New York Times Best Films of the 21st Century (So Far) Readers Ballot

 

Most of these movies have populated my all-time top ten for a long time. When I was putting it together I was also finishing up the years favorites listings, which made me reconsider how I’ve been compiling that all-time list. So that’s the next step for this blog. First an all-time top ten, and then probably a new attempt at a top hundred, hopefully taking in a more comprehensive look at the history of film than I have in the past. I want to explain all these choices, too. On this blog I’ve picked away so slowly at exploring my perspective on film, most of these have barely come up. For a blog without readers, I guess that’s fine, but the art of film has always been important to me, and I still see no one else out there who sees it the way I do. For me these are obvious choices, that reflect both the best instincts of the past and the way forward, which is also why I can justify the relative clumping to a handful of years. These are filmmakers and actors who continued to dominate the form, many of whom are still taken for granted today.

1937 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Other Notable Releases

• A Day at the Races
• A Star Is Born
• The Awful Truth
• Captains Courageous
• The Life of Emile Zola
• Lost Horizon
• The Prisoner of Zenda
• Topper

1938 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Adventures of Robin Hood

Other Notable Releases

• The Big Broadcast of 1938
• Boys Town
• Jezebel
• You Can't Take It with You

1939 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Wizard of Oz
2. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
3. Gone with the Wind

Other Notable Releases

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• Dark Victory
• Destry Rides Again
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips
• Gunga Din
• The Hound of the Baskervilles
• Ninotchka
• Stagecoach
• Young Mr. Lincoln

1940 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Fantasia
2. The Grapes of Wrath
3. Pinocchio

Other Notable Releases

• The Great Dictator
• His Girl Friday
• The Mark of Zorro
• The Philadelphia Story
• Rebecca
• The Sea Hawk
• The Shop Around the Corner

1941 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Citizen Kane
2. The Maltese Falcon
3. Dumbo
4. Meet John Doe
5. Sergeant York

Other Notable Releases

• High Sierra
• How Green Was My Valley
• The Lady Eve
• Road to Zanzibar
• Sullivan's Travels
• Suspicion
• That Hamilton Woman
• They Died with Their Boots On
• The Wolf Man

1942 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Yankee Doodle Dandy
2. The Magnificent Ambersons
3. Mrs. Miniver
4. The Pride of the Yankees
5. Bambi
6. Woman of the Year
7. Pittsburgh
8. The Spoilers

Other Notable Releases

• Holiday Inn
• Now, Voyager
• Reap the Wild Wind
• Road to Morocco 

1943 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Casablanca
2. This is the Army
3. The Song of Bernadette

Other Notable Releases

• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Heaven Can Wait
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• The Ox-Bow Incident

1944 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Double Indemnity

Other Notable Releases

• Arsenic and Old Lace
• Cover Girl
• Going My Way
• Meet Me in St. Louis
• To Have and Have Not

1945 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Anchors Aweigh
2. State Fair

Other Notable Releases

• Back to Bataan
• The Bells of St. Mary's
• The Lost Weekend
• Mildred Pierce
• They Were Expendable

1946 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. It's a Wonderful Life
2. The Big Sleep
3. Till the Clouds Roll By

Other Notable Releases

• The Best Years of Our Lives
• Gilda
• The Killers
• My Darling Clementine
• Notorious
• Of Human Bondage
• The Postman Always Rings Twice
• Road to Utopia
• Song of the South
• The Virginian

1947 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Lady from Shanghai
2. Miracle on 34th Street
3. The Egg and I

Other Notable Releases

• Angel and the Badman
• The Bishop's Wife
• Gentleman's Agreement
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
• Road to Rio
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• Sinbad the Sailor

1948 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Key Largo
2. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Other Notable Releases

• 3 Godfathers
• Fort Apache
• Joan of Arc
• Macbeth
• Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
• The Paleface

1949 Films Ranked/Viewed

Viewed/Ranked

1. On the Town
2. The Fountainhead
3. Ma and Pa Kettle
4. Port of New York

Other Notable Releases

• Adam's Rib
• All the King's Men
• Black Magic
• I Was a Male War Bride
• Little Women
• Mighty Joe Young
• Sands of Iwo Jima
• She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
• Twelve O'Clock High
• White Heat

