What has changed in 2020..
This is the worst year anyone could have ever imagined. It couldnt have gotten worse. But not in terms of movies I guess. This had been great year for me as movie admirer. I have seen more number of films than any other year before(actually I haven't counted films before this year, but still I guess I watched more than previous years). Still not as many as some of the movie madmen who watch 2-3 movies every day for an entire year!
And with the process of watching films I have really developed a new hobby or.. an obsession, really!! For better or worse I have started watching movies differently, being more into it, and analysing and thinking about how its made, whats its meaning and all the behind the scenes developments. And because of it I obviously stumbled upon many other things which go complimentary with movies: the critics, the reviews, the interpretations of films, the behind the scene stories, the personal reasons of why the film is made, how its made, the techniques used, different opinions, debates on the film and many other things came into focus. And I loved those!! And even became sort of an outsider who really want to see whats going on within, and to be a really really small part of that process. Anyhow. So I created my own little world of love for movies, my preferences and opinions. Which most people dont like, for obvious reason of my being little cocky and pretentious, which I can't, ahem.....decline.
Its one kind of an obsession. And everyone have some of their owns. I like to keep track of what I seen, how did I like them and compartmentalize my thoughts on them, with knowing surely its own advantages and disadvantages. So, lots has changed since the previous year. And will change more maybe next year.
However putting all the rationality of films away, I loved this experience as sort of an escape(or evasion from reality, what is happening around me). It could be both! Overlooking all the cynicism, the act of watching films is really rewarding, and in some special cases very inspiring. One has to be really free of biases, scoffer attitude and skepticsm to truly gain what the process has to give. Its a great way of communication and having collective empathy towards something very personal to someone. Its great way to have an access to your part of heart which otherwise is inaccessible. Watching a good fun movie with your family or friends and forgetting about all daily worries completely for 2-3 hours is a complete bliss. Watching our own personal and inviable fantasies come true through fantasy films is also a great experience to have. Or watching well crafted animated movies, like Wall - E, Up and Zootopia to explore your child within. Or to watch an extremely revered masterpiece and feel awestruck by its greatness. These are more than enough reasons to watch movies.
The 2020 movie log
Here is the list of movies I have seen this year. I have lost some of the entries by not recollecting their names(I started listing the entries after couple of months of 2020). This is definitive list of films which I have surely seen in 2020. And have omitted suspicious ones.
The List: https://boxd.it/aqHdg
Rewatched Movies List: https://boxd.it/awzQ2
I used Letterboxd to keep track of movies. Its good alternative to write entries on text files, which I earlier did. IMDb is also good but Letterboxd is more time efficient, if you just want to keep track of movies.
My Top 25 favorite movies of 2020
The link: Top 25
Stats:
Total Movies watched: 153
Language wise division-
Bollywood/tolly/indian------- 24
Hollywood and english language------ 120
Foreign Language----- 9
Category wise division-
Animation-13 | Oscar winners-10 | Sci fi-13 | Horror-31 | Fantasy-13 | War-6 | History-7 | Romance-13 | Action-27 | Comedy-37 | Mystery-29 |
Directorwise Division:
Wes Anderson - 9 | Martin Scorsese - 6 | Quentin Tarantino - 5 | Christopher Nolan - 4 | Denis Villeneuve - 4 | Steven Spielberg - 4 | David Fincher- 4 | Spike Jonze - 3 | Stanley Kubrick - 3 | Alfred Hitchcock - 3 | Pete Doctor - 3 |
Some of my Shitty movie awards-
Most Bizarre, Confusing and Weird:
Movies which made think, wad da fuq??
Winner: Eraserhead
Runner ups: | 1. The Lighthouse | 2. Mulholland Drive | 3. 2001 : A Space Odyssey | 4. Jacobs Ladder | 5. Enemy | 6. Tenet
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Best Music/Score:
Lots of contenders here!!
Winner: Its tie!! La La Land / The Shape Of Water
Runner Ups: | 1. Coco | 2. Chinatown | 3. Rushmore | 4. Arrival | 5. Life Of Pi | 6. Up | 7. Slumdog Millionaire | 8. Joker | 9. Hugo | 10. Wall-E | 11. Hum Aapke Hai Kon(14 songs!!)
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Best Animated movie:
Winner: Wall-E
Runner Ups: | 1. Coco | 2. Up | 3. Inside Out | 4. Isle Of Dogs | 5. Zootopia | 6. Ratatouille
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Most Visually Stunning Movies:
Biggest list of contenders!!
Winner: Mirror
Runner Ups: | 1. Blade Runner 2049 | 2. Her | 3. The Shape Of Water | 4. Arrival | 5. Life Of Pi | 6. Hugo | 7. Amelie | 8. La La Land | 9. Dunkirk | 10. Enemy | 11. Ex Machina | 12. Nocturnal Animals | 13. Vertigo | 14. The Revenant | 15. Russian Ark | 16. Spider-man: Into The Spider verse | 17. Escape Room | 18. Mad Max: Fury Road | 19. Every Wes Anderson movie
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Best Comedy movie:
Winner: The Big Lebowski
Runner Ups: | 1. Birdman | 2. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest | 3. Rushmore | 4. Fargo | 5. Bottle Rocket | 6. The King Of Comedy | 7. Being John Malkovich | 8. Knives Out | 9. Parasite
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Most disturbing:
Most gruesome, terrifying and scarring movies!
