Pic of the Day: “What do you think is more exciting… having sex or stealing cars?” “Having sex or boosting cars… Um, oo! Well, uh… How about having sex while boosting cars?” (25th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Now you’re the first Black man in the history of the ring who’s ever had a crack at the heavyweight title. Now white folks, of course, are behind Brady. He’s the redeemer of the race and so on. But you, Jack Jefferson, are you the Black hope?” “Well, I’m Black and I’m hopin’.” “Answer him straight, Jack.” “Hey, look, man, I ain’t fighting for no race, I ain’t redeeming nobody. My mama told me Mr. Lincoln done that. Ain’t that why you shot him?” (55th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Count my money or party with bitches. Hundred and fitties or big ass titties. Count the green or get in between those titties.” (25th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Flash! A-ah! / Saviour of the Universe / Flash! A-ah! / He’ll save every one of us / Flash! A-ah! / He’s a miracle / Flash! A-ah! / King of the impossible / He’s for every one of us / Stand for every one of us / He saves with a mighty hand / Every man, every woman / Every child, it’s the mighty flash.” ♫ (45th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “I’m poor, black, I may even be ugly, but dear God, I’m here. I’m here!” (40th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Josse, there’s an election with three candidates, so who do you vote for? No. 1: He is partially paralyzed from polio. He has hypertension. He’s anemic and suffers from an array of serious illnesses. He lies if it suits his purpose and consults astrologists on his politics. He cheats on his wife, chain-smokes, and drinks too many martinis. No. 2: He’s overweight, and he’s already lost three elections. He suffers from depression and has had two heart attacks. He’s impossible to work with and smokes cigars non-stop. And every night when he goes to bed, he drinks incredible amounts of champagne, cognac, port, whiskey, and adds two sleeping pills before dozing off. The last one, No. 3: He’s a highly decorated war hero. He treats women with respect. He loves animals, never smokes, and only has a beer on rare occasions. Josse, who do you vote for?” “The last one.” “The last one, No. 3? And the rest of you?” “Yes, No. 3.” “Oh boy! You just discarded Franklin D. Roosevelt… Winston L. Churchill… and thankfully you elected this guy.” “Hitler?” “Focus! It’s funny, but there’s a point to this, which is important and which I hope you’ll understand someday: the world is never as you expect.” (5th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Then why won’t you work with him again for one night?” “Because of artistic differences.” “What artistic differences?” “I hate the son of a bitch, that’s what artistic differences.” (50th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Will there be no room for Hobbits in this new age of Man?” “I think so. For of us all, Hobbits are the closest to Man, the most human. And one day they will be as Men are. Look you; Frodo is a bit larger than Bilbo, just as you are larger than Frodo. And younger still have you, and larger are Merry and Pippin. And, if you keep the book of the Hobbits as Frodo asked, ages from now when your stories are still told, there will be those humans who might well wonder, ‘Is there Hobbit in me?'” 45th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Look for what is special about each individual, focus on that.” (10th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “I’ve been through a lot of these. ‘Sick leave’ isn’t the only designation they use when they take one of these priests out of circulation. They use a slew of terms – ‘absent on leave,’ ‘unassigned,’ ’emergency response.'” “They got a name for everything, these guys.” Except rape.” (10th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Do you have anything in this shop as beautiful as she is?” (35th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “There’s always someone younger and hungrier coming down the stairs after you.” (30th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Who’s fighting and what for? Why are we fighting? Why are we fighting? We don’t want to fight. Come on!” (55th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “By the time we got to Woodstock / We were half a million strong / And everywhere was a song / And a celebration / And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes / Riding shotgun in the sky / Turning into butterflies / Above our nation / We are stardust, we are golden / We are caught in the devil’s bargain / And we got to get ourselves / Back to the garden.” ♫ (55th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “He’s a pinball wizard / There has got to be a twist / A pinball wizard’s / Got such a supple wrist / How do you think he does it? I don’t know / What makes him so good? / Ain’t got no distractions / Can’t hear no buzzers and bells / Don’t see no lights a-flashin’ / Plays by sense of smell / Always gets a replay / Never seen him fall / That deaf, dumb and blind kid / Sure plays a mean pinball.” ♫ (50th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Here I stand, head in hand / Turn my face to the wall / If she’s gone I can’t go on / Feeling two foot small / Everywhere people stare / Each and everyday / I can see them laugh at me / And I hear them say / ‘Hey, you’ve got to hide your love away’ / ‘Hey, you’ve got to hide your love away’.” ♫ (60th Anniversary)
Mike’s Top Ten of 2024
I’m not sure we’ll fully know what 2024 was for a long time. At the very least, it’s a year affected by the labor strikes of 2023. Sure, we got some films that were pushed into this year because they couldn’t promote them in 2023, but more so we got a lot of films that got pushed out of 2024 because they couldn’t finish them in time. A lot of those films were big ‘anchor’ films that help define a year. And a year without those anchors becomes a year without an identity.
2024 feels like a year without an identity. Movies came out, some were good, some were fine. We ebbed back from 2023. Theaters were not as robust as they were, and it looks like we continued sliding down the path of streaming and limited theatrical windows becoming the norm, with an increasing likelihood that, unless people actively pay attention to what comes out and seek specific films to watch, a lot of films are going to get buried and not get the audiences they deserve.
I think that’s my main takeaway from 2024 — because most people couldn’t be bothered to go see good movies (especially with a lot of stuff that’s being pushed for them being super expensive, studio-driven, dog-shit films with ‘very long shelf lives’ and ‘multiple verticals’… you know… ‘content’) and because a lot of people probably don’t know about a lot of the good films that came out, I want to, more than most years, want to showcase the cool stuff so people can find it.
Most of the time this list is just something I do to wrap up a year. Increasingly it’s starting to feel like an important service to show people that there’s more than just ‘content’ that comes out each year. One phrase you’re gonna see me say a lot throughout this list is hidden gem — there are a lot of hidden gems this year and I’m so interested in seeing how time does to them. (more…)
Pic of the Day: “The important thing is: we’re awake now. And hopefully… for a long time to come.” “Forever.” “Forever?” “Forever!” “Let’s not use that word, you know? It frightens me. But I do love you. And, you know, there’s something very important that we need to do as soon as possible.” “What’s that?” “Fuck.” (25th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “We all are born with a certain package. We are who we are. Where we were born, who we were born as, how we were raised. We’re kind of stuck inside that person… and the purpose of civilization and growth, is to be able to reach out and empathize a little bit with other people. And for me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us.” (10th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Ziggy played guitar / Jamming good with Weird and Gilly / And the Spiders from Mars / He played it left hand / But made it too far / Became the special man / Then we were Ziggy’s band.” ♫ (45th Anniversary)
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