Best Movies of 2023: First Viewings & Discoveries and Individual Ballots

First Viewings in 2023!

1. Howards End (James Ivory, 1992)
2. The Match Factory Girl (Aki Kaurismaki, 1990)
3. The Man Without a Past (Aki Kaurismaki, 2002)
4. Mukundan Unni Associates (Abhinav Sunder Nayak, 2022)
5. Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky, 2000)
6. Aavasavyuham: The Arbit Documentation of an Amphibian Hunt (Krishand, 2022)
7. Kharij (Mrinal Sen, 1982)
8. The Wild Pear Tree (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2018)

• The First Year (Patricio Guzmán, 1971)
• Manhattan Melodrama (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934)
• Manderlay ( Michael Curtiz, 1934)
• Experience (Abbas Kiarostami, 1973)
• Stranger and the Fog (Bahram Beyzaie, 1972)
• The Devil’s Backbone (Guillermo del Toro, 2001)
• Almayer’s Folly (Chantal Akerman, 2011)
• The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1989)
• Nadja in Paris (Eric Rohmer, 1964)
• Sketches for Late City Final (Jem Cohen, Peter Hutton, Jeff Preiss & Adam Grossman Cohen; 1991)

• Nuts in May (Mike Leigh, 1976)
• Ashes and Embers (Haile Gerima, 1982)
• Baxter, Vera Baxter (Marguerite Duras, 1977)
• The Boy Who Liked Deer (Barbara Loden, 1978)
• The Black and the Green (St. Clair Bourne, 1983)
• Neige (Juliet Berto and Jean-Henri Roger, 1981)
• The Munekata Sisters (Yasujiro Ozu, 1950)
• A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder, 1948)
• Victims of Sin (Emilio Fernández, 1951)
• L’amour fou (Jacques Rivette, 1969)

I saw one new release:

• American Fiction (which reminded me of reviewing Sorry to Bother You way back when)

I gotta get out more!

First Time Views

I've been following The Evolution of Horror Podcast and the theme subgenre is Home Invasion. I’ve seen about ½ of the 60+ movies on the list. Here’s a selection:

• The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) "Eek" says my notes.
• Someone's Watching Me (1978)
• When a Stranger CALLS BACK (1993)
• Home Alone (1990)
• Creep/Creep 2 (2014, 2017)
• Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) This was Big! I was very afraid to see this movie.

I've been reading The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act so:

• The Goddess (1958)

Weirdest “system” movie I've seen since Something Wild.

Inland Empire (2006) because I wanted to read Melissa Anderson's fantastic monograph on the film.

That’s what I like about the South quartet:

• tick...tick...tick (1970) Sheriff Jim Brown leading a town of Good Ole Boys? Featuring Black
• Chariot (1971) cast members; Bernie Casey, Richard Elkins, and Pauline Myles.
• Poor Pretty Eddie (1975) starring Leslie Uggams and Shelly Winters (!!!) Mind. Blown. Cracker- Horror right up there with Two Thousand Maniacs.
• Chloe: Love Is Calling You (1934) Sort of Imitation of Life but terrible and set in a Louisiana swamp. I Loved it!

The Brood (1979)

Sissy (2022)

Wex Festival of Restoration 2023:

• The Black and the Green (1983), St. Clair Bourne
• Dream Life (La vie rêvée) (1972), Mireille Dansereau
• The World’s Greatest Sinner (1962), Wiggly Timothy Carey
• Él (1953), Luis Buñuel
• Tales from the Gimli Hospital (Redux)(1988), Guy Maddin
• Greta Snider Early Films (1989-1999)
• A Temperamental Wife (1919), David Kirkland
• Burning an Illusion (1981), Menelik Shabazz

Race and the Suburbs in American Film edited by Merrill Schleier, led me to

Take A Giant Step (1959) I think it should be more widely seen and leads me back to the portrayal of middle and upper middle class Black characters those in my sole new release viewing, American Fiction (2023).

• Secret Honor
• Strange Days
• Abigail's Party
• Green Snake
• The Plot Against Harry
• Shin Godzilla
• The Cloud Door
• Trouble Every Day
• Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
• The Far Country

2023 Theatrical Releases (alphabetical)

• A Woman Escapes (Blake Williams, Sofia Bohdanowicz, Burak Çevik)
• Dad & Step-Dad (Tynan DeLong)
• Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Our Body (Claire Simon)
• Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
• The Plains (David Easteal)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
• Still Film (James N. Kienitz Wilkins)

2023 First Watches (chronological)

• The Big Break (Joseph Stick, 1953)
• The Cobweb (Vincente Minnelli, 1955)
• L’Amour fou (Jacques Rivette, 1969)
• The Student Nurses (Stephanie Rothman, 1970)
• Still Life (Sohrab Shahid-Saless, 1974)
• Deprisa, deprisa (Carlos Saura, 1981)
• Which side are you on? (Ken Loach, 1984)
• Moonlighting (ABC, 1985-89)
• Mist Melodies in Paris (Julius-Amédée Laou, 1985)
• Typhoon Club (Shinji Sōmai, 1985)
• Lilly’s World of Wax (Tom Palazzolo, 1986)
• Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet, 1988)
• Pin: A Plastic Nightmare (Sandor Stern, 1988)
• Tiger Cage 2 (Yuen Woo-ping, 1990)
• The Rapture (Michael Tolkin, 1991)
• Broken Mirror (Song Dong, 1999)
• The Target Shoots First (Christopher Wilcha, 1999)
• Junebug (Phil Morrison, 2005)
• Over the Rainbow (Rachel Maclean, 2013)
• Untitled “cop slide” video (@ryanwhitney6, 2023)

New Releases

1. Queens of the Qing Dynasty
2. Piaffe
3. Knock at the Cabin
4. In Water
5. May December
6. The Delinquents
7. Nobody’s Hero
8. Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros
9. Silent Night
10. Jawan

New To Me

1. The Rainbow Bridge (1975; Vicki Z. Peterson) - A stunning study of the horizon line, where each succeeding frame differs from the previous, creating rapidly alternating geometric patterns via our persistence of vision. The only copy of this in-camera-edited masterpiece (that I’m currently aware of) is located at the NYPL’s Performing Arts branch and is faded as hell; if anyone has any leads to Peterson, her other work, or both, please give me a ring.
2. Groups I-VIII (1969-80; Barry Gerson) - I was lucky enough to spend a day with Barry Gerson—experimental cinema’s best kept secret—at his studio in Preston Hollow, where we watched a handful of his minimalist 16mm vignettes. For those interested, all of these will be screened at Anthology early next year!
3. Ken Jacobs: Up The Illusion (2023) - May Ken continue to teach us new ways of seeing for another 90 years!
4. He Weeps for You (1977; Bill Viola) - Cry me a river, drowning in my own tears, etc.
5. Batman Dracula (1964; Andy Warhol) - Chris Nolan could learn a thing or two from this one…
6. Babylon Series #3 (1990; Stan Brakhage) - I saw a handful of great Stan Brakhage films this year—such as Interpolations I-V, Spring Cycle, Airs, Tortured Dust, and Faust’s Other: An Idyll, to name a few—but this one, easily the most “minor” of the bunch, is Stan at his most breathtakingly ephemeral. Perfectly replicates those fleeting early morning moments of slowly waking up on a blindingly snowy day.
7. Ecosystem 7 ~ A Sedimentary Heat (1990; Teruo Koike) - The late Teruo Koike and his ecological films are unknown entities to most stateside experimental cinema enthusiasts, something that will hopefully be rectified in the coming years. This one could easily be mistaken for a hand-painted Brakhage film.
8. Room Film 1973 (1973; Peter Gidal) - Sorta like Skinamarink, except not terrible.
9. Hours for Jerome (1982; Nathaniel Dorsky) - I watched this on a (stunning, breathtaking, gorgeous, etc.) 16mm print at the Harvard Film Archives. After the screening, they proceeded to officially award me an honorary PhD in “based grail hunting.”
10. Romeo and the Black Brothers (1995; Kōzō Kusuba, Shinpei Miyashita, Yasuo Iwamoto, Tomomitsu Matsukawa, & Kenichi Nishida) - My first go-around with World Masterpiece Theater and, suffice to say, I was deeply impressed with its simple, yet economic production values, consistently magnificent artistry, and masterful storytelling instincts. For those who are on the fence about anime in general, I’d gladly recommend this wonderfully anti-weeb enterprise any day.

And here’s ten other noteworthy titles:

1. Nike Air Max 180 Commercial (1991; Jean-Luc Godard) - In a year where we got a trailer for a movie that will never exist, it’s only fitting to mention Godard's Nike ad that almost never saw the light of day.
2. Early Summer (1951; Yasujirō Ozu) - GOAT-zu strikes again!
3. The Dagger of Kamui (1985; Rintaro) - Turns a series of pulpy historical novels into a mythic soap-opera epic. Includes some of the most visually stunning animated sequences to come out of 1980s Japan and features a cameo from cowboy Mark Twain.
4. Monkey Business (1952; Howard Hawks) - “What a knee-slapper!”
5. Fall (1971; Tom DeWitt Ditto) - Tom Ditto, a future NASA researcher, once worked on experimental films like Scott Bartlett’s OnOff. This one, which gave me slight vertigo, is somehow even more technically impressive.
6. Particle Dreams (1988; Karl Sims) - Love these early computer animation doodles that exist at the intersection of art and science.
7. Electramorphic (1987; Bradley Eros, Aline Mare) - Bradley, you crazy for this one!
8. The Flesh (1991; Marco Ferreri) - Ferrari remains the true Italian Stallion.
9. Spiders in Love: An Arachnogasmic Musical (1999; Martha Colburn) - Creepy-crawlies of the world, unite!
10. Brickwall (1975; Paul Winkler) - Takes a while for this one to really get going, but once it does, it hits like… well, you get the idea.

First Viewings

• The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renior)
• Spacked Out (Lawrence Ah Mon)
• Easy Living (Mitchell Leisen)
• Four Daughters (Michael Curtiz)
• List (Hong Sangsoo)
• Creepy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
• No Highway in the Sky (Henry Koster)
• Daughter of the Nile (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
• Sailor Suit and the Machine Gun (Shinji Sōmai)
• The Quest (Nippon TV)
• Adam-12
• That Night's Wife (Yasujiro Ozu)

• De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
• Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-Liang)
• Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene)
• The Process (Orson Wells)
• The Naked Island (Kaneto Shindō)
• Godland (Hlynur Pálmason)
• All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)
• Vera (Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel)
• Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)

• Delitto d'amore aka Somewhere Beyond Love (Luigi Comencini, 1974)
• Extra Terrestrial Visitors (Juan Piquer Simón, 1983)
• Delirio caldo aka Delirium (Renato Polselli, 1972)
• The Magnificent Cuckold (Antonio Pietrangeli, 1964)
• Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (Shinji Somai, 1981)
• The Sex of Angels (Ugo Liberatore, 1968)
• Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (Dušan Makavejev, 1967)
• Malèna (Giuseppe Tornatore, 2000)
• Il demonio aka The Demon (Brunello Rondi, 1963)
• Typhoon Club (Shinji Somai, 1985)
• On the Silver Globe (Andrzej Żuławski, 1988)

New Releases

1. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)
2. Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann)
3. Saint Omer (Alice Diop)
4. Orlando (Paul B. Preciado)
5. Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing)
6. May December (Todd Haynes)
7. Unrest (Cyril Schäublin)
8. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
9. Allensworth (James Benning)
10. Tori & Lokita (Luc Dardenne & Jean-Pierre Dardenne)

11 favourite first views, no particular order

• Impatience (Charles Dekeukeleire, 1928)
• Monsieur Klein (Joseph Losey, 1976)
• The Woman in the Moon (Fritz Lang, 1929)
• Pressure (Horace Ové, 1975)
• The Legend of Lylah Clare (Robert Aldrich, 1968)
• Vitesse Women (Claudine Eizykmann, 1974)
• The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1971)
• Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)
• La pudeur ou l'impudeur (Hervé Guibert, 1992)
• Une sale histoire (Jean Eustache, 1977)
• Eventide (Sharon Lockhart, 2022)

New Releases

• After Sherman
• The Adults
• I Like Movies
• The Apocalyptic is the Mother of All Christian Theology
• Pacifiction
• De Humani Corporis Fabrica
• Knock at the Cabin
• Geographies of Solitude
• Kokomo City
• Rewind & Play

First Viewings and Discoveries

• The Phantom of the Monastery (1934)
• Love is News (1937)
• The Clock (1945)
• Simon of the Desert (1965)
• American Revolution 2 (1969)
• Tout va bien (1972)
• Manila in the Claws of Light (1975)
• Prefab Story (1979)
• Reds (1981)
• The Atomic Cafe (1982)
• The Coca-Cola Kid (1985)
• Caravaggio (1986)
• Working Girls (1986)
• Walker (1987)
• Alma’s Rainbow (1994)
• Bulworth (1998)
• The Net (Das Netz) (2003)
• Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You! (2012)
• Local Legends (2013)
• So Pretty (2019)

New Releases

• Our Home Out West (Drew Tobia)
• The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Sanctuary (Zachary Wigon)
• Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan)
• John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski)
• De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel)
• Return to Seoul (Davy Chou)
• Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Frankenhooker
• Freeway
• Sorcerer
• Yi Yi
• Phase IV
• Light Sleeper
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
• Alan Wake/Alan Wake 2
• Untitled “cop slide” video
• Untitled "cop slide" video in reverse

New Releases (alphabetical)

• The Adults
• Chile ‘76
• Fallen Leaves
• Killers of the Flower Moon
• May December
• Our Body
• Priscilla
• Scarlet
• Showing Up
• You Hurt My Feelings

First Viewings

• Hangover Square (1945)
• The Strangler (1970)
• The Laughing Policeman (1973)
• Busting (1974)
• Report to the Commissioner (1975)
• Buffet Froid (1979)
• Neige (1981)
• Love Rites (1987)
• The Last Seduction (1994)
• Pacifiction (2022)

New Releases

1. The Taste of Things
2. May December
3. Showing Up
4. Oppenheimer
5. Spider Man: Across the Spider-Verse
6. Napoleon
7. Ferrari
8. How to Blow Up a Pipeline
9. Killers of the Flower Moon
10. Blackberry

Firsts

1. Intentions of Murder, Imamura, 1964
2. Le Corbeau, Georges-Clouzot, 1943
3. The Last Run, Fleischer, 1971
4. Sorcerer, Friedkin, 1977
5. The Spook Who Sat By The Door, Dixon, 1973
6. A Man Escaped, Bresson, 1956
7. In a Lonely Place, Ray, 1950
8. The Exorcist III, Blatty, 1990
9. Youth of the Beast, Suzuki, 1963
10. Reds, Beatty, 1981
11. Chan Is Missing, Wang, 1982
12. The Watermelon Woman, Dunye, 1996
13. In The Bedroom, Field, 2001
14. The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, Wenders, 1972
15. The Seventh Continent, Haneke, 1989
16. 3 Women, Altman, 1977
17. Caliber 9, Di Leo, 1972
18. The Great Silence, Corbucci, 1968
19. The Seven-Ups, D’Antoni, 1973
20. Le Mans, Katzin, 1971

1. Q (Jude Chehab)
2. Knit's Island (Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse & Quentin L’helgoualc’h)
3. Hummingbirds (Silvia Del Carmen Castaños & Estefanía “Beba” Contreras)
4. Recurring Dream No.15
5. Kokomo City (D. Smith)
6. Another Body (Reuben Hamlyn & Sophie Compton)
7. Anhell69 (Theo Montoya)
8. Vans Video (Johnathan Flechas)
9. Reality (Tina Satter)
10. Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania)

• American Dream (Barbara Kopple, US 1990)
• Ask Any Buddy (Elizabeth Purchell, US 2020)
• Ceddo (Ousmane Sembène, Senegal 1977)
• The Dupes (Tawfiq Saleh, Syria 1973)
• Friendly Witness (Warren Sonbert, US 1989)
• Hookers on Davie (Holly Dale & Janis Cole, Canada 1984)
• Kajillionaire (Miranda July, US 2020)
• The Night It Rained (Kamran Shirdel, Iran 1967)
• Open Mic Solitaire (Julius-Amédée Laou, France 1983)
• Pressure (Horace Ové, UK 1975)
• The Quince Tree Sun (Víctor Erice, Spain 1992)
• Serpents of the Pirate Moon (Jean-Louis Jorge, US 1973)
• Snow Canon (Mati Diop, France 2011)
• Statues Hardly Ever Smile (Stan Lathan, US 1971)
• Still Life (Sohrab Shahid Saless, Iran 1974)
• A Time for Burning (Barbara Connell & William C. Jersey, US 1966)
• Tobacco Farmers (Yugantar, India 1982)
• Triple Fisher: The Lethal Lolitas of Long Island (Dan Kapelovitz, US 2012)
• Twin Peaks (Al Wong, US 1977)
• The Vampires of Poverty (Carlos Mayolo & Luis Ospina, Colombia 1978)

New:

1. Mike Hodges: A Filmmaker’s Life (David Cairns)
2. The Pigeon Tunnel (Errol Morris)
3. Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble In Mind (Ethan Coen)
4. Smile (Parker Finn)
5. The Lying Life Of Adults (Edoardo De Angelis)
6. May December (Todd Haynes)
7. The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams)
8. 32 Sounds (Sam Green)

Old:

1. Outlaw: Goro The Assassin (Keiichi Ozawa,1968)
2. Death Walks At Midnight (Luciano Ercoli,1972)
3. Seven Days to Noon (Roy & John Boulting 1950)
4. Tie: Ivy (Sam Wood, 1947) & So Evil My Love (Lewis Allen, 1948) & Ambush At Tomahawk Gap (Fred F. Sears,1953)
5. The Day Of the Owl (Damiano Damiani, 1968)
6. One Way Passage (Tay Garnett 1932)
7. Tie: Zatoichi And The Chess Expert (Kenji Misumi, 1965) & Zatoichi In Desperation (Shintarō Katsu, 1972)
8. The Tell-Tale Heart (Ernest Morris, 1960)
9. Tie: One on Top Of The Other (Lucio Fulci, 1969) & Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (Lucio Fulci, 1971)
10. Savage Mutiny (Spencer Gordon Bennet, 1953)
11. Carmen From Kawachi (Seijun Suzuki, 1966)
12. Hitokiri/Tenchu! (Hideo Gosha, 1969)
13. La Cérémonie (Claude Chabrol, 1995)
14. Interlude (Douglas Sirk, 1957)
15. The Appointment (Lindsay C. Vickers, 1981)
16. Yield To The Night (J. Lee Thompson, 1956)
17. The Monster Squad (Fred Dekker, 1987)
18. In the Mouth of Madness (John Carpenter, 1994)
19. Fear Is The Key (Michael Tuchner, 1972)

New Releases

• Barbenheimer – I couldn’t care less about these movies. But a mass psychological hallucination sublimating murderous rockets, sexy plastics, and the paranoid, corporate nightmare of 20th century America? Page Dr. Pynchon and check me in.
• The World’s UnFair, New Red Order – It’s cinema, it’s a theme park, it’s an installation, it’s a world’s fair
• May December
• The Master Gardener
• Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
• Menus-Plaisirs—Les Troisgros
• Anatomy of a Fall – Above all, a movie about the frustrations of having a conversation with a German
• In Water
• Foragers, Jumana Manna, 2022
• Grenfell, Steve McQueen

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Rosemarie Trockel Continental Divide 1994 — seeing this in Trockel’s MMK show earlier this year felt like the first time…
• Elda Cerrato (with Ramiro Larraín, Luis Zubillaga, and Luciano Zubillaga), RF: Segmentos_CPV: Okidanokh (1964–2022)

Favorite Films With a 2023 US Theatrical Release

1. La Chimera
2. Asteroid City
3. Pacifiction
4. Showing Up
5. Our Body
6. Human Flowers of Flesh
7. The Zone of Interest
8. Fallen Leaves
9. Killers of the Flower Moon
10. Queens of the Qing Dynasty

First-Time Viewings

• American Graffiti
• Bad Education (‘04)
• Bull Durham
• The Cow (‘69)
• Diary of a Country Priest
• Drylongso
• The game where you type in “IMG_[any number]” on YouTube and watch whatever comes up
• Janet Planet
• Kamikaze Hearts
• LA Plays Itself
• Mouchette
• The Office, Season 3, Episode 17 “Business School”
• The 7th Victim
• Sexy Beast
• Simone Barbès or Virtue
• Slums of Beverly Hills
• Still Life (‘06)
• The Strangler (‘70)
• Too Early / Too Late
• The Wolf Knife

New Releases (unranked)

• Afire (Christian Petzold)
• Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams)
• The Feeling That The Time for Doing Something Has Passed (Joanna Arnow)
• Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)
• Kubi (Takeshi Kitano)
• Coma (Bertrand Bonello) – This was on my list last year and will be every year until it gets released; I love The Beast, but unhinged, unrefined Bonello beats masterpiece theater Bonello any day of the week.
• Here (Bas Devos)
• A Woman Escapes )Blake Williams, Burak Çevik, and Sofia Bohdanowicz)
• Last Things (Deborah Stratman)
• The Plains (David Easteal)
• Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster) – I've never hated a film that's ended up on my top 10 as much as this one, but here it is.

Best First Watches

• The Report (Abbas Kiarostami)
• George Carlin, Jammin in New York
• When I am Dead and White (Živojin Pavlović)
• The 5th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special (Eric Notarnicola)
• The Trial (Eric Notarnicola)
• Up, Down, Fragile (Jacques Rivette)
• Gentleman Jim (Raoul Walsh)
• Love Torn in A Dream (Raul Ruiz)
• Chinese Shadows (Raul Ruiz)
• Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavetes)
• The Unknown (Tod Browning)
• West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning)
• Avanti! (Billy Wilder)
• The Man From London (Bela Tarr)
• Torque (Joseph Kahn)
• Human Geographies (Claire Simon)
• Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
• From What is Before (Lav Diaz)
• The Terminal (Steven Spielberg)
• Late Autumn (Yasujiro Ozu)

I haven’t seen many films this year because of work.
And all the “old” films I saw were not for the first time.
Except one, which I found really beautiful:
Le grand amour, by Pierre Etaix (1969)

New Releases (unranked)

• Passages
• May December
• Afire
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Fallen Leaves
• Texas Death Match: Hangman Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland (AEW Full Gear)
• La Chimera
• Last Summer
• Past Lives
• The Zone of Interest

First Viewings

• Working Girls (1986)
• Exotica (1994)
• Bull Durham (1988)
• Out of Sight (1998)
• Point Break (1991)
• The Foul King (2000)
• The Match Factory Girl (1990)
• Creed (2015)
• Solaris (2002)
• Hold Me Tight (2021)
• The Sting (1973)

First Viewings (in no order)

• The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976)
• The Skeleton of Mrs Morales (1960)
• Dirty Grandpa (2016)
• Lady Killer (1937)
• Barfly (1987)
• Dragons Forever (1988)
• Trailer Town (2003)
• The Errand Boy (1961)
• The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
• Midnight (1939)

New Releases

10. Passages

9. The Killer

8. Oppenheimer

7. May December

6. How to Blow Up a Pipeline

5. The Boy and the Heron

4. Killers of the Flower Moon

3. Showing Up

2. Asteroid City

1. De Humani Corporis Fabrica

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Household Saints, Nancy Savoca
• The Rapture, Michael Tolkin
• Dagmar's Hot Pants, Inc., Vernon P. Becker
• Fat City, John Huston
• Double Booked: Honeymoon (a.k.a. Hot Honeymoon Surprise), Andre Madness
• Werckmeister Harmonies, Béla Tarr
• Deep End, Jerzy Skolimowski
• "Overnight Celebrity," Twista and Gun Drummer
• "How to Clean Your Ears," John Wilson
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

First Viewings

• Sailor Suit and Machine Gun
• My Little Loves
• La Libertad
• Caché
• Yeast
• Innocents Abroad
• In Another Country
• Bug
• Dillinger is Dead
• I Walked with a Zombie
• A Difficult Life
• Relics: Einstein's Brain – A man looks for Einstein's brain. Available on YouTube. Watched it over breakfast and cried at the end. Maybe my favorite movie from this list.

New releases:

• Killers of the Flower Moon
• Asteroid City
• Barbie
• All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
• Showing Up
• Passages
• Civic
• A Thousand and One
• Earth Mama
• Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game

First viewings:

• Dogfight (1991, Nancy Savoca)
• Suzhou River (2000, Lou Ye)
• L’Adolescente (1979, Jeanne Moreau)
• La Rosière de Pessac (1968, Jean Eustache)
• La Rosière de Pessac 79 (1979, Jean Eustache)
• The End of Summer (1961, Yasujiro Ozu)
• Something Like a War (2003, Deepa Dhanraj)
• Quick Millions (1931, Rowland Brown)
• I Don’t Want to Be a Man (1918, Ernst Lubitsch)
• Winter Kills (1979, William Richert)
• Mister E (1959, Margaret Conneely)
• 500 Francs (1961, Melvin Van Peebles)
• The Fifteen-Year-Old Widows (1965, Jean Rouch)
• The Botanical Avatar of Mademoiselle Flora (1965, Jeanne Barbillon)
• Kansas City (1996, Robert Altman)
• The Delta (1996, Ira Sachs)
• Ceddo (1977, Ousmane Sembène)
• Aimless Bullet (1960, Yu Hyun-mok)
• The Losers (1963, Sam Peckinpah)
• The Salvation Hunters (1925, Josef von Sternberg)

New Releases

1. Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo, 2022)
2. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, 2023)
3. In Water (Hong Sang-soo, 2023)
4. Mad Fate (Soi Cheang, 2023)
5. Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars (Jean-Luc Godard, 2023)
6. Saturn Bowling (Patricia Mazuy, 2022)
7. Fast X (Louis Leterrier, 2023)
8. Viens je t'emmène (Alain Guiraudie, 2022)
9. The Killer (David Fincher, 2023)
10. Afire (Christian Petzold, 2023)

First Viewings and Discoveries (one per director, unranked)

• Ruido (Karen Lamassonne, 1984)
• Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again (Jerry Belson, 1982)
• In the Spirit (Sandra Seacat, 1990)
• Hollywood 90028 (Christina Hornisher, 1973)
• Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavetes, 1971)
• Le Journal d'une femme de chambre (Luis Buñuel, 1964)
• L'Escargot noir (Claude Chabrol, 1988)
• The Arc (Rob Tregenza, 1991)
• Defending Your Life (Albert Brooks, 1991)
• Margie (Henry King, 1946)
• Flower Picking Diary (Ishida Tamizo, 1939)
• Under the Heat Lamp an Opening (Zachary Epcar, 2014)
• The Man with the Balloons (Marco Ferreri, 1967)
• 11 Harrowhouse (Aram Avakian, 1974)
• Guele d'amour (Jean Grémillon, 1937)
• Advise & Consent (Otto Preminger, 1962)
• Queen of Diamonds (Nina Menkes, 1991)
• Espoir - Sierra de Teruel (André Malraux, 1939)
• Frágil Como o Mundo (Rita Azevedo Gomes, 2001)
• Opfergang (Veit Harlan, 1944)

First Viewings

• Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939)
• There's Always Tomorrow (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
• High School (Frederick Wiseman, 1968)
• Hard Labour (Mike Leigh, 1973)
• Breaking Away (Peter Yates, 1979)
• Looking for Richard (Al Pacino, 1996)
• Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon, 1997)
• Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005)

New Releases (ranked)

Maybe it’s the state of cinema or the world, but I saw only three new releases this year and one of them at the start of December.

