Movies Remembered: 2020

Movies that I watched or remembered in 2020. 

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1. Joker (2019)

Left me thinking for a few days. And looking too much into 20min analysis videos. Some favourites: Joker – SPOILER Talk!, This Is What An Oscar Winning Joker Scene Looks Like, Why Do Critics Hate Joker? | Video Essay

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2. Ford V Ferrari (2019)

Masterful zoom-zoom shots. Not sure about Bale’s accent. Best fight scene of 2019.

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3. The Irishman (2019)

Scorsese bringing in his buddies. Old guys chilling for 3 hours just having a good time. This guy explains it better: The Irishman Movie Review

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4. Watchmen (2009)

Got me to read the comic, which is very very good. 

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5. Don Jon (2013)

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6. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Flashed as Tarantino’s new bling. 

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7. Gone Girl (2014)

Fincher directing the audience’s attention. The book is also fantastic; dives deeper into the minds of both sides with their own narrative.

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8. 500 Days of Summer (2009)

Different experience from the Before Trilogy, which I later came to prefer. Sweet disposition.   

• (500) Days of Summer – Ten Years Later, influences of a movie on personal time and place. What we felt initially watching it, to the impressions years and experiences later. Looking back in disgust (hyper-hipsterism) versus outgrowing. First time I think I am outgrowing Tarantino.

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9. Children of Men (2006)

Dystopian that highlights large societal issues like climate change, social division, and terrorism. 

• The Alfonso Cuaron One-Shot Sequence Cuaron’s evolution of his signature one-shot. Very early on, Cuaron understands the importance of the long-take to be flush and coinciding with the story. 

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10. Good Will Hunting (1997)

A janitor well-versed in numbers.

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11. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

The saint of his time.

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12. Training Day (2001)

If ever in need of high blood pressure.

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13. Seven Pounds (2008)

Saw it so long ago that all I can remember is its plenty o’ sad.

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14. The Social Network (2010)

Top 30 list. Top friendship breakup. 10 year old biopic that’s still very relevant today. 

• The Social Network – Ten Years Later

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15. End of Watch (2012)

Tragic Gyllenhaal.

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16. Prisoners (2013)

Pressured Gyllenhaal. [See Zodiac (2007) for sleuthy Gyllenhaal. Stealthy Gyllenhaal on Nightcrawler (2014) is on the watchlist.]

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17. Logan (2017)

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18. Scarface (1983)

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19. Léon: The Professional (1994)

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20. The Gentlemen (2019)

McConaughey plays his coolest character (until I watch True Detective). Full action and British wit fitting for crowd entertainment night. For those that miss experiencing The Kingsmen (2014) for the first time.

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21. Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

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22. Schindler’s List (1993)

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23. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

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24. The Master (2012)

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25. Casino Royale (2006)

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26. Skyfall (2012)

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27. La La Land (2016)

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28. Black Swan (2010)

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29. The Tree of Life (2011)

Saw it when I was too young, didn’t get much from it. Except now having flashbacks to its mixed use of winding and expansive nature shots. Salt flats especially. 

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30. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

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31. Ex Machina (2014)

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32. Limitless (2011)

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33. Moneyball (2011)

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34. Phantom Thread (2017)

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35. The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015)

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36. Tenet (2020)

• Why I’m OBSESSED with TENET, a film where each viewing changes. Tenet is a functional, entertaining film alike the newer Mission Impossible films. Everything is about creating the best cinematic experience. Nolan is not trying to look at the next story or character, but rather changing cinema. The Protagonist acts as a vehicle for us to take the story. When rewatching again, us the viewer knows what’s happening and what’s about to happen. The weird thing is that it seems like The Protagonist does too, as in there is a knowing look. An instinct.
• Why TENET is a Modern Masterpiece

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37. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Watched sometime 1 year ago.

• Fantastic Mr. Fox – Ten Years Later, a turning point of Wes Anderson. A heart and soul of Anderson was never lost.

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38. Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982)

The beautiful landscape of Blade Runner

• Blade Runner: The Other Side of Modernity, a future where the characters are as limitless as the vast architecture of its city. Indifferent as the rain.
• Listening to Blade Runner. About how the music integrates with its music, sound design, and dialogue. The dialogue has its dreamlike quality from reverberation. A feeling of distance. Effortlessly blended.

Movies Remembered: 2018

1. Blade Runner 2049

2. Isle of Dogs

3. Casino

4. A Star is Born

5. Before Sunrise

6. Before Sunset

7. Before Midnight

8. The Godfather

9. The Godfather II

10. Trainspotting

11. Trainspotting 2

12. Apocalypse Now

13. Gattaca

14. 12 Angry Men

15. Gladiator

16. LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring

17. LOTR: The Two Towers

18. LOTR: The Return of the King

19. In Bruges

20. Shutter Island

21. Kill Bill Vol. 1

22. Kill Bill Vol. 2

23. Inglorious Bastards

24. Hateful 8

25. Django Unchained

26. Reservoir Dogs

27. Pulp Fiction

28. The Royal Tenenbaums

29. The Darjeeling Limited

30. Memento

31. American Beauty

32. Fight Club

33. The Departed

34. Batman Begins

35. The Dark Knight

36. The Dark Knight Rises

37. GoodFellas

38. Shawshank Redemption

39. Imitation Game

40. Inception

• Inception – Ten Years Later

Movies Remembered: 2021

Movies that I watched or remembered in 2021. Dry year. 

