I saw 25 movies this year. This is up 4 films from last year’s 21, but my count used to be in the 30s, so this is still a sad number. However, I have accepted that with all the theater I see and all the TV I watch, I’ll never have time to see enough movies.
I am again counting the movies I saw at MoMA (both old and new), as well as the operas in HD (although I didn’t see any this year), the film programs a the Paley Center, and other museum programs and events. I am also counting (and this was a large source of movies this year) my company’s Movies for the Mind series, which I help run.
I saw 12 NEW movies this year. That is 1 more than last year! Of these 12, 4 were in regular movie theaters (5 less than last year… wow I did not go to the movie theater that much), 1 was at the Paley Center (1 less than last year), 1 was at Barnard’s Athena Film Festival (my first time attending), and 6 were at MoMA (I didn’t see any new movies at MoMA last year). Of the 4 I saw in a regular movie theater, I paid full price for 1 of them and used passes or got discounts for 3 of them. In total, I saw 12 films (both old and new) at MoMA (8 more than last year!), 1 at The Paley Center (1 less than last year), and 7 at my company’s Movies for the Mind series. Of the 25 movies I saw this year, I saw 23 for the first time (a high percentage compared to previous years).
My rating system uses stars and equates as follows: 1=bad, 2=ok 3=really good 4=great.
My favorite new movies (4 stars) this year were:
Obvious Child
Stories We Tell
Runners up (3.5 stars):
The Bling Ring
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
Veronica Mars
Boyhood
Into the Woods
My favorite old movies I saw for the first time:
Europa Report
My favorite old movies I loved seeing again:
Gravity
Some Extra Fun Favorites:
Barnard’s Athena Film Festival
Worst new movie:
None
Worst old movie:
Sunshine (not awful, just not great)
The Lady from Shanghai (Could be good but fell asleep)
MASH (Not a bad film, just weird with mean characters)
The Big List:
The Bling Ring (MoMA)***1/2
Short Term 12 (MoMA)***
Stories We Tell (MoMA)****
Saving Mr. Banks (MoMA)***
Europa Report (Movies for the Mind)***1/2
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (Athena Film Festival at Barnard College)***1/2
Cutie and the Boxer (Paley Center)***
Sunshine (Movies for the Mind)**1/2
Veronica Mars***1/2
THX 1138 (Movies for the Mind)***
The Arrival (Movies for the Mind)***
Boyhood***1/2
Gravity (Movies for the Mind)***1/2
Gilda (MoMA)***
The Lady from Shanghai (MoMA)**1/2
Her (Movies for the Mind)***
28 Days Later (Movies for the Mind)***
Obvious Child (MoMA)****
Regarding Susan Sontag (MoMA)***
MASH (MoMA)**1/2
Images (MoMA)***
The Long Goodbye (MoMA)***
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay***
Into the Woods***1/2
Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (MoMA)***