Mandel Maven's Nest Reel Life: Flick Pix





Nora Lee Mandel is a member of New York Film Critics Online and the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. Her reviews are counted in the Rotten Tomatoes TomatoMeter:
Complete Index to Nora Lee Mandel's Movie Reviews

Since August 2006, edited versions of most of my reviews of documentaries/indie/foreign films are at Film-Forward; since 2012, festival overviews at FilmFestivalTraveler; and, since 2016, coverage of women-made films at FF2 Media. Shorter versions of my older reviews are at IMDb's comments, where non-English-language films are listed by their native titles.


TV Recommendations


As of mid-2014, I am marking my own stricter application than others to fiction features of the Bechdel-Wallace Test
Originally suggested by Allison Bechdel, as inspired by her friend Liz Wallace (so her name was added to the symbol as of 2016), in her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in 1985 to note a film that features (1) at least two named female characters; (2) who talk to each other; (3) about something besides a man. Symbol first designed by the Swedish chapter of Women in Film and Television; thanks to The Hot Pink Pen for the updated image. But my own criteria consider a substantive interaction about substance.


My Best Films of 2019
My Best Films of 2018
My Best Films of 2017
My Best Films of 2016
My Best Films of 2015
My Best Films of 2014
My Best Films of 2013
My Best Films of 2012
My Best Films of 2011
My Best Films of 2010
My Best Films of 2009
My Best Films of 2008
My Best Films of 2007
My Best Films of 2006
My Best Films of 2005
My Best Films of 2004
My Best Films of 2003
My Best Films of 2002
My Best Films of 2001

Reviews by Nora Lee Mandel in my idiosyncratic categories of how I think of of flicks:
CHICK FLICKS
IMPACT OF 9/11 ON NYC THROUGH MOVIES
IMAGES OF DENTISTS AND PREVENTIVE TOOTH CARE IN MOVIES (carrying on the work of Dr. Irwin D. Mandel z”l)
JEWISH WOMEN IN (and missing from) THE FLICKS
MASTERPIECE THEATER: MOVIES AS MEDICINE
For the MIDDLE-AGED AT HEART: HURRAH FOR GROWN-UPS!
For the MUSIC (and/or the dancing)
NEW YORK NEW YORK: IT'S A HELLUVA TOWN
NOIR NIGHT OUT
OGLING TEENS AND '20SOMETHINGS
POPCORN EATERS
ROMEO AND JULIET (and friends) ACROSS THE ETHNIC DIVIDE
SCI-FI and FANTASY from A DISTAFF POV
And then there's RUSSELL CROWE (with commentary on the actor)


Friends don't let friends watch bad movies! -- John Ridley

It is not enough to like a film. You must like it for the right reasons. -- Pierre Rissient

Mothers of America/let your kids go to the movies! -- Frank O’Hara, Ave Maria


MY BEST FILMS of 2019 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
To Dust (Kudos to Géza Röhrig) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Transit (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Never Look Away (Werk ohne Autor) (Kudos to writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and score by Max Richter)


BEST FEMALE POV Fiction Division
Adult Life Skills (reviewed at FF2 Media) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Little Woods (Kudos to Writer/Director Nia Dacosta; Tessa Thompson and Lily James) (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Daughter of Mine (Figlia mia) (Kudos to Valeria Golino, Alba Rohrwacher, and Sara Casu) (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Slut In A Good Way (Charlotte a du fun) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Promise of Dawn (La promesse de l'aube) (at 2019 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)


Documentary Division
The 5 Browns: Digging Through The Darkness (Preview courtesy of Plow Productions at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)


Runners-Up: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Untogether (previewed at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)


BEST COMING OF AGERS
All These Small Moments (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)


BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
Arctic (Kudos to Mads Mikkelsen)
The Standoff At Sparrow Creek (Kudos to Jackson Hunt’s cinematography)
Hotel Mumbai


Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I enjoyed despite quibbles
American Hangman
The Vanishing
Buffalo Boys
An Acceptable Loss


BEST SCI FI/FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL/APOCALYPTIC
High Life (preview and FF2 summary at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Her Smell (Kudos to Elisabeth Moss) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center


BEST FEMALE VIEW OF MALES
Mapplethorpe (Gay Division) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)


BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
Communion (Komunia) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Invisibles (Die Unsichtbaren - Wir wollen leben) (Docu-Drama) (So, nu: commentary on the Jewish women.) (at 2018 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
The Venerable W (Le Vénérable W.) (at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/seen at 2019 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)


Runners-Up: Documentaries I Recommend Despite my Gripes
FYRE: The Best Party That Never Happened (on Netflix)


Educational DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
Untouchable (preview of earlier version at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Jihadists (Salafistes)


BEST BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
Etgar Keret: Based On A True Story (at 2019 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)


MOST DEPRESSING
The Family (Družina) (at 2019 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
An Elephant Sitting Still (Da xiang xi di er zuo) (Kudos to the cinematography) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA


THANKS TO THEATRICAL REVIVALS for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
The Nun (La Religieuse) (1966) (preview of new 4K DCP restoration at Film Forum)
Général Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (Autoportrait) (1974) (seen at 2019 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)
Journeys from Berlin/1971 (seen at 2019 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)
Fragment of an Empire (Oblomok Imperii) (1929) (USSR silent, with piano accompaniment seen at 2019 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)
Forbidden Paradise (1924) (silent, with piano accompaniment seen at 2019 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)
Faust (1926) (seen at 2019 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)


MY BEST FILMS of 2018 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
The Insult (Qadiat raqm 23)
Vazante (Kudos to director/co-writer Daniela Thomas, cinematographer Inti Briones and sound designer Vasco Pimentel) (at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Princess (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Scrap Dolls (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
See You Up There (Au revoir là-haut) (Kudos to cinematography by Vincent Mathias, music by Christophe Julien, masks by Hélène Defline, and costumes by Mimi Lempicka) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Final Journey (Leanders letzte Reise) (preview courtesy of KINO! 2018 Festival of German Films)
The Death of Stalin
The Seagull (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Dead Women Walking (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Gauguin - Voyage To Tahiti (Kudos to Vincent Cassel)
BlacKKKlansman (My additional notes.)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night) (Kudos to writer/director Bi Gan, cinematographers Yao Hung, Dong Jinsong and David Chizallet, production and sound design) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center
Happy As Lazzaro (Lazzaro felice) (preview and FF2 summary at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Shoplifters (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
La Flor (Parts 1, 2, and 3) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Favourite (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
At Eternity’s Gate (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Chore (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
God Never Dies (Dios Nunca Muere) (short) (preview and FF2 summary at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Life and Nothing More (seen courtesy of CFI Releasing)
Monsters and Men (seen courtesy of Neon)
Paddington 2 (as seen on HBO)
On the Seventh Day (En el Séptimo Día) (seen courtesy of Cinema Guild)
Thunder Road (Kudos to writer/director/star Jim Cummings)
The Citizen (Az állampolgár) (seen courtesy of ArtMattan)
Icebox (on HBO)
I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians (Îmi este indiferent daca în istorie vom intra ca barbari) The Dead Nation - Fragments of Parallel Lives (Țara moartă) (at 2018 Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema)


Runners-Up: MOVIES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
First Reformed (Kudos to Ethan Hawke) (special preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Colo (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image) (Kudos to cinematographer Acácio de Almeida)
Foxtrot (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Ava (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Cocote (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Nothing Factory (A Fábrica de Nada) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Outside In (Kudos to Laurie Metcalf) (preview courtesy of The Orchard)
Smuggling Hendrix (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Kuleana (seen courtesy of Hawaii Cinema)
Bye Bye Germany (Es war einmal in Deutschland...) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview courtesy of Film Movement)
Nigerian Prince (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Yellow Birds (preview courtesy of Lionsgate)
The Catcher Was A Spy (So, nu: my commentary on the putative Jewish woman.)
Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot
The Captain (Derr Hauptmann) (My additional notes.)
Roma (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Burning (preview at New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Cousin (Ha Ben Dod) (So, nu: commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2018 Other Israel Film Festival/also shown at 2018 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
El Angel (Kudos to Lorenzo Ferro and production design)
Vice (Commentary on 9/11 treatment.) (Kudos to Amy Adams)
Ben Is Back (Kudos to Julia Roberts and Lukas Hedges)
Sollers Point (seen courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories)
The Family (La Familia) (seen on HBO; info courtesy of Film Movement)
Tyrel (preview courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)
The Last Suit (El Último Traje) (seen courtesy of Strand Releasing)


BEST FEMALE POV
Fiction Division
In Between (Bar Bahar) (Kudos to writer/director Maysaloun Hamoud) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (seen in 2017 Film Movement 15th Anniversary Celebration at Museum of the Moving Image)
Marlina The Murderer In Four Acts (Marlina Si Pembunuh Dalam Empat Babak) (My additional notes.) (Western Division) (Kudos to director/co-writer Mouly Surya) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Game (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
The Guardians (Les Gardiennes) (Way Back Division) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Number One (Numéro une) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Sower (Le Semeur) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Custody (Jusqu'à la garde) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Closeness (Tesnota) (So, nu: commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Scary Mother (Sashishi deda) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Jellyfish (Kudos to Liv Hill) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Lemonade (Luna de Miere) (Depressing Romanian Division) (Kudos to Mălina Manovici) (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Beauty and the Dogs (La Belle et la Meute) (Kudos to Mariam Al Ferjani and writer/director Kaouther Ben Hania) (seen courtesy of Oscilloscope)
Everything Else (Todo lo demás) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Garden (Sommerhäuser) (preview courtesy of KINO! 2018 Festival of German Films)
The Impossible Picture (Das Unmögliche Bild) (preview courtesy of KINO! 2018 Festival of German Films)
Woman Walks Ahead (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Mary Shelley (Kudos to Bicentennial of Frankenstein) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Duck Butter (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (Lesbian Division)
Diane (Kudos to Mary Kay Place) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Party's Just Beginning (Kudos to Writer/Director/Star Karen Gillan) (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Dead Women Walking (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tully (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
When She Runs (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bao (animated short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Late Afternoon (animated short) (preview at 2018
Mirette (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Love Letter (Michtav Ahava Lam ‘em Sheli) (short) (My commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Paper Roof (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
So You Like The Neighborhood (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Miracle (Stebuklas) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Summer 1993 (Estiu/Verano 1993) (Coming of Ager) (preview courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Adrift (Adventure Division)
Dark River (Kudos to Ruth Wilson)
The Wife (So, nu: commentary on the Jewish women.)
Memoir of War (La douleur) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Support The Girls (Kudos to Regina Hall and writer/director Andrew Bujarski)
Skate Kitchen (preview courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)
I Am Not A Witch
Colette (Kudos to Keira Knightly, the costumes and music)
Lizzie (Kudos to Chloë Sevigny, Kristen Stewart, and the sound design)
Wildlife (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Kudos to production design and cinematographer Diego Garcia)
3 Faces (Se rokh) (Kudos to writer/director Jafar Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Private Life (preview and FF2 summary at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mahogany Too (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Working Woman (Isha Ovedet) (Kudos to Liron Ben Shlush) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2018 Other Israel Film Festival)
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Kudos to Melissa McCarthy, co-writer Nicole Holofcener, and director Marielle Heller)
A Private War (Kudos to Rosamund Pike, cinematographer Robert Richardson, editor Nick Fenton, and director Matthew Heineman) (see with Under the Wire
Becoming (Unga) Astrid (Previewed at Scandinavia House (almost) on the birthday of Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren)
Mary, Queen of Scots (Kudos to Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie, score by Max Richter, cinematographer John Mathieson, and the scenery)
Destroyer (Noir Division) (Kudos to Nicole Kidman)
Liz and the Blue Bird (Animation)
Night Comes On
Eighth Grade (Coming of Age Division)
On The Basis Of Sex (So, nu: On my commentary on the Jewish women - see with RBG) (My additional Note on a real lawyer.)


Documentary Division
Tongue Cutters (Tungeskjærerne) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Lives of Thérèse (Les vies de Thérèse) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Instructions on Parting (Of white, Christian, middle-class NH/UT POV) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Mama Colonel (Maman Colonelle) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Call Her Ganda (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Judge (at 2017 DOC NYC Festival/PBS Independent Lens 2018)
Blowin’ Up (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Bleeding Edge (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Time for Ilhan (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Girl and the Picture (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Birth Control Your Own Adventure (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
RBG (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (See with On the Basis of Sex)
A Woman Captured (Egy nö fogságban) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image and also shown at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
The Other Side of Everything (Druga strana suega) (seen at 2017 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
A Thousand Girls Like Me (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Facing the Dragon (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Worlds Of Ursula K. Le Guin (Kudos to animation by Molly Schwartz) (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival) (PBS’s American Masters)
In Her Footsteps (Acharayich) (preview at 2018 Other Israel Film Festival)
Over The Limit (seen courtesy Film Movement)
Bei Bei (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)


Runners-Up: FEMALE POV I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Fiction Division
Blame (Preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Boy Downstairs (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (Preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
My Art at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Half Magic (Satirical Comedy Division)
Montparnasse Bienvenüe (Jeune femme) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Milla (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Nervous Translation (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Sunday’s Illness (La Enfermedad del Domingo) (Depressing Division) (Kudos to Susi Sánchez) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
I Kill Giants (Girl/Animated Divisions)
Virgins (Vierges/Ein Betulot Bakrayot) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
All About Nina (Kudos to Mary Elizabeth Winstead) So, nu: My commentary on the Jewish women. (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Amateurs (Amatörer) (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Blue Night (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Radium Girls (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Salam (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Puzzle (remake of Rompecabezas)
What Will People Say (Hva vil folk si) (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
A Family Tour (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Tzeva Adom: Color Red (short) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (seen at 2018 Other Israel Film Festival)
The Hate U Give (Coming of Age Division)
Vox Lux (Kudos to Natalie Portman)
Madeline’s Madeline (Kudos to Helena Howard) (courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories
Dumplin’ (on Netflix)


Documentaries
Yellow Is Forbidden (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Netizens (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Love, Gilda (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Women of the Venezuelan Chaos (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
On Her Shoulders (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Naila and the Uprising (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival) (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Generation Wealth
Kusama – Infinity (bio-doc preview courtesy of Magnolia Pictures and Film Forum)
Reversing Roe (seen on Netflix)
The Great Mother (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Heartbound (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Looking for Zion (So, nu: commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2018 Other Israel Film Festival)
China Love (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Under the Wire (see with A Private War)
Alicia (Depressing Coming-of-Age) (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
We Are Not Princesses (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Hello Girls (short) (on PBS)
Brave Girls (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Commander Arian: A Story of Women, War & Freedom (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Feminist (Gudrun-konsten att vara människa) (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Heat: A Kitchen (R)Evolution (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
See You Tomorrow, God Willing! (Hasta manaña, si Dios quiere) (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Life Without Basketball (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Bad Reputation (seen courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)


BEST FEMALE VIEW OF MALES
Zama (Re-Imagined Colonial Division) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Rider (My capsule “Best of 2018” review) (at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Western (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
You Were Never Really Here (Very Violent Division)
O.G. (Violent Division) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Back Roads (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Knuckles (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Last Romantic (El Último Romántico) (Romantic Comedy Division) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Before Summer Ends (Avant la fin de l'été) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image/ at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)


BEST COMING OF AGERS
A Ciambra
Ava (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Lean on Pete (Kudos to Charlie Plummer and the scenery)
Bag of Marbles (Un sac de billes) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
The Elephant and the Butterfly (Drôle de père) (previewed at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Life of Esteban (Het Leven van Estaban) (short) (previewed at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Breath (Kudos to Rick Rifici’s water cinematography)
Prickly Pear (Bajtra Tax-Xewk) (short) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Maltese Fighter (short) (Kudos to Malcolm Ellul) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Eve (Lejliet) (short) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
We The Animals (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Leave No Trace
Too Late to Die Young (Tarde para morir joven) (preview and FF2 summary at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mid90s (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Capernaum (Chaos) (Kudos to director/co-writer Nadine Labaki)


BEST ROMANCES
Almost Paris (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Keep The Change (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (previewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Signature Move (Cross-Cultural Lesbian Division) (preview courtesy The Chicago Project)
Oh Lucy! (Dark Comedy Division) (preview courtesy of Film Movement)
On Body and Soul (Testről és Lélekről) (seen on Netflix)
M (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Disobedience (previewed at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Cakemaker (Der Kuchenmacher) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (at 2018 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (preview courtesy of Strand Releasing)
Cold War (Zimna wojna) (Kudos to the songs) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Write When You Get Work (NYC Division) (Kudos to writer/director Stacy Cochran and ensemble cast)
The Charmer (Noir Division) (preview at Film Forum)


Runners-Up: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
The Female Brain (preview courtesy IFC Films)
The Leisure Seeker
If Beale Street Could Talk (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Asako I & II (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Love, Simon


BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
Goldstone
The Guilty (Den skyldige) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Good Manners (As Boas Maneiras) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Stockholm (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Black Panther (streamed on VOD)
A Quiet Place
Searching


Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I enjoyed despite quibbles
Gringo
Unsane
A Violent Life (Une vie violente) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
This Is Our Land (Chez Nous) (Political Division) (preview courtesy of Film Forum)
First Man
Widows
Creed II (AKA Rocky VIII)
The Sisters Brothers (Kudos to cinematographer Benoît Debie) (My note on its pro-preventive dentistry.)


BEST NEO-NOIRS
The Great Buddha+ (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Sicilian Ghost Story (preview at 2018 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Boys Cry (La terra dell'abbastanza) (preview at 2018 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Third Murder (Sandome No Satsujin) (preview courtesy of Film Movement)
Sweet Country (Kudos to director Warwick Thornton, cinematographer Dylan River, and ensemble)
American Animals


BEST SCI FI/FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL/APOCALYPTIC
Cargo (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Night Eats The World (La Nuit A Dévoré Le Monde) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Slows (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Border (Gräns) (Kudos to music, sound design, make-up, and Eva Melander)


Runners-Up: BEST SCI FI/FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL/APOCALYPTIC I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Zoe (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Dark (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Laboratory Conditions (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Sorry To Bother You (Social Satire Division)
Diamantino (Social Satire Division) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Above All Things (Romance Division) (seen courtesy of Choice Studios)


BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries):
Django (preview at 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Opera House (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mama Africa (re-issue) (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
American Folk (Commentary on 9/11 treatment.)
Becks (Kudos to “lesbian folk rock” songs by Alyssa Robbins & Steve Salett) (Recommendation is not because the spouse of my 2nd cousin twice removed has a tiny part) (preview courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment)
Sing Song (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
The Day I Beat The Sky (Le jour où j'ai battu le ciel) (short animation) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Souvenir (preview courtesy of Strand Releasing)
Hybridos, the Spirits of Brazil (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Barbara (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Rock in the Red Zone (seen at 2018 New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival)
Azougue Nazare (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Howard (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bathtubs Over Broadway (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Satan & Adam (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
United Skates (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Homeless: The Soundtrack (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Velvet Underground Played At My High School (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Elvis Presley: The Searcher (seen on HBO)
The King (Music-related sections only)
Milford Graves Full Mantis (preview courtesy of Cinema Guild)
Veslemøy’s Song (short) (preview and FF2 summary at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Star Is Born
Stranger of the Dunes (short) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman) (seen at 2018 Other Israel Film Festival)
Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don't Know Me (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Maria By Callas
Mary Poppins Returns


Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Saturday Church (for the musical numbers) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Act & Punishment:The Pussy Riot Trials
Flip The Record (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Habaneros (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Untitled (Pow Wow) (short – part of the North Dakota Museum of Art’s “Songs for Spirit Lake” project) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Nico, 1988 (Kudos to Trino Dyrholm) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Jeanette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (Jeannette, l'enfance de Jeanne d'Arc) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Flock of Four (preview courtesy of Abramorama)
Blue Note Records: Beyond The Notes (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Hearts Beat Loud (preview courtesy Gunpowder & Sky)
Bohemian Rhapsody (Kudos to Rami Malek)
Dennis & Lois (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Show's The Thing: The Legendary Promoters Of Rock (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Quincy (on Netflix)


BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE
Journey’s End
The Young Karl Marx (Le Jeune Karl Marx)
The Forgiven (preview courtesy of Saban Films)
Chappaquiddick
Blood & Glory (Modder en Bloed) (preview courtesy of Cleopatra Entertertainment)
In Times Of Fading Light (In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts) (preview courtesy of KINO! 2018 Festival of German Films)
Shock and Awe
The Front Runner
Green Book
22 July (on Netflix)


BEST ANIMATION (and use of animation)
Mary and The Witch's Flower (preview courtesy of GKids)
Have A Nice Day (Chinese Noir Division) (preview courtesy of Strand Releasing)
Black Barbie (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Next Door Spy (Nabospionen) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Cat Days (Neko No Hi) (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm (Museum of Jewish Heritage/HBO documentary short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Tehran Taboo (preview at Film Forum)
KCLOC (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Liyana (Kudos to directors Amanda & Aaron Kopps, storyteller Gcina Mhlophe, and animator Shofela Coker) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight/also shown at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Five Years After The War (Cinq ans après la guerre) (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Incredibles 2 (With Grandkid #1: First Movie in Theater – with big tub of popcorn)
Grand Bizarre (preview and FF2 summary at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Seder-Masochism (showing at Animation is Film Festival)
Ralph Breaks The Internet (NB: Rated PG) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish Princess.)
Mirai (preview courtesy of GKids)
Liz and the Blue Bird


