Okja

Year 13, Day 2 - 1/2/21 - Movie #3,702

BEFORE: Don't worry, I haven't gone completely Korean with my choices this year - this film on Netflix is from the same director as "Parasite", Bong Joon Ho, and it features a mix of Korean and American/UK actors, so this is necessary to get from last year's Oscar-winner back to regular Hollywood films.  Then of course I've got a lot of Swedish material - both old and new - coming up in January, so I suppose I am going a little multi-culti this month.  Then what's going to happen after February?  I really have no idea.  

As with the pandemic news, I can only see about a month or two into the future, and so we keep saying "Things will get better in a month or two..." or "Just another two months of lockdown, and then maybe the restaurants and movie theaters can re-open..."  Yeah, we've been saying that for 10 months now.  

But I've been dealing with a sudden influx of new films, on all the streaming services - of course, now that my schedule is set until March, that's when everything will come flooding in, right?  Major films that were supposed to be 2020 tentpoles all got pushed to 2021, like "Black Widow" and "No Time to Die".  But other films like "Mulan" and "Bill and Ted Face the Music" went straight to premium On Demand or streaming services.  Some films have opted for a split-release, like "Wonder Woman 1984" becoming available in theaters and on HBO Max at the same time.  And the top-grossing film of 2020 in theaters was "Bad Boys for Life", which made about one-quarter the box office of 2019's top-grosser, "Avengers: Endgame".  So it's a different world now, and we're waiting to see what effect this will have on the Oscars, which for the first time will allow films that premiered on cable or streaming to be award-eligible.  How will this change the process, will there be fewer films to nominate, or perhaps more?  All bets seem to be off right now - if some people thought "Parasite" was a dark-horse winner, maybe they haven't seen anything yet.  People are buzzing about "Mank", "Tenet", "Da 5 Bloods" and other films like "Nomadland" and "I'm Thinking of Ending Things", and I've seen none of those.  I've also lost my Academy screeners connection, so I'm just going to have to muddle through and keep on doing what I do.

Choi Woo-Shik carries over from "Parasite", and so does the voice of Lee Jeong-eun, according to the IMDB.  

THE PLOT: A young girl risks everything to prevent a powerful, multinational company from kidnapping her best friend - a fascinating beast named Okja.  

AFTER: Well, it seems like I've completed my Year of Weird Movies, only the Weird Movies are not done with me yet.  This is a strange film on so many levels, how could it not be, when it's about a new type of animal that doesn't exist in real life?  So perhaps this whole thing is supposed to be taken not literally but as a metaphor for man's relationship with the animal kingdom, which is a complicated one at best.  We've "decided" as a bunch of omnivores that some animals are for eating and others are better as pets, but different societies have different rules about, say, horses and dogs.  Horses have been working for humans for a couple thousand years, and some societies would never eat horses, but some other countries don't seem to mind.  And we Americans are shocked if we learn that another country eats dog meat, but isn't that all rather arbitrary?  Did we sign some deal with the leader of the dogs where as long as dogs help humans hunt and play with their kids and keep their feet warm at night, we won't eat them?  What makes dogs exempt from being bred for meat like chickens, turkeys, cows and pigs?  

There are many different people in the world, and therefore many opinions on this whole meat-eating thing.  As humans we like to think that we're "top of the food chain", but is that really true?  Aren't there plenty of animals out there, like sharks, crocodiles, bears and wolves that would love to eat people, given the chance?  Or do we win by default because we're the only species that keeps large numbers of animals in captivity, allowing so many cows and pigs to be born JUST to serve as food?  By comparison, a case could be made for eating horses just because it's more efficient - the horses serve a function their whole life as a riding animal, and then serve a second function as food when they're no longer useful?  Isn't it therefore a waste that we don't have another use for pigs and cows - oh wait, cows give us milk and then when they can't do that any more, I guess we eat them.  Come to think of it, it all seems very barbaric - though I guess I've seen people who live on farms who get to know the cows and the pigs, who then might feel a little funny about eating them later.  

I've believed for many years that the Earth is terribly over-populated, we're going to run out of everything at some point, and then where will we be?  There's no back-up Earth, and if we should accidentally eat the last cow or chicken then that's it, we'll have to figure something else out or start eating each other.  And we KNOW this deep down, only nobody's taking any steps to ensure this doesn't happen.  China tried that whole one-child-per-family thing, and I think they meant well, but it was seen as a form of oppression and the whole policy was eventually scrapped.  But why wasn't this seen as a step in the right direction, just because some people didn't like it?  Because it took away the personal freedom to have 10 kids and not be able to provide for them all?  If you ask me, that policy was doing the average citizen a favor, preventing anyone from having too large a family to be able to support financially.  

In the same way, deep down we KNOW that the climate change warnings are real, and that some of the vegetarian factions probably have a good point.  People now talk about "sustainable" farming, processes that give back to the land instead of just taking from it, and decades ago that would have been unheard of - what, tear down a forest and then also replace it?  Back then, that would have sounded like madness, not progress - you tear down a forest, use its resources, eat its animals and then build a strip-mall there or something.  But slowly we realize we're running out of forests, we're running out of land, and eventually we're going to run out of delicious animals, too.  Instead of changing human behavior though, we're starting to seek out "impossible" meats that were grown in a lab, and trying to make them taste just like the real thing.  Umm, I guess that's a way to go, only it won't really show progress until the older generation that still likes to hunt and insists on eating real meat all dies off.  

We all draw that line in a different place, as our consciences dictate - like if I didn't kill the animal myself, I don't feel all that guilty about being an omnivore, I just went to the store and bought the meat, and my soul feels relatively clear.  I eat veggie burgers a few times a month, honestly they don't taste great unless I put some interesting cheese and/or BBQ sauce on them, but I'm trying.  I also favor cold cuts like head cheese and other products like spam, made from scraps, and I hope that's being helpful in using every part of the animals that have already been sacrificed?  No?  I'm trying to eat more vegetables and rice, too.  

This film posits a different solution, as a large conglomerate invents a new animal, a sort of "super-pig" that is much larger, and also somehow friendlier and more intelligent, and a pilot program is started around the world to have the first 26 of them raised by farmers in different countries, in some kind of arbitrary competition over 10 years to raise the "best" one.  There are a few things wrong with this premise, starting with - why 10 years?  If the world needs more meat-based solutions NOW, why take ten years to make the new animal's meat available?  Secondly, if the new pig is larger, won't it require more food, more water, to reach its ideal food-producing weight, and how does that solve the problem, instead of making it worse?  

Of course, it's part of a con by Big Farma - the CEO of the Mirando Corporation swears this animal is non-GMO, not a genetically modified organism.  But, NITPICK POINT here, why does everyone take her at her word on this, when she's clearly bending the truth?  You can't just snap your fingers and create a new animal, not overnight, and not in 10 years either.  The only way to create a new species, beyond being God, is to meddle with the DNA, and therefore that's a GMO.  Every single sub-species of dog is a GMO, only humans created all the dog breeds over hundreds of years, by mating dogs with similar characteristics, enhancing the traits needed to allow dachshunds to hunt badgers (this is true) or bulldogs to pin bulls to the ground (also true).  Ask yourself why any dog looks the way it does, then dig into history and find out what it was that humans needed it to do for them.  OK, I guess this is why we don't eat dogs...

The good (?) news is that we have fish farms now, and oyster farms - pisciculture/aquaculture - so even if we take all the fish out of the oceans, we can still keep eating seafood, and that's apparently sustainable.  Maybe if we keep coming up with solutions like this, we'll be OK - but still have to address the problems of climate change and overpopulation, if not there may be more "corrective" occurrences like pandemics that may keep humans from destroying everything on spaceship Earth.  

The Mirando CEO (played by an unusually subtle Tilda Swinton, in contrast to Jake Gyllenhaal's over-the-top zoologist Dr. Johnny Wilcox) also says right off the bat, that this super-pig better taste f-ing delicious.  There's no mistaking that this animal was bred from the start to be eaten, so why is everyone so surprised that there are acres and acres of them, with a slaughterhouse nearby?  NITPICK POINT #2, hasn't everyone known for 10 years that there's a new animal coming, and therefore a new meat?  Haven't there been commercials for "New Pork, coming soon from Mirando"?  And then even at the rollout parade there are delicious new meat-sticks being handed out, doesn't anybody know what's happening?  Why is it such a shock that they've started killing the new super-pigs?  I don't get it, everybody should have been aware.  

All I could think about was the joke about the pig with the wooden leg - while visiting a farm, a woman notices a pig with a wooden leg, so she asks the farmer about it.  The farmer says, "Well, a wild bear attacked while I was feeding the pigs, and that pig ran over and attacked the bear, chased it away and saved my life!" The woman says, "Ah,  but the bear bit off the pig's leg?"  "Naw, the pig was fine, but later on there was a fire in the barn, that pig broke out of the barn, came into the house and started squealing, woke up my whole family, and we ran out and put out the fire, while the pig herded the other animals to safety..." "Ah, so that's when the pig hurt his leg?"  "Nope, but after that my tractor hit a rock and I fell off, knocked unconscious - but before the tractor could run me over, the pig came and pulled me to safety..."  "But that's when the tractor ran over the pig's leg?"  "Nope, he was fine after that."  "So tell me, how did the pig lose his leg?"  "Well," the farmer says, "a pig that special, you don't want to eat him all at once!" 

Mija, the little Korean girl who spends ten years helping to raise Okja, I guess also never got the memo about what happens to animals on a farm.  Is this believable?  Or is she just another one of those idealistic young people who thinks they can change the world?  Or, like everyone else, is she only thinking about her own needs and her love for Okja?  I suppose this is a debatable point.  In her quest to reunite with Okja, Mija hooks up with the Animal Liberation Front, but she doesn't always seem to share the same goals with them.  That organization exists to disrupt the economies of companies that profit from the abuse of animals.  Perhaps one day Mija could be an activist like Greta Thunberg, only she doesn't seem interested here in becoming that.  Like most of us, she may be thinking of her own needs first and unable to see the big picture.  I fear that most of us are also unable or unwilling to see the world through a macro-scope, to realize that small actions and small changes can have big implications.  

Unfortunately, without proper guidance from government sources, look what's gone on in just the last few years.  People can't agree on whether it's better to fight climate change or just ignore it, whether it's better to take vaccines or get sick intentionally to develop herd immunity, and there's a large percentage of the U.S. population that doesn't believe we just had a fair election.  There's so much disinformation floating around about how much trouble we are (or aren't) in, I'm not surprised that the average person doesn't realize how much of a pickle we're in, and most people therefore probably won't, not until it's too late. 

I think "Okja" might help change some minds, but its message was itself very murky, offering no clear solutions, not even a real take-down of the meat industry until the very conclusion of the film.  Perhaps if it had tried to do more than it did nobody would have paid attention, but I guess that's the chance you take when you try to use art to enact social change.  

NITPICK POINT: the word "local" is the latest one to have lost nearly all of its meaning.  The pigs will be raised by "local" farmers - aren't all farmers local?  They're all located somewhere, right?  In this difficult time, you can help support "local" restaurants - again, all restaurants are local to WHERE THEY ARE.  If you mean "non-chain" or "individually-owned" restaurants, then say that instead.  Just saying. 

Also starring Ahn Seo-hyun, Tilda Swinton (last seen in "Suspiria"), Paul Dano (last seen in "Swiss Army Man"), Jake Gyllenhaal (last seen in "Velvet Buzzsaw"), Byun Hee-bong, Steven Yeun (last seen in "Sorry to Bother You"), Giancarlo Esposito (last seen in "Desperately Seeking Susan"), Lily Collins (last seen in "The Blind Side"), Yoon Je-moon, Shirley Henderson (last seen in "Greed"), Daniel Henshall (last seen in "Ghost in the Shell"), Devon Bostick (last seen in "The Art of the Steal"), Waris Ahluwalia (last seen in "Ocean's Eight"). 

RATING: 5 out of 10 persimmons

Parasite

Year 13, Day 1 - 1/1/21 - Movie #3,701

BEFORE: Happy New Year 2021 - come on, really nothing has changed just because we got to the end of a calendar and we have to hang up a new one.  Such delineations are purely arbitrary, except for that they bring about a little bit of hope that things will get better, we promise to try a little harder than we did last year to accomplish certain goals, and it's perhaps a time for quiet reflection as we gather together the loved ones in our home bubble unit and remember how we used to go out and party on New Year's Eve or have brunch in a real restaurant on New Year's Day.  Maybe we can get back to that sometime in the future, only at the rate that Americans have been vaccinating people, it's going to take ten years to reach herd immunity, unless the next administration can find a way to speed up the process.  Given all the log jams in Congress, please pencil yourself in for a New Year's brunch reservation in 2031 - see you then.

My countdown moves on to Year 13, and you might be asking, "Why start the year here?"  Sure, I could have kept the chain going, and watched "On the Rocks" with Bill Murray and Rashida Jones carrying over from "A Very Murray Christmas", which then could have taken me to "City of Ember" or "The Limits of Control" (another Jim Jarmusch film) - but I've established a pattern in the past.  New Year, new movie chain.  Anyway, January 1 is a great time therefore to program a "One-linkable" film (not un-linkable) - this is a film that links to only one other film I've been tracking.  To keep a chain going all year, I need, mostly, films that link to (at least) two other films I know and have not seen.  But I can burn off a one-linkable as the first or last film of the year.

When I realized "Parasite" was such a film, something that won the Best Picture Oscar for 2019 - not to mention the Palme d'Or at Cannes, except I just did - that's an opportunity I can't pass up.  But wait, is there a way to get from here to THERE, THERE being the start of the romance chain on February 1.  Well, of course, I mean, there probably is, I just have to find it.  Which I already did - in fact I found two ways to get there from here, the two paths have a lot of the same DNA, they just have 6 different films between Jan. 15 and Jan. 31.  I just have to lock one of those paths down. 

Also, this is traditionally the time I dedicate the year to someone (usually an actor) no longer with us, who departed this plane in calendar year 2020.  So many solid choices, especially since this pandemic has not been kind, but I'm going to single out Swedish actor Max Von Sydow, who probably first came to my attention playing Jesus in "The Greatest Story Ever Told", but I first really took notice up as the Brewmaster in "Strange Brew", since I was really into SCTV and the characters Bob & Doug McKenzie when I was 14 - and I wasn't even a beer drinker yet!  Then when I got to college and found out about Woody Allen movies, I really enjoyed "Hannah and Her Sisters", and he was in that movie too!  And then when the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy started up in 2015 with "The Force Awakens", he made it in there as Lor San Tekka.  This is a man whose life went through many stages, and he got his start in Ingmar Bergman films back in Sweden in the 1950's - and many of those are on my watchlist for January, so I'll be seeing a lot of Max Von Sydow very soon.

This seems like an impossible schedule for January - I'm going to start with a Korean film, somehow link to 5 films from Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, and get back to Hollywood films in time for February?  Yep, and I'm also going to throw in the Swedish "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy to make it extra difficult - and the two Swedish sections DO NOT share any actors!  So I've come to the conclusion that I must be insane - but this is what's going down.  Stay tuned to see how it's all going to come together

THE PLOT: Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan. 

AFTER: Well, once the linking's been worked out and I know everything's going to come together, the only thing left to do is watch the damn film.  This one's on Hulu, which makes that quite easy, only for some reason after making sure that the English subtitles were working, Hulu decided that I also needed to see Spanish subtitles, which could NOT be turned off.  So I had to listen to this film in Korean, read the English subtitles, and ignore the Spanish ones.  Overly distracting - but I muddled through. 

In many ways, though this film could not possibly have addressed the COVID-19 pandemic directly in advance, this felt like the perfect metaphor for our times.  Even in Korea, it seems, there are two distinct classes of people, an upper and a lower, and while one family lives in a large house, designed by a famous architect, with a live-in housekeeper and a chauffeur on staff, another family lives in cramped quarters in a semi-basement apartment, toiling at odd jobs like folding stacks of pizza boxes.  Late in the film there's a heavy rainfall, and while to the rich family this is a mere inconvenience, it floods the poor family's basement apartment with sewage water, and their toilet backs up to make the problem even worse.  If you take the rainfall as a metaphor for COVID-19, there's some significance there - a richer family with health insurance can probably afford adequate care and the best medications, but millions of Americans don't have insurance, or have lost it during this crisis due to unemployment, so they're up the creek.  

But I'm getting away from the plot of "Parasite" - when the teenage son of the poorer family gets a chance to tutor the daughter of the rich family in speaking English (it only takes a few forged documents for him to pose as a registered college student, and his sister happens to be good with Photoshop), he gets a chance to see how the other half lives, in that giant architect-designed house with the live-in housekeeper.  He sees that the rich family's son is somewhat spoiled, and has some kind of ADD or ADHD, so he subtly tells the boy's mother that he happens to know a famous art therapist who can help the boy, channel his agressive energy into art, and of course he's thinking about his sister, without letting on that's his sister.  What's better than earning one income from this family is earning two incomes from this family.

Once his sister's in place, she takes steps to have the family's driver fired, thinking that she could probably pretend to remember her family's old chauffeur and how to contact him, and get her own father installed as their driver under another fake name.  Earning three incomes from the rich family is better than two, right?  Then the only thing left to do is to get the current housekeeper fired, and then the entire poor family will be employed by the rich family, they'll earn four incomes and maybe move out of their terrible apartment.  

I sort of thought I knew where this was going - from all the things I've heard about this film, I figured that at some point the poor family would just kill the rich family and that would be it, they'd just live in their nice big house.  Wow, I was so wrong, the film doesn't go that way, I guess that wouldn't work anyway because eventually somebody would wonder why the kids didn't show up for school or the father didn't go to work, and the authorities would investigate.  I don't want to say here what DOES happen instead, but as you might imagine, at some point the scheme falls apart.  This is the way, it's always been the way.  If you thought that the poor family's situation would just improve, and they'd keep this scheme running for years, and everything would work out for the best, well, then you just don't get how movies work.  

To me, this felt something like a Korean Coen Brothers movie - and I think that analogy works, because did the kidnapping scheme work out well in "Fargo"?  No, of course it did not.  Did the baby-napping scheme work out well in "Raising Arizona"?  No, of course it did not.  "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" "The Ladykillers"?  "The Big Lebowski"?  At some point, something's bound to go wrong, and a chain reaction will take place, and all the trains are going to run off the rails, it's almost a given.  

But hey, if you want to skip the last hour of this film, maybe you can do that and pretend that everything's going to be OK - but you'd only be fooling yourself.  The fundamental laws of the universe demand that everything's going to lean toward entropy.  Despite our best efforts, someday we'll use up all the natural resources of our planet, and at some point after that, even the sun will die out.  Of course we should wake up every day and fight the good fight, struggle for the legal tender and then lay our bodies down.  And when the morning light comes streaming in, we get up and do it again.  Amen.  But somewhere in the back of our lizard brains there's that little voice saying that it's all for naught, because eventually your clock runs out, and then what have you got to show for it all?  Dangerous thinking, sure, because it leads to considering shortcuts to getting ahead, as seen here.  Or maybe there are vague plans on how to be successful and buy that big house, but with no practical path from here to there.  

Often it seems like there's no way to beat the system except to cheat the system.  Discuss. This Korean family decides to cheat the system, and perhaps they learn that there are no real shortcuts that work.  Discuss.  Actions have consquences. Discuss.  Is this the perfect film to watch while you're stuck in your own house or apartment during a pandemic?  Discuss.  

Look, there's a lot I don't understand about Korean culture.  I don't get the thing about the scholar's stone, or why so many of them want to learn English or take on American names like Kevin or Nathan.  I didn't know they have Cub Scouts in Korea, or are fascinated by Native American culture.  But none of that really matters to the story in the end.  

Starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Lee Jeong-eun, Jang Hye-jin, Park Myung-hoon, Jung Ji-so, Jung Hyeon-jun, Park Keun-rok, Park Seo-joon.

RATING: 7 out of 10 plates of sliced fresh fruit

Year 12 Wrap-up / Year 13 Preview

Well, Movie Year 12 has ended, regulation play concluded on Christmas Eve, and we're almost at the point where one year gives way to the next, and in many ways, other transitions are happening, too (or have just happened, or are expected to happen).  Fall gave way to winter, Orange Julius Caesar will give way to Joe Cool Biden (barring an overly-telegraphed and ill-advised coup attempt of some kind) and staying home for Christmas gives way to staying home on New Year's Eve.  And Entertainment Weekly's "Pandemic Binge TV Guide" is replaced by their "Entertainers of the Year" issue.  (Whaddaya know, one of their top entertainer picks also is tied for most appearances in my countdown - but more on that in a bit.)