1. SHIN ULTRAMAN: slight edge for goofiness, vfx blending cgi and analog, and maintaining a strangeness akin to the original Ultra Q but fitting for this alien tale.
2. GODZILLA MINUS ONE: America is no longer allowed to make Godzilla movies. We have to stick to King Kong, giant bugs, and RAMPAGE.
3. BARBIE: it was fine.

New To Me (not ranked)

Many of these were theater viewings; I’m not watching fewer movies in public spaces, I’m just detaching from the present as much as possible.

• The Abomination (1986)
• Hookers On Davie
• The Ginseng King: Taiwan saw NEVERENDING STORY and said give us two weeks and $2000. Marvelous.
• Dawn Of The Dead
• The New Cosmos: Takashi Makino Short Film Works
• The Pricemaster: I am very behind on this, as the Pricemaster passed away this year. No cheating watching an edit.
• Righting Wrongs (1986)
• Bell From Hell (1983)
• Crystal Miracles/Crystal Mysteries: if this is some kind of cult propaganda, it worked. I want in.
• Pankow 95
• I Hate Myself And I Want To Die
• Backtrack
• Action Jackson
• Invaders From Mars (1953): I love a child’s fever dream on film.
• Timekeepers Of Eternity (2021)
• I’ll See You In Hell, My Darling
• C.H.U.D. surprised by its political bent and baby John Goodman.
• Undefeatable (1993)
• Lemora: A Child’s Tale Of The Supernatural
• Violent New Breed (1997) the director’s 14 year old stepson on seeing one of his stepdad’s movies for the first time: “I saw boobies.”
   

New Releases

• Saint Omer (Alice Diop)
• The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Afire (Christian Petzold)
• Passages (Ira Sachs)
• Monica (Andrea Pallaoro)
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
• The Stroll (Kristen Lovell & Zackary Drucker)
• Bottoms (Emma Seligman)
• Playland (Georden West)

I regret to say while I enjoyed it, Indigenous critiques for me bar Killers of the Flower Moon.

Fun Rediscoveries

• Drylongso, Cauleen Smith
• The work of Barbara Hammer at Company Gallery
• Malina starring Isabelle Huppert
• By Hook or By Crook on the Criterion Channel under Masc programming.
• The Skin I Live In, Almodovar's surprise trans revenge thriller.
• Bound
• They Glow in the Dark, a strange film about two HIV positive gay ex-lovers turned friends in post-Katrina New Orleans.
• Party Girl – after seeing her in a play, was lovely to be reminded what Parker Posey does best.
• The Doom Generation – nihilism is in, for better or worse, but Araki captures why it's so appealing and sexy to Gen Z queer people.
• Pipilotti Rist returns to NYC with Prickling Goosebumps at Hauser and Wirth and Luhring Augustine.
• Un rêve, dreamy phallic revival of a Niki de Saint Phalle film.

New Releases

1. May December
2. The Holdovers
3. New Strains
4. Jawan
5. Godzilla Minus One
6. Plane
7. A Thousand and One
8. Passages
9. Skinamarink
10. The Devil Conspiracy

First Viewings and Discoveries

At home

1. Home from the Hill (1960)
2. Virtuosity (1995)
3. Cohen and Tate (1988)
4. Full Eclipse (1993)
5. Lower Level (1991)
6. Celia (1989)
7. The Age of Consent (1932)

In theaters

1. I Am Suzanne! (1933) (MOMA)
2. God of Cookery (1996) (Nitehawk, Subway Cinema’s Sundays on Fire series)
3. Law Abiding Citizen (2009) (Metrograph, F. Gary Gray series)
4. The Unknown (1927) (MOMA)
5. World’s Greatest Sinner (1962) (Restoration at Anthology)
6. The Last Woman (1976) (Film Society at Lincoln Center, Marco Ferreri series)
7. Hollywood 90028 (1973) (The Deuce series at Nitehawk)

First Viewings and Discoveries:

Wavelength (dir. Michael Snow, 1967)

Permanence and ephemerality evoked through the window at 300 Canal Street — the former studio of the artist Michael Snow (1928 - 2023). At the suggestion of Peter Scott, we screened an abbreviated version on our window in 2021, generously edited by the artist himself "for those who don't have time." In this full length version, a long camera zoom recalls the storytelling of comedies, Westerns, and gangster films.

My Dinner with Andre (Dir. Louis Malle, 1981)

Two friends meet for dinner and muse about life, revealing some fundamental differences. Opening scene sees them ambling down Canal Street — a once common activity for the out-of-work artist seeking inspiration.

Party Girl (Dir. Daisy von Scherler Mayer, 1995)

Mary (Parker Posey) cleans up her act and becomes a librarian at Seward Park Library (Essex and Canal) — in the process falling in love with a sexy falafel vendor.

Canal Street: First Stop in America (Dir. Keiko Tsuno, Peter Kwong, 1990)

A portrait of Canal Street, landing place for waves of immigrants, produced by DCTV and this year re-screened as part of their retrospective at the Firehouse Cinema for Documentary Film, sadly sans the inimitable Peter Kwong (1941-2017).

Pom Poko (Dir. Isao Takahata, 1994)

Shapeshifting raccoons fight to save their forest home from developers. Human destruction of nature is a running thread through basically all of Studio Ghibli's films but this one is most literal, comical, and inspiring. Thanks to our colleagues at the Shape of Cities to Come for bringing it to our attention!

Foragers (Dir. Jumana Manna, 2022)

With tenderness and verve, Jumana Manna’s documentary depicts the struggles of Palestinians to forage for native plants ‘akkoub and za’atar where their families have foraged for generations – while facing increasing persecution from Israeli authorities whose laws claim to “protect” the environment while functioning to further alienate Palestinians from their land.

Rabble Rousers (Dir. Kathryn Barnier, Ryan Joseph, Kelly Anderson, 2022)

A film about how Francis Goldin and her neighbors in the LES resisted Robert Moses' slum clearance plan and, after 50 years, established New York State's first community land trust on 4th Street.

Secret Society Roller Club (Dir. Yalda Afsah, 2022)

Sensorial and intimate portrait of pigeon breeders in Compton.

Batteries Not Included (Dir. Matthew Robbins, 1987)

Gentrification fighting aliens come to the aid of a band of neighbors fighting a losing battle against developers on 9th and C. This film screened recently at Citygroup as part of their exhibition “Patterns of Change.”

Drummer’s Gonna Drum #03 (Dir. Julian Togar, 2023)

Part of Togar's debut solo exhibition at SculptureCenter this year, this film was shot on Run, a tiny island in the Indonesian archipelago which was traded by the British to the Dutch (who aspired to monopolize the nutmeg trade) in 1667 for another island: Manhattan.

New Releases

1. Our Body (Claire Simon)

First Viewings and Discoveries

1. Takaaki Itoh (Concert Hall, A38, Budapest, September 30)
2. Amotik (Basement, Queens, July 28)
3. Slam (Basement, Queens, December 1)
4. Flavia Laus (Basement, Queens, December 1)
5. x3butterfly (Studio, Basement, Queens, November 10)
6. Lloyd (Good Room, Brooklyn, May 27)
7. Isabella Koen (Basement, Queens, June 16)
8. James K (Zone One, Elsewhere, Brooklyn, July 1)
9. Nina Farrina (Concert Hall, A38, Budapest, September 30)
10. Patrick Holland (Zone One, Elsewhere, Brooklyn, July 1)

Both extant episodes of Turn-On (1969) are finally available on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDpum0Jp7Gw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwRYpqTpCU4

First Viewings and Discoveries

Top ten in alphabetical order:

Angel’s Egg, Dir. Mamoru Oshii, Japan, 1985

And Accompanying Mamoru Oshii Show at LOMEX Gallery, NYC

Bluebeard’s Castle by Anna Biller, Verso Fiction

Unfinanced Film Project re-envisioned as a Novel

Corridor of Mirrors, Dir. Terence Young, UK, 1948

John Waters “Pope of Trash” Exhibit at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles

And his inclusion on the walk of fame as spearheaded by Outfest

Kim’s Video, Alamo Drafthouse, NYC

Organization and Cataloging of the original Kim’s Video collection in the basement of Alamo Drafthouse in Downtown Manhattan

Last Movies by Stanley Schtinter at Nighthawk Cinema, Spectacle Theater & Light Industry

Book & Accompanying Screening Series by English Filmmaker Stanley Schtinter, documenting the last film watched by various luminaries before their deaths. I viewed the last films of Lee Harvey Oswald (War Is Hell, Dir. Burt Topper), John Dillinger (Manhattan Melodrama, Dir. W.S. Van Dyke), and Pier Paolo Pasolini (Oedipus Rex, Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini).

Sade: La Libertado O El Mal, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain

Marquis de Sade exhibit, including several films and interview excerpts with artists inspired by Sade, and other televisual horrors (i.e. The Stanford Prison Experiment)

Sexe + Desires + Data: An Interactive Experience, Centre Phi, Montréal, Canada

Multi-media exhibit examining desire & technology at one of my favorite museums in Montréal

Suspiria, Dir. Luca Guadagnino, Italy/USA, 2018

The restoration of the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood <3 and the Vista Theatre in Los Feliz (now with 70MM)

New Releases

1. Past Lives
2. Killers of the Flower Moon
3. Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret
4. Oppenheimer
5. The Holdovers
6. Return to Seoul
7. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning: Part One
8. May December
9. Asteroid City
10. You Hurt My Feelings

First Viewings and Discoveries

1. Ticket of No Return (Ottinger, 1979)
2. The Smiling Madam Beudet (Dulac, 1923)
3. The Plot Against Harry (Roemer, 1971)
4. The Ceremony (Ōshima 1971)
5. Cooley High (Schultz, 1975)
6. Tiger Cage 2 (Yuen, 1990)
7. The Creatures (Varda, 1966)
8. The World's Greatest Sinner (Carey, 1962)
9. The Law in These Parts (Alexandrowicz, 1911)
10. Robot Monster 3-D (Tucker, 1953)

New Releases

• The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
• Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)
• The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung)
• De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
• About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
• La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)

First Viewings

• Passion (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
• The Idiots (Lars von Trier)
• The Dupes (Tewfik Sale)
• Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
• The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache)
• Él (Luis Buñuel)
• The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman)
• Death by Hanging (Nagisa Ōshima)
• Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan)
• Contemporary Color (Turner Ross, Bill Ross IV)
• Jonah Who Will Be 25 In The Year 2000 (Alain Tanner)
• Matinee (Joe Dante)
• To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin)
• Deep Cover (Bill Duke)
• Original Cast Album Company (D.A. Pennebaker)
• Absolute Power (Clint Eastwood)
• Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski)

First Viewings

• Trust (Hal Hartley, 1990)
• Chilsu and Mansu (Park Kwang-su, 1988)
• Dust in the Wind (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1986)
• Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis, 2001)
• Amma Ariyan (John Abraham, 1986)
• The Silent Holy Stones (Pema Tseden, 2005)
• Divino Amore (Cecilia Mangini, 1963)
• Deep Cover (Bill Duke, 1992)
• The Scent of Green Papaya (Tran Anh Hung, 1993)

Five of my most memorable first viewings of the year:

• Numéro Zéro (Jean Eustache, 1971) - DCP of digital restoration, FLC
• The Catch (Shinji Somai, 1983) - imported 35mm print, Japan Society
• Is This What You Were Born For? (Abigail Child, 1981-89) - 16mm, Anthology
• Green (Luther Price as Tom Rhoads, 1987) - Super 8mm, Anthology
• Dottie Gets Spanked (Todd Haynes, 1993) - DCP of digital restoration, MoMI

• The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (Djibril Diop Mambety, 1999)
• The Sky is Ours (Jean Grémillon, 1944)
• The Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977)
• Feu Follet (Louis Malle, 1963)
• Spring in a Small Town (Fei Mu, 1948)
• You Deserve a Lover (Hafsia Herzi, 2019)
• Horrors of Malformed Men (Teruo Ishii, 1969)
• Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
• Jinpa (Pema Tseden, 2018)
• The Gambler (Karel Reisz, 1974)
• + The Watchmen (Damon Lindelof, 2019, TV series)

New Releases

• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Jethica (Pete Ohs)
• This Closeness (Kit Zauhar)
• The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed (Joanna Arnow)
• Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)
• Shin Ultraman (Shinji Higuchi)
• Booger (Mary Dauterman)
• Rotting In The Sun (Sebastián Silva)
• Tommy Guns (Carlos Conceiçāo)
• Bottoms (Emma Seligman)

First Viewings

• Batman Dracula (Andy Warhol, 1964)
• Blood & Sand (Rouben Mamoulian, 1941)
• A Bloodthirsty Killer (Lee Yong-Min, 1965)
• God Of Cookery (Stephen Chow & Lee Lik-Chi, 1996)
• Gumrah (Mahesh Bhatt, 1993)
• Love Letter (Seijun Suzuki, 1959)
• The Movie Orgy (Joe Dante, 1968)
• The Strangler (Paul Vecchiali, 1970)
• Weather Diary 5 (George Kuchar, 1989)
• West Of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928)
• You And Me (Fritz Lang, 1938)

First Watches of the Year

I didn’t get to the cinema as much as I wanted, but loosely defined moving-image discoveries for me this year included:

• Don Siegel’s Flaming Star (1960)
• Ibisazi Designers Nyabyo at Haul Gallery
• Bob Ross’s The Joy of Painting (nope, never saw it before - much better than expected
• Pope.L’s Impossible Failures, paired with works by Gordon Matta-Clark at 52 Walker, projected too large, askew, washed out – one of my favorite shows of the last decade
• Clint Eastwood’s The Mule (2018)
• Philippe Parreno’s Hertzian Tales at Gladstone Gallery
• Leslie Thornton’s HANDMADE on the huge media wall in the MoMA lobby
• Ernest R. Dickerson’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
• The Wooster Group’s Symphony of Rats (work in progress, a new production based on a play by Richard Foreman) – no one appropriates film and television like the Wooster Group
• New York Islanders “Exclusive Experience” video featuring the Empire State Building and the Montauk Lighthouse, projected on the ice

New Releases (no order, only felt very strongly about three thus far!)

• Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)
• Remembering Every Night (Yui Kiyohara)
• May December (Todd Haynes, 2023)
• No Hard Feelings (Gene Stupnitsky)

Favorite Viewing (no order)

• I, the Worst of All (María Luisa Bemberg, 1990)
• Spectacle’s Gialli Marathon
• Viva (Anna Biller, 2007) screening plus q&a at Nitehawk
• Captain Lightfoot (Douglas Sirk, 1955)
• Bunny Lake Is Missing (Otto Preminger, 1965)
• Red Eye (Wes Craven, 2005)
• Snow (Juliet Berto, 1981)
• Innocents Abroad (Les Blank, 1991)
• The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
• Fascination (Jean Rollin, 1979)
• The Little Mermaid (Karel Kachyňa, 1976)
• Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (Shōhei Imamura, 2001)
• Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
• The Creators of Shopping Worlds (Harun Farocki, 2001)
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992)

My casual first-time watches were at an all-time low this year — they’ve lagged since March 2020, to be frank. Writing projects account for the Manns and Wisemans; plane rides, sleeplessness, and a dire need for distraction account for most of the rest.

Four by Anthony Mann:

• Bend of the River (1952)
• The Man from Laramie (1955)
• The Naked Spur (1953)
• Winchester ’73 (1950)

Four by Frederick Wiseman:

• High School II (1994)
• Juvenile Court (1973)
• Primate (1974)
• Welfare (1975)

And:

• Dredd (Pete Travis, 2012)
• Final Destination 2 (David R. Ellis, 2003)
• Mildred Pierce (Todd Haynes, 2011)
• The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973)
• National Treasure (Jon Turteltaub, 2004)
• Niagara (Henry Hathaway, 1953)

Special mention: Terence Davies’s The Deep Blue Sea — not strictly a first-time watch, but seeing it on 35mm at MoMI, mere days after Davies died, was like seeing it for the first time. RIP to the greatest.

Top 10 for 2023

• RMN (Cristian Mungiu)
• Godland (Hlynur Pálmason)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
• Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
• Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung)
• Passages (Ira Sachs)
• How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (Kelly Fremon Craig)
• Earth Mama (Savanah Leaf)

Revelations:

Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage, 1959) - have seen before but watching it the night before I went into labor felt like watching it for the first time. I also attempted to film my own labor with my Bolex, we’ll see how I did when I get around to developing the film.

Cat POV videos on TikTok - could honestly watch these forever, it’s everything I wanted to accomplish while shooting Madeline’s Madeline but couldn’t, because I’m not a cat.

Having a Newborn - the most psychedelic image I’ve experienced this year, feels like the cutest episode of The Twilight Zone and it doesn’t end. We’ve watched about 30 films together and she’s only 5 weeks old.

The four 4-minute films that Chantal Akerman shot in 1967 (a year before Saute ma ville) as her application to film school.

New Releases

1. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
2. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
4. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)
5. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
6. Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann)
7. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)
8. The Plains (David Easteal)
9. Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing)
10. Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)

Discoveries and Blindspot Corrections

1. Diaries (1971-76) (Ed Pincus, 1980)
2. Travolta and Me (Patricia Mazuy, 1993)
3. The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli, 1952)
4. French Cancan (Jean Renoir, 1955)
5. Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941)
6. Examen d'entrée INSAS: Films 1–4 (Chantal Akerman, 1967)
7. Donovan’s Reef (John Ford, 1963)
8. Silvia Prieto (Martín Rejtman, 1999)
9. The Innerview (Richard Beymer, 1973)
10. Room 666 (Wim Wenders, 1982)

Ten Favorite Viewings of 2023

• Payback: Director’s Cut, Bluray
• Christmas in July, 35mm Film Forum
• The Handmaiden, Extended Cut, Bluray
• The Docks of New York, 35mm, MoMI
• The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived, Mp4, Communist Film Club
• Copenhagen Cowboy, Netflix
• The Idiots, DCP, Metrograph
• Take Me in Your Arms (Llévame en tus brazos), DCP, Telluride
• Lady Killer, DCP, Metrograph
• Vengeance is Mine (Roemer), Bluray

New Releases (unranked)

• Youth
• Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros
• Pacifiction
• Trenque Lauquen
• Human Surge 3
• Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
• A Common Sequence
• Unrest

First Viewings and Discoveries

• The Dupes (1972, Tewfik Saleh) – nyff revival
• Neige (1981, Juliet Berto) – restoration at Bam
• I’ll Bet You Ain’t Seen Noth’n Like This Before (1981, Rodney Werden) – two people fainted during this screening at Light Industry!
• Les belles manières (1978, Jean-Claude Guiguet) – Metrograph
• The Dream (1987, Mohamad Malas) – programmed by Kaleem Hawa at Anthology
• Open Water (2003, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau)
• Dead End (2003, Fabrice Fabrice Canepa and Jean-Baptiste Andrea) – xmas road trip from hell, love Ray Wise
• There’s Always Tomorrow (1956, Sirk) – Barbara Stanwyck forever <3
• Taiwanese Indigenous Documentaries program at Anthology (1994 – 2000)
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962, Lean) – Paris Theater
• Blanche Fury (1948, Marc Allegret) – magnificent technicolor noir
• Not Channel Zero Goes to War (1992, Black Planet Productions) – MoMA
• Barres (1984, Luc Moullet) – how to jump metro turnstiles
• Three Hypotheses on the Death of Anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli (1970, Elio Petri) – Spectacle
• Vampyr (1932, Dreyer) – Anthology EC
• Heterodyne (1967, Hollis Frampton) – a couple was making out during this Anthology Members screening
• Stendali – suonaro ancara (1960, Cecilia Mangini) – also at Anthology, a funeral lamentation in Puglia

• The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch, 1931)
• Madonna and the Child (Terence Davies, 1980)
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
• Canyon (Jon Jost, 1984)
• The Music Room (Satyajit Ray, 1958)
• The Driver (Walter Hill, 1978)
• A Hen in the Wind (Yasujirō Ozu, 1948)
• Railway Station (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1980)
• House of Games (David Mamet, 1987)
• The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent, 1974)
• Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983)
• Scarecrow (Jerry Schatzberg, 1973)
• A New Leaf (Elaine May, 1971)
• Le Paris des mannequins (Francois Reichenbach, 1956)
• Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch, 1989)
• Night After Night (Archie Mayo, 1932)
• The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1969)
• La theatre des matieres (Jean-Claude Biette, 1977)
• All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)
• Bringing Out the Dead (Martin Scorsese, 1999)
• The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman, 1964)
• The Bloody Child (Nina Menkes, 1996)
• I’m No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933)
• Safe in Hell (William Wellman, 1931)

First Viewings in 2023

• Dark Night (1986, Fred Tan)
• Thief of Hearts (1984, Douglas Day Stewart)
• The Debussy Film (1965, Ken Russell)
• Spider (1992, Vasilijs Mass)
• Queen of Spades (1949, Thorold Dickinson)
• Double Fixation (1987, Yonfan)
• For the Plasma (2014, Kyle Molzan & Bingham Bryant)

First Viewings

• Master Gardener (Paul Schrader, 2022)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, 2023) – Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart exemplifies the white American character more exactly than any other figure, real or imagined: irredeemably stupid, casually evil, gracelessly horny, impressionable, craven, greedy, grandiose.
• Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot (Gus Van Sant, 2018)
• Minute Bodies: The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith (Stuart Staples, 2016) – Pure heaven
• The Five Devils (Léa Mysius, 2022) – Best song outro ever?
• I Hate Myself and I Want to Die (Greg Eggebeen and Benjamin Shapiro, 2012-2023)
• The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973) – When spiritual desolation hits like fentanyl
• Dior and I (Frédéric Tcheng, 2014)
• Hello Dankness (Soda Jerk, 2022) – Starting a petition to demand a change back to Soda_Jerk
• Talking to Strangers (Rob Tregenza, 1988)
• The Dark, Sad Life of Boogie2988 (Mike Clum, 2023) – An engrossing portrait of monodimensional internet stardom until Clum acknowledges he’s overwhelmed by the bleakness of his subject and starts clumsily reaching for uplift.

First Viewings and Discoveries:

Panic in Needle Park at Film Forum:

Recently a fellow cartoonist told me that the ideal readership for an anthology he publishes would look something like the Needle Park junkies in the scene where they’re shooting up and drooling over copies of Zap Comix. I think this is a strong indicator that the NY comics scene is the sharpest it’s been in years.

Lost Weekend at Film Forum:

One of the most honest movies I’d seen in a long time… I hit up the 4-D experience (smuggled in a bag of 24oz. Bud Heavies).

Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! at Walter Reade:

The lady with the black hair is like if Lucy from Peanuts grew up.

Gloria at Film Forum:

The crowd at this screening really put me on edge: a gaggle of cynical chuckleheads who’d mistake deeply sad lines of dialogue for insult comedy (and thought a shot of a car flipping over was also really funny …???). My pal Luke put it best as he swept up their trash: “Some people assume any movie made before 1995 is a fucking satire.”

Tale of Princess Kaguya + Scary Movie at IFC:

The most emotionally jarring double feature I have ever subjected myself to. Outside afterwards the married couple I’d watched Scary Movie with got into an argument about whether the part where Ana Faris gets repeatedly kicked in the stomach for no reason was offensive and I just stood there.

Sorcerer at the new Paris “Atmos” (I still don’t know what this means???) Theater:

I have never seen a film punish its audience so ruthlessly for simply being interested in its protagonists… sort of like the Metal Machine Music of action movies.

“This is what driving as a woman feels like.” - my date when I caught it again at the Roxy

Shaolin Soccer in Walter’s grandparents’ TV room:

My friend’s golden retriever sat down and watched this whole movie start to finish without blinking.

Small Town Ecstasy on Youtube:

The head projectionist at this theater I used to work at in Boston would come into work every day wearing one of his much-cherished, Robert Crumb-esque “1930’s newspaperman” suits (fedora included)... which mostly struck me as being funny and kind of embarrassing, until later on I found out that he used to dress like a normal, basketball shorts-wearing schlub before his wife divorced him and took the kids away. That revelation engendered a deep-seated paranoia in me – that halfway through our lives God just starts button-mashing the controller, and sometimes (as in this poor soul’s case and the case of the Small Town Ecstasy guy) it results in a totally mortifying personality reset.

Wonderful World at home on my laptop, half-drunk, stapling zines together:

If there’s one movie whose excision from the timeline would leave a zero-percent impact on cinema history, it has to be this 2009 Matthew Broderick vehicle. For most of my adult life I’ve felt drawn to this mysterious power a work of art gains when not a single sane person would ever claim it as their favorite; like the Dave Berman line goes, “I’m perfect in an empty room.”

O.C. and Stiggs at the Roxy

Yet again affirmed a belief I have that Altman was the only director who would’ve ever been capable of adapting Pynchon. Nobody’d better be making a Vineland movie.

– D.W

Over The Brooklyn Bridge at home, wide awake:

I once had an “aspiring filmmaker” coworker who’d pitch his movie idea to any high roller who came walking through the door…Annoying as shit. Wasn’t until I watched Elliot Gould do the same sort of dance as a bottom-rung restaurateur that I realized there’s an art to this persistence, passion, and perspiration: it’s the American Dream.

Being Different at home, half asleep:

Sideshow freaks hangin out still chasing tail in their sunset years. Will the Ripley’s Believe it or Not of the future showcase the human oddities of today dancing the Floss or Toosie Slide on Tik Tok with a special consideration under God???

Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! at The Walter Reade:

I was so drunk when I saw this I imagined the actresses were just giant talking breasts with mouths on them. Is that so wrong?

Jimmy Buffet: Tales From Margaritavision at my Girlfriends place as the sun was rising:

The morning he died I watched ol’ Jimmy Buffet go down his very own memory lane.

Sorcerer at the Paris Theater:

As the credits were rolling, I was cracking my friends up doing a pretty over-the-top William Friedkin impression. Some guy physically smacked me on the back of the head and told me to KNOCK IT OFF. I turned around. It was Gene Hackman. He was not pleased.

Oc & Stiggs at the Roxy Theater in mouthwatering crunchy 35mm:

If OC and Stiggs were around in NYC today, they’d be pouring toxic waste in the Dimes Square water supply and kicking the asses of all the gaunt downtown scenester misanthropes like they were volleyballs at a King Sunny Adé concert.

