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jordoalejandro · 2 months

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The Thirteenth Annual List of Movies I Saw the Past Year

This was one of the better recent years for film, in my humble opinion. A lot of really excellent stuff at the top of my list. On the other hand, the gulf between the good and not so good films feels more vast this year. Not as much depth.

I think I prefer that though. I like a year where I have more A’s and C’s handed out than a year where everything is a B.

This is also my longest list ever so let’s get to it.

Here’s the list of movies I’ve seen since-ish the last Oscars (3/12/23).

77. The Re-Education of Molly Singer - This feels like a throwback to the bad, cheaply made, straight-to-DVD comedies of the 2000s. Poorly written. Jokes that barely register and often don’t really have a punchline. A janky, cliché filled plot. Forced character arcs. Even the editing feels off. This is the kind of movie that should be 90 minutes (or really 80-something) and it ends up two hours long. Fixing the pacing wouldn’t have saved it but it couldn’t have hurt. Really nothing working here at all.

76. Vacation Friends 2 - I didn’t love the first film but I had some positive feelings about it at least. There was simply no reason for a sequel other than grabbing at cash left on the table. The original was about normal people going through some fairly normal circumstances, albeit slightly heightened for comedic effect. There really wasn’t that much more left to organically explore with them. Thus, this sequel did what a lot of unnecessary comedy sequels do when they are desperate for plot and need to introduce some dramatic stakes: add a criminal element. A random drug lord who can have men with guns chase our heroes. It’s so artificial it immediately lays bare how forced this film is. (This film also does another classic bad comedy sequel thing where it brings back a character from the first film in a way that makes zero sense because they wanted to use the actor again. Here, for some reason, one of the couples has hired an employee from the Mexican hotel from the first film as a babysitter for their newborn on their trip to the Caribbean. You know: a thing that happens.) That alone makes you roll your eyes but it’s not a fatal flaw. It’s forgivable if you can still make it funny. The bigger sin this film commits is that it just doesn’t do anything funny. The jokes are almost nonexistent. They’re barely trying and absolutely none of them land. The original had some humor and some heart to at least make it a decent watch. The sequel is drained of all of that. The weird thing is I can’t say I hated anything in particular here. I just felt pretty much nothing at all through the entire runtime, which is arguably worse. Mark Mothersbaugh’s score was nice though.

75. Fool’s Paradise - It’s kind of fascinating how this film misses every major mark. It wants to be a satire about Hollywood but it’s neither sharp nor insightful. It has a storyline about friendship that is supposed to lead to the emotional climax of the film but it doesn’t ever feel earned. The characters never actually feel like friends in any way and there’s no payoff to their relationship. There’s also a little bit of a Charlie Chaplin homage going on but there isn’t really any delight or charm in it. I don’t know what happened here. Everything is off. The worst part is there are almost no laughs in the whole thing. You could get by a little easier if you could at least nail some good jokes or visual gags or something but there are maybe a few chuckles at best. Even with the crazy amount of cameos by funny people. No one can find a laugh. The film looks nice at least.

74. 65 - Ultimately, it’s a bore. It’s a lot of walking through the jungle and occasionally being attacked by dodgy CGI dinosaurs. The action isn’t very compelling. Nor the visuals and music. Nor the story. Really standard lone wolf and cub stuff. Adam Driver tries but he’s given very little to work with. It’s a step above a Syfy channel film – in budget and quality – but not a huge step.

73. Meg 2: The Trench - I started this one up thinking, “Well, I saw the first one, I might as well watch the sequel” and about twenty minutes in, I realized I wasn’t sure if I actually did see the first one. I certainly didn’t write about it. I might have watched it on HBO? Or maybe it’s one of those films you don’t actually need to watch to know exactly how it goes down beat by beat. Speaking of films you don’t actually need to watch to know exactly how they’re going to go beat by beat: Meg 2: The Trench. There are moments in this film where it realizes it’s a stupid movie and leans in and those are the best parts of the film. Page Kennedy is the only person who is at that right level throughout the whole film. Mostly, though, the movie comes off like another bad Syfy channel film, in writing and especially in CGI. It’s one of those films where nothing looks real. Not just the animals and the sets. It’s so overbearing you can’t believe in the props they’re holding. It’s so much that you actually see past the CGI in your mind's eye and see all the blue screens the actors are standing in front of. Not great for the immersion of it all.

72. About My Father - A couple of nice moments (it has a smidge more heart than I thought it would) but it’s not really funny or sharp or surprising in any way. A lot of flat scenes.

71. Ferrari - You see the title and think it’s going to be a story about the car Ferrari, right? At least half about the cars? But no, it’s really like 80% about the man Ferrari. And the man Ferrari? Not that compelling. Lots of family drama. Mostly uninteresting. Some driving, which is done well but not as good as you’ve seen in other movies (including other period piece movies made within the last five years that have Ferrari in the title). It rolls along like that for a while. And then there’s this one scene that occurs near the end that’s completely unhinged (I’m trying to be subtle to avoid any spoilers but anyone who has seen the film knows exactly which scene I’m talking about). Even though this scene is based in truth, it’s not cohesive with what we’ve seen for the previous 100 minutes. It certainly snaps you awake like no other part in the film, so there’s that at least. Then it goes right back to the family stuff and then it ends. I’m sure there’s enough interesting, unique stuff in Ferrari’s life that it could sustain a biopic but what we got was mostly his relationship drama and that’s not particularly captivating. Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz are decent in this but not great in any kind of way that would merit awards or special recognition.

70. Plane - It’s basically exactly what you expect from a 2023 Gerard Butler movie called Plane. It’s a functional action thriller that doesn’t do anything (action, character, dialogue, humor) particularly well but pieces one thing to the next and gets to the finish line.

69. Killers of the Flower Moon - There are a couple of scenes that happen early in the film: Robert De Niro’s character and Leonardo DiCaprio’s character do some scheming, and then some Native Americans are killed. I hope you enjoy these scenes because they will be repeated over and over and over and over again for the next two hours. Does it ever get interesting? No, not really. Because at its core, the film is a murder mystery-type story and we’re witnessing the entire thing from the perspective of the murderers. Are these murderers at least clever or intriguing or sympathetic in any way? No, not really. They’re dullards who get away with things because no one cares that Native Americans are being murdered. ("You're supposed to feel that frustration!" Fine, but I could probably get there in half an hour. You don't need to drag me through mud for two hours.) The final hour of this behemoth is the law and order part of the show, which is so slow it drove me to near rage. I came right up to the edge of literally shouting at the film to move along. It’s a shame that there’s apparently no one left in the entertainment industry who can tell Martin Scorsese to not make three and a half hour movies. This is a film that is technically sound, at least, and that’s why it’s not at the bottom of the list. It looks good, the writing is fine, the acting is fine (the actors don’t really get a ton to do which is weird because there is so much goddamn time to do stuff!). But it’s just so impossibly long that it becomes an endurance test more than anything, and in doing so, destroys any potential chance for me to care about what is happening in the film or to the characters. I think there’s a good story in here, one I might be interested in watching, if it’s told in, let’s say, two-ish hours. Watching this film, I found myself only wanting it to end already.

68. The Flash - Some decent pieces hidden throughout – a few clever bits or jokes, action sequences, and emotional moments – but more stuff that doesn’t work than does. An unsatisfying plot. An overload of terrible CGI to the point where it often looks like you’re watching a PS3 level video game cutscene. Cameos and Easter Eggs that are jammed in so poorly that there’s no joy in them. Mostly though, it’s just an irritating film. The dialogue often tries too hard to force a laugh. A lot of broad, lazy humor. And worst of all, Ezra Miller’s Flash, the center of the film, is flat out annoying. His awkwardness is turned to 11 and he comes off more like a romantic comedy heroine (I’m too clumsy to get my life together!) than a superhero for the first act of the film. Everything gets even worse when the teenage version of the Flash shows up and behaves, for some reason, like an eight year old hopped up on sugar. It’s not just grating, it’s bad for us as an audience to immensely dislike the film’s main character. This is a movie that feels like it was pieced together from too many visions (including producers demanding more cameos because the other studios do it) and ultimately, it’s a big mess.

67. The Machine - There’s at least some plot though it’s not particularly strong. It works well enough to keep the movie moving along. Serviceable action. The big issue is there are only a couple of genuine laughs and that’s all you’re really looking for here so to be so lacking in that department is a huge issue for the film. An okay plot and serviceable action is not enough to get by. It’s supposed to be really funny and it just isn’t.

66. Good Grief - It has its moments of humor or dialogue but just doesn’t get there for the most part. I think the writing was lacking. Not enough humor, drama isn’t gripping, emotion isn’t there. This plot was fertile ground for a good dramedy but it simply does not capitalize.

65. Polite Society - This is a movie that should be fun and breezy but it’s unfortunately very bad at maintaining any kind of momentum. The final act in particular drags horribly, gaining steam and losing it almost immediately several times, making a 1:40 movie seem much, much longer. A few good moments scattered throughout and definitely some style to it, but overall the humor and action are nowhere near the quality they should be for this to work.

64. Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire - Really generic sci-fi. You’ve got your farmer type rebels and your fascist military army and your laser rifles and CGI aliens and the one hero who can save the universe, but she’s got to pull together her ragtag group to do it. Fine. I can forgive generic if it’s executed well but this is all pretty dull. The characters aren’t interesting, heroes and villains alike. Nor the dialogue. The plot is a standard "get the team together" plot but the heroes just go place to place and have people join them without having to actually do much. Mostly they show up, watch a new character do some sci-fi business, and then that character goes “Okay, let’s go.” Even the action isn’t very good, which is generally Zack Snyder’s strength. The film is interesting to look at, at least, so he hasn’t lost that from his arsenal. But this is supposed to be the jumping off point for a new Star Wars type universe thing and I just don’t see it. I don’t care about any of the goings-on with these characters or this world. There’s nothing here that makes me even the slightest bit enthusiastic for like a dozen movies and spinoff TV shows and video games or whatever.

63. Priscilla - This is the newest addition to the “various scenes from a sad famous woman’s life” collection. It has a little bit more life to it than that but not much. Technically solid. Good looking, good music, fine acting performances. But this feels like a movie made as a direct response to Elvis because his relationship with Priscilla was a bit creepy and, in theory, it does deserve further inspection. The problem is, in practice, when you’re actually watching a two hour film about it and you’re like, no, I guess I really don’t care about any of this. For what it’s worth, the actual Priscilla (an executive producer on this project herself) doesn’t seem to fall on one side of the debate or the other too strongly. The film seems to be sending the message that there was good and bad, that the fame and drugs certainly made things worse and ruined their marriage but, well, the whole thing also ends with “I Will Always Love You” playing so… it’s complicated, I guess? I appreciate it exploring the issue as gray but then that really highlights the “who cares?” of it all. I can’t shake the feeling this was a whole film dedicated to telling me a relationship with Elvis that started when you were a child is kind of weird. Okay. Got it. Thanks.

62. You Hurt My Feelings - Too many scenes that don’t really go anywhere and too many exchanges with no punchlines. It makes it feel like the film is stretching to make its 90 minutes. There are some interesting ideas and some funny bits in here but simply not enough in terms of character or dialogue or plot.

61. A Good Person - It never reaches a level of emotion or poignancy to truly be worth the journey, especially because the journey, at its core, is a generic addiction story (read: a melodramatic, repetitive cycle of relapse and recovery). Florence Pugh is good as always and Morgan Freeman does nice work, but the film as a whole just never gets there.

60. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget - I don’t really remember the first one. I saw it in theaters as a child and have generally positive feelings about it but that was also two-plus decades ago so I can’t say with any certainty if I liked it or if I just liked being unburdened by age. Anyway, though this sequel is fine, it doesn’t seem to me as good, in writing and style, as the original. (Or maybe it is. Again, I can barely remember.) This is a fine movie for children and I’m sure children would enjoy it. It’s not really anything that appeals to me.

59. Shazam! Fury of the Gods - A couple of funny bits (Djimon Hounsou actually gets most of the better laughs, stealing the few scenes he’s in) and serviceable though not exactly enthralling action, but it still mostly feels like an uninspired sequel. Middling villains and a plot it’s hard to connect with. A lot of murder of innocent people that doesn’t mesh with the otherwise more lighthearted tone. Two movies in and they still haven’t figured out how to make the adult and kid versions of Shazam seem like the same character. It’s a little closer in this one than in the first but adult Shazam acts like an eight year old and kid Shazam (who is 17 years old, not eight) is more serious. You feel like they’re two entities and not the same person. If I had to point the finger, I’d say it’s probably Zachary Levi’s fault. Maybe adult Shazam’s lines might match better with different readings but he plays it very much like a small child and it’s off. The director should probably be on top of this, too. All of this sounds more negative than it is. It’s mostly forgettable fluff but it’s easy enough to watch and not hate. It’s just that it’s also not going to interest anyone outside of fans of the first film.

58. Down Low - Some decent laughs but about as many misses as well. Not funny enough for what flows, plotwise, as a sort of standard dark comedy.

57. The Creator - A good looking film, in cinematography and production design. Slick. But it just could not get me to care about the characters or story. Another sci-fi flick that falls right into your typical lone wolf and cub story. It tries to provide a few cute moments to get you to buy into their relationship but mostly hopes you’ll just accept it because our main character is protecting a “child.” While that is usually enough to go on in most of these types of stories, the child here isn’t really a child. It’s a stand-in for something much more gray. The film hopes you won’t examine that gray area very much if the child says something sweet every now and then. I could maybe get there if the whole thing was executed better but our main character is only sometimes compelling and his relationship with the cub feels more obligatory than earned so I spent the last half of the movie not particularly caring if they succeed or not.

56. Nyad - There’s some of the decent stuff you expect in a story about battling nature (and yourself) to do something incredible. And the relationship between the two leads is strong (so is their acting). But the movie itself isn’t incredibly interesting as a whole. Mostly because it’s a lot of swimming, then getting hurt while swimming, then resetting, then more swimming. And repeat. Nyad goes through a The Revenant-esque series of ass kickings to the point it becomes almost humorous. Also, and this is probably mostly a personal thing, but I don’t really care about feats like this, swimming long distances and such. Of course, there are plenty of films that are about things I don’t care about and I was made to care about them by the film. Nyad never really did enough to get me to buy into why I should care whether or not she can do it. In fact, they often make her such a miserable, unlikeable character that I sometimes found myself rooting for the ocean. The problem is, if you’re not bought in to the glory of the achievement, then you’re really just watching swimming.

55. The Color Purple - I haven’t seen the original but I had a general idea of what it’s about and I sort of formed a version of the film in my head and now, having seen this version, I think I was pretty close. Lots of melodrama about being a woman and Black and poor in the South in the past. It’s not fun! This version has music, at least. A lot of enjoyable songs. Great performances (in singing and choreography). They’re the high points of the film by far and keep things lively. Honestly, another song was something to look forward to when you’re caught in the trauma and sadness parts. It’s a visually strong film as well. Good acting, with Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia Barrino, and especially Danielle Brooks doing strong work. All that said, I write a lot of these reviews and get to the end and say something like “this is coming off more negative than how I actually feel about the film.” This is sort of the opposite. All of this sounds more positive than how I felt about the film. Despite my enjoyment of the musical bits and appreciation of the acting, the film is a lot of dull melodrama. Maybe primarily that. That’s why it’s around here on the list.

54. The Super Mario Bros. Movie - I enjoyed the incorporation of musical themes from the game and some of the Easter Eggs. It’s a pleasant looking film. Colorful but not overwhelming. Is this just stuff I like about the games, though? Maybe there’s credit, at least, in the movie knowing what to pull from the games. Jack Black was good as Bowser. I’m just listing things now. It’s very much a decent kid’s movie: pretty straightforward story, basic jokes. That’s fine. It’s good to have movies for kids that aren’t torturous, but I don’t have kids so I don’t get a ton out of this.

53. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom - It’s mostly a mess. Most of it is CGI’d to hell, so much so that you start to question whether Jason Momoa is even real. The action scenes aren’t very interesting and neither is the plot. There’s a lot of flat acting in it, too. It’s not what you would call a good film. But you know what? There’s actually a decent amount of enjoyable stuff in here. Some funny lines and gags (though many that do not work). And much of the second act has Momoa reuniting with Patrick Wilson’s villain/brother character from the first film and they have a little buddy comedy thing going that works surprisingly well. Their chemistry is good. Momoa himself is very charismatic. He’s trying. He just has very little to work with. The fun stuff in the film is simply not enough to save it but it at least prevents it from being a train wreck and makes it not a miserable watch.

52. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial - Well directed, well written (it’s based on a 1950s play which is based on a 1950s novel so it’s mostly adapted but it’s been modernized well), well acted. William Friedkin was a masterful director, and he’s able to mostly keep the film moving and the energy up. Ultimately, though, it does end up feeling like the straight up play adaptation that it is. 95% of the film takes place in one room and it’s essentially a dialogue-only film, and there’s only so much you can do to prevent it from slowing down, even as an expert director.

51. Past Lives - There’s some strong acting and good writing in parts. Moments of brilliance (mostly in the last half hour) but I need more overall. Humor, drama. Something. I’ll settle for more dialogue. It’s a movie with a lot of walking and sightseeing. Very long takes with very few lines. I appreciate letting a moment breathe but, well, let me put it like this: it's a 105 minute movie and I looked up the screenplay and it’s 85 pages long and the dialogue within is written twice, one in Korean and once in English. That’s not an equation that adds up to a fast (or really even medium) paced film.

50. Gran Turismo - Decently directed. The action scenes are well shot and have good energy. David Harbour is very good, turning what might be a cliché curmudgeonly mentor character into a charming curmudgeonly mentor character. He takes really basic lines and imbues them with some life. That’s sort of the problem with the whole script, though. It’s very basic in both plot and dialogue. (There are tons of lines that are just describing what’s happening. “Gotta catch this guy!” “Make the turn!” It’s not the worst thing but once you catch it, you don’t stop hearing it.) There are parts of this film that rise above its base level of basic-ness, but not too many.

49. Dumb Money - Credit to the filmmakers for taking a story that doesn’t really lend itself to a plot nor have any real heroes and crafting a watchable film out of it. It’s entertaining enough and has a few laughs. The second act is very repetitive as they run through the hold or sell question like half a dozen times. I don’t know if this is valid as film criticism because it’s based on me knowing a lot about this story in real life but I found myself rolling my eyes at much of the film and its attempts to oversimplify and create heroes. That’s the issue with telling a story that just happened. The full fallout of the story hasn’t occurred yet. Some of the things in the film have already aged poorly. There’s a title card at the end saying what happened to some of the characters and one says a character was still holding GameStop stock waiting to sell. The stock is like 80% lower now than it was at the peak this film presents. She’s screwed. She’s not a real person, but she does represent a lot of real people who did get caught up in the excitement of this thing and got left holding the bag when it stopped working. Again, I debate with myself if that’s a legit way to criticize a film, so I’ll put that aside and just settle on this being fine.

48. No Hard Feelings - The story, the characters, the comedy: certainly could’ve been better but still passable. They all come together to make a solid enough film with a few laughs but nothing extraordinary.

47. Strays - It has some laugh out loud moments but most of the humor is more “hah.” than actually funny. That’s a problem for a film like this which is really about the jokes more than anything. There is some heart to the film but I don’t know if it’s a strength of the writing so much as an exploitation of our feelings about dogs. That is, show us a dog being sad, then being happy, and their faces and our brains do most of the work. It’s a nice effort to try and create some depth in a film that’s mostly about dogs cussing and humping things, at least.

46. Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game - Cute and cleverly told. It has some good moments and a likability to it but not enough drama to really carry it over even its 90 minute runtime. It basically tries to get by on being cute and cleverly told and that can only get you so far. It’s solid if not spectacular.

45. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - Just okay. It just doesn’t have the life the first two films in this series had. It misses the groundedness of those films and those side characters. A lot of time here is spent setting up the Quantum Realm and its factions and showing it all off but it’s hard to really care about all these new characters or this world which reads like a generic alien world and never feels more than a giant load of CGI. A lot could probably be forgiven if it was funnier but while it has moments of humor and creativity, it goes too long in between to forgive its weakness in other areas.

44. Rustin - A decent, if straightforward, civil rights biopic. A very strong performance from Colman Domingo at the center. Not a lot of surprises but it moves well enough for a biopic.

43. Champions - It’s a film about a curmudgeonly, washed up basketball coach who has to coach a team of young adults with learning disabilities. If you hear that premise and immediately build the film in your head, you’re probably at least 80% right. It’s done well, though. It has some heart and a few good laughs and moves well enough. I would’ve liked it more if it was funnier or tapped into something more emotional, but as is it’s decent enough.

42. Lift - It’s a sleek heist film with a decent score and it moves well which makes it quite watchable even if it’s not exactly a great film. It’s very clunky. The writing isn’t fun enough. Only really Billy Magnussen and Vincent D’Onofrio are given characters with some personality. They aren’t written particularly well but the actors make them work by leaning in. The rest of the team doesn’t offer a whole lot. Kevin Hart seems miscast. He’s playing a veteran criminal (think George Clooney in the Oceans movies) but he doesn’t fit the role well and he’s given almost nothing funny to do. More action than anything, which is not his wheelhouse. The main heist isn’t plotted particularly sharply. It sidelines most of the team at the halfway point so Hart and Gugu Mbatha-Raw can have an action romance style third act. Again, it’s not great. More than a handful of weird choices. But it didn’t exactly stop me from enjoying the ride, so I can’t really ding it too badly I guess.

41. Bank of Dave - Cute, sweet, kind of simple. Nothing too surprising. Could be funnier. Based off a true-ish story (as it says) and a lot of it feels movie-fied (some parts egregiously so) but it still mostly works and you can watch it and feel good.

40. Blue Beetle - It’s a DC origin film that’s about on par with the first Shazam. It shares some of the highlights and issues with Shazam, as well. Highlights: some good humor, fun character interactions between the heroes and the side characters. Issues: action is just okay, some darker tone shifts that don’t jibe with the lightheartedness in most of the rest of the film. The villain in this film was much weaker than Shazam but the soundtrack was much better and more memorable. Xolo Maridueña is a more charismatic lead, too. So, some give and take but I’d rate them around the same quality level.

39. Linoleum - Some interesting stuff for the first 80% of the film but a bit slow. An excellent finale, though, that sort of saves everything. In that sense, it’s sort of the opposite of a film like Don’t Worry Darling, proving a good ending can really make or break you. Linoleum’s strong, moody, emotional finish ties everything together and sheds light on what we’ve seen and makes the whole thing feel worthwhile.

Are you still with me? We’re about halfway there. Grab a snack. Let’s do a quick mid-list documentary break.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is a creatively edited, sometimes difficult to watch film about the actor’s life with some strong emotional moments throughout. Parkinson’s is a hell of a disease.

The Eternal Memory is another touching, heart-wrenching film. Also not an easy watch but it finds a way to inject love and beauty into something quite bleak. Alzheimer’s is a hell of a disease.

Okay, let’s get to the top half of the list, which is longer than some previous whole lists. Why did I do this to myself?

38. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. - A cute and snappy coming of age story. Doesn’t talk down and doesn’t get too melodramatic. Some sweet moments, some funny moments. I would imagine it probably hits harder for women but I can appreciate the quality of the work.

37. The Killer - Very stylish, as David Fincher does. It moves well. Michael Fassbender is very good in the role. Tilda Swinton has a good bit role, too. It’s fun as a sort of neo-noir experience but as a story it’s not incredibly fulfilling. The setup is fun (the opening sequence which gets you right inside the killer’s mind is the high point of the film), then you get the inciting incident, and then four revenge chapters which are different enough from one another to stay fresh but not entirely compelling overall in a storytelling way. It’s similar to John Wick in that sense, though it’s a bit more artistic and less action-y than that.

36. The Marvels - Funny. Good characters. Iman Vellani, who was strong as the lead in her MCU show, does an excellent job here, able to still stand out even amongst bigger acting names. There’s a power swap thing between the three leads that is inventive and creates for some very fun action scenes. The villain is entirely forgettable, though, and the story isn’t really there either. Plus, the film is structured in a weird way. It sort of skips a first act and jumps right into act two, which makes it feel a little bit unsatisfying. Not necessarily unsatisfying as in letting the viewer down, but unsatisfying in a way that makes you feel as if you’ve just watched an episodic adventure rather than a full satisfying film story.

35. Extraction 2 - A strong follow up that shares the same strengths and weaknesses from the first. Action is really well done. There’s a 20+ minute one-shot early in the film that’s so impressive and long it almost feels arrogant. Like, it just keeps going to the point where you start thinking enough already. It also kind of makes every action piece that follows feel like a let down. Chris Hemsworth is good in the role again. The weakness, like the first, is in the story. It’s mostly there just to give reason for our heroes to run around and kill bad guys.

34. Tetris - Presented in a really clever way. It moves well. It’s movie-fied for sure and you can absolutely feel it, but it’s in service of making what’s likely a pretty dry story into something more thrilling and effective.

33. Nimona - Great looking animation. A good story. Funny. Solid voice acting. It’s mostly for children but an adult can watch it, too, and appreciate some of the jokes and not be miserable.

32. Leo - Not every bit lands but there are some very good ones that produce genuine laughs. It has some heart and sweetness to it, too. Adam Sandler does solid voice work. A lot of songs, some good, some weak. Like Nimona, a cute film for kids that parents can watch and get something out of as well.

31. May December - A fascinatingly dark film with notes of sharp satire. It’s not the most thrilling film but it keeps you engaged. Well written and directed. Well acted. Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore are good, of course, but Charles Melton is excellent as well.

30. Elemental - A well done, insightful story about immigrants. The romance story was fine but didn’t really hook me. I enjoyed the film as a whole but it just didn’t hit me in the emotions like so many Pixar films do. A good film but not one of their best.

29. John Wick: Chapter 4 - A little too long to the point where even the action scenes, which are the main attraction, start to overstay their welcome. You start to go “Okay I get it, let’s move on.” Still, the action is very well done. Fun locales. A good looking film. Even a few bits of well-employed humor. I think it’s my favorite since the first one and perhaps the best one of the series but I also say that knowing that this series is very much four movies that are fun while you’re in the ride but leave your memory almost immediately after. They are what they are.

28. Maestro - Really impressive acting from Bradley Cooper and especially Carey Mulligan. Strong directing and visuals. It’s almost told in vignettes, which makes it kind of dreamlike. Some of the vignettes really work but a lot hit your sort of standard biopic pieces and don’t do as much. Overall, it’s solid.

27. Somewhere in Queens - Decent writing, decent acting, with Laurie Metcalf giving a nice performance. Complex, nuanced characters. It’s a good family dramedy with a little bit of humor and emotion.

26. Saltburn - It’s delightfully dark and keeps you interested, even if it sort of reaches an ending that, while not bad, doesn’t land with the sort of punch you want it to. There’s something missing in character motivation and plotting that makes it feel like it’s missed the mark. Still some fun performances (especially Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike) and excellent cinematography and design. It works as is. It just feels like there was potential for this to be more and it didn’t get there.

25. Bottoms - Very funny, very silly. I think my main problem is that it’s such a hyper-heightened reality the film takes place in that when it comes back down to Earth and tries to have some human drama it makes me roll my eyes. Having football players kept in a cage in history class and also a sincere best friends argument feels like trying to have your cake and eat it, too. Still very fun though when it sticks to the over the top satire, which is the majority of the film.

24. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - I think part of the problem is the original three were so good and ended so perfectly, it’s really hard to find a story to make further adventures worthwhile. This one is fine, but it just doesn’t get all the way there. It doesn’t quite measure up, in basically every sense. The action, the humor – they’re there but just not totally up to par. The other thing that is a little off is that this feels very much like a modern action movie, like someone doing Indiana Jones years later. There was a pulpiness to the original three that made them feel less plastic and that’s missing here. Even with its faults, I still think this is a good film. John Williams’ music is still great and Harrison Ford still has the charisma, and there are moments where you feel the magic again. Just not enough to string together a fully great film. It leaves a better taste in my mouth than Crystal Skull, at least, even if it can’t live up to the original trilogy. Maybe it never had a chance.

23. Theater Camp - Very cute, often funny. It pokes fun at theater kids and actors but in a loving way. A sweet movie that’s an easy watch.

22. Quiz Lady - A very endearing film. Sweet, silly, funny. A little bit of heart, too. There’s certainly room for it to be funnier or more original but it works and has some good bits and fun performances.

21. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - Lots of fun. It has solid action pieces and good humor. Importantly, it finds ways to do fresh things with a sort of standard fantasy story and keeps it entertaining throughout. The writer/director team of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley did this with their last film, Game Night, too. Take a premise that could be kind of bleh and get creative. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just write a sharp, funny script.

20. Red, White & Royal Blue - This is my token “sweet gay romcom that I have a tough time being objective about” pick. I get one of these every few years or so. It’s a very cute film with some decent humor and good flow. Sort of your standard romcom fare but it’s executed well. Should it be this high on the list, quality-wise? No, probably not. It’s not that much worse, but it’s, objectively, not that great either. I enjoyed it enough, however, to bump it up here. And it is my list after all.

19. Wonka - Like Paul King’s Paddington films, this is much better than you expect it would be or than it really needs to be. Also, like the Paddington films, this is still mostly a movie for kids so it’s only going to go so far for me. But it’s quite a delightful film. Some clever lines and gags. Good songs, though nothing iconic that will stick long term. I have to stop doubting Timothée Chalamet. When I first heard of this, I thought it was going to be a mistake, but he’s so damn charming that he’s able to pull it off. He dives headfirst into this role and gives it his all and it pays off.

18. You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah - It’s similar in theme to Are You There God? but mixed a little with Mean Girls and flavored incredibly Jewishly. I found it to be a sharper, funnier, and more modern approach to those themes. The nepotism of it all is a little gross (it’s crazy that Adam Sandler’s immediate family all won major roles in this film he produced after what I’m sure was a thorough audition process) but Sunny Sandler is, in fact, quite good in the role so you can forgive it.

17. Anatomy of a Fall - Smartly written, well acted. Sandra Hüller gives a strong, subtle performance at the center of the film and Milo Machado-Graner is great in a supporting role. The film does feel a little bit like an intense, fleshed out episode Law and Order though. There’s an hour of courtroom drama in the middle that’s engaging but also mostly dialogue on dialogue. It’s similar to The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in that there’s only so much you can do to dress that up. It’s a film that doesn’t spoon-feed you, which I appreciate. It’s confident in its ambiguity and it lets you decide where you fall, pun absolutely not intended.

16. Air - Sharp writing, moves well, good acting. Matt Damon and Viola Davis are especially strong. (Damon delivers a speech near the end of the film that is particularly affecting.) Nothing groundbreaking. Just a really well done sports/business story.

15. Next Goal Wins - Sweet, funny, and some heart as well. The story has some clunkiness and there are definitely some misses amongst the many jokes in the film, but a lot more that works than doesn’t. Michael Fassbender is very good and Oscar Kightley is excellent as the surprising heart of the film. It gives you everything you want from a feel good sports film.

14. Oppenheimer - Some great stuff but also simply too long. The film is paced well enough for a three hour film but it likely didn’t need to be three hours. The most compelling stuff, as you might imagine, is the creation and moral implications of building a world destroying bomb. Interpersonal affairs, while interesting enough still, are much less so. Good acting from Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr., who really are the only ones to get enough screen time in this giant cast to truly make their mark. (I would argue though, if you wanted to trim an hour from this film, you could probably pare down Downey’s role almost entirely.) Good directing and writing, taking what might be very dry material and keeping it enthralling.

13. Barbie - I really like how many wild swings this film took for being a big budget film based on a worldwide property. Interesting characters. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling do great work in their roles. Sharp writing. More than a few laugh out loud jokes and gags (though also a handful that fall flat). It does veer into too silly territory at some points and drags a little here and there but is able to recover, usually by taking a sharp left turn you don’t expect. Its messages are laid on thick but it’s playing to a certain younger audience so I’ll roll with it. A couple of nice humanist moments as well (which is something Greta Gerwig excels at including in her films) though nothing in the film that really cut through me emotionally.

12. Blackberry - A fairly straightforward rise and fall story of a tech company but particularly well done. Fun, smart, doesn’t drag. Good music, good style. Glenn Howerton in his wheelhouse as a barely restrained maniac and gives an excellent, memorable performance.

11. Rye Lane - Smart, sharp writing. Strong performances from the two leads, David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah, who have great chemistry. Fun direction and editing. It rolls right along for about 75 minutes, tells its story, and then ends. This is another film where it’s like: is this, at its core, just a very cute rom com? Yes. But while it’s not reinventing the genre it is a great execution of it.

10. All of Us Strangers - A truly beautiful, haunting film about love and loss and the things we wish we could say. It’s very artsy so it certainly has its slow points where moments just breathe and breathe, but its high points are so damn high. It’s like an emotional assassin. Several scenes, especially in the back half, that just nail you right in the heart. It’s basically a four actor film - Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, and Claire Foy - and each of them puts in just tremendous work, all worthy of being on my top five individual performances list.

9. Society of the Snow - “Alive - Now with real Latinos!” It’s a pretty straightforward survival film about a story that you’ve likely heard of and so there aren’t really a ton of surprises but it’s expertly made. Shot well, acted well. Tense and thrilling. Aided by a beautiful score from Michael Giacchino. It’s a brutal story but one that’s also about sacrifice and strength and hope. It’s a simple theme but it lands well, puns still completely unintended.

8. Poor Things - Absolutely fascinating from a visual and musical standpoint, as Yorgos Lanthimos does. His directing is truly excellent and matches great with Tony McNamara’s sharp writing. The film is just a bit too long. You can feel it gaining and losing momentum in the back half. Mark Ruffalo’s scenes are definitely the best in the movie and the others, while generally good, are just not as strong (with Willem Dafoe’s scenes being the strongest of the rest). Excellent acting performances from Ruffalo and Dafoe and especially Emma Stone at the center of this wild ride.

7. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - A fantastic sequel, on par with the first. Smart, funny, emotional writing, good voice acting. The visuals are excellent but often have so much happening on screen you can’t focus and have to just kind of glaze over and let it go. It’s fine – you never really feel lost – but it’s also kind of sad because there are interesting details happening that you almost literally can’t catch without stopping the movie. I was really loving this film until the final minutes. Without giving too much away, I’ll just note it basically concludes on a “to be continued…” note, stopping at what feels like the mid-point of the third act. It’s an ending that doesn’t not work but movies that end like that leave a bad taste in my mouth. Set up threads for the next film, sure, but don’t leave me hanging completely. Don’t make me leave your film with a groan. The ending was obviously not enough to make me hate the film, hence why it’s way up here on the list, but it would’ve been higher with a more complete one.

6. Leave the World Behind - A fascinating neo-paranoia thriller that’s masquerading as an apocalypse film, which is very meta in itself. It has a lot of interesting things to say about us as a society, which risks it getting preachy, but it walks the line by telling the story in a really engaging way and never sacrificing plot for message. Good acting, smart writing, and interesting directing. It doesn’t force you to a conclusion but presents you with some ideas and lets you decide.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 - A little overstuffed but other than that a really wonderful end to this trilogy. James Gunn brings the humor, the music, the emotional beats, the action. He writes these characters and their interactions so well. I don’t know how or if this series will continue, but whoever takes it over will have a tremendous challenge trying to match Gunn. It would have been a travesty to have not let him come back and close out this chapter for these characters, and I’m so glad they got one last ride under his direction.

4. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One - It feels like there should be another dash or colon or something between Dead Reckoning and Part One, right? But that’s how they list it. I think they got self-conscious about already having too many punctuation marks in the title. One more would look ridiculous. The night after we watched this film the first time, we were going to watch another film that we’d been putting off (it appears on this list, much lower) and all I could think while navigating towards the other film was how much I just wanted to watch Dead Reckoning again instead. That’s the kind of film this is. It energizes you. It makes you want to come back for more. The action sequences are fantastic, as always. The humor is there. The visuals. The music. The franchise has had issues with villains (generally its weak point) and making the main villain of this arc a nebulous computer program isn’t really helping to remedy that. (Esai Morales is fine but unremarkable as the human face of that program.) The decision to make the villain an AI that can manipulate essentially anything adds a really nice dose of paranoia to all the proceedings but also requires a lot more heavy exposition and makes the film much more heady. Making you think a little more isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a film, but is it the right choice for a Mission: Impossible film? I’m not sure. It’s maybe better for these films to just have a MacGuffin and keep things moving. Still, this film’s nearly three hours fly by and despite it being a “part one,” it tells a full enough story to be satisfying.

3. Asteroid City - The music, production design, and cinematography are excellent as always with Wes Anderson. Strong acting from the whole ensemble in small pieces and a surprisingly strong performance by Jason Schwartzman at the center. Smart writing as well. Fast and very funny, and then movingly poignant. It’s a little inaccessible in parts. The plot is purposefully all over the place and it can make it quite difficult to parse exactly what’s going on at first glance, but I think the greater message still comes through and in a deeply emotional way, in my view at least. It really worked for me.

2. American Fiction - Tremendous writing. A strong, smart, very funny satire about media mixed with a moving family dramedy. Great acting performances all around but especially Jeffrey Wright, who is excellent as the film’s anchor, and Sterling K. Brown, who delivers a very strong supporting performance, embodying a character who’s both funny and deeply pained. Everything about this movie works.

1. The Holdovers - I guess the theme of this year’s list is “brilliant execution.” No other film for me embodies that theme this year more than The Holdovers. Yes, the film is your sort of standard “curmudgeon bonds with young person who melts his heart” tale but it is executed flawlessly. It finds the right tone immediately and never lets it slip. A pitch perfect mix of humor and drama. Heart and sorrow. Very human. Sharp writing. Brilliant acting all around. Paul Giamatti is fantastic. The too smart for his own good sad sack who is actually a human being underneath the layers of protection he puts between himself and other people. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who, if this blog’s search function worked, you could find me singing the praises of for years, once again turns in an excellent performance. I’m so glad she’s getting big-time recognition. Dominic Sessa is great, as well, and it’s very impressive that he’s going toe to toe with these other two established actors and sticking right with them. The core three characters’ stories unfold so beautifully throughout the film, getting you to empathize with them slowly and naturally. It’s filled with great music and great visuals. You feel yourself in New England in the 1970s. I think the thing I can say most in favor of this film is that I just didn’t want it to end. It’s such a warm, wonderful story that I was actually disappointed when I felt it turning from act two to act three and starting to wrap up. In a year where I’ve complained over and over that a lot of these films are too long, this was the one film I could’ve spent much, much more time in.

Time to do some individual awards.

Best Actor

5. Jason Schwartzman, Asteroid City 4. Barry Keoghan, Saltburn 3. Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers 2. Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction 1. Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

Best Actress

5. Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall 4. Natalie Portman, May December 3. Margot Robbie, Barbie 2. Carey Mulligan, Maestro 1. Emma Stone, Poor Things

Best Supporting Actor

5. Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers 4. Willem Dafoe, Poor Things 3. Glenn Howerton, Blackberry 2. Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction 1. Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

Best Supporting Actress

5. Julianne Moore, May December 4. Rosamund Pike, Saltburn 3. Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers 2. Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple 1. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best Directing

5. Emerald Fennell, Saltburn 4. J. A. Bayona, Society of the Snow 3. Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things 2. Wes Anderson, Asteroid City 1. Alexander Payne, The Holdovers

Best Writing

5. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie 4. Tony McNamara, Poor Things 3. Wes Anderson, Asteroid City 2. David Hemingson, The Holdovers 1. Cord Jefferson, American Fiction

And now let’s look at the ACTORS WEB:

What a nightmare! Here’s a fun fact about the making of this graphic: I almost cried and gave up on it four or five times! I saw too many movies with too many big casts this year. A terrible mistake on my part.

Okay, that’s more than enough for this post. It’s over. We made it.

Enjoy the Oscars.

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Annual Lists of Movies I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #annual lists of movies I saw the past year

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jordoalejandro · 7 months

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The Seventh Annual List of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

I have once again found myself caught off-guard by this list and the Emmys.

I feel like this year it wasn’t really my fault. It was the strikes. The Emmys were postponed and I hadn’t heard or seen any advertising or talk about them so they were out of mind. And then I remembered, as September neared an end, that this was about the time of the year that they usually happened and also about the time of the year I usually post my list. God knows when the Emmys will actually occur, but as I’ve said before on this page, the List waits for no man, woman, or award show. It must go on.

And so, here’s the list of TV shows I’ve watched since-ish the last Emmys (9/12/22).

42. La Brea (Season 2 - 2022-2023, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 37) - Look, I’ll be honest, it’s hard to really care about this either way. I was looking at my notes and realized I gave every episode of La Brea this season the same mediocre letter grade. I didn’t set out to do that. I think I just felt the same kind of “blah who cares?” way about the show each time. There are shows that had episodes I rated more harshly (coming up shortly!) but those shows also had episodes here or there that I rated highly. This show just doesn’t make me feel strongly one way or another. Is that worse than a show that I hate most of the time and sometimes love? I guess? Maybe not. But I also can’t muster the will to argue this should be higher than those shows, so here it sits.

41. True Lies (Season 1 - 2023, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This show comes nowhere close to the quality of the film. It’s cheesy and ham-fisted. The actors feel wrong. It reminded me of some of the early seasons of another CBS show, MacGyver, which also was a real mess in its first few seasons before it realized that it needed to lean into the nonsense a bit more. MacGyver never got good, but it got to a more enjoyable place. Maybe True Lies could’ve gotten there someday if it could’ve continued to figure out what worked and what didn’t but it was cancelled fairly quickly so we’ll never know.

40. The Flash (Season 9 - 2023, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 35) - Disappointed but not surprised that this is where The Flash’s final season ended up. One good episode in the season, but more misses than hits, including a couple episodes I truly disliked. I’m not going to dive too deep into it but something that has happened the last few seasons is they’ve had these episodes where Flash will take a vacation or find some other reason to not be in the episode to, I guess, give Grant Gustin a mid-season shooting break? These episodes are typically the worst of the season because one, they feature the terrible side characters, and two, they usually try to be the “funny” episodes (especially grating because the writers on this show are awful at writing humor). That held true here: these episodes were painfully unfunny and annoying. It came off worse, though, because this was the final season. And it was only a 13 episode season at that. I respect these shows are a pain to shoot. You have to live in Canada away from everyone for an extended period of time. I accept giving the star a break here and there. But in the final season? 13 episodes? Why are we wasting our time here with bad filler episodes? Not that the regular episodes were that much better. The season as a whole remained plagued by the issues that have hurt this show the whole back half of its run: weak villains, annoying side characters, a dearth of ideas. Sometimes these CW shows are able to rally and go out on a semi-high. The Flash couldn’t.

39. Riverdale (Season 7 - 2023, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 40) - The final season of Riverdale had all the characters sent back in time to the 1950s. There was a reason for this but it’s not great and it doesn’t really matter. The point is, we’re back in the past for the final season. There’s a lot of potential to get wacky there. Wacky in a good way. When this show was at its best… well, it still wasn’t very good, but it was at least doing wild stuff and trying things. Unfortunately, even time travel couldn’t spark life back into it. They went back to the past and then did mostly generic teen drama stuff. Occasionally there were glimpses of something more but mostly it was a lot of stuff about how sexuality was so repressed back then and society was changing and whatever. Kind of a waste. Mostly straightforward and fairly dull and that’s no way to be for the final season of a show like Riverdale. The last couple of episodes were a nice finale though, so it at least had that.

38. Welcome to Flatch (Season 2 - 2022-2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 36) - This show improved ever so slightly. More moments of quality. It still struggles to be funny with any regularity.

37. Abbott Elementary (Season 2 - 2022-2023, ABC) (Last year’s ranking: 30) - Speaking of shows that struggle to be funny with any regularity. Like Flatch, it has its moments. I have four episodes this season rated as solid episodes. The problem is it was a 21 episode season. That’s a lot of misses.

36. CSI: Vegas (Season 2 - 2022-2023, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: 19) - The show did lose something with William Petersen ducking out. He brought a humanity and likeability to things that elevated the show from its Case-of-the-Week crime show DNA and, just like when he left the original version of this show, it more or less devolved into that basic genre fare without him. Which is all fine. It’s not bad if that’s what you want. Just not very inspiring.

35. Quantum Leap (Season 1 - 2022-2023, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It’s alright. Like the original, it’s a quasi-anthology show and so some episodes have better premises than others. Some decent ones, some weaker ones. Nothing that really blew me away. The best thing about this show is it makes me think about how shows have changed over the last 30 years since the original version aired. It has all the new stuff that shows need to have these days, like an overarching serialized mystery and secretive backstories and all that -- stuff that takes about three to five seasons to resolve -- but also the goofy “Oops our hero got sent to a different time and now must go through another adventure!” week-to-week structure of a show that debuted in the 1980s and was built to last 200 episodes. The kind of thing where you can almost hear an announcer saying during the end credits, “Well, looks like our hero didn’t make it home this episode. Tune in next week when Ben ends up in the Old West! Same time, same channel.”

