jessebyron

[jessebyron]

[jessebyron]

[jessebyron]

[jessebyron]

My 2024 Movie Watch List

A bit of a tall order, but here is my movie watching goal for 2024: to watch every listed film on Sight & Sound’s/BFI’s 100 Greatest Films from 2022 (the most recent version of the list). I was gonna do this last year, and watched two of them, but just didn’t keep up with it. There’s quite a few on this that I’m excited for, especially in the bottom half. I have a lot to watch through, but hopefully I’ll have time to do some posts/write ups after a few of them.

100 Greatest Films

95: Once Upon a Time in the West by Sergio Leone, 1968 (Italy, US)

95: A Man Escaped by Robert Bresson, 1956 (France)

95: The General by Buster Keaton + Clyde Bruckman, 1926 (US)

95: Black Girl by Ousmane Sembène, 1965 (Senegal, France)

95: Tropical Malady by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004 (France, Thailand, Germany, Italy, Switzerland)

95: Get Out by Jordan Peele, 2017 (US, Japan)

90: Parasite by Bong Joon-Hoo, 2019 (Republic of Korea)

90: Yi Yi by Edward Yang, 1999 (Taiwan, Japan)

90: Ugetsu Monogatari by Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953 (Japana)

90: The Leopard by Luchino Visconti, 1963 (Italy, France)

90: Madame de… by Max Ophuls, 1953 (France, Italy)

88: The Shining by Stanley Kubrick, 1980 (US, UK)

88: CHUNGKING EXPRESS by Wong Kar Wai, 1994 (Hong Kong)

85: Blue Velvet by David Lynch, 1986 (US)

85: The Spirit of the Beehive by Víctor Erice, 1973 (Spain)

85: Pierrot le fou by Jean-Luc Godard, 1965 (France, Italy)

78: Histoire(s) du Cinéma by Jean-Luc Godard (France, Switzerland)

78: A Matter of Life and Death by Michael Powell + Emeric Pressburger, 1946 (UK)

78: Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin, 1936 (US)

78: Sunset Blvd. by Billy Wilder, 1950 (US)

78: Céline and Julie Go Boating by Jacques Rivette, 1974 (France)

78: A Brighter Day Summer Day by Edward Yang, 1991 (Taiwan)

78: Sátántangó by Béla Tarr, 1994 (Hungary, Germany, Switzerland)

75: Spirited Away by Mayao Miyazaki, 2001 (Japan)

75: Sansho the Bailiff by Kenji Mizoguchi

75: Imitation of Life by Douglas Sirk, 1959 (US)

72: L’avventura by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960 (Italy, France)

72: Journey to Italy by Roberto Rossellini, 1954 (Italy, France)

72: My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki, 1988 (Japan)

67: The Red Shoes by Michael Powell + Emeric Pressburger (UK)

67: Metropolis by Fritz Lang, 1927 (Germany)

67: Andrei Rublev by Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966 (USSR)

67: La Jetée by Chris Marker, 1962 (France)

67: The Gleaners and I by Agnès Varda, 2000 (France)

66: Touki Bouki by Djbril Diop Mambéty, 1973 (Senegal)

63: The Third Man by Carol Reed, 1949 (UK)

63: Goodfellas by Martin Scorsese, 1990 (US)

63: Casablanca by Micahel Curtiz, 1942 (US)

60: Daughters of Dust by Julie Dash, 1991 (US)

60: La dolce vita by Federicio Fellini, 1960 (Italy, France)

60: Moonlight by Barry Jenkins, 2016 (US)

59: Sans Soleil by Chris Marker, 1982 (France)

54: The Apartment by Billy Wilder, 1960 (US)

54: Sherlock Junior by Buster Keaton, 1924 (US)

54: Le Mépris by Jean-Luc Godard, 1963 (France, Italy)

54: Battleship Potemkin by Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925 (USSR)

54: Blade Runner by Ridley Scott, 1982 (US, Hong Kong)

52: News from Home by Chantal Akerman, 1976 (France, Belgium)

52: Fear Eats the Soul by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974 (Federal Republic of Germany)

50: The Piano by Jane Campion, 1992 (Australia, France)

50: The 400 Blows by François Truffaut, 1959 (France)

48: Ordet by Carl Th. Dreyer, 1955 (Denmark)

