Catching up with Jason (i.e. It's 2019 already!)

Wow. I only posted once all last year.

I don't have enough of a readership to feel like I'm depriving the world of anything, but it's definitely on me to gather all the things I'm doing into one place.

I reviewed Josephine Decker's staggeringly good film Madeline's Madeline.

I wrote about Gus Van Sant's Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot.

I wrote about Ween!

I interviewed comedian Brandon Wardell.

I got to write about H.G. Webb, one of the greatest human beings that I know.

I reviewed Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite, which is a kinky delight. Also, I got to mention Radley Metzger in this one.

I got to write about Ganja and Hess, one of my favorite films of all time.

I had some thoughts on 2010: The Year We Make Contact.

I made my annual pilgrimage to the New York Film Festival (17 years running).

I talked about Nashville's inaugural Outloud Music Festival.

I got real into it writing about Wilson Phillips

Suspiria '18 brought out some feelings.

Even though Questlove totally flaked on the interview that was supposed to happen, I wrote about the 4U experience extensively.

I had to write about Mandy. I HAD to.

Oh yeah, and I interviewed Joel Hodgson.


So that's everything professionally that happened since the last one of these.

Catching Up with 2018...

It's been far too long since I've updated this site, and that's on me.


And I just reviewed Hereditary, which is quite something.

Here's me on the Nashville Scene's podcast talking about the 2018 Nashville Film Festival.

I reviewed Grace Jones - Bloodlight and Bami, which is superb, and I got to introduce the film in front of a packed house. There may be some video of this surfacing later in the year. Maybe.

I got to write about Jonah Ray's Festival of Me at Zanies, which was a blast.

I was indirectly featured in an article in Entertainment Weekly about the script reading for Flash Gordon that was put on at the 2018 Chattanooga Film Festival with actual real live Flash Gordon Sam J. Jones! I was the narrator for the script reading, and you can hear my voice in the excerpt featured in the video attached to the article.

I saw Ready Player One.

I interviewed filmmaker Alyce Wittenstein before her retrospective at what would prove the final Peripheral Visions at Third Man Records, which I am very sad about. The interview was good, though.

I covered the Big Ears festival of Music and Film in Knoxville, and it was great except for the mourning.

I reviewed Love, Simon. Which is very kind-hearted and sweet and a good start.

I interviewed Kyle Kinane again, right after he got back from China.

I reviewed Call Me By Your Name, which was one of my favorite films of last year.

I administered and collated the Jim Ridley Memorial Film Poll for the Year 2017 for the Nashville Scene.

2017 Superlatives.

If the influence of Netflix bears any fruit herein, it's that I no longer feel the need to cling to numerical limits. 2017 has been a brutal year across the board, and I have unlimited love for anyone who would A) think that they might find some joy in my hierarchical foolishness, and B) actually read the whole thing. 

Everyone is dealing with too much. But in an ideal, non-fascist world, I think these selections would make for a great party and a great broadcast.

ACTOR

Claes Bang, The Square

Damien Bonnard, Staying Vertical

Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

John Cho, Columbus

Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread

Michael Fassbender, Alien: Covenant

Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

Kyle Mooney, Brigsby Bear

ACTRESS

Eili Harboe, Thelma

Anne Hathaway, Colossal

Lee Min-hee, On The Beach At Night Alone

Alice Lowe, Prevenge

Melanie Lynskey, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore

Rooney Mara, A Ghost Story

Haley Lu Richardson, Columbus

Octavia Spencer, The Shack

Michelle Williams, All The Money In The World

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name

Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards...

