Hella insights on how I got through these two shortlists for best foreign film

I don’t really circulate these much among my peers for proofs and edits, or feedback bc you can’t really criticize them.

It’s just like an archive, a bibliography, a works cited list. And you know how hard those are to put together? 

It’s just like busy work that you don’t have to do, bc I did it for you, so if you have anything against that then Idk what to say. 

Here we have two lists of foreign films that made Indiewire's shortlist for what they expected to be nominated for this years oscars, and then the revised official shortlist of foreign films from the academy itself. And from the outset, every list after Indiewire's shortlist is modified according to what I saw, what I couldn't find and couldn't see, what didn't make the official oscars shortlist, what I saw out of what did, what I saw out of what was added, and then finally the total seen out of that list.

Under every variation of each list, in which there are seven total, is information like where you can stream them for free, or rent. If I couldn’t find them streaming anywhere, I found what else you can stream by that director. Then if I couldn’t find either, I just said that without any further research. 

What made this difficult was when the official shortlist for this years best foreign film actually came out as I was working on the shortlist of predictions for that released by Indiewire. As a consequence, this went through several drafts, all while trying to figure out what my reasoning behind making this actually was, which I don't think I ever got, bc I don't think there was any. 

So in any case, let's just begin here w Indiewire's shortlist of predictions: 

Another Round (Prime rental 6.99)
Apples
Beginning (Mubi)
Charlatan
Collective (Early Access 6.99)
Dear Comrades (Hulu)
Hope
I’m No Longer Here (Netflix)
La Llorona (Shudder)
The Mole Agent (Hulu)
My Little Sister
Never Gonna Snow Again 
Notturno (Prime rental 4.99)
A Sun (Netflix)
Vitalena Varela (Prime rental 4.99)

Saw 10/15:

Vitalena Varela (Prime rental 4.99)
A Sun (Netflix)
Notturno (Prime rental 4.99)
The Mole Agent (Hulu)
La Llorona (Shudder)
I’m No Longer Here (Netflix)
Dear Comrades (Hulu)
Collective (Early Access 6.99)
Beginning (Mubi)
Another Round (Prime rental 6.99)

Takeaways:

I spent a total of 24.00 on this round of films. 

Another Round, and Vitalena Varela were in each of the last two essays I wrote about Indiewire's 50 best of 2020 list. Another Round was in the first one about movies I had seen. Vitalena Varela was in that one too, but I hadn't watched. I said I was gonna at the end, and then I think did that same night, as promised, and I wasn't crazy about it. 

Collective was also mentioned in the second article, but I didn't watch it until I saw it on this list. W this in mind, you can subtract 12.00 from the list of movies I rented making the only ones I rented Notturno, and Collective for a total of 12.00, which I could've saved another five from, had I waited for Notturno to come to Hulu. 

I almost spent more, and I would've if I hadn't found the The Mole Agent, and Dear Comrades was on Hulu. And again, I could've saved 5.00 if I would've waited for Notturno to come to Hulu. 

I watched I'm No Longer Here long before I saw any of these lists, and I was excited to see A Sun on Netflix, as well. And as another note on that, I gotta say they're 3/3 w movies that are 2 1/2 hrs long. I mean The Devil All the Time, Da 5 Bloods, and now this? Where I would say those were better, this one holds up. 

Didn’t see 5/15:

My Little Sister
Never Gonna Snow Again
Apples
Charlatan
Hope

Takeaways:

You can't find Hope, or anything by director Maria Sodahl. 

Charlatan is by Agnieska Holland, and you can find a lot of her movies on Amazon Prime. All I know of is the Secret Garden. I wasn't interested in watching any of them, but Mr Jones, and it's streaming for free on Hulu.

Can't find anything by the director of Apples, Christos Nikou. This is like his third movie, but I'm interested. Sounds like a protege of Yorgos Lanthimos.

This is awkward, bc My Little Sister wasn't available three weeks ago when I started drafting, but it is now on Prime and Vudu for 3.99, or one dollar more. I watched The Little Bedroom, which was all I could find by Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond. I think this is their second movie.

You can't find Never Gonna Snow Again anywhere other than through maybe virtual cinema, but you can find Body, Elles, and The Other Lamb on Prime. Body was meh. The Other Lamb looks good. I didn't see that before. Body is free through Mubi, and The Other Lamb is on Hulu. 

