masterpiece, though I vaguely recall liking Duck Soup (which handily beat out Toy Story 4 in this week’s poll) a bit less than I do A Night at the Opera. It can be rented via the usual suspects and is also streaming on TCM, I believe, if you have that.

Won’t be watching anything tonight—by the way, I highly recommend Remember the Night, currently streaming on Peacock, as a New Year’s Eve treat; rave review coming tomorrow—so I took stock of this year’s viewing in a new way (for me), filing them in four discrete categories. Saw 327 films total (counting The Nest twice, 326 unique), which is a dozen fewer than last year…but that’s still rather a lot given that I didn’t see my usual 35-40 at TIFF. Here’s how it breaks down. See you on the other side!

NEW FILMS PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN (87)

Alphabetical order; “new” = 2018 and later

Alex Wheatle

Another Round

Avengers: Endgame

Beastie Boys Story

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

The Calming

City Hall

Collective

Color out of Space

Corpus Christi

Da 5 Bloods

David Byrne’s American Utopia

Days

The Devil All the Time

Dick Johnson Is Dead

Disappearance at Clifton Hill

Dolemite Is My Name

Family Romance, LLC.

The Farewell

Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds

First Cow

Ghost Town Anthology

Human, Space, Time and Human

I Am Greta

I Carry You With Me

I’m Thinking of Ending Things

Infinite Football

The Invisible Man

Jojo Rabbit

Joker

Kajillionaire

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

The Last Full Measure

The Last Thing He Wanted

The Last Vermeer

Let Them All Talk a.k.a. The Fall of 2019

Lost Girls

Love and Monsters

Lovers Rock

Malmkrog

Mangrove

Mank

Mr. Jones

Monos

Mortal

My Psychedelic Love Story

The Nest

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Nine Days

1917

Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin

Nomadland

Notturno

Oh Mercy

The Old Guard

Olympic Dreams

Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia

On the Record

On the Rocks

The Painter and the Thief

Palm Springs

Premature

A Rainy Day in New York

Red, White and Blue

Run.

The Salt of Tears

Save Yourselves!

76 Days

Shithouse

Soul

The Souvenir

Tenet

Tesla

Time

Tommaso

Troop Zero

Undine

Upgrade*

The Vast of Night

Viena and the Fantomes

A Voluntary Year

The War With Grandpa

Waves

Wendy

What the Constitution Means to Me

The Woman Who Ran

Young Ahmed

NEW FILMS REVISITED (9)

Alphabetical order; 2018 or later again

I Heard You Paint Houses

The Image Book

Marriage Story

The Nest

Parasite

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Transit

The Truth

Uncut Gems

OLD FILMS PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN (87)

Chronological order; y’all selected a large percentage of these, noted with asterisks

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)*

The Petrified Forest (1936)

San Francisco (1936)

Stella Dallas (1937)

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Address Unknown (1944)*

The Curse of the Cat People (1944)*

Ivan the Terrible (1944)*

Ivan the Terrible Part II: The Revolt of the Boyars (1946)

Magic Town (1947)

Fort Apache (1948)

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)*

Rancho Notorious (1952)

Retreat, Hell! (1952)

Niagara (1953)

Beachhead (1954)

Witness to Murder (1954)

Marty (1955)*

Summertime (1955)

And God Created Woman (1956)

Fiend Without a Face (1958)

Murder by Contract (1958)

Day of the Outlaw (1959)*

The Bad Sleep Well (1960)*

Testament of Orpheus (1960)

The Haunting (1963)*

Alphaville (1965)

Help! (1965)*

The Nun (1966)

Double Suicide (1969)

Le Gai Savoir (1969)

Wake in Fright (1971)*

Amazing Grace (1972)

Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)

The Last of Sheila (1973)*

Blood for Dracula (1974)

The Human Tornado (1976)

The Other Side of the Wind (1976)*

Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (1978)*

The Silent Partner (1978)*

Straight Time (1978)*

Bush Mama (1979)*

The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)*

Hardcore (1979)*

Knightriders (1981)

Ms. 45 (1981)*

Southern Comfort (1981)*

Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)*

Missing (1982)*

And the Ship Sails On (1983)

Love Unto Death (1984)

Day of the Dead (1985)*

From Beyond (1986)*

The Sacrifice (1986)*

How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)

Santa sangre (1989)*

The Last Boy Scout (1991)*

Until the End of the World (1991)*

The Professional (1994)*

The Quick and the Dead (1995)*

Nobody’s Business (1996)

The X-Files (1998)

Criminal Lovers (1999)

