2017 Movie Round-Up!!

Hello!!

It's the most magical time of the year: time for the annual movie round-up!!

This is a particularly happy occasion because:

a) I am pleased with myself for writing this post before the end of January, because one of my resolutions for 2018 is to write at least a teeny bit more often than last year, and

b) because I watched extra movies last year and that makes me happy!

Without further ado: 

The PsychoCinematic Year in Movies

2017 Edition

1. There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (5)

2. Arrival (5)

3. Asperger's Are Us (3.5)

4. Wishful Drinking (4)

5. Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart (4.5)

6. Hidden Figures (4.5)

7. I Am Not Your Negro (5)

8. Glory Daze: The Life and Times of Michael Alig (4)

9. My Friend Rockefeller (3.5)

10. Get Out (5)

11. Kedi (5)

12. Personal Shopper (4)

13. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (4)

14. The Innocents (5)

15. Frantz (2)

16. I Called Him Morgan (5)

17. Under the Shadow (4)

18. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 (4)

19. Casting Jon-Benet (3.5)

20. Alien: Covenant (2)

21. Wonder Woman (4)

22. My Cousin Rachel (4)

23. The Lego Batman Movie (4)

24. Mommy Dead and Dearest (4.5)

25. The Big Sick (4.5)

26. Looper (5)

27. The Beguiled (2)

28. The Girl with All the Gifts (4)

29. The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography (4)

30. Step (5)

31. Dunkirk (3)

32. Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators (4.5)

33. Wind River (3.5)

34. Paris is Burning (5)

35. Ingrid Goes West (4)

36. Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race and America (5)

37. Masterminds (1.5)

38. Rough Night (3)

39. The Little Hours (2.5)

40. Battle of the Sexes (4)

41. Lucky (3.5)

42. It (4.5)

43. The Blackcoat's Daughter (4)

44. Blade Runner 2049 (4)

45. I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (4)

46. Thor Ragnarok (3)

47. One of Us (4)

48. The Look of Silence (5)

49. Oklahoma City (4.5)

50. Loving Vincent (4)

51. Lady Bird (5)

52. Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (4)

53. The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin (2)

54. The Disaster Artist (5)*

55. The Shape of Water (4)

56. 32 Pills: My Sister's Suicide (4)

57. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (5)

That's right: 5 whole extra movies!!

One nice pattern over the course of 2017 is that I kept up a pretty consistent pace in my movie-watching throughout.  I was further enabled in my movie consumption by finally putting into place some quality-of-life-enhancing limits on work, which had the desired effect of giving me more time to do things that matter to me and more space to feel in balance.  Yay!!

So let's start off by taking a look at the sub-optimal movies I saw in 2017:

For having a lot of potential to be interesting 

but ultimately being about a self-pitying murderer/coward rich guy, which: NOPE:

Frantz (2016)

For creating the cringeyest flute scene imaginable:

Alien: Covenant (2017)

For drowning in toxic masculinity and also 

for completely erasing the existence of enslaved men and women in the context of the Civil War 

and instead centering on the plight of white women making dumb decisions??, 

or more succinctly: For super problematic white feminism:

The Beguiled (2017)

For being the kind of film about which my most glowing praise includes 

"It is a movie that exists," and "It is short":

Masterminds (2016)

For blunt force boringness:

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin (2014)

In some ways I'm oddly disappointed to have so few entries in this category this year.  It can be entertaining to hate on movies that were particularly bad.  On the other hand, it feels kind of ridiculous to be unhappy I was fortunate enough to see many movies I really enjoyed.  Obviously this is in most ways the best outcome in reflecting on a year of viewership.

This year, I'm inclined to make my choice based on the egregiousness of the not-greatness.  This year's choice for worst movie had a great cast.  Its director previously created a movie I enjoyed (and that has a pretty solid, atmospheric soundtrack).  And it exists in ignorance of the question, "Can we seriously please work on our intersectional allyship and not make white people the center of everything especially when it's really inappropriate??"

The worst movie I saw in 2017 was therefore:

And next!

Compared to the number of not-so-great movies, I had the exact opposite problem in 2017: SO MANY GOOD MOVIES.

NO.

TOO MANY GOOD MOVIES.