– D.C

10 Best Films of 2023 (seen so far, anyway; alphabetical by English title)

• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• Aurora’s Sunrise (Inna Sahakyan)
• Matter Out of Place (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV (Amanda Kim)
• Return to Seoul (Davy Chou)
• Rewind & Play (Alain Gomis)
• Sam Now (Reed Harkness)
• Silver Dollar Road (Raoul Peck)
• Will O’ the Wisp (João Pedro Rodrigues)

First Views (also so far; order viewed)

• Blind (Wiseman)
• Deep End (Skolimowski)
• Where Chimneys Are Seen (Gosho)
• Bad Girls Go To Hell (Wishman)
• Near Death (Wiseman)
• Stories We Tell (Polley)
• There’s Always Tomorrow (Sirk)
• Central Park (Wiseman)
• Aspen (Wiseman)
• American Odyssey (Huey, Meader & Williams)
• Attica (Firestone)
• On Body and Soul (Enyedi)
• King of New York (Ferrara)
• High School II (Wiseman)
• Who By Water (Morrison)
• Ballet (Wiseman)
• The Big Parade (Vidor)
• The Young One (Buñuel)
• The Wildcat (Lubitsch)
• Forgotten Faces (Schertzinger)

• To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin, 1985)
• Up, Down, Fragile (Jacques Rivette, 1995)
• Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946)
• Leave Her to Heaven (John M, Stahl, 1945)
• Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)
• After Life (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1998)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1945)
• In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
• Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
• Career Girls (Mike Leigh, 1997)
• Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956)

Best of 2023

• RMN (Cristian Mungiu)
• Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
• Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva)
• Three Promises (Yusef Srouji)
• Kokomo City (D. Smith)
• Time Bomb Y2k (Brian Becker; Marley McDonald)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• New Strains (Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan)
• You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener)
• Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli)

First Viewings / Mixed Media

• In a Dream (Jeremiah Zagar)
• Nobody’s Business (Alan Berliner)
• Street Fight (Marshall Curry)
• Telemarketers (Adam Bhala Lough; Sam Lipman-Stern)
• Vengeance (BJ Novak)
• High School (Frederick Wiseman)
• I am Not Your Guru (Tony Robbins doc) (Joe Berlinger)
• Balloonfest (short) (Nathan Truesdell)
• Real Life (Albert Brooks)
• Life without Dreams (short) (Jessica Bardsly)

New Releases

This list is likely to evolve because I'm a civilian and don't get screeners but these are the 10 releases that have stayed with me the most in 2023 thus far:

1. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg)
2. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
3. The Killer (David Fincher)
4. When Evil Lurks (Demián Rugna)
5. The Eight Mountains (Felix Van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch)
6. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne)
7. El Conde (Pablo Larraín)
8. Talk to Me (Danny & Michael Philippou)
9. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (William Friedkin)
10. Blood & Gold (Peter Thorwarth)

First Viewings and Discoveries

1. Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981)
2. The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990)
3. Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, 1980)
4. Apocalypto (Mel Gibson, 2006)
5. The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016)
6. Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis, 1995)
7. Deep Cover (Bill Duke, 1992)
8. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
9. Sonny and Jed (Sergio Corbucci, 1972)
10. Winter Kills (William Richert, 1979)
11. Switchblade Sisters (Jack Hill, 1975)
12. Dinner in America (Adam Rehmeier, 2020)
13. Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014)
14. To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin, 1985)
15. Belly (Hype Williams, 1998)
16. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
17. Killer Joe (William Friedkin, 2011)
18. Bringing Out the Dead (Martin Scorsese, 1999)
19. Truck Turner (Jonathan Kaplan, 1974)
20. The Great Waldo Pepper (George Roy Hill, 1975)

New Releases

Top 10 in order and I probably watched less than 15 that would qualify because as a new parent I have had little time to watch movies for pleasure but still wanted to participate, so what I'm trying to say is I like the first 4 but the rest are pretty meh.

1. Evil Dead Rise
2. Talk To Me
3. Super Mario Brothers Movie
4. They Cloned Tyrone
5. Megan
6. Showing Up
7. Asteroid City
8. Renfield
9. Scream VI
10. The Last Voyage of the Demeter

First Time Viewing Highlights (in no order)

• Fighting Back
• Deadbangers
• Dinner in America
• Muppets Most Wanted
• John Wick
• And, Bluey is the most emotional thing I've watched all year.

New Films

• The Human Surge 3 by Eduardo Williams. A two hour long exploration of a poetic dream space that is always just out of reach. It’s funny and weird but somehow, miraculously, very worldly.
• If you don’t watch the way you move by Kevin Jerome Everson. 12 minutes long and like all of KJE’s work moving and impressive in its formal proposition. His world is a world I want to deal with, come to terms with and live in.
• Mambar Pierrette by Rosine Mbakam. I know no one who is so generous in sharing her work with her subjects. This film is Pierrette's, as much as it is Rosine's and both women I admire and learn from.

First Viewings, chronological

• The Mystic (Tod Browning, 1925)
• I Change I Am the Same (Alice Anne Parker Severson, 1969)
• Un, dos, tres... al escondite inglés (Ivan Zulueta, 1969)
• Sympathy for the Underdog (Kinji Fukasaku, 1971)
• Big Guns (Duccio Tessari, 1973)
• They Do Not Exist (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1974)
• Stigma (Lawrence Gordon Clark, 1977)
• XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX (Ken Jacobs, 1980/2022)
• Smash Palace (Roger Donaldson, 1981)
• Breathless (Jim McBride, 1983)
• Hookers on Davie (Janis Cole & Holly Dale, 1984)
• Go for Broke (Genji Nakamura, 1985)
• Lady Beware (Karen Arthur, 1987)
• Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (William Lustig, 1993)
• A Goofy Movie (Kevin Lima, 1995)
• Affliction (Paul Schrader, 1997)
• Animalicious (Mark Lewis, 1999)
• The Wolf Knife (Laurel Nakadate, 2010)
• Stalked by My Doctor original trilogy (Doug Campbell, 2015–2018)
• Donald Cried (Kristopher Avedisian, 2016)
• When the LAPD Blows Up Your Neighborhood (Nathan Truesdell, 2022)

Bonus: Favorite screening – After Hours 35mm at midnight in the underground cinema at La Filmothèque du Quartier Latin, Paris.

First Viewings

1. The Cardinal (1963) Directed by Otto Preminger. I came across this film while doing research for my book Connecticut in the Movies as a few scenes were shot in Stamford. It was a reminder of how old-fashioned story telling with a superb group of actors just works. And? Can we please bring back the intermission with films over 3 hours? Plus, best scene of a man unexpectedly jumping out of a window I have ever seen.
2. Boomerang (1947) Directed by Elia Kazan and starring Dana Andrews and Arthur Kennedy. Kazan begins to weave his passion for social causes into his first “neo realist” film. Plus Arthur Kennedy is a standout.
3. The Secret Life of an American Wife (1968) Written and Directed by George Axelrod and starring Anne Jackson and Walter Matthau. This is a daring 60’s sex comedy told from a woman’s point of view.
4. The Last House on the Left (1972) Written and Directed by Wes Craven. The scenes of sexual violence and torture were too much for me—I barely got through it.
5. The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964) Written, Directed and Coproduced by Del Tenney . This was the year I discovered Del Tenney. Really liked this folk horror story with screen debut of Roy Scheider.
6. Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird (2013) Directed and Photographed by Steven-Charles Jaffe. If you are like me, just at the point of forgetting the impact of cartoonist Gahan Wilson (National Lampoon, The New Yorker) watch this doc. Terrific insights from director Guillermo del Toro have stayed with me.
7. Bang! The Bert Berns Story (2016) Directed by Brett Berns and Bob Sarles. Any doc about The Brill Building I’m in, but I was unaware of the impact of songwriter and record producer Bert Berns, who among other things launched the career of Van Morrison and oh yea, wrote Twist and Shout.
8. The gothic melodramas Ivy (1947) Directed by Sam Wood, So Evil My Love (1948) directed by Lewis Allen, and Obsession (1949) directed by Edward Dmytryk all came my way via The Criterion Channel. If there’s a throughline that links all three it might be, when in doubt, use poison. If I had a favorite it would be So Evil My Love. Ray Milland is just so deliciously unscrupulous turning the beatific Ann Todd—a former missionary—into his love slave and criminal accomplice.
9. Ken Burns’s Baseball (1994). Having missed this along the way I thought it would be a great way to get into baseball season. Who says there’s no crying in baseball? Incredibly moving document to our very American pastime. Ken Burns is a national treasure.
10. The Holdovers (2023) Directed by Alexander Payne. From the credits I knew I was in good hands. Let me be specific. From the font he chose for the credits I knew I was in good hands. I watched this the day after Norman Lear died. It was Lear who said he made comedies about, “the foolishness of the human condition.” Well, that’s The Holdovers. Just a beautiful film, filled with love and compassion and pathos, about our very human need to find connection.

Best Films of 2023

1. Hello Dankness, directed by Soda Jerk
2. May December, directed by Todd Haynes
3. Anatomy of a Fall, directed by Justine Triet
4. Saint Omer, directed by Alice Diop
5. Piaffe, directed by Ann Oren
6. Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese
7. Passages, directed by Ira Sachs
8. Godland, directed by Hlynur Pálmason
9. Fly in Power (2023), directed Yin Q and Yoon Grace Ra
10. John Wick 4, directed by Chad Stahelski

First Watches (+Shorts)

• Cette Maison (2022), directed by Miryam Charles
• Sombre (1998), directed by Philippe Grandrieux
• Succubus (1968), directed by Jesús Franco
• Gothic (1986), directed by Ken Russell
• The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973), directed by Wojciech Has
• Szamanka (1996), directed by Andrzej Zulawski
• The Bat Woman (1968), directed by René Cardona
• The Doll (1919), directed by Ernst Lubitsch
• The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Kraff (2022), directed by Werner Herzog
• Mano Destra (1986), directed by Cleo Übelmann

Shorts

• Fighting Looks Different to Me Now (2022), directed by Fox Maxy
• Quiet As It’s Kept (2023), directed by Ja’Tovia Gary
• Traces of Yarrow (2023), directed by Shahkeem Williams
• Let’s Talk (2023), directed by Simon Liu
• Yaangna Plays Itself (2022), directed by Adam Piron
• Bloom (2023), directed by Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado
• Exterior Turbulence (2023), directed by Sofia Theodore-Pierce
• A-Dios (1984), directed by Narcisa Hirsch
• Dressing for Pleasure (1977), directed by John Samson
• Sodom (1989), directed by Luther Price

1. Infernal Affairs II (Andrew Lau, Alan Mak)
2. Towards the Sun (Nour Ouayda)
3. Ceddo (Ousmane Sembène)
4. Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopple)
5. Our Mother’s House (Jack Clayton) 
6. La chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)
7. Abattoir, USA! (Aria Dean)
8. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude)
9. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
10. Jenin, Jenin (Mohammad Bakri)

New Releases

1. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
2. May December (Todd Haynes)
3. Monster (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
4. Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)
5. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
6. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie)
7. John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski)
8. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)
9. The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams)
10. Barbie (Greta Gerwig)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Matchstick Men (Ridley Scott, 2003)
• Sexy Beast (Jonathan Glazer, 2000)
• The House with Laughing Windows (Pupi Avati, 1976)
• Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971)
• Coogan's Bluff (Don Siegel, 1968)
• High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1973)
• There's Something About Mary (Peter Farrelly, 1998)
• Cremaster 4 (Matthew Barney, 1994) & Cremaster 1 (Matthew Barney, 1995)
• The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966)
• Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)
• The Working Class Goes to Heaven (Elio Petri, 1971)
• Platform (Jia Zhangke, 2000)
• Galaxy (Masao Adachi, 1967)
• The Last of England (Derek Jarman, 1987)
• Kingpin (Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly, 1996)
• IBM: A Self Portrait (Albert Maysles & David Maysles, 1964) & In the Company of Men (Neil LaBute, 1997)
• The Missouri Breaks (Arthur Penn, 1976)
• Road (Alan Clarke, 1987)
• The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1978)
• The Fever (Carlo Gabriel Nero, 2004)

First Viewings

• Action Jackson
• Agoraphilia
• Animalicious
• Arrowhead (1994)
• Breakdown
• Dynasty (1981-1989)
• Identikit
• My Degeneration
• My house walk-through by nana825763
• Observe and Report
• Smash Palace
• Traces of Red
• The Wolf Knife

New Releases (unranked)

• Tótem (Lila Avilés)
• The Innocent (Louis Garrel)
• Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania)
• Joyland (Saim Sadiq)
• The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)
• Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)

First Viewings (unranked)

• Mariner of the Mountains (Karim Aïnouz, 2021)
• Kafr Kassem (Borhane Alaouié, 1975)
• Aristotle’s Plot (Jean-Pierre Bekolo, 1996)
• Handsworth Songs (Black Audio Film Collective, 1986)
• About Some Meaningless Events (Mostafa Derkaoui, 1974)
• August in the Water (Gakuryu Ishii, 1995)
• Blue (1993) and Jubilee (1978) (Derek Jarman)
• London (Patrick Keiller, 1994)
• Open Mic Solitaire (Julius-Amédée Laou, 1983)
• Modulations (Iara Lee, 1998)
• Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (2001) and Children of Shatila (1998) (Mai Masri)
• As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) and Song of Avignon (1998) (Jonas Mekas)
• Hovering Over the Water (João César Monteiro, 1986)
• Mississippi Masala (Mira Nair, 1991)
• White Men Are Cracking Up (1994) and Flight of the Swan (1992) (Ngozi Onwurah)
• Step Forward Youth (1977) and Blood Ah Go Run (1982) (Menelik Shabazz)
• Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1982)
• Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996) and Cyber Palestine (2000) (Elia Suleiman)
• Timeless Bottomless Bad Movie (Jang Sun-woo, 1997)
• Inspiration (Karel Zeman, 1949)

First Viewings

• Actual People (Kit Zauhar, 2021)
• All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)
• Chuck & Buck (Miguel Arteta, 2000)
• Divorce Iranian Style (Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini, 1998)
• Of Great Events and Ordinary People (Raúl Ruiz, 1979)
• Psychosynthesis (Barbara Hammer, 1975)
• Seasons of the Year (Artavazd Peleshyan, 1975)
• Something Wild (Jonathan Demme, 1986)
• Twilight (György Fehér, 1990)
• Universal Hotel (Peter Thompson, 1986)

New Releases

• Allensworth (James Benning)
• If You Don’t Watch the Way You Move (Kevin Jerome Everson)
• Quiet as it Kept (Ja'Tovia Gary)
• Saint Omer (Alice Diop)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin whatever)
• Spark from a Falling Star (Ross Meckfessel)
• May December (Todd Haynes)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)
• Match Factory Girl (Aki Kaurismäki, 1992)
• Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
• Hell Notes (Moyra Davey, 1990/2017)
• Let's Talk (Simon Liu, 2023)
• Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)

Five new releases of epic proportions:

1. Nobody’s Hero (Alain Guiraudie)
2. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat)
3. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
4. The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed (Joanna Arnow)
5. The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams)

Notables from three retrospectives I had been waiting years for — Lincoln Center’s Marco Ferreri, Japan Society’s Shinji Sômai, & MoMA’s Warren Sonbert:

1. The Story of Piera (Marco Ferreri, 1983)
2. The Future Is Woman (Marco Ferreri, 1984)
3. Diary of a Maniac (Marco Ferreri, 1993)
4. Luminous Woman (Shinji Sômai, 1987)
5. Friendly Witness (Warren Sonbert, 1989)

And ten discoveries not soon forgotten:

1. The Golden Fern (Jiří Weiss, 1963)
2. Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (Stephen Kijak, 2006)
3. Koko Sees Spooks (Dave Fleischer, 1925)
4. Polar Bonzo (William A. Ward, 1925)
5. In Spring (Mikhail Kaufman, 1929)
6. Sandu Follows the Sun (Mikhail Kalik, 1962)
7. In the Prime of Life (Sándor Simó, 1972)
8. Hello, Vera (János Herskó, 1967)
9. Miracles for Sale (Tod Browning, 1939)
10. You’re Telling Me! (Erle C. Kenton, 1934)

New Releases

1. May December (Todd Haynes)
2. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
3. The Taste of Things (Trần Anh Hùng)
4. Passages (Ira Sachs)
5. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
6. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
7. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
8. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
9. A Still Small Voice (Luke Lorentzen)
10. Other People's Children (Rebecca Zlotowski)

First Viewings (alphabetical)

• The Battle of Chile (Patricio Guzmán, 1975-1979)
• Black Is... Black Ain't (Marlon Riggs, 1994)
• Le bonheur (Agnès Varda, 1965)
• The Circle (Jafar Panahi, 2000)
• The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
• Fists in the Pocket (Marco Bellocchio, 1965)
• Flesh (Paul Morrissey, 1968)
• Kes (Ken Loach, 1969)
• Late Spring (Yasujirō Ozu, 1949)
• Matewan (John Sayles, 1987)
• Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1982)
• The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973)
• The Mouth Agape (Maurice Pialat, 1974)
• Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman, 1997)
• The Oak (Lucian Pintilie, 1992)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
• Remember My Name (Alan Rudolph, 1978)
• Since Otar Left (Julie Bertuccelli, 2003)
• Trust (Hal Hartley, 1990)

New Releases (in alphabetical order)

• All Of Us Strangers
• Bottoms
• Earth Mama
• The Killer
• Kokomo City
• Pacifiction
• The Plains
• Rewind And Play
• Rotting In The Sun
• When Evil Lurks

First-Time Viewings

• Anhell 69 (Theo Montoya)
• Animalicious (Mark Lewis)
• The Audience (Marco Ferreri)
• Coma (Bertrand Bonello)
• Days Of Sintra (Paula Gaitan)
• Downpour (Bahram Beyzai)
• Factory Of The Sun (Hito Steyerl)
• High Tide (Gillian Armstrong)
• In The Shadow Of The Blue Rascal (Pierre Clementi)
• Knightriders (George A. Romero)
• My House Walk-Through (Piropito)
• One Man’s War (Edgardo Cozarinsky)
• The Pleasure Of Love (Nelly Kaplan)
• Salome (Alla Nazimova & Charles Bryant)
• Sankofa (Haile Gerima)
• Shield Of Straw (Takashi Miike)
• The Strangler (Paul Vecchiali)
• Through The Forest (Jean-Paul Civeyrac)
• Typhoon Club (Shinji Somai)
• The Ugly Swans (Konstantin Lopushansky)

New Releases (10 films)

• Afire (Christian Petzold)
• All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
• The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
• The Daughters of Fire (Pedro Costa)
• Dry Ground Burning (Joana Pimenta & Adirley Queirós)
• Lakota Nation vs the United States (Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli)
• Earth Mama (Savanah Leaf)
• Return to Dust (Li Ruijun)
• Godland (Hlynur Pálmason)
• Eileen (William Oldroyd)

First Viewings

• Palestinian Women (Jocelyne Saab, 1974)
• Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (Mai Masri, 2001)
• Tell Your Tale, Little Bird (Arab Loutfi, 2007)
• Jamila’s Mirror (Arab Loutfi, 1993)
• Jenin, Jenin (Mohammad Bakri, 2002)
• Soraida, Woman of Palestine (Tahani Rached, 2004)
• Children of Shatila (Mai Masri, 1998)
• The Dupes (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)
• The Memory (Mohammad Malas, 1975)
• The Dream (Mohammad Malas, 1988)
• They Do Not Exist (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1974)
• The Palestinians (Johan van der Keuken, 1974)
• Spaces of Exception (Matt Peterson and Malek Rasamny, 2019)
• R 21 AKA Restoring Solidarity (Mohanad Yaqubi, 2022)
• House (Amos Gitai, 1980)
• Occupied Palestine (David Koff, 1981)
• Drying Up Palestine (Rima Essa & Peter Snowdon, 2007)
• Souha, Surviving Hell (Randa Chahal Sabbag, 2001)
• Untitled, Part 1: Everything and Nothing (Jayce Salloum, 2001)
• The Battle of Chile (Patricio Guzmán, 1975)

One New Release

Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman, 2023)

One Video Drop

WASSER / WASSER – "Red (Taylor Swift Cover)" music video dir. Tricks mit Kamelen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnxAl_vVYnk

Eight Old Discoveries

• Illibatezza (Roberto Rossellini, 1963)
• Banditi a Milano (Carlo Lizzani, 1968)
• La fin du jour (Julien Duvivier, 1939)
• Le Ring (Lumière cameraman, 1901)
• Die Wartburg (Günther Mühlpforte, 1953)
• Zvenigora (Alexander Dovzhenko, 1928)
• Liefde voor hout (Jop Pannekoek, 1979)
• Toutes les nuages sont des horloges (Raoul Ruiz, 1988)

New Releases

• Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)
• Rotting in the Sun (Sebastián Silva)
• Passages (Ira Sachs)
• Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo)
• Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
• Stonewalling (Huang Ji)
• A Little Love Package (Gastón Solnicki)
• The Roundup 3: No Way Out (Lee Sang-yong)
• Godland (Hlynur Pálmason)
• The Eight Mountains (Felix Van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch)

First Viewings

• Francisca (Manoel de Oliveira, 1981)
• Suzhou River (Lou Ye, 2000)
• The Wounded Man (Patrice Chéreau, 1983)
• Up Down Fragile (Jacques Rivette, 1995)
• Star 80 (Bob Fosse, 1983)
• Rolling Thunder (John Flynn, 1977)
• Falling Lessons (Amy Halpern, 1992)
• Going South (Jack Nicholson, 1978)
• Supermarket Woman (Juzo Itami, 1996)
• Play Misty for Me (Clint Eastwood, 1971)
• A Very Curious Girl (Nelly Kaplan, 1969)
• Mr. Thank You (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1936)
• The Sting 2 (Jeremy Paul Kagan, 1983)
• Portland (Greta Snider, 1996)
• Born of the Wind (Mike Kuchar, 1964)
• The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1991)
• Diamantino (Gabriel Abrantes, Daniel Schmidt, 2018)
• Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (Grigori Kromanov, 1979)
• César and Rosalie (Claude Sautet, 1972)
• lovelike, a mixed reality performance by Jenna Caravello with Celia Hollander

Top 10 of 2023

1. Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé
2. The Disappearance of Shere Hite
3. Your Fat Friend
4. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
5. Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse
6. Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
7. Anatomy of a Fall
8. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
9. Öte
10. A Haunting in Venice

First Viewings!

1. Action Jackson
2. Welcome to the Dollhouse
3. Domino
4. Drylongso
5. A New Leaf
6. Not a Pretty Picture
7. Alien from L.A.
8. Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion
9. Hollywood Shuffle
10. Staying Alive
11. The Others
12. Raising Arizona
13. The Conformist
14. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
15. Stop Making sense
16. Celine and Julie go Boating
17. The Cassandra Cat
18. The Green Ray
19. Little Women (1994)
20. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

First Viewings

1. Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1977)
2. The Awakening of Jim Burke (Lambert Hillyer, 1935)
3. Speed Racer (Lilly & Lana Wachowski, 2008)
4. The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1971)
5. Daisies (Věra Chytilová, 1966)
6. Janet Planet (Annie Baker, 2023)
7. Winter Kills (William Richert, 1979)
8. Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen, 1992)
9. Bulworth (Warren Beatty, 1998)
10. Typhoon Club (Shinji Sōmai, 1985)

New Releases

• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Tótem (Lila Aviles)
• Rotting in the Sun (Sebastián Silva)
• Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
• Last Things (Deborah Stratman)
• Earth Mama (Savanah Leaf)
• Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann)
• Our Home Out West (Drew Tobia)
• Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)

First Viewings

• The Wildcat (Ernst Lubitsch, 1921)
• Forgotten Faces (Victor Schertzinger, 1928)
• Liebelei (Max Ophüls, 1933)
• Only Yesterday (Isao Takahata, 1933)
• Humanity and Paper Balloons (Sadao Yamanaka, 1937)
• Where Chimneys Are Seen (Heinosuke Gosho, 1953)
• Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961)
• Yvonne Rainer: A Retrospective (7 films, 1972-1996)
• Fill ’er Up with Super (Alain Cavalier, 1976)
• Regrouping (Lizzie Borden, 1976)
• A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness (Seijun Suzuki 1977)
• Pennies from Heaven (Piers Haggard, 1978)
• Winter Kills (William Richert, 1979)
• Anguish (Bigas Luna, 1987)
• Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992)
• Araki restorations: The Doom Generation (1995) & Nowhere (1997)
• Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2002)
• In the Stone House (Jerome Hiler, 2012)

New Releases (Unranked)

• A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell)
• Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
• Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Passages (Ira Sachs)
• Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva)
• Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli)
• Tori and Lokita (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne)

Black Holes and Revelations:

• Cabin Boy (Adam Resnick, 1994)
• Grown-Ups (Mike Leigh, 1980)
• Funeral Parade of Roses (Toshio Matsumoto, 1969)
• "That is my som" (@brianjordanalvarez, TikTok)
• The Idiots (Lars Von Trier, 2000)
• Weyes Blood's "God Turn Me Into a Flower" video (Adam Curtis)
• Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (Adrian Tofei, 2015)
• White of the Eye (Donald Cammell, 1987)
• Eric Adams' cameo in New York Masali
• Lord of Illusions (Clive Barker, 1995)
• AI Homer Simpson singing Muse's "Starlight" (@mememusic117, TikTok)
• Dangerous Game (Abel Ferrara, 1993)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre: the Next Generation (Kim Henkel, 1995)
• Pinkydoll accompanied by Yves Tumor's "Limerence" (@jetskitosway, Twitter)
• The Last Seduction (John Dahl, 1994)
• Peter Griffin says UK Garage (@yeahbeter, Twitter)
• Body Parts (Eric Red, 1991)
• The Falls (Peter Greenaway, 1980)
• Four dozen oysters at Fontaines Oyster Bar (@equanaaa, TikTok)
• Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (Lam Ngai Kai, 1991)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• American Reflexxx (Alli Coates and Signe Pierce, 2015)
• Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, 2023)
• Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
• Damage [35mm, the Quad] (Louis Malle, 1992)
• Ferrari (Michael Mann, 2023)
• May December (Todd Haynes, 2023)
• A Murder at the End of the World (Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, 2023-)
• Resurrection (Andrew Semans, 2022)
• Sleep, My Love (Douglas Sirk, 1948)
• Talk to Me (Danny and Michael Philippou, 2023)

First Viewings

• Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)
• Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 1987)
• Bound (Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski, 1996)
• Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972)
• Party Girl (Daisy von Scherler Mayer, 1995)
• Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)
• Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy's Revenge (Jack Sholder, 1985)
• Arrebato (Ivan Zulueta, 1980)
• Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977)

I saw something around 450 movies this year, these are a few of the best ones I saw, and ones that I feel don’t get enough credit.

Second Fiddle (Frank Tuttle, 1922)

Seen at Capitolfest 20 at the Capitol theater in Rome, NY. An incredibly well-made low budget action-packed silent melodrama.

La roue (Abel Gance, 1923)

Seen at NYFF, in a new restoration - the complete 7 hours and original score!

Sunny Side Up (David Butler, 1929)

Seen at MoMA in a new restoration. The first great American musical!

The Warrior’s Husband (Walter Lang, 1933)

Seen at MoMA in a new restoration. 1933 sexual politics at their zaniest!

Invisible Ghost (Joesph H. Lewis, 1941)

Watched at home. Part of my 2023 Bela Lugosi binge.

Violated (Walter Strate, 1953)

Watched on YouTube. Seemingly not available anywhere else! Thrilling, violent independent noir shot on location in NYC.

Pete Kelly’s Blues (Jack Webb, 1955)

Watched on TCM. Jack Webb the auteur!

Scarecrow (Jerry Schatzberg, 1973)

Seen at Film Forum with Q&A with Bruce Goldstein and Schatzberg.

Cannonball! (Paul Bartel, 1976)

Seen on 16mm at a friend's house.

Backtrack (Dennis Hopper, 1990 - director's cut of Catchfire)

Seen on 35mm at Roxy.