48: Wanda by Barbara Loden, 1970 (US)

45: Barry Lyndon by Stanley Kubrick, 1975 (US, UK)

45: North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock, 1959 (US)

45 The Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966 (Italy, Algeria)

43: Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979 (USSR)

43: Killer of Sheep by Charles Burnett, 1977 (US)

41: Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa, 1950 (Japan)

41: Bicycle Thieves by Vittoria De Sica, 1948 (Italy)

38: Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock, 1954 (US)

38: Á bout de souffle by Jean-Luc Godard, 1960 (France)

38: Some Like It Hot by Billy Wilder, 1959 (US)

36: M by Fritz Lang, 1931 (Germany)

36: City Lights by Charlie Chaplin, 1931 (US)

35: Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray, 1955 (India)

34: L’Atalante by Jean Vigo, 1934 (France)

31: 8 ½ by Federico Fellini, 1963 (Italy, France)

31: Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, 1960 (US)

31: Mirror by Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975 (USSR)

30: Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma, 2019 (France)

29: Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese, 1976 (US)

28: Daisies by Vĕra Chytilová

27: Shoah by Claude Lanzmann

25: The Night of the Hunter by Charles Laughton, 1955 (US)

25: Au hasard Balthazar by Robert Bresson, 1966 (France)

24: Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee, 1989 (US)

23: Playtime by Jacques Tati, 1967 (France)

21: Late Spring by Yasujirō Ozu, 1949 (Japan)

21: The Passion of the Joan of Arc by Carl Th. Dreyer, 1927 (France)

20: Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, 1954 (Japan)

19: Apocalypse Now: by Francis Ford Coppola, 1979 (US)

18: Persona by Ingmar Bergman, 1966 (Sweden)

17: Close-up by Abbas Kiarostami, 1989 (Iran)

16: Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren + Alexander Hackenschmied, 1943 (US)

15: The Searchers by John Ford, 1956 (US)

14: Cléo from 5 to 7 by Agnès Varda, 1962 (France, Italy)

13: La Règle de jeu by Jean Renoir, 1939 (France)

12: The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola, 1972 (US)

11: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1927 (US)

10: Singin’ in the Rain by Gene Kelly + Stanley Donen, 1951 (US)

9: Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov, 1929 (Ukrainian SSR, USSR)

8: Mulholland Dr. by David Lynch, 2001 (France, US)

7: Beau travail by Claire Denis, 1998 (France)

6: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, 1968 (US, UK)

5: In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai, 2000 (Hong Kong, France)

4: Tokyo Story by Yasujirō Ozu, 1953 (Japan)

3: Citizen Kane by Orson Welles, 1941 (US)

2: Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock, 1958 (US)

1: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles by Chantal Akerman, 1975 (Belgium, France)

[jessebyron]

Thoughts on Murtagh by Christopher Paolini

Thoughts on Murtagh by Christopher Paolini

First read of the year! I will mostly keep this spoiler free, but do read on with caution if you are wanting to approach this story tabula rasa.

As you read my criticisms below please keep this in your mind: I never once put the book down for very long. I came in to this story already deeply invested in the characters, and I enjoyed seeing them again after all of these years. I had to force myself to wait until the new year rang in so I could have it as my first read of 2024.

Honestly, I never thought I'd visit Alagaësia again. With Inheritance wrapping up Eragon's main story back in 2011, I had more or less left the land and its peoples behind. Even after finding out about The Fork, The Witch, and The Worm (a few years after the fact), I just never quite got around to it. I had loved the series growing up. Without Eragon casually sitting on an endcap in the Covington, Louisiana Walmart, there is no telling how much longer it would have taken me to enjoy reading. Without JJP's gorgeous portrait of Sapphira, I don't know if I would have fallen in love with stories and imaginative worlds in quite the same way. Looking back on my life, a life that has almost exclusively revolved around stories and the various arts to make them, my mom agreeing to buy the book during our grocery trip (with the promise that I would read my AR book for school first) was one of the most critical moments in my life, echoing 20~ years into the future.

All of that to say, I approached this book with a little bit of history and baggage. In the summer of 2016, in a group job interview at Books-a-Million in Mobile, Alabama my pleasant memories were a little spoiled by the assistant manager pointing out the deep similarities in characters and story beats between The Inheritance Cycle and Star Wars. This feeling was then sharpened some with mixed (but ultimately favorable reaction to Paolini's foray in sci-fi, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (2020, Tor/Macmillan Publishers).