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1. A Sun (2019)

Drama washed with a coat of everyday life, and everyday insecurities. Silent tormentor.

2. Primer (2005)

Give a guy a camera, acting finesse, old school time-travel from the books, and $7,000. Out from the box you receive the most logical time-travel movie to date.

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3. Requiem for a Dream (2000)

A nightmare our main characters do not escape from and we cannot look away from. Uncomfortable, sharp, and fitting score tuned with violin and hip-hop. Sweat, veins, contracting pupils, pop of the pill fizzing in water.

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4. American Psycho (2000)

Bale dressed in a crisp suit – and drenched in madness.

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5. Office Space (1999)

Relief from comparing my salary to Silicon Valley salaries.

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6. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

“I walked in knowing nothing about the film, but I left the theater wanting to watch nothing else in the conceivable future.”

Except I never had a theatre experience rather on my 13″ laptop stomach down on the floor mattress. I also didn’t want to watch anything else after. Top 20 of all time.

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7. Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Really enjoyable. Last group-worthy movie since The Gentleman.

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8. Nomadland (2020)

Really not enjoyable. Remembered for its critical acclaim and me squinting hard to pin it down.

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9. Sound of Metal (2020)

Watched on the plane, with the roaring engines muffling the entire audio until the very end at crisp silence.

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10. Dune (2021)

Dream team creating my dream movie. The sounds and visuals are precise and artful enough for a PhD dissertation, just see below.

“Visual-audial orgasm of galactic proportions” “Prelude to a galactic holocaust of unfathomable proportions.“

Top 20 Movies List

Top 20 films that I would: (A) Take with me on a deserted island or (B) offer to aliens during first contact. Includes cheating with trilogies to extend my time of sanity on the island. In no order of favouritism except for LoTR, but is ordered by similarities in viewing experience. To be updated forever…

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
2. Gladiator (2000)
3. Hero (2002)
4. A Chinese Odyssey I & II (1995)
5. Dune (2021)
6. Inception (2010)
7. Memories of Murder (2003)
8. The Prestige (2006)
9. Se7en (1995)
10. Parasite (2019)
11. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2020)
12. The Social Network (2010)
13. 12 Angry Men (1957)
14. Goodfellas (1990)
15. Apocalypse Now (1979)
16. Oldboy (2003)
17. Gattaca (1997)
18. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
19. Django Unchained (2012)
20. The Before Trilogy (1995-2013)

Books Masterlist

1. When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi

2. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

3. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

4. East of Eden – John Steinbeck

5. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes

6. Do No Harm – Henry Marsh

6. Shoe Dog – Phil Knight

7. Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson

8. The Three-Body Problem – CiXin Liu

9. The Dark Forest – CiXin Liu

10. Death’s End – CiXin Liu

11. Wandering Earth – CiXin Liu

12. Stories of Your Life and Others – Ted Chiang

13. This is Going to Hurt – Adam Kay

14. The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck

15. Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl

16. Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain

17. Watchmen – Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

18. All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr

19. A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles

20. Do Not Say We Have Nothing – Madeleine Thien

21. The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt

21. 1984 – George Orwell

22. A Game of Thrones – George R.R Martin

23. A Clash of Kings – George R.R Martin

24. A Storm of Swords – George R.R Martin

25. The Hobbit – J.R.R Tolkien

26. Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn 

27. The Help –  Kathryn Stockett

 

 

 

 

 

 

28. Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Marukami

29. All the Ugly and Wonderful Things – Bryn Greenwood

30. A Dog’s Purpose – W.Bruce Cameron

31. The Art of Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein

32. The Boof Thief – Markus Zusak

33. Atonement – Iam McEwan

34. The Fault in Our Stars – John Green

35. The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch

36. Educated – Tara Westover

 

Foreign Movies Remembered

1. Oldboy

• YMS: Oldboy, since I didn’t want to watch Oldboy 2013, a 1:38hr video on both movies, praising one and ripping one apart, was much more entertaining. Summary of events for 2003:
  • Intro: Given key information that makes sense. He’s drunk and out of shape, compared to the very first shot, we’re intrigued how the Dae-u gets there.
  • Prison: Starting with a range of emotions displayed in a limited shot. Fear, anger, desperation. It shoes the evolution of Dae-su broken to revenge seeking.
  • Reentry into society: Dae Su sees the first person in 15 years. Tells the suicide man his story, and walks out. The man falls. Dae-su smokes his first  cigarette and tests his training. He’s given a phone and wallet and enters a sushi bar. He hears his captor for the first time and devours the octopus live. Mi-do puts her hand on his and he passes out.
  • Finding the prison: Dae-su and Mi-do develop a relationship. But when she denies his existence in front of her online friend, he runs away from her losing trust. Upon the recording scene, the same orchestral music as Parasite’s Peach Scene comes on. Instead of interrogating the camera man, his torturing method is focused on revenge. The best combat fight scene in cinema for 3 minutes.