34. The Walking Dead (Season 11B - 2022, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 23) - This was a fine half a season. Serviceable. Which is, admittedly, a little bit of a letdown for a final season. They never really justified why this was the end of the show. The group had faced bigger and more personal threats than the one here so for this to be the big finale made it feel like an ending just to be an ending. All the characters were even acting like, “Well, this is it. The end. We finally won the apocalypse” as if they hadn’t faced similar groups threatening their survival half a dozen times already. They beat those groups only to have a new group pop up almost immediately. Why is this time different? I guess there’s no real way to end a show about surviving the apocalypse other than to suggest the characters have figured out a system to make it work. Or you could kill them all, I suppose. But what downer that would be. And then you can't make spinoffs.

33. The Blacklist (Season 10 - 2023, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 32) - Another show with a final season that was just fine. It wrapped things up. Did a few good things on the way out but was mostly average. Like the rest of the aforementioned shows on this list going through their final seasons, it felt about time to end things. A general sense of running on momentum and fumes.

32. Bob’s Burgers (Season 13 - 2022-2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 31) - I’ve noted this before but this show tends to put out a lot of average episodes and one or two spectacular episodes every year now. This year, episode 13.10, “The Plight Before Christmas” was a real knockout. Arguably the best episode they've ever done. In an ideal world, I’d like a few more stellar episodes in a 22 episode season, but I guess you take what you can get.

31. Secret Invasion (Miniseries - 2023, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This just wasn’t up to par for Marvel. The action wasn’t great. The writing often felt amateurish (the acting felt that way at times, too, weirdly). The show kills off some interesting, established characters and doesn’t replace them with better ones, which makes it feel like a net negative on the MCU. The biggest issue is really that they’re doing a hybrid old spy / body snatcher type story -- which, within the MCU, has a ton of potential to be great -- and the show just never has the right energy or sense of paranoia that should come from that. It plays out like a standard thriller. All of this sounds more negative than I intended. It’s fine. I’m using that word a lot in this section of this list but that’s what these shows are. They’re fine. It’s just that, given the concept, and the cast, and the MCU-ness of it all, that’s really disappointing.

30. The Walking Dead: Dead City (Season 1 - 2023, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - There’s a moment I always seem to experience when I’m playing a DLC for a video game I like. I’ll be on a new map, doing something that’s slightly different from the main game but still obviously really familiar, and I’ll think, “This is alright. I appreciate having more content. But this really just makes me miss the main game.” That’s kind of what this show feels like. Like Walking Dead DLC. Like, it’s alright. It’s cool to catch up with the characters and see them in a new map, interacting with new NPCs, getting new missions. But it’s a little watered down and I kind of just miss the original show. (Not the final couple of seasons of the original show. The earlier ones. You get the idea.)

29. The Night Agent (Season 1 - 2023, Netflix) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - When I talk about how Secret Invasion played out like a standard thriller, this is the show I’m talking about. It hits most of the notes you expect. The main characters were sort of bleh. The show needs a serious injection of personality. But, you know, it moves along fine. Has some twists and turns. If a spy thriller is what you’re looking for, this is definitely one of those.

28. Stargirl (Season 3 - 2022, CW) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The show wrapped up nicely. This was always a show that hovered around good but never really advanced to great. Some fun stuff, some goofy stuff. Enjoyable enough in the moment but nothing that will really stick with you.

27. The Company You Keep (Season 1 - 2023, ABC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - A decent show about a family of criminals doing various jobs. The episode quality would vary depending on how interesting the job was but there were a few good ones. There’s a longer arc about the main criminal son falling in love with a government agent that worked fine but honestly was less interesting to me. The structure was there for this show to get better in later seasons but it’s already been cancelled so that’s that.

26. Ghosts (Season 2 - 2022-2023, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The show didn’t really get funnier but it did drop a lot of the things that annoyed me in the first season (or at least did them with less frequency). I didn’t rate any episode this season particularly highly but on the bright side, I didn’t rate any very low either. I guess it’s a similar question as shows lower on this list face: is it better to be consistent or better to have more highs and lows? Eye of the beholder.

25. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Miniseries - 2022, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - She-Hulk is sort of the other side of that coin. It had pieces that were clever and that worked and a cast of actors that were pretty good, but also some lulls. Overall, I think the writing was just not sharp enough or funny enough for it to really excel, but it was enjoyable.

24. Family Guy (Season 21 - 2022-2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 17) - Family Guy is kind of the king of the highs and lows TV comedy. A couple of excellent episodes, a few duds. Mostly good ones in between.

23. Fear the Walking Dead (Season 8A - 2023, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 28) - This is Fear’s final season and it’s wrapping things up in a fascinating way. This show has gone through basically two iterations (seasons 1-3 and seasons 4-7) and it has decided to bring both of them to a close before it leaves. Season 8A was mostly dedicated to wrapping up Morgan’s story. It featured a massive time jump which I will constantly argue almost never works dramatically (and didn’t here) and often messes up character plots (it did here) but overall, it tied up loose ends for the character in a satisfying enough way.

22. The Simpsons (Season 34 - 2022-2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 25) - It remains The Simpsons. Couple of standout episodes. A good “Treehouse of Horror” and a strong season finale.

I’m going to do a mid-list break here to talk about a couple of TV movies or specials or whatever. I think this is how I’m going to handle these going forward because it does feel unfair to put them in the actual list but they are TV. At least, they’re more TV than movie.

Werewolf by Night has a really excellent setting and look, plus some good music. The story is not all there, though. I think it’s more about the Halloween vibe than telling a thorough story and it does nail that vibe. It’s a good watch for the season.

Similarly: The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. It’s sweet and funny, and, like Werewolf, has the perfect vibe for what it’s going for. Also, like Werewolf, the plot isn’t really there. I do think that’s okay, though, for both of these shorts that come in at under an hour. You just kinda do neat stuff with cool characters for 40-50 minutes and dip out. Again, makes for a great seasonal watch.

Okay, back to it.

21. Mythic Quest (Season 3 - 2022-2023, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I mentioned in the season 2 write up of this show that it’s about 90% a good workplace comedy and then one of out ten episodes will be this just wonderful, touching standalone piece. That mostly held true in season 3, though the workplace-ness of it all did take a step back. It was okay but not as sharp as it’s been in the past. The standalone episode this year, “Sarian”, though, was excellent. Far and away the high point of the season.

20. The Great North (Season 3 - 2022-2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 22) - Another solid year for this show.

19. 9-1-1: Lone Star (Season 4 - 2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 20) - It has its highs and lows but this show understands itself and is able to land around here on my list consistently.

18. American Dad! (Season 19B - 2022, Season 20A - 2023, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: 16) - TBS splits this show's seasons up and airs them over entire calendar years, so I’m writing this blurb about the final 14 episodes of season 19 and the first 9 episodes of season 20. Whatever. It doesn’t really matter. It was up to par.

17. So Help Me Todd (Season 1 - 2022-2023, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This is, for me, what you want from a weekly, network legal “drama” (labelled a drama because it’s an hour-long show but it’s really more of a comedy), if you were looking for that sort of thing. You get your case of the week. That’s all fine. It works. But the show is elevated by its personality and humor. The characters are good. The actors play well off of each other. It’s snappy. It tips over into too silly or annoying sometimes but I’ll live with it if that’s the cost of spicing up a show in this genre.

16. Gotham Knights (Season 1 - 2023, CW) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It took me a little bit to get into this show but once it started going it picked up momentum and finished strong. You come to like the characters more and appreciate their relationships. The story got more interesting and built to a good finale. And then it got immediately cancelled because the CW is in some kind of flux state where I don’t know if they’re even making shows anymore. It’s kind of disappointing but given the way CW superhero shows go -- good first season, okay second season, bad third season, resurgent fourth season, bad fifth and sixth seasons, seventh and final season of variable quality -- it’s probably not the worst thing. Go out on a high.

15. Welcome to Chippendales (Miniseries - 2022-2023, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - A pretty good true crime drama. It does hit a few lulls though. This is the sort of thing that probably would’ve been a much better two hour movie in the past and is now an eight episode, six hour miniseries. Still, enough interesting stuff to keep you moving through the episodes.

14. Animal Control (Season 1 - 2023, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This show is from two-thirds of the brains behind another show I’ve written about on these lists: The Moodys. I’d described that show as “likeable if not particularly funny”. That description more or less fit this show as well through a good portion of the season, though it did get better as it went on. Hopefully it continues that trend.

13. Archer (Season 13 - 2022, FXX) (Last year’s ranking: 14) - Archer has found a good level of consistent quality in its later years.

12. Reboot (Season 1 - 2022, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Another show in this area of the list that started out a little bit slow and got better as it went along, showing potential for future seasons. Also, immediately cancelled, too, like some of those other shows.

11. The Lazarus Project (Season 1 - 2023, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Fun and twisty. It keeps switching things up and plays with the time loop story in fresh ways. It has a good sense of humor, too.

10. Ted Lasso (Season 3 - 2023, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Someone made the decision to make this an hour-long show and I think that was a mistake. It spread things way too thin. Too many scenes linger. Too many jokes and storylines that probably would’ve normally been cut remain. It almost makes it seem like it’s poorly edited but I think it’s just that you can actually feel it stretching for time. That said, this show still has its plentiful moments of brilliance, in both humor, character, and emotion. It’s just a shame because you can see where these fine hour-long episodes have excellent 30 minute episodes inside of them.

9. The Other Two (Season 3 - 2023, HBO Max) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It remained a tremendous, frequently hilarious send up of the entertainment industry in its final season. I do think the one issue this show found itself struggling with was when it tried to introduce dramatic stakes. It has actually sprinkled in drama fairly well in the past, but its humor has gotten so heightened (often surpassing even 30 Rock levels of absurdism) that it was giving me whiplash when they suddenly tried to bring the characters back to Earth and have them argue about their relationships. I don’t know if you can have both of those cakes and eat them, too. Still, a good send off.

8. White House Plumbers (Miniseries - 2023, HBO Max) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It’s labelled as a political satire but it’s more like a screwball comedy. I don’t know how historically accurate it is -- I’m taking everything in it with a grain of salt -- but it’s a funny, heightened look at a wacky criminal conspiracy and if you don’t take it as much more than that, you can probably enjoy it.

7. American Auto (Season 2 - 2023, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 8) - I’m not sure why this show never caught on the way Superstore did. Very funny. Good characters who played well off each other. Smart plots. Cancelled after two seasons. Seems to happen a lot with NBC comedies these days.

6. Jury Duty (Season 1 - 2023, Amazon Freevee) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I’m putting this here with extreme reservations. Is this a show? I think in the same way Borat is a movie? There’s obviously a lot of writing and acting that goes into this. And directing. I don’t know. I’m putting it at 6(ish) and if there’s a moral objection from any readers, feel free to remove it mentally. Whatever it is, it is very funny.

5. Andor (Season 1 - 2022, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - A strange structure. It’s 12 episodes and it feels like every three episodes the show morphs into a different genre film. There’s the intro one, the heist film, the prison film, then the concluding film. It’s cool, though. It keeps things fresh and moving along. The writing is smart as is the plotting. The acting is strong. It’s a great look at the non-Jedi and Sith heroes and villains in the Star Wars universe.

4. The Mandalorian (Season 3 - 2023, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It does feel like the quality has taken a small hit. It’s a little goofier at times than it used to be but it’s still very enjoyable. It’s like a comfort show. I’m always having a good time while I’m watching it and if I can get eight episodes of fun adventures every year with these characters, I’ll take it as long as Jon Favreau wants to make it.

3. The Last of Us (Season 1 - 2023, HBO) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I did not care for the game. I didn’t like playing it. I found it frustrating and unenjoyable. But I enjoyed the world the game was set in. And the story it was telling. I liked everything about the game except the game itself. Or, in other words, a TV show is exactly how I’d like to experience this story. This is an excellent adaptation, capturing the game’s story and world and all-around essence. It’s intense and emotional and funny and beautiful. And it also builds on the game in wonderful ways. Episode 1.3, “Long, Long Time” expands upon something you only hear a little about in passing in the game and turns it into this truly wonderful episode of television -- the best of any I saw all year. But beyond that, the show adds these little touches as well. The cold opens of both episodes one and two are brilliant little short films that wouldn’t really have fit in the game but are terrific tone setters for the show. It’s a masterclass in how to adapt a video game.

2. Succession (Season 4 - 2023, HBO) (Last year’s ranking: 3) - They landed the plane with a terrific final season, highlighted by some truly excellent episodes. 4.3, “Connor’s Wedding” keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole episode and is the standout but the final three episodes of the season are all really great as well as the show puts a bow on this messed up family’s saga.

1. The Bear (Season 2 - 2023, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I caught season one of The Bear not long after the last list went up and I really liked it. I don’t think it would’ve been number one or anything, but it would’ve ranked pretty highly. Season two built on season one and created the best show this year for me. It’s an intense show, and a sharp show, but also a kind show. A show that speeds things up on you and keeps you in a state of high anxiety for an entire hour-long episode and then slows way down and gets you to appreciate something so simple as a man receiving a chocolate covered banana for dessert (an unbelievably moving moment). The characters are tremendous. The ways they interact and grow are so well done. The acting is excellent. It’s a great looking show with a great soundtrack. The writing is subtle and smart. It knows when to be funny and it knows when to deliver an emotional knockout punch and sometimes does both back-to-back or even at the same time. It’s firing on all cylinders.

And so there’s the list. The second season of Winning Time and the third season of Only Murders in the Building started recently and I haven’t gotten a chance to watch them so that’s my bad. Those two have rated highly in the past. I’ll try to fit them on to next year’s list. Also, the Daryl Dixon spinoff started recently, too, and while I’m enjoying a little bit more than Dead City, it still feels like DLC. I guess we’ll find out next year if I thought it outgrew that. A tease!

Enjoy the Emmys, whenever they are.

- - - - -

Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw The Past Year

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jordoalejandro · 7 months

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The Sixth Annual TV Show Rankings Movement Chart

Rankings and Movement (in alphabetical order)

9-1-1: Lone Star - 2020: 35; 2021: 13; 2022: 20; 2023: 🔼

24: Legacy - 2017: 57

Abbott Elementary - 2022: 30; 2023: 🔽

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - 2017: 7; 2018: 8; 2019: 9; 2020: 1

Alex Rider - 2021: 17

The Alienist - 2018: 16; 2019: N/A; 2020:17

American Auto - 2022: 8; 2023: 🔼

American Crime - 2017: 6

American Crime Story - 2017: 1; 2018: 26; 2019: N/A; 2020: N/A; 2021: N/A; 2022: 18; 2023: N/A (it has returned to its natural state: hiatus)

American Dad! - 2017: 17; 2018: 9; 2019: 5; 2020: 23; 2021: 9; 2022: 16; 2023: 🔽

American Vandal - 2018: 1; 2019: 1

Angie Tribeca - 2017: 43; 2018: N/A; 2019: 26

Animal Kingdom - 2017: 5; 2018: 6; 2019: 4; 2020: N/A; 2021: 10; 2022: 12; 2023: N/A (ended)

A.P. Bio - 2018: 15; 2019: 3

Archer - 2017: 13; 2018: 25; 2019: 31; 2020: N/A; 2021: 25; 2022: 14; 2023: 🔼

Arrested Development - 2018: 7; 2019: 11

Arrow - 2017: 31; 2018: 36; 2019: 35; 2020:15

At Home with Amy Sedaris - 2018: 10; 2019: 14; 2020: 18

Atlanta - 2017: 54

Batwoman - 2020: 43; 2021: 38; 2022: 34; 2023: N/A (canceled)

The Blacklist - 2017: 34; 2018: 33; 2019: 21; 2020:39; 2021: 28; 2022: 32; 2023: 🔽

The Blacklist: Redemption - 2017: 35

Blindspot - 2017: 56

Blood & Treasure - 2019: 38

Bob’s Burgers - 2017: 26; 2018: 21; 2019: 25; 2020: 38; 2021: 30; 2022: 31; 2023: 🔽

The Book of Boba Fett - 2022: 11; 2023: N/A (miniseries)

Brockmire - 2017: 27; 2018: 24; 2019: 16; 2020: 31

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 2017: 23; 2018: 18; 2019: 17; 2020: 7; 2021: 4

Chad - 2021: 20

Champions - 2018: 19

Class - 2017: 20

Corporate - 2018: 34; 2019: 29; 2020: 21

CSI: Vegas - 2022: 19; 2023: 🔽

Debris - 2021: 35

Defending Jacob - 2020: 16

The Detour - 2017: 29; 2018: 30; 2019: 13

Dickinson - 2020: 22

Duncanville - 2020: 34; 2021: 22; 2022: 21; 2023: N/A (canceled)

The Endgame - 2022: 38; 2023: N/A (canceled)

The Equalizer - 2021: 41

Everything’s Gonna Be Okay - 2020: 47; 2021: 37

Eyewitness - 2017: 10

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - 2021: 26

Family Guy - 2017: 18; 2018: 20; 2019: 23; 2020: 24; 2021: 18; 2022: 17; 2023: 🔽

Fargo - 2017: 3; 2018: N/A; 2019: N/A; 2020: N/A; 2021: 14; 2022: N/A; 2023: N/A (season 5 begins airing soon)

Fear the Walking Dead - 2017: 16; 2018: 12; 2019: 8; 2020: N/A; 2021: 11; 2022: 28; 2023: 🔼

The Flash - 2017: 32; 2018: 38; 2019: 39; 2020: 49; 2021: 40; 2022: 35; 2023: 🔽

For All Mankind - 2020: 40

Frequency - 2017: 59

Galavant - 2017: 24

Ghosted - 2018: 17

Ghosts - 2022: 27; 2023: 🔼

The Gifted - 2018: 39; 2019: 44

The Good Place - 2017: 8; 2018: 4; 2019: 10; 2020:3

Gotham - 2017: 11

Great News - 2017: 22; 2018: 3

The Great North - 2021: 24; 2022: 22; 2023: 🔼

The Grinder - 2017: 14

The Guest Book - 2017: 53; 2018: N/A; 2019: 40

Hawkeye - 2022: 2; 2023: N/A (miniseries)

High Fidelity - 2020: 13

Hit the Road - 2018: 46

Inhumans - 2018: 47

The Kids Are Alright - 2019: 7

La Brea - 2022: 37; 2023: 🔽

The Last Man on Earth - 2017: 44; 2018: 43

The Last O.G. - 2018: 28; 2019: 34; 2020: 53; 2021: N/A; 2022: 39; 2023: N/A (canceled)

Legends of Tomorrow - 2017: 41; 2018: 31; 2019: 27; 2020: 11; 2021: 15; 2022: 13; 2023: N/A (canceled)

Life in Pieces - 2017: 46; 2018: 29; 2019: 20

Limitless - 2017: 48

Little Fires Everywhere - 2020: 48

Loki - 2021: 1; 2022: N/A; 2023: N/A (season 2 begins airing soon)

Love, Victor - 2020: 5; 2021: 8; 2022: 9; 2023: N/A (ended)

MacGyver - 2017: 52; 2018: 44; 2019: 41; 2020: 26; 2021: 31

The Mandalorian - 2020: 2; 2021: 2; 2022: N/A; 2023: 🔽

Me, Myself & I - 2018: 42

The Mick - 2017: 33; 2018: 11

The Mist - 2017: 19

Modern Family - 2017: 37; 2018: 23; 2019: 19; 2020: 4

The Moodys - 2020: 46; 2021: 27

Moon Knight - 2022: 4; 2023: N/A (either it’s a miniseries or it’s on hiatus, unclear)

The Morning Show - 2020: 30

Mr. Mayor - 2021: 7; 2022: 10; 2023: N/A (canceled)

Mrs. America - 2020: 9

Ms. Marvel - 2022: 15; 2023: N/A (either it’s a miniseries or it’s on hiatus, unclear)

The Muppets - 2017: 55

Mythic Quest - 2021: 6; 2022: N/A; 2023: 🔽

Nancy Drew - 2020: 51

Nobodies - 2017: 40; 2018: 32

Normal People - 2020: 42

Obi-Wan Kenobi - 2022: 6; 2023: N/A (miniseries)

Only Murders in the Building - 2022: 5; 2023: N/A (season 2 currently on-going)

The Orville - 2018: 40; 2019: 43

The Other Two - 2019: 18; 2020: N/A; 2021: 5; 2022: N/A; 2023: 🔽

Our Cartoon President - 2019: 42

Our Flag Means Death - 2022: 7; 2023: N/A (season 2 premieres soon)

Ozark - 2020: 6

People of Earth - 2017: 50

Perfect Harmony - 2020: 45

Person of Interest - 2017: 2

The Politician - 2020: 41

Prison Break - 2017: 42

Prodigal Son - 2020: 28; 2021: 16

Quantico - 2017: 58

The Real O'Neals - 2017: 25

Review - 2017: 12

Rise - 2018: 45

Riverdale - 2017: 39; 2018: 38; 2019: 36; 2020: 50; 2021: 39; 2022: 40; 2023: 🔼

Schitt’s Creek - 2019: 12; 2020: 8

Schooled - 2019: 30; 2020: 27

Scream Queens - 2017: 47

Search Party - 2017: 61

The Simpsons - 2017: 21; 2018: 22; 2019: 24; 2020: 37; 2021: 23; 2022: 25; 2023: 🔼

Single Parents - 2019: 33; 2020: 10

Snowpiercer - 2020: 14; 2021: 21; 2022: 24; 2023: N/A (shot a fourth and final season; in January, it was announced it would not air on TNT and there’s been no news since)

Son of Zorn - 2017: 36

Soulmates - 2021: 36; 2022: N/A; 2023: N/A (announced as renewed for a second season August 2020, announced as canceled after one season February 2023)

Space Force - 2020: 44

Splitting Up Together - 2018: 41; 2019: 32

Stargirl - 2020: 36; 2021: 33; 2022: N/A; 2023: 🔼

Stumptown - 2020: 32

Succession - 2022: 3; 2023: 🔼

Sunnyside - 2020: 19

Superstore - 2017: 9; 2018: 2; 2019: 6; 2020: 25; 2021: 12

Tales of the Walking Dead - 2022: 29; 2023: N/A (on hiatus?)

Ted Lasso - 2020: 12; 2021: N/A; 2022: N/A; 2023: 🔼

Those Who Can’t - 2017: 38; 2018: N/A; 2019: 22

Timeless - 2017: 30; 2018: 13; 2019: 28

Treadstone - 2020: 33

Trial & Error - 2017: 28; 2018: 14

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - 2017: 4; 2018: 5; 2019: 2

The Unicorn - 2020: 52

The Walking Dead - 2017: 15; 2018: 27; 2019: 15; 2020: 29; 2021: 29; 2022: 23; 2023: 🔽

The Walking Dead: World Beyond - 2021: 34; 2022: 33; 2023: N/A (ended)

WandaVision - 2021: 3

Welcome to Flatch - 2022: 36; 2023: 🔽

What If…? - 2021: 19; 2022: N/A; 2023: N/A (season 2 expected to air later this year)

When We Rise - 2017: 49

Whiskey Cavalier - 2019: 37

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty - 2022: 1; 2023: N/A (season 2 just aired and I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet)

Workaholics - 2017: 45

Wrecked - 2017: 51; 2018: 35

You, Me and the Apocalypse - 2017: 60

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist - 2020: 20; 2021: 32; 2022: 26; 2023: N/A (ended)

#Annual TV Show Rankings Charts

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jordoalejandro · 1 year

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The Twelfth Annual List of Movies I Saw the Past Year

After I watch movies that qualify for these Movies I Saw lists, I like to jot down some notes and give each of them a letter grade. I find that system more natural than stars. It’s hard to tell the difference between a 7 out of 10, a 7.5 out of 10, and an 8 out of 10. But the difference between a B+ and B- movie? That makes sense to me.

Anyway, I was looking back at my notes for the last few lists and realized that, this year included, I’ve only given one movie an A (I don’t bother with an A+. An A is an A.) in the last three years: Spiderman: No Way Home. And, if I’m being honest, there are things in that film I definitely could’ve dinged it down to an A- for. I just had such a good time and appreciated it so much that I chose to ignore those issues. That doesn’t seem like a sound grading system but it’s really more of an art than a science.

This whole lead in is just to say: that’s weird, right? That’s like a total of 180 movies and only one got an A? (And maybe it shouldn’t have.) So is it the movies? Is it me? It’s not that I didn’t like a lot of these movies. I even liked some of them quite a bit. Maybe I’m just getting finicky in my old age. Or maybe the darkness in my soul is growing, taking over, killing off whatever remained of joy in my heart.

Or maybe it’s the movies. Yeah. It’s probably the movies.

Speaking of, here’s the list of movies I’ve seen that have come out since-ish the last Oscars (3/27/22).

61. Blonde - It's occasionally visually cool, at least. There are some neat looking shots every now and then. Other than that? This film joins Jackie and Spencer in the “various scenes from a sad famous woman’s life” genre except this one is taking it to the nth degree. It ratchets the sadness and brutality up to 11 to really drive home how terrible Marilyn Monroe’s life was, even inventing huge chunks of the story so that things can be extra sad and terrible. If, for some reason, you have interest in watching Marilyn Monroe floating through various dream states and getting tortured for almost three hours, this is your film. I don't.

60. Morbius - These Sony Spiderman villain films all have a similar issue: they can’t justify their existence. They are the remora fish to the MCU’s shark. They feel as much like a quick cash grab while you're watching them as they appear to be from the outside. Their attempts to form a connective tissue back to the MCU come across as desperate and off-putting (including and especially stuff like the mid-credit scenes in this film which are some of the most incoherent ones I’ve yet seen). The plots of the films themselves feel barely thought out. They go through the motions and then they end. There’s a lot of CGI and bad dialogue and forgettable side characters and villains along the way. At least the Venom films have Tom Hardy, whose chemistry with himself is so good you can at least enjoy that while the paper thin plot rides out the screen time. Morbius doesn’t have that. Matt Smith is having some fun but it’s not even close enough to make this something worth watching. The whole enterprise just isn’t exciting or thrilling or really any fun. It’s dull. And that’s just about the worst thing you can be as a superhero movie.

59. Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths - There’s at least some interesting visual stuff and music going on but this is one of those movies I have a really tough time appreciating. A lot of unconnected scenes and obscured dialogue and it all means something to the filmmaker: life, death, success, art, take your pick. It’s very hard to connect to and care about. I feel like I got maybe half of it, but I won’t really understand the film until I know much more about Alejandro Iñárritu’s biography and the history of Mexico and there’s just no way in hell I’m doing homework for this. I already gave it two and a half hours of my life. That’s enough.

58. Pinocchio - I don’t have any real love for the original cartoon anyway so it’s not like this – a remake made with CGI and a handful of live action people instead of animation – didn’t already have an uphill battle with me. Even still, I went in with an open heart, allowing it to try and win me over, and I came away feeling that the whole thing seems pretty pointless. They’ve made some modern tweaks that don’t really add much. The humor is geared toward children but it’s big and broad in the way that talks down to them, like an old person trying to connect to the youth. Other than that, it seems to stick pretty close to the original cartoon's story (at least, as much as I remember the original Disney Pinocchio cartoon. It’s been a while.) The problem is, the original was made before we figured out how to write satisfying screenplays and so this remake ends up falling into the same unsatisfying plot issues. Characters pop in and out, never to be seen again. Storylines don't get wrapped up. Stuff happens to the character for a while and then it ends. People used to not care about those kinds of things because it was magical just seeing pictures that moved. These days there are a lot more options in moving pictures. Look, it might be sacrilege to say this, but you could probably show your kids this Pinocchio instead of the old one if you had to show them a Pinocchio. I’d argue there’s not a big difference because I don’t care for either. Another thing you could do, though, instead of watching a Pinocchio, is maybe just watch something better.

57. Empire of Light - The score is nice. It’s a gorgeous looking film. Roger Deakins filming lots of scenes in a grand old movie theater situated in a seaside English town? I mean, what a recipe for visual success. Unfortunately the actual plot of the film is much less interesting than its setting. It’s a fairly dull drama that doesn’t ever really feel like it gets going. Some decent acting here and there but generally pretty flat.

56. Triangle of Sadness - A black comedy satire devoid of any real humor. The jokes are all very European. Like, they’re either “this is an astute observation about the perversity of life, no?” or they’re people falling down stairs while pooping themselves (this is a mostly literal description of a huge chunk of act two). That’s basically the level of satire we’re dealing with here. It barely breaks the surface level. The whole movie is long, too. Two and a half hours, broken into three parts, the first of which (~30 minutes) seems cuttable entirely except that you need three parts to make the titular triangle. The other two segments are clanky. They never really feel like they are fully clicking. They have their moments but far from enough to cover the runtime.

55. Don’t Worry Darling - Nice music and visuals. Florence Pugh is good as she’s been in everything I’ve ever seen her in. The movie’s plot is the big problem. It spends the first 90 minutes doing quasi-interesting creepy and mysterious stuff and setting the mood and not much else, which is something you can get away with if you pay it all off with a strong finish and this film's finish is supremely weak. The twist isn’t interesting, the pacing is hurried, and the ending is abrupt. It’s extremely unsatisfying. Endings are so important in films and can make or break them and this one absolutely breaks it, making you feel like everything you watched before was just about a waste of time.

54. The Good Nurse - This is a film that feels like it worked backwards from the true story ending and didn’t have enough plot there for the first hour or so. A lot of scenes of nursing and family life. It’s pretty dull for a long while until it gets near the end, when it feels like things should finally explode with tension, and it sort of peters out. A couple of good scenes but nothing that really pops. Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne are doing nice work but don’t get anything truly meaty from the script to give them that wow moment.

53. You People - It’s weirdly shot and edited like a TV show, and quality wise, that’s kind of what it feels like. Really broad characters, over-the-top situations, and dialogue that lacks all subtlety. It finds a few humorous moments but mostly it feels like watching an expensive pilot for a show that didn’t go.

52. Black Adam - It’s interesting to look at and it has a decent score. Other than that, it comes off generic and uninspired. The plot is mostly finding reasons for The Rock to smash enemies in one set piece then another. The characters are watered down versions of characters from other films and so is much of the dialogue. Nothing you’ve not seen before. Pierce Brosnan has most of the interesting character and dialogue moments in his side role. The whole thing, though better overall than Morbius, suffers from a similar problem of not really justifying its existence. It feels like it was forced into creation because The Rock wanted to be a superhero and DC figured they could sell some lunchboxes with it.

51. A Christmas Story Christmas - It certainly feels spiritually in line with the first film and if you liked the first one, I could see you getting a similar level of enjoyment out of this one. There’s at least some skill involved in not making this feel like a cheap cash grab (like I imagine A Christmas Story 2 – a direct-to-DVD sequel that came out in 2012 that I just learned of while researching this – feels like). My main problem here is that I’ve just never enjoyed the first one. I don’t have a nostalgia for that time and in fact, for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on, I find it somewhat repelling. I never found the jokes in the first one funny either, even as a kid. It always struck me as like, Dennis the Menace old comic strip type jokes that are supposed to make you scoff then shake your head while mildly chuckling. This sequel is very similar, in humor and tone. Some might like it. I don’t.

50. Amsterdam - This has all the pieces to be a fun story: interesting characters, intriguing plot idea, a great looking setting, but the movie feels wandering. Every time there’s a moment that works in comedy or plot it loses momentum almost immediately. The editing is off. Scenes linger, have very little rhythm, and create a sense of awkwardness. It feels like the material needed someone outside to take a pass at it. A rewrite by a new writer or a director with a different vision to clean things up.

49. The Bubble - Some legitimately funny bits and characters but too long and with too many stretches lacking strong laughs. Not much in terms of plot, the film is really only there to get those laughs, so it needs to bring it in the comedy sense and it doesn’t do it frequently enough.

48. RRR - I wrote my review of The Woman King (coming up shortly – that’s what they call a tease in the business) way before I watched this and inadvertently described this film in it, so let me just quickly recap (precap?) the notes from that: this is one of those foreign produced, out of control action films that clearly has some money behind it but which proves again that no matter how much money you spend, you can't buy actual quality. Big fake sets and tons of extras, extremely one-note villains, bad writing. This film is like 45 minutes of fun, inventive, supremely over the top action scenes and two hours and fifteen minutes of bad acting, clunky drama, singing, slow motion shots, piggyback rides, and friendship montages. Given what I'd heard coming in, I had hoped this was going to be an actual high quality film but if you want to get enjoyment out of it, you kind of have to watch it more like The Room (not that it’s anywhere close to that bad, but more in the sense that you have to laugh at the absurd stuff that is constantly happening). It’s kind of worth it to watch it once for the whole experience but if you can just find a Youtube compilation of highlights from the action scenes, you’ll probably have gotten enough of it.

47. Avatar: The Way of Water - Overly lonnnnnnnng. There’s maybe an hour of interesting stuff in here and two hours of James Cameron impressing himself with his world building and technology. The story is basic, the dialogue is forgettable. Filled with characters it’s hard to care about, in part because it’s hard to keep track of them – they all look the same and their accents are constantly changing – but mostly because they’re simply uninteresting. Lots of your old favorites (as much, I suppose, as characters whose names you can’t remember could be considered favorites) are back from the first film and don’t really do anything but hang out in the background while Jake’s kids take center stage and spend most of the middle of the movie doing an alien version of the film where a family moves to a new town and tries to adjust while the townies are mean to them. Then an hour and a half in, the film becomes alien Free Willy for a while, and then we get the hour long third act which is basically a repeat of the third act of the first movie but set on water. I actually hadn’t watched the first one until this year, in preparation for this sequel, and I found myself equally unimpressed by it. It's better but not particularly good. I can’t understand how three of Cameron’s most average works have taken over the highest grossing films of all time list. It’s like some kind of spell he’s placed on the world.

46. Emily the Criminal - A passable little crime… thriller? It’s not too thrilling. A crime drama mostly. There’s nothing really surprising or wholly original but it works well enough, it moves well, and then it gets out. It’s fine. Aubrey Plaza is good in it but "It's fine" is pretty much all I can muster up about this film and so that's why it's here on the list.

45. Women Talking - Women be talkin’! Miriam Toews, who wrote the novel this is based on, must have called it Women Talking in part to entrap dumb guys into making jokes, right? Pssh, if I wanted to hear women talking, I’d still be with my ex-wife! And now I got to make those jokes, but I acknowledged ahead of time they’re dumb guy jokes, so it’s fine. All of this is a great lead in for me to note that I actually didn’t care for this film. It’s more watchable than you’d expect but, ultimately, it really is just women talking. It’s not based on a play but could be converted into one with almost no changes in the script. Some pockets of good writing and acting but nothing that really elevates it beyond what its title promises and when you’re promised a film that’s only people talking, that script needs to be sharp enough to carry the entire film. It isn’t here.

44. All Quiet on the Western Front - It is what it is. It’s an objectively well-made film. Shot well, scored well, acted well. It’s just that it’s a straightforward war (or, rather, anti-war) film and… I guess I just don’t care? It doesn’t interest me to watch a two and a half hour film adaptation of an old book told without surprise or novelty. Things play out exactly as you suspect they will play out and in the end, we learn that war is bad for the people involved. Got it. Thank you. If that’s something that interests you, more power to you. It’s not something that interests me or moves me and not something I’d ever feel the need to revisit. It’s a film that will garner award talk now and then be played by substitute teachers for the next 30 years until someone remakes it again.

43. Till - Another film that’s a pretty standard fare historical drama. The story here unfolds as you’d expect, too. I will say, in fairness, with this story, it’s a little easier to forgive not experimenting with the form (versus with a hundred year old novel that’s already been adapted multiple times). If you try to get too fancy and tell these kinds of stories with a ton of flair, you risk being insensitive to the material and thus, the safest thing is to just go A>B>C. It’s fine – it tells the story cleanly and gets the point across – but it makes it into just another history class film. Danielle Deadwyler gives a good performance, asked to be either otherworldly strong or hysterically, emotionally destroyed in basically every scene in the film and she handles it well. In a way, though, it almost dehumanizes the character. Outside of a few brief moments early in the film, she gets almost no time to be anything other than a grieving mother. She comes off more as a machine built to endure rather than a person. A fault in the writing.

42. After Yang - This just feels like an A24 film. It’s almost a genre unto itself. Very artsy and contemplative and hip and indie. There's some interesting stuff here about technology and family and oh, what it means to be human! The eternal question! A beautiful score as well, which helps because with this movie, you have to enjoy the vibe more than expect, you know, actual things to happen.

41. Strange World - An inventive, interesting looking film, but a script that’s not particularly unique and not very strong in plot, dialogue, or humor. Not bad, exactly, but not good enough to really recommend.

40. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio - It looks excellent and, like with all stop motion animation, you certainly find yourself impressed by the effort required to create these shots. Unfortunately it’s hard to get yourself up for another Pinocchio film. At the very least, it’s not a straightforward take on old material. They moved the story to Fascist Italy and gave the plot some sharpening. All appreciated, given what I’ve already complained about on this list with other films (other Pinocchio films, no less). Still, at the end of the day, this is a film about a wooden puppet boy who gets into misadventures and it just doesn’t speak to me.

39. Jerry and Marge Go Large - A sweet movie that falls apart about halfway through at the introduction of a super forced villain. You can almost feel the writer panicking about needing to add drama to keep the story moving. It’s kind of a shame because the movie isn’t exactly buzzing before that point – its jokes mostly fall flat – but it’s quaint enough to enjoy. Then it tries too hard and you start rolling your eyes. Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening have nice chemistry, though.

38. Rosaline - It’s cute and clever with the way it plays with the source text of Romeo and Juliet. These are the best parts of the film by far. The rest is sort of your standard romcom fare, which is just okay.

37. Fire Island - There are just too many stretches in the film without something strong in drama or comedy happening for me to really like it, but it isn’t bad. It’s a clever adaptation, with some good character beats and some funny bits.

36. The Whale - Undeniably strong performance from Brendan Fraser, full of vulnerability and heartbreak. Hong Chau is excellent as well in a supporting role. The movie itself is too play-like: full of melodrama and essentially a series of dialogues in a limited setting (this is, I believe, in part because it’s based on a play and in part because we’re meant to feel as trapped in the apartment as Fraser’s Charlie is, which is interesting in a psychological way but certainly not in a visual one). The film has a few excellent moments but otherwise, it has just two gears: mean or sad. It’s essentially 90 minutes of people having over-dramatic dialogues that end in either screaming or crying or both.

35. Lightyear - There’s a cool sci-fi/philosophical sequence that happens early in the film and which is revisited later that’s the high point for me. The rest of the film is a little paint-by-numbers sci-fi cartoon adventure which isn’t bad but also isn’t very inspired. It’s functional but doesn’t feel like Pixar’s best, given we’ve seen what they can do.

34. See How They Run - A fun little whodunit with a few genuine laughs. Saoirse Ronan is a highlight. It’s not as funny or sharp as Glass Onion (if we’re comparing comedic ensemble murder mysteries released this year) but it works and it’s enjoyable enough.

33. Confess, Fletch - A decent enough mystery and a decent enough comedy with some fun characters. Like a lot of films in this area of the list, it had room to be better in all areas but, well, it’s decent enough.

32. The Woman King - Okay, stick with me here because this is a weird comparison but this film feels like a better version of those wild straight-to-streaming action films (like RRR – that’s a callback!) with Steven Seagal or other similar washed up stars that are produced by, like, the Chinese government or a country with a lot of oil money or something. You get the big expensive looking sets and tons of extras in costumes but they still look really fake. Villains that are extremely one-note. Epic feeling stories that are generic at their core and aren’t written very well. But I say again, this film is like a better version of those types of films. The acting is decent. The action scenes are done well. But the whole thing still just feels… artificial? Like the sets and the costumes don’t feel lived-in. The villains are there to be evil and be defeated. The script feels like it’s going through the motions. This all sounds too negative. This film has some good stuff. It’s just in this uncanny valley between those awful Seagal films and better films that feel more authentic.

31. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - Some fun imaginative beats, some interesting visual bits, a good score, and decent action scenes, but a plot that doesn’t quite get there. It feels a little loose. Set ups to get from point A to B to C aren’t strong enough and it makes things feel like they’re happening just because they’re cool to see or because they need to happen to continue moving the plot along. It weakens any emotional payoffs.

30. Lou - A solid action thriller. Serviceable in the way a lot of Liam Neeson action thrillers are: not really anything special or wholly unique but it just works. You can watch it and get what you need out of it. Allison Janney makes a surprisingly decent action star.

29. The Bob’s Burgers Movie - This film deals with the same issue The Simpsons Movie did: how do you make this feel like not just a really long episode with better animation and shading? The Simpsons Movie was able to find a way to tell a story that felt sufficiently epic, while dabbling with a bit edgier humor than the show allows. The Bob’s Burgers Movie attempted both of those things but didn’t quite get there in either sense. For fans of the show, it’s enjoyable enough, with some laughs and fun musical numbers, but it felt closer to a decent long episode than a movie experience.

28. The Menu - Well scored. A good looking film. But, as always with a black comedy, I must turn to my black comedy judgment system, which breaks down the movie into two categories. Is it black? The Menu certainly is. Is it comedy? Eh… The comedy is there, at least a little bit. A few real laughs for sure, but the whole thing is more clever than actually funny. The story mostly works though the character motivations (or lack thereof) by the third act strain belief. You sort of have to chalk it up to “well, it’s a satire so of course it’s hyper-elevated.” In that sense, it’s acceptable if not particularly satisfying.

27. Senior Year - It’s an interesting premise that doesn’t quite deliver on its promise. It struggles a bit with consistency, in tone and quality of humor. But it's not bad overall. It occasionally hits in comedy and even lands the emotional bits. It could do both better but it never goes too long without something positive. It’s not something you’d say you should go out of your way for but it’s a light, enjoyable watch.

26. The Bad Guys - Well directed. A cool animation style. The story is cute, though a little reminiscent of Zootopia (I know, I know, this film is based on a series of books, the first of which came out a year before Zootopia did. Even still.) It is very much a kid’s movie, but a well made kid’s movie nonetheless.

25. The Gray Man - It’s fun, which is kind of the main thing it needs to be. The action is particularly well done and Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans are playing their roles pitch-perfect. The dialogue, plot, music, and supporting characters, while not bad, are just too generic to really make this movie rise above the crowd. All the spies do the spy talk from every spy movie ever. The plot is a double dose of two overused secret agent movie plots: a computer drive as McGuffin and the adopted daughter that must be protected. (By the way, I had the thought: I wonder if the rise in plots where the hero must protect a child – usually a daughter/daughter figure – is because male heroes in action movies used to protect grown women but that often came across as infantilizing, so to sidestep that, producers have started going right to the source and having the heroes protect literal infants.) The series has potential though, with Gosling at its center. Its issues with genericness (? genericism? the state of being generic?) can be honed.

24. Bullet Train - Another fun action movie, in a much sillier and more comedic way. Brad Pitt is charismatic as always and a cast of good side characters – highlighted by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry – round it out.

23. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent - It works well enough for being such an outlandish pitch. There are a lot of ways this film could’ve gone wrong, but it’s a clever, likable, and decently funny movie. It’s just not quite funny enough to be truly great.

22. I Love My Dad - The plot of this film is about a father who catfishes his son in an effort to get closer to him and ends up becoming his internet girlfriend and then things proceed from there. The movie is as uncomfortable as you might imagine from the pitch. If you can get past that, though, it’s actually quite a nice little film, with some laughs, good emotional notes, and solid acting performances. The biggest knock against the film is that the story does feel a little contrived at times. It’s based on a real story so I don’t know how much of the film’s beats actually occurred but there are parts where you feel like, okay, this is happening because this is a movie and things need to happen to move the plot along. It’s still pretty good, even with the parts that feel moviefied.

21. White Noise - The film has a deliberately strange rhythm and sense of weirdness to it that I can see turning people off but I actually found myself really enjoying it. It’s an often funny and insightful film about fear and mortality and loss of control. It’s better in the first half and loses a little steam in the second but overall I found it quite intriguing. Really good acting from Adam Driver in the lead role.

20. Uncharted - Tom Holland is very charming and he and Mark Wahlberg have an easy chemistry. The action scenes have the right energy to them and the treasure hunting, mystery solving stuff works well, too. There are good bits of humor and fun locales. It doesn’t quite capture the magic of the games and certainly has its clichés, but the film generally does most things well, moves swiftly, and is out in under two hours. That’s a well executed film in my eyes.

19. The Sea Beast - A great looking animated film. Well directed, solid action scenes, creative world design, and it tells a nice story. Nothing for me that makes it really transcend being a very good kid's movie, but no shame in being just that.

18. Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers - Very clever, very meta with some solid laughs. There are obvious comparisons here to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? It’s been a while since I’ve seen that film but I recall it leaning more into the noir and mystery aspects while this movie is really more about the jokes and references. While it can be almost too meta at times, most of those references do work and make it a fun watch full of Easter eggs.

17. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story - Relentlessly silly. A very funny parody with solid jokes, a good flow, and some really fun cameos.

16. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - It’s sort of wild (or perhaps not really, given it’s the same creative team) but comparing my review for the first Black Panther film with my notes for this one, I'm seeing myself hitting many of the same beats. Issues: the action scenes aren’t great – often too hard to follow and overly CGI’d. Also, a lot of the scenes are really dark, with the night scenes and underwater scenes being especially hard to see. (It’s particularly disappointing in the underwater scenes because I’d like to have had a better picture of Namor’s kingdom.) Similar pluses though, too: set design, costumes, music are all excellent. The acting is strong (Angela Bassett is getting all the raves, and she’s good, especially in her big monologue scene where she really gets to lay it all out there, but I actually think Danai Gurira delivers the best performance as the wounded general Okoye). The film is overstuffed though, which is a problem the first one didn’t have. It’s a good entry to the MCU but slightly below its predecessor.

15. Tár - Well directed, excellently written. The detail in the dialogue is so strong and the script doesn’t really bother to help you out. These characters are people at the top of their game and speak like that. It’s laudable even if it creates separation from the material. Cate Blanchett is incredible here. She fully embodies this complex genius and makes it seem effortless. The way she speaks and moves is so natural you wouldn’t question if Lydia Tár was a real person. There’s a lot going on in the film itself. Interesting topics broached. Somewhat deliberately paced for the first two acts and then kicks into another gear as everything comes towards the conclusion. It’s somewhat difficult to fully parse it. Maybe it’s just a little rushed, maybe it’s an unreliable narrator thing. I’m not sure how many concrete answers are in the film itself. I think I appreciated the first two acts much more but the whole film is a well done character piece.

14. Dinner in America - Sort of a punk rock Napoleon Dynamite. Less weird, a little more edgy, but similar small town weirdos vibes. Moves well, has some laughs, and features a couple of great performances from the two leads: Kyle Gallner and Emily Skeggs.

13. Elvis - It’s pretty good for a music biopic. The first half is edited like a montage, which I surprisingly liked. It just doesn’t stop moving, but it actually kind of works for the carnival ride vision of Elvis’ life that Baz Luhrmann is presenting. I enjoyed it better than the second half which slows down considerably. It’s too long overall but there is a lot of good stuff in it: acting, singing, music, visual style. Austin Butler is very good.

12. The Batman - Visually impressive, decently plotted though it does have some wonkiness. It is far too long, though. Part of this is that some scenes, which are mostly expository, just drag and could be edited down. Part of it is, in seeking to create a vibe, the film lingers. Lots of pieces that breathe and breathe and breathe, that don’t really advance the plot but are just to create mood. It’s successful, at least, in creating that mood: sufficiently creepy and unsettling at times, brooding and mysterious. But you still don’t ever want to be watching a superhero movie and wondering how much longer. You could cut maybe an hour from the film and you’d lose some of that but probably have a better overall product.

11. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande - A charming film. It’s almost entirely a series of dialogues in a hotel room and, despite that, it works. It’s not exactly visually interesting but it doesn’t lull because of a really strong script, which is what you need if you’re going to make a movie that’s basically set in a box. It also helps when the acting is great and the two leads here are great. Emma Thompson is fantastic and Daryl McCormack holds his own with a screen legend.

10. Hustle - Light, funny, endearing. It’s a little simplistic and paint-by-numbers-y, but it moves well and hits all the right notes along the way. It has authenticity, which is rare in a sports movie, and you can feel it and it makes it work better. Decent enough acting and writing. A good watch.

9. Bros - A really sharply written, well done romcom. It does a good job of toeing the line between acknowledging that what it’s doing is different while still being generally a fairly conventional romcom and hitting all those right genre notes.

8. Top Gun: Maverick - It probably got caught up in too much hype but it is a really well executed summer blockbuster. It knows what it is and it just nails it. Fantastic action scenes and just enough quality in character and dialogue to make it a thrilling and fun film that never drags.

7. Living - Looks great, sounds good. This is one of those films that just surprises you. It seems a little dull from the outside (and it’s certainly no Top Gun inside) but it really is a beautiful, delightful film. Very understated. A simple story told well. Some tremendous acting from Bill Nighy but the whole cast does a good job and several people have standout moments.

6. Thor: Love and Thunder - It’s not quite up to the level of Ragnarok (it’s missing a certain epicness that makes it feel truly impactful like that film was) but it’s very funny and surprisingly emotional. Great action and music, often perfectly intertwined. Christian Bale does an excellent job with the villain role: terrifying and tragic (but maybe too good a job – you almost want to tell him to chill and have some more fun). I love that Taika Waititi has carved out his own little unique and weird corner of the MCU.

5. Glass Onion - It does some things better than the first. The characters are amped up, for one, which I think works better for what the series is. Plus, it’s funnier. I did feel like the central mystery was worse, though. It’s intriguing as you watch it but when all is said and done, not as satisfying a conclusion. Overall, though, really well done. And, perhaps more importantly, it's just fun. It's fun to be in the middle of a mystery with all these actors playing big characters and the great score playing and the jokes flying. It's another good entry in what's shaping up to be a really enjoyable film series.

4. The Banshees of Inisherin - Wikipedia lists it as a “black tragicomedy” which is so specific and yet apt. Very funny at times. Very tragic at times. Strong writing, touching on subjects all the way from the difficulties of feeling trapped to the madness of civil war. Subtle and layered. Excellent acting all around, too. Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan, and Kerry Condon are all doing plus work here.

3. Babylon - This film does a few things that generally rub me the wrong way with films. It’s long. It’s overindulgent. But you know what? I kind of loved it. Despite its three hour runtime, it doesn’t really drag until near the very end. It has a rhythm to it and a beat. It speeds up then slows down, speeds up, slows down, but it never really stops. It’s kind of exhausting and honestly impressive. Great visuals, great music. Excellent acting performances from Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, and Jean Smart. Poignant, funny, and really good at capturing chaos.

2. Everything Everywhere All at Once - I really wanted to love this one just a little more. To get it to that A grade. I’ve flipped it with the film that’s at number one on the list a few times but I’m settling with it here because I just… I wish someone could’ve talked the writer/director team, the Daniels, out of their basest instincts. This is a truly brilliant film about finding meaning in life versus giving into nihilism and it’s also about pee pee and poo poo. It’s an absolutely beautiful film about family, marriage, immigrants and also it’s about how butt plugs are funny! They go into the butt! That’s where the poo poo is! Look, I love stupid humor when it’s applied right, but so much of it here comes across as lol so random jokes. And it sucks because this film absolutely doesn’t need it. The film is already a dramedy. It already has some funny stuff in it. Enough funny stuff to count as a part-comedy, at least, and fulfill the comedy quotient of the dramedy equation. The juvenile stuff adds no real laughs to the film and pulls me right out of it. It adds a barrier to the emotional stakes because it raises my cynical walls. All of this is overly negative. 95% of the film really, really works. (I’m aware that a 95% is an A, not an A-. Art, not science.) The directing, editing, most of the writing. All great. Absolutely superb acting performances from Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis. It’s just that cringe-inducing last 5% of the film. I think if someone took a pass at the screenplay and removed all the bits that a 13 year old boy would’ve put in, this film would be an all-timer for me. As is, it’s one of my favorites of the year but that’s probably it.

1. The Fabelmans - Touching, sad, uplifting, and funny as well. The stuff about movies and art is really wonderful. If there’s any knock, it’s that the family stuff, while mostly well done, comes off a bit too melodramatic or cheesy at times. (This is the 5% of the film that doesn’t work for me here, but it’s something I’m more neutral about versus something that’s actively repelling me.) Altogether a great film, though. Visually, musically. Excellent acting performances from Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Gabriel LaBelle, and Judd Hirsch in a slightly larger than a cameo role. Plus, one of the best endings to a film this year. Without spoiling too much, there’s a great scene with another cameo right near the end that’s so good and which leads to a final shot that’s so simple but says so much. It’s the perfect bow on a terrific package.

Okay, time for some individual awards.

Best Actor

5. Austin Butler, Elvis 4. Adam Driver, White Noise 3. Brendan Fraser, The Whale 2. Bill Nighy, Living 1. Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Actress

5. Margot Robbie, Babylon 4. Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans 3. Emma Thompson, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande 2. Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once 1. Cate Blanchett, Tár

Best Supporting Actor

5. Brad Pitt, Babylon 4. Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin 3. Paul Dano, The Fabelmans 2. Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin 1. Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Supporting Actress

5. Jean Smart, Babylon 4. Hong Chau, The Whale 3. Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once 2. Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin 1. Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Directing

5. Joseph Kosinski, Top Gun: Maverick 4. Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin 3. Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans 2. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once 1. Damien Chazelle, Babylon

Best Screenplay

5. Kazuo Ishiguro, Living 4. Damien Chazelle, Babylon 3. Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, The Fabelmans 2. Todd Field, Tár 1. Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin

And now to look at this year’s version of this monstrosity a.k.a. the web of actors who I’ve seen in multiple projects this year:

I need to come up with new ways to say things are good. I try to write like I speak so then when I start describing stuff as superb and terrific because I get self-conscious about seeing “good” in review after review, I feel uncomfortable because I don’t use those words in real life. And then I open up the thesaurus and take a peek at alternatives and they are even worse. You’re not going to catch me describing something as “cracking”. No sir.

Might try working “fabulous” into my everyday vocabulary more so I feel more free to use it on next year’s list.

Anyway, enjoy the Oscars.

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Annual Lists of Movies I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #annual lists of movies I saw the past year

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jordoalejandro · 1 year

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No Time To Die: One Year (And Change) Later

You know what's weird? I thought I'd written in my review of No Time To Die in the Films I Saw list earlier this year that I was considering writing up a full post with more of my thoughts about the film later on. But I just went back to read what I'd written and it's not there. I must have removed it in later drafts of the list, probably because I didn't want to pressure myself in even the most minuscule way to do some more work. Pretty smart, past me.

Anyway, I had been thinking of watching the film again and writing this post. I was originally going to do it not long after the list because I had access to the film during award season but I couldn't get myself up to watch it again and so that came and went. Then I thought, maybe I'll do it for the one year anniversary of the film's release. Give it twelve months to sit with me and try again. But I didn't have free access to the film and didn't have it in me to pay for it, so that also came and went. Then, a few weeks ago, it was on one of the movie channels during a free Thanksgiving weekend so I recorded it. And it has sat on the DVR for weeks now. A few days ago, I finally decided to bite the bullet and watched it again.

The long and short of this story being: my God was I not looking forward to this. I went to see Skyfall three times in the theater. Three! That's not something I do. I barely go to the theater and only rarely have I ever seen something more than once in the theater. That's how much I was into that film. I saw Spectre twice. Despite its faults and long runtime, I went twice to the theater to watch it. No Time To Die was sitting in my house, for free, multiple times this year and I didn't touch it until I forced myself to. Off the bat, that's just not the kind of enthusiasm a Bond film should elicit. A Bond film should be like a roller coaster. You should have your blood pumping. You should be laughing. (I guess screaming on a roller coaster. It's not a 1:1 comparison. Whatever. Stick with me.) You should be thrilled. And when it's done, you should want to turn around and ride it again.

I will say this, having watched No Time To Die again, I didn't find myself blinking my way through the second half of the film in disbelief this time, at least. I wasn't hit with the same sense of, let's say, for lack of a better word, horror, that I was while watching it in theaters. I was mostly just bored. Without the shock of witnessing for the first time some of the weirdest things happening in a Bond film in the franchise’s long history, it’s really just kind of dull. Is that an improvement? It's probably a lateral move.

Okay, let me get into it. This is going to be full spoilers blazing. You've had a year and change to watch it.

I'll start by noting that the first hour of No Time To Die is actually pretty good.

I did find myself a little annoyed this time with the opening to the opening: the flashback to Madeleine's childhood. It goes on for a little while and the horror elements are cheap. But whatever. It's a needed scene and there's nowhere else to put it.

The Matera piece is a great pre-title sequence. The Spectre raid of the London lab is fine, though the Obruchev character is out of control, in both this sequence and the film in general. For 90% of his screen time he plays like a Roger Moore-era cartoonish villain and then, right at the end, he starts spouting insane racist genocidal stuff towards the Black woman with the gun who has his life in his hands. It's like the writers got to the part in the script where they had to kill him and were like, "Aw, this is like killing a clown. It's more sad than anything. I’ve got an idea: what if he starts going all racist eugenics on Nomi for no reason. Bingo. Now that's a man who deserves to be kicked into acid!"

James Bond retired in Jamaica is solid stuff, leading to the Cuba sequence which is the high point of the film for me. It really sings. The action, the humor, the music. Bond has more chemistry with Paloma than he does with Nomi or Madeleine (which is a problem given where we have to get to emotionally later in the film; he also, by the way, has more chemistry with Moneypenny in their brief interactions) and the way they work together to complete the mission is a lot of fun. This is about the hour point in the film and where it takes a downturn.

The boat scene with Obruchev, Leiter, and Ash is sloppy. Ash gives up the game almost immediately and Obruchev gives him up for no reason. But, fine, we need Ash and Obruchev to run off and we need to kill Leiter. (I mean, do we need to kill Felix? It almost feels like it's done because: why not? We're already killing a bunch of legacy characters in this thing. What's one more?) Done. Bond and Leiter's final exchanges work and it's a nice send off to Jeffrey Wright, who was very good in the role.

We head to London and the film enters a lull. Bond spends the next 40 minutes or so meeting with people, arguing with M, and accidentally killing Blofeld in what is another really sloppy scene. The whole thing is written towards getting Bond to grab him and it still doesn't work well. This section of this film has very little life to it. Just moving pieces around and setting up the third act.

Bond then goes to Madeleine's childhood home in Norway and is introduced to Mathilde. I don't think I physically rolled my eyes in the theater when this happened but mentally, that's where I was. This leads to an extended chase sequence which is fine. It looks good but isn't exactly the most thrilling.

And finally we head towards the big finale at Safin's island base. I think there are multiple things working against this final act of the film.

One: the setting. This is sort of minor in the grand scheme of things wrong with the film, but the set design feels lacking for this whole finale. It's dark concrete on dark concrete on dark concrete. You never really get a sense of the space, mostly because it all looks the same. It's just not a particularly interesting place. Even the pieces that should stand out, like the lab with the acid pools or the poison garden just look like more concrete enclosures. There's a long one-take shot near the end that doesn't feel as neat as it should because it mostly features Bond running up a dark stairwell. Oners that are really cool -- like the one that opens Spectre -- often take you through multiple places, showing a whole world opening up as the scene plays out. A better setting wouldn't have fixed the bigger problems but at least it would’ve been nicer to look at.

Two: Safin. His goals are all over the place. He mentions to Mathilde that she'll grow up on the island like he did, so it seems his long term plan is to stay on that island with Madeleine and Mathilde and produce the killer nanobots. When he talks to Bond later, he offers him the opportunity to leave with Mathilde if he leaves him to his island, so it seems like he still wants to be there even though people know he's there. Seems untenable. Even if he's lying to Bond and plans to kill him before he leaves, surely others know of his location now, too. He later talks to Bond about wanting to eradicate people in a tidier way. And wanting the world to "evolve." Classic Bond villain psychopath stuff. So maybe that's the plan. Mass extinction. Or targeted extinction based on DNA. But then moments later, he talks about his "first buyers" arriving at the island soon. These two things seem at odds with each other. You can either be a mass murdering villain, intent on killing millions to shape the human race as you see fit, or you can be an arms dealer villain, selling your weapon to the highest bidder. But you can't be selling a weapon with the power to kill anybody on the planet in any quantity desired and still think you're in control in some way of what will happen after. Unless it's just like an overpopulation thing and all he cares about is that a bunch of people die. Doesn't seem like it because he never says anything resembling that. So what's the stuff with the buyers? If that's his end goal, why lie to Bond and talk about wanting to be a god and all that? Doesn't gain him anything. And what does he need buyers for? Does he need money? For what? Is the subterfuge the point? Again, for what reason? There's no clear goal here and, by the way, no clear immediate threat.

The back half of this act is about Bond running through the lair opening blast doors so that missiles that have already been launched can destroy the base. Never mind that Bond already blew up the lab that had all of the important stuff. There's a sort of ticking clock created by the idea that Russian and Japanese forces are converging on the island and if they get there? I don't know. Maybe they'll take the nanobots for themselves? Safin, as mentioned, seems to have no further short-term plans than selling the weapon to buyers. (If that's the immediate threat, maybe the missile launching battleship that's in the vicinity could take care of those people when they try to leave the island?) Basically the question that needs to be asked is why now? Why must Bond act at this moment to stop an imminent threat? That question is not really clearly answered. It's almost like the writers just threw a bunch of different things at the wall hoping that in the chaos, you as a viewer wouldn't question too much why missiles had to be fired at that very moment. The Russians are coming. The Japanese are coming. The buyers are coming. The missiles are coming. It sort of works. I didn't question it much the first time watching, though I also had no idea what Safin's plot and motivations really were then and still don't after a second viewing.

And jumping off of all of this: why Safin? Leiter, Blofeld, and James Bond all die because of Safin in this film. What is it about this character that feels appropriate to cause all of this? He had a vendetta with Blofeld, sure, but really had nothing to do with Bond. Not that, if I'm being honest, there's really a villain I'd probably be okay with killing Bond, but Safin is essentially some random guy. He's a step above Bond being killed in a mugging gone wrong on the streets of London.

Bond films are no stranger to weak villains or vague plots, but if you’re going to kill Bond off, if you’re going to do one of the most controversial things in franchise history, these things had better be razor sharp.

Three: Madeleine and Mathilde. I'm not necessarily questioning why Bond would sacrifice himself to make sure they're safe. I get it: love. But rather why make this writing decision for the character? In the same way I look at Safin and think, "This is the guy that finally kills James Bond?" I look at Madeleine and Mathilde and think, "These were the two characters Bond gave up everything for?"

This is not entirely the fault of No Time To Die. It starts with Spectre, a film I do enjoy even though it, too, falls apart after the midway point. Lea Seydoux is a good actress, but the chemistry was just never really there between her and Daniel Craig. There are moments in Spectre where you can almost see it (staying at L'Américain and during the train ride after) but it never reaches a point where you honestly believe he'd give up everything for her. It comes nowhere close to the chemistry Craig had with Eva Green in Casino Royale, which is sort of the baseline that must be crossed for this story to work (especially given that’s where this movie starts). Spectre ends with Bond seemingly giving up his life as a spy to be with Madeleine, so it's tough (or perhaps impossible) for No Time To Die to write its way away from that, especially if this is the ending it's going for. (So maybe that says something about the ending it goes for? More on that shortly.) Where No Time To Die's fault lies is that it does just about nothing to build on the relationship or strengthen it in a way that it absolutely needs. Bond and Madeleine fight and stay separate for most of the film and then there's one scene, at Madeleine's childhood home, and essentially one Bond monologue that's supposed fix all of that and make us understand she's the love of his life. The monologue is fine, but I don't think Craig delivers it entirely convincingly and it's overall just not strong enough to get us where we need to be.

And Mathilde. Bond has very little interaction with her. What we see is cute, but nothing especially deep. For the back half of this film to work, we, as an audience, have to accept that as a father he would immediately and entirely love his child. And we do! We accept that logic on a simple biological level. That parents love their children. My complaint is not really with that. We never question why Bond would make the sacrifice at the end for Madeleine and Mathilde, but for us to actually feel something about it, you can't simply rely on that. You have to give us a deeper connection. There’s no “I love you 3000” here to really gutpunch us emotionally.

Bond films have long borrowed from other popular films of the time and there have been similar recent uses of this trope – the hero choosing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their newly discovered child – in films like Logan and Avengers: Endgame. Let's look at Endgame for a second and see why it worked for a character like Iron Man. For one, the threat was much clearer and more immediate. We established an entire movie prior that there was only one way for the heroes to win, and that was for Iron Man to snap away Thanos and his army at the cost of his own life. We knew while watching the scene that if he didn't do it then, Thanos would take the stones back and reclaim control of the universe. The hero must do X or else the villain will do Y. That's just the basics. But looking deeper, examining it from a character standpoint: when Iron Man dies, we see why it fits for his character. This is the appropriate end to Tony Stark's arc. He begins as a partying billionaire playboy who cares only about himself and, through the course of several films, becomes a hero who is so selfless, he sacrifices his own life to save the universe (and child/wife/friends). Furthermore, he has a whole separate arc about parenthood. He grows up with an extremely cold relationship towards his father, which slowly thaws, leading to an incredibly moving scene in Endgame where he's able to speak to his father and, now, as a parent himself, is able to understand him as a person even better. It beautifully sets up the idea of what you'd sacrifice for your child. Furthermore furthermore, Tony Stark is a character who cares about the legacy he leaves. When he realizes it's weapons of war in the first film, he sets out to change it. By his last film, his legacy is one of sacrifice and love, carried on by those he cared for and who cared for him.

This is just not James Bond's character. He would die for a mission, for Queen and Country, because he's always recognized himself as a tool. As something meant to serve the greater good and if he dies in pursuit of that, so be it. The saddest I felt in the aftermath of Bond's death was the scene back in M's office, where his coworkers are toasting him. You know why? Because those are the relationships Bond has fostered. Those are the people who you really believed were closest to him and if Bond were to truly die, that's the sort of tribute you'd expect him to want. Leave me a scotch and get back to work. This is why Bond drinks and womanizes and has so few actual connections. He lives a life where everything is temporary because he never knows how long he has. And it's not like this hasn't been reinforced through these Craig films. Vesper's death in Casino Royale was brutal on Bond, and his first major lesson about attachments in this line of work. At the end of Quantum of Solace, he reinforces that idea by not killing Vesper's former lover and leaving her necklace behind. Skyfall sees Bond losing his surrogate mother and ends with him recommitting to the job "with pleasure." So having Bond, near the end of Spectre and through most of this film suddenly caring about family, or love, or legacy? It's trying to jam a square peg into a round hole. It's trying to make Bond a character he isn't. Safin, while holding Mathilde hostage, says to Bond, "Life is all about leaving something behind, isn't it?" The James Bond of 24 films prior wouldn't agree to that. Why now is he a character that feels this?

Ultimately, I think square peg round hole is the problem here. No Time To Die tried to force its way to this end point.

It already had the Madeleine character from Spectre and she's going to be the woman Bond would die for, despite their relationship not feeling any more significant than any other Bond girl relationship. And Bond has a daughter now, and despite never expressing any kind of desire for offspring or interest in leaving behind a piece of himself, he's now deeply invested in that.

And Blofeld is back, despite being a weak villain. Let's jam him and Spectre back into things. (This is part of a different problem of the producers committing to the continuous storyline, making it feel like they can't abandon anything from a previous Craig film, even if it wasn't exactly working. And Spectre itself was another square peg round hole situation, as they used the organization because they finally got the rights back to it after decades, even though the Bond films had already established Quantum as the shadowy organization of the series. Trying to explain how Quantum and Silva from Skyfall fit into the Spectre organizational charts was one of the weaker parts of that film.)

And they cast Rami Malek. And even though he doesn't seem a good fit for this role, he was a hot actor at the moment, and they worked hard to get him and so they had to use him. And they had already used Blofeld and there's really no greater Bond foe, so Rami Malek's Safin will just have to be one who ends Bond.

And, most importantly, they had Daniel Craig. And by all accounts, he wanted out. And he was promised many years ago that they'd kill off the character with him so he would be 100% out. And so they just pushed forward. They pushed towards this ending: with a villain that didn't make sense for it, a love interest that didn't get there emotionally, and a plot that was not fully baked because, my God, that square peg is going to get through that round hole, whatever it takes. It’s not a recipe for success. And again, this is a huge decision. This is perhaps the boldest storytelling decision in the franchise’s history. Why are you approaching it like this?

So, where do we go from here?

Well, first, a new Bond needs to be picked. He should be in his 30s or early 40s at oldest. Someone who can carry the mantle for fifteen years. I think the most important thing the next Bond actor has to have, more than the looks or the body or anything like that, is a love for the franchise. It has to be someone who really wants the role. Look, Daniel Craig was reluctant to take the role and has said that after Casino Royale he was already looking for a way out. I honestly don’t believe he hated the role as much as many people believe he did, but I don’t think he loved it. I don’t think he saw it as more than just another job. It doesn’t mean he didn’t care, but it’s like this: these films take months and months to shoot and they can be grueling shoots. Lots of stunts, lots of travel. Then you have to start promoting it around the world for several more months. That ends, you have a little time off, and then the pre-production cycle begins for the next one. It’s the nature of a franchise. Finding someone who is up for it means getting these films on a more regular cycle. One every two years would be nice, but it shouldn’t ever go longer than three years between films. And if you have to beg the actor to return between each film until he’s mentally ready (or browbeaten down enough) to do it, you’re wasting time.

Next, you need better planning. The producers decided to make the Craig films one continuous timeline. It’s not, on its face, a bad idea, but I think too many people look at the MCU and think, “Oh, that works. We’ll just do that.” We’ve seen more franchises fail at doing this than succeed. If you want to tell a continuous story over five, six, seven, maybe more films, you have to plan these things out. They tried to wing it with these Craig films and ended up with five Bond films where we see Bond: 1. Begin his career as a 00 agent, 2. In the next week or so after he became a 00 agent, 3. Years later when he’s considered over the hill but recommits himself to the job, 4. Retiring as an agent by the end of the film, 5. Dead. What kind of arc is this? Over Craig’s tenure we see his first few weeks and his last years. We also saw his villains go from Le Chiffre, a member of a shadowy organization, to Quantum, the shadowy organization, to Silva in Skyfall, which just ignored all that Quantum stuff because who cares, to Spectre, which says actually all that Quantum stuff was important, it’s somehow related to a larger Spectre thing and Spectre is the real big bad, a super evil organization that has been planning everything, to No Time To Die, which tells us no, lol, nevermind, Spectre is all dead because this Safin dude showed up. Again, what is this arc? It’s clearly pieced together on the fly.

Basically, if you want to be like the MCU, you’d better be like the MCU. That means a strong producer (or two in this case) with a clear vision and plan. Smaller name directors you can control and who can fit your vision. And a multi year story mapped out by a team of writers. Personally, I don’t think that team should include Purvis and Wade. Look, it’s almost impossible to tell which writer is responsible for what from the outside. These movies have multiple credited writers and even more uncredited writers. But I know this: Purvis and Wade have done seven Bond films now – some of the best reviewed and worst reviewed of the franchise – and it’s enough. (For what it’s worth, their only solo credited Bond film is Die Another Day, make of that whatever you will.) They’ve had their shot. They’ve made their contribution. There are so many talented writers in this world, it’s time to let new ones take a crack at it. (I say this knowing full well the producers seem to love these two. They’ve let other people take a shot at a screenplay only to have P&W come right back in and add their magic touch to it. So my assumption is they’ll be involved in the next one, you know, to get the ball rolling with whoever the new guy is. Oh, and that first one has some level of success. What’s it going to hurt to let P&W take a pass at a second draft on this new one…)

In my opinion, I think they should return the franchise to its roots. Films that mostly stand alone. You can maintain some connective tissue with recurring side actors, maybe a recurring villain if there’s a story there, but I think the films need to get back to just being fun two and a half hour stories. Look at Skyfall for inspiration. It’s the second highest rated Craig film on Rotten Tomatoes (92% to Casino Royale’s 94%) and it grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide (almost double what Casino Royale grossed and $200+ million more than any other Bond film). I don’t think there’s any magic or mystery as to why. It's not really connected to the other Craig films. It doesn’t need to be. It’s clearly not something people were clamoring for. It’s just the right combination of a great villain, great settings, great visuals, great music, and great action scenes. There’s a strong director at the helm who has a love for the franchise and put that love into the film. (It’s when they sort of dragged him back in to do a second one that they started to run into problems.) It’s not reinventing the wheel, it’s just doing everything a modern Bond film should do. Find directors and writers with a love for the franchise and let them make their Bond movie.

We’re 25 films into the Bond franchise now. I understand there’s always the thought in the back of one’s head that something vastly different needs to be done, some new twist must be presented so it doesn’t feel like we’re doing the same thing over and over again. But that’s not really the case. Bond movies just need to execute. They need to do the job they’re expected to do and people will love them for it. You have 25 films now to reference. To look back on and figure out what worked and what didn’t. Use them. Don’t overthink it too much.

Let Bond be Bond.

#writings

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jordoalejandro · 2 years

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The Sixth Annual List of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

The list kind of caught me off-guard this year. A little while ago I was thinking, “I should check out when the Emmys are” and then I did and it was a few weeks away and then I thought, “Oh dang, better get going on that.”

This is a shorter list than previous years. It’s in part because, again, I forgot the Emmys were coming up and so I just didn’t watch the new seasons of a handful of shows and also, I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t watch that many shows period. I was probably doing other stuff. It’s none of your business.

So anyway, I eventually got going on the list and now here it is: the list of shows I’ve watched since-ish the last Emmy Awards (9/19/21).

40. Riverdale (Season 6 - 2021-2022, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 39) - I don’t know if this is the worst show I watched this year. Probably not. But that’s how it feels to me on a personal level. “Hate watching” implies you’re getting some kind of perverse joy from watching a show you think is bad. I don’t think I’m doing that here. I think I’m “disappointed watching” this. The show just feels tired. The actors feel tired. Most of them seem like they’re phoning it in. The drama feels tired. A lot of repetitive beats. A lot of dull storylines. Even the wild swings the show takes feel tired. The main cast all get superpowers this season. Sure. Why not? The show is going through the motions and I’m going through the motions watching it. Season seven will mercifully be its last. Probably a season or two or three too late but it’s the right choice.

39. The Last O.G. (Season 4 - 2021, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The show went through another overhaul in-between seasons. After a really bad season three, I was hoping to see some improvement but unfortunately it didn’t seem to help. The writing wasn’t as terribly broad as it was in season three, but it wasn’t good either. The storylines and jokes were way too obvious. The drama felt forced. The show as a whole came across as weirdly amateurish. The acting from the non-main characters was community theater-level. Even things like the sets, the lighting, and the camera work were all really cheap looking. The whole thing often felt like a college production class. The best parts of the season all came from what was likely Tracy Morgan improvising. He and Ryan Gaul are trying to wring laughs out of the material but you can only do so much. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who I’ve shouted out multiple times on this blog, was again excellent. Way too strong an acting job for a show like this but she has not disappointed in anything I’ve seen her pop up in.

38. The Endgame (Season 1 - 2022, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This probably could’ve slotted in a few spots higher, just on a quality level, but it’s down here because I got so tired with its nonsense by the end of the season. It’s one of those shows where the main character villain has this insanely complicated plan with a thousand moving parts and they’re always one step ahead. Even when those types of thrillers are done well they can be exhausting to watch and stretch the boundaries of what you’re willing to logically accept. This one was not done particularly well so it mostly just turned the FBI agent protagonists into complete morons when the situation called for it. Lots of making of decisions that you as a viewer immediately know will backfire (and you usually already know how they'll backfire). A frustrating watch. The central mystery and backstory wasn’t exactly interesting either, so really what are you even getting out of this?

37. La Brea (Season 1 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - A mostly nonsense show. A bunch of CGI that is SyFy channel-level bad, as is most of the acting. Weirdly, not a ton actually happens on a show that is about characters being thrown back in time. Lots of uninteresting conversations and walking around, mostly, and then every now and then our heroes are attacked by a Windows XP saber-toothed tiger.

36. Welcome to Flatch (Season 1 - 2022, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - A shockingly unfunny show. I’ve wondered this about comedies, how some of them seem incapable of even just accidentally running into something hilarious. You have all these writers and directors and actors working on this and you still go three or four episodes without a solid laugh. Not a single person pitched even an A- joke over that span. A show like this might actually be able to get away with that lack of humor if it made up for it in the story or characters. Come up with a plot that has some surprises or some heart or something. This show has just about none of it. Flat plots, flat characters. I say all of this generally. There are moments in this – which is why it’s a few spots up from the bottom of the list – where there’s a glimmer of hope. You squint and go, “Oh, okay, maybe…” So I do think there’s still some potential here for the show to be better but the writing must improve. A lot.

35. The Flash (Season 8 - 2021-2022, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 40) - Another CW show, like Riverdale, that feels like it’s limping to the finish line. A disjointed season. A lot of stuff from seasons past thrown at the wall but nothing sticking. Instead of feeling like, “Ooh, a blast from the past” it comes off more like they’re out of ideas. I think the problem is that, look: the guy’s superpower is running fast. This show is eight seasons and 170+ episodes in and though the writers have tried here and there to make the Flash have something different to do than “run faster than he’s ever run before,” at the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to. It's probably hard to keep finding new stories when that’s the core you must return to every time. At least, I assume it must be because it seems like they haven’t been able to find those new stories for several seasons now.

34. Batwoman (Season 3 - 2021-2022, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 38) - In some of Arrow’s (and to a lesser extent, Flash’s) better seasons, you forgot it was a CW show. The quality of the writing, acting, and production was good enough to do that. Batwoman, in its three seasons of existence, never got there. It frankly never got close. It started out fine-ish and got worse. The characters were not compelling, the acting was mostly sub-par, and the writing, in terms of both dialogue and plot, was almost always weak. It’s a show that didn’t know its third season would be its last but which limped to the finish line all the same. It’s become a CW tradition!

33. The Walking Dead: World Beyond (Season 2 - 2021, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 34) - Ultimately a forgettable, disposable show. No real high points or low points in the second and final season. It was probably slightly worse than the first season just because it split up the main cast for most of it but not by a whole lot. In the end, the show ran its course, told its story, and left very little impact.

32. The Blacklist (Season 9 - 2021-2022, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 28) - Here’s how you know The Blacklist is in some trouble. In the early seasons, when an episode’s title would appear at the start of the program, it would have the name of the character on the titular Blacklist who would be the focus of the episode and then it would have their number on the list. So you would get some in the low 100-150 range and know, “Okay this is more of a weird, side villain.” Then you’d get a few in the 20-100 range and know they were a more serious foe. And then, around the end of the season, you’d start to get to the people under 20 who were like the big bads of the season or other main characters. Well, the creators of the show clearly didn’t plan for it to go on this long. They had probably put about 150 names on the list and now, almost 200 episodes into the show’s run, they’ve run through all the good numbers and have had to expand the list, putting themselves in a place where they're constantly scraping the bottom of the barrel. Every episode now starts with, like, “Bad Guy of the Week. No. 179.” or some similarly high number. It sounds very silly but it has to be this way to logically work with the show’s lore. You can’t suddenly introduce someone who’s extremely dangerous because James Spader’s know-it-all character at the center of the show would’ve placed them nearer to the top of the Blacklist. Thus, you end up with a season here that feels kind of lame. (And, by the way, it’s not going to get better on this front. You can’t invent new numbers.) Look, even trapped into this lore corner, the show could’ve written its way out. It didn’t really. It was a pretty weak season and probably an indication they’re going to need to switch some things up going forward to inject some life into this thing. (In fairness to the show, they seemed to understand this and there was some indication at the end of the season that they might be doing just that. Guess we’ll see.)

31. Bob’s Burgers (Season 12 - 2021-2022, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 30) - For the last few years, the show has been hovering down here on this list. It tends to reel off an excellent episode once a year, but outside of that it feels like it doesn’t have a lot of surprises left. The plots have familiar beats. The dialogue, especially, is starting to feel stale. It might have to do with the bones of the show. It’s about a pretty basic family and its stories are told in a pretty grounded way, more so than the other cartoons it shares a Sunday evening lineup with, so maybe there’s just so many places you can go with it and after a while, it feels like you’ve seen it all.

30. Abbott Elementary (Season 1 - 2021-2022, ABC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I’m shocked this show has received the level of praise and accolades that it has. As of season one, it’s a supremely average show with just a few high points. Its characters are broad, bordering on one-note caricatures. Its plots and jokes are basic, often going exactly the way you think they’re going to go. There’s definitely potential here if they can sharpen things but it’s wild to see people falling over themselves to laud what is an unremarkable workplace comedy.

29. Tales of the Walking Dead (Season 1 - 2022, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - As I’ve written before about anthology shows, they’ll really only take you as far as the story of the week connects with you. Some weeks are better, some weeks are worse. I will note that this particular show, so far, seems to have a problem getting there. Like, some of these episodes will have a good nugget of an idea (episode two being a time-loop story) but then fail to really deliver a truly satisfying episode (it doesn’t use the time-loop structure particularly well and then ends on a pretty flat note). It feels like they haven’t done a good job of figuring out how to tell a sharp story in just an hour’s time. I think this show has potential (one-off stories in the zombie apocalypse that can get really wild and weird) but it needs to figure out how to hone its storytelling to reach it.

28. Fear the Walking Dead (Season 7 - 2021-2022, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 11) - Season six of the show ended with a bunch of bombs going off, creating a nuclear wasteland. On last year’s list, I noted this set up an intriguing seventh season. I’m here to report it was not as intriguing as I’d hoped. It honestly felt like the show just got away from the producers. They wanted to pit main characters against one another but couldn’t kill them so a lot of the season became this back and forth dance where characters would fight and yell at each other and then retreat and do it again an episode or two later. Unclear character motivations. Janky plots. A real disjointed season. The show ultimately did kill off quite a few characters by the end of the season which is probably a good thing. It’ll make it easier to do another hard-ish reset. This show has gone through one before and been made better for it. I think that can be the case here.

27. Ghosts (Season 1 - 2021-2022, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - A fine freshman season for Ghosts with a handful of solid episodes and a few above-average ones. It’s not a particularly funny show. Maybe a couple laughs throughout the whole thing, but it will occasionally nail a story and show off some surprising depth. Still, I do wish it was funnier. It’s in love with the joke of the main girl who can hear the ghosts responding to something one of the ghosts said and then scrambling to cover up when a person who can’t see the ghosts goes “Excuse me?” It also particularly likes having the ghosts yell continuously at someone, trying to get them to hear them even though they’ve been dead for centuries and know they cannot be heard. They keep yelling though, because the writers find it funny when the main girl snaps at them and, once again, has to weakly explain to someone who can’t see or hear the ghosts why she yelled. They overused these joke setups to the point of embarrassment. The show also has another problem: its whole concept is that this couple obtains a mansion deep in the woods and then starts seeing and interacting with the ghosts that are stuck there. Something like 80-90% of the show takes place in said mansion in the woods. This leads to plot after plot of some guest character randomly visiting. You really quickly start seeing the sitcom writing gears turning underneath (“Don’t forget, my boss is coming to stay the weekend.” “I can’t believe your sister showed up uninvited!” etc. etc.). This is coming off more negatively than I feel about the show. I’m sort of neutral about it. I’d like to see where it goes and if it can improve, but I am worried about these things I mentioned. They could turn this into a very grating show very quickly.

26. Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas (TV Film - 2021, The Roku Channel) (Last year’s ranking: 32) - Listen, should this have been on the Movies I Saw list? I guess? It's not really a movie. It's more of a TV show holiday special. And really what it was was a sort of pilot for the Roku Channel to see if there was value in trying to produce more episodes of this show. So in this increasingly blurred area between TV and film, I’m calling it TV. Also, it just felt like TV. It was like a decent two-part Christmas episode of this show, so that’s why it’s in this post and that’s why it’s landed here on this list. Sue me.

25. The Simpsons (Season 33 - 2021-2022, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 23) - I’ll pass on writing too much about the 33rd season of The Simpsons. I’ll just note it was a decent season, with the high point being a two-part homage to Fargo that was a lot of fun (33.6 and 33.7 - "A Serious Flanders Parts 1 & 2").

24. Snowpiercer (Season 3 - 2022, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: 21) - Snowpiercer had an alright season though I do think it’s reaching the end of the line (pun absolutely and thoroughly intended). It’s been renewed for a fourth and final season and that feels right. It’s been three seasons of basically battling back and forth for control of the train and it’s starting to get a little tired. They do a decent job of flipping the script every now and then and keeping the show fresh enough to be enjoyable, but there’s probably only so many times you can do that.

23. The Walking Dead (Season 11A - 2021-2022, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 29) - It’s not the most inspired season The Walking Dead has done, but it’s pretty good overall. It has dipped its storytelling toe into classism in a post-apocalypse high society (what seemed like a utopia has a dark underside! whoa!) and it’s like: do we have to? Aren’t there enough shows already doing this in some form or another? The Walking Dead has always worked better as more of a survivalist story. It’s dirtier. And it has zombies. I would’ve preferred that but this is, like I said, pretty good overall still.

22. The Great North (Season 2 - 2021-2022, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 24) - Solid sophomore season. I don’t have a ton to add. It’s pretty comfortable in its role already.

21. Duncanville (Season 3 - 2022, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 22) - I’d come to enjoy this show. I think it was starting to find its groove. At times, its tone and humor reminded me a little bit of one of my favorite animated shows ever, The Critic. Duncanville wasn’t entirely close, in terms of consistent quality, but there were moments where I saw it. Anyway, the show got canceled. (Maybe. They’re going to put the remaining completed episodes on Hulu and see if Hulu has interest picking it up for more but I’m expecting it’ll probably join the graveyard of so many other shows that went unsaved by a streamer.)

20. 9-1-1: Lone Star (Season 3 - 2022, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 13) - I like most of the characters on this show so that keeps me interested, even when things get pretty silly.

19. CSI: Vegas (Season 1 - 2021, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The original CSI was always solid as a crime procedural but was particularly good at creating likable characters. This reboot/sequel series isn’t quite there yet but shows some promise. It did a fine job with the crime stories, but the new characters were just alright. It was a smart move to bring William Petersen back as he injected immediate likability, but he only joined for a one season arc and won’t be returning for season two. The success of the show is going to rest on how well they can continue to flesh out the new characters now that he’s gone.

18. Impeachment: American Crime Story (Season 3 - 2021, FX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It certainly has its moments, and it picked up momentum as the season went on, but I do think there was just not quite enough meat on the bones for the full 10 episodes. Strong acting performances.

17. Family Guy (Season 20 - 2021-2022, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 18) - Good year for Family Guy. No real stinkers, though nothing that really stood out as exceptional either. Lots of average to pretty good episodes, which is a nice quality level to maintain for 20 shows, at least.

16. American Dad! (Season 19A - 2022, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: 9) - This show aired the first eight episodes of this season in January and just aired the ninth episode of season 19 this past week. So I guess I’m just reviewing the first eight episodes of the season, which I’ve dubbed season 19A, and I’m here to report: they were good.

15. Ms. Marvel (Season 1 - 2022, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Good humor and characters. Clever visuals. Decent action sequences. Probably the one knock is that it was trying to show off so many aspects of Pakistani Muslim culture throughout that a lot of times it came off a little too much like a Wikipedia article on the subject. The dialogue was so clearly written to give the viewer cultural information that it came off extremely unnatural and pulled you out of things.

14. Archer (Season 12 - 2021, FXX) (Last year’s ranking: 25) - Another strong season for Archer. I mentioned last year that they returned the show to its spy roots and I think it’s been a positive move. They’re only doing eight episodes a year now and it’s back in their comfort zone so they can focus on what they do well and put out good episode after good episode.

13. Legends of Tomorrow (Season 7 - 2021-2022, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 15) - Remember what I wrote about Batwoman? How you never forgot it was a CW show? The same could be said for Legends of Tomorrow, but in a good way. Low budget, silly concept, sort of no reason to exist. And yet, basically from around season three on, everyone in the cast and crew realized that that CW-ness of it all freed them up to do whatever the hell they wanted. The show took big swings – sometimes missed, often landed – but they were never afraid to go for the wildest thing they could think of. Very few shows on the basic broadcast channels do that and I’ll miss this one because of it.

