Friday, December 31, 2021

Movies for Music Lovers: 2021 Edition













Click here for the 2020 edition. 

Top 10 
1. Drive My Car (Ryūsuke Hamaguchi) 
2. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude) 
3. No Sudden Move (Steven Soderbergh) 
4. The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes) 
5. The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion) 
6. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson) 
7. Pig (Michael Sarnoski) 
8. The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier) 
9. Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman) 
10. The Card Counter (Paul Schrader) 

Runners-up 
11. The Green Knight (David Lowery) 
12. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryūsuke Hamaguchi) 
13. The Hand of God (Paolo Sorrentino)
14. C’mon C’mon (Mike Mills) 
15. Identifying Features (Fernanda Valadez) 
16. CODA (Sian Heder) 
17. A Hero (Asghar Farhadi) 
18. Annette (Leos Carax) 
19. Passing (Rebecca Hall) 
20. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (Will Sharpe) 

21. The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen) 
22. Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve) 
23. Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar) 
24. The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane) 
25. The Amusement Park (George Romero)  
26. The Last Duel (Ridley Scott) 
27. Summer of 85 (François Ozon) 
28. The Matrix: Resurrections (Lana Wachowski) 
29. Memoria (Apichatpong Weerakasethal) 
30. Wife of a Spy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) 

31. Red Rocket (Sean Baker) 
32. Tove (Zaida Bergroth)
33. The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal) 
34. Labyrinth of Cinema (Nobuhiko Obayashi) 
35. Zola (Janicza Bravo) 
36. The Souvenir Part II (Joanna Hogg) 
37. Inside the Labyrinth (Donato Carrisi) 
38. Enfant Terrible (Oskar Roehler) 
39. Undine (Christian Petzold) 
40. The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson) 

41. Titane (Julia Ducournau) 
42. Lamb (Valdimar Jóhannsson) 
43. Mandibles (Quentin Dupieux) 
44. Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)
45. Poser (Noah Dixon and Ori Segev) 
46. The Dry (James Connolly) 
47. Werewolves Within (Josh Ruben) 
48. Riders of Justice (Anders Thomas Jensen) 
49. I Care a Lot (J Blakeson) 
50. Wrath of Man (Guy Ritchie) 

Top Documentaries 
1. Downstream to Kinshasa (Dieudo Hamadi) 
2. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (Keir-La Janisse) 
3. Get Back (Peter Jackson) 
4. Summer of Soul (Questlove Thompson) 
5. The Sparks Brothers (Edgar Wright) 
6. Faya Dayi (Jessica Beshir) 
7. Karen Dalton: In My Own Time (Richard Peete and Rob Yapkowitz) 
8. Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen) 
9. Procession (Robert Greene) 
10. The Rescue (Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi) 

Runners-up 
11. Acasa, My Home (Radu Ciorniciuc) 
12. Becoming Cousteau (Liz Garbus) 
13. Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain (Morgan Neville) 
15. Phil Lynott: Songs for While I’m Away (Emer Reynolds) 
16. All Light, Everywhere (Theo Anthony) 
17. Punk the Capitol: Building a Sound Movement (Paul Bishow and James Schneider)
18. Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (R.J. Cutler) 

The rest: Belfast, Censor, Cruella, Days of the Bagnold Summer, Dune, France, House of Gucci, The Humans, In the Earth, In the Heights, King Richard, Last Night in Soho, The Little Things, The Many Saints of Newark, MassThe MimicNightmare Alley, No Time to Die, Petite Maman, Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings, Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, Spencer, The Stairs, Stillwater, The Suicide Squad, The Tender Bar, Test Pattern, tick, tick.. BOOM!, Tiny King: King for a Day, and Woodstock ’99: Peace, Love & Rage.

