"The Brutalist"

Excellent. Long. Excellent, though. It feels excavated, mined, scraped, polished, planned and executed- all while unfolding with real, raw feelings of characters who were superbly realized on screen.

"I'm Still Here"

For a ways into the film, I thought it could be the front-runner for best picture. It had so many things working for it, and its acting and filming were incredibly effective...

And it didn't wasn't a bad movie after that, but as it kept going, it left me with a more modest regard.

"Night of the Hunter"

Wow- it both tells you what it is from the onset And delivers intriguing twists and turns along the way.

Also manages to be both an über noir while working against some of the most popular noir tropes.

"The Girl With the Needle"

Reminds me of Phantom Thread and Spencer, with their Radiohead- driven soundtracks and moody story progressions.

A good film noir that was more challenging to watch than expected!

"A Real Pain"

Really good movie. Jesse Eisenberg seems to be a very capable filmmaker; top to bottom.

Nothing overly flashy or grand about the movie, it was just good, high quality film making that felt real and said something about humans in our time.

Emilia Pérez:

This year's "Crash" but with music.

It's like a soap opera became a musical, and they made a soap opera about it.

"Evil Does Not Exist"

Watched on Criterion channel. Very worthwhile. Its relatively succinct runtime benefits it significantly, as the deliberate, real-time feel of its long tracking shots through nature, normal conversations, and tense community gatherings nonetheless build to an unforgettable end

And the list I forgot to post during the holidays:

"Next Christmas, when the War is Over..."

*The Great Dictator
*Casablanca
*Joyeux Noel
*A Midnight Clear
*It's a Wonderful Life

youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Happy Noir Year:

*To Have and Have Not
*The Maltese Falcon
*White Heat
*Key Largo
*Double Indemnity
*Sunset Boulevard
*Night of the Hunter
*The Good German

Conclave: More of a culture war movie than expected; less surrealist-fantasy than I suspected; great acting and good plotting, with very skilled ratcheting up of tension.

Could easily rack up acting nominations.

Part 2:

Deconstructed Westerns:

*Unforgiven
*The Wild Bunch
*Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson

Reconstructed Westerns:

*3:10 to Yuma
*Hostiles
*No Country for Old Men

Current Movie Marathon:
Manageable Westerns

The classic/seminal Western:

*Tombstone
*The Searchers
*Fistful of Dollars
*The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence

Westerns as a form to Tell a Different Story:

*Shane
*Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
*Nomadland