Winner: Martyrs
Runner Ups: | The Descent | 2. A serbian Film | 3. Antichrist | 4. Hereditary | 5. Saw
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Greatest Movie Ending:
Movies with most unexpected, sudden, and satisfying/dis-satisfying endings.
Winner: The Game
Runner Ups: | 1. Vertigo | 2. Chinatown | 3. The Sixth Sense | 4. Durgamati | 5. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest | 6. Ittefaq | 7. Psycho | 8. Donnie Darko | 9. Enemy | 10. 36 China Town | 11. Rosemary's Baby | 12. Martyrs | 13. Knives Out | 14. The Gift
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Best Indian movie:
Best Indian movie i've seen this year!!
(although I haven't seen many)
Winner: Manto
Runner Ups: | 1. Ittefaq | 2. Raazi | 3. Hum Aapke Hain Kon | 4. Lootcase | 5. Maattrraan | 6. Chhalaang | 7. 36 China Town
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Best Actor:
Winner : Robert De Niro(5)
Runner Ups : | 1. Tom Hanks(4) | 2. Leonardo Di Caprio(4) | 3. Willem Dafoe(5) | 4. Jake Gyllenhaal(5) | 5. Al Pacino(4) | 6. Jack Nicholson(4) | 7. Harvey Keitel(8) | 8. Bill Murray(8) | 9. Owen Wilson(8) | 10. Joaquin Phoenix(2) |
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Best Actress:
Winner : Amy Adams(3)
Runner Ups : | 1. Faya Dunaway(1) | 2. Toni Collette(3) | 3. Mia Farrow(1) | 4. Emma Stone(2) | 5. Sigourney Weaver(4) | 6. Natalie Portman(2) | 7. Diane Keaton(3) | 8. Audrey Tautou(1) | 9. Michelle Williams(2) | 10. Jennifer Jason Leigh(2)
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Best Foreign Movie:
Winner : Mirror
Runner Ups : | 1. Russian Ark | 2. Amelie | 3. Parasite | 4. Martyrs | 5. Ivan's Childhood | 6. Pan's Labyrinth |
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Best Horror Movie:
Winner : Rosemary's Baby
Runner Ups : | 1. Martyrs | 2. Antichrist | 3. Hereditary | 4. The Shining | 5. Alien | 6. The Descent |
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Key Learnings this year:
Animations: Animations are great! I had not watched a lot of animated movies before this year and I regret that. Someone recommended me few such movies and I wanted change from my usual genres. And it was fantastic! These films have great way of communicating which other cant do. It creates a childlike credulous which is must to have in certain proportions. These are pure fun!
Dont fall prey of general opinions:
General opinion is that Nolan is greatest filmmaker ever! Now I love Nolan but these opinions really screw your judgement of things in respect with movies. He is great not the greatest.(he may be for someone subjectively, the way Scorsese is my greatest filmmaker, but he is my most favorite not the greatest, objectively) Neither 3 Idiots is greatest Indian movie ever made. And there are tons of such opinions. These biases are contagious and spread more faster than Corona. I am not against these opinions but it would be good to consider them just that, opinions. Because of it you miss much more things which you haven't discovered yet.
Hollywood is not greater than Bollywood :
I may change my opinion later on. But this is what I think right now. It is obvious someone to consider otherwise, who watches more foreign movies and even that may be right. But comparing these to itself is quite impractical, these are two different cultures and is pretty obvious that, what they produce will be different than what we produce. Indian cinema have its own masterpieces, while accepting the fact that these are overshadowed by hollow, regular masala movies of Bollywood. But the point is, we have great gems too.
What about next year:
More classics: Classics are fun. Although you have to completely give up your pre-defined approach of watching such movies. These movies are pure gems and somehow with time the purpose of making films have changed. The purpose of earlier movies was much more broad and vast, in terms of what they wanted to convey. The 'films' are now have become 'movies'.
Enjoy more than analyse: Well that sounds ironical but it is really important to watch the movie for what it is and be really perceiving and be neutral minded while watching films. Thats only when you truly enjoy a film, and more importantly understand it.
Have a limit: Seriously! There are lot other important things to do. Its great to have such interest in something, but their is thin line between doing something and overdoing something. However I don't feel guilty about allowing myself to give so much time to movies, because everyone have their way of wasting time. So..... I dont know.
Stick to the list: I have literally more than thousand films I want watch right now. And it is quite irresistible temptation to watch the ones which come your way. The ones which you know will never give neither pure entertainment nor any cinematic experience. However there are exceptions and allow yourself to watch random things here and there.
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