December 2020 Watch Party

I slowed down a little on watching for most of December, but then finished out the year with a flurry of watches and rewatches. Below is the annotated list, in chronological order. I hit a lot of a my favorite movies toward the end of the list.

Italics indicate that it was my first time seeing that movie. Red titles are staff picks.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015): This was the first time that I outright loved this movie. Its flaws are many, including the SUPERSIZED DEATH STAR and the tentacle monster, but the cast is incredible and the movie is fun.
Doctor Strange (2016): As I stated in my WW84 review, I’m not siloing these superhero movies any more. I think the marketing psychology was effective at detaching these movies from the rest of cinema, and I’m making an effort to shake that impulse. I think that Doctor Strange is really fun as a standalone adventure story, as it is about fighting for and against ideals and big ideas as much as it is about fighting the giant CGI monster at the end. Despite that headiness, this is also a fairly lighthearted movie and the special effects are incredible.
Che: Part One (2008): Soderbergh’s two-part biopic about Che Guevara is fascinating, and the locations are really cool. Soderbergh’s setups have always been lean, and that leanness really adds a man-on-the-street vibe to the film (similar to The Battle of Algiers (1966)).
Psycho Beach Party (2000): Someone is hacking up 1960s beach bunnies! Charles Busch’s send-up of teen beach movies is arch and winking and Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) gives a career comedic performance.
Hairspray (1988): John Waters’ best film centers its story about the integration of Baltimore around a local Soul Train / American Bandstand TV show. The film manages to stay light and fun in no small part because it comes down firmly on the right side of history and its villains are loud and obvious and get their comeuppance (the reality of institutional racism being far more insidious and pervasive than Debbie Harry wearing a wig-covered bomb on her head).
Che: Part Two (2008): I didn’t like this as much as Part One, although the military skirmishes countryside are far more tense.
Shaun of the Dead (2004): I imagine that I’d enjoy Edgar Wright doing any kind of genre picture. Lots of fun stuff here, but I’m over the zombie schtick at this point (which is not this movie’s fault!).
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017): Still the only movie in the entire run that made me unsure of what would happen next. That uncertainty may be a turnoff for some viewers who want their annual franchise installments to mollify and glad-hand. I found it refreshing. (And I still wish that Rey and Kylo Ren had torn everything down and started some new weird thing.)
The Taking of Pelham 123 (1974): Rumpled-ass Walter Matthau must stop train hijackers. The good old days of when actors were allowed to look their age. Now everyone between 18 and 70 has to dress like they’re 30 and maintain an Avengers physique. Hollywood is so weird, man.
Moonstruck (1987): Perfect movie. Perfect cast. Just go watch it.
Hot Fuzz (2007): I am eternally conflicted on this one. The first two-thirds are a great movie, and then the narrative and tonal requirements mean that the last third is a giant gunfight in which the murderous villains are dispatched with bops on the head and shopping carts and miniature church spires and whatnot.
Cliffhanger (1993): Watch it for the incredible stuntwork and action setpieces. Forget it immediately afterward for the cookie cutter, very aggro villains.
The World’s End (2013): In which I wonder if I like Edgar Wright as a director but question his choice in screenplays yet again.
Phantom Thread (2017): As mentioned in the year-in-review, I hated this movie. I am convinced that PTA makes prestige movies about noisy pissbabies, and this reinforced that stance.
Fight Club (1999): A lot funnier this time around, and while the general “erase all credit debts” thing really fit with the messianic Tyler Durden vibe, it is impossible to watch this movie after 9/11 and think that exploding skyscrapers… even empty ones… won’t cause massive loss of life and innumerable cancers and lung ailments for decades to come just from the dust/debris clouds alone.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001): We picked up the 4K HDR editions of the movies, with the restoration overseen by Peter Jackson and his team. Movie looked incredible, the effects look incredible, everything about this movie was lightning-in-a-bottle.
Gravity (2013): One of the most incredible cinematic experiences of my life. This movie is a titanic accomplishment in dread, in suspense, in stuntwork and special effects. Mind-bogglingly good.
Dallas Buyer’s Club (2013): I needed a palate cleanser after the shellshock of Gravity, so I went with the other awards season darling from 2013. The Reagan administration was a truly frustrating and horrific time in US history, and most poignantly so in how slow they were to act on the knowledge of the virality and lethality of AIDS. Less blustery and heightened than the supremely excellent Angels in America (2003), I love that Dallas Buyers Club shows how someone can stumble into helping other people despite otherwise being a complete trash person. Woodruff lived long enough to experience some enlightenment and redemption without fundamentally changing, which felt the most realistic of all.
Robocop (1987): I dunno, man. It’s Robocop. It’s simultaneously the most prescient science fiction about the American psyche and one of the all-time great action movies. (The only thing that doesn’t land is the idea that the police force is what keeps society intact. Keep dreamin’, boomer.)
Hunter Killer (2018): I didn’t think that I’d like this movie, but it was a pleasant surprise. It falls somewhere between a made-for-TV SYFY dud and an Eastern European direct-to-vid masterpiece. The stakes are high and the premise is ludicrous, but I’ll take a flawed thriller made for adults, even a mediocre one, over the seventeenth Fast and Furious or the countless crummy 75-year-old former action stars with shoepolish-dyed hair pretending to be 35.
Unforgiven (1992): Eastwood’s best movie, with a script by the writer of Blade Runner. I realize that this was Eastwood’s highwater mark for moral complexity, but I still marvel that he made this movie, and made it so well.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011): I’m basically watching near on a monthly basis, and will keep doing so. It’s a perfect spy movie (and a perfect spy novel!).
