Two more opportunities for Random iTunes Holiday Surprises, as both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fall on a weekend this year.
Let’s spin the dial and see what the Random iTunes Fairy serves up for today’s festive occasion.
Obscure Pavement song? Sorry, I got nothing.
The movies I’ve featured this week make up slots two through six on my top ten list, following Moana in the top spot. Rounding out the top ten are Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!!, the Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar! then maybe The Nice Guys and Finding Dory.
Of course I haven’t seen Moonlight yet, nor Arrival, Jackie or a handful of others with a good shot at my list. All in good time. For now, though, I’m pretty happy with my top ten in what’s turned out to be a very solid year at the movies.
I’m thrilled to see Hell or High Water on a lot of year-end top ten lists and in the Academy Award conversation. Taut genre films like this one usually don’t get that kind of love. Even the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-winning No Country For Old Men, a similar film in some ways, had an artsy streak not present here.
Hell of High Water, written by Taylor Sheridan and directed by David Mackenzie, is a sun-baked Texas noir, a modern-day Western about two outlaw brothers robbing banks to save their ancestral home from foreclosure. Chris Pine and Ben Foster are well-matched as the brothers, and Jeff Bridges delivers a twist on his Rooster Cogburn as the Texas Ranger on their tail.
Kenneth Lonergan isn’t the most prolific writer-director (three films in 17 years) but he has few peers when it comes to documenting the sweetness and sorrow of ordinary people.
Lonergan’s marvelous You Can Count On Me (2000) was my second favorite film of that year, a lovely character study that introduced the world (or me, at least) to Mark Ruffalo. I haven’t seen 2011’s Margaret, in either its abridged or full-length form, but I’ve read great things.
No film this year is burdened with higher expectations than La La Land. First off, the latest film by Whiplash writer-director Damien Chazelle has to live up to its predecessor. It has been named the best of the year by several national publications and designated the Oscar Best Picture front-runner. Some have even called the musical a perfect antidote for the election of Donald Trump.
That’s a lot to live up to. And La La Land, mostly, pulls it off.
