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  • Showing only topics in ~movies with the tag "year in review". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. Year in Review: Movies of 2022

      What were your highlights for the year? What were the best things you watched? What surprised you? What let you down? Reflect back on the year and talk about anything and everything related to the...

      What were your highlights for the year? What were the best things you watched? What surprised you? What let you down?

      Reflect back on the year and talk about anything and everything related to the movies you watched in 2022. You do NOT have to limit it to 2022 releases -- anything you watched this year counts.

      7 votes
    2. How 2019 marked the end of movie nerd YouTube channels

      I don’t know how many of you watch “nerd” movie channels, or ever did. But for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about stuff like ScreenJunkies, Collider and all...

      I don’t know how many of you watch “nerd” movie channels, or ever did. But for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about stuff like ScreenJunkies, Collider and all their auxiliaries like SchmoesKnow.

      These are the people that were made fun of by RedLetterMedia in their NerdCrew videos which funnily enough they don’t do anymore.

      They were pillars of the YouTube film community. In fact, back when I was first getting into movies in the early 2010s, they were the majority of content. Until the video essay boom came into fruition circa 2015, and of which is now the primary style of video.

      They would make dozens upon dozens of videos and podcasts talking about the latest trailer for a Marvel movie. They would speculate about what would happen in the next Star Wars movie. They would react to trailers and over-exaggerate. They would fully embrace all things that Funko Pop nerds embraced.

      2019 was the height of all of this. The MCU’s Infinity Saga came to a close with Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the Star Wars Sequel trilogy wrapped up later in the year with The Rise of Skywalker. The hype for these movies were unbelievable, even if one of them disappointed and left everyone with a bitter after-taste.

      Then the pandemic happened and all nerd movie news stopped. There was nothing to react to, there was nothing to hype. Wonder Woman 1984 came out, but nobody liked it.

      The following year was a little bit better thanks to the hype machine surrounding Spider-Man: No Way Home. But still, the views that these nerd channels were getting dropped significantly. Check out the difference between the reviews on Fandom Entertainment's channel for Endgame and Spider-Man: No Way Home. The drop in audience is remarkable. And that’s for the big reviews. The day-to-day content that these channels posted are down significantly, and in the case of Fandom Entertainment (of ScreenJunkies), they have stopped producing daily videos. It’s a YouTube channel on life support.

      Collider is an empty shell of itself, they canceled all of their nerd panels and only do generic press junket videos.

      It’s simple really. These things ended. Interest in the MCU has dipped since Endgame (with the exception of Spider-Man). Star Wars has stopped making movies, and the TV shows have been of mixed quality. People moved on. These channels aren't needed anymore.

      The era of the 2010s movie nerd YouTube channel is over. The only ones staying alive are ones that relied more on personality rather than farming content. I’m talking about JeremyJahns, Chris Stuckmann, and Mr. Sunday Movies. Their audience stayed around because their audience liked their personality.

      12 votes
    3. We’re just over half-way done with 2022. What are your favorite films of the year so far?

      I haven’t watched as many films from this year as I would like. But here’s my current Top 5: Top Gun: Maverick Happening Ambulance The Bad Guys The Black Phone The ones that will most likely stay...

      I haven’t watched as many films from this year as I would like. But here’s my current Top 5:

      1. Top Gun: Maverick
      2. Happening
      3. Ambulance
      4. The Bad Guys
      5. The Black Phone

      The ones that will most likely stay in my top 10 at the end of the year are 1-3. Most of my yearly favorite films come out at the end of the year as you can see by this list that only contains two movies released earlier in the year.

      And really quickly I’ll give you my most anticipated films for the rest of the year:

      1. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story
      2. Avatar: The Way of Water
      3. Babylon
      4. Amsterdam
      5. The Fabelmans
      8 votes
    4. What are your favorite movies that came out in 2021?

      We had a wonderful thread where people commented their favorite movies that they watched this year, but they didn’t have to be 2021 movies. I listed a bunch of classics that I watched. But now I...

