Film and Book Tally 2015

Man, where the hell did this year go? Felt like it just started. Anyway, I managed to stay true to my word about watching more movies and reading more books. (Not so much in regards with getting a job.) The lists start after the jump. (Believe me, I saw and read a lot this year.) Oh, and also resolutions for 2016.

1. Dead Poets Society (1989, dir. Peter Weir)
2. Carnal Knowledge (1971, dir. Mike Nichols)
3. Brighton Rock (1947, dir. John Boulting)
4. The Americanization of Emily (1964, dir. Arthur Hiller)
5. Baby Doll (1956, dir. Elia Kazan)
6. Synecdoche, New York (2008, dir. Charlie Kaufman)
7. Dark Passage (1947, dir. Delmar Daves)
8. Boys Town (1938, dir. Norman Taurog)
9. The Tarnished Angels (1957, dir. Douglas Sirk)
10. Selma (2014, dir. Ava DuVernay)
11. Inherent Vice (2014, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
12. Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971, dir. John Schlesinger)
13. Cleo from 5 to 7 (1961, dir. Agnès Varda)
14. Safe (1995, dir. Todd Haynes)
15. Foreign Correspondent (1940, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
16. After the Wedding (2006, dir. Susanne Bier)
17. The Guest (2014, dir. Adam Wingard)
18. Dark Victory (1939, dir. Edmund Goulding)
19. American Sniper (2014, dir. Clint Eastwood)
20. Dear White People (2014, dir. Justin Simien)
21. Mr. Turner (2014, dir. Mike Leigh)
22. Morvern Callar (2002, dir. Lynne Ramsay)
23. Tom at the Farm (2013, dir. Xavier Dolan)
24. Lilting (2014, dir. Hong Khaou)
25. Red Road (2006, dir. Andrea Arnold)
26. The Damned United (2009, dir. Tom Hooper)
27. Maurice (1987, dir. James Ivory)
28. The Fisher King (1991, dir. Terry Gilliam)
29. Shadowlands (1993, dir. Richard Attenborough)
30. '71 (2015, dir. Yann Demange
31. Mommy (2015, dir. Xavier Dolan)
32. A Most Violent Year (2014, dir. J.C. Chandor)
33. Still Alice (2014, dir. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland)
34. Clouds of Sils Maria (2015, dir. Olivier Assayas)
35. Ex Machina (2015, dir. Alex Garland)
36. The Immigrant (2014, dir. James Grey)
37. Far from the Madding Crowd (2015, dir. Thomas Vinterberg)
38. Saint Laurent (2015, dir. Bertrand Bonello)
39. I'll See You in My Dreams (2015, dir. Brett Haley)
40. Inside Out (2015, dir. Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen)
41. Testament of Youth (2015, dir. James Kent)
42. The Informant! (2009, dir. Steven Soderbergh)
43. Mr. Holmes (2015, dir. Bill Condon)
44. Infinitely Polar Bear (2015, dir. Maya Forbes)
45. Love and Mercy (2015, dir. Bill Pohlad)
46. Tommy (1975, dir. Ken Russell)
47. Stromboli (1950, dir. Roberto Rossellini)
48. People Places Things (2015, dir. James C. Strouse)
49. The End of the Tour (2015, dir. James Ponsoldt)
50. The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015, dir. Marielle Heller)
51. Mistress America (2015, dir. Noah Baumbach)
52. Ricki and the Flash (2015, dir. Jonathan Demme)
53. Grandma (2015, dir. Paul Weitz)
54. Phoenix (2015, dir. Christian Petzhold)
55. Black Mass (2015, dir. Scott Cooper)
56. Pawn Sacrifice (2015, dir. Edward Zwick)
57. Sicario (2015, dir. Denis Villenuve)
58. Bridge of Spies (2015, dir. Steven Spielberg)
59. The Martian (2015, dir. Ridley Scott)
60. 45 Years (2015, dir. Andrew Haigh)
61. Brooklyn (2015, dir. John Crowley)
62. I Saw the Light (2015, dir. Marc Abraham)
63. Son of Saul (2015, dir. László Nemes)
64. Crimson Peak (2015, dir. Guillermo del Toro)
65. The Birds (1963, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
66. Scarlet Street (1945, dir. Fritz Lang)
67. Ship of Fools (1965, dir. Stanley Kramer)
68. Steve Jobs (2015, dir. Danny Boyle)
69. Suffragette (2015, dir. Sarah Gavron)
70. Experimenter (2015, dir. Michael Almereyda)
71. Labyrinth of Lies (2015, dir. Giulio Ricciarelli)
72. Spotlight (2015, dir. Tom McCarthy)
73. Room (2015, dir. Lenny Abrahamson)
74. Leave Her to Heaven (1945, dir. John M. Stahl)
75. The Glass Key (1942, dir. Stuart Heisler)
76. Side Street (1950, dir. Anthony Mann)
77. Detour (1945, dir. Edgar G. Ulmer)
78. Kiss of Death (1947, dir. Henry Hathaway)
79. Sorry, Wrong Number (1949, dir. Anatole Litvak)
80. Dial M for Murder (1954, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
81. A Hard Day's Night (1964, dir. Richard Lester)
82. Trumbo (2015, dir. Jay Roach)
83. Creed (2015, dir. Ryan Coogler)
84. To Catch a Thief (1955, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
85. Stella Dallas (1937, dir. King Vidor)
86. A Christmas Story (1983, dir. Bob Clark)
87. In the Heart of the Sea (2015, dir. Ron Howard)
88. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015, dir. J.J. Abrams)
89. Macbeth (2015, dir. Justin Kurzel)
90. Burning Man (2011, dir. Jonathan Teplitzky)
91. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, dir. George Miller)
92. The Bishop's Wife (1947, dir. Henry Koster)
93. Monsieur Verdoux (1947, Charlie Chaplin)
94. What We Do in the Shadows (2015, dir. Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi)
95. The Danish Girl (2015, dir. Tom Hooper)
96. Youth (2015, dir. Paolo Sorrentino)
97. Carol (2015, dir. Todd Haynes)
98. Tangerine (2015, dir. Sean Baker)