2020 holdovers: 
Ammonite, Judah and the Black MessiahLast LetterPieces of a Woman, Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, Stardust, The United States vs. Billie HolidayWhite Tiger, and Wild Mountain Thyme

Shorts: Burrow, Captive Feast, Catman, Chaval, Le Chavalanthrope, Colette, A Concerto Is a Conversation, Do Not Split, The Earth’s Forgotten, Feeling Through, For Gerard, Genius Loci, Hayrides, If Anything Happens I Love you, Kapeamahu, The Last Drink, The Letter Room, A Look at Madness, A Love Song for Latasha, Opera, The Present, The Snail and the Whale, Three Cheers for the Whale, To Gerard, Two Distant Strangers, The Whalers, White EyeYes People

Missed or haven't seen yet: About Endlessness, Agnes, Attica, Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Can’t Get You out of My Head, Cry Macho, El Planeta, I’m Your Man, Jakob’s Wife, Listening to Kenny GMalignant, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, The Night HouseSaint Maud, Space Sweepers, and Street Gang: How 
We Got to Sesame Street.

Old movies: Anna Lucasta, The Annihilation of Fish, Arabesque, Arrebato, Bad Timing, Beautiful DarlingBlackhat, Black Wax, Blind Beast, The Blood Spattered Bride, Book of Days, Boy Meets Girl, The Bride Comes HomeBustin’ Loose, Bye Bye Braverman, Castle Freak, Center Stage, Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do SomethingA Chapter in Her Life, Children of DivorceChilly Scenes of Winter, The City of the Dead, Colette, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Coogan’s Bluff, Crazy Thunder Road, Creepy, Day of the Beast, A Day in the Life, D.E.B.S., The Deep Blue Sea, Desire, Devil in the Flesh, Domino, Down Terrace, Dracula (Spanish-language), Ed and His Dead Mother, Egomania - Island Without Hope, El, Elephant Parts, The Exterminating Angel, Fata/Morgana, F.P.1 Doesn’t Answer, F.T.A., Filibus: The Mysterious Air Pirate, Filmworker, Final Flesh, Fool for Love, Freud, Fritz the Cat, Georgia, Georgia, The Gilded Lily, God’s Own Country, The Great SacrificeGreen Fog, Group Marriage, The Hand, Heartworn Highways Revisited, High-Rise, Hiruko the Goblin, Holiday Heart, Hot Saturday, The House That Screamed, ImmenseeIn Case of EmergencyIrezumi, The Innocent, The Italian Connection, It's a Girl ThingI’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, It’s My Turn, Joan of Arc, Journeys Through French CinemaJust a Gigolo, Kamikaze Hearts, Killer Workout, King Lear, Knights of the City, Lackawanna Blues, La Llorona, The Last Sunset, Le Gang, Legend, Lift, The Little Richard Story, Lux AerternaMadame Claude, A Man Called Adam, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Maps to the StarsMovers and Shakers, Mr. SOUL!, Muscle ShoalsThe Neon Bible, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, Once Upon a RiverOur Song, Outside In, Parting Glances, Party Party, Plácido, The Platform, Pound, Pressure Point, Puzzle of a Downfall Child, Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack, The Real ThingRebecca (Ben Wheatley version), A Reflection of Fear, Road Salaam Cinema, Rodrigo D: No Future, Ruthless People, The Secret, Secret Honor, Seduction: The Cruel Woman, Sensation Seekers, Seven Days… and Seven Nights, Shogun’s Joy of Torture, Showgirls, Simone Barbes or Virtue, Sparrow, Stages: 3 Days in Mexico, Stan the Flasher, Starred Up, Story of a WomanSuch Good Friends, The Suspect, Switchblade Sisters, The Swordsman, Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana, That Certain Summer, Thomasine and Bushrod, Three Men to Kill, Tigers Are Not Afraid, Tombs of the Blind Dead, Tous les Matins du Monde, Torque, Track 29, The Underneath, Upondo & Nkinsela, U.S. Go Home, Videodrome, Vivre Ensemble, Bible!, Whirlpool of Fate, Wives, The Woman One Longs For, Women in Revolt, Yi Yi, and You Don’t Know EVA