Runners-Up: Animation I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Isle of Dogs
Lu Over the Wall (preview courtesy of GKids)
MFKZ (preview courtesy of GKids)


BEST ACTORS/ACTRESSES better than their movies:

Sir Ben Kingsley in An Ordinary Man and Operation Enemy


BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun? (seen at 2017 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival and also shown at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center))
Last Days In Shibati (Derniers Jours a Shibati) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
A Taste of Cement (Kudos to cinematographer Talal Khoury and his short Mediterranean) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Railway Sleepers (Mon Rot Fai) (at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Playing Men (at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
You Have No Idea How Much I Love You (Nawet Nie Wiesz, Jak Bardzo Cie Kocham) (at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Polluting Paradise (Müll im Garten Eden) (preview courtesy of Strand Releasing)
The King of Twirl (De Majorette Koning van het Noorden) (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
In The Intense Now (No Intenso Agora) (seen at Film Forum)
Ramen Heads (preview courtesy of Gunpowder & Sky)
Jesser and the Sugarcane (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Abbeville (short) (Kudos to Equal Justice Initiative) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Spirit Lake (short – part of the North Dakota Museum of Art’s “Songs for Spirit Lake” project) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Find Fix Finish (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
The Long Season (Kudos to Leonard Retel Helmrich and Ramia Suleiman) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
’63 Boycott (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Black Memorabilia (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Rio Verde: El tiempo de los Yakurunas (Green River: The Time of the Yakurunas) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Leaning Into The Wind – Andy Goldsworthy
The Ancestral Sin (Sallah, Po Ze Eretz Yisrael) (seen at 2018 New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival/ also screened at 2018 Other Israel Film Festival)
Makala (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
House Two (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Roll Red Roll (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and also shown at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
Tanzania Transit (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Island of The Hungry Ghosts (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
When Lambs Become Lions (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Feeling of Being Watched (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and also shown at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
Nana (preview courtesy of First Run Features)
After Auschwitz (preview courtesy)
Studio 54 (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Charm City (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Home + Away (preview at 2018 Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival)
It’s A Hard Truth Ain’t It (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The River of the Kukamas (The El Rio de los Kukamas) (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Into My Life (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Wendy’s Shabbat (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
5 October (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Hey Ronnie Reagan (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (My capsule “Best of 2018” review) (Commentary on 9/11 reference.)
What Haunts Us (seen on Starz)
The Distant Barking of Dogs (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Voices of the Sea (Voces del Mar) (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
The Silence of Others (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Angkar (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
It Will Be Chaos (seen on HBO)
This is Home: A Refugee Story (seen on Epix)
Cielo (kudos to the night sky) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Three Identical Strangers (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Minding the Gap (My capsule “Best of 2018” review) (preview courtesy of Hulu and Kartemquin Films)
Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (Docu-Series preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, then on Paramount Channel)
Science Fair (preview courtesy of National Geographic)
Monrovia, Indiana (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Waldheim Waltz (Waldheims Walzer) (preview and FF2 summary at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (So, nu: my commentary on the director as a Jewish woman.)
Valeria Street (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Eye of the Needle (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Chooka (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Labyrinth (El Laberinto) (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
jeny303 (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Of Fathers And Sons (at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival and also shown at 2018 DOC NYC Festival )
People’s Republic of Desire (seen at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival and also shown at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
False Confessions (at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival and also shown at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Angels Are Made Of Light (at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center and seen at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
The Panama Papers (seen at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival) (on Epix)
Out of Omaha (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Kleptocrats (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Cracked Up (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Laila at the Bridge (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Crime + Punishment (seen courtesy of “Short List” at 2018 DOC NYC Festival) (available on Hulu)
Megiddo (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (seen at 2018 Other Israel Film Festival)
Free Solo
Bisbee ‘17 (seen in 2018 Contenders MoMA)
They Shall Not Grow Old (and Peter Jackson’s accompanying “Making of”)
306 Hollywood (Kudos to filmmakers and devoted grandchildren Elan and Jonathan Bogarín) (seen courtesy of El Tigre Productions)
The Sentence (“Shortlist” at 2018 DOC NYC Festival/HBO)
The Rescue List (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Patrimonio (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Of Fish and Foe (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Elephant Path (Njaia Njoku) (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Grit (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Providers (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
While I Breathe, I Hope (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Fire on the Hill: The Cowboys Of South Central LA (Kudos to cinematography and score.) (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Our New President (Amazon stream)


Runners-Up: Documentaries I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Tinselwood (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Mr. Gay Syria (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Starting Over Again (seen at 2018 New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Meteors (Meteorlar) (preview at 2018 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Workers Cup (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Momentum Generation (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Crossroads (preview at 2018 Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival)
Far From The Tree (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
The Steel Mill Café (Buffet Željezara) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Beyond The One (Al Di Là Dell'uno) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Anote’s Ark (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
The Unafraid (brief review at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center and updated Q & A at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
American Jail (seen on CNN)
Dark Money (preview courtesy of PBS Distribution/POV)
Fahrenheit 11/9 (preview courtesy of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
93Queen (as seen on PBS’s POV)
The Truth About Killer Robots (at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival and also shown at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Screwball (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Biggest Little Farm (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival) (PBS’s American Masters)
Afterward (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Foreign Land (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
City of Joel (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Be/longing (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2018 Other Israel Film Festival)
Walking on Water (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
A Murder in Mansfield (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival/ Investigation Discovery)
The World Before Your Feet (Commentary on 9/11 memorials) (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Dawn Wall
Distant Constellation (seen courtesy of Grasshopper Film )
The Last Resort (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival /preview courtesy of Kino Lorber)
The Last Race (seen courtesy of Magnolia)
16 Bars (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Other Rio (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Blessing (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival) (Kudos to director/cinematographer Hunter Robert Baker and music by Kevin Kiner and David Russell, especially lead guitar)
I'm Leaving Now (Ya Me Voy) (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)


BEST BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
The Peacemaker (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Seeing Allred (seen on Netflix)
Western Wild…or how I found wanderlust and met Old Shatterhand (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
13, a ludodrama about Walter Benjamin (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
George (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
When Paul Came Over The Sea: Journal of an Encounter (Als Paul über das Meer kam – Tagebuch einer Begegnung (preview courtesy of KINO! 2018 Festival of German Films)
McQueen (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Gospel According to André (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment and Film Forum) (PBS’s American Masters)
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center and FF2 summary, also shown at 2018 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
The Times of Bill Cunningham (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Last Stop Coney Island: The Life and Photography of Harold Feinstein (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Jay Myself (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists (HBO) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (Commentary on 9/11 reference.) (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Witkin & Witkin (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Artist & The Pervert (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)


BEST DOCUMENTARIES FOR CINEPHILES:
Filmworker (at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Prototype (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Room H.264: Brooklyn, NY, June 2016/Room H.264: Astoria, NY, January 2018 (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Exiled (L'Exilé) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Other Episodes/Missing Episode (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Measuring Change/L. Cohen/Readers (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Get Up and Go/A Spin Through Night City/Along The Elevated (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Hitler’s Hollywood: German Cinema In The Age Of Propaganda: 1933 - 1945 (preview courtesy of Film Forum)
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (Note on 9/11 reference)
Cosmic Debris (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Saving Brinton (Bravo Mike Zahs)

- NYC Opening Night panel on women directors: Director Amy Adrion; interviewees Mary Harron & Chris Hegedus, and Women & Hollywood’s Melissa Silverstein. (I attended courtesy of FF2 Media)
Half the Picture
King Cohen (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
A Whale of A Tale (Okujirasama) (Preview courtesy Fine Line Media)
Introduzione All'Oscuro (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Searching for/Auf Der Suche Ingmar Bergman (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival and FF2 summary of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (preview and FF2 summary at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/Netflix)
The Eyes Of Orson Welles (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival) (PBS’s American Masters)
Creating A Character: The Moni Yakim Legacy (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Hal (seen courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Shirkers (on Netflix)
Jane Fonda in Five Acts (on HBO)
The Greenaway Alphabet (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Instant Dreams (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Orange Years: The Nickelodeon Story (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Insufferable Groo (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)


EDUCATIONAL DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
In The Land Of Pomegranates (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Ghost Hunting (Istiyad Ashbah) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
West Of The Jordan River (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (at 2018 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Out of My Head (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight) (also shown at 2018 Reelabilities Film Festival - NY)
Why Do They Hate Us? (Pourquoi nous détestent-ils) (seen at 2018 New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival)
Black Mothers (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Eating Animals (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
Into The Okavango (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (preview at 2018 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
General Magic (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
The Man Who Stole Banksy (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The End of Fear (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Maineland (Kudos to Sean Price Williams’ cinematography) (preview courtesy of Abramorama)
Pressing On: The Letterpress Film
Five Seasons - The Gardens Of Piet Oudolf (preview courtesy of Argot Pictures)
The Cleaners (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Hope Against the Haze (VR short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Decade Of Fire (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
What She Said: The Art Of Pauline Kael (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
I Am The Revolution (preview at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Piripkura (seen courtesy of Cinema Libre)
The China Hustle (seen courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)
Perfect (Parfaites) (seen courtesy of Upstream Flix)
Cooked: Survival By Zip Code (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Inside Lehman Brothers (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Smartest Kids In The World (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Stars In The Sky: A Hunting Story (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Harvest Season (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival) (PBS Independent Lens)
Exit (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
Boys Who Like Girls (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
The Cat Rescuers (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival) (This activity was also featured on Animal Planet’s The Cat From Hell)
Bleed Out (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival/HBO)
Memory Games (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)
North Pole, NY (at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)


MOST DEPRESSING
Nostalgia
Where Is Kyra?
An Elephant Sitting Still (Da xiang xi di er zuo) (Kudos to the cinematography) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Ray & Liz (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing Movies Despite Nonsense:
The Saint Bernard Syndicate (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Welcome Home (Velkommen til oss) (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Under the Tree (Undir trénu) (Dark Comedy Division)
Ocean’s 8
Crazy Rich Asians


THEME OF THE YEAR: POETRY
The Dreamed Ones (Die Geträumten) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image) (poets Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan)
Correspondences (Correspondências) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image) (poets Sophia de Mello Breyner and Jorge de Sena)
Gavagai (Kudos to the cinematography and Tarjei Vesaas’s poetry) (preview courtesy of Shadow Distribution
I Hope I'm Loud When I'm Dead (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mixed Signals (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Luminous Shadow (Sombra Luminosa) (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Death of a Poetess (Mot HaMeshoreret) (So, nu: commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2018 Other Israel Film Festival)
The Kindergarten Teacher (preview from Netflix) (American re-make of the Israeli The Kindergarten Teacher (Haganenet) - So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)


BEST for the SCENERY
Let The Summer Never Come Again (at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Dérive Veneziane (long short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
In the Last Days of the City (Akher ayam el madina) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Djon Africa (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Drift (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Arcadia (short) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Ada Kaleh (short) (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


BEST for the CREATIVE CINEMATOGRAPHY:
24 Frames (seen at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Winter Brothers (Vinterbrødre) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Obey (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)


THANKS TO THEATRICAL REVIVALS for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
Room 666 (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Case For The New Hangman (Prípad pro zacinajíciho kata) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Illiac Passion (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Wanda (restored print) (preview courtesy of Janus Films)
Rendez Vous in July (new 4K restoration) (centerpiece of Jacques Becker: Complete Retrospective at at Film Forum)
The Other Side Of The Wind (preview at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (See on Netflix with Morgan Neville’s making-of documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead)
Ericka Beckman shorts restored: Cinderella and You the Better (preview and FF2 summary at 2018 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Amazing Grace (preview of previously unreleased 1972 recording concert film at 2018 DOC NYC Festival)


MY BEST FILMS of 2017 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Chapter & Verse (preview at 2016 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Sincerely (Atentamente) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
After the Storm (Umi yori mo mada fukaku) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Odyssey (preview at 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
White Sun (Seto Surya) (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Graduation (Bacalaureat) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Nakom (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (Hymyilevä mies)
Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Holy Air (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Newton (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Sambá (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Phone Calls (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Suitcase (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
World in Your Window (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Pineapple (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
King of the Belgians (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Stuff Of Dreams (La Stoffa Dei Sogni) (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
1945 (My capsule “Best of 2017” review) (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Journey (My additional note.) (Note on 9/11 reference)
Pop Aye (preview at Film Forum)
Columbus (Kudos to Haley Lu Richardson, writer/director Kogonada, and architecture in Indiana)
The Fencer (Miekkailija)
I Dream In Another Language (Sueño en otro idioma) (preview courtesy of Film Rise)
Crown Heights
The Teacher (Ucitelka) (My capsule “Best of 2017” review) (preview at Film Forum)
Woodpeckers (Carpinteros)
The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish (?) women.) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
BPM (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Last Flag Flying (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mudbound (Kudos to writer/director Dee Rees, cinematographer Rachel Morrison, and ensemble) (within Rees’s career perspective) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Kudos to Frances McDormand & ensemble, and writer/director Martin McDonagh)
Stronger (Kudos to ensemble, especially Jake Gyllenhaal)
Gook
Dayveon
The Post (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)


Runners-Up: MOVIES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Gold
The Founder
The Salesman (Forushande)
Trespass Against Us
Land of Mine (Under sandet) (My additional note.)
Arábia (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Person to Person (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Diamond Island (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Last of Us (Akher Wahed Fina) (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Arábia (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Wound (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
King of Peking (Jing Cheng Zhi Wang) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Zookeeper’s Wife (So, nu: additional notes and my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Amerika Square (Plateia Amerikis) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Stanko (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Harmonium (preview courtesy of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Foster Portfolio (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Life Boat (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Pirates of Somalia (Dabka) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Navigator (Kartleseren) (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Brigsby Bear
Lucky
Molly’s Game
The Disaster Artist
The Other Side Of Hope (Toivon tuolla puolen)
One Week and a Day (Shavua ve Yom) (seen courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories)


BEST FEMALE POV
Fiction Division
A Quiet Passion (kudos to Cynthia Nixon and writer/director Terence Davies) (My capsule review) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
My Happy Family (Chemi Bednieri Ojakhi) (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Lady MacBeth (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Their Finest
Ice Mother (Bába z ledu) (kudos to Zuzana Kronerová and writer/director Bohdan Sláma) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Wedding Plan (Laavor et hakir) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (New York premiere preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Woman of a Certain Age (short series preview in New Online Work (N.O.W.) Showcase at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Again (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Big Sister (Ahotcha) (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Don't Mess With Julie Whitfield (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Fry Day (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Joy Joy Nails (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Little Bird (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Viola, Franca (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
YOYO (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Maudie (kudos to Sallie Hawkins)
Moka (Noir Division)
The Beguiled (Noir Division)
The Midwife (Sage Femme)
Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge (My capsule review) (preview at 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Strange Weather (kudos to Holly Hunter, music by Sharon Van Etten, and Mississippi locations)
Novitiate (kudos to Melissa Leo)
Polina (preview courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories)
The Unknown Girl (La fille inconnue) (Noir Division) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
In The Fade (Aus dem Nichts)
Spoor (Pokot) (Kudos to Agnieszka Mandat-Grabka) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Battle of the Sexes (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
I, Tonya (Kudos to Margot Robbie and Allison Janney)


Runners-Up: FEMALE POV I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Moon in the 12th House (Yareach BeBayit 12) (preview at 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
One Percent More Humid (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Flower (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
3 Generations
The Divine Order (Die göttliche Ordnung) (My report on its Nora Ephron Award win) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Beehive (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Dive (Salta) (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Landline (for the sororial relationship) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Rehearsal (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Amnesia (kudos to digital cinematography)
Victoria and Abdul (kudos to Judi Dench)
Félicité (For Kinshasa mise en scène) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Thelma (Supernatural Division) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Tribes of Palo Verdes (Kudos to surfer girl)


Documentary Division
Speed Sisters (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival) (My note on the dental connection.)
Mr. Bernstein (short) (preview at 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
A Suitable Girl (briefly at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
I Am Evidence (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Hilda (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Heroin (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Love The Sinner (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Mother’s Day (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
New Deep South: House of JXN (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Sick (Bolesno) (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Run Mama Run (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Spring (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
What Happened To Her (short) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Lindy Lou, Juror Number 2 (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Faces Places (Visages, villages) (Viva Varda with JR) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Rape of Recy Taylor (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Soufra (Needs dish names and recipe descriptions –other than buying the cookbook for $70) (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)


DOCUMENTARY Runners-Up: FEMALE POV I Recommend Despite My Gripes
P.S. Jerusalem (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival) (reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and at IFC Center)
All This Panic (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Apology (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Big Sonia (at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
A Better Man (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)


BEST FEMALE VIEW OF MALES
Beach Rats (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Detroit (Kudos to ensemble)
Nobody’s Watching (Nadie Nos Mira) (kudos to Guillermo Pfening) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Son of Sofia (O Gios tis Sofias) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Wetlands (for the NJ Noir atmosphere)


BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
Alone in Berlin (seen courtesy IFC Films)
Sexy Druga (kudos to cinematography) (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Hounds of Love (kudos to Emma Booth and score by Dan Luscombe) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Wall (kudos to Aaron Taylor-Johnson and editor Julia Bloch)
Wonder Woman
The Exception (kudos to chemistry between Lily James and Jai Courtney) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Two Sentence Horror Stories: MA (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
It Comes At Night (Post-Apocalyptic Division) (kudos to cinematographer Drew Daniels and score/sound design)
Logan Lucky (kudos to script by whoever is Rebecca Blunt)
Dunkirk in IMAX (kudos to cinematography, sound design/score)
Good Time (kudos to Queens locations, score by Oneohtrix Point Never (aka Daniel Lopatin), Robert Pattinson, and casting)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Deadpan Supernatural Division)
Get Out (Satirical Division)
Logan
I Don't Feel At Home In This World (Deadpan Comic Division)
All the Money In The World (Kudos to the ensemble)


Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I enjoyed despite quibbles
Visaranai (seen in India’s New Wave at Museum of the Moving Image)
Nocturama (preview at 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Buster’s Mal Heart (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Baby Driver (kudos to “choreography”)
Shot Caller (kudos to sound design)
Wind River (kudos to score, indigenous casting, and Rocky Mountains scenery)
Atomic Blonde (the violence vs. women just got too over the top)
The Legend Of Ben Hall (kudos to historicity and Australian scenery) (DVD/VOD preview courtesy of Vega Baby Releasing & Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
6 Days (preview courtesy of Vertical Entertainment)
Rememory (kudos to Peter Dinklage) (preview on Google Play)
Hostiles (kudos to the NM and MT scenery)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Kudos to the production design)


BEST NEO-NOIRS
The Ardennes (preview courtesy of Flanders House)
Detour (kudos to writer/director Christopher Smith, trio of Emory Cohen, Tye Sheridan & Bel Powley, cinematographer Chris Ross, editor Kristina Hetherington, score by Toydrum) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Midnight Service (shorts series preview in New Online Work (N.O.W.) Showcase at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Sweet Virginia (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Drowning (kudos to Avan Jogia and score by Radium Cheung and Jamin O’Brien) (preview at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Nile Hilton Incident (Die Nile Hilton Affäre) (kudos to writer/director Tarik Saleh, Fares Fares, editing, and cinematography) (preview courtesy of Strand Releasing)
The Limehouse Golem (kudos to scripter Jane Goldman, actors Olivia Cooke and Douglas Booth)


BEST ROMANCES
The Big Sick (Note on 9/11 reference)
The Mountain Between Us (kudos to the scenery)
God’s Own Country (My capsule “Best of 2017” review) (preview at Film Forum)

Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool
Band Aid (kudos to filmmaker/star Zoe Lister-Jones) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)


Runners-Up: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
World’s Apart (Political Division)
From the Land of the Moon (Mal de pierres) (preview at 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Autumn, Autumn (Chuncheon, chuncheon) (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Pendular (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Vincent N Roxxy (for, literally, diehard fans of Emile Hirsch and Emory Cohen like me) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Lovers (Mature Division) (Kudos to score by Mandy Hoffman) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Europe, She Loves (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)


Runners-Up: BEST ANTI-ROMANCES
After Love (L'économie du couple)
Phantom Thread (Kudos to Vicky Krieps and the costumes)


BEST COMING OF AGERS
Lady Bird (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Wonderstruck (Kudos to casting emotive deaf actress Millie Simmonds as a deaf child; Kudos to director Todd Haynes and writer Brian Selznick for incorporating -- beautifully by cinematographer Edward Lachman-- my beloved Panorama of the City of New York - but no you can’t walk on it!) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Fanny’s Journey (Le voyage de Fanny) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish females.) (seen at Cinematek Forest Hills)


Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Kepler’s Dream


BEST SCI FI/FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL
November ehk Rehepapp (kudos to cinematographer Mart Taniel, sound designer Marco Vermaas, composer Jacaszek) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Survivalist (Post-Apocalyptic Division) (kudos to Martin McCann, Mia Goth, and Olwen Fouere) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
A Ghost Story
Blade Runner 2049
Shape of Water


Runners-Up: BEST SCI FI/FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL I Recommend Despite My Gripes
The Bad Batch
Marjorie Prime (preview in Future Imperfect: The Uncanny In Science Fiction at Museum of Modern Art)
Downsizing (Kudos to production design)
Okja
Colossal


BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE
The Lost City of Z (kudos to cinematographer Darius Khondji) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Afterimage (Powidoki) (preview at Tribute to Andrzej Wajda of Film Society of Lincoln Center and Polish Cultural Institute)
A United Kingdom
The Summer Is Gone (Ba yue)) (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Death of Louis XIV (La mort de Louis XIV) (kudos to Jean-Pierre Léaud) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Cezanne and Me (Cezanne et Moi) (kudos to scenery, cinematography, costumes)
Frantz (preview at 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Promise (see with Joe Berlinger’s Intent to Destroy “making of” documentary for historical and cinemtographical context, preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tommy's Honour
Chuck (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Cloudy Sunday (Ouzeri Tsitsanis/Ουζερί Τσιτσάνης) (seen at 2017 New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival)
Stefan Zweig: Farewell To Europe (Vor Der Morgenröte - Stefan Zweig In Amerika) (at 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
The Days that Confused (Päevad, mis ajasid segadusse) (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
13 Minutes (Elser)
Endless Poetry (Poesía Sin Fin) (Kudos to production design)
The Viceroy’s House
Breathe
LBJ
The Darkest Hour (Kudos to Gary Oldman and make-up/prosthetics)
The Man Who Invented Christmas (Kudos to ensemble, especially Christopher Plummer – bring tissues!)


BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries):
Strike A Pose (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bang! The Bert Berns Story (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
The Lure (Córki dancingu) (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Mr. Gaga (preview at 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
The Dancer (La danseuse) (preview at 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Smoke That Travels (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
The Paris Opera (preview at 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Book of Clarence (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Patti Cake$ (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
I Called Him Morgan (at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
When God Sleeps (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
I Am The Blues (My additional notes.)
Olancho (seen in 2017 Rural Route Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image where I presume I’m in this audience Q & A)
La Barracuda (Noir Division) (preview in 2017 Rural Route Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Step
Let’s Play Two
Trouble No More (at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Rebels On Pointe (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
Beatles, Hippies And Hells Angels: Inside The Crazy World Of Apple (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
Sammy Davis: I’ve Gotta Be Me (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival) (PBS’s American Masters)
David Bowie: The Last Five Years (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival) (HBO)
Itzhak (seen at 2017 DOC NYC Festival) (PBS’s American Masters) (Commentary on the Jewish women)
Song of Granite
Eric Clapton: Life In 12 Bars (at 2017 DOC NYC Festival) (Showtime)
Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead (Amazon)


Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Junction ‘48 (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Midsummer In Newtown (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Reset (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Folk Hero & Funny Guy (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Beauty and the Beast (2D)
Mali Blues (Preview courtesty of Icarus Films)
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World (preview at Film Forum)
Sidemen: Long Road To Glory (preview courtesy of Abramorama)
Indivisible (Fantasy Division)
Extraordinary Ordinary People (preview courtesy of First Run Features and Masters of Traditional Arts)
May It Last: A Portrait Of The Avett Brothers (seen courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories)
The Greatest Showman


BEST ANIMATION (and use of animation)
My Life As A Zucchini (Ma vie de Courgette) (in French)
Half A Life (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Odd is an Egg (Odd er et egg) (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Girl Without Hands (La jeune fille sans mains) (in French)
Loving Vincent
Coco (3D)
The Breadwinner (preview courtesy of GKids)


Runners-Up: BEST ANIMATION (and use of animation) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mune: Guardian Of The Moon (Mune, le gardien de la lune) (preview courtesy of GKids)
Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming


BEST for the CREATIVE CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Live Cargo (Note to Wire fans) (kudos to cinematographer Daniella Nowitz) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Icaros: A Vision (kudos to scenery, visual and sound design) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Super Dark Times (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Erlprince (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Kékszakállú (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Wonder Wheel (Kudos also for costume and production design: so stream with the sound off) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Call Me by Your Name (Gay Guy Teen With Older Hunk Division) (Kudos to cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom) (Commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


BEST OF THE CINEMA OF THE ABSURD:
Do Re Mi Fa (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Square (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


BEST ACTORS/ACTRESSES better than their movies:
Bryan Cranston in Wakefield
Denzel Washington in Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Bill Pullman in The Ballad of Lefty Brown (kudos to scenery, too)


BEST VILLAIN
”Rabbi David” (Aviv Alush) in The Women’s Balcony (Ismach Hatani)


BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
The Settlers (Ha'mitnakhalim) (Additional commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Balloonfest (short) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
A Model Family in a Model Home (short) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Territory (Territorio) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Boone (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Animals Under Anaesthesia: Speculations on the Dreamlife of Beasts (short) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Reichstag 9/11 (short) (seen with additional Ken Jacobs’ shorts: Windbreaker (World premiere); Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies (U.S. premiere); Popeye Sees 3-D (NY premiere) in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Between Fences (Bein gderot/Entre Les Frontières) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Keep Quiet (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Uncertain (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Last Laugh (Commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Machines (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Broken (Kaputt) (animated short) (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
#Bars4Justice (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
The Revolution Won’t Be Televised (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Through the Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film (Kudos to Postcommodity) (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Austerlitz (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Gaza Surf Club (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
When Rabbit Left the Moon (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Plastic China (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Irrawaddy Mon Amour (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Tell Them We Are Rising (PBS’s Independent Lens) (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Strong Island (PBS’s POV) (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Quest (PBS’s POV) (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Tickling Giants (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Night School (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Rat Film (kudos to director Theo Anthony) (preview at 2016 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Wind Knows That I'm Coming Back Home (El viento sabe que vuelvo a casa) (preview at 2017 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A River Below (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
True Conviction (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Farthest (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Holdouts (short preview in New Online Work (N.O.W.) Showcase at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
New Deep South: House of JXN (short series preview in New Online Work (N.O.W.) Showcase at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
I LIVED: Brooklyn (short preview in New Online Work (N.O.W.) Showcase at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
In Transit (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Skull + Bone (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Last Animals (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Watched (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Acorn and The Firestorm (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Swagger (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Safari (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Abacus: Small Enough To Jail (episode of PBS’s Frontline) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Muhi - Generally Temporary and additional review (Commentary on the Jewish woman) (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
The Blood Is At The Doorstep (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Water Warriors (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Lost in Lebanon and additional review (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
The Grown-Ups (Los Niños) (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
City of Ghosts and additional review (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Icarus (seen on Netflix)
Spettacolo (preview courtesy of Grasshopper Film)
Motherland (Bayan Ina Mo) (preview courtesy of The Film Collaborative)
Trophy (preview courtesy of The Orchard)
Red Trees (Commentary on the Jewish women) (preview courtesy of Cohen Media Group)
Voyeur (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Tempest (Tempestad) (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and at IFC Center)
One of Us (Commentary on the Jewish women) (preview for 2017 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
Cocaine Prison (seen at 2017 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
Devil’s Freedom (La Libertad Del Diablo) (seen at 2017 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
EuroTrump (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
Mole Man (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
Sky & Ground (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
Brimstone & Glory (kudos to cinematography and score by Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer) (seen courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Miss Kiet’s Children (De kinderen van juf Kiet) (preview courtesy of Film Forum)
Last Men in Aleppo (seen on Netflix)


Runners-Up: Documentaries I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Karl Marx City (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Obit (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bugs (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Sunshine Makers (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
Out There (documentary/fiction hybrid) (Notes on 9/11 reference) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
From False to Legal in One Take (De falso a legal una toma)/Prospector/Misters Without Blame (Nores sin señalar)/Sakura, Sakura/This Bogeyman/Inside the Inside (L’en-Dedans/Untitled) (seen in On Resistance: International Avant-Garde Films & Videos 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Betting On Zero (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Wolf and Sheep (documentary/fiction hybrid) (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Mixed Feelings (seen at 2017 SR Socially Relevant Film Festival)
The Departure (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Copwatch (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
In Flint (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Far from Home (En otra casa) (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Nowhere To Hide (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
The Good Postman (Hyvä postimies) (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Warning: This Drug May Kill You (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Complicit (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
No Dress Code Required (Etiqueta NO Rigurosa) (My additional Note.) (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Almost Sunrise (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
The Force (also briefly reviewed 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Whose Streets?
Ex Libris – The New York Public Library (preview courtesy of Film Forum and NYPL)
Company Town (preview courtesy of First Run Features)
Sea Sorrow (as a PSA) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
No Stone Unturned (seen at 2017 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
Trust WHO (seen at 2017 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
End of Truth (seen at 2017 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
Naples ‘44
Traffic Stop (short) (on HBO)
Heroin(e) (short) (on Netflix)
Knife Skills (short) (seen on New Yorker)
Edith + Eddie (short) (seen on Topic)


BEST BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
Everybody Knows…Elizabeth Murray (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Something About Life (Nesto o zivotu)/A Short Family Film (Kratki obiteljski film) (shorts) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Acts & Intermissions (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Tip of My Tongue (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back (Note on 9/11 reference) (Compare and contrast with the fictional artists in The Family Fang) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Citizen Jane: Battle For The City (Commentary on the Jewish women) (short review - longer review forthcoming) (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
Letters From Baghdad: The True Story of Gertrude Bell and Iraq (Commentary on the Jewish women) (at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography (My commentary on her as a Jewish woman) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Burden (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Shadowman (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Hondros (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Heroin (short preview in New Online Work (N.O.W.) Showcase at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Ben-Gurion: Epilogue (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Get Me Roger Stone (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Woody’s Order (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Jane (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Hall of Mirrors (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Caniba (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


BEST DOCUMENTARIES FOR CINÉPHILES:
Helmut Berger, Actor (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
How I Fell in Love with Eva Ras (Kako Sam Se Zaljubio U Evu Ras/Como Me Apaixonei por Eva Ras) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
My Journey Through French Cinema (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
David Lynch: The Art Life (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival) (Commentary on the Jewish women)
I Am Heath Ledger (for his personal videos/films) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tyrus (broadcast on PBS’s American Masters in honor of the 75th anniversary of Bambi)
Dawson City – Frozen Time (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center courtesy of MoMA)
Escapes
Arthur Miller: Writer (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Spielberg (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Vigilante: The Incredible True Story Of Curtis Sliwa And The Guardian Angels (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
The Iconoclast (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
The Problem With Apu (at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)


EDUCATIONAL DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
Peshmerga (preview at 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Shalom Rabin (preview at 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
My Scientology Movie (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Sacred (Commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival) (On PBS in 2017)
LA 92 (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival) (On National Geographic Channel) (I more recommend John Ridley’s Let It Fall: Lost Angeles 1982 – 1992, as broadcast on ABC, for unique interviews and archival photographs providing far more context and perspective.)
haveababy aka Vegas Baby (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Risk (at 2017 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mariupolis (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Wasted! The Story of Food Waste (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
500 Years and Capsule Review (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Home Truth (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Black Code (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
The House On Coco Road (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
Birthright: A War Story
Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory (seen in New Adventures in Non-Fiction at Museum of the Moving Image)
Human Flow
School Life
Chasing Coral
Cuba and The Cameraman (at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
Destination Unknown (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Aida’s Secrets (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Cries From Syria
I Am Another You


Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing Movies Despite Nonsense:
The Giant (Jätten) (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Wilson
One Thousand Junkies [Cynical Division] (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Take Me [Cynical Division] (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Shiva (Commentary on the Jewish women) (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
New York Is Dead (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Lemon (short) (briefly reviewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Lost in Paris (Paris pieds nus)


Most Depressing
I (Já), Olga Hepnarová (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Florida Project (Kudos to Willem Dafoe) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
Loveless (Nelyubov)


BEST for the SCENERY
Documentary Division:
The Letters (Las Letras) (seen at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight)
The Challenge (preview at 2017 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)


BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Kaos (preview at Film Forum in Pirandello 150)
Granular Film - Beirut (short) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
L’en-Dedans (Inside the Inside) (short) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
A Kind Of Loving (preview at Film Forum in The Brit New Wave)
Maurice [note error in publicity materials: Phoebe Nicholls’ “Anne” is naïve not “shallow”] (preview courtesy Cohen Media)
Le Trou (preview at Film Forum)
The Four Sisters: Baluty; The Hippocratic Oath; The Merry Flea; Noah’s Ark (So, nu: my commentary on these Jewish women from Shoah.) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

And thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
Recordando El Ayer (short) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
City in Flames (Stadt in Flammen) (short) (seen in 2017 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
”Emiko Omori Retrospective” at MoMA’s 2017 Documentary Fortnight: Rabbit in the Moon (1999); Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm (co-directed with Wendy Slick) (2007); Ed Hardy: Tattoo the World (2010); To Chris Marker, An Unsent Letter (2012)
Notes sur l’émigration. Espagne 1960 (seen in 2017 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)


NOTABLE FILM-RELATED EXHIBITS
Agnès Varda: Visual Artist at Blum & Poe with Agnès Varda: Life As Art Special Talk at French Institute: Alliance Franҫaise in association with Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and at Film Society of Lincoln Center)

The Jim Henson Exhibition permanent installation at Museum of the Moving Image


MY BEST FILMS of 2016 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Aferim! (kudos to the cinematography) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
A War (Krigen)
Embrace of the Serpent (El abrazo de la serpiente)
Dheepan (My edited capsule “Best of 2016” review) (My additional note.) (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Thithi (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
El Clásico (kudos to scenery) (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Love & Friendship (kudos to Kate Beckinsale, costumes and hair)
You Can Go (short) (kudos to S. Epatha Merkerson) (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Simshar (kudos to director/co-writer Rebecca Cremona) (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Home Care (Domácí péce) (kudos to director/writer/co-star Slávek Horák) (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Neruda (kudos to editing and cinematography) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Sieranevada (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Paterson (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Manchester By The Sea (kudos to Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, and Lucas Hedges, cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes, and writer/director Kenneth Lonergan) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Jackie (kudos to Natalie Portman, scripter Noah Oppenheim, director Pablo Larrain and scorer Mica Levi) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Fences (kudos to director/star Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, and the production design/use of the Pittsburgh locale)


Runners-Up: MOVIES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
My Golden Days (Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse) (kudos to Lou Roy-Lecollinet) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Rams (Hrútar)
The Club (El Club) (no “Old Testament” references?)
The Project of the Century (La obra del siglo) (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Cemetery Of Splendour (Rak ti Khon Kaen) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to the CPAP machines)
Valley of Love (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Huppert, Depardieu and Death Valley)
Life After Life (Zhi Fan Ye Mao) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Louder Than Bombs
The Ticket (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Measure of a Man (La loi du marché) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Don’t Think Twice (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Tenth Man (El Rey Del Once)) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
A Hologram for the King (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Money Monster
The People vs. Fritz Bauer (Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer) - long review; review in series - Enemy Territory – Fritz Bauer & Postwar Germany in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image) and at the Goethe Institut)
Captain Fantastic
Last Cab to Darwin (preview courtesy of First Run Features)
Island City (seen in India’s New Wave at Museum of the Moving Image)
I, Daniel Blake (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Man Called Ove (En man som heter Ove)
Toni Erdmann (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Denial (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Loving
Rules Don’t Apply (kudos to Warren Beatty, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and Lorraine Feather & and Eddie Arkin’s title song)
Florence Foster Jenkins (kudos to costumes)
A Bigger Splash (kudos to locale)


THE RETURN OF THE “WOMAN’S” PICTURE
Sunset Song (kudos to Agyness Deyn and the Scottish scenery) (preview at 2016 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
My King (Moi Roi) (Amour Fou Division) (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Emmanuelle Bercot)
The Dressmaker (Satirical Division) (kudos to Judy Davis and costumes by Marion Boyce and Margot Wilson) Best Woman-Directed Feature 2016
The Light Between Oceans (kudos to score by Alexandre Desplat and scenery)
Julieta (kudos to score by Alberto Iglesias) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Ali And Nino (kudos to the Azerbaijan scenery)


BEST FEMALE POV -- My favorite female-directed films of 2016, selected for FF2 Media.
Mi Madre (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Fits (kudos to Royalty Hightower and sound design) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Sworn Virgin (Vergine Giurata) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Always Shine (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Hold On (Houvast) (short) (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Homeland (Hemland) (short) (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Nkosi Coiffure (short) (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Ping Pong Coach (乒乓) (short) (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Father’s Day (short) (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Anna (Per amor vostro) (kudos to Valeria Golino, director Giuseppe Gaudino, score by Epsilon Indi, and cinematographer Matteo Cocco) (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Wednesday Child (A szerdai gyerek) (kudos to Kinga Vecsei and writer/director Lili Horváth) (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Diary Of A Chambermaid (Journal d'une femme de chamber)
Parched (preview courtesy of Wolfe Releasing)
The Kind Words (Ha'milim ha'tovot) (preview for the 2016 Israel Film Center Festival courtesy of Strand Releasing)
Our Little Sister
Equity (kudos to Anna Gunn) Best Woman-Directed Feature 2016 (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
A Tale of Love and Darkness (Commentary on the Jewish women) (kudos to cinematographer Slawomir Idziak) Best Woman-Directed Foreign-Language Film 2016 (preview at 2016 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Aquarius (kudos to Sônia Braga) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Legal Smuggling with Christine Choy (short) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Krisha
The Innocents


Runners-Up: FEMALE POV I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Fatima (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Parisienne (Peur de rien) (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Much Loved (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Kill Me Please (Mate-me por favor) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Happy Hour (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Califórnia (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Mother (Ema) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Children of the Mountain (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
All We Had (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
AWOL (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Meddler (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Things To Come (L’avenir) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
American Honey (kudos to the soundtrack)
Christine (kudos to Rebecca Hall)
Queen of Katwe (kudos to the African music soundtrack and locale)
Sand Storm (Sufat Chol)
Edge of 17 (caveat: the teens all look 25)
Dobro (short) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Baden Baden (preview at Anthology Film Archives, courtesy of MUBI)
White Girl
Hidden Figures (Way Back Machine Division)


BEST ROMANCES
Lolo (Rom Com Division) (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Cleaner (Cistic) (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image) (Obsession Division)
Southside With You (Way Back Machine Division)
From the Diary of a Wedding Photographer (Myomano Shel Tzlam Hatonot) (Anti-Romance Division) (short) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


Runners-Up: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Tumbledown (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Summertime (La Belle saison) (Amour Fou Lesbian Division) (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Perfect Strangers (Perfetti sconosciuti) (Anti-Romance Division) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)


BEST COMING OF AGERS
Songs My Brothers Taught Me (kudos to writer/director Chloé Zhao and cinematographer Joshua James Richards)
Hunt For The Wilderpeople (kudos to the cast, script, directing, scenery, and score) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Semele (short) (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Babai (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
King Jack (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Morris From America (kudos to Markees Christmas) (preview for BAMcinemaFest 2016)
Little Men (kudos to Theo Taplitz & Michael Barbieri) (preview for BAMcinemaFest 2016)
Killa (The Fort) (seen in India’s New Wave at Museum of the Moving Image)
Moonlight (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Viva (for the parents-figures with teen)
The New Kid (Le Nouveau) (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Standing Tall (La Tête haute) (kudos to Rod Paradot) (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Kicks (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Pele: Birth Of A Legend (kudos to the score) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
20th Century Women (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


BEST SCI FI/FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL
Neither Heaven Nor Earth [aka The Wakhan Front] (Ni le ciel ni la terre) (in Supernatural Division) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Demon (in Ghost Division) (Commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
April And The Extraordinary World (English version) (in Animated Division)
Reality + (short) (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)


Runners-Up: BEST SCI FI/FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Synchronicity (in Noir Romance Division)
Evolution (Bella e perduta) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Midnight Special
High-Rise (Satirical Dystopian Division) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Arrival (kudos to sound design, editing, and music by Jóhann Jóhannsson)
10 Cloverfield Lane
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Passengers (Rom-Com Division)


BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
Eye in the Sky
Remember (My additional Commentary on the Jewish women.)
Our Kind of Traitor
Hell or High Water (kudos to Jeff Bridges and score by Cave & Ellis)
In Order Of Disappearance (Kraftidioten) (kudos to Stellan Skarsgård, Bruno Ganz, and the scenery) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Man Down
Hacksaw Ridge (kudos to cinematographer Simon Duggan)
Anthropoid


Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I enjoyed despite quibbles
The Wave (Bølgen) (kudos to the scenery)
The Clan
Imperium
Snowden
Desierto (kudos to the score/sound design)
Miss Sloane (kudos to annoyingly eerie likenesses)


