Since the last update I have, along with Mike from The George Sanders Show and Seema from They Shot Pictures, launched a new website, Seattle Screen Scene, dedicated to arthouse and repertory film in the Seattle-area. The site is inspired by New York's wonderful Screen Slate, with listings of all the specialty showings in the city over a given week (also available as a weekly newsletter) but also featuring reviews, previews and other features (like Mike's interview this week with Cinema Books owner Stephanie Ogle).
Other than a long review of Troy and various letterboxd short reviews, all my writing for the last month has been over there, with looks at Sleepless in Seattle, Two Days One Night, National Gallery, Adieu au langage, and a James Stewart double feature, along with revised and updated versions of reviews that originally ran here on The Taking of Tiger Mountain and Actress. Mike and I also did George Sanders episodes on Selma and Malcolm X and The Shopworn Angel and The Cheyenne Social Club.
I also announced the nominees for the 2014 Endy Awards. As with every award and ranking on this site, these are subject to revision, of course. In fact, I'm going to do a big update with all the new 2014 films I've seen since the initial post in the next couple of days. But I'll be announcing the winners on Oscar night coming up in a couple of weeks (we'll also have an Oscar preview episode of The George Sanders Show that weekend).
At letterboxd I updated my Best Movies of Every Year list and created some new lists for Clint Eastwood, William Goldman and James Stewart. I also made a big list of the Top (East) Asian Films of the Decade (So Far), to highlight cinemas that seem to constantly be underrepresented on such endeavors.
These are the movies I've watched and rewatched over the last few weeks, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.
The Spring River Flows East (Cai Chusheng & Zheng Junli) - 10, 1947
The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford) - 5, 1953
The Fall of the Roman Empire (Anthony Mann) - 31, 1964
Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard) - 10, 1965
Manhunter (Michael Mann) - 8, 1986
Heat (Dick Richards) - 41, 1986
Empire of the Sun (Steven Spielberg) - 11, 1987
Into the Woods (James Lapine) - 23, 1991
Malcolm X (Spike Lee) - 26, 1992
Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron) - 55, 1993
You've Got Mail (Nora Ephron) - 50, 1998
The Fast and the Furious (Rob Cohen) - 39, 2001
The Century of the Self (Adam Curtis) - 16, 2002
2 Fast 2 Furious (John Singleton) - 24, 2003
Alexander (Oliver Stone) - 17, 2004
Troy (Wolfgang Petersen) - 42, 2004
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Justin Lin) - 31, 2006
Step Up (Anne Fletcher) - 54, 2006
Rocket Science (Jeffrey Blitz) - 44, 2007
Step Up 2 The Streets (Jon Chu) - 41, 2008
Fast & Furious (Justin Lin) - 59, 2009
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi) - 10, 2011
Fast Five (Justin Lin) - 42, 2011
Fast & Furious 6 (Justin Lin) - 64, 2013
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson) - 9, 2014
Selma (Ava DuVernay) - 11, 2014
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle) - 12, 2014
The Taking of Tiger Mountain (Tsui Hark) - 14, 2014
Dear White People (Justin Simien) - 35, 2014
American Sniper (Clint Eastwood) - 38, 2014
Women Who Know How to Flirt are the Luckiest (Pang Ho-cheung) - 40, 2014
John Wick (Chad Stahleski & David Leitch) - 49, 2014
From Vegas to Macao (Wong Jing) - 52, 2014
Blackhat (Michael Mann) - 1, 2015
Jupiter Ascending (The Wachowskis) - 2, 2015