Hmm, only eight of those titles were directed by women. (Granted, a lot of what I saw were about women but it's not generally the same thing, is it?) Fortunately I plan to resolve that in the coming year with the 52 Films By Women project. And of course, there's the strong possibility that I'll be seeing more than just fifty-two lady-directed movies.

Oh, and I'll also be participating in the Blind Spot Series hosted by The Matinee. Here's what I'm hoping to watch for the first time in 2016:

1. City Lights (1931, dir. Charlie Chaplin)
2. My Darling Clementine (1946, dir. John Ford)
3. An American in Paris (1951, dir. Vincente Minnelli
4. The Devils (1971, dir. Ken Russell)
5. Amacord (1973, dir. Federico Fellini)
6. Barry Lyndon (1975, dir. Stanley Kubrick)
7. Eraserhead (1977, dir. David Lynch)
8. Poltergeist (1982, dir. Tobe Hooper)
9. Gremlins (1984, dir. Joe Dante)
10. Heathers (1989, dir. Michael Lehmann)
11. Three Colors trilogy (1993-1994, dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski)
12. Clueless (1995, dir. Amy Heckerling)

Anyway, onward with the books!

1. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
2. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
3. The World in the Evening by Christopher Isherwood
4. Missing Reels by Farran Smith Nehme
5. Stoner by John Williams
6. The Other Woman by Rona Joffe
7. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
8. Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick
9. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
10. Tampa by Alissa Nutting
11. Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham
12. 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino
13. Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
14. The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
15. The Liar by Stephen Fry
16. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
17. The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal
18. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
19. The Sherlockian by Graham Moore
20. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
21. The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson
22. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
23. Tommy's Tale by Alan Cumming
24. Maurice by E.M. Forster
25. Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood
26. The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
27. This Is the Life by Alex Shearer
28. The Wife, the Maid and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon
29. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
30. Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters
31. Still Alice by Lisa Genova
32. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
33. The Memorial by Christopher Isherwood
34. An Adultery by Alexander Theroux
35. Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
36. A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin
37. Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates
38. Malcolm by James Purdy
39. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
40. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
41. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallave
42. Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill
43. The Martian by Andy Weir
44. The Story of a Marriage Andrew Sean Greer
45. A Special Providence by Richard Yates
46. The Hottest State by Ethan Hawke
47. The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
48. Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
49. Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter
50. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
51. Room by Emma Donoghue
52. Mr. White's Confession by Robert Clark
53. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
54. In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
55. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
56. A Meeting by the River by Christopher Isherwood
57. The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
58. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

Okay, this time it's fifteen titles with women at the helm. Better but still not good enough. Hence why many (if not all) of the books I plan to read in the coming year will be written by women. Jane Austen, Gillian Flynn, Lisa Genova, Sarah Waters...just a small sample of some of the authors I plan to further indulge in.

Also, somewhat weird observation. A lot of the movies and books I encountered this year involve sexual discovery and/or have an LGBT element to it (whether it's the director/author or the subject matter). I think my subconscious is trying to tell me something...