Dan Gives Thanks

by Dancin' Dan

2017 started off in a rather dark place, didn't it? And it's kinda stayed there, hasn't it? It's difficult to look at the entertainment industry at the moment and not want to just throw your hands up in disgust - are there no decent men (besides Tom Hanks) anywhere?!? But on the bright side, at least the entertainment 2017 has had to offer has been up to the task of nourishing our souls. I have been to the cinema more times this year than I have in any other year, and other than a certain remake of a certain animated musical, I haven't hated anything I've seen, and I've loved quite a lot of them.

But of all the things to love, these are the things I'm most thankful for:

• The perfect endings of BPM, Lady Bird, and The Florida Project, in part because they lead up to their respective endings brilliantly

• The fact that, no matter what happens with The Greatest Showman, we've already gotten a great movie musical this year, and that it's as weird and wonderful and fabulous as The Lure is...

• The inventive, deeply meaningful, Tony-winning choreography of Bandstand, a show that deserved a much longer run than it got

• The return of P!nk - doesn't she always seem like a breath of fresh air in the pop landscape whenever she releases a new album?

• The over-budgeted, over-indulgent, unberarably pretty auteur sci-fi of Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 and Besson's Valerian

• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's tremendous, nuanced portrayal of mental illness

• The resurgence of LGBTQ cinema - Beach Rats, BPM, Call Me By Your Name, God's Own Country, Princess Cyd, Professor Marson and the Wonder Women, Tom of Finland... this feels like a banner year

• Cynthia Nixon's poetry readings in A Quiet Passion

• Charlize Theron and Gal Gadot righteously kicking ass all over the big screen

• The unspeakably gorgeous, thrillingly cinematic staging of Matthew Bourne's touring ballet adaptation of Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes

• The non-stop, bust-a-gut, farcical madness of The Play That Goes Wrong on Broadway

• Emmy and Oscar-winning Viola Davis and Nicole Kidman

HAPPY TURKEY DAY, EVERYONE!

Dancin' Dan can indeed be found dancing around NYC when he isn't watching films or raising money for non-profit organizations. You can read more about Team Experience here, all of whom were invited to give thanks in list form (but some were already stuffing their faces with their friends and families, surely). See previous thank you lists from Jose, Chris, Nathaniel, and Salim. 

Comments

[Edward L.]

Happy Thanksgiving! And I loved that you listed the LGBTQ films in alphabetical order.

[Rebecca]

Happy Thanksgiving! I want to single out your mention of 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' and it's treatment of mental illness, as I think it is particularly great, and I love any pop-culture treatment of mental illness that has compassion and nuance.