The Movies I Saw in 2023

It was a good year for movies…. I’m not sure if the excitement of Barbenheimer will be reproduced again, or have any longer-lasting effects on the theater-going public, but I saw a bunch of really good movies (and there are some very well-regarded ones I haven’t had the chance to see yet!)

While my numbers are similar to 2022, we travelled quite a bit this year, so I’m actually a little surprised they are as high as they were. This can mostly be attributed to the film club returning to semi-normal combined with being able to attend most of the Fall Focus this year.

If you are interested in the technical guts of these graphs, look here.

The graphs, as well as the list itself, are behind the jump below…

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The Movies I Saw in 2022

2022 was the year we pretended to return to normal. I saw a relatively “normal” number of movies to my pre-pandemic state, and quite a bit more of them in the theatre compared to 2021. But we remained on the anxious edge of outbreak. I think I expected a clearer line as to when reengaging with
civilization would safe, but in retrospect that was naive.

That said, it was great to be able to attend IFFBoston 2022 in person, and in full, this year. Even better, there were some really good films this year!

If you are interested in the technical guts of these graphs, look here.

The graphs, as well as the list itself, are behind the jump below…

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The Movies I Saw in 2021

I think we all hoped 2021 would improve upon 2020, and to a certain degree
it did, but not to the level I think we all hoped.

I did see more movies in 2021 versus 2020, my feature count ticked way up to
121 from 97. This is still behind my normal pace from the before times, but
I was able to muster more attention this year. 121 seems like a pretty
solid number despite the rare theatre experience this year. Hopefully
IFFBoston’s spring festival and the film club can return to something more
normal in 2022.

If you are interested in the technical guts of these graphs, look here.

The graphs, as well as the list itself, are behind the jump below…

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The Movies I Saw in 2020

I mean, what is there to say about 2020. It was a real shit year.

When the quarantimes began, I thought I would end up watching a ton of movies, but the opposite occurred. I’m not sure if it was general anxiety/malaise, the lack of the film club/iff forcing functions, or something else, but it just wasn’t happening. The pace seems to be picking up in 2021, but we’ll see how it goes. If I’m able to go to a theatre safely/comfortably in the near future that will certainly change things.

If you are interested in the technical guts of these graphs, look here.

I skipped the minor editorializing about trends and whatnot this year because… well, it’s just all too depressing.

The graphs, as well as the list itself, are behind the jump below…

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RCN and iMessage Business Chat

There was no way this was going to work.

A few years back I cancelled my RCN Cable TV service in favor of Youtube TV. I realized that since all I really was keeping cable around for at this point was to watch Baseball, I could save a ton of money by switching to Youtube TV while also upgrading my RCN Internet service to “Gigabit” (not actually Gigabit. Also has complete garbage 25Mbps upstream which is indefensible). At the time I was paying about $165/mo to RCN for 330Mbps Internet and Cable TV. Youtube TV was $40/mo, and also allowed me to ‘pause’ service for months at a time (aka the Baseball off-season) with a click. RCN “Gigabit” service was around $100/mo. So not only would my in-season monthly rate be lower (~$140/mo), but i’d save even more in the off-season.

But, every few months, Youtube TV would raise their prices, with the most recent hike bringing the cost up to $65/mo. The final straw, however, was that they dropped NESN in this off-season. Now my hand was forced. After the season ended I cancelled Youtube TV with the plan of reaching back out to RCN.

Since baseball was quiet and I was not in a rush, every once in awhile I’d call the RCN support number to get a quote, but the wait times were over 30m each time I tried, so I’d hang up. Yesterday, however, I wondered to myself if they had some kind of chat support. They did, I clicked it, and it turns out their chat support was Apple Messages Business Chat. This was both surprising, as I’ve never seen this work with anyone outside of Apple, and exciting because the usual chat support experience was terrible. But this would more or less work like any other text messaging.

That said, there was no way this was going to work.

But I tried anyway. I got a text telling me the wait was going to be about 15m, and confirming I wanted to wait. I clicked yes and went about my way. About 15m later I was told I was 5th in the queue and it would be a bit longer; I confirmed I wanted to wait and went back to dawdling.

