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The Trial of the Chicago 7 8 Stars
Only two new movies watched this year. That's not necessarily a bad thing. (I've always been meaning to cut down on the amount of movies and TV I watch. It looks like all I needed was a baby.)
And, no doubt, the fact that almost nothing got released this year probably helped as well. (There are usually a few big movies each year that get so much hype that you feel like you have to see them. But not a lot this year.)
And, no doubt, the fact that almost nothing got released this year probably helped as well. (There are usually a few big movies each year that get so much hype that you feel like you have to see them. But not a lot this year.)
Well, with only 2 movies to choose from, I guess that makes my best and worst pretty easy to sort out.
The worst was Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker at 5 stars. That 5 stars is me being slightly generous. In terms of what a mess the story was, it's probably worse than 5 stars. But in terms of general watchability, it's still watchable, so 5 stars it is.
The worst was Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker at 5 stars. That 5 stars is me being slightly generous. In terms of what a mess the story was, it's probably worse than 5 stars. But in terms of general watchability, it's still watchable, so 5 stars it is.
The best movie was The Trial of the Chicago 7 . As I wrote in my review, I'm bit disappointed with some of the changes Sorkin made to the actual history. (I can understand the temptation Hollywood often has to make history more dramatic for entertainment purposes. But what purpose does it serve to take the actual history and make it less dramatic?) And yet, that classic Sorkin dialogue is a lot of fun, and this is a great courtroom drama. 8 stars.
Video version of this post HERE:
And a for all the video reviews of this 2020 movies, see this playlist here:
In addition, I re-watched 2 movies this year, and included them on my new Thoughts After Re-Watching Project:
* Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (This re-watch was obviously inspired by The Trial of the Chicago 7)
...but as these movies are re-watches, they're not eligible for my best or worst awards.
As far as TV shows, I didn't see anything new, but I re-watched the TV Mini-Series The Devil's Whore, partly (as I explained in my review) as part of my scripted review series, since I had written about this mini-series before in conjunction with two - books I had read on The Levellers.
And as far as Podcasts, Youtube series, and radio shows...
* And Hamilton (which I'm counting as a Youtube series, because all the clips I watched were off of Youtube).
I gave Hamilton a mixed review, but with the passage of time, I'm beginning to wonder if even that mixed review was too generous. In the months since, the criticism I've heard of this musical repeatedly is that it portrays Hamilton as an abolitionist, when in fact he was complicit in the institution of slavery.
Cynical Historian did a good video on Hamilton, in which he said that much of the problem is that the source material for the musical (Hamilton biography by Ron Chernow) was part of the neo-conservative Founders Chic movement, which sought to idolize the founding fathers in response to 1970s criticism of the founders.
Finally, as I posted back in April, during the time when Vietnam was in lockdown and everyone was stuck at home, I was occupying a lot of the time by listening to the French Revolution podcast by Mike Duncan. In fact I've been spending a lot of the past year dipping in and out of Mike Duncan's podcast until I finally decided to make a project of listening to it systematically.
From August I've been listening to The History of Rome podcast. I've actually listened through the whole thing once already (see my progress here), but my current rule with podcasts and audiobooks is that I try to listen through them 3 to 4 times before I attempt a review. (The theory being my attention can sometimes wander when I'm listening to audio, so I listen to it 3 to 4 times through to make sure I catch everything.) So The History of Rome review won't be until sometime in 2021.
From August I've been listening to The History of Rome podcast. I've actually listened through the whole thing once already (see my progress here), but my current rule with podcasts and audiobooks is that I try to listen through them 3 to 4 times before I attempt a review. (The theory being my attention can sometimes wander when I'm listening to audio, so I listen to it 3 to 4 times through to make sure I catch everything.) So The History of Rome review won't be until sometime in 2021.
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