1. *
Election (Alexander Payne, 1999) - January 1 - Late 90s comedy classic. Love it.
2.
Himizu (Sion Sono, 2011) - January 2 - Great film, but not quite as great as everyone says.
3.
I Saw the Devil (Kim Jee-woon, 2010) - January 3 - Most disturbing movie I've ever seen. I still liked it though.
4.
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (Gerald Peary, 2009) - January 5 - Decent documentary. Nothing mind-blowing.
5.
The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971) - January 15 - Not necessarily the best, but still a great example of why the 1970s is my favorite decade of American cinema.
6.
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014) - January 17 - The scenes of Joanna Newsom delivering the narration didn't work out as well, but other than that, this movie is **** fantastic. Can't wait to see it again.
7.
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) - January 22 - Not the movie I was expecting it to be. Not better or worse than I expected, really, but just different. Good movie though.
8.
Kingdom of Dreams and Madness - (Mami Sunada, 2013) - January 23 - Great look inside Studio Ghibli. Kind of makes me want to do more animation... which I haven't done in like 5 years now though.
9. *
The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006) - February 5 - Leave it to Scorsese to do a remake of a foreign movie that actually almost reaches the quality of the original.
10. *
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012) - February 7 - I love this movie so much that any praise I give it will sound hyperbolic. But yeah. I relate to Greta Gerwig's eponymous character so much.
11.
His Royal Slyness (Hal Roach, 1920) - February 13 - Not my favorite Harold Lloyd movie, but a solid film nonetheless.
12. *
Infernal Affairs (Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, 2002) - February 15 - The movie
The Departed was a remake of. As much as I like the remake, the original still edges it out.
13. *
Happy End - (Jung Ji-woo, 1999) - February 20 - A landmark film of the beginning of the Korean Wave in cinema, it really bothered me to see such a great film advertised as some smutty sex romp on Amazon Prime and Hulu. Yes, there are a few sex scenes (which are cut significantly shorter in the Amazon Prime version to boot), but
Happy End is a great film for its compelling drama, along with the performances of Jeon Do-yeon and Choi Min-sik. Also, for some odd reason even though Jeon's character is incredibly unsympathetic, I found myself liking her simply because she was played by Jeon Do-yeon, which was also kind of my reaction when I saw it the first time back in school. Probably not the most common reaction.
14.
Boyhood - (Richard Linklater, 2014) - February 21 - Incredible. I wanted it to keep going. Along with
The Tale of Princess Kaguya, one of the most astounding films from 2014 I've seen.
15.
3 Women - (Robert Altman, 1977) - February 25 - Surreal. Trippy. I liked it, and I feel like I'm definitely going to be watching this one again sometime in the near future.
16.
Russian Ark - (Alexander Sokurov, 2002) - March 4 - I think I respect this movie more than I like it. Which isn't to say that I didn't like it, though. From a craft point of view, it's one of the most ambitious and impressive films I've seen, so I feel kind of bad saying that overall I just kind of mildly enjoyed it.
17.
I Wish I Had a Wife (Park Heung-sik, 2001) - Enjoyable, if inconsequential. It has Jeon Do-yeon in it though.
18.
Witness (Peter Weir, 1985) - March 11 - Solid, unique police procedural. Good, but not especially memorable
19. *
Once Upon a Time in China (Tsui Hark, 1991) - March 15 - Classic in every sense of the word. Without question one of the best martial arts films ever made.
20.
Life Itself (Steve James, 2014) - March 21 - About as good of a tribute to Roger Ebert as he deserves... in other words, a really damn good documentary.
21.
Hoop Dreams (Steve James, 1994) - March 25 - Truly lives up to its reputation. Also, watching it during March Madness seems quite fitting.
22. *
Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973) - March 26 - Martin
**** Scorsese's breakthrough film. This was just a preview of the man who would eventually become the United States' best film director (fight me). You can see several of the his stylistic trademarks in nascent form here. A great film from a man who would go on to make several even better films.
23. *
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) - March 28 - One of my top ten favorite movies ever made, period.
24.
Panic Room (David Fincher, 2002) - March 29 - This movie came on TV without me intending to watch it, but I got sucked into it right away. Super intense. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the ending, but I liked it a lot overall.
25.
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013) - March 29 - Martin Scorsese has made movies about some unseemly characters. Jordan Belfort might be the unseemliest. So is Leo getting that Oscar anytime soon?
26. *
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) - March 30 - Without question, one of the greatest films ever made. If you dare speak to the contrary, I may have to make you an offer you can't refuse.
27.
Jane Eyre (Cary Fukanaga, 2011) - April 1 - Visually beautiful, but that's about all that really stuck with me. I can see why the story is so popular, but it's just not for me.
28. *
Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983) - April 25 - Ah, excessive cocaine and an entertainingly cartoonish performance from Al Pacino. Not as great as its legions of die-hard fans say it is, but still an enjoyable movie nonetheless.
29. *
Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932) - April 30 - Very different from the remake, but just about equal, I'd say. I love how there's a warning in the beginning of the movie that it's supposed to be a "serious, socially aware" movie about the dangers of the mafia... yeah, no. This was made for pure entertainment.
30.
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014) - May 9 - I've never really been that big on Nolan, but this is the first movie I've seen of his that I really liked a lot.
31. *
Serpico (Sidney Lumet, 1973) - May 20 - The 1970s "New Hollywood" era is one of my favorite decades in the history of cinema. This gritty film from Sidney Lumet is a shining example of why. Al Pacino truly captures the frustration the eponymous in trying to stamp out police corruption, a problem which still exists today.
32.
Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015) - May 24 - I liked it well enough, but it didn't quite live up to the hype. The exploration of the possibilities of artificial intelligence was interesting, though.