1950 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Third Man
2. Harvey
3. The Men
4. Cinderella

Other Notable Releases

• All About Eve
• The Asphalt Jungle
• The Black Rose
• Born Yesterday
• Broken Arrow
• Cheaper by the Dozen
• Father of the Bride
• Francis (the Talking Mule)
• In a Lonely Place
• King Solomon's Mines
• Rio Grande
• Sunset Boulevard
• Winchester '73

1951 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. A Streetcar Named Desire
2. Strangers on a Train
3. Superman and the Mole Men

Other Notable Releases

• A Place in the Sun
• The African Queen
• Alice in Wonderland
• An American in Paris
• Bedtime for Bonzo
• The Day the Earth Stood Still
• The Enforcer
• Halls of Montezuma
• Quo Vidas

1952 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. High Noon
2. The Snows of Kilimanjaro
3. Singin' in the Rain
4. Scaramouche
5. Road to Bali
6. The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima
7. Mutiny

Other Notable Releases

• The Greatest Show on Earth
• Limelight
• The Prisoner of Zenda
• The Quiet Man
• Viva Zapata!

1953 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Wild One
2. From Here to Eternity
3. Peter Pan
4. Julius Caesar
5. The Robe

Other Notable Releases

• The Band Wagon
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
• Hondo
• House of Wax
• Roman Holiday
• Shane
• Stalag 17

1954 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. On the Waterfront
2. White Christmas
3. Rear Window
4. The Glenn Miller Story
5. Demetrius and the Gladiators

Other Notable Releases

• A Star Is Born
• The Barefoot Contessa
• Brigadoon
• The Caine Mutiny
• Creature from the Black Lagoon
• Dial M for Murder
• Dragnet
• The High and the Mighty
• The Last Time I Saw Paris
• Sabrina
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
• There's No Business Like Show Business

1955 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Rebel Without a Cause
2. Guys and Dolls
3. Lady and the Tramp
4. Oklahoma!
5. East of Eden
6. The Seven Little Foys

Other Notable Releases

• Blackboard Jungle
• The Desperate Hours
• The Left Hand of God
• Love Me or Leave Me
• The Man from Laramie
• Marty
• The Night of the Hunter
• The Seven Year Itch
• To Catch a Thief
• We're No Angels

1956 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Ten Commandments
2. The Searchers
3. The King and I
4. Moby Dick
5. The Man Who Knew Too Much
6. The Teahouse of the August Moon
7. The Conqueror

Other Notable Releases

• Anastasia
• Forbidden Planet
• Friendly Persuasion
• Giant
• Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
• The Harder They Fall
• High Society
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers
• Love Me Tender
• Lust for Life
• Somebody Up There Likes Me

1957 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. An Affair to Remember
2. The Bridge on the River Kwai
3. Jailhouse Rock
4. Jet Pilot

Other Notable Releases

• 3:10 to Yuma
• 12 Angry Men
• A Face in the Crowd
• Desk Set
• Funny Face
• Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
• Hellcats of the Navy
• The Incredible Shrinking Man
• Old Yeller
• Paths of Glory
• Peyton Place
• Sayonara
• The Spirit of St. Louis
• Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
• Witness for the Prosecution
• Zero Hour!

1958 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Touch of Evil
2. Vertigo
3. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Other Notable Releases

• Auntie Mame
• The Barbarian and the Geisha
• Bell, Book and Candle
• The Blob
• The Brothers Karamazov
• The Defiant Ones
• The Fly
• Gigi
• I Want to Live!
• King Creole
• South Pacific
• The Young Lions

1959 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. North by Northwest
2. Ben-Hur
3. The Shaggy Dog
4. Sleeping Beauty
5. Darby O'Gill and the Little People

Other Notable Releases

• Anatomy of a Murder
• Gidget
• The Horse Soldiers
• House on Haunted Hill
• Imitation of Life
• Operation Petticoat
• Pillow Talk
• Plan 9 from Outer Space
• Porgy and Bess
• Rio Bravo
• Some Like It Hot

