Art Consumption, 2020
A running list of cinema, literature, music, & performance in 2020
[*denotes a first encounter with a work & that it made a significant impression upon me]
The Godfather II — Francis Ford Coppola
The Day After Tomorrow — Roland Emmerich
2012 — Roland Emmerich
Scrooged — Richard Donner
Wrath of the Titans — Jonathan Liebesman
Schitt’s Creek (episodes 101-111) — Eugene Levy
So Much Blue — Percival Everett
Knives Out — Rian Johnson
Ford vs. Ferrari — Scott Frank
*The Call of the Wild (film) — Chris Sanders
The Forty-Year Old Version (about 30 minutes) — Radha Blank
Meet the Parents — Jay Roach
Last Holiday — Wayne Wang
Last Christmas — Paul Feig
The Last Jedi — Rian Johnson
*The Mandalorian (season 2) — Various/Jon Favreau
Home Alone — Chris Columbus
Happiest Season — Clea DuVall
The Family Stone — Thomas Bezucha
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Story (about 20 minutes) — David E. Talbert
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation — Jeremiah Chechik
Motherless Brooklyn (about ten minutes of it) — Ed Norton
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo — David Fincher
A Christmas Story — Bob Clark
Christmas Inheritance — Ernie Barbarash
Virgin River (episode 1) — Martin Wood
The Holiday Movies That Made Us: Elf — Brian Volk-Weiss
The Undoing (episodes 1 & 2) — Susanne Bier
*My Octopus Teacher — Pippa Ehrlich & James Reed
*Euphoria: Rue — Sam Levinson
The Holiday Calendar — Bradley Walsh
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky — Heidi Durrow
Citizen Kane — Orson Welles
Mank — David Fincher
The Social Network — David Fincher
*Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker — Oliver Bokelberg
Random Acts of Flyness (Episode 1) — Terrance Nance
*Pym — Mat Johnson
*The Good Lord Bird — Various/Allen Hughes
*Grand Union Stories — Zadie Smith
Meet the President (From Grand Union Stories) — Zadie Smith
*Big Week (From Grand Union Stories) — Zadie Smith
Escape from New York (From Grand Union Stories) — Zadie Smith
*Hillbilly Elegy — Ron Howard
*Pym — Mat Johnson
Serendipity — Peter Chelsom
*Pieces of April — Peter Hedges
*Holidate — John Whitesell
The Family Man — Bret Ratner
Sleepless in Seattle — Nora Ephron
The Queen’s Gambit — Scott Frank
*Jeremiah Johnson — Sydney Pollack
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol — Christopher McQuarrie
*Minding the Gap — Bing Lai
Social Network — David Fincher
Fargo — The Coen Bros.
Hateful Eight [extended edition] — Quentin Tarantino
McCabe & Mrs. Miller — Robert Altman
Kajillionaire — Miranda July
Borat Subsequent Movie Film — Jason Woliner
The Great Beauty — Paolo Sorrentino
Secret Window — David Koepp
The Vow — Mac Quayle
*We Are Who We Are [finished] — Luca Guadagnino
Poltergeist [drive-in @ The Greek Theater] — Tobe Hooper
His House — Remi Weekes
Manhunter — Michael Mann
Silence of the Lambs — Jonathan Demme
*Black Christmas — Bob Clark
The Tale of Two Sisters — Kim Jee-Woon
*Re-Animator — Stuart Gordon
Dracula — Francis Ford Coppola
Videodrome — David Cronenberg
Evil Eye — Elan & Rajeev Dassani
Gerald’s Game — Mike Flanagan
The Brood — David Cronenberg
Roots Pt. 4 — Marvin J. Chomsky
Summer of Sam — Spike Lee
Zodiac — David Fincher
Roots Pt. 3 — Marvin J. Chomsky
Pet Sematary — Kevin Kolsch & Dennis WIdmyer
The Fly — David Cronenberg
Roots Pts. 1 & 2 (1977) — David Greene, John Erman, Marvin Chomsky, Gilbert Moses
We Are Who We Are [started] — Luca Guadagnino
Me and You and Everyone We Know — Miranda July
The Future — Miranda July
Shame — Steve McQueen
Hunger — Steve McQueen
Real Life — Albert Brooks
*Modern Romance — Albert Brooks
Body Double — Brian De Palma
Beloved — Jonathan Demme
Lovecraft Country [started] — Misha Green, et al