Benny Safdie, Good Time

Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name

Jason Sudeikis, Colossal

Steve Zahn, War for the Planet of the Apes

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Betty Buckley, Split

Beanie Feldstein, Lady Bird

Betty Gabriel, Get Out

Mia Goth, A Cure for Wellness

Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip

Vicky Krieps, Phantom Thread

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Good Time

Sophia Lillis, It

Sigourney Weaver, (Re)Assignment

Taliah Lennice Webster, Good Time

DIRECTOR

Kathryn Bigelow, Detroit

Macon Blair, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore

Bong Joon-ho, Okja

Liam Gavin, A Dark Song

Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

Luca Guadagnino, Call Me By Your Name

Kogonada, Columbus

Alice Lowe, Prevenge

Jordan Peele, Get Out

Joao Pedro Rodrigues, The Ornithologist

Ridley Scott, Alien: Covenant

EDITOR

William Goldenberg and Harry Yoon, Detroit

Han Mee-yeon and Yang Jin-mo, Okja

Gregory Plotkin, Get Out

Elisabet Ronaldsdottir, Atomic Blonde

Evan Schiff, John Wick: Chapter 2

Lee Smith, Dunkirk

Andrew Weisblum, mother!

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Bojan Bazelli, A Cure for Wellness

Roger Deakins, Blade Runner 2049

Peter Flinckenberg, Woodshock

Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Call Me By Your Name

Rui Pocas, The Ornithologist

Brian Sowell, Sequence Break

Dariusz Wolski, Alien: Covenant

SCORE

Nathan Barr, Flatliners

Ola Flottum, Thelma

Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread

Van Hughes, Sequence Break

Clint Mansell, The Foreigner

Mark Mothersbaugh, Thor Ragnarok

Toydrum, Prevenge

Benjamin Wallfisch, A Cure for Wellness

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread

Justin Benson, The Endless

Macon Blair, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore

Rebecca Blunt, Logan Lucky

Kevin Costello and Kyle Mooney, Brisgbsy Bear

Ephthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos, The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Liam Gavin, A Dark Song

Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick

Jordan Peele, Get Out

Steven Sears and Bill Watterson, Dave Made a Maze

David Branson Smith and Matt Spicer, Ingrid Goes West

Nacho Vigalondo, Colossal

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled

James Ivory, Call me By Your Name

Alejandro Jodorowsky, Endless Poetry

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Bad Black

Bloodlands

BPM

Okja

On the Beach At Night Alone

The Ornithologist

Park

The Square

Staying Vertical

Thelma

The Untamed

DOCUMENTARY

Beware the Slenderman

Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun?

Faces Places

Filmworker

Industrial Accident

Mansfield 66/67

Obit.

The Road Movie

78/52

Whitney: Can I Be Me?

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Paul D. Austerberry, The Shape of Water

Conor Dennison, A Dark Song

Trisha Gum and John Sumner, Dave Made a Maze

Dan Hennah and Ra Vincent, Thor: Ragnarok

Jeremy Hindle, Detroit

Alejandro Jodorowsky, Endless Poetry

Chris Seagers, Alien: Covenant

Eve Stewart, A Cure for Wellness

Hugues Tissandier, Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets

COSTUME DESIGN

Miyako Bellizzi and Mordechai Rubinstein, Good Time

Olivier Beriot, Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets

Mark Bridges, Phantom Thread

Patricia Doria, The Ornithologist

Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky, Endless Poetry

Giulia Piersanti, Call me By Your Name

Mayes C. Rubeo, Thor: Ragnarok

ANIMATED FEATURE

Birdboy (Los Psiconautas)

Coco

The Lego Batman Movie

VISUAL EFFECTS

Alien: Covenant

Blade Runner 2049

A Quiet Passion

UNDISTRIBUTED

Bad Black

Bloodlands

Industrial Accident

Insomnium

Park

Show Yourself

Those Who Make Revolution Only Halfway Dig Their Own Graves

We’ve Forgotten More Than We Ever Knew

Without Name

BEST FILMS

1 Call Me By Your Name

To know that your first love matters. To live your life amidst literature, and music, and art, and beauty, and those meals, and to find yourself unmoored by the deepest kinds of love and hornitude, and to know that in the end, it matters.

2 A Dark Song

As if Clive Barker and David Simon had collaborated.

3 Colossal/Get Out

Unjust systems, concealed in the soft touch of love, that feed on everything distinctive and kind and interesting about you.

4 Phantom Thread

The best Joseph Losey film since the death of Joseph Losey.