It actually is really exciting to have this level of challenge in choosing the best movie of the year!  The best-rated movies I watched in 2017 were:

There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011)

Arrival (2016)

Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart (2014)

Hidden Figures (2016)

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Get Out (2017)

Kedi (2016)

The Innocents (2016)

I Called Him Morgan (2016)

Mommy Dead and Dearest (2017)

The Big Sick (2017)

Looper (2012)

Step (2017)

Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators (2017)

Paris is Burning (1990)

Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race and America (2016)

It (2017)

The Look of Silence (2014)

Oklahoma City (2017)

Lady Bird (2017)

The Disaster Artist (2017)*

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

In looking at this list, one pattern that emerges is the incidence of true-crime related documentaries like "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane," "Mommy Dead and Dearest," "Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart," "Oklahoma City," and "I Called Him Morgan" (although this last film is much broader than to only focus on the death of legendary jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan).  "The Look of Silence" is a particularly impactful entry in this sub-category of the year's great movies, as through the lens of one man's brave confrontations of the perpetrators of his brother's brutal murder, the film's sweeping scope encompasses the Indonesian genocide of the 1960s.

There are also entries that testify to inspiring lady badassery.  "The Innocents" tells the chilling and complex true story of a convent of Polish nuns who were sexually assaulted by Russian soldiers and the French woman doctor who came to their aid.  The latest "Star Wars" is a testament to the compelling power of a young woman jedi surrounded by a diverse cast packed with commanding women and people of color.  "Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators" tells the surprising story of the couple who created Curious George, including their harrowing escape from Nazi-invaded Paris by bicycle, and Margret Rey's formidable dedication to keeping her husband's legacy alive (it also happens to feature work by two awesome friends of mine).  "Hidden Figures" uplifts the brilliance, resilience, and self-determination of the Black women who made major NASA missions possible.

* This list unfortunately includes an entry that is now clearly problematic due to the involvement of James Franco, who has been accused of sexual misconduct.  I learned of these allegations after seeing "The Disaster Artist."  It really sucks when great projects are tarnished by the unacceptable and avoidable exploitive misbehavior of the people involved.  It of course sucks way more that this behavior impacts their colleagues and can destroy the careers of people who deserved to work unexploited.  The good news: there are so many other movies to see and voices to be heard and we as audience members and ticket-buyers can make ever more informed choices.

And here is where I've gotten stuck over and over again in making my decision.  I think I'm ready to make my choice, but first I want to highlight some very close competitors:

"Step" is a deeply compelling, heart-gripping documentary about young women in Baltimore brought together through their high school's step team.  As the first graduating class at their all-girls charter school, the pressure is on for each portrayed team member to make it into college despite the significant barriers presented by poverty.  It is a beautiful and clear-eyed portrait of the city of Baltimore as well as the young people boldly fighting to make better lives for themselves.

You may already know my feelings about "Kedi."  Honesty time: I cried just watching the trailer for this movie.  I am perhaps too invested in cats.  I was already so moved by the gorgeous footage of street cats in Istanbul that I had no idea what a deeper and soul-soothing gift this film would be because of the testimonials of the custodians of the portrayed animals.  It is such a beautiful portrayal of compassionate, care-taking masculinity and therefore a film this world desperately needs.

My favorite movie of 2017, however, is a film I deeply wish every American would see.  It gives an incisive overview of the history and current state of race relations in America and is therefore an excellent and critical primer for anyone wishing to understand better the ongoing legacy and impact of racism in this nation.  It is not an easy film, but it is a necessary film.

My favorite movie of 2017 is:

Looking forward to another year of great movies with you, friends.

{Heart}

PS: Here's one of my favorite clips of James Baldwin from "I Am Not Your Negro."  It's a great concise argument to have in your back pocket (or handy on your cell phone) for any time someone tries to say racism doesn't exist in America.

Closing 2017: Resolutions Edition

Happy New Year Dear Friends and Readers!

Welcome to a new and hopefully less terrible year!

It's time for our annual review of resolutions and to update goals for the coming year.  In the grand tradition of choosing a theme for posts like these, I've decided that this year I will feature yet another one of the world's wonderful animals and one of my personal favorites: the octopus.

I've loved octopi for many years now, beginning with an encounter with a little octopus while on vacation with my family in Mexico when I was a child.  They're beautiful, weird, and incredibly intelligent creatures, as evidenced by this particularly delightful footage of octopi using coconut shells for protection:

So now, escorted by our octopus chaperones: Shall we? 

We shall.

My goals for 2017 were:

1. Regularly smash the patriarchy.

As operationalized by:

--Participate in regular direct advocacy with my elected officials.

As I noted in my midyear resolutions update, these two apps have been a major game-changer in increasing the feasibility and regularity of my outreach to elected officials.  I could absolutely stand to communicate more, but the extent to which I've been able to engage in regular advocacy with my elected officials is almost exclusively due to these innovative tools.

--Set up recurring donations to advocacy organizations that will protect causes that are important to me, including civil rights and preservation of other democratic values like freedom of speech, assembly, and press.