      We had a wonderful thread where people commented their favorite movies that they watched this year, but they didn’t have to be 2021 movies. I listed a bunch of classics that I watched. But now I wanna know your end of the year top lists. It could be as many movies as you want, 5, 7, 10, etc.

      I’ll start:

      1. In The Heights

      2. Belfast

      3. West Side Story

      4. Licorice Pizza

      5. Don’t Look Up

      6. Last Night in Soho

      7. tick, tick... BOOM!

      8. The Last Duel

      9. Spider-Man: No Way Home

      10. Candyman

      9 votes
    5. A list of movies from 2021 that have (or had) awards buzz

      I recently made a post saying what movies I currently am predicting to get Oscar nominations and someone commented that they use awards as a way to watch more interesting movies. So I thought I...

      I recently made a post saying what movies I currently am predicting to get Oscar nominations and someone commented that they use awards as a way to watch more interesting movies. So I thought I would make a list for you guys of all the movies that currently have (or had) buzz. Maybe you’ll want to check some of these out, maybe you’ll be introduced to some movies you haven’t even heard of from the past year.

      I will be giving two lists. The first is for movies that still do have buzz, and the second is for movies who’s buzz died off at some point in the year. In the first list I put parentheticals for films who have more specific buzz, and left solely the titles for films that have buzz for a lot of categories. I’ve also linked the trailer to each film.

      Just a little fyi, this list is from movies that released March 2021 - December 2021. This past Oscar season had the deadline extend to February 2021.

      Movies that still have buzz:
      Being the Ricardos
      Belfast
      Belle (animated feature)
      CODA (Picture, Adapted Screenplay)
      Cruella (Costumes, Hair & Makeup, and Original Song)
      Cyrano
      C’mon C’mon (Picture, Original Screenplay, Lead Actor, Cinematography)
      Don’t Look Up
      Dune
      Encanto (animated feature)
      Flee (documentary, animated feature, international film)
      House of Gucci
      King Richard
      Licorice Pizza
      Luca (animated feature)
      Mass (supporting actress)
      Nightmare Alley
      No Time To Die (original song, sound, VFX, cinematography)
      Parallel Mothers (Lead Actress, International Feature)
      Passing (supporting actress)
      Raya and the Last Dragon (animated feature)
      Red Rocket (Lead Actor)
      Respect (Lead Actress)
      Spencer (Picture, Lead Actress, Original Score, Costumes)
      The Eyes of Tammy Faye (Lead Actress, Hair & Makeup).
      The French Dispatch (original score, cinematography, hair & makeup)
      The Hand of God (international feature, Director, Original Screenplay)
      The Harder They Fall (original song)
      The Last Duel
      The Lost Daughter (Picture, Lead Actress, Adapted Screenplay)
      The Mitchell’s vs the Machines (animated feature)
      The Power of the Dog
      The Tragedy of Macbeth
      Tick... Tick... Boom!
      West Side Story

      Movies that used to have buzz:

      A Journal for Jordan
      Blue Bayou
      Bruised
      Cry Macho
      Dear Evan Hansen
      Eternals
      In The Heights
      Last Night in Soho
      Stillwater
      Swan Song
      The Card Counter
      The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
      The Green Knight
      The Humans
      The Many Saints of Newark
      The Tender Bar
      Zola

      4 votes
    6. What are your favorite movies of 2019 so far?

      Since we're fast approaching the second half of the year, I think it's a good time to look back on the first half, to the movies that came out this year and to share our favorites. I'm giving my...

      Since we're fast approaching the second half of the year, I think it's a good time to look back on the first half, to the movies that came out this year and to share our favorites. I'm giving my favorite 10 (though in no particular order) but if more or fewer stood out to you and you want to share all of them, feel free! Blockbusters, indies, comedies, dramas, whatever stands out to you from 2019 so far. Don't feel pressured to write anything but the title or a basic synopsis if you don't want to.

