Taking On 2018 - Top Films Of The Year So Far

Here we are once again, halfway through 2018, what is undeniably the worst year in existence, marked with nothing but pain, sadness, hopelessness, and a few okay films. Some would say it has #BeenAWhile since I last wrote anything on this blog proper, and it has, especially as I use Letterboxd to get out quick thoughts and then just process and have conversations elsewhere, but I imagine there's still a good amount of value is writing down more extensive thoughts on things that have stood out to me throughout the year. So I'll do that. This time in a list form while I try to figure out which things I liked more than other things. The actual process of putting this together ended up being more difficult than I imagined, mostly figuring out what would compete for the last few slots. So with that, it looks like this is how things shook out at the halfway point.

Taking On 2016 - Top Films

Okay, it is finally that time. The year has, almost two months in, officially come to an end. At least in regards to cinema. Not counting, of course, a ton of foreign films that will have to be 2017 films for my list making purposes because distribution of them is kind of shitty or whatever, but at least I saw a lot of things. There's an entire list on Letterboxd of all the things I watched from 2016 (triple digits!), and of course I recently ran through my top performances. But now with the Oscars coming up in just a couple of days, well, it seems the best time to look back and get to thinking of what truly was the best of the best in the year that was.

Taking On 2016 - Performances

So, obviously I haven't been writing as much as I should have, but here we are with another year in cinema in the books. And I think, finally, I am close to as caught up as I am going to get with the year, even if I have a few things here and there I still need to add to the list before I fully put a bow on it, as the case was. No music this year, because I listened to a lot of things over and over again, but not enough of a selection to feel comfortable making a list. But I did watch a lot of films, and those films had actors. Normally I'd break things up, but how about one big list before The Big List(tm)?

Taking On 2016 - Top Films (Q2 Quaterly Review)

Ah, here we are again. Late to the party, but not too late. Though later than it should have been since my last post. In that time though I have watched a lot (but listened to a lot less, which would explain the halfway point of the year missing a music countdown), and this has been quite the year. After a few spotty years, finding a list that felt good to me was incredibly challenging. Regardless of genre 2016 has been simply superb for all types of films. And, as usual, there are plenty of busts as well. If you are interested, you can take a look at everything from 2016 I have watched over on Letterboxd. Either way, no reason to further delay, how about we get to it?

Taking On 2015 - Top Films

Well, here we are, right after the Oscars and the official end to the year that was in cinema. Though there is still plenty of catching up that I wish I was able to do, but when is life not full of regrets, right? After a kind of lost year at the blog (where I should do a 2015 blowout post, but not sure that I'll get around to it), I feel compelled to continue at least the yearly tradition of writing up some things about films outside of short reviews on Letterboxd. You can also find a list there of all the films I have seen there. It helps to solidify my thoughts on how things have changed since the last time this happened. And changed they have. Also, it would not be a year end Top 10 if I didn't cheat. So let's start with that initial slip up.

Taking On 2015 - Top Albums (Q2 Quarterly Review)

Hey, here we are again. Some of the stats options tell me that people are still reading these things, so I guess I'll keep going even if I didn't have a personal obligation to myself. Which means now that we are through with the best songs of the year so far, it's time to take a look at the albums. Look, I'm not here to mince words, I haven't been keeping track of albums as rigidly as I have in the past, and honestly I haven't listened to nearly as much in 2015, so this list is going to be a little lean. But there's still a Top 10 in here, all of which are really great because, well, there's been some high quality shit this year. So why delay it any longer?

Taking On 2015 - Top Tracks (Q2 Quarterly Review)

Alright, so once again we have returned with our Quarterly Review series, spotlighting (as usual to start) the top songs of the year so far. Or that's what I guess I would write had I not neglected to do a Q1 Quarterly Review back at the end of March, but alas the time for that has passed while I was just listening to a lot of Drake and being lazy. We aren't here to read about the goings-on in my life though (presumably there is only a minimal 'we' anyway, but let's ignore that for the time being as these words continue to be typed in to the void), it's music time. As usual here is a Spotify list of all the songs that are on Spotify which I considered for this list, and you can also click on the song titles for corresponding Youtube/SoundCloud links where applicable.