I didn't know how I wanted to jump back in this world. Did I want to go back to the beginning? Maybe just gloss over a few key chapters or perhaps just revisiting Brisingr and Inheritance as a refresher? Following the advice of several Redditors (I know, I know, but what's a guy to do?) I decided to read the short story collection first. It reacquainted me with both the world and Paolini's writing style. A literary aperitif, if you will, as opposed to trying to digest the first four books again which would have worn me out, and, I think, ruined the experience of Murtagh for me.

Because: it wasn't all that great. It was good, make no mistake, but held up to the shining splendor of second grade nostalgia (something I could not avoid no matter how hard I tried), there were a few lackluster facets. It wasn't at all terrible, or bad in any way, but parts felt a little like an unpolished gem. Repetitive and long. I don't mind slow burns or even slower variations of a single theme, but this book could have been shorter by a few thousand words. The "will we or won't we stay" debate and the succeeding chapters of our heroes' torture and brain washing went on for quite a few hours of reading. And none of it could be skimmed through because there were occasional details of import to the plot or emotional arc. It's probably the more egregious violation of "show, don't tell" that Paolini has committed so far (at least in my distanced memory).

An that's part of the tragedy of returning to a favorite childhood world. In Murtagh, we have this great set up to explore a tale of personal trauma and the butterfly effects of the first four books' main character. We get to walk in the shoes (fly in the claws? wings?) of someone who had the worst ending. Hated or misunderstood or both by virtually everyone in the Empire and its enemies, Murtagh's poverty is a chance to see the original story in an outsider-looking-in context. We get see the shadows cast by the light of a heroic victor, the dark places under rocks and fallen logs that are uncomfortable to look at, while slowly building into what will be a fantasy tale with an eldritch horror bent. The climax of the tale gives us a beautiful inversion of the hero's tale with an almost literal descent into hell. It's enough fun that the reader can ignore the the derivative strain that runs through much of Paolini's work.

But. We are not quite pricked as sharply as we could be. What could be the full effect of the story is just out of reach beyond a glass wall of just a few too many descriptions and details.

As I said at the start, I still had a lot of fun. I wasn't looking for a life changing literary experience and was able to enjoy it as such. Will happily be buying the sequels other one off tales whenever they come out.

[jessebyron]

2023 Reading Wrap-Up

Big annual reading wrap up post!!! Here's my 2023 in reading:

I’ve attempted reading 50 books a few times since graduating college, but this year was the first time it actually stuck. In fact, I actually completed 53 titles! Since this is a tad longer than my previous wrap up posts, I’ll have the full list at the end up of this after some commentary.

Here’s some of the most impactful titles from 2023:

The first book I read this year gets a special mention. I read a good handful of sequential fiction this year, but Seance Tea Party was the most impactful. It might be the most impactful growing up story I’ve ever read.

Kings of Wyld: I think this is the most fun I’ve had with ‘high’ fantasy in a long time. A classic fantasy adventure delivered via the thinnest metaphor for an 80s hair metal band that ends up being one of the most heartfelt meditations on family, aging, legacy, and fatherhood that you’ll ever come across. Dirty, crass, hilarious, violent, and beautiful.

Veniss Underground: Yet another masterful fever dream from the man that, for me personally, defines the concepts of weird and experimental. Predating Vandermeer’s Annihilation, Veniss Underground is consuming exploration of story and form and while pushing us to the very edges of what makes a novel and what makes a person.

Hyperion: As anyone who knows me knows, I am a slut for stories about stories. I think this book was one of the smartest written science fiction books in my library. To read Hyperion is to begin exploring a few particular trailheads leading into literature, technology, conflict, and the human condition. I’ll definitely be exploring the rest of the Cantos in the years to come. (Be careful researching Simmons himself though. You will be disappointed.)

Shadow of the Torturer & The Claw of the Conciliator (the first two volumes of Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun): This was the most intellectually challenging of the things I read this year. It’s the first time I read something and then immediately watched multiple YouTube video essays just to grasp fully grasp. But, like a lot of the more challenging texts this year, it is so worth it. Will have to come back to these many times.

