The second year of the pandemic was marked by a discovery of some unexpectedly great Soviet cinema and the discovery that Pasolini's Greek tragedy films seem more interesting and better to this viewer than their reputation would suggest (possibly partly because they are served very well by having been digitally restored). The most unenjoyable film experience of the year was undoubtedly viewing Knives Out (2019), a sense of which I tried to capture in my mini-review.
- 2021 SUMMARY
New films watched during 2021: 282 films. Average percentile: 49.
Masterpieces (scores between 91 and 100) watched in 2021: 0.
Percentile between 90 and 99 watched in 2021: 11 films. They were: Can't Get You Out of My Head (2021), Quei loro incontri (2006), The River (1951), Gamlet (1964), I am Twenty (1965), Sátántangó (1994), Aeschylus’ Oresteia (Tony Harrison adaptation) (1983), Edipo re (1967), July Rain (1967), Pirosmani (1969), Quatre nuits d'un rêveur (1971).
Percentile between 80 and 89 in 2021: 35 films.
Lowest scoring films watched in 2021: A score of 20: The Devil and Father Amorth (2018), Knives Out (2019), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986). A score of 15: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), Stowaway (2021).
First and last films watched in 2021: first was The Golem (1920); last was Don't Look Up (2021). Somehow this seems to capture a sense of a century of cinema and its relationship to society and politics.
Seen at the theatre in 2021: 0 films (the last time I went to the cinema to see a new film was on 24 September 2019, to see Ad Astra, although I did see Badlands again at a theatre in Hangzhou a bit later that year).
2021 films watched: 41 films. Highest score was for Can't Get You Out of My Head, with a score of 88, followed by Pretend It's a City and Don't Look Up with a score of 72. The lowest score for a 2021 movie was received by Stowaway (15), not because it is so bad, exactly, but because it's conception of ethics seems totally wrongheaded.
Re-watched in 2021: 71 films. Among them: Scenes from a Marriage (1973), leading to a decrease from 100 to 99, and Mirror (1975), increased to 99.
Some very slight shifts in the relationship between scores and percentiles at end of 2021:- 93 to 100: 99th percentile
91 to 92: 98th percentile
90: 97th percentile
88: 96th percentile
86: 95th percentile
84: 94th percentile
82: 92nd percentile
80: 90th percentile
78: 88th percentile
76: 86th percentile
74: 83rd percentile
72: 80th percentile
70: 76th percentile
65: 70th percentile
60: 61st percentile
55: 51st percentile
50: 41st percentile
45: 32nd percentile
40: 24th percentile
35: 18th percentile
30: 12th percentile
25: 6th percentile
20: 2nd percentile
0 to 15: 0th percentile
- 93 to 100: 99th percentile
