Another year behind us and another year of films to look
forward to, but let’s not close the book on 2015 just yet. The movie industry
certainly won’t be doing that as it spends the next two months reflecting on
the best the year that was had to offer, all leading up to the Academy Awards
at the end of February. At Last Cinema Standing, I like to take just a week to
remember some of the best – and a few of the worst – films, performances, and
moments from the last 12 months.
It has been a year of change at Last Cinema Standing, pretty
much all of it positive. Back in January, I launched a redesign of the site,
which has gotten a lot of positive feedback. In February, I introduced the
Countdown to the Oscars, which drew the most reads the site has ever gotten. In
fact, in the seven years since I founded this site, 2015 was the best year yet
for overall readership.
In 2015, Last Cinema Standing featured more content than
ever before with 40 new film reviews, extensive coverage of Q-and-A’s with some
of the biggest names in Hollywood, and the kind of film and industry analysis
that hopefully makes this site a unique and valuable destination for readers. I
hope to deliver even more content in 2016, but my focus will remain – as it always
has – on quality.
I started this site because I love thinking about, talking
about, and writing about film and not in a perfunctory way. I take film as an
art form seriously, and my goal is for Last Cinema Standing to stand out
because of the depth of discussion it hopefully fosters. I do not write
quick-hit pieces or click-bait articles just to draw eyes to the page, and I
never will. Readers can get that elsewhere. The people who come to Last Cinema
Standing deserve a different cinema experience on the web, and every day, that
is what I seek to deliver.
None of this exists without you, the readers, though. I
would go to the movies anyway, but knowing I have a place to come to discuss
what I watched with an intelligent, interested, like-minded group of people
makes it all worth it. I have a day job and a life outside of movies, but I do
this because I love it, and one of the reasons I love it is because readers
seem to enjoy it. So, thank you, readers, for making this site one of my
favorite things to work on day in and day out.
So, what interested you in 2015? A lot, it turns out. This
year, Last Cinema Standing introduced contributor Sean Patrick Leydon and his Now Watch This column, a guide to the obscure treasures hiding on Netflix
Instantwatch. That column proved incredibly popular, and we hope to bring you
even more of it this year.
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| Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, Greta Gerwig, and Kevin Corrigan |
The most read stories of the year were Sean’s piece on
writer-director Rian Johnson’s excellent The Brothers Bloom, my coverage of a Q-and-A with The Tribe writer-director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky and star Yana
Novikova at the Film Forum, and my piece on writer-actress Greta Gerwig’s double-feature presentation of her Mistress
America and director Jonathan Demme’s classic Something Wild at the IFC Center.
Topping all of that, however, was a Q-and-A with
writer-director Andrew Bujalski and stars Guy Pearce and Kevin Corrigan, who
were at the IFC Center to discuss their new film Results. The success of the piece – the second-most popular article
in the site’s history – was due in no small part to Corrigan’s help promoting
it on social media, so a special thanks to him. He is truly one of the good
guys in the business.
The mantra for 2016 is more of everything – more reviews,
more events, more industry columns. Last Cinema Standing has certainly proven
to be an “if you build it, they will come” venture, and as long as that remains
true, my promise is to continue building this into the best site it can be. So,
once again, thanks to everyone who reads, comments, and offers feedback, but
mostly, thanks to everyone who goes to the movies.
Check back tomorrow
for part 2 of our Year in Review with Last Cinema Standing’s Best & Worst
of 2015, and check back each day throughout the week for more Year in Review
coverage, ending Friday with the Top 10 Films of 2015.
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