6/15 didn’t make it:

My Little Sister (Prime rental 3.99)
Never Gonna Snow Again
Apples
Vitalena Varela (Prime rental 4.99)
Notturno (Prime rental 4.99)(Hulu)
Beginning (Mubi)

Takeaways:

I didn't wanna talk about these movies, and I can't talk about the first three either way, but I can see why the last three didn't make it. 

Beginning, and Notturno probably had the best chance, but that's still hella wishful thinking, especially for the former. 

Saw 7/9 that did make it:

Hope
Charlatan
Another Round (Prime rental 6.99)
Collective (Early Access 6.99)
Dear Comrades (Hulu)
The Mole Agent (Hulu)
I’m No Longer Here (Netflix)
A Sun (Netflix)
La Llorona (Shudder)

Takeaways:

I talked about every one of these in someway, but La Llorona, and all I can say about that is it's good, but Idk if it's worth starting a trial for, but I would assume so if it's the only way I have of seeing it. 

Saw 2/6 added to that list of 9: 

Better Days (Prime rental 3.99)
Two of Us (Prime rental 6.99)
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Sun Children
The Man Who Sold his Skin
Night of the Kings 

Takeaways:

The two films added to this brought my rental total up to 35.00. 

The screening of the last one brings it to 42.00, but it's not worth listing where I saw it, bc it will probably be gone by the time you read this. It was a one week though, at the film forum.

The Miami Film Festival is also gonna be running a virtual screening of Sun Children on 3/9 if you wanna order tickets; looks good.

So I saw 10/15 from this official oscars shortlist for this year’s best international foreign film:

Dear Comrades (Hulu)
The Mole Agent (Hulu)
Two of Us (Prime rental 6.99)
Better Days (Prime rental 3.99)
A Sun (Netflix)
I’m No Longer Here (Netflix)
La Llorona (Shudder)
Collective (Early Access 6.99)
Another Round (Prime rental 6.99)
Night of the Kings

Takeaways:

This list isn't ranked for anything, other than the order I saw them in.

I don't think I can rank them. But I can say the most worthwhile rentals to me were probably the Collective, and Another Round. And the most rewatchable were probably Dear Comrades, The Mole Agent, and I'm No Longer Here.

Notice I don't mention any names of the directors of films I watched, or how I felt about them, and I think that's bc that, nor how I felt about it was as important to me as telling you how I got ahold of it, period.

And I think after this final revision, the purpose of this as a whole was to show you how I got through both lists, period.

So again, I hope if anything, this did just that. 

Hella can't figure out what movies I actually wanna watch outta this list

I thought I wanted to see these movies out of the remaining 19 from indiewires' fifty best of 2020 list. 

But the more I look at it, the more I realize I just made it for a movie meetup I was gonna have w a friend, or had w them. Now I feel different, and I wanna talk about why, and how those feelings changed or stayed the same for each, and every one out of these seven films that made it out of the list of nineteen.

But I also think the ones that didn’t make the cut were replaced by ones from the list of nineteen that didn’t make it originally, so to start I guess I could see what everything looked like at first, like that’s where I could start.

Still can’t stop feeling like I’m gonna have to talk about every single one to do this. Another thing is I have four lists; one is the nineteen remaining, two is the seven out of that list I wanna see, three is maybe three movies I can’t see, and then four is the movies I can’t, but also can’t see, but I actually do have something to say about each of those as well, so I think I could do that maybe.

Okay, so here goes lists one:

Nomad land
Da 5 bloods (netflix)
Mank (netflix)
Dick Johnson is dead (netflix)
Minari 
Promising Young Woman (19.99)
Collective (6.99)
The trial of the Chicago 7 (netflix)
David byrne’s American utopia (hbomax)
Soul
The whistlers (Hulu)
News of the world
Palm Springs (Hulu)
City Hall Borat subsequent moviefilm (amazon prime)
Undine
Ma Rainey’s black bottom (netflix)
Let them all talk (hbomax)
Emma (hbomax)

List two:

The whistlers (Hulu)
Palm Springs (Hulu)
Collective (6.99)
Promising young woman (19.99)
Dick Johnson is dead (netflix)
Emma (hbomax)
Let them all talk (hbomax)

List three:

Nomadland 
News of the world
Minari

List four:

The trial of the Chicago 7 (netflix)
David Byrnes America utopia (hbomax)
Soul
City hall
Borat subsequent moviefilm (amazon prime)
Undine
Ma Rainey’s black bottom (netflix)

Now where do we go from here?

