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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)
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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)
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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. Read the rest of this page »
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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)
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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)
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