Film Year in Review--2018
It's time for our eagerly awaited annual film wrap-up (a little later than usual, but I've been unusually busy).
2018 was not a great year for film. I had a tough time putting together a top ten--most of the finalists wouldn't have made it in a really good year. I should note there were some major movies I didn't check out. I'm not a professional critic, I have to buy tickets, and I just wasn't going to pay to see Venom. I should also note I saw several films starring or created by friends, but I won't be discussing those since I don't think I can be objective.
Before we start, a few ground rules. I discuss only feature films released or made widely available in U. S. theatres in 2018. No shorts, no TV, though the latter distinction is getting tougher to uphold. A number of major titles last year were released in theatres but soon after made available on streaming services such as Netflix. So I split the difference--if I saw a film first in a theatre (such as, say, Roma), it'd be in contention, but if I saw it first on TV (such as, say, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs) it wouldn't.
I will give out some awards, note some trends, tell you which films were good, bad and ugly, and then list my top ten. You can rush to the bottom right now to see the list, but really, the best stuff is along the way.
Feel free to leave a comment, whether you agree or not. In fact, comments tend to be better when you don't agree.
2018 AWARDS
Performances Of The Year: There wasn't a single performance that stood out above all, so here are some that I enjoyed. Anne Hathaway in Ocean's 8, Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade, Richard E. Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Awkwafina in Crazy Rich Asians, Yalitza Aparicio in Roma
Star Of The Year: Emily Blunt, who was the lead in two very different films, A Quiet Place and Mary Poppins Return. Runner-up: Michael B. Jordan, who was the antagonist in Black Panther and the lead in Creed II.
Most Bizarre Performance: Nicolas Cage in Mandy. (Maybe we should just name the award after him.)
Best Sequel: Paddington 2 (I actually didn't see Paddington, but the sequel worked fine on its own)2018 was not a great year for film. I had a tough time putting together a top ten--most of the finalists wouldn't have made it in a really good year. I should note there were some major movies I didn't check out. I'm not a professional critic, I have to buy tickets, and I just wasn't going to pay to see Venom. I should also note I saw several films starring or created by friends, but I won't be discussing those since I don't think I can be objective.
Before we start, a few ground rules. I discuss only feature films released or made widely available in U. S. theatres in 2018. No shorts, no TV, though the latter distinction is getting tougher to uphold. A number of major titles last year were released in theatres but soon after made available on streaming services such as Netflix. So I split the difference--if I saw a film first in a theatre (such as, say, Roma), it'd be in contention, but if I saw it first on TV (such as, say, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs) it wouldn't.
I will give out some awards, note some trends, tell you which films were good, bad and ugly, and then list my top ten. You can rush to the bottom right now to see the list, but really, the best stuff is along the way.
Feel free to leave a comment, whether you agree or not. In fact, comments tend to be better when you don't agree.
2018 AWARDS
Performances Of The Year: There wasn't a single performance that stood out above all, so here are some that I enjoyed. Anne Hathaway in Ocean's 8, Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade, Richard E. Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Awkwafina in Crazy Rich Asians, Yalitza Aparicio in Roma
Star Of The Year: Emily Blunt, who was the lead in two very different films, A Quiet Place and Mary Poppins Return. Runner-up: Michael B. Jordan, who was the antagonist in Black Panther and the lead in Creed II.
Most Bizarre Performance: Nicolas Cage in Mandy. (Maybe we should just name the award after him.)
Worst Sequel: Equalizer 2--and the first one wasn't exactly anything to write home about.
Most Disappointing Sequel: Halloween--they actually had me believing they were going to do it right for a change. Runner-up: The Incredibles 2--it was okay, but just couldn't compare to the original.
Best Reboot: Ocean's 8 wasn't half bad, and I haven't liked any of the Ocean films since the first one (i.e., the first remake).
Worst Reboot: The Predator
Most Pointless Reboot: Mary Poppins Returns. You could call it a sequel, but it essentially tells the same story. Trouble is we've already got the original.
Worst Prequel: The First Purge. We don't need to know about past purges--or present purges or future purges.
Best Prequel: Bumblebee. Not that it's any good--I mean in comparison to the other Transformers movies.
Put It Out Of Its Misery Award: A Star Is Born. Aren't we done with this yet? Even if you liked it (and I sure didn't), this is the fourth version, and the first was kind of a remake of What Price Hollywood?
Best Half Movie: The King. It's a musical journey across America exploring the life and meaning of Elvis Presley. Unfortunately, it spends a fair amount of time comparing Elvis's story to American history, which is pretty dumb, but, happily, easy enough to ignore.
