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30 June 2019

NMW Mid-Year Review!

2019 has been a wacky year so far and I'm excited to see my stats. See, I keep track of everything I watch, which you may follow for some reason right here. This is more a personal feat than anything, but it's actually been surprising to put some hard data to trends both in what I've watched but how I've watched it. Television is basically non-existent as streaming has exploded over the past few years. See, I say this not as general prognostication, but actually reporting how I've consumed. So, let's take a halfway look:

Total Movies Watched: 112
First Time Viewings: 72 (65%)
Repeat Viewings: 39 (35%)

How does this compare with the last few years? Well, at the mid-point in 2018 I had 127 movies, which is a 12.5% decline. This is actually impressive - I felt I was chasing so many movies in 2018 that I really lost time for anything else and was needlessly stressed. 2019 has felt much healthier, but the numbers aren't down all that much. In fact, I hit 112 by this time in 2017, which...holy shit in a handbasket.

My new viewings in 2017 was 58 (52%), while 2018 was 83 (65%). So, as you can see, even though my first time viewings are down in number from last year, I'm actually right on the money in terms of percentages.

Here is a breakdown by media:

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MediaNumberPercentage
Netflix Streaming4540%
Netflix DVD2119%
Hulu1715%
DVD109%
TV55%
Delta Airlines44%
Theater44%
YouTube33%
Google Play11%
Redbox DVD11%
Kanopy11%

My total streaming is actually down 4% from last year, which was surprising. Everything else is pretty stable, except my Theater viewings actually suck. I've watched as many movies in the theater as I've seen movies on airplanes this year. That is not good. See, that's why we do this - I need to get off my ass more in the second half of the year.


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YearNumberPercentage
1940s11%
1960s22%
1970s22%
1980s65%
1990s1614%
2000s1816%
2010s6760%

So last year I made a huge effort to watch a film from every year 1970-2018. That turned exhausting so I gave it up. It shows. I've actually seen more 90s movies, and real old films are comparable to years past (still crazy low), but my 60% 2010s is an 11% increase from this time last year. When looking at movies for the past two years, my number has gone up from 31% to 48%.

Is that a bad thing? Being more up to date with modern cinema? Maybe. I'd like to increase my older viewership, but the catch is that as years actually progress it's harder to find old movies I haven't seen. They aren't exactly making new movies from the 1970s. I've sniffed out some classics like Logan's Run (1976) this year and there are still others I could find. This is perhaps just all an excuse to watch newer movies instead. It's an eternal debate. What do you think?

Lastly, we've gotten into a habit of ranking all the movies I've seen in the Calendar year for the first time. This disregards any kind of actual release date, but simply the best I've personally seen. I always think these lists are fun for maybe introducing a hidden gem I missed years ago or re-discovery of a classic.

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NameYearRank
American Animals201810
Cool Hand Luke19679
Godzilla: King of the Monsters20198
The Perfection20197
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote20196
Revenge20185
The Clovehitch Killer20184
Free Solo20183
In the Loop20092
Assassination Nation20181
Alright - two things. First, a product of 48% of new movies watched so far this year bent this list HEAVY towards 2018 and 2019 releases. What's the point, man? Second, without totally realizing it I kind of got into rape revenge fantasy thrillers I guess? The Perfection, Revenge, Assassination Nation (kind of). All three were really captivating, interesting movies that stayed with me for a long time. That's good, but now I'm wondering if we can have some women stories that aren't exploitative? I narrowly left out Support the Girls (2018), which was also fantastic.

2019 Movies so Far:

I haven't seen a ton of 2019 movies. I'm pretty reliant on Netflix DVD service and will crank a lot of them out by year's end. But here's a Top Ten so far:

Actually, screw it, I've only seen fourteen 2019 movies. Just wait until December, folks.

What about the worst movies?!

There are some clear candidates. Polar (2018) was really wretched in all the worst ways with a plot that made no sense but tried so hard to be cool and edgy. I watched Exposed (2016) because I was excited about everyone in the cast but it was so boring I literally forgot that I had actually watched it and almost put it my queue again. I also crushed some truly terrible comedies. That's what I get for giving movies a chance and trying to understand if they're actually underrated gems. No, there's a reason why everyone hates Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) and In the Army Now (1994). There's more to suss out what exactly makes these movies terrible and other Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler comedies great, but I have yet to pin that down.

And that's it for 2019! The first half! What have you seen this year?! It's clear I have a little course correcting to do, but the rest of the year will be a good one! Maybe.

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