*New People — Danzy Senna
*I’m Thinking of Ending Things — Charlie Kauffman
Adrift — Baltasar Komakur
*Intimations — Zadie Smith
The Last of the Mohicans — Michael Mann
12 Years A Slave — Steve McQueen
*Baldwin’s Nigger — Horace Ové
Les 3 Boutons — Agnes Varda
Varda by Agnes — Agnes Varda
Chloe From 5-7 — Agnes Varda
I May Destroy You — Michaela Coel
Big Little Lies s2 — Andrea Arnold
*Big Little Lies s1 — Jean-Marc Valle
The Secret Garden — Fred M. Wilcox
*Red Road — Andrea Arnold
*Wasp — Andrea Arnold
*Dog — Andrea Arnold
*The Argonauts — Maggie Nelson
*The Sweet Hereafter — Atom Egoyan
The Assistant [turned off after 20 minutes]
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark — Liz Garbus
*Born A Crime — Trevor Noah
The Searchers — John Ford
Mean Free Path — Ben Lerner
Bluets — Maggie Nelson
Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood — Quentin Tarantino
A Walk on the Wild Side — Edward Dmytryk
Black is King [stopped watching about twenty minutes and just never got back to it]
The Truth About Kevin — Lynne Ramsey
She’s Funny That Way — Peter Bogdanovich
Contempt — Jean-Luc Godard
The Love Birds [turned off after 20 minutes]
Friends With Money — Nicole Holofcener
Lovely & Amazing — Nicole Holofcener
Please Give — Nicole Holofcener
12 O’Clock Boys — Lotfy Nathan
Tacones Lejanos — Pedro Almodovar
Leaving the Atocha Station — Ben Lerner
Amores Perros — Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu
*I May Destroy You — Michaela Coel & Sam Miller
*Palm Springs — Max Barbakow [twice in one day]
The Old Guard [turned off after an hour]
The Color Master: Stories — Aimee Bender
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake — Aimee Bender
Knives Out — Rian Johnson
Wasp Network — Olivier Assayas
Blindspotting — Carlos Lopez Estrada
Blow Out — Brian De Palma
Hamilton — Alex Lacamoire/Lin-Manuel Mirada
Jaws — Steven Spielberg
*Normal People — Lenny Abrahamson, and Hettie Macdonald
I Know This Much Is True — Derek Cianfrance
The Square — Ruben Ostlund
20th Century Women — Mike Mills
Insecure S4 — Prentice Penny & Issa Rae
Sabrina & Corina — Kali Fajardo-Anstine
The Lodge — Severin Fiala & Veronika Franz
A Ghost Story — David Lowery
*Spike Lee & Barry Jenkins: Da 5 Bloods Q&A
*The End of Eddy — Edouard Louis
Miss Juneteenth — Channing Godfrey Peoples
*Dad’s Maybe Book — Tim O’Brien
The King of Staten Island — Judd Apatow
*Tokyo, Osaka, Kofu; Home Diaries; Station — No Death
*Da 5 Bloods — Spike Lee
Shirley — Josephine Decker
Snake Eyes — Brian De Palma
*Little Fires Everywhere — Liz Tigelaar
Robocop — Paul Verhoeven
Daughters of the Dust — Julie Dash
Erin Brokovich — Steven Soderbergh
A United Kingdom — Amma Asante
High Note — Nisha Ganatra
The Vast of Night — Andrew Patterson
*Belle — Amma Asante
Mrs. America [full series]
*Mrs. America: “Shirley” and “Betty” — Amma Asante
Homecoming Season 2 — Kyle Patrick Alvarez
*Passing — Nella Larsen
Irreversible — Gaspar Noe
*Summer Hours — Olivier Assayas
Miracle of Morgan Creek — Preston Sturges
*Solo (1974-1983) The Virgin Years — Edgar Froese
*Devs — Alex Garland
*Voyage of the Sable Venus (and other poems) — Robin Coste Lewis
*Listening to Pictures — Jon Hassell
War of the Planet of the Apes — Matt Reeves
Broadcast News — Albert Brooks
*I Am Not Sidney Poitier — Percival Everett
Ok Computer — Radiohead
Tim Ferris Podcast w/Liz Gilbert
*The Good Neighbors [short story from Apology To The Young Addict] — Jim Brown
The Dialectic [short story from Grand Union] — Zadie Smith
Kid A — Radiohead
Mad Max: Fury Road — George Miller
The New World — Terrence Malick
Escape From New York — John Carpenter
*Zona — Geoff Dyer
By Design — Clare Sestanovich [in The Paris Review]
