As July begins, it’s a good time to look at the films that I have enjoyed in the first half of this year. Early in the year I start a private list in Letterboxd where I start adding favourite films for the year. At this point there are 7 films on the list: Claire Denis’ science fiction film High Life, Alex Ross Perry’s rock music character study Her Smell, Steven Soderbergh’s basketball drama High Flying Bird, Olivia Wilde’s winning comedy Booksmart, Jordan Peele’s unsettling Us, Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s musical short Anima.
Looking at the Letterboxd statistics I have watched 268 different films so far this year. Of those films 140 were directed or co-directed by women, so I am sticking with my goal to watch films directed by women at least half of the time I watch films.
The top five directors so far are Agnès Varda (14 films), Lisa Jackson (9 films), Chantal Akerman (4 films), Ruth Beckermann (4 films), and David Lynch (4 films).
With the film releases coming in the fall and the festival season approaching, there will be a lot more films added to my list, so it’s good to pause and look back at the first part of the year before the rush of more prestigious releases later in the year.