12. Animal Kingdom (Season 6 - 2022, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: 10) - I’ll miss this show, too. For me, it was the perfect summer show. Fun escapism, a great vibe. This is the exact kind of show you want 10-13 episodes of from late May through August. As for season six of this show, though? Last year, after a somewhat weaker fifth season I predicted a very good final season. And well… look, this final season was fine. It was probably my least favorite of all the seasons but it was fine. I enjoyed it for the most part but ultimately, it felt uninspired. Let me get spoilery and dive deep into it for a little here. So the thing is: this show, for its first four seasons, was really about Ellen Barkin’s character Smurf. She was the matriarch of this crime family and her extremely complicated relationship with her sons and grandson was the primary driving force of this show. What was being set up through the early seasons was the final clash between Smurf and her grandson J. It was pretty clear -- because this was a crime show and crime shows all sort of head towards the same bleak ending -- that things would get bad and bloody and the empire would fall and the only question would be who would survive in the end. But then something interesting happened. Smurf was killed off in the penultimate episode of season four. (From what I can tell, this was more a personnel-based decision rather than a plot-based one.) And then another interesting thing happened. The episode after Smurf’s death was fascinating. It wasn’t a revolutionary episode but the vibe was totally different. It was like a cloud had been lifted. Smurf had been this domineering, abusive presence in all these characters’ lives for so long and for the first time, they were free of her. And you saw hints in that episode that maybe these characters might be able to change course. That the show might be able to explore what it would be like to get out from under her shadow and try to build their own lives (while still doing fun stuff like heists and what have you). Season five kind of built on this idea, but you could tell it was struggling a little bit with what to do without Smurf as the big bad at the core of it. And season six was kind of a mess in a similar sense. It spent a lot of time sort of searching for stuff to do. There were a lot of subplots for the majority of the early part of season six that never really paid off and, in retrospect, now feel like they were killing time until we got to the endgame of the season and of the show. And what was that endgame? Basically what it always had been. That's really the most disappointing thing. That after everything, it came back to J needing revenge against a woman who’s been dead for a while. Of course, it’s hard to write out a satisfying plot revolving around getting revenge on a dead person, so the writers had J instead turn his vengeful eye towards Smurf’s sons, essentially for not standing up to her in their youth. They were victims of her abuse, too. That’s something the show showed us multiple times while she was alive and weirdly, drove home even harder with flashbacks after her character was dead. And yet the writers chose to lean back into the most obvious ending. One that felt like it was outlined in season one. For me, if you’re going to do something so bold as to kill off the main villain of the show in season four of six, you have to be willing to adjust. To change things and explore new paths and new endings. By not doing that, by sticking with what was likely the original ending, it made basically everything we’ve seen since Smurf’s death feel pointless. Why did we go through any of this? Why not just end the show at season four then? I want to stress again: I didn’t even hate this season. It more or less worked. But I think I’m just disappointed. This show had always done a good job of surprising me. Of swerving when I didn’t expect it. And for its big finale, it rode right along the rails to an inevitable, unsurprising finish.

11. The Book of Boba Fett (Season 1 - 2021-2022, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - There’s some fun stuff in here and certainly some wonkiness. It’s weirdly more The Mandalorian season 2.5 than its own separate thing. It’s like if a TV show took four episodes in the middle of the season and followed a side character for a while, which I guess is the sort of experimental thing you can do in the age of streaming. In that sense, it’s certainly not my favorite season of The Mandalorian, but entertaining nonetheless.

10. Mr. Mayor (Season 2 - 2022, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 7) - This was a very funny show and I was really enjoying it which meant it was only a matter of time until it was canceled. It felt like it had a lot of life left in it and it’s a real shame that it’s already gone.

9. Love, Victor (Season 3 - 2022, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: 8) - Love, Victor is another show, like Animal Kingdom, that had a messy final season. Also, like Animal Kingdom, I enjoyed it anyway. I can just also acknowledge that it was a bit of a mess. For the first five or six episodes this year, everything was rolling along like a normal season, and then, sort of suddenly, in the last couple of episodes, everything picks up the pace to an extreme level. Plots are wrapped up, characters break up and get together with other people, big life decisions are made, and then the show kind of just ends. I have no real knowledge of the situation, but seasons one and two had ten episodes apiece and season three had eight. My guess is that the producers were told late in the process that season three was the end and they needed to wrap things up, so they tried to do that as quickly as possible in the remaining episodes they had. And it wraps up fine – the characters all sort of sprint to their satisfying endpoints – but you definitely don’t get a lot of time to catch your breath as it does.

8. American Auto (Season 1 - 2021-2022, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Created by the same guy who created Superstore and it has a lot of that show’s DNA in it. Not that it’s particularly original DNA. It’s a workplace comedy. But this is a good one. It performed well right out of the gate and had a couple of really excellent episodes in its first season.

7. Our Flag Means Death (Season 1 - 2022 - HBO Max) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - A delightful comedy that had a surprising amount of layers to it. You think it’s going to be a silly pirate show but it unfolds into this unexpectedly sweet love story. Great characters.

6. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Miniseries - 2022, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Like The Book of Boba Fett, there’s definitely a little wonkiness to this, but there’s a lot of excellent stuff as well. It’s great to see Ewan McGregor back in this role and he does a wonderful job with it. Really strong finish.

5. Only Murders in the Building (Season 2 - 2022, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - It’s fun enough just watching Steve Martin and Martin Short play off of each other and do their thing. It’s even better when you add Selena Gomez, who is, weirdly, a fantastic third person in this grouping. It’s even better when you add in a compelling mystery at the core of the season. This is a cleverly written show with a fun cast of characters and a surprising bit of humanity as well.

4. Moon Knight (Miniseries - 2022, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - First off, Oscar Isaac is so good at the center of this. He plays multiple characters in this and each one has his own charm. The show itself is a real ride. It’s only six episodes but it reinvents itself like three times throughout. It’s funny, it’s trippy and mind-bending, it has solid action pieces. If there’s one knock against it, the ending is fairly weak. It’s a shame it couldn’t really stick the landing, but what came before was very strong and that’s why it’s up here.

3. Succession (Season 3 - 2021, HBO) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I’d been meaning to catch up on this show for a while and finally did and it is as good as everyone says. So sharply written. Great score. Fantastic acting from the entire cast.

2. Hawkeye (Miniseries - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The MCU’s Die Hard. It’s six lean episodes that are all a ton of fun. The heroes are great, they have plus chemistry and play off each other well. The villains are unique. The action scenes are excellently done. The dialogue is strong. There are some fun twists and turns. It’s not the most groundbreaking show but it just delivers episode after episode and I enjoyed it immensely.

1. Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (Season 1 - HBO) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I love what this show did with the sports drama. It understood that the story it was telling, about the 1980s Showtime Lakers, had all these personalities that were larger than life, so it decided to tell the story like that. Go bigger than big. Everything about this is going for it. It’s shot and edited over the top. The plots are exaggerated versions of what happened. The acting is big. John C. Reilly is doing an amazing job as Jerry Buss but there’s great acting from just about the whole cast.

I do feel like it’s almost a little unfair to have so many Disney+ miniseries near the top of the list. They have huge budgets and only have to support six episodes versus twenty or so. I should probably have some kind of weighted system or something to balance that out but that’s way too much math so I’m not going to do that.

Enjoy the Emmys.

- - - - -

Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw The Past Year

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jordoalejandro · 2 years

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The Fifth Annual TV Show Rankings Movement Chart

Rankings and Movement (in alphabetical order)

9-1-1: Lone Star - 2020: 35; 2021: 13; 2022: 🔽

24: Legacy - 2017: 57

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - 2017: 7; 2018: 8; 2019: 9; 2020: 1

Alex Rider - 2021: 17; 2022: N/A (never got around to watching season two)

The Alienist - 2018: 16; 2019: N/A; 2020: 17

American Crime - 2017: 6

American Crime Story - 2017: 1; 2018: 26; 2019: N/A; 2020: N/A; 2021: N/A; 2022: 🔼

American Dad! - 2017: 17; 2018: 9; 2019: 5; 2020: 23; 2021: 9; 2022: 🔽

American Vandal - 2018: 1; 2019: 1

Angie Tribeca - 2017: 43; 2018: N/A; 2019: 26

Animal Kingdom - 2017: 5; 2018: 6; 2019: 4; 2020: N/A; 2021: 10; 2022: 🔽

A.P. Bio - 2018: 15; 2019: 3

Archer - 2017: 13; 2018: 25; 2019: 31; 2020: N/A; 2021: 25; 2022: 🔼

Arrested Development - 2018: 7; 2019: 11

Arrow - 2017: 31; 2018: 36; 2019: 35; 2020: 15

At Home with Amy Sedaris - 2018: 10; 2019: 14; 2020: 18

Atlanta - 2017: 54

Batwoman - 2020: 43; 2021: 38; 2022: 🔼

The Blacklist - 2017: 34; 2018: 33; 2019: 21; 2020: 39; 2021: 28; 2022: 🔽

The Blacklist: Redemption - 2017: 35

Blindspot - 2017: 56

Blood & Treasure - 2019: 38; 2020: N/A; 2021: N/A; 2022: N/A (it’s on Paramount+ now, so…)

Bob’s Burgers - 2017: 26; 2018: 21; 2019: 25; 2020: 38; 2021: 30; 2022: 🔽

Brockmire - 2017: 27; 2018: 24; 2019: 16; 2020: 31

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 2017: 23; 2018: 18; 2019: 17; 2020: 7; 2021: 4; 2022: N/A (ended)

Chad - 2021: 20; 2022: N/A (they finished the whole second season and on the day of the season two premiere, TBS pulled the plug as part of their shift away from scripted content, so it remains unaired.)

Champions - 2018: 19

Class - 2017: 20

Corporate - 2018: 34; 2019: 29; 2020: 21

Debris - 2021: 35; 2022: N/A (canceled)

Defending Jacob - 2020: 16

The Detour - 2017: 29; 2018: 30; 2019: 13

Dickinson - 2020: 22

Duncanville - 2020: 34; 2021: 22; 2022: 🔼

The Equalizer - 2021: 41; 2022: N/A (bailed)

Everything’s Gonna Be Okay - 2020: 47; 2021: 37; 2022: N/A (canceled)

Eyewitness - 2017: 10

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - 2021: 26; 2022: N/A (miniseries)

Family Guy - 2017: 18; 2018: 20; 2019: 23; 2020: 24; 2021: 18; 2022: 🔼

Fargo - 2017: 3; 2018: N/A; 2019: N/A; 2020: N/A; 2021: 14; 2022: N/A (on hiatus, again)

Fear the Walking Dead - 2017: 16; 2018: 12; 2019: 8; 2020: N/A; 2021: 11; 2022: 🔽

The Flash - 2017: 32; 2018: 38; 2019: 39; 2020: 49; 2021: 40; 2022: 🔼

For All Mankind - 2020: 40

Frequency - 2017: 59

Galavant - 2017: 24

Ghosted - 2018: 17

The Gifted - 2018: 39; 2019: 44

The Good Place - 2017: 8; 2018: 4; 2019: 10; 2020: 3

Gotham - 2017: 11

Great News - 2017: 22; 2018: 3

The Great North - 2021: 24; 2022: 🔼

The Grinder - 2017: 14

The Guest Book - 2017: 53; 2018: N/A; 2019: 40

High Fidelity - 2020: 13

Hit the Road - 2018: 46

Inhumans - 2018: 47

The Kids Are Alright - 2019: 7

The Last Man on Earth - 2017: 44; 2018: 43

The Last O.G. - 2018: 28; 2019: 34; 2020: 53; 2021: N/A; 2022: 🔼

Legends of Tomorrow - 2017: 41; 2018: 31; 2019: 27; 2020: 11; 2021: 15; 2022: 🔼

Life in Pieces - 2017: 46; 2018: 29; 2019: 20

Limitless - 2017: 48

Little Fires Everywhere - 2020: 48

Loki - 2021: 1; 2022: N/A (on hiatus)

Love, Victor - 2020: 5; 2021: 8; 2022: 🔽

MacGyver - 2017: 52; 2018: 44; 2019: 41; 2020: 26; 2021: 31; 2022: N/A (canceled)

The Mandalorian - 2020: 2; 2021: 2; 2022: N/A (on hiatus)

Me, Myself & I - 2018: 42

The Mick - 2017: 33; 2018: 11

The Mist - 2017: 19

Modern Family - 2017: 37; 2018: 23; 2019: 19; 2020: 4

The Moodys - 2020: 46; 2021: 27; 2022: N/A (canceled)

The Morning Show - 2020: 30

Mr. Mayor - 2021: 7; 2022: 🔽

Mrs. America - 2020: 9

The Muppets - 2017: 55

Mythic Quest - 2021: 6; 2022: N/A (on hiatus)

Nancy Drew - 2020: 51

Nobodies - 2017: 40; 2018: 32

Normal People - 2020: 42

The Orville - 2018: 40; 2019: 43

The Other Two - 2019: 18; 2020: N/A; 2021: 5; 2022: N/A (on hiatus)

Our Cartoon President - 2019: 42

Ozark - 2020: 6; 2021: N/A; 2022: N/A (didn’t get around to season three)

People of Earth - 2017: 50

Perfect Harmony - 2020: 45

Person of Interest - 2017: 2

The Politician - 2020: 41

Prison Break - 2017: 42

Prodigal Son - 2020: 28; 2021: 16; 2022: N/A (canceled)

Quantico - 2017: 58

The Real O'Neals - 2017: 25

Review - 2017: 12

Rise - 2018: 45

Riverdale - 2017: 39; 2018: 38; 2019: 36; 2020: 50; 2021: 39; 2022: 🔽

Schitt’s Creek - 2019: 12; 2020: 8

Schooled - 2019: 30; 2020: 27

Scream Queens - 2017: 47

Search Party - 2017: 61

The Simpsons - 2017: 21; 2018: 22; 2019: 24; 2020: 37; 2021: 23; 2022: 🔽

Single Parents - 2019: 33; 2020: 10

Snowpiercer - 2020: 14; 2021: 21; 2022: 🔽

Son of Zorn - 2017: 36

Soulmates - 2021: 36; 2022: N/A (on hiatus)

Space Force - 2020: 44; 2021: N/A; 2022: N/A (never got around to season two)

Splitting Up Together - 2018: 41; 2019: 32

Stargirl - 2020: 36; 2021: 33; 2022: N/A (season three just began airing)

Stumptown - 2020: 32

Sunnyside - 2020: 19

Superstore - 2017: 9; 2018: 2; 2019: 6; 2020: 25; 2021: 12; 2022: N/A (ended)

Ted Lasso - 2020: 12

Those Who Can’t - 2017: 38; 2018: N/A; 2019: 22

Timeless - 2017: 30; 2018: 13; 2019: 28

Treadstone - 2020: 33

Trial & Error - 2017: 28; 2018: 14

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - 2017: 4; 2018: 5; 2019: 2

The Unicorn - 2020: 52

The Walking Dead - 2017: 15; 2018: 27; 2019: 15; 2020: 29; 2021: 29; 2022: 🔼

The Walking Dead: World Beyond - 2021: 34; 2022: 🔼

WandaVision - 2021: 3; 2022: N/A (miniseries)

What If…? - 2021: 19; 2022: N/A (on hiatus)

When We Rise - 2017: 49

Whiskey Cavalier - 2019: 37

Workaholics - 2017: 45

Wrecked - 2017: 51; 2018: 35

You, Me and the Apocalypse - 2017: 60

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist - 2020: 20; 2021: 32; 2022: 🔼

#Annual TV Show Rankings Charts

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jordoalejandro · 2 years

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The Eleventh Annual List of Movies I Saw the Past Year

A new decade of Lists of Movies I Saw begins same as the last decade of Lists of Movies I Saw: with a list of movies I saw.

It felt like an okay year in film. Slightly better than last year but not great. Would it crack the top five of Lists of Movies I Saw since I started doing these lists? I don’t think so. Better question: should I start making lists of the lists of movies? Even better question: should I throw my computer into a lake instead?

Here’s the list of films I’ve seen since-issssh the last Oscars ceremony (4/25/21). (I’m really emphasizing the -ish because that last ceremony happened so late in the year. Normally they take place in February so I’m sort of using that watermark, and that was already a pretty loose deadline for these lists. Whatever. This simply does not matter. Films!)

58. Breaking News in Yuba County - The script for this film made the Blacklist a few years back. I remember reading it then and having a few thoughts. One: the plot was no good. Uninteresting and structurally weak. Far too many points where you have to stretch belief to make sure it doesn’t fall apart. Two: the characters were no good. They make a lot of decisions that don’t work. They have very little depth. Many are introduced simply to be cannon fodder because the script mistakes people dying for dramatic storytelling. Three: the tone is no good. The script feels like an attempt to be a sort of Coen Brothers black comedy crime satire but it doesn’t have any of the charm or humor. With the characters, the comedy is meant to come from the fact that they all have bad haircuts and wear ugly outfits. With the plot, the comedy is meant to come from… I’m not really sure. Characters yelling? The film’s satirizing of media sensationalism? None of this stuff elicits a single laugh, nor really even an “Oh… that’s clever” thought that’s sort of at least halfway to actual comedy. The script was essentially miserable characters bouncing around a weak plot for 100 pages. A black comedy with no comedy. A satire with nothing interesting to say. The film is a pretty faithful adaptation of that script, best as I can remember it.

57. Space Jam: A New Legacy - The humor is too referential without putting any kind of twist on the jokes to make them actual jokes. It’s all about piling on surface level reference after surface level reference. There’s one legitimately funny moment in the movie (a surprise cameo in the middle) but the film mostly acts like an ad for Warner Bros. properties. Maybe kids would like it but it’s not a good watch for anyone else.

56. The Lost Daughter - I contend that this is a film that can’t be enjoyed by normal people. If you went to a theater with friends and decided, “Hey, let’s check this Lost Daughter film out,” none of you would walk out having had a good experience because you’re normal people and this is not a film that’s meant to be enjoyed in any way. It’s meant to be appreciated. You’re meant to marvel at how the film touches upon the sometimes difficult relationship between mother and daughter, and women, and society, and society’s view of women and mothers, and mothers’ views of themselves, and so on and so forth. Much to think about. Much to discuss. In the meantime, you get to spend two hours in the dark watching what mostly amounts to a character study that’s so subtle, it barely moves. There’s some decent acting, especially from Olivia Colman, but beyond that, there’s no momentum, not enough plot, no second gear. It wasn’t even really much to look at. But, oh, the discussions to be had after! May they flow like wine!

55. Respect - Picture your worst case scenario for a two and a half hour biopic about Aretha Franklin. This is it. Seems like every year we have to have at least one by-the-numbers music biography with no life to it and Respect is 2021’s. It’s not just that the film doesn’t take any big swings, it takes no swings at all. It is more than content to roll right along as a super straightforward music biopic, slamming into every cliché along the way. There aren’t even really any performances to hang your hat on. The high points are all when Jennifer Hudson sings songs. It’s a completely skippable film.

54. Cry Macho - It has all the life of a film directed by and starring a 90 year old. Everything Clint Eastwood does in this film makes me scared for his health: riding a horse, throwing a punch, driving a car, slow dancing with his love interest (a woman four decades his junior). There’s a story here that’s just okay. It’s not very unique or engrossing, but it’s okay, but the execution of the film, from the casting (namely casting himself to play a character that reads like he’s supposed to be ~60) to the awkward acting due to Eastwood’s one take or so policy, to the lagging energy, is just all off.

53. Spencer - Lest you think Princess Di was just living it up and having a great time being part of the royal family, let this film disavow you of that belief! In fact, she actually was quite miserable with the pressures put upon her by the royals and the press! This film is sort of the spiritual successor to Pablo Larraín’s earlier film, Jackie, which was also about a famous woman walking around large houses and being upset. There was nothing here for me.

52. Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard - The action scenes were very… okay – passable but not particularly exciting – and weirdly they use as much CGI as a Transformers movie. The comedy is all over the place, throwing anything at the wall and hoping it’ll stick. Some absurdism, lots of yelling, and you’ll be shocked to hear Ryan Reynolds is doing a variation of the Deadpool schtick. Ultimately though, none of it is very funny. Maybe one or two laughs throughout. Don’t look to the plot to save you either. You basically have to enjoy the actors screaming at each other to get anything from this.

51. Army of the Dead - It’s a bad sign when the best part of a two and a half hour movie is the opening titles sequence (which is very good, by the way). A completely nonsense script, flat characters, attempts at humor that do not work at all, dialogue that is stilted and forced. The film is all style, no substance. (Though maybe the least amount of style of any Zach Snyder film. Not that I’m necessarily saying that in a bad way. It’s still very stylistic. Stylistic enough, anyway. Some of his films feel like they’re overstuffed with style and he restrained himself a little here.)

50. Don’t Look Up - Too broad to be funny, and too unfunny to drive any points home or open any minds through its humor. It feels like the film equivalent of a political cartoon where someone is pointing at an asteroid that says CLIMATE CHANGE on the side and saying “We’re all going to die!” and a character in a red hat is saying “Fake news!” The film keeps your attention, at least, and does a decent job at making you feel anxiety and frustration, but that’s about where it ends. It has a few (literally few) laughs, but the writing is just not there to make this the smart, call-to-arms satire that it wants to be.

49. Passing - It’s a good looking movie with some interesting ideas and some decent acting but with not enough going on to maintain interest. Though based on a novel and not a play, it feels very much like an adapted play: lots of long scenes with few characters in limited settings talking and talking and talking. I’m not saying that I need a car chase but I need some more life.

48. Reminiscence - This has all the elements to be a really cool sci-fi neo-noir – great settings, interesting concept, assorted noir trope characters – and then the story just never delivers. The twists and turns aren’t that many and the few aren’t very good, the characters aren’t entertaining enough, and the central core mystery is sort of nebulous and never grips you.

47. House of Gucci - It’s all over the place and way too long. Jared Leto is on a different frequency than the rest of the cast and crew. He’s playing it like a comedy. And here’s the weird thing: he’s absolutely right! This is the story of a family of rich, eccentric dandies wearing gaudy clothes and stabbing each other in the back. That should be a sort of I, Tonya type black comedy. Leto might’ve been the only person who knew what movie he was actually in. The film is much better if you watch it through that prism and laugh at the characters. (In fairness, there are times in the film where it does seem to know that’s what the movie is, but they are few and far between.) Everyone else in the cast is doing not great Italian accents and playing things so damn seriously but none of it is connecting and it makes it all feel so silly. It’s like the director didn’t have a firm handle on the film which is insane because it’s Ridley Scott! At least everyone got to enjoy hanging out in the nicest parts of Europe while wearing expensive clothes.

46. The Tragedy of Macbeth - Well, it’s certainly Macbeth all right. The film looks great, so there’s that. Every shot could be printed out and the whole thing could make a lovely coffee table book. But is that worth sitting through for an hour and 45 minutes? I guess the real question is: do you have an appetite for watching the Shakespeare play Macbeth again? (Assuming you’ve seen one of the (not joking) 40 different versions of the play already committed to film in one manner or another.) I suppose if you haven’t ever caught a Macbeth before, this would be a pretty good one to watch to break that seal. It’s got Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in it, after all, and they appear to be good in their roles? I mean, I don’t know Shakespeare well enough to really say. They’re saying the fancy words and putting some level of emotion into it. That’s what the play calls for, I believe. Again, I don’t know. The language makes it so inaccessible that I can’t make any connection to the characters but it all seems good to me. I guess I don’t know why this film was made, but at least substitute teachers in English classes around the country will have something new to put on to fill the time.

45. Free Guy - It’s weird. There are things in this movie that are clearly made by people who have knowledge of modern multiplayer video games and then there are things that feel so wildly off-base that it comes off like it was written by someone who’s never seen a computer before. Like, you can imagine some producer going, “And then we gotta have a big car chase, but the evil video game developers need to stop our hero, so they put all sorts of obstacles in his way.” And someone goes, “But you know developers are basically omnipotent in their video game worlds, right? They could shut him down immediately.” “No, no, no. We gotta have the chase, so just have the evil programmer typing really fast and then in the game, the walls start slowly closing in on him. Of course, he gets out of that, and now the developers really, really want to stop him, so we have the big boss show up. And that big boss? He’s a muscly, slightly taller guy than our hero.” “Wait, they really, really want to stop him, and can program absolutely anything in the universe to do that, and they just program a slightly taller, muscle guy?” “Yes. Are you really going to start arguing with me again? What next? You want to bring up the fact that a massive plot point in the film involves the entire world doing news reports about one man in a multiplayer video game playing in a slightly unconventional way? You want to re-litigate that one?!” Ultimately, there are some decent action scenes and a few laughs but it’s a movie that feels very empty. There’s lots of shiny graphics and music stings and groan-worthy references to other intellectual properties and… whoa, Ryan Reynolds doing Deadpool schtick tuned to cheery? Okay! Nothing here that really cuts past surface level.

44. The Matrix Resurrections - There’s a bunch of semi-interesting stuff happening, but nothing really entertaining. It trudges along like a reboot that doesn’t have reason to exist. The Neo/Trinity love story is the only thing that’s working while the rest is shockingly dull. The action scenes tragically don’t have any energy to them. At least with the other Matrix sequels, you could rely on those being cool and keeping you engaged while the rest of the nonsense story stuff was going on. Not so here. The movie is filled with way too much cute meta commentary that isn’t as clever as it thinks it is and muddles the film’s message. Also, and this is sad because I do like the guy, but Keanu is made to act too much. He’s given a lot more lines than I remember him having in the last films and he’s asked to emote and he’s just… well, let’s just say the best films of his career are the ones where he’s not asked to deliver a ton of dialogue.

43. Eternals - Plodding. It never gains momentum. The action beats never really get there. The comedy beats are few and some work but a lot don't and far too many have a weird sense of timing that hurts them. Too many characters, none of which are particularly standout. Villains are ugly CGI without a great sense of motivation (and ultimately don’t really even figure into the plot, making them feel pointless). Philosophical in an exhausting way. As of now, it’s at the bottom of my MCU list. I don’t necessarily know if it’s worse than Iron Man 2 or some of the others down there but if I was going to watch all of the MCU films again, and I was looking at the list, this one would be the one I would absolutely dread revisiting the most.

42. Those Who Wish Me Dead - Pretty bland. The writing is sort of weak. It’s a fairly simple plot that also relies on some weird coincidences and character choices. The characters themselves don’t really have personality and are generally one dimensional. The dialogue is okay but it overuses nicknames (Baby, Buddy) to the point of driving me up a wall. The film looks good and moves well enough, at least. It’s more a thriller than an action film, so there aren’t really action scenes so much as tense scenes, which are fine but don’t feel as thrilling as they should be, considering it’s really the whole ballgame. It’s very much something that you watch if it’s around (like, say, if it was released free for a month on HBO Max) but it’s nothing to really seek out.

41. The Harder They Fall - An extremely average western, in terms of character, story, look. Every now and then there are brief flashes of something more inspired, but the film returns to the baseline quickly. Has a problem sustaining energy throughout. Lags too much for what should be a fun, easy watch.

40. King Richard - An okay sports biopic. It hits some of the right notes and will probably work for a lot of people but, for me, the whole thing still felt kind of off. Will Smith does a good job (though I think Aunjanue Ellis as the mother, Oracene, is better), but the character of Richard himself is immensely unlikable in a way I don’t think they hoped he’d come off. The producers (the Williams sisters themselves, included) go to great lengths to paint Richard in rosy glasses, as “not that kind of lunatic sports parent”, but he still comes off as a lunatic sports parent, just of a different variety. A dictator with a smile. He keeps telling his daughters to have fun while they play in a way that’s supposed to feel comforting but comes off threatening after a while. It reads like “Have fun (or else).” The film believes if you make your children practice tennis 16 hours a day, you’re abusing them, but if you do that and then make them skip the occasional tournaments so they can learn French instead, you’re making them well rounded. And it keeps trying to tell you, yeah, it might seem harsh, but a life in crime or in a gang is much worse as if those are the only two options. A lot of the film feels like it rests on your knowledge that the Williams sisters turned out to be huge successes so this was all worth it and fine. If they washed out at 20, this all would’ve been crazy, but, well, I guess you can’t argue with results. The whole thing feels sort of like listening to someone tell a wild family story at a party, and they’re smiling and laughing while they tell it and you’re nodding along, and then when they walk away, you go, “I don’t think they realize how insane that story sounded.”

39. Raya and the Last Dragon - A gorgeous looking film, with decent voice acting and world building, but a script that doesn’t elevate it in story, character or dialogue. The plot is pretty straightforward, the writing isn’t sharp enough, and though it tries, it’s not able to mine any real emotion. Some good pieces but it’s not able to come together into a great package.

38. Red Notice - It’s exactly what you expect from an action comedy with these main players. Dwayne Johnson is Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot is fine, and… hmm… this is weird, Ryan Reynolds is doing a variation of the Deadpool schtick tuned to international criminal? If you say so! It’s entertaining enough and has enough good bits to keep you going. It’s not something you’d buy Netflix for, but you already have Netflix and it’ll make for a fun movie night, so why not.

37. Plan B - It’s a bit retread-y, which I can live with as long as the execution is there and the execution here is fine. The story is fairly straightforward, not really too many surprises. A few solid laughs but inconsistent. Instead of settling on a single tone and just nailing it, the humor kind of vacillates between raunchy, absurdist, and more subdued/grounded, which hurts the overall quality. It’s not bad but there are many better options in the category.

36. Vacation Friends - The plot isn’t great but it works well enough to get from set piece to set piece. There are some legitimately funny bits and some decent character beats as well. It’s better than it needed to be.

35. Jungle Cruise - It’s a fun action-adventure but it doesn’t quite get where it needs to be. The bits of humor are good but there could be more. The action scenes are alright but hampered by the directing, which doesn’t do a good enough job of establishing the arena of play, often leaving you with a confused sense of the space. The film’s setting is very cool but it’s hampered by really bad CGI, pulling you right out of the movie. I don’t think this was ever going to be a masterpiece, but I do think subpar execution prevented this film from being all that it could be.

34. The King’s Man - Unfortunately, this film seems to keep forgetting it’s a Kingsman film. There are a few parts where it’s able to capture the frenetic joy that is the trademark of the series (namely the Rasputin segment and the finale) but for the most part the film is kind of dour. It’s not just that that tone is not what you want from a Kingsman film, it’s that that tone clashes badly with the parts of the film that are actually fun. There’s a choice made around the midway point that’s very bold but I think doesn’t actually pay off in terms of plot and character after. It just sort of ruins the mood. Matthew Vaughn can definitely direct action and create a visually interesting film, which he does here, but I feel like he wasn’t able to keep a grip on the tone long enough to create a better film.

33. Drive My Car - A very understated, quiet film that hits some solid notes about grief and carrying on but generally struggles to justify its three hour runtime. I think there’s a 90 minute version of this film in here that I would have higher on this list, but this film is not that film. This film’s opening credits appear around the 50 minute mark. It obviously doesn’t have any interest in moving at any pace other than the one it wants but it doesn’t work for me.

32. Dune - There’s some good stuff here: visually stunning, good score, fine acting. But as a singular movie experience, to someone who’s never read the books and has no emotional attachment to them, it’s hard to truly care about absolutely any of what’s going on. It’s hard to care about the characters, of which there are so many, all with very little development outside of Paul and his mother. It’s hard to care about the plot, which feels like jumping from one piece to another without a clear goal or endpoint. It’s basically a series of fights and chases until the film just ends, such that the big finale of the film is a knife fight with some random dude Paul meets in the desert. I get this whole thing is setting up for a Part 2 (and maybe more? I don’t know), but as someone watching this with no sense of what’s to come and just trying to appreciate it for the film it is, it left me feeling hollow.

31. The Power of the Dog - It's fine, but it feels very much like an outdated *awards* film - slow paced, moody music, lots of long, often gorgeous scenic shots. The acting is solid, though the actors don’t actually get a ton of things to do outside of staring at stuff. I wasn’t bored at least but never fully enraptured.

30. West Side Story - That Steven Spielberg can certainly direct. The film looks great. The choreography, the staging, the framing, it’s all excellent. My problem is the same one I had with the old West Side Story: it does not connect with me at all. For me, musicals (especially ones that originated on the stage) have a high barrier for emotional entry. I have to get past the cheese and the over-earnestness and the often on-the-nose, artificial way characters talk. You know: Broadway. I was able to get there for some musicals that are higher on this list but this one, by far, has the highest barrier of entry of any musical this year and I could not clear it. It’s so damn old fashioned and silly. The fearsome street gangs doing twirls and jazz hands. Dance fights. All the characters doing 1950s New York accents that are… like… squeaky? It’s too much for me to get any emotion from the film. Plus, I really just don’t care for the majority of the songs (many of which feel very old fashioned, too), so that’s not helping anything. Look, I think this version is basically as good as this story can be made and it’s still not enough for me.

Okay, time for the mid-list documentary break before we get to the top 29.

Flee was a moving, surprising, empathetic look at one refugee’s story. At times charming, at times haunting, made doubly more powerful when you consider this is just one story out of millions of similar ones. Wonderfully done.

I should’ve watched two more films so I could’ve done the mid-list documentary break at 30. Oh well! Onward.

29. Cruella - It’s fun, though I think the film is more a collection of good moments than a really good overall story. Still, it’s more enjoyable than it deserves to be, with some of the best use of music of any film this year.

28. Encanto - It looks beautiful and it’s filled with wonderful songs and excellent choreography in the musical numbers. The story is fine but it just doesn’t have enough wonder or adventure or emotion to bump it to the upper echelon of Disney animated films.

27. Turning Red - With the caveat that I haven’t seen any of the Cars movies, this seems like the loudest (in terms of volume but also visuals and editing and such) Pixar film. I prefer a softer approach but I accept that this is a kids’ movie first and foremost and maybe that works for them. Either way, there’s some really good humor here and some nice insights. I wouldn’t place it near the top of the Pixar canon, but it’s solid.

26. The Last Duel - This is an above-average period drama, though I wouldn’t say it’s great in any particular sense (with the exception of the titular last duel, which is very thrilling). It works well enough and is elevated by the clever way the story unfolds.

25. Vivo - Good looking film. Great music. Very strong emotional first and third acts, though the second is just okay, feeling more obligatory than inspired. The film doesn’t have a ton of surprises but it’s enjoyable if just for the music and look. It feels like you can take a decent animated film and bump it up a grade or two just by letting Lin-Manuel Miranda write songs for it. The ones here, like those in Encanto, are catchy, clever, and very good.

24. Worth - This is more a showcase for acting than a great film, but it’s still a decent watch about a fascinating subject. The film’s real highlights are a series of strong dialogues and monologues throughout. Stars Michael Keaton, Amy Ryan, and Stanley Tucci all do stellar work in said dialogues and monologues, as might be expected, but there are quite a few unknown actors who deliver some really powerful monologues as well. The film doesn’t come together to hit you with that full emotional knockout punch at any point, which is what would’ve elevated it more, but there are still a lot of good parts here.

23. The Tender Bar - There’s not a whole lot to this. It’s nothing groundbreaking or even particularly unique, but it has some warmth and good characters, and it’s shot well and has some solid music. Ben Affleck and Lily Rabe turn in fine performances, too. The film has a bit of a one man show kind of vibe (Boy I remember the characters in my old neighborhood…) that creates a little of that Broadway musical barrier but I think it does a good job of eventually winning you over and connecting on an emotional level.

22. No Sudden Move - A tight thriller with a good cast. It’s the kind of film Steven Soderbergh can direct in his sleep, which actually might be a problem. I don’t know if it’s boredom or what but he’s definitely trying all sorts of experiments in his films these days. In this one, for example, he opted to shoot the entire thing with a wide angle lens. If that sounds distracting, it is. I’m sure he has a reason for this, but honestly, whatever that reason, I don’t think it can justify how distracting it makes the film. It’s an entertaining watch either way but I probably would’ve enjoyed it just a little more if I wasn’t spending so much time looking at the corners of the screen.

21. No Time to Die - I felt a sensation walking out of this film similar to the one I felt walking out of The Last Jedi. As a film, it more or less worked. Good visuals, score, etc. The action is well done. The plot is decent enough though the villain’s motivations were murky at best. But as a James Bond film? Weird. Strange. This sort of leads into the question of how to review such a film. I’m putting it here on this list because I think this is about where it belongs as a film. If I was looking at this film through the prism of the James Bond franchise and my love of that franchise, it would be so much lower. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a Bond film less since 1989’s Licence to Kill with Timothy Dalton. (Quantum of Solace came close but it’s sort of harmlessly dull rather than something I actively dislike, like the 2nd half of this film and the majority of Licence to Kill.) Look, I’ll just get into it. I’ll try to avoid spoiling it outright but this will probably be pretty spoilery either way, just so you know. There’s a plot choice made around the halfway mark of this film that I do not care for one bit. That choice propels the film towards a weird third act – one I kept forgetting was in a James Bond film while watching – that ends with a decision I truly despise. I don’t want to speculate too much, but the decision seems to be inspired partially by Daniel Craig’s personal view of the role he’s been playing since 2006 and partially by the Bond producers borrowing from other big franchises of the day (which, in fairness, is something the Bond franchise has been doing forever). While other franchises might have been able to pull something like this off, it simply does not work here. It’s awkwardly shoehorned in, not in line with the franchise or the character as we’ve known him for near six decades, and frankly, it’s cheap. Everyone already knows there won’t be lasting repercussions. Daniel Craig was already out the door. It was a cheap attempt to generate some buzz, which, by the way, didn’t work. The film made some money but it came and went with zero cultural impact. No lasting discussions about it. No big award nominations. The critics agreed the film was good, not great. So what are we doing here? I understand the impulse in wanting to do something different, especially when you’re 60 years into a franchise, but you’ve got to be careful with that, especially when you’re the stewards of a beloved 60 year old franchise. I’m going on too long here. Let me just finish with this.

When I walked out of the theater and tapped out how I felt about the film into my Notes app, I wrote this at the end: “The finale, in a way, almost feels like good riddance. The Daniel Craig era was what it was but it felt time to blow things up.” Looking back, “good riddance” might be too harsh but I think the sentiment is right. What was the Craig era? Financially? Pretty successful. Critically? Mixed but more on the positive side than negative. But looking at the five picture arc? Its place in the franchise’s history? It’s a janky mess. It didn’t have to be this way. The producers used to be fine with keeping the Bond films as self-contained pieces. But they chose to try and make these Craig films all connected and continuous and they created this Frankenstein’s monster of storytelling. It’s a family-run business so it’s not like the producers are going to be replaced, but hopefully they’ve learned from this and come back with a better long term plan. It’s time for new blood elsewhere at least. No more Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. There are so many writers and voices on these things it’s hard to truly say what they do and do not contribute, but just having general knowledge of their work, I’m comfortable with them being excluded from future films. They’ve had enough cracks at this and there are more than enough professional writers in the world to try someone new. Let’s stop going back to that well. And please, for the next James Bond, can we get an actor who loves the role and the franchise? Someone who’s up to do another film every two to three years and doesn’t have to be dragged kicking and screaming into it? Just a thought. Anyway, the film’s fine. The Cuba sequence was great.

20. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar - An easy, light watch. Fun and just so relentlessly silly. That tone makes for some truly hilarious jokes, and others that are… more difficult, but I appreciate that the film doesn’t ever let up. I’m honestly amazed that someone financed this movie and intended to release it wide, but I’m glad someone out there still thinks mid-level absurdist comedies have a place.

19. tick, tick…BOOM! - There’s a little bit of the previously mentioned barrier to entry here because it definitely still has the feel of a one man show (or one man plus some musicians) but Lin-Manuel Miranda does a decent job of getting out of the theater space and adding better visuals, drawing you in more. Excellent performances from the whole cast, anchored by Andrew Garfield, who killed it. Emotional and vulnerable and surprisingly decent at singing, too. (Garfield was actually really good in three films I saw this year, but this was his best performance.)

18. Ron’s Gone Wrong - This was a delightful kids’ film with some heart and a few genuine laughs. There’s some good stuff in here about friendship and technology and the role it plays in our lives (or really more the lives of kids these days, but it’s pretty universal).

17. Black Widow - A very good Marvel stand alone movie, weakened just a little bit by not being made before we all saw the character die a few years ago. Maybe it’s unfair to this film to judge it by that but we all know coming in she’s not going to die here and that also, most of what she does in the film doesn’t mean a whole lot because she’s going to die shortly after. Still, lots of strong bits of action and comedy, and some strong pieces of emotion and family drama. Florence Pugh and David Harbour are excellent, and Scarlett Johansson and Rachel Weisz are very good as well. The film has a fantastic prologue that I only wish we could’ve gotten more of. Overall, it’s a really well executed film hurt slightly by not coming out when it should have in 2017.

16. The Eyes of Tammy Faye - The film does a good job of casting a somewhat empathetic eye on Jim and Tammy Faye, remembering that they are still human (with all the complications that come from such a thing), while not absolving them of their lavish, fraud-fueled lifestyles. Great acting from Andrew Garfield and an absolutely tremendous performance by Jessica Chastain. I know this is cliché but she genuinely does disappear into this role, both physically and emotionally. You really do forget it’s her.

15. Nightmare Alley - The film just has a great vibe. The music is good, the style is cool, from the dingy carnival to the art-deco elements of high society. It’s a neat world to live in. The story is solid but it does read like it was adapted from a novel (it takes a little while to get into it, it feels like some pieces are cut that would’ve fleshed out a few more things). Still, strong performances and directing make for a very good film.

14. Nobody - It’s sort of a John Wick reskin, and it suffers a little bit from the original’s problem of having a paper thin plot, but I actually enjoyed this one more than John Wick. The action is there and the film has more character and charm. It even has some humor (though I think it could probably use more). Bob Odenkirk makes for a fun hero and does well in the role.

13. The Suicide Squad - Very funny, strong action scenes, good characters. Marvel reins James Gunn in a little bit, suppressing some of his Troma tendencies, while DC let him go farther out here. There’s some good and bad to that. Jokes he couldn’t make in a PG13 film he gets away with in this film, but he also indulges in some gross-out visuals that are more than a little gratuitous. Gunn’s great at this misfit team niche, though, and while this doesn’t rise to the level of Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s easily the best entry in the DCEU.

12. Belfast - I really liked the family stuff in this film. I liked what the parents and grandparents were doing, trying to navigate their family through an extremely difficult time. I liked the stuff about the importance of art. My problem is I wasn’t a big fan of the kid in the center of the film. His plot pieces and dialogue were a little too cute, a “from the mouths of babes” kinda thing. There’s a slight cheesiness around this film that makes it feel a little artificial, but strong directing and strong acting performances from the adults eventually won me over.

11. Pig - Surprisingly, welcomingly understated. A film about grief and tragedy that never feels hopeless. An excellent performance by Nicolas Cage, avoiding the big, screaming, showy performance and opting for a more subtle approach.

10. The Mitchells vs the Machines - A clever, entertaining story. Legitimately funny and with solid voice acting. I will say, though, this film, like many of the animated films that Phil Lord and Chris Miller are involved with (the ones they direct and/or produce), is a little too busy for me. I know, it’s a very old sounding complaint, but there’s often just so much extra nonsense on the screen. Maybe that appeals to kids but it makes my eyes tired.

9. The Adam Project - This one surprised me in a really pleasant way. The time travel stuff involving family works excellent, and it’s combined with some fun action and a bit of comedy. Ryan Reynolds is… well, he’s still doing a variation of the Deadpool schtick, but it’s toned down and I think what’s helping is he’s sharing his schtick with Walker Scobell, who plays the younger version of the character and is doing a very good mini-Reynolds. Maybe because they’re taking turns and both doing half-Reynolds it’s not as grating? Possibly. Some of the CGI sci-fi is a little wonky and that’s where the film lags, but it’s overall entertaining and even has a surprising bit of heart to it as well.

8. CODA - Is this really a Best Picture type film? Eh. I think it’s more a well done coming-of-age film that got caught up in some hype. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy a good coming-of-age film. A sweet, well-acted movie that, much like The Tender Bar and Belfast, is about family, art, and leaving home. A lot has been made of Troy Kotsur’s performance as the father, Frank, and he seems poised to take home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar tomorrow. He’s definitely good, but for like 85% of the film arguably not better than, say, Stanley Tucci in Easy A or J.K. Simmons in Juno. That kind of thing. But! But he has a scene near the end of the film with Emilia Jones that is just breathtaking. An absolutely beautiful scene, full of love, touching and heartbreaking at the same time. Even thinking about it now it chokes me up a bit. And if that one scene basically earns Kotsur an Oscar, I’ll be fine with it.

7. Licorice Pizza - An alluring romantic dramedy that plays out like an odyssey film around the San Fernando Valley in 1973, with the characters moving from one odd scenario and character to the next. It gives it a really cool dreamlike quality that makes you feel like the whole film is a series of memories being told to you. Did any of this really happen? Or, at least, did any of it happen as it’s being relayed to you? Maybe. Maybe not. But that’s kind of the magic of memory. It exists how you want it to. Really strong acting from the leads, Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman, and a show stealing slightly-larger-than-a-cameo cameo from Bradley Cooper. Great writing and directing.

6. The French Dispatch - It’s a Wes Anderson film, so you sort of know what you’re getting and it either works for you or not. I’ve come to appreciate them and found this one to be quite enjoyable. Fun, whimsical writing, wonderful visuals, and solid acting (particularly from Jeffrey Wright, who is excellent in his segment).

5. Being the Ricardos - Aaron Sorkin, like Wes Anderson, is a known quantity. His writing works for you or it doesn’t. I happen to really enjoy it. It’s sharp, dramatic, and funny. The film suffers just a teensy bit from length. It lags here and there, but overall, it’s very good. Exceptional acting from the leads. Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem are top notch and Nina Arianda and J.K. Simmons are great in supporting roles.