1960 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Psycho
2. The Magnificent Seven
3. North to Alaska
4. The Little Shop of Horrors

Other Notable Films

• The Alamo
• The Apartment
• Cinderfella
• Exodus
• The Fugitive Kind
• Inherit the Wind
• La Dolce Vita
• Ocean's 11
• Spartacus

1961 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. One Hundred and One Dalmatians 
2. The Absent-Minded Professor
3. King of Kings
4. West Side Story
5. One-Eyed Jacks
6. The Misfits
7. Babes in Toyland

Other Notable Releases

• A Raisin in the Sun
• Breakfast at Tiffany's
• The Comancheros
• El Cid
• The Guns of Navarone
• Judgment at Nuremberg
• The Parent Trap
• Splendor in the Grass
• Yojimbo

1962 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
3. Cape Fear
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Mutiny on the Bounty

Other Notable Releases

• Billy Budd
• Birdman of Alcatraz
• Gypsy
• Hatari!
• The Longest Day
• The Miracle Worker
• Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation
• The Music Man
• The Road to Hong Kong
• Sanjuro
• State Fair

1963 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Great Escape
2. McLintock!
3. The Pink Panther
4. The Sword in the Stone
5. From Russia with Love
6. Son of Flubber
7. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
8. How the West Was Won
9. Jason and the Argonauts

Other Notable Releases

• The Birds
• Bye Bye Birdie
• Charade
• Cleopatra
• The Courtship of Eddie's Father
• Donovan's Reef
• Hud
• Lilies of the Field
• The Nutty Professor
• Tom Jones
• Toys in the Attic
• The Ugly American

1964 Films Ranked/Viewed

Viewed/Ranked

1. Becket
2. Dr. Strangelove
3. Mary Poppins
4. A Shot in the Dark
5. Goldfinger
6. A Fistful of Dollars
7. Cheyenne Autumn
8. Viva Las Vegas

Other Notable Films

• A Hard Day's Night
• Fail Safe
• My Fair Lady
• The Night of the Iguana
• Robin and the 7 Hoods
• Zorba the Greek

1965 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Agony and the Ecstasy
2. The Sound of Music
3. The Greatest Story Ever Told
4. For a Few Dollars More
5. Doctor Zhivago
6. Shenandoah
7. Major Dundee
8. Girl Happy
9. That Darn Cat!

Other Notable Releases

• Cat Ballou
• The Flight of the Phoenix
• The Great Race
• Morituri
• The Sons of  Katie Elder
• Thunderball
• What's New, Pussycat?

1966 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. A Man for All Seasons
2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
3. The Professionals
4. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

Other Notable Releases

• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
• Alfie
• Batman
• Blowup
• Django
• Fantastic Voyage
• The Fortune Cookie
• One Million Years B.C.
• Our Man Flint
• What's Up, Tiger Lily?
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1967 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. A Countess from Hong Kong
2. Bonnie and Clyde
3. Who's That Knocking at My Door
4. The Jungle Book
5. The Dirty Dozen
6. The War Wagon
7. Reflections in a Golden Eye
8. The Reluctant Astronaut
9. The Born Losers

Other Notable Releases

• Barefoot in the Park
• Casino Royale
• Cool Hand Luke
• Doctor Dolittle
• The Graduate
• Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
• The Happiest Millionaire
• In the Heat of the Night
• Thoroughly Modern Millie
• To Sir, with Love
• You Only Live Twice

1968 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Lion in Winter
2. The Odd Couple
3. The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band
4. Yellow Submarine
5. The Producers
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. Planet of the Apes
8. Hellfighters
9. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
10. Oliver!
11. The Shakiest Gun in the West

Other Notable Releases

• Bullitt
• Coogan's Bluff
• Funny Girl
• The Green Berets
• Hang 'Em High
• Night of the Living Dead
• Once Upon a Time in the West
• Rosemary's Baby
• The Thomas Crown Affair
• Yours, Mine and Ours

