by Sam Juliano
The Films of India polling was extended one final time until Friday, April 1st at 5:00 P.M. This coming Wednesday, I will be hosting my very first book signing and presentation, and it will be staged at the Fairview Public Library on Anderson Avenue. Meanwhile, I have returned to my manuscript for Irish Jesus in Fairview, which I will speak about on Wednesday at the event. Wishing our great friend Bill Kamberger emotional support on Tuesday, the day of the Florida service for his soulmate Dr. Guy Wolf.
Lucille and I attended a fabulous Sunday afternoon concert at the Avanel Performing Arts Center, near Woodbridge, where we again saw and heard Jimmy Webb sing and musically perform some of his signature numbers around humorous anecdotes, an opening act by young singer Pete Mancini and a brief tribute to Ukraine. “Didn’t We”, “Up and Away”, “Galveston”, “Witchita Lineman”, all received spirited ovations, though as always it was “MacArthur Park” that brought the house down. Webb explains that every show has a slightly different line-up, hence, two of his classics were MIA today – “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Worst That Could Happen.” This is the third time we witnessed Webb in the last four years.
The Oscar show resulted in not a single surprise or upset (not even one!), but of course was upstaged by that horrific physical altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock, which left millions of viewers shocked.
We finally watched King Richard, via streaming. Will Smith was quite good, but the film as a whole for me was “average.”
I finally posted my 2021 Best Films list this past week on FB. Here it is:
The Best Films of 2021
For the very first time since I have composed “Best of the Year” lists in the early 1970s, I have decided to do my presentation “alphabetical.” I opted for this not because I didn’t appreciate the drama of a ranked list, but rather because all of the films on this tidy dozen are pretty much equal in their excellence. I was saddened to leave off several other films, like “Bergman Island,” “Summer of Soul,” “A Hero,” “Tic Tic Boom,” “In the Heights,” “C’mon, C’mon” and “Get Back” among others, but twelve films seems a fine way to go about this. I do realize, as one close friend playfully chided me, that I am taking the coward’s way out, and perhaps down the road I can still try and rank this cream of the 2021 crop, but then again, I may leave things be. This is also the latest I have ever finalized a year-end list, but I wanted to make sure I watched all the essential pictures.
Annette (France) Leos Carax
Belfast (UK) Kenneth Branagh
CODA (USA) Sian Heder
Cyrano (USA) Joe Wright
Drive My Car (Japan) Ryusuke Hamaguchi
The Green Knight (USA) David Lowery
Licorice Pizza (USA) Paul Thomas Anderson
Spencer (UK) Pablo Larrain and Steven Knight
Summer of 85 (France) Francois Ozon
West Side Story (USA) Steven Spielberg)
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (Georgia/Germany) Alexandre Koberidze
The Worst Person in the World (Norway) Joaquim Trier