One find from last year was something I've been meaning to find for a long time and just never got around to it.

Years ago I listened to the Catholic Author series on EWTN and one of the authors they talked about was Edwin O'Connor. I had meant to read The Last Hurrah, but somebody in our book club suggested Edge of Sadness and I'm really glad they did. Eventually I realized that it was the novel about a priest that Sally had recommended so highly on her blog. I wish I could find her post, but there's not search function.

It is a very excellent novel about a priest in Boston who, after having been a very successful parish priest, succumbs to alcoholism. The book begins after his recovery when he goes to his new parish which in many ways is like the parish where I work. He is summoned by a rich businessman and slumlord whose son is a brother priest and close friend, and he finds himself an unwilling favorite of the man. I wish I could describe it better, but I can't write very well in these boxes.

I also read The Last Hurrah which is about the mayor of a city like Boston--a political boss--and his campaign for re-election. I liked it, although not as much as The Edge of Sadness, and as our presidential campaign progressed, it became even more interesting in retrospect.

AMDG

At first glance I thought this guy was referring to Flannery O'Conner as "forgotten" and thought "things are worse than I thought".

Isn't there a movie of The Last Hurrah? Pre-1960?

Does favorites of the year mean that the book, movie, album etc. was released in 2016, or just that during that calendar year I was impressed by it and wish to share my joy? So it could be Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart, for instance.

Yeah, that's what I had in mind: either something that came out in 2016 that was a fave of the year, or something you encountered for the first time in 2016 that you really enjoyed.

"I do like heavy drama more than any other genre of movie"

Then don't miss Fences, Stu. I think it's even better than Manchester (which I liked a lot).

!

I do also want to see Fences. Have been meaning to go, but so far things have come up. Perhaps this weekend!

I amchanging my monicker

In 2016 I finally got round to watching Gone with the Wind. I might be the only person here not to have seen it earlier. Oh, and Half of a Yellow Sun, which I think came out in 2013. Both of them on a small screen. Arrival is a 2016 film, but I only saw it last week.

The best film I saw in the cinema in 2016 must have been Our Little Sister (trailer here). Three grown-up sisters, still sharing their parental home, hear that the father they haven’t seen for fifteen years has died. At his funeral they meet their orphaned teenaged half-sister for the first time, and unexpectedly invite her to move in with them. The rest of the film traces the first year of their new life together. There are some stunningly beautiful shots of the passing of the seasons and of small-town Japan. The characters and the story mostly develop by indirect revelations, small shared joys and crises, and meaningful looks and gestures. It would be possible to watch the surface of the film and just think it was very feel-good and pretty, but thinking through the implications of so much that is left unsaid touches on all sorts of very deep emotions. Like a lot of films these days, it’s inspired by a cartoon – the graphic novel Umimachi Diary – but it’s certainly more worth watching than Spiderman or X-Men.

As to books, nothing really comes to mind. I must have read something last year, but I can't think what.

I am really sorry to hear that, V.Grumpy.

AMDG

Sorry to hear about your mishap, VG!

For music, Nena's Oldschool and The Mountain Goats' Beat the Champ (both released 2015).

Listened to the other two now. I like both of them. I have a whole lot of ambient music, including an embarrassing number of recordings of Hearts of Space programs, and on this hearing Slow Meadow doesn't seem much different from many others.

I've not heard of Bloodline but it sounds very intriguing.

I must be hearing the wrong sort of ambient music. Much of what I've heard tends to be mostly chord progressions that don't really go anywhere, and without much by way of melody.

Ambient is a huge category, which is a little odd considering that it's almost by definition somewhat monotonous. Eno's Music for Airports is the prototype, and he has a well-known definition of ambient along the lines of "both ignorable and listenable." Slow Meadow may not fit exactly. I'll listen to that track again but my first reaction was "Sounds like something I would hear on Hearts of Space". (If I still listened to it--haven't for a long time.) Most of what I like best is, for lack of a better word, weirder. More other-worldly.

The acting in Bloodline is mostly first-rate. I can't remember whether I mentioned this when I wrote about seeing the recent Star Wars: when the new villain appeared (not a new Darth Vader but just a regular human, in charge of building the death star), I kept thinking he looked familiar. Finally it hit me that he is Danny in Bloodline, the central problem of the problem family. Ben Mendelsohn is the actor's name and he is *really* good.

I listened to it again, this time sitting and paying close attention. It really is beautiful. I'd say it fits into the general classification of "ambient," which maybe is a bit broader in my mind than in yours. And it fits right in with Hearts of Space.

It made me think of Hammock, and it turns out the guy who is Slow Meadow is associated with that group and label:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Meadow

Im going to cheat a bit and mention a few things that came out in 2015, because I am thinking of academic year 2015-2016, and interpreting that quite broadly.