TV: Allen v. Farrow; American Masters: Keith Haring - Street Art Boy, Sammy Davis, Jr. - I Gotta Be Me, Charley Pride - I’m Just Me, and Walter Winchell - The Power of Gossip; Babylon Berlin S1-3; Baptiste S2; Barry S2, Bosch S3-7; Broadchurch S1-3; Call the Midwife S10; Masterpiece: All Creatures Great and Small S1, Beecham House, The Child in Time, Dark Angel, and The Long Song; The Crown S1; Finding Your Roots S6-7; The Good Place S2; Grantchester S6; Hacks S1; Halifax: Retribution; Ken Burns’ Hemingway and Muhammad Ali; Her Effortless Brilliance - A Celebration of Lynn Shelton Through Film and Music; Icon: Music Through the Lens; Law & Order: SVU S23; Lupin S1; Mare of Easttown; Miss Scarlet and the Duke S1; Music Box: Mr. Saturday Night; Night Gallery S1; Perry Mason S1; Philly DA; Professor T (UK version) S1; Q: Into the Storm; Shrill S2-3; Shameless S11; The Sopranos S4-S6; Succession S3; Ted Lasso S1 E1-3; The Underground Railroad; Unforgotten S4; Vienna Blood S1, The White Lotus S1; and Wormwood.
 

Images: Drive My Car (IndieWire/Janus Films), The Green Knight (A24), Titane (Neon), Downstream to Kinshasa (Icarus Films), and Anna Lucasta (United Artists/Harlem World Magazine). 

Songs for Cineastes: 2021 Edition

Click here for the 2020 edition.
 

Top 10 
1. Can - Live in Stuttgart 1975 (Spoon-Mute) 
2. Eleventh Dream Day - Since Grazed (Comedy Minus One) 
3. Tom Jones - Surrounded by Time (EMI-S-Curve) 
4. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg (4AD) 
5. Anika - Change (Sacred Bones) 
6. Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - I Told You So (Colemine) 
7. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (Age 101-AWAL) 
8. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle (Impulse!) 
9. Jane Weaver - Flock (Fire) 
10. Sault - 9 (Living Originals) 

Runners-up 
11. Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs (Rough Trade) 
12. Susannah Hoffs - Bright Lights (Baroque Folk) 
13. Six Organs of Admittance - The Veiled Sea (Three Lobed) 
14. Parquet Courts - Sympathy for Life (Rough Trade) 
15. La Luz - La Luz (Hardly Art) 
16. Amyl & the Sniffers - Comfort to Me (ATO) 
17. Beauty Pill - Instant Night EP (Northern Spy) 
18. Tune-Yards - sketchy (4AD) 
19. Adia Victoria - A Southern Gothic (Atlantic Recording Co.) 
20. Myriam Gendron - Ma délire - Songs of love, lost & found 
(Feeding Tube) 

21. Ben Chasny - The Intimate Landscape (Drag City) 
22. Mega Bog - Life, and Another (Paradise of Bachelors) 
23. Colleen - The Tunnel and the Clearing (Thrill Jockey) 
24. Ashley Monroe - Rosegold (Mountainrose Sparrow-Thirty Tigers) 
25. Makaya McCraven - Deciphering the Message 
(Blue Note) 
26. Bug - Fire (Ninja Tune) 
27. Bitchin Bajas - Switched on Ra (Drag City) 
28. Rambutan - Parallel Systems (Sedimental) 
29. Chris Corsano and Bill Orcutt - Made Out of Sound (Palilalia) 
30. Body/Dilloway/Head - Body/Dilloway/Hea
(Three Lobed Recordings) 

31. Altın Gün - Yol (ATO) 
32. Gazelle Twin & NYX - Deep England (NYX Collective) 
33. Andrea Parkins - Two Rooms from the Memory Palace (Infrequent Seams) 
34. Cameron Knowler & Eli Winter - Anticipation (American Dreams) 
35. Tanz Mein Herz - Quattro (Standard Hi-Fi) 
36. The Cleaners from Venus - Penny Novelettes (Mr. Mule) 
37. Kacey Musgraves - Star-Crossed (Interscope-MCA) 
38. Circuit des Yeux - -io (Matador) 
39. Sons of Kemet - Black to the Future (UMG) 
40. Olivia Rodrigo - Sour (Geffen)

