Annual: The Films of 2018 - Part V

Here comes the really good shit

(We're almost done, I promise)

EVERYTHING I'VE SEEN IN 2018

#67 - 51

#50 - 41
#40 - 31
#30 - 21
#20 - 11

#20. Thoroughbreds (2018 US Release)

The Bottom Line: I Like My Women How I Like My Breds: THOROUGH

AKA: Heathers for a new generation 

  I'm a sucker for dialogue and with Thoroughbreds, writer-director Cory Finley NAILS dialogue in a cheeky, clever way that comes off like a dark stage production. Granted, with most of the conversation between the two young ladies, Amanda (Olivia Cooke) & Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) is centered around plots to commit murder, the film's levity and dark humor keep the entire picture as spunky as an imaginary dark John Hughes film. In fact, much of the characteristics of the girls contain endless echoes of Hughes. They pop with vibrancy in their immensely realistic character design; Lily being a fake, wealthy, book-nerd who's insecure vs. Amanda who's a completely mute realist, void of any empathy or feeling. The girls' chemistry crackles; their dialogue so snappy you'd think you were watching Veep with murder plots, although the brilliance behind the screenplay also goes far beyond the dialogue. The fact that so much of the brevity is spoken in a comedic, but murderous manner leaves the audience baking in what is essentially a slow-cooked thriller. The reason any of it works is because the whole thing is cut clean with good peppered humor, never once allowing the story to become tired. If the screenplay isn't flat-out brilliant, the leading ladies are.

HERE'S THE WHOLE MURDER PLOT

  

*20 points to clever screenwriting

*10 points to Joy
*15 points to Cooke
*100 points to all the ladies

GIVE IT UP FOR THE LADIES

Grade: B+

** Second-Funniest rewrite of an historical event: 

#19. The Death of Stalin (2018 US Release)

The Bottom Line: A Bunch of Old Guys Yell At Each Other 

(AKA: A Subtly Brilliant Mock-Biopic) 

  A straightforward retelling of the Josef Stalin's death would have potentially been another boring, historic biopic of a snooze fest (because we don’t already have a lot of those). Luckily Veep’s Armando Iannucci stepped in to not only recount many small, accurate details of the end of Stalin’s reign but to unfold the story in a way that ranges from subtly brilliant to outrageously hilarious. What works about Iannucci’s formula is that it’s never straightforward slapstick. In fact it’s almost always reliant on the quiet personality of  blink-and-you-could-miss-it humor; jokes that are small, spry and stupendous. The whole picture is almost entirely satirical but presented in such a suggestive manner, that the wrong audience could stumble into this thing thinking that it’s a legit biopic. The film is essentially an assortment of old guys quietly getting angry with each other over the details of actions that follow Stalin’s death. We get everything from funeral arrangements to military disagreements, and the players that lead each section of contrast in between these plots makes for some of the most subtle satire seen in years.

READ THE WHOLE AUTOPSY HERE

*5 points to Buccemi
*5 points to Beale
*5 points to Tambor 
*10 points to Iannucci

Grade: B+

** Best weight gain from an actor, for a film:

#18. Vice

The Bottom Line: The Dick Knight

(AKA: A politically frustrating experience, and hey! That’s the point!)

Adam McKay is perhaps one of the most clever filmmakers working today, and to a degree Vice is not just a brilliant political comedy but one of the most significant political films of the century. It’s topically frustrating but that’s the entire purpose of the film’s existence. McKay unearths every document, artifact and secret about Dick Cheney and the era of the U.S. government during the time he was in or near office, and uses Cheney's ugly but fascinating history to teach Americans a lesson. I'm not saying McKay is teaching Americans a lesson in the parental sense of wagging a finger at the monsters of the right wing (though he is doing exactly that), more than actually using historical, factual evidence to LITERALLY educate his audience.

  Just as he did with The Big Short, McKay presents a visual pop-culture scrapbook to break down history in a way his audience can comprehend. It's not that McKay is being condescending, rather than constructive in his use of clever storytelling. It's like The Daily Show but a LOT more bleak, although McKay is perhaps TOO clever for his own good as his self aware commentary often swallows the film's importance. McKay breaks the fourth wall on MULTIPLE occasions to remind his audience that although this is his version of the truth, there are still many facts he doesn't know about what went on in the White House during the late 90s/early 2000s, but as his opening states he tried his f--king best. And his f--king best, while not The Big Short, is one of the most educational, if not one of the best political satires of the film industry.

