Month: December 2020

Books of 2020

This is a ranked list of the books I finished reading in 2020:

1. Middlemarch, George Eliot
2. Stoner, John Williams
3. The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
4. The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac
5. Train Dreams, Denis Johnson
6. The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark
7. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
8. Angels & Saints, Eliot Weinberger
9. Oranges, John McPhee
10. What Hath God Wrought, Daniel Walker Howe
11. A Distant Mirror, Barbara Tuchman
12. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Horace McCoy
13. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
14. A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf
15. Bartleby, the Scrivener, Herman Melville
16. Jesus’s Son, Denis Johnson
17. My Life in Middlemarch, Rebessa Mead
18. Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions, Stephen Teo
19. The Siamese Twin Mystery, Ellery Queen
20. Big Sur, Jack Kerouac
21. The Earth Dies Streaming, AS Hamrah
22. Highbrow/Lowbrow, Lawrence W. Levine
23. The Farthest Shore, Ursula K. Le Guin
24. Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann
25. Coming Into the Country, John McPhee
26. Thieves Like Us, Edward Anderson
27. Saga Book One, Brian K. Vaughn
28. Saga Book Two, Brian K. Vaughn
29. Saga Book Three, Brian K. Vaughn
30. The Pine Barrens, John McPhee
31. Complete Short Stories of Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald
32. Call for the Dead, John LeCarre
33. Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, Daniel Warren Johnson
34. Kingdom Come, Mark Waid
35. Bollywood: The Films! The Songs! The Stars!, Various Authors
36. The Mighty Thor, Vol 1, Walter Simonson
37. Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way, Ursula K. Le Guin
38. This Isn’t Happening, Stephen Hyden
39. All Star Superman Vol 1, Grant Morrison
40. All Star Superman Vol 2, Grant Morrison
41. Answers in the Form of Questions, Claire McNear
42. Batman Year One, Frank Miller
43. The Sprawl, Jason Diamond
44. The March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman
45. We’ve Got People, Ryan Grimm
46. Death in the Air, Agatha Christie
47. Batman: Arkham Asylum, Grant Morrison
48. A Murder of Quality, John LeCarre
49. No Time to Spare, Ursula K. Le Guin
50. Superman: Red Son, Mark Millar
51. Murder in Three Acts, Agatha Christie
52. Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn
53. Steering the Craft, Usula K. Le Guin
54. We3, Grant Morrison
55. Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Alan Moore
56. Slugfest, Reed Tucker
57. Montaigne: Philosopher of Life, Sarah Bakewell
58. Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury
59. Secrets of the Buzzer, Fritz Holznagel
60. More Sex, Better Zen, Faster Bullets, Stefan Hammond

And here are the books I’m still working on, in order of how long I’ve been reading them:

  1. Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon
  2. The Fourth World Omnibus, Jack Kirby
  3. The Path to Power, Robert Caro
  4. The Republic for Which it Stands, Richard White
  5. City of Quartz, Mike Davis
  6. Emerson: The Mind on Fire, Robert D. Richardson
  7. The History of Jazz, Ted Gioia
  8. Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
  9. Don Quixote, Cervantes
  10. Crabgrass Frontier, Kenneth T. Jackson
  11. American Renaissance, FO Matthiessen
  12. The Ramayana: A New Retelling, Linda Egenes & Kumuda Reddy
  13. James Joyce, Richard Ellman
  14. Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography, Jimmy McDonough
  15. Before the Storm, Rick Perlstein
  16. Debt: the First 5000 Years, David Graeber
  17. Crisis on Infinite Earths (plus Crossovers), Marv Wolfman, etc
  18. The Stand, Stephen King
  19. Bach: The Learned Musician, Christoph Wolff
  20. The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
  21. Ghosts of My Life, Mark Fisher
  22. Libra, Don DeLillo
  23. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

The Best Older Movies I Saw in 2020

An annual tradition here at The End, this is a look at my favorite film discoveries of the year, any movie more than a few years old that I saw for the first time in 2019. Previous years include: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006. I watched just over 275 films this year, almost a hundred of which qualified for this list. These are 75 of my favorites.