Let's get the stats out of the way. I forgot to post the format totals for both November AND December, so here goes: 

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER: 

6 Movies watched on cable (saved to DVD): Under the Skin, The Perfect Score, One for the Money, Seraphim Falls, Bad Santa 2, Instant Family
1 Movies watched on cable (not saved): Jojo Rabbit
4 watched on Netflix: Hunt for the Wilderpeople, ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas, Klaus, A Very Murray Christmas

1 watched on HBO MAX: Dead Man
12 TOTAL

FOR ALL OF 2020:

Cable (saved to DVD): 115
Cable (not saved): 52
Netflix: 47

Amazon Prime: 22
iTunes: 18

Hulu: 16

Academy screeners: 13

Tubi: 7

Disney+: 6

On a random site: 3

HBO MAX: 1
In theaters: 0
On commercial DVD: 0

YouTube: 0
300 TOTAL

My reliance on cable is remarkably consistent, those numbers are almost the same as last year's.  Netflix is down a bit, but Amazon Prime is up a bit, and my use of Academy screeners got cut almost in half, largely due to no longer working at the job where I had access to them.  Yep, that checks.  My use of Hulu is up, and Tubi and Disney Plus made a difference for the first time, sorry YouTube.  And I did not go to the theaters at ALL in 2020, largely because they've been closed since March.  Thankfully there were enough streaming services to pick up the slack and make my linking process possible. (These stats, by the way, just reflect where the films were available to me at the time of viewing, if a film was only available on Hulu when I watched it, and then later ran on cable and was dubbed to DVD, I kept the listing on Hulu, because going back to change the stats after the fact seemed like a form of madness.)

Honestly, I don't know what format changes may occur in 2021 - the industry is in a state of flux, as it were.  We still don't know when theaters will open, so some of 2020's movies, like "Mulan", "Wonder Woman 1984", and "Bill and Ted Face the Music" went straight to On Demand cable, iTunes, HBO Max and/or Disney Plus.  But most of this happened AFTER I drew up my schedule, and I re-arranged a full chain that I was happy with, so I'm just going to have to work in those films (plus "Tenet", "The New Mutants" and a host of others) into next year's schedule as best as I can.  My problems in not getting to see those films are really inconsequential when placed against the death toll in this country, so by no means am I complaining.  So far I've been relatively safe, mostly healthy and willing to give up time spent with others to remain in my bubble, except for three days a week at the office, and an occasional road trip upstate or to Long Island.  More time at home is fine, besides, they know me there. 

It wasn't just the Year of the Pandemic, it was the Year of Constant Re-scheduling, and the Year of Rebuilding My Chain Because Movie Theaters Continued to Not Re-open.  But hey, more time spent at home also meant more time researching cast lists so that I could find new paths when that happened.  And happened again.  Then by not being asked to return to one of my jobs, I lost my connection to a pile of Academy screeners, forcing me to work even harder to find new connections.  But I got it done, there was one constant, linked chain from my January 1 film ("Whale Rider") to my Dec. 24 film ("A Very Murray Christmas").  So there's that, in the middle of one very challenging, terrible, incredibly stressful year, one thing went very, very right, I had a "perfect" chain for the second year in a row.  So I had to rebuild my romance chain twice and my horror film chain three times, and rebuild the section in between six times - who's counting? 

More and more people were working at home, quarantined at home, and forced to cancel all kinds of social events, even holiday parties.  Millions of people became house-bound, and turned to binge-watching TV shows and catching up on movies to stay entertained.  Welcome to my world, everyone, I've been doing exactly that and being anti-social for over a decade now, so in staying home to try to remain healthy, I feel like maybe I had a leg up on everyone else.  But I'm afraid that obsessively linking 300 movies together by actor didn't become the hot new social trend that I'd hoped it would. 

I also had to try my best to keep my chain seasonally appropriate, beyond just Valentine's Day and Halloween-themed months.  I also had movies appropriate for Mother's Day, Father's Day, the Fourth of July and Back-to-school in September - and I managed to end the year with THREE Christmas movies.  OK, so I watched both "Cold Pursuit" and "Midsommar" in April, something had to give somewhere - but I did watch "The Good Liar" on April Fools Day.  I also took a pass on Easter this time, but managed to work in FOUR movies with Nazis and/or Adolf Hitler right around 4/20.  That took some real high-level linking.  

Let's also recall that for me it was The Year of the Weird Movie (even more so than usual), The Year I Finally Watched the Twilight Films, and The Year There Were Three Films Whose Title Began With "Once Upon a Time in..."  Yeah, that's a fairly odd coincidence - also there was an actor who appeared in two of those three movies.  

Now, normally I'd go into a lengthy breakdown of each category, complete with what I may have learned from each topic - BUT, I somehow find myself here, on December 30, with only two days left to complete my wrap-up.  So there's simply no time to analyze anything now, it's too late - how did this happen, with so much (allegedly) spare time on my hands?  Well, here's the thing - I lost three weeks to running a Kickstarter campaign, which was successful, so there's that.  After that, and getting my Christmas cards and holiday mix CDs mailed out, I had five days left until Christmas, and four Christmas movies to watch.  Christmas Day was then spent making a holiday lasagna, thereby starting a new family pandemic-forced tradition, plus also I was trying to finish the 2nd season of "Happy" before watching my Christmas movies.  A few days off to relax, and there goes my time to properly analyze the year.  

Also, a few days ago, I noticed some mistakes in my running tally of actor appearances - I'd short-changed Bob Dylan by one documentary, and after that I wasn't COMPLETELY sure that I'd caught all the actors who appeared in at least three films this year, so I devised a whole new way of tabulating them with a spreadsheet, and that took a couple days to put together, and then I compared it against the text-based list I'd been keeping all year, resolved any and all discrepancies between the two lists, and now I'm absolutely sure I got it right.  But now I'm three days closer to Jan. 1 than I was before, and still haven't started the full-year recap.  

So, bottom line, there's no time for a full recap.  All I think I can do is break those 300 films down into some basic categories and list them - and I have to be OK with that.  Anyway, I've already given up my thoughts on all of these films and what I learned from them - so if you're intrigued by the list, you can just go back and read all my reviews.  Why should I sum everything up?  Wow, the pressure's off me now, what a relief.

First, here are the top-rated films I watched this year, based on my intentionally un-scientific rating scale from 1 to 10. These films all scored an "8", which was the highest rating I gave out in 2020:  

"Onward"

"The Gentlemen"

"The Last Waltz"

"Jumanji: The Next Level"

Lots and lots of 7's this year, and I think the vast majority of films were in the 5-7 range, which actually made for a pretty positive year, a net gain overall even.  Scoring my lowest rating of "2" this year were:

"The Angry Birds Movie 2"

"Tarzan & Jane"

"The Con Is On"

"Drunk Parents"

"The Beach Bum"

"Swiss Army Man"

I think you can probably tell from this - I've reached the point where I will watch JUST about anything.  I can try to excuse myself by saying in some cases I watched a film just for linking purposes, but honestly, I'll watch anything if I'm curious about it.  I was intrigued about "Swiss Army Man", but I just knew in my heart it was going to be terrible.  

TOPICS/CATEGORIES -

FEBRUARY ROMANCES:

In many ways, this is the engine that drives the bus - I put together my February romance chain first, and this tells me where I need to be on Feb. 1 - my January 1 movie is only locked in as my "Point A" once I'm sure that I can get from there to "Point B", the start of the romance chain.  This year's February romances were: 

"I Love You, Daddy", "Laggies", "Save the Date", "Lemon", "Love Happens", "Private Life", "Some Kind of Wonderful", "Grace of My Heart", "You, Me and Dupree", "Long Shot", "Happy Endings", "Paris, Je t'Aime", "Mermaids", "Professor Marston & The Wonder Women", "Frank and Cindy", "Dreamland" (2016), "Playing it Cool", "Before We Go", "What's Your Number?", "Overboard" (2018), "How to Be a Latin Lover", "Going the Distance", "Waiting...", "Still Waiting...", "The Ugly Truth", "The Bounty Hunter", "She's Funny That Way", and "How Do You Know"

(I know, I know, two of those films are really about waiters working in a restaurant, but I needed them in there to make the chain possible.  Anyway, a couple of characters in those films were in relationships, so it still kind of counts.)

MARCH MARRIAGE MADNESS: 

The romance chain ran a little long this year - by 16 films, in fact.  This technique allowed me to have a Perfect Year in 2019, so I figured I'd try it again - and it worked again!  But I pitted these 16 films against each other in a bracket-like format, narrowing them down to the best 8, then the Final Four, then two and finally crowned a champion - and I didn't copy this format from any other March Tournament that usually takes place, I swear.  Anyway, the films were:

"Just Like Heaven", "Home Again", "Set It Up", "Just a Kiss", "Rent", "Opening Night", "In Good Company", "A Good Woman", "Marriage Story", "Book Club", "The Proposal", "Definitely, Maybe", "Dean", "Darling Companion", "Morning Glory" and "Life As a House".  I think I had to DQ a couple films because they weren't about marriage at all - and the bracket winner turned out to be "Marriage Story".

FILMS ABOUT ROMANCE THAT WERE ALSO HORROR MOVIES (OF A SORT)

The 5 Twilight films, duh.  Hey, they weren't really my cup of tea, but since I found a way to work them into my chain, I figured what the heck - and they were all available on Hulu, so if not now, then when?  (I think I also recorded them off On Demand, just to have copies in my archive, but if I hadn't done that, it would have been OK.  I certainly have no future plans to watch them again.)

SERIOUS HORROR MOVIES: 

When October rolled around, after watching the "Twilight" saga, this year's films really brought the scary: "It: Chapter Two", "Doctor Sleep" and "The Dark Tower", all Stephen King adaptations.  Then there was "The Woman in Black", "Suspiria" (2018) and "Replicas".  Let's throw "Horns" and "Only Lovers Left Alive" into that mix as well, and for my purposes, "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil". 

NOT-SO-SERIOUS HORROR MOVIES: 

A spoonful of sugar makes the horror film go down, and all that.  Maybe "The Cabin in the Woods" was right on that line between scary and silly, the premise alone probably places it squarely into the "Don't take this too seriously" category.  Also mixing comedy with horror were "Zombieland: Double Tap", "The Dead Don't Die", "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween", "The House with a Clock in its Walls", and "What We Do in the Shadows".  I also counted "Jumanji: The Next Level" as a comedy-horror mash-up (kids trapped in a video-game, it is a sort of nightmare scenario) and then there's "Swiss Army Man", which I couldn't take seriously at all - not because it's funny, just because it was laughably terrible. 