READ THE WHOLE FILIBUSTER HERE

*5 points to Rockwell
*5 points to Carell
*10 points to Bale
*25 points to McKay

Grade: B+/A-

#17. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Bottom Line: A Western Anthology Alliteration

(Look guys, it’s another Coen Bros. movie. IT’S AN OCCASION)

  As with any anthology film, Scruggs doesn’t skate by with a spotless bill of health but with a film that’s perhaps one of the most ambitious projects for the acclaimed Coen Bros, let alone one of the most experimental films of 2018, Buster serves as an elegant tribute to the old West while maintaining that dark sense of humor the Coens are well known for. What makes Scruggs stand out amongst the tumbleweeds of the Western genre is that it’s filled with endless tropes depicting the whimsical era of the old west. All the while the film is also an at-times unabashedly bleak-as-f**k portrayal of the brutality and cold blooded murder, basking in the sadistic ruthlessness of gunslingers and savages during this period. 

  Split into six stories (originally envisioned as a six-episode miniseries for Netflix), Scruggs succeeds because it doesn't just use each segment to brush over nearly every distinctive shade of Western tales told time and again. It also bends the genre within the various aspects that make these old stories worth telling in the first place. With various color pallets of all types of characters thrown in diverse stipulations, Scruggs leaves no corner of the old West untouched. Part folktale, vaguely noir, deathly seriously but almost entirely comedic, the Coens were smart to keep their genres and tones so close together. Having vibrantly shot landscapes against dark and desaturated interiors, there’s room for all kinds of folks who crave the old West. 

HERE'S THE WHOLE FOLKLORE

*10 points to Stephen Root using pots and pans for armor

*25 points to quality anthology films

*50 points to everything that ever made any Western movie a memorable experience

*100 points to Joel and Ethan Coen - God damn, you sons a bitches still got it!

Grade: B+/A-

** Most unexpected comedy:

#16. The House That Jack Built

The Bottom Line: The Most Controversial Film of 2018 is also the funniest

I never thought I’d say I love a Lars von Trier film, but I also didn’t know the man was capable of a sense of humor (or horror). If anything, all the controversy behind the film’s graphic content should appeal horror fans because The House That Jack Built is like a straight up cross between Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and American Psycho. It’s a graphic, twisted, deep dive into the psyche of a maniac with OCD, but it’s also kinda really funny? Which, especially coming from Lars, is REALLY unexpected? Aside from a self indulgent commentary and an extremely divisive third act, this just might be von Trier’s best work to date, if not his most self realized.

P.S. It also heavily features David Bowie’s ‘Fame’ and too much Bowie is NEVER a bad thing.

HERE'S THE WHOLE BLOODY THING

*100 points to Bowie

*10 points to Matt Dillon

*25 points to Lars

(Didn’t think I’d be giving ANY points to Lars)

Grade: B+

#15. First Man

The Bottom Line: Moon Goose

It's no Whiplash, but Damien and Baby Goose are still the director-actor tag team duo of the century.

 First Man just might be Chazelle’s most intimate and personal project to date. Like 2016’s Jackie, the film is not only an American biopic that truly feels like it was shot during the 1960s era, but the film also uses an historical U.S. event as backdrop for a deeply rooted human drama. So much of Man’s heart lies within the characteristics within the film’s time restraints; the patience between years as NASA experiments fail and test runs go horribly wrong. To test the time most of the character development is within Neil’s determination to get to the moon and the payoff is through his patience. With First Man, Baby Goose JUST might have his most dialed back performance to date, and yet one of his most emotionally poignant. Aside from opening the film with the death of Armstrong's daughter (cold move, Damien), one of the most sobering moments of the film is an argument in which Janet (an emotionally convincing Claire Foy) tells Neil that he has to be the one to tell his two boys that their dinner together might be their last as a family. It’s a reminder that Chazelle is portraying the significance of the moon landing as equally as the risk behind those who put their life on the line to do so. ‘Cause I gotta tell ya folks, once the rockets do launch, whoa nelly does it make for one of the most utterly raw depictions of space liftoff perhaps ever captured on film. Shot in breathtaking IMAX, with a quiet and chilling finale, not since Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity has a film dared audiences to question the heart-stopping accuracy of space flight.