4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - Superb superhero movie that’s as much a family drama as it is about heroes and villains. Some very funny bits and some absolutely fantastic action pieces, among the best in the MCU, which is saying something. An upper echelon MCU origin movie.

3. In the Heights - Outstanding directing from Jon M. Chu elevates the piece from a stage play to a real film, creating a gorgeous looking, full of life world. The film suffers a little from play-speak here and there, which is maybe passable on stage but on film stands out more as artificial. The rest goes as far as the music takes you. I loved some of the numbers (especially the big spectacle ones with hundreds of dancers and Olga Merediz’s number, “Paciencia y Fe”, which is a knockout). Others didn’t get to me as much. Overall, it’s a truly excellent musical, moving and joyous and visually wonderful.

2. Luca - So, here’s this thing about Luca: I’m putting it here with some reservations. This is a really beautiful, touching film if it’s an allegory for being LGBT. Is it? That’s tough to say. You don’t have to squint very hard to see it in the subtext of the film. In fact, it often seems like the film is actively trying to get you to read into that. And yet the director, Enrico Casarosa, has said that they hadn’t intended that and that the film is about the time in life before romance but that he welcomes the interpretation. (The other part to that explanation that you have to wonder about, too, is if he truly means it or if he’s speaking as an employee of the Walt Disney Company, which would never center a children’s film on a subject so scandalous as "being gay.") All right, well since it’s open to interpretation, I’ll interpret it thusly: As it stands, Luca is a fantastic looking film that’s funny, filled with lovely music, and features some excellent voice acting. And if this film is really just about friendship and that one cool summer we had when we were teens, then that’s pretty much where it ends. A fine film that doesn’t crack the Pixar top 10. But, to my eye, this is a film about something more. It’s a film about a boy, coming of age, who feels he has to hide away a big part of himself lest he be rejected by society. He meets another boy who shares his secret and bonds with that boy. They start spending most of their time together and the other boy teaches him about how to be more courageous. When the boy’s parents find out about the relationship, they forbid him from seeing his new friend and threaten to send him away to live in a dark place with his uncle so he’s not tempted anymore. In response, he runs away from home and flees with the other boy to the city to live together. They meet a girl there, which the one boy starts hanging out with a lot, making the other boy weirdly jealous. They eventually have a fight during which one of the boys outs himself and the other acts horrified in front of the other people and rejects him to, for lack of a better term, stay in the closet. The two eventually reconcile, boldly revealing their true selves to the town and finding acceptance. In fact, the grandma character literally says that some people will never accept the boy, but some will and that he seems to know how to find the good ones. (Also, I couldn’t figure where to include this in that description, but there are two old lady characters who show up in the town together a few times and at the end, after the boys have revealed themselves, they, too, reveal that they’ve been sea monsters the whole time, living amongst the townsfolk. I can’t quite figure out how that fits into the theme of friendship but I can see how that fits neatly into a different theme.) Look, maybe I’m seeing something that’s not there. I can accept that. But I’d argue I’m also seeing the far superior movie if that’s the case. There’s a fine movie in here about friendship and a great movie in here with something more to say and if things are open to interpretation, I’ll stick with the version I saw.

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home - Audacious and incredible. Very funny. Very emotional. Brimming with fantastic character moments. Acting is on point. Basically the whole cast is firing on all cylinders. Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina slip right back into their roles after so many years, creating villains with depth – at times terrifying, at times tragic. Andrew Garfield (again) is very good. His Spider-Man is lighthearted and funny but has a sense of sadness underneath that you can feel. Tom Holland is great in his role once more, able to hit all the right notes in the comedy scenes, action scenes, and emotional scenes. Beyond them, strong supporting work from Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, and Tobey Maguire as well. There are things I could nitpick but I’d rather not. The film is such an achievement. A supremely satisfying way to wrap up not just the arc of Holland’s three Spider-Man films, but Garfield’s and Maguire’s arcs as well. Phenomenal.

All right, let’s take a look at some individual awards.

Best Actor

5. Nicolas Cage, Pig 4. Cooper Hoffman, Licorice Pizza 3. Bradley Cooper, Nightmare Alley 2. Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos 1. Andrew Garfield, tick, tick…BOOM!

Best Actress

5. Amy Ryan, Worth 4. Caitriona Balfe, Belfast 3. Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza 2. Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos 1. Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Best Supporting Actor

5. Jeffrey Wright, The French Dispatch 4. Ciarán Hinds, Belfast 3. J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos 2. Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog 1. Troy Kotsur, CODA

Best Supporting Actress

5. Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog 4. Judi Dench, Belfast 3. Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard 2. Nina Arianda, Being the Ricardos 1. Olga Merediz, In the Heights

Best Directing

5. Joel Coen, The Tragedy of Macbeth 4. Steven Spielberg, West Side Story 3. Wes Anderson, The French Dispatch 2. Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza 1. Jon M. Chu, In the Heights

Best Screenplay

5. Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar 4. Nicole Holofcener & Ben Affleck & Matt Damon, The Last Duel 3. Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza 2. Wes Anderson, The French Dispatch 1. Aaron Sorkin, Being the Ricardos

So, I noticed I was seeing a lot of the same actors pop up in movies this year and decided it might be cool if I made a little data web or whatever to visualize it.

Then I started researching and sort of fell down a hole and ended up making this monstrosity:

As you can see, this goes deeper than you or I could've possibly imagined. Maybe even all the way to the top: Lil Rel Howery. Wait, where are you going? No, don't run!

Seriously, though, this took a lot of work and was a bit of a nightmare and I'm not happy with how it's all visualized because it's a real mess, but... I actually kind of had fun making it.

So maybe I'll do it again next year?

Or maybe I'll just throw my computer into a lake instead. We'll see!

Enjoy the Oscars.

- - - - -

Annual Lists of Movies I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #annual lists of movies i saw the past year

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jordoalejandro · 3 years

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The Fifth Annual List of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

This is another weird year for the list.

For one, a handful of shows are still on some kind of COVID related delay or hiatus.

Two, I dropped quite a few shows. Some I just bailed on because I had no patience to watch another season of them. Some shows I never got around to because I had an Apple TV+ free subscription that came with my iPhone and that ran out and I didn’t pay to renew it. (Here’s my quick review of Apple TV+: the quality of the shows is good but the quantity leaves a lot to be desired. You could probably pay for a month and binge through everything you have any interest in.)

Three, a lot of shows that I’m reviewing here have seasons that aren’t finished. They’re still going. Most are at least close to finishing. Some that have just started I’m going to wait on and review on next year’s list. But a handful of shows on this list are chugging along. I’m trying to factor that into my reviews but it's obviously a bit unfair to the shows. On the other hand, who cares?

So it’ll be a list with fewer entries, comprised of full seasons of shows and shows I watched most of. The list must happen, though. However it has to happen, it must happen.

Here’s the list of shows I’ve watched since the last Emmy Awards.

41. The Equalizer (Season 1 - 2021, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The Equalizer is a fascinating show. You know how with some shows people will say the show is fully realized from the pilot? It’s usually presented as a good thing -- a show that knew what it was from the start and executed that vision. The Equalizer is that but in a bad way. It’s a show that from the pilot has felt like it was already in its tired ninth season, trudging along, writers and actors and everyone just going through the motions because they’re trapped in their contracts. There’s nothing fresh about this. No life to it. Uninteresting plots. Weak dialogue. Characters -- both heroes and villains -- that you’ve seen a thousand times (the nerdy IT expert, the troublesome teenage child of the main character, the generic good looking older white guy boss figure, blah blah blah). A show that’s already in late-stage syndication mode.

40. The Flash (Season 7 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 49) - Speaking of late-stage syndication mode, The Flash has been in a creative tailspin for several years now. A big part of the problem is they just have no ideas left in the tank for villains on this show. This leads to them either reusing old ones (which doesn’t have a ton of dramatic impact -- we’ve seen The Flash beat all these people before), or digging through comic canon for the ones they have left (they’ve been unused this long for a reason). The other problem is it turns out running fast as a solution to every issue gets old very quickly. The producers must have felt this, and having gotten tired of telling Barry he has to run faster than he’s ever run before, they’ve switched it up and are now telling him to love people harder than he’s ever loved them before. Beyond the structural problems, the show is just not working on a very basic level. The writing has gotten super corny. The acting seems off. They’ve introduced new characters that are not working. The Flash had my worst rated episode this year and the weird thing was, it wasn’t even a mess of an episode. Like, functionally, it worked. It went from point A to point B and all that fine. But the problem was the titular Flash took off in the first few minutes of the episode to have sex with his wife on an island (not a joke) and didn’t return until the last few minutes of the episode. In between, viewers received a very boring, very boilerplate episode of The Flash, starring one of the new side characters it’s incredibly hard to care about. And she interacted with some even more to-the-side side characters and had some relationship issues with them and on and on until they inevitably saved the day in the end and it was so dull and so pointless that it made me say out loud, “What is this? Why am I watching this? Who could possibly care about anything that is happening on screen right now?” I felt that a lot during this season of The Flash. That was the only time I felt compelled to articulate it, but I felt it a lot. And that’s not a great place to be with a show.

39. Riverdale (Season 5 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 50) - Here’s a little insight as to how stupid Riverdale can be. Between episodes three and four of this season (episode three was what would’ve been the season finale of season 4, which was cut short by COVID so at least it's not wholly random, in fairness), Riverdale did a seven year time jump. This seven year time jump landed them in the year… 2021. They shifted everything that happened in the first four seasons of their show, including dozens upon dozens of current day pop culture references, about a decade into the past. And why did they do this? So they could change a few things and then basically keep telling the same exact stories they were telling the first four years of this show. Just stupid nonsense. Stupid nonsense all around. Which, to be fair, I actually used to look forward to from this show. I’ve argued here that it’s at its best when it’s being as stupid as possible, but this year the nonsense just doesn’t seem inspired. They’re recycling some plots. The actors seem checked out. Maybe all the years of nonsense have finally taken their toll on them.

38. Batwoman (Season 2 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 43) - Batwoman lost its main actress in between seasons, which obviously put it at a difficult crossroads. In my opinion, the wise thing to do would have probably been to recast as best as possible and carry on. Instead, the show chose to go a different direction and cast a new person to play an entirely new character. There was maybe a way this could work, but you likely have to retool the entire show to get there. Instead, they changed nothing but the main character and inserted her into the middle of the old character’s world, forcing her to have the same supporting characters and deal with some of the same storylines the old character was dealing with. This led to a lot of story beats where new Batwoman had to interact with old Batwoman’s family. What was in season one drama between Batwoman and her sister, or her father, became drama between the new Batwoman and this crazy lady she just met, or this guy she barely knows. As you might be able to guess, this added an air of “who cares?” to the proceedings. Also, the whole season essentially became an origin story for new Batwoman, which was a problem because that’s basically what season one of the show was. It wasn't super engrossing. That said, let me put aside the issues raised there. Having to recast your main actress is obviously a tough situation. They didn’t handle it well, but it was tough. Here’s why this show is still all the way down here on the list: bad execution. Week in, week out: bad plots, bad dialogue, dumb subplots, forgettable villains. A lot of the same issues that are plaguing The Flash. The show is simply not executing. It’s like these superhero CW shows don’t know how to do writers’ rooms over Zoom.

37. Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (Season 2 - 2021, Freeform) (Last year’s ranking: 47) - I said last year I didn’t know if I liked this show or not. I think the fact that I’ve put it near the bottom of my list for two years in a row has answered that for me. It’s a kind of fascinating show in how, I guess… aimless it is. Floating from one scene to the next, one plot to the next, one episode to the next, no real driving force. A comedy that’s not really funny. A drama that isn’t very strong. A few good moments in a season of ten half-hour episodes. Would I have watched a third season? Yeah, probably. Not in a hate-watch way, but also not in a like-watch way. I’m glad it got canceled because it means I’m free of it. Would I recommend to other people any of the shows I’ve seen from Josh Thomas? No. Definitely not. Will I watch whatever Josh Thomas writes next? Yeah, probably. Though I can’t say why.

36. Soulmates (Season 1 - 2020, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This was a short Black Mirror-esque anthology series that ran out of interesting stories to tell surprisingly quick. Like, third episode quick. This show’s problem is that, while Black Mirror has freedom to tell lots of different stories, Soulmates is restrained by its premise: a short time into the future a company creates a test that can match you to your soulmate with 100% accuracy. It’s not a bad premise, but you can sort of imagine how it would constrain the storytelling possibilities. The test matches you with someone surprising, the test matches you with the wrong person, etc. etc. The whole thing was only six episodes and it felt repetitive even within that small amount.

35. Debris (Season 1 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Debris was created by J. H. Wyman, who did a lot of work on Fringe, one of my favorite sci-fi shows ever. Unfortunately, Debris was just a pale imitation of Fringe. The characters weren’t strong enough. The ideas weren’t intriguing enough. The episodes were often flat. They just didn’t have enough action or drama or horror or twists or whatever you might be hoping for from a show like this. They’d have a lot of walking around and looking at stuff and people talking about the stuff that was happening and then they’d kind of just peter out. A real disappointment.

34. The Walking Dead: World Beyond (Season 1 - 2020, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - You know how teenagers can often be the worst characters on a TV show? How they can exist just to act bratty and make really stupid decisions? Well, imagine a whole show of that. I’m half-joking. It’s not that bad. There’s some fun stuff and it works as a companion piece in this series of shows, but for the most part, it’s a lot of watching teenagers make really stupid decisions and almost getting themselves killed.

33. Stargirl (Season 2 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 36) - Speaking of teenagers making really stupid decisions and almost getting themselves killed... Stargirl is a bit of a strange show. It’s kind of lighthearted, but also weirdly dark (more children die in this show than died in all the other shows I watched this year combined). It has some interesting characters and some absolutely ridiculous ones. Some fun episodes, but what also feels like quite a bit of filler. It’s not bad, it’s just also not great.

32. Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (Season 2 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 20) - The first season of this show was about a handful of things, but the big emotional throughline was about Zoey dealing with the impending death of her father, who had been diagnosed with an incurable neurological disease. While the other plotlines in the show could be hit or miss, there was always emotional meat on that bone, so to speak. Well, minor spoiler alert I guess, but her father died at the end of the first season from the aforementioned incurable disease. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the second season of the show really laid bare how important that throughline was to the whole thing. Without it, the show felt rudderless. There were a lot of pieces of plots but nothing really anchoring them the way her father’s storyline did. Plus, there was a lot more love-triangle stuff, which wasn’t the most original, compelling plot the first season and grew even more tiresome in the second. The show sort of became like late-stage Glee for me, where I stopped caring about the plots and just listened for the songs. That more or less worked with Glee because almost all the people on that show were excellent singers. It works much less on this show because maybe (generously) half the performers are good singers.

31. MacGyver (Season 5 - 2020-2021, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: 26) - It was a pretty weak final season for MacGyver. They abandoned some interesting storylines from last season in a disappointing way. In fairness, it’s because last season got shortened by COVID and I guess for whatever reason they couldn’t find a way to pick back up where they left off. But still, they had a tough time regaining the momentum after they lost it. The cancellation was without warning from CBS, too, so there’s no real conclusion to anything. Just an average season finale that suddenly became a series finale. Tough way to go out.

30. Bob's Burgers (Season 11 - 2020-2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 38) - I was looking back at my episode ratings for this show from the last two years and realized they were pretty similar. Both last year and this year, there was only one episode per season that I thought was pretty good. There was also one episode each year I thought was awful. And then, basically, there were 21 episodes each season that were fine. Just fine. A few laughs. Nothing really engrossing. Worked well enough to keep me entertained and not much more.

29. The Walking Dead (Season 10B - 2021, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 29) - The eleventh season of the show is currently on-going. That’ll be on next year’s list. This is just for a grouping of six episodes that aired earlier this year. They were extremely forgettable with the exception of two episodes. I enjoyed “One More” quite a bit and I really liked the Negan origin story episode: “Here’s Negan”. Probably one of the best episodes they’d done in years.

28. The Blacklist (Season 8 - 2020-2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 39) - A slight improvement for this show from last year. A handful of average episodes, a few very good ones. A really fascinating choice made at the end of the season that makes me interested in seeing what next season will be like.

27. The Moodys (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 46) - I described this show last season as “likeable if not particularly funny” and said if it was to come back, the writing would have to get sharper. That remains pretty accurate. The writing was slightly better, though not enough to make this a truly good show.

26. Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This show was way too overstuffed to really work well, which seems a poor choice made in the writing process. It has like a dozen different ideas it wants to touch on and doesn’t really execute any single one of them in a satisfying manner. The real shame of it is there was a good show in here if they just chose to keep things simple. The best episode by far featured Falcon and the Winter Soldier going on a mission with Baron Zemo. That was it. They went to a shady bar of villains and did some spy stuff. Blew some stuff up. Fought some bad guys. That’s the show! Sticking with a core of that and cutting the 20-something unnecessary side characters would’ve gone a long way.

25. Archer (Season 11 - 2020, FXX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - The show returned to its spy satire roots and started clicking again. It’s not at the level of its earlier peak seasons, but it’s still reliable for some good laughs.

24. The Great North (Season 1 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Solid animated comedy from two of the writers of Bob’s Burgers. It obviously borrows a lot from the style and tone of that show. I do find The Great North a little fresher. The writing is a little sharper, the stories are a little more interesting (but it also isn’t in its 11th season like Bob’s Burgers so it’s not a wholly fair comparison). It slots in nicely with the other FOX Sunday animation shows.

23. The Simpsons (Season 32 - 2020-2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 37) - I essentially write the same thing every year about The Simpsons. Some highs, some lows. I felt the quality of episodes this season, for whatever reason, was generally a little bit higher than last, thus it’s up here.

22. Duncanville (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 34) - It didn’t make the huge leap in quality I was hoping for, but it was consistently above average this season, with a couple of flashes of excellence.

21. Snowpiercer (Season 2 - 2021, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: 14) - Decent second season for this show. Started a bit slowly but picked up in the back half. Sean Bean was a good addition to the cast. If it dropped in quality from season one, it might be because I liked this show as my stupid summer show and season two aired during the winter. High possibility this affected my opinion of it.

20. Chad (Season 1 - 2021, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This isn’t a show for people who can’t handle cringe comedy. It lives there. And if the joke isn’t landing, which sometimes it doesn’t on this show, then you’re just trapped in a scene. But! But the jokes often do land, and when they do, they are very good. It’s also occasionally a touching show. The main character is a little dick, but the show also has a lot of sympathy for him -- he’s the son of immigrants trying so hard to fit in in middle school, to be what he perceives to be normal, in a battle with his own identity, in some of the most difficult years in a teen's life. You hate him but you also feel for him and want him to win. It’s a show with a little more depth than I thought it would have coming in.

19. What If…? (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - You know how it is with anthology shows: you win some, you lose some. The show is better at coming up with concepts than executing them, I think. Episodes feel a little rushed (generally because they’re trying to tell a movie’s worth -- or sometimes multiple movies’ worth -- of story in half an hour) and sometimes they feel like they just end because they've reached their time limit. Overall though, it’s a fun way to just try different things in the Marvel Universe.

18. Family Guy (Season 19 - 2020-2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 24) - I barely even write blurbs about Family Guy on these lists anymore. It’s very consistent. This is around where it ends up on every list.

17. Alex Rider (Season 1 - 2020, IMDbTV) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Fun fact: I watched this show as part of an online paid focus group thing. I’ll just tell you what I told the people who ran the focus group. It’s good. It’s sleek and well-made. It moves just a little too slow for a spy thriller but not to the point of being boring. The show does need a little more life though. Some more quips and liveliness. It’s pretty preposterous on a conceptual level. A teenager is recruited into MI6 to be a spy and save the world. Don’t play that too seriously. Everyone understands this is teenage James Bond, so be that. Lean into it.

16. Prodigal Son (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 28) - A fun second and final season for Prodigal Son. They only did 13 episodes for this season so they got to do a little more long term storytelling and fewer cases-of-the-week (this show handles those well anyway so not necessarily a bad thing). The bummer is that the show got canceled without much warning so they didn’t get to wrap things up, leaving on not quite a cliffhanger, but a fairly open-ended note.

15. Legends of Tomorrow (Season 6 - 2021, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 11) - The only show on the CW that seems to be in control of what it’s doing. Not as good a season as last season, but still quality work. Good characters, funny, imaginative.

14. Fargo (Season 4 - 2020, FX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - First time on a list for Fargo since the very first TV list I wrote in 2017. An impressive hiatus. I will say, I do think this was the weakest of the four seasons of Fargo. It took way too long to get the train rolling, though when it did, it got much better and delivered four really strong episodes at the end of the season. When it’s on, Fargo can fire on cylinders in storytelling and characters and dialogue that very few shows on TV can match up with. This season’s issue was that it took far too long to be on.

13. 9-1-1: Lone Star (Season 2 - 2021, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 35) - I've really come to enjoy this show. I think this show found a groove in season two, putting out pretty consistently above-average episodes. It still has a lot of over-the-top silliness, but the characters are strong and most of the plots work.

12. Superstore (Season 6 - 2020-2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 25) - Superstore was one of the few shows to incorporate COVID into their storylines in a natural way and manage to find humor in the situation, so bravo for both attempting that and succeeding at it. Behind the scenes, the show lost their main star, America Ferrera, at the start of the season, which should obviously have been a tough blow to take, but the rest of the ensemble stepped up and the show continued on without missing a beat in quality. Then, after filming nine episodes, they learned that this would be their final season, so the producers transitioned really well into endgame mode, crafting a strong backstretch of episodes to wrap everything up. I would guess with all the behind the scenes stuff and shooting this whole thing in the midst of a pandemic, this was the most difficult of the show’s six seasons to create. The fact that they were able to deliver such a satisfying finale through all of it is very impressive.

11. Fear The Walking Dead (Season 6 - 2020-2021, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I’d say this season was not as strong as last, but I still found it very good, and generally more enjoyable in recent years than the original flavor Walking Dead. A fascinating story choice at the end of the season, setting up an intriguing seventh season.

10. Animal Kingdom (Season 5 - 2021, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Not the strongest season Animal Kingdom has had, but the show is still one of my favorites. This season is sort of about the characters searching for their identity in a new world, which is interesting in its own right but perhaps not as much as pulling off daring heists? I get the sense this season is doing some prep work in anticipation of next season, the show’s last. I’m predicting a very good final season.

9. American Dad! (Season 18 - 2021, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: 23) - A return to form for the show. Much improved over last season for me.

8. Love, Victor (Season 2 - 2021, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: 5) - Just a minor step down in quality from the first season, I think mostly because the show lost a little focus. Season one was about Victor’s journey to self-acceptance and coming out, season two was more about dealing with the fallout from all that. There wasn’t a super-strong throughline. But still a very sweet show. Funny. Romantic. Very enjoyable.

7. Mr. Mayor (Season 1 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - This show is going to be good. I’m calling it. It already had a very strong first season with one of my favorite comedic episodes of any show this year in 1.6 “Respect in the Workplace”. Tina Fey and Robert Carlock behind the scenes, a very good cast in front of the camera, this show is set up to become one of my favorites.

6. Mythic Quest (Season 2 - 2021, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Mythic Quest is a fascinating show. For 90% of its episodes, it’s just a very good workplace comedy. And then, every now and then, it just uncorks a truly fantastic standalone episode. Season one did this with episode 1.5 “A Dark Quiet Death”. The show also released a quarantine episode called, appropriately, “Quarantine” that was probably my favorite COVID-related TV episode, one that should serve as a nice time capsule for this period at some point down the road. Season two was an improvement in quality overall from season one, and it also featured a tremendous two-part standalone story (episodes 2.6 “Backstory!” and 2.7 “Peter”). It’s a funny show with good characters and a surprising amount of heart.

5. The Other Two (Season 2 - 2021, HBO Max) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Great, great satire of the entertainment industry. Excellent characters. Fantastic writing. Often hilarious, but it also has some depth to it when it comes to matters surrounding the core family.

4. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Season 8 - 2021, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 7) - It’s only appropriate that this show ends up here in its final season. I once wrote about this show that I was never excited to see it pop up in my DVR, despite really enjoying it when I actually got around to watching the individual episodes. This final season was essentially a bunch of very special episodes. The show felt it was obligated to tackle all kinds of important real world topics instead of just being a goofy sitcom. It didn’t really work and it made me once again unenthused about starting up an episode. And yet, the show’s actually plotting within episodes and joke-writing ability is so incredibly strong that once I started the episode, I found myself really, really enjoying it as always. The series finale is a great example. Super obvious character arcs, things you saw telegraphed from basically the beginning of the season, and yet, the episode was still pitch perfect. Hilarious and moving and exactly how you'd hope for a show to wrap up. Stuck the landing brilliantly. This was a show that always succeeded in spite of itself. In spite of its premise and its core identity. It succeeded because it was always one of the sharpest written shows on television. Its final season was no different.

3. WandaVision (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - I really enjoyed the early episodes of this show, where they went to great lengths to capture the setting and feel of various past eras of television. They did an incredible job with the sets and costumes, and beyond that, even the writing was very good at aping the styles of the eras being portrayed. But as much as I enjoyed the early episodes, I really loved when the show took a turn and slowly unfolded into a piece about one character’s loss and grief. A tremendous second gear. A fantastic show overall.

2. The Mandalorian (Season 2 - 2020, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: 2) - A tremendously fun show. Didn’t lose a step from season one.

1. Loki (Season 1 - 2021, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Loved this show. Not just from a storytelling perspective. On that alone, it’s an excellent show. Some fun mystery stuff, some mind-bending stuff, clever, funny writing, great characters, solid drama. Beyond that though, I was just loving everything I was seeing and hearing on screen. The sets -- everything from the TVA headquarters to alien planets -- look amazing. The costumes are great. The music is superb. The show just had everything firing on all cylinders. It was brilliantly done.

So there we have it. Like I mentioned, some of these shows are still going on and have a few episodes left in their seasons. I might come back and do some light editing on this list if any of those shows do something truly surprising in a good or bad way in those final episodes but the likelihood is they probably won’t do enough to wildly change my opinion of them.

Or, if you’re reading this in the future, maybe I’ve already done that and that adjusted list is the list you’re looking at!

Wow.

Mind. Blown.

- - - - -

Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw The Past Year

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jordoalejandro · 3 years

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The Fourth Annual TV Show Rankings Movement Chart

And I thought last year's list was messed up because of COVID. This year's list is all over the place, too. Missing shows. Shows halfway finished. Shows moving up the list because this year's list is a shorter one. It's chaos. Absolute chaos, I tell you. Yet the list goes on.

It must.

Rankings and Movement (in alphabetical order)

24: Legacy - 2017: 57

9-1-1: Lone Star - 2020: 35; 2021: 🔼

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - 2017: 7; 2018: 8; 2019: 9; 2020: 1; 2021: N/A (ended)

The Alienist - 2018: 16; 2019: N/A; 2020: 17; 2021: N/A (ended? on hiatus?)

American Crime - 2017: 6

American Crime Story - 2017: 1; 2018: 26; 2019: N/A; 2020: N/A; 2021: N/A (ACS: Impeachment just started, I’ll put it on next year’s list.)

American Dad! - 2017: 17; 2018: 9; 2019: 5; 2020: 23; 2021: 🔼

American Vandal - 2018: 1; 2019: 1

Angie Tribeca - 2017: 43; 2018: N/A; 2019: 26

Animal Kingdom - 2017: 5; 2018: 6; 2019: 4; 2020: N/A; 2021: 🔽

A.P. Bio - 2018: 15; 2019: 3

Archer - 2017: 13; 2018: 25; 2019: 31; 2020: N/A; 2021: 🔼

Arrested Development - 2018: 7; 2019: 11

Arrow - 2017: 31; 2018: 36; 2019: 35; 2020: 15; 2021: N/A (ended)

At Home with Amy Sedaris - 2018: 10; 2019: 14; 2020: 18; 2021: N/A (canceled)

Atlanta - 2017: 54

Batwoman - 2020: 43; 2021: 🔼

The Blacklist - 2017: 34; 2018: 33; 2019: 21; 2020: 39; 2021: 🔼

The Blacklist: Redemption - 2017: 35

Blindspot - 2017: 56

Blood & Treasure - 2019: 38; 2020: N/A; 2021: N/A (delayed)

Bob’s Burgers - 2017: 26; 2018: 21; 2019: 25; 2020: 38; 2021: 🔼

Brockmire - 2017: 27; 2018: 24; 2019: 16; 2020: 31; 2021: N/A (ended)

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 2017: 23; 2018: 18; 2019: 17; 2020: 7; 2021: 🔼

Champions - 2018: 19

Class - 2017: 20

Corporate - 2018: 34; 2019: 29; 2020: 21; 2021: N/A (ended)

Defending Jacob - 2020: 16; 2021: N/A (miniseries)

The Detour - 2017: 29; 2018: 30; 2019: 13

Dickinson - 2020: 22; 2021: N/A (eh, didn’t get around to it before my Apple TV+ free subscription expired)

Duncanville - 2020: 34; 2021: 🔼

Everything’s Gonna Be Okay - 2020: 47; 2021: 🔼

Eyewitness - 2017: 10

Family Guy - 2017: 18; 2018: 20; 2019: 23; 2020: 24; 2021: 🔼

Fargo - 2017: 3; 2018: N/A; 2019: N/A; 2020: N/A; 2021: 🔽

Fear the Walking Dead - 2017: 16; 2018: 12; 2019: 8; 2020: N/A; 2021: 🔽

The Flash - 2017: 32; 2018: 38; 2019: 39; 2020: 49; 2021: 🔼

For All Mankind - 2020: 40; 2021: N/A (free Apple TV+ subscription expired)

Frequency - 2017: 59

Galavant - 2017: 24

Ghosted - 2018: 17

The Gifted - 2018: 39; 2019: 44

The Good Place - 2017: 8; 2018: 4; 2019: 10; 2020: 3; 2021: N/A (ended)

Gotham - 2017: 11

Great News - 2017: 22; 2018: 3

The Grinder - 2017: 14

The Guest Book - 2017: 53; 2018: N/A; 2019: 40

Hit the Road - 2018: 46

Inhumans - 2018: 47

The Kids Are Alright - 2019: 7

The Last Man on Earth - 2017: 44; 2018: 43

The Last O.G. - 2018: 28; 2019: 34; 2020: 53; 2021: N/A (delayed)

Legends of Tomorrow - 2017: 41; 2018: 31; 2019: 27; 2020: 11; 2021: 🔽

Life in Pieces - 2017: 46; 2018: 29; 2019: 20

Limitless - 2017: 48

Little Fires Everywhere - 2020: 48; 2021: N/A (miniseries)

Love, Victor - 2020: 5; 2021: 🔽

MacGyver - 2017: 52; 2018: 44; 2019: 41; 2020: 26; 2021: 🔽

The Mandalorian - 2020: 2; 2021: ▶️

Me, Myself & I - 2018: 42

The Mick - 2017: 33; 2018: 11

The Mist - 2017: 19

Modern Family - 2017: 37; 2018: 23; 2019: 19; 2020: 4; 2021: N/A (ended)

The Moodys - 2020: 46; 2021: 🔼

The Morning Show - 2020: 30; 2021: N/A (free Apple TV+ subscription expired)

Mrs. America - 2020: 9; 2021: N/A (miniseries)

The Muppets - 2017: 55

Nancy Drew - 2020: 51; 2021: N/A (bailed)

Nobodies - 2017: 40; 2018: 32

Normal People - 2020: 42; 2021: N/A (ended)

The Orville - 2018: 40; 2019: 43

The Other Two - 2019: 18; 2020: N/A; 2021: 🔼

Our Cartoon President - 2019: 42

Ozark - 2020: 6; 2021: N/A (on hiatus)

People of Earth - 2017: 50

Perfect Harmony - 2020: 45; 2021: N/A (canceled)

Person of Interest - 2017: 2

The Politician - 2020: 41; 2021: N/A (on hiatus)

Prison Break - 2017: 42

Prodigal Son - 2020: 28; 2021: 🔼

Quantico - 2017: 58

The Real O'Neals - 2017: 25

Review - 2017: 12

Rise - 2018: 45

Riverdale - 2017: 39; 2018: 38; 2019: 36; 2020: 50; 2021: 🔼

Schitt’s Creek - 2019: 12; 2020: 8; 2021: N/A (ended)

Schooled - 2019: 30; 2020: 27; 2021: N/A (canceled)

Scream Queens - 2017: 47

Search Party - 2017: 61

The Simpsons - 2017: 21; 2018: 22; 2019: 24; 2020: 37; 2021: 🔼

Single Parents - 2019: 33; 2020: 10; 2021: N/A (canceled)

Snowpiercer - 2020: 14; 2021: 🔽

Son of Zorn - 2017: 36

Space Force - 2020: 44; 2021: N/A (delayed)

Splitting Up Together - 2018: 41; 2019: 32

Stargirl - 2020: 36; 2021: 🔼

Stumptown - 2020: 32; 2021: N/A (canceled)

Sunnyside - 2020: 19; 2021: N/A (canceled)

Superstore - 2017: 9; 2018: 2; 2019: 6; 2020: 25; 2021: 🔼

Those Who Can’t - 2017: 38; 2018: N/A; 2019: 22

Timeless - 2017: 30; 2018: 13; 2019: 28

Treadstone - 2020: 33; 2021: N/A (canceled)

Trial & Error - 2017: 28; 2018: 14

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - 2017: 4; 2018: 5; 2019: 2

The Unicorn - 2020: 52; 2021: N/A (bailed)

The Walking Dead - 2017: 15; 2018: 27; 2019: 15; 2020: 29; 2021: ▶️

When We Rise - 2017: 49

Whiskey Cavalier - 2019: 37

Workaholics - 2017: 45

Wrecked - 2017: 51; 2018: 35

You, Me and the Apocalypse - 2017: 60

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist - 2020: 20; 2021: 🔽

#Annual TV Show Rankings Charts

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jordoalejandro · 3 years

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The Tenth Annual List of Movies I Saw the Past Year

Well, we made it. Ten years.

It’s amazing to look back on a decade of lists and think about what I’ve learned. And what I’ve learned is… movies, huh. They make them good, and they make them bad, and lots of times, they make them somewhere in between.

And I think that’s beautiful. It’s like life or something.

Anyway, let’s get to the list for this weird, weird year. It was a down year for me. Nothing I truly loved. Lots of films I liked a lot, but even the films at the very top of the list had one issue or another for me that prevented me from committing to the L-word for them.

So some good films, some bad films, a lot in the middle ground. Like life or something.

Here’s the list of films I’ve seen since-ish the last Oscars ceremony (2/9/20).

60. Tom & Jerry - Look, it was free on HBO Max, okay? It’s just so uninspired. Much of the Tom and Jerry stuff is rehashed old cartoon bits (your mileage may vary, but I never found that stuff funny even as a kid) done in a bland CGI style. The human story is cliche and poorly acted, and doesn’t even stumble into a funny moment here or there. It’s just flat across the board. The whole movie is a paint-by-numbers piece designed to keep children occupied for 100 minutes while sucking some quick cash out of an old property. Mission accomplished, I guess?

59. Ava - The hitwoman movie feels like it’s been done a dozen times in the last five years and this film feels like it was written by an AI bot that had those scripts fed into it. Then the AI bot decided a super trite hitwoman story wasn’t enough and padded out the film with really boring family drama? Some bland stuff about addiction and gambling and not being a good daughter and/or sister? It’s all so bad. The whole thing is a dull mess with barely any connective tissue. You’d hope that at least the action would add something, but it’s not shot well. It comes off slow, and the hits have no impact to them. Sort of the only bright spot is John Malkovich’s mentor character. Malkovich is entertaining and his relationship with Jessica Chastain is a highlight of the film, but it’s also about five total minutes of screen time. It’s honestly sort of shocking that a script this bad was made. Like that enough people read it and gave it the thumbs up to continue but somehow they did and here we are.

58. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon - This is a film, like Tom & Jerry, that I probably wouldn’t have bothered with except that it was already on Netflix and it was nominated for an Oscar, so I figured I’d check it out. It’s one of these British claymation movies that’s cute and well-made but it’s so goddamn dated that it’s a tremendous slog to get through. I feel like the producers making these movies in claymation gives them bonus points. You inherently know it took a lot of effort, and there’s this whole legacy of British claymation filmmaking behind it, so it feels more special. Like, “Oh, this must be a delightful film because it’s so precious.” The truth is, there’s nothing really special about this film. If it was made cheaply with CGI by a company that didn’t have this long critical darling legacy, no one would care about it. It would be just another straight-to-Netflix kids’ movie. I don’t mean this in a positive way: this film feels like a movie that could’ve come out at any time within the last 60 years. Like, if you told me the producers dusted off a script written in 1966, added cellphones and some other references to bring it to the present day, and shot it as is, I’d believe you. The plot is a tired story about an alien landing at a farm. It runs through all the beats you expect from these stories: befriend the alien, hide the alien, get into misadventures with the alien, help the alien get home. The humor is super dull -- the kind of stuff that appeals to small children and people whose sense of humor is tickled by animals doing human things, easy slapstick, and decades old references. There’s just nothing fresh about this. There’s a scene where something is revealed and “Also sprach Zarathustra” plays. There’s a zero gravity scene set to “The Blue Danube”. There’s a running joke about fine china being broken. This is the kind of movie my grandpa would’ve watched and gotten a kick out of, and probably very small children would enjoy it, so fine, it does its job, but there’s just absolutely nothing here for me.

57. Emma. - On the bright side, it’s a very good looking film. There were a couple of moments where I thought to myself, “Wow, that looks like a painting.” Just great work in lighting and cinematography. Other than that though, I got just about zero from this film. It’s a straight-forward adaptation of a Jane Austen novel that doesn’t try to be anything other than that, so unless you absolutely need to see this novel adapted for the screen for the dozenth time, why even bother? It makes you wonder why the filmmakers bothered, too. Why not try something different with the material? Take a bigger swing? I feel like movies like this worked better when we were first discovering the majesty of the moving picture and were thrilled to just see anything in a theater. Now, there are a million things to watch that are miles more entertaining than a straight-forward Austen adaptation, so, again, why bother?

56. The White Tiger - This film is pretty flat. Long periods without much interesting stuff happening, punctuated by pieces of melodrama. Some of the early narration suggests the film is a satire of sorts, but the writing never lives up to that label, coming off more often awkward than insightful or clever. There’s an interesting story somewhere in here about how a poor kid makes himself rich in India but that story is told in a montage in five minutes at the end of the film. The bulk of the movie is how the main character is treated poorly by the rich people who hired him as a driver and hey, did you know it sucks to be poor in India? Surprise! It does! Someone should make a movie about that.

55. The United States vs. Billie Holiday - My notes for this are similar to my notes for The White Tiger: very dull for extended periods, moments of melodrama in between. The film’s highlights are really just watching Andra Day perform Billie Holiday songs. She does an excellent job in the role, in both acting and singing, but there’s nothing else here worth the time.

54. To All the Boys: Always and Forever - Here’s an interesting note: the second film in this series was the first movie I saw this year in like, late February of 2020, and this third one was one of the last, in late April of 2021. And in between these two films, a lot of other stuff happened. I’m not going to go into it. You can look it up. But am I saying I will forever associate the To All the Boys series with the coronavirus? I’m not not saying that. Anyway, as for the film itself: it struck me while watching it that I didn’t know why it was a movie. There are such low dramatic stakes to this thing. The plot is about a high school couple dealing with where they will go to college (not the same one!) and whether or not they will have to break-up. That’s it! The same thing literally thousands of high school students go through every single year. There’s no swerve to it. There’s no real humor below surface-level quips. The romance is fine, but the film is really just for people who love these characters, which, I guess if you do, the movie probably works for you. To me, this series of films is one that has struggled to justify its existence after the first film and this one really didn’t do a good job of justifying.

53. The Binge - It has a few decent laughs, but far too few for the type of comedy it is (jokes at the expense of everything else). The idea for the film is interesting (The Purge, but with drinking and drugs), and the set up in the first act works, but then it basically devolves into your standard teen comedy. You don’t really get the sense that there’s a nation-wide event going on. It plays out more like Spring Break as portrayed in a million other similar teen comedies. In fact, by the end, when the heroes are participating in a team competition involving drinking and doing drugs and performing tasks, it’s so barely distinguishable from those million other films, that you’ve mostly forgotten what this film’s conceit even is.

52. Godzilla vs. Kong - Stupid, and not in a particularly fun way. Which... fine, okay, nothing makes sense and I honestly don’t really need it to. It’s all in service of getting the big animals to fight. But then, the fights are just kind of okay. It’s hard to care either way who wins and who dies. Am I supposed to root for Kong? Am I supposed to root for Godzilla? I don’t like either of them. Why should I? It’s not like they really have personality. Mostly all I’ve seen them do is fight other large animals and destroy cities. So who am I supposed to care about? The human characters? I care about them even less. They’re incredibly one dimensional, neither compelling nor sympathetic, and constantly making stupid decisions. Four movies in and I guess that’s just what this series is: poorly written plots, terrible human characters, big spectacle. I’m sure some people find that enjoyable, but it doesn’t really do anything for me.

51. To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You - Or: 2 All the Boys: 2 Love 2 Boys. I felt this one had more of a plot, at least, than the third one, but I still contend this whole series of films needed some sharper humor to give them more life, otherwise they’re just kind of flat romances without a ton of surprises.

50. The Life Ahead - It has all the pieces that make a good Oscar-bait film -- holocaust survivor, orphan child, Muslim immigrant, dementia -- but that’s ultimately what the film feels like: a bunch of pieces of unfulfilling drama from an Oscar-y film and not a whole good movie.

49. Tigertail - Plays out like a sort of boilerplate immigrant story. It’s not poorly made or anything, but it just doesn’t feel like it has a ton of energy to it until just about the very end. Moves from one piece of backstory to the next without much surprise or momentum, hitting too many prerequisite beats, down to the sad music that’s telling you you should be sad here.

48. Hillbilly Elegy - A real formulaic poor person-slash-addiction biography. Nothing to get too enthused about. It’s overly melodramatic and overly sentimental about a story that’s not that amazing or unique. Glenn Close was doing a good job but that’s mostly it here.

47. Malcolm & Marie - The movie basically boils down to watching an unpleasant couple argue and attempt to emotionally hurt one another for an hour and a half. It’s the sort of film that has to be shot in black and white otherwise it really lays bare that the entire film is just two people in a house yelling at each other. The script has some good parts, but not enough for a film that’s almost entirely script. The two leads have good chemistry and do some solid acting, but I think the film as a whole is more interesting as a snapshot of this year than a movie worth returning to.

46. Moxie - Has some good pieces and some interesting parts, but more that doesn’t work than does. It’s not funny, and its attempts at levity all fall flat. Issues are raised and dropped. The characters are too broad. The drama feels forced. The stakes aren’t there until they suddenly, harrowingly are. It just feels like the script had some ideas, but overall wasn’t great to begin with.

45. Let Them All Talk - It’s sort of fascinating how, every now and then, Steven Soderbergh can just make an experimental movie with big stars and decent budgets. Like, for this film, he really just got on a boat with a camera and a cast of name actors and let them improvise a film. It’s fascinating. It’s not good, but it’s fascinating. Dianne Wiest handles the improvisation best but the majority of the cast really struggles to find something in their scenes: a piece of drama or humor or emotion. It’s a movie that’s almost entirely dialogue and most of the dialogue doesn’t go anywhere and thus it feels like the film is just kind of floating aimlessly.

44. Downhill - I can see why this didn’t play well and got buried as a Winter release. You see Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus and think it’s going to be a fun comedy, but it’s much more a dramedy, bordering on a drama. There’s some interesting stuff going on about masculinity and loss of it and status within the family, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is actually doing some solid acting in some of these scenes, but it’s not a really enjoyable watch and some of the bits of comedy almost seem shoehorned in because of genre demands. It feels like if it could’ve committed more either way -- toward drama or comedy -- it would’ve come out better, but it sort of settles in the middle and leans on cringe comedy so much it never really pulls it all together.