BEST NEO-NOIRS
Titli (Butterfly) (seen in India’s New Wave at Museum of the Moving Image)
Disorder (Maryland) (kudos to the sound design) (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Dark Inclusion (Diamant noir) (My additional Commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Remainder (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Women Who Kill (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival) (Comedy Division)
Marshland (La isla mínima) (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Department Q Trilogy: The Keeper Of Lost Causes; The Absent One; A Conspiracy Of Faith (kudos to Nikolaj Lie Kaas) (preview in The New Nordic Noir at IFC Center)
Old Stone (Lao Shi) (preview at Museum of the Moving Image)


Runners-Up: NEO-NOIRS I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Kirumi (Virus) (seen in India’s New Wave at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Fixer (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)


BEST HORRORS
Jeruzalem
Under the Shadow (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Bridgend (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to cinematography and sound design/score) (See with J.M. Williams’ 2013 documentary of the same name on the real town tragedy that inspired the feature.)
The Wailing
Train to Busan (Busanhaeng)


BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE
Men Go To Battle (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to research into Civil War diaries and letters)
Elvis and Nixon (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Genius (Commentary on the Jewish woman)
Free State of Jones
Café Society (kudos to cinematography by Vittorio Storaro, production design by Santo Loquasto and costumes by Suzy Benzinger) (Commentary on the Jewish women)
Indignation (kudos to production designer Inbal Weinberg and costume designer Amy Roth)
Come What May (En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait)
Birth of a Nation
The Man Who Knew Infinity
Everybody Wants Some!!
The Witch
Silence (kudos to cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto/boo to torture porn)
Patriots Day


Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing Movies Despite Nonsense:
The Treasure (Comoara) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Lobster (Dark Satire Division) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Men & Chickens (Mænd & Høns) (Noir Division)
Chevalier (Mocking Men Division) Best Woman-Directed Foreign-Language Film 2016
Hail Caesar! (Satire Division)


Runners-up: Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing Movies Despite Nonsense:
The Nice Guys (Ultra-Violent Division)


BEST OF THE CINEMA OF THE ABSURD:
Pawel and Wawel (Pawel i Wawel) (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Houston, We Have a Problem! (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
History’s Future (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Wiener-Dog


BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries):
Marguerite (kudos to Catherine Frot)
A Magical Substance Flows into Me (preview at 2016 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
As I Open My Eyes (À peine j'ouvre les yeux) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bad Rap (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Girl Band (short) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Presenting Princess Shaw (Kudos to Samantha Montgomery and Ophir Kutiel)
The Beat of Love (Utrip Ljubezni) (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Miss Sharon Jones! Best Woman-Directed Documentary 2016 (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
Argentina (preview courtesy of First Run Features)
Sonita (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and at IFC Center)
Dancer (preview courtesy of Sundance Selects)
The Jazz Loft According To W. Eugene Smith (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
Gimme Danger (kudos to the contextual clips) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Two Trains Runnin’ (kudos to music by Gary Clark Jr., Chris Thomas King, Valerie June, Buddy Guy, Lucinda Williams, Jimbo Mathus, Luther Dickinson/North Mississippi Allstars) (at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Born to Be Blue
Contemporary Color (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Song Of Lahore (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Idol (Ya Tayr El Tayer)
The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years (kudos to the restoration of the Shea Stadium concert)
La La Land (the leads can’t sing or dance)
Sing Street


BEST ACTORS/ACTRESSES better than their movies:
Emayatzy Corinealdi in Miles Ahead (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


BEST ANIMATION (and use of animation)
The Orchestra (short) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Cafard (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
The BFG (kudos to Mark Rylance)
Kubo and The Two Strings
The Red Turtle (La tortue rouge)
Moana (in 2D) (kudos to a couple of songs)
A Monster Calls (kudos to production design)


Runners-Up: BEST ANIMATION (and use of animation) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Finding Dory/Piper
Sausage Party


Runners-Up: BEST ANIMATION EFFECTS-RELATED I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Pete’s Dragon (Boo to the fur!)


BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
I Am the People (Je suis le peuple) (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Abandoned Goods (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Lou Beth Zayma: What Eyes Are Pretending To See (Ce Que L’œil Pretend Voir) (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Rabin, The Last Day (My additional Notes.) (preview at 2016 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Toponymy (Toponimia) (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
My Aleppo (short seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Long Story Short (short seen in An Evening with Natalie Bookchin at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
France Is Our Mother Country (La France est notre patrie) (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Ettrick (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
The Great Wall (kudos to the relevance of Franz Kafka’s short story “The Building of the Great Wall of China”) (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Memories from Gehenna (Souvenirs de la Géhenne) (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
INAATE/SE [it shines a certain way, to a certain place./it flies. falls./] (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Behemoth (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Birth Of Saké (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Command and Control (episode of PBS’s American Experience) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Return (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
National Bird (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four Best Woman-Directed Documentary 2016 (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Win! (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Solitary (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival) (reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Prison Dogs (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Memories Of A Penitent Heart (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Spartacus and Cassandra (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Lampedusa in Winter (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Kate Plays Christine
Under the Sun (V paprscích slunce) (preview at Film Forum)
Hooligan Sparrow (My edited capsule “Best of 2016” review) (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and at IFC Center)
Jackson (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and at IFC Center)
Ovarian Psycos (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and at IFC Center)
When Two Worlds Collide (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
The Eagle Huntress (kudos to cinematographer Simon Niblett, photographer Asher Svidensky, scenery, and score)
The Crossing (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Starless Dreams (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Among the Believers (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (Notes on 9/11 references)
Raising Bertie (seen in "Kartemquin Films at 50" at Museum of the Moving Image)
Tower
Brillo Box (3¢ Off) (short) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Nu - Note on: putative Jewish women)
The Illinois Parables (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Bending to Earth (short) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Flowers of the Sky (short) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing (Note on 9/11 reference) (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
Off The Rails (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
Tickled


Runners-Up: Documentaries I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Over the Years (Über du Jahre) (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
The Event (Sobytie) (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Out of Norway (as the sequel to Imagining Emanuel I saw at Documentary Fortnight 2012, seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Scrumped (Extended Version) (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Wake (Subic) (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Eldorado XXI (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Other Side (preview at 2016 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Academy of Muses (La Academia de las Musas) (preview at 2016 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Show of Shows (kudos to University Of Sheffield’s National Fairground Archive) (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Daddy Don’t Go (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
My Love, Don't Cross That River (preview courtesy of Film Movement)
Lucha Mexico (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
Inside The Chinese Closet) (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and at IFC Center)
Growing Up Coy (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Suited (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center) (My additional commentary on the Jewish female participants.)
Do Not Resist (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
13th (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
I Had Nowhere To Go (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Cuba, Fatherland Or Death (Patria O Muerte) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Fire At Sea (Fuocoammare) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Portrait of a Garden (Appreciated in memoriam to Marco Polo Stufano) (preview at Film Forum)
Winter at Westbeth (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
Super Girl (Note on the Jewish females) (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
City of Joy (Note on the Jewish woman leader) (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
Ne Me Quitte Pas (in “Most Depressing” category) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Those Who Jump (Les Sauteurs) (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)


BEST BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
Le Juif de Lascaux (Commentary on the Jewish women) (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
City Of Gold
And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Chi (Mr. Zhang Believes) (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Call Her Applebroog (alternative link) (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Last Man in Dhaka Central (The Young Man Was, Part 3) (seen at MoMA’s 2016 Documentary Fortnight)
Peter and the Farm (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Weiner (Commentary on the Jewish woman) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Magnus (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
After Spring (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Pistol Shrimps (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Team Foxcatcher (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Free as the Birds (short) (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Vita Activa: The Spirit Of Hannah Arendt (So, nu: my additional commentary on this Jewish woman.)
Don’t Blink – Robert Frank (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Norman Lear: Just Another Version Of You
Gleason
Uncle Howard (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The White Helmets (seen on Netflix)


BEST DOCUMENTARIES FOR CINÉPHILES:
João Bénard da Costa—Others Will Love the Things I Have Loved (João Bénard da Costa: Outros amarão as coisas que eu amei) (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Ozoners (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Crystal World (short seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Cameraperson (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
I Don’t Belong Anywhere: The Cinema Of Chantal Akerman (preview at Film Forum)
De Palma (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Cinema Travellers (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
I Am Not Your Negro (preview for 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Thanks to Maysles Cinema for walking tour of “James Baldwin’s Harlem”)
By Sidney Lumet (Our cousin Danielle Shapiro is thanked in the credits.) (Episode of PBS’s American Masters)
Mifune: The Last Samurai
Le Concours (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
Finding Kukan (seen at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)


Runners-Up: BEST DOCUMENTARIES FOR CINÉPHILES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Color Correction (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Spectrum Reverse Spectrum (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Pixel Jungle (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Here Come the Videofreex (My additional notes.)
Author: The JT Leroy Story
The Lovers and the Despot


Educational DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
Colliding Dreams
Life, Animated (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
This Magic Moment (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Shadow World (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Germans & Jews (So, nu: my additional commentary.)
Lo And Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
The Seasons In Quincy: Four Portraits Of John Berger (preview at Film Forum)
Rikers (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
The Beekeeper and His Son (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
Trezoros: The Lost Jews Of Kastoria
Defying The Nazis: The Sharps War
Food Evolution (preview at 2016 DOC NYC Festival)
Zero Days
Blood on the Mountain
Bobby Sands: 66 Days
Seasons (Saisons) (French language version preview courtesy of Music Box Films)
Nuts!


DOCUMENTARIES – Best Reenactments
Maestà (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Story of Judas (Histoire de Judas) (preview at 2016 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Lost and Beautiful (Bella e perduta) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Francophonia
LoveTrue (preview at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Spirits Diary (Rakijaški dnevnik) (seen in 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
Sully (fictionalized docu-drama)
Notes On Blindness


BEST for the CREATIVE CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Bleak Street (La Calle de la Amargura) (kudos to cinematographer Alejandro Cantú) (preview at Film Forum)
Touched With Fire (kudos to cinematographers Kristina Nikolova and Alexander Stanishev)
Tikkun (Commentary on the Jewish women) (kudos to cinematographer Shai Goldman) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Neon Bull (Boi Neon) (kudos to cinematographer Diego García) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The 9th Life of Louis Drax
Nocturnal Animals (kudos to cinematographer Seamus McGarvey)


BEST for the SCENERY
The Visit (La Visite) (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Tower (A Torre) (short seen in ”A Matter of Visibility: International Avant-Garde & Artists’ Cinema” at 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Kaili Blues (Lu bian ye can) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Mountain (Ha'har) (Commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2016 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Last Days in the Desert (kudos to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and score by Danny Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans)
Les Cowboys (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Ornithologist (O Ornitólogo) (kudos to the birds) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Lion


BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Orchard Street (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Night Train (Pociag) (seen in 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
I Knew Her Well (Io la conoscevo bene) (preview at Film Forum)
Dekalog (preview courtesy The Criterion Collection)
Daughters of the Dust (preview courtesy Cohen Media)
Taipei Story (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Aux quatre coins, Le quadrille, and Le divertissement (Jacques Rivette shorts) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Russians Are Coming (Die Russen kommen) (seen at 2016 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)
From the Branches Drops the Withered Blossom (Déjà s’envole la fleur maigre) (seen at 2016 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)
Comradeship (Kameradschaft) (seen at 2016 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)
Westfront 1918: Vier von der Infanterie (seen at 2016 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)
Children Must Laugh (Mir Kumen On) (seen at 2016 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)
The Last Chance (Die Letzte Chance) (seen at 2016 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art)
Behind the Door (seen at 2016 To Save and Project: MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art) (kudos to live piano/flute/accordion accompaniment by Stephen Horne)

And thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
The Lighted Field and RIP: Chantal Akerman's video Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher (seen in 2016 First Look and Cara Morton’s 16mm Across (shorts seen in A Matter of Visibility: International Avant-Garde & Artists’ Cinema at 2016 First Look at Museum of the Moving Image)
Benilde, or the Virgin Mother (Benilde ou a Virgem Mãe) and Past and Present (O Passado e o Presente) in Manoel de Oliveira’s Tetralogy of Frustrated Love in 35mm (preview at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Yesterday Girl (Abschied Von Gestern – Anita G.) and Fritz Bauer - Death By Installments (Tod Auf Raten) in the series Enemy Territory – Fritz Bauer & Postwar Germany at the Goethe Institut
Blues By The Beach (seen at Cinematek Forest Hills)


NOTABLE FILM-RELATED EXHIBITS
Martin Scorsese at Museum of the Moving Image (organized by Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen, Berlin)

Laura Poitras: Astro Noise at the Whitney Museum of American Art


MY BEST FILMS of 2015 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
White God (Fehér isten) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Great Man (Le grand homme) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
About Elly (Darbareye Elly) (briefly reviewed in Part 1 Recommendations at 2009 Tribeca Film Festival)
We Are Young. We Are Strong. (Wir sind jung. Wir sind stark.) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Wondrous Boccaccio (Maraviglioso Boccaccio) (kudos to the cinematography) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Way of Tea (Les Frémissements du Thé) (short seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Red Leaves (preview in 2015 New York African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Taxi (My additional note.)
Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless One; Volume 2 - The Desolate One; Volume 3 - The Enchanted One (As Mil e Uma Noites: O Inquieto; O Desolado; O Encantado) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
99 Homes (kudos to Michael Shannon, Andrew Garfield, score by Antony Partos & Matteo Zingales)
Room
The Walk (in IMAX 3D) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Bridge of Spies (kudos to the cinematography) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society Of Lincoln Center)
Son of Saul (Saul Fia) (kudos to Géza Röhrig, writer/director László Nemes, cinematographer Mátyás Erdély and sound designer Tamás Zányi) (My edited capsule “Best of 2015” review) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
MacBeth (kudos to Shakespeare adaptation, cinematography, and scenery)
Spotlight (kudos to ensemble and script – plus the link to The Wire)
Mediterranea (seen courtesy of IFC Center)
Beasts of No Nation (kudos to Idris Elba and Abraham Attah)
Time Out of Mind (kudos to Richard Gere)

Runners-Up: MOVIES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Little Accidents
Anarchy (as in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline à la Sons of Anarchy) (preview at 2015 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Of Horses and Men (kudos to the cinematography) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Court (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Far From Men (Loin Des Hommes) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to the scenery)
Ashby (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to Mickey Rourke and Nat Wolff)
Virgin Mountain (Fúsi) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Dinner (I Nostri Ragazzi) (preview at 2015 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Good Kill (seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival; at the 2016 Fest, the Israeli short Operator was similar.)
Manglehorn
The Stanford Prison Experiment (kudos to Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, and Michael Angarano)
Holmes
Learning to Drive (go eat at an Indian restaurant after!)
Pawn Sacrifice
The Cut (Notes)
Experimenter (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Trash
Trumbo (kudos to Bryan Cranston and ensemble)
One Floor Below (Un etaj mai jos) (preview in 2015 Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Big Short (Kudos to the ensemble) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)

BEST FEMALE POV
Feature Division
Beloved Sisters (Die geliebten Schwestern) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Timbuktu (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional note.)
Clouds Of Sils Maria (kudos to Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mommy (kudos to Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clement)
Gett: The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem (preview at 2015 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (kudos to Ronit Elkabetz)
Kumiko the Treasure Hunter (kudos to the scenery and love for Fargo) [NB: My colleague Kyoko Hirano objected to stereotyped view of an Asian woman.]
Breathe (Respire) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Fidelio, Alice’s Odyssey (Fidelio, l’odyssée d’Alice) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Party Girl (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Kindergarten Teacher (Haganenet) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Lesson (Urok)
Chlorine (Cloro) (preview at 2015 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Testament of Youth (kudos to the script, Alicia Vikander, and Kit Harington)
Grandma (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to Lily Tomlin)
Next To Her (At Li Layla) (kudos to co-writer/co-star Liron Ben-Shlush and Dana Ivgy) (seen at 2015 Israel Film Center Festival)
Mustang
No Home Movie (Go Skype your mother!) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
I Smiled Back (kudos to Sarah Silverman)
Phoenix (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Daughter (Dukhtar)
Difret
The Summer of Sangaile (Sangailes vasara) (seen courtesy of IFC Center) (briefly reviewed for 2016 Panorama Europe at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Second Mother (Que Horas Ela Volta?) (Showing 2016 in O Brasil: Contemporary Brazilian Cinema at at Museum of the Moving Image)
Joy (kudos to Jennifer Lawrence and writer/director David O. Russell) (So, nu: my commentary on “Joan Rivers”.)

Documentary Division
The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer (preview at 2015 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Trials of Spring (multi-media project preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: NonViolence & Revolt at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Burden Of Peace (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: NonViolence & Revolt at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mala Mala (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
He Named Me Malala

Animated Division
When Marnie Was There (with subtitles)
Inside Out (But 2D was weaker)

Runners-Up: BEST FEMALE POV Features I Recommend Despite my Gripes
My Friend Victoria (Mon amie Victoria) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Tu dors Nicole (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Bare (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Being 14 (À 14 ans) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Catwalk (short seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Listen (short seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
A Mighty Nice Man (short seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to the cinematography and young Kylie McVey)
Heaven Knows What (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Arielle Holmes)
Train Wreck (NB: Doesn’t pass Bechdel Test)
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Apples From the Desert (Tapoukhim min ha'midbar) (seen at 2015 Israel Film Center Festival)
Brooklyn (My colleague Martha P. Nochinson reported on the reaction to my questioning the creative team at the 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center preview. I’m the first audience questioner at the press conference.)
The New Girlfriend (Une nouvelle amie)
Flowers (Loreak)
The Danish Girl (kudos to Alicia Vikander)
The Lady In The Van (for Dame Maggie Smith)

Runners-Up: BEST FEMALE POV Docs I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Code: Debugging The Gender Gap (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Dior and I (only as a tribute to Florence Chehet, première for the atelier flou, and Monique Bailly, première for the atelier tailleur, and their seamstresses)
Everything Is Copy (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST ROMANCES
Love at First Fight (Les Combattants) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Christmas, Again (kudos to Kentucker Audley) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Viaje (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
El Cinco (El 5 De Talleres) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Far From the Madding Crowd (sigh for Matthias Schoenaerts)
Coming Home (Gui lai)
The High Sun (Zvizdan) (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2016 at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)

Runners-Up: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Felix and Meira (preview at 2015 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Gaby Baby Doll (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Dixieland (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to interspersed real people interviews and actors Chris Zylka and Riley Keough)
Sleeping With Other People (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Warning Labels (short seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to director Jennifer Morrison of House, M.D.and Once Upon A Time)
The Statistical Analysis of Your Failing Relationship (short seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Uncertain Terms (seen in 2014 Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You at MoMA)
The Little Death
Results
Gemma Bovery

BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
Black Sea (kudos to Jude Law)
’71 (kudos to Jack O’Connell, editing, cinematography, and music) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Kidnapping Mr. Heineken (kudos to Amsterdam chase scenes)
The Connection (La French) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart (La Prochaine fois je viserai le Coeur) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Guillaume Canet and the score by Grégoire Hetzel)
Haemoo (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
24 Days (24 Jours)
Cop Car (kudos to the Colorado scenery)
Sicario (kudos to cinematography)
The Hateful Eight (kudos to Enrico Morricone’s score, Quentin Tarantino’s crazy script, and the ensemble)

Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I enjoyed despite quibbles
SK1 (L’Affaire SK1) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Guillaume Canet and the score by Grégoire Hetzel)
The Fool (Durak) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Hyena (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to Peter Ferdinando)
L’Ardor (kudos to the jungle)
Two Step (kudos to score by Andrew Kenny)
Brothers…Blood Against Blood (kudos to the music and bodies)
Creed (kudos to Michael B. Jordan, director Ryan Coogler – and even Sylvester Stallone)
In the Heart of the Sea (kudos to cinematography, but “buoy” to absence of sea chanteys)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST HORRORS
Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh, Ich seh) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
It Follows

BEST POST-APOCALYPSES
Mad Max: Fury Road (kudos to cinematography, production design, score/sound design and the Vuvalini who rate )

Runners-Up: BEST POST-APOCALYPSES
Jackrabbit (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to Josh Caras Ian Christopher Noel)
The Shaman (short seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to production design
Z for Zachariah (kudos for the scenery)

BEST SCI FI/FANTASY
The Martian (3D) (kudos to science nerds)

Runners-Up: BEST SCI FI/FANTASY I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Ex Machina (cool score – intriguing Science Goes to the Movies discussion)
Jellyfish Eyes (kudos to the F.R.I.E.N.Ds)

BEST NEO-NOIRS
Every Secret Thing (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)

Runners-Up: NEO-NOIRS I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
In the Name of My Daughter (L’Homme qu’on aimait trop) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Sunrise (Arunoday) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to Adil Hussain, sound design/score, and the streets of Mumbai)
Wednesday 04:45 (Tetarti 04:45) (kudos to sound design and cinematography) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Strangerland (kudos to the outback views and the score)
Legend (kudos to Tom Hardy and Tom Hardy)
The Gift

