2014 Movie Round-Up!!

Woooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Yes!!  It is that magical time of year during which I get to review the glorious array of films I watched during the previous year, in triumphant vanquishment of my 52-movies-a-year resolution.  I am just a tiny bit extra eager to celebrate this accomplishment because, as you may remember, is basically the only resolution I fully adhered to in the previous year.

Another reason to celebrate the writing of this particular post:

This is my fifth annual movie-round up!  FIFTH!!  There have been four other ones before this one!!

Guys I have written so many of these!!

Enthusiasm is certainly running high on this side of the blog.

Without further ado of any kind!

The PsychoCinematic Year in Movies

(2014 Edition)

1. Apollo 18 (2)

2. Room 237 (1)

3. The Wolf of Wall Street (5)

4. Cropsey (2)

5. American Hustle (3)

6. 30 for 30: The Price of Gold (3)

7. Ender's Game (4)

8. The Grand Budapest Hotel (4.5)

9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (4)

10. The Imposter (4)

11. Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony (3)

12. The Awakening (3.5)

13. The People vs. Larry Flynt (3)

14. The Queen of Versailles (3)

15. The Seven Year Itch (4)

16. Unhung Hero (3)

17. X-Men: Days of Future Past (3)

18. Zero Dark Thirty (4)

19. Behind the Candelabra (4.5)

20. 22 Jump Street (4)

21. The Conversation (4)

22. Badlands (4)

23. The Woodmans (4)

24. Snowpiercer (4)

25. Guardians of the Galaxy (4)

26. Spartacus (5)

27. Europa Report (4)

28. A Most Wanted Man (4)

29. Calvary (5)

30. Detropia (4)

31. 12 O'Clock Boys (5)

32. The Grey (3)

33. Boyhood (4.5)

34. One Nation Under God (4)

35. Blood Into Wine (2)

36. A Late Quartet (5)

38. Gosford Park (4)

39. Salinger (3)

40. Sons of Perdition (4)

41. The Drop (5)

42. Stuck (3)

43. (A)Sexual (2)

44. Best Worst Movie (3)

45. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (1)

46. Muppets Most Wanted (3)

47. Bad Words (4)

48. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (3)

49. The Fugitive (4)

50. Divergent (2)

51. The Edge of Tomorrow (4)

52. The Lego Movie (5)

53. House on Haunted Hill (2)

54. Interstellar (4.5)

55. Shivers (1981) (3)

56. The Hunger Games: The Mockingjay, Part 1 (4)

57. Carrie (2013) (2)

58. The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2)

59. Foxcatcher (4)

60. The One I Love (4)

61. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2)

I would personally like to thank the month of September for being generally exceedingly incredible this year, both because some pretty great stuff happened during that month but also because, as a month during which I basically had nothing to do (other than finalize wedding plans and like get actually get married), I was able to watch SEVENTEEN movies.  As you can see, without September, I would not have been able to exceed this year's 52 movies goal.

September: officially a good month.

Okay!  Down to business.  First thing's first: this year's most terrible movies!

For seriously? Alien rock-spiders?:

Apollo 18 (2011)

For being the first in this year's multi-entry series of meh documentaries, or

for serving as a reminder that being *about* a great movie doesn't make a movie great:

Room 237 (2012)

For acting as if you're making "The Thin Blue Line" (1988) when you're totally not:

Cropsey (2009)

For being proof that just because the guy from a band I like is in it, that doesn't mean

he knows how to make a competent documentary:

Blood Into Wine (2010)

For having a perfectly interesting topic with very bleh execution:

(A)Sexual (2011)

For having a pretty crappy and flat script and having literally zero to do with the Beatles:

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2014)

For basically being "Hunger Games" without anywhere near as compelling a heroine:

Divergent (2014)

For abundant sexism and and annoying portrayal of a mental health practitioner:

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

For seriously fuck everyone responsible for every unnecessary movie remake:

Carrie (2013)

For passably interesting + way too long still = meh:

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2013)

Finally, and based on last year predictably:

For being yet another piece of overwhelming evidence that Peter Jackson should not be allowed to make movies:

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

So now I get to choose my overall least favorite film from the past year.  Like last year, this choice is a bit challenging due to the crowded field and many of the entries annoying me in slightly different but comparable ways.

