Author: Ian D.

2019 was a great movie year. Full stop. Recognition aside it’s never a good look for studios...

Blue was so much work for the first several years I feel like I blocked it out. It was an endless slog from a daycare in Redmond to trips to Lacey for dog training to laps around parks/tennis courts/our neighborhood – really anywhere with enough space for him to run wind sprints long enough that he’d sleep all night.

Mr. Daniel Day-Lewis rarely works.  When he does and the rumors begin to swirl his next film or project typically hits a fever pitch upon release.  Simply put, it’s an event.  A once every half-decade moment to come together as cinephiles and revel in one of the finest actors we’ve had the privilege to see work.  When it’s announced DDL will be retiring after his next project and what he’s chosen is to reteam with his There Will Be Blood Director Paul Thomas Anderson for one last hurrah – well, they hype couldn’t possibly ascend any higher.

Saying a film is timely always feels cheap, as I’m sure The Post would be just as timely if it was released in 2008. That said, Spielberg felt this was the right moment and using his cinema wizardry assembled the most A-list cast on my list this year to tell the story of brave journalists in the 1970’s at the New York Times and Washington Post exposing a 3-decade long conspiracy to cover up the government’s role in the Vietnam War. Hanks and Streep lead a cast of all-stars as they deftly navigate the questionable ethical landscape of their endeavor and deliver a rousing piece of filmmaking. It’s stand up and cheer type of stuff – and I’m here for it.

Let’s be honest – 2017 was a pretty shitty year on a global scale. We all dealt with it in our own ways – lashing out on social media, listening to emo music on repeat, taking our dog on a walk that was just long enough that he started to get concerned – point is, we coped. One silver lining, filmmakers seemed emboldened. Not only did the quality of blockbuster peak for the first time in a decade but this awards season has been an avalanche of class pictures.