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002): This was my favorite of the series for the first decade after its release and it goes down in my estimation with each rewatch. Helm’s Deep remains a cool-ass siege and Ents are my jam, but the first movie has the best story, best emotional beats, and most of the iconic lines.
Die Hard (1988): This was a group-watch event via Zoom. It’s a perfect movie, with star-making turns by Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman. The script is tight, the action is easy to follow, and it’s funny as hell.
Near Dark (1987): Lots of fun lo-fi special effects and a killer soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. I am still awaiting a modern restoration (I won’t hold my breath), as my DVD copy is 20 years old and the video is very grainy and pixelated.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003): I’ve seen it so many times now that I start to notice annoying things about the battles (why does no army use scouts? Why did the defenders not tear up the main road to impede siege engines? WHY THOSE DUMB ELEPHANTS AND PIRATE GHOSTS?). Thankfully, the movie is still excellent in and around these battles. Highlighted as always is Sean Astin’s performance as the best gardener/bodyguard in movie history, Sam Gamgee.
Inherent Vice (2014): I’d seen the entire movie in chunks over the course of several years, but finally sat down to watch it all. I didn’t find it one-tenth as confusing as its reputation suggests (I think it is pretty easy to follow: it’s the story itself that is disjointed and full of holes). Super funny movie, too! To this ol’ cowboy, it’s the only enjoyable PTA film since Punch-Drunk Love.
Collateral (2004): Wholly engrossing thriller. Tom Cruise is a great villain, Jamie Foxx is great at playing agitated. I always expect these 2000s Michael Mann soundtracks to age poorly (SO MUCH CHRIS CORNELL), but they always work.
The Quick and the Dead (1995): Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spider-Man) made a goofy Western take on Enter the Dragon. Lots of fun villains, young and thin Russell Crowe, and Sharon Stone cashing in her clout to get a cool leading role.
Tenet (2020): What if you took a Roger Moore-era Bond movie, quintupled the budget, splashed some time travel on it, erased all of Bond’s dialogue, but kept everything else exactly the same? T E N E T.
Carlito’s Way (1993): Working through Brian De Palma’s (lengthy) filmography. Loved this movie. I had the poster on my wall as a kid but never actually saw the movie. I am glad that I did. Equal parts funny, tragic, campy, and frustrating.
It’s Complicated (2009): Dang-ass romantic comedy masterpiece. Set design, costuming, locations, and a god-tier cast. This is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Police Story 2 (1988): This felt like the filmmakers removed everything that made Police Story a classic and instead doubled down on the melodrama. I fell asleep twice… and this movie is only 105 minutes long.
Midnight Run (1988): This was on my watchlist for decades. The score is tonally inconsistent with the movie, but I liked Charles Grodin and Robert DeNiro together. Movie wasn’t really worth the wait, though.
Blue Velvet (1985): Perfect movie. Scary, incredible, sweet, it’s got everything.
Scarface (1983): So much of this movie has become part of the fabric of crime thrillers, but this still has an energy that so many lack.
The Maltese Falcon (1941): Another movie whose iconic performances and story conventions have become part of the DNA of a whole genre. The ways that John Huston was able to push the limits of the Hays Code is just incredible.
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020): I don’t think it’s a good movie (certainly not compared to the first one), but it’s probably a skosh better than its reputation.
The Untouchables (1987): As many writers have noted, this movie’s production talent is incredible (Mamet, Giorgio Armani, Morricone, De Palma, Marilyn Vance, etc.). What is less remarked upon is just how fun Connery gets to be here. This is my favorite of his post-Bond performances (perhaps a Connery retrospective is in order?), and I was happy to see that he won an Academy Award for it. Late-career nominations can often feel like lifetime achievement awards, but he beat out some fierce competition in a year that included Moonstruck, Robocop, Broadcast News, Lethal Weapon, Witches of Eastwick, Full Metal Jacket, and Fatal Attraction.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010): Increasingly becoming my favorite Edgar Wright movie. His kinetic style melds with the manga atmosphere and the whole movie is surreal comfort food.
The Black Dahlia (2006): This movie is a failure at basically every level. It’s a De Palma that somehow feels sexless and bloodless, the casting is awful, there’s probably 40 minutes of necessary connective tissue missing from the plot, and the interesting parts of Ellroy’s book are absent. My least favorite De Palma and it isn’t close.
Widows (2018): Interesting crime film. Lotta fun performances, including Viola Davis and Elizabeth Debicki. Chicago remains one of the great American cities as a movie backdrop.
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997): Another of my favorite movies, this romantic comedy is laced with black humor, as the title character is a hitman experiencing an existential crisis. Minnie Driver just completely nails the vibe of the cool kid who never left the hometown and has settled into that liminal space between being too cool for the other townies but living amongst them.
Friday (1995): Another classic comedy. If you never experienced the phenomenon that was Chris Tucker, go watch this movie right now. His energy is so iconic. Equally riotous is John Witherspoon as Ice Cube’s dad. He was a one-of-a-kind comedic force.
Conan the Barbarian (1982): This movie is super weird, the pacing is odd, and the plot basically sums up as “Conan harasses an evil priest five or six times.” But man, such a killer movie. Absolutely great and I wish that more sword-and-sandals movies could balance tone this well.
Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995): This was a good reminder that Samuel L. Jackson is our greatest living actor, and that he used to do very great work before he spent 15 straight years doing cameos in Marvel movies. See next month for a lengthy writeup of the underrated action masterpiece The Long Kiss Goodnight in which he and Geena Davis form one of my favorite action pairs in movie history.

And that’s the last that we’ll speak of 2020.