Movie Log - 2016

All the Movies I Watched in 2016

On Location: photo by Cliff Hutson

I watched eighty-eight movies in 2016. This works out to about 1.7 per week; I am unclear to me if that is a little or a lot. The list, in chronological order is as follows:

1. Life Itself
2. Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's
3. Bill Cunningham New York
4. Iris
5. RocknRolla
6. Pride and Glory
7. Maltese Falcon
8. Fargo
9. Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman
10. The White Diamond
11. Romancing the Stone
12. Strangers on a Train (British version)
13. The Wrecking Crew
14. The September Issue
15. Exit Through the Gift Shop
16. Inside Llewyn Davis
17. Between Heaven and Hell
18. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
19. Dog Day Afternoon
20. Deep Impact
21. Armageddon
22. Burlesque
23. Dog Soldiers
24. Body of Lies
25. Conagher
26. The Red Violin
27. Inception
28. Blazing Saddles
29. Fame (1980)
30. Coffee and Cigarettes
31. Stranger Than Paradise
32. Down by Law
33. The Italian Job (1969)
34. My Dinner with Andre
35. Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
36. Black Angel (1946)
37. Flashdance
38. Trees Lounge
39. High Anxiety
40. A Chorus Line
41. Jaws
42. The Postman
43. They Were Expendable
44. Mr. Majestyk
45. They Died With Their Boots On
46. Finding Vivian Maier
47. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
48. Spotlight  
49. Cabaret
50. Young Frankenstein
51. Twister
52. The Producers (1968)
53. Adaptation
54. Blade Runner (The Final Cut)
55. Tangerine
56. Trumbo
57. Take Out
58. Fed Up
59. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream
60. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
61. The Girl Who Played with Fire
62. Anchors Aweigh
63. The Fifth Element
64. Battle: Los Angeles
65. Take Me Out to the Ball Game
66. Pal Joey
67. On the Town
68. Cat People (1942)
69. Waiting for Guffman
70. Best in Show
71. A Mighty Wind
72. This is Spinal Tap
73. I Walked with a Zombie
74. The Body Snatcher
75. The Curse of the Cat People
76. The Shawshank Redemption
77. Art House
78. Lo and Behold
79. Tiny: A Story About Living Small
80. Hell or High Water
81. Wall E
82. The Dark Knight
83. Open Range
84. Die Hard
85. Sour Grapes
86. SOMM: Into the Bottle
87. Minimalism
88. The Hunter (2011)

On DVD: photo by Cliff Hutson

The vast majority of these were seen on DVD; many of which are in my personal collection and the remainder from Netflix. The ones that I own I tend to watch time and again. Some of these viewings could be considered to be ritualistic. I like to revisit "Jaws" at the beginning of the Summer season, which (for me) is anytime between Memorial Day and the Forth of July.  "Casablanca" I watch every Bastille Day. It is not that the movie is really connected to that date, but the pivotal scene of the singing of La Marseillaise evokes that for me. My birthday always calls for watching "Twister", as it reminds me of my fiftieth birthday. I have had quite a few great days in my life. But, the celebration of that event was one one the best;  seeing the movie with my wife, daughter, and grandchildren; and then eating at Russell's. It is a great film, and, in an alternate universe, I can easily envision myself as a member of Jo's team.

Others I frequently turn to are the works, of the Coen brothers, Hitchcock, Mel Brooks, and Christopher Guest. 

Missing from the list this year, for reasons I can not recall, are "Silverado" and "Trading Places". The former is easily among my top ten favorite movies of all time, if not the top five. The second I usually  watch in late December.

The best of the recent movies I saw was, by far and away, "Hell or High Water". I like this movie so much that if I see any best of 2016 list does not include it I say say 'screw it', that person does not know what that are talking about.

Thanks to the thoughtful generosity of my children, who gave me a flat screen TV and an Apple TV device for my seventieth birthday, the last ten movies of 2016 were seen using modern technology. I enjoy this so much that I have a challenge for myself of watching 104 movies in 2017. That is probably achievable once I get past past binge watching TV shows such as "Person of Interest", "The Blacklist", and "House of Cards"; which are all new to me.

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