After a total of about 20m I received my first actual message from the support rep. They first confirmed some account information, then asked me what I needed. I had already prepared my first message, where I tried to play Fast Food Chicken and try to answer every possible question in one blast:

I am interested in knowing how much it will cost per month to add Signature TV to my service, without modifying my current service. I do not want any cable boxes and instead just need a cablecard.

There was no way this was going to work.

But, to my surprise, the rep was mostly able to work off of that. They asked if I needed more than one CableCard, I replied that I needed a single, multi-stream CableCard, and they asked me to wait while they went away to figure everything out.

After a few minutes they came back with some numbers. My total bill would be roughly $130/mo for the first 6 months, and then go up to roughly $160/mo afterwards. This was acceptable, so I told them I’d like to sign up, but wanted to make sure they could simply mail me the CableCard as opposed to rolling a truck or requiring a pickup visit to the office, as I am trying to minimize contact with the outside world in the quarantimes.

They went away to check, and came back a minute or two later confirming that they could mail it on Monday. So I told them I wanted to move forward, we spent a few more minutes confirming shipping details and such. They did their usual pitch for their Service Agreement, but I was able to easily decline it (and the pitch is way less annoying over chat than it is over the telephone). But after that, I was done.

It worked.

The Movies I Saw in 2019

As has been the standard over the past few years, the number of features I saw in 2019 was a tick down, at 128 vs 132 in 2018. I had a particularly busy year in 2019, so this isn’t really a surprise for me.. I was on the road for nearly two of the twelve months this year, so I simply had less time for film.

If you are interested in the technical guts of these graphs, look here.

The graphs, as well as the list itself, are behind the jump below…

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The Movies I Saw in 2018

I totaled 151 movies this year, but ‘only’ 132 features which was a tick down from the past few years. To be honest, Corinna and I binged all of the Star Wars films (except for Rogue One) within a few days at the end of the year, so that definitely goosed the stats up.

If you are interested in the technical guts of these graphs, look here.

The graphs, as well as the list itself, are behind the jump below…

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The Movies I Saw in 2017

Last year I wondered if ~140 features a year was the ‘new normal’, and it appears that is the case, as in 2017 I saw 147 features. That said, it felt like a really good year for cinema.

If you are interested in the technical guts of these graphs, look here.

The graphs, as well as the list itself, are behind the jump below…

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2016 Films in Review

Top Films of 2016 (in Alphabetical Order):

Honorable Mention: 

Bottom 5 Films of 2016:

Most Disappointing:

Best Reissue:

Most Unnecessary Remake/Reworking:

Best Movie I Finally Saw: Room

Best Director: The Daniels (Swiss Army Man)

Best Ensemble: Don’t Think Twice

Best Original Screenplay: The Daniels for Swiss Army Man

Best Adapted Screenplay: Amy Jump for High-Rise

Best Cinematography: Chung-hoon Chung for The Handmaiden

Best Soundtrack: Swiss Army Man

Most Memorable Lines:

  • Swiss Army Man
    • Hank: If you don’t know Jurassic Park, you don’t know shit.
  • High-Rise
    • Laing: You know, Toby, when I was your age, I was always covered in something. Mud, jam, failure… My father never associated himself with anything dirty. Or real.Toby: My father’s up there.Laing: You mean, in heaven?Toby: Heaven isn’t real, stupid.
  • The Witch
    • Jonas, Mercy: [singing] Black Phillip, Black Phillip, a crown grows out his head. Black Phillip, Black Phillip, to nanny queen is wed. Jump to the fence post. Running in the stall. Black Phillip, Black Phillip, king of all.

The Movies I Saw in 2016

I saw even fewer feature films in 2016, but it was a rather busy year for me. My final total was 141, which was 7 fewer than 2015. The big thing I alluded to last year, that may depress this total, was buying a new house. That happened, so it’s possible that may explain the reduced number. Or, perhaps, I’ve settled into a new normal.

If you are interested in the technical guts of these graphs, look here.

The graphs, as well as the list itself, are behind the jump below…

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