I enjoyed The Remnant, the famous movie with the bear attack in it. Its quite surreal in parts, but still despite that the plot holds together and its a deep movie about resurrection and rebirth. I saw that one in New York, perhaps around Christmas time 2015.

I am surprised no one has mentioned Brooklyn. This is a great movie about an Irish girl who moves to America, about her nostalgia for the home country but resolve to make a new life and a marriage in this strange place, America. I think I saw that in mid winter 2016, also in New York. Very strongly recommended if you have not seen it.

Back in South Bend, in August, still with a broken foot I saw Son of Saul. This a movie about a few days in the life of a Capo in a concentration camp. It is a very nauseating movie, because of the 'hand held camera' effect. I felt physically shaken for several weeks afterwards. As he is dragging the dead bodies out of the ovens, the protagonist, Saul, sees a body which he decides is that of his son. He tries to get a rabbi to take appropriate funeral measures. By far the most depressing movie I've ever seen. I'm loathe to apply any aesthetic judgement to it. Years ago I would have said with some moral certainty that such things should not be shown. I do not know what I think any longer. If Schindler, why not Saul? I would not willingly put anyone through this movie.

Later, after my foot had healed, I drove to the theatre (something of a triumph if you have not been able to drive for several months with a broken foot), and saw the new Mel Gibson film, Hacksaw Ridge. I thought it was really top class, very moral, and underpinned by a beautiful love story. All about sacrifice, which is Gibson's basic theme in all his films.

So this is why I'm not going to see 'Silence'. I have read the book, and I have my opinions, and I'm open to changing those opinions. But I cannot take any more extreme violent movies in one year after The Remnant, Son of Saul and Hacksaw Ridge. Basta.

Later still, I saw Manchester by the Sea (I was going to call it Manchester beach but I checked). It is not as depressing as John Podhoretz says, if you happen to have read his reviews in Commentary and the Weekly Standard. One death occurs at the beginning of the film, but the body cannot be interred because the ground has frozen. At the end of the film, the burial takes place, because the ground has warmed enough to dig. This detail must in some way indicate some small change in the soul of the protagonist. Yes, that chap is pretty depressed throughout the movie, and while the ending could not be called 'up beat', still, the protagonist is moving toward doing the best he could for others in the last reel.

I didn't read any great books.

The new music I most enjoyed during this year was two CDs by Michael Kiwanuka, called Home Again and Love and Hate. This is very good 'listening to in the car music'. Unfortunately, I cannot drive my car for the forseeable future, but still, I do recommend these CDs to anyone in a fit state to drive a motor vehicle. It is like 21st century Marvin Gaye, if that comparison means anything to you.

The TV films that I saw have already been discussed pretty much here. The River was good, and so was the second season of Broadchurch. To me, the most gripping series I've watched since the end of Breaking Bad is The Americans. I'm looking forward to that re-starting. I was pleasantly surprised by how good 'Better Call Saul' turns out to be.

I intended to watch Stranger Things but people kept saying what a great parody of 80s TV it is, and given that I watched almost no TV in the 1980s (except for my favourite, Hill street Blues), I found that an anti-motivant. In the 1980s I sometimes didn't have a TV for years on end, and honestly I think I'm going to miss the joke.

Oh, it's good without the 80s connection. Just understand that when it seems hokey, that's why.

AMDG

I've been assuming that Silence is not showing here so the question would be moot for me until it comes out on dvd. I just checked the two nearest theaters and my assumption seems to be correct. I'm not necessarily opposed to seeing it but I'm the sort who always wants to have read the book first, and although I've been hearing for 30+ years that it's a very good book I've never much wanted to read it.

I had only vaguely heard of Son of Saul but I will certainly heed your warning, VG.

You definitely don't need the '80s connection to enjoy Stranger Things. To me the only effect of that was a vague sense that there was something a bit out of time about it. It's a good story independently of that.

Funny you mention The Americans. I just got up from watching four episodes this evening. (Not quite as bad as it sounds as they're only 40-50 minutes long.) My wife and I watched the first two seasons and weren't that crazy about it, so didn't watch the third. But one night a week or so ago we were out of short things to watch (1 hour or less) and decided to give the third season a shot. Now we're hooked. It seems considerably more interesting now, and we're into season 4.

Thank you Marianne.

I will give Stranger Things a shot

I read Silence about a year or so ago. It was one of the hardest reads I've ever had. I didn't exactly thin it was bad or heretical or something, but it certainly was agonizing. I don't want to go through that again, especially visually. Also, I don't do extremely violent movies.

Here is Greydanus's take. He's basically sympathetic. Bp. Barron, as Graydanus points out, not so much.