The Miracle Maker (2000)*

Millennium Actress (2001)*

Elf (2003)*

Methadonia (2005)

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2006)

We Go Way Back (2006)

Hot Rod (2007)*

The Box (2009)*

Jennifer’s Body (2009)*

Araf—Somewhere In Between (2012)

Camille Rewinds (2012)

56 Up (2012)

Memories Look at Me (2012)

Red Hook Summer (2012)*

Enemy (2013)*

My Name Is Hmmm… (2013)

Laggies (2014)

The Nice Guys (2016)*

The Big Sick (2017)

A Fantastic Woman (2017)

Foxtrot (2017)

I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. (2017)

I, Tonya (2017)

Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno (2017)

OLD FILMS REVISITED (144)

Chronological order; poll requests again noted with asterisks

Sherlock Jr. (1924)*

The Wind (1928)*

Le Million (1931)

Dinner at Eight (1933)

Twentieth Century (1934)

The Bank Dick (1940)

Foreign Correspondent (1940)*

Remember the Night (1940)

Ball of Fire (1941)*

The Lady Eve (1941)*

Cat People (1942)

Day of Wrath (1943)

Henry V (1944)

Murder, My Sweet (1944)

I Know Where I’m Going! (1945)

The Big Sleep (1946)*

Hamlet (1948)

Oliver Twist (1948)

Orpheus (1950)

Ace in the Hole (1951)*

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

House of Wax (1953)

It Came From Outer Space (1953)

The Naked Spur (1953)

Sabrina (1954)*

Diabolique (1955)

Ordet. (1955)

Nightfall (1956)

Written on the Wind (1956)

Nights of Cabiria (1957)

Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)

Imitation of Life (1959)*

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

La dolce vita (1960)*

Peeping Tom (1960)

One, Two, Three (1961)*

Cléo From 5 to 7 (1962)

Dr. No (1962)

Billy Liar (1963)

The Birds (1963)*

Le Samouraï (1967)*

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Salesman (1969)

Deep End (1970)*

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)*

The Harder They Come (1972)

The Sting (1973)

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)*

Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)*

Blue Collar (1978)*

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

The China Syndrome (1979)*

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

The Falls (1980)

Seems Like Old Times (1980)

Coup de torchon (1981)

Possession (1981)*

A Brutal Game (1983)

The Dead Zone (1983)*

The Element of Crime (1984)

Back to the Future (1985)*

Vagabond (1985)

Ishtar (1987)

The Chocolate War (1988)

Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)*

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

Heathers (1989)*

Speaking Parts (1989)*

King of New York (1990)*

Miller’s Crossing (1990)*

Hard-Boiled (1992)*

Laws of Gravity (1992)

Police Story III—Super Cop (1992)

La Cérémonie (1995)

Underground (1995)

The Rock (1996)

Scream (1996)*

Kundun (1997)*

Wag the Dog (1997)

The Idiots (1998)

Praise (1998)

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

Girl on the Bridge (1999)

Human Resources (1999)

My Best Fiend (1999)

Not One Less (1999)

Pola X (1999)

Ratcatcher (1999)

Time Regained (1999)

Wonderland (1999)

An Affair of Love (2000)

Almost Famous (2000)

Bamboozled (2000)

Cast Away (2000)

Devils on the Doorstep (2000)

Erin Brockovich (2000)

The Filth and the Fury (2000)

Hamlet (2000)

The House of Mirth (2000)

Suzhou River (2000)

Wonder Boys (2000)

You Can Count on Me (2000)

Amélie (2001)*

Gosford Park (2001)

Harmful Insect (2001)

Home Movie (2001)

Intacto (2001)

Late Marriage (2001)

The Son’s Room (2001)

Time Out (2001)

What Time Is It There? (2001)

Adaptation. (2002)

An Amazing Couple (2002)

Daughter From Danang (2002)

8 Women (2002)

Gerry (2002)

An Injury to One (2002)

Irreversible (2002)

On the Run (2002)

Panic Room (2002)

Raising Victor Vargas (2002)

Road to Perdition (2002)

Spider-Man (2002)

Sweet Sixteen (2002)

All the Real Girls (2003)

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

Mysterious Skin (2004)

3-iron (2004)

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

The Act of Killing (2012)

To the Wonder (2012)

Blue Jasmine (2013)

The Great Beauty (2013)

Stray Dogs (2013)

Eden (2014)

Jauja (2014)

Saint Laurent (2014)

Whiplash (2014)

Winter Sleep (2014)

The Lobster (2015)

Mistress America (2015)

Yourself and Yours (2016)