Okay, I'm decided.  I'm going to take a stand:

It was boring.  Making this series into a trilogy was a blatant money grab at the immense expense of the plot, which was stretched way too thin and therefore had crap added to it unnecessarily.  The characters were flat, their motives were stupid, and the stakes were not compelling.  There were like TEN MINUTES OF DRAGON and that's it.  IT WAS TOO GODDAMNED LONG.  

Basically, I'm just so over Peter Jackson.  I'm over his inability to hold a serious emotion for more than 90 seconds.  I'm over his failure to recognize that a dramatic score and a bunch of bloated action sequences does not equal an intelligible or enjoyable story arc.  I'm over what he's done to a series of books I loved deeply as a child.

UGH.  MAKE HIM STOP.

And now on to the even more fun stuff!

The best movies I saw in 2014 were:

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Behind the Candelabra (2013)

Spartacus (1960)

Calvary (2014)

12 O'Clock Boys (2013)

Boyhood (2014)

A Late Quartet (2012)

The Drop (2014)

The Lego Movie (2014)

Interstellar (2014)

Oh God.  This is a tough one.

Well, we all know I thought "Wolf of Wall Street" was fucking spectacular.  It was brash and bold and funny but substantial and dark, excellently shot, and well-paced and making you want to see more even though it's over three hours long.  That's pretty amazing.

"Behind the Candelabra" might seem like a bizarre choice, but the HBO movie featured incredible, touching, compelling performances by both Michael Douglas and Matt Damon.  It beautifully honored and elevated its subject when it would have been very easy to make a trashy, cheap movie out of this story.

"Calvary" was directed by John Michael McDonagh, the older brother of possibly my favorite playwright, Martin McDonagh.  Creating stories with inky black dark humor mixed with gut-churning, seething human anguish and imperfect, heartbreaking, and beautiful human decency clearly runs in this genius family.  This film feels close and confining like a tense, tightly-written play but without the stiff staginess that cripples other stage-to-screen translations.  I could watch Brendan Gleeson butter bread and be transfixed.

Finally, "The Lego Movie" is one of the most delightful, fresh, packed-with-smart-humor-and-genuine-sweetness films I've seen in years, easily rivaling the best of Pixar.  Husband and I watched in twice within 24 hours and loved every minute of it.  Also it features Charlie Day, my favorite!!

But finally, I have to go with a quieter movie that might have flown under most people's radars.  It's a film that features a city I deeply, desperately love.  Its footage is so gorgeously, unexpectedly moving it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.  It's a powerful reminder that human beings have the capacity to create and thrive and self-empower in ways that we may not readily recognize or understand, but which are nevertheless vibrant examples of the gorgeous human spirit.

My favorite movie in 2014 is "12 O'Clock Boys."

It's on Netflix view instant--go see it!!**

{Heart}

** = ETA: I'm wrong about "12 O'Clock Boys" being available via Netflix view instant.  You can rent the movie through the DVD service on Netflix,  but it's unfortunately not streamable through that carrier.  Instead, you can go to the movie's website to rent and stream the movie or buy it outright.

You can also watch the trailer!

Closing 2014: Resolutions Edition

Happy New Year cherished readers, and Happy Martin Luther King, Jr Day!!

In keeping with tradition and before we are too far into the new year for this to not feel silly, I would like to revisit last year's new year's resolutions and put forward my resolutions for 2015.

...I am now realizing that I set out like way, wayyyy too many things for myself last year, starting with two overarching goals:

• Cultivate a loving and accepting stance toward all living things.
• Develop a more positive-focused outlook.

Hilarious.

