12 Years a Slave – Well, I always love a true story. This was one of my favorites, though at one point I couldn’t watch the flogging any longer, and yes I know the real people couldn’t turn away from the flogging. If I didn’t know there was a “happy” ending I might have given up.
In the Heat of the Night – I liked this one because it didn’t go where I expected. I expected the sheriff to be stubborn for much longer, but they had him grow earlier than I expected. And Sidney Poitier was so spectacularly cool. The plot? No idea. It all came down to something about abortion, but how the dead man connected to that I could not tell you. Also, I will never chew gum again.
Moonlight – This was lovely, and I don’t know if it belongs in the race category, really. Maybe it would fit in a poverty category. Or a “being authentic” category. Or a “recently eclipsed Academy Awards scandal” category. Somehow, though almost nothing happened, the pace didn’t bother me.
Here are my nine movies, ranked from most favorite to least favorite:
- No Country for Old Men
- 12 Years a Slave
- Patton
- Moonlight
- In the Heat of the Night
- Deer Hunter
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Bridge on the River Kwai
- All the King’s Men
I notice the correlation between the age and the rank.