43. Zack Snyder’s Justice League - It’s marginally better than the original version and all it needed was to double the runtime to a whopping four hours to do it! Here’s the problem: while yes, this version of the film does offer several improvements over the Joss Whedon cut, none of those improvements serve to actually make this a good film. That’s because the major issues this film -- and really most of the DCEU up until this point -- had are all still present: bland plots, lifeless characters, forgettable villains. This new, extended version isn’t a good film, it’s just a more complete version of a bad film. Like, the film’s plot gets much needed exposition in several places. That’s an improvement! None of it is interesting, however. That’s a problem. I have a clearer idea of what the Mother Boxes are now. Great! But they’re still just boring MacGuffins that there’s no reason to really care about. I know more about Darkseid now. Great! But it turns out he’s another gray, personality-less, armor-wearing alien with a deep voice hanging out in space. Steppenwolf gets more backstory and a look upgrade! Neither makes him a compelling, non-generic villain. Cyborg gets a lot more screen time and uses it to tell an origin story that’s, ultimately, very bleh. Side characters that got all or mostly cut out of the Whedon version get their full screen time restored and add nothing to the viewing experience. The movie spends a lot of time adding all of these things for such little reward. It also adds like an extra half hour of slow motion shots and extended takes of superheroes glaring. These also add very little, or really nothing at all, to the film’s value. Then there’s the tone. The film tries to correct its tone from Joss Whedon’s version and it succeeds in that sense, removing most of the jokes and changing the music and darkening the film’s colors. This film definitely jibes better with the previous Snyder films in this series. Is that an improvement? I guess in the sense that it’s probably better for the movies in a series to match their tones. But, also, those films were no good. So, great! The tones match. The vision of this cinematic universe is more complete. The problem is: that vision is terrible. I guess, ultimately, if I had to pick, I think I like the Whedon version better. You can argue the quips and scenes Whedon added to his version didn’t fit this universe and I’d probably agree with you that they don’t. But they were at least an attempt to add some personality to these characters, who have none. To add a little pep to these films, which have so very little. Some of it worked. A lot didn’t. In the end, both cuts of Justice League are bad films, but one at least made me laugh a couple of times and only took me two hours to watch and the other was FOUR HOURS.

42. Happiest Season - It’s sort of a Hallmark movie with a bigger budget. There are a couple of funny moments and sweet moments, but this isn’t really anything worth watching outside of the Christmas season. You sort of have to be in that holiday headspace. Also (spoilers for a film for which you already know the ending, even if you haven’t seen it), Aubrey Plaza’s side character steals the show a bit, which makes it so that when the main romantic couple inevitably end up together, it doesn’t work as well. You were kind of rooting for Aubrey.

41. Wolfwalkers - The animation is nice, at least. The voice acting is solid. I think I’m realizing this genre of “serious animation”, which is mostly foreign-made animation that’s mystical or whimsical (like last year’s I Lost My Body), is a bad genre for me. It all feels very old fashioned and generally not enjoyable, like stuff that was made before the 90s Disney revival and the emergence of Pixar that proved good animated films could be thoughtful and emotional and fun. Wolfwalkers is something I can watch and appreciate for the animation but I just don’t have a good time doing it. It feels very much like I’m watching a movie being made by people who are making art here. It’s all so dull.

40. Palmer - I don’t think Justin Timberlake is an untalented actor, per se, but I don’t think he’s talented or charismatic enough to carry a movie like this where he’s the anchor. His character is a surly tough guy with a heart, but there’s no charm in his surliness. He just comes off as personality-less. And he never really comes across as the tough guy he’s supposed to be, either. I think that’s just baked into him being Justin Timberlake, unfortunately. Also, this is one of those “stray child melts the heart of a non-parent” movies that relies a lot on how tolerable the kid is and the kid here isn’t great, so that’s also an issue. The film has too many cliches, in characters and story, that it has to win in execution -- in the acting and writing and directing, and it doesn’t shine in any of those so it’s pretty meh overall.

39. Pieces of a Woman - It’s a two hour movie that’s mostly a bunch of replaceable drama scenes placed around a major-major set piece in the beginning (that works but doesn’t feel as amazing as a 20+ minute oner probably should) and a few excellently delivered monologues. It’s impressive from an acting perspective but the film itself just doesn’t have a whole lot going for it.

38. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom - It’s very similar to another recent August Wilson adaptation: Fences. It’s a movie that feels very much like watching a play, from the limited setting to the stylized dialogue to the melodrama and the monologues. It’s another film where the acting is very good but as a movie-viewing experience, it really lacks.

37. The Banker - The real life story behind this film felt more interesting than what was delivered on-screen. The movie as presented lacked zest. It’s a slowly paced film which makes it feel longer than it is. This is not helped by the less-than-punchy dialogue. There are a couple of good exchanges but mostly it’s pretty blunt and unsubtle and the actors have to work to sell it. Samuel L. Jackson in particular is really trying to carry the film with his charisma, and he does a good job, but that still only goes so far.

36. Over the Moon - This is like the “We have a Disney film at home. Disney film at home:” version of an animated film. It’s not quite there. It looks good, I liked some of the songs, and I like some of the first act, but it becomes a pretty typical cartoon fantasy piece after that that feels generic, in plot and message. It just doesn’t have the humanity of better animated pictures, you know what I mean? Like, you know that the characters are cartoons, but they still feel human to you. Even non-human characters in good animated films can feel so human. This film doesn’t get there.

35. Irresistible - This feels like the movie version of one of those political cartoons you see in the paper, where like, a man in a suit labeled SPECIAL INTERESTS is dumping a bag full of money into a gas engine labeled FAIR ELECTIONS or something. Whatever, I don’t want to actually finish that political cartoon. You get the idea. This movie is also only slightly funnier than one of those cartoons, unfortunately. It’s got a couple of decent gags but long, long stretches without anything to grab hold of. A fascinating, kind of insane twist at the end though that’s fun. Ultimately, the whole thing is pretty surface level fluff and not really worth it.

34. The Midnight Sky - It has some good stuff, but it is far too slow paced. Also, the movie’s plot is split between two groups of people and it never really gets you to feel for either one enough. I would honestly have cut out 80% of the astronaut stuff and stuck with George Clooney’s character. That’s the movie. There’s some emotion to this film that really works and some good acting from Clooney and Felicity Jones, especially at the end, but the movie as a whole doesn’t have enough momentum. It sits around a lot, not doing enough.

33. Cherry - The film has some good pieces, and Tom Holland is doing some plus acting at the center, but the film meanders too much, touching on a lot of topics (army, war, drugs, crime) in ways that have been done much better and more interesting before in other films. It’s not a bad film, it’s just not anything thrilling or new, despite its best efforts.

32. On the Rocks - It’s nicely acted and has some decent exchanges and moments, but overall there’s just not enough story to sustain its runtime, so it plays out a little too slow and a bit repetitive. Still, it might be worth a viewing just for Bill Murray, who is so naturally charming in his performance.

31. The Little Things - It moves well enough, though it could’ve been trimmed a little. It’s got some interesting dialogue and a good score, but the whole thing doesn’t come together fully. It’s not a murder mystery so much as a story about how cops are affected by the job, which means it has to be more of a character-based film and the characters just don’t get there. Denzel Washington and Rami Malek don’t have the chemistry to make their scenes really work and have their relationship pay off. Jared Leto is doing way too much and I didn’t care for it. Overall, it’s just an okay thriller.

All right. Let’s take a quick documentary break at the half-way point here before we get to the top 30. These are in the order I liked them from least to most, though I liked all three quite a bit.

The Mole Agent - A very cute movie with very cute old people. Some laughs, some emotional moments. To be honest, despite its claims to be a documentary, I don’t know how true it really is. It feels a little set-up. It’s maybe juuuuust on this side of the documentary line while a movie like Borat is juuuuust on the other side? It’s a blurry line to be sure. Either way, this was very enjoyable.

Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds - Full disclosure: I saw this the week I was fighting Covid, so my frame of mind might have been slightly altered, but I really dug this. I also watched all three seasons of that show where Ewan McGregor and his friend ride on motorcycles around the world and dug those, too. Maybe I was just loopy and in need of distraction. Either way, I did find this film to be captivating. Werner Herzog has a knack for capturing truly beautiful footage and he does so here. However, he also has a tendency to wander and does so a bit here, too. He’s fascinated with so many aspects of life that some of the tangents he goes off on are things that you can tell he’s intrigued by but aren’t necessarily things that would be captivating to most viewers. Still, if you ever find yourself stuck in bed and not really wanting (or able) to do anything, turn off the lights and put this thing on.

Boys State - A fascinating documentary with some great characters. It poses a sort of interesting question about if politics is nature or nurture. Are the ugly bits learned or are they that way because they work? It’s very entertaining watching this whole conference unfold.

Also, I saw Hamilton. I don’t feel like I can put it in the movie list. I’d argue it’s more of a documentary about a Broadway production than anything, but it’s also not really a documentary? Whatever. I’m just putting it here because I don’t know where else to. It’s good. I liked quite a few of the songs. I dunno, you probably don’t need another person’s opinion about the show. I probably shouldn’t have even brought it up.

Oh well.

Back to the list!

30. Wonder Woman 1984 - Bloated and muddled. Lots of weird character choices and nonsensical plot choices. Some of the action scenes are strong, some of them are that cartoony DCEU style that I can’t stand. The film has some fun stuff, though, with the best parts coming from Chris Pine and Gal Gadot’s relationship beats (basically like the first one, which I liked but wasn’t blown away by). WW84 is not as bad as some of the DCEU entries, but it’s not a step in the right direction for this franchise either.

29. Da 5 Bloods - I think there’s a good movie in here somewhere -- a really intriguing story of four black Vietnam vets returning to the country to search for treasure and deal with their trauma -- but as is, it wanders too much, and the treasure hunt isn’t really satisfying when it should be the whole show. Spike Lee, as almost always, over-directs. Some of it works but more often than not, he does too much when he doesn’t need to. (Also, it was a really distracting choice to not cast younger versions of the mains for their Vietnam flashbacks. They clearly look like old guys!) The real highlight of the film is Delroy Lindo, who delivers an excellent, compelling performance.

28. Nomadland - Like the film’s many vista shots, it’s frequently beautiful, but mostly empty. The film is such a piece of cinema verite that it almost crosses over and becomes a slice of life documentary about nothing. That slice of life idea can work for documentaries, but there’s not a lot of magic in that in a narrative piece. Documentaries feel like anything can happen. This film feels like not much does. I never found myself fully engrossed by what was on screen, never felt truly interested in what came next. For me, it only really works as a vehicle for Frances McDormand to do some wonderful naturalistic acting. She blends in seamlessly to this group of mostly real nomads. Her Fern feels like a real human -- quirks, sadness and all. I appreciate the film’s attempt at shooting life, and I wouldn’t have wanted it to shoehorn in drama for the sake of it, but I needed more. More plot, more tension, more something to get me through the runtime.

27. Bad Education - It’s an interesting story, told okay. Though there’s some decent drama and a few good bits of comedy, the whole thing is too methodically paced. The beats of the crime unfold well, though perhaps the film could have been framed better, if say, told from the perspective of the student journalist who was cracking the whole case. Overall, it’s a solid HBO movie, with some fine acting performances from Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney.

26. Judas and the Black Messiah - The film delivers some good moments of tension and drama, but overall, it feels a little dull for a story that seems like it should be a lot more intriguing. It has very little momentum, with lots of flat parts throughout. Plus acting, but I think the script, directing, and editing were all just average.

25. The 40-Year-Old Version - Radha Blank is very good in the lead, and does an excellent job as the film’s writer, as well. The script has some real funny bits and some nice insights. The film itself does often come across as amateurish, though. I don’t mean that in a necessarily overly negative way, just in a sort of factual way. You can see it in the margins: the film loses momentum a few times, it needs some trimming, the acting isn’t always the best. You remember you’re watching a low budget film and a debut directing performance. Overall, though, a very charming film.

24. Extraction - The plot is almost non-existent. It mostly serves to move from action piece to action piece, and that’s fine. That’s what the movie is. As long as you’re doing that, though, you’d better deliver on the action pieces, and this film does that very, very well. The violence is a little over the top and feels sort of unnecessary. I know some people get off on bullets exploding heads into red pulp and all that but it really does nothing for me. It makes my viewing experience worse, to be honest. I get reverse joy from that kind of thing. Chris Hemsworth is very good in this. He doesn’t even really get a ton to do here outside of “be a tough guy action star,” but even within that limitation, he exudes charisma and flashes some decent acting chops. Solid action film.

23. I Care a Lot - A decent, sleek thriller? It’s not really thrilling. It’s also not funny at all so I wouldn’t call it a black comedy, but I guess that’s the closest genre for it. The film looks good. It could stand to trim a little bit, perhaps, but it moves well enough. Some of the plot stuff is a little convenient but it’s an entertaining film overall. Good performances from Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage.

22. Minari - Some good moments and insights, and some really good acting from the entire cast. Yuh-jung Youn, in particular, delivers an excellent performance as the quirky grandma. The film is a very quiet story about the immigrant experience, though it often plays so quietly that sometimes the drama doesn’t land. I appreciate a realistic storytelling approach over melodrama, but moments in this film that should hit harder often don’t because of the film’s understated tone.

21. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) - It’s an almost good movie. Like, it’s humorous but never really funny. It has decent character moments but no really good characters. It’s got segments within larger action sequences which are very good but the sequences themselves drag and lose energy. The editing is like that Suicide Squad trailer, which is to say it’s trying just a tic too hard. It’s a fun movie, but it’s not great.

20. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga - A surprisingly sweet story with some laughs and even some decent songs. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it’s a pretty enjoyable watch. Rachel McAdams turns in a really good performance.

19. Promising Young Woman - In revenge thrillers, the hero has to run through legions of villains on their way to the big bad. This is sort of that, in that Carey Mulligan’s Cassie runs through a ton of baddies who put up as much fight as a John Wick henchmen. In an action movie, you can kind of cover that with cool stunts. You might think a little bit about how weak the henchmen are, but mostly you glaze over it as you watch John Wick jump around and shoot them. This film isn’t an action film. Cassie battles mostly with her words. Sometimes it works, sometimes you get the verbal equivalent of those scenes where you’re watching bad guys stand around in a circle, waiting to attack the hero one-by-one as you wonder, “Why don’t they all just jump him at once?” Except, here, it’s more like “How stupid are these people?” The film is well directed, and the writing does have some sharp moments, but just a too few many of those “How stupid are these people” moments to be really great. Very strong performance from Mulligan in the lead role.

18. Another Round - A pretty good dramedy about drinking, disappointment, and generally just dealing with aging. Smartly written, well directed and acted. Feels like it could be trimmed a little bit but it works well overall.

17. The Prom - It’s based on a Broadway play so it has that issue that plays sometimes have where the plot just works a little too easily. You know, how like things get wrapped up really quickly through song? Here’s a plot problem > here’s a song about it > plot problem solved. But that aside, the film has some joyful, catchy numbers and some solidly funny bits, and surprisingly decent acting. I wasn’t expecting to like it much but it won me over. It’s quite an enjoyable watch.

16. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm - (I’m not typing out that whole thing. It was bad enough typing out the Harley Quinn one.) Some extremely funny moments and some surprisingly moving moments, but not nearly as good as the first film. Also, because it’s more or less about current events, it is aging super fast. I saw it in late March, and just in the period from its release to then it started feeling somewhat dated. There’s more of a timelessness to the original. But it’s still worth a watch just for the out-there, often hilarious skit ideas and the two leads’ absolute fearlessness.

15. Greyhound - It turns out it’s pretty enjoyable just watching Tom Hanks shout naval commands on a World War 2 battleship for an hour and a half. The movie is basically an extended action sequence, almost no story to speak of, almost no characters, but it’s very good at what it is. It moves quickly. It doesn’t overstay its welcome. It keeps things exciting and engaging for 90 minutes and it gets out. Hanks anchors the whole thing with his presence.

14. Sound of Metal - A very good, well-made, thoughtful film featuring some superb acting performances and probably the best use of sound in any film this year. Riz Ahmed is excellent in the lead, but Paul Raci and Olivia Cooke do great work in supporting roles, as well.

13. An American Pickle - This is a movie that has a lot of great stuff about Judaism and the 2nd-3rd generation immigrant experience. Admittedly, that’s a small target audience and if you don’t fall into that, this film probably won’t speak as much to you. For me, as a 2nd generation Jew, this film hit home a lot and I found it to even be quite moving at times. It’s a funny film, it’s a touching film, Michael Giaccino’s score is beautiful, and Seth Rogen does some really good work in dual roles, but especially as Herschel. The only problem here is, unfortunately, stretching the core concept of the film out to 90 minutes required the creation of some conflict and that conflict, while humorous, just doesn’t land as well as the emotional or funny beats about family, often becoming a little too silly. Still, there’s a lot to like here if you’re in the target group.

12. The Lovebirds - A really well done romantic action comedy. Is it basically a Date Night remake? Yeah, kind of. But whatever, it works. As long as the film still executes, I can forgive it being a similar plot. And this film does execute. It gives you everything you want from a film like this: good comedy bits, funny lines, great chemistry from the two leads, and a little bit of a mystery to solve. I give a lot of credit to a film for nailing what it sets out to do.

11. The Half of It - A very sweet, smart, gentle little coming-of-age movie that really works. It looks good, the acting is decent, it moves well and it sticks the landing.

10. Mank - A well-written, expertly directed biopic. A little slow, as the genre tends to be, but presented in such an excellent, fascinating manner that it’s elevated into something much more engrossing. Really good acting from Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried.

9. The King of Staten Island - It suffers, like a lot of Judd Apatow films, from bloat. It meanders just a bit too much, and there’s no real reason it should be a two hour, fifteen minute film. But, length issues aside, I did think this was a truly good film. There are quite a few really excellent bits of comedy and emotion, and some plus acting from the whole cast. Pete Davidson, Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr, Bel Powley, and Steve Buscemi (in a pretty small role) are all doing great work.

8. One Night in Miami... - Excellent acting, great writing. One of those movies that was a play and it suffers a little bit from that, where you feel the play-ness of it (the limited sets, the stylized monologues), but director Regina King does a good job of creating some movement and elevating it to more of a movie level. While I commend her for that, I did have a little bit of a nit-picky issue with some of her other directing choices, namely in the group scenes where the main four would be talking and the camera would make these somewhat jarring jumps around the room. There were some odd camera placement choices in this film that would occasionally take you out of the scene for a second while you readjusted to the space in the room. It’s an especially weird unforced error considering King has directed quite a few things on television before and this is sort of basic stuff. Still, like I said, she did a good job of elevating the material and got good performances from her actors so it’s a net-positive directing job.

7. The Trial of the Chicago 7 - I think some people have tired of Aaron Sorkin, but I still find his writing to be very compelling. It works for me. This film had a great mix of drama and humor, and that classic Sorkin recipe of snappy lines and dialogue that pops. My only real issue is that some of the stuff comes off as just too big. Frank Langella’s judge character is an over-the-top villain. And the ending is way way too cheesy. The rest of the film is very good, though, and the acting is solid all around, with Mark Ryland, Jeremy Strong, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II being some standouts.

6. News of the World - A gorgeous looking film (so many breath-taking scenic shots of old west landscapes), with a great score, and some solid acting and directing. The story is a little simplistic but it serves its purpose (my mom pointed out it’s basically the same story as Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, which... yeah). It’s just an expertly handled Western.

5. Dating Amber - Really delightful. Very touching. It’s structured like a romance but it’s really a sort of beautiful film about the romance of friendship. About how that love can be just as deep and meaningful in one’s life as romantic love. And about how finding someone who truly understands you when you feel alone can mean the world to you. Excellent writing and great acting from the two leads. A film that delivers in both comedy and emotion.

4. Onward - Hits the tremendous emotional notes that Pixar movies hit -- the ones that just wreck you -- perfectly, but while the writing is good, there’s just not enough sharp humor or inventiveness in the film to really elevate to the upper-most echelon of Pixar films. It’s near the top, but not the top. But really good direction and voice acting make for a great film.

3. Palm Springs - Such an enjoyable film. Very sweet. Hilarious and clever without being too meta. It’s even got some decent acting performances as well. Probably the most fun I had watching a film this year.

2. The Father - The Father, on the other hand, is not enjoyable (not that it’s trying to be). It is a heartbreaking trip inside the mind of someone suffering dementia and it is truly stunning in how well it puts you in that headspace. It makes you appreciate having all your faculties. It makes you realize how scary it must be to not have a firm grasp on time and space, to not remember who you can trust, to question your own reality. It also shows how hard this brutal disease is on one’s loved ones. In this sense, it’s almost hard to recommend this film. It’s excellently done and brilliantly acted -- Olivia Colman is great as the struggling daughter and Anthony Hopkins is amazing as usual, perhaps one of the top performances of his storied career -- but it is not a fun watch.

1. Soul - I will say, it’s maybe not as emotional as Onward, but I found it to be more creative and funnier. And it has some really interesting existential philosophical messaging. The first act feels a little rushed, and a bit discordant, but then it really settles in and tells a wonderful story after. The voice acting and directing are great. The visuals are great. The music is great. Another sensational Pixar film.

Okay, now on to the individual awards.

Best Actor

5. Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 4. Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal 3. Mark Rylance, The Trial of the Chicago 7 2. Gary Oldman, Mank 1. Anthony Hopkins, The Father

Best Actress

5. Rosamund Pike, I Care a Lot 4. Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman 3. Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday 2. Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman 1. Frances McDormand, Nomadland

Best Supporting Actor

5. Bill Murray, On the Rocks 4. Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods 3. Jeremy Strong, The Trial of the Chicago 7 2. Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah 1. Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami...

Best Supporting Actress

5. Olivia Colman, The Father 4. Amanda Seyfried, Mank 3. Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 2. Ellen Burstyn, Pieces of a Woman 1. Yuh-jung Youn, Minari

Best Directing

5. Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman 4. Paul Greengrass, News of the World 3. David Fincher, Mank 2. Florian Zeller, The Father 1. Pete Docter and Kemp Powers, Soul

Best Screenplay

5. Radha Blank, The 40-Year-Old Version 4. Jack Fincher, Mank 3. Kemp Powers, One Night in Miami... 2. Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7 1. Andy Siara, Palm Springs

So there it is. It felt a lot like the group of movies from a couple of years ago where I kept waiting and waiting for a movie that was going to really blow me away and it just never came. Definitely some good films. Definitely some films I would recommend. But, again, nothing I can say I truly loved.

Anyway, year 10 in the books. Here’s to the next decade.

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Annual Lists of Movies I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #Annual Lists of Movies I Saw The Past Year

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jordoalejandro · 4 years

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The Fourth Annual List of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

Here’s a fun little thing I did for this year’s list: I started grading each show’s individual episodes. I bought a notebook with graph ruled paper and made tables and everything. It’s… well, it’s maybe not healthy behavior.

It also led me to realize I’d watched a lot of TV. Seeing every episode I’d watched this year marked down across two pages of graph paper really made that clear to me. Hundreds of hours easily. I guess that’s what happens when you can’t do other things like leave your house.

Anyway, now that you know how I’ve spent my quarantine, let’s get to the list of shows I’ve watched that have aired since the last Emmy awards.

53. The Last O.G. (Season 3 - 2020, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: 34) – I don’t know if I’d say this show is really the worst show I watched this year (though it’s definitely a contender) but I’m placing at the bottom of the list because of how disappointing it has become. I enjoyed season one. It was a good show about second chances and growth and empathy. Season two maintained some of that, but was starting to feel thin in plot. Season three lost just about everything it had going for it. First, while the show wasn’t super funny to begin with, this season had almost no laughs. The humor has become a bit like what I feared it would be when I first tuned into this show. Weirdly broad. Forced. Flat, stereotypical characters are thrown at the wall so the writers can do jokes about how Tray can’t relate to them because they’re stupid hipsters or whatever. The plot is all but gone. Characters are introduced so there can be an episode about them (really: so some easy jokes can be wrung out of whatever new setting Tray is placed into) and then they’re abandoned just as fast. Makes you feel no emotional connection to anything. The worst offense is that Tray’s family got de-emphasized in lieu of his new cast of wacky, uninteresting neighbors in his apartment building. The family stories were the heart of this show. Losing that, or pushing it to the far background, makes this show barely above the level of a generic multi-cam sitcom. The weird thing is, the show almost seemed to realize this – that they’d strayed so from the original quality and were becoming a broad sitcom – that suddenly, at the end of the season, the show got wildly melodramatic. Like it tried to course-correct so badly, it overshot the mark. The season ends on a super-dramatic cliffhanger that really comes out of nowhere and feels so out of place. Bad creative choices all around this season. It’s really a shame what’s happened here.

52. The Unicorn (Season 1 – 2019-2020, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – It’s a sweet enough show but it is so, so dull. I think I laughed maybe twice over the 18 episodes of its first season (I believe both times because of Rob Corddry). Walton Goggins is a good actor and can absolutely do comedy, but the character they’ve created for him here and placed front and center in this show (he’s The Unicorn) has the personality of a block of wood. He’s a nice guy and a dad and that’s about the full extent of his character. He brings no comedic value to a show that’s a comedy. It’s not even that his character is given bad jokes or that he botches their delivery or anything. They don’t bother to give him joke lines. He doesn’t say sarcastic things or absurd things. He doesn’t get any punchlines. He barely reacts to situations around him. I get there’s playing the straight man in a comedy bit, but it has gone way beyond that here. He’s almost like a character from another show. A family drama. The other characters around him are meant to be the funnier counterparts but their jokes mostly fall flat. There’s a talented cast here, and they’re trying, but there’s just nothing here in terms of writing.

51. Nancy Drew (Season 1 – 2019-2020, CW) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – The show is okay at creating mystery, and it does a decent job of creating spooky scenarios, but it is obsessed with cheap jump scares. They do at least one an episode and it makes the show feel like it’s not confident in its own ability to be spooky and mysterious. Like, uh oh, we’d better have a ghost shriek into the camera here to really drive home the point this is frightening. It’s lazy. I think the show’s other problem is it takes itself too seriously. When it acts like it’s a serious drama, it’s at its weakest. When it sort of leans into the fact that it is based on the stories of a teen detective solving mysteries with her friends and how dumb that is as a concept, it has some more fun and gets better. Unfortunately, they only did that a few times throughout the season. They mostly stuck to the drama and the jump scares and that made for a mostly skippable show.

50. Riverdale (Season 4 – 2019-2020, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 36) – Riverdale did a nice tribute episode to Luke Perry as the season opener – by far my favorite episode of the show this year – and then settled into its normal nonsense. Actually, even worse than that, it settled into a bunch of uninteresting, unconnected nonsense. Much of this season had the core-four split into their own storylines. I kept waiting for them to converge, for some kind of meaning to appear, for some kind of cohesion, and it just didn’t happen. It kept bouncing from one place to another, never really doing anything compelling. I’ll grant that the show ended early because of Corona, but I just can’t imagine the last three episodes or so were really going to tie the whole thing up in a neat bow. We’re four seasons in now and I know that would be giving Riverdale way too much credit.

49. The Flash (Season 6 – 2019-2020, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 39) – It’s honestly surprising how dull The Flash has gotten. It feels so much like they’re just going through the motions, their only real signs of life coming in the yearly crossover episode. Like Riverdale, The Flash only made it through 19 episodes before being shut down, but, also like Riverdale, there was nothing really going on in those first 19 that was setting up for an amazing final three. A disjointed season, another poor Big Bad. Something needs changing.

48. Little Fires Everywhere (Miniseries – 2020, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – I will say this, the show is very good at reminding you it takes place in the 90s. There’s a song or TV show or movie reference from the time period dropped every few minutes or so to drive the point home. It’s almost as on the nose as Schooled. It’s sort of emblematic of the problem with a lot of the writing on the show. Little Fires Everywhere tries to be one of the prestige drama but it’s often so on the nose and over the top, it comes off silly. The acting and music is good. The show itself doesn’t really offer anything interesting otherwise, in plot or character. It’s mainly about people acting like dickheads and overstepping their bounds, so much so that it almost feels like it’s daring you to care about the plot or like any of the characters.

47. Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (Season 1 – 2020, Freeform) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – So I’ve watched a lot of Josh Thomas’ work over the years, starting with all four seasons of Please Like Me and now the first season of Everything’s Gonna Be Okay. Even having watched all of that, I still cannot say with confidence if his writing is any good and, weirder, I don’t think I can say with any confidence whether or not I even like it. I think the answers are sometimes and mostly not. But, again, not certain about those. Let me break down the writing: he likes to tackle topics that can be quite serious and are rarely joked about – normally having to do with mental health – and he’ll lean into the gallows humor aspect of it. This can occasionally lead to exchanges that are shocking-in-a-good-way with how unique they are. Little gems that can be touching and, well, not really laugh out loud funny, but humorous. (He’s rarely laugh out loud funny. Maybe twice in this whole season. It’s not really that kind of comedy anyway. I don’t think, at least.) The problem is, the rest of the time, the plots and the dialogue feel forced and unnatural. Plots often go nowhere. Jokes fall flat, mistaking saying something outlandish or mean as a punchline. Characters act weird just to get conflict. It can be a real mess. Those are the sorts of things I’m thinking about while watching the show. How this isn’t working, or that wasn’t good, and why is this happening now? It makes me feel like I don’t like his writing. But then again, I keep watching the stuff he makes, so maybe I do like it deep down? Maybe it’s that the shows intrigue me just enough to keep me coming back? Like I said, I don’t really know how I feel. I didn’t after finishing Please Like Me and I was hoping watching this show would help and I honestly find myself less sure. I don’t know if this was a review of the show so much as a therapy session, but I guess that sort of fits thematically with his work.

46. The Moodys (Season 1 – 2019, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Likeable if not particularly funny. It sort of worked as a little Christmastime miniseries (it was six episodes aired over about a week in December) in the way that Lifetime Channel Christmas movies are enjoyable to some people because it puts them in the right seasonal mood but don’t work outside of that specific window of time. FOX has renewed it for a second season and I don’t know if there’s enough here to work as a series. It got by while not really being funny because at least the mood was on-point. If it’s going to work as an actual series in earnest, the writing needs to get sharper.

45. Perfect Harmony (Season 1 – 2019-2020, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – This was a show that just never got off the ground for me. The episode plots weren’t very interesting or unique. The writing wasn’t incredibly funny or sharp, not on any consistent basis. The main thing the show had going for it was an occasional good musical performance. That just wasn’t enough to save it overall, though.

44. Space Force (Season 1 – 2020, Netflix) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Another show that just did not have enough quality writing on a consistent basis. There were some flashes of brilliance -- episode 1.9, “It’s Good to Be Back on the Moon” was the high point by far – and there are the pieces here to make a good show, but it needs to put in the work to get there.

43. Batwoman (Season 1 – 2019-2020, CW) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – The show understands the CW superhero formula and slots into it well enough, but the show itself never rose about being “just fine” for me. There’s nothing structurally wrong with the show. There’s room for it to get better, but as of now, the heroes, the villains, the plots, none of them are especially good. They’re just fine.

42. Normal People (Season 1 – 2020, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – I’m honestly impressed the BBC spent this much money to film someone’s fan fiction. Marianne is smart and pretty, she just doesn’t know it! Connell is handsome, athletic, smart, and sensitive, but he can’t admit how much he loves Marianne to his friends, who are all dumb jerks! The two are surrounded by one-dimensional villains, you see. People who just don’t understand our main two characters and are wildly mean for meanness sake. Dumb jerks, really. Honestly, it’s like Marianne and Connell are the only good things in each other’s lives, but they just can never get things to work! Star-crossed! Like, seriously. They get together in like the first episode and un-get together and re-get together over and over for the next 11 episodes. The two go back and forth and back and forth until it’s super hard to care. Then, the show (spoilers the rest of the way) seems to finally have put them together near the end, and it breaks them up AGAIN. The whole thing ends on a melancholy note and for seemingly no reason other than because it has to, because its genre is sad romance. It feels unearned and unnecessary. Connell decides to go to New York to study and Marianne won’t go. Why? I dunno. She’s miserable. She has a bad relationship with her family. There’s basically no reason for her to stay except that if she just did the logical thing and went to New York (New York! by the way. Not like, some outpost in Antarctica. It’s one of the best cities in the world) with the guy she loves then it would be a happy ending and that wouldn’t jive with what this show is about: how we’re the most unique twenty-somethings on the planet and nobody understands us. Look, the show looks good, and the acting is often excellent, but it’s just so tough to get through. There’s some quality here, but the experience as a whole is not enjoyable.

41. The Politician (Season 1 – 2019, Season 2 – 2020, Netflix) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Season one was entertaining enough. Season two was slightly worse. Overall, it had some moments where it was pretty good, and some moments where it was really good, but mostly it was just decent. It honestly felt a little flat, like it needs to be a musical or something just to inject some more life into it and lift it above what it currently is. Or maybe it just needs to pick a lane. It feels like it can’t commit. Does it want me to care for Payton, dislike him, fear him? It’s sort of a black comedy, and sort of a satire, and sometimes it borders on farce, but then it also gets very sincere. Like, way too sincere for everything that came before it. It makes it hard to want to care about the characters. Weirdly (or maybe not given what I just said) the show’s best two episodes come when the main characters were pushed to the background. Episode 1.5, “The Voter,” and episode 2.5, “The Voters,” are about characters introduced in -- and existing only in -- those episodes, while the main characters appear only in passing. The episodes display the ridiculous world of the show from the view of outsiders while also hitting the sort of perfect political satire note that I believe this show is aiming for. I don’t know how to apply the lessons from these two episodes to the rest of the series. Maybe it’s not possible given the main characters, but if the show is to continue, I think this is the lane for it.

40. For All Mankind (Season 1 – 2019, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – The show gets a lot of mileage from its core concept: what if the Russians landed on the moon first and won the space race? The twists and turns and reveals that come from seeing this alternate history keep things occasionally interesting in the early going. Unfortunately, when the show isn’t doing a history-altered reveal, it’s moving considerably slow. It doesn’t really kick into gear until the final two episodes of the season, which, in fairness, are excellent.

39. The Blacklist (Season 7 – 2019-2020, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 21) – Not a great season for The Blacklist. A couple of good episodes, but a weak season-long arc and mostly forgettable villains-of-the-week.

38. Bob's Burgers (Season 10 – 2019-2020, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 25) – So I’d been grouping Bob’s Burgers and The Simpsons together in the low 20s of these lists throughout the years, but looking at the scores I’ve given their episodes this year, they’re probably more appropriately placed around here. I don’t really have any qualms with the shows. They are what they are and I find comfort in them, but I guess they aren’t really knocking my socks off.

37. The Simpsons (Season 31 – 2019-2020, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 24) – Like all Simpsons seasons now, some highs and some lows. My favorite episodes of the season were 31.19 and 31.20 (“Warrin’ Priests” parts one and two), a pair of episodes written and guest starring Pete Holmes, which were very funny and felt surprisingly fresh for a show 31 years in.

36. Stargirl (Season 1 – 2020, CW) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Stargirl was a little like Batwoman in that, despite being its initial season, it has a good feel for its place in the CW universe. I say that knowing it wasn’t originally made for the CW but it did air on the CW and has since been picked up for season two on the CW, so, you know, whatever, it’s basically a CW superhero show. Point is, it’s comfortable in its style and its action scenes and its characters. It knows what it’s doing. Like Batwoman, though, it’s also not amazing. It’s decent to good, but doesn’t ever really rise too much above that. It’s got some quality pieces, and some goofy pieces, and a surprising amount of child death for a somewhat lighthearted show. Overall, it’s solid, which isn’t bad for the first season of a show. I do wonder if it’ll be able to maintain its quality making the move from the DC Universe streaming service to the CW fulltime. It did seem to have a bigger budget than your standard CW show. We’ll see how well they do when that budget is slashed a bit (assuming that’s the case).

35. 9-1-1: Lone Star (Season 1 – 2020, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – The first episode was the show’s worst. It was trying so hard to play up its diversity that it felt like it was trying to prove a point. And I say that as some who appreciates diversity in shows and movies. The show settled in, however, and started producing more quality episodes. It also became more enjoyable the more you got to know the characters and see their relationships grow. I could never get into the original 9-1-1 because of how groan-inducing I found a lot of the over-the-top scenarios, and Lone Star shares some of that DNA. Some of the calls the team are brought in on are so ridiculous, they make you roll your eyes (and sort of question why you’re watching this stupid show), but there’s still enough here for me in character and some plots that I kept watching and enjoying it.

34. Duncanville (Season 1 – 2020, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Another show with a really solid first season. Fairly consistently funny, with a couple of very good episodes amongst the other pretty good ones. This is one of those shows I think could grow well and end up much higher on later lists.

33. Treadstone (Season 1 – 2019, USA) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – This show starts out pretty cool. It’s got the Bourne movie feel down. It’s introducing a handful of interesting characters in interesting locales and giving them neat spy action stuff to do. And you’re going, “Can’t wait to see how all these stories intersect and how this ends up.” And then you keep watching and all these separate storylines keep going along, separately, and you check the episode listings and see they’re running out of episodes and you slowly start to realize: “Oh, these stories are never going to intersect, are they?” And, in fact, they never do. And then the season ends with all the storylines still separate and in a very open-ended way, which is weird because this show was advertised over and over as a “limited series.” That would indicate to me that it’s going to end. Right? What does limited series even mean if they intend to continue telling this story over more seasons? Just that eventually it will end? Aren’t all series limited by that standard? Hey, one day the Sun will expand and swallow the Earth whole so nothing’s really unlimited, right? What are we even doing here? Honestly, it’s sort of infuriating because a big reason I tuned in was because I expected a series that was limited. One that had a story to tell, that would tell it, and then would end. I might not have even started this show if I’d known it was going to set up a bunch of mysteries that might potentially never be paid off if the show doesn’t get more seasons. Oh, and by the way, it’s not getting more seasons. It got cancelled after one, so there’s that. I’m honestly madder at the advertising for this show than anything, I guess. The show itself had a lot of fun action, but everything else about it felt more like moving pieces around for a finale that never came.

32. Stumptown (Season 1 – 2019-2020, ABC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – A pretty solid crime drama. It has style, a nice mix of drama and humor, and a good cast playing interesting characters. It’s nothing groundbreaking in that sense. What is, if not groundbreaking, very rare, is that the main main character, Dex, is openly bisexual and has relationships with men and woman throughout the first season. Her sexuality isn’t shied away from or played for jokes or anything. It’s pretty matter-of-fact and treated like the sexuality of any other major character on any other show, and I find that pretty interesting for a broadcast network show.

31. Brockmire (Season 4 – 2020, IFC) (Last year’s ranking: 16) – I’m so disappointed this show is ending up here. I enjoyed this show’s first season. It was a fun, if somewhat basic, raunchy comedy. The second season wasn’t as well done, but I felt the show really found itself in the third season. It had the right amount of edginess and heart. Season four, announced ahead of time as the show’s last, lost almost all of that. It chose to do a big time jump that just did not work (they rarely do). It ruined almost all the emotional stakes. It felt like it had no real connection to anything else in the series and it became a sort of weak Black Mirror imitation. It just felt like: what’s the point? This was always a show about a broken man who needed to re-piece his life together and become a better person, not a fairly lazy social satire. And the prism that story was told through was baseball, not dystopian sci-fi. That’s not to say the season was a complete write-off. There was some good stuff. But the best pieces of the season all came from that core I spoke of: Brockmire as a person and his relationship to people through baseball. It all could’ve been told without jumping wildly into the future. Seeing it end up like this, saving its worst season for last, was pretty sad.

30. The Morning Show (Season 1 – 2019, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Solid drama. Decent for the most part but a particularly strong ending. I watched a few of these Apple TV+ dramas and that seems to be the pattern with most of them. They all work to varying degrees, some more than others, but mostly they’re a bit sluggish out of the gates and have strong finishes. Also, excellent title sequences.

29. The Walking Dead (Season 10 – 2019-2020, AMC) (Last year’s ranking: 15) – The show definitely picked up in the second half of the season and started delivering more quality episodes, but it was sandbagged a ton by the first half, which was one of those patented Walking Dead lulls where it feels like we’re killing episodes until we can get to the good stuff. We’re a decade in now and those lulls get harder and harder to bear as the seasons go on.

28. Prodigal Son (Season 1 – 2019-2020, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – What I like about this show is that it takes a pretty standard idea -- genius profiler solves cases-of-the-week that no one else can -- and adds an interesting twist: his father is an infamous serial killer. And that’s fine. It’s a neat enough idea for a police procedural. But what elevates this show is its really dark sense of humor. It’s written almost like a black comedy. It plays with the absurdity of the situation. It leans into it. Michael Sheen is really having a good time here. He’s plays the serial killer father with a fun, over-the-top flair, while still maintaining a level of menace that keeps you uneasy whenever he’s around. Prodigal Son is not quite not a police procedural, but it’s on the upper end of what network police procedurals can be.

27. Schooled (Season 2 – 2019-2020, ABC) (Last year’s ranking: 30) – So here’s something kind of interesting. I sort of liked this show last year. It wasn’t amazing, but it was above-average. Then this second season began, and I found myself really enjoying this show. It had gotten much sharper. It was funnier, it was occasionally touching. It delivered some great episodes in the early-going and was quickly becoming one of my favorite broadcast comedies. And then, around maybe the half-way point in the season, it started to feel to me like it had lost steam. The back half wasn’t as funny or clever. It didn’t have the same life to it. All this was not the interesting thing. Here’s the interesting thing that I learned later from reading some industry articles: Tim Doyle is a veteran TV producer who created and ran The Kids Are Alright, which really surprised me and was my seventh favorite show on last year’s list. After The Kids Are Alright was cancelled, Tim Doyle was hired to be the new showrunner on Schooled. He held that position through the early part of season two and was eventually removed from the role around episode 13. Here’s a little graphic I made showing how I rated the episodes this season. The red line is where Doyle left the show.

(I made this using my big spreadsheet of episode grades. See? It wasn’t a huge waste of time!) I guess the point is I like Doyle’s writing. I think he’s a good showrunner. I think it was probably a mistake to take him out of the role and the show suffered for it. Schooled was cancelled after the season ended. I’m a little less sad about it now knowing that those first 13 episodes of season two were probably the high point.

26. MacGyver (Season 4 – 2020, CBS) (Last year’s ranking: 41) – Um. I guess I like this show now? I mean, I guess I’ve always kinda liked it otherwise I wouldn’t keep watching it, but… I’m not sure. I think they made a few tweaks that have made it more enjoyable. They’ve sidelined some of the worst characters a bit. They brought in Henry Ian Cusick -- who’s a great addition to any show but fits in well here -- and let him mix things up. It feels like they’re not trying so hard to be funny. (They still are a little bit. They do this too-cute-by-half thing with location chyrons where they sneak a little joke into each one, like, “Secret Missile Base – We’d tell you but we’d have to kill you.” Just like, awful, lame stuff like that and not one – NOT ONE – has ever been actually funny but it doesn’t stop them from trying over and over.) When they’re more casual about the humor and let it flow more naturally, it’s actually pretty good. For example, in 4.7, “Mac + Desi + Riley + Aubrey,” which was one of my favorite episodes this season, they put the characters into an awkward date situation and let the humor come from the characters and their relationships. I don’t know if this can ever be a “good” show. I don’t know if it’s in its DNA. But it can be an enjoyable show if it continues to grow and figure out what works and what doesn’t.

25. Superstore (Season 5 – 2019-2020, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 6) – This felt like a bit of a down season for me. The writing wasn’t as sharp. Some of the plots felt a little forced. The show definitely had a handful of really good episodes that remind you of how great it can be when it’s firing on all cylinders (especially near the end of the season) but it also seemed to have just a lot more average, forgettable ones. And now the show is also losing America Ferrera early in season six. That’s going to be interesting. She’s really the core of the whole thing. It’ll be fascinating to see if they can find a way to reinvent the show and come back stronger, or if it’ll only make matters worse.

24. Family Guy (Season 18 – 2019-2020, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 23) – I guess this is my little Seth MacFarlane block, with American Dad. These two shows, above all others, have the biggest discrepancies between my ratings of individual episodes. Some episodes I loved. Some episodes I got nothing from. I’ve said it before, but I do think it’s a case of both shows really going for it. Taking big story swings and either hitting home runs or striking out badly.

23. American Dad! (Season 17 – 2020, TBS) (Last year’s ranking: 5) – A few really great episodes this season, but quite a few more misses than usual.

22. Dickinson (Season 1 – 2019, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Very stylish, often funny. It’s a clever, snappy way to tackle a historical biography.

21. Corporate (Season 3 – 2020, Comedy Central) (Last year’s ranking: 29) – Sort of a weird final season for this show. Only six episodes and they didn’t really feel like they were building toward a finale. In fact, the first five episodes of the season just felt like regular episodes and not until the last episode did it seem like the show was ending. So the season as a whole, as a farewell season, wasn’t great, though the episodes themselves pretty much all were. A “sum of the parts being greater than the whole” sort of thing.

20. Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (Season 1 – 2020, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Really good musical comedy-drama that can get surprisingly emotional. I think my biggest issue with the show is that they cast quite a few actors in major roles who can’t sing. They’re not good. It’s sort of shocking because the producers knew going in the show was a musical, and so to not cast based heavily on musical ability is an odd choice. I guess it’s because the songs are supposed to be coming from inside the person, like their thoughts, so maybe these characters’ innermost thoughts aren’t good singers? I don’t know why they couldn’t be. I sing well in my head. I feel like my enjoyment of the second season will be based primarily on how many musical numbers they give the show’s good singers versus the bad ones.

