With the holidays upon us it has been tough to watch as many movies as I would have liked as I’m trying to rewatch a lot of my favorites from the last year, attempting to finalize my top ten, as well as trying to see anything I missed from over the year. In terms of rewatches, I did get a chance to finish watching Fury and watched about half of Top Five again. Oh, I also I rewatched The Guest on Blu-ray, which was a joy all over again and even my wife liked it… go figure.
I did finally see Dear White People, which I found incredibly fascinating and believe it could be mined for material to teach an entire semester’s worth of social studies. Writer/director Justin Simien packed this movie with everything conceivable and it could provide endless amounts of conversation. Dealing with race in this world is lose-lose for all sides because just as you seem to find ground somewhere you’re going to lose it elsewhere… most likely until you can get all sides to admit it’s lose-lose and learn to accept people for who they are, rather than judging them for what they are. Unfortunately the lowest common denominator is just too stubborn to allow that to happen.
Nevertheless, perhaps as much as it’s important to accept our differences I do wonder if it isn’t still constructive to explore those differences in an attempt for a greater understanding… Like I said, an entire semester’s worth of material.
As for what’s up and coming, nothing planned specifically, though I do think I’ll be seeing Beyond the Lights shortly and I have hopes of rewatching The Grand Budapest Hotel, Locke, Whiplash and Wild Tales before I put my top ten together, but that top ten is just around the corner and more holiday requirements will be upon me soon. I’m crossing my fingers I can make it all happen.