1. Mughal-e-Azam (K. Asif, 1960)
2. The Rocking Horsemen (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1992)
3. The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995)
4. Duvidha (Mani Kaul, 1973)
5. Real Life (Albert Brooks, 1979)
6. The Harder they Come (Perry Henzell, 1972)
7. Om Shanti Om (Farah Khan, 2007)
8. Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974)
9. Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957)
10. Original Cast Album: Company (DA Pennebaker, 1970)

11. Dil Se.. (Mani Ratnam, 1998)
12. Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Itō Shun’ya, 1972)
13. Welcome to LA (Alan Rudolph, 1976)
14. Eega (SS Rajamouli, 2012)
15. Lagaan (Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001)
16. Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Ford Coppola, 1986)
17. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)
18. Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May, 1976)
19. Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (V. Shantaram, 1955)
20. Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971)

21. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (Kundan Shah, 1994)
22. Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal (Hasebe Yasuharu, 1970)
23. Aag (Raj Kapoor, 1948)
24. Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Aditya Chopra, 1995)
25. Cageman (Jacob Cheung, 1992)
26. In Our Time (Edward Yang, Yi Chang, Ko I-Chen and Tao Te-Chen, 1982)
27. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Itō Shun’ya, 1972)
28. Mrs Parker & the Vicious Circle (Alan Rudoplh, 1994)
29. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983)
30. The Crazies (George A. Romero, 1973)

31. Deewar (Yash Chopra, 1975)
32. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (Dave Fleischer, 1936)
33. Tamasha (Imtiaz Ali, 2015)
34. Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (Hasebe Yasuharu, 1970)
35. Amrapali (Lekh Tandon, 1966)
36. Fan (Maneesh Sharma, 2015)
37. On the Run (Alfred Cheung, 1988)
38. Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975)
39. Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (Itō Shun’ya, 1973)
40. Deathdream (Bob Clark, 1974)

41. Main Hoon Na (Farah Khan, 2004)
42. Gangs (Lawrence Ah Mon, 1988)
43. Ram Jaane (Rajiv Mehra, 1995)
44. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Hammersmith Odeon, London ’75 (Derek Burbidge, 2005)
45. New Blood (Soi Cheang, 2002)
46. Devdas (PC Barua, 1936)
47. Ringu (Nakata Hideo, 1998)
48. Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (Hasebe Yasuharu, 1970)
49. Iron Angels (Teresa Woo, 1987)
50. Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995)

51. Enthiran (S. Shankar, 2010)
52. Wings for Wheels (Thom Zimny, 2005)
53. Dangal (Nitesh Tiwari, 2016)
54. Stray Cat Rock: Beat 71 (Fujita Toshiya, 1971)
55. Clash (Le Thanh Son, 2009)
56. Ordinary Heroes (Ann Hui, 1999)
57. Salem’s Lot (Tobe Hooper, 1979)
58. Who Killed Captain Alex? (Nabwana IGG, 2010)
59. The Delinquent (Kuei Chih-hung & Chang Cheh, 1973)
60. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Karan Johar, 1998)

61. Dream Home (Pang Ho-cheung, 2010)
62. Growing Up (Chen Kun-hou, 1983)
63. The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012)
64. Our Time Our Story (Hsiao Chu-Chen, 2002)
65. A Chinese Ghost Story II (Ching Siu-tung, 1990)
66. Happy New Year (Farah Khan, 2014)
67. A Christmas Story (Bob Clark, 1983)
68. Twilight (Robert Benton, 1998)
69. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (John Hancock, 1971)
70. Jackie Chan: My Stunts (Jackie Chan, 1999)

71. The Rebel (Charlie Nguyen, 2007)
72. The Iceman Cometh (Clarence Fok, 1989)
73. Friday the 13th (Sean S. Cunningham, 1980)
74. Love at Large (Alan Rudolph, 1990)
75. Sex and Zen (Michael Mak, 1991)

2020 Endy Awards

These are the 2020 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best movies, performances, etc of that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Rankings & Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Films are presented in alphabetical order, and the winners are in bold. As always the awards and nominees are subject to change as I watch more movies. And the Endy goes to. . .

Continue reading →