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Lost in spaceyness

I have been alerted to two unforgivable omissions from my New Year's Eve discussion of my favorite films of 2016. My Mets, music, and movies buddy Jon, aka JK, aka DJ Spike Ning, took me to task for not giving La La Land even a nod, never mind omitting it from my top ten. Mind you, he did take me to task for the latter: Jon is the closest I've ever had to a kid brother, so when he said "surely you've taught me such that [a film that provided such pure pleasure] would also appear in your top 10," he had me. Jeez, if I've taught my pseudo-kid brother something, I should stand by it, right? So for now, let's slide LLL into the 7 slot I'd left vacant in anticipation of Paterson, Hidden Figures, or 20th Century Women demanding a place at the table. Of course, that would probably be only a temporary solution even if . . .

My Yale U Press and movies buddy Tom Breen hadn't, en route to his radio show on which Arnold Gorlick and I were to join him to talk about the year's notable films (see below), mentioned Kelly Reichardt's beautiful, funny, sad triptych of injustice, privilege, and unrequited love Certain Women, with Oscar-worthy performances by Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristin Stewart, and Lily Gladstone (buzz suggests that Stewart will get a nomination). I believe I literally lurched to a halt on the sidewalk: it was the real-life equivalent of that nightmare where you sit down to take a final exam and suddenly realize that you've done nothing to prepare.

Yes, of course that was one of my favorite films of the year, but I'd overlooked it while making my list because I never got around to blogging it. I blame my daughter, whose 40th birthday was a psychological disruption, as well you might imagine (oh, and I also flew to Illinois for the party, which put me behind in several of my quotidian obsessions), and the Cubs, who, even though not my team, demanded more postseason attention from me than I've given any team not based in Flushing in decades. It's certainly not my fault.

Anyway, that needs to slot in at about 5; sorry, Sausage Party, you're going to heaven. At least take heart that Weiner remains on my list. At least until I've seen the 3 films mentioned at the end of the first paragraph above (one of which I saw today, in fact).

Garble speaks

Despite my embarrassingly inarticulate performance last year, Tom Breen asked me again to join him and Madison Arts Cinema boss Arnold Gorlick on his WNHH radio show Deep Focus to talk about last year's best films. Last year I posted the link with some hesitation, and much embarrassment. This year, I'm much less embarrassed. If you want to listen to me and 2 more perceptive critics talk for an hour, click the link above; you may want to return to Tom weekly.