BEST COMING OF AGERS
Bypass (kudos to George MacKay) (preview at 2015 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Eat Your Bones (Mange tes morts) (FYI – they are Yeniche.) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (seen with subtitles missing 5 letters.)
Wild Life (Vie sauvage) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
May Allah Bless France! (Qu’Allah bénisse la France!) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Young Tiger (Bébé tigre) (preview at 2015 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Violet (kudos to the cinematography, sound design, and BMX riders) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Wolf (Theeb) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Kingdom of Garbage (short seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
A Borrowed Identity (Dancing Arabs Aka Second Son) (kudos to Yaël Abecassis and Michael Moshonov) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Wonders (Le meraviglie) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Dope
Five Star (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (originally filed under “Most Depressing”) (My additional notes.)
Prince
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

BEST REELABILITIES: Presentation of Disabilities in Film (giving credit for appropriating the term without attending/seeing these at the NY Disabilities Film Festival)
The Tribe (Plemya) (Depressing dystopian division) (My edited capsule “Best of 2015” review) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Infinitely Polar Bear
Welcome to Me (Kudos to Kristen Wiig)

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries):
The Wrecking Crew (My additional notes.)
Orion: The Man Who Would Be King (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Les Boquets (short) (seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Evolution of a Gen-X Music Purchaser (seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Love & Mercy (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
No Land's Song (multi-media project preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: Preserving Cultural Identity Under Stress at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Amy
Lucky Stiff (kudos to animation produced by Faith Hubley)
Miles Ahead (kudos to actor/producer/director/composer Don Cheadle and the score) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Syl Johnson: Any Way The Wind Blows (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
Janis: Little Girl Blue (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
What Happened Miss Simone? (seen on Netflix)
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (seen on HBO)
Sound Of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story)

Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Song One (songs by Jenny Lewis and Jonathan Rice)
Salad Days: A Decade Of Punk In Washington, DC (1980-1990) (despite much too short shrift to Riot Grrrls) (preview at 2014 DocNYC)
When I Live My Life Over Again (only for Christopher Walken singing and the images of his character’s past LP covers) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bombay Velvet
Beats of the Antonov (reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: Preserving Cultural Identity Under Stress at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Dream Of Shahrazad (reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: Preserving Cultural Identity Under Stress at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Tap World
The Outrageous Sophie Tucker (So, nu: my commentary on Tucker as a Jewish woman.)
Chi-Raq (kudos to music, rhymes, and ensemble)

BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE
Woman In Gold (My additional notes on the Jewish women)
Jimmy’s Hall (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to research into Civil War diaries and letters)
Greenery Will Bloom Again (Torneranno i prati) (preview at 2015 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to the cinematography and score)
Leopardi (preview at 2015 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Elio Germano, the cinematography, costumes, and score)

Runners-Up: BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE I Recommend Despite my gripes
Queen and Country (preview at MoMA’s 2014 The Contenders)
The Water Diviner
Madame Bovary (kudos to the costumes and locales)
Labyrinth Of Lies (Im Labyrinth Des Schweigens) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Suffragette

BEST for the CREATIVE CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Güeros (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Chagall and Malevich (So, nu: my commentary on Bella, the Jewish woman.)
February/Avraham/December/Intimations/Prelude in Retrospective – Luminous Intimacy: The Cinema of Nathaniel Dorsky (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Forbidden Room (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Everything Will Be Fine (for 3D aesthetics)

Runners- Up: BEST for the CREATIVE CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Documentary Division
The Wanted 18 (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: NonViolence & Revolt at Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Best Animation
Zarafa (at 2012 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman animator.)
The Good Dinosaur
Sanjay’s Super Team (short) (kudos to director Sanjay Patel)
Shaun The Sheep
Boy and the World (O Menino e o Mundo) (kudos to the music)
Extraordinary Tales

Most Depressing
Fiction Division
Port of Call (preview at 2015 New York Asian Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
James White (kudos to Cynthia Nixon)

Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing Movies Despite Nonsense:
Paddington (kudos to Sally Hawkins, Nicole Kidman, Ben Whishaw’s voicing and the production design)
Cut Bank (Noir Division)
Applesauce (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared (Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann)
The Handmaiden (Ah-ga-ssi) (Exploitative Male Gaze Division)

Runners-up: Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing Movies Despite Nonsense:
The Final Girls
Nasty Baby
Sisters

BEST OF THE CINEMA OF THE ABSURD:
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron)


BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
The Search For General Tso (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (See with Max Weber’s Chinese Restaurant at the Whitney Museum of American Art)
Above and Beyond (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival) (kudos to ILM’s effects and earthy interviewees)
Deli Man (preview at 2015 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (preview at 2015 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
1971 (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: Violence & Vigilantes at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (seen at MoMA’s 2015 Documentary Fortnight)
Of Men And War (reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: Violence & Vigilantes at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (seen at MoMA’s 2015 Documentary Fortnight) (My additional Notes.)
Park Lanes (seen at MoMA’s 2015 Documentary Fortnight) (For the entire 8 hour shift, plus Q & A)
The Creation of Meaning (La creazione di significato) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Western (FYI – those birds are grackles) (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) see with Cartel Land (briefly reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: Violence & Vigilantes at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Palio (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Democrats (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Toto And His Sisters (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Look Of Silence (reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: Violence & Vigilantes at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My capsule “Best of 2015” review) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Murder In The Park (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)
Meet the Patels (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival) (biased by my enjoying learning the Indian pronounciation of ”Ravi”)
Stray/Dog (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Life Is Sacred (preview at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: NonViolence & Revolt at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Meru (kudos to Jimmy Chin as co-director, co-DP, photographer – while climbing)
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (seen on HBO)
The Pearl Button (El botón de nácar) (My edited capsule “Best of 2015” review)
Newman (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
Sherpa
Frame By Frame
Winter On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom (My additional Notes.) (Seen on Netflix)

BEST DOCUMENTARIES FOR CINEPHILES:
Becoming Anita Ekberg and The Vanity Tables of Douglas Sirk (shorts preview at 2015 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Quay, seen in The Quay Brothers on 35 MM (short preview at Film Forum)
Forbidden Films (Verbotene Filme) (kudos to Film Forum for free showings) (So, nu: my commentary on the missing Jewish women.)
The Wolfpack (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy
Listen to Me Marlon (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Monty Python: The Meaning Of Live (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story Of The National Lampoon (My additional notes.) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival
Sembène! (kudos to the animation and music) (Commentary on missing Jewish women)
Hitchcock/Truffaut (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: Documentaries I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Vessel (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)
The Hunting Ground
In My Father’s House (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (My notes on dental care.)
A Nazi Legacy: What Our Fathers Did (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Armor Of Light (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (briefly reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: Violence & Vigilantes at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Killing Them Safely (aka Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
(T)error (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival) (reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: Violence & Vigilantes at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Do I Sound Gay? (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)
(Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies (kudos for including several women social scientists)
3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets (reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: Violence & Vigilantes at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Iron Ministry (preview at Museum of Modern Art)
Finders Keepers
The Man Who Saved The World (a docudrama hybrid)
Thank You For Your Service (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)

BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
The Salt of The Earth
Dream/Killer (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Yes Men Are Revolting (reviewed at Human Rights Watch Film Fest ’15: NonViolence & Revolt at Film Society of Lincoln Center) Commentary on the Jewish women. (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)
Transfatty Lives (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
A Ballerina’s Tale (albeit no bio – but outs Balanchine for promulgating the anorexic pre-adolescent male standard of beauty) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Walter:The Man Who Married Kittens (short seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Trials of Constance Baker Motley (short seen at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Best of Enemies (NB: I didn’t watch these ABC News debates live in 1968 because I was watching the real news of the actual convention coverage.)
Homme Less (at 2014 DOC NYC Festival) (kudos to jazzy score by Kyle Eastwood & Matt McCord)
Beltracchi: The Art Of Forgery
Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine (My additional notes.) (Compare with the fictionalization in Steve Jobs, including So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Heart of a Dog (9/11 Commentary) (Jewish woman Commentary) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
I Am Sun Mu (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
The Diplomat (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)

Educational DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws): flaws):
Approaching the Elephant (seen in 2014 Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You at MoMA)
Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation (seen at MoMA’s 2015 Documentary Fortnight)
Emptying The Skies (reviewed at 2013 “Birds Of A Feather” Flock To DOC NYC)
The Royal Road (preview at 2015 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center (The Zinn Education Project is also challenging “the Mission Unit” in California schools.)
Letter to a Father (Carta a un padre) (preview at 2015 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
We Come as Friends (kudos to the scenery) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (My additional note.)
Where To Invade Next (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
In Jackson Heights (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Journey Of A Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
Class Divide (preview at 2015 DOC NYC Festival)
Disturbing The Peace (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)

BEST for the SCENERY
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Dog Lady (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Entertainment (preview at 2015 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Last Knights (a new genre: sword and snow epic?)
Slow West (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Aloft (kudos to Arctic scenery and sound design) (preview at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Aloha (and the Hawaiian music)
Counting (as a tribute to Chris Marker)
Wolf Totem (2D) (kudos to the ecological balance message)
The Assassin (Nie yin niang) (kudos to the costumes and cinematography)
The Sky Trembles And The Earth Is Afraid And The Two Eyes Are Not Brothers (preview at 2015 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Revenant (kudos to the cinematography)

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Play (preview at In Case Of No Emergency: The Films of Ruben Östlund of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Pain of Love (Kærlighedens smerte) (preview at 2015 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Crime to Fit the Punishment (seen at 2015 Carte Blanche: Women’s Film Preservation Fund of Museum of Modern Art) (Re: the making of Salt of the Earth)
From Mayerling to Sarajevo (preview at Film Forum) (now I understand “morganatic marriage”)
Lions Love (preview at 2015 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Forbidden Games (Jeux interdits)
A Poem Is A Naked Person
In Absentia, The Comb, and Street of Crocodiles in The Quay Brothers on 35 MM (preview at Film Forum)
Jane B. Par (By) Agnès V. (note) and Kung-Fu Master! (Le Petit Amour) (Viva Varda!) (preview courtesy of Cinelicious Pics)
Moana With Sound (1926/1980) (preview at Film Forum)

And thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
Rain the Color Blue with a Little Red in It (Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazougai/Purple Rain) (seen in Rural Route Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
A Trick Of The Light - great for kids who can read English subtitles! (preview of U.S. theatrical premiere in Wim Wenders: Portraits Along the Road retrospective at IFC Center) (Here’s some of the Skladanowsky brothers surviving Bioskop films)
La Habanera and Hitler’s Madman, (preview at Imitations of Life: The Films of Douglas Sirk of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

NOTABLE FILM-RELATED EXHIBITS
America Is Hard to See at the Whitney Museum of American Art (including Reginald Marsh’s Twenty Cent Movie and Walker Evans’ 1931 photograph “Torn Movie Poster”)


MY BEST FILMS of 2014 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Ida (preview at 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (kudos to Agata Kulesza and the cinematography)
The Lunchbox (Dabba)
Child’s Pose (Pozitia copilului) (kudos to Luminita Gheorghiu)
Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Venus In Fur (La Vénus À La Fourrure) (kudos to Emmanuelle Seigner) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Hateship Loveship
A Street in Palermo (Via Castellana Bandiera) (kudos to writer/director/star Emma Dante) (preview at 2014 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Manuscripts Don't Burn (Dast-neveshtehaa nemisoosand) (briefly reviewed)
Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit) (briefly reviewed) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Marion Cotillard)
Rosewater (kudos to Gael García Bernal, Kim Bodnia, and Haluk Bilginer)

Runners-Up: Movies I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Ana Arabia (preview at 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Friends From France (Les interdits) (preview at 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Generation War (Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
When I Saw You (Lamma Shoftak)
Vic + Flo Saw A Bear (Vic + Flo Ont Vu Un Ours) (preview at Anthology Film Archives)
Grand Central (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Japanese Dog (Câinele Japonez) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Quod Erat Demonstrandum (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
To Kill a Man (Matar a un hombre) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Afronauts (short preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Honey (Miele) (for background see PBS’s Frontline report The Suicide Plan)
Locke
The Grand Budapest Hotel (kudos to the production design and mise en scene)
The Retrieval (kudos to young Ashton Sanders, Tishuan Scott, writer/director Chris Eska, and the cinematography) (preview at Film Forum)
Dormant Beauty (Bella addormentata) (preview at 2013 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Those Happy Years (Anni felici) (preview at 2014 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Noah
Colette (seen at 2014 Czech That Film Tour)
Policeman (Ha-shoter) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Hanna’s Journey (Hannas Reise) (preview at 2014 Kino!) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Land Ho! (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to the scenery)
Happy Christmas
All About the Feathers (Por las plumas) (preview at 2014 Latin Beat of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)
My America
Closed Curtain (Pardé)
Lilting (kudos to Ben Whishaw) (preview at 2014 NewFest of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Master Builder
Frontera
Pasolini (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Saint Laurent (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to how well the actors wear those designer outfits)
Birdman (kudos to Michael Keaton, production design, editing, and cinematography) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Big Eyes (kudos to Christoph Waltz) (because I’m a sucker for the images of the 1964 World’s Fair)
The Imitation Game (kudos to Benedict Cumberbatch)
Felony (kudos to writer/star Joel Edgerton, Jai Courtney, and Tom Wilkinson) (preview at 2013 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Rob the Mob (kudos to Michael Pitt and Nina Arianda, and the editing)
Night Moves (kudos to Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Life of Crime (RIP Elmore Leonard)
Nightcrawler (kudos to Jake Gyllenhaal)
A Most Violent Year

Runners-Up: VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS I Recommend: Comic Division
Jackpot (Arme Riddere) (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Calvary (My additional note.)
Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes)
Blue Ruin

Runners-Up: BEST NEO-NOIRS I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Youth (Hanoar) (kudos to the Cunio brothers) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Fish & Cat (Mahi va gorbeh) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
God's Pocket (RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman)
Joe (kudos to Tye Sheridan)
Black Coal, Thin Ice (Bai ri yan huo) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Cold in July (kudos to the score)
Child of God (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
West (Lagerfeuer)
Gone Girl (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to the editing and score)
The Blue Room (La chambre bleue) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to the music and editing)
Foxcatcher (kudos to cast, editing, and cinematography) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Captive (kudos to the score by Mychael Danna)

BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
Big Bad Wolves (preview at 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Omar (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)
The Babadook (kudos to cinematography and book design) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Bethlehem (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Starred Up (kudos to Jack O’Connell and Ben Mendelsohn) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Manos Sucias (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
The German Doctor (Wakolda) (Useful supplements: Director Talk interview and Tablet Magazine visit to Bariloche.) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
A Most Wanted Man

Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I enjoyed despite uncredible plots
Journey To The West: Conquering the Demons (Xi you xiang mo pian)
The Raid 2: Berandal (kudos to the score and sound design)
Wolf (kudos to Marwan Kenzari and the cinematography)
The Rover (kudos to Natasha Braier’s cinematography, scenery, sound design and score by Anthony Partos)

BEST SCI FI/FANTASY
The Double (kudos to the cinematography, production design and Jesse Eisenberg) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) in tandem with Enemy (preview at 2014 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (kudos to the cinematography) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Under the Skin (kudos to the cinematography and score/sound design)
Der Samurai (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Snowpiercer (kudos to the production design and score)
The Zero Theorem (kudos to the costume and production design)
The Kármán Line (short) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Olivia Colman)
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (kudos to the 3D cinematography)

Runners-Up: BEST SCI FI/FANTASY I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Extraterrestrial (kudos to the cinematography and sound design) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Canal (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Coherence
Honeymoon (kudos to writer/director Leigh Janiak for female-empowering the genre)
Bird People
Interstellar
Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST ROMANCES
Under the Rainbow (Au bout du conte) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Obvious Child (kudos to Jenny Slate) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Gerontophilia (preview at 2014 NewFest of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Girl on a Bicycle
2 Autumns, 3 Winters (2 automnes 3 hivers) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
If You Don't, I Will (Arrête Ou Je Continue) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Only Lovers Left Alive (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to the m, production design, and cinematography by Yorick LeSaux)
Fading Gigolo (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
The One I Love (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)

Runners-Up: BEST ANTI-ROMANCES
X/Y (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Force Majeure (Turist)
Miss Julie (kudos to Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton)

BEST COMING OF AGERS
Maidentrip (kudos to the scenery too)
Beneath The Harvest Sky (kudos to Emory Cohen and Callan McAuliffe) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to Paula Hertzog and the Sierra de Córdoba scenery)
Boyhood (kudos to writer/director Richard Linklater)
Natural Sciences (Ciencias Naturales) (preview at 2014 Latin Beat of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Way He Looks (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho) (preview at 2014 NewFest of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Jamesy Boy (kudos to Spencer Lofranco and Michael Trotter)
Me and You (Io e te) (preview at 2014 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Young And Beautiful (Jeune & jolie) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Sheep (Mouton) (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Hide Your Smiling Faces (preview at 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Palo Alto (kudos to Jack Kilmer) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Broken Hill Blues (Ömheten) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bad Hair (Pelo Malo) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Horses of God (Les Chevaux de Dieu) (My additional Notes.)
Casa Grande (preview at 2014 Latin Beat of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST FEMALE POV
Gloria (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Paulina García)
Towheads (briefly reviewed at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (My additional notes.)
On My Way (Elle s'en va) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Zero Motivation (Efes be-Yachasei Enosh) (Also briefly reviewed in Best of 2014) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Traitors (kudos to Chaimae Ben Acha) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Brides (Patardzlebi) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Two Lives (Zwei Leben)
I Won’t Come Back (Ya Ne Vernus) (kudos to Vika Lobacheva and Natalia Drozd) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Wetlands (Feuchtgebiete) (kudos to Carla Juri)
Misunderstood (Incompresa) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Ophelia (short) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Hanna Schygulla)
Tracks (kudos to Mia Wasikowski and cinematographer Mandy Walker) (My additional note.)

Runners-Up: BEST FEMALE POV I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Age of Panic (La bataille de Solférino) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Suzanne (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Stop the Pounding Heart (briefly reviewed in Witches & War at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (My additional notes.)
Exhibition (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Very Good Girls
May In The Summer
Wu Gui (Turtle) (short) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Life’s A Breeze
Wild
Camp X-Ray (kudos to Kristen Stewart and Peyman Moaadi)

Documentary Division:
Finding Vivian Maier (briefly reviewed at 2013 DOC NYC Round-up Part 1:BEST BIO DOCS) (Director Talk interview is a useful supplement about her photography.)
Cineast(e)s: Women Filmmakers (at FI:AF in 2014 Rendez-Vous With French Cinema)
Out in the Night (preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at IFC Center -- where the central events took place by its doors)
Private Violence (preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: Documentary Division I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Breastmilk (reviewed at 2013 Women's Docs at DOC NYC)
Actress
Vessel (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)
Scheherazade’s Diary preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center
Sepideh – Reaching For the Stars preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center
Regarding Susan Sontag (briefly reviewed at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes on her as a Jewish woman and 9/11 analyst.)
Elena
Nan Goldin - I Remember Your Face (preview at 2014 Kino!) (So, nu: my commentary on her as a Jewish woman.)
Iris (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (So, nu: my commentary on her as a Jewish woman.)

Runners-Up: BEST BROMANCES I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Bicycling With Molière (Alceste à bicyclette)

BEST ACTORS better than their movies:
Jude Law in Dom Hemingway
Angelina Jolie in Maleficent
Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything
Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond the Lights

BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE
A Field in England (Then watch the making-of Master Class)
Cesar Chavez (except for the non-Chicano score)
In Secret
Age Of Uprising: The Legend Of Michael Kohlhaas
Burning Bush (Hořicí Keř) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)
The Liberator (Libertador) (kudos to the Venezuelan scenery)
Mr. Turner (see with National Gallery) (kudos to production design and cinematographer Dick Pope) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Diplomacy (Diplomatie) (Schlöndorff interview at Director Talk) (kudos to André Dussollier and Niels Arestrup)
Selma (My additional notes.)

