I watch a lot of video media, much of which does not qualify as a feature film. This is often a subject of debate among cinephiles, who regularly debate the merits of film vs. television, and argue over whether a miniseries or filmed performance qualifies as a "movie." I like to define the medium broadly, but if I tried to cast my net wide to encompass every form of motion picture, I would never be able to keep up with anything. I personally prefer feature films because they're self-contained, as opposed to TV shows, and popular, as opposed to short films. But with the 2020 coronavirus pandemic leading to a significant decline in film releases, movies and TV are more direct competitors for attention than ever, and some of things that generated the most hype in film circles have not been feature films in a traditional sense - the ESPN documentary series The Last Dance, for one, and more recently the recording of Lin Manuel-Miranda's musical Hamilton on Disney+.
If you ask me, the distinction isn't that big of a deal, but since video is an increasingly ubiquitous form of entertainment, I do still want to set some ground rules for my year-end lists, just so I have some limitations to work within. To explain those, I'm going to explain why certain films are disqualified.
The Good Place
I don't watch a lot of television live. The Good Place, which concluded its fourth and final season in January, was an exception, leading me to get some actual use out of my cable subscription and watch each new episode within a week of airing. That season ventured too far into series-finale sentimentality for my tastes, but its mixture of sharp sitcom writing, serialized high-stakes narrative, and irreverent philosophizing made for a consistent treat, and the show maintained a high standard of quality from start to finish. Unfortunately, with so much TV out there, I don't believe it would be fair to award the one great show I watched in a timely fashion, especially when there are highly acclaimed series like Better Call Saul out there which would require weeks to fully catch up with. For now I think I will leave TV to the TV critics.
The History of the Seattle Mariners
A miniseries like this - or The Last Dance, which I have yet to see - very much straddles the line, as it conveys a single narrative and has a consistent creative team. In the past, I included O.J.: Made in America on a top 10 list, with the excuse that all seven hours of it were screened as a whole at a film festival. At the end of the day, though, miniseries exist in a different format, and aren't necessarily different from one season of a serialized TV show. People don't necessarily watch series like this the same way they do feature films, which I think is an important distinction. But ask me again in December and this is the category I might be most willing to budge on.
This is also part of a broader YouTube series, so I will mention that I will also generally disqualify online videos because they tend to be either short in length or unscripted live events. Some fit all of the qualifications of feature films, and if I watch a particularly good one of those this year, I might consider putting it on a year-end list. But something like a video essay is part of an overcrowded, esoteric category, and probably belongs on a list of its own, and so will be disqualified.
Hamilton
This one is mostly a judgment call from me, as I don't think the recent filmed version of this is particularly interesting in and of itself; I love it, but only because it's Hamilton. Last year's Beyoncé concert film Homecoming also derived most of its value from the quality of the show being recorded, though I wasn't as concerned with that one because the distinction between performances was a little more obvious and it was interspersed with behind-the-scenes footage. In both cases I'm hesitant to praise something as one of the best films of the year just for recording a great live show. Still, I like the Disney+ Hamilton just as much for what it represents, as having this perennially sold-out show easily available through streaming has the potential to change change how Broadway conducts its business. I may still give this one an honourable mention come January.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
I struggled with whether to put this on last year's top 10 list, and ultimately my decision is that it was better to boost it now rather than wait over a year. For the sake of convenience, I'm going to regard both the festival premiere and the wide release premiere as equally valid - the former because it's the first time the public can watch the film, and the latter because most people won't go all the way to Toronto or Sundance, and because it's when interest will be highest. I don't want to arbitrarily exclude new movies just because I saw them at a festival, but if I didn't count the wide release date, most of the movies I see for half of the year wouldn't qualify for the year-end list. So for my own sake I'm counting both.