19. Sunnyside (Season 1 – 2019, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Good cast. Good writing. I guess this one gets my “network comedy that surprised me with how much I really enjoyed it” award this year. It’s a meaningless award and, in fact, it usually means your show gets cancelled (which Sunnyside did). What’s really unfortunate for this show is that it only aired three episodes on NBC before getting moved to the internet due to poor ratings and the three first episodes were probably the weakest of the entire season for me. Honestly, the show was probably never really going to catch on with a huge audience, but it might have had a better chance with a stronger showing early on.

18. At Home with Amy Sedaris (Season 3 – 2020, truTV) (Last year’s ranking: 14) – Another batch of really good episodes here. So much of the fun of this show is watching it begin with a simple concept and trying to see how it’ll fly off the rails, like with one of my favorite episodes this season: “First Dates,” which begins with tips for planning for a date and ends with Amy Sedaris trapped in an elevated cage, being tormented by crazed home invaders.

17. The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (Season 2 – 2020, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: N/A, 2018 ranking: 16) – Strong follow-up to the original series. If I had to compare the two, I’d say the first season was a smidge better, but it’s close. The second season maintained the excellent creepy atmosphere and delivered an excellent spooky, period mystery. Solid acting from the core cast. And, at eight episodes, I think the perfect amount for this story. My only issue with the ten-episode season one was that it slowed down a little bit. Trimming some of the fat and telling the story in two less episodes was smart.

16. Defending Jacob (Miniseries – 2020, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Great crime drama with some entertaining twists and turns and some wrenching drama. It raises some interesting scenarios and questions and doesn’t really answer them, in a good way. In a way that makes the viewer decide. It’s not higher on the list because, like I mentioned with these Apple TV+ dramas, it’s just a wee bit slow in the start before ending very strongly. Also, excellent title sequence.

15. Arrow (Season 8 – 2019-2020, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 35) – Outstanding final season for Arrow. It did some reflecting, some looking forward. It even got emotional at times. As always, great action sequences. A really nice way to send off the show that started it all on the CW.

14. Snowpiercer (Season 1 – 2020, TNT) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – I found this to be very enjoyable. It’s got some silliness to it, but so did its source material, so whatever. It requires buy-in. It begins as a murder mystery, but that’s really just a clever way to introduce you to the train and its different pieces. It doesn’t take long to get that solved and get into the whole class warfare, revolution stuff. I realized while watching this show, I love a good stupid (not really stupid but, you know, for lack of a better word) summer show. Something that’s like 10 episodes and off-the-wall for most of them, airing in like, July. You know: a good, stupid summer show (see also: The Mist). Gives me something to look forward to every week when there’s not much else on at that time of the year. This show scratched that itch for me.

13. High Fidelity (Season 1 – 2020, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Really good romantic comedy with great style. Zoë Kravitz was excellent in the lead role and Da’Vine Joy Randolph and David H. Holmes were good in supporting roles as her friends. Sad to see it cancelled as it was fairly unique in the way it told a modern, adult relationship story.

12. Ted Lasso (Season 1 – 2020, Apple TV+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Really delightful show. Able to be funny and edgy while also maintaining a sense of optimism. Jason Sudeikis is fantastic in the lead role.

11. Legends of Tomorrow (Season 5 – 2020, CW) (Last year’s ranking: 27) – This has, by far, become my favorite show on the CW. It’s just so much fun. Great action, great comedy. You come to care about the characters and that leads you to even get a little bit emotional at times. It’s a show that feels like it doesn’t say no to any idea. Zombies? Mr. Rogers parodies? Sisqó cameos? Why not? It’s a superhero show about time travel. It’s exactly what they should be doing.

10. Single Parents (Season 2 – 2019-2020, ABC) (Last year’s ranking: 33) – I guess this show could also win the “network comedy that surprised me with how much I really enjoyed it” award, though I was starting to enjoy season one more as it went on and felt there was potential here for a big jump in season two. And big jump it made. The show figured out its characters and started writing really good material for them. The plots were working. The jokes were landing. This show was quickly becoming one of my favorites, and for that, it was punished by the TV gods with a cancellation. It’s not the first victim and it won’t be the last.

9. Mrs. America (Miniseries – 2020, FX) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – This show was created by Dahvi Waller, who was a writer on Mad Men, and this show has that sort of feel – authentic period storytelling, smart writing, excellent acting, but also not interested at all in creating dramatic situations. It’s more than happy to let the drama flow from character, which sometimes means it doesn’t quite flow as much as trickle (though when the drama does appear, it’s much more impactful). Great music, too. (And, also, it’s not an Apple TV+ show, but this show had a fantastic set of opening credits – my favorite of the year -- made by the same design company that made the title sequence for Defending Jacob).

8. Schitt's Creek (Season 6 – 2020, Pop) (Last year’s ranking: 12) – Fantastic farewell season. Gives the characters proper send-offs. Delivers a bunch of really good episodes leading to a truly great finale.

7. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Season 7 – 2020, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 17) – Tremendous season for Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Several really hilarious episodes.

6. Ozark (Season 3 – 2020, Netflix) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Caught up on this show earlier this year. I enjoyed the first two seasons. They’re your sort of standard crime drama but executed well. But I felt like the show really turned a corner in season three. It gave Laura Linney a lot more to do which she was lacking in the earlier seasons. That was the show’s biggest shortcoming, in my opinion, so that they rectified that made the show much, much better in season three.

5. Love, Victor (Season 1 – 2020, Hulu) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – A few years back on my movie list, I put Love, Simon at number five because I knew I couldn’t really be objective about it and I wanted it high up the list but also knew I couldn’t honestly put it at number one. I feel sort of the same about this show. It’s a really good, often very funny coming-of-age romantic comedy show but I can’t say it’s the most amazing thing ever. Still, it speaks to me. I love it for what it is. So, here it sits. Subjectively, I might put it higher. Objectively, it should probably be a little lower. Number five it is.

4. Modern Family (Season 11 – 2019-2020, ABC) (Last year’s ranking: 19) – I’m very happy to put this one here. A really wonderful final season for this show. It’s been such a consistent comedic presence for so long now. It’s cliché and a little cringy, but whatever, watching these characters grow and change over the years, they really did start to feel like family a little bit. I was really rooting for this show to do well in its swan song and it delivered. Consistently funny -- with some truly hilarious episodes that rank up there amongst the best the show has ever done -- and a pitch perfect finale. It felt like everyone, from the producers to the actors, was giving it their all to put out their best season in years as a way to say goodbye, and they pulled it off.

3. The Good Place (Season 4 – 2019-2020, NBC) (Last year’s ranking: 10) – I made a prediction on last year’s list that The Good Place would wrap up the show with some of the best episodes yet and I’ve come here to say: I was right. Does this mean I deserve all the credit for the show’s beautifully done final season? No. But I deserve at least some. Another show that stuck the landing in its final season. Funny as always. Smart as always. Touching. Thought-provoking. For a series that only had a total of 53 episodes, it made quite the impact.

2. The Mandalorian (Season 1 – 2019, Disney+) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) – Man, this was so much fun. Funny, exciting. It looks great. The music is great. It makes excellent use of the Star Wars universe, exploring unseen parts of it in such an enjoyable way. I love the old western gunslinger vibe of the show. I love Mando. I love the characters he meets and helps. I love Baby Yoda. It’s a show that just puts a smile on your face because it’s made with a love for the franchise and so it knows how to speak to the fans.

1. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 7 – 2020, ABC) (Last year’s ranking: 9) – Like with The Good Place, I made a similar prediction on last year’s list about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ability to deliver a high-quality finale and I’ve come here to say: it blew past even what I expected from it. I love, love, loved this last season. They nailed it. Everything. The action, the dialogue, the humor, the characters, the plots. They did a time travel storyline, which was a brilliant way of playing to their sci-fi action strengths while also allowing them to dig into the history of S.H.I.E.L.D. and get a little meta about the history of the show itself. It became a way to lookback while also telling an enthralling story. They also kept the characters together for the most part, which was so important. The agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have always been the core of the show. It seems like it should be obvious, but not every show gets that right. On this show, more so than the action or sci-fi, the heart has always been the team and their relationship to one another. You come to really care for all the main characters. I think that’s something this show has done over its run perhaps better than any other: makes you care for every single main character. This season puts them through the ringer again, but ultimately gives them a truly perfect send-off. In a year of great shows coming to excellent ends, this one did it best.

So... weird year, huh. I ended up watching a lot of new shows this year because they stopped making other shows. I don’t know if I’ll keep up with them all next year when some of my mainstay shows come back, but then again, I don’t know what next year will even be like. It’s a weird time!

Looking forward to my movie list that’s only going to be like, 12 Netflix original movies.

See you then!

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Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw The Past Year

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jordoalejandro · 4 years

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The Third Annual TV Show Rankings Movement Chart

Because of the delays due to corona, I’m missing some good shows from this year’s list. Animal Kingdom and Fear the Walking Dead normally end up pretty high up there. It’s disappointing they’re not going to be a part of this year’s charts, but the charts wait for no show.

Rankings and Movement (in alphabetical order)

24: Legacy - 2017: 57

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - 2017: 7; 2018: 8; 2019: 9; 2020: 🔼

The Alienist - 2018: 16; 2019: N/A; 2020: 🔽

American Crime - 2017: 6

American Crime Story - 2017: 1; 2018: 26; 2019: N/A; 2020: N/A (still on hiatus)

American Dad! - 2017: 17; 2018: 9; 2019: 5; 2020: 🔽

American Vandal - 2018: 1; 2019: 1; 2020: N/A (cancelled)

Angie Tribeca - 2017: 43; 2018: N/A; 2019: 26; 2020: N/A (cancelled)

Animal Kingdom - 2017: 5; 2018: 6; 2019: 4; 2020: N/A (delayed)

A.P. Bio - 2018: 15; 2019: 3; 2020: N/A (I’m not paying for Peacock premium)

Archer - 2017: 13; 2018: 25; 2019: 31; 2020: N/A (delayed)

Arrested Development - 2018: 7; 2019: 11; 2020: N/A (ended)

Arrow - 2017: 31; 2018: 36; 2019: 35; 2020: 🔼

At Home with Amy Sedaris - 2018: 10; 2019: 14; 2020: 🔽

Atlanta - 2017: 54

The Blacklist - 2017: 34; 2018: 33; 2019: 21; 2020: 🔽

The Blacklist: Redemption - 2017: 35

Blindspot - 2017: 56

Blood & Treasure - 2019: 38; 2020: N/A (delayed)

Bob’s Burgers - 2017: 26; 2018: 21; 2019: 25; 2020: 🔽

Brockmire - 2017: 27; 2018: 24; 2019: 16; 2020: 🔽

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 2017: 23; 2018: 18; 2019: 17; 2020: 🔼

Champions - 2018: 19

Class - 2017: 20

Corporate - 2018: 34; 2019: 29; 2020: 🔼

The Detour - 2017: 29; 2018: 30; 2019: 13; 2020: N/A (cancelled)

Eyewitness - 2017: 10

Family Guy - 2017: 18; 2018: 20; 2019: 23; 2020: 🔽

Fargo - 2017: 3; 2018: N/A; 2019: N/A; 2020: N/A (a three year hiatus!)

Fear the Walking Dead - 2017: 16; 2018: 12; 2019: 8; 2020: N/A (delayed)

The Flash - 2017: 32; 2018: 38; 2019: 39; 2020: 🔽

Frequency - 2017: 59

Galavant - 2017: 24

Ghosted - 2018: 17

The Gifted - 2018: 39; 2019: 44; 2020: N/A (cancelled)

The Good Place - 2017: 8; 2018: 4; 2019: 10; 2020: 🔼

Gotham - 2017: 11

Great News - 2017: 22; 2018: 3

The Grinder - 2017: 14

The Guest Book - 2017: 53; 2018: N/A; 2019: 40; 2020: N/A (cancelled)

Hit the Road - 2018: 46

Inhumans - 2018: 47

The Kids Are Alright - 2019: 7; 2020: N/A (cancelled)

The Last Man on Earth - 2017: 44; 2018: 43

The Last O.G. - 2018: 28; 2019: 34; 2020: 🔽

Legends of Tomorrow - 2017: 41; 2018: 31; 2019: 27; 2020: 🔼

Life in Pieces - 2017: 46; 2018: 29; 2019: 20; 2020: N/A (cancelled)

Limitless - 2017: 48

MacGyver - 2017: 52; 2018: 44; 2019: 41; 2020: 🔼

Me, Myself & I - 2018: 42

The Mick - 2017: 33; 2018: 11

The Mist - 2017: 19

Modern Family - 2017: 37; 2018: 23; 2019: 19; 2020: 🔼

The Muppets - 2017: 55

Nobodies - 2017: 40; 2018: 32

The Orville - 2018: 40; 2019: 43; 2020: N/A (bailed)

The Other Two - 2019: 18; 2020: N/A (delayed)

Our Cartoon President - 2019: 42; 2020: N/A (I don’t have Showtime)

People of Earth - 2017: 50

Person of Interest - 2017: 2

Prison Break - 2017: 42

Quantico - 2017: 58

The Real O'Neals - 2017: 25

Review - 2017: 12

Rise - 2018: 45

Riverdale - 2017: 39; 2018: 38; 2019: 36; 2020: 🔽

Schitt’s Creek - 2019: 12; 2020: 🔼

Schooled - 2019: 30; 2020: 🔼

Scream Queens - 2017: 47

Search Party - 2017: 61

The Simpsons - 2017: 21; 2018: 22; 2019: 24; 2020: 🔽

Single Parents - 2019: 33; 2020: 🔼

Son of Zorn - 2017: 36

Splitting Up Together - 2018: 41; 2019: 32; 2020: N/A (cancelled)

Superstore - 2017: 9; 2018: 2; 2019: 6; 2020: 🔽

Those Who Can’t - 2017: 38; 2018: N/A; 2019: 22; 2020: N/A (cancelled)

Timeless - 2017: 30; 2018: 13; 2019: 28; 2020: N/A (ended)

Trial & Error - 2017: 28; 2018: 14

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - 2017: 4; 2018: 5; 2019: 2; 2020: N/A (ended)

The Walking Dead - 2017: 15; 2018: 27; 2019: 15; 2020: 🔽

When We Rise - 2017: 49

Whiskey Cavalier - 2019: 37; 2020: N/A (cancelled)

Workaholics - 2017: 45

Wrecked - 2017: 51; 2018: 35

You, Me and the Apocalypse - 2017: 60

#Annual TV Show Rankings Charts

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jordoalejandro · 4 years

Text

The Ninth Annual List of Movies I Saw the Past Year

I can't believe I'm coming up on year ten of doing this list.

What I really can't believe is that I keep writing these like there's any intended audience but me. I've done literally nothing to promote these lists. If you're reading this -- and assuming you aren't me in the future, which I doubt you are, because I am -- thank you for stumbling upon this post. Also, how did you stumble upon this? Also, why?

Eh, don't bother answering. Let's keep that little secret between us.

Okay, let's get to the movies. In my view, a much stronger year in film than last year.

This is my ranked list of movies that I've seen that have come out since-ish the last Oscars ceremony (02/24/19).

53. I Lost My Body - Look, I get your mileage may vary here. Some people might love this film (as evidenced by the fact it's up for Best Animated Feature). I just could not stand it. It felt like the prerequisite pretentious French cartoon that gets nominated every year. I didn't like the animation style. I didn't like its oh boy, we're making some art here nature. I didn't like the characters or the dialogue or the plot (the main guy is sort of a creep if you take a step back and look at it but I suppose that can often be the case in romance stories if you take the cynical view, so I won’t hone in too much on that and just note that my dislike of the plot is mostly due to its slow, generic structure). I'm sorry. I can't point to something specific and say "It did this bad." It's a technically proficient animated movie and if it spoke to you, then good. It just rubbed me entirely the wrong way, and since it's a movie that's more about capturing a mood or an emotion than anything, I feel justified in putting it at the bottom of my list.

52. Little - This was a very predictable body swap film. Even stepping beyond the obligatory body swapping beats, the framework of the movie itself is predictable. The main character has an undefined tech company that makes apps and has 48 hours to pitch a good app to the money guy. And what app is the big winner app at the end? An app that helps you recapture the magic of being a child, just like what the main character is going through! I'm not one to kill a movie for being predictable. You can more than make up for it in the execution. But there's just nothing here in the execution either. There's no flair to the film making. It’s not funny enough and the characters aren’t interesting enough to make up for what it's lacking in originality.

51. Isn’t It Romantic - The core concept here was original, at least. A woman finds herself trapped in a romantic comedy. It's cute. A fun, meta way to make some observations about the genre. Unfortunately, it never really translates that concept into more than a couple of laughs, and that makes the whole thing feel dreadfully slow.

50. X-Men: Dark Phoenix - This was perhaps the dullest superhero film I’ve ever seen. It's really shocking how few interesting things happen. The film opens with a just okay set piece. Then it settles in and, for about an hour, there's almost no action (there are a few blips of action here and there that feel more like someone in production going "Oh man, it's been twenty minutes. We have do to something here."). So, okay, fine, no real action scenes for a while. I'm not a caveman, I can deal with a film not being wall-to-wall action. There must be something going on with the characters then, right? Some growth or something? No, not really. It feels like all the heroes just kind of float around while Jean Grey's character goes through essentially the same arc as she did in X-Men: The Last Stand. Jessica Chastain's villain character shows up in the most bland way possible, never really does anything of interest, and never feels scary or threatening. No one during this time ever really says anything funny or insightful. Just flat dialogue. No notable moments. These are characters who've done interesting things in films past, who've flashed personality, and here they just... don't. About an hour and ten minutes in, some stuff finally starts to happen. It's not great, but it's movement. It's followed shortly by the movie’s only interesting action scene (which was decent enough to at least prevent this from being my least favorite film of the year), but that action scene leads into a really dry climax, and then the film pretty much just ends. I don't get what happened. It feels like something went seriously wrong in the production. It seems like it would be hard to make a film with the people involved here and have it have as little personality this does. I can't believe they couldn't even luck into an interesting performance or even just a moment of life. I can't even draw up the energy to feel dislike towards this film.

49. Harriet - This is the beginning of my little mini-section of unexciting biopics. Harriet is your boilerplate historical piece, destined to be played by tired US History teachers in class for the next 20 years. (I feel like I want to coin the term "History Class Film" for future use.) It tells its story and gets out while bringing nothing new to the table. Cynthia Erivo is good in the role, but this is a film you’ve seen already before.

48. Tolkien - This is a film that looks good, has a nice score, and some decent bits of acting, but doesn’t offer much else. I can’t imagine being into this film unless you’re a huge fan of Tolkien's life, but not the parts of his life where he wrote all the books everyone knows, or most of the parts of his life where he fought in World War I. Just really the parts where he grew up and went to school. Those parts. Where he's just kind of hanging around the campus at Oxford and talking to his friends. If that sounds engaging, boy, do I have good news: this film was made for you. Also, I have bad news: you're a very strange person.

47. Judy - This is one of those films that you watch and go, “I feel like this is based on a play.” (It is.) It’s mostly scenes of Judy Garland near the end of her life in a hotel or on a stage having a difficult time. It’s just not a very good movie. It’s more an acting showcase. And, I mean, Renée Zellweger does a great job, for what it’s worth. She expresses Garland’s pain and captures her aura. But the film is a slog otherwise.

46. Changeland - This is more like a fictionalized travelogue than a movie. It looks great, and has some good music, but there just isn't much here, plot-wise, which hurts it. I didn't dislike it, but it also never really felt like it was going anywhere enough to capture my interest.

45. The Laundromat - Muddled is the word that comes to mind. There are some good moments in this, but there's no real protagonist and no real story. It felt like it tried to be a sort of a half-movie, half-explainer piece a la The Big Short, but didn’t do a great job of either.

44. Shaft - It’s weird they didn’t call this like, Shaft Legacy or Shaft Generations or something, right? It’s not a reboot or anything. Sam Jackson is playing the same Shaft from the 2000 movie, and so now he has two movies on his résumé where he’s playing the same character and both films are just called Shaft. It’d be like if they kept calling James Bond movies James Bond. This goes for Richard Roundtree, too, by the way. He’s now been in three movies called Shaft. I understand this is something that bothers me and only me, but if I don’t sound the alarm, who will? Anyway, the movie itself is a super generic action comedy that doesn’t really do either action or comedy that well. There are a few solid laughs, but it mostly tries to get by on Jackson’s charisma and old Shaft references. The word “shaft” has suddenly become very strange to me. Shaft. Shaft. Shaft.

43. Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Really impressive visually, but just so dull otherwise. Bland characters, bland dialogue. The plot is just moving monster pieces around the board so they can alternate between fighting each other and destroying cities. I realized I’ve now watched all three films in this shared universe and I can barely remember a thing about them. Is that a good sign?

42. What Men Want - It’s a bit uneven. Some jokes work, some miss the mark. Some plot points work and some are sloppy (mostly that type where you can feel the filmmakers just needing to get from act one to act two and so on), but it’s a surprisingly likeable film with a good cast. And speaking of surprises, here's a fun one: Erykah Badu (yes, that Erykah Badu) is hilarious in this. Probably the best part of the film.

41. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part - This was an okay follow up film. Cute, some laughs, though not as good overall as the first. It's, surprisingly, a little bit slow. It sort of doesn’t really kick into gear until the third act. My bigger problem is that I didn’t love the first one anyway, so this one being a bit of a step down from its predecessor puts it about here.

40. Missing Link - Nice looking movie. It's enjoyable for its sense of adventure and settings, but I did feel like it wasn't as funny as it should've been. It definitely tries to make some jokes, but a lot of them didn’t really land with me. I figure it’s aimed at a younger audience who might or might not appreciate them better, but I'm not a child, so what can I say. Meh.

39. Wine Country - The movie certainly captures the feeling of being on stuck on a vacation with a group of middle-aged women who are going through some emotional personal stuff so, in that sense, it’s not the most fun thing to sit through. There are a handful of decent laughs, however. It's, I assume, mostly improv by some very funny comedic writers and actors and so that works to varying degrees. It misses more than you’d hope, but occasionally it hits on something hilarious.

38. Uncut Gems - You know how some things are described as watching a slow moving train wreck? This is kinda like watching a regular moving train wreck. It's like watching a train tumble and crash and roll down a hill for two hours. Adam Sandler does a good job as that anthropomorphized train wreck, crashing his way through a nicely built seedy world, but I just have a tough time getting a lot out of watching destruction for that long.

37. Always Be My Maybe - There's a surprise cameo in this that's sort of spoiled in all the trailers and commercials, but whatever, I won't give it away anyway. I'll just say that this person really steals the show and that's both a good and bad thing. It’s the high point of the film by far, but it also highlights that the rest of the film is just okay. Still, it's an enjoyable, easy watch with some laughs.

36. Long Shot - This movie tries to dip its toe into two different genres and doesn’t really hit fully on either. It's a romantic comedy, but it doesn’t do a good job of getting you to where you can understand why Charlize Theron's character would want to be with Seth Rogen's character. She's brilliant and successful, while he’s kind of an idiot and a dickhead. And while the movie keeps telling us he's such a good writer, none of the stuff we're presented that he's written is actually funny or clever. It certainly doesn't make you root for their relationship. I wasn't at the point of wanting to grab Charlize by the shoulders and tell her she's too good for him, but I also just didn't care if they got together or not. The film is also something of a political satire, but the politics are pretty simplistic. The whole thing is just okay. It’s got a few laughs in it, but mostly, it’s just okay.

35. Hustlers - This was a fun crime dramedy that mistakenly got swept up into awards season. It feels a little repetitive at times, but it's enjoyable enough. There just nothing truly amazing about it. Good performances from Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu.

34. 6 Underground - Do you like Michael Bay? Then why don’t you smoke the whole pack! This is, almost to the point of parody, unfiltered, unmistakable Michael Bay (no joke: a bad guy’s car hits a fruit stand in the opening chase and it sets off half a dozen explosions). Do you like the writers of Deadpool? Well here’s unfiltered Deadpool writers (wild tone shifts and nonstop joke lines that land about 20% of the time - though in fairness, when they land, they’re very good. This style of writing probably plays more naturally in a self-aware comic book film. This film is supposed to be more grounded in theory so it does feel much harsher when it shifts). And, hey, do you like those Red Bull movies about stunt planes and free-running and such? There’s also a lot of that in here. Wanton, graphic violence. Over-frenetic editing. Characters that aren’t really fleshed out. And yet, strangely endearing in how unapologetically it is all these things. There’s no surprises here. No second gear (or I guess first three gears - it’s in 4th gear from the start and just stays there). No twists. This film is exactly what it is: two hours of nonsense action and quips and it is fairly good at it and I guess there’s something to be said for that.

33. Yesterday - File this under “movies with a fascinating premise that don’t really come together,” sort of like Downsizing from a couple years ago. It starts out interesting but becomes mostly a standard story about fame in the music business with the occasional reminder that the Beatles don’t exist (these scenes are by far the best parts of the film). The whole movie works well enough, but it still feels like a bit of a letdown.

32. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum - Story-wise, this at least feels like it has more of a reason to exist than the 2nd movie, but the story itself is still not great. John Wick kills people in New York, leaves to Morocco, kills more people, and then they send him back to New York to kill more people. There’s the cool hitman underworld stuff, which is always fun, but mostly everything in this film exists just as reason to move from one well choreographed and directed action scene to the next. And even though those scenes deliver as they so often do, I gotta say, it does sort of feel like they’re running out of ways to keep the scenes fresh, so now he’s killing people with horses and dogs and other things not as effective as guns. Plus, some of the deaths are leaving the world of action and entering a kind of gross area (there’s some eye and jaw trauma that feels unnecessary).

31. Between Two Ferns: The Movie - Look, it’s barely a movie. It’s more an excuse to do a bunch of Between Two Ferns interviews/skits, but if you enjoy those videos, you’ll enjoy this. Excellent, hilarious outtakes in the credits, too.

30. Pokémon Detective Pikachu - The world this takes place in is very cool. For someone like me who grew up a Pokémon kid, it was really neat to see people and creatures interacting and going about their lives. The story is a decent kids’ adventure mystery with a few laughs, though the reveals and the evil plan in the third act are WILD and I don’t know if they work. Still, the film is fun and though I haven’t been keeping a running list of these or anything, I’d venture it’s quite possibly one of the best video game movies ever made? (Super low bar to clear, I know.)

29. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - It’s less about Mr. Rogers than you’d expect (hope). The parts about him work the best, the parts about Matthew Rhys’s character less so (and these make up a large chunk of the film). They’re not bad per se -- it’s a decent family drama -- but you find yourself waiting for it to get back to Rogers. Tom Hanks is very good in the role. He’s not really trying to do a spot-on impression of the man, more capture his kind aura, and I think he nails it.

28. Klaus - It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s great for what it is: a sweet Christmas film for children. It has a really excellent art style and some nice voice performances. The one thing I did find funny is that this film is sort of a prequel to the legend of Santa Claus, and thus it falls into that prequel trap of explaining how everything you know about a character came to be. In this instance, it’s like, here’s how Santa Claus decided to use reindeer, and how he came to give away toys, and have a naughty and nice list, and wear a red outfit. It’s kind of funny once or twice, but eventually it’s like, okay, we get it.

27. Shazam - This is clever and funny, and has a good sense of joy to it, though it does have some weirdness to it as well. There’s one scene in this joyous romp of just abject horror (if you’ve seen the movie, you probably know exactly what scene I’m talking about). Also, adult Billy Batson and young Billy Batson seem like wildly different people? Adult Billy is cocky and fun while young Billy is kind of a dour ass. It’s a little discordant. The villain’s story is okay but feels disconnected from the main story for a long time and barely feels connected even once he meets up to do battle with Shazam. The plot feels forced sometimes to get stuff to happen. For example, the two main characters get into a fight in act two that doesn’t feel earned and definitely reads like a way to just create some conflict. Anyway, it sounds like I’m picking on the film. I’m not. This is just stuff that made me furrow my brow while watching it. Overall, it’s a fun film and a solid entry in the jumbled DCEU (I honestly have no idea what comprises the DCEU anymore and how any of it fits together).

26. Us - I’ll just never be good with horror and so these types of movies will never rate highly with me, but this does have a lot of good stuff in it. Great visuals, sharp pieces of dialogue, lots of cool little clues that play off the themes of the film or that set up clever foreshadowing. The story doesn’t make a ton of sense, though. It mostly serves as an excuse to set up the horror and play with the themes. Lupita Nyong’o is really doing an amazing job in dual roles. (Almost too good a job. It’s like she saw what happened with Get Out and thought she had to really go for it here and I kind of want to tell her to let herself off the hook because this film isn’t quite Get Out.)

25. Joker - As a character piece, it works. Joaquin Phoenix is great, throwing his whole self into the role. More than just being unnaturally, upsettingly skinny, his Arthur has an alluringly strange body language that Phoenix embodies throughout. As a movie, though, it feels like it’s trying way too hard to make a point (and trying too hard to be an old Scorsese film). Also, the connections to Batman canon feel a little shoehorned in, like a DC executive came running in every now and then and said, “Don’t forget to remind the audience that Batman exists in this world!” Anyway, it’s an interesting watch, if just to see Phoenix do his thing.

24. Just Mercy - This is a well made legal drama with some really solid acting performances. Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx headline it and get most of the attention, but Rob Morgan does a really great job in a small supporting role playing a heartbreaking character. The movie feels a little bit like it's treading on some familiar storytelling ground, but overall, a decent watch.

23. The Art of Self-Defense - Part Napoleon Dynamite, part Nightcrawler. I've long argued that black comedies that forget to be comedies make for bad films. This is a black comedy that is actually funny, which I appreciate greatly. I think its only issue is that because it’s a black comedy, it has a road that it travels down that it feels sort of required to travel down because of its genre, so when certain things happen, they don't feel surprising so much as obligatory. That said, the plot doesn't not work. Good film overall, and Jesse Eisenberg delivers a pretty great performance at the center of it.

22. Fighting with My Family - This was a surprisingly sweet, funny movie about family and chasing your dreams. It's got some heart, too. Nothing groundbreaking but an easy, enjoyable watch with a nice performance from Florence Pugh in the lead.

21. Bombshell - It feels a bit like a really good HBO film from Jay Roach, who's made a few really good HBO films about politics over the years. There are some great acting performances in here. Obviously, you have all three women at the top -- Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie are all excellent -- but John Lithgow and Kate McKinnon also turn in solid supporting work. The film does create a sort of discomfort with rooting for these people, though. While no one deserves to be sexually harassed, there's still a little voice in the back of your head going, Yeah, but these people also spent a long time contributing to the problem. They're part of the reason we're where we are now. I guess this is one of those times where you just settle on things in life being complicated. You can accept them as heroes of this specific story while also remembering they're not necessarily heroes in the grander scheme of things.

20. Cold Pursuit - This is, perhaps, the strangest action thriller I’ve ever seen. I’m not even sure it’s a thriller. It doesn't even really deliver a ton in the action sense either. It might just be a really black comedy? Like a really black comedy. It’s part-Liam Neeson revenge flick and part-Coen brothers slash Tarantino humorous characters and world building. From the writing to the music to the editing, it’s a supremely quirky film, almost Fargo-esq (though not up to that level of quality). It's got quite a few dark laughs and surprises along the way, too, and I actually found it winning me over.

19. Dolemite Is My Name - In terms of biopics, nothing too off the beaten trail, but it's still a really fun story about chasing your dreams and making your own success. Very likeable. It starts well enough, but about half-way through, they start making the Dolemite movie, and it kicks into a whole new gear. Solid acting from Eddie Murphy, and a great, hilarious performance from Wesley Snipes in a supporting role. Also, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who hasn't been in a lot of stuff prior, has a really lovely performance as Lady Reed, too.

18. The Irishman - A really great swan song for Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci -- who all do excellent work here -- and the Martin Scorsese gangster film as a whole. (Not that I think it's the last time any of them will work, but it's probably the last time they all get together and make a gangster film. One assumes, at least.) The film is a culmination of the main character’s life, but it’s also, in many ways, a culmination of the genre. It's a movie that’s about the consequences that come from a lifetime of sin. It's a movie about inevitability and endings (as shown by the death cards when a character is introduced). You know it’s going to end badly for Hoffa because you know his story, but also because it always does. There’s no happy ending for people in this life. All those movies you watched, where the criminals live luxurious and think they're getting away with it? This is how they end. Best case scenario is going quietly, and alone, in a nursing home. I really appreciate it from that angle -- Scorsese putting a cap on a lifetime of crime films. What I don't appreciate is that the film is three and a half hours long. It's near unforgivable. There's no reason for it to be that long, and though it never feels slow, it absolutely feels that long. You are fully aware you've just spent about 1/6 of your day watching this film and even thinking about it now makes me a little angry.

17. Little Women - A really delightful, human story. Something I appreciated about Greta Gerwig's last film, Lady Bird, was that it took a very humanist approach to its storytelling and characters. This film has a similar feel, though I do think I enjoyed Lady Bird more because it wasn't confined by the era. It feels like it's tough to tell a grounded story set in the 1800s and have a lot of fun with it. This film, to its tremendous credit, is able to tell a story set in that time while having some fun and creating some laughs but it’s just like, like the clothes from that time period, it’s hard to move around freely, you know? Excellent acting all around. Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet both turn in good performances, as is becoming expected with them, even this early into their careers. Laura Dern and Meryl Streep are always strong. Florence Pugh, though, has perhaps the best performance of the film as Amy. I've only seen two of the three films she made this year (though I've heard her best performance is actually in the one I haven't seen: Midsommar) but it's been quite the impressive run for her.

16. Parasite - A very clever black comedy/satire about class. It's surprisingly funny, though I will say, for a movie that is so often smartly written, some things in the film were a little too easy or even kind of slapstick-y, which felt like a bit of a let down here and there and took wind out of the sails.

15. Knives Out - Really enjoyable. A great cast of characters played by a great group of actors who are all having fun with their roles. Sharp dialogue. Twists and turns and a satisfying “Detective explains the case” scene. It's everything you want out of a mystery film.

14. Marriage Story - A well written, often deeply uncomfortable story about... well, not marriage exactly. Anti-marriage. Divorce. Lots of good bits of drama and comedy. It’s not an easy watch, and it’s probably not something you’d ever really want to revisit, but it’s very good. It might be worth it alone for the acting. Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver are fantastic as the film's anchors, and they're surrounded by a supporting cast of Laura Dern, Alan Alda, and Ray Liotta, who all bring something to the table as well.

13. Toy Story 4 - This was a film I was sort of side-eyeing before seeing it. Toy Story 3 ended so beautifully, I wasn't sure the franchise needed to go on, but this won me over. It's a worthy addition to the oeuvre. As you come to expect from Pixar, you've got a film here that is beautifully animated, well acted, smartly written (and surprisingly philosophical -- you don’t expect that, but it’s there). It's got some laughs, it's got some heart. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele's characters are excellent additions. They sort of steal the show with how funny they are. (Also, props to Keanu Reeves and this film for the running joke about his character’s longing to make his former owner, French-Canadian child Rejean, proud. It’s such an oddly specific joke that I don't think it'll ever leave my head.)

12. Rocketman - Part-musical, part-biopic. I feel like this is the movie that Bohemian Rhapsody should have been. It does hit many of the same rock biopic beats that plague the genre, but it tells the story in a really fun, stylish way and incorporates Elton John's music much better. Loved Taron Egerton in this. He just nails all the aspects of the character: the vulnerability, the prickishness, the insecurity, the confidence. You get to see John's showman side and his human side. It is a nuanced, multifaceted performance.

11. Captain Marvel - This moves well, gets surprisingly emotional, has some really solid action scenes, and has a good sense of humor. Even the quality of acting was impressive. Brie Larson, Sam Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, and Lashana Lynch all did nice work. It's an upper echelon origin story.

10. Ford v Ferrari - I expected to see some excellent acting here, from both Christian Bale and Matt Damon, and they deliver for sure, but I was really shocked by how fun this was. The race scenes in this film are exhilarating. Brilliantly shot, edited, and scored. The story is good but it's let down a bit by some cliché beats to move the plot along and create conflict. (Josh Lucas's character exists solely to be a one-dimensional jerk to the main characters and throw wrenches into their plans for the drama of it all. He sticks out like a sore thumb in a movie that otherwise treats its character with more respect. The film is two and a half hours. I feel like they could've mined enough drama for two hours and cut his character entirely.)

9. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood - What I found fascinating about this film was that, much like Scorsese's Irishman, in many ways this feels like Quentin Tarantino's film about inevitability and the end of an era. His version deals with the end of the 1960s and its cinema and its stars and sort of its innocence (embodied here by Margot Robbie’s gentle portrayal of Sharon Tate). You can feel how fond he is of all these things and so, when the ending of the film turns everything on its head in classic Tarantino fashion, it makes sense. Tarantino loves playing with alternate histories. In this one, that era gets to live forever, and though I don't have a particular fondness for that time, it still feels really cathartic. The film is a bit overlong, but it's lots of fun and really great to look at visually. Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are fantastic in it. They have tremendous chemistry and Brad Pitt radiates a level of superhuman coolness that's something to behold.

8. Spider-Man: Far From Home - A really great follow-up to both Avengers: Endgame (it's a very clever way to explore the post Endgame world from the ground-level) and Homecoming. It has lots of funny bits, some surprises, and even some nice emotional moments. The cast is excellent. From Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jake Gyllenhaal at the top, to the classmates and teachers further down the list, everyone contributes. The cast has such excellent chemistry in their interactions that despite the action scenes being solid, I sort of felt like they were almost interruptions to the more interesting teen dramady going on. I kept wanting to get back to the high school story. The whole thing is really enjoyable, though. It's a little lower on my MCU ranking list than Homecoming but it still cracks the top 10.

7. The Farewell - A beautiful, funny, touching film about love, family, and death. About not being able to say what we wish we could to those we love. About what we sacrifice to protect those we love. About immigrants, about cultural identity. Really excellent acting here from the whole cast, but especially Awkwafina and Zhao Shuzhen, who plays her grandmother and is heartbreaking in how much she feels like your grandma. It can be a bit of a tough film to watch, but it's very worth it.

6. The Two Popes - This one shocked me. I thought coming in it was just going to be a dry dialogue between two old guys. It is mostly a dialogue between two old guys, but it's far from dry. There's a lot of life and grace in this film. The discussions about faith, sin, forgiveness, regret, and change are moving. It's sharply written, excellently directed, and filled with drama and a surprising amount of humor. The acting is top notch. Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins are fantastic, delivering subtle, joyous, sorrowful, human performances of these two larger than life figures. This film grabbed my attention early and held on, making me feel emotion throughout. Really impressive given the summary of the film is basically two old guys having a dialogue.

5. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Look, I get it's polarizing. I get the critical response was tepid. But I don't really care. I had a great time. The film had to wrap up a trilogy that clearly wasn't planned out from the start and a nine film saga that spans generations and means different things to different people. I think, given the circumstances, landing this plane as well as this movie did is something incredibly impressive. It's a bit overstuffed. Not everything works. But it's fun! It's exciting, it's funny, it's moving. People complain about fanservice, trying to give the fans too much of what they want, but when there’s only one movie a year that can give Star Wars fans what they want, why not try to give it to them? If I'm paying money to go to a theater to see a Star Wars film, give me a damn Star Wars film. This was a damn Star Wars film. I enjoyed it immensely, and that counts for a ton in my book.

4. 1917 - A stunning technical achievement. Very poignant, often beautiful, often brutal. It's one of those Odyssey-type stories, about the hero journeying deeper and deeper into the void. It's engrossing and emotionally exhausting. It's an experience and it's brilliantly done.

3. Booksmart - Is it sort of Superbad down to the compound word title and Hill sibling? Yeah. But it still really, really shines in its own right. It's absolutely hilarious. The funniest movie of the year in my opinion. It's well acted. Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever play off of each other so well. It also has some heart and humanity to it. It's not just jokes, jokes, jokes. The characters are rounded. They have some depth. It’s just a supremely well-executed film overall.

2. Avengers: Endgame - Let me just say off the bat, this film is thrilling, emotional, and funny. It's well directed and well written and that in and of itself is impressive. Juggling all these characters and storylines is a feat. So just the fact that this movie exists and works as well as it does is amazing. But more than just this specific three hours of film, this is also about where it stands as part of this film franchise. The impact this film delivers can really only be built on ten years and 22 movies worth of buildup. That also means there's a lot of potential to screw up here. That the filmmakers step up and deliver a tremendous film that wraps up this story and pays tribute to the fans is so impressive. It's an astounding achievement in filmmaking, one that I doubt we’ll see again for a long time.

1. Jojo Rabbit - A story about war, prejudice, and love that’s touching, funny, tragic, and uplifting. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry. It just bombards you with emotions. It's smartly written, wonderfully directed, and filled with excellent performances. The two kids in the lead, Roman Griffin Davis and Thomasin McKenzie, are very good, and they're surrounded by adults -- Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi, and Sam Rockwell in particulkar -- in supporting roles doing wonderful work as well. Altogether, a really wonderful film and my favorite of the year.

Now for some individual awards.

Best Actor

5. Adam Driver, Marriage Story 4. Leonardo Dicaprio, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood 3. Joaquin Phoenix, Joker 2. Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes 1. Taron Egerton, Rocketman

Best Actress

5. Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story 4. Renée Zellweger, Judy 3. Lupita Nyong’o, Us 2. Awkwafina, The Farewell 1. Charlize Theron, Bombshell

Best Supporting Actor

5. Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood 4. Rob Morgan, Just Mercy 3. Sam Rockwell, Jojo Rabbit 2. Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes 1. Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

Best Supporting Actress

5. Nicole Kidman, Bombshell 4. Laura Dern, Marriage Story 3. Florence Pugh, Little Women 2. Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit 1. Shuzhen Zhao, The Farewell

Best Directing

5. Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, Avengers: Endgame 4. Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood 3. James Mangold, Ford v Ferrari 2. Sam Mendes, 1917 1. Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit

Best Screenplay

5. Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story 4. Anthony McCarten, The Two Popes 3. Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood 2. Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit 1. Emily Halpern & Sarah Haskins and Susanna Fogel and Katie Silberman, Booksmart

So there it is. List number nine.

I feel like I should prepare something special for list number ten, but also, I don’t feel like it? That feeling usually wins any internal struggle I have. I guess we’ll see.

Enjoy the Oscars.

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Annual Lists of Movies I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #Annual Lists of Movies I Saw The Past Year

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jordoalejandro · 5 years

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The Third Annual List of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

TV shows. 2018-2019. Let’s do it.

Here’s the list of shows I’ve watched since the last Emmy awards ceremony.

44. The Gifted (Season 2 - 2018-2019, FOX) (Last year’s ranking: 39) - It just didn't feel like this show was going anywhere. It was like treading water. And there wasn't enough interesting stuff going on in the plots within the episodes, or with the characters, or in the presentation that I wanted to continue. At some point about halfway through season two, I looked over at the person I was watching this with and was like, "Do you care if we just stop?" and they did not, so we bailed.

43. The Orville (Season 2 - 2018-2019, FOX) (Last year's ranking: 40) - I feel sort of bad about bailing on this one after a few episodes because I think the show was actually successful in what it was setting out to accomplish, which was basically be the Hydrox to Star Trek's Oreo (I know Hydrox came before Oreo, leave me alone). I've read the show had some pretty good sci-fi episodes in the later parts of season two, but I just couldn't bring myself to care enough to watch them. This isn't a genre I'm particularly interested in, especially if it's going to be played as straight-forward as it was here.

42. Our Cartoon President (Season 2 - 2019, Showtime) (Last year's ranking: N/A) - It stumbles into some good insights here and there but it's just so broad overall. The plots and the jokes aren't sharp enough or funny enough to make it feel like there's any real point to the show other than just trying to capitalize on being about current events. Also, the impressions aren’t very good, which should probably be like half the selling point of something like this. The voices aren't really on-point, which you can forgive if it's more about capturing the essence of the person being impersonated, but most of the impressions don't really do that. They don't have great angles on many of the political players, so it feels like they're just relying on the animation do most of the work. (The visual caricatures are pretty good, at least.)

41. MacGyver (Season 3 - 2018-2019, CBS) (Last year's ranking: 44) - The show's quality level remains consistent.

40. The Guest Book (Season 2 - 2018, TBS) (Last year's ranking: N/A) - Season two was an improvement over the first season in the quality of the anthology stories -- they generally worked better through some combination of being more interesting or funnier or just having better endings than those from season one -- but, unfortunately, I think the show did a worse job with the overarching story arc, featuring the local characters who appeared in each episode. It feels like the show knows what it is -- that there's no second gear or identity it's searching for here -- so I assume any future seasons will also be about this level of quality. The anthology stories will work to varying degrees, the overarching stories will work to varying degrees. Maybe they'll time both right and it'll become a pretty good show for a season, or maybe they'll mistime both and become a really bad show for a season. Or maybe the show won’t come back at all? It’s been almost a year and I’ve heard nothing on a potential season three, so who knows?

