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Saturday, August 11, 2018

Coming Soon

Every year around this time, there’s hints and rumors and guesses about what might be in the next edition of the 1001 Movies book. A couple of days ago, fellow 1001 blogger Adolysti dropped me an email linking me to a Facebook post that has what looks to be the additions to the upcoming book. While there are some odd additions (and it appears they’re pulling both Hell or High Water and Arrival, two criminal losses), this seems like a legitimate set of films.

So here’s what looks to be on the new list:
The Handmaiden (2016)
Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016)
Lady Macbeth (2016)
Lady Bird (2017)
The Shape of Water (2017)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Call Me by Your Name (2017)
mother! (2017)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Get Out (2017)
Black Panther (2018)

Here are some thoughts:
* If this turns out to be accurate, I’m in good shape. There are 11 additions here and I’ve seen eight and have posted reviews of seven (so I’ll be rewatching Lady Macbeth). Being fairly dedicated to watching Best Picture nominees seems to be paying off in that respect.
* The addition of Black Panther, while not unexpected eventually, does seem early. It’s only the second Marvel movie to make the List (Guardians of the Galaxy made it), but it’s one I figured would be here. I didn’t expect it until next year, though. I think this is the first time a movie has been added to an edition from the same year.
* There are multiple movies here with genuine horror elements. Get Out is very much a horror movie and mother!, while kind of unclassifiable, certainly leans in that direction. The Shape of Water is a cryptid romance with horror sensibilities, and there are certainly some horror elements in Lady Macbeth. This is a good thing, and perhaps it’s a sign that the Listmakers have removed the anti-horror stick from their collective ass.
* I was mostly concerned about Dawson City: Frozen Time, since NetFlix doesn’t have it. Turns out my local library does.

I guess we’ll have to wait a few weeks for the official book, but I may try to track down the four I haven’t reviewed before then. It would be interesting to be done before I start for once.

11 comments:

  1. I had seen seven of the eleven and I watched Dawson City: Frozen Time yesterday to bring my total to eight.

    Dawson City: Frozen Time is amazing, but I'm not sure how well the filmmaking style will work for people who aren't huge fans of silent film.

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    1. I'm planning on picking up Dawson City in a couple of hours, and possibly picking up Lady Macbeth, since I know my library has that, too.

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  2. I'm also kind of confused that Black Panther was included but Wonder Woman wasn't. Black Panther was only released six months ago and I don't get why Wonder Woman (the first widely successful movie about a female super-hero) was passed over as 1001 material in favor of Black Panther, a very recent film that should have been held for the following edition.

    I can maybe see it if Black Panther was way better than Wonder Woman. But I prefer Wonder Woman to Black Panther, mostly because I thought Black Panther was a bit of a mess at the end, trying to shoehorn the Wakanda Civil War (a subject big enough for its own movie) into the last 15 minutes.

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    1. I don't completely disagree. I liked Black Panther quite a bit and think it's one of the better Marvel movies. Wonder Woman, though, is the first genuinely successful non-Batman or Superman film from the DC stable, and that's pretty noteworthy.

      It is not, however, nearly as noteworthy as the fact that you mentioned--it's a female superhero story and one that works, which has not been done before. I genuinely don't care about the DC comics movie universe, but I'll see a Wonder Woman sequel in a heartbeat.

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  3. I've also seen 8 of these 11, with a 9th waiting on my coffee table for me watch. All are very good choices except Call Me By Your Name, which I didn't care for and don't see what's so unique about it that it has to be seen.

    I'm also surprised Wonder Woman didn't make the cut for the reasons given. Hopefully, next year. Another surprise is finding out Guardians is the lone Marvel flick. I like it, but why that one and not Iron Man which started the MCU? Or the first Avengers which was the first superhero movie to pull together characters from a different franchises within a purposely connected by film universe and succeeds? That said, I expect Infinity War to show up at some point in the future, possibly at the expense of Guardians.

    Mother! is the most fascinating choice. It is a perplexing and divisive film. Love it or hate it, I think you have to agree the execution of it original. Glad to see it get rewarded for that.

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    1. You and I were in rough agreement on Call Me by Your Name. My issue with it is that in large part if we made the one character a young woman, we'd be talking about how it's exploitative and involving someone who couldn't legitimately give consent rather than a touching love story.

      I agree on Iron Man. It's a little known fact that my original (now long-gone) movie blog was started specifically because I was so surprised at how good Iron Man was. Every year on Christmas or Christmas Eve, I post a list of movies that I think should be on the 1001 Movies list, and Iron Man has been included in the past.

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  4. Dawson City: Frozen Time will be on TCM in September.

    I watched Call Me By Your Name (and I liked it a lot!) on Sunday so now I only have two to go - Lady Macbeth and The Handmaiden. They are both available on YouTube Movies so I'll probably see them both soon. Maybe not quite so soon for The Handmaiden as it's kind of long and I may have trouble setting aside two and a half hours for it.

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    1. I still need to see The Handmaiden and Blade Runner 2049. I've seen Lady Macbeth, but will watch again for the review.

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    2. I saw Lady Macbeth last night. Wow. Everyone is so awful that I was rather sympathetic for Katherine … up to a point. I was sort of thinking that the little boy showing up would soften her a little bit, but I quickly realized that it probably wouldn't be called "Lady MacBeth" if that happened … and it probably wouldn't be on the List either.

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  5. I look forward to your review of Blade Runner 2049. The sequel looks stunning at times but left me cold emotionally. I don't think it should be on the 1001 list. Perhaps my expectations were too high as I love the original.

    I approve of some darker, daring stuff included such as Mother! and Lady Macbeth. I wish Killing of a Sacred Deer could have made the cut too.

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    1. I haven't quite pulled the trigger on Killing of a Sacred Deer, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of this version of Colin Farrell.

      I'm going to try to get to Blade Runner 2049 in the next week.

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