“What’s it like being you? Bit hectic.” (Patreon)

Apologies for the comparative paucity of reviews lately. I’ve spent much of the past few days barreling through all of the films that have been sent to me for my consideration, and even though I turn most of them off after 10 less-than-compelling minutes, there are still so many (I count at least 45, including Ultrasound which I actually made it to the end of) that they’ve taken up a lot of time. Just about caught up now, though, plus the Indiewire poll deadline is Wednesday in any case. So things should return to normal, at least until I head back to my dad’s for Christmas.

Oh, and I forgot to announce that Edvard Munch finally triumphed in the request poll last week, in what I believe was its third consecutive heads-up or three-way contest. Watched all three hours and 41 minutes last night; review forthcoming tomorrow.

Don’t think individual Sight & Sound ballots have been posted yet, but here’s what I submitted (exactly the same as in 2012, except that Brief Encounter replaced Woman in the Dunes after I revisited both ca. 2013–16).

—Only Angels Have Wings (1939, Howard Hawks)

Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)

Brief Encounter (1945, David Lean)

“A Day in the Country” (1946, Jean Renoir)

A Star Is Born (1954, George Cukor)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)

Manhattan (1979, Woody Allen)

Blood Simple (1984, Joel Coen)

Exotica (1994, Atom Egoyan)

“Outer Space” (1999, Peter Tscherkassky)

Kris Dotson pointed out on Twitter that after seeing Don Hertzfeldt’s It’s Such a Beautiful Day (shortly after submitting my 2012 ballot), I expressed regret at not having included “Everything Will Be OK,” the 2006 short that makes up the first third of that feature. To be honest, I completely forgot that I’d been blown away to that degree, and never considered including it. Remind me in advance 9.5 years from now, Kris, and I’ll take another look. Would be nice to have something from this century on there. (My favorite feature, A Separation, is somewhere down in my top 35 or so of all time.)