Mr Robot Season 4 — Sam Esmail
Rachel Cusk interviewed by Sheila Heti [in The Paris Review]
*Incendies — Denis Villeneuve
A Moon Shaped Pool — Radiohead
Never Have I Ever ep101 — Lang Fisher & Tristram Shapeero
Dave ep101 — Dave Burd & Andrew DeYoung
Hail to the Thief — Radiohead
Tim Ferriss Podcast w/Brian Koppelman
Days of Heaven — Terrance Malick
*The Grand Budapest Hotel — Wes Anderson
*Erasure — Percival Everett
*Solaris — Andrei Tarkovsky
*Dead Poets Society — Peter Weir
The Nightingale — Jennifer Kent
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective — Tom Shadyac
*The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance — John Ford
Is This It? — The Strokes
What About Bob? — Frank Oz
Structures From Silence — Steve Roach
Depths; Consciousness — Windy & Carl
*Mr Robot Seasons 1-3 — Sam Esmail
*Otherwise Known As The Human Condition [finished “Personals” section] — Geoff Dyer
The Good Place 101-104 — Michael Schur
Raising Arizona — The Coen Brothers
Fetch The Bolt Cutters — Fiona Apple
*The Human Stain — Philip Roth
Inter Dimensional Music — Iasos
Accordion & Voice — Pauline Oliveros
Unforeseen Events — David Berhman
Yesterday — Danny Boyle
The White Album — The Beatles
Un- — Laurel Blossom
The Magic Place; Will; Sanguine — Julianna Barwick
Run The Jewels 2 — Run The Jewels
The Deer Hunter — Michael Cimino
Run The Jewels 1 — Run The Jewels
Dead Presidents — The Hughes Brothers
Rage Against the Machine — Rage Against the Machine
Bonnie & Clyde — Arthur Penn
Loving Day — Mat Johnson
The Thing — John Carpenter
Solo Star (Instrumentals) — Solange
Raiders of the Lost Ark — Steven Spielberg
True Lies — James Cameron
Aguirre, The Wrath of God — Werner Herzog
Black Water Rising — Attica Locke
Reds — Warren Beatty
*Pop — Gas
The Expanding Universe — Laurie Spiegel
Some Like It Hot — Billy WIlder
Attack the Block — John Cornish
Against Memoir — Michelle Tea
Ambient 1: Music for Airports — Brian Eno
Selected Ambient Works Vol. II — Aphex Twin
The Disintegration Loops I-IV — William Basinski
A Rainbow in Curved Air — Terry Riley
White Ribbon — Michael Haneke
*The Book of Training… — Percival Everett
Avatar — James Cameron
Contagion — Steven Soderbergh
War of the Worlds — Steven Spielberg
Children of Men — Alfonso Cuaron
Snowpiercer — Bong Joon Ho
Drag Me to Hell — Sam Raimi
Westworld — Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy
Caucasia — Dany Senna
*Elsewhere, California — Dana Johnson
*The Invisible Man — Leigh Whannell
Bridgette Bianca at The Virgil
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce — Morgan Parker
*This River — James Brown
A Fortune For Your Disaster — Hanif Abrurraqib
*Useful Information For the Soon-to-be Beheaded — Shivani Mehta
*The Righteous Gemstones — Danny McBride
Beast Meridian — Vanessa Angelica Villarreal
12 Monkeys — Terry Gilliam
The Turning — Floria Sigismondi
[Insert Boy] — Danez Smith
Black Movie — Danez Smith
Spielberg — Susan Lacy
DePalma — Noah Baumback & Jake Paltrow
Danez Smith & Fatimah Ashgar reading at the Africa American Museum @ USC
Dune — David Lynch
Darjeeling Limited — Wes Anderson
*The Los Angeles Diaries — James Brown
Funny Games — Michael Haneke
Scarface (theatrical, at The Egyptian) — Brian DePalma
*Dreams (theatrical, at The Egyptian) — Akira Kurosawa
In the Not Quite Dark — Dana Johnson
Heat — Michael Mann
Set it Off — F. Gary Gray
Homie — Danez Smith
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (theatrical, 3rd viewing) — JJ Abrams
*Little Women (theatrical, 2nd viewing) — Greta Gerwig
*Stalker — Tarkovsky
*Code Unknown — Michael Haneke
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous — Ocean Vuong
*Don’t Call Us Dead — Danez Smith
Zero Fade — Chris L. Terry