By Brett Blake It seems like every year when I put out my “Favorites of...” list, I have to be almost apologetic about the quality of the offerings that year. “This was a good - but not great - year, with many good movies, but only a handful of truly great ones. But that's fine!” I’m tired of that, so I’m going to tell it like it is: 2018 was, at best, an okay year for movies. Yes, there were a lot of good films, but unlike previous years, there were not any (for me) that elevated themselves above that; no powerhouses, no masterpieces, and - arguably, maybe - no even near-masterpieces. We have to go all the way back to 2013 to find a crop of movies I’m less enthusiastic about. Now, to be fair, on an individual basis there were lots of movies I liked in 2018. You’re about to read about eight of them (following the lead of my “Eight Best Films Scores of 2018” post, which you can read HERE), plus a special mention of what was probably the most important release of the year. So I certainly don’t want to make it sound like this list has been put together under protest, or anything like that; these are movies I genuinely enjoyed, and there were plenty of others from the year that I genuinely enjoyed. But overall, the year was severely lacking in movies that really knocked me out and made me say, “Wow.” In any case, let’s jump in. Special Mention - THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (Orson Welles) While it doesn’t technically go down as one of my favorite movies of 2018, it’s an extremely valuable one, being the completion of the last project the legendary Orson Welles was working on in the final decade-plus of his life. He never finished it, so it is a simply incredible gift for cinephiles that this thing exists in any viewable form at all. It is a dense, fascinating film that feels deeply personal, like Welles exorcising some demons and channeling all his frustrations with the movie business. I’ve seen the film twice, and it will likely take me several more viewings to really figure out how I feel about it all, but I’m thrilled people can finally see what Welles spent so much time trying to finish. 08. THE MULE (Clint Eastwood) Despite a marketing campaign that painted a rather dour picture, THE MULE is a very entertaining watch from director and star Clint Eastwood, and I think a strong case could be made it’s his best film since LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. It’s a fascinating and strange true tale, and for the most part the writing is fairly strong; rather than getting bogged down in the darkness inherent to drug running, the script embraces humor and has a bit of fun highlighting the absurdity of the very idea of a 90-year-old drug mule without undercutting the drama, and this is also tempered by a bit of melancholy that works surprisingly well, particularly in the third act. The movie takes its central character and his predicament seriously, but not so seriously that that we can’t kind of enjoy the ride. Eastwood himself reminds us of why he’s a movie star, and seeing him deliver one last fine performance is a real treat. 07. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (Anthony Russo, Joe Russo) A massive spectacle, crammed (probably too crammed) with terrific characters, wild action sequences and fights, and the sense of humor audiences have come to expect from the Marvel Cinematic Universe... albeit anchored by a weightier, slightly more tense, apocalyptic flavor. INFINITY WAR’s greatest achievement is that it isn’t a complete mess. There is undeniably too much going on, as the movie races from action sequence to action sequence, but there is a breathless quality to it all that pulls us through, and the characters are consistently engaging enough to patch over what is probably a too-straightforward plot driving everything. The real joy of this movie is in seeing these heroes - many of whom have never encountered each other before in a film - sharing the screen, sparring with each other, and ultimately teaming up, and on that level, the movie is terrifically entertaining. 06. HEREDITARY (Ari Aster) HEREDITARY is not fun. In fact, I’m not even fully sure how much I actually like it. It’s a taxing, emotionally challenging work of genre storytelling, and one that is hard to talk about while still preserving the dramatic turns. This is an almost relentlessly uncomfortable experience, unnerving in the very best meaning of the word, and director Ari Aster is to be commended for the absolute mastery of tone and pacing on display here. There is a dread-filled feeling permeating the movie from the very first frames, and some truly ballsy choices are made in the narrative (one, fairly early on, brought about a literal jaw-dropping reaction from me); there is some intense, dark drama in in the story (even removed from the genre elements which eventually do arrive) that will absolutely put some people off, and it goes to some very raw places. Yes, the ultimate revelation of what’s happening is underwhelming, but the heavy tone and Oscar-worthy lead performance from Toni Collette secured the film a place on this list. 05. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (Christopher McQuarrie) While it may lack some of the wild inventiveness of GHOST PROTOCOL or the classy espionage flair of ROGUE NATION, FALLOUT makes up for it with some jaw-dropping and consistently thrilling action, a fine ensemble, and Tom Cruise again throwing himself (quite literally) into the stunts with admirable dedication and a commitment to giving the audience their money’s worth. It is a very well-made, well-executed action film, and its flaws are relatively minor when compared to everything else that is good about it. The stunt work, which has become something of a calling card for these movies, is superb once again. In an era where CGI can show us literally anything, it's a real pleasure to see people actually putting in the harder work of delivering genuine, for-real spectacle, and this movie maintains MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE’s status as one of the best action franchises we have. 04. THE CLOVEHITCH KILLER (Duncan Skiles) “A little ZODIAC, a little SHADOW OF A DOUBT, a little John Hughesian coming-of-age teen angst, and a little THE STEPFATHER.” That pitch, on paper, should have resulted in a very familiar and conventional concoction, but the quality of this film’s writing, the assured direction, and the strong performances really elevate it and turn it into a thoroughly engrossing - and very dark - thriller. I am always an easy mark for “kids/teens investigating something sinister” stories, and this is a very good example of that sort of thing; it provides us two teenage heroes worth rooting for as they dig deeper into the mystery of the title character; both Charlie Plummer and Madisen Beaty are able to navigate the waters of being likable teens without undercutting the very dire and serious nature of the subject matter. Indeed, there is some very upsetting stuff in here, presented in a way that feels all-too-realistic, rather than sensational. In the centerpiece role, we have Dylan McDermott in terrific form, better than in anything else I’ve ever seen him in; it’s an outwardly affable, “awkward dad” turn hiding something pitch black underneath. The script rather cleverly plays with structure in a way that keeps things engaging before culminating in a legitimately suspenseful third act that lands with a lot of impact. This was one of the most pleasant discoveries of 2018. 03. READY PLAYER ONE (Steven Spielberg) A blockbuster return to form from Steven Spielberg, this is his best pure popcorn flick in at least 20 years. It’s big, splashy fun that serves up a heaping helping of entertainment with no small amount of flair. It shows that Spielberg is still at the height of his directorial powers, and he dips back into the “crowd-pleasing” part of his skill set in a more pronounced way than he has for pretty much his entire 21st century output so far. He has made better movies than this over the last 18 years, sure, but there’s a pure-hearted desire to entertain on display in this film that is very appealing and effective. This is almost a sort of comfort food movie, and its ambitions are not particularly higher than that; some have found fault with that, feeling that there’s not enough substance here, and that would maybe be a fair critique. However, there’s a genuine exuberance on display in Spielberg’s direction, and that goes a long way. 02. THOROUGHBREDS (Cory Finley) A darkly-funny, borderline-satirical drama featuring a fascinating pair of characters at its center. I don’t think I’ve ever seen teenage girls presented like this -- written with extreme sharpness, the way their relationship develops is intensely engrossing and idiosyncratic. Anya Taylor-Joy arguably has the most defined character arc of the story, and she navigates it very well and in as believable a way as could be hoped for given the subject matter. Opposite her is Olivia Cooke (also a star of READY PLAYER ONE) in a really strong - almost mesmerizing - performance, one that is off-putting, funny, and frightening in the way she’s able to convey her detachment from human emotion and her lack of a defined moral compass. From a filmmaking standpoint, the movie is directed and shot well, employing interesting camerawork and shot composition to underline the complex tonal dynamics at play. But it really all comes back to Cooke and Taylor-Joy, and their work here makes THOROUGHBREDS a singular tale. 01. ANNIHILATION (Alex Garland) Unsettling and provocative genre filmmaking, this is a challenging, cerebral science fiction thriller that (fairly successfully!) marries big and complex ideas with striking and shocking moments of horror (both of the visceral and existential variety). This could have run the risk of being a chilly, distant exercise, but there’s actually some affecting stuff in here, and it fully functions as a story, rather than just a skeleton upon which thematic ideas are fastened -- it’s both artistically and narratively compelling. A palpable sense of dread permeates the movie from its first images, and there are moments here that truly potent and unnerving (it’s also an unexpectedly solid creature feature, too). Writer/director Garland handles some staggeringly weird elements with admirable ease, and he’s careful to ground the strangeness in enough plausible reality to allow the audience to suspend the required disbelief. The movie concludes on a deliberately destabilizing and ambiguous note, and it has had a lingering hold over me since I first saw it all the way back in March.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
January 2023
Categories
All
|