First Viewings

• Body Parts (Eric Red, 1991)
• Enemy Territory (Peter Manoogian, 1987)
• Extreme Justice (Mark L. Lester, 1993)
• Hornets' Nest (Phil Karlson, 1970)
• The Hunted (William Friedkin, 2003)
• The Last Woman (Marco Ferreri, 1976)
• Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmüller, 1975)
• The Taking of Beverly Hills (Sidney J. Furie, 1991)
• Taxi Hunter (Herman Yau, 1993)
• U2: Rattle and Hum (Phil Joanou, 1988)

New Releases

• Anselm
• The Boy and the Heron
• Fremont
• Past Lives
• Trenque Lauquen
• The First Slam Dunk
• Joyland
• Lynch/Oz
• Fallen Leaves
• Anatomy of a Fall

First Viewings and Discoveries

• The Fall (Tarsem Singh, 2006)
• Victims of Sin (Emilio Fernández, 1951)
• Dressed in Blue (Antonio Giménez Rico, 1983)
• Rewind and Play (Alain Gomis, 2022)
• Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund, 2015)
• The Cramps and The Mutants: The Napa State Tapes

• The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928)
• Sweetie (Jane Campion, 1989)
• Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, 2022)
• The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, 1969)
• Color Sound Frames (Paul Sharits, 1974)
• Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977)
• Blue (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2018)
• From Its Mouth Came a River of High-End Residential Appliances (WangShui, 2018)
• Center Jenny (Ryan Trecartin, 2013)
• I Was Born, But... (Yasujirō Ozu, 1932)

“Forget your mind. Courage and sex, that’s what love is” (Sweetie). Dreyer’s wiles and Citarella’s roads. I see Rebecca in these because she showed me Sharits and Jenny. At some point in the year, I downloaded that song they play before the previews @ FilmLinc. “Hotels.” You know?

New Releases

• Padre Pio (Roxy)
• Caine Mutiny Court Marshall (Metrograph)
• Thanksgiving (Regal Essex)
• The Sweet East (FLC)
• De Humani Corporis Fabrica (IFC)

First Viewings

• The last woman (1976 / FLC)
• College boys live (2009 / KGB)
• Palindromes (2004 / Roxy)
• Bottom (2012 / Roxy)
• I am Suzanne! (1933 / MoMa)
• The ceremony (1971 / Anthology)
• Temple of Doom (1984 / Roxy)
• Black and White (1999 / Roxy)
• Backtrack (1990 / Roxy)
• Knock Knock (2015 / Roxy)
• The Wolf Knife (2015 / Roxy)
• Husbands and Wives (1992 / Roxy)
• The Rats are coming! The Werewolves are here! (1972 / Nitehawk)

2023 US Releases (alphabetical)

• Against the Tide (Sarvnik Kaur)
• Geographies of Solitude (Jacquelyn Mills)
• Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki)
• Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman)
• Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (Lijo Jose Pellissery)
• Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
• The Plains (David Easteal)
• Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball)
• Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing)
• The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)

Best First Watches & New Discoveries (one per director, alphabetical)

• Angel’s Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1985)
• La belle noiseuse (Jacques Rivette, 1991)
• Centipede Horror (Keith Li, 1982)
• Charley Varrick (Don Seigel, 1973)
• Coffy (Jack Hill, 1973)
• Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi, 2003)
• Drifting Clouds (Aki Kaurismäki, 1996)
• Drylongso (Cauleen Smith, 1998)
• The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973)
• Gōke, Body Snatcher from Hell (Hajime Satô, 1968)
• Heaven’s Gate (Micheal Cimino, 1980)
• Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)
• Man With a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
• Memory Lane (John M. Stahl, 1926)
• Mr. Majestyk (Richard Fleischer, 1974)
• Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981)
• Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)
• Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1979)
• A Real Young Girl (Catherine Breillat, 1976)
• Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
• Sexy Beast (Jonathan Glazer, 2000)
• Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977)
• Supervixens (Russ Meyer, 1975)
• Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 1999)
• The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Aleksandr Ptushko, 1966)
• The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

Top Ten of 2023 (alphabetical)

• All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
• Amanda (Carolina Cavalli)
• The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)
• La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)
• Fremont (Babak Jalali)
• Godland (Hlynur Pálmason)
• Kokomo City (D. Smith)
• Lakota Nation vs. United States (Laura Tomaselli, Jesse Short Bull)
• Past Lives (Celine Song)
• Plan 75 (Chie Hayakawa)

First Viewings and Discoveries (alphabetical)

1. L’Argent (Marcel L’Herbier, 1928)
2. Au Bonheur des Dames (Julien Duvivier, 1930)
3. Blue Sky Maiden (Yasuzō Masumura, 1957)
4. The Burning Bed (Robert Greenwald, 1984)
5. By Hook or by Crook (Harry Dodge, Silas Howard, 2001)
6. Chocolate Babies (Stephen Winter, 1996)
7. Drylongso (Cauleen Smith, 1998)
8. Far From Home (Sohrab Shahid Saless, 1975)
9. Fresh Kill (Shu Lea Cheang, 1994)
10. Girl 6 (Spike Lee, 1996)
11. Killing Time (Fronza Woods 1979)
12. The Long Farewell (Kira Muratova, 1971)
13. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir, 2003)
14. Not a Pretty Picture (Martha Coolidge, 1976)
15. Flaming Ears (Rote Ohren fetzen durch Asche) (Ursula Pürrer, Dietmar Schipek, Ashley Hans Scheirl, 1992)
16. La Roue (Abel Gance,1923)
17. Sambizanga (Sarah Maldoror, 1972)
18. The Slow Escape (Sativa Peterson, 1998)
19. A Dream Longer Than the Night (Un rêve plus long que la nuit) (Niki de Saint Phalle, 1976)
20. Our Heavenly Bodies (Wunder der Schöpfung) (Hanns Walter Kornblum, 1925)

New Releases (10 films max)

1. The Zone of Interest
2. Return to Seoul
3. Monster
4. Anatomy of a Fall
5. May December
6. One Fine Morning
7. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
8. Tori and Lokita
9. The Innocent
10. Enys Men

First Viewings

• Oro, Plata, Mata (1982)
• Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)
• Opening Night (1977)
• Ashes of Time (1994)
• Summer Hours (2008)
• The Sting (1973)
• Peeping Tom (1960)
• Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)
• The Housemaid (1960)
• Mikey and Nicky (1976)
• Paris Blues (1961)
• An Autumn's Tale (1987)
• Suzhou River (2000)
• Written on the Wind (1956)
• Certain Women (2016)
• Metropolitan (1990)
• I Vitelloni (1953)
• Millennium Mambo (2001)
• Air Doll (2009)
• Sexy Beast (2000)

• High Heels (Almodóvar, 1991)
• Holy Motors (Carax, 2012)
• Gush (Maxy, 2023)
• On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong, 2017)
• John Wick: Chapter 4 (Stahelski, 2023)
• Birth (Glazer, 2004)
• De cierta manera (Gómez, 1975)
• Inherent Vice (Anderson, 2014)
• Afire (Petzold, 2023)
• River Rites (Russell, 2011)
• Winter Kills (Richert, 1979)
• The Battle of Chile: Part II (Guzmán, 1976)
• The Taste of Things (Hùng, 2023)
• Anna (Sarchielli and Grifi, 1975)
• House of Tolerance (Bonello, 2014)
• By the Time It Gets Dark (Suwichakornpong, 2016)
• East of Eden (Kazan, 1955)
• All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Jackson, 2023)
• Mamma Roma (Pasolini, 1962)
• Fluid Frontiers (Asili, 2017)

First Viewings

At Theaters

• Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) - Anthology Film Archives
• Tokyo Melody: A Film About Ryuichi Sakamoto (1985) - Spectacle Theater
• In The Spirit (1990) - Roxy Cinema
• Not a Pretty Picture (1975) - Museum of Modern Art
• Encore (1988) - on 10/15 at Metrograph
• Re-Animator (1985) & From Beyond (1986) - Anthology
• Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) - 3D at Film Forum
• Black God, White Devil (1964) - Film Forum
• The Treasure (1973) - Anthology
• Bonbast (1977) - Museum of Modern Art
• Living (1971) - KGB Bar

At Festivals

• You and Me (1938) - Nitrate Picture Show
• Fantasia (1940) + Fischinger- Rockaway Film Festival
• Un rêve plus long que la nuit (1976) - NYFF
• How Do You Spell Home? (2023) - IDFA
• Glass: My Unfulfilled Life (2023) - IDFA
• Spectral Transmissions: Love Bends Time performance (2023) - IDFA
• In the Rearview (2023) - IDFA

At Home

• Twin Peaks en toto consecutively
• Crash (1996)
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
• Society (1989)

Favorite Revisits

• "Rock Me Tonite" (1984) on youtube
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) in widescreen at Metrograph
• Blissfully Yours (2002) at Walter Reade
• Starman (1984) in Museum of Moving Image’s Redstone
• Wild at Heart (1990) at Nitehawk Prospect Park
• Stop Making Sense (1984) in IMAX

New Releases
I believe these are all 2023 theatrical releases. I didn't get to see many new releases this year. Presented in no particular order.

• Saint Omer
• May December
• Revolution + 1
• Geographies of Solitude
• R21 AKA Restoring Solidarity
• Dry Ground Burning
• The Daughters of Fire

A rundown of the most significant moving image works of the year would be incomplete without mentioning the video journalists working in Gaza, for presenting the truth that their oppressors refuse to show.

Best New To Me

In chronological order

• The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930)
• History is Made at Night (Frank Borzage, 1937) - Romance isn't a genre, it is about how two lovers shape genres around themselves and live forever.
• Lady Killer (Jean Grémillon, 1937)
• Monangambee (Sarah Maldoror, 1969)
• The Strangler (Paul Vecchiali, 1970)
• La Région Centrale (Michael Snow, 1971) - Saw this twice this year on the big screen. The second had a reel change in which the lights barely came up. Changing seats in the theater in the half-light felt like hurtling through space.
• Kashima Paradise (Yann Le Masson, Bénie Deswarte, 1973)
• Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (Omar Amiralay, 1974)
• Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 (Kazuo Hara, 1974)
• The Marshes (Kassem Hawal, 1976)
• Le Théâtre des matières (Jean-Claude Biette, 1977)
• Egypt, City of the Dead (Jocelyne Saab, 1978) - Patience. The scenes of music and poetry make the bodies onscreen so close.
• Neige (Juliet Berto, 1981)
• Nocturne (Phil Solomon, 1980)
• Our Voice of Earth, Memory and Future (Marta Rodriguez, Jorge Silva, 1982) - Powerfully combines landscape and land struggle in a way I haven't seen before. The devil is real and you pay him rent.
• Remains to be Seen (Phil Solomon, 1983)
• The Secret Garden (Phil Solomon, 1988) - Applies to all the Phil Solomon. Saw them together and for a week I only dreamed of dark expanses of water spanned by bridges and pierced by small lights.
• Une Histoire de Vent (Joris Ivens, 1988)
• The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995)
• La Captive (Chantal Akerman, 2000)

First Viewings

• Deep Cover (Bill Duke, 1992)
• Cyberpunk Edgerunners (Yoshiyuki Kaneko, Hiroyuki Imaishi, Yuichi Shimodaira, Mai Owada, Akira Furukawa, Kodai Nakano & Tomoyuki Munehiro; 2022)
• Little Children (Todd Field, 2006)
• The Evil Within (Andrew Getty, 2017)
• The Idiots (Lars von Trier, 1998)
• Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot, 2021)
• The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1971)
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher, 2008)
• Belly (Hype Williams, 1998)

New Releases

• Man in Black (Wang Bing
• Last Things (Deborah Stratman)
• Mast-del (Maryam Tafakory)
• Janet Planet (Annie Baker)
• The Night Visitors Carol Goodman
• Abattoir U.S.A.! (Aria Dean)
• Eureka (Lisandro Alonso)
• The Fist
• Hello Dankness (Soda Jerk)
• Ferrari (Michael Mann)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Lambs Are Born in the Snow
• Modesty and Shame
• L’homme blessé
• Nuts in May
• The Third Generation
• The Disappearance
• The Glenn Miller Story
• Guns
• Neige
• Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick/Riddick

New Releases
Nota bene: As a lifelong rep goer I prefer instead to leave festival coverage to my more serious and talented peers! However, I did manage to catch a few recent efforts, the most enjoyable of which I've listed below in chronological order.

• New Strains (Dirs. Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan)
• Hello Dankness (Dir. Soda Jerk)
• The Apocalyptic is the Mother of All Christian Theology (Dir. Jim Finn)
• Honeycomb (Dir. Avalon Fast)
• A Woman Escapes (Dirs. Blake Williams, Sofia Bohdanowicz, Burak Çevik)
• Maestro (Dir. Bradley Cooper)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Dir. Martin Scorsese)
• May December (Dir. Todd Haynes)
• Petrol (Dir. Alena Lodkina)
• Godzilla Minus One (Dir. Takashi Yamazaki)

First Viewings and Discoveries (chronological)

The value and joy of filmgoing as a social act is all too often lost in the tweetstorm (or is it a "postnado"?) of year-end-discourse. As with last year, I appreciate using this bit of column-space to tout my favorite screenings of 2023.

January:

Alfreda's Cinema Presents: You Wanted to See Me Broken, presented at a secret location. Fantastic program to start the year off right, featuring short films by Ladan Osman, a live performance by singer Sam Diaz, and closing out with an all-killer-no-filler vinyl set from legendary NYC DJ Donna Edwards. Melissa Lyde has done it again!

February:

N/A, made a movie instead.

March:

The Errand Boy, Roxy Cinema (35mm)

My first in-theater screening after six weeks of shooting, and the best possible reminder of why I've foolishly devoted my life to the seventh art. Not the hardest I've cried in a cinema this year, but definitely a close second.

April:

The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, Metrograph (35mm)
My colleague Matt Folden and I programmed this must-include for a baseball series at our place of employment. We managed to fenagle an intro from none other than SNY's auteur-in-house John DeMarsico, whose own directorial artistry is often the most exciting aspect of the local New York Mets broadcasts.

May:

The Apple, Nitehawk Cinema (35mm)

A special birthday screening programmed and hosted by birthday boy Joe Berger of The Deuce! After the movie we kibitzed about our respective histories with this fantastic film maudit, turns out we have a mutual friend in NuArt Theater manager/programmer emeritus Marc Edward Heuck, who showed this on the regular when I was hanging around there in high school.

June:

I Am My Own Woman, Spectacle Theater
This year's follow-up to Elizabeth Purchell's 2022 Rosa von Praunheim retrospective at Spectacle, once again with some special elements from NYPL. Of all the films in the series, this was my favorite - part period drama, part documentary, all queen shit. Liz crashed with me that week and left behind her copy of subject Charlotte von Mahlsdorf's memoir (which I summarily devoured).

July:

Safe in Hell, Nitehawk Cinema (35mm)
Screened on a print from the Library of Congress! This is another indulgent gimme, since I introduced the screening with my wife Cristina Cacioppo. What a wild-ass ride this movie is, truly. Might be my most stoned intro to date.

August:

Here At Water's Edge / Duelle Films, Rockaway Film Festival
Perfect weather for an outdoor screening that ticked every box on my list of expanded cinema must-haves. Gina Telaroli and Carolyn Funk presented a live projection before the feature presentation of Leo Hurwitz and Charles Pratt's 1962 experimental doc about NYC's waterways. You haven't seen either picture unless you've experienced them as soundtracked by the wind and waves of Rockaway Beach!

September:

Wladyslaw Starewicz, Len Lye and Oskar Fischinger, MoMA (16mm/35mm)
Strong contender for my favorite screening this year and the hardest I cried in a movie theater this year. Stacked program, but the laurels go to Starewicz's The Magic Clock and The Song of the Nightingale - the former a fantastical bricolage of Brothers Grimm, William Morris, and Aesop's Fables, the latter a heartbreaking love story that doubles as a passionate plea for environmental conservation.

October:

Ordinary Madness of a Daughter of Cham / Mist Melodies of Paris, BAM
The first US retrospective of filmmaker/playwright Julius-Amédée Laou, featuring new restorations of his criminally-underseen oeuvre, and programmed by my cinema-brother Steve Macfarlane. I went in completely unaware of what to expect, and left the theater feeling as if I'd run a psychic and emotional marathon. Daughter of Cham has some of the finest screen performances I've seen this year, if not this decade.

November:

Last Movies, Nitehawk Cinema (35mm), Spectacle Theater (16mm), Light Industry

I love an all-day roving film program that brings multiple venues together, and on November 4 we all hosted visiting artist/provocateur Stanley Schtinter for a program of last films seen by notable 20th century luminaries: 20,000 Years in Sing Sing/Waterloo Bridge at the 'hawk, The Kid with a live score at Spec, and Manhattan Melodrama/Oedipus Rex at Light Industry. I think November 4 should be Last Movies Day in perpetuity!

December:

Archangel, Metrograph

Dear Penthouse Forum, I can’t believe it happened to me… I moderated a Q&A with my favorite living director. Is this an auspicious omen for the year to come or the last good thing that will ever happen in my miserable life? TBD!

New Releases:

1. I Didn’t See You There (Reid Davenport)
2. Small, Slow, but Steady (Sho Miyake)
3. Stonewalling (Huang Ji & Ryuji Otsuka)
4. Dry Ground Burning (Adirley Queirós & Joana Pimenta)
5. The Potemkinists (Radu Jude)
6. May December (Todd Haynes)
7. Remembering Every Night (Yui Kiyohara)
8. Bye Bye Tiberias (Lina Soualem)
9. Against the Tide (Sarvnik Kaur)
10. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie)

First viewings and discoveries

• Ahupuaʻa, Fishponds and Loʻi, archival footage screening (Hoʻomau Nā Maka o ka ʻĀina)
• Baldwin’s N—er (Horace Ové)
• Blue Island (Chan Tze-Woon)
• Carlito’s Way (Brian De Palma)
• A Family Tour (Ying Liang)
• Forever A Woman (Kinuyo Tanaka)
• Infinity According to Florian (Oleksiy Radynski)
• Le Petit Chaperon rouge (Shinji Aoyama)
• Love Hotel (Shinji Somai)
• Old Long Stay (Yuki Iiyama)
• Repatriation (Kim Dong-won)
• Saint Omer (Alice Diop)
• The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski)
• Snow In September (Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir)
• Sorcerer (William Friedkin)
• Ta’ang (Wang Bing)
• Tobacco Embers (Yugantar Film Collective)
• Ukraine-Poland: The Solidarity Border (Lech Kowalski)
• When Cinema Reflects the Times: Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang (Hirokazu Koreeda)
• Woman of Tokyo (Yasujiro Ozu)

• Sudden Manhattan (Adrienne Shelley)
• Song to Song (Terrence Malick)
• I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur)
• Beautiful Creatures (Richard LaGravenese)
• I Used to Be Darker (Matthew Porterfield)
• A Man Vanishes (Shōhei Imamura)
• Rhubarb (Arthur Labin)
• Knock Knock (Eli Roth)
• Out 1: Spectre (Jacques Rivette)
• May (Lucky McKee)
• Take This Waltz (Sarah Polley)
• The Rocky/Creed franchise in its entirety

"First Viewings and Discoveries" rather than any 2023 releases:

• Compensation (1999, Zeinabu irene Davis) - Academy Museum (DCP)
• The Cure in Orange (1987) - Academy Museum 35mm
• The Dupes (1972, Tewfik Saleh) - Film at Lincoln Center (DCP)
• Flames (1978, Adolfo Arrietta) - Mkv file
• Foragers (2022, Jumana Manna) - Vimeo link
• The Grateful Dead (1977, Leon Gast) - Shout Factory blu-ray
• I Know Where I'm Going! (1945, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger) - Criterion streaming
• In My Skin (2002, Marina de Van) - Mkv file
• Jaffa: The Orange's Clockwork (2009, Eyal Sivan) - Mkv file
• The Last House on Dead End Street (1973, Roger Watkins) - Vinegar Syndrome blu-ray
• Late Autumn (1960, Yasujirō Ozu) - Academy Museum (35mm)
• The Lighthouse (2006, Maria Saakyan) - Mkv file
• Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994, Alan Rudolph) - Criterion streaming
• No Sex Last Night (1996, Sophie Calle & Greg Shephard) - Mkv file
• The Rapture (1991, Michael Tolkin) - Criterion streaming
• Rewind & Play (2023, Alain Gomis) - 2220 Arts + Archives (DCP)
• Rhythm Thief (1994, Matthew Harrison) - Kino Lorber blu-ray
• Récréations (1993, Claire Simon) - Mkv file
• Shadows in Paradise (1986, Aki Kaurismaki) - Criterion streaming
• Suzhou River (2000, Lou Ye) - Landmark Nuart (DCP)

New Releases

• Afire (Christian Petzold)
• A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell)
• Barbie (Greta Gerwig)
• Dry Ground Burning (Joana Pimenta, Adirley Queirós)
• Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster)
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Love to Love You, Donna Summer (Brooklyn Sudano, Roger Ross Willliams)
• Rye Lane (Raine Allen-Miller)
• Silver Dollar Road (Raoul Peck)

First Viewings

• Manhandled (Allan Dwan, 1924)
• Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933)
• The Divorcee (Robert Z. Leonard, 1930)
• Dance, Girl, Dance (Dorothy Arzner, 1940)
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil (Ranald MacDougall, 1959)
• Serpents of the Pirate Moon (Jean-Louis Jorge, 1973)
• Saving Face (Alice Wu, 2004)
• Triple Fisher: The Lethal Lolitas of Long Island (Dan Kapelovitz, 2012)
• Kewekapawetan: Return After the Flood (Jennifer Dysart, 2014)
• Mistress America (Noah Baumbach, 2015)
• Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
• Around India with a Camera (Sandhya Suri, 2019)
• Playback (Agustina Comedi, 2019)
• Nature (Artavazd Peleshian, 2020)
• Ask Any Buddy (Elizabeth Purchell, 2020)
• I’ll Finish When I Can (Cat Jones, 2020)

New Releases

I have no idea how to figure out a “best of” list really, so consider this more of a whirl around 2023. Lots of films were best in their ways… bit of a cop-out answer, but here are some that stuck in my brain

• Avatar: The Water One - Start of the year, bottom of the barrel. I haven’t walked out of a movie halfway through since the first Harry Potter. I couldn’t tell if it was the ™blue vodka drink I got or the Best Buy motion capture, but I was losing my mind. When the blueboy bonded with the whale, that was my cue.
• Dogleg - A neat little shaggy dog. Guy has problems stacked on problems, while also trying to keep his shit together for the other, unrelated stack of problems. 80 minutes, perfect runtime.
• Smoking Causes Coughing - Mr Oizo’s work is the perfect combination of Dude, Where’s My Car, Godard, Godot, Seinfeld and Twilight Zone. These power rangers go on a weekend retreat and spin a few yarns. It goes nowhere, also 80 minutes, so perfect. I got to meet that cute fly from Mandibles a year earlier, life highlight.
• Skinamarink - An ASMR version of Ghostwatch. Hazy, evocative and almost exclusively fuzzed out images of empty hallways accompanied by a soundtrack of whispered voices. My partner HATED it, but she also requested we see Avatar, so I figure this was pretty good revenge. Also, I like singing the title to the tune of “Metal Guru”.
• Rotting In The Sun - I love films where it starts out as one story and completely goes left halfway in. A pretty simple gumshoe, with added drugs, dongs, instagram and sand.
• Carpet Cowboys - I truly think that Memory are creating a new genre of documentary. The children of Errol Morris, Godfrey Reggio, Agnes Varda etc. What starts as a pretty simple curio about rug makers unravels (ha) into a much bigger picture: American Dream, commodification, identity and all.
• Another Body - Speaking of identity, this is another doc sitting in the pits of the uncanny valley. A double deepfake about reality pixelated, a warning about tech running ahead of us (I wrote this using ChatGPT).
• Babylon - I watched this on a tiny plane screen after taking a sleeping pill, which may have been the perfect viewing condition. It’s a bloated mess, of course, but it oscillates between total shit and campy heights that it all kind of worked in an obscurist logic. A bit Hollywood Babylon in the more salacious chapters, and the tragedy parts worked better than the triumph of “da movies” — either way, still better than The Artist. I know this came out end of ’22, I’ll take the cheat.
• The Gods Of Times Square - An oldie brought back by the fine folks at Elara. The scuzzy NYC I dreamed of in my Sydney youth. A guy with a camera hanging round and talking to the priests of the block, slowly drawing out their (un)real personalities. Studs Terkel as told via GG Allin’s last gig footage, right?
• Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget - I haven’t seen this movie, but that title is the best thing since The Chipmunks series. Also Aardman can do no wrong!

