Here I sit on New Year’s Eve, like every other person in the world, in my pajamas and watching movies before they expire from instant watch. It’s sort of been a panoply of cinema, an array of films including Raging Bull and Amadeus and that one about the guy who goes fucking nuts on live TV and becomes a hero and a martyr:

Harumph.

I’d like to think that I have big thoughts about these big movies, with such larger-than-life characters, but I do not. Everything amazing about these films has already been said and I agree with it all. The overriding theme of today’s films has been people who are insane, interestingly enough; a nice, unplanned surprise to the day’s proceedings. Antonio Salieri: insane. Jake La Motta: insane, and also a huge asshole. Howard Beale: you better believe. These are people who have been in touch with planet Earth and said, “Eh, that’s not really for me, thanks.”

All this has been set to the tune of root beer and gyro sammich and hummus and pita. Probably later there will be wine. And more movies. Always movies. If we forget the cinema, and the art of it, then we have forgotten ourselves. So in this coming year, do try to watch a movie or many, and at least one or two that existed at least ten years before you did. And just because it’s black and white, don’t discount it immediately. There is magic in monochrome.