For better or for worse — probably better, maybe? — 2021 has left the building and the new year is upon us. I started writing in this space last year as an outgrowth of the best new-to-me lists I was curating on my personal social media pages and those monthly lists have been the thing I’ve been most consistent about posting. I have some ideas about the kinds of things I’d like to write about in 2022 but thought I’d kick things off with a review of my movie watching over the past year. This review will be heavily indebted to my letterboxd stats — something most online movie nerds are already aware of but I do get asked how I remember this stuff sometimes. I’m old and my brain is swiss cheese, I wouldn’t be able to remember anything without the internet.
Lots of Movies — I have 496 diary entries on LB for 2021. Some of those are shorts, I watched some movies more than once this year, and a few are things I more or less had running in the background while I did other stuff. Still, that’s a lot of movies for me.
Horror Movies — Horror is always in my top 4 genres of films watched, but this year it was number one. Some of that is an artifact of October viewing challenges but horror films really permeated my movie watching all year long. I even recall chatting with a friend who was experiencing something similar about halfway through 2021.
Italian Movies — Films originating in the US always top my list and then it’s usually some combination of France, Japan, UK, and Italy in relatively close ratios. This year, I watched nearly 100 Italian films making it the clear runner up. Most of these were horror or gialli but there were also plenty of action films, westerns, and a few art house classics mixed in.
Directors — My most watched director this year was Lucio Fulci. Some of those were re-visits to beloved classics and others were me filling in some blind spots. Oddly enough, Fulci was the first of the big Italian horror guys I was exposed to as a younger person but there was still a lot of his filmography I had not seen. Things do start to run out of steam in his later years but I found everything interesting at the least. Right behind Fulci was Umberto Lenzi - almost all of those were new-to-me watches this year and I had an absolute blast with them. Continuing in the Italian theme — I watched a fair number of Bava, Mattei, and Castellari flicks. Another notable director for me in 2021 was Roberta Findlay. I reviewed her film The Oracle on this site and listed Tenement as one of my favorite “discoveries” for 2021.
Actors — Somewhat to my surprise there was a tie for my most watched actor last year. I became totally obsessed with Charles Bronson’s European films from the late 60s into the 70s after seeing Farewell, Friend for the first time in 2020. Not only are the films excellent, it’s great to see Bronson outside of the Death Wish persona that he became inextricably linked to following the huge success of that film. I might yet write a piece on his career and reputation in Europe and Japan. Neck and neck with Bronson was Italian actor and stuntman Massimo Vanni. I don’t know that I watched many standout performances from Vanni but he was ever present in the Italian genre pictures I loaded up on in 2021. I had a lot of folks hitting that 5 and 6 film mark but wanted especially to call out Mimsy Farmer — both Road to Salina and Perfume of the Lady in Black made it onto my “discoveries” list for 2021 and I also hunted down the book Spaghetti Nightmares in part because I knew she was interviewed for it.
2021 Discoveries — For the last few years I’ve been doing a film “discoveries” list to celebrate the new-to-me hits that felt especially personal. The list gets bigger every year and you can go look at all forty 2021 picks here. I’ve written reviews of all of those films in one way or another but I thought I’d highlight five of them here.
Harry and Tonto (1974) — Paul Mazursky’s bittersweet classic featuring Art Carney and a cat named Tonto got its hooks in me from its beginning in 70s NYC and never let go. It’s a movie about cities, family, friends, change, getting older, American disillusionment, and saying goodbye. I get emotional even writing about it now. My understanding is that Harry and Tonto was reasonably successful upon release but for some reason it’s become increasingly obscure over the last few years. If I had my way, we would see a new physical release of this one from a company like Fun City Editions and as long as I’m dreaming we’d see some other Carney classics like The Late Show released with it.