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Force Majeure
• Brigsby Bear
• Vegas YouTubers - Walking around, buffets, slots and bumping into each other, this is my favourite cinematic universe
• Paul McCarthy - WS White Snow installation
• Goodbye To Language
• Jersey Shore Family Reunion + Bar Rescue - Pluto TV or Tubi? Always the question.
• Slim Gaillards Civilisation - Old Arena BBC 4 hour doc about King Slim
• Is That All There Is? - Lindsay Anderson pops up to the shops, has a cup of tea
• Attenberg
• Wattstax
• Old
• Bad Day At Black Rock
• In A Glass Cage
• The Wedding Banquet
• American Dream
• Ticket Of No Return + Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press
• Hulk (Eric Bana one)
• Merrily We Go To Hell
• We Are The Best!
• The Murder of Mr. Devil
• Laugh, Clown, Laugh

Best First Watches

• Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)
• Three (Aleksandar Petrović, 1965)
• Downpour (Bahram Beyzai, 1972)
• The Dupes (Tawfiq Saleh, 1973)
• Muna Moto (Jean-Pierre Dikongué-Pipa, 1975)
• Mr. Klein (Joseph Losey, 1976)
• Getting to Know the Big Wide World (Kira Muratova, 1978)
• Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1978)
• Family Nest (Béla Tarr, 1979)
• The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (William H. Whyte, 1980)
• The Store (Frederick Wiseman, 1983)
• Gas Food Lodging (Allison Anders, 1992)
• A Single Girl (Benoît Jacquot, 1995)
• Jeanne and the Perfect Guy (Olivier Ducastel Jacques Martineau, 1998)
• Drylongso (Cauleen Smith, 1998)

First Viewings, alphabetical

• Assassination Tango (Robert Duvall, 2002)
• A Bread Factory, Parts One and Two (Patrick Wang, 2018)
• Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan, 1993)
• Day of the Outlaw (André De Toth, 1959)
• The Element of Crime (Lars von Trier, 1984)
• Elvis (John Carpenter, 1979)
• Experimenter (Michael Almereyda, 2015)
• Frozen River (Courtney Hunt, 2008)
• It Is Night in America (Ana Vaz, 2022)
• Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
• K.Sh.E. (Esfir Shub, 1932)
• The Manchurian Candidate (Jonathan Demme, 2004)
• Mitch McConnell “freeze” press conferences
• Mood Indigo (Michel Gondry, 2013)
• The Murder of Mr. Devil (Ester Krumbachová, 1970)
• Raise Your Arches (Edgar Wright, 2023)
• Route One/USA (Robert Kramer, 1989)
• Twilight (György Fehér, 1991)
• The Vanishing World of Gloves (Jirí Barta, 1982)

New Releases

1. Diary of a Fleeting Affair
2. Killers of the Flower Moon
3. Dry Ground Burning
4. The Boy and the Heron
5. The Wes Anderson Roald Dahl Quartet
6. Afire
7. Petite Solange
8. May December
9. Limbo (Soi Cheang)
10. Showing Up

First Viewings

• Broken Lullaby (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
• Every-Night Dreams (Mikio Naruse, 1933)
• A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Douglas Sirk. 1958)
• The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1960)
• Destiny’s Son (Kenji Misumi, 1962)
• In Harm’s Way (Otto Preminger, 1965)
• A High Wind in Jamaica (Alexander Mackendrick, 1965)
• Violent City (Sergio Sollima, 1970)
• Du Cóte d’Orouet (Jacques Rozier, 1971)
• Drugstore Romance (Paul Vecchiali, 1979)
• West Indies (Med Hondo, 1979)
• Knightriders (George Romero, 1981)
• Duel to the Death (Ching Siu-Tung, 1983)
• Mermaid Legend (Toshiharu Ikeda, 1984)
• Beijing Watermelon (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1989)
• Night and Day (Chantal Akerman, 1991)
• The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1993)
• The Neon Bible (Terence Davies, 1995)
• Workers for the Good Lord (Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2000)
• Bamboozled (Spike Lee, 2000)

(both unranked)

New Releases

• About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
• Cade: The Tortured Crossing (Neil Breen)
• Cette Maison (Miryam Charles)
• Dry Ground Burning (Joana Pimenta, Adirley Queirós)
• Endless Content Forever (Jacob Gregor)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• The Plains (David Easteal)
• Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Ashley McKenzie)
• Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball)
• Surprise (Janaya Black)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Black Box (1978, Beth B., Scott B.) - enjoyed going through the complete B Movies catalogue this year
• The Bloody Child (1996. Nina Menkes) - ditto for the work of Menkes in that great Cinematic Sorceress Blu-ray set
• Deadly Lessons (a.k.a. The Legend of Simon Conjurer) (2006, Stuart Paul)
• Demons 2 (1986, Lamberto Bava)
• Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947, Hans Richter)
• Drylongso (1998, Cauleen Smith)
• Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004, Lav Diaz)
• Glen or Glenda (1953, Ed Wood)
• Interface (2022, Justin Tomchuk)
• Instinct to Kill (2001, Gustavo Graef Marino) - the perfect turn-of-the-millennium DTV action-thriller
• Joseph Kilian (1963, Pavel Juráček, Jan Schmidt)
• Josephine Massarella: Green Dreams (1984-2017, Josephine Massarella)
• Mall Time (1987, George Haggerty) - Haggerty's work barely seems to exist when searched online, but his striking experimental documentaries have thankfully been preserved on a couple of fine DVD sets
• The Pit and the Pendulum (2009, David DeCoteau) - starring a pre-VPR Tom Sandoval, for all the Bravo-heads out there
• Police State (1987, Nick Zedd)
• Possibly in Michigan (1983, Cecelia Condit)
• The Secret Cinema (1966, Paul Bartel)
• Srigala (a.k.a. Wolf) (1981, Sisworo Gautama Putra)
• Szürkület (a.k.a. Twilight) (1990, György Fehér)
• Think About This (1999, ERI Safety Videos) - check out this company's whole catalogue, now called AP Safety Training, to see how they've mastered the art form of the workplace training video

• Pacifiction
• Ashkal
• The Zone of Interest
• De Humani Corporis Fabrica
• Sick of Myself
• Rotting in the Sun
• She is Conann
• Thanksgiving
• 20 Days in Mariupol
• Fair Play

New Releases (unranked)

• A Common Sequence (Mary Helena Clark & Mike Gibisser)
• Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball)
• How To with John Wilson, S3 E4, How To Watch The Game (John Wilson)
• Killers of The Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Matter Out of Place (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)
• Personality Crisis: One Night Only (Martin Scorsese & David Tedeschi)
• Talk to Me ( Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou)
• Telemarketers (Adam Bhala Lough & Sam Lipman-Stern)

First Viewings

• Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961)
• Def by Temptation (James Bond, 1990)
• Final Marks : The Art of The Carved Letter (Frank Muhly Jr. & Peter O’Neill, 1979)
• First Call (Christopher Diiorio & Joe Malone, 2000)
• It Always Rains on Sunday (Robert Hamer, 1947)
• State Funeral (Sergey Loznitsa, 2019)
• Hellzapoppin’ (H.C. Potter, 1941)
• Hollywood Shuffle (Robert Townsend 1987)
• Toby Dammit (Frederico Fellini, 1968)
• Unfaithfully Yours… (Preston Sturges, 1948)

New Releases (ranked)

1. Showing Up
2. Killers of the Flower Moon
3. May December
4. De Humani Corporis Fabrica
5. Anatomy of a Fall
6. Rotting in the Sun
7. The Holdovers
8. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
9. Asteroid City
10. The Zone of Interest

First Viewings (by release date)

• Moi, un Noir (1959)
• The Prime of Life (1967)
• A Very Curious Girl (1969)
• The Ritz (1976)
• Bad Brains: Live at CBGB (1982)
• La Pirate (1984)
• Screamplay (1985)
• Rosa la Rose, Public Girl (1986)
• Anguish (1987)
• Archangel (1990)
• Kafka (1991, "Mr. Kneff" recut)
• Crush (1992)
• Dance Me Outside (1994)
• Fresh Kill (1994)
• Belly (1998)
• Sour Grapes (1998)
• The Tripper (2006)
• Saw VI (2009)
• Aquarela (2018)
• The Girl and the Spider (2021)

Filmmaker, Film Programmer

New Releases

1. May December (Todd Haynes)

(the rest in alphabetical order)

• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Napoleon (Ridley Scott)
• Shin Ultraman (Shinji Higuchi)

First Viewings and Discoveries (by year)

Summer Storm (Douglas Sirk, 1944) "I demand hospitality, I'm a very sick man, I've had the most ghastly day. I've lost heavily at the races, my rendezvous tonight with the most charming lady has been cancelled, I've caught a cold, I forgot an umbrella, and it's going to rain."

Unfaithfully Yours (dir. Preston Sturges, 1948) “You handle Handel like nobody handles Handel. And your Delius - delirious!”

Deception (dir. Irving Rapper, 1946) "They call me a great man. That's the loneliest animal in the world."

Two for the Road (dir. Stanley Donen, 1967) "What kind of people just sit like that without a word to say to each other?" "Married people?"

Magnificent Obsession (dir. Douglas Sirk, 1954) "What's the matter with him, hasn't he got any brains?" "Don't have to, he's got four million bucks”

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (dir. Sydney Pollack, 1969) “Maybe the world is like central casting. They got it all rigged before you ever show up.”

Juliana do Amor Perdido (dir. Sérgio Ricardo, 1970) "I hear the cathedral bells ringing inside the sea"

O Palácio dos Anjos (dir. Walter Hugo Khouri, 1970) "Careful your imagination is too expensive"

Breezy (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1973) "God. Do you think he's dead?" "I didn't even know he was sick."

Pleasure of the Flesh (dir. Nagisa Ôshima, 1965) "I have a year to spend thirty million yen. On what? On women."

The Hot Spot (dir. Dennis Hopper, 1990) "That was more fun than eating cotton-candy barefoot."

Top Ten 2023

10. Occupied City (Steve McQueen)

9. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein)

8. The Eight Mountains (Felix Van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch)

7. Other People's Children (Rebecca Zlotowski)

6. American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)

5. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)

4. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)

3. Close to Vermeer (Suzanne Raes)

2. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne)

1. Maestro (Bradley Cooper)

First Viewings

Road House (1948) – This year I visited, for the first time, the gorgeous AFI Silver in Silver Springs, Maryland. I saw this in the luxe main auditorium after a rich meal, and promptly fell in-and-out of consciousness during what is already something of a surreal picture. (There's far more bowling than you'd ever expect in a classic film noir.) Anyway, being there with a devoted audience of older cinephiles for the annual Noir City festival – half of them sawing logs just like I was – was one of the most enriching experiences of the year.

Unranked.

New Releases

• John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski)
• Hello Dankness (Soda Jerk)
• Agoraphilia (Maggie Brennan, Annelise Ogaard, Mila Matveeva)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Pillow Talk (Michael Gordon, 1959)
• Lover Come Back (Delbert Mann, 1961)
• Send Me No Flowers (Norman Jewison, 1964)
• Movie-Drome (Stan VanDerBeek, 1964-65, installed in MoMA's exhibition Signals: How Video Transformed the World)
• Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)
• Straits of Magellan: Drafts & Fragments (Hollis Frampton, 1974)
• Times Square (Allan Moyle, 1980)
• The Story of Piera (Marco Ferreri, 1983)
• In The Spirit (Sandra Seacat, 1990)
• Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records (Julia Nash, 2018)
• Island in the Sun Head Like A Hole Karaoke Version (by Screen Slate's very own Jon Dieringer)
• Liziqi Youtube Channel

New Releases (unranked)

• Late Night with the Devil (Cameron Cairnes and Colin Cairnes)—Best found-footage film I’ve personally seen. David Dastmalchian is typically brilliant as a Faustian talk show host. Includes a great send-up of pseudo-skeptic James Randi.
• Satan Wants You (Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor)—Fresh and urgent doc on the inception of the Satanic Panic. “Those who cannot remember the past…”
• Birth/Rebirth (Laura Moss)—Finally, someone made a horror film set in the Bronx. And it LOOKS LIKE the Bronx.
• My Animal (Jacqueline Castel)—My girlfriend made it and I’m in it. I don’t care. It’s brilliant. “Become who you are.”
• The Sacrifice Game (Jennifer Wexler)—If you wanna know what the early 1970s looked like, watch this. I know, I was there (minus the murder spree).
• Black Flies (Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire)—A heart-searing urban drama by a director who’s too real for the weaklings.
• The Disappearance of Shere Hite (Nicole Newnham)—How we eat our idols.
• The Seeding (Barnaby Clay)—Feral children. A big hole in the ground. Enough said.
• Divinity (Eddie Alcazar)—A pastiche of styles like nothing I’ve ever seen. Brave and bold and truthful with an incredible score by Dean Hurley and DJ Muggs.
• Barbie (Greta Gerwig)—That’s right. Fuck you. The first twenty minutes is the greatest-ever popularization of gnosticism.

   

First Viewings (unranked)

• Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman)—Yes, I’m out of touch—never saw it before. Brilliant study of turning the tables on predators. Punk style to die for.
• Elle (Paul Verhoeven)—Bravely explores the fierce individuality of intimacy.
• I Like to Paint Monsters (Mike Correll)—The life of artist Chet Zar is a horror movie I want to enter and never leave. In fact, I plan to.

New Releases (no ranking)

• Three Sparks (Naimo Uman)
• The Bride (Myriam Uwiragiye Birara)
• Nowhere Near (Miko Revereza)
• Mast-del (Maryam Tafakory)
• Return to Seoul (Davy Chou)
• #MITO (Daisuke Miyazaki)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Bold Eagle (Whammy Alcazaren)
• The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
• Rejeito (Pedro de Filippis)

First Times

• Batang West Side (Lav Diaz, 2001)
• Finding Christa (Camille Billops & James hatch, 1991)
• Budawanny (Bob Quinn & Martin O’Malley, 1986)
• Earth (Alexander Dovzhenkom, 1930)
• Typhoon Club (Shinji Sōmai, 1985)
• Minsa’y Isang Gamu-gamo (Lupita Aquino-Kashiwahara, 1976)
• Tourism (Daisuke Miyazaki, 2017)
• Gouverneurs de la rosée (Maruice Failevic, 1976)
• Revolution Selfie (Steven de Castro, 2017)
• Cyber Palestine (Elia Suleiman, 2000)

First Viewings

• Appointment (Lindsey C. Vickers, 1981)
• La Otra (Roberto Gavaldon, 1945)
• The Bigamist (Ida Lupino, 1953)
• Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet, 1988)
• Memories of Underdevelopment [Mémoires du sous développement] (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968)
• Tenebrae (Dario Argento, 1982)
• Vengeance is Mine (Michael Roemer, 1984)
• Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)

• The Mission (Roland Joffe, 1986)
• Full Contact (Ringo Lam, 1992)
• Best Seller (John Flynn, 1987)
• Blue Chips (William Friedkin, 1994)
• Wolfen (Michael Wadleigh, 1981)
• The Entity (Sidney J. Furie, 1982)
• The Remains of the Day (James Ivory, 1993)
• Slither (Howard Zieff, 1973)
• Band of the Hand (Paul Michael Glaser, 1986)
• Righting Wrongs (Corey Yuen, 1986)
• Night of the Creeps (Fred Dekker, 1986)
• Next of Kin (Tony Williams, 1982)

New Releases

1. Our Body (Claire Simon)
2. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)
3. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh)
4. May December (Todd Haynes)
5. A Still Small Voice (Luke Lorentzen)
6. The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung)
7. Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman)
8. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel)
9. R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu)
10. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster)

First Viewings

1. Irani Bag (Maryam Tafakory, 2020)
2. The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
3. Dead End (William Wyler, 1937)
4. The Inheritance (Márta Mészáros, 1976)
5. Un rêve plus long que la nuit (Niki de Saint Phalle, 1976)

Film Programmer at Alamo Drafthouse (HQ’d in San Francisco)

New Releases (alphabetical)

• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• Dad & Step-Dad (Tynan DeLong)**
• Eileen (William Oldroyd)
• Ferrari (Michael Mann)
• Full Time (Eric Gravel)
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
• Mister Organ (David Farrier)
• John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)

First Viewings and Discoveries (alphabetical)

• Arnold (Georg Fenady, 1973)
• Bad Biology (Frank Henenlotter, 2008)
• Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952)
• Bitter Moon (Roman Polanski, 1992)
• Bull Durham (Ron Shelton, 1988)
• Cemetery Man (Michele Soavi, 1994)
• Duck, You Sucker! (Sergio Leone, 1971)
• Fay Grim (Hal Hartley, 2006)
• First Blood (Ted Kotcheff, 1982)
• G.B.H. (David Kent-Watson, 1982)
• The Landlord (Hal Ashby, 1970)
• Lilya 4-Ever (Lukas Moodysson, 2003)
• Opera (Dario Argento, 1987)
• Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
• The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1971)
• Rachel, Rachel (Paul Newman, 1968)
• Stalked by My Doctor: Patient's Revenge (Doug Campbell, 2018)
• Street of No Return (Sam Fuller, 1989)
• Subway (Luc Besson, 1985)
• Times Square (Allen Moyle, 1980)

New Releases

• Unrest (Cyril Schäublin)
• Last Things (Deborah Stratman)
• Orlando, My Political Biography (Paul B. Preciado)
• Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?) (Suneil Sanzgiri)
• Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
• Mast-del (Maryam Tafakory)
• Boyd v. Denton (Kevin Jerome Everson)

First Viewings

• Untitled 77A (Han Ok-hee, 1977)
• New Utopia and Light Fracture (Luther Price, both 2017)
• The Giverny Suite (Ja’Tovia Gary, 2019)
• The Only Son (Yasujirō Ozu, 1936)
• TV Text and Image (Donnell Library Center Version) (Gretchen Bender, 1990)
• Hard Core Home Movie (Greta Snider, 1989)
• Do Not Circulate (Tiffany Sia, 2021)
• Surviving You, Always (Morgan Quaintance, 2021)
• Golden Eighties (Chantal Akerman, 1986)
• The Store (Frederick Wiseman, 1983)
• Pressure (Horace Ove, 1976)
• Miss Universo en el Perú (Grupo Chaski, 1982)
• Lettrist Cinema series at Spectacle
• Video Store at Foxy Production
• Ken Jacobs: Up the Illusion at 80WSE

Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)

First Viewings in 2023

1. In a Lonely Place (1950), MoMI
2. Some Came Running (1958), MoMI
3. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005), Netflix
4. Ace in the Hole (1951), MoMI
5. Early Spring (1956), Film Forum
6. A Hen in the Wind (1948), MoMA
7. Girl 6 (1996), Roxy
8. The Fly (1986), MoMI
9. Carlito's Way (1993), MoMI
10. Holiday (1938), MoMI
11. Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938), Film Forum
12. Lust, Caution (2007), Metrograph
13. The Thing (1982), Anthology
14. Blissfully Yours (2002), FLC
15. The Green Ray (1986), Metrograph
16. Early Summer (1951), Film Forum
17. The Wounded Man (1983), Anthology
18. I Am Suzanne! (1933), MoMA
19. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), MoMA
20. Vision Quest (1985), Roxy

New Releases 2023

1. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Lucien Casting Taylor & Varena Paravel)
2. Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing)
3. May December (Todd Haynes)
4. The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams)
5. The Killer (David Fincher)
6. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
7. Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman)
8. Ferrari (Michael Mann)
9. Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan)
10. Spinning Out of Control (Doug Campbell)

First Time

1. Manchester City 4 - 1 Arsenal 4/26/23 / Manchester City 4 - 0 Real Madrid 5/17/2023
2. Portrait of Chieko (Noboru Nakamura)
3. Confession (Aleksandr Sokurov, 1998)
4. Nazareno Cruz y el Lobo (Leonardo Fabio, 1975)
5. Red Angel (Yasuzo Masamura, 1966)
6. Chanson De Gestes (Guy Gilles, 1966)
7. Goya - Oder Der Arge Weg Der Erkenntnis (Konrad Wolf, 1971)
8. Der Riese (Michael Klier, 1984)
9. The Pelican (Gerard Blain, 1974)
10. Cafe Flesh (Stephen Sayadian, 1982)
11. Koko Dai Paniks (Gakuryu Ishii & Yukihiro Sawada, 1978)
12. Eponine (Michel Chion, 1984)
13. Baroque Statues (Maria Lassnig, 1974)
14. A Forca Dos Sentidos (Jean Garret, 1978)
15. Bad Company (Damian Harris, 1995)

New Releases

• May December (Todd Haynes)
• The Five Devils (Léa Mysius)
• Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva)
• I’m A Virgo (Boots Riley)
• Piaffe (Ann Oren)
• Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball)
• Cole Escola’s Our Home Out West (Drew Tobia)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• The Adjuster (Atom Egoyan, 1991)
• BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes and Sadomasochism (Michelle Handelmann, 1995)
• Duffer (Joseph Despins & William Dumaresq, 1972)
• Dressed in Blue (Antonio Giménez-Rico, 1983)
• Fluidø (Shu Lea Cheang, 2017)
• The Orchid (Samuel Delany, 1971)
• Chocolate Babies (Stephen Winter, 1996)
• Splendor (Gregg Araki, 1999)
• Clayworld (Blacklips Performance Cult, 1993)
• Farewell to the Ark (Shûji Terayama, 1984)
• The Silence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1998)
• The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming Liang, 2005)
• Unlearning to Sleep (Gustavo Vinagre, 2021)

• L’Amour Fou (1969) by Jacques Rivette (in the restored version; plus his book Textes critiques edited by Miguel Armas and Luc Chessel)
• The Shadows of the Forgotten Ancestors (1965) and Ashik Kerib (1989) by Sergey Parajanov
• A few wonderful films by Georges Melies (collected in a DVD titled The Magic of Melies)
• The Return of an Adventurer (1966) and Kokoa (1973) by Moustapha Alassane
• 23rd Psalm Branch (1967) by Stan Brakhage (plus the radio shows of Stan Brakhage: https://www.ubu.com/sound/brakhage.html)

New Releases

• All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
• Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
• La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)
• John Wick 4 (Chad Stahelski)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
• The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)

First Viewings

• 3 Women (Robert Altman, 1977)
• Award Presentation to Andy Warhol (Jonas Mekas, 1965)
• Bimbo’s Initiation (Dave Fleischer, 1931)
• The Devil’s Rain (Robert Fuest, 1975)
• Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971)
• Eastern Condors (Sammo Hung, 1987)
• Hard Rain (Mikael Salomon, 1998)
• The Heroic Trio (Johnnie To, 1993)
• The Hidden (Jack Sholder, 1987)
• The Immortal Story (Orson Welles, 1968)
• Magnificent Warriors (David Chung, 1987)
• The Man Who Would Be King (John Huston, 1975)
• Peacemaker (Kevin Tenney, 1990)
• Royal Warriors (David Chung, 1986)
• Stalked by My Doctor: A Sleepwalker’s Nightmare (Jeff Hare, 2019)
• The Stunt Woman (Ann Hui, 1996)
• Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (Ernest Dickerson, 1995)
• Winter Kills (William Richert, 1979)
• Yes, Madam! (Corey Yuen, 1985)

Firsts

1. To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin, 1985)
2. The Wrong Guy (David Steinberg, 1997)
3. Def by Temptation (James Bond III, 1990)
4. What's Up, Doc? (Peter Bogdanovich, 1972)
5. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Oshima, 1983)
6. Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman, 1982)
7. Wild at Heart (David Lynch, 1990)
8. Joe Versus the Volcano (John Patrick Shanley, 1990)
9. The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934)
10. Bone (Larry Cohen, 1972)

First Viewings and Discoveries

1. Judex (1916)
2. Judex (1963)
3. The Bride With White Hair (1993) at San Diego Asian Film Festival’s “Days of Being Leslie & Anita”
4. What Really Happened to Baby Jane? (1963)
5. Frantic (1988)
6. “Trajectories of Self-Determination: Experimental Cinema’s Embrace of Jazz,” esp. Four Women (1975), Up and Atom (1970), and Not a Music Video (1987), on Canyon Cinema’s Patreon
7. Seacrestcheadle’s Swamp Thing content
8. Asparagus (1979) on youtube
9. Double Lover (2017) on MUBI
10. Mulholland Drive Forwards and Backwards (2022) on Vimeo
11. The Anniversary Party (2001) on Criterion
12. Kenneth Anger group memorial (including director’s commentary) on Twitch
13. Cleopatra (1934) on TCM
14. The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair (1939) at the Nitrate Picture Show
15. The Birdcage (1996) on the plane
16. John Torres’ Half Film (work in progress) at 2220 Arts + Archive
17. Street Scene (1931) on TCM
18. The Plot Against Harry (1971) at Film Forum
19. Typhoon Club (1985) at San Diego Asian Film Festival
20. The Mummy (1999) on the plane, twice, and again at Thanksgiving

Ten First Viewings and Discoveries:

The Lovers (Les Amants) - 1958

Directed by Louis Malle, starring Jeanne Moreau

The Lost Man - 1969

Directed by Robert Allen Aurthur, starring Sidney Poitier, Joanna Shimkus, Al Freeman Jr

Other Men’s Women - 1931

Directed by William Wellman, starring Mary Astor, Joan Blondell, James Cagney

Europa ’51 - 1952

Directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Ingrid Bergman

Rustlers’ Rhapsody - 1985

Directed by Hugh Wilson, starring Tom Berenger, Sela Ward

Dragged Across Concrete - 2018

Directed by S. Craig Zahler, starring Vincent Vaughn, Mel Gibson

Obsession (The Hidden Room) - 1949

Directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring Robert Newton, Phil Brown

The Wheelchair (El Cochecito) - 1960

Directed by Marco Ferreri, written by Rafael Azcona, starring Jose Isbert

Courage Of Lassie - 1946

Directed by Fred M. Wilcox, starring Elizabeth Taylor

The Phynx - 1970

Directed by Lee H. Katzan, starring Lou Antonio, Rona Barrett, Edgar Bergen, Busby Berkeley, James Brown, Dick Clark, Xavier Cugat, Fritz Feld, George Jessel, Ruby Keeler, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Patsy Kelly, Trini Lopez, Dorothy Lamour, Joe Louis, Butterfly McQueen, Guy Lombardo, Richard Pryor, Martha Raye, Harold Sakata, Harland Sanders, Jay Silverheels, Sally Struthers, Rich Little, Rudy Vallee, Ed Sullivan, Clint Walker, Johnny Weissmuller, Andy Devine, Sue Bernard, Pat McCormick

New Releases

• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)
• Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg)
• Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
• The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
• Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)
• Tori and Lokita (Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre-Dardenne)
• The Killer (David Fincher)
• Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)

10 new ones I liked!

• Anatomy of a Fall
• The Boy and the Heron
• Enys Men
• Fallen Leaves
• Fremont
• Pacifiction
• Poor Things
• The Teachers’ Lounge
• Walk Up
• The Zone of Interest

2023 films (alphabetical)

• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)
• Hello Dankness (Soda Jerk)
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman)
• One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Løve)
• Perfect Days (Wim Wenders)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)

First Time Views (chronological)

• Crainquebille (Jacques Feyder, 1922)
• The Organist at St. Vitus Cathedral (Martin Fric, 1929)
• Only Yesterday (John M Stahl, 1933)
• Growing, growing… (Paul Fillinger, 1972)
• Same Difference (Al Wong, 1975)
• Analogies: Studies in the Movement of Time (Peter Rose, 1977)
• Heat (Dick Richards, Jerry Jameson; 1986)
• Anguish (Bigas Lunas, 1987)
• Sonic Outlaws (Craig Baldwin, 1995)
• Music in the Air (Scott Stark, 2023)

New Releases (unranked)

• 70 years old Guy in Timberland hit CRAZY SHOT video (@beautifulsoulsinnyc IG)
• Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (Rob Reiner)
• The Apocalyptic Is The Mother of All Christian Theology (Jim Finn)
• The First Year (Patricio Guzmán, 1972)
• Hello Dankness (Soda_Jerk)
• How To With John Wilson: S03E03 “How To Work Out” (John Wilson)
• Killers of The Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• M3gan (Gerard Johnstone)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• The Battle of Chile (Patricio Guzmán, 1975–1979)
• Bottle Can (Luther Price, 1993)
• The Secret Formula (Rubén Gámez, 1965)
• Imaginary Light (Andrew Noren, 1994)
• Overnight (Tony Montana & Mark Brian Smith, 2003)
• Rush to Judgment (Emile de Antonio, 1966)
• Safe In Hell (William Wellman, 1931)
• The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (William H. Whyte, 1980)
• The Store (Fredrick Wiseman, 1983)
• Summer School (Carl Reiner, 1987)
• XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX (Ken Jacobs, 2021)

Bonus Content

• Big Blood - First Aid Kit LP (Feeding Tube Records)
• Harry Smith - The Naropa Lectures 1988-1990, ed. Raymond Foye (Karma)
• Jen Fisher - The Happening of 2020 in NYC (Miniature Garden)
• Kilynn Lunsford - Custodians of Human Succession LP (Ever/Never Records) + music videos (Carolyn Funk)
• Lary 7 - Larynx LP (Blank Forms)
• Les Rallizes Denudes Cover Band - Les Rallizes Denudes Cover Band Live (Bandcamp)
• Michael Galinsky - Decline of Mall Civilization, 2^nd Edition (Rumur)
• Neo Geo CD Pad wireless controller (8bitdo)
• Pharoah Sanders - Pharoah LP box set (Luaka Bop)
• Superiority Burger (Brooks Headley, et al)
• Ty Segall & Emmett Kelly - Live At Worship LP (Drag City)
• Various Artists - Newspaper (Primary Information)

First Viewings, no order

• H.M. Pullman Esq. (King Vidor, 1941)
• Grim Reaper (Ron Ormond, 1976)
• The Shmenges: The Last Polka (John Blanchard, 1985)
• The Scream (Barbara Sass, 1983)
• Without Love (Barbara Sass, 1980)
• The Demon (Brunello Rondi, 1968)
• Pimps Up, Ho's Down (Director's Cut) (Fredrik Gertten, 1999)
• Gentleman Jim (Raoul Walsh, 1942)
• The Way of All Flesh (Louis King, 1940)
• The Comic (Carl Reiner, 1969)

First Viewings

• D’Amore si Vive (Silvano Agosti, 1983)
• All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)
• Foragers (Jumana Manna, 2022)
• Chez Jolie Coiffeure (Rosine Mbakam, 2018). Also really dug Mbakam's 2023 "Mambar Pierette"
• The Store (Frederick Wiseman, 1983)
• Nénette and Boni (Claire Denis, 1996). Agnes Godard Q&A was a big treat.
• Bronx Baptism (DeeDee Halleck, 1982). Camera by Richard Serra, DeeDee Halleck, and Babette Mangolte.
• Of Time and the City (Terence Davies, 2008).
• Is it us? (LJ Frezza, 2023 so cheating a little bit)
• Insanely big and bright new jumbotron at Citi Field. Went to a baseball game and enjoyed seeing the camera crew match fans with celebrity look-alikes on the screen
• Joyce at 34 (Joyce Chopra and Claudia Weil, 1973). Joyce Chopra's memoir was a good read, too.

