Ty Burrâs Watch List is a newsletter designed to answer the eternal question: Why can I never find a good movie to watch on TV?
It works like this: Two or three times a week, a film recommendation lands in your in-box, with some context, a little history, an anecdote or two, something to make you laugh or ponder. Youâll find plenty of new movies in the mix, especially on Fridays, but also curated choices from recent years and deep cuts from across the decades â the genuine oldies as well as ones that jump-start your personal nostalgia for the 1970s, â80s, or â90s.
A click on the articleâs headline in the email takes you to the website version; a click on the banner at the top will lead you to an archive of all previous newsletters. You donât have to read each and every newsletter (I sometimes write a lot and wonât take it personally), but know that when you find yourself with channel-surfing fatigue and just want an interesting movie or TV show to take in, you can go to the archive, click on the âGood Moviesâ subheading, and go from there.
If youâd like to cut down on email by receiving a weekly recap rather than the individual postings, turn on only the âWeekly Digestâ option on your âMy Accountâ page. If youâd like to read essays regarding my spiritual practice and other personal matters, toggle on the âZen Journalâ switch on the âMy Accountâ page.â
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The recommendations might include recent comedies like âShiva Babyâ (above) or throwbacks like the 1999 Kirsten Dunst-Michelle Williams political farce âDick.â Dramas like âMinariâ and âMaudieâ and âMenashe.â Foreign classics like Ozuâs âLate Springâ (below) and home-made sleepers like âStarlet,â an early work by Sean Baker (âThe Florida Projectâ).
Youâll learn about little movies you probably havenât heard of (âSupernova,â from 2020, starring Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth, below, as a couple in twilight) and bigger ones you may have missed (â20th Century Women,â from 2016, featuring another Annette Bening performance that should have won an Oscar and didnât). Youâll be reminded of forgotten gems from the glory days of the New Hollywood era (âThe Taking of Pelham One Two Three,â 1974) and from more recent years (Ron Howardâs terrific 2013 race-car drama âRushâ), as well as new works like Bo Burnhamâs âInsideâ that push the boundaries of the form.
What you probably wonât find lot of are franchise blockbusters and heavily digitized action-fantasy fare â the major studiosâ current order of business. The better ones, maybe. (âMad Max: Fury Road,â definitely.) In general, superheroes and souped-up mayhem bore me to tears, and Iâm betting enough of you agree to make a go of this. Movies about people are still being made and distributed and, in fact, are more accessible than ever. Ty Burrâs Watch List shows you where they are and why they are.
Who am I? For the first two decades of this century, I was a film critic and cultural columnist for the Boston Globe. In 2017, I was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. Before the Globe, I reviewed movies and other pop culture for Entertainment Weekly for eleven years. Before that, I programmed movies on Cinemax and HBO for the better part of the 1980s, and so on back through a late Boomerâs lifelong intoxication with cinema. Short answer: Iâve seen a ridiculous number of movies. Does that mean I know what Iâm talking about? Probably, yes. Does that mean my tastes align with yours? Not at all, but thereâs an easy way to find out.
This is a free newsletter, and the hope is that youâll recommend it or forward it to friends. If you choose the option of a paid subscription, youâll gain access to additional essays and commentary and you can leave comments and engage with me and other readers.
More about me, if youâre curious: Iâve written two books, âThe Best Old Movies for Familiesâ (Anchor, 2007) and âGods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fameâ (Random House, 2013). Both are available online and from independent booksellers. Iâve also written an e-book, âThe 50 Movie Starter Kit: What to Know if You Want to Know What Youâre Talking Aboutâ (2013), to which Ty Burrâs Watch List will serve as a never-ending weekly addendum and which is available only online. When I worked at Entertainment Weekly, I wrote or contributed to several slim hardcover volumes of movie lists that were sold at newsstands as âbookazines,â a neologism that should have been smothered in the crib. I will spare you their titles.
I live outside Boston with my wife and an extremely photogenic dog. No, really.