I continue to be so glad Husband and I are finally in a position to do this and that we have.  I'm planning for this to be something we continue.  Our monthly donations are small, which means they are feasible for us but also hopefully that they make a cumulative positive impact for causes we care about.

--Ongoing self-education through self-directed reading and, ideally, participation in courses to learn about dismantling systemic discrimination.

Thanks to a local anti-racism collaborative, I got to participate in a really enriching six week seminar dedicated to dismantling systemic racism.  The seminar included fruitful discussions about the manifestations of racism in American society and made space for practical discussions of strategies for directly addressing racism when it is expressed in interactions with others.  I'm really grateful resources like these are available in my community and highly recommend participating in trainings and seminars like this to anyone who is interested in being a force for good by advocating more effectively against racism.

Outside of this seminar, I could be much better about dedicating more time to self-directed learning in this domain.  I do this periodically through watching documentaries and reading books and articles, but I would like to do this more regularly.

--Advocacy, conversation, and education with colleagues to ensure they feel empowered to stand up for the vulnerable communities we serve as expert, ethical practitioners.

Due to the recent changes I've made at work, I haven't had as many opportunities to do this with colleagues.  However, my hope is to attempt multicultural seminar 2.0 in the new year--I just need to take the initiative to make it happen.  Seminar 1.0 gave me a small taste of the challenges of launching these conversations in a professional sphere, and I think it'll be important for me to work through those differently the second time around.

I've had the occasional conversation with friends and family about the anti-racism training I did and my overall interest in anti-racism, though that's something I could surely expand on.

--Practicing my right to peacefully assemble and demonstrate.

As I noted in my last post, this is something I un/happily had many occasions to act on: unhappily because so very many protestable things have happened in the last year, happily because

a) we still have the right to peacefully demonstrate, and

b) it's extremely heartening to see so many other people show up, too.

--Regularly consume news media again.

Still working on this one.  I was keeping up with NPR's 5-minute morning news bulletin for a while, but I've decided to forgo that for reasons I'll elaborate on below.  I still feel committed to this goal, but I have to figure out how to make it happen.

2. Learn all the stuff and things.

There are several ways in which I've been lucky to be able to do this.  One is through a book club I joined after moving to New City, which has kept extra pressure on me to read often and has prompted me to read work I've really enjoyed.  I've also learned a ton of practical professional knowledge since moving into a new role at work, which I'm really grateful for.  I have some thoughts on how to continue this goal in the new year, which I'll expand on below.  

I was, albeit temporarily, successful in practicing Swedish regularly in anticipation of the really incredible trip abroad Husband and I took a few months ago.  I then didn't really have the occasion to use anything I learned because it appears all Swedish people speak impeccable English.  Experiencing the opposite of my unnecessary pre-trip urgency upon our return, I promptly stopped practicing.  I'd still like to keep poking along with that learning, though, so I'm hoping to recommence it in the New Year.

3. Find ways to meaningfully and consistently set limits with work.

Yeeeeaaaahhhhhh!!!  Guys!!!  I really actually did it this year!  

It took a lot of time, struggle, and ironically ever more work before it could happen, but I did the thing.  

Me in the midst of the STRUGGLE to actually do the limit-setting thing. 

It's been a massive blessing in so many ways and was a direct byproduct of the supportive and concerted pushes I've gotten from several trusted friends, colleagues, and family members.  I'm grateful to have their help in breaking my untenable habits of overwork and am hoping I can maintain this better balance.

4. Write more.

I just barely squeaked by with one more post than the previous two years, and (to the immense satisfaction of my minor perfectionist streak) wrote at least one post for every month of the year!

I've continued to write in a journal, too, although the fact that I'm still using the same one as I was at the beginning of the last New Year demonstrates that my pace has slowed somewhat.  Writing every day is probably not sustainable, but I'm very glad to have even a semi-regular practice  of writing and reflection back in my life not least because it was yet another driver behind making the changes required at work this year.

5. Watch at least 52 movies.

Yusssssssss!!  I DID THE THING.  Much to my joy and pleasure, I watched 5 movies in excess of my goal this year--yet another accomplishment linked to limit-setting with work (because when you set limits with work, you have free time to watch movies!)!

In looking back at these goals and reflecting on how each of them went, I'm happy that I managed to set goals that were realistic yet still reaches.  I didn't perfectly accomplish these goals, but I'm glad to see the opportunities for growth those imperfections illuminate.  So without further ado, let's look ahead to this year's goals!

I just can't get enough of this coconut action.

Spoiler alert: There'll be some repeats, but also one or two new ones.