SCI-FI, FANTASY AND/OR ALIEN INVASION MOVIES:

"Sunshine", "Mortal Engines", "Pacific Rim: Uprising", "The Kid Who Would Be King", "Men in Black: International", "Ad Astra", "Shorts", "Seventh Son", "Time Lapse", "Sphere", "Captive State", "Gemini Man", "Under the Skin", "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", 

DC COMICS/SUPERHERO FILMS:

For the first year I can remember, Marvel/Disney was NOT a player in this category.  "Black Widow" and "The New Mutants" kept getting re-scheduled and re-re-scheduled, so I couldn't make them part of the mix - and I was caught up on my Marvel movies!  So, I turned to DC movies instead, the two live-action features I missed in 2019, and the one from 2020 that made it to cable by October.  I also had a bunch of animated DC movies on the list, and made a whole DC week out of it in January.  

"Joker", "All-Star Superman", "Superman: Unbound", "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker", "Batman: The Killing Joke", "Superman: Braniac Attacks", "Teen Titans GO! to the Movies", "Shazam!", "Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay", "Birds of Prey" - also "Professor Marston & The Wonder Women", which was about the personal life of the writer who created the "Wonder Woman" character.  Again, I couldn't work in "Wonder Woman 1984" because the release date kept changing, but I'm working on that now. 

ANIMATED/DISNEY FILMS (NON-SUPERHERO):

"The Nut Job", "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature", "Leap!", "Ferdinand", "The Willoughbys", "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "Frozen II", "Aladdin (2019)", "Tarzan 2: The Legend Begins", "Tarzan & Jane", "The Secret Life of Pets 2", "Lady and the Tramp (2019)", "Spies in Disguise", "The Addams Family (2019)"

LITERARY CLASSICS & FILMS ABOUT AUTHORS: 

"The Borrowers" (two versions, released in 1997 and 2011), "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story", "Tolkien", "The Kid Who Would Be King" (loose adaptation of King Arthur stories), "A Good Woman" (based on "Lady Windemere's Fan" by Oscar Wilde), "The Professor and the Madman" (about the men who compiled the OED),  "Little Women" (2019)", "Breakfast of Champions" (based on the book by Kurt Vonnegut), "Aladdin" (2019), "Tarzan & Jane" (loosely based on Edgar Rice Burroughs novels), "The Girl in the Spider's Web" (continuation of the story from "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"), "Motherless Brooklyn" (based on the 1999 novel by Jonathan Lethem), "The Last Thing He Wanted" (based on the novel by Joan Didion), "Sphere" (based on a novel by Michael Crichton), "Wonderstruck" (based on the 2011 novel by Brian Selznick), "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" (based on the 2012 novel by Maria Semple), "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" (based on a French comic book series), "The Wife" (based on the 2003 novel by Meg Wolitzer), "The Circle" (based on a novel by Dave Eggers), three films based on Stephen King novels, and five films based on the four "Twilight" books.  Oh, and "Whale Rider", based on the 1987 novel by Witi Ihimaera.

MUSICAL & NON-MUSICAL BIOPICS/BASED ON A TRUE STORY

"The Young Victoria" (Queen Victoria), "The Wizard of Lies" (Bernie Madoff), "The Catcher Was a Spy" (Moe Berg), "You Don't Know Jack" (Jack Kevorkian), "Phil Spector", "On the Basis of Sex" (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), "Elvis & Nixon", "Rocketman" (Elton John), "The Upside", "Richard Jewell", "The Aeronauts" (James Glashier), "The Duchess" (based on Georgiana Cavendish), "The King" (based on Henry V, via Shakespeare), "Motherless Brooklyn" (based on Robert Moses), "Dolemite Is My Name" (Rudy Ray Moore), "Greed" (loosely based on mogul Philip Green), "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" (Fred Rogers), "Lucy in the Sky" (based on Lisa Nowak), 

MOTHER'S DAY FILMS: 

"The Chumscrubber", "The Blind Side", "Motherhood", "We Don't Belong Here", "Other People", "Wine Country"

FATHER'S DAY FILMS: 

"Beautiful Boy", "Father Figures", "Wonder", "The Family Man", "House of D", "World's Greatest Dad", "Fathers' Day", "Onward", "Fathers & Daughters"

SPORTS FILMS: 

"Hands of Stone" (boxing), "The Catcher Was a Spy" (baseball), "How Do You Know" (baseball), "Uncut Gems" (basketball, gambling), "The Blind Side" (football), "Ford v Ferrari" (auto racing), "The Aeronauts" (hot-air ballooning), "Fighting with My Family" (wrestling), "Serenity" (umm, sport fishing?), "Hot Rod" (motorbike stunts), "Lay the Favorite" (sports gambling), "The Gambler" (even more gambling)

REVISIONIST WESTERNS: 

"The Ballad of Lefty Brown", "The Kid", "Seraphim Falls", "Dead Man"

WAR/GLOBAL POLITICS/SPIES, HITMEN & TERRORISTS: 

"1917", "The Catcher Was a Spy", "Eye in the Sky", "The Debt", "The Take", "Beasts of No Nation", "Richard Jewell", "The Report", "Angel Has Fallen", "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum", "The Constant Gardener", "The Girl in the Spider's Web", "The 15:17 to Paris", "Lord of War", "Proof of Life", "State of Play", "The Last Thing He Wanted", "7500", "The Laundromat", "The Equalizer 2", "Death Wish" (2018), "Blood Diamond", "Extraction"

NOT-SO-SERIOUS FILMS ABOUT SPIES & HITMEN:

"Killers", "Johnny English Strikes Again", "The Spy Who Dumped Me", "Code Name: The Cleaner", "Smokin' Aces", "Smokin Aces 2: Assassins' Ball", "Charlie's Angels" (2019)

FILMS ABOUT HITLER AND/OR NAZIS:

"The Debt", "The Reader", "Look Who's Back", "Downfall", "The Boys from Brazil", "Jojo Rabbit".  

LEGAL DRAMAS:

"The Lincoln Lawyer", "On the Basis of Sex", "Just Mercy"

SERIOUS CRIME/HEIST FILMS, LIKE MOBS, MURDER AND ARMED ROBBERY:

"Smilla's Sense of Snow", "The Irishman", "Stand Up Guys", "Once Upon a Time in America", "Heist" (2015), "Stockholm", "Hotel Artemis", "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood", "The Good Liar", "The House That Jack Built", "Hard Rain", "The Kitchen", "Den of Thieves", "River's Edge", "Motherless Brooklyn", "The Trust", "The Next Three Days", "Faster", "The Gentlemen", "Frailty", "The Lookout", "Bad Boys for Life", 

NOT-SO-SERIOUS CRIME/HEIST FILMS:

"The Nut Job", "Hustlers", "Bad Times at the El Royale", "Murder Mystery", "Cold Pursuit", "Knives Out", "Fool's Gold", "The Con Is On", "Supercon", "Once Upon a Time in Venice", "Killing Hasselhoff", "Cookie's Fortune", "Stuber", "Drunk Parents", "The Perfect Score", "One for the Money"

BACK-TO-SCHOOL FILMS:

Grade school/junior high: "Good Boys", "Wonder", "House of D", "13 Going on 30", "Matinee", "Thirteen"

High school: "Some Kind of Wonderful", "The Blind Side", "The Chumscrubber", "Booksmart", "Love, Simon", "River's Edge", "Drillbit Taylor", "World's Greatest Dad", "Brick", "The New Guy", "Bad Education", "The Perfect Score" and the "Twilight" films 

College: "Liberal Arts", "Midsommar" (I know, it's not really the right category for this, but "Midsommar" is kind of about college students on break...)

THE BUSINESS OF SHOW BUSINESS

"Grace of My Heart", "Opening Night", "Morning Glory", "Late Night", "Bombshell", "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood", "Obvious Child", "The Last Laugh (2019)", "Straight Outta Compton", "The Other Side of the Wind", "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "Dolemite Is My Name", "Matinee", "Fyre Fraud", "Fyre", "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", "Please Stand By", "Hearts Beat Loud", "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga"

DOCUMENTARIES/ROCK MUSIC:

"Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story", "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band", "The Last Waltz", "Echo in the Canyon", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon", "Shine a Light", "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", "Hitsville: the Making of Motown", "Whitney", "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas".  Oddly, in addition to "Hitsville: the Making of Motown", there were also two other documentaries centered on the unique acoustic properties and histories of particular sound recording studios: "Sound City" and "Muscle Shoals". 

BLACK LIVES MATTER: 

"Selma", "Straight Outta Compton" - I know, that second one's not exactly "Malcolm X" or "The Color Purple", but these two films aired for free on demand around the time of the BLM protests, and I happened to be stuck in a linking jam, but realized that dropping these films in on a moment's notice would get me out of that jam, and very easily back to the chain that I had planned, in a minimum of steps.  These two films fit in, amazingly, right between "Knives Out" and "Love, Simon" thanks to Lakeith Stanfield and Alexandra Shipp, so I pivoted quickly to make my chain more relevant to the headlines in early June:  

QUEER LIVES MATTER, TOO, WHILE I'M AT IT: 

"Rent", "Love, Simon", "Call Me By Your Name", "A Single Man", "The Dresser (1983)" - probably, plus "Chuck & Buck"

SEQUELS, PREQUELS, REMAKES, REBOOTS:

"The Borrowers" (2011) (remake), "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature" (sequel), "Joker" (prequel?), "Pacific Rim: Uprising" (sequel), "Still Waiting..." (sequel), "Overboard" (2018) (remake), "Tomb Raider" (reboot), "Men in Black: International" (sequel), "Johnny English Strikes Again" (sequel), "Little Women" (2019) (remake), "Angel Has Fallen" (sequel), "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" (sequel), "The Angry Birds Movie 2" (sequel), "Frozen II" (sequel), "Aladdin" (2019) (remake), "Tarzan 2: The Legend Begins" (prequel), "Tarzan & Jane" (sequel), "The Secret Life of Pets 2" (sequel), "The Girl in the Spider's Web" (sequel), "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball" (sequel), "Lady and the Tramp" (2019) (remake), "Charlie's Angels" (2019) (reboot), "The Equalizer 2" (sequel), "Death Wish" (2018) (reboot), "Bad Boys for Life" (sequel), "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" (sequel AND reboot), 4 "Twilight" sequels, "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" (sequel), "Birds of Prey" (sequel), "Doctor Sleep" (sequel), "Zombieland: Double Tap" (sequel), "Suspiria" (2018) (remake), "The Addams Family" (2018) (reboot?), "It: Chapter Two" (sequel), "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween" (sequel), "Jumanji: The Next Level" (sequel), "Bad Santa 2" (sequel)

RANDOM DRAMAS: 

These don't really seem to fit anywhere else, they're just basic, random dramas or dramedies - but I'm running out of time, the end of the year is fast approaching, so I'm just going to lump them all here: 

"The Sense of an Ending", "Everybody's Fine", "The Leisure Seeker", "The Tree of Life", "The Mountain Between Us", "45 Years", "A Serious Man", "Phantom Thread", "Are You Here", "The Company Men", "In America", "The Beach Bum", "The Wilde Wedding", "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her", "Tallulah", "Hunt for the Wilderpeople".  Other than the fact that they involved some pretty messed-up people, there's no real connection here, sorry....