The Martha thread was one of the saddest things I ever watched. I know it feels very unbelievable. But I read an interview with the actress who plays Martha. She said she read up the background and this did happen to some women who worked for the US government in the 70s and 80s. She said that some commit suicide when they learn how they had been double crossed by these Russian agents who had been their boyfriends ir husbands

Of course Imesnt to write, 'when they bring in the daughtet'! People just kniw viscerally that its wrong to interfere in the family in this way

My point is that I couldn't 'suspend disbelief' after the first episode. And it could be I'm mistaken. But I think it was an error on the producers' part.

"It made me think of Hammock, and it turns out the guy who is Slow Meadow is associated with that group and label"

Yes, that's how I first heard of it. It popped up on Amazon when I ordered the most recent Hammock disc. My next group of this general sort to try is "This Will Destroy You." I get the impression that they're sort of like Sigur Ros without vocals.

VG, now that I think about it, the Martha plot may have been part of the reason why I didn't initially want to continue after season 2. It was just too painful to watch, and seemed like it could only get more so. But that wasn't what I was thinking of regarding the suspension of disbelief. I did think the basic thing was believable. What I keep having trouble with is the idea that Phillip & Elizabeth could keep all these crazy balls in the air while having an apparently normal family life and running a travel agency. Not to mention the murders which must be in the double digits now, but never seem to arouse any great consternation in the world at large. You just have to ignore those aspects. Yes, I thought you meant the daughter earlier. That definitely ratcheted up the interest level.

I remember when To Serve Them was on tv, but I didn't see it. Didn't think it seemed that interesting, as I recall, but sounds like I might have been mistaken.

Not only too much, but just too implausible. I regret to say that I'm one of those tiresome people who have a hard time suppressing observations about physical impossibilities. But I usually succeed.

The discussion of Making of A Murderer reminds me of a line from a movie that I mostly hated, that bit of baby-boomer narcissism from the early '80s...what was it called?...aging leftists confronting their middle-aged compromises. Anyway, one of the women, who had gotten a law degree with the intent of helping poor people accused of crimes, laments of her clients that she "hadn't realized how guilty they would be." I wonder if this guy is the beneficiary (as far as the documentary's sympathies go) of a similar wish not to believe that a criminal has been justly punished.

Boys often do cruel things and grow up to be normal decent people. But dousing a cat with petrol and setting it afire is definitely beyond the normal. Without knowing anything about the series or the crimes that it describes, I'd agree that it's not entirely honest to gloss over that incident.

I enjoyed The Big Chill. It has a great soundtrack.

Cat was a family pet. It wasn't some stray cat who came along it was a cat he knew

I wrote at some length about my favourite movies in 2016 here. The brief version is roughly: Brooklyn (seconding VG), Stations of the Cross, Knight of Cups, Love & Friendship, La Sapienza, and The Witch, with a few others thrown in to round out a top 10.

Just recently I was able to see La La Land, and I have to say that even with my jazz allergy I loved it.

I meant to link to your best-ofs earlier, Craig.

Feeling that they need to be seen in the cinema is the reason why I've seen so few of Malick's movies. I saw Tree of Life once and that's it for his more recent work. Now that I have a flat-screen tv maybe I should give one a try.

I remember telling a friend about To Serve Them All My Days after I read it the first time some 20 years ago: "Imagine if Galsworthy had written Goodbye Mr. Chips..."

(Although that's not strictly accurate, as Delderfield's a better read imo than Galsworthy, whom I find a bit tiresome and stuffy. Goodbye Mr. Chips, on the other hand, is excellent.)

Saw Hidden Figures the other night. That was very entertaining, and in places quite gripping.

Rob G I was telling someone about the TV series at the weekend and he said I must waych Goodbye Mr Chips. I have not seen this one

I just watched Mr Chips with Robert Donat. That is the one I was told to watch. Its very emotional as a film.

I heard of that one as a child. That's why I've never seen the movie. I hate musicals. I didn't realize it was a non-musical version until I saw it tonight

I don't think I've ever read at that rate. I would have had to have nothing else whatever that I was obliged to do.

I love the Solaris soundtrack. You sent me a copy several years ago, because it was out of print, and I've really enjoyed it. I actually have Riceboy Sleeps but have never listened to it.

A lot of the ambient I like sort of stretches the definition of music. It's all atmosphere. Like Eno said, you can just let it be wallpaper, yet if you pay attention you hear lots of changing details. Like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOc42jPXa0I

In a little while I'm going to watch the last two episodes of season 4 of The Americans. There's going to be a season 5 so I know this won't resolve much, if anything. However, for the record: this is a bit like Breaking Bad, in that you really want to see the main character(s) get caught, even as you sympathize with them. I'm going to be disappointed if, when the whole series ends, Phillip and Elizabeth are not in jail.

Plausible.

That season finale was rather a letdown.