1969 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
2. True Grit
3. Support Your Local Sheriff!
4. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
5. The Wild Bunch
6. Easy Rider
7. The Love Bug
8. The Night of the Following Day

Other Notable Releases

• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
• Medium Cool
• Midnight Cowboy
• Paint Your Wagon
• Take the Money and Run
• The Wrecking Crew

1970 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. M*A*S*H
2. Tora! Tora! Tora!
3. Chisum
4. Kelly's Heroes

Other Notable Releases

• Airport
• The Aristocats
• Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
• Crimes of the Future
• Five Easy Pieces
• Hercules in New York
• Let It Be
• Little Big Man
• Love Story
• The Molly Maguires
• The Out-of-Towners
• Patton
• Rio Lobo
• The Twelve Chairs

1971 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. A Clockwork Orange
2. Support Your Local Gunfighter
3. THX 1138
4. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
5. And Now for Something Completely Different
6. The French Connection
7. Fiddler on the Roof
8. How to Frame a Figg
9. Billy Jack

Other Notable Releases

• The Anderson Tapes
• The Andromeda Strain
• Bananas
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• The Beguiled
• Big Jake
• Brian's Song
• Diamonds Are Forever
• Dirty Harry
• Duck You, Sucker!
• Duel
• Get Carter
• Harold and Maude
• Klute
• The Last Picture Show
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller
• The Omega Man
• Play Misty for Me
• Shaft
• Sometimes A Great Notion
• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

1972 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Godfather
2. Man of La Mancha
3. Boxcar Bertha
4. Last Tango in Paris
5. Jeremiah Johnson
6. Brother Sun, Sister Moon
7. Slaughterhouse-Five

Other Notable Releases

• Blacula
• Cabaret
• Deliverance
• Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)
• Fist of Fury
• The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid
• Lady Sings the Blues
• Play It Again, Sam
• The Poseidon Adventure
• Silent Running
• Sleuth
• Solaris
• Sounder
• Super Fly
• Way of the Dragon

1973 Films Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
2. American Graffiti
3. Serpico
4. Mean Streets
5. Enter the Dragon
6. The Exorcist
7. Westworld
8. Robin Hood

Other Notable Releases

• Badlands
• Charley Varrick
• Cleopatra Jones
• The Day of the Jackal
• The Friends of Eddie Coyle
• High Plains Drifter
• Live and Let Die
• Magnum Force
• Paper Moon
• Papillon
• Sleeper
• Soylent Green
• The Sting
• Walking Tall
• The Way We Were

1974 Films Viewed/Ranked

 Viewed/Ranked

1. Blazing Saddles
2. The Godfather Part II
3. Young Frankenstein 
4. F for Fake
5. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
6. Herbie Rides Again
7. The Trial of Billy Jack

Other Notable Releases

• Chinatown
• The Conversation
• Death Wish
• Foxy Brown
• The Front Page
• Gone in 60 Seconds
• The Great Gatsby
• Lenny
• The Longest Yard
• The Lords of Flatbush
• The Man with the Golden Gun
• The Parallax View
• Seizure
• The Sugarland Express
• The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• That's Entertainment!
• Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
• The Towering Inferno
• Zardoz

1975 Films Viewed/Ranked

 Viewed/Ranked

1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
2. The Man Who Would Be King
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
4. Return of the Pink Panther
5. Rooster Cogburn
6. Dog Day Afternoon
7. Nashville
8. Jaws
9. The Apple Dumpling Gang
10. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
11. Escape to Witch Mountain

Other Notable Releases

• Barry Lyndon
• Brannigan
• The Day of the Locust
• Dolemite
• Death Race 2000
• Funny Lady
• Shampoo
• The Stepford Wives
• The Sunshine Boys
• Three Days of the Condor
• Tommy

1976 Films Viewed/Ranked

 Viewed/Ranked

1. Taxi Driver
2. The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
3. Rocky
4. The Pink Panther Strikes Again
5. The Shootist
6. The Missouri Breaks
7. All the President's Men
8. Robin & Marian
9. The Outlaw Josey Wales
10. Network
11. The Shaggy D.A.

