When someone is honestly 55% right, that's very good and there's no use wrangling. And if someone is 60% right, it's wonderful, it's great luck, and let him thank God. But what's to be said about 75% right? Wise people say this is suspicious. Well, and what about 100% right? Whoever says he is 100% right is a fanatic, a thug, and the worst kind of rascal.
--attributed to An Old Jew of Galicia
The above quote appears at the beginning of The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz. And as a reformed film scholar and occasional movie critic this quote is a solemn reminder of the duties of a critic (and as a citizen, but we'll limit our brief discussion here to the film critic). Not as the final arbiter of the good and the bad, the quality and the dreck (though there is an element of that, too). No, it is as a guide to the audience, a gentle (or not so gentle) prodding either toward or away from the film under discussion.
I cannot possibly know what you will or will not respond to, and I can only relate what I have responded to, for good or for ill. And, to that end, it is my sincere hope that this simple missive may inspire you to see a film you might have otherwise dismissed or to seek out with more vigor a film you wanted but failed to see. And if I disliked a particulate favorite movie of yours, please keep in mind that there's no accounting for taste. Especially mine.
All that said, I feel comfortable stating that my opinions are 60% right. Of course there are many people to thank, but I won’t bore you with all that here. If you’re reading this, please accept my thanks. I’m grateful to all of you for different reasons and in different ways. But I can safely say that your presence in my life has not left me unchanged. And I mean that in a good way.
Finally, thanks to my always supportive family. I’m lucky to have you.
Brian Pope
February 26, 2017
THE BEST OF 2016
(in alphabetical order)
(in alphabetical order)
ARRIVAL
THE HANDMAIDEN
HELL OR HIGH WATER Two
Texas brothers rob banks that stole their family home from them, but the road
to hell is paved with good intentions. Writer
Taylor Sheridan and Scottish director David Mackenzie beautifully evoke the
post-financial crisis desolation and desperation.
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO Raoul Peck’s documentary based in part on the unfinished novel Remember This House by provocateur James Baldwin traces the fight for racial equality in the 1960s but ties in, and is just as urgent and vital, to today.
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO Raoul Peck’s documentary based in part on the unfinished novel Remember This House by provocateur James Baldwin traces the fight for racial equality in the 1960s but ties in, and is just as urgent and vital, to today.
THE LOBSTER
LOVE & FRIENDSHIP Even
Whit Stillman’s most “modern” films have always felt like the product of a bygone
era. So it should surprise no one that
his most entertaining and insightful film in years is this crisp, clear
adaptation of the relatively obscure Jane Austen novella “Lady Susan.” Kate Beckinsale has never been better.
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA Writer/director
Kenneth Lonergan has a distinctly Irish sense of tragedy, and this devastating
drama is no exception. The filmmaker
refuses easy sentimentality and pat catharsis and instead grapples with
inconsolable grief. Casey Affleck, Lucas
Hedges and Michelle Williams are exceptional.
MOONLIGHT
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS
ZOOTOPIA
Runners-Up of 2016
(in alphabetical order)
(in alphabetical order)
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!
FENCES
HIDDEN FIGURES
LION
Honorable Mentions:
THE WORST of 2016
(in alphabetical order)
(in alphabetical order)
THE BIRTH OF A NATION
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Is this a superhero movie or a philosophical
treatise? Either way, it lost me at
hello. And yet it kept on talking for
over two hours. Put a sock in it.
HACKSAW RIDGE A thick pudding of jingoism sprinkled with just enough Christian palliative to provide cover for the last hour's non-stop pornographic violence. Sanctimonious, self-righteous and shamelessly manipulative.
HACKSAW RIDGE A thick pudding of jingoism sprinkled with just enough Christian palliative to provide cover for the last hour's non-stop pornographic violence. Sanctimonious, self-righteous and shamelessly manipulative.