Runners-Up: BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE I Recommend Despite my gripes
Summer In February
The Marchers (La Marche) (except for the non-ethnic score) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The French Minister (Quai D’orsay) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Niels Arestrup)
Xingu (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Railway Man
Half of A Yellow Sun
Belle
Violette (My additional notes.)
The Last Sentence (Dom Över Död Man) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Marius
Kill the Messenger
The Good Lie
Revenge of the Green Dragons (preview at Museum of the Moving Image) (Diva Review interview with the directors)
Fury
Unbroken
Devils Knot

BEST REELABILITIES: Presentation of Disabilities in Film (giving credit for appropriating the term without attending/seeing these at the NY Disabilities Film Festival)
Run and Jump (preview at 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Please Stand Clear of the Closing Doors (preview at 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Keep On Keeping On (kudos to the music too) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)

Runners-Up: BEST REELABILITIES Movies I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Demi-Sɶur

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries):
Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America (briefly reviewed at 2013 DOC NYC Round-up Part 1:BEST BIO DOCS)
Vara: A Blessing (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to the classical Indian dancing with music)
We Are The Best! (Vi är bäst!) (kudos to Mira Barkhammar and Mira Grosin)
Finding Fela
20,000 Days on Earth (preview at Film Forum)
Seymour: An Introduction (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Lambert & Stamp (kudos to the editing)

Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Mistaken for Strangers (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival)
Dancing in Jaffa (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival and at Part 2 Truth & Friction of the 2013 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Flex Is Kings (categorizing as dance-like) (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival)
Time is Illmatic (briefly reviewed at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Frank
Flashback Memories (3D) (preview at 2014 Sound + Vision of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Shield and Spear (preview at 2014 Sound + Vision of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Pulp (preview at 2014 Sound + Vision of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb Vs. Gravity
Revenge of the Mekons (briefly reviewed at 2013 DOC NYC Round-up Part 1:BEST BIO DOCS)
Into The Woods

BEST ANIMATION (and use of animation)
The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mood Indigo (L'écume des jours) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga (briefly reviewed in Witches & War at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (My additional notes.) (kudos to the scenery)
Ernest & Célestine (My detailed comments on this dental version of the tooth mouse.)
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (English-dubbed version)
Song of the Sea
How To Train A Dragon 2
The Boxtrolls

Runners-Up: BEST ANIMATION (and use of animation) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
The Congress (preview at 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Wrinkles (Arrugas) (English-dubbed version – kudos to George Coe’s voicing)
The Lego Movie (for the dialogue)

BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
Big Men (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)
The Last Of The Unjust (Le Dernier Des Injustes) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)
Fatal Assistance (Assistance mortelle) (briefly reviewed at 2013 Economics & the 24th Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Missing Picture (L'image manquante) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional notes.)
Manakamana (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Tomorrow We Disappear (briefly reviewed at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Art and Craft (briefly reviewed at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Newburgh Sting (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional Notes.)
Next Goal Wins (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Virunga (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Kill Team (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival)
A World Not Ours) (preview at 2013 DOC NYC Festival)
Life Itself
Watchers of the Sky (preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (inspired me to read Samantha Power’s A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide)
The Beekeeper (Der Imker) (preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Green Prince) (My additional Notes.) (preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
National Gallery (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Red Army (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)
Enquiring Minds: The Untold Story Of The Man Behind The National Enquirer (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)
Florence Arizona (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)
The Return (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)

DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
12 O’Clock Boys (more subtitles please!)
The New Black (briefly reviewed at 2013 Faith & Filmmaking at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Karama Has No Walls (seen with Oscar Nominated Shorts)
School Of Babel (La Cour de Babel) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Kids for Cash
The Return To Homs (briefly reviewed in Witches & War at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (kudos to the scenery) (My additional notes.)
The Overnighters (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Evaporating Borders preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Homestretch preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center
A Quiet Inquisition preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center
Siddharth preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center
Crooked Candy (short) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Citizenfour (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Still Dreaming (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)

DOCUMENTARIES – Best Reenactments
Charlie Victor Romeo (preview at Film Forum)
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (Epizoda u zivotu beraca zeljeza) (seen at MoMA’s 2014 Documentary Fortnight)
Beyond The Edge (kudos to the scenery)
Ming Of Harlem: Twenty One Storeys In The Air (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Evolution of a Criminal

Runners Up DOCUMENTARIES – Best Reenactments
Bloody Beans (Loubia Hamra) (preview at 2014 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center
For Those Who Can Tell No Tales (preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (inspired me to read Ivo Andrić’s brilliant, Nobel Prize-winning The Bridge Over The Drina, originally published in 1945, 1959 English translation back in print)

Educational DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws): flaws):
Before the Revolution (preview at 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
The Great Flood (briefly reviewed at 2012 Silent Films/Live Music) (My additional notes.)
Teenage (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival and in Youth in Rebellion at Tribeca 2013)
Jodorowsky's Dune
Particle Fever (kudos for focusing on two women physicists) (preview at Film Forum)
Time Goes by Like a Roaring Lion (Die Zeit Vergeht Wie Ein Brüllender Löwe) (preview at 2014 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Second Game (Al doilea joc) (preview at 2014 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center
Karpotrotter (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Silenced (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional Note.)
The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Misconception (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
First to Fall preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center
Dinosaur 13
Expedition To The End Of The World (preview at Film Forum) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)
Spanish Lake (for background on the St. Louis suburbs of the Ferguson uproar)
Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (preview at Film Forum) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)
Last Days In Vietnam
The Last Hijack (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)
Levitated Mass: The Story of Michael Heizer’s Monolithic Sculpture (preview at 2013 DOC NYC Festival)
Inside The Mind Of Leonardo In 3D (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)

BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
Aasinki: The Story Of Arctic Cowboys (briefly reviewed in Shout Out for Quiet Documentaries at Tribeca ‘13 at Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to the scenery)
Cave Digger (seen with Oscar Nominated Shorts)
BIG JOY: The Adventures of James Broughton (briefly reviewed in LGBT Cinema at Tribeca ‘13 at Tribeca Film Festival)
Castanha (preview at 2014 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Unknown Known (My additional specific note and general note.) (preview at 2013 DOC NYC Festival)
An Honest Liar (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Point and Shoot (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
True Son (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Pleasures Of Being Out Of Step: Notes on the Life of Nat Hentoff (briefly reviewed at 2013 DOC NYC Round-up Part 1:BEST BIO DOCS)
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case (My additional notes.)
Burt’s Buzz (My additional notes on the Jewish woman.
Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs And The New South Africa (preview at Ford Foundation’s Just Films)
Whitey: United States Of America V. James J. Bulger
Nelson Mandela: The Myth and Me preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Supreme Price preview at the 2014 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Decent One (Der Anständige) (preview at Film Forum)
Back On Board: Greg Louganis (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)
Little White Lie (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)

Most Depressing
Fiction Division
Ice Poison (Bing Du) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Norte, the End of History (Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan) (kudos to the scenery) (seen at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Notebook (Le Grand Cahier)
Leviathan (kudos to the scenery and cinematography)
Almost Alice (kudos to Julianne Moore) (raising memories of my father’s closing illness)
Documentary Division:
Til Madness Do Us Part (Feng ai) (seen at MoMA’s 2014 Documentary Fortnight)

Runners-up: Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite Nonsense:
Muppets Most Wanted
Life of Riley (Aimer, boire et chanter) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST for the SCENERY:
Feature Division:
Love Is The Perfect Crime (L'amour est un crime parfait) (preview at 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (preview at 2014 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Journey to the West (Xi You) (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Canopy
La Sapienza (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Homesman
Winter Sleep (Kis uykusu)
Documentary Division:
Visitors (kudos to the Philip Glass score)
Watermark
Fishtail (preview at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)
Sunshine Superman (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Antarctica: A Year On Ice

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Il Sorpasso (preview at Film Forum)
Red Hollywood (preview at 2014 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Sorcerer
The Wind Will Carry Us (Bad ma ra khahad bord)
Archipelago and Unrelated (preview in Emerging Artist Spotlight at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Boy Meets Girl (preview at Film Forum’s Carax Retrospective)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (But I was really festival-tired during key scenes, so I can’t take it off my cinema bucket list yet, darn)
The King and the Mockingbird (Le Roi et l’oiseau) (animated) (preview at 2014 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Memories of the Eichmann Trial (seen at To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of Museum of Modern Art) (My additional notes on the Jewish women).
David (preview at 2014 DOC NYC Festival)
A Winter’s Tale (Conte d'hiver) (preview at Film Society of Lincoln Center)

And thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of: Light of Compassion (Nasake no hikari) in The Aesthetics of Shadow, Part 1: Japan at MoMA (with live piano accompaniment); Jump (Salto), Mother Joan Of The Angels (Matka Joanna od Aniołów), The Saragossa Manuscript (Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie) (preview in Masterpieces of Polish Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center); Borom Sarret/Black Girl (La noire de...) in An Auteurist History of Film at MoMA; Statues Also (Die Les Statues meurent aussi) in MoMA’s 2014 Documentary Fortnight; Christian Petzold’s Wolfsburg and Ghosts in the 2014 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center); China Is Near (La Cina è vicina) in Marco Bellocchio: A Retrospective at MoMA; The Lovers on the Bridge (Les Amants Du Pont Neuf) (preview at Film Forum’s Carax Retrospective)

NOTABLE FILM-RELATED EXHIBITS
100 Years in Post-Production: Resurrecting a Lost Landmark of Black Film History at To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation of the Museum of Modern Art (kudos to the 1913 cakewalk sequence in Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day and the decade of restoration detective work)


MY BEST FILMS of 2013 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
About 111 Girls (Darbare 111 Dokhtar) (seen in 2013 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Modest Reception (Paziraie Sadeh) (seen in 2013 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire) (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to score by Giuliano Taviani and CarmeloTravi)
Lore
No (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Jiseul (kudos to the cinematography and score) (preview at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Place Beyond The Pines (kudos to Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, and writer/director Derek Cianfrance)
Renoir (preview at 2013 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional notes.)
Mold (Küf) (briefly reviewed at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Shine Of The Day (Der Glanz des Tages) (briefly reviewed at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (My additional notes.)
Harmony Lessons (Uroki Garmonii) (briefly reviewed in Youth in Rebellion at Tribeca 2013 at Tribeca Film Festival)
Computer Chess
Fruitvale Station (kudos to writer/director Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan)
The Selfish Giant (kudos to writer/director Clio Barnard, Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas and Sean Gilder)

Runners-Up: Movies I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Aliyah (also briefly reviewed at 2013 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Cutoff Man (Menatek Ha-maim) (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Outside Satan (Hors Satan) (preview at Anthology Film Archives)
Southwest (Sudoeste) (seen in 2013 Global Lens series at MoMA)
The Pirogue
Three Worlds (Trois Mondes) (preview at 2013 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Blue Caprice (kudos to the score) (preview at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Starbuck (seen at MoMA's 2012 Canadian Front) -- like a fiction version of the documentary Donor Unknown (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (remade in Hollywood as Delivery Man)
It Was The Son (È stato il figlio) (preview at 2013 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to the cinematography)
In The Fog (V tumane)
The Hunt (Jagten) (Kudos to Mads Mikkelsen)
You Will Be My Son (Tu Seras Mon Fils)
Nebraska (kudos to Bruce Dern and June Squibb, Bob Nelson’s script, Phedon Papamichael’s cinematography and Mark Orton’s score) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Touch Of Sin (Tian Zhu Ding) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (despite the kowtowing to Beijing PC-ness)
In The Name Of. . . (W imie...) (kudos to Andrzej Chyra)
Aftermath (Pokłosie) (kudos to Maciej Stuhr and Ireneusz Czop) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Three Exercises of Interpretation: The Cat is On the Chair, The Mouse is Under the Table, and The Monkey is On the Branch (Trois exercices d’interprétation): (preview in 2014 Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Under The Same Sun (preview at 2013 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Inheritance (preview at 2013 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
Arabani (preview at 2013 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
The Past (Le passé) (briefly reviewed in best of year- scroll down) (kudos to Bérénice Bejo and Pauline Burlet)
Saving Mr. Banks
Mud
American Hustle
The Hours (RIP Paul Walker)

Runners-Up: BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Lee Daniels' The Butler
The Immigrant (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (So, nu: my commentary on the missing Jewish women.) (kudos to Marion Cotillard, cinematographer Darius Khondji, and production design, especially at Ellis Island)
12 Years A Slave (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Fifth Estate (not so way-back division)
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (kudos to Idris Elba and Naomie Harris)

BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
The Baytown Outlaws (kudos to Clayne Crawford and Travis Fimmel)
Gangster Squad (kudos to art, scenic, costume, and sound design)
Motorway (Che sau) (kudos to the music) (preview at 2013 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Berlin File (Be-reul-lin)
A Hijacking (Kapringen) (briefly reviewed in best of year- scroll down) (preview at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (see it with The Project, briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival) (I preferred over Captain Phillips)
Stampede (a short film from Croatia by Cyril Amon Schäubli as tense as Bourne in a train station) (preview at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Eddie the Sleepwalking Cannibal (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Northwest (Nordvest) (briefly reviewed in Youth in Rebellion at Tribeca 2013 at Tribeca Film Festival) (preview at 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Shadow Dancer (kudos to Andrea Riseborough) (My additional notes.)
Drug War (Du zhan)
The Grandmaster (Yi dai zong shi) (U.S. version) (kudos to the martial arts choreography and cinematography)
Prisoners
Lone Survivor (kudos to director Peter Berg)
Gravity (3D)
Welcome to the Punch (kudos to the production style)

Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I enjoyed despite uncredible plots
The East
The Prey (La proie)
The Attack (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Closed Circuit

BEST NEO-NOIRS
Death For Sale (kudos to the cinematography) (preview in 2013 New York African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Nairobi Half Life (preview in 2013 New York African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Single Shot (kudos to Sam Rockwell and score by Atli Örvarsson)

Runners-Up: BEST NEO-NOIRS I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Mobius (preview at 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Mystery (preview at 2013 New York Asian Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST SCI FI/FANTASY
The Wall (Die Wand) (kudos to Martina Gedeck and the scenery)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (kudos to the action and hints of romance)

Runners-Up: BEST SCI FI/FANTASY I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Blancanieves (kudos to cinematography and music) (preview at 2012 Spanish Cinema Now at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to the black-and-white cinematography)
Byzantium (preview at 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
World War Z
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

BEST COMING OF AGERS
The Interval (L’Intervallo) (preview at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (kudos to Francesca Riso)
Blackbird (seen at MoMA's 2013 Canadian Front) (kudos to Connor Jessup and writer/director Jason Buxton)
Before My Heart Falls (Avant Que Mon Coeur Bascule) (seen at MoMA's 2013 Canadian Front)
The Rocket (preview at 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
What Richard Did (kudos to Jack Reynor) (briefly reviewed in Youth in Rebellion at Tribeca 2013 at Tribeca Film Festival)
The Spectacular Now (despite more upbeat ending than the book)
Club Sándwich (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Gimme The Loot (briefly reviewed at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Molly Maxwell (seen at MoMA's 2013 Canadian Front)
The We and The I (My additional notes.)
La Playa DC (Seen at The African Diaspora International Film Festival

BEST ROMANCES
Warm Bodies (Sci-Fi Division) (kudos to Nicholas Hoult)
Refrain (Rengaine) (briefly reviewed at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
Before Midnight (40somethings Division) (kudos to Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy)
Much Ado About Nothing (a la Joss Whedon and friends)
Fill the Void (Lemale et ha'halal) (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Hadas Yaron and Yiftach Klein) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (kudos to Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck)
Real (Riaru: Kanzen Naru Kubinagaryû No Hi) (Sci-Fi Division) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Blue Is The Warmest Color (La Vie d’Adèle -Chapitre 1 and 2) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Adèle Exarchopoulos)
Her (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to writer/director Spike Jonze, Joaquin Phoenix, voice of Scarlett Johansson, score by Arcade Fire, KK Barrett’s production design)
The Pin (kudos to actors Milda Gecaite and Grisha Pasternak, writer/director Naomi Jaye and score/sound design) (preview at The Anne Frank Center USA) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)

Runners-Up: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Nights With Theodore (Les Nuits avec Theodore) (preview at 2013 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Laurence Anyways (seen at MoMA's 2013 Canadian Front) (kudos to Melvil Poupaud and Suzanne Clément)
Upstream Color (Sci-Fi Division) (kudos to Shane Carruth)
Every Blessed Day (Tutti i santi giorni) (preview at 2013 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Floating Skyscrapers (Plynace wiezowce) (briefly reviewed in LGBT Cinema at Tribeca ‘13 at Tribeca Film Festival)
Alì Blue Eyes (Alì ha gli occhi azzurri) (briefly reviewed in Youth in Rebellion at Tribeca 2013 at Tribeca Film Festival)
Don Jon
Out In The Dark (Alata) (Dhalam) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Charlie Countryman

Runners-Up Guilty Pleasure Douglas Sirk Tribute Division: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Labor Day (kudos to Kate Winslett and I’ve been a fan of Josh Brolin as sexy since Young Riders)
Twice Born (Venuto al mondo)

BEST BROMANCES
The Kings of Summer
Prince Avalanche
The Motel Life (kudos to Jason Falkner’s guitar)

Runners-Up: BEST BROMANCES I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Kill Your Darlings (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Out of the Furnace

BEST FEMALE POV
War Witch (Rebelle) (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Girl (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Future Weather (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
A Lady in Paris (Une Estonienne À Paris) (preview at 2013 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Augustine (preview at 2013 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Thérèse Desqueyroux (preview at 2013 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Eden (My additional notes.)
S#x/Six Acts (Shesh peamim) (briefly reviewed in Youth in Rebellion at Tribeca 2013 at Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Jîn (briefly reviewed in Youth in Rebellion at Tribeca 2013 at Tribeca Film Festival)
Ginger & Rosa
Hannah Arendt (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Bling Ring
Tall As The Baobab Tree (Grand comme le Baobab) (briefly reviewed at 2013 Islam & Women’s Rights at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
In A World. . . (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Our Children (À Perdre La Raison) (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Émilie Dequenne)
Afternoon Delight (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
The Patience Stone (Syngué Sabour) (kudos to Golshifteh Farahani)
Adore (Two Women) (kudos to Robin Penn and Naomi Watts)
Wadjda
Camille Claudel 1915 (kudos to Juliette Binoche)
Sunlight Jr. (kudos to Naomi Watts and writer/director Laurie Collyer)
Everyday (thanks to William Wolf’s Movie Preview Class) (kudos to Shirley Henderson)

Runners-Up: BEST FEMALE POV I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Abuse Of Weakness (Abus De Faiblesse) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
My Name Is Hmmm… (Je M’appelle Hmmm…) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Enough Said
Go For Sisters (kudos to LisaGay Hamilton, Yolonda Ross and Edward James Olmos)

BEST SATIRES
The Color Of The Chameleon (Tsvetat na hameleona) (briefly reviewed at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (My additional notes.)
Fresh Meat (briefly reviewed in Youth in Rebellion at Tribeca 2013 at Tribeca Film Festival)
Helter Skelter (Herutâ sukerutâ) (preview at 2013 New York Asian Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center/Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film of Japan Society)
The World’s End (kudos to Simon Pegg)
What’s in A Name (Le Prénom)

Runners-up: Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite Nonsense:
The Parade (Parada) (Best Gay Serbian Comedy with a Serious Point Division) (seen in 2013 Global Lens series at MoMA) (briefly reviewed at 2013 Faith & Filmmaking at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Battle Of Pussy Willow Creek (My additional notes.)
In the House (Dans la maison) (preview at 2013 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries):
Cabaret Berlin: The Wild Scene (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Max Raabe in Israel (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Fantastic World of Juan Orol (El Fantástico mundo de Juan Orol) (seen in 2013 Global Lens series at MoMA)
China Concerto (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight)
The Sapphires (My additional notes.)
When The Song Dies (short) (briefly reviewed in Shout Out for Quiet Documentaries at Tribeca ‘13 at Tribeca Film Festival)
A Band Called Death (My additional note.)
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (kudos to Farhan Akhtar and music by Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa) (My additional notes.)
Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer (Pokazatelnyy protsess: Istoriya Pussy Riot) (briefly reviewed at 2013 Faith & Filmmaking at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Inside Llewyn Davis (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Oscar Isaac and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Punk Singer (briefly reviewed at 2013 DOC NYC Round-up Part 1:BEST BIO DOCS)
We Always Lie To Strangers (reviewed at 2013 “Birds Of A Feather” Flock To DOC NYC)

Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
The Ballad of the Weeping Spring (Balada le'aviv ha'bohe) (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Let’s Dance! (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Hava Nagila (The Movie) (also briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (My additional notes.)
Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey (My additional notes.) (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
The Broken Circle Breakdown (preview at 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
The History Of Future Folk
20 Feet From Stardom (My additional notes.)
Enzo Avitabile Music Life (seen at 2012 DOC NYC Festival)
CBGB (just for the inaccurate fun of it) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Sweet Dreams
I Used To Be Darker (for how naturally the character-defining music was incorporated into the story)
Touba (seen at 2013 DOC NYC Festival)

BEST REELABILITIES: Presentation of Disabilities in Film (giving credit for appropriating the term without attending/seeing these at the NY Disabilities Film Festival)
Summer of Giacomo (L'estate di Giacomo) (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight)
Matthew’s Laws (De Regels van Matthijs) (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight)

BEST ANIMATION
The Day Of The Crows (Le Jour des Corneilles) (preview at 2013 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Suicide Shop (Le magasin des suicides) (in 3D) (preview at 2013 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Painting (Le Tableau) (preview at 2012 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Approved For Adoption (Couleur De Peau: Miel) (a mixed-media docu-drama)
Frozen (kudos to Disney’s somewhat most feminist, what with writer/co-director Jennifer Lee, songs co-written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and 2 princesses, voices of Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel)