HERE'S THE LIFT-OFF

*5 points to Foy
*10 points to Baby Goose
*20 points to Chazelle
*100 points to Neil Armstrong and all the brave American heroes who risked blowing themselves up so we could wave the flag and yell at the moon - 'MURICA

Grade: A-

** Best Halloween movie since Halloween (1978): 

#14. Halloween (2018)

The Bottom Line: Yeah, this motherf--ker was worth the 40-year wait.

By removing any Myers-family elements and axing all continuity after the original Halloween (and thank sweet baby Loomis, it's about time someone did), H40 is about as close to a perfect Halloween sequel as perfection can get. Although the film as a whole doesn’t exceed John Carpenter’s original there are moments that easily match it. David Gordon Green and Danny McBride (the folks behind Your Highness, of all people) didn’t just write a script that pays great respect to the original, they’ve produced a near Carpenter clone. Green often mimics Carpenter’s exact style and this is both the film’s best accomplishment and biggest flaw. For better or worse, the new film feels more like a love letter to Carpenter than actual sequel. It sometimes doesn’t feel like watching ‘a David Gordon Green film’ or even ‘a John Carpenter film,’ rather than a film from someone doing their very best Carpenter impersonation, and in being respectful to one of the most iconic horror movies ever made, in hindsight this is absolutely for the better.

So much of the beating heart of this film is in its family dynamics, and plot-wise, the events of the original film have affected Laurie Strode (an astonishing old-lady Jamie Lee Curtis) in such a crippling way that even the idea of Michael Myers existing prevents her from having a functioning family life or even a personal life; The crushing weight of Laurie’s PTSD not only representing strong female survivors of abuse (a badge for the MeToo movement no doubt), but giving Curtis the send-off she's deserved four decades in the making. Best of all, aside from Carpenter returning to score the film (making horror fans all kinds of moist), this marks the first time Myers is a legitimately frightening presence in perhaps any entry since Halloween II. Gordon Green has finally given us the justification fans deserve. He understands the very essence of Michael as nothing but a terrifying Shape, he knows how to tap into Laurie Strode’s trauma, and he blends these very elements to justify why these two characters should reunite at all. The difference between Halloween (‘18) and every single other Halloween sequel is that Green gave the audience legitimate reason for another Halloween movie, even if it took four decades to get here. It may not be the Halloween movie you wanted, but goddammit it’s the Halloween movie we needed.

HERE'S THE WHOLE SHAPE

*25 points to McBride

*50 points to Curtis

*50 points to Carpenter

*100 points to David Gordon Green

Grade: B+

** Most chilling finale: 
** Best satire on kale-smoothie culture:

#13. Blindspotting

The Bottom Line: A spin on race, police brutality, the justice system, kale smoothies, and an at-times hilarious buddy comedy that the world needs right now

 What makes Blindspotting not just an excellent film, but what gives it a lasting impression is that it delivers a powerful message without shoving politics down the throat of the audience. There's a sobering and strong message to Blindspotting when it comes to issues on race that feel as raw as they did in 1991's Boyz n the Hood; themes that have you scared for the lives of these characters, but there's also a blend of natural comedy within Collin and Miles; a genuine relief to thaw out the stress of these situations; legitimate laugh-out-loud moments that echo moments from the likes of Do The Right Thing, or even Friday. There's a remarkable balance of genre here and it almost entirely rests on the shoulders of the film's two leads. With those two leads, let's make a note that stars Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal aren't just dope rappers, but excellent screenwriters as well (yeah, they wrote this shit and it's brilliant). Beyond that, Diggs has incredible talent as the leading man, but the rabbit hole of his threshold knows no bounds. Not only is he genuinely funny and likable; not only does he put on a chilling powerhouse performance, but this dude can rap like it's NOBODY's business. Hamilton has trained Diggs well because he transforms Collin from a tragically imprisoned sympathetic to a motivated man with a message, boiling down to a finale that literally culminates to a poignant showdown of Diggs using his rapping skills to prove a point, and it is one of the most chilling and effective climaxes of any film this year. Granted, the racial themes are charged and especially with the police brutality more relevant now than ever before, but the explicit humor gives the film such a breath of life to the point where I was frightened for characters one moment and cracking the f--k up the next. To boot, the film also contains some of the dopest rhymes you'll hear in all of 2018. The courtroom-rap nightmare will send shivers down your SPINE.