Other Notable Releases

• A Star is Born
• Assault on Precinct 13
• Bad News Bears
• Carrie
• The Enforcer
• Logan's Run
• The Man Who Fell to Earth
• Marathon Man
• The Omen
• The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
• Silent Movie
• Silver Streak

1977 Films Viewed/Ranked

 Viewed/Ranked

1. Star Wars
2. Annie Hall
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
4. Jabberwocky
5. High Anxiety
6. Smokey and the Bandit
7. Sorcerer
8. Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo
9. Pete's Dragon

Other Notable Releases

• A Bridge Too Far
• The Duellists
• Eraserhead
• The Hobbit
• Looking for Mr. Goodbar
• New York, New York
• Oh, God!
• Pumping Iron
• The Rescuers
• Saturday Night Fever
• Slap Shot
• The Spy Who Loved Me

1978 Films Viewed/Ranked

 Viewed/Ranked

1. Superman
2. Days of Heaven
3. The Wiz
4. The Buddy Holly Story
5. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
6. Revenge of the Pink Panther
7. Heaven Can Wait
8. The Deer Hunter
9. Return from Witch Mountain

Other Notable Releases

• Animal House
• The Boys from Brazil
• Coming Home
• Dawn of the Dead
• Drunken Master
• Force 10 from Navarone
• Game of Death
• Grease
• Halloween
• Ice Castles
• The Last Waltz
• The Lord of the Rings
• Midnight Express
• Up in Smoke

1979 Films Viewed/Ranked

 Viewed/Ranked

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Star Trek The Motion Picture
3. Monty Python's Life of Brian
4. The Champ
5. Rocky II
6. More American Graffiti
7. Alien
8. The Muppets Movie
9. Mad Max
10. Time After Time
11. The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
12. Being There

Other Notable Releases

• 10
• 1941
• All That Jazz
• The Amityville Horror
• ...And Justice for All
• The Black Hole
• Caligula
• The China Syndrome
• Cuba
• Dracula
• The Frisco Kid
• Hair
• The Jerk
• Kramer vs. Kramer
• Manhattan
• Meatballs
• Moonraker
• Norma Rae
• The Prisoner of Zenda
• The Rose
• The Warriors

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) Review

rating: ****

the story: Pat Garrett hunts down his old friend Billy the Kid.

the review: I recently sat down making my way through three edits of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and basically, I loved it.  There's a lot of passion and history behind those edits, but what it boils down to is a film that's much more about Pat Garrett than Billy the Kid, and then, at that, less about his conflicted feelings and more about the sequence of events that led from the badge to the murder.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is nearly twenty years old at this point, and is unquestionably the greater cinematic achievement, but probably it would never have existed without Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.  Neither film spends a lot of time explaining the bona fides of their infamous outlaws, but plenty of time exploring the journeys the men who kill them take.  For Pat Garrett, there's precious little time spent sharing a screen, without bullets, with Billy.  Instead it's Sam Peckinpah indulging himself one last time in the lush visual language of the old west, including Pat's snazzy black duds that when updated with modern technology pop off the screen just as if he were Darth Vader hunting down Han Solo.

Which, by the way, there's plenty of that to be found here, too.  Kris Kristofferson's Billy is a visual template for Han, and James Coburn's Pat is given another possible origin for Han's famous cantina showdown with Greedo (Harrison Ford himself had another in an episode of Gunsmoke).  

Another valuable screen hand in Jason Robards casually points Pat in Billy's direction, but the reason I really cared about any of this is the enigmatic character known as Alias, who happens to be played by Bob Dylan.  Peckinpah apparently felt Bob was an unwanted studio mandate, which is insane.  I mean, if you have the young Bob Dylan in a western, wouldn't your first thought, as director, be nothing but abject gratitude?  Maybe Sam wasn't much for music, although Bob certainly was.  He composed "Knocking on Heaven's Door" for Pat Garrett, and it ends up featured in the movie's best scene.  He also fiddled around with the song that would become "Wagon Wheel" in the recording sessions, by the way.  His acting isn't much, but there isn't much asked of it.  Mostly he's just the one guy smart enough to be faithful to Billy but also convincing factor into Pat's plans, the middle ground that's essential to discovering where these legends fit together when the film itself doesn't bother.