5 BPM/Columbus/Dave Made a Maze/Lady Bird/Thelma

Dismantling the structures, figuratively and literally, with which the customs of the past have shaped us and how we live with others.

6 Alien: Covenant/Faces Places

The innate strength of humanity is to adapt and transform ourselves, and the spaces in which we live. But our flaws cannot be escaped. Teach the children well, to be sure. And leave the curmudgeonly old men behind.

7 Blade Runner 2049/The Endless/Sequence Break

Innovation and escape. A new way of looking at the linear and removing oneself from its matrix. Resourceful thinking and a willingness to embrace the strange and unusual.

8 The Square

"Tesla of Justice."

9 I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore/mother!/The Ornitholgist

Stumbling around in a cosmic melodrama with no clear rules and no way to win. But always hope. Always faith in the process. The best religious pictures of the year.

10 The Beguiled/A Cure for Wellness/The Killing of a Sacred Deer

How to dismantle the patriarchy. Expansive, historical, gruesome, and deeply deeply satisfying.

WORST FILMS:

1 Transformers: The Last Knight

2 Boo 2: A Madea Halloween

3 Rings

4 The Snowman

5 Caniba

6 Friend Request

7 Beach Rats

8 Fifty Shades Darker

9 Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

10 Fate of the Furious

A brief update.

I interviewed comedian Dave Stone.

I reviewed the exceptional Norwegian film Thelma.

And I reviewed The Square.

What I've been doing as of late.

Things which I have been up to over the past few months.



Oh yeah, and Lady Bird. I reviewed that.

Goblin, y'all! Goblin! With awesome YouTube mixtape attached.

A review of The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which is awesome, and people who dis it as having anything to do with Michael Haneke are mistaken.

For the sixteenth consecutive year, I attended the New York Film Festival.

A piece on the transcendent guitarist Mdou Moctar.

Adam Gold and I compiled our personal fave Depeche Mode tracks.

Aww shit! I was on a podcast talking about Depeche Mode.

A review of the Safdie Brothers' Good Time.

A review of the new It, wherein I was actually physically assaulted by a drunk person during the press screening.

A few words about the 'Nashville Statement.'

First off, after reading the so-called 'Nashville Statement," I find it to be inaccurately named; it reeks of some Williamson County bullshit.

It makes sense that this would drop during the day when noted charlatan Joel Osteen had to be shamed into following the most basic teachings of Christ. In exchange for an illicit spot on the Supreme Court, evangelical Christianity's embrace of Donald Trump and all that he stands for remains a jawdropping betrayal of principle.

Not a single signer of this statement is an influencer or authority outside of their own myopic perversion of the words of Christ. There's not a person among them with any reach beyond the dreary, hateful choir they're preaching at.

As annoying as the polygentrification of this city's neighborhoods have been, as frustrating as the ensuing parking drama has grown, as many slapdash hot chicken experiments that proliferate on more menus than they really should, the great thing about Nashville is that the ignorant and homophobic mentality that resulted in this statement- well, it's no longer the majority. Keep your trifling rejection of the LGBT community in Brentwood, because Nashville isn't having it.

Christ is love. You know what would have been an amazing way of consolidating a myriad of Christian voices today? Helping the people of Houston. Reaching out to the needy and those who were hurting. Doing something kind.

But whatever. In the words of Haven Hamilton, I want this to speak to your heart... "They can't do this to us in Nashville. Let's show them what we're made of." Show your love to those in need. Christianity is about opening doors, not building walls. Stay strong, Houston. We've got love for you.

Catching Up with Jason Shawhan...

Here's some of the things I've been up to as of late...


A review of Annabelle: Creation.

An interview with comedian and MST3K's own Jonah Ray.

A review of Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit.

A review of Girls Trip.

A review of Spider-Man: Homecoming.

A review of Songwriter, one of the ten best films ever made.

A review of Baby Driver.

A review of the emotionless hate buffet that is Transformers: The Last Knight.

An interview with Jake Shears, formerly of the Scissor Sisters.

A review of Wonder Woman.

A review of Alien: Covenant.