Thoughts from the Usher Podium: Movie Goals for This Year

Whelp, it's that time of year again. It's the time of year when the movie industry as a whole seems to be in reset mode. This year is a little more unique than most because for the very first time ever, I have actually seen every movie in theaters within a 25 mile radius of where I live. That's right, every single prestige picture with an Award campaign, every Christmas release blockbuster, every single garbage fire caught floating in the January doldrums has been reflected in my eyeballs. I seriously think I may have a problem.

Help!

This is also the time of year most film critics and fanatics come up with a list of movies they're most looking forward to seeing. I've avoided doing such a list in the past. Partly because examining and reflecting on what I look forward to in the year, only breeds disappointment in the long term. This is why, while it may be hard to believe, I actively avoid trailers - it's about self-preservation.

The other reason I'm not too tickled by the idea of making a "Most Anticipated" list for 2017 is because, as a general rule of thumb, I don't usually enjoy movies announced in January, teased in March, shot in July and released on Christmas. Don't get me wrong, large studio machines have made and will likely continue to make solid movies. But if 2016 was evidence of anything, big blockbuster pageantry often doesn't quite compare to the types of small movies that sneak up on you.

...But I got to write something so I'll offer a compromise of sorts. Below is a list of movies I most look forward to watching this year. These are NOT, I repeat not necessarily movies being released in 2017. Some of these are admitted blind spots in my cinema knowledge. Some are goals for me simply for research purposes. All I intend to watch before the end of the year.

10. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Valerian is sure to be a win win for me as far as being a satisfactory movie-going experience. The film, based on a French comic-book series, is a welcome return to sci-fi by director Luc Besson. Not only that but based on the trailer, Valerian looks wildly imaginative and downright kooky as far as divergent influences and tone. That can mean one of two things: either it's in the delightfully bonkers ballpark of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) or it's a huge mess on par with Gods of Egypt (2016) or Jupiter Ascending (2014). Either way I'm going to have a blast.

9. I, Daniel Blake (2016)
This movie is out now, or at least it should be out now but I live where European imports come few and far between. As a result Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake will likely be on blu-ray before I have a chance to catch it. No matter, the story of an elderly pensioner struggling to make ends meet follows Umberto D. (1952) and Tokyo Story (1953) in the noble humanist tradition. Only this time, Ken Loach's fiery sense of justice will be fueling the heart of this film. I've been a fan since I first saw Kes (1969) some years back and from what I've been told, the man has not lost his touch.

8. 50 Shades of Grey (2015)
I'm set to watch 50 Shade Darker (2017) this year because I take my evocation seriously dammit! I did not watch the first one because 1. I couldn't watch it for free and I'd be damned if I paid money to see it, and 2. I expected it to be nothing more than a blip on the radar. Alas, this series has morphed from a pimple on the a** of cinema to a full-blown tumor. So yeah, I have to watch it, and yeah I will rip it a new one. Not that I'm already bias or anything.

7. Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Watching Ingmar Bergman once a year is become a bit tradition for me. I love his movies but the very frank, rueful and dark feelings they evoke really only make it possible to dig into his filmography at a reasonable pace. I've been told Smiles of a Summer Night is a comparatively lighter tale so who knows maybe before the end of the year I'll rewatch Wild Strawberries (1957) while reading somber poetry, drinking barleywine out of a chalice.

You drink barleywine from a snifter you pleb!

6. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
I didn't like Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) nearly as much as everyone else did. Sure it was a fun movie and approached the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a unique and interesting way, but I still feel the characters out-sized the story a few too many times. That said, the characters are admittedly fun to watch on screen so I look forward to seeing what Marvel will do with these guys now that most of the infinity stone nonsense is out of the way (hopefully).

5. Touki Bouki (1973)
Touki Bouki is the frenetic brainchild of African film maker Djibril Diop Mambety, a name I have only become familiar with over the past year or so. I've become interested in what the West calls Third World Cinema, with Senegalese film being of particular interest. Something about the impact of colonization told by the oppressed rather than the oppressors just gives these kinds of movies a vibrancy I can't seem to find anywhere else. The bad news is movies like these are hard to find. The good news is, guess who just got the last copy from Zia Record Exchange!

4. Pickup on South Street (1953)
There is a stripe of B-movie, Drive-in movie aficionado that seem to really dig on Sam Fuller films. I can see why; Fuller's pulpy stories have a certain rawness to them and according to the fans themselves Pickup on South Street is the best the director has to offer. South Street tells the story of an unscrupulous pickpocket who is unwittingly caught up in Cold War intrigue. I honestly don't know what could top The Baron of Arizona (1950) or Shock Corridor (1963) but I'll certainly give this one a shot sometime this year.

3. Julieta (2016)
Pedro Almodovar, the flamboyant Spanish director of international acclaim released another movie last year. Once again, it bypassed my local theaters leaving me to anxiously await it on blu-ray. Wait, you've never heard of Pedro Almodovar? Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), All About My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002)? Clearly you need to get out more...or rather stay in more.

2. Dunkirk (2017)
Dunkirk is arguably the movie I am most excited to see being released this year, if for no other reason than it's one of the rare epic tales of WWII that hasn't been adapted for the screen just yet. And who better to bring this grueling, bittersweet and harrowing tale to the screen than Christopher "I made Batman rock and y'all messed it up" Nolan. Dunkirk represents a first for Nolan who up until this point has directed heady, twisty but still pop artsy-type fair. This looks to be a pretty straightforward war movie so I'm curious to see what he does with it.

1. Close-Up (1990)
I wouldn't go so far as to say I love movies that play with the very nature of film itself but I have yet to see a movie of this sort that hasn't been incredibly interesting. Thus my number one must see movie for this year has to be the belated Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up. The film is a quasi-fictional account of a true story involving a man who impersonates a filmmaker to enter the lives of an Iranian family.  The family in question reprise their roles for the sake of Kiarostami's film which delves into the nature of identity in a weird, fun and ultimately human, docu-fantasia kind of way. Thus far I have only seen two Kiarostami films both of which have been an interesting peek into the live of ordinary Iranians. Here's to hoping his purported "best" film has even more to say.