The Left Hand of Darkness: beautiful and challenging and enriching as well, this will also take multiple readings to begin to grok it.

The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction: necessary for any Neil Gaiman fan to read. It was awesome diving into how Neil sees the world, the stories he’s encountered, the experiences he’s had, and the insane amount interesting famous people he’s friends with.

The Fragile Threads of Power: less impactful and more just plain ol’ exciting, this was a brilliant return to world first introduced by Schwab’s Darker Shades.

Nostalgia Reads:

So You Want to be a Wizard: maybe the best alternative to Harry Potter. Beautiful and consistent world building that makes sense with stories and characters that invite us to explore who we are in the context of the greater world (and worlds!) around us. Reading the Young Wizards series in elementary school had a deep effect on me that still resonates to this day.

City of Bones: held up surprisingly well? Fun mythology and delightfully angsty characters.

A Wizard of Earthsea: hadn’t read this since senior year when I bought it with the money I won in a micro fiction writing contest, and it was so wonderful to revisit the archipelago.

The Collobaration: a powerful play that now contains one of my dream roles.

Certainly not the first time I’ve consumed The Sandman epic, but the audible versions were exquisite and brought the story to mw in a whole new way. Same thing with full cast audio version American Gods.

Most disturbing: Amygdalatropolis. Don’t read this. No, I’m serious. Not reading this book is an act of self care. You’ll only hurt your own feelings (and body and brain) if you read this book.

Second most disturbing: Tender is the Flesh. Reading this one is also harmful, but you should it.

Most disappointing: Paradise-1 by David Wellington. An interesting premise with a couple of fun bits of world building, it was ultimately defeated by a lack of internal unity and subpar editing.

The full list:

1. *Seance Tea Party by Reimina Yee

2. *Crushed by Don Zolidis

3. *Wiley and the Hairy Man by Susan Zeder

4. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (full cast audiobook)

5. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

6. *The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty

7. *Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

8. *The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

9. *Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

10. *Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

11. *Paradise-1 by David Wellington

12. The Sandman: Act 1 (audible original)

13. The Homecoming by Harold Pinter

14. *Veniss Underground by Jeff Vandermeer

15. *Hyperion by Dan Simmons

16. *The Stranger by Albert Camus

17. *Treasure Island: The Adventures of Jim Hawkins adapted by James DeVita

18. The Sandman: Act 1 (audible original)

19. The Sandman: Act 2 (audible original)

20. The Sandman: Act 3 (audible original)

21. *Hellblazer: Rise + Fall by Taylor, Robertson, and Rodriguez

22. *Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol 1: The Tarantula by Matt Wagner, Guy Favis, and John Costanza

23. The Supernaturalist: The Graphic Novel

24. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

25. *Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

26. The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

27. *Amygdalatropolis by B. R. Yeager

28. The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan*Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McQuire

29. *Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McQuire

30. *Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McQuire

31. *Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

32. *The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman

33. *Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

34. *Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe

35. *Peter Pan adapted by Douglas Irvine

36. Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan

37. So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane

38. *Tender is the Flesh by Augustine Bazterrica

39. *The Collaboration by Anthony McCarten

40. *The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

41. *The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

42. *Catch Me if You Can by Robert Thomas, adapted by Weinstock and Gilbert

43. City of Bones by Cassandra Claire

44. Jennifer scales and the ancient furnace by Mary Janice Davidson

45. *Why Religion? by Elaine Pagels

46. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

47. *Bunny by Mona Awad

48. *Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol

49. *Goblin Market and other Poems by Christina Rosetti

50. The Sandman: Endless Nights

51. *Dada Woof Papa Hot by Peter Parnell

52. *The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord by Scott Carter

53. *The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm by Christopher Paolini

Addendum for business: I will no longer be posting on the other three blogs (food, books, and tv/film) related) as it's too much for me to have it all divided up. This will now be my main/only blog

[jessebyron]

[jessebyron]

[jessebyron]

[jessebyron]

Today’s reading material https://www.instagram.com/p/CmZkKW7r7Zc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jessebyron]

I decided to hire a fursonal assistant for a Raisin in the Sun, but she fell asleep the first day on the job! Let’s see if she does any better for tonight’s rehearsal https://www.instagram.com/p/CmIM-WFrqbI/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jessebyron]

the reverse ostension of the goncharov posting.