ratigan

2021 was unremarkable for most people but proved to be another decent year for cinema. Of course there wasn’t enough time to see all we wanted or all there was, so these are just the highlights. Hope you get to check them out. 1. Memoria (d. Apitchatpong Weerasethakul

2. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (d. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

3. Mad God (d. Phil Tippett) 

4. About Endlessness (d. Roy Andersson)

5. The Village Detective: a song cycle (d. Bill Morrison)

6. Drive My Car (d. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

7. Taipei Suicide Story (d. KEFF)

8. Annette (d. Leos Carax)

9. North By Current (d. Madsen Minax)

10. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (d. Jane Schoenbrun)

11. A Black Rift Begins to Yawn (d. Matthew Wade)

12. All Light, Everywhere (d. Theo Anthony)

13. Licorice Pizza (d. Paul Thomas Anderson)

14. Titane (d. Julia Ducournau);

15. The Souvenir Part II (d. Joanna Hogg)

16. Athanor: The Alchemical Furnace (dirs. Jan Danhel & Adam Olha)

17. Ravaged by the Sun <American Cannibalism> (d. embryoroom)

18. I Was a Simple Man (d. Christopher Makoto Yogi)

19. Woodlands Dark And Days Bewitched: A History Of Folk Horror (d. Kier-La Janisse)

20. The Awakening of Lilith (d. Steven Adam Renkovish)

21. Barber Westchester (d. Jonni Phillips)

22. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (d. Radu Jude)

23. The Tragedy of Macbeth (d. Joel Coen)

24. Short Vacation (d. Han-Sol Seo, Kwon Min-pyo)

25. Benedetta (d. Paul Verhoeven)

26. The Card Counter (d. Paul Schrader)

27. Summer of Soul (d. Questlove)

28. Apples (d. Christos Nikou)

29. Ste. Anne (d. Rhayne Vermette).

So many of these new films we adore seem to be flying under the radar. The first one is on @povdocs right now! Hope you can check them out: North by Current (d. Angelo Madsen Minax); The Sleeping Negro (d. Skinner Myers); The Velvet Underground (d. Todd Haynes); Other, Like Me: The Coum Transmission and Throbbing Gristle Story (dirs. Marcus Werner Hed & Daniel Fox); Topology of Sirens (d. Jonathan Davies); Slow Machine (d. Joe DeNardo, Paul Felten).

In a year that drastically challenged the way we go about our daily lives, the world of cinema remained stronger than ever, and was an absolute welcomed indulgence in such dark times. These films we found to be the perfect salve to a world aflame, seen in new virtual cinemas, online film festivals, and various VOD platforms. (Support your local indie theater, they need you.)

Opinions differ, international release dates change, but here we offer the films that stuck with us: the ones that continually expand our window to the world, brought tears of laughter or love, or simply helped us believe in a better (or worse) tomorrow. Seek them out, and consider them high recommendations for this next chapter in human existence. 

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1. House of Hummingbird (d. Bora Kim) 2. Days (d. Tsai Ming-liang) 3. Lovers Rock (d. Steve McQueen) 4. Lingua Franca (d. Isabel Sandoval) 5. The Metamorphosis of Birds (d. Catarina Vasconcelos) 6. Last and First Men (d. Jóhann Jóhannsson) 7. Jasper Mall (d. Bradford Thomason & Brett Whitcomb) 8. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (d. Charlie Kaufman) 9. Kill It and Leave This Town (d. Mariusz Wilczynski) 10. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (d. Eliza Hittman) 11. The Woman Who Ran (d. Hong Sang-soo) 12. Nomadland (d. Chloé Zhao) 13. Residue (d. Merawi Gerima) 14. Time (d. Garrett Bradley) 15. Liberté (d. Albert Serra) 16. A Sun (d. Chung Mong-hong) 17. Bait (d. Mark Jenkin) 18. David Byrne’s American Utopia (d. Spike Lee) 19. The Wild Goose Lake (d. Diao Yinan) 20. Fourteen (d. Dan Sallitt) 21. Minari (d. Lee Isaac Chung) 22. Tomasso (d. Abel Ferrara) 23. Maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (d. Sky Hopinka) 24. Another Round (d. Thomas Vinterberg) 25. To the Ends of the Earth (d. Kiyoshi Kurosawa) 26. Freeland (d. Mario Furloni & Kate McLean) 27. Swallow (d. Carlo Mirabella-Davis) 28. Wolfwalkers (d. Tomm Moore & Ross Stewart) 29. Deerskin (d. Quentin Dupieux) 30. Fire Will Come (d. Oliver Laxe) 31. Sorry We Missed You (d. Ken Loach) 32. Family Romance, LLC (d. Werner Herzog) 33. Ema (d. Pablo Larraín) 34. The Assistant (d. Kitty Green)

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* These are simply our suggestions. Feel free to make your own list. 🖤😀🎥⏳😽⚡️🌻🖤

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Here is a list of some of our favorite films we saw 2019. We encourage you to watch them all and continue seeking out cinema that inspires and motivates you to create. 

1. A Great Lamp (d. Saad Qureshi) 2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (d. Céline Sciamma) 3. The Mountain (d. Rick Alverson) 4. The Souvenir (d. Joanna Hogg) 5. Queen of Lapa (d. Carolina Monnerat & Theodore Collatos) 6. The Irishman (d. Martin Scorsese) 7. A Hidden Life (d. Terrence Malick) 8. Black Mother (d. Khalik Allah) 9. Atlantics (d. Mati Diop) 10. Varda by Agnes (d. Agnès Varda) 11. Long Day’s Journey Into Night (d. Bi Gan) 12. Parasite (d. Bong Joon-ho) 13. Uncut Gems (d. Safdie Brothers) 14. Cat Sticks (d. Ronny Sen) 15. Knives and Skin Film (d. Jennifer Reeder) 16. This Magnificent Cake! (d. Marc and Emma) 17. The Lighthouse (d. Robert Eggers) 18. Vitalina Varela (d. Pedro Costa) 19. First Cow (d. Kelly Reichardt) 20. August at Akiko’s (d. Christopher Makoto Yogi) 21. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (d. Joe Talbot) 22. Tux & Fanny (d. Albert Birney) 23. Our Time (d. Carlos Reygadas) 24. High Life (d. Claire Denis) 25. The Ghost Who Walks (d. Cody Stokes) 26. The Forgotten Colours of Dreams (d. Johnny Clyde) 27. Desolation Center (d. Stuart Swezey) 28. The Wild Pear Tree (d. Nuri Bilge Ceylan) 29. Monos (d. Alejandro Landes) 30. RAY & LIZ (d. Richard Billingham) 31. Little Women Movie (d. Greta Gerwig) 32. The Farewell (d. Lulu Wang) 33. Dolemite is My Name (d. Craig Brewer) 34. Overwhelm the Sky (d. Daniel Kremer) 35. Ham on Rye (d. Tyler Taormina) 36. Lil Buck: Real Swan (d. Louis Wallecan) 37. Amazing Grace Movie (d. Sydney Pollack & Alan Elliott) 38. Buñuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles (d. Salvador Simó Busom) 39. Synonyms (d. Nadav Lapid) 40. Apollo 11 (d. Todd Douglas Miller)

A few of the best films we've seen thus far in 2019: