This is, in some part, a reminder to get to these movies in the next year at some point. At the beginning of 2020, Wes and I were stoked to be given press passes to the Portland International Film Festival under the guise that we’d cover it for the Talking to Ghosts podcast. And we covered the shit out of that festival. Like young, budding journalism students, we took our little special edition Field Note notebooks into the theater and wrote quick, squibbly notes in the lobby between showings. We drove all over town, watching four or sometimes five movies in an evening. Staying out late like we were being paid to do it. We took it seriously and we were well rewarded. We saw a lot of good films from a really impressive array of international creators. For a week and a half, we shuttled our broken bodies into small indie theaters around town to take in all we could. And it was great.

Sole, for example, which we saw at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry IMAX screen late one night was a movie from Russia filled with the most beautiful photographic style. Natural, pale colors told the story of this nearly silent and, still somehow, extremely tense film. It was long and the shots took their time, moving across the 79-foot screen below us.

Or This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection, which was a Lesotho film that was equal parts dark and surreal. The authenticity and the deeply different nature of the storytelling (and setting) made it such a wonderful thing to take in. It was uncomfortable and sad and, at times, exactly the kind of story you can feel deep inside the guilt of your own culture.

But we didn’t see everything. COVID broke out while we were in the theaters late at night, taxing our bodies, eating poorly. People were coughing next to us and it made watching films a much lower priority. We had to stop going out. Then the festival was put on hold. Then it was cancelled and all of our events were gone - and the big interview we’d scheduled was put on hiatus (We eventually did interview Jon Raymond, the writer of the A24/ Kelly Reichardt film First Cow).

There were so many films I didn’t get to see, even after they were reluctantly released digitally. So what follows is a reminder. Films I’ve flagged this year that I should have watched, but didn’t for a number of reasons. Some of them I know will be good, but sad. So I’ve kept them at a distance.

Kajillionaire, which is the new Miranda July film, was released digitally at some point this year. I meant to see it. I so loved her last novel, The First Bad Man, and had heard great things from The Film Comment Podcast about how strange, but poignant its message was.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a film by Eliza Hitman that I know will be good. I know it will be the kind of ruminating film I love. But I also know it will be sad and I didn’t think I could handle something so directly sad this year. It’s always been high on my list of things I should definitely, without a doubt, watch because I know that when I do I will be recommending it to people. But it never made it over the edge of how sad I think it will be.

Vitalina Varela by Pedro Costa was a film we were supposed to see on IMAX at OMSI during the film festival at the start of 2020. It’s told to be an extremely beautiful velvet painting of a movie. Looking back at the trailer now… it’s stunning. So dark and so well composed.

The Wild Goose Lake was one of the many films we had to make the tough call not to see as part of our limited viewing time at the festival. It was a safe bet that this film would be something we’d liked, but it was also a pretty safe bet that we’d be able to see it in the future on VOD. That being said - still looks dope. 10 out of 10, should’ve watched it.

Martin Eden, which is a film that got a lot of attention from reviewers and on The Film Comment Podcast, looks great. A Jack London story directly by Pietro Marcello that looks classically good. Looks like it was shot on film and I love it. I don’t want to dig too deep because I think it’s a movie that probably won’t surprise me (storywise), but will benefit from going in with some wonder.

Bacurau is another film I don’t want to know a whole lot about. I know it goes places. I know it is a little bit of a horror film and I know I rapidly scrolled by a lot of trusted friend’s glowing reviews this eyar. That’s it. Should’ve seen it. It’s from Brazil and was directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles.