My Favorite Movies of 2016 (so far)

[oscar jubis]

You remember accurately. I'm the one who used to post my top 10 two months late. Now I'm surprised that I have managed to watch enough new movies to make a list at all. People change and habits change. Now the percentage of fiml-watching of brand new releases is small. I also have a preference for Hollywood studio films of the 30s and 40s above anything else. It was "the Golden Age". I have also stopped reading film reviews, almost completely. Instead I read academic criticism that aims to explain and interpret rather than praise or dispraise.A lot of my film watching involves films I've already seen. So I know less films that others but the films I know, I know very well :-) Some films I know very well because I use them in my teaching to illustrate a concept, theory, or technique. Some films I know expertly include: Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton/1924), Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges/1941), Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock/1946) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott/USA-UK/1982), Nightjohn (Charles Burnett/1996), Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer/Germany/1998), Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron/Mexico/2001), Raising Victor Vargas (Peter Sollett/2003), Elephant (Gus van Sant/2003), Maria Full of Grace (Joshua Marston/USA-Colombia/2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry/2004), A History of Violence (David Cronenberg/2005), Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro/Mexico-Spain/2006), Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck-Anna Boden/2006), Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik/2010), Tomboy (Celine Sciamma/France/2011), A Separation (Asghar Farhadi/Iran/2011), Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson/2012), Snowpiercer (Joon Ho Bong/USA-UK-So. Korea/2013), The New Girlfriend (Francois Ozon/France/2015), Ex Machina (Alex Garland/2015)

[Chris Knipp]

Pretty much a mixed bag but some good ones to be sure. I don't see that list has anything in common other than you teach it and they're movies you've liked. I cringe when I hear an academic has "stopped reading" anything. Narrowing down is what they do as it is. If you read reviews you'll find out what the good new movies are. You have not apparently seen the two best new American movies of the summer, LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP and CAPTAIN FANTASTIC.

[oscar jubis]

I don't see what a reader has to gain from claims that anything is "the best". I prefer longer essays that explain, define, and interpret rather than shorter pieces full of superlatives and pejoratives that teach me nothing other than the biases of the writer.I am more interested in understanding how a movie works, which I usually don't get from consumer reviews. Longer pieces about movies I've already seen are more substantial reading, for me. I access these journals from the school's library, but there is good writing online. I like David Bordwell's website, for instance.

I don't say this to start a polemic with you, just to explain my current experience with film and film criticism (which may be reason enough for some, perhaps you included, to deem my lists as totally worthless).At least, it's a way for me to opine and say hello to my old filmwurld pals :-)