I'm feeling surprisingly annoyed with myself for setting out these goals for myself in the midst of the most punishing year of my life to date.  They seem so fundamentally unkind in their unrealistic-ness.

They came, of course, from a good place--a place that recognizes that we are often the creators of our own suffering, and that through mastering our thoughts and minds, we can create content and peaceful lives under most circumstances.

I also have some lingering belief that all humans are worthy of care and kindness, although clinging to that belief has honestly gotten harder than I like to admit.  That's partly because this Chipotle bag rings alarmingly true:

It's hard for me to accept that the proportion isn't much higher than that without feeling lonely and more than a bit misanthropic.  (Also do I really need to reflect on this while I'm eating my tacos, Chipotle??  You're ruining my guacamole buzz.)

I think that, although these goals hold true, their timeframe was all wrong.  They are lifetime goals.  They were not realistic for a year during which what I really needed to focus on was emotionally surviving.  I was doing my best to aim higher than that, but sometimes it might just be too much to ask for more.

My remaining, overly numerous resolutions from last year were:

1. Start a daily journal of good things that happen.

This was in the spirit of a project I learned about after making this resolution, 100 Happy Days.  It's a very nice idea and seems like, in principle, it should work.

But my attempt was a pretty abysmal failure.  I persisted basically daily until early March, when I just couldn't do it anymore.  On March 9th, I wrote, "I lost a few days there where I just couldn't push myself to do this task, even though it's good for me.  I gave myself permission to take a break from it out of kindness to myself."  My writing became spotty to nonexistent after that.

Sometimes, when life feels really difficult or painful, it feels impossibly tone-deaf and invalidating to take time to focus on the positive.  When stuff hurts too much, it just doesn't feel kind to ask yourself, "But what feels good?"

Happily I guess, a few months later I took a stab at it again, or maybe just decided to say goodbye to this exercise.  In July, I wrote, "Depression ends, and life is always waiting to remind you that it's beautiful, kind, and welcoming when you come back to it."

So there's that.

2. When someone asks how I'm doing, I will find a positive thing to share with them.*

"I'm still breathing"??  Fuck you, past self.

3. Start daily mindfulness and lovingkindness practices.

I was very fortunate to get to take a mindfulness course for several weeks as a part of my new job, and I'll be continuing my mindfulness-focused research in my current position.  

That being said, I definitely did not meaningfully incorporate either of these practices into my daily life--I just failed to launch a meaningful system for reminding myself.  I'm hesitant to vary from my Zen-y meditation practice, but I do still think that integrating lovingkindness practices into my regular practice would be good for me.

4. Leave/write myself little reminders that every living thing is doing the best they can in that moment and I must do my best to be accepting and patient even if it drives me FUCKING INSANE.

I really should have done this.  Driving is a surprisingly potent misanthropy enhancer for me.  Ugh.

5. Deepen meditative practices by reading Buddhist things and at least trying one or two sangha meetings to see if they're weird or possibly okay/good.

I need to do some self-examination about why I keep avoiding going to a sangha.  I think I'm anxious that I'll feel like way too much of a noob?  Sitting for a really long time might be hard around a bunch of other people?  Maybe I'm hesitant to commit to a place when I'm not sure whether Husband and I will be living in this area for much longer?  These are silly and poor explanations, but they're the closest I've got at the moment.

I did totally read the entirety of my Daily Dalai Lama book, though!

6. Get my finances in order.

Next.

7. Get better at doing things that make me happy most days.

This only became even remotely possible after internship ended.  I will say that I've improved dramatically since then, even with the advent of new job.  So yay?

8. Watch ALL THE MOVIES.

Finally some unqualified success!  

Jesus Christ what a jackass I was to myself 12 months ago.  My expectations were way too high.  Gah!

Like seriously.  I could do this at myself all day at this point.

Okay, punishment by eyeball-rolling-at-self aside, I do have some hopefully much more compassionate and attainable goals in mind for the coming year.

They are!