New Releases

• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams)
• Guy Ritchie's The Covenant (Guy Ritchie)
• Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Rotting in the Sun (Sebastián Silva)
• Film01 (Angelicism)
• Blackberry (Matthew Johnson)
• War Pony (Gina Gammell & Riley Keough)
• Talk to Me (Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou)

Favorite Discoveries

• Tokyo Twilight (Yasujirō Ozu, 1957)
• Love and Pop (Hideaki Anno, 1998)
• Local Hero (Bill Forsyth, 1983)
• Minbo: The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion (Jūzō Itami, 1992)
• House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou, 2004)
• The Maid (Sebastián Silva, 2009)
• Live Today, Die Tomorrow! (Kaneto Shindō, 1970)
• The Store (Frederick Wiseman, 1983)
• Public Enemies (Michael Mann, 2009)
• Tomatos Another Day (James Sibley Watson, 1930)

Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938) & Hi, Mom! (Brian De Palma, 1970)

The American Bourgeoisie gets taken for a ride. The Hawks goes down much smoother than De Palma's acidic, if nevertheless potent, concoction.

El Primer Año (Patricio Guzmán, 1972) & The Silent Majority Speaks (Bani Khoshnoudi, 2010)

Ephemeral snapshots of faces and figures who constitute a democratic ideal that's fundamentally cinematic.

Introduction to the End of an Argument (Jayce Salloum and Elia Suleiman, 1990) & Sambizanga (Sarah Maldoror, 1972)

Righteous anger filtered with crystalline focus into two resonant ruminations on how the cinema informs and subverts longstanding political mythologies.

The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, 1972) & Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1988)

Two lasting testaments to the inadequacy of a commercial distribution model. Watching the May on a 16mm print in a packed Minneapolis cinema was exhilarating.

Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, 1988) & L'intrus (Claire Denis, 2004)

Davies and Denis' temporospatial fluidity limns the local and the transnational, and subsequently challenges whatever creative borders we impose on the medium as a form of self-reflection.

The Night It Rained (Kamran Shirdel, 1967) & Notes on an American Film Director at Work (Jonas Mekas, 2008)

Two distinct exercises in documentary filmmaking as a method of finding truth in the everyday, brimming with irrepressible curiosity at how and why we pass down the stories we tell.

The Only Son (Ozu Yasujirō, 1936) & El Sur (Victor Erice, 1983)

The painful passages parents take to love and understand their children, and vice versa, in a devastating diptych.

The Sounds of Science (Jean Painlevé, Geneviève Hamon and Yo La Tengo, 2001) & Water-Mirror of Granada (José Val del Omar, 1955)

Mid-century Avant-Garde filmmaking as spectacle. Val del Omar and Painlevé render the natural world as an alchemical, uncontainable site of sensuous mystery.

New Releases

• Afire (Christian Petzold)
• Amerikatsi (Michael Goorjian)
• Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
• Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismaki)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Passages (Ira Sachs)
• Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme)
• Saltburn (Emerald Fennell)
• The Outwaters (Robbie Banfich)

Unranked 2023 list as of now. Still a few things I want to see in December (Poor Things, The Sweet East, La Chimera, Zone of Interest, etc.).

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Cruel Story of Youth (1960) Nagisa Oshima
• Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965) Doris Wishman
• Lion Love (…and Lies) (1969) Agnes Varda
• Hollywood 90028 (1973) Christina Hornisher
• Day For Night (1973) Francois Truffaut
• Blue Collar (1978) Paul Schrader
• The Passenger (1975) Michelangelo Antonioni
• In the Realm of Senses (1976) Nagisa Oshima
• Bad Timing (1980) Nicolas Roeg
• The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) Martin Scorsese
• Mo Better Blues (1990) Spike Lee
• Calendar (1993) Atom Egoyan
• John Pierson’s Split Screen (1997 - 2001)
• Brother (2000) Takeshi Kitano
• Auto Focus (2002) Paul Schrader
• House of a Thousand Corpses (2003) Rob Zombie
• The Deep Blue Sea (2011) Terrence Davies
• Sibyl (2019) Justine Triet
• Sick of Myself (2022) Kristoffer Borgli
• the CLOUTBOMBING REPORT (2023) Brad Troemel

First Viewings

• Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) on the Criterion Channel
• All I Wanna Do (1998, Sarah Kernochan) at the Metrograph
• Dar Ghorbat (Far From Home) (1975, Sohrab Shahid Saless) at MoMA
• The Exorcist: Director’s Cut (1973, William Friedkin) at IFC Center
• The Man with the Balloons (1967, Marco Ferreri) at Film at Lincoln Center
• Queen of Diamonds (1991, Nina Menkes) on MUBI
• William Kentridge’s The Refusal of Time (2012) in his retrospective at the Broad
• Sleepwalk (1986, Sara Driver) at the Roxy
• The Strangler (1970, Paul Vecchiali) at Anthology Film Archives
• Sun Tunnels (1978, Nancy Holt) at Dunkunsthalle
• Third Avenue: Only the Strong Survive (1980, Jon Alpert and Keiko Tsuno) at DCTV
• Amar Kanwar’s The Torn First Pages (2004-08) in “Signals: How Video Transformed the World” at MoMA
• Trust (1990, Hal Hartley) on the Criterion Channel
• The Woman on the Beach (1947, Jean Renoir) at the New York Film Festival
• Zombi Child (2019, Bertrand Bonello) on MUBI

• The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko, 1977)
• The Far Country (Anthony Mann, 1954)
• Fast Food Nation (Richard Linklater, 2006)
• Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948)
• Good Morning (Yasujirō Ozu, 1959)
• The King and the Mockingbird (Paul Grimault, 1980)
• Redevelopment: A Marxist Analysis (Resolution Film Collective, 1974)
• The Southerner (Jean Renoir, 1945)
• Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin, 1957)
• The Woman Next Door (François Truffaut, 1981)

New Releases

• The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams, 2023)
• In Our Day (Hong Sang-Soo, 2023)
• Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing, 2023)
• Bama Rush (Rachel Fleit, 2023)

First Viewings

• Scenes of the Occupation from Gaza (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1973)
• Prières pour refuzniks #2 (Jean-Luc Godard, 2004)
• Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, 2022)
• The Dupes (Tawfiq Saleh, 1973)
• La Roue (Abel Gance, 1923)
• El Primer Año (Patricio Guzmán, 1972)
• Le Trou (Jacques Becker, 1960)
• Mes Petites Amoureuses (Jean Eustache, 1974)
• The Red Detachment of Women (Xie Jin, 1961)
• La région centrale (Michael Snow, 1971)
• L'Air du Temps (Ho Fan, 1990)
• Love Torn in Dreams (Raul Ruíz, 2000)
• Oxhide (Liu Jiayin, 2005)
• Rio Da Yung OG, Louie Ray, & YN Jay - "IN THE STUDIO" (Vlog) (shot by 2MDIGITAL, 2021) [poetry in motion!!]

Note: 2023 brought some crises of meaning – too much bureaucracy in a sick world, trees erasing the forest, for all a tree's worth. And the bureaucracy barely works, anyway, if life is your supreme and sexy value. Guzmán's work on Chile showed us so many people who were ready to die, if needed, to make the pain improve. Let their memory be an engine as we say fuck you to coercive images, bankrupt writing and racist Western gangsterism in the closing months of a brutal, inspiring year.

BERLIN/JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON: STOP and THINK! Your Dance Partner is DEATH!

10 New Releases of 2023

• BlackBerry (Matthew Johnson)
• Dicks: The Musical (Larry Charles)
• Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki)
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
• The Iron Claw (Sean Durkin)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Naga (Meshal Al Jaser)
• Red Rooms (Pascal Plante)

Fave First Viewings in 2023

• Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013) - seen at The Paradise, Toronto
• Cooley High (Michael Schultz, 1975) - seen at The Revue Cinema, Toronto
• Creepies (Jeff Leroy, 2003) - seen at The Important Cinema Club Halloween Movie Mind Melter
• Two Girls on the Street (Andre De Toth, 1939) - seen at Anthology Film Archive, New York
• Pulse (Paul Golding, 1988) - home viewing
• Practical Magic (Griffin Dunne, 1998) - seen at New Beverly Cinema, LA
• Rustlers' Rhapsody (Hugh Wilson, 1985) - seen at New Beverly Cinema, LA
• Samurai Kids (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1993) - home viewing
• Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Abel Góngora, 2023) - at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto
• Screamplay (Rufus Butler Seder, 1985) - seen at Playtime, New York
• To Die For (Gus Van Sant, 1995) - seen at New Beverly Cinema, LA

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Hot Ticket (Zoe Lund, 1993)
• Eros + Massacre (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1969)
• Interview with Nina Hagen (live on Swiss TV, 1980)
• (0,0,0) Klara Liden at Galerie Neu, Berlin, 2023
• Jacques Dutronc interviewing Isabelle Adjani live in 1973
• Endless Waltz (Koji Wakamatsu, 1995)
• “Mama Told Me Not to Come” music video (The Wolfgang Press, 1991)
• Theme from Party Girl, 1995
• How can I love (Anne-Marie Mieville, 1983)
• Boomerang (Nancy Holt & Richard Serra, 1974)
• Liberte et Patrie (Mieville, Godard, 2002)
• The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pasolini, 1964) – young Giorgio Agamben’s cameo and Natalia Ginzburg’s appearance are highlights
• Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)

New Releases

1. Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan) / In Water (Hong Sangsoo) / De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor) / Nobody's Hero (Alain Guiraudie)
2. Jawan (Atlee Kumar) / Unrest (Cyril Schäublin)
3. Pathaan (Siddharth Anand)
4. Piaffe (Ann Oren)
5. Hypnotic (Robert Rodriguez)
6. The Last Voyage of Demeter (André Øvredal)

First Viewings (listed in order seen):

• Hollywood 90028 (Christina Hornisher); 35mm at Nitehawk Cinema
• Up, Down, Fragile (Jacques Rivette); 35mm at FIAF
• Quick Billy (Bruce Baillie); 16mm at Anthology Film Archives
• The Text of Light (Stan Brakhage); 16mm at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• The Rainbow Bridge (Vicki Z. Peterson); 16mm at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Rude Awakening (Warren Sonbert); 16mm at MoMA
• Imaginary Light (Andrew Noren); 16mm at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• The Last Woman (Marco Ferreri); 35mm at Film at Lincoln Center
• Call Her Savage (John Francis Dillon); 35mm at MoMA
• I Am Suzanne! (Rowland V. Lee); 35mm at MoMA
• Tortured Dust (Stan Brakhage); 16mm at Film-Makers' Coop
• P. P. Rider (Shinji Sōmai); DCP at IFC Center
• Camp de Thiaroye (Ousmane Sembène, Thierno Faty Sow); 35mm at Film Forum
• Phenomena (Jordan Belson); 16mm at Anthology Film Archives
• Once More (Paul Vecchiali); DCP at Metrograph
• Femmes femmes (Paul Vecchiali); DCP at Metrograph
• The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman); 35mm at Metrograph
• Black and White (Želimir Žilnik); Video at Anthology Film Archives
• Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (Mai Masri); Digital at Anthology Film Archives
• The Dream (Mohammad Malas); digital at Spectacle Theater

New Releases

1. Past Lives (Celine Song)
2. May December (Todd Haynes)
3. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
4. John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski)
5. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
6. Afire (Christian Petzold)
7. Happer’s Comet (Tyler Taormina)
8. Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)
9. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)
10. Extraction 2 (Sam Hargrave)

First Viewings

• Barbara (1970, Water Burns)
• Blood and Concrete (1991, Jeffrey Reiner)
• Butterfly (1982, Matt Cimber)
• Dracula’s Widow (1988, Christopher Coppola)
• Dream Life (1972, Mireille Dansereau)
• Endangered Species (1982, Alan Rudolph)
• Fear Is the Key (1972, Michael Tuchner)
• Female Perversions (1996, Susan Streitfeld)
• Frauds (1993, Stephan Elliott)
• A Gnome Named Gnorm (1990, Stan Winston)
• A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse (1975, Kazuhiko Yamaguchi)
• Identikit (1974, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi)
• Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972, Gene Saks)
• Motorama (1991, Barry Shils)
• Nowhere to Hide (1987, Mario Philip Azzopardi)
• The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean (1966, Juleen Compton)
• Red Midnight (1966, James Newslow)
• Taxi Hunter (1993, Herman Yau)
• What About Me? (1993, Rachel Amodeo)
• A Woman Kills (1968, Jean-Denis Bonan)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Songs from the Compost: Mutating Bodies, Imploding Stars (Eglė Budvytytė, 2020)
• Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1989) - Don't ask me why it took me until 2023 to watch this masterpiece.
• Space Is the Place (John Coney, 1974)
• It's Such a Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeldt, 2012)
• Tampopo (Jūzō Itami, 1985)
• Onyeka Igwe: A Repertoire of Protest (No Dance, No Palaver) - Her Name in My Mouth (2017), Sitting on a Man (2018), Specialised Technique (2018)
• Fuses (Carolee Schneemann, 1964–67)

New Releases

• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan)
• Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie)
• Aggro Dr1ft (Harmony Korine)
• Still Film (James N. Kienitz Wilkins)

First Viewings

• What Happened Was… (Tom Noonan)
• Up, Down, Fragile (Jacques Rivette)
• The Daytrippers (Greg Mottola)
• Set It Off (F. Gary Gray)
• 112 - Anywhere (Hype Williams)
• Dave Chappelle, Peanuts - Foxtrot (Baltimore Club Remix) (Brown Kevin T.)
• How To Make It in America S1E4 (Julian Farino)
• The Hollow Coin (Frank Heath)

Top Viewing Experience: The Devil's Honey (Fulci, 1986), at Roxy Cinema, programmed by Cathode Cinema

In the Galleries

• Harry Smith films with live musical accompaniment by Ikue Mori and John Zorn at the Whitney Museum
• Sandra Mujinga “Flo” (2019) hologram installation at MoMA
• Stan VanDerBeek’s “Movie-Drome” (1964–65) at MoMA
• Val del Omar exhibit at Museum of the Moving Image
• Yasunao Tone & Barbara Held "Lyrictron for Flute" (1988) live Commodore 64 software projection musical performance at Artists Space

First Viewings

• 32 Sounds (Green, 2022)
• Amateur (Harley, 1994)
• Angel Dust (Ishii, 1994)
• Arabella: Black Angel (Massi, 1989)
• August in The Water (Ishii, 1995)
• Dr. Caligari 4K Restoration (Sayadian, 1989)
• Empire of Passion (Ōshima, 1978)
• Light Music (Rhodes, 1975)
• My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me? (Aoyama, 2005)
• Night Games (Zetterling, 1966)
• Nowhere 4K Restoration (Araki, 1997)
• The Laughing Woman (Schivazappa, 1969)
• The Other Side of The Underneath (Arden, 1972)
• The Red Light Bandit (Sganzerla, 1968)
• The Spirit of The Beehive (Erice, 1973)
• To Live and Die in L.A. (Friedkin, 1985)

New Releases:

• Escasso (Clara Anastacia & Gabriela Meirelles)
• Aquerante (Manuel Muńoz Ribas)
• Passages (Ira Sachs)
• Our Body (Claire Simone)
• Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Ashley McKenzie)
• Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann)
• On Blue (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
• Rewind and Play (Alain Gomis)
• Sunshine State (Steve McQueen)
• Playland (Georden West)
• Where (Tsai Ming-liang)

First Viewings:

• Nothing But A Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)
• This Transient Life (Akio Jissoji, 1970)
• Waiting For Happiness (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2002)
• Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006)
• Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
• Small Deaths (Lynne Ramsay, 1996)
• The Skywalk is Gone (Tsai Ming-liang, 2002)
• Madame Butterfly (Tsai Ming-liang, 2009)
• So Is This (Michael Snow, 1982)
• The Black Tower (John Smith, 1987)
• The Woman With the Knife (Tomoté Bassori, 2010)
• Statues Hardly Ever Smile (Stan Lathan, 1971)
• Concerning Violence (Göran Olsson, 2014)
• Blow Ball (Márta Mészáros, 2001)
• Mariner of the Mountains (Karim Aïnouz, 2010)
• Moving In (Chantal Akerman, 1971)
• Pusher (Nicolas Winding Refn, 1996)

New Releases

1. Poor Things
2. The Zone of Interest
3. Saint Omer
4. Return to Seoul
5. La Chimera
6. May December
7. The Teacher's Lounge
8. Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros
9. Pacifiction
10. The Peasants

First Viewings

1. W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (Dušan Makavejev)
2. Zemlya (Restoration) (Oleksandr Dovzhenko)
3. The Working Girls (Stephanie Rothman)
4. Un rêve plus long que la nuit (Niki de Saint Phalle)
5. Binding Sentiments (Márta Mészáros)
6. Brick and Mirror (Ebrahim Golestan)
7. The Legend of Suram Fortress (Sergei Parajanov & Dodo Abashidze)
8. Beautiful (Luchino Visconti)
9. The Divorcee (Robert Z. Leonard)
10. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg)

1. John Wick: Chapter 4

The end.

New Releases

1. The Killer
2. Oppenheimer
3. The Curse
4. Napoleon
5. The Holdovers
6. South Park: Beyond the Panderverse
7. Priscilla
8. Barbie
9. M3GAN
10. Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One

First Viewings

• Ted (MacFarlane, 2012)
• I Am a Sex Addict (Zahedi, 2005)
• The Sorrow and the Pity (Ophüls, 1969)
• Richard Jewell (Eastwood, 2019)
• She Hate Me (Lee, 2004)
• Panic Room (Fincher, 2002)
• Vox Lux (Corbet, 2018)
• Hannibal (Scott, 2001)
• Intolerable Cruelty (Coen, 2003)
• Henry Fool (Hartley, 1997)
• Under the Silver Lake (Mitchell, 2018)
• Behind the Candelabra (Soderbergh, 2013)
• The Yards (Gray, 2000)
• Irreversible (Noe, 2002)
• Maggie’s Plan (Miller, 2015)
• Identification of a Woman (Antonioni, 1982)
• A Simple Plan (Raimi, 1998)

New Releases

• Passages (Ira Sachs) 

• Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Joe Brewster & Michèle Stephenson) 

• Rye Lane (Raine Allen-Miller) 

• May December (Todd Haynes) 

• A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell) 

• Kokomo City (D. Smith) 

• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt) 

• Frybread Face and Me (Billy Luther) 

• Mutt (Vuk Lungulov-Klotz) 

• Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie) 


Discoveries

• Ourika (Xenia Matthews) – This is what David Lynch wishes he could do. Period.
• Slingshot Hip Hop (Jackie Reem Salloum) – Hip Hop is bigger than the government. Shoutouts to cinemóvil nyc for putting me on.
• Groove (Greg Harrison)
 – My Atlanta homie put me on to this one.
• Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell) – I wish Feeld was like this.
• Midwaste (Liz Roberts)
 – Liz is a master at her craft. She’s mastered personal documentary, really blew me away.
• Jean of the Joneses (Stella Meghie) – This is exactly what it’s like growing up in a Jamaican household with matriarchs. Two Mommy woulda loved this film. 

• Spirit Never Dies, Only Transitions (Logan Lynette Burroughs) – My dream is to one day make a film this good. Logan’s sense of Black time, space and memory blows me away everytime.
• Tofu (Gbenga Komolafe) – Simply, a riot.
• Soon Come Back (Nande Walters) – This film makes me want to fly to Negril, Jamaica to meet my estranged grandfather.
• Right Near the Beach (Gibrey Allen) – Jamaican queer representation without the sensationalism of it all. This movie is quiet.
• Novena (Fernando Lopez)
 – Such a devastating deconstruction of machismo and the slow 
deterioration that comes with fear. 

• T (Keisha Rae Witherspoon) – This played at the Cinema Futura screening presented by Afrobeats Futura. There’s nothing more beautiful than Black people honoring their ancestors and departed kin.
• The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (Sophie Fiennes) – Exclamation Marx.
• Burnt Milk (Joseph Douglas-Elmhirst)
 – A visual poem, the likes of which Claude Mckay would blush at.
• Ola Ola (Adesola Thomas)
 – I saw this one at Millenium Film Workshop’s Open Screening program. 
This is exactly what navigating your early 20s being First Gen feels like. 

• Before I Let Go (Cam Granger) – Somehow it felt like I was watching Attack on Titan, getting neighborhood history from old heads and reading a book all at once but like in the most gleeful way.
• (Shake) What Yuh Mama Gave Yuh (Kariyana Calloway-Scott, Zoë Audifferen) – A beautiful montage film, exploring Black maternal lineage and the passing down of singing from generation to generation. Should be in the...

MOMA

• Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken) (Suneil Sanzgiri) – Showing the history of Asian-African unity against colonization. More important now than ever.
• Trust In Love (Oumou Traoré)
 – This is the warmest and sweetest film I’ve watched in a long time. Trust in Love.

New Releases

• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice)
• Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismaki)
• The Holdovers (Alexander Payne)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman)
• Passages (Ira Sachs)
• Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)
• Rotting in the Sun (Sebastián Silva)
• The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)

Top 20 First Viewings

• 36 Fillette (Catherine Breillat)
• Amateur (Hal Hartley)
• Another Girl Another Planet (Michael Almereyda)
• Barbarella (Roger Vadim)
• Blue (Derek Jarman)
• Full Moon in Paris (Eric Rohmer)
• High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
• The Idiots (Lars Von Trier)
• Jewel Robbery (William Dieterle)
• Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
• Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (David Mirkin)
• Séance (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
• The Sphere Las Vegas (U2 concert visuals)
• Take This Tablet (Stom Sogo)
• Trash Humpers (Harmony Korine)
• Up, Down, Fragile (Jacques Rivette)
• Victims of Sin (Emilio Fernández)
• War and Peace (Sergey Bondarchuk)
• Wavelength (Michael Snow)
• WS White Snow installation (Paul McCarthy)

New Releases

1. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
2. Role Models (Salome Oggenfuss)
3. May December (Todd Haynes)
4. Hello Dankness (Soda Jerk)

First Viewings

• A Road in Florida (1983) by Jem Cohen via DVD
• Blissfully Yours (2002) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul at Film at Lincoln Center
• Cage Duchamp (1972) by Shigeko Kubota with Nam June Park and John Cage in “Call It Something Else: Something Else Press, Inc. (1963-1974)” at Museo Reina Sofia
• Shopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space (1981) by Barbara McCullough at Light Industry
• Private Imaginings and Narrative Facts (1966) by Edward Owens at Flaherty Film Seminar
• Archangel (1990) by Guy Maddin at Metrograph
• Manakamana (2013) by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez at Light Industry
• Measures of Distance (1988) by Mona Hatoum at Anthology Film Archives
• The Secret Formula (1965) by Rubén Gámez at Light Industry
• Loads (1980) by Curt McDowell at Flaherty Film Seminar
• Golden Eighties (1986) by Chantal Akerman at Anthology Film Archives
• Origin of the Alimonies (2020) by Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix in “Scrap Yard Screenings” at Sara's

New Releases

• M3GAN (Gerard Johnstone)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold)
• The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams)

Best Discoveries

• Risky Business (Paul Brickman, 1983)
• Illusions (Julie Dash, 1982)
• Autoextinction (dir. John Menick) – this is 2023 but only screens in art venues
• Heavy Traffic (Ralph Bakshi, 1973)
• Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 1995)
• Irma Vep (Oliver Assayas, 1996 movie and 2022 TV show)
• Times Square (Allan Moyle, 1980)
• Dangerously Close (Albert Pyun, 1986)
• River's Edge

New Releases (in alphabetical order)

• Anselm (Wim Wenders, Germany)
• Close (Lukas Dohnt, Belgium)
• Godland (Hlynur Pálmason, Iceland)
• The Holdovers (Alexander Payne, US)
• Maestro (Bradley Cooper, US)
• Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, US)
• Polite Society (Nita Manzoor, UK)
• R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu, Romania)
• Tori and Lokita (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium)
• The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, UK)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927) in MOMA’s “To Save and Project” series
• The Human Pyramid (Jean Rouch, 1961) at Anthology Film Archives
• Black God, White Devil (Glauber Rocha, 1964) at Film Forum
• The Hand (Jirí Trnka, 1965) on The Puppet Films of Jirí Trnka, one of my last DVDs from Netflix
• The Tin Woodman’s Dream (Harry Smith, 1967) on UbuWeb
• Hot Dogs for Gauguin (Martin Brest, 1972) In the remarkable Cave of Forgotten Films
• Send/Receive (Liza Béar & Keith Sonnier, 1977) on a monitor outside MOMA’s “Signals” show
• Cronos (Guillermo del Toro, 1992) in MOMA’s del Toro retrospective
• Opera No. 1 (Hal Hartley, 1994) on the compilation Possible Films, delivered in another one of those last red envelopes, and currently on Criterion
• The Opposites Game (Anna Sarno & Lisa LaBracio, 2019) made for TED-Ed and programmed by Willy Hartland as part of the “Out of Character” exhibition at Pierogi

favorite first viewings of 2023:

• The Age Of The Medici (Roberto Rossellini, 1973)
• The Dupes (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)
• Miss And The Doctors (Axelle Ropert, 2013)
• The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1989)
• The Wounded Man (Patrice Chéreau, 1983)

New Releases (ranked)

• Mister Organ
• Beau Is Afraid
• Birth/Rebirth
• Skinamarink
• King Coal
• Talk to Me
• The Outwaters
• Knock at the Cabin
• No Hard Feelings
• Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls

First Viewings and Discoveries

Fall (2022)

I love situational horror, and this entire movie is just two chicks stuck on top of a cell tower after they climb it – simply titillating.

Love ona Leash (2011)
What if your dog transformed into a man and you started dating him? This film answers this age-old question.

Bus Stop (1981) - Short

Beautiful sights and sounds, a watercolor animation by a Detroit artist.

Welcome To Leith (2015)

A documentary about a bunch of white supremacists who attempt to take over a small rural town.

August Underground (2001)

My favorite fun fact about this torture porn flick is that they wanted to leave unmarked VHS tapes of this around Pittsburgh so people would find it and be like WTF and the only reason they decided not to follow through with this plan was 9/11.

Driver 23 (1999)

Have you ever wanted to use pulleys to pull an amp out of your basement? A must see music doc.

Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape (2022)

A beautiful collage of Kati Kelli’s released work and some unreleased footage of hers created after her passing, lovingly crafted by her partner Jordan Wippell and World’s Fair director Jane Schoenbrun.

Sweetheart Deal (2022)

This documentary had me uncontrollably crying in the theater when I saw it at Chicago Underground Film Festival.

The Square (2017)

The metal folding chair sculpture. That’s it.

One Road to Quartzsite (2022)

A documentary vignette of life in a desert town – retirees, wanderers, all kinds of people living life in a small Arizona town.

Tiptoes (2003)

Gary Oldman in a role of a lifetime.