Coburn is effortlessly cool and so much more appealing than Kristofferson, who spends the movie basically preening, assured that the peasants around him are in awe of the legend, when they really should admire Pat as much as we do thanks to Coburn.  These are all sketches, which is probably why the film had such a hard time finding appreciation on original release, why the studio had no idea what Peckinpah was trying to accomplish, which was nothing less than an ode to a dying era, both historically and as a film genre.  He's not asking that you find either title character heroic, which is why he never frames either of their narratives.  We are simply asked to bear witness.

Like so with the film itself.  It's an essential part of film lore.

A Complete Unknown (2024) Review

rating: *****

the story: A young Bob Dylan navigates his early career while remaining stubbornly true to himself.

the review: While I was waiting for Conclave to make sense, I kept wondering what was going to pop out unequivocally to me as the best movie of 2024, and then I saw A Complete Unknown, and it was no longer in doubt.  I was going to see it anyway; catching up with Bob Dylan has been a hobby of mine for more than a decade.  I had figured out that I loved the guy's music, and I understood his role in pop music history, but it wasn't until A Complete Unknown that I got to see a version of how it played out at the time.

Biopics are a staple of American film, and musical biopics especially, these days, since it's easy to assume that the music itself will sell the movie if nothing else, just waiting for something familiar to start playing.  But the problem with biopics is that they happen to follow a basic template, and any real understanding of the artist or band in question can be lost in the details.  For instance, the other day I watched I Saw the Light, about Hank Williams, and not only is Williams lost in the movie, but even his songs are badly layered in it, so that there's no sense at all about why you should care about any of it, or what Williams meant.  

A Complete Unknown certainly has no such problems.  We catch up with Boby Dylan as he treks over to meet with his hero Woody Guthrie, who's stuck in a hospital trying to rehabilitate, while Pete Seeger basically acts as his ambassador to the world, and in turn, Bob's.  We know his goals, his talent, and his future without even reaching his best-known material, right from the start. 

The movie itself is sort of like the real world illustration of Yesterday's conclusions of what it'd be like if everyone forgot about the Beatles except one guy, who proceeds to present all their songs as if they were his own, so that he amazes everyone with his ability to generate great material.  A Complete Unknown leans on the great material available and sometimes makes it look too easy, until Bob starts running into problems because as it turns out, success or not, he still just want to be Bob, and isn't too keen to fulfil someone else's vision of him, whether it's Joan Baez or a record label or the Newport Folk Festival.

In this era of blockbuster film movie stars have struggled to stay in the picture, and certainly new ones have found it equally difficult to be noticed, but Timothee Chalamet is one of the few to have figured it out, and his Bob Dylan is a truly uncanny accomplishment, both in the music and in general.  Roger Ebert's review of Walk the Line suggested he found Joaquin Phoenix indistinguishable from Johnny Cash, and that's a considerable exaggeration, but in Chalamet's case it isn't.  Possibly this is because Bob Dylan famously isn't much of a singer (the one glaring omission of the movie is failing to acknowledge this reputation).  It really doesn't matter.  This is the central miracle that makes all others possible.

Walk the Line's Johnny Cash is here, as portrayed by Boyd Holbrook in hopefully what's finally his breakthrough role, a true creation is a career that's been floating just under wide recognition for years, including a standout performance in Logan, which like Walk the Line and A Complete Unknown, is directed by James Mangold, who between all those Wolverine movies, these biopics, and other material like Ford v Ferrari, has comfortably settled into one of my favorite and most reliable directors.

Edward Norton, once one of those late Hollywood leading actors but since settled into picking his spots in art films, inhabits Pete Seeger just as if, like everyone else Norton plays, is as comfortable being Edward Norton as it is watching him.  At this point he's the closest we've really gotten to another Jimmy Stewart.  Elle Fanning, Dan Fogler...But the biggest surprise is Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, a true discovery.  Joan Baez fans might quibble, but if A Complete Unknown has to crib from Walk the Line, then Barbaro fills out the June Carter role better than Reese Witherspoon, so effortlessly naturally it's a shock that she isn't already a star.