That's not an entirely comprehensive list of exceptions, and I may need to clarify more further. I still might give each of these a special mention on the year-end list, but they won't be in the top 10. Of course, these rules aren't really relevant until December, but since Hamilton has inspired a small discourse about what counts as a "film," I thought it was relevant now. But I really only care about that distinction for year-end list purposes. I've written about TV before and I will probably do so in the future. There are differences between feature films, short films, TV shows, and filmed performances, but the similarities are even more significant, and at a time when the process of watching each is essentially the same, I only really care about the distinction for the sake of convenience. I watch a lot of feature films and am always behind on TV shows, so listing my favourite feature films of a year is what I feel most qualified to do. That's all there is to it for me.
If you ask me, the distinction isn't that big of a deal, but since video is an increasingly ubiquitous form of entertainment, I do still want to set some ground rules for my year-end lists, just so I have some limitations to work within. To explain those, I'm going to explain why certain films are disqualified.
The Good Place
I don't watch a lot of television live. The Good Place, which concluded its fourth and final season in January, was an exception, leading me to get some actual use out of my cable subscription and watch each new episode within a week of airing. That season ventured too far into series-finale sentimentality for my tastes, but its mixture of sharp sitcom writing, serialized high-stakes narrative, and irreverent philosophizing made for a consistent treat, and the show maintained a high standard of quality from start to finish. Unfortunately, with so much TV out there, I don't believe it would be fair to award the one great show I watched in a timely fashion, especially when there are highly acclaimed series like Better Call Saul out there which would require weeks to fully catch up with. For now I think I will leave TV to the TV critics.
The History of the Seattle Mariners
A miniseries like this - or The Last Dance, which I have yet to see - very much straddles the line, as it conveys a single narrative and has a consistent creative team. In the past, I included O.J.: Made in America on a top 10 list, with the excuse that all seven hours of it were screened as a whole at a film festival. At the end of the day, though, miniseries exist in a different format, and aren't necessarily different from one season of a serialized TV show. People don't necessarily watch series like this the same way they do feature films, which I think is an important distinction. But ask me again in December and this is the category I might be most willing to budge on.
This is also part of a broader YouTube series, so I will mention that I will also generally disqualify online videos because they tend to be either short in length or unscripted live events. Some fit all of the qualifications of feature films, and if I watch a particularly good one of those this year, I might consider putting it on a year-end list. But something like a video essay is part of an overcrowded, esoteric category, and probably belongs on a list of its own, and so will be disqualified.
Hamilton
This one is mostly a judgment call from me, as I don't think the recent filmed version of this is particularly interesting in and of itself; I love it, but only because it's Hamilton. Last year's Beyoncé concert film Homecoming also derived most of its value from the quality of the show being recorded, though I wasn't as concerned with that one because the distinction between performances was a little more obvious and it was interspersed with behind-the-scenes footage. In both cases I'm hesitant to praise something as one of the best films of the year just for recording a great live show. Still, I like the Disney+ Hamilton just as much for what it represents, as having this perennially sold-out show easily available through streaming has the potential to change change how Broadway conducts its business. I may still give this one an honourable mention come January.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
I struggled with whether to put this on last year's top 10 list, and ultimately my decision is that it was better to boost it now rather than wait over a year. For the sake of convenience, I'm going to regard both the festival premiere and the wide release premiere as equally valid - the former because it's the first time the public can watch the film, and the latter because most people won't go all the way to Toronto or Sundance, and because it's when interest will be highest. I don't want to arbitrarily exclude new movies just because I saw them at a festival, but if I didn't count the wide release date, most of the movies I see for half of the year wouldn't qualify for the year-end list. So for my own sake I'm counting both.
That's not an entirely comprehensive list of exceptions, and I may need to clarify more further. I still might give each of these a special mention on the year-end list, but they won't be in the top 10. Of course, these rules aren't really relevant until December, but since Hamilton has inspired a small discourse about what counts as a "film," I thought it was relevant now. But I really only care about that distinction for year-end list purposes. I've written about TV before and I will probably do so in the future. There are differences between feature films, short films, TV shows, and filmed performances, but the similarities are even more significant, and at a time when the process of watching each is essentially the same, I only really care about the distinction for the sake of convenience. I watch a lot of feature films and am always behind on TV shows, so listing my favourite feature films of a year is what I feel most qualified to do. That's all there is to it for me.