Which list do I wanna start w of these three? I guess w the ones I don’t wanna see, bc that’s the closest to me atm. Then from there I could start w what’s staying the same:

Trial of the Chicago 7 looks boring to me. American utopia, bc it sounds like a musical, and I don’t like musicals. City hall, bc it’s four hrs long, but even if I wanted to watch it, I wouldn't know where to find it, so that’s a lost cause. Never seen any of the Borats, so I don’t have any context, and I don't want any. 

Let’s get into new additions to the list, so we can see what it looks like afterwards. No, first let’s get w what’s coming out of this list, and where it’s going:

Soul is going to the want to watch, but can’t watch list, bc it wasn’t like I never wanted to see it. I just couldn’t, bc I don’t have Disney plus, so it’s like a lost cause, unless someone wants to give me their password. 

Same goes for Undine, only there is no Disney plus option for this movie, let alone any streaming venue, except maybe one, but it seems sus, like it comes w commercials.

I think ma Rainey’s black bottom is going somewhere. Idk where, it might not go anywhere, bc I’m hella on the fence about it. And being on the fence about it, is probably like as good as being neither here or there about it, like take it or leave it. I’ll probably leave it. But it shouldn’t be in the don’t wanna see list, bc that's not the case. 

Now to get into movies that are being added to it, which will make up for some of the changes I’m making to the wanna see list:

News of the world was gonna go up to the wanna see, when I saw it was available for 19.99. I added it to the watch list and everything before I took it down after reading the synopsis. Idk, just not my thing. Paul greengrass, director of hella Bourne movies, I'm coo.

I'm taking Emma out. I don’t care about it. Never did, just thought the person I watched movies w would wanna see it, and they did. I mean they had already, and they didn’t like it. 

I keep trying to think I wanna see let them all talk, but I hella don’t; young man finds romance with a literary agent while taking a trip with the woman's famous aunt and her friends. W meryl streep, sounds like sideways, but it's probably hella good, and I’m missing out, but whatever.

Then from the overall list in general I’m adding mank to it, bc like borat, I have no context. It’s supposed to be like a prequel to citizen Kane,  and I’ve never seen it. 

So the list goes like this now:

Trial of the Chicago 7 (netflix)
David Byrnes American utopia (hbomax)
Mank (netflix)
News of the world (19.99)
City Hall
Borat subsequent moviefilm (amazon prime)
Let them all talk (hbomax)
Emma (hbomax)

Movies I wanna see but can’t goes like this:

Nomadland
Minari
Soul (Disney plus)
Undine (?)

And the movies I wanna see look like this:

The whistlers (Hulu)
Palm Springs (Hulu)
Collective (6.99)
Promising young woman (19.99)
Dick Johnson is dead (netflix)
Da 5 bloods (netflix)

But does it really? 

The more I look at this list the more I think I only wanna see like two movies out of it, especially since I didn’t watch any of them at my friends last night, which is what I made it for.

The only one out of it that came up as a prospect was the whistlers. The other two was from another list from another list of movies from 2020 I found through google, so I think I’m having an existential crisis over this list, bc I think I’m done w it.

Whistlers is about a group of assassins that travel to Romania to learn a language that’s just whistling. Am I really into those movies? They're hit, or miss, and amazon only gave it three and a half stars maybe. Maybe I'll end up watching it if I remember. I don't have a watchlist for hulu. The only watch list I look at is amazon prime's.

Palm Springs was the first, and only one out of this list I've watched so far. A movie about a couple strangers at a wedding in palm springs get trapped in an infinite time loop which causes them to go through the same day every day. I found it relatable, in that I feel like that's what I'm living in as well, but do I really need to be reminded of this by Andy Samberg? Posted the movie poster to stories w a caption over it reading, "relatable, and it wasn't bad, but I also didn't care."

Collective is probably on par w the whistlers, but documentaries are always a tossup to me, bc I don't necessarily like them, and I can't quite really remember the plot all that well. Let me look it up; Journalists uncover healthcare fraud in the wake of a fire in bucharest romania. This has the same odds of appealing to me as the whistlers for both of them taking place in romania, but I also find the odds of them confusing me the same too, being just as high. Maybe as high as the price to watch. Idk if 6.99 is worth being confused by.