The film is otherwise Bob being Bob.  I have footage of the Newport Folk Festival where Bob plugs in, so the trash being tossed at him visibly didn't really happen, but the effect is there, and it's Bob dealing with the consequences of being Bob, the way his relationships faulter, the way he can't understand what's so wrong about working on new material while crashing in someone's home instead of, y'know, paying attention to them...It's always the music.  He may be uninterested in detailing his past, but for Bob Dylan, the future is ever full of the music that fills him.

Anyway, for my money, totally fascinating, engrossing stuff.  These are maverick times.  And as always Bob's the bard leading the way.

Conclave (2024) Review

 rating: *****

the story: A new pope is elected amidst desperate maneuvering between cardinals.

the review: It was only a couple days ago that I finally figured out the ending, and as such unlocked the whole movie, and now I'm quite happy to report my love for Conclave.

As a Catholic, it's always nice to see, in recent decades, any film that breaks through the mainstream tackling Catholic matters.  Conclave was a modest success in theaters, but more importantly critics actually liked it, and have been including it among the best movies of 2024.  I suspect for a lot of them understanding the movie takes a backseat to the spectacle, up to and including that ending, and for many Catholics the ending only fuels a controversy.  Catholics will assume Conclave makes a mockery of the faith, and critics will assume it's all good fun and high theater.  It's a bit deeper than that.

It helps to hang all this on the sturdy shoulders of Ralph Fiennes, playing the cardinal tasked with running the election process, and therefore finding himself in the middle of seemingly endless intrigue, from John Lithgow's cardinal who ends up positively Machiavellian to Stanley Tucci's cardinal, who sees himself as the vanguard against backward traditionalism.  The fourth name actor in the ensemble is Isabella Rossellini as the nun tasked with keeping the proceedings running on a practical level, but who also finds herself unable to ignore the drama unfolding around her.

My original reaction to Conclave was that it was a wonderful reflection of the post-John Paul II papacy, the inability to escape his considerable shadow.  On that score it still works nicely.  Mostly, though, the whole thing is a metaphor about the massive tangle of politics our age seems thoroughly incapable of escaping, and the ending a direct reflection of its consequences.  

To be more specific, the ending, in which the newly elected pope stands revealed as having by far the biggest scandal just waiting to be exposed and yet having seemed like the best possible candidate after everyone else was eliminated from contention...In the rush to disqualify each other, the cardinals didn't stop to consider what they were losing in the process, and what they get as a result.

I can't think of a much more relevant story for these times.

2024 Movies Viewed/Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. A Complete Unknown
2. Conclave
3. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
4. The Bikeriders
5. The Beekeeper 
6. Horizon: An American Saga
7. Joker: Folie à Deux
8. Piece by Piece
9. Gladiator II
10. The Exorcism 
11. Daddio
12. Trap
13. The Book of Clarence 
14. Deadpool & Wolverine
15. Sleeping Dogs
16. Dune: Part Two
17. We Live in Time
18. Mother’s Instinct
19. Civil War
20. Borderlands
21. It Ends with Us
22. Red One
23. Argylle
24. Blink Twice
25. In the Land of Saints and Sinners
26. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
27. Challengers
28. Venom: The Last Dance
29. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
30. Slingshot
31. Land of Bad
32. Drive-Away Dolls
33. Madame Web
34. Twisters
35. Reagan
36. Bad Boys: Ride or Die
37. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
38. Sasquatch Sunset

Other Notable Releases

• A Real Pain
• Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin
• The Brutalist
• Despicable Me 4
• The Fall Guy
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Here
• IF
• Inside Out 2
• Juror #2
• Kraven: The Hunter
• Megalopolis 
• Moana 2
• My Old Ass
• Nosferatu
• The Order
• The Return
• September 5
• Wicked
• The Wild Robot