THE REALLY WEIRD STUFF:

I remember over and over referring to 2020 as the Year of the Weird Movie - it's strange that I can watch a movie like "Men in Black: International" or "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", with all kinds of weird aliens and exotic species and think nothing of it, but then along comes "Midsommar" and I think, "Wow, now THAT'S a weird movie."  I guess when you start the year with a film about a Maori girl riding a whale, then a movie about astronauts trying to re-start the sun, all bets are off. 

Sometimes it's a bit hard to know where the line is any more - is a movie "weird" because it has a messed-up timeline, or no discernable story structure?  Or weird because after watching it, it's impossible to determine WHY somebody felt it was important to make THIS movie in THIS exact way?  Anyway, this is what I found weird in 2020, for various reasons, but again, my meter might be different than yours: 

"Whale Rider", "Sunshine", "Mortal Engines", "Lemon", "The Tree of Life", "Elvis & Nixon", "Look Who's Back", "The House that Jack Built", "Midsommar", "Breakfast of Champions", "The Chumscrubber", "The Willoughbys", "Phantom Thread", "Are You Here", "The Other Side of the Wind", "Shorts", "The Beach Bum", "Time Lapse", "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", "Jojo Rabbit" and "Under the Skin".

(I realize that some of these films qualify as "quirky" rather than "weird", plus I'm exempting horror films, because many of them are weird by definition - certainly "The Cabin in the Woods", "Horns", "Swiss Army Man" and anything with vampires, werewolves or zombies could qualify here...)

MOVIES I FINALLY WATCHED THAT I'D BEEN (ACTIVELY?) AVOIDING FOR A LONG TIME (or were constantly being rescheduled due to unavailability or technical difficulties):

"Some Kind of Wonderful", "Mermaids", "Rent", "Life as a House", "The Blind Side", "Code Name: The Cleaner", "The Dresser (1983)", "Chuck & Buck", "Call Me by Your Name", "The Family Man", "The Last Waltz", "Matinee", "Thirteen", "The Circle", "Dead Man", "Bad Santa 2"

DIRECTOR SPOTLIGHT ON JIM JARMUSCH:

I caught up in 2020 with three of his films that I hadn't seen: "The Dead Don't Die", "Only Lovers Left Alive", and "Dead Man".  So at this point there isn't much Jarmusch that I haven't seen - just a few, but one of them I may follow up with next year.  Last year I seemed to have a propensity for Noah Baumbach films - and in January, I'm really going to go for it and watch many Ingmar Bergman films. 

CHRISTMAS MOVIES, FINALLY:

"Bad Santa 2", "Instant Family", "Klaus" and "A Very Murray Christmas" ended my year. 

Now, what I'm sure almost nobody has been waiting for, a breakdown of actor appearances, with a minimum of 3.  Where the "Twilight" films are concerned, I'm going to do what I did last year for "The Hunger Games", if an actor was in all of the films in that series, or 3 or 4 of them, I'll just say "3 Twilight films" instead of breaking it all down, it's just easier.  If you really want to know which actors appeared in which films in that series, just go watch them.

What's the secret to somebody making this list?  Well, they just have to appear many times - appearing in a documentary counts, even if that involves the use of archive footage.  The IMDB often doesn't count that as a credit, but I do.  (But the IMDB also counts the use of an Elton John song as an "appearance" by Elton John, and I don't.).  Voice-work counts, too, even archival sound - like, say, the voice of Walter Cronkite announcing that JFK has been shot, or men have walked on the moon.  

The people who have the advantage here include character actors, people who work frequently voicing characters in animated films, historical figures like U.S. presidents or other heads of state, prominent musical acts (footage of the Beatles is used in nearly every rock music doc) and then there are news anchors and late night talk show hosts - all of those people tend to turn up again and again, sometimes more often than prominent actors - Tom Cruise, for example, was M.I.A. this year - even perennial favorite Nicole Kidman was only in 1 film, I think. 

Multiple Appearances + Cameos for 2020:

10 Appearances:

Maya Rudolph - "The Nut Job", "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature", "We Don't Belong Here", "Wine Country", "Chuck & Buck", "The Willoughbys", "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "Booksmart", "Whitney", "A Very Murray Christmas"
Ringo Starr - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz", "Echo in the Canyon", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "Sound City", "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon", "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown"

This makes sense, Maya Rudolph was also chosen as one of EW's "Entertainers of the Year", because she can simply do it all - she's a quadruple threat, appearing in dramas, comedys, animated films and musicals.  Singing in "A Very Murray Christmas", my last film of the year, forced a tie with a BEATLE!  So she's the prom queen to Ringo's king - of course Ringo's in all the archive footage of the Fab Four used in documentaries, but he also lives in L.A. and has time on his hands, so he made himself available for interviews in "Echo in the Canyon" and he played drums in "The Last Waltz", then THAT footage was used in the other documentaries about The Band.  This put him one film ahead of George Harrison, and two films ahead of Lennon & McCartney. (McCartney held the top spot two years ago, during my really deep dive into rock docs.)

9 Appearances:
George Harrison - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "Echo in the Canyon", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "Sound City", "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon", "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown"

Matthew McConaughey - "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "Serenity" (2019), "The Beach Bum", "Fool's Gold", "The Gentlemen", "The Lincoln Lawyer", "Frailty", "Fyre Fraud", "The Dark Tower"

8 Appearances:
Robert De Niro - "The Irishman", "Hands of Stone", "Everybody's Fine", "The Wizard of Lies", "Once Upon a Time in America", "Heist", "Joker", "Drillbit Taylor"
John Lennon - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Echo in the Canyon", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "Sound City", "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon", "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown"

Paul McCartney - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Echo in the Canyon", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "Sound City", "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon", "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown"
Owen Wilson - "You, Me and Dupree", "She's Funny That Way", "How Do You Know", "Breakfast of Champions", "Are You Here", "Father Figures", "Wonder", "Drillbit Taylor"

7 Appearances:
Glenn Close - "The Chumscrubber", "Tarzan 2: The Legend Begins", "Father Figures", "Cookie's Fortune", "The Wife", "The Wilde Wedding", "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her"

Bob Dylan - "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story", "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "Muscle Shoals"
John Goodman - "The Borrowers" (1997), "You Don't Know Jack", "Captive State", "The Gambler", "Matinee", "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", "Once Upon a Time in Venice"
Tara Strong - "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker", "Batman: The Killing Joke", "Superman: Brainiac Attacks", "Teen Titans GO! to the Movies", "Tarzan & Jane", "Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay", "The Secret Life of Pets 2"
Bruce Willis - "Breakfast of Champions", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "Motherless Brooklyn",   "Shine a Light", "Death Wish", "Lay the Favorite", "Once Upon a Time in Venice"
Neil Young - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz", "Echo in the Canyon", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "Sound City", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown"

6 Appearances:
Eric Clapton - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz", "Echo in the Canyon", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky"

Chris Evans - "Sunshine", "Playing It Cool", "Before We Go", "What's Your Number?", "Knives Out", "The Perfect Score"

Peter Facinelli - "The Wilde Wedding", all 5 "Twilight" films

Ashley Greene - "Bombshell", all 5 "Twilight" films
Jon Hamm - "Bad Times at the El Royale", "Richard Jewell", "The Report", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "A Single Man", "Lucy in the Sky"
Djimon Hounsou - "Shazam!", "In America", "Blood Diamond", "Seventh Son", "Charlie's Angels" (2019), "Serenity" (2019)

Allison Janney - "Bombshell", "The Chumscrubber", "Bad Education", "Liberal Arts", "Tallulah", "The Addams Family"

Scarlett Johansson - "In Good Company", "A Good Woman", "Marriage Story", "Jojo Rabbit", "Under the Skin", "The Perfect Score"
Helen Mirren - "Phil Spector", "The Good Liar", "The Leisure Seeker", "Eye in the Sky", "The Debt", "State of Play"
Richard Nixon - "Stockholm", "Bad Times at the El Royale", "Bombshell", "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story", "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon"

Robert Pattinson - "The King", all 5 "Twilight" films

Elizabeth Reaser - "Liberal Arts", all 5 "Twilight" films

Nikki Reed - "Thirteen", all 5 "Twilight" films

Stephen Root - "Superman: Unbound", "Bombshell", "On the Basis of Sex", "Selma", "Drillbit Taylor", "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot"

Kristen Stewart - "Charlie's Angels" (2019), all 5 "Twilight" films
Mark Strong - "Sunshine", "The Young Victoria", "Shazam!", "Stockholm", "1917", "The Catcher Was a Spy"

5 Appearances:
Ben Affleck - "State of Play", "The Last Thing He Wanted", "The Company Men", "Smokin' Aces", "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot"

Peter Bogdanovich - "She's Funny That Way", "Are You Here", "The Other Side of the Wind", "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead", "It: Chapter Two"

Billy Burke - all 5 "Twilight" films
Bobby Cannavale - "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature", "The Irishman", "Happy Endings", "Ferdinand", "Motherless Brooklyn"
Dick Cavett - "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon", "Shine a Light"

Sarah Clarke - "Happy Endings", "Thirteen", 3 "Twilight" films
Bill Clinton - "Definitely, Maybe", "Richard Jewell", "Blood Diamond", "Shine a Light", "Whitney"
Maddie Corman - "Private Life", "Some Kind of Wonderful", "Morning Glory", "Tallulah", "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"
Idris Elba - "Pacific Rim: Uprising", "The Take", "Beasts of No Nation", "The Mountain Between Us", "The Dark Tower"

