I rang in the new year with an unexpected trip to St. Barts with friends.
I resolved in 2025 to watch more films. It’s an art form I have many friends in, and when we have hung out, I’ve realized how shallow my understanding of the film canon is. I have a lot of catch-up to do, and it also requires a lifestyle change, as I’m usually at a laptop. Making space to enjoy a film for a few hours was a departure from my regular routines.
I watched 72 movies last year! This definitely came at the cost of books finished, if I look at my stats. But I’ve begun to really appreciate the contours of what I love about a movie now.
This is a long lead to recommend the movie Jay Kelly, which streams on Netflix with George Clooney and Adam Sandler. After seeing many great and terrible movies, old and new, I really appreciated what they did with this film, and it was one of the rare ones I watched entirely or in sections several times, gaining new appreciation for what they pulled off.
It starts with a “One-er,” which is a continuous shot with no cuts that moves between a number of different scenes in a really slick way. (Excellent episode of The Studio about this!) It’s a film way of showing off, as it must be incredibly hard to have hundreds of people all pulling off something flawlessly for a long period of time, not unlike a Broadway show.
Jay Kelly is George Clooney playing himself, which, as he says, is the hardest thing to do. There are meta-levels of reality and fiction, and so many allusions and callbacks, the entire thing is a work of art. You learn to appreciate what actors do and how film is made while watching a film being made in such a nice way.
So that is my recommendation for the year. In older movies, I really enjoyed Kate & Leopold, which also features an amazing Sting song that is impossible to find on streaming services.
Maybe this year it would be good to view artwork made without any computer assistance.
Thanks
It’s not a film, but if you get the opportunity then take a look at Adolescence (Netflix UK – not sure if worldwide – more info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescence_(TV_series) )
This was four hour-long episodes, each being a ‘one-er’. Won several awards, as well as highlighting some really important topics.
I think I read somewhere and I believe this that the primary purpose of a book is to make your think and then feel and the primary purpose of a film, play or tv series is to make you feel and then think.
Based on that premise, for movie watching from some films that are outside the US/Europe centric space there are such pieces of art.
I would recommend
“Perfect Days” by Wim Wenders – based in Tokyo
“In the mood for love” by Wong Kar-wai – in Hong Kong 1960s – made in late 90s.
“Lunchbox” by Ritesh Batra – based in Mumbai
I enjoy the Bollywood movie 3 Idiots. I’ll check these out!
Matt – In what “system” do you keep you record your book reading and have you added your film watching to the same system? I want to have one system to contain my “creative consumption” activities so that I can measure and improve them.
I use Goodreads and Letterboxd, but for myself I also just have a plain notes file in Simplenote.
Can we follow you on Letterboxd? Been using it a lot lately and really enjoy it. Problem is, my entire watch list is on the imdb app which I’ve been using for years and I don’t think I’ll ever have the patience to transfer it all to Letterboxd 🙁
Yep! I’m here: https://letterboxd.com/photomatt/
I keep a Simplenote personally, and use Goodreads and Letterboxd.
cant have a happy new year. Your country think of mine as its backyard.
We are tired. The whole of latin america is tired.
Start watching all the criterion collection! When I was 17, I asked Heath Ledger what I should do to understand cinema. He gave me a bunch of criterion collection movies and said “this is your film school.”
Happy New Year! Matt, we need your “what’s in my bag 2026” post.