1. Regularly smash the patriarchy.

To maintain rigorous adherence to this goal but also condense things a bit, I'll update what I mean by this by narrowing it to the things I still need to work on and setting clearer expectations for myself: 

--Participate in at least once weekly advocacy with my elected officials.

--Ongoing self-education through self-directed reading, participation in at least one course to learn about dismantling systemic discrimination, and joining an ongoing anti-racist action group. 

--Lead a second round of the multicultural seminar at work.

--Practice my right to peacefully assemble and demonstrate at least 3 times this year.

--Regularly consume news media again.

It's really only this last one that'll be a challenge, largely because the window I had in my routine for regularly doing this has now be re-allocated in the service of another goal.  Maybe I could listen to a news summary after I get home from work?  Surely I can find five minutes for this.  I'll just have to decide when to make it happen.

2. Learn all the stuff and things.

I'm often annoyed with how much time I spend idling around on my phone, and I would like to do a better job of more regularly either a) putting my phone down and reading a book instead, or b) using phone time to read the gigantic backlog of articles I've bookmarked to read later.  I'm also aware of the ways in which phone idling can be a genuine form of self-regulation and self-soothing for me, so I'm not looking to get overzealous with this--sometimes it's okay to need to just tune out and/or be diverted.  But let's be real, I could have easily read more and cut back a bit on my Insta time.

3. Write more: keep journaling and 15 posts!

I absolutely want to keep up with journaling at least 3 times a month (ideally more), and I'd love to top last year's total number of posts by *just* one, if not a few more.

4. Actively prepare and take steps to build the life I want.

One of the very best benefits of setting limits with work has been that it has created the mental, emotional, and physical space required for me to be able to think about the big picture of my life and what I want my next steps to be.  I could not be more grateful for the clarity this space has afforded me, and I'm really excited about the plans Husband and I are concocting.

I'm not meaning to be overly cryptic, as I'll be very glad to share more specifically what I mean when the time is right.  In the meantime, there's a lot more work to be done and I'm excited to do that work.

5. Cultivate compassion.

As I perhaps unclearly alluded to in my last post, I'm wanting to practice taking a more balanced perspective.  What I really mean by that is that is that I want to be more patient and less irritable with people in general.

One of the debates that emerged after the presidential election was the debate over whether we needed to have compassion for those who made the catastrophic decision to support our current president.  My attitude, perhaps unsurprisingly, has been that I am WAY more concerned with dedicating my brain space and energy to supporting the people who are legitimately under threat because of this presidency than the people who made that threat a reality.  Frankly, I have concerns that worrying about the feelings of the president's supporters continues to center the feelings of members of the cultural majority (white Christian-identified straight people--of course not all of whom supported the president) over the feelings of every other ethnic, racial, religious, sexual, and gender minority, despite the clear fact that the members of those latter groups are the people most likely to be victimized by the president's policies and behaviors.  In short, it's yet another manifestation of white supremacy.

I still maintain this stance.  That being said, in the immediate aftermath of the white supremacist terror and violence in Charlottesville, I went to an amazing training for anti-racist demonstrators before a major anti-racist demonstration in New City.  The leader of this training was an incredible, brave, principled, and talented photojournalist who had been in Charlottesville with faith leaders heading the counter-demonstrations.  She told us that threats had been made against the faith leaders by white supremacists, and that they and she had genuinely feared for their lives to the point of writing farewell letters to their loved ones the night before the violence turned fatal, leading to the death of a counter-demonstrator.  Hearing her story filled me with grief and rage at the state of our nation and the ugly audacity of bigots so deluded they would threaten men and women of faith.

However: the intention behind this training was to support us in finding our center so we could advocate against oppression from solid ground.  Not from a place of anger, sadness, and fear.  Instead, from a place of deep abiding love.

This doesn't have to mean having love for practitioners of hate, although it can mean having love for the broken, miserable ember of humanity that may still someday redeem them.  More easily, it can mean having love for the precious, hateless future for which you demonstrate and it can mean having love for the people you wish to uplift.

So, to be a better person, psychologist, advocate, and ally, I want to cultivate within myself more deep, abiding love.  The best way I know how to do that is through loving-kindness meditation.  For those of you unfamiliar with this practice, it's a meditative practice centered around building compassion, warmth, and love for yourself and others, usually through contemplating four mantras like those listed below:

I've started practicing this for a few minutes each day and choosing different living things to send this energy to, and I'm hoping that over time this practice will help me stay in better contact with the deep, abiding love I have to offer.

6. Watch at least 52 movies.

Finally, our oldie but goodie.  A toast to another year of great movies!

And!

{Heart}