Films have been tanking left and right in their 2022 theatrical runs. Some rightly deserved to but others shouldn’t have if people bothered to show up to the empty theaters and watched movies the way they were meant to be seen. I estimate that of the 20% of the films I saw in theaters this year I was the only one in the audience, some with hundreds of seats. If you’re still afraid of contracting COVID-19, the flu or Monkey Pox (oh wait, they changed the name as some primate activist group said it hurt their feelings) go to the early shows or even afternoon shows midweek when nobody are in the theaters except for the diehard movie buffs, yours included.
Author: Peter M. Hargrove
TOP 10 FILMS 2021
2021 was Year Two of COVID-19 and the theatrical side of the film business was dormant of box office success except for mainly popcorn movies, the ones of the MCU kind. Lots of potentially interesting films hit my radar but alas most were dumped to streaming platforms to never be seen by non-subscribers. Thankfully movie theaters reopened in March* and I was able to catch up on some of what I’ve missed (alas, many of the top titles of 2020 that went to streaming didn’t have a week’s run for large screen movie fans).
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2021 – DOCUMENTARY HIGHLIGHTS
The 2021 Tribeca Film Festival (9 June – 20 June) was a hybrid event due to COVID-19 restrictions. Not being a huge fan of screening links (films on the big screen for me…) I limited myself to the feature documentaries category and struggled through a number of streaming glitches. Over all my selections were mainly good choices. Alas, the Brian Wilson documentary “Long Promised Road” was not available for viewing via the Tribeca streaming platform.
TOP 10 FILMS 2020
2020 was the year of COVID-19 and the corresponding implosion of the film business where many films that I eagerly awaited to see on a big screen, the way films should be, were dumped to various streaming platforms. If the year proceeded the way it should have, I would have watched more films on big screens, discovered new talent and my Top 10 choices may have been completely different. That being said, the films I’ve chosen are all worth checking out as I was watching films up until the day all the movie theaters were shuttered. It’s rather fitting that the last film I saw was the Filipino zombie film BLOCK Z.
REQUIEM FOR MY FATHER
Outward Bound has a motto, “To Serve, To Strive and not To Yield.” That describes my father. He served his community in many ways. By being the first child in his family to attend college he shined the light on the possibilities a higher education can offer to his siblings, his children and my cousins. He did once warn me that I was too smart for my own good. I responded “if you didn’t want us to think for ourselves, why did you encourage us to attend college?” But that’s what he did from the day I was born, he instilled in me the unquenching thirst for knowledge. Curiosity about the world around me, both ancient history and current events, is what has driven me to this day. My love of storytelling, or as the Irish say, the gift of the gab, comes from my mother’s family who were involved in the arts but also my father who introduced me to the world of books. I blame my 10,000 volume library on him.
WHY WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE
Incompetent governments are typical, but Holy Shit!, what’s wrong with the White House (True News – Der Trumpkof lies out of both sides of his mouth, and his ass). The states are just as bad, the local
municipalities even more so.
WOMEN MAKE FILM: A NEW ROAD MOVIE THROUGH CINEMA
Doctoral thesis filmmaking.
An exciting premise for a documentary, the discovery of long forgotten women filmmakers starting with Alice Guy-Blache up through Nell Shipman onward to Wendy Toye and dozens of other international directors unknown inside and outside of their own countries today. The downside is the filmmaker approaches the subject matter as if he has to pad out a doctoral thesis by hammering multiple square pegs into round holes to make a point. The inclusion of a number of over-rated current women filmmakers lessens the strength of this film.
TOP 10 FILMS OF 2019
2019 was the year of diarrhea of the hard drive. Like Fredrick Wiseman who seems to have forgotten everything he learned about editing as he has aged, the franchises (Marvel, Star Wars) and elder statesmen of Hollywood (Martin Scorsese and Terrence Malick) are following suit with their lofty “epics.” All of them need he who shall not be named to rev us his chainsaw and start snipping away. If they were including Bollywood song & dance numbers I may give them a little slack. Speaking of Indian cinema, when is Hollywood going to start teaming up the likes of Salman Khan with the Dwayne Johnsons? (I have a great script idea for that pairing.) Speaking of international talent not yet on Tinsel Town’s radar, I offer up Aislinn Derbez (who they gave a thankless role in the middling MISS BALA remake) who I’ve been paying attention to since discovering her in A LA MALA. That film should get an American remake as I doubt most people who didn’t speak Spanish saw it.
TOP 10 FILMS OF 2018
If I didn’t have a life to live with diverse interests, I’d rush out to see every “buzzed about” film coming out of film festivals. Years of disappointment and 35 years of industry expertise has taught me to ignore the chatter. My favorite film of 2018, THE DEATH OF STALIN, happened to be one of those buzzers (Armando Iannucci and Steve Buscemi were why I saw it). By year end awards hoopla, the film wasn’t mentioned once (neither was Charlize Theron’s acting in TULLY which had the same “buzz”). The “tastemakers” are like babies with their new shiny toys, PR flacks know how to distract them with their lollipops.
2018 SUMMER FANCY FOOD SHOW TOP 10 DISCOVERIES
Same old, same old. Healthy, healthy, healthy. Blah. Everybody seems to be chasing the same brass ring and releasing product that duplicates something else in the market without any improved bells and whistles (if you don’t count ghost peppers or superfruits). I want to enjoy my food, not have my senses assaulted. Manufacturers have seemed to forget that their mandate is to sell product and have the customer binge eat that entire bag of chips or box of cookies. Having one chip and sealing up the bag or a single sip of that decadent beverage and putting it in the refrigerator doesn’t help the bottom line.