Blonde Death (1984) — Shot on video films have become an increasingly noticeable presence in my viewing each year and Blonde Death is one I’ve wanted to see since first becoming more aware of them. It’s an absolute pain in the ass to try to find this movie and I actually pulled myself out of bed to watch a live online stream of it when I saw someone post about it. Happily I can report that it absolutely lived up to my expectations as a furious, hilarious, transgressive, punk rock takedown of 80s suburbia. The performances are solid, but the writing and the filmmaking are incredibly sharp and assured. Part of the joys of SOV is you see movies by people who have no idea what they’re doing and stumble into something great — Blonde Death will make you wish James Robert Baker made a dozen more movies and had become one of the angrier, more distinct voices in 80s and 90s independent film. Somebody, anybody, re-release this one please!
Singapore Sling (1990) — Did somebody say transgressive? Hoo boy! Singapore Sling was recently covered by the Live at the Death Factory podcast but a friend mentioning it to me also nudged me to finally look into it. I was happy to find an HD copy on YouTube and fired it up. I was sucked in immediately — lush, mannered, and grotesque. Singapore Sling is both unlike anything I’ve ever watched while also being in heavy dialogue with noir classics. I was blown away by this one and have been giving it the kind of cautious recommendations to people that I gave after first seeing The Witch Who Came from the Sea. It’s not very much like that movie except that no punches are pulled in its descent into insanity and depravity.
Navajeros (1980) — I’d never even heard of quinqui films until news of Severin’s Eloy de la Iglesia set dropped. It’s been a thrilling journey of discovery — not only into de la Iglesia’s filmography but the world of quinqui films as a whole. My introduction to all of this is de la Iglesia’s 1980 film Navajeros which is an absolutely ferocious juvenile delinquency picture regardless of that larger context. It uses music and editing in incredibly effective ways, it’s rooted in real location footage, and employs terrifically charming non-professionals alongside accomplished film actors. If you only see one quinqui film — Navajeros should top your list.
Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972) — This feels a little weird as I’ve known of the Female Prisoner Scorpion series for decades and it was more like I “discovered” that I’d never actually sat down to watch them. I positively devoured Ito’s first three chapters of the series and found them all to be thematically rich and stylistically astounding. Meiko Kaji is perfection and Ito’s films have such a strong aesthetic while pulling strands of Suzuki and Leone among others into the mix. I’m not sure what caused me to discount these when I was first discovering the Lady Snowblood films but I’m happy to have finally seen the errors of my ways.
Odds and Ends — Maybe the most significant thing to happen in my movie watching in 2021 was that thanks to vaccination, I was able to return to the theater! Sadly my favorite theater shuttered during the pandemic and its future is uncertain at the time of this writing. However, the always fantastic Trylon cinema is still kicking and I was able to see old favorites like Paper Moon there as well as new favorites like Deep End. I was also able to attend multiple screenings of the local Cinema of the Macabre series and that's become one of my favorite things in town.
Tim not only does a stellar job programming the series but he puts together some fantastic pre-show collections of commercials, television spots, and trailers that complement that night's feature. Another theatrical highlight for me in 2021 was getting the opportunity to see Hayao Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro at the Parkway Theater. Cagliostro has long been one of my favorite films which I wrote an ridiculously long review of that can subject yourself to here.
Besides launching this blog to a somewhat shaky start - I had a good 2021 online with other film folks. I was able to publish a piece on Cinepunx, I participated in my first HoopTober, I did the Horror Gives Back challenge, I started hopping in on the All We Need is Sleaze screenings, recorded an episode with the excellent Trylove podcast, I listened to a ton of Unsung Horrors and Twitch of the Death Nerve podcasts, and generally had a blast on social media with cool, fun people.
I've really been loving the various discoveries/new-to-me lists I've been coming across so please hit me up with your favorites or a link in the comments or online somewhere if you're so inclined. Thanks as always for reading my ramblings - I hope to write with a little more frequency and direction in 2022 so hopefully you'll stick around. Take care of yourselves out there!
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