One of my (many) resolutions this year was to watch at least fifty two films ive never seen before- one film a week. Over the years of special offers and continued generosity of streaming platforms I’ve amassed quite a backlog in the house already and outward trips to the cinema are of course, never to be turned down. The added incentive, obviously, is finally catching up on everything culturally ive missed previously, for whatever reason.
I made a list on Letterboxd of everything I watched but I thought i’d go into some general commentary here too about some of the best and worst things I watched, as well as the lessons learned for attempting the same project next time.
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THE GOOD
Shame (2011) was the second film I watched into the project, and throughout the rest of the year, remained quite possibly my favourite. Following Michael Fassbender’s sex-addicted character it was far from the titillation and pleasure you’d expect- a bleak and very raw journey that avoided overproduction and lets it’s scenes linger. As the months went on it would be a while before I watched anything better, partially my own fault.
In the summer I watched Back to The Future (1985) -and it’s sequels- for the first time. I’d witnessed the memes and parodies for years and perhaps wrongly, assumed i’d seen the film already. This was not the case and with how much I enjoyed the original film I feel a right numpty for sitting on it for so long, BUT that was the whole point of the project, so it’s a box ticked nonetheless.
Similarly for whatever reason -money and/or time constraints- Lady Bird (2018) was also something that I missed seeing at the cinema earlier this year, despite both my own interest and the usual awards buzz. An adolescent coming-of-age story, it’s a smaller tale set against a backdrop of family, societal peer expectation, and hometown fatigue with Saoirse Ronan playing the titular character. That this is Gerta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut has already been commented on elsewhere at large, and the film is quite an achievement. Of all the 2018-released films I watched this year, this one was easily my fave.
THE BAD
Throughout the year it wasn’t all masterpieces however, and I probably watched more crap in 2018 than any year previously. Bright (2017) has what should be a excellent idea -Orcs N’ Fairies coexisting with us in the real world!- and squanders it completely, failing to the combined trope trappings of both the cop and fantasy genres. Dubious police force betrayals and fantasy quests for mcguffins, it was all dull and predictable. Equally disappointing for similar reasons, Limitless (2011) has Bradley Cooper taking a high-performance prototype drug, unlocking the full potential of his brain and as the title suggests, becoming limitless. What follows is a sketchy plot where ultimately lots happens, but whooshy time jumps means none of it really has much development, and much less weight.
Films are entirely subjective of course -hello Rotten Tomatoes audience scores- and there were some things this year that were culturally accepted as being GOOD that I didnt enjoy. Such examples include both Whiplash (2014) and Gone Baby Gone (2007), award darlings that for one reason or another I found a bit sloggy. In the former, both Miles Teller and especially JK Simmons put in great performances with a punchy soundtrack for the duration but the actual narrative experience felt disappointingly hollow. The latter film was the opposite, with ‘Baby Gone having an interestingly tangled story of deceit and lies, let down by Casey Affleck just being…there. A bland shamble of a protagonist with zero captivation BUT maybe that was just my feeling? In both cases I found that I didnt enjoy either film as much as I would’ve liked to, perhaps because of that hype, and its for that reason I will and probably should rewatch them at some point.
I also watched a lot of random films, invariably because they were on TV at times of some heavy real-world procrastination. Minions (2015) came across as an empty husk of a film designed purely for future merchandising and after an hour and a half spent watching, i’d realised it really was time to start actually doing something. Out of everything on the list, it was the film I regretted watching -and spending time on- the most.
THE WEIRD
There was lots of films that were just their own thing too. At a gathering of friends earlier this summer with nothing better -or worse!- on TV we decided to watch Hardcore Henry (2015). I was aware of the film through a clever trailer which sizzle reels the whole film- it basically screams at you that its balls to the walls action entirely in first-person perspective. We were not disappointed. The film is fast, bloody, and surrealistically hilarious- the most “videogame” film ive ever seen. The villain has telekinesis, there’s clone armies, and cybernetic killing limbs- it’s loads of stupid fun and it stood out quite a bit amongst everything else this year.
Seasonal offerings also brought their own random and per the task at hand, this year I watched a lot more xmas than usual. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) has all the potential of something good, the failure of something bad and the results of something without parallel. Part of this is the willingness to adapt the source material by Ron Howard, part Jim Carey’s portrayal, but by the end I was just left a bit speechless. I’d no idea what the hell any of it was.
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In general I like to think I watched a lot more in the year than what I would have normally, but such is the breadth of cinema, some of it wasn’t all that worth watching. Regrettably what I found was that I didnt actually go to the cinema any more frequently and when I did watch something at home it was always more likely to be within the last two decades- i’m not sure I necessarily got the wider experience of film that I was maybe looking for in the first place. Too often I fell into the trap of just watching things that I had access to (hello Netflix) rather than what I wanted to watch.
Statistically I think I watched more blockbusters than indies, but on reflection there was one key observation I found, and that was that there were more non-Disney versus House of Mouse output. Crucially this meant different stories and voices and more stop-motion than usual with films like Kubo and The Two Strings (2016) really standing out. Out of everything it’s the film I most want to rewatch- possibly at the detriment of the same project next year.
AND THAT’S THE PLAN! In 2019 I want to do the exact same resolution of watching another fifty two films i’ve never seen before, but this time with the lessons above. Hopefully with a lot more independents, more genres and just generally, more classics that i’ve missed out on.
Here’s the list, updated as they’re watched: Fifty Two Films First Time 2019