39. The Flash (Season 5 - 2018-2019, CW) (Last year's ranking: 38) - This is the second season in the row this show has introduced a new regular character who's made the show more grating. This, generally, is not good for the quality of a show. It’s also the second season in a row they’ve featured a particularly weak Big Bad. Season five's Big Bad is the weakest the show's ever had, and perhaps one of the weakest across all seasons of the CW Arrowverse. This, also, is not good for the quality of a show. It was just a fairly bland, forgettable season overall. It really feels like this show needs to do something to inject some new life blood into it.

38. Blood & Treasure (Season 1 - 2019, CBS) (Last year's ranking: N/A) - This had its fun moments. It's sort of what it appears to be on the surface: interesting locales, some good action scenes, a decent archaeological mystery story. Unfortunately, in between those things -- and those things only take up a surprisingly smallish chunk of a lot of the episodes -- it tends to be a lot of fairly dull conversation. I just wasn't feeling the chemistry between the leads, and most of the side characters don't bring a ton to the table. I think there's room here for growth, but I don't know if the show will take it. It's a summer show, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's content to just deal in the occasional fun locales and action and not even bother attempting to be more than that.

37. Whiskey Cavalier (Season 1 - 2019, ABC) (Last year's ranking: N/A) - Sort of similar to Blood & Treasure in that when the show was dealing in action and cool settings and spy stuff, it was good, and when it wasn't doing that stuff, it got significantly less engaging. (The characters here were a little more interesting, at least, but they also fell into cliché a bit too much.) In this show, in lieu of dull conversation, they at least tried to fill some of the gap between action and spy stuff with silly office antics subplots. It wasn't a bad idea, but it only occasionally worked. Mostly it felt like "Oh, isn't this funny? They're spies but they're goofing off at the office!" They also employed that "we're not just a group of [blank], we're a family" trope that a lot of movies and shows use (and which is usually effective), but they threw that out there in like episode two or three, way before it was ever earned. It felt too forced. The show wasn't bad, but it had that “feeling forced” problem far too often.

36. Riverdale (Season 3 - 2018-2019, CW) (Last year's ranking: 37) - At this point, I sort of admire Riverdale's commitment to not making a single lick of sense. One character is mauled by a bear in the woods but recovers in time to be back in school, worrying about taking the SATs the next episode. (There are zero long term storytelling repercussions from the near-death bear attack.) There are concurrent murderous cult storylines. There are multiple characters returning from the dead. Watching the show is like watching a loose hose turned to full blast. I don't know how it got here, I don't know what's happening now, I don't know what'll happen next, but it still interests me enough to watch it and find out.

35. Arrow (Season 7 - 2018-2019, CW) (Last year's ranking: 36) - There was some good stuff in the earlier half of season seven, when Oliver is stuck in prison. It made for an interesting change of scenery and forced the character to be on his toes a bit. After he gets out, it sort of settles into a pretty standard Arrow season, with a Big Bad that was fine but nothing special.

34. The Last O.G. (Season 2 - 2019, TBS) (Last year's ranking: 28) - It almost felt like the show ran out of story a little bit. The cast is still good, and plots about the core family and their interactions still really work, but there was a larger overall story this season about Tracy Morgan's character trying to get a food truck business going that just never gained emotional traction with me. The show isn't hilarious. It’s funny enough, but its real payoff comes from evoking feelings, so if it's not doing that with its larger story arcs, it's missing the target.

33. Single Parents (Season 1 - 2018-2019, ABC) (Last year's ranking: N/A) - This is a pleasant show with a solid cast that is, I feel, still searching for its footing. I think there's potential here as the writers start to find the characters more and more. Even within season one, the episodes got better the deeper they got into the season, so I have a little hope for more improvement in season two.

32. Splitting Up Together (Season 2 - 2018-2019, ABC) (Last year's ranking: 41) - I was worried last year that this show was starting to run thin on plot, that it had already stretched what was basically a 90 minute romantic comedy over four hours of TV episodes and it didn't have much left in the tank. As season two began, it was clear that was the case. But! But, in a pleasant twist, this actually allowed the show to get better. It forced the writers to expand outward and start coming up with more plots for the side characters, and it forced them to introduce new characters, and the show actually got much funnier for it. Yeah, it more or less became your sort of standard family sitcom, but the writing was snappy and the cast was doing a good job. The show was cancelled and I don't know if I'm bummed about that or not. I suppose I am, because the show was starting to turn a corner, but who knows how long it was going to last. Like I said, they seemed to already be out of story, so the potential for wearing thin was definitely there. I guess I’ll just say I was happy to watch all of season two, which isn't something I was sure I would be saying coming into it.

31. Archer (Season 10 - 2019, FXX) (Last year's ranking: 25) - As always, the show relies on the interactions between the core characters to derive most of its humor, and it still succeeds there. Where this season struggled a bit was in the new setting. The sci-fi space element was interesting, but perhaps too far away from the Archer comfort zone that it led to more lackluster episode plots than truly interesting ones. Still, when the show is good, it is good. And I'm always eager to see what it'll do next.

30. Schooled (Season 1 - 2019, ABC) (Last year's ranking: N/A) - I never got into The Goldbergs because I was like "80s nostalgia? Not interested." But 90s nostalgia? Count me in! Honestly, the 90s nostalgia is fine. Sometimes I find myself enjoying it, sometimes I find the show leans on it a little too heavily, which is something I feared coming in. I also figured there would be references to The Goldbergs I wouldn't get because I don't watch that show and boy, are there references to that show. All the same, this is a light, sweet, funny show. Makes you laugh a little. Makes you feel good watching it. If you're about my age, reminds you of some stuff from your childhood. It's nothing revolutionary, but you could do worse.

29. Corporate (Season 2 - 2019, Comedy Central) (Last year's ranking: 34) - This season was more consistently funny than the first. It kept its point of view but delivered good episode after good episode of weird satire. The show as a whole didn't make a huge leap forward, but it sort of already knew its place in season one, so just finding that consistency in its storytelling and comedy meant a lot for the overall quality.

28. Timeless (Season 2B - 2018, NBC) (Last year's ranking: 13) - Does this count as season 2B? It was essentially two episodes tied together in a TV movie bundle. I guess that makes it a two episode half-season. Why not? I'm not going to put it on the list of movies I saw. The movie finale was nothing particularly special -- it felt like a pretty good two-part regular episode -- but it wrapped up everything nicely and gave the fans a chance to say goodbye to the characters and the show, and that’s all it really needed to do.

27. Legends of Tomorrow (Season 4 - 2018-2019, CW) (Last year's ranking: 31) - This has really found its niche. The producers have decided to get as silly as possible and just roll with it, and I actually really appreciate that. The show is utter nonsense but it seems like everyone's having fun with it and that makes it infectious. Part of the joy of tuning in at this point is to see how far the writers will go, which is often far enough to make you smile and think, "Oh God, I can't believe they're doing this now."

26. Angie Tribeca (Season 4 - 2018, TBS) (Last year's ranking: N/A) - The show found its groove after season one and produced consistently excellent episodes through the rest of its run. Jere Burns was especially great in season four but he was quietly the MVP of this entire show.

25. Bob’s Burgers (Season 9 - 2018-2019, FOX) (Last year's ranking: 21) - As long as I keep doing these lists, and barring some unforeseen wild changes in quality, I'm probably just going to group the Fox Sunday animation shows around this area, in some order of three based on how I'm feeling about them at the moment.

24. The Simpsons (Season 30 - 2018-2019, FOX) (Last year's ranking: 22)

23. Family Guy (Season 17 - 2018-2019, FOX) (Last year's ranking: 20)

22. Those Who Can’t (Season 3 - 2019, truTV) (Last year's ranking: N/A) - Great cast, good writing. There was nothing groundbreaking here, but this show wasn't setting out to reinvent the wheel. It was just trying to be a funny show, and it achieved that with regularity.

21. The Blacklist (Season 6 - 2019, NBC) (Last year's ranking: 34) - I don't think the show did anything particularly different this year, at least in terms of the season-long arc, but I found myself enjoying it more than normal. Maybe the individual episodes themselves were working better for me? Not sure. But it felt like a good season overall.

20. Life in Pieces (Season 4 - 2019, CBS) (Last year's ranking: 29) - I'm not sure the show truly achieved excellence, but it was often pretty good bordering great, and I personally liked it more and more as it went on. The characters were likeable and had good chemistry with each other, and the writing was solid. It was cancelled, and I sort of feel like, I don't know how much longer it had to go -- it had a pretty decent run -- but I'll still miss it.

19. Modern Family (Season 10 - 2018-2019, ABC) (Last year's ranking: 23) - I thought it was an up season for Modern Family. It felt a little livelier than it had in seasons past. I particularly enjoyed the episode “Good Grief.”

18. The Other Two (Season 1 - 2019, Comedy Central) (Last year's ranking: N/A) - A really funny, modern send-up of the entertainment industry. I think it was a fantastic choice to swerve and make the younger brother a nice kid. It's not just a subversion of expectations, but it makes the story a lot more interesting, as the characters have to deal with so desperately wanting fame while also trying to look out for the best interests of their family. The show is at its best when it's dealing with that push and pull.

17. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Season 6 - 2019, NBC) (Last year's ranking: 18) - I feel like every time I talk about this show it comes off too cold and negative, so I'll just say I'm glad it was saved. It didn't lose a step in changing networks and delivered a strong season.

16. Brockmire (Season 3 - 2019, IFC) (Last year's ranking: 24) - This show really improved this year. The plot was working. It was funnier. It was lighter than season two (which I felt got a little too heavy at times) but still retained its edge. There was also a fantastic scene in the episode "Disabled List" with Hank Azaria (who remains great in this role) and J.K. Simmons (perpetually good) that touches on life, legacy, religion, and baseball in such a beautiful way. It's maybe one of the best written scenes on TV for the whole year.

15. The Walking Dead (Season 9 - 2018-2019, AMC) (Last year's ranking: 27) - Felt like a return to form for The Walking Dead this season. The writing was better. The action was better. I think what helped the season overall was that it had a couple of gear shifts in it. The first chunk of episodes took place at one point and told one story, then there was a time jump and some new things were introduced, and then, a few episodes later, some new villains were introduced and became the antagonists for the back half of the season. These shifts in storytelling, these reinventions of the show, they help keep an aging show fresh.

14. At Home with Amy Sedaris (Season 2 - 2019, truTV) (Last year's ranking: 10) - This is such a fun show. Season two was on par with season one in terms of humor and surrealism. Amy Sedaris is great as always.

13. The Detour (Season 4 - 2019, TBS) (Last year's ranking: 30) - I really enjoyed this season of the show. The physical comedy was excellent, but just in general, the humor was landing with me more than it had the last couple of seasons. I thought the plot was pretty solid, too. I actually happened to read the news on the same day I'm writing this capsule that the show was cancelled, so this season will be its final one. That's a bummer, but, for me, the show went out on a high note, at least.

12. Schitt’s Creek (Season 5 - 2019, Pop) (Last year’s ranking: N/A) - Talk about shows that are light and easy to watch. I’d heard good things about this for a little while, so I checked out earlier seasons on Netflix and basically binged through the first four seasons in like a week. Season five wasn’t on Netflix yet, so I added the show to my DVR and powered through reruns of season five in another week. The show’s characters grow on you in such a surprising way. You come to really like them and root for them. Their idiosyncrasies slowly become hilarious. You want to continue watching because you like spending time around them. The show itself moves a bit like a train. It starts out a little slow in season one, but it begins building momentum, and by, I’d say, season three, it’s moving at full speed, producing quality episode after quality episode. I’m glad I got on this train before the final season airs, even if I’m not sure how I’ll be able to adjust to watching the show on a one-episode-per-week basis.

11. Arrested Development (Season 5B - 2019, Netflix) (Last year's ranking: 7) - I enjoyed season five as a whole. It was smart and funny. It also wrapped up pretty decently, so if the season finale serves as a series finale, it works as a good way to send off one of the great comedic shows.

10. The Good Place (Season 3 - 2018-2019, NBC) (Last year's ranking: 4) - This is still a very sharp, very clever show, but I will say I'm somewhat glad to hear that this coming season will be its last. The writers have found ways to keep taking the show in interesting directions story-wise, but I was starting to feel like it was nearing a point of making me wonder where this was all going. The show does a lot of resets and while those have been interesting in the past, I was worried without an end goal, the show was a reset away from making me frustrated with it. I think giving this story an endpoint is the best thing for it and I’ll even make what I feel is a pretty safe prediction here: I think this show’s final episodes will be some of its best and will wrap up this show in a very satisfying way.

9. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 6 - 2019, ABC) (Last year's ranking: 8) - Another good season, though I do think the show was missing a little something without Phil Coulson at the center. He's really the heart of the whole thing. This show, like The Good Place, is coming to an end, and, like with The Good Place, I’m confident in its ability to deliver a high quality finale.

8. Fear the Walking Dead (Season 5 - 2019, AMC) (Last year's ranking: 12) - I've become very fond of this show. It can still be very messy, but it has done such a good job of making me care for most of the characters and it has done a great job of putting those characters into interesting settings and telling fun stories with them. Maybe more than that, I find myself really appreciating the themes of the show right now. This has become a series about finding the little bits of hope in a world that doesn't seem to offer any, and about doing good when the world is telling you to be selfish. Perhaps these messages are really speaking to me at the moment.

7. The Kids Are Alright (Season 1 - 2018-2019, ABC) (Last year's ranking: N/A) - This one's cancellation was hard to take. This was so surprisingly good. It reminded me a bit of another show I used to love: Malcolm in the Middle. The Kids Are Alright was more grounded in style and storytelling, but it was similar at its core: a story about a family who doesn't have much, who can get at each other's throats, but who really do love each other, even if they show that love in unconventional ways. Smart, funny, a lot of heart, an excellent cast, and very good at juggling its nine main characters, giving them distinctive personalities and growth and storylines. There was a lot to like here and it’s pretty sad this show wasn’t able to find its audience.

6. Superstore (Season 4 - 2018-2019, NBC) (Last year's ranking: 2) - The show's quality level remains consistent. I particularly enjoyed the episode “Toxic Workplace” from this season.

5. American Dad! (Season 15B - 2019, Season 16 - 2019, TBS) (Last year's ranking: 9) - This show was really striking a humor-chord with me this year, even more so than it had in previous years. A lot of times the true gems of the episodes would come in the b-plots, which often didn't even attempt to make sense. They were just wild and hilarious. It's like they were trying to one-up the a-plot, which was also often completely out-there. “Rabbit Ears” was a stand-out episode from this year.

4. Animal Kingdom (Season 4 - 2019, TNT) (Last year's ranking: 6) - Really great, interesting season for this show. They made some creative choices that I liked in the moment, but I'd be lying if I said these choices didn't have me a little worried for season five. One was use of flashbacks. It was something they hadn't really dabbled in before, and it was a cool way to explore Smurf's backstory. It seems like they're going to continue with flashbacks in season five, though, and I do worry they may become less interesting as they're used more. Another big choice -- and I'm getting into some serious SPOILER talk here, so just skip to the next entry if you haven't finished this season yet and are planning to -- was killing off Smurf. It was a surprising move that, again, was fantastic in the moment, but leaves me worried. Smurf has long been the driving force of this show. When she was separated from the cast in the early part of season three, the show slowed down quite a bit. Now that she's gone, it feels like the show has essentially thrown its life vest away. The writers are really daring themselves to sink or swim. (This also might affect the quality of the flashbacks. Will they be as intriguing if they're about a character no longer with us?) What gives me some hope was the season four finale was excellent. It had a real unique vibe to it because you got to see the characters deal with the emotional fallout of Smurf's death and the vacuum that created in their lives. It also, strangely, gave me some hope for the characters themselves. Four seasons in, I'd always assumed there was no happy ending for these people. Best case scenario I could imagine was the few that survived losing just about everything and escaping with their lives. The season four finale, for the first time, showed me these little hints that perhaps these characters could work their way out of the emotional hole that Smurf dug them all into with her. Or, at least, it seemed like they had the potential to do so. Will they be able to? They, like the show's writers, will sink or swim without her. That could be fascinating to watch, for a season at least. After that? Who knows.

3. A.P. Bio (Season 2 - 2019, NBC) (Last year's ranking: 15) - This show really hit its stride this season. It moved way beyond the sort of cliché "bad teacher" mold and into this weird, stylistic, hilarious comedy. Paula Pell is unbelievably good in this -- pretty much every time she's on-screen, she's getting big laughs -- but the whole cast is outstanding.

2. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Season 4B - 2019, Netflix) (Last year's ranking: 5) - Its last episodes were some of its best, though the quality rarely ever wavered. Hilarious, smart, sweet. A great conclusion to a fantastic series.

1. American Vandal (Season 2 - 2018, Netflix) (Last year's ranking: 1) - I would've said The Kids Are Alright's cancellation hit me the hardest this year, but this one was worse. I will truly miss this show. There’s really nothing like it anywhere. Season two was maybe a slight drop from season one, which was one of my favorite seasons of a TV show in a long, long time, but I still loved it. Compelling, current, authentic, funny, surprisingly impactful. The way it's shot, edited, scored, written, and acted is pitch perfect. Truly one of the best shows on television or the Internet.

So five of my top 13 shows ended this year, including my top two. That’s kind of sad. But, on the other hand, there’s going to be some movement going on at the top of the list next year!

Hmm. You know, as I was typing that, I was thinking I might be able to turn it into some kind of happy consolation prize. It didn’t work. It’s still just kind of sad.

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Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #Annual Lists of TV Shows I Saw The Past Year

0 notes

jordoalejandro · 5 years

Text

The Second Annual TV Show Rankings Movement Chart

I made some nice little up/down/sideways arrows because I wanted to do something more colorful for the chart. I spent a little bit of time making these and didn’t check if they would even work. They don’t.

But here they are anyway.

See? Nice, right? Problem is I can’t line up images with text on this cursed website. Only emojis. So these are worthless.

Live and learn, I guess. Or don’t learn. I rarely do. Just live. That’s good enough.

Anyway, on to the chart!

Rankings and Movement (in alphabetical order)

24: Legacy - 2017: 57

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - 2017: 7; 2018: 8; 2019: 🔽

The Alienist - 2018: 16; 2019: N/A (ended)

American Crime - 2017: 6

American Crime Story - 2017: 1; 2018: 26; 2019: N/A (on hiatus)

American Dad! - 2017: 17; 2018: 9; 2019: 🔼

American Vandal - 2018: 1; 2019: ▶️

Angie Tribeca - 2017: 43; 2018: N/A; 2019: 🔼

Animal Kingdom - 2017: 5; 2018: 6; 2019: 🔼

A.P. Bio - 2018: 15; 2019: 🔼

Archer - 2017: 13; 2018: 25; 2019: 🔽

Arrested Development - 2018: 7; 2019: 🔽

Arrow - 2017: 31; 2018: 36; 2019: 🔼

At Home with Amy Sedaris - 2018: 10; 2019: 🔽

Atlanta - 2017: 54

The Blacklist - 2017: 34; 2018: 33; 2019: 🔼

The Blacklist: Redemption - 2017: 35

Blindspot - 2017: 56

Bob’s Burgers - 2017: 26; 2018: 21; 2019: 🔽

Brockmire - 2017: 27; 2018: 24; 2019: 🔼

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 2017: 23; 2018: 18; 2019: 🔼

Champions - 2018: 19; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

Class - 2017: 20

Corporate - 2018: 34; 2019: 🔼

The Detour - 2017: 29; 2018: 30; 2019: 🔼

Eyewitness - 2017: 10

Family Guy - 2017: 18; 2018: 20; 2019: 🔽

Fargo - 2017: 3; 2018: N/A; 2019: N/A (still on hiatus)

Fear the Walking Dead - 2017: 16; 2018: 12; 2019: 🔼

The Flash - 2017: 32; 2018: 38; 2019: 🔽

Frequency - 2017: 59

Galavant - 2017: 24

Ghosted - 2018: 17; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

The Gifted - 2018: 39; 2019: 🔽

The Good Place - 2017: 8; 2018: 4; 2019: 🔽

Gotham - 2017: 11

Great News - 2017: 22; 2018: 3; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

The Grinder - 2017: 14

The Guest Book - 2017: 53; 2018: N/A; 2019: 🔼

Hit the Road - 2018: 46; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

Inhumans - 2018: 47; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

The Last Man on Earth - 2017: 44; 2018: 43; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

The Last O.G. - 2018: 28; 2019: 🔽

Legends of Tomorrow - 2017: 41; 2018: 31; 2019: 🔼

Life in Pieces - 2017: 46; 2018: 29; 2019: 🔼

Limitless - 2017: 48

MacGyver - 2017: 52; 2018: 44; 2019: 🔼

Me, Myself & I - 2018: 42; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

The Mick - 2017: 33; 2018: 11; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

The Mist - 2017: 19

Modern Family - 2017: 37; 2018: 23; 2019: 🔼

The Muppets - 2017: 55

Nobodies - 2017: 40; 2018: 32; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

The Orville - 2018: 40; 2019: 🔽

People of Earth - 2017: 50

Person of Interest - 2017: 2

Prison Break - 2017: 42

Quantico - 2017: 58

The Real O'Neals - 2017: 25

Review - 2017: 12

Rise - 2018: 45; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

Riverdale - 2017: 39; 2018: 38; 2019: 🔼

Scream Queens - 2017: 47

Search Party - 2017: 61

The Simpsons - 2017: 21; 2018: 22; 2019: 🔽

Son of Zorn - 2017: 36

Splitting Up Together - 2018: 41; 2019: 🔼

Superstore - 2017: 9; 2018: 2; 2019: 🔽

Those Who Can’t - 2017: 38; 2018: N/A; 2019: 🔼

Timeless - 2017: 30; 2018: 13; 2019: 🔽

Trial & Error - 2017: 28; 2018: 14; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - 2017: 4; 2018: 5; 2019: 🔼

The Walking Dead - 2017: 15; 2018: 27; 2019: 🔼

When We Rise - 2017: 49

Workaholics - 2017: 45

Wrecked - 2017: 51; 2018: 35; 2019: N/A (cancelled)

You, Me and the Apocalypse - 2017: 60

#Annual TV Show Rankings Charts

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jordoalejandro · 5 years

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The Eighth Annual List of Movies I Saw the Past Year

I gotta say, in my opinion, this was not a good year for movies.

On every list of these I've compiled, I've had at least a few great films I really loved battling it out for the number one spot. This year? I saw the movie I liked the most somewhere in the middle of all the movies I watched and when it was over, I thought, "Hmm, yeah, I guess that's my favorite film I've seen thus far." Then I sat back and waited for something to beat it.

And then nothing ever did.

I went back and checked my list from last year to figure out where my number one film would've placed and I honestly think it'd be 7th. That's not to take away from my number one film this year. It's a really good film. There are a lot of really good films on my list.

But is there a truly great film on the list? One that blew me away? One that I really loved? I don't think so. At least, I don't think there's one that meets all those criteria. (A few meet some of those but none really cleared all three.)

So, yeah. A bit of a down year for me and this list.

Anyway, here are the movies I've seen that have come out since-ish the last Oscars ceremony (03/04/18).

Are you sufficiently pumped to read the list now? After that introduction?

Way to sell the reader, Jordan.

41. Tomb Raider - This felt so uninspired. It's populated with boring characters. Lara Croft herself has very little personality and there's a storyline with her father that never pulls you in because it's hard to care about either of them. Walton Goggins, who's normally very good when given something to do, is wasted here on a villain character with just nothing interesting to him. The setting is dull. The majority of the film takes place in a real plain-looking jungle or a dark tomb that's not very thrilling to look at. There's also not much compelling intrigue to the central tomb raiding mystery and the lore and puzzle solving around it. The action scenes lack energy and excitement. They feel sluggish and mostly feature a lot of CGI Alicia Vikander being tossed around like a rag doll. There's a reveal at the end of the film of the sort of big bad secret villain that was super obvious to anyone who's ever paid attention to a movie before. Just a lackluster showing all around.

40. Rampage - It's another one of those movies where The Rock charms his way through a metric ton of meaningless mass death and destruction. Bland, stock characters. Near zero plot. An unearned love story. It’s sort of weird to be living in a time when watching giant animals level a city is something you can say you’ve already seen a dozen times before but there’s nothing here you haven’t seen a dozen times before.

39. Life of the Party - So disappointing. There's barely a single laugh in the whole thing and no real story to speak of either. With the talent involved, it feels like they should’ve at least been able to stumble into something genuinely funny through improv a couple times, but nothing was working.

38. Mary Queen of Scots - Very dull, very drab. This is not to say it’s a bad film, but it’s just such a run of the mill period piece that you’ve seen it already, even if you haven’t seen it. It brings nothing new in visuals or editing or storytelling. It tells a story that is neither interesting nor feels poignant or relevant. It just makes you go “What's the point? Why make this? Who cares? Whose passion is this?” On the bright side, a nice acting showcase for Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie (who only really has a few scenes scattered throughout but is pretty good in them).

37. Alex Strangelove - The pacing of the movie feels so off. It’s a teen comedy so you'd think it'd probably be fast-paced, upbeat, slinging jokes, whatever, but it moves sloooow. I think it’s because there’s not a ton of a story, so it sort of feels like it's stretching to make its runtime. It doesn't help that it's padded with some subplots with side characters that aren't particularly engaging, and that otherwise there’s just not enough good things going on in dialogue or visuals or music to distract you from the lack of plot. It's less funny, less dramatic, and less poignant than Love, Simon. Also, worse acting. It’s not the same story or anything, but as LGBT teen comedies released this year, there will be comparisons. It’s nice to be able to have multiple options at least.

36. Red Sparrow - This was another film that felt off to me. It looks and plays very much like a Cold War espionage film but it's set in the present day so it makes the whole thing feel a little disjunctive. It also has the vibe of one of those overly sexual, erotic thrillers that I thought they generally stopped making after the early 90s -- you know, the kind where there is full nudity and you ask yourself, "Why did the actors agree to put everything out there for this?" It sprinkles in some graphic violence and occasionally dips its toe into torture horror. I'd probably be more forgiving of its weirdness if it wasn't two and a half hours and slowly paced. Not an incredibly pleasant movie-watching experience.

35. I Feel Pretty - It's cute and harmless enough but outside of a few funny lines there aren't a ton of laughs. Its message is pretty simplistic and trite and it drives the same one-note joke about her talking to others as if she’s super hot deep, deep into the ground.

34. The Wife - It works as a good acting showcase for Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce, but the movie is too melodramatic and the pacing is fairly slow. And for a movie that talks so much about good writing, it doesn't feel well written. The dialogue is often clunky, the characters outside of the main two are paper thin. It feels like a movie that needs a swerve, or some dark humor, or just something to spice it up. Instead, it plays like a straightforward drama and hums along towards what feels like an inevitable conclusion.

33. Crazy Rich Asians - Listen, I’m happy about the representation. I understand the importance of it and the value it has to those who get to see themselves represented on screen. I put a film higher up on this list because of that reason, because it means something to me. But I am not Asian, and so I'm just judging this film on its merits. By that standard, it's a very, very basic romantic comedy without many laughs. A good looking film, some good music, but not much else.

32. Roma - It's technically excellent -- there are some really wonderful long takes -- and filled with beautiful visuals, but, for me, a movie I found incredibly difficult to connect with. Yalitza Aparicio does a fine acting job at the center of the film, but it felt like her character was always kept at arm's length, so when it came time to really hit me with some emotional punches, I wasn't finding myself incredibly affected. And if none of the emotional beats are hitting, then there’s really nothing to this movie besides the visuals.

31. Blockers - I thought this film actually did a surprisingly decent job of handling character for being, ostensibly, a dumb comedy. In fact, I felt the handful of really good comedic moments in here came from the characters, in their interactions and more subtle lines of dialogue, while most of the bigger jokes were missing with me (pieces like the butt chugging or the swinger parents felt gratuitous more than funny). Overall, you could do worse.

30. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - The Jurassic franchise has been suffering a steady decline in quality since the first film. (This is not the time or place but I will defend The Lost World as being a pretty solid sequel with some really great sequences that are overshadowed in people's memories by the more cringey bits.) Fallen Kingdom does nothing to change the pattern. The movie looks good and is decently directed but it all feels wasted on bad writing. The first 45 minutes or so on the island work well enough, even though it doesn't make a ton of sense -- they really built a multi-billion dollar theme park beneath an active volcano? So all that damage and destruction from the first film really didn't mean anything anyway because the whole park was a ticking timebomb? OK. The next hour and 15 minutes after that are convoluted and wildly nonsensical. The ending, in particular, is groan-inducing. There’s a twist with one of the characters that is at the same time weird and uninteresting. Character motivations throughout the film are often unclear. Speaking of characters, I think the biggest problem (or one of) is that we’re now two movies in with some of these people and they still aren’t compelling. If not for Chris Pratt's and Bryce Dallas Howard's charisma, there’s little reason to really care about them surviving. The new characters introduced in this film are broad and come no closer to solving this problem. Frankly, the most interesting characters in the film are Blue the Velociraptor and the 45 seconds of Ian Malcolm at the beginning and ending of the film. This review sounds like the movie is almost all bad. It's not. It's not good, but it's not awful. It's entertaining in a really mindless way. Just don't think about any of the things that happen for more than two seconds.

29. Ready Player One - I didn’t read the book but I remember hearing about it and thinking it sounded kind of silly and overindulgent. When I heard it was being made into a movie, I figured the movie would likely suffer from the same problems. And it does. The story is a lot of nonsense and the whole thing, from the characters to the pop culture references, feels very childlike. And make no mistake, this is a children’s movie, meant to be enjoyed for its sense of adventure and never looked at at any deeper level than that. That said, on that level, it sort of works. There is a really fun sense of wonder that shines through, especially in two sequences in particular which are just excellent: the initial race and a piece in the middle where the heroes go searching for clues in a familiar building that I won't spoil if you haven't seen the film. The big final battle isn't as spectacular, but it's also well done. Honestly, the entire thing would probably be a complete disaster without Steven Spielberg’s steady hand at director. He brings gravitas and a great sense of action to his films and that helps this rise above the other sort of mindless pop culture explosion fests of the movie world and into something a little better, though only a little bit.

28. To All the Boys I've Loved Before - Charming enough. There are some good flashes of comedy and cleverness but I still felt there was room for it to be funnier or snappier. Well made though. It hits the right marks for what it's going for.

27. Super Troopers 2 - No real story to this but does it really matter? It's your classic dumb stoner humor film with quite a few legitimate laughs. The original certainly had more memorable jokes, but the sequel is still a light, fun, disposable watch. It feels like a movie they had fun shooting and that kind of makes it enjoyable enough as a viewer if you’re bored and it comes on HBO or whatever.

26. Beautiful Boy - A tremendous acting showcase for Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet, who both bring strong, emotional performances, but not a great film overall. The problem with telling any sort of cycle of addiction story is that it can easily begin to feel really repetitive. This does. We spend two hours riding the wave of somewhat predictable highs and lows until the movie just ends. It certainly helps you feel the struggle and pain of being a parent to an addict but I’m not sure that makes for an entirely good movie as a whole.

25. Mary Poppins Returns - It’s a movie for little kids and doesn’t try to be anything more than that. That’s fine but it’s obviously not for me. The music is good but there’s nothing that’ll stick with me the way some songs from the original have stuck with me in the 20 or so years since I first saw it.

24. A Stupid and Futile Gesture - It's your sort of standard troubled genius biopic, not particularly captivating or engrossing as a story, but elevated by cleverly meta and comedic writing and directing to make it a much more interesting watch.

23. Ocean's Eight - Comes off almost entirely as a poor imitation of Ocean's Eleven. The directing, the music, the dialogue, the cast chemistry -- you can feel everyone trying to capture some of the magic and style from the first film but not getting there. I think the film is especially let down by its writing. The characters aren't sharp enough, the plan isn't clever enough, there aren't enough set-backs or surprises along the way. There's a whole long segment after the actual heist that goes on way too long and brings the momentum way down. That said, I still enjoyed it. It's snappy and an easy watch. I'll gladly take a poor imitation of Ocean's Eleven because I like a fun heist movie but it just feels like there was potential for much more.

22. Bohemian Rhapsody - I have to say, this is the best movie ever co-written by the remaining members of Queen. It’s fun enough, enjoyable for the music and the Live Aid finale and Rami Malek's performance, which is very good, but it feels like a pretty whitewashed music biopic as a whole. We founded Queen, we had a great time, we made lots of great music and had lots of great shows, then Freddie got too big a head and got manipulated and then got AIDS, but we made friends again, and we were great again before he died. It was all pretty cool if we say so ourselves. I feel like biopics can run into this problem a lot when the people they’re told about have too much say in production. There’s probably a much better film buried in here, in the story of Freddie Mercury, but this one's... not bad.

21. Sicario: Day of the Soldado - The first Sicario rose above your standard genre fare by presenting a relentlessly dark world and posing the moral question: how gray are you willing to get to fight pitch black? Emily Blunt's character was vital to this because it gave us the normal human's view into this world where horrors take on horrors. Sicario: Day of the Soldado drops Emily Blunt's character and turns the film into a good looking, decent action thriller, but not much beyond that. Benicio del Toro is a cool assassin and Josh Brolin is a CIA badass and isn’t that all just kick ass? They fly around on helicopters and shoot bad guys. Neato! It even uses the assassin turns good because he ends up with a stray child trope. I'm poking fun at it, but really, it's a fine film. It’s just nothing special.

20. A Star Is Born - Really excellent acting from Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, and Sam Elliott, and the music is solid. There are some good beats in the film but I thought it still struggled to break away from your sort of boilerplate addiction story: highs, lows, highs, lows. Cooper is a competent director but perhaps a director with a little more style could’ve brought a bit more life into the film and turned it from all these decent pieces into a greater overall product.

19. Paddington 2 - I think Pixar movies have spoiled me now to the point where I just expect a little more from family films. Pixar is often able to appeal to both kids and adults through their exploration of universal themes or their mature, clever storytelling so now I've gotten it in my head that all good family films should do that. Don't get me wrong, I see why Paddington 2 has been given universally positive reviews: it's delightful. It's endearingly British. Paddington is lovable. It's a pleasant film to look at. It's almost impossible to hate. But the jokes are geared too much towards children and the story too simple and cute for me. That's really not a knock on it. Like Ready Player One or Mary Poppins Returns, it knows what kind of film it is and who it's for. I'm just not the target audience.

18. Deadpool 2 - I found it less grating than the first one at least. It's pretty funny, though the best bits come in the banter between characters and not when Deadpool’s forcing it, which still happens too often for my taste. There was a little more story this time, too, so that certainly helped the whole experience. Plus, the increased budget allowed the filmmakers to make a better-looking film with higher quality action scenes. An overall improvement from its predecessor.

17. Can You Ever Forgive Me? - I appreciated that the film didn't go out of its way to soften the edges on the central characters. They're awful and unapologetic about it. It can make the film harder to get into, but it also makes it feel less schmaltzy. The plot hits the sort of requisite beats you expect in this kind of story but the movie is still done well and features a couple of really great performances from Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant, who bring some humanity to a couple of miserable, misanthropic characters. It worked for me.

16. Solo: A Star Wars Story - There's still some roughness around the edges that could’ve been smoothed over with a more consistent hand from the start, but considering the movie was almost entirely reshot with just months to go before its release, it's surprisingly good. Fun action sequences, good characters, snappy dialogue. I felt some of the tie-ins to the other films were unnecessary and clumsy, though. Could've done without them. I think I probably would’ve appreciated an even smaller story, with some more room for grayer areas with the characters, but it's a respectable end product overall.

15. Green Book - This one is a crowd pleaser. It's easy to like because it features a simple, straightforward message people can get behind (racism: bad), it's competently directed, it has some great music, and it moves along nicely. And while I do like the film for those reasons -- I am part of the crowd, after all -- I still felt it was a little too broad in terms of story, character, and dialogue (for the most part, though there are some great exchanges between the two leads). Thankfully, the film features two excellent performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. The whole thing lives or dies on the two leads and I think lesser actors would not have been able to elevate to the levels necessary to make the film not be a mess. Mortensen and Ali bring a much-needed humanity to characters who could've easily come across as flat and, in doing so, turned the movie into something worthy of at least being in the conversation for awards.

14. Bad Times at the El Royale - A very cool, very stylish thriller. I think my biggest issue with it is its pacing. It's just a bit too slow. The movie clocks in at almost two and a half hours and that's probably too much for a movie like this. I think if it was a little snappier and a little quicker I would've liked it more. Still, it's well written and surprisingly well acted. Jeff Bridges is perpetually good at turning in interesting performances, but Jon Hamm and Lewis Pullman also bring a lot to the table. The biggest standout for me, however, was Cynthia Erivo, who does a wonderful job in both acting and singing throughout the film.

13. Ant-Man and the Wasp - A worthy successor to the original: funny, charming, inventive. There are some great visual action sequences and fun chases and they keep finding clever ways to make use of the heroes' powers. Plus, Paul Rudd is Paul Rudd, and that's always a positive for any film.

12. Incredibles 2 - Cleverly written, great looking, well directed, fantastic score, but, I must say, it doesn't do enough to distinguish itself from its better predecessor so it sort of falls victim to lesser sequel syndrome. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great film and that's why it's sitting this high on the list, but it will invariably be compared to the first one and it's just not quite as inventive, as sharp, or as fresh.

11. The Favourite - It's deliberately and aggressively off-kilter and odd in its directing, editing, and music choices. Still, I find that makes it much more intriguing a watch than a period piece that plays it safe. It loses momentum in the final third and starts to drag a little but overall: darkly funny, witty, and well acted. Especially well acted. Excellent performances from Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, and Nicholas Hoult.

10. BlacKkKlansman - A really well-done film. Interesting, humorous, yet tense. Spike Lee can tend to over-direct but it’s his style so you kind of forgive it more than you would a less established director. Still, there’s a montage of recent news footage that serves as a sort of postscript to the movie that is both powerful and feels unnecessary. I think it’s just too on the nose, in the same way attention is heavily drawn to certain phrases that are reminiscent of (or really, verbatim) phrases used in modern day political speech. I think the audience could probably draw their own parallels without the hand-holding. Then again, the blatant parallels sort of add to the strange dark humor of the movie, so maybe it’s a wash? The film also felt like it lost momentum in the second half for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. Things are happening but it doesn't feel as snappy as the first half. This all sounds more negative than I mean it to. It's a really good film. Timely. Powerful. Smartly written. Well acted by the entire ensemble.

9. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - As with all anthology collections, some of the stories work better than others but I’d rate at least four of the six as excellent and the other two as still pretty good. It's got trademark Coen brothers writing: smart, sharp, dark, weird, funny. Strong acting performances. And so visually interesting, featuring gorgeous nature settings for some of the stories and some wonderfully surreal settings for the others. Just a fascinating film all around.

8. Game Night - A very funny ensemble comedy with some excellent twists and turns. Decently plotted and filled with good jokes and characters, but truly elevated by the way it's directed and edited. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein use a ton of very clever, interesting shots and choices to bump the movie up from your average comedy into a truly fun, stylish film.

7. Mission: Impossible - Fallout - An excellent thrill ride on par with its predecessor. Looks beautiful, makes fantastic use of its locales -- wringing out a ton out of Paris especially -- and features some great music, incorporating the old theme with a modern, intense score. The plot is fine if a little rote, but still some good twists, some laughs, and lots of different factions with competing motivations to keep things interesting. Most importantly, it makes enough sense and moves well enough to get from one fantastic action set piece to the next and isn't that really all you need?

6. Isle of Dogs - Like most of Wes Anderson's films, it's perhaps a bit too twee for me to ever truly love with all my heart. Still, it's visually arresting, occasionally hilarious, and decently acted. The story works. The animation is meticulously done and beautiful (you want to pause the film sometimes and just take in all the fine details). The score is wonderful. It’s an expertly crafted film and there's a lot to like here.

5. Love, Simon - Listen, I'm just kind of putting this here because I want it to be in my top five and I can't commit myself to putting it at number one because I know it's not the best film of the year. This is my representation pick. This isn't a movie I’m going to be able to be objective about. It’s a movie I’ve wanted forever, one I wished I could’ve had when I was younger: a romantic comedy with a gay lead character (that doesn’t end with them alone or dead -- you wouldn’t believe how often that happens in gay romance films). Younger me would’ve watched this over and over and over, so I sort of love it regardless of quality. That said, is not a bad movie. It's probably not top five good, but it's good. The writing is funny and insightful (it hits on some truths about things growing up gay that were uncomfortably close to home). The acting, directing, and music are all high quality. It's not going to be up for Best Picture but I do think if I could be objective about it, it wouldn’t be that much lower on this list. It’s a sweet, feel-good movie that I’m just so glad exists.

4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Visually stunning. Well directed. Good voiceover work, especially from Shameik Moore and Jake Johnson. Smartly written. Surprisingly emotional. A great fresh take on the character, which is impressive given how many takes on the character have come before it.

3. Avengers: Infinity War - This is a hard movie to judge. I thought it was amazing. An incredible combo of action, humor, drama, and emotion. All of those aspects are done excellently, which is absurd given how many characters and plots are being juggled. The action is clever, presented clearly, and edited well. The humor is sharp and flows naturally from the interactions between the characters. And, my God, is it a dramatic and emotional film. The stakes feel real. People die and it hurts. But! But I do recognize that as a movie, Infinity War might not actually work, in a few ways. For one, the movie flows more like a series of vignettes than a clean, through plot. Second, I don’t believe this is a movie you can really enjoy without having seen at least a large chunk of the preceding films. (I imagine, for example, if my dad, who's only seen the first Guardians of the Galaxy, watched this, he wouldn't get much of anything that's going on, and he certainly wouldn't feel the emotional impact of the things happening.) Third, this is really only half a story. It ends on a cliffhanger, which is something I normally hate in a film, especially one I've paid money to see in a theater. If you want to know how the movie really ends, you need to come back for the next episode. I mean, honestly, this was basically the season finale to a multi-billion dollar, theatrically released TV show that’s 18 episodes in. It’s not a jumping off point. It's not a standalone film. So I get if it doesn’t work for some people. There are a lot of things working against it. For the fans of the franchise, though, for those of us who've been tuning in, this was remarkable.

2. Eighth Grade - This made me as uncomfortable as if I was watching a horror film. It so brilliantly and subtly captures the feeling of being in eighth grade -- of being anxious and scared and uncertain about yourself at what is one of the most awkward times of your life, of trying to figure out your place in the world and of trying to determine what you need to change or not change about yourself to get there -- that you can't help but insert yourself at least somewhat into Kayla's shoes. You want to scream whatever the social equivalent of "don't go in that room!" is at the screen to help her. You want to look away. You want to celebrate when she survives. I'm so impressed by the brilliant writing -- funny, sharp, authentic. I love how it offers a very modern view of social media without coming off as moralizing about it. It's clear it's a part of life now and we can draw our own conclusions about how healthy or not it is. Great performances from Elsie Fisher and Josh Hamilton. This is a film that I think can help a lot of kids just by showing them their experiences are more universal than they might realize.

1. Vice - Outstanding, clever writing, fascinating directing, and superb acting from the entire ensemble, including maybe the best acted omniscient narrator role I've ever seen. Excellent drama. Fantastic bits of outlandish comedy. Horrifying pieces of dark dialogue that come around and become macabre comedy. How much of the story is true? Who can really say? I’d imagine there are people who would dispute the accuracy of just about every scene in the film. Still, perhaps the accuracy of what happens within the scenes themselves isn’t as vital as the overall ideas presented about how the pursuit of power can cause so much ruin and how power that goes unchecked can be so dangerous.

Okay, time for some top fives.

Best Actor

5. Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody 4. Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born 3. John David Washington, BlacKkKlansman 2. Viggo Mortensen, Green Book 1. Christian Bale, Vice

Best Actress

5. Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born 4. Glenn Close, The Wife 3. Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade 2. Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? 1. Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Best Supporting Actor

5. Steve Carell, Vice 4. Timothée Chalamet, Beautiful Boy 3. Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me? 2. Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman 1. Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Best Supporting Actress

5. Laura Harrier, BlacKkKlansman 4. Cynthia Erivo, Bad Times at the El Royale 3. Rachel Weisz, The Favourite 2. Amy Adams, Vice 1. Emma Stone, The Favourite

Best Director

5. Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 4. Adam McKay, Vice 3. Alfonso Cuarón, Roma 2. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 1. Wes Anderson, Isle of Dogs

Best Screenplay

5. Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, The Favourite 4. Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 3. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 2. Adam McKay, Vice 1. Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade

I think the fact that as we head into Oscar weekend we don't have many super clear favorites in just about any of the categories sort of backs up my point. None of the films this year have really been that piece that blows everyone else out of the water. Just a lot of fine to good to borderline great films but nothing entirely above that line.

Oh well, there's always the next annual list of movies.

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Annual Lists of Movies I Saw the Past Year

#Reviews #Annual Lists of Movies I Saw The Past Year

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