The Digital Garden

2026

5 min read

Pantheon

This pantheon is an organization of my movie watching across a year and me ranking what I’ve watched. This is PURELY my opinion and based on my personal taste. Tiers are organized as such:

  • Tier 1 - Top 10 only
  • Tier 2 - Master class
  • Tier 3 - Great films
  • Tier 4 - Surprise risers
  • Tier 5 - Easy Watches
  • Tier 6 - So bad its good

Tier 1

  • TBD later this year

Tier 2

  • A Taste of Tea (dir Katsuhito Ishii)
    • There’s an ease, brightness and intrigue that makes this one feel like you’re sipping a special cup of tea on a porch on a summer day. Its over two hours long, not too much happens and I’ve never been more entranced.
  • The Secret Agent (dir Kleber Mendonça Filho)
    • Blown away by the stamina of the story. Its a nearly three hour movie that never really slows down somehow. The acts flawless shift between genres, emotions and historical context. I haven’t been so locked into the development of a character over time and (spoilers) devastated by their inevitable end. But its this development and subsequent sweep of the legs that makes the ending set in modern day all the more resonant. Flavia meets Fernando to discuss his father in the blood bank he works. We discover through Fernando that ‘by coincidence’ is also the exact place the theatre his Grandfather worked at. Though he has been taught to forget his past first with his mother and subsequently with his father, the finale is a slow release as we see Fernando holding the flash drive with his father’s story and voice and the weight of reconnecting with his past begins to sink in. The blood bank as the theatre is not only a way Fernando stays connected with his family, but Kleber emphasizing the importance stories (like this movie) play in remembering the past. Armando’s death seems so anticlimactic because death under dictatorship is not glorious or even remembered quite well. As such, it hasn’t been remembered or even documented until Flavia takes it upon herself to investigate thoroughly. Fernando drawing others blood is a reflection on his own lack of introspection on his own bloodline. Flavia asks to see her blood after it is drawn, witnessing the work, struggle and triumph of all of her past bloodlines. The final establishing shot is a wake up call for Fernando and a moment for the audience to reflect on loss and reconnection across lifetimes.
  • It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi)
    • There are so many lingering shots of tension and emotion. Human rights issues within Iran as experienced by people like Panahi take shape through a large assortment of characters all experiencing the same issue through different lenses. It paints a heart breaking reality of inescapable violence, anxiety and sadness that affects every character. The long, lingering shots are almost Orwellian as the reality of an all knowing and violent caliphate sets in and makes pockets of silence into shadowy, seedy spaces where something could come forth. However, the longer takes can also create vignettes of humanity as we see characters rationalizing with events (eg. Vahid with Peg Leg’s daughter at the hospital). Incredible climax and haunting finale.

Tier 3

Tier 4

  • To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (dir Beeban Kidron)
    • I loved the reverse Wizard of Oz where the small town in rural Nebraska comes into color. We really lost a great one with Patrick Swayze too.

Tier 5

  • Porco Rosso (dir. Hiyao Miyazaki)
    • My favorite Joe Hiyaishi soundtrack maybe in all of Ghibli. Fun and light hearted with some really beautiful airplane animation.
  • The Hannah Montana Movie (dir. Peter Chelshom)
    • A movie that I forgot looked so good and has brought up a lot of good conversations about Disney as an entertainment conglomerate. Its interesting to think about the connection between Disney Original movies, tv shows and its trickle down to their other media outputs like Disney Radio back in the day. Got me thinking about the parallels to today and their acquisitions of Epic Games/failed deal with Sora AI for new media experiences. Its also crazy to go through the crew for this and discover where some people have moved to. First started when someone mentioned the coloring of the Hoedown looked like the Sinners barn scenes and finding that the colorist ACTUALLY did Sinners barn scene coloring.

Tier 6

  • Face/Off (dir. John Woo)
    • My girlfriend is loving Nicholas Cage action movies after we watched Air Force 1 last year.
  • The Rock (dir. Michael Bay)
    • This is her second Nicholas Cage action movie this year and it was still incredible.
  • Sudden Death (dir. Peter Hyams)
    • Pretty meh until the third act where it vaults into the greatest bad action movie you’ve ever seen

Watchlist

  • Sirat
  • If I had Legs I Would Kick You
  • Oldboy
  • No Other Choice
  • Last Stop in Yuma County
  • The Sound of Falling
  • I’m Still Here
  • MacBeth (2015)
  • House
  • Place Beyond the Pines

Movements

  • Italian Surrealism
    • 8 1/2
  • French New Wave
    • The Story of a Three-Day Pass

Directors

  • Yasujirō Ozu
  • Abbas Kiarostami

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