Dick johnson is dead looks interesting. I think what makes it more appealing is it's free on netflix, but it also actually just sounds hella good, from the synopsis; director stages her father's oncoming death in inventive and comical ways to help her face the inevitable. Temples got warm just thinking about it, I'll probably hella watch it tbh, tonight maybe even

Originally in the list of movies I'm on the fence about, Idk if I'll ever watch da 5 bloods. Appealing to me for the same reason as the last, it's also directed by spike lee, and everyone says it's hella good. A movie about five guys getting dropped off somewhere to look for the remains of their fallen comrade, and the treasure he left hidden, the cast looks amazing, Idk actually. I think I'm in.

I was gonna say the more I look at this list the more I think I only wanna see a promising young woman, but the last two I discussed actually sound hella tight after going over them, so the one's that remain of the must see list go as such:

Promising young woman (19.99)
Dick Johnson is dead (netflix)
Da 5 bloods (netflix)

And the on the fence list now goes:

The whistlers (hulu)
Collective (6.99)
Ma Rainey's black bottom (netflix)

Looks like maybe the next, and last three I'm going to watch out of this list.

Hella trying to come up w a ranking order for the last 22 movies I saw I guess I

Two more hrs until this embarrassing story goes away that my crush didn’t even see. 

There’s nothing wrong w it. I’m just being critical of myself, and sometimes I don’t really have anything to say about these movies I’ve been watching. I just wanna post pictures of them, and be done w it, which I could do. 

But I’m hella committed to consistency, and I’ve been saying something marginal for every one. I could also keep a list of them to myself to keep track of everything I’ve seen. If you kept it in the right place it would be easier than keeping it in stories where you have to click into highlights to go over them, but Idk where the right place is, and I’ve been doing it this way for like the last few weeks. 

I was actually gonna do two things for that maybe; one would be doing something for me, and the other would be doing one of two things for the blog. 

The first is actually listing all the movies I’ve seen in the last few weeks here. The second could be done in the first by simultaneously making a note of the ones I either I had to pay, or start a seven day trial for. 

Then maybe go over every one of either my favorites, or the ones I had to pay, or start a seven day trial for, or do all those things at the same time, which is, or looks like what I’m kinda getting into now. 

Movie reviews feel so contrived to me though, especially ones done in an alternative way. I’ve done both, and they actually all look good in hindsight, but when you know what you’re doing as you’re doing it, it just becomes hella labor intensive, just for Idk, how self aware it is. 

Like that’s the hardest time I have w anything here mostly, the things I become all too self aware of, or the things that become all too aware of itself, but I think maybe I should do it if I’m already this far. 

One sec, lms how many there are. I’m back and forth between stories and this, so I’m just gonna list them first: 

Shirley (Hulu)

Bloody nose, empty pockets (amazon prime purchase .99)

The vast of night (amazon prime)

Bacurau (amazon prime purchase 4.99)

Little joe (Hulu)

First cow (showtime trial)

Another round (amazon prime purchase 6.99)

The devil all the time (netflix)

The nest (amazon prime purchase 4.99)

Never rarely sometimes always (hbomax)

Sound of metal (amazon prime)

Wolfwalkers (apple tv trial)

Young Ahmed (amazon prime purchase 4.99)

Invisible man (hbomax)

Time (amazon prime orig)

One night in Miami (amazon prime)

Fourteen (amazon prime purchase 4.99)

His house (netflix)

Sorry we missed you (amazon prime purchase 4.99)

She dies tomorrow (Hulu)

The possessor (amazon prime purchase 1.99)

The painter and the thief (Hulu)

Takeaways:

That was hard, making that list, and I don’t think the rental prices are accurate. 

But if they are I spent 40.00 in the last few weeks on amazon prime rentals, so I guess it’s good that I’m finding some way like this to commemorate it, but hold up. 

I hella wanna see if these prices are accurate. I gotta check my email for the receipts. No way possessor or what’s it called, Bloody nose empty pockets cost that much. 

What else are they saying? Young Ahmed - yup, I knew it. They hella raised their prices, or something. 

I’m glad I’m doing this for that reason. Bloody nose empty pockets was .99 to rent, Possessor was 1.99, and another round was actually 6.99. 

