While it's not quite time for end of the year list-making shenanigans, it is EXACTLY the time to give thanks. As you all prepare to stuff your faces with family and friends (or friends who are family which are the very best kind of people) we know as Film Experiences readers that you'll also be thinking about the movies. In fact, you're probably catching up on movies this long holiday weekend. I'm hoping to revisit A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood myself and I'll probably squeeze in a screener or two. But this morning I thought I'd share a very random list of ten things I'm grateful for and I hope you'll spread more love in the comments.
This thanksgiving I am particularly grateful for...
- movie theaters which can (and should) be visited weekly. The year would have been so much duller without the bonkers earnestness of Serenity in January, the visual spectacle of Alita Battle Angel in February, the creepy twinning of Us in March, Rocketman's jubilant musical bravado in May, Emma being so boss in Late Night in June, and so on. Will these movies make anyone's top ten lists? Who cares! There's more to the movies than awards season...
- that Michelle Pfeiffer came back and didn't leave this time!
- indie distributors that passionately and creatively get behind their movies. Neon sold the hell out of Parasite, A24 nurtured The Farewell just beautifully. Tiny distributors like Kino Lorber and Magnolia don't have those kinds of budgets but you still have to admire the hard work they do to get challenging and cool movies like Synonyms and Woman at War seen.
- the physicality of actors -- no, not like that -- and how much they can do with their bodies despite their faces always getting the credit. Think of Keke Palmer's unexpected comic expressiveness in Hustlers, George MacKay's heroic zombie propulsiveness in 1917, Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever's hilariously goofy comfort in each other's presence in Booksmart, or the mini-trend of great actors in their own solitary world while dancing (Julianne Moore as Gloria Bell, Mary Kay Place as Diane, and Joaquin Phoenix as Joker.)
- a wonderfully robust year of unexpected film festival jaunts (San Luis Obispo, Bentonville, Austin) and the umpteenth year at our most beloved (TIFF)... as well as the opportunity to actually panel at one of our favourite regular stops (Middleburg) with Jazz from Awards Daily and Clayton from Awards Circuit. We'll be doing it again next year!
- the Criterion Channel to the rescue. They arrived just when the streaming landscape was exploding with every option BUT international classics and movies made before the year 2000.
- great TV that occassionally lures us away from the cinema but particularly: Succession, Big Mouth, and Unbelievable recently.
- That it was such a fine fine year for female auteurs, capitalizing on the momentum of the last few years of discussions about gender imbalance behind the camera. This year brought us fresh exciting voices like Mati Diop (Atlantics), Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Olivia Wilde (Booksmart), Lulu Wang (The Farewell) and Alma Ha'rel (Honey Boy). All that plus new work from already established directors like Celine Sciamma, Marielle Heller, Claire Denis, Kasi Lemmons, and Greta Gerwig. And that's barely scratching the surface once you take international cinema into account.
Murtada and Nathaniel with Lulu Wang at a party for The Farewell this summer
- all of the contributors here at TFE who gift us with their own movie passions when they can and who we love enough to wish we could hear from weekly, and especially Chris, Glenn, Murtada, and Jason who we do here from weekly in informed, fun, serious, silly, and sometimes provocative ways.
- And all of the readers (THAT'S YOU!) here at TFE but especially those who share pieces online at facebook or twitter or elsewhere and those who subscribe $ (we're a no-budget indie!) and those who engage us and their fellow readers with passion, respect, and movie-love in the comments.