HERE'S THE WHOLE RAP

  Give it up for first-time director Carlos López Estrada. This dude debuted THIS movie as his FIRST feature film. If that's not killing it, I know nothing.

*10 points to dope rhymes
*15 points to Diggs

*20 points to first-time directors who crush it

Grade: B+

#12. Shoplifters

The Bottom Line: Shibata Family Values:

Is this a film about a family that steals things,
OR A FILMMAKER THAT STEALS YOUR SOUL? 

You be the judge.

There’s so much to be said about the self commentary of writer-director Hirokazu Koreeda’s sobering family piece that’s already been said, but the significance of a little film like Shoplifters lies within the ethical nature of “good” people doing “bad” things. With gorgeous cinematography, the film often captures the dingy filth of the grief-stricken world the Shibata family must survive in, while stopping to take moments to embrace the smell of the rain; the crushing waves of the beach. The film is just as dead set on painting the significance of life’s day-to-day joys, as much as the inner turmoil of breaking down the wall of morals. Like a goddamn Little Miss Japanese Sunshine, the film’s heart rests entirely on the questionable morals of the dysfunctional but lovable family. By tackling themes that range from abandonment to child abuse, Hirokazu paints the Shibata family into a broken tale of poverty and parenting with the emotional crux of three-dimensional people, most of whom aren’t actually related but act as a family in order to create a bond thicker than blood. The writer-director captures traditional family values even if masquerading them with light-hearted scenes of the “dad” teaching his “son” how to steal fruits from a grocery store. The film is designed to have its morals dissected but the Shibata family, blood or not, is a prime example of intimate relationships between human beings, and goddammit, isn’t that what ties the entire human race together?

 HERE'S THE WHOLE GROCERY LIST

*100 POINTS TO HIROKAZU

Grade: A

** Most bananas third act:

#11. Sorry To Bother You

The Bottom Line: From social satire to horrifyingly accurate, to outright BANANAS, here comes the most brilliant comedy with the ballsiest third act of any movie in 2018.

STBY is not the movie you think it is. At all. And it’s flat out f---king brilliant. Aside from appearing as a silly comedy that features old man Danny Glover putting on a white voice (the voice of Steve Buscemi), this movie is an angry, ingenious piece of original brevity; a film that tricks audiences into thinking they’re watching a normal satire on living and working in a Trump-America (which it is exactly that) and morphs into a dark, and often hilariously harsh look in the mirror, with an absurd third act you could never see coming. I mean all political commentary aside, the actual amount of cleverly written nods and references Boots Riley throws in is insane. What starts off as a formulaic Devil’s Advocate precautionary tale evolves into an independent beast of satire that sinks its teeth much deeper into audience expectation than realized. Every major character has an arc that speaks volumes whether it’s through Tessa Thompson’s political protest (or her earrings), or by clever play on words. I mean our hero (an impossibly lovable Lakeith Stanfield) is literally named Cassius Green but goes by Cash... So his name is CASH GREEN. In a f--king workplace satire about MONEY (THIS MOVIE IS BRILLIANT). If nothing else, Armie Hammer is the film's Mr. Potter, and it is perhaps the actor's best work to date.

  In a world where so many films are afraid to take bold risks it’s such a breath of fresh air to see a brand new filmmaker take the plunge and unveil a climax as gutsy and out-of-left-field as this one. Bother You's twists are not sorry to bother anyone, as they will evenly divide audiences in one direction or another. The film evolves into chaos, but it’s absolutely everything. It's a satire on every broad topic; It’s a workplace satire, a racial satire, a corporate America satire. It’s a literal satire on this country RIGHT at this moment and it’s a bodacious piece of work.

READ THE TELEPROMPTER HERE

*10 points to Lakeith
*10 points to Hammer
*20 points to Boots
*50 points to horses

Grade: B+

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