2. A Bittersweet Life

3. Mother

4. Memories of Murder

5. I Saw the Devil (2010)

Violent Catch Me if You Can.  The buried scene. 

6. Lady Vengeance

7. New World

8. Kung Fu Hustle

9. Fearless

10. Hero

Most beautiful film ever made, this guy explains it better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpyxHBwXXkE

11. Ip Man

12. Shaolin Soccer

13. In the Mood for Love

14. A Chinese Odyssey

15. Train to Busan

16. Parasite

17. The Handmaiden

Top 5 foreign film. One of the engaging film I have seen for the entire almost-3-hour ride. Beautiful characters, set design, cinematography and smart storytelling. 

18. The Hunt

First watched this after Casino Royale back in highschool. Hard watch, and unforgiving ending. 

19. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

20. House of Flying Daggers

21. Battle Royal (2000)

Did not think that such an emotional & gruesome manga can translate on screen, but here it is.

22. Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)

A visual feast in gold. Nostalgic and a modern pop icon. Although Jay and the plot lacks.

23. 3 Idiots (2009)

24. Dear Ex (2018)

Fast-paced, fun at many times, doodles all over. I liked the detailed set design of the mistresses house. Yet backdropped with heart wrenching present and past. As 3 loved ones surrounding a recently deceased man grapple collide, feud, and come to cooperation with one another. Great characters and one in that no one is the sole victim nor the enemy. The free-spirited mistress is the one who doesn’t fight and try to find such sides. Rather he fights a battle with himself  handicapped with the struggles of grief.  

Documentaries Remembered

1. Minimalism (2015)

2. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)

3. The True Cost (2015)

4. Fyre (2019)

5. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)

6. 7 Days Out (2018)

7. Chef’s Table (2015)

8. The Drop Box (2015)

9. Blackfish (2013)

10. Meru (2015)

11. Icarus (2017)

12. All In My Family (2019)

13. The Salt of the Earth (2013)

14. Roadrunner (2021)

15. AlphaGo (2017)

Movies Remembered: 2019

What I Watched or What I Remembered 2019

1. About Time

2. The Aviator

3. La La Land

4. BirdMan

5. Whiplash

6. The Truman Show

7. A Beautiful Mind

8. The Prestige

9. The Illusionist

10. The Unusual Suspects

11. Catch Me If You Can

12. Se7en

Recording the videos about this masterpiece:

• 09/2020 What The Batman has to Learn from Se7en | Film Perfection
• 09/2014 Se7en – Movie Review
  • One of Chris Stuckman’s favourite movies
• 09/2018  Se7en – What it all Meant
  • Breaking down the protagonists, villain, and setting as crafted characters that may exist in our world.
• 11/2018 How To Build The Perfect Villain | Film Perfection

13. Wolf of Wall Street

14. The Revenant

15. The Pianist

16. I, Tonya

17. 12 Years a Slave

18. The King’s Speech

19. Rush

20. Dallas Buyers Club

21. Interstellar

22. Gravity

23. Arrival

24. American Sniper

25. Full Metal Jacket

26. Taxi Driver

27. The Grand Budapest Hotel

28. Training Day

29. End of Watch

30. Zodiac

31. Sixth Sense

Anime, Manga, Films Master List

1. Berserk

2. Monster

3. Baccano!

4. Fate Zero

5. Garden of Sinners

6. Ping Pong

7. Code Geass

8. 21 Century Boys

9. Cowboy Bebop

10. Spirited Away

11. Howl’s Moving Castle

12. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

13. Perfect Blue

14. Akira

15. Princess Mononoke

16. Ga Rei Zero

17. Terror in Resonance

18. Gintama

19. Black Lagoon

20. One-Punch Man

21. Kids on the Slope

22. Samurai Champloo

23. Mob Psycho

24. 91 Days

25. Durarara

26. Parasyte (2014)

27. Your Lie in April

28. Clannad + Clannad After Story

29. Steins: Gate

30. Death Note

31. Usagi Drop

32. Claymore

33. Bleach

The first, circa 2008

34. Evangelion

35. Wolf Children

26. Paprika (2006)

27. Madoka Magica (2011)

28. Erased (2016)

29. Psycho-Pass (2012)

30. Death Parade (2015)

31. Zankyou no Terror (2014)

 32. Shinsekai Yori (2015)

33. Tatami Galaxy (2010)

Shows Master List

1. House M.D

2. Breaking Bad

3. Game of Thrones

4. House of Cards

5. Masters of None

6. CSI: Las Vegas

7. Suits

8. The Witcher