So I rented eight movies, and w these adjustments in price it costed less than 40.00 I think, or the same, no, Idk, one sec: 

5*5=25+10=35.00

So I’ve spent 35.00 on amazon rentals in the last few weeks: 

6.99 for another round was too much. A group of teachers trying to keep their bac at .05, it was good. Don’t get me wrong, but the whole time I was like I can’t believe I paid 7 for this, especially for the theme. I mean it slaps, but it’s hella stupid. 

.99 for bloody nose empty pockets was perfect for that price. I said in stories remember when Nathan fielder in Nathan for you filmed a nonsmoking bar to bypass the nonsmoking rule. Well this is exactly that. Only it’s not for that reason. They can smoke, it’s just the dives last day. I liked it, and I almost recommend, but only as long as you’re not paying, and if you have to don’t pay anymore than I did. 

1.99 was almost like underpaying for the possessor, but I’m not complaining. That shit was hella crazy, and I highly recommend even for the price it is now. An assassin takes the form of her bounty's acquaintances to make her kills, hell, I would pay 6, or 7 for it tbh. 

4.99 for each, Fourteen, and sorry we missed you is hella worth it if you wanna cry. 

Same for the nest honestly almost for the same reason, but more so cause it’s just hella crazy, period. 

4.99 for young Ahmed is too much. It's about a radical muslim that tries to kill his teacher. What’s happening in it is powerful, and the performance is somewhat, but it just wasn't enough to really move me to anything really. You could feel differently though, Idk what a better price would be, but 4.99 is too much. Same goes for bacurau, but then Idk if I’m giving any of this real thought though tbh 

I think I just hella liked what I liked, and the rest was more sorta like eh 

Like bacurau is hella tight, so was young Ahmed, but idk about 4.99 for each. You could almost easily put the nest, and another round in the same tier. So those four fall under that, five actually w bloody nose empty pockets. 

Then the remaining top tier would be fourteen, sorry we missed you, and friggin the possessor. 

But then how would you rank the former five from best to worst, like this? And this is almost losing track of everything I said so far. What’s at the fuckong top of this list? I blanked: 

The nest 

Bacurau

Another round 

Young Ahmed 

Bloody nose empty pockets 

And the middle three are just like hella interchangeable, like they’re not really all that much better, or worse than each other. Same list w the top tier entries included would be like:

Fourteen

Sorry we missed you

The possessor

The nest 

Bacurau

Another round 

Young Ahmed 

Bloody nose empty pockets 

The top three, except for possessor are interchangeable, but only w each other, and the point is all of them were good. So I would recommend looking into all of them if you at least don’t wanna pay the amount you see. They’re all worth watching. 

Damn, when did I start this shit? It’s been over an hr, and I haven’t even gotten into trial subs, Netflix, Hulu, and hbomax. 

It’ll be hella easy (it wasn't): 

First cow alone is a good reason to start a trial sub to showtime for. 

Wolfwalkers is too for Apple TV, but I would definitely look around for more content before ending it, or just have more in mind period before starting it, bc it’s really just a good animated feature for kids I guess. 

I think I have to just make a ranking list of all the free streaming content I saw going from best to worst, rather than going over every last one personally. This is hella hard within the confines of an email draft. I know there’s twelve left, the clock is ticking: 

Never rarely sometimes always (hbomax)

Sound of metal (amazon prime)

The devil all the time (netflix)

His house (netflix)

She dies tomorrow (Hulu)

Time (Amazon prime)

The painter and the thief (Hulu)

The vast of night (amazon prime)

One night in Miami (amazon prime)

Little joe (Hulu)

Invisible man (Hbomax)

Shirley (Hulu)

My top five hella checks out. Every one of the next five, except for time and little joe are interchangeable. Then I’m sticking w the last two

I think a solid conclusion would be to come up w just a ranking list of all of them, just cause I could hella see the top five up there in the mix w the top tier rentals, and seven day trial subs. 

But damn, that would take hella work i think, and I still have to watch kajillionaire (AP rental 5.99), Ammonite (AP rental 5.99), Vitalina varela (AP rental 3.99), and the assistant (Hulu or AP rental 3.99).

Damn, I should’ve waited till I watched those to start this. Until then, I would say this is tbc. It's been over two hrs since I started this, and the movie posts I made to stories are long gone by now.