Best Opening Shot: Roma. Soapy water washes over a tiled floor. We don't know where we are, or what's happening, but we'd like to find out.
Runner-up: Searching. A rolling green hill. Feels like we've seen it before. Oh yeah, it's the default screen on Windows XP.
Best Line: From Game Night. Max and Annie, going into their house with grocery bags, are trying to convince creepy, suspicious neighbor Max they're not having a game night.
Gary: Three bags of Tostitos Scoops, I noticed.
Max. There was a special on these tonight. Three for one.
Gary: Three for one?
Max: Yep.
Gary: How can that be profitable for Frito-Lay?
Best Bad Line: "You sent me to whore school!" Red Sparrow
Most Tired Plot Device: Black male being shot by a white cop. It turned up in a movie about every other month.
Most Generic Title: The Wife
Best Plot Twist: Borders. It's not so much a plot twist as an explanation of what's going on, and it makes perfect sense.
Worst Plot Twist: Tully. You may figure it out, you may not, but either way, I don't think you'll like it.
Most Ridiculous Plot: Avengers: Infinity War. The bad guy, Thanos, plots to kill half of all life in the galaxy. His reason? There are too many beings and it's destroying the ecology. I don't care if he is mad--even he knows the galaxy is a pretty big place.
Movie That Was Better Than It Had Any Right To Be: Alpha. Looked kind of dumb, but wasn't bad.
Best Musical Moment: We're well into Cold War, set in the post-WWII years. So far, we've only heard Eastern European folk music, cool jazz and a bit of Chopin. Now our leading lady is at a club and they put on "Rock Around The Clock." This may not exactly be the point of the scene, but it sure reminds you what a thunderbolt rock and roll was when it first appeared.
Best Original Song: Mackenzie Davis and Carrie Coon surprise us with a pretty good number in Iggy Gets The F Across Town:
Babette's Feast Award For Best Food Porn: Ramen Heads
Taylor Kitsch Award For The Actor Whom Producers Mistook For A Star: Claire Foy. She may win Emmys, but the audience wasn't there for Unsane, First Man or The Girl In The Spider's Web.
Jason Statham Award For Actor Who Appears In One Bad Film After Another But Still Manages To Be Appealing: Dwayne Johnson was in two lousy films, Rampage and Skyscraper, but we still like him.
You Me And Dupree Award For The Film That While Nominally A Hollywood Comedy Is Actually A Surrealist Masterpiece Where Plot Points Are Introduced And Dropped For No Reason, Dialogue Is Unrelated To The Action, And Characters Do Things That Bear No Resemblance To How Humans Act: I Feel Pretty
House Of Sand And Fog Award For Miserable People Doing Miserable Things That Ends Up In Misery: Hereditary
Rogue One Award For Unneeded Patches: Solo: A Star Wars Story, explains so many things--how he got his name, how he got his ship, how he met Chewie, how he met Lando, what the Kessel Run is--and every explanation made Han Solo just a little less interesting.
Quirkiest Characters: Boundaries. It's a story about an old man who deals drugs, his grown daughter who can't help but take in stray animals, and her son who draws people he knows in pornographic situations. Screenwriters like to give their characters quirks, but if it feels forced, they just end up being annoying.
Weirdest Concept: The Green Fog. Guy Maddin retells Vertigo by piecing together bits from old TV shows and movies set in San Francisco.
Best Scottish High School Zombie Musical: Anna And The Apocalypse.
Most Misleading Title: If Beale Street Could Talk--we don't get anywhere near Beale Street, and it sure doesn't talk. Runner-Up: Roma--would you have guessed it's set in Mexico?
Film Most Clearly Done For A Paycheck: A tough call, but I'll go with Bruce Willis sleepwalking through a remake of Death Wish.
TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS
Running Numbers: Zero, Ready Player One, First Man, The First Purge, First Reformed, Second Act, Three Identical Strangers, The Nutcracker And The Four Realms, 6 Dynamic Laws For Success, 7 Days In Entebbe, Eighth Grade, Ocean's 8, Mile 22, Fifty Shades Freed, mid90s, 1945
We The Animals: Black Panther, Isle Of Dogs, Beast, American Animal, Ant-Man And The Wasp, We The Animals, Bumblebee, The Mule, Fantastic Beasts, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Superfly, Show Dogs, Pandas, Peter Rabbit, Thoroughbreds, Dog Days, A Cool Fish, The Seagull, Pick Of The Litter
What's In A Name: Colette, Mandy, Tully, Becks, Uncle Drew, Blaze, Diane, Hal, White Boy Rick, Jonathan, Lean On Pete, McQueen, King Cohen, Whitney, Winchester, Itzhak, Christopher Robin, Proud Mary, Madeline's Madeline, The Great Buster, Juliet Naked, Carter & June, Stan & Ollie, Holmes & Watson, Mary Queen Of Scots, Peter Rabbit, The Meg
Where It's At: Chappaquiddick, Beirut, Soller Point, In Echo Park, Roma, Los Angeles Overnight, Welcome To Marwen, Little Italy, If Beale Street Could Talk, Hotel Transylvania 3, Mountain, Scorched Earth
Color My World: Black Panther, Red Sparrow, The White Orchid, The Green Fog, Little Pink House, Green Book, BlacKkKlansman
Book 'Em: Book Club, Green Book, The Bookstore
Game Night: Tag, Puzzle, Truth Or Dare, Game Night
Swinging For The Fences: There were a number of films that didn't work--Hereditary, Sorry To Bother You, Mandy--but at least they were trying something different.
John C. Reilly Needs A Partner: He starred in Stan & Ollie, Holmes & Watson and The Sisters Brothers. He also did the voice in Ralph Breaks The Internet, and though the title doesn't give it away, he sure needs Vanellope.
Job Of The Year: Domestic servant--Mary Poppins Returns, Tully, The Favourite, Roma
Life Imitates Art: In the end credits of The Death Of Stalin, we see photos of the characters being defaced or removed as they're being written out of history. Meanwhile, one of the leads, Jeffrey Tambor, was being written out of his Emmy-winning lead role in Transparent due to allegations of sexual harassment.
What's Up Doc: Documentaries were hot in 2018. In the doc world, a $10 million gross is the equivalent of a blockbuster, and four films, with varied content, managed it--RBG, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Three Identical Strangers and Free Solo.
Not Bloody Likely: Just how much blood does a human body contain? Based on films like Sicario: Day Of The Soldado, Mandy and Revenge, I'd guess about ten gallons, considering how much you can lose and still be walking around.
Actually, A Women Wrote That: Colette, The Wife, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Be Natural
Old White Guys Make The Best Criminals: The Mule, The Old Man And The Gun, Widows
Make Your Point With Miniatures: Hereditary, Vice, Welcome To Marwen
Crazy Rich Asians: Burning, The Great Buddha+, Ghostbox Cowboy, Crazy Rich Asians
Taking The Rap For Someone Else: Flowers, Thoroughbreds, If Beale Street Could Talk
Good-Looking Women Trying To Look Bad: Nicole Kidman in Destroyer, Margot Robbie in Mary Queen Of Scots (at least when she has pox), Eva Melander in Border
Sobbin' Steve: Steve Carell, a talented comic actor, stars in two films where he'd rather make us cry, Welcome To Marwen and Beautiful Boy.
Odd Creatures Dropping In To Battle An Unready Military: Rampage, Bumblebee, The Predator
All There In Black And White: A bunch of art films were shot in black and white: Cold War, 1945, The Party, Roma. Yeah, I know, the filmmakers thought it was essential, but at this point, black and white is just an affectation.
RANKINGS
GOOD
John C. Reilly Needs A Partner: He starred in Stan & Ollie, Holmes & Watson and The Sisters Brothers. He also did the voice in Ralph Breaks The Internet, and though the title doesn't give it away, he sure needs Vanellope.
Job Of The Year: Domestic servant--Mary Poppins Returns, Tully, The Favourite, Roma
Life Imitates Art: In the end credits of The Death Of Stalin, we see photos of the characters being defaced or removed as they're being written out of history. Meanwhile, one of the leads, Jeffrey Tambor, was being written out of his Emmy-winning lead role in Transparent due to allegations of sexual harassment.
What's Up Doc: Documentaries were hot in 2018. In the doc world, a $10 million gross is the equivalent of a blockbuster, and four films, with varied content, managed it--RBG, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Three Identical Strangers and Free Solo.
Not Bloody Likely: Just how much blood does a human body contain? Based on films like Sicario: Day Of The Soldado, Mandy and Revenge, I'd guess about ten gallons, considering how much you can lose and still be walking around.
Actually, A Women Wrote That: Colette, The Wife, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Be Natural
Old White Guys Make The Best Criminals: The Mule, The Old Man And The Gun, Widows
Make Your Point With Miniatures: Hereditary, Vice, Welcome To Marwen
Crazy Rich Asians: Burning, The Great Buddha+, Ghostbox Cowboy, Crazy Rich Asians
Taking The Rap For Someone Else: Flowers, Thoroughbreds, If Beale Street Could Talk
Good-Looking Women Trying To Look Bad: Nicole Kidman in Destroyer, Margot Robbie in Mary Queen Of Scots (at least when she has pox), Eva Melander in Border
Sobbin' Steve: Steve Carell, a talented comic actor, stars in two films where he'd rather make us cry, Welcome To Marwen and Beautiful Boy.
