I will say I thought it was a great character moment that when Hux found Kylo Ren possibly dead his first thought was to blast him just to be sure (until Kylo woke up and he noped right back out of that plan.)

All those complainers have totally bought into the narrative of the loose-cannon-saves-the-day trope and zero concept of military standards of conduct. Admirals do not explain things to insubordinate captains. In a military context, when a higher-up explains something to you it is because they believe you need that information to carry out your duties and orders OR because they are grooming you for greater leadership roles and teaching you what they know. Since Leia and Holdo had recent evidence that Poe was not meant for Greater Things and his current duties included getting off the bridge to let the grownups talk, Holdo owed him zero explanation.

The Shape of Water! I finally got to see it tonight, and was enraptured. Just wonderful.

Golden Globes, the only two things I cared about: Get Out didn't win anything, and I am PISSED about it.

Guillermo del Toro won for best director! Eeee!

That speech by Oprah was something. Everything else seemed to pale in comparison.

Film Twitter is alight with Three Billboard discourse, which is making me weary.

Film Twitter is alight with Three Billboard discourse, which is making me weary.

My favorite part of that is the people I've seen policing others for months about not going out of your way to diss other people's faves, are now all "let me tell you why Three Billboards is the worst film ever" (insert loud sigh here).

For those interested, my write up on my favorite films of the year is here. My final quarterly report, which has most of the "award talk" movies is here. This was a great year for movies and many of the good/interesting ones from earlier in the year are already streaming on Hulu or Netflix if you want to check them out.

You saw SO Many more movies than I did, wow. I went to the movie theatre 22 times and saw the following:

Hidden Figures
Get Out
Gifted (x 14)
Wonder Woman
Spider-Man Homecoming
Guardians of the Galaxy II
Thor: Ragnarok (x 2)
The Last Jedi

For this year, I've already got tickets to I, Tonya and Black Panther. So that will be at least two movies I'll see.

For the record, the best movie I saw last year was Get Out.

Though, obviously, my favorite movie and best movie don't actually line up here.

In terms of movie semi-objective quality, leaving off anything I can't be objective about (which, let's be real, my ability to be objective about Gifted is pretty much zero), the rankings would be as follows:

1. Get Out
2. Thor: Ragnarok
3. Hidden Figures
4. Spider-Man Homecoming
5. Wonder Woman and The Last Jedi (tie)
7. Guardians of the Galaxy II

I enjoyed everything I saw this year, including GotG II. Pacing was an issue for the last three and Wonder Woman I only saw once because I saw it while utterly enthralled but also knowing I wouldn't have that same experience a second time because I was also observing the structural flaws.

now all "let me tell you why Three Billboards is the worst film ever" (insert loud sigh here)

I've cooled on the film somewhat since I saw it -- I think seeing it in a packed house during a film festival with audience that was SUPER into it enhanced the experience quite a bit. Like, my entire theater burst into applause after Mildred reamed out the priest. Looking back, I think the voices feel a bit off. The dialog and especially the profanity sounds like it's coming out of a middle-aged Irish Catholic's mouth rather than from the individual characters. And I do agree with the criticism of McDonaugh being a bit tone deaf when it comes to his handling of race. But all that said, Frances McDormand's performance is fucking ferocious and still one of the favourite things I've seen on my screen last year. I don't think its massive Golden Globes wins will be replicated in the Oscars though, except for maybe McDormand. Who will need to battle it out with Saoirse Ronan (whose name I will never be able to spell without looking up.)

Poor Sally Hawkins. I thought she was great and expect she will be nominated, but odds are against her this year.