Songs 
1. Jane Weaver - "The Revolution of Super Visions" (Fire) 
2. Ambar Lucid - "Get Lost in the Music" (300 Entertainment) 
3. Spoon - "The Hardest Cut" (Matador) 
4. Wet Leg - "Chaise Longue" 
(Domino) 
5. La Luz and Adrian Younge - "Watching Cartoons" (Hardly Art) 
6. Parquet Courts - "Walking at Downtown Pace" (Rough Trade) 
7. Sleaford Mods - "Mork and Mindy" (Rough Trade) 
8. Tune-Yards - "hold yourself" (4AD) 
9. Curtis Harding - "Hopeful" (Anti) 
10. Bill Callahan and Bonnie Prince Billy feat. Hamerkop - "Kidnapped by Neptune" (Drag City) 

Reissues & Collections 
1. Karen Black - Dreaming of You (1971-1976) (Anthology Recordings) 
2. Can - Live in Brighton 1975 (Mute) 
3. Nancy Sinatra - Start Walkin' 1965-1976 (Light in the Attic) 
4. The Beatles - Let It Be: Super Deluxe Edition (Apple Corps Ltd-Calderstone Productions-UME)
5. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass: 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (Calderstone Productions-UME)
6. Joni Mitchell - The Reprise Albums 1968–1971 (Rhino)
7. Faust - The Faust Tapes (Bureau B)
8. The Who - Sell Out: Super Deluxe Edition (UMC-Polydor)
9. Sun Ra - Lanquidity (Definitive Edition) (Strut) 
10. Pastor TL Barrett - I Shall Wear a Crown (Numero Group)

Runners-up
11. John LennonJohn Lennon/Plastic Ono Band: The Ultimate Collection (Capitol-UMC)
12. Aunt Sally - Aunt Sally (Mesh-Key)
13. Leo Nocentelli - Another Side (Light in the Attic)  
14. Bush Tetras - Rhythm and Paranoia: The Best of the Bush Tetras (Wharf Cat) 
15. Beach Boys - Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971 (Capitol-UME)
16. Radiohead - Kid A Mnesia (XL Recordings)
17. Roger Webb - Bartleby: Original Soundtrack Recording (Trunk)


Images: Can (Mute/Bandcamp), Sleaford Mods album cover (Rough Trade/Bandcamp), and Karen Black portrait (Aquarium Drunkard).    

Friday, December 03, 2021

December Reviews

These are the reviews and other projects I'm working on this month.
 



Endnote: Screencap of Cecilia Roth from Arrebato.  

 




Monday, November 01, 2021

November Reviews

These are the reviews and other projects I'm working on this month.

 
Video Librarian: , The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat [Blu-ray], Summer of 85 [Blu-ray], and Deep Red [three-disc Blu-ray set].


Image: Deep Red poster from ComingSoon.net. Update: Arrow's Deep Red two-disc Blu-ray set never arrived; the review was cancelled.  

Friday, October 15, 2021

October Reviews

These are the reviews and other projects I'm working on this month.

Breaking Waves: Seattle: I participated in this podcast. Stream the four episodes at the following links: 

Edmonds Center for the Arts: Introduction and Q&A for 2013's Muscle Shoals, the first film in ECA's Music on Film Series.

Video Librarian: Arabesque [Blu-ray], Blind Beast [Blu-ray], Immensee/The Great Sacrifice [two-disc Blu-ray set], Hot Saturday [Blu-ray]The Last Sunset [Blu-ray], Shameless - Complete Eleventh Season [three-disc Blu-ray set], and Story of a Woman [Blu-ray].

Image: Sophia Loren in Arabesque / Universal Pictures.  

