Good Movies I Watched This Past Year
A record of the movies I watched this past year.
Three That Stood Out
Pelikan Blue (dir. László Csáki, Hungary)
An animated documentary about the forging of international train tickets — something that really happened in 1990s Hungary. I liked the touch of the drawings, the way it’s built as a documentary, and the thinking underneath it. It shows how people changed after the shift from socialism to democracy, and the mother’s line in the film — “Steal from a person and you’re a thief, but steal from the state and it’s an honor” — hit hard.
The more their movements are restricted, the harder their wits work to do something anyway, and the forgery keeps getting better. It reminded me of my years living in China, where I found it fascinating how people got by under state control, by every possible means. I also felt something in common with a collection of East German jokes I read a long time ago.
Memoir of a Snail (dir. Adam Elliot, Australia)
A claymation that reportedly took eight years to make. Grounded, grown-up animation from abroad.
Mars Express (dir. Jérémie Périn, France)
A sci-fi animation on the theme of the near future and the end of the century. Hard-boiled.
In Theaters
- Ryuichi Sakamoto: Diaries — a documentary tracing Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final years through his journals
- Gandahar (4K restoration) — a revival screening of René Laloux’s 1987 film
- Mobile Police Patlabor: The Movie — the first theatrical feature
- “White River” and “Ōji Kiln” (dir. Masami Katō) — I saw these at a special exhibition at the Seto City Art Museum. I’d love to watch them again — but where can you even find them?
- Robot Dreams — bittersweet and warm
At Home
- Forever Young (Les Amandiers) (dir. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) — an ensemble coming-of-age story set at a Paris drama school in the ’80s. Everyone smoked.
- The Substance — the body horror everyone was talking about. I like how it ends.
Lined up like this, almost all of them turned out to be animation. I’ll write again once they pile up.