Alice Eve - "Before We Go", "Bombshell", "The Con Is On", "Please Stand By", "Replicas"

Dakota Fanning - "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood", "Please Stand By", 3 "Twilight" films

Isla Fisher - "Definitely, Maybe", "The Beach Bum", "The Lookout", "Hot Rod", "Greed"
Will Forte - "She's Funny That Way", "The Willoughbys", "Booksmart", "Good Boys", "The Laundromat"
Bruno Ganz - "The Reader", "Look Who's Back", "Downfall", "The Boys from Brazil", "The House That Jack Built"

Judy Greer - "Lemon", "Love Happens", "The 15:17 to Paris", "Where'd You Go, Bernadette", "13 Going on 30"

Kevin Hart - "The Upside", "The Secret Life of Pets 2", "Drillbit Taylor", "Fool's Gold", "Jumanji: The Next Level"

Katherine Heigl - "The Nut Job", "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature", "Killers", "The Ugly Truth", "One for the Money"
Chris Hemsworth - "Bad Times at the El Royale", "Men in Black: International", "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot", "Extraction", "The Cabin in the Woods"

John F. Kennedy - "The Irishman", "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Muscle Shoals", "A Single Man", "Matinee"
Tom Kemp - "Mermaids", "Professor Marston & the Wonder Women", "You Don't Know Jack", "Little Women", "The Company Men"

Taylor Lautner - all 5 "Twilight" films

Kellan Lutz - all 5 "Twilight" films
Roger McGuinn - "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story", "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Echo in the Canyon", "David Crosby: Remember My Name"
Kate McKinnon - "Bombshell", "Leap!", "Ferdinand", "The Spy Who Dumped Me", "Fyre Fraud"
Joni Mitchell - "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz", "David Crosby: Remember My Name"

Liam Neeson - "The Nut Job", "Men in Black: International", "Cold Pursuit", "The Next Three Days", "Seraphim Falls"
Barack Obama - "The Report", "The Laundromat", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown", "Fyre Fraud"
Al Pacino - "The Irishman", "Stand Up Guys", "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood", "You Don't Know Jack", "Phil Spector"
Steve Park - "Morning Glory", "Phil Spector", "A Serious Man", "State of Play", "The Gambler"

Jackson Rathbone - all 5 "Twilight" films

Ronald Reagan - "Hands of Stone", "Bombshell", "Straight Outta Compton", "The Last Thing He Wanted", "Whitney"

Ryan Reynolds - "Waiting...", "The Proposal", "Definitely, Maybe", "The Last Laugh", "Smokin' Aces"

Jason Schwartzman - "Dreamland", "Wine Country", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "Klaus", "A Very Murray Christmas"

Michael Sheen - "Home Again", "Blood Diamond", 3 "Twilight" films
Lakeith Stanfield - "Uncut Gems", "The Girl in the Spider's Web", "Knives Out", "Selma", "Straight Outta Compton"

Fred Tatasciore - "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature", "All-Star Superman", "Batman: The Killing Joke", "Teen Titans GO! to the Movies", "Shazam!"
Tom Wilkinson - "Smilla's Sense of Snow", "The Catcher Was a Spy", "A Good Woman", "The Debt", "Selma"

4 Appearances:

Michael Adamthwaite - "Cold Pursuit", "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball", "The Twilight Saga: New Moon", "Horns"

Joe Anderson - "Love Happens", "The Ballad of Lefty Brown", "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2", "Horns"
Jennifer Aniston - "Love Happens", "The Bounty Hunter", "She's Funny That Way", "Murder Mystery"
Will Arnett - "The Nut Job", "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature", "Teen Titans GO! to the Movies", "Hot Rod"

Kathy Bates - "On the Basis of Sex", "The Blind Side", "Richard Jewell", "Bad Santa 2"

Charlie Bewley - 4 "Twilight" films

Gil Birmingham - 4 "Twilight" films
Jim Broadbent - "The Young Victoria", "Smilla's Sense of Snow", "The Sense of an Ending", "The Borrowers" (1997)
Tom Brokaw - "The Wizard of Lies", "Definitely, Maybe", "Richard Jewell", "Straight Outta Compton"

Gerard Butler - "The Ugly Truth", "The Bounty Hunter", "Den of Thieves", "Angel Has Fallen"
Nicolas Cage - "Teen Titans GO! to the Movies", "The Trust", "Lord of War", "The Family Man"
Timothée Chalamet - "Little Women", "Call Me by Your Name", "The King", "Beautiful Boy"

Justin Chon - 4 "Twilight" films

Frances Conroy - "Joker", "All-Star Superman", "Superman: Unbound", "Love Happens"
Steve Coogan - "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story", "Happy Endings", "The Professor and the Madman", "Greed"
David Crosby - "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Echo in the Canyon", "David Crosby: Remember My Name"
Russell Crowe - "Fathers & Daughters", "Proof of Life", "The Next Three Days", "State of Play"

Daniel Cudmore - 4 "Twilight" films
Willem Dafoe - "Paris Je t'Aime", "The House That Jack Built", "Motherless Brooklyn", "The Last Thing He Wanted"
Rick Danko - "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz"

Rhys Darby - "Killing Hasselhoff", "Jumanji: The Next Level", "What We Do in the Shadows", "Hunt for the Wilderpeople"
Charlie Day - "Pacific Rim: Uprising", "Hotel Artemis", "I Love You Daddy", "Going the Distance"
Laura Dern - "Happy Endings", "Marriage Story", "Cold Pursuit", "Little Women"
Kaitlyn Dever - "Laggies", "We Don't Belong Here", "Beautiful Boy", "Booksmart"
Taye Diggs - "Set It Up", "Just a Kiss", "Rent", "Opening Night"

Adam Driver - "Marriage Story", "You Don't Know Jack", "The Report", "The Dead Don't Die"
Mike Epps - "Faster", "Dolemite Is My Name", "Supercon", "Death Wish"

Ralph Fiennes - "The Reader", "The Duchess", "The Constant Gardener", "The Chumscrubber"

Kenneth Fok - "Tomb Raider", "Eye in the Sky", "Serenity" (2019), "The Dark Tower"
Stephen Fry - "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story", "The Borrowers" (2011), "The Con Is On", "Greed"

Edi Gathegi - "The Last Thing He Wanted", 3 "Twilight" films
Paul Giamatti - "The Catcher Was a Spy", "Private Life", "Straight Outta Compton", "Fyre Fraud"

Karen Gillan - "Spies in Disguise", "Stuber", "The Circle", "Jumanji: The Next Level"
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - "Knives Out", "Brick", "7500", "The Lookout"

Maggie Grace - "Faster", "Supercon", 2 "Twilight" films

Tiffany Haddish - "The Kitchen", "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "The Secret Life of Pets 2", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie"

Bill Hader - "You, Me and Dupree", "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "Hot Rod", "It: Chapter Two"
Ethan Hawke - "Stockholm", "Lord of War", "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", "The Kid"
Ronnie Hawkins - "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz"

Christopher Heyerdahl - "Stockholm", 3 "Twilight" films

Adolf Hitler - "Professor Marston & the Wonder Women", "The House That Jack Built", "What We Do in the Shadows", "Jojo Rabbit"
Dennis Hopper - "The Other Side of the Wind", "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead", "River's Edge", "David Crosby: Remember My Name"
Jayne Houdyshell - "Everybody's Fine", "The Bounty Hunter", "Morning Glory", "Little Women"
Garth Hudson - "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz"
Danny Huston - "You Don't Know Jack", "Angel Has Fallen", "The Constant Gardener", "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead"
O'Shea Jackson Jr. - "Long Shot",  "Just Mercy", "Den of Thieves", "Straight Outta Compton"

Mick Jagger - "Shine a Light", "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", "Muscle Shoals", "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas"

Julia Jones - "Cold Pursuit", 3 "Twilight" films

Rashida Jones - "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "Spies in Disguise", "Klaus", "A Very Murray Christmas"

Anna Kendrick - 4 "Twilight" films
Richard Kind - "Bombshell", "Obvious Child", "The Last Laugh", "A Serious Man"
Martin Luther King Jr. - "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown", "Muscle Shoals"
Kevin Kline - "Definitely, Maybe", "Dean", "Darling Companion", "Life as a House"

Keira Knightley - "The Borrowers" (2011), "Laggies", "The Duchess", "Greed"

Tinsel Korey - "The Lookout", 3 "Twilight" films
Brie Larson - "Just Mercy", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "13 Going on 30", "The Gambler"

Domenick Lombardozzi - "The Irishman", "How Do You Know", "Cold Pursuit", "The Gambler"
Justin Long - "Going the Distance", "Waiting...", "Still Waiting...", "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot"

Matt Malloy - "The Bounty Hunter", "Morning Glory", "Phil Spector", "Cookie's Fortune"
Richard Manuel - "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz"

Margo Martindale - "Paris, Je t'Aime", "The Kitchen", "Proof of Life", "Instant Family"
Adrian Martinez - "Morning Glory", "Lady and the Tramp" (2019), "In America", "Once Upon a Time in Venice"
Richard McCabe - "1917", "Eye in the Sky", "The Duchess", "The Constant Gardener"
Idina Menzel - "Just a Kiss", "Rent", "Uncut Gems", "Frozen II"

Stephen Merchant - "Good Boys", "Fighting with My Family", "The Girl in the Spider's Web", "Jojo Rabbit"
Ritchie Montgomery - "Heist", "Elvis & Nixon", "The Last Laugh", "Lay the Favorite"
Julianne Moore - "Seventh Son", "A Single Man", "Wonderstruck", "Cookie's Fortune"

Chloe Grace Moretz - "I Love You, Daddy", "Laggies", "Suspiria", "The Addams Family"
Niecy Nash - "The Proposal", "Code Name: The Cleaner", "Selma", "Cookie's Fortune"
Patton Oswalt - "Teen Titans GO! to the Movies", "The Secret Life of Pets 2", "The Circle", "Please Stand By"

Chris Parnell - "The Last Laugh", "Hot Rod", "The Laundromat", "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween"

Brad Pitt - "Ad Astra", "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood", "The Tree of Life", "Drillbit Taylor"
Robert Pralgo - "The Leisure Seeker", "The Blind Side", "The 15:17 to Paris", "Father Figures"

Keanu Reeves - "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum", "River's Edge", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "Replicas"

Rob Riggle - "Killers", "How to Be a Latin Lover", "Going the Distance", "Opening Night"
Robbie Robertson - "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz"