Runners-Up: BEST ANIMATION I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
From Up on Poppy Hill (English-language version) (courtesy of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy? (briefly reviewed at 2013 DOC NYC Round-up Part 1:BEST BIO DOCS) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)

BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
56 Up (My additional notes.)
Numbered (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Pablo’s Winter (El Invierno de Pablo (kudos to the cinematography) (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight)
Canícula (kudos to the cinematography, sound design, and music) (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight)
The Act Of Killing (preview at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (briefly reviewed at 2013 Death & Politics at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
No Place On Earth (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (Also reviewed on page 14 of New Hampshire Jewish Film Buzz)
Oxyana (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival)
Let The Fire Burn (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival)
Sandy Storyline (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival)
Powerless (Katiyabaaz) (briefly reviewed in Shout Out for Quiet Documentaries at Tribeca ‘13 at Tribeca Film Festival)
Reporting on The Times: The New York Times and The Holocaust (short film) (briefly reviewed in Shout Out for Quiet Documentaries at Tribeca ‘13 at Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Call Me Kuchu (briefly reviewed at 2012 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center ) (See with God Loves Uganda for background.)
99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (briefly reviewed at 2013 Economics & the 24th Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Born This Way (briefly reviewed at 2013 Faith & Filmmaking at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
In The Shadow Of The Sun (briefly reviewed at 2013 Faith & Filmmaking at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Salma (briefly reviewed at 2013 Islam & Women’s Rights at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Camp 14 – Total Control Zone (briefly reviewed at 2013 Death & Politics at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Square (Al Midan) (kudos to director Jehane Noujaim) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional notes.)
The Empire Project (seen at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Herb & Dorothy 50x50 (the sequel to Herb & Dorothy)
Golden Slumbers (Le Sommeil d’Or) (preview at Anthology Film Archives
The Garden of Eden (preview at 2013 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Town Hall (reviewed at 2013 Politics at DOC NYC: A Look Back)

DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
The Gatekeepers (Shom'ray Ha'saf) (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Sofia’s Last Ambulance (Poslednata lineika na Sofia) (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight)
Downeast (briefly reviewed in Documentaries at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Cape Spin! An American Power Struggle
Bidder 70 (briefly reviewed at 2012 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks
Raw Herring (Hollandse Nieuwe (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival)
Camera/Woman (briefly reviewed at 2013 Islam & Women’s Rights at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Going Up The Stairs (briefly reviewed at 2013 Islam & Women’s Rights at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Rafea: Solar Mama (briefly reviewed at 2013 Islam & Women’s Rights at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional note.)
An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story (briefly reviewed at 2013 Death & Politics at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
In God We Trust (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival)
Zipper: Coney Island’s Last Wild Ride
Tim’s Vermeer (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
After Tiller (My additional note.)
Dove’s Cry (preview at 2013 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
God Loves Uganda and Mission Congo (preview at 2013 DOC NYC Festival)
Brave Miss World (reviewed at 2013 Women's Docs at DOC NYC)

Runners-Up:BEST BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
The Art of Spiegelman (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Life? Or Theatre? (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Oma and Bella (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (preview at 2012 DOC NYC Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Life In Stills (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Tzvetanka (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight)
No Man’s Land (Terra de Ninguém) (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight)
Documentarian (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight)
Once I Entered a Garden (Nichnasti pa'am lagan) (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight)
We Went to War (seen at MoMA’s 2013 Documentary Fortnight) (recommended only because these VietNam War vets’ experiences echo my colleague’s Gerald Wright)
Journal de France (preview at 2013 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Anton’s Right Here (L Anton tut ryadom) (preview at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Our Nixon (preview at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie (briefly reviewed in Award-Winning Docs at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Kiss The Water (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
The Trials Of Muhammed Ali (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Lenny Cooke (briefly reviewed in 2013 Documentaries at Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Alias Ruby Blades (briefly reviewed in Youth in Rebellion at Tribeca 2013 at Tribeca Film Festival)
Bending Steel (briefly reviewed in Shout Out for Quiet Documentaries at Tribeca ‘13 at Tribeca Film Festival)
Cutie and the Boxer (preview at 2013 Tribeca Film Festival)
Stories We Tell (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2013 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Slim: Portrait Of A Pimp (briefly reviewed at 2012 DOC NYC Festival)
Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington (briefly reviewed at 2013 Islam & Women’s Rights at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
When I Walk
In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons In Life With Saul Leiter (briefly reviewed at 2013 DOC NYC Round-up Part 1:BEST BIO DOCS)
American Revolutionary: The Evolution Of Grace Lee Boggs (reviewed at 2013 Politics at DOC NYC: A Look Back)

Educational Runners-Up (DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
More Than Honey (My additional notes.)
Kisses To The Children (Filia eis ta pedia/Φιλιά εις τα παιδιά) (seen at American Sephardi Federation) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Dirty Wars (with the book)
Pandora’s Promise
Israel: A Home Movie (Kakh Ra'nu)
Deepsouth (briefly reviewed at 2013 Economics & the 24th Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
My Afghanistan – Life In The Forbidden Zone (briefly reviewed at 2013 Islam & Women’s Rights at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Undocumented (briefly reviewed at 2013 Death & Politics at Human Rights Watch Film Fest at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Blackfish (My additional note.)
The Pervert’s Guide To Ideology (briefly reviewed at 2012 DOC NYC Festival)
Levitated Mass (preview at 2013 DOC NYC Festival)
Sweet Dreams
Apples of the Golan (preview at 2013 Other Israel Film Festival)
The Fading Valley (preview at 2013 Other Israel Film Festival)
Good Garbage (preview at 2013 Other Israel Film Festival)

BEST for the SCENERY:
Leviathan documentary briefly reviewed at (2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
To The Wonder
Kon Tiki
Museum Hours
All Is Lost (kudos to score by Alex Ebert and sound design) (preview at 2013 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza)

BEST for the CREATIVE CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Stoker
Springbreakers

BEST ACTORS better than their movies:
Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Heaven’s Gate (director's cut new DCP restoration)
Voyage to Italy (Viaggio in Italia) (DCP)
Kol Nidre and The Yellow Ticket (briefly in Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Far From Vietnam (Loin du Vietnam) (preview in Cinema of Resistance at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Northern Lights
My mom’s essay on Thomas McGrath’s Letter to an Imaginary Friend makes the poet seem like an inspiration for the film.
Lola (new restoration in Film Forum's Jacques Demy)
The Prophet, the Gold and the Transylvanians (Profetul, aurul si Ardelenii) (preview in Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mauvais Sang

And thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of: Ten in A Close-Up Of Abbas Kiarostami at Film Society of Lincoln Center; Guelwaar and TGV in 2013 New York African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center; To Be Twenty In The Aures (Avoir 20 ans dans les Aurès) and West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves Of Liberty (West Indies ou les nègres marrons de la liberté) in Cinema of Resistance at Film Society of Lincoln Center.

NOTABLE FILM-RELATED EXHIBITS
Hopper Drawing at the Whitney Museum of American Art (kudos to the drawings displayed along side MoMA’s New York Movie: “I go to the movies for a week or more. I go on a regular movie binge.”)
Art Spiegelman's Co-Mix: A Retrospective at The Jewish Museum, which includes The Art of Spiegelman (Art Spiegelman, Traits de mémoire), as Reviewed: New York Jewish Film Festival 2013 of The Museum, seen at Lincoln Center (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)


MY BEST FILMS of 2012 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da) (My additional note.) (kudos to cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki)
Footnote (Hearat Shulayim) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (So now I see why my second cousin in the Talmud Department at the Hebrew University Jerusalem doesn’t deign to participate in our Mandel-Brody Family History Project) (kudos to score by Amit Poznansky)
In Darkness (W Ciemnosci) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Stopped on Track (Halt auf Freier Strecke) (seen at MoMA's Kino! 2012: New Films from Germany)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (kudos to director/co-writer/co-scorer Benh Zeitlin, stars Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry, cinematographer Ben Richardson, editors Crockett Doob & Affonso Gonçalves)
Dirty Hearts (Corações Sujos) (seen in 2012 Premiere Brazil! series at MoMA)
Bwakaw (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Eddie Garcia)
Amour (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva)
Argo

Runners-Up: Movies I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Toll Booth (Gise Memuru) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Restoration (Boker tov adon Fidelman) (kudos to Sasson Gabai) (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Amnesty (Amnistia) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)
38 Witnesses (38 Témoins) (preview at 2012 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Les Neiges Du Kilimandjaro) (preview at 2012 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Omar Killed Me (Omar m’a tuer) (briefly reviewed at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Minister (L’exercice de l’État) (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Found Memories (Historias Que So Existem Quando Lembradas) (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Neighboring Sounds (O som ao redor) (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Relentless (preview at 2012 New York African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Post Mortem (preview at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Saviors In The Night (Unter Bauern) (New Hampshire Jewish Film Buzz on p. 16 – N/A) (also briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (Thanks to Judy Gelman Myers for background on the director.)
Beyond the Hill (Tepenin Ardi) (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to the scenery)
A Better Life (Une Vie Meilleure) (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Kaddish for a Friend (Kaddisch für einen Freund) (seen at MoMA's Kino! 2012: New Films from Germany)
Polisse (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Monster’s Club (preview at 2012 Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film of Japan Society)
Cosmopolis
You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet (Vous n'avez encore rien vu) (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Beyond The Hills (Dupa dealuri) (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
On The Road (kudos to Garrett Hedlund)
Tabu (missed it at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to hunky Carloto Cotta and the black-and-white cinematography)

BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
Miss Bala (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Raid: Redemption (Serbuan maut) (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Rat King (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Sleepless Night (Nuit Blanche) (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (kudos to Tomer Sisley and cinematographer Tom Stern)
Skyfall (kudos to Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench, and the editing)
End of Watch (kudos to Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, editing, and cinematographer Roman Vasyanov)

Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I enjoyed despite uncredible plots
Man on a Ledge
Haywire
Lockout
Lawless (kudos to Nick Cave—and the Bootleggers—songs and score)

Runners-Up: BEST EDITED ACTION/CHASE SCENES I enjoyed despite uncredible plots
Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate (Long men fei jia) (in IMAX/3D) (kudos to the fight choreography, costumes, storm effects, and percussion)
The Bourne Legacy

BEST SCI FI/FANTASY
Doomsday Book (preview at 2012 New York Asian Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Looper
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (kudos to the ensemble, effects, and the NZ scenery)

Runners-Up: BEST SCI FI/FANTASY I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (for the cinematography and the special effects)
Snow White and the Huntsman
The Amazing Spider-Man (in IMAX 3D) (kudos to Andrew Garfield)
Cloud Atlas (kudos to cinematography, Jim Broadbent and Tom Hanks)
Sound of My Voice (kudos to Brit Marling)

BEST VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS
Qarantina (Quarantine) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Bullhead (Rundskop) (briefly reviewed in best of year- scroll down) (kudos to Matthias Schoenaerts)
Michael (the violence is unseen)
Compliance (psychological violence a la Zimbardo/Milgram experiments) (kudos to Ann Dowd)
How to Steal 2 Million (preview at 2012 New York African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Bastard (seen at MoMA's Kino! 2012: New Films from Germany)
The Good Neighbor (Unter Nachbarn) (seen at MoMA's Kino! 2012: New Films from Germany)
Easy Money (Snabba Cash)
Talaash (Search) (kudos to Aamir Khan)

Runners-Up: BEST VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Headhunters (Hodejegerne)
Outrage Beyond (Autoreiji: Biyondo) (preview in Midnight Movies at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to the score byKeiichi Suzuki)

MOST MORALLY DUBIOUS HEROES based on real people
For the sanctimonious violence: For Greater Glory
For myopia on well-to-do European tourists in the tsunami: The Impossible

BEST ROMANCES
Las Acacias (briefly reviewed in best of year- scroll down) (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Now, Forager (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Teddy Bear (10 timer til Paradis) (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Trishna (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival
Chicken With Plums (Poulet Aux Prunes) (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Mahler on the Couch (Mahler auf der Couch) (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (kudos to Barbara Romaner)
Extraterrestrial (Extraterrestre) (preview at 2011 Spanish Cinema Now at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Ruby Sparks (kudos to Zoe Kazan)
Hello I Must Be Going (kudos to Melanie Lynskey)
Wuthering Heights (kudos to the moors)
Anna Karenina (kudos to the music, costumes, production design, and choreography)
Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best (kudos to writer/director/star/songwriter Ryan O’Nan)

Runners-Up: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Here (Best Scenery too)
Yossi (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Your Sister’s Sister (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival
Take This Waltz (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Hysteria (preview at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Tonight You’re Mine (My additional notes.)
Touch
Celeste and Jesse Forever (kudos to writer/star/executive producer Rashida Jones)
Sleepwalk With Me
A Royal Affair (En kongelig affære) (Because I’d give up a kingdom for Mads Mikkelsen.)
Goon (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)

Runners- Up BEST SCI-FI-(ish) ROMANCES (non-action division)
Perfect Sense
Safety Not Guaranteed

BEST COMING OF AGERS
The Prize (El Premio) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)
The Moth Diaries
The Kid With A Bike (Le gamin au vélo) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Turn Me On, Goddamit (Få meg på, for faen!) (kudos to director/novel adapter Jannicke Systad Jacobsen) (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Breathing (Atmen) (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Death of a Superhero (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Moonrise Kingdom

Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Boy
I Wish (Kiseki)
Sister (L'enfant d'en haut) (My additional note.)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower

BEST FEMINIST POV
Where Do We Go Now? (Et Maintenant On Va Où?) (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Goodbye (Bé omid é didar) (briefly reviewed at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Black Butterflies (kudos to Carice van Houten) (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Lollipop Monster (seen at MoMA's Kino! 2012: New Films from Germany)
Room 514 (Heder 514) (preview at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Araf (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Starlet (kudos to Dree Hemingway and Besedka Johnson)
Zero Dark Thirty (kudos to Jessica Chastain)

Runners-Up: BEST ACTRESSES DESPITE NOT IN ALL THAT FEMINIST MOVIES
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (kudos to the scenes of India)
Meryl Streep in Hope Springs
Helen Mirren in Hitchcock
Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Smashed
Melissa Leo in Francine

BEST REELABILITIES: Presentation of Disabilities in Film (giving credit for appropriating the term without attending/seeing these at the NY Disabilities Film Festival)
The Flood (Mabul) (kudos to Ronit Elkabetz and Michael Moshonov) (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Mourning (Soog) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Romeo Eleven (Roméo onze) (seen at MoMA's 2012 Canadian Front)
Planet of Snail (briefly reviewed in Documentaries at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Sessions (kudos to John Hawkes) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Rust and Bone (De rouille et d'os) (briefly reviewed in best of year- scroll down) (kudos to Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts) (My additional note.)
Silver Linings Playbook (kudos to Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, and cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi)

BEST THEY DON’T MAKE MOVIES LIKE THAT ANY MORE
The Well-Digger’s Daughter (La Fille Du Puisatier) (preview at 2012 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE I Recommend Despite my gripes
Smugglers’ Songs (Les Chants De Mandrin) (but there were no repeating rifles in 1755) (preview at 2012 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Lincoln (kudos to Sally Field)
La Rafle (The Round Up) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (Thanks to Judy Gelman Myers for background on the fireman.)

BEST ACTORS better than their movies:
Clarke Peters in Red Hook Summer (plus kudos to Bruce Hornsby’s score, Judith Hill’s songs, the spirituals, and the mini-The Wire reunion)
Paul Dano in For Ellen
Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master (plus kudos to Mihai Malaimare Jr.’s cinematography and Jonny Greenwood’s score)
Denzel Washington in Flight.
Rodrigo Santoro in Heleno

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music bio-pics and documentaries):
It’s About You
Mary Lou (Tamid oto chalom) ( (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Lea and Darija (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Iraq ‘n’ Roll (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Sound Of Noise (Brzmienie Halasu) (kudos to the sound design/score)
El Gusto (briefly reviewed in Documentaries at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Once Upon A Lullabye (briefly reviewed in Award-Winning Docs at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Under African Skies
Marley
Les Misérables (kudos to Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, and Daniel Huttlestone)
Beware Of Mr. Baker
Not Fade Away (My additional notes.)

Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS (and music bio-pics and documentaries) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Crazy Horse (only for the performances, as there’s no insight into why the French men who produce and choreograph the erotic dances prefer buttocks)
Hit So Hard: The Life and Near-Death Story of Drummer Patty Schemel (briefly reviewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Over My Dead Body (seen at MoMA's 2012 Canadian Front)
Damsels in Distress (for the musical numbers only)
Russian Winter (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Ballroom Dancer (briefly reviewed in Award-Winning Docs at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Searching for Sugar Man (preview at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Becoming Traviata (La Traviata et nous) (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Savoy King: Chick Webb & The Music That Changed America (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional notes.)
David Bromberg: Unsung Treasure (briefly reviewed at 2012 DOC NYC Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Holy Motors -- only for the accordion band in the cathedral playing R.L. Burnside's Let My Baby Ride

BEST for the SCENERY: Feature Division:
The Kite (Patang) (kudos to celebrating the Uttarayan in Ahmedabad, India) (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Hideaway
Magic Mike (of the fauna)
Last Ride (kudos to Hugo Weaving)
Farewell, My Queen (Les adieux à la reine) (for the inside look at the Chateau de Versailles)
Life of Pi 3D
This Must Be The Place (kudos to cinematographer Luca Bigazzi) (My additional notes.)
The Loneliest Planet (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (Based on “Expensive Trips Nowhere” by Tom Bissell: Steppe makes strong what is strong. Makes weak what is weak.) Documentary Division:
Garden in the Sea (Jardín en el Mar) (seen at 2012 DocuWeeks)
Bel Borba Aqui: Um Homem e Uma Cidade
Samsara (kudos to the score by Michael Stearns, Lisa Gerrard & Marcello De Francisci)

BEST for the SCORE
30 Beats (kudos to the blues by C. C. Adcock)
The Dark Knight Rises (by Hans Zimmer – especially resonanted as I was the only one in the AMC Loews Lincoln Square IMAX Theater)

BEST ANIMATION
Fat, Bald, Short Man (Gordo, Calvo y Bajito) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Chico & Rita (kudos to the score by Bebo Valdés) (My additional notes.)
The Rabbi’s Cat (Le chat du rabbin) (briefly reviewed at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (kudos to the animation) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Consuming Spirits (preview at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
A Cat In Paris (Une Vie De Chat) (kudos to the score by Serge Besset for Pierre Drevet’s trumpet) (My additional notes.)
Asura (preview at 2012 Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film of Japan Society)
Brave in 3D (except for the songs, kudos to a Disney princess without a happy-ever-after-wedding-finale)
Rise of the Guardians (kudos to the voice actors, especially Jude Law’s “Pitch”, Alec Baldwin’s Russian “North”, Hugh Jackman’s “Easter Bunny”. My additional comments on this Tooth Fairy.)
Toys in the Attic
The Pirates: Band of Misfits (argh – no chanteys!)

Runners-Up: BEST ANIMATION I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
The Secret World Of Arrietty (because The Borrowers was a fave childhood book)
An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty (briefly reviewed at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Arjun – The Warrior Prince (kudos to hunky heroes and the songs/score)
A Liar's Autobiography - The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman (kudos to the variety of animation styles)
ParaNorman
Frankenweenie

BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
The Miners' Hymns (viewed at 2012 Silent Films/Live Music) (also briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Incessant Visions: Letters From An Architect (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
The Island President (My additional notes.) (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
This Is Not A Film (In film nist) (My additional notes.) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Aita (Father) (seen at MoMA’s 2012 Documentary Fortnight)
Without Gorky (seen at MoMA’s 2012 Documentary Fortnight)
Bully (My additional notes.) (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Flat (Ha-Dira) (also briefly reviewed in Documentaries at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Dolphin Boy (preview at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
Tahrir: Liberation Square (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Reportero (briefly reviewed at 2012 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Drought (Cuates de Australia) (seen at 2012 DocuWeeks)
The War Of The Volcanoes (La Guerra Dei Vulcani) (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Law In These Parts (Shilton Ha Chok) (My additional notes.)

DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
The Pruitt Igoe Myth: An Urban History (My additional notes.)
Dressing America: Tales From The Garment Center (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Ivan & Ivana (seen at MoMA’s 2012 Documentary Fortnight)
The Average of the Average (Middelfart i Gennemsnit) (seen in 3D at MoMA’s 2012 Documentary Fortnight)
Crulic: The Path To Beyond (Crulic - drumul spre dincolo) (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (kudos to the animation)
Five Broken Cameras (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (My additional notes.) (Background at Director Talk’s interview)
Bestiare (Bestiary) (seen at MoMA's 2012 Canadian Front (albeit not pure non-fiction) along with National Parks Project short Sirmilik
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
Heart of Auschwitz (Le coeur d'Auschwitz) (seen at MoMA's 2012 Canadian Front (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The List (briefly reviewed in Award-Winning Docs at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Portrait of Wally (preview at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Virgin, the Copts and Me (La Vierges, les Coptes et Moi) (briefly reviewed in Documentaries at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional note.)
The Revisionaries (briefly reviewed in Award-Winning Docs at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional note.)
The World Before Her (briefly reviewed in Award-Winning Docs at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional note.)
Burn (briefly reviewed in Documentaries at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Patience (After Sebald) (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Wavumba (briefly reviewed in Documentaries at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Invisible War
The Imposter
The Queen of Versailles
The Chilean Building (El Edificio De Los Chilenos)
Central Park Five
Six Million And One (Shisha million ve'ehad) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Tchoupitoulas
Hitler’s Children
Ordinary Miracles: The Photo League’s New York (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)

Educational Runners-Up (DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
Rouge Patrol (seen at MoMA’s 2012 Documentary Fortnight)
El Field (seen at MoMA’s 2012 Documentary Fortnight)
High Tech, Low Life (briefly reviewed in Award-Winning Docs at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Side by Side (preview at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Pink Ribbons, Inc. (My additional notes.)
Bitter Seeds (briefly reviewed at 2012 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Brother Number One (briefly reviewed at 2012 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Little Heaven (briefly reviewed at 2012 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Special Flight (Vol spécial) (briefly reviewed at 2012 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbours (seen in MoMA’s 2012 ContemporAsian series)
Defiant Requiem (preview at 2012 DocuWeeks) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Girl Model
Payback
Casting By (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Three Days Till Christmas (The Last Days In The Life Of Elena And Nicolae Ceaușescu)/Trei Zile Pana La Craciun (Ultimele Zile Din Viata Elenei Si A Lui Nicolae Ceausescu) (preview at 2012 Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Chasing Ice (kudos to the scenery)
Head Games
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God (My additional notes.)

Runners-Up:BEST BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
The Education of Auma Obama (preview at 2012 New York African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story (briefly reviewed in Award-Winning Docs at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (preview at 2012 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival)
Meet the Fokkens (Ouwehoeren)
Celluloid Man (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story (briefly reviewed at 2012 DOC NYC Festival)
Shepard and Dark (briefly reviewed at 2012 DOC NYC Festival)

Best of the Young-Folks-in-Competition DOCS :
Splinters (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Undefeated (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
On The Mat (briefly reviewed in Documentaries at 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
Brooklyn Castle

Most Depressing
Documentary Division:
When The Bough Breaks (seen at MoMA’s 2012 Documentary Fortnight)
Feature Division:
Oslo, August 31st (preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Elena
Hara-Kiri: Death Of A Samurai (kudos to layered 3D)

Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite Nonsense:
The Finger (El Dedo) (heartwarming chuckles division) (seen in 2012 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Sunflower Hour (seen at MoMA's 2012 Canadian Front)
Django Unchained (kudos to the most badass dentist hero in the movies)

Runners-up: Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite Nonsense:
The Fairy (La fée)
Whole Lotta Sole (preview at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival)
For A Good Time, Call…
The In-Betweeners: The Movie
Seven Psychopaths
Jeff, Who Lives at Home

BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
L’Argent and A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut) in Film Forum's Bresson
Come Back, Africa (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Decasia (in new HD print) (briefly reviewed at 2012 Silent Films/Live Music) (My additional notes.)
Wings (in DCP restoration) (kudos to pre/post with sound designer Ben Burtt and William Wellman, Jr. at Film Forum)
Good Times, Wonderful Times along with Man’s Peril: The Making of Good Times, Wonderful Times (on Milestone’s DVD release of On The Bowery)
Celine and Julie Go Boating (Céline et Julie vont en bateau)
Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru)
The Tin Drum (Die Blechtromme) (of the complete director’s cut) (in new DCP restoration)
Downpour (Ragbar) (preview at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Rolling Stones: Charlie Is My Darling – Ireland ’65 (briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Wake In Fright
Django (DCP)

And thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
My Song Goes Round The World, which I briefly reviewed at 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum); Khrustalyov, My Car! (Khrustalyov, mashinu!) in War and Remembrance: The Films of Aleksei Guerman at Lincoln Center (even though I gave up after 2 hours); Fear and Desire preview at 2012 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA); Revenge Of The Snakes (Yılanların Öcü) and Secret Face (Gizli Yüz) preview in The Space Between: A Panorama of Cinema in Turkey at Lincoln Center; Le Chat in Simone Signoret & Yves Montand Summer Programme at EYE Film Institute Netherlands; The Word (Ordet) in An Auteurist History of Film at MoMA; 30th Anniversary screening of MoMA’s preserved print of Field Diary (Yoman Sadeh) at 2012 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center; Rendez-Vous, See How They Fall (Regarde les hommes tombe) and Le Train in Film Forum's Trintignant.

NOTABLE FILM-RELATED EXHIBITS
Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition at EYE Film Institute Netherlands
Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist’s Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets at MoMA
Christian Marclay—The Clock - two hours so far seen at MoMA


MY BEST FILMS of 2011 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Rage (Rabia) (kudos to Gustavo Sánchez Parra)
Poetry (Shi) (kudos to Jeong-hie Yun) (preview at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Even The Rain (También La Lluvia) (preview at 2010 Spanish Cinema Now of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Luis Tosar)
Hands Up (Les Mains En L'air) (preview at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Top Floor, Left Wing (Dernier Étage, Gauche, Gauche) (preview at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux)
The Human Resources Manager (Shlichuto Shel Hamemune Al Mashabei Enosh) (also briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (My additional note.) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Vital Signs (Les Signes vitaux) (kudos to writer/director Sophie Deraspe and the chemistry between Marie-Hélène Bellavance and Francis Ducharme) (seen at MoMA's 2011 Canadian Front)
Win Win
Limbo (preview at The Far Side of Paradise: New Films From Norway atFilm Society of Lincoln Center)
The Day I Was Not Born (Das Lied in mir) (seen at MoMA's Kino! 2011: New Films from Germany)
Extraordinary Stories (Historias extraordinarias) (seen at MoMA's In Focus: Cinema Tropical)
A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Artist (briefly reviewed in best of year- scroll down) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to writer/director Michel Hazanavicius, actors Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman, score by Ludovic Bource)

Runners-Up: Movies I Recommend Despite My Gripes
If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle (Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier) (kudos to George Pistereanu)
The Way Back (My additional notes.)
Belvedere (seen in 2011 Global Lens series at MoMA)
The Light Thief (Svet-Ake) (seen at 2011 Global Lens series at MoMA)
Street Days (Quchis Dgeebi) (seen at 2011 Global Lens series at MoMA)
The Invisible Eye (La Mirada Invisible) (seen at 2011 Global Lens series at MoMA)
The Gift To Stalin (Podarok Stalinu) (My additional note.) (Also briefly reviewed at 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Outbound (Periferic) (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Incendies (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
In A Better World (Hævnen)
Korkoro (Liberté) (My additional notes.)
Screaming Man (Un homme qui crie)
The Bang Bang Club (kudos to Taylor Kitsch and cinematographer Miroslaw Baszak) (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
My Piece of the Pie (Ma part du gateau) (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Journals of Musan (Musan Il-gi) (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Blackthorne (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
United Red Army (Jitsuroku rengô sekigun: Asama sansô e no michi) (kudos to score by Jim O’Rourke)
Protector (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival, of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum, in New Hampshire Jewish Film Buzz, at page 21 N/A) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)
The Optimists (Optimisti)
Littlerock
50/50 (So, nu: my commentary on the missing Jewish women)
Carnage (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Dangerous Method (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
My Week with Marilyn (Celeste Holm was in front of me at the advance screening!)
Mad Bastards (kudos to Dean DaleyJones, songs written and performed by The Pigram Brothers and Alex Lloyd, and cinematographer Allan Collins’ view of the beautiful Kimberley scenery)
Hugo
Margaret (kudos to Anna Paquin)
In the Land of Blood and Honey (U zemlji krvi i meda)

BEST ROMANCES
Certified Copy (Copie conforme) (kudos to Juliette Binoche) (or anti-romance?) (preview at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Sidewalls (Medianeras) (preview at 2011 Latin Beat of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Bird Of The Air

Runners-Up: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Mumbai Diaries (Dhobi Ghat) (kudos to Prateik) (My additional note.)
Happy, Happy (Sykt Lykkelig) (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (a documentary short companion piece would be Quadrangle)
Jane Eyre (kudos to the editing, Mia Wasikowska, cinematographer Adriano Goldman, Dario Marianelli's score)
Last Night (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Beginners (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Beautiful Boy
Bride Flight (Bruidsvlucht) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman) (My additional note.)
The Future
Mysteries of Lisbon (Mistérios de Lisboa) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Weekend

Runners-Up: BEST ANTI-ROMANCES
Shame (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS
Carancho
Dreileben: Beats Being Dead (Etwas Besseres als den Tod), Don’t Follow Me Around (Komm mir nicht nach), One Minute of Darkness (Eine Minute Dunkel) (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

Runners-Up: VIOLENT NEO-NOIRS I Recommend Despite my gripes
The Big Picture (L’homme Qui Voulait Vivre Sa Vie) (preview at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Texas Killing Fields (kudos to the bluesy score by Dickon Hinchliffe)

BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
How I Ended This Summer (Kak ya provyol etim letom) (preview at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (kudos to Grigory Dobrygin for Break Out Hunk of the Year)
Point Blank (À bout portent) (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
VIPs (kudos to Wagner Moura) (seen at 2011 Premiere Brazil! series at MoMA)
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch (kudos to Tomer Sisley as the titular hunk so I’ll want to see him in more in the series)
Hanna (kudos to The Chemical Brothers’ score)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (kudos to Rooney Mara, score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Steven Zaillian’s script adaptation, and editing by Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall)

Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I Recommend Despite my gripes
The Eagle (kudos to Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography and music by Atli Örvarsson)
Rabies (Kalevet) (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Limitless
13 Assassins (Jûsan-nin no shikaku (kudos to cinematographer Nobuyasu Kita)
Attack the Block
Drive
Shaolin (kudos to the martial arts choreography)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Double (kudos to Alex Lifeson’s guitar on the score)
Warrior (kudos to Tom Hardy but not to the melodramatic music)

BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music bio-pics and documentaries):
Pina (preview in 3D at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Klezmatics: On Holy Ground (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)

Runners-Up: BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music bio-pics and documentaries):
Score: A Hockey Musical (seen at MoMA's 2011 Canadian Front)
Kinshasa Symphony (preview at 2011 New York African Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Rejoice And Shout) (My additional notes.)
Passione) (My additional notes.)
Golden Scars (seen at 2011 New York International Latino Film Festival)
The Music According To Antonio Carlos Jobim (A Música Segundo Tom Jobim) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Weird World Of Blowfly
Dzi Croquettes

BEST USE OF MUSIC:
Microphone (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Small Town Murder Songs (preview at MoMA's 2011 Canadian Front) (kudos to the rootsy songs of Bruce Peninsula) (My additional notes.)
The Piano In A Factory (Gang De Qin)

BEST COMING OF AGERS
The Colors Of The Mountain (Los Colores De La Montaña)
Submarine (kudos to songs by Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys)
Terri (kudos to Jacob Wysocki, Olivia Crocicchia & Bridger Zadina and cinematographer Tobias Datum)
Tomboy (My additional note.)
Pariah (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)

Runners-Up: COMING OF AGERS I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Bal (Honey)
Winter In Wartime (Oorlogswinter)
Belle Épine (briefly reviewed at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
NEDS (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
She Monkeys (Apflickorna) (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Tree (with Marton Csokas as quite the Antipodean hunk)
Martha Marcy May Marlene (kudos to Elizabeth Olsen) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)

BEST PARENTS AND CHILDREN – even with the schmaltz
A Better Life
The Way
Little Sparrows
Angels Crest (kudos to Thomas Dekker and Lynn Collins)

BEST APOCALYPSE
Vanishing On 7th Street (kudos to Detroit, production design and blues songs)
Take Shelter (kudos to Michael Shannon and cineamatographer Adam Stone)

Runners-Up: APOCALYPSES I Recommend Despite my gripes
Kaboom
Bellflower (kudos to cinematographer Joel Hodge)
Another Earth

BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE
City Of Life And Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!)
The Conspirator (kudos to hair, make-up, sets, and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel)
Tales from the Golden Age (Amintiri din epoca de aur)

Runners-Up: BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE I Recommend Despite my gripes
The Conquest (La conquête)
Albert Nobbs (kudos to Janet McTeer)
War Horse (only because my favorite childhood book was Black Beauty)


BEST VILLAIN
The Devil’s Double (more that it’s 2-for-1 actor Dominic Cooper)


MOST MORALLY DUBIOUS HEROES based on a real people
For the violence: Machine Gun Preacher (let alone the rimrod tall Christian missionaries sitting in front at an advance screening who did not have the courtesy to slouch)
For the misogyny: Toast (unlike the original memoir)


BEST ALLEGORY
Deporting Prometeo (Prometeo Deportado) (seen at 2011 New York International Latino Film Festival)


Runners-Up: BEST ALLEGORY
Melancholia (kudos to cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Turin Horse (A torinói ló) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (preview at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Tree of Life (kudos to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki)
The Mill and The Cross


Runners-Up: MOST VISUAL HEAD TRIPS
Tetsuo The Bullet Man (preview at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito) (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to cinematographer José Luis Alcaine)


BEST SCENERY:
Water for Elephants (kudos to cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto)
Two Years At Sea-- even in 16 mm black & white (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)


BEST for the COSTUMES:
W.E.

BEST ANIMATION
The Adventures of Tintin in 3D


Runners-Up: BEST ANIMATION I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Rango
Rio in 3D (kudos to Rodrigo Santoro for the only Brazilian sounds)
Kung Fu Panda in 3D (for visuals only)


BEST BROADS
Applause (Applaus) (kudos to Paprika Steen)
The Long Falling (Où Va La Nuit) (kudos to Yolande Moreau) (preview at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Potiche (kudos to Catherine Deneuve) (preview at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Copacabana (kudos to Isabelle Huppert) (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Meek's Cutoff (preview at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Illégal (kudos to Anne Coesens)
Puzzle (Rompecabezas) (kudos to Maria Onetto)
The Hedgehog (Le Hérisson) (preview at 2010 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (kudos to Josiane Balasko)
Special Treatment (Sans queue ni tête) (kudos to Isabelle Huppert)
The Debt (kudos to Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain)
Higher Ground (kudos to Vera Farmiga)
Coriolanus (kudos to Vanessa Redgrave)
Tyrannosaur (kudos to Olivia Colman) (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Naomi (Hitpartzut X) (preview at 2011 Other Israel Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (kudos to Orna Porat)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (kudos to Tilda Swinton)
Meryl Streep as The Iron Lady (no kudos to the movie)
London River (My additional note.) (kudos to Brenda Blethyn)


Runners-Up: Best Feminist Fables
Mozart's Sister (Nannerl, La Soeur De Mozart) (preview at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Princess Of Montpensier (La Princesse De Montpensier) (preview at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Sleeping Beauty (La Belle Endormie) (preview at 2011 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center) (My additional note.)
Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish (also briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Sleeping Beauty
Young Adult


BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
The Sky Turns (El cielo gira) (2005 film in its NY theatrical premiere)/ pairs with Le Quattro Volte (preview at 2010 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Eichmann’s End: Love, Betrayal, Death (Eichmanns Ende) (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Fortune Teller (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
Karamay (all 356 minutes seen plus Q & A with director at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Circo (kudos to score by Calexico)
The Arbor (also briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional note.)
Give Up Tomorrow (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Our School (Scoala Noastra) (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Price of Sex (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (My additional note.)
Hell and Back Again (preview at 2011 DocuWeeks)
There Was Once…
Into the Abyss (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)


DOCS that are Close Runners-Up
Un Dia Menos (One Day Less) (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
El Ambulante (The Peddler) (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
Peace (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
El Velador (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Love During Wartime (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Impunity (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (My additional notes.)
Familia (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, d dedicated in memory to my activist dad)
Crime After Crime (first briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Convoys of Shame (Les Convois de la honte) (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum
Tabloid
The Interrupters (My additional notes.) (See The Wire for the references.)
Unfinished Spaces (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
Mothers of Bedford (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)


Best of the Young-Folks-in-Competition DOCS :
Louder Than A Bomb (preview at 2010 DocuWeeks) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
To Be Heard (preview at 2010 DOC NYC Festival) (My additional notes.)


Educational Runners-Up (DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
Into Eternity (briefly reviewed in Recommended Documentaries at 2010 Tribeca Film Festival)
Orgasm Inc.
My Perestroika (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
I Wish I Knew (Hai shang chuan qi) (preview at 2011 Film Comments Selects of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (briefly reviewed in best of year- scroll down)
Nostalgia For The Light (Nostalgia de la luz)
The Black Power Mix Tape 1967-1975 (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Donor Unknown (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Cinema Komunisto (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (preview at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Carrier (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional note.)
Semper Fi: Always Faithful (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
This Is My Land… Hebron (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
You Don’t Like The Truth—4 Days Inside Guantánamo (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad)
Love Crimes Of Kabul (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad) (My additional note.)
12 Angry Lebanese (briefly reviewed at 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, dedicated in memory to my activist dad)
Project Nim (downgraded because I’m against undocumented reconstructed scenes)
The Death Of Pinochet (La Muerte De Pinochet) (preview at 2011 LatinBeat of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for A Kool Place (downgraded because I’m against undocumented reconstructed scenes)
Iron Crows
The Mexican Suitcase (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
The Tiniest Place (El Lugar Mas Pequeño) (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
Scenes Of A Crime (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
Flat Daddy (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
Perdida (Lost in Time) (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
Ingrid Betancourt - Six Years In The Jungle (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
Standing Silent (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
Blazing The Trail: The O'Kalems In Ireland (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
In Heaven, Underground The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery (Im Himmel, unter der Erde - Der jüdische Friedhof Weißensee)
Under Fire: Journalists In Combat
Inside Hana’s Suitcase (New Hampshire Jewish Film Buzz on p. 15 – N/A) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)


Runners-Up:BEST BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
Red Shirley (briefly reviewed at 2011 New York Jewish Film Festival of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Bill Cunningham New York (briefly reviewed at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA) (Context/Part 2 is Lost Bohemia preview at 2010 DOC NYC Festival)
Tape (Jiao Dai) (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)
Gnarr (briefly reviewed at 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) (My additional notes.)
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
A Bitter Taste of Freedom (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
Dying to do Letterman (seen at 2011 DocuWeeks)
Buck
Roger Corman’s Worldpreview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Vito (preview at 2011 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Lemon (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
Calvet (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
Charlotte Rampling: The Look (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, The Mad And The Beautiful (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story (preview at 2011 DOC NYC Festival)
Garbo The Spy
Khodorkovsky


Most Depressing Documentary:
Katka (seen at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight – 2011 International Festival of Nonfiction Films and Media)


Best COMIC RELIEF from Depressing DOCS Despite Nonsense:
Cedar Rapids
Super
The Trip (kudos to Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon)
Hospitalité (Kantai) (preview at 2011 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Midnight in Paris (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman.)
Bridesmaids (kudos to writer/actress Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy)
The Trollhunter (Trolljegeren)


BEST REVIVALS IN NEW PRINTS
Went the Day Well?
Summer a.k.a. The Green Ray (Le Rayon Vert) (though I really only caught the green in the 6 preview minutes of Marie Rivière’s A Few Moments With Eric Rohmer (En Compagnie d'Eric Rohmer) at BAMcinématek‘s 25th anniversary celebration) (My comparative notes.)
Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle) (My comparative notes.)
A Brighter Summer Day (Gu ling jie shao nian sha ren shi jian in Film Society of Lincoln Center’s A Rational Mind: The Films Of Edward Yang
Danube Waves (Valurile Dunării) in 2011 Annual Romanian Film Festival in New York of Film Society of Lincoln Center/Romanian Cultural Institute of NY


And thanks for theatrical showings for my first-time viewings on big screens of:
J'Accuse in MoMA's An Auteurist History of Film; The Constant Factor (Constans) in MoMA's Krzysztof Zanussi Revisited; The Life Of Oharu (Saikaku ichidai onna) and Flowing (Nagareru) in Film Forum's 5 Japanese Divas; Mud and Soldiers (Tsuchi to heitai)), Intimidation (Aru kyohaku) and (according to my colleague Kyoko Hirano, not my first “pink film” but my first “romano porno”) The Woman with Red Hair (Akai kami no onna) in Film Society of Lincoln Center NY Film Festival’s Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses: Celebrating the Nikkatsu Centennial; The Children Were Watching and In The Chair (really TV documentaries) in DOC NYC Festival’s Tribute To Richard Leacock.


MY BEST FILMS of 2010 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, parwalkerticularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
Gruber's Journey (Calatoria lui Gruber) (briefly reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum) (and the comparably-themed short With a Little Patience (Türelem))
Fish Tank
In the Beginning (A l’origine) (preview at 2010 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
A Prophet (Un prophète) (kudos to Tahar Rahim and Niels Arestrup)
Little Girl (La Pivellina) (preview at 2010 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Road, Movie (preview at 2010 Tribe