Saturday, September 04, 2021

September Reviews

These are the reviews and other projects I'm working on this month..

 
revamped version of my Classes Tous Risque review.

ed Films by Jacques Deray [two-disc Blu-ray set], The Real
Thing
, and Seven Days...Seven Nights [Blu-ray].

Endnote: Maruschka Detmers image from JSTOR.  

Thursday, August 05, 2021

August Reviews

These are the reviews and 
other projects I'm working 
on this month. 



Video Librarian: Coogan's Bluff [Blu-ray]Desire [Blu-ray], The Gilded Lily [Blu-ray], Kenny Scharf - When Worlds Collide, Stardust [Blu-ray], Whirlpool of Fate [Blu-ray], and Wrath of Man [Blu-ray].

Endnote: Annette poster image from Amazon Studios.  

Monday, July 26, 2021

July Reviews

These are the reviews and other projects I'm working on this month.

Video Librarian: The Bride Comes Home [Blu-ray], Center Stage [Blu-ray], Children of Divorce [Blu-ray], Irezumi [Blu-ray], Poser, and Tous les Matins du Monde [Blu-ray].

Endnote: Lennon (Sylvie Mix) and Bobbi Kitten as (a version of) Bobbi Kitten in Poser. Image from 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.  

Monday, June 14, 2021

June Reviews

These are the reviews and other projects I'm working on this month.
 



Video Librarian: F.T.A. [Blu-ray], Fool for Love [Blu-ray], Heartworn Highways Revisited [Blu-ray], Tove, and The
Woman One Longs For
[Blu-ray].

Endnote: Image of Marlene Dietrich in The Woman One Longs For. By Unknown - http://www.puettner.com/film12.htm, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54103597

Tuesday, May 04, 2021

May Reviews

These are the 
reviews and 
other projects 
I'm working 
on this month.

Seattle Film Blog: Flash Gordon, Punk the Capitol: Building a Sound Movement, and A Band Called Death: The Documentary (review originally posted to Line Out).


Endnote: Switchblade Sisters still from RoweReviews.

Sunday, April 11, 2021

April Reviews

These are the reviews 
and other projects I'm 
working on this month.

 

Video Librarian:
 
The Suspect [Blu-ray]


Endnote: Blu-ray cover, taken from the poster image, of Robert Siodmak's The Suspect from Kino Lorber.  


Sunday, March 14, 2021

March Reviews

These are the 
reviews and 
other projects 
I'm working 
on this month. 



Video Librarian: Anna Lucasta [Blu-ray]Joan of ArcMadame Claude [Blu-ray]In God We Tru$t [Blu-ray]A Man Called Adam [Blu-ray], and The Underneath [Blu-ray].

Endnote: Anna Lucasta image from DOLA. Rex Ingram as patriarch Joe Lucasta; Eartha Kitt as his daughter, Anna; Sammy Davis, Jr. as her part-time boyfriend, Danny; and Alvin Childress as barkeep Noah.

Sunday, February 28, 2021

February Reviews

These are the reviews and other projects I'm working on this month. 

Crosscut: Charles R. Cross quotes me in this piece.

Video Librarian: Babylon Berlin Season 3 [three-Blu-ray set]Beautiful Darling, The Changin' Times of Ike White, In Case of EmergencyQueen of Hearts: Audrey FlackIt's a Girl Thing: Tween Queens and the Commodification of Girlhood, The Mimic, Once Upon a River, Mario Ruspoli, Prince of the Whales (with Collected Shorts
by Mario Ruspoli)
[Blu-ray], and Upondo & Nkinsela.

Endnote: Babylon Berlin image from Metropole. Love this show. 

Monday, January 18, 2021

January Reviews

These are the 
reviews and 
other projects 
I'm working 
on this month. 

Seattle Film Blog: Flash Gordon - Limited Edition [4K Blu-ray].

Blu-ray set], and Silent Running [Blu-ray].
 
Endnote: Flash Gordon still from Universal Studios. Princess Aura (Ornella Muti) and her father, Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow).