Sunday, December 30, 2018

Twenty Eighteen in Film

This is simply a list of the movies, flicks, films and what-have-yous released (or widely released, or finally released) during the calendar year. I don't have any hard and fast metric for how I order this list, it's some ephemeral combination of components. Overall quality (of course), rewatchability, originality, voice and novelty all factor in, combined with my personal interests and fetishes. Point is: this is my list. Don't like it? Make your own list. (And send me the link and I'll check it out)

Last year I watched 47 movies. I thought that was a lot (and it is) but I still wanted to break that record. This year I saw 68. Sixty-eight! Next year I hope to watch 69. (Nice.)

Anyway, see below for my list:

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

"Mary Poppins Returns (2018)"


Long-gap sequels, or "legacy sequels", are a tough nut to crack. Picking up an intellectual property from ten, twenty, thirty years or more ago, dusting it off and making something hopefully new and exciting out of it isn't as easy an undertaking as you might think. You have to draw enough from the original source material(s) to please older fans while remaining accessible to new audience members. I am immensely happy to say that Mary Poppins Returns is one of the best I've seen.