Odd Creatures Dropping In To Battle An Unready Military: Rampage, Bumblebee, The Predator
All There In Black And White: A bunch of art films were shot in black and white: Cold War, 1945, The Party, Roma. Yeah, I know, the filmmakers thought it was essential, but at this point, black and white is just an affectation.
RANKINGS
GOOD
Paddington 2, Thoroughbreds, Flower, Isle Of Dogs, Ready Player One, The Green Fog, Avengers: Infinity War, The Rider, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Always At The Carlyle, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 6 Dynamic Laws For Success, The King, Three Identical Strangers, Revenge, Blindspotting, McQueen, King Cohen, Mission: Impossible--Fallout, Juliet Naked, Crazy Rich Asians, Alpha, Hal, A Simple Favor, Love Gilda, Bad Times At The El Royale, The Great Buster, Border, The Favourite, Be Natural, Anna And The Apocalypse, Cold War, Stan & Ollie
OKAY
12 Strong, Scorched Earth, Becks, Black Panther, Ramen Heads, The White Orchid, A Quiet Place, Los Angeles Overnight, You Were Never Really Here, Chappaquiddick, Lowlife, Beirut, The Endless, Lean On Pete, Adventures In Public School, Ghost Stories, Beast, Measure Of A Man, First Reformed, Filmworker, Iggy Gets The F Across Town, Puzzle, Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mountain, Soller Point, That Summer, The Gospel According To Andre, Funeral Day, Ocean's 8, Hearts Beat Loud, The Texture Of Falling, The Incredibles 2, Damsel, Leave No Trace, Hover, Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot, Heels, Scotty And The Secret History Of Hollywood, BlacKkKlansman, Support The Girls, Searching, We The Animals, Lost Fare, Diane, White Boy Rick, Conny Plank: The Potential Of Noise, Knuckleball, Bohemian Rhapsody, In Echo Park, Colette, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Clovehitch Killer, Ralph Breaks The Internet, At Eternity's Gate, The Price Of Everything, Ghostbox Cowboy, Mirai, The Great Buddha+, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Getting Grace, Mary Poppins Returns, Vice, If Beale Street Could Talk, Destroyer
NOT OKAY
The Commuter, Den Of Thieves, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Early Man, Annihilation, Game Night, The Party, Red Sparrow, Death Wish, Love Simon, Blockers, Tully, Deadpool 2, Upgrade, Hotel Artemis, Tag, Action Point, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Hereditary, Boundaries, Rampage, Sicario: Day Of The Soldado, The First Purge, Sorry To Bother You, Skyscraper, Equalizer 2, The Darkest Minds, The Spy Who Dumped Me, Christopher Robin, 1945, The Wife, Madeline's Madeline, Mile 22, The Bookshop, Uncle Drew, Peppermint, The Predator, Life Of The Party, The Sisters Brothers, The Old Man & The Gun, Mandy, A Star Is Born, Night School, First Man, Halloween, Widows, Creed II, Bumblebee, The Mule, Aquaman, Second Act, Welcome To Marwen, Burning, Mary Queen Of Scots
TOP TEN (in alphabetical order)
There are so many caper films, but very few capture how sickening it would feel to be part of one.
Ant-Man And The Wasp
There are too many superhero films, but when they're light on their feet they can be fun.
The Death Of Stalin
Soviet history as farce, which, if you ignore the tragedy, it is.
Eighth Grade
Some people saw hope, but I thought it was the saddest film of the year, and all too accurate.
Free Solo
It's crazy to climb a mountain with no gear, and this film makes you feel it.
Green Book
This movie has become surprisingly controversial--surprising since it's a good old-fashioned crowd-pleaser.
mid90s
I didn't come of age in the mid-90s, I didn't skateboard, I didn't hang around with disreputable kids (much), but I know what it's like to be young and hang out.
Never Goin' Back
A stupid little comedy about a couple of young, white trash gals. The critics didn't think much of it, and the movie flopped (bet you haven't heard of it), but what can I say, I liked it.
Roma
Even if this weren't based on the director's story, it sure captures what life is like--the big things and the small.
Shoplifters
A film that asks the question what really is a family?
posted by LAGuy @ 12:12 AM
13 Comments:
So you've got Solo and Free Solo. The King and King Cohen. Also, based on the previews, I couldn't tell The Favourite and Mary Queen Of Scots apart.
