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YEAR IN REVIEW: 2023

    Confession: I spend all year waiting specifically to design the annual collage for my "Year in Review." What can I say? I really like commemorating things. And there was a lot to commemorate this year for Films and Feelings because, even if my overall post count was slightly lower than usual, I did on occasion experience that fleeting sensation of being proud of the work I put out.

    My lower review count is probably the biggest reason for my desert of posts. I only put out nine reviews in 2023, and only three in the last half of the year. This is only barely over half of what I pulled off two years ago. (I was going to review The Color Purple to get me into the double digits, but Christmas day ended up being a busy one for me.) This year's top-performing review was for this summer's live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, as it should have been--I doubt whether I have ever subjected a film to more intense scrutiny before, or ever will again. I'd say that I'll try harder next year, but with the Hollywood landscape looking so dry over 2024, I don't know if that'll be possible.

    My essay count also came a little short in 2023. A part of this is a direct result of me trying to allow more time to elapse between premiering essays so that they each benefit from the extra attention, and of course wider cuts means fewer pieces of pie. I also just dropped October's essay too late to come up with a suitable replacement. This more than any other year has been plagued with essays that died halfway through development. Strands of some of these may find their way into future installments, so I don't want to give away what any of these ghost essays actually were (though one of them might have talked extensively about Die Hard, and that's all I'm gonna say... ). But take from this the assurance that the essays I ultimately landed on survived multiple screening processes and are much stronger for it. Rounding them up, this year's essays included the following: 

    -Are We in Another Golden Age of Musicals? - A survey of recent Hollywood musicals, probing the possibility of a modern creative and commercial resurgence of the genre. 

West Side Story (2021)
    -Lamb: The Controversy of Vulnerability - An in-depth study of the motivations behind the controversial film centering the precarious friendship between an older man and a neglected pre-teen girl.

    -A Thousand Words for Mamoru Hosada's Belle - A deconstruction of the common argument, that a film's visual splendor is at best a tertiary concern in film analysis, featuring the anime film Belle by Mamoru Hosada. 

    -The Night of the Hunter: Redefining Childhood Innocence - A look at the paradox represented by children's films through the lens of 1955 noir-classic, The Night of the Hunter. 

    -Bright Young Women: The Legacy of Ariel and The Little Mermaid - A celebration of Ariel, the titular heroine of Disney's The Little Mermaid, in the context of female representation in and out of Disney.

    -Where Are All the Netflix Classics? - An exploration of why Netflix's bounty of exclusive films leave little to no cultural impact. 

Netflix's The Old Guard (2020)
    -Making Room for Classic Movies - An advocation for the continued viewing and discussing of classic films even in the modern age.

    -I Will Not Forget that Power Rangers Reboot - A retrospective on the 2017 feature film reboot of "Power Rangers" and why it deserves far more attention and enthusiasm than it found upon release.

    -Hating Disney Princesses Has Never Been Feminist Pt. 1, 2, 3 - A three-part dive into the backlash against Disney Princess culture, weighing its motivations, truthfulness, and repercussions. 

    -Changing Film History With a Smile--and Perhaps, a Tear: Charlie Chaplin's The Kid - A tribute to Charlie Chaplin and the way his body of work shaped the development of film's place in popular culture, with special emphasis on his 1921 film, The Kid.

    I took to heart many of the goals I expressed in years past. For last year's Year in Review, I aired an idea of perhaps putting out pieces that tracked ideas or concepts within the film discussion that weren't themselves anchored to any specific film or series. I was able to get out more of those out this year than any year previous. This helped expand the total range of films that got attention, though I would be remiss to not acknowledge that I do feel most at my element doing deep-dives into just one or two films at a time. 

The Docks of New York (1928)
    I had also long wondered when I would finally have the gumption to premiere an entire essay about a silent film, and so I was really happy when things finally came together for one such film, and it didn't really surprise me that this film ended up being Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. I wonder when I'll get around to adding more to the roster.

    A common theme through this year's run of essays had a lot to do with how we define "classic," how films and audiences interact to create this thing called "the zeitgeist," and what happens when a film even gets there. I believe that is ultimately why we even discuss film in the first place. The whole conceit behind even throwing my hat into this oversaturated market of online self-appointed film critics is the urgent need to keep film literacy alive, and the foolhardy notion that I could ever be a link on that chain. Film criticism as an institution, across its many manifestations, is only valid to me if we accept the existence of a pantheon--if we abide by the notion that films and film have relevance beyond the transient window in which they premiere, which is why I believe we need to deliberately engage with films that aren't favored by an algorithm.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
        I have said before that the essay I am proudest of is always the one I just finished. I consider that to be an honest reflection of the love I have for my process and my ever-expanding body of work, but from this vantage point, I think I can identify one specific essay from this year that has perhaps served my ends more than any other: my piece on the necessity of viewing and discussing classic cinema. I invested a lot into the development and promotion of this essay, which is perhaps why it ended up being my most popular piece, even in a year where a lot of my posts performed exceptionally well.