Sam Rockwell - "Everybody's Fine", "Laggies", "Richard Jewell", "Jojo Rabbit"

Martin Scorsese - "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz", "Shine a Light"

Christian Serratos - 4 "Twilight" films
Molly Shannon - "Private Life", "We Don't Belong Here", "Other People", "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot"

Will Smith - "Aladdin" (2019), "Bad Boys for Life", "Gemini Man", "Spies in Disguise"

Snoop Dogg - "Straight Outta Compton", "Dolemite Is My Name", "The Beach Bum", "The Addams Family"

Chaske Spencer - 4 "Twilight" films

Octavia Spencer - "Onward", "Fathers & Daughters", "Bad Santa 2", "Instant Family"
Mary Steenburgen - "Book Club", "The Proposal", "Dean", "Life as a House"

Jason Sudeikis - "Going the Distance", "The Bounty Hunter", "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "Booksmart"
Donald Sutherland - "Ad Astra", "The Leisure Seeker", "Lord of War", "Fool's Gold"

Tilda Swinton - "Uncut Gems", "The Dead Don't Die", "Only Lovers Left Alive", "Suspiria"

Charlize Theron - "Long Shot", "Bombshell", "The Addams Family", "A Very Murray Christmas"
Justin Theroux - "Joker", "The Spy Who Dumped Me", "On the Basis of Sex", "Lady and the Tramp" (2019)
Tessa Thompson - "Men in Black: International", "Selma", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "Lady and the Tramp" (2019)

Billy Bob Thornton - "Faster", "Dead Man", "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas", "Bad Santa 2"
James Urbaniak - "You Don't Know Jack", "Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay", "Wonderstruck", "Where'd You Go, Bernadette"

Muddy Waters - "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz", "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas"

Michael Welch - 4 "Twilight" films
Shea Whigham - "Joker", "The Catcher Was a Spy", "Bad Times at the El Royale", "The Lincoln Lawyer"
Benedict Wong - "Sunshine", "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story", "Lady and the Tramp" (2019), "Gemini Man"

3 Appearances:
Katie Aselton - "Book Club", "Bombshell", "Father Figures"

Awkwafina - "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "Jumanji: The Next Level"

Kathy Baker - "13 Going on 30", "The Ballad of Lefty Brown", "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her"

Elizabeth Banks - "Definitely, Maybe", "The Next Three Days", "Charlie's Angels" (2019)
Dave Bautista - "Heist", "Hotel Artemis", "Stuber"

Kristen Bell - "Teen Titans GO! to the Movies", "How to Be a Latin Lover", "Frozen II"

Robert Patrick Benedict - "Waiting...", "Still Waiting...", "State of Play"

Jack Black - "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween", "The House with a Clock in its Walls", "Jumanji: The Next Level"

Jamie Campbell Bower - 3 "Twilight" films

Robert Walker Branchaud - "The Leisure Seeker", "Father Figures", "Lady and the Tramp" (2019)

Cameron Bright - 3 "Twilight" films

Sterling K. Brown - "Hotel Artemis", "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "Frozen II"

Tituss Burgess - "Set It Up", "Dolemite Is My Name", "The Addams Family"

Steve Buscemi - "Paris, Je t'Aime", "The Dead Don't Die", "Dead Man"

Fabian Busch - "The Reader", "Look Who's Back", "Downfall"

P.J. Byrne - "Home Again", "Bombshell", "The 15:17 to Paris"
Rose Byrne - "Sunshine", "I Love You, Daddy", "Instant Family"

Colleen Camp - "She's Funny That Way", "In Good Company", "The House with a Clock in its Walls"

Johnny Cash - "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Sound City"

Michael Cera - "Lemon", "How to Be a Latin Lover", "A Very Murray Christmas"

Jessica Chastain - "The Debt", "The Tree of Life", "It: Chapter Two"

James Ciccone - "The Irishman", "Joker", "The Kitchen"

George Clooney - "Morning Glory", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "A Very Murray Christmas"

Stephen Colbert - "The Wizard of Lies", "The Last Laugh", "Fyre Fraud"

Toni Collette - "Knives Out", "Please Stand By", "Hearts Beat Loud"

Common - "The Kitchen", "Selma", "Smokin' Aces"

Maurice Compte - "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood", "Den of Thieves", "Once Upon a Time in Venice"

Chris Cooper - "Little Women", "The Company Men", "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"

Kevin Costner - "Drillbit Taylor", "The Company Men", "Whitney"

Steve Coulter - "The Wizard of Lies",  "Just Mercy", "The 15:17 to Paris"

Tom Courtenay - "The Dresser", "The Aeronauts", "45 Years"

Kendrick Cross - "Richard Jewell", "Father Figures", "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween"
Cliff Curtis - "Whale Rider", "Sunshine", "Doctor Sleep"

Jeff Daniels - "The Catcher Was a Spy", "State of Play", "The Lookout"

Pete Davidson - "Set It Up", "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "Fyre Fraud"

Rosario Dawson - "Rent", "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot", "Zombieland: Double Tap"

Johnny Depp - "Fyre Fraud", "Dead Man", "A Very Murray Christmas"

Eugenio Derbez - "Overboard" (2018), "How to Be a Latin Lover", "The Angry Birds Movie 2"

Neil Diamond - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz"

Matt Dillon - "Grace of My Heart", "You, Me and Dupree", "The House That Jack Built"

John DiMaggio - "All-Star Superman", "Batman: The Killing Joke", "Teen Titans GO! to the Movies"

Peter Dinklage - "Just a Kiss", "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie"

Tate Donovan - "Elvis & Nixon", "The Upside", "Rocketman"

Illeana Douglas - "Grace of My Heart", "She's Funny That Way", "The New Guy"

Mike Douglas - "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown"

Minnie Driver - "Motherhood", "Hard Rain", "The Wilde Wedding"

Wayne Duvall - "Hard Rain", "The Kitchen", "Richard Jewell"

Anna Faris - "What's Your Number?", "Overboard" (2018), "Waiting..."

Rebecca Ferguson - "The Kid Who Would Be King", "Men in Black: International", "Doctor Sleep"

Will Ferrell - "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga", "Drunk Parents"

Colin Firth - "1917", "Greed", "A Single Man"

Tommy Flanagan - "Smokin' Aces", "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball", "The Ballad of Lefty Brown"

Jane Fonda - "Book Club", "Fathers & Daughters", "Whitney"

Peter Fonda - "Grace of My Heart", "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "The Ballad of Lefty Brown"

Aretha Franklin - "Hitsville: The Making of Motown", "Whitney", "Muscle Shoals"

Ron Funches - "Fyre", "Once Upon a Time in Venice", "Killing Hasselhoff"

Massi Furlan - "Murder Mystery", "Bad Boys for Life", "Jumanji: The Next Level"

Jim Gaffigan - "Going the Distance", "13 Going on 30", "Drunk Parents"

Jerry Garcia - "David Crosby: Remember My Name", "Sound City", "Fyre Fraud"

Jeff Garlin - "Laggies", "Lemon", "The Bounty Hunter"

Marvin Gaye - "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown", "Whitney"

Crispin Glover - "The Con Is On", "River's Edge", "Dead Man"

Matthew Goode - "The Sense of an Ending", "The Lookout", "A Single Man"

Kiowa Gordon - 3 "Twilight" films

Topher Grace - "Playing It Cool", "Opening Night", "In Good Company"

Bill Graham - "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz"

Jack Dylan Grazer - "Shazam!", "Beautiful Boy", "It: Chapter Two"

Bruce Greenwood - "Fathers' Day", "Fathers & Daughters", "Doctor Sleep"

Kathryn Hahn - "Private Life", "She's Funny That Way", "How Do You Know"

Tony Hale - "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "Love, Simon", "The 15:17 to Paris"

Charles Halford - "Bad Times at the El Royale", "Darling Companion", "The Laundromat"

Mark Hamill - "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker", "Batman: The Killing Joke", "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead"

Tom Hanks - "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", "The Circle", "A Very Murray Christmas"

Levon Helm - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "The Last Waltz"

Jimi Hendrix - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "Muscle Shoals", "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas"

Lance Henriksen - "Superman: Brainiac Attacks", "Tarzan 2: The Legend Begins", "Dead Man"

Paul Herman - "The Irishman", "Once Upon a Time in America", "Fathers' Day"

Ciaran Hinds - "The Debt", "Frozen II", "The Woman in Black"

Douglas Hodge - "Joker", "The Report", "Gemini Man"

Siobhan Fallon Hogan - "Private Life", "The Bounty Hunter", "The House That Jack Built"

Lester Holt - "Bombshell", "The Laundromat", "Whitney"

Tyson Houseman - 3 "Twilight" films

Howlin' Wolf - "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan", "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band", "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas"

Gabriel Iglesias - "The Nut Job", "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature", "Ferdinand"

Denitra Isler - "The Leisure Seeker", "Just Mercy", "Lady and the Tramp" (2019)

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson - "Morning Glory", "Den of Thieves", "Straight Outta Compton"

Michael Jackson - "Hitsville: The Making of Motown", "Whitney", "13 Going on 30"

Oliver Jackson-Cohen - "What's Your Number?", "Going the Distance", "Faster"

Sakina Jaffrey - "Definitely, Maybe", "Late Night", "The Equalizer 2"

Sondra James - "Joker", "What's Your Number?", "Going the Distance"

Richard Jenkins - "Darling Companion", "Liberal Arts", "The Cabin in the Woods"

Lucinda Jenney - "Grace of My Heart", "We Don't Belong Here", "Matinee"

Peter Jennings - "Straight Outta Compton", "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead", "Whitney"

Ken Jeong - "Lady and the Tramp" (2019), "Killing Hasselhoff", "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween"

Johannes Haukur Johannesson - "The Good Liar", "Where'd You Go, Bernadette", "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga"

Dwayne Johnson - "Fighting with My Family", "Faster", "Jumanji: The Next Level"

Amin Joseph - "Time Lapse", "The Gambler", "Stuber"

Diane Keaton - "Book Club", "Darling Companion", "Morning Glory"

David Koechner - "Waiting...", "Still Waiting...", "Drillbit Taylor"

Lisa Kudrow - "Long Shot", "Happy Endings", "Booksmart"

Amy Landecker - "Dreamland", "Bombshell", "A Serious Man"

Lauren Lapkus - "Opening Night", "Are You Here", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie"