      • Apollo 11: Okay, I know I said this list isn't in order, but this one is definitely #1. It's history in motion, and its images and editing will surely be seared into my mind as the way I think of the Apollo launch.
      • An Elephant Sitting Still: Technically came out in 2018 in some regions, but has a 2019 release in my country, which is the order I'm organizing this list in. A beautiful and heartbreaking journey into universal pain and suffering and catharsis in the tiniest things. At nearly 4 hours and with an oppressively melancholy tone, I struggle to recommend it to everyone and anyone, but if the description interests you, definitely give it a look.
      • The Farewell: Hilarious and sad, often in the same moment. My love of this may well have been colored by my experiences as an immigrant under very similar circumstances as its main character, but it's an interesting look at differing cultural philosophies of the worth of the individual on their own versus their relation to society.
      • The Last Black Man in San Francisco: A layered critique of gentrification and the personal individual obsessions that keep us from truly seeing it and other issues in our world as they happen. It's filled to the brim with things to say, sometimes to a detriment, and some of the screentime spent just showing the sad beauty of San Francisco could've been used to further flesh out some of its ideas, but I still found it extremely compelling all the way through.
      • John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum: I think the John Wick movies get a little more bloat on them every entry(much like their titles, actually), but the action only seems to get slicker. I still like the balance of the world, character work, and action in Chapter 2 the best, but while I think 3 drags itself down into its lore a bit too much, its setpieces are still top of the line. I find Keanu endlessly killing people left and right to be incredibly cathartic. Should probably talk to someone about that.
      • Burial of Kojo: This doesn't say "Netflix original" on it, but it does seem to be distributed by them in all the countries I checked, so I don't know what's happening there. Regardless, there's a good chance you'll find this on Netflix in your country. I'm willing to admit this movie is heavily, deeply flawed. It overtelegraphs many of its plot points repeatedly, for one. But I also think it is filled with a gorgeous charm. It's light fantasy and grounded fairy tale feels half Tarsem and half Guillermo del Toro, and I was captivated from beginning to end.
      • Booksmart: I find the new crop of female led high school movies (Booksmart, Edge of Seventeen, Eighth Grade) to be far more relatable and interesting than the dozens of high school movies of decades prior. It feels like the hands of the filmmakers is more on the pulse of the struggles of modern kids. Booksmart is very much a heightened comedy compared to the other examples I mentioned, but it is great at it. It's hilarious, even if there's one scene in particular that goes on forever. The comparisons to Superbad are mostly warranted, and I still lie awake at night, sad at the fact that I saw this opening night and the theater was mostly empty.
      • Dear Ex: The Netflix revolution of every indie movie ending up on streaming services and leaving the theaters to the blockbusters isn't quite happening at the speed originally anticipated, but it definitely seems like more and more of my favorites of the year end up being a streaming original. Dear Ex is a Netflix film about different people grappling with the loss of one man, and it shows the power of the individual to connect the lives of the people they love, and of the many tools we employ to try to get over losses in our lives.
      • High Flying Bird: Yet another Netflix movie. Steven Soderbergh is one of the people who can make a bearable heist movie in this day and age imo, and he lends that gift to this to make a movie where the heist isn't money or jewels, but the basic rights of human beings being trampled on by a system that creates middle men to suck up money, leaving the real workers with pennies. It's shot on an iPhone, and there are moments where that seems like a limitation, but honestly, a lot of it looks really impressive.
      • Ash is Purest White: This is Jia Zhangke well within his comfort zone, looking at the strain put on human relationships by the passage of time and the everchanging effects of globalization and shifting national landscapes. The World(2004) (aka Shijie) is still my favorite of his, and it is definitely an idea he's explored before, but his ideas and commentary on it have never failed me to keep me enthralled all the same.

      I have a list of all the 2019 movies I see that I consider "good" here (29 films at the time of writing this) if anyone wants to take a look at all of them.

      13 votes