1. More Buddhist readings.  More!

On it.

And since this is so freaking dense and arcane, I have some other books in reserve in case I start hating this one.  But hopefully I won't.

And also maybe I'll get over my sangha avoidance at some point or whatever.

2. Reduce mindless and aimless screen time.

I've grown increasingly resentful of the time I let bullshit screen-y stuff suck out of my days (pardon me while I glare angrily in Facebook's direction).  I've started trying to replace that time by a) doing stuff in the real world, and b) keeping long-form articles up in my internet browser (Like this one! Amazing!!) so when for whatever reason I'm dicking around on my computer or phone, I actually feel like I'm putting substance in my brain instead of some toxic mix of feelings of inadequacy and schadenfreude.

Movies are not covered under this resolution, obvi.

3. Let more objects go and enjoy what we keep.

Our apartment is full of things--too many things.  We don't need or use many of the things.  I've gotten in more and more of a habit of simply summarily ejecting things we don't need via recycling, trash, or leaving things on the sidewalk for scavengers (often the most surprisingly efficient option!), and I have yet to regret it.  The extra space and greater sense of feng shui we get in our home as a result is a huge reinforcer.

We also have immensely generous family and friends who bestowed all sorts of exciting new things on us when Husband and I got married.  We can make like 12 different kinds of pasta now!  We can juice things, fry things, blend things, convect things, cut things, bake things, carry things places, serve things in pretty bowls... Not to mention the bounty we already have as first-world dwellers in the form of books, movies, clothes, etc. that we underutilize or fail to enjoy at all.

4. Facilitated by our beautiful new food apparatuses, I want to cook more and learn to cook new stuff.

I'm thinking of trying out Blue Apron or Plated or something similar, because mangling my way through stuff I haven't done before WITHOUT also having to choose wtf to make or go shopping will be much more realistic when cooking on weekdays.  The services seem pretty cost effective and friends who have tried them are generally excited about them.  Also this seems like a great strategy for eating more vegetables, which is something I am occasionally bad at.  

Because why vegetables when you can cheese?

5. More learning on the agenda: Study for and kick the shit out of the licensing exam, and otherwise learn voraciously.

This year's terrifying-yet-necessary resolution!  The last last last last last last LAST hurdle I have to complete to finally be a real live adult professional human is take my licensing exam.  This has to be taken within a year of starting my current position, and I'm currently aiming for May to just have it over with.  

The test is super annoying because it requires knowledge of an obscenely overly comprehensive amount of psychological stuff (research methods? brain structures? industrial/organizational?  NO ONE LEARNS I/O!!!).  But it's also just a test.  It'll be really good to have it done, plus I have a very reliable study buddy to keep me on track.

Also!  Although the lazy reptile part of me hates it, one of the major advantages of my current job is that I'm having to learn about a variety of things I have not had to do before.  The lazy reptile in me sometimes despairs and panics because HAVE I SERIOUSLY LEARNED *NOTHING* IN FIVE YEARS OH GODDDDDD.  But the more rational mamalian part of my brain recognizes that human mental health is immensely complex and can go askew in a variety of very different ways, and so what's really important is being flexible and resourceful in response to each new, unique human I encounter in my work.

But still, this guy must be stopped.

I KNOW NOTHINGGGGGGG

To counteract mean defeatist doubter reptile mode, I have actively acquired a jillion (scientific term) new treatment manuals and am actually expecting myself to read them so I can know more stuff and get the reptile to shut up.

6. Remind myself to love all living things each day.

Why am I doing this to myself?  Because I have to keep trying.  And at least at the moment, I have nowhere near any of the excuses to not try that I did a year ago.  My life is much easier and happier than it's been in a long time, and because this is a life-long goal, I have to keep chipping away at it.  

The aforementioned lovingkindness stuff should help.

And finally!

7. Watch 52 movies!

Always!  Always more movies!

I'm excited to share 2014's year-in-movies-in-review, hopefully shortly!

Until then!

{Heart}