Adam LeFevre - "The Bounty Hunter", "House of D", "Fool's Gold"

Nels Lennarson - "Cold Pursuit", "The Cabin in the Woods", "Horns"

David Letterman - "The Wizard of Lies", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie", "Whitney"

Tracy Letts - "Little Women", "Ford v Ferrari", "Elvis & Nixon"

Lil Yachty - "Teen Titans GO! to the Movies", "Long Shot", "Fyre Fraud"

John Carroll Lynch - "Love Happens", "Private Life", "Lay the Favorite"

Richard Madden - "1917", "Rocketman", "The Take"

Bill Maher - "The Wizard of Lies", "Late Night", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie"

John Malkovich - "I Love You, Daddy", "Supercon", "The Wilde Wedding"

Leslie Mann - "Drillbit Taylor", "Shorts", "Motherless Brooklyn"

Jaeden Martell - "Playing It Cool", "Knives Out", "It: Chapter Two"

Rachel McAdams - "Morning Glory", "State of Play", "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga"

Danny McBride - "The Angry Birds Movie 2", "Drillbit Taylor", "Hot Rod"

Fred Melamed - "Lemon", "The Spy Who Dumped Me", "A Serious Man"

Alex Meraz - 3 "Twilight" films

Thomas Middleditch - "Once Upon a Time in Venice", "Replicas", "Zombieland: Double Tap"

Bill Murrray - "Zombieland: Double Tap", "The Dead Don't Die", "A Very Murray Christmas"

Kathrine Narducci - "The Irishman", "The Wizard of Lies", "Bad Education"

Craig T. Nelson - "Book Club", "The Proposal", "The Company Men"

Tim Blake Nelson - "The Report", "Just Mercy", "Angel Has Fallen"

Jack Nicholson - "How Do You Know", "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead", "David Crosby: Remember My Name"

Nick Nolte - "Paris, Je t'Aime", "Angel Has Fallen", "Breakfast of Champions"

Bob Odenkirk - "Long Shot", "Little Women", "Dolemite Is My Name"

Nick Offerman - "Bad Times at the El Royale", "Hearts Beat Loud", "Lucy in the Sky"

Denis O'Hare - "Private Life", "The Proposal", "Late Night"

Olafur Darri Olafsson - "The Spy Who Dumped Me", "Murder Mystery", "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga"

Matt O'Leary - "Frailty", "Time Lapse", "Brick"

Yoko Ono - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon"

Ahna O'Reilly - "She's Funny That Way", "Bombshell", "Elvis & Nixon"

Genevieve O'Reilly - "The Young Victoria", "Tolkien", "The Kid Who Would Be King"

David Paymer - "Lemon", "In Good Company", "Where'd You Go, Bernadette"

Bronson Pelletier - 3 "Twilight" films

Rosie Perez - "The Last Thing He Wanted", "Birds of Prey", "The Dead Don't Die"

Wendell Pierce - "Selma", "Lay the Favorite", "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2"

Maryann Plunkett - "Little Women", "The Company Men", "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"

Amy Poehler - "Wine Country", "Are You Here", "A Very Murray Christmas"

Chris Pratt - "What's Your Number?", "Onward", "The Kid"

Florence Pugh - "Little Women", "Midsommar", "Fighting with My Family"

Zachary Quinto - "Hotel Artemis", "What's Your Number?", "Tallulah"

Daniel Radcliffe - "Horns", "The Woman in Black", "Swiss Army Man"

Charlotte Rampling - "The Sense of an Ending", "45 Years", "The Duchess"

James Ransone - "The Next Three Days", "Captive State", "It: Chapter Two"

Usher Raymond - "Killers", "Hustlers", "Hands of Stone"

Retta - "Other People", "Good Boys", "Father Figures"

Alex Rice - 3 "Twilight" films

Keith Richards - "Shine a Light", "Muscle Shoals", "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas"

Margot Robbie - "Bombshell", "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood", "Birds of Prey"

Mel Rodriguez - "Overboard" (2018), "Onward", "The Last Thing He Wanted"

Valente Rodriguez - "The Ugly Truth", "The New Guy", "Instant Family"

Paul Rudd - "The Catcher Was a Spy", "How Do You Know", "Between Two Ferns: The Movie"

Morley Safer - "The Wizard of Lies", "Morning Glory", "Fyre Fraud"

Ashton Sanders - "Straight Outta Compton", "The Equalizer 2", "Captive State"

Bob Schieffer - "Morning Glory", "Straight Outta Compton", "State of Play"

Ben Schwartz - "Everybody's Fine", "How to Be a Latin Lover", "Fyre Fraud"

Reid Scott - "Home Again", "Dean", "Late Night"

David Shae - "Richard Jewell", "Bad Boys for Life", "Gemini Man"

Shanina Shaik - "Fyre Fraud", "Fyre", "Greed"

Michael Shannon - "She's Funny That Way", "Elvis & Nixon", "Knives Out"

Cybill Shepherd - "She's Funny That Way", "The Other Side of the Wind", "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead"

Jeremy Sisto - "Ferdinand", "Frozen II", "Thirteen"

Jenny Slate - "Hotel Artemis", "The Secret Life of Pets 2", "Obvious Child"

Christian Slater - "Hard Rain", "Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay", "The Wife"

Calilee Spaeny - "Bad Times at the El Royale", "Pacific Rim: Uprising", "On the Basis of Sex"

Annie Starke - "We Don't Belong Here", "Father Figures",  "The Wife"

Martin Starr - "Save the Date", "Lemon", "Playing It Cool"

Maury Sterling - "Batman: The Killing Joke", "Smokin' Aces", "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball"

Booboo Stewart - 3 "Twilight" films

Patrick Stewart - "The Kid Who Would Be King", "Charlie's Angels" (2019), "The Wilde Wedding"

Sharon Stone - "The Laundromat", "Sphere", "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story"

Jeremy Strong - "Selma", "Serenity" (2019), "The Gentlemen"

Emma Thompson - "Men in Black: International", "Johnny English Strikes Again", "Late Night"

Uma Thurman - "The House That Jack Built", "The Con Is On", "Motherhood"

Jacob Tremblay - "Good Boys", "Wonder", "Doctor Sleep"

Donald Trump - "Bombshell", "The Leisure Seeker", "Fyre Fraud"

Alanna Ubach - "Waiting...", "Still Waiting...", "Bombshell"

Taika Waititi - "What We Do in the Shadows", "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", "Jojo Rabbit"

Harriet Walter - "The Young Victoria", "The Sense of an Ending", "Rocketman"

Barbara Walters - "Mermaids", "You Don't Know Jack", "Whitney"

Sharon Washington - "Joker", "On the Basis of Sex", "The Kitchen"

Frank Welker - "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker", "Aladdin" (2019), "Tarzan 2: The Legend Begins"

Welker White - "The Irishman", "Morning Glory", "Bad Education"

Robin Williams - "House of D", "World's Greatest Dad", "Fathers' Day"

Joe Williamson - "Ford v Ferrari", "Please Stand By", "Lucy in the Sky"

Oprah Winfrey - "Selma", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown", "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"

Katheryn Winnick - "Stand Up Guys", "Killers", "The Dark Tower"

Mary Elizabeth Winstead - "Gemini Man", "Swiss Army Man", "Birds of Prey"

Reese Witherspoon - "How Do You Know", "Just Like Heaven", "Home Again"

Stevie Wonder - "The U.S. vs. John Lennon", "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", "Hitsville: The Making of Motown"

Ali Wong - "Father Figures", "Onward", "Birds of Prey"

Ronnie Wood - "Down in the Flood: Bob Dylan, the Band & the Basement Tapes", "The Last Waltz", "Shine a Light"

Anton Yelchin - "We Don't Belong Here", "House of D", "Only Lovers Left Alive"

In other rivalries, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson had 6 appearances each, beating Chris Hemsworth and Ryan Reynolds (both with 5) in a year where most of the other Marvel actors didn't even place (wherefore art though, Robert Downey Jr.?).  Scarlett would have been helped by "Black Widow" being released, but it didn't happen.  Owen Wilson's 8 films beat Luke Wilson's 2, Robert De Niro's 8 over Jack Nicholson's 3, Glenn Close's 7 films over Meryl Streep's 2, and Richard Nixon was the top-appearing U.S. President with 6 appearances (JFK, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all with 5, Trump had 3, Jimmy Carter 2, George H.W. Bush 2, George W. Bush 2, Gerald Ford 2 and LBJ & Joe Biden just 1)

And, somehow, two prominent Icelandic character actors Johannes Haukur Johannesson and Olafur Darri Olafsson made the list, proving once and for all that they are not the same person - and I'm betting that now their intense rivalry will continue.  But only three films each for Richard Jenkins and Michael Shannon?  Yeah, it was definitely an unusual year. 

How many people can carry over from one movie to the next?  I'm always happy when I find that two actors carry over, and then if there are three, I'm ecstatic.  So imagine how I felt when 12 or 13 people carried over from one documentary about Bob Dylan and/or the Band to the next?  And then when I got to the "Twilight" films, there were 19 actors in the first film who carried over to the second - and 27 actors from "Eclipse" who carried over to "Breaking Dawn, Part 1"!  Ah, but earlier in the year I'd watched the lost Orson Welles film "The Other Side of the Wind", followed by a "making of" documentary called "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead" - I counted at least 28 actors from the film who carried over to the documentary - that could be some kind of record for me.  

I also stand atop the mountain of 300 films I watched in 2020, proud of what I've accomplished, but also realizing that there is an equally tall mountain to scale just ahead - and I've got to start getting ready.  I know what my first movie of 2021 will be, but after Jan. 15 there are TWO paths that will get me to the start of February's romance chain, and I've got to figure out how to choose one over the other, a daunting task.  The right choice could ensure that I can have another perfectly-linked chain next year, and the wrong choice could force my linking to become impossible halfway through the year.  Or maybe, since I dodged and weaved all during 2020 and rebuilt my path many times, I just need to flip a coin and pick one over the other at random. 

That's 2020, all of it wrapped up like a burrito - but 2021, aka Movie Year 13, starts (gulp) tomorrow, and I just don't know if I'm ready - I've barely recovered from Movie Year 12.  2020 was, well, A LOT and we all hope that next year will be better, in so many ways.  I've got an interesting starting point for 2021, and I'll have my annual dedication to someone who left this mortal coil during 2020, and that's going to tie in with my January films, I promise.  Now I've got to go find my DVDs for the first half of January of Year 13.