2015

2015, Ten,
Five Groups of Two

1. The Force Awakens
2. Entertainment

3. Results
4. Irrational Man

5. Knight of Cups
6. Hateful 8

7. High-Rise
8. Stinking Heaven

9. Ex Machina
10. Crimson Peak


You all know how I feel about The Force Awakens. It succeeded in awakening the child in me. It *entertained* me. Which is why it feels right to pair it with Entertainment, the film that captured my own despair in regards to art and culture. Entertainment apes the forms of the arthouse, making it clear that the cheap and easy entertianments of the masses is not its easy target. It is just as much if not more so a statement against the empty gestures of a spiritually dead aestheticism.

I still love Results, but its faults are starting to wear through for me. Each re-watch, I see a little more clearly how it conforms to our culture of death in little ways. Its center is still an affirmation of love and life, but there are creakings at the seams. Irrational Man, on the other hand, has risen in my memory's estimation. I really do need to re-watch it. Woody Allen is at his most self-critical here, but critics dismiss this one because it features crime and philosophy instead of smarmy sex talk and social silliness.

Knight of Cups and Hateful 8 are two films that I respect and want to love, but don't love. Malick and Tarantino are both Masters, but I'm not sure that I want to follow either one. Malick is too serious, trying to escape it all. Tarantino is too smug in his commitment to wallowing in the trash.

High-Rise and Stinking Heaven both explore what it means to live together. I've forgotten most of what I liked about either one and find myself not caring to defend them now. My Top Ten ends at 6. Or maybe even at 4. The Top 4 are the only ones I would re-watch right now, this very minute.

Ex Machina and Crimson Peak get the end of the list nod because I find myself still impressed with the visual storytelling in each. Even if I had problems with both of them, they both featured compelling worlds fully realized.