|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2018's Top Ten Films
 2018 was a year where the best films looked inward. Three movies about police shootings looked primarily on the impact they had on witnesses. A film about the first man to walk on the moon focused more on what the space flight would feel like to him more than the spectacle of the voyage itself. Even the standout superhero movie featured a personal, spiritual quest. These journeys into character were a hallmark of my Honorable Mention list: American Animals At Eternity’s Gate Cold War First Man RBG Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse A Star is Born They Shall Not Grow Old Three Identical Strangers The Wife My top ten were also character studies in one way or the other. Compelling performances, or in the case of the documentary, a compelling subject, are what elevated these films: 10. Roma (dir. Alfonso Cuaron) – After working on fantasy and sci-fi films in Hollywood, Cuaron returned to his native Mexico for his passion project. He takes an observational approach to his tale of a Mexican family in the 70s and their live-in housekeeper, gliding the camera back and forth, taking it all in and often letting the audience decide where to focus their attention. Cuaron fills the screen with details big and small. His sharp black-and-white photography lends the film a timeless quality. Newcomer Yalitza Aparicio’s quiet, natural performance perfectly captures the housekeeper who’s meant to stay in the background but is the one holding the family together. Roma also touches on the unrest gripping Mexico at that time, but in a way keeps the focus on the family, which also gives the story a certain universality. Cuaron’s skill as a filmmaker and love for the characters make Roma one of the rare films that feels both epic and intimate. 9. Leave No Trace (dir. Debra Granik) – A teenage girl and her father live alone in the Oregon woods. Granik, who co-wrote the screenplay, takes a measured, deliberate approach. She centers the film on the relationship between the father and daughter. Granik’s method works so well largely due to the talents of Ben Foster and newcomer Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie in the lead roles. Both Foster and McKenzie give tender, understated performances. Foster lets you slowly see the impact of his character’s trauma from prior military service, while McKenzie’s work reflects how the father’s demons and decisions shape who the daughter is and who she wants to be. Granik’s beautiful, lush visuals of the forest are stunning on their own, but she also uses them to create a self-contained world for her characters. We understand why people would choose to stay there, away from modern society, just as we later understand why a girl might want something different. 8. Black Panther (dir. Ryan Coogler) – Coogler and his team stayed true to superhero conventions, while also widening and deepening what this genre could be. The film dazzles you with the design and wonder of Wakanda. The beauty, detail, color and pageantry make the place feel so real that it’s no surprise that people fell in love with it. Black Panther doesn’t skimp on the action scenes, which are brilliantly staged. But Coogler also takes time to ask questions about duty to family, country, and the world at large. Chadwick Boseman is both strong and vulnerable in the lead role, while Michael B. Jordan continues his hot streak as the three-dimensional villain. More than any other Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Black Panther invests in the supporting characters. Danai Gurira is convincing as a both a military leader and bodyguard, while Letitia Wright steals every scene as the combination of tech guru and spunky little sister. Many have written about the cultural, societal and racial significance of this film. That Black Panther achieves this significance while also being a fun, rollicking and funny adventure is truly remarkable. 7. The Favourite (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) – The Favourite upends everything we expect from a royal period piece. The story crackles with palace intrigue and biting humor. Lanthimos adds the deadpan and absurdist touch he earlier brought to The Lobster. He uses fisheye and extremely low camera angles to help create this bizarre, off-kilter world. Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone are perfect as the royal aides scheming for the queen’s trust. Stone in particular has fun playing off her good girl image. In the end though, it’s Olivia Colman as the queen who makes this film work. Colman brings humanity to a role that could have easily devolved into caricature. She knows exactly when to go over the top and when to dial it down, all with perfect comic timing. This queen may not excel at leading or making decisions, but somehow she’s the right one for this story. 6. If Beale Street Could Talk (dir. Barry Jenkins) – “Trust love all the way” a concerned mother (Regina King) says to her young and pregnant daughter (Kiki Layne). Jenkins’s adaptation of a James Baldwin novel does trust love all the way. The daughter is hurting because her husband (Stephan James) has been locked up by racist cops for a crime he didn’t commit. While a fascinating legal drama could be made about the man’s family’s struggle to free him, that’s not what interests Jenkins. He focuses on the relationship of this young couple, and how the injustice wears on them. Through extensive uses of close-ups, jumping back-and-forth in time, and voiceovers Jenkins tells the story through thoughts and images. King, Layne and James all excel at playing quiet strength and mounting desperation. Nicholas Britell’s soulful, haunting score perfectly complements this moving, poetic film. 5. Stan & Ollie (dir. Jon S. Baird) – I’d imagine playing a true life film star would be particularly daunting, as you would need to move like, look like and sound like the real thing. More importantly, you would need to capture that “it” that made the subject a star in the first place. Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly are up to the challenge, embodying what made Laurel & Hardy one of the greatest screen comedy teams. Jeff Pope’s screenplay wisely does not cover the duo’s entire career, but rather the end where they were struggling to hold on to their former glory. Through the story, and Coogan’s and Reilly’s performances, we learn about who these men were. Baird faithfully recreates some of the classic Laurel & Hardy routines, which the actors’ physical comedy chops make convincing. The dramatic scenes in Stan & Ollie are no less compelling, as they explore these men’s relationships with their wives and each other. The filmmakers’ and actors’ love for these screen legends shines through in every frame. For whatever reason, Laurel & Hardy don’t seem to resonate today the way their contemporaries Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers still do. Hopefully Stan & Ollie can change that. 4. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (dir. Marielle Heller) – A while back I’d heard about Lee Israel’s arrest for selling literary forgeries, and I didn’t care that much. Heller’s film made me care. She painstakingly recreates a subculture where letters from literary giants are hot commodities. Through this we follow Israel (Melissa McCarthy), who in desperation turns to forging these letters after her writing career craters. Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty’s poignant and witty screenplay never judges Israel or tries to justify her actions. McCarthy’s portrayal makes you identify with Israel without toning down her misanthropy to make her more likable. While extending her range as a dramatic actor, McCarthy’s comic skills help her nail Israel’s biting one liners. She’s matched by Richard E. Grant’s exuberant but heartbreaking turn as Israel’s only friend. Grant was reportedly not the first choice, but was definitely the right one to play this larger-than-life figure. Heller had an astonishing debut in 2015 with The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and with this film confirms that she’s one of the new directing talents. She’s finishing a feature about Mr. Rogers, and I can’t wait to see it. 3. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (dir. Morgan Neville) – Heller’s upcoming feature has a high bar to meet following Neville’s documentary. As I wrote a few months ago, revisiting Mr. Rogers felt like a tonic for our cultural and political discourse. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? covers key points in Mr. Rogers’s life and career but is more interested in his values, and why he meant so much to so many people. Neville seamlessly blends vintage clips with interviews, including Mr. Rogers’s widow. He blends together the man and his show, as the latter was an extension of the former. Neville’s approach is thorough, but succeeds more on an emotional level. It’s not an exercise in nostalgia, and, indeed, feels particularly relevant for our time. 2. BlacKkKlansman (dir. Spike Lee) – Ron Stallworth, an African-American cop, infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan really happened, but Spike Lee turned down the story initially claiming that the premise sounded too much like a Dave Chappelle sketch. Thank heavens Lee changed his mind, because he is the only one who could have done right by this film. Lee has never taken the easy route, especially when it comes to tackling race relations. His approach fits a film set in the 70s, when African-Americans had many new opportunities but the racism out in the open in years past still lingered just barely under the surface. As Lee often does, he finds the humor in the outlandishness of the situation. The film works as a buddy cop comedy, with Stallworth (John David Washington) teaming up with a Jewish officer (Adam Driver) to deceive the Klan. Washington and Driver have an easy chemistry, while Lee shrewdly cast Topher Grace against type as Klan leader David Duke. Lee goes deeper though, exploring what drives racism and its devastating effects on the US. He does not spare Hollywood either. In a brilliantly edited scene he shows the Klan drawing inspiration from The Birth of a Nation while Harry Belafonte tells an audience about a shocking and vicious lynching. Most importantly, Lee doesn’t give us the viewers the false comfort of confining racial brutality to history. He both implicitly and explicitly links the film’s messages to present day, closing with footage of the Charlottesville violence. Thirty years after Do the Right Thing, Lee is still telling America to wake up. 1. Eighth Grade (dir. Bo Burnham) – What would Burnham, a twentysomething male comedian, know about the struggles of an eighth grade girl? Quite a lot, actually. Burnham conducted extensive research on YouTube to find teenagers opening up in videos that few people watch. Through these testimonials, Burnham made Kayla, a smart but socially awkward girl struggling to get `through eighth grade. Burnham contrasts Kayla’s daily life of trying desperately to fit in with her videos where she freely talks about her thoughts and hopes. Unlike many films about teenage girls, Burnham wisely does not make this one about finding the right boy. Eighth Grade recognizes that the more authentic source of both drama and comedy is Kayla staying true to herself in an environment that seems to demand conformity. Burnham’s skill is making you see the pressures of social standing, social media, and emerging sexuality entirely from Kayla’s point of view. The best example of the film’s empathy is shooting a pool party Kayla reluctantly attends in a way that makes it scarier than most horror films. But Burnham’s best move was casting newcomer Elsie Fisher as Kayla. Fisher’s brave, egoless and vulnerable performance draws you into Kayla’s world. You never see the acting, which makes it so easy to identify with Kayla. The film reminds us that we were all eighth graders once. Adam Spector March 1, 2019 Contact us: |
