2020 will be remembered for a variety of reasons, but when it comes to the movies: Those that were released and the festivals that did happen will likely be overshadowed by the movies held back and by the festivals canceled. … Continue reading This week in Film — 2020 in movies
As the saying goes, hindsight is twenty-twenty. Why death hung so darkly over my mind as I penned last year’s Best Of column, I cannot say. Maybe it was me. Maybe it was the movies. Maybe it was the Rolling … Continue reading 2019: Something To Do With Death
In 2015, I thought about the images that defined the year in cinema. In 2016, I considered how cinematic output shaped the various tendrils of Hollywood. In 2017, I found solace in the cinema, no matter how downbeat it appeared … Continue reading 2018: An Embarrassment of Riches
As we approach the end of 2020, my mind turns to years previous, curious to see if the movies that informed that time and place informs this one. In 2015, the movies almost had a premonition of the years to … Continue reading 2017: ‘What year is this?’
Before looking back on the past year in cinema, I’m taking a tour through the past five years via my Boulder Weekly end of year recaps. For 2015, collaborations between directors and cinematographers provided the entry point. For 2016, I looked less … Continue reading 2016 in…
It’s normal to reflect on the previous year as the next one draws near. But lately, I’ve found myself thinking more and more about previous ones, specifically: How this year compares to others. Movie-wise that is. 2015 was the first … Continue reading 2015: Come and See
On Monday, Jan. 13, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced their nominations for this year’s Oscars. Out of the 53 movies nominated, Joker leads the pack with 11 nominations. The Irishman and Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood … Continue reading Oscars 2020
Taken as a whole, 2017 at the movies has left me somewhat dismayed. This is at least partly due, I think, to the overlong award season. With each passing year, this toxic notion of competition clouds the waters and does little to foster the appreciation and discussion of cinema. This rang particularly true in the silly and absurd horse race between La La Land and Moonlight—which ended up being an overwrought debate between authenticity in emotion—and culminated in one spectacular and public bungle at this year’s Oscar ceremony. And while award season is both exhausting and disheartening, it was the lackluster rollout of blockbusters that followed, suggesting that Hollywood’s wheels … Continue reading 2017: The Best So Far…
For the last three years, I have started every one of these year-end posts with, “[Year] was an excellent year at the movies.” Or something to that effect. This idea remains true in 2015, but the casualness makes me pause. Were all these years truly excellent years at the movies? Am I being too easy on them? Am I too taken with their wonder? Yes. Maybe. Always. For the past 52 weeks I have sat and watched in theaters and at home scores of moving images, all of which managed to illuminate something for me. Be it the transcendent beauty of this world, the delicate but … Continue reading 2015 at the movies
Michael J. Cinema 
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