Raw! Uncut! Video! (2021)

This is a porn documentary, you will love it.

Sick of Myself (2022)

A film about performing illness in an attention economy.

Alpha Kings

My favorite short film I saw at festivals this year.

Drunk Mel Gibson Arrest Diorama

Do you like miniatures, intricate art projects, and a dash of humor? See also: the Michael Jackson on fire diorama.

How to Say NO to BAD ART!!!

One of my favorite Kati Kelli videos <3

Little Wings - Mark Gormley

I found this gem from the documentary Space Happy about The Uncharted Zone/UZTV, which I caught at Chattanooga FF this year.

Clooner - ADLIBS Only

Do not sleep on the King of Farmington!!!!!!

My house walk-through

I should say nothing about this and just let it wash over you.

Alantutorial (first time watching from beginning to end)

Alan Resnick is the funniest man alive, there I said it.

New Releases

1. Showing Up
2. Still Film
3. The Plains
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. May December
6. Trenque Lauquen
7. Queens of the Qing Dynasty
8. Priscilla
9. Return to Seoul
10. Rotting in the Sun

Favorite Discoveries, First Viewings, Online-Only Pieces

• Rebranded Mickey Mouse (Conner O'Malley)
• Chameleon Street (Wendell Harris)
• The Magic Gloves (Martín Rejtman)
• "An Evening with Andrew Norman Wilson" shorts program at MoMA
• Hector.LA (Nick Corirossi)
• Pinocchio Through the Years (Vic Berger)
• Office Hours Live vs. Club Random (Tim Heidecker)
• Dick Tracy Special: Dick Tracy Zooms In (Warren Beatty & Chris Merrill)
• Toujours moins (Luc Moullet)
• Get Ready (Peter Tscherkassky)
• The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski)
• The Murder of Mr. Devil (Ester Krumbachová)
• Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (Shohei Imamura)
• Welcome to Marwen (Robert Zemeckis)
• The Cook (Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle)
• Karl's Perfect Day (Rirkrit Tiravanija)
• Arrebato (Ivan Zulueta)
• The video art of Iiu Susiraja
• "Sounds of the Game" sequences on NBA TV
• Full Bug Mane LA Comic Con Show

First Viewings

• In Order Not to Be Here (Deborah Stratman, 2002)
• The Strangler (Paul Vecchiali, 1970)
• A Dream as in Colors (Valeria Sarmiento, 1973)
• The Inheritors (Walter Bannert, 1982)
• The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir, 1947)
• Victims of Sin (Emilio Fernández, 1951)
• Insomnia (Erik Skjoldbjaerg, 1997)
• What Maisie Knew (Babette Mangolte, 1975)
• Lady Killer (Jean Grémillon, 1937)
• Labor Day: East Chicago (Tom Palazzolo, 1979)
• A Dirty Story (Jean Eustache, 1977)
• The Anniversary Party (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alan Cumming, 2001)
• Seduction: The Cruel Woman (Monika Treut, 1985)
• The Wounded Man (Patrice Chéreau, 1983)
• Christmas on Earth (Barbara Rubin, 1964)
• Matinee (Joe Dante, 1993)
• Lumière (Jeanne Moreau, 1976)
• Miss and the Doctors (Axelle Ropert, 2013)
• Born to Win (Ivan Passer, 1971)
• Call Me (Sollace Mitchell, 1988)

New Releases

• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
• Dry Ground Burning (Joana Pimenta & Adirley Queirós)
• Mast-del (Maryam Tafakory)
• Geographies of Solitude (Jacquelyn Mills)
• Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)
• Exterior Turbulence (Sofia Theodore-Pierce)
• John Wick 4 (Chad Stahelski)
• Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo)
• Rewind & Play (Alain Gomis)
• Kokomo City (D. Smith)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Conjurations (Helena Wittmann's Green Ray lecture/performance at Metrograph)
• The Stranger and the Fog (Bahram Beyzaie, 1976)
• Leila and the Wolves (Heiny Srour, 1984)
• Journey of No Return (Mitra Tabrizian, 1993)
• Introduction to the End of an Argument (Jayce Salloum and Elia Suleiman, 1990)
• Crashing Waves (Lucy Kerr, 2019)
• Calamity Jane and Delphine Seyrig: A Story (Babette Mangolte, 2019)
• Ken Jacobs: Up the Illusion at 80WSE
• No Sex Last Night/Double Blind (Sophie Calle and Greg Shepherd, 1996)

New Releases

1. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
2. Earth Mama
3. The Marvels
4. Cette Maison - Miryam Charles
5. A Thousand and One
6. Chevalier
7. You People
8. The Little Mermaid
9. Barbie - My first drive-in movie experience at the Skyline but my least favorite film.

First Viewings and Discoveries

1. Drylongso 4K
2. Monangambee (Sarah Maldoror)
3. The Egyptians – My first Sword and Sandle epic in a cinema!
4. Africans with Mainframes (Kima Hibbert) – favorite new release short
5. ANTI VENOM – spotlighting Corrinne Spencer's Hunger
6. Unseem Nuyorican Pictures – favorite programming
7. Quiet As It's Kept – JaTovia Gary
8. This Country Makes it hard to Fuck – Ayanna Dozier
9. Chocolate Babies (Stephen Winter, 1996)
10. Transmagnifican Dambamuality (Ronald Gray, 1976)
11. Not So Private (Sandye Wilson, 2004)
12. Mornings with My Good Sis Blackbird (Elle Clay) (short)
13. The Alabama Brawl, viral chair video
14. Nichole Beharie's "The Morning Show, viral clip" *Removed from X (Twitter)
15. Hazel Scotts' performance in Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
16. The Exorcist 4K
17. Optipus at the Arverne Cinema – favorite theatrical experience this year
18. Q&A with Rony Clanton and Joyce Walker Joseph, for The Education of Sonny Carson – I was the moderator here, and I was as much an audience member, completely enjoying this discussion.
19. Let the Church Say Amen – Saint Clair Borne
20. Blacks Britannica, David Koff, 1978 – Ashley Clark's program at Light Industry, totally floored by the power of this film, incredible!

I've included only films I saw this year in person at a movie theater or in a public venue of some sort. Including, in no particular order, Chicago Showplace ICON, Music Box Theatre, Cine Lounge Niles, Gene Siskel Film Center, Constellation Chicago, Doc Films, AMC River East 21, and Northeastern Illinois University. Without which I might never enjoy a film.

Best new releases

• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
• Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Rotting in the Sun (Sebastian Silva)
• Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (Karan John)
• Fremont (Babak Jalali)
• Enys Men (Mark Jenkin)
• Return to Seoul (Davy Chou)

First Viewings and discoveries

• La Source de La Loire (2021, Rose Lowder) short film
• To Discipline a Rock (Jiayi Chen, 2023) looping installation
• Working Girls (Lizzie Borden, 1986)
• Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955)
• Extended Presences (Margaux Dauby, 2023) Short film
• Quince Tree Sun (Victor Erice, 2000)
• A Picture for Parco (2022, Ayanna Dozier) short film
• Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941)
• The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (Billy Wilder, 1970)
• New Jack City (Mario Van Peebles, 1991)
• Mystery of the Wax Museum (Michael Curtiz, 1933)
• The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1989)
• Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955)
• The Forest for the Trees (Maren Ade, 2003)

New Movies

• Shin Ultraman (Shinj Higuchi and Hideaki Anno)
• Mami Wata (CJ "Fiery" Obasi)
• Plan 75 (Chie Hayakawa)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• El Juicio (Ulises de la Orden)
• Totem (Lila Aviles)
• Revoir Paris (Alice Winocour)
• Story Ave (Aristotle Torres)
• Our Father, The Devil (Elle Foumbi)
• Let's Talk (Simon Liu)

First Viewings

• Not a Pretty Picture (Martha Coolidge, 1976, MoMA)
• Deluge (Felix E. Feist, 1933, streaming)
• P.P. Rider (Shinji Sōmai, 1983, IFC Center)
• Massacre (Alan Crosland, 1934, Metrograph)
• All'armi siam fascisti! (Cecilia Magnanini, Lino Miccichè and Lino Del Fra, 1962, Anthology Film Archives)
• Two Girls on the Street (Andre de Toth, 1939, Anthology Film Archives)
• Ganjasaurus Rex (Ursi Reynolds, 1987, Spectacle)
• Invaders From Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 1953, MoMA)
• Crooklyn (Spike Lee, 1994, MoMA)
• Top Spot (Tracey Emin, 2004, Le Cinema Club)

(in chronological order)

• Katharina, die Letzte (Catherine the Last, Hermann Kosterlitz, 1936)
• Man Hunt (Fritz Lang, 1941)
• Francesco, giullare di Dio (The Flowers of St. Francis, Roberto Rossellini, 1950)
• Il Cristo proibito (The Forbidden Christ, Curzio Malaparte, 1951)
• Si muero antes de despertar (If I Should Die Before I Wake, Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1952)
• Where Chimneys Are Seen (Heinosuke Gosho, 1953)
• The Lieutenant Wore Skirts (Frank Tashlin, 1956)
• Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Picnic On The Grass, Jean Renoir, 1959)
• Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)
• Crni film (Black Film, Želimir Žilnik, 1971)
• Al-makhdu'un (The Dupes, Tewfik Saleh, 1972)
• A Tale Of Sorrow and Sadness (Seijun Suzuki, 1977)
• La Femme d'à côté (The Woman Next Door, François Truffaut, 1981)
• Puissance de la parole (The Power of Speech, Jean-Luc Godard, 1988)
• Ariel (Aki Kaurismaki, 1988)
• Cien niños esperando un tren (100 Children Waiting For a Train, Ignacio Agüero, 1988)
• The Asthenic Syndrome (Kira Muratova, 1989)
• Falling Lessons (Amy Halpern, 1995)
• Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (Wang Bing, 2002)
• Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel (Michel Khleifi, Eyal Sivan, 2003)

New Releases (unranked)

• Afire (Petzold)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Scorsese)
• Mami Wata (Obasi)
• May December (Haynes)
• Orlando, My Political Biography (Preciado)
• Passages (Sachs)
• Priscilla (Coppola)
• The Super 8 Years (Ernaux)
• Walk Up (Hong)
• The Zone of Interest (Glazer)

First Viewings

• Bad Education (2004, Almodóvar)
• The Black Tower (1987, Smith)
• The Blood of a Poet (1932, Cocteau)
• Brazil (1985, Gilliam)
• Chafed Elbows (1966, Downey Sr.)
• Funeral Parade of Roses (1969, Matsumoto)
• Green Vinyl (2004, Mendonça Filho)
• Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Aldrich)
• The Ladies Man (1961, Lewis)
• Lions Love (1969, Varda)
• Liza with a Z (1972, Fosse)
• Mirch Masala (1987, Mehta)
• The Premature Burial (1962, Corman)
• Rollercoaster (1977, Goldstone)
• Stage Fright (1987, Soavi)
• Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968, Greaves)
• Tanner ‘88 (1988, Altman)
• Tropical Malady (2004, Weerasethakul)
• Urgh! A Music War (1981, Burbidge)
• Yella (2007, Petzold)

New Releases

Shin Ultraman (dir. Shinji Higuchi)

The only new movie that mattered this year. Action movies don’t have to be dumb! They can be nuanced and strange and inspiring! The abundance of Dutch angles alone in this movie puts it at number 1.

Miss Me Yet (dir. Christopher Jason Bell)

Great documentary series in which every episode chronicles a single year in the presidency of George W. Bush. Kind of like an Adam Curtis-type-beat that’s not soundtracked by Burial, but is instead mixed with Y2K-era cable TV clips. It looks like it was edited on iMovie which is always a huge plus.

A 10 Minute Excerpt of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour While Waiting for Priscilla to Start Down the Hall

I sat in the back of a theater and watched 10 minutes of the new Taylor Swift movie while waiting for Priscilla to start down the hall. The Eras Tour a movie where you’re encouraged to stand up and walk around the theater and sing and scream- it’s incredible. Why isn’t there an offering every week where the audience is encouraged to move around? Why haven’t I ever been in a mosh pit in a movie theater?

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (dir. James Mangold)

Relatively speaking, in the landscape of abysmal mainstream releases, this movie kinda slaps. The closest thing I’ve seen to a good ol’ rollicking adventure movie since I watched the new Tin Tin. NOTE: I watched it on a flight, so take this with a grain of salt.

Fast X (dir. Louis Leterrier)

So many new movies would be great if only they weren’t movies. Elysium, for example, would have been an incredible video game. Similarly, the slurry of Fast X’s too-HD-to-be-true visuals should be watched on an OLED screen attached to a slot machine or, more appropriately, Gas Station TV™. It shines as a passive watch, not something that I have to sit through for three hours. It would be bliss to walk by absentmindedly and watch 15 minutes of it while standing up and eating Sour Straws.

First Watches

When the LAPD Blows Up Your Neighborhood (dir. Nathan Truesdell, 2023)

https://www.pbs.org/video/when-the-lapd-blows-up-your-neighborhood-n4gbwz/

One of the most insane whiplash moments I’ve had while watching a movie occurs between the shock and morbid humor of this film’s titular explosion and the negligent horrors caused in its aftermath. Nate Truesdell is an amazing filmmaker and editor, and his documentary shorts utilizing repurposed news footage are some of my favorites. See also: Balloonfest and The Water Slide.

American Movie (rewatch) (dir. Chris Smith, 1999)

I hadn’t watched this doc since high school and I had forgotten just how well made it is. I remember it being pretty mater-of-fact stylistically, but it’s camerawork is really beautiful in a subtle way. It’s so cool to consider how the filmmakers on both sides of the lens were using 16mm in two completely different ways. So many good edits in there too. Mike Schank’s soundtrack rules (RIP).

Singin’ in the Rain (dir. Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, 1952)

Yes, I’m late to the party. I’m sure all you film folks have seen this one already, but I think it’s actually a really great time to watch (or revisit) this one. It’s such a prescient film that predicted the friction and hilarity that has come with the multitudes of technological undulations within the entertainment world. Instead of struggling with new sound technology, filmmakers now spend hours figuring out if they should shoot in 16x9 or 9x16.

Rat Race (dir. Jerry Zucker, 2001)

One of the best things that I watched this year. Comedies from 20, 30 years ago had more physicality to them. The shots were longer, the locations were real, and the humor rests more on the actual performances. I feel like Rat Race was the death rattle of this kind of ensemble movie- especially one where the celebrities are B and C list and the movie still really hits. None of us would care about whatever the equivalent of this movie would be today. When Channing Tatum showed up in Bullet Train I was like: “oh, ok.”

Roger Rabbit Shorts from the '90s: https://youtu.be/Vi5cqfvghNs?si=WGctY6MLRTABntmp

I’ve always loved how sinister Roger Rabbit is. As a kid, it felt like I was getting away with something crazy when I first saw the slapstick carnage of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In the years after the film’s release, Disney produced three more shorts in the full-on Maroon Cartoon™ universe (Roger’s employers in the movie) that were put out alongside their other feature films in the early 90’s. They’re all amazing, but Roller Coaster Rabbit might be my favorite only because of how particularly psycho it is. It’s a maelstrom of anvils, bear traps, butcher knives, and TNT.

New US Releases

1. De Humani Corporis Fabrica
2. Pacifiction
3. Menu-Plaisirs
4. Knock at the Cabin
5. John Wick 4
6. May December
7. L’Innocent
8. Rotting in the Sun
9. Human Flowers of Flesh
10. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

First Watches

• Aggro Dr1ft (2023)
• Stop! (1970
• Bottom (2012)
• The Idol (2023)
• Track of the Cat (1954)
• Holiday (1938)
• Brain Smasher… A Love Story (1993)
• Round Town Girls (2009)
• Big Brown Eyes (1936)
• Club Zero (2023)
• Mouse Heaven (2004)
• Da Saga of Colin Kaepernick (?)
• The Ultimatum: Queer Love (2023)
• Love is Blind S4 (2023)
• Love is Blind S5 (2023)

New Releases (unranked)

• Enys Men (Mark Jenkins)
• Afire (Christian Petzold)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
• Being in a Place – A Portrait of Margaret Tait (Luke Fowler)
• Passages (Ira Sachs)
• Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
• scènes de ménage (trilogy) (Alexandre Larose)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Godland (Hlynur Pálmason)
• The Innocent (Louis Garrel)

First Viewings and Discoveries (unranked)

• The Black Tower (John Smith, 1987)
• A Visit to Indiana (Curt McDowell, 1970)
• Le Trou (Jacques Becker, 1960)
• News From Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976)
• Pitcher of Colored Light (Robert Beavers, 2007)
• The Possessed (Luigi Bazzoni and Franco Rossellini, 1965)
• Nuts in May (Mike Leigh, 1976)
• Goshogaoka (Sharon Lockhart, 1998)
• The Spider and the Fly (Harry Fulscher and Lillian Fulscher, 1938)
• Order (Sohrab Shahid Saless, 1980)
• There’s Always Tomorrow (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
• La Navire Night (Marguerite Duras, 1979)
• Eros + Massacre (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1969)
• Surname Viet, Given Name Nam (Trinh T. Minh-ha, 1989)
• Mademoiselle (Tony Richardson, 1966)
• Singing in Oblivion (Eve Heller, 2021)
• Riddles of the Sphinx (Peter Wollen & Laura Mulvey, 1977)
• Brutality in Stone (Alexander Kluge, 1961)
• Story of Night (Clemens Klofenstein, 1979)
• Él (Luis Buñuel, 1953)

Nothing this year has made me see the world differently and changed me more profoundly than the images and sounds coming from the Palestinian resistance toward liberation. Free Palestine.

New Releases

1. Return to Seoul
2. Poor Things
3. Showing Up
4. Asteroid City
5. R.M.N.
6. Earth Mama
7. The Taste of Things
8. Perfect Days
9. Fallen Leaves
10. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Agoraphilia :)
• Mission: Impossible series (in order of preference 1, 4, 6, 3, 5, 2)
• Top Gun: Maverick
• Broadcast News
• The Beatles: Get Back
• Exotica
• Topsy-Turvy
• The Trip
• The Apartment
• Dance Craze
• Before Sunset
• In Fabric
• Dick Tracy Special: Tracy Zooms In

First Viewings and Discoveries

1. L’amour fou (Jacques Rivette, 1969)
2. Marketa Lazarova (František Vláčil, 1967)
3. Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 1997)
4. Last Summer in the Hamptons (Henry Jaglom, 1995)
5. The Brother From Another Planet (John Sayles, 1984)
6. Primate (Frederick Wiseman, 1974)
7. Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)
8. Winter Kills (William Richert, 1979)
9. Come On Children (Allan King, 1979)
10. Kid Nation (CBS TV Show from 2007)

New Releases

• Passages (Ira Sachs)
• Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
• Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania)
• Our Body (Claire Simon)
• The Beasts (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
• Monster (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
• Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman)
• Invisible Beauty (Bethann Hardison & Frédéric Tcheng)
• Another Body (Sophie Compton & Reuben Hamlyn)

First Viewings and Retrospectives

• Seeing Red (Jim Klein & Julia Reichert, 1983)
• 9-5: The Story of a Movement (Julia Reichert & Steve Bognar, 2019)
• Battle of Chile Parts 1, 2, 3 (Patricio Guzmán, 1975–1979)
• Wretches and Jabberers (Gerardine Wurzburg, 2010)
• Crip Camp (Nicole Newnham & James LeBrecht, 2020)
• The Weather Underground (Sam Green & Bill Siegel, 2002)
• News From Home (Chantal Akerman, 1977)
• Los Sures (Diego Echeverria, 1984)
• The Education of Sonny Carson (Michael Campus, 1974)
• Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, 2000)
• The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973)
• The Store (Frederick Wiseman, 1983)
• The Most Beautiful Country in the World (Želimir Žilnik, 2018)
• LouLou (Maruice Pialat, 1980)
• Oslo, August 31st (Joachim Trier, 2011)

New Yorkers are blessed. Cinema lives.

Thank you Screen Slate, IFC, Metrograph, Anthology, DCTV, BAM, Maysles Documentary Center, Quad Cinema, Film at Lincoln Center, MoMA, Film Forum, Roxy, Spectacle, and many more.

New Releases

1. Killers of the Flower Moon (dir. Martin Scorsese)
2. Barbie (dir. Greta Gerwig)
3. The Curse (dir. Nathan Fielder & Benny Safdie)
4. May December (dir. Todd Haynes)
5. Asteroid City (dir. Wes Anderson)
6. Anatomy of a Fall (dir. Justine Triet)
7. Youth (Spring) (dir. Wang Bing)
8. Being in a Place: A Portrait of Margaret Tait (dir. Luke Fowler)
9. Oppenheimer (dir. Christopher Nolan)
10. Trailer for a Film That Will Never Exist: 'Phony Wars' (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)

First Viewings (alphabetical by director)

• Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (dir. Kenneth Anger, 1954)
• The Cremaster Cycle (dir. Matthew Barney, 1994–2002)
• Yeast (dir. Mary Bronstein, 2008)
• True Stories (dir. David Byrne, 1986)
• A Zed & Two Noughts (dir. Peter Greenaway, 1985)
• The Straight Story (dir. David Lynch, 1999)
• A New Leaf (dir. Elaine May, 1971)
• Floating Weeds (dir. Yasujirō Ozu, 1959)
• Sullivan's Travels (dir. Preston Sturges, 1941)
• La Commune (Paris, 1871) (dir. Peter Watkins, 2000)

New Releases (Unordered)

• Ferrari (Michael Mann)
• Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
• The Killer (David Fincher)
• Maestro (Bradley Cooper)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• The Eight Mountains (Felix Van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Remembering Every Night (Yui Kiyohara)
• The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• Sam Sulek's YouTube Channel
• Wes Bentley's performance on Yellowstone
• The films of Ousmane Sembène at Film Forum
• Silent Tuesdays with live piano accompaniment at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY
• The Puppetmaster on 35mm
• Over thirty Apichatpong Weerasethakul short films on the big screen
• Everything Corey Feldman said and did within the walls of the Walter Reade, including presenting his "lost film" The Birthday
• Jordan Peele selecting the 'Thriller' music video to play before a 35mm print of Come and See
• Ang Lee performing the Hulk motion capture for Hulk
• Bradley Cooper and Jimmy Can't Stop Laughing (Extended Version)
• My NYFF double feature of Michael Mann's Ferrari and Michael Mann's Ferrari

New Releases (unranked)

• Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki)
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
• John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Passages (Ira Sachs)
• Red Rooms (Pascal Plante)
• Return to Seoul (Davy Chou)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
• You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener)

First Viewings and Discoveries (unranked)

• Affair in the Snow (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1968)
• Deathnet.com (Yiu-Kuen Ng, 2000) – this movie is NOT good but it was also the perfect thing for my friend to dig out of $1 box in front of a Chinatown gift shop that was going out of business
• Footprints on the Moon (Luigi Bazzoni, 1975)
• Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950)
• Honeycomb (Avalon Fast, 2022)
• The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle, 1970)
• Humoresque (Jean Negulesco, 1946)
• The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945)
• Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk, 1954)
• Nirvana: Live at the Paramount (Mark Racco, 1991)
• Pin (Sandor Stern, 1988)
• Red Spirit Lake (Charles Pinion, 1993)
• Safe in Hell (William A. Wellman, 1931)
• Secret Ceremony (Joseph Losey, 1968)
• She Must Be Seeing Things (Sheila McLaughlin, 1987)
• Time of Moulting (Sabrina Mertens, 2020)
• Valley Girl (Martha Coolidge, 1983)

New Releases (ranked)

1. Saint Omer
2. Past Lives
3. Rye Lane
4. A Thousand And One
5. How To Blow Up A Pipeline
6. Suzume
7. Earth Mama
8. Oppenheimer
9. Theatre Camp
10. Across The Spider-Verse

First Viewings (in no particular order)

• Atlantics (2019)
• The Harder They Come (1972)
• They Do Not Exist (1974)
• Yo Soy Cuba (1964)
• The Present (2020)
• The Virgin Suicides (1999)
• All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (2022)
• Perfect Blue (1997)
• House (1977)
• Ray J & Bobby V/Pleasure P & Sammie Verzuz (2022)
• Rope (1948)
• Memories (1995)
• Cure (1997)
• La Femme Au Couteau (1969)
• The Handmaiden (2016)
• Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (2021)
• On-Gaku: Our Sound (2019)
• Aftersun (2022)

Favorite Shows

• Blue Lock (Series, 2022)
• Romantic Killer (Series, 2022)

• August in the Water (Gakuryu Ishii, 1995)
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil (Ranald MacDougall, 1959)
• Birth (Jonathan Glazer, 2004)
• Foragers (Jumana Manna, 2022) + sculptures at MoMA PS1
• Saturn through the many telescopic lenses of the Amateur Astronomers Association
• https://aaa.org/observe/
• Angel’s Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1985)
• Dumping-core (Gretchen Bender, 1984) at MoMA
• Columbo reruns on TV, notably S2E1 + S3E7
• The Sparrow Dream and other films by Robert Beavers at MoMI
• Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1959)
• The Black and the Green (St. Clair Bourne, 1983)
• Our Fruiting Bodies – fungal biocircuit live analog visual data (Buena Onda Collective)
• https://buenaondacollective.org/
• Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May, 1976)
• L'anticoncept (Gil J. Wolman, 1952) at Spectacle
• William Wegman's "People In Your Neighborhood” segments
• Model (Frederick Wiseman, 1980)

New Releases (Unranked, Alphabetical Order)

• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno)
• De humani corporis fabrica (Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor)
• Full Time (Éric Gravel)
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
• The Killer (David Fincher)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
• Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)

First Viewings and Discoveries (Alphabetical Order)

• After Life (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1998, Metrograph, 35mm)
• Boy (Nagisa Oshima, 1969, Walter Reade Theater, 35mm)
• The Cow (Dariush Mehrjui, 1969, MOMA, DCP)
• Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970, Criterion Channel)
• Far From Home (Sohrab Shahid-Saless, 1975, MOMA, DCP)
• A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder, 1948, Film Forum, 35mm)
• Frantic (Roman Polanski, 1988, Roxy Cinema, 35mm)
• Ice (Robert Kramer, 1970, Torrent)
• Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 2001, Metrograph, 4K DCP)
• Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavetes, 1971, Roxy Cinema, 35mm)
• The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges, 1944, Film Forum, DCP)
• One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, 1961, Film Forum, 35mm)
• The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1993, Walter Reade Theater, 35mm)
• The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (Preston Sturges, 1947, Film Forum, 35mm)
• Still Life (Sohrab Shahid-Saless, 1974, MOMA, DCP)
• The Sugarland Express (Steven Spielberg, 1974, Amazon Prime)
• Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006, Walter Reade Theater, 35mm)
• An Unmarried Woman (Paul Mazursky, 1978, Torrent)
• Up, Down, Fragile (Jacques Rivette, 1995, FIAF, 35mm)
• Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967, Anthology Film Archives, 16mm)

Some moments from my favorite first viewings of 2023: learning to be brave from children / the switch from witness to intervention / “films teach you how to live, how to make a bed” / giving birth while your ex and his girlfriend record it / synaesthetic visions of rickshaw drivers, street vendors, and pickpockets / “you know what we call the IMF? The Instant Misery Fund” / the spiral wheel that swings at the heart of the mechanical watch is called the “unrest” / dreaming as profession in the words of M.D., you who guard my sleep, dream, and a delirium mined with signs. I have the vision and you have the tower, the heavy key chain, and a gun trained on a ghost. I have sleepiness, with its silky touch and essence. / portrait of a teen as a young assassin / what delicious capacity exists when we choose love over probability / “salute to every rifle, arm, voice, and pen that rises to say no to this arrogant criminal enemy and to fight it with all available means.”