The very first line for your review...
"2018 was not a great year for film."
...pretty much sums it up for me. To make 2018 further suffer by comparison, I recently had reason to recall a chapter from William Goldman's book "Adventures in The Screen Trade" about the year 1939. He wrote it better, but the gist of it was this:
1939. One of the greatest years in movie history. The year the Oscars recognized
- "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington"
but solely for Best Writing, not Best Picture, because 1939 was the same year that
- "Wuthering Heights"
was released... which also didn't win Best Picture because it was the same year that
- "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"
- "Of Mice and Men"
and
- "Stagecoach" (directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne in his breakout role)
were released. That's five total Best Picture nominees...
...none of which won because this was an era when more than five movies could be nominated for Best Picture. Which left one of the most beloved movies of all time:
- "The Wizard of Oz"
Which ALSO DIDN'T WIN.
Because
- "Gone With The Wind"
did.
Again, William Goldman did a better job telling it in "Adventures in The Screen Trade".
But you get the idea.
Todd
#WhenMoviesMattered
William Goldman wrote that book almost forty years ago, in a time that now seems like a golden age compared to what we have now.
I have to agree, it was a year when we rarely could get up the motivation to see a film in the theaters. In fact, I saw only 14 of this year's crop, and one of those was "The Meg" (on an airplane). The best movie I saw this past year for the first time was "The King's Speech," which I finally got around to and wished I had seen in a theater.
Of the 14 I saw, the ones I would like to own (I guess those are the best) are: Ant Man II, Avengers Infinity Wars, Black Panther, Dead Pool II (wow, 4 Marvels in a row), Fantastic Beasts 2, Isle of Dogs, and Ralph Breaks the Internet. Mary Poppins might be worth it for Dick Van Dyke cameo. Why didn't you like Deadpool II?
Actually, I think you should catch "The Meg!" It's the perfect kitchy shark movie for the first half, and then becomes a clearly intentional parody/homage to "Jaws" in the second half, which I found quite enjoyable.
Also, I don't see you mention any documentaries. We liked Mr. Rogers ("Won't you be my Neighbor"), but maybe it was for the nostalgia. I was gratified to learn that Mr. Rogers was not a sniper in the Korean War.
The original Deadpool had a story with heart and wit. The sequel had no reason to exist. It was just a lot more of the same without the spark that made the first special. Though I did like the ending where Deadpool goes into the past and stops Ryan Reynolds from doing Green Lantern.
I could see The Meg didn't take itself seriously, but it still looks annoying.
I liked the first Fantastic Beasts but was discouraged enough by the reviews not to see the sequel. Maybe I'll check it out this weekend at the sub-run theatres.
I mention quite a few documentaries in my rankings, and one made the top ten. 2018 was a big year for documentaries.
You wrote:
"Life Imitates Art: In the end credits of The Death Of Stalin, we see photos of the characters being defaced or removed as they're being written out of history. Meanwhile, one of the leads, Jeffrey Tambor, was being written out of his Emmy-winning lead role in Transparent due to allegations of sexual harassment."
Shouldn't that be "life imitates life"? Or more cliché, but fully accurate in this case: "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce"?
I should have said "Life imitates art imitating life."
Looking for a movie tonight - Spidey in the Spiderverse versus Queen biopic. Keith refused to see On the Basis of Sex. Julia
See the Queen movie if you like their music and want to see a good impersonation. Otherwise, Spidey is probably better.
The Queen movie is lots of fun (if you're a Queen fan), but its history is pure nonsense.
* How Freddy joined the band is incorrect.
* The objections to "Bohemian Rhapsody" were incorrect. (Nobody objected to a 6 minute song in the mid-1970s! The objection was to releasing it as a single.)
* To emphasize how Freddy was "the wild one", the other three members are turned into straightlaced middle-class British kids -- totally inaccurate.
* The ending, with Freddy rejecting his friends, breaking up the band, getting depressed, contritely begging them to forgive him, and the band joyously reuniting: This is a wonderful plot used in many movies about the rise of a superstar. None of it actually happened with Queen, but it was fun to watch.
Also, the chronology of many events and songs are way off. But that's how biopics are made.
Wonderful, entertaining round up, as always.
Where would "The Other Side of the Wind" fit in? I believe you posted about it but I don't see it ranked.
I didn't include The Other Side Of The Wind because I didn't see it in a theatre.
I consider the film an intriguing curiosity, though a failure. I'd probably put it in the "Okay" section if I had to rank it, though it's a weird place to put something so different and with so much ambition. (I should add I loved the Antonioni parody--maybe I'd give it a half and half rating for that.)
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