    The last two years, I also gave some passing notion about spotlighting more niche films in this space. I was able to cash into that early this year with my piece on indie-film Lamb and anime-film Belle. And while I certainly enjoy tossing my hat in on why superhero movies are struggling as much as the next guy, I do feel a special urgency to try to give coverage to underappreciated movies of today. Because while I do think all media commentators have some obligation to keep the verified classics alive in the conversation, consideration also needs to be afforded to newly hatched classics that are just trying to crawl to safety before being erased. Earlier this year, director Richard Linklater bemoaned a certain loss of interest among contemporary film journalism surrounding niche films, saying, 

“There were these outlets that were very curious about what was going on in the avant-garde and the underground. And at some point, I don’t know if it’s just Hollywood or capitalism in general, the equation became, ‘Well, that thing’s small, no one’s going to see it anyway.’ Instead of amplifying this cool thing. It doesn’t qualify to be written about in our pages because it’s just not culturally relevant. And I think indie cinema has fallen prey to that. You don’t see a lot of serious writing about it.”

Ben is Back (2018)
    And there used to be better resources for tracking this sort of thing. IMDb used to have an indie-film spotlight on their main page that I actually referred to regularly. That is how I discovered Lamb, among many other films. I have seen many other critics of all pedigrees share similar anxieties, not only about the state of cinema, but of the frightening notion that maybe there's just nothing anyone can do about it. The inability for viewers to engage with niche cinema is only outpaced by their growing antipathy toward it. This year has shown that we can't even lay the blame on tried and true targets like superhero movies. 

  In this riptide where media is everywhere yet media literacy is just kind of out the window and basically every kind of film is in desperate need of attention, I'm honestly still trying to figure out what my specific obligation is in this circle: What is the appropriate rate for niche essays? How do I even draw that line? But these are also things I am willing to figure out. 

    Anyways, to get this ball rolling, I'll be closing out this "Year in Review" with a non-comprehensive reference list of movies that desperately deserve more coverage. Here's hoping that they will be the happy recipients of many more conversations. 

    -Dave Made a Maze (2017): Discouraged by years of failed ambitions, a struggling artist retreats into a giant cardboard maze-fort he built in his living room; when his friends attempt to rescue him, they discover his maze is a lot bigger (and more dangerous) on the inside. 

Skeleton Twins (2014)
    -Skeleton Twins (2014): After a failed suicide attempt, a man is reunited with his twin sister he hasn't seen in ten years, opening up old wounds for both of them but also posing an opportunity for genuine healing and reconciliation.

    -Beautiful Girls (1996): In the days leading up to their ten-year high school reunion, a group of friends with very specific ideas about love, reflect on their romances, their failed hopes, and their relationship with one another. 

    -Ben is Back (2018): A mother is surprised when her son, a recovering drug addict, shows up on her house on Christmas to spend the holiday with his family, but his demons aren't far behind him. 

    -Pieces of April (2003): An estranged daughter and her family prepare for what might be their last Thanksgiving dinner together before the mother succumbs to her terminal illness, a reunion that none of the parties are actually looking forward to.

    -Time Out (2001): A man who was let go from his job over six months ago spins increasingly elaborate deceptions to hide the truth of his unemployment from his wife, children, and friends. 

Running on Empty (1988)
    -Running on Empty (1988): A teenager raised by two runaway fugitives starts to yearn for a life with roots and stability. 

    -Millennium Actress (2001): Two television reporters interview an aging actress and are swept up in her journey of self-reflection and self-discovery. 

    -April and the Extraordinary World (2015): In an alternate timeline where all the scientists of the early 20th century have been kidnapped, a young girl searches for her parents among the missing scientists and uncovers an elaborate conspiracy.

    -In Your Eyes (2014): Two strangers living on opposite sides of the country discover a telepathic bond that allows them to feel and sense each other's experiences.

    This world of film can be a fantastic thing when we bring our hearts and our heads with us and create the zeitgeist together. Let's keep doing this for a long time, folks, and let's make room for a lot of people at the table. 

                       --The Professor

The Holdovers (2023)
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