Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Each year, an unmanageable herd of new releases stampedes through theaters, and although critics dutifully strive to enumerate that year’s highest achievements, many inevitably slip furtively by. Add to that untamed collection those many stray beasts that have hitherto eluded one’s film-viewing, and one is faced with an ever-expanding lacuna that will take many lifetimes to fill.

Of course, when one finally starts to sew up these gaps, these films themselves become no less important parts of a year’s viewing—detached from their original contexts and zeitgeists perhaps, but for that reason the richer and more relevant to the particularities of our lives than those works that are, we might say, merely new.

In years past, we’ve tried to offer a more idiosyncratic take on the traditional Best-Of, with selections that range from the augustly au courant to the intentionally anachronistic. For this year’s list, and in keeping with this website’s (unofficial) manifesto, we present a record of our year’s viewing: an assortment of discoveries as yet overlooked, omitted, or otherwise unwatched films that have finally come home to roost.

By Rumsey Taylor, Tina Hassannia, Abbey Bender, Greg Londe, Victoria Large, Leo Goldsmith, Ian Johnston, Ellen Lindner, Glenn Heath Jr., Michael Nordine, Lindsay Peters, and Veronika Ferdman   ©2013 NotComing.com