• Extreme Private Eros: Love Song (1974) - Kazuo Hara
• Essential Truths of the Lake (2023) - Lav Diaz
• Revolution+1 (2022) - Masao Adachi
• Typhoon Club (1985) - Shinji Somai
• Unrest (2022) - Cyril Schaublin
• Kuxa Kanema: O Nascimento do Cinema (2003) - Margarida Cardoso
• Money, Freedom, a Story of CFA Franc (2022) - Katy Ndiaye
• History is Made at Night (1937) - Frank Borzage
• The Mother and the Whore (1973) - Jean Eustache
• Is This Just a Story? (1983) - Deepa Dhanraj/Yugantar
• Children of Shatila (1998) - Jean Khalil Chamoun
• The Dream (1987) - Mohammad Malas
• Taking the Horse to Eat Jalebis (2018) - Anamika Haksar
• Have You Ever Killed a Bear? Or Becoming Jamila (2014) - Marwa Arsanios

I spent most of the year thinking about Pablo Picasso, which partly explains the below.

New Releases

• Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV (Amanda Kim)
• Napoleon (Ridley Scott)
• In the Clear Stream of All of It (Ben Grossman)
• Renfield (Chris McKay) — The Nicolas Cage parts
• Past Lives (Celine Song)

First Viewings

• Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981) — Someone please make an oral history of how this movie got made, thank you.
• Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977) — The most stressful movie I have ever loved
• The Green Fog (Guy Maddin, 2017) — I would like to see more narrative films that are also collages, sculptures, or wind chimes.
• Surviving Picasso (James Ivory, 1996) — Not good but a must-watch if you are compelled to Picasso completism, Surviving Picasso is based on the book Picasso: Creator and Destroyer by Arianna Huffington, and covers the same ground as Françoise Gilot’s excellent memoir Life with Picasso, so I recommend reading Gilot.
• F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973) — Pablo sort of in it
• The Mystery of Picasso (Le mystère Picasso, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1956)
• Visit to Picasso (Bezoek aan Picasso, Paul Haesaerts, 1950) — Visit to Picasso and The Mystery of Picasso both feature footage of Picasso painting through transparent or translucent substrates, but this one is more interesting because it was filmed at his real studio at Vallauris and you can see his face while he’s painting. Picasso seems eager to please.
• Chevrolet Training Film: The Remake (Chip Lord and Pippa Garner, 1978–1980) — Lord and Garner found the original salesman training film at the Alameda Flea and re-enacted it as a performance at La Mamelle. It was wonderful to see the film with Lord’s live commentary at In Concert/Cushion Works. It was the type of get-together that makes San Francisco feel more lived-in.

First Viewings (in no particular order)

Didn’t get out to see nearly as much as I wanted to this year due to life circumstances but here are some standouts:

7 Women (John Ford, 1966) – Saw this on TCM on a whim and ended up completely blown away. One of the great farewells in all of cinema

The Baron of Arizona (Sam Fuller, 1950) – Vincent Price plays George Santos avant la lettre

Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, 2023) – I love money!

The Flowers of St Francis (Roberto Rossellini, 1950) – A great film about hangin with your bros and doing stupid stuff together. The episode with the leper made me cry watching by myself at home.

Winter Kills (William Richert, 1979) – Maybe the gonzo tonal shifts don't quite gel into a satisfactory whole (deliberately?). But this is worth it for John Huston and Anthony Perkins alone. Thanks to Marisa for inviting me.

I, the Jury (Harry Essex, 1953) – Got to see this John Alton lensed Spillane adaptation in its original 3-D format courtesy of Film Forum. Stunning, funny and brutal with some very fun depth of field tricks.

Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977) RIP Hurricane Billy! – Saw this at the Paris and got a little too stoned beforehand and ended up saying "oh God, oh man" like Ryan O'Neal in Tough Guys Don't Dance out loud multiple times.

Blood and Sand (Rouben Mamoulian, 1941) – If I had to choose between Linda Darnell and Rita Hayworth I could do it easily.

The River’s Edge (Allan Dwan, 1957) – They really and truly don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Ray Milland is so perfectly sleazy in this taut thriller with some beautifully understated direction by Dwan

Asparagus (Suzan Pitt, 1979) – Casts a dreamlike erotic spell unlike anything I’ve seen in recent memory

Ladies in Retirement (Charles Vidor, 1941) – Another movie I watched on a whim via Criterion Channel because I’ll watch Ida Lupino in anything. Delightful.

1967 Celebrity All Star Softball Game TV Broadcast, https://youtu.be/L41A9zsLblA – If you’ve ever wanted to see the likes of John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, Don Adams and Ryan O’Neal face off against Roberto Clemente, Don Drysdale, and Willie Mays do not miss this. Featuring play by play by the God Vin Scully and color commentary by Jerry Lewis, this broadcast includes some nice vintage commercials too

Il Bidone (Federico Fellini, 1955) – Perfect tragic comic Fellini with a wonderful performance by Broderick Crawford

Frontier Marshall (Allan Dwan, 1939) – Adapted from the same source material as My Darling Clementine and while it doesn't reach the mythopoetic heights of that masterpiece, it's still a fascinating glimpse at how one can create jazz like variations on a core melody.

Every single Dwan western I've seen I've walked away thinking I just watched one of the greatest movies ever made. Scorsese has always spoken highly of it and I imagine this must've been an influence on Killers of the Flower Moon.

The River's Edge (Allan Dwan, 1957) – They literally do not make them like this anymore. A gorgeous taut thriller with perfectly understated direction by Dwan and Ray Milland at his sleazy best all in 87 minutes.

First Viewings

• #007 (Yonay Boix & Ariadna Onofri, 2021)
• Survivor Season 44
• Departure (Sj. Ramir, 2007)
• 31/75 Asylum (Kurt Kren, 1975)
• Carolyn And Me: Part Three (by David Brooks, Carolyn Brooks, 1968)
• Un Lugar Para Uno (Tiziana Panizza, 2013)
• Frontera (Violeta Mora, 2017)
• Vengeance Is Mine (Michael Roemer, 1984)
• The Waiting Sands (Margaret Rorison, 2013)

New Releases of 2023

1. Muna (Warda Mohamed)
2. Q (Jude Chehab)
3. R 21 AKA Restoring Solidarity (Mohanad Yaqubi)
4. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
5. Past Lives (Celine Song)
6. Rest Stop (Crystal Kayiza)
7. Keeping Time (Darol Olu Kae)
8. Killers of a Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
9. The Tuba Thieves (Alison O'Daniel)
10. Silver Dollar Road (Raoul Peck)

First Viewings and Discoveries

1. NO EVIL EYE CINEMA’s accessible decolonizing film school FILM FUTURA: SHORT TERM COURSES led by the following brilliant Black cinematic practitioners, Yasmina Price, Rory Padgett, Ingrid Raphaël, and Chrystel Oloukoï alongside an international student cohort of nearly 70 students.
2. “In response to IDFA's damaging statement on 11 November 2023: Our statement and Demands” by the Palestine Film Institute.
3. Color Congress Convening held in Atlanta, Georgia organized by Sonya Childress, Sahar Driver and Andrea Ayala.
4. Vibration Cinema Youtube channel created by Rory Padgett.
5. Somalia: the Great Struggle (1976) directed by Winfried Junge.
6. Black Chariot (1971) by Robert Goodwin (introduction by Ina Archer at Wexner Center for the Arts).
7. The Black and The Green (1983) directed by St. Clair Bourne (seen at Wexner Center for the Arts).
8. double tie: A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945) and Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) directed by Maya Deren (seen at Wexner Center for the Arts).

New Releases

• Godland
• Pacifiction
• Sick of Myself
• May December
• The Sweet East
• A Woman Escapes
• The Zone of Interest
• De Humani Corporis Fabrica
• Irreversible: Straight Cut
• Oppenheimer

First Viewings

• Nowhere
• Liberte
• 0s & 1s
• Babylon
• La La Land
• Demonlover
• Manakamana
• Paradise: Love
• The Plot Against Harry
• The Gods of Times Square

New Releases

• Our Body (Claire Simon)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• Godland (Hylnur Palmason)
• Past Lives (Celine Song)
• Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
• The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future (Francisca Alegria)
• Rotting in the Sun (Sebastián Silva)
• Reality (Tina Satter)
• Rye Lane (Raine Allen-Miller)
• Another Body (Sophie Compton & Reuben Hamlyn)

Haven’t Seen:
Afire, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest, Fallen Leaves, Pacification, The Eight Mountains, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Dream Scenario, Shortcomings, Kokomo City, Earth Mama, The Iron Claw, Godzilla Minus One

Best First Viewings

Features

• La Souriant Madame Beudet (Germain Delanc, 1922)
• The Hitch-hiker (Ida Lupino, 1953)
• Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977)
• Touching the Void (Kevin McDonald, 2003)
• The Color of Money (Martin Scorsese, 1986)

Shorts

• A Short Story (Bi Gan, 2022)
• Carthage House of Beauty (Alison Inman, 2022)
• It’s What Each Person Needs (Sophy Romvari, 2023)
• Margie Soudek's Salt & Pepper Shakers (Meredith Moore, 2023)
• Aqueronte (Manuel Munoz Revas, 2023)
• Theo Anthony Makes A Stool - Joe Stankus (2023)
• Walk Out Nice and Smooth - Kerry O’Neill (2023)
• Alpha Kings - Enrique Pedráza Botero, Faye Tsakas (2023)
• The Headhunters Daughter - Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (2023)
• Nest - Hylnur Palmason (2022)

TV

• Paul T. Goldman (2023)
• How To With John Wilson (2023)
• Jury Duty (2023)
• John Early - Now More Than Ever (2023)

• This House is Not a Home - Nile Harris (Abrons Art Center)
• Before I Let Go - Cameron A. Granger (Millennium Film Workshop)
• If From Every Tongue it Drips - Sharlene Bamboat (Flaherty Film Seminar)
• Gush - Fox Maxy (MoMa)
• Weather Diary 3 - George Kuchar (BAM)
• Sylvester: Double Feature - Voxigma lo, cast of Sylvester (Purgatory)
• Sambizanga - Sarah Maldoror (Alfreda’s Cinema, Rockaway Film Festival)
• Music Video Night - Hidji (Nitehawk Cinema)
• Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege - Abdallah Al-Khatib (Millennium Film Workshop)
• Swarm Part Zero - Terrence Nance (ICA Philadelphia)
• Until the End of Time - Devon Narine-Singh (Below Grand gallery)
• Listen to This - Tom Rubnitz (Eflux)
• Video reporting from Gaza (Instagram stories) - Motaz Azaiza
• 100 Boyfriends Mixtape - Brontez Purnell (Faggy Notions, Chaos Computer)
• Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?) - Suniel Sanzgiri (Brooklyn Museum)

New Releases (unranked)

• Hello Dankness (dir. Soda Jerk – at Film Forum)
• Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (dir. Radu Jude – at TIFF)
• The Delinquents (dir. Rodrigo Moreno – at TIFF)
• Youth (Spring) (dir. Wang Bing – at TIFF)
• The Human Surge 3 (dir. Eduardo Williams – at NYFF)
• The Rays of a Storm (dir. Julio Hernández Cordon – at NYFF)
• Coral (dir. Sonia Oleniak – at NYFF)
• three sparks (dir. Naomi Uman – at DCTV Firehouse Cinema / Prismatic Ground)
• Exterior Turbulence (dir. Sofia Theodore-Pierce – at Light Industry / Prismatic Ground)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (dir. Martin Scorsese – at Village East)

First Viewings (chronological)

• Fanny and Alexander (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1983 – TV version, on the couch)
• Mikey and Nicky (dir. Elaine May, 1976) & The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (dir. John Cassavetes, 1976) (double feature, on the couch)
• A Man Escaped (dir. Robert Bresson, 1956 – at Anthology)
• It Happened One Night (dir. Frank Capra, 1934 – on an airplane)
• The Catch (dir. Shinji Somai, 1983 – at Japan Society)
• Syndromes and a Century (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006 – at Film at Lincoln Center)
• I Was Born, But... (dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 1932 – at Film Forum with live benshi performance by Ichiro Kataoka)
• The Hole (dir. Tsai Ming-liang, 1998 – on the couch)
• Lola (dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981 – at Nitehawk Prospect Park)
• Straits of Magellan (dir. Hollis Frampton, 1974 – at Anthology) 

New Releases

• All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
• The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
• De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel)
• Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)
• In Water (Hong Sang-soo)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
• Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball)
• Tori and Lokita (Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
• Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)
• The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)

First Viewings

• Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)
• L’Amour Fou (Jacques Rivette, 1969)
• Black God, White Devil (Glauber Rocha, 1964)
• Ciao maschio (Marco Ferreri, 1978)
• Clementina (Agustín Mendilaharzu & Constanza Feldman, 2022)
• *Corpus Callosum (Michael Snow, 2002)
• Dark Angel: The Ascent (Linda Hassani, 1994)
• Deprisa, Deprisa (Carlos Saura, 1981)
• Duelle (Jacques Rivette, 1976)
• El esqueleto de la señora Morales (Rogelio A. González, 1960)
• Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926)
• Kagero-za (Seijun Suzuki, 1981)
• La Batalla de Chile (Patricio Guzmán, 1975 - 1979)
• La Commune (Paris, 1871) (Peter Watkins, 2001)
• Ôrí (Raquel Gerber, 1989)
• Perros Callejeros (José Antonio de la Loma, 1977)
• The Boxer’s Omen (Kuei Chih-Hung, 1983)
• The Devil, Probably (Robert Bresson, 1977)
• Víctimas del pecado (Emilio Fernández, 1951)
• Wild Side (Donald Cammell, 1996)

Best of 2023

• Pacifiction
• Human Flowers of Flesh
• In Water
• May December
• Master Gardener
• Afire
• The Killer
• Knock at the Cabin

Best New To Me

Feature Length

• These Encounters of Theirs (Straub/Huillet)
• Vengeance is Mine (Roemer)
• Not Reconciled (Straub/Huillet)
• The Mule (Eastwood)
• The Enclosed Valley (Rousseau)

Short

• The Birth of a Flower (Smith)
• Cathedral (Chase)
• Threnody (Dorsky)
• Sauro Bellini (Klonaris)
• Angel (Cornell, Burckhardt)

First Viewings

• Street Smart (Jerry Schatzberg)
• A Bridge Too Far (Richard Attenborough)
• The Movie Orgy (Joe Dante)
• Girls of the White Orchid (Jonathan Kaplan)
• Phantasm 2 (Don Coscarelli)
• Jane Austen in Manhattan (James Ivory)
• Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos)
• Stripper (Jerome Gary)
• Too Scared to Scream (Tony Lo Bianco)
• The Church (Michele Soavi)
• Creepshow (George A. Romero)
• The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman)
   

First Viewings

Foragers (Jumana Manna, 2022)—A striking film about foraging that shows how far Israel's settler colonial logics and laws go to dispossess Palestinians.

The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)—For some reason, I always forget how good-looking Jeff Goldblum is. Even halfway to full fly-monster, we’re still cooking. Geena Davis is superlative in every way.

Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)—Jeremy Irons’ suits styled by Denise Cronenberg make me think I should get some suits. Watch this and not the TV remake—here’s why.

The Blob (Irvin Yeaworth, 1958)—When I worry that the kids might not be alright, I try and think of this.

Message from Mars (John Menick, 2023)—The most visually stunning and inventive movie on Mars I’ve seen in a long time. An android sent to the red planet to build out infrastructure for human settlement finds itself as the last sentiment being in the solar system. What to do but contemplate a museum of human civilization, watch movies, and speculate on the pitfalls of aesthetics and human exceptionalism? “Films were not made for androids, after all. To an android, films are a kind of alien anthropology.”

Ecce Bombo (Nanni Moretti, 1978)— Moretti at his almost best. Includes the famous “vengo, non vengo” (I’ll come, no I won’t) scene that is something of a meme. If compared with Emma Goldman’s “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution,” we could make some claims about what a certain type of left pessimism was like after Eurocommunism’s many failings. If I were to have submitted a list of new releases, I might have added Moretti’s new Il Sol Dell'Avvenire (A Brighter Tomorrow) even though the Guardian called it “bafflingly awful.”

Plaza Suite (Arthur Hiller, 1971)—Walter Matthau in three one acts, all chilling in their own ways, but the punchline to the third act made it worth it.

A New Leaf (Elaine May, 1971)—Weird … it’s Walter Matthau again. Can you imagine if the studios got their way and Henrietta had been played by Carol Channing and not Elaine May?!

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)—Philip Seymour Hoffman …

Diego Maradona (2019)—As an SSC Napoli fan, this one hit all the feels, especially since I watched it in Naples while celebrating their first scudetto in 33 years—first one since the 1990 trophy claimed by D10s himself.

• Red Angel (Yasuzo Masumura, 1966)
• Gente en Buenos Aires (Eva Landeck, 1974)
• The Haunted Palace (Roger Corman, 1963)
• Once More (Paul Vecchiali, 1982)
• One Way Passage (Tay Garnett, 1932)
• Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960)
• The White Heron (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1958)
• Hester Street (Joan Micklin Silver, 1975)
• Remember the day (Henry King, 1941)
• P. P. Rider (Shinji Somai, 1983)
• Moses und Aron (Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 1975)
• La Région Centrale (Michael Snow, 1971)
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki, 1984)
• A Portrait of Ga (Margaret Tait, 1954)
• Mi ego está en Babia (Iván Zulueta, 1974)
• Carriage Trade (Warren Sonbert, 1971)
• Wedding Suit (Abbas Kiarostami, 1976)
• La Souriante Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac, 1922)
• Al-Mukhdu’Un (Tewfik Saleh, 1973)
• Le Retour d´un Aventurier (Moustapha Alassane, 1966)

First Viewings And Discoveries

• All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022)
• Midwaste (Liz Roberts, 2021)
• San Diego (Fox Maxy, 2020)
• Hale County This Morning This Evening (RaMell Ross, 2018)
• Memories of a Penitent Heart (Cecilia Aldarondo, 2016)
• Jason and Shirley (Stephen Winter, 2015)
• Chocolate Babies (Stephen Winter, 1996)
• The Doom Generation (Gregg Araki, 1995)
• Young Soul Rebels (Isaac Julien, 1991)
• Tokyo Pop (Fran Rubel Kuzui, 1988)
• Call Me (Sollace Mitchell, 1988)
• St. Elmo’s Fire (Joel Schumacher, 1985)

First Viewings and Discoveries (not ranked)

• Blood Wedding (Carlos Saura, 1981)
• Caliber 9 (Fernando Di Leo, 1972)
• The Doom Generation: Director's Cut (Gregg Araki, 1995)
• Excalibur (John Boorman, 1981)
• Endgame (Bronx lotta finale) (Joe D'Amato, 1983)
• Thirteen Women (dir. George Archainbaud, 1932)
• Palace of Pleasure (dir. John Hofsess, 1967)
• Everything Everywhere Again Alive (dir. Keith Lock, 1975)
• Psycho II (dir. Richard Franklin, 1983)
• Executioners from Shaolin (dir. Lau Kar-leung, 1977)
• King Boxer, aka Five Fingers of Death (dir. Chung Chang-Wha, 1972)
• Sextool (dir. Fred Halsted, 1975)
• L’Amour fou (dir. Jacques Rivette, 1969)
• Suzhou River (dir. Lou Ye, 2000)
• Muriel, or the Time of a Return (dir. Alain Resnais, 1963)
• Conquest (dir. Lucio Fulci, 1983)
• One Week (dir. Buster Keaton & Edward F. Cline, 1920)
• Reds (dir. Warren Beatty, 1981)
• The Day After Trinity (dir. Jon H. Else, 1981)
• The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra (dir. Robert Florey & Slavko Vorkapić)

New Releases (unranked)

• Priscilla
• Women Talking
• Showing Up
• Lakota Nation vs United States
• The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future
• Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part One)
• Shin Ultraman
• How To with John Wilson: Season 3, Episode 4. How to Watch the Game
• Master Gardener

First Viewings

• Safe (1995, Haynes)
• Thirteen Women (1932, Archainbaud)
• After Yang (2022, Kogonada)
• Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1988, Lewis)
• Electric Dreams (1984, Barron)

First Viewings

• Scenes of the Occupation from Gaza (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1973)
• Palestine in the Eye (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1979)
• Oema foe Sranan (Women of Suriname), At Van Praag (with Cineclub Vrijheidsfilms and LOSON), 1978
• What We've Got Today and Hidden Energy (Biased Tapes, 1985)
• Susana (Susana Blaustein Muñoz, 1980)
• The Snake in My Bed (Omah Diegu, 1995)
• La nouba des femmes du mont Chenoua (The Nouba of the Women of Mount Chenoua) (Assia Djebar, 1977)
• Zone Immigrée (Immigration Zone) (Collectif Mohamed, 1980)
• Ils ont tué Kader (They Killed Kader) (Collectif Mohamed, 1980)
• I Heard it Through the Grapevine (Dick Fontaine, 1982)
• Sacred Heart of Jesus (Freude 1969)
• Wilmington 10 – U.S.A. 10,000 (Haile Gerima, 1970)
• Road Works (Mona Hatoum, 1985)
• Time Tunnel (Takahiko Iimura, 1973)
• The Retreat (Gelare Khoshgozaran, 2023)
• Foragers (Jumana Manna, 2022)
• Barobar Jagtana (Continuously Living, Surviving) (Suneil Sanzgiri, 2019–21)
• Mast-del (Maryam Tafakory, 2023)
• Kara Kafa (Korhan Yurtsever, 1979)

New Releases

• to open a window (Craig Scheihing)
• Hier & Elders / Here & Elsewhere (Bram Ruiter)
• that what moves: does the leaf know + fingerinesses (Blanca García
)
• 
I./II./III. (Alexandre Larose)
• Pala Amala / Mother Father (Tenzin Phuntsog)
• Fale (Antoni Orlof)
• in the fishtank (Linnea Nugent)
• bleared eyes of blue glass (Park Kyujae)
• Sightreading (Nicholas Christenson)
• Fluid Fragments (MLP)
• Music (Angela Schanelec)
• Samsara (Lois Patiño)

First Viewings

• يس لهم وجود / They Do Not Exist (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1974)
• An Explanation: (and then burn the ashes) (Annemarie Jacir, 2006)
• Trapline (Ellie Epp, 1975)
• Gestures (Vincent Guilbert, 2017)
• off (I don’t know when to stop) (Erica Sheu, 2021)
• 기억의 표면, 표면에 대한 기억 / Surface of Memory, Memory on Surface (Lee Jang-wook, 1999)
• Healing Ray (Jorge Suárez-Quiñones Rivas, 2021)
• Mélodie de brumes à Paris / Mist Melodies in Paris (Julius-Amédée Laou, 1985)
• Mati Manas / Mind of Clay (Mani Kaul, 1985)
• Sales images / Dirty Images (Rémy Beausoleil, Michel DeGagné & Michel Gélinas, 1988)
• Beavers (Stephen Low, 1988)

• All Over Me (Alex Sichel, 1997)
• Bad Girls (Colin Campbell, 1979)
• Boys in the Backyard (Annette Kennerley, 1997)
• The Case of the Missing Consciousness (John Dorr, 1980)
• The Deadly Spawn (Douglas McKeown, 1983)
• The Devil Queen (Antonio Carlos da Fontoura, 1974)
• DOA: Dead or Alive (Cory Yuen, 2006)
• Gamera: Super Monster (Noriaki Yuasa, 1980)
• Gendertroublemakers (Jeanne B. and Xanthra Phillipa, 1993)
• Green Desire (Mike Kuchar, 1966)
• Hell Has No Boundary (Yang Chuan, 1982)
• Muerte en la playa (Enrique Gómez Vadillo, 1991)
• Night Visions (Marusya Bociurkiw, 1989)
• On Guard (Susan Lambert, 1984)
• Perrak (Alfred Vohrer, 1970)
• Saw VI (Kevin Greutert, 2009)
• Scanners III: The Takeover (Christian Duguay, 1991)
• Shadows in the City (Ari M. Roussimoff, 1990)
• The Silencer (Amy Goldstein, 1992)
• Track Two (Harry Sutherland, 1982)

New Releases

1. May December (Todd Haynes)
2. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
3. The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung)
4. Our Body (Claire Simon)
5. Remembering Every Night (Yui Kiyohara)
6. The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa)
7. Passages (Ira Sachs)
8. The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno)
9. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)
10. Afire (Christian Petzold)

First Viewings (unranked)

• A Real Young Girl (Catherine Breillat, 1976)
• The Blue Sky Maiden (Yasujirō Ozu, 1957)
• Drylongso (Cauleen Smith, 1998)
• Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (Les Blank, 1980)
• The House of the Angel (Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, 1957)
• Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014)
• Stella (Michael Cacoyannis, 1955)
• Walking and Talking (Nicole Holofcener, 1996)
• Whale Rider (Niko Caro, 2002)
• Working Girls (Lizzie Borden, 1986)

Top 10 Viewings, unranked

• Francesco, (Liliana Cavani), Tubi
• Cinemania (Angela Christlieb & Stephen Kijak), Spectacle
• Storytelling (Todd Solondz), Roxy
• Padre Pio (Abel Ferrara), Roxy
• Twilight (György Fehér), Lincoln Center
• Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman), Woodbine
• My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar Wai), Roxy
• Girl 6 (Spike Lee), Roxy
• Dangerous Game (Abel Ferrara), Roxy
• The Greatest Sinner (Timothy Carey), Anthology

Special mention of something that wasn't a movie but felt like one: attending the sentencing of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah.

New Releases

• The Apocalyptic Is the Mother of All Christian Theology (Jim Finn)
• Artistes en Zone Troublés (Lionel Soukaz & Stéphane Girard)
• The Daughters of Fire (Pedro Costa)
• Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismaki)
• Hello Dankness (Soda_Jerk)
• Losing Faith (Martha Mechow)
• May December (Todd Haynes)
• NYC RGB (Viktoria Schmid)
• OR119 (Peggy Ahwesh)
• Saint Omer (Alice Diop)

First Viewings and Discoveries

• La Dérive (Paula Delsol, 1964)
• I Even Met Happy Gypsies (Aleksandar Petrović, 1967)
• On Africa (Skip Norman, 1970)
• Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)
• Life of a Shock Force Worker (Bahrudin ‘Bato’ Čengić, 1972)
• Arab Israeli Dialogue (Lionel Rogosin, 1974)
• Muna Moto (Dikongué-Pipa, 1975)
• The Memory (Mohamad Malas, 1975) + The Dream (Mohamad Malas, 1987)
• La Machine (Paul Vecchiali, 1977) + Once More (Paul Vecchiali, 1988)
• Nighthawks (Ron Peck, 1978)
• Pacific Far East Line (Abigail Child, 1979)
• The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (William H. Whyte, 1980)
• Simone Barbès, or Virtue (Marie-Claude Treilhou, 1980)
• Thief (Michael Mann, 1981) + The Keep (Michael Mann, 1983)
• Waterfall (Arthur & Corinne Cantrill, 1984)
• Dreaming Rivers (Martina Attille, 1988)
• Child’s Play (Tom Holland, 1988)
• Drylongso (Cauleen Smith, 1998)
• Animalicious